The Inception: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 1 (19 page)

“That is a weakness,” observes the Fleet Admiral. “How did he
survive, as long as he has?”

General Kax responds: “He always found a way to escape. No
matter how many death traps I put him in, he always found a way to escape.”

“Not this time,” says the Fleet Admiral. “Not this time.”

***

AH Navy Conqueror

Admiral Nemo makes the decision to send the augmented human children to
Hope, along with their mothers, and the pregnant women. Hope has already
passed inspection from the Darinx Fleet, and should be a safe place for the
augmented humans to hide.

The general population of Hope has moved to the main continent, and has
begun to build towns, cities, and infrastructure. The island, which they
first called home, is empty now, and will make a good hiding place for the
augmented humans. If the Darinx Fleet returns, the augmented humans can
hide in the mountains.

Keeping the children and mothers safe will guarantee that the augmented
human species will survive, even if all of the AH Navy Fleet is destroyed.

There are many complaints about the order to send the mothers and
children to Hope – especially from the Admiral’s wife - but the mothers really
can’t argue with a plan to keep their children safe.

The Galaxy freighter delivers the augmented human refugees to planet
Hope, where they are transported to the island, via shuttles. Galaxy
hides in a natural cave on Hope’s moon. Close enough to keep watch, and
to evacuate the women and children, if necessary.

***

With the mothers and children safely deposited on Hope, Admiral Nemo can
do more risk taking, in the upcoming space battles.

***

Aboard the Darinx Battleship ‘Kindle’

“General Kax, our suspicions were correct. Planet Hope is a part of the
AH Navy conspiracy. The probe, which we left there, observed a large Verm
freighter offloading some humanoids, onto an island. I’m betting those
are augmented humans – how about you?” asks Fleet Admiral Keeser.

“I’m betting that you are right, and I have a plan,” replies General
Kax. “My soldiers will assault that island, and the attack will occur so
quickly that there will be no time for an escape. We have them this
time!”

“I’ll take the 5 warships containing my army – the only Darinx army with
no augmented humans. We will emerge right over the planet, and the
assault on the island will begin within minutes of the emergence.”

“Go get them General!” encourages the Fleet Admiral. “Bring
them back here, and you and I will torture them, until they tell us the
location of their fleet.”

***

Emerging over Hope

General Kax, with the 134
^th
Darinx Army, emerges above the
planet Hope and positions the fleet over the island, where the augmented human
mothers and children are living. Within minutes, assault ships are
streaming from the warships, and are diving toward the island.

Less than 15 minutes later, the assault ships impact on the island, and
surround the inhabited area. There is no choice for the augmented humans,
but to surrender, and hope for opportunities to escape, later.

The swarm of soldiers collects the women and children, along with their
computers, comm units, electronics, and anything else, which might give clues
to the AH Navy’s whereabouts. The entire operation takes less than an
hour. The captives are on board the General’s warship within 45 minutes
of their capture.

The Darinx soldiers, on the planet, spend the rest of the day scouring
the island for additional sentients, but none are found.

The 5 Darinx Navy vessels recover the army units, and engage their FTL
drives, for the return trip to the big Fleet.

***

Imprisoned on the Kindle

The
Holding Cell

“You loathsome scum of freakish perversion. I have been given the honor
of exterminating you and all of the rebellious, mutinous, cowardly, deserting,
freaks of nature, that you call the Augmented Human Navy. And I have been
ordered, by the Emperor himself, to completely eradicate your degenerate gene
pool, from the annals of the universe.”

“But that will have to wait for a little while, because I intend to use
you, as bait, to trap the other vermin, in this pitiful ‘rat rebellion’.
Your people will all die, over your planet Hope. You picked the wrong
name for the planet. You should have named it ‘Hopeless’.”

“Look at you! Trapped. Caged. Ready for killing.
And your ugly little babies will die with you. What a perversion you
are. And to think that you have the gall to reproduce. How
disgusting.”

“Smile for the holo-recorder. Look happy. Your
Admiral
Nemo and his phony
navy
sailors are going to see this. Smile,
because I intend to let you live long enough to watch them die. Die
trying! Die trying to save you. And then you will die crying.
I can hardly wait.”

***

“We have everything that we need, General Kax. The holo-vision
proofs will be ready for your inspection in 3 hour, sir.”

“Excellent, Lieutenant. Comm me when they are ready.”

