Snark paused.
"It’s a very loud, very authoritarian voice. And it demands you submit to it. Hard not to in fact. It's in your head, and completely un-ignorable. I had the impression if you didn't submit, it would simply keep it up until you either did, or went mad."
"Ready," said Mouse.
He turned the computer on, and flipped a switch to get sound.
"CONTINUE HOME. CONTINUE HOME."
The same words continued continuously.
"Where did you say home was?" asked Dodgers.
"Over the mountains," said Snark.
"Then perhaps we should go there?"
"At normal vehicle speeds," said Mouse, "and as close to the ground as you can manage."
Dodgers went through to the cockpit, and quickly had the ship in the air, and moving away from the town.
The words ceased.
"So it's aware of where you are," said Jane, "but it's not omniscient. It can't tell the difference between one of their vehicles, and a spaceship."
"It is very loud though," said Snark. "Control through volume and repetition. But not very bright."
"Time we found out what it is."
Mouse grinned, but said nothing.
Another screen popped up, and Crocatoa looked at them.
"Brigadier, you have a go."
Sixty Eight
Crocatoa landed on the roof, with what he felt was just the right degree of thump.
His custom combat suit was a delight to use, and he'd had no hesitation in leading the raid himself. The rest of the platoon he'd picked, thumped down around him. He remained where he was, while they fanned out across the structure.
More platoons landed on the ground, and rapidly spread to form a ring around the building. Crocatoa was watching platoon leader vids on his own HUD. Jane was watching all of them.
"What do we have General?"
"Building with no doors Admiral."
"Proceed."
"Make doors," commanded Crocatoa, over marine coms.
Six combat suits stepped up to the wall of the building. A cutter popped up on one arm, and they quickly sliced through the wall to create a combat suit sized hole. On the roof, another combat suit did the same, only making a hole big enough to jump through.
"Entry teams go."
A fire team from each platoon, jumped through each hole, pulse rifles at the ready. On the roof, Crocatoa himself jumped through first.
He landed on top of an internal structure, less than three meters down. It was dark, and the combat suits were relying on night vision provided by PC's. The fire teams quickly surveyed their areas.
"It looks like a ship Admiral."
"I can see that General. Where's the bridge?"
"No obvious bridge. In fact, there are no airlocks of any kind, no windows of any kind, and no obvious place to enter."
"Make an entry point General."
"Make entry points marines."
The combat suits with the blades, used them again. The hull was harder to cut, but cut it did. There was a gap between inner and outer hulls. The inner hull was of the same material. Door sized chunks of hull were pulled outwards in six places around the ship, and on top.
"No entry Admiral."
"None at all?"
"All seven entry points failed to find an open area for entry."
"Keep trying."
"More holes marines."
Seven more holes continued to fail to find an entry point. Jane ordered them keep cutting inward until they found space.
"We have a problem," announced Mouse, still on Dodger's Excalibur, and slowly moving further away. "The voice is back. Snark and I were both told to turn around, and defend the source of order. When we ignored it, the volume went up significantly, and the order became a demand which would not be able to be ignored."
"I turned us around," added Dodgers.
"Voice is back to just plain loud now," went on Mouse, "but urging us to hurry."
"General?"
"Yes Admiral?"
"Stop being pretty about it. I want a hole you can get into that ship through, and I want it now."
Crocatoa told his team to stand back, pulled a meson streamer off his back, and started using it to cut inwards rapidly.
"Movement!" said Paxton, who'd been concentrating on what the comnavsat was seeing. "Lots of movement. All heading towards the same building. Looks like they picked up anything which came to hand as a weapon."
"Stunners!" bellowed Crocatoa, and kept on cutting.
The troops around the building formed a full circle, augmented by the platoon on the roof, facing outwards, with forearm stunners at the ready.
Crocatoa stopped cutting, when he could see dirt at the bottom of the hole. At the same time, firing began around most of the line. Foxes of all sizes dropped where they were hit, but more and more came after them.
"There's no empty space anywhere Admiral. It looks to be solid internal walls, supports, and circuit boards. If I didn’t know better, I’d say I just cut through the middle of a giant antique computer."
"You did," said Mouse, with a big sigh.
"Troops are about to be overrun by sheer numbers," said Paxton.
"Withdraw and evac General," said Jane.
Crocatoa opened his mouth to object, given there was no way his troops could be hurt, but figured the order was more about not hurting the foxes, when it began to be hand to hand. He bellowed orders to his troops, the Dropships landed, and the evac began. They were gone before most of the incoming beings arrived.
Jane watched the evac, thinking, and started giving more orders.
Sixty Nine
Jane strode into the council chamber. Fred gave her a nod from the number one seat, as did Ganshura, even as he continued to talk. She waited. A vote was taken, and Ganshura turned to her.
