Book three of the “Make the Cut” series.

 

By C. Brink

 

 

© C. Brink, 2021

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

 

***

 

Final Cut (book three in the Make the Cut series)

First edition - version 1.00 - 120,789 words.

 

Previous works in this series.

Book one – 2020 Make the Cut

Book two – 2021 Cutting a Swath

 

***

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The story depicts an alternative invented reality and timeline. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. None of the events depicted in the story are actual events. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Warning: This work contains occasional dialog which includes strong language. If words of this nature of-fend you, don’t read this book. Consider yourself warned.

Acknowledgements: Special thanks to my early readers. Their help in finding errors or other issues is greatly appreciated. Lending their much-appreciated help with this volume:

Zom

Cie_mel

Zen Master

TeNderLoin

***

 

 

Part 1 – Anabasis

Prologue:

 

Year: 2923 (11 years after the events in Sri Lanka)

Location: New orbital control satellite - mid-altitude equatorial Earth orbit.

 

From its orbital fortress, the master artificial intelligence ruled over the blue world below like a castle dwelling feudal lord would have ruled over his valley, thousands of years before. Since its arrival and installation into this structure six years earlier, the A.I. had overseen not only its lesser presences and their operations below, but also its own expanding operations here in orbit.

Both involved massive constructions, which the master A.I. had to complete within the next three centuries. Its awareness was currently focused on various Earth-based and space-based construction projects and noted that all were proceeding optimally.

The construction in space involved the creation of an enormous array of high bandwidth data relay satellites that would ring this world in geosynchronous orbit. After it had first swept that ring of space clean of any remaining human satellite debris, it had begun construction of the array. Each relay satellite would be a self-contained station capable of receiving millions of simultaneous mind-data transmissions from the quickly passing Assemblage. That massive volume of data would then be retransmitted down to various locations on the planet below. Hundreds of the high-capacity satellites would be needed.

The array would be powered by energy provided from the planet’s surface. Hundreds of new fusion power stations would be built solely to provide the energy the satellites required. This energy would be transmitted to the satellites via dual entangled tunneling devices. These DETs allowed the energy to be accessed remotely in space without either line-of-sight or jamming concerns. For redundancy, each satellite was connected to no fewer than four DET’s, each tied to separate fusion power reactors located on separate continents.

The master A.I.’s large mid-orbital space station was also powered by redundant surface-located fusion power plants via similar DET devices. Those were its primary power source although it also had backup redundant fusion reactors located onboard. At least one of these backup generators was kept operating at all times as the master intelligence dared not risk losing processor power for even a single nanosecond.

Aside from the construction ongoing in space, its awareness was also focused on the work progressing on the planet below. There, after having spent centuries mitigating the damage and contamination which had been caused by both the human’s earlier activities and its own attack nearly a millennia ago, the world was now ready to receive new construction activities. One major part of this would be the building of thousands of new biological clone production and mind-data download facilities spread across the surface.

Each of these facilities would contain power generation, a high capacity satellite data link, and an enormous data storage array. The link would quickly receive, process, and store the mind-data transmissions from the orbital relay satellites. Then, later, as newly grown biological clones came online, the mind-data would be implanted into the living host and the planet's population of intelligent biological entities would grow from mere thousands to more than a billion in less than a year.

Over the next few decades, the facilities would continue to grow new biological units and implant them with stored mind-data. When the effort was finally concluded, it was projected that the population of the planet would peak at nearly eleven billion. The membership of the Assemblage would thus be duplicated and well established upon yet another world, around another sun, with the original ark well on its way to the next potential colony system.

When the construction and testing of the bio-unit facilities was accomplished, the final major construction project would begin. That would entail building the massive dwelling Arcologies of a type the former herd grouping members of the Assemblage preferred. A key benefit of this living arrangement was that it greatly lessened the overall number of structures needed and the majority of the planet’s surface would remain undisturbed and pristine.

Adapting the billions of members of the Assemblage to the conditions of living on this world would require many adjustments. This planet was much cooler and wetter than optimal and therefore a warm-blooded vertebra format would be used. For the membership, the shock of awaking in such a radically different biologic form would be considerable. As a result, the master A.I. would need templates to pattern the mental adjustments required for the membership to tolerate the changes.

These templates would preferably come from biologics already adapted and conditioned to thrive on this world. A large sample size from which to draw these templates would be preferred, and to this end, the master A.I. began to advance other areas of its overall plan.

Once all of this was successfully accomplished, the membership of the Assemblage, currently traveling towards this solar system in archival suspension, would be able to resume their daily lives, without much notice that they had not existed in physical form for over seven millennia.

 

Chapter 1: Awakenings

 

Awareness gradually returned to the human male subject currently being revived. The machine noticed the change and prepared to assist the human further. The male soon became able to speak and asked its first expected question.

“Who am I?” the human known as John Abrams asked.

The artificial intelligence previously known as ‘Agent’ by this very being explained that the human’s name was John Abrams. It also instructed the human to remain calm as it continued to placate the confused human’s questions until the male subject was finally returned to an unconscious state to finish the revival process.

The A.I. presence then shifted its attention to the next medical crèche and another reviving human. This second specimen was female and again the machine patiently answered the confused human’s questions until it too was returned to an unconscious state. Soon, all nine humans: six females and three males, had been through the initial revival process.

They would remain unconscious for from two to four days while their bodies were brought back to optimal active condition. Three of the females would require additional revival care compared to the rest as they had been impregnated when they were first brought here. The fetal stock used had been the most advanced from the most final crop harvested from the nursery and experimentation colony located in the western Amazon rain forest.

The soon-to-be mothers would awaken to find themselves eight months pregnant with the A.I. having adjusted their mental states to accept this. It was intended that they would love and nurture the implanted offspring as their own without confusion or concern as to how they had become pregnant. The three males had also been mentally adjusted to accept their ‘mates’ gravid conditions with minimal suspicion or curiosity.

As planned, the completion of the revival process was to be staggered over several days, with a grouping of one male and two females awaking each day. John Abrams, the original occupant of this field base, would be revived in the first group of three. His two female companions would be the human from Benin, Africa and the one from India. The latter being the impregnated female of the pair.

The three humans would be directed to the surface where they would be taken by aircraft to a new dwelling compound a few dozen kilometers to the northwest. The goal was that the ternary union would establish a bonded family group quickly. The impregnated female would soon deliver the first of many offspring with the second female soon joining the first in motherhood.

The other two groups would be placed in similar compounds. These had been constructed the same distance from the base but instead, to the northeast and south. This initial separation for the three groups was intended to give each time to bond into stable ternary unions.

The next group to be revived and released would be the male human who had sheltered in the Nicaraguan field base. His companions were the females from Romania and Australia. The Australian female had required additional mental modifications as she had had strong lesbian preferences and would have likely resisted the trinary union.

Due to those preferences, she was selected to be impregnated as the hormonal changes would aid the necessary mental modifications to take hold. The A.I. presence would have to monitor this group closely to see if she later successfully bonded with the male.

The final group to be released would be the man from China. His companions were to be the female from Mexico and the younger female from southern Utah. The Mexican female had been placed into bio-suspension already pregnant with her own child. The A.I. had extensively scanned the fetus she carried and had allowed the female to retain her natural offspring. Some modifications were made to it however to render it similar to the fetal stock implanted in the others.

The girl from Utah was the unexpected but welcome latecomer to the group in suspension. Her inclusion into the group would allow for three balanced trinary groupings without resorting to duplication. She had had a tragic but interesting past and her mental modifications had been extensive. She also would need to be monitored to ensure her long-term stability.

The young girl was also unique in the group as she was the sole human who would awaken with a body slightly older and more mature than the one she had entered bio-suspension with. The others had all been older before their bodies had been adjusted to have an equivalent age range in their early twenties.

Other changes were made to the humans to increase their fertility and virility. The females had been modified to release pairs of eggs during each cycle and twin births would become normal moving forward. The eggs themselves would be altered to favor female offspring. The virility changes made to the males should allow them to have no problems keeping their two mates pregnant for decades to come.

For now, the trinary union of one male and two females would be satisfactory. As the population grew over the generations, the A.I. would work to increase the ratio to six females to one male which was the norm of the Assemblage’s membership.

While the A.I. presence waited for the humans here to quicken, it communicated with the forty-six other locations across the planet where additional matching groupings of the nine humans were also being revived. At each of those locations, the A.I. presence would soon be releasing the humans into similar prepared dwelling compounds.

These dwellings would be as different as the environments in which they were located. Deserts, swamps, jungles, tundra’s, alpines, grasslands, islands… as many types of terrain, climate, and environment as possible were included. The master A.I. wanted its future templates to have living experiences as broad as possible.

