Chapter No.29 Electronic War
Even a blind squirrel occasionally finds a nut
Molly found another candidate habitable planet 780 light years away from our present location. It 's a planet 1.5 times larger than Earth and has an appreciable atmosphere.
However, we decided to exit warp a billion kilometers away from the planet to be safe.
"We have a problem," Molly reported.
"What's wrong?" I asked as I leaned over to look at her screen.
"I'm detecting a sizable number of vessels on an intercept course."
"Hmm, that's interesting. They must have known that we were coming."
She turned to glare at me. "Are you suggesting that they could detect us while in warp?"
"I doubt that, but they may have detected us before we entered warp."
"That would suggest that they had very sensitive detection technology or that they were shadowing us all along."
"I vote for the second idea," I said. "Maybe it's the Scath."
"The vessel configuration doesn't match our records of Scath vessels."
"Hmm. Maybe this is a new protagonist."
"Whoever they are, they'll be here in ten minutes at their present velocity."
"Go to Red Alert Status," Judy.
The lights dim to a dull red and Madison arrived on the command deck and took her place at the weapons console. The first thing she did was raise shields.
We watched the approach of the vessels without comment. They appeared to be spherical in shape with no signs of openings or seams. When they did arrive, they encircled our ship.
"I have a request for visual," Judy said.
"Put it on."
The main screen displayed what appeared to be a machine creature. It had a human-like head with a human-like face, but it's gender and ethnicity was not obvious. The creature's body was definitely robotic. I concluded that we had encountered a sentient robotic species, but I had no idea why it would look human.
"You have entered our space," the machine said in a computer voice. "You will be destroyed."
"We had no idea that this was your space. We are exploring this galaxy for intelligent life. We are part machine and part flesh. We are not interested in conquering or dominating anyone."
"We have gained entry to your intelligent system and determined that you must be destroyed."
Judy turned to me and gave me a grin that suggested that she was up to something.
I decided to play it cool. "I would suggest that you not try to destroy us this close. We have massive amounts of antimatter that would destroy all your vessels."
Suddenly, the visual went blank.
"We have taken over their system, Jason," Judy reported.
"Shut them down," I quickly said.
Molly gave me a surprised look.
I smiled. "I guess they didn't allow for the fact that our androids are collectively capable of out computing their AI system."
"Now what are we going to do?" Molly asked.
"We have found data that indicates that they have destroyed intelligent species in this galaxy," Judy revealed. "We have entered their planetary system."
"Good!" I said, blowing out a relieved breath. "Let's go to their planet and finish the job."
Our ship quickly accelerated to half light speed.
"How were our androids able to overcome their system so easily?" Molly asked.
"We have four thousand androids, and once all of their brains are activated, their combined brain power is able to accomplish much more than a centralized system like this machine species has."
Molly chuckled. "I'll bet that the engineers who designed our androids never dreamed that they could end up being weaponized against another AI based species."
"Who would even imagine an AI based species."
"We are in orbit, Jason."
I looked up at the main screen. "Interesting. This species has a centralized metropolis built with neat geometric designs, and yet they were not smart enough to consider that they could be vulnerable to electronic attack through their main system."
"We aren't vulnerable because our main system is split up into the individual androids," Molly said.
"Exactly," I said. "The connection between them is only employed when needed. One android has enough brain power to do almost anything a central system could achieve. Combined, they are invincible."
"I am detecting no movement or electronic activity on the surface," Molly said. She turned to me. "Now that we've done our cosmic good deed, what's next?"
"Maybe it would be prudent to destroy their main system with an antimatter missile."
"You do not have to do that, Jason," Judy said. "We are able to erase all of their programming, including their backup systems."
I rubbed my jaw before turning to her. "Do it."
"What's next?" Molly asked.
"We should continue our search for humans," I replied.
Molly sighed. "If there were humans in this galaxy, this machine species probably destroyed them."
"We have no way of knowing that. This machine species was obviously created by an intelligent species. I think we should give it a try. Maybe we'll get lucky."
Molly deployed her virtual mirror and began a search for habitable planets. After a half hour of work, she came up with a new candidate.
"I have found a system that's only 150 light years away. It's a K0-V dwarf star with an Earth-like planet."
"Take us there, Judy."
"Yes, Jason."
I didn't have much faith in there being humans on a planet that close to this maniac machine species, but you never know.
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