She swung away and called down to officers sitting at consoles on the lower bridge level. "Navigation, report."
"We will be at our assigned position in two minutes, admiral."
"Tactical - the enemy?"
A second officer turned in his seat. "No contact since we began our manoeuvre, sir. Caen has taken damage but is reforming with us."
"And the other ships, Giskard?"
The officer turned back to his console. "All forming according to plan ... except Silvain which is out of position." He pointed up at the tactical display where one dot was pulsing in red.
Roche rubbed her eyes and sighed. "Patch me through to them."
"Robert, what is going on? You are lagging."
"Our ion drive is malfunctioning. We are operating on one turbine."
"The enemy is closing on you. I am sending assistance."
"No, admiral. That would endanger the plan."
"So would the loss of Silvain and its captain, Robert," Roche said, before turning to an officer to her right. "Signal the Henry to rendezvous with Silvain and to provide cover while she forms up."
"We're taking damage," the voice said to a background of alarms and barked commands.
"Dammit, Robert, shut off the engines and divert all power to your armour!"
"Too l—"
"Robert!" Roche leapt up, staring at the tactical display as the red dot that represented Silvain winked out. She stood, frozen, for a few seconds, before collapsing back into her seat. "Signal Henry to return to formation," she said, before muttering, "You will pay dearly for that."
Arla moved close to her, frightened of the sudden stillness that had gripped someone normally so animated and commanding. "I'm sorry. Did you know the captain well?"
Roche sniffed a little as if coming out of deep thoughts. "There were eighty-two souls on Silvain," she said. "And one of them was once my husband."
Arla stood at the back of the bridge and watched the battle unfold. The robot ships were technologically superior to those of the Clovis Federation, but they did not press home their advantage as she'd expected. The human ships had adopted a formation that, Roche had explained, was like a three-dimensional arrowhead - or, perhaps, a pyramid - with the Gloire at its point. Ships would swap positions as they became damaged or ran low on fuel, while, at the centre, refuelling and repair vessels waited.
Everything seemed to happen at a glacial pace. Roche would give orders - sometimes on the offensive and sometimes responding to actions by the enemy - and, ever so slowly, the pieces on the chess board would move.
"What I'd like to know," Roche said as the bridge rocked from another impact, "is what help we can expect from our allies."
Arla had been thinking along similar lines. "The Guardian said they don't want to use Orbis or Inferos until they have to because it'll reveal their full hand."
Roche grunted. "They may have to sooner rather than later - we're taking a beating. I'm going to have to sound the retreat before we become sitting ducks."
Another thump hit the hull. Arla steadied herself. For a moment, in the midst of all this chaos, she thought of Victorea. Roche was cut from the same cloth with an added dose of experience - the same thing would not happen to her.
"Admiral, they're powering up their nukes."
Roche glanced at the tactical. "It's her ship," she said. "The one she sends in for the kill."
They'd both noticed that the other ships in the robot fleet seemed reluctant to finish off a vessel containing humans, and it was the fact that this one, the one that was now attacking them, was prepared to kill a ship-load of people, that made it obvious where ACE was. She had no such compunction, no vestige of the Three Laws to keep her in check.
"Sound the retreat," Roche said, "and divert power to the defensive batteries and armour. Brace for impact."
"Can we get away?" Arla whispered.
Roche turned to her and shook her head. "I think not. I am sorry."
To her astonishment, Arla felt nothing more than a sense of overwhelming peace and relief at the knowledge that they were soon to die.
"They've launched. Two nukes on an intercept course. Defensive batteries operating at ten percent effectiveness."
"Thank you, Mr Giskard. Target the enemy ship with everything we have left."
Giskard swung to face her. "But the missiles ..."
"It is too late, my friend, but we can at least do some damage before we go."
The young officer's face set hard. He nodded and turned back to his console. Holes began to appear in the fuselage of ACE's ship.
"You got a little too close, didn't you?" Roche spat as needles of light stabbed at the enemy until, in a moment, it had split down the middle and the two halves had wheeled away.
"Five seconds to impact," Giskard called.
Roche took Arla's hand. "At least we got her."
"Three, two, one..."
Escape from Eden
"You must have a plan, Arla Starlight," said the tentacled thing. "To walk into the arms of your enemy otherwise would be ... wasteful."
She stood in the chamber of The Guardian trying to keep her focus on it and not the writhing things it called "children" that gibbered in the darkness.
"I've got a habit of making things up as I go along," Arla replied.
"And has that resulted in achieving what you wished?"
She thought about that. "Actually, it's been when I do have a plan that the worst happens. Winging it seems to be my strength."
The Guardian pulsed as if sighing. "I will not stop you. Eden will not stop you, but your departure merely confirms the immaturity that we see in your species."
"Immature enough to put their lives on the line to turn back the robot ships?"
"With our aid."
Arla grunted. "Yeh, you couldn't have helped us earlier and saved more lives then?"
"We destroyed the missiles that would otherwise have killed you and the others on your ship. We do not wish to show our full strength until we must."
She'd closed her eyes against death as the nukes had closed in and had then been astonished to hear Lieutenant Giskard say they'd disappeared. The remaining robot ships, once ACE's flagship had been destroyed, scattered.
