Superdreadnought 1: A Military AI Space Opera

by CH Gideon

  “Maybe because you are an asshole, too?” XO answered.

  “The biggest,” Comm added.

  Maddox split his gaze between the three stations from which the voices emanated. “This isn’t strange at all.”

  “You’ll get used to it eventually,” Geroux told him.

  “Doubtful,” he muttered, moving to an empty seat on the bridge. He eased into it with a grunt.

  “Should you be up and about?” Geroux asked. “Has your mind…uh, settled?”

  He nodded. “It’s as good as it’s going to get, I suppose.”

  “How’d you know to come here?” she wondered.

  “Heard Takal and Ka’nak discussing the situation in the corridor,” he answered, shrugging. “Sounds like as good a time as any to get to work.”

  “Glad to hear it,” XO said. “There was some discussion as to whether to dock your pay while you slacked off.”

  “He’s kidding,” Comm countered.

  “Maybe,” Tactical replied, adding his two credits.

  Maddox waved them off. “As much as I’m enjoying talking to empty seats, can we chit-chat later? I’m thinking we’ve more important things to do right now. Members of our crew have been captured.”

  “The man’s direct,” XO said. “Seems Jiya made a good choice with this one.”

  “Until he takes your job,” Tactical muttered.

  Maddox ignored them. “We have a location?”

  Geroux shifted in her seat, getting comfortable. “They’re in President Lemaire’s compound, although the exact location inside is unknown.” She tapped a few keys on her console, eyes scanning the information scrolling across the screen. “I’m hacking into their systems, but it’s going to take a while. They’re fairly robust, as I’m sure you know. I can’t even detect life forms within the compound’s borders.”

  “Seems the president has upgraded his security since I’ve been gone.” Maddox stared at the viewscreen, taking in the 3-D map of the compound she’d plastered there. “Keep trying. What about comms?”

  “What about me?” Comm asked.

  The ex-general sighed. “Not you, the communication devices Jiya had inserted. Are we getting anything from it?”

  “They’ve blocked communications, so there’s no contact going either direction,” Geroux told him. “I’m working on breaking the encryption on the block as well. Again, it’s going slowly.”

  “How about the rest of you?” he asked, gesturing at the various AI personalities. “I presume you know what’s going on because you’re connected to your boy down below. Can you speak with the Reynolds persona?”

  “I don’t like the implication that we’re not mentally stable,” Tactical replied.

  “You’re about as stable as a drunken two legged-mule,” Maddox accused, “but we can’t worry about that now. Can you reach Reynolds?”

  “Yes…” XO answered.

  “And no,” Comm finished.

  Maddox and Geroux sighed at the same time.

  “What the hell have I gotten myself into?” Maddox muttered under his breath. “Clarify…please.” He added the last after a moment’s pause.

  “Well, his communicator is down, the same as it is for Jiya, but because we’re all kind of…connected, we’re not entirely out of touch.”

  “Then reach out and pinpoint where he is.”

  “It’s not that easy,” Comm replied.

  “Of course it’s not,” Maddox mumbled, clearly trying not to lose his temper. “Can’t you recall him somehow? Manifest him in place of one of you? Switch places, maybe?”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Tactical admitted.

  “Then let’s do it,” Maddox pushed.

  “Too bad it won’t work,” Comm said, moving his chair as if he were shaking his head.

  “Oh, I’m going to regret asking why it won’t work, aren’t I?” Maddox rubbed his temples.

  “Well, seeing as how we plugged him into the Jonny taxi guy, we had to make some adjustments to his piece of our psyche to keep him stable.”

  Geroux giggled at that, and Comm ignored her.

  “He’s programmed to assimilate to an android body,” Comm explained. “We could transfer his consciousness back into the whole, but it would cause widespread system failures until he adjusted.”

  “How long would those take to resolve?” Geroux asked.

  “Could be an hour, could be a month,” XO answered. “Really depends on how he reacts to our…uh, already existing issues.”

  “So, you’re saying if we bring him up, we might break all of you for an indefinite amount of time?” Maddox questioned.

