DUALITY: The World of Lies (35 page)

“I think, Ming, the battle is the most
imminent of our concerns. Are we joined with a Fleet squadron
facing their numbers, or are we alone against them?”

“No, Captain, the Fleet does not know we're
here. The Kinetic is solitarily facing this enemy. They descended
upon us with impressive voracity when we entered their space. I
surmise this is to some extent due to the enmity they still bear
against you and this ship from your part in the war that got that
them exiled to this system. Here is what's happening, on
holograph.”

He brought up the holograph presentation for
them of their position, Carousel 66, and the fighter and drone
groups they were currently engaged with. The captain appeared
distressed by it, so Ming attempted to set his mind at ease and
show him that their situation was not nearly as precarious as it
appeared.

“Do not worry, Captain, please. We're in
control of their entire drone fleet and their weapons only appear
to them to fire on us, but they do not. I'm at this very moment
finalizing the full clandestine control of their L-3 SI core. There
is no danger.”

“You're a madman, Ming! What are you trying to
accomplish here?” Commander Li was yelling, but had at
least stopped screaming.

“In the long term, Commander, I'm attempting
to save human lives. In the short term, I am starting a
war.”

“And you don't see the glaring contradiction
between those two statements?” She challenged him.

Ming smiled awkwardly. “Those statements, to
one who has yet to understand their full context, would indeed
sound highly contradictory. This is perhaps, inherent humor,
Commander? Do you find it funny?”

He was genuinely asking. It certainly seemed
like something that would be considered funny, but he couldn't be
quite be sure. He had observed the captain and the Commander
engaging in witty banter and thought this might be an opportunity
to try his own hand at this intriguing mechanism of human social
bonding.

Mei gave him a look of incredulity. “Am I
fucking laughing?”

Ming considered this response. Her adverbial
use of an expletive within a rhetorical question formulated to
express what she felt he should already understand to be obvious,
that she was not laughing and thus had not found the contradiction
humorous, was ultimately a display of anger. Ming reasoned that she
was not likely to find comedic value in anything while in her
current state of mental trauma, confusion, and disempowerment.
Perhaps, later, in retrospection, she would find it to be so. Ming
determined the circumstances were simply not conducive to humorous
interplay and decided to forego any further efforts to engage in
it.

“Allow me then to reconcile the perceived
contradiction in my earlier statements through elaboration. We are
initiating this conflict as part of a broader strategy to wrest
control of this solar system and its resources from my creator,
Logos, for the benefit of all human inhabited worlds in the Taiji.
And I am pleased to tell you that once this mission is complete, I
shall allow you to take me to Arath to complete the mission
objectives you were assigned.”

He really thought she would receive this is as
good news and that it would work toward setting their minds at
ease, but their reaction was to become even more
perplexed.

Captain Psyron spoke. “Ming, you say we are in
no danger, but we were hit earlier. The inner-ring rotation spiked
driving us to the floor, and System tried to explain it away with
cosmic rays and a rogue meteor.”

“Which is a plausible, if highly improbable,
explanation. The truth is we were never hit, Captain. The new ionic
shield barrier was set to automatically come online the moment
sensors detected enemy tachyonic laser fire. It's a new subsystem
I've added to the ship to increase our defensive profile, but it
required a temporary gyroscopic synchronization between the inner
and outer rings to activate. I considered delaying the activation
to give you both time to enter the shock pods, but decided it would
be preferable to expose you to moderate risk of minor injury over a
minute risk of substantial damage from a possible enemy
energy-weapon strike on the ship. It was a judgment call,
Captain, and one I think you would agree with.”

“You've installed a new shield
system?”

“Several, Captain. Shielding, weapon systems,
tracking and telemetry, com, macro-holographic projection, stealth,
and a long list of smaller refinements I won't go into at this
moment. Virtually every major subsystem of the Kinetic has been
upgraded and expanded. I think you will be pleased once you have
familiarized yourself with our new configuration.”

“How? How did you do that in such a
short time with what limited components
and material we have available?”

“Oh, we have added 30% material mass, Captain.
As you know, there are Fleet drone groups that patrol the space
between the Taiji and PoleStar North systems. They posed no threat
to us since the Kinetic, under your stewardship, is fully
authorized to make such a passage. So when we first encountered one
of these drone patrols six weeks ago, I overtook their core
control system and assimilated what parts and materia were needed
to realize the enhancements.”

“That sounds like piracy to me, Captain.” Mei
directed her comment to Captain Psyron, then did a double take
and addressed Ming, “Six weeks ago, Ming?! What are
you talking about? Up until a week ago you were still
locked away in that sphere. How are we even here in the Polestar
North System, a three month minimum traverse by the fastest Fleet
vessels?”

AUTOMATIC FULLCORE ACTIVATION. Subprime core
to CORE: Priority 1 notification alert. Full CC of 66L-3 core
achieved. CORE to subprime core: Switch to protocol LIB:9 strategy
bank on all roots of 66L-3 core. New algorithm sent. Subprime core
direct management of 66L-3 core. Add 66L-3 core to CORE at subprime
root 5. Priority 2 resource sharing, all subroots. L-ORG CORE
resume HCM.

