“Launching drones” - announced Friday.
Jordi was still preparing his drinks, this was going to be a long wait after all and one mimosa was not going to last that long. There was a small screen in the kitchen and Friday was showing the data there.
Ryoshi was looking at Jordi moving her tail. Since she had been genetically modified to eat the bugs, her stomach was resistant to all kinds of acids, and she did love citrus fruits.
Jordi smiled and let a piece of orange discreetly fall to the ground and laughed at her grabbing the piece and running with it.
He continued the process while looking at the screen. Friday had prepared six drones and launched them with a thirty seconds intermittence. She had done her math and the drones would dodge the stronger part of the radiation wave but then they needed to get really close to the sun and take pictures of the thing that Jordi was sure was there.
Jordi was used to the waiting though. As an explorer he had spent countless hours just travelling throughout systems while his drones scanned everything. Now he had moved the couch in the leisure room back to its place and was looking at it through the main screen, split with the data on one half and the video from the drones on the other.
The drones were now passing relatively close to the structure, still being unloaded, and he saw the swarm of movement around it and felt a bit of restlessness. The Espurna was probably healed by now but he believed his skills would be better used at this moment looking at the drones and hoping for his gut to indicate the next step.
—
The moment was close and the drinks were over. The videos were now using the whole screen and Friday had applied a filter to the images so he could look at the sun without blinding himself.
Still, he had insisted that the filter was soft so he wouldn’t miss the thing hiding there, probably on the outer segment of the sun’s corona.
—
With a few thousand kilometres still to go, the first drones failed, they were ok and suddenly were gone, Jordi didn’t even saw what happened but Friday did.
“They had been shot” - she informed - “I don’t know where the shot came from and I didn’t detect it but the image from the drones behind is quite clear, that’s an impact” - she continued, and put the image of the shot on the screen.
“You’re right, that’s clearly an impact from something” - Jordi agreed - “Let’s focus on the ones currently flying though; how much delay are we talking about?” - he asked
“A bit less than a minute.” - she replied - “Even though we deployed good communication drones we are still on the outskirts of the system, we are already defying the laws of nature with this”
Jordi leaned forward and focused on the video, the drones were really close to the sun now. They then splitted, each pair going to a different pole.
They didn’t get to fly much closer though, the same thing that destroyed the first ones shot them down. But Jordi’s paranoia had infected Friday and she had sent some special subroutines to the remaining drones; after the first drone of every pair got shot down, the following drone would analyze the shot trajectory, turn towards the origin and take a picture.
“They’ve been shot down as well” - said Friday - “Incoming pictures of the shooter”
Jordi arched an eyebrow completely taken by surprise, he had not expected that, then the pictures appeared. A spherical metal thing was definitely there and hidden under the sun’s outer layer.
“Damn girl, you never fail to deliver” - said Jordi, and then typed some commands and put the picture of the thing in the Alkagoria system side by side.
“And there’s more. I can tell that the thing is powered by an AI not so different as I was when they installed me here, it attempted to hack the drones.” - continued Friday - “Something tells me that this has to be what they were doing in the structure and all of this is an experiment that failed miserably”
“I agree. Send all that to Xe’nia and let’s wait for the next steps. Which I believe should be ‘let’s blow the fucking thing off’” - ordered Jordi.
—-
During the start of the Xih'r project, the scientists in charge of growing epsilon embryos were about to discard a whole batch because some contamination had happened during the process and they weren’t developing right. But at the last moment they received a priority order to let them grow and observe.
Of the 20 embryos of that batch only 5 successfully developed to the point of being born and only one managed to survive to adulthood.
He was scrawny, his skin so pale it was almost translucent, his physical proficiency was almost nil even though his muscles and bones were the same as the other epsilons. He compensated with mental agility though, in some aspects he was even faster and more precise than computers.
And he had inherited the most crazy aspects of human ingenuity and imagination, with a desire to play with the laws of physics as much as they let him.
As a kid he blew up things with the most apparently innocent materials. He was a curious chemist and a brilliant physicist, but also a danger to anyone around him so they gave him his own lab and some secretly hoped he would just kill himself.