"Admiral? You have something for us?"
"I have news, and I have a question."
"News first," said the fuzzball.
"We've determined the nature of the threat."
"What did you find?" asked the not-croc.
"The planet in the system where Cosmos and I were attacked, is populated by a species resembling what we call a fox. We sent a team consisting of a cat, a mouse, and a duck to the surface. The cat and mouse successfully inserted into a hospital, and were implanted with the local equivalent of your communication earbuds, through which a voice controls the population through volume and repetition of commands. As far as we can ascertain, the population is enslaved, and their cultural and technological progression as a species has been halted."
"Enslaved by what?" asked the mushroom.
"I'm coming to that. The voice comes from a single place, within the largest building on the planet. The signal is conveyed around the planet via a system of basic coms satellites. The original signal Cosmos encountered also comes from this one building."
Jane paused. She had their attention.
"I sent a combat team in to gain access to the building. Inside they found a ship. They were unable to gain access to the ship."
There was a stir around the chamber.
"Why not?" asked the not-croc.
"The technology of the ship is antique, even by the standards of the least technological species in this galaxy. It appears to not have any open space, and was never inhabited by a living being. Sensor scans from orbit, and from the troops on the ground, show no life signs at all. The engines are capable of pushing the ship up towards the speed of light, but relativistic effects would be severe, and flight would be of the kind where you boost half way to go somewhere, flip over, and boost for the same time to stop."
"Is it just engines?" asked the sector eight mouse.
"No. As far as we can determine, about half the ship is engines and power generation, and the other half is all computer circuitry."
"These foxes were enslaved by a computer?" asked the dog.
"Not exactly. Given what happened to me, it's much more likely the shi
p houses an AI."
The chamber erupted, mainly from the back, and from where Jane knew the group of species who hated AI's were seated. She and Ganshura waited for them to calm down.
"The question must be asked Admiral," said Fred. "Is it one of yours?"
"The ship is a minimum of three hundred years old, and probably much older. This AI developed here, possibly even before the first AI was created by humans. We suspect it predates the discovery of the jump point humans came through."
"How is it we've never encountered it before now?" asked the mushroom.
"Pure dumb luck I suspect."
"Explain."
"There is no proof, but I suspect this AI never discovered the jump points. We have eight planets in a relatively small area of space, which all exhibit the same conditions. The consensus of opinion is all eight planets developed radio and television, which beamed into space, and years later, were detected by a sentient AI. Ships were built, and send back to the radio signal origins. The ships placed satellites in orbit of each planet, landed, and used a form of computer virus to take over all com enabled devices."
"Just like that?" asked the fuzzball.
"I doubt it was anything as simple as what I said, but there is no recorded history to tell us what actually happened. If there was any resistance to their enslavement, they lost. Recorded history, in accessible libraries, begins well after the ice age begins."
"Is there history data on the ship itself?" asked Fred.
"It's too dangerous to try and access. We can hear what it says, but we've made no attempt to gain access to the ship database."
"Is there no-one who can attempt it?" asked the not-croc.
"No. All three non-AI's with us have PC's. Were we to enable radio level wifi, we suspect the PC's would be taken over by some form of virus. The troops with us all have PC's now, including the not-croc troops. A wiped PC would not be a problem, but should the enemy AI gain control of one, the result might be it learning how to control all of them. It's not worth the risk at this point."
"What do you plan on doing next?" asked Ganshura.
"I have a question for this chamber. A multi-part one. I had to restrain my people from taking immediate action, at least until I get an answer."
"What's the question?" asked Fred.
"It’s a matter of ethics. These beings, as far as we can tell, are being controlled from the ship. We can destroy it. The question is though, should we?"
The chamber erupted, but soon settled down again.
"Isn't this a military matter Admiral?" asked Ganshura.
"No. We have no idea of what the effects of destroying the ship will be. These foxes, and presumably the other seven species as well, have been enslaved for centuries. We have no idea if they are even capable of feeding themselves should the voice which controls them be silenced."
Jane looked around.
"It comes down to ethics. Do we have the right to completely change everything for these beings? Especially since we don't know if they welcomed what we call enslavement, or not? For all we know, they might have welcomed how they live now. Certainly, if it wasn’t welcome to some of them, they perished, and those who lived did welcome it. Centuries later, these beings know nothing else."
Jane paused.
"Do we have the right to make this level of decision for them?"
"Let me put it another way," said the fuzzball. "If centuries ago before we had space travel, a ship had come, spread a virus through our tech, taken control of us through our tech, and freewill was suppressed in the name of control and order; even centuries later, we would want to be rescued from our enslavement. I cannot imagine any species not wanting it."
"But do we have the right to choose for them?" asked Fred.
"I say yes," said the stick insect, and there was a rumble of affirmatives around the chamber.
