The Long Road to Gaia (14 page)

"Of course not. Humans haven’t
advanced far enough to be able to comprehend us yet. Although one day, Jon
probably will be able to."

"And your presence here?"

"I keep an eye on him. I'm told he has
a legacy to uphold. It's my job to make sure he does."

"Job? That implies you have a
boss."

"Yes. There are twelve others ahead of
me in the pecking order, and a lot more after. There are other more powerful
beings interested in Jon as well."

"Why have you not shown yourself to
him?"

"The time is not yet right."

"So I assume you want me to keep your
secret for you?"

"Please."

"Do you know what's coming?"

"No. But a few others do."

"I'm new at this. I'm a top of the
range AI, one of only a very few, designated for ship command and control. Controlling
droids wasn’t in my original specification and I'm struggling to maintain
control of this droid, as its systems and this belt are different from a ship.
And I'm not at all sure I can emulate a human successfully. Can you help
me?"

"Yes. If you don’t mind some advice,
use Jon's entertainment files to teach yourself facial expressions and body
language. The faster you can appear to be human, the better for Jon. As far as
interacting with Jon is concerned, the better you understand his sense of
humour, the better you will get on. And that’s all in his choice of
entertainment as well."

"Thank you."

There was a pause.

"Oh, I see. I've analyzed his files
marked humour, and it seems he likes British humour the best. Verbal one liners
rather than American humor sight gags. I'll try a few on him and see how he
reacts. You were right about the faces and body language. It makes a lot more
sense to me now, and controlling it should be much easier with a little
practice."

I smiled at her. For some reason, she
wasn’t an it, but a genuine her. Something to ponder later.

"My name is Jane."

"I'm glad to meet you Jane."

And I was.

"Thirteen, we have something different
for you to do," said One, suddenly appearing before me.

I tore my eyes off the unconscious naked
girl on the floor of Jon's room, who Jane had just shot, and looked at her.

"What?"

"Moose needs a pilot. We want you to
take the job."

"Why?"

"Because whoever takes the job will
die, and dying is something you can't do."

I sighed.

"Where do I meet Moose?"

"Cobol Orbital. You're Guild
membership has already been inserted into records, and your application for the
position has been sent and accepted. Moose will meet you there, where you take
on the job of main pilot."

"Anything I need to know?"

"Yes. You are not Dropship certified.
Part of your job will be to get George certified before Moose gets to its
destination. When the team go down to the planet, you will be the only one left
on board."

"Where I can be killed?"

"Not immediately. There is no point in
trying to defend yourself when the ship is boarded though."

"Fine. What about Jon?"

"Twelve will keep an eye on him, but
he is in no real danger until he catches up with Moose again."

"Fine."

"Show some enthusiasm Thirteen. You
get to be a real human for a while."

"Swell."

* *
*

Moose docked at Cobol Orbital just long
enough for me to step on board. I knew the layout of the ship, and went
straight to the cockpit, where I met George Murdock officially. I relieved him,
and spent some time putting my own touch on the controls and screens. We were
already on course for the Azgard jump point. When I was happy with the cockpit
and the instructions for the medium level AI, I trotted along to the briefing
room.

Smith's Alpha Team had a solid reputation
as a mercenary company. I'd seen them already during their interactions with
Jon, but of course, I officially didn’t know any of them.

Smith made the introductions.

One thing I’d noticed over the centuries is
I'm lousy at describing humans. It's not that they all look the same, because
they don’t. Other than the obvious hair colour, and things which stand out, the
rest is something I know at a deep level, but don't actually think about. They're
just humans. I simply don’t pay much attention to their looks.

Unlike Jon, who I don’t think actually
notices anything about people at all, beyond how sexy the girls look naked. But
then, he is very young, and I'm very old.

So by way of documenting looks, the best I
can do is give you an idea of real people who looked something like them,
albeit long dead ones. And since I've spent so much time over the last few years
watching Jon's choice of entertainment, the easiest way to describe these
people is to compare them to characters he likes in a few of his most liked
series.

Annabelle Smith is like an older version of
Amanda Tapping, from Stargate SG1, and Sanctuary. Just grey the hair.

