Jupiter Station- Ankyros
Three hours later, the prototype was done. Amelia and her mother had encountered unexpected difficulties with procuring some of the rarer materials required to build the subspace communicator, but ultimately it was solved by Hal finding the station's drones and hacking them to procure the materials. While they waited for it to charge up and moved to the lounge, Amelia was going over the modifications her mother made to the FTL drive designs and was visibly pained as she looked over it.
"No...nonono. why did you change the geometry of the spacetime bubble here!? Sure it uses less power but makes it way too unstable. and here? You have to use a prismatic splitter for this junction, using hard copper would just overheat. This...Mom, this wouldn't have worked. Even if it did power up it would've had an event collapse in seconds."She said as she poured over the lists of changes. Honestly, she should be lucky the aliens showed up when they did. If this thing had gone off, this station and maybe even the nearby moons would've gone bye-bye.
"Well, for one the power requirements were enormous and we just didn't have the budget for a large enough reactor. Though it certainly would've helped if you were here to help us instead of criticizing us."Jess responded defensively. Amelia had always been like this, looking at the glass half empty, shunting off her emotions. Kevin had thought getting her in the military might help her as it did him when he was younger so Jess had pulled in a few favors to get her on one of their bleeding edge think tanks a few years ago, but ever since then...she just shut down. Left the military and left her and Kevin. Hell, even Jess couldn't see the details of what happened. Kevin apparently got a peek at it from Mike, but whatever it was, neither of them would tell her.
"I wasn't here because people aren't ready for this tech. As evidenced by you taking shortcuts and almost killing yourself and dad!" Amelia sighs once again. She knows her mother means well, but she didn't see what Amelia saw. The glass of humanity wasn't half empty, it was filled with hydrogen, and technology was a spark for humanity as it was now. One need only look at how their society was right now for that.
Jess took a moment, then sighed, walking over to her daughter, pausing a moment as the scars on Amelia became visible to her but continuing. She went to try and hug her, but Amelia pulled away from it, not looking at her, making Jess' heart ache even more.
"Mimi...What happened? Why won't you open up to us about it? Keeping it in can only hurt." she asked her in a soft, pained voice.
"I...can't. I just can't, okay?" She said, her voice breaking. Amelia turned around to step away and as she does so, Jess took a closer look. There were numerous scars, some even looked surgical, along Amelia's exposed skin, the diagnostic port of the interface for her Augs visible on the back of her neck, unlike anything Jess had seen. "Amelia you-"
"Not to interrupt but how long until the relay is charged?" Admiral Mike Kolensky asked the two, interrupting the mother-daughter argument. General Mcdonough was still in the infirmary getting a checkup after Kevin's little stunt and Kevin was in his quarters to avoid another incident, leaving the three of them and the 4 MP in the lounge alone.
"About....30 more minutes are so. Hal, how's it coming with the language?" Amelia said, trying to mask the cracking in her voice as she focused back on her work. As she asked Hal raised his head from his dormant state on her arm. The little coal black frame body of his was built specifically for blending in and espionage from an old drone design of Amelia's, but its power supply was woefully inadequate for Hal's core, leading to him mostly staying in his "dormant" state, i.e. the band form he was currently in. The new body she was working on was supposed to fix that but...
"Remarkably well. It seems to be a language predicated on requiring as little specialization as possible with a mathematically derived root for easy parsing. In simpler terms, it's a near-universally learnable language." Hal had said.
The little AI was worried about Amelia, despite his fascination with the new tech. He knew she was bordering on her limits of staying awake as well as the stress of the situation, his dormant form had after all allowed him to monitor her vitals. But more than that, he was worried about her being involved with the military again. Amelia was his designer, his creator after all, and the only organic he had met that didn't treat AI with disdain or outright kill. For all intents and purposes, he viewed her as his "Mother" in an organic sense, though he would never tell her or anyone that. She would just get upset and say 'Hal was his person, and others could take advantage of him saying it'. Still, her actions towards him at times did seem to be akin to that of a mother, so for now that would be his little secret.
