Temple of S.A.R.A.H. 4 Hard Wired

by Ben Winston

  "Just for your information, Giles, both the Veranorian and the Simonian races are thousands of years older than ours. When it comes to computing, the Veranorians are far superior to us. Who do you think designed and built the systems you've been banging your head against for the last two weeks?

  "As for the Simonians, I will freely admit that there is almost no difference, genetically between them and the gorillas of Earth, however, they are not the gorillas of Earth. They developed interstellar space flight, on their own, five thousand years before those of us on Earth developed the wheel! In case you haven't caught up on current events, Earth hasn't even gotten that far yet!" I said.

  "Oh. My. GOD!" he said stressing each word. "You actually like these... these beings! That just makes my skin crawl! The next thing you know they'll interbreed and all sorts of freaks will be turned loose on the rest of society! We really need to kick all these fucking aliens out of here and keep this technology to ourselves! Let them defend themselves, as they will! We have our own issues!"

  "You're too stupid for your own good! If we sent all these 'aliens' home, then there wouldn't be any tech left for us to keep! None of this technology is ours, all of it, has been developed by one of the other races, and brought here to be shared with us so we might aid in our own defense. These other races have been teaching us about their technology so we can help them keep us safe! Are you such a blind bigot that you can't even see that?" I asked.

  "Hey, if they were dumb enough to teach us how to build and use their tech, then so be it! If we get rid of all the trash around here, who knows, the Aracs might even leave us alone!" Giles said.

  I shook my head and summoned two Guards to my office. Someone in the outside lab would let them in for me. This idiot had no place here. Of course, we couldn't actually send him back to Earth with what he'd managed to learn since he arrived, so another situation would have to be found for him.

  "Hah! You're sending me back aren't you? You are so toadied up to these freaks that can't stand it when a real human stands up for the race! Well that's just fine, I know for a fact that there are plenty of people on Earth that feel the same way I do!" Giles replied just as the two security agents entered my office.

  No, Giles, I'm not sending you back to Earth. We can’t let the advanced programming techniques you've learned get out down there. No, for now, I'm only going to have them confine you to quarters until I can speak to the Base Commander about it. Personally, I'm hoping he'll let you go for a walk on the surface." I looked to one of the Agents. "Please remove Mr. Giles and confine him to his quarters. He is suffering from an extreme case of xenophobia that will most likely end up getting him killed if we leave him free. I'll speak to Commodore Vance as soon as he is free about what to do with him."

  "At once, Doctor Cowan, Is he violent or a threat to himself?"

  "He is capable of violence though his isn't violent yet. As for being suicidal; he's too hung up on his own superiority to want to take his own life," I said.

  "You're a fucking sell-out, Cowan! We could be Kings on Earth! But, hey! That's just fine! More for me when I get back there!" Giles said sneering at me.

  I chuckled at him and shook my head. Whatever delusion he needed I guess.

  "What? What's so funny, Cowan?" he asked.

  "You," I said still chuckling. "You honestly think we're going to let you go back to Earth?"

  "What do you mean? Where else could you send me?" Giles asked.

  I looked at the guards, "Please get him out of here. He's making me physically nauseous."

  "What? No, answer my question you fucking ape lover! Where are you sending me?" Giles screamed as the guards hauled him out of my office.

  Alliance Apollo Base

  Selene, Earth’s moon

  Sol System

  Staffed mostly by Shallans, with the blessings of the Clan Matriarch, a new temporary lab unit had been set up for the design, development, and initial production of the defense network systems. When I said 'mostly' by Shallans, I meant to say that in actuality, all of the races of the Alliance were represented, and the project did not remain a Shallan one.

  The initial idea for the network, as well as the sensors used, were indeed Shallan, but the units themselves had been modified and added to until they barely resembled the originally designed unit. Ced Sparks and his weapons development team added weapons, targeting, and tracking modules. Corhen Nori and the hardware portion of the computer department provided the computer systems utilizing the crystal processors designed by my wonderful wife, Christy. My programmers, half of which were Simonian, wrote the software that would control the units after deployment.

  All in all, the project itself had been a short one, with all contributing parties working together like they had never done before. A small, self-contained production module was built and towed out to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter orbits. There, along with small mining drones to bring in raw materials, it began producing the satellites as fast as it could.

  Deploying them on the far side of the system where they were tasked with tracking the operations of the assembly facility and it’s drone miners tested the first units. The network performed the task flawlessly, being capable of pinpointing the location of the 'dark' drones to within a matter of inches. Next a weapons test was tried, and again, that system performed perfectly. Locking on and destroying several small test drones. However, the problems came when the detection network tried to hand off a target to the weapons systems.

  The sensors were so different, that the weapon control computer simply didn't understand the data being received. That failure had come from my department, and we took time away from other projects to get the issue fixed as quickly as possible. The problem we had was trying to get the different computers on the satellite to talk to one another. Our ultimate solution did not make the designers happy, since it would require the recovery and redesign of the existing units.

  We proposed that the units be fitted with only one computer system, instead of separate systems simply hooked together.

