The Inception: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 1 (6 page)

Captain Nemo addresses all entities aboard the two captured ships.
“Let me say, at the beginning, that there will be no POW’s, extrucians, or AI’s
killed. We will do what is right according to the Darinx Rules of
War. Next let me advise the augmented humans, aboard both vessels, that
disobedience of the Colonel’s orders will be considered treason and the only
possible judicial outcome is death.”

“Sandra Guilles and I will be committing treason, and the probable
outcome of such an act is that we will be hunted down, by the Darinx forces,
and killed. Anyone who goes with us will share in our fate. I
admonish you to consider the consequences thoroughly before making a decision
to join in this desertion. This act will be considered ‘rebellion’ and
there can be no turning back.”

***

“Cade, everyone wants to come with us.”

Lt. Sandra Guilles is onboard the command ship, with Captain Cade Nemo,
and they are having pillow talk following some much needed ‘together
time’. The Captain answers: “I feel responsible for your life and now I
am going to feel responsible for another 94.”

“No Cade,” whispers Sandra, “not 94 lives. Some of the extrucians and all
of the Verm sailors want to go with us, also”.

“What?” says the Captain
(not in a whisper)
. “This is
getting out of control. I can understand why the Verm sailors want to
go. They will be killed if we leave them behind. They will have to
go with us until we find a safe planet for them – and that might take a while,
since everyone hates them. But why do the extrucians want to go with us?”

“You will have to ask them - I am just reporting the facts.”

***

And the Captain does ask them – not the augmented humans, but everyone
else. He speaks with the extrucians individually, and with the Verm POW’s
as a group. All of the extrucians have valid reasons’ such as “seeking adventure”;
“seeing the galaxy”; “being in a starship crew”;
etc.
They have been good
crew members, and he knows from experience that they are good fighters.
His question to them is: “How are you going to feel without a
colony?” Their answer is that “the crew will be our colony.” That
is a good answer, so the Captain agrees to take them as crewmembers, but he
cautions them to reconsider because it might be a very long time, before they
come back this way.

The meeting with the Verm sailors is more problematic. He is ‘up
front’ with them: “I understand why you would want to go with us.
It’s not safe for you here. As I told you before, we will treat you as
POW’s while you are onboard, and then when we find a safe planet for you, we
will drop you off there.”

The spokesman for the Verm sailors raises his hand to be recognized, and
identifies himself as ‘Commander Farn’. “Captain, we do appreciate that
you will treat us much better than we would have treated you. And
dropping us off, on a safe planet, will be our second choice. Our first
choice is to join your crew, and to be a part of your organization.”

“Tell me why, Commander Farn.”

“Aye sir,” begins the commander. “It is because we want ‘out’ of
our military, the same way that you want ‘out’ of yours. We come from a
civilization that is ruled by military dictatorship, where there is little or
no regard for life – even for other verm life. We don’t want to ever go
back to Verm space.”

“We will take the option of being dropped off, on a safe planet, if you
won’t accept us as crew, but our first choice is to go with you. We have
witnessed your cunning - as warriors - and your integrity - as ‘sentient
entities’ - and we want to be a part of that. We can’t change our
civilization, so we would like to join yours.

The Captain is touched by the comments, and mulls over his response for a
moment. “That is a good answer, but it’s difficult for me to believe that
it can be true. I will agree that you can travel with us for a time, as
POW’s, until we find another option, or until I have more trust in you. I
can envision having an organization where we are on separate ships. I
don’t think that I can, right now, trust you enough to let you lose on these
ships.”

“Then we will help you capture more ships, Captain. That will be
easy for us,” responds Commander Farn.

“We have a deal, Commander. Remain good POW’s, until we can capture
more ships, and then I will trust you to be part of our organization.
‘Becoming part of us’ means that you will have to become like us. The
qualities that you admire in us must become a part of you, and your
civilization.”

“That is our desire, Captain.”

***

With that settled, Captain Nemo returns his attention to Colonel Kax, who
is not
patiently waiting. “Colonel,” Captain Nemo says,
“all of the personnel in Company K have decided to stay together, and to resign
from the Darinx military. We consider that to be our right as citizens of
the Darinx civilization.”

“You are not citizens! You are augmented humans and you will never
be anything else. I arrest you for treason and order you to surrender,”
rails the Colonel.

“We will be leaving this system in a couple of days, Colonel. Until
we are ready to leave, I order you to make no threatening gestures. If I
see you powering up your FTL drive or weapons, I will disable or destroy your
vessel,” replies Captain Nemo.

“You’ll be sorry for this,” fumes the Colonel. “And return the
Nemesis. That is the property of the Darinx military.”

Captain Nemo sees a ‘comm security level 4’ signal flash on his mind’s
‘comm screen’. That would mean that Danion wants to have a private
discussion. The Captain switches over to that link, and Danion says: “I
want to go with you – and besides, I need to be with my children.”

“Welcome aboard Danion. You are always welcome. I suggest
that you tender your resignation to Colonel Kax.”

Colonel Kax receives Danion’s message, and his face turns an additional
three shades of red - it looks like his head might pop. Then he hangs up.

***

There are some ‘loose ends’ that Captain Nemo needs to tie up before
leaving. One is with Bartat, the King of Parin. The Captain has a
message hand delivered to the King, by one of the extrucian crew members.
Danion, aboard he Nemesis, delivers some FTL probes for the King’s use, when he
delivers the courier.

“King Bartat,” the
Captain message begins, “congratulations on the progress that you have made,
since you were elected to office.

The reason for this
communications is to discuss the safety of Parin. I promised you that the
captured vessels will remain in your system, in order to protect you, until the
Darinx Empire sends its Navy to protect you. I still have hope that they
will send a military force, but I don’t know when.

Our situation has been
reported to you, and you certainly must understand our predicament. We
are traitors and deserters, in the eyes of the Darinx Empire, and it will not
be good for you to be associating with us.

Still, it is necessary
for me to fulfill my promise to you. Here is my plan: My crews,
aboard these two ships, will be leaving by FTL propulsion in a day or so.
After I leave, I expect that the Darinx troop transport will also leave.
When that ship is gone, send an FTL probe to the first set of coordinates,
shown below.

If additional Darinx
military resources arrive so that we are no longer needed, please send an FTL
probe to the second set of coordinates, shown below.

Best Regards,

Captain Nemo

***

Deep Space Location 1

Well, the deed is done. Now they are officially deserters and
traitors, as well as starship pirates. The FTL flight goes as planned,
with Danion and the Nemesis nestled inside the ‘Freedom’ – which is the new
name for the command ship, under Captain Nemo. The second ship, under
Captain Guilles
(notice the promotion),
has been renamed as the
‘Liberty’.

In order to monitor two separate locations, which are some light-years
apart, Captain Nemo places an FTL probe at the site of each destination.
The FTL probes are programmed to launch for the coordinates of the ‘Freedom’
and ‘Liberty’, if they detect another probe entering their proximity.
This way, it is less likely that the Darinx forces can trap them, by learning
the contents of the letter to the King.

There will never be a time when the rebel augmented humans can
relax their guard. The Darinx Empire will hunt them relentlessly, and
there will be a huge reward for information leading to their capture, or
death. On the good side, no previous Augmented Human rebellion has had
the luxury of controlling 2 warships, and a company of well trained soldiers.

***

Deep Space location 2

It doesn’t take long for Colonel Kax to leave the Parin system. The
first FTL probe is launched by the King, to the first set of coordinates,
within two days. Then, Captain Nemo orders an FTL trip for the rebel
ships, to a deep space position which is outside of the Parin star system, but
still close enough to monitor the system. They are about 2 light-hours
away from the system. They are far enough away to be hidden, but close
enough to be able to strike, if necessary.

The two starships spend the waiting time getting organized, practicing
maneuvers, and training on shipboard simulators. The former verm sailors
are a great help with the training, and with the battle simulations. The
augmented humans are told to keep repeating the simulations, until they can
defeat the verm opponents. It takes some time, but the brain implants and
mind enhancements enable the humans to become good enough, so that they can
consistently defeat the verm sailors. The verm are impressed.

Captain Nemo is beginning to feel like they can ‘hold their own’ in an
actual naval battle – as long as there aren’t too many enemy ships. He
and Sandra have been studying naval battle strategies, as well as running simulations.
They don’t compete against each other in the simulations, but no one else can
beat them.

Then one day, while ferrying Captain Nemo back to the Freedom, Danion
says: “I understand that you can beat most of the crew at ‘battle simulation’.”

The Captain replies: “Sandra and I have scored better than anyone else.”

“You haven’t tried me or my children,” the AI says.

The Captain laughs and says: “I hadn’t thought about that, Danion - I beg
your pardon. We will include you and your children in the next round,
with the top 20 players – starting tonight. We’ll see who makes it to the
top.”

“Thank you, sir.”

***

Well, Danion and his children blow away all opponents and make their way
to the finals, against the two captains. Captain Guilles puts up a good
fight, but looses to Delphi – her AI, in a battle that lasts for hours.

Captain Nemo defeats Darius – his shipboard AI – following a
prolonged battle, at missile and rail gun distances. He then defeats Delphi,
by tricking her into making an unwise ‘sneak attack’. Captain Nemo has
saved Danion for last. He knows that battle will be the best.

***

Both crews are observing the simulation. There are a number of bets
being placed, in spite of the fact that gambling is against the rules.
The vessels, in this simulation, are light cruisers like the two ships that
they now serve on. Captain Nemo figures that he might have an advantage,
since Danion’s experience has been in the smaller Nemesis. Little does he
know that Danion and his children have been practicing the simulation battles,
whenever the simulators were not in use by the crews.

The two simulated ships enter the battle space, at 1,000,000 kicks
apart. Both ships launch about a dozen missiles, in rapid succession, and
begin closing the distance between them. As expected, neither ships’
missiles do any damage, but Captain Nemo pretends to have a little trouble
stopping the missile attack – in the hopes that Danion will try to take
advantage of that perceived weakness, by launching more missiles. If the
Captain can deplete Danion’s missile supply, it will be a big advantage for him
in the later skirmishes.

Danion isn’t fooled, however. He has observed how Captain Nemo
tricked his daughter, Delphi. The two ships fire various weapons as they
move closer. Neither one expects to do any damage at this distance, but
it is part of the ‘dance’ that two warships routinely perform in a real battle
situation. They are ‘feeling out’ their opponent and looking for an
advantage. Like boxers feigning a series of blows, they are trying to
trick their opponent into dropping their guard - neither does. Every
attack is parried. It is like watching a couple of sword fighters – not
the kind with the big ‘brute force’ swords – but with the rapiers used in
fencing.

In a one-on-one match there is nothing to do but to spar, until an
opening occurs. Sometimes that opening is real and sometimes it is a
ploy, designed to elicit an unwise attack. Captain Nemo is the best ‘trickster’
in the simulation games.

Danion has studied the Captain’s talent for luring his opponent, into
making an unwise commitment to a series of actions. The Captain will
allow his opponent to be successful in the early encounters, and will then ‘close
the trap’. Danion is being so careful not to be tricked that he passes up
several opportunities, to attack a real opening. In hindsight – and
Danion’s hindsight is measured in milliseconds – he can recognize his missed
opportunities, but he hasn’t been able to discern any difference between the
Captain’s mistakes, and his ploys.

Danion should have waited and let the Captain get fatigued – that is one
of Danion’s advantages – he never gets tired. But instead, Danion falls
for a ploy, and charges directly at the Captain’s vessel, only to be met by a
barrage of missiles at close range. Danion is not prepared for a barrage
of missiles, and the game ends in a fiery explosion.

“Well done!” says the Captain. As the spectators cheer the
victory.

“Best 2 out of 3,” chant the spectators. “Best 2 out of 3.”

Captain Nemo laughs and says: “OK. ‘Best 2 out of 3’, but I
need some rest. We will schedule the next match for tomorrow evening.”

***

The second match between the Captain and Danion begins with a big fanfare
from the spectators. Everyone is ‘signed on’ to the big event, and the
betting has increased 4-fold.

The simulator gets to make decisions concerning the parameters for the
start of each battle. This time the simulation begins with the 2 light
cruisers separated by only 1,000 klicks. That is energy weapons range,
and both ‘Captains’ are surprised by the close proximity.