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

  The twelve Corvettes went down, ringing the area where the purple plant, or the cow like animal, was visible. The very first sample had the ship sensors going Ding! They moved the ring back until they stopped finding anything going Ding! The resulting area was defined by three things. Where the purple plant was, where the cows were, and where the cow dung was.

  It took them several hours to determine the situation they faced. Satoshi briefed Hikaru, and Hikaru again contacted Patton.

  "Good news sir. The plant doesn't contaminate either the soil or the water. Nor does metal exposed to the leaves of the plant retain any poison. It looks like the poison itself is designed to enter any kind of skin, or outer surface of an animal, but nothing else. We found birds and small animals lying dead all over the place, and these ranged from feathers through skin, to scales. But even when a droid pulls a plant out of the ground, no poison remains on the metal after it drops the plant."

  "Great news indeed. Thankyou Admiral. Would you have the officer in charge of your fighters contact me please. I think we'll try cow culling using the fighters to begin with."

  "Certainly sir. I've had the fighters on standby. Just tell them what you want."

  Satoshi monitored the next few hours as fighters rushed about at insane heights above the ground, shooting everything which moved within the designated area. The pilots were enjoying themselves. The cows weren't. At one point, he went in himself, and torpedoed both of the seeder ships, continuing to strafe them until nothing at all was left.

  A minute away, Jane was monitoring the whole operation. She was relieved the soil and water was unaffected. It made the task so much easier. She was also relieved to have it confirmed metal didn’t retain the poison. She'd been worrying about it ever since she found out the cow had been toxic, and just touching it was enough. Walsh had pulled a cow on board, and taken it off again. While the scanners had not revealed any on the ship, except in the sample containers, having it confirmed took a load off her mind. She'd been monitoring Barf closely in case he came into contact with the poison just moving about the ship. Not that he had been moving around much. He had his own food in his suite, which Walsh had also collected, to his personal disgust, when retrieving Barf's stuff, so he rarely moved anywhere except between it and the Bridge.

  They were two thirds of the way there now, approaching the jump point into the contested system. She moved into AI mode as a data packet came in from G036.

  A conference room settled around her, although this was a recording, not real time.

  "We've arrived at the blockade point Jane," said Intrepid. "The seeder ship was destroyed en route, and nothing else has come through in the meantime."

  Jane knew that already. She had a long thread of comnavsats showing her, in detail, all ship movements from here back to Gaia. Between her and the Owl planet, there was a lot of civilian freighter traffic, necessitating her keeping the ship scanner turned off, otherwise it would be going crazy often enough to drive even an AI nuts. The Owls had fleets back in key places already. But they hadn't tried to enter G036. Their main concern seemed to be keeping their production planets protected.

  "The fleet has formed up in a series of layers," added Warspite, "to ensure nothing can blow past us. Admiral Rainer has done a good job in our opinion."

  "Do you have any new instructions for us?" asked Intrepid.

  The meeting room fell away from Jane, and she considered the question.

  "Nothing further. Just hold the line."

  She sent it back to them, and brought herself back to human mode.

  The Owls hadn't learnt anything in the last two days, and their fleet vanished like all the rest as soon as Jane came into range. They down jumped into the middle of another fleet, as usual, and they too were replaced by dust.

  "That should be the last of them," said Barf.

  An hour later they knew he was wrong. A battle was being fought above the only habitable planet in the system.

  "Who are they?" asked Walsh.

  The names of course, didn’t translate. One of the fleets was Owl, but the other two were new to them. All three fleets were firing on both of the others in an almost two dimensional triangle configuration.

  When they came closer, Jane was able to pop up some information on individual ships. They were all comparable to the Owls in terms of general performance, and none of them had any real advantage over the others.

  "Slugfest," said Walsh. "Why do they bother?"

  "The planet is worth it," said Barf.

  "How will they react to us destroying the Owls?" asked Jane.

  "I'm not sure. But I doubt they will attack you without provocation. So please don’t shoot them."

  "Let's see then."

  Jane went in at full speed. The three fleets detected their approach at different times, and as they did, their fire became ragged as the crews became distracted by this new, very large, and very fast, ship coming in.

  The Owls had time to disengage from the other two fleets, and turned to meet Concorde's Ride. Jane had finally decided to give the amalgamated ship a name appropriate to its purpose.

  Jane blasted them into dust with a single salvo, and proceeded into an orbital insertion.

  The other two fleets immediately turned away, and fled back towards their jump points.

  "Good choice," muttered Walsh.

  Jane took them around the planet once, turning the scanners loose on it. It was indeed a prize. Not quite Gaia Three, it was better than Gaia Five. She grinned. Walsh looked the question at her, but she didn’t answer. Concorde's Ride left orbit on course for the next jump point. Two hours later, it was apparent the jump point was empty. Jane breathed a sigh of relief, without the breathe part. She hoped the combat was done now.

