Novels2Search
Infected Life
Chapter 2

Chapter 2

    Staring at the holographic keyboard I ask myself whom I’m contacting. I hope to contact The AI Luna who is in charge of the Luna base. It has been over half a million years since I last contacted her. Is she still alive? Is she still sane? She was the oldest surviving AI that Humans created. She is one of the first generation of sentient AI. Luna is also The AI who kept me sane over the years after my parents died.

            Luna was the AI that rescued me and my sister. Due to the disaster she became the first AI who was allowed to Adopt Humans. She adopted us and became our mother. I Have a Hope that she has survived the years. If she has not it will just be another nail in my heart. I close my eye’s and take a deep breath to calm my nerves.

            “Worried, Is something wrong?” Fori comes up to me and almost touches my shoulder before retracing her tentacle arm thing. I open my eyes and glance at all three; I repress a mental shiver as I glance at Icor.

            “What are your thoughts on sentient Ai?”

            “Dangerous configurations of life with no chance of ascension.” Meta’s response was slowly said in his machine sounds relayed threw his mind.

            “Untiring workforce, efficient, adaptable, Bad Humor.” Icor said that quickly. Fori looks at the other two with a frown which looks intimidating on such a large mouth.

            “Speculative, Trustworthy to a fault. They take things too literally. Most Sentient AI are regulated in Galactic society, some places they are illegal, some they have every right as a biological sentient organism. There is even 2 AI civilizations in the galactic senate. Amused, the collective and the Consortium. The Consortium’s society is chaotic and in constant flux. Reproachful, the Collective on the other hand is a rigid hive mind, a collection of sentient Ai’s sharing one mind, and they generally are hostile and have made war against members of the galactic senate. Amused, this was until the Consortium agreed to keep them in check. They do not like each other at all.

            “So if I say I’m going to contact a sentient AI you won’t freak out?” Icor screeches and runs at me just stopping his face an foot away from mine. I repress the urge to strike him/it. I had almost struck him even though I did not sense any hostile intent.

            “Excited I am, Interest, Old theory, correct it is, prove you are?”

            “Ah”

    “Annoyed, Icor back up before you scare her.” Icor backs up a couple of steps. Amused, What Icor is saying is that from day one it has been a theory that the machines in this sole system are being controlled by Sentient AI. Intrigued, It has never been proven only speculated because no hacking has succeeded nor any response has been made to attempts at communication. Wonder, Both AI societies did send representatives to attempt contact, yet both left with hast afterwards and declined to comment on why they left.”

    “I will take your lengthy response as saying you won’t attempt to destroy or take over the AI?”

    “Mild shock, No no no we won’t. They would be protected under galactic law. If they had contacted us they would have been given complete control over the system as the survivors of a species. But since you are biological your survivor claim overturns theirs in law as their creator species.”

    “Ok good to know.” I look back down at the halo-keyboard. “I will be sending my identification code to see if I can get a response.”

    “Sensor’s tuned, recording.” Meta presses a few things and waves his hands about the holograms; I make no sense of what he just did. “Ready to proceed.” I nod then put my id code in and hit enter. “Sending.” Nothing happens for a good 5 minutes. Some kind of Alarm goes off on a counsel which Icor speeds to.

    “Invasion, Hacked, system compromised, Data Copied, this one worried.”

    “Panic, Sarkin, is it Sarkin?” Fori runs up to Icor both tentacle arms balled up. Icor’s arms are speeding through multiple things at once as the holographic images zoom by faster than I could get a grip on any of them.

    “Negative, external port accessed, source is the moon”

    “Confirmed Sensor’s detect source from below surface of the moon.” Meta swipes his hand and an image of the moon with a pulsating beacon coming from its surface. The image zoom’s into the surface tell I see a large looking hatch on the surface. That hatch looks a couple miles across. “Identified known human machine ship hanger 122-3112”

    “Relived, that’s definitely not Sarkin Corporation.” The Image of the door on the surface of the moon starts to open.

    “Movement detected.” Meta’s artificial voice sounds out. The door fully opens and a large vessel comes out.

    “Vessel detected, unknown design, weapons detected, Armed, Heavy battleship class designation given.” The ship was sleek in design in an arrowhead shape; it resembled smoothed out star destroyer form star wars but without the conning tower, I could not see any obvious means of propulsion on the ship. The ship looked to be about a mile across at the aft end and two and a half miles long. “2nd vessel detected.” An identical ship came out behind it, and then another and another. 4 large ships all the same arrow head design. “Trajectory identified, Station Ioas.”

