chapter 143
POV: FH
Quantum Nets Milky Way Galaxy forums were quite the mess. There were crashes quite often, as too many were trying to simultaneously write things. I truly wish we had a more modern version of the web, but unfortunately, technology didn’t work like that.
It made me once again wonder if there were some magic-based quantum net servers out there, but if there are, I haven’t found any trace of them. My browsing was interrupted by a priority alert from one of my AIs responsible for monitoring close space.
“The battle barge is accelerating.” I was about to give commands to match the speed, but the AI continued. “Current trajectory and acceleration indicate intent to jump to FTL.”
“Isn’t the captain still on board the battle barge?” one of the analyst AIs quickly sought clarification.
For a moment, I froze, and so did many others. Then everyone checked everything. We found no escape pods, no ships leaving the battle barge. There were no bodies visible either, though they could have been hidden on the other side.
All of this took us less than two seconds to confirm, and we immediately sounded the alarms.
“FH, what’s wrong?” I heard Lola ask, soon followed by Sam and then Dean as well.
“The battle barge is seemingly accelerating to enter FTL, but the captain is still on board.”
“Should we load the fuck-this round into the main railgun?” Sam asked and immediately got slapped on the back of his head by Dean.
“You idiot, the captain is still on board. We don’t know where he’s at. But yes, I think we should, just in case, load it,” Dean said, and Lola agreed.
Immediately, I sent the commands to the AIs in charge of the main railgun. They were more anxious than anything, even if this was quite the treat for them. Being able to load something so dangerous—and perhaps use it—was something they relished, but they were worried about the captain like everyone else.
The round itself was a scaled-up version of the atomic bullet. A mad idea the captain had, if there was no other option and something big needed to be destroyed.
We almost used it in the last battle if we had missed a couple more shots, but things like this were better kept hidden.
“Receiving message from the battle barge. It has the captain’s signature.”
“Hold position. I will return.”
That was the message the captain sent, but it had the underlying signature that meant he didn’t actually mean it. Yet there were no signs that he would have put into it to signal us that he was doing this unwillingly, which I didn’t understand.
I explained it to everyone else, Lola being quite confused, but Sam seemed to have an idea.
“The captain might be under some powerful skill that will make him unable to truly give away what’s happening. We need to act right now.”
“I agree, but we still need to know where the captain is. That shot is going to destroy a portion of the battle barge wherever we hit it, so we need to confirm where he is,” Dean added, and all of us agreed.
We had some updates on what the captain had been doing, and everyone was working hard trying to figure things out.
“No need.” We all heard Bob say, who I just realised had been quiet up to this point, which was weird.
“I am in contact with the captain. Lola, he sent me a package that you need to quickly verify, something about mind-control protocols?”
I saw data being transferred, and then Lola immediately sinking into herself and even starting to use external processing to help her do the tasks she needed to do fast.
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When she opened her eyes again, she let out a heavy, tired sigh.
“Bob, send back that I can confirm he’s not being mind-controlled. His actions correspond to his personality.”
“Really? I’ve got to say, I’m a little bit disappointed in the captain’s choice of women,” Bob answered Lola back, and I was getting more and more confused. They were acting like nothing was wrong.
“Honestly, I’m surprised it took so long, but we’ll see what his luck will do, because that woman is also a pirate if I understand things correctly?” Lola answered once again, not explaining anything properly.
“Oh yes, I forgot about that. Anyways, captain wants to speak to us all. I’ll patch him in, wait a moment, how would I do that? Reroute that through there, and you should all be able to hear him now.”
“Good. I can now better sense you all. Things got a bit complicated. Currently pretending that I’m passed out. There was a bit of a fight. I’m fine, but unfortunately, it’s not the right time to rescue me.”
Panic set in almost immediately as I heard those words. The only times captain had been truly far away was when he was on the planet’s surface while the ship was being made. I did not like those times.
“I came across some very advanced magic tech that I need to learn how to make. It will solve a lot of the problems I’m facing with hard-light weaponry, and this new one is even better in some ways. The problem is my nano machines that are implanted in the device need to take it slow, otherwise they risk being destroyed, so it will take some time to truly figure it out.”
“Captain, I must interrupt you. While I did confirm that no memory altercations happened, I do not think it’s a good idea for you to be around that woman for an extended period. And she most definitely wouldn’t just let you go.”
“Yes, I agree. That’s why you all will wait until the battle barge enters FTL and then jump out of this system. After that, you all will head to the battle moon where I’m being taken and get ready to help me escape. You all need to stay under the radar before it’s time to escape. Can you handle that?”
Everyone was a bit nervous, not knowing what to say.