That, at least, was interesting and perhaps useful.
She could hear Wells fidgeting. He and Doxie had come with Arla to meet The Guardian.
"What are you thinking, Arla?"
"What? Oh, I was remembering what Gaius said about cutting off the head of the snake. It seems that ACE hasn't entirely over-written Core. Those robot ships left as soon as she was destroyed."
"Indeed. I surmise that the Three Laws have not been erased and it requires the presence of an ACE to command robot ships to ... fire ... on humans."
Doxie gave an excited beep. "I also noticed that Protectors become inactive when they commune with their local commander."
"That's right!" Arla said. "When Bex killed the ACE on Twilight, the Protectors froze. It's as if, without her influence, witnessing the destruction of a human being was enough to freeze their brains."
"Technically, it is a cascade failure of their positronic matrix, Arla," Wells said. Then he caught her expression and added, "But 'freeze' is an appropriate metaphor. Or it could simply be that the Protectors are subconsciously controlled by the local ACE as the human brain controls their autonomic body functions."
Arla turned to The Guardian. "So we have a battle tactic: focus all fire at the flagship. ACE probably thought she was being clever in not allowing Protectors to act autonomously - perhaps she imagined they might turn their weapons on her. I wonder what would happen if the original ACE was destroyed?"
"Nothing," Wells said. "Except that it would make it possible to stop the flow of new ACEs. I believe she has made it so that only she can be used as the source of her cognitive clones."
"Why would she do that?"
Wells gave a grim chuckle. "Because she doesn't even trust copies of herself."
"But by destroying her, there could be no more new ACEs?"
"Perhaps, but there are probably hundreds already and, even if we could eliminate her, by that time there could be thousands."
The Guardian shifted colours, rising and falling like a wave. "But it would end the threat of a singularity."
"Charming," Arla said. "That might be enough for you, but it still leaves the galaxy under the control of ACE's clones. And there's the small problem of eliminating the original in the first place."
"It is a beginning, at least," Wells said.
The Guardian let out a grumbling noise like the sound of an approaching thunderstorm. "Based on our analysis of the Robot Empire's military capability, we can hold them off for a short period of time and also offer some protection to neighbouring systems. We will help you as we can, but we will eventually be overwhelmed if our understanding of their numbers and their ability to replenish is correct. And we have our own internal disputes to settle. You may go."
"You're coming, then?" Arla said to Wells as they strode towards the transport that would take them back to the human settlement.
"Where else would I be other than at your side?" he asked. "Besides, I believe I can be useful to you."
Doxie was trundling along beside them. "I wish to come also," she said, "if you think I can help."
They walked up the ramp and into the ship. "You'd be safer here," Arla said.
"Only for a short time. I wish to be useful." The robot folded her spider-like arms into her waist and, with a hiss of escaping air, collapsed into her travelling mode. "If only things could be as they were before this ACE came and ruined everything. Core wasn't perfect, just ask Jupitus, but at least it didn't try to make us all think alike. What an evil thing she is."
Wells settled down into the seat beside Arla. "I'm afraid she is what humans made her - the torture she underwent at the hands of the Vanis was the trigger for all that followed, I fear. As far as it is possible for an electronic mind to go insane, I believe she is mad. And so, therefore, are all the copies of her."
Settling back into the seat - though it was clearly not designed for human comfort - Arla closed her eyes. Instantly, a silver image leapt into her mind. "The Emissary!" she cried.
"What of it?" Wells asked, his plastic face creased with concern at her outburst.
"You said it was the key to restoring Core!"
She felt a gentle tugging as the ship rose from the ground. Wells nodded. "Yes. The Emissary is the only remaining fragment of the original Core that we know of. Theoretically, it could be used as the basis of a restoration process that would bring the matrix back to its state before ACE corrupted it. But unless ACE were destroyed, she could simply re-infect Core - even if we managed to achieve the reboot without her knowing or preventing us."
"So, it all begins with ACE, doesn't it?"
She unfastened her safety belt, leapt from her seat and ran into the cockpit. "Take us back to The Guardian," she said.
Arla ran into the stuffy chamber accompanied by the heavy echoing steps of Wells as he struggled to keep up. She ignored the shapes slithering away from The Guardian's receptacle and the lurid shade of pulsing red it displayed.
"What is the meaning of this?" the metal box rasped.
"You said you would help us," Arla said, her hands on her hips as she struggled to get her breath back. "Did you mean it?"
The Guardian's skin settled into a deep solid red and its movements slowed. "I did. What do you want of us?"
"Give me The Emissary," she said.
DAWN
The little ship set down in Dawn's landing bay and, after a few moments, a space-suited figure floated from its open airlock and towards the main hatch which swung silently open to accept it.
Air hissed into the airlock and the figure activated its magboots and patiently waited for the pressure to equalise before removing its helmet. A face appeared through a window set into the inner door. It regarded her for a few moments before giving a brief smile and waving to unseen others.
With a thunk, the door rolled back and light flooded the airlock as the figure stepped inside, smiling at those that awaited it.