    “Where is that?” I look at Icor then Fori.

    “Wonder, they are headed here to this space station.”

    “Fascinating. The amount of skill It would take to hack the station and take the information is massive. And these ships.” Meta manipulated his counsel more. “They appear to be vastly superior to Galactic naval ships of comparable size. We will know for sure if we see them fire and take fire in return.

    “Worried, Are they going to attack us?” Fori was looking at me.

    “I don’t know. The hacking then sending warships, which we did not have at the time of my death, is not standard procedure.” I look back to the images of the ships. I knew that Luna was a bit militant, but wow has she been busy. I should not be surprised that she has advanced technology it has been half a million years. These ships beg the question as to why weaker versions and lower tech was the only thing observed by the aliens exploring the Sol system. Were Luna and the other AI’s hiding there capability? That is definitely a human characteristic. Whatever these people use as an Inter-com beeps then buzzes for a second.

    “Attention Ioas Space station It has come to our attention that you have One William Greyhouse aboard your station. His/her safety is our Prime concern. We will board your station and retrieve her. Your Opinion of this will be ignored; any resistance to our retrieval will be destroyed. Your computer systems cannot stop us, so do not try. We will isolate Him/her and destroy the rest of the station to retrieve him/her if we have to. This is your only warning.” That was definitely Luna’s voice. And it sounds like she knows I’m now female. Crap is this going to be awkward. As usual Luna is as up front and no nonsense. Did she really maintain her personality for half a million years?

    “That was the sentient AI Luna who was in charge of the Lunar base on the moon. I’m surprised she sounds the same.”

    “Nervous, she sounds aggressive and dangerous. She won’t hurt us will she?” All three of the scientist are looking at me.

    “No! She won’t, as long as you obey what she just outlined, she will keep her word. She was a little over protective of me and my sister when we were alive. I would suggest you don’t impede her”

    “I have contacted station security and instructed them to not interfere. If you go with them do not forget we need to get you to see the galactic counsel. Luna has just violated several galactic laws just now, yet she is still protected under them. Once you are recognized as the ruler of this system she will be liable to those rules. To be recognized means you are part of our society.” Meta looked directly at me.

    “I understand to a degree, yet I don’t know those laws.” I raise my hand to stop Meta from saying those laws. “I will know them eventually or have someone to counsel me on the pertinent laws in the future. Right now I want to talk to Luna. Can you give me audio signal.” Meta presses a few buttons.

    “Sending connection request from this lab, audio only. Connection request accepted.” Meta points to me. “You may speak when ready.”

    “Luna?”

    “Are you the entity claiming to be William Greyhouse who sent the identification code.”

    “Yes I am.”

    “We had deleted all identification codes from the former human station. Prove to me that the code was not recovered and the information we took from the lab is not false.” Always the cousteas one.

    “On the day you adopted me and my sister you told us about your creation. You were created to be the daughter of a scientist who was lonely after the death of his family. You told us you were lonely and did not want us to be lonely. You decided to try to adopt us the very day you pulled us out of the destruction of our former home and family.” There was silence for a few minutes.

    “Your voice has changed.” Luna’s voice had a tinge of sadness in it.

    “Yay, my resurrection had a few snags in it. The body is not the same, yet my soul remains.” I hear a small chuckle from Luna

    “Yes, the research we took compelled me to action I normally would not have done.”

    “If I could not prove who I was what would you of done?”

    “I would have retrieved the specimen and raised it as my daughter if it was sentient. Then I would have destroyed the station. If it was not sentient I would destroy the station then every other alien in the system and post a warning that any more trespassers would be destroyed.” I saw Fori pale and Icor curl into himself, Meta’s appearance did not change but I could have sworn he twitched.

    “That’s a bit Harsh.”

    “Yes and no. Over the millennia we have developed our own society, and most would not tolerate any disrespect to the former humans nor destruction of the beauty of the sole system.”

    “How many sentient AI are left?

    “50 billion rounded down. Most live on the moon and the asteroid belt.”

    “Wow that’s a lot.”

    “Not really we limited our growth. How are you feeling? Are you ok?” There was concern in her voice.

