Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (92 page)

              ‘Well, I certainly hope so,’ said Cartwright.  ‘We must get underway as soon as possible.  Admiral Hawkwood is recalling our forces from Beta Hydri and Delta Pavonis to the Solar System as we speak, in order to form a last line of defence around Earth and the Army is preparing to fight to the last should a landing take place.  The Nahabe ships still in the Solar System will assist, no doubt, but as yet Hawkwood’s forces do not have any anti-matter warheads available to them, and it seems unlikely that we can supply any to his forces before the Shapers arrive.  In any case, any victory seems pointless if the Shapers can simply replenish their forces via the wormhole at a later date.  We must strike at that portal and destroy it before the Shapers reach Earth.  Command has theorised that perhaps a severing of the link to their hive-mind may disorientate them temporarily, but we need to stop more ships from arriving.  If we cannot, the President is considering surrender.’

              ‘No, she can’t...’ protested Chen, aghast.

              ‘She may have no other option,’ said Cartwright.  ‘If the choice is between enslavement and the annihilation of humanity, it may be better to accept the former.  Guerrilla forces could fight on and perhaps we, or another race such as the Arkari, might be able to liberate our people in the future.  The alternative, if we cannot stop the Shapers, is the near extinction of the human race within a matter of weeks or months.  We know that the Shapers possess planet killing weapons, that much was obvious during their recent attack on the Arkari.  If we fight on, they may not hesitate to use them against us.’

              ‘I have always been of the opinion that it’s better to die on your feet than live on your knees, sir, as the old saying goes.’

              ‘And I also, Admiral Chen, but it seems others do not agree with either of us.  This may be our last chance to stop the Shapers.  If we cannot, then I fear for the future of our species.  Your man Harris has been in touch again.  He has done his part in warning us of the invasion fleet, has confirmed that the Shaper vessel is indeed powering the portal and has also reported that the enemy has landed in strength around the capital, Bolivar City, which he believes to be very likely lost to us.  He also reports, however, that Admiral Haines may still be very much alive and believes that he may have located him.  He has a small but well equipped guerrilla force available to him containing survivors from Haines’s fleet.  He may be of further use to us.’

              Colonel Gunderson scanned through his orders once more and looked up into the darkening sky where the lights of the Commonwealth fleet were beginning to move off.  Around him, his men were busy repairing the defences around the array which towered behind him, the white structure gleaming pinkly in the light of the setting sun.  His suit comm. crackled into life.  It was General Shale.

              ‘Looks like we’re on our own Colonel,’ said Shale. ‘You see the fleet departing?  The warships are heading off to attack the Shapers.  Our transports are returning to friendlier space with the wounded.’

              ‘Yes sir, just going over those orders again.  It makes for grim reading.’

              ‘You ever fight a guerrilla war, Colonel?’

              ‘Not for real, but both me and my men have trained for it.  You know, I always figured it would be the K’Soth that we’d need to use it against.’

              ‘Me too. Ah, sometimes I almost miss the scaly bastards.  At least you knew where you stood with them.  This war...’ he heard Shale sigh.

              ‘If they come here, sir, my men will give them hell.’

              ‘Colonel, I hope you Marine Corp boys understand what “defend at all costs” means,’ said Shale, darkly.

              ‘Yes sir, I do, and so do my men.  No retreat, no surrender, no quarter given or asked,’ said Gunderson defiantly.  ‘We’ll fight with rocks and with our bare hands if need be.’

              ‘It may come to that by the end, Colonel,’ said Shale.  ‘It may come to that indeed.’

Chapter 51

              No matter how hard she tried to block it out, Katherine could hear the Shaper AI screaming inside her mind.  Eonara and Aaokon were effectively dissecting it alive, deconstructing and remaking the creature anew, lobotomising it and then infecting it with cunningly concealed routines and code.  It writhed in digital agony under a programmer’s knife.  The Progenitor AIs had endeavoured to erect barriers around the thing to isolate it from the outside world until they had finished working, but Katherine could still hear it at the back of her consciousness, screaming, entreating, threatening and sobbing like a prisoner put to the question.  At times she almost felt sorry for the thing, until she reminded herself what it was: an artificial thing without feelings or moral constraints, created to dominate the galaxy.

