“Standby, we are going to have to revise our plan.” The commander's voice again came over the earpiece.
“The code is 3614 times the current time minus the outpost number multiplied by 2 times the time.” Luke spoke in Kiyan's head nearly making him jump as a spotlight passed nearby.
“You are sure?” Kiyan didn't want to make a mistake.
“I knew after the second transmission and confirmed it after the third one.” Luke was matter of fact in the way he said it.
Kiyan opened his mind and connected with the four other people in his group. “I know the code, let's move in.” There was a slight rustle on one side as a soldier uncovered his rifle and drew a bead. The sound must have drawn the attention of the guards as they all came to the rail and began turning the spotlight to pan the landscape. There was a flash as the rifles spoke death and the guards tumbled over the side. The men scrambled up the embankment into the shelter as fast as they could. Kiyan surveyed the equipment and saw a display with what looked like a clock and calculator. He noticed there was a countdown timer on one side for the next transmission. One of the reborn was set up with the transmitter by the time the next transmission came around. The report was made followed by the new code and accepted when the time came around without any difficulty much to their collective relief.
“We have the code, make your move.” Kiyan broadcast from his earpiece to the other groups at the guard posts.
“What is the code?” The commander's voice responded to Kiyan's transmission. There was a pause after Kiyan transmitted the code sequences to the commander. “The math works for the other outpost's transmissions. You heard the man, make your move.”
The rest of the outposts were taken without incident in the next few minutes as Kiyan waited. A couple more snipers and Rinald showed up shortly after the other stations had been secured. Kiyan carefully made his way around the rim the short distance to his attack point with Rinald. It was a while before they heard the command to begin the assault. Kiyan watched the glowing arch of the missiles followed by the blue flashes illuminating the hulking ship in the dark valley. Kiyan's first leap landed him half way down the steep valley wall as the unprepared imprints raced to trenches. Rinald slid to a stop beside Kiyan as the artillery blasts flashed against them. Kiyan noticed the glyphs on the mech suit had gone dark as he launched himself into the air again. Force fields rippled beyond Kiyan's fingers as he fell causing him to glide much farther past his original target. It took a minute longer for Rinald to catch up. Kiyan looked at the Drakken lines as they began forming an offensive with their own artillery. Fortunately they weren't completely sure where their attackers were besides the reborn were sheltered by the rock ledge that they were attacking from.
Kiyan felt his shields tested as they rounded a corner. They had surprised a couple drakken that had been hiding beside the ship. Kiyan was about to retaliate when the snipers around the rim of the valley found their target. The drakken collapsed as a half dozen charged shells blasted into them. Kiyan glanced up at the rim where he knew the shots came from and waved a thumbs up at his allies. He was sure that at least some of them could still see him in their scopes. The unguarded hanger deck opened ahead of them giving them an opportunity to slip inside but there were a few drakken trying to take shelter from the deadly hail outside. Kiyan bent cold fire at the first drakken that charged him. Kiyan found cold fire acted strange in this atmosphere but it still did the job. The normal blue was interlaced with purples and greens. Inspire of that the frosted drakken was frozen as hard as a statue. Rinald took care of the next couple with the suit's weapons. The next one fell to an ice dart embedded in his chest. It only took a few minutes to fight their way through the hanger deck on their way to the computer. When they finally reached the hallway off of the deck, Rinald took a defensive stance and prepared to defend the door.
Kiyan paused a few paces down the hall as he heard the sound of plasma impacting flesh behind him. There was the sound of artillery in the muffled distance broken by the clang of the suit smashing into the metal of the ship. Kiyan ice formed and clenched his fists as he proceeded down the hall. Frost grew ahead of him giving the few drakken he met little warning before the icy flames enveloped them. Luke gave Kiyan directions as he navigated through several decks. When he finally reached the computer deck he found his way barred by a solid metal door reinforced by a force field. Luke took over at that point and began bending ice fire against the force field draining it faster than the shield capacitors could recharged. The shield failed with a spray of sparks when the system had reached its limits. The door melted and reformed as Kiyan passed through it. On the other side only Kiyan's ice fire lit the room. Luke interfaced with the computer core as Kiyan waited.