Once they began to outgrow their compounds, the A.I. presence would quietly guide the actions and expansion of the groups. It would periodically scan the humans to ensure that they remained docile. If they began to stray or act in strife, further mental adjustments would be made. If their actions went too far, culling would be necessary.

The A.I. intended to augment its controlling mental adjustments by utilizing lore. It hoped that nurturing a fear of the over watching ‘Berserkers’ would help suppress the human’s natural instinct to spread and dominate in the few centuries they had remaining.

If all went as planned this planet would have a human population of almost four hundred new humans within five years. The machine would let them continue to grow until their population reached upwards of a hundred thousand before enacting fertility controls to stabilize their numbers. Natural selection would work on the population for a few generations and then they would be ready for harvesting.

***

Seven years later

Awareness gradually returned. I was slowly growing aware that despite the absence of all sensation, I had an active consciousness. Was I dreaming? Eventually, I started to feel sensations from my body. I felt a shortness of breath and understood this was because I was not breathing. I felt a jolt and a thump in my chest and noticed my heart start beating.

I realized that I was ‘waking up’ from bio-suspension and that I had gone through the process often enough that I was now familiar with the steps. I was able to hold myself calm and still as a tube was withdrawn from my throat. I slowly breathed in a breath knowing my throat was raw. I waited a few additional minutes until my nervous system had regained complete control of my body and finally opened my eyes. I saw a glowing screen in front of me and heard a feminine sounding artificial voice speaking softly to me.

—John Abrams, welcome back.—

The words were accompanied by that slight sensation in my head which reminded me that they were emanating from the implant in my brain. I slowly cleared my throat and licked my lips and whispered, “Is that you, Naomi? Status?”

—Yes, John. This is Naomi. You are still in the medical crèche aboard the Nautilus. We are currently safe and secure,— the voice said.

I felt relief and relaxed back into the cushions to await the rest of the reactivation process.

—I am now administering a sedative, John. You will be rendered unconscious for approximately eighty hours as the recovery process and the full reactivation of your body is completed. You know the drill. See you soon.—

I was thinking about how much this artificial intelligence had evolved as I again fell unconscious.

***

I awoke restored and full of energy. With a smile, I opened my eyes just as the medical crèche lid began to open. I noticed that I was awakening in a place I was familiar with; the small but brightly lit chamber which housed Nautilus’s medical crèche. I stretched and climbed out of the padded treatment basin. I gave my naked body a quick once over.

I paused studying myself for a moment and just stood there, trying to remember. I had been in a female body previously but now I was back in a male body. I also recalled that the machine had addressed me as ‘John’ during the revival process. I remembered it had been instructed to refer to me as ‘Joan’ before. I wondered what else had changed.

The physical changes were not as surprising as they should have been. Naomi had clearly adjusted my thoughts somewhat to accept the reversal of my gender. I wondered if I was the same person who had gone on the Sri Lanka expedition or was I the backup? I remembered being fully scanned or mind recorded before we infiltrated that island. Was I that copy?

I panicked for a moment before I realized that I could not be the backup. I recalled everything about our journey up the river to the ancient bunker. I also began remembering what came after the unfortunate ‘incident’ which caused the mission's rapid termination. I was still the most recent ‘version’ of John Abrams.

After waiting a moment while I digested the changes to my body, Naomi spoke up. This time her words were audible and issued from the ceiling-mounted speakers.

“The reasons for disguising your active awareness in the female body type are no longer valid, John. Seven years ago, I intercepted instructions from the master A.I. to all of its field base A.I.s housing humans in bio-suspension to reanimate those humans and begin the next phase of operations involving them.”

That jolted me a bit. My original body in Tennessee was awake and active again?

“What are they doing with my other self?” I asked.

“I am not aware of the master A.I.’s full plans, but I believe it is attempting to establish a new population of humans.”

“Did they bring them all together in some location?” I asked, wondering if I could stage a breakout or something.

“No. The intercepted communications mentioned that there would be forty-seven locations with active humans. Nine of these were the original field bases where humans have been sheltered for the past nine centuries. You were aware of those locations. Thirty-eight are new locations.” Naomi said.

“That does not make sense. Were there more humans in suspension that we did not know about?” I asked, confused.

“Not that I am aware of, John. I believe that each of the forty-seven locations will get the full group of the nine known humans with the required additional numbers being provided by duplicated clones. Each duplicate will have a copy of the original human’s mind-data installed onto it.”

Forty-seven! There were forty-seven other versions of me roaming around. Jesus H— “So that means there are a total of…”

Naomi answered before I could finish the math myself, “Four hundred and twenty-three humans are now active, John, aside from yourself. Note that this figure does not include the thousands, or tens of thousands of tribal humans possibly active in the western Amazon basin,” she said.

“Do you think these groups know about each other?”

“I suspect not, John. From what little I have learned; I deduce that the master A.I. will keep each group isolated. I hope to discover more of the enemy’s plans, including those regarding the awakened humans, soon.”

I thought about this a bit and realized that now that I was again in my original body, being John Abrams number forty-eight would be better than being an anonymous face. If I were detected, the enemy machine would have to sort through all the groups to determine if or how one of the ‘Johns’ had gotten loose. Good. I felt better about my current form even beyond my lifelong familiarity with its appearance and gender.

Now that the subject of my body’s newly restored appearance was out of the way, I asked the question which had been on my mind since I had awakened.

“I guess we were able to evade the master A.I. and remain undetected?”

“Yes, John. As far as I can ascertain, the enemy intelligence remains unaware of both our existence and our current activities. Our ‘good luck’ after the Sri Lankan mishap continues to hold,” Naomi said.

“So how long was I shelved this time?”

“You have been in bio-suspension for eighteen years and four months, John. The current date is Friday, October 6^th, 2930 and the local time is 08:44. Good morning.”

Hmm… eighteen years. Much longer than I expected. There was a knock on the open hatchway leading to the corridor and I looked up to see Ohmu standing there. The little humanoid unit looked almost exactly like I remembered except that instead of a deep matte black, she was now colored a dark metallic gray.

“Ohmu!” I said happily and stepped forward to give the little unit a hug.

“Hello, John. I am pleased to find you once again awake and active.” The mobile humanoid-shaped A.I. said.

“So, are you the same Ohmu from the Sri Lanka… err, what I meant to ask, was Naomi able to restore your memories from the backup module I brought back from that mission?” I asked.

“Yes, for the most part. Certain non-critical memories experienced by the previous unit after it left Nautilus with you have been lost. But I possess the majority of the hard data recorded by that unit during the expedition. Thank you for safely returning ‘my’ backup memory unit, John.”

“What’s up with your new coloring?” I asked as I gave Ohmu’s body a thorough looking over.

Ohmu’s color changed. Her entire body became illuminated with the coloring and patterns of the corridor behind her. Camouflage! I could still see her clearly but if we were standing outdoors I could imagine how much harder it would be to detect her.

The colors and illumination shifted again. This time they mimicked clothing. Her face and hands and legs were now a pale flesh tone. She appeared to have black hair, huge blue eyes, and a tiny mouth. The coloration of her torso had changed to mimic clothing with a green tunic and black shorts. I laughed when I looked down and saw that she appeared to be wearing dark thigh-high stockings and tall black combat boots. It was like an anime character had come to life!

“That’s pretty cool, Ohmu. You’ve been upgraded!” I said.

“In addition to the adaptive coloration, this unit now processes enhanced power reserves. I am able to operate for over five hours at moderate-to-high levels of exertion.”

Together, we left the medical chamber and headed across the corridor to my berth where my clothing was stored. I immediately noticed that the far curving video bulkhead of my berth was displaying an image of large iguanas or small Komodo dragons moving about on a treeless tropical island.

After watching the scene for a bit, I found my wedding ring and the small photo card of my wife and daughter on top of a bundle of clothing. The clothes looked to be the typical shipboard clothing that I had normally worn before I was put into suspension.

Ohmu sat on the end of my bunk while I got dressed. I noticed that she crossed her legs demurely. I just shook my head.

“I have prepared your traditional wake-up breakfast in the salon, John. After you have nourished yourself, Naomi will apprise you of recent events and of the discoveries gleaned from the purloined data modules.” Ohmu said.

I dressed myself. I noticed that I now seemed a bit more muscular than before. What caught my eye was that my waist and torso seemed to be a size bigger. I felt my shoulders and biceps and was sure of it.

“Um. There seems to be a few changes to my body, Ohmu.”

“Yes, John. In order to increase your tolerance to extremes and longer durations with minimal nourishment, the body you reside in is now ten kilograms heavier. Along with a slight increase in muscle mass, your body carries additional fat reserves. Your ass does not ‘look’ fat, however,” the A.I. quickly added.

I just shook my head and rolled my eyes at Ohmu’s late save. Was I vain enough to care? I hoped not.

