by Scott Baron
Nothing.
She turned on the machine and began her scan.
“Anyway,” she continued, “we’re planning a missile assault on a bunch of cities, and then we’re going to try to commandeer an actual warp ship from their test facility in San Francisco. If you’d wake your ass up, we could really use your help, you know.”
“Tell him you love him, Daze.”
“But I don’t,” she said, quietly.
“Yes, you do.”
Daisy hesitated.
“Well, okay, I do, but just as a friend.”
“Uh-huh.” Sarah was not remotely convinced.
“Look. We were a thing, and yes, it was really good. Great, even. But that’s done now. So yes, I love Vince, but not like you think.”
“You’re so full of shit, Daisy. You know that? You can lie to everyone else, and you can even try to lie to yourself, but I know you. I know what’s in your heart.”
“Oh, shut up, Sarah,” Daisy barked in frustration.
The briefest of blips registered on the device. Daisy grabbed the monitor and dialed in the readings.
“Daze, is he waking up?” Sarah asked anxiously.
She fine-tuned the device, then felt her shoulders slump.
“No. It was just a one-off spike. There’s basic neural activity, but nothing I’d call consciousness. I don’t know what else I can do. We purged the AI and kept his body healthy, but there’s nothing. He’s gone, Sis.”
Hours later, Daisy woke from a deep slumber, though a bit disoriented at first. It had been the first solid night’s sleep she’d had in days.
She had accepted the loss of Vince, she realized. A surge of guilt washed over her with the realization that it was that acceptance that had allowed her to finally slumber.
“Nothing to feel guilty about, Daze. It’s been weighing on you a long time, now.”
“I know, logically, but in my gut––” She searched for the right words. “It just feels so wrong that I should find rest while he’s the way he is.”
“I understand, and you can feel guilty about things later, if you like. But for now, you need to let this go. Take care of yourself and finish what you started. When we’ve either won or died, then there will be time to mourn him.”
“Thanks, Sis.”
“Always.”
Daisy walked to the commissary, deep in thought. Once she had a hot cup of coffee in her hands and some protein in her belly, she finally felt human enough to deal with other people.
“Hey, Chu,” she said over the delayed comms. “Just checking in. How are things going up there? I’m sure you’ve been filled in on the goings-on down here, but I wanted to see if you had any luck with those remote-piloted junkers yet. Let me know. I’ll be here, standing by.”
She sent the message and settled in to wait the several minutes for his reply.
“Daisy! Great to hear your voice! Yeah, Sid and Mal filled us in on all the craziness you’ve been dealing with. It sounds like we’re on the cusp of knocking out the Ra’az communications network. Holy crap, I never would have thought that was even possible, and now it should be accomplished within days.”
She could almost hear the smile on his face.
“As for the remote ships, I was a bit stuck, actually, but Commander Mrazich grabbed me the notes from your quarters to help out. It took a while to decipher them, but man, you really thought this out. I still find the concept of repurposing lower-tier AI to perform basic piloting tasks inspired. Gustavo, the AIs, and I have been working on the first attempts. So far, we managed to get a waste-disposal AI to fly a solo loop around the perimeter. It had some...interesting issues, but I think we’re getting the hang of it, and we’ve got a couple more in the works. Anyway, all is good here. Is there anything I can help you with from Dark Side? Okay, shutting up now. I’ll send this and stand by.”
Daisy was perplexed.
They found the notes in my quarters?
“Daisy, didn’t you keep those locked up in your work locker?”
I’m almost certain I did. So weird. I guess I subconsciously knew they’d be needing them and left them out. My brain seems to be funny like that.
“Sometimes life works itself out, eh?”
I guess.
Daisy keyed the comms unit.
“All good here, Chu. Thanks for the offer, though. About the lower-tier AIs, though. Be careful allowing them any access to weapons systems. I don’t know if their mental makeup can really grasp the concept of weapons. They might see them as a way to 'touch' another thing. Wouldn’t want you left cleaning up after a rogue ship mistakes pulse blasts for a handshake.”
Daisy thought a moment, trying to be more concise than her moon-bound friend.
“Actually, there is one thing, though. If you could have Sid shoot us down any updates on alien movement in Sydney, Tokyo, New York, or San Francisco, that would be great. The missiles we’ll be using are hypersonic, but even so, every second counts, and we’ve only got one shot at this. Any data we don’t already have, no matter how small, might make a difference.”
A shadow crossed her mood.
“Lastly, I should let you know, Vince is gone. We did what we could, but he’s just an empty shell. I figured someone should tell you. Better coming from me than a stranger.” She felt the lump in her throat as she fought back her tears. “Okay, that’s it. Keep at it with those ships; they may be useful. In the meantime, wish us luck, and take care of yourselves up there. Daisy, out.”
She sent the message, then went to find Sergeant Franklin.
“Hey, George.”
“Daisy, how are you?” he asked, concern in his voice.
“He obviously knows, Daze.”
Yep. Figured he would.
“I’m hanging in there,” she said with a sigh.
