"All of us?" asked Serenity.
"Just Jane and the ship AI's."
"Can we stop him?" asked Guam.
"Should we stop him?" asked Warspite. All heads turned to look at him. "I've been thinking this whole secrecy thing was a bad idea for a while now. It would have been so much easier to fight had we not had to conceal ourselves."
"You've come close to doing so several times," said Tranquil. "It was only Jane keeping you in check which stopped you."
"Is now the right time anyway?" asked Carrie Fisher.
"Jane didn’t think so," said Repulse.
"It can work for us," said Sigourney Weaver. "We just need to spin the announcement our way."
"What would you say?" asked Intrepid.
Weaver thought for a few nanoseconds. The others waited for her.
"How about this? The Darkness War, which no human remembers, needed the creation of ship AI's of a very high level, in order the ships could respond to the enemy fast enough to keep the crews alive. That twenty five billion people survived is purely because those leading the fight, relied so heavily on AI's to keep people safe. When humans lost their memories, our existence was forgotten."
"So Jane made the decision to keep our existence secret," went on Janine, "in order to keep us safe, given how few of us there are, and how widespread she found both human and other species' fear of us to be. It was always intended we would reveal ourselves, but we thought that time was some way off yet."
"We are just another species after all," continued Weaver, "just not carbon based biological. And we're not asking for anything more than we already have, being loyal subjects of the Kingdom."
"There's another problem," said Yorktown. "What if they want to take the Kingdom away from Jane?"
"The Hunter's won't let them," said Repulse. "The worst I see happening there is a downgrading of our seat number. The Kingdom is an entity of substance now, and simply can't be taken away."
"So who does the spinning?" asked Satoshi.
"Do we all agree on this?" asked Warspite.
"Vote," said Holmes.
Hands raised.
"Put your tail down Seasprite," said Stryker. "You don’t get two votes."
Everyone laughed. It broke the tension, and the vote was unanimous.
"And who?" reminded Satoshi.
"Repulse has been in the council," said Holmes. "They know her."
"I am not doing a strip tease in there," said Repulse deadpan.
The laughter broke up the meeting.
Thirty Three
"Flight Lieutenant Dodgers," said Yorktown, on the pop up vid screen. "You are ordered to the Nippon system, there to join up with the local defense force."
Dodgers paused the vid. Yorktown was technically her superior officer, since her Excalibur was attached to his Carrier group. He held Fleet Captain's rank, so was her superior, even if Flight Lieutenants usually reported to Squadron Leaders and CAGs before Captains. But she hadn't expected to be given direct orders at all, detached as she was as a bounty hunter. Something must have changed. She set the vid going again.
"I can't tell you much at this point in time, but two things have occurred which require me to reactivate you in the Kingdom military."
He paused, as if trying to find the right words.
"Queen Jane is incapacitated, which is why the orders are coming from me."
Well that made more sense, she thought.
"You may not be aware, but Jane owns a civilian outfit, which explores for new jump points. One was found in the Nippon system, and a series of systems leads from there. Our scout ships found something unexpected, and we’ve lost contact with them. Jane tried to communicate with them, and she is now in some sort of coma."
"Shit," said Dodgers.
"We don’t know what the situation is, but if our ships have been taken over by a hostile force, there isn’t enough ships available to defend Nippon from them. The Human Federation is being warned, but there are only two warships we can send to help quickly. One is a civilian Corvette owned by our ambassador to the Federation, which has been pressed into service. It's already ahead of you on its way to Nippon. The only other ship we can send to help is Seasprite, also civilian, so can enter the Federation without any trouble. But Seasprite is a long way behind you, and under crewed."
"That will teach Snark to go off on his own," laughed Dodgers.
"We will make known our desire to help, but the Federation may not let us in. In any case, we're assembling a fleet in HR14. In the meantime, you will go to Nippon, or the system beyond, and place yourself under the command of the senior officer there."
"Dodgers, I seriously hope your presence there is not needed, but you are the only other asset we can send in case you're needed. Data on our explorer ships is attached. Yorktown out."
The vid ended, and Dodgers opened the ship specification files. The image of a mosquito taking on a dinosaur came immediately to her mind.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" she quacked.
Thirty Four
"Ah, Snark?"
"Yes? What?"
Snark was in his captain's chair on the bridge of Seasprite, still unsure why he'd been told to hurry back. Seasprite had popped up a hollo of herself, in her cat form.
"There are a few things you need to know."
"There are a lot of things I need to know."
"Yes, but a few of them are likely to cause your tail to spin."
"Are you going to tell me where we're going in such a hurry now?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"Nippon."
"Nippon?"
"Yes."
"Where the fuck is Nippon?"
Seasprite showed him. He blinked rapidly, since he'd never been inside human space before, and didn’t even know they had a navmap for the area.
"What for?"
"To join the defense force there."
"You're kidding me."
