The Brutus Code
Chapter 16: Breadcrumbs and Sleeping Beauties

The face in the mirror lied. He tried to claim this face for years. It resisted. Now it snarled back at him. It was only in his quarters, in this mirror, that he could even trust to let the face show itself. David Judson’s face could have been pleasant. Looking at it now, the eyes were glassy, but functional. The mouth was drawn up in a snarl, and the jaw was tightly clinched. It was hard on this body, and he wanted this body to last, at least a little longer than the last one. It took a lot of energy to hate that much.

The door buzzer sounded. This was new. He had a lady caller. Of course that was a pretense, too. She came to his quarters because he summoned her. Cassie was all his, body and soul. She was his angel of death. He didn’t have to control her or subdue her. She volunteered. And he knew she arrived before she did. He knew it all, and it wasn’t enough. Or was it too much? There were new gaps in his interface. They would fill in, in time.

Brutus composed the face he wore. He rubbed the jaw to get the muscles to relax. The legs walked the body to the door. The arm raised the hand to access the handle and Brutus opened the door.

Cassie stood, resplendently nude. Oh, she really didn’t stand there like any other woman might have in just her skin. Cassie had none left. She wore a titanium coated structure that gleamed in the light. The form of her body copied that of the human woman she had been, but this body was nothing like what she had once.

“It is not becoming to show off like this, Cassiopeia,” Brutus stated as he ushered her into the bedchamber. Despite being almost completely mechanical, she still affected a slink, so Cassie slinked into the room. She really wanted to impress Brutus. He gave her a place and a purpose. When she sat down, she lounged back into the plush chair, commanding any mere male’s attention with her femininity, if there had been any mere males in the room.

Brutus was not anyone. David noted all of her behavior and Brutus noted David’s reaction, pity. This was not the reaction that Brutus hoped for. In the past, bringing women to the room this way had activated different parts of the human body. This pity had nothing he could use for his purpose.

“Cassiopeia, our fleet has launched and will arrive at Oberon soon,” Brutus began. “Your function is simple. Make sure that the cargo is delivered to the destinations. They are slaved to a master control. You will have access to it and now can interface. Do you understand?” Cassie’s face mimicked the grin that Brutus could not coax from David’s face. She nodded but remained silent.

“Good. Review the destinations and check our supply. Once we have inoculated the cargo, they must proceed to their function,” Brutus finished. But he added as she left, “Your upgrades seem to work well. Remember, we affect to be human. Wear clothes.” Mortified, she left.

Exhausted from controlling David’s body, Brutus retired to his chamber, plugged in and rested the body. His mind floated free to attend to the function.

“A five day hop and stop number seventeen,” Agnes pronounced as the Swift entered another system from the outskirts of the Frontier. “It’s a good thing the Swift is such a sturdy ship. Alfred, any signal from your Beta copy?”

“Nothing. I’ll start our search pattern,” Alfred informed her. “And the ship holds together because you are constantly keeping the systems up. Tommy never spent as much time with the engines as you do. I think you have increased efficiency by twenty percent over the factory specifications.” Agnes was sure that she heard his tone of voice edging into irritation. If Alfred were fully human, not a virtual human artificial intelligence, Agnes would be anxious.

Even at that she snapped back, “I’m not Tommy. I have to run a tight, efficient ship for him.” She paused. “Anything yet?”

“No. We need to move another four light hours out and wait an hour,” Alfred reminded her of their search pattern. Alfred Beta, his copy, sent out a radio signal at each stop, giving the next destination. He had explained that the instructions are sent to each ship, as they are needed. His copy had to wait until just prior to the jump so they wouldn’t get caught. The radio signal traveling at the speed of light would always be available at each destination. They just had to travel out far enough to catch it.

“Are we getting any closer?” she asked.

“Yes, we’ve cut almost a whole day of searching for the signal. We can’t risk getting much closer or we’ll be right on top of them and our chances of capture increase,” Alfred replied. Even as an AI, Alfred worried about Tommy. They had followed his trail for more than a month. Sometimes Alfred was jealous Tommy slept through this whole trip. But Tommy was safe for the moment.

“Hey, I’ve got the signal,” Alfred shared.

“We are getting closer. I’ll reset the engines and let Dr. Ann know.” Agnes stopped at the hatch of the cockpit and turned to where Alfred’s media unit was plugged into its console. She observed this habit when she wanted deal directly with Alfred. “Alfred. We are a team. Thanks for being here.” She had shared this sentiment before.

