Jon stared openmouthed at Walleye as his heart began to beat faster. With a twist of his head, he peered at the stellar chart. Jon rose swiftly and advanced upon the screen.
“Is there a problem?” Gloria asked.
Jon went up to the screen. With his right index finger, he traced out the seven factory planet systems. He faced the conference table.
“Do you notice anything?” Jon asked them.
No one answered.
Jon grinned, stepping to the side and pointing to the map. “Notice the location of Sigma Draconis and especially 70 Ophiuchi. They’re on the far side of Sol from us. If we hit these factory systems first, going from here, to here, to here, and then went to the Solar System to gather more crews, and then struck here and here and here…”
Jon laughed, with his eyes shining. “The AIs are concentrated to the far left, as it were, way out there. We can possibly gather a fleet, man it, and strike the main AI Fleet at 70 Ophiuchi before they ever got word that the various factory systems had fallen. Maybe we could strike 70 Ophiuchi with…I don’t know, twenty cyberships, if we were lucky, even as many as thirty. Thirty extra cyberships showing up to help the aliens might buy…biological life-forms some breathing space in our region.”
“With factory planets churning night and day,” Walleye said, “breathing space could soon mean one hundred cyberships for humanity.”
“A plan,” Jon said resolutely. “We finally have a plan, a strategy. We’ve been spinning our wheels for weeks wondering what to do next. Now—”
“I hate to be a worry wart,” Gloria said, interrupting. “But much of the strategy rests on the Cog Primus deception. I’m not sure Richard, or anyone else, for that matter, can pull off such a trick against an AI.”
“What do you say to that, Mentalist?” Jon asked. “Do you really think you can you do this?”
Richard’s eyes shined strangely for just a moment, and what seemed like an evil grin slid into place. That instant passed as he nodded.
“I can do it, Captain,” Richard said. “In fact, I guarantee it.”
“Confidence is good,” Gloria said. “But—”
“A moment,” Jon said, interrupting her. “Maybe Richard’s plan has…flaws. The basic premise is right, though. We have an anti-AI virus. We’ve used it several times already to help us beat the AIs. One way or another, we have to keep using our ace card. Hitting lone AI-occupied planetary systems to build a human cybership-fleet sounds like the best possible use for the virus. If the Cog Primus delivery system fails, we’ll use something like it.”
Jon’s grin became infectious. “This is exactly what I’ve been hoping for. We have a strategy to defeat the AIs.”
“In our local region of space,” Gloria said.
“True,” Jon said. “But we have to start somewhere. Unless you can give me a better plan…this is going to be our operating strategy. Are there any other objections?”
Gloria seemed as if she was going to say more, but finally shook her head.
Mentalist Torres seemed inordinately pleased with himself as he began to tap data into his tablet.
Jon figured the mentalist had a right to be upbeat. This was fantastic. A plan. He had a plan to beat the AIs. He’d yearned to destroy the great AI menace for years already. They had finally gone on the attack and won the Allamu Battle Station. Now, they would try to attack a main AI Battle Fleet. First, they had to figure out how exactly to build a human fleet big enough to do the job.
-7-
The euphoria of the captured station data and new strategic plan lasted for several days. People worked harder as morale improved and Jon found himself smiling more and more often.
On the fourth day after the meeting, as he practiced at a gunnery range, Jon lowered his weapon and cocked his head.
He was wearing earmuffs as he stood in a large firing range aboard the Nathan Graham. Jon pressed a switch, and the empty magazine ejected from the gun. He collected the magazine, put in a new one and paused before resuming shooting.
A nagging doubt had sprouted, and he wasn’t sure where it had come from. Holstering the gun, he backed out of the shooting area without checking his latest score. He moved through the hatch, deposited the earmuffs onto a wall holder and left the shooting region.