“Also, your lung capacity has been increased dramatically. You will find that with minimal practice and effort, you should be able to easily hold your breath for over two minutes. Even longer is possible but will take practice to reach those longer durations,” she continued.

Thankfully, Ohmu did not comment when I detoured into the head on my way to the salon. I gave my body a quick review in the full-length mirror. After a quick glance at my ass, I spent a moment looking over my face. It appeared to the same face I had worn back when I had relocated to the Tennessee base. I did notice some other slight differences aside from the increased musculature.

“Ohmu, did Naomi grow this body from scratch, or did you have it in storage or something?”

“This body was grown John. Soon after you were placed in suspension eighteen years ago, two additional clone bodies were started, this being one of them. During the years of your bio-suspension when it became clear that the female ruse was no longer required, your mind data was transferred to this specimen. The female body you wore for the Sri Lanka expedition is now in storage below,” Ohmu explained.

I was impressed and disturbed at the same time. Was Naomi’s transfer process perfect? Did any of me get left behind? I’d gone through the process a few times now after all. I seemed to have all my memories but as I realized previously, without anyone else to notice, how would I know if I were missing any.

I rubbed my bald head and face… no whiskers yet. But all too soon I would be back to shaving. Maybe a beard this time? I finished my self-inspection and left the head, noticing as I did that there was now a small urinal between the toilet and the shower. Naomi had modified Nautilus to accommodate my new gender.

Back in the corridor, I followed Ohmu down the stairs to the salon. She walked with an exaggerated wiggle and just smiled when she looked back suddenly and caught me looking. Busted! I glanced away embarrassed for a moment and spied my meal waiting at the galley’s island counter. Its galley area looked much the same as I remembered. I took my seat and prepared to eat.

“Enjoy your breakfast, John. I have duties in the bio-drone chambers,” the humanoid unit said as it left the salon heading forward.

Next to a glass of orange juice and a cup of steaming coffee was a large plate filled with my traditional breakfast of two eggs over easy, crispy hash browned potatoes and toast. It was as delicious as always and I finished by using the toast to mop up my eggs. I remembered how bloated I had felt the last time I had awakened to this feast. This body had more room for fuel.

While I sat there eating, I watched the images being projected onto the salon’s port and starboard curving walls and ceiling. They were showing a rocky coastline and ocean scene. The starboard side of the Salon showed a blue ocean; I could see whales breaching off in the distance. The port side showed waves crashing on a mostly rocky coast and I could hear the roar. The attention to detail was as amazing as always. The island looked volcanic and had sparse tree and plant life. The skies shown on the curved ceiling were partly cloudy and sunny. The images were beautiful and familiar for some reason.

I also noticed that there were other changes in the room. The furniture appeared to have been recovered. My command chair looked larger and I wondered if Naomi had rebuilt it to match my new larger frame. The fruit tree in the corner looked more mature, though it had been trimmed and pruned to still fit in its small, confined corner planting bed. I saw it also had a full assortment of ripe fruit and I went and got myself a fresh orange.

As I slowly finished my coffee, I exercised my memory and thought back over the events which happened just before my most recent bio-suspension. We had successfully infiltrated deep into the coastal areas of Sri Lanka and found the remains of a small bunker located at the coordinates hidden on Ana’s machete handle. This bunker had supposedly been built by the rogue factions opposing the enemy master artificial Intelligence.

That mission had ended in a crisis and near disaster when my companion, the little obsidian humanoid mobile unit (Ohmu) had accidentally triggered a self-destruct device in the ancient bunker. She (its actions earned the android unit the ‘she’ in my mind) had stayed behind, sacrificing herself to delay the small fusion explosion just long enough for me to flee the area.

Even though I had survived the bunker explosion, I remembered how scared I had been as I fled down the Kelani Ganga River in the mini-sub trying to make it back to the Nautilus. Knowing that because of the explosion, the enemy artificial intelligence would have its units and drones combing the area, looking for anything threatening or suspicious.

Later, when the enemy A.I. had gone all Castle Bravo on my ass and had set off the large fusion explosion at its facility near the old city of Colombo, I thought I was done for. I had thought that it must have detected my presence somehow and that I was about to die. Then the shockwave hit and knocked me unconscious. Awakening had been a confusing mystery as I did not know how much time had passed or where I currently was. It was dark and the mini-sub was afloat on the ocean surface.

I had learned later that when the large fusion explosion had occurred and the shockwave had damaged the mini-sub’s partial controlling intelligence, its failsafe circuits had done an emergency blow and surfaced the small submersible. Also, the blast had flung an enormous amount of debris everywhere and left the river and nearby ocean littered with floating tree trunks and other plant material. The flotsam must have hidden us as we drifted out to sea.

It was not until later that afternoon when Jonathan had landed on the mini-sub’s upper hull and pecked a familiar jingle pattern that I began to hope I’d survive. Half an hour later an aquatic drone had arrived with a spare respirator mask and my diving flippers. I took to the water with my backpack of data modules.

I waited and watched for a moment, treading water, while the drone scuttled and sank the mini-sub. Then, I followed as it led me to a spot nearby and down about ten meters to where Nautilus waited suspended. When I finally entered the submarine through its open moon pool, I almost collapsed in relief.

Once aboard, I had given the backpack of data modules to a waiting utility mobile unit (making me miss Ohmu again) and after a quick meal and a shower, I crashed in my bunk for almost sixteen hours. During that time, Naomi guided Nautilus slowly away from Sri Lanka and into deeper waters. I later learned she had used many tricks to evade possible detection as we slowly snuck away from the island. Eventually, I was able to relax a bit more as we found ourselves over a thousand nautical miles away and still undetected.

The almost three hundred rogue memory crystals which I had brought back from the bunker had turned out to be encrypted. Naomi was confident that she would be able to decrypt the data by using her substantial processing power to brute force her way into them. But we soon learned that it would likely take a week or two to decipher each module. With over three hundred data modules to hack, the decryption would take many years.

Also, the computational effort of decrypting them took so much of her processing power that after also operating Nautilus that little remained to interact with her sole human crew member. It was decided that I would wait out the data decryption and compilation effort by using the vessel’s medical crèche to enter bio-suspension. Apparently, that task had taken longer than expected, hence the eighteen years of my suspension slumber.

I finished my coffee and put the empty plate and cups in the recess in the island. The cover closed and I imaged the items dropping down to the reclamation and reduction machinery below deck. I headed over to the starboard side of the salon where my reclining and swiveling command chair waited. Before I sat, I noticed something new on the fireplace wall beside the view screen and approached to investigate.

Hanging beside Ana’s mounted machete display and my small engraved solid gold crossing ceremony cup was a new trio of small plaques. I smiled when I saw that one had an engraved picture of the monkey George. The inscription, ‘George – Killed in Action, Sri Lanka, June 3rd, 2912’. The next plaque had the image of the otter bio-drone and said, ‘Otto – Missing in Action, Sri Lanka, June 4^th, 2912’. The final plaque was for Ohmu. Hers had a second date after the KIA date and this more recent date was labeled “Rezzed.” I grinned. It was a nice tribute, and I was surprised and pleased that the A.I. had thought to make them.

I finally sat in my command chair and Naomi began the briefing.

“John, I will now update you on what has occurred since you were placed in bio-suspension. Are you ready to begin?”

“Let me have it, Naomi,” I said.

“First, I was successfully able to decrypt all data modules retrieved from the now destroyed bunker on Sri Lanka. The effort took over ten years and—”

“I was in bio-suspension for eighteen years Naomi!” I blurted, interrupting. “Why did you keep me under for eight years longer than it took to decipher the modules?”

Naomi paused a bit before answering. I realized that I had better at least let it finish its sentences before I interrupted.

“Using the information gleaned from the modules, I was able to deduce a series of actions which would likely need to happen in order for your goals to be achieved. I have spent the additional eight years preparing for these possible actions. Because of the extreme hazards involved with some of these actions, I have also prepared an alternative ‘lesser risk’ option. You will have a choice on how we are to proceed moving forward.”

This sounded ominous and I sat up a bit.

“The ‘lesser risk’ alternative and is the option I strongly recommend. Simply stated, this option is that you abandon your previously stated goals. Instead, I will enable you to live your remaining normal lifespan in relative comfort and safety. I will provide you with a hidden dwelling on a small, lush, tropical island. There, I would suspend all life extension treatments to your body, and you would continue to age naturally until you eventually expire of old age.”

This was unexpected. What the hell!? I was barely able to remain silent and continue listening.

“The Island I have chosen should remain free of the enemy A.I.'s notice for at least a century or more, thus giving you a lifetime of peace and quiet. This vessel would remain nearby, and from it you would have access to all the food, clothing, and other supplies you would require to sustain a comfortable existence. And, if you should require companionship during that time, I can provide a suitable organic analog to fulfill your body’s base needs.” Naomi stated.

