Sentient (10 page)

So this is what intoxicated feels like.  Aide’s whole body was warm, and her mind was fuzzy.  She also couldn’t get the smile off her face as she chatted with Olivia.  She didn’t think she was falling down drunk, but she definitely had a buzz.  Although being her first time she wasn’t positive what the difference was yet.

God she was so beautiful.

Olivia blushed, “Thank you.”

Oh crap, had she said that out loud?

Olivia took her hand, it felt really nice, warm, and comforting to hold it.

Olivia said sounding amused, “Let me take you to your room, you’ve probably had enough to drink.”

She nodded in agreement and they both said goodnight to Nate and Paula, who both looked amused as well.  What was so funny?

She didn’t stumble at all as they walked, though she did initiate a diagnostic of the gravity systems, the floors seemed a bit unsteady. 

Olivia asked, “You okay sweetie?”

She smiled happily, Olivia used a term of endearment, “Yes, never been better,” she said as she lightly squeezed Olivia’s hand.

When they got to her room she turned, “Would you like to come in?”

Olivia nodded, “Just for a minute.”

She frowned, “Why so short?”

Olivia took her inside and answered a few seconds later, “Because you’re drunk.  I don’t want this to happen unless we…”

She smiled stupidly, “Standby a moment please.”

She activated her nanites and had them clear her bloodstream and rehydrate her body.  She shook her head as it slowly cleared.

She looked directly into Olivia’s beautiful blue eyes and caressed her face.

She whispered, her voice throbbing with desire, “Now will you stay with me?”

Her heart was pounding, she felt like she’d die if Olivia said no.

Olivia answered her with a kiss.  She closed her eyes and just went with what felt right.  It was her first kiss, ever, and Olivia’s soft body against hers felt amazing.  Her core started to tingle and tighten, moistening faster than she’d ever managed just playing with herself.

Olivia’s lips were so soft and velvety against hers.  She gasped when she felt Olivia’s tongue run along her lips.  She parted her lips slightly and felt her nipples harden as their kiss deepened, their tongues intertwining as her breasts were pushed into Olivia’s.

She’d never felt anything so good, it was so much more intense and different than playing with herself with toys, and Olivia hadn’t even really touched her yet.  She roamed the sexy curves of Olivia’s body with her hands as the kiss got even more intense.  She reluctantly broke the kiss and took a few deep breaths.

Olivia claimed her hand and led her to the bedroom.  Too late she realized some of her toys were strewn across the bed, but it only made Olivia smile.  They kissed again passionately as they helped each other out of their skintight suits.

She loved the feeling of Olivia’s silken supple flesh as she ran her hands around her lover’s naked body, caressing Olivia’s curves anew without clothes getting in the way.  She was a little nervous, of course she was a virgin.  Despite downloading a ton of information on sex and making love, she wasn’t really confident she knew what she was doing, so she was trying to just go with what felt right.

The problem was right now everything felt right.

She gasped into Olivia’s mouth when their breasts mashed together, her sensitive nipples brushed against the supple warm flesh of Olivia’s.  Olivia had handfuls at least, her body looked so sexy and she wanted to explore every part of it.  Olivia seemed to have her eyes locked on Aide’s breasts, which were extremely large on her frame, at least twice as big, though not as perky, as Olivia’s.

She was led to the bed and they lay beside each other naked as they started to kiss, and their roaming hands teased each other’s bodies.  Neither one seemed in any rush, as they got to know each other’s sensitive areas.

She gasped as she felt questing fingers between her legs.  She felt her core clench and her legs opened wide as if they had a mind of their own.  She’d been right, this was so much better than anything she’d done on her own.  She wondered if it was merely another person doing the stimulating, how much she cared for Olivia, or a mix of the two.

As Olivia slipped a finger inside her warmth and kissed down her body to her nipples, taking one into her warm hot mouth, she stopped wondering about anything at all.  She was caught up in the blissful ecstasy that was quickly building in her body.  She was almost frozen but managed to at least caress Olivia’s hair and look into her eyes, sharing the desire and lust that was burning quickly through her body.

She gasped, “Oh god, Olivia don’t stop!”

Not only didn’t Olivia stop, she felt her push down on her clit and start to rub it in a circle as she bit down lightly on her hardened nipple.  The mix of pain and pleasure shot from her nipple to her core, drove her over the edge, and she exploded in ecstatic pleasure.  She was breathless and everything seemed to stop as the most intense bliss she’d ever felt in her life overcame her body and mind.

When she came down Olivia was back at eye level, lying next to her with an intense look on her face.  They kissed again for a moment, then it was her turn, and she couldn’t wait to return the pleasure she’d felt from Olivia.  She felt a strong connection and attachment to Olivia that both scared and thrilled her at the bottom of her being.

