Once upon a time, there was a sweet, innocent little girl who fought an interstellar war — something a little girl should never do. Her name was Avia.
Aboard the Stalk Ship Nimbus, Avia scanned her fellow passengers lining the jump-seats. Everyone wore jet-black space suits with dark helmets laid ready at their feet. The stealthy ship had the latest in anti-reflective coating, making it virtually invisible against deep space. Also, special technology hid it from radar and displacement sensors.
Silent tension hung thick in the air. This mission must be big, really big, Avia thought. As usual, the mission briefing didn't provide her with much information — not the forest view, only about the tree she would cut down — even though she was perhaps the most sophisticated weapon system ever developed. But then, Avia was only a fourteen-year-old girl.
"Here," the man sitting next to her said with a smile, handing over a plastic drink bottle. "You need to fuel up."
Flint, a tough-as-nails career marine sergeant with a powerful square jaw and the battle scars to prove it, was Avia's military handler. He stayed close with her on every mission, providing protection and guidance. But over the years, he became the nearest thing she ever had to a father. Gray hair, cut in a stereotypical military buzz, and wrinkled forehead displayed an age many decades older. He had an intense laser glare that cowered enemy and new recruits alike, but for Avia, it was always warm as morning sunshine.
"Thanks," Avia said, returning his smile. Her trimmed dark-brown hair flowed back as she lifted the bottle, squeezing the overly sweet fruit-flavored liquid into an upturned mouth. Simple sugars powered the advanced cybernetic implants in her head, so she consumed an inordinate amount of carbohydrates.
Many years ago, the implants were surgically fitted into Avia's brain, one of many expendable orphans in the cyber program. Only young children below eight Earth years old had a malleable enough brain to accept the implants, but even at that, nearly half suffered severe brain damage or death. Those that survived and then passed the following intensive four-year training became part of the elite Cyber Assault Force — children soldiers in the ongoing Boundary Wars.
The cyber implants allowed them to mentally override most control systems and AI's. In a typical mission, the enhanced child would hack into and disable an enemy starship, then leave it for others to finish, whether capture or destruction. But there was a catch — it could only be done by direct connection within the ship, thus boarding was required. And the enemy always vigorously resisted this with lethal force.
One by one, Avia's fellow child warriors, friends she laughed and played with, would leave on missions and never come back. Little explanation was offered, only that they 'went to a better place.' Most never made it to adulthood.
But this mission seemed different to Avia, starting with weeks of special training, a long journey on a support ship, followed by days in the stealthy stalker. She used her cybernetics to access the navigation system, discovering they were many light-years within enemy space with no backup. And now the time was nearly upon her.
Avia looked up into Flint's eyes, imploring, "What do I need to do?"
"Mostly the same, but with a twist." He took out a com-viewer and tapped on the transparent screen, sending data to Avia's cyber implants. "Instead of powering down the ship, we want you to take over navigation and propulsion. Send the ship on the heading I just gave you at full thrust. Then we get out."
Avia wrinkled her forehead as she mentally examined the heading. "Into the atmosphere?"
"Right," Flint answered. "And right down on a command bunker on the planet below. If this works, kiddo, we will take out the enemy leadership." He wrapped an arm around her and drew her against his side. "And maybe turn the war in our favor. That would be good."
"Yeah." She smiled at him. Pleasing Flint had always been a priority to Avia. "But it will take longer to hack."
"We'll give you the time."
Avia accessed the exterior sensors, viewing them in her mind. An enemy cruiser loomed, dark and menacing, floating above the bright blue and green planet below, one of the enemy home-worlds. The ship was enormous, shaped like a long metal box with a rounded nose and three thruster cones aft. The surface bristled with attachments, including plasma cannon turrets and missile batteries. She presumed the long tube spanning the hull length was a rail-gun placement.
If their approach was discovered, they would be blasted into little bits. But this had not happened before, by Avia's reasoning, so it wouldn't happen now. Besides, Flint was with her and everything turned out good with Flint along.
When the red lights blinked, the squad stood — a dozen adults and a small girl. Flint lifted Avia's chin with a finger, his countenance morphing from cheerful to cautious. "We will probably be going into heavy fire. Stay close to me and remember your training."
Avia nodded. She should have been terrified, frozen in panic, but this was what she knew, her purpose, what they shaped her to be. She was within Flint's protective sphere, where she wanted to be.
