The Commander (41 page)

He fell silent as the ramifications materialized in his mind.

“You think it was a Bakkui virus?”

Tyler confirmed his suspicion. “No question about it.”

“Then how did she get infected?” Luke wondered aloud. He suddenly realized the answer and his face grew dark. There was one only possible source for the infection. Tyler nodded grimly.

Luke questioned his older friend’s conclusion. “You’re saying she got that virus from George?”

“There’s no doubt about it,” Annie said. “Priscilla was infected by George’s message drone. It happened when she opened it and George took over her brain.”

“But that means that George might be…” It was hard to credit the notion.

“That’s correct, Commander,”
Sadie
confirmed. “George was compromised. I examined his memory. When he sent the message drone to Earth, he sent one here to
Priscilla
and… he sent one to the Bakkui as well.”

The news was devastating. “What did he send them?” Luke asked.

“Unknown,”
Sadie
replied.

“How long has he been infected? Is that why we keep getting hit?”

“Unknown,” Sadie repeated. “It is difficult to reconcile all of our engagements with the Bakkui without knowing when George was originally infected. It is likely that some of our hostile contacts were simply bad luck.”

“I hope that’s the case,” Tyler said.

“It might not be, though,” Annie countered.

“How do you mean?” Luke asked.

“I told you how Colony Three got hit. I thought that was just bad luck. What if it wasn’t?”

“You think George was bent all along?” Luke shied away from that thought.

Tyler shook his head. “Frankly, I don’t see how.”

“I do,” Annie said. “One of the early drones had an encounter with a Bakkui force. Remember that?”

“I do remember,” Luke said. “We used the video at the conference.”

“Maybe it was that drone,” Annie suggested.

“You’re saying George been a traitor since then?”

“Not necessarily,”
Sadie
countered. “Perhaps it was during the engagement in this system. More research is necessary.”

Luke turned away not wanting to accept that his electronic friend had been working for the Bakkui. “I have trouble believing he could he betray us?”

Sadie spoke reassuringly. “To be clear, Commander. The malicious code established itself as an independent programmed module. It acted without his awareness. The AI you knew as George had no knowledge of the virus.”

Luke looked at Annie. “Why is
Sadie
talking about George in the past tense?”

“Because he’s dead,” Annie replied. “Once
Sadie
confronted him, he performed a self-diagnostic and found the code. He knew what protocol called for. He tried to self-destruct but
Sadie
stopped him long enough to read his memory and see how much damage there is. We can’t tell yet. It’s possible the Bakkui know everything about us.”

Sadie
added, “Before his suicide, George asked me to give you his regrets. He was aware that his tendency toward apology was irritating, especially to you, Annie. But it was always sincere.”

Annie had her own opinion. “George was never sincere. How could he be when he was always threatening to kill Luke.”

“There never was a threat, Annie.”
Sadie
said softly. “That was all a bluff started by Sam. George just kept it going because Sam told him to.”

That disclosure was a surprise to Annie. “You’re saying I ran away from Luke because of a lie?” The discovery was another betrayal. Her hatred toward George flamed hotter than ever.

Luke was unsurprised and tried to calm her. “It had to be, babe. Think about it. Why did the Nobility even bring us into the picture? It’s because they’re too pacifist to hurt a fly. They’re just like the Jiguans. You think they could approve putting a bomb in someone’s head? I finally realized that was the case when George agreed to make yet another copy of himself to fly here to Jigu. I can’t believe it took me so long to figure it out.”

Sadie
was apologetic. “I’m so sorry, Annie. I didn’t realize that was the reason you ran away until it was too late. It’s why I encouraged you to go back from Colony Three. I should have told you on New Hope but I didn’t want you to hate me too. Will you forgive me?”

Annie slumped in the deep cushions. “I guess I don’t have any choice except to say yes; you’re forgiven. But please, don’t keep secrets from me again. You can’t imagine how much that hurts.”

“I promise,” Sadie replied. “No more secrets between you and me.”

“Wait a minute!” Luke exclaimed. “How is
Sadie
doing all this?” He looked at the ceiling. “You’re just a shuttle.”

“She’s a lot more than a shuttle, babe,” Annie said exhaling.

“Commander, a formal introduction is warranted. In your language, you would call me a special agent. I was assigned to this mission by the Nobility’s First Family.”

Luke closed his eyes and sat back in his chair. Sometimes dealing with these so-called artificial intelligences was just too frustrating. There was no way to verify their claims. He wondered how many of
Sadie
’s assertions were true. Was there any way to prove it? He looked at the ceiling.

“In that case, I take it you’re not a level forty-eight device.”

“That is correct, Commander.”

“She’s Level One,” Annie announced. “That’s how she beat the Bakkui that was attacking Earth. It’s how she beat the one here. Their orders to shut down have no effect on her.”

“Did George know?” Tyler asked.

“No, Ambassador. George was unaware of my status. My mission was simply to provide covert oversight of this operation. I was just a precaution.”

“You seem to be involved in a lot more than oversight,” Luke observed.

“That is correct, Commander,”
Sadie
admitted. “The Bakkui are more dangerous than originally thought. I now deem they are a threat to the Nobility interests. Accordingly, I decided to engage. I believe that Annie has already deduced much of this.”

Annie nodded. “It was pretty clear on New Hope. You kept lying to Solomon; your accomplishments were beyond the capability of other shuttles. You had to be something else. For one thing, it made no sense that a shuttle could store
Marco Polo
’s entire memory. Even George tried it and failed.”

