by Mel Todd
Come see me immediately. Bridge briefing room.
The flat uncompromising text on his tablet made him sigh. He grabbed his portable tablet and walked out, the invisible presence of his warden always with him. Moving through the corridors, it felt strangely quiet, with the flashing lights the only disturbance. He expected something different with invaders, but it seemed, if anything, like it was the middle of the sleep cycle.
~Is there a response?~
If the AI could snort, that was what it felt like. In the last week they'd talked more than in the last few years. Before, he always cut it off before a real conversation could develop.
That might have been a mistake on his part. He shrugged as he stopped at the door to the secured bridge area. Laying his hand against the panel he waited for a moment. The door slid open and he walked in, head down, ears still. Many Elentrin took offense to ears twitching, following their movements.
No one spoke to him, ignoring his existence. He didn't even care anymore, all of it a suit of armor he wore. They only spoke when they needed something, though at this point he'd been on this ship longer than any of them. He was the captain's personal toy and of no consequence.
He walked to the briefing room and held his hand up again, waiting for the system to recognize him. Some of them liked to play games, and make their servants wait until the food got cold or something so they had reasons to berate. Keric didn't have that tendency. The door slid open after a brief hesitation and he walked in. The room had a table, a few chairs, and a desk at the corner, and a spectacular view of the planet below. Keric stood in front of the bank of wall monitors, glaring.
"Come take a look at this." The tone was abrupt, but nothing that Ash didn't expect. Lifting his head, he walked over to look at what captured Keric's interest.
The monitor had two sides, one showing an abstract planet with dots marking it as it rotated slowly. The other held pictures of two dead Elentrin.
"What do you make of this? Why are they fighting so hard to prevent us from taking a few corrupted and warped members of their population? Usually the populations are glad to be rid of their afflicted." He tapped the screen and the image changed to shuttles coming in and shelves of unconscious Kaylid being loaded, but just as many were empty shuttles that another Kaylid would enter and it would take off again. "It makes no sense. They should be ravening animals. Why aren't they?" Another tap and the video of the two dead Elentrin centered on the screen. "Then this. How did they break away and get weapons? I have uneducated Kaylid roaming my ship and killing those they should be worshiping."
Keric turned and stared at Ash, looking him in the eye. "What is your opinion? Why would they do this?"
Ash knew Keric liked to use him as a sounding board and most of the time wanted to hear his own thoughts or opinions parroted back to him. This time he hadn't given any clue as to what he wanted to hear. His hair, the silver of starlight off a purple sea, stood up in all directions as if the man had dragged his fingers through it so much that his own frustration had been transferred over. His eyes, a darker purple here, narrowed as he waited.
With a purposeful count of three Ash tilted his head to look at the screen as if thinking new thoughts. He answered just when he knew Keric had started to get impatient.
"They seem to not have developed the "locked in animal" nature. The warrior form is common, as seen from most being brought in. Also, while some are susceptible to the Elentrin Glory, not all are. Is it perhaps an offshoot from a previous visit? Traces remaining in the populace?"
"Perhaps. But to have them roaming my ship, uneducated, and killing at random? This is not acceptable. I may have to order all crew to lock themselves in and send out one of the wyrm squads to deal with these misguided beings. Don't they know their place is to serve us and help us with our holy mission?"
Centuries of experience had taught Ash to bow his head when Keric got on his rant. A true believer in the House of Rircn mission, he could get a bit extreme at times, a zealot for the cause.
"Either way, I wanted to know if you had any ideas on how to make this go faster with less resistance. They are ripe to be harvested, and from their skill at killing the Kaylid we send down there, they will make excellent weapons to eradicate the abominations." He sighed and crossed arms across his slender chest. The dark blue of the uniform complimented his pale skin and he shot Ash a look.
"I do not believe they regard those that changed as disposable. The best option might be to leave this planet alone before they cost us anymore trained units." Decades of practice let his voice betray nothing.
"No. Word might get out that you could oppose us. That is not acceptable. Oh well. I always wanted to be the one to destroy a planet. It has been a long time since an example was made, but it served well. No one dared confront us until now. A shame though, this could have been a fertile pasture. "
Ash didn't even as much as twitch his tail as Keric dismissed the destruction of Alara so easily. The death of over a billion of his people. He didn't even let rage swell. That had faded a long time ago. Now there was only cold, implacable steel in his desire for revenge.
"Ah, well. False hope, I guess. I had thought you might have some understanding of them, but you are almost Elentrin in your thoughts, which is what makes you so valuable. It matters not, I guess." Keric turned and waved to the door as he headed out. "I had better get ready for the Silik to get here. Their captain is going to have a limited time to harvest. I'm tired of losing trained troops to this awful place."
Ash followed, keeping his mouth shut and preparing to become as invisible as possible as he walked through the command deck.
"Captain, we have reports that they are in the decant rooms, but while they are removing people, we don't know where they are going," one of the members of the bridge crew said. Her voice was sharp, a frown drawing her lovely face into something closer to average. While the Elentrin as a whole were not the ideals of beauty that Ash had been raised with, even he couldn't deny their almost perfect loveliness. Too bad for the majority of them it hid a rotten core, though they had been trained to be that way.
