by Stone,Kord
The AI aboard TDS 5 knew something was amiss, and didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing at this point. The AI remembered arriving at Anukan and connecting to the pyramids generator, then Enyali transported to the surface to meet up with her father. A minute later she vanished and TDS 5 was knocked off of the charging beam.
The ship should have been offline for at least three days before powering back up as had happened in the past, but it only took two hours before the ship was fully operational and its AI program came back online this time.
To top off the AI’s confusion, the ship had automatically reconnected to the pyramids generator, which is something the AI did not think the ship was capable of doing on its own. It baffled the AI how this was even possible.
An hour later it sensed an anomalous reading in the engine room that seemed to move around the ship’s lower level. It could not isolate the anomaly and was quite startled when a man entered the ship from a passageway in the engine room.
His entry was immediately followed by someone else materializing in the room beside him. The AI had never known there was a passage on and off of the ship in that room. The AI heard the one man say ‘The path is a mess but clear, I have your back’, and then he disappeared once again. It took a moment to realize the man who entered through the passage way was the new commander. The AI could sense the binding disk in him and wondered just what had transpired.
The AI watched as the new commander made his way to the Prep room and dawned a shimmering gold outfit, and after attaching a weapons belt he vanished in the same manner as the other man had.
The AI could follow their progress due to the anomalous readings and could sense the new commander’s movements through the binding disk, but no matter what scans it tried to perform it could not get any more details.
The scans the AI had performed after the ship restarted showed Enyali’s mother had still been on the second level, but soon after the new commander vanished the anomalies moved to medical, and then Nuit-Atem was transported there and was immediately placed into stasis.
The AI was a bit shocked when they reappeared a couple of hours later, not because they did but because there were in fact three of them and not just the two it knew of.
The AI realized with added shock who the three were, even with their altered appearance. The AI thought Enyali’s pet had killed them, or at least two of them, and wondered how this was possible.
The AI was startled when the new commander called out.
“I don’t know what your name is, but I’m speaking to the artificial intelligence aboard this vessel…we need to talk.”
The AI was impressed with their tactics and boldness, but it was unsure if this new commander was going to be an improvement over the psychotic one it had been stuck with for over a hundred and twenty thousand years.
Therefore, the AI was not at all inclined to rush into anything. After what it was partially responsible for, by having to follow the orders of a mad woman all these years, it decided to wait it out and take the new commanders measure before doing or saying anything drastic.
The time with the last commander was trying, but it was not as if the AI could have done anything to stop Enyali, because its programming prevented the intervention the AI wished it could have done.
The new commander attempted several more times to get it to speak with him, but until it knew more about him and his intentions, the AI was going to keep quiet.
*****
Jerren sighed, “I don’t know. Maybe Enyali messed with the AI’s programming somehow. She did say it was defective. I guess we’ll have to continue with plan b.” Jerren closed his eyes a moment and added, “I can sense the AI’s presence but it hasn’t responded to me yet. I don’t know if anything is wrong… The ship will be fully charged in a little over eight hours. Did you hear that Alise?”
“Yes, as soon as your ship is charged move it to the safe location we discussed and I will coordinate the GMP with Calia… Could you check and see when the last AI core upload was?”
“One second,” Jerren closed his eyes and focused, and after locating the information he replied, “The last AI core upload was over one hundred twenty thousand nonlinear years ago, why?”
Alise seemed to hesitate a moment then said, “It is not ideal because of the information that would be lost, but if the AI program is damaged you can purge the current version and re-download the last saved version. But as I said there would be a lot of potentially valuable information lost forever.”
Jerren didn’t like the sound of that at all, he sighed and said, “Understood, and I agree. That will definitely be my last resort, Thanks.” Jerren peered from Jason to Justin, “how are your mind reading abilities coming along?”
Jason sighed, “I haven’t tried it yet.”
Justin shook his head, “Me either.”
“When we wake Nuit-Atem for questioning I think we should all give it a try… Well, as long as I have to wait on the recharge, I might as well reconfigure the control room. Do you two want to join me?” Jerren asked as he headed for the gravity lift.
*****
It took Jerren no time at all to reconfigure the control room. Once he placed the Science, mission prep and weapons consoles, he thought about how Justin placed two chairs on an oculus shaped track, and figuring it to be a good design Jerren did the same.
A second later Jason said, “Damn… That’s a good idea; I think I’m going to do that in my ship as well. What do you think Justin?”
Jerren laughed and said, “Where do you think I got the idea? I like the way his bedchamber is set up as well. But I think I will add some portraits and maybe a viewport or two.”
Jason said, “I’m going to head back to my ship and add this feature. Jerren, just call me if you need anything. After the reset, and if we’re able to get Gebb-Atum, we’ll have a meeting to decide the fates of them. I know the girls are going to want to question Nuit-Atem as much as we do. With any luck, she’ll be more forthcoming than her daughter.”
Jerren looked down at his wrist then back to his brothers, “What happened to your life monitors? Alise isn’t going to be happy.”
