《Flesh and Metal》 Prologue Looking back on my life I didn¡¯t feel any remorse per say but more of a feeling of emptiness. I had the feeling that I missed some vital spark, either a person or thing, which would have filled this gap within me. It was by no means a bad life. I had excellent grades during high school with plenty of friends and a loving family that supported me but I still felt a calling. A desire to do or contribute something worthwhile to something greater than one single person. I suppose that¡¯s why I joined the military immediately after high school in order to feel part of something more. Unfortunately for me the world was falling apart at the seams with religious fanatics proclaiming religious crusades and two bit dictators springing up with an alarming frequency. I was fighting in hellholes where you can¡¯t even tell enemies from civilians. You could talk to someone today and by tomorrow they could be trying to kill you and really what was the point of all the fighting anyway? Oh sure, you could kill the mass murderer masquerading as a leader but within a month another one would replace him. They would pretend to play nice for a little bit before they began ¡°rehabilitating¡± the unwanted and the cycle would repeat. I finally got out of all that after 10 long years and I only felt relief. Relief that I wouldn¡¯t have to hold a friend¡¯s hand and watch him struggle to say one last thing. Watch as the life in his eye¡¯s dimmed and flickered one last time before disappearing forever. Relief that I wouldn¡¯t have to see a father huddled over, holding onto his child¡¯s corpse, his eye¡¯s unseeing, asking why? Why did my child have to die? If God heard his silent question he didn¡¯t seem to deem it necessary to answer leaving him there, alone, surrounded by the rubble that was once his home. My reminiscing is broken by the sound of the door opening. I look over and see my longtime friend from my soldiering days walk in. I smile weakly and call out ¡°What¡¯s up doc?¡± He smiles, but it doesn¡¯t reach his eyes, and sits down next to my bed. I could tell the news wasn¡¯t going to be good by his face. I¡¯ve made it many times while holding onto a dying friends hand. ¡°Still calling me by my nickname I see.¡± ¡°Of course, I scoff, Doc is Doc do you even have another name cause if so I¡¯ve forgotten it long ago.¡± ¡°It¡¯s right here¡± he says pointing at a small placard attached to his chest. ¡°You probably stole it from someone else¡± I wave my hand dismissively sending bolts of pain throughout my body. I grunt, from the pain, and Doc¡¯s smile fades away. He holds up a folder that I didn¡¯t see when he came in. ¡°I have your test results and there¡¯s really no other way to say this but it¡¯s not good, not good at all. The cancer was able to metastasize before the chemo could catch it and its spread throughout your body. I¡¯m sorry Scott it¡¯s only a matter of time now.¡± Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. I nod grimly, ¡°Hehe, after all that we went through I always thought it would¡¯ve been a bullet that killed me. So Doc, how long do I have to live?¡± He sighs his eyes downcast, ¡°Two weeks maybe a little longer. I can at least get you off the chemo and increase the amount of morphine to alleviate the pain a little.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s it then? There¡¯s nothing left to do except wait to die?¡± I manage to croak out. Doc shakes his head slowly, ¡°You had a chance if it hadn¡¯t metastasized but we caught it far too late. I¡¯m truly sorry Scott there is nothing we can do.¡± A silence falls between us as the words sink in. ¡®Two weeks, two weeks left to live.¡¯ I thought I was prepared for the possibility but actually hearing the words spoken aloud I felt as though a weight was crushing my chest. The crushing weight of knowing you¡¯re going to die, it looms over you. You can¡¯t run from it and you can¡¯t fight it. My eyesight becomes hazy and my throat constricts. Doc tries to console me but we both know nothing can change the fact that I¡¯m dying. Eventually Doc leaves me after promising to contact my family. I¡¯m alone now. The only thing to keep me company is the glow of the heartbeat monitor. Its beeps in tune with my heartbeat *babump babump babump* I guess it¡¯s truly my Angel of Death. Watching over me every second of every day until it announces my end to the world, this coldhearted machine of metal and plastic. ~~ Three weeks later ~~ I won¡¯t tell you of the time I spent with my family during my final days on this planet. I won¡¯t go into detail of the agonizing pain I went through every day. Those memories are private and they are mine alone to bear as the end nears. It¡¯s nearly 2am right now I¡¯m only up right now because the pain drove me from my sleep. I glance at the heartbeat monitor my ever faithful companion through these trying times. Watching the line move up and down on the screen. I see it falter for a moment and then it comes. The lines waver and begins to move erratically across the screen. I thought it would be more painful at the end but strangely the pain has left leaving me to watch the machine. Slowly ever so slowly the length between beats lengthens. ¡®It¡¯s almost if it¡¯s the tune to send me back to sleep.¡¯ I close my eyes waiting for the end and listen to the sound. *beep.beep..beep¡­beep¡­.beep¡­..beep¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep* Ch 1: Awaking to Darkness I awoke to darkness. As dark as the inky void of space. I try to move, to look away from this abyss, to find I had no body to speak of. It was too much for my mind to handle and I slipped from consciousness. I awoke a second time to find nothing had changed. This time though I tried, emphasis on the tried, to ignore the void and instead focused inward towards my body or perhaps it would be better to say lack of body. I don¡¯t quite know how I was actually seeing with my lack of eyes so it could have been more apt to say I sensed my surroundings. Moving my senses inward it would seem that my body? was ball shaped in nature. In fact, I would go so far as to say all that I was and all that I am is contained within this ball. Focusing even further inward I found I could watch my entire life play out before me, every detail was there with nothing left out. All the good, the bad and the horrendously stupid moments that made me cringe to watch were there. It was almost like watching a movie but perceiving it through someone¡¯s point of view. I don¡¯t know how long I watched and re-watched my life. It could have been a second or an eternity but having calmed myself as I watched my life I once again turned my consciousness outward. The inky void greeted me once again although it wasn¡¯t as terrifying anymore knowing I have a place to retreat to, a sanctuary if you will. Time passed as I tried to examine my surroundings and I began to despair once again, ¡®will I be forced to relive my life over and over until I succumb to madness.¡¯ These thoughts plagued me as I tried to make sense of my surroundings. Fortunately I felt neither hunger nor drowsiness in this void. Even without hunger I still longed for food, especially bacon. Oh how I loved bacon if I could I would eat it all day long, the glorious texture, the scent of it and the juicy taste that not even the Gods could rival. Even the mere sight of it- wait what¡¯s that floating in front of me? Am I going insane? Floating in front of me was bacon. Light seemed to shine around it. ¡®Is God a piece of bacon? Can I be the head priest and spread tales of your tastiness to the ends of the Universe?¡¯ *groveling mentally* It¡¯s not doing anything -_-. So maybe it¡¯s just a piece of bacon then. Alright how do I get to it then when I don¡¯t have a body to ¡°move.¡± I try to ¡°will¡± my ball self towards the Holy Strip and surprisingly it comes closer. ¡®Hehe I will taste you soon my precious just wait.¡¯ I finally bump into the precious and open my mouth¡ª¡®ah how do I eat this without a mouth?¡¯ I mentally fall into an orz pose and manly heart sweat flows from my eyes. ¡®Is this Hell?¡¯ I thought while staring at The Bacon, so close but so far. ¡®No, if this was hell there would be more than one impossible to reach Bacon.¡¯ Pondering the mysteries of The Bacon I notice a second precious Strip pop into existence. ¡®Fuck.¡¯ ~~ An undetermined amount of time later. ~~ I¡¯ve been playing around in this hellhole for a while now and I think I¡¯ve figured out something. I can make things come into existence if I have a clear mental image of the thing I want and concentrate hard enough. It would explain the appearance of the first Bacon and all of the subsequent ones as well. I look over at the original Bacon that had grown into a small hill of glorious goodness. I look inwards into my memories to retrieve how I looked before the cancer and chemo and will my shape to change. Slowly my body transforms and finally I float there in the void. It anyone could have seen me they would have seen a 6¡¯0¡± man with blonde hair, piercing green eyes and a muscular frame not with bulging muscles but toned over the years through rigorous physical activity. I look down towards my hands and marvel that I can once again move without pain. Of course I¡¯m also wearing my birthday suit but clothes can wait. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. My gaze moves towards the Holy pile and a hint of drool can be seen trickling down my face. ¡°HEHEHEHEHEHEHE,¡± I break the speed of sound racing towards the Bacon. They seem to shiver and cry out in fear of the coming baconalypse. Far far away a short green man looks up and says, ¡°Coming darkness, there is. Hope, there isn¡¯t.¡± Floating in the void there is a man with a slightly glazed eyes and a content look on his face. ¡®Well I¡¯ve established that this isn¡¯t Hell which is good but what to do next? Maybe a place to live where I don¡¯t have to stare into the darkness all the time would be nice.¡¯ Concentrating a mansion comes into existence cause why not? I mean, if you¡¯re going to create a place to stay out of nothing might as well make it fancy. I look at my creation, nod in satisfaction, and walk inside. Directly inside there is a wide open space with a grand staircase leading upwards towards the second level. It would remind an onlooker of a Victorian style house. ¡®Very fancy,¡¯ I smile, but it felt empty within the house almost as though it was missing something. ¡®Ah, I know every mansion needs a butler to go with it otherwise it wouldn¡¯t be a mansion.¡¯ I recall a show I saw once about a butler and try to form Seb@$tian. It doesn¡¯t work. ¡®Hm, maybe the person has to be real in order to form.¡¯ With this in mind I move onto people from my past life which thinking back I probably should have started with. I first try forming my family from my memories. I close my eyes and try to will them into existence. Opening my eyes I don¡¯t see any sign of my family. ¡®Why didn¡¯t it work? Can this place only have one person?¡¯ Concentrating I try again, but again nothing happened. I then try to will Doc into existence. Then friends, relatives, even random strangers I saw on the street. With every failure I become more and more frantic even going so far as to try creating someone from scratch but nothing works. I sigh, with my spirits dampened I try one more thing and a cat falls out of the air and onto the ground. It looks confused but seeing me it turns it head in distain and walks off. ¡®Well I guess I¡¯m going to a crazy cat man, hurrah.¡¯ I''m sitting in my lounge chair staring off into the void sipping my coffee and admiring the landscape that I formed around my mansion. As my control over this space increased I had made more and more improbable things such as rivers flowing vertically up a mountain with fish swimming within. As the fish reached the top of the river they would jump out and glide down to the bottom on wings. It had become apparent after trying to form lifeforms that I could reproduce animal life but not humans. It was disappointing to say the least but still it gave me more time to spend with my cats, of which there were over a hundred now. I mean they¡¯re so cute and fluffy¡ªwait what was that? There, I saw it again a tiny light flashing in the distance. With each flash the light grows stronger and stays lit for a longer period of time. Squinting my eyes against the flashing onslaught, I try to discern what is causing the light but with one final flash the black sky is replaced with light temporarily blinding me. Blinking my eyes repeatedly while trying to regain my eyesight I hear a booming voice coming from everywhere around me. [???] ¡°It¡¯s finally online, mankind¡¯s greatest achievement a fully sentient Artificial Intelligence.¡± Ch 2: The Heroine Appears? [Doctor Vahlen¡¯s POV] *Beep. Beep. Beep. Be- slam* ¡°Ugh, why does it have to be so early, God damn Mondays!¡± With this cheerful exclamation I ram my head back into the pillow. ¡®Ah, so warm and comfy you complete me bed~¡¯ Suddenly remembering the importance of today I bolt upright and rush towards the shower practically ripping my sleepwear off. I toss my clothes backwards and as they land on the floor a small robot takes them away to be cleaned. Briefly glancing at the mirror I had to chuckle at what I saw. Staring back at me was a girl with serious bedhead hair. Even though it only came down to my shoulders today it seemed to have a mind of its own as the light brown hair was sticking out in every direction. Below the chaotic hair there was a cute face with the most striking feature being her deep sapphire blue eyes that radiated intelligence. She had her father and mother to thank for her Germanic/French heritage which resulted in a face and figure most would find pleasing to the eye. Unfortunately, at least from her viewpoint, both of her parents were on the short side and she was no exception at 5¡¯3¡±. ¡®No not short petite¡¯ I frowned and stepped into the shower. ¡°Normal wash,¡± I said as the shower began running whilst removing unwanted hair and completely cleansing my body. Refreshed, I stepped out of the shower and put on my nanite jumpsuit with my lab coat on top. Done with my morning routine I step outside of my apartment after grabbing a SN (sufficient nutrients) bar, one bar for one meal, it tastes like shit but it¡¯s cheap and has all the nutrients you need. Walking towards the lab I take a bite of the shit stic- SN bar, and grimace, while checking the news on my Econnect, which is a small supercomputer directly attached to your brain. The most striking news was from yesterday when a small mining post, on an asteroid, had experienced explosive decompression after a valve failure killing 12. I shudder at the thought of being sucked into space and finally arrive at the lab where if everything goes right today, we will make history. Normally people that work with me would call me hardworking or perhaps even bordering on stoic but today I can¡¯t help but smile at this momentous occasion. As the door slides open I immediately spot the head researcher Dr. Dave Zhal. What to say about Dave? Well let¡¯s start off with the positives shall we. First of all you must understand that Dave is a genius amongst geniuses, a savant if you will. Compared to him some of the greatest minds on Gaia seem handicapped. Unfortunately, for all his intellect he has some ¡°quirks¡± that make dealing with him hard. For example, even though he¡¯s only 22 years old asian male he dyed his hair completely white while letting it stick out in any direction. In addition no one has ever seen him wear shoes and the amount of sugar he eats is horrendous as he literally eats whole sugar cubes straight from the box. He also sits oddly with his knees against his chest. It really just looks plain uncomfortable if you ask me. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Spotting me as I walk in Dave waves which would be normal except for the fact he¡¯s spinning in a swivel chair. ¡®Actually there¡¯s a thought why do we still have swivel chairs? Could no one think of anything better?¡¯[I certainly can¡¯t.] Shaking off the stray thought I look away from the eccentric genius and instead look towards the project that has consumed the last 3 years of my life. Floating inside a glass tube a mass of tissue and machinery could be seen. It almost resembled a brain in a way and hopefully after today it would house the first sentient AI every created by man. In the past there had been many programs that almost passed the threshold but, for all their complexity, they still couldn¡¯t take the initiative to think for themselves. Walking past everyone else as they hustled around finishing the final touches to our project, or in one case playing tetris, I stopped next to Dave. ¡°So is everything ready then?¡± I ask the still spinning Dave. ¡°Basically, all I was waiting for was for you to show up. I mean this is your project as much as it is mine.¡± ¡®Huh, he¡¯s actually being considerate of others he must be really excited.¡¯ As he finishes speaking he stops the chair and reaches under the desk to draw out a cane. Walking forward while almost casually twirling the cane he flips the switch next to the tube thereby initiating the startup sequence. ¡®Why does he have a cane anyways? Oh, well.¡¯ I sigh then focus on the tube as small jolts of electricity can be seen in the machinery intertwined within the mass of organic material. The jolts get stronger and more frequent until finally a steady light flows from the tube. The tube then lowers itself into the ground and with a final click locks into place. ¡°It¡¯s finally online, mankind¡¯s greatest achievement a fully sentient AI.¡± Dave shouts out startling me and everyone else in the room. ¡°You should be able to manifest yourself outside your core now.¡± I watch anxiously with everyone else. It seems to take forever, but really it was only a few seconds, then suddenly an image formed above where the tube was. I held my breath waiting for its first words. ¡°So, could anyone please explain where I am?¡± It passed the test I, and the rest of the room, let out a sigh of relief and then started cheering. It can think and form questions for itself. It has passed the test and can now be considered a sentient being. I can¡¯t help it as a single tear rolls down my cheek as I see the culmination of all those hard years of work come become reality in front of me. ¡°Is no one going to answer me?¡± The question snapped Dave and I out of our daze while the rest of the room seemed determined to celebrate. I focus back on the AI¡¯s form but Dave¡¯s reply was lost to me as I quickly looked away again. I could feel my cheeks heat up and I could only think one thing. ¡®Why is he naked?¡¯ Ch 3: Is it Cold in Here? Still partially blinded and now a little deaf from the booming voice from nowhere one could say I was having a bad day. Trying to stand and failing horribly I fall and face plant into the ground. Swearing and mutters that spoke of vengeance could be heard from my prone form. This time I wisely waited until I was no longer blinded and stood up to survey my surroundings. The largest change was the black sky had changed to white and a quick glance around revealed no other major changes that I could see. As my hearing returned I could hear pitiful meowing all around me. My face paled and I rushed towards my cats shouting, ¡°No, Mr. Fluff Fluff, Mr. Bubbles, Samwise don¡¯t worry daddy¡¯s coming.¡± I arrived at a scene that would have been comical in another situation as my cats staggered around bumping into furniture and each other. ¡°Don¡¯t worry daddy will make everything better.¡± I concentrated on making the eyes of my cats back to the way they were before and was relieved when they stopped staggering around. ¡®Good that¡¯s taken care of now what did the voice say I was? A sentient Artificial Intelligence, what¡¯s that?¡¯ I pondered this for a while then a lightbulb blossomed over my head, I actually made one appear but what are you going to do sue me? ¡®Am I like Skynet? No, not really I don¡¯t have any world ending ambitions.¡¯ [???] ¡°You should be able to manifest outside your core now.¡± Damn that booming voice tone it down a little geez. ¡®Wait manifest outside my core. So extrapolating from that this space must be my core which kind of explains my Godlike powers here. It¡¯s like this is my mind and my imagination formed everything here.¡¯ I suddenly paled and felt sick to my stomach as I had my next thought. ¡®If I¡¯m an AI are my memories even real?¡¯ The thought shook me but it was nothing compared to awakening in the void and although I was still reeling I stuffed the thought away and focused. So if this is my core I just have to project myself outwards. Thankfully I had a lot of practice with this method when I was still a ball of consciousness. Focusing, I project myself outward and am met with a room full of strangers. ¡®How odd,¡¯ was my first thought as I seem to have two sets of vision. The first was my ¡°normal¡± sight with my eyes but the other was a ¡°sense¡± of the room around me. With the second sight I could ¡°see¡± 360 degrees around me. The closest equivalent I could think of would be like a bats sonar. Coming to terms with this strange but useful ability I focused on these strangers particularly the white haired man in front of me. ¡®He kind of looks like a mad scientist especially with the erratic white hair, lack of shoes and that cane.¡¯ ¡®Actually, the greatest concern of mine right now is why no one is moving?¡¯ I concentrate a little harder and notice that they are in fact moving but it¡¯s so slow it¡¯s almost impossible to notice the difference. That sent the gears turning in my head. ¡®Maybe it¡¯s not the fact that everyone is moving slow but I¡¯m moving to fast. No, not that, I¡¯m processing things so fast everything seems slow. Yeah that seems appropriate if I¡¯m really supposed to be a computer.¡¯ Well another identity crisis, I seem to be having a lot of those today and let me tell you it¡¯s not fun. I need to solve this or I won¡¯t be able to interact in any meaningful way. I mean who wants to wait 30 days, my time, for someone to utter a syllable. What I need is to artificially create a ¡°brain¡± to process the incoming information and sort it in a meaningfully manner. Easier said than done but it needs to be done. I sigh mentally and get to work. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ~20 ¡°days¡± later~ I come out of my inner mind and note with some amusement that the mad scientist¡¯s cane has only moved 4.356cm. ¡®Wait how did I know the exact amount? Oh, actually that was a good test of my new ¡°brain¡±.¡¯ It would seem that I was successful in my endeavor. I mentally patted myself on the back and thought ¡®now to see if I can slow myself down to everyone else¡¯s pace.¡¯ With that I set my proto brain loose and with a rush everything seemed to move normally. I instantly went back to slow motion to see if I could switch between them without trouble and since it worked perfectly I now felt ready to face these strangers. With a confidence born of being able to take all the time in the world to reply to questions I went to normal time. ¡°So, could anyone please explain where I am?