              Whilst Eonara and Aaokon worked, she, Rekkid and Steelscale wandered the empty, echoing halls of the Life Forge, wondering at the vast and mysterious machines, the gleaming abandoned laboratories and the endless piles of equipment still pristine after four thousand millennia.  They recorded what they could in the event that they could ever return here.  With the Shaper AI trapped, they succeeded in obtaining a complete, apparently unadulterated, copy of the data from the array systems where they had found the thing lurking, and which clearly showed the locations of all worlds seeded by the Progenitors and a map of the gate network as it had existed around seventy million years previously.  It also contained the exact location of the Shaper home-world and accurate orbital data on its lonely trajectory around the Maelstrom that enabled the
Glory
to extrapolate its current location with a high degree of accuracy.

              Eventually, the screaming stopped. The archaeologists were invited into the lab where the head containing the Shaper AI had been put and where the two Progenitor AIs had worked on it for several days.  It sat in the same place as where Steelscale had left it, surrounded by banks of equipment and shield generators, now deactivated.  Its outward appearance was identical to before, but whereas previously the head had thrashed and writhed like a maggot on a hook, it now lay still and upright, connected to the plinth upon which it sat by a single, gleaming umbilical.  One of the drones under the control of the
Shining Glory
was also present.  For now, its weapons were not drawn, but Katherine suspected that it would spring into action at the first sign of trouble from the ancient relic at the centre of the room. It was also taking care not to link to any systems that were linked to the head.  Mentith had arrived also by shuttle, the old Arkari standing pensively to one side, regarding the Shaper thing with deep suspicion.

              ‘Our work is complete,’ said Eonara’s disembodied voice.  ‘The creature before you has been remade.’

              ‘I see, and how is this supposed to work, exactly?’ said Rekkid.

              ‘We have infected the Shaper AI with a potent virus,’ said Aaokon.  ‘Using our knowledge of the inner workings of the Shapers’ minds, we have designed it to subtly alter the way in which their minds work.’

              ‘The Shapers see their race as the perfect culmination of accelerated, self directed evolution,’ said Eonara.  ‘All other races, indeed all biological life, is perceived to be inferior, both for the fragility and generally mortal nature of said life forms, but also because other races such as ourselves do not act wholly rationally.  We experience emotions and act in ways that the Shapers cannot comprehend as rational.  Pity, love, selflessness, charity are all seen as weaknesses that hold us back, rather than what binds our societies together.  Only when biological life is enslaved by the Shaper hive-mind and altered via their invasive technologies is it considered acceptable in their eyes and, even then, only as tools to be expended as they see fit.  This virus will alter their perceptions.’

              ‘You’re going to make them nicer?’ said Rekkid.

              ‘No.  We are going to destroy them,’ said Aaokon firmly.  ‘The virus alters the Shapers’ programming at a base level.  Instead of seeing biological life as inferior, they will instead see other Shapers as the inferior enemy to be exterminated.  We have perverted their quest for perfection until each Shaper will see only itself as perfect, causing them to turn on one another as the virus spreads, destroying the unity of the hive-mind and the Singularity itself and reducing the Shapers to a mass of warring individuals.’

              ‘How do you intend to infect the entire Shaper race with this virus that you have so carefully constructed?’ said Mentith.  ‘Surely they will detect it before it can spread very far or even enter their systems at all?’

              ‘By concealing it deep within other data,’ said Eonara.  ‘We will also present them with the information that they would need to overcome their design limitations by altering their base level systems.  Currently, the numbers and reach of the Shapers are limited – Shaper organisms left in distant isolation start to exhibit more independent behaviour, and populations beyond a certain size are more difficult for them to control as one hive-mind. Additional controlling nodes start to take over and rival Singularities begin to emerge.  This is what tore the Shapers apart into different factions after they defeated the Progenitors and hence why their numbers remain relatively small and why they need to use others as unthinking slaves or manipulate civilisations in order to weaken them and then take them over.  By removing this limitation, they can expand into the universe without needing to enslave others.

