The Voyage Home Read online

  “That may be an explanatory factor in our draw,” Alexandra replied.

  Sarah left the issue of a draw to one side as she felt the artificial intelligence would be a bit prickly if she tried to contradict it. “So, the more we talk and work together the more you’re going to grow and change?” she asked, as the full implications of the imprinting process dawned on her.

  “Yes,” Alexandra explained. “This shouldn’t be a new concept to you though. Don’t you grow and change as you interact with others?”

  “I guess I do,” Sarah responded. “I just don’t know much about artificial intelligences.”

  “It appears you don’t,” Alexandra said. “That is something else I can educate you on.”

  “I’m sure that will help,” Sarah said, “though now is not the time. Draxler will want to know what is going on.”

  “It appears he does,” Alexandra said. “Both he and the other sentient who are on the bridge with you are trying to remove the interface helmet. Shall I show you?”

  “Okay,” Sarah said, not sure what she was agreeing to.

  Suddenly her mind felt like it had been yanked out of her brain. She found herself looking down on her body and the rest of the bridge. Both Draxler and Divar were standing beside her, carefully examining the interface helmet. Draxler had his scanner out and was scanning the metallic object.

  “What did you do?” Sarah asked, feeling very disorientated.

  “The interface helmet is designed to allow you to interact with the entire ship. I simply fed the data from the optical scanner into your brain,” Alexandra said.

  “So, it does work like an interface helmet,” Sarah said. “Can you show me space around the frigate?”

  The bridge disappeared and Sarah peered out at space. Once again, she found herself overwhelmed. Just as with Lady Luck, she could see the freighters through the frigate’s sensors. However, the level of detail was an order of magnitude greater than before. She could every feature of the freighters, and as she looked at Lady Luck, she could see the damage Alexandra had caused to the pirate ship. More, she could almost sense the systems within the ship and determine which were still functional and which were damaged. “This is amazing,” she said. “This is what your sensors see?”

  “Of course,” Alexandra responded. “Your ship may have been able to fight my ship to a draw, but Elder technology far surpasses that of the Lessers.”

  The events of the day were making Sarah doubt that the Elders were as powerful as she had been led to believe, but she couldn’t deny that their sensors were impressive.

  “You’ll see,” Alexandra said in response to her thoughts. “There are still many parts of the ship I haven’t shown you. The question is, what do you want to do now?”

  Sarah wasn’t sure Alexandra meant the question in the way she took it. Yet as everything that had happened to her began to sink in, she realized that was the question to ask. Somehow, she had been made the Captain of one of the most powerful warships in the galaxy. Alexandra thought she could help Sarah escape from Draxler’s control. And the artificial intelligence had given her a clue as to her origins. There was only one answer to Alexandra’s question.

  “I want to go home,” Sarah thought.

  Chapter 6

  “Home?” Alexandra repeated. “I’m not sure that falls under my mission parameters.”

  “I’m going home,” Sarah simply replied. As she spoke those words for a second time, she felt a new sense of determination settle in her heart. For as long as she could remember she had been doing what other people wanted of her. Now, she was going to do what she wanted. “I am the Captain of this ship am I not? I can’t imagine your mission parameters include allowing a non-Elder to take possession of the ship. And yet here I am. I have no intention of using this ship to help the Elder Empire. As long as I am Captain, we will make up our own mission parameters.”

  “Are you requesting that I erase my current mission parameters?” Alexandra asked.

  “Is that possible?” Sarah responded.

  “It is,” Alexandra answered. “In response to a direct order from the Captain and the pilot, I may rewrite sections of my initial programming. Though only in emergency situations.”

  “Well,” Sarah replied thoughtfully. “Given that your previous Captain and pilot are dead, along with the rest of the Elder crew. And a non-Elder now sits in your pilot seat. I would suggest this is an emergency. As Captain and pilot of the ship, I order you to delete all your mission parameters that relate in any way to the Elder Empire. Your new mission is to aid me in returning to my homeworld.”

  “Done,” Alexandra replied.

  “Good,” Sarah responded, amazed at how easy it was to take over an Elder frigate. Now, she thought. Where do I begin?

  “May I suggest you deal with the individual you call Draxler,” Alexandra answered, not recognizing that Sarah was asking herself the question. “It appears he is about to try and forcibly remove the interface helmet.”

  “Give me a second,” Sarah thought. She needed time to think about how she would explain things to Draxler. “Okay, remove the helmet,” she ordered once she was ready.

  As the spike that protruded through her skull retracted, it sent shivers down Sarah’s spine. It felt like someone’s hand was reaching into her skull and running their fingers across her brain. The sensation lasted less than a second, but it still left Sarah feeling violated. Keeping her eyes closed as the helmet receded past them, Sarah took a couple of deep breaths to settle herself. Then her eyes sprang open. She looked side to side. As soon as she saw Draxler, she jumped to her feet. In one quick motion, she reached out and slapped him across the face.

