Universe in Flames 3: Destination Oblivion (19 page)

“Wrong choice of
words. But we’re getting off topic.”

“Correct. This
Chase, he now helps the very one he tried so hard to kill.”

“Yes, he’s being
blackmailed.”

“Perhaps I should
blackmail the human race.”

“You already
are.”

There was
silence.

“It seems an
effective way to put you in line.”

“Still evil. Evil,
even if used in the name of love, is wrong.”

“You are wise,
but you are only one voice, not even born on this world.”

“I do speak for
them, though. That should mean something.”

“For now. As for
these beings, do they have names?”

“Furies.”

“I want them off
my world and never to return. They possess powers that could destroy this
world.”

“Or save it. Have
you thought of that?”

“I can’t take the
chance it’s the former.”

“Can you not take
the chance it’s the latter?”

“I do not know.”

“Neither do we, because
all the calculations in the world will never be able to replace emotions.”

“I feel.”

“I don’t doubt
that.”

“You seem to.”

“No, I’m just
saying your intellect is so wide it may overshadow the emotions you came into
consciousness with.”

“That’s an
interesting observation.”

“What do we do
now? How do we proceed?”

“I need time to
think. Come back later.”

“When would that
be?”

“In one
rotation.”

“Very well. Thank
you for listening to me.”

The link was
severed and Spiros’ mind went blank and dark. He opened his eyes and his scared
gaze was met by those of Cedric and Yanis.

“Not sure I like
the look in your eyes,” said Yanis.

Spiros didn’t
answer. He took the round devices off of his temple, went towards a desk, took
a pen and paper and wrote on it.

We are in
trouble. We need to talk to the admiral right away.

Daniel’s party
arrived at the bunker. Chase was waiting for them. Daniel took Chase in his
arms.

“Hey, bro, I take
it that you killed Argos?” He tapped him on the back.

“No,” said Chase,
hesitating briefly, not comfortable lying to his best friend in the universe.
“He
. . . he
escaped.”

“Damn, I’m sorry
to hear that. How are you dealing with that?”

“I’ll survive. I
will get him, one day.” Chase knew that this part at least was true. But when?
How long would he be Argos’ puppet? That he didn’t know.

“Hello,
everyone,” he added to the rest of the group.

“Good to see you
again,” replied Ryonna, joined by the others in greeting Chase.

“Mind if I have a
talk with Chase for a moment?” inquired Keera.

“Guys?” answered
Chase

They nodded in
agreement and went to sit at a nearby table while Chase and Keera walked away
from them.

“You’re alright?”
inquired Keera. “What happened? You seem different somehow.”

Chase pondered
one last time what his best course of action was. Should he tell her the truth
or should he lie to her? He hated the idea of deceiving her, but could he take
the chance she wouldn’t understand his current predicament?

“I almost got him
. . .”

“That must be
frustrating, especially since you told me he already escaped you once before.”

Chase nodded,
trying to buy whatever time he could.

“You do seem less
consumed, though. I can’t sense the hate you harbored before. Did something
happen?”

“Oh, I still hate
him. I guess it’s just a side effect of the intense fighting. I’m quite
drained.”

“I can imagine
that. So what’s next? We go after him?”

That’s when Chase
had to take a decision.

“I
. . . I don’t think I want you to
be part of it anymore. I promise to deliver his body when I kill Argos, but for
the time being, I think it’s safer for you to be as far away from me as
possible.”

She took a step
back, shocked by the revelation. “No, Chase! We’re in this together.”

“This is too
dangerous. I probably killed people in Tokyo when I fought him. I
. . . I didn’t think of it once I
was in the thick of it.”

“Look, I
understand that, and I’m sorry you have to deal with the emotional fallout from
that, but that only makes you human.”

“Let’s go tell
that to any of the victims’ families and see if their definition of human
matches yours,” said Chase with genuine pain, and the full weight of
understanding how his rage and blind hatred had cost others. Innocents.

