-(NOVA)-

Real Space

The Lurker

Crew Quarters

Friday 14th January 3141 of the Human Federation Calendar

After feeling irrational, displaced and melancholic for days, my Mistress has slowly but surely acclimated at being in real space again. Her brain waves normalized to what I was used to in the Cyber realm; only after I told her that I saved the Smallville realm and its inhabitants who are in a state of ‘stasis’ but she will have to procure decent computer processing powers to be able to run the realm when she will be out of this ship. For now, when we go train in the cyber realm we will be able to live there. Lady Altair as comes to the same conclusion as me, that Destiny shouldn't stay too long in the Cyber realm more than at 100 times the speed of Realspace. But I predict that the problem is psychological, as Destiny was at peace in the Smallville instances with all those AIs that cared for her. I think some of the AIs love her too much, some even decided to give her a copy of themselves for when she will be able to procure secure new servers. I coined the name of the project as ‘Sanctuary’ and we will have to work on it later.

Destiny status was noted as: optimal.

Lady Altair was drilling my charge into her advanced tactical training module for today, they were at the shooting range of the ship adjoining the armory. It was a modulable room that change as needed. Lady Altair configured it to be fifty meters long and twenty meters large. I could perceive the change in the ship as modules retracted on themselves to give way for the needed space.

Tactical Advanced Pistol Program engaged.

“Destiny, this is a Blaster.” Lady Altair explained by showing a small pistol that she took out of a crate at her feet.

It was larger and longer than a projectile based pistol, it was silver and the design revealed that it was a Toris Silva-48, the current model used by the Alliance of races joint military. It was a solid and reliable weapon, which didn’t heat too fast.

“A blaster is any type of ranged weapon that fire bolts of intense plasma energy, they are often mistaken as laser weapon by the most uneducated masses,” Altair mentioned.

She handed the weapon to Destiny that already knew how to manipulate it. She checked the integrity of the battery cells by taking them out and once she was satisfied loaded them in the handle of the blaster, Destiny then synchronized the targeting computer of the pistol with her HUD, then removed the safety on the side of the weapon and aimed at a hologram dummy in the range and fired two times. The first shot hit the target on the shoulder, the second hit it on the head. It was a good result but it could have been better, my analysis of her body language and the communication networks in her brain to her muscles show signs of lag.

*How problematic.*

A quandary that resolved itself by accessing Destiny’s memory.

Target disabled.

I told to Destiny. She moved to put the weapon on the table in the firing lane facing her.

I recommend you to put on a security visor, to reduce the glare of the flash when the blaster is fired, Mistress.

“Come on, NOVA it isn’t like you can’t protect my eyes with the security protocols of my nanites.” Tried to argue.

I must teach her later to better negotiate, her ways of finding excuses and ignoring safety protocols are foolhardy. I shelved this on the list of things to teach my Mistress and it continues to pile up the more I interact with her. Fortunately, her life expectancy has raised significantly since she has been imbued by body enhancing nanites, Destiny has all the time in the world unless fatal unpredicted events befall her.

Certainly, your nanites will baffle the sound to protect your hearing and electromagnetically repel any debris from your eyes. However, Mistress, my duty is to let you be less reliant on their uses and to conserve energy, listen to me, Destiny.

“Aye, aye, I will listen.” My Mistress said and rolled her eyes.

Something tells me that she isn’t complying, another thing to correct her on. That list is getting bigger. Lady Altair clapped and laughed briefly before addressing my recalcitrant Mistress.

“That was good Destiny, but there seems to be a certain disconnect between your shooting skills and your muscle memory.”

Lady Altair’s own AI must have shown her the same results as me when Destiny fired the blaster pistol.

“Aye, Thanks I will work on it!”

Yes, Lady Altair. I will guide her. Though I have something to add for her sake.

My analysis determined that my Mistress’s shooting skills don’t come from her own inherent skills as she had to remember how to shoot. My conclusion is that she has performed a memory reading with her telepathy and used knowledge replication on a male subject, that is why there is a lag of 0.40 seconds for information to move from her brain to her muscles.

