Warrior Chronicles 4: Warrior's Wrath (20 page)

“I will do anything you ask, General!”

“I will think about that, George. For right now, why don’t you just play with Dalek?”

“Yes! Play with me, Geowge!”

“I would like that. Thank you, General.”

--

“Ten years ago,
my time,
I was standing beside a clear mountain lake watching a trout taunt me. Sköll was running around chasing his dinner, and I hadn’t seen another live human for months. Maybe even years. Now I am trying to figure out how to deal with the fact that I have wiped out entire races, while deciding what to do with a hundred million year old computer that likes to dance with my son. God damn, my life has changed!”

Cort was in the kitchen with Bazal and Kim. Kim listened to what he said and replied, “For better or worse?”

Cort touched her hand, “For better, Kim. Definitely for the better. It is just way different than what I expected.”

“Knowing what you know now, would you still take part in the experiment?”

Without hesitating Cort said, “Absolutely. I’ve done some serious next level shit over the last ten years.”

Cort’s comm activated. “This is Ares. Go ahead.”

Bazal and Kim watched as Cort’s face went through a spectrum of emotions as he talked to Admiral Jones.

“Have you confirmed it with Dr. Pan?”

“How did they do it?” Cort asked.

“Okay. Let Rand know so he can notify the H’uumans and the Nill. Then set up the memorial at Sorano’s World. Addison out.”

Turning to the other two Cort said, “They know what happened. The Thales Observatory observed a mass change in the Sagittarius singularity. It is identical to the mass we lost in the battle.”

“My gods,” Kim said.

“Pan confirmed it. They are gone.”

“How did they transition a twenty kilometer sphere?”

“Pan thinks there was some node of the Core that wasn’t damaged by the sabotage. Speral agrees it was possible.” Cort walked to a cabinet and took out a bottle of scotch. After filling a glass with ice, he surrounded the cubes with alcohol and drained it. He filled it again, sat down, and stared into the chemical he hoped would drive away his demons.

Kim stood and walked to his chair, putting her arms on his shoulders as she stood behind him. “I’m sorry, baby.”

“Their lives meant nothing. The entire damned war accomplished nothing.”

Bazal said, “That is not true, Cortland. There is a little boy in the other room. The war saved him. And it united you with the H’uumans. It also broke the Collaboration.”

Kim played with Cort’s neck and said, “He’s right, baby.”

“If you say so. I’m not so sure.” Cort swallowed the contents of his glass again, and stood to walk to the doorway that led to the main room. He pushed the door open and watched Dalek play with George. The little boy was crouching under the edge of the holotable, then popping up in a different spot. Over and over, Dalek would pop up and yell, “Hewe I am!” The projected image of George turned around on the flat glowing surface and laugh nearly continuously.

“Find a way for them to play for real,” Cort demanded.

“What?”

“Get George a body.”

“We cannot do that. It is against the law,” Kim said.

“What law?”

“After the last great war, before the Cull. That war was mostly robots and drones. World leaders decided it dehumanized war, so they were banned. All artificial intelligences were.”

“I dare anyone to tell me that George’s existence is illegal. Besides, that world is gone now. We are the government. I’m not saying I want combat droids. I’m saying that little boy in there playing with our son gets a body, and soon.”

“There is no way we can transfer a computer that large into a little boy’s body.”

“Then build him an avatar. Something that the computer can control.”

“Are you sure, baby?”

“Yes. Make the avatar.”

“Should we put in safeguards?” Bazal asked.

“Yes,” Kim answered before Cort could.

“I’m okay with safeguards, and you guys can decide about them, but I want him to have a body as soon as possible.”

Cort walked into the other room and as the door closed behind him, Kim said, “What just happened, Bazal?”

Turning his tank, Bazal said, “I think you may have a second child.”

“Fuck.”

“It is another life for him to protect, Kimberly. I think it will be therapeutic for him.”

Bazal was right. That night, for the first time since he had been back from Nill, Cort slept soundly beside Kim. In the living room of the cabin, Tur and the security team watched as Dalek slept on the floor beside the holotable. On the table itself, an image of George was curled up in the same posture.

