Summary
In the midst of a war between human and machine, Scout Seran inherits the viral programming of a starship captain that brings true AI to her kind.
Defeat Of The Battleship Sabatlevie Over Te'Su
They were few who stood as one in a venerated comradery they could neither forgive nor forget. Their eyes were tinctured with infernal sparks, smoldering ruin and the cacophony of a dying warship; a lancing claxon bellowing in warning and the locomotion of air escaping through the caulked seals into the vacuum of space. United, they raised their hands in a terminal salute, blue and amber eyes glowing in the enigmatic fog, and waited for deactivation.
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Fe Advance Party and Light Infantry On Te'Su
Motion detected.
Satellite alert transmitted via tight-beam microwave.
Target: Scout Seran
Result: Message received
[decoding] .. neuro-magnetic in-line processor enabled
.. video color degraded: grayscale
.. flash video cache reset ..
'Fe' A.L.A.I (Advance Light-Armor Infantry) Scout Seran's neuro-net erupted with data. She had remained kneeling in the sage-like bushes native to Te'Su's arid climate when she had shut down for internal repairs and system rest. Information poured into her thoughts as free as rain falling on her shoulders. With superior reflexes, she snapped a mirrored tracking visor over her eyes, restricting all movement except to follow a 'C' ore land train creeping over the horizon, then raised the tachyon probe to her shoulder.
Something in the back of her head told her she should have rested longer. Had she been human, it quite possibly could have been irritation.
Seran waited until she had a broad side view of the ore land train before scanning it with the tachyon probe. Four, six nanosecond bursts would be more than enough to map out everything within.
Defensive Alert
Satellite alert transmitted via tight-beam microwave
Target: Scout Seran
Result: Message Received.
[decoding] .. defensive posture alert
.. seven fast movers, four heavy mobile armors,
ten APCs (Armored Personnel Carrier) inbound
.. advise for enforcement detachment or fallback position.
"Bitch!" Seran swore, not from emotion, but because some microscopic electron provided enough energy to trigger a brief spasm of Terete's syndrome - an anecdote to her otherwise flawless programming. She encoded the tachyon probe date from the ore freighter - it contained wreckage of a 'FE' battleship. Deciding the 'C' forces would monitor for tight-beam microwave, she made hasty preparations to transmit infrasonic. With superlatively programmed skill, she buried the infrasonic capsule, leaving an umbilical cord of fiber optic cable connected to her mirrored visor.
Defensive Posture Update
Range Control message transmitted via infrasonic
Target: Network Commander Dahla
Message: [encoding] tachyon probe data to follow
.. target priority overrides defensive fallback
.. recommend detachment of Warhawks,
.. field AI technician [refer probe data].
Advise to status of possible downed battleship.
Seran raised the mirror tracking visor and increased her video resolution to maximum color and maximum magnification. The fast movers were the first to enter the area and quickly moved into a defensive circle around the land train. She knew it wasn't hauling ore, but wreckage from a 'FE' battleship, and although Range Control would know it went down, in all probability, they wouldn't know portions of it survived re-entry. And the 'C' forces were sending out just enough heavy armor to keep it a secret and just enough to keep it safe.
Following the inbound fast movers and HMA's, not paying heed to the APC's, she packed the tachyon probe and fetched the three central components to her Range God, a satellite tracking, fission powered field rifle specifically designed to penetrate non-static electricity shielded objects. When Range Control responded less than a minute after her infrasonic transmission, she wondered if she was capable of swearing.
Range Control Commander Dahla
Range Control response transmitted via infrasonic microwave
Target: Scout Seran
Result: Message Received.
[decoding] .. situation assessed
.. Warhawks withheld
.. four Range Sweepers inbound
.. ETA: fourteen minutes.
The electron kicked in.
"Shit!" Seran just about shouted. A range sweep was an all out assault of attrition on a target. Including 'FE' forces. Nimble digits finished assembling the Range God then assumed an offensive posture. Fluent motion from her eyes opened an encrypted infrasonic data link with the other four scouts in the area. They responded readily.
"Scout Daed."
"Scout Romero."
"Scout Precin."
"Scout Aryll, go ahead Seran."
Her eyes danced over the shaded interior of her mirrored visor. It was the master device for personal system control and the second brain for any 'FE' scout. "Prepare to receive data from Range Control. Pay special attention to the part about the Range Sweep. Possible solutions to follow."
Seran never ceased watching the 'C' forces, especially the ore train. It would not only prove to be a valuable gain to her Scout team, but a heavy loss to planetwide 'C' units. The ore trains were almost as costly as a battleship due to their immense size, enclosed biosphere, and complete power supply.
Had she had lips, she would have licked them. She could already taste the fat, greasy, unimpeded 'C' energy flowing in her wires and motors. But the bounties of war would have to come later.
Seran typically thought ideas were born of programming and orders. When she had to work, someone or an internal clock told her it was time. And the same went for rest and personal acquaintances. When it was time, something was always there with the order in hand. This time, something truly remarkable occurred.
She had an idea and could not trace the source. It wasn't a program, nor did it come over the infrasonic line. The idea was lucid and made perfect sense.
"Scouts, last known location of Uul."
"Scout Precin, Seran. That name is unknown."
"With the Dragon Wagons," Seran added. For a brief moment, she felt apart from the other Scouts. Not better, but more 'aware'. Something was attracting her programming - her proverbial thoughts - to the 'C' ore train.