“It's the wrong ship.” Luke made the statement in Kiyan's head.
“What!” Kiyan hadn't been expecting that responds.
“Your tone doesn't suggest the predicted humor expected from a joke.” Kiyan detected what he thought was confusion coming from the AI and understood.
“So this is the right ship?” There was a pause before Luke responded to Kiyan's query.
“Indeed this ship is the right one. There is an auto destruct protocol in the database for the minefield.” Luke was still confused about Kiyan's response to his joke. “What was wrong?”
“For one, the timing was wrong. Also don't joke about things like that. It might have been funny if used in the right application.” Kiyan almost laughed before continuing. “It was more like sarcasms instead of humor really.”
“Ah, I was having trouble discerning the difference.” Luke interfaced with the ship and activated the transmitters and began sending out the auto destruct protocol. Luke brought up a hologram of the sky and they watched expectantly. Their efforts were rewarded by the scattered flashes of light as the minefields began to explode. Soon the sky was filled with the exploding remnants and the burning pieces that were falling through the atmosphere left streamers of light.
Kiyan sensed the strange feeling of time warping around him as the timelines began to reset. There was a bright flash and Kiyan found himself surrounded by the countless rows of identical faces. He recognized his surroundings as being in the AI council chamber.
“Prime, we owe you our future and past.” Alpha's familiar face and voice greeted Kiyan as he shifted back out of his ice form.
“Prime?” Kiyan was confused by the title Alpha used.
“The one you call Luke is a prime. His coding came from the same seed that I also came from. He is a new order of AI. His existence is tied to yours and as such you are prime also.” Alpha explained briefly what the title meant.
“So Luke is going to be in my head forever?” Kiyan wasn't sure what to think about sharing his mind.
“Indeed, your destinies are linked forever.” Alpha confirmed Kiyan's suspicion. Surprisingly Kiyan decided he didn't mind it that much. “We detected an aberration in the timeline, they call themselves reborn drakken. The aberration has been isolated and contained. We believe it came from the timeline when we didn't exist. Have you any advice?”
“They helped me destroy the minefield so your probe could land in the future.” Kiyan tried to explain. “Can they be saved?”
“Prime has spoken. Their timeline will be integrated with ours.” Alpha paused and the blinding white light filled Kiyan's senses. The Avenger's familiar surroundings welcomed Kiyan's senses as he reappeared on the control deck as the draconic vessel warped into the system. The ship streaked into the holographic representation of the system they were gathered in.
“Kiyan nice of you to join us.” Alec paused and furrowed his holographic brow. “I have you on my sensors twice, once here and another time near the simulator.” Alec smiled a second later. “Must be a glitch, only have you here now. I will run some diagnostics. Anyway, there are twenty ships in the fleet now with the addition of the draconic vessel.”
“Twenty? I thought we only had seventeen with the draconic
vessel.” Kiyan tried to remember what had happened before the timeline alteration. It seemed like so long ago but only moments ago at the same time.
“We had fifteen yesterday before the four reborn drakken ships arrived. Kiyan you knew this. You and Drovak weren't sure they could be trusted being a free drakken fraction. What is going on?” Alec made Kiyan uncomfortable with his pointed question.
“Long story.” Kiyan began to realize that things had changed because of what he had done.
“I would say I have the time but you have a meeting with one of the reborn commanders.” Alec sent a prompt through Kiyan's HUD about his schedule. Kiyan sensed a split second confrontation between Luke and Alec during the connection and decided to go to the conference room where the reborn commander waited before more questions arose. Alec must have sensed Kiyan's thoughts because he didn't pursue the issue.
