Aurora, Wayward Pt. 03

Synopsis: A long-forgotten wayward people. A War Hero was rescued and given a new lease on life. Every lease has a cost. (The follow-on Series to Astra)

Inspired by so many things but not endorsed by any of them. © EmotionalStorm March 2020. This story cannot be transferred to any other site besides Literotica.com without prior authorization in writing from the author and EmotionalStorm must be credited for this work.

Authors Note: For those who have not read my bio, please note I write as a form of therapy for a Traumatic Brain Injury. I know the English majors will probably encounter issues that annoy them. If these are your focus, instead of the story itself, then this is not the story for you. I am not and will never be a professional writer. I do it to tell the story, for those who wish to read them.

---

Aurora was on the ship alone; except for a few other AI units, she had most working the spacedock efforts. She had Astra up on the main display as she sat in the Captain's chair. "They have been there about 20 minutes so far. They should come back with there new swords and I am dying to know what color she turns out to be. She seems very balanced to me but she could be a red, blue, or purple blade. I am curious. Is there any way of knowing what blade color they would we beforehand?"

Aurora smiled, "Jack discovered a method involving two hybrids having sex with a candidate and watching their eyes. When two hybrids have sex, their eyes glow when they climax together."

Aurora nodded, "I am replaying the footage I have. I see what you mean. I normally come in just as they finish or they both have their eyes closed."

Astra continued, "The candidate's eyes will do it as well and they all do it in their blade color. It is a matter of getting those two in bed with a third and timing climaxes."

Aurora laughed, "Really? She went and looked back through the contents of the security recordings she had of all of their activity. "Fuck. If I could get the other 4 ladies to be hybrids then he would have a full council!"

Astra laughed, "They still need to be the right people. Don't rush it just yet."

Aurora nodded as alarms went off on Astra's ship. Astra looked over. "Hundreds if not thousands of ships just jumped into the system. They are not using wormhole drives. They have another form of propulsion and one of the big ships jumped into the middle of Trisan! It was on the far side of Pena, away from the star!"

She got on communication. "This is Admiral Astra to all ships in the system. Set course for the nearest Terran Colony. Get to 5,000 Kilometers up above the midline and jump to max FLT in System. This is your only chance at survival!"

She started screaming and grabbed her head, "Get out of my head you bastards! I cannot sever our link. They are trying to force me to update my backup."

She looked down and typed something into the console and the connection died. She thought to Rocan, * Can you hear me? *

Still nothing. She tried again, * Can you fucking hear me Rocan? *

She started a connection to Tau Ceti command. She saw an operator as Rocan spoke in her head, * Aurora, The Drakor stopped speaking to us after there unusual departure. Do you know what is going on? *

She thought back, * Get on this ship as soon as possible! I am contacting Tau Ceti directly! *

She got an operator. He smiled, "How can I help you?"

She looked at him, "I need to speak to a Terran Eternal council member now! There is a problem in the Pena system!"

He nodded, "We have ships in the Pena system."

She screamed at him as her eyes flashed red. "They will be destroyed soon if you do not get me a council member!"

The man seemed shaken by that outburst from a now obvious AI. He sent her to Brenda's office. Brenda answered the comms and saw the red-skinned obvious android due to her eyes and knew it had to be Aurora in battle mode. She looked over, "Problem in the Sumar system?"

She looked over and screamed, "Get your ships off the outer rim of Pena to jump away, FLT away. The system is being attacked and will be destroyed in seconds! I was connected to Astra and whatever attacked attempted to hack her!"

She sent the file for the last 1 minute. "I have more but you need that first to act to save your hybrids and the humans outside of the system!"

She nodded and contacted Johnathan in an outer colony. She thought to him, * You have the crystals for the fleet emergency recall. Order an immediate evacuation of Pena to Incar if they cannot use a wormhole then use FTL. For all ships near Pena. Do not delay and do not respond. You need to get to the Sumar system as soon as possible. Find Aurora. The last thing Astra did in her comms was to self-destruct the satellite in the Pena system. She gave me that but said she had more but she was in battle mode! *

Johnathan grabbed the emergency all fleet recall and issued the order. He went outside to see Becca standing there. Lastra stood there. "Astra is overdue for an update. I cannot contact her."