Alfred responded as he always did, “Yes, we are a good team. We’ll find him.”

With her eyes shut tight, the light shone too bright. Tania moaned and tried to lift her arm to cover her eyes as she squeezed them shut. Her mouth felt like she swallowed a whole package of cotton balls, and her head pounded. The light bleeding through her closed eyelids was painful. But no matter how much she tried, her arms would not respond, and her eyes remained closed. Her eyes, which now that she thought about it, felt like a load of sand had been dumped into them. They itched.

“Sorry about the light and pain. I had to rush your reboot,” a familiar voice said. “Don’t try to talk just yet. You’ve still got a few minutes to recover.”

What did she mean, a few minutes to recover from this pain? That must have been some party, Tania thought. Tania relaxed with a deep breathing exercise she mastered in college. It had come in handy before those lecture classes the mornings after she’d gone to those parties. Tania realized that it wasn’t a party. No party was as scary or as serious as what had happened to her.

The light went away. “Here, drink this. Slowly,” the voice prompted. Tania felt a straw gently touch her lips. She accepted the liquid, and as it hit her stomach, she began to feel much better. Until she remembered more.

Like a good soldier, she reviewed what she knew. She was trapped, unable to move, in a strange place and blind. She remembered vague figures and arms hovering over her. She had been in an automated medical unit. That’s it. They prepped her for something and done something on her upper left chest near her shoulder. Right now, that same spot hurt. A readout appeared in her visual field accessing her condition.

“Wait,” Tania creaked out a whisper. “What am I seeing? Not rigged for combat data?”

“You’ve been ‘rigged’ for it now, agent Smith,” the voice informed her. This scared her. “Come now, let’s sit up and try to open those eyes.” The voice sounded concerned. Now it clicked. That was Admiral Sutton’s voice. But she shouldn’t be here. Why was that?

Tania put the pieces of her brain back together as the pain behind her eyes subsided. She had embarked on a mission to discover the central location of a terrorist group she had discovered while tracking a mailman. All of her data analysis had sent her to a tattoo parlor on the space settlement community of New Paris between the Frontier and the Fringe.

She opened her eyes and blinked out the ’sand. She turned her head to Sutton with accusation in those same eyes. “You knew that I’d follow up on my data. I was a pawn. Were my promotions even real?”

Danielle Sutton smiled back at her, “You are good at analysis. I’d say you’re the best I’ve ever worked with. Your experience as a field agent is only average. You’ve gotten further than any other field agent, however, by your good intel.” She explained quickly as she pulled out a biometric patch and placed it on Tania’s chest. “You went looking for additional data and got caught up in its net. Our foe recruits through the tattoo parlor and others like it.” Now Sutton pulled out a tablet, connected it to the patch and started a program. Tania’s shoulder stung. “Hold still, this will hurt a lot.”

“What are you doing?”

“Part of your undercover data is the tattoo. It’s more than it appears.”

Tania, still recovering, simply gestured for Sutton to continue as the pain in her shoulder stung more. It wasn’t bad enough to pass out. Tania had training in controlling pain. It was basic to all undergrad battlefield courses. But the pain came pretty close to her passing out threshold. She was getting nauseous.

Sutton saw the pain on Tania’s face, but couldn’t spare the time to slow down the process or her explanation. She pressed on with the mission summary to date. “You’ve been more than four months in hibernation transit. Your tattoo is biomechanical and contains control circuits to pass data to your brain. You’ve been programmed.”

Tania interrupted, “We need that code. Are you deleting it?” She winced as a fresh sting of pain erupted from her chest.

Ignoring Tania’s pain, Sutton pressed on. “You’re right, we need it and we need to know what it does, but I won’t risk losing you.” Sutton lifted Tania’s chin and looked squarely in her eyes. “You really are the best analyst we have. No one got further than you in cracking this terrorist ring. You deserve your promotions.” Then Sutton smiled, “We’ll work on infiltration techniques when we get out of here.”

“Still, don’t delete it!” Tania insisted.

“I’m not. I’m installing a shell code that will filter the interface so you can retain control. You are still undercover. And so am I, now.” Sutton pulled down her pants. A reaper and scythe tattoo adorned her right hip. “Mine is an imitation. We will need you and your tattoo to access this base. You left a good trail. I followed it. But we need to go deeper, find their plan and stop it. If we can,” she finished.

“Oh, is that all.” Tania smirked. The sting subsided and the HUD on her vision field streamed fresh data. She received data, but did not transmit it.

“We’ll have some help,” Sutton said as Tania raised an eyebrow.