All she was positive about was the night had just gotten started…

----------

Olivia was in deep shit.  She was falling for an alien AI, no, she’d already fallen.  She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a bed partner as passionate and giving in bed as Aide was.  Even more Aide’s body was putty in her hands, so responsive to her every touch.

Aide was also extremely proficient with her toys, and had worked her up to the most powerful and long lasting orgasm she’d ever had with nothing but Aide’s tongue between her legs.  She didn’t know where this was going, but she wasn’t going to worry about it.  It was way too late to guard her heart.

There were only three more days until the attack, but she was finished with research as far as improving shields went.  She might look into something else soon, but she had no desire to leave her new lover’s suite anytime soon.  In the morning she snuck out of bed and got some breakfast going.  She smiled at the thought, she usually couldn’t wait to run after sleeping with someone.

Now she didn’t want to leave…

----------

Joss groaned and Tessa looked his way with a raised eyebrow.

Joss said in exasperation, “Another damned alert, the General is going to kill me.”

Tessa snorted, “Stop being a baby, what is it this time?”

Joss started going over the data.  There were apparently thirty objects coming at Earth from outside the solar system.  They all had a uniform size and the same spectrographic profile.  They were also much bigger than a mailbox, more like the size of a semi pulling a wide trailer.

His voice sounded shaken when he said, “That has to be a false alarm.”

Tessa shrugged, “Maybe it’s Gargamel chasing down the Smurfs from last time.”

He laughed but it came out nervously, “I’ll be sure to leave that out of my report for the general.”

She grinned cheekily, “You do that.”

He asked, “Just in case I don’t get shot for this report, you doing anything for dinner?”

Tessa shook her head, “What did you have in mind?”

He shrugged, “Get out of this hole in the ground for a few hours.  Maybe find a bar after dinner?”

She smiled, “I’m game Lieutenant.”

-----EH------

The General had his professional don’t fuck with me face on, but inside he felt like a little boy shitting his pants.  There were thirty more ships coming, and these were large.  He had no idea what to tell the president.  They had some defensive capability in space, but he wouldn’t bet his own life on it being very effective against people that had interstellar capabilities.

He considered the drink in his hand and put it back down, the last thing he needed to do was get sloshed on the plane and show up at the Whitehouse drunk.  Although, maybe he’d get forcibly retired if he did.  He laughed out loud at his internal joke, drawing a few looks from others on the flight and turned red with anger.

Luckily he outranked them all, so they just turned away.

It was going to be a long damned day…

Aide was busy this morning.  She had over a trillion nanites working on the first carrier command ship and four hundred fighters.  It would be ready in less than a week, by then she’d have enough nanites to build two more before the second wave arrived.

Her body was still in her suite having marathon sex with Olivia.  She just couldn’t get enough of the beautiful woman’s body.  It was slightly distracting, but she was able to work easily enough through it, after all she was designed to do billions of things at once.  Although she did have a little trouble thinking straight even in her microscopic core computer when her body was being wracked with pleasurable orgasms.  She started taking little breaks from any decisions during that time.

She took the ship from under the Arctic and went back to space, and started deploying the ships she’d built for the first wave.  They had thirty six of them, and one on one they were more powerful than the enemy ships, but not by much.  Skill would make a difference she didn’t doubt.

She had time before the general reached the Whitehouse so she started building the control software and systems for the new ship along with the mini attack craft.  It was time to reveal herself per the protocols before the planet descended in a panic, she noted over the last day two observatories in addition to NORAD had seen the approaching ships.

She wasn’t sure it would help much in this case, the idea was telling them about her being there to defend them, even if she couldn’t share technology, it might keep them calmer.  But humans weren’t very logical and hated being out of control, so it may make things worse.  Either way, she was letting Kris handle that part.  She’d given him a download briefing of everything she knew that the world knew.

Stacey asked, “
Do you have any technology for terra-forming?”

She analyzed the sentence but couldn’t connect it anywhere and answered, “
Yes we do, but why?”

Stacey’s mental voice sounded excited and went very fast, “
Well what you said the other day, about when all this was over.  I figured we’d all get tired of never living on a planet if we didn’t go back to Earth, so what if we terra-formed Venus and started a little settlement?  We’d still be around to keep an eye on Earth.  Maybe we could even get horses and cattle, maybe start families?”

She felt shocked by the idea of starting a family, it hadn’t occurred to her that with a female body that could happen.  Of course, she’d need a man for a donor, unless she replicated the sperm of course.

“That sounds interesting, but you know six people won’t make a viable colony.”

