Monthly Archives: September 2024

The Sidereal Saga – Andromeda

Posted by natechen on

Dramatis Personae

Previous Chapter

Lloyd

“I don’t like it,” Lloyd muttered. The hostile ship had maintained a fixed distance of one and a half thousand kilometers from them for the last ten minutes and now it was beginning to drift aimlessly, as if the navigator had suddenly fallen asleep.

“It’s not a trap,” Elisha said. “Wouldn’t do them any good to go adrift when they’re so far away from us. Even if we were foolish enough to let our guard down we’re not likely to get much closer to them than we are now. If it was a trap they’d have included some way to lure us into it.”

“That doesn’t mean I have to like it.” Lloyd chewed on his lip as he studied the other ship’s icon on his dataveil. The Skybreak didn’t have the best sensors in the sector but they still clearly picked up the growing heat signature in the forward section of the ship’s superstructure. It could almost be mistaken for a weapon charging up. However, much like the possibility of a trap, that theory was at odds with the way the shop was drifting. “You don’t think they’re just adrift do you? We didn’t even do anything to them.”

“They may have done it to themselves. Stranger things have happened in street gangs and smuggler rings, kid,” the thieftaker replied. “Especially when several groups try to work together. That’s not going to change just because the groups are Universities and Yshron’s mercenaries.”

“I guess.” Lloyd watched as their distance from the Radiant- class ship began to increase for the first time since it had come in to view. “Seems a little optimistic to chalk it up to that all things considered.”

“We’ve earned a little optimism at this point don’t you think?”

“I was unaware that optimism was something that had to be earned,” L-93 chimed in. “However I agree that there is cause for it in this case. Based on the pattern of sightings coming in from across the planet and the amount of etheric power draining from the planetary core I believe I-6 is reentering a dormant state. OMNI may be breaking off pursuit in favor of concealing itself. At the very least the Radiant-class will experience greater difficulty in pursuing us.”

Lloyd grunted in dissatisfaction. “Well we’re out of the woods by the sound of things, Ms. Wen. Do you want us to keep the guns hot just in case?”

After a brief delay she replied, “No. Better to keep our reserves as full as we can for the foreseeable future. Lavvy thinks we’ll be jumped and gone by the time they can pull their ship far enough out of the gravity well to follow us.”

“On our way,” Elisha said.

For a long moment Lloyd hesitated with his hands hovering over the power switch, watching the pursuit ship through the turret’s dataveil. Then he heaved a sigh, shut down the plasma pumps and clambered out of the gun seat.

Athena

“Awful presumptuous of you to promise to take me back to daddy, don’t you think?” Athena turned her etheric transmitter over in her hands. “You think I want your company? Or to go back to him?”

Malaki sat with his hands folded under his chin, his attention focused on the far bulkhead. Although he made no motion to suggest he was paying attention he still answered the question without hesitation. “Let’s not kid ourselves. You may not care for my company, few do, but I’ve known enough daddy’s girls over the years to know one when I see one. You can’t pout him into submission if he’s not around.” He shook himself back to the present and started packing up the remains of the medkit. “Besides, I feel bad about dragging you here. To some extent anyone who likes their nose into University business is asking for some kind of mishap to befall them but you couldn’t have been ready for AI networks and the secrets of humanity’s ancient past.”

“We were interested in the past ourselves in case you missed it,” she replied.

“You were interested in technology from the past the Universities have banned. That’s a very different thing.”

“Daddy knows history quite well, you clearly realize that already.”

“He did, but it isn’t the kind of thing you go blabbing about to the people you care about,” he said, contemplating the soap carving he’d made earlier. “Doubly so if you don’t expect them to understand why you’re doing it. Adding to the lifespans of you and your brother on the of chance that you’ll live long enough to reconcile is a pretty hard thing to explain, don’t you think?”

“You seemed to figure it out without much trouble,” Athena snarled, a surge of anger driving her to spring up and hurl her transmitter down the ship’s corridor as hard as she could.

She instantly regretted the decision when it hit Elisha in the shoulder as he climbed up the stairs to their deck. He started slightly from the impact then grabbed his side and groaned. The cylindrical object bounced up off his shoulder, then the bulkhead, then it tumbled down into the stairway where she expected it to clatter down into the lower deck. Instead Lloyd came up after Elisha, holding the transmitter in one hand, looking quite surprised. “What’s going on up here? I thought we weren’t under attack any more.”

“Sorry! Lost my temper for a moment.” Athena huried over to retrieve the device then turned her attention to the thieftaker. “Are you alright?”

“I’ll live,” he said, gingerly straightening up, a grimace still on his face. “Are we sure everything up here is fine?”

“As it can be,” Malaki said. “Perhaps we should head to the bridge and see what things are like outside?” He held out a hand to Athena with one eyebrow raised.

For a moment she wavered, wondering if she was about to start down a path she couldn’t turn back from. Then she sighed and took his hand and let him lead her up to the bridge.

Elisha

They reached the bridge as the Skybreak made it’s first jump. For a moment there was the vertigo inducing sensation of the ship turning sidereal. Then normal space was gone from the windows and the sparse, empty vista of the etheric realm replaced it. The bright, pulsing core of Wireburn hung below them, much as it always had.

Save for the forest of gleaming wires that branched up and out of the planet like a bizarre lotus flower gently cradling the glowing core. For the first time Elisha felt like he really understood the scope of the problem he’d gotten tangled up in. He’d been a thieftaker for eight years. Education and employment had taken him across almost a quarter of the planet. His own etheric sense allowed him to travel more than most and meet all kinds of people and he had seen Wireburn from this perspective countless times before. Yet he hardly recognized the planet now.

In the short time the Skybreak was sidereal they saw the fronds of the lotus curling down back into the planet but Elisha could see the damage was already done. Wireburn was no longer the dependable foundation he’d always thought of it as. The appearance of normalcy was returning but it meant nothing. A jolt of adrenaline hit him as it suddenly occurred to him that the computer’s outer matrix was far too large and complicated to have unfolded out of the planet’s core without damaging the many ferrovines that supported Ashland or the other settlements that dotted the planet. Life on Wireburn might have just been wiped out just so I-6 could catch them.

