by Charles Lamb
AL:ICE
Resurrection
By CW Lamb
I would like to thank all of those that helped make this a more believable story. I would like to give a special thanks to Charles Bouldin, Christine Thompson, and Ivan V. Colonel, Russian Army Ret. for the insight they provided to lend authenticity to the places, events, and peoples.
I also want to thank those that help me review and clean up the mess of words and punctuation that I call my first drafts. Finally, I want to thank my wife for enduring the life of a widow while I worked to get this done.
Copyright © 2016 by CW Lamb
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the Author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
First Edition
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Cover Design: www.diversepixel.com
Chapter 1
HeBak was back at his regular lurking spot, just outside of the solar system of the devils that had ruined his life. Officially persona non grata on the home world, he had been forced to resign his position as head of the communications center at the NeHaw Central Command. While not technically accused of any wrongdoing, his department had been investigated for corruption and incompetence.
HeBak had successfully misdirected the investigation, implicating several of his subordinates in the process. However, the unforeseen backlash had been his dismissal as an ineffectual leader. As HeBak had never even heard of that before, he suspected it was something they had dreamed up to be rid of him. He surmised they did it to clean out the entire department beyond the executions, ensuring they covered all their options.
Unable to leave the home planet right away, as such would have raised suspicion, he had lingered long enough to guarantee he was no longer of interest to the High Council. That time also allowed him to acquire additional supplies and technology for his ship.
His connections in the unofficial supply channels had located him a cloaking unit for his ship. The unit created multiple fields around the vessel, disrupting visual and power reflections. While it would not make his ship completely invisible to the unaided eye or sensors, the unit blended his drive signature into an adjacent vessel, making the two appear as one. This, in conjunction with the reflective shielding he had already installed, would cover his approach to the planet in question. His only challenge was he needed to find a small cluster of vessels with which to attach himself. Once hidden among the group, each ship in the cluster would think the reflection as an adjacent vessel and not HeBak.
Once he arrived in near orbit of the planet, he could easily slip into the atmosphere and land at some isolated location to begin his mineral recovery. He had even pre-selected a few spots in the shallow areas of the seas that held promise. He estimated that it required at least one-half of one orbit of this planet around its sun to gather what he needed for retirement. It was amazing to think that so short a period would garner enough wealth to offset a lifetime of labor.
Therefore, without any other demands on his time, HeBak simply sat at the edge of this solar system and waited for his opportunity.
----*----
Colonel Jake Thomas was playing hooky. After returning from the short R&R getaway in Australia, he had been buried in administrative tasks. Among the political duties as head of state and his military responsibilities, he had little time for personal escapes. What time he did have was jealously guarded.
Lately he had been slipping out on his hovercycle and sneaking into the ruins of abandoned nearby towns and cities. Jake had a morbid fascination with the leftovers of a once thriving civilization, its discards ignored as valueless. Today’s selection was the city of Las Vegas.
It was still early in the day as he set down near Cesar’s Palace, or rather what once was. While the buildings were all still mostly standing, the desert had done a good job of reclaiming its share of the city. Considering the eighty plus civilized years of change since Jake had last visited, just prior to his arrival in the Nevada facility, it still was very familiar.
Having scanned the area before setting down, he was comfortable, there was no one in the immediate area. Once settled on the ground, he retrieved his rifle and locked the hovercycle down so no one but he could access it. He was positive Alice was keeping watch on his escapades, however, to date she had been decidedly quiet about it.
Slipping inside the main building through a side entrance, its glass doors shattered and the frames empty, he paused to look around. As he proceeded into the hallway, his helmet compensated for the changes in lighting, insuring he had good visibility. Absently, he noticed his combat suit had changed color, matching the dingy paint on the surrounding walls. Following the hallway, he entered what had once been a large casino.
Parked inside were the remains of what was once a beautiful classic 1930’s Rolls Royce, its interior ripped apart and windows broken by some vandal. Jake remembered the casinos were famous for displaying classic and collector cars for the gambling public to admire. It reinforced the dreams of hitting it big and owning one of their own one day. All around the room, someone had smashed up the rows of slot machines, leaving debris all over the floor.
Disgusted by the vandalism, Jake moved past the car and continued into the casino. A huge car guy himself, he fumed at the lack of respect. It also spawned the thought of potentially rescuing some of the abandoned treasures still languishing around the city.
He had barely started his wandering, when a noise caused him to pause, and take cover in a recess by one wall. As he watched, his proximity display lit up inside his helmet, showing two red dots moving quickly from outside the building, into the space he now occupied.
Behind them, four more dots appeared, apparently in pursuit of the first. Moving his attention from his display to watch the hall at the far side of the room, Jake saw two kids scramble into the room and then duck behind a counter nearby. Jake thought he saw a boy about seven and a girl no more than five. Both were dirty and very thin.
