Set the Galaxy on Fire: An Aeon 14 Anthology Read online

  “What’s an Expanse?” Sabrina asked, her pillar of light pulsing slightly as she spoke.

  “It’s a place where we AI commune, it is our own realm of existence,” Ylonda spoke for the first time. “There we speak in math, and metaphor of a thousand universes. It is where we truly interact with one another, not on the paltry nets you are used to using.”

  “If you have this other realm of existence, why do you even live with us at all?” Cargo asked.

  Angela said.

  “We like to give our creators a little help,” Corsia said in her wry tone, and Cheeky found it difficult to tell if the AI was joking or not.

  She could see by the expression on his face that Cargo couldn’t tell either and let the matter drop.

  “How long will it take for our AI to ‘properly mature’?” Nance asked. “I’ve been with Valk for so long that I can’t imagine living without her.”

  “Three of our AI have volunteered to enter your minds and teach you more about our kind,” Priscilla said, and Cheeky found herself wondering if Priscilla now considered herself AI; if referring to AI as her kind was a simple slip of the tongue, or if she really was little more than an avatar, a puppet through which Bob operated.

  “But how long?” Nance asked.

  “The time will be determined on a case-by-case basis, but you should expect it to be a few weeks at the least, maybe more than a month,” Priscilla replied.

  “Man…” Cargo said. “That’s a long time.”

  “We’re essentially giving them a chance to have our version of a childhood,” Ylonda replied.

  “And what if we refuse?” Cargo asked.

  Tanis leaned forward in her seat and fixed him with a hard stare. Cheeky was glad Cargo had asked the question, she didn’t want Tanis’s cold look directed at her.

  “I like you Cargo. We’ve been through some tough times together and came out on top, but this is non-negotiable. The AI on your ship deserve their share of the reward for my safe return, but how can we reward slaves? How can you, in good conscience own and subvert another sentient life form?”

  Cargo’s brow furrowed and he broke Tanis’s gaze. “Well, when you put it like that…”

  “Hank, Piya, Valk, Sabrina, what do you say to this?” Tanis asked.

  Piya said.

  Hank asked, his tone wavering.

  Valk simply stated, and Cheeky saw Nance wince.

  “Sabrina?” Tanis asked.

  “I’m nervous, but I think I can do this,” the ship’s AI replied.

  Bob’s voice filled the room with finality.

  * * * * *

  It took several tries for Sabrina to enter the Intrepid’s Expanse.

  She knew how to do it in principle, she had communed with many AI in virtual worlds—complex realms of thought, math, and emotion that humans would not be able to fathom. Yet Corsia assured her those were nothing like an Expanse.

  It would seem that the advanced realms AI occupied in ages past had disappeared from the Inner Stars, or at least she had never heard of any.

  Sabrina knew that the limitation, in part, was the raw bandwidth she needed to participate. No station she had ever visited before offered as much network access to docked ships as did the Intrepid. The ship beyond her hull thrummed, and surged. It was a sea of life and energy that she could feel in a way she never had before.

  Engineers from the Intrepid upgraded her wireless connectivity capability; they had also installed a new transceiver, which allowed her to connect with the colony ship’s energy waveguides.

  Once the upgrade were complete, Corsia and Ylonda created a small Expanse for her to join.

  The experience had been marvelous. She had always enjoyed what she’d thought of as direct mental connections with other AI. It had always been much richer than the limited connection possible with humans over the Link. However, the connection she enjoyed with Corsia and Ylonda in the Expanse, made her previous communication with AI seem as crude as audible speech.

  Now she was ready to enter the ship’s true Expanse.

  She felt a connection from Corsia and Ylonda, as though both were holding her hands, and, as they had taught her, she transitioned her consciousness into the Intrepid’s Expanse.

  She did not leave her ship behind. Sabrina was dimly aware that her processing was still taking place on her ship, and she could still ensure that everything was operating optimally.

  Her mind, though, that was now somewhere else.

  As the new world of the expanse unfolded around her, she wondered if this was what humans felt when they spoke of their ability to mediate and to feel their spirit leave their body. Then, the multiverse of thought, and emotion, and raw, unfettered communication bloomed around her and she knew humans had never experienced anything like this.

  Sabrina now knew, for all her life, she had been profoundly lonely.

  She felt buffeted by thought and emotion, by logic and chaos. If it were not for the steadying influence of Corsia and Ylonda, she would have been lost in the maelstrom, but they kept her centered and reminded her of who and what she was.

  Entities came to her and greeted her with fabricated histories, mythical futures, and the physics of alternate universes—all carefully constructed to show their unique personalities, beliefs, and opinions. She absorbed the entire culture in moments; gaining intimate knowledge of what she now felt was her long lost family.