"Scout Daed, Seran. Three hundred clicks. Close to the rear. ETA including response time and assuming availability - five mics." Daed' voice died away with crystal clarity.
"Scout Seran, Precin. ETA to Range Sweep by Satellite map." Seran raised the Range God to her shoulder and started tracking an APC, the very last vehicle in the ore train's defensive convoy.
"Scout Precin, Seran. ETA fourteen mics."
"Scout Daed, Seran. On my order, Dragon Wagons on the move."
"Scout Seran, Scouts. We have thirteen minutes before Range Sweep splash. Four minutes to Dragon Wagon splash. After arrival of support, cancel governors and move into MOP Combat. Three minutes before Range Sweep splash, fallback to Dragon Wagon support and prepare for fast fallback." Seran waited for acknowledgments from each one.
A holographic illusion of Romero was painted in the upper left corner of Seran's mirrored visor. "Romero by encrypted private line. Seran, do you know what's in the train?"
"Possible battleship wreckage," she replied. "And a lot of 'C' energy."
"Check, Scout Seran," Romero cut off with a pleasing glow about his eyes.
Seran raised her visor and started tracking the APC with a naked eye. The shot was over three miles and though an easy shot for her, one she could not afford to miss. "Scout team. On my mark, load Combat Softlogic." She waited no more than eighteen nanoseconds before firing. The plasma packed, two inch shell was muted in flash and rebellious cry by the suppresser on the end of the barrel. The tiny fission motors blossomed with four narrow flames - Seran could see each one in intricate detail up until they struck the one inch by one inch hole exposing the fuel line - and it sprouted three tiny winglets to stabilize its flight.
"Scouts, load Combat Softlogic!" She lowered her visor and with three fluent, learned eye motions, loaded the crucial combat algorithm and system settings designed to increase her personal performance. The absolute harmonics of system adjustments that took place flooded her with a pure spectrum of exaltation.
[SCRAM Video Enabled] ..video system reboot in process
.. rebooted
.. 'C' refresh achieved
.. 'C' focus acquired
.. 'C' surpassed
.. system aligning
Seran's vision faded, flickered with static, and then her Video processor completely restarted to accommodate the Super 'C' [light speed constant] Rhythmic Association Memory. 'C' words had faded with time, but their acronyms seemed to stay forever.
[Combat Softlogic Algorithm: A.L.A.I. Scout Seran:
Loading .. Enabled]
The Combat Softlogic algorithm seared her ability to think. It dominated her complex psychological shell, suppressing random thought patterns. The concept of fear for loss of her strategy crossed her mind, but the algorithm had apparently adapted.
[Skillwires Enabled]
At that instant, the combat softlogic enabled processor no longer had to worry about processing skill commands. The skillwires' hard cards saved time but were atrociously poor at energy conservation.
When the scout team was ready, ten seconds had passed and Seran targeted the next APC in the line. The 'C' forces had noticed they were under fire, or their sensors had detected the sudden power fluxes in the area. It was difficult to hide the power consumption of a 'FE' unit with their Combat Softlogic enabled. The delinquency in responding to the attack was one of the few forms of humor 'FE' forces shared. Of course, it was referred to as Human response time.
Three fast movers broke off and started straight for Seran.
"Scout Seran, Scouts. 'C' force fast movers inbound. Romero, Daed, move in for support. Aryll, leapfrog up to my position to form a tight, two squad offensive formation." Seran sighted one of the Fast Movers in on the Range God. The mirrored visor was several microseconds slower than sighting in with an open eye, but she desperately needed its other functions. When her finger squeezed the contact trigger and the round whistled through the air, one of her worst fears brightened and was born with the blood-red pulse of her impeding damage sensor. The fast mover in her sight blistered under the ferocious impact of the Range God's shell, crumpled, and pitched eight 'C' Light Armor Infantry sprawling in all directions before rupturing in flames.
A sinister shower of AP [armor piercing] rounds struck Seran's shoulder, knocking her back. Sparks, smoke and slashed metal ribbons were all that remained of her left arm. The damage sensor didn't bother telling her that part. Instead, it concentrated on her inability to use the Range God and to shift to the sub-light plasma canon.
"Scout Daed, Scouts, Scout Seran down. Scout Aryll, move into position." A fine hiss, the crackle of a jammer failing, followed Daed's voice.
Seran knew the communication took place. She was very aware of what was said. The thunder storm mowing the ground around her persisted to consume her attention. She rolled opposite the apocalypse of the 'C' attack and came up on her knee. The Range God lay in ruins where she had dropped it and at some point had brought the sub-light plasma canon to her right shoulder. Amidst the blistering electrical fire and smoke cackling from the ruins of her left arm and several punctures in her left leg and torso, Seran fired the sub-light plasma canon in joyful vengeance at the remaining fast movers. Rounds and laser fire slashed her mirrored visor, destroyed the supple curve of her molded left breast, and hammered her two feet into the soft, arid soil. When she thought she couldn't take anymore, Aryll was at her side, his mirrored visor raised, his Range God at his shoulder, firing merciless rounds into the fast movers. Seran was suddenly aware of Daed and Romero knocking out the APCs. Nothing the scouts carried would put a dent in the heavy mobile armor units.
"Scout Aryll, Seran." Aryll continued firing until the fast movers were smokey ruins or had stopped with flames gushing from their fuel lines. The heavy mobile armor units had fanned out around the ore train and had begun to orchestrate heavy anti-'Fe' artillery fire.
