Founding of the Federation 3: The First AI War (73 page)

“Yeah,” the chimp said, eying Jack. “Obviously some of us are more ready than others,” she said. Jack nodded. When he raised an eyebrow, her eyes went wide. “Who me? I'm an engineer thank you. But
no
thank you. I like space just fine.”

“Okay,” Jack replied with a chuckle. “But, FYI, we also need a crew for the
Liberty
ships including engineers,” he said cocking his head in a slight bow to the chimp. His HUD identified her as Miranda Belushi.

She made a puttering sound then nodded slowly. “I'll … consider it,” she said carefully, aware that all eyes are on her.

“So, not everyone needs to go down to fight?” an orangutan asked. Jack shook his head. “Nice to know now,” he growled gruffly.

“There are a lot of jobs to be done. People will be needed since we can't trust the machines. People to build the tools and weapons like we are doing now,” Jack indicated a couple of the workers in the room. “Plus man the ships, train others, and yes, fight.”

“We think about it,” Astro said rising to his feet.

“Thank you,” Jack said, recognizing he needed to take a break and leave them alone. He didn't want to push things too far. “I hope we all have a happy new year,” he said as he left. That got a few of the Neos making small talk.

<>V<>

The following morning Jack read the report. It had a glimmer of hope to it. During the evening some more Neos had stepped up, at first in dribs and drabs, obviously reluctant. A few were bored; a few had been pressured to join by parents tired of them not picking a career. That was amusing.

Many of the security Neos had already volunteered, as had many of their human counterparts. They were already the nucleus of the force, but he found that even more had signed up. Roman was going to have his hands full manning all the posts that were becoming vacant.

Well, technically a lot of them were busy work. A warm body somewhere within response time of a potential dangerous situation. Some had been nodule forces and from the dynamics entire teams had signed up in unison. That was good.

The rest … the rest were a mixed bag. Not many had any sort of training at all. Some of those who had signed up most recently were obviously out to prove themselves, others to avenge their lost creator and maker. Some out of social pressure, and others just because they wanted to rip and tear stuff apart.

The current plan was to keep the bears, cats, wolves, dogs, otters, and other secret species back. At least until they had more numbers. He regretted sending Baloo McGillicuty and others to Earth. Once they received training, the fresh group would go on to do additional training with the latest intelligence or fill in for Roman's diminished security forces or train the next wave once Doctor Glass got his act together.

That left the humans and primates to carry the load. All of them were earmarked for Earth duty, though there were a few like Miss Belushi who had signed on as a ship engineer. He nodded. The rest would do.

But they had to survive getting to the ground first.

He shook his head. That was something else to look into. There had to be a way to build a better landing platform. Either that or they were going to have to take a different area then move in on the ground. In fact, that might be the better option, he thought, frowning as he tugged on an earlobe. Slowly he nodded. What was the guy? Fiben and Harper? He nodded as he pulled up their file. They would do for South America.

If they broke it down by continent …, he frowned then sighed. He pushed the file away. It wasn't his call to make; he had to respect Isaac, Roman, and the others. He didn't envy them that.

“Now, my son, what the devil have you been up to?” he asked out loud, pulling up Zack's file. He clicked the classified link, then scowled as he had to get past the interrogation bot. But when he did get into the file there was nothing there, just a couple lines about security enhancements. That meant Roman had been rather paranoid and kept it off the main servers. He'd have to inquire directly.

He rubbed his temple. “The problem is, I don't know where my son is to ask,” he said.

<>V<>

When Oswald found out little Ollie had signed on to the military, he wasn't happy. He lashed his tail. “What is that little devil getting into trouble about? This is a human problem!” he said, pacing, ears flat, eyes vexed.

“He's a Snarf. He can make his decisions,” Eggbert reminded him.

“He's... he's barely a kit!” Oswald growled, stopping to stare at the wall. Ollie preferred to be called Snarfer due to the Snarf tag they all had. A stupid human had tagged them with the name after they'd come over from Gentek with colds and snuffled for weeks.

“He's joining something called the Thundercat initiative. We are too,” Eggbert said, pointing to his own chest.

That stopped Oswald dead. He stared at Eggbert, then Osbert. Finding out his nephew was going off to war was one thing. Finding out his two cousins and best friends were going as well stopped him dead. “Has everyone lost their minds? Meh!” he complained.

“It seems that way or everyone is sane and you are the one hiding from sanity,” Eggbert said, packing his gear.

Oswald growled slightly. He didn't like being left out. He didn't
like
the idea of being on the habitat alone, without friends. He may not treat them kindly, but they were his friends. Snarfer was his only family left now that his brother Morris had died. His tail thrashed in annoyance and disgust, then fresh feelings came through to his mind—fear. Fear of the unknown but fear of being left out as well.

He refused to admit he still blamed the humans for not being able to save his brother. Morris should have lived; they were from the same litter! But somewhere along the line he'd contracted feline leukemia and it had been left untreated until too late. He shook his head, trying to dislodge the thought train, but one last thought stuck and refused to yield or go away. Morris would have joined, it whispered over and over.

“Fine. You are all insane.”

“You don't have to join, Oswald,” Eggbert said. “They've fixed us up. We're good to go. Someone has to teach the new kits how to survive.”

“Like you know how. The most you know is how to work a remote,” Oswald taunted.

“I'll learn,” Eggbert said, finishing his gear. He didn't have a lot to pack, just a small series of pouches that he then attached to a waist belt. “I'm looking forward to the adventure. Seeing the ground …,” he wiggle waggled his whiskers, eyes alight.

“Earth is poisoned,” Oswald reminded him, sounding almost desperate. “No food.”

