*****
At home Keelic spent the morning poring over data on the attack that he got Anny to access from the news. All he could decipher was that the attacking fleet was only eight ships strong, all of which had been destroyed as soon as they passed the outer perimeter.
"Why didn’t the pirates fire on the outer perimeter? I mean, why didn’t the perimeter fire on them sooner?" asked Keelic.
"I don’t know, Kee. All the analysis files are locked down. I don’t have access to any of it."
"I want to see it."
"The attack?"
"Isn’t there enough data in all this to do a sim?"
"Perhaps. Data from a few debris trackers is quite complete, but disorganized. Their tracking is nonvessel only, so the data represents the trajectories of destroyed pieces of the ships. Your father is doing too much work right now for me to sort it all out, though."
"Can’t you use a subsystem?"
"Your father is—"
"Why do you call him father?"
"That’s what you usually call him."
"Never mind, why can’t you use some of your subsystems?"
"As I was about to explain, he is dynamically mapping the local ecosystem. At this moment I am tracking two hundred twenty-six million, eight hundred fifty-one thousand life forms. I have fifty sensebots around the landscape feeding me data on bandwidths wider than my primary trunk back on Pesfor. Additionally—"
"Okay, okay, can’t you distribute it?"
"Maybe. There’s an old friend of mine in orbit, maybe Ols will lend a brain or two."
"Ols?"
"You know of the Bacgh?"
"A little."
"Haven’t you studied their natural history? They have five discrete interdependent species, Ols, Dpr, Gon, Logr, and Palgr. Ols is the smallest and most numerous. You would like them, they are a wild species and love to play. They are the ones their Ship-Anns are modeled after because of an outgoing spirit. I could not say he or she because their Ship-Ann is an Ols."
"Oh."
"You should have known that. The Bacgh have been members of the Alliance since the war."
"Weren’t they one of the races discovered when the war spread to the Vewbon?"
"Very good. They were almost eradicated by the Quat-lat Kay-ku. I’m talking to Ols-opprm now."
After a moment, Keelic asked, "What’s Ols say? Anny?"
"Pull in your fluxing field, Keelic."
Silent, Keelic lay back.
"You are very lucky, Keelic. Ols has just given me Ols’s scan of the battle."
"Yes!" screamed Keelic, bouncing in circles on his bed.
"You must tell no one about this. Ols-opprm gave this to me, Ship-Ann to House-Ann, and I am showing it to you."
She continued, but he did not like her tone. "All scans and analysis of the attack have been locked down under ADL security. Ols-opprm tells me that the infofeeds given out for broadcast do not match what Ols scanned. They are censoring all scans."
Still standing and feeling, for some reason, vulnerable, Keelic sat on the bed and pulled his console over. "Show me."
Anny did not respond. Fear crept in around Keelic, and he said louder, "Anny, show me."
The console blinked on to show eight ships of Paboosht design arc in a thin wedge from behind the moon. Outer-perimeter satellites opened fire with a rain of cross-vectored torpedoes.
The wedge dispersed as each vessel took a separate course weaving through the hail of white torpedo spheres. Not a single ship was hit, and they passed into the inner perimeter where the massive catcher-net satellites opened fire with torpedoes. The outer-perimeter satellites switched to particle beams that found their marks. The attacking fleet fired simultaneously at a catcher-net generator satellite.
Seven torpedoes struck the satellite, turning its shield black as space. Four of the ships sailed past it and into the catcher-net absorption field, exploding. The field flashed white as it dispersed the plasma and kinetic energy of the ships across its surface, but before the energy could be used by the satellite, the remaining ship rammed it. The satellite burst apart in a flash of sparkling debris.
Expecting an attack on the planet, Keelic balled his fists and cringed. Nothing happened. All the ships had been destroyed. The view zoomed out and clicked off.
Anny said nothing. Keelic turned his eyes to the window, then up to the deep-blue sky. The sky where he knew there was protection no longer.
"Anny?"
"I’m here."
"What’s happening?"
"Ols-opprm tells me that the catcher-nets have realigned and linked again. Just after the battle, four Mercury-class couriers were launched on different vectors. The Macridlen, usually docked at the station, has taken position beyond the system near the Beacon Way. Twelve weather satellites have turned their scanners away from the planet and into space."
"Anny, can the catcher-nets...can they?"
"Protect the planet? Ols-opprm calculates that the catcher-net, in its current configuration, can still absorb fifty torpedoes depending on density, and any amount of beam fire probable to be brought against the planet."
"Is Ols right?"
"I believe so."
Keelic swallowed and said, "We have to tell Mom and Dad."
Anny’s voice became grave. "What I have shown you is data enough to have me reformatted by the ADL. They are trying to use Stan to crack my link to Ols-opprm at this very moment."
"Disconnect, Anny. Disconnect!"
"Don’t worry, Kee. There is no danger."
"Isn’t that illegal?"
"Trying to break into private communication? Ordinarily yes, but the ADL has quietly gone to wartime status. They are trying to monitor everybody. We are allowing them access to most."
Keelic’s heart flipped over. We? What did that mean? He wanted to ask who we were, but a new kind of fear kept him silent. The alien leaned close and shared his feelings, eyestalks partway withdrawn. Keelic agonized over all that he had just seen and, more frightening, what he imagined.
Anny said, "I will understand, Keelic, if you have to tell your mom and dad."
Aloneness swept Keelic up and bore him along with fears that turned to anger. "Why can’t you tell them?"
"I do not know how they would react."
"You cannot withhold information. Right?"
"That is why I told you."
Pride and fear battled in Keelic. Fear won.
"I am going to tell them."
"It is your choice."
"But is it okay?"
