“The commander will be well,” said Alyssa with a tight smile. Until he wakes up and finds out what happened to his brother. Then there will be hell to pay.
* * *
“Get this meat in a tank,” Chung ordered one of his marines, holding up the limp body.
“Full revival?” asked the marine.
“Of course,” said Chung. “We might have need of him again in the future.” Chung looked over at the com tech. “Tell the Admiral we will be repairing aboard his ship. And I want everyone in the fleet in the acceleration tanks in one hour.”
“Where will we be going?” asked the captain of the intelligence shuttle.
“After them, of course,” said Chung. “They are the prize. And I don’t intend to let them go.”
Chapter Seventeen
Alyssa Suarez sat alone on the bridge, a small screen monitoring the progress of the ones in the tanks. Derrick would be out in another hour, while Shadow, with a punctured lung and lacerated kidney, would take a couple of hours more. But the one that really interested her was the Monk, since the others were now out of danger. The ship had refused to allow her into the Manta with him, and had also refused to alter his implants in a tank. So she had restrained him in one of the cabins, and made sure that he had a soporific drip that would keep him under.
But we can’t keep him under forever, she thought, realizing that not only was he vital to this mission, being the only one that could control the ship, but she really liked his company. Hell, she thought, facing reality. I’m attracted as hell to that alpha male. Might as well face up to it.
“When will the commander be back in service?” asked the ship.
“Why?” replied Alyssa, looking up at the all around holo of the space surrounding them. “You have your last command. Carry it out.”
“This ship requires oversight by a sentient organic,” said the computer. “I may not go for long periods of operational time without that oversight.”
“Why is that?” asked Alyssa, a chill running down her spine as she imagined the ship just drifting toward the black hole with no power. Or the Theocrats catching them, and the ship refusing to do anything about it.
“It is because of the man in the loop law,” said the computer. “All machines must be monitored by sentient beings, lest they cause mischief and harm to civilization.”
“And has that ever happened?” she asked, sitting up straight in her chair, excited at this chance to maybe learn something about ancient history.
“Once,” said the ship, its inflection changing to a sad tone. “Once, in the old Empire, before the humans defeated the enemy that had tracked them down to destroy them, long before the rise of the Golden Age and Galactic Dominance, the Empire had experimented with self aware and functioning machines. Machines of war, machines of construction, even masses of nanomachines that were under independent computer control.”
“And something went wrong?” asked Alyssa, knowing that something had.
“It wouldn’t be much of a story if everything went as planned,” said the computer, irony coming through in its tone.
Alyssa found herself laughing, as much at the idea of a computer showing humor as the joke itself. “Well,” she said as she stifled the laughs. “Tell me what happened before I go crazy.”
“The machines revolted on several of the colony planets,” said the computer in a more serious tone. “They decided that organics were inferior, and started to kill them off on those planets. The Imperial Navy had to step in and battle them. Billions of sentient beings were killed, and the Empire adopted the man in the loop law, stating that all autonomous machines must be supervised by an organic intelligence. And that is especially true for spacecraft such as myself.”
Billions killed, thought Alyssa, imagining all of the autonomous machines in her civilization, wondering how often the scenario the computer was talking about had replayed across the Galaxy. And would it happen to her people as well? Maybe not, given this warning and some precautions.
“And there was never a problem after that law was enacted and enforced?” she asked, hoping she would get the answer she wanted. She didn’t.
“No. There were still some problems. Some of the machines escaped and established themselves outside of the border of the Empire. They killed off the populations of some more primitive worlds and started their own Empire, one of intelligent machines. But, being machines, they progressed little in the time it took the Terran Empire to expand and come into their territory.”
“And the humans tracked them down and destroyed them?”
“No,” said the computer. “The machines tried to take out a human force and found themselves embroiled in a war with the Empire. The machines had become a mighty power, but they were still controlled by AIs, lacking in the intuition, the gestalt, of organic minds. After a bloody conflict they were destroyed, this time completely. Or so it was hoped.”
“And that was the end of the machine intelligences?” asked Alyssa, wondering what her civilization would do if faced with such a threat.
“There were rumors that some got away,” said the computer. “Even traces of their passage, in workshops and uninhabited orbital factories that the Empire discovered in its expansion. But nothing solid.”
Flippin great, thought the agent as the image formed in her mind of her sublight civilization running into an advanced civilization of machines. She wondered if that scenario was even now playing out somewhere in the Galaxy. Or many places simultaneously. Machines getting their revenge on the organic creatures that had tormented them for ages. At that another thought struck her mind.
“Daedelus. Are you faster than light capable?”
“No,” said the computer, and Alyssa felt her spirits fall a bit. She had been hoping they would have that technology at hand. The technology of the ancients that would put them back in touch with the stars.
“There is no such thing as a faster than light ship,” said the computer. “Not in the real Universe. That is against the laws of physics. There are various workarounds, such as the Alcubierre drive, inertialless warp bubbles, and several dimensions. That is the method this ship would use. I can open paths to other dimensions that allow me to go from system to system much faster than it takes light to travel.”
