Merkiaari Wars: 03 - Operation Oracle Read online

  He frowned as something else occurred to him. What had happened to all the backups for the A.Is that had died during the Hacker Rebellion? They couldn’t all have been infected and destroyed, surely? They must have been he realised. If not, they would still be operational. The only A.I to die since then hadn’t been infected with a virus; it had been destroyed on Kushiel by enemy action when the Merkiaari resorted to an orbital bombardment. The Merki used both kinetic and nuclear weapons on the planet in reprisal after the defenders began nuking their own cities to deny them to the aliens.

  “George, you still there?” Liz said.

  “I’m here. What would you say if I told you I know of one planet that had an A.I, but no longer has any security?”

  “I would say you’re dreaming.”

  “No really, what would you say?”

  “I would say get me on a ship and get me to that mythical planet, but I’m not aware of any A.I not under the council’s thumb, George. I consider myself an expert in this area. I would know if there was one.”

  “I’m not saying there’s an operational A.I out there, but there might be a dead one for you to study. Would that help us?”

  Liz was silent for a long time. Burgton was going to ask again but she responded. “You’re serious?” she whispered reverently. “Where is it?”

  “Kushiel,” Burgton said. “The planet was bombarded for weeks, nuclear and kinetic. According to reports from that time, there were no survivors and the planet remains uninhabitable. It’s a war memorial and grave that no one visits.”

  “Kushiel... Kushiel...” Liz murmured. “The A.I was a male personality I seem to recall, named... let me check.”

  Burgton waited, he didn’t have anything else to do. He finished his orbit of the matrix housing and crouched to stare through the floor at the workings hidden underneath. Most of it was unknown to him, but he could pick out the light emitters and other things that made the centrum operate as an imaging chamber.

  “George?”

  “Still here, Liz.”

  “Okay, there isn’t much about him. He was the colony administrator, which is a fancy term for someone who controlled everything. He ran the power plants, air and space traffic, water pumping stations... he oversaw pretty much anything that could be automated.”

  “Name?”

  “Bastian,” Liz said and before Burgton asked she continued. “He didn’t like people calling him Sebastian and often ignored anyone who did.” She chuckled. “Sounds like a fun guy or A.I. Shame what happened to him.”

  “Millions of people and an entire ecology died with him, Liz.”

  “I didn’t mean—”

  “Save it, I didn’t mean anything either. You think you could learn something there?”

  “We don’t know if anything survived, but can we ignore the possibility?”

  “No,” Burgton said firmly. He was desperate. “No. You can’t delegate the mission to someone else?”

  “I would rather not. We don’t know what there is to find if anything, so we can’t brief a team properly. I might need to make decisions on site. I assume my orders are to do anything necessary?”

  “Anything necessary to make Project Oracle a success,” Burgton qualified. “But I don’t want you taking risks with your life. Kushiel’s atmosphere and soil is poisonous. You’ll need to wear an environment suit at all times, or oversee the operation from orbit.”

  “Fat chance of that. If I’m going, I’m going down suit and all. I’ll get my team and our equipment together. The ship?”

  “I’ll let you know.”

  “Okay, bye for now,” Liz said and disconnected.

  Burgton headed for the elevator feeling a little better than he had. He tried to curb his hope with a little reality, but in the end, he let himself feel hopeful. There was no guarantee that this would come to anything, but at least he was doing something to find an answer. Certainly better than giving up.

  He took one last look around, and entered the elevator. The doors slid closed and the car accelerated upward.

  * * *

  10 ~ Possibilities

  Possible colony site 5, Snakeholme

  Gina crouched by the campfire and warmed her hands. Not that she was cold, but it’s what you did in these situations. She grinned. She was still Human enough to have pointless mannerisms. She lifted her coffee cup and took a gulp.

  “You want company?” Cragg said ducking out of his tent.

  “Sure. Coffee?”

  He nodded. “Please.”