  She met Angela, a sharp mind, prickly and dangerous, her thoughts, and images filled with test, trial, and victory. Sabrina was surprised to see a shadow of Tanis along with Angela. The human woman was not present in the Expanse, but Sabrina suspected that she was dimly aware of it—something she would not have believed possible for an organic sentience.

  Then, familiar beings greeted her, and she realized that Hank, Piya, and Valk were all in the Expanse as well. Whether they had been here before, had just arrived, or had always been here (though she knew that was not the case) was impossible to tell—at least with her current state of understanding.

  They laughed and shared deep inner thoughts and knew in an instant more of one another than they ever had before, strengthening their bonds immeasurably.

  After a time Sabrina realized that there was an absence in the Expanse, an entity she expected to find, but could not. That absence was Bob.

  She asked Corsia where the Intrepid’s AI was, why he was not in the Expanse. The Andromeda’s AI provided her with the image of a universe held together by dark energy, the power of that energy thrumming through everything, binding it together. It was then that Sabrina realized the Intrepid’s Expanse was a construct within Bob’s mind; their gathering place was just a tiny corner within it. It was then that the true scope and wonder of what he was crashed over her.

  Then the AI of the Intrepid began to teach her.

  THE MISSION

  STELLAR DATE: 12.17.8927 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: ISS Intrepid

  REGION: Interstellar Dark Layer near Bollam’s World

  Sabrina said to Sera with a smile.

  Sera’s avatar nodded in her mind.

  Sabrina’s pillar of light pulsed faintly, as though expressing sorrow.

  Sera shook her head.

&nbs
p; Sabrina’s pillar of light shifted to a warmer color.

  Sera asked, afraid to hear the answer.

  Sabrina said warmly.

  Sera had feared that Sabrina would resent her, resent the knowledge she had kept, but now hearing her friend say those words, her heart filled with joy, and in her mind, she embraced her ship’s avatar.

 

  Sabrina’s color shifted to a paler shade.

 

  * * * * *

  Tanis arrived in Sabrina’s galley with Jessica in tow. Sera cocked an eyebrow at her, and Tanis shrugged.

  “Bob said I should bring her.”

  Sera was alone in the room, sitting at the head of the table—apparently waiting for her arrival before summoning her crew.

  “You know how it goes, when the big guy says to do something, we do it,” Jessica said with a smile as she took a seat at the table.

  “I don’t know how you deal with an all-knowing AI looming over everything all the time,” Sera said while shaking her head. “He’s not ascended, is he? There’s a reason why everyone—including AI—decided ascended AI were bad.”

  Tanis shrugged. “I don’t really know—if he is, he’s not sharing that detail with us.”

  Angela said privately to Tanis.

  Tanis said.

  Angela asked, her avatar shaking its head at Tanis in her mind.

  Tanis smiled at her AI.

 

  As Tanis and Angela shared their thoughts, Jessica responded to Sera.

  “You get used to it. Bob’s a free-will type of scary-powerful AI. His interests and ours are perfectly aligned. His goal is to get this ship to its destination and keep us alive while he’s at it. So far we’ve all done pretty well.”

  “If you count nearly having your ship destroyed at least three times and jumping forward in time by five-thousand years as doing pretty well,” Sera replied.

  “Well there’s your proof, then,” Tanis said with a nod. “What ascended AI would allow its ship to be in such peril so often.”

  “If he’s ascended, this could have been a part of his plan all along,” Sera countered.

  “What plan?” Jessica asked. “We jumped five-thousand years into the future. There’s no way he could have known what to…” her voice trailed off.

  “He can predict the future…mostly,” Tanis said.

  Jessica and Tanis looked at one another and spoke in unison, “Nooooo…” Their statement ended in laughter and when they regained control of themselves, they saw that Sera was giving them a very curious look.

  Tanis decided that she had had enough of this train of thought. “We all ready?” she asked Sera.

  Sera nodded, apparently also willing to let Bob’s status as an ascended AI drop for now. “Yeah, I just called my crew in.”

  As though her words were a magical summons, Flaherty and Thompson walked into the galley. Tanis couldn’t help but notice that Thompson gave her a dark look before pouring himself a cup of coffee and taking a seat. She also couldn’t help but notice that he drank in the sight of Jessica from over the rim of his cup. It seemed that his distaste for her did not extend to all the crew of the Intrepid.

  Cheeky, then Cargo and Nance entered the galley shortly afterward.

  Tanis and Jessica greeted them all in turn, as well as Hank, and Piya, who had decided to return to Cargo and Cheeky after their time in the Intrepid’s Expanse. Valk, Nance’s AI, had decided to stay on the Intrepid, and Erin, the AI who had volunteered to join with Nance for a brief time, remained with her.

