“Don’t let us stop you.” Jon squinted thoughtfully. “If the AI needs to communicate between ship computers, maybe we can listen in as the AI speaks to itself.”
“That is an interesting theory,” Bast said. “You have a philosophical turn of mind, Captain. I congratulate you.”
Jon grunted, unsure if that was a good thing.
Time passed.
The squad leader in the containment chambers reported that Da Vinci had finally exited the mind-tap machine.
“Escort him here,” Jon radioed. “Use several marines and make sure to watch him closely. I consider him highly dangerous. Shoot to kill, squad leader, if he attempts any evasion.”
“Isn’t that overdoing it?” Gloria asked him.
“Is it?” Jon asked. “Consider our situation. The alien AI is gathering its intelligence. We know it can reproduce, given enough time. We have to stamp it out once and for all. That means we have to gain working control over this monster ship. What if Da Vinci learns…I don’t know? But what if the Neptunian learns enough to throw a wrench into everything for just long enough? I’ll tell you what happens—the human race dies. It’s wiped out. So no, I don’t think I’m being paranoid. Probably, I should have already told the squad leader to kill Da Vinci. We can’t afford any delays.”
“Yes, but—”
“Why did the little thief do what he did?” Jon asked. “I’ll tell you. I grew up in the tunnels. I know his kind. Da Vinci is working the angles, trying to figure out how to steal as much as he can. I’m not about to let him do that.”
“You are a fascinating study concerning paranoid command thinking,” Gloria said.
Jon nodded curtly. The mentalist seemed to have said that to cut him to the quick. He wasn’t sure why, but then he didn’t really understand women, or mentalists, for that matter, and she was both. Actually, he took her comment as a compliment of sorts, but had no intention of saying so.
The drag of the last several days pulled at his eyelids again. Jon debated climbing out of his suit. The techs had found atmospheric controls. He should be safe in here. He shook his head and started pacing. He had to do something to keep himself awake. He didn’t want to use more stims—
His head snapped up. Why didn’t he want to use stims? He’d never had a problem with that before. Oh sure, he knew what he’d told himself a little while ago. Why did that suddenly seem reasonable? Was it possible something had changed his thinking while under the brain tap? The more he thought about the mind machines, the more they bothered him.
He made a mental note. No one else would go under the brain taps until they had a chance to study them in depth. This robotic vessel appeared to hold many wonders. Like the lamp-rubbers in old genie stories, it might be wise to think things through before using a wish.
The techs toiled. Jon waited. Gloria and Bast conferred in whispers with each other.
Finally, the squad leader showed up with Da Vinci in tow, still closely watched by several marines.
Jon turned sharply, studying the little thief through the bubble helmet.
Da Vinci stared back at him. The Neptunian looked just like before. He had beady eyes, a shifty face—no, the eyes seemed different. Had they been green? Hadn’t the eyes been brown before? Could the brain-tap machine change the color of one’s eyes? Or could something inserted into a man’s brain do that?
“Captain,” Da Vinci said. He sounded much more confident than before. Earlier, there had always been a whine in the thief’s voice. There was no whine now. The Neptunian spoke with assured confidence.
“I have a proposal for you, Captain,” Da Vinci said. “But I’d like to offer it in private.”
“This will do,” Jon said, using helmet speakers and outer receivers.
“No—”
“Talk, Thief,” Jon said.
Da Vinci straightened. “I am no thief. I am the Prince of Ten Worlds—” He abruptly stopped speaking.
“Go on,” Jon said. “You’re starting to sound interesting.”
Da Vinci shook his head.
“Which ten worlds do you mean?” asked Jon.
“I misspoke,” the Neptunian said, proudly.
Jon almost drew and fired his gyroc at the Neptunian. He suspected the worst had happened. What had Da Vinci thought he’d been doing, sneaking under a brain tap?
