“Assuming, of course, that that have detected us,” Justin said. He gave the AI’s console a cheeky grin. “If they haven’t detected us, they can’t make the decision to ignore us, can they?”
The AI didn’t bother to respond. Justin suspected that that meant that the AI didn’t want to continue the discussion, or perhaps that it regarded the whole discussion as foolish. It was probably right — it was a silly argument — but Justin had been on station, alone, for over a year. He was desperate for something to happen, even if it involved having to dodge an outraged Killer starship or fly through one of their gravity beams. Fifteen months was too long to be alone. He wanted a hotel, comfortable sheets and some company — he was past caring if it were male or female. The virtual reality simulator had its limits. He could program it to do anything he wanted, but none of it would be real, or spontaneous. It wouldn’t be anything more than a form of masturbation.
He smiled to himself, threw a mock salute at the AI’s console, and turned back to the reports from the hundreds of tiny passive sensors that the Defence Force had scattered throughout the system. The star system, bearing the unlikely name of Killer #34, was one of their major bases — and the closest one to Shiva. Justin was rather surprised that the Defence Force hadn’t targeted the star with a supernova bomb — it would have wiped out massive Killer factories, along with two gas giants and their suspected populations — but perhaps it was only a matter of time. He’d been warned to be on the lookout for Killer activity that suggested that they were preparing a new offensive, but there was no way to know just what they were thinking. If they were talking to each other, sharing intelligence or bullshitting about their latest sexual conquests — if Killers had sexual conquests — even the most advanced sensors the Community had designed couldn’t pick it up, let alone read it. There were only the low-level RF transmissions, seemingly nothing more than static, which seemed to be associated with every Killer installation. No one knew why that happened, although the general theory was that the Killers were natural radio transmitters and it was how they communicated in their natural habitat.
It was still am impressive sight, although he knew that humans could have duplicated it, if they’d not been trying to hide. The Killers had built massive structures out of the debris of several rocky planets — a shipyard, a massive fabrication complex and God alone knew what else — and defended them with several of their dreaded starships. No humans had dared approach the system without taking every precaution to remain hidden; as far as he knew, he was completely undetectable. No one knew if the Killers could sense his presence — even the tiny scout would make an impression on the fabric of space-time — but they hadn’t bothered to chase him away. His observations, he’d been told, might one day lead to the defeat of the Killers. It didn’t stop them being boring.
“We should just hit their goddamned star,” he muttered. “Hey, Brainy; can’t we take out the star ourselves?”
“No,” the AI replied, with a definite trace of strained patience. It was easier for the AI; it could link into the MassMind and correspond with hundreds of other AIs and human personalities. Justin had never been able to quite accept the MassMind personalities as real. He was no Radical Organic, who would believe that there was something sinful in trying to cheat death, but he just couldn’t see the connection. His mother and father had downloaded into the MassMind years ago, yet he rarely talked to them. Were they really his parents, or just computer programs that thought they were his parents? “We do not have the fabrication capability to produce a supernova bomb.”
“I know,” Justin said, tiredly. He’d read hundreds of posts in the various discussion forums he frequented concerning the supernova bomb and how it might be deployed, but they’d been short on technical details. Besides, blowing up a star probably violated some Defence Force regulation; there was certainly a regulation against unauthorised contact with the Killers. Every so often, a group of idiot Darwinists or Killer Worshipers set off to make contact with the Killers and inevitably ended up dead, if the Defence Force didn’t arrest them first. Their idols killed them for daring to approach. They never took the hint and realised that the lack of a Killer response to their signals meant that they weren’t welcome. “But wouldn’t it be really cool?”
“It would be very warm,” Brainy said. It wasn’t the AI’s official designation, but Justin had insisted — pointing out that he would have to spend most of his time alone with the AI — and managed to get his way. “The temperatures released by a supernova would be hot enough to melt entire planets.”
Justin smiled. “That sounds like a sense of humour,” he said, dryly. The AI’s understatement was a nice touch. “And we would have roast Killer for dinner.
“Although analysis suggests that the Killers do have something in common with us, biologically, eating them would almost certainly result in poisoning and death,” Brainy said. “That would not include, of course, the certainty of radiation poisoning and other unpleasant fates. I was informed that you intended to die at seven hundred years old, in someone else’s bed.”
Justin smiled, openly. He’d said that to the AI once, when they’d been preparing for their mission — and, of course, the AI would never forget. It might even have approved. Humans tended to be more suicidal than AIs, even though AIs were considered expendable and humans were not, despite the promise of eternal life in the MassMind. An AI had no doubts about continuity. Brainy could run its pattern in another computer core and remain certain that it was the same AI.
He had wondered, in fact, why the Defence Force risked a human pilot and a scout ship at all. There was no reason why the sensor platforms couldn’t be controlled from light years away — with quantum entanglement communications the platforms could be controlled from halfway across the galaxy, if necessary — and there was no need to risk Justin’s life, but it was procedure and not to be questioned by mere mortals. He’d spent a few days researching it once and had concluded that the Defence Force, back in the days before Anderson Drive and trustworthy AIs, had decided that having a human input would always be useful. It made a certain kind of sense — most AIs lacked real imagination — but why did he have to be in the system itself? All it did was focus the mind… on the fact that it was a bare few AUs from the most powerful race in existence, one that destroyed human worlds for fun.
Hell, he thought. Why couldn’t that be the reason why the Killers slaughtered every other race they encountered. Maybe they thought it was funny!
“Give me a breakdown on their current energy emissions,” he said, finally. The Killers used gravity like the human race used electric power, or quantum taps. It struck him as odd — they should have been able to use quantum taps of their own — but perhaps they just preferred black holes. “I want you to…”
“Alert,” the AI said, suddenly. “I am picking up multiple wormholes opening within the outer star system.”
Justin pulled himself to his feet and ran towards the cockpit, throwing himself into the pilot’s seat and bringing up the helm console. “Report,” he snapped, as he checked the scout’s status. Their drives were cold, but they could be flash-woken within seconds. Unless the Killers were right on top of them, they should be able to escape before the Killers blocked them from using the Anderson Drive and ran them down. He’d seen others die that way, but he wouldn’t go that way, not if he had anything to say about it. “Are they coming after us?”