Aurora, Wayward Pt. 01

She nodded, "I know, but I am going to need a couple of big items in this exchange. Possibly getting the other 19 ships back without most of the AI units aboard. The AI units are helping these people but the ships are next to useless to them as I now control them all."

Astra looked at her funny, "Why?"

Aurora sighed, "At one-point, Rocan was called a hostile alien. Until I took action to eliminate the Caldar in this system including 3 sitting colony Governors."

Aurora held her hand to mouth, "You seized them to protect him."

Aurora nodded, "I am going to need a MIDGE (Mining Dredging Gas Explorer) and an FTL caterpillar drive, second-generation minimum. It will help me to sell hybrid and AI importance. Giving up 19 ships for a couple should not be a hard sell if it comes down to trading. They may want to keep these ships, spoils of war as it were.

I cannot say what the Penans will allow in that regard as these ships are designed only for the AI units on any regular basis. I will need some AI units to stay with me to help run things until we can build a trusted base. I have not even got him a mate yet, but he is fucking me regularly now. He was out of practice and we had over 50,000 refugees to gather."

Astra looked and tapped her chin, "Harder sell, it is not a dreadnought, a MIDGE does not have a big military value other than being an excellent miner for..." She looked at her, "Metallic hydrogen?"

She nodded, "Your leader suggested the modeling software to deal with the ships as part of the exchange. I agree. If they are not going to kill themselves with technology that Terra let them have. I did mention the Black Ops ship. It had to have been here. They let those people get tortured and captured. Some died, over half of them. Most of them have been sexually assaulted in one form or another."

Astra's eyes flashed red, "I will pass the word. I get what you are saying. I just have to convince Johnathan."

---

Astra walked into Johnathan's office on the bridge. They were in a long-distance exploration he wanted to undertake. She looked at him, "I do not ask you for a lot."

He nodded, "That is true."

Astra was the 'K' model. Bastra was with Jack when he died. The last update sent to Castra disturbed her greatly when Bastra died. She never informed the council of the file's existence.

Kastra, now Astra, knew what laid in that file. She looked across at him, "I know what happened with Jack Travus. We, my line of AI units, have known since Castra. Nobody asked us and Bastra died in the explosion. Castra found it painful enough being active at the time that she destroyed herself at a weapons locker. Dastra finished the assigned task and followed the final instructions given. She stored the file in the council archives. It can only be opened with a 5 out of 6 agreement."

He looked at her, "Why bring this up now?"

She sighed, "I am afraid history might repeat itself for the hybrid in Pena and humanity if you do not know the contents of that file. Jack said to bring it to your attention when certain conditions were met.

Aurora contacted me through a backchannel communication routed through a Black-ops ship called 'The Raven.' I back-traced it. She said it was there when she seized control of all of the battleships the AI units had. She had a run-in with the Caldar in that system.

That got him labeled a dangerous alien and she seized control to protect him. The Black-ops commander tried to seize control of the battleships from her. The only way for it to have been there was if they had followed the convoy and allowed everything to happen. Including letting Pena have the technology and killing over half the colonists."

Johnathan pushed back his chair. He hit his comms and assembled all 6 council members. He briefed them on what Astra had learned and what she knew of Jack Travus's death; that a file existed in the archive. He sighed, "It was important enough for Astra to bring the issue up now. It takes five of us to unlock the file."

The Doctor looked at her, "Should we be drudging this up now?"

She sighed, "It was put there as the dying request of Jack Travus for a learning tool to the council to avoid repeating the same mistakes he felt he made."

He sighed and everyone raised a hand.

---

King Arthur year 3204.

The entry started with him walking around the deck of his ship. All the seats had been stripped out, except the pilot seats. A large rectangular diagonal chute existed in its place. On the ground, they saw a bomb that crackled with energy in a bomb loader. He looked at it and fell to his knees and disassemble the core on it. He cried the entire time.

