“In a few days,” Eliana said more quickly than Matt could. “We will enter Translation shortly, then it’s a three day trip to cross the 1,600 light years to the Kappa Crucis cluster where Morrigan is. We, Matt, I and your own Gatekeeper, will help everyone move down to the planet and we will do our best to make up for possessions you have lost.”
“It’s lives that matter to me,” Rebecca said abruptly, then moved to mother mode as dark-haired Rafael came up from behind and touched her shoulder.
“Dearest, they battle the Anarchate, not us. Let them in. The kids will love to play with Gatekeeper’s three dee animations,” Rafael said, letting Sarah off the hook of pushing the matter that had drawn all of them to the Dominguez household.
Rebecca trailed fingers through her long red curls, still in her Mom mode. A persona that Sarah loved to see and which had always made her wonder about whether being a mother would be a good choice for her. But that required the right lifepartner, and she had not yet been blessed that way. Yet. Maybe at Morrigan . . . .
“Rafael, my dearest, you are always the perfect host,” Rebecca said, her eyes shifting to include two humans and two AIs. “Yes, please come in. The children will be . . . reassured to see you folks are unharmed and to hear that fighting is done with. For now.”
“Thank you, mother of four beautiful children,” Matt said as he followed Eliana, Mata Hari and Gatekeeper into the family room of the roomsuite.
Walking beside her girlfriend, Sarah noticed the half-smile the Vigilante’s comment brought to Rebecca’s face. But her friend was not about to depart from her tough woman persona. She led the way up to two boys and two girls ranging in age from four to twelve.
“Eliana and Senor Dragoneaux,” Rebecca said as she moved sideways to hold hands with Rafael, “these youngsters are Crystal, Jesus, Joaquin and Anabelle, our oldest. Children, the ship’s Vigilante protector was worried about you and came to see if you four were alright. Are you?”
Sarah moved over to the couch with Gatekeeper floating next to her. Its status lights twinkled like an archaic Christmas tree. From the time when Earth had trees to spare for annual celebrations. She watched as the nearly solid image of Mata Hari acted as ‘real’ as a normal organic person. Strange how the AI had been growing and acting more ‘solid’ in the two weeks they had been onboard this gigantic starship.
Red-haired Crystal was a highly daring four year-old. “Hello Mr. Dragoneaux the Vigilante. How strong are you without that wolfish combat suit of yours?”
Matt grinned. A natural real human-looking grin. It was the first time that Sarah had seen the obsessed man act other than driven. “Strong enough to lift you up to touch the room ceiling!”
“Will you? Oh, please will you lift me high!” Crystal said, her eyes darting to Rebecca in a pleading look.
“Not now, dear daring daughter,” Rebecca said, smothering a chuckle. Maybe when we leave here for the new colony planet.”
“I’m just fine!” crowed Jesus, who at six years old was stout as his father and had the curly black hair of both Rafael and Matthew.
Eliana grinned now. “Fine enough to beat your sister at a game of LifePlay?” she asked. “Thought I saw your sister beating you at that game two days ago, in the commissary.”
Jesus frowned. “But . . . but she was helped by that robot, Gatekeeper,” he said indignantly.
Rafael waved a strong brown hand at his youngest son. “Enough from you. Let Joaquin speak now.”
“I miss school,” the nine year-old said as he stood at attention, his hands held behind him as if he were being inspected by an Anarchate Guardian. “Will there be living teachers at our new home? More than just . . . nice bots like Gatekeeper?”
Sarah smiled at the grown-up diplomacy manner of Joaquin, who she knew took after his mother’s ability to charm a crowd.
Rebecca gestured to her oldest child, brown-haired Anabelle, who stood tall, slim and serious in her summer frock that was decorated with spring flowers. Sarah recalled the hours Rebecca had spent sewing the flowers into the frock, following an ancient pattern that dated from before Earth’s contact with the Anarchate. It was a talent she’d enjoyed learning from Rebecca and Suzanne, another student of thread and needle.
“My Anabelle is sometimes too solemn. But she was reassuring her three siblings even before Rafael and I entered their room,” Rebecca said, a tone of satisfaction in her soprano voice. “Anabelle, please meet Senor Dragoneaux and Senorita Eliana.”