"Right. I'm going to try and get a few minutes of shuteye then. Hal, could you wake me up when the relay is charged?" Amelia asked him
"Of course Ms. Amelia."
"Right, I'm going to make some coffee then. Mike, keep an eye on her would you? I think I need to have a talk with my husband." Jess had said looking at Amelia quickly dozing off on the couch in the lounge.
"Don't worry, she'll be safe. Tell him next time to maybe not dislocate an officer's jaw? even if he deserves it though." the Admiral replied, seemingly more interested in a document he was reading over.
Once Jess was gone, he put the document down, and looked over at Amelia, sighing at seeing her in such a sorry state. Her clothes were practically threadbare, her face looked terrible from lack of sleep, and the way she constantly shifted on the couch let the old soldier know she was in physical pain. After her part in operation "Valkyrie", he wasn't surprised. They had sent in 12 platoons to the rebel forces, and it had been an overwhelming failure. Amelia's platoon was the only one that had been recovered, though not without losses of their own. She had been a mess, so much so that they had to use experimental surgeries on her to save her, but ever since then, no, perhaps even before, she was different. No longer the little girl of his best friends.
Standing up, he walked over to a counter and grabbed two shot glasses, and a bottle of Vodka, her favorite. He walked over to the chair by the couch and set the bottle and shot glasses on the table loud enough that Amelia would hear them and sit up.
"Figured you'd need a drink, little soldier." He said with his best warm smile. All he got back from her was a cold, detached look though.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
"Sorry. Poor choice. I guess you're too big for childhood nicknames anymore anyways." He said, pouring a shot for himself and her. Amelia took the glass, looking it over.
"Actual Russian vodka. From before the collapse too. How'd you get this, uncle Mike?" She asked, looking at the bottle curiously.
"An old dog can have a few tricks of his own, little lady." He said to her, happy she was at least talking to him.
"So.. What happened. And don't give me the bullshit that is in the reports. I watched your tough little ass grow up putting bullies in hospitals. Those reports aren't right, are they?"
Amelia eyes him curiously, taking another shot.
"No, they aren't."
"So what happened?" He said, taking his first shot. The vodka was fiery, burning as it went down. The strong stuff, though he didn't personally care for it.
"How much do you know about "BlackRock"?" She asked.
"The Think-tank you were in? It was commissioned by the Uniform Senate of the United Nations for hyper-experimental research, wasn't it?" He asked, curiously.
"That's what the reports say, alright." She said, eyeing him to see if he gets it.
"Then what are they." He asked.
"Honestly? they're the worst humanity has to offer. I need rest. Thanks for the nightcap Mike."
"Anytime, little lady."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S.A. Adjutant
Sol System- Oort Cloud.
Red lights glared across the decks of the ship as a multitude of corpses could be seen strewn across the floor. Rings of gunfire echoing all around as Captain Isht'il and what remained of his crew tried to make their way to the escape pods. Where the hell did they come from, how did they even get here, what do they want? he had no idea to any of these, all he knew was the ship was done for and the survivors best bet was deploying the escape pods to the nearest human outpost. as he ran to the pods, the sounds of slaughter could be heard approaching closer and closer until at last,right as they made it to the pods, he could see the creature behind him. The rest of the crew needed time to launch however, so, as a captain should, he closed the door to the pods and stared down at the creature.
"Go, get out of here, now!, find the humans!"
He said to them, as he looked at the sleek black and green bipedal creature holding a strange metal stick wearing a helmet with green eyes. "I don't know who or what you are, but you will NOT get my crew!" He said as he aimed the plasma caster at the creature. It looked shocked for a moment, before stepping closer to him, saying something in a guttural language as the pods started ejecting behind them. The creature grabbed him by the collar before picking him up, shouting in their language again.
