by CJ Williams
So! That explained the extra time to prepare. Carrie sent a silent thank you across the stars. She had been wondering if Luke had gotten her message or had just seen the invading force and attacked. It didn’t matter now. Knowing he was alive was a huge relief.
But she kept those thoughts in the back of her mind. While Samia bragged Carrie kept probing, searching for any bit of intel that might help; she wanted to know what Samia was thinking. Too bad Gimi wasn’t here.
Carrie knew there was a second Bakkui battle group and Samia would know exactly where it would attack from. But Carrie’s clumsy probes for information was primarily to distract Samia from an ulterior objective.
Sadie, Carrie sent. I need the key to your back door.
Highness! Samia’s mental voice registered deep surprise at the request. That key is only for the Sovereign. I must inquire how you even know of its existence.
“NOW!” Carrie shouted aloud, her angry voice startling those on the bridge. “Or there won’t be a Sovereign!”
A complex sequence of digits appeared in Carrie’s mind.
It was a failsafe built into the core of all AI kernels. The founders of the First Family were philanthropists of the highest order, but they were not fools. You never knew when you might want to pull the plug on an artificial intelligence that was smarter than any human could ever be.
Gimi had taught her about the hack. It could be carried out single-handedly, but only by a sufficiently competent technologist. But at the end of Carrie’s training, Gimi had lamented that Carrie’s skills were barely adequate for even basic AI management.
Carrie knew the maneuver was far beyond her capability. To have any chance it would require two simultaneous thrusts. One from a level-one human to provide authorization, the other from a level-one AI to execute the task.
“You’ll have to help me, Sadie. On the count of three. One…”
A moment please, Highness. This is unprecedented for one so young.
The hack would erase a single line of code. As Gimi had emphasized to Carrie many times during her stay at the academy, even level-one AIs were still computers.
“Two…”
“Highness!” Sadie’s voice came over Fergie’s speakers. “This is highly irregular.”
Computers have two parts, hardware and software. Of the two, software is the most vulnerable. The central processing unit does the thinking and the brain resides in the kernel. One key task of the kernel is to manage memory allocation.
“Three!”
In one quick thrust, Carrie sent the authorization sequence into Samia’s core. The Bakkui AI spotted the sudden vulnerability and scrambled frantically to apply a patch.
But Sadie had invisibly followed Carrie in. Navigating through millions of branching instructions, Sadie found the single line of code that Carrie had targeted and replaced it with random digits. It was just a tiny change in an indescribably complex software package, but it removed Samia’s ability to track address locations for her own lightning-fast memory management. The result was a cascade failure of Samia’s AI intelligence that could not be stopped. Every instruction processed by her CPU turned more of her brain into gibberish.
Samia tried to strike back against Carrie’s mind. “This works both wayyyzzzss—” It was already too late to retaliate.
Carrie leaned against the window and grasped the handrail to hold herself upright. The brief encounter left her breathless.
She gasped at Moore, “Sadie just killed their level-one AI. It won’t stop the Bakkui fleet, but it took out their coordination.”
Moore moved next to Carrie. “What do you mean?”
Carrie answered by sending a royal command override to the entire fleet. Retreat! she ordered. Reform at Mars Orbit for a last stand!
In an instant the entire Alliance fleet turned tail and accelerated away from their enemy.
“Highness!” Moore exclaimed. “What are you doing?”
Samia’s voice cut in; it sounded scratchy over the speakers. “Attack…limits…inst…now.”
“Put me through to Jupiter Command,” Carrie said. She looked at Moore. “Hang on. This is important.”
“Jupiter Command online,” the communications officer said. “They want an explanation.”
“In a moment,” Carrie exclaimed, her face dark with concentration. Carrie established a mental link directly with Jupiter Command’s senior AI. “Unleash the Rabbits! Now!”
“Acknowledged,” the deep AI voice responded.