That’s when they heard the seal of another casket being breached in a rack below them.

Tommy opened his eyes. He remembered everything. That was a relief. He had a fleeting moment of panic that he would wake up like Agnes with no idea as to whom he was and what he needed to do. “Alfred?” Tommy whispered, remembering where he should be.

“Relax,” Alfred Beta transmitted to Tommy’s earbud. “You are almost restored. Let’s do a physical check. Please follow my instructions. Wiggle your left toes.” Tommy did this inside the casket. “Good, now your right.” Again Tommy exercised his toes. “Make a fist with your right hand. And with your left.” Tommy did this as well. “Good, now take a deep breath, pause for a count of three and let it out.” Tommy did as Alfred asked. “Everything is looking good so far. Let’s open your eyes, slowly,” Alfred advised.

Tommy’s eyes fluttered open. “Ah, Alfred, there is nothing. I can’t see anything,” Tommy said. The icy fingers a panic crept into his mind.

“Of course not, it’s dark in here,” Alfred teased.

“Very funny. I see your copy got the Alpha’s sense of humor.”

“Yup. Really though, we’ll take this slowly. There isn’t much light in the cabin, but I’ll change the opacity of the casket lid until you can see the environment. You may be surprised,” Alfred shared.

Tommy waited with his eyes open. “How long?” he asked Alfred.

“Almost three months,” Alfred answered.

As the lid cleared, Tommy saw the racks of caskets around him. The caskets were packed tightly with walkways on the exterior of the bay and passing down the center of it. Other caskets slid out on runners to gain access to them. The dim light in the cargo bay was coming from the casket systems themselves. A glow from the walls cast shadows around him. He saw a bright pin light several rows above him on a walkway. Tommy’s casket was buried deep inside the stack. If he were to get out he would need to be slid to the center aisle and lowered.

“Alfred, how are we getting out?” Tommy asked.

“My avatars may be trapped inside this casket with you, but my cyber self has been busy infiltrating the ship’s systems.” As Alfred explained, Tommy felt the caskets shift around him. Not quite as he finished, but soon after, Alfred opened Tommy’s lid and he emerged from his tomb. “Now things get interesting,” Alfred announced. “We have visitors.”

Two stacks above and next to the wall, Tommy heard voices. The pin lights moved across the catwalk, but not quickly. Tommy pulled out his goo gun and moved in as much of a crouch as his protesting muscles would allow after three months of hibernation.

Alfred’s avatar opened the access panel and removed the media units. He inserted one into a slot on its back, the other he stashed in a bag and slung it under the body of the spider. “Those are new,” Tommy subvocalized over their link.

“I had a lot of time on my hands, so I learned to knit out of spare wire while you took your nap,” Alfred Beta signaled back. “The slot gives me direct access from the media unit to the spider. The other allows me to carry stuff.”

“Good ideas.” Tommy replied. He climbed ladders that led to the next level. Alfred’s avatar scaled the rack’s two levels and approached the lights from the opposite side of that walkway.

Tommy rounded a corner with his weapon raised in a ready stance. He prepared to fire, but was surprised by what he found. Admiral Sutton sat on the walkway cradling a young woman in her arms.

“Hello, Captain Judson.” The Admiral addressed Tommy with his formal military and postal rank.

“Admiral Sutton,” Tommy nodded his head in greeting. “So, I’m to assume that this is about more than finding my mother among a bunch of pirates.”

“Yes, but you knew all of that,” she said. Tania Smith turned over in the Admiral’s lap to look at Tommy and vomited down the grid of the walkway. “We need your help,” Sutton said as Tania continued to dry heave.

Alfred Prime sat in front of his wall of virtual monitors. He processed incoming data from the Swift’s systems, reviewed data from the system dump of information and watched over Agnes as she’d gone EVA to tune one of the smaller A/W engines. Mostly, he waited.

They had moved out seven light days from their current system to catch Alfred Beta’s signal. Apparently, the pirates had made a quick stop here and moved on. So, they had missed the signal and moved out further to catch it. This also meant they would take more time to find the signal. So far, they had spent a week looking for it.

They had all gotten into a routine when they waited. Alfred reviewed data, Agnes fixed something and Dr. Ann Ai busied herself adapting first aid kits into surgical tools. She had been good at this out on the Fringe while stationed on the MOM.

Agnes dropped a Quick Response code reader, and it began to float away. “Agnes, are you okay?” Alfred signaled. He sent a spider to retrieve the QR reader.