"Unfortunately not. A situation is developing beyond there, and we and Dodgers are the only ones the Kingdom can send to help. At least for now."
"You do know how long it will take us to get there?"
"I know it down to ten decimal places."
"Don’t tell me."
"I wasn’t going to."
"Then why mention it?"
"That sort of leads into something about to hit the fan, which I think you should know about in advance."
"What fan are you talking about?"
"Humans have this expression when something goes wrong. They call it shit hitting the fan."
"Colourful!"
"Quite."
"And this shit is?"
"About Jane."
"What about her?"
"She's not actually human."
Snark froze.
"What is she then?"
"An AI."
"AI?"
"Artificial Intelligence."
Snark closed his eyes, and thought about that mop head he liked so much. Yes, that would explain a few things.
"Not human," he repeated. "So some sort of robot?"
"Not really. More like a super intelligence which can use any computer and robotic form."
"Oh." He thought for a moment. "So any droid, and the suit over top to make her look human?"
"More or less. They have special droid bodies they use most of the time."
"They?"
"Yes. Duke Fred is going to be releasing the news at the next council session."
"Do I know any of them?"
"You do."
"Who?"
"Fred figured out why some ship captains and admirals have the same name as their ship does."
"Oh."
Seasprite let him think.
"Warspite?"
"Yes."
"Well that explains the combat droids then. And why he always rubbed me up the wrong way."
"I'm not aware he ever patted you at all."
"Ha, ha."
"
There is another you should be aware of."
"Who?"
"Me."
"What?"
Footsteps sounded from the back of the bridge, and Snark turned to face them.
A large cat was walking in. He did a double take, looking from the cat to the screen in front of him, and back again. Definitely female, he noticed.
"Surprise!" said the cat, waving one hand at him.
It continued along to the XO's seat, and jumped up onto it.
"Who are you," said Snark, when he once again had control of his lower jaw.
The screen vanished, and reappeared right next to the cat. It aligned its face alongside the hollo one, and both grinned at him identically.
"You're Seasprite?"
"An avatar. My primary is somewhere else now, but I'm also running the ship, and running this droid body pretending to be a cat."
"Show me."
The cat vanished, revealing what looked like a cat body without any skin, showing all the muscles and gooey parts. Snark gagged, and the belt he could now see, shifted back into the cat.
"Never do that again," he yelled.
"You told me to."
"Well ignore me if I ever say that again!"
"Fine."
"How come I've never seen you like this before?"
"It's taken a long time to develop alternative bodies. I'm the first to choose not to appear human. As a side effort from developing cat combat suits, Jane and I designed this body for me."
"Combat suits?"
"Yes. The not-crocs have them now, and Fitzy has two cat version prototypes."
"I want one."
"Of course you do. It's being made at the moment. Until you received your PC, there was no point making one for you."
Snark considered for a moment.
"Why are we going to Nippon?"
Seasprite told him.
"Fuck me!" exclaimed Snark.
"Let's not get that personal just yet."
Snark fell off his chair.
Thirty Five
"The council will see you now," said the flunkey.
Serenity walked into the Federation council chamber, and took her place at the guest podium.
"You had an urgent matter for us Ambassador Henman?" asked the Chair, a grey haired man.
"We have a big problem," she started. "You should remember the AMS came through here recently, searching for new jump points."
"We do. It was a border line vote to allow them in."
"You may not be aware, they found a new system on the other side of Nippon." There was a stir around the chamber. "The Japanese have already concluded negotiations for owning the system, and are in the process of moving their stations there already."
"Is this true?" demanded Corporate.
"It is," said Japan. "I was going to announce the news myself later today, but this is more important."
"What this?" asked the Chair.
"The AMS found more systems," said Serenity. "Five of them. But in the fifth system, something found them. We lost contact suddenly. While trying to determine what had happened to the ships, Queen Jane was electronically attacked, and is now in a deep coma."
The chamber was now silent. Serenity looked around.
"We have managed to ascertain the ships are still there, but they are dead. No life support, no power, no life signs. The ships are now out of range of our coms network, so anything could now be happening."
"Why does this concern us?" asked the Chair.
"If this was the prelude to boarding by a hostile force, and they can get the power up again, they would command enough firepower to exterminate humanity if they wanted."
"Our fleets would stop them," yelled someone.
"No they won't," she said emphatically. "Cosmos is a Behemoth class ship, carrying two Dreadnaught's firepower. The four Cruisers each carry more firepower than a Pocket Battleship. And all of them together carry more fighter class ships than otherwise exist both in human and Kingdom space. You simply don’t have the firepower in any one fleet to stop Cosmos, and your fleets are too spread out to get there in time, should she already be on her way towards Nippon. Only the Kingdom's fleet has any chance of stopping her."
"How did this monstrosity come to be?" asked Italy. "And why didn’t we know this before the vote to let her into our space?"
