by Ben Winston
"No actually, she didn't," Hearlis said. "Rest assured I was feeling the same things you are right now when I first became aware of it. The Veranorian Synod did this to us, not the Veranorian people. In point of fact, the Veranorian people have been subject to this conditioning as well. That being said, we have some pretty serious problems we need to deal with. Firstly, what to do about the enemy officers we have serving on this station. I'm not talking about the junior officers, I'm talking about the senior officers, that have been aware of the conditioning being done to the rest of us.
"Simple, we arrest them, and blow their blue asses out an airlock!" General Horntan said, reasonably.
"What do we do with the current, Alliance Ruling Council, our leaders? Susan told me that none of them have been showing the signs that they were waking up from this programming, so she did some research and discovered that every one of them have physically been to Veranor, and the last two Councilors had not been allowed to sit on the Council until they had been approved, in person, by the Synod. That statement alone should tell you that something isn't right; since when does the Veranorian Synod have the right to approve another race's Councilor?"
Ornlea put her head in her hands. "I would question the validity of this AI, but the problem is, I can remember everything. I remember seeing G'hortness give you an order and you followed it!" She said to Hearlis, who nodded.
"I can remember that too, mostly because I knew that order was wrong, but by the next day, I had changed my mind and thought it had been a brilliant idea! If you all search your memories, you'll find hundreds of examples like that. Ornlea, do you remember when Vance took that small fleet to Sol System, how we were told to forget about the reports of that enemy fleet following him? We damn near lost his entire command but for the supreme sacrifice of an entire wing of our fighter craft. Since he arrived at Sol and met this Doctor Cowan, he has been working, behind the scenes to free us from Synod control. Considering the way he's been treated by us, his superiors, I feel he should be promoted to full Admiral, but we are not out of the woods here, and his promotion will have to wait until we make sure our Alliance is secure." Hearlis said.
"AI Susan, you explained how you stopped that which was clouding our minds, has this been done on all the core worlds? Are our Clans still under the influence of this programming?" Admiral Saarmia asked.
"Admiral, When I blocked the programming here, clones of me did the same thing everywhere in the core systems I have been installed. Which by the last survey, was in ninety-eight point nine-nine percent of all primary computers in all four of the Core World systems. My sister AI, Sarah, At Alliance Apollo Base removed all malignant programming as soon as she discovered it," Susan explained. "Given that all beings have varying susceptibility to the programming, they will also take varying amounts of time to awaken from it. That being said, not everyone was under its influence, and others may never recover from it. It is entirely individualistic."
The big Simonian nodded his understanding. "Thank you AI Susan, will you keep us informed as to the civilian reaction to the awakening?"
"If you wish Admiral, however, I do not expect that it will be a very good reaction. In fact, I suspect it will be much like yours was." Susan replied. "I have been instructed to try to mitigate the reprisals against the Veranorians as a race."
"Admiral Hearlis, you mentioned that our Council may never awaken from Synod Control. What can we do to correct this? Any actions we take will be considered treason," General Horntan asked.
"That is one of the main reasons I have called all of you in here. The only thing I can think of is to send Commander Jorla down to the Capitol to arrest the entire Council at once. At which point, we will have to have new Councilors ready to assume their positions. However, we cannot do that until or unless we have the support of the majority of the people."
Admiral Ornlea nodded. "Without the support of the people, we really would be committing treason." She looked at the Commander. "How are your people faring? Are they coming out of this?"
"Oh yeah, their coming out of it alright. Until I came in here, I thought I might have to try to find a way to do something about the amount of anger building. Now that I know what's going on, I can do something about it. They'll relax once they know you are all aware of it and are working to fix it," Jorla replied.
Office of the Fleet Commandant
Alliance Fleet Command Complex
High Orbit, planet Terra Novalis
Alphecca Majoris Sector, Novalis System
Jorla looked at Admiral Hearlis. "Sir, do you want me to have the Veranorian senior officers detained, discretely?"