“Yes, my mind just isn’t in the work,” Agnes signaled back. “This drive needs tuned, but on most ships, it wouldn’t even be touched.” The spider returned the QR reader to her, and she continued with her work.

“Yes, I keep reviewing the same data, and I’m no closer to discovering anything new to help us track Annie or Tommy,” Alfred confided. This was also part of their new routine. Alfred and Agnes would discuss their thoughts, hoping to spark a new approach to finding Tommy as they waited for the next breadcrumb. They both harbored a fear that Tommy and Alfred Beta had been found out and the breadcrumbs would disappear.

“We’ve got to keep trying.” She scanned a coded part and reviewed the data. Inserting a probe, she made the adjustment and moved on to the next part and scanned it.

Alfred made the observation, “It’s been my experience that your family is very stubborn.”

“What are you talking about?”

“As an Artificial Intelligence, I can use the processing and logic that comes from being a program. I can also rely on my coding to emulate human responses,” he explained. “So I have observed that your family pursues an objective long past where others would have given up. Even past the point where probability of success has fallen below reasonable parameters.”

“Maybe that’s Tommy you’ve been around too much,” Agnes suggested.

“You’re worse.” Alfred stated.

Taken aback by his blunt statement, Agnes was at a loss how to respond. All she could do was babble a few nonsense syllables in response until finally she came up with, “Say’s you.”

“Exactly.” Alfred acknowledged his correct assessment of Agnes. “I’m glad you can recognize this trait. Now, as I review your success rate in task and ability to move beyond the obvious, I for one, see this as a good thing.”

Agnes paused in her task. “Thanks, Alfred.” She continued to scan the next QR code, this time on a coupling she didn’t trust to be torqued properly shut. As she reviewed the data, she glanced back at the QR code on the side of the part. Instead of the usual square pattern, she saw the reaper and scythe tattoo. Agnes closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Fearing that this could be a symptom of her continued hibernation recovery, she opened her eyes and looked again. It was still there. In fact, they were everywhere she looked.

“Dr. Ann, are you monitoring?” Agnes whispered into her suit’s mic.

“Yes, always. On all of your EVAs,” Dr. Ann Ai responded in Agnes’ earbud.

“I’m having a little visual problem here.” Agnes worked to keep the note of panic out of her voice.

“Your heart rate and respiration are up. I also read an adrenalin spike in your systems. I’m increasing your oxygen mix. Just take deep even breaths,” Dr. Ann instructed.

“Agnes,” Alfred was back on the link. “I’m bringing you in.”

“No, I’ve got to finish this engine, or it will be out of balance,” Agnes said in protest.

“Thus proves my point. We need you. So, don’t be stubborn right now. My avatars will complete your adjustments. You are coming in now. Just relax.”

Agnes blinked her eyes and stared at the engine parts in front of her. The reaper had disappeared. All the QR codes looked normal. They were fuzzy, but normal. “Yes, please bring me in.” Agnes didn’t have to be strong for Dr. Ann and Alfred. Man, she really missed Tommy right now. She could be strong for him. At least he made her feel that way and didn’t pretend that he didn’t gain strength for her.

In the medical bay, Dr. Ann completed her examination of Agnes. “Everything seems normal now, but I still want you to take it easy for the next couple of days.” She continued firmly, “No EVAs.”

“Yes, ma’am. But what was it I saw?” Agnes had explained what happened during her exam.

“Give me a moment,” Alfred said. “I’ve got it. We will need to adjourn to the common room.” Which meant Agnes needed to move. Dr. Ann followed in a medical avatar.

In the common room, Alfred waited in his hologram. Agnes made herself comfortable, and Dr. Ann dressed her avatar in a hologram as well, but remained standing.

Alfred began, “Agnes, you’ve done it again.” Agnes gave him a quizzical look. He continued, “Your brain may be a mishmash of memories, but your cognitive processes have always been clear. This time, though, your brain needed its memories to process a leap in logic.”

“Alfred, I’m not sure I follow, yet,” Agnes confessed. Dr. Ann remained silent but nodded in agreement with Agnes.

“That’s fine. I’ll show you, but I must slow it down and isolate it.” Alfred created a blank wall where he could project information. “Agnes had her hallucination when she was scanning QR codes which hold data. We know that each of the pirates have a tattoo, also known as a stamp. A QR code is a stamp of data.” Alfred paused for them to follow his reasoning, and they did.

“The tattoos are QR codes on the pirates. Like they are some kind of manufactured product?” Dr. Ann asked.

