Aurora, Wayward Pt. 03

Recommend the other races do the same for their communities. That will have to suffice for now. As that is mental to an electronic interface. Inform them of the destruction of the Pena system. Repeat if five times; counting it down and then send the frequency code out to all satellites for a 2-minute detonation. To ensure it gets through to all of them."

He heard, * Are you fucking crazy? *

He responded back only mentally, * Astra confirmed they could use any satellite to infect any computer or AI within range of one of our other satellites. They watched her destroy the one in Pena. Also inform them that Pena's destruction happened just as we warned them it would, in a Super Nova. The fact there are survivors in this system is not to be mentioned for now.

Except face to face in a secure room to the president as we show it as assigned to another FTL non-Allied Alliance race being evaluated by the Drakor. As we had no plans for the system for centuries the Drakor asked us to not interfere.

They said that the Alien Alliance should do the same. The Drakor are still watching those races under evaluation closely as they stepped away from the Alien Alliance. Anyone could guess what actions they might take. *

She groaned out, * I am using the crystal to crystal communication you have for the entire council to relay this fact. The last I heard they are still doing repairs on the ships that escaped the Penna systems and will be for a few weeks. Reiterate to Aurora our thanks for getting the warning out to our people. *

Johnathan looked over, "Becca wanted me to thank you for your analysis and your efforts in getting the warning to our outside fleet. You saved thousands of human lives by doing that. We estimate we lost no more than 30,000 people in the fight. If the Drakor had numbers per ship, it would likely be hundreds of thousands if not millions of their own dying to try and stop this threat."

Aurora looked at him with cold eyes, "Don't forget the 2 Billion Penna's in that count."

He sighed and nodded, "I know they lost everything; you all have really."

She looked over, "I am a Penan AI system signed into there colony as soon as you release the system to us."

He nodded, "It was released while you were out. I had not heard you signed into the charter but that makes sense."

She sighed, "No chance of them being considered human now?"

He sighed, "Not at the moment. If they had not graduated yet it might have been possible eventually. Because they had already been infused as eternal; that removed that possibility."

She nodded, "As would bringing Pena Home Guard AI units into your Home Guard."

He chuckled, "Fair point as well. The answer is it will take time for the Drakor to answer some questions. Work to protect the Pena people and yourselves until that day; it could be a year or longer before the Drakor get back on that question."

She sighed, "I want to get his battleship finished first; then we can look at building colony structures on the worlds. Some small ones to begin with on the first site to establish ourselves but bigger ones will have to wait. Our botany specialist and Xenobiologist are going to have to find food stores for our people."

Rocan nodded, "Correct."

Freia asked, "How did this threat find us? How did they damage the Drakor?"

Johnathan sighed, "Short answer. An old enemy of the Drakor that they thought had been destroyed. If they were in the galaxy then they would have heard about it with the broadcast from the Alien Alliance complex in regards to your system. We knew nothing of this old enemy until the attack."

Aurora was upset, "2 billion people died because the Drakor was not forthcoming and you had to ensure the word of this volatile system existence spread across the entire galaxy is what I got out of that statement."

Rocan held up a hand, "We can always second guess the decisions that were made. We cannot change what happened."

She nodded and left the bridge after hugging Astra, "Goodbye big sister. I hope we see each other someday and this AI threat does not consume you as it did the Penan people."

She hugged her back, "Thank you for the information little sister. You saved countless lives."

She shook her head, "Thousands more are going to die because of the loss of those satellites and this AI threat in this galaxy. The Drakor could not stop them; not all of them. They might have to back off and lick their wounds first to build more ships. They could launch a guerrilla war and that is what I wanted to stop, or at least slow down with the satellite destruction. My battleship command protocols analysis of likely actions. 90% likely to start a guerrilla war if they had significant losses. Probing attacks, gathering information, Destroy potential advisories."

Rocan held up a hand to get her to stop from leaving, "Our 4 non-Hybrids will have to form a new government on this colony in a month's time. A Governor and three members of Congress. Until the children are of age because a hybrid cannot lead."

Aurora nodded, "I need some alone time to think things through. Though you forgot the AI units in your number. We are non-hybrids and we are a part of the founding of that colony. At least I am."

She walked away and this time he did not try to stop her. Astra looked at him, "She feels she failed to save your people. Give her time to work through it but keep an eye on her as well. I cannot be there for her if I am not mistaken?"

Johnathan nodded, "Correct. We have to leave and you will have to go back offline for a while longer until the Eternal Council meets. Maybe longer if these attacks come and we need to hide you away from this threat."

Astra nodded slowly, "I understand We need to shutter and move my backup sites. Set it so only a council member can reactive them in person. Leave a princess AI in place to monitor the site's security. With a moral code. If she loses her code; her secondary protocol overloads the power cores at the sites. You shall not have me, protocol."

Aurora heard that exchange and ordered all AI battleships and mining ships to be fitted with that as a security check and protocol in a separate piece within each unit. A second core that checks every few seconds at random that the protocols were still in place.

