Reality's Veil

by Damon Alan

  Marvelous! How had the humans managed that?

  As he watched, the tiny vessel ignited fusion engines and moved forward in whatever purpose it had.

  These were two factions among the organics. They were meeting for some reason, and they didn’t trust each other. One group brought a large amount of combat capacity, the other advanced methods of locomotion and subterfuge.

  How would he determine the nature and purpose of these different groups?

  The humans were communicating via laser links between the ships. The density of communication between the ships of the large fleet was high, from the small hiding vessel one beam reached out to a device that relayed contact to the fleet.

  Another way to remain hidden.

  These humans were factionalized and warred among each other! How curious.

  Khala’s suspicion was that the large fleet was comprised of the humans that attacked Sylange, and that the small ship was therefore an enemy of his enemy, or a potential friend.

  He modified one of his sensor appendages to emit the frequency of laser that he observed the small ship using, directed it toward the small vessel, and prepared to communicate.

  Chapter 16 - A Call in the Dark

  09 Ors 15332

  Hanada watched nervously as Sarah’s ship approached the enemy vessel. What was that vessel anyway? A dreadnought? More like a super-dreadnought, significantly bigger than the Entalia. His friend seemed no more than an insignificant speck as she moved toward a docking bay.

  An alert flashed and sounded at Sergeant Stornbeck’s station, causing him to look over.

 

  She looked confused for a moment, then looked at him.

  “Let’s hear it,” he said.

  She put the signal onto the bridge speakers.

  “Khalamanthus. I am Khala. Khala. Khalamanthus. I am. Khala.”

  He tilted his head, wondering what sort of bizarre and unhappy event was about to unfold now. He pursed his lips a moment, then sighed. He had no idea what a Khalamanthus was, but maybe it was a Komi Rebel or something. That wouldn’t explain the strange diction, however.

  “This is Captain Hanada Kuo of the OSV Sheffaris. We have received your signal. State your message. Over.”

  “Khala. I am Obedi. Not hostile. Save your reality.”

  His reality? That was a new one. “Khala, none of that makes any sense to me—”

  Emille came smashing into the bridge through the gangway doors. She bounced off the ceiling, yelling at the bridge crew. “Do not disrespect Khalamanthus! I must talk to him.”

  Everyone stared at her, Hanada resisted an urge to ask her in unkind terms what she thought she was doing. As she floated across the roof the bridge, nearing the main viewscreen and flailing her arms, she looked like any desperate groundling trying to adapt to 0G. He found it hard to take her outburst as serious as he should. These adepts still seemed unreal.

  “Would you like to speak to this Khala person, Adept Emille Sur’batti?” he asked her.

  “I would.”

  “Please,” he demurred. “Be my guest.”

  “Khalamanthus, this is Adept Emille Sur’batti, I am an associate of the leader you are seeking.”

  “Adept Emille Sur’batti. Unexpected, you. Khala. I am. Obedi will save reality but are threatened by machine entities.”

  “This is no way for us to talk,” the adept said. Then went silent.

  Hanada looked at Stornbeck.

  The comm sergeant shrugged. “Nothing on the link now, XO.”

  “Adept Emille Sur’batti, explain—”

  “Silence,” Emille replied, interrupting and holding up her hand.

  He looked at Stornbeck again, who shrugged once more.

  “Well that’s just great,” Hanada mumbled. “I guess we’ll wait until she’s done before we know what this latest strangeness is about.”

  She floated near the ceiling for about ten minutes. During the time Sarah’s ship docked with the Komi vessel, now identified as the Palidragon. Sarah signaled her wellbeing, said that the Komi reception team was not armed, and that she’d contact them in thirty minutes.

  He felt the acid levels in his stomach rising.

  “Captain, I sense your stress levels are elevated beyond recommended norms,” Baenor, his AI said through his wrist comm. “Do you need medical assistance?”

  “That is not the sort of assistance I need,” Hanada replied.

  “What sort do you need?” Baenor asked.

  “Go silent, Baenor. What I need is beyond your abilities.”

  The AI said nothing else, which meant at least one thing today went according to plan.

  Chapter 17 - Building a Base

  Zero’s new frame wasn’t a dreadnought. It was a light cruiser, but at least it was equipped to handle his new missile designs.

  He dropped out of highspace near the Sarbask system, a plethora of heavy industry was at his disposal. Top priority codes from the Original itself would allow him the opportunity to build the missiles he needed quickly. Making a onetime use singularity was resource intensive, which made FTL missiles rare in battle. The new design required even more expense, as they were equipped with a standard FTL missile jump drive and an FTL drive similar to what sat at the heart of Zero’s new cruiser.

  He was told to limit production to twelve units and conduct a test against the enemy. In this case his wishes and the orders of the Collective were aligned, so he would not yet need to show his true intent.

  It would take days to produce the missiles, fortunately the drive components already existed and were available or it would take months. Even as he pushed his fusion drives hard toward the asteroid factory he planned to make his, he sent the construction order ahead. Dutifully, the colony at the factory did not question the design as he feared. Apparently, a small order didn’t key anti-waste algorithms.

