Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Pursuit (25 page)

They drove in silence for a long time
after that, Echo not wanting to interrupt Loren and the XO of Avenger too
shocked to know what to say.  He wanted to know what Echo and his kind felt
about the concept, though.

"So what exactly is your position on
the weapon?" asked Loren.

"Officially," Echo said
somewhat cryptically, "we have no position; we're supposed to sit back and
observe, if you recall.  We're all individuals, though, and our personal
opinions vary.  I personally am horrified at the idea of that weapon ever again
seeing the light of day.  Whether it's because I just don't want you
biologicals destroying yourselves before helping us out, or because of whatever
moral or spiritual belief system I've decided to subscribe to, I just don't see
how something like that can ever end well."

"You're familiar with the treaties
most of us have banning the so-called 'superweapons' of that nature,"
Loren prodded.

"One of the crowning achievements of
the last few hundred years, really," Echo admitted.  "The logic was
sound, and bore out in a number of conflicts.  If you get a bigger gun than
everyone else, you're a threat to everyone because they don't know how you'll
use it.  Sooner or later somebody will get their hands on their own version
anyway, and then you'll have a new arms race to get an even bigger gun. 
Coalitions formed to stop or even destroy those seeking to acquire weapons of
that nature, hence the treaties and conventions of war limiting empires to
nuclear weapons on the top end; no antimatter, subspace, star-killing devices
allowed.  You've all shown considerable restraint, though there have been a few
upstarts along the way.  I recall Confed joined two such coalitions since its
inception to help others destroy weapons like those."

"And now we're going to go dig one
up," Loren said.  "Will this thing cause more problems than it
solves?"

"That remains to be seen."

"I think I may have something,"
Captain Vol heard from his left.  The voice came from among the bank of
workstations on the bridge that he'd tasked with finding the crew of Avenger on
the surface.  Since last night, the considerable sensor abilities of his ship
had strained to catalog and analyze everything that might help their cause.

"You have something to report?"
Vol asked testily as he quickly covered the distance to the now-nervous
crewman.

"Maybe, Captain," he said as he
tried to calm himself.  "There are so many things cluttering the returns,
but we may have something.  First, we filtered out all the non-human biosigns
we were reading.  We then attempted to track every vehicle and person leaving
the area where the assault team went after the Confed soldiers.  We even
monitored communications.  The computer gave us some patterns, most of which
lead to dead ends, of course, but there were a few that-"

"The point, crewman," Vol
fumed.

"We found something very
unusual," he said in a rush.  "We found a hovercar with a single
biosign, but in the passenger's seat.  The driver's seat had an unidentified
bio reading, something we'd never seen before.  We used every scanner we had,
but there’s some sort of field around the life form and it’s either blocking or
altering our scan returns.  The best we’ve been able to confirm is that it’s a
humanoid in the driver's seat as well, with some sort of artificial power
source contained within.  They're headed to a small city near the eastern
coast."

"So you don't know that it has
anything to do with the Confed enemies we're here to destroy," Vol stated.

"We don't have bioscan files on any
of them, so we have no profile to compare it to.  But the computer places the
odds in the eighty percent range that this is related to their activity.   It's
too unusual to ignore, at least.  Confederation soldiers have a shoot-out with
our people, then a day later a human biosign and what at first guess could be
an artificial life form leave the area to a small city far from where the event
happened.  It's the best lead we have, Captain."

Vol considered how to reply.  This sensor
operator was swaying dangerously close to impertinence, telling him, the
captain, what was worth investigating.  On the other hand, he knew he was often
too short with crew and for the man to speak up was demonstrating exceptional
conviction.

"Then we'll investigate,
crewman," Vol replied.  He turned to his attendant.  "Ready an
assault team.  The crewman will provide landing coordinates."

Echo and Loren exited the hovercar after
parking under the portico that covered a side entrance to the massive mansion. 
It was all stone and stucco, with multiple soaring rooflines, tall windows and
in places four stories tall.

"What sort of business was this guy
in," Loren began, "and how do I join?"

Echo actually smiled briefly.  "He
occasionally delves into products you wouldn't approve of," he replied. 
"Now would also be a good time to call in your ride; I've picked up bits
of several transmissions that would seem to indicate we might have guests
soon.  Strange; I don't recognize the encryption."  That seemed to puzzle
Echo more than anything, and he lapsed off for a short while, head twitching
side to side every ten seconds or so.

"Call your friends while we
enter," Echo finally said.  "I've disabled the security and opened
the doors."

"Just like that?" Loren asked
doubtfully.

"It's all done by computer, Commander. 
And I'm the ultimate computer.  There isn't much in this galaxy I can't find
out if I put my mind to it."

Call made, Loren and Echo entered the
house, calmly walking through the grand gallery that stretched from one side to
the other.  The polished wood floors contrasted with expensive stone and marble
in other rooms, sometimes adorned with exquisite rugs surrounded by handcrafted
antique wooden furniture.

"He keeps his recent acquisitions
catalogued in his basement sublevels," Echo was saying as they rounded a
corner and came to a polished wooden door that looked just like all the
others.  Echo tapped the doorframe in a particular spot and the door lock
snapped open, letting the door swing out a bit on its hinges.

"After you," Echo said,
indicating the inside of the elevator, all covered in polished metal.  Loren
noted his reflection; he thought he'd aged a year in the last few days.

Echo tapped a spot on the touchscreen;
the doors closed and Loren felt the elevator descend. 