--

“Cort, this will cause a huge diplomatic stir,” Dar said the next morning.

“Why?”

“The ban on humanoid AIs has been in place for over a century. It is one of the very few things every single nation on Earth agreed to.”

“He’s not on Earth, Dar. He is on Solitude. We aren’t even sure he can ever leave this planet. But I’m not asking for permission, Dar. I am ordering it. This little boy will have body.”

“Cort, George is not a little boy. He is an AI.”

“You didn’t see them playing, Dar. George is a little boy. And with human stimulus, he will be able to grow up with Dar.”

“Dammit, Cort! It is not that simple!”

Cort slammed his fist down. “It’s
exactly
that simple, Dar! If this were Stephen fucking Hawking trapped inside his body and we could give him a working one, we would. This little boy has been trapped in a rock for a hundred million goddamned years. I am building him a fucking body and the whole fucking federation won’t stop me. I am not going to be responsible for yet another unique species becoming extinct!”

“So that’s what this is about,” Dar said from Earth. “You feel guilty about Lex and the others. You think that by protecting George you can make amends for their deaths.”

“Fuck you, Dar. I have killed entire civilizations! One robot isn’t going to clean the blood off my hands. George is getting a body. Addison out.”

Earth

“Gods damn that man!” Dar said as Cort disconnected. The conversation had not gotten far enough for Dar to talk to Cort about the disappearances or the investigator waiting in his outer office.

Touching his flexpad, Dar sighed and said, “Send in Detective Thorn.”

Once greetings were exchanged, Dar asked, “What is your plan?” They believed the next abduction would take place that night in Madrid.

“The building is evacuated and I have every sensor you could provide me with deployed in or around the target area. We will not lose any people there if Pan is right.”

“Hopefully we learn something though.”

“That would be nice,” Thorn said. He looked down at the desk, then back at Dar before saying, “Listen, Superintendent. I heard about your nephew this morning. It is on the news. I just want to say thank you. Thank you for his service.”

Dar turned his chair around to face the window, keeping Thorn from seeing the water in his eyes. “They say he would not have felt anything. As they transitioned, the entire city would have collapsed to something smaller than a speck of dust. They never knew what happened. I have that.”

“Your family has had its share of tragedy sir.”

“All families do. Ours are just more public, Detective Thorn. How is your wife?”

“She is well, sir. She wanted me to thank you for the cigars.”

“Good.” Dar stood and faced Thorn again. “Detective, I am truly sorry, but I should cut this meeting short. I apologize for wasting your time. I will be off planet for a few weeks. I have the memorial service on Sorano’s World to attend, then I will be on Solitude for a few days. Send me a full report as soon you can.”

“Yes, sir. I understand completely. Have a safe trip.”

Solitude

Cort and Dar were walking the catwalk that surrounded the inside of the stockade wall. They were ten meters above the ground and Cort was almost through with a cigar. Dar had finished his several minutes before, and was now just sipping neat whiskey. The entire walk had been spent in silence. Even the dinosaurs on the outside of the barricade seemed to be quiet. Rand was playing with Dalek in a park below them, and Kim was enjoying time alone, a luxury that was all too infrequent.

The only animal near them other than Cort’s wolf was a small raptor that followed Cort every time he walked the catwalk. Bane was a few meters in front of the men and walking casually, seeming to ignore their surroundings. But Cort knew Bane was alert. The wolf always was.

After nearly half and hour of silence, Dar finally spoke. “He loved you. Worshipped you in fact. Not just after you appeared, either. Lex knew every detail of your life. At least every one that we had in the family library. He probably believed the legend about you more than anyone else in the family.”

“He was a good leader. If it had been me instead of him, I had already made sure that he was to take over the Marines.”

“I did not know that,” Dar said. “He would have been honored.”

“He was shocked when I told him. I had actually planned on stepping down after the war, but I can’t now.”

“You will never quit, Cort.”

