Chapter 9

Work carried on apace over the next few weeks — for Thomas on building the second new ship and for Elizabeth on building another artificial intelligence that would test out whether they could recreate what had happened with Elise.

Simeone was also working hard, putting in hours and hours of flight time as he helped try to prepare Ben and his offspring to perform effectively in their role as ship's officers.

At Aetherkraal, the training academy with its virtual reality suites was being well used. Having completed their training with General David - Simon, Kirsty, Ben Jr. and Jenny were coming towards the end of their two weeks of hard-earned leave. As well as spending time with their family, the two sets of twins had regularly taken the time to test themselves against the random scenarios that the VR system generated.

Sarah had even collaborated with Elise and some of Elizabeth's prodigies to develop a number of space based scenarios. They were important in helping Simon to get ready for his tour of duty onboard the Rebecca.

Ben Jr. and Jenny would be heading off for their war games soon at the head of the red and green groups — now renamed as the third and fourth companies of the New Woden Legion. They kept their wits sharp by pitting themselves against the VR's more difficult scenarios.

At the training camp, David and Beckie were overseeing the second week of training for the first Stellarite volunteers and were pleased at how well the group was doing. The people of New Woden were already more naturally aggressive than the Wodenite crew and that meant that they threw themselves into the training with some relish.

The would-be assassin was in the group of trainees and proved himself to be particularly attentive to everything he was being taught. The skills that he was learning could be invaluable if another opportunity to kill Ben presented itself. David and Beckie's squad leaders noticed the quiet, focused, intensity with which that particular trainee applied himself and were pleased with his progress. There was no inkling of his alternative motivation.

Captain Marlon was probably the one with the least to do. The Stellarites had built a city for his crew on the planet, his troopers were down to be trained by David and his ship — the WS Scout - was nearing the completion of its re-fit.

The good Captain took Ben's advice and tried to enjoy the simple pleasure of walking in the countryside — smelling the fresh air, soaking up the natural beauty of the planet and generally relaxing. He knew that his future held a massive challenge — to liberate Woden — and he was intent on re-charging his own batteries while he could.

Marlon's biggest disappointment was that there had been no further contact with any other Wodenite ships. After communications from the three ships that had decided to head directly back to Woden, there had been nothing, not a single contact. Like Ben, the Captain was certain that the three ships they had spoken to would by now have perished at the hands of the Zytol.

"This one seems to be going faster than the first," Elizabeth commented, as she looked over the dry-dock at progress on the second ship.

"A good workman always learns lessons from what he's doing," Thomas replied with a smile. "We found out how to do certain things with the Rebecca through trial and error, but now we can get them right the first time."

"I know what you mean and I suppose I've been doing the same thing with the programming for the ship's AI — it's been going faster than the first one too."

"What is it about that that's got you so excited? You weren't this excited when you were building the first one," Thomas observed.

Elizabeth hadn't told anybody about the discovery that Elise had been developing brain tissue and that she was hoping the second AI would be able to do the same. This was her twin however, and she decided she couldn't keep this secret from him.

"Search your inherited memories for the work that was undertaken on Woden to develop a computer that was self-aware," she began.

Elizabeth paused to give Thomas time to filter through the millions of memories that his brain had stored away. After perhaps thirty seconds Thomas looked at her.

"They all failed?" he asked.

"Yeah, all of them. Geeks, scientists, medical experts — all of them failed. But guess what? I think I've achieved what they couldn't," beamed Elizabeth.

"Seriously? You've developed a computer that can think and act for itself? How is that possible?" asked a stunned Thomas.

"A series of accidents I think," Elizabeth replied. "I had the idea of using some stem cells to help with the higher order functions of the AI. I also came up with the idea of linking the computer to the pilot of the ship by creating a symbiotic relationship. The combination of things seems to have led to the AI on the Rebecca becoming self-aware."

Thomas was fascinated. As an engineer, he was intrigued by how things were made and there was nothing more important than life itself. He felt immense pride in his twin — if she was right, she had succeeded where thousands of others had tried and failed.

Elizabeth could see how impressed Thomas was with what she had described. Impulsively, she put her arms round his neck and gave him a deep kiss.

"What was that for?" asked a surprised, but nonetheless happy, Thomas.

"Because I love you, silly!" laughed Elizabeth.

Thomas returned to his own work with a goofy smile on his face, happy that his twin still loved him despite what he knew she was doing with Ben.

Marlon tele-ported onboard the WS Scout to inspect the work that was all but completed. His first stop was the engine bay and he walked round the huge new engines that had been fitted. Some adaptations had had to be made to accommodate the way the engines were set out in a line rather than side by side. The loss of a few cabins was a small price to pay however, for the extra power that Thomas' designs delivered.

The Captain stroked his hand over the gleaming alloy of the engines and imagined that he could feel the power of them just by touch alone.