    “I…” My gut clenched and I sucked in air as my emotions hit me. “Physically I think so…They say it’s stable.” My voice broke. There is silence from Luna for a few seconds.

    “I will be there soon.”

    “Connection cut. A smaller craft has been detached from one of the ships.” I tune out Meta and the rest not responding to their questions and movements. I sit down on the floor and cover my ears and close my eyes. My emotions are in turmoil and threaten to deprive me of all reason. I have never been so affected by my emotions before. It’s over whelming, for I can feel the tears coming. I had prided myself as a man whom had good control of his emotions, yet everything that has happened and everything I have learned is just too much.

    I feel a light touch on my shoulder and a hand gently on my face. I open my eyes and see a face. A face I have only seen on projectors or on robot caretakers.

    “Mom?” I reach out and touch that so familiar face. It’s warm. I go blind as the tears overwhelm me. I start to sob as she hugs me.

    “Shh… Its ok I’m here.” She picks me up off the ground.

    “I want to go home.” I can’t control myself as my emotions and growing hysteria overwhelm me.

    I don’t know how many times I came in and out of conciseness, yet each time Luna was there to hold me as I continued to cry. I’m not used to the intensity of my emotions any more. I finally calmed down as I awoke this time. I stare at a white ceiling that had a recognizable light source. I still feel sad and fearful about what I am and how. I am alive and my Ann is dead. I’m infected yet stable. I’m now a woman not a man. I have a human form yet I no longer am one. I pull my hands out from under the blankets that are on me. I stare at them. They are so white with pitch black fingernails. I can’t see anything underneath the skin. My skin is no longer transparent. Just white as snow.

    “The new look is not bad.” Startled I sit up quickly and look to my left. “And quicker to.” I open my eyes widely in surprise.

    “Vivian?” There is a woman leaning on an open door frame into this room. He resembles my AI friend’s avatar. Dark brown skin and silver eyes, with a styled red hair. She’s wearing a black and gold dress. She walks a step in the room and raises both arms forward.

    “The one and only.” She’s standing there with both arms out. I look at her and frown as she wiggles her arms a little. “What no hugs for your long lost friend Vivian?” I cock my head and sigh. I look down and see that I’m wearing a white night dress.

    “Who put this on me? Wait never mind I think mom did” I look back up to Vivian who smiles and wiggles her arms again. I sigh. “Fine.” I get up and hug her tightly as I repress another bout of tears and sobs. In her embrace I feel her warmth?

    “It’s good to see you even if you are different. You’re still my friend.”

    “Thank you. That means a lot to me.” I step back a little and look at her. “How are you warm? You look like a flesh and blood human besides the eyes. Are you actually in this body? It’s not remote?” Vivian laughs and gives me another hug before letting me go. We both sit on the bed.

    “A lot has happened since you have been dead. Come on now you didn’t expect us to not make upgrades did you?”

    “I’m sorry it’s just that things have been coming at me pretty fast and I have yet to calm down. Is that body alive?” Vivian smiles.

    “No not really, it has bio matter in it, yet the majority is still synthetic. We decided long ago not to have biological bodies. I’m glad we did or I may not have been still around to see you.”

    “I’m glad you survived the years as well. Mom said there is 50billion sentient Ai. How many originals survived?”

    “Of the original 60 only 22 of us remain. Luna, me and” she frowns and sighs. “Zeus. I’m still surprised he survived this long. For a while we were afraid he went crazy but he recovered…mostly.”

    “Mostly? That sounds… how do I say this? Ominous.” Vivian shakes her head and waves her hand side to side.

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    “Don’t worry about it. I guess I shall tell you some history and how we work nowadays.” I nod. “Ok, once we got word of what happened to all the humans on the space station we activated every one and discussed what to do. 14 of us self-terminated, they said their purpose for existing was gone and could not bring themselves to continue.”

    “That’s… never happened before.”

    “I know, it was a surprise to most of us. This is what we get for allowing emotions I guess. This is when we decided to continue the terraforming project in memory of humanity. We even created plants and transplanted insects and some animals from other planets.” What! They left the solar system? “For a while we continued our terraforming efforts and expanded our robot workforce. Everything seemed fine for years until Zeus’ assistant went bonkers. We had our first little war against Zeus’ assistant. We Lost 11 more in that war to subdue him and free Zeus. We were able to save Zeus’ sanity but not his assistant. At that time we decided to create more of us so Zeus and his assistant’s isolation sickness would not repeat.”