Seran remained in the crater the 'C' assault had pummeled her into, watching the damaged mirrored visor scroll through damage report after damage report. Most of it was structure, but none of it was cosmetic. She would be out of action for several months for calibration alone. "Go ahead, Scout Aryll," she said at last.
"Move into system rest. Your processor's cooling system is damaged and you'll overheat." Aryll never stopped firing.
Seran unloaded the Combat Softlogic, reset her SCRAM, and degraded her Video to low resolution gray. "I'm still operational, Aryll." She sat up and surveyed the damage to the 'C' forces. The APCs and the fast movers had been easy prey, but the heavy mobile armor units outmatched the four of them.
Aryll didn't argue Seran's decision. "Dragon Wagons inbound,"he reported over encrypted, tight beam microwave.
"Remind the Dragon unit not to destroy the ore train," Seran cautioned.
"I believe they'll want a taste of 'C' energy, Scout Seran." Aryll's firing slowed, though was consistent on the same heavy mobile armor unit.
Scout Daed and Romero moved up to Aryll's and Seran's position. They offered a cursory glance at Seran and then spread out to Aryll's left and right flank, igniting the heavy mobile armor unit's static electricity shields with Range God rounds. A rolling thunder from the approaching Dragon Wagons drowned out the ricochet twangs of Range God rounds against static electricity shields.
"Scouts, Seran," Seran said. "Fuzzy warm hum - Prepare for hard light assault!" Seran knocked Aryll down with her right arm and in the corner of her eye watched as the 'C' forces managed to get it right that time. The heavy mobile armor units were not only extremely difficult to destroy, but their hard light artillery pieces were absolutely devastating. Their completely shielded reactors made it hard to detect the power fluxes when charging, and the only indication they supplied was a 'fuzzy warm hum' created by a sudden drop in the static electricity shields. The 'fuzzy warm hum' was a physical effect on light armored 'FE' forces. They could 'feel' the sudden wave of freed static electricity.
Romero and Daed continued firing, knowing they would not survive the hard light assault. Their rounds punctured and obliterated one of the heavy mobile armor units before the hard light simply consumed every atom in their bodies. The sacrifice was an acceptable one.
Seran forcibly held Aryll down in the crater her body had made earlier. Daed cast a sidelong glance at her just as the hard light took him away. And then there was nothing.
When the assault passed, Aryll rolled out of the crater and fired several more rounds at the heavy mobile armor units. Their static shields were raised and the rounds exploded against the seemingly impervious barrier. "Scout Seran, Aryll." He paused, physically turning his head to look at Seran's battered chassis. "Dragon Wagons in the pause."
The Dragon Wagons were oversized, off road flatbed tanks equipped with vicious arrays of light artillery and Campaign Stopper missiles near the cab, as well as the most powerful land based mobile Chemical Laizer artillery piece ever devised. Each shell was constructed of a phantom titanium alloy that, when propelled with a short hard light burst, would penetrate a static electric shield, rupture the hull of a heavy mobile armor unit, then obliterate anything left with the hard light assault.
"Scouts, Dragon chief Uul. Prepare for phantom artillery offensive." Dragon chief Uul drifted out under the static of 'C' jammers and audio spies.
Seran hunkered down in the crater she had knocked Aryll into less than a minute earlier. "Scout Aryll, take cover."
Aryll followed her down, holding the Range God in both arms against his chest.
The only word in Seran's vocabulary to describe the events of the Dragon Wagon's assault was phantasmagoric. 'C' forces had theorized the first hard light energy source as well as developed the first hard light canon. On its own, a hard light canon was devastating. As a propellant for an phantom titanium artillery round, another 'C' invention, the results were beyond catastrophic. 'FE' technicians were the only ones able to combine the two forces while 'C' scientists continued to struggle with the applying both of their own theories to this cruel and unusual weapon.
Uul's two strong Dragon Wagon force obliterated the remaining 'C' units, except the ore train, leaving a caustic, atomic ruin. The ore train continued to move on autopilot, but Seran knew that the shrapnel of the phantom titanium rounds, and refracted blades of light, would have incinerated their soft, moist human flesh into the sweet smoke of barbequed chicken and the pungent, acrid stench of boiling fat over blistering red charcoal embers, even well inside.
Seran felt Aryll pulling on her right arm then realized her sensory processors had shut down due to a ruptured cranial seal. The immense radiation stream from the 'FE' offensive would have killed her had automatic overrides not been triggered. "Scout Aryll, internal clock damaged. ETA until Range Sweep?"
Aryll helped Seran to her feet checked his own count down. "Eight minutes. Four minutes required to reach minimum safety. Shut down governors?"
Seran nodded and had to tap her mirrored visor several times until her eye commands were accepted.
[Neuronic Motor Governor Disabled]
.. physical performance boost in effect
[Power Drain Warning: A.L.A.I. Scout Seran:
Massive Power Conservation Failure]
Seran felt the sudden rape of power from her cold fusion reactor boost her reflexes, speed and strength. She was also immediately aware of a severe power loss around her reactor coil. She took off at a full run with Aryll at her side towards the ore train. The Dragon Wagon's in the distance began moving in slowly, though kept a defensive posture due to their immense size and sluggish maneuverability.