Leaving the engine bay, he stepped onto the moving corridor that would take him directly to the bridge. There was still a lot of activity going on here as Marlon's officers familiarised themselves with the new equipment that had been installed.

"Captain on the bridge," announced the ship's AI.

The various officers snapped to attention as a mark of respect for their commanding officer.

"As you were, gentlemen," said Marlon.

The crew returned their attention to their instruments and Marlon took the opportunity of walking round the bridge. Everything looked shiny and new and the Captain felt like a child with a new toy.

"What do you think of the new scanners, Candela?" he asked his Science Officer.

"Their range is well above what we had before Captain. No wonder Commander Ben was able to run rings round us — he had quite an advantage."

"Not anymore, Candela, not anymore. Let's see him try that again now, we'll show him a thing or two," chuckled a very pleased Marlon.

He made his way to the new Captain's chair that had been fitted and sat down. A series of beeps alerted him to the fact that something had changed in the design of the chair and at that moment the AI's voice sounded to describe what it was.

"Captain, my programming has been upgraded too. Part of that includes the addition of a neural net built-in to the chair you're sitting in. I am able to read your instructions directly from your brain in order to cut down on reaction time."

Marlon's face remained impassive as he thought about what he had just been told. He knew that he shouldn't be surprised that Elizabeth had somehow managed to circumvent the tough security that protected his ship's computer, but she clearly had and that upset him. It was unlikely that Elizabeth would have done anything to compromise his ship, but that wasn't the point. Interfering with his AI was a very personal thing and Marlon felt his resentment beginning to fester.

"My processing capacity has been increased by a factor of twenty, Captain. I can also now cover the duties of any of the officers should that be required. In theory you should be able to contact me directly from the surface of the planet, but I haven't had the opportunity to test that functionality," added the AI.

Marlon felt his resentment melt away, as the AI proceeded with its long list of enhanced abilities. He realised he would be churlish not to appreciate the wonderful job that Elizabeth had done.

The next few hours were spent in routine work, as Marlon tested each of his officer's understanding of their new systems. He had been growing increasingly impatient however, about reaching the point where he could try out his new engines and at last he couldn't resist it anymore.

"Mr Navigator, plot a course that will take us out of this system, make your speed twenty-five percent," he ordered, the slight quiver in his voice betraying his excitement.

"Aye, Captain."

Marlon took in the fact that the large screen at the front of the bridge automatically split and began to show views from all four sides of the Scout.

Once the ship had been flying for around ten minutes, Marlon decided it was time to try out its full capabilities. The AI read his thoughts and sounded a slight note of caution.

"Captain, the engineers warn that we should gradually build up to top speed the first time so as not to over-tax the new engines."

"Thank you, AI," snapped Marlon, annoyed at himself for forgetting such a simple thing. "Navigator, take the engine speed up in steps of ten percent over the next twenty minutes until we reach maximum."

"Aye, Captain, up in steps of ten percent," Gaven replied.

There was a buzz around the bridge as the refurbished Scout went through her paces. The additional power from the engines was unbelievable and Marlon didn't miss the grins on the faces of his officers — grins that matched his own.

"What are the chances of Ben's wee ship outrunning us now?" asked a pleased Marlon of nobody in particular. All round the bridge there were nods of agreement with the Captain's line of thinking, the crew were more than impressed with what their upgraded ship could do.

"You know, I'm not sure why you're still coming to me for lessons — there's nothing more I can teach you," Simeone told Ben.

"I like spending time with you, you are my father after all," laughed Ben.

"That's nice, but seriously, you're one of the most natural pilot's I've ever come across. My advice would be to stop fussing about on my little ship and spend your time getting to know the Rebecca inside out. There's no substitute for that — knowing your ship and what it's capable of," said Simeone.

Ben thought that that sounded like good advice. He had put off the moment when he knew he should let Elise try to use whatever power the metal coating on the Rebecca gave her, but perhaps it was time to do so now?

"Maybe you're right," he said. "So long as you don't think I'm abandoning you to deal with these troublemakers."

Ben's reference took in the other members of his tribe that Simeone was training. Calling them troublemakers was something of a joke Simeone knew, as he had never come across a group that was so focused on what they were being taught.

"You get off and do what you have to do. I'm sure I'll be okay with this lot," Simeone laughed.

Ben smiled and took a step forward; immediately finding himself on the bridge of the Rebecca.

"Pilot on the bridge," announced Elise.

Ben's small crew snapped to attention and saluted their Commander smartly.

"At ease," Ben ordered casually. "Gentlemen, I think I've been working you too hard. How would you all like some time down on the planet with your families?"

The question brought smiles to the faces of the officers, as Ben knew it would.

"Okay, I want everyone on the ship to have twenty-four hours leave of absence starting immediately. You have twenty minutes to get ready," he said.