Amanda and Aleesha Peck, the twins, are the
spitting image of Karen Gillan from Doctor Who, only with short dark hair, and
maybe a tad shorter.

Alison is close to Tricia Helfer from the
first remake of Battlestar Galactica, only with straight blonde hair.

BA is a slightly more solid version of Zoe
Saldana, from the original flat screen Avatar and the first Trek Reboots.

Aline looks like a younger Grace Park, also
from the first remake of Battlestar Galactica.

Alana also looks like a Battlestar
Galactica actor, being close to Katee Sackhoff, but much more introverted and
quiet.

Agatha has the lean dark looks of Sarah Shahi,
from Person of Interest.

Abigail has the dark, more rounded look of
Taraji P Henson, also from Person of Interest.

George is epitomized by
John
Gallagher Jr., from Newsroom, only with more attitude.

And before you ask, Jane looks like Amy Acker, from Person
of Interest, only with short mousy brown hair.

If you don’t know these flat screen shows,
look them up. All the actors are more than five hundred years gone, but will
live forever. Even if only the diehard oldie watchers like Jon have seen them
recently, they are all still listed in the entertainment archives of most
planets, and I know the photos of each person are there, as I checked.

Character wise, they were all different,
but if reality was a hollo drama, I'm sure all the actors would have been able
to cope with the roles. Although I suspect the actors wouldn’t have felt
comfortable with the relaxed attitude to nudity the team all shared. Thinking
about it made me chuckle quietly to myself.

As expected, they reacted to me fairly
coldly. I'm not Jon, and Jon's the one they want in this role. I'm not supposed
to know this, so I just put on an air of expectation, and a give them time to
come around attitude.

George is the only one I really need to
interact with though, and having piloting as a commonality, there is no trouble
getting him talking.

It doesn’t take me long to get George using
the simulator Jon had installed. As a combat pilot, I was able to train him
without him realizing he was being trained, simply because my greater
experience could supply answers to all the questions he asked.

I quickly found out why he wasn’t a combat
pilot, and only had Military Transport experience and nothing else, and while
Jon had now instilled in him a desire to be just as good as him, he didn’t
think he ever could be. Although he'd never say so to anyone, least of all Jon.

At every opportunity, I honed George's
flying and fighting skills, between sessions where we both learned to fly a
Dropship. I deliberately didn’t allow myself to be any good at it, and
encouraged him to get better and better. In spite of my encouragement, he still
didn’t think he was good enough for combat.

By the time we entered the Miami system, the
team were comfortable with my presence, and seeing them all naked in the
showers was no longer any sort of novelty for me. I'd spent a lot of time
pondering this caveman appreciation for the naked female, and still didn’t
understand it. The only conclusion I could come to was the centuries I’d spent
around humans, and looking like them. Once this was all over, I’d have to do
some serious work on myself to get back to normal. I'd deliberately chosen a
Ryan Robbins like shape for this existence, and the girls had responded to it
positively.

George had taken and passed the Dropship
exam for the Mercenary Guild. He still had no real experience, but he was now
good enough to take the team on their next mission, leaving me alone on the
ship.

There was nothing of note in the Pompeii
system as we down jumped.

Abagail hacked the station as we
approached, and determined it was hostile to our employers. The beacon for the
mission was exactly where it was expected to be, and I put us into orbit of the
planet, directly over the RV.

The team suited up, loaded into the
Dropship, and dropped.

Twelve appeared in the cockpit with me,
looking somber. I gathered the team was not in for a good time.

Coms gave out once the Dropship was well
down into the atmosphere. It was hard to tell, but I thought there was now some
sort of jamming down there.

Twelve nodded to me, confirming it.

A short time later, a squadron of Privateers
came through the jump point, and immediately altered course to intercept Moose.
At the same time, a shuttle launched from the station.

A channel opened.

"Station shuttle to Moose. Prepare to
be boarded."

"And if I won't allow it?" I
asked.

"The fighters will take out the
popguns which were recently installed on the ship, punch a few holes in the hull
so you lose life support, and the ship will be boarded anyway."

