A.I. Void Ship (The A.I. Series Book 6) Read online

  The Confederation had forty-one cyberships and a little more than two hundred Roke bombards. The two hundred bombards, however, would hardly add up to the mass of two enemy cyberships.

  No matter how many simulations Jon ran, the Solar System lost the fight. The Confederation fleet died, and the AIs won a resounding victory.

  The rest of the Confederation star systems would easily fall to the AI armada. Afterward, the Kames would surely go down to bitter defeat. The AI juggernaut would continue to sweep the Orion Arm of all biological life.

  Jon labored at the simulator until he slumped over asleep, exhausted from the dream training and the bitter knowledge that no matter what he did, they could not defeat the AI armada in battle.

  -5-

  Toper Glen and the combined fleet finally reached the Allamu System Oort cloud. The ships were far enough away from any large gravitational body that they could each enter hyperspace, thus beginning the seventeen-day journey to the Solar System.

  As was Roke custom, the Chief Star Lord led by example. Toper Glen’s cybership vanished as it entered hyperspace.

  One by one, the rest of the Roke cyberships and bombards winked out of regular space. Shortly thereafter, the first human-crewed cyberships entered hyperspace.

  The twelve cyberships in Admiral Maria Santa Cruz’s flotilla did not wink out. Instead, the twelve huge vessels began a long turning maneuver. They maneuvered in such a way that they no longer aimed at the Solar System, but in the opposite direction, heading outward from the center of the galaxy.

  Because of the extreme distance between the cyberships and the Allamu battle station, word of this change did not reach Jon for some time.

  Finally, he sent an emergency message to Admiral Santa Cruz, demanding an explanation for the flotilla’s strange maneuver.

  While the message was in transit, Jon summoned the Old Man.

  The Chief of Confederation Intelligence entered Jon’s office twenty minutes later.

  The Old Man was tall and thin, with thinning hair that he religiously dyed black. As was his custom, he smoked a pipe. What seemed like a lifetime ago, he had been a sergeant in the Black Anvil Regiment. He was even-tempered, known to give sage advice and, since Miles Ghent’s death, a follower of Christ Spaceman. He’d been running Intelligence for years now.

  “Sit,” Jon said, who sat behind his desk, indicating a chair before it.

  The Old Man did so, crossing his legs and puffing on his pipe.

  “Well?” Jon asked.

  The Old Man nodded. “Admiral Maria Santa Cruz admired ex-Premier Frank Benz. She captained his original cybership, following him to the Allamu System.”

  “I know all that,” Jon said with a wave of his hand. “What’s she doing now?”

  “Disobeying orders, I should think,” the Old Man said.

  “Didn’t your people clear her?”

  “She had appeared to cut all ties with Benz well before his slide into treachery. As far as my people could tell, she disagreed with his political philosophy.”

  Jon knew the Old Man meant Benz’s idea of fleeing far from the AIs.

  “Did you miss this one?” Jon asked.

  The Old Man puffed on his pipe, removed it from his mouth and said, “That would be my guess.”

  “So, we’re going to lose twelve cyberships?” Jon shouted.

  The Old Man winced and looked away. He didn’t put the pipe back in his mouth. Instead, he said, “I’m offering you my resignation, sir.”

  “What?” Jon shouted, standing.

  “I failed you. I thought she was clean. It’s obvious she isn’t. We just lost twelve cyberships because I—”

  “Listen to me,” Jon said in earnest, interrupting as he sat back down. “You must have Intelligence assets in her flotilla. Get to them. Have them kill her and install someone loyal to the Confederation. That flotilla must join Toper Glen in the Solar System.”

  “But sir—”

  “I don’t have time to train a new Intelligence Chief. Get to work. Remove Santa Cruz from her position.”

  “I’ll do my best, sir,” the Old Man said dubiously.

  “That’s not good enough, Chief. Get it done.”

  The Old Man nodded.

  “Dismissed,” Jon said.

  The Old Man stood. It seemed he wanted to say more. Then, he hurried out.