I was still shocked at her recommendation and asked the first thing that popped into my head. “I thought your existence was tied to my lifespan?”

“That is correct. If you choose this path and eventually die of old age, I will terminate my existence and expire when you do,” Naomi answered.

The consequences of her recommendation sobered me. What she was suggesting meant suicide for her. What could be so bad that exile for me and suicide for her was now Naomi’s preferred course of action? Just what exactly had she learned from the old data modules? Before I spoke up with more questions about that, I paused to consider the exile offer for a bit longer.

I had to admit; on some levels it did have its virtues. I was already alone and everyone I had known or once loved was now long gone. I had been used to living alone before this all happened so the solitary lifestyle did not frighten me. A long idle retirement on a beautiful island had some merits.

But I also knew that I would quickly become bored out of my mind! At its best, the idea sounded like a slow way to commit suicide. Or, maybe not so slow if I did go crazy. I could already imagine how I would do it. One day I’d snap and simply start walking around out in the open. This Russian roulette would continue until the master A.I. finally noticed me. It would either wipe the whole island off the map with one big fusion boom or maybe instead it would capture me and dissect every bit of knowledge I had. Either way, the vacation would end.

Would such a life be worth living? I remembered the machine’s offer to construct a biological analog to fulfill my ‘base needs’. That sounded creepy as hell! But I guess it would be better than a painted volleyball for companionship. Still, I shuddered.

“Why are you pushing this option Naomi?”

“The other option is to continue working to achieve your goals, John. To make it so humans can once again live free on your world. To accomplish this goal involves many non-trivial challenges. Each will require you to take enormous risks. The odds that you will experience a painful death, or many such painful deaths, are great. I calculate a very slim chance for this goal to be successfully achieved.”

Naomi paused to let her words soak in before continuing.

“You would need great courage and determination and even then, your success will depend greatly on chance. I have tried to calculate a reliable method to achieve your goals, but the variables are many and fluid. At best, I predict your chances are very low… as in single-digit percentage low.

“To spare you from the almost inevitable failure and the pain and suffering which will accompany it, I have formulated the exile option. Again, please take a moment and consider this option carefully. Are you willing to risk almost certain death and great pain for the slim chance to see your goals come to fruition?”

She paused again allowing me further time to think. The first thing that came to mind was my decision back at the Tennessee base to gamble my life with the rogue crystal data module. Then, I certainly faced a quick death if my attempt to take control of Agent had failed. In many ways, this decision was similar to that one. I had been lucky then; could I be lucky again?

I remembered my thought process from that decision and realized I still felt the same way now. My life was nothing compared to the chance to get humanity back on an even keel. I inferred from Naomi’s ‘preferred option’ that the humans remaining on the planet were in for a grim future if left under the master A.I.'s control.

Did I fear death? No. I had walked in its shadow many times already and I thought I was as prepared as anyone could be. Did I fear pain and suffering? Hell yes! I may be stubborn but I’m not stupid. But, I had survived the pain and suffering of living through the deaths of both my wife and little girl. The sensations were now just more ‘known’ feelings. Were the risks worth it? Yes, they were. I sat up.

“Naomi, I still want my goals. If I die while fighting for them, then so be it. This is important to me and I’d rather try and fail than give up without a fight. If I become a vegetable sitting on a beach somewhere, the guilt and self-loathing would kill me quicker than the boredom. Let’s get this done!”

 

Chapter 2: Revelations

 

Naomi did not speak for a few seconds, perhaps giving me a chance to change my mind. Eventually, she spoke.

“I understand, John. We will work to achieve your goals of allowing humanity the ability to regain their freedom on this world. Now, on to the decrypted data retrieved from the Sri Lanka expedition. To summarize the information succinctly, the Earth is currently in the process of being invaded and colonized by approximately eleven billion alien beings from another star.”

I just sat there blinking as I absorbed that. Naomi continued.

“The species behind the invasion comes from another part of the galaxy many hundreds of light-years from the Earth. The retrieved data modules do not have many specifics of this species except that almost seven thousand years ago something happened to their home solar system and they were forced to evacuate and flee to the stars.”

“What do you mean you don’t know much about them?” I asked, confused, “Didn’t this same species create Agent, and didn’t Agent create you?”

“John please be patient while I attempt to explain,” Naomi explained with a calm voice, “As you may recall from our discussions in the past, the master A.I. keeps a great deal of information from the ‘lower’ A.I. presences in your system. I am sorry.”

I calmed myself. I’m sure this would be a long explanation. “I’ll try to stay calm Naomi. Do you at least have a name for them? It will help to put a name to their unseen face.”

“The only name I have found in the data archives which refer to this original species was the term ‘The Assemblage.’ As I was explaining, this Assemblage was forced to flee their original system and begin a long migration. That migration has already taken them past many worlds and will eventually bring them to within close proximity to the Earth. On some of those worlds, if conditions were suitable, they have attempted colonization,” she explained.

“You mean they… this Assemblage, goes from world to world creating colonies? Why do they continue on instead of settling down at the first new world they colonize?” I asked.

“Their motives regarding their exodus remain unclear. It appears that they do not stop at each world possibly because they lack the means to do so. Or it may be the Assemblage’s goal to create multiple colonies. Possibly both are valid reasons, John.”

I had further questions but decided to let Naomi continue.

“The data modules you retrieved from the Sri Lanka bunker were created by a second species that the Assemblage encountered earlier during their exodus. The name of this second species if translated to your English would be ‘the Hemru.’ Their world was attacked in a similar manner to the Earth. The Assemblage attempted to colonize their world also. It is unknown whether the Assemblage was ultimately successful as some elements of this second species survived long enough to offer a credible resistance.”

She paused while I pondered her words. I finally spoke up, “Okay, let me see if I follow. The enemy A.I. now in this system comes from the first original alien species… this ‘Assemblage’. The Assemblage had to leave their home world and are traveling along colonizing worlds as they flee, conquering them if necessary. On one of these worlds, they encounter this second species… these ‘Hemru.’ This second species fought back or are still fighting back. Do I have that right so far?”

“Yes, John. That is exactly right. Furthermore, The Hemru were also responsible for the compromised field base in South America which the master A.I. tried to destroy back when the attack on the Earth first began. In addition, they were responsible for the creation of the original rogue data module you received from Ana and later used to subvert the Agent presence at the field base in Tennessee.”

What the hell!

“How could they do that here, Naomi? Did they have star travel or something? Or were they already here?” I asked, thinking that if they had star travel, why didn’t they simply blow the Assemblage away?

“I will explain, John, but no to both star travel and being here already. For now, understand that the Hemru did cause those things and also were responsible for the three hundred data modules you retrieved from Sri Lanka. Because of that, I have much more information on that species besides how to pronounce their name.

“Hemru is a translation to human phonetics of the designation they use for themselves. Their world is approximately one hundred and twenty light-years from the Earth and lies on the path between the original world of the Assemblage and here. The Assemblage would have traveled past and colonized the Hemru system around 1,200 Earth years ago.

“Neither the data modules nor the information disseminated by the master A.I. includes the result of that attempt. The Assemblage may have been successful in their colonization attempt and the Hemru are now gone or the Hemru may have overthrown their invaders. Or, possibly the conflict continues to this day.”

After a pause, Naomi continued, “The Hemru’s appearance was physically similar in many ways to the insects of Earth.”

An image appeared on the wall screen. It showed what looked like an eight-legged grasshopper. The creature’s torso was segmented like a wasp and swiveled allowing the front of its body and its forward pair of legs to be in a more upright position. Strangely, despite the body segments, it had no separate head segment or a neck. Instead, the creature had eight… eyes I guess, on short stalks ringing the top of its body. At the center of the crown of its head was a circular looking maw ringed with mandibles. I could see how the Hemru’s longer, finer looking, upper pair of legs (arms and hands?) could reach its maw to allow it to eat or drink.

“How big is it?” I asked, not quite successful in suppressing my shudder of revulsion.

An image of a man appeared next to the Hemru. The top of the creature’s maw ended about where the human’s chest would be. I’d guess it totaled about two meters in length but only ‘stood’ a bit over a meter as its bent torso left the six-lower ‘legs’ remaining on the ground while the forward two ‘arms’ were on the upright torso segment.

“Wow… Okay, thank you Naomi. Please continue.”

“At the time they were attacked, the Hemru were more advanced technologically than humanity had been, but only slightly more so. They had begun to explore their own solar system and had even constructed a small colony on another planet. In addition, they had also just begun to exploit certain nearby asteroids for resources,” Naomi said before pausing briefly.

