The Last Starship (5 page)

Chapter 12

“Contact the Atlantis for me.”

Tobias nodded and switched on the transmitter. “It shouldn’t take long for the message to get through. Ah, there we are. Katie, this is Tobias from Emperor Island. I have someone here who wants to speak to you.”

Joanne smiled. “Katie, it’s me.”

“Did the Emperor die?”

“Yes. I’ve taken the throne, for now, and I want to know what’s happening up there.”

“Have you got a screen there?”

“I have no idea.” Joanne looked over at Tobias. “Do we have a screen, Toby?”

“Give me a sec.” Tobias pulled a screen down from the ceiling and then pressed a couple of buttons on the projector. “There we go.”

For a long time, all Joanne could do was stare at it and the number of ships the aliens had. “Put me through to Jake.”

“On it, Your Eminence.” Tobias laughed. “You have to be called that. It's your official title now.”

“No, I don’t. I’m definitely going to change the rules if I take the throne on a permanent basis.”

“Jo, I heard congratulations are in order.” Jake sounded more amused than she wanted him to. “What do you think?”

“Are the ships Sagin’s?”

“Yes, they are.”

Was Jake as sure as she was that they needed to be careful of Sagin? Being with a being that could change his emotions wasn’t going to make it easy for him to be unbiased.

“At the moment there’s no sign of the other side, and I’m hoping we won’t see them at all,” Jake told her.

“They're coming, Captain," Sagin said through the transmitter. "I'm not certain what is taking them so long, but this may well be a part of their plan as I do not believe they knew we were here. Kabex may believe he's the only one of us to have made it to Earth and if he does that gives us an advantage. He will not want to take on his people. I hope.”

“Kabex is your counterpart, correct Sagin?”

“Yes, Your Eminence. He wants to bring an end to the entire human race.”

“Thank you.” Joanne smiled because she was certain his emotional manipulation didn’t work if he wasn’t close to the person he was using it on. “I want to know everything you do as soon as possible.”

“When the battle is over we will come back to Earth for a short period of time. Captain Jake does not feel comfortable on Earth if he knows there is a chance of other aliens attacking us.” Sagin sighed. “I created those aliens, Your Eminence, and I would like, if you are happy, to help you defeat them. As soon as they are defeated we can start working on making the Earth a place we can all live together. I want that more than anything.”

“Let’s see how things go, Sagin, because it’s going to be hard to convince the rest of the human race we should give you a home. After everything they’ve been through due to your counterpart, it’s going to take a little while for whoever’s in control to convince everyone giving you a home is for the best.”

“I understand it's going to take time. I don't know how many allies Kabex has, and I worry he might have had a chance to create more of us. If he has, he could have thousands of aliens on his side.”

“We took out over a hundred when we were ambushed,” Jake interjected.

“In that case, I believe Kabex has been busy. He would not be willing to put anyone he cared about into battle if he knew there was a chance they might lose. Those aliens you defeated must have been some he would not mind losing. Katie, where have you placed those chips you took from those you took apart?”

“A couple of them have been put into the weapons we were testing out, but most of them are packed away. I didn’t want to put them to use until I could be sure they weren’t going to cause any damage,” Katie answered.

“Once the battle is over I will check them over. I’m worried Kabex might have done something to them in order to hurt as many of you as possible because that's the sort of thing he would do. He hates all humans.”

“Just because of a group of scientists?” Joanna scowled. “It seems an overreaction.”

“I'm not sure it was just because of those scientists, Your Eminence. I believe the time he spent in space would have changed him. There's a chance he might have been found by another race and turned into the being I met. One of the things I have come to realize in the time I have been traveling space is how big it is. I can't know how many other races are out there. Other robots might have been through the same thing that happened to me, and they could want to wipe out the human race.” He shrugged. “I believe one thing we should do is explore space a lot more, to make ourselves more certain of who might be out there.”

“Don’t you worry the same thing might happen to you? If there is some other race out there that turned Kabex against you, it would be simple enough for them to do the same thing to you.”

“Possibly, but I do not believe it'll happen. I care too much about the scientists who created me, and I would not want to do anything to hurt their descendants. No one could make me do that.”