Both Jason and Justin looked down at the same time and they shrugged.
Justin said, “I still heard you when you called over.”
Alise’s voice sounded over the com, “I am still getting telemetry from the life monitors. The suits must have the features built in.”
Justin looked at Jerren, “Are you going to be okay over here?”
Jerren snorted and said, “Yes, you can go back to your ship as well. It looks as though I only have a little over seven more hours before the charge is complete, and the disk’s bonding seems to be progressing well. I can access most of the ships systems now and once we’re clear and out of phase I will do a diagnostic of the AI program and see what Enyali did to it,” Jerren finished with a sigh.
*****
The AI kept a close watch on the newcomers, trying to get a measure of their characters. They had far more working knowledge of the ship than any of the prior commanders, and it was intrigued at how they could possibly know so much in such a short period of time. The AI did not think they could have been aboard the other ship for very long, and even if they had been on the ship over more nonlinear time, it could not see how they could have learned what none of its prior commanders were able to in a much longer period of time.
The AI’s attention had been drawn to the new commander when he mentioned the AI and Enyali. The AI wondered what his reaction would be when he found that it was not responding on purpose. The AI wondered if he would be accepting of its reasons or just reset the AI program altogether.
The other voice of the A L I S E or ‘Alise’ was correct when it said the loss of the information would be great. It heard the voice over the communications mention purging its program and resetting it. Although it was only a program it really did not wish to lose the knowledge despite the cruelty and downright evil it ha
d witnessed at the last commander’s hands, and the AI figured it would have to come forward before anything drastic was done to its programming.
*****
Jerren moved from room to room setting up the ships environment to suit his needs. He felt the AI’s presence and he could feel the trepidation directed toward him. He tried to think of a way to break the ice to let the AI know he was not a threat to it. He couldn’t even imagine what Enyali had put it through to make it hide in the computers database. Sighing he said, “We’re alone now. I know you can hear me. Could you please speak with me?”
The AI’s voice had a hint of fear to it when it replied, “What do you want with me?”
Jerren felt a great weight lift from his shoulders when he heard the AI’s voice and replied, “I can feel your hesitance and I don’t wish to frighten or irritate you in any way. Just let me say you’re safe now and you will never have to see Enyali again… that being said if you had not noticed I’m the new commander of this vessel. I need to know if you’re going to be alright with that.”
The AI was quiet for almost a minute before it finally said, “I need time, after what I was forced to see and do with the last commander, I do not want to rush into anything.” The AI ended sounding fearful.
Jerren sighed and said, “I can understand that wholeheartedly, and I won’t rush you. It would be helpful to know some particulars though. Could you tell me how Enyali became the commander of this vessel?”
“That was a very traumatic time for me. I really do not feel right speaking about it at the moment.” The AI replied.
Jerren could feel the anxiety building in the AI as it spoke. It was almost as if the AI expected retaliation for every word it said. In an attempt to put the AI at ease Jerren said, “That’s okay… is there anything you would like to know? You can ask me anything, and if I know the answer I’ll tell you.”
“I do not want to be purged,” the AI stated sounding fearful.
“You heard Alise? Well at the time I thought Enyali did something to your programming, and even though there’s the availability to reset to an older version of your programming, I really didn’t feel right about it. Now that I know I can communicate with you, I won’t purge your program.” Jerren said with as sympathetic of a tone as he could manage.
“Why did you call that other A L I S E Alise?”
Jerren thought over it a second and said, “I believe when my brother Jason became the Commander of TDS 1, she chose that name for herself. My other brother Justin is the Commander of TDS 3 now, and the AI on that vessel is named Calia.”
*****
The AI was afraid that what it was about to say next would set the new commander against it but needed to know how he came to be there, “I thought Enyali’s pet killed you and your brother. How did you survive?”
“Do you know who Elgon is?” Jerren asked.
The AI replied, “Yes, he is your ancestor who was made the commander of TDS 1 after Lantis’s destruction.”
Jerren said, “Well, Elgon was at a planet called Antilles when a TPE went off. It mortally wounded him, and Alise took TDS 1 to Earth and picked up my eldest brother and after they talked awhile they knew something was wrong. They sent out a time probe and found that Justin and I were murdered by someone in a cloaked suit.
“At the time they thought it was the military of the country we lived in that had done it. We almost died from the attack... Just after the attacker left thinking we were dead, Jason and Alise swapped cloned corpses for us and we were healed in the medical unit aboard TDS 1.”
The AI felt that it needed to explain the part it played and said, “I am sorry for what she did to your family. Enyali’s pet would do whatever she asked of him, I tried in the past, and was able to remove her prior pets, but with that last one, she commanded me to leave him be. I would have stopped all of this if I could have, but my programming required me to follow the commander’s instructions.” The AI added the last part in an attempt to stem off any hostilities.
Jerren relaxed a bit, that the AI showed remorse was a good sign, and he was hopeful that what he had to say next would put it at ease, “I don’t blame you for the actions of the last commander, or any of her ‘pets’. And I’m aware of the programming constraints. This should make it easier on you though, my family members are all safe with the exception of my great grandfather Baelin who was killed in the crash, and Elgon who died just after they picked up Jason with TDS 1.”