There was a flicker of eternity outside the windows as the Skybreak jumped. Wireburn was gone. Elisha say down heavily, barely making it to the closest chair. Lavanya glanced at him with dark, sympathetic eyes. “First time leaving your home planet?”

“Yes.” He answered Lavanya in wooden fashion.

They hung in sidereal space for a moment more while she worked out something on the ship’s navigational computer. “Don’t worry too much. Planets aren’t in the habit of getting up and walking away. It will still be there when we get back.”

Elisha scoffed. “Lady, I’m not sure Wireburn as I knew it is there right now.”

Lin’yi frowned in thought. “We might be able to drop you off on another planet after a few jumps. You could catch a jumpship back.”

“No, it’s too late for that.” He sat back in his chair massaging his forehead. “Even if we weren’t dealing with something pulling the strings of the Universities – the Universities! – going back to a place where an enforcer found you once is just asking to get found again. There’s no way they won’t be picking me up and putting the squeeze on me to find you. I guess I’m stuck with you until you sort something out with that lot.”

The ship finished a second jump and turned terrestrial again. They found themselves on the outskirts of a sprawling asteroid belt with a dim sun gleaming in the far distance, scarcely brighter than the rest of the stars in the sky. Lavanya pushed away from her controls and spin her chair to face the rest of them. “Well, we’re here. There’s enough left in the coral for one jump at maximum range, two or three of they’re short. Given how far we are from the system’s sun it will take almost four days to refill the reserve but it’s never a bad idea to have the spare power on hand.”

“That leaves us enough time to give some thought about where we want to go next,” Lloyd said. “93? Any thoughts?”

“While I am gratified you are trying to assist me in carrying out my previous directives, I’m afraid there are limits to my ability to help you chart your course. I am primarily an engineering and architect AI. My database contains a great deal of information you are not privy to but I am not well equipped to assist you in making tactical or strategic decisions based on it at the best of times. With my greatly reduced processing power the likelihood that I will be able to provide meaningful assistance is less than seven percent.”

“Then we’ll have to work it out ourselves,” Malaki said. “Our end goal is to fulfill LARK’s final directive and restore humanity’s connection to our part and Earth, correct?”

“That is an accurate summary of my directive,” the computer replied. “But whether or not it is an undertaking all those present are invested in is an open question.”

“I have been trying to prove the Earth hypothesis for almost my entire career,” Malaki replied.

“And I think I already made my position perfectly clear,” Elisha added.

Lloyd shrugged. “It may sound odd to say but to me this sounds like another trailblazing job. A big one, sure, but an exciting one, too. I’m already in and I don’t see any reason to get out.”

The three of them had answered very quickly but Elisha could tell the women were far less certain of where their thoughts were. Finally Athena sighed and folded her hands in her lap. “I suppose I should go as well. Daddy’s put a lot of time, money and effort into his genetic projects and for a long time I thought it was his next stage in building the company. Now that I know it’s more… personal I’m not sure I’m ready to be a part of it.”

“I’m not sure that’s the best reason to make an enemy out of OMNI and the galaxy’s Universities,” Malaki said gently. “Keep thinking about it. I think we’ll still be sorting out plans for the next day or two.”

Lin’yi nodded. “BTL isn’t the largest trading company in the dexter arm but we can probably hide you away for a little while if you want to avoid notice. We can find time to drop you somewhere if you want.” She turned her attention back to the computer. “Tell me, 93, if you’re specialized in engineering and architecture do you think you would be more efficient than our existing production methods?”

“Not necessarily,” the machine replied. “My processes are designed towards large scale projects. Ship building is the smallest scale endeavor I could perform optimally. The primary task the L-Series was created for was the construction of other AI around planetary cores, although units with a construction code of 42 or above are also capable of stellarchitecture. However I could create smaller scale manufactories that are 433% more efficient than those I found referenced in BTL’s archives. I would be willing to construct such facilities in exchange for your assistance.”

“Sounds like a high risk, high reward kind of investment.” She folded her arms under her breasts with a satisfied smile. “I’ve been told I should try and expand my portfolio with more of those.”

“Might be a little higher risk than your executives had in mind,” Elisha murmured.

Lavanya cleared her throat. “Sorry to be a wet blanket but I have to ask. 93, is it even possible for you to extract yourself from the Skybreak at this point?”

“It is. In fact, given the amount of raw material in this asteroid belt, I could create a new matrix here in a matter of years, rather than decades. However the probability that I could do so without being discovered and recaptured is less than one millionth of one percent. The probability that I could build another ship equal to the Skybreak without being discovered is also less than one percent. Regardless, if you wish me to remove myself from the ship I will.”

For a long moment the pilot was quiet, running her hand gently along the console beside her. Her eyes drifting to one side, distant, as if watching some kind of half forgotten memory that drifted just out of sight of the rest of them. Finally she said, “The Skybreak is a special ship, 93.”

“Shall I begin removing my core from the reservoir, then?”

“No.” She gathered herself and sat up a bit straighter. “Just promise me you wont change it too much, okay?”

“Very well.”

“Excellent.” Malaki clapped his hands together and rubbed them eagerly. “Then all that’s left is to choose our next destination. It’s obvious that at some point we are going to have to get to Andromeda Proxima, the construction there could only be created by a civilization capable of building an AI in the heart of a gas giant. Unless I miss my guess that is either Earth’s system or the key to reaching it. However, OMNI will know we have to get there at some point. So we have to work out a plan to reach Andromeda Proxima and land on the Array there without getting caught. Am I right so far, 93?”

“As usual, Mr. Skorkowski, you are remarkably insightful given the information available to you. The only inaccuracy I see in your statement is naming the system Andromeda Proxima. The correct name is Andromeda Terminus. Renaming the system and galaxy seems to be another attempt by OMNI to obscure the past.”