The squadron leader intervened again. “Your Highness. Please explain what you are doing. Our military commanders need to know what you’re doing. The battle is ongoing!”
Carrie reined herself in. The squadron leader was correct. She needed to slow down for a moment and bring the fleet commanders into the loop. She took several deep breaths and stood for a moment trying to collect her thoughts. Then she faced the squadron leader.
“We should have called them dragons or something,” she said.
“Pardon?”
“Think about it. How ridiculous did that sound? Unleash the Rabbits? How is that going to look in the history books?”
“I… I don’t quite…”
Carrie put the irrational thought out of her mind. It wasn’t helping the explanation of her strategy. “Riley Stevens told me about the Rabbit system. Self-replicating guided missile systems. Very complex, highly sophisticated. One strike, one kill. You know about that, right?”
“Of course, Highness.”
Carrie nodded at the tactical display. “Look at the numbers.” The count of enemy warships was still over a hundred thousand, but it had started counting down rapidly. Carrie continued. “You heard Samia talk about Luke’s delaying tactics?”
“Yes?”
“That means he got my message.”
“Message?”
The squadron leader had no idea what she was driving at and she knew she wasn’t explaining it well.
Carrie tried again. “Think about it. Luke’s force was miniscule in comparison to the Bakkui. There was no way he could inflict any real damage on a fleet that size, right? But that wasn’t his goal. He was trying to give me time so we could prepare.”
“He only bought us a day or two,” Moore pointed out.
“It’s all we needed. What I’m saying is this isn’t the first time he and I have installed a self-replicating system. Our communication array was very similar. That’s the beauty of multiplication by two. Four days ago we had about eight thousand Rabbit systems. But we’ve been multiplying that by two, every twelve hours. Fergie? How many Rabbits did we have a moment ago?”
“Just over two million.”
“Think about it,” Carrie said. “Riley said the best-case scenario was to get the entire Bakkui fleet to fly into the asteroid belt all at once, in a long, wide front. He said it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. When I saw that we could take out Samia, it was too good an opportunity to miss. We took out their general. You see, an individual Bakkui warship on its own only knows how to attack straight ahead.” Carrie nodded at the tactical display again. “Look!”
The asteroids composing the belt were not shown on the screen but the mass of yellow icons stretched from one side of the display to the other. While they watched, the number in the upper right of the viewscreen counted down to below fifty thousand.
Carrie pointed at the count. “They still had a hundred thousand warships when you asked for an explanation and they’re already down by half. This battle will be over in a few minutes. But we need to stay on our toes.”
Carrie examined the display again. The red smudge grew as she watched. “In a system with this many gas giants, the Bakkui always keep a reserve force. They use it when they get surprised. Even without Samia in the lead, I bet they will launch their reserve against us.”
“Nothing showing,” the reconnaissance officer said.
“Look high and low,” Carrie urged.
Fergie spoke up. “Jupiter com
mand has contact.”
A deep voice came from the overhead speakers. “Popup. Bullseye 080 high at point five AUs.”
Fergie spoke again. “Location on screen. To our right, seventy degrees off axis, from above.”
The tactical display zoomed out, showing more of the planetary orbits. Seventy degrees clockwise from their location, yellow diamonds began appearing as Bakkui warships decelerated below light speed. They had swooped way around to the side of the solar system to launch their final attack. There were no defenders between their warships and Earth.
“All ships move to intercept!” Carrie shouted. “Leave ten percent of our force here.”
Even to Carrie, an intercept attempt looked futile. There was no way they could reach the attackers before they fired on Earth.
The Sarah Ferguson swung about and the stars in front turned blue as she accelerated to FTL. The tactical display could not keep up with the changes in relative positions.
Moments later Fergie decelerated from light speed.
Carrie gripped the grab rail in front of the window. The updated display showed the Bakkui within firing range of earth. As the thought entered her mind flares began appearing in orbit around the planet.
“Our orbital shields are holding,” the squadron leader said.