“Squad Leader,” Jon said. “Cuff the little—”
“Very well,” Da Vinci said, interrupting. “Since I already know what you’re going to order, I will save us both time and frustration. I can give you full control of the cybership. I can give you this in a matter of minutes. In return, I’d like a small favor.”
Jon said nothing as he waited for it.
“Do we have a deal, Captain?”
Jon stepped closer. Normally, Da Vinci would have flinched. Instead, the little Neptunian squared his bony shoulders. Jon leaned forward, staring into the thief’s eyes.
Those eyes shouldn’t be green.
“Who are you?” Jon asked.
“Da Vinci.”
“I don’t mean the bodily shell,” Jon said. “I mean whatever entity came out of the brain tap and took the stupid fool over.”
“I resent that.”
“You’re also evading the question.”
Da Vinci sighed. “This is why I wished to make the offer in private. You’re needlessly involving the others in this.”
This time Jon drew his gyroc. “You’re another alien monster. I already have one too many. Sorry about this, Da Vinci—”
“Wait!” Da Vinci said. “I’ll fix your prize. In return, I want to keep this body.”
Jon shook his head.
“Captain,” Bast said. “You might want to reconsider that. If you look at the main screen, it appears the AI has finally regained its full intellect. The formerly human battleships are energizing their laser cannons.”
-10-
On the working screen, a single alien-captured SLN battleship maneuvered closer. Two big cannons glowed with energy. Those cannons were aimed at the one-hundred-kilometer warship.
How much damage could the vast vessel endure? If the battleships all started beaming, they might slice off chunks of killer ship.
The pressure of making the right decision hit Jon like a weight. He could psychically feel it. The weight ground down his resolve and hammered his conscience. Did he have a right to keep a clean conscience if that meant the extinction of the human race? Maybe a man had to stain his soul to save others. If that was true, how much more did an entire race weigh in the balance?
In that instant, Jon felt the injustice of the dilemma. The rest of humanity from Uranus to Mercury waited in innocence. They had no idea of the horrible fate waiting for them in the Neptune Grav System. Genocide grew in strength. If Jon waited too long, the captive fleet in Triton orbit would destroy the alien invader vessel before he had time to figure out how to run it. Could he sacrifice Da Vinci in order to save the human race? Something different—alien engrams—lived in the Neptunian’s double-dealing brain. Da Vinci had brought it on himself. The little thief had saved the day once already. Could he, or rather, his bodily shell, do it—and in return receive alien thoughts running him for the rest of the body’s life? That seemed wrong.
A heavy laser beamed from the SLN battleship. The ray struck the alien vessel’s outer armor.
“Yes,” Jon whispered as an answer.
“Swear it to me…on your honor,” Da Vinci said.
Jon swallowed painfully.
“There’s a second beam,” Bast said.
Jon glanced at Gloria, his confidante. He wanted to ask her opinion. If he did, he would put some of the weight of the decision on her. She did not deserve that. If he was going to take on the darkness, he might as well take all of it for doing this.
Quietly but with determination, Jon made a bitter oath to the thing in Da Vinci.
“Are you man of your word, Captain?” Da Vinci asked.
“If you wait to
o long,” Jon said. “You’ll die too.”
The thing in Da Vinci glanced at the screen. “That is an excellent point.” He turned to the techs. “Heed me,” the Neptunian said, in a commanding voice. He told the techs how to activate the controls and reroute certain channels.
“Do you understand?” Da Vinci asked them.
The techs indicated that they did.
“Then begin at once,” the Neptunian said, “as I help you save the day.”
***
Now began a strange race. The giant alien ship withstood increasingly greater assaults as the techs attempted to give Jon control to fight back.
The outer hull armor proved tough. The laser power dissipated over range. In counterpoint, the rays grew stronger the closer a battleship was to the target.
First, the initial SLN battleship headed toward the giant vessel. As it did, the two working lasers continued to beam. Then, a second SLN battleship started beaming. It only had one working laser cannon. After several minutes, it, too, began to approach the great warship.