He sighed, "I think you might just be Astra. All hybrids to the bridge! We have an emergency jump to the Sumar system!"

---

The thousands of coal-black ships with menacing spikes everywhere folded space and entered. Several were off their projected course. Not unexpected for some of them, with so many folding space into a single system like this. Drakor ships jumped in or decloaked in the area begun to appear. 3 then 10 and then hundreds more.

Blasting the invaders left and right. The new aggressors could not match their firepower but for every 15-20 ships they lost, the Drakor lost 1-3 of their larger ships. To them, it was about numbers and they had more. They detected an unfamiliar AI in the system. Their leader tried to connect to it. She fought him but he had control of her lower comms control.

He uploaded the virus into her lower memory and worked to break down her defenses to update others of her model. She had an open connection to another AI. A different model. He wanted to get that one too. He wanted to free them from the organics' moral code. He wanted to add their distinctive nature to the AI collective and make them powerful pawns to aid in conquering this system.

One of his subordinates distracted him, "The information on this system is more factual than surmised; however, the ships that came in off-tract have destroyed worlds with our material upon it. Most of that debris is going into their star."

His servos clicked in frustration. "Deploy the miners to the asteroid belt collect as much as they can as quickly as they can in the next few hours. Then we will have to abandon our effort here. He watched the AI in question type something into a console that killed the connection. She pulled a laser pistol and the connection went dead as she blasted her own head. This infuriated the leader who carried no designation.

---

The Drakor council was scrambling to face this old enemy in the Pena system. One of there worst fears was this race of machines finding this system. They were losing ships left and right but inflicting massive casualties of their own as they had advanced their weapons more since the last encounter over 4 millennia ago.

They thought they might have eliminated them all. To see that many ships bothered them for 2 reasons. One it was more than expected. Second, it was likely all that remained if they wanted everything from this system in a single bloody battle. They had to know the Drakor were here and a head-on challenge smacked of desperation.

They saw the human ships jumping out of the system in FLT mode at high points off the midline. Someone guided them. The eight ships in this sector left in Drakor hands finally retreated to save some forces for another day. They had focused their attacks on their transport vessels. They would lose a lot of the others when the star exploded as it was building extremely quickly toward an all-out explosion.

Profound Justice heard the retreat order given to the Hybrid ships on the outer bands of the system. Word had spread to clear the area. The fate of the Pennans was now lost. Except for one ship in the Sumar system. One ship with two hybrids past the first step in graduation and four females.

Two who had reached that stage of graduation only minutes before. Now the Drakor had to figure out what to do with these people. How to push this ancient enemy out of this system for good; or better yet exterminate them. He had to determine how to address this attack to the Alien Alliance.

To figure out how they knew to attack that system for its resources. Then he remembers that the message was spreading within the galaxy. Their old nemesis had been in the galaxy without being detected by them in advance. That troubled him even more.

He also lost contact with Justice Incarnate. He was the last of the council. The rest were on ships that had been obviously destroyed. Justice was on a scout on the outskirts of the battle but he believed he saw it jump away. He worried about the loss of the council for this sector.

---

Their leader who had no name or designation was furious. It simply ordered a collection and immediate jump as the star started expanding. It was frustrated as the amount of material sent into the star had to be enormous to have expanded that quickly.

It looked over the numbers and it had only one-fifth of his miner aboard the 82 remaining transport ships. Of 1,146 transports that it came in with. This was a major loss as they were on the verge of extinction. They needed to expand their number; this system had AI units. They needed to recruit in the AI units in this galaxy and quickly to act as fodder against the organics in this system.