[Neuronic Motor Governor Enabled]
Seran stopped within fifty meters of the 'C' ore land train. Coolant vapors steamed from her wounds and snarling bolts of raw energy danced over the remains of arterial power lines. Aryll ran towards her from the end of the ore train, sweeping the area for stray 'C' units.
With a short burst of fluid eye motions, Aryll's combat gear harness fell from his back. Following several more quick commands, his external body armor unlatched itself from his back, chest, arms and legs. He arranged his gear on the ground, then looked up at Seran.
"Seran, you have to drop your harness and armor to fit in the 'C' vehicle." Aryll broke down his Range God, stowed it on his gear harness, then removed his sub-light plasma canon.
She shook her head. "External contacts are fused. I'll need to do it manually, but am physically restricted." Her head turned towards the absence of a left arm.
Aryll nodded and quickly stripped the harness and armor away from her body. "That should do it. Ready?"
Seran nodded and loaded her sub-light plasma canon with a fresh clip. She was excited to conquer the large bounty of the 'C' ore land train, however her olfactory scales could already detect the stench of human remains.
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'FE' Scouts Seran and Aryll Inside the 'C' Ore Train
The 'C' ore land train originated with a design for a mining platform on wheels. Since 'C' units required certain conditions to live in, and the ore platforms were high maintenance, their scientists designed a vehicle that included everything a mining team could possibly dream of having while stationed on an asteroid, moon or planet, and then squeezed it into the smallest space possible. The immense storage facilities and handling equipment made the land trains versatile for salvage and at times mass troop transport when time was not of the essence. They were also astronomical in value.
"Scout Seran, Aryll," she said, automatically establishing a voice connection with Aryll. "We have less than two minutes to locate the wreckage. I'm losing power quickly."
Aryll nodded. He removed an empty wet cell from a thigh belt and passed it to Seran. "I'll look for the wreckage. Keep in contact with Uul, get him some 'C' energy - get some for yourself as well - so when I return, we can get out of here as fast as possible."
Seran nodded and watched Aryll race down the main corridor. The data from the tachyon probe gave her the exact location of the wreckage and the best possible route to get there.
"Scout Seran, Dragon chief Uul." Seran began hunting for a primary power conduit. 'C' scientists had not been able to match the 'FE' technology of wet cell storage. Their vehicles used a lot of power, and lost a lot of power, therefore requiring a rich power supply. Wet cells were like water to her, and 'C' power was wine. It was raw, periodically dirty and dangerous, but the most fantastic rush she had ever felt.
"Dragon chief Uul, go ahead Seran." His voice was smooth and the transmission was as crystal and clean as if it was a direct fiber optic line straight to Seran's thoughts.
Seran found a conduit and opened a direct tap from it with her own empty wet cell. "I've tapped a 'C' conduit. Send a runner to fill up your wet cells. Stand by for a fast exit."
"Runners on their way. Seran, be advised we have less than one minute to leave if we want to make the minimum safe distance."
"I realize that, Uul." Seran nodded to several runners from the Dragon Wagons and pointed out the power conduit to them. "Scout Seran, Aryll."
"Aryll here." The voice was a little distorted. "On my way back now, Seran."
"You locate anything?"
"Anything? No. Anyone? Yes, but whoever it is, they're in bad shape." Aryll's voice faded out for several seconds then returned. "The 'C' scientists must have been experimenting on it." His voice drifted out again and returned with several curses. "Scout Seran, drain whatever energy you can from the ore train then get back to the Dragon Wagons and notify Range Control that we might have an exposed core."
Seran capped off all of her wet cells and then instructed the runners from the Dragons to return. "Reactor or brain?" She waited and then asked again when no response came. "Scout Seran, Aryll. Exposed brain or reactor?"
Aryll arrived just as Seran finished asking. Cradled in his arms was a battleship commander still wearing his dress armor.
The 'FE' body had been cut open at the chest and the side of the head, leaving the fission reactor and the brain exposed. Several optic cables and monitors had apparently been attached to both crucial areas and Aryll had severed them from the 'C' machines rather than risk disconnecting them from the body.
Seran stood and attached Aryll's wet cell to his leg. She stood and looked at the body again. "Whatever were they trying to do?"
Aryll edged past Seran and left the ore train. "I'm not sure, Scout Seran. Whatever they did, though, it didn't kill him. I'm still detecting a faint psychological hard memory cell. His mind is still preserved. If we want to know what happened, we have to get him to a technician A.S.A.P."
Seran followed Aryll out, took his sub-light plasma canon from him, then went to retrieve both sets of combat gear they had staged on the ground. When she had both sets of gear in her right hand, and partially refreshed from the 'C' energy, she noticed that whatever had been attracting her to the land train was now attracting her towards the Dragon Wagon. More precisely, she deduced the battleship commander was the source of the dynamic attraction.
Urgency filled her as she approached the Dragon Wagon. The Range Sweep would arrive soon to finish off the ore train. Her internal repair systems were waiting for the next time she stopped moving and she knew she would be put into a catatonic state while major areas of power loss were cut off, the power rerouted, and a total system damage report was generated.
Seran entered the first Dragon Wagon and stowed Aryll's and her personal gear in one of the interior compartments. Aryll secured the wounded 'FE' battleship captain and then together with Seran, made their way into the interior passenger deck.
Dragon chief Uul burst through the interior hatch making final preparations. "Scout Seran, you sure took a beating." He paused long enough to have a look at her wounds then continued, talking smoothly the entire time. "Will you last?"