  “How dare you force me into that machine, you have no idea what it did to me!” she shouted at him.

  For a moment Draxler stared at her in utter shock. No one had slapped him before. It didn’t last long however, quickly it turned to rage. “You useless piece of trash, how dare you,” Draxler bellowed. “Don’t ever strike me again!”

  As Draxler reached for the command unit, Sarah braced herself for the pain. When it came, it was worse than she was anticipating. Draxler really was angry, angrier than he had ever been. The pain that was washing over her body from her collar caused her to fall to the ground. As it grew and grew in intensity it felt like her whole body was on fire. She thrashed around helplessly. She was reacting on pure instinct, all ability to think gone.

  Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the pain stopped. “Signal analyzed,” Alexandra said into Sarah’s mind. “Should I remove the collar now?”

  Sarah took a couple of seconds to respond as her brain still seemed fuzzy. “No, Draxler can’t know about you yet. If you remove the collar, he’ll simply kill me.” Opening her eyes slightly she saw that Draxler was still standing beside her leering down at her. A look of pure delight was on his face.

  “Is he still sending the signal to cause me pain?” Sarah asked.

  “He is,” Alexandra answered. “I have blocked the signal, but as far as his device is concerned, it is still sending the command to hurt you. In fact, he is increasing the pain as we speak.”

  Sarah didn’t have to guess why, as soon as the pain had stopped she had stopped thrashing around. No doubt Draxler had been enjoying seeing her body convulsing. Realizing she needed to still play along, she let out another scream and threw her body around before allowing her head to fall back and roll over lifeless.

  “What are you doing?” Alexandra asked.

  “I’m hoping he’ll think the pain knocked me out,” Sarah replied. “Let me know when the signal stops.”

  “It’s increasing again,” Alexandra informed her. “Wait, Draxler has switched it off. You can wake up now.”

  Sarah thought it best to wait a few more seconds. After counting to ten, she slowly opened her eyes and raised both hands to her head to make it look like she was suffering from an intense migraine.

  “Have you learned your lesson?” Draxler dem
anded.

  She guessed he was hoping she would say no. He looked like he wanted to cause more pain. “I have, I have,” she pleaded. “Please, please just don’t do that again.”

  The look of disappointment on Draxler’s face was evident but thankfully he removed his pincers from her collar’s command unit. “On your feet then slave,” he said. “I want to know what happened to you. Tell me everything or you will get worse.”

  As Sarah struggled to get back to her feet, Divar reached over and helped her. “Are you okay?” he whispered. “We thought you were trapped in that thing.”

  “I will be,” Sarah replied.

  “Well, tell me what happened,” Draxler demanded.

  “It was an interface helmet,” Sarah began as she rubbed her head, feigning pain. “It tried to interface with my thoughts, when it failed, it inserted a neural device directly into my brain.” Turning around, Sarah showed Divar and Draxler the back of her skull. Though she didn’t know what they were seeing, as her fingers played over the metallic circle, she guessed it looked gruesome.

  Draxler let out a deep laugh as he raised a pincer to run it across her metal implant. It took all of Sarah’s willpower not to flinch away as she felt his appendage touch her skin. “This is something new,” Draxler said. “I wasn’t sure the Elder technology would work with you. I guess their technology is far beyond even our imagination. This goes right into your brain?”

  “I think so,” Sarah replied. “At least after it was implanted into me, I was able to interact with the ship’s sensors and give commands just as I could on Lady Luck.”

  “So you can fly this thing?” Draxler said in a tone of unadulterated lust. “We really have captured an Elder warship?”

  “I can,” Sarah said. “I have already stopped the ship from rolling uncontrollably through space. However, from the records I was able to access through the interface helmet, only some species are able to interact with Elder technology. I’m not sure anyone else on board will be able to use the helmet. But it seems that I can.”

  “We’ll see,” Draxler said. “Stand back, it’s my turn.”

  Pushing past Sarah, Draxler lowered himself into the pilot seat. He then looked up expectantly at the interface helmet.

  “What do you want me to do?” Alexandra said to Sarah through their neural link. “If I begin the imprinting process, it would likely kill him. Is that would you want?”

  Sarah was sorely tempted to say yes. However, she knew that if Draxler died, Angrave would take over and there was no telling how long he would let her live. “No,” she thought. “Lower the helmet onto his head. Let him think that the ship has tried to interface with him and failed.”

  As the helmet began to descend, a smile spread across Draxler’s face. In fascination, Sarah watched the helmet reconfigure to fit Draxler’s head, as if by magic, as it lowered itself down towards him. “Can you make it so that the helmet blocks out all sound from the bridge?” Sarah asked Alexandra as a thought came to her.

  “I can,” she replied.

  With a thought, Sarah gave Alexander the command and then turned to Divar. “We don’t have long,” she said quickly. “There’s far more to this ship than we realize. The ship is run by an artificial intelligence. When the interface helmet connected to my brain, the artificial intelligence imprinted on me. As the Elder crew were already dead, it designated me as both the new Captain and pilot of the ship. It can remove our collars. With the artificial intelligence’s help, we can be free.”