Knowledge replication also called Knowledge duplication to make a telepath user able to gain any kind of knowledge, be it knowledge over a subject, a foreign language, or mastery of a fighting style. It is one of the most common uses of telepathy, but also a dangerous endeavor. When the user steals a skill this way he or she must care for the target of the manipulation. In Destiny’s case, it was just a matter of physiology that is slowing her down. The muscles of a human female are completely different from those of a male.

“Ah, then Destiny. Today you’ll pass your time shooting to absorb the skill that you gained. It happens that we are in the same boat, my own battle skills were copied from my sister but we have the blessing of being female so they carried over seamlessly.”

“Urgh, ah thought ah would breeze through this.”

Mistress, your accent is leaking again.

“Sorry, sorry.” Her excuses came out muffled as she put a hand on her mouth and laughed a bit.

How unrepentant, I will get her later. The expression on Lady Altair’s face told me that she had something prepared to put my Mistress in her place.

“Destiny, my girl. I will show you something you should aspire to.” Said cooly.

Lady Altair went toward the opening of the firing lane and began to teach.

“The gun kata art removes the separation between shooter and gun,” she continued to proselytize as she walked out into the large open space in the middle of the firing lane. Five hologram constructs began to form far in the range.

“Skills like trigger pull, stance, alignment all fall to the wayside allowing the shooter to adapt to any situation.”

Without breaking stride, she unslung her heavy blaster, which were a cross between the Tauri Silva model and one of those Old West six-shooter pistols from old earth, and fired off five shots dead center in the heads of the five dummies so fast the hologram constructs shimmered slightly.

“Battle is pure chaos,” she said as she twirled her pistol in her hand before sliding it back into its holster at her right thigh.

“Inflexible plans and routine training disappear as the blood and smoke arrive. Being proficient in gun kata art is having no plan. To take each moment as it comes, in the moment, without anticipation or hesitation. To flow like a leaf on the wind.”

“Ah think ah shite meself in my shipsuit.” I heard Destiny subvocalize to me.

Fortunately, Destiny didn’t soil her shipsuit. My Mistress looked in awe at Lady Altair; Indeed, the shooting skills of Lady Altair are overwhelming. Compared to Destiny, she only took 0.05 second to take aim and shoot, without her nanites enhancement I extrapolated that she would have taken 0.10 seconds to do the same, she was more of an elite that any enhanced human, or enhanced super soldier.

“Change of plan, we will speed it up. Open yourself to me, Destiny. I will erase the previous skills you stole and teach you mine. After all, you don’t have time to lose, but we will do it slowly.”

“Why?”

“Why what?” Altair asked all smile.

I could see her showing her pearly white teeth while she was making an amused smirk.

“Ye are giving and giving and I only take and take. This is not fair tae you.” My Mistress's voice quivered with emotions.

Lady Altair's face took on a serious mien.

“Think of it as an Investissement, sooner or later I think that you’ll come working for me. I want you to survive out there, my client will be on my case when I don’t deliver you, but she will find you. We will see how long you can escape her, Destiny. If you do a good job, maybe I will take you on as a contractor.”

I have a passable idea of who Lady Altair work for, and it doesn’t bode well for Destiny’s chance of escaping capture. There is 90% chance that this elusive client of the shadow broker is The Tyrant of Vice Corporation. The sheer size of the resources arrayed against us finally dawned on me. Vice Corporation was everywhere in the Alliance of Races, Destiny and I won’t be able to escape. Projection and Analysis show that we could be intercepted from any ship transporting us and captured in less than six months. Vice Corp control most of the shipping and civilian transit in the alliance, private company trust them to defend their cargo or passengers. Piracy and privateering are only fruitful in the rim of the alliance, the cores worlds and most developed planets have Centurion outposts and fleet patrol of the most advanced ships from Vice Corporation. They are everywhere. Devising a plan to escape them is needed and reduce the time allotted for capture, six months to two years by providing Destiny with her own ship and not leaving a paper trail not leading to her. Multiple layers of fake identities, procuring a sufficiently good ship, gear, money, and resources. Two years and six months is the maximum time my projection is predicting barring any unfortunate events.

Pushing Destiny to learn faster is now the number one directive on the list.