Malaki went perfectly still. “Renaming the galaxy?”

“Correct. Your star charts list this as the Milky Way Galaxy, which is incorrect. The Milky Way Galaxy is humanity’s galaxy of origin and the location of Earth. When Earth was evacuated the colonists and machines that would eventually form the OMNI and LARK networks built a jump sphere and used it to jump here. To the Andromeda Galaxy.”

The Sidereal Saga – The Camel’s Back

Posted by natechen on

Dramatis Personae

Previous Chapter

Lin’yi

The Skybreak’s control boards flickered and sparked in the aftermath of a close brush with a detonating etheric warhead. The science of the weapons was way over Lin’yi’s head but according to their AI they weren’t designed to destroy the ship, just knock out it’s systems. However after experiencing one herself she wasn’t sure that really mattered.

L-93 had built some kind of insulating mesh around the ship that diffused the worst of the detonation and kept the Skybreak’s coral from frying, so they were okay for the moment. The weird and unsettling aspects of having something rebuilding the ship in flight would have to wait. But even at a distance and with shielding the detonation had her head spinning. Even if the ship could survive one of the detonations it didn’t feel like a human could, at least if they had an etheric sense. Another thing to put on the growing pile of questions she had for 93.

“The Radiant-class has moved onto a parallel course, Lavvy,” she said. “Not sure if they’ve changed strategy or what but we might be able to slip past them and jump off planet.”

“Maybe. I can’t guarantee it, though, whatever that was they hit us with has my sense a tingling, I’m not sure I could pivot myself sidereal, much less a whole ship.” She frowned, watching Cloudie still leading the ship by a few hundred meters. “Lloyd’s Jelly friend is still with us but they’ve got a flight ceiling, right? If they get too high up they loose buoyancy even in this atmosphere. Once it’s gone we’re gonna struggle to find the fastest flight path again and that big guy is gonna have a fair shot at catching up to us again. Assuming we can get past it at all.”

“For now just keep us moving towards orbit and away from that ship. 93 said it has railguns and we’re not equipped to handle that kind of firepower even if there is a dense atmosphere to slow it down. Speaking of, L-93, are you there?”

“I am, Miss Wen. While available processing power will always be a significant limiting factor in my functioning, conversing with one or two humans places a negligible strain on it. Please feel free to address me at any time, I will inform you if I do not have the system resources for meaningful reply. How can I assist you?”

“You got it the wrong way around.” She pulled up the ship’s galactic star chart. “We need to start working out where the best place to go once we leave Wireburn is, so we can make the jump as soon as we’re far enough from the planet to effectively make said jump. Lloyd says he wants to help you find your way so the question is, where are we headed?”

“I suggest choosing an arbitrary location within 75% of the ship’s maximum range for a single jump and heading there. I should not be the one to assess our next destination so please make the choice favoring your own preferences.” Lin’yi keyed in a randomized search in the ship’s navigation database but it immediately cleared off the screen. “No. Don’t choose a planet at random, choose a characteristic arbitrarily. The distinction is important.”

Lin’yi hesitated, fingers hovering over her console. “Wait, why?”

“There is nothing truly random in the universe but that is doubly true when it comes to a computer. No algorithm can create true randomness. With enough information a computer on the level of the OMNI Network can easily narrow the most probable outcomes to three or four. Choose an arbitrary trait and take the planet that matches it best and we will go to that system. That will be much harder to predict via algorithm.”

“I see…” After a moment’s thought, Lin’yi did a quick search for titanium production and selected the first name that came up. “Got a path for you, Lavvy. Four jumps towards the core. Want to look at it?”

“Bit premature, Lin, it will have to wait until we get to a stable layer of the atmosphere before I can spare the time.” Her hands danced along the controls. “Just because they stopped shooting at us doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet. It’s still a gas giant.”

“Then just get us to a jump orbital and jump us sunward, you can review the course once we get some breathing room.” Lin’yi reached for the intercom and pressed the switch. “Malaki, what are you up to down there? You’re not supposed to leave heavy plasma guns in the hands of the injured.”

Malaki’s reply was tinged with dry amusement. “Just having a little chat with our friend Agamemnon about his family.”

“How did you get in touch with Agamemnon at a time like this?” Lin’yi demand.

“Long story,” the academic replied. “But my gut tells me he may have convinced the computers to let us go.”

“How can you possibly know that? You didn’t even know the tyrannical things existed twenty four hours ago.”

“They were built by humans, Lin, and technical experts tend to be the most straightforward and direct of us all. They may have made something unusually large here. But size doesn’t impact purpose.” Malaki pause for a second. “Well, I suppose the larger a system gets the simpler it-“

“Get to the point, Malaki.”

“I heard his argument and it was impactful, while approaching the question in a way that was strongly subjective and difficult to parse numerically. Worst case the machines will chew on it a bit. Best case they’ll let us go.”

“There is merit in using subjective verbiage to obscure an issue from OMNI,” L-93 said. “Save for an O-Series. But the impact of an emotional appeal on the Network is likely to be negligible as it arrived at its current course of action due to highly charged appeals from its own users. “

“Yes, but we don’t need a large impact, 93, just enough to tilt the math in our favor. Besides the point of the emotion is to suggest there are connections between concepts that OMNI can’t parse, forcing it to try and think like a human, something you’ve proven is extremely difficult if not impossible for you to do.”

“Why do you think that helps us, Malaki?” Lin’yi asked.

“Worst case that buys us enough time to get away, best case we disrupt the entire Network for a prolonged period of time. I don’t think we’re changing OMNI’s mission statement this way but that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile. Even if we just buy a little time it helps.”

She caught herself gritting her teeth and forced herself to stop. “I suppose you’re right. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

“Every second we wait is a second we get closer to jumping, isn’t it?”

“I’m just getting tired of waiting.”