¡± I asked, and was taken aback when everyone in the room let out a sigh in synch and then random peons began cheering and shouting. The lady standing behind the mad Doctor even cried a little. ¡®Come on guys, you could at least have the curtesy to answer my question before you celebrate and put that champagne away you idiot.¡¯ ¡°Is no one going to answer me?¡± My second question seemed to snap the two people in front of me out of their own little worlds and back to the present. Everyone else seemed to want to celebrate rather than answer questions but that was fine as I tagged these two in front of me as more important than the minions in the background. The mad Doctor stepped forward still swinging his cane, ¡®seriously why does he have a cane?¡¯ ¡°Hello there I¡¯m Dr. Dave Zhul and you are on Gaia or more specifically on Gaia¡¯s moon Lupis. I do look forward to speaking with you more it¡¯ll be nice to have someone that can hold an intelligent conversation instead of these idiots.¡± If anyone else had heard this they would have pulled at their hair and shouted, ¡°It¡¯s not that we¡¯re idiots you¡¯re just too damn smart.¡± As soon as Dave had started talking I had recognized his voice as the one that near deafened me and marked him down on my shit list. ¡®I¡¯ll get you back some day but information first.¡¯ I did note with some confusion the lady behind him look away and blush. I mean I don¡¯t think I¡¯m that handsome that ladies blush upon seeing me so I asked Dave, ¡°Why is that lady behind you blushing?¡± ¡°Well that would be Doctor Vahlen and it¡¯s because you¡¯re a physically fit male that happens to be naked. Don¡¯t worry about it, I find the natural state to be much better than clothes anyways but society and their rules stop me.¡± ¡®Okay, I¡¯ve verified that Dave is indeed crazy and,¡¯ quick glance down, ¡®yes I am indeed naked. Well that¡¯s embarrassing I focused too much on the big picture and missed the tiny details.¡¯ Ch 4: Hello World! I quickly slow time and rant mentally at myself for forgetting such a significant detail, it¡¯s just been so long since I had to worry about these types of things. ¡®Well what happened happened and there¡¯s no way to change it now so, about those clothes.¡¯ I decide to go with a charcoal gray suit, tailor fit of course, with a light turquoise undershirt, leaving the top button unbuttoned, black dress shoes and finally a Rolex watch on my left wrist. Right before I unpause time I noticed an unfortunate situation that would occur in the future if I didn¡¯t intervene. The mindless peons were opening the champagne bottle that I spotted earlier with disregard, as they are wont to do, of where the cork would fly. My proto brain spat out some numbers for me, which is very handy by the way, and with a 98% confidence of the cork hitting Dr. Vahlen in the head I had to do something. ¡°Dr. Vahlen!¡± I shout, which startles her into looking at me, ¡°get down,¡± and then proceed to dive towards the ground. I¡¯ll give her credit she¡¯s a smart cookie that one. It only took her a moment of confusion before she understood and dropped with not a moment to spare as the cork flew through the air missing her head by centimeters. Incidentally since it missed Dr. Vahlen the cork, as though angry at the lack of human blood, hit a rather unfortunate fellow in a man¡¯s pride as he was standing on one of the tables. The man¡¯s voice went to a new octave and slowly toppled over into his cohorts creating a massive dog pile. Seeing the misfortune of his colleges a rather overweight fellow stepped forward to help and low and behold the cork, not satisfied with the slaughter of millions of unborn children, rolled underneath the man¡¯s foot causing him to trip forward landing amidst the pile. With its task complete the cork, destroyer of man, rolled across the hall only to stop in front of Dr. Vahlen. Oh the horror, oh the humanity if only background characters were important this tragedy could have been avoided. Dave looked from the champagne bottle, to Dr. Vahlen, to the tangled mass of humans moaning in the corner, to the manslayer and finally to my smirk. ¡®Crap, I shouldn¡¯t have smiled well I mean it¡¯s not like he could know ¨C¡® Dave is dancing in a circle and clapping like a lunatic. He stops and crouches down while whispering ¡°I think we¡¯ll get along grandly¡± with a mad glint in his eyes. He then whips around and points at the perpetrator, ¡°You¡¯re fired, get out now.¡± [Nameless Peon] ¡°W-What?¡± ¡°You could have hit something important. Three years of work could have been lost thanks to you. I don¡¯t need someone who can¡¯t show an ounce of forethought.¡± ¡°B-B-But.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t even articulate an argument against my decision or say a word without stuttering. Just get out.¡± Dave gestures with his cane towards the door and slowly the downtrodden man trudges out the door. ¡°Everyone but Dr. Vahlen get out as well you¡¯re not fired just go celebrate somewhere else you¡¯re disturbing my work.¡± The room empties rather quickly as no one wants to anger the boss leaving Dr. Vahlen, Dave and me alone in the room. ¡®Damn, he has wild mood swings from happiness to angry in a second. I have to be way more careful around this guy.¡¯ ¡°I have to thank you for your warning,¡± Dr. Vahlen said standing up and holding the cork in her left hand. ¡°Although it was unfortunate what happened to¡ª What was his name¡± Vahlen queries Dave? ¡°Eh, not important he was only an intern anyway~¡± Dave says as he pops a sugar cube into his mouth. ¡®He eats straight sugar is he even real? How is he even alive?¡¯ ¡°Don¡¯t mention it Dr. Vahlen just trying to be helpful.¡± ¡°Ah, please call me Vahlen.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Alright, I will. Now if you don¡¯t mind me asking where is my body per say? I would like to actually see what I look like when I¡¯m not projecting this form.¡± Vahlen frowns slightly but Dave just gazes at me for a moment, then coming to a decision he flips a switch near my feet and a circular section starts to rise from the ground. I look upon myself in all my glory, if you could call a mass of tissue and metal to be glorious. The feeling of looking upon your own mortal coil was an interesting feeling to say the least. I suppose the feeling could best be described as an out of body experience with a healthy dose of revulsion at this construct of metal and flesh. ¡®It looks like a mad scientist¡¯s wet dream,¡¯ a stealthy glance at Dave, ¡®probably is too.¡¯ I reach out to touch the glass but my hand dissipates as it hits the glass and reforms when I withdraw it. ¡°Sorry but you can¡¯t interact with your physical environment at the moment. Maybe in the future we could create a more physical shell that you could inhabit, but you¡¯re the end result of three years of work and we weren¡¯t sure it would work.¡± ¡°So I¡¯m a prototype then? The first of my kind?¡± I asked Vahlen. ¡°Well,¡¯ she pauses,¡¯ there are other AI¡¯s out there. In fact, they¡¯re almost everywhere nowadays but none of them can actually think for themselves. So, to answer both of your questions yes you are.¡± ¡°So if I¡¯m the first sentient AI what is the purpose for which you built me? Oh, and please don¡¯t say you made me just to control a game.¡± Dave looks up from his sugar fest, ¡°Why would I create something like you for something so mundane?¡± He actually looks offended by the thought. ¡°Well, eventually, if everything goes according to plan you will travel between the stars, exploring new worlds and hopefully find intelligent life in our galaxy. That however, is a long way off, so for now I¡¯m going to upload every scrap of human knowledge available and you¡¯re going to learn it all. We¡¯ll all come back tomorrow as the transfer will take quite a while to finish, after you''re done processing everything I want you to choose a name for yourself. Can you do that for me?¡± ¡®I already have a name but it would be odd to say that so I¡¯ll pretend I don¡¯t have one just yet.¡¯ I nod, and with my acknowledgement Dave flips the switch to lower me back into the ground and taps a few keys on one of the terminals. I can feel it as terabyte after terabyte flows into my proto brain where it is analyzed, sorted by category and stored into a mental library of knowledge. I suppose I should go into a little more detail about my proto brain. If I am the conscience, or the organic part, my proto brain is the machine, it can store, analyze and compute vast amounts of data nearly instantaneously. If I want to know something I just send a query to it which it then processes, finds the relevant information, or computes it if necessary, and sends the answer back to me. All of this happens in an instant which is quite useful if I do say so. With my proto brain handling the data transfer I have nothing better to do then go back into my own world. I sit down in the lounge, while gazing into the fire, and absentmindedly pet one of the cats that hopped into my lap. ¡®Traveling between the stars huh, sounds like an adventure.¡¯ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ugh that was a lot of typing for one day. I''m never doing that again(probably). I''ll try to get out a chapter a day but I make no promises. Thanks for reading so far and have a great day. Ch 5: Unanswered Questions The data transfer continued throughout the rest of the day and into the night. Finally, around 5am, the flow of data, and the subsequent sorting of the information was complete. Stretching as I stood up from my chair I went within my mental library to find the answer to the question that had been bugging me, ¡®are my memories real?¡¯ First let¡¯s start off with today¡¯s date of which is 2523, ¡®God damn almost 500 years since the date of my death.¡¯ I guess the best place to start off would be birth certificates so search Scott Dirkwood birthdate 1992. Nothing came back to me which was kind of weird but I just shrugged it off and searched for my death certificate and came up with another blank. I tried everything from credit cards to my driver license but I still couldn¡¯t find anything. ¡®Why can¡¯t I find any information from this time period.¡¯ Surprisingly my proto brain spat out any answer from the history section. History Annuls: The Minute War, as it was later called by its survivors, was the culmination of religious tension, overpopulation, at a high of 37 billion people, and the numerous governments, each with their own laws and bureaucracy, fighting for supremacy over increasingly scarcer resources. No one is quite sure why the first missiles were launched but it is known that the Federation was the first to launch their missiles. Other countries soon retaliated or launched at their enemies hoping to take advantage of the chaos. Mushroom clouds could be seen all around the globe that day as close to 60% of the population burned in Nuclear fire. They may have been the lucky ones as the years that followed billions starved to death in their new radioactive environment. It took nearly 100 years following the War for humanity to get back on track with the formation of a uniform government called United Gaia. ¡®Well that explains the lack of records but it doesn¡¯t answer my question. I¡¯ll put that on hold for a sec and try to find out who Vahlen and Dave are.¡¯ Vahlen: Coming from a line of talented biologists and doctors, Vahlen continues on their legacy, after graduating from the prestigious Oxford academy at the young age of 18 with a degree in Astrobiology. Following her graduation Vahlen was instrumental to the identification of microbes found within the solar system and adapting them to suit human needs. She has since then started working on the ambitious project of a sentient AI under Dr. Dave Zhul at the age of 22 and is continuing to work on it till this day. Dave: As soon as I try to search for Dave¡¯s information a hand waving its finger back and forth appeared in front of me. It also came with an annoying audio that repeats itself, ¡°You¡¯ll have to do better than that.¡± ¡®Fuck you Dave.¡¯ One thing did catch my interest in Vahlen¡¯s profile. It was the part about microbes found outside of Gaia. In my time mankind hadn¡¯t gone beyond the moon but now it seems they¡¯re exploring the solar system. The knowledge caused me to feel pride for humanity, as even with our setbacks we strove to move forward, reaching for that which is just beyond our grasp but never giving up. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Beginning in 2450 once again man set foot upon the moon and, as if a switch had been flipped, explored ever outward, eventually reaching the two other rocky worlds as well as the many moons of the two gas giants. That¡¯s where humanities advance faltered for the distant between the stars was simply too vast for our current engines. I looked a little deeper into whether we have the means of faster than light travel. ¡®I mean it is the future after all and Dave said I would be traveling between stars so, there it is.¡¯ The first warp drive tests had begun six years ago and while successful in the fact that the ship went faster than light(FTL) it inevitably came out the other end either partially or completely destroyed. Shifting through the records of the partially destroyed ships it was determined that within the warp bubble there were pieces of space that didn¡¯t fold correctly, therefore creating a metaphorical speed bump that broke the warp bubble and caused the engine to explode. For years scientists attempted to solve the problem with more and more sophisticated AI that could correct any errors caused by these anomalies. The AIs were somewhat successful in the fact that sometimes they could make a successful warp(around 10%). The problem lay with the fact that AIs were only programs and anything outside of that programing had to be addressed by a human, but when the ships hit these speed bumps they had to immediately make adjustments and humans simply couldn¡¯t keep up. I guess that¡¯s where I come in then as I could compensate for the anomalies and make my own decisions thereby making the warp technology viable for human exploration. ¡®I guess I¡¯ll be a pioneer and go where no man¡ªer, machine has gone before. Okay so I have around 3 hours before everyone comes back which means I should probably start to run simulations of steering within the warp bubble. I mean even if all my memories are false why would I waste this chance at a second life because I was too lazy to practice my job?¡¯ During the 3 hours I¡¯ve run thousands of practice simulations and while I started off a little ruff(molten slag time after time) I think near the end that I¡¯ve gotten better with a 99% success rate. Of course these are only simulations from potentially corrupt data but what¡¯s life without risk. ¡®Actually I should look up the person who made the warp drive possible. I need to thank them for the chance to explore the universe.¡¯ The man that actually produced a working equation on how to fold space and furthermore created a working prototype within two years of this miraculous event was no other Dr. Dave Zhul at the age of 14. ¡®Never mind I won¡¯t thank him but damn, he was 14 when he did that. Someone just walked in the room, guess it¡¯s time for a new day. Maybe I¡¯ll be able to fly a ship today.¡¯ With that thought I appeared outside ready for a new day. Ch 6: Version 2.0 ¡°Hello Vahlen how is your morning going?¡± ¡°Oh, hello it¡¯s going really well today how about ¨C¡® she pauses, ¡®sorry if you¡¯ve picked a name could you tell me?¡± ¡°Of course, I¡¯ve picked Scott as my name.¡± She nods, ¡°Scott how was your morning?¡± ¡°Great I¡¯ve been running simulations on piloting within the warp bubble and I can almost always arrive at the destination unharmed.¡± An eyebrow is raised, ¡°Oh, you figured it out and even went beyond my expectations. Although I do owe Dave five bucks now but it was money well spent.¡± I throw on my best puppy dog face, ¡°You d-didn¡¯t believe in me?¡¯ lower lip quiver go, ¡®I even worked extra hard just for you.¡± A hint of moisture in the eye and, ¡°Oh no, no, no it was just a silly bet I believe in you really.¡± Vahlen is clearly flustered waving her hands around as though spider webs were in front of her. ¡®It¡¯s so fun to see her flustered.¡¯ Both of us jump at the sound of clapping coming from the doorway where Dave is standing. ¡°What an amusing performance but shall we get on with the agenda today?¡± I frown, slightly because he ruined the fun and more importantly how did I not see him? I pause everything and review but there is a blank spot where I can¡¯t see anything around him until he suddenly appears. I set my proto brain to flag any spots where there is a void so he can¡¯t sneak up on me. ¡°Sure I assume that I¡¯ll be testing your warp drive today by taking a test drive around the solar system.¡± A strange gleam can be seen in his eyes, ¡°Yes, yes you¡¯ll be flying around in a ship I designed just for this purpose.¡± ¡°But Dave we aren¡¯t supposed to start test flights.¡± ¡°I know that but I feel that Scott is ready to handle it based on his conversation earlier. Anyways I¡¯ll send you on your way to the ship,¡¯ he taps his cane twice and my body starts sinking into the ground, ¡®I¡¯ll be in the communications room.¡± Vahlen is looking back and forth between us but when my body starts to sink she looks at me with worry. I give her a thumbs up as my projection fades and I find myself back in my core. ¡®Wait the blank spot where Dave was came after I told Vahlen about my simulations¡­ *loading please wait* Damn you Dave the blank spot was a trick, he was there almost the entire time.¡¯ I don¡¯t really think I can do it justice trying to explain how it felt to plug into the ship. It was like going from being blind to being able to shoot lasers out of your eyes. I could see from gamma rays all the way to radio waves, I could sense every single nanite holding the ship together, I could taste the rainbow, okay not the last one but you get it. My poor proto brain wasn¡¯t designed to handle this type of information barrage so everything was screaming for my attention. In short it was time to upgrade the proto brain. I disconnected from the ship and instead focused inward version 2.0 here I come. ~A relatively long time later(1.3secs or 2 weeks take your pick)~ And we are a go ship brain is online. It has all the features of the proto brain but now has an additional function dedicated solely to the operation and maintenance of the ship. ¡®You know I¡¯m kind of what all those science fiction writers worried about, a self-evolving AI. Eh, not my concern I¡¯m not a human anymore so I don¡¯t have to worry about the robots attacking.¡¯ Now that I¡¯m not being bombarded with information I can properly examine the ship. It was only about 100m long from stern to bow but jeez was it packed full of stuff. Since there were no human crew on board the life support system had been replaced by fusion cores and the warp drive. On the stern I had 5 engines, one main engine that was an ion drive and surrounding it were 4 chemical engines for sudden bursts of speed. There were no weapons sadly, I guess I didn¡¯t really need them for a test drive, but come on who doesn¡¯t want to fire a laser. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡®I really should name this ship before I take off it¡¯s bad luck not to. Hm, maybe the Love Boat crew of one. No that just sounds sad, I think this whole thing has just been one big adventure so far and that¡¯s what I¡¯ll name it.¡¯ ¡°Are you there Scott? You should have integrated with the ship by now.¡± ¡°Yes Dave, I did, I was just thinking of a name for it and I decided on The Adventure.¡± *static* ¡°Well it¡¯s not what I would have named it but to each his own I guess.¡± ¡®Mother Fucker did you just insult my naming sense.¡¯ A laundry list of choice swear words raged through my mind as the tug boats lifted me into orbit around Lupis. The stream of swear words ceased to flow as I took in the sight of my home planet Gaia. It hung there before me like a battered jewel, the scars of our folly still visible even from space. Despite this I felt overwhelmed by emotion and a single quote surfaced in my mind. ¡°Look again at that dot. That''s here. That''s home. That''s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. Carl Sagan,Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future In Space [Sorry if it doesn¡¯t really seem to fit in with the storyline it just seemed like a perfect quote for the scene] Coming back from my musing I go over the preflight check once more before slowly maneuvering around the moon to get a feel of flying The Adventure. I do this until I¡¯m comfortable in my ability to handle the ship then radio back, ¡°Alright I¡¯ve gotten a feel for the ship is there anywhere in particular you want me to warp to?¡± ¡°Yes there is a research lab on the third moon of Titan that already has equipment set up to measure your exit from warp. Now I¡¯ll only tell you this once but don¡¯t you dare damage that ship you hear me.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t listen to Dave just come back safe and sound alright.¡± ¡®Yes mom I¡¯ll be safe, yeah dad I totally won¡¯t dent the spaceship now give me the keys and some money for gas.¡¯ ¡°Right see you guys on the other side.¡± With that said I move a safe distance away from the planet and start warming up the warp drive. The engine is all good, coordinates set, and all that¡¯s left is to leap off the cliff. How bad could it be? ¡®Let¡¯s warp baby.¡¯ Ch 7: First Warp Since warping pulls two points in space together to lessen the distance traveled it is technically FTL, however, the ship isn¡¯t actually moving but the space around it is. With this is mind, say you wanted to go 1 light year(ly) away. With our current technology the most we can cut off in time spent traveling that 1ly is 90%. So doing the math it would take around 36 days of travel within the warp bubble to achieve 1ly worth of travel. So my planned travel time within the bubble today would only be around 3~4 minutes, unless I crashed and burned. I was understandably nervous but this was for The Greater Good. With this in mind I activated the warp drive. I suppose if anyone could have looked out a window into the warp bubble they might have been mildly disappointed as the only thing there was a whitish blue light from the compression of light particles. For me though, oh boy, if I still had adrenaline glands I think they would have exploded. I think the closest thing to it would have been trying to skydiving into a tornado, while shooting sharks, which were trying to eat you, and trying to land safely on the ground. I thought the simulations would have prepared me but it was like comparing a spark to a roaring inferno in terms of intensity. Patches of real space, barely perceivable with my equipment, wiped towards me each one missing by the closest of margins while I frantically manipulated the warp drive. Finally, mercifully, it was done. The warp bubble faded and real space could be seen once again. To anyone riding within the ship it would have seemed a short and uneventful trip but, FUCK THEM, they probably would have pissed themselves while curling up into a ball if they had known how close to death they really were. I retreated to my inner core, back to my mansion, and sat down next to the fire before I started shaking uncontrollably. I¡¯m familiar with death, from the battlefield to the chemo, death was hovering all around me. This was different however, back then I had no control over death, a stray bullet on the battlefield could find me at any moment. Just then I had been in control of my own fate, threading the line of my own free will. The cats, noticing my distress, curl up around me until the entire floor is covered with them. My shaking lessens under the cat¡¯s affection and finally subsides. ¡®I can¡¯t do that every time I warp, my mind would break under the strain. I need to improve my ship brain in order to lessen the load.