“But they won’t stop warships,” Carrie replied. “Not when they slow down to push through force fields. Then they can fire at point blank range.”
Fergie’s voice spoke. “We can engage in thirty seconds at maximum range.”
It would be too late. Half the planet would be gone.
Two seconds later the yellow icons closest to Earth began turning red.
“What’s that?” The squadron leader gasped. “Who’s doing that?”
Carrie’s face broke out in a smile. Before she could speak a new voice came across Fergie’s speakers.
“Alliance One engaging from above. We could use some help.”
“It’s the Warlord,” Carrie shouted. “I knew he was here! He had to be!”
Fergie’s voice cut into the mix. “Firing now.”
The three fleets came together into a swirling mass of twisting and turning engagements. Outside the bridge’s front window, the view was like that of a high-speed roller coaster. Earth would swing across their sight, followed by glimpses of the sun or the moon and then the blackness of space, every second punctuated by the brilliant flares of nuclear fire.
Carrie was horrified to see bright flashes on the planet below. During one quick rotation of battle she identified the landmass.
“It had to be China,” she muttered in disgust. “We’ll never find peace with them now.”
She flinched away from the window when Fergie’s sharp force fields slammed into one of the Bakkui warships. Even as the extended field sliced the warship in half, an alliance projectile struck one of the halves with a nuclear yield. Fergie shook violently from the explosion but held together.
“Sorry,” an unknown voice said through the speakers.
Fratricide worked both ways, Carrie thought.
And then it was over.
“Engagement terminated,” Fergie said. “Battle damage uncertain…computing.”
“Commander Blackburn,” Carrie said. “Are you there?”
“Carrie! Is that you? Welcome back! I got your message. Good job!”
Carrie sagged under the grab rail. Thank God he had shown up. “Fergie, show me the planet,” she said.
The ship rotated around so the bridge faced Earth below. It could have been worse. She counted three mushroom clouds, boiling into the atmosphere, flame still churning from within each one. Two had hit China, another in the north Pacific. The impacts had been devastating and the loss of life terrible. The subsurface detonations had probably caused worldwide tremors, but the planet itself had survived.
“Carrie, this is Annie.” The familiar voice was like a comforting blanket. “We’re going to land on the Gateway. Can you meet us there?”
“Of course,” Carrie replied. “Fergie, take us to the Isaac Newton Gateway.”
“Course set, Your Highness,” Fergie replied.
Carrie faced Moore. “Squadron Leader,” she said meekly. “I absolutely promise that this time you have command. I’m taking my children to our stateroom. If someone could please tell me which one I am assigned to.”
Moore’s face was devoid of all emotion except curiosity. “Of course, Highness. The First officer will show you to our VIP suite at once.”
“Aye, sir,” the first officer responded.
“But Highness,” Moore said. “If I may?”
“What is it, Squadron Leader?”
“I don’t understand. You knew exactly how the battle would unfold. Your input would have been invaluable to our planning. Why did you not attend our strategy sessions?”
“I didn’t know about them,” Carrie said. “Roth…I mean Doctor Higgins…tried to keep me out of all that because he was worried about me. I’m too fragile.”
“Fragile!” Moore sputtered incredulously. “The man is a fool! I rather assumed you ate razor blades for breakfast.”
Carrie chuckled sadly and shook her head. “No, Squadron Leader. He’s absolutely correct. I’m not cut out for this. You can trust me on that. Come on, kids.” Carrie took Eolin from Amanda and waved at Ttal. “Who’s up for SpongeBob?”
Squadron Leader Moore watched in astonishment as the royal family departed his bridge. Only as an afterthought did he bow low in her direction, a gesture that was instantly repeated by the entire bridge crew.
*.*.*.*
The reunion on Gateway’s tarmac was a combination of joyfulness and sorrow. By the time they landed the various AIs determined that in the battle, fifty-two Alliance warships had been lost, along with twice that many fighters. Gil Jarmain, one of the British exchange officers that had escorted Carrie to her yacht, was among those lost.
