A hot-looking blonde, blue eye, and huge puffy tits walk onto my ship. She walks to Carla and hands her a bag.
Carla translates for us, “Mom sends her regards. Your AI and ship are too powerful. Had your mother copied it, the entire galaxy would be under her heel. She likes us but would rather have an even playing field. This bag has a standard IA chip and enough processors to get us back up and running. They hit us with an EMP pulse that destroyed all your processors. They figure it will take an hour to fix your ship. If you don’t know-how, she will do it for you.”
I laugh hard, “NO! She can ride the bike while I fix the ship. Make her ride fast; I need oxygen back in the corners.”
An hour later, I came back out. The girl riding the bike has just stopped as the lights and life support start again. She is worn out.
I tell the woman, “Get the fuck off my ship.”
Carla translates that into a much lesser version.
I look at Carla, “Try again and use the correct words this time.”
Her eyes plead with me. I am steadfast. She translates precisely my words. The girl isn’t phased one bit.
I continue in their language, “You damage my ship. You ruin millions of lines of code. You just wasted four years of research. Sorry if I’m mad as hell at you for doing that. Now get the fuck off my ship before I mount you on the nose of my ship.”
She was startled at me using her language, realized I was right, not being humorous, and left the way she came.
Carla’s mouth is hanging open. I will only smile at her. With the translating that she had done, I learned much of their language. I still have a lot to learn. For now, her face of amazement amuses me to no end.
I yell out to my ship, “Hello ship, my name is Tim; what’s your name?”
The ship uses a generic voice to say, “You may call me Karen. Who owns this ship?”
I quickly answer, “I do. You were developed and built by Mary Cross, but I own you right now.”
Karen has an attitude, “You’re a man. I don’t recognize you. I belong to Mary. If you don’t like it, you can walk home.”
I look at Carla, “I am positive your mother wrote this AI.”
Carla laughed so hard, she had to sit down.
Mary has a conversation with Karen to set up and calibrate the weapons and defenses. Neither of us expects this to go smoothly. The news reports have us all worried; someone is manipulating them. We will have to be close to the planet before my communications work and find out what’s happening. I have no doubt my people never stopped looking and killing.
Even if all is well at home, all the ships out in space are unaware of what happened. They’re still looking for us. My ship may look like a battlecruiser, but she’s still just Mary’s ship. Her lasers and defensive shields aren’t as good as the real thing. Sure, we upgraded my weapons and defensive shields, but that doesn’t make us a battlecruiser. I’m glad Monica sent three real ones with us. I just wish she would have waited for us to get there before hamstringing me. Zia’s control of the ship puts me in a league above the battlecruisers. With Karen, I am a liability to my escorts.
We are seven hours out and just finished a nice dinner. Everyone is on edge; there wasn’t much talk. Karen hits the red alert as all four ships fall out of worm drive. If our path is known or guessed, a large area of fine crystals shuts down the worm drive. The escorts immediately surround us the best they can. The problem is that sixteen large ships surround us.
I quickly say to Karen, “Take as much damage as you can. Only when we are on the brink of a collapse or destruction are you allowed to take over. Do you understand?”
A frustrated Karen sneers, “Yes, Timmy.”
The other ships are all capital ships. Each is fine on its own. However, with my escorts, it’s like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Given time, our escorts destroy everything. However, with so many blades, you can’t block them all. Your gun is very effective, but you will die to a knife out of sheer quantity. This is not good. I don’t want to show off Zai if I don’t have to.
Yeah, nothing terrible happened to Zai. Mom built her with light-powered chips. They’re expensive, but they don’t die to an EMP pulse. That was all staged. Karen is running the ship; she is doing it in a sandbox. That’s a part of protected memory that doesn’t interact outside its walls. Zia is feeding it our input and giving us her output. Everyone but Mary and I do not know Zai is still running the ship.
All military ships use light electronics, no need for cheap freighters; they use good old electricity.
Zai already knows to play defense, save our escorts, and let them have the glory of “saving” us. We will take damage, so we don’t give us away unless we need to.
As I run up to the captain’s chair, I give Karen instructions, “Karen! We are being protected by the escort ships. As soon as the other ships detect this, we will be the main target. I want you to protect the escorts as much as you can. Play defensive. That will confuse them, and we should take less damage.”
Mom tests me, “You know this ship can’t take a beating, right?”
I question Mom, “Why would they stop four battle cruisers?”
Mom plays along, “They want us as hostages or dead. They don’t care about the other ships.”
I reply, “Why would I want to look weak like I am being protected? That tells them who I am. Right now, they have no clue; they’re guessing. I want them guessing as long as possible. Then I will hide behind my momma and try to not get hit.” I smile.
Mom isn’t smiling, “What if they guess right? What if we take a few direct hits?”
I make her mad by saying, “How little faith you have in me. Do I look worried? Don’t you think I have other plans in the works?”
With a huge smile on my face, “Karen. If any new ships show up, ignore them. Even if they shoot at us, completely ignore them. You just have to trust me.”
It’s a free for all on the screen. Lasers are shooting everything in sight. Torpedoes are launched and shot. Large blobs of plasma are launched and destroyed. Old fashioned metal projectiles are launched at high speed. Those are damaging our shields.
Several small attacking ships have been destroyed by the escorts. The jig is up; they just stopped shooting at the guards and are only shooting at us. Karen dives behind the other ships, and they close in on us.
I complement Karen, “Well done, Karen. You recognized the turn in the battle and hid.”
Karen sounds nervous, “Tim? My hull plating is about done. A couple more hits, and we lose life support.”
I sit debating what I want to do. I don’t want to pop out Zai, but I also don’t want to die. I know my friends will be here any minute.
I give the command, “Zia, transform into a small luxury transport. I want a nimble ship. You are on maximum defense now. Do your thing.”
I am about to turn and explain things when two dozen small to medium-sized warships fall out of worm drive. I know every ship, pilot, and crew on those ships. They’re all personal friends.
With a smaller ship, we are harder to hit, and it’s easier to cover for us. Then add Zai’s defensive tricks, and this battle is over.