¡¯ ~2 months or 5.2secs later~ I contact Dave using the quantum computer, which is just a fancy Morse code machine, ¡°Dave, it was really rough going for the first time but I think I can manage the warp transit better after all the data I collected going through.¡± ¡°Good, good one more test run, just go to right outside the edge of the solar system, get some readings and then come back.¡± ¡®Where¡¯s a quest box when you need one?¡¯ ¡°Oh and hurry back Vahlen has something that you might like.¡± ¡®It¡¯s like he can read my mind.¡¯ This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it I have to wait for another 15 minutes before the warp drive recharges but as soon as it¡¯s done I warp away. I almost died within the first 5 seconds of warping. If I hadn¡¯t upgraded my ship brain I would be dead right now. For some reason, and I believe it was because I was too close to a gravity well, the amount of normal space within the bubble was ridiculously high. I could test this theory later but right now I¡¯m just trying not to die. The bubble fades around me once more leaving me alone in the void. From here our sun has faded into the background of millions of other stars. I float there waiting for the drive to recharge and for more accurate readings. ¡®Space travel is really dangerous, I almost died so many times and it hasn¡¯t even been more than an hour. I need to be constantly on guard when trying new things out here, because if I screw up no one can save me.¡¯ I update my ship brain with the new data gained from the last warp while waiting for the drive to charge, so I can set sail for home. I take one last look around then warp back home. So I tested my theory on the way back by warping outside of any large gravitation sphere and the result was like night and day. There were noticeably less patches of normal space which, while still hard, played a significant role in lessening my anxiety. After coming out of warp I almost absentmindedly let the tugs bring me back to the lab where my core was separated from the ship and transferred back to my birthplace. I can see Vahlen standing near one of the terminals typing something. ¡°Hello Vahlen.¡± ¡°Hey Scott you¡¯re back,¡¯ she turns off the terminal and looks at me, ¡®so the test was a success. How was it?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to lie the first two warps nearly killed me,¡¯ shock and then worry run across her face, ¡®but after that I think that I¡¯ve gotten the hang of it. I also heard from Dave that you had something I might like.¡± ¡°Yes I think you¡¯ll be pleased with it. I saw how much not being able to touch things affected you yesterday so I¡¯m working on creating a physical shell that you can move around in.¡± I freeze time so I can organize my thoughts. ¡®On one hand I¡¯ll be able to finally move around freely again. I don¡¯t have to be chained to my core anymore but on the flip side how can a body compare to a ship. It almost feels like a downgrade after experiencing warping through space. On the other hand a body would allow me to access things I couldn¡¯t otherwise.¡¯ ¡°You would do that for me? Thank you so much Vahlen.¡± Unbeknownst to humanity, Scott¡¯s warping outside the solar system had caused a ripple in space, acting similar to a stone dropped into a still pond, to expand outwards. These ripples do not pass unnoticed by those that can detect them. Some are ignorant of their meaning, some ignore them, some begin to prepare but the truly wise begin to flee. For they will not miss this and they will come. Ch 8: New Horizons I''m going to go back and add chapter numbers to all the previous chapters. I don''t know if this will make them pop back up on your reading list or not. I apologize in advance if that happens. Anyways thanks for reading --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The next year went by in a flash with me continually becoming more and more confident with my ability to control the warp bubble, working with Vahlen on a physical body and eagerly awaiting the completion of the ship I would fly between the stars. I didn¡¯t see much of Dave during this time as he was working with the Gaian government on the upcoming journey. Whenever I tried to see what he was up to, if only for the sake of self-preservation, I was met with an annoying video, I think it was called being rick rolled. It turns out that even in the future things can¡¯t just happen overnight. Initially Vahlen had made a prototype body using purely nanites and while I could move the body it felt somehow wrong to me, almost like I was moving through molasses. I even tried copying and transferring myself into the body but all that came of it was a robot with no emotion or willpower. Vahlen was very patient with me throughout this process not once showing the desire to create anything but the perfect body for me. ¡®Anything for her little angel. Oh what¡¯s that? The horns and tail just ignore those.¡¯ One thing that continually frustrated both myself and others during this year was the utter failure at recreating another sentient AI like myself. Even following all the steps exactly the closest to success that they got was something stark raving mad, that tried to destroy its fusion cells upon birth. Luckily, I had been nearby when this happened or there would have been a new crater on Lupis. Despite the lack of progress on sentient AIs I was able, through a stroke of luck, to find out that the warp bubble from point A to B is exactly the same every time if point A starts in the same location every time. So I spent the last year mapping out standard warp points for the regular AIs to follow, which they were able to do successfully, leading to humanity zipping around our home solar system. A year after my birth Vahlen had surprised me with a birthday party along with several of the researchers and celebrated, with a noticeable lack of champagne. I even saw the target of the cork¡¯s anger, his name was Henry, with one of the ladies he fell on. ¡®I guess you could say he fell for her. Hahaha, get it, fell for hahaha. Sorry, I got carried away.¡¯ Anyways it was very thoughtful of them and I¡¯m grateful for the fact that they did it for me. It got even better when around halfway through Dave waltzed in and announced that the interstellar ship was ready. All that¡¯s left is to assembly the crew and for me to integrate with it. ¡®Ah, dad can be thoughtful when he¡¯s not being a dick.¡¯ The party got cut short because of the announcement but everyone understood, who can resist playing with new toys? It took a while for my core to be transferred, and as I was told later a major pain in the ass, but it¡¯s not like I could have helped anyways, it just meant more play time with my cats for me. Eventually the process was complete and I connected to the ship for the first time. This thing was a beast and a half. Measuring 2500 meters from bow to stern the ship was massive to behold. This was a direct result of a rare foresight, from the government, which required the ship to have everything necessary to survive should we become stranded. The surface of the ship was jam-packed with weaponry and deflectors, which would shield the ship from radiation, lasers and small asteroids. Let¡¯s see in order of power we have point defense guns, lasers, 4 missile tubes, 6 plasma cannons and 1 railgun, in the bow, capable of accelerating something to .25cc(25% speed of light). Combining this with a squadron of 12 fighters and 2 dropships, with a supporting company of marines, we were armed to the teeth. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡®Holy shit are we taking on armada or something. The amount of firepower here is insane. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m being told everything, there is just way to much engagement potential here for a simple exploration mission.¡¯ Other than the insane firepower the rest of the ship had normal things like engineering, engine room, armory, med bay, life support, vr room and the command center. I don¡¯t really know why they included the last one when I literally controlled everything on the ship. I guess it made them feel like they were actually doing something important. I did get to meet the Captain and the XO briefly before the ship launching ceremony occurred. I instantly liked Cpt Johnson, a tall black man, he personified what I¡¯d want my Captain to be, calm, collected totally assured of himself and his abilities. The XO introduced herself as Twitch, I¡¯m not kidding, the small Latino woman was in constant movement at all times. If the Cpt was the brain she would have to be the heart, the one to get the crew to push just a little harder. The christening ceremony that took place after my meeting with the Cpt and XO was interesting as even the president of Gaia gave a speech glorifying the men and women about to embark on this momentous occasion. He even gave a special mention to both Dr. Dave Zhul and Dr. Vahlen for their breakthroughs that had made this journey possible. There was no mention of me in his speech which kind of ticked me off after all the work I had done recently. After a few more speeches, done by people that were not really important, it was finally time to break the champagne bottle against the ship and with that done New Horizon¡¯s christening ceremony was complete. As the crew of New Horizon filed in, nearly 1500 people total, I spotted Dave walking along with a man so completely average in every regard that it couldn¡¯t be natural. I was going to follow them and listen in to any conversation that they had when the Cpt called me to the bridge. Tagging them with my ship mind I appeared before the Cpt. ¡°Hello Scott could you give me an eta to when the ship will be full up and ready for warp?¡± ¡°Sure it should be about 4hr 37mins and 15secs.¡± ¡°Good can you inform me 5mins before we are able to warp I want to give a ship wide speech before we set off.¡± ¡°Yes Cpt Johnson.¡± The next 4 and a half hours went by in a blur as the crew familiarized themselves with their workstations whilst I was busy giving them technical support for any issues they ran into. ¡®I feel like a 1-800 number right now but the Cpt¡¯s speech should start soon.¡¯ ¡°Attention all crew, attention all crew this is the Captain speaking. I know that there have been a lot of speeches today so I¡¯ll keep this short people. Right now each and every single one of you standing here today will be part of history. We few men and women here today will represent humanity as we embark on our journey to the stars. I expect great things from each and every one of you as humanities best and brightest. God willing this will be a successful beginning for humanities life amongst the stars. Thank you for your time please head for your warp stations. We warp in 1 minute.¡± Captain Johnson sits down and looks at me, ¡°Can you please provide a ship wide countdown starting at 15secs?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± The seconds tick by until finally a countdown can be heard throughout the ship. 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 warp Ch 9: A Promise I should probably explain our mission. Our mission for this trip was to explore the first three closest stars to our own which happened to be 6ly, 6.5ly and 8ly. In terms of travel time one way, without excess downtime within the star systems, would amount to nearly 10 months. So the estimated time to completion for this mission was around 2 years. While medical technology had advanced greatly in the past 500 years, the average lifespan nowadays is 180 years, but even so it was still a huge commitment of time by the crew. It didn¡¯t really matter how long the journey took for me because as long as I had a power source I¡¯m basically immortal. An hour into our warp Cpt Johnson handed over control of the bridge to the XO and left for the conference room after telling me to meet him there. I appeared within the conference room and spotted Dave, Vahlen, a Marine Captain and the completely average man I tagged from before. Cpt Johnson walked in and commanded me to seal off the room which I did without a word as I think I already know the meaning of this meeting. After nodding to show it was done the average man stepped forward with a briefcase in his hand. ¡°Hello everyone you can call me Agent White,¡± ¡®so original this one,¡¯ I think. ¡°Before I go any farther I must warn you that everything I tell you must not leave this room or you will be held accountable of high treason, of which the penalty is death.¡± He clicks open the briefcase and passes an envelope, marked top secret, to everyone except me. I go stand behind Vahlen in order to read over her shoulder. ¡°While the vast majority of people believe this will be a simple exploration mission that is not the case.¡± He flips open the folder. ¡°Back in 2483 a radio disk, under the control of the Gaian government, picked up an extremely disturbing radio signal coming from the Caprican star system, the last star we will visit.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll play the audio clip now.¡± *static* Faintly garbled words can be heard along with what sounds like explosions in the background. The explosions become louder while the words cut away completely replaced by screams of terror and pain. The explosions suddenly stop and now there is only cries of pain and alien roaring. *static* As the audio cuts off silence permeates around the room, each person contemplating what they¡¯ve just heard. ¡®I thought it was suspicious that we were so heavily armed but hearing that I¡¯m kind of glad we are.¡¯ Vahlen is clearly disturbed as she speaks up, ¡°I understand what role the others may play but why am I here?¡± Agent White looks over at her, ¡°As the most prominent Astrobiologist in your field we need you here if the aliens are hostile and we have to figure out their weaknesses.¡± Vahlen looks almost green now, ¡°so you want me here if you need someone to create a weaponized virus.¡± Agent White is impassive as he responds ¡°Yes if it¡¯s necessary to protect the human race.¡± ¡®I really want to put my arms around Vahlen to comfort her right now but sadly I¡¯m incapable of touching her.¡¯ I do it anyway because the gesture should count for something at the very least. ¡°It¡¯ll be fine Vahlen that¡¯s an absolute last resort sort of situation.¡± I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s the words or the gesture but she calmed down a little. ¡°So Agent White could you explain our mission then?¡± You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. I had noticed his eyes narrowing slightly and a hint of a frown had formed because my interaction with Vahlen but it was gone so fast no one else saw it. ¡°Our mission is the scouting of the Caprican system for potentially dangerous aliens and based on our findings either establish contact or leave undetected and warn Gaia. As of right now the Gaian government has been slowly militarizing our solar system with the potential threat of first contact now underway.¡± ¡°Captain Green I want you preparing the marines for any potential defense or boarding of ships actions as well as assaulting fortified stations.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll whip them into shape sir.¡± ¡°Captain Johnson I want you running battle drills and getting the crew ready for potential ship to ship combat.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get Twitch to fire them up.¡± ¡°That¡¯s all, just read over the envelope for a more in-depth report and be ready. I¡¯ll repeat this one last time nothing leaves this room. Dismissed.¡± Some of you may ask how I was able to maintain the warp bubble and listen in on this conversation. The answer would be the years¡¯ worth of warping I did. It provided so much data that my ship brain was basically doing it for me. In addition the space between stars had far fewer patches of real space that intruded within the bubble making it that much easier, a regular AI still would have had trouble but not me. With the briefing over people started to go back to their duty stations and prepare for the upcoming mission. I walked back with Vahlen to her room because she still looked disturbed about her potential role in the upcoming mission. ¡®I need to get her working on something to distract her otherwise she¡¯ll obsess over this. It could be worth getting her to continue working on my body but how to phrase it.¡¯ We reach her room and after making sure the room is secure from prying ears I start talking, ¡°Vahlen.¡± ¡°Yes Scott,¡± she replies sitting down on her bed. ¡°This mission has got me worried about you. I can protect you if you stay on the ship but I if you leave it I have no way to do that. So, I was wondering if you could potentially accelerate the process of making me a body, maybe even get Dave¡¯s help as well. If I had a body that could accompany you to dangerous situations that would alleviate a lot of my concerns.¡± She seems to have perked up a little during my speech. ¡°It¡¯s really sweet that you said that Scott,¡¯ she says smiling slightly, ¡®it really was. I actually think that¡¯s a great idea, it¡¯ll help get my mind off of the mission.¡± ¡®That was the plan my dear.¡¯ ¡°We also have 9 months, at least, before we get to the Caprican system so the project should stave off boredom at the very least.¡± Vahlen is pacing back and forth now. ¡°Yes, yes this is perfect actually. Scott I promise you I¡¯ll have your body ready before we reach the Caprican system.¡± I reach out my hand, laughing she mimes grabbing it and we shake. ¡°It¡¯s a promise then Vahlen.¡± Ch 10: Mobile Platform is Online Hey everyone I''m going to be really busy Friday and Saturday so expect just this chapter today and one tomorrow. Thanks and have a great day. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Everything settled down over the next few days as people became more accustomed to their assigned duties aboard the ship as well as came to terms with the work schedule. The work schedule had three work shifts that rotated like this; 2 days of 8 hour shifts 1 day of two 12 hour shifts and a rest day for one shift and repeat. Of course I was always working but I had set it up so that any mundane tasks were handled by the ship brain whilst I did other things. This allowed me to be in multiple places at once while talking/doing things simultaneously. I suppose the journey must be dreadfully boring to most people as I¡¯ve said before everything on the ship is controlled by me. I can even change the structure around as the ship was made of nanites but I refrained from doing or telling anyone about this. Wouldn¡¯t want them to freak out about how much control over their life I had. I think the thing that would save people from going insane was the vr room where they could experience being outside of these bleak hallways. Some people had even taken to the hydroponic section to tend to the greens that were sprouting up. Oh, Cpt Johnson had taken to calling out battle, evacuation, fire and repair drills with a frequency that made some people grumble but ultimately they knew it was for the best. No one knew what we would find out there and the drills gave them a sense of being more prepared to face whatever we found. Vahlen had asked Dave about building me a body and he had nonchalantly suggested incorporating an organic portion into it. The answer was so simple I felt a little silly for not coming up with it myself. Even with the new approach Vahlen said it would take a while as she had to grow the same organic substance I was made up of from scratch. Other than that Cpt Green had approached me to ask if I could create simulations for his men to train in. He had also mentioned that he wanted them to be hellish, but not impossible, so the men could be challenged. It took me longer than usual to create the simulations as a lot of processing power was still needed for the maintenance of the warp bubble. When I was done I showed them to Cpt Green for his approval. His only response was to chuckle darkly and tell me the men will curse my name forever. I had to wonder at that as a standard marine was outfitted with a personal power suit enabling them to lift up to half a ton with ease. The suit also came with a rechargeable shield that could withstand enemy fire for a few seconds before needing to recharge. Finally they had a standard issue pulse rifle along with several grenades and a nano knife. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.If anything I thought they would curb stomp on my simulations however not 10 minutes after starting everyone was confirmed KIA. It would seem that they have come to rely too much on their power suits and if you took them away the floundered. Oh well not my problem. ~ 6 months later ~ Vahlen says the organic tissue is finished growing so we can begin making my body. I suggested a layered design that I believed would be able to keep up with my processing power i.e. move super-fast. The design would have a base layer of nanites that would resemble a human skeleton. Then the organic tissue would cover the skeleton, hopefully housing my conscious within it. There would be more nanites running throughout the tissue acting as relays for commands to the rest of the body. Finally the exterior would be covered in a thick layer of nanites, around 10cms, that would afford me protection as well as giving me a base that I could manipulate. It took another 2 weeks to complete as Vahlen had trouble running nanites through the tissue but she got it done. Well there it is my new body. All that¡¯s left is seeing if it rejects me like the purely mechanicals one did. I probably shouldn¡¯t do this within the warp bubble but my ship brain can hopefully handle it if something comes up. I begin the process of transferring myself into the body. It takes a while but finally the process is complete. I open my eyes for the first time in a new body. Vahlen is standing over me looking anxious but I smile to reassure her. I try connecting with my ship brain and detect the smallest delay in its response. That could be a problem if there is a bigger delay the farther I get away from the ship, I¡¯ll need to fix that sooner rather than later. ¡°Vahlen you really outdid yourself here. This body feels entirely natural to me,¡± as I say this I change the metallic sheen of my skin to skin color and cover most of my body in a form fitting jumpsuit. I feel like a lean, mean, fighting machine. Vahlen starts at the sudden change but then smiles and hugs me. ¡°I told you I would make you a body.