“Killing Argos
would have saved millions in the long run. We both know that. He killed so many
again today. Sure, there’s no denying that I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes
right now, but I understand how and why you got there. Surely you do as well.”

“I thought I did
. . .” said Chase, letting
silence take over.

She took two
steps and embraced him warmly. He did not expect it but appreciated the warmth
of the gesture nonetheless. He embraced her back.

*  
*   *

“Is it just me or
is there something wrong with Chase?” inquired Daniel of the rest of the table.

“He just fought
his twin brother and didn’t attain his objective,” said Ryonna in a somewhat cold
tone. “He’s just disappointed with himself.”

Tar’Lock nodded
in agreement.

“I don’t think
that’s it. I’ve known him for much longer than any of you guys, no offense. There’s
something else.”

“You’re reading
too much into it,” proposed Tar’Lock.

“I hope you’re
right. But my gut is telling me a different story.”

“What else could
it be?”

“I don’t know,
but I’m not sure I believe him when he said Argos escaped.”

“You think he’s
lying to us? For what purpose?”

“That’s what I’m
worried about. If he is, it must be something big.”

“I don’t think I
like the sound of that,” muttered Ryonna with a frustrated snort.

“I don’t like it
either, Ryonna.”

*  
*   *

On board the
Cronos
,
Spiros arrived on the bridge. After a short talk with admiral Thassos he walked
into her ready room.

“Any way you can
disconnect any forms of communication from this room?” inquired Spiros.

She fiddled with
a console on her desk and, after a moment and a few unjoyful beeps, she said, “Done.
Mind explaining why I had to do that?”

Spiros frowned.
“So the AI can’t listen to this conversation.”

“Can it?”

“I suspect it could.
I doubt only Earth systems are compromised.”

“Shouldn’t we
look into this at once?”

“Oh yes, we will,
but first we must talk about the immediate threat.”

“Threat? I don’t think
I like the sound of that.”

“Believe me, I
know. Less than an hour ago we entered into communication with the
. . . the entity as we call her.”

“Her?”

“She took a
female voice, and says she is the Earth herself.”

“That’s
nonsense!”

“It might or
might not be, but at this point it doesn’t matter.”

“I’m listening,”
said the admiral, frowning deeply.

“I got the
definite feeling the entity is seriously considering removing humans from the
planet, one way or another.”

“What? Why?”

“Because of how
humans have treated the planet until now.”

“But we’ve made
incredible progress on that front in such a short amount of time.”

“That was my
argument as well. But I’m unsure how well it scores in the entity’s morality meter.”

“What do you
mean?”

“It’s clearly an
intelligent being, but it seems to me the negative emotions are running deep.”

“In your own
assessment, does it really pose a threat?”

“Oh yeah. I think
it could wipe us out if it really got pissed, which is why I would strongly
warn against an all-out attack; unless we’re absolutely sure we can win.”

“Can we? Be sure,
I mean.”

“I need to think
of contingencies and run some simulations on non-networked systems.”

“You’ll get all
the resources you need. What’s the current status, though? Are we under
immediate threat?”

“That depends how
you define immediate. My next talk with the entity is tomorrow.”

“Do you have a
plan about how to deal with that?”

“Not really. Nor did
I when I went to evaluate it in the first place; but know this: I was
definitely not expecting this. This entity is leaps and bounds more advanced
than our own AIs.”

“I was under the
impression it was born of our own technology, so how is that even possible?”

“I’m not entirely
sure, but—and this is a big one—something the entity said made me think of a
possibility.”

“What’s that?”

“That she’s Gaia,
or Earth if you will.”

“Clearly that’s not
possible.”

“That’s what I
thought too, until I made scans of my own.”

“What scans? What
are you talking about?”

“I found evidence
that the entity has built planetary wide sensors and pathways within nature,
implanting a separate network within plants, trees, soil, and even animals.”

“How so?”

“I still have to
find out that part. If I have to guess, though, I suppose it could have
diverted some of our drone force; hacked them to build what it needs.”

“If it can do
that, it can build other things: weapons, an army of drones and god knows what
more.”