  “That’s about right, yeah.”

  “Then that’s not going to suit our needs,” Maddox mumbled and leaned back in his chair to stare at the ceiling.

  “Too bad we don’t have another android to plug him into,” Geroux said wistfully.

  “Who says we don’t?” Takal asked over the comm, clearly having been listening in.

  Maddox glanced around, his face scrunched. “Is that you, Takal? Where are you?”

  “It is indeed, my friend,” Takal answered, drawing a grin from Maddox. “It is good to hear you are up and about. I’m in the lab.”

  “I should have known you’d be here since Geroux was,” Maddox told the man. “So, what is this about you having another body for Reynolds?”

  “Well, ‘body’ is a slight exaggeration,” Takal admitted. “I do, however, have a frame that is sufficient for our needs, built using one of the ship’s bots.”

  “A frame?” Tactical asked, chortling. “Please tell me it looks like the Terminator after all his flesh has been melted off!”

  “I don’t know who this Terminator fellow is, but if he looks like a chrome skeleton, then yes, he does,” Takal answered.

  “Yes!” Tactical cheered. “Then make it so, damn it. This I want to see!”

  “What will we need for transfer, Takal?” Maddox asked.

  “A few minutes to tweak the frequency so it’s the same as the Jonny android system, then we’ll be good to go.”

  “Do what you have to, Takal, and we’ll let the AIs take over when you’re ready.”

  The comm went silent for several minutes, then Takal came back, letting them know he was finished.

  “Ready to go on my end.”

  Maddox waved to the room. “Okay, ghostly AI voices, do your thing, whatever that might be.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “I’m not sure whether to be excited or disgusted,” Reynolds muttered, holding his skeletal metal arms up and staring at them through bug eyes that seemed to jut from the new android frame’s sockets.

  “Definitely Terminator chic,” Tactical said after assessing the new nowhere-near-finished body. “I like it. Now if you can just plug in Arnold’s voice. Sarah Connor?”

  Takal simply glanced around, looking lost.

  “Couldn’t you have slapped a loin cloth on this bad boy or something?” Reynolds asked. “My shiny pelvic bone is all out there for the world to see like a Robocop Elvis impersonator. We run a PG-rated ship, thank you very much.”

  “We can slip you into a uniform if it bothers you,” Takal told the AI, who spun around, still examining his chassis.

  “Is it really an issue right now?” Maddox interrupted, pushing past Takal to stand before Reynolds. “Jiya is trapped down there still. We need to get her out.” He gestured to Reynolds’ gleaming new body. “All your preening can wait, right?”

  Reynolds nodded. “No, you’re right. We need to focus on Jiya. Unfortunately, I’m not sure where they took her.”

  “Wait!” Geroux asked, her voice cracking on the last. “What do you mean you don’t know where she is? Weren’t you with her?”

  “We were separated after the meeting,” Reynolds answered. “I was taken to a cell, and I’m not sure where she was hauled off to. I suspect that, despite her father’s frustration and anger with her, he would still be obliged to treat her like family.
She’s likely in the main house or nearby rather than in another cell.”

  “So, there’s still no nuking the compound from orbit?” Tactical asked.

  “No.”

  “Never mind,” Maddox said, cutting them all off. “If we don’t know where she is and can’t set up an infiltration team to snatch her back, then we don’t have any choice but to reach out to Lemaire.”

  “You truly expect him to listen to anything we have to say?” Takal asked. “Half the crew are political dissidents and the other half is a split-personality AI who made him look like a fool before his neighboring government leaders.”

  “So, you’re saying he might be a bit miffed at us all?” Reynolds asked.

  “To put it mildly,” Takal answered.

  “Then the nice act is out.” Reynolds stalked over to the viewscreen. “Time to bluff and bluster.”

  “Wait!” Geroux called, a hand raised. “I have an idea.”

  “Is it a good one?” Comm asked.

  She shrugged. “Do we have any good ones right now?”

  “Probably not,” he replied. “Carry on.”

  “You’re still linked to the Jonny taxi body, right?”