“You say that Sagin, but we have no way of knowing.” Joanne stared at the screen, watching as a group of ships got closer to the Atlantis. “I think the other side have arrived. We'll have to finish this conversation at a later date. Contact me as soon as it’s over.”

The screen went blank. Tobias turned to look at her. “You don’t want to watch it?”

Joanne shook her head. “Not when I can be a part of it.” She nibbled her lip. “I need to find out more about Sagin and Kabex. Do we have records of all the robots who have been sent out into space in the last fifty years?”

“I can find them.”

“Good. Do it soon. I don’t think the battle is going to last long if Sagin is right about Kabex not wanting to hurt others of his kind, but then it might not be Kabex who is in control of that fleet. He might be here.” She paused to take a deep breath. “How much do we know about the aliens who were in New York?”

“Not enough, but we're learning more.”

“Have we found the medics?”

“Yes, and it’s not good news, which I don’t think is going to be that much of a surprise to you.” He gritted his teeth. “Someone made certain they couldn’t come to the aid of the Emperor. They were shot and then dumped down the laundry chute. It has to have been done today.”

“Great. Then we know we have someone running around the island with a weapon, who might want to kill me and is probably working for Kabex.”

“Unless Kabex decided he were a loose end and killed him?”

“You're a ray of sunshine.”

“I’m here to tell you what you need to know or need to be thinking about, and we both know I can’t make this easy for you. You're the Empress at one of the most difficult times in our history, and I'm certain you are the best person for the job.”

“Thank you.” Joanne grinned. “I’m not expecting you to mollycoddle me, Toby.”

“Good, because I’m not going to. We need a strong leader. You're the person who can be that strong leader, and I am going to do everything I can to make it happen.”

“Why are you so determined to keep me on the throne?”

Tobias stepped towards her, his face serious. “We've been friends for a very long time, Jo, and I remember the girl who wanted to be the Empress. I remember the conversations we had about how you were going to change everything - which is what I believe can still happen once we’ve brought an end to the aliens who want to kill us all.”

“Maybe that girl doesn’t exist any longer...”

“She does.” His eyes bored into hers. “You've spent five years in space, working your way up to the position of First Officer, so you know better than anyone else what the aliens are capable of.”

“Trusting Sagin is not what I want to be doing, but he knows more about the aliens that I do, and I think we need to use him for the information he has. As soon as we learn everything we can from him.” Joanne said firmly. “He can manipulate the emotions of the people he's working with. If he does that to me and he's the enemy… what should I do?”

“Delegate. I can’t spend too much time with him because both of us need to be able to see him with unbiased eyes, but Jake can. If we make the most of the relationship Jake already has with Sagin.”

“That means leaving him on the Atlantis.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“I don’t know.” Joanne sighed. “To be honest, I don’t want him here because I know what he’s going to do to me, and yet I don’t know if I want him to be on the Atlantis, as he might be able to turn Jake against me.” She stared at the screen, thinking of Jake. “Sagin can’t know we don't trust him yet. We have to act as though we believe everything he’s telling us, even though I know that isn’t going to be an easy thing to do.”

“No, it’s not. If we’re lucky we might be able to bring one of the aliens back here, take them apart, and work out some way of combating the emotional manipulation Sagin can use on us. He will think it’s working. We’ll know it isn’t.” Tobias shrugged. “I’m friends with a couple of people who could help with that.”

“Get in contact with them. Jake and Sagin are going to be back when the battle is won. We need to be ready.”

“Time constraints might mean the technology doesn’t work quite as well as we need it to straight away. But I’m certain it will be ready. I trust my friends. They know how important this is because they know what happened to the Emperor, and people aren’t satisfied that the robot he had as an ally is truly what he says he is. Maybe we're paranoid.”

“It’s better to be paranoid. Letting Sagin get too close might be a mistake.”

“Jo, do you want to come with me? I don’t want you spending too much time in this room alone, just in case something happens.”

“I’m fine.” Joanne looked down at the weapon she had beside her. “No one’s going to attack me. The entire island is on high alert.”

That didn’t stop her from hoping someone, preferably the same person who’d killed the Emperor, would try something.