Everyone lifted and fixed dark helmets, moving together as if in a choreographed dance. All but Avia checked pulse weapons built into the suit arms or secured breach cutters. A whir of compressors evacuated air from the compartment until there was not enough for sound. The marines gripped rails lining the rounded ceiling above as the artificial gravity switched off, leaving them floating. All familiar procedure to Avia.
"Go!" The order came, and the squad filed out two oval portals, Flint and Avia last. Firing thrusters mounted on their suit backs, the team flew through the darkness to a seldom used maintenance port under a fusion thruster cone near the cruiser stern. The Nimbus settled in the cone shadow, waiting their return.
So far, so good.
In silent practiced precision, two marines set to breaching the hatch with plasma cutters while the rest fanned out in defensive formation. Avia knew from experience that the energy signature from the cutters, and the showers of orange sparks they generated, might reveal the assault. Using her cybernetics, she monitored for any kind of response activation.
It came.
"Defense drones!" she warned. "Coming aft."
"I see them," came a female voice in response. "Coming in low."
Silvery saucer shapes swept around the thruster cone like a swarm of angry hornets. As orange plasma bolts streaked out from the drones, Flint positioned himself protectively between them and Avia. A line of marines crouched and extended arms, returning fire with suit mounted pulse guns as if shooting with their hands. The automatic targeting systems proved deadly, cutting down the first wave of drones in bright bursts.
But more drones came. Many more.
A fury of orange fire rained down. One marine at the left flank took a bolt to the chest, which flung him back, sending him tumbling away through weightless space.
Avia detected bursts of short-range terahertz-band radio signals with her implants. The drones were semi-autonomous, but directed from some sort of controller. Concentrating, she countered the signals with a transmitter built-in to her space suit. The drones stilled and stopped firing, making them easy targets for the marines. Warmth fluttered within her chest as a marine turned and gave her a thumbs-up sign.
"The door is open," announced a marine as he cast away the cut-off metal hatch.
"'Bout freaking time," came a response.
"Cut the chatter," the commander's voice ordered. "Move!"
Half the marines flew through the hatch, followed by Avia and Flint, leaving the others to guard the rear. Spacesuit headlights revealed a long, dark corridor lined with pipes and conduit. The area was not pressurized, precisely why they chose this point of entry. Waiting for depressurization would delay entry, and here they were less likely to encounter the enemy.
"There," Flint said, pointing down the corridor to a data port. "Hook in and do your thing, Avia."
Using extensive weightless training, she glided gracefully along, using clusters of conduit along the wall to guide her, coming to a stop at a black box with a hinged cover. Grunting, she pried open the cover, then plugged a suit cable into a rectangular port. Three tiny green lights blinked in sequence.
"I have connection," she said, closing her eyes as the cybernetic implants reached out.
First, Avia detected and disabled the intrusion detection program that might have disconnected the port. "I'm in," she reported as she made way to the ship computer core, easily bypassing the outer firewall by the sheer processing power of the bio-chips in her head.
Avia parsed through the com and security systems, which occupied the next layer. "They know we are here," she announced. "Security teams are coming, inside and outside. I shut down the drone response."
The commander came on, saying, "Got that, bravo team?"
"Affirmative," the response came from outside. "Here come the bastards. At least eight on thrust sleds."
After accessing internal monitors, Avia said, "Nine more coming from inside. At the forward air-lock hatch."
With a hand motion, the commander directed four marines into response position. It was only a matter of time before the security team entered.
Within two seconds, Avia passed through the next firewall, coding input as if cracking a safe. But every time she reached toward the navigation and propulsion systems, a barrier appeared in her path. Beads of sweat formed on her brow.
"Engaging. Taking fire," an outside marine reported.
"There's something new," Avia said. "Some kind of active tertiary firewall. I think the ship AI is fighting me."
Orange pulses of plasma streaked through the corridor. Three enemies in gray environmental suits rushed through the hatch, firing wildly. But the marines waiting for them quickly cut them down. "They can only come three at a time through the airlock," a marine noted.
"Watch our back," the commander said, motioning to another man. "They may try to flank."
"Need to hurry, kiddo," Flint whispered. "We'll be overrun soon."
The AI deftly deflected each incursion past the computer core second level as if by a moving shield. Avia's jaw clenched and her frustration burst out in curt words. "I'm trying!"