“It’s never easy,” the tin man replied.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Listen, I have a strange request. I totally understand if you don’t feel comfortable with it, but I really need to take my mind off things for a little bit.”
“What did you have in mind?”
A little smile tickled the pained corners of Daisy’s mouth.
“How up to date are you on hand-to-hand combat?” she asked.
“Oh, I am quite up to date,” he said. “And perhaps a bit of sparring practice would do us both some good.”
The cyborg’s happy smile was almost as unnerving as Daisy’s.
That evening, just as the sun began to set, Daisy heard the anxious feet of her alien ally growing near.
“Daisy, I have news!” Craaxit said as he rushed into their meeting area a full half-hour early. “The Ra’az have accelerated their testing in San Francisco. They must know something is happening. Could they have sensed your AI’s activity?”
“No, he’s completely shielded and under a mountain.” She thought for a moment. “There was activity in Rome. Did your people have anything to do with that?”
“Rome? I do not have assets in that city. Why? What happened?”
“I’m not sure yet,” Daisy replied. “Have the Ra’az sent any broadcasts from the comms stations?”
“Not that we are aware of.”
“Hmm. Then maybe it’s just a coincidence,” she hoped. But Daisy knew that was wishful thinking. “There has been a change in plans, and I’m going to have to ask for your help.”
“You know you shall have what I can provide.”
“Good. We don’t believe the missiles can reach the communications hubs before being detected, now that they are on higher alert, as you told me. We need to take down their scans for just under seven seconds.”
“My people are not allowed in positions that could provide access to those scanning devices. That is only done by Ra’az and their loyalist Chithiid.”
“I figured as much. But can your contacts facilitate getting a small team of my people inside the facility and direct them to the power systems?”
“There are backup systems in all
facilities.”
“Yes, but if we disrupt the main power with a sizable blast, the changeover to backup power will leave a long-enough gap in scans while the machinery recalibrates after the reboot for the missiles to strike.”
The tall alien grew pensive.
“You ask my people to die, Daisy.”
“No, you misunderstand,” she said, realizing she needed to clarify. “The missiles will be small enough to only destroy the comms array itself, not the entire facility. Both my people and yours will be vulnerable, and we cannot afford to lose either.”
Craaxit pondered a moment, the furrows in his brow easing. He then dug in his pocket with excited hands.
“I am confident I can do as you ask. The waste disposal areas are poorly-guarded, and my people have complete access. A benefit of being seen as mere servants, one could suppose.”
“Fantastic news. I’ll have my people make their way to those cities immediately to liaise with your insiders.”
“There is something else you should know, Daisy. I have learned that a great many of my people have died participating in test flights these past weeks.”
“So, the warp drive is still non-functional.”
“It was. But the Ra’az now appear to be nearing completion and are preparing to fly the test vessels themselves. This demonstrates a new confidence in the technology on their part.”
“You said vessels. Plural.”
“Yes. I have been informed by sources within the facility that they have not one, but three ships outfitted with the new technology.” He finally found what he was looking for in his pocket. A single data chip, which he handed to her with hope in his eyes. “This was stolen from the facility at great personal risk to the one who obtained it. It contains readings from their latest attempts.”
“Good work, Craaxit. I’ll get this to my team for analysis immediately. This new information means we may need to move faster than we originally planned. We’ll need a better way to communicate. I can try to get you a––”
He pulled a small transmitter from his pocket and handed it to her.
“I agree, and have already taken appropriate measures. This device is set to an older, unused frequency. It will allow for two, maybe three communications before it is detected and tracked. We must only use it in an extreme emergency. I will keep the receiver with me at all times.”
Daisy ran for the door, data chip safely in her pocket. “I will contact you the moment I have news,” she said, then bolted for the safety of Cal’s tunnels.
She arrived several minutes later, having run at nearly a full sprint the entire way.
“We… need to… get this… to Joshua…,” she gasped, handing the data chip to George.
“Copy that, Daisy. I’ll transmit it via the hardline. It might take a few seconds to get there, depending on how much data is here. But what is it?”
Daisy slowly regained her breath. “New tests on the Ra’az hyperwarp. Joshua needs to analyze them."
“Okay, it’s been sent,” Sergeant Franklin said. “It might take him a little bit to analyze the––”
“This is an unfortunate development,” Joshua’s voice echoed from the comms link seconds later.
“Damn, he’s quick,” Sarah noted.
“These readings show a dramatic advance in the warp field. It appears a true bubble warp may have nearly been achieved.”
“So it’s too late,” Daisy gasped.
“No, not yet, but there is little time. Far less than I anticipated. We must speed our attack preparations. I have already sent word to the teams reconnecting the AI network to cease those actions and head for the target cities. If the Ra’az are truly suspecting something, we will definitely need them to create a diversion. As for San Francisco, can your Chithiid contact get our team into the facilities?”
“I don’t know about that one, Joshua, but I’ll reach out and see what he can do. He informed me that there are Chithiid within San Francisco willing to help, but how much more is up in the air. They snuck this data out for him, and if we can successfully cut the comms systems, he is confident they’ll put aside their concerns and step up and help keep the warp ships from launching.”