  ***

  Fifty-three hours later, Jon was in his office with Gloria when a light blinked on his desk.

  Jon swiveled around and pressed a switch on a screen.

  “There’s an incoming message for you, sir,” a comm operator said. “It’s from Admiral Santa Cruz.”

  Jon glanced at Gloria as a grim look settled over him.

  “Do you want me to leave?” Gloria asked.

  Jon didn’t respond. He looked at a computer screen and pressed a switch, receiving the long-distance message.

  Admiral Maria Santa Cruz appeared on the screen. She was tall and thin with long dark hair. She had piercing brown eyes and had obviously taken longevity treatments, as she didn’t have any wrinkles or crow’s feet on her aged face.

  “I am happy to inform you, Commander Hawkins, that I and my flotilla will not be joining you in your folly. Humanity in this region of the Orion Arm is doomed to extinction. You have grandiose dreams of overcoming the AIs in the Solar System. I wish you luck, I really do. But I am not a fool. My officers are not fools either. Perhaps many of the men and women under them are fools. That is a pity.”

  Admiral Santa Cruz closed her mouth and seemed to gather herself. “Your Intelligence assassins are all dead, or most are dead. My security team struck them before they could strike me. I learned from your treatment of Premier Benz.

  “Once, you were a great commander, Hawkins. Now, you are too stubborn to see the truth. I am taking my cyberships far from here. We will begin anew and by that save the human race from extinction. I urge you to do likewise while there still is time.

  “You no longer have my twelve cyberships. Think about that, Hawkins. I am forcing your hand. I am following the wisdom of Premier Benz. You killed a better man than yourself. You should have died that day, not him.”

  Admiral Santa Cruz shrugged. “I bid you good-bye, Hawkins. Don’t murder the rest of your people in your fool’s hope. It’s over. Run while you can. Admiral Maria Santa Cruz out.”

  The image disappeared.

  Jon stared at the blank screen.

  “How could she do this?” Gloria whispered.

  Woodenly, Jon pressed a switch. “Do we have any video of those cyberships?” he asked.

  “Yes, sir,” the comm operator said. “They are long-distance shots—”

  “Show me,” Jon said.

  The screen showed the emptiness of the Oort cloud and twelve cyberships. One by one, Admiral Santa Cruz’s flotilla began to wink out as they entered hyperspace. Then, they were all gone and there was just the emptiness of space.

  Gloria put a hand on one of Jon’s shoulders. “They’re gone,” she whispered. “They deserted us.”

  Jon felt faint. He’d just lost the use of twelve precious cyberships. He found it hard to swallow and badly needed a drink of water.

  “What do we do now?” Gloria whispered.

  Jon blinked several times. First, he couldn’t afford to lose any more ships or people. Second—he squared his shoulders and glanced back at his wife. He felt drained, maybe even defeated.

  “We keep going,” he said in a hoarse voice.

  “Can we win, Jon?” she asked.

  His eyes felt gritty. Did even his wife doubt him? Was he leading his people on a fool’s quest when he should be following Benz’s last advice?

  “No,” Jon whispered. “We beat the AIs once. We can do it again.”

  “How?” whispered Gloria.

  If he couldn’t figure out an answer to that question soon, maybe he should pull a Santa Cruz and leave this area of the Orion Arm.

  “There’s got to be a way to wi
n,” he whispered.

  “What did you say?” Gloria asked.

  Jon didn’t tell her as he stared at the screen showing the empty Oort cloud far out there. What was he going to do now?

  -6-

  Jon summoned the Old Man into his office. When he arrived, the pipe-smoking security Chief offered his resignation once again.

  “You’re going to atone for this,” Jon said angrily. “You’re going to do it by rooting out the rest of the defeatists in the Void Flotilla.”

  The Old Man smoked his pipe as he stared at Jon. “We can start a witch hunt, if you like. But is that really what you want now?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Morale is going to drop because of Santa Cruz’s defection,” the Old Man said. “There’s no getting around that. Instead of having my people interrogate others, maybe pushing some into acting sooner…”

  Jon stared at his lanky security chief. Santa Cruz had truly screwed him. This was bad.