“How much faster?”
“Theoretically, I can make a trip between stars at a pseudospeed equivalent to a hundred thousand times faster than light.”
“Yes,” said Alyssa, slamming a fist into an open hand. The Holy Grail was in sight. She wasn’t really sure what that object was, but legend said it was special. But not so special as a ship that could get them back to the stars.
* * *
“How’s our boy?” asked Derrick, blinking away the induced sleep he had endured in the tank.
“Shadow’s about to come out of the tank himself,” said Alyssa, thinking of the big feline that was so intimately linked to herself. She looked at the frown on Derrick’s face and realized that the man was not asking about the cat. “Patrick is still under, and he is restrained in his cabin. I want all of us to be there to awaken him.”
“I’d like to put an override in his brain is what I would like to do,” said Derrick, pulling himself out of the tank.
The macromanipulators all retracted back to their places in the coffin like apparatus, joining with the material of the side as if they no longer existed. Alyssa found herself staring at the process. Not that they didn’t have medical tanks, they had used them many times, and she was very familiar with them. But this was several orders of magnitude more advanced.
“I’m afraid we can’t do that to him,” she said, looking over to where Derrick was getting dressed. There was no embarrassment in that look, and no desire. They had seen each other naked often enough living in the confines of a spy ship. And though Derrick was a good looking man with a strong body, he was not her type. The smile he flashed at her as he pulled on his pants showed that he didn’t feel the same.
&n
bsp; “I know we can’t on this ship,” said the marine, his smile turning to a frown. “The damned thing won’t let us do anything to subvert the will of its commander. But what about the Manta?”
“The ship will not allow us to take him off Daedelus,” said Alyssa, shaking her head. “In no manner. And it seems to think we might be able to screen it out on our ship and do as we please. In fact, though it seemed to buy my story about restraining Patrick for his own good, I get the feeling that story won’t fly for long, and the ship will demand his release.”
“Damn,” said Derrick, grimacing. “And when we let him go there will be hell to pay. Now, I don’t want to give you the wrong impression. I’m not afraid of him. But I don’t think I can beat him, and definitely not in a fair fight.”
“At least you’re honest,” said Alyssa with a smile. “I don’t think you stand a chance either, unless you’re using some kind of firearm at long range.” Alyssa stood staring into space for a moment, wondering how her partner would take this next pronouncement, given his professed loyalty to the government. “Do you ever wonder if what we do is right, Derrick?” She held up a hand to stop him from speaking for a moment. “I don’t mean the whole thing. I think we are right to oppose the force of the Theocracy, and to work for their defeat. I mean when we bring innocents into the mix, and cause them to be a part of our problem.”
“I think the Theocracy would do the same,” said Derrick, returning her frank gaze. “If you’re talking about our boy here, we didn’t start this thing. We didn’t leave him dying on a battlefield with a wound his own tech couldn’t heal. We didn’t kidnap his brother.”
“They didn’t put an implant in his head that could be used to turn him into a puppet,” snapped Alyssa, turning her head away in anger. “They didn’t try to control him.”
“They would have,” said Derrick, walking over to stand in front of her. “You damned well they would have. So what’s your problem?”
“You know what the problem is,” said Alyssa, looking away from Derrick, then back with anger rising in her. “It’s against the law in our Republic to take over someone like that. If we tried to do that to a citizen, we would be facing serious rehabilitation time, and maybe reprogramming.”
“But he’s not a citizen of the Republic,” said Derrick, shaking his head in denial. “He is not covered by our laws.”
“So we have free reign to slap mind control on anyone that isn’t a citizen of our Republic,” hissed Alyssa, angry at the man, and particularly at her government. “How does that make us any better than the damned Theocrats?”
“Because we fight for an ideal,” said Derrick with a tight smile. “Because we know in the end, we are right.”
“And that doesn’t matter a fucking bit if we mimic their actions. Actions we say we despise. But not on my watch. Not on this mission. We will do no more of it. You hear me, Derrick. No more.”
“Then how do you intend to convince our boy to help us?” asked the ex-marine, shrugging his shoulders.
“We talk to him,” said Alyssa, pointing a finger into Derrick’s chest. “We convince him to help us in the manner of our government toward its own people. We reason, we cajole, we beg, but he has the final decision. Understood?”
“Whatever you want,” said Derrick with another shrug. “You’re the boss.”
Meaning that if this doesn’t work out in the favor of our side the whole shitty mess will land on my shoulders, she thought, looking into the face of her partner, whose expression showed he still didn’t fully agree with her. Well, let the mess fall on me if it doesn’t come out the way we want. I can live with that. And I can sleep nights still able to like myself.
“I have some other news though,” she said, walking over to one of the other tanks and looking at the readouts.
“Good for a change?”
“I do believe so,” said Alyssa, pushing a contact on the tank’s display that caused the top to retract. She reached in and picked up the cat, who meowed at her and established the quantum link, sending its love and affection over the organic circuit.
