Temple of S.A.R.A.H. 5: Debug Mode Read online

  Temple of S.A.R.A.H.

  Debug Mode – Episode V

  By Ben Winston

  Copyright © 2015 Ben Winston

  Published by Blue Space Publications, LLC.

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  Debug Mode – Episode V

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  Books Published by Blue Space Publications, LLC.

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  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Debug Mode – Episode V

  New Council Chambers

  Planet Galtar IV

  Galtar System, Veranorian Directorate

  “What is the status of ship refits?” a cowled figure asked.

  “On schedule Proconsul,” another cowled figure replied. “Improved efficiency our programming has done. Far more agreeable the Shallans now are.”

  “Troubled by freedom of thought they are no longer,” the Proconsul said, nodding slowly. “To focus more completely on duties they now can. What of the new Queen facility?”

  “A good beginning is underway Proconsul,” another cowled figure replied. “New safeguards and new designs take much more time than original facility had. Adding the ability to ensure total destruction we have, as well as placement on airless moon. Surface to be installed with psionic disruption devices to inhibit Aracnise telepathic communion.”

  “To what end?” another cowled figure asked. “Psionic communion designed to give queens undetectable long range communications.”

  “Agreed,” the original being replied. “In the event of emergency only would disruptor network be used. To isolate main hive and prohibit main queen from calling ships to aide her if she gains autonomy.”

  “A wise precaution,” the Proconsul spoke, ending the conversation. “To rebuild our fighting forces all must now focus our efforts. Attack and take control of Alliance Fleet Command we must. Only with entire fleet will Veranor once again be our home. In this place, the tools we have. To use them wisely we must decide. No dissension amongst us can we afford. United in this goal we must remain.”

  “Agreed in this we are Proconsul. Wondering about the rogue Queen I am. Will she not strike this system first in order to gain control of the Queens here? Because of the Communion, she must know of their existence,” another figure asked. “Quickly overwhelmed current defenses would be when arrives the full might of the main hive.”

  If anyone could have seen him, they would have seen the Proconsul smile under his hood. “All Aracnese ships built here at GMASS. Index codes for these ships have been retained. Control of ships we will have once main hive sends them here. Shut them down, order self-destruct, or vent to space we can. Fleets of Rogue Queen are not to these facilities.”

  “Withheld this information from us you have Proconsul, to what ends?” another asked.

  The Proconsul gestured negligently. “An over-sight, nothing more. So much has been happening the information was simply overlooked.”

  “With respect Proconsul, that which has been overlooked on my own part has now been brought to the fore. I must report that there is a possibility that the rogue Queen has succeeded in seeding at least three colonies on the planet called Earth in the Sol Sector,” one of the figures reported. “Orders to seed Earth where issued prior to the Queen rebelling. She retained control of that mission and it is believed to have been successful. Two planets the rogue now has. Effectively unlimited breeding potential she now has. Cybernetically enhanced and highly intelligent the rogue must be considered. Capable of constructing elements of advanced technology including space ships capable of interstellar travel. Uncertain we are about the destruction of databases, detailed instructions of our technology they had. Assume we must that all information is now available to the rogue Queen.”

  “Was not her access to data limited? Only genetic data relevant to her race was stored in the facility. Her broods destroyed all else once freed,” another member of the council replied.

  “Genetic data was stored in the facility. Foolish it would be to assume destruction of all our data cores. Many remote copies existed to ensure redundancy in the event of a catastrophic computer event. Assume she found those we must. Most cities of the main continent have been destroyed in orbital bombardment. To us our Alliance spies reported. Cores were located all over the planet with daily updates for accuracy. Destruction of these cores was not ordered during the evacuation.”

  “Under the most ideal of circumstances, it will take the Rogue years to build the facilities necessary of producing original ships and other war machines,” the Proconsul replied. “Yes we failed in ordering the destruction of the data. Correct this mistake at this point we cannot. Trouble us in the distant future it may. To the here and now we must pay heed!”

  The members of the former Synod Council all bowed to him in acceptance of his order.

  Office of the Base Commander

  Alliance Apollo Base

  Selene, Earth’s moon

  Sol System

  I had been invited to have lunch with Admiral Vance, but as I neared his office for the appointment, I couldn’t help but wonder what new event had transpired that would change our world this time. It really was too bad I couldn’t simply have lunch with my friend without something dire and Earth-shattering interrupting it.

  When I entered his office and he saw my face, he must have figured out what I was thinking. He chuckled. “Relax Eric! This really is only a friendship lunch.”

  I chuckled myself and nodded. “I guess the events of the last few weeks are starting to get to me, Admiral. It just seems like every time we turn around there is something about to bite us in the ass.”