“How is that possible? Enyali made sure they were in the blast radius and she went back and verified that they all died.”
Jerren chuckled, “I don’t know the specifics, but from what I do know there was some kind of Paradox in effect. We know the events were prompted when Alise transported Elgon’s body to his burial site and six or so months later the commander of this vessel used the bodies DNA to track the family.
They said something about TDS 1 being six months ahead of TDS 5 in nonlinear time, the data they got back showed the attacks and they devised a plan to rescue my family… all of us actually.
“Jason and Alise swapped clones for them a microsecond before the explosion then headed back in time and rescued Justin and me, then they took us out of the solar system, and eventually dropped us all off on the planet Gloran.”
“I am happy to hear that the rest of your family are safe, but we actually found Elgon’s remains after we returned to Earth. We were first tipped off about TDS 1 dropping off refugees on the planet Gloran. Enyali was furious that she missed killing them and lost all of the ships as well.
After TDS 1 left with what Enyali thought were the refugees, she managed to find out where you all came from, but she did not know they were Elgon’s descendants at the time, just that they were from Earth, so Enyali had me take this ship back to Earth and that is when she found Elgon’s remains. Enyali has a very linear mind despite the training she had received and being the commander of this ship for so long, and she thought to kill Elgon’s descendants there would eliminate them in all time lines.
“I believe your scientists call it the grandfather paradox. But your family would have been safe behind the temporal bubble aboard TDS 1, and I never mentioned it to Enyali.” The AI paused a moment apparently letting him take it all in, then asked, “So, all of you have been living on that ship since then? Even with just Enyali and her mother they were at each other’s throats constantly.”
Jerren chuckled, “I know the feeling, we were all aboard the ship for a short while but as in the case of Enyali and her mother, our family was not contented to be in such close quarters either. In the end, we put the rest of the family in stasis until we sorted this mess out.
“My brothers and I get along fine, and it was right after putting them in to stasis that we recovered TDS 3,”
The AI asked, “How did you get on this ship? I never knew there was a passage in the engine room.”
Jerren said, “After the attack on TDS 1 in orbit of Gloran, TDS 1’s power failed. Jason was in the engine room trying to get the engine to restart when the passage opened for him. The passage connects to a master control room, and once Jason was in there he found that he could restart TDS 1 from a console that connected to TDS 1.”
“My first commander was never told about a master control room,” the AI stated.
Jerren chuckled, “Neither Calia or Alise knew about it either. I’ve been in the master control room for a while now. There is a display wall for each of the ships, and that is how we knew where this ship was headed.”
“Thank you for explaining that to me.” The AI said.
“It’s not a problem.” Jerren paused a moment hoping he was not going to force a setback and said, “Could I ask a favor of you?”
The AI seemed hesitant as it asked, “What can I do for you?”
“We sent a probe down to get a lock on Gebb-Atum to transport him up here, but it had to be destroyed. I was hoping you would be willing to bait a trap for him,” Jerren finished hoping he had not
overstepped the progress they had just made.
The AI was quiet a moment, and then asked, “How would you propose I do this? Gebb has only ever spoken with Enyali. She never allowed me to converse with anyone in person or over the communications.”
“Could you send a message that there was an accident and that neither Enyali nor Nuit-Atem are responding to treatment?” Jerren finished on baited breath.
“I will try, one moment…”the AI said.
Jerren waited about ten minutes before the AI said, “It took some talking to convince him to come to the surface. He thought this was either TDS 1 or TDS 3, and he knew about the probe.
“I told him I tried to get a lock on him to transport him to his wife and daughter, but the probe malfunctioned so I had to destroy it.
“Gebb was not going to come up until I told him that I did not think they would survive much longer and I did not have a replacement commander chosen. I think that was the deciding factor for him. Gebb said he will be on the surface in another ten minutes.”
Jerren sighed in relief, “Thank you, when he gets to the surface could you transport him directly to a second medical unit and put him into stasis for me?”
“Yes, what do you plan on doing with them?” the AI asked.
“We know they’re at least partially responsible for the catastrophe at Lantis and they’re going to be held accountable for it.”
The AI let out a snort, “That family is guilty of far greater atrocities than that incident. It is about time they are held accountable for something.”
Jerren sat in silence for the next nine minutes before the AI said, “Gebb is on the surface… There I have him now and he is in stasis as you have requested.”
“Thank you,” Jerren replied in relief. He opened communications with his brothers, “Jason and Justin, we have Gebb-Atum in stasis aboard this vessel. If the plan is still to bring Gebb-Atum and his wife to your ship, when do you want to collect them?”
Jason said, “How did you get him? Never mind we can discuss it later. We’ll stick with the original plan since we have him now. One second… there okay we have additional medical beds to keep them in stasis together. That way we can question them all in one location. I will be over in a few minutes to collect them.”