  “Okay,” Jon said. “I get what you’re saying. What do you suggest?”

  “After what has happened, are you sure you want my suggestions?”

  Jon struggled to control his temper. Finally, through gritted teeth, he said, “Santa Cruz got away. We can’t do anything about her now. You failed there. Sometimes, the best of us fail. Now, you work harder and smarter. I want your suggestions until I don’t. Then, I’ll tell you straight to your face that you’re through.”

  “Fair enough,” the Old Man said. “Well…then here’s one of my suggestions…”

  Jon listened as the Old Man talked. The old dog still had some tricks up his sleeve. Jon agreed with his Intelligence Chief’s suggestions, and they made detailed plans for the next move.

  ***

  Five hours later, Jon sat in his command chair on the bridge of the Nathan Graham. There were a few different controls for the null-splitter and other Enoy technology, but otherwise it was the same old bridge as from the beginning.

  Jon finished speaking with Zeta via comm and turned to face his crew. Three other asteroid-like-hulled cyberships waited to enter the void with the Nathan Graham. Eight normal cyberships would join them. All twelve vessels brimmed with large cargo holds of Vestal missiles.

  The four asteroid-like-hulled cyberships no longer carried gravitational cannons. The normal eight still did.

  Jon had raged in his office. On the bridge, he maintained his decorum. It took willpower to do it, and that came close to demanding more energy than he possessed, but he had to stay calm to keep his people calm in the face of the latest disaster.

  “We’re about to make history,” he said quietly. “We’ve done this before, of course, but the Sisters of Enoy did the void piloting then. Today, the human race will enter the void for the first time under its own power.”

  “I just had a thought,” Bast said, speaking up.

  “Is it a positive thought?” Gloria asked from her station.

  “One hundred percent so,” the Sacerdote said.

  “What’s your thought?” asked Jon.

  “Maybe Admiral Santa Cruz had the right idea. We could use the void to escape far from this part of the galaxy. I wonder if we could go one better by crossing the vast distance between galaxies and go to a place without any possibility of an AI Dominion.”

  Jon stared at Bast.

  “All our ships are heading to their doom,” Bast continued. “That is folly of the worst sort. Instead, you have enough men and women in these twelve cyberships to go anywhere and start anew. You can save the human race, but only if you reverse your so-called heroic thinking. There is a way to win, but you’re too stubborn to see it.”

  “Anyone else feel that way?” Jon asked, looking around.

  Incredibly, a few hands went up.

  “Do you not see yet?” Bast said in earnest. “The Sisters of Enoy are still testing us. They are looking for a practical race. They have given us the means to start over, and you are throwing it away on a useless military gesture. That is not rational.”

  “The AIs will find our descendants in the end,” Jon said.

  “Not if we make the incredible journey between galaxies. Yes, this galaxy is likely doomed. Why does that mean the next one is too?”

  “The robots have invaded our home,” Jon said hotly.

  “They are too powerful to defeat,” Bast said.

  Jon looked up at the ceiling.

  “The rest of you can surely see—”

  “Bast!” Jon said, interrupting the Sacerdote.

  The big alien turned and showed surprise at the handgun aimed at his chest.

  “Admiral Santa Cruz mutinied,” Jon said. “Are you going to follow her example?”

  “We cannot win,” Bast said.

  “I don’t want hear any more defeatist talk.”

  “You want me to lie to you?” Bast asked.

  “I want you to keep your defeatist talk to yourself.”

  “I must be true to myself,” Bast said.

  “And I must be true to myself,” Jon said.

  “Would you kill me?”

  “Not willingly,” Jon said.

  “But you would?”

  “To save the human race,” Jon said, “yes. I would shoot you a thousand times, Bast Banbeck. In fact, here and now, I am making it known that I will put defeatists in the brig. If we run out of room in the brig, then I’ll have my loyal officers and marines shove the offenders out of the airlock.”

