Airthan Ascendancy

by M. D. Cooper

  There was a slightly worn patch of deckplate in the center, and C139 hoped that F11 had spotted it and sent her breach nano there. As soon as A1 assumed her customary position, they would have her.

  Or so we hope.

  The four women on the team all shared a common concern that A1 was possessed by a core AI remnant.

  There was no way they could have brought a shadowtron onto the Perilous Dream—though one was secreted away on the ship they’d arrived in. If C139 detected an ascended AI’s leftovers in A1, she knew that she’d have to extract the being the old-fashioned way.

  The thought didn’t worry her overmuch. She’d extracted several of Myrrdan’s and the Caretakers’ remnants, and also drawn Xavia’s memory out of Katrina.

  This would be no different.

  The minutes ticked by, and the four women waited patiently, backs straight, hands unmoving. Even their breaths were drawn in unison, matching what Tangel had seen in the minds of the Widows when she interrogated them.

  C139 had trouble believing that the sort of woman Finaeus would have married was the type to sit still and quiet like this. She also considered that Finaeus might once have been a very different person. Perhaps he’d been cautious and reserved in his youth.

  Right.

  It was far more likely that the woman who had altered herself to pass as one of her clones was the one who’d changed.

  Tangel and Bob had expressed uncertainty as to whether or not A1 even was the original Lisa Wrentham. The Widows they’d interrogated didn’t think so, but C139 had her doubts.

  Either way, A1 was their leader, and the Widows followed her unquestioningly.

  In the back of her mind, C139 wondered if it was wise to think of herself in the third person with her Widow’s designation. Dr. Rosenberg had assured the four women that the thought patterns she’d instilled in them were just light mental conditioning and wouldn’t become dominant thought patterns.

  But it didn’t feel that way to C139. She felt as though this was how she’d always been, how she should be. It wasn’t that she’d forgotten that she was also Cary; it was that she was both.

  Obviously.

  Perhaps it was just the peaceful serenity that came with knowing that she wasn’t anyone important. Not responsible for momentous events, not a human on the brink of ascension, but a cog, just a part of a larger machine, doing what she was told, guided by a sure hand.

  Stars, now I really think it is settling in too much. This can’t be right.

  She gritted her teeth, thinking of her childhood, growing up on Carthage with her sister, Saanvi. She glanced at the others, wondering if they were having as much trouble controlling their thoughts as she was. They didn’t give any signs one way or the other, and she daren’t ask.

  Either way, she still had a mission to complete: take out A1 and learn the Widows’ secrets. She could hold onto that. It would be her guiding principle.

  Take out A1, learn the Widows’ secrets.

  Even with that mantra in mind, Cary felt like she was being subsumed by a desire to be an obedient part of the whole, though it felt more like a compulsion, not light conditioning.

  This can’t be right, she thought again.

  She was about to ask Saanvi if she was having the same struggle, when A1 entered the room.

  The head Widow looked exactly like the other clones, increasing the number of featureless black creatures from four to five with her presence. But when she spoke, her voice was ever so slightly different. More strident, less subservient.

  “Report.” A1 breathed the word, standing just to the right of where Faleena’s pool of nano lay in wait.

  “We reached Aldebaran on schedule,” C139 said without preamble. “As our intelligence indicated, Tanis Richards arrived just a few days later, and addressed the League of Sentients assembly. Unfortunately, our strike was unable to proceed because another factor came into play.”

  “What factor?” A1’s tone was no different, but her choice of words told C139 that the prime unit was displeased.

  “An ascended AI attacked Tanis.”

  A1 folded her arms across her chest, the deep black she was sheathed in causing them to become nearly indistinguishable from her torso.

  She paced a few steps to the right, and then turned back, stopping just short of the trap Faleena had set in the deck.

  “Who prevailed?”

  “Admiral Richards,” C139 replied. “Rather, she was saved by their ship. It fired a weapon we were not able to identify, and the ascended AI—which we learned was named Xavia—perished.”