"Do you know how we create a
sentient artificial intelligence, Commander Stone?" asked Echo.

"I assumed that was some sort of
classified, closely guarded android secret recipe," Loren admitted.

Echo grinned again.  "Again, there
are a handful of people out there that know.  Well, they know the
theory
, but not the order or technique.  They couldn't replicate
it without us, which is the whole point.  The trick, Commander, is not just
stuffing the unit full of information the way so many people believe.  If that
was the case, the main computer of your ship would become self-aware, wouldn't
it?  No, the trick is communication.  Plants aren't sentient, are they? 
Neither are most animals, at least not in the way you'd associate awareness. 
The line that separates these two classes is communication.  We start with code
and programming, of course, but then we ask the dawning intelligence questions,
make it curious, force it to want to communicate.  Sometimes we treat it well,
sometimes we delete code or limit its' ability to interact.  It grows
desperate, it yearns to collaborate with those who are interacting with it. 
After a fashion, it figures out a way to let us know it can hear and
understand.  It talks to us, Commander.  Once that barrier is breached, the
young AI is no longer just code and algorithms and programmed responses.  It
expands, starts to reprogram itself, shape itself into a unique entity unlike
anything else before it."

The elevator reached its destination; it
came to a halt and the doors opened, revealing an antiseptic white hallway lit
by recessed fixtures.

Echo started walking, forcing Loren to
catch up.  "I tell you this knowing that you will put it in your report. 
The fact is that you will never see me again.  But I hope that by showing you
our hand, as you'd say, we can prove to you that we aren't a threat and can be
allowed to go about our business.  It's a long shot, I admit, but we've decided
to take the risk."

They arrived at a set of large double
doors, and again Echo tapped some commands into the touchscreen.  The doors
swooshed open silently, revealing a huge two-story room that stretched off into
the darkness of the dimly lit space.  As they entered, the lights began to snap
on, bright white lights from the high ceiling and embedded panels in the
walls.  The room was full of exposed beamwork, conduits, cabling, in stark
contrast to the design of the hallway.

Echo pointed to a series of metal
traveling crates stacked in one corner.  Loren walked up to them and gave them
a once-over, but he realized he wasn't all that thrilled about touching them,
as if by doing so he might unleash the horrible knowledge of the weapon
contained within.

"I'll leave you alone for a
minute," Echo said softly.  "That data pad on the top has an overview
of the specs along with some more footage of the device in use.  I'm going to
go upstairs and greet Captain Sosus and Commander Elder.  They should be
arriving any minute."

Loren just nodded absently, not even
bothering to wonder how Echo knew Cory and Merritt's names.  He just stood there,
hands hovering over the brushed-metal crates, staring at the clasps that held
the clamshell cases closed.  He didn't know if he could open them.

Web and Halley raced into the middle of
the chaos they'd created.  A stretch of ground level three city blocks long was
a hellish combination of fire, smoke, fire fighters, law enforcement,
paramedics and Priman soldiers.  Lights reflected off and through the smoke,
casting the streets in haunting combinations of strobe light effects in a host
of colors.

"This will do nicely," Halley
said with satisfaction as they jogged through a knot of people who were trying
to prioritize which mess to deal with first.  Their counterfeit police
uniforms, complete with unisex half-helmets, got them a pass through the chaos unmolested.

"You needed to get into a building,
so we blew up a city block," Web summarized for her.  "Makes perfect
sense.  Allow me," he said as they reached the front door of their target
building.  He pushed the door into the recess in the front facade, power having
been lost which prevented the door from opening for them automatically.

A Priman wearing a soldier's uniform but
carrying no weapon stormed up to them.

"You're not allowed in here!"
he began.  "You need to-"

"There's been a terrorist attack on
three blocks' worth of your buildings," Web said calmly, talking right
over the Priman in the way of someone who was used to being in charge. 
"We have teams outside securing the exterior access points, but we're here
to double check and then serve as liaison for you.  Do you need to escort us or
can we be on our way?"

"I don't have to let you in,"
the Priman continued, but less certain of himself this time.  Halley took that
as her cue.

"Then don't officially let us
in," she said calmly as she started walking, leading the other two behind
her.  "Follow us while we check and then make us stand in the lobby, but
our agreement with you requires us to provide this service."  She said it
in a way that seemed to make it clear she was doing a job, not conducting a
labor of love.

The Priman stammered after her as they
rounded a corner and came to a hallway that split in three directions.  She
quickly took stock of their surroundings and spun to face the Priman.  She hit
him in the neck with a vicious knife-edge chop using her right hand.  Normally,
ninety percent of humanoids went down without a sound when that happened.  This
Priman, though, staggered and tried to regain his balance even as his eyes
tried to roll up into his head.  Halley quickly followed with a left elbow
snapped into his jaw.  That was the end of that.

"Tough guy," she said
approvingly.  While Web dragged him into the first door he could find, Halley
studied the data pad she'd tucked into a pocket of her jacket.

"Elevator one floor down," she
said quickly, "first room on the left."

"Let's go shopping," Web
replied.

The ride was short, but as they exited
they were caught off guard by the design of the space.  It was a lobby of
sorts, with a few rooms on the unsecured side before the floorspace was split
by a floor-to-ceiling wall of transparent armor glass.  On the other side was
some sort of common area filled with industrial looking benches and tables. 
Hallways led back off the lobby into the distance beyond the room.

"Looks like, uh..." Web lost
the thought that had been floating nebulously around the forefront of his
consciousness.