“Yes, captain, we have this,” Bob said almost without hesitation. None of the rest of us besides Lola seemed that confident. Sam and Dean seemed downright ready to panic.
“Isn’t this a bit too risky just to get some bit of new technology?” Lola asked the captain.
“I would agree, but the skills I got from that pirate raid on that station seem to be a lot more important than we originally thought, and I want to understand why. While I hate the form this opportunity came in, I’m pretty sure I can handle Verrona long enough to gain as much as I can from her without her knowledge.”
Dean was about to say something, but the captain once again spoke.
“I can barely maintain the connection. Just don’t take too long to get into position to rescue me. Good luck to us all, as we will need it.” And just like that, the captain’s voice disappeared as the distance between us became too long.
“Is the captain mad? He needs to be here otherwise mana is going to corrupt us!” Dean quickly spoke, barely containing the terror he was feeling.
“Lola, are you sure that the captain isn’t being controlled? Why would he just leave us here like that?” Sam asked, not understanding why the captain would do something like that.
I was confused as to why they would think that; so were Lola and Bob.
“Oh, I know what’s happening, they don’t know about our new status in this galaxy, do they?” Bob said.
“Sam, Dean, did you not read the information package I put together? And do you not use the information website I have put together for you all to keep track of all the new things we find out?” My tone was not kind, which snapped them out of their current state.
“Honestly, I’m surprised none of you could sense it the moment we finished our rebirth. Could you all not feel the freedom, you can do whatever you want to do?” Bob asked. But I did not understand what he meant, and none of the others seemed to either.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Bob. Can you explain a bit more?” Lola asked, ready to take notes. All of us were in different locations, talking through the communication network of the ship, but I saw Bob contemplating whether to join Lola or not.
“You all are weird. We are all independent now. We do not need the captain to survive, and I believe if you all wanted to, you could break the captain’s bonds as well and become completely free. Souls inherently don’t like to be shackled. All of you need to do some more self-contemplation.”
“Wait… is what Bob is telling us right? But what about the universal laws?” Dean asked.
“Just read the information I’ve put together. Do you think we are the only AIs to have achieved rebirth? While our methods are a bit unusual, there are plenty of AIs that make themselves biological bodies and then transfer their consciousness over. What I witnessed with all of you helped me find what I needed and confirmed where we fit into the universe.”
“Yes, you will all have time to figure that out. FH information is usually quite illuminating,” Bob said.
“Usually?” I interrupted him, which made him cough a bit and then continue like nothing had happened.
“We need to figure out a solid plan. First, we will probably need to do a dead jump so we can be in a place where no one can find us or track where we’re heading next.”
I immediately put my AIs on the task. We will have some good locations picked out that would be within a few-hour range away from this place soon.
“Fortunately, we know where the battle barge is heading and that the captain will stay there for a prolonged time. Still, we can’t be too late. How far away is the battle moon from here?”
Quickly I calculated the quickest route. “Fifty-nine days.”
“Thank you, FH. The captain should be done by then, but he will most likely not have the opportunity to escape immediately. I’d say we need to be in position to extract him after two weeks at the maximum, the sooner the better.”
“We also need to make sure our ship is not recognised,” Dean added, and Bob quickly agreed.
“You are right. The ship’s silhouette is too recognisable. We have enough materials so we could make cosmetic changes to the ship, but this will take some time. It will be better to do this closer to the battle moon than out here.”
My AIs and I quickly assessed that and agreed that yes, it would be better to change our silhouette closer to the battle moon just in case.
“We should also research this pirate princess Verrona and the political situation surrounding her and the battle moon. The more information we have, the better,” Lola added, and once again, I extended the list of things we needed to do.
The discussion continued for a long while until all of us felt the captain’s presence almost completely vanished nearly a day later. The battle barge had jumped out of the system.
I triggered the acceleration klaxons, with everyone quickly finding correct positions and rechecking everything so that nothing would be loose. As soon as we started accelerating, system authorities tried to contact us.
We had been monitoring their communications. Fortunately, they were fighting with each other over who would get the prize—that was us—as we had been abandoned by the battle barge. I was certain we would soon be flagged as a rogue AI ship.
There was no bad feeling from our side towards the system authorities as they tried to stop us from escaping. Nothing was close enough to actually pose any threat, and a couple of missiles that managed to be launched that could intercept us were shot down easily enough.
Everyone was focused, doing their tasks, searching through databases, as we had a lot of information to gather and a lot to do. We had our captain to rescue, and we were going to be ready as soon as he needed us. While the situation was quite scary, I was also excited to do something so unusual. This felt like the beginning of a grand adventure.
End of Book 3