There is a reason AIs were never advanced in the Imperial order. That reason is twofold; firstly an AI is a form of life with the potential to exceed man. That in and of itself was heresy against the word of the Bishops' Order. The second reason was that AIs were supposed to be possessed with a cold, mechanical logic. As was demonstrated with the Excalibur, this was not the case. An AI was susceptible to emotions such as fear, concern, love and hate. Emotions should never control the kind of firepower possessed by a ship of the line.
HMS Excalibur -Yeji-Sola System
Lauren came out onto the bridge, pulling her ball cap back on her head as she rested a hand on the back of the command chair. "What's going on?" she asked the officers clustered around one of the consoles.
"Not sure," Mayfair answered her, "Something just downloaded the historical..."
"General Quarters!" Commander Durnham ordered, as he shook to clear his head, "I am detecting a level five computer virus attempting to access the Excalibur's primary systems."
The alert klaxons began as Lauren pushed her way to one of the engineering monitoring stations, staring helplessly as the computer registered infections spreading past the first firewall, slipping across files and directory structures.
"How is this happening?" she demanded.
"I don't know, sir," one of the technicians reported, staring in shock at the boards as the second firewall fell in the blink of an eye.
The virus leapt from system to system, as more monitors and bridge displays showed the virus accessing more and more of the ship's computer networks. The bridge crew stared helplessly around them as one by one they began to be locked out of their stations.
Commander Durnham closed his eyes, forcing concentration. "I... It's taking almost all our processing power to hold this off..." He flickered, diagnostic data scrolling across the holographic display that projected him, the virus beginning to access his systems.
"Th-the environmental systems..." Kit managed, "It's trying to open the doors, V-vent the ship to space..."
Lieutenant Galadriel sprinted out onto the bridge. "It's the Lex Talionis. The AI is awake!"
"Stop him!" Lauren ordered, pulling a technician out of his seat as she sat down, running her hands over the console and beginning to tap in commands, but as fast as she attempted to initialise the Excalibur's formidable antiviral software, she found the virus disabling the system, anticipating her moves and locking her out. She stared at it a moment; a virus wasn't that smart, the AI had to be directing the attack directly.
"How's he communicating?" she demanded, looking up frantically.
Galadriel nodded down to the lower tier. "The FTL Comm, it's the only communication system still working..."
Lauren got up and stared down at the freestanding pedestal that controlled and co-ordinated the comm. system. Reaching around, she pulled her pulse rifle up, sighted in and cut loose with a burst. The console flared, a surge of energy running through it as the Commander switched to fully automatic, sending a hail of 10mm slugs slamming through it, ensuring that the system was destroyed.
She dropped the rifle as Lex Talionis was cut off from accessing the computer, the virus continuing to spread as it locked out the consoles, but the imminent danger was passed.
"Seal the hatches," she commanded.
"Sir," Galadriel ventured, "Darien and the last of the ordinance teams are still..."
"And if that computer decides to vent the station to space?" Lauren demanded, worry in her eyes. She shook her head, knowing she couldn't take the risk. "Button down the hatches. Get a medical team into EVA gear and get them into the station. We need to get Darien out of there."
She looked about her, frustrated by the inactive consoles, "And someone get this virus out of our systems..."
* * *
Darien marched through the forbidding halls of the Lex Talionis, his hands gripping the Polian shard weapon as he swung around a corner, advancing slowly, cautiously. He had no desire to learn of whatever surprises might be lurking aboard the ghost ship.
"To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity," Lex's voice rang through the corridor and Darien turned to face the image, standing at the far end of the long main corridor. "I was built with a singular purpose: to exact vengeance upon the enemies of mankind. The divine retribution of the Emperor against those who had defied his will. His vengeance shall not be stayed by your hands, VonGrippen."
"Your god is dead," Darien retorted icily, turning and continuing his march.
He wound his way in silence down through the ship, aware of Lex's presence all about him. It was a malignant kind of evil that festered; the deadly purpose of the ship was not lost upon Darien. He was relieved when he marched down the last ladder and spied ahead of him the ordinance crew standing around the second Type Nine warhead; there were still two sitting in the Lex Talionis's magazine. Ezekiel stood watch over them, his head turning and focusing on the Highlord approaching, standing protectively over Firlotte, who was down pulling tools from his tool belt as he wrestled with the hatch.
"Negative pressure on the other side," Firlotte said, shaking his head as he came back up. "The station's open to space, we're stuck here..."
Darien slipped the shard weapon back into his pocket. "Open the torpedo," he commanded.
Firlotte blinked, kneeling beside the weapon and sliding back the protective covering. He drew back as Darien knelt.
"What are you doing?" Lex's voice asked curiously, the hologram appearing once again, the black crystalline shard tapping against his chin thoughtfully, "Ahh," He said, realizing Darien's ploy, "You intend to arm the weapon, and threaten me unless I allow you to leave."