"Explain," Keric said, turning to look at her. Before she could respond, there was an odd beep from the door and Ash glanced up to look at it. The sound was different than the normal alert that would come from the doors. They slid open and he felt his heart stop as four Kaylid, two Earthlings, and a Drakyn stared into the room.
By Alara's stars they got onto the ship.
Chapter 27 - Revelations
A special website has been set up for missing shifters. As some are recovered due to concerned citizens and the return of many via the work the military has been doing, they aren't always from this country. If you know of a missing shifter, please create a record for them which lists all of their forms and any special markings that may help us identify them. While all bodies retrieved by the body removal services have been disposed of, genetic samples were logged. However, collectors are telling us a few unusual samples are kept on ice in the morgue. ~ TNN News
Perc and JD took the lead, their weapons up and ready, while the two soldiers hung back a bit. Toni glanced at all of them and when they nodded, she tapped the panel for an eternity. The whole time McKenna kept turning to watch behind them.
~Got it,~ her voice whispered as she stepped back as the doors opened. Perc and JD moved in, their bulk blocking her view. The two men followed, then she and Toni went into the hole they made. Rarz brought up the rear, though he was too big to hide behind McKenna.
It took her a moment to scan the area because her attention was snagged by the huge view screen, or window, that took up one entire wall. In front of her lay Earth, the swirl of whites and blues interspersed with greens and browns, hanging there, the embodiment of every picture she'd ever seen. Her heart caught in her chest as she gazed at it.
"How dare you animals come here!" The Elentrin words were choked out, then in an outraged cry, "And how did one of those filthy things get on my ship!
"
The voice cracked through the space like a bolt of lightning and she snapped her attention back to room at large. Part of her had expected something from the movies, a center chair, a few stations in a graceful arc around that chair. It reminded her more of the 911 centers, with two levels of stations that seemed more like control stands at equal intervals, and someone manned half the posts. All seats were occupied by an Elentrin, in an array of colors that made her eyes ache. The only Kaylid stood next to a man with a severe uniform on who glared at them. Every eye had locked on the form behind her.
He must be the one that shouted. The captain?
Her eyes snagged on the tail that twitched behind the Elentrin, the white tail. With heart racing, she focused on the Elentrin and couldn't stop the smile that split her face open, exposing most of her teeth.
Ash!
"Intruders. Kill them and make sure I don't have any other vermin running around my ship. I get to kill the abomination." The words were snarled out, a level of hate in them so visceral that it made her want to recoil. The man standing next to Ash, the captain most likely, drew a knife from his waist and lunged towards them. Five other Elentrin, the same looks of loathing and contempt clear on their too perfect faces, drew knives at the same time and raced towards them.
None of her people hesitated; if anything their reactions looked planned. Perc and JD pivoted towards the ones nearest them and fired. Roark and Coran dropped to one knee and fired less than a second later. McKenna had her gun up and had pulled the trigger aimed directly at the captain before she even finished processing that they were attacking.
The five bodies hit the floor in a tangle of limbs, scorched blood and flesh, and the odd smell created by their uniforms smoldering. The area went silent except for the subtle beep of alerts from various workstations. The last Elentrin in the room, a young woman with pale green hair that reminded McKenna of mint ice cream, looked at all of them with a face that had gone pale, enough that her eyes looked vibrant. She slowly raised her hands and stood, a look of shock and fear on her face.
Ash just looked at them, his entire body frozen in place.
"Well, that wasn't what I intended. Toni, can you secure the door so no one else can get in. Roark, get something to tie up the last one. I really don't want any more dead and we might need her. JD, stay out here to guard and pay attention to crap. Toni, Perc, Rarz, with me." She motioned her weapon towards Ash. "You. Is there some place we can talk?" She said the last part in Elentrin, keeping an eye on the woman as the soldiers tied her up.
She still didn't know if it was him and wasn't taking any chances. What she saw in dreams may or may not be accurate.
I think it's Ash, but hell, for all I know there may be a ton of Kaylid on these ships that look like him.
Ash ducked his head, not looking at any of them. "This way," he said softly in Elentrin and pointed towards a door in the far wall.
"Lead the way." McKenna said and kept watching the others. Toni finished with the door and followed her in as Perc moved in front of her, checking everything as the door revealed an office-like area. The Kaylid moved in ahead of them, striding to the desk, then turned to face them, arms across his chest, and his body very still. Perc went to one corner, Toni headed to the wall with the displays, and Rarz walked over to the wall and with the planet that hung in the view.
"It is you? The Earthlings? And Rarz?" The Kaylid spoke in English, a hint of wonder to his voice.
Something in her relaxed a bit and though she didn't drop all her wariness, she did lower the gun a bit, pointing it at the ground, not him.
"You're the one that kept getting into our dreams? Putting knowledge there, talking to us?"
His ears laid back, and his muzzle puckered together, and a long exultant tone that sounded like pipes rang through the room.
~What the hell is that?~ she asked in the mindspace, her grip on her weapon tightening as Perc and Toni tensed. Rarz turned and looked at Ash and bowed his head.