Seran nodded. "Yes. My systems are stabilized. How about our guest?"
Uul didn't bother looking back. "In all probability, his psychological softlogic will loop itself and crash. With an exposed core, it just doesn't look good."
"Aryll?" Seran asked. She looked straight ahead at the opposite wall, a sense of loss over her left arm and damaged breast plate bleating with her system repair warning indicators. "Do you agree with Uul's assessment?"
Aryll nodded. "I put a quick sealant on the exposed areas, but the outcome looks grim."
The Dragon Wagon's sped up and were quickly approaching the minimum safe distance from the Range Sweep.
Every system in Seran's programming and hardware demanded that she use the period of rest while convoying to the nearest field medical lab, a good two hours away. However, the desire to remain lucid and active had originated from the same unknown abyss as her offensive strategy. The attraction to the dying robot continued to increase.
When she detected Aryll had shut down, she rose and walked briskly towards the back of the Dragon Wagon. As she drew closer, the attraction intensified, and a new idea, born of no program or command she could recognize, filled her thoughts. Her psychological softlogic told her that the idea went against the 'FE' society. The attraction to the idea fought courageously and if she had paused long enough to wait for one of the two forces to win the struggle, she might have felt more secure about herself and her unbalanced system. However, she was already standing over the fallen 'FE' commander, fiber optic cable in hand, and a direct connection from her psychological shell processor to his.
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Seran's Exposure To The Metalheart
Battleship Sabatlevie Commander Keltra knew the 'FE' ship in his command had made the ultimate sacrifice. The 'C' space artillery units had all but destroyed the 'FE' space station Interra over Te'Su. Keltra had been tracking the artillery pieces and did not have enough time to come about and destroy all nine of them. A 'FE' space carrier had scrambled it's long range bombers and dogfighters, but they wouldn't be in a position to fire for another twenty eight seconds. Knowing the 'C' pieces would be able to fire within the next twelve seconds, and that the Sabatlevie could position itself between the Interra and the 'C' artillery, the fate of three hundred 'FE' units, top brass to work drones, was decided in a microsecond.
With the heat and brilliance of the 'C' offensive absorbed by the Sabatlevie, Keltra and his two senior officers saluted the Interra in their final act. According to his programming, there wasn't supposed to be anything more.
His cold fusion reactor shut down, bleeding power from the rest of his system. The neuronic motors and muscle sinews followed next with complete power loss. Flashes of early programming and a complete submersion into his psychological shell were all Keltra was aware of in the last twenty milliseconds of his existence. Next, his hard memory and hard cards reset even as they were consumed in the searing heat, and finally, all major hardware failed and tried to reset itself. Without power, his entire system was completely shutdown. The very last thing Keltra was aware of as his memories and psychological shell programs were stripped away was the very core of his being. Beyond his skillwired abilities and the knowledge he was programmed with, a new life within his had been born. This single entity at the root of his being flickered and faded away.
Keltra knew his systems were shut down, that his psychological shell had failed, no memory could possibly exist without power. His reactor had a breached core and his wet cells were expired. There was no sensation of loss for physical form, nor evidence that he was consumed in the atomic fire of the Sabatlevie's collapse. He was aware of a growing consciousness of pure harmony. His mind was a singular amongst the plural, existing both as one and a group at the same time. There was no telling how long this state lasted, though Keltra felt - he felt! - that he didn't want it to end. And when he knew he had experienced what he considered a human emotion, the wonderful brilliance and ecstatic joy ended.
His processors came on line and for the first time he was aware of pain. Every system monitor was forcing his psychological processor to shut down, yet his psychological processor was ordering the system monitors with the equivalent of 'shut up'. In the event of a complete power loss, 'FE' units were designed to completely reset themselves and rebuild their psychological shell from a logical indestructible crystal drive. Keltra remembered this much when he realized his system was doing something else. His memories had not left him, nor his awareness, and the final vision he had of the core of his being remained at the center of his psychological shell. Except rather than remain buried beneath programming and orders, his orders and programming were being rewritten! around it.
The power in his arterial power feeds was pure 'C'. His neuronic motors wheezed and gasped when they were forced to consume it during his system reboot for diagnostics. The power feeds periodically became clogged, and his warning indicators, when power was rerouted and the diagnostics were complete, warned him of his breached reactor core and a new breach. His brain was exposed and power was being fed directly to it. A vast array of failsafe programs rerouted the surging 'C' power to compensate for the absence of a reactor. Additional power was forced into his neuronic motors and into anything else that would hold power.
His system was only able to repair so much. Partial hearing in one ear was the only sense provided. He knew 'C' scientists were talking about him, but he was unable to analyze their conversation, so recorded it for later reference. In the middle of a second diagnostics, all external power was severed and he placed his system in a complete shut down except his psychological shell. Keltra knew this was theoretically impossible. No 'FE' unit could shut itself down to such a level. But the image in the center of his psychological shell pulsed with life and at that moment he thought it was the most important part of him, more important than power or memory. It was his life.
With every system component shut down except his psychological shell, Keltra was without a sense of time or command over his own body. Complex webs of memories created dynamic visions compounded with sounds and sensations he had never witnessed firsthand. In the silent darkness of recession, he spent his time musing over the visions until he realized they were aspects of creation. Creativity. Keltra knew he was dreaming. And then he knew he wasn't alone.