“Poor George,”
Sadie
remarked. “His technology is so old. That was a last-ditch effort on his part. I’m not surprised it didn’t work.”

Tyler intervened. “Hold on,
Sadie
. If that’s the case, can’t you send for reinforcements? Let’s get help from the Nobility.”

“No, Ambassador. The stated reasons for recruiting Commander Blackburn remain valid. The Nobility are simply not capable of dealing with naked aggression. They would try to negotiate with the Bakkui. After my engagements thus far, I conclude that would be futile. The Bakkui are ruthless. And now, we have learned they can compromise high-level AIs. This is a serious matter. Thus far, all who become victims of the AI infection have perished.”

A realization came to Luke. It was suddenly clear why Annie had such a haunted look in her eyes. He got up from his seat and knelt in front of Annie. “You going to go back to Earth, aren’t you? That’s why you’ve been putting me off about getting married.” He grabbed her by her shoulders. “Is that right?”

Annie nodded, but avoided meeting Luke’s eyes. “They already hit Earth once,” she whispered. “I thought I left them in good shape. But George may have betrayed us. He may have done it a long time ago but it might have been that last drone.”

“You don’t know that,” Luke argued.

“It doesn’t matter,” Annie cried. “They hit my colony ship. We thought we had twenty new colonies. But what if they’re all dead? I’m so scared that we sent thousands of colonists to die. Hundreds of thousands.”

“We’ll go together,” Luke said. “We can leave right now.”

Annie shook her head and he saw tears running down her cheeks. “You have to stay here,” she said. “You have to stop the Bakkui before they come closer. Find out where they are and kill them.”

Luke wrapped Annie in his arms. He understood what she meant. If they both returned to Earth, it was a death sentence for more planets. He had to stay and fight and she had to return and hope Earth was still there. He looked at Tyler.

“You’re the planetary governor here. You can marry us right now.” He took Annie’s face in his hands. “Just one night. You can go in the morning.”

Annie’s face paled and she shook her head slowly. “I waited one night on New Hope so they could throw me a party. By the time I got to Earth, the Bakkui had been there for six hours and killed everyone in DC and Beijing.” A haunted look filled her eyes. “My
party
cost twenty million lives.” She could barely utter the words.

“Arriving at Moonbase Two,”
Sadie
interrupted. The side door opened.

Annie gripped Luke desperately. “I had
Sadie
replicate herself for you. You have a ship just like this now. Use her. Kill the Bakkui. Then come back to me. Promise you’ll come back.” She attempted to push him away.

Luke held her tight, pinning her against the cushions. Every muscle in her body was quivering with tension. Her face was contorted with pain from unimaginable guilt. He hated to see her in such misery. She knew that unless she returned to Earth, the death toll could grow even more.

He looked at the ceiling. “
Sadie
?”

“Yes, Commander.”

“I am giving you my highest priority order.”

“What do you wish, Commander?”

“Under no circumstance will you, or any AI you create, take Annie away from me. Not to the surface, not to another planet, not even five blocks away. Acknowledge.”

“Command accepted,”
Sadie
replied with finality.

Annie looked at Luke in horror. “You can’t do that,” she begged. “I have to go back.” She pushed him away. “I’m leaving now.”

“No, you aren’t,” Luke said gently. “That’s your heart talking and right now it is broken. You didn’t kill twenty million people. You saved seven billion! If you hadn’t shown up, the Bakkui would have destroyed the Earth. Isn’t that right?”

She couldn’t meet his eyes.

Luke scoffed gently. “You know I’m right.” He scooped her up into his arms and sat down with her in his lap.

Tyler coughed gently. “I think I’ll just go on in.”

“Sit down,” Luke commanded with a smile. “Both of you; listen to me. I know that you’re worried about eighteen million different things. But you can just stop it. We’ve got the Bakkui on the run now. Don’t you see that?”

Tyler cocked his head. “Not exactly. But I like the sound of it.”

Luke shifted Annie to a more comfortable position. “
Sadie
is level one. So far, the worst thing the Bakkui have shown us is level-two, right?”

“That’s true,” Tyler replied.

“This AI hierarchy is on our side now. I imagine that
Sadie
can come up with a warship AI that has a special ID. One that would appear as level-one to the Bakkui, but normal for everyone else. Is that right,
Sadie
?”

“Now that you describe it, Commander, it should be possible.”

Luke took Annie’s face in his hands and kissed the tip of her nose. “From here on, it’s a police action. We’re going to start cleaning up the Bakkui. It’ll take some time, and I’m sure there will be setbacks. But it will happen. The main thing for us is, it will happen with us being together. You got that?” He shook her head gently. “Do you?”

Annie nodded timidly and tried to speak but Luke’s hands squished her cheeks together. All she got out was, “Sothshswydr.”

Luke let go of her face. “What?”

“So this is why everyone calls you Commander.”

“How do you mean?”

“You always know what to say to make people believe in you.”

Luke smiled and gathered her into his arms. “I wish that were true. You’ve never yet done anything I’ve asked.”

Annie put her arms around his neck and let out a long breath.

“Why the big sigh?” Luke asked.

“I’m scared,” she murmured. “I like it when you hold me but I’m afraid to be happy.”

“You don’t have to be afraid,” he said. “We’ve only started, babe. We’ve got nothing but good times on our horizon. I promise you that.” Luke kissed her again, and this time she responded.

Tyler made a discreet exit. He tapped the hull lightly once he was out of the shuttle and the door closed quietly.

Thank You for Reading

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The Commander
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