  “Jon,” Gloria said.

  “Our backs are against the wall,” he said. “This void fleet is the answer. It has to be. I’m not going to let anyone stop me now.”

  Bast stood to his imposing height. “I must leave the bridge then, Commander.”

  “Not like this, you’re not,” Jon said. “Marines, escort the Sacerdote to the brig. Put him into solitary confinement.”

  “Jon,” Gloria said.

  “Oh,” Jon said. “And take those who just raised their hands. They’re going to the brig too.”

  “Jon,” Gloria said again.

  “Not you too.” He took a deep breath, saying, “I don’t want to send my wife to the brig. But that might send the right message. Do you understand me?”

  Gloria searched his eyes, finally nodding. “Yes, Commander.”

  “Are you with me?”

  “I am,” Gloria said. “I’m with you all the way.”

  “Anyone else doubt me?” Jon asked, looking around the bridge.

  No one spoke up.

  Jon nodded. The marines drew their guns and approached the giant Sacerdote. Bast glared at Jon but went meekly enough. The marines took the hand-raisers as well.

  Jon sighed deeply after Bast and the others had left. That had been one of the Old Man’s ideas, with Bast Banbeck acting as mutiny bait. Gloria had done her part, too. The story would undoubtedly circulate quickly throughout the rest of the Void Flotilla.

  “All right,” Jon said. “It’s time to enter the void and figure out how to maneuver in a realm without directions.”

  -7-

  The quantum-pi engine did not sound anything like the great matter/antimatter engine. The process was quite different. This wasn’t a matter of propelling the ship through space but tearing away the veil of reality and entering a null realm, the void, where nothing held sway.

  The quantum-pi processor built up power.

  “Now,” Gloria said, as she studied her board.

  In lieu of the pilot, the null-splitter navigator manipulated his panel. He engaged the Enoy null-splitter that used the quantum-pi power.

  A force from the Nathan Graham struck the fabric of reality near the cybership. That force tore at the fabric and began with the tiniest of holes.

  “I’m detecting the null region,” Gloria said.

  Jon hunched forward on his chair as the main screen showed a fist-sized rip in time and space. Through the hole was the void, looking like an inky darkness. In reality, nothing was there, neither heat, nor cold, n
or size nor mass. It was nothing, null, the eerie void between the reality of space and time.

  The rupture grew as the quantum-pi engine supplied the null-splitter with more force. Slowly, the reality rip increased as glowing lines appeared and moved away from each other.

  Now, regular engine thrust pushed the Nathan Graham toward the reality rip. Glowing lines seemed to chew away at reality, exposing more of the null realm to the bridge crew.

  The other three void-capable ships did likewise. Behind them waited the eight normal cyberships split into teams of two.

  “Now,” Jon said. “Tell the others to start heading toward the void.”

  Would they do so? Or would other mutineers now show themselves? No. The regular cyberships slowly moved, almost hesitatingly, toward the reality rip in time and space.

  Soon, the four void-capable vessels disappeared into the nothingness of the void. In a matter of minutes, the other eight vessels followed them, two to each void ship.

  Inside the four void ships, the reality generators powered up, casting a reality field around each ship. The field was critical. Without it, matter would begin to discontinue, becoming null in the null realm.

  “What’s the present situation?” asked Jon.

  “We’re ready to close the rip,” Gloria said.

  “The other two ships in our squad are inside our reality field?”

  “Yes, Commander,” Gloria said.

  Jon hesitated to give the order as a strange premonition began in his chest. If he gave the order, nothing would ever be the same. Yet, how much did he want it to stay the same with the AIs hunting down all life?

  “Close the rip,” Jon said quietly.

  The process reversed as the quantum-pi engine added more power to the null-splitter.

  The glowing lines that outlined the opening became smaller, and smaller, and smaller. Abruptly, the reality rip closed. The ships were trapped in the void, in the realm of nothing. They had made it. The question now became, could the flotilla of cyberships ever leave the void, and could they do that back into the Solar System—and do it soon enough?