“More actually. A QR code holds, well, code. Individually, the tattoo has identifying code attached to each pirate. It also contains program data.” He had lost them again. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the FɪndNøvel.ɴᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Right, Alfred, I get that. But to what purpose?” Agnes understood the purpose of a QR code but did not see the connection between that and how it could be used for humans.

“Watch, I’ll show you.” Alfred continued his explanation. “When you hallucinated, I believe you had put this together. So, I performed an experiment. I used a QR code reader subroutine and examined our database of the tattoos.” He displayed a tattoo, and the code reader interpreted the data for them. It was in binary, zeroes and ones.

“Now, a single tattoo has limited capacity, and several may give you a single line of program code. But we have a database of thousands of tattoos, and it doesn’t even crack the total that may be out there. Plus, there should be backup and redundancy in any good code. Especially a code this complex.” Now Alfred’s flare for the dramatic was showing.

“You’ve got our attention, oh great Alfred. What rabbit are you going to pull out of your hat?” Agnes asked.

“That is a very relevant choice of words, Agnes. I’ve isolated the database and QR subroutine. Dr. Ann, please install this filter in your optic pickups.” Alfred shunted a filter program to her, which she installed. The program manifested itself as a pair of sunglasses. Alfred also donned a pair for himself. “Now watch what happens as I scan all the tattoos in the database and the QR reader builds the code it is reading. Remember, we’ve already seen the pattern that orders the tattoos with the rocket ship flying across the sky.”

On the wall, pirate’s tattoos appeared, first slowly, then at an increased rate. At first nothing seemed to happen. Then after several thousand had already been scanned, a ghostly image formed in the room behind Alfred.

“Alfred, behind you. What is it?” Dr. Ann exclaimed.

Behind Alfred, a large rounded grey green blob formed and then showed legs, arms and a face full of warts. Alfred froze the scan and the program it had built. He turned to the image and examined it more closely. It wore a leather skirt and sandals as well as a leather breastplate. Where the body was fairly easy to see, the beginnings of weapons had formed as vague images.

“I believe we’ve met the Ogre before. Allow me to introduce Brutus. That name was imbedded in the code this time. And those vague weapons that are forming will cause great damage to any Ai it encounters.”

“What does this mean?” asked Dr. Ann.

“It means we have a name and a face for the enemy,” Agnes concluded.

“I’m afraid it’s worse than that. This Ai exists not on a single storage unit or console. And even if it has virtual electronic backup copies, which we can hunt down and destroy, it has backed itself up on human flesh and looks to be disseminating itself across the galaxy.”

Agnes did the quick math, “But that would take years, centuries even.”

“Think about your own hibernation, Agnes.” Alfred stated. “It is an Ai. Whatever its endgame is, it has all the time it wants to take, and we’d probably never know.”

“Wait, it’s already shown an urgency. All the increased pirate activity we’ve seen, kidnapping Annie, and that huge fleet full of caskets, shows something is up. Something is changing.” Agnes was now putting pieces together and becoming emphatic.

During the lull in the conversation as they all processed this discovery, Alfred interjected, “Whatever that is, we’ve just received our next destination from Alfred Beta. I’m laying in the coordinates now.”

The frozen ghost of the Ogre, Brutus, still hung in the room. Agnes stood to examine it and her own thoughts more closely. “Alfred, we know this Ogre. This was Cassius Brutus, the settlements’ governing Ai.”

“This is a corrupted code of the original.” Alfred put up an image of Cassius Brutus the Roman general. “What could have happened? Its primary function would have been to protect the settlement and manage its resources,” Alfred observed.

“I might know. Wait here.” Agnes dashed off to her quarters and returned quickly. She pulled out her childhood tablet that she had recovered from the doomed settlement. She docked it to the ship’s access terminal and displayed it on Alfred’s wall. “Alfred, we’ll need to isolate this unit as well, please.” He took care to erect firewalls around the data.

Agnes ran through lists of file names on the screen. She found a folder labeled BRUTUS. Inside, there were logs. She explained, “I saw this, but haven’t had time to look any deeper. Alfred, could you scan the files for any pertinent data?”

“And done,” Alfred informed them. “Agnes, there are several logs here covering some years prior to the settlement’s exodus. The logs chronicle your brother’s research into human biomechanical interfaces and cyber human integration. All part of Zephyr’s research to help veterans of the Wars recover from their injuries. The more recent diverge from the original research down a dangerous path. The last entry is directed at you specifically. If you had more of your memories, it might be unbearable, and I would not watch it.”