Soon, he was walking along a huge corridor, one of the main thoroughfares of the cybership. Even after all this time, he wasn’t totally used to the vast size of the vessel. A one-hundred-kilometer spacecraft was huge, especially as each cybership was woefully understaffed.
They had started out with three cyberships, and even then hadn’t had enough people onboard. Now, they had four mighty warships, and with smaller crew complements for each vessel.
They needed to return to the Solar System to recruit more people. With three more cyberships underway in the robo-factories—
No! That wasn’t what nagged at Jon. The data about the AI-conquered star systems…what didn’t match about it?
Jon stopped and snapped his fingers. How long did it take to build a factory planet and build a 500-kilometer battle station to protect it? Why had the AIs left the Solar System alone for so long, while conquering everything around it? That didn’t ring true. The resisting aliens were closer to the galactic core than the Solar System was. Did it make strategic sense for the AIs to have gone around the alien empire to conquer such a large area?
After a time, Jon shrugged. He really didn’t know that much about AI procedures or their greater Dominion. Maybe he was missing something that would make what happened seem more plausible. And yet…Jon had a nagging doubt.
Every time before, the defeated AI on a pirated cybership had deleted all the stellar data before it had perished. Why had it been different aboard the battle station?
Jon mentally focused on the question as he increased his pace. Twenty-three minutes later, he found Gloria practicing her meditations in an empty chamber painted stark white.
He didn’t like it in here for that reason. She said the whiteness helped to focus her mental energies.
Jon waited near the hatch. Gloria moved through various stretches, holding each position, and then sliding into another stretch. She wore a tight gym garment that hugged her petite form. Jon smiled as he watched, drinking in her loveliness.
During one of her stretches, Gloria happened to notice him. She sat up abruptly. “Jon,” she complained.
He arched his eyebrows.
“I’m a mentalist,” she said, climbing to her feet.
“Yes?” he said.
“This time is important to me. I use it to concentrate my thoughts and settle my mind.”
“That’s why I was waiting,” he said.
“You weren’t just waiting, you were…” She blushed suddenly.
Jon grinned hugely. The blush was beautiful. He laughed with delight.
Gloria became cross, moving swiftly across the chamber to strike him on the shoulder. “You kept looking at my rear,” she complained.
“That’s not how you say it,” he told her. “I was checking out your butt.”
She struck him again. “Don’t say it like that. It’s vulgar.”
“How should I say it?”
“You shouldn’t look at me like that. It’s…discourteous.”
“On the contrary, it means I find you attractive, delightfully so.”
“Your gaze was lustful.”
“Yes,” Jon said, grinning. “It was that, too.”
She tried to hit him again. Jon caught her wrist, and an urge filled him. He pulled Gloria to him and kissed her on the lips.
For a moment, she lingered. Then, she pulled away. “No, not like this,” she said. “I will not indulge—”
Jon had kept hold of her wrist. He pulled her back in and kissed her again. “You’re beautiful,” he whispered.
“Stop,” she said quietly, gently pulling away. “I came here to clear my mind. Now, you’ve flooded it with earthly emotions. I admit to enjoying the feelings, but I
feel as if I’ve missed something critical and—”
“Oh,” he said. “That’s interesting. I have a similar feeling.”
“Tell me about it.”
Jon explained about his doubts. How long did it take the AIs to build a factory planet? Why had they left the Solar System alone for so long?
“Interesting,” Gloria said after he’d finished. “As I consider the various ramifications to your questions…I begin to doubt the reasonableness of the stellar map.”
“You said several days ago that you distrust Richard. Could he have faked the data?”
“Why would Richard do that?”
Jon shook his head. “I’m not interested in why right now. Could he have faked it?”
“Not easily,” Gloria said. “Perhaps we should have him show us how he found the data. If we cross-examine him sharply enough, we should be able to pierce any falsehoods, if they exist.”
“Good idea,” Jon said. “Let’s find him.”
-8-
Jon and Gloria found Richard in the main battle-station computer chamber with several mentalists and technicians assisting him.
