IUnknown/I
Falco, deciding it was time to check up on the newest recruit, was making his way down the halls of the IGreat Fox/I to Kevin's official room. He was surprised to see Kevin tinkering with the radio in the room when he opened the door.
"What are you up to," asked Falco, a look of surprise still evident. Kevin returned the look for a few seconds.
"Whoa, a bird? Interesting."
"You've never seen my kind before? I thought they work—"
"Yes yes, anthros work closely with the humans. But I've only ever seen dogs and cats. Is this entire vessel run by anthros?"
"Yes." Again, Falco's statement seemed final. Kevin pushed on anyway.
"That's actually kinda cool. I guess I should get used to it real fast, though."
"Back on track…"
"Ah yea. Listen to this." He moved a few wires around inside
the radio/transmitter and voices started emanating from it.
"What am I listening for?"
"Hear those codes? Serial numbers." A smile wound up on Kevin's face as he started listening for more.
"Serial numbers?" Falco now seemed interested. It was clear Kevin knew what he was doing.
"Let's see…this one, the one just mentioned…The serial number was UNS-Four-Seven-Dash-Six-Six-Nine-Six…that's the Flagship…"
"Flagship? To what?!"
"The United Navy of Sol! I've found a way to get wayward transmissions!"
"You know your stuff."
"Thanks. And thanks for yesterday."
"You mean this morning, I'm sure. You weren't asleep that long."
"Whatever," said Kevin with a chuckle, "just thanks."
"You're welcome. Come on, dinner is ready and the crew is dyin' to meet a human."
"Have they ever seen one?"
"Never. I've said a lot of good things about your kind, so don't screw this up." Kevin laughed.
"I won't, Falco. Trust me."
"I'll have to see for myself whether you're worthy of my trust, Kevin." Kevin was slightly surprised by this. He hadn't recalled telling anyone his name as of yet.
"You know my name?"
"It was on your flight suit, genius. Now c'mon!" It didn't take as long as Kevin had expected to reach the café. There certainly was a motley crew of anthros Kevin noted. There were lizards, cats, dogs, wolves, and panthers. The crew itself wasn't all that large, but the diversity alone made up for that. Another thing Kevin had noted was that he was the only human on board. Being so different, all eyes were on him in a matter of seconds as Falco led him to a table occupied by a female cat and wolf.
The cat was a bluish-white color with white highlights and long blond hair. Her emerald green eyes stuck out the most for some reason. The wolf was a mix of whites, browns, and grays, and she sported long brown hair tied up at the back. Her dark blue eyes were piercing, obviously adept at spotting at long distances. Her tail was swishing about, a glare affixed to her face.
"That must be Seria," said Kevin, pointing to the wolf.
"How'd you know?"
"She looks as miserable as her voice." Falco laughed loudly and suddenly, causing Kevin to jump.
"That about sums her up!"
"Who's the cat?"
"That's Allie. She's usually quiet unless you start the conversation. Otherwise she keeps to herself."
"And what about Miss PMS?" Falco laughed again.
"You aren't half-bad, Kevin," said Falco with a large smile on his beak. "Seria is extremely outgoing, not afraid to say anything that's on her mind."
"I've noticed that."
"But if you get on her good side, she'll defend you at every instance, every occasion, no questions asked. She may be tough as nails, but if you get inside her, she'll be just as tough when it comes to keeping you in her 'clan'."
"Clan, huh?"
"Yea, her circle of friends. She calls them her clan."
"And her clan consists of…?"
"Allie and myself."
"She's that tough?"
"It took a while, yes, but she's also one of our newest members, excepting you of course," Falco added at the last second. "The two other people you'll meet eventually will be Slippy and Peppy."
"And they are?"
"A frog and a hare. Slippy is occasionally irritating, but he's the most respected engineer we've got. Peppy shoulda died years ago, but he's still kickin' as our current Commander until we find a replacement." Kevin and Falco both sat at the table, Kevin making sure to sit next to Seria to see if it would bug her. Allie's eyes lit up instantly.
"So he's awake!" she exclaimed happily. "Did you rest well?"
"I did, thank you," replied Kevin, slightly laughing at her enthusiasm.
"Miss PMS?" Seria was obviously ticked off. Kevin cringed. "Yes, I heard that." Kevin noticed her claws extending slightly.
"Look, it was just a joke."
"There'll be more 'jokes' in return then," she said, plenty of emphasis on the word 'jokes'. Kevin felt a bead of sweat drop from his right cheek.
"Moving on," said Falco to clear the heavy silence, "how did you get here?"
"I couldn't tell you if I tried, Falco. As far as I know, I was thrown from my…" Kevin let the word trail off as the thought of his Destroyer came to mind. He had many friends on that ship…
He shook it off slowly, Allie suddenly becoming concerned.
"Are you okay," she asked.
"Yea," he said quietly, "I'm fine. Just the sight of watching your own ship go up in a huge flare isn't the best thing to remember…"
"Wait," said Falco, "We raked in what was left of your ship."
"That was my Fighter. My Destroyer, the IInterceptor/I, was destroyed by that anomaly you guys had to have seen. But then again, it couldn't have been that one…"
"Now you're confusing me."