  Reynolds nodded. “We can use that connection to our advantage.”

  “How’s that?” Comm asked. “The connection is ephemeral, not some static line. It might not be blocked by Lemaire’s security shielding, but there’s no way to trace the Jonny body’s location through it.”

  “Don’t need the location to do what I’m thinking,” Geroux replied, grinning all the while.

  “Explain,” Maddox requested matter-of-factly.

  “Well, it will require Reynolds to go back to the Jonny android body first.”

  “Oh, hell no!” Reynolds exclaimed, wagging a finger at Geroux. “I say we send Tactical down to the planet.”

  “But you’re the one already assimilated to the body,” she argued. “That means it needs to be you.”

  Reynolds sighed, his voice a discordant hum. “Fine. I’ll do it, although I still don’t understand why I have to.”

  “Because I’m going to give you a virus to carry down with you.”

  “Great!” Reynolds moaned. “It’s starting to make sense, but be gentle.”

  “What does your giving him a virus do for us?” XO asked.

  “A lifetime of jokes is what it does for us, XO,” Tactical replied. “Imagine the possibilities.”

  Reynolds sighed.

  Geroux ignored Tactical, turning to answer XO. “It’s a hack program. All Reynolds has to do is get close to any console connected to the security system, sync up with it, and blam, we’re in. We can then find Jiya and use the system against Lemaire. We’ll have total control over his compound’s security.”

  “Once we have that, we can go in and get her back,” Maddox finished, clearly seeing the potential in Geroux’s move.

  “Then that’s what we’ll do,” Reynolds said, taking one last look at his new body.

  “Don’t worry,” Takal comforted. “It will be here waiting for you when you return. I’ll even work to improve it while you’re gone.” He raised his flask in a mock toast.

  Reynolds grunted. “Fine. Beam me down, Scotty.”

  “Who’s Scotty?” Geroux asked, glancing around. “Is there another AI here somewhere that I don’t know about?”

  “Kids these days.” Reynolds sighed. “Let’s do this before I change my mind.”

  Geroux didn’t hesitate, sending Reynolds back down the rabbit hole.

  The first of the guards hit the ground with a thud, Jiya spinning to whack a second in the side of his head with her shin. He grunted and staggered backward, falling over as his equilibrium gave way. She made ready to punch the third when a familiar voice called out, stilling everyone in the room.

  “I wouldn’t touch her if I were you.”

  She spun to see Reynolds clambering to his feet, his Jonny taxi body reanimated. She grinned and glanced at her father, who had circled back around to his seat, a couple of his men shadowing him.

  “Oh, you’re in for it now, Dad,” she told him, chuckling all the while.

  Reynolds stumbled over to the table and placed his hands on it, palms flat. He met the president’s glaring eyes.

  “I presume this console is linked to the compound’s security system?” he asked, gesturing toward the viewscreen with his chin.

  President Lemaire laid his hand on the screen and smirked, tapping a few keys. “Of course it is, and now you’re going to regret having come back here, alien. The rest of my security forces will be here in seconds.”

  As Jiya stared at the two, Reynolds met her father’s smirk with one of his own. A crackle of static sounded in her head, and she realized her comm had just come back online.

  “I’m in,” Geroux’s voice said through a clear channel. “System’s all yours, Reynolds.”

  Jiya bit back the urge to laugh as she realized what had happened.

  Lemaire grunted a moment later and tapped the console again, his eyes widening when nothing worked the way it was supposed to. He tapped the screen again desperately. His guards edged around the table.

  “Ah, ah, ah,” Reynolds chided, wagging a finger at them. “Stay where you are, or I’ll let Jiya continue to whip your asses.”

  She grinned and moved beside Reynolds, placing herself between the AI and her father’s men.

  “In case you haven’t realized it, Mister President, I’ve assumed control of your compound’s security systems,” he told Lemaire. “Not only do your men not know you’re in danger, but they are locked out of the room. The three guards you have here are hardly enough to keep me from you should I decide to do something untoward.”