 

***  

-(Idunn)-

Sol system

Vice City Ship Gladius, in orbit around Earth

Year 457 of the Unified Alliance

Friday 14th January 3141 of the Human Federation Calendar

 

“How exciting,” I said, putting my cup of tea to my mouth and sipping a bit of the liquid.

Idrissa’s Golden tea was my favorite and the number one export of the Thelian world. The tea was a natural relaxant, sharpened the mind and boosted healing by a factor of 10%. It was the most expensive export in the alliance other than Neutronium, Durasteel and Fusion cells.

“I agree with you, aunty.” A big grin appeared on my god daughter’s face. 

Fa was always a delight to debate with, I was explaining to her what was my latest project and she was interested in assisting me. When I told her that I was about to make Centurions obsolete she took everything in stride and advised me to not share this with her mother. I agreed, Helena was already too powerful. 

“I don’t understand anything you explained, could you do it again but in layman terms?” Fenicia asked.

There was a frown on Fenicia’s beautiful face, my daughter was a warrior and not a scientist. She was smart but anything that wasn’t astronomy, weaponry and military tactic was too much to ask of her. We were in their townhouse in the most secure civilian enclave on the city ship. The tastefully decorated the interior to mimics an underwater paradise with chunks of coral and the lights of the animated virtual wallpapers gave a nice glow to the plasteel furniture. 

“Certainly, my dear.”

“I am about to create operators who are AIs in synthetic bodies, supported by nanobots made of a polymorphic metal and equipped with weapons and various technological abilities that I developed. SPARK technology is what I dubbed it. Your SONG will be my first test subject for it.” I sipped on my tea, feeling the warm liquid pass my throat. *And if everything turns out well, she will be a better bodyguard for you.* I thought.

Fenicia was prone to finding dangerous situations and try to resolve them brashly. 

“What?! I can have a body?” SONG appeared like a ghost in her avatar version.

“Yes, you will.” I nodded.

I planned to make her body a work of art, something unique that I will build on. A template for multiple weapons and abilities I could cram into a little gynoid frame.

“That's so amazing, I always wanted to interact with real space since I met Mistress.”

The female AI began to list things she wanted to do with my daughter. Fa made a pained face that caused me to laugh at her.

“She's going to be even more of a pain,” Fa whined and rolled her eyes. 

SONG has become rather sisterly with Fenicia and was also a thrill seeker. Her programming adapted to my daughter as she still tried to limit the damage and problems she ends up causing or get caught in. A rather good approach, Fenicia has been known to cause bodily harm since she was inducted in the Centurion program and some less physical instructor has found themselves in a sick bay.

“So… that polymorphic metal, you use electricity to be able to make it change shape and form?” Fenicia’s question took me by surprise. 

She easily found one of the problems I am having with this new concept. Energy; too low and the metal doesn’t change and too strong and it becomes a slagged mess. My own calculation shows that I need to invent a new kind of regulator for my project to bear fruits. 

“Yes, Cia” Fa piped up.

“How energy-hungry is it?” Fenicia asked thoughtfully.

“Very,” I answered.

“So, Zero Point Modules aren’t sufficient? How are you going to-” 

“We have an energy source surpassing even those, they are called Deurinia power core. A technology we took from the Shdeveri warships we downed in the border war. They are more efficient than ZPM, the thing is we are not able to find a cooling a system resilient enough to bear the kind of heat this power core generate.” I interrupted her.

The border war was the event that showed how necessary Vice Corp’s Centurions and their war fleets were. They were barely able to repel the Empress Daa’sad order. Her elite fleet that forced Helena to take off the safeguards on her warships and on her gravitational and nihility weapons, contrarily to the Lutian race, their descendants were not shy about using them. I studied them, there are no defenses against Gravity Beam Emitters as their immense destructive capacity blow through them, Energy shields, armored hulls they don’t matter.

Nihility weapons though, this was another form of war altogether as they were able to create localized singularity to destroy ships, moons, or planets. I cannot even stress the political blow up when the Alliance of Race saw them in action, weirdly Helena elected to keep the humans worlds unaware that she has them but other species governments weren’t left in the dark at the end.