Stacey replied, “
Well, I hadn’t thought that far.  I’m actually positive you could provide diverse genetic information to make that happen, but I don’t want to breed a whole colony anyway, I just want a place for us to stretch our legs and call home.  It will go a long way.  I love the ship, but I think I’d die if I had to live the rest of my life in space.
”

“
In that case,”
Aide said confirming her abilities,
“It is very possible.  We should talk about it with the others after the first wave when things slow down.
”

Stacey replied, “
Sounds good.
”

After a few more minutes of dedicated programming she paused the current simulation on the bridge and created a hologram of the staff room at the White House as the general walked in.

Aide informed Kris and Stacey, “
You can watch the proceedings and even listen.  When you’re ready to interrupt just let me know.  I’ll be tying into the meeting software in the room though, they’ll see the two of you on the monitor in there.  I thought that would be less… intimidating than creating a hologram of you on their side.
”

Kris frowned but nodded, done either way he knew they’d be pissed off and paranoid about it…

---------

The General felt tired when he walked into the staff room and took a seat.  The damn flight was a waste of time, but he was under orders not to electronically report anything important, as if that mattered.  He felt like a man with rocks and sticks trying to plan out a campaign against a modern military.

The president asked, “What’s going on, and do you have any updates on the old stuff?”

Bill replied in a neutral voice, “We haven’t had any sightings of Miller, Carver, or any of the scientists.”

When the President remained silent he continued, “As for what is going on now, we have what appears to be thirty ships approaching the planet.  They will be here in just over fifty three hours.”

There was dead silence for a while, until the President asked in a quiet voice.

“Suggestions?”

Bill almost shrugged but suppressed it.  He needed to shake off his doubts; they could only do what they could do.

“I’d suggest putting the military on alert,” and kissing our asses goodbye.

He left off that last part and took a drink of the water in front of him.

The President asked, “That’s it?”

The SECDEF said, “What else can we do, we don’t even know if these aliens will attack us…  There isn’t much we can do until we know their intentions, or at least until they are here.  We could point a satellite that way and send them a message maybe?”

--------------

Kris could see by the look on their faces the room was getting grim.  He cringed internally; this probably wasn’t going to go over well, but he’d do his best.  He signaled Aide to connect him through the audio and visual meeting equipment in the room.

He was a man who knew how to fight, even with the steep learning curve over the last nine days he’d been getting the hang of planning and directing multiple ships in three dimensions against an attacking enemy.  It had been a rare simulation the last couple of days when Aide could both surprise him with something new, and enough of a surprise to cause him to not be able to improvise and win anyway.

This was different, he wasn’t a political person, and he really didn’t have a clue what to say.  It was absurd, but he felt a little nervous when they all turned and seemed to look at him.  He knew though, they were just looking at the screen.

“Good morning,” he said inanely.

General Nells said, “Sgt. Kris Miller,” as if he was seeing a ghost.

His lips twitched but he suppressed the smile.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I have some information you probably all want.  I can’t promise it will make you happy; in fact I’m sure it won’t.  But here it goes…”

He started out with a brief background of the Alion and Sthellan war.  He realized shortly into it, that he really didn’t know that much about it himself except that the Sthellan were extremely violent and seemed to be the aggressors.  Then he explained the Alion had screwed them in sending a probe here with an artificial intelligence, and they were being pulled into a war if they liked it or not.

He also explained the AI had classed them as too warlike and unstable for a full uplift, which is why they’d been kept in the dark until the confrontation actually started to happen.

He finished up by explaining the thirty approaching ships were here to destroy the Earth, but with Aide’s help, they had forces ready to face it and more in progress to face future waves.

Bill asked, “What about the scientists?  Why did you collect them?”

Kris nodded and replied, “Good question sir.  There have been uplift attempts in the past to create allies against the Sthellan.  What I learned was they have never been successful in the past.  I convinced Aide, the AI, to allow a small select group of scientists to look at their tech for possible upgrades.”

Bill nodded and the President asked, “Do you believe all that?”

He frowned, “What do you mean sir?”

The President clarified, “Do you believe all you’ve been told by this… Aide.  Do you trust the Alion’s intentions are as she stated.”

He felt a trickle of sweat on the back of his neck.

“Honestly sir, I’m not really sure.”

He sensed Aide’s disbelief and hurt, even Stacey gave him a weird look at that.

He added, “I believe in Aide sir, there has been no reason for me to doubt her sincerity.  Yet, the Alion I haven’t met, and they are the ones that created Aide.  It may be a tad paranoid, but it’s possible Aide was programmed with incorrect information, or hidden protocols even she herself isn’t aware of.  However, despite all that, we need to give them the benefit of the doubt, simply because we have no choice.  I believe it doesn’t matter, without Aide’s help we will be wiped out, and I trust her.”