Eliana took a step forward and shook hands with Anabelle. Matt, however, held back. Sarah looked closely at him. Were those tears in his eyes?
“Matt?” Eliana said softly as Anabelle awaited his response to her mother’s introduction.
Sarah saw the Vigilante’s eyes brighten and the diamond sparkle of what had seemed to be tears disappeared. But she could have sworn—
“Anabelle, I am pleased to meet you. You . . . you remind me of my oldest sister. Charlotte. She looked much like you. And like you, she was very serious about stuff in what she called the ‘real world’,” Matt said, his voice sounding slightly hoarse. “Do you play the Greek board game Tavli?”
“Of course,” said Anabelle, her expression brightening. “All of us kids know the game. Auntie Sarah taught it to us years ago, and now I can beat her every other game. Soon, I will be the Omega champion!”
For the second time since meeting this mysterious Vigilante, Sarah saw a real, honest smile fill his high-cheeked face. “Very good! Perhaps my Eliana will give you a serious challenge. She has taught me the game since we . . . got together, but I am not good at it.”
Eliana, dressed in a green jumpsuit that sported a single yellow rose embroidered on her left shoulder, nodded. “Sure, Anabelle. Give me a call over the intercom or just message me through your room’s comlink. I’d love to play Tavli with someone new.” The Vigilante’s lifepartner looked at Sarah. “And the invitation extends to you, Leader Sarah. Perhaps you know some moves from our game’s backgammon successor that will be fun to use?”
Sarah looked aside at the increased twinkling of the status lights on Gatekeeper. The AI could speak quite well and naturally, but it had remained silent even though she had noticed the Mata Hari holo image looking her way a few times. She appreciated the quietness of the two AIs as this involved human emotions like fear, anger and worry for one’s children. And no matter how self-aware these two AIs were, they could not know what it felt like to worry for one’s children. Sarah barely understood from her years with manager friends who shared the lives of their children with her. As Rafael and Rebecca had done ever since arriving at Omega. She smiled, moving to her confidence mode.
“Well, I see that matters have calmed down here,” she said, looking to Rebecca and Rafael. “My friends, it is a delight to see your four youngsters and to see that your home is in . . . safe shape. Perhaps we should now visit the commissary and let everyone else know about the upcoming arrival at Morrigan?”
Eliana and Matt nodded, while Mata Hari and Gatekeeper simultaneously said “An excellent idea.”
With a wave to her friends, Sarah followed the four of them out, lagging a bit behind the silver globe form of Gatekeeper. Now how had those two AIs managed to say the same thing simultaneously? She shrugged. One of the mysteries of the universe. At least the fighting was done and their colony home would soon fill the wallscreens. It seemed a peaceful resolution to the incredible violence of the last few weeks would await them. Mentally she crossed her fingers against unwelcome surprises.
Matt walked along hand in hand with Eliana, his mind filled with the image of Anabelle, and his last memory of Charlotte, before she, his other sisters and his parents had been kidnapped by genome harvesters. Though a part of his mind was in tachlink with Mata Hari, the Bridge and the automated systems that were the starship he tried to wear like a suit of clothes, he walked as if no different from Eliana. After seven years he could pretend to be a simple two meter tall human male while also being
a two kilometer-long starship surfing through the harsh cold of interstellar space. He could pretend to human simplicity even as his inner mind’s eye beheld the beauty of the red and orange streaked fourth planet that lay just beyond the asteroid belt. While he was most completely a cyborg when linked in via optical fiber cable in the Pit, the ship’s lightbeams always touched his bare skin here and there, while the tachlink nodule behind his left ear fed him rivers of data from ship sensors. He sighed. It was all part of the partnership with Mata Hari that he had agreed to upon her rescue of him. And this time he knew the answer to his first question of “Why did you rescue me?”
At the Spine midway point a slidedoor opened and out stepped George the black-bearded casino repairs manager. Just behind him came Suzanne, the casino’s IT manager according to Sarah. They both wore fresh clothes, George a pair of blue pants with an orange pull-over, while Suzanne wore a spring-like peasant dress that was embroidered similarly to Annabelle’s outfit. They held hands, he noticed, as they waited for the arrival of himself, Eliana, Mata Hari, Gatekeeper and Leader Sarah, whose boots echoed softly even as she walked confidently behind them. Matt nodded.
