“Will you fight your hardest to protect Earth?” Valerie asked.
“That is not your real question,” Galyan said. “You are asking if I will sacrifice myself in a futile endeavor to prove how grateful I am. Captain Maddox saved my life. Now you desire me to sacrifice myself as a gesture of goodwill.”
“I’m not saying that.”
“But you are, Lieutenant. That is what I was trying to tell you before your mannerisms halted me. I have run through one hundred thousand simulations regarding the coming battle. Star Watch cannot win even with my help.”
“So you’re going to run away?” Valerie asked.
“You attempt to wound with words. Consider this then: self-immolation does nothing to fulfill my wish to honor Captain Maddox. I must survive so his name lives on through the ages through me.”
“Do you consider him dead?” Valerie asked.
“If Captain Maddox is not dead yet, he will be shortly.”
“I don’t agree.”
“You work through faith,” Galyan said. “I operate in the realm of facts.”
“You have to at least try,” Valerie said. “If you run away, you lose. If you fight, maybe we’ll get lucky.”
Galyan’s holographic features twisted into an approximation of a grimace. “Firstly, I am not suggesting that I ‘run away’. I am saying that headlong attacks against the machine are futile. I must survive. Star Watch must maintain its fleet for later battles. Sacrifice to no purpose lacks sense. The doomsday machine does not operate on faith. It is an ultimate killing machine designed for remorseless action. It will destroy the Home Fleet and then your homeworld. I am sad, as this is too much like my last days as flesh and blood against the Swarm. I do not wish to relive such a horrible event.”
“If you’re not going to help us fight, then let Dana and me off. We plan to attack the planet-killer with everything in us.”
“No!” Galyan said.
“You’re making us prisoners again?” Valerie asked, surprised at his vehemence.
“No, no, you misunderstand me. I…” Galyan looked away, silent for a time. Finally, the AI said, “I have been alone for six thousand years. With my former intellect, I could maintain computing balance. With my new, heightened awareness, I cannot bear another six thousand years all alone with only my thoughts.”
“So you want to keep Dana and me as pets?” Valerie asked.
“You continue to attempt to wound with words. I recognize the tactic. I have seen you humans practice it on each other. I dearly wish you would not do that to me. You are my friend, Valerie. I have so few friends in this cold universe. I do not want to lose those I have. Maddox, Meta, Keith and Riker are gone. You cannot leave me now. You must keep my company for as many years as you have left.”
The lieutenant blinked in shock. Valerie hadn’t expected this. She knew what it meant only having a handful of friends. Sometimes, she hadn’t even had that many. Instead of being angry with Galyan’s talk of running out, she began to feel sorry for the ancient intelligence.
“This is interesting,” Galyan said. “My words have a struck a chord.”
“Are you a mind-reader?”
“That power is beyond me. No. I observe your mannerisms and match them against my known parameters concerning you. Your present posture and facial expressions tell me you are feeling sympathy toward me. That is fading as I explain this. Why is that, Valerie?”
She shrugged. “I supposed I don’t like a soulless machine cataloging me so carefully and accurately. It gives me the creeps.”
“I see. You are not like Captain Maddox, who prefers strict truth. You wish to hold certain illusions. I find that interesting, these differences among humans.”
The lieutenant didn’t care for alien psychoanalysis. “How about we help the fleet, huh? That’s what we came to Earth to do.”
Galyan faced the main screen. “You have misunderstood me. I will fight the planet-killer by staying alive and looking for ways to defeat it. However, for your sake, I will remain with the fleet for the first round. As we’ve talked, I have been listening to the comm-chatter around me. You humans lack comm-security as we Adoks practiced against the Swarm. The Lord High Admiral is about to attempt an interesting tactic. It is revolutionary, to say the least. He had hoped to save this as a surprise for the next encounter with the New Men’s invasion armada. But now he will use it against the doomsday machine.”
“What are we going to do?” Valerie asked.
“I have stoked your interest, yes?”
“Will you quit bragging already? Are you going to tell me what’s going on or not?”
“Let us observe the tactic as it occurs. I find it is more enjoyable to communicate than remain alone with my thoughts. I have many thoughts, Valerie. They never cease except when I communicate with one of my friends. Then a process from the engrams of Driving Force Galyan takes hold of me. Don’t you think that is interesting?”
Valerie did figure that was interesting. There was something else, too. Galyan needed her, genuinely needed her. The lieutenant smiled, liking that.
“You’re something else, Galyan. Do you know that?”
“I am unique. I am the last of the Adoks.”
“That you are. Now, it’s time to go to work. Let’s join the main fleet as they begin their maneuvers against the doomsday machine.”
“Affirmative,” Galyan said.
***
Sometime later, Valerie studied the screen. Starship Victory sped toward Cook’s main concentration of battleships, which had already left the Moon far behind.
The doomsday machine still hadn’t reached Mars’ orbital path, but it was rapidly building velocity.
A mothership among the fleet’s most forward warships launched two special jumpfighters. Instead of missiles, those two held space marines, the ones O’Hara had told Maddox were coming as reinforcements.
“Special ops,” Valerie said. “I hope the pilots are as good as Keith.”
As she watched, both jumpfighters folded space, disappearing from view.
“I will use full magnification so we can witness their success,” Galyan said.
Valerie waited. It would take several minutes for the images of what happened out there to reach here at light speed. Finally, the lieutenant saw them again.
The first jumpfighter appeared too near the neutroium hull. The tiny craft had forward momentum and crashed against the doomsday machine. Debris scattered and drifted away like flotsam, including slowly squirming bodies. The second jumpfighter appeared much farther out. It would take the craft time to reach the planet-killer.
“Notice to your left on the machine,” Galyan said. The AI used a red circle to highlight a tiny area of the hull. A plate slid aside on the neutroium armor. A gleaming cannon poked out. It expelled small rounds of matter.
“What are those?” Valerie asked.
“According to my sensors,” Galyan said, “the cannon is a rail-gun. Those must be proximity shells.”
The second jumpfighter exploded under the quick barrage of doomsday rounds. The debris scattered more slowly, but this time included pieces of armored space marines.
Valerie felt a hollow pit in her stomach. Keith had proven himself the better pilot. Maddox wasn’t going to get any reinforcements. He’d have to do this on his own.
The lieutenant waited for Galyan to make one of his soulless comments. Instead, the holoimage remained silent.
“Well?” she finally asked.
“I am observing a moment of sadness for the dead,” Galyan said. “They gambled their lives for their world. It is a pity they died so uselessly.”
“War is Hell,” Valerie said.