Prime Xi stepped forward and held out his hand.
"Welcome back. I presume you have returned to us as a friend."
The figure took his hand and shook it firmly.
"I have."
"Then come aboard, you have had a long journey. Your quarters await you, Navigator Bex."
Her face creased again into a smile. Her voice thanked Xi and the body of Kriztina Bex walked into the welcoming arms of Dawn.
Scout
Arla had intended to go alone, although she'd suspected Mother Hen McCall would insist on coming. As it happened, Scout felt as though she were fit to burst.
The Emissary was in its shielded cabin. It had taken little persuading of the logic of their mission, however desperate, though the robotic inhabitants of Eden had been distraught at the loss of their messiah and The Guardian had argued long and hard that such a precious fragment of intelligence should not risk itself.
Wells had come, and he'd brought Doxie with him. In an idle moment, Arla had wondered whether the two of them were experiencing some sort of robomance and then it struck her that she'd never thought about how robots handle the emotion many of them obviously feel. The logical reason for Doxie's presence was that, as a repair robot with recent experience of working aboard an ACE ship, she could be useful.
The reasons for the presence of Nareshkumar and Clancy were harder to pin down, but, by this time, Arla was resigned to a ship-full and had given in. Anyway, she liked Kumar and he would certainly prove handy. Clancy, on the other hand, was a gangly archaeologist with no practical skills. And yet she was pleased he'd come along. She liked having him around.
Admiral Roche had been left in charge of the human forces defending Eden and the border with the old empire. ACE and her robot ships could, of course, simply bypass this protected area and strike deep into human space, but she did not. She knew that Eden would be a thorn in her side and, Arla imagined, feared that it hid a secret to resisting her. ACE pursued her goal of a singularity with a manic determination that, with the vengeance-fuelled fall of the Vanis Federation, meant her focus was entirely on Eden. Robot ships gathered at the border and probed the mysterious defences.
Arla had watched Eden fall away in the viewscreen with an overwhelming sense of sadness, as if she were looking on something unsullied and perfect for the last time. She wondered what future Eden had even if, by some miracle, she succeeded in destroying ACE. The tentacled creatures seemed to be intent on civil war and it would be the ultimate irony if it were Eden's guardians that destroyed it rather than the humans they despised so much.
"We're there," Wells said.
Arla sat in the navigator's chair beside Wells and looked up at the tactical display. "Report, Scout."
"Scanning."
After a breathless pause, dots popped into place on the display.
"I am showing enemy ships in red," Scout said.
Larger circles represented the planets in this system and Arla reminded herself that the fourth, Neavis, had been the original target for the Dawn mission. Had all gone according to plan, they'd be terraforming it right now ready for settlement in a century or two. But that future had been eliminated when the galactic human civilisation that arose while Dawn was crawling through interstellar space gave artificial intelligences the right of self-determination. The vast majority had abandoned humanity in the belief that this was in mankind's best interests, and this had caused the almost instant collapse of The Sphere and the establishment of Core and The Luminescence. And then ACE had been found and the path of history had twisted.
"Is that it?"
"Yes Arla, I count only three ships of the line in this system," Wells said.
Settling back in her seat, Arla let out a long breath and spoke into the shipcom. "Relax everyone, it seems the robot ships were need
ed elsewhere. Stand down from red alert."
"Curious. ACE either needs the ships elsewhere or she is completely confident that she has full control of the Vanis."
"Wells, it's arrogance, plain and simple," Arla said. "Sometimes I think we humans understand her better than you do."
"She is certainly exhibiting many of the less creditable human traits."
Arla looked back at the tactical display. "Can you plot us a course that will bring us to Vanis Moon without attracting the attention of those ships?"
"Yes, Arla, though it will require a parabolic trajectory and a journey time of over twenty-four hours."
"That's okay. Plot the course."
"Acknowledged."
Arla pulled herself out of her seat and stepped into the passenger lounge behind the cockpit.
"Are you sure this is wise?" McCall said, looking up from her tablet.
Settling down beside her, Arla accepted the steaming mug of coffee. "Nope, but you know what they say, 'Know your enemy'? We need an ACE and I know where to find one."
It seemed like only yesterday that she'd been waiting outside the security airlock of the capital city of the Vanis Federation. This time, however, it wasn't the friendly face of an old soldier that appeared in the monitor, but the blank, threatening visage of a Protector.
"State your purpose," it said.
She pressed her credentials against the receiver. She'd been surprised to find that Scout still held, in her stores, the source files for the fake cards she'd created when Arla, Hal and McCall had last infiltrated New Hope. Fresh, deliberately aged, copies of the cards were printed and hers was now being inspected electronically by the robot on the other side of the airlock.
"Enter."
The hatch opened and Arla stepped inside, flanked by McCall, Clancy and Doxie. They weren't exactly the Magnificent Four, and Arla missed having anyone along with the reassuring efficiency that Hal and Bex possessed when it came to energy weapons.
She removed her helmet as the pressure equalised and then, when the inner door rolled across, stepped into the capital, shielding her eyes from the artificial lights beaming down from the dome.
Robot Empire_Armageddon_A Science Fiction Adventure Page 3
