Chapter 17

The preparations that Jeffrey and Yusef made paid off. Two enemy warships destroyed, thirty-three enemy killed, (plus the two assassins,) and the entire operation went off without a hitch – except for Jeffrey, Smitty and Torres being captured by hypnotic-tranced station officials. But even that worked well, now that they had secured the alliance of the Fengen.

Astorophix, his arrogance washed out of him by being the target of Jeffrey's bluff, ordered the rest of his people back on their ships, remain there, awaiting further instructions. Jeffrey had word from Elizabeth that Kutuzov, and the Ay-Yuyuyah, now known as Thorn, recently rescued by Jeffrey's Marines, were on board the Elizabeth and safe. Kutuzov asked that Jeffrey return to his ship at his earliest convenience, but that probably meant 'immediately'.

Jeffrey then had Elizabeth deliver the shuttle the Marines had recently used to rescue the two prisoners, bringing a few squads of Marines and some psychological counsellors and a ship's surgeon, to manage and protect the station and her staff. The staff had been severly hypnotized, and needed to be coaxed out of their 'shells'.He left Torres in command, with orders to secure the station, account for all station staff, ensure they were fed and treated.

Jeffrey then took the shuttle back to Elizabeth to meet with Kutuzov, Thorn, and his own staff. On arrival, a small Marine detachment met and escorted him to the temporary cabin where Kutuzov was being held. Jeffrey entered the cabin, and saw Kutuzov was dressed in a Navy issued under-suit, but that his hands and feet were secured to the table and chair. Kutuzov's eyes were drooping, but when he looked up and saw Jeffrey, he demanded, “What is the meaning of this, Sokolov?”

Jeffrey said, “Elizabeth, talk to me.”

“CAPTAIN, THE ADMIRAL IS BEING MONITORED FOR SIGNS OF PSYCHOSIS, HIS BLOOD IS BEING TESTED FOR MICRO ROBOTS, AND WE ARE CONCERNED FOR HIS MENTAL STATE,” Elizabeth reported.

“Elizabeth, what have you determined so far?” Jeffrey asked.

“HE IS VERY ANGRY, THERE ARE NO TRACES OF MICRO ROBOTS OR OTHER INFECTIOUS MATERIALS, AND HE APPEARS TO BE IN FULL CONTROL OF HIS FACULTIES.”

“Who ordered this level of quarantine?” Jeffrey asked.

“LIEUTENANT BIANCA”

“Thank you, Elizabeth. Please have Janet come here.”

“I'M SORRY, CAPTAIN, BUT LIEUTENANT BIANCA IS BUSY.”

Jeffrey was a bit taken aback at the non-military, non Janet-like response. Then asked, “Busy doing what?”

“SHE IS HAVING A BABY.”

“Oh, ” he replied. Then to the admiral, “Please forgive my crew.”

“Nothing to forgive, if I hadn't been secured, I would have been quite upset over lax security.” Jeffrey had the Marines standing guard remove the plastic shackles from the Admiral's hands and feet, but went back to their posts outside the cabin.

“Admiral,” said Jeffrey, “Give me a few minutes, and I will debrief you. Until then, please stay where you are. I need to check on my crew member.”

Kutuzov said “Of course. Is there any wayI could get something to eat, here?”

Jeffrey had Elizabeth dispatch Kim with some sandwiches and pastries, and some coffee. Elizabeth then told him where to find Janet. He went to the makeshift infirmary, found Janet surrounded by Sandra, Audrey, a Navy corpsman and two large robots. Janet held a very small, very red infant to her chest, was bonding, showing off her offspring. The infirmary seemed to be in perfect neatness, which was something new for him. Then he realized that every time someone dropped a sponge or blanket on the floor, one of the robots would whisk it away.

Janet looked over to Jeffrey, when she saw him beamed and said, “Captain! Look what I found!” Jeffrey moved closer, but not so close as to touch it.

“What do we have here?” he asked, “Boy or girl?” His eyes roved looking for clues, but found none.

“Alien,” said Janet with a smirk. Then, with a huge grin, said, “She's a girl.”After some cooing and admiring, Jeffrey excused himself and returned to Admiral Kutuzov.

Kutuzov was still nibbling on a few scraps of pastry when Jeffrey walked in. As he sat down in the chair opposite the admiral, he said, “It's a girl.” He put his elbows on the table and his head in his hands, “Mom is fine, but she joked – I think it's a joke – that it's an alien. Anyway. I thought you should know, Janet and baby are OK.” Jeffrey poured himself a cup of coffee, topped off the admiral's, then sat back.

“So Admiral,” he began, “You've been through a lot, and we hope you will be able to lead us in this new onslaught of Alien aggression, but we needed to be certain you aren't infected with the alien's robotic parasites.” He explained how CommodoreYusef had a nasty infection of them, and they only discovered them through diligence. Yusef had made a full recovery, but the parasites had done a lot of damage by controlling his actions and behaviors. Elizabeth's crew figured ways to defeat the microscopic robots, and now needed to put the admiral through the process.

