ANAMI (Science Fiction Smackdown Round 1 Entry)

If there was a height in Behraan's time, I missed it.

I was brought within that pyramid. The back of my head itched the whole way, and I knew there was something in there because of the lump that was not there before.

Within that pyramid, it was hollowed out, made into a hangar. Ships small and large docked there, their designs as bulky and cumbersome as the pyramid that housed them.

I was made to stay there, within the pyramid, throughout a program they continued to call ANAMI. Advanced Neuronics Astrogation Mastery Initiative. I would be placed in small liftercraft at first. They put me in a chamber inside the central room of the craft, and hook me up to all these cables. The one that plunged into my implant always made my whole body cringe. My heart skipped a beat at times.

I had lost all desire to resist. Over time, I grew to get used to being connected and disconnected from the progressively larger and more complex ships, and I learned to control them. It was like learning to fly, except in the place of my wings, it was a whole ship.

I was not alone, but I was the first. Others were brought in, often Kelviki like me. Broken and shattered, like me.

I was also the first to be allowed out of the pyramid--so long as I was conducting practice flights within the vicinity.

Eventually, not only was I allowed to, but I had to. I showed so much promise over smaller craft, that I was moved to connect to the first ANAMI-capable frigate. Then the first destroyers. The first battleships.

Five years had passed of this. I always spent some part of the day in that pyramid, even though my training eventually involved me connecting to ships larger than the pyramid. I grew accustomed to Behraan's ways. I knew their laws. I became familiar with the Behraanese Destiny. I learned their language. I blended in with them.

I became them.

One day, Alvoa--then a Colonel--appeared at the Pyramid, and had all of us ANAMI initiates assembled for a speech. I had not seen him since he brought me to Behraan.

"Your training is now complete," he said aloud, "and because of the ouststanding success of this program, you are now to become amalgamated with the Behraanese Navy, effective immediately. You will be given uniforms, ones tailored to the needs of an ANAMI unit. You will be assigned ships that you will connect to for longer periods of time. You will perpetuate the Behraanese Destiny.

"For the Hierarch!" he shouted expectantly.

"For the Hierarch!" we repeated.

I killed a lot of people. I was assigned to command a torpedo cruiser, with a crew compliment of four-hundred. I felt that cruiser. I became the cruiser. And indeed, the Cruiser was named "Grace."

And graceful I was, as I guided my ship to new targets, in space and upon planets, guided torpedoes with a stray thought, and eradicated those my masters decreed to be enemies of the Dominion.

Apparently, I was one of the most successful ships from the program.

But then I began to hear things. Rumors my crewmates passed around about other ANAMI's misbahaving, not acting as themselves, belaying direct commands.

I paid it no mind. I killed again and again, and the only question that grazed my mind was, "who next?"

The greatest thrill, however, was not the killing. It was the ability to think that I wanted to go from one place to the next, many times the speed of light, and it happened for me, every time. Every time, I felt the high I would get from diving off buildings and opening my wings just before I hit the ground or water.

I pushed myself to thirty lightyears per hour, once.

I was rewarded for my efforts. The interfacing technology improved. I was given better power cores. A faster leap drive. I wanted more, and I was given more. Behraan provided.

And then the dream came back. The two worlds. They seemed so much farther away.

Perhaps i could find this world. I certainly had the means to get there. I could cross the galaxy from one end to the other in under a month.

I felt like I was a goddess. But I never let that thought out, and I never let it get in the way of my never-ending work.

Those rumors never did go away though. They became more troubling. Talks about some ANAMI's defecting. One ANAMI turned off life support and killed all crew on board, himself included.

Another locked himself in and did the same, then took his ship and started hitting random targets because he could. The fleet had to hunt his ship down and destroy it.

Before long, it wasn't just one ship, just one ANAMI losing his mind. Entire flotillas formed of these rebels. They became so dangerous that an entirely new task force was devised to take down the new threat.

Leading that force was one Janeth Sehra. She was only a Captain, but after two more years of ANAMI's rising against Behraan and Sehra hunting them down, she became widely known as a war hero, and was given the title of Admiral.

I never strayed. I thought about it. But I never strayed.

And then came Alvoa, again. This time, a General. Wrinkles began to line his brow and his cheeks. Strands of white hair were mixed in with the black.

"Grace Lafiere," he began, standing before me in my chamber, "you are, as we understand it, the last of your kind. You were the first of your kind. And you never faltered. You never failed us. However, the Hierarch now sees that it is time to decommission the ANAMI program, effective immediately. Henceforth, you shall be relieved of command."

I hoped the day would never come, but I knew my time as a minor goddess was finite.

"That said," the General continued, "We do recognize your accomplishments and achievements. We will grant you leave for as long as you wish. Name the place you wish to go, and we will take you there."

I thought long and hard about this. That dream. She wanted to be where the dream was, though it felt even more distant than before.

And all the guilt of killing the tens of thousands of people that I had through my ship, had finally begun to catch up to me.

As I shed two tears--one of sorrow that this was over, and one of joy for the same thing--I looked to the General and said weakly, "Home."

"A fine choice," said the man, as the crewmates began to disconnect her, "and, might I ask what it is you plan to do with your free time?"

I began to think of my family. My wings. My life before ANAMI.

"Atone," I said weakly.

Alvoa nodded slowly, his only response, "let's get you home, then."