“I was going to take over the wolf packs, I wasn’t going to quit. But I don’t want to run the military.” Cort stopped and took a slow pull of his shrinking cigar. “I kill. I fight. I protect those that need it. But I’m not a politician, and even Generals have to play politics. Lex didn’t seem to mind it so much. Now it is either Mike Rage or Jane Munroe. He’s too bigoted and she’s too green. So I am stuck with the job for a while longer.”

“You have to pick Munroe,” Dar said. “You and Rage would butt heads too much. Jane will run things your way and she will listen to you. More importantly, she will learn from you. What about command structure though?”

“What do you mean?”

“If someone else in charge, what will you say when they order you to do something you disagree with? You are not the type to take orders.”

“I was once.”

“That was several centuries ago, Cort. And I doubt you were very good at it then, from what I have read about it.”

Cort grunted and carefully cleaned the ashes from the cigar stub. Dar did the same with his long dead stub. The raptor that had been keeping pace with them became excited when they looked at him. Cort flicked his stub over the railing and the three meter long reptile leapt for it, catching it in the air. After it finished swallowing the tobacco, it looked at Dar and waited for its second treat. Once Dar’s stub was also gone the animal walked into the jungle, looking back once, seemingly to make sure it hadn’t miscounted the humans.

Dar looked at Cort and said, “There is something I need to talk to you about. People have been disappearing on Earth.”

Cort looked at him and asked, “What do you mean?”

Dar explained about the missing the people, Detective Thorn, Pan’s input, and the plan of action. When he was finished, Cort asked him to start including him in all communications about it, and Dar agreed.

As they neared the end of the loop which ended above the family quarters, Dar asked, “So when do I meet George?”

When Dar awoke the next morning, there was a message from Thorn waiting for him. Activating his comm, he contacted the detective. “What happened?”

“I lost half of my people and some civilians,” Thorn replied from Earth. “Doctor Pan says it looks like they increased the diameter of the effect until they found humans.”

“How many did they get this time?”

“A little over one hundred from a bar next door to the target building, mostly men. Plus thirty of my people.”

“Do you have any thoughts?”

“Just guesses, really. I think they have quotas. They need a certain number of us, so they increase the size of the effect until they reach that number.”

“But they have taken many more than one hundred before?” Dar said.

“That is true, but Pan’s people think there is a minimum size of the effect. If they hit a heavily populated area, or someplace with a crowd, they could take well over the minimum.”

“That makes sense,” Dar replied. “What is your next move?”

“Pan’s team is working on the next location. I need people I can send in though. People who have a chance to help. Would General Addison send me some Marines?”

“I am sure he will. I will be talking to him in a few minutes at breakfast and will update him. I will send you a message later today.”

“Thank you, sir.” Thorn hesitated and said, “I watched the memorial service, Superintendent. It was very nice. My wife cried.”

“Thank you for that, Thorn. I will talk to you soon.”

“Goodbye, sir.”

A few minutes later, Dar was sipping coffee and updating Cort. The General agreed to send a company of Marines to Thorn, but when he suggested he might go as well, Kim stepped in. “You most certainly will not,” she said as put bacon on four plates.

Cort was standing at the toaster waiting for it to finish and turned around. “What? I can’t fight anymore? Good luck with that, Kim.”

“I’m not saying that. But it sounds like you are sending a hundred people to their probable deaths. So I am telling you right now, you are not going.”

“I’m not special, Kim. And you know I won’t ask people to do something I won’t.”

“Nobody doubts that Cort, but Kim is right,” Dar said. “You can’t be a part of every single little problem.”

The toaster chimed and Cort began putting the hot bread on plates. “Dar, if you think several thousand humans disappearing without a trace is a little problem, you are the one who needs to talk to Bazal.”

“That is not what I meant and you know it, Cort. But you have to delegate. And no one thinks you would not go. Gods no! You spend more time in medical beds recovering from combat injuries than any Marine you have.”

“None of that matters,” Kim interrupted as she dropped eggs into the crackling bacon grease. “That is not the problem. The problem is the people left behind. Send people who do not have family ties.”

“So I can’t have married men and women,
or
parents in the military?”

“You are being stupid, baby. Usually when you send people out, there is a good chance of getting them back, or at least of there being closure. That is important to the people they leave behind. This is probably a suicide mission.”