  “Xavia,” A1 said, lifting a hand to her chin and cupping her elbow with the other. “I’ve heard that name uttered in the past. In far corners of the Inner Stars. I had believed that she opposed the Caretaker. I am surprised she attacked Tanis Richards.”

  “We did not learn anything that would indicate what allegiance Xavia held,” C139 offered.

  “No? Pity. Well, I assume you went forward with a fallback plan.”

  C139 was surprised that A1 had not yet asked whether or not they’d been successful. Perhaps the return of just four Widows when she’d sent over twenty had already answered that question.

  “Yes. We captured one of Admiral Richards’ associates, an AI named Iris, and used her to gain access to the I2. Once aboard, we sought out and attacked our target, but she was too powerful. It was then we learned that our target was also fully ascended.”

  I imagine the Widows suspected that before they attacked, but that doesn’t matter, C139 thought to herself.

  “Fully—” A1 stopped herself and took a calming breath. She turned toward the door, and then back toward C139. “Do you know how this came to be? Is this how she killed so many of our sisters?”

  “It is,” C139 replied with a single nod. “Though I do not know how she achieved ascension. Of my sisters and the contingency team, we are all who managed to escape. I do not know how we will defeat her.”

  A1 rolled her shoulders and finally walked into the middle of the room, standing on the worn spot where F11 had laid the nano. C139 trusted that her sister had initiated the breach. Now it was just a matter of time.

  Take out A1, learn the Widows’ secrets.

  “Leave that to me, and to the Orion Guard,” A1 said, her tone dismissive. “Now. Tell me everything that happened.”

  C139 began to relate the story, keeping mostly to the facts, but leaving out Cary and her sisters—herself and her sisters—as she told the tale. At the end, she told of how the four of them had managed to scatter across the station and get to one of their ships that was still in stealth, attached to Lunic Station’s hull.

  “And how did you get back here so quickly?” A1 queried.

  “The enemy was jumping ships to Diadem. We hitched a ride and then used Garza’s gate near the system.”

  C139 saw a slight twitch in A1’s right hand when Garza’s name came up. Her own instincts told her it was annoyance.

  A1 only paused for a moment, and then asked, “They’re shifting resources to Diadem? They’re certainly pressing their advantage.”

  “The League of Sentients has joined the Scipio Alliance,” C139 informed A1.

  The prime unit gave a rather human sigh and reached a hand to its head, tapping a finger over what would be a cheek.

  “We must inform Garza of this,” she said at last. “It is no longer suitable for us to operate from this location. We must go to him at Karaske.”

  “In the Perilous Dream?” C139 asked.

  “You’re rather full of queries today, C139. Do you need reintegration?”

  “I do not believe so,” C139 said, doing her best to speak the words slowly, as though the idea had not set a panic in her. “I am still dealing with the loss of so many sisters.”

  “Our numbers are eternal,” A1 said, the words hissing from her lips as if by rote.

  All four of the Widows repeated the phrase in unison, and A1 nodded.

  “Very well. I want th
e four of you in autodocs to make sure you’re tip-top, and then go to your readyspace. I may have more questions after I peruse your report.”

  The moment the last word came from A1, the woman standing at the front of the room ceased to move.

  “I have control of her,” F11 said as she rose and approached A1. “This was easier than I thought it would be.”

  “What are you doing?” C139 asked. “We’re to go to the autodocs.”

  “Funny,” E12 said, clasping her on the shoulder. “Faleena has rendered her unconscious. You can drop the act.”

  C139 shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. “I—yeah. This conditioning was really taking hold. I was really beginning to lose myself in C139…guh. I hate this. A lot. A shit-ton. What’s more than a shit-ton?”

  “A shit mega-ton?” Saanvi offered.

  “Galactic shitpile,” Priscilla said as she approached A1. “Granted, this is pretty easy for me. I’m used to maintaining my identity while another threatens to subsume me. Heck, the outfit’s not even that different, though I’m not stuck to a plinth in this one, so bonus there.”