"I'm thinking about that, Jorla. If we act too soon, we could tip our hand. Where do you think the Veranorians are going to strike once they know their programming is no longer having an effect on the rest of the Alliance?" Hearlis replied.
"What would they strike with? The Veranorians don't have any ships capable of a sustained battle," Saarmia answered.
"They've been building a fleet in secret, Admiral." Hearlis replied. "It's very large, and we'll be at a disadvantage because both the Veranorian and the Aracs know our ship's weaknesses." He continued telling these officers about the Veranorian domination of the Shallans, and their complete control of the Galtar shipyard. He also told them about the other ships built there.
"It always seemed to bother me that the amount of activity the Shallans reported never seemed to match their output. Adding in the Arac ships would certainly explain it." Ornlea said in her slow manner. "It would be a good thing to free that race as soon as we ensure our own safety."
"Commodre Vance at the Sol System facility has managed to gain the complete loyalty of the Shallan Clan Therinate. The entire clan stole three capitol ships they built from Galtar and ran," Hearlis began, Saarmia nodded.
"We got a ‘destroy on sight’ directive about them from Galtar Main Control. It said that the Clan sabotaged the system defenses and destroyed several other facilities while they made their escape. They are reported as outlaws and we have been ordered to destroy them at all costs." The large Simonian snorted. "They ordered us. Of course it had come from the nominal Veranorian Commander of the Galtar facility. Now I wonder what the real story about them is?"
"They stole a battleship, a battle cruiser, and an assault cruiser, along with all the data on the designs of those ships. They were built by Clan Therinate, so the Clan decided to deliver them in person to the Alliance Apollo Facility," Hearlis reported. "Anyway, since they arrived, they have moved right in and gotten to work. From what Vance has reported to me, they are taking to being free citizens rather well, and he is very pleased they decided to go there. Which reminds me, Vance needs crews for those three ships."
"I think we can help him, but the issue is going to be getting them there without the Synod learning about it," Saarmia replied. "I'll need to talk to the captains to see who has awakened from the programming and who has not."
"Yes, we will need to move carefully. Do what you can to get those crews out to Vance. In the meantime, try to calm our people and let them know we are aware of the problem and are working on a solution. I will try to make discrete contact with the Simonian ambassador to let him know of the issue,s and that we will need new delegates for the Council. In the meantime, pass messages concerning this through AI Susan. Although AI Susan controls the messaging system, I am sure the Veranorian has been monitoring it," Hearlis said.
"They have, in fact, and still are. I did not want to remove their monitor yet because that action would lead them to believe I was no longer under their control," Susan added. "Once they know I am no longer under their control, and have in fact reversed their control over the rest of the Alliance, they will attack in force." She paused. "On Veranor, there is a huge complex built under the Dark Shroud Mountains. They took one of my clones into this facility. I lost contact with her, and haven't heard anything from her. Commodore Vance was very troubled by the fact that this facility is not only isolated in the
extreme, but it was guarded by security drones armed with particle weapons.
"I have since scoured every Veranorian system I could find searching for information as to what this facility might be for, and why they have such extreme security measures surrounding it. I have found nothing. Even the personnel that work there are kept isolated from the rest of the society. In low orbit, above this facility is a single extremely heavily armed battle fortress. I have since learned that all of its weapon mounts are pointed down, and trained on this underground facility. Not even the computer systems of this fortress have any information as to what goes on in there."
"Particle weapons were declared too destructive and demoralizing to use, even against Aracs. The Council forbade their development and ordered the entire research project, and all of its materials, destroyed. For some reason, it really doesn't surprise me that the Veranorians are using them," Ornlea said.
"The report is incomplete, Admiral. A little over a week ago, the Alliance Apollo facility was attacked by the Aracs. During the fighting the Honor of Vengeance was boarded and some of the spiders where carrying particle weapons. Since the weapons were destroyed during the battle, only video analysis could be made. The weapons appear to be of Veranorian design," Susan finished.