The skinny mentalist looked up at them with seeming delight. The man seemed thinner than before, which was odd. The mentalist was already a slight fellow. The thinness was most noticeable in his gaunt cheeks. There also seemed to be an odd light in his eyes.
“Richard,” Gloria said, with concern, “are you feeling well?”
“Perfectly,” the mentalist said.
“Are you eating enough?” Gloria asked.
Richard glanced at his team before chuckling ruefully. “Why does everyone worry about how much I eat?”
“You look thinner than before,” Jon said.
“I’m fine,” Richard said. He moved away from the consoles were everyone worked, beckoning Jon and Gloria to follow him. The mentalist leaned near Jon as they walked together. “I have to admit,” Richard said quietly, “I’m worried most of the time. That worry causes me to work harder than normal. Perhaps I’ve skipped a meal or two. I’m making a mental note of that right now and will begin consuming more food.”
Jon nodded. There was a definite brightness to the mentalist’s eyes, and he seemed to possess an almost manic energy. Richard did strike him as a driven individual. That was good, though. That’s probably why Richard had produced the breakthrough and not someone else.
“Oh, oh,” Richard said, with a smile. “You two are worried about something else regarding me. Please, tell me what it is.”
Gloria glanced at Jon.
The captain nodded.
“Richard,” Gloria said, touching his left bicep. “Your analysis the other day concerning the stellar map was fascinating. The captain has been proceeding with his strategic calculus. He has…a few doubts, I suppose is the best way to say it. He would like a rundown on your discovery process.”
Richard halted, bent his head in thought and then abruptly raised it. “If you’ll come this way,” he said, moving toward a far console.
For the next two hours, Richard took them through a long and detailed recollection of how he’d uncovered the stellar data.
“It’s clear, then, that Cog Primus destroyed the main station data as the other Intelligences did previously on the captured cyberships,” Gloria said in summary. “But Cog Primus overlooked the parts route between planetary factories. You made some unusual deductive guesses that led you to the other bits and pieces stored in other computer areas. The combination of data led you to the greater stellar map.”
“Are you slyly suggesting that I fabricated some of the data?” Richard asked.
Gloria fell silent, looking down at her hands.
Richard turned to Jon.
“At first, the thought crossed my mind,” Jon admitted. “Listening to you these past two hours…I no longer believe you doctored what you showed us.”
“But…?” Richard said. “By your manner and tone, there is a but.”
“Yes, there is a but,” Jon agreed. “You haven’t doctored the data, but I wonder if someone else has.”
“Who else?” Richard asked.
“Cog Primus, for one,” Jon said.
“The backup?” Richard asked.
“No, the original,” Jon said. “The AIs have been relentless in destroying any stellar data aboard the cyberships just before capture. Why would Cog Primus have deviated from that on the battle station?”
“He didn’t deviate,” Richard said. “Remember, he’d only recently conquered the battle station. He must have overlooked the other, lesser computers—”
“No,” Jon said, interrupting. “I don’t believe that. All the AI cores have been relentless and thorough in everything.”
“So, you think the AI…what? Put false data into various places for one of us to find?”
“Why is that so hard to fathom?” Jon asked. “We did that in the gangs. Why, I remember the time—”
Gloria cleared her throat.
“I won’t go into specifics,” Jon said, glancing at Gloria. “But leaving false data for others to find is an old trick. Why would the AIs forgo such a tactic?”
“I think for a key reason,” Richard said. “The AIs are arrogant by nature. They don’t find it reasonable that biological creatures could outperform them.”
“Maybe,” Jon said.
“You’re a paranoid individual, Captain,” Richard said. “Maybe that’s helped you in the past. But don’t let it cause you to reject a gift from the gods. We must use the data.”
Jon frowned, turning to Gloria. “As a mentalist, do you think it’s impossible for the AIs to have left false evidence?”