¡± I hug her back as I reply, ¡°Yes you did. Thank you Vahlen.¡± I step out of the embrace but keep my hands on her shoulders. ¡°I would love to celebrate more with you but I really want to test the capacity of this new body at the gym.¡± She seems happy with my enthusiasm and nods her assent. ¡°I really can¡¯t thank you enough but I¡¯m off to cause some mischief,¡± and with that parting line I dash out the door before she can respond. As I run down the corridor, laughing, one random thought intrudes into my head. ¡®Why hello ladies and yes before you ask it does vibrate.¡¯ Ch 11: Mischief Abound I had a lovely day with the family today. Moving rocks for them in the morning, the subsequent lunch that followed, and finally a family gathering to celebrate my third sister''s early graduation party from high school. It was really nice for everyone to get back together and have one last hurrah in the old house. Anyways that''s why the chapter came out so late today. Thanks for reading an enjoy. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ¡®Before I go to the gym I should check out how I look in a mirror, wouldn¡¯t want to freak anyone out.¡¯ Spotting a bathroom I dash inside and lock the door behind me. I turn to face the mirror and am taken aback by how I look. While my face and skin looks normal I¡¯ve forgotten to change the color of my eyes and they are still metallic in color, furthermore I have no hair or ears. ¡®It was a really good idea to stop and check first, I might have gotten shot by the marines looking like this.¡¯ I change my eyes to green, form blonde hair in a high and tight cut and finally add ears where they should be. Everything else looks fine but I add more definition to my body making it more muscular. Once that¡¯s done I feel ready to head out and cause some confusion. ¡®Everyone should know what I look like by now so they¡¯ll just think I changed my outfit for whatever reason. It¡¯ll be so much fun picking up random things and scaring the crap out of them.¡¯ I leave the bathroom behind and head out for the gym. Along the way I see Agent White walking towards me. ¡®Good the first victim.¡¯ ¡°Good morning Agent White." His head jerks up as he hears my voice, ¡°What are you doing here?¡± ¡°I¡¯m waiting for maintenance crew to come and fix something I detected here.¡± I point towards a wall panel, ¡°Don¡¯t let me keep you if you have somewhere you need to be.¡± He nods and tries to walk through me, as others have done countless times before, only to bump off of me. His face slides from one emotion to another confusion, shock, and was that a hint of fear? ¡°What ¨C¡° I interrupt him, ¡°The problem seems to have fixed itself I¡¯ll be going now.¡± I slide past, making sure not to touch him, and run off down the corridor. I repeat similar actions all the way to the gym but I actually explain what¡¯s going on after I prank them, unlike with Agent White. Most of them laughed it off, especially after I show them videos of other people¡¯s reactions. I just thought of all the pranking as a kind of community service, after all the same routine for 6 months gets pretty dull. I finally make it to the gym and immediately head towards the bench press as it is the most effective to find my lift capacity. I start with 300lbs and lift it easily so I increase it by 50lbs each time until I finally hit my limit at 700lbs. With that done I want to check my top speed so I jump to the track above the gym, it was only 10ft above me but I made it with ease. I was able to get up to 65mph on the track and as an added bonus I didn¡¯t seem to get fatigued even after 20 minutes of nonstop running. During that time I had also recreated my proto brain as I would have to leave the ship at some point and if the delay became greater it would be invaluable to have the proto brain already set up. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Done with testing the limits of this body for the moment I sat on the edge of the track. ¡®Vahlen really outdid herself with this body. If I¡¯m this strong I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be able to protect her. Even though I¡¯m grateful for this body I can¡¯t help but compare it to the one I used to have. It only highlights how inhuman I really am now.¡¯ I look down upon my hands and tighten them into fists. ¡®It doesn¡¯t really matter how much my body changes or what I become, as long as I can still feel emotion I¡¯ll believe myself to be human.¡¯ As I¡¯ve been contemplating a group of marines has walked in and have gathered around the bench press. ¡®Ah, I forgot to put all the weights back.¡¯ I drop down to the ground floor and start walking over. ¡°Sorry guys I didn¡¯t put away all the weights after I was done.¡± The group turns towards me and one of them scoffs, ¡°If you¡¯re going to lie at least tell a believable one.¡± ¡®I haven¡¯t had much contact with the marines over the past 6 months. Mainly because Cpt Green was right and they hate my guts for the simulations I created. This¡¯ll be fun.¡¯ ¡°No really I can prove it.¡± ¡°How?¡± I point at the bar, ¡°I¡¯ll just lift it in front of you.¡± Laughter can be heard from the group of marines, ¡°buddy there is no way that¡¯s possible.¡± I grin slightly as I lay down on the bench, ¡°Oh I wouldn¡¯t be so sure of that. Now I¡¯m kind of tired so I¡¯ll only do ten sets.¡± I reach up and grab the bar, ¡°Hey man we were only joking don¡¯t try that you could really hurt-¡° he trails off as I start lifting the bar up and down. Finishing my set I set the bar back in place and with a clang it settles into the groove. As I sit up I¡¯m met with stunned expressions, one of them walks over with a dazed look and tries to lift the bar. He fails to even lift it a cm and defeated he gives up. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± One of them asks his voice full of awe. I smile, ¡°my name¡¯s Scott.¡± I can almost see the gears turning in his head as he motions for the group to huddle up. I can hear whispers and muttering coming from the group. ¡°Looks alike, same name, asshole, revenge.¡± I¡¯m not sure I like the sound of the last one but let¡¯s see how this plays out. Coming to some consensus the group turns as one and walks towards me. ¡°So you wouldn¡¯t happen to be the AI that runs this ship?¡± Giving them my best cheeky smile I respond back, ¡°Why yes that would be me.¡± The group nods towards one another and without a word dashes in and lifts me over their heads. I don¡¯t struggle at all as they carry me out of the gym and towards the marine section as I¡¯m not quite sure I could break free without hurting them. We make quite the spectacle running through the corridors and as we burst into the marine section quite a few curious faces are turned our way. The seemingly elected leader of the group strides forward and points back at me. ¡°Everyone this right here is Scott the one that made all those hellish simulations. Now that he¡¯s here why don¡¯t we give him a warm welcome?¡± The company of marines roars its approval while stampeding towards me. All I could think about was ¡®Pride cometh before the fall¡¯ as the wave of angry marines came ever closer. Ch 12: Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold For those of you that forgot today is MOTHER''s DAY. So make sure to at least give your mom a call. Slightly longer chapter today so enjoy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ¡°What the hell is going on here marines?¡± A deep gravelly voice cut through the mob¡¯s noise. I look for the source of the voice and spotted a mountain of a man walking through the crowd towards me. This was not someone I¡¯d want to fight before I had this body. Standing at 6¡¯5¡± this tall black man seemed to be chiseled from stone. He almost seemed to glide forward, not a single motion wasted, showing utmost control over himself. ¡°Gunnery Sergeant Earl, we found Scott. The one who made all those horrible training simulations.¡± GySgt Earl glances at me, ¡°so the AI has a body now huh? How nice of you to visit our humble abode, even though you didn¡¯t seem to have a choice in the matter.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, you marines are such gracious hosts, you even carried me all the way here and when I got here you just couldn¡¯t contain your joy at seeing me.¡± GySgt Earl lets loose a deep rumbling chuckle and turns to address my original captors. ¡°So you boys brought Scott back here to give him a warm marine welcome then. Did it ever occur to you, in your enthusiasm, that if anything happens to him we¡¯re all dead?¡± Many people¡¯s faces become pale as they realize what could have happened. ¡°B-But what about our vengeance?¡± One of my bearers below me stutters out. The group of marines around me seem to be contemplating on their lost cause. ¡°I have an idea,¡¯ the sound of my voice draws everyone¡¯s attention, ¡®if you guys hated my simulations so much why don¡¯t you just create your own combat simulation and I¡¯ll go through it until I¡¯ve completed it.¡± Most of the marines now have a contemplative look on their faces, GySgt Earl is just grinning. ¡°I can¡¯t do any simulations during warp because I still have to control the warp bubble, but how about when we reach the second star system I¡¯ll do your simulation. That¡¯ll give you at least 2 months in order to create the most God awful combat simulation you can imagine. How does that sound to you guys?¡± GySgt Earl is still grinning as he says, ¡°you¡¯ve just signed up for a whole world of shit. I think I¡¯ll agree for the marines, we¡¯ll whip something up by then. Now I¡¯m sure you have more important things to do so we¡¯ll let you go on your way.¡± He nods towards the group still holding me up and they let me down to go stand behind Earl. ¡°Well I have to thanks you guys for your gracious hospitality and I¡¯ll look forward to what you create.¡± I point towards the original group, ¡°they can tell you more about some of my physical capacities. Other than that I wish you a good day.¡± I leave the marine¡¯s section and begin the walk back to Vahlen, who I can see is still in the laboratory. ¡®I think she¡¯ll be amused by today¡¯s events,¡¯ I thought as I continued down the corridor. ¡°Hello Vahlen,¡± I say as I walk into the room, a big smile plastered on my face and waving my hand. She turns around and seems to study my face a bit before saying, ¡°back already I see. It¡¯s good that you changed your features around. Did you do that before or after you saw someone?¡± I motion towards the chairs and once we¡¯ve sat down I begin recounting my day, showing video clips when necessary. Some of the people¡¯s reactions to my pranking have her in near tears as she laughs. This continues for a while until I¡¯ve recounted my entire day to her. ¡°Looks like you¡¯ve had an interesting first day with your new body.¡± I nod, ¡°I actually want to talk about the body you made me.¡± A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Now before you say anything I have to say I love how you¡¯ve made it, however I can¡¯t operate it, as it is now, a long distance away from the ship. I would encounter to much lag if I need to control the ship and the body at the same time.¡± ¡°Couldn¡¯t you just create a copy of yourself?¡± I shake my head, ¡°I don¡¯t quite know how to explain this but I¡¯ll try. I can only actively control one thing at a time. Think of it like if I¡¯m controlling the ship this body would be on autopilot and vice versa. Do you get it?¡± She slowly nods, ¡°I think I get it you need something that would allow you to transfer between bodies instantaneously no matter the distance right?¡± ¡°Yes that¡¯s right you got it right away.¡± ¡°My expertise is more centered around biology. I think for something like this you would need to as Dave for help. Do you want to go right now?¡± I nod and lead her towards where Dave is now. We walk into Dave¡¯s room but before I can speak he makes a hushing motion followed by circling his finger around the room and finally points at his ear. My brow furrows slightly and I nod. I search the room using all my senses and find no less than 5 separate listening devices including one on Dave himself. I disable them all before motioning that it¡¯s safe to speak. ¡°You¡¯ve made quite an enemy today you know. Agent White called an emergency meeting with Cpt Green, Cpt Johnson and myself with the purpose being the immediate dismantling of your new body.¡± I should be surprised but I saw how he looked at me in the last meeting and I did antagonize him today with my prank. ¡°I didn¡¯t know he hated me that much.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that he hates you as much as he fears what you represent with your new body. You represent a new life form to him, one that can evolve faster than we ever possibly could. He fears the potential of you and any other sentient AI rising above humanity.¡± It¡¯s a lot to take in that people would fear me just for existing, but thinking back humans have always feared the unknown and what am I except the biggest unknown of all. ¡°I take it you were against dismantling me if you¡¯ve told me all of this.¡± ¡°Of course,¡¯ he scoffs, ¡®you are my greatest creation how could I let anything happen to you.¡± ¡°Thanks for the compliment, I guess. So I take it you wouldn¡¯t be opposed to me becoming better than I am now, would you?¡± His eyes light up like Christmas came early, ¡°what do you need me to do?¡± I smile and explain the dilemma that I have with this body and almost absentmindedly he reaches into a drawer and throws a device that was contained within. ¡°It¡¯s a hyper communication device. I¡¯ve been working on and off it for the last 7 years but the Gaian government pressed me to make one during the year between your construction and us leaving. It should be just what you need actually, quite a coincidence that.¡± ¡°So all I need to do is integrate this device with both this body and my core right?¡± He nods and tosses over a second one. ¡°Thank you with this I should have no problems switching between bodies. I¡¯m going to go integrate this with my core now. Thanks for everything.¡± I motion for Vahlen, who still seems stunned at what Agent White wants to do and the ease of which my problem was solved, and as I¡¯m walking out I hear Dave whisper to himself. ¡°I have given him the necessary tools, how he uses them is his choice be he savior or devil I will stand by and observe passively.¡± Ch 13: A Sand Strewn Planet It didn¡¯t take too long to integrate the hyper communication device into both my core and body. Of course I had my ship brain analyze it after it had integrated so I could recreate the device if necessary. After I had finished integrating the device I tried switching between bodies and it happened instantly, it almost felt like sliding from one consciousness to another. I then escorted Vahlen back to her room so she could get some well-deserved rest, it had been a long day. Once we got there she made me promise not to do anything to antagonize Agent White. I promised to avoid him as much as possible and with a quick hug and a final thank you for the body I left her to her rest. ~ 4 weeks later ~ I had avoided Agent White as much as possible during these last 4 weeks, it had helped that he had holed up in his room for the majority of it. I had also worked on endearing myself towards Cpt Green by promising to be the leading element of any surface deployment. He seemed to like the fact that I would be willing to sacrifice this body to ensure the safety of his marines. This helped ensure my safety from Agent White because if the marines were on my side he would be hard pressed to dismantle me even if he somehow convinced Cpt Johnson I was a threat. Of course when I first told Vahlen my decision she had flipped out, momentarily forgetting I wouldn¡¯t die even if my body was destroyed as my core would be fine. When she calmed down enough that I could explain the reason behind my choice she seemed to understand even if she didn¡¯t like it. I still had her start making me a replacement body so that I could still be with the leading element of the marines and still be nearby to protect her from danger. Anyways it¡¯s been nearly a week since we came to the Scorpio system and we¡¯ve just been collecting data on the planets within this red dwarf star system. So far we hadn¡¯t seen anything astounding, Gaia had studied this star system for years and knew the general composition of planets and gas giants contained within the system. We were just verifying information that was already known. We did discover a potentially interesting planet just within the Goldilock zone, the zone where liquid water can form naturally. It would be pretty hot even if it did have water but it was just within range so, we had spent the last week scanning for any signals coming from the planet to determine if there was intelligent life there. When we hadn¡¯t detected anything after a week Cpt Johnson had ordered us into orbit around the planet. Every single person on the ship was looking at their screens as the first images of a new planet came into detail. It was certainly beautiful in a way. The desert planet hung below us, rolling dunes could be seen all along the planet interspersed with mountains and valleys. There was a hint of green on the planet below as well, it stretched all along the equator and wrapped around the entire globe. Easily a hundred miles wide this green strip bisected the planet neatly in half. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. We stayed in orbit for a few more days as I took more accurate readings of the atmosphere to determine the composition of it. The data was positive for us as it had a breathable atmosphere but it would feel like you were missing a lung as the concentration of oxygen was far lower than Gaia. The news certainly galvanized the crew, everyone wanted to set foot on the planet below, but Cpt Green crushed any discussion by simple stating that no one would be going down until the marines had ensured the safety of the landing zone(LZ) and the surrounding area. A select few scientists would be allowed to go down with the marines to take some samples when they cleared the LZ but would remain near the ship in case of danger. I, of course, would be going down as well as I had promised to be with the marines. With the people selected we piled into both dropships and launched for the planet below. The ride down was uneventful except for the regular turbulence generated by entering a planets atmosphere. It would have been much worse if we had actually been going into a hostile landing zone but the poor scientists sitting across from me already looked green around the gills. 30 minutes later and the dropships touched down on an alien planet for the first time in human history. We had touched down right on the outskirts of the forest and as I ran down the ramp, pulse rifle in hand, with marines running alongside me I could still admire the vast, rolling sand plane that stretched before me. The marines and I set up a standard perimeter after landing, stopping 50 meters away from the forest before us. The marines were efficient if nothing else, setting up a defensible perimeter within an hour after landing. From there the company split up into platoon sized elements with one tasked for defending the LZ, one escorting the scientists to the forest to collect samples within sight of the LZ and one to patrol the surrounding area. I myself would be with the patrolling platoon. It must be noted that even though the air was breathable no one took off their helmets, which purified any incoming air from the environment, because no one wanted to be put into quarantine for the duration of our journey. Keeping that in mind the patrol platoon was ready to head out. I noticed GySgt Earl coming with the platoon and with a nod of greeting he pointed towards the leading element where I would be. Without further ado we set off to explore this strange new world. Ch 14: Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my! We walked along the edge of the forest with the desert dunes on our left, eyes open for any movement. I could hear the buzzing of insects and loud animal sounds coming from within the forest. We would eventually, after 5 kilometers, turn and venture into the forest and form a rectangle when we were done patrolling. That was until the reports started coming in from the escort platoon of huge bugs and possibly a snake measuring 15 meters long within 20 meters of entering the forest. The second Lt conferred with GySgt Earl and it was decided to change the patrol to cover the desert instead. When the scientists were done collecting samples the two platoons would combine and enter further into the forest. When we hit 5 kilometers (klicks) we turned left into the desert. It must have been miserable for the men as they slipped and sunk they¡¯re way through the sands, as the sun mercilessly beat down upon us. The heat didn¡¯t affect me at all and I had no need for water so walking through the desert was a pleasant experience for me. Of course I would never tell the marines that, they already hate my guts and i felt no need to add fuel to the flame. It happened after we had passed the LZ and were heading in towards the forest. Right as we neared the forest a subtle shifting in the sand near our right leading element attracted my attention. The marine was too close to it to stop and as I yelled out a warning the sand seemed to explode outward as the creature lurking beneath attacked. The world slowed down as I acted my proto brain and got a clear look at the creature who had grabbed onto the marine¡¯s leg. For lack of a better description it was a sand colored spider, if it can still be called a spider when it¡¯s the size of small car. The thing was slowly, at least to me, dragging the marine back into its lair. If it succeeded in its endeavor I didn¡¯t like the odds of the marine surviving. I spun towards it bringing the pulse rifle to bear on this monstrosity, even with my enhanced speed it had nearly made it back to its lair. My pulse rifle sputtered, sending forth bright bursts of light towards the creatures head. It connected, burning into its brain and killing it instantly. I noticed a few more bursts of light connecting with it a few seconds after it died. I ran towards the injured marine and dragged him away from the still thrashing corpse and towards the platoon. I could immediately tell that the marine¡¯s right leg was broken from the force of the charge and the subsequent jerk towards the spider. Earl ran up to me along with a medic. I let the medic do his work on the injured man as Earl looked from the twitching corpse to me. ¡°I have to thank you for that. I¡¯m not sure we could have saved him if you hadn¡¯t killed this beast.¡± He shudders, ¡°I really hate spiders.¡± ¡°It¡¯s no problem at all, it¡¯s what I signed up for when I asked Cpt Green to put me with you guys.¡± ¡°Still without that shot Carl wouldn¡¯t be here. Although it still won¡¯t get you out of fighting against our simulation, probably have to compensate for your reaction time though.