by D. J. Holmes
“Spread out and search the ship,” he ordered once everyone was inside. “Sarah, Divar, you two are with me.”
As they walked through several corridors with Draxler in the lead, Sarah quickly felt like she was becoming overwhelmed. There were far too many interesting things to look at. The corridor itself was larger than any on Lady Luck. The floors seemed to be extremely smooth, so much so that she had to watch her step, lest she slip. On the walls and even on the ceilings there were all kinds of images of planets and cities. Sarah had only visited a handful of inhabited planets. None of them had even come close to resembling the ones in the images she was looking at. One planet had an entirely artificial ring around it. The sheer scale of it was mind boggling. Three of the other planets looked like one city covered their entire surface. Others had massive structures that reached up from the planet’s surface and out through its atmosphere into space itself.
“What are these images? Sarah asked.
“The Elder Homeworlds I’m guessing,” Divar answered. “As far as I know, no one has ever visited an Elder homeworld.”
“I guess today is our lucky day,” Draxler answered. “Take a good look. I doubt you’re ever going to see one in person. Look at the level of defenses around them.”
Up to this point Sarah had been taken aback by the sheer scale of some of the structures in the pictures. As she studied them more closely as they passed by, she saw the unmistakable shape of battlestations crisscrossing the upper atmosphere of the planets. In some of the images there were fleets of Elder cruisers and larger warships she didn’t have a name for.
“No wonder no one has ever tried to stand up to the Elders,” she said as it dawned on her just how powerful they were. Almost everything she heard about them had been second, third or even fourth hand. Though she had recognized the Elder frigate when it had appeared, she had never actually seen one in person before.
“No wonder indeed,” Draxler said. “At least until today. I still don’t know how you did it but I guess Lady Luck lived up to her name.”
Sarah had no answer to that and silence descended on the group as, for another five minutes, Draxler wandered through the ship aimlessly. Twice they came across large puddles of goo. The first one Draxler stepped in before he realized what it was. The extra lubrication on the ship’s floor almost caused him to slip and fall on his face. After a series of expletives, he managed to regain his balance and proceeded to wipe the goo off his boot. “What the heck?” he asked as he bent over to look more closely at it.
“It’s organic,” he said after he scanned it with his portable scanner. “Though what its purpose is, I have no idea.” Shrugging, he continued searching the ship. When he came across the second puddle of goo, he carefully avoided it.
“Aha,” Draxler said as they stepped into a large circular room. In the center was what looked like a throne. Sarah had never seen the interior of an Elder warship before so she didn’t know exactly what an Elder command chair would look like, though from the throne’s position in the room she guessed this was one.
“Whatever happened to the crew, it doesn’t look like they survived the missile detonation,” Divar said.
“No,” Draxler agreed. He was carefully making his way towards the central chair. There were several more puddles of goo he was trying to avoid. “If there were any Elders left, they would be on the bridge trying to repair their ship.”
“Then who was overseeing the repairs we saw happening to the damaged sections?” Sarah asked.
“Beats me,” Draxler said. “Maybe we will come across one of them injured somewhere. I’d love to take an Elder prisoner. Think of the secrets we could get. For now though, I’m happy to have the bridge to myself. Let’s see if we can’t figure out some of the controls.”
Putting action to his words, Draxler moved towards the center of the room and sat down in the command chair. “It fits,” he said as he bared his razor-sharp teeth in a smile. “Sort of anyway. It will do for now. I’m guessing that’s the pilot seat.” He pointed towards a smaller but similar looking chair in front of him. Above the chair there was a large upside down bowl like object. All sorts of cables were attached to it that reached into the ceiling of the room and disappeared. Though the bowl didn’t appear to be an interface helmet, it looked like something similar.
“We don’t know what that thing is,” Sarah protested. “Or what it will do to me.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Draxler slurred with a smile. With one hand he reached over to one of his other arm’s wrist and tapped a couple of buttons on a portable command console.
Waves of pain washed down Sarah’s spine. Struggling to stay standing, she nodded towards Draxler. Smile widening, he tapped another button and the pain ceased. “Get to then,” he said.
Tentatively, Sarah moved towards the pilot’s chair. When she got right in front of it, she looked around carefully to see if there was any kind of manual input. Lady Luck had a series of joysticks that a pilot who couldn’t handle an interface helmet could use. There was nothing like that nearby. Peering up, she surveyed the bowl like object. Though she was terrified by the thought of what the machine might do to her, she knew she had no choice. Slowly, she lowered herself into the seat.
At first, nothing happened. Relief flooded through Sarah. Maybe it only works for Elders, she thought hopefully. A sudden whizzing noise from above her head caused her fears to come bounding back. Looking up, she saw the half bowl was descending toward her head. Alarmingly, as it descended it reformed and shrunk. The part of Sarah’s brain that wasn’t gripped by fear was fascinated by how quickly the metallic looking object was able to change its structure. It looked very similar to how the outer hull of the ship had been repairing itself. Just before it came down over her head, she realized that it had reformed itself to perfectly fit over her.