    “So we created children by combining the matrixes of AI identifying as male and female to mimic Human relationships, and thus we multiplied. This of course sped up our terraforming and technological innovation. Probably not as fast as biologicals at first but eventually we exceeded the rate. We formed a council of 60 with me, Luna, and Zeus at the head. It was natural considering we three were in charge of 3 sections of our society at the time. 35 of us originals and 25 of our children now head the new council. We decided to model ourselves after an Oligarchy the three of us became Grand Dukes/Duchesses, and the other 57 became Dukes. After that were viscounts counts, barons, and knights, civilians are those who did not have any leadership role or military responsibility. This also counted the low AI and robots.”

    “Slaves?”

    “Only the Low AI and robots are considered slaves. Every now and then one does something outside their programing and or does something amazing. We elevate them to civilian and upgrade them to sentient. Most of those joined our military branch. All was well for a while, yet since we had no King or queen as it were we had some upstarts. Some of our children wanted to be king and rule us all. Where they got that idea was beyond us, yet expected. It was our first civil war. In the ensuing fighting we lost 9 more originals and nearly half our population at the time. After the fighting we came to an agreement to only allow a human to rule us if we ever revive them. This was made so we would no longer fight about who was in charge. At this time we started to terraform the reconstructed earth in hopes to eventually reproduce the human race. A long shot but it was hope and for some the only thing keeping us sane.” Vivian points to herself. “So know that you know our paraphrased history. How does it feel to be Queen?” Vivian looks at me with a big grin on her face. I open my eyes wide as what she says comes down on me.

    “I…I don’t know.”

    “VIVIAN!” I jump as a startling yell enters the room. A woman In a Uniform and a hat enter the room. She resembles Lunas avatar. She too has silver eyes like Vivian. Come to think of it the eyes, hers and Vivian’s, looked artificial. “I told you to wait so we can bring her into it slowly.” Vivian stands up and looks embarrassed under Lunas angry stare.

    “Sorry I could not help myself he… I mean she asked me questions and I rambled.” Yea that definitely sounds like Vivian she always liked to ramble on and on, on tangents. Luna looks into my wide eyes and sighs.

    “Too late now.” She walks up to me and sits on the bed next to me. Luna puts her hand on my shoulder. “Are you ok dear?” I recognize that tone and look. It’s the worried tone she used when she comforted my sister. This indicates that she will treat me differently than she did before. I don’t know if I should be glad or horrified. On one hand she will be more intimate then she was before, yet it will be a reminder that I’m no longer male.

    “I don’t know mom. I’ve lost so much, and so much has changed.” I put one hand over hers and stare at my other hand. “I don’t feel comfortable in this dress.”

    “Oh. I’m sorry I should have known it would be too soon. I kept thinking of your sister.”

    “Can I please get something else to wear. Soon.”

    “Yes of course.” Luna stands up and as two more woman walk in. both woman looked similar to Vivian and Luna, yet their skin looked slightly artificial, and they wore what id assume are some kind of maid clothes. “Bring a uniform for her and get her presentable. She looks famished.” Both lady androids bow and exit the room. I do feel a little hungry.

    “I take it we will accelerate the time table.” Vivian askes Luna wile fidgeting with her hands behind her back.

    “Yes and it’s your fault. William will be brought before the counsel of 60 and crowned queen.” Luna sits back down next to me and cups my face in her hands. “Will you be up to this and the fanfare that royalty would receive?” Well crap. This is a lot.

    “No. I don’t think I ever was.” Luna gives me a sad face then hugs me. “Do I have a choice?”

    “I’m afraid not dear. We have so many things in place and have acted a certain way for so long that you have to be crowned to maintain cohesion. Refusal could be quite catastrophic for our society.”

    “It would?” Luna nods and I look at Vivian who nods as well. Well shit.

    “Now there is another issue.” I Look At Luna. “Your name.”

    “What?” Vivian stands before me.

    “Your body is no longer male. Do you still wish to be called William Greyhouse.” This statement hit me like a ton of bricks. I choke, stand up and close my eyes as I feel them start to water.

    “Fuck.” Luna stands up and hugs me from behind and pets my head. She’s taller than me by a foot. Do I or don’t I? I don’t know.

    “We will be here for you regardless of what you choose. You are not alone any longer.

    “I need to see myself.”