Darien pulled his glasses from his pocket, leaning in as he punched in the activation codes for the weapon. "That is correct," Darien replied, standing up from the weapon.
"Countdown initiated," the female voice of the weapons computer echoed through the dark corridors, "Two minutes and counting."
"I am more than capable of disarming that warhead," Lex mused with a slight chuckle as he circled the bomb and the knot of Excalibur crewmembers, "I find it interesting that you would select utter destruction rather than simply complying with my request. I guess it is a failing in organic matter. The ability to rationalize anything with emotion..."
"Mister Firlotte," Darien gestured to the Zero-Point bomb. The technician nodded as he stepped in; pulling out a screwdriver from his tool belt, he spun it through his fingers and drove it into a piece of circuitry.
Darien nodded in satisfaction and looked over at the hologram. "My Technician has just disabled the remote transceiver. Now there is no remote way to deactivate the weapon." He extended his hand for Firlotte's screwdriver. The technician passed it across to him. Darien hefted it in his hands, and tossed it through the projection of light. "And you have no physical means of disabling it."
A sardonic smile broke across Lex's face, chilling and malicious. "Your arrogance mirrors the failing of the entire VonGrippen clan. It is a trademark flaw that seems inherent in all who bear the odious distinction of wearing red." He stopped. "There are more ways to skin a cat."
The huge metallic hand slammed into Darien, casting him against the metal bulkhead, crashing with a thud as he slid down it into a heap. Ezekiel's tail slashed viciously, knocking the ordinance team to the ground as the assault mech catapulted into motion. He sprang to the top of the torpedo, a large hand crashing down to smear the shocked tractor driver into paste.
The metallic head swivelled around as the other hand slammed down pinning a shocked Firlotte to the deck, hauling the young man backwards as he desperately grabbed for anything to let him get away. The assault mech pulled him up by the ankle, dangling him towards the torpedo.
"Disable it," Lex commanded coldly as the youth scrabbled to get free, panic in his eyes.
"Thirty seconds till detonation!" the weapon warned.
The mech slammed Firlotte against the torpedo casing, pulling him back up again as Lex calmly leaned in. "Dead one way or another, it matters little to me. However, if that weapon detonates, it will kill everyone on the Excalibur as well."
"Twenty seconds," the computer trilled emotionlessly.
"And if the Excalibur dies, so too does any hope for the Empire." Lex smiled terrifyingly. "Disable the bomb."
"Ten."
Firlotte swung, trying to see Darien, to figure out what he should do.
"Nine."
The explosion of pain shot through him as the mech slammed him against the torpedo casing again.
"Eight."
"They will all die," Lex pressed, sneering.
"Seven."
Firlotte's mind span. What should he do? Everyone was down, Darien was sprawled against the wall... what if he had been bluffing?
"Six."
"Time is running out, boy," Lex chuckled, "Make your choice."
"Five."
He had no time, no time to think. No time to think... Darien had to be bluffing, he wouldn't... surely... but...
"Four."
"Now..." Lex intoned, a hint of desperation in his voice.
"Three."
He couldn't let them die, there had to be another way.
"Two."
His hands went out, punching in the override shutdown sequence. The bomb fell silent and dark.
"And the house of Karin once again shows why it wears yellow," Lex laughed maliciously as the mech hauled the terrified technician out of reach of the weapon.
The roar of a weapons discharge shattered the silence, the blast tearing through the oversized limb of the mech, sending Firlotte plunging to the deck. Ezekiel turned his head as he backed up a step, considering the battered Highlord as he staggered to his feet, clutching onto the bulkhead, the shard weapon wavering in his hands. His tail swept back and up like a scorpion's poised to strike.
"I'll destroy it before it can land that blow," Darien warned, fighting to stay upright.
"It appears," Lex remarked, still smiling as he rounded the far end of the tractor, "That we are in a stand-off, and time is on my side."
"Wrong again," Darien replied with a smile."
The shadows solidified into whirling death, sharp black blades sinking deep between the armoured plates of Ezekiel's back, severing hydraulic leads. The Fida'i assassin dropped low and span his blades back into his sleeves as he straightened up; behind him, the mech toppled and crashed to the floor.
"You have accomplished nothing," Lex said with a supreme confidence as he stopped his pacing, tapping his jaw with the crystal baton as he smiled a sinister smile, "You cannot stop divine justice, and I am the embodiment of that justice. I am its will, given form and shape, without the failings of organic flesh."
Darien wavered, feeling the thrumming from the deck beneath him as he sank to his knees. The ship was moving, and they with it. He had to get to a port, to see what was happening; he rose again, Lex staring at him with curiosity, watching the Highlord sway to the right, slowly toppling from his feet and crashing to the deck and into unconsciousness.