“George . . . O’Malley, I think it is, and Suzanne Magnusdottor, it is good to see you folks,” he said, letting them take the lead in pressing him or Eliana on some matter.
“Vigilante . . . uh Matt,” George rumbled as Suzanne moved closer to him so she stood shoulder to shoulder with the stocky, heavily muscled man. “And everyone else, a good day to you. The combat is finished?”
“For now,” Matt said, feeling Eliana squeeze his hand reassuringly, as if she knew more about this couple than he had kept track of. “We’re on our way to the commissary to share with folks the news about our upcoming arrival at Morrigan, and that we will soon enter Translation.”
George’s grey eyes brightened and his tense stance eased as Suzanne smiled at her companion, a smile that made her freckled face radiant as a star. “We . . . uh, I and Suzanne, we were wondering about this crusade of yours against the Anarchate. We think it a good thing that someone campaigns against . . . bondServant slavery. No thinking person of any species should be owned by someone else. Or something else, like a conglomerate.”
Matt wondered at the point of George’s statement, though he knew the man was observant and thought ahead, based on his questions during his first commissary appearance. “Thank you. And?”
George glanced at Eliana, then met Matt eye-to-eye. “Suzanne and I want to help you. Somehow. After we arrive at Morrigan. We don’t have a starship, but maybe there is some kind of promotion we can do on the galactic tachnet. With a slogan like ‘Freedom Yes, Slavery No!’” the man said hesitantly.
Eliana squeezed Matt’s hand to let him know she wished to enter this pleasant chat. “That’s wonderful! George, Suzanne, we can use any kind of pro-freedom message that you folks can get out there. Perhaps starting first with the humans on Morrigan?”
Suzanne nodded, her golden curls wrapping around her slim neck. “We thought the same. Anarchate policy is to stay out of a planet’s internal affairs. So long as we pay planetary taxes to the Central Nexus, of course.”
“Of course,” Matt said, wondering just how far this couple was willing to go. “That would be helpful and might offset some of the negative Anarchate propaganda once the facts of my attacks are released to the galactic public.”
Suzanne squinted her green eyes. “There’s been no word about your Halcyon battle or later battles?”
“None,” Eliana said. “It’s politics, of course. The Anarchate cannot afford to admit one starship can be a problem, let alone a single species like us humans.” She bit her lip. “That is why Matt and I think our home planets are safe from retaliation. As Morrigan would be safe. The Anarchate’s Central Nexus administrators cannot admit their ancient galactic system can fail in any fashion. It will take many more attacks before the exploits of starship Mata Hari appear on the controlled tachnet channels. But your theme of ‘Freedom Yes, Slavery No’ can appear before the news of our actions becomes known. Maybe it will help alien cultures to understand what Matt and I, with Mata Hari’s help, are doing.”
Gatekeeper floated up to George and Suzanne, surprising Matt in view of the silence shown by the two AIs. “My friends, congratulations on your decision to Commit to each other. It seems that celebrations are in order.”
Matt blinked at his own blindness. He was so used to liaisons of all sorts by all kinds of beings that the obvious closeness of George and Suzanne had not prompted his memory of his parents. And their love for each other. A love he had found a second time with Eliana. He reached out to grip George’s hand.
“Congratulations big guy!”
Eliana hugged Suzanne, whispering something in the woman’s ear, then waved over Mata Hari. “Hey gal, you may be a holo but give this woman a hug over her good news!”
Mata Hari, still dressed in her frilly white sheath, walked over to Suzanne, bent down a little and wrapped two white sleeved arms around Suzanne. “Congratulations mistress Suzanne. I hope you and George will be happy for . . . a very long time.”
Suzanne’s green eyes widened as she felt the semi-solid natural of Mata Hari, thanks to the AI’s use of mini-tractors to make dense the air space occupied by her three dee shape. “Wow! That was the first real hug I’ve ever gotten from an . . . an AI who feels like a real woman!”
Matt noticed how the twinkling status lights of Gatekeeper shifted to a uniform green glow, as if the Omega AI was . . . feeling something. Something beyond its algorithms and its intellectual thoughts. Could there be a romance building between it and Mata Hari? If so, how would the Omega AI’s departure at Morrigan affect the only friend he’d had for seven years?
