A.I. Assault (The A.I. Series Book 3) Read online

  “I’m not sure I can agree,” Gloria said. “We need Earth’s industries and population. With robo-builders, humanity could start building fleets of cyberships. With Mars, the Saturn System and Makemake as the industrial centers, that will retard our war efforts.”

  “Nothing is ever perfect,” Jon said.

  “Against the united AIs, we’d better be perfect,” Gloria said. “Maybe you’ll have to dust off your idea of conquering the Solar System.”

  Jon drummed his fingers on the table. He didn’t like Gloria making fun of that. Maybe that would be the best thing to do.

  “Bast, how long will it be until the next cybership assault takes place?”

  “I would think it will occur more quickly than before, Captain. Maybe a year. At the most, two years.”

  “Two years,” Jon said. “What can we do in two years’ time?”

  “That depends on what the AIs do against us,” Gloria said. “If they show up with a hundred cyberships…”

  “Wouldn’t that take concentrated effort on their part?” Jon asked.

  Gloria raised her hands palm up in an I-don’t-know gesture.

  “Yeah,” Jon said. “Who knows anything about the AI Empire? It’s time we found out. If the cyberships are going to attack us anyway, we should start sending scouts into the galaxy. We need to start using the hyperdrive.”

  “There are a million things to do,” Gloria said. “The greatest point is one we may be overlooking. We’re going to have an opportunity to do something. We beat the AIs. We destroyed two cyberships and captured the third. In truth, we’ve had a remarkable victory.”

  “Tell that to the Neptunians, the Saturnians and the Martians,” Jon said. “We took hammering losses to gain those victories.”

  “Yes, but humanity is still alive,” Gloria said. “We actually have two cyberships. And soon, we should have the industrial capacity to build more.”

  “Good point,” Jon said. He drummed the table again. “I just hope Kalvin Caracalla can see it that way.”

  “If anyone can,” Gloria said, “he would be the one.”

  “Maybe,” Jon said. “I supposed we’ll find out soon enough.”

  -21-

  Far, far away from Mars and far from the accelerating Nathan Graham, and out beyond the Kuiper Belt, a lonely and modified NSN destroyer orbited the dwarf planet of Senda. Methlan Rath of Janus House, Walleye, and June Zen, among the few others, had orbited the rusty-colored planetoid countless times already.

  As the mighty trio of enemy cyberships raced in-system, as its flocks of missiles sped for the various planetary systems, Methlan had pleaded with Walleye. He’d done so as the mutant had released him yet again from his cell in the brig.

  “I have learned my lesson,” Methlan began.

  Walleye cocked his head, soon motioning him to come out.

  Methlan stepped into the area containing the various cell hatches. “Why must I spend my days locked in there?”

  “You know why,” Walleye told him.

  “I understand my offense. Yet, I have also aided you since. Surely, at this late date, we can forgo the necessity of caging me like a dog.”

  “You may be right,” Walleye said.

  “It’s agreed then?”

  “I’ll speak to the others, is what I’m saying.”

  “But they’ll do whatever you suggest.”

  “You’re probably right.”

  “Forgive me my offense,” Methlan said.

  “Like I said, I’ll think about it.”

  Methlan seethed inwardly. He wanted to flex his hardened muscles. He wanted to attack Walleye and force him to understand. Methlan had slowly been going mad stuck in the small cell each ship night. He couldn’t stand the idea of being stuck in a Senda orbit for the rest of his life.

  Walleye seemed unaware of this seething.

  I have learned to disguise my emotions, Methlan realized. I am more dangerous than before.

  “Thank you,” Methlan said at last. “Please, consider my plea.”

  Walleye nodded. The day went apace. Methlan worked out at the end of the day, and the mutant led him to the cell that evening.

  “Have you considered my plea?”

  “I’m still thinking through all the angles,” Walleye said.

  The days passed. That turned into weeks. Nothing ever changed, except that Methlan lifted harder than ever. He started growing again. It was a great delight. He slept harder and ate more. Then Walleye informed him he’d have to cut down on his caloric intake.

  “But I’m growing,” Methlan said. They spoke while Walleye took him to the tiny gym. The conversation took place as the AI missiles slammed into the Jupiter System.