His creations were astonishing and in no time he was sent to a research centre, where he could develop his abilities and create whatever was on his mind.
He had the Emperor’s approval for that after all.
—-
Xe’nia was looking at the images the Espurna had sent. She had read the reports from the Alkagoria systems and, although that thing was inert, this one was very much alive.
She looked at her screens, the unloading of the structure was almost finished but they would still be taking a few hours, opened the drawer and took another caffeine pill. She immediately felt the looks from someone by her side.
“Don’t, just don’t. Yes, I have no idea how many days I’ve been awake or how many of those tablets I’ve taken already but I can’t afford to sleep just now. If the one who could cover me wasn’t in the state she is, I could delegate some more tasks.” - she said looking at Er’anie and her big pregnant belly.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“And you know that even in this state I can do more than what you’re throwing. I don’t like this, I should be doing more.” - Er’anie answered.
“But you need to take care of the twins you’re carrying, Emperor’s orders.” - replied Xe’nia - “What you could do though is go ask the Doctor if he has finished setting up the Thing, you know he only listens to you”
“Because you all were a bunch of bullies” - Er’anie said smiling
“I won’t refute that, because it is true, we were. Go girl, and take a rest after, you’ve been awake for too long already” - Xe’nia replied
Er’anie stood up and, before leaving the room, looked at the still image from Jordi’s last communication, her heart beating strongly. She knew further communication was forbidden and he was supposed to be just another mission, but this one hit hard. Fucking Emperor knew what he was doing when he paired them together.
A few minutes later she knocked on the Doctor's laboratory and entered without waiting for an answer.
A thin, scrawny looking epsilon with short hair and a white coat was in the middle of what was obviously some kind of scientific station, he turned to see who was coming in and smiled at her.
“Ei Doc, how are we doing with the Thing?” - she asked, smiling back.
“Ei Er’anie! Wasn’t expecting to see you up so late. Aren’t you supposed to rest? You should be going any moment now.” - he replied looking at her belly.
“Not yet, looks like the twins are comfortable here” - she said, caressing her big belly. - “And I was going to rest but I was asked to come visit you before that”
“Yeah I imagined as much. I believe the Thing is ready to be used but I must insist on my warnings. No ship should be on this system once we do use it.” - the Doc said.
“This will eat black holes for breakfast at an incredible speed and then will continue eating systems until it receives the signal to stop. If we’re dead, we cannot stop it and thus the whole Universe will be eaten” - he explained.
“Yeah we know but look at this.” - she said, and showed him the pictures the Espurna had taken.
“So, another of those remnant rogue AIs; and the researchers thought it could be controlled?” - he asked.
Er’anie was surprised for a second and then remembered the Doctor had higher clearance than anybody on this system so obviously he knew about what they were doing in the structure. Something that had taken Xe’nia innumerable calls and screaming. She didn’t ask why he hadn’t shared that information because she knew the Doctor was a firm believer in the Emperor and his rules. If you didn’t have the clearance for something he knew you had to get it first.
“So, you knew?” - was all she could ask.
“I suspected once they told me to come and to bring the Thing. Why else would I be in the middle of a rescue mission armed with that?” - he asked.
They both looked at the Thing.
“Wormhole weapons” - the Doctor sighed - “Only the sick mind of humankind could dream something that destructive”
“Says the guy who made it real” - Er’anie laughed - “And so similar to the one in the tv show that it looks like a toy”
The Doctor just shrugged as an answer, then turned to her.
“Come, let me walk you to your room and then I will personally go to the bridge and tell the bitch that the Thing is ready to create havoc whenever she wants” - the Doctor said while lightly pushing her out of the lab.
“Be nice to her. We were all young and idiots and she’s sorry” - Er’anie interceded.
“You were neither an idiot nor a bully but I’ll try to be nicer, just for you.” - the Doctor replied
“And because that’s what the Emperor would like you to do” - Er’anie commented
“Well, that too” - the Doctor smiled
“I might not always agree with his decisions” - he said looking sideways to her belly - “But I will follow his orders no matter what, he always has a reason for everything”
—
Jordi and Friday were chatting in the Espurna, still waiting inside the gas giant, with one of the screens showing the movement on the structure, when the ship started trembling really hard, as if there was an earthquake.