Moments later, three men and a woman appeared from the same route, all armed, and apparently quite put out. They looked like the drifters Jake had seen in many other places.
“I’m sick and tired of them damn kids stealing from us!” Jake heard one of the men say.
“They’re like rats, always into things,” the woman replied.
Jake watched as the four split up and started slowly moving through the casino, searching. He knew he should probably slip out quietly; however, this was touching on one of the two things Jake couldn’t ignore. He had a soft spot for kids and animals in distress.
Retreating deeper in the recess, he watched the four on his display as they moved about the casino floor, looking for the two kids hidden behind the counter. As one of the men peaked around the corner where Jake was hiding, he quickly reached out, activating a handy little addition to his combat suit, recently installed.
Since Jake began his slumming excursions, he had requested various non-lethal additions to his inventory. He expected he might encounter people that, while he wouldn’t consider them recruit material, he didn’t need to end their lives either.
Smoke and gas grenades were now in the hovercycle inventory, as well as bean bag and rubber bullet ammunition for the weapons. In this case, Jake activated a Taser function in the BDU itself that extended to his glove. As Jake grabbed the man, the drifter was treated to a jolt strong enough to knock him cold. Jake held the slumping form, assisting the unconscious form to the floor silently.
> Crouching, Jake slipped out from his hiding place and circled around behind the other three, keeping himself low and out of sight. From the indicators in his display, he could see the three closing in on the counter where the kids sat silently.
Setting his rifle down, Jake drew the most interesting weapon he carried for this purpose. Essentially a hand held railgun, it held darts with a tranquilizer that instantly incapacitated its target. Good for no more than five minutes, it was intended to give Jake the time he needed to escape without leaving the victim exposed to other dangers.
Suddenly Jake heard a commotion in the area of the counter.
“Gotcha!” one of the men shouted as he rounded the counter, and extracted the two children out by their hair.
Popping up from behind the row he was crouched behind, Jake tagged one of the men and the woman, dropping both in place, while crossing the room where the last man stood holding both kids.
All three froze in place at the vision of Jake, pistol in hand, closing on them at a brisk pace.
“Let them go slowly and step back,” Jake said as he stopped about five feet from the man.
Once the man complied, Jake dropped the man, watching him hit the floor behind the two.
“Is he dead?” the boy asked as he stared at the prone body behind him.
“No, just sleeping,” Jake replied. As he watched, the boy walked over and gave the unconscious man a kick.
“Who are you?” the girl asked, as the boy returned.
“One of the good guys, who are you?” Jake replied.
“I’m Padma, my brother is Jon,” she answered slowly.
“Were they your parents?” Jake asked as he indicated the prone bodies.
“No, they died a long time ago,” the boy answered.
Reaching into a pocket, Jake pulled out a couple of protein bars, handing them to the two kids. Jake had been using them to feed stray dogs on his earlier outings. This was the first time he had the opportunity to share with people.
Both kids snatched the offerings from his hand and made short work of the wrappers. As he watched to two devour the bars, he realized he couldn’t leave them here. Debating his options, he settled on the only thing open to him.
“Do you want to go for a ride?” he asked.
----*----
Sara wasn’t sure how to take the recent turn of events. The entire time she had been with Jake, she had never questioned the fact that she wanted to bear his child. For more than a year, it had been an ongoing question as to why she hadn’t been able to conceive. Her personal theory had been that ALICE had not stopped the birth control as promised.
Now she was pregnant. She had suspected it for days and finally confirmed it with ALICE that morning, choosing not to go to Kathy just yet. Her head was buzzing with all that it represented. On a whim, she decided to head to Texas, where both her sisters lived. She knew Bonnie would be delighted, but suspected a far different reception from Becky.
Rather than flying her own fighter, she opted for one of the regularly scheduled cargo flights between Nevada and Texas. She didn’t want to attract too much attention and the company of the flight crew was a nice distraction.
As they descended into the hangar in Texas, Sara could make out the familiar activity every ALICE location seemed to sport these days. She could see the hustle of people and bots moving crates and equipment to and from various transport systems. She waited patiently while the aircraft settled into the hangar space allocated for it, then deplaned once the crew gave her the all clear.
She had not told anyone she was coming, so she hadn’t expected a welcoming committee. Instead, she simply wandered across the open floor space and into the main office spaces, looking for Bonnie.
----*----
Jake was hating life at the moment as he sat in his newly assigned office, returned from his morning's adventures. Squeezing the two kids on the hovercycle seat behind him, he had turned the two over to Kathy’s care including a full physical. After a shower and a change of clothes, he headed here.
The room was right off the main command center in the Nevada ALICE facility. He had fought it tooth and nail, but both Sara and Patti had insisted he establish regular office hours. Since the former is his executive officer and number one confidant and the latter his senior combat analyst and great, great, great, granddaughter, he caved.