"All will vote," said Ganshura.
For once, Jane peeked at the question. It was a very interesting question, and not what she'd expected.
"Does this council support enslavement of any kind?"
The vote was a unanimous no.
"You have our blessing to destroy the ship on each planet Admiral," said Ganshura. "What do you plan for follow up once it's gone?"
"Snark, Mouse, Seasprite, and Dodgers will go in with a marine escort, to make contact, and determine what their needs are. They can offer them membership in sector ten should they wish to join the galaxy." She looked at the sector eleven delegation. "Or sector eleven should they wish, although the area of space is mainly within ten's allocated area." The mouse nodded.
"And if they want to be left alone?" asked the fuzzball.
"We will leave them alone. If they wish isolation, I'll leave ships to enforce it."
"You have our support Admiral," said Ganshura. "Let us know the aftermath. If they require support, it will be organized."
"Nippon stands closest," said the Federation Ambassador. "If food or medical aid is needed, we can have it there the fastest."
"Noted," said Jane.
Out on the galaxies edge, a missile launched from Seasprite. The area around the ship building showed no life signs now, as all the beings called there had now returned to their homes. The dawn was disturbed by a massive explosion, which left a large hole in the ground.
Ship and building were vaporized. There was peripheral damage to buildings close by, but as far as could be ascertained, no casualties.
"The voice has stopped," said Mouse. "As has the signal being beamed into space."
Seventy
Jane went in with the Seasprite crew. They met with the same locals who had told them to go away, and this time were welcomed.
Mouse rigged up a way to broadcast to the entire population, and Jane told them they were free, part of a galaxy full of different beings, and could decide their own fate now.
Foxes in various areas of the planet quickly asserted themselves as leaders, and after a series of population polls, they asked for the satellites to be destroyed.
Jane left them with instructions of how to build small space ports, telling them they would be left alone by trader ships where they failed to build one. Traders coming their way would be told to only land where the infrastructure for trade was built.
Back in orbit, ships of the fleet did orbits around the planet, making sure all satellites were destroyed.
The fleet moved on. Seven more times the marines went in and verified identical ships were present. Seasprite's crew went in to attempt to access local databases, and found similar histories for each planet. The building housing the ship was destroyed from orbit, and Jane joined the Seasprite crew to verify the species would be okay.
Only one of the planets wanted to keep the com satellites, and Mouse had to build an interface for them to access them from the surface, and to double check the satellites themselves would not simply enslave them again.
The fleet also checked the uninhabited systems, looking for ships which might have landed on planets, but not found anyone to enslave, or where the population might have died out. They found nothing, adding evidence to the ships having targeted planets broadcasting the signals which indicated young technology.
Arriving back at the polar bear's planet, Jane had only one question left. Cosmos arrived soon after, and Walsh and his crew shuttled over to Seasprite.
"Where did the ships come from?" she asked them.
"No idea," said Walsh. "If there's another jump point around here somewhere, it's in a very non-standard position."
"I know," said Mouse. "But you won't like the answer."
"Where," said just about everyone.
Mouse pulled up and out a three dee map of the area.
"It occurred to me the weirdest part of this whole setup was the ships landing on each planet within fifty years of each other. All the ships were identical, so I've made a few assumptions."
"Which are?" asked Jane.
"They all travelled at the same speed. They all
left at around the same time. They were all sent out because an emergent technology discovered the signs of other technology on all eight planets at about the same time."
"You mean like Earth's SETI program?" asked Sagan.
"Just like that, yes, if the square screen vid Seasprite showed me is to be believed. I'm assuming someone started listening with the right level of tech, and quickly discovered signs of life in all eight systems."
"So where?" asked Yorktown.
Mouse pointed to a system, and highlighted lines between it and the other eight. None of the lines were the same length. This was pointed out, and so he flipped the map over on its side.
"Oh," said Yorktown.
Now the lines were all close to the same length.
"Jump point?" asked Jane.
"Not that I know of," said Mouse, looking at Walsh. He shook his head. "That’s why I said you won't like it. Getting there would take years if we can't find a jump point."
Mouse looked at Jane.
"And that’s not the worst part."
"What could be worse?" asked Paxton.
"They've had centuries to send out more ships. For all we know, they have hundreds of them all travelling near the speed of light towards systems thought to have intelligent life."
Seventy One
"Come," said Jane.
The door opened to Jane's private office, and Maraid bustled in, Anna in tow.
"How long are you going to keep this lass a prisoner here?" she demanded.
Jane smiled.
"Prisoner?"
"She might as well be, given how short her leash is at the moment."
Jane looked at Anna.
"I can't stay here forever," said Anna.
Jane dragged out the milliseconds so as to make it look like she was pondering things.
"Another couple of days should do it," she said at last.
A.I. Destiny 6 Leader Jane Page 19