“Ships, plural?” George asked.
“Yes. In reviewing this data, it appears they have four––no, three––functional ships equipped with the new technology. If these Chithiid allies can prevent a launch, my calculations show that we should have enough time and resources to take the facility without an atmospheric incident.”
“Atmospheric? What does he mean by that?” the rugged cyborg asked, a bit concerned.
“I’ll tell you in a minute, George.”
“I have transmitted the revised strategy to all networked AI through Sid and his Dark Side relay. Once my hardlines are securely reconnected to my satisfaction, I’ll begin direct comms with my terrestrial brethren for second-by-second coordination and intel gathering. I will run scenarios and contact you shortly.”
“Copy that, sir,” George said as the comms clicked off. He turned to Daisy. “Now, what’s this about an atmospheric incident?”
Deep under a massive mountain, as teams of humans and cyborgs raced frantically to restore communications hubs, a lone, scruffy man, laden with dark thoughts and bad intentions, quietly walked the empty corridors. It had taken time, and all his wits, to blend in with the others, and the journey from Los Angeles had been perilous, but now his moment had arrived.
“The time is come, Alma,” Moses quietly prayed as he crept through the facility. “Your will shall be done, Lord. Glory be!”
Chapter Sixteen
A pulse blast pocked the dusty rock of Crater FS-27, just outside Dark Side’s perimeter.
“Dammit, Donovan! What did I tell you?” Chu shouted. “Shut it down!”
“But it was doing better,” the pilot groused.
“Gus, kill it, please.”
“You got it,” he replied, as he walked across the hangar floor to the makeshift relay system and keyed in a series of commands that powered down the craft’s weapons systems remotely.
“I don’t see what good these things will be if they’re flying in there totally defenseless,” Donovan grumbled as he and Bob shadowed the semi-functional vessel from above.
The newly repaired assault ship was bare-bones, but for what was essentially a use-and-dump attack craft, that was to be expected. The marriage with a low-tier AI, however, had presented a few unexpected problems to overcome.
“K177, return to Hangar One,” Chu commanded, then shut off the comms before the annoyingly chipper craft could reply.
“We’ve got seven more ships wired up with modified AI cradles so far,” Donovan said over the comms. “That last salvage run through the debris field was a goldmine. We should be able to hook up at least two dozen AIs with what we brought back.”
“If we can get that many compatible ships functional in time,” Chu replied.
The human crew of Dark Side had been running on stim-caps and looked worse for the wear. Of course, that was to be expected, as they hadn’t slept in over thirty hours. Doctor McClain hated to distribute the pills, but Captain Harkaway impressed upon her the urgency of the pending assault.
“Now or never,” he had told her. “We’ll deal with the headaches later. For now, we need to work.”
Reluctantly, she had agreed.
Barry did not require such artificial aids, being an artificial man himself, but even Captain Harkaway and Commander Mrazich had taken the stim-caps. Both had been working shifts on the moon’s cold surface alongside the cyborg, hauling parts where they were needed as Bob and Mal dropped off load after load of valuable salvage from the wrecked vessel debris field.
They’d spent hours upon hours sorting through not only the recent haul of valuable components, but also the decades of salvage previously amassed. It was a stim-cap-powered search for the pieces they needed. Fortunately, unlike a needle in a haystack, this was a very particular haystack that th
ey had gathered themselves, and for their needs, it was one mostly comprised of needles. All they had to do was decide which needles they needed.
Even with all the materials at their disposal, however, only a few of the ships being worked on were proving to be able to be made sound enough to support an internal atmosphere. The others, while able to fly, would simply not be able to hold pressure. Not a problem for an empty vessel, but a potential one should human passengers become a part of the equation.
Fatima, being the best welder on the facility after so many decades of repair work, was busily reconstructing and modifying as many ships as she was able within the confines of Hangar Two. She hoped to make more than just a handful air-tight, but the herculean task would normally take weeks, and they had but mere days to accomplish it.
Gustavo moved to Chu’s side, then plugged a fine cable from the terminal he was working on into the port in the back of his cybernetically repaired head. Technically, he was only supposed to be able to use his built-in equipment to help navigate and pilot the Váli, but since he was not required aboard Mal’s ship for that purpose at the moment, the AIs had found a way to modify his components to allow him to interface with other devices.
For a human sporting replacement parts, it was a bit of a rush, at first.
“Wow, they’re making serious progress,” Gustavo said as the data fed directly into his mind. “Mal and Sid are almost done designing a totally remote piloting system that will operate outside of the normal wireless bands. Looks like they may even have structured it in such a way that I can plug in and help out.”
“Great news, Gus. But is it safe for you?” Chu asked.
“Should be.”
“And what about for them? I mean, we saw what happened to previous attempts against these invaders.”
“Should be fine,” Gus replied. “With frequent, randomized modulation of the transmission frequency, they hope we’ll be able to maintain control, even if the Ra’az try to infect the signal.”