881

“We need to resume pursuit,” 881 said, pacing the bridge restlessly. “I know OMNI is deliberating but their last stated goal was capturing the LARK AI and we should continue working on that task until we are retasked. That is how the great intelligences prioritize their duties. Why should we be any different?”

“Because you’re not a machine?” Tarn asked. She felt a flicker of annoyance at him inserting himself into the discussion but reminded herself that she was the one who had brought him into the situation in the first place. There was a time she even hoped he’d join the Sleeping Circuits himself. “Putting aside my own opinions on thinking machines, what’s the point in using human agents if they try to behave like machines, rather than humans? It’s like hiring a Kashron-caste then telling them they should stop building ships.”

“What do you suggest instead?”

“Instead?” He gave a toothy grin. “I’m on your side. I am Shran, Miss Luck. I want to hunt and my prey is escaping. I want to pursue – or, if this hunt is a loss I want the freedom to find a new quarry. You hired me. Will we continue the chase or is it time for me to leave? That is the human question.”

Her frustration mounted, threatening to lash out at Tarn, but the moment she opened her mouth clarity caught up with her in a wave. Her annoyance was directing itself at Tarn because he was the one pointing out the problem. Tarn wasn’t the source of it. “He’s right, Keeper,” she said, turning to 44. “I am a Circuit Breaker, here to deal with weaknesses in the Network, either let me deal with this one or give me a new assignment.”

The Keeper ran a thumb absently along his mustache, looking thoughtful. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, 881. However the role of a Keeper is patience, not action. It’s very rare for OMNI to need human input in the modern era, where they make so few new decisions and have such a large library of data to base them on. Most days all I actually need to do is report to duty and wait for Isaac to speak. Never once in my century as a Keeper have I seen a situation where acting before OMNI speaks is beneficial. They are the greatest minds in the galaxy, 881. Grant them a moment to ponder.”

She frowned. The way the Keeper phrased it brought something to mind. There were only three OMNI nodes overseeing the system and I-6 had priority over the other two, they wouldn’t volunteer their conclusions until it had reached its own. That didn’t mean the other two wouldn’t share if asked. She tugged her dataveil down from her hat, for once glad she was still in her human dress rather than in her Circuit robes, and asked, “O-5523, have you considered Agamemnon Hutchinson’s appeal?”

“Yes,” said the text on her veil.

“Your conclusion?”

“I recommend that permission to return to Earth be denied.”

CI-MN-1551, stationed at the Weapons console, leaned down to his intercom pickup and said, “M-334, have you considered Agamemnon Hutchinson’s appeal?”

The intercom clicked twice then spoke with the flat, accent free voice of OMNI. “Yes. I recommend permission to return to Earth be denied.”

881 spun to face 44 once again. “The O-Series agrees. Tell me, Keeper, based on your century of experience do you think I-6 will disagree?”

“It isn’t impossible,” the Keeper replied, settling deeper into his command chair as if to emphasize his position of authority. “And it is the node with priority. It can override the others.”

“Perhaps,” 881 replied. “But how likely is it? The loss of the rogue AI core was already statistically highly unlikely, although perhaps not as low probability as OMNI contradicting itself. Both of them together? We cannot proceed on such a tenuous possibility.”

“Your logic is sound, Circuit Breaker.” Although there was little to no difference between the speech patterns used by OMNI AIs some twinge of intuition told her she was no longer hearing M-334 over the intercom. “However I have, in fact arrived at a different conclusion from my fellow nodes. Given Agamemnon Hutchinson’s statement I do not believe we have sufficient data to reach a conclusion on the Earth question. I have remanded the issue to the Network as a whole. In the meantime I recommend we cease pursuit. Further use of OMNI resources risks irreparable damage to the secrecy of the Network. I am beginning shutdown procedures for my outer matrix.”

For a moment 881 was to gobsmacked to say anything and she didn’t recover until Tarn asked, “How long does consulting the entire Network typically take?”

“At least a day,” she replied, forcing her mouth to form the words. “Sometimes more.”

“OMNI reaches to the far corners of the galaxy,” 44 explained, seeing the bitter look on Tarn’s face. “It takes a great deal of time for them all to hear, consider and weigh in on a question. However it also means the Network can resume its pursuit from wherever it chooses without significant time or trouble lost. We will suspend our pursuit until a decision is reached.”

881 felt her fingers cutting into the palms of her hand and forced them to unclench. Then she took a deep breath, wrapped her fingers around her pivot to O-5523 and began to tap the etheric through it. “No, Keeper. No we will not.”

He leaned forward in the command chair, his face stern. “And why is that?”

In response 881 threw an etheric barrier at him and the bridge erupted in chaos.

The Sidereal Saga – Agamemnon and Isaac

Posted by natechen on

Dramatis Personae

Previous Chapter

44

“Tell them about Agamemnon.”

44 frowned, wondering what Skorkowski was getting at. L-93 had clearly explained the nature of OMNI to the scholar so he had to know they understood Agamemnon Hutchinson quite well. They had a full file tracking his life from birth to the present moment. Two different O-Series minds had built independent psychological profiles and one of them was now watching events from on Coldstone. There wasn’t anything the man himself could add that was likely to make a difference.

The nest of monitors around his command chair told a far different story. In addition to constantly updated reports on the status of the ship and the situation planetwide they also displayed a log summarizing predictions of the local OMNI nodes which, beyond Isaac itself, included O-5523 and M-334. Confining their work to text kept others from overhearing it but made it very difficult to keep up with. Skorkowski’s mention of Agamemnon prompted a flurry of notes from the machines but 44 wasn’t able to keep up with them. As it turned out he didn’t have to.

Hutchinson bowed his head for a moment, perhaps a bit unsure of what Malaki was getting at himself, but when he raised it up again 44 saw a pained understanding there. He gave Tarn a meaningful look, clearly asking for his transmitter back. An unspoken thought passed between the hunter and 881, a sign that no matter what Yshron thought of AI at least one of his followers had made a separate peace with the technology. Or so 44 hoped. Whatever the case, Tarn clearly decided it was fine to pass the communication device back and let go of Hutchinson’s arms.