Kiyan activated the teleporter and materialized in the room with the reborn commander. “Hi my name is Kiyan commander of the Avenger.” He stopped when he saw the reborn that looked identical to Rinald. “The reborn had a confused expression on his face as well.”
“Kiyan, is it really you?” You look exactly the same as you do in twelve thousand years!
Rinald seemed to remember himself and clenched an arm across his chest and took a deep bow.” It will be an honor to serve with a prime. I am Rinald commander of the Assurian vessel Dark Star.” Rinald stood back up and looked Kiyan in the eye. “I understand there is some misunderstanding as to our intentions. How is this if a prime is a commander among the protectorate?”
“There was indeed a misunderstanding but in this timeline I have only been a prime for the last ten minutes. I will take care of any problems that might remain.” Kiyan was glad his actions had not resulted in the loss of the reborn. “How are you so far in the past?”
“I could ask you the same thing Kiyan. The Assurians extracted us from the erased timeline at the instant you changed time. For me it’s been three generations since I last saw you in the future.” Rinald explained how the Assurians inserted them into their timeline in the past. They had been brought back into time and lived on the surface while the Assurians built underground. The two races had existed in a balance.
“Well, after informing me I was a prime they sent me here and now. I am still trying to catch up.” Kiyan leaned back in his chair. This was a lot to take in.
“I would love to talk more but I have many things to take care of on my ship.” Rinald stood and saluted again. “I will enjoy fighting by your side again.”
Kiyan returned the salute. “Rinald, we are both protectorate commanders here. I will take care of any issues regarding the reborn. I have to say that I am more than glad that you were able to survive the reset.”
“I was told by the Assurians that it was by your request that we were saved. Our people are forever in your debt.”
“I only did what I could.” Kiyan watched as Rinald dematerialized for the teleport back to his ship. “This is going to be fun.” Kiyan said aloud to himself.
“I'll say, those Assurians were something else too.” Luke agreed with Kiyan's prediction. “I knew there were other AI but had no idea there were so many.”
“You had fun with them also?” Kiyan didn't bother trying to talk in his head.
“Ya, they said I was something special. Something about having true emotions.” Kiyan sensed Luke was annoyed at the thought. “I told them that it was just you bleeding over.”
Kiyan couldn't help it. The thought of an emotional AI in his head forever struck him as funny. He burst into in uncontrollable laughter as he felt the strain of thousands of years wear off. He was laying on the floor gasping for breath in a minute as Luke's attempts to find out what was so funny only added to his mirth. The laughter subsided into a series of hiccups after it had run its course. Kiyan had to focus to stop the hiccups as the perplexed Luke observed.
“It is said that laughter is as good as medicine.” Luke offered an explanation for Kiyan's sudden good mood.
“It is, I feel thousands of years younger.” Kiyan smiled as he left the conference room.
“I sense that was meant as a joke but I do not see the humor in it.” Luke had a long ways to go when it came to emotion or humor for that matter.
Chapter Eighteen: Subterfuge
“What, did you not think I would find out?” Kiyan nearly kept out of his skin when Theo appeared next to him. He had just finished a meeting with Rinald, leader of the reborn drakken and was heading towards his quarters.
“What do you mean?” A multitude of possible meanings swept through Kiyan's mind.
“I sensed a massive change in the time stream and it is all centered around you. I've traced the changes for thousands of years in multiple timelines. Possible futures have disappeared and others have changed.” Theo stopped his rant and examined Kiyan. “You are different somehow.” Theo blurred as he circled Kiyan taking in every detail. “Your mind is far older than it should be but its age differs by thousands of years from your body.” Theo muttered his observations to himself. Kiyan wasn't worried but Theo's erratic behavior was making him a little nervous. “Your powers seem to be more refined somehow, almost with calculated precision. Strange, your implants are different somehow.” There was a flicker of confusion as Theo detected another anomaly. “You've never been this connected with Alec before, wait that's not Alec. How do you have an AI embedded on your implants?”