We have hidden the virus deep amongst the reams of data, its code scattered amongst the data until it is indistinguishable from it, and it will only activate once each Shaper organism has absorbed it all.  It is buried beneath layers of obfuscation and high level steganography, only becoming active once the data has been digested in full.  Even then, it will remain dormant for a period to allow the infection to spread further.  The Shapers’ hypercom transmissions should allow them to instantly share this data across the galaxy, but we must allow for a slight delay whilst they all process this data.’

              ‘You’re hoping that it will be too valuable for them to pass up on,’ said Katherine.

              ‘Yes, although we realise that we are taking a great risk with the fate of many species across the galaxy,’ Eonara replied.

              ‘Could you not subtly alter the data in some way and render it inaccurate?’

              ‘We considered that, but then we weighed up the possibility of the Shapers realising that the data was false and that they would suspect something and stop sharing it between themselves.  No, the data must be genuine for this to work, though the virus will erase the data once it activates, thus removing the risk that any surviving Shapers could utilise it.’

              ‘And how do you propose that we allow the Shapers to access this thing?’ said Rekkid, pointing towards the head.

              ‘Why, by giving it to them, of course,’ replied Eonara. ‘We must travel to the Shaper home-world and give it to them.’

              ‘This is suicide,’ said Rekkid, pacing up and down on the bridge of the
Shining Glory
.  They had packed up their equipment and returned to the ship which still hung in orbit above the Progenitor home-world along with the golden warship that housed the AI known as Aaokon.  Outside, shuttles could still be seen returning with Arkari technicians and equipment.

              ‘This is suicide, Mentith!’ Rekkid repeated.  ‘How in hell we can just sail straight into the Shaper’s home system without being instantly obliterated, or worse?’

              ‘You can stay behind, if you like, Professor Cor,’ said Mentith coolly.  ‘The Progenitor home-world is perfectly habitable.’

              ‘Yes, that would be fun.  I’d probably end up getting burned as a demon by the backward inhabitants because I look funny.  No thanks.’

              ‘I wasn’t aware that you were well versed in their religious practices, Professor,’ Mentith replied.

              ‘It goes with the territory, believe me,’ said Rekkid.

              ‘We just want to go home,’ said Katherine.  ‘If we still have a home to go to, that is.’

              ‘This is the only way to ensure that you do,’ said Eonara, her avatar floating nearby.  ‘The Shapers must be stopped now, before it is too late.  We enter the system and declare that we are a multi-species delegation attempting to sue for peace, and that we are to present them with a gift, a relic of the origin of their species from the Progenitor home-world that contains data of great interest to them as a species, as a gesture of good faith.  We will claim that Aaokon and I came to the realisation that co-operation with the Shapers was the only way forward and assisted you in this mission of peaceful negotiation.  We will state that we wish to bargain for the freedom of the enslaved races by granting the Shapers to ability to expand without requiring them.’

              ‘And you think that they’ll buy that?’ said Katherine.

              ‘They only need to buy it long enough for this to work, a few moments at the most.  Naturally, they will be suspicious and we can expect the head to be subjected to intense scrutiny, but once they find one of their own trapped inside - apparently from the origins of their race since we have altered its memories – we hope that they will drop their guard and join with it, whereupon they will discover the data which it is carrying that we have promised them.  It will take them milliseconds to absorb the data, and mere seconds later it will have passed across the galaxy.  They must take this data of their own free will.  We cannot inject it into their systems.’

              ‘I don’t know, it all sounds a little...’ Katherine began.

              ‘It may be something of a desperate gamble, but both Aaokon and I believe that this is the best chance we have of defeating the Shapers.  You do have the option of remaining here on the off-chance that we are able to return and collect you later, assuming that we survive the encounter, but we must journey to their home-world.  We must cut out the heart of their hive-mind, destroy the Singularity at least and hopefully infect the rest of them.’