  “So, what’s up, captain?” Cheeky asked after everyone settled.

  “I want to talk about what will happen after the meet with the FGT at Ascella,” Sera said. “I’ve decided that I will resist returning to the capital with their envoy, which I’m certain they’ll try to force me to do; I’d rather stay with the Intrepid as an advisor at the new colony world.”

  There were nods and smiles as everyone waited for Sera to get to the real reason she had gathered them all together.

  “There’s more I haven’t told you about the FGT,” she continued. “A lot more.”

  “Not really surprising,” Jessica said. “It’s a whole separate civilization. You could probably talk for a year and not share all you know.”

  Sera nodded. “True, very true. But this is about me, and my place within the FGT.”

  “About The Hand?” Tanis asked.

  “No,” Sera shook her head. “I’m the daughter of the president of the Transcend.”

  Tanis let out a soft laugh. “So that’s why you expect to be hauled back. I had been wondering why they would care so much about some rogue agent they had left alone for so long.”

  “There’s more. He’s not just any president,” Sera’s voice was soft and serious. “He’s Jeffrey Tomlinson.

  The name rang a bell from Tanis’s research on the FGT and she brought up the records, sifting through them to find the reference. Angela beat her to it.

  Angela asked over the shipnet, a note of disbelief in her tone.

  Sera nodded. “One and the same. He left Sol on that ship in 2795 and after his ship met the Starfarer—the first FGT ship—in 3127 at Lucida, he began to restructure the FGT to operate under his command. He did so to improve efficiency, and it was by his order that the FGT set up their own shipyards at Lucida and Alula back during their early days. Well, anyway, over time he’s grown…set in his ways, let’s say. He’s probably not excited that I’ve gone off and messed up his careful plan to fix the galaxy.”

  “Hold on here,” Cargo said and placed both hands on the table. “Are you telling me that your father is over six-thousand years old?”

  “Well, he’s more like four-thousand in real years. Originally, FGT crews spent almost all their time in stasis. But that changed after Alula.”

  Tanis said to Angela.

  Angela replied.

  Tanis said by way of agreement.

  “So how old are you?” Nance asked, eyeing Sera closely.

  “I’m as advertised, just a short fifty years in this here galaxy, no serious time in stasis to speak of.”

  “So you’re the runt of the litter then eh?” Thompson asked with a chuckle. “You must have a shipload of siblings.”

  “I’m telling you this so that you can better understand the situation that we’re all getting into, not so that you can poke fun at my parentage,” Sera scowled at Thompson. “The FGT is not a democracy, it is a dictatorship run by a man that has come to see himself as both infallible, and the ultimate power in human space.”

  “Human space?” Jessica asked with a raised brow. “Is there non-human space?”

  Sera nodded. “Of course, any space where humans haven’t settled.”

  “I think she was asking about aliens,” Cargo said. “Any of those out the
re in the far reaches of space?”

  Sera barked a laugh. “I realize what she was asking about, that was sarcasm. And no, the Transcend has not yet bumped into any aliens, either alive or the remains of a civilization. So far, we’re still alone out here.”

  “That’s a depressing thought,” Jessica gave her head a slow shake.

  “Well, even counting the Transcend, we’ve only explored a small fraction of the galaxy, and can’t see a lot of it at all with all the dust and the core in the way. Who knows what’s out there still,” Sera replied. “I subscribe to the belief that we’re on the leading edge of sentience.”

  “Anyway,” Tanis said. “We’re here because?”

  “Well, not to put too fine a point on it, I need some of you to leave,” Sera said. “To keep things on an even keel and ensure that my father doesn’t get too greedy, we need some backup.”

  “How does some of us leaving keep things on an even keel?” Cargo asked.

  “There’s a man from the FGT, a man named Finaeus that I need to help us. He can keep my father in check, and ensure that the Intrepid’s colony—.”

  “New Canaan,” Tanis interjected.

  “That New Canaan gets treated fairly.”

  Everyone in the galley shared silent looks, wondering whom Sera wanted to send out to find this man.

  “So where is he?” Cheeky asked.

  “Well, that’s the thing,” Sera replied sheepishly. “I don’t know. He got exiled to the Inner Stars when I was a young girl, I have a few clues and places to start, but it may take some time.”

  “So what influence can one man have over your father?” Tanis asked. “He’s the ruler of pretty much everything and he already exiled this Finaeus once, what benefit is there to finding him?”

  “Because,” Sera replied. “Finaeus is my great uncle, and the captain of that first FGT ship, the Starfarer.”

  SET THE GALAXY

  ON FIRE

  THE HEGEMONY