“As it is, I don’t have my memories, and so it will just be painful?” she asked. “Is that it?”

“Yes.”

“Show me,” Agnes ordered.

Albert projected Jasper’s last log, dated the day he evacuated the settlement, on the wall.

“Agnes. First of all, I’m sorry,” the image of her brother began. “If you review the previous logs, you’ll see I was wrong, very wrong. I thought I’d found a breakthrough in my research and took a chance to integrate Ai personalities and their computational abilities into the human brain. It didn’t work out the way I thought it would.”

Jasper’s face contorted in pain. “I don’t have much time before he takes over again. Don’t trust Dad. He’s infected, too.” Jasper shook his head and wiped back tears. “He tried to help me recover myself at the end and only got caught in it. BRUTUS is alive. He’s alive because he has our Family DNA code. The Brutus code was integrated with new biomechanical processers attached to my DNA. I used this as a template to integrate him into my own brain.”

Jasper pulled back a part of his scalp and showed where circuits were actually growing. “It took over. I can’t control it. It gets tired and has limits. There are times when it can’t see I’ve been working on a solution. Everything is in this file except the key code. You already know it. But I’ve got to make sure you know how to execute it. The virus must be inserted into the BRUTUS core processor. Copies won’t work, it must be the original coded unit for the Ai. Then sing the key. Just start like we always did…” The file corrupted.

“Alfred can we recover any more?” Agnes asked quietly.

“It clears up several seconds later and is only this,” Alfred played the last recording of her brother. The digital static cleared enough to make out his face. It stared into the pickup. He was in pain. His face contorted, and he screamed. Jasper desperately reached for a large syringe and, ripping open his shirt, stabbed it into his stomach. The muscles rippled and the dark image of the Zephyr logo appeared. Jasper had biomechanical circuits buried in his abdomen. Then he grabbed something out of frame and yanked. The screen went dead.

“That was this storage stick.” Agnes indicated the stick attached to her tablet.

“Agnes,” Alfred quarried. She looked up into his hologram eyes. “There is a text file on here with coordinates for Zephyr holdings. Your brother highlighted three and left a footnote, ‘Brutus Hubs’. I believe he gave us Tommy’s location. We can reach these faster than following the trail and maybe intercept them.”

Alfred put up a star map and indicated the three systems flashing red. One was in the Fringe, one in the Frontier, and one in the Central Systems. “What’s that?” Agnes noticed a fourth system flashing green.

“That is the Home system. This was on the file, but there was no indication why,” Alfred informed her.

She examined the locations while the star map posted navigational data next to each one. Agnes ended on the green system, Sol. “We’re going here. The Home system.”

“Agnes?” Alfred questioned.

“A leap, Alfred, but one with reason. There are patterns of conquest in these locations. Overlay pirate incidents, especially those with the identifying tattoos and you’ll see the center of the map is the Home system.” Alfred did this, and she was correct. “It’s a long trip,” Agnes continued. “I better have an activation code by the time we get there.”

“Let’s go fight the Ogre,” Alfred enthused as he cleared the holograms from the common room and the Ogre faded away.

Cassie reclined in a medical chair surrounded by data feeds. She was wired into data ports, and her eyes stared forward. They were both sensor pods and there was no light in them. What she saw was beyond the immediate surroundings and far beyond what her flesh eyes had ever seen.

That’s what she liked. She was beyond her human body. She didn’t feel pain. Cassie could out perform the greatest athletes. She saw further than the sharpest marksmen. Her titanium body was virtually indestructible. She had expanded her mind in ways unimaginable. With all the feeds, her brain managed millions of combatants, ships, and weapons. She commanded it all with merely a thought.

Cassie had a regret. She had not attracted Brutus’ affection. Yes, he trusted her. She wanted to please him like no one else. He had given her more than she ever imagined. She now had a totally rebuilt body beyond her old tech and beyond her useless flesh. She had finally lost all outward vestiges of humanity. But she was still looking for affection.

As she lounged back organizing the ships entering Home system and coordinating the cargo transfers, she still admired the sleek lines of her body. She needlessly hid it in under clothing. Brutus had been right, too. The subordinates were distracted by her nudity. Now, she wore a stylized uniform as befit her rank, general. She still preferred the beauty of her shining silver lines, mimicking her former human form. Like many femme fatales before, her most deadly weapons lay hidden beneath the surface of her body. In this body that meant real weapons not just metaphor. The most deadly was her mind. The only original part left was her human brain and much of that had been replaced and transferred to other storage and processing media to enhance the biological component. Somehow, she still possessed her emotions.

