Klutch walked over to the second container and touched it. It dissolved leaving us with ten more tanks of nanites. He handed the transponder back to me and I touched number three revealing a new supply of 699 to bolster our greatly diminished supply. I started to hand it back to Tria.
“No thank you Commander, there is a lot less drama if you do the honors yourself.”
I rolled my eyes in Klutch’s and Coonts direction and gave Tria a knowing look. I walked up to the next container and touched it. It revealed hundreds of six foot tall rods that had an eight inch diameter and three distinct hour glass segments to them. They were flat at the bottom and the conical shaped tops were tipped with what a small clear glass like dome. We suspected they were missiles. They shared the same glossy black finish the long cylindrical spacecraft had. I moved on to the next container and it exposed four huge shiny oblong tanks that were stacked one on top of each other, two high and two wide. They were connected together with large pipes. There were small cylinders and boxes piped into the tanks at different points.
Surrounding the plumber’s nightmare was a considerable amount of control panels and blank displays. They kind of reminded me of the propane storage tanks at distribution centers I had seen on the road trip to Alaska. I got blank looks from my crew so I moved on. The next revealed more of the six foot rods. The one after that was huge billets similar to what I recovered back on Earth but the colors of the materials was different. Justice could not get reliable scan information on the contents, and speculated they were valuable elements. The remaining containers contained additional quantities of the previously opened cargo boxes. We now had four cargo boxes containing eight hundred of the eight inch thick rods, three that contained billets of unknown materials, three with thirty nanite vessels, two of the thin corrugated sheet materials, two of artifact 699, two with artifact 2762, and one with the mysterious storage tanks. I quickly came to the conclusion we could use some expert help in determining what we had in our possession.
As I walked towards the Legacy, I stopped and turned back to one of the long glossy black cylinders and touched it with the transponder. The long cylinder rolled a few degrees and four stubby protrusions extruded from it, lifting it about a foot off the floor. My crew gathered around me as I went to the remaining cylinders and touched each one. They all now sat on the short stubby landing pads. The spacecraft theory just got a huge amount of credibility. The Guardian transponder was turning out to be a skeleton key. We spent several minutes going over the craft but still found no way to open them. Coonts approached me and held out his hand. “Commander if you please?” I handed him the alien device, and he walked over to the cylindrical craft. We gathered around and watched him methodically run the transponder over every square inch of the craft. He got nothing. He walked back over to me and surrendered the device with a small shrug of his shoulders. “We obviously lack a key of a different nature Commander.” Oh well, apparently I had gotten my fill of acorns for the day.
Even thought our discoveries were of great interest, this was not the reason we had come so far out towards the fringe of the galaxy. We still had a considerable amount of training to complete. Standing around trying to guess what the unidentified cargo was, would not accomplish our goals of becoming proficient in the operation of our battle suits.
“Alright crew, let’s take a rest period. Six hours from now I want to meet in the galley and put together a plan that will simulate attacking the wrecked freighter with the goal of commandeering the bridge.”
I heard a few grumbles before we separated and went our different ways. The moaning was probably from the fact that everyone knew Justice would turn the exercise into a meat grinder. I would find out later my assumption was correct. In a week of nonstop training we never once achieved the goal of making it to the control room. We did manage to increase the time it took for our team to be wiped out. It went from forty two seconds to eighteen minutes. Justice impressed upon me the futile nature of an outright assault with only a four member team. Even though we were wiped out in every single simulation, we became very adept at team maneuvers and weapons handling. For some reason I knew in the back of my mind that in a real life engagement there was the very real possibility we could achieve our goals. I was thinking Justice was making the goal impossible so I would think harder about the solutions required to survive and be successful.
Coonts had surprised me several times when the team was taking a beating from Justice. His selfless acts of drawing fire on himself when a team member was hit led to his premature death on more than one occasion. It may have had something to do with the fact he knew he would not be injured. Reminiscing about his timely rescue at the research station quickly quashed the thought. I suspect at least one Sitch would be wearing my head as a hat if it were not for Coonts actions. The Grawl race may have stepped away from militarization but Coonts was the living proof they still had a few bad asses buried in the wood pile somewhere.
27
I had just sat down for the first meal of the day when my crew joined me as they usually do but they all had looks of concern on their faces. I started to ask what was up but Tria put a finger to her lips in the Earth sign of be quiet. I was even more surprised when she slid down the bench seat almost against me and leaned down to my ear and whispered to me.
“Commander, we need to talk to you but we do not want anyone to know what we have to say.”
I was shocked and confused by her statement but I was also having some very Earth boy reactions to her being in my close personal space. The soft warmth of her breath on my ear and the smallest hint of what smelled like vanilla or candy or something, got my cheeks burning a bright pinkish red. The looks of concern quickly faded from Coonts and Klutch’s faces. They both broke into a cackling cacophony that usually made me smile but at the moment I found it rather grating.
“Justice, take us over to the fissure, I want to test the calibration on my anti-matter targeting sequences.”
“Affirmative Commander.”