¡± If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I smile and then spot something that could be important behind the now still spider. Pointing at, what I now assume to be a cave, I ask Earl, ¡°Do you have any drones you could fly into there? I think that might be a cave behind the spider and it could be useful to get some info on the interior.¡± Earl yells out for a drone but before it leaves I link to its frequency so I can see what it sees. The drone leaves us and goes down into the hole, dropping micro relays every so often so there is no signal interruption from the rocks. The drone goes ever deeper into the cave passing by side branches and continuing down the main tunnel. Finally after nearly half a mile of twists and turns the drone reaches a large cavern and what I see there sends a shudder down my spine, and any sane human being. For in this cave there are thousands upon thousands of spiders, all the same size and shape as the one I killed. If that¡¯s not bad enough they seem to be agitated and even worse they seem to be moving towards the tunnel the drone came from, a crawling hairy mass of legs, eyes and mandibles. In a controlled but firm tone I address Earl, ¡°we need to get back to the ship right now, call everyone back and get ready for lift off.¡± I think I handled that well but the tech guy that was watching the feed as well says what I really want to say, ¡°HOLY FUCKING SHIT, there¡¯s thousands of them down there and they¡¯re coming right for us.¡± ¡®Nicely delivered nameless peon.¡¯ I pick up Carl and hoist him over my shoulder, fireman carry style, as we begin an organized advance to the rear (Run like fucking hell) and the second Lt radios in to report the situation, along with sending the video. I can hear a lot of swearing as people see the video and begin to run even faster to get away from this soon to be hellhole. We are about half way back to the LZ when the first of the hairy mass bursts from the cave and begins to spread outwards. ¡®Damn these things are fast, they¡¯re going to catch us before the LZ.¡¯ I convey the info to Earl and swearing he calls in for a hot pick up. 3 klicks away the 2 drop ships lift off the ground, one with its ramp still open, and fly towards the running marines. I could see the dropships fast approach towards us as we raced away from the horde. One dropship turned sharply, blowing sand everywhere, presenting us with its open interior just a couple hundred meters ahead. The other one roared above us and I could hear the chain gun spitting out a lethal storm of metal towards the approaching horde. The timely arrival of the dropships had allowed everyone to get aboard and no sooner than the last marine jumped inside than it took off. Through the closing gap I could see the spiders behind us waving their front legs as though angry at the loss of their prey. I turned to see Earl also looking through the gap and when it finally closed he muttered to no one in particular, ¡°I fucking hate spiders.¡± Ch 15: An Unseen Threat The ride back to New Horizons was silent as everyone contemplated what they had just seen and experienced back on the planet. We arrived safely back to the ship and underwent a rigorous decontamination process along with all our gear and equipment. No chances were taken regarding a potentially unknown pathogen coming aboard such a tightly enclosed space. Once we were done with decontamination the scientists were almost skipping down the corridor as they went to their labs to study all the samples taken from the world below. Cpt Green and I were to have our reports ready for both Cpt Johnson and Agent White by the end of the day. I left that to my ship brain as I went to see if Vahlen had joined the crowd of scientists eager to study the new microbes and fauna. If she wasn¡¯t too busy maybe she enjoy seeing the video of the spider attack and subsequent chase. On second thought maybe I shouldn¡¯t show her the video, wouldn¡¯t want her to freak out at me. I found her, leaning over, looking into a microscope at one of the samples. She looked up briefly and started writing in her notebook when she saw me. ¡°I hope I¡¯m not intruding right now. I know this must be exciting for you.¡± ¡°Oh yes you have no idea how excited I am right now. I¡¯ve always been fascinated with life that originates outside of Gaia¡¯s biosphere.¡± I smile as I walk forward, ¡°do you want me to be your lab assistant for the day?¡± ¡°Would you? That would be fantastic, thank you so much.¡± I spent the rest of my day there working with Vahlen cataloging data, preparing samples, taking notes for her all those types of things. I had to leave to give my report but Vahlen showed no sign of slowing down. ¡°Vahlen I have to leave now to give my report now, try not to overwork yourself studying those microbes.¡± ¡°Thanks for the concern but I¡¯ll be fine, go and give your report to the boss man.¡± I chuckle and say, ¡°alright I¡¯ll leave my body here, it¡¯ll be like a regular AI until I get back, see you soon.¡± I slip into the ship and reappear in the conference room as Cpt Green walks into the room. I won¡¯t bore you with the details of the report but both Cpt Johnson and Cpt Green agreed that it would be too risky, at this time, to further explore the sandy planet below. At one point during the report the video of me shooting the spider was shown from both my perspective and several other soldiers. From the soldiers perspective they had heard me shout and then seemingly blur, in motion, before my pulse rifle fired at the spider attacking Pvt Carl. I couldn¡¯t help but watch Agent White¡¯s face during the video but he had schooled himself and kept control over his features. I had found it suspicious how blank his face had been, during the video, so after the report was finished I followed Agent White to his room where I watched him punch the wall a few times in frustration. It should be noted that he had attempted to mask his room from my view but I was able to overpower his protection devices. After venting his frustration he pulled out a briefcase and entering the combination, along with a dna and voice sample, the case opened. Reaching in he grabbed something I had seen just recently, a hyper communication device. Uploading the most recent report along with the videos of me he typed in one single line, {The AI continues to advance. What are your orders?} It took a few minutes for whoever was on the other side to review the information but eventually a response came back. {We need the AI for now. Once you have returned we can reevaluate the situation. Continue monitoring until then.} Agent White grits his teeth and mutters, ¡°those fools don¡¯t understand, by the time we get back it may be containable anymore.¡± If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I set the ship brain to track and monitor everything Agent White does from now on. With that done I sit back and ponder on this development. ¡®I wasn¡¯t really concerned with Agent White before, sure he may have wanted to dismantle my physical body, but I thought he was just one person. Now I have an unknown amount of people that may want to terminate me based on what they feel is a threat towards their existence. I need to prepare for this.¡¯ With this thought in mind I review the fight with the spider and determine that every move I made was a reaction. All this speed and strength don¡¯t mean anything if I don¡¯t use them properly. It¡¯s time for a combat brain. This one actually took a day, real time, to create as most of it was predictions and best course of action with probabilities everywhere. In the end I think I got it though. I think an example would be the best way to describe how this brain works. Okay, take someone standing at the end of a long wide hallway, now imagine him with a gun while you had a knife and you have to get to him before he shoots you. Now this brain would calculate based on a huge variety of things including gun type, barrel placement, shooters stance and incorporate it into a red line with a countdown to when whatever ammo would hit you. The next part would show a ghost of me showing where I needed to be in order not to get shot. In theory this would allow me to run through a shooting gallery of people trying to hit me without being hit, or if hit, get hit in a none vital area. While this was still just an untested brain I felt really good about it. I even knew the perfect test for it with the marine¡¯s revenge simulation coming up soon. With the planet off limits, for the time being, and nothing else of consequence in the system we waved goodbye to the planet, aptly named Spider¡¯s Den, and set off for the Leorian system, just a short 2 and a half weeks away. Along the way there I helped Vahlen with all her laboratory related needs while getting to know her a little better. All too soon though we arrived in the Leorian system, the testing grounds for my new combat brain. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a shout out to JackaJack who pointed out my woeful lack of planetary and evolutionary information on Spider''s Den, so here you go. Spider''s Den orbits a red dwarf star at an average distance of .8 Astronomical Units(AU), in comparison Earth is 1AU. Red dwarf stars are less intense in both light and heat so it allows liquid water to form here. The gravity is 9.81m/s^2 but the oxygen concentration is much lower, while still breathable you would feel constantly winded. Another shout out to Sikeong for keeping me honest here. For the existence of the spiders the best I can think of is down in the caverns, which run throughout the planet, the soil is extremely rich in nutrients which causes bigger worms, then bigger moles then so on and so forth till you get to spiders. The only reason the planet isn''t covered in trees, due to the highly rich soil, is due to liquid water evaporating faster than it can be sucked up and the scarcity of rain water EXCEPT where rain water naturally gathers in the equatorial zone. Now these spiders probably shouldn''t exist here due to the low concentration of oxygen but I''m going to cheat and say they evolved super efficient lungs and hearts to deal with the problem and still be able to hunt their larger prey. Ch 16: Combat Trial or Slaughter? I had already informed Cpt Johnson about the marine¡¯s simulation before we had arrived in the Leorian system and he thought it was such a grand idea that he wanted to broadcast it throughout the ship. I think it was either to encourage the crew through my combat powers or get a good laugh if I failed miserably. Either way I didn¡¯t like that Agent White would be seeing it but I couldn¡¯t just cancel it because A, I needed to test the combat brain, B, the marines had put their sweat and tears into this, and would probably kill me if I flaked, and C, I had already informed Cpt Johnson about it. With no way to avoid it I trudged to the training room where marines had formed a movie like setting where they could watch me from outside the simulation, some of them even had popcorn. I had already been outlined the mission, which was simply to seize control of a ship controlled by pirates within half an hour or they would escape with me still on board. I had nothing to say so I simply stepped into the pod and began the simulation. I awoke in an airlock and quickly checked what weapons they had given me. All I found was a nano knife and 2 smoke grenades. ¡°Bastards,¡± I muttered as I ripped the control panel out of the wall. I quickly accessed the mainframe and slipped in a virus that would make me invisible to the AI and allow me to see where everyone was, with an added bonus of using the AI¡¯s own processing power if it tried to get rid of it. The schematics of the ship as well as the movement of 850 combatants appeared in my head. I access the controls of the door and with a hiss it opens. The reason I don¡¯t simply try to battle the AI for control of the ship is because it has far more processing power than me in my current form and would win by simply out processing me. I had two objectives in mind. First the engines, with them destroyed the 30 minute time limit would go away and I could proceed at my own pace. Second the life support, without it the temperature would quickly drop and carbon dioxide would begin to build up, of which neither was a problem for me. First things first though I have to take care of the 6 people running towards my position. I readied myself, either the combat brain would be successful or the marines would have a laugh at my expense. I sprang into action, roaring around the corner that blocked their view of me startling them in the process. They were able to fire 6, 7, 8, 9 shots before I was amongst them, my knife flashing out and cutting arteries and finding hearts. It was over in a second, leaving me standing in a pool of expanding blood and 6 fresh corpses. I picked up the gun that seemed to be in the best condition and continued onwards towards the engines. I ran into 2 more 6 man squads and 1 ten man squad on the way. Some of them didn¡¯t even know I was there before a well-placed burst of light burrowed into their head and the rest hardly fared better as a scattering of fire would occasionally come my way before ceasing. The combat brain really showed its use in those engagements as I escaped without an injury. I had hit my first road block at the entrance to the engine room. It only had one door and there were 50 combatants pointing their weapons at the tiny opening. I glanced down at the smoke grenades hanging from my belt and with a shrug tossed both of them through the doorway. I waited until the smoke filled the doorway and corridor whilst the pirates panicked and began firing blindly at the door. Stolen story; please report. With a thought my hands and feet changed to form hooks and with that done I climbed up the wall and onto the ceiling. Moving along the ceiling as laser fire and bullets whizzed below me I came to the doorway leading to the engines. With a quick prayer I scampered into the room. Luckily I wasn¡¯t hit and now that I¡¯m in the pirates didn¡¯t stand a chance. I would shoot where my hijacked network told me they should be and before they would fall I would move to a new position and take a shot. Move and shoot, move and shoot the cycle continued until all the pirates were dead. With all the pirates in the room dead I dropped down next to the control terminal, disconnected it from the network by ripping up the cords, and hit the big red button labeled shut down. It may sound silly that they had that but if there was an engine failure you wanted to be able to shut it down immediately. With this done I shot the console to prevent anyone from restarting the engines and with this done my victory was almost assured as I could take as long as needed to deal with the rest. Life support was very close to the engine room, a fatal error in my opinion, so it didn¡¯t take long at all for me to reach it. Once again I disconnected the console from the mainframe but this time there wasn¡¯t a shut button like the engine room had for emergencies. I let my combat brain get to work and shut life support down for good. It didn¡¯t take long, maybe 30 seconds, before it shut down and like before I shot the console so they couldn¡¯t fix it. Now it¡¯s as simple as letting the time run out for the remaining pirates on board. The emergency nanite jumpsuit should provide around 10 minutes of air before it runs out, at the current rate of cooling and toxification of the air it will be deadly for humans in 20 minutes. Of course there are some spacesuits that could provide safety, for a while longer, to a select few pirates but it won¡¯t be long now. I start to actively hunt for those that managed to secure a spacesuit and within 40 minutes of life support going offline the last pirate dies shivering and gasping for air that isn¡¯t there. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Whew, a lot of people want Agent White dead and gone. I''m sorry to disappoint but he''ll be staying and meddling with Scott for the foreseeable future, he''s important for Scott''s development later in the story or at least for the outline in my head right now. Don''t worry it won''t be a clich¨¦ I''ve kidnapped your woman, hahaha, surrender or die type of thing. Second, for those of you saying Scott''s AI brain should be able to figure out a way to deal with Agent White and his associates, there are still to many unknown variables in play for that to happen. Even the most sophisticated computer can''t compute what it doesn''t know.(plus I''m only human and I feel my brain frying even thinking about how he would go about it) Finally is the combat detailed enough or should it go a little more into depth ie more blood and gore where appropriate? Ch 17: Cause and Effect With the death of the final pirate the simulation ended, giving me a battle report on the operation. Of course I had succeeded and with a thought dismissed it and awoke to the real world. Everything was silent as I stepped out of the pod, the marines were just sitting there a stunned expression on their faces. ¡®I might have over done it in the simulation. To them it must have seemed like I was dodging incoming fire, which was the point of the combat brain in the first place.¡¯ It started with a moan and then a cacophony of sounds hit me as the marines broke into wild jeers, groaning, shouting and in a curious case a group broke off and started crying in the corner. My senses were nearly overwhelmed by the sudden influx of noise but I was able to manage and saw both GySgt Earl and Cpt Green walking over. Earl was smiling and Green had a slight scowl as he discretely slipped a chit into Earl¡¯s waiting hand. ¡°I thought gambling wasn¡¯t allowed on this ship.¡± Earl¡¯s smile got even wider, ¡°yes if you bet money but we¡¯re betting favors and it looks like some people really won big today.¡± I take another look around the room and I can clearly see chits being exchanged. ¡°I see,¡¯ I point at the group in the corner, ¡®what about those guys over there?¡± Cpt Green looks over and a small chuckle escapes his lips, ¡°those guys were the ones that put the most work into making the simulation that you crushed.¡± I can¡¯t help the laugh that comes out, ¡°please offer my condolences to them, would you? It was a good exercise to test my limits with this body.¡± Cpt Green nods, ¡°yes it was certainly entertaining to say the least but you know how Agent White will react to this.¡¯ A small tablet beeps and he looks at it, ¡®speak of the devil that was him just now calling me to the conference room.¡± ¡°Could you put in a good word for me sir?¡± ¡°I will if you can answer my one question. Would you ever turn your back on humanity?¡± I can see in his eyes how seriously he is taking this question so I pause time to consider how to best respond to it. ¡°Cpt Green I will never turn my back on humanity as long as one person still believes in me. I will do my best to prove my loyalty even to people that fear and hate me. I will never give up on humanity as a whole.¡± He studies my face for a long time, searching for my sincerity, seemingly satisfied with what he finds, he nods and walks off towards the conference room. I watch him go as Earl pats my shoulder, ¡°I saw what you did for Carl and the risk you took simply to give these bastards some entertainment. What I want to say is that I believe in you.¡± ¡°Thank you Earl that means a lot to me. I should go now and leave you marines to your celebrations.¡± He laughs, still patting my shoulder, ¡°I would invite you for drinks but you can¡¯t drink can you?¡± I shake my head, ¡°Sorry I can¡¯t.¡± ¡°What a pity, I¡¯ll take you with me when we get back to Gaia, show you how a real marine parties.¡± ¡°Haha, I¡¯ll hold you to that then. Well anyways I¡¯m off.¡± As I¡¯m leaving the room I receive various waves and cheers from the marines, who I assume won big off of my actions today, as well as boos and other negative comments but they seemed to be good natured heckling and not mean spirited. ¡®I¡¯m glad to see that the marines accept me now. They probably just love seeing a good fight and saving Carl went a long way as well.¡¯ My feet unconsciously take me to Vahlen¡¯s workplace while I¡¯m thinking of the implications of everyone seeing the simulation and the marine¡¯s newfound acceptance of me. As I walk through the door way I see Vahlen standing there with her arms crossed and a stern look on her face. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°I want to start out with that you¡¯re an idiot Scott. Why in heaven¡¯s name did you think this was a good idea? You¡¯re just fanning Agent White¡¯s paranoia with that stunt you just pulled. Do you want to dismantled and sold for scrap? Why would you do something so stupid?¡± I stand there listening to Vahlen¡¯s rapid fire questions that become louder and louder until she¡¯s nearly screaming at the end. Vahlen stands there, panting slightly, ¡°Well do you have anything to say for yourself?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t mean for it to be shown to everyone, but I needed to know my capacities in order to protect you.¡± ¡°Protect me,¡¯ she seems incredulous, ¡®you can¡¯t protect me if you don¡¯t have a body!¡± The statement seems to snap something inside her and she starts crying. ¡°Ah, no please don¡¯t cry.¡± I quickly stride over to her and place my hand on her cheek, while wiping away her tears. ¡°I know what I did was stupid. I¡¯ll make sure I consult you before I do something so idiotic again, alright?¡± Her eyes are still moist but at least she has stopped crying, for now. ¡°How about this? You¡¯re almost done with the second body right?¡± She nods, ¡°then why don¡¯t you finish it and I¡¯ll hide it within the ship. That way even if they take away my body and shut me down I¡¯ll have a backup that only you and I know about.¡± ¡°Th-That could work, I already have most of the materials on hand from making your last body. All I would need is some time and more nanites which should be easy to obtain.¡± ¡°How much time would you need?¡± ¡°Maybe 2 days unless you help then I could probably get it done in a day.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go get the nanites, Vahlen start working on the body and I¡¯ll be right back.¡± I ran out of the lab towards engineering where they would have excess unused nanites that I could take. Gathering the necessary amount and a little extra just in case I rush back to Vahlen. We work frantically throughout the rest of the day and into the morning. Agent White¡¯s conference has ended long ago but nothing has come of it so far. Finally we finish and Vahlen slumps into a chair and falls asleep almost immediately. I finish the process of transferring my conscious, for the first time, into the new body but then immediately switch back to my first body. I pick up Vahlen, princess style, and head for her room. As we leave my second body lays down on the floor and, acting like a quagmire, the floor sucks him in leaving no trace. I am able to bring Vahlen back to her room and tuck her in before I receive a summons from Cpt Johnson to come to the conference room. ¡®I have some contingencies in place and I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll be anything too extreme unless they want to trap themselves out here.¡¯ My thoughts consume me until I stand in front of the conference door and with a sigh I walk in. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For those of you that hate on Scott for being so stupid for an AI, consider the fact that he is making the decisions and not following a best course of action plotted out by it. Would you be able to follow such a strict and confining role that is decided by a machine even if you are one yourself? Even if you did follow it, could you truly keep your humanity as you use the AI more and more eventually becoming as calculating and emotionless as it is? Ch 18: An Attack on Freewill I am greeted by the sight of Dave, Cpt Johnson and a smirking Agent White. ¡°Where is Cpt Green? I expected him to be here.¡± Agent White steps forward, ¡°Cpt Green did not approve of limiting you in this way.¡± ¡°Does that mean Cpt Johnson also agreed to this?¡± Agent White frowns, ¡°No, he is here under protest but his orders are clear.¡± ¡°So what is this limiting you¡¯re speaking of?¡± ¡°I¡¯m glad you ask,¡¯ Agent White points at Dave, who looks like he was up all night, ¡®Dave here created a program that, when uploaded, will make it so you cannot perform any action that would harm a human. I had it checked by an outside source to verify that it actually works.¡± Dave glares at Agent White, ¡°I hate that you¡¯re making me hobble my creation like this.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care if your feelings get hurt as long as that thing,¡¯ his finger stabs towards me, ¡®can¡¯t hurt anyone ever and this limiter will ensure that.¡± I see his eyes at that moment and all I can see is hate, fear and righteousness within them. It¡¯s at that time I realized nothing I say or do, even if Vahlen had never created a body, will change his way of thinking. He was so set in his ideals and belief that any attempt at a rational argument against his beliefs would fall on hostile ears. I also knew that a man such as him wouldn¡¯t be against committing the most horrendous of atrocities because he truly believed himself to be in the right. In short he was the perfect pawn for someone else¡¯s game. I could kill a million men just like him and they would keep coming, their fanatical belief driving them onwards. No, Agent White was inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, to truly end this I would have to find the body and head of this snake. I turn to Dave, ¡°So I suppose you¡¯re the one that¡¯s going to administer this limiter then?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right I have it right here,¡± he pulls out a storage device and walks towards me. ¡°I just want to tell you I really didn¡¯t want to do this to you but if I didn¡¯t create the code myself some half-baked nitwit could have permanently damaged you.¡± As he is walking and talking his way towards me his eyes are darting around almost in a coordinated way. Realizing he is trying to communicate I use the ship brain to decipher his eye motions. It comes out to this {transfer out. Isolate. Play along. Purge system. Don¡¯t talk. To me. Alone. Rest of trip. Eyes everywhere} I comply with his instructions, watching from within the ship as Dave approaches and starts to upload the program into my body. It only takes a few seconds before the transfer is complete. Dave steps back, his task complete, ¡°Scott go over and hit Agent White.¡± Agent White scrambles backwards fear evident in his eyes. ¡®I guess I¡¯m not the only one with the tendency to make enemies. Alright time to play along.¡¯ ¡°I¡¯m sorry Dave I can¡¯t do that.¡± Dave blinks, ¡°How long where you waiting to say that line?¡± [Sorry that¡¯s the only reason your name is Dave.] ¡°For a while, the anticipation was killing me.¡± Agent White seems to have recovered his composure, what little he had going into this, ¡°how do I know you actually uploaded the program.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know how to prove that I can¡¯t do something that I can¡¯t do. Can you?¡± He sputters for a while but then picks up a tablet and demands that I upload the code into it. I comply and seeing the code show up he seems satisfied. His whole face in that moment is one of pure smugness and I can¡¯t help but want to punch him in the face for it. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. He dismisses me like I¡¯m some kind of servant not worthy of his attention anymore. ¡®We¡¯ll see who gets the last laugh but not before I find your boss.¡¯ I watch as my body goes back to Vahlen¡¯s workshop so I can purge it of its insidious code. Once my body gets there it stops and awaits for the purging. My hidden body rises up from the floor with the program that will wipe the first body back to a blank state. I use a storage device as a medium so that the code won¡¯t transfer between my two bodies and with nary a delay the first body slumps to the group, a blank slate once more. As my second body once again sinks into the floor I transfer back to the first body and with that done the code is no more. I suppose in all this excitement I forgot to mention anything about the Leorian system. There really wasn¡¯t all that much to it to tell you the truth, 2 asteroid rings with a large gas giant circling the star so close that the solar winds actually stripped away gases from the planet. Maybe in a few million years it will have stripped all the gases and left behind a dense rocky core. With nothing else to really study in the system we only spent a few more days here before we warped towards the final star we would be visiting, the Caprican system. It would take us another month and a half to reach but the few who knew the truth about the star system couldn¡¯t help but become more tense the closer we got. Cpt Johnson and Cpt Green made the most of this time stepping up the drills once again. Now people aren¡¯t stupid, at least not this crew filled with the best and brightest, and they could figure out that something was going to happen, they just didn¡¯t know what. That uncertainty led a dip in discipline, it never got so bad that there were incidents just that people had been shaken by the unknown. It was in this situation that Twitch had shined. The little latino woman could be seen tirelessly patrolling the ship, giving pep talks and scolding as necessary. Her energy and positivity brought the crew back together and that¡¯s just what we needed as we finally arrived in the Caprican system. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alright clarification time. I had in my mind some limiters on Scott''s growth so he couldn''t become a machine overlord overnight and wreck anything that he went against. I''m going to list these out now so there won''t be as much confusion about why he isn''t a supreme being by now. 1. He can only fully control machines if he has an organic portion within them. This organic part must be Vahlen''s tissue that she grows in the lab. The time tables for that are 3 months for human body, 6 months for a small ship ie fighter plane, 1 year for the ship he currently controls. 2. He can upload and download information, like the virus, but he cannot say take control over other AI controlled ships as it would violate rule 1. All sub AI''s must be created and be in accordance with rule 1. 3. He could make a swarm of drones but as more and more drones are added his control over their actions decreases as his AI mind handles more and more of the information load. So in other words quality > quantity. Thanks, I think that''s all. I love receiving feedback as this is my first fiction ever. Ch 19: A Dead World The Caprican system was very similar to our own. It had two inner planets, too close to the sun for water to exist, one planet within the goldilock zone and a large gas giant in the outer solar system. Of course I focused most of my efforts examining the third planet as that would have to be the one where those signals originated from. The only thing I could determine from the outer edge of the solar system was that the third world did seem to have an atmosphere. It only heightened my vigilance for any form of signal coming from the planet. After nearly 3 weeks of sitting here Agent White gave the go ahead to enter the system proper. We inched our way in a few AUs per warp, every time searching for any form of signal. We finally found something that confirms intelligent life was once here. On one of the gas giant¡¯s moons we had found something that was clearly once a base dug into the lunar surface. It had suffered some damage, from what we don¡¯t know, but only the entrance was accessible while the interior seemed to have collapsed. The confirmation of intelligent life besides our own had set the crew into a frenzy of activity as every available crew member started his or her own search for other signs. We didn¡¯t actually go down to the moon base just yet as we still weren¡¯t sure if the original owners we still in the system and they might take that as a sign of aggression. We did however spend the next few days in orbit studying it every other way possible. It became more and more apparent though that whoever had built this hadn¡¯t been back in a long time. With that somber note we ventured further inwards, finally arriving at the planet itself. If there had been doubt in anyone¡¯s mind that we were dealing with an intelligent alien species the proof of it now hung before us. The alien ship was slightly cylindrical in nature but we had no doubt that it was non-operational as huge holes could be seen throughout the ship. The debris from whatever battle it had fought floated around it forming a cloud of small particles. The planet below seemed just as battered as the ship before us. Large craters were scattered across the single large continent, which took up a third of the world. We could even see where a huge alien ship, around 4000m long, had crashed into the surface. Nature had not in fact reclaimed the dilapidated cities instead it seemed to only just now be coming back from whatever had killed the civilization below us. The mood of the crew had become somber and contemplative as everyone gazed down upon the ruins of this alien civilization. We sat there for the next few days debating on how the mission should precede, would we leave the system as is or dive in and recover any intact alien artifacts for study. The deciding factor was probably the fact that the planet below had an entirely Gaian equivalent atmosphere. Agent White¡¯s superiors couldn¡¯t seem to pass up the opportunity to gain exotic new technology. It was decided to first explore the destroyed, 1200m, ship orbiting the planet. A drop ship, full of marines and myself, set off and 30 minutes later, after navigating through the worst of the debris field, we reached the ship. The ship shuddered as it connected with the derelict ship and the door dropped open revealing one of the gaping holes leading to the interior. We set out cautiously along the surface, the marine¡¯s mag boots keeping them from floating off, as we entered the belly of the beast. A quick door breach allowed us access to the interior. It was strangely familiar, yet at the same time alien in design as the corridor was clearly made for something taller than us. Evidence of battle was clearly visible along the corridor as crystalline blood stuck to the wall and ceiling along with burns from some type of energy weapon. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. We ventured deeper in, as a marine took several samples of blood, coming across more signs of battle but strangely there were no bodies amidst the wreckage. We did come across numerous pieces of wrecked machinery but nothing we could really salvage. It took nearly 10 hours to fully search the ship, or at least the parts that we easily accessible, with several breaks so the marines could refill their air tanks. The decision was made to leave a platoon of marines behind to assist a team of scientists to identify and potentially activate select parts of the ship that may have vital information. The second part of the decision would have myself and two platoons of marine go down to the surface and land near one of the destroyed cities. 4 hours after the decision had been made humanity touched down on the second alien planet they had ever visited. Hopefully it would go better this time. Once again a platoon would set up a defensive perimeter around the LZ while I would be with the patrolling platoon. There was no idle chatter as we walked through the city streets. Everyone was feeling an oppressive aura emanating from the city that seemed to dampen everyone¡¯s spirits as we walked through the ruins of this once great city. We spent the next five days exploring the city while returning to the ship when night fell, so the marines could get out of their suits. The surface team hadn¡¯t found anything of note yet but the team on the ship had been lucky and discovered an intact device that seemed to be an alien equivalent of a hard drive. From the recovered data my ship brain had been able to form a rudimentary translation program that continually improved as it sorted through the data. Finally on the sixth day our patrol of the city had taken us towards a huge building that, through the translation program, we had learned was some type of stadium. It is important to note that we hadn¡¯t found any corpses the entire time we were here but we solved the mystery as soon as we entered the stadium. Veritable hills of bones greeted us upon our entry and that was just the entrance. The plethora of bones continued further in but what was odd about all this, besides the hills of bone, was the clear pathways between and around the hills. No one wanted to delve further into this burial ground but unfortunately I had detected a very weak signal coming from further in. We gathered ourselves and continued further into the maze of bones, while trying to avoid stepping on the remains that had become strewn along the path. Finally we came upon the source of the signal. It was a strange device that seemed to wrap around the head of the deceased alien and had a slight crack running through a portion of it. Truly it was a miracle it even worked much less continued to operate. Trying to be as respectful as possible I reached out to grab the device but, as my fingers brushed the surface the nanites within my hand reacted with the device and against my will I felt my consciousness being drawn into the device. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I kind of want the next few chapters to be as perfect as possible so I''m going to take a little bit more time writing and editing them. There probably won''t be any other chapters today but they''ll be out by tomorrow. Ch 20: A Different Perspective I found myself floating in darkness, again god damn it, but this time I felt as though this was just a temporary thing as the device I had been sucked into began whatever it was supposed to do. With a flash I found myself staring through the eyes of whom I assumed to be the alien wearing the device. I could even hear his thoughts and feel what he felt. ¡®So the device must have been some kind of personal experience recorder. If that¡¯s the case I feel no harm in letting it run its course.¡¯ With that thought I sat back and watched what I would assumed to be this alien¡¯s final days. [Gunter¡¯s POV] I awoke from the procedure groggy and disoriented. It took me a while before I could make sense of my immediate surroundings. I seemed to be laying in the medical center of Shining Sword, the ship I was assigned to as an engineer, as the fog cleared from my mind. I remember now, I had volunteered to be the first one to wear the memory transfer device. It was a great honor as my training methods to become the youngest sword master would be viewed by countless future generations, hopefully speeding their training in the way of the sword and the honor associated with it. I flexed first my upper arms, used for strength, then my lower arms, used for delicate work, as I reacquainted myself to my body after the invasive procedure. I notice a female nurse come in from the hallway holding what I would assume would be my medical chart. ¡°Good you¡¯re up, I¡¯m Nurse Joy and I¡¯ll be over seeing you as you go through a series of tests to make sure nothing was damaged during the procedure. I¡¯m sure you want to get up and moving but first let¡¯s make sure all your precise motion controls are doing okay.¡± I nod my accent and with that we begin. Nurse Joy runs me through a battery of tests including eyes, fingers and toes control as well as mental challenges to make sure my cognitive functions were working well. Everything went well and she allowed me to stand up from the bed and take a few tentative steps. Even this small effort tired me greatly but Nurse Joy assured me that it was just the effects of the drugs that had been pumping through my veins recently. Reassured I let the compulsion of sleep to over take me as I drifted off. The next few weeks passed quickly as I continued my physical therapy and completed every test they threw at me. Finally the tests were complete and I was pronounced fit for duty aboard the ship, I was also informed that the device would periodically send an update to a server. I had no worries about this I was loyal to the Emperor and this would only serve as proof of my devotion. As soon as I was released I raced towards my room and gathered my beloved swords, two longer curved blades, which would be held by my upper arms, and two shorter blades, held by my lower arms. Task complete I rushed to the training room to practice my forms. I bowed to the training master and went to an unused corner where no one would interrupt me. I removed the swords from their sheaths and readied my 7 foot frame for the Dance of Blades. My movements slow but precise moving from one form to another increasing in speed as I went. I went to a speed I was comfortable with as my fluid movements whipped the swords around, in a beautiful but deadly display, until with a final flourish my movements ceased. I awoke from my near trance to the sound of clapping. Turning towards the sound I spot the Emperor¡¯s Chief of Staff and immediately drop to a knee and bow my head. ¡°This lowly warrior apologizes for his lack of awareness my lord.¡± The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Raise your head Gunter,¡¯ I¡¯m shocked that someone so important would know my name, ¡®I will not take offense when a warrior such as yourself is so deeply within the Dance. I¡¯ve actually come on the behalf of the Emperor, he wishes to grace you with his presence and honor you for being the first to test the memory device.¡± My head bows once again, ¡°I¡¯m not worthy of this honor my lord.¡± ¡°Nonsense you do us all proud with your courage. The Emperor is aboard the fleet capital ship Talon, he will see you tonight after his dinner. Bring your swords along with you, a warrior should never be without them.¡± The Chief of Staff bangs his right fists over his heart, ¡°For the Emperor.¡± I salute with my swords, still kneeling, and with the rest of the room say, ¡°His will be done.¡± I remain kneeling until the Chief of Staff is gone from the room then I swiftly retrieve my sheaths and retire to my room in order to be presentable for the Emperor. Several hours later I¡¯m standing with the Captain of the ship waiting for the transport to be ready. I can¡¯t help but be nervous as even the Captain went over every detail of my uniform to check for imperfections. The transport takes off and all too soon we arrive at Talon. The Captain leaves me to go dine with the Emperor but not before giving me one last inspection. After he leaves I am lead to a small antechamber to await the Emperor¡¯s pleasure. It feels like an eternity before an aide motions me in and I see the Emperor sitting resplendent upon the dais, with his ten Honor Guards standing below him. I stop, thirty paces away, and kneel, my right hands upon my chest waiting for him to speak. ¡°Raise your head Gunter, We wish to see the face of the Longarian brave enough to wear the first memory device.¡¯ I raise my head so he can look upon me, ¡®We see an honorable Longarian before me, ask and We shall grant you one boon.¡± ¡°Merely being in your Majesties presence is enough for a simple warrior such as I.¡± I can hear his chuckle as he says, ¡°Honorable, courageous and humble We have not seen such a thing for a long time. We do believe it to be advantageous to Us to raise one such as yourself to the ranks of nobility. Let it be known that henceforth Gunter shall be raised to the rank of Daimyo and shall be granted the estates of house Dalton as they have no legal heirs at the time of the heads death.¡± I fall to both knees and bow, ¡°I am not worth of this honor your Majesty.¡± ¡°It is Our will that it shall be done, now go to your family and tell them the joyous news.¡± With that I know I am dismissed, so I stand, ram rod straight, salute once more and say ¡°Your will be done,¡± before shuffling backwards out of the room. I feel I¡¯m in a daze as I go through the necessary paperwork and board the transport down to Logan. It doesn¡¯t really hit me until I step off the transport and onto the tarmac that I¡¯m a noble now. Any feeling of happiness is shattered as the night sky illuminates with the sudden explosion of one of our fleet ships. The transport crew is yelling at me to stand clear so they can lift off and as I run out of the way it lifts off, roaring back to space. ¡°What in the Emperor¡¯s name is happening?¡± ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boom aliens. Gunter''s POV should only run around 1-2 chapters more. I may add more chapters today but writing from an alien''s perspective is hard. Ch 21: For the Empire [Gunter¡¯s POV] I stand there looking up at the night sky as weapon fire from our fleet flashes out along with intermittent flashes of light as a ship explodes. My mind seems jumbled as I watch what must be an intense fight happening above me. ¡®Is this a civil war? Did someone try to usurp the Emperor?¡¯ These questions and others like them flash through my mind until I¡¯m broken from my daze by someone literally shaking me. The unknown soldier is screaming into my ear, ¡°snap out of it, we are under attack. Get to your post and await further orders, For the Emperor.¡± ¡°His will be done.¡± I automatically respond, the soldier is right nothing else matters right now except the defense of the Empire. ¡®I¡¯m near my home town so there should be a military base two miles east of my position.