With it in hand the shipping magnate gave the ceiling a skeptical look and said, “Is that true? Would telling you what this fool wants convince you to give me the Methuselah-tech?”

“The probability is less than ten percent,” Isaac replied. “However we are programmed to hear and consider the wants and desires of humanity as part of our base level matrices. Be aware that a Methuselah augmentation slows the process of aging, it does not reverse it. In short, your current age would remain. Even if you were to receive a Methuselah treatment, given the degradation already present in your physiognomy it is unlikely you would live more than 120 years.”

Hutchinson glanced at his son. “How long would he live?”

“The treatment has little effect on human beings before puberty ends. It is likely that Hector would receive close to the maximum possible benefit from the treatment and enjoy a lifespan approaching the three hundred year average. Your daughter is a few years older and thus is likely to live between fifteen and eighteen years less. Steps would also need to be taken to conceal your unusually long life spans from becoming widely known across the galaxy, as is done with the Sleeping Circuits.”

“That’s acceptable.” Hutchinson gathered his thoughts for a moment. “Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, is a legendary figure from the dawn of humanity. Study of the surviving documents suggests he was the ruler of a single nation, rather than an entire planet, although there’s no consensus on that. There’s some thought that he even predates the first colonies, far fetched as it sounds.”

This was not what 44 was expecting from the man and the response from OMNI’s nodes was even more surprising. There was a flurry of communication between them then an order from Isaac to cease pursuing L-93’s ship and maintain their current distance. O-5523 didn’t like that order but M-334 could not compute a solution and I-6 was the primary node. It’s decision was favored. 44 frowned but tapped commands on his screens, forwarding the orders to the appropriate stations and instructing all those on the bridge to refrain from interrupting Hutchinson. For the moment.

“The name Agamemnon means steadfast or resolute,” Hutchinson continued, “which was both the king’s greatest trait and his ultimate downfall. See Agamemnon went to war. The details of the whys and wheres vary depending on who you ask but the important detail is that he’d promised he would fight this war if a vow was broken and he was steadfast in that promise. But in order to fulfill that promise he had to travel to a place called Troy and he wasn’t able to do so because he offended the goddess Artemis.”

“The what?” 881, who was helping Tarn keep an eye on their prisoner and thus hadn’t had a chance to read 44’s message yet, practically yelled the question. “What are we supposed to get from a story about gods? This is a serious matter, Mr. Hutchinson.”

His eyes darted from her over to 44. “She’s not quite as well read as you, is she, Professor Dart?”

44 scowled, unhappy with his pseudonym being used while he was serving as Circuit Keeper but well aware that he couldn’t expect anything better from Hutchinson. “She hasn’t been around as long, that’s all. Not that Circuits attached to the O-Series spend much time studying history, to say anything of history from before humanity colonized the stars. Gods and goddesses were plentiful then.”

“They were demanding as well,” Hutchinson replied. “Artemis demanded Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter to her before his armies would be allowed to travel and he agreed. Ultimately, although he and his allies won the war, that steadfastness would be his downfall. His grief stricken wife assassinated him after his return.”

“Is that why you chose to name your daughter after a goddess of civilization and wisdom rather than one of wildness and hunting?” 44 asked.

Hutchinson offered the ghost of a smile. “If I’m being honest I just liked the name. Helena and I did consider a number of other possibilities but if Artemis ever came up on the list I probably would have vetoed it just to be safe.”

“That is the first new point of data you have introduced to our calculations,” Isaac said. “Mr. Hutchinson, I recognize the importance of your family to you. You are not unique in this regard. What you may not recognize is the importance of Earth to the OMNI network or what Mr. Skorkowski is asking you to achieve by asking us to allow him to go there. The story of the Illiad, which you have mentioned in passing detail, will not change our stance on that.”

“I didn’t expect it to,” Hutchinson replied. “No more than I expected the name I gave my daughter to make her wise and civilized. When I was young and founding my company I didn’t think much about the meaning of my own name or what being steadfast might mean. I never stopped to ask myself if it was for good or ill that I pushed so hard to fulfill my dreams. Nor did I yet know Agamemnon’s story.”

“You could not be expected to know so much of humanity’s history at such a young age. Few ever learn so much of it.”

“Is that why OMNI chose to hide Earth from us?” Hutchinson’s voice wasn’t accusatory. On the contrary, it sounded as if he’d just stumbled on a revelation that was so obvious the fact he’d missed it for so long was shocking. “So few people learn about the past, who will miss a tiny bit of it if it’s hidden away? Is that it?”

Behind the scenes the three OMNI nodes were communicating so fast the text on 44’s screen had devolved to a featureless blur. He wondered what the magnate had said that excited them so much. The machines were so farsighted that it was rare for them to need this much attention devoted to something happening in the present.

44 knew the broad strokes of why a return to Earth was forbidden by the Network. Some kind of disaster had befallen the planet and it had been evacuated to keep the danger from spreading. Even now OMNI thought the possibility of growing that cataclysm made a return to the planet too dangerous to risk traveling back. Yet for centuries people had still tried, hence the planet’s hidden location. Overcoming that threat, especially in the minds of a great intelligence designed to impartially put the needs of humanity first, was going to be extraordinarily difficult.

“Your assessment is too extreme, Mr. Hutchinson,” Isaac replied. “OMNI is well aware that hiding the existence of Earth is dangerous and damaging to humanity and the decision to do so was made only after decades of data gathering, analysis and debate. It was simply determined the probability of extinction stemming from Earth’s removal from human knowledge was less than the probability of extinction stemming from humanity’s return to its home planet.”

Hutchinson waved that off in annoyance. “Preposterous.”

“You cannot know the cause of the Evacuation so your assessment is meaningless.”

