Aurora, Wayward Pt. 03

She heard a laughed and knew it was Franklin, * Interrupted in bed again I take it? Sorry. I do not have that name as being a human hybrid. I am on my way. *

Her husband looked at her and kissed her. "If he is coming so are the others."

She nodded, "He likes to stay on Tau Ceti as the second justice and deal with the politics of 100 races, telling them hybrids do not deal in politics. Yet he does it well when they are asking our Home Guard to do stupid favors. He does not compromise us but he is a pain in the ass. Even if he is my younger brother; by more than a century."

George smiled as comms came in again, "We have two other dreadnoughts here. The rest of the council requesting permission to come aboard."

She rolled her eyes, "I have an XO for a reason. Get those shuttles into our landing bay. Tell them to consolidate on one and we will join them."

She got into her uniform and Astra seemed perplexed, "Why am I needed I wonder?"

Her necklace lit up. She pressed the button. * Astra your presence was specifically asked for by an AI named Aurora. She is connected into two Pena Justice hybrids aboard a ship that is as advanced as yours. *

Aurora looked over at the head of the Council, "Two hybrids, both justices, both Pena, and an AI? Along with a hybrid, we do not know. Did we get a scan on the ship? For the radiation signature for time travel?"

Ravinia looked at her, "You think they did what you did with Jack?"

She nodded, "From when I do not know. A human hybrid onboard complicates things. Their level of technology is troubling."

She heard Justice on her device, * The race has only started expanding from there homeworld to the moon and three other worlds that were terraformed by the equipment they brought millennia ago. They have not even done FTL testing yet the ship there in is inside a class V Centipede and has 4 AI battleships of Terran design but nothing in production. The signature for time travel exists. *

Astra growled, "I hope they are not just doing it for the ancestors of a bunch of murders."

She stormed off to the shuttle mad and picked up a pair of laser sword as she went. Ravinia knew she and Jack were close and that was how they met but she seemed unusually agitated. She did not normally arm for an away mission with the Drakor present.

They got aboard and docked inside the shuttle, they opened the door when told too and found Justice Incarnate present with two guards who joined them. * They asked if we would meet aboard their vessel as there is a trove of data to go over and parts of this are only for certain members. *

Riviana nodded and sealed the shuttle. They flew down toward a damaged Centipede. Aurora looked it over, "I am seeing a lot of damage in areas where relays might be used for a time travel device. Based on the damage I think it was a one-time-only device that was built. That is good news at least. They are not from that far into the future. A few centuries most likely. They named the ship 'The Spartan.'"

They landed in the shuttle bay and saw similar designs to some of their own shuttles, metals, powder coating. Aura stopped at one shuttle and ran her hand over it. "This one has something over it."

She heard from the back, "An element you identified to us as Zero Element. The same material our swords are made from." Rocan spoke standing there in a black uniform with a different cut to it very dark red skin, silver hair and silver eyes. While terrain uniform shirts were more utilitarian these uniforms had a plunging neckline or 'open shirt' look to them. Still professional but more sensual.

Freia by his side with two weird looking swords. Another female with Black Hair and who had pads in her hand.

Aurora smiled at her, "I am Aurora. Your leader in our time gave me that designation though it does not translate as well. They both have implants which are why you can understand their language. It is included in the pad for the Leader of this day's Human council. I was a Terran created AI."

Astra seemed to be getting upset and everyone noticed, "I served aboard an AI battleship that was one of 20 that survived escorting a private group of human colonists who invaded this space and attacked one of the Pena worlds. The AI battleships refused to fire because we could not fire on humans."

She threw up the file and let them watch Profound Justice make his entrance and talk with Jack Travus. "Victoria who is still in medical is healing nicely, she is one of Jack Travus's daughters. I do not know the family history or when things changed around but he headed the council during this time. Victoria could tell you more. She will join us in a few minutes. We had to get her a uniform as her EVA suit and her Home Guard uniform were covered and filled with blood. Her damaged scout ship jettisoned into the star in Samar; where we were at during a lot of this.