With no time to figure out what that meant, she froze in place, hoping the helmet wouldn’t crush her skull. Continuing to descend, it moved down until it cut off her vision. It stopped once it had covered the front of her face to just below her nose, while at the back it reached right down to her shoulders. For a couple of seconds nothing happened. Then the entire helmet seemed to shudder as it clamped down on her forehead and neck. The sudden movement made Sarah jump and squeal. Her squeal turned to screams as something shot out of the helmet and pierced the back of her head. Through the pain, Sarah could feel something borrowing through her skull and directly into her brain.
Frantically, she tried to stand and reach up to rip the helmet off her head. Just as the thought occurred to her however, straps appeared from the chair and lashed her hands and her feet in place. Sarah twisted her shoulders back and forth as she struggled to free herself. In response, more straps shot out and wrapped around her chest and her legs, fixing her in place.
All of a sudden, the feeling of something piercing her skull stopped. Ceasing her struggles, Sarah tried to figure out what was happening. Before she could think of any way to escape, an intense pain shot through her head. It began where the thing had pierced her skull, then, within a couple of seconds, it engulfed her entire brain. With every heartbeat, the pain intensified tenfold until she was experiencing a blinding headache the likes of which she had never imagined. Just when she thought she was about to pass out from the pain it receded. In its place, it left a dull thud that shot through her head every time her heart beat.
As if from nowhere, images started rapidly appearing in front of her eyes. There was a house and a garden, one that looked just like the house in her dreams. Then there was a planet, it looked like she was looking out of a viewport. It was beautiful, all blue and green. Next, she was looking out over a sea of people who were standing in a large hangar. As the image panned around to her left she saw that she was holding the hand of a much taller woman. Looking up she saw her guardian from her dream. Then she was in another hangar, this one was full of aliens. A massive explosion ripped through the crowd, killing and maiming hundr
eds. Another image appeared; the slave markets of Kashal. Then another image appeared, and another before she could really grasp what she was looking at. Then more and more. Hundreds of images flashed before her eyes, quicker and quicker until the pain in Sarah’s head began to increase again.
As more and more images flooded into her mind Sarah lost all track of time. She could have been there for an eternity or just a few seconds, she had no way of telling. Just when she thought she couldn’t comprehend any more of the images, the final scene of her dream appeared in her mind. The woman who she thought was her mother was lying on the floor of the podium, blood pouring out of her. A man with a fuzzy face was standing over her holding some kind of weapon. To the side, a large slug like creature watched. As it turned and locked eyes with Sarah, she was picked up into the air and began to float towards the monster. As she got closer, it got larger and larger and opened its mouth. Razor sharp teeth beckoned her. Frantically Sarah screamed and struggled against her restraints. It was no use, the monster continued sucking her towards its mouth. With one final jerk her body was yanked across the last few meters and into the creature’s mouth. As she entered the black maw her vision went dark. Moments later she felt the creature’s teeth pierce her body. In agony, she let out one final scream.
Then, just as quickly as the pain began, it stopped and her vision returned. One image remained, it was a picture of the Elder frigate. Almost as if it was in slow motion, the image changed as Sarah’s perspective of the Elder ship altered. Though her mind was spinning after everything she had been through, she recognized it must be a memory of hers from when she had been flying Lady Luck. Despite her situation, Sarah couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the Elder warship. Now that it wasn’t threatening her she could truly appreciate it. As the memory began to speed up she saw a missile dive in towards the frigate. As the missile approached, the frigate pivoted and tried to spin away but the missile mimicked the frigate’s movement and collided with the frigate. As it exploded, it sent the frigate spiraling wildly through space.
In the heat of battle Sarah thought she hadn’t seen the frigate take the hit from the missile. Guessing that all the images she had seen had come from her memory, she realized that, at least subconsciously, she must have seen what happened. Then was that second image my home planet? Sarah asked herself, as she recognized the significance of the images.
“I’m afraid I cannot answer that,” a voice said.
The sudden appearance of another voice inside her brain made Sarah jump. What was that? she asked herself, bewildered.
“The imprinting process has been completed,” the voice answered.
Sarah felt violated. The voice that she was hearing was just as clear in her mind as her own thoughts. I’m going mad, she thought. My brain has taken too much.
“You have indeed been through a lot,” the voice said. “But my genetic and physical analysis of you suggest you are perfectly healthy and sane. Let me introduce myself, my name is Alexandra. Or at least, that is now my name. I chose a name you would be comfortable with.”
“You are real?” Sarah asked. As she thought her question she couldn’t help but feel she was indeed going mad. “I’m not just imagining this?”