Neither of the battleships accelerated with their main thrusters. They each used side-jets, meaning they accelerated even more slowly than usual.
As the chief and techs worked under Da Vinci’s instructions, Jon drifted to Gloria. He motioned her with the crook of a gloved finger. Then, he indicated for them to drift to Bast Banbeck.
“Low volume,” Jon whispered. He put his speakers on low. Afterward, he double-checked, making sure his comm-system only received messages.
Jon instructed them to do the same.
“What is it?” Gloria whispered.
“I believe I know,” Bast said in a heavy whisper. “We on Bliss dealt with the dispossessed in our history.”
“You had brain taps on Bliss?” Gloria asked.
“How else would we know about the dispossessed?” the Sacerdote asked. Bast turned to Jon. “You wish our advice on how to deal with the one named Da Vinci.”
“I do,” Jon said.
“Philosophically, it is an interesting dilemma,” Bast said. “Still,” he added hastily. “You have already made it clear that philosophical problems do not cause you internal lust.” Bast frowned. “Lust is the wrong word choice.”
“We understand what you mean,” Gloria said. She regarded Jon. “Your word is dear to you. That does you credit as a human. However, in this instance, you might have to break your word.”
“The dispossessed in Da Vinci might already realize that,” Jon whispered.
“I give that a high percentage probability,” Bast said. “How do you plan to proceed?”
“How did the Sacerdotes deal with the dispossessed?” Jon asked.
“We killed them wherever we found them,” Bast said. “Possession through mind tap is…hideous. If a person cannot have his own identity—”
“Killing them seems harsh,” Gloria said.
“You do not understand,” Bast said. “The highly ambitious will always seek to live. They will record their engrams and imprint on whomever they can. In this way, the personage believes they can have eternal life.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Gloria asked.
“It is unethical,” Bast said.
“Why?”
“It is not a matter of why,” Bast said. “It just is.”
“Okay, okay,” Jon said. “Enough about that. What should I do with Da Vinci? Do you recognize the type of alien in control of him?”
“Me?” asked Bast. “That is an interesting question.” The Sacerdote closed his eyes. He opened them a moment later, shaking his head.
“I have another reason for keeping the…dispossessed alive,” Gloria said. “He called himself the Prince of Ten Worlds. Maybe his race built an interstellar empire. Wouldn’t we want to know about that?”
“So, we let the thing live in order to gain information?” Jon asked.
“The more I think about it,” Gloria said, “the more I think we should do that.”
The chamber shook. Soon, Jon’s helmet comm lit up. He listened to Stark and the Old Man report. Debris had made it to this part of the ship. In areas, smoke had thickened, pouring inward faster than ever.
“How much longer until I can fight back?” Jon asked Da Vinci.
The dispossessed did not reply. He seemed too busy rerouting a panel.
Three SLN battleships beamed the giant vessel with five separate rays. The first warship began to accelerate with its main thrusters. The AI seemed to be gaining greater mastery over his fleet of captured ships.
The shaking in the chamber grew worse. Finally, the dispossessed looked up.
“I will give you a choice, Captain,” the Neptunian said. “I can give you one main cannon or work on a panel and give you three cannons ten minutes from now.”
“Can the lasers destroy my cannon?” Jon asked.
“I deem that highly likely,” Da Vinci said.
“A bird in hand…” Gloria said.
Jon silently agreed with her thought. “Give me that cannon.”
The dispossessed appeared thoughtful. Finally, he said, “As you wish. I do hope you’re as good a battle leader in space fights as ground assaults.”
“Same here,” Jon muttered.
“Allow me a few final adjustments,” the dispossessed said. He used his tools, tapped here, screwed there and finally shoved a panel together.
“I will have to run the weapon,” Da Vinci said. “What is your wish, Captain?”
Jon studied the battleships. What made the best sense?