"Fuck you. And get the hell off my ship!" Isht'il aimed his caster at an overhead vent line which sprung loose, throwing cryogenic liquid all over and causing the creature to drop him and fire its weapon twice. Both shots hit him in the abdomen as he looked down, shocked as a blue-green blood spilled out from two holes in him before looking back at the creature, who was taking off its mask. The last escape pod was already gone, and so only Isht'il realized the horror of what this creature was. The brown fur on its head nor the white sharp teeth were even the worst part. It was the binocular eyes that were a deep blue, like an ocean of aggression swallowing him whole, before at last, the captain breathed his last.
30 seconds later, an explosion detonated the ship, evaporating a good chunk of it, and killing the rest that were inside.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jupiter Station- Ankyros
Amelia was in a room that smelled like antiseptic and burned metal, her sight was blurry and red, and Hal was nowhere to be seen. "Where was Hal!" she thought as suddenly bright lights blinded her again and something was placed over her face. distantly she could hear voices speaking.
"Do you think she'll actually survive?"
"no idea, maybe they just fry her brains" A laugh.
"Nah, im betting they make her into an implant pincushion."
"Quiet, both of you. Up her dosage and make sure she stays under, we don't want....~
Suddenly Amelia snaps awake at hearing someone enter the lounge, her hand instinctively going to a hidden sidearm for a moment before realizing where she was as a lieutenant spoke up.
"Sir, we have multiple unknowns departing from the main ship heading straight here." He said to Mike just as the General, now with his jaw back in place and a pack on it, walked in.
"Lieutenant you are to fire on any unknowns approaching this station, use any means necessary." The general said.
"Belay that. Mcdonough i don't know what the hell you think you are doing but you do not order my men." Admiral Mike said as he motioned the MP to grab him. However they did not move.
"Admiral Micheal Furlough. You are hereby relieved of command effective immediately under orders of Fleet Command. Surrender yourself into custody or use of deadly force is authorized!" The general barked as the MP moved now to detain the admiral.
As this was going on, Amelia activated her neural implant to connect with Hal.
'Hal. this is bad, we're going with Epsilon. think you can handle it?'
'I believe so but if I do I'll have to power down for several hours. I won't be able to translate for you.'
'Well if we don't get out of this mess translation won't be needed anyways. Do it'
'Very well'
The communication lasted barely a second yet as it ended Amelia and Hal were already in motion. Hal spread his form across Amelia's arm as if to make a buckler shield and Amelia's form disappeared as the active camo took effect, the MP firing tasers where she was to no avail. She was already on the move.
'Cheshire Protocol' She thought as her neural implant activated her system. Her limbs became more taught, her body more flexible. Artificial hormones accelerated her reflexes and reaction time by more than 30 percent as the 'Profile' took effect.
"Find her. Kill her." The general said before pausing as fear and apprehension grew across his face.
"Nu.uh uh." Amelia's voice rang out, but not Amelia's. Suddenly the General felt, rather than see, a blade pressed against his throat.
"Sorry there general but you fucked up. Tell your boys to drop their weapons unless you want to drop your head instead yeah?" She spoke, though couldn't be seen. Her voice seemed to echo but wasn't the same either. It was more playful, taunting, with a sadistic air about it.
"Amelia, if you want to live you'll remove that blade from my neck!" The general said sternly, though his face showed fear, more so than the situation actually called for.
"Sorry, Amelia isn't here right now, but I'll be sure to give her the message. When you get to hell, tell the other fucks in Wonderland that Cheshire sends her regards."
As she spoke, the blade seemingly out of nowhere pushed its way through the general's neck slowly, having pierced his spine first just enough to make him unable to move as Hal's gun fires off several times, killing the MP's before they could move. Slowly, Amelia decloaks as Hal goes into rest mode. Looking the General in his eyes with delight as he fails to gasp for breath, she removes the blade, and Hal spoke
"Cheshire shutdown Epsilon 4,22,2082 1640"
Amelia then collapsed on the ground herself, her implants going into a dormant state as the Admiral was left looking shocked.
'Alice' had fallen asleep and 'Cheshire' had woken up, seemingly on command? this wasn't supposed to happen, she was supposed to be deactivated. What the hell is going on!