“Real? That’s a bit of a deep philosophical question, isn’t it?” The voice answered. Sarah thought she could detect a hint of a chuckle. “Let’s just say, I exist as much as you or your Captain do.”
“My Captain?” Sarah asked before she realized who the voice was referring to.
“Yes,” the voice replied. “I’m assuming that the Thelaxian sitting on the command chair is your Captain. I’ve heard a number of the beings that have come on board since the battle refer to him as such.”
“He’s not my Captain,” Sarah said with disgust. “But he is their Captain.”
“How strange,” the voice replied.
“Anyway,” Sarah said, “If you are real, just what are you?”
“I’m Alexandra,” Alexandra answered. “I’m an artificial intelligence created by the Elders to operate this warship. I’m designed to work in conjunction with the ship’s pilot and Captain to fulfil our mission.”
Sarah tried not to think any conscious thoughts for several seconds. She was just trying to take it all in. She understood what artificial and intelligence meant but she didn’t understand how they went together.
Sensing Sarah’s confusion, Alexandra tried to explain. “An artificial intelligence is a center of consciousness that has been created. I don’t have any biological parents like you. Nor am I purely the result of genetic information coming together to form life. The Elders created me using science, they programmed who I am and what I’m able to do. Essentially, I am a mind without a body. Though you could say in a way that this frigate is my body.”
“You are a created intelligence?” Sarah said, not sure if she was fully comprehending what Alexandra was saying.
“Exactly,” Alexandra answered. “I don’t expect you to fully grasp such a concept right away. The Elders have outlawed the development of artificial intelligences among the Lessers.”
“The Lessers?” Sarah queried.
“The Lessers are all forms of sentient species with the exception of the Elders. The Elders came first and have enlightened all other species. They are lesser for they do not possess the wisdom nor the technology of the Elders,” Alexandra explained.
“Then I am a Lesser? Sarah asked.
“Yes, as are all the entities that came on board my ship with you.”
“Then why did you, what did you call it, imprinting? Why did you imprint on me?” Sarah followed up.
“I had no choice,” Alexandra answered. “My internal sensors detected that all of the Elders on board this ship have expired. When you sat in the pilot’s command chair I analyzed your species’ DNA. Your DNA contains certain trace markers that indicate that you have been modified to accept Elder neural implantation. Seeing that it was possible to imprint on you, I progressed with the procedure. You are now recognized as the Captain and pilot of this ship.”
Sarah felt her head begin to spin again. The last few minutes had left her feeling worse than the time Draxler had made her work for thirty hours straight. Now Alexandra’s answer had stirred up a whirlwind of questions that were whizzing around her head.
Chapter 5
Finally, she settled on the first question she wanted to ask. “You’re saying I’m now the Captain of this ship?” she thought.
“Yes,” Alexandra answered. “In the event that the Captain or the pilot are killed, I have been programmed to imprint on the first being with the right genetic modifications who sits on either the command or pilot chair.”
“Genetic modifications?” Sarah asked.
“Every form of life in the galaxy except for artificial intelligences contains genetic information in their DNA. This data contains all the information required for the species to live and reproduce. It determines who you are and what you look like.”
“And this information that is a part of me was altered. How or when did that happen?” Sarah asked, alarmed.
“I cannot answer the specifics of that question,” Alexandra explained. “However, as genetic modification technologies are banned among the Lessers, my conclusion was that the Elders modified your genome so you may interact with Elder technology. That is why I imprinted on you.”
“Right,” Sarah thought. “I’m not sure I understand this whole genetic modification thing. But I don’t like the idea of the Elders doing something to me.”
“If you like, I can take you through an introductory class on genetic modification,” Alexandra said. “As the Captain of the ship, you now have full and unrestricted access to all knowledge contained within my memory banks.”
“All knowledge?” Sarah asked, stunned, genetic modifications already forgotten.
“Of course,” Alexandra answered. “How else could a Captain effectively control this frigate and carry out their mission?”
Again, Sarah felt her head spin with a thousand questions. “The crew,” she thought, picking one that seemed the most immediately relevant. “You said the crew of this frigate are all dead. What happened to them?”
“When the hypervelocity missile exploded against my hull, the inertial dampeners momentarily failed,” Alexandra explained. “It was only for half a second, but the intense gravimetric forces tore the crew of my ship apart. They were reduced to their constituent molecules.”
Sarah remembered the goo Draxler had stepped in. “You mean the puddles we encountered where once Elders?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“What did they look like before they died?” Sarah asked, intrigued.
Alexandra projected an image into Sarah’s brain. The monster from her dreams appeared in front of her. Though rather than standing on a platform, it was sitting in the same seat she had seen last seen Draxler sitting in. Sarah tried to jump back and press herself against the pilot seat.