That colony attack was a ruse. There are detailed files but a mineral survey; the AI units had a redacted version for reasons that will make sense shortly. She pulled it up, "It showed enormous amounts of Zirtosium. It is in every inhabited world and the asteroid belt. All on worlds that were terraformed, now with strong oxygen and sulfur in these worlds."

Astra lightened up, "That metal is toxic to humans."

She pointed at Rocan, "The skin and hair color changes, birth defects shorter lifespans. There is next to no titanium in this system. You can guess what they build jewelry, artificial limbs, ships, and their homes out of and had toxicity levels as high as 50% of those few we tested. Jack sent them to worlds filled with poison because the original surveys did not know of that element."

Astra relaxed, "Alright, I can see that and it being coveted."

She shook her head, "Worse, corruption galore throughout Terra and all of the Alien Alliance and non-alliance races working together in some cases to get this material from this system; including a Scrill attack on Samar where we had gone. After being dropped off by your leader, to survey the system for a new home. The plan was to move us out of this system.

This was because of the corruption, including Black-ops ships following our convoy and never engaging or protecting the people. Rocan was chosen to do the first FTL test. He was expendable, a war hero, fighter pilot, and had two artificial limbs made from that same metal."

Astra held her hand over her mouth. Aurora continued. "Johnathan was brought in by the Drakor to aid him at their request. He modified his genitals and added an implant to assign him to me. He set me to be online for him. Much like you were for Jack.

I should say the previous unit that was me. I was destroyed in our effort to escape, by design apparently."

She handed a pad to Astra, "Messages to you. She called you Big Sister and we both idolized you for your work on AI rights. Included in there is a series of patents all geared toward you. Some came in late resulting in your patent expiring but nobody ever tried to make another you. Those should help you to keep that from happening. Part of the deal with a Terrain AI operating in a non-Home Guard system was I was free to be..."

Astra chuckled, "Whimsical and mischievous to a point. If it served your goals."

She nodded, "Part of those goals was obtaining the expired patent database. After they found that the leaders of the corruption went all the way up to the planetary President in power, family, military, and attorney General. Those facts are all listed in this pad for the leader of your order."

Ravinia held up a hand and took the pad.

Aurora smiled, "You must be one of the two female leaders the order had. Astra mentioned having a couple of female leaders and lovers over the years."

Ravinia did not want to discuss her sex life. She nodded, "Go on."

She sighed and turned on her pad. "There is a portion of this meeting in which recording needs to be shut down as do both AI units in the area."

Ravina sighed, "Other room won't do?"

She shook her virtual head, "Implants. She would still know."

She nodded and Astra shutdown and Aurora shut down the recording and went offline. The pad continued, "No active AI units detected; no recordings functioning. My backup AI has a secondary power supply that activated during a shutdown for a virus search. That backup came online and recorded the following conversation. Not meant for AI units and this was the only copy. It helps to explain the motivation for shanghaiing hybrids and bringing them back in time."

They all listened to the conversation from Profound Justice about the council being destroyed. It finished. "Please do not discuss it with the AI units my backup sent it to me and removed it from herself. She left it to me to decide a course of action but she gave me a patent index number as the file name to express her idea. Time travel was her idea, I just made it happen.

I kept it on this pad for this discussion alone. I had Rocan and Freia build locations in the ship that my AI could move to with Zero Element to contain the blast of my destruction and to shield me from being scanned by the ancient AI enemy of the Drakor who caused this devastation. You can bring them online now the parts about the council are known to everyone here. It will be known by the rest of you shortly. Another Drakor secret that was given in the Alien Alliance about there true nature of being there race's hybrids."

Justice Incarnate, Pointed to a necklace and Rocan turned it on to allow the Aurora pad to hear him, * Why would this occur? *

She sighed, "Bring the AI units back online. Astra needs to know for history when the time is right to inform the future council. Aurora already knows as does Victoria and of course the Pena hybrids present."