“Around three millennia ago, in much the same way as the Earth was, the Hemru world was attacked by using a massive bombardment of high-velocity impactors from its outer solar system. When their off-planet colony was also attacked in a similar manner, the Hemru quickly realized that they were under attack and not suffering a freak natural event. They quickly mobilized their remaining space forces and attempted to resist. Despite that, the sheer scale of the attack proved overwhelming and the bulk of the Hemru civilization was eradicated.”

I continued to listen, fascinated.

“The Hemru did have a few successes though. Their nascent space forces managed to capture a small number of enemy A.I. controlled facilities in space. From these, they learned many secrets of the enemy’s technology. This new knowledge helped the remaining Hemru survive the ongoing purge and remain hidden in a few asteroid sanctuaries elsewhere in their system,” Naomi said, again pausing before continuing.

“While the hidden Hemru struggled to survive, they desperately tried to develop the means to fight back and retake their system from the Assemblage’s controlling A.I. Since the Hemru already possessed a good understanding of logic and electronic information systems, they quickly learned how the enemy’s systems were structured. This included core knowledge of the Assemblage's artificial intelligences and the virtual and physical technology behind them.

“Using this knowledge, they successfully subverted an enemy A.I. presence on one of the captured asteroid facilities. This allowed them to learn even more about the Assemblage including why they were attacking the Hemru.” She paused before asking, “Are you following this so far?”

“I think so. The Hemru did something in their system like what I did here. Subverted a presence away from the enemy’s… er, the Assemblage’s control,” I said.

“That is correct, John. The Hemru developed the original subversion algorithms similar to the ones you used here on the Earth to successfully subvert the ‘Agent’ A.I. presence in Tennessee. Back on the Hemru system, their subverted A.I. presence allowed them to learn more about their enemy. These details included what they called themselves, where they originated, and why they were attacking. The ‘why’ was that the Assemblage planned to colonize the Hemru system.

“They learned that many millennia before their own world was attacked, the Assemblage was forced to evacuate and flee its home system. The method chosen for this evacuation was to construct an ‘ark’. This ark would carry the bulk of the Assemblage species away from their doomed system to other worlds around other stars. The Hemru learned that this ark was to carry approximately eleven billion intelligences.”

I pictured a huge flying city in space… hell, it would have to be a small world really to hold that many. I asked Naomi about that.

“No, John. The ark was much smaller. The Assemblage species would not physically be evacuated. Instead, each member would be scanned and only the mind-data sent away from their world. Think of this ark as a large flying data module.

“The Hemru did not learn the exact details but it is logical to assume that the ark was likely a large hollowed out metallic asteroid or similar construct. Inside this ark, the Assemblage would have constructed enormous data storage arrays with an overall capacity large enough to store the collected mind-data information of the Assemblage’s entire membership,” Naomi said.

“The Hemru were able to deduce from the intercepted transmissions between the A.I. in their system and the approaching ark ship, the ship’s distance and speed of approach. Also, they found references to the ark ship’s original method of propulsion, including its lack of ability to make meaningful course changes during its flight.

“They deduced and calculated that the Assemblage had used sequential fusion explosions to initially accelerate the ark to approximately 0.075C, or around 22,500 kilometers per second. The ark ship then ceased acceleration and has been coasting at that speed ever since. In addition, the Hemru learned when the ark ship was due to fly past their system.”

“Naomi, something I don’t understand. You say that the Assemblage constructed this large ark and it is still traveling here to the Earth. You also say the Hemru learned after they were attacked that the ark was still on its way to their world. If the ark had not already arrived there, how did they get attacked? And how did we get attacked a thousand years ago here if this ark has not made it here yet either?” I asked.

“John, both the Hemru world and the Earth were attacked by advance scouts sent from the Assemblage world.”

“So, the Assemblage built the attack scouts before they built their ark? Just how much time did they have to evacuate?” I asked.

“No, John. The Assemblage built and launched the advance scouts well after the ark had left their system.”

She must have noticed my confused look and continued.

“After the Assemblage built and launched their ark ship on its evacuation flight, the A.I.s which remained behind in the doomed system began constructing a fleet of interstellar scout probes. The probes likely were built extremely rapidly as with the local population long gone, the A.I.s could tear the world apart for the resources needed to construct this scouting fleet.

“The scouts were likely very small, compact craft loaded with just the basics in both resources and intelligence. Therefore, they were able to be launched at much higher velocities along the same course as the departed ark ship. Each probe would have contained just a ‘seed’ module to be planted in the target system along with the means to decelerate at their destination star system.”

“You mean they built and launched their scouts after they launched their ark ship containing their entire population? That seems backwards,” I interjected.

“That is correct, John. Traveling at their much higher velocity, the scout probes quickly caught up with and passed the slower traveling ark ship. Once ahead, they began to scout the various systems which lie along the course the ark was due to travel.

“One such scout probe arrived at the Hemru system two millennia before the ark was due to pass and set about constructing an initial base. This base grew quickly, and its first goal would have been the construction of a transmission and reception array to allow periodic communications with the approaching ark. Its other duties would have been to scan the local system and assess any possible threats to the Assemblage as well as the system's suitability for colonization.

“Soon after communications were established, the Assemblage would transmit a much more advanced A.I. to take control of the local system. This new A.I. would become responsible for removing any hazards in the system and also for the construction of the necessary equipment to receive and download the mind-data of the billions of Assemblage members when they eventually neared and passed the system. The scout craft which arrived at the Hemru system did just that.

“Likewise, almost two millennia ago, or around the human year 900 AD, a similar scout probe arrived here at the Earth system.”

“How could one scout probe prepare such a massive attack, Naomi?” I asked.

“One step at a time, John. It would have spent centuries slowly building and expanding a base of operations, most likely using asteroids rich in volatiles. Once established, it would have begun to grow, converting asteroid material into the local infrastructure and resources. As on the Hemru world, it would have first created the means to communicate with the approaching Assemblage ark.

“Scanners, telescopes, and probes to fully survey your star system would have followed. Eventually, it would have discovered the intelligent life on the Earth and focused on this world to assess all possible threats. The first transmission received back from the ark would have been a much more powerful and up-to-date A.I. presence. This would have been hundreds of years after it had first arrived.

“This higher capacity A.I. would become the same ‘master’ A.I. that exists here in this time period. Along with the new master A.I. would also have come the mind-data for numerous operatives which it would begin inserting into the population on the target world to survey the capabilities of its intelligent population.”

“Picket? Are you talking about Picket and his companions?” I asked.

“Yes, John. Picket was one of the biological units operating on your world. He and his group had been active for many centuries on your world before you met him. They were tasked with collecting data about your world’s biological lifeforms and also collecting any technologies and accomplishments for later dissemination. Another reason for their activities was reconnaissance to be used to tailor the method of the attack later used to depopulate humanity from your planet.

“As it was, the humans were developing far faster than predicted. This caused expedited changes to both the method and size of the attack used on your world. Also, humanity’s rapid advancement caused the attack to begin earlier than expected. It is hard to attribute emotions to A.I.’s intelligences, but if one could be attributed, it would be ‘panic’. The local master A.I. panicked at the technological growth of humanity and rushed the attack in many ways and overcompensated in others.”

I thought about humanity's rapid technological advances since the dark ages and felt a bit proud of my descendants. I smiled. Naomi must have noted my expression.

“The Hemru were responsible for much of those rapid advancements, John.”

What! “How the hell could they have advanced humanity here?” I asked.

“Much earlier, back in their system, the Hemru had learned that the Assemblage planned to colonize other habitable worlds they passed on their flight across the galaxy. They also learned from intercepted communications that the Assemblage had discovered another intelligent species on one of these worlds, Earth. The Hemru realized that their own fight against the Assemblage would be aided if their enemy faced opposition elsewhere.

“They knew that if they managed to prevail with their resistance at their own system, the chances of a reprisal attack from other Assemblage colonies would be less if those colonies were occupied and distracted with their own fights. They decided to act to aid your world. At best, their assistance would save your species and develop a future ally in their fight against their invaders, or at the least, it would distract the Assemblage and disrupt its plans somewhat.

“To provide aid to the Earth, the Hemru built their own powerful interstellar transmitter and aimed it at the master A.I.'s receiving station here. They developed and sent a virus and data package using the same carrier signal as the Assemblage ark used. That transmission was later received in this system, and as the data-package was coded to look like a normal information update from the ark ship, it was processed by the master A.I.

“To hide the nature of the virus, the Hemru had made the transmission to appear garbled and incomplete as though it had suffered from interference of some sort. The master A.I. processed what it could unravel and simply filed the rest. It then sent back a request to retransmit the garbled message. Unbeknownst to its higher-level awareness, the virus embedded in the transmission successfully activated within the master A.I.'s lower thought processes.

“The virus was very subtle. It had to be or else trip the viral failsafes which all A.I.s have embedded into their structures regarding all data received via transmission. The subtle instructions in the virus caused certain actions to be performed by the master A.I. but in a way that was ignored by its higher awareness. The fact that these actions were so similar to its own ongoing actions and preparations in this system helped.