If she executed her new duties as Brutus’ general, she might finally win affection. Which brought her full attention back to those duties. She did not have to devote her full attention to them. A tenth of her concentration she used to manage the incoming ship traffic and cargo off load. But she reveled in the grand function.

An anomaly came to her attention. There was a backup in off loading one ship. She rerouted other ships to a different bay. By the time she returned her attention to the backup, a subroutine cleared it up, and the caskets were once again flowing along the line. Each one held a recruit, tattooed and fully reprogrammed with the function. There were over seven million and the number was climbing.

Cassie reflected they had a better life ahead of them than where they were found. Most had been liberated from settlements where they had slaved in miserable conditions for the overlords of industry. Some had been recruited willingly from the slums of the Central Systems. All had their brains wiped and their personalities replaced with the clean simple purpose.

“Close call,” Tommy said from behind his helmet.

“Yes, too close,” Sutton agreed from behind hers. Tania scanned her tattoo at the next hatch.

They followed the cargo off the ship as it docked. It was their caskets that set off the alarm and stopped the line. Each casket on their ship contained the body of a pirate. When the caskets were inspected and found empty, it created an anomaly that the cargo Ai was unable to handle. It only took Alfred nanoseconds to create false records of a malfunction and ejection of the two bodies. The subroutine that Alfred Beta used was programed to save the resources of the caskets and dump the refuge of a biological component like dead pirates.

Tommy understood what Alfred had done. But he reviewed the log to make it look like he cleared up the jam. Otherwise it would have given away Alfred’s true nature as a self-aware intelligence, not just an Ai program.

As they continued deeper into the complex on the Uranus moon, Oberon, they passed very few humans. All the pirates proudly showed their tattoos. Tania and Sutton opened their black uniforms to follow suit. Tommy didn’t have to since his, although a fake created by Alfred from components in the caskets, was plastered to his face. Their uniforms had been borrowed from three, now uncomfortable, pirates stuffed in a storage locker.

Finally, they found a secluded terminal that Tania accessed. She put her analysis talents to work. First, she traced the data flow throughout the complex. “This place covers almost half the surface of this moon,” she commented as she scanned the data. Next, she looked for utility usage, power, water, and air. Most of the complex was airless, but there was a central hub through which all the resources were routed.

Tommy watched out a window overlooking the docking field. It stretched out over acres of the surface. The blue light of Uranus colored the ships and field crews unloading them on this end of the field with its gentle blue light. The wall of the crater, Hamlet, in which the complex was built, shadowed the far edge of the field. Just on the edge of Tommy’s vision, he saw the ships being loaded with cargo. Caskets that had been processed were loaded, and the ships launched for other destinations.

As Tania worked on her trace, Tommy watched a smaller ship appear and land in the center of the crater. Service vehicles moved out to meet it. Interstellar ships all had a similar look. This one was no exception. Still something nagged at Tommy as he watched. Then his attention was drawn back inside the room.

Tania slammed her hand down on the console in frustration. “I’m finding no reference to Dr. Annie Judson in any of these systems.” She cringed and continued, “Those people are being processed, and there is no record here of how or why.”

“We’ve got two objectives, find out what’s going on here and why.” Sutton iterated her orders.

“Tommy, I’d bet currency that whatever is happening, your mother is in the middle of it. These are medical caskets with bodies loaded and ready for something, and she is a foremost mind on viral infection. She is also a member of the Zephyr family,” Alfred suggested over Tommy’s earbud.

“Follow the bodies,” Tommy said. In the presence of Admiral Sutton and Agent Smith, he reverted to brief phrases again. “Answers.”

“Maybe you should have stayed in those coffins,” Sutton suggested in frustration now, too.

“Caskets,” Tommy corrected.

“Yes, caskets. Alright, Captain, give me your recommendations on how to infiltrate this facility,” Sutton ordered.

“Divide and conquer,” Tommy said. “I’ll follow caskets. Smith follows data flow.”

“Yes,” agreed Tania. “I’m best equipped to find the data hub. We can tap their command systems for routing orders and cargo manifest. There should be destination records there as well.”

Sutton saw the logic. “If we take out that hub, we jamb up the whole works and maybe shut this place down.” She smiled realizing for the first time that Tommy had just turned her rescue operation for Tania into a full assault. They had surprise, and if they could stay concealed long enough, they might just stop the next war. “Let’s make this happen,” she said in her accustomed tone of command.