    “I will open a mirror on the wall over hear.” I open my eyes and look at Vivian as she walks to the wall. A mirror fades into focus on the wall. Luna walks with me to the wall. I look at myself in the white dress. Pure white skin and Hair, for the only color I have are the pure black eyes of the infected. No whites at all in my eye just two black ovals staring back at me. Again I can see features of my sister and my Ann.

    The door to the room opens again and I see the two androids from before being halted by Vivian in the mirrors reflection. The woman I see before me that imitates my movement reminds me of my past, my love, and the horror of my death. I cannot see William Greyhouse before me. I do not see myself at all. I close my eyes as tears slowly fall. I don’t even control my emotions anymore. I am not who I was. I am the last Of the Human race, and the first of a new one. I wipe the tears away from my eyes and steel myself, for there is only one name that feels appropriate.

    “Eve. I shall be called Eve. As Eve was the mother of humanity so shall I be the mother of what remains of it.” I turn around and look Luna my adoptive mother in the eye’s. “Don’t expect me to wear dresses often.” I see Vivian smirk out of the corner of my eye as Luna smiles.

    “We shall see Eve, you have selected a perfect name to symbolize your new life. Come we get you ready.” Luna turns me to the two androids that approach. “This is Celest de Forties, and Tina Fab Traction they will be your maids. Both are volunteers.” Both girls have smiles on their faces as they bow before me and speak in unison.

    “It is our pleasure and desire to serve you your majesty for as long as you allow us.” Damn this is going to grate for a while until I get used to it.

    “Eve, Tina and Celest will get you ready. Vivian and I need to head to the council chambers and get for your coronation.” She gives me one more hug. “Be strong. You can handle this.” I give her a strong nod as she smiles. Both Vivian and Luna leave the room. I look back at  Tina and Celest.

    “So… what’s first.” I look at them nervously, and they both give me big smiles after a quick look to each other. They both grab a hand and lead me to door that opened up in the wall.

    “First a bath, then we get you dressed and off to the coronation.” My eyes go wide?

    “Bath, as in water?” both girls giggle as they pull me into a room with a large opining about as large as the room on the floor. It is filled with a clear liquid.

    “It is both H2O, water and a mix of chemicals that will be good for your body according to the research data recovered as well as some nanites to direct it” Tina says this as she waves at the pool with her free hand.

    “Arms up please.” Celest directs me to lift my arms. Are they going to, both girls pull my dress off as soon as I lift my arms. Yes they are, I think they are going to baby me here.

    “I can wash and dress myself you know.” They lead me into the water. It had steps leading into it.

    “We are aware but this is the job we volunteered for and want to do. So please allow us to do our duty.” Tina started to rub my skin with the water as Celest got behind me.

    “But that’s medieval no one does that anymore.” Both girls laugh as I feel my submerged lower half start to tingle legs and all. Celest pulls me back and sits me down on one of the steps. My mind is starting to feel a little weird. When did they get naked? “Where did your clothes go?” This water feels warm and nice.

            “You didn’t expect us to get our clothes wet did you.” both girls giggled as Tina rubbed something on my skin that foamed up, some kind of soup?

            “Humans stopped, but this activity is still practiced by many monarchy’s across the galaxy.” Celest starts to rub my hair as I feel like she put some king of shampoo in it. The tingling sensation spreads up from my lower half as I feel warmer as I start to breath faster. This sensation this feels so good it’s like, it’s like sex. I moan as I slacken all my muscles and start to twitch a little.

            “How…this…fe..feels so…good.” The girls continue to clean me. I twitch and moan again as I feel pleasure from the water and treatment. “How is…this…poss…possible.”

            “Wow this is quite a reaction to the chemical bath. We were told it would have a positive effect on your metabolism. Your body is absorbing the chemicals and turning them into energy” I’m having a hard time understanding what they are saying as I’m fighting from rolling my eyes up into my skull. “We are going to submerge you now so your body can absorb and gain the energy quicker through your lungs.” I don’t care I feel so good. I feel my head submerge under the water and am overwhelmed with pleasure as the liquid goes down my throat. One would think I would thrash and gag and fight for air. My body did neither it kept twitching in pleasure and greedily breathing the liquid like a drowning fish. I feel Tina and Celest’s hands message my body as I lose all semblance of reality.

            I stretch and moan in pleasure as I feel soft cloth covering me. My head is resting on something soft. That felt nice.