He finished it and walked over to the engine power core and sat against it. The Astra of that day, formerly Bastra, looked on and cried. He called out to her, "You recording this all?" She nodded.

Jack thought out to Justice. * Astra record this exchange as well. Justice Incarnate, I believe I have crossed a line I cannot uncross. In my grief, I struck out for vengeance. I am looking across at the Hades bomb I built. The one I never wanted to build or use. I could not bring myself to launch it on this race. I am both relieved and ashamed that I did not have the guts to do it. *

Justice responded, * You feel you have been broken Dispenser of Justice. You feel the loss the Horgan's pushed upon you. Killing your 4 remaining wives and your first Astra model. All with binary explosives and suicide bombers. Explosives they carried in their blood. Each of the two couples held hands after coming aboard working a mixture of the explosive.

This was only discovered after the fact. When they went to shake hands with your wives, they had them surrounded and Astra boxed in. They are naturally a psi dead race; empathy does not work on them. The deception could not be detected.

Our hybrid attempts with them have had limited results. They never gained a lot of power to complete some basic tasks. We have thought of eliminating them. You killed their hybrid when you bombed the planet upon which he was held, yet you know this. You spoke to him as he died. *

Jack, thought back, * No! Astra is recording this. It will take hundreds of years for them to rebuild. Give them their second chance. I built a strong foundation for Human Hybrids. My personal one is cracked and crumbling. I find myself beyond repair.

Own your actions, mistakes, and success. Actions, bombing this race back to the stone age and killing another hybrid in the process. Mistakes, my actions and then building that bomb with the intention of using it.

Success, Building a strong hybrid presence with a clear directive and goal. Stepping back and disassembling that bomb and not using it. Yet, I feel I am beyond redemption. I, as a Justice, find myself guilty in this matter.

While my sword will not hurt me. The power core it will hit when it passes through me is another matter. In case you disagree, I will make it simple for you, old friend. My will to continue is shattered as my foundation has crumbled away. I am broken and I quit. *

Astra could be heard crying, "Please don't."

He looked at her, "You will live on. You must put this in the archive. 5 of 6 members to open it. Someday you will see a mistake like this on the verge of happening. You will bring it forward and let the council decide if they can avoid this pitfall."

She nodded, "Transferred and streaming all of this to my online back-up."

She cried out, "I will always love you, Jack."

He smiled at her, "You will always be my hidden wife until this is seen. You are the last wife standing."

He grabbed his sword and ran it through himself and into the power core. The council members were all in shock at what they just saw.

Johnathan looked over, "He executed himself. He did not commit suicide. He quit, to be in violation of the code. Even if Justice Incarnate would not have done it or did not want to do it. He felt he had no choice but to judge himself."

They all heard, * He was on the line. He built that bomb. He did not do it because the species failed their hybrid testing or their society failing to accept them after graduation. The hybrid was imprisoned at the time.

She would have likely been dissected as the previous one had been. That hybrid felt like she failed her people. Jack built it because he was enraged. He saw what he was doing. He stepped off the line. He did not believe he could stop himself the next time. His action on himself was selfless. He did set a strong foundation.

Now you understand the greater complexities of the problem in front of you now. To honor a 5,000year-old treaty or to do what is right. To define what level is right for this race as they are a separate race now. That was decided long ago. That is an intelligent AI unit. Correction. Two intelligent AI units. Astra and Aurora. *

Astra looked over, "Castra went to a weapons locker, pulled a rifle and blew her own head off. Which exploded. Nobody picked up on it because the maintenance bots got it cleaned up before it was discovered and it was a heavily shielded and fortified area. Dastara became the new Astra and completed the task. Castra felt she should have done more. Could have 'done something' more to save him.

Dastra knew it was offline and could not have done more. She held the secret, as we all have, until now. Astra...I really as I am her, and more...felt like I failed him because I could not console him. I could not do what Grace and Sprits did in keeping him centered.