Tania was happy to have her there to make decisions. She was more comfortable tracking down data and providing options. This Judson guy was still a mystery. She didn’t have enough data to see where he fit into the scheme of things. True, she tracked his data across the Frontier and through the Fringe. He seemed to be in all the wrong places at the right time, which set off alarms for Tania. But Sutton knew him and seemed to trust him. She bent her head to her work to find the data hub’s location.

Tommy searched for a closet. While he did, he asked Alfred to do his best to follow the caskets. A schematic showed on his helmet HUD. “Good, now can you create a maintenance problem and route us there quickly?” Tommy found a custodial closet. He pulled out a tool kit from a locker that he had just unsecured with a kick.

“Right away,” Alfred acknowledged. He scanned the tool kit id tag. Tommy used its assigned technician’s credentials to set up access to the system while he sent that tech on a long wild goose chase. “Got the location and transportation set up, Tommy. You need to fake a little system access to make this work for Sutton and Smith,” Alfred suggested.

Tommy accessed the console next to Tania. She only glanced at what he was doing. Being no stranger to coding himself, Tommy could access mapping and maintenance routing subroutines to duplicate some of Alfred’s work. Alfred brought up work orders and the tracking information from Tommy’s casket to trace the route it would have taken if Tommy were still in it. Tommy, for his part, set up a trace for patient zed. Tania found, searching for his mother, there was no trace of a specific patient designation. When he widened his parameter to any diseased patient, he got a single hit. It confirmed Alfred’s supposition on the location of Annie Judson. Once Tommy felt satisfied that he knew the route and systems they needed to access once there, he played his role. “Found it,” he said as he stepped back to show the route map and a work order to fix a broken pipe in the casket processing facility.

“Wow, that’s good,” Tania was impressed with Tommy’s skills. Sutton also let loose a low whistle as she reviewed what they set up in a short amount of time.

“I see you’ve got what you need. Good luck,” Sutton said as she gave Tommy a quick nod of approval. He turned and disappeared out the hatch to the corridor. “I’ve always regretted losing him to the Postal Service.” She turned her attention to Tania. “We have that hub yet?”

“I’ve got a generalized location, but I also have an identity, Cassiopeia Anderson.” Tania realized that the hub was not a computer unit, but a person. “This will be dangerous,” she observed. “A biomechanical interface with a human means unpredictability.”

“You mean more danger than we are already in?” Sutton asked slyly. “I’ve fought humans before. They can be overwhelmed.” She glanced at the monitor screen as Tania transferred the information to their combat suit systems and commented, “Looks like a long walk. We can decide how to deal with what once we get there.” She didn’t need to add ‘if’ they get there past all the patrols and personnel, the scanners and locked hatches. Sutton was a religious woman. As a soldier, she believed in miracles. She had already been praying, now she prayed harder.

David’s eyes flashed open with shock. Brutus was wholly focused on the incoming data stream. He spoke his thoughts aloud through David’s mouth despite his cybernetic control, “It can’t be her. She’s been dead for sixty years.”

Agnes sat in the Swift’s common room quietly waiting. A full hour had passed since Alfred piloted the Swift in for a spectacular landing in the middle of Hamlet crater docking field on the Uranus moon of Oberon. It was a grand bit of daring due as the ship exploded out of folded space just miles above the crater and settled, neat as you please, in the center of the field. Landing support vehicles at once rolled out and tethered the ship. Then they waited. There was no query from a flight control station. Nothing.

Agnes had stumped them and let them stew in it. This ship had been traced across the galaxy and routed the pirates out of two systems. It had to be known by the pirates. Now it brazenly landed center field of their most secret operation.

Sitting in the common room wearing her freshly pressed PS Swift flight suit Agnes composed herself. “It’s time. Everybody ready?” Agnes asked her cyber cohorts. When all had signaled affirmative, she gave a nod. “Alright, Alfred, I’m ready for my close up. Open communications.”

The green light on Alfred’s console glowed as Agnes began, “This is Agnes Zephyr commanding the Postal Courier Swift.” She stood and stepped closer to the visual pickup. “I am here to see Cassius Brutus Beta Ai.” Agnes used his formal designation that no one should have known. Now she got creative and provoked in a singsong voice, “Come out, come out wherever you are.”

She immediately got the reaction she had been looking for when the channel opened with a response. A woman’s voice ordered, “Swift, stand by to be boarded. Any resistance will be met with deadly force.”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Agnes replied while she was desperately praying that this would work.

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