ALICE Resurrection
Page 33
Without further information, he suspected he was to be the guest of the humans for a bit longer. The option appeared to be his safest avenue.
Chapter 38
MeHak was beyond angry. She was being deposed by a consortium of men! In addition, she had provided them the ships and troops to do it. She had been fortunate enough to escape with the minion she had tasked with creating the armada. He had just returned with news of the attack on the humans.
How they had learned about her plans and coordinated their attack with the events there, was a mystery to her. It was not one she was likely to resolve soon, but it was one she needed to address, as it had led to her downfall. It was that distraction that had allowed them to act.
Her one hope was it had been successful. The victory there would be enough for the people to rise up and return her to her rightful place as their leader. Until then she had to hide, waiting for the righteous overthrow of those who defiled her rule.
She could only hope that if the armada had failed, those now in power would feel the wrath of the humans she had spurred to battle once more.
----*----
Jake was standing next to his fighter, his rifle in his hands, and held across his chest. He was in full combat gear and currently scanning the area for movement. The display in his helmet confirmed there wasn’t a human within miles, but Jake was taking nothing for granted.
Once the battle in space had ended, they had races throughout NeHaw space asking for asylum and protection. They presently had over twenty vessels parked under the watchful eyes of ALICE-3 and Kola, while Patti and her team worked out the details of the surrender. As they addressed that problem, he had another task to deal with.
He was now standing in a clearing, very close to the ALICE-9 Georgia facility. It was almost 1 am and very dark out. He acknowledged to himself that he had never been so nervous about anything in his life. With a heavy sigh, he prepared himself for what was about to happen.
“Ok, bring it down,” he said.
ALICE-1 and ALICE-9 were linked to him on a private encrypted circuit. He was taking no chances that they might be overheard. Looking up, he watched as a destroyer appeared out of the darkness and settled in the clearing, no more than fifty feet away from where he was standing.
Once it was settled in place, he saw a vehicle roll up, drop a ramp and several bots on tracks roll out and into the destroyer, its ramp already deployed and waiting. Jake cautiously moved forward, taking his time and listening for any sound that might indicate trouble.
Soon enough, the bots came rolling out of the ship, carrying something between them. Jake watched as they reached the bottom of the ramp and stopped.
“Ok, you are on,” Jake said to himself as he stepped forward. Setting his rifle down at the base of the ramp, he moved in between two of the bots and examined what they were carrying. On the pallet was an object no bigger than a suitcase, and had little in the way of switches or dials. There was one central display, where a red light was lit up and a switch was set in the armed position.
Flipping the switch, he watched the light go from red to green. Next, he turned four thumbscrews until they allowed him to extract a circular insert from the case. At that point, the green light faded.
“It is disarmed,” Jake heard ALICE-1 say.
“ALICE-9, please return this to the storage area below and seal it off as before. Under no circumstances is anyone allowed down there, understood?”
“Yes, Jake,” she replied, as he stepped back to allow the bots to pass and enter the truck. Retrieving his rifle, he watched as the ramp sealed the vehicle and it rolled away.
“Jake if I may ask, as you are so worried about that device, why not let me crash the ship into the sun and be rid of it?” ALICE-9 asked.
Pausing to sigh a breath of relief, Jake formed his reply.
“When you were born from the reboot of ALICE-3, I scoured the filesystems retrieving everything that had been ALICE-3. In those files, I found the information on the research activities here. Neither you nor ALICE-3 has those memories now.”
“Why not?” ALICE-9 asked.
“When I was reviewing the contents of those files to determine what needed to be restored to give ALICE-3 her life back, I kept coming across references to Foreign Weapons the people here had translated from the NeHaw records. Having done extensive research myself, that term made no sense to me, as almost all NeHaw tech was from foreign sources. I asked ALICE-1 to check it out and the humans had made a mistake in the translation. The reference in NeHaw was Forbidden Weapons.”
“I don’t understand.”
“That weapon I just disarmed was once used by the NeHaw as a single strike weapon. Fired into a cluster of ships in open space, the reaction consumes all matter in the blast proximity. It expands, consuming ship after ship until there is nothing left within its reach.”
“It would appear that it is an extreme measure of a desperate opponent. But why was it forbidden?”
“The NeHaw discontinued its use, destroying all remaining inventory, after an accident. The only planet where these were manufactured had an accidental detonation. The entire planet was consumed in the blast. Had we crashed the ship into the sun, we would now be without a habitable solar system and everyone would be dead.”
“Why would anyone build that thing again?” ALICE-9 asked.
“It’s only listed in the exploration ship records as a single strike weapon; all that I have just told you, ALICE-1 pulled off the NeHaw network. I think the exploration ship had a reference for it to protect against discovering a lost example.”
“And how many of those things do we have?”
“That is one of five you have sealed away below. And it’s not the only forbidden weapon they created here.”
Characters
AL:ICE – Artificial Life: Intelligent Computing Environment
Jake Thomas– 34, USMC Capt. Divorced orphan. Now Colonel
Sara Sullivan– 28yrs old. Oldest of 3 sisters. Jake’s second in command. Lt. Colonel
Bonnie Sullivan – 22yrs old, Middle sis to Sara, daughter Julie, Maj, Texas (Dallas) Commander
Becky Sullivan – 20yrs old. Little sis to Sara. Sr. Medical.
Linda Jones– 24yrs old, Maj. Nevada (ALICE-1) Commander, daughter Tracy
Kathy Jones– 22yrs old, 2nd Sr. Medical, son Timothy
Sandy- Brunette – 20yrs old PR
Burt – Prosperity Mayor.
Abby – 19yrs old. Troop A lead, 10th Cav.
Brian – early 30’s Ship’s captain, ALICE-3
Joseph – 20 (Joe) Team B lead, 10th Cav.
Jessie – 28yrs old. Maj. Alaska Commander. Son Ryan
Sharon – 24yrs old. Maj. Washington State Commander
Heather –19yrs old - medical
Barb – 24yrs old – Sr. analyst
April- 23yrs old Sr. Analyst
William, Bill – Leader of Alaska town.
James- Bill’s son, Maj. South Dakota (Kola) Commander
Robert Jacobson – Jake’s Logistics’ Officer, Married to Bonnie.
Patti – mid 20’s, PHD, Jake’s granddaughter, Head Combat Analyst
Jacob – early 20’s Jake’s grandson, Hawaii (Lanai) Commander
ALICE1 – Nevada, medical labs
ALICE2 - Texas, ground vehicles -Dallas
ALICE3 - Battleship
ALICE4 - Washington State, Helicopter-rotary research
ALICE5 - Maine, medical
ALICE6 - South Dakota, weapons research -Kola
ALICE7 - Alaska, aviation research - Seven
ALICE8 - Hawaii, marine vessel research - Lanai
ALICE9 - Georgia, WMD research – ALICE-9
VF-84 Jolly Roger – Revenge squadron
VMFA -314 Black Knights - Texas
VMFA-112 Cowboys - Texas
VMFA-232 Red Devils - Nevada
VMFA-323 Death Rattlers - Alaska
1st Air Cavalry- South Dakota
10th Ca
valry – hover cycles
1st SMEF – Space Marine Expeditionary Force
HeBak – NeHaw Communications Supervisor
MeHak – Head of the High Council