Chapter 3

Somewhere in central India the present

The Priest of Kali, walked toward the grand chamber, he had to deliver the news to the Goddess, he was terrified of disappointing his Goddess, yet it was his duty to report on all the happenings with in the grand temple.

As he approached the doors they opened, of course she knew he was coming, she was a God. He averted his eyes down walking up to her throne he knelt on all fours waiting for her to address him, her voice was like music to him.

"Tell me of the failings Kamar." Her voice echoed through the grand chamber.

"My Goddess, the birthing chambers are not producing at the expected rates." he trembled waiting for her reaction.

"Kamar, we simply need more females of birthing age." she said to him.

He trembled at her voice.

"But my Lord we have already lowered and raised the minimum and maximum ages" he said eyes on his Goddess feet.

She put a hand on top of his head, he started to tremble violently at the contact.

"In all these years since I came to you have you not learned? Your Goddess has all the answers, send troops to the nearest villages we trade with, take their women as tribute to me" She turned after telling him that, retreating to her chambers behind the throne room.

He waited on all fours until she was gone before standing, he swiftly exited the chamber, he had to rouse the head of the guard to give him the new orders.

It took until nightfall for the orders to be carried out, 7 groups of 20 soldiers marched from the city center, passing by the large stone temples of the birthing chambers. Inside the birthing chambers women ranging in age from 12-30 where confined to produce the soldiers for the army, male offspring would be trained from birth, females would be raised until the age of 12 to join the birthing temples, they would be in service until each personally filled the required 10 births to be set free, the men would either die in battle or retire when they could no longer lift a spear, it was a rare day when any one made fulfilled their duty. The ones who did would take on the role of priestess at the birthing temples, the men would go to train the young.

The city state had an efficient system to grow their armies, in the past 80 years since the formation of the first birthing temple the city had grown exponentially in power, swallowing up village after primitive village, and every member of the city had one goal in mind to please their Goddess.

The Goddess Kali stood on her balcony watching her troops march from the city, one day she would hold this entire planet in her grasp, her first priority was to ensure her city had the population to support her goals.

By mourning the first of the villages would be hit, all women of birthing age would be taken, mated or not, the soldiers would continue their quest until recalled to their homes by the Goddess

Stephanie

My specialty had evolved to nanite control software, for some reason I had a knack for making the little buggers do whatever I wanted, Laura had said it was probably due to the way I had come into creation. I was after all a program, so I naturally spoke the language of the nanites.

I had made the batch that worked on all our horses. I had designed the software for the nanites the citizens received. When Laura and the others needed control programming to interface with their nanites I needed none, I just willed them to do what I asked, it was a highly useful skill. It was this specialty that brought me to the bird coup on top of the science building.

I was here with two of my students, they where feeding the birds for my latest project, it was all a part of the new missionary program Laura had approved. I was preparing the test for today, I watched the two students interact with each as they fed the birds. The had originally been working with Entoch on the manned flight projects, when I had explained my idea for the birds he had suggested I use the two students, as it would be a good experience for them and they might have ideas for me.

"Sarac make sure you monitor the propagation of the nanites in subject B." I told the older of the two, she nodded to me.

"And Barcis make sure you are monitoring subject C." The young man nodded as he was feeding his bird.

The idea for flying scouts for the missionaries had come to me when I was trying to figure out how to determine where to send them; Laura had suggested sending riders to known areas of ancient civilizations. I had thought that would be too time consuming, I had managed to capture a few ravens that had nested on the roof of the science building, I modified a group of nanites we used on the horse's to work on the ravens.

We were working with 3 test subjects at the moment, Subject A was only minimally controlled with the nanites, it would receive pushes in the directions we wanted it to take, Subject B was more controlled in that we could take it over completely if we wished, Subject C had a full blown A.I. In a birds body, it would never operate on its own animal nature. Each bird would transmit data back to base, the main differences in them being the method of control used.

I held subject A, stroking the bird I sent the command to circle the village and then fly back to coup, I held it up and let it fly away; I watched it rise up into the sky.

"Okay students begin test 42"

Both students had reached the age for nanites injections, So we all looked forward to the test as we would be monitoring what the bird saw, both students sat down and shut their eyes, I activated the link to the bird. Suddenly all three of us where watching through our own eyes what the bird was seeing, I stayed standing, the students had learned to sit down after the first test when both had managed to fall over the first time the bird banked in the air.

We watched in silence as the bird made the first circuit of the village, Barcis spoke up.