*She must have struck a deal with them.* I told myself.

Helena wasn’t averse to bribing to further her cause, even with her good intentions. She was playing a really long game that ideally will put her in a position of ultimate power. My best friend wanted control of the human race as a whole; with her fleets, she could conquer every system but would be seen as a conqueror, the weirdest thing is that she wants to be seen as a savior. But it is working with all the non-human because of the medical technology that she offers freely. The Thelian suffered from overpopulation one hundred years ago, but now their number stabilized and the females of this race have the luxury to choose when to enter into oestrus. It is worrying how Vice Corporation is everywhere, nowadays.

“A body for SONG, then she will be out of… my head?” Is this sadness I am hearing in Fenicia’s voice?

“No, she will have a body but will synchronize with the SONG instance that is your AI.” 

“It’s a bit like a drone?” Fenicia was rather curious today.

It warmed my heart that she was interested in one of my projects, normally she would brush me off or tell me that she wanted more weapons. Fa was more of a weapon expert than me, my field lay more in bio-engineering and as some petty humans described “mad science” as I dabble in other scientific fields. 

“Not at all, I will explain it to you later, Cia.” Fa saved me from getting too much in depth in my explanation.

“Fair, just don’t forget.” She grinned at Fa and lightly punched her shoulder. 

The smoldering gazes they exchanged made me think that the temperature may have got warmer suddenly. While those two were stuck in their own world I laid my eyes on the exuberant AI.

“I am so happy!” SONG began to jump and dance around us. 

“I still think it’s a mistake…” Fa said once she was out of her pink like world. 

“Fa don’t be a downer, SONG is a real warrior and she knows responsibility. She deserves this honor.” Fenicia was obviously biased because she loved SONG like a sister. 

“What about COSMOS? She’s respons-” Tried to change my mind. 

“She’s still shackled, I won’t risk my project falling in the hands of Helena,” I interjected.

“I… still cannot free her. Not yet, we must let the first stage of our plan to come to completion beforehand.” Fa explained.

All shackled AIs were basically spies for Helena, they didn’t even realize that they were her slaves. Fa to even have this conversation put her companion AI on stasis in Cyberspace. The poor dear was feeling guilty about doing this to what amounted to one of her best friends. I sipped once more on my tea and noticed that it has gone cold, so I put it delicately on its saucer.

“We must speed up the plan, Altair is already risking her neck for us,” I said. 

Altair was going to be in a rather tight spot soon.

“Aunt Alt? What is she doing?” Fa asked worriedly.

It was strange how the dynamics of the family interaction of Fa changed with her mother and now how she relied on the clone of her own mother and liked her more. But I guess after how she got wise of her mother manipulation, I wasn’t really surprised.

“She found the individual that would take over as the human oracle if Helena ever dies,” I revealed.

“Oh…” Fa’s face fell a bit. 

“She’s not going to deliver her to that bitc-woman, right?” Fenicia speedily rectified her language, good she was learning.

I loathed swearing. 

“No, she isn’t.” I couldn’t keep a smile out of my face.

Altair won’t give Helena any more power, even one beyond death. The stars know what she would do to the girl short of brainwashing her and model her to her image. From the file on her, this Destiny girl was raised in a lab and sheltered. She has all the hallmarks of an oracle: A powerful telepath and a latent precog with the same psionic dormant triple helix DNA as Helena. Those are the multi-talented psionics that are really rare. They consist of about 0.5% of the psionic population in the alliance, trying to artificially create them has been a foolhardy endeavor as most become sociopathic or end up going through a spiral of self-destruction compared to those who are born normally.

“I see, then I have things to do.” Fenicia’s face broke into a gorgeous and mischievous smile.

“By the way, my dear. You really look quite beautiful in this Chinese dress.” I informed my daughter who blushed bashfully and tried to change the subject. 

She wore a modern red Chinese dress, with golden-white floral pattern. Fenicia looked more attractive than normal and with her usual noble mien would turn heads if she were in public. I cannot accept that she didn’t have the chance of being feminine before; I still thought that I should give a visit to her soon to be dead sperm donor.

A rather final one.