  She moved back into AI mode as another data packet came in. She watched a vid of fighters firing at cows while going way too fast. The pilots were having the time of their lives, being able to fire at anything which moved in the target area, with no consequences. The majority of the cows hit by fighter fire exploded, raining blood, flesh, and entrails for a distance around. Jane frowned. Someone had forgotten something. She sent a message back to Satoshi reminding about seed dispersal, from the seeds in the digestive system of the cows. Clean up might now be harder than they expected.

  The next vid was of combat suited troops landing in Dropships, carrying odd shaped weapons Jane hadn't seen before. She watched the first one fire a long stream of fire towards the nearest purple plant. It left the ground scorched clean, once the accelerant had burned away. They needed a fast way of doing it. The only question in her mind was if this was burning away the roots as well? She sent the question to Satoshi.

  The next vid showed one of the fighters dropping a bomb sized canister, which exploded with the same fire, turning a much larger area into an inferno. That might do it.

  She reminded Satoshi to make sure they checked no seeds survived the burning.

  Fifty

  A day later, early evening by standard time, they down jumped slowly into a system Barf thought should have a Galactic Sector fleet stationed there.

  It did. A channel opened, and a screen popped up showing a red scaled creature, looking something vaguely crocodile-ish, only with more legs. One extra leg to be precise, but they were all much longer, and the creature obviously stood high enough to look a human in the eye.

  "Identify," it said. "Your ship and shape are unknown to us, although we know the stick insect behind you well enough."

  Jane brought the ship to a stop well away from the down jump lane, but before the fleet in front of her. Like the Owl ships, they were about Cruiser size, but of a completely different configuration to anything seen so far. She scanned them quickly and determined they were slightly superior to the Owl ships, having rudimentary lasers as well as the missile launchers and rail guns.

  "I am Admiral Jane Hunter, from a species we call Human. We come from space beyond the Owls."

  This caused a bit of a
stir among the beings behind the one talking to them. Jane counted seven completely different species.

  "We've only just met the Owls, found them to be both hostile and a significant threat to us, and discovered there is a galactic organization of some sort beyond their space. We have come as ambassadors to this organization."

  "You expect us to believe the Owls let you through their space?"

  "Let us? Of course not. We had to destroy twenty six of their fleets to get here."

  Jane struggled to keep a straight face as the shock factor of this statement worked its way through the beings visible on the screen. Walsh was forced to cover his mouth with his hand. While human mannerisms and body language wouldn’t be understood, there was no point being rude, especially when this first meeting was most likely being recorded.

  The red face turned to the stick insect.

  "Identify yourself."

  "Commissioner Barf," he replied, using his native language name, "from Sector Five Drug Enforcement on secondment to Sector Ten."

  "Ah. We had been informed you were operating in this area. Blown mission I assume?"

  "More or less. However, I have brought back with us the answers to a lot of problems."

  "So you believe these claims about fleets destroyed to be true?"

  "Belief is not a factor. The Humans claim nothing. They state facts."

  "Why have we not heard anything about these battles then? Civilian traffic has been through here as normal, and there has been nothing said of any battles, except in the center of the Gauntlet. Why would this be?"

  "None of those who witnessed the battles have arrived here yet."

  "You claim this ship to be faster than everyone else?"

  "I claim nothing. This is not one ship. It is seven, and all but one are the largest warships I've ever seen. The smallest, where I am now, is inside one of the bigger ones. From what I've seen, being small in comparison to your own mighty ship, it would defeat you easily one on one. The bigger ones leave only dust behind them, even with a large portion of their guns unable to fire. At full speed, they will leave you behind, or give you no way of escape."

  "The Commissioner Barf I've been briefed on is not noted for making bizarre claims."

  "Nor do I. I am stating facts."

  The red face turned back to Jane.

  "What is it you want?"

  "Permission to cross your space so we may present ourselves to your sector government."

  "The sector council is two jumps from here. The journey requires several cycles."

  Barf made a noise like he was clearing his throat. The red face turned back to him.

  "Perhaps for you. A cycle for these beings is twenty four of their hours. The difference between theirs and ours is not important. The remaining journey for them is but six of their hours."

  "You lie. Nothing can move that fast."

  "Would you like a demonstration?" asked Jane.

  "Yes."

  Jane pulled Concorde's Ride around until there was free space ahead, and pushed the speed slider to its stops. They shot ahead gathering speed quickly, and Jane pulled them around on a course which took her over and behind the fleet formation, bringing them to a stop directly behind the flagship.

  "Impressive. We were unable to hold a weapon lock on you."

  "I haven’t bothered to lock you up."

  "Why not? How could you know we would not be hostile to you as well as the Owls?"

  "Commissioner Barf asked us not to fire on you."

  "And you agreed without any real data?"

  "Of course. We come in peace, we can take anything you can throw at us, and we can leave you behind before you become a real threat. What does it matter if you're hostile or not?"

  "I admit you have better speed, but as to the rest, you sound delusional. Be that as it may, I give you permission to cross our space to the Capital, but one of my ships will need to escort you."

