Be Gallant - A Short Story Project

Part 1

«As information that could help us better understand the Great Technological Darkness and new evidences about Artificial Intelligence. So, Captain Levesque, can you take me to Keeves? It's a small colony just before Cvoro and my contacts are waited for me there. That's all I'm asking you. Nothing more. I Promise.»

Liam did not need to think more. One more pay, with his initial commercial order that he and his crew was going to complete would be welcome. In addition to hosting technological finds from a teacher recognized in archaeological data and techno-archivist who could revolutionize in the near future. Contributing to advancing the human cause of bringing together the lost technologies of the Golden Age was an honor; the ultimate reason for the creation of the stellar army of the New Terra Authority, that had fascinated his life and filled with hope when he was a little boy.

Now, at 39 years old, on March 28th, 2556, a few hours later, after being in hyperspace, Liam stares at this lifeless teacher from a reputed university campus was plunged and crashed on the cold steel floor of the hangar, and his stomach still feels heavy. How to have a paycheck if the employer is dead? The university will surely not be able to pay for it: he would put his hand in fire if the campus ever knows his existence ... At least Havo Gueroun has finished butchering his last name. Finally.

On this thought, Liam pays attention on how Havo had spoken to him at the Astral View and how it went. He was in a hurry, impatient and did not want to waste his time. These are not the traits of a suicidal person ... He clears his throat.

«But thinking about it, I do not know ... When I spoke to him at the bar last night, he seemed in a hurry, but not depressed.»

The engineer gets up to his feet and takes a step. A dry sound of crunch surprises him and raises his boot. These are the thin glasses of the teacher, now in a thousand pieces and tainted with sticky blood, falling on the steel floor.

«Aw, shit.» He tries to wipe his boot with a rag attached to his jumpsuit. «It was a guess and I am not a coroner. I would like to know why he was so eager to get onboard with us. Did he not have his own expedition team? Does he have contacts with those big specialized encrypted-techno-archival-whatever companies like T-210, RECAM, Lazercrest or even G.H.T.? Is he affiliated with them ? If his finds are so important ...»

«He told me that his ship he was originally going to transport him wasn't available to leave shore, for reasons he had not told me yet. And Keeves is sorta on our way ... In short, all that to say that Havo was not depressed.» Liam takes a moment to think. Nothing else. «Nothing».

«How do you know, Cap'? It's not easy to see the characteristics of a depressed person», Annouk says as she joined them. She watches her feet carefully from stepping on the pool of blood. That explain why Liam couldn't hear the copilot, for a while.

«That's true, Annouk. But why would he kill himself if he had something important to bring to the university? He had no reason to do it. It doesn't make any sense.»

Liam stares at Cy, and he notices that the engineer's face has darkened.

«Unless ... he was murdered,» Cy says, certain.

The copilot growls.

«Ah, boy...»

Liam is much more tired of this surreal theory than he thought. This makes the situation even more uncomfortable for him.

«Seriously, Cy? Murdered? We're in hyperspace right now, right in the middle of the space. Who asked him his death?»

«The New Terra Authority, maybe? The government shares very close ties with these archeotechs companies, and perhaps the Professor Gueroun held something dangerous and secretive that wanted to unveil to the general public. You know, the NTA ...»

As he continues to reveal this conspiracy, Liam massages his own forehead, frowning, and sighed as he holds his stomach. They have known each other for more than ten years, he should have seen it coming the second he had asked the question of suicide. How forget such a detail ? 

«Ok, stop. No, stop, buddy. Listen, which one of us found Havo's body? You or Annouk?»

«It's me. Why ?»

«So, if it was you who saw it before us, which means that it may be you, who've killed him? You see where I'm coming from, you and your shitty conspiracies ... No wonder why the NTA kicked you out of the army.»

The ship's engineer stares at him and Liam knows exactly why. He thinks he has gone too far, but he has left the captain no choice.

«Don't be so moron, Liam. You know very well that the Terran government is hiding things from us since it got us back from the Great Technological Darkness, especially with uncovered techs ...»

«What are you talking about ? We're ... the NTA is not alone in the colonized worlds. Proximo Commonwealth, Sagittarius Alliance, Trappist-Aquarius League, not to mention the handfuls of indie systems that refused our support. There isn't just the NTA that is interested in finding our scattered techs, Cy. Anyway, I do not pay you to spread conspiracy theories on my ship. Wake up and ...»

«And if it was in this container,» said Annouk, pointing to it. I remember that we took him aboard and belongs to Mr. Gueroun. Liam, can we open it?

The eight-by-ten-foot container lies close to the suicide scene. Several blood splatters has flow down its walls, dry crimson filaments runs down the blue navy metal. It's the only container inside the hangar, instead inside the massive cargo hold, with the others, deep in the steel entrails of the Gallant, ready to be moved on Keeves as soon as the ship orbited the planet. That's the plan ... that was the plan, unfortunately. At this moment, there isn't not much to do with it ...

«If we can find the key, yes. But I do not know if we can find the key ... It's locked.»

«Did he tell you what's in there?» She hastens.

«To be honest, he told me at the Astral View that its content could bring important answers about the Great Technological Darkness and the evolution of artificial intelligence ...»

Annouk and Cy watch him in silence and Liam suddenly falls silent. Those last words hurts him in the stomach even more since they came on the hangar in a hurry.

Even if we are in the 26th century, two hundred years after the end of the Great Technological Darkness, the human being had gradually recovered, to regain the technologies lost and scattered over the galaxy far away from Earth and other human colonies. All caused by OSIRIS, the most powerful man-made AI computer ever created, using every access to its virtual reach, to launch a digital revolt against the human species, by suppressing any advanced technologies available down to a hundred years back, without killing a single human...The mountain to regain what was lost was perilous and hardous to climb. But thanks to archival science, digital preservation and archeotechnology, the new government has finally found the lost light from the hands of artificial intelligence. Even if human federations do not agree, anti-robotic laws have been drafted unanimously to avoid a second great darkness of this magnitude on every civilized world. There is no doubt about the fate of free artificial intelligence among men... and Liam Levesque doesn't want to know what would happen if there is an AI onboard the Gallant, an unidentified droid not registered and especially not reported to the authorities ... He knew during his military career that the capital punishment is by death if he had a robot to his property. Is there really an AI in there? What if a NTA patrol was around the Gallant, at the moment?

As he's about to ask his crew, the copilot talks before him:

«Is there ... a robot inside?». Her brown eyes blinked several times as she asked him the question.

The captain wrinkles his lips, his stomach feels heavy. It's a good question, no doubt. He doesn't remember if Havo had told him about it at the bar, and it's too late to ask him the question ...

«I'm not gonna lie, but I really want to know the truth. But first, Annouk, you're gonna go to the comms and call the Authority for emergency. Even we're into blindflight, we can send a distress call. Meanwhile, we'll gonna bring Havo's body to the infirmary and clean the hangar's floor. Then we will search his cabin and deal with his container.»