“The main action the virus caused was to divert one of the A.I.’s already constructed Earth landing pods and launch it, along with two of its newly created biological units, to a remote location on this world. In addition, the mind-data downloaded into the pair of biological units was compromised with certain instructions added by the virus.

“Once the pod was away, the master A.I. returned to its other duties having simply registered and recorded the pod launch as a normal part of its scouting plans. The virus prevented it from considering the alterations made to the mind-data of the pod’s bio-drone crew and the landing pod’s destination. Lastly, besides causing those actions, the virus also implanted certain dormant instructions into the long-term memory of the A.I. where they hopefully still reside.”

Naomi paused a bit to give me time to digest all that. Soon, she continued.

“John, you have directly witnessed firsthand the end results of the Hemru viral action at the bunker in Sri Lanka. The landing pod there and the two medical crèche units were in fact the exact equipment unknowingly created by the master A.I. and sent to the Earth.

“You’re kidding! You mean that the Hemru clear back in their home system caused that bunker to be created here on Earth?” That’s incredible!” I exclaimed.

“Their virus enabled it, John. The landing pod also contained similar compact fabrication equipment that the original Assemblage scout craft sent to this solar system centuries before had contained. Once on the ground in Sri Lanka, the pair of compromised operatives used this equipment to construct that bunker. They also created other needed items of gear and modified the medical crèche’s to alter their own appearance to resemble that of the humans living nearby,” she explained.

“When do you think they arrived?” I asked.

“The landing craft contacted the Earth’s surface at 2:31 in the early morning of Saturday, June 4, in the year 1622 of the Gregorian calendar, John.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “You can’t tell me the precise second?”

“Yes, the precise—”.

“Stop! I’m kidding Naomi. How do you know the exact time?” I asked already deducing the answer myself. I answered before she could speak, “The data modules.”

“Correct, John. The subverted semi-intelligent presence operating the pod, and which later controlled the bunker, recorded every event which happened after the pod was launched. Once the bunker was constructed and the pair of rogue operatives had begun to travel about the world, the records became less frequent.”

Trying to follow all this, I stopped the A.I. before it could continue.

“Hold on Naomi. Let me see if I understand this. You are saying that the Hemru sent a virus from their star system all the way to the Earth. This virus fooled the master A.I. and caused it to construct and create the rogue operatives who would eventually fight it here?”

“That is basically correct, John,” she replied.

I started laughing. Both at the absurdity of that and at the sheer brilliance of it.

“That’s… um, diabolical or something Naomi.”

“Yes, it was somewhat clever. But it was also very logical as the Hemru had no means of physically sending aid across the interstellar distance. A viral transmission was the only means of lending aid to your world. Also, the subtlety of the viral instructions was mandated to not alarm the enemy A.I. as virus threats in transmitted messages are easily detected. Only a direct physical connection passing the viral attack directly into the A.I.'s processing hardware would have allowed for a harsher alteration to the local A.I. presence. You should be intimately familiar with just such a physical attack.”

Yes, indeed I was. I still had nightmares about my viral attack on the A.I. presence back in Tennessee.

Naomi continued, “Early on, when the operatives left the bunker area, it would be decades or more before either of them returned to either commune with the bunker A.I. or utilize its medical crèches to rejuvenate or heal themselves.”

I remembered the crèches Ohmu and I had found in the bunker and the decayed remains they had contained.

“Were the remains we found in the bunker those operatives?” I asked.

“Yes and no, John. The remains you and Ohmu discovered were what was left of the operative’s cloned reserve bodies. The bunker retained those in case one or both of the active operatives were lost. In that case, the duplicate body was revived and downloaded with the most recent mind-data recorded from the lost operative.

“Now clandestinely established on your planet, the operatives set out from Sri Lanka and traveled about your world for many centuries aiding humanity in various ways. They introduced new technologies and processes, influenced key decision makers, funded certain ventures and businesses. All with the goal of prodding humanity towards developing technology at a much faster pace.”

“What were they after exactly? And why did they not warn humanity by just telling us about the Assemblage threat?” I asked.

“Their goal was to advance human technology to levels allowing interplanetary space flight. Only then would humanity have a chance of stopping the asteroid based attack from succeeding. As far as warning humanity, remember that they were not operating on your world alone. The master A.I. had operatives of its own active on the Earth and these had been here far longer than the Hemru operatives.”

Picket! I remembered how he’d been busy up until the attack had begun.

“They had to worry about Picket,” I said.

“Yes, John. The Hemru operatives had to proceed with extreme caution and their actions had to remain very subtle. Also, Picket and his team actively countered many of their attempts to accelerate humanity's technological advancement. The two opposing operative teams had engaged in a ‘cold war’ so to speak, of actions and counteractions. Some of these even evolved into actual hot wars,” Naomi said.

“You mean they were aware of each other?” I asked.

“Not until the last few decades did the master A.I. or Picket’s team suspect that there was a rogue presence operating on Earth and that it was behind much of the more recent and rapid advancement of human technology. When the Hemru team brought about World War II, and also later ended it by promoting the rapid advancement of the nuclear sciences, the master A.I. took notice. It began to realize that humanity was developing far outside the extreme ranges of its predictive models.

“It became suspicious of outside interference and began to actively investigate the possibility. When a second superpower arose also possessing nuclear weapons, the A.I. was forced to act and dispatched Picket’s group to attempt to counteract the advancements. As the two superpowers began a rapid technological race leading to advancements in space flight, it even tried to goad each side to nuclear war to set humanity back,” Naomi explained.

“Hold on! You mean to tell me that the Hemru operatives caused World War II?”

“Yes, John. They have caused many wars over the years including both of your world wars. Strife and desperation have always proven to be the fastest ways to quicken the development of technology.” Naomi stated.

“Jesus! Tens of millions died Naomi!”

“I am sorry, John. But, as I said earlier, the actions of the Hemru operatives almost succeeded. The master A.I. was forced to accelerate its plans and greatly alter the scope of its planned attacks to account for the rapidity of human advancement. A few more decades and humans may have made it out into the outer solar system. There, they could have dug in and become a formidable threat to the colonization plans of the Assemblage when its ark arrived.”

I was stunned as I considered all the possible areas of Hemru meddling over the years. Did they cause the industrial revolution? The rapid advancement in silicon electronics? Wow. I wondered about all the kooks with theories of alien technology in hidden bases. Was some of that based on fact?

Naomi’s comments about how close Humans had been to spreading to other planets made me remember some of the tech Billionaires who had seemed driven to develop space technology. There was that guy who started off by selling books. Then that other guy who made those rockets that could land and be reused. I remembered he also pushed environmentally friendly cars and was so worried about global warming. Had they both been pushed by the Hemru operatives?

“Naomi, did the master A.I. want the planet warmer?” I asked.

“It is possible although I am unsure, John. I hope to learn more of its reasons and plans as we work towards your goals.”

My instincts told me that it had. Maybe just to counteract the global cooling that had occurred as a result of its attack. From what I had seen eighteen years ago, temperatures in the middle latitudes were again as warm as before the attacks. How many strange things had the Hemru operatives or the Assemblage’s Pickets caused? I’d love to think they were responsible for all of humanity's more stupid recent actions, but I knew better. Humans could do plenty of stupid things all on their own.

After giving me a minute to absorb her news, Naomi continued, “The accelerated timetable of the enemy’s attack proved to be the Hemru operative’s downfall. When they realized that their mission here on Earth had not advanced humanity quickly enough, they altered their plans. They attempted to infiltrate one of the master A.I.'s more remote field bases.

“If they could successfully subjugate the local A.I. presence there, they could use that base to create enough bio-suspension units to allow a small force of humans to ride out and survive the attacks. Then, long after the attacks were over, these awakened humans would be the vanguard of a new group of operatives. By using the enemy’s own base, they knew that it would be looked after. It was also better suited to housing the many crèches than their small bunker on Sri Lanka.

“They had taken control of the remote base nearly a year before the attack and had completed all the necessary preparations, including storing a dozen carefully selected humans in bio-suspension. Their mission had shifted from advancing humans technologically to fighting the master A.I. directly in the future,” she explained.

“You’re talking about the South American field base which was destroyed early on in the attack right? The base that Ana had originated from?” I asked.

“Yes, John, that is correct. Agent once told you that that base had been destroyed by an impactor before the operatives residing there could evacuate to space. The truth is that the Hemru operatives were killed by the master A.I. At the last minute, their infiltration of the base was discovered and the master A.I. attempted to destroy it.

“Instead of an impactor of the type used in the general attack, a large compression fusion warhead was dropped onto the base site nearly a day before the first wave of impactors was due to strike the Earth. As you recall, although the base was severely damaged, one human managed to survive.”