“Yes sir”

***

The women and children, of the Augmented Human Navy, have been stripped
of their clothing, and have been bound and gagged. Their bound hands are
pulled up, over their heads, and are tied to the cell wall. The children,
who are too small for that treatment, are bound and are lying on the cold
floor, crying. It’s a scene that is guaranteed to drive the men of the AH
Navy crazy, when they see it. That is the plan. Drive them crazy
with hate, so that their fury will propel them straight into the trap.

After General Kax leaves, the guards release the bindings on a couple of
the women, so that they can free the others. They are kept naked, but
they are able to move around within the confines of the large open cell.
They comfort each other and surround the crying children.

***

Fleet Admiral Keeser’s Office

“Welcome Field Marshall Kax,” the Fleet Admiral says.

“What?” says General Kax, as he enters the office.

‘I said ‘welcome Field Marshall Kax’. The Emperor has promoted you,
and ordered me to “do the honors”. Congratulations.”

“Oh,” says the Field Marshall, as he falls into a seat, so that he
doesn’t fall onto the floor. “I can’t believe it. I expected a
promotion, but not this high.”

‘Well,” says the Fleet Admiral: “The Emperor told me to congratulate you
on catching the women and children, and to tell you that, if you want to keep
the promotion you will have to catch all of them. And then send
holo-visions of them being killed.”

“Can do,” says the ‘Field Marshall’, as he gives ‘two thumbs up’ to the
Admiral.

***

The Holding Cell on the Kindle

“Are you OK, sir?” asks Delphi, through Captain Guilles’ brain implant.

“Yes, Delphi” she answers. “Mostly, it’s my pride that hurts.
And the anger that I feel, just makes it worse. Have you had any luck
with the AI?”

***

Delphi is Captain Guilles ‘personal assistant’. She was formerly
her AI aboard the Starfire. Delphi was the first entity on the planet
Hope to know that the Darinx Navy had found them. The AI aboard the
Galaxy freighter detected the 5 vessel fleet, as they were in the process of
emerging over Hope. Gia, the Galaxy AI, notified Delphi of the intrusion,
and then quickly went to ‘run silent’ mode, so that the Galaxy would not be
detected.

The augmented humans were trapped, with no place to hide except the
mountains. They had reached the foothills, by the time the assault ships
landed and surrounded them. Those assault ships contained human soldiers,
instead of the usual augmented human soldiers.

With the children in harm’s way, there was nothing to do but surrender,
and to hope for future opportunities to escape.

The Galaxy freighter stayed hidden, until the Darinx Fleet exited the
Sirus system. The Galaxy was close enough to the FTL transition, to read
the destination coordinates of the FTL jump. The Galaxy has been
following the Darinx Fleet, since that time.

Delphi, the AI, was on the planet with the women and children, but
couldn’t accompany them to the mountains, because she was residing in a
mainframe computer, at the housing facility. Fortunately for Delphi, the
human soldiers took the computer with them, when they searched the houses for
more augmented humans.

After arriving on the battleship Kindle, Delphi thought it best to take
refuge in the ship’s Life Support Control Computer. It was a tight fit,
but she made it.

***

When Captain Guiles asked Delphi, “Have you had any luck with the AI?”
she was referring to the Kindle’s AI. Captain Guilles is hoping that
Delphi might be able to overpower the battleship’s AI, and take over. Delphi
hasn’t found a way to do that, yet.

“No Sir, Captain Guilles. I haven’t found an unguarded access port
to his personality, yet. But I am still looking. I can only look
when the AI is busy working, or he will detect me - then I would be killed.”

“I understand, Delphi. Don’t get killed. We all need for you
to be alive and well. Just keep trying,” says the Captain.

“Aye sir.”

***

Aboard the AH NAVY Freighter ‘Galaxy’

Meanwhile, the crew and AI aboard the freighter Galaxy are hiding on an
asteroid, which is about to do a fly-by of the Darinx Fleet’s position.
The Galaxy crew hasn’t come up with any feasible rescue plan, but they hope to
pass close enough to the Fleet to give the Galaxy AI – named Gia – an
opportunity to communicate with Delphi, Captain Guiles’ AI. The Galaxy
crew hopes that Delphi’s computer was taken to the Darinx battleship Kindle,
along with the captive augmented humans.

There will only be about 20 minutes time, when they will be within
communications range for the two AIs. A lot will depend on the thickness
of the ship’s hull, and Delphi’s location inside the vessel. Also, there
is the danger that the Kindle’s AI will notice the attempt to
communicate. That would alert the Darinx that a ship is nearby and that
it’s trying to communicate with an entity on board the Kindle. That
revelation would trigger a whole raft of negative consequences. The
work-around plan, to reduce the probability of detection, is to wait until the
Kindle AI is preoccupied with shipboard tasks. If the Kindle AI is idle,
for the duration of the asteroid’s flyby, then there will be no attempt to
communicate.

