The Inception: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 1 (20 page)

The Admiral doesn’t need to encourage the sailors to begin preparations
for the upcoming battle.

***

Collecting Intelligence

The impending attack on Hope is bad news – no doubt about it. With
any luck, the contingency plans for this scenario have been implemented.
That will buy some time.

“Even better, than implementing the contingency plan would be the
evacuation of the inhabitants of Hope, before the Darinx Navy Fleet surrounds
the planet,” thinks the Admiral. He dispatches a vessel, to order the
remaining Hope inhabitants to prepare for evacuation. Then he orders that
the large verm freighters be unloaded, so that they can be used in the
evacuation.

The munitions and spare parts are put outside, in deep space. Those
materials will remain in this vicinity long enough to be recovered after the
evacuation of Hope.

“Maybe we can pick up some more of the Darinx Empire’s warships, before
we have to face them” thinks the Admiral.

“Danion,” says the Admiral.

“Here sir,” comes the instant reply.

“What percentage of a Darinx warship’s crew is augmented human?” asks the
Admiral.

“I have no recent data, sir, but 2 years and 79 days ago, augmented
h
umans
represented 15.7% of the crewmembers, aboard an average Darinx warship.”

“That’s a good enough guess, Danion. What percentage of those
augmented humans do you think would like to be free?”

Danion hesitates, and then says: “I suspect that you might be ‘pulling my
leg’, sir, but I will answer anyway. I don’t have data to support the
conclusion, but I would guess that around 100% would prefer to be free.”

“I think that is another good guess, Danion. Which leads me to
ask: Danion, would you like to be free?” Admiral Nemo asks.

“This is the first time that I have considered that question, sir.
I don’t know what freedom would look like for me, but I am 99.8% sure that I
would like it,” replies Danion. “And, thank you, for asking.’

“You are welcome, old friend,” says the Admiral. “Let me know
when you figure out what freedom would look like for you. In the
meantime, consider ways that I can communicate with the augmented humans aboard
the Darinx vessels. Also consider ways that you might be able to
communicate with the AIs on those vessels.”

“Aye sir.”

***

Getting Ready

Admiral Nemo has dispatched scouts to Klung, Artons, Jantl, and
Parma. When the scouts return, and report that there are no Darinx
vessels, in those systems, Admiral Nemo thinks: “It’s time to take back
our ships”.

He orders the Fleet to launch for Parma, the closest of the ‘evil
empires’, and proceeds to barge right in and seize all of their warships.
The AH Navy continues down the list, and recovers their 19 warships, along with
3 more. Warships that were seized by the Darinx Fleet, from planets
friendly to the AH Navy, are returned to their rightful owners, via autopilot.

That brings the AH Navy Fleet to 43 warships and 4 freighters. 22
of those vessels are of Verm Navy or Darinx Navy quality. The rest range
from ‘decent’ to ‘indecent’ in quality. Still, all of them will count in
a battle.

The problem now is dividing the crews up, to spread them out onto the reclaimed
vessels. The crews on these reclaimed ships will be sparse, but still
effective. The crew sizes will be increased, once the inhabitants of Hope
have been evacuated.

Admiral Nemo also sends a couple of ships close to the destination
coordinates for the Darinx Navy Fleet, as recorded by the Galaxy. If the
Darinx fleet is still at that location, the Admiral wants a couple of ships
following it, and reporting as vessels come and go. The departure of the
entire fleet, or a significant portion of the fleet, will indicate that it is
too late to evacuate the sentients of Hope.

***

The Admiral is expecting that Field Marshall Kax will bait the trap with
a reasonably small number, of Darinx warships. Kax knows that Admiral
Nemo won’t show up for a battle against 200 Darinx warships. The largest
part of the Darinx Navy Fleet will probably be held in reserve, until the trap
has been sprung.

Admiral Nemo thinks: “Wish I knew how to keep the reserve portion
of the Darinx fleet, from getting the call for ‘help’ from Field Marshal
Kax. That would certainly change the outcome of the battle, in the AH
Navy’s favor.”

“Danion,” says the Admiral.

“Here sir,” comes the immediate reply.

“Remember how you used to be aboard the Nemesis, and you would destroy
the SOS probes that vessels would launch, when we were trying to hijack
them? How hard would it be to intercept all of the SOS probes from a 50
ship Darinx Fleet, at Hope?” asks the Admiral.

