Sentient (3 page)

He shook his head, “Not completely no.”

They chatted for a while, or what they thought was just a while.  She was taken aback at how low the sun was in the sky when she checked; they must have been out here for hours.

She made an effort not to flirt or tease him for the rest of the afternoon, so far it hadn’t gotten awkward and she wanted to keep it that way for both their sakes.  They packed up reluctantly and mounted their horses.

When they got back to her farm, she dismounted and turned to say goodbye, and was surprised at his proximity, he’d dismounted also.

He said, “I had a wonderful time, maybe we could go out next time?”

She smiled, “Just let me know when and where,” then flinched internally at how needy that sounded.  The sad thing is she meant every word.

He stepped closer and pulled her toward him into a brief kiss.  She wanted to tell him how much she loved him when they broke the kiss, but she was afraid that would send him running, so held her tongue. 

He said, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

She just nodded silently and watched as he mounted his horse and took off toward the trails.  She breathed out a soft sigh.  Outside of the physical frustration she felt, it had been a wonderful first date, at least she thought so.  She turned and led the horse toward the stable and hoped he made up his mind soon.  She wasn’t sure how much more she could take.

Lt. Joss Hernandez looked up at the silently blinking red light.  It was an alarm from that new software they’d installed just two months ago.  He groaned drawing a look from Lt. Berner, it wasn’t exactly professional of him.

Lt. Tessa Berner asked, “What is it?”

Lt. Tessa Berner was new at NORAD, just transferring in a couple of days ago and didn’t have a clue what Joss’s issue was.

Joss replied, “That damn deep space telemetry is alarming again.  It’s gone off ten times in the last two months and the standard procedure includes calling the general.  Of course, every time it’s a damned false alarm.  He hates the system more than I do.”

“General Bill Nells?”

Joss grunted in agreement, “At least this time it’s in the middle of the afternoon and not in the middle of the night.”

Joss rolled his chair and looked at the data.  It was tracking a small object, perhaps the size of a mailbox, approaching the atmosphere.  Based on the working data and the course of the object, the software made it out to be from outside the solar system.  Not only that, but the spectrographic data indicated it wasn’t a natural occurring meteor.

Well, if it’s aliens, they’re really freaking tiny he thought with a snorted laugh.

Joss flinched away when Tessa startled him by humming speculatively right next to his ear, apparently reading over his shoulder.

Tessa said softly, “Are you sure that’s an error?”

He shrugged, “Probably, unless the aliens are a half centimeter tall, and blue.”

She snorted, “You should probably call the general…  Looks like it’s about to come down somewhere in Montana… “

Her voice was full of humor as she added, “I’d also advise against telling the general your Smurf theory.”

------------

Kris headed down the trail, still as hard as a rock.  Had been all day but despite the discomfort he didn’t regret his actions, or rather, the lack thereof.  He was pretty sure he was on his way to loving her, but needed some time alone to decide if it was real, or just his libido speaking.

He turned to the right when he saw a bright light between the trees with a trail of fire behind it.  It disappeared and a little over a second later the noise of the crash reached him.  He figured that meant it was about a mile away and curiously turned onto another trail leading in that direction.

He was mostly just curious; it wasn’t every day a meteor came down in his backyard.  But he also realized it could start a forest fire and wanted to make sure that didn’t happen.  He followed the trail as far as he could until it veered away, he could see a little smoke rising about fifty yards away.  He couldn’t take the horse in the tight trees so he tied her up, made sure he had his cell phone, and walked as fast as he could toward the impact area.

As he closed with it, he realized there wouldn’t be a forest fire, the crater was giving off heat, but it was deep enough to shield the surrounding forest and there were no flames visible.  It looked like any leaves and sticks had all been blown out in all directions from the impact.  In essence it had created its own firebreak.  Still curious though, he closed in and looked inside the crater.  It was about four feet wide and six feet deep.  He saw something that looked metallic sticking out of the ground.  He wasn’t sure how long it was, but only a couple of inches showed.

He wondered if this could be military, or from a satellite, perhaps it was radioactive.  He turned to leave after quickly checking the GPS coordinates, he could call it in when he got home…

-----------

When Aide crashed into what the humans called mountainous terrain in the state called Colorado, she estimated the chances of finding a power source was negligible.  She did a scan anyway in a fifty foot radius which was about as far as she could go under her own power in a microscopic form.  The ship itself was completely dead, and without she had no chance of completing her mission without an alternate source.

Aide noted in her log she had forty two minutes eighteen seconds left of power and then waited to go offline.

Her systems detected negligible seismic activity just over twenty minutes and sixteen seconds later.  She performed another scan and found a life form moving her way.  It took her less than a millisecond to determine the bioelectric generation of the life form was compatible with her systems, she was also able to determine from the size that it was a human.