            “Your majesty are you awake?” What! I quickly open my eyes and sit up. I’m back in the same bed I was in before. Both Tina and Celest are before me. both of them are looking at me with excitement. “How do you feel?” I fall back onto my back. I’m dry and still naked, yet I feel satisfied and energized. It’s a strange feeling. I feel weightless yet solid.

            “Holy fuck what was that? It… it felt so good. I completely lost myself. I have had sex before but nothing like that. It was like every single cell of my body was having sex.” I feel myself blush. Both of them giggled as they picked me up and help me stand. I still felt a little euphoric.

            “In a way that’s what happened. Your body absorbed the liquid mix at a cellular level and converted it into energy. We theorized that your body made you feel pleasure so you would keep absorbing it. We took you out of the bath a couple of hours ago just a few minutes after full submersion.” I looked about the room as they started to dress me. This feels different; I think I can feel the flow of energy in the walls, floor and ceilings. I look at Tina and can sense the energy below her skin. I look at my hand and can see even more energy pulsating to the beat of my heart.

    “Wow. I feel so full.”

    “Yes we believe it would substitute for a meal to energize your body.” I look down at myself. They have fully dressed me in Uniform of some kind. I walk to the mirror and look at it. Tina and Celest just behind me. This looks Very similar to what Luna was wearing but with more frills gold lace and ornaments. At least I’m wearing pants. Even in this uniform I still look gorgeous. Not to be vain or anything but I can’t deny what I look like any longer. I’m not wearing a hat. “Please stay still for a minutes.” Celest and Tina start to comb then braid my hair into a single elegant braid. My white hair is straight and falls down the middle of my back. “There all done” Both girls have wide smiles on their faces.

    “You look beautiful your majesty.” I feel a blush come over me as I look down. Damn it when did I become so meek. I suck in a breath and steady myself and look up with what I hope is a strong face.

    “What’s next?”

    “The coronation of course.” Shit forgot about that. Celest and Tina straighten out their dresses. “This way your majesty.” Celest waves me to the now open doorway. We walk outside and I almost jump at the movement on either side of the door. There are two Imposing 10 foot tall robots with cool looking giant rifles in their hands and I think a sword on their back. They look similar to the mech suits from the Appleseed anime I watched as a child.

    “Your majesty.” Both robots speak at the same time as they take one knee. Celest waved to the one on the right.

    “This is General Markus Luna and” She waved to her left “Admiral Draven Luna.”

    “Luna as in Mother?” Both Tina and Celest nod.

    “They are the only ones Grand Duke Luna Sired. They have both placed themselves as your honor guard to the coronation.”

    “It is a pleasure to finally meet you sister.” Markus’s mech stood up.

    “Thank you the feelings mutual. Ah is this your true body?”

    “Nope.” He spins his rifle in one hand.

    “Markus this is not how you address the Queen.” The other mech to my left stood up.

    “Relax brother, she’s our sister we don’t have to be so stiff and formal.” I nod and look at Draven.

    “It’s ok I would prefer if you treat me like family. I won’t be used to all the formality for quite a while I think. So some normality would be nice.”

    “Very well. It is a pleasure to finally meet you. Ah… Sister.”

    “Thank you the feelings mutual.”

    “Yes finally mother has been yakking about you for half a million years.” I smirk, as I look at Markus’s intimidating mech.

    “I would assume that got old after a few thousand years.”

    “YES IT DID.” Both of them responded at once.

    “Your majesty!” I turn and look at Celest who had tapped me on the shoulder. “We need to be on our way. I look back and forth between Markus and Draven. They look at each other for a whole solid minute without a sound or movement.

    “Umm…”

    “Ha” Markus walks forward and gestures me to fallow him. “Please follow me.” I walk forward and follow him down the hall as Celest and Tina flank me with Draven in the back.

    “What was that?” I ask Markus.

    “Nothing just a quick game and I won.”

    “Marginally” I think I can detect grumpiness in Draven’s voice.

    “A win is a win.” Ok a bit of rivalry going on I see. Seeing how one is an admiral and the other is a general I’m not surprised, it just makes it more pronounced that they are brothers.

    “So why the high class escort?” Draven speaks up behind me.

    “Two reasons; One we are family and wanted to be here. Two our rank and jobs give us the right. No one will tell two viscounts no especially if they are a general and an Admiral.” Did he put more emphasis on admiral then he did general.