  “You wouldn’t dare!” Lemaire growled, but the look on his face was far less certain than the words.

  “I would dare, but I’d rather not,” Reynolds replied. “I’ve no interest in harming you, Mister President, but I also have no interest in letting you hold my first officer captive. I will do what’s necessary to free both of us. This has also confirmed that you are not to be trusted. Shame, that. You’re going to regret being such a flaming asshole.”

  “The compound’s shields are down,” Geroux said over the comm, which Reynolds broadcast over a speaker so the president and his men could hear it. “We can bombard the place at your command, Reynolds.”

  The president leaned back in his seat. He glanced from Reynolds to Jiya and back again, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “You won’t fire upon us,” he said in defiance. “You might control my security system, but my men will respond accordingly as soon as the first barrage begins. They will—”

  “They will do nothing, Mister President,” Reynolds answered, cutting him off. “I could wipe this place from existence within a single heartbeat. The only reason it hasn’t happened already is that you’re Jiya’s father, and her sisters are still here in the compound.”

  Jiya stiffened at that thought, but Reynolds waved at her to relax.

  “I’ve got them located on the security systems,” he told her through the link. “They are in a safe location on the other side of the compound, unaware that anything is happening.” He motioned to the president. “Now, we have something to discuss before things get out of hand.”

  “You don’t consider this as ‘out of hand?’” Lemaire asked, waving his arms around.

  “Shuttle’s on the way,” Geroux said over the private comm.

  Reynolds shook his head. “No, this is perfectly in hand, I have to say. Now, be reasonable and stand down. Let me leave with Jiya, and we’ll pretend this never happened.”

  “Never happened?” Lemaire shouted, leaping to his feet. “You come here issuing orders and threatening to destroy my compound, and you presume to walk away without consequences?”

  Despite the grumbling of his guards, Lemaire stomped around the table to stand face to face with Reynolds.

  “You’re an alien menace, coming to Lariest and thre
atening its rulers. Do you truly think you will get away with this?”

  Reynolds shrugged. “In reality, I’m only threatening you,” he answered. “My XO has been in touch with the Toller and Melowi governments, informing them of your attempt at kidnapping my first officer and me.” Reynolds leaned forward into the face of the president. “Both have offered their support in the matter, and, should something untoward happen to you or your administration, both nations have offered to provide assistance to the people and will gladly step in to take control of the country.”

  President Lemaire stiffened. It was clear to Jiya that he believed every word the AI told him.

  “Shuttle’s on the ground, Reynolds,” Geroux reported.

  After a quiet moment during which Lemaire appeared to struggle to catch his breath, he returned to the couch and flopped down. His cold black gaze settled on Jiya.

  “You would let him do this to me?” he asked.

  “You’ve done this to yourself, Father,” she replied, giving him a curt nod. “We came here in peace, offering the Marianas people an opportunity to advance their sciences for little more than food and supplies and a place to dock between missions. You elevated this into a personal vendetta against me and my success. This is all on you.”

  She growled, “You always held me under your thumb. Kept me from joining the military, kept me from living a meaningful life that differed from what you wanted.” She jabbed a finger in his direction. “I’m not a child anymore, and I’m sure as shit not your slave, so if you want to know if I’ll let Reynolds here blow the compound to dust, then my answer is yes. But that’s not what I want.”

  She righted the chair and flopped into it across from her father. “What I’d prefer is to not upset the balance of Lariest. I want my sisters to be safe here, and the burial place of my mother to remain sacrosanct.” She drew in a deep breath, letting it settle into her lungs. “Let us go and agree to our terms and all will be forgotten, if not ever forgiven,” she told him.

  “You are so very much like your mother,” Lemaire said, the words coming out behind a snarl. They were clearly not meant as a compliment. “You understand nothing, believing the lies your heart and gut tell you as if they were gospel.” He shook his head and waved a hand toward the door. “Go, but know this, Daughter. You will never be welcome here again. You can park your alien ship in space and bleed the Toller and Melowi dry for all I care, but if you or your Jonny android ever set foot upon Marianas soil again, I will have both of you executed.”