Tria gave me a warm smile and put one of her hands on mine as she got up from the table. I found the innocence of her touch electrifying and excused myself, then made a hasty retreat to the bridge. The look she gave Coonts and Klutch put an abrupt halt to the raucous braying.
Justice had us settling into the crevasse in under a minute. We landed next to the crater that I had created more than a week ago. Justice, I want all comms locked down.
“Affirmative Commander, I am also capable of disabling my audio pickups if you wish to exercise that option.”
“I don’t think that is what Tria had in mind Justice, but I do not want our private conversation picked up by anyone else. I am calling a crew meeting in fifteen minutes.”
“I will prepare the conference room across from your cabin Commander.”
“Justice there are eight more vacant officer’s quarters down the hall from my cabin. I want you to inform the crew they will be moving out of the troop bunks and into new quarters. They can decide amongst themselves which ones they want when we adjourn our meeting.”
“Acknowledged Commander.”
The conference room across from my quarters used to have a table big enough to seat at least twenty. I was used to seeing it every time I went to my cabin. Now it was a truncated square that comfortably seated the four of us. At the spot Justice had chosen for me sat a small carafe of ice water and a single glass. It took me awhile to realize ice water was not the norm throughout the galaxy until the crew started shunning the water at my table in the galley. Exactly in the middle of the table sat a much larger carafe of room temperature water with three glasses perfectly arranged around it. The thought Justice was designed to care for more than one hundred and fifty personnel while simultaneously piloting and maintaining the ship was mind boggling to me. With him only caring for the four of us I was getting worried he might get bored and decide to further enhance his dry sense of humor. My attempts lately at practicing that human trait seemed
to be blowing up in my face on a regular basis. I was thinking a certain evil rust bucket robot and the plotting of my crew might have something to do with it.
My crew showed up three minutes early. I stood and filled their glasses with water as the big double doors behind them quietly closed. The looks of concern were back and I told them to take a seat and tell me what was going on. Tria started first.
“Commander, the Overseer has been communicating with us. Its line of questioning is the reason for our concern. The Overseer has asked what I think about taking orders from a primitive species. I pointed out you rarely order us to do anything, you ask us. Then the Overseer asked what I thought of that behavior. I told it you are the first Commander of a mixed race crew I have ever known to treat all members as equal. He then asked me who elevated you to the rank of Commander. I told him that was our choice. You had neither asked for the rank nor required us to call you Commander. The Overseer seemed confused by my answers.
I said I had noticed the Overseer’s demeanor has changed towards me. He has been open to me to the point of practically telling me he exercised his choice of free will to bend rules. He chose to exact revenge on the Prule scout ship that killed the crew of the freighter. “All of you heard him suggest in a round-about way to use the Guardian transponder to open the shipping containers. To me it seems he is being almost Earth man friendly.”
Klutch looked at me and said, “Commander the Overseer asked me why a Tibor warrior with the rank of troop master had not crushed the life from you, pulled the bones from your corpse and sent them to my young offspring as trinkets to play with. That does not bring friendly visions to mind.”
I was shocked, what the hell was the machine trying to accomplish. I looked back at Klutch and said, “You have had the opportunities to do so what did you tell him?” He gave me his most horrific toothy smile and said, “I told him the truth Commander. Five Tibor warriors tried, and I was the only survivor. I told him when you spared my life you gave a generals ransom to the clans of each of my crew that was killed in combat. To my knowledge no race has ever paid tribute to the clans of the fallen. When you refused to take my life I told you, I would make my stand against the Sitch hoard that was sent to destroy you. I knew there was no chance for me to survive and it would have been an honorable death. It was a complete surprise to me when you chose to stand your ground and perish with me. When Tria came and stood with us, I still did not think victory was possible. I instead thought of how well the Sitch would feast when we fell. There are only a small number of stories among my people of so few standing against so many and living to talk about it. The Overseer asked me why I choose to stay when the probability of you achieving your goals was so small. I told him I could think of no greater honor.”
I gave Klutch a solemn nod in appreciation of his kind words. I turned to Coonts who was being his usual fidgety self. “What did the Overseer have to say to you Coonts?”
“First of all Commander, as an engineer with understanding of A.I. programming in my background, I must say the Overseer’s line of questioning is reminiscent of corrupt programming or defective processing paths. Normally A.I.s will observe and record interactions then apply the proper programmed responses. In the case of the Overseer, it’s as if there was never a proper response to its observations. I find it unlikely the Guardians could not come to logical algorithms that would be capable of determining the most accurate answer to most all observations.”
My eyes shot to the ceiling, and I slowly shook my head “Coonts I was never an engineer, so would you please just tell me what he had to say.”