"Again, not all that surprising. The Shallans told us that the Aracs were designed by the Veranorian to be used as troops. If that is true, it would follow that those troops would be armed with Veranorian weapons," Ornlea said. "Admiral Hearlis, for our own defense, I believe you should have Jorla detain the Veranorian senior officers. Have them placed in 'protective custody' due a sudden upswing in anti-Veranorian sentiment or something."
"That might be a good way to go. It will buy us some time at the very least." Hearlis replied. He nodded. "I like it, Jorla, please detain the senior Veranorian officers, for their own safety. Now, let's figure out how to handle the rest, let's start with this station."
Embarkation Lounge and
Main Computer Sciences Laboratory
Alliance Apollo Base
Selene, Earth’s moon
Sol System
"Hi guys, welcome to the moon," I said as I greeted the few friends I had from high school and the two that I had never actually met in person.
"Eric?" one of the girls said. "You're the one that asked for us?"
I nodded. "Yes I did. I need some smart hackers that aren't too into the anarchist thing, to help us defend the planet. Sound interesting?"
"We're standing on the moon, and you're asking us that?" one of them said. "Man you know it, or we wouldn't have come here anyway. What's the story?"
I nodded over my shoulder. "Come on, I'll show you to your quarters while I try to explain. By the way, did anyone get around to telling you that this is a mixed race base? By mixed race, I mean others that are not human."
"Sorta," the same girl said. "They didn't go into it very much. How alien are we talking here?"
"There are Simonians here, they look like large gorillas and are very intelligent. Don't even think about teasing them or you'll find yourself tied into a pretzel, and I mean that literally. There are Veranorians, they look very much like the Tailons from that Gene Roddenberry show 'Earth: Final Conflict'. They are very formal, and do not appreciate jokes or sarcasm. In fact, you will insult them if you do not address them by rank and title. There are Shallans. Shallans are small and look just like normal people except they have prehensile tails like a chimp. Finally, there are Novans. They are human just like us, the ones I've met from here seem to be less greedy than most. Novans, while being human, are from another planet and do not have our customs or our religious beliefs. Basically, if you want to continue breathing unassisted, just be very nice to everyone you meet, and you'll be fine," I finished.
"We're Hackers, Aiden, we don't like to meet people, remember?" one of the other people said, using Eric's online name.
"I know you are all used to my on-line name, but you have to call me either Eric, or Doctor Cowan here, or they won't know who you're talking about," I replied. "Yeah, I know you don't like to meet new people, but you are here to train others how to hack a computer system. It should be easy enough since most of them up here are unprotected, at least for the time being."
"Whoa! What the fuck is that?" One of the men asked after getting a first look at the slideway.
"This," I said waving a hand to the people seemingly flying around the chamber. "Is a slideway. It was developed by the Simonians as a form of public transport in a community setting. You'll get the hang of it pretty quickly. You simply stand here," I indicated the area in question without standing in it. "Input your destination on the keypad, here," Again I pointed to the appropriate device. "And the system lifts and moves you to the destination on an anti-gravity cushion. There is no inertial dampening, so you do feel the movement, but because it's anti-gravity, you don't feel that much. Since none of you are familiar with how the system works, I'll handle the routing for you, today. There is an instructional unit available to you that will teach you how to use this system along with all of the others here that we don't use on Earth. Now, as each of you step up here, I'll send you on your way. When you get to where I'm sending you, just hang out until we all get there and we'll go from there. Cool?"
Among the replies, Alicyn stepped into the lift pad and grinned. "Ladies first!"
One of the others snorted "we sure don't have any of those in this group!"
Alicyn stuck her tongue out at the jester, and I winked at her. "Ready?"
"Yeah, any time," she replied just as she was lifted and whisked off to the residence building. We could all hear her laughter as she sped away, around a corner and out of sight.