Bill asked, “Her?”

He nodded.  “The AI is definitely female sir.”

Aide and Stacey seemed slightly mollified by his clarifications.

He continued, “From what I understand Aide will send out information to the major governments, you will also have the opportunity to witness the battle.  She will leave it all in your hands as to if the general populace should be informed.  But you should know that two independent stations have picked up on the ships as well, so containment might not be possible.”

He took a deep breath and said, “I want to be clear about something, her protocols will not allow the tech we are currently using, and upgrading, to fall into humanity’s hands.  Don’t try.  If you even partially succeed, we will be shooting ourselves in the foot, because the technology will self destruct and we will be left to simply die.

“I said in the beginning you wouldn’t like it.  We have no choice but to trust them.  On the good side, I believe we do have a chance thanks to the three scientists we recruited.”

Bill cleared his throat, “Three?  We know you have Sands and Rodriguez, who else?”

He grinned, “Nate Atwell, retired military.  He was responsible for many of the designs in nuclear subs.”

Bill nodded thoughtfully and made some notes.

He felt a bit awkward for a second staring at the unhappy men, but they had a little hope now at least.

Not knowing what else to say, he asked, “Any questions?”

He spent a few minutes fielding questions, mostly about them wanting to meet this Aide, which was against the protocols so wasn’t going to happen.  The questions degenerated quickly into the same ones asked different ways, so as politely as he could he signed off.

Aide asked, “
Do you really think I could be a… Trojan horse of some kind?
”

He shrugged, “I don’t know.  But we’ve already established the Alion doesn’t treat you as if you were an individual with rights.  I already told you what I thought about that.  It wouldn’t surprise me, even if there wasn’t something specific, that the Alion had a way to override your protocols and force you to take an action against your will.”

She replied wistfully, “
Thanks for not treating me that way.
”

The simulation turned back on and he tried to adjust his thoughts back to the battle that was already in progress.  He signaled he was ready and it started.

-------------

Paula was in the lounge off the dining room feeling a little sorry for herself.  She had a bowl of ice cream as her mind spun with the possibilities for weapons.  All her mind kept doing though was flitting between all the failed ideas she’d already come up with.  It was hopeless.

“Hey babe, how’s it going?”

She rolled her eyes, “Not in the mood Nate.  Don’t let the door hit you in the ass.”

She felt him sit next to her, she hadn’t looked up from the bowl of ice cream.  She almost snapped at him but he talked first.

“What’s wrong Paula?”

Her head snapped up and she stared at him, he’d never used her name before or the concerned tone.  She searched his face for a moment, but only saw sincerity there.

She grumbled, “Who are you and what have you done to Nate?”

He laughed, “I can be somewhat of a curmudgeon at times, but I try not to kick people when their down, especially not those I like.  Talk to me.”

She sighed, “You know we can’t go back right?  The government would kill for the knowledge in our head, and Aide would kill us for giving it to them.”

He nodded slowly, “Yes, of course.  We haven’t really talked about it all, but that was quite obvious from the beginning.  I’m sure though something exciting will come up for us to do.”

She nodded, “So, it’s all worth it, if we can save the world.  It wasn’t like I was doing so well back on Earth anyway.  But I feel like a complete failure.”

He asked, “How so?”

She snorted.  “What good is making that sacrifice if I don’t actually do anything to help?  You and Olivia have made contributions, and who knows what you’ll come up with in the future.  All I’ve managed to figure out is I can’t improve the weapon systems.  I’ve thought of a few things that might work better than plasma, but it’s way beyond even the Alion’s science.”

He nodded, “We aren’t done, there’s still time to figure something out.  You need to take a break and relax a bit.”

She glared at him and said caustically, “That’s what I was doing when you interrupted me.”

He smiled at her, “Actually what you’re doing is wallowing in it, not getting your mind off of it.”

She couldn’t help but notice how handsome he actually was.  Especially when he wasn’t busy being an asshole.  But she suppressed that, it had to be just her internal clock and the fact he might as well have been the last man on Earth that was available as far as she was concerned.  He was a pig and she sure as hell wasn’t going to fall into bed with him.

Fall into bed with him?  Why the hell did that even enter her mind?

He shrugged and touched her shoulder, she wanted to both jerk away and lean into him, but did neither.

“I’ll leave you to your thoughts, but try and relax babe,” he said in a faux smarmy tone.

She didn’t know whether to smile or bite his head off.  By the time her mind caught up he was already halfway across the room…