Alysa smiled and looked at Josh from the corner of her eye, "Impressive speech, Josh.”
Josh sighed and stifled a terribly witty comment about being thrown to the lions. Instead he pointed to her and Sen and decided to go with honesty.
"As long as you both understand... I'm a figurehead only. We all make the decisions. Together! You both have more experience with just about everything out here compared to me. I...” He pointed to himself and then waved his hands at everyone on the Brigantine “...In fact, everyone will be relying on you two for any decision of significance out here." His greatest fear off his chest, Josh smiled and waggled his eyebrows at Alysa. “Fair?”
Alysa narrowed her eyes and smiled minutely. "I can live with that..." she voiced at the same time Sen agreed through their Bond.
Josh did note that neither Alysa nor Sen showed any remorse for throwing him under the bus. But he couldn't really blame them. Knowing Sen as he did, Josh was the logical choice. And if Alysa didn't want to be the front person... Josh would serve.
Blink. ~ We're all going to make the crucial decisions. What could go wrong... Right? God's we're doomed, aren't we?!~
Soft chuckle. ~ We'll be fine, brother. Alysa is a natural leader. As are you.~
* * * * *
They left the BAH, heading to the bridge and their adjacent quarters. Jishin and Dantor-ZS followed along. Mzamo saluted formally, saying he ‘needed to get back to business’, then strode back to take charge of the troops in attendance.
Alysa walked between Josh and Sen. "A package arrived for you both on the bridge a few moments before you landed. It says to open it ASAP... I think it's from the Lord Clone."
Josh furrowed his brows. ~Package from the Clone? Did he mention anything to you?~
Sen’s face held a pensive expression. ~No, he didn't…We had better get to it first…Whatever it is will definitely change our plans. He doesn't move in small ways.~
Snort. ~Too true.~
As they increased their pace to the bridge. Dantor-ZS moved two steps ahead of the group and rotated its cylindrical head completely around to speak to Josh without breaking stride.
"Your Eminence, I see that you will be occupied with other duties very soon. For the sake of the crew, might I suggest that we first adjourn to the command gallery? There, you'll be able to accredit me through the Brigantine's compu-interface. Once accomplished, I will be able to assume the duties of the lost administrative AI. I fear that there has been such a long gap since proper optimization of the Brigantine's propulsion, amino-food replication, and air quality subroutines that there will already be a significant drop from peak performance."
Josh blinked. ~He’s a bit creepy, but that’s not a bad idea. Thoughts Sen?~
Sen nodded thoughtfully.. ~We can get the Clone's package and activate Dantor on the bridge. Let's do it there.~
~Smart.~
Josh twirled his finger in a small circle to get the AI mechanical to spin back around and stop weirding him out. Dantor complied almost immediately.
Josh spoke. "Dantor, let's head to the bridge and kill two birds with one stone. The Clone's package is a priority, but getting you up and running can happen at the same time there."
After a fleeting glance of what almost looked like irritation on its mechanical face, Dantor nodded in acceptance. "As you say, your Eminence."
* * * * *
Upon arrival at the bridge, Jishin bid farewell and stepped up to his workstation. He was immediately besieged by three aids and a messenger in full combat gear. He waved all off and addressed his navigator.
"Attendant Norikumi, do we have the hyperspace resolution to the Noha System?"
"Aye, sir."
"Good. Get us underway when ready."
A ship-wide announcement went out for their preplanned first stop, and the Brigantine smoothly slipped into superlight travel. The forward-looking view screen showed them out-pacing elongated photon tracings as the Hegemon-4 disappeared from the rear-viewing screen.
Josh felt a pang of regret seeing it go. Strange how I considered that ship my home... Still, home is where your family is... And everyone truly important is here.
Dantor-ZS placed a thin metal hand lightly on Josh’s shoulder and pulled him from his thoughts.
"Your Eminence, the sooner I assume my duties, the faster I can overcome the accumulated dereliction deficit. It is a simple process that merely requires you to identify yourself as the commander of the Brigantine and authorize my assumption of the AI seneschal’s duties. Come this way, and I will show you."
The android led him to a console off to the far right of the bridge while Alysa led Sen away to deal with the Clone’s package on the other side.
Alysa stopped two meters from a large white plas-steel container with rounded corners. She indicated it with her hands and then performed a sharp about-face to return to Josh and Dantor-ZS.
The box’s general shape reminded Sen of the gaming cubes tossed by off-duty soldiers. But this box was one meter to the side with no visible markings save for crisp lettering engraved into the top.
Open before incompetence leads to your deaths and my inconvenience.
It’s from the Clone, alright.
As if the box knew Sen was there, a field the shape of his hand started blinking on its top. Sen placed his hand on it.
A mechanical voice spoke generically from the box.
“Senyak Marztanak identified. Activation initiated."
Seams appeared on the box's sides as they inverted and folded away to reveal a humanoid metal framework composed mainly of lacquered white plating and matte brushed titasteel. It was positioned down on one knee with fists planted. Slowly it began to raise its head and blue-white light began to fire in its eyes.
"...Activation processing..."