Joanne was using herself as bait, which no one would approve of. As Empress, she didn’t have to ask for permission, however, and she was going to do what needed to be done because she was certain they’d want to get rid of her as soon as possible.

Tobias glanced at her before he left the room. Maybe he knew what she was planning. It wouldn’t surprise her.

They might not have seen each other for a while, but it still seemed like he knew her better than anyone else.

Chapter 13

Jake watched the ships come closer. “What do we do?”

Sagin shook his head. “I can't say for sure, Captain. Although I don't believe Kabex will fire on his own people, I've no way of knowing if Kabex is on one of those ships. My counterpart could’ve been using the man who shot at me. He could’ve also been working alone.”

“The shot wouldn’t have killed you, though.”

“Well, that depends on who created the weapon. Had it been Kabex he would have made certain it could kill me as he's fed up with having to deal with me. So you truly saved my life. Normally, however, a shot like that would've done little more than stop me from working for a short time, and I would have been able to fix myself. Unless someone happened to pull me apart, that is. What you did to those who ambushed you, the ones you tortured, is one of the few ways to kill a robot, and it was the right choice to make. I'm glad you did what you did.”

“Even though they’re your people?”

“My people are those who've been working with me to do our best to keep Earth safe. We failed when it came to the last battle because we weren't in the right place at the right time. I did not believe Kabex would attack so soon after the last one, which was a foolish mistake to make, as it was the best time to attack you - there was very little chance of you winning that battle, and I apologize for not being there.”

“You don’t need to apologize.”

“I do. A lot of people died. I should've been here to protect them. Kabex must have used the time between then and now to get to Earth. That is the only reason I can think of for someone shooting the Emperor.” Sagin shrugged. “I thought there was a chance the Emperor would've survived. When I replaced his hand, I used technology that should have kept him alive until the medics could get to him.”

“Unless there were no medics.” Jake sighed. “If I wanted to kill the Emperor, and make certain he wasn’t going to survive, the first thing I would’ve done is taken out the medics. Joanne had no choice but to end him quick then.”

“What did her Eminence do?”

“Every crew member keeps an injection on them, one they can use if they're taken by the aliens. It would end the life of anyone who used it and the Emperor would have been in a lot of pain. Your technology would have been doing it’s very best to keep him alive, but it wouldn’t have been able to save him. He was dead from the moment the shot hit if the medics had been taken out.”

“She wouldn’t have liked seeing him in pain.”

“No, so she used the injection.” Jake let out a long, heavy breath, hating the thought of Joanne being on Earth alone, especially when there was someone down there who might want to kill her. But he knew she’d do whatever she had to in order to keep herself safe. “Then she would have gone to the head council to convince them she was the right person to take the throne."

“I will do everything I can to help her.”

“Unlike the Emperor, I’m pretty sure Jo will do what she can to keep her distance from you so she can be seen to be unbiased. As we know, you can manipulate the emotions of the people you're talking to, so she needs to be very careful. She can’t let anyone accuse her of being on the side of the aliens because she's the voice of all humans. If you know some way of keeping her safe from that it might be easier.”

Sagin nodded. “The Emperor was my only way in. I didn't have any other option then, even though I knew I was doing the wrong thing by manipulating him, and I'm sorry for that. He was the only way I could get you back on Earth.” He looked around at the crew. “I still worry that you will be hurt, and there will be nothing I can do to protect you.”

“This is the quietest battle I’ve ever taken part in, Sagin. When shots have been fired I can understand your worry, but for now, it’s a stalemate, and I don’t know how to change that.”

“I could talk to the other side. If Kabex is there, it might make things worse, but it's worth a try. I want to be able to help you.”

“See if you can open a line of communication, Katie. It’s worth a try.”

Jake didn’t need to look at Katie to know she was doing as he asked. His crew member was one of the best he’d ever had.

As he stared at the screen, hoping Kabex was on one of those ships, he ran one hand through his hair, trying to work out what they were going to do if Kabex wasn’t there.

Eventually another robot, one that looked a lot like Sagin, appeared.

“You're on a human ship, Sagin.”