Of the two surface impacts in China, one had been in a sparsely populated western province, but the other projectile had struck the beautiful city of Chongqing, wiping it off the face of the Earth. Over ten million people had been lost. The resulting ground tremors breached the Three Gorges Dam, resulting in more deaths all along the Yangtze River. Tsunami warnings had been issued for the water strike.
The sadness from the losses was partially offset by seeing Luke and Annie. Carrie grabbed Luke fiercely and wouldn’t let go until he complained he couldn’t breathe. She transferred her hug to Annie and the two women laughed and cried together. Carrie thought the couple looked haggard, as did all the crews.
After gathering her children, Carrie stopped for a brief meeting with Luke, Annie, and Jared McGee. McGee said his own fleet would maintain a system defense. Luke and company should take some time off.
*.*.*.*
The following morning, Carrie met with Luke and Annie in their quarters so they could catch up.
“I got your message,” Luke reiterated. “Your report was thorough and the timing was perfect. Your NORRAD system had just started indicating large ship movements across the Bakkui front. Since you said you were headed straight for Earth, we thought our best option was to slow them down. We’ve been harassing their flanks ever since.”
For the next three days the Warlord was swamped with the urgent decisions for restructuring Alliance military forces. Reconnaissance showed no signs of further attacks but every blip had to be investigated. Although most of the questions came to the Commander, he pushed everything related to Earth’s solar system to Admiral McGee.
Military concerns weren’t the only inquiries. The media was relentless. Everyone wanted a few minutes with the Warlord or the Reluctant Princess. Carrie and Luke both avoided interviews until Roth and Amanda intervened. People had a right to know, they insisted, and it was good for recruiting.
Carrie didn’t care; she wasn’t interested in public relations anymore. More importantly, she knew the threat wasn’t over. She finally cornered Luke and Annie after a meal wi
th visiting dignitaries.
“You two can’t stay here,” Carrie told Luke. “You need to go to Japurnam Five and register your vote. King Kkoli might be dead, but from what I hear, his son is twice as bad and a lot smarter. If he winds up taking away the First Family’s authority over AIs it’s going to be bad for the entire galaxy. You should link up with Gimi too. She’s on Ebene Three.”
Luke didn’t argue. He agreed with her concerns about the Nobility and promised that when he left Earth, he would go straight to see Gimi and work with her to resolve whatever outstanding issues there were. As proof, he assigned Zach, Carrie’s erstwhile number two, to return to Bradley’s Planet and set up a permanent border patrol. No one believed the Bakkui threat was well and truly over.
Luke listened patiently until Carrie gave him every bit of warning and advice she could think of. Toward the end, Carrie realized he was just letting her vent.
“Never mind,” she said. “You’ll figure it out and do what you think best, anyway.”
Annie agreed. “That’s what he always does.”
Once everything was on the table, Luke said he was still going to take a week or two for vacation. He wanted to see some old friends and maybe do some surfing with Annie in the South Pacific.
Carrie admired the man for having such an aura of calm and being smart enough to carve out time for Annie. It had to be difficult to be the galaxy’s Warlord. He still scoffed at the title but it stuck to him like glue anyway. Just the way Princess was now appended to Carrie’s name everywhere she went.
Once Luke and Annie left with their surfboards, Carrie decided to visit her own family. When she first saw Booker she burst out laughing and enveloped him in a bear hug, kissing his cheek at least a dozen times. It freaked him out but a bark from his mother forced him to bear it stoically.
She proudly introduced her own adopted children. Rubie and Ttal hit it off. They took Eolin in tow and retreated to Rubie’s bedroom. Rubie insisted on showing them her new expansion pack of Cards Against Humanity. Carrie had never heard of the game and wasn’t sure how to react when they explained the concept, but the subsequent peals of childish laughter from Rubie’s room spoke for itself.