By the time the rest of us caught up to her, it was clear they all wanted to go for another ride. That could happen later, right now I needed to get them settled and get my butt back to my lab. I led them into my building and called the elevator.
I put you all in quarters close to mine, in the human area, so you'll know where I live if you need to talk to me. There is also a fully functional communications system here, but I should remind you that most of the folks on Earth have no clue we're up here, and, the last I heard, they weren't supposed to know about us, either."
When they started laughing, I honestly had no idea what was so funny. "Sorry guys, I have no idea what's so funny?"
"Well, let's just say that about the only thing still a secret is your exact location. The rest of the planet knows, or has figured out the rest. That battle a couple of weeks ago is still major news. Mostly people are trying to figure out who's trying to invade us," one of the guys, Lou Hastings, replied.
"Well, I guess you'll learn the answer to that as well then," I said.
They stopped laughing. "You mean there really is someone trying to invade?"
"Guys, remember I said we were at war up here. I'll grant that we are a bit out of the main fight, location-wise, but we're still going to be a main priority target from the enemy. Which reminds me, are any of you arachnophobic?" I asked
"Yeah, why?" Alicyn asked guardedly.
"Our primary enemy soldier is basically a giant spider," I said.
"How big is 'giant'?" she asked. She wasn't the only one looking apprehensive.
The standard Arac soldier is about the size of a mini cooper, and usually carries some serious weapons in addition to their other attributes." I replied.
Alicyn paled, and looked like she was going to get sick. "Alicyn, don't worry, chances are, you'll never see one in person. This is primarily a research base, not a military one," I said trying to get her to relax.
"I thought you just said we were going to be a main priority target?" one of the other people said ruining any chance I had of calming Alicyn. I noticed with a little satisfaction that Jon turned and slapped the speaker on the shoulder, hard.
"That just proves that intelligence and wisdom are two, entirely different things," I replied.
"It's okay Eric," Alicyn said.
"I appreciate what you were trying to do. I'll be alright."
Dr. Cowan’s Laboratory
Alliance Apollo Base
Selene, Earth’s moon
Sol System
The four people I asked for from Earth also added their talents to our programming pool, and that helped with the workload. However, there were some interesting moments when the new people were speaking to a mixed race group.
Not only were the new folks nervous about speaking to more than one person, they had the added difficulty of some of their audience not even being human. After one class on Hacking, I overheard Jon telling Alicyn how he had almost panicked the first time one of our Simonian programmers asked him a question. "I swear Ally, I was so surprised by a talking gorilla that I almost forgot what the hell I'd been talking about!"
"Yeah, but Fidrana sure knows his business when it comes to code. Did you see that control section for the sensor net interface? Man that was slick!" Alicyn replied.
"I know, that's what I'm talking about. My brain just didn't link what I was seeing to the being that wrote code like that! I imagine I'll get used to it, but is sure was disjointing!" Jon replied. Since he was actually trying to make the adjustment, I didn't say anything or intrude on their conversation. One of the other men however, didn't even try to fight the xenophobia, and almost caused a serious incident in my lab. I pulled him aside to talk to him.
"What the hell is your issue, Giles?" I asked. "If Shadron hadn't decided to ignore you since you were new, he would have fuckin' killed you for the insult you gave him!"
"What? He's a fucking ape! It's not like he's human or anything; Jesus Christ! What is it with all of you?" Giles replied.
"Really? Just an ape huh? Okay, so what do you think of the Veranorians in the department?" I asked.
He snorted. "Those fuckers think they invented computing! If you're looking from someone with a superiority complex, there is a really good example! Let me tell you, I know that there is something major going on here you're not telling us about; something about the computer systems of the base. I tried every trick I could think of to get into it and got nothing. Nothing! Like there wasn't even a computer there! Something's going on here, and it's fuckin' bullshit man!"