  “What’s that mean, you’re growing?” Walleye asked.

  Methlan rolled back a sleeve and made a bicep muscle. “Feel how hard that is.”

  “No thanks.”

  “Do you see how it’s bigger than before?”

  Walleye shrugged.

  Shortly thereafter, Methlan found himself locked in the cell. He flexed, examined each muscle closely and couldn’t understand Walleye’s indifference. During the Battle of Mars, Methlan realized the truth.

  Walleye is jealous. He’s worried June will begin to notice me.

  The thought intensified and began to turn into bitterness. That bitterness ate at Methlan. Finally, the bitterness matured as the Nathan Graham entered the Saturn System following the Battle of Mars.

  Methlan realized that Walleye would never trust him. The mutant held grudges. He was almost like a man of Janus House in that way.

  He is my secret enemy, Methlan realized. He also realized he should have known this long ago. It was time to kill Walleye. Yet, after killing the dangerous mutant, Methlan realized he’d have to take over the ship. Maybe the only person he could let live was June, and that for the most obvious reason. He desired a woman. He greatly needed a woman after all this time.

  Once Methlan realized what he must do, he decided to change his tactics. He would have to catch Walleye totally by surprise.

  That sleep schedule, Methlan decided he would do it tomorrow. It was possible that, if he delayed, the cunning Walleye would notice the difference in him.

  That morning, Methlan paced back and forth in his cell. He yearned for Walleye to open the hatch. He paced for an hour and a half before the hatch finally opened.

  Methlan spun to face the door. He forced himself to smile. “Greetings, Walleye. How are you this morning?”

  Walleye shrugged. The mutant never seemed to change.

  Methlan laughed in a good-natured way in order to throw Walleye off. A sheen of sweat slicked Methlan in areas. He had paced hard for some time.

  Amazingly, Walleye turned his back on him. That had never happened before. Instead of pausing to think, to consider that the mutant was cunning, Methlan rejoiced inside. At last, fate had given him a break. It was about time.

  Methlan moved on soundless feet, rushing Walleye. He would wrap an iron-thewed arm around the mutant’s throat and choke the unholy life out of him.

  Methlan reached Walleye—and the mutant spun around. That caught Methlan by surprise. He noticed a glittering blade in Walleye’s hand. It was short and nasty, and razor sharp. Walleye finished the thrust by punching the blade into Methlan’s gut. The blade grated against bone, and it caused an explosion of pain in Methlan’s belly.

  Walleye stepped forward sharply, twisted the knife and shoved it upward, twisting again.

  Methlan explosively exhaled his breath. “Walleye,” he breathed. “Why…?”

  “Once a bastard, always a bastard,” Walleye whispered. “I gave you the rope. You’re hanging yourself.”

  “What…?” Methlan whispered. Why were his knees so weak? He lost his balance and crumpled before Walleye. The mutant withdrew the bloody dagger.

  “Help me,” Methlan said.

  Walleye looked down at him.

  Methlan Rath of Janus House collapsed onto the brig flo
or, bleeding copiously. “I’m dying…”

  “Again,” Walleye said. The mutant cocked his head. “Maybe you’ll come back again. If you do, you won’t be welcome on my ship.”

  That was the last thing Methlan heard before he expired at the hands of the deadly assassin.

  -Epilog-

  Jon and the crew made it to the Saturn System in record time.

  Kalvin Caracalla understood the significance of the journey. He accepted the robo-builders. He allowed three dozen techs to go aboard the Nathan Graham for training.

  During that time, Jon, the Old Man and the Centurion ran a recruiting drive on Titan. They selected another three thousand recruits, taking them aboard the Nathan Graham.

  During the next three weeks, the Old Man’s Intelligence Service uncovered three assassination plots. One other attempt came within a hair’s breadth of succeeding. Jon shot the want-to-be assassin, foiling the attempt and adding to his growing legend.

  Shortly thereafter, the cybership headed to the Neptune System. They aided the few hundred survivors, giving them the choice of joining the Nathan Graham or remaining in the distant planetary system. One-third joined the crew. The rest stayed.

  Finally, the Nathan Graham raced to the dwarf planet Senda. After picking up the Daisy Chain 4, the cybership headed for Makemake with the destroyer in tow.

