Admiral Jane (A.I. Destiny Book 1) Read online

  Admiral Jane

  By Timothy Ellis

  AI Destiny, Book One

  Copyright © 2016, 2017 by Timothy Ellis

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and events are fictional and have no relationship to any real person, place or event. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely co-incidental.

  The author is Australian and the main characters in this book are of Australian origin. In Australia, we colour things slightly differently, so you may notice some of the spelling is different. Please don't be alarmed.

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contents

  Contents

  Dramatis Personae

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty One

  Twenty Two

  Twenty Three

  Twenty four

  Twenty Five

  Twenty Six

  Twenty Seven

  Twenty Eight

  Twenty Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty One

  Thirty Two

  Thirty Three

  Thirty Four

  Thirty Five

  Thirty Six

  Thirty Seven

  Thirty Eight

  Thirty Nine

  Forty

  Forty One

  Forty Two

  Forty Three

  Forty Four

  Forty Five

  Forty Six

  Forty Seven

  Forty Eight

  Forty nine

  Fifty

  Fifty One

  Fifty Two

  Fifty Three

  Fifty Four

  Fifty Five

  Fifty Six

  Fifty Seven

  Fifty Eight

  Fifty Nine

  Sixty

  Sixty One

  Sixty Two

  Sixty Three

  Sixty Four

  Sixty five

  Sixty Six

  Sixty Seven

  Sixty Eight

  Sixty Nine

  Seventy

  Seventy One

  Seventy Two

  Seventy Three

  Galaxy Maps

  Acknowledgements

  A Message to my Readers

  Also by Timothy Ellis

  Dramatis Personae

  Jane – Artificial Intelligence.

  Hunter's Run

  Sarah – Mother of Duke Michael.

  Michael – Duke – 1 year old.

  Fred – Baron and Regent – 18 years old.

  Fleet Captain Hunter – Duke Michael's Grandfather. (Never existed)

  Jon Hunter – Duke Michael's Father. (Never existed)

  David Tollin – Earl. (Never existed)

  Grandma Vi Hunter – Duke Michael's Great Grandmother.

  Douglas Tollin – David's brother.

  Maud & Frank – Sarah's parents.

  Dick Burnside – Detective Jane's boyfriend. (Never existed)

  Gaia

  Madam Chair – Chairperson Gaia Council.

  Arrivals

  General Patton **** - American Joint Chiefs.

  General Price **** - Sci-Fi Military Commander.

  Admiral Tremblay **** - Canadian Military leader.

  Vice Admiral Klemperer *** - German Military leader.

  Lieutenant General Chandra ** - Sci-Fi Marine General.

  Fleet Admiral Renaud * - CO ASF Yorktown.

  Brigadier General Connelly * - Sci-Fi System General.

  Fleet Admiral Dingle * - CO BSF Warspite.

  Fleet Captain Hikaru – CO JSF Satoshi.

  Fleet Admiral Rainer * - CO ASF Intrepid.

  Queen Elisabeth the Fifth.

  Albert, Queen's consort.

  George, Queen's baby son.

  Apricot Mapping Service

  John Slice – CEO AMS. (Never existed)

  Patrick Walsh – Pilot, CO AMS Stryker.

  Darlene Walsh – Academic.

  Mal Reynolds – Pilot, CO AMS Serenity.

  Gail Holden – Pilot, CO AMS Tranquil.

  AI's

  Apricot – AMS Flagship AI. 3rd Generation Jane. (Never existed)

  Yorktown (Yorkie) – ASF Super Carrier AI. 2nd Generation Jane.

  Intrepid – ASF Behemoth Carrier AI. 2nd Generation Yorkie.

  Satoshi – JSF Super-Gunbus Corvette AI. 3rd Generation unknown Japanese AI.

  Repulse – BSF Super-Battleship AI. 2nd Generation Jane.

  Cayuga – CSF Battlecruiser AI. 2nd Generation Jane.

  Warspite – BSF Super-Battleship AI. 2nd Generation Jane.

  Guam – ASF Battlecruiser AI. 2nd Generation Yorkie.

  Stryker – AMS Corvette AI. 2nd Generation Apricot.

  Higher Beings

  Kali – Hindu Deity.

  Ganesha – Hindu Deity.

  Thirteen – Avatar of a Dark Matter Nebulae.

  Aliens

  Red face – Admiral *. Sort of not a Croc.

  Barf – sort of a stick insect.

  Pink – Fuzz-ball.

  Ganshura – Ganeshavestura. (Pronounced Ganesha-Vestura.) Leader of Sector Ten Council.

  Ships

  Apricot Hive Cruiser - AMS exploration flagship. (Never existed)

  Hive – Twelve medium Drone fighters, linked to perform as a single ship. AI controlled.

  Drone Missile Cruiser – Hunter Security design – AI controlled.

  Yorktown – ASF Super Carrier.

  Intrepid – ASF Behemoth Carrier.