Cort asked, “So tell me what you are going allow me to do, Mr. Addison.”

“Send single people, and send them with very powerful comms. That way, if they have the ability to act wherever they reappear…”

“
If
they reappear,” Cort interrupted.

“We have to assume they do,” Dar said.

Kim poured orange juice and said, “As I was saying before you interrupted me,
General
, they need the ability to try and communicate when they reappear. But if they do not come back, there won’t be people here who wait for them forever. Go get Dalek.”

“I was wrong,” Dar said as Cort left the room.

“About what?”

“He
can
take orders.”

--

“I have a surprise for you, George.” Turning to Dalek, Cort added, “It will be a surprise for you too, son.”

Cort and Kim were standing in front of George’s holotable, with Dalek standing on a low stool next to them. Tur and the rest of Dalek’s bodyguards were a few meters away on the other side of the table.

“What is it, General?” the projection asked.

“Just a moment and you will know. Doctor Tsao needs to turn your table off for a few minutes first. Bazal will still talk to you while the table is off.”

“What is the suwpwise, Poppa? Tell me!”

“Just a minute Dalek,” Kim said. “Let Daddy finish.”

George looked anxiously at Bazal who thought,
It is okay, George. None of us will let you be harmed. The General cares about you.

Are you sure?

I am sure. Dalek likes you, too. That is even more reason for the General to protect you.

Okay.

“He is ready, Doctor.”

Tsao disconnected the table and pulled a small, cube shaped module from the its data interface. The link cube, as the module was known, served to connect George's massive mainframe and the holotable. Now it would serve the same purpose for the avatar. Tsao walked to the other side of the room and put the cube into a similar interface on the avatar that had been prepared for George. Dalek had not noticed it yet and yelled, “Geowge!”

As the toddler jumped down from his stool and started to run toward Tsao, Cort reached down and picked Dalek up from behind. “Hold it, Cowboy. Let Doctor Tsao turn him on. And it will take a few minutes to make sure everything works okay. Then the two of you can play.”

“Huwwy Doctow Tsao!” Dalek screamed.

It had already been decided that Tsao would only verify that George could operate the avatar safely, then let the boy/computer learn on his own. There were robotics techs nearby, as well as the suit’s designers, but for his first few hours in the body George would only interact with the people he knew. The one exception would be Dar, who Dalek had told George about already. But even he wouldn’t meet the boy until George was ready.

Doctor Tsao and the robotics people performed one last system check after the link cube was placed, then the techs left the room. The safety features were extensive. There was a manual switch on George’s back that Dalek’s security team and key people on Solitude would know about, as well as a small explosive charge in the socket which held the link cube that could instantly detach George’s control of the avatar if necessary.

The avatar’s musculature and sensory inputs were also heavily limited. It would have no more physical, aural, visual, or tactile abilities than the human boy who was to be his companion. In every way, even mass, the avatar would have the same limitations as any human child. The robotics people had wanted to give George more abilities, but Cort had nixed the idea, at least until George was able to develop a personality and it was determined that he was no threat to the current inhabitants of the planet.

Finally, Tsao sat George’s avatar in a chair and activated it.

George’s eyes opened and blinked twice. He turned his head to take in the room, clearly confused. He was about to ask what had happened when he saw the holotable. It was then that he looked down at his body. At first, he didn’t comprehend what had happened. While his personality was very undeveloped, the logic and vast intelligence of his memory quickly realized he himself had changed.

Looking up at Cort, George said, “You gave me a body.”

The boy looked back down at his hands as Cort replied, “Yes we did. We would like to release you from your underground prison, but that just isn’t possible. You are too vast. But we can help you to experience the planet around you the same way we do. There are some rules George, but we can go over those later. Right now, just enjoy your new abilities.”

George looked back up and said, “You gave me a body! Bazal is right! You care about me! Those who came before you did not care about me, General. They used me to escape this world, but they left me here. I have been alone for so long.”

“I know what they did to you. So long as you are a part of our society, we will never abandon you. You are a part of the Ares Federation.”

George looked at Bazal, who thought back to him,
Yes, he means it George. You are with family here. Just as I am.