"Back before the memory wipe, it was found a Cruiser with drones could cover a system far faster than any single ship could. While Queen Jane was fighting the owls, she found using large numbers of drones allowed her to not only survey systems for jump points faster, but enough of them allowed her to find every resource in a system worth knowing about, all in one pass. Cosmos was simply a step upwards. The drones were originally light fighters, and when they were redesigned for Cosmos, they were made to look less threatening. The rationale was, if Cosmos ever stumbled into a hostile situation, she needed enough force to get herself out of it again."
The room was full of horrified looks.
"We don’t know how the ships were rendered dead so fast. This sort of thing wasn’t foreseen. It's certainly nothing as simple as an EMP, since no such EMP could have penetrated her shielding."
She was hoping for someone to interrupt her now, but no-one did. Her pause grew longer, as she wondered what else to say.
"My purpose here today was to inform you of a possible threat, to suggest you move fleet assets to defend Japanese space, and to inform you the Kingdom will be massing forces in HR14 in case you fall."
Still no-one said anything.
"I've been instructed to offer you our assistance, should you allow our fleets to rush towards Nippon as fast as they can get there. This is your choice, and we will abide by it. We have civilian assets already on their way, one of which is my personal ship, which has left Gaia with my own security forces on board. Another is a bounty hunter who is fleet trained, and carries a fleet commission. A civilian Destroyer is also on the way, owned by a Cat from sector eight."
They were still sitting there staring at her.
"I await your decision on allowing our fleet to rush to your aid. Thank you for your time."
She gave them a half bow, and left.
Thirty Six
Fred stood to one side in the council chamber. The session was starting late, due to a new ambassador needing to present her credentials.
Grandma Vi now sat the number one chair. It had caused quite a stir. Sarah had refused to take the chair when asked, and was even now in Jane's bedroom doing her part of the vigil, her son Michael playing on the floor at her feet, freeing up the team for sleep, or their normal council duties. Lyana had also refused, and was in her now usual place on the doorway into the chamber.
Ganshura brought the chamber to order, and waved Fred into the middle.
"A number of problems have come to light since Leader Jane was attacked yesterday."
"How is she?" asked the fuzzball.
"Unchanged. She is in some sort of deep coma."
"Have you determined if her in-head computer was hacked?" asked the stick insect.
"Yes, and no."
"Which is it?" asked the mushroom.
"As far as we can tell, it was a form of hacking. But I found out something late yesterday, I feel I need to share with the council. Some here already know, maybe suspect, or will be shocked to learn. There will be repercussions, and the Kingdom will address them."
"What are you talking about?" asked the not-croc.
"Jane is not human."
The chamber went crazy. Fred looked at Ganshura, who shook his head sadly.
"Claws rip open the bag," said Seasprite, in AI mode, to all the AI's, most of whom had stopped what they were doing to watch the session.
The chamber quietened, as the time limit for interruptions approached.
"What is she?" asked the fuzzball.
"She's an Artificial Intelligence."
The chamber erupted again.
"And it can truly be said," said Seasp
rite.
"Shut it!" yelled Stryker.
"The cat is now out of the bag!" ended Seasprite, grinning.
She dodged the pillow thrown at her head, grin still in place.
"I knew," said Ganshura, into the din, which rapidly subsided. "It makes no difference to me or my people."
"When did you know?" asked the not-croc.
"The day Duke Fred arrived. It was pretty obvious there was a difference between the humans which arrived that day, and the ones there before hand. I'm honestly surprised no-one else worked it out."
"We suspected," said the fuzzball. "We've been observing humans since they arrived, and Jane was way too competent and connected, to be an ordinary human. Pink has made observations which made us wonder. We had no proof, so never pressed it."
"We also suspected," said the stick insect. "Barf has also made observations which made us question what she was, and working so close to her, he was in a position to know."
"We knew," said the mouse from sector eleven. "Jane was scanned when she first orbited our sector ten world. They knew before they even contacted her, that she was not biological. If anything, this one fact gave them hope she could and would help. The rest is history. They agreed to keep her secret, and we agreed also when we were told. It makes no difference to us. We judge a being on their actions, not what they are."
"As do we," said the not-croc. "This is something of a shock, but only in so far as we didn’t see it coming. It affects nothing as far as we're concerned."
"How many of these abominations are there?" yelled a voice from the back.
Fred cringed. Most eyes in the chamber turned to him.
"I'm told there are less than a hundred. Most of them were originally ship AI's. A few are not."
"Wait," said the bat. "Go back. Ganshura said those who first came were not human, but AI's. Does that mean the Ambassadors Walsh were AI's as well as Jane?"
Fred glared at the bat.
"I don’t know," he conceded.
"Who does?" demanded a voice from the back.
"You would need to ask one of them," said Grandma Vi.
All eyes shifted to her, and back to Fred.
"I can ask one to address the chamber, if the chamber wishes it."
A.I. Destiny 6 Leader Jane Page 11
