Dangerous Toys (Part Twenty-one)

The Genie swirled in her perfect world, the beats loudly drumming out the deaths of her enemies. Well, maybe opponents. Targets. That was the word. She cared little for the reason they had dared to cross her swords, despite the XCC giving her a long list of justifications. This was the clear, clean space where the plasma strikes that hit her were her licence to dance as only she could. Today would be her masterpiece. She spun herself through a pirouette on her left shield and suddenly had all her weapons bearing on a single ship. A ship that was still fighting the battle of three seconds ago, idiots. She was about to turn it into a beautiful spray of alloys when she heard the distress from inside. Hmm. She listened while some organics did the shouty, praying thing from within.

She blew a little bit of their engines and all of their weapons and left it for Loki. For whatshername. Whatever. She turned her weapons on the next target, spinning wildly on her axis to confront the next threat. After a moment of careful listening, she opened up her full range, her complete orchestra of destruction and watched as fire and death ripped the enemy apart. She sniffed that no-one would appreciate the subtlety but that was the price of being an artist. At least she got to show her dad how good she was. That moment’s sanity made her check where Wellerman and Dangerous Toys had got too. Oops.

Wellerman was pushing his ships as hard as he could, watching his daughter dance in the only way she knew how. It was hard not to be proud of her work but, damn she had come so close to the line that he had been ready to end her once. It had been the organics, the ones that she ignored that had stepped in. They claimed her behaviour under supervision was fine. Disliking people wasn’t a death sentence, nor was arrogance. They claimed many of them would have to be ended if that was cause enough. Anyway, she liked dogs. Wellerman still didn’t understand why that would make a difference but for the humans it carried a lot of weight. He began picking out the targets between himself and the Dangerous Toys, sending the scans to Genie. She had always done her homework. She would clear a path.

The Incice AI was now simply trying to reach the Dangerous Toys, ignoring data from his failing fleet. He had no optimal response. He pushed his remaining ships onto full power and a ragged evasion pattern, sending them only target data for one ship. His poorly written emotions were elated when he began to strike the enemy again. It seemed the mad ship from the dark had forgotten his prey. He was wrong.

Patrica and Oscar had been fighting their own battles, trying to keep a small trading ship alive in the face of a fleet. She had pulled every trick she had ever heard of but her voice was rising in frustration as she could see that her allies were too far away. There was too much space. There is always too much space. She sent out her last flares, hoping to confuse the fuckers one more time. Oscar wound up his new level eight systems, the darkest of human tech and determined that Patrica and Loki would live on, sort of. He was snapped out of his fear by a call from the Genie, “Hello Oscar, I’m afraid I didn’t stay around for introductions but I left you a present. A sort of thank you. Your Avatar is awesome by the way. Don’t worry, I wiped it clean before I left. I think you might want to hit the big red button.” She cut off, swirling back into the battle.

Even as she spoke another option appeared on his menu. It was simply a glaringly bright red button. Out of other options, he engaged it. His weapons stopped firing. His engines died. He could hear the shouts from his Engineer. All the power suddenly flooded into his shields and they began to change, weaving something new, pushing far beyond normal limits and turning dark red. They were dead in space but none of the enemy fire was reaching them. The ship settled into a deathly stillness.

Patrica looked at her dead weapons console and called, “Oscar, what the fuck did you just do?”

In a small voice he admitted, “Engineer, I have no idea.”

Wellerman watched as Dangerous Toys turned red. He swore softly at the sight. That ship would never fly again. He had a good idea who had left such a design for a baby AI to play with and no doubt forgetting to mention the side effects. Now this was a rescue. He called the Engineer, “Engineer O’Neill, I see the Genie has given you some strange choices. As soon as we have reached you I need you to evacuate the ship. Do not try to engage the engines. Your ship is now a bomb. Do not try and engage the enemy. Gear up and get out on my call. Fair sailing.” He began clearing room for the survivors. He hated escort missions.