On the screen, all the kirkuggers started to tremble as well. All of them visibly vibrating and flying randomly all over the place.
In another screen, the one showing the radiation wave, it showed how it had violently increased speed, almost doubling it.
“That was a psi hit coming from out of the system.” - Friday informed - “Jeeyze is still recovering but she says she can hear lots of ships screaming. Any ship not covered by the gas giant must be in incredible pain right now”
Jordi saw it clear as day, as if he was seeing something that had happened before.
“Priority communication to Xe’nia! DO NOT use the AI override on the kirkuggers! Let them come by themselves and have them stop any that attempt to jump” - he shouted.
And it was almost too late, some kirkuggers started shooting each other but the shields held. Some attempted to jump but others rammed them, stopping the jump before it started.
The radiation wave clearly originated from the sphere hidden on the sun but, where did that psi hit come from?
—
A few hundred light-years from that system the Excelsior was approaching a small shipyard, inside the ship it was night time so few people were awake.
The whole Mind Flayer battalion woke up the exact moment the kirkuggers were assaulted by that psi attack.
“What the fuck was that?” - said Ryan
“I don’t know, but it was far, very far” - answered Aleisha
“And it did sound kind of like the colossus, didn’t it?” - added Chiara.
“It was similar but I don’t think it was her. Maybe one of her progeny?” - commented Sierra.
They all looked at each other with worried faces. The colossus and the psi signal that woke them up were hundreds of light years from each other. To have an attack travel that distance and for them to feel it, it was almost unbelievable.
“So, who goes to wake the good doctor and the captain and tell them?” - Hans asked.
“I think today is my turn” - Khalid sighed, and started to dress up.
—
Back in the system where the rescue was taking place, Jeeyze had organized the others inside the gas giant and all of them were now on their way to the structure, sending calming messages and trying to guide those who received the brunt of the attack.
From the Espurna’s bridge Jordi was amazed watching them fly in formation. How the beasts had convinced the AIs and the pilots was something to investigate later on.
Friday was clenching her teeth, or the equivalent since she didn’t have any. Jeeyze had stopped filtering her pain and now they both were feeling it.
Even though they were almost half a system away from the structure, Jordi could tell those other kirkuggers were receiving the message. Their flight was getting less chaotic and they were starting to come back, moving into formation while doing so.
Xe’nia was screaming something at Jordi, but he had muted her video call after sending her the details of what Jeeyze and the other kirkuggers were about to do.
Without checking with her they all left the gas giant to collect the others and would act as a shield and cover their retreat.
“I don’t think we’re going back to our holidays” - Jordi said out loud - “But it doesn't matter, as long as we’re all together” - he finished looking at the ceiling.
Friday felt warm inside. It didn’t make sense because she didn’t have a body and she was sure those feelings didn’t come from Jeeyze. Inside her core some new subroutines were being created without her knowing or being able to access them. She was becoming more alive, more sentient, with every interaction with Jordi.
One of the hidden drones that she had created after the encounter with the colossus had woken up when the psi attack took place and started relaying some information, but Friday knew she couldn’t share that with Jordi without telling him what she had done so she kept it for herself until the moment it was useful. So far it was only telling her where the attack had probably originated.
Jordi was trying to keep calm knowing there was anything else he could do at the moment.
Space is so vast, it would still take them almost an hour to reach the others even though they were also coming to meet them. But they were going as fast as the slowest of them, moving like a herd surrounded by predators, none would be left behind.
He somehow knew that the sphere AI was capable of hijacking the kirkuggers, it was almost as if he could see the events unfolding before his very eyes. If the ship AIs attempted to control the beasts, the rogue AI would take over as it had done after the psi hit. And he was scared, terrified, to have Friday fight that enemy.
So, without any other options all he could do was wait until all the kirkuggers were together. He was sure the next step would be clear to him by then.