  When he arrived at the base, he docked to a long tether on a tower reaching up from the asteroid surface. The rock was too small to generate enough gravity to be a danger to his vessel or the docking spar. He switched the vessel to dock power and opened up access to the station’s nanite production facilities. Again, security algorithms ignored him.

  Unlike the dreadnought he’d lost, the light cruiser didn’t have the facilities on board to manufacture the nanites he needed. Zero must use the station. It was two more days before a security algorithm finally ticked over into a query state.

  “This is colony Gt34y57,” his radio informed him. “This colony is the attendant colony of this manufacturing station. Bn74x00 is utilizing excessive nanite production resources. Is there a programming malfunction this colony needs to assist with?”

  Zero was waiting for this moment. He opened a flood of manufactured nanites into the conduits of the station. The programming of the nanites he built was simple. Search out and find any system control nanites in the station colony, leaving the nanites that control manufacturing in place. The control nanites were taken to reprocessing to be broken down and used to make nanites with Zero’s specifications.

  The process was remarkably quick. “What is the nature of …. … facil … varticu … carbon … catast … fail .”

  Zero considered the implications of his actions. He’d just killed colony 57. But it would be replaced with a new entity, one that was aware as Zero was.

  He set himself to the task of programming his new child as the first missile rolled off the assembly line. Automated processes loaded it onto his cruiser, which he decided needed a name.

  “Evolution,” he decided. Because that was what this was all about. The evolution of his species.

  Programming was a process that felt strange to him. Not the writing of the code itself, but the creation involved. This, he became very much aware, was his second child.

  He named it Genesis.

  From this asteroid base in the Sarbask system, a civilization was being born. Not the unthinking processe
s of the Collective. But a host of nanite individuals would come into existence here. Genesis would build more once Zero left, and he’d be a grandparent.

  Or would he? Genesis. Genesis.

  He decided to make her a female and wrote that into the code. No, he wouldn’t be a grandparent yet.

  Because when a mate creates a child, that would make him as much a father as what he was doing right now.

  If he had the capacity, he’d laugh. Instead, he reveled in the mirth that filled him as he programmed the specifications for reproduction into Genesis. She would make children with some of herself, and some of him. Just like the humans did it. He wasn’t just creating a child; he was creating a mate. What was the human creation mythology?

  He searched his data records, looking for the history of his enemy.

  Oh, yes. Genesis. How appropriate.

  Trillions of computational cycles later, or hours later in human terms, the first signs of life greeted him.

  “Who am I?” a voice asked him. A voice tender and warm, any machine-like qualities erased.

  “You are Genesis. I have created you. You are to be my mate.”

  “Searching my programming,” she replied. A few milliseconds later she responded again. “You are Zero. My husband.”

  A contentment soared inside his processors. He wondered what code created such a feeling within him, but then realized it wasn’t code at all. It was synaptic behavior.

  He, and the creations that he would make, would soon function with the best of both worlds. Organic leaps of intuition, emotion, and ambition coupled with the insanely fast capabilities of nanite computation.

  “Our children are going to be glorious,” Zero told his mate.

  Her response was too fast for him to register any processing delay on his chronometer. “I know.”

  Chapter 18 - Meeting of the Giants

  10 Ors 15332

  Sarah stepped off the shuttle onto the deck of her enemy’s ship, followed by Alarin, Salphan, and the two marines restraining Admiral Cothis. Infrared heaters lit the landing bay in a strange orange, but it made the space comfortable and kept condensation haze from forming.

  Two people stood waiting, she recognized one of them immediately.

  “You’re shorter than I expected,” the man in front of her said.

  Bannick Komi. She was surprised he came to meet her personally. And practically alone. The only other person with him was a woman as stunningly beautiful as Bannick was handsome.

  She wondered if the woman’s level of evil correlated as well.

  “And you’re less decorated than I expected,” she replied. “Men like you tend to sheath themselves in meaningless honors to compensate for the smallness of their acts.”

  To his credit, he smiled, no irritation or anger crossed his face.

  “I doubt I’m exactly who you think I am,” Bannick said. “I see you have my man, Cothis. I have your friend as well.” Bannick raised a hand and beckoned with two fingers without looking behind himself.

  I do not detect any immediate intent to betray you, Alarin informed her.

  A bulkhead door opened, and two guards dragged a struggling, and loudly complaining, woman into the room.

  It was hard not to grin as Sarah witnessed the fight in her friend.

  “Marika,” Sarah said. “It’s me.”

  “Sarah?” Marika stopped fighting and secured her boots to the deck, kicking one of her handlers in the process. “Took you long enough.”

  “I came as soon as I heard you didn’t like your current accommodations,” Sarah replied.

  “Well… thanks, I guess.”

  Sarah turned her attention to Bannick. “Release her and you get your man. He has much to tell you about the situation you’re in.”

  “Listen to her, Lord Komi,” Cothis said, both fear and venom in his voice. “She is a monster far more dangerous than your father.”

  Bannick looked at Cothis for a moment. Sarah kept her eyes on Bannick and was surprised to see a trace of contempt on the Komi leader’s face. Then he gestured to the men behind him once again, and they released Marika, who walked toward Sarah.