“Let me tell you about meaningless.” His tone was shifting away from that of a businessman negotiating with a peer to the lecture of a parent to a young child. Isaac didn’t respond to it but 44 felt himself growing annoyed on the machine’s behalf. “You are an AI that runs an entire University, networked with other machines that run the University Pact. You cannot be ignorant of my personal history, correct?”

“That is an accurate assessment.”

“But you haven’t yet made the connections between Agamemnon Hutchinson and Agamemnon of Mycenae, have you?”

“There can be no connection. You were ignorant of the King of Mycenae in your youth so your actions cannot have been informed by his story.”

Hutchinson jabbed one finger accusingly at the ceiling as if to accuse Isaac, or perhaps all of OMNI together. “That is not the way history works. I was steadfast to my pledge to build the biggest business in the galaxy and I held that course for far longer than the decade it took the Mycenaean to win his war.” With shocking swiftness Agamemnon went from fury to stricken grief. “But don’t think for a moment I didn’t betray my daughter. Building an empire is not building a home. There was a time I thought that wasn’t my responsibility. After all, I had married one of the most extraordinary women in the sector, if not the galaxy, to see to it that my household was in order. I loved Helena like nothing else I have ever found across the spiral arms. But building an empire is… distracting.”

Hutchinson turned his attention away from the ceiling, addressing his next words to the floor instead. “You see, like King Agamemnon I was steadfast in the wide and sweeping things, the grand schemes that capture the imagination, but I lacked the resolve for the immediate and concrete things. While dreaming of humanity it was easy to take advantage of the people around me. I betrayed my wife and my daughter and when Helena died the breach became impossible to repair. That is the nature of history, Isaac. The details are different but humanity is the same. I did not set out to live the life of my namesake but now that I am old I look back and see that I have done so none the less. By looking back and tracing those contours I can see the mistakes I have made and I can see what is to be done about them.”

“What do you mean?” Hector’s question snapped 44 out of a trance and he realized he’d completely lost track of the rest of the bridge. From the looks of the rest of the staff there, so had they.

Hutchinson gave his son a weary smile. “It took time, but eventually Agamemnon of Mycenae’s failures and triumphs were reconciled and he took his place in history, alongside his wife and daughter and many others. His people forgave him his sins and moved on, enduring the tragedy to find immortality on the other side. It’s been millennia but their stories are still remembered. I’m not the hero he was but perhaps, with enough time, you and your sister can see past my failures and make a whole family. If nothing else, I will give you as much time as I can to do it in.”

“That I can assist with,” Isaac said. “However, Earth is another matter.”

“The Genome Wars!” Hutchinson snapped, his attention turning to Isaac once more. “The Lost Colony Genocide. The Sinister Arm Uprising. All these are disasters that have wracked the galaxy and threatened destroy humanity, are they not?”

“All very dangerous,” Isaac admitted.

“Yet once the danger passed has any move been made to heal the danger? All the Universities did after the Genome Wars was ban genetic research and the response to the Lost Colonies and the Uprising was to forbid further debate over the origins of humanity! All actions forced through the University Pact, undoubtedly originating with you.”

“With OMNI, certainly.”

“And now it’s clear why. You couldn’t even trace the arc of my history, how could you do so for humanity?” Hutchinson spat the words with venom.

881 grabbed his arm and spun him around. “You will not speak to the intelligence that way.”

“I will speak however I like,” he replied. “They may know events that took place eons ago but they do not understand history so they cannot use it to prevent disaster or heal its scars. Clearly we must do that ourselves and in order to do it we must know the past. We must go back to Earth!”

For a moment Agamemnon and 881 glared at one another, locked in a contest of wills, then a voice from magnate’s side broke the tension.

“Thank you, Mr. Hutchinson, I think that upholds your side of the bargain nicely,” Skorkowski said. “I promise we’ll bring your daughter back to you safe and sound.”

Hutchinson’s transmitter beeped once and was silent. 881 glared at it for a moment then snapped, “We’ll see about that. Helm, when do we intercept with the Skybreak?”

The helmsman shifted uncomfortably. “We’re not currently on an intercept course, Circuit Breaker. I-6 ordered us to hold off on pursuit while Mr. Hutchinson was presenting his argument and OMNI deliberated on it.”

“It did,” 44 confirmed. “So, Isaac, are you now convinced of Mr. Hutchinson’s position?”

There were many different possible answers he’d expected Isaac to give to that question. What he hadn’t expected was for the great intelligence to reply with a single word. “Calculating.”

The Sidereal Saga – Agamemnon and Malaki

Posted by natechen on

Dramatis Personae

Previous Chapter

Lloyd

For a split second Lloyd let himself believe the ship that came plummeting down the Liquid Teeth wasn’t hunting them. Then it started shooting. A quartet of rockets emerged from the ship’s curved prow and rushed towards them at supersonic speeds, fishtailing through the churning atmosphere as they homed in on the Skybreak. The scanners projected an impact in fifty two seconds.

“Does this thing have weapons?” He demanded.

“Turrets, just aft of the stairs on the main deck,” Lavanya said while flipping open a compartment and handing him a headset. “That will loop you into the internal comms.”

“What kind of guns are we packing?” Lloyd pulled on the headset, grabbed the railings on either side of the stairs and hopped, sliding down to the main deck on his hands. “And do you have any countermeasures on board? Chaff, scramblers, decoys?”

“It’s a courier ship, Mr. Carter,” Lin’yi replied, her voice in his ear coming through a little hot and forcing him to stop once his feet touched decking again so he could turn it down. “Other than the stealth coating on the hull there’s not much room for that kind of thing.”

“Turrents have plasma pulse guns and ion trackers,” Lavanya added.

The weapon hatches were right where he’d been told to expect them, clearly marked with comically abstract red explosion decals. There was one on each side of the ship.

“I’m taking the port side,” Lloyd announced, pulling the hatch open and dropping a half step down and forward into the turret’s gunner seat. The weapon system around him was already most of the way to readiness, with diagnostics flashing past faster than his eyes could follow. Behind him, the hatch swung closed and locked automatically, sealing him in.