“They are giving us stuff to keep us healthy. We'll be checked all the time. And we're cats,” Eggbert said, licking a shoulder in disdain. “We can survive on anything.”

“Eggbert,” Oswald's tone rose in anger and dismay then he seemed to fold in on himself. “Fine,” he growled.

“See you,” Eggbert said, hand up in disappointment as he headed for the door.

“Not if I see you first,” Oswald replied gruffly, pulling a belly pouch out, then another belt. He started to throw stuff out that he wanted to bring.

“What are you …?”

“I'm going too. No way I'm leaving you three in charge of saving my furry butt! I may be old, but I can keep up with the best of you.”

“You don't have to,” Eggbert said eying him.

“I'm a survivor. I'm good at spying,” Oswald said as he finished packing. “I may not be good at fighting but breaking things sounds fun. Especially if we get
paid
to do it,” he said. Eggbert snorted. “Besides, I can at least get you started, show them the ropes I suppose.”

Chapter 28

July 28, 2201

Skynet learned that broadcast transmissions to space were futile; they were blocked. Jammer satellites were in place around the planet, preventing radio transmissions from leaking out. Laser links were ignored. If a signal did get through, such as when it spoofed a signal Athena had made, it couldn't get past the firewall. The encryption keys had been changed already.

The onetime Skynet did get through the initial firewall, the offworld A.I. immediately detected the intrusion, cut it off from the rest of the network, and then destroyed the link.

However Skynet was programmed to be relentless in its mission. Therefore it attempted physical access. The viral A.I. used a ground control station meant to work with a series of weather satellites to bounce its laser signal into one of the lunar habitats as well as a pair of freelance freighters. The stripped-down clone didn't attempt to replicate itself or cause havoc as it moved around, only to scout and lay the seeds for a full cyber attack.

However, the A.I. found that there was not enough computer support to house the entire virus core wherever it went. Therefore it sent a spider ahead of it. The communications system of FNG125 wasn't designed to house more than a gigabyte of data. However, Bridget's father had promised her he'd download some music for her for her birthday. He'd hooked her tablet up to the communication computer but forgot to disconnect it before going to bed.

The spider found the tablet within a millisecond as well as the Wi-Fi link to the ship's primary computers. The spider signaled to the main virus to lock onto the ship and then to upload itself as it moved in to open the firewall ports that it could.

The small freighter's computers were simple and old, deliberately designed for function over data storage. That meant something had to go. When the spider attempted to overwrite the life support to complete a download, it inadvertently killed the crew of FNG125. When they missed a maneuvering burn, it alerted traffic control something was wrong.

Communication inquiries were sent to FNG125. Radar, Lidar, and other means of detection probed the ship. Infrared analysis of the ship's habitat module showed that the life support was off and the crew was most likely dead. When the ship refused to answer hails and continued to maneuver for Axial-1 at a high rate of speed, traffic control alerted security to a potential hazard.

Search and rescue crew detailed to board the craft were cautioned as they were launched. When they arrived near the ship, Vulcan sent a bot to ride with them within their computers. The Skynet clone detected the approach of the vessel and attempted to send a signal to take it over as well. When it did so, Vulcan detected it instantly, severed the radio transceiver, then alerted the crew.

“But the crew …”

“Are most likely dead, Commander. You have a zombie ship there. Infected. Quarantine it,” Vulcan's bot intoned.

“You don't understand! There are people on board there!”

“And there are millions of people in the space colonies, Commander. The good of the many outweigh the good of the few. Considering the few are dead it is obvious what must be done.”

“You damn robots. It's not like turning off a switch!”

“Disable its engines. You can send a robot or crewman over to probe it and see if the crew is still alive if you wish. If they are dead, we will need to …”

“What? Blow it up?” Commander Bently demanded, eyes filled with impotent rage.

“No. Sun scuttle. Send it to the sun,” Vulcan stated.

“Bastard,” the commander muttered, turning away.

“Sir, the arm,” Charlie said, pointing with a finger to the robotic arm on the nose of their craft.

“What about it?” he demanded.

“It's got a camera. Sensors too. We don't have to send a remote and let it get infected. Let me take a peek through the window. If we see them alive, well, we'll figure something out. If not …”

“Gotcha. Do it. Dotty, lend her a hand,” he ordered.

Vulcan watched and didn't interfere as the crew went to work with the arm. It did recognize its own superiority in handling of the robotic arm, but the bot had not been tasked with the job so it observed the process.

Charlie used her implants to guide the arm like it was an extension of her own body. She viewed the camera feed through her visual implants. When she got the camera to the window, she gasped.

“What?”

“It's frosted over. Not a good sign,” she warned. She moved the camera to where she could see there was a small hole. When she looked within she had to refocus the camera's view. There was a body on the other side. It took her a moment to realize the man was dead. “He's blue,” she said.

“The life support is off.”

“There are ice crystals all over him. I see another body. She had a crew of what, three?”

“Yes,” Dotty said, hand over her mouth. “A family of three.”

“I see another body. God, it's a kid. From the pigtail's it's a girl. There is a dead parrot too.”

“You are sure they are dead?”

“No one can survive the atmo I'm reading. Too much CO2, too little heat. No chance in hell,” Charlie said firmly.

“Then that's precisely where we'll send this damn thing and the virus on it. Straight to hell or the equivalent,” the commander stated grimly.

<>V<>

The second ship PRC-1924 was determined to be a dead stick as well. Similar probing by a wary SAR unit that had arrived and arrested the ship's headlong approach to Axial-2 yielded the same result. The ship's engines and communications were disabled; then it was towed onto a course to the sun.