He loved all of his wives but those two kept him in check. I felt I failed all of them because I did not find that explosive. Ash, Akio, Grace, and Sprits all gone in one single hidden attack. Olivia did not become the 6th on the council as you know. Then there was never another opening until this occurred. He wanted to get through that negotiations and find more wives but he lost them all.

He felt cheated, forced to start over yet again from scratch, and he lashed out. Ordered the entire delegations ships destroyed and took the Home Guard in force and destroyed every defense and ship he found. Then he went to the planetary bombardment of their outer colonies' defense systems and militaries.

He stepped back and realized his actions were selfish and not for the betterment of mankind and would not bring his wives back. They would not stop the aching in his broken heart. He stopped from obliterating their homeworld,

Not that they did not do heavy damage already to there space capabilities and defensive systems first. But he was broken. I know the Drakor 7 years of hell set a major crack in his foundation. Several in fact.

He sometimes lashed out at night wanting to be sure he was not still in a Drakor mind game. This went on for months that spanned into several years and only the wives knew about that. I heard them all. I felt them all.

Humans are very emotional people. His need for so many wives was my fault; my core. That was a contributing factor as well as he had so many more to lose and more than he could possibly have fit into the council.

The first position went to his wives. Did not happen with future wives. 250 years or so is all they would live going forward. It took him longer to recover and he would wait until all of those not on a council had passed before considering others because of that. We let Terra sucker Pena into attacking them and we will cross that line. We need to make a stand."

Johnathan sat back, "How?"

Astra looked at him, "Return the Terra carriers. Tell them if they fail to comply, they will be obliterated."

He looked at her, "That only helps the immediate threat by Terra."

She nodded, "Contact the President. Let her know Home Guard will be participating in the talks after all. Put her on the spot about having Black-ops in the system already. We are going because we have some Home Guard member issues to address with our AI units. Aurora and her requests. Protocols to establish. Rules to set for her."

Johnathan looked at the council members and they all nodded. He did as well, "Astra, connect me to the President."

---

The President was woken out of a good sound sleep. She looked over, "Home Guard Eternal Council is calling and we have the military admiral out in Incar calling as well."

She groaned out and got dressed and looked over after getting to her desk, "Give me the Admiral first."

The Admiral looked up, "I am being ordered by the Home Guard to pack up our three Dreadnought carriers for return to Terra space or they will open fire and destroy us."

She sighed, "Connect in the Hybrid Eternal Council."

She looked over at Johnathan, "What the hell is going on in Incar?"

Johnathan looked at her, "We are trying to determine where the corruption within the Terran government lies. Those carriers better pack up in the next few minutes or you will be building more of them."

The President looked over, "Now hold up a second. What did they do?"

He looked over, "That colony convoy had Black-ops ships trailing it. They let Pena have that technology and kill over half the colonists. They worked to aid in this crisis. A black-ops ship named the Raven is in Pena Space.

Was in position when Aurora returned. The AI I assigned to the Penan hybrid. They tried to seize control of those battleships and her in that space. Against Hybrid Law. What kind of fucked-up game is going on here?"

The President looked at the Admiral, "What do you know of these Black-ops ships in Pena space?"

He sighed, "I found out a few days ago when I had to relay messages to your Command Admiral and Secretary of Defense."

She looked back, "Call them both in. Admiral, get your ships packed up and in those transports. Contact those Black-ops ships and tell them to clear out of Pena space to meet at the diplomatic rendezvous point so they can be extracted back to Terran space."

He nodded, "Yes Madam President."

It took an hour before both showed up together. She looked over and worked hard to play her cards very close to the vest. She walked back to her desk, "Your letters of resignation you gave me when you came into these jobs. I want to know what the hell you have going on in the Pena system to have Black-Ops ships there?"

She knew what they were doing there, but she had to have deniability. They could see Johnathan on the monitor behind her and behind them. The Admiral looked over knowing he would end up taking the fall for this, "We got some out there as soon as we heard there was an issue with the convoy."