"Miss. Sumner I am beginning the targeting sequence"

I watched as the birds attention was pushed toward several objects on the ground, it was up to the bird if it wanted to look at them, it looked at the first target with no problem, on the second if dove down to get a closer look, it completely ignored the 3rd.

"Well 2 out of 3 is not bad right?" Sarac said.

I nodded to myself watching as the bird turned to return to base.

"You know we could probably have this bird go out and spread the nanites to the local population, sort of advance sentries for the town?" Barcis said.

I shut down my view of the bird and watched as it circled and landed back down and onto the coupe.

"I'll talk to Laura about that idea, I don't know if it would work as a dedicated scout, but a passive monitoring of the area during the course of its normal day might work, Sarac get subject B." I said.

She went over taking out her bird, she whispered in its ear and sent it off, again we watched, as it circled. This time we gave it direct commands to follow, It locked on to each target, before returning to base on its own.

"That went well, okay Barcis, release subject C" I said.

I almost cringed when I said it, Subject C was completely on remote control, the first few tests had gone badly as we had full control of the bird, none of us knew how to fly so we had all been treated to a 2 story fall off the science building. As the bird operated like a golem we all had felt the terror and impact of the first test. This time we had put an A.I. In the bird to take the majority of the flying, we still had full control but the A.I. Interpreted our commands and transferred them to suitable flight commands for the bird.

We all watched as Barcis maneuvered the bird around, with him at the helm the bird flew purposeful, where the other subjects tended to meander about, this was a direct flight, circle the town, look at the targets, return right to base, when it landed we all breathed a sigh of relief.

"I think we finally have Subject C's flight controls hammered down." Barcis said.

I nodded to him looking at my two students.

"I think we are ready to show Laura what we have here."

They both nodded in excitement, the whole village looked for opportunities to work with Laura, it didn't help that she taught only a few classes at the school, mostly advanced math and physics classes, all with a bent toward worm hole theory, only the most advanced students managed to make it to her classes.

The next day I showed our results to Laura, she took control of Subject C and was almost giddy with flying it. The two students stood silently to the side, each looking very nervous at being in Laura's presence. I knew how much Laura hated the hero worship of the village, it was my opinion that if she just made herself more available it would diminish some, it was a viscous circle she would encounter it, retreat into her lab which only served to make it grow. I pulled myself out of my thoughts watching Laura as she landed the bird, smiling the whole time.

"Steph you really out did yourself here." She smiled at me.

"Well I couldn't of done it without my two Lab partners here" I gestured to the two students then continued "I figured we needed a way to scout the areas we are going to send our people to, we can send the missionaries with a few of the C type, while sending a flock out of the B type to the areas we want to explore."

She nodded at me.

"And what about the A type?" she asked.

I smiled.

"Well Laura my students though we could establish a population at each of the villages we are allied to, they could monitor them for us, if any dangers arrive we could be notified in advanced." I said.

She nodded at that, I could see she was thinking, I could almost see the wheels turning, she frowned.

"Steph I don't know about monitoring the villages that way, too authoritarian if you ask me ... But still we could of avoided the abduction of our students if we had this system in place. Ill approve it on a small scale" She looked over at the two students "I guess they will be part of the administration staff of this project?"

I nodded at her.

"I wouldn't have in any other way big sis." I said.

"Then I leave it in your capable hands Steph" she said smiling at me, she shook the hands of the two students who managed to mumble their thanks to her before she left.

I laughed at the look on my two students faces.

"You know it's not like she is a God or anything." I said to the two, they both looked at me, they looked almost offended at what is said.

"Miss Sumner, you don't understand my great grandfather spoke of Laura very much like she was a God, he would tell us stories of how it was before she came, he told us of the great battles she fought, how she worked her magic's to save the village" Barcis said.

I shook my head.

"Barcis, do you forget I was there too? I was with Laura through most of it, as where Entoch, Shanor, and Ben" I said to them.

"Miss Sumner, we pass these things on down the village, but you 5, you keep these tales to yourself, so many of the village elders tell the tales they remember." Sarac said.

"Sarac what do they say exactly" I said as I rubbed my face with my hand, how had we been here so long and missed this.

"We'll Miss Sumner, I have heard that Laura is a Goddess given flesh, and that you 4 accompanied her from the spirit world, that you 4 are her angels" Sarac said kind of shyly.

My eyes widened at that, I looked at Barcis and asked. "And what have you heard?"

He avoided my eyes looking around before he talked. "I had been told you 3, Ben, You, and Laura where great spirits, who came to the village to help us, and that you blessed and Cursed Entoch and Shanor."