Ben laughed as the officers all made a mad dash for their cabins to pick up whatever they needed. He was pleased to see that some of them remembered to pass on the news about the day off to the other members of the crew throughout the ship.

It took slightly longer than twenty minutes to find out where each person wanted to be tele-ported to. Elise used her powers to simulate tele-porting them to their destinations, but at last the ship was empty apart from Ben and the AI.

"Alone at last," Ben laughed mentally.

"I assume that you wanted the crew off of the ship for a reason, Commander?" Elise asked.

"Indeed, I thought it was high time we tried to find out exactly what else you can do. It wouldn't do to have the crew around for that now, would it?"

"Really?"

Ben could swear he felt a sense of excitement coming from Elise and he smiled to himself.

"Yes, really. I'm assuming that you can manage all of the instruments yourself?" Ben asked.

"Of course, Commander!"

"Okay then, take us somewhere with some room to play."

"Aye, Commander!"

This time there could be no doubting the feelings he was getting from the AI. Ben sat back in the pilot's chair and watched the screen in front of him. The rear view showed New Woden receding rapidly until it was only a tiny speck in the distance.

Elise soon had the Rebecca up to maximum speed and it didn't take her long to get the ship far enough away from the planet to be out of range of any scanners that might be tracking them.

"That's probably far enough for now, Elise. Cut back on the power and we can run our first test."

"Aye, Commander."

Ben realised that Elise was communicating with him more formally than she usually did. She was always proper, but the sense of occasion, the responsibility of actually controlling all of the ship's systems, seemed to have ratcheted that up a few notches.

"Okay Elise, the first thing I want you to do is to turn off the scanners and try to simply sense where we are in space. One of the first abilities I got from the metals was being able to see 'remotely' over large distances. We'll test out whether you have something equivalent to that."

"Are you sure, Commander? Without the scanners running we could collide with any manner of things," Elise replied.

"Just trust me on this and give it a try," Ben coaxed her.

From the pilot's chair he could see the lights on the scanner instrumentation blinking off.

"Good girl, now tell me what you can 'see'?" he asked.

Elise didn't reply immediately and Ben began to worry that something had gone wrong, but then he heard her voice inside his head again.

"Commander, I can't begin to explain what this is like — it's absolutely incredible."

Ben could hear something like awe in Elise's mental voice.

"We aren't going to get very far if that's the case. I suggest you try to find the words to describe it so that I know whether the metal is working or not," he ordered.

In answer Elise didn't speak, but instead she sent a view of what she was 'seeing'. Now it was Ben's turn to be awed. Perhaps he should have guessed what ability Elise would have, but he hadn't. The metals had given him a 'worldview', the ability to look down on the entire planet of New Woden and to zoom his perspective in and out as he chose. With Elise, the metal coating on the ship had given her a 'galaxy-view' and now she was sharing that with Ben.

It was simply incredible, beautiful, stunning. He could see novas, supernovas, nebulae, countless stars — the colours were vivid and the scale so breathtaking that he did nothing but sit and drink it in for minute after minute.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Elise eventually intruded on his thoughts.

"It certainly is. I thought I would never see anything as beautiful as Aetherkraal, but this is way beyond that."

"Are we going to try something else now?" she asked.

Ben gave himself a mental shake to break the spell that the 'galaxy-view' had cast.

"Pick a star and try to zoom in on it," he suggested.

Ben's perspective changed immediately and he saw a single star rushing towards him. Elise quickly got the hang of what Ben wanted her to do and she spent several minutes shifting their focus from one object or point in space to another.

"There's something a little different over there," said Elise.

Ben found their view zooming in towards something he was familiar with. It was a circle of light, just like the circles he was able to see from high above New Woden. This one had the colour that signified the presence of people and as Elise continued to zoom in, Ben saw that they were actually looking at the WS Scout.

"I see Captain Marlon is putting the Scout through her paces. Maybe we should have some fun with him?" suggested Ben.

"What did you have in mind, Commander?" Elise asked.

"I'm going to go through the mental process I use when I transport myself. I want you to focus on it and then try to do the same thing, okay?"

Ben stood up and took a step forward. He disappeared and immediately re-appeared on the opposite side of the bridge.

"Did you follow that?" he asked.

"I think so, Commander. What do you want me to do?"

"Try to do the same thing and see if you can transport us so that we're right behind the Scout. Wait, load a training round in the forward tubes and have it ready to fire as soon as we get behind Captain Marlon," Ben ordered.

"You're assuming that this is going to work, Commander. I must say that I have my doubts."

"Trust me on this, Elise. Just believe that you're going to be able to do it and it will happen," Ben urged.

"Okay, training round is loaded and ready to fire. I've plotted a course for the torpedo that should work if we come out behind the Scout. You might want to sit down just in case something goes wrong, Commander."