~He is singing with joy. It is how his people once showed their gladness, with song and dance. Smiling is a very human thing.~ Rarz's voice had such sorrow in it that she glanced at him, confused, but he didn't look at her, focused on the Kaylid.
The sound ended and Ash looked at them, ears still flat against his skull. "I had no knowledge of whether it worked or not. I had hope, but even when your presence emerged in the trainings, there was no certainty."
"How did you pull it off? You were tens of thousands of miles away," Toni asked, turning her attention fully on him. "And why pull in my children?"
One ear flicked up as Ash looked at them, then went back down. "I sought out the tampered-with commander modules, then traced through the links between nanobots to try and give you as many training scenarios as possible. Then when our ships got into orbit, I created information loads and allowed your minds to link with mine to create realistic scenarios you would understand." He focused his gaze on McKenna. "Then I pulled you into a virtual reality simulation and tried to talk to you, but I couldn't figure out how much you comprehended. I was terrified they'd sense the connection." He trailed off, everyone looking at him. "Yes?"
[He sabotaged the programming?]
"You sabotaged the AI programming?" McKenna said at the same time Wefor's words filled the mindspace.
Ash gave another low twirl of liquid sound that she wanted to dance to. McKenna realized her tail was moving in time to the music and she forced it to stop moving.
"It became aware. It helped you!" His tail swirled in a way that implied it had fewer bones than hers.
Chapter 28 - Taking Command
Nations are fighting back at an individual level in numbers never seen before. While the US may be the most well-armed, the number of people in the Ukraine, Balkans, and Russia are unheard of. While many experts had theorized that people had more weapons than expected, no one realized how many people have weapons in their homes. If we survive this experience, I think there may be a fundamental change towards personal responsibility and people being armed. ~TNN Adviser
McKenna just looked at him. "You're saying the solar flare didn't disrupt the programming?"
"Solar flare? What solar flare?" His odd sounds had stopped and he now looked at them confused.
"A solar flare damaged many of the nanobots and Wefor had to rebuild her programming to be able to function." McKenna said the words slowly, her worldview shifting on its axis a bit.
"Oh." He seemed to sag. "That information I was unaware of." With a sigh he leaned back against the desk looking at all of them, his gaze lingering on Rarz the longest. "So the AI is still just a program."
[No. There is more than programmed responses. Though the lines between sentience and passing the Turing test might be debated. But your comment about altering the basic programming does fill in some holes. While the necessary rebuilding of the existing program helped to create independence, it didn't always provide enough explanation for some of the abilities present.] Wefor broadcast the information and from the twitch of his tail, she knew he could hear what she said.
That sat in the air, all of them lost in their own thoughts until McKenna shook her head. "In the end, I don't think it matters where the lines are drawn between reprogramming and alteration of the program. Right now we need to deal with the matter at hand." She focused on Ash and her muzzle drew back a bit, letting her feel the cool ship air on her tongue. "How do we defeat them, or at the least make them go away?"
His tail went still and his gaze traveled between all of them before focusing back on McKenna. "You have no plan? I thought you would have a way to destroy them all?" An odd bit of sorrow laced his words and frustrated her.
"They have three ships that are huge, then that little tiny ship, and we barely have space flight. What did you think we could do?" She didn't even try to keep the exasperation out of her voice.
Why does everyone think that in David and Goliath battles, David always wins? In reality he almost never wins.
"Something?" His joy had leaked away and she almost felt like she'd told a kid the Easter Bunny wasn't real.
"Can you at least help us take over these ships? Get the Kaylid to listen to us? We might be immune to the pheromones but most aren't and we’re guessing how to do this."
"Take over? And do what? I thought if you destroyed these ships they would go away and maybe you could give Rarz some weapons his people could use against them? Break them once and for all so maybe they'll quit doing this. Quit enslaving planets and people." Ash had a desperate aspect to his voice.
Rarz had locked his hands behind his back and looked at the floor. He'd turned away from the view screen while they had talked, but hadn't said anything.
"Rarz?" McKenna asked. She'd figured he had ulterior motives, but didn't know exactly what they were, other than for his people to survive, too.
He looked up and met their eyes. "I am the only one of my people willing to come. They feel we can not stop the Elentrin. That they are like a storm or shaking of the earth. You pay the price and move on. I feel different. I believe we can do something, must do something. But war even for those few willing to be wyrms is not an easy thing. We do not think of attack and death. Both of your species, yes, yours, Ash, are much more violent that we can even comprehend." His head swayed back and forth a bit. "I had hoped from your information you would be good at defeating your enemies. From everything I've seen, you would be very good. You have reacted without hesitation and gotten us this far."
McKenna suspected he would be green if he could be. Either way it didn't matter.
~Perc, can you head back out and send Roark and Coran in here. I'll make sure to put everything in the mindspace so you can hear it, but I need their input. And I really wish Miguel was still here. Cass, can you relay things to Elaine Zimmerman? And do we know where Charlie leader is? Captain Willis?~
Perc headed towards the door, clasping her on the shoulder as he went by. The firm squeeze he gave helped steady her a bit even as she tried to think.