  Jane checked the schematics for the ships in the flagship's computer. Their docks were compatible, mainly because hers could change the size of the outer doors to match smaller airlocks. She opened an airlock at the front of one of the Dreadnaughts.

  "I have opened an airlock as a reference point. If you care to dock one of your ships there, we can proceed at my speed."

  The red face turned to one side, and began issuing orders too fast to be understood. It turned back to face Jane.

  "I accept your offer, and it will be my ship which accompanies you. Please stand by for docking."

  "If it would help, you could let my computer do the docking for you. No sense in losing paint."

  She grinned at it, presuming the grin could not be interpreted as such, at least now.

  "Impossible!"

  "Very possible. How about I demonstrate by waggling your ship from side to side a bit."

  "Admiral," said Barf, talking to the red face, "just accept it can be done, and let it happen."

  "Why should I?"

  "Because you need to know what these beings are capable of. The more you know, the less likely you or your superiors are to make a stupid decision."

  It looked at Barf steadily for a good half minute.

  "If you recommend it Commissioner, I will allow it."

  Barf looked at Jane.

  "You better be right about not scratching paint."

  Jane made a big production of pressing a button. She'd turned it off so nothing would actually happen, but she wanted the aliens to see her turn something on. In reality, she'd been on their ship from the moment they stopped, and had already worked out how to control it.

  The flagship began to move forward. The crew beyond the red face looked shocked. Several of them were frantically trying to regain control, but Jane wasn’t letting them back in to their own computer.

  "This is very disconcerting," said red face. "Tell me the truth. You could destroy this ship using our own computer to do so, couldn’t you?"

  "Yes I could. I don’t even need to destroy it."

  "Explain."

  "I stop the bulkheads from closing, and simply open all the airlocks."

  The red face started taking on a yellow hue.

  "I'm sorry I asked now. You will refrain from doing this, yes?"

  Jane outright laughed. Walsh joined her.

  "This is you expressing humour I hope?"

  "Yes," said Barf. "These Humans have strangely expressive faces, often too complicated to understand, but this one, accompanied by this noise, does appear to be humour."

  The flagship stopped neatly, slightly more than a length away from the opened airlock, which was now closed. The ship slowly twirled so it was broadside on. The side airlock was now directly opposite the Dreadnaught front airlock. Jane goosed her ship forward, just enough to kiss the two airlocks together. The docking clamps didn’t match. Jane sent some repair droids out through the airlock to jury rig hard connections. She displayed what they were doing on a screen which the red face could also see.

  "You have robots as well?"

  "As you can see."

  It said no more, and within another ten minutes, the ships were solidly connected.

  "Are you ready?" Jane asked it.

  "You may proceed. But I doubt…"

  The words stopped, as Jane twirled the ship around in a fraction of the time the alien ship had taken, and accelerated towards the next jump point.

  The alien seemed lost for words, but eventually found himself again.

  "You called yourself an Admiral when you introduced yourself to me. Correct?"

  "Yes."

  "We have three levels of Admiral. I am the first, and lowest of ours. Which are you?"

  "Fourth," said Walsh.

  Fifty One

  Sector Ten Headquarters proved to be a very large space station orbiting an ice planet. Around the middle, where the docking stations were, it was easily much bigger than Borgcubia, although massing less.

  "Ouch," said Walsh. "If I’d deliberately designed the largest
eyesore I could,"

  "You wouldn’t be a pilot," finished Darlene, who for once was sitting in the Coms chair.

  Barf looked at them both, as if they'd said something profound. Jane kept her mouth straight.

  Admiral Red Face appeared on a com screen requesting Jane stop, and unlock his ship, so he could dock first. She complied, had the repair droids remove the jury rigging, and she backed away slowly, leaving his ship free to navigate.

  They sat there watching it approach the station at an angle, at which point it became obvious as to why it was so big. A smattering of the docked ships were Cruiser sized, and they were all docked with the mid-side airlock. It reminded Jane of something, but what eluded her. The ships stuck out front and back.

  "Now that is just weird," said Walsh.

  "Why?" asked Barf.

  "It's about the hardest maneuver to do with any long ship. It's just too easy to miscalculate and end up scraping along the station for half your length."

  "How do you do it?"

  "Nose in."

  "How do you get back out again?"

  Barf seemed genuinely surprised.

  Walsh looked at Jane, and they both grinned.

  "Front thrusters," they said together.

  They were starting to understand the stick insect facial movement range by now, and Barf's was showing he just didn’t understand.

  "I think I know what we can trade with these people," said Walsh. "First off anyway. The specs for front thrusters could make us rich."

  "No, not first off. Maybe second, when we understand the dynamics here. And getting rich isn’t the object of the exercise." She paused. "Down the track though, when we have trade agreements in place, anything is possible."

  A channel opened from the station. A purple fuzz-ball, with no visible appendages, appeared.

  "Unknown ship, you are too big to dock with this station. Do you require a shuttle?"

  "Negative station," said Jane. "We have a smaller ship available. Sending you dimensions now."

  She pressed a button for effect. Again, it did nothing.