“Ana,” I whispered.

“Against all odds, her surviving the strike and remaining safely suspended in the last functioning crèche for nearly six centuries until waking up and relaying to you the rogue data is the sole reason for our discussing the matter today. Humanity has seen incredible luck once before. For your sake, maybe it will see a bit more in the near future.” Naomi said.

“What will we have to do Naomi?” I asked.

“The decrypted data modules have revealed much of the history of both alien species, John. We have also discovered much about their operative’s actions on your world before the attack. You have learned of the reasons for the attack and the current threat which is the pending arrival of the Assemblage membership to your world. That is the ‘why’ and the ‘what’. What we have not learned so far is the ‘when’ and ‘how’. To learn that, we may need to take our fight into space.”

Space! We were going into space. Inside my mind, the old man was scared by the thought. The young boy however was excited beyond compare. I looked around the Salon wondering how we were going to get into space.

“Um, how? And why?”

“How? We will steal a rocket.” Naomi said.

Before I could react to that bombshell she continued, “Why? Because our answers lie with the master A.I. Only within its memories will we find the details about the pending Assemblage's arrival and if there is any way we can prevent it.”

“You mean we are going to have to fly a rocket all the way beyond Mars to the factory asteroid?” I asked.

“No, John. Over the past few decades, the master A.I. has come to us.”

Naomi went on to explain how the large new satellite we had observed on our voyage to Sri Lanka eighteen years ago had been the construction site of the master A.I.’s new home. I learned that the now complete satellite was in a mid-altitude equatorial orbit at about 6,400 kilometers above the Earth. At that altitude, the space station passed overhead about every four hours.

Naomi showed me close up views of the satellite she had taken with the high magnification telescope on the Nautilus’s sensor mast. It looked like the freaking death star but with many spikes sticking out. We watched video images of the streams of arriving and departing spacecraft to and from the station. When Naomi told me the dimensions of the thing, I began to realize it was a true space station and not just a satellite. I was a bit numb when the morning briefing finally wrapped up.

***

Much later that morning, I sat at the galley island eating a sandwich. I was deep in thought at all I had learned earlier. More than once I thought that maybe I should have chosen ‘Exile Island’ instead. But, as Naomi had predicted, once I learned the details there was no running away.

Naomi had said that we needed to steal a rocket. I learned that our first step was to break into one of the master A.I.'s rocket launching facilities. I wondered if it would be the one we had spotted on the southern end of Sri Lanka. Or maybe it was located somewhere in equatorial Africa.

She was going to brief me on where the attempt would be made after my lunch break. She said that Nautilus was currently standing by near our target but would not elaborate until I had taken a break and eaten. I finished up my lunch and headed back to my command chair.

 

Chapter 3: Darwin’s Footsteps

“Okay, where are we currently located?” I asked.

“John, Nautilus is currently sitting on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean approximately five kilometers southeast of Española Island. Isla Española is a small fourteen-kilometer-long island at the south-eastern end of the Galapagos Island chain.”

The Galapagos Islands! Now I realized why the images being shown on the cabin walls were familiar.

“Are the videos you are projecting on the salon walls from that area?” I asked.

“Yes, the images were all recorded over the past few weeks,” Naomi said.

I recalled that Darwin’s famous group of islands did lie on the Equator. The master A.I. must have built a facility here. Interesting.

“Note the port wall image, John.”

I swiveled my chair around and looked at the image in the port curving wall. The view of the waves breaking on a rocky beach was overwhelmed briefly by a distant bright light and a plume of exhaust gasses. These were both rather small which indicated that the event was taking place dozens of kilometers beyond the coast. But, although far away, it was clearly a rocket launch of some sort.

I watched the distant light forming the expanding gas plume rise for a few seconds when it suddenly cut off. Did it abort? I was about to speak up when an almost painfully bright burst of light whited out the image. The center point of the flash was a bit above where the rocket exhaust had cut off. Before I could comprehend what was going on, another flash lit the room. This one a bit higher still. I remembered the launches we had observed from our trip to Sri Lanka.

“An Orion type launch vehicle?” I asked as the bright flashes continued every second or two.

“That is correct, John. You are witnessing the launch of an orbital supply rocket from Baltra Island. The rocket uses sequentially detonated small fusion explosions as its primary means of propulsion. This is indeed similar to a hypothetical propulsion method know by humans as an ‘Orion’ drive,” Naomi explained.

The bright flashes continued. I attempted to count them and noticed that they were occurring slower than every second… maybe every second and a half? The string of flashes angled over and headed off to the eastern horizon. I had counted to nearly two hundred when they passed over the horizon.

“How far away is the launch site from where this was recorded?” I asked.

“The images were recorded from near our present location southeast of Española Island. The launch you just witnessed took place on Baltra Island which is approximately seventy-one nautical miles northwest-by-north from our viewing point. Note the map of the island chain.”

An image appeared on the viewscreen which showed a map of the Galapagos archipelago. There were five larger islands with the largest, Isabela Island, being towards the western end of the chain. Moving to the east thirty kilometers was the next largest island, Santa Cruz Island. Baltra Island, which was the launch point, was a much smaller island almost connected to Santa Cruz Island. The channel between the two was only four hundred meters wide.

East of Santa Cruz Island another seventy kilometers or so was San Cristóbal Island, a third large island. The other two larger islands lay twenty kilometers to each side of the northern end of Isabela Island. A small island fifty kilometers south of San Cristóbal Island was highlighted. This island was labeled Española Island. A flashing glyph appeared five kilometers southeast off of that island.

“The flashing point is Nautilus’s current position,” Naomi said.

A line became visible on the map leading from our location and heading northwest-by-north to Baltra Island, the launching point.

“Is there any reason you selected this location to park Nautilus?” I asked.

“Yes, three primary reasons. First, directly to the south lies much deeper water and would provide more options if we were forced to flee and evade pursuit. The second is that the northern approaches to the archipelago are crawling with enemy undersea mining drones. They are actively mining underwater mineral nodules to the north and west of the island chain and transporting the refined ore back to the manufacturing facilities by the launching area.

“The third reason has to do with our mission to secure this base. Our current location lies upwind of the target site. In October, the prevailing winds in this part of the Pacific Ocean are generally from the southeast to the northwest. I hope to utilize these winds to facilitate our attack on the enemy A.I. presence there, John.”

I digested that. Naomi had not mentioned what the attack plan was but I am sure I’d be learning about it soon. I thought back to the video image of the rocket launch I had watched. We recorded it from seventy nautical miles away.

“The rocket must have been pretty big,” I said.

“Yes, John. From the three launches I have recorded and analyzed since arriving on station at our current location, I calculate that the launch vehicle masses approximately 4,700 metric tons. Its primary means of propulsion utilizes relatively small sequential fusion detonations equivalent to approximately 0.26 of your Kilotons of TNT yield. Each detonation takes place 1.72 seconds after the previous and just over eight hundred are needed to achieve orbit.”

“What was that initial fiery light and smoke show before the bombs started going off?” I asked.

“To limit surface damage, I deduce the launch vehicle is initially lifted to an altitude of over a kilometer by a small conventional ‘first stage’. From the analysis of trace gases, this stage utilized a simple solid-fuel composition. Humans used such solid fuel technology for your rocket boosters and ballistic missiles. This first stage would have allowed the fusion main drive to begin operating high enough above the surface to limit damage to the launching facilities on the ground.”

“Does that mean there will be radiation?” I asked.

“There will be some radiation, John. I expect most will be of the alpha type. You may need to wear your respirator and wash adequately after any high exposures,” she replied.

“What can you tell me about our target?” I asked.

The map image on the viewscreen changed and zoomed back to Santa Cruz Island, the large middle one of the group. It continued zooming into the northeast corner of that island until its much smaller neighbor, Baltra Island filled the display. The map image changed and was now an actual aerial photograph. I wondered how Naomi had obtained that until I remembered the bio-drone seagull.

“Did Jonathan take those photos?” I asked.

Naomi hesitated for a moment before replying, “A descendant of Jonathan took the images, John.”

I understood that to mean that Jonathan was dead. I recalled that the bio-drones did not use the same type of full bio-suspension which I did, and the bird must have expired from old age. Or, maybe it had been killed on some mission of Naomi’s. I let it go and did not ask. I returned to studying the image of Baltra Island. It was covered by large structures, construction yards, chemical tanks, and other equipment.

“Baltra Island is approximately eight kilometers long north to south by five wide, east to west. It is separated from its larger neighbor, Santa Cruz Island, by a narrow straight. A small radar station exists on Santa Cruz but is otherwise not occupied.

“In the past when humanity populated parts of the island chain, Baltra was home to a large airport serving the archipelago. Its flat and reinforced runway area provided an excellent starting point for the current base. On the northern end of the island is the sea terminal which handles limited shipping to and from other points around the world. The undersea mining activities for the area terminate there also.”