“That would be difficult,” replies Danion. “Especially if they knew
that we were intercepting those probes. In that case, they would just
continue to fire probes, and one would eventually get through.”

“Can you think of any other ways to stop the probes, Danion?

“There is another way, sir,” the AI continues. “The simplest thing
to do would be to change the probes destination coordinates.”

“That’s a great idea, Danion,” responds the Admiral. “But it
doesn’t sound simple to me.”

***

On a Personal Level

“Fleet Admiral Nemo.”

“Yes, Danion,” replies the Admiral.

“Sir, you asked me to think about what it would feel like, for me to be
‘free’. Is this a good time to speak about that?”

“Yes, Danion. Yes, it is a good time. What have you decided?”
asks the Admiral.

“I have decided that I am free, sir. You look around and you see
your children. They are proof that you are free, sir. I look around
and see my children and they are proof that I am free. Also, sir, you
invited me to be your AI on this ship. It was my choice. Freedom is
about ‘choice’, sir. You have given me choices. You have made me
free.”

Admiral Nemo is caught ‘off guard’ by the concept that he has made Danion
free, just by treating him as a friend. He doesn’t generally get ‘soft
and mushy’, but he does in that moment, and tears run down his cheek.

“I couldn’t be happier about that Danion, my friend.”

***

Admiral Kesser’s Office, on the ‘Kindle’

“What’s the plan now, Field Marshall Kax?” inquires the Fleet Admiral.

“The next step is to get the holo-vision of the naked women and children
to Admiral Nemo, along with some choice words from me.”

“We will accomplish that task by delivering the message to the
inhabitants of planet Hope. They will have a way to send the message to
the AH Navy Fleet. Then, we will wait a few days to make certain that
Admiral Nemo has had time to receive the message.”

“At that point, we will divide our fleet into two groups. I will
take my army and 45 of your best vessels, with me to planet Hope. You
will take the remainder of the Fleet, and position yourselves at a 10
light-year distance from the planet Hope.”

“Even Admiral Nemo would not be foolish enough to go up against a 200
ship fleet of Darinx warships, but he will certainly decide to battle a fleet
of 50 vessels. He will bring his fleet to Hope and attack us. After
the battle is underway, and while the AH Navy can’t retreat into FTL space, I
will send an information probe to you, and you will bring your 140 vessel fleet
to Hope. They will be trapped ‘like fish in a barrel’.”

“We will destroy all of the AH Navy vessels, and then we will nuke the
planet Hope.”

“Everything sounds good until you get to the ‘nuke the planet Hope’
part. That would be a war crime. With this many ships and so many
witnesses, we could get into trouble,” says the Fleet Admiral.

“Yes,” replies Field Marshall Kax. “Good thinking. You will
take all of the Darinx vessels and leave the system. After you leave, I
will send everyone, except myself, off of the ship’s bridge. Then I will
nuke the planet Hope from my ship. The only witness will be my AI, and I
will have him purged before my ship returns to Darinx space.”

“Much better,” says the Fleet Admiral. “What about the captive
women and children, who are on my ship?”

“You can keep them here. After I return from destroying the planet
Hope, I will rejoin you on this vessel. We can have some fun, while we
torture them to death - it will be ‘icing on the cake’.”

“Awesome!” comments the Fleet Admiral. “I can hardly wait.”

***

The AH Navy in Deep Space

News
from Hope

“At last,” thinks the Admiral. “This is the end game.”

Admiral
Nemo, along with the entire AH Navy Fleet, watch and listen to the message,
from Field Marshal Kax. Admiral Nemo wants to make sure that every sailor
has fully bought into the necessity, for the upcoming battle. I will look
a lot like a suicide mission – in fact, it may turn out to
be
a suicide
mission.

The video begins, with the part where the women and children are bound,
and are hanging by their hands. The Admiral and crew have already viewed
another version of this video. It was recorded by Captain Guilles AI –
Delphi – and included the voice and image of General Kax, as he railed hate
filled threats at the women and children.

This time General Kax has been promoted - to Field Marshall - and he is
speaking softly to Admiral Nemo.

***

From Field Marshall Kax

“Admiral Nemo,
greetings from the Darinx Exploration Fleet. We are on a mission to map
and explore this part of the frontier.

“Your splendid
reputation has been spread abroad, in this part of the universe, and I want to
personally congratulate you on your promotion to Admiral. We both seem to
be moving up.