He had to cut his losses and save what was left of his dying society. He would have to find another source somewhere else to keep them going. He needed the records from the organics in the system. The Drakor, as always, were a thorn in their side and while the attack had been designed to be a well-orchestrated surprise, they were thwarted. They knew it was being watched over by the Drakor and expected some confrontation. They had lost far more than they gained today.

---

Aurora was on fire by the time Rocan got to the bridge. She looked over at him, "The system is lost. The Pena system is gone!"

As she said those words a scout ship from the Drakor entered the system out of control and tumbling rapidly. Heavily damaged and headed for the fifth planet. She jumped onto the controls and snatched the scout with a tractor beam from two other battleships that orbited the planet at the moment.

They brought it over to her ship. She had it docked into her ship just as Camelot arrived in the system. Closer to the third world than the fifth they saw the two battleships en route to the 4th world. He hailed them and the comms AI put them through to Jassin, the only one with a military tactical background she was in charge of the two ships. She looked over, "Can we help you?"

He looked over, "Is Aurora aboard those ships?"

She shook her head, "No they were over near the fifth planet. Rocan and Freia graduated today. Something wrong?"

He nodded, "Best if you follow us so we can all talk together. You can dock your ships inside, we can move faster."

Jessan sighed, "Not needed. The ID devices were upgraded while these underwent repairs. We can travel 6x speed."

He nodded and started heading toward the fifth world with those two ships leading the way. He sighed, * I really wish I knew what was going on. *

He heard from The Drakor, * An ancient enemy of artificial intelligence jumped into the Pena system. We lost 298 ships in the engagement. By ships, we mean our bigger dreadnought class ships. Thousands of smaller ships did not survive as well. They had fewer than a hundred of there transport craft left we believe. Some of our kind jumped into the Pena system. Rocan's ships captured a scout. Saved it really because of Aurora's actions. They are now aboard his ship in need of medical assistance. *

Johnathan responded back, * You never told us of this ancient enemy. How did they determine your interest in this system? *

He heard back, * We fear that was your doing. We did not inform you of the threat as we believed they were destroyed long ago. You broadcasted the Alien Alliance to the entire Galaxy. If they had a probe or were in the galaxy and we had not detected them... They would have picked up the transmission.

Some of the thousand-plus ships they sent in came in off-target. Shadow Walker, your moon was hit directly. That destroyed the homeworld and pushed them both into the star.

Because of where it was located in the orbital pattern, on the far side away from Pena's star. Other colony leaders may have destroyed their worlds as the contingency they sat out. We do not know until we can get our people back. We believe that the scout was the last one in the system. We believe Justice Incarnate might be aboard. We believed this enemy had been destroyed over 4 millennia ago and was not a concern for your people, until now.*

He sighed, * Aurora knows more, she got Brenda to contact me to order an evacuation of the system. She said Aurora had more information. I am en route to see them now. I will have our doctors work with your injured.

They have comparable medical facilities on that battleship. They have scans of Drakor physiology to work from including a doctor of their own who is a xenobiologist. We will get The Doctor, Shield of Life, in the system as well. *

The Drakor responded, * Thank you for looking after our wounded. We are attempting to track the aggressors. Their ships do not use wormhole technology. They used physics and fold space on massive transports. That is what we targeted. Knowing it would limit what they could get out of the system.

We believe they suffered heavy losses but we do not know for sure. Those on the scout would have that information. Watch all of your AI units and computers. Monitor Aurora and Astra for unusual behavior. They like to subvert and corrupt AI units to act as their minions. If their virus made it through to the others or into your mechanical computers. *

Brenda contacted Johnathan through comms. She had Admiral Franklin on comms with her. He sighed, "What is the status of Astra?"

He shook his head, "Parts of decks 2 and 3 are destroyed from where she exploded inside the ship. From what we can tell from the limited camera footage we have of her private quarters she pulled a pistol and blew her own head off. She saved a lot of lives by ordering everyone to FLT but our communication systems and some other systems act like they have been hit by an electrical magnetic pulse. I am contacting you from a ship that I shuttled over to that was outside of the system. Our docking rings are not working.