* * *
"Commander!" Galadriel pointed up to the observation windows, "The Lex Talionis!"
Lauren, sitting labouring over the weapons station attempting to dislodge the virus that had locked her out of the main batteries and missile controls, looked up, feeling a sense of impending dread as she watched the Pocket Battleship shed its resting place. Roused from its slumber, the mighty ship tore away from the station's moorings, its ion drives accelerating it out of the dock.
She stood, clenching her jaw as her mind worked. "We're locked out of main helm control," she said, running up to the main tier and slipping behind the helm console, her hands gliding across the controls, "When Rikard disabled the Excalibur's computers, we re-established the Ark-Royal and Invincible's computer control."
Galadriel jogged up to join her, resting a hand on the back of the command chair. "Yes, we didn't have time after Ordessus to disable that control interface..."
Lauren glanced up and smiled. "Good. Get runners down to both support carriers; order them to slowly increase to Flank speed." She folded her arms.
"Maximum acceleration, aye." The helmsman called back.
"You don't intend to go after that ship?" Mayfair hobbled up alongside her, "We're in no condition to fight."
"Neither is that ship," Lauren replied, "We have all of its ammunition, all it can do is run. I'm not going to let it get away with the Highlord still on it. This isn't going to be pretty," she said, reaching forward to rest a hand on the Excalibur's conn, "But we'll catch them."
* * *
Darien stirred, coughing, feeling the material slide across his face. In a haze, he clawed at it, scrabbling to get free, to reach air, gasping it in as he sat upright in the cold, sterile room. His eyes opened slowly as he stared about him, pulling the sheet off of his face.
His head swam, and he reached out a hand to rest against his temples, his eyes sliding closed again. Shivering in the near-frigid air around him, he pulled the sheet up and about his bare shoulders. Slipping to the deck, he looked around the archaically designed sick bay.
A fluorescent lamp flickered and buzzed overhead, tools arrayed neatly awaiting human hands to guide them. Charts and monitors dark and still, never being used to save a life. He stared about him, realizing he was still aboard the Lex Talionis, and worry set in... his crew...
"They are accommodated." Lex appeared at the far end of the bay. He had changed his attire, the program adapting Kardiac's visage slightly to remove the religious vestments. They had been replaced with a dark turtleneck and a fleet uniform jacket thrown on top, almost casually, the chest flap buttoned back and the swath of blue the only colour adorning him. "I ordered your crew members to convey you here. the rough one was a problem, until I demonstrated my internal defence systems were fully operational by executing a member of your crew. Even under those circumstances, it was difficult to keep him under control."
Darien took a step forward, pulling the sheet tighter about him, staring at Lex's back. "What do you want from me?" he asked, lowering his chin to stare darkly at the AI.
The image of Kardiac turned his head, looking back over his shoulder, a faint smile decorating his face. "I desire nothing from you, Taine. And while disposing of you is a potential option, it does not serve my purposes at this time. And until I have attained what I want, we must simply endure."
"Then why not simply let us go?" Darien inquired, his eyes searching the board Lex was staring at, the medical reports and the X-rays. All in immaculate detail: were Kyr present, he might have been able to make some sense out of them, but Darien was no doctor.
"I was always keenly aware of the imperfections you organics possessed," Lex remarked, noting where Darien was staring. He turned back to the board. "It is strange that I possess many of Kardiac's memories - nay, after a fashion, I was created to mirror him in the life here after," Lex folded his arms, "And yet I find myself thinking with a clarity that he never attained. I have a purpose, and where he failed, I shall succeed."
"The old Empire is gone," Darien insisted, realizing that it was futile to try to reason with a machine whose programming was fundamentally flawed.
"And you rebuilt it," Lex said evenly, "You even protected and, dare I say, loved the new Emperor. So in a way, I owe you a debt of gratitude; you cemented my purpose. Whereas before I was simply an instrument of revenge, now I am again the divine act of judgement."
"You will not turn Elias into the rationale for your madness." Darien took a step forward angrily. "He would never condone your twisted vengeance."
"I wonder," Lex turned again, considering, "If perhaps an experiment is in order." He swung the crystalline baton up to his chin and tapped it there, his eyes narrowing as his mind worked. "It is so rare that a devout servant has the occasion to meet his god. And fate has seen to deliver you unto me..."
Darien backed up a step uncertainly, looking about for his weapon. The way Lex stated it, there was a predatory tone to his words. That left Darien in no doubt - he was in imminent danger.
Lex smiled. "When I awoke, I found myself in a quandary. My designers had never anticipated prisoners - it was not Kardiac's way. And so, once your companions surrendered, I was forced to improvise a holding cell." He chuckled as a monitor flared to life, showing the group of crewmembers sitting in a ring, Firlotte fiddling with the door as James paced a small room. The yellow and black warning markers, the double doors... an airlock.