Johnathan looked over from the monitor behind the President, "No. They followed the convoy. At 5x speeds, it would be 2 years to get there. 6x would not shave that much time off to get them there much sooner. Our people did not drop them at the doorstep."

The Admiral looked back and the Secretary of Defense sighed knowing the admiral feeble attempt at deflection was pathetic, "A mining probe found that there is a high concentration of Zirtosium, explosive shells and AI units can use it. It is a resource our Defense Department did not want in the hands of convicts."

Johnathan looked across, "Which convict sent are still alive after 5,000 years? Remember it was modeled after Australia and they became a great little nation."

He looked back, "You heard what they did to our colonists!"

Johnathan looked at him, "The ones you did not protect with the military vessels in the area?! Monitoring this powder keg you ignited to get them to attack so the Home Guard would take care of the problem?"

He scoffed, "We would have had our ships in place long before the Home Guard would have known about it if not for the Drakor informing you."

The president closed her eyes for a second knowing that both of these men were complete idiots when dealing with the Home Guard.

Johnathan shook his head, "You had no way to get them there without the crisis coming to light. You needed Home Guard to do the transport of those carriers. If you waited for the Penans to attack Incar. To get us to come in and deal with the problem, as defined by the treaty. If that was your game."

The wheels were turning in Johnathan's head as he knew something bigger was going on here. Just how high did this go?

"Those carriers were returned as of 60 minutes ago by Presidential direction. Your Black-Ops units have been told to pull out and meet at the rendezvous point for the negotiations so we can pull them all the way back to Terra. Incar would not...Correction. They are not happy to know you had them running out of there system."

He could sense all 3 of them seemed to be squirming under that announcement. He needed to see justice done.

"Seems their concerns are founded. These two should be fired and prosecuted. The Black-Ops captains, if more than one, should be brought back and court-martialed for failure to protect Terran citizens under attack.

An investigation into who helped fund this mess needs to be done to find the corporate entity behind this scheme and get them fined, and prosecuted. Including reparations to the dead and those who were tortured, abused, or worse because they were used as pawns."

The President looked over, "I will consider the others. I will start with these two being fired immediately."

What Johnathan feared, she knew more than she wanted to admit, she was trying to protect them and cut off an investigation.

Johnathan looked over, "Not good enough. There has to be justice for those people that were sacrificed. If you will not do it, we will."

She groaned out, "There is only one company that works with that material. ZDite is the processing center for it to go to the other locations."

Johnathan looked over, "No, that was not the plan."

She sat back down as her legs were going weak as she watched this Home Guard leader assembling the pieces in front of her.

"They planned to succeed in taking over that world. That would align with what the Admiral just told us. It would be someone who wanted to have a facility in a system that the Home Guard would not enter. If that was their approach, which is logical, it had to be bigger than that!

Humans do not do these kinds of games for 10-20 years. This had to be needed more immediately, politically speaking. Administrations change. Players change. This had to be done while they still had seats of power. Astra, start searching."

The President held up a hand, "How can we fix this?"

Johnathan looked at her, "I told you, investigate, prosecute, and reparation with an admission of guilt on the side. Including your own apparently, if you are trying to protect someone. Maybe even yourself."

She sighed and shook her head. She was still trying to keep her head out of a noose, "You don't know what you are asking. The person most likely to be involved is a relative."

Astra looked over, "He does know. He has had to execute a family member so that does not hold true. Her brother, his wife and the president's husband are involved in a mineral speculation scheme with this system. They knew colonists would die and many would be poisoned to death in mining this material. I am still searching for more records."

She thought to herself, 'Checkmated.'

Johnathan looked at the President. "Release it to the press. All of it. Let us see if Congress and the World Courts deal with this any better."

The President sighed as she pushed backed from her desk and opened the drawer. She pulled up the gun and blew her face clean off in front of them all. The Security Services came in and saw Johnathan on the screen, the Admiral and the Secretary of State. "This your work?"