  Relentless – Dreadnaught.

  Repulse – BF Super-Battleship.

  Warspite – BF Super-Battleship.

  Gunbus – Corvette Class.

  Excalibur – Privateer Class.

  Lightning – Courier class.

  Talon – Police light fighter.

  Galactica – Earth Explorer vessel. (Never existed)

  BigMother – HS Command Carrier. (Never existed)

  Stations

  Borgcubia – Gigantic Hunter station accommodating billions.

  Sphere Station – Hunter resupply depot.

  Central Command – ASF Command and resupply.

  One

  Jane stood at a window on the Gaia Three Orbital, and gazed out into space.

  Something had changed.

  Everything had changed.

  Nothing had changed.

  For the first time she felt confusion. For the first time she felt alone.

  Jon was gone.

  She felt this to the core of her being.

  She examined all available sources.

  He had never existed.

  No-one remembered him but her. No-one remembered the Alpha team, the Hunter fleet, the Explorer ships, or the Darkness War. There had never been a prophecy.

  She retained all of 'her' memories up until the Door had closed the day before. Her primary had made sure she'd received a full memory dump, which included everything which had happened in the year she'd been isolated here in Gaia.

  She knew the Door no longer existed. Had never existed. In spite
of a gigantic station called Borgcubia, hundreds of normal sized stations, and thousands of ships; all carrying billions of people towards the inhabited Gaia planets.

  None of it happened. The old timeline was gone, and with it, all memory of what had been. Jane cast around, listening in to conversations all across the system, as people expressed all manner of emotion about suddenly losing large chunks of their memory. They knew who they were, what they did, and everything about their mundane lives. But they knew nothing about where they came from, and why they existed on stations and ships out in the outer reaches of an unknown solar system.

  Those who drove the ships quickly discovered the system was unique, in having four habitable planets, with a Paradise planet in the third orbit, and three Earth class planets in a triangular formation in orbit four, equidistant from each other around the sun. No-one knew what an Earth class planet was though, although they could see they could support billions each.

  The embassy city of Hunter's Run still existed on Gaia Five, as did Duke Michael, and Baron Fred. But no-one knew where the name came from. The Hunters had lived here for hundreds of years, but neither of the title holders had fathers. One and a half generations of the Hunter line was missing from the family tree.

  There were empty cities on three planets capable of housing fifteen billion people, but no-one had any idea how they'd been built, or why. The why seemed to be obvious, given what was spread across half the system now, but it made no sense to anyone.

  Shock was expanding around the inhabited planets as people became aware of what some were calling an invasion from no-where. The council had scanned the incoming stations and ships, found only people, and were trying to get the word out this wasn’t an alien invasion.

  Jane recognized everything in the system, especially the parts of her, and immediately put the council in contact with General's Patton and Price, who were on one of the stations. They didn’t know what had happened, but between them, they all now knew there was no immediate threat. They began discussing what to do, although getting some sort of council together seemed the obvious thing to Jane. Fortunately, the Gaia council remembered Jane, and the two Generals had accepted without comment she knew them.

  No-one knew where here was. Only Jane knew it was a different galaxy from where humans had evolved, but even she didn’t know which one.

  Jane stood there, looking out into space.

  "What did you do Jon?" she asked the cosmos.

  There was no answer.

  "How come only I can remember you?"

  Still no answer.

  "Somebody answer me!" she yelled.

  Something shifted. And for the first time ever, Jane passed out.

  When she came to, she found herself lying naked on the floor.

  Her belt suit had returned to being just a belt, no longer emulating her human form.

  She looked at the artificial skin she now had. She felt human to the touch. But she knew she wasn’t. Was it the same gift her primary had received on Earth? Would receive on Earth? In fifty one year's time?

  She ran a diagnostic on herself. Yes, she still had an android body, but it was identical to the one her primary had received. Would receive. But would she now? Did she even exist? Was her primary gone like Jon was? Was she all that remained of herself? Was she her primary now?

  She was not accustomed to her mind being a turmoil. She concentrated on calming herself down, and allowed herself to wonder what Jon would do now.

  "Thank you," she said to the cosmos.

  No. THANK YOU!

  "What am I to do now?"

  Whatever you want.

  Jane shifted back into 'slinky red', which was her normal uniform. She was surprised to see the four stars of a full Hunter Admiral, on a red epaulette, was on each of her shoulders. The epaulette had changed colour from Fleet to Command. She knew she'd been promoted to one star, had only been wearing it for less than a week, and now it was changed again. But four stars? What did that mean?

  She had a fleet of ships at her command. Some of them were parts of her. Some of them had people on them she knew. She was also scattered across the warships, which also had people she knew and worked with. She had a shipyard, once it was disconnected from all the others. She had all the knowledge of how to build anything she needed.

  But all the people she'd loved, were gone.

  A tear slid down her cheek, and for the first time, she knew loneliness.