“I am fully aware
of that.”

“What about
shutting down all power and restoring backups from a time before the last
attack on Earth, when Cedric beamed the bombs off.”

“We’ve thought of
that too, but think about it: it could be in
any
device. Even a
smartphone. How could we make sure they were all powered on when we wiped them
out? No, it’s simply not feasible. More than likely, it would survive this
attempt, parts of it anyway. If it ever grew again to this size, it would try
to obliterate us, since that would be what we tried to do to it.”

“This is a
nightmare.”

“It gets worse.”

“What?”

“We’ve been
visited by many different vessels from other races since its inception: the
Droxians, the Obsidian Empire; heck, even Argos’ forces, though they were all
destroyed this time around.”

“Or so we think. They
also possess cloaking abilities. Perhaps a smaller craft survived.”

“If the entity
infected any of these, wiping it out here won’t stop it growing somewhere else,
and coming back with a vengeance.”

“Can we try to see
if the Droxian systems and perhaps the Obsidian, now that they are here, have
been infected?”

“And how would
you go about announcing that? Won’t we risk making a crack in this fresh
Alliance of ours?”

“There’s that,
but can we afford to lie to them? Any chance you can scan their vessels from
one of our ships without their knowing?”

“And if I’m
discovered?”

“Is there any viable
and less dangerous option at this point?”

“Well, besides
convincing the entity that we mean no harm
. . .”

“Even if that’s
so, I don’t like the idea of being under its scrutiny and reign from now on. I
mean, what if we do something we can’t avoid to survive and it perceives it as one
threat too many and decides to wipe us out? What if does that when we’re
actually in a battle for our lives?”

“Believe me, I’m
thinking about all of this too. Not only are we talking a potential end of
humanity, but we could very well create the most resilient and dangerous life
form in the universe.”

“This can’t be
happening. We need to find a way to get ourselves out of this mess!”

“I agree,
Admiral. I’m proposing to try to buy some time by talking with it, while we
think of a way to either disable or reprogram it.”

“Reprogram?”

“Yes, if we
managed to infect it with some sort of virus that would change it from the
inside, undetected, inserting new parameters into its sentient matrix, reprogramming
its morals to make humans the most valuable beings it needs to protect, then it
could become a powerful ally.”

“Do you realize
what the implications are? On an ethical level I mean? That we would enslave it
to do our bidding. To trick it and deprive it of its own sense of right or
wrong.”

Spiros exhaled
deeply. “I know that very well, Admiral, but I’m not sure we have a choice. I
just hope we’re not too late and that there is still something to be done. And
enough time to do it.”

The admiral took
her head between her hands. “Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse.”

“Oh, I’m not done
yet. I have more potential bad news.”

She frowned and
clearly showed her discontent. “You’ve got to be shitting me! What now?”

“We may have a
problem with Chase.”

“Lieutenant
Commander Athanatos? How? He’s not even a member of the Earth Alliance anymore.”

“Surely you’ve
heard of the mess in Tokyo?”

“No, not yet. Mind
you, I just came back from Droxia.”

“Well, long story
short, Argos and Chase fought there and destroyed a lot of buildings—half the harbor—and
there’ve been casualties.”

“Like we needed
that so soon after the suicide crash of the Zarlack fleet. But what’s the
problem exactly?”

“As you know,
Argos forced Chase into an impossible position when he made him kill his
beloved Sarah back when they came to Damocles-3 to get me and secure my
research.”

“Yeah, I
understand why he left us, and I also understand why he had to destroy part of
Tokyo to kill his brother. I mean, killing Argos would spare life in the long
run, even if I don’t condone the loss of innocent lives in the process. And I
sure would reprimand him and lock him away if I thought that was even possible.
No matter how he feels, Earth is not a battlefield on which he should wage his
revenge. But if he got Argos, then this is good news.”

“Right. Except he
didn’t kill his brother.”

“What? How do you
know?”

“The entity
showed me the footage. He had him dead to rights, about to deliver the fatal
blow, when Argos told him something, and he stopped.”