Stephen Berry - The AI War

Angry and vengeful, the AIs pursued the two K'Ronarin ships into the asteroid belt, their screens cutting great swaths through the rocky flotsam, absorbing the useful heavy metals, burning off the rest.

"When we were on Terra, H'Nar," said D'Trelna, watching the rear scan, "do you remember seeing the ice breakers keeping the sea lanes open?"

"Vladivostok," said the captain, also watching the rear scan. "I see what you mean-same principle, but far more efficient.''

"Battlecode burst from the admiral," said K'Lana. "She wants to know how much longer-they're gaining."

D'Trelna glanced at the readout threading across the bottom of the tacscan. "This is the place. Tell her any time now."

The spacemines triggered just after Deliverance passed. There was no one of this epoch who could have appreciated the artistry of their construction. They were originally Imperial Mangier Class Fours-top of the line, their design improved by the R'Actolians, through long centuries of molecular tinkering. The Manglers looked and scanned like rock because they were rock-of a very special element rendered highly unstable when touched by a shield matrix. The stronger the matrix field, the more unstable and dramatic the reaction.

The explosions washed over the battleglobes, briefly obscuring them from scan. When the nuclear flames faded, the two monster craft could be seen, drifting, shields dimmed.

"Hurt, but not dead," said R'Gal to D'Trelna. "Now what?"

Alpha Prime swept in toward the battleglobes, then turned away, releasing two flights of six silver missiles. Beams snapped after her as the battleglobes slowly began moving.

The battleglobes could easily have taken more nuclear missile hits-they'd been designed to withstand the ravening energies of the atom. What their designers hadn't conceived of-what no rational being would have conceived of-was the cyborgian aberration that was a mindslaver and its almost magical weapons systems. Alpha Prime's missiles held bits of antimatter in stasis. When the missiles reached target, those stasis fields released.

Two spectacular overlapping explosions occurred, twin blue-red fireballs, flecked with orange lightning, quickly gone.

The mindslaver returned, a great black wraith, halting off Implacable's port.

"Still there, D'Trelna?" asked K'Tran over the commlink.

"Why did you save us, K'Tran?" said the commodore.

"And what are your intentions?" said L'Wrona over his shoulder.

"I'm empowered to tell you," said K'Tran, "that we're prepared to stand with you against AIs. We have another forty-eight ships of this class and finally enough brains to crew them."

"Forty-eight mindslavers?" said D'Trelna. "Where have they been?''

"In stasis," said K'Tran, "awaiting this moment. The R'Actolians knew that forty-nine symbiotechnic dreadnoughts might take the Confederation, but could never hold it. For our help, we'll of course want some concessions."

"Of course," said the commodore. "What concessions?" It's come to this, he thought-I'm bargaining with a mindslaver.

"We want certain planets in Blue Nine for our own, under treaty. We want right of passage through the Confederation."

"Are these planets inhabited?" said L'Wrona.

"Not by Confederation citizens, Captain," said K'Tran.

"Whom you'll harvest," said L'Wrona angrily.

"A small sacrifice for the greater good, Captain," said K'Tran.

"Anything else?" said D'Trelna as L'Wrona started to speak.

"There are other, more minor requests."

"I have no-" began D'Trelna.

"-no authority," finished K'Tran. "We know. Just relay our demands to Fleet and Council. We're returning now to mobilize the rest of our fleet."

"How do we contact you?" said D'Trelna.

"We'll contact you, on the Fleet covert operations channel. If the Council agrees with our requests, you'll see us again when the fighting starts. Luck, D'Trelna."

The mindslaver shrank in size on the screen, then was gone.

"Engineering asks permission to lower shield for repair," said K'Lana.

"Granted," said L'Wrona after a quick glance at the tacscan. Deliverance was coming alongside.

Outside, the faint shimmer protecting the cruiser winked off.

"I'm at a loss, H'Nar," said D'Trelna, walking over to the captain's station. "Even if the mindslavers stand with us and the whole bloody Confederation Fleet, the Fleet of the One is going to wipe us. Ten thousand battle units, ten thousand ships per unit-any force we field would hardly be noticed."

"Perhaps we can help," said a voice from the empty engineering station. Guan-Sharick-as-blonde, Lan-Asal, Zahava and John stood there.

"Interesting," said Admiral S'Gan, looking across the conference table at R'Gal. "And how many-friendly- AIs are there in the Confederation?"

"Just the Watchers," he said. "A few hundred of us."

"And the hostiles-the Combine T'Lan AIs?"

R'Gal shrugged. "Several thousand certainly, and not confined to Combine T'Lan. They've had centuries to infiltrate key positions. Their influence is far out of proportion to their numbers."

S'Gan had come aboard, assumed command and taken everything in stride-the R'Actolian's proposal, the presence of the two S'Cotar and R'Gal. By watchend, all were seated with both ships' senior officers, in the deck four conference room-a small gray cave deep within the ship.

The admiral turned to Guan-Sharick, who was seated opposite her at the end of the table. "What's your role in this, S'Cotar?"

"Our mission is to stop the AIs," said the transmute. "That has been our mission since humanity revolted and escaped the AI universe. Our bodies are cloned, our memories and special abilities transferred."

"Ridiculous," said the admiral. "You can't be endlessly cloned-each succeeding generation would have more defects than the previous. That's a basic tenet of information theory."

"We're cloned from original cells," said Lan-Asal.

"But…"

"I can vouch for them," said R'Gal. "They're two of the five lieutenants of He who led the Revolt, the one you call the Nameless Emperor."

"You're… human?" said John disbelievingly, looking at the S'Cotar.

"More than human, Harrison," said Guan-Sharick with an ironic smile.

"I don't believe it," said the Terran. He turned to D'Trelna. "Do you?"

The commodore looked at the two white-uniformed figures. "We'll find out, I think, someday. For now, I'm more concerned with their intentions than their true appearance. And R'Gal"-his eyes shifted to the AI-"the same goes for you."

"D'Trelna's right, R'Gal," said S'Gan. "It's fine that you vouch for them, but who'll vouch for you?"

"We're going to have to trust each other, Admiral," said R'Gal. "All of us. Disaster is certain, otherwise."

"Perhaps," said S'Gan. She looked at Guan-Sharick. "Tell me about this device the Combine developed."

Before the S'Cotar could speak, the admiral's commlink chirped. She listened, spoke and disconnected, then sat silently for a moment, looking down at her folded hands. "R'Gal," she said finally, looking up, "I owe you an apology. Fleet did not acknowledge my last report." Her eyes went from face to face. "Rather, they've just listed me as killed in action, along with all my ships and crews. As for you, D'Trelna," she smiled humorlessly at the commodore, "you and Implacable have been declared corsair-shoot on sight. Combine T'Lan works quickly," she added.

There was a long silence in the room, broken at last by Deliverance's Captain Y'Kor. "Why can't we just go back to Prime Base and. expose the plot?''

"That's what they expect you to do, Y'Kor," said L'Wrona. "There are probably ships sitting off home jump point right now, gunnery programming tied into your ship ID. You wouldn't live long enough to see your own sun."

There was a sudden babble as everyone tried to speak.