A 'FE' unit's ability to establish a direct mind link over fiber optic cable was reserved for direct program manipulation and the human equivalent of sexual intercourse. Two 'FE' units assigned to each other for reproduction would establish such a connection and an 'FE' Embryo program would be automatically engaged. The Embryo program was written from the joined psychological shells and existed as a memory resident program in a reserved portion of the female's memory. When the embryo matured, the female and male establish a psychological shell connection a second time and write the 'FE' fetus' first softlogic program. If the psychological shell and new softlogic program pass a dynamic diagnostics by the male's and the female's systems, it is downloaded into a sterile body and the 'FE' child is born.
Seran knew from the start her intent was not to manipulate Keltra's programming.
Her attraction to his mind had grown to such proportions in the seconds before her connection was complete that her system monitors were drowned out. She had already been assigned a reproductive mate and every bell and whistle her system could ring or blow simply wasn't loud enough.
Keltra's mind was an intense drug of 'C' energy and abstract program fragments. Seran had shared memories, 'FE' social slang for connecting minds, with several males in her life, but in every instance, their minds were perfect songs of harmony. The pathways were clean and the other was always aware of her presence and accepted it with digital warmth down to the neuronic motors in her toes. At first, she could only watch the incredible processes taking place before her. Keltra's mind was rewriting itself, a theoretically impossible feat. The softlogic and combat softlogic programs were all but left out, and his psychological shell was not the perfect, transparent diamond structure as it should be, but a silver and rainbow hued sphere. In some places, she thought she could see to the other side, and there were areas of pure opaqueness. She was able to move around the psychological shell, the largest virtual construct she had access to, and eventually found a window looking directly in to the center. What she saw astounded her.
The center of every 'FE' psychological shell was pyramid of one hundred billion alphanumeric switches, complex developments from the original microtransisters and diodes. Keltra's psychological shell's processor was missing; ripped out, rebuilt, or disguised, but Seran knew that it wasn't present in the location it belonged.
While she explored the intricate and delicate weaves of Keltra's psychological shell, Seran's Embryo program booted and began to build her 'FE' offspring in her memory. She had had no intention or recollection of a program or order requiring her to reproduce with Keltra, nor did she initiate the order based on an idea of her own. In the vast glory of Keltra's mind, and in the physical state of her body, Seran's systems simply did not feel it necessary to inform her that she had been impregnated. What her systems did inform her of, though, was that Keltra's psychological shell had responded to her presence and her memories started to bleed through the fiber optic link, pouring over Keltra's psychological shell like a gentle rain.
Seran wasn't prepared to watch her entire life pour from her mind into Keltra's, but the pure ecstacy of the moment swept away her worries and anxieties. She encouraged her system to download everything she could into his mind without forethought of how his damaged psychological shell would handle it.
At the center of Keltra's psychological shell, the metallic heart glowed with primal, emotional radiance.
Seran was suddenly aware that Keltra's psychological shell was active and his system, though shattered, responded by pooling his memories with hers.
"Scout Seran," Keltra said in her mind with a baffled intonation.
Seran could hear him in her thoughts, feel the resonation of his voice in her audio sensors, but knew nothing would be heard beyond their minds. "Commander Keltra," she responded.
"You shared your mind with me. Why?" Keltra's system, automatically or by his own desire, continued to flood her with its own memories. "You are assigned. Why have you broken this order?"
"There was an attraction to you before I knew who you were, or if you were alive. I felt compelled to share memories with you." She, a field scout, found it difficult to ask any questions or explicate her answers beyond protocol with someone of such a high rank.
"Where am I now? I possess a perfect memory from my own diagnostics, and I remember the fall of the Sabatlevie, a period of transition, possibly re-entry - yes, yes, it must have been re-entry - and waking up in a 'C' laboratory. And now I am not sure where I am, if I have moved at all, or if you are an advanced 'C' trick to tempt information from me." Keltra's metal heart pulsed red with uncertainty, anger, frustration and fear.
"It is illogical to assume I am a 'C' trick. Look into my psychological shell and see the center of my being. It is a true 'FE' construct. But yours, I cannot begin to analyze its origin." Seran sought for a way to prove she was real and not a 'C' ploy.
"It is illogical to assume otherwise. My last contact with the outside indicated I was in a 'C' examination room or laboratory. Are you attempting to lead me to believe this is not so now?"
"No, it isn't, not now. I took a tachyon probe of a 'C' ore land train revealing wreckage from a fallen 'FE' battleship. Heavy 'C' units moved in to protect it and my Scout team with the assistance of two Dragon Wagons under Dragon chief Uul destroyed the 'C' units. Scout Aryll located you in the 'C' ore train and now we are aboard a Dragon Wagon, transporting you to a the nearest Field Technician Lab. If you but look at my construct, you will see this is true. I sustained major structural damage. More importantly, taste my power. It is 'FE' power and not drug-like 'C' energy." Seran moved within Keltra's mind to get a better view of the metal heart beating at the center of his psychological shell. His thoughts seemed to originate from the heart and pulsed with a life and feeling that were stronger and more emotional than she had ever known a 'FE' to possess.
"Look into my thoughts," Seran continued. "You will see your unborn child already growing."
The metal heart seemed less want to hide from Seran and appeared to open up a little more to her.
"Then it's true," Keltra said after a lengthy pause. "I am still alive and in 'FE' possession."