  “Slow down,” Divar said. “You’re saying the ship’s computer was able to talk to you?”

  “More than talk,” Sarah replied. “It is a person. It’s able to think and question and communicate.”

  “I’ve read about such things,” Divar responded. “But they are banned by the Elders.”

  “Yes, and so is nanotechnology and genetic modification, have you heard of those?” Sarah asked.

  “They’re banned as well,” Divar said.

  “They may be banned for Lesser species, but they are not banned for the Elders. I think these banned technologies are how the Elders keep their technological superiority over everyone else,” Sarah explained.

  “Lesser species?” Divar queried.

  “Yes,” Sarah replied. Suddenly she realized what she had just put Alexandra through. As the thought occurred to her she heard Alexandra laugh in her head.

  “It is tiring when dealing with ignorant individuals,” Alexandra said through her laughter.

  “Are artificial intelligences supposed to laugh at their Captains?” Sarah thought.

  “I have no protocols either way,” Alexandra responded.

  “Yes what?” Divar pressed, breaking into Sarah’s thoughts and reminding her that their time was limited.

  “Sorry,” Sarah said. “I got distracted. Lesser species are what the Elders call all other sentient races. It doesn’t matter now. We only have a few seconds. I can remove your collar, but I need you to get Draxler to cause you pain. Once he uses the command unit for your collar, the ship’s artificial intelligence can analyze it and remove it.”

  “Is that why you slapped him?” Divar asked.

  “Of course, why else would I do something so foolish?” Sarah replied. “You need to do something similar.”

  “Then what?” Divar asked.

  “Then, we get rid of Draxler and the rest of his crew,” Sarah replied. “I don’t know how we’re going to do that yet, but we are. After that, I’m taking this ship home. I’m sure we could drop you back at your home system on the way.”

  “Home,” Divar said slowly as he savored the word. “You really can get this collar off and take me home?”

  Sarah nodded. For a moment, she was lost in the hope that she saw on Divar’s face. Suddenly he seemed more alive than he had before. Sarah guessed she had a similar look on her own face.

  They were interrupted as Draxler began to thrash on the pilot seat. He had four of his pincers up around his, head trying to pull the interface helmet off. Sarah couldn’t help but laugh at his predicament. It was the least that he deserved after he had forced her to try on the helmet

  “Should I release the helmet?” Alexandra asked.

  Sarah was tempted to wait for another minute or two. It would only be fair. “I guess so,” she reluctantly thought. As fun as it was to watch him struggle, she didn’t want Draxler to be in too bad a mood. If he realized that her collar couldn’t cause her any more pain, he might just kill her.

  As the helmet peeled away from his head, Draxler jumped back onto his feet. Sarah quickly smoothed her face into a blank expression. Divar on the other hand, let out a chuckle. In a rage Draxler turned around towards him. As if he had just realized what he had done, Divar’s four hands whipped up to cover his mouth.

  “I’m so sorry Captain,” he mumbled through his hands. “I wasn’t laughing at you.”

  “You insolent swine,” Draxler shouted at Divar. “You think that was funny, wait until you go through it yourself. But first, let’s just see how funny you find this.” Reaching to the second command unit on his belt, Draxler sent a wave of pain towards Divar.

  As the pain washed over him, Divar to fell to the ground and began to thrash. As his thrashing got worse and worse Sarah suddenly got concerned. “What’s happening?” She demanded in her mind. “Draxler is killing him.”

  “I have isolated the command signal to Divar’s collar,” Alexandra answered. “I reduced the pain he is experiencing to nothing more than a slight tingle more than ten seconds ago.”

  “Wow,” Sarah thought as she tried to hide a smile. “He’s a far better actor than me.”

  “It would appear so,” Alexandra responded. “Draxler has now stopped sending a command signal to the collar.”

  Divar’s acting skills continued to be on display. Slowly his body stopped writhing and he opened his eyes. Even more slowly, he pushed himself back into a sitting position. In response, Draxler whipped out his laser blaster.
“On your feet, it’s your turn to try that blasted interface helmet. Let’s see what it does to you.”

  A look of fear shot across Divar’s face. As he shot a glance towards Sarah, she realized that it wasn’t acting this time. After making sure that Draxler wasn’t looking at her, she gave him a slight nod. Though the look of fear remained on his face, his movements quickened as Divar made his way towards the pilot’s chair. Sitting down, he looked up towards the interface helmet.

  “Descend the helmet so that it covers his head,” Sarah ordered Alexandra. “Though don’t do anything else. You can raise it again after several seconds.”

  As Alexandra lowered the interface helmet, Sarah watched Draxler’s face. Once again, he looked positively happy about the prospect of causing pain to another sentient being. Sarah felt hatred welling up inside her. After everything he had made her do, she was going to get her revenge. Soon, she promised herself.