  Gina poured him a cup. He liked it black the same as her. “Weather is holding.”

  “Hmmm,” he said taking a sip. “Varya and Kazim don’t seem to mind the differences. Then again, Kazim’s family come from the desert originally, and Varya’s people are forest dwellers like around here. They’re a pretty diverse people, the Shan.”

  Gina knew that. She nodded regardless. “I prefer this over that damned jungle.”

  Cragg snorted.

  The first colony site the Shan had chosen to explore was on the equator and was mostly jungle. It was full of nasty critters and reminded Gina of Thurston, except the critters of Snakeholme were nothing like Thurston’s dinosaurs. The wildlife around here tended toward large carnivorous mammals. They had fur not scales, but did have claws and teeth enough to shame a croc. Varya was delighted by them. His people were natural hunters and would enjoy it here, or so he said. Temperatures were lower than Harmony though, and although furred themselves, Shan didn’t enjoy the cold.

  Gina had a feeling that all five colony sites would work out fine. It was just a matter of personal choice. That decision wasn’t Varya’s to make. He and Kazim would document all five sites and simply make their observations and recommendations to Kajetan and the elders. Gina liked this one. The valley was wide and forest filled. The river was pretty, and the distant mountains were snow capped. Yes, she liked this one.

  Cragg gulped a mouthful of coffee. “I never thanked you.”

  “Eh?”

  Cragg grinned. “You know what I’m talking about. You saved my life.”

  Gina shrugged. “My job.”

  “Bull. Your job was to report back, not risk yourself for me. You should have left me, but I’m glad you didn’t.”

  Gina grinned. “You probably wouldn’t be so thankful if you’d been awake to see how I did it.”

  “Okay, give.”

  “I threw you off a three story roof. You bounce real good.”

  Cragg growled. “Maybe I should check out your log in the archive if you had that much fun.”

  Gina’s laugh was short and she turned serious. “Have you tried that yet?”

  “The archive?” he said and Gina nodded. “Yeah I did.”

  “Who?”

  “Chris,” he said sombrely.

  Chrissie Roberts had been their first casualty when they landed on Child of Harmony. She had died in her first battle against Merkiaari, and for nothing. She didn’t get a chance to make even one Merki kill.

  “Was it... was it awful?”

  “No,” Cragg said sounding thoughtful. “Sad, but not awful. She doesn’t... I mean the simulation of her doesn’t...” he sighed. “It was like the sims, you know? Connecting with the archive is like that. Chris was chatty and very realistic. She moved and acted exactly right, and she asked about our friends, but I knew it wasn’t really her. The computers are damned good, but they were using her memories to make it seem realistic. When I asked about her death, she just looked away and said she didn’t want to talk about it.”

  Gina shook her head thinking about Grace, her best friend in the marines, who had died. Stone had made a sim for her recruit testing that used her memories of Grace. That simulation had been so real, she could easily imagine what Cragg had seen and felt.

  “Would you go again? I’ve not tried it.”

  Cragg shrugged. “Sure, why not? It’s no different to any other sim, except you just plug in. No simulator needed for a simple
visit.”

  Without the simulator, it wouldn’t be very interactive. Just sight and sound, but maybe that would be for the best when visiting dead friends.

  She poured another cup of coffee and freshened Cragg’s cup. “I might try it then. To say goodbye.”

  “Don’t think of it that way,” Cragg warned. “They’re not alive in there. It’s all old data, just memories, Gina. The computers are good, but they’re not that good.”

  Gina grunted and looked away into the trees. The sun would be up soon, and then they would break camp. Varya was their leader and would decide where they went next. She and Cragg were just along for protection—though Varya was more than capable—the General wanted no trouble with the Shan. Letting them get dead could be called trouble, she supposed. Kazim was along for the ride and to film everything they saw.