CHAPTER NINE
Three days later they arrived just outside the heliopause of Morrigan’s F3 main sequence star that was hidden from Earth view by the red-orange supergiant at the center of the Jewel Box. Matt left Translation in normal human mode since there was no reason to expect the presence of an Anarchate battleglobe or any warlike behavior by the million inhabitants of the system’s third planet. Looking much like Earth, with half its surface occupied by two giant oceans and several small seas, Morrigan’s EMF emissions now appeared on the forward holosphere. The broadcast centered on a male human who wore a military-style outfit.
“Citizens, we are chasing the genome harvesters who kidnapped fifteen settlers from the farming town of Rathfriland, but their ship is faster than our corvette.” The elderly man with short grey hair grimaced. “Our Tachyon Pylon will be rebuilt in a few weeks. Then we can call for Anarchate help. Perhaps the vidimages of the kidnapping will fit some record of theirs.”
The man’s image disappeared to be replaced by the auburn curls of a newswoman used to doing live news, versus net-talk chatter. “Governor O’Davoren has activated the militia and is sending help to the law officers of Rathfriland,” she said, her strong accent reminding Matt of some humans he’d met who called the small Earth island of Ireland their home. An accent like that shown by George. “The harvester starship was last seen heading for the outer planets before our ground scopes lost their image. But neutrino detectors are following them and estimate the ship is passing planet four, the Badb. Perhaps she will gift them with fear and confusion, so our corvette can catch it,” she said with a sigh.
Eliana turned in her accel-couch to face Matt. “How old is this broadcast?”
Matt consulted his internal databyte nanocube. “About fifteen hours. Their home planet, which they call Morrigan, is located about two AU from their home star, which they call Dagda. But this system’s heliopause boundary is much further out than their outermost planet seven, which is located at a distance similar to Sol’s Pluto. So we are about 150 AU out from the star. Which means the broadcast is about fifteen hours old.”
Eliana rested her chin on a fist. “Our speed?”
“Three quarters light but slowing,” he said.
“The h
arvester. How fast do you think it is going?”
“Maybe one quarter lightspeed, since a system corvette cannot do better than one-tenth lightspeed.” Matt blinked, noticed Mata Hari had taken holo form to his right, and gave thanks that BattleMind was resting, sleeping or ignoring them, whatever a T’Chak AI did when it rested. “Why all the questions about this system and the harvester?”
Eliana frowned slightly. “You don’t see it, do you?”
Maybe it was Translation shock or the aftereffects of Interface fatigue from the combat in CC41324 system. But his inner self, the place where his memory pain dwelled, now erupted with awareness.
“Yes!” he growled, recalling a fifteen year-old memory. “We could intercept this harvester ship and free the captives. Mata Hari, begin emitting the Anarchate Combat Command ID code that all their ships use when encountering one another. And . . . pull our AM pontoon wings in closer to our nose, so our shape will resemble a courier’s triangle profile.”
Eliana smiled at the chance they might rescue captives. Matt did not. Inner ferocity did not allow a lightness of mind. “And my dear AI partner, use the image of Commander Chai and his spoken words in the Spelidon dialect to fabricate a Stop and Await inspection order for the harvester. Use the Anarchate icon image, of course. Make Chai sound harsh and suspicious. Can do?”
Mata Hari’s Victorian image nodded calmly from Matt’s right side, though one hand touched her pearl choker. “Can do, Matthew. What method will you use to extract the captives?”
“Suit and myself,” he said flatly, his tone accepting no argument. “Let Sarah Vasiliades and the other humans know we are diverting slightly from standard arrival mode to rescue captive humans. Block any complaints from them. Have your neutrino sensors detected the harvester starship?”
Eliana, he saw in his mind’s eye, leaned forward, perhaps as eager as Matt to know the scope of their challenge. Mata Hari turned his way and spoke her answer in addition to sending him a neurolinked three dee map of Dagda system, the placement of its seven planets, its version of a Kuiper Belt, and the location of the genome harvester starship.
Vigilante Series 2: Nebula Vigilante Page 13