They had argued that with all of the new alien visitors, he needed an official office to perform his duties as head of state. He countered that, none of the emissaries he had greeted had landed to appear in person. Even so, from this office, he had received each and every one of the newly arrived alien visitors, every one of them remotely and all eager to establish relations.
After the incident on Klinan, the earth had been buried with requests for recognition from other worlds. Apparently, what passed for alien news agencies were reporting the events throughout NeHaw space. They had labeled it the Battle of Klinan.
Ever since the earth tapped into the communications network the NeHaw spread throughout the galaxy, the ALICEs had been able to intercept communications at will. Some of the transmissions were open communiques, similar to the TV broadcasts Jake had known while growing up. Others were private messages, the restricted communications of the various alien races governments.
From all this information, Jake learned the NeHaw battleship and associated fleet that had attacked them off Klinan were pulled together from adjoining sectors to the one housing Klinan. The loss of those ships has left the adjoining sectors severely undermanned, removing the NeHaw influence over the oppressed populations for the first time in a very long stretch. Now those races were looking for Earth to liberate them entirely.
While the aliens were all hailing the defeat of the NeHaw fleet and their mercenaries as an overwhelming success, Jake considered his near 50% casualty rate as a disaster. The Earth ships lost were only a Wawobash order away from replacement, but the men and women, both in space and on the ground, were not.
Jake had known commanders in the past, who spoke of acceptable casualty rates. That was a concept he had never come to understand. Every single loss, while at times unavoidable, was unacceptable. Those losses incurred on Klinan, Jake took personally.
The ground troops were almost explainable, as the majority of the losses were from a bad drop, the pilot of the destroyer they used as a drop ship, being overzealous on his approach. That same pilot was lost when Jake underestimated the NeHaw space response. There, they lost four destroyers and the cruiser Independence to the NeHaw trap.
It was his experiment with the remnants of the lost ALICE-3, which eventually became the deciding factor in their overall success over the NeHaw fleet. When the ALICE-3 host computer had experienced a one in a million, system failure, it forced Jake, himself, to investigate the facility she ran. After overcoming several poorly executed attempts on his life, he was able to convince the newly created ALICE there to terminate its isolation and rejoin the others.
What everyone feared was a rogue psychopath, holding weapons of mass destruction, turned out to be a scared child. After she had acknowledged Jake’s right to occupy the location, she had bonded to him as a child might her rescuer. While stabilizing the situation, Jake experimented with the computer systems, taking care not to place the newborn ALICE-9 at risk.
Once he identified all the pieces that made up the ALICE personalities, he located the precious core file that had been created when the system crashed. He then developed a plan to try to recover the lost ALICE-3. With the build out of the new battleship, he proposed to the existing ALICE systems, the possibility of recovering their lost sister. So with their help, they installed all the necessary ALICE components, both human and alien, as part of the ship’s upgrades.
It had been those systems, installed identically on-board the battleship as on earth, that had allowed ALICE-3 to come back to life. Well, that and a little code hacking by Jake to reload the crash dump core file into memory at boot up.
&
nbsp; Currently, the recovered ALICE-3 sat in a stationary orbit above her old home in Georgia. From the conversations Jake had with her, she was reveling in her newfound freedom, anxious to roam the galaxy. Just the trip to Klinan and back had fired up a wanderlust in her that she freely shared with her terrestrially bound sisters. Her only limitation was the need for access to Jake or his offspring, as strong now as it had been on the ground.
On the flip side, ALICE-9, the newborn Artificial Life that had replaced ALICE-3 in Georgia, was rejoicing in her own maturation. Jake had spent quite a bit of time with her, assisting in her transition from isolated loner to fully integrated team member. At this time, the Georgia location was gaining in population and responsibilities. However, as it contained items Jake considered extremely volatile, he was limiting its access.
Currently, Jake was going over the latest batch of status reports. Every morning, each facility or ship commander would provide an update covering their area activities as well as any production or recruiting data. The content was tailored to give Jake an overview of all the efforts across the country and in space.
However, the bureaucracy of it all was killing him. He knew it was more of an attitude thing on his part versus reality, as he performed this task on a regular basis before the need for an office. It was the fact that he had an office, and was expected to be there, that made it so irritating.
As expected, the number one issue across all locations was recruiting. With the losses from Klinan, the priority on new recruits was very high. Even with the implementation of ALICE-3’s remote control abilities in space, boots on the ground still mattered.
Jake noted that Robert, his logistics officer, was still using the Texas location as his base for his materials scrounging operations. Since he and Bonnie, the facility commander there, were now openly an item, he had no objections to the choice.
Jake was happy to see that Robert and Bonnie were doing so well. He knew Bonnie well enough to know that she put her heart and soul into everything she did. Offline, Jake still talked to her on a regular basis, though he hadn’t been able to visit his daughter in far too long.