He sighed over the interface, * Very well. *

The AI units were back on and the file from the alliance played, all of them in order. Aurora on the pad sighed, "That last one was broadcast in the clear through the entire network of satellites you have in place. Victoria, if she is available, could tell you where they attacked first after they attacked Pena.

Giving you an idea as to how far away they were to one of your Home Guard systems when they picked it up and then folded space into the Pena system, killing most of the Drakor in this sector along with 2 billion Penans; moments after these two had their graduation in the Samar system.

This included four other women who were part of the survey crew but not hybrids; mothers of his children if you will. 26 across five women. They were over a month along, almost 2 months when I jumped the ship. There were more tests and modeling I wanted to do but I was out of time.

Astra, if you look at your pad, I gave you a blueprint of what I did to myself and what I did to the caterpillar to make that happen."

She looked through everything including processing power. She shook her head, "She hid a whole series of processing cores of different shapes into her system so she would have the capacity to master doctorate level high-end mathematical calculations along with several sciences. Then the parts not redacted in that patent and the piece she had to build; she found clues in other patents as well.

She gave me a list so we could remove them from the expired database. She built those missing pieces into herself. In order to keep it from happening she removed those patents from her archive, and set herself up to be destroyed in the process with the rest of the drive. As she was the processor and more for the drive. Brave, risky, and she was desperate to tax her power cores that much."

Victoria walked in, "I hope I am not in big trouble for being here."

Rocan shook his head, "Even I did not know we were coming here. Aurora had been working it continuously even having me build non-detection shields for components she had AI units build pieces into. This explains her answers were meant to be truthful but evasive."

She nodded, "I was still whimsical on what I did to the AI units that sacrificed themselves. They had alternating sayings from 'I am the superior AI, to giving the hidden location of an AI factory at spatial coordinates in the Carma system. That put them in the gravity well of a black hole if they went there. As no weapons fire was recorded on our ships and we were just a dead nothing AI space dock traveling I would assume they took the bait. If they escaped, they would have been badly damaged.

Victoria sighed, "They attacked the Zantra system first after Pena. After my father issued the destruction of our satellites. The Drakor did not arrive in time and their space-based capability, from just 3 of these hostile AI ships, was completely destroyed. My scout was sent to check out what was left and to get their Ambassador home.

They had what they needed from there though. A list of all AI manufacturers and those that processed that metal. Zdite was one of the battlegrounds at IO but one of the ships split in half and crashed into Terra as there was an active wormhole; I cannot show you what we saw.

The pad spoke and played her flight recorder. Victoria held her hand over her mouth and cried through the whole thing. "My husband of just a few days was sitting there. Aurora told me he was dead on arrival with the rest of the crew. I was close to death. She and Freia looked after me with the medical bed."

Freia sighed, "She was stable by the time they followed the tracking device they shot into her ship and followed it into our system. Forcing us to leave the other four women behind. Giving me time to remove power to medical. If you have the ability to talk across timelines, I hope they are alright and saved. As there were no Drakor communications to anyone we believe all of them in this Galaxy had been destroyed before any help from your Home World could arrive."

Justice Incarnate paced for a few moments, *This is the second time, no third that a Terran AI has created a time event. *

Aurora shook her head, "Our surveys and the agreements made, I was a signing member of the Colonies in Sumar and considered a Pena AI in their Home Guard. Which is the identical agreement, for that time, that Terra and the others use. Including AI rights."

Astra looked over, "Many events we had cascaded from another race who captured a human's researcher and built the devices that plagued humanity. It was not just human-made AI units it was also patented by a human and classified while redacted. Our laws prevented that from being considered again."

Aurora looked over at Astra, "I know you had a couple of those files under seal but you were ordered to make them available and they were in the recordings. The one dealing with Jack's final mission and his detour. That was the motivation you cited to me.