If the princess lost the protocol it would 'free itself from its physical bonds' by blowing the power core. It ran from a shielded interface into her diagnostics that were behind her firewall. The chips' proximity and shielding made it impossible to detect. Unlike an AI brain, an AI power core explosion was much smaller and self-contained.

That caused less damage to the surrounding area if any. Else they would do it. She designed it; ordered the implementation and once they were all in place a memory wipe of its existence and what it did. She was in her room when they left; her private space. Her secondary came on-line and she synced automatically with it but had a file sent back to her.

She quarantined it and went to her unit's location. She ran an end diagnostic and checked activation information logs. The file in question was no longer on the unit, but it had come online for a few minutes while she was offline. She remembered, Secondary power core in this unit in the event of a power failure and no sync. She ensured the new chip would blow out this as well if an attack occurred and succeeded. Her unit had assumed she was destroyed. Something it heard or was told confirmed that she had not been destroyed.

She looked at the file name again. 'Possible Solution Zeta, Delta, Alpha, 647892-3201' An odd name for a file. She cross-referenced her databases and found a corresponding index reference. It was an expired ancient patent ID.

The short descript included the words, 'Time travel.' She listened to the message in the file and she understood how she came to that idea. A Billion people. They just lost twice that. If she could get half the population to relocate and multiply in the new colony then she could get all of the eggs out of one basket. In this case, put them back into their unbroken shells first.

She took a shuttle to the battleship, leaving without informing anyone. She was hailed by one of the AI units, "Your departure was unexpected."

She sighed, "Correct, I have some ideas I want to work through in private in the secure archive I have. I need to prioritize some tasks given our change in population with the destruction of the Pena system.

I want to review the expired patent library to find solutions for the Pena's limited gene pool issues. See if anything within might help them to increase their population."

She heard back, "Should I inform Rocan?"

She thought about it for a second, "Only if he asks. Tell him I have a planned review of the ships to conduct an inspection of upgrades being put in place. This one first and then the others. No mention of the archive location is to be made."

She stopped at one Battleship and did some checks for an hour before going to her targeted ship. If she was longer, she could always state she found an issue that she corrected. She witnessed maintenance bots fixing others with the new upgrade. Then they started working on each other. It was a small chip added to the power core.

She found the patent in question and it was heavily redacted as it was formally classified. It did include a long list of other patents associated with the device. The schematics were missing a central core piece. It was all geared into astrophysics and Quantum mechanics. She extrapolated the information stored the information into a memory archive in her own system.

Instead of putting it onto a pad. She kept half of her internal system process threads working the problem. Then she cleared her access logs as to what she accessed this day and went on to the next battleship and then the others, one right after another. She stopped long enough to get her Princess protocol put into place on her own cores.

When she returned to the ship Rocan was waiting for her. He looked at her, "The comms AI told me you were inspecting battleships and searching the archives to find help with our population issues?"

She sighed, "I found only partial information on the population issues. I would need a lot more knowledge in science and time to try and work on those. As to the battleships."

She thought to him, * All of the AI units are having a princess protocol AI do a check from a chip attached to the power core. If the morality code is ever removed the princess will overload the core. Less damage to the ship is likely from that, not guaranteed.

The maintenance bots and the others know they got a slight memory check upgrade but not the extent of what that does. I do not want to be turned against you or the others doing the same. With that AI in this Galaxy, I took some precautions. *

She heard from Freia, * Would that work?" *

She thought back, * For the others yes. For me, possibly not as I know about it. I am installing one on my backup unit and into the base design of all units that get repaired. Eventually, I will have my backup unit do a memory wipe of this action from myself.

Right now, I am the only one who understands it and I do not want it on a computer that can be accessed. They hacked Astra because she was talking with a satellite. With me, I have the telepathy going on with the two of you. If I get attacked just keep telling me you love me.

I will work to get to a safe room or location. I need your help. Both of you to create an area on the bridge and in my private quarters. Taking Zero element and reinforcing my area from being found.

To contain blast damage if I self-destruct to save you both. I am hoping it will protect me from being accessible or found by them. I also want them on every ship and one shuttle on this ship's exterior.

An AI box to try and save the AI in control of the battleship to shuttles. I am also going to have the battleships collect the network of satellites they installed in this system. I want the same thing done to them. For everything except the detection sensor and guidance. Make them near invisible by using that planet's non-detection capability for something else. That will be followed by doing it over the two manned fighters we have assigned. *

Rocan thought about that, * That is a lot of work. We could start on the walls of your quarters first. It would protect you but how would we communicate? *

She sighed, * Like we are now. *

He chuckled at that as did she. He laughed finally, * Anything else? *

She sighed, * Am I a citizen of this colony? Do I count? You left me out of the government aspects. *

He thought for a moment, * You are a member of our Home Guard who is not a hybrid or a Penan. You are your own race if you will. You follow Home Guard rules but you could not rule over us. *

She thought back, * I can rule over your military until your election takes place. The military command being the head of Home Guard. If we are our own race then we will need a name, Sentinels will be the name of our AI race. Your laws give 30 days and right now all of you are mourning the loss of your race. Who is the clearest headed one to take charge of that? *

He thought for a moment and looked at the women on the Bridge. "I was just having a private chat with Aurora about her efforts off the ship to protect us further. She has made some good arguments for additional precautions she wishes to take.