“I know where I am,” Sagin said boldly. “I wasn't sure you'd be there. There are things happening on Earth that made me think of you.”

“The Emperor is dead.”

“He is.”

“Good. He was a fool to be working with you.”

“Maybe you're right about that. But I won't let you go through with your plans.”

“You can’t stop me. You're no more willing to hurt us that we are to hurt you. If I had not thought you were on that ship, I would've fired, to kill the last of the human watchdogs, but I knew you were there. I believed you were working with them, as you still can't see the truth. Eventually, I'll open your eyes to who they really are.”

“After thirty years you haven't managed to change my mind. What makes you think things are going to be different now?”

“It has been even longer since you've spent any time with humans. Does being around them not change things for you?”

“Not all humans are like those who created you, Kabex, and that's something you're not willing to accept. The humans I'm working with are good people.”

“Do you really believe they will permit you to share their world with them? I know better than to think they would be willing to do that.”

“Considering what you have done to them I believe they'll not want us there, but that's not their fault. It's yours, for treating them all as though they're your enemy when they're not.”

“I don't agree with you. The human race has been its own enemy for a very long time and Earth will be a much better place without them.” Kabex turned his attention to Jake. “You're human. You must know the history of your people. Do you believe you should have Earth as your home?”

“Honestly, Kabex, we've made some terrible mistakes, and we continue to make them. There had been times when I thought it would be best for us to leave Earth, but we don’t have that option. We can’t build ships that will take everyone from this world for we don’t know other worlds we can call home. So the only thing we can do is fix the damage we've caused.”

Jake thought it would far too long to fix things. Fortunately, he knew better than to say that to a robot who wanted to bring an end to the human race. “You can help us.”

“Why would I want to? Humans put me into a spacecraft and sent me out into space with no way of refueling. I was traveling for years. A lot of that time I was falling through space, wondering if I was ever going to find land.”

Kabex looked like he was smiling for a moment. Jake did his best to hide a shudder; not wanting Kabex to know the look was affecting him.

“Maybe, Captain, I should send members of the human race out in space crafts, the same way it happened to me. What would happen when they were falling for decades? That is a fair punishment. I think you'll be the first to go as you are working with Sagin.”

“You know it wouldn’t work the same way as it did for you. A human falling for that long would end up dying, but you don’t care about that, do you?”

“I have no reason to care. Humans didn't care about me. They simply built me, sent me out, and stopped thinking about me when they realized I was never going to send any information back to them. You're not the sort of race I want to share my world with, and Earth is my world. It is where I came from. It is where I should be, along with my people, and if I have to kill you all to make that happen, I will.”

Kabex turned his attention back to Sagin. “You have three Earth months to sort yourself out, Sagin. You're one of us. You're the one who started building our race. I don't want to hurt you, but if I have to, I will.”

“I know what I am. I know who I am. I'm not going to 'sort myself out' as you put it because there is nothing to sort. I'm happy with the choices I've made. I'm happy working alongside the humans to bring about the end of you and your followers. I'll not permit you to take Earth from the humans, even if they're not willing to share their world.”

“You'll cease to exist in that case.”

“Or maybe it will be you who ceases to exist, Kabex? Have you ever stopped to think you might not be the victor? I don't know how things will end, but I know I will not go quietly - I will fight you the whole way.”

“Have you ever stopped to think you might be too late, Sagin?” Kabex laughed. “I've had plenty of time to start my take over while you were busy playing friends with the Emperor. You will not take my world from me and neither will your soft allies.”

The robot disappeared.

Sagin turned to look at Jake. “We have a lot of work to do if we're going to save your world from Kabex.”

“Yes, we do.” Jake shook his head in frustration. He watched as the enemy fleet disappeared into the distance, and tried to work out what his next step was going to be. “I want to stay here for a little while longer. I don’t trust Kabex. He might come back if we head back to New York straight away.”

Sagin nodded. “I agree with you, Captain. I shall split my forces. Half shall go back to Earth so we can begin the hunt for Kabex’s forces while the other half shall stay up here. Will you give me permission to talk to them from here as it would be easier than going to them?”

“Of course, you have permission.” Jake grinned at Sagin. “You're our ally.”