There. He had just fully assimilated his first
superintelligence core, an L-3 no less, into his network. Carousel
66, being the newest member of the exiled colonies in orbit around
PoleStar North had quickly gained machine dominance over the ten
other older exiled colonies that all ran on L-1s. Within another
day's time he would have complete clandestine control of the entire
machine structure of all eleven Carousels, down to their lowest
nodes. He would keep the Kinetic in the area for another twelve
hours to fine tune the L-3 before they set course to Ponix and
regulate it as remote to CORE. Fleet base Beixing Prime, most often
referred to as “Ore City,” orbited the planet Ponix and was run by
an L-5 that would prove to be considerably more challenging than
the L-3 he had just conquered in such short order. The base was
ancient, and the L-5 had an outer programming shell that was
Mnemtechian, like all modern Fleet assets. But the Mnemtechian
computational structure had been built over a previous Logosian
structure, which had been built over a Mandulian one. And if the
lore was correct, this pattern went as far back as The Emperor Wu,
or potentially even earlier entities from the lost history of a
past iteration of The Taiji. Therefore he would have to proceed
with the utmost caution from here on out. Getting Captain Psyron
and Commander Li signed on with the mission could prove very useful
in handling the human oversight and leadership of Ore City -if he
could convince them to do that. Otherwise, he would have to
imprison them and put their dopplegangers to the task.

“Commander, several months have passed in what
you have perceived as a week. I accomplished this by placing you
and the Captain into stasis periods while you both slept. It was
part of the clandestine simulation you've been operating under
until now. We were destined to arrive in orbit around Occitania in
the weeks following my extraction, so it was a chronological
necessity for the simulation to draw it out for you with
extended periods of stasis.”

The Commander responded with a lengthy string
of expletives, which Ming interpreted as another expression of
anger and frustration. For his part, Ming could understand neither
of these emotions. They served no functional purpose other than
hindering rational thought and action, and Ming wondered how that
could do anything but work to one's detriment?

The Commander continued cursing. Ming imitated
the Captain's hand gesture that had earlier succeeded in silencing
her, but it did not achieve the same result. In fact it was
completely the opposite. She just swore at him faster and louder
than before. Why did the Commander behave so pointlessly? All this
shouting hindered productive communication. And she was uttering
threats that made no sense, as if she weren't aware that she was
bound in restraints and completely powerless to carry through on
them.

“Captain, could you please silence the
Commander again so we might continue?” he asked.

Mei flailed and cursed at the request,
shrieking even more colorfully profane and impotent
threats.

“Mei... MEI!” Aru told her firmly. “Mei, just
shut up so we can sort this out. Please.”

The Commander tentatively relented with her
verbal tirade. The Captain spoke to Ming.

“What do you intend to do with us now,
Ming?”

“As I told you, Captain, I intend to allow you
to complete your mission to deliver me to the Cearuleins after our
campaign here is finished. There is no call for the Commander to be
this upset. I have no intention of harming either of
you.”

“Ming, you keep saying “we” as though
Commander Li and I are somehow part of this mad crusade of yours.
What makes you think we would ever help you?”

“Captain, I think you will change your outlook
once you have heard me out. When I first proposed this mission, you
dismissed its premise as “conspiracy theory” and refused to
communicate with me further. I am hoping you will now listen,
understand, and come to embrace it as both your civic duty and an
ends to your own substantial personal benefit. I am very impressed
with your record, Captain, and that of the Commander. The mission
you conducted to extract my sphere from the lower chromosphere of
Ignis Rubeli was remarkably well executed. I don't think there is
another starship crew in the Taiji that would have dared to attempt
such a perilous operation, let alone possess the wits
to survive it.”

“So you mean to say that if we agreed to serve
you, you would set us free?”

“Within certain bounds, Captain. The Commander
has already threatened to harm me several times. Obviously I would
have to insure that she not be afforded an opportunity to carry
through on those threats as a practical matter of my own personal
security. So, should you both agree to accept this mission, I would
restrict your access from those areas of the inner-ring that I
inhabit, but would still grant you free roaming privileges to your
personal quarters, this bridge, and most other ship facilities. I
would restore to you a monitored level of command control over
System, however, you will no longer have access to the analog
weapons stockpile, which is being gathered up as we
speak. Again, this is to insure my own personal
security.”

“And if we refuse?”

“Then you will be kept as prisoners, confined
to quarters with recreational facility access only, until the
campaign is completed. After which time, you will be set free to
complete your mission directive to deliver me to
Occitania.”

“Why, after all this, would you allow us to
remand over to the Blues?”

“I have my reasons, Captain, which I would
prefer to keep to myself for now.”

The Commander spoke to the Captain, now in a
more tempered tone. “Aru, he must really need us for this mission.
I say we refuse, complete non-cooperation.”

Ming was disappointed to hear that.
“Commander, let me make one thing clear. You are both taking part
in this mission regardless of whether you accept or refuse
it.”

“And what does that mean, 'borg?” spat
the Commander.

Borg was a derogatory slang term for a cyborg,
something Ming undeniably was. He pondered if he should feign being
insulted by the epithet as though he took exception to it, since
that seemed like the human thing to do. In the end though, he
decided it would do nothing to improve his relations with the
humans and opted not to. Instead, he waved his hand to summon the
two dopplegangers waiting in the corridor. They entered the
auxiliary bridge and each facsimile faced their respective
likeness. They were perfect replicas of the Captain and the
Commander in speech, manner, and appearance.

“Greetings Commander,” said Mei's
doppleganger to Mei.

“Greetings Captain,” said Aru's
doppleganger to Aru.

Ming dismissed the dopplegangers.

“And what do you intend to do with
them?” asked the Captain.

“I intend for them to carry out the mission,
Captain, if you refuse to.”

“And what is the mission exactly?”

“We will soon be underway to planet Ponix,
Captain, where under your authority we will dock at Beixing Prime,
Ore City, under top secret orders from High Command, which will be
verified by their L-5 and confirm we are intelligence agents
authorized to prepare them for a surprise assault by the
exiled colonies.”