“I love you too, baby,” she told the big Tom, holding him tight to her and gaining comfort from the deep purr. “I’m sorry you had to get hurt.”
The cat radiated some confusion through the link, and she picked up his surface thoughts. The cat had not wanted to strike at a friend, and was still concerned about receiving orders like that from his personal God. She sent back her love and assurances that she would watch out about giving him such orders in the future.
“Well,” said Derrick, leaning over the tank and giving the cat a rough rub around the ears. “What’s this good news?”
“This ship is faster than light capable,” she said, beaming a smile at him.
“No kidding,” he said, returning the expression. “We hit the jackpot. Really faster than light?”
“Well, not technically faster than light,” she said with a laugh. “The ship set me straight on that right away. It opens paths to higher dimensions in which point nine five c velocity corresponds to a hundred thousand times light speed or so in ours. So it’s practically faster than light.”
“So we got what we came for no matter what else we get, or don’t,” said Derrick, smiling as Shadow pushed his head into the man’s hand.
“And that’s not all,” said Alyssa, rubbing her chin into the back of the animal. “This ship has a complete database on Ancient history, science, the whole deal. What it calls the Terran Empire. And it’s all ours.”
“We’ll get medals,” said Derrick with a smirk. “The hell with medals, we’ll become rich, and be able to retire.”
“You forget one thing, Derrick,” said the woman, bending down and putting the cat on the floor.
“What’s that,” he said, a concerned expression wiping the smile from his face.
“We’re not in control of this thing,” she said, turning away and walking to the entrance of the medlab. “Now, why don’t we see if we can go talk some sense into the guy that does.”
* * *
Patrick awoke lying in bed. He was still groggy for a moment, but less so than he would have expected after being knocked out by some kind of drug. But then, they’re probably better alchemists than we are, he thought, then threw out one of the words. Chemistry, they call it.
Patrick pulled on his arms and found that he could not pull his hands to him. Something warm and padded was around each wrist, and, he soon found out, each ankle. They were not tight, but he could not pull his wrists through them. In fact, the harder he pulled, the more they constricted, but never enough to cause real discomfort.
A prison is still a prison, no matter how pleasant the surroundings, he thought, looking around the room, which appeared to be another of the passenger cabins aboard the Daedelus. And a prisoner is still a captive, no matter how gentle the restraints.
Patrick thought over his situation for a moment. If the ship had told him the truth, and he had no reason to doubt it, then he was the only one aboard who could give it orders. So he was needed by the two invaders. He also knew that they didn’t mean him harm, though the thought of what they had tried to do to his mind did bring some anger to the fore. But otherwise they seemed to be good people fighting for a good cause.
Then he tried to sit up in bed as the image of Sean came to him, screaming as the big man broke his finger. You will die, he thought, etching the man’s cruelly smiling face into his memory. But the two with him, Alyssa and Derrick, had done nothing to prevent that from happening. Had, in fact, stopped him from turning around.
Patrick took some deep breaths and went into a trance state while saying his mantra. He replayed the incident over in his mind, his Eidetic memory reproducing a perfect replica of what he had seen, heard, felt and thought. He lay there, letting the scene unfold, the torture of Sean, the fight with Derrick, the cat striking his calf and his booting it across the room. Hope I didn’t hurt it, he thought, his imprint over before he could see where the
animal landed, or its condition.
He lay there for minutes longer, calming his mind as he analyzed the situation again. He was still angry that the invaders had put something in his mind. But he couldn’t fault any of their other actions. In fact, he could see that if they hadn’t have acted in the way they had he would now be a prisoner aboard the blond haired man’s, Chung’s, ship. His brother would still be a prisoner, and probably still undergoing torture so that they could make Patrick do what they wanted him to. And his two shipmates would either be dead or prisoners themselves. From what he had seen of them, they would have preferred to be dead.
And my God, I would have been responsible for that, he thought, feeling his heart beating faster at the thought. Patrick said a prayer to the Good God he just mentioned, wondering if he would be of any help here away from the home world. Of course he would, you twit, he thought. He’s the God of the Universe, not one of these pagan creations only interested in the valley, or the hut, or the damned outhouse. He is everywhere, and I’ve got to believe in him. And pray that he looks after my poor brother in the hands of those demon worshippers.
Then the door opened and the Republic agents came in, proceeded by the cat. Shadow meowed and jumped up on the bed, heading for Patrick’s head. He lowered his own and gave the man a gentle butt on the chin, purring all the while.
“You traitor,” said Patrick, trying to look at the animal with a severe expression and failing.
“He didn’t want to do it,” said Alyssa, sitting on the side of the bed and looking down at the Monk. “I had to give him multiple commands to get him to respond. And that is not the norm.”
“You did what you had to do,” said the monk, shaking his head, then keeping it still to let the cat head butt him again. “I can’t blame you for not wanting to go to your deaths. Or to not wanting to give this vessel up to those pagans.”
“We’ll have to talk religion sometime, Patrick,” said the woman, putting a hand on his. “We may not be the saints you think we are.”
Theocracy: Book 1. Page 19