It was then that the Brigantine’s world went to hell in a handbasket.
* * * * *
"Thank you, your Eminence," Danto-ZS replied as Josh finished parroting the words to authorize his installation as seneschal. A comp-link extended from the AI mechanical’s thin wrist, and the mech inserted it into a port on the console in front of them.
Josh turned back to where Sen had gone off to try and help unravel the Clone's newest mystery along with all the future headaches it would entail— Dantor-ZS called from over his shoulder before his first step had landed,
"Let us begin, shall we? Ah, yes... This will just not do. I'll be recalibrating the grav-cells throughout the ship. Along with the mag-footing systems."
Stolen novel; please report.
Shocked gasps occurred all around as Josh and the entire bridge crew instinctively moved in the unsteady floating and vectoring associated with being unexpectedly tossed into a zero-G environment.
"What in the five red hellion pits is going on!?" Jishin cursed from two stations over. He had grabbed onto the edge of his console with one hand to hold himself steady and used the other hand to pull a crewman back down to do the same. But Jishin’s gaze was focused solely on Dantor.
"I assure you, helmsman, there is nothing to fear." Dantor-ZS spun his head 120 degrees to face Jishin. "This momentary discomfort will be over soon!"
"Well, call out when you will be affecting ship-wide safety systems so we can announce to the crew y’daft bucket of bugged code!"There is nothing to fear.” It finished with the same statement it made to Jishin earlier. “This momentary discomfort will be over soon.”
Josh was ineffectively waving his arms in a breaststroke to reach a handhold. His uncoordinated movements only pushed him farther away.
Alysa, several steps away, like the well-trained Mandalorian she was, launched a small grapple attached to a monofilament on her left wrist. She pulled herself down and pulled Josh down to a nearby console. He heard the thrum of her mag boots and she touched down on the deck with a clank.
Alysa cast a wary glance at Dantor, who had disengaged his comp link and rotated his narrow body to match the direction his eye sensors were facing.
"There is no need for name-calling, helmsman. There would certainly be a ship-wide panic if I announced that I had deactivated the grav-cells and safety systems because I was accelerating the Brigantine into the nearest star. Don’t you think? But if you insist..."
Claxons rang out as the bridge’s blast doors slammed down to lock into place with finality. The ship lurched, and they dropped into normal space. The forward view screen centered on an all too near bright red star that was steadily increasing in size.
The AI’s voice broadcast throughout the ship. “Dear crew, despite the unfortunate limitation of you biologic capacities I assure you that what you are experiencing is not one of your many perceptive failings. I am taking the necessary steps to end your pointless continued existence via immediate intersection with the nearest solar body. Any momentary discomfort will be over soon. But please do locate and grasp any nearby hand-holds or fasten yourself in a seat with a five-point securement harness which will provide absolutely no protection whatsoever from the on coming accelerated particles and energetic radiation.”
DX’s override of the communication system complete, the ship's main comp unit announced blandly. “Penetration of stellar coronal layer in fifty-three micros."
A bridge-wide gasp was followed by erupting shouts from the scattered and floating attendants. Many obviously entered panic mode as they tried to reach their stations.
DX’s cylindrical head rotated to fully view Jishin in a twisted emphasis of its earlier statements concerning panic. "Happy now, helmsman?" Dantor-ZS calmly extended a thin metal arm and pointed out the evolving chaos to Jishin. Four new arms sprang from his tubelike body and proceeded to smash the console in front of him into a sparking ruin. Dantor's facial components took on a charming smile. "Now, please, all of you, this will only take a moment. There is no need for hysterics. I assure you, this is a much more pleasant end than what you would face if the Kaizuko strong men you have offended were to take personal action against you and the Brigantine."
The red glare of a rapidly approaching sun filled one third of the view screen in front of them.
Alysa got her side arm up and fired from a crouching stance with both hands. Three by three inch square sections of a red energy shield appeared over Dantor's head and chest to intercept the streaks of yellow light. Nifty trick, Josh begrudgingly conceded. The next instant, two of Dantor-ZX's limbs telescoped faster than Josh could see and smashed into Alysa's rapidly propagated Earthen Shield. Protected from being impaled, she was still sent hurtling through the air to the far side bulkhead.
Josh cycled his Essence and launched himself to tackle the maniacal robot. Two new arms extended out from Dantor and intercepted him instead. He attempted to grapple with the thin metal but was thrown over Dantor’s shoulder headfirst into the bulkhead on the opposite side of the bridge. He got his Earthen Shield up just before his cranial impact left a shallow buckle in the thick steel. Josh’s bell was well rung, and everything went white while his brain sloshed around like water in a jostled pail.
...Maybe in need of a small rest...But like a voice oscillating down a long-tiled hallway, the still-present part of his brain came through. JOSHY, WE ARE FLYING INTO A SUN! WAKE UP!
Josh shook his head, and his vision cleared in time to see Sen with a sword drawn, launching himself off the side of a workstation. He parried a swarm of extended arms, fanning blue sparks as his enhanced slashes went metal on metal against Dantor's limbs. But before Sen could get into striking range, the AI mechanical's attacks had served their purpose in deflecting him to the other side of the bridge in the zero-G. Sen ended up farther away from the robot than when he had started. It was also obvious from the deep nicks along his sword edge’s length, the robot's arms were far more durable.
Alysa had landed mag-boots down on the vertical bulkhead and was firing a non-stop barrage at the mech. Her jaw clenched at the impossible way Dantor continued to erect a blocking shield not much larger than the width of her blasts even though his facial sensors weren't looking in her direction.
Then the smarmy bastard started talking smack.
“Sigh... The predictable struggle of organic life forms to survive even in the face of futility... Why do I waste my words?" Two of its arms and shoulders shrugged mockingly.
"Penetration of stellar coronal layer in forty micros." The Brigantine's comp unit reported once again in a mind-numbingly bland voice. The red sun now occupied half of the forward view screen, and mass ejections of alpha particles and accompanying plasma could be seen erupting from its surface.
Someone was pounding on the far side of the bridge's blast doors, and Josh could see the orange glow of a thermal lance heating up the interior surface of the door.
Someone’s outside and trying to cut through...The thought didn’t make him hopeful, however. It’s too little too late. No way they’ll get through in time to make a difference.
Sen again launched himself at Dantor but gained no more ground than the first time. He ended up spinning toward the bulkhead Alysa was firing from and somersaulted to land feet first on its steel. A large notch was clearly visible in the center of his sword’s blade from a blocked arm slash aimed at decapitating him.
Not wanting to die crumpled against the wall, Josh activated his full Earthen Shield and kicked off again on an intercept course for Dantor. In a move that even to Josh, looked ridiculously simple, the robot stepped to the side and used two of its arms to speed Josh along. He and his Earthen Shield crashed high up onto the bulkheads on the opposite side of the bridge, leaving an even larger dent with his back and shoulders—
"That will be quite enough!" Intelligence's voice rang out through the Brigantine's comms system.
The ship immediately decelerated and veered to port as everyone floating suddenly found themselves under the influence of full gravity again.
Having impacted a high spot on the wall, Josh’s thirty-foot fall was accompanied by a yell even generous onlookers would have a hard time calling manly.
The blast doors to the bridge slid open and with weapons drawn, Ishan and Lobo prowled in with Mzamo, his head on a swivel, close behind. A complement of Space Marines and Brigantine Elite forces were using obvious effort to keep up after them all.
"Stellar impact averted." The Brigantine's comp-unit reported brightly.
Dantor-ZS's gleeful demeanor changed to confusion as its head revolved 180 degrees, obviously looking to find the source of his reversed fortune.
A sleek, white plastic and brushed steel android with burning blue-white eyes entered the room..
Is that AI mechanical, Intelligence? Josh wasn’t sure—but it strode from the left side of the bridge and confronted Dantor-ZS like a boss.
The black and red robot's frame towered two feet above the white and blue newcomer. But Intelligence’s command presence could not be denied. "Please note, it is in my interest to leave your systems and structure as functionally intact as possible for my coming interrogation of your neural net—"
Dantor ZS's aggressive actions went into overdrive as twelve telescoping limbs extended from his frame and fanned into sharp metal dishes. Arcing red laser edges spun around the dishes like buzzsaws. Everyone swallowed at the increased threat level, while Dantor, whirling its limbs in patterns that formed a neon tech afterimage-nightmare, shot forward in attack.
Blue-white plasma fins that matched the avatar's eyes erupted on the lateral aspects of Intelligence’s arms and legs. A tired expression fell across its elegant face, "...But ultimately, how much functionality will remain is entirely up to you..."
Spinning laser death-rings surged from every conceivable angle as the smaller silver and white avatar moved in a Wushu taolu more complicated than anything Josh had only ever seen on kung fu theater. After what could only have been three seconds, Dantor-ZS had been reduced to travel-sized pieces scattered on the floor. Intelligence's avatar completed its final flourish with a limbering pose of flexed extremities in bow stance: one arm forward and one extended directly behind. Josh couldn't be sure, but not once had it looked like Intelligence moved in any way a well-trained humanoid could not.
"Joshua Elias Tanner, Senyak Marztanak, please be of service and collect these pieces." Intelligence waved an elegant white and brushed steel hand over the remains of Dantor. "I will now optimize the Brigantine and become acquainted with the bridge crew. When you have all of the remains, my micro-avatar will lead you to your quarters and we will begin our interrogation."
"Ya…Yes, Intelligence…Tha…Thank you!" They both stammered out in perfect unison, shocked beyond the ability to regulate their similarity in response.
"My sincere pleasure. Though even I hadn't anticipated being needed so soon." The avatar narrowed its eyes and seemed to search them intensely for a moment. Then it turned around to go about its self-assigned duties. But Josh couldn’t help overhear Intelligence continue to itself, "...And to think... I had always considered Zenyak's warnings about the two of them to be mostly hyperbole." Its head shook at the apparently prophetic nature of the man.
They both turned pink and scrambled to collect the rubble that had been Dantor-ZS.