"Avia," he replied in a calm voice, while placing a hand on her shoulder. "Relax and work the problem. You've got this, kiddo."
With a deep breath, Avia willed her pounding heart to slow. "Flanking. That's it," she mumbled to herself.
In a second, Avia created a simple trojan-horse program by wrapping malware within routine system monitory code, then set it loose. As hoped, the AI absorbed it through the usual channels, then found itself cut-off from ship control functions.
She smiled. "Got 'em."
In a typical operation, Avia took over the high-level AI and enslaved it to perform the desired actions, but this AI was far too troublesome. So, she accessed navigation directly and entered the heading, then propulsion, setting a timer to fire the fusion thrusters at full output. Finally, she scrambled control inputs to lock out any other users.
"We're gettin' hammered out here!" came a com from an outside marine.
Three more enemy soldiers burst from the air-lock hatch, spreading plasma bolts across the corridor. One marine went down with a hit to his shoulder, while the others returned fire. For a moment, deadly orange streaks filled the space.
"Down!" Flint shouted, pushing Avia to the floor and covering her with his body until the bursts ended as the enemy soldiers fell.
Avia looked up at Flint and nodded while unplugging from the data port. "I did it. Seventy-two seconds until the thrusters fire."
"Good girl," he responded in a low voice, then louder over the com. "Go for extraction!"
The commander waved his men through the external hatch, one-by-one, then motioned for Avia and Flint to follow. But as Flint lowered his head to pass through, Avia noticed a motion behind. Her headlight illuminated an enemy soldier flying toward them from the other corridor end, pulse rifle raised.
Gasping, she yelled, "Watch out!"
In a single fluid motion, Avia drew Flint's sidearm from his waist holster and fired, hitting the soldier in the face-visor with a plasma bolt, shattering it in a flash of orange sparks. Limp, the soldier drifted back, floating in zero gravity.
Mesmerized, she stared at his lifeless face, revealed behind the broken visor. He was young, perhaps eighteen Earth-standard years old, with a gentle face, except for charred skin on one cheek. Open, vacant eyes stared back at her, accusing. He was not so different from those she called friends and comrades. By her actions, she had killed many, but this one was close and personal. Suddenly, breathing became difficult, and a shudder swept through her entire body.
Flint took the gun from Avia's frozen hand and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Let's go. I'm sure glad I taught you how to shoot."
By now, the outside threat had ended. Flint guided Avia out through the hatch to the waiting Nimbus. As they boarded, the enemy ship's thrusters fired with bright blue plumes, and it turned toward its demise.
The two marines that lost their lives in the assault, and three others seriously injured, occupied fold-down cots in the back. In the commotion, the rough green blanket that covered one of the dead had slid off his head. Avia sucked in a breath as her heart lodged in her throat. His face resembled the man she killed.
The remaining marines clustered around the forward viewscreen, watching the results of their actions. Also, her action. The doomed ship plunged through the atmosphere like a streaking meteor, a kinetic weapon turned against its creators. It struck in the night with a bright flash at a city's edge. The spreading shock wave devastated most of the city, extinguishing tiny city lights tracing its advance.
"Oorah!" a marine yelled, pumping the air with her fist. Cheers and congratulatory high-fives spread among the triumphant squad.
Sitting alone on a jump-seat, Avia felt no such jubilation.
In the cyber program, they always called the enemy, literally, 'the enemy' — evil, faceless rebels that threatened the good Sol Federation. But for the first time, it clicked in her young mind that these were real people, especially those in the devastated city below — countless thousands of regular folk, families, children, now dead by her hand. Were they really evil? Was she?
A blunt chill overtook Avia, and she shuddered. Bending over at the waist, she puked out her stomach contents in trembling heaves.
Flint rushed to her side, steadying her with an arm around her waist. "Avia, are you alright?"
Avia burrowed her head against his chest, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I... I killed them."
Flint replied in a low voice, gently stroking her hair. "Ah, my little bird, but this is war, and we are soldiers. The harsh reality is that people die in war. But in the end, this part of the galaxy will be a better place. I promise."
That day, the little girl ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and how bitter the fruit tasted. Innocence lost, her soul was forever tainted. Nothing would ever be the same again.
I know this, because once upon a time, I was that sweet little girl.