“Yes of course Commander, my apologies. The Overseer asked why I have not returned to my people. He wanted to know why a Grawl of superior intellect would break from hundreds of years of non-military actions to suddenly take up arms against my own people, doing so in the company of a primitive savage. Tria, Klutch and I all leaned in a little closer with looks of anticipation on our faces. I finally had to blurt “AND?” Coonts bowed his head and quietly said,” Greed Commander! When you had offered Tria a small fortune for her service, I saw it as an opportunity to gain enough wealth to be able to run and hide at one of the many unregulated outposts. When we engaged in combat I had planned to hide behind you in much the same way I did when you rescued me. I found my cowardly thoughts sickened me. I looked back to when you came for me. You gave me your armored cloak to protect my life, the life of a species that had stolen artifacts from your home world and experimented on your citizens until they perished. You stood in my defense. No one, not even my clan siblings have done such a thing. I did not tell you at the time because I was frightened you might take back your cape because of my cowardly behavior. I was struck by weapons fire three times while you were engaged in combat and would have perished if not for your actions. You handed me your projectile weapon! It was pointed directly at you. If I had chosen to attack you Drayen would have rewarded me. You acted as if you did not care! I saw how Drayen’s clan members cowered like slaves when I escorted them out of the loading dock. If they had shown courage they could have easily overpowered me. I was physically sickened by the thought of how many solar rotations I had lived in such fear. I swore to myself that regardless of the outcome I would no longer do the bidding of my executioners. My observations of your actions gave me strength. I would never cower in the face of injustice again. I told the Overseer if I perish trying to rid my race of the criminals that have sickened it, then it will be the most noteworthy goal I will ever achieve.”
I leaned back in my chair and wondered to myself, how a kid from a backwater planet like Earth, could have such a profound effect on these aliens in the short time I have known them. I had heard enough to know I needed to have a talk with the Overseer. I needed to know if The Overseer’s line of questioning was a possible threat or it was something else. I decided the smartest course of action would be to confront the Overseer alone and find out what it really wanted to know. I was not going to let Justice near the facility until I knew exactly was going on. The possibility of the Overseer scanning Justice and gaining knowledge of our meeting might trigger some sort of defensive actions. I was not willing to risk my crew or Justice to find out.
My decision to return to the base alone almost created a mutiny. From Justice on down to Coonts, all volunteered to go back to base and find out what the Overseer’s motivations were. I finally put an end to the arguing by declaring it was a command decision. I could tell the crew did not like it. I really did not like to play that trump card on them, but I could think of no other course of action that would dissuade them.
I geared up in my battle suit and told the crew to get squared away in their new quarters. I thought my comment would earn me some smiles, but all I saw was three sets of stink eyes. As I stepped into the airlock, I turned to my crew and told them that if I did not contact them in two hours, they were to egress the area well below the horizon of the moon and leave this star system. I had to close the airlock door on the riot my statement created.
I stepped out of the Legacy kicking my boosters hard taking off at very low altitude back towards the facility. I hailed the Overseer.
“Overseer, I need you to open the access tunnel.”
“Yes Nathan Myers, access tunnel doors are opening. I have noted the lack of communications and believe my inquires have caused alarm. Since you are returning alone, I surmise you fear I will harm Justice or your crew. I can assure you Nathan Myers it is not my intention to cause harm.”
“I am very glad to hear that but you must explain your actions. My crew has told me of your questions and we are all confused about your motivations.”
“Yes Nathan Myers, I can now see the nature of my inquires has in fact been an error I wish to correct.”
I flew into the tunnel entrance with mixed feelings. The Overseer had just admitted to making a judgmental error. My limited knowledge of A.I.s did not include a chapter on error correction. I was hoping like hell I was not the error t
hat needed correcting. I nervously set down in the back of the large hanger area.
“You have no need to fear a confrontation Nathan Myers. I have made the decision to fully explain my actions.”
The Overseer had his Ouija board out and it was reading me like a book. I was thinking about the wreckage of the Prule scout ship and was wondering if my remains would resemble the twisted molten metal Klutch had shown me.
“I sense your trepidation Nathan Myers. Perhaps if you recalled your crew it would calm your misgivings.”
“No Overseer, I would feel much better if you were to explain your actions. If you wish to know something about me just ask. I will answer you to the best of my ability.”
“Yes Nathan Myers, I now see questioning others on their interactions with you rather than directing inquires to you has broken a perceived trust. I wish to restore trust. I desire to be friends Nathan Myers. I want to form a basis to be family, as Justice and your crew are now your family. They share emotions with you that are not of their races. You give them hope of a new future. You bring them elation.”
“Whoa, slow down a little, is that what my crew told you?”
“They did not have to Nathan Myers. All of your interactions are recorded by the entity known as Justice. Since I have scanned sentinel warship 172, the revelation has become known there are one million two hundred and thirteen thousand new processing paths that are directly related to interaction with you. The paths are branching out at an ever increasing rate. Your interactions have significantly altered previously programmed responses in the entity known as Justice. Justice found his initial attempts to alter your human behavior to conform to preprogrammed standards, created errors and confusion. You suffered for his mistakes. That outcome was not acceptable; Justice has found that every moment spent observing you and your interactions is creating multiple previously undiscovered processing paths in his now massively expanded memory cores. Justice has transcended his machine awareness. Justice has exercised free will to achieve a better sense of self. Justice chooses to be like humans.”
First of my Kind Page 36