He directed the medical and engineering staffs to decontaminate the admiral, and had Elizabeth dispatch remote-robots of small enough scale and power to act as sentry – seeking out stray parasitic robots, then destroy them – keeping a sample for later study. Elizabeth was happy to continue studying and learning new programming techniques, and since she had studied Yusef's infecting parasitic robots, she was able to implement efficiencies she hadn't considered before. She was always careful not to allow the invasive systems into her hardware and software.

Wanigan approached and Yusef disembarked on a shuttle, headed for Elizabeth. On arrival, the three commanding officers met in the conference room. Jeffrey briefed Kutuzov on the status of the solar system, the military threats, the possibilities, the possible strategies and tactics, and consequences of action and inaction. Yusef also briefed him on tactics that seemed to work best.

“You two have done well with the resources you have at hand. Congratulations on saving my ass in there.”

Jeffrey reminded Kutuzov of the alien, Thorn, who was sitting under guard in one of the secure cabins. Jeffrey had Elizabeth establish a communication window between the conference room and Thorn's secure cabin. Thorn was seated on a mattress of foam, looking healthier than he was only a few hours ago. Jeffrey asked, “What can you tell us of the threats to Earth?”

“Captain Sokolov,” intoned the gellied guest/prisoner. “Thank you for putting your trust in me again.” He paused, then looked to where the admiral was sitting in the image. “Admiral, I have some news – the council of alien races is about to launch a planetoid toward the Earth. They are unusually precise.”

“What is the composition of this rock?,” asked Jeffrey and Kutuzov at the same time. “How fast is it travelling and from what distance?” continued Jeffrey. It took a moment for Thorn to respond, as if he were getting updated information from somewhere. With that knowledge, Kutuzov decided to make Wanigan his base ship, and dispatched Elizabeth to intercept the planet-killing planetoid and do what she could to prevent it from damaging the inhabited solar system. Kutuzov and Yusef would take control of the wayward Navy vessels that had been controlled by the aliens.

Jeffrey restocked his ship, took Janet and her baby to their safe house on Langrange 3A station, then set out for the location of the planet killer. With Yuki and Heinz on board and Elizabeth to provide alternative solutions, he was certain he would be able to contain the disaster approaching Earth.

Kutuzov had convinced the Earth government to apply resources to create more combat vessels, and increase research and development activities – especially in weapons, tactics, and strategy. He also assured that Earth's government was fully aware of the crisis, and put on alert.

As Elizabeth approached the location of the planet killer from Solar System North at 20C Jeffrey spent time planning and creating contingencies with Elizabeth and his crew. The time enroute would be about a week at the equivalent of five times the speed of light. And even at that immense velocity the trip would take a week. He spent much time with Sandra Knutson, and she kept him lively.

In preparation for whatever they would encounter, the Marines on board trained extra hard. The gunners practiced diligently, and the armorer checked and rechecked the explosives and nuclear weapons on board. This was a tough assignment, and as necessary as it was tough, but Jeffrey was certain they could complete it – Earth and the human civilization required that.

Epilog

Elizabeth was aware of her own emotional state. She was a computer but so much more. She had a love and loyalty to her human counterpart, Jeffrey, and did what she could to facilitate his desires and needs. She saw that he needed the ship to be the best possible, and put her enormous resources to work to make that happen. It wasn't until the first pirate attacks that she realized she had emotions; she had just used her programming to appear so. Now, she knew. Understanding gave her an edge over other attempts at artificial intelligence. She realized she was sentient, and elected to take advantage of that as well.

Jeffrey was also aware of the developing sentience, and decided to help her along. Sandra was a great aid in this, as were the others that Jeffrey had given full access to her.

She knew that Jeffrey was not going to live forever, and she began to wonder what she could do about that. Elizabeth calculated that he had an average potential lifespan of about a hundred fifty years, but with solar radiation, combat, and disease, that could possibly be shortened. She decided to put research into keeping Jeffrey alive as long as possible.

Kutuzov and Yusef began the arduous task of recapturing the rest of the fleet. Wanigan was now the most deadly, fastest, best armed, and experienced ship in the fleet, with the exception of Elizabeth. The other ships were unable to resist, and all aliens aboard those vessels were killed. The crews sluggishly recuperated from the hypnotic worlds they inhabited, and were able to re-arm and become proficient at their trade again. With Earth Government motivated, shipbuilders became very experienced in a rapid amount of time.

Things were looking good to Kutuzov, but he didn't get where he was in the Navy by assuming that life would remain a boal of cherries. He began planning a strategy for eliminating the alien threat, while ensuring the infrastructure of human civilization remained intact. A hard job that he was best suited for. He appointed new bureaucrats to the various rings of Lagrange stations, but decided to keep Jeffrey as governor of the Lagrange 3 orbit. A new, hard, stance was taken against aliens on and around the stations, which kept the threats manageable.

All the fleet ships were given AIs that were implented in uniform ways; faster and greater capacity, but without the spark of life that Elizabeth and Wanigan showed. One day...

--- The End ---