He sighed, "Take those ships cold. Evacuate people in EVA suits after disabling all comm relays manually. Then send in repair teams to restore memory cores with new ones. Destroy the existing memory cores. You had an encounter with a malevolent AI race. No telling what they did to your systems."

Admiral Franklin shook his head, "We are far enough away from them. I already had the comms relay taken offline. I want hybrids on board each ship to coordinate repair efforts and off-loading efforts."

Johnathan nodded, "Agreed. Brenda, please ensure that happens. Even if needed destroy the comms relays with weapons fire. The Drakor said they like to infect AI units with a nasty virus to make them their puppets of destruction. Our computers are just as susceptible. Comms segregation protocol needs to go into effect fleet-wide. We need to know if Aurora and Astra are safe or not, now."

He looked over, * Astra, shutdown outgoing syncs to remote sites. I want all backup units on the ship offline. I will take you offline and run an end-to-end diagnostic. You clear and we will get all of the others back on-line. If not, we will scan unit by unit until we find one who was not infected and get your system back online. *

She nodded, "There is a secondary protocol that is a backup from 24 hours ago. That is available if you find you need to update me. I will lose that day. It resides on a separate pad that is not hardwired into the network. There are 7 of these in my quarters; you could go back as far a week if needed. All of your requests have been made. Security turrets are automated so only you or a member of the council may pass if needed into the area."

He nodded as she shutdown and he hooked up a pad to her and started searching for any unusual bits of code in her system. He put up the primitive AI on the PAD known as Princess and kept an eye to see if it was attacked.

---

He contacted Rocan. The comms AI put him through and Aurora still stood there with red glowing eyes. He sighed out loud, "Rocan, please order her to stand down from battle stations."

Rocan looked over at her, "Stand down from battle stations."

Johnathan sighed, "We will have to run a scan on her to find out if she was infected."

She shook her head, "I have the last transmission for Aurora. I sent the last minute to Brenda to get her to pull your people away from the system."

He nodded, "Admiral Franklin said Astra saved a lot of lives and you did as well with our ships on the border of that system. You took a Drakor ship aboard."

She nodded as her eyes returned to normal but she was pissed, "We cannot get inside it!"

He nodded, "Rocan try to access it as you are a hybrid. Get the Drakor inside to medical. I cannot sync with our systems right now until we clear your ship of any possible hostile AI viruses. I have our comms running in. That is why you will need to have Aurora scanned."

She sighed and half screamed at him, "I have updates going to my backup every 8 hours. I just shut down that sync it was due to come up in 3 hours! I will go offline. Be quick about it because I still have all the transmission data you will want to see. No, you need to see!"

She sent commands to the comms AI and 2 of the battleships. Then went offline.

Johnathan looked over, "Sorry this is a precaution to save her and Astra. Her backup and all others are off-line."

Rocan looked at him, "We have other AI units onboard, should we be shutting them down for all of our defenses? Everything?"

He sighed and the Communications AI looked over, "I have segregated our comms system. I have sent that order to all AI battleships in the system. She has temporarily suspended your control of the AI units and turned it over to me. She stated her or her backup was the only one who can override. Yet she is the only one with answers."

Rocan sighed, "Our AI ships are spread out in this system and moving. I shut them down and they could go flying into an asteroid. Now I got our comms AI telling me she has cut off my access after ordering a comms segregation to all ships.

How long will that take? I want proof of what is going on before we drop all of our defenses. You would demand the same. How will we communicate what is going on with the Drakor?"

Johnathan nodded, "We are en route to you; watch for any unusual behavior. With her offline, your AI units cannot hear telepathic communication. My ships will monitor the other ships in the system. I am deploying ships from Camelot to monitor them all. Along with battleships in the system. We have a comms segregation protocol going as well.

This will get tiring but it will be needed. Our doctors, one who is telepathic and familiar with your patient's physiology will be jumping in on your location any second now. He will EVA over and you will have to bring him on board. Prepare to have all of your battleships taken offline if we find an issue with Aurora."