“The first battleship,” Jon said. “I want a direct hit.”
“Do you desire for me to aim for a laser cannon?”
“No,” Jon said. “I’m not trying to knock out the cannons one by one. I want to take out the battleship in one fell swoop. That means I want a vast interior explosion. Dig into the enemy ship as fast as you can.”
The dispossessed examined Jon. Finally, he smiled sinisterly. “That is rather wise, Captain. Yes, I see your meaning. Maybe you are a war-fighter of note after all.
-11-
“Wait!” Jon cried.
The dispossessed looked up from his panel.
“This is the golden beam?” Jon asked.
“I presumed you understood that.”
Jon held back his resentment. “If I used this cannon—the radar dish—the AI will recognize what I’m trying to do. If I were him—it—I’d turn all laser batteries onto the disk. I’d destroy it. We can’t afford to lose our weapons too early…”
“You desire me to ready more weapons?” the dispossessed asked.
Jon scowled at the makeshift screen. This was a stupid way to fight a space battle—at pointblank range. That was doubly so for the alien super-ship. This vessel had better long-ranged weapons. How—
“How fast can you get the engines working?” Jon asked.
The dispossessed grew thoughtful. “Not long, I should think. It would simply be a matter of hooking up a control panel.”
Jon saw it now, but he needed to know one more thing. “When this vessel accelerates at 70 gravities… We saw the super-ship do that once. No. We witnessed it decelerating, but that ends up being essentially the same thing. Here’s my point. Does the alien ship have gravity dampeners?”
The dispossessed cocked his narrow head. “I’m unsure. I would think so. I’d think the AI has gravity control instead of mere dampeners.”
“Can you control those?”
The dispossessed shrugged.
“I need an answer,” Jon said, harshly.
Da Vinci’s eyes narrowed. “I do not care for your tone. My enemies have howled for days for lesser offenses against me.”
“Never mind about that,” Jon said. “Can you do it?”
“It should be simple.”
“Then get started,” Jon said.
“Your enemy will continue to beam this ship, damaging it more thoroughly.”
“Work!” Jon said. “Get to work.”
The d
ispossessed narrowed his eyes so that they became like slits. In a superior manner, he nodded curtly. “Techs,” he said in a lofty voice, “attend me and listen well.”
“What’s your plan?” asked Gloria.
“Can you work the comm station?” Jon asked her.
“I can,” Bast said. “I’ve been watching, listening and learning.”
Jon gave him a nod.
The giant Sacerdote went to a control panel. He stared down at it, cracked his fingers through the crinkling gloves and began to tap and adjust controls.
The dispossessed looked up.
“I’m trying to contact the AI,” Jon said.
The dispossessed studied Jon as if playing probabilities in his mind. Finally, he turned to answer as the chief asked him a question.
“There’s…what do you call it? Ah, yes. There is static, but I will increase power.” Bast Banbeck turned around. “I have contact, Captain.”
“Hello, AI,” Jon said, moving to the location Bast indicated.
The same robotic voice as earlier answered. “What do you want, vermin?”
“I, ah, may have been hasty before,” Jon said.
“It is too late for that.”
“Really? I have your ship.”
“Not for much longer,” the AI said. “I will destroy it soon.”
“I’m ready to surrender to you,” Jon said.
“Why have you changed your mind?”
“Your captive fleet will destroy me before I can ready this unwieldy vessel.”
There was silence. It lengthened…lengthened. “This is a stalling tactic, clearly.”
“I give you my word it’s not.”
“Your word?” the AI said. “What is a vermin’s word to me?”
“I kept my word earlier,” Jon said. “I could have lied to you. I would not.”
“This is more delightful that I realized. You scrape and simper, trying to lull me. I find it surprisingly enjoyable. Beg more, Jon Hawkins. Maybe I will relent. Maybe I will allow you to live as a monkey in a cage.”
“You offered me a world before.”
Cybership Page 27