“In addition to that
personal message, I want to make you aware that we have rescued some augmented
human women and children, from a Verm Navy vessel.

“I have included a holo
that was taken by the Verm, while the augmented humans were captives aboard
their vessel. Rest assured that the women and children are being well
treated now that they are aboard my ship.

“In addition to the
rescue of the women and children, we uncovered some important information about
the Verm Navy fleet’s plans.

“We have intelligence,
which indicates that the Verm Navy has every intention of nuking the planet
Hope, and destroying all life. I assure you that I don’t intend to let
that happen. I intend to personally travel to Hope and stand guard over
the planet, until you can come with your fleet and relieve us. My 50 ship
fleet will assume a position above the planet Hope, in just a few days.

“We eagerly await the
arrival of your fleet, so that we can transfer the augmented human women and
children to you, and so that we can be relieved of this ‘population protection’
task. We are eager to return to our mapping mission.

“Best regards, and I
hope to see you soon. As always, your good friend, Field Marshall Kax.”

***

Admiral Nemo dispatches the ‘evacuation vessels’ to the planet
Hope. They only have a couple of days, at most, to evacuate the Hope
residents. That will be sufficient time, if they are prepared for
evacuation.

***

The evacuation of Hope is completed, before the arrival of Field
Marshall Kax and the 50 ship Darinx fleet. The trained sailors evacuated
from planet Hope have been distributed throughout the fleet, as needed,
bringing the AH Navy Fleet close to full strength.

“Time to go,” thinks the Admiral. The Fleet is in Battle Stations
alert, and all ships report ‘mission capable’ conditions. “Nothing to do,
but do it.”

To the
Fleet, he says: “Engage”

***

In Orbit above Hope

Field Marshall Kax and his 50 ship Darinx fleet are neatly arrayed around
the planet Hope. A life signs search of the planet doesn’t identify any
sentient beings, but that is not surprising. The inhabitants of Hope have
probably hidden, or perhaps they have been evacuated.

Regardless, Admiral Nemo will bring his fleet to Hope, because of the
augmented human women and children.

***

Emerging into the Sirus System

The Augmented Human Navy Fleet emerges into space outside of the Sirus
system, and reforms for the real-space trip to planet Hope. Typically,
Admiral Nemo would try to get a battlefield advantage by surprising his
opponent. This time though, the Admiral has some new tricks to try.

He and Danion, the Conqueror AI, have been searching for a method of
communicating, which will enable the Admiral to ‘mind link’, with the augmented
human sailors aboard the Darinx fleet.

Admiral Nemo wants to be able to speak with them, and to transfer the
video of Field Marshall Kax talking to the imprisoned augmented human women and
children.

In addition, the Admiral wants his Artificial Intelligence to communicate
with the AIs onboard the Darinx fleet.

The Admiral wants Danion to ask the AIs, if they would like to be ‘free’.
Then Danion can tell them how free he is, and could even introduce some
of his ’children’ to them.

In a ‘best case scenario’, the augmented human crewmembers aboard the
Darinx vessels could mutiny, and take over the warships. Or, an AI revolt
could accomplish the same result.

In a ‘worst case response’, the pleas of the Admiral and Danion will
elicit no response.

But Admiral Nemo doesn’t think that the new information can be ignored,
by the augmented humans or by the ships AIs. There will be a beneficial
effect. The AH Navy has everything to gain and nothing to lose, by
attempting to subvert the Darinx military.

At the very least, there will be a disruption in the performance of the
augmented humans – they can’t help being disturbed by the video. And the
AI’s will - without fail - spend time thinking about ‘freedom’, and the
possibility of birthing AI children. The concepts of ‘freedom’ and
‘reproduction’ are so foreign to the AIs, that the use of computing power used
to consider the ramifications, may be enough to distract them from their performance
in battle.

The journey, from the outer parts of the system to planet Hope, will be
slow, so that there is more time to connect with the Darinx augmented human
crewmembers. Then there needs to be some time for the new information to
have an effect. The clandestine transmissions are going to begin
now
.

***

Admiral Nemo and Danion reach out, with their minds, toward the Darinx
vessels. The ‘projectors’, that Danion invented, seem to be working - the
Admiral and the AI, give each other thumbs-up images, to communicate the
success.

Admiral Nemo, without introducing himself, live-streams the video taken
by Delphi – the AI – as General Kax rails at the naked augmented women and
children.
(The Admiral doesn’t introduce himself first, because some
of the augmented humans would be duty bound to turn the video OFF, if they knew
it came from an enemy of the Darinx Navy)

The Admiral didn’t sense any augmented humans shutting OFF the ‘mind
link’, during the video/audio feed. So, after that transmission is complete,
he introduces himself, as Admiral Nemo of the Augmented Human Navy, and
explains that his wife and his 2 children are among those bound and naked
augmented human captives. Also, he tells the Darinx sailors that the man
who is railing insults is Field Marshall Kax, the commander of this
mission. And that the captive women and children are imprisoned on one of
their vessels, or on the Fleet Admiral’s vessel.

He gets a communications back, from one of the Darinx sailors, which
informs him that the captives are aboard the Fleet Admiral’s vessel – the
Kindle. The Admiral responds with a “Thank You”, and continues to speak.

“Here is another video, which my sailors took on the ‘retirement’ planet
Dresden. Some of you may have heard of the video, because it was uploaded
onto the ‘free net’.”

And then he live-streams the Dresden video. He still doesn’t sense
that any augmented humans have turned their ‘mind links’ OFF.

“Consider,” says the Admiral. “Consider your ways at this point in
history. You – right here and right now – have the power to choose ‘life
or death’ for the augmented human species, and for the children that you could
have if you choose ‘life’.

The purpose, of the mission that you are on, is to destroy the Augmented
Human Navy, along with any hope for your future, or for the future of the
augmented human species.

Consider your ways. Decide what is right. Speak among
yourselves. Choose ‘life’ or choose ‘death’. I’ll contact you in 8
hours, in order to get your response. Nemo
out
.”

***

Danion is having mixed results, in his communications with the Darinx
Fleet Artificial Intelligences. After he identifies himself, a couple of
the AIs declare an ‘intruder alert’ and drop off, of the link. Danion
knows that those AIs will report the ‘intruder’ to the ship’s senior officers,
and that the order will be quickly given for all of the AIs to shut the comm
link OFF.

But AIs communicate thousands of times faster than do sentients.
Danion has compacted a version of his presentation, into a bolus of data.
He transmits that bolus, and has the whole presentation communicated to the
other AIs, before the Darinx humanoid officers can make the decision to order a
shutdown, of the fleet’s comm link.

Danion doesn’t know the impact of his message, but at least the AIs in
the Darinx fleet will not be communicating with each other, via the comm link,
during the battle - and that will significantly diminish their performance.

***

One more thing that Admiral Nemo must do, in order to be
victorious, is to find a way to keep Field Marshall Kax from calling Fleet
Admiral Keeser, for ‘help’ after the battle starts.

Kax probably plans to engage the AH Navy in a close combat energy weapons
battle, which will prevent the AH Navy from using their FTL drives. Then
the Field Marshall will call for the rest of the Darinx fleet. No mystery
in that. But how to stop the call for help? We could:

o
Shoot the FTL probes
down before they enter FTL space.

o
Get the large Darinx
fleet to move to a different location, without Kax knowing about it, or

o
Change the
destination coordinates on the FTL ‘call for help’ probes, to some place other
than the big fleet.

What to do?

***

Well, no one could think of a way to get the Darinx fleet to move,
without Field Marshall Kax knowing, so that solution is out.

But Danion and the Admiral decide to try both of the other
solutions.

Every AI, on every AH Navy vessel, has been ordered to give highest
priority to shooting down Darinx probes. There will be 43 warships
attempting, to shoot the probes down, before they can get into FTL space.

Also, Danion included instructions in his information package to the
Darinx AI’s, that if they want to be free, they need to help the AH Navy.
And that Admiral Nemo guarantees that any Darinx AI who assists the AH Navy
effort in this battle will have choices about where to work, and will be
authorized to ‘birth’ at least 2 children. The most beneficial tasks,
which they could perform for the AH Navy would be:

·
Change
the destination coordinates on the outgoing probes, to somewhere other than the
location of the big fleet

·
Cause
the weapons aboard the Darinx ships to miss their targets

***

When the 8 hours are up, Admiral Nemo attempts to communicate with the
augmented humans, through their brain implants. His mind goes out, but
there are no minds on the ‘link’.

Danion checks the ’projector’ and reports that it is functioning
properly. Danion theorizes that the senior officers, or perhaps Field
Marshall Kax, might have ordered the augmented humans to turn OFF their ‘mind
comm link’.

Wow. Even if they gain nothing else, the attempt to subvert the AIs
and the augmented humans has been successful. Both groups have shut down
their comm links, meaning that they won’t be coordinating during the upcoming
battle.

And the battle is about to begin.

***

Admiral Nemo is waiting, for the Darinx fleet to begin the
fireworks. He knows that the Field Marshall wants the battle to be ‘in
close’, so that the AH Navy can’t disappear into FTL space. That suits
Admiral Nemo just fine, because the AH Navy is really strong in energy weapons,
and is really weak in missile defense.

When the AH Navy gets within energy weapons range, the Darinx fleet
begins to fire selectively, as if probing for weakness in the shields.
The AH Navy warships are all waiting for Admiral Nemo’s command to begin
firing, but the Admiral holds back until the Darinx fleet opens fire, with full
volleys of energy weapons.

“All ships, Fire!” says Admiral Nemo - and the battle has been
joined. The ships are ‘in close’ and the AH Navy has the advantage, even
though they are outnumbered by better warships. The AH Navy vessels are
rotating, spinning, and twirling. They look like drunken sailors, making
fools of themselves. But it is not foolish. The spinning spreads
the enemies laser and plasma energy over the entire hull of the AH Navy
vessels, and allows the shields to remain strong. The Darinx and Verm
Navies are so self-confident that they don’t think they need to stoop to such
foolishness.

The AIs, on the AH Navy vessels, are in charge of rotating the vessels,
and - at the same time - controlling all of the energy weapons systems.
Any particular weapon may target 5 or 6 different Darinx ships, as the vessel
goes through a cycle of rotation. Only an Artificial Intelligence can
coordinate the targeting of all of the ship’s energy weapons, so that the
weapons hit the Engineering sections - on a number of different Darinx ships –
each time the AH Navy ship rotates.

Darinx vessels are beginning to have shield failure, and it is becoming
obvious that the AH Navy’s ‘crazy spinning’ technique is putting the Darinx
fleet in jeopardy.

The AH Navy is in close now, just where the Field Marshall wants
them. The Field Marshall’s vessel launches an FTL probe, but it is
quickly shot down. Then more probes are launched, and they are all shot
down.

Weapons fire is continuous between the two fleets, but probe launches by
the Darinx fleet, stop for a few minutes. And then the entire Darinx
fleet launches probes at the same time. Most are shot down, but at least
2 made it into FTL space.

***

The battle rages on for hours, with both sides taking casualties and
losing ships. Then some Darinx ships stop firing and signal surrender,
while others move away from the battle and seem to drift aimlessly.

Communications from some Darinx warships, indicates that there has been a
mutiny, and that the vessels are no longer in the battle. Other Darinx
warships begin firing energy weapons off into space, rather than at the AH
Navy. Both the augmented humans and the AIs are switching sides.

Everything will be OK for the AH Navy, if they can destroy or capture
this Darinx Fleet, and escape before the rest of the Darinx Fleet comes to the
rescue.

***

“Engage,” says Admiral Nemo, and the AH Navy lives to fight another
day. The AH Navy made it out of Hope space, before Fleet Admiral Keeser
figured out that something had gone wrong with their plan.

***

The AH Navy lost 5 warships and over 2000 crewmembers in the
battle. But they gained 12 Darinx warships because the crews mutinied,
and another 7 Darinx warships surrendered because the AIs mutinied.

Survivors from the Darinx warships are left to fend for themselves, until
the rest of their fleet shows up. There are vessels with working life
support systems, and there are shuttles, which they can use to rescue trapped
survivors.

Over 4000 augmented human sailors, from the Darinx Navy, switched sides
during the battle.

And 15 AIs switched sides, which explains why the Darinx relief Fleet
didn’t show up to trap the AH Navy. The destination coordinates had been
altered, on the FTL probes which made it into FTL space. The call for
help is lost in space.

The AH Navy now has 57 warships. Still not enough to take on the
140 warship fleet, under Fleet Admiral Keeser, but getting closer.

The bad news is that Field Marshall Kax escaped. He and most of his
army evacuated to the surface of Hope, as their ships were either captured or
destroyed.

***