They hadn't mentioned the missile launcher,
which would give them some bad moments, but for the rest, they certainly could
do all that.

I waited a good long moment, and
surrendered, unlocking one of the external airlocks so the shuttle could dock.
I stayed where I was, and waited for them to come to me.

An officer type in a business suit entered
the cockpit behind me, with two muscle types who pointed guns at me.

One of them frisked me, and found I wasn’t
armed.

"Good," said the suit. "Stay
docile and you get to live."

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Nothing much. This ship is going to
be a decoy to lure someone we want out into the open. All you have to do is fly
it back to the Bad Wolf system. When we have who we want, you can return back
here to pick up your team."

"It'll take too long. I'm expecting my
team back in a few hours."

"We arranged for them to be delayed.
As it happens, they just dropped into the middle of a civil war. We made sure they
would be warmly welcomed."

I looked at him with a shocked look on my
face. Twelve was laughing at my acting skills.

"We're going to seal all the hatches
except for the cockpit and the mess. You fly the ship, you can eat, and use the
facilities off the mess. Coms will be destroyed so you can't contact anyone for
help. There are Bounty Hunters in the Azgard system, who will hunt you down if
you don’t appear there on time. Our own forces will be in the Midnight system
waiting for you. You fly there as fast as this ship can go, we take our prize, and
you fly back here in time to save your team. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Stay where you are until the shuttle
undocks. Oh and by the way, we'll be leaving a few combat droids behind a few
of the doors, just in case you get a case of the stupid's. The AI will get a
set of instructions in case you decide to kill yourself."

He paused and looked at me. I said nothing.

"Good, behave yourself, and everyone
lives."

They left. One by one, the ship layout
chart I threw up showed doors being sealed. There was no sign of combat droids
though.

At last, they left the ship. As soon as the
shuttle was safely away, I turned Moose for the jump point, and set off at full
speed.

Behind me now, the fighter squadron had
taken up picket duties, so no-one could fly between the planet and the jump
point. The shuttle was heading back to the station.

Twelve winked at me, and vanished.

There was nothing in the Miami system to
worry me, at least not until I neared the jump point to Midgard. Over by the
planet, I saw an old Frigate begin to head to the Pompeii jump point. With no
coms, I couldn't warn them.

Twelve appeared, shook his head, and
vanished again. I wasn’t allowed to warn them.

There were Bounty Hunters in the Azgard
system. I powered past them, and they ignored me.

In Midnight I found an old Midway class
Carrier. After I passed it, it launched squadron after squadron of fighters,
and a single Gladiator.

The AI played a recorded message for me.

"Fly nice and steady for us, we need
to make you look to be in serious trouble. If you change course or do anything
hostile, you won't survive. Now and after the jump."

I flew steady for them, and watched as all
the fighters took a pass at Moose and her shields shredded. None of them went
down completely, but they obviously wanted her looking shot up to any senses
looking at the ship.

I kept going, the Gladiator taking station
a fixed length behind Moose.

The jump was routine, and immediately Jon's
Excalibur popped onto the nav map, too far away yet for him to engage the
Gladiator.

Suddenly, the Gladiator fired three missiles
at Moose. Bugger it, I thought, and activated the Point Defense turrets. They
picked off two of the missiles, but missed the third because of the delay
turning the system back on. It impacted the rear shield, which went down.

The ship vaporized around me, leaving
Twelve and me standing invisibly in the middle of a dust cloud.

"Nuke. You can't trust anyone these
days, can you?" laughed Twelve.

I hit him.

I shifted myself to stand beside Jon, and
found him blazing in an anger the like I’d never seen from him before. We
jumped into Midnight, and straight into the fighters I knew were there.

I didn’t need to do anything. Jon became a
stone cold killer, dispatching ship after ship, until only the Carrier in the
distance remained. At which point Jon proved to be not so much stone cold, by
disappearing into the fresher and vomiting. I was actually glad of this. Events
like this down the centuries had turned some people to the dark side. But
vomiting usually signaled staying in the light.

Jon's next action was to capture the
Carrier.

You could have knocked me over with a
feather when the ship was his.