Stephen Berry - The AI War

"Organic units?" said D'Trelna, frowning at the featureless spheroid beside him. "What organic units?"

"I've been giving the matter some thought," said the machine. "The R'Actolians are biofabs. They've had a great deal of time to perfect defenses for that ship. I suggest, given the R'Actolians antecedents, that such defenses would be organic. Most probably very lethal biofabs, held in cryogenic suspension until now. Biofabs without the R'Actolians' genius, of course. Her creations would not replicate Governor R'Actol's fatal error."

"Sort of like our friends the S'Cotar," said D'Trelna.

"Your records show they were not your friends," said Egg. "And why they didn't wipe you out is a deep mystery."

"Let's get on with it," said K'Tran impatiently.

"Agreed," said D'Trelna, swiveling his chair back to the scan. "We'll run a passby over your ship, K'Tran, on an intercept course for Alpha Prime. As we penetrate your shield perimeter, jettison your camouflage and upshield on our shield frequency. We then attack, with Egg maneuvering both ships and running shield control. Once our combined shield overlaps the sally portal, and the instant those two batteries are wiped, we launch our shuttles, rendezvous and run the portal. Clear?"

"Clear," said K'Tran.

D'Trelna leaned forward. "I'm switching you to Commander K'Raoda, who you so unkindly tried to kill at our last meeting. He'll give you a preliminary tactical feed and assign you battlelink frequencies." He touched a commkey, sending Victory Day's signal to the first officer's station. He turned to L'Wrona as the comm screen cleared. "I really hate-"

"-that slime," finished L'Wrona. "You're not alone. I could find a hundred volunteers for his volley party."

An alarm shrilled. "Unauthorized launch!" called T'Ral. "We have an unauthorized lifepod launch!"

"Recall it," ordered L'Wrona, moving to T'Ral's station.

"I have." The younger officer pointed to a telltale. Data was racing across the screen. "Negative response."

D'Trelna had come to stand on T'Ral's right, eyes on the telltale. "Making for jump point. Surprised the slaver hasn't picked it off."

The data slowed, then stopped.

"Jumped," said T'Ral. "But where?"

"No time for that now," said L'Wrona. "Why didn't you abort launch on computer warning?"

"There was no computer warning," said T'Ral, busy logging the incident.

Captain and commodore exchanged worried glances. "Get N'Trol on it," said D'Trelna. He walked with L'Wrona back toward their stations. "Mindslaver. Corsairs. That." He jerked his head toward Egg, still hovering by the flag officer's chair. "Now the computer," he said, turning for the door.

L'Wrona stared after him. "Where are you going, J'Quel? We're about to engage."

"Engage nothing till I'm back," he said as the doors opened. "I'll be in the facility."

Stephen Ames Berry

The AI War

The deck whirling toward him, John grabbed a railing as it flashed by-only to have his grip wrenched loose by the force of his fall. Screaming, arms and legs flailing, he fell the final hundred feet to the deck-and vanished inches above the battlesteel.

Standing behind the railing, T'Lan watched Harrison's disappearance without expression. He stood there an instant longer, drawing the logical conclusion, then busied himself at the command station.

"Sure you want to do this?" asked N'Trol. He stood at the bridge engineering station, finger poised over the Execute button on his console.

"Shield frequencies matched," said L'Wrona, ignoring N'Trol. "Stand by for linkage."

The camouflaged bulk of Victory Day filled Implacable's main screen. The cruiser was passing over the corsair, heading for the mindslaver.

"Ready for linkage," said A'Tir, her image in both N'Trol and L'Wrona's comm screens.

"Execute," said L'Wrona.

A'Tir and N'Trol both pressed a switch.

Implacable’s sensors went blind for an instant as Victory Day flared bright as a sun. When sensors cleared, they showed the corsair, shorn of her camouflage, running close to Implacable as both ships charged the great, grim bulk of Alpha Prime.

"Alpha will fire now," said Egg. It hovered beside the tactics console, tied to Implacable's computer by a tendril of soft blue light.

Thick as a shuttle, dark blue fusion beams lashed at the cruisers-and were stopped by the strangely elongated shield projected by the two ships, a sharp-tipped golden cone racing toward the mindslaver.

"What kind of a shield is that?" asked D'Trelna. He stood beside Egg, staring at the main screen.

"One mutated and strengthened by a shield-shaping algorithm, Commodore," said Egg. "Note the characteristic yellow hue."

"And the slaver's shield?" asked D'Trelna.

"Breached by our own," said Egg. "We've effectively tunneled through it.''

Now halfway to target, the shield was glowing, the portions around the beam points shading over into a sullen umber. Behind D'Trelna, alarms buzzed at engineering and command stations, warning of shield generators pushed beyond design.

"We're through!" called K'Raoda as the fire suddenly slackened. Following behind their shield, both ships had passed the point where all of Alpha Prime's port batteries could bear on them. Only two of the slaver's main batteries were firing now.

"She should stand off and blast us," said D'Trelna, watching their shield fade back into yellow.

"Were Alpha Prime entirely rational, Commodore," said Egg, "we would be dead."

"Gunnery," called L'Wrona over the commnet, "we're inside her shield. Take out that starboard battery." He switched channels. "K'Tran, take out their port battery."

Victory Day and Implacable fired together, fierce red beams exploding into slaver's nearest fusion turrets, sparking twin towers of yellow-green flame that billowed outward, then were gone. Two scorched and jagged craters marked their passing.

"I have positioned the shield's apex directly over the presumptive location of the sally port," said Egg. "We should leave now."

"You heard that, K'Tran?" D'Trelna said into the commlink.

"On our way." The corsair's face appeared in the screen. "Rendezvous in shield cone. See you on the slaver's bridge, D'Trelna-or in hell." K'Tran disappeared.

"Hell, probably," muttered D'Trelna, turning for the door. "Let's go, Egg."

The blue tendrils vanished as the slaver computer followed D'Trelna. As the two passed the captain's station, L'Wrona signed off on his log entry and stood. "Commander K'Raoda, you have the conn," he said, falling in beside D'Trelna. "Luck, T'Lei," he added.

"Luck to you too, H'Nar. Commodore," nodded K'Raoda, taking the captain's chair. He watched as the doors hissed shut behind the trio, then swiveled back to his console. "Hold her here, Commander T'Ral," he ordered. "And so advise our… allies.

"Launch control," he said into the commnet, "sortie party is on its way. Stand by shuttle."

The bridge crew watched as, a few moments later, the screen showed two armed shuttles meet and proceed toward Alpha Prime.

"Slaver is jamming all communications to the shuttles," reported K'Lana.

"What about us and the corsair cruiser?"

The comm officer shrugged. "Hasn't affected us yet."

K'Raoda glanced at his instruments. The commlink to Victory Day showed green. "Computer," he said, punching into the complink, "monitor carrier frequencies to corsair cruiser-report any change in status." He turned back to the main screen, then frowned at the silence. "Computer," he said, annoyed, "acknowledge order."

"It can't."

K'Raoda turned. A worried looking N'Trol stood beside the captain's station.

"Explain," said K'Raoda, looking back at the screen.

The shuttles were now just two silver needles receding against the mindslaver's mass.