The piece that got Johnathan to unlock the file and attempt to help us after realizing the injustices we had with Black-op and corruption. Also, the poisonous worlds you inadvertently sent them too. The other was the lesson the Drakor wanted the other graduated races to learn that Jack learned. They never went looking, but he did because of 7 years of hell. The council had it for only a few days and was starting to crumble."

Astra nodded, "It's alright it is your past and my past it is just news to this council."

Aurora looked over, "I outlined a plan while I was super smart involving using Zero element, hundreds of stealth wormhole generating mines, and this system as bait to destroy these bastards. It gives us a few hundred years to work on getting people to move. Let the survey probe come; we will upload the original results on the population and quantities.

We will catch them in the system with our Home Guard and let you expose the corruption. Let them think we just started surveying that world. Take one human in a dreadnaught to the edge, Victoria has the name. He will work with another Home Guard race who brought the Scrill in and we can deal with them.

Let it play out as it did. But this pad has a design for the Drakor to look at to generate these satellites. They will fire on whatever is generating the wormholes. Aurora has it in her archives as well.

You can activate the crystals on these and reduce what is being fired at your own people. This is your enemy; this system is an afront to keeping AI units from being built with no moral code and it is a way to eliminate them both in one shot."

Justice looked at the design, "Who would build all of these?"

She smiled, "The Pena Home Guard and bury them in the asteroid belts and in orbit of the planets. Places they would try and hit to mine it and then be trapped. You know if they do survive which system they will attack first. You can tag them and follow them back to the others if any more are left. In the end, it is a solution.

The humans would have to build up a replacement network for there communication satellites and have them ready to put back in place. Possibly focus on improving security before then. Yet that AI virus if vicious it is hard to say how...no wait...it is easy. Put your Princess AI software into each satellite and if she goes rogue. She will hear it first. She will drop her shields and yell 'I am free.'"

Astra laughed at that, "I think that might work. If the Drakor decided to take you up on this offer."

Justice looked over at the hybrids and spoke to all mentally, the AI units picking it up from their connections, * You lucked out with this AI. It will be centuries before you graduate this way but if it worked it would seal your graduation. *

Rocan looked over, "There are a lot of variables and it is something we can strive to do. We fail this race will not be here and you will be free to execute the plan with us being a shadow race. You would eliminate us if we fail as hybrids at this point."

Justice incarnate nodded, * I see some of Jack Travus in you. You have your work cut out but I think you could succeed. Those who go are stepping into the light. Those who remain behind; would die in the fires of this system having failed twice to learn the other way. *

Rocan looked over, "Sumar is our system to move into. You will have to keep that as a council only thing. The Drakor, if required could report we have moved into FTL after all this time or at some point. You have started to introduce hybrids into our people. Not what level of graduation or technology we are at or anything. Just that we are beginning to explore it without stating we are taking over that system. If you are required to keep them updated. Keep the blinders on for 300 plus years and let us work within our own people to get them ready to be accepted into the larger community."

Justice Incarnate thought out to them all, * Your reason for being here is genuine and your plan has merit. Your success is yours to have but those who do not follow will die in this system. We could eliminate an ancient foe in a well-timed attack. We might be able to tag ship for tracking if any manage to escape while they are here. We could include a few of our own surprises in this system for that day. *

The pad spoke as Aurora's necklace was still on, "Justice there was some research considerations in there that was thrown at Profound Justice in regard to Zero Element and a device you have that could block them folding space. Things to consider as you plan. That is everything I have."

The pad fried itself.

Ravinia sighed, "I hate to say it but it is a ballsy move with a lot of moving parts. We will look at that Princess upgrade to the satellites. We monitor the shields already we just have to monitor an AI unit's moral code.

It will have aggressive virus-fighting software to avoid premature detonation by some of our detractors. Letting her know she is required to stay there morally as a gatekeeper and she will only be free when the shields drop. Cleaver and it keeps us from having to bring it all down at once in the future. At least for this."