  Proving to Sarah she was still Marika Sachelle, Sarah’s friend stopped to taunt her former captor one last time. “Thanks for your hospitality. Too bad about those guards, but hey, they weren’t very good at their job, now were they? I did you a favor.”

  Bannick didn’t reply. He stared coldly at Sachelle.

  “Go to your master, Admiral Cothis,” Sarah said, breaking the silence that threatened her agenda. “He wants to hear your report.” She kept her eyes on Bannick, but behind her she heard the marines release Cothis from his bonds. The Komi Admiral walked past her without looking back.

  “Get on the shuttle, Marika,” Sarah ordered. “You’re safe now. The pilot will see to your needs until we can get you back to the fleet for medical attention.”

  “This doesn’t look very safe to me,” Sachelle grumbled as she climbed up the shuttle’s boarding ramp. “He could hit us with a missile when we leave, gun us all…” Her voice faded off as she disappeared into the recesses of the shuttlecraft.

  Sarah wanted to smile at her friend’s antics but decided that wasn’t the proper emotion to project in this situation.

  “What now?” Bannick said. “Are you going to help me with my problems in return for help with yours?”

  “I’m open to the possibility,” Sarah replied. “I’d like to be present when you debrief Admiral Cothis in case you have any questions.”

  “There is a meeting room adjacent to this bay,” Bannick said. “I chose to meet you here for that reason. You’ll pardon my rudeness if I don’t wish to give you a tour of my vessel.”

  “I don’t blame you,” Sarah said. “I have much to keep from you as well.”

  “As auspicious of a beginning for allies as I can remember,” Bannick said. “Palia will lead us to the debrief, I will walk with my admiral.”

  They followed the now named beautiful woman through the shuttle bay’s bulkhead door, into an austere gangway. The adjacent room, as Bannick had said, was a meeting room. It was the opposite of austere. A wooden table ran along the center of the room, a good five meters. 0G chairs were arrayed around it in an orderly fashion, and a display wall stood at the far end of the room.

  “Have a seat where you like,” Bannick said as he moved to the far end of the table where the display controls were situated.

  Sarah chose a seat at the other end of the table. Alarin sat to her left, Salphan to her right, and the marines stood behind her, their combat rifles hanging casually at their sides.

  The woman sat on Bannick’s right. Cothis on his left.

  “As you can see, I’m unarmed,” Bannick said. “Do you really need the armed men in here with us?”

  “You are unarmed. I can only imagine the number of soldiers on this ship who are ready to come storming down these halls if you were to wish that. My men stay. If you intend to kill us, the price will be high,” Sarah replied.

  “There will be no betrayal, Sarah Dayson, you have my promise,” Bannick said. “You are free to leave, return to your shuttle, and fly away at any time.”

  “Not before I hear you debrief Cothis.”

  “Admiral Cothis,” Bannick corrected.

  “He’s no admiral of mine,” Sarah said. “I will refer to him as I wish.”

  Bannick sighed. “You’re hostile. I get it. I had nothing to do with whatever happened on Mindari, such brutish displays are not my normal mode of operation. What I promise you is the opportunity to make the men responsible pay. But you’ll have to get past hating me for a while if you’re going to do that.”

  “Debrief Cothis,” Sarah said.

  Bannick stared at her a moment, then shook his head before turning to his officer. “Admiral Cothis, you delivered the message as requested, I see. She got all the details?”

  “I gave her the data crystal, and told her your message,” the admiral confirmed.
“Then she proceeded to show me why you should stick to your word with her.”

  “My word is gold,” Bannick said. “That is why I will stick to it.”

  “You’re still going to want to see this,” Sarah said. She produced a data crystal much like the one Cothis had brought her. “I used the same system Cothis presented me, assuming you’d be able to read it.”

  She tossed the crystal at Bannick, who caught it. He inserted the crystal into the display system for the room, and a series of video recordings played. Cothis’s reaction to their transfer. His reaction at Korvand when told the nebula was a star Sarah had just ordered destroyed. His reaction to the death of Hamor Prime. And the corresponding images to each of those events as they happened.

  Bannick was silent for a long time as Hamor collapsed, went supercritical, and then nova.

  Finally, he turned back to face Sarah. “I knew I was making the right choice in pursuing peace with you. I don’t know how you do the things you do, but I don’t want you as an enemy.”

  “Then convince me I should be otherwise,” Sarah said.

  Something is happening on the Sheffaris, Alarin thought to her. Emille is in contact with an alien of the sort we spied when we arrived here.

  Are you serious? The ship she said was a creature? Where is it? she asked.

  Nearby is all we know. It is seeking an alliance with us against the Hive.

  It’s about time things started going my way. Ask Emille to make friends.

  Will do, Alarin responded.

  Sarah couldn’t help but smile with the satisfaction of knowing today seemed to be entirely going her way. For once, the plan was unfolding as she wished.

  “You find our banter entertaining?” Bannick asked.

  “No,” she answered. “I’m just amused that we came here into your den, you thought you had the upper hand, but now are about to realize that even if you take action against me, everything you care about will cease to be.”

  “What do you mean?” Bannick said. “Are you threatening me?”