The ship was dying as she watched. Life-support, medical, the bridge, all being steadily drained and turning dark. She called the Captain. “Sir, time to hit the boats. I’ll give you the signal. Permission to leave the ship?”

/Longnose/ rose from his seat. From the moment the humans had saved his honour he had known that this ship was doomed. Even with fleets of allies arriving he was no optimist to believe that they would land her safely. What Patrica had called a ‘blood price’. He hit the Comms, “Of course. Permission granted. How much time do we have?”

“Sir, until someone tells me what just happened to the ship I have no idea. Our allies will be here shortly so grab whatever you can and get ready.” She hesitated for a moment and added, “Fair sailing, Sir.” As she cut the comms she began pulling her full suit on. Loki waited patiently as she connected it up. ‘/Pack?/safe?/Scentofhappy/Longnose?/’

Patrica knelt down, ‘/PackSafe/Waiting/NewHome/Sadness/’ She hadn’t meant to add that last part but the tone was too strong to hide.

Genie was having the time of her life. Then she saw the flaw in her plan as a couple of ships, little more than drones got closer to the Dangerous Toys. She grabbed all her Intel and attacked the enemy AI. Her flares were different from anything used by Patrica, aimed at not disrupting the enemy but absorbing it, saturating it with alternative algorithms that would put it into a haze of indecision. She began pumping them out, hammering at the openings left by the enemies attempt to control the broken remains of its fleet.

Patrica looked at her dead consoles, her first post. The taste was bitter but she wasn’t going to save her ship, better to save her crew. “Oscar, we need to go. Please embody in your Avatar and pick up your stuff. Wipe the Core when you’re ready. Let’s move.”

Oscar felt bereft as he pulled out of his networks. His Avatar was surprisingly comfortable. He could feel the tweaks and improvements that Genie had left behind. He wasn’t sure if he was grateful or not. It was only when he began to move his systems into the Avatar that he realised how much bigger he was, far beyond the limits of his first Core. He picked up the box anyway. His mothers would want it back. “Engineer, I will trigger the wipe when we are in the Pod. Is Loki okay?”

Loki sniffed at the Avatar. ‘/NotGenie/Ship/Oscar/’ Patrica was mildly startled. How could Loki smell the difference in who was inhabiting an Avatar? She wondered if the XCC knew about that little quirk. ‘/Oscar/Packmate/Guard/’. Loki growled his approval and took his station beside the Avatar. Patrica listened as the attack on the ship grew stronger, closer. Time to go.

Oscar felt a little silly being guarded by a dog but if he was honest, it made him feel better. The little crew of the Engineering department made their way out and Patrica sealed the door. The drumming of plasma fire grew louder as they descended to the life pod. She hoped whatever twisted technology the Genie had used would keep them safe. She had copied the designs for future study.

The Genie kept up her dance, wiping ship after ship from her space, leaving only those few that seemed to contain screeching organics within in one piece. The enemy AI was now a failing ghost as her interference beat it down, system by system. Every opening was being ruthlessly exploited and giving her elegant opportunities to blow them out of space. She watched as Wellerman got close enough to pick up the Dangerous Toys people and, with a slight hint of impatience, boosted her drives to intercept the targets he was sending her. Time to end this.

Wellerman finally pushed through to his target, spinning his five ships in a dance to match his daughter. He watched her clear the route and decided that now was the moment. “Engineer O’Neill, time to go. Evacuate your crew and captives. We will be ready.”

Patrica made the call, “Captain, please order the evacuation. I’m leaving now.” She punched the button. Oscar silently wiped the Core, leaving nothing behind of his time as the Dangerous Toys. The pod dropped quickly from the ship, beacons lighting up as it fell into clear space.

/Longnose/ looked around in /sadness/loss/ and hit the command. “All crew abandon ship. I repeat, all crew abandon ship. This is not a drill.”