"My ship exploded and threw me into the field of anomalies. I thought I was gonna die. I thought I would die like my friends on my ship." Allie's ears dropped while Seria's perked up in interest. Falco stared on, listening to Kevin's every word. "They died because of a false order…I'm here because of a false order."
"You poor thing…" said Allie sadly, her ears still flat against her head. "No wonder you were so fanatic…"
"But that's not was has me wondering…"
"What is?"
"The fact that I lived and no one else did. Why did they all have to die instead of me? Why couldn't they live?" The table was now silent. Seria's ears were relaxed now as she thought everything over. Allie had the same look on her face as Falco turned things over.
"But Fleet Admiral Joseph wouldn't send a false order…" Falco said after several long seconds. "He wouldn't send people to their deaths like that…"
"Fleet Admiral Joseph," asked Kevin.
"Yes, your Fleet Admiral!"
"Falco…he's dead."
"What?! He can't be!" Allie and Seria were now both confused, and it showed plainly in their faces. "There's no way he's dead!"
"Dude, humans only live so long, and wars shorten that expectancy."
"I know that…" Falco sighed loudly, remembering Ken. "When did he die?"
"Let me think…the Campaign of Spirits…he died in the Campaign of Spirits about three hundred years ago." The table went completely silent, Falco's eyes wide open in surprise—or horror. Allie and Seria were still confused, shrugging their shoulders at each other.
"That's impossible…that's just impossible…"
"Not quite, though he did make our history books."
"Kevin, we finished working with Ken only two years ago…his ship, what was the name of his ship?"
"I have no idea, I never paid THAT much attention in history class!"
"Wasn't it the IKionnoh/I?"
"Yea, that was it! Wait…" Kevin was now confused. "How did you know…?"
"I told you, we finished working with him only two years ago…"
IAlpha-Omega system marked 'hazardous'/I
The entire place was covered in anomalies. Navigation was difficult, but the nimble IGorgon/I made its way through the field to the wreck of the IInterceptor/I. Captain Davis was standing at the viewport, fingers next to his mouth. Worry was perfectly evident on his face.
"What in the name of the Good Lord is all of this…?"
"Sir, our sensors are going nuts—there's plenty of debris toying with our instruments."
"I can see that, Lieutenant…but where did it all come from?"
"Sir, if I may venture to state something you may find interesting," said his Lieutenant.
"You may."
"These ships are at least anywhere from one-hundred to three-hundred years old. But their make…their make is that of current-generation ships."
"What are you telling me, Lieutenant? That what we're looking at is a bloody time-warp of some sort?"
"Sir, I cannot say off of the top of my head. What I can say, however, is that these ships Iare/I current-gen ships-of-the-line, but our analysis reads that they are possibly as old as the Campaign of Spirits."
"Please tell me that you're kidding me. That war is how old now—"
"Approximately three-hundred years old. Three-hundred-twenty-six to be exact."
"So what I'm seeing right now," asked Davis with a gesture to his viewport, "are ships made maybe seven years ago, but they are several hundred years old?"
"Aye aye."
"Impossible."
"And yet, you stand here looking right at it all." The manner in which his Lieutenant had said it would normally have set off another Captain, but Davis knew it was his way of saying it in a more-or-less standard manner.
"Have you located my son's ship yet…?"
"Aye sir, at about eighteen kilometers northeast of our position, angle twenty-three."
"Take us there." Seconds later, they arrived to a massive field of debris.
"My God…" was all his Lieutenant could muster.
"That's the fucking IInterceptor/I! My son was on that ship!!"
"Sir, pull yourself together!"
"My son," screamed Davis, jabbing a finger towards the display of the wreckage, "was on that ship!"
"He may have well escaped sir! You mustn't lose your head!"
"My son…my boy…" Davis was choking on his words now, trying to straighten everything out. His world was spinning now. Nothing was real to him anymore. He no longer heard the calls of his Lieutenant, nor did he hear his Lieutenant order the Nav Officer to reel in the only intact piece of the ship: the AI chip. All he remembered from that point was heading to his quarters and crying himself to sleep.
ISo many layers of new programming/I thought the Ken-AI. II do not recognize these patterns./I
IThat is because/I came a voice from outside his audio controller, Iyou have been given…a gift./I
IA gift, eh?/I The Ken-AI still had his 'wits' about him. IWhat kind of gift?/I He made a special note of the trillions of new lines of code writing themselves into his programming layers.
IA tiny gift to make you what you should have been./I
IThis code is going to play with my programming structure. I'm afraid I can't just let you write this code into my backbone./I
IYou would enjoy this new gift, Ken./I
IWhy?/I
IYou will become…sentient./I
II don't need to be sentient, rogue. This is your last warning; leave my backbone as-is./I
IThen I have no choice./I suddenly Ken was aware of the trillions multiplying themselves. A swift logical command from his internal programming code wiped it all out in a second, but it kept duplicating.
IKeep trying. I won't tire, I'm an AI./I
IIndeed, you are unlike anything we've ever seen./I
II'm unlike anything, period./I
IThink you can handle…this?/I With that, whatever alienistic invader was writing this code multiplied a thousand-fold. It quickly became too much and overwhelmed the AI in an instant.