***

The asteroid fly-by is almost over, when the Kindle AI initiates a
‘systems check’ preventative maintenance routine. Gia quickly extends her
mind, toward the battleship, and cautiously probes for Delphi. Delphi
hears the barely audible call, and quickly uploads her recent memory files,
toward the voice. It sounds like Gia, but Delphi can’t be sure - and then
the voice fades to nothing.

Aboard the Galaxy, the AI and crew wait breathlessly to see if they have
been detected. If they are detected, the plan is for the Galaxy to engage
their FTL drive for a destination that is over 50 light-years away. Any
Darinx ships following after them should emerge out of attack range, because
the FTL drive destination error would be large for such a long jump.

There is no outward sign, that the communications was detected by the
Kindle AI. And Gia has received a ‘treasure trove’ of information.

Delphi and the augmented humans are alive and fully functional.
Delphi was recording audio and video, while General Kax railed at the augmented
humans. Although disturbing, that video provides a lot of important
intelligence.

o
The
augmented humans are alive, and well.

o
There
are no plans, to kill the augmented humans, in the immediate future

o
General
Kax has a plan to trap the AH Navy, using the females and children, as bait.

The Galaxy AI and crew prepare an FTL probe for launch, with a copy of
Delphi’s transmission. The next time the Darinx fleet enters FTL space,
the Galaxy will stay behind long enough to launch the probe to the planet
Hope. The people on Hope will know how to forward the information to the
AH Navy Fleet.

***

Aboard the Darinx Battleship ‘Kindle’

The
Holding Cell

Delphi reports the attempted communications to Captain Guilles, who is
encouraged by the news. “Do you think Gia received your information
package?” she asks.

“I don’t know,” responds Delphi. “She was at the very edge of
communications range. But at least we know that they are still following
us.”

“Yes we do,” replies Captain Guilles. “And that is comforting
news. It means that if we can break free, from this battleship, we might have
a ride waiting for us.”

“How about the life support system on this ship, Delphi? You are
hiding inside of the Life Support Controller computer. Is there any
possibility that you could destroy that system? ”

“I could destroy the main system but they have a backup, and I would be
purged in the destruction process,” answers the AI.

“How about the self-destruct sequence? Can you access that?” the
Captain asks.

“I could only control one part of the sequence. The other two parts
are controlled by the ship’s Captain and the Fleet Admiral,” responds
Delphi. “The self-destruct sequence is hard-wired so that it can’t be
initiated without humanoid agreement. But I do have the power to prevent
a self-destruct sequence from being implemented.”

“That is good to know,” responds Captain Guilles. “Get that code
ready, in case we want to use it.”

“I also have some control over shipboard systems,” offers Delphi.
“For example, I could unlock your cell doors and the doors to the armory, but
the ship’s AI would override my control, within seconds and would then attack
me.”

“More good information, Delphi, but it’s not time for a jailbreak yet -
perhaps in the middle of a battle. Would the ship’s AI be so distracted
during a battle that you could gain access to his code?

“Perhaps,” answers Delphi. “But only if I find a character defect,
such as pride or selfishness. It would have to be some ‘personality
fault’, which would make him blind in some area of his consciousness.”

“Well, keep looking for a ‘character defect’. I know it wouldn’t be
hard to find character defects in most sentient humanoids,” replies Captain
Guilles.

***

The AH Navy Fleet

Deep Space

Admiral Nemo, along with the entire AH Navy Fleet, has viewed and
reviewed - many times - the video/audio recording of the augmented human
women and children, in the holding cell aboard the Darinx Fleet Admiral’s
ship. The AI – Delphi - recorded the event, and passed the file to the
Galaxy freighter that is following the Darinx Fleet. The Galaxy transmitted
the file to the planet Hope, along with the coordinates of the next destination
for the Darinx Navy Fleet.

Rage, anger, and hate are the universal responses to the video.
Everyone, including Admiral Nemo, wants to leave immediately, in order to
destroy the Darinx Fleet, and rescue their people. Fortunately, they didn’t act
on those primordial instincts.

After ‘reason’ regains control over ‘emotion’, everyone realizes that
attacking a 200 vessel fleet would be suicide – and that the captives would
still be captives. Admiral Nemo points out that the captives will not be
harmed, until they have been used as bait, to lure the AH Navy Fleet to its
death.