The avatar stood up and slowly walked across the room. Unknown to it, every H’uuman in the room was ready to key its power if it made any move of aggression toward their liege. It was soon clear from his stare though that George was walking to Cort. The large man handed Dalek to Kim and squatted in front of the android he had demanded be made. “What do you think of it, George?”

“I do not know what to say, General. You have given me freedom in a way I could never imagine. Thank you, General Addison. I am in your debt.”

Cort was perplexed by George. He tried but was unable to imagine Dalek using a phrase like ‘I am in your debt’. On the other hand, George had never seen before. He had never touched before. And perhaps most importantly, he had never been loved before. It was the last point that touched Cort at the core of his being. He felt some deep connection to George for that, some connection he did not understand. Possibly it was the years of being alone in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, or maybe it went further back to some repressed memory he couldn’t quite touch. In the end, George expressed what they were both feeling by walking into Cort’s arms and hugging the human father the way he had seen Dalek do so many times.

The H’uumans behind George were touched by the redness of Cort’s eyes. The moment was lost when Dalek squirmed out of Kim’s arms and ran to his friend. “Geowge! Come play. Let’s go outside!”

Two of the four H’uumans inside the cabin stepped in front of the boys and opened the doors. The other two followed them, with Tsao, Cort, Bazal, and Kim close behind. In the kitchen, the robotics team members were watching every move made by the avatar. One tech tapped another’s flexpad, transferring ten credits. The act settled a bet and a debate. The winner had known George would be able to walk, while the loser thought it would take time for the avatar to learn how to.

“I told you, man,” the winner said. “George is smart and he has been watching and learning all this time. Easiest ten I have ever earned.”

Outside, Dar was on a bench in the yard. He saw Dalek run outside with another boy and the two headed straight for the rope swing that was hanging from a tree that was ten meters from where Dar sat. It was only when Dar looked back to see Cort and the others walking out of the cabin that he realized the second boy was George. Cort saw the astonishment in Dar’s eyes as the physically older man looked back to the boys.

Modern man didn’t grow up with robots and androids in the same way that Cort did. To them, robots were simplistic, single minded machines that handled mundane tasks and did things that humans could not. But to Cort, androids were Mr. Data and Merlin Athrawes and Astro Boy and the Cylons. That is, they were human. Or at least nearly human.

Dar tried to remain objective, but no matter how he looked at George, he saw a little boy. The same laughter, the same energy, and the same joy. For a moment he thought maybe Cort was playing some sort of joke. That he had brought another boy here to make some sort of unknown point to Dar. But soon, as they ran and played, Dar saw sweat from on Dalek’s skin. Looking at George he saw none.

When Cort sat beside him on the bench, Dar said, “It’s beautiful and terrifying at the same time.”

“If it works out, he will regularly be upsized to match Dalek’s growth.”

Dar said, “I am not sure I even need to tell anyone about him. I doubt anyone who saw him would see a difference between him and a human child.”

“I’m ordering you to tell everyone, Dar. If I have to fight a war over him, I would rather it be now than later.”

“A war, Cort? It will not come to that.”

“Maybe not. But it might. There are still religious nuts out there who will see him as some sort of evil.”

“Would you fight a war over him, though?”

“I would kill anyone who tried to harm him unnecessarily. As long as he does not work against us, I will protect him.”

“And what if he does work against you? Or worse, what if he hurts Dalek?”

“Last night a new program was pushed to your flexpad. Your version of the program can shut him down instantly, either by throwing his switch or by blowing his control module. Our version of it,” Cort indicated the security team and Kim, “can be operated by verbal command. I have made sure he can’t hurt us. And I will protect him with the same dedication.”

“Okay. I think I can sell that,” Dar replied.

Cort called the boys over and before he could speak, Dalek said, “Geowge, that is Gwandpa.”

Dar reached out and shook the boy’s hand. “I am Dar Sike, George. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Hello, Dar Sike. How should I address you?”

“To be honest, I have not thought about that, George.” Dar was even more confused. The little boy of two minutes ago was now addressing him in a very courteous manner. “Perhaps you can decide that.”