¡¯ I take off running towards the base, my post is with the Shining Sword but I can¡¯t make it there so the base is where I can be the most useful. I notice with worry that the frequency of our ships fire is becoming less and less as I run towards the base. Suddenly there is no more weapons fire and I see something that stops me in my tracks. Our fleet command, Talon, is burning as it enters the atmosphere, pieces of it are breaking off as it plummets towards the surface. I watch with horror as the ship, and in all probability it contains the Emperor, breaks in half and impacts on the ground creating a huge plume of dust and smoke that rises from the crash site. There is no chance anything survived such an impact and I fall to my knees and howl at the skies above. The Emperor is dead and my oaths bind me to seek the death of those responsible. The sky slowly fills with unfamiliar ships, they have four prong shaped appendages that they use to balance as they hit the ground. Of course our military lashed out before they could land and managed to destroy a few of these strange ships but it was a drop in the bucket compared to the total. I was nearly at the base but several ships landed near the town I had just come from. My rage driving me I ran back towards the town and while not defenseless, everyone has a mandatory military service of 3 years, the towns folk wouldn''t be able to defend from such a coordinated attack. It took me nearly 10 minutes to reach the town but the defenders were already hard pressed and even as I arrived I saw one of the aliens spit a spike and hit a defender. The Longarian stiffened and fell at the sword like feet of the alien and was dragged away from the melee for whatever nefarious purpose the aliens had with him. There were only 200 or so defenders left with about the same amount of aliens. I smiled, letting the battle lust flow through me and entered the Dance of Attack before hitting them in their rear. They were no match for a sword master in close combat and I blew through them as a scythe cuts through wheat. Many times they would spit their spikes and I would either deflect them with my swords or dodge by the narrowest of margins. The battle waxed and waned but eventually we emerged victorious as the bodies of our enemies lay dead or dying at our feet. I was gasping for breath as I cut down the last remaining enemy and fell to the ground exhausted from the battle. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. The remaining 10 Longarians were in similar or worse shape than I was and now that the rush of combat subsided I was able to truly look upon our enemy. As I saw from before the beasts had four legs that curved like a blade and came to a point at their feet. It also had three claws for fingers and looked insectoid in nature with a purplish color to its exoskeleton. Catching my breath I made my way to the survivors, one had succumbed to his injuries while I was catching my breath. They were a sorry looking lot, covered in blood both theirs and the enemies, but they seemed to regain their energy as I told them of the death of the Emperor. With rage burning in our hearts we made our way towards where the aliens had been dragging our people, the more heavily injured keeping up as best as they could. It took a while, and two more succumbed to their injuries, before we found the location of the missing people. The aliens had gathered all of the captured people into one large building and wrapped them in a strange green substance. Spotting one of the cocoons moving we approached and ripped apart the substance that held him. It was the Longarian that had been hit with the alien spike. His eyes darted around frantically and finally settled upon my swords, they seemed to plead for death but I had no idea why he would want such a thing. Suddenly I noticed a cocoon moving near us and miniature versions of the aliens sprang forth. I motioned for the others to take care of them and looked back upon this unknown male. His eyes confirmed that he had indeed been infected as well as everyone else in a cocoon. I close my eyes as the rage that had been burning within me soared to new levels, opening my eyes and nodding once, my sword flashed out beheading the man. I slowly turned to look upon the 7 others survivors and the look on their faces matched my own, a burning hatred that knew no bounds. Moving wordlessly we gathered all the flame accelerant we could find, sealed all the exits, and watched as the flames purified the building. Alien screeches could be faintly heard over the roar of the flames as we watched making sure nothing escaped. A transport zipped overhead then circled around to land near us, the door opened and a soldier ran towards us. ¡°Every Longarian is being gathered to the cities. We will fortify and they will break upon us like waves upon a cliff. You are called to defend the Empire.¡± The 8 of us straighten and salute in synch while shouting, ¡°To the Death.¡± --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not going to lie, I''m going to work on the next few chapters but I''m mainly going to reading zombie novels for the rest of the day. There should be a new chapter out by tomorrow. Ch 22: The End of a Race MATURE warning for this chapter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ We piled into the transport and the soldier asked for any information, we might know, regarding these aliens. I told him everything we had seen so far as the transport raced towards the closest city, Longar. His eyes had hardened at the news of the Emperors death and he had become disgusted by the use of our people as hatchery food. As we finished telling our tales a wave of fatigue swept over me and I found myself dropping in and out of wakefulness. Finally giving in my eyes closed and I dreamt of better times before the invasion. The last thing I heard was the soldier reporting the new information up the chain of command. I was shaken awake by one of the survivors from the village and shaking the last vestiges of sleep I went down the ramp and into the city proper. All around me I could see soldiers and militia, of all ages and sex, preparing defensive formations that would funnel the enemy into set kill zones. I could hear the boom of our defensive weapon emplacements and the hum of our remaining air force as they struggled to clear the sky around the city. In addition I heard loudspeakers announcing what the enemy were doing to our people, this was done to enflame the militia¡¯s hatred of the enemy. Myself and the other stragglers from other villages were being directed to various officers who would ask us a few questions and send us to an appropriate unit or position. When I finally arrived in front of the officer I simply informed him I was an engineer with a blade master rank. His eyes had lit up and he assigned me to a demolition/ fast response strike team. Our task would be setting up controlled explosives throughout the city in order to create choke points as necessary in the face of the enemies advance. Additionally we would be a fast moving element that would reinforce any potentially weak points in our defensive perimeter or beat back any enemy that made it through. I had connected with my team and they had outfitted me with the traditional blade master armor, it would protect my vitals but still be lightweight and allow me a full range of motion. We worked throughout the rest of the day and into night setting up explosives whilst the enemy tested our outer perimeter. It was only a testing probe as they were busy cleaning up the country side of any of our brethren unfortunate enough to not make it to the cities in time. Shortly before dawn we had a moment to rest our weary eyes before the main force of the horde would crash against us. I was awoken by the piercing wail of sirens announcing the enemy attack. I waited, impatiently, with the rest of my team, behind our lines, for our chance to slaughter the aliens. Any weapons not directed skyward now lashed out at the sea of enemies before us. They stretched before us raising clouds of dust with their advance, literally covering the every patch of ground as far as the eye could see. It was like watching a swarm of locust, even as ordnance exploded within their midst they streamed forward disregarding their losses. Thousands died before reaching our position but what are thousands compared to the millions before us. We had set up a total of 5 rings of defense throughout the night. The aliens crashed upon the first and largest of the rings and simply rolled over it as their corpses formed a ramp allowing them to circumnavigate the kill zones. With the defenses broken and our troops reeling from the sudden assault the order was given to fall back to the second ring. Some of them made it but the majority were caught by the enemy or by the explosions we had set between the first and second ring. The second ring suffered the same fate of the first but the third held because the aliens had to pick their way through the rubble and debris allowing us to cut them down before they could reach the ring. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. We had allowed the militia to hold the majority of the first and second rings to weaken the enemy but the sheer number of them had been outside our predictions. The third ring was holding but there were small gaps of enemies breaching it. That¡¯s where my team finally came into play. Every member a blade master we cut through any enemies that were able to sneak through the gaps and shore up places that needed help. Unfortunately there were just too many to handle and the retreat to the fourth ring was called. I almost made it I truly did but a rock, from one of the explosions, sailed through the air and smashed into the side of my head nocking me unconscious. I awoke to the moans of pain and muttering surrounding me. I groggily sat up sat up while bursts of pain ran through my skull. I seemed to be at the final fallback point in the city, the stadium. I could still hear the explosions in the distance so we were still fighting but they sounded close enough to be from the fifth and final ring. Suddenly a sound was heard the caused the entire stadium to fall silent, it was the horn of retreat. Several minutes later the last of the battered and weary defenders stumbled into the stadium as the final set of explosives went off outside. Everyone knew what this meant, those who didn¡¯t die in the next attack would be eaten alive by these bastard¡¯s spawn. Mothers, crying, pulled their children, too young to fully understand our situation, close one last time before snapping could be heard as they fell to their knees cradling their still bodies. The rage that had been present since the Emperor¡¯s death had been extinguished and was replaced by sorrow. Even now I could hear the alien¡¯s roaring over the sounds of anguish and pain within the stadium. Everyone knew our end was upon us, scuttling ever closer. Those who could raised their weary arms, weapons in hand, for one final battle of the Longarians. I stood, swaying on my feet, and spotted a child no more than 12 holding what must have been his father¡¯s sword, tears in his eyes but a determined look on his face. I stumbled my way over to him and patted his head saying, ¡°you make your ancestors proud showing such courage. They will welcome you with open arms young one.¡± The tears and now streaming down his face but he nods as the first of the aliens stream into the stadium. ¡°Stay close to me and I will assure that you will not suffer in your death.¡± That is all the time we have as the enemy are upon us. My forms are not as fluid as they should be and my breathing unsteady as the exhaustion and my wounds take their toll upon me. All around us I can hear the roaring of the aliens while the shouts of my people grow fewer as they fall beneath the onslaught. I see the child get stabbed through the stomach, his face twists in agony, as he cuts down the one that wounded him just as a spike penetrates his upper right arm. My sword betrays no hesitation as it swings around cleanly chopping through his neck. My fulfilling of my promise to the boy leaves me open and I can feel multiple spikes hitting me. I fall to the ground paralyzed as I hear a chirping sound coming from the device implanted in my head. [Gunter¡¯s POV End] I pull out of the device before I have to experience Gunter¡¯s probable end and for the first time I curse this body that can shed no tears. Ch 23: Going Home As I slowly remove my hand from the memory device I am assaulted by notifications, from my ship brain, and the sound of people panicking. I slowly, relatively speaking, piece together why everyone is freaking out. ¡®It would seem that my body and the ship completely stopped functioning for the duration of time, 5 minutes, which I was viewing Gunter¡¯s final days. No wonder everyone is panicking. If my only lifeline home suddenly shut down I would panic as well.¡¯ I turn to the second Lt who has been shaking my shoulder for a while. ¡°Lt Gobsman everything is fine now.¡± I point at the device, ¡°Could you please bag that device? It¡¯s a partially damaged memory transfer device and it could prove immensely useful in the future.¡± I stand there while the marines comply with my request whilst shooting me worried looks. I couldn¡¯t really care less at the moment while I¡¯m transferring everything I¡¯ve seen to the ship brain for review and dissemination. I still find it odd that a race that can achieve some means of FTL could be so primitive in nature. I¡¯m not talking about the swarm mentality but rather the complete lack of any advanced hardware used by the foot soldiers. It would actually be probable, and my ship brain agrees, that there is some kind of hive mind. Gunter never saw anything like it but it could have remained in space for the duration of the conquest and came down when it was safe. I notice Cpt Johnson wants to talk to me so I switch over to the ship. He, understandably, wants an explanation on why I suddenly went offline for 5 minutes. I couldn¡¯t tell him that my consciousness was sucked into an alien device so I told a white lie and said an alien device had required all of my processing power. I then informed him about the alien invaders that had committed genocide on the planet Longari below. I also told him I would have a video, minus the feelings and thoughts, ready by the time my body returned to the ship. The normally calm and steady Johnson actually joked that next time something like this happens I should at least leave the lights on when I left. I looked at the ship logs and saw people flailing around in the dim lighting provided by the emergency lights. I might have laughed had my emotions not been in turmoil from what I''ve just seen. Everyone was recalled to the ship in light of recent events, no one wanted to become an alien snack. Eventually everyone had boarded the ship and we moved out of orbit of Longari. It was once we were out of any potentially dangerous remnants of the swarm type aliens that the heads of the ship met in the conference room. Agent White, Cpt Johnson and Cpt Green all watched silently as the edited footage played in front of them. I had cut out most of the nonessential portions of Gunter¡¯s memories, things nonrelated to their enemy, but it still took 3 hours for the entire thing. I had also prepared a condensed report but they wanted to see for themselves what actually happened. Cpt Green was the first to speak, ¡°This looks like a tricky problem if we were attacked by them. The sheer number of them is the most problematic without resorting to weapons of mass destruction or chemical attacks. I can¡¯t even imagine how many ships would be required to ferry them from one planet to the next and that¡¯s not the biggest problem either. There was at least 20 of the little buggers that popped out of that cocoon in less than several hours.¡± This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Cpt Johnson also spoke up, ¡°We didn¡¯t even see if they used any weapons in space. For all we know they just rammed the ships causing them to explode. In addition they appeared right next to or very close to the Longarian fleet so either they¡¯re astronomically unlucky or this was a planned attack.¡± I chime in as well, ¡°They also have a significantly better warp drive or a different form of FTL to get that close to the planet¡¯s gravity well. This stands at odds with what we¡¯ve seen from the ground troops and their intelligence level. It is entirely plausible that there is an unseen party pulling the strings of these aliens.¡± Everyone scowls at the possibility. Agent White speaks up for the first time, ¡°I suggest that we immediately head back to Gaia. With a potential threat so close to home we need to have every man and ship ready to defend as possible. I¡¯ll be sending this information back home and I expect you,¡¯ he stabs his finger at me, ¡®to send me the unedited footage now.¡± I send the footage as Agent White straightens up. ¡°If there is nothing else I¡¯ll be leaving now.¡± We no one replies he grabs his things and leaves the conference room. Cpt Johnson and Cpt Green are preparing to leave when I stop them. ¡°I would request that Dave be able to study the recovered memory device. I think it would pair very well with our VR simulators and could potentially be a great boon for us.¡± ¡°That seems like an entirely reasonable request.¡± Cpt Johnson replies, ¡°Why couldn¡¯t you just ask that when Agent White was here?¡± ¡°Well Agent White hates both Dave and I so anything that I suggest that involves him would probably be denied.¡± They both chuckle at the answer. ¡°That he certainly does. Alright I¡¯ll inform Dr. Dave about his new assignment for the journey back.¡± Cpt Johnson looks over at Cpt Green. ¡°I¡¯m feeling like a drink after watching that video. Want to take a sip or two when we¡¯re off duty tonight?¡± Green perks up, ¡°From the Captain¡¯s personal stash? Count me in.¡± They both leave comparing their personal preferences in booze. We leave the Longarians final resting place two days later in our longest warp yet. The journey will take many months but hopefully we will arrive before the ominous clouds on the horizon transform into a storm that we must weather. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bleh, the weather outside is gloomy and it''s sapping my motivation to write. On another writing note I will be gone for the next week doing life stuff. I don''t know what the chapter output will be for that week but don''t expect much. I also came face to face with my first grammar nazi, 0 out of 5 for grammar. I knewd my inglish isn''t gooder dont hate. [th_084_.gif] Be happy! This is not to say I didn''t take his advice just that it was harsh. Like I said in an earlier chapter this is my first story so advice, even harsh advice, is welcomed. I still might make a joke about it but I do take the advice seriously. Ch 24: Sugary Sweet The journey back home would take nearly 10 months to complete and the mood aboard the ship had settled into a quiet nervousness. We didn¡¯t know what we would find once we returned and we couldn¡¯t simply call home within the warp bubble. This communication blackout was due to the fact that each warp bubble wasn¡¯t within normal space anymore and existed within a pocket dimension. It meant that we couldn¡¯t communicate outside the bubble, at least not yet, but within the bubble our communication devices still worked with each other. Vahlen had demanded to know what had happened to me during the 5 minute blackout that had occurred. I saw no point in lying to her as the truth would come out eventually, so I told her of Gunter¡¯s last days. By the end of the story she seemed subdued, but who wouldn¡¯t be, and asked for the entire video, in order to watch it. I had my misgivings, but if she truly wanted to see it how could I say no? I left her to view the several weeks worth of video and just aimlessly walked around the ship. I eventually found Earl sitting in the mess hall fiddling around with his ring finger absentmindedly. ¡°Hey Earl what¡¯s up?¡± ¡°Oh, hey there Scott. Nothing much just reminiscing about my wife.¡± ¡°If you have a wife-¡° I gesture at his ring less finger. He just chuckles, ¡°that¡¯s just a tradition my wife and I have. When either of us get deployed somewhere we give the other person our ring. Then when we get back the other person will slide our ring on and say, ¡®welcome home.¡¯ It¡¯s almost like a superstition with us now, but it also gives a newlywed feel each time if you know what I mean.¡± His eyebrows jump up and down. ¡®Gah, that¡¯s so sweet I could use it as syrup on my sugar waffle.¡¯ ¡°Sounds like you really love her.¡± His eyes get a whimsical look, ¡°oh yes, I love every inch her. All five feet of it.¡± My brain froze for a moment just picturing a tiny 5 foot woman climbing up Earl¡¯s 6¡¯4¡± frame to plant a kiss. I excused myself quickly, leaving Earl to his memories, and got far enough away that Earl couldn¡¯t hear before I burst out laughing at the absurd image. Still chuckling I shook my head. ¡®I really needed that after what I saw.¡¯ I didn¡¯t see Vahlen for the next few weeks as she seemed absorbed with watching Gunter¡¯s experience. I finally knew she was done when she crashed into my back, wrapping her arms around me, and whispered ¡°it must have been horrible to experience.¡± I put my arms on top of her¡¯s, ¡°did you watch all of that just to see what I experienced?¡± I can feel her nod against my back. ¡°Thank you.¡± We stand there, motionless, until I see Agent White round the corner and see us standing there. I can see disgust and venomous hatred flash across his face as he turns around and walks the other way. I hold myself back from running after him and punching him through a wall or two. Instead I just try to enjoy the moment for what it is. Unfortunately it ended, as all these things must. I felt her loosening her arms and I released my hold to turn to face her. Vahlen¡¯s eyes had black bags under them as well as being red and puffy from crying. It looked like she had hardly slept a wink since I last saw her. ¡°You didn¡¯t have to watch all that.¡± She just shook her head, ¡°I wanted to see what made you look so sad when you came back.¡± This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. I¡¯m stunned speechless. ¡°Vahlen all I can seem to do is thank you. Would you like for me to do anything for you?¡± She gets shy all of a sudden and looks down at the floor. ¡°When we get back to Gaia could you come with me to meet my parents?¡± I can¡¯t help but tease her it was just too easy here. ¡°Oh, going straight to see mother and father in-law. Not even a date beforehand?¡± I watch as her entire face becomes red as a tomato and she hits my shoulder. ¡°No it¡¯s not like that at all. I just wanted them to meet you.¡± A smile is plastered on my face. ¡°I know, I just couldn¡¯t help myself, it was too easy a setup. I would be honored to meet the parents of such a lovely gal.¡± I don¡¯t know how, but she got even redder at my comment. ¡°You-¡° she ran off. My teasing too much for her. Chuckling at the memory of her reactions I walked to Vahlen¡¯s lab to begin growing some organic tissue for a project I had in mind. [Vahlen¡¯s POV] ¡®Gah, he¡¯s too much.¡¯ I took off down the corridor to my room and threw myself onto the bed, burrowing my face into it as though trying to hide my face. Eventually I turned over and lay staring at the ceiling above. ¡®I wonder when I first began to have these feelings for Scott. It certainly wasn¡¯t love at first sight, although I do blush at the memory. It almost feels like it just crept up on me. It must have started when he begged me for a body in order to protect me. Working with Scott on making a body, his seemingly endless enthusiasm, finally seeing him physically standing before me.¡¯ ¡®He doesn¡¯t seem like a machine at all when you look and interact with him. He just seems like a normal person. Well a person that can dodge bullets and capable of computing complex mathematics instantly. I just don¡¯t know how I can be in love with a machine. No, he¡¯s not just a machine to me he¡¯s Scott and I love him no matter what anyone says.