  Once more, the battered cybership entered the production unit on MK2. After the robo-builders were unloaded and the moon’s systems turned on, the repair of the Nathan Graham began in earnest.

  ***

  On Earth, Admiral Rowland received a less than sterling greeting. Two weeks after landing in Rio, Rowland came before a court martial board. It might have become ugly and led to his death by firing squad. But a person wearing a hood sat in on the last day of hearings.

  When the hooded person spoke, they used a distorter. It was impossible to tell if it was a man or a woman. The person absolved the admiral of wrongdoing, but said he had been out-maneuvered from a position of strength. This indicated that ex-Premier Benz truly was a genius. For the sake of unity and the propaganda organs, the hooded person was putting Admiral Rowland back on the lists. He would work in Fleet Headquarters from now on. Rowland’s days as a fleet admiral were over.

  The admiral died in an air-car accident three weeks and a day later. The State gave Rowland a magnificent funeral, extoling his virtues. During the speeches afterward, the Premier’s Office declared an embargo on Mars, the Asteroid Belt and the Jupiter System. This would begin immediately.

  ***

  Before those embargos began to seriously hurt the targeted economies, Premier Benz and the Mars Emergency Council set up a governing policy for the Red Planet.

  Afterward, Benz and Vela requested and received a cadre of mentalists and several hundred technicians aboard the captured cybership. Benz realized he still had a shaky hold of the giant vessel. Thus, he made few demands on the MEC: Mars Emergency Council.

  As Vela and the mentalists worked to decipher the alien technologies, Benz worked on creating a feeling of solidarity and comradeship among those on the cybership. He bent his considerable intellect toward fusing primary loyalty to his person.

  The technicians made repairs to the alien vessel. Benz tinkered with several semi-intact alien fighting robots, figuring out how to turn them on. He soon had them obeying his orders. At that point, the fighting robots became his praetorian guard, protecting his person while aboard ship.

  In record time, Benz had a half-working cybership, which he highlighted in propaganda vids. The most impressive showed the captured vessel beaming space junk with a grav cannon. Benz believed that would give the Earth admirals pause.

  By that time, the first alien robo-builders began to operate in the Mars System.

  ***

  The Solar League embargo proved to be a misstep, as it led to a sudden shift in political alliances. The people of the Asteroid Belt decided to join what was soon called the Mars Unity.

  The Jupiter System joined the Solar Freedom Force. Because they did so, the Nathan Graham soon pulled into the planetary system, dispensing robo-builders to help speed the recovery from the horrible missile damage.

  That meant that the Solar System was divided into three major political entities. The first and by far the most populous was the truncated Solar League. It consisted of Earth, Venus and the giant Mercury mining colony.

  The second political entity was the Mars Unity: the Red Planet and the Asteroid Belt. They followed Premier Benz.

  The last political grouping was the Solar Freedom Force. It consisted of the Outer Planetary Systems and Kuiper Belt colonies. The SFF was also the most loosely organized. It was more of a federation of planetary systems agreeing to work together and backed by the power of the Nathan Graham.

  In each of the political bodies, the industrialists worked as if on war-footing, rebuilding shattered systems as needed. Otherwise, the newly retooled shipyards produced warships. Many of these vessels boasted gravitational cannons and possessed missiles with matter/antimatter warheads.

  The Solar System was becoming even more of a fortress than before. Unfortunately, it lacked unity.

  The AIs and cyberships were out there. Jon and Benz had started a long-distance dialogue. There were plans afoot for sending out a scout mission using the hyperdrive. The trouble was that both Jon and Benz agreed that it would be good to figure out what the mysterious new Premier of the Solar League planned to do before the mission left.

  The Solar System had survived two cybership assaults. The human race was more ready than ever to face further attacks. If the future wasn’t bright, at least humanity had a fighting chance now. If they could just learn to bury their differences, the odds for survival would increase dramatically.

  As men and women thought about and debated the idea throughout the Solar System, robo-builders in the Mars Unity and SFF began construction of new cyber-sized ships of their own.

  The End

  To the Reader: Thanks! I hope you’ve enjoyed A.I. Assault. If you liked the book and would like to see the series continue, please put up some stars and a review. Let new readers know what’s in store for them.

  —Vaughn Heppner