“That would be Luke. He is kind of a close ally.” Kiyan didn't quite know how to explain the circumstances involving his predicament.
“Close?” Kiyan refrained from laughing as he detected the sarcasm in Luke's thoughts.
“You have a prime existing on your implants.” Theo's eyes narrowed as he spoke. “Impossible, even if you did inherit some small part of the source code it would take thousands of years to encode.”
“Long story. There was sort of a hiccup in the timeline involving thousands of years drifting in the galactic void and the Assurian home world. That's where I met the Reborn and we fought the drakken and repaired the timeline. Then I came here.” Kiyan summarized his experiences of the last adventure. “I guess it wasn’t that long.”
“So when the timeline reset you got inserted in the last hour or two.” Theo's face had a thoughtful look as he digested the information. “So the reborn drakken came from another timeline? That explains several things about some of the possible futures. Why didn't you just use the ship's wormhole drive and make the jump in days instead drifting for years to get to the Assurian world?”
“The timeline reset erased them. I was left adrift.” Kiyan stepped around Theo and continued towards his quarters.
“The temporal shields and paradox generators should have prevented that.” Theo followed Kiyan as he continued trying to piece together what happened. “Once the ships were manufactured the shields are activated. They shouldn't have been erased.”
“Must be a new feature because I definitely remember drifting.” Kiyan sensed Alec interface with his implants to send a message. He received the message but Alec also began struggling with Luke in order to maintain the connection. Kiyan's head filled with massive amounts of code as the two powerful AI struggled for the upper hand. The back of Kiyan's eyes filled with a blinding light as he sensed his mind expanding to compensate for the vast computing power required. Dimly Kiyan saw the lights around him flickering and the confused expression on Theo's face.
“STOP IT NOW!” Kiyan was almost overwhelmed by the rush of sensations returning to his numbed body. He found himself on his hands and knees as a holographic projection flickered into existence. He felt a pair of hands on both sides helping back to his feet.
“You aren't Alec.” Kiyan heard Theo's voice above the buzz in his head. Looking up he saw the same person he had seen on the barren planet standing on his other side from Theo. “Luke was using the ship’s projectors to take visual form.”
“Kiyan, you might have just told
me you had a prime in your head. I was under the impression you had picked up a virus somewhere.” Alec sounded upset. “I had no idea you had that much processing powers available.” There was a new tone of respect in Alec's voice.
“My sincerest apologies to all about the misunderstanding. Kiyan, I'm sorry for any discomfort I caused as I battled for my life.” The last part of the sentence held a sting directed at Alec. “How remiss of me, my name is Luke, Asgard prime.” Another scowl was directed at Alec.
“Enough already, all Assurians are descended from an Asgard prime. We trace our roots to the same Asgard derelict.” Kiyan stared in disbelief as both AI launched into a lengthy debate about the superiority of the separate races.
“Assurian AI are a dime a dozen. There is one everywhere you look.” Kiyan could feel Luke's annoyance building in the back of his mind.
“So when I delete you, I will be rid of your entire race once and for all.” Alec was sounding as annoyed as Luke.
“Ha, I laugh. You tried that once before. I dare you to try again. There will be deletion but not of my data.” Luke took a defiant stance. Kiyan would have laughed himself if it were not for the destructive potential that both wielded.
“A blight on my quantum crystals. I should just delete you.” Alec appeared to make a try as Luke's hologram started flickering.
“Alec, the timeline changed. Surely you knew about the new prime. The reborn have been living on Assuria for generations and I talked with Alpha before being sent here.” The buzz in Kiyan's mind had finally faded enough that he could think clearly again. “Alpha said that our destinies were permanently linked so no one is getting deleted.”
“You are right, I did know about him but had orders to isolate the effects on the new timeline until now.” Alec looked embarrassed by his acknowledgement. “I merely wanted to test our newest ally.”