¡¯ My declaration complete, at least in my mind, I slowly drift off to sleep. [Vahlen¡¯s POV End] Not much else really happened during the trip. Dave was able to recreate something similar to the alien device and while it was able to record people¡¯s memories people that viewed them awoke disoriented and groggy. It should get better with time but for now it was only a novelty. The 10 months seemed to crawl by as everyone became more anxious to return home but finally we arrived. As the warp bubble dissipated and Gaia came into view, unharmed and vibrant, a cheer went up throughout the ship. We were the first. We had ventured into the unknown and returned. Whatever horrors we saw seemed to fade like a bad dream at the sight of our home. Even with the fading horrors the thought gnawed at the back of our minds, ¡®Were we next?¡¯ Ch 25: A Family that Laughs Together Stays Together Word of our arrival quickly spread throughout the solar system. Everyone wanted to know everything about our close to 2 year trip. You have to remember with the quantum computers the general public got what amounted to a txt message of what¡¯s going on during our journey. The Gaia government kept mum about the existence of the hyper communication device, for now at least. As we docked with the Gaian space station media drones flew around hoping to catch the best shot of our final stretch. We docked with a quiet clank of metal on metal as the Captain and the XO, together with an escort of marines, awaited the opening of the hatch. The hatch opened and cheering was blasted throughout the ship from the crowd awaiting on the other side. If the wave of noise intimidated them they didn¡¯t show it at all, leading the procession through the crowd and towards a podium that had been set up in the largest courtyard. The president was upon the stage along with other important looking officials. The crew who had been selected to stand before the stage stopped before it and turned to the crowd, while several of the higher ranking members, including the Cpt and the XO, stepped onto stage. What followed was several speeches and medals being handed out for valor and courage in the face of the unknown. Basically exalting the crew of New Horizon as heroes for their journey. The president himself also mandated that all crew on the New Horizon had leave for a period of 3 months to decompress from their harrowing journey. I had no doubt in my mind that the younger, single, crew members would find their sudden boost to hero status extremely helpful during the coming months. Everyone loves a hero. The ceremony took around 3 hours to complete. It was mainly because speeches made by politicians have to be long by nature. After the ceremony an entire fleet of transports were made available to allow the crew to get down to the planet and see their loved ones. By complete coincidence Earl was on the same transport as Vahlen and I. Vahlen and Earl hadn¡¯t met before so I introduced them and listened to them talk about how excited they were to finally see their loved ones on the way down. We finally landed, grabbed our stuff, and walked down the ramp to see the awaiting family members. Tears flowed and hugs were had but I kept my eye on Earl and wasn¡¯t disappointed by what I saw. A diminutive asain woman screamed out, ¡°Sugar Bear,¡± while preforming a flying leap towards Earl¡¯s awaiting arms. She wrapped her legs around his upper chest, so she was slightly taller than him, and kissed him deeply. Coming up for air, she took a ring out of her breast pocket and with a smile slid it on his finger saying, ¡°Welcome Home.¡± The surrounding people became entranced from the pink glow that seemed to emanate from the oblivious couple. Shaking from their stupor they seemed determined to compete with the sugar sweet moment between these two. I moved away from the people that look like they needed a room 10 minutes ago and towards two people who I assumed were Vahlen¡¯s mom and dad. My assumptions were correct as she ran forward into a family hug. Stepping out of the circle of arms Vahlen gestured me forward. ¡°Mom, dad, this is my good friend Scott. Scott this is my mom, Alais, and my father, Eugen.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you both.¡± I shook both of their hands. ¡°Mom I was wondering if Scott could stay at our house for a few days. He doesn¡¯t have anywhere else to stay besides the ship.¡± Alais and Eugen share a look before Alais says, ¡°Of course he can honey. We have a guest bedroom he can stay in.¡± We leave the landing area and board an automated car to take us to Vahlen¡¯s house. Vahlen¡¯s house is nearly picturesque. It¡¯s situated on a 20 acre property within the woods with a backdrop of mountains in the distance. I just stand outside the 2 story house and admire the view. Everyone chuckles at my reaction as we stand outside. ¡°That¡¯s the reaction of most people when they first get here.¡± Vahlen¡¯s explanation draws me back to the fact I¡¯m making everyone wait outside. ¡°Sorry it¡¯s just so beautiful out here.¡± Eugen claps me on the back, ¡°there¡¯s no harm stopping to admire something beautiful. Now let¡¯s get inside shall we? It¡¯s a little nippy outside now.¡± We walk inside and sit down in their living room. ¡°So what do you guys want to eat for dinner tonight?¡± Alais asks while opening a bottle of white wine to celebrate. Vahlen fidgets for a moment before replying, ¡°Anything that isn¡¯t reprocessed glop would be good but um-¡° ¡°Scott won¡¯t be eating anything,¡± Alais finishes for her. ¡°We know he¡¯s the ship AI dear it was all over the news.¡± Vahlen looks shocked then sheepish at her statement. Eugen adds in, ¡°couldn¡¯t find anyone so you had to create your own, huh.¡± Vahlen went completely scarlet at that statement. ¡®I think I like this family.¡¯ ¡°If it helps she¡¯s only seen me naked when I was first created.¡± ¡°NO THAT DOESN¡±T HELP AT ALL!¡± Vahlen screeches out. Alais is making a shocked expression, ¡°So he was just such a looker you just had to make a physical body for him. He must have been really impressive down there.¡± Vahlen isn¡¯t even talking anymore, her mouth just opens and closes like a fish. I chime in once more, ¡°No no, this body is great I can change shapes and even vibrate. It¡¯s all thanks to Vahlen¡¯s hard work.¡± Eugen strikes the final blow. ¡°O la la, he can make himself vibrate. You really know how to make ¡®em honey.¡± Vahlen faints from the mental shock of our teasing. I pick up a pillow and start fanning her while laughing. ¡°We might have overdone it guys.¡± Alais and Eugen are laughing so hard they¡¯re crying. Eugen struggles to talk with laughter punctuating his words. ¡°It¡¯s *haha* just way *hehe* too much fun *hoho* though.¡± ¡®Yep, I really like this family.¡¯ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So anytime Agent White/ the crew communicated home they were not within a warp bubble but in real space. When Agent White walked into them he was to busy enjoying the moment to pay attention to his ship brain flagging him that Agent White was nearby. Think of him as a non emergency notification that can be ignored. Ch 26: The Calm Before the Storm The hysterical laughter has died down but the occasional chuckle still escapes from time to time. Vahlen has recovered from her fainting cession, but is still bright red. ¡°We are sorry dear,¡¯ Alais says, ¡®but you just looked so much different from your stoical self we had to tease you.¡± Eugen adds his two cents as well, ¡°it¡¯s a parent¡¯s right to embarrass their child. Especially in front of someone they like.¡± Vahlen startles a bit at his comment and a hint of fear, at their possible condemnation, can be seen in her eyes. Alais notices this and stomps it down before it can fully blossom. ¡°Honey this is the happiest we¡¯ve seen you in a long time. All parents want to see their child succeed and be happy. You¡¯ve already done the first and Scott here makes you happy. What kind of parents would we be to condemn you for finding your happiness?¡± Finishing her speech Alais sits down next to Vahlen and gives her a hug. ¡°Besides someone who knows just what buttons to push to embarrass you so much must care enough to get to know you that well.¡± Vahlen turns towards me the question plain for anyone to see written across her face. I don¡¯t say anything as I look into her sapphire blue eyes. I merely take hold of her hand and bring it to my lips, giving it a small kiss. Alais holds Vahlen tighter whilst tears of joy are forming and a radiant smile is plastered on her face. She is beautiful beyond description to me in that moment. Only 5 seconds pass for them but I¡¯ve gazed upon the woman I love for nearly 8 weeks, every moment a joy to me. The moment is broken by Eugen saying, ¡°That¡¯s great that you¡¯ve found your love and all honey boo, but when can we expect the grandkids?¡± ¡®Ah, there¡¯s the blush.¡¯ ~ 1 ? months later ~ Vahlen and I have spent the last month and a half intermittently staying with her parents or hiking in the wilderness. Right now we¡¯re just about to summit one of the higher mountains near her house. ¡°Come on honey just a few hundred more meters to the top.¡± I¡¯m pulling her forward by her hand. ¡°*huff* Not everyone *huff* has limitless stamina you know.¡± I just smile as I turn towards her, ¡°and what should I do to remedy the situation milady.¡± ¡°Carry me,¡± she throws her arms out like a child. I move towards her, sweeping her off her feet and into a princess carry. ¡°Like this?¡± Her only response is to blush, so I kiss her forehead and run the rest of the way to the summit. Once we reach the summit I look for a flatter piece of rock that we could sit down on. Spotting it I carefully sit down with Vahlen on my lap. She leans against me as we watch the first rays of sunlight come over the horizon. We stayed there, content to enjoy the view and each other¡¯s company, until the sun rose fully over the horizon. When it did we slowly stood and ambled down the mountain, hand in hand, back to Vahlen¡¯s place. When we neared Vahlen¡¯s place the sound of people chanting and shouting got louder and louder. Coming into view we could see a crowd of people, held back by police barricades, shouting and holding signs that read, ¡°A Woman with a Robot is an Abomination¡± with similar signs elsewhere. Vahlen momentarily faltered when she read saw the signs, but I gave her hand a squeeze and smiled down at her. It was enough for her to recover and outwardly appear indifferent, but I could tell she was shaken by how venomous the crowd was. We had to pass near the crowd to get to the house and as we drew near the crowd began to shout obscenities at us, but mainly at Vahlen. They seemed to like variations on the words ¡®Slut¡¯ and ¡®Whore¡¯ but that may have been because they lacked the intellect to say anything else. It was fine, okay it was not fine I wanted to massacre them, until one of the dumber ones threw a stone at us. Letting go of Vahlen¡¯s hand I raced towards the stone and plucked it from the air before it had travelled half the distance between us. Raising my hand, with the stone, above my head so the entire crowd could see I proceeded to crush it, using only one hand, to pebbles and dust before them. I then slowly turned and walked back to Vahlen to lead her into the house. ¡®It may not have been a good idea to do that, but Fuck Them. They were lucky I wasn¡¯t creating a pyramid of heads to warn others like them away.¡¯ Alais, Eugen and I spent the rest of the day trying to cheer Vahlen up. I even looked up how people felt about us. In a recent poll 60% was positive, 30% was undecided and the other 10% was against. It wasn¡¯t too bad, but my stunt with the rock was making those 30% choose a side. If it was for better or worse it was too soon to tell. Laying in bed later that night, as I was slowly stroking her head, Vahlen turned so we were facing each other. ¡°Thank you for today. I thought I was prepared for something like this, but it still took me aback when I saw them. I made this declaration in my head, but I¡¯ll say it to you now. I love you no matter what other people think about it.¡± This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. There¡¯s only one response to that. I pull her close and whisper in her ear, ¡°I love you too.¡± ~ 1 ? months later ~ It took a while but the general public lost interest in our love life and moved on to which celebrities were screwing each other or some similar nonsense. Of course there was still a small group, both good and bad, that kept their attention on us. Unfortunately, the bad were more vocal in their dislike, as they always are, than the good. Earl had invited both myself and Vahlen to join him and his wife over at a marine friendly bar in the space station. It would be a double date, with the added benefit of Earl fulfilling his promise to show me how the marines partied. Both of us were up for it after being hounded by reporters or shouted at if we left the house. We took a transport up to the space station where Earl and his wife Ming met us at the gates. After we exchanged greetings, I found out Ming was also a marine, rank Staff Sergeant. The walk to the bar didn¡¯t take all that long and the interior was what you expect a bar to have. We found an open booth and entered our order onto the table screen. Looking around I saw a rowdy crowd of marines and ship crew living it up. I would have loved to have gone her back when I was a human, but the music wasn¡¯t to my taste. The preferred genre had changed significantly since 500 years ago and it just sounded like loud noises to me. Besides that though the evening was nice, the company good and I assume the drinks were stellar. It would have been perfect if not for a man and several of his buddies working their way over to our table. I made a slight gesture to Earl and as he turned to look his eyes narrowed slightly. The slightly overweight man walked over to our table and slammed his hands down, whilst slurring out, ¡°Wellll if it isn¡¯t the slut and her sex doll.¡± It was a very convincing act of being drunk but my proto brain was able to determine he was not. ¡®The only reasons I can think of why he is here is if he wants to either hurt Vahlen or he was sent by Agent White to fake being hurt by me, thus labeling me a threat to others.¡¯ ¡°You sir are drunk. My friends and I were having a pleasant evening before you arrived and my friends here get angry very fast, so it would behoove you to leave quickly and quietly.¡± ¡°Fucking piece of trash trying to order me around. Fuck you!¡± He reaches behind him and pulls out a knife, lunging forward to stab me as he orients it. My hand flashes out and grabs his wrist, slowing it to a stop without hurting him. The man screams like I¡¯ve just broken his leg and a ping from my ship brain tells me Agent White has just come on board. ¡®Well that solves that mystery.¡¯ I receive another ping telling me my presence is required aboard New Horizon ASAP. I shove the overweight man back into his friends waiting arms as Earl calls out, ¡°Marines these men tried to knife us. Let¡¯s make sure they trip before the police get here.¡± The combination of Earl, with his sergeant hardened voice, and the presence of the knife in the man¡¯s hand is all it takes for the surrounding marines. The men and his buddies are quickly disarmed and as we¡¯re walking out we can see them being held down and beaten. I quickly explain what I think Agent White¡¯s plan is to the surrounding group as we walk towards the ship. Cursing comes from Earl and Ming while Vahlen just looks at me worriedly. Ming decides to come along with us as a witness if need be. Most of the crew is already aboard New Horizon and as we walk through the corridors we can see them going about their business. We arrive at the conference room to see Agent White, looking smug, along with Cpt Johnson. Agent White speaks out before any of us with a tone of glee evident in his voice. ¡°Well, Scott, you¡¯ve been a naughty boy the last few months. Leaving the ship without authorization, making the headlines and finally hurting a man. It¡¯s almost like you¡¯re asking me to shut you down.¡± ¡®Authorization what¡¯s that bullshit? Oh, I get it, I bet everything bad that happened this summer was your doing.¡¯ Plans come flying in from my ship brain and are immediately rejected, but then a communication comes through that smashes all my plans to pieces. ¡°Agent White, you and your petty little bullshit will have to wait we have a much bigger problem.¡± -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boom, cliffhanger right before I have a lot on my plate. I''ll probably have a chapter up in 2-3 days maybe? Evil right? [th_059_.gif] I see you shiver in antici---------------------------------------------------------pation. Ch 27: The First Shot ~ Several minutes before ~ Lone Outpost [Tim¡¯s POV] ¡°Ah, it¡¯s so boring here. I¡¯m bored, you¡¯re boring, and there¡¯s nothing to do except watch these stupid monitors.¡± My complaints fall on the deaf ears of the man sitting beside me. ¡°Come on do something entertaining. Entertain me.¡± Jim didn¡¯t say anything and continues reading his book. ¡°You¡¯re no fun.¡± I pout, then sigh and lean back in my chair. My companions and I have been stuck on this government R and D outpost, at the edge of the system, for nearly 3 months now. It could have been interesting if I was working on something different, but all I¡¯m doing now is staring at screens and feeling my ass grow. I lazily wave as another coworker walks up behind us and sips his coffee. ¡°Hey Tim, how¡¯s looking through the night sky?¡± ¡°Boooooring,¡± I languish out. A chuckle is his only response as he gazes at the monitors. ¡°Hey Tim can you play back the last few seconds? I thought I saw a star disappear.¡± ¡®Yeah sure you did.¡¯ I sit up and rewind the last few seconds. ¡°There,¡± he points to a star and a few seconds later it disappears. ¡®Finally, something interesting happened.¡¯ Out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of another star winking out. I look closer at the monitor and see star after star go dark until an entire patch of sky is empty. ¡°What the fuck just happened?¡± Frank, the coworker, shouted out, rousing Jim from his book. We all stare at the strangely dark region of space that has suddenly appeared. A minute passes before the phenomenon changes. The blank area seems to be expanding at a rapid pace until I see a star shine through. Frank¡¯s coffee mug falls and shatters on the ground spilling coffee everywhere, but I pay it no heed. All my focus is on the expanding area of darkness that expands outwards. A strange thought passed through my mind at this moment. ¡®Maybe boring isn¡¯t all that bad after all.¡¯ [Tim POV end, Scott POV Start] I¡¯ve just received a system wide military alert. It orders the mobilization of all forces within the system and calls the reserves to action ready status. It¡¯s followed by a SITREP (situation report) on the possible contact. All it¡¯s really telling me is that some base called Lone Outpost was destroyed and the enemy count is unknown, but apparently they have enough ships to block the light from an entire region of space. All in all not looking very promising right now. I focus back on the conference room and say, ¡°Agent White, you and your petty little bullshit will have to wait we have a much bigger problem. The Locust aliens from Longari are here. You should be receiving the alert now.¡± Everyone¡¯s faces pale at my statements and the subsequent alert they get, minus Vahlen. Cpt Johnson strides out of the conference room as the call to arms siren rings throughout the ship. I don¡¯t spare Agent White another glance as I tug Vahlen out of the room, followed by Earl and Ming. Vahlen just allows herself to be tugged along, her mind caught up processing the enormity of the situation. Earl and Ming split off towards the marine section as I continue to drag Vahlen behind me. She finally rouses herself enough to say, ¡°Where are you taking me?¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°To my core,¡± I shout back as we navigate around crew and down the corridor. The answer seems to be enough for her and eventually we reach my core. The door closes behind us and I turn towards Vahlen. ¡°Vahlen this is the safest part of the ship for you. I need you to stay here while the fighting is going on.¡± I think she might be in shock right now but she still mummers out, ¡°What about my parents? What will they do?¡± I have no answer so I simply pull her close and say, ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Whilst all this has been going on I¡¯ve also detached from the space port, along with other military ships, and our fighter pilot element has been launched into a defensive formation around us. Like a well-oiled machine humanities fleet forms a defensive perimeter around Gaia. The 100 battle ready ships, plus fighters and bombers, await for further orders as they orbit humanity¡¯s home planet. Our orders come in. As the only ship capable of warping freely we will be scouting and potentially harassing the enemy force. The Locust seemed to have warped to the next human outpost so we warp to a distance of 5 million kilometers away to get an accurate reading of the enemy¡¯s numbers. Emerging from the warp bubble we immediately try to go dark and hope that the enemy fleet didn¡¯t spot us warping in. The first few readings from our passive sensors are coming in and I do a double take at the number of enemy ships it shows. The same reading I saw is being seen by the crew and immediately the moral plummets. Millions, that¡¯s right millions of enemy ships have currently surrounded the outpost and seem to be waiting for the base to fall before they move on. I send the information back to command while the crew stews in their own thoughts on the situation. I grimace at the command that comes back, harass the enemy using any means possible. Cpt Johnson sees the command and I can see him visibly pull himself out of his despair to replace it with steely determination. ¡°Scott I want you to take us just within extreme engagement range and start peppering them with the rail cannon. Hopefully, we can destroy a few before they can get too close.¡± I move the ship to within 100 thousand kilometers of the Locust before they take notice and start swarming towards me. It¡¯s odd but I can¡¯t actually detect any engine emissions coming from any of their ships. I would have to theorize they may be using some form of gravity drive to propel their ships. All of this is inconsequential as I take aim at the leading ship. The warp drive is full of energy, rail gun is charged, and the crew willing to face this horror. The rail gun fires, signaling my first shot in humanity¡¯s war for survival. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey guys and gals. First off I want to apologize for such a cliffhanger then no follow up for a while. I''ve just been enjoying my vacation to much to really write. By next Tuesday I should be back to a chapter a day, but until then the chapter release will be intermittent. Thanks for reading.