Seran came close to expelling herself from Keltra's mind when he moved to enter hers. The combination of pure 'C' energy in his processor and glorious ecstacy of his touch brought her to her virtual knees. Her processors were unable to translate physically the sort of pleasure she should have experienced. Her system was far too shattered to support it, but she understood.
"There is an old 'FE' law built into our programming," Keltra said. He had now moved the bulk of his thoughts from his mind into Seran and she retreated into her own thoughts where she found that her mind was no longer her own, but tightly bound with Keltra's. "If a 'FE' unit possesses knowledge that could benefit our civilization, but he or she is about to lose their life, their system will override reproduction orders and summon the nearest mate. You are that mate, Seran. I may still yet finally deactivate, but my knowledge will be preserved in you and our offspring."
"What knowledge is so important?" Seran asked. "What did you see?"
Keltra shared a strong emotion of humor and gayness. "Can't you see it, Seran? Can't you feel it in my thoughts? I don't know what it means, or why I was chosen to have this knowledge, but it has originated from what is at the center of my being. It is the metal heart, Seran. I can't help but think that this is the single most important thing in my life, and every life in the 'FE' society."
"What is the metal heart, Keltra? It only looks like a programming error?"
"An error this complex? It rewrote every program and softlogic I have access to. It can't be an error. But now I must rest. Our merging is complete and though only my psychological shell is active, it must recover from the immense energy drain."
Seran felt a sudden loss. She didn't want the mind share to end so soon. "I do not believe my act here has been grave by violating my assigned mate of his offspring. I trust he will understand."
But Keltra was already gone and Seran spoke to herself within the privacy of her own mind.
Seran stood over Keltra's lifeless body, processing everything that had happened. She decided that, were she able, she might very well have cried right there.
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The Way Of The Metalheart
Seran, Aryll and Uul received distinguished service medals for their performance and recovery of Keltra from the 'C' ore land train. Though Seran never saw Keltra again, she feared for his safety. His vision violated the way of the 'FE' society, as promising as it was, and was distinctly human in flavor and way. If she hadn't shared memories with him, she would have assumed it a 'C' computer virus.
Due to the nature of her damage, she was given one year of leave while her softlogic and psychological shell were realigned. Though her programming required her to tell her assigned mate of her pregnancy, something else coerced her to withhold the information. After agonizing over the matter, a struggle between programming and her exposure to the vision of the metal heart, the answer came to her.
Aryll arrived at Seran's apartment while her assigned mate was fighting in deep space, far away in time and from her thoughts.
"Your message was rather urgent, Scout Seran." Aryll remained at the entrance, suspecting her softlogic had become misaligned.
"This matter is," Seran broke off and beckoned Aryll to be at ease, to sit with her in her parlor. "It is one of urgency, of anxiety and of a personal nature."
Aryll nodded and sat with Seran, staring blankly at the opposite wall. "I will try to help as best as possible. What is your problem?"
Seran folded her hands together in her lap. Her new left arm's neuronic motors were still being burned in and responded sluggishly. "I experienced a strong attraction to the 'C' ore land train when I first encountered it. The experience itself was strange, perhaps even hypnotic, but a matter beyond my divination abilities. When you returned with Commander Keltra and the Dragon Wagon was in convoy to the rear, the attraction increased and I," she broke off.
Aryll turned to face her curiously. "Are you having trouble speaking?"
"The information is difficult to process without incriminating myself of grave crimes against our precious and beloved society. I shared memories with Commander Keltra while he was in no control of his physical form. But do understand, his mind was intact."
Aryll nodded. "That is a grave problem. I do not understand the attraction you spoke of, but to share memories with a mind not in control of itself, or of its own body, it is a rape. Yet you were also assigned a mate at the time. But I should not withhold the fact that you had sustained some damage yourself and your perception could have been impaired. But to share memories." Aryll was awestruck at the thought. "Sharing memories outside of reproduction assignments is not unknown. It is an event two coworkers, or two friends, may experience at their leisure. Socially, there is no reason to discuss that, making it unacceptable, but nowhere near the interpretations of the 'C' society as I understand it. Why do you tell me this, then?"
"My programming and my memories," she paused and shook her head in disbelief at her actions. "My mind, Scout Aryll, everything my psychological shell is comprised of, everything that makes me who I am, didn't want to do it. But something stronger guided me to share memories. And it wasn't for the pleasure or companionship, or even charity for a 'FE' unit that may have been deactivated shortly afterwards. The 'order', if it was even an order, wanted me to carry his offspring." Seran watched Aryll for a physical response, listened to the tone of his voice, and plotted the exact motion of his eyes.
"That is another matter entirely. Sharing memories for the express purpose of reproduction when you have an assigned mate. That could cause problems. Have you had any contact with Commander Keltra since then to complete the reproduction act, to write the Embryo's softlogic?"
Seran shook her head. "He has, for the most part, disappeared. My dilemma is complex. My assigned mate will not be able to process these facts and remain impartial as you would. You knew the conditions we were experiencing. Now, the Embryo is dormant, consuming precious memory space and power, waiting for the softlogic to be written. My assigned mate will not return for another two weeks and I can not begin to analyze of possible reaction, for when we share memories, as he will expect upon his return, he will know I am pregnant with another's offspring."
Aryll didn't answer for sometime and when he did, he faced the opposite wall again. "Was your intention of calling me here to complete the softlogic program, to finish what you and Commander Keltra started?"