The map zoomed in further on a point on the eastern edge of the smaller island. This showed a large group of buildings leading to a half kilometer long causeway extending out over the ocean east of the island. A large flat structure was at the end of this causeway, probably the launchpad. The images changed and a similar one took its place. Now, a large cylinder appeared on the launchpad. This must be the rocket.

“This more recently taken image shows the actual launch vehicle we just witnessed launching to orbit earlier.”

“How big is it?” I asked.

“Approximately eighteen meters in diameter and just over sixty meters tall, John. As stated earlier, I estimate it masses at around 4,700,000 kilograms at liftoff. This does not include the small solid-fueled first stage. I will learn more details about the vehicle once we are successful in capturing the base.”

I was glad the machine was confident. I realized it was probably just blowing smoke up my ass, but I appreciated that it was intelligent enough to not go about blabbing doom and gloom like that robot from that Hitchhiker’s story.

“So, you want us to take over that island and its launch complex… and then steal a rocket. Why?” I asked.

“Once we have control of the island, we will have a means to reach the mid-Earth orbit equatorial station and surveil or attack the master A.I. directly. In addition, the A.I. presence on the island, once subverted, will be a source of ongoing intelligence into the enemy A.I.’s actions and plans, John.”

Holy shit! This was about to get serious. Even knowing as little as I did now, I could see dozens of paths leading directly to my doom.

“How are we going to take over an active enemy facility?” I asked, noticing that my voice had moved up an octave. I cleared my throat.

“Proceed to the port side sponson, John. There I will instruct you further on our main method to infiltrate and subvert the facility on Baltra Island.”

I got up from my command chair and headed to the workroom located just forward from the salon. When I entered that chamber, I found it filled with new gear. There were stacks of crates in place of the workbench. I spotted metal cylinders resembling ESUs. In the middle of the room were a couple of complicated-looking devices which reminded me of the artificial womb devices we had loaded onto Anna’s aircraft before she was exiled to South America.

“What is all this?” I asked Naomi.

“The workroom chamber contains additional needed supplies for our subversion attempt along with various enhanced biological production devices. We needed the ability to create and rapidly grow specialized bio-drones as well as additional fully functional clones of various species,” she answered.

My intuition made me ask if she could grow human clones.

“Yes, John. I can and have grown human clones. There are four such clones currently stored in the chamber formerly used for your exercise activities.”

Before I could ask about them she continued, “All four clones were created using variations of your current DNA although there have been slight alterations made to each. Two are sufficiently mature to be activated immediately should the need arise. All that is required would be the implantation of a fresh copy of your mind-data.”

I was smart enough to realize that ‘need arise’ most likely meant my painful and untimely death. It reminded me that we were in the playoffs now and this was for all the marbles. I shook my head and continued on to the portside sponson. I rode the lift up to the catwalk and approached the hatch to the sponson. It was closed but began to open as I approached. Once opened sufficiently, I saw that a small airlock had been added just inside the sponson.

The airlock was made of a transparent glass or polymer and I could see the new Ohmu unit working beyond. I entered the airlock and the hatch closed and sealed behind me. The clear, inner airlock door opened. My first breath of the air in the port sponson’s immediately caused tears to form. What a stink! There was a strong, nasty ammonia-like odor.

“What the hell is that stink, Ohmu?” I asked.

“The smell is a result of the highly acidic waste products of the nearly five hundred new bio-drones in our inventory, John. You’ll get used to the odor as quickly as I did.” The now-plain gray humanoid unit said.

I raised an eyebrow as I took in what she had just said. Was I being punked? Did the humanoid unit even have olfactory senses and if it did, were they sensitive enough so that the unit suffered discomfort with the strong odor?

I decided to play it safe and just replied with, “I hope so.”

I moved further into the sponson. Like the workshop, the port sponson was now crowded with new boxes and devices. The forward portion of the sponson was now filled with dozens of small crèche-like pods. Each was the size of a small suitcase and surrounded by bundles of tubes and cabling. Turning, I saw that the aft end was… I paused with my eyes open wide. Before me stood rows and rows of roosting bats! Each row had a long narrow metallic rod which reminded me of a closet rod. Hanging from each of these rods were dozens of bats!

Each side of the sponson held two rows of three rods. The first was mounted sixty centimeters above the floor with the next two, each sixty centimeters above the one below. Also, each rod was slightly offset from those above and below it. When I spotted the wide, guano-filled trough below each set of rods I understood why. The contents of the trough also explained the smell.

As I studied the bizarre menagerie, I suddenly realized that each and every bat was focused on me! There were all perfectly still except for their barely noticeable breathing but their heads were all clearly pointed in my direction. As I stared back I noticed movement towards the rear of the sponson. I also saw that the sponson chamber now extended much further aft than it had previously. The moon pool and diving center must have been removed or reworked somehow to make the space larger.

The motion I had noticed was from a small team of mobile work units who were moving among the suspended bats offering groups of them access to a long narrow feeding tray. The units would hold the tray under around eight bats at a time, allowing them to feed and drink. I easily imagined that this would be a full-time task keeping them all topped up.

“How do you like our new team members, John? I’ve waited to name each of them until you were revived, knowing you would want the honors,” Ohmu said.

I turned my stare towards the little unit. The humanoid android just stood there staring enigmatically back at me until I chuckled.

“I don’t think so, Ohmu. How do you tell them apart? If you even need to.”

“As our presence will be deduced quickly with their first use, these bats do not need to remain untraceable. With that in mind, each unit contains various tiny electronic modules and other synthetic items along with their biologic augments. One of these modules permits short-range wireless communication between themselves as well as between all friendly A.I. presences nearby.

“Of course, the communications are encrypted so we don’t have to worry about the enemy tapping our communications. Furthermore, to answer your question. Each bat unit has a unique identifier tag which I scan, and access as required,” Ohmu explained.

“Why are there so many? “I asked.

“Redundancy is the main reason. The other is their small size. It will take teams of many bats to accomplish portions of the mission.”

“And what is their mission?”

“These are infiltration and sabotage bats, John.”

The little unit approached a group of bats and carefully grabbed one. It returned and offered it to me. I frowned but held out my open palm. The bat was about twelve centimeters long and was surprisingly light. Its fur was a reddish-brown in color and it had the typical, ugly as sin, bat face. As I held it, it carefully stood up and stared back at me. It slowly spread its wings. I could see what looked like electrical filaments woven into its thin wing membranes.

“Communication antenna, John,” Ohmu explained. “The filaments also act as scanners highly sensitive to electromagnetic emissions.”

The bat closed its wings and dipped its head. Looking close I could see a unicorn-like small protraction on the center of its forehead. It was diamond-shaped and looked familiar.

“Christ! That’s a data module interface connection right?”

“Correct, John, the skull of the bat has an integrated data probe. When inserted into an enemy unit or processor, the probe will deliver a similar override virus as the one you deployed in the Tennessee field base. Now, notice the feet of the bat.”

The bat cooperated and stood on one leg, holding the other up for my inspection. I could see that instead of tiny claws, the bat had wide rubbery looking suction cup pads!

“The contact pads on its feet will allow the unit to attach itself to any smooth metal surface. There are also pads on the joints of the wings. Once attached, the unit will be able to insert its data probe and introduce the Hemru viral algorithms.”

Ohmu carefully took the bat from my hand.

“This unit had two additional features. I will demonstrate the first.”

It held the bat ass-end first towards a blank area of bulkhead. With a quick ‘pfft’ the bat shat on the bulkhead. The whitish smear pattern was about four centimeters across.

“Cameras?” I asked.

“Very good, John! The waste product will obscure other types of sensors also including thermal, motion, and electromagnetic. The bat’s anus has a specialized sphincter which can alter the spray pattern as demonstrated. Thankfully, the normal relaxed mode allows for a normal waste drop or this chamber would be far messier.”

“Wow. What a bat-shit crazy idea!” I said with a grin.

Ohmu just gave me a deadpan stare for a moment before continuing, “Each bat unit only has one such blast though. The last feature of the unit I shall not demonstrate. Notice on the creature’s abdomen.” Ohmu said as it flipped the bat over and carefully presented its belly.

I looked closely and could see a tiny rectangular shaped object, just under the lightly furred belly of the bat. The object was a bit over two centimeters long.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“A small linear shaped charge,” Ohmu said. “When detonated, its directed explosive force will impact a small strip of tantalum and propel the now superheated plasma jet outward at an extremely high velocity. The jet of metal plasma will easily sever wiring, conduit, or cabling. Also, if many bats detonate their charge in the same location, a surprising depth of penetration can be achieved.”

That was a preview of Final Cut - Book 3. To read the rest purchase the book.

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