  “That’s true, it has been rather lively around here. Truth be told, that isn’t going to change either. Now that we know Earth has been seeded, we’re going to be doing everything we can to clear out the Arac hives before they can get established. My only problem with the whole mess is that we have to wait for the governments involved down there to allow it!” Vance said. “It’s ludicrous really. It’s like they think we are trying to overthrow them or something.”

  “That’s probably exactly what they think Sir. Either that or you are trying to stage a large-scale invasion,” I replied. “If you think about it, the entertainment industry down there has made a lot of the population pretty skeptical about trusting ‘Aliens’. I’d bet my left arm that if you had only human Marines, there would be less of a problem.” I placed my order for food and waited for it to be delivered before taking a seat at the conference table.

  “Lucky for you, I’m not a gambling man. Although they were told that multiple races were members of our ground forces, the leaders I’ve spoken to seem to be less worried about that than they are the numbers we’re going to need. If it were only a couple of hundred, it wouldn’t bother them, but they seem to think a battalion would be sufficient to take control of their government!” Vance replied.

  “Ah, now I get it. You forget whom we’re talking about, Admiral. Earth has no advanced technology at all. All they have are projectile weapons that we can easily shield against. A battalion would be more than enough force to take over a government, hell you could probably take the whole planet with that force and not lo
se more than two or three soldiers doing it!”

  Vance looked thoughtful as he took a bite of his General Tso’s Chicken. He swallowed. “You know, I think you might be onto something there. Honestly, none of our core worlds are any better equipped than Earth is, but the people are far more used to dealing with the idea of what would be considered advanced technology on Earth,” he took a sip of green tea. “You know, I should have thought of that.”

  “I don’t see how you could have,” I said after swallowing a french fry. “You’ve never even been down to the planet as far as I know, and you’ve only had limited exposure to the recruits. The population in general probably fears us just as much if not more than the idea of being infested by giant spiders. They know we are there; they can only trust that we’re telling them the truth about the spiders.”

  “Well, they’ll have proof enough in a very short time. The Aracs need food in order to reach maturity. While they can subsist on plants and such, they need proteins in order to actually grow. That means animals and people,” Vance said. “They’re going to see entire villages simply disappear.”

  “I thought Aracs were more… uh, messy,” I said.

  Vance nodded as he enjoyed another bite of his food. “Usually, they are, but when there is a young queen to feed the ‘food’ is brought to her in the hive. Usually, while it is still alive and kicking.”

  I nodded as I took a bite of my bacon cheeseburger. When I was finished I said. “So, when we start to see the messy stuff, we know that the queen has matured and is breeding, right?”

  “Pretty much. That is when it’s the most dangerous; one queen can drop hundreds of eggs. Since she is a seeding queen, you can bet hard money on there being more queens among the first hatching. The hive grows exponentially from that point. Within a year the Arac population will shoot over a billion. By then, the planet will have already been lost.”

  “What do they eat once the kill off all the animals? I always wondered about that,” I said, curiously.

  Vance shrugged. “No one knows. It’s usually too dangerous to get close enough to the planet to study them. Of course, in the past, most of those types of missions were controlled by the Council which was in turn controlled by the Synod.”

  “You know, the recruiters found people to fill the seats of the Council. You should simply tell them you need to make the assault give them a time line and let them handle the other politicians,” I said.

  Vance snorted and grinned. “You think I should just tell them this is happening on this day. If they get permission or not won’t matter?”

  “It’s far easier to beg forgiveness than it is to ask for permission,” I said, quoting. “A pioneer in computer programming said that once. She was also a Rear Admiral in my former country’s navy named Grace Hopper.”

  Vance laughed. “Now that I can believe! It sounds like something a sailor would come up with!”

  “Not to change the subject, but has anyone bothered to try to discover what the Aracs are up to?” I asked.

  “Yeah, they’ve tried. The best we can get is a long-range scan of Veranor. It looks like the entire Arac fleet came home. They’ve tried to send probes into the system to get more information, but they are quickly intercepted. Whatever they’re up to, the Queen doesn’t want anyone else to know about it,” Vance replied. “The Intelligence folks still haven’t been able to settle on which system they’ll attack first. However, Fleet Command, GMASS and we are the top three. Honestly, I don’’t see them attacking here; after all, they succeeded in seeding Earth. Before now, that has always resulted in that planet falling to them. Why would they need to attack here?”

  I nodded my understanding. “I can see that. I can also understand attacking Fleet Command, but why would they hit GMASS? I’ll grant you that it the closest main facility to Veranor, but what other reason would they have for it?” I asked.

  “There are a several reasons. Strategically, it would be a smart target to hit since it would cripple ship production for the Alliance, provided the Shallans will still produce ships for us. Intel says that the Synod ran there and took over. If that’s true then we’re in much bigger trouble than most know. GMASS wasn’t just the largest shipyard; it was our only shipyard capable of building Capitol class ships. The Alliance doesn’t even have a repair dock big enough for our largest ships.