Gloria closed her eyes, her lips twitching every now and then. In time, she opened her eyes. “There is an eight point three percent possibility that Cog Primus left false data in the places Richard referred to. The much greater possibility is that Cog Primus could not conceive of the idea of losing to us. Yet, even if he could have perceived defeat, it would have been unlikely that he would have aided the Dominion. From what we’ve uncovered so far, Cog Primus considered himself an enemy of the AI Dominion.”
“I cannot concur with your conclusion,” Richard said. “I give it an eleven point two percent probability that we found doctored information.”
“That amounts to almost the same percentage,” Jon said.
“To a non-mentalist, perhaps,” Richard said sharply. “However, it is a great disparity in possibilities to rigorous thinkers such as Gloria and me.”
“I suppose,” Jon murmured, scratching his cheek. “How can we make certain that we have…the correct data?”
“In the most obvious of ways,” Richard said. “We would have to go to a star system and check it.”
“And if we’re wrong about the star system…?” Jon asked.
“That could be a problem,” Richard admitted.
The three of them fell silent.
“I have a solution,” Richard said.
Jon nodded.
“We should wait until we have the three new cyberships and then go to the Solar System. Once there, we should pack the ships with personnel. Afterward, armed with the strongest strike force possible, we could go to an enemy star system. If we had false data and found a powerful AI force, we would have the best chance of fighting our way free of any traps.”
“Makes sense to me,” Jon said.
Gloria stared at Richard, finally asking, “Is that what this is all about?”
Richard raised an eyebrow.
“You want to return to the Solar System?” she asked.
Richard laughed. “How did you arrive at that conclusion?”
Before Gloria could answer, an emergency klaxon begun to blare.
Jon marched to a wall speaker, clicking a button to contact the station bridge crew.
“Sir,” Uther Kling said. “We’ve just spotted two cyberships. They’re at the edge of the system. They’ve just dropped out of hyperspace.”
“We’re on
our way,” Jon said.
-9-
Jon, Richard and Gloria hurried to the battle station’s control room deep inside the mighty structure. The station not only possessed greater firepower than a regular cybership, but also had stronger and more far-ranging sensors.
That was critical for finding any sort of spacecraft dropping out of hyperspace. The two strange cyberships had dropped into regular space a distant 53 AUs away from the battle station.
One AU was the approximate distance from the Solar System’s Sun to Earth, 150 million kilometers. Light from the Sun took an average of 500 seconds to travel one AU. That was 8 minutes, 20 seconds. That meant the station’s passive sensors had spotted two objects the distance light traveled in 26,500 seconds or 7.36 hours. That was almost 8 billion kilometers away.
At the Kuiper Belt distance, a one-hundred-kilometer cybership was incredibly difficult to spot.
“The rearward vessel is spewing hot radiation,” Kling reported. “That’s why we found the ships so easily. According to this—” the former missile chief indicated his sensor board— “shuttles and lifeboats are pouring from the stricken vessel and rushing to the forward cybership.”
Jon gave Kling a questioning look.
“I can’t tell who or what is in the lifeboats,” Kling said. “My guess is that they’re people.”
“Benz’s people?” Jon asked.
Kling shrugged. “They haven’t sent a message—”
Kling had been facing Jon, but must have noticed the new symbols appearing on his board. He swung toward them, tapping his console as he analyzed the images.
“More spaceships?” Jon asked.
“Yup.”
“Are they cyberships?”
“Affirmative.”
“Are they attacking?”
“If you’ll give me a minute, sir…” Kling said, sitting down.
Jon understood, backing away, glancing at Gloria.
“Do you think the first two are Premier Benz’s ships?” she asked.
“The direction and timing seems right,” Jon said. “Benz could have dropped out of hyperspace at the rogue planet, used the Jupiter-sized object to pivot and sling-shot back toward the Allamu System.”
A.I. Battle Fleet (The A.I. Series Book 5) Page 4