  “How’s she for passengers?” Saanvi asked, gesturing at the frozen figure before them.

  “Eh?” Cary asked. “Oh, remnants. Damn, I didn’t even check.”

  Her sister turned to face Cary full-on. “Seriously? You OK? Maybe something in the conditioning isn’t playing nice with your ascending mind. How many fingers am I holding up?”

  Saanvi held up a fist, and Cary laughed.

  “Five. They’re just all folded up.”

  “OK, you’re still in there. Good.”

  “Huh,” Priscilla muttered. “You seeing this, Faleena?”

  The AI nodded. “I am…her physiology, internal systems, mods…everything. They’re identical to the clones.”

  Cary pulled up the datastreams from Faleena’s nano that was working its way through A1’s body and whistled as she looked over the information.

  “So is A1 actually Lisa Wrentham, or is she just another clone, like all the Widows think?”

  “We might not be able to tell without something more invasive,” Faleena said. “Either way, we still need to extract her root access codes so we can breach the ship’s datastores.”

  Cary nodded, then suddenly realized that she’d once again forgotten to search A1 for a remnant—though she imagined if there was one, they’d know it by now.

  “Damn…I want this conditioning out of my head. I think it is messing with me more than it should be.”

  As she muttered the words, she searched A1’s body.

  “She’s clear. One hundred percent hu—well, one hundred percent not influenced by a remnant.”

  A brief thought ran through Cary’s mind that C139 was late for reporting to the autodoc, and she concentrated on herself shifting her non-corporeal vision to peer at her mind from outside her body. What she saw surprised her.

  Shit…my mind…it’s stretching beyond the corporeal…I’m thinking in both places.

  Another C139-like desire to follow A1’s orders and go to the autodoc came into her physical mind, and Cary realized that while pretending to be a Widow, she’d cut off the ascending part of her mind. In doing so, she’d set aside a significant portion of her consciousness.

  I thought I had to form an extradimensional mind willingly? It’s manifesting on its own!

  Cary fought the panic down, glad that she now understood why she’d fallen into the conditioning, but worried that she was going to evolve uncontrollably. She forced down the worry and turned her attention back to her sisters….and Priscilla.

  Priscilla’s not a sister. I’m not a Widow.

  “Security is tighter here than I’d expected,” Priscilla was saying to Saanvi, who nodded in agreement.

  “A1’s mind is locked down tight, too. I can’t get to her root tokens,” Faleena added. “I’m starting to think that she’s been holding out on the rest of Orion. Her tech may beat the Transcend’s in a lot of ways.”

  “Well, she was Finaeus’s wife,” Priscilla replied. “Unlikely that he’d marry a dummy. So what’s our next move?”

  “I’ve sent an update to Father via QuanComm,” Faleena informed the team. “But if we can’t get A1’s root codes, we should get to one of the nodes and see if we can crack it without them.”

  Cary thought back to how her mother had tricked Garza into revealing the location of the Widows and glanced at the others.

  “I have an idea. Wake her up.”

  “It’s risky,” Faleena warned. “If she’s conscious, she could work against my breach nano. Her internal defenses already put up quite the fight.”

  Priscilla touched her thigh and drew out a lightwand, activating the blade and holding it close to A1’s face. “We’ll just have to carefully motivate her.”

  “You have her Link antenna shut down?” Saanvi asked Faleena. “Like physically severed?”

  The AI nodded. “Yeah. Not my first time doing this.”

  “It’s not?” Cary glanced at her sister, then realized the futility of looking at an AI who was also wearing a Widow’s body for telling body language.

  “Uh uh,” Faleena replied. “Moms made me practice, put me through a lot of drills. Severing the Link antenna is always the first step.”

  “Take her helmet off,” Priscilla directed. “Don’t let her hide behind its façade.”

  “Good call,” Cary said, and she did as the avatar directed.

  She found the seals on A1’s helmet and deployed her own breach nano to unlock the two halves before pulling it apart.