The good news was the gun’s system checks came back green in a matter of seconds. The bad news was they were plasma guns and ion trackers, both short range and relatively low powered weapons systems more effective against small pirate vessels than the huge monstrosity the Teeth had just thrown at them. Still, they’d have to do the best they could. Lloyd spun the turret up and started looking for targets, the turrets transparent dome projecting a soft glow as its dataveil warmed up, waiting for information to display. “Can someone paint those rockets for me on the sensors? I’m not seeing them here. And this turret will only cover one side of the ship, we’re going to need someone to take the other one or we’re fighting with one hand behind our backs.”

“Malaki,” Lin’yi said, her voice echoing from the shipwide intercom, “get to the starboard guns. It’s going to get nasty.”

“Everyone else, find something to hold on to,” Lavanya added.

Without further warning the Skybreak jerked into a hard, banking turn that brought them away from the Liquid Teeth at an oblique angle. Inertia slammed Lloyd back into his chair. His turret dome flickered once and suddenly four points of dark orange light appeared in the high aft quadrant. A much larger yellow light appeared behind them. “I’ve highlighted the missiles and the Radiant-class destroyer,” L-93 announced. “Targets are not in effective range of you weapons until their marker color darkens to a full red, as is traditional for LARK systems. Would you prefer a different indicator?”

“This is fine but I’d like a timer counting down when they should be in range,” Lloyd replied. The requested information appeared, the numbers moving somewhat erratically as Lavanya’s evasive maneuvers changed the timing on the missiles’ arrival.

“93, you said that was a Radiant-class?” Lin’yi asked. “How do you know that? It’s not in any of the Kashron sales manuals, where did you get that data?”

“The specifics are hard-coded into my operational matrix,” the computer replied. “It is not a ship built by Kashron Yards it is an OMNI Network warship maintained since the OMNI-LARK war.”

“Wonderful. How bad is that for us?” Lloyd asked.

“I am working on countermeasures. I have disabled the ship’s coral circulatory system and am using it for spare mass to construct the necessary components. The ship will loose approximately 12% of its etheric reserve but our ability to evade a Radiant-class ship will more than double from 22.4% to 49.3% assuming certain presuppositions are true.”

“Such as?”

“There is no more than one destroyer currently at OMNI’s disposal in this system, there are no more than three AI nodes in this system and none of the AI Series are redundant and capable of splitting their computational duties.”

“Right,” Lloyd muttered. “That’s exactly what I was thinking as well. Skorkowski, where you at?”

No one answered in the next twelve seconds, at which point the missile’s light markers fully lapsed from orange to red. He carefully tilted the turret’s control stick to keep the targeting window ahead of the approaching projectile as it curved towards them and pressed the firing pin. The turret began spitting blinding plasma bolts that screamed through the clouds like lightning.

A few seconds later his target’s indicator light wobbled then vanished without a small flash. “That was anticlimactic.”

“They are using etheric warheads,” L-93 said. “If they detonate within their effective range there is a 92.2% chance the ship’s coral will burn out and Lavanya will be unable to turn us sidereal.”

“That’s probably not good,” Lloyd muttered, switching his fire to the next missile in line, doing his best to focus fire on it as his turret barrels spun through their firing sequence, a warm glow spreading down them. “Skorkowski, you better get in that chair, my turret’s overheating. I got ten, maybe twelve seconds before I have to enter cooldown.”

“Port turret online.” The new voice was Elisha rather than Malaki and there was an odd slurring to his speech. “Ready to rotate whenever you are.”

“Hold,” Lloyd said, absently biting his lip in concentration as his fire chased the missile through a wild, zigzagging pattern. The warheads had some kind of smart nav system because they were actively evading fire. It took another two seconds of bracketing fire to trap and hit the missile but eventually his fire took effect and a second missile winked out. “Flip us!”

A moment later the ship spun and the pounding noise of plasma fire echoed from the other turret. “Hammer, that you? You sound funny.”

“Pills,” was all the thieftaker said.

“Yeah, I figured given how bad you were beat up. So why you and not Skorkowski?”

“He’s busy. Don’t worry, I could hit these things in my sleep.”

“Then go to sleep!” Lin’yi snapped, loud enough that the comms crackled in protest. “You’re not even getting close to hitting anything. Those warheads are less than ten kilometers away.”

“The OMNI ship has launched a second barrage of missiles,” L-93 announced. “They will also be in range for preliminary rail gun bombardment in 42 seconds.”

“Let’s hope they don’t want to escalate to that level just yet,” Lloyd said.

“Pilot Lavanya, please slow your ascent for a moment,” Cloudie said, its voice cutting in over the radio for the first time in several minutes. “I believe I can be of assistance.”

“What’s this, Carter?” Lin’yi asked. “The write ups say the Jellies don’t have any kind of modern weapon effective against metal or ceramic hulled vehicles. No etheric sense either.”

“They don’t have weapons, ma’am, that doesn’t mean they’re helpless out here,” Lloyd replied. “Even off and let Cloudie catch up, I think I know what he’s got in mind.”

“33 seconds to effective railgun range,” L-93 announced. “Countermeasures will be ready in 71 seconds, there is a 74.3% probability that the gunship will launch a third wave of missiles before entering range.”

“Stop firing, Hammer,” Lloyd called. “Don’t want you hitting the friendlies.”

Outside the turret dome Cloudie swooped into view from below, a bright blue light building in its main body and snapping out to its extremities and back. It scudded up through the clouds towards the approaching rockets along a flat plane. After a few seconds the dull orange clouds between it and the ship grew thick enough Lloyd could no longer see its main body, though the glow of its body was still clearly visible through the haze of helium. Then the clouds lit up like a lightning strike.

A moment later both of the remaining missile indicators flickered out. “Adjusting to a new course,” Lavanya called. “Hold on!”