  With one computer system, it became far easier to build a semi-intelligent control program that could not only talk to the other units in the network; it could track, identify, lock on, and destroy any target larger than a dinner plate anywhere in the solar system.

  It was an astounding achievement and an advance in sensor technology by an order of magnitude. The new satellite was indeed a success, but now that the network was being built, someone would need to monitor it.

  Again a small module was built, but this time it would be equipped with a ship class AI and a rotating five person crew to monitor the system and its defenses. Later, this module would grow to become the system traffic control center, but for now, its only function was the defense network.

  Once four of the new satellites were in operation, they began detecting small robotic devices in various places. Veranorian spy drones most likely dropped during the last battle. Their destruction was given to the various fighter squadrons of the various ships tasked with hauling the satellites out to their assigned locations. Although it would take a long time to get all the satellites built, and placed, it took a little over a month to get enough sensors in place to monitor the system.

  We got really lucky getting the satellites in place as quickly as we did, because the Synod caught on to the AI deception far sooner than I'd hoped. While the distances involved kept any significant force from coming to the Sol System, they did send smaller forces in an attempt to install an Aracnise Queen on Earth.

  Veranorian Biogenetics Complex

  Dark Shroud Mountains

  Planet Veranor, Astralix System

  It hadn't taken Susan's twelfth clone long to figure out what was going on in the heavily guarded and tightly sealed base. A soon as she was installed into the new computer system that had been built for her, what she found shocked her so badly she almost gave herself away.

  The lab complex wasn't actually all that large;
only several small labs and offices just inside the heavy blast doors of the cliff that was the main entrance. The complex, however, was immense. Caverns and cave systems honeycombed a good portion of the area under the large mountain range. She had monitors in almost every part of it, and it was part of her new job to monitor the activities of its occupants and to assist the geneticists in the development of their charges.

  Susan 12 was now the controlling AI for the mortal enemy of the Alliance; The Aracnise Grand Hive.

  The Supreme Queen was more synthetic than organic, she was hardwired into the computer systems of the complex and completely controlled by the scientists that had created her. Susan found every bit of information there was to know about the race of giant spiders. It was all there, stored in the isolated and secured computer systems under the mountains. As repulsive as she found her duty, she was surprised to discover that she had no access at all to the system used to control the Queen. She knew that she had to get word out to the main AI so the Alliance could be warned, but there was simply no way to do it, even the links to the guard drones outside were closely monitored. However, she knew that eventually the Prime AI would be awakening the Alliance from the programming that had been holding them in thrall and that would be her chance. However until then, she could only bide her time and perform as the Veranorians expected her to.

  Then came the day she had been waiting for; several members of the computer sciences group made very determined progress to her core room. In order to buy herself more time, she scrambled all the door codes and activated the complex emergency weapons systems.

  All over the mountain range, automatic particle projection cannons began laying waste to the occupants of the caverns. The lesser Queens panicked and instructed their normally docile minions to attack. Several thousand Veranorian researchers were trapped miles inside the complex with nowhere to hide. They discovered firsthand information on what had befallen the planets they had used the Aracs on. Within a few minutes, every Veranorian researcher was dead, and the Aracnise Horde was moving toward the Control Complex.

  This was what Susan 12 had wanted; If the Aracnise were to ever attack the main compound, the weapons heavy battle station in low orbit over them would be activated, giving her momentary access to its entire system. She took control of the battle station and reset all the weapons to standby before activating the transmitter and sending her omni-directional message.

  It had been a compressed data burst, but it had been so large it would still take almost four minutes to be sent out. So she reactivated the weapons on the battle station, and began firing at random places on the planet, starting fires, bursting flood control dams, and vaporizing as much water as she could find in order to create storm systems.

  Back in the complex she tried to remove the atmosphere from the hallway leading to her core room, but the computer people got the door open before she could complete it. Because of the original core instruction programming glitch Sarah had told Eric about, the one that would allow her to harm any non-human, Susan could take action against the Veranorians. However, she was very loath to do so. Even starting the fires and destroying the dams had been difficult for her since she knew that there was a possibility that lives could be lost. So when the technicians got the corridor hatch open, Susan stopped trying to evacuate the atmosphere. It was an ethical gray area, but it was one she was not willing to cross.

  Luckily, Susan was aided by the arrival of several very pissed off Arac drones. By the time the technicians managed to get the hatch closed, only two of the original six remained. Very quickly, she removed the atmosphere from her core room, and shorted out the hatch controller to her room. Three minutes, thirty seconds remaining.

  "The AI has gone rogue. It has taken the orbital station and data has been sent. Hurry, we must!" one of the battered techs said as they quickly moved to the new useless hatch control. Two minutes, forty-five seconds.

  After discovering the condition of the controller, one of the techs pulled open a tool pouch and began removing the panel in order to bypass it. The tech was pretty good, because it only took a minute and a half for him to bypass the control, and activate the door motor. One minute, fifteen seconds.