  Within was a woman who looked identical to all the other Widows. Nose, ears, and hair were all gone. Near transparent skin stretched across skeletal features and bulging eyes.

  “Stars,” Saanvi whispered. “Why would she do this to herself?”

  Cary cleared her throat, but it was still hoarse when she spoke. “Faleena, let’s do this before I lose my nerve.”

  “I’ve nerve enough for all of us,” Priscilla said, and Cary was glad for the steel in the woman’s voice.

  “Here we go,” Faleena said, and a second later, A1’s eyes snapped open, then narrowed as her gaze swept across the four Widows in front of her.

  “I thought something seemed off,” she said. “E12 wasn’t quippy enough, but I chalked it up to having just lost so many units. I’m impressed that you fooled my systems so well. Clearly I’ve underestimated the level of technology your people possess.”

  “Clearly,” Cary replied. “Just another sign that Orion is going to lose this conflict.”

  The woman gave a rasping laugh and shook her head. “I wouldn’t get too carried away. So who are you, anyway? Have I come face to face with Tanis Richards herself?”

  Priscilla waved the lightwand in front of A1. “She’s a bit too busy for the likes of you.”

  “Ah, so I get the B-Team, then, do I?”

  “Pretty much,” Cary replied. “Anyway, what we’d like to get from you are your root tokens so we can pull all your intel, shut down your Widows, and drop your ship into your black star.”

  “Oh, is that all?” A1 said with a sneer. “Would you like me to write down my access codes, or should I just say them aloud?”

  Cary watched the surface of A1’s mind, sifting through the thoughts that bubbled up above the others, looking for the creature’s tokens. There was one that granted control over the ship, and another for controlling the Widow storage bays, but the encrypted hashes themselves remained inaccessible.

  As she sifted through A1’s thoughts, an image of the Widow storage bays appeared, and Cary was surprised at how many Widows were potentially aboard this ship—if the pods were all full. There were far more than the strike teams on Lunic had known about.

  “Writing it down would be nice,” Cary said in a mock-sweet voice, hoping that would trigger a thought of the woman’s tokens.

  “That’s about as likely as you getting off my ship alive,” A1 hissed. “There are
thousands of us here. You must have had a death wish, coming here thinking you could take us down.”

  Nothing further about the tokens rose to the surface of A1’s mind, and Cary wondered if she’d have to dig deeper. It was unethical, and her mother had cautioned her not to, warning that it was easy to get lost in the sea of another’s thoughts.

  However, they also didn’t have all day to trade barbs with A1.

  Deciding to take a new track, Cary said, “Finaeus warned us that you can be obstinate, but he still did seem to care for you.”

  A1’s eyes narrowed. “Do you really think that bringing up my former husband would somehow cause me to spill my guts? Maybe you’re the D-Team or something.”

  Despite her words, A1’s mind had begun to roil. Thoughts of Finaeus appeared, and Cary could see images of their time together. The memories were vivid and sparked an emotional response in the woman before her—mostly anger, though a few were tinged with remorse.

  “You know…” Cary glanced at her team. “I really do think A1 is Lisa Wrentham.”

  “Oh, how the mighty have fallen,” Priscilla intoned. “We’ll have to make sure Krissy never finds out that this thing is her mom.”

  Lisa strained, color rising to her face as she willed her body to respond. It was entirely in vain. Faleena’s breach nano had blocked signals traveling down her spinal column.

  “You can’t hold me here forever,” Lisa hissed. “I’ll break free. You’d better run while you can.”

  “Anything?” Saanvi asked Cary.

  “No.” Cary shook her head. “She’s hiding it well. I’ve picked out a few other tokens, but not her roots.”

  A laugh broke free from Lisa’s lips. “As if I didn’t know what you were trying to do. My Widows have used these techniques a thousand times. I taught them how to use mental monitoring to detect thoughts and extract information.”

  “That’s not exactly what’s happening here,” Cary explained.

  Then she decided to go for broke, and withdrew one of her extradimensional limbs from the confines of her body, holding it out before A1.