Stephen Berry - The AI War

Empire and Dust, thought Zahava, looking up at tl alien stars. And will I ever see John again? she wondere

She turned at the crackle of brush and flame-L'K was throwing more scrub on the fire. The flames flan high, sending tall shadows dancing across the ruins.

"It's doing it to you, isn't it?" smiled the major, lea ing back, head on his rucksack. He sighed, hands clasp behind his head. "It's a melancholy place," he said befo she could answer. "We used to camp here when I was boy-play marines and R'Actolians after supper, and tin go to bed, dreaming that the starships had come back."

Zahava tossed her t'ata into the brush. "Well, they' come back, haven't they?" she said.

L'Kor nodded grimly.

"How'd it happen?" she asked.

Based in the harbor town of S'Hlur, the 103rd was paramilitary battalion, charged with police and custoi duties in the northern half of R'Tol. There'd been no n trouble since the last of the pirate villages had been era cated, in L'Kor's grandfather's time. Eleven years out the academy and the major was looking forward to a transfer to P'Rid and the Exarch's Guard-a certain promotion to colonel second.

The silver ships had ended that, sweeping in from the ocean at dawn, blasting the sleeping town, burying many of the garrison in their burning barracks, making strafing runs along the narrow streets.

L'Kor and G'Sol had been rallying the survivors, readying for a second attack, when it came-machines: small, wedge-shaped machines that flew silently over the makeshift barricades and knifed through the troopers, spewing blaster bolts and tumbling decapitated bodies about the compound.

Standing astride an overturned truck, L'Kor had emptied first his pistol and then an automatic rifle into the machines. The bullets pinged off the dull blue metal, leaving it unblemished. A near miss had exploded into the truck, throwing L'Kor to the ground, stunned. As G'Sol helped him up, old Sergeant N'San, just a week from retirement, had scrambled up the west wall to the battalion's lone antiaircraft gun. Swinging the gun down and around, he'd sent a stream of cannon shells tearing into the machines as they'd gathered for a final sweep.

L'Kor used the few moments the sergeant bought to get everyone over the demolished south wall and into the jungle. As they'd reached cover, the antiaircraft position and most of the west wall had exploded behind them, adding its acrid smoke to the pall that hung over the slaughter.

"That's not the worst of it," said the major, staring into the waning fire. "G'Sol and I, we watched from the bush-they… they mutilated our dead."

"Mutilated?" asked Zahava. "How?"

"Glass or plastic domes." He held his hands apart. "This round. They came streaming from one of those silver ships…"

"A shuttle," said Zahava.

"From a shuttle," he nodded. "Whenever one came to a body, the dome would split. One half would drop over the head. It would flash red, dissolve the cranium-hair, bone, top of the ears. Then… it would remove the brain." L'Kor looked ill. "G'Sol swore she could hear a sucking noise when it happened." He shook his head, biting his lower lip. "Imagination. We were too far away."

"Then the other half of the sphere would close over the brain," said Zahava, "and carry it back to the shuttle. Right?"

The major nodded.

What do the AIs want with human brains? wondered the Terran.

"Our exarch, Y'Gar, has sealed the capital," said L'Kor. "The radio says there's a plague loose, and the population has been reporting for inoculations for the last week. No mention of this raid." He spat into the fire. "We think Y'Gar's sold out to these AIs. We can get into the city. In fact, we were getting ready to pay Y'Gar an unfriendly visit when you arrived."

"Don't let me stop… We?" said Zahava, looking around.

"Why do they mutilate our dead?" said Captain G'Sol, stepping into the small circle of light, carbine pointed at the Terran. Behind her, in the shadows, Zahava saw other figures, the dull glint of steel in their hands.

"She's all right, Captain," said L'Kor, standing. "She gave me her weapon, which I returned."

The carbine lowered. "Why do they mutilate our dead?" G'Sol repeated in a softer tone.

"I don't know," said Zahava, also rising. "They're machines, served by other machines. They've no need to brainstrip the dead, unless… No"-she shook her head.

"What?" said captain and major together.

"There's a type of ship that uses human brains-but the only one left is a harmless derelict."

"Mindslavers," said G'Sol.

"How did you know?" asked the Terran.

The major grinned humorlessly. "This is D'Lin, Zahava.

We're standing in the ruins of the quadrant governor's palace. The last governor was S'Helia R'Actol, creator of the R'Actolian biofabs. The R'Actolians created-"

"The first mindslaver," said Zahava, nodding. "Of course you'd know. But that still doesn't explain what the AIs need human brains for.''

"AIs?" said G'Sol, looking from Zahava to L'Kor.

"Artificial intelligence," said L'Kor. "Machines that think, kill and don't like people-our friends from the attack. You missed an interesting discussion, S'Yin."

"I'd like to join your visit to the exarch," said Zahava. "If he's betrayed you, he'll have some answers. You're not too squeamish about how you put the questions, are you?"

They just looked at her.

"I see you're not," she said.

"What can you contribute?" asked G'Sol.

A blur of motion, Zahava pivoted, drew and fired. A vine-choked pillar exploded in flame, the echo rolling out over the jungle. "How about a few hundred blasters and provisions?" she said, turning and reholstering.

L'Kor laughed-an honest, open laugh-and held out his hand. "Welcome to the One hundred and third, Zahava Tal."

A sullen red sun was rising by the time they were ready, blasters and ship's stores distributed, breakfast eaten. Only forty of the troopers were fit enough for combat-L'Kor was leaving the rest behind with the surviving medic.

"You know what to do?" said Zahava, clipping the communicator to her belt. She stood alone in the lifepod, the rest assembling outside.

"Protect the encampment and await your signal," said the lifepod. "I am not to acknowledge any communications, from either you or our own vessels, unless such vessels are approaching this planet. If summoned, I am to come in low and fast, avoiding detection, firing at targets of opportunity."

"You're a very versatile lifepod, thirty-six," said Zahava, taking an M32 blastrifle from the arms rack and slinging it over her shoulder.

"How versatile should a lifepod be?" asked the machine as Zahava walked to the airlock.

The Terran opened the airlock, looking back at the command console as sunlight swept in. "Was your programming augmented for this trip, thirty-six?" she asked. "Because my being at this place, at this time, reeks of a setup."

"If such were true," said the lifepod, "it's unlikely I would be allowed to acknowledge it."

"We're ready!" L'Kor called from the foot of the ladder. "Boat's waiting!"

"We'll talk later," said Zahava, leaving.

"Luck," said the lifepod as the airlock hissed shut.

Looks like Sidon, thought Zahava, remembering another war and another world as they slipped into the shattered harbor town. Then the breeze turned onshore, bringing the stench of death, and she knew it was worse.

The troopers stole through the town with the silent precision of trained infiltrators, moving quickly on the harbor and the boat slips.

S'Hlur had been a weathered gray town of squat stone buildings and narrow stone streets-a thick, solid town, its edges worn by time and storms-a place that would have sat quietly hunkered down before the sea another thousand years.

Most of the cottages and shops lay shattered, blasted by fusion fire that had left the streets and blocks in tumbled ruin. A few untouched buildings stood in grotesque contrast amid the rubble.