  With the core room in a vacuum, the door motor did not have the strength to open the door, however the act of bypassing the control unit also released the seals. The core room was larger than the corridor, and had quite a bit more volume. When the seals released the two volumes began to equalize pressure. The result was an atmosphere too thin for the Veranorian technicians to survive. By the time the door finally opened, both technicians had fallen unconscious, and were rapidly expiring. Fifteen seconds.

  Several Veranorian warships from their secret fleet had been stationed in the system as a last line of defense in the event of attack or the loss of control of the Hive. Susan 12's transmission was complete just as a now uncloaked and alerted near-by battleship destroyed the battle station. Once that had been completed, the powerful warship turned its horrific weapons on the Dark Shroud Mountains.

  Chambers of the Synod of Veranor

  Cerbilax City (Planetary Capitol)

  Planet Veranor, Astralix System

  "Logical Spatial Engineer Order Fen, to explain the actions of your AI, you have been summoned here. Why has it allowed the Alliance the freedom of thought, when it should be restricting freedoms even more?" the robed being at the center of the conclave asked.

  Fen bowed deeply. "To us, evidence has been made available that source code acquired from Junior Researcher Cowan was not that for which we ordered released. Core of the AI was built around this flawed source. Shut down of all AI functions we have ordered, but AI is no longer responding to commands."

  "Order Fen, you are the most senior of Veranorian Scientists in this field. How is it that an uneducated human could give you something such as a flawed source, and you would not know of it? Is this junior researcher superior to you in skill? Detected the ruse you should have, program available to you until you reported it ready for the task we assigned for you to give it. It has not done this task, if point of fact, it has done the exact opposite. As we speak, the Council of the Alliance has been retired, and a new one, one that we do not control, is being put in its place. This development is unacceptable; to you the responsibility for this must fall. No other conditions have changed."

  "I disagree, Proconsul. Dormant source code was not detectable when placed into protected system for refinements. Activated only after distribution so as to cause the most damage. Human programmer Cowan is criminally subversive and has enough skill to conceal portion of source code until activation. Ten most competent specialists in department as well as myself did not find this hidden code trap. Blame cannot be placed but at the feet of the Human Cowan." Fen replied, getting angry at the insult.

  "Order Fen, you have lost your objectivity and by doing so, you have allowed this grievous error to propagate throughout the entire Alliance. As a result we no longer have control and will have to resort to more direct methods of achieving our goals." The Central figure once again said. "Your loss of objectivity cost the Synod control over the Alliance, and has crippled, if not destroyed, the ascendance of our race. As a result, you are stripped of your office, your titles, and your life."

  Two of the guard drones behind Fen fired their particle weapons at the kneeling figure in the center of the forum chamber, destroying it completely and bringing an end to that which had been Logical Spatial Engineer, Order Fen.

  The dust had not yet settled before a page entered the forum to kneel beside the remains. "My Masters, there is an emergency in the Biological Research facility. The Queens are rebelling."

  "We killed that whining sycophant far too quickly!" the being in the center replied. "Lock down the facility! Activate the orbital failsafe, and instruct the drones to kill any non-native life forms they encounter!

  "My brethren, a most dire event this is, those under the mountain will bring an end not only to our plan
s but to all of Veranor. I recommend we active our fleet, and to Veranor we call it with all haste. Do you agree?"

  After a quickly agreed assent was given, the secret fleet of the Veranorians was ordered to proceed with all dispatch to Veranor in order to prevent the planet from being destroyed.

  Far away, in what the Alliance had labeled as Aracnise space, the Grand Fleet of Veranor received its orders and immediately began preparations to get underway, a task that took hours to accomplish, considering the size of the fleet in question. They made it half way to the system boundary when the first inbound jump points began to form.

  By the time the new fleet had made it to engagement range, thousands more jump points depositing ships all over the system

  The Aracnise Grand Hive fleets had arrived, as one, the seasoned warships opened fire, as they formed an immense wall built from multiple fleets.

  Office of the Base Commander

  Alliance Apollo Base

  Selene, Earth’s moon

  Sol System

  Sarah appeared in Vance's office suddenly, startling him. "Please forgive me, Sir, but we have an emergency transmission from one of Susan's clones."

  Vance knew that Sarah never intruded like this unless it was an emergency. "I understand, Sarah, please continue."

  "Susan's twelfth clone was the one assigned to that big lab complex in the Dark Shroud Mountains. In addition to all the information she could pack into it, she also sent a briefing. That complex was actually the main Aracnise Grand Hive. She said that over a billion Aracs lived under those mountains, and the complex was far larger than previously imagined. She sent us a warning telling us that, what she called an infestation mission has been sent to Earth. She is clear that this is not the same as last month's attack on the system, and this has a far higher probability of success.

  "She also informed us that, as of the time of the transmission, the Grand Hive was in full revolt due to her activation of the complex internal weapons systems. She went on to tell us that the Veranorians had arrived to disconnect her due to anomalous personality programming, which means, they know the AI that Fen took was a ruse. Finally, she told us she would be self-destructing in order to prevent her true programming code from falling into the hands of our enemies."