  “Other reasons for the Aracs to hit GMASS are because it is the closest military target, also it is where all the Arac ships were built so the Queen might see it as a priority target in order to ensure her own repair and production capabilities. Finally, they know that is where the Synod fled to. Past dealings with Aracs have shown that they have a very high anger level. If the Queen is angry at the Synod for their control of her, there is little doubt that she will hunt them down and kill every last Veranorian she can find. Vengeance isn’t just a word to them, it’s almost genetic,” Vance finished.

  I shrugged. “It might be genetic; we have no idea what the Veranorians programmed into them.”

  “Good point,” Vance replied as he ate his fried rice. “However, with the massing of her fleets, Intel thinks she will strike at Alliance Command. If she threw everything she had at it right now, it would be a close fight. Both sides would suffer horrendous losses. It would be hard to say which side would ultimately win.”

  “Yeah, but the Queen would have to know that as well wouldn’t she? Knowing that she would have no way to replace or repair her own ships would keep her from striking at Alliance Command, wouldn’t it?” I asked.

  “Possibly, however, we have no way to know if she is aware of how heavily defended Fleet Command is. Just because we haven’t detected any probes from her doesn’t mean there haven’t been any. There is still quite a bit about the Aracs we simply don’t know. For example, we always believed that the Aracs were superior geneticists because of that race of beings they use as fighter pilots. But now we know that the Aracs were really under the Veranorian’s control. So does that mean that the Veranorian’’s created them as well? We’ve never been able to capture one alive because there is no escape module in an Arac fighter, and they tend to explode very easily when hit. We do know that while the beings can handle extreme, high-gee maneuvers that would make our pilots pass out, the beings can’t tolerate prolonged exposure to gravity greater than half of what we have here at our base.”

  “It sounds like we simply need more information on the Aracs and how they think,” I said, drinking my root beer.

  “Well, let me know the next time you meet one that’s willing to talk and I’ll ask him!” Vance replied grinning. “Say, the First Admiral wanted me to pass along a request to you.”

  I was surprised. “To me? Whatever for?”

  “When you finish the new AI for Fleet Command, he would like you to consider retasking Susan to Fleet Intelligence. He said that she has performed remarkably well and has expressed an interest in joining that field,” Vance replied.

  “Honestly, I hadn’t thought that far ahead, but if that’s what she would like to do, then I would be happy to set her up for that when the time comes. I’ll even put a new core on the board for her,” I said, feeling pleased that one of my girls had asked for a specific assignment once her current one was finished.

  Vance nodded. “I’m sure Hearlis will be happy to hear it. I think he’s grown rather fond of Susan and was afraid we would simply shut her down once we were finished with her.”

  “That would be like murdering one of my children!” I said, aghast at the thought of it.

  Vance nodded. “I am sure the First Admiral has no idea how you feel about the AI, Eric. In fact, I’m sure many will see them as nothing more than cleverly designed computer interfaces. Which I have to admit is not only wholly inaccurate, but a massive disservice to them as well.”

  Artificial Intelligence Lab

  Alliance Apollo Base

  Selene, Earth’s moon

  Sol System

  After lunch, I returned to my Lab to
get back to work on the Fleet Command AI. I was having trouble with the personality matrix and it was driving me nuts. However, before I returned to the programming suite, I made sure to put a new Station Class crystal on the board to be grown for Susan and the Intelligence Division. I also made a note for myself about retasking Susan for the Intelligence Division.

  I took a moment to appreciate the system Ced had developed for classifying the crystal computer cores. The largest of which was called a System Class. These massive crystals would be the most difficult to grow, requiring that any magnetic fields be shielded as well as a null gravity environment. In addition to those precautions, it would take almost two months to reach ‘maturity’ and the growth process be halted. Even with all of that, there was a fifteen to twenty percent chance the crystal would develop a flaw and become useless.

  Next in line would be the Planet Class crystal. These crystals would also be quite large and require the same environment as the System Class in order to reach maturity. However, the crystal itself would be smaller and have less capacity than a System Class. As the name implied, it would be designed for use as a planetary AI.

  The next smallest was the Base Class crystal. While not requiring the extreme precautions of the System and Planet Classes, it could be grown in the lab on the base, however, doing so induced a high probability of the crystal being flawed. Sarah was using a Base Class crystal, albeit a small one.

  Next were the Station and Capitol Class crystals. Both of these classes were roughly the same size, but served different functions requiring a slightly different set-up. A Station Class would require far more interface capability than a Capitol Class. In a pinch, it was possible for these units to be interchanged.

  Everything smaller than this was either designed for the small ships, or classified by the ship class, or purpose built for whatever use was needed. These were far easier to customize since they could be safely grown in the lab and didn’t take nearly the same amount of time to grow as their larger brethren.