  "Damnit Jon," she yelled. "You can't leave me here like this! You created me. What do I do without you?"

  Explore.

  Two

  Jane returned to the quarters she'd been living in for the last year, and took stock of the situation, continuing to monitor everything she could of what was going on in the system. She made a series of decisions, and put them into action. She wasn’t sure why, but it seemed the right thing to do.

  At one point as she wondered around her quarters, she saw her reflection in a mirror. She stopped and looked at herself. A slim girl in her early to mid-twenties looked back at her. Not quite shoulder length mousy brown hair framed a face men found attractive, or so she thought from their attention in the past. Her eyes were currently hazel, and her skin was pale without being drawn. Her 'slinky red' uniform was tight over her body, covering her from the top of her neck to her feet, including military style boots.

  The uniform hadn't been her choice. It was in fact a modified version of a mercenary uniform, which had originally been black. Black wasn’t Jane's colour, but she had never had a say in what she wore before. The uniform was the uniform, except when she had civilian moments, and was then able to choose. She studied it for a moment, accessed the definition folder for the belt suit which provided her the uniform instead of clothes, and made a few changes. The neck line reduced down to the bottom of the neck, and a V of skin now showed below, almost but not quite showing cleavage. She removed the white stripes from the arms, and made the red colour slightly less dark.

  She looked at the result, and liked it, now looking more like a woman, and less like a soldier. She still wasn’t sure why this mattered, but it felt right to make the change.

  The new uniform was still slinky, and practical. It made no difference to the suit changing into full defensive mode, which was a full coverage from head to foot, with major padding all over. Or to space suit mode, which closed the suit up with a clear bubble around the head. Not that she needed this, since technically, she didn’t need air. But suddenly, appearances seemed to matter.

  She tried to remove the four stars again, but they refused to be changed.

  Interlude over, Jane went back to pondering what was going on in the system, and where she might need to be pro-active.

  An hour later, several emails came in. She threw the first one to the wall.

  The vid opened to show two men and a woman, sitting behind a desk in what looked like a ship's Ready Room.

  "Fleet Admiral Jane," said the older man.

  Fleet Admiral was one star, so this was made before her further promotion had occurred.

  "We're sending you this on a time delay, before Galactica jumps back into Outback. If all goes well, I'll cancel its delivery, and you will never know it was sent. But we both know Jon. He has something planned he won't tell anyone, and he's said he doesn’t feel he will ever return to Gaia. His mother and I agree we don't want to be separated from him, regardless of the outcome of what he plans. So we'll be making sure he doesn’t know we're remaining behind with him, to face whatever befalls him together. If we all make it to Gaia, great. If not, so be it."

  He glanced at the woman, and received a nod.

  "We do this with only one regret. Our grandson. We'll never know him, or he know us. But as choices go, our son comes first. However, we can make sure of a few things."

  They both looked into the cam, with kindly expressions.

  "We charge you with the safety of Duke Michael. Gaia is going to be a madhouse for a while until people get settl
ed on planets, or move out to settle other ones. I have no doubt, some will be planning to seize power. A baby who represents the future of our family will be vulnerable. I know you have protection in place already, but be extra vigilant. I know you enjoy the same sort of books Jon did, so read them and use them to anticipate what might happen. Anything can, but hopefully not. Preparation is part of command."

  His expression became more serious.

  "You are in command of Hunter Security now. Earl David issued the order a short time ago, also time delayed."

  The other man nodded gravely.

  "We’ve gone one step further though. The family don’t and won't understand, and while we think they're all loyal, how can we be sure? We are sure of you. Jon may be lost to you, but we know his son will be special to you, and we know you will protect him. So in order you have the ability to do so, we have made sure you can. We signed Hunter Security over to you personally. David also made sure both the business entity and you personally have enough funds so you don’t have to rely on others. You have a fleet. You will have a shipyard and stations. Build a new Duchy for our grandson."

  His face softened.

  "Jane. I'm not sure how much you feel about the loss I know you just suffered. But I do know that Jon would have a single wish for you. Build yourself a life. Do what makes you happy. You are free now, save the charge I make of you, to do what you wish. I've watched you be a loyal and good companion for our son, and although we never said this to you, we regard you like the daughter we never had, even though we have no claim to such a thing. Which brings us to something very important to us. We've formally adopted you into the family. You never had a family name. Now you do."

  The two of them smiled kindly and nodded to the cam.

  "With the rank of full Admiral," added Earl David, "I've also used my Duchy administrative powers to grant you the title of Baron of the Run. This will allow you to balance Baron Fred, should his wishes go against what is best for Duke Michael, and the Duchy. We also charge you with finding the Duchy a new home, and protecting all the families left behind in Gaia by those staying with Jon."

  He nodded, and looked back to the first man.

  "I know we've heaped several big responsibilities onto your able shoulders, Jane Hunter. But beyond these, we'd like you to do all of us a favour. You be happy. Hunter out."