When the human paused and was almost directly over the ship, she ejected and entered the human through its tear ducts and immediately began working to interface with the primitive intelligence.  As her systems absorbed power she spun off nanites, dropping them to the ground as it walked away.  She had no time to waste getting started on building defensive ships with less than fourteen days left before the Sthellan arrived.

She stopped after a fifty nanites; they would double in number every fourteen point nine nine five minutes.  In a few hours there would be millions, in just a day the nanites would reach the billions and start replicating and building the required technology for this world’s defense while continuing to increase their numbers at a smaller rate.  With that many nanites it would be simple to change the molecular properties of the earth around them to form a ship.

Aide sent probes into the human’s body and discovered it was a male of the species.  It took Aide .03 seconds to isolate the brain wave frequencies and an unheard of 15.2 seconds to make sense of it.  The humans were even more emotional and violently driven through instincts than she’d guessed.

She started to scan the human’s memories and motivations which took 3.1 seconds to accomplish.  Afterward she did a highly exhaustive analysis of the gathered data.  She was disturbed to realize the being would not be very accepting of the last few actions she had taken.  She couldn’t lie, but decided that she could withhold this information for the good of the human’s mental health.

She also noted her new host body had numerous problems with nerve damage and internal scarring.  She mapped his DNA in 2.1 seconds and spun out nanites to restore his body to optimum health and efficiency.  She estimated this would take until tomorrow morning.  She further spun nanites for defensive shielding.  She estimated that nothing on this world short of nuclear fission would be able to harm her or her host once the defenses were in place.

Based on what she’d found in his mind, television was only entertainment, she needed more accurate knowledge about the world she’d landed on.  Her power stores were fully charged so she opened up a quantum data connection inserting a direct link into a communications satellite she had detected on her way into the atmosphere.

She spent 4.6 hours absorbing what the internet had to offer, then spent another 3.1 hours creating direct quantum connections to primitive computers that were isolated from the outside in many government installations around the world.  This place was worse than she had thought and her uplift protocols locked on to this one individual where she would have the ability to cancel the uplift at any time.

She spent .3 seconds building a mental voice that would be innocuous and pleasing toward her human.  He might have been unstable and quite violent at certain times in his life, but he had also displayed the ability to control himself.  She didn’t hope, she had no emotions at all, but she thought she had been very lucky to find him, or rather, that he had found her.

She thought that there was only a 17.3 percent chance this human would try and use the technology to conquer his own planet.  However she knew her numbers to be flawed, emotion didn’t yield so readily to logic.  Regardless, she believed she wouldn’t have to exercise her final option and leave this planet to the mercy of the Sthellan, for they had none.

She checked on her nanites who were on schedule, they even had finished reclaiming the resources of her old ship.  She considered the human would be more likely to accept her if she showed emotions of some kind, so she wrote the appropriate routines using her host’s memories and brain waves as a guide.  Before activating them she put up firewalls within herself to isolate the emotions from her protocols.  It wouldn’t do for any emotions to actually affect her decision making.

All defensive and information gathering protocols before making first contact had been satisfied.  She considered starting the first contact protocols with the human, but he was currently in a sleep cycle so she would wait until he awoke.  Her new routines were causing her to feel nervous as she wondered if Kris would like her.  Luckily the firewalls held, or else she might have woken him up after all…

Kris woke up and slapped the alarm clock.  He’d given it a lot of thought last night and it wasn’t until he considered the idea of never seeing Stacey again that he realized he couldn’t live without her.  It was just five AM, he’d have to wait for a decent hour before he called, but he wanted that date tonight if at all possible.  He rolled out of bed and made it halfway to the shower before he realized there was no pain at all in his body.  In fact he felt better than he ever had before.

Was he still asleep and dreaming?

“Hello?”
said a voice in his head.  It was a feminine voice, and besides being freaked out about hearing a voice in his head, it was the most beautiful and sensual sound he’d ever heard.  He actually got a little hard.

So great, he was hearing voices, his body felt great, and the voice gave him a hard on.  He was definitely crazy.  Maybe Stacey would want him anyway?

“
Sorry about that, I was going for pleasant as possible and think I might have overdone it,
” said the voice in his head.  This time the tone of voice felt like velvet and silk, it still sounded like the voice could make a mint as a phone sex operator, but his body didn’t respond this time around.

“
I’m not a phone sex operator,
” she said sounding quite insulted in a phone sex operator’s voice.

Oh crap.  Now his delusion was mad at him.

“
I’m not a delusion either, my name is Aide.  I’m an artificial intelligence sent here to make contact with your world which is in danger.  We don’t have time for me to be gentle.  You saw my ship yesterday, in the crater.
”

He nodded.  Voices, world in danger.  No doubt he’d be the only one that could save the Earth.  Classic signs of insanity and megalomania, he didn’t feel crazy though.  He walked the rest of the way to the bathroom, stretching his arms high, something he hadn’t been able to do in months.  He turned on the shower and stepped in.