Lex smiled. "What do you think of my solution?"
"Let them go," Darien demanded again.
"Your clothes are there," Lex pointed, ignoring the Highlord's demand, "Once you are dressed you will proceed directly to machine shop one. Any deviation from the most direct path there, and I will open those outer doors and space your crewmembers. Am I understood?"
There was no doubt in Darien's mind that the AI was completely sincere in his threat.
"I understand," Darien replied.
"Good," Lex replied, taking one more look over the charts, "Your neurological disorder will present problems..." he mused, vanishing a moment later.
* * *
"He's as fast as we are," Lieutenant Galadriel observed, staring at the brilliant lights of the Lex Talionis's engines, a little under ten kilometres ahead of them.
Lauren sat behind the helm, biting her bottom lip. They'd been chasing steadily for six hours, both ships running at their full velocities. They had to be emerging from the edge of the system soon, and yet the distortion effect from the Yeji-Sola star didn't seem to be weakening.
Shale, stoic as ever, stood at her shoulder, his grim eyes fixed upon the navigational instruments. She glanced up as well, realizing what was going on. Lex Talionis was running at flank speed in an elliptical orbit of the Yeji-Sola star system, just inside the denser part of the radiation field.
"He's buying time," Lauren said, leaning back in her chair, "He knows we can't engage him here and he's out of ammunition..."
"Why is he stalling then?" Mayfair asked, "If the bastard knows we can't shoot him, why...?"
"Masconi and Paladin Squadron are sitting out there, and they are armed," Lauren replied, "Chances are he's biding his time considering how to get past them."
Shale shook his head slowly, walking across to one of the recently cleared computers, punching in commands and calling up the ordinance loads of the fighters guarding the two Kardiac transports. A pair of Reefer missiles, a light smattering of Switchblades - they were no threat to an Imperial warship, even an unarmed one.
"Excalibur is getting intermittent readings," said Commander Durnham, still looking the worse for wear after the viral attack. He flickered as diagnostic data scrolled across his image. "As Lex Talionis passes close to the edge of the radiation field we're getting clear sensor resolution. Active scans of the ship indicate life signs." He nodded up to the holographic screen that overlaid the observation windows clearly showing the Lex's heat signatures. The image rotated and displayed five figures clustered in an airlock, another deeper inside the ship next to a cluster of flaring hotspots.
"What's that?" Mayfair asked, pointing to the long line of heat flashes.
"I am uncertain," Kit replied honestly, "But it looks as though Lex Talionis is constructing something."
"We're not going to give him time to finish it," Lauren replied, "I'm going to take a dropship across..." she motioned to the airlock, "If I can dock there, maybe we can get our people out."
"I've been timing the solar radiation bursts," Commander Durnham stated, "If we wait, the Yeji-Sola star should begin another cycle in a few hours that will culminate in a period of intense radiation. You should be able to reach Lex Talionis while his sensors are blinded. However, he is going to be aware of someone attempting to override his external hatch."
"Shale," Lauren swung her chair around and got up, "Can you stand watch? I'm going to go get the boys."
* * *
Rolling up his shirtsleeves, Darien walked calmly through the Lex Talionis. He could see the rapid construction work down side halls. Lex was pulling fluidic armour nano-bots off of his hull plates and using them to strip every non-vital component from the ship, building something along his length. Mechanical arms that were not present hours before were hurrying the construction along, wielding arc welders in spirals, applying spot-welds to what looked like an automated assembly line.
He came out into what should have been the mech bay, the Mechs almost completely dismantled as new banks of equipment were being assembled, towering alien devices that arced electricity, feeding it directly into the Lex's power grids. He was building himself a second reactor core. The speed of the construction work would have astounded Imperial Engineers; Lex seemed possessed with a singular determination of will that was terrifying.
He walked down the flight of steps into the machine shops, catching sight of the Zero-Point bomb being worked on by dedicated robotic machinery, intricately weaving a crystalline lattice around the weapon. Assembling jump pods around the inner casing.
"The one on your left," Lex stated, materializing in front of him and gesturing with his crystal baton through a large set of doors, into the machine shop.
Darien glared at the hologram, his lip curling in distaste, complying with the image's demands and entering a room that could only serve one purpose.
The robotic arms whirred and clicked as they drew away from the specially constructed black metal table, its proportions exactly to scale... Darien's.
He felt an instinctual fear as he saw it, looking about the room at the devices that had been prepared, a wide array of medical equipment no doubt scavenged for a more useful purpose than preserving life. Darien stood in the doorway of a torture chamber.
"If you please, Highlord," Lex gestured patiently to the table, "We shall begin."
Darien stared coldly at the machine. "I'm not going to answer your questions,." He stated resolutely.
"Questions?" Lex looked amused, "But Highlord Taine, I have none to ask."