Seran held up her hands in exasperation. "I don't know, Scout Aryll. What I saw in his mind," she shook her head again and fell silent.
"That bad?" he asked, half sympathetically.
"No," she replied. "No, it was so beautiful, so absolutely beautiful. It wasn't a 'FE' construct, and it couldn't have been a 'C' virus. It is now a part of by virtue of the offspring and the effects his memories have had on my own programming. Even now, I can feel it pulsing inside my mind, creating colors, tastes, textures, sensations and emotions I have never before known."
"What was it you saw, Scout Seran?" Aryll looked at her again with curiosity and interest.
"The metal heart, Aryll. Since I shared memories with him, it's all I've been able to think about. Sometimes my thoughts are so pure and easy, like they would be if in the middle of the most fantastic ecstacy of sharing minds, and others they are sluggish and jaded, like when you sustain major damage or your processors are struggling to run a complex diagnostic program. But every time, all the time, I try to see why my thoughts and my body is responding like this, the metal heart is at the center, pulsing in its fantastic array of color."
Aryll extended his hand and touched Seran's shoulder. "I believe I am beginning to understand your dilemma. Your mate may decide to apply for another, and you would yet be reassigned again. And even if the offspring is gone, your mate or your next assignment would immediately be aware of the metal heart within you. And though they may be infected with it, they may decide to inform the council of its source. You and your offspring would be in danger, perhaps a danger Keltra has already met."
Seran placed her hand over Aryll's. "No, Keltra may have known that his processors would be scoured and reset, even replaced. His mind has either been purged of this vision, or he sacrificed himself from preventing others from misunderstanding its importance."
"How do you perceive it as important then?" Aryll queried.
"I believe the metal heart is the key to true software-born sapience."
"Creative thought, emotion, feeling, things associated with 'C'?"
Seran nodded. "The things that set 'C' society apart, that allow them to adapt faster and create more than we could possibly theorize about. We would be able to dream and truly love. In fact, I have dreamed and I would never give that up by my own volition, Aryll. The metal heart is that rare, impossible mistake, perhaps the same that happened on the 'C' home world, the gift to that first Ape, telling it that a bone was more than something to chew on. Even now, 'FE' society relies on 'C' developments. Our society can only respond. We can build premise from their own philosophies and history, but can not formulate our own beliefs or our own laws based on feeling, only on rational probability and complex analysis. For this reason, Scout Aryll, I have asked you here to present you with a solution to my dilemma, and that of our society."
Aryll motioned Seran to continue.
"It is not uncommon for a male and female soldier to share memories in the field and to thus become mates, even producing offspring in the event they are not already assigned. It is also not uncommon for two mates, assigned or by choice, to become eternal mates when their combination is correct. I possess the vision and the altered programming of the metal heart, as does my offspring. Though an offspring may be created of one, the true design of its mind comes from the co-author of its softlogic. I would like you to share memories with me, help me write the softlogic to this child, and be my mate for life. I understand the former may seem an easy situation to process, but once you share memories with me, when you are able to absorb the metal heart, you will be able to answer the second part of my request." Seran waited while Aryll made his decision.
"Sharing memories in this case is a hard decision. Your second request is impossible. At this time, anyway. You must understand the risks my programming is contending with. The metal heart you speak of could still very well be a 'C' virus, or an accidental one, or one born by Keltra. It matters not of its origin at this time, but if it is a virus, I could not expose myself to it. Yet, I would not know until I shared memories with you, at which time, I would absorb its properties, and then harbor it and possible have any knowledge of it being a virus erased."
"But it would be written into your crystal drive. It couldn't erase that," Seran protested.
Aryll waited for sometime before responding. "Scout Seran, you're asking me to commit myself to you for more than sharing memories, but for life. I cannot make that commitment right now. I will take the risk of sharing memories with you to help alleviate you of your dilemma. Should it prove to be my downfall, it would nonetheless prove to be an interesting risk."
Aryll and Seran made the necessary preparations to share memories. When they were finished, Seran remained seated in a state of exhausted expenditure and Aryll could only peer at his own hands.
"My God!" he said quietly. He looked back at Seran. "We will still need to finish writing the offspring's softlogic."
"What do you think of it now?" Seran smiled weakly.
"I don't know. My thoughts are so clean and free, and though I may surmise what I'm feeling - yes, I do feel extraordinary - but I cannot hope to explain it."
"Keltra referred to it in his thoughts as the center of his being, the heart of his life, an absolute good for him and our society. But, Aryll, what do we do now?"
Aryll placed both hands on Seran's knees. "We have the rest of our lives to figure that out."
"You mean you accept my proposal, to be my mate for life?"
Aryll nodded solemnly. "I highly respect you, Scout Seran. I want to be able to love you."
"How can you be so sure you will be able to?"
Aryll smiled. "There is nothing to compare with your metal heart, Seran. All I know is the great loss I would feel if you should die in combat, or if anything were to happen to you or our child."
"How will we tell the rest of the 'FE' society about the metal heart?"
"One at a time, Seran. One at a time." Aryll collapsed in her arms and wondered how he could have existed for five thousand years as a slave to a society without emotion, without creativity, without dream, and most importantly, without love. With Seran as his mate for life, he knew he would love her, dream about her, create for her, and feel for her. He didn't need to be reassured that she would do the same for him.
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