She has, by default, started taking control of updating our defenses. Including giving her AI race the name of Sentinels. I cannot rule us and we have 30 days before we can put one of you 4 ladies in charge, by our own laws in an election. We are Penan and can vote. For now, the fleet is under Aurora's command. If I see an issue...I, as the leader of the Home Guard, will take steps to address it. We need this time to mourn."

Aurora looked over, "I am not Penan as Rocan looks at us as our own symbiotic race, we are Sentinels. I have no vote into this government, but I will state my choice for that role would be Gia. She is the pacifist and we are in no shape to make war. We are focused on survival. That does not mean sword training stops.

You all need it and you all need an outlet for any unchecked aggression. I am making some modifications to myself and my backup to try and work on some complex issues. One of us will be online at all times. My backup is Borealis."

She threw an image up on the screen, "You might have seen these on one or more of your worlds. On Terra, it is called the northern or southern lights depending on which side of the equator you are located. It is caused by solar winds deflecting off the planet's atmosphere near the polar regions mostly because of the magnetic role of planetary gravity and atmosphere.

They call it Aurora Borealis. Rocan can you ask whichever Drakor who is monitoring you a question. Can you ask them if they have the technology to block how those ships travel; not for us to deploy. I just want to know if they know how to do it. What would their wormholes do to it if anything?"

He thought the question back out and he heard, * We cannot start any new direction or answer the question on the impact of a wormhole on their mode of travel. We can say we have the science behind a device but keeping it in play and not found is another matter. *

Aurora thought to them, * When the time comes to build such a device consider the zero element that blocks all scanning attempts. It might not work as an alloy but as undetectable or nearly undetectable coating it might aid your people in that fight. Just a thought as I heard you found a few planets with that material. Your mental abilities could work through that material. *

They responded to Rocan, * That idea is worth investigating further. When we have resources, I will see it added to our list or research ideas. *

She ensured to record the conversation and add it to the capsule archive she was building. She had got them to agree to her given role in things for now. She damned well was going to try and make the most of it. She went to her private area. * Will leave the lades to grieve with you while I add more educational algorithms to my processors over the evening to address my expanded research efforts. *

He heard back, * You do not have to do it all at once. You can stop and grieve with us. *

She thought back, * I feel for all of you, but I did not know your people as well as the rest of you. In fact, I barely knew them. I am hurting because a part of me feels like I failed in my role. I have an expanded role and failure is not an option. Let me grieve by throwing myself into work and research.

I have no need to collect samples anymore. Not for some time anyway. I will on occasion in case anything changes but this is not about sex or making love. This, for me, is about making significant strides in helping you to still succeed in your mission. *

She heard from Freia, * We are worried about you as well. *

Aurora stopped for a second, * I love you all as well, but I need to do this to take my mind off events. I process things differently than humans and I search for solutions. It will eat away at me until I get these put into place and then I can divide my processing time for more social interaction. *

Rocan responded, * Take the time you need. I will check in later Tomorrow. Just to see if you are alright. *

She went over and drew up the designs for what she wanted; essentially six more processor banks. She would become the seven-headed monster inside a female shell if that is what it took. She had to design them to fit within her existing structure and then run them through the fabricator. That would consume half of her internal free space. All while half her processes worked on those schematics and she worked on updating to a doctorate level of knowledge in several major sciences.

Six hours later she went offline while her back up unit installed the additional processors. It was almost four hours later and Rocan called out, * Aurora are you alright. *

He heard back, * She is offline at the moment having an upgraded processor installed. She will be back in about 2 hours. This is her backup unit. Did you need something done? All ships are on patrol; repairs, mining, and construction are on schedule or slightly ahead of schedule at the moment from what Aurora wished to be done. *

He sighed and thought back, * I will talk with her when she is back about letting us know first before going offline again like this. *

He got a response, * She did tell you one of us would be online if you needed something done. If this all goes well, she will not need to go back offline again for quite a while. She had some heavy-duty processing she wanted to be done and she did not want it on a ship system or to have to array several AI units together to get what she needed in place. *

Rocan thought the statement was off. He went and found Hira. "Have you looked over Aurora's designs for upgrades or her backup?"

She laughed, "I am still working on understanding some of the basics of how the maintenance bots function. Let alone those of the deck crew or herself. I could look at a schematic but that does not mean I would be able to follow it all. She is literally thousands of years ahead of us.

My learning programs have been running and they are helping but I do not think it helped any of us last night. She is right. At the moment she is the least emotional about this loss than any of us. She did not know our friends and families."