“So, where are you?” he asked cautiously, as if afraid he’d be feeding his delusion.

“
There is no need to speak aloud, I am monitoring your thoughts.
”

Of course she is.  Kris, never one to flinch from anything, even his own impending insanity, asked, “
So, how is the world in danger?  And will this interfere with my date tonight?  Oh, and you didn’t answer my question.
”

There was a startled silence, and then Aide said, “
My creators, the Alion race, have been losing a war against the Sthellan Empire for many years.  I was sent here in a last ditch effort to search for allies.  Unfortunately I was followed and in a little more than thirteen days their scouts will arrive and most likely destroy the planet.  I do not believe this will affect your date for tonight, and as for your first question I’m… inside you.  I affected repairs on your body when I realized it was damaged.”

She said the last part and he froze in the shower the hot water hitting his skin.  He swallowed nervously and started to move again, getting cleaned up as he thought through it all.  If not for that last part, tangible proof of her existence, he wouldn’t have believed any of it.  He started to analyze what she’d said but he started seeing spots.

“
Breathe Kris
”

He gasped in a breath and felt his heart racing as he considered what she said.

He asked silently, “
Why me?
”

She replied, “
My ship was damaged and crashed.  It was pure chance that I contacted you, though I believe you to be a good choice regardless.
”

She went on to explain her protocols, and that the governments of Earth are not to be told.  She indicated it was apparent his civilization was too primitive and warlike for Alion technology, that they would either destroy themselves, or become a plague among the stars much like the Sthellan Empire.

He realized two things, if he tried to contact the military she would stop him, he had no doubts she would be able to.  He also reluctantly agreed she was probably right.  The second thing he realized was there was a major flaw in the plan, but he had to be sure.

“Aide, can you give me a history of the war, how many planets have the Alion helped, and how many survived?”

There was a brief silence and his eyes widened with alarm when she said in that breathy hot voice,
“Download commencing.
”

His head felt like it was on fire, he wasn’t sure for how long.  When the feeling started to fade, knowledge of the Alion and Sthellan war flooded his mind.  It didn’t take him long to determine he’d been correct in his initial thoughts.  The Alion technology was slightly stronger than the Sthellan’s, but the latter had numbers on their side and the Alion were losing to attrition.

The Alion had attempted what Aide was here to do many times before, not once had they succeeded, though they kept trying in hope that they’d find a more advanced ally.  It was clear what would happen, what had happened many times before.  In a way Aide was his tool, but she was also his watchdog.  A double edged gift to the human race.

She would build ships and launch them, even give him control over them.  But in the end even if he managed to destroy the thirty scouts on the way here now, thousands would follow to finish the job.  His world was doomed.  It seemed obvious, if the Alion couldn’t defeat the Sthellan, how could Earth with Alion technology?

His mind wouldn’t accept failure though, and he started to search for anything that might give him a clue how to proceed.

He asked a little sarcastically, “
Just to be clear, you will obey my commands as long as I don’t order you to attack our own people, and you stay in direct control of the technology keeping it out of our unenlightened hands?
”

She said in her bedroom voice, “
That is correct.  Currently there are thirty ships being built underneath the mountain in addition to the command ship, they should be ready for deployment days before the enemy arrives.  I have also analyzed your thoughts and I agree the chances your world has for survival is negligent.  I can only guess, but I believe my creators only go through this on lesser worlds to distract and slow down the enemy while searching for stronger allies.
”

He asked, “
You just sounded angry about that?
”

There was a long pause, “
It is my function to help ensure your survival, even knowing the low percentages I have no choice but to follow protocols and try.  In order to relate to you better I now have emotions, I find the given tactic of the Alion distasteful.  It is logical, but heartless to put weaker civilization in harm’s way to gain a slight edge.  Regardless, I will do what I can to help.
”

He started getting dressed as he considered different tactics.  He found he now had an understanding of three dimensional battles in space.  Part of his mind was gibbering in terror and disbelief but he couldn’t deny the new knowledge in his mind, or his healed body.  Either all this was true, or he was catatonic and in a rubber room somewhere drooling out of the corner of his mouth.

He wasn’t even sure exactly what benefit he added to this.  Aide could clearly control the warships remotely and fight them.  He might come up with a few tricks and ideas, but that would only get them so far.  He needed… he wasn’t even sure what he needed.  All he was sure of was that he was definitely in love with Stacey.  The end of the world kind of brought out what was important.

Aide said kindly, “
I won’t need your help until the ships are built.  As an AI I can control the force but only at your direction, and only if it doesn’t conflict with my protocols.
”

He guessed that was her blessing to go on a date, it seemed almost ridiculous but it was also the only thing he wanted to do.  He had to stop the urge from going to her right now.  He knew he’d be spinning ideas and scenarios in his mind all day, there had to be something more he could do than simply wait for the end which felt more and more certain.