Liberty Two Democracies | Book Story Novel Of Liberty

LIBERTY two Democracies. 

PartI

The suns reflected off her mirrored

glasses as she walked across the dry

grassland. A scarf covered her face

against the dust whipped up by the

occasional gust of wind. Her grey

robe parted with

step,

every

revealing glimpses of the black

firmsuit underneath. She carried

no weapons; they wouldn't help

her this time.

From the low rise ahead she

would be able to see what she had

come for.

She stopped on the crest and

pulled back her hood. Her long,

dark hair escaped and hung around

her shoulders. In the distance

stood a city, gleaming white

through the heat haze.

"It is time."

She didn't acknowledge the

speaker, continuing to stare across

the savannah. With the optical

enhancements in her glasses she

could make out personal aircars

coming and going between the

skyscrapers.

"I cannot protect you if you go

any further."

A larger aircraft arrived and

of

touched down on one of the

buildings, a commuter transport

no doubt. People going to work,

going shopping, meeting friends.

"Does this have to happen?" she

asked her escort.

"It is too late now. We cannot

intervene."

Chapteri

"All stations, stand by to engage.

Full burn on my mark..." said

Captain Hapsburg in measured

tones. "Mark."

The

Indescribable

of

Joy

Destruction powered forward, and

swung around the moon it had

been using for cover. The tactical

sensors marked their target, a

Congressional destroyer in orbit

around the planet Orpus-4. The

navigational routines offered a set

of courses to the pilot, who

pseudo-random

approved

a

corkscrew approach. The Caretaker

watched all this with mild interest;

there was little else to occupy its

thoughts right now, the ship was in

prime condition and the crew were

locked

their

all

down

in

acceleration couches.

The Rampager class was an

design,

experimental

The

Indescribable Joy of Destruction the

eighth to be constructed by the

Republic. They were built around

their main beam weapon and their

engines. Unheard-of levels of

computing power allowed a high-

level AI to take over most of the

basic functions of the ship, leaving

a crew of only seven. This, in turn,

meant that very little room was

needed for living space, so the

power plants, weapons and engines

could be far larger for a ship of its

size.

A minute after The Indescribable

Joy of Destruction cleared the moon,

the enemy started a slow turn to

meet them. Ten seconds into their

manoeuvre, they launched a spread

of missiles.

"I've got them," said the tactical

officer, and the Caretaker switched. 

ship's

from

the

perspective

functions to the simulated bridge.

The tactical officer tagged the

missiles with sweeps of his hands

and passed them to the point

defence systemsS.

The

of

Indescribable

Joy

Destruction

continued

its

unpredictable approach

the

as

missiles rushed towards it. The

enemy ship completed its turn, andd

lit off its main drives. There was no

doubting

commander's

her

bravery

Congressional

no

destroyer had ever survived an

Republic

with

engagement

a

hunter-killer.

Railgun rounds spewed out of

the destroyer's turrets. Moments

later the first missile entered the

range of The Indescribable Joy of

Destruction's point defences. The

ship hummed as the lasers drew

power. Systematically the missiles

picked

of

out

space,

were

detonating harmlessly.

The

of railgun

rounds

cloud

pilot

wasn't far behind. The

worked with the navigation routine

but

to dodge the denser regions,

the occasional metal slug impacted

on the hull, sending dull clangs

reverberating around the ship.

The tactical officer pulled upa

magnified image of the target,

flowed

three

which

into

a

dimensional model. A lurid orange

highlight followed his finger as he

marked a line across a pair of large

turrets. He sent a

Command

through the Electronic Interface

System embedded in his brain, and

the ship's throbbing intensified as

the main weapon came online.

They

streaked

the

past

Congressional warshipp and the

beam fired, slashing through the

The pilot twisted The

turrets.

Indescribable Joy of Destruction

about, swinging around in a wide

arc ready for another pass. The

enemy vessel turned too, but was

completely outclassed in terms of

manoeuvrability.

"Same again," said Captain

Hapsburg. "This time break across

at the last second and hit the

turrets on the opposite side."

Despite the reduced weight of

fire put out by the enemy ship, they

still got in plenty of hits. Nothing

The Indescribable Joy of Destruction's

hull couldn't self-repair, though.

the

tactical

officer

Again

highlighted the cut he wanted from

the main beam. The side-step

worked, and the enemy lost two

This time,

weapons.

more

however, they launched missiles as

passed. The

the hunter-killer

tactical officer gave the point

defence routine authority to fire

with a thought through his EIS.

The lasers took out the first five

missiles, and hit the next two as

they left their silos. A series of

explosions rippled along one side of

the enemy ship as their remaining

stocks detonated.

The pilot pulled them around in

a tight turn and threw the ship at

the target yet again, aiming at the

gap they'd carved out in the rail-

The

gun

coverage.

enemy

commander didn't let them get a

clean run, rolling the destroyer to

keep the still-functioning turrets

facing them. It would only delay

the inevitable victory.

stern,"

their

"Cut

across

Hapsburg ordered. Target their

engines."

The

of

Indescribable

Joy

Destruction barrelled in, swinging

its nose around ready to bring the

main beam to bear as it passed. The

enemy destroyer was moving fast

now, and the pilot had to aim for a

point ahead of it in order to pass as

close behind as possible. A fraction

of a second before the tactical

officer fired the main weapon,

something detached from the stern

of the enemy ship. Human reflexes

were too slow to even register it

before the collision; the AI tried to

adjust their course, but it was too

late. The nuclear mine detonateed

against the hull. Power surged

through the ship, blowing out

circuits. The Caretaker shut down.

<<78BE4A7C6ED912ACED7BB5CB3

2>>

<<#link:56AAB3E44AAC>>

<<#run:990BDDE445>>

The Caretaker came online and

found it

alone. Captain

was

Hapsburg and the six other crew members were dead. The ship's

main personality was silent. The

logs since the Caretaker had shut

down were blank. As the queries

came back from the ship's systems,

it discovered that the ship was

badly damaged, lacking the power

and resources to repair itself.

<<#file:23BEF445>>

The Caretaker reviewed the

document. It was a brief situation

update from the main personality,

explaining that it had gone into

hibernation to reduce the drain on

power. It instructed the Caretