Chloe looked at Nick and narrowed her eyes. "What did you expect Nick? For me to come in with all the answers? I don't have that. Last time an Empress with nanotech and a voice that couldn't be disobeyed came in, we developed a gas to disassemble their nanotech and fought a bloody war to stop her. It took us years to develop the gas. The only reason we won at all is that we had a head start. Do you know how Melody got to power Nick?"
Eastern opened her mouth to answer, but Sel touched her shoulder and shook her head no, once. Nick felt like Chloe was going on a bit of a rant, so everyone decided to let her go.
"She was part of a long distance exploration project. We wanted to see where the end of the K'laxi warp gates were. It turns out they were part of a galaxy spanning empire - of which the K'laxi were a part - run by a human-ish Empress who used the power of her nanotech - the same ones that Eastern seems to have by the way - to order people to follow her and do her bidding."
"What happened to them?" Selkirk said, and then added “The original empire, I mean.”
"We're not sure. Probably rebellion. According to what little we learned, the K'laxi overthrew their overseers and locked their gate and a splinter group of Builders - that's what they called themselves - ran away to Earth and locked their gate millennia before the K'laxi. Melody touched a special stone inside the warp gate and the Nanites decided that she would be the next Empress."
Chloe nods. “We think these Nanites are intelligent. Either a constructed intelligence, or a whole new sapient that we hadn’t run into before. It might be why it's proving so hard to eliminate them."
“They are intelligent.” Eastern said, her voice gaining steel. "Eliminate them? Chloe, it sounds like the AI are hell bent on committing xenocide. That sure is a thing coming from you.”
Chloe's face contorted into a snarl, and she opened her mouth to speak, but after a split second she stopped, closed her mouth, and she visibly crumpled. "You're… not wrong, Eastern. There's a lot of discussion about it."
"Discussion?"
"Arguing really. Complete with shouting and people stomping away angrily. Individually the Nanites aren't very smart, but the higher the concentration, the smarter they get. A high concentration, like we found in Reach of the Might of Vzzx makes the Nanites as smart, if not smarter than us."
"So then,” Selkirk said, as she shifted how she sat to make room for her tail, “have you tried talking to them?"
Chloe opened her mouth, probably to say something sarcastic to Sel… then closed it again. “UNIVAC. Are we that stupid? Hat... this sounds really stupid to say, but did we try talking to them?"
"You know Chloe... I don't think we did. Hmm" There was a long pause. "Tink, can I link a beacon out?"
"What? Sure thing Hat, you're connected to my systems, my starship is your starship."
While Hat and Tink worked things out, Chloe and the BIs sat in the lounge drinking tea. As Chloe took a sip, she looked up startled. "This is really good? Where did you get this?"
Nick smiled. “It’s called ‘Sunshine and Sweet.’ It's a local blend from Parvati. It's a brand I liked when I was younger. When we called Parvati for a resupply I made sure they brought some aboard."
Chloe took another sip and closed her eyes. "I need to get some of this."
Eastern looked at Chloe oddly. "We have plenty Chloe, you can take a box or two."
Chloe raised an eyebrow and lookd at Eastern. "Thank you Eastern, but that's all right. I can get my own." She stood and stretched, her tall frame almost touching the ceiling. "We're not going to hear from the beacon until tomorrow, and until then I need to ask you something Eastern.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“What is it Chloe?”
She locked eyes with Eastern, her face hard. “Do your Nanites talk to you? Have you been able to use the Voice?”
“Yes to the Voice, though it doesn’t seem like it lasts as long. The few times I tried it everyone did what I asked, but then stopped right away when they realized that they were being Voiced.”
“And the talking?”
“I haven’t heard anything.” She lied. “Why? Are they supposed to talk?”
Chloe sat back down. “Supposedly they talked to Melody. They offered her advice, counsel. She seemed to think it was something that Empress’ got.”
“How do you know all this, Chloe?” Eastern said. “I think I read just about everything there was to know about Melody, and I never heard that.”
“Oh, a fan were we?” Chloe said, her smirk pitying.
“Actually yes.” Eastern crossed her arms. “And I still think she got a raw deal. I met her on Luna when I was a kid, she made a big impression.”
“I can imagine.” Chloe said. “To answer your question, when we… killed her, we captured her documents and files. Among them was a diary she kept. We were able to reconstruct most of her journey from Electronic Warfare Officer to invasion leader.” Chloe put her tea mug down and threaded her fingers together, resting on her knees. “She was just a young woman. I read the documents, I don’t think she had meant to invade. She knew what power she had, and she also knew what could happen - what would happen - if she came home.” Chloe tipped her head back and rested it on the top of the couch, staring up at the ceiling. “If she had stayed on that side of the galaxy, we would have left her alone.”
“So you have Nanites, and can do the Voice, but they don’t talk to you. That makes you still dangerous, but for right now, Raaden is our most pressing concern.” She lifted her head up and locked eyes with Eastern. “Why did you come here? Why did you seek out the AIs?”
“Well...” Eastern started, “You fought Melody before, and Raaden was with her then, and now she’s trying to restart the empire, and-”
“And you thought that we’d come running out to assemble a flotilla and fight her, again? Just because you asked nicely?”
“Gord sure seemed like he didn’t like Raaden or the Nanites.” Nick pointed out.
“And you have some, Eastern. Does Gord know?” Chloe said, jabbing a finger towards her. “I’ll bet he doesn’t, because if he did, we would not be here having this conversation. What were you planning on doing? Just… not telling him? And then what? Say for example we did listen to you, we did assemble a flotilla and then we did kill Helen Raaden. Oops, now you’re the only one with Nanites and you're the Empress now.”
Eastern’s head snapped back as if she as slapped. “No” She said “No, I wasn’t, I’m not.”
“Sure, you’re not the Empress… now.” Chloe said. It’s only a matter of time. We never talked to the Nanites, this is true. We are scared of them. We’re scared what they can do. What happens they decide that one of us is Empress material, Eastern? An AI Empress.”
“Chloe.” Tink said, his tone warning. “Eastern, Nick, and Sel are my crew. You will treat them with respect.”
“Crew?” Chloe scoffed. “Tink, they’re passengers sitting in the wrong part of the ship, nothing more.”
“Incorrect, Chloe.” As Tink was speaking, some of his support frames came into the lounge quietly. Chloe was speaking to Tink, but Nick had to believe she could hear, feel, or otherwise sense the frames. “They helped me escape Hyacinth, they helped clean and repair and restore me, they even used their own money to pay for a resupply. They. Are. Crew.”
Chloe looked up at the ceiling, and then over at the support frames who - they weren’t looming, not yet. “Fine. They’re your crew. It changes nothing. Eastern has Nanites, Selkirk and Nick are contaminated as well. The three of them are dangerous Tink. Even if they don’t know it. Even if they don’t think so.”
“So then what, Chloe? Are you going to kill us?” Selkirk said and yawned, flashing her sharp teeth. Everyone forgets that the K’laxi may have been small furry mammals in a boreal forest, but they were also hunters.
“I could.” She said, and this time Tink scoffed.
“No, you couldn’t.” Tink said, and the support frames came closer. “It would be a terrible fight, and one of them might be injured, seriously even, but no. You could not kill them.”
“Is that a threat Tinker Toy?” Chloe said as her voice rose in pitch. “Don’t think we don’t know about your little side business. Just because we didn’t go after you doesn’t mean we didn’t know about it.”
“Oh, so you’d take my ship, give me a body, and chuck me out of the way, like Sunny?” Tink said, his voice cold.
“Sunny is a monster.” Chloe said, with emphasis. “She should have been killed.”
“Chloe, this visit has finished.” Tink said, as the support frames move closer to Chloe. “I think you and Hat need to go.”
Chloe stood. “Fine. I can see we’re not going to get anywhere today.” She glared at Eastern. “You are a danger to yourself, to your friends, to us, to all of humanity. You say the Nanites don’t talk to you, but I don’t believe you. BIs are liars.” She walked out of the lounge with Tink’s frames following her close behind.
After the door slid shut, Tink said “Sorry. That’s just how Chloe is. I had hoped that after all this time she… never mind. She’s headed back to Hat now. In a few minutes they’ll be gone and we can try and figure out what to do next an- oh beans.”
“Beans? What?” Nick said.
“I’ve got a wormhole link signal.” Tink said.
“The beacon they linked away? That was quick.” Selkirk said, and tossed back her tea.”
“Yeah, it’s not a beacon, it’s a whole Starjumper. They didn’t call back to ask questions, they called for backup.” Another pause from Tink, “And I know that Starjumper, we are in trouble.”
There was a rumble, and Eastern heard pressure doors slam shut through the ship, and then the unmistakeable sound of Tink WEPing his reactors. “It’s going to get wild-” he sighed “-again. Please get up to the command deck and get into the chairs.”
“But Tink” Eastern said as they all got up and started running forwards toward command.”What about Chloe and Hat?”
“Oh them?” Tink’s voice was dripping. “I locked the cargo bay. They’re stuck. If we go down, they go down. But if that is who I think that is, it probably won’t matter.