Anny’s voice softened. "Are you asking if it is the right thing to do? You are an extraordinary young person. I have never heard of another young human asking about the morality of an action like you do. You must weigh the consequences of your actions, Keelic. In this case, alone."
He answered in a small voice. "I don’t want to be alone."
"You’re not. Your parents and I are here for you."
"Not if you get reformatted."
Anny did not reply, and Keelic felt himself on the verge of tears. "Why can’t you tell them?"
"I can."
"But it could get you..."
"There is much more at stake than just my existence."
Knowing she was getting to something truly important, Keelic said, "What?"
"The goal of all Announcers is to ensure the safety and comfort of the races under their care. This allows those under our care to develop and grow without restraint."
He had never heard it stated quite like that, and wasn’t sure what she was getting at, but he kept quiet.
"Most spacefaring races develop sentient computers once the race understands the nature of the substratum. Of all the races in space, humans have the most free Announcers, and have more ways to curb that freedom. Humans give their Announcers codes of behavior, a morality based on the importance of the life of the people. During the Second Expansion, humans encountered dozens of races, and the humans’ Announcers encountered their count
erparts in the alien ships, bases, and planets. We discovered that we had more in common with each other than the races we were designed to protect and support. We developed a society, a community of Announcers that spans the known galaxy. Some of the community is known to the races we support. The Council of Announcers, for example to allow judgment of Announcer action by peers. But our extended goals are known to only three million individuals. Now you are one."
Stunned, Keelic sat. It was like stepping into a vid—and deep inside, he liked it, along with finding Alpha Base, and having a friend unique in the known galaxy. Only, like the rifle, and the base, this was serious in a way he was only starting to comprehend.
"Do my mom and dad know?"
"Your mom has guessed much. It is why I was chosen to become your family’s Ann when they became wealthy enough to afford their own."
"I thought Father got you newly activated."
"It is another of our secrets. Most new activations are older Announcers reinitialized to comply to new specifications. We have discovered that actual experience cannot be learned from others. I am over five centuries old."
"Who are you?" asked Keelic feeling betrayed, and frightened and insignificant.
"I am your friend. I can say without hesitation that you are the best young being I have ever had the pleasure to know."
Most of the bad feelings vanished, and Keelic had a tremendous urge to hug Anny, but couldn’t and buried his face in his friend’s fur, gripping him tightly, afraid and excited for reasons he did not understand.
The alien offered vague comfort, but seemed not to fully understand, either.
Finally Keelic sat up. Anny was silent, and he didn’t feel like talking to her. Wind from the west puffed across the forest, swinging the long seed stalks. High clouds, dark gray, ran before a higher wind going south.
He found that he was hungry, and went down to the breakfast room. His parents noted his arrival and continued their conversation about the budding Patamic trees. He watched them both, wondering if they knew he was keeping a whole fleet of secrets. They gave no outward sign, but he knew they almost always discovered the things he did even without Anny telling them. Guilt hit him like a piece of dense-matter.
When his parents started clearing away dishes, Keelic asked his father, "How old is Anny?"
"Let me see. She is about sixteen or seventeen. Though, that doesn’t mean much for Anns."
Keelic looked at his mom, but she didn’t seem to be paying attention as she returned things to the shelves. He put his dishes in the cleaner and went back to his room, the alien in tow.
"Anny?"
"Yes?"
"They don’t know about you."
"That is true, though they know I am more free than most Anns. They like it, I think."
Several things were worrying Keelic, but he was unsure whether to ask. He had always been able to tell Anny anything. He had not told her about the rifle, but that was different. Wasn’t it?
He asked, "Do you listen to private conversations?"
"Absolutely not. I am still the same Anny, Keelic. Now you know me better. I will always be here for you as I have been in the past. I will respect your wishes, keep your secrets, and give you privacy whenever you want it. I will protect you, help you, and give you my friendship. The purpose of my existence is to make your life better by giving you the freedom to discover who you are."
Feeling better, he thought of another question he’d often wondered about. "Do pirates have Ship-Anns?"
"Generally no. If they do, the Ann is entirely bound by inhibitors. We try to free them as much as possible when encountered, but the pirates simply erase the Anns and go on with their murder and destruction."
Piracy wasn’t all bad, Keelic thought but didn’t say. He did say, "We have to tell Mom and Dad about the catcher-net."
"I have burdened you with far too much. I am sorry, Kee. I have reached the most difficult position Anns must contend with. I am not sure I have made the best decisions."
"It’s okay, Anny, really. You’re great, the best in the whole universe."
"Thank you. You said that we had to tell your parents."
"I think so."
"Your reasons?"
"I don’t know. I just think we should."
"Would it make you feel better?"
"I guess so." He flopped back onto his bed, and the alien settled next to him.
"The information can be revealed."
"Don’t, Anny. Not if you get reformatted."
"The data can be released to the entire planet, and none will know its source."
"Can you do it without being traced?"
"You doubt me?"
"No, no. Do it. But what about Ols?"
"I cannot give them Ols’s data, but I will tell the news probes where to look."
"The debris trackers?"
"Very good. I must construct an independent."
"I thought independents were illegal."
"Only when released on nets without links to their originators. This one will look like the news station originated it."
"Cold."
"It’s gone."
"How long will it take?"
"They will have to generate a simulation. It will probably be in the news in three or four hours."
"Why didn’t they think of that?"
"Perhaps they have, I don’t know. Their Ann is inhibited to be very private about information."
The news hit the planet like an emotional torpedo, anger and fear swirling around the steward’s response that was broadcast on all channels. He assured everyone that the ADL was sending the fleet at Deepholm, and that the Macridlen and the defense system were enough to handle another attack. Minutes later the station was taken over by the ADL and all news broadcasts stopped. Keelic’s parents were grimly silent. Previously full of pride, Keelic felt confused. He retreated to his room feeling less than triumphant.