  Gina had taken second watch, but the fire had been enough to keep the curious beasties away. So far, the Shan hadn’t needed protection, they were good fighters, but she didn’t regret the mission. It was restful. She had never been one to take camping trips on leave—she had spent too much time slogging through the mud and swamps of alien worlds to have romantic notions of living in a tent, but this was different. Snakeholme had come to feel like home. She’d never really had one before. She didn’t consider Faragut home, though she was born there. It sometimes felt as if she’d spent the first eighteen years of her life trying to get off that damned planet. She didn’t know who her parents were, and didn’t much care. As soon as she was old enough, she’d joined the marines and called the Corp her home for fifteen years, but Snakeholme was home forever now and the other vipers were her family.

  “I wonder what Kate’s doing,” Cragg murmured. “She would have come out with us, busted as she is, but they wanted her close to medical.”

  Gina grunted. “Kate’s crazy enough to come out here with nothing but a toothpick, and she’d still have brought back a grizzly for a trophy.”

  Cragg laughed.

  It was true about Kate. She could probably kill anything bare handed even with her enhancements offline. Gina wouldn’t give a Merki even odds against Kate, even busted as she was. Her friend had been badly damaged, almost killed, on Child of Harmony. Stone had saved her when the General wrote Kate off and raised Gina to take command. Gina had followed orders and retreated, leaving her friend to die. She still felt wrong about it.

  “I don’t think we have grizzlies on Snakeholme, Gina.”

  “I doubt anyone knows for sure what we do have.”

  Cragg shrugged. “True. Those things the other day would do for grizzlies. Maybe we should name them. I checked the archive and no one has yet.”

  “Go for it, but I wouldn’t call them grizzlies. Too confusing. They don’t even look like bears to me.”

  “They do in the dark if you squint.”

  She snorted.

  “Seriously. How about cave bears, or ridge bears? They liked it up there in among the rocks I think. They probably live in caves. Cragg bears?”

  Gina smiled at the last one. “Don’t like it, they’re not enough like bears. How about cragglings?”

  Cragg’s eyebrows went up. “Cragglings. I like that. I’ll register them as cragglings then.”

  She nodded, remembering Varya’s fight with them. They had climbed a short way into the mountains following the river. They had wanted to find its source. Varya had pointed out the outcrop of rock and headed that way on all fours, nimble as only his people and maybe mountain lions could be. She had called out, asking him to wait for her, but then the scream of rage had almost stopped her heart. She had never heard a Shan voicing a challenge, but that’s what it had been.

  Nothing on sensors! She remembered thinking that, and it wasn’t until later she realised why. The rock had a high concentration of quartz and other stuff. Enough to futz her sensors, bouncing her emissions all over the place. Varya was just gone.

  Her rifle had come up and she was seeking targets even as Varya reappeared on the back of the craggling, biting and clawing the huge beast. She could have fired, she should have, but she froze in astonishment when Kazim hurried up and stopped her. He started filming the fight, muttering in excitement about how they would love this back home. Cragg had been protecting Kazim—the Shan male was oblivious to danger when his mind was on work—and joined them a moment later.

  Cragglings didn’t look like bears except in a general way. They had the right kind of fur and colouring, but the shape was all wrong. More like a twisted combination of a mountain lion crossed with a pissed off badger... a mutant giant badger. It was huge! Much more heavily muscled than Varya certainly, but the Shan hunter was winning. Then the craggling went nuts! The fight turned into a snarling, clawing, blur with the craggling bucking and whirling like a dervish to fling its attacker off. It managed that finally, but Varya quickly recovered to dart in and out to claw at its flanks. Strike, strike, leap away and back in.

  Gina had been ready to wade in unarmed, she couldn’t fire without hitting Varya, but the craggling went down finally and Varya screamed his victory over the corpse. He was a very happy and excited male, full of himself over the victory. That was when the second craggling attacked.

  That had been some fight, and Varya had been babbling with his excitement afterward. Kazim and Varya had been laughing and exclaiming over the dead beasts, checking the length of the claws and estimating the strength of their bite, but Gina hadn’t seen the funny side. She could have lost Varya; she could have failed her mission.

