Ayan checked the activity level on her command unit and saw that the system wasn't using enough processor power to indicate that an AI was operating. “Are you an artificial intelligence?”
“No, I didn't have time to create one so I made a recording with a response matrix instead.”
“Okay, go on please,” Thank God, having an artificial intelligence based on myself would be creepy. Ayan said, extending her arm out and resting her chin on one of her knees.
“I also thought having an AI based on myself might be a little creepy.”
Ayan rolled her eyes and shook her head. Well, now I know for sure this isn't a fake.
The small holoprojection went on. “Now for the things you probably don't know. The Special Projects Division was something Laura and I were handed because we had the most intimate understanding of the technology we brought back with the First Light. Over the last three years we've also been using it to keep in contact with crew from the ship, to search for Jonas Valent and keep tabs on Vindyne. With the widening rift between Freeground Fleet Command and Freeground Intelligence the Special Projects Division has been allowed to grow however we like. We were almost able to reach out and touch Jonas Valent, but we were blocked at the last minute. He goes by the name Jacob or Jake Valance now, and I suspect he doesn't remember his past, not enough to find his way back to us anyway. Tomorrow I'm taking a prototype ship, the Silkstream Four to the Enreega system, his last reported home port, and I hope to make contact.
I don't know when you'll be watching this, but I'm certain that I will have died before then. I'm sorry I couldn't have met you face to face, because I know you'll have some guilt over continuing my life for me. I know what I'm about to say won't change that at first, I'm talking to myself after all, but you have to know that the life you're living is your own.
To me this is like talking to my past self. As though I'm contacting myself before the sickness, before getting tied down to an ambition that went awry. I just won't suffer the same consequences the messengers who sent warnings to themselves using the first time machines did,” she recognized her own smile, even through the damage caused by years of decline. The concept of time travel and the forces involved was always something Ayan had difficulty with, that was more Laura's department. “The warnings I have for you are so simple in hindsight, but so important. I wasted a lot of time at the crossroads. Special Projects was a good excuse to stay in the same place and convince myself I was following my heart for a while. After about a year of using Intelligence ties to look for Jonas and developing technology from the First Light into something everyone could use, we started working on the dual drive technology. That is, balancing and confining a hyperspace field so tightly to the hull of a ship that it could travel through a wormhole without the exotic particles interfering with the compressed space around the vessel.
It took Laura two years to tell me I was really yearning to be out there, and even though it was true I denied it for a time. When I finally started pushing Fleet Command to let me get out there and look for Jonas with the Sunspire or any other ship, Regent Galactic stepped in and prevented us from contacting him. Even with the help of my mother and someone who pretended to be Doctor Anderson, something I never figured out by the way, we couldn't get past the fear Fleet Command had of Regent Galactic. That's why I'm spending my last days reaching out to him myself. I hope I don't have to go alone, but anyone who accompanies me will ruin their career. I can't expect them to make that kind of sacrifice.
My real message to you is to follow your heart. Don't compromise like I did or it'll be too late when you realize what it is you really want. I needed to know what happened to Jonas, wanted to tell him there were people who loved him and see if I could remind him of who he was. Instead I followed another path, developed so many technologies into working, useful models that anyone on Freeground could use to improve their quality of life in one way or another. Most of that technology was never shared, Fleet Command didn't apply anything to the purpose of improving life for the common citizen despite the fact that everything we completed was ready for immediate integration.”
Ayan nodded. She remembered a conversation between Laura and herself on that very topic just a couple weeks before. Only her memory was from several years ago, it was something she had to keep reminding herself of. “So none of our work helped anyone,” she whispered in conclusion.
It triggered a pre-programmed response. “It might in the future. Pressure on the military from the House of Commons may force them to integrate some improvements. All the technology from the Special Projects Division is detailed under this private message, by the way, so it could be useful yet. Just a little gift from me to you. Remember that place we used to hide near the port observation lounge? That's the pass code to get into that section of the file,” her counterpart smiled mischievously. The image twitched and continued on with the original message. “Follow your heart, even if it leads you to the impossible. In the end that's what I did. One more thing. Don't you dare feel guilty about having my memories, despite my envy of your future, you're a continuation of me. You remember what our fifth grade teacher told us? Be yourself, and if that's not to anyone's liking, bow out gracefully and find new people.”
Ayan couldn't help but shed a tear at the sight of herself so ill, longing for another chance and chuckled at the memory despite her sympathy. “Miss Albinson, I remember.”
“Good, now go out there and follow a dream. I know for a fact that Galaxy hasn't had enough of you yet,” the hologram winked and disappeared. It was replaced by a pass code request.
“Alcove four.” Ayan whispered to the command and control unit. A holographic directory appeared and began to slowly rotate, showing the hundreds of entries. There were incomplete projects, discovered technologies from Vindyne, Gai-Ian and other databases, and completed technologies ready to be put into use. The amount of data was staggering and Ayan just shook her head and whispered; “wow.”
Minh entered the cockpit quietly, his classic electric guitar slung behind his back, and looked at her. “Hey, are you okay?”
She sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Fine, just watched a message from myself before I ran off to find Jonas.”
“I heard about that. It was the big news item before I was discovered. There was a big security leak and the media was all over it. Between her stealing the Silkstream Four, me being found by Lorander and then you being born out of a time compression wormhole, I think we've been the top story for a month.”
“Did the media get access to you when you came back at all?”
Minh sat down and absent mindedly checked if his strings were in tune. “Only when I first landed. Veteran Services took me from there though and no one could get through them. Having all those people right there when I landed was more of a shock than I thought it would be.”
“I could just imagine.”
“How about you?”
“The media? Oh, they wanted in, but the section of Freedom Tower the Doctor had me set up in was like a fortress.”
“Oh? I didn't notice. They let me just walk right in.”
“You were on the accepted visitor's list,” Ayan said with a smile as she took a meal replacement bar from a box wedged into a crevice in the dashboard. It was brown, thick, and chewy. He had only brought the chocolate fudge flavour, but she didn't mind.
Lalonde, Randolph
Spinward Fringe Frontline
“Aw, you're making me feel all melty inside.”
Ayan laughed then shrugged. “It was more of a wish list. I even had Jonas' name on it. When I wrote it I hadn't seen the Newsnet, I didn't even know they had recovered you.”
“Still, feeling melty over here,” Minh teased. He looked at the directory listing projected above Ayan's bracelet command unit. “What's that?”