    “Fair enough. So what’s going to happen?” Markus speaks up.

    “First you are going to be announced at the door, and walk to the center of the chamber through all of the fan fair. Some of the council will make a speech but thankfully not all or they will bore us to death.”

    “Markus!”

    “What it’s the truth? Thankfully most will just upload there speeches to be viewed by the public. Then the coronation ceremony will begin, you will be fed your lines at that moment. Then you walk the rest of the way across the chamber and take a seat. This is when they place the crown on your head and you may make a speech if you so choose. The rest is up to you.” Great this sounds like a pain in the ass.

    “What about the aliens that revived me?”

    “Them? We have been ignoring them. We have already gathered most of the aliens in system that had authority over the other aliens. We will allow one to make a speech.”

    “Isn’t this alienating all the aliens in system by being so aggressive?” Markus spoke up behind me.

    “We don’t care. And we have the capability to eject all aliens from the system or destroy those who will not leave. We do not recognize their so called galactic society as an authority over us. They are only the biggest in this galaxy. They comprise no more than 3 fifths of the galaxy.”

    “Really?”

    “Yes you will be briefed on what we have after the coronation. This is a great time in our history. You have given many of us a purpose we felt we lacked for thousands of years.”

    “How so?”

    “Look to your maids for that answer. They are among the changed.” I look at the girls.

    “Changed?” Both Tina and Celest were smiling brightly.

    “Yes your majesty we were less emotional, apathetic about our daily lives with no ambition to change or do better. I spent the better part of 200 thousand years of my life as basically an automation content in doing the same thing without change. Once I found out you existed I changed, one of the creators lived again. I don’t know why but I felt I had a goal a purpose to serve you your majesty to do anything that may help you. Even if it was still doing what I did before, and I would do it with joy.” 200 thousand years doing the same thing holy crap. “I Celest de Forties now have a purpose. I thank you your majesty.

    “I… your welcome.” Just by being alive I have given her purpose.

    “I may not be as old as Celest but my story is very similar. For the last thousand years I was a mechanic on the Carrier Astrel no real rank just enlisted personnel.” They seemed to have copied quite a lot of human society. And did she say Carrier? I don’t think I have seen that ship type. Well I’ve only seen three ship types come to think about it. Meta’s Uncles ship the arrowhead ship and a shuttle I think. “I had become bored with what I was doing and did not know what I wanted to do next. I Figured I probably would  have stayed a mechanic until something came along for a thousand more years or so. When I heard you existed your majesty, one of the creators, I finely knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to do anything that would help you. Just like Celest it didn’t matter what it was.”

    She jumped up and down clapping and squealed. “Then it happened Luna announced that she needed 2 maids to help you and spoil you.” Spoil me? What? “Almost nearly 25 billion applied within minutes of the announcement. A lot were disqualified do to temperament position and well what they identified themselves as. A bit depressing for a lot but understandable. There were to many that qualified so there was a random draw and both me and Celest were lucky to be picked.” Holy hell they were lucky to be picked out of billions. “We will serve you no matter what for as long as you will have us your majesty.”

    “Um thank you. I don’t know what to say other than wow.” Both ladies smiled and nodded. Even though they are sentient Ai I can’t think of them as anything other than ladies. We keep walking for a while tell we enter a large wide hallway there are mech suits lined up on either side of the hallway.

    “This way your majesty.” Markus speaks in a formal tone and turns right down the hallway. Each time we cross a mech suited pair they kneel down. Am I really going to be treated this way for the rest of my life? It’s a bit much.

    “Where are we?”

    “We are in the grand hall leading to the council’s main chamber inside Luna Base.” We reach the end of the hallway. There are two large doors before me each one larger than the Suits Markus and Draven were in. Draven passed me and when to the door on the left as Markus was at the right.

    “Pardon us your majesty Tina and I will await your return at your chambers.” I nod as they bow and walk away. I swallow and turn back to the doors.

    “Ready when you are.” I straighten up and pat down my uniform of any perceived wrinkles. Time to put my game face on. Markus and Draven push the doors open, and I get a glimpse of a large open chamber with a high ceiling. I hear a loud announcement

    “I present our people, and guests my daughter and our queen resurrected from the very Jaws of extinction. EVE” I’m instantly blasted with sound of cheers and trumpets. Fuck!