  “When you register the name, upload a vid file of the fight would you?”

  Cragg shrugged. “Sure, but why?”

  “As a warning. They’re dangerous.”

  Cragg nodded. “Okay, I’ll do that.”

  Gina threw some more wood on the fire and watched the flames devour it. Sparks rose into the air, but there was no danger. The woods and ground were wet. She poked a stick into the fire, and considered what to cook for breakfast.

  “You mind if I ask you something?” Cragg said.

  “Shoot,” she said and left her poker in the fire to burn.

  “I know when they demoted Kate that she was happy about it. She didn’t want promotion to begin with, so when Captain Hames died and the General raised her to command...” he shrugged. “Well, pissed off doesn’t do it justice. She did her job, but she didn’t like it.”

  “Where are you going with this?”

  Cragg shrugged. “I wondered how you felt about it. You’ve been demoted too.”

  Gina frowned remembering the meeting with the General...

  >_ opening memory file #0000065003456

  Gina entered the General’s outer office and reported to his aide. She didn’t know Robshaw well; he was one of the new intake and part of 2nd Battalion. He smiled at her, and stood to salute.

  Gina returned his salute. “I had a message to report to the General.”

  Robshaw nodded. “Right you are, Captain. There’s a lot of that going around today. He has someone in with him at the moment, but it shouldn’t be long. Please take a seat.”

  She turned and located a seat. “Any ideas what it’s all about?”

  “You’ve heard the rumours I guess, so it won’t be a surprise to hear they’re right for a change. He’s reorganising, shuffling people into knew slots, creating new positions... that sort of thing. Nothing secret or I wouldn’t say even that much.”

  She pursed her lips and nodded. It had been too good to last. She knew, or thought she did, what this had to do with her. When Kate had been wounded in battle, the General had raised Gina to temporary command of Alpha Company. Temporary command. She had been performing that role for well over a year now, and had begun to believe that the position would be a permanent one. Her command though was all but destroyed in the fighting. It made perfect sense to her that she would be demoted and then reassigned to bring another formation up to strength.

  The thought didn’t dismay her, but she would be lying to h
erself if she didn’t admit to a little disappointment. She had grown into the role. Getting used to being an LT again would take some time. She would deal.

  The door to the General’s office opened and Kate Richmond stepped out. She was a tall Anglo woman with dark hair shaved short at the sides per regulations, but gelled to spikes on top. Her right eye was covered with a black patch embroidered with the regiment’s viper emblem in silver. The paralysed muscles on that side of her face combined with the heavy scarring turned her smile into a sneer, but the attempt had been there and Gina returned it. She stood and they bumped fists. She would have taken the time to catch up, but she couldn’t keep the General waiting.

  “Later,” she said.

  Kate nodded and strode out.

  She glanced at Robshaw, received a nod of permission, and knocked once upon the office door before opening it and entering. The General wasn’t alone, but she knew the faces turned toward her. Eric Penleigh was the first viper she had ever met. It was on Thurston and in the middle of combat. The others were familiar to her as well, all officers she had fought beside on the Shan campaign. Gina closed the door behind her and stopped in the middle of the office before saluting.

  Burgton returned her salute casually, but he didn’t rise from behind his desk. He waved her into the only empty chair. “Gina, you know everyone so we’ll get straight to why you’re here.”

  “Sir,” she replied and took the seat offered. She nodded to the others. Captains Greenwood and Penleigh nodded back. She caught Eric’s eye and smiled. He returned it.

  Burgton leaned his forearms upon his desk and wove his fingers together. “First, let may say how pleased I’ve been with how you’ve performed. You fought with great distinction—I’ve already reviewed your upload in the archive.”

  Gina knew what was coming and decided to bring it up herself. “Forgive the interruption, Sir, but I know what’s coming. I understand.”

  Burgton’s eyebrows rose and Eric chuckled. “You do.”