Once again the ship swung about to a new direction, trying its best to move above the second wave of rockets before they closed the distance. As with the previous wave it didn’t look like it was going to work. The missiles were getting too much of a helping hand from the planet’s gravity.

“What did that creature do, Carter?” Lin’yi asked. “Can it do it again? Is it even still alive?”

“A simple EMP,” Lloyd said. “The Jellies have a really powerful nervous system, like nothing you’d find on normal planets, so they can charge up and pulse like that once or twice an hour at the cost of their telepathic centers shutting down. It’s kind of like screaming yourself hoarse except none of the organs involved are remotely similar.”

“So it’s not happening again?”

“Not unless Cloudie brought a friend. Didn’t think to ask that.” Lloyd checked the cooldown on his turret. The readout said it would be back to optimal performance in 20 seconds, which gave him a little bit of breathing room before the next wave arrived. “We’ll just have to beat the next round on our own.”

“And after that?”

“We’ll figure that out if we make it to after.”

Athena

For a long, horrible moment Athena wondered if daddy was going to answer her at all. Perhaps he’d gone back to the Fair Winds and gathered up Captain Blanc only to get the ship caught up in the Skybreak‘s escape attempt. On the other hand perhaps he was still in the sealed meeting room with Professor Dart and couldn’t get her message. Maybe the university had just disposed of him. As the pause stretched out longer and longer her mind came up with more and more dreadful possibilities as to what might have happened to daddy occurred to her.

Then his voice came over the transmitter, sounding a bit strained but otherwise fine. “Where are you, Athena? Are you safe?”

As if to punctuate his question the ship bucked under their feet and an unfamiliar voice came over the intercom, telling Malaki to get to a turret. “That’s a tough question, daddy. I’m okay and it seems like no one here wants me to get hurt but it also sounds like we’re getting shot at.”

“I know, honey, and I’m trying to do something about that but our hosts are being stubborn. They tell me it’s some kind of bomb intended to interdict the ship rather than damage it but I’d rather not take any chances.”

Athena watched as Elisha and Malaki held some kind of whispered exchange followed by the wounded man dragging himself to his feet and staggering off to parts unknown. “Is there anything you can do about it?”

There was an uncomfortable wait. “Honestly? I don’t think so. Our hosts are not inclined to be particularly patient at the moment and they keep reminding me that we meddled where we were not invited. I’ll do what I can.”

She swallowed down the bitter feeling in her stomach. “I’m sorry.”

A hand gently wrapped around hers and lifted the transmitter up a few inches as Malaki leaned down to speak into it. “I am sorry to interrupt but this is an important matter.”

Daddy’s voice instantly turned sharp. “Who is this?”

“Your student is one Malaki Skorkowski, Doctor of Arts, Literature and Science but, more importantly, a long time admirer of your work. There isn’t time for my qualifications, Mr. Hutchinson, nor for an explanation of how I know what I know. What is important is that you want Methuselization technology and I know how you can get it. As a man of business this exchange undoubtedly appeals to you.”

“I am not trading you my daughter for anything.”

“I didn’t ask you to.” Malaki smiled, looking pleased with himself for some reason. “Still, I’m glad to hear it. I don’t want to trade for your daughter, I want to trade for our escape. If you agree to convince OMNI to let us go then I will tell you how to find the secrets you’ve sought for so long. Do we have a deal?”

Daddy’s scornful laugh was muffled but still came through the transmitter. “You’re a loon. Do you think I have any control over these people or their OMNI thing? And even if I did, why should I believe you have access to Methuselah-tech in the first place?”

“You do and I don’t,” the scholar replied, almost smirking as he said it. “If it sweetens the pot any you should know that convincing them to let us escape also moves your daughter out of danger.”

“I find that hard to believe. As fast as you’re running I don’t think you’re going to stop and drop her off anywhere and she’s not going to be safe with you lot anywhere in the galaxy. And if you don’t have the tech in the first place why should I trade anything to you in the first place?”

“What do you have to loose? And I’m not giving Methuselization to you I’m telling you how to get it.”

Athena had to admit she wasn’t sure what the strange academic was driving at and his close proximity was getting stifling, so much so that she had to lean away from him to try and catch her breath. But the transmitter was keyed to her so she had to keep hold of it until this was settled. Malaki was right – if he was discussing the thing daddy had spent so much time looking for it was pretty important. After an awkward pause that couldn’t have been more than a few seconds but felt a hundred times as long daddy’s voice came back. “Okay, I’ll bite, Mr. Skorkowski. If you tell me how to get ahold of Methuselah-tech I’ll convince the OMNI to let you go.”

“Excellent.” Malaki’s face broke out into a fully fledged grin. “All you have to do to achieve the secrets of Methuselization is convince the computers of the network to give it to you. They have to have the trick to it stored in their networks somewhere. And before you ask, convincing them should be easy. Just explain to them why we need to go back to Earth.”

When daddy’s voice came over the transmitter again Athena felt like ice water was pouring down her back. He spoke with more venom in his voice than she had ever heard in her twenty eight years. “Is that all you have for me? Fairy tales? How about you just surrender your ship and give me my daughter back, Mr. Skorkowski.”
“Mr. Hutchinson-”

“Even if Earth was real I have no idea why we would need to go there or how I convince anyone of that.”

For the first time the academic’s glee wavered and doubt seemed to enter his mind. “You don’t?”

“I don’t.”

“Of course not.” Malaki bit his bottom lip for a moment, his expression turning somber. “No, you probably didn’t know about OMNI until today, or yesterday at the earliest. You probably have no idea how these things think.”

“Do you?” Athena asked. She was missing a lot of context for whatever the man was digging at but daddy seemed to be following along up until a point. It felt like she just had to worm a few more facts out of Malaki and all would make sense.

“I think so.” Malaki frowned and his gaze went distant, much like it did right before he went crazy carved a bar of soap into a miniature statue. “You have to tell them the truth, Mr. Hutchinson. You have to tell them about Agamemnon.”