Hi Steemians and Sci-Fi-Fans,
this is the 3rd installment of my #NextColony story, inspired by a contest from @art-universe.
Part 1 – The Mercenary
Part 2 – On the Run
Special agent Dale Rosebud was the chief investigating officer in the delicate case of the fugitive AI with the code name „SABLIT“. As such he was directly reporting to the "Council of Galactic Affairs". Not a job anybody would envy him, would they know how mysterious this Council acted. The Council, based in Cyclops like all the other Authority bodies and officials, had never approached him directly, but always through avatars. He didn´t know a single member of it nor what its aims or motives were.
Just his mission was clear: Find and terminate SABLIT.
For this purpose he got close to limitless resources, like battleships ad libitum in various sectors throughout the galaxy and the most extensive access to intelligence he ever could have imagined. He got a personal intelligence AI which could provide him instantly whatever information he needed and which had a more than awesome strategic and predicting power. On one hand a dream for every investigator, on the other hand he was already afraid what would happen after completion of his task. Would they just pay him or would they terminate him as well? Good at least - but in principle bad for the investigation itself - was the fact, that he had been completely left in the dark about why the Authority spends so much energy on hunting this renegade AI. It occasionally happens that AIs go mad (like wet brains or brain equivalents, just not that often) and part of Rosebuds reputation as special agent was his intuition when chasing them. The other part was that he was one of the very few humans who had been successfully genetically modified to have an heightened intuition. Even without his gift he sensed that there was a highly significant detail missing. Well, for now he put this thoughts aside and concentrated on his job.
Thanks to his possibilities it was not difficult to track the AI down to the point where it had hired the trip on board of the White Ninja at Aldebaran, they just came slightly too late to stop it there. But he was not worried at all, he could see all the jumps of the private ship (they need to get OC-registered - Open blockChain) and follow with his own, fast cruiser. He of course had a priority status and spent no time on standing in the lines for the space jumps.
The captain of the White Ninja, a former Space Army officer, was highly decorated, but had otherwise an unsuspicious, even boring record. His ship however had undergone some surprisingly expensive modifications. Well, nothing to worry about if you are on board a battleship.
Before his last jump and that far off from main routes there were only a few possibilities for its next destination and as soon as Rosebud learned that it was the Prometheus system, he had ordered two battleships from nearby to it, the "Pacification" and the "Mediation". Both were - despite their names - impressive instruments of deadly force, planet destroyers, annihilators of worlds. His personal view was that such concentrated power should not even exist, let alone be controlled by single mortal beings.
Anyway, the Council order gave him the ultimate authority over those ships and he was going to use it for a fast and smooth completion of the mission (while trying to minimize collateral damage to an extent not jeopardizing it).
As soon as they emerged out of the interspace he boarded at the Mediation and set a course of both ship for the White Ninja. The cruiser obviously was heading in their direction (luckily "P" had only one long distance portal) but as soon as the battleships had shown up it reversed.
That was easy, Rosebud thought and was happy for the millions of civilians on the 3rd planet. If they could do their job in open space no innocents would get hurt in the process.
Way too easy, his intuition kicked in and all of a sudden he knew that there would be some surprises very soon.
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"How much time do we have?" Higgins asked, panic-fueled.
"Not enough. At max. speed we will be in range of their long range weapons in app. 10 minutes. This brings us nowhere, just back close to the place where we just came from. We can try to mingle among the dense traffic there."
"And hope they won´t pumpkin-bomb the whole city.", Higgins added. He hesitated only a moment.
"Crazy, but seems the best option. OK, do it."
Eve pushed the engines to the limit and beyond. An intense rumbling noise resounded throughout every corner of the ship. The White Ninja was fast, faster a ship of its class should be, but not fast enough to escape. The uranium level fell measurably, but this would be only of concern if they survived the next 10 minutes.
Higgins was so much concentrating on the various displays, that he almost forgot about the AI inside the soldier-robot which was standing still in the room like a backgound actor.
"You will need this!", SABLIT brought himself in and suddenly had a device in his open left hand, that was not there before. It must have taken it out from a concealed pouch. It didn´t look too impressive, was nearly rectangular, of a weird color, had the size of a palm and with some fancy connections, switches and unknown signs on it. Definitely not human-made.
"What the hell is this thing?" Higgins requested and glared at it, open-mouthed.
"No time for details. It will help this ship to disguise and eventually escape. Connect it to your tiny little AI and she can get it up and running in time. If not, we are dead. They will try to kill us at ANY cost!"
"Eve, check this out." he said, while taking the device and depositing it carefully in one of the examination bays.
Eve scanned it from all sides and was able to find a plug that fitted.
"OMG" was all she could say.
"Eve!"
"Sorry, this is amazing. It can modulate the signals we are emitting in any way, including the optical ones."
"CAN YOU MAKE IT WORK BEFORE THEY REACH US?" Higgins shouted. He had a strong feeling that this was the question of the day, if not the month.
"Not sure, I predict 60% success probability."
Higgins turned to the stature next to him. "Is there anything you could do to help her?", he begged.
"Yes, but it requires that I enter a deep connection with your AI. It could change her for good."
"Eve, any critical concerns with that?" - it was supposed to be a rhetorical question.
"Actually yes. We don´t know him. I am note sure that I can trust this AI! And definitely I don´t want to be changed."
"Eve, we have no choice!! 40% failure rate is too high. Unlike you I have no backup."
"OK, I agree under protest." Eve said sniffy but since she had no nose, it sounded not convincing.
"SABLIT, please do it." Higgins asked from the AI.
The creature nodded slightly but otherwise kept completely motionless.
Seconds passed, then minutes. The white Ninja approached the space terminal of Muffin City again. The distance to their chasers shrank continuously.
"Eve, status!" Higgins requested impatiently.
"The battleships are severely powering up several engines. We predict they will start shooting with high energy weapons in less than a minute."
"I MEANT THE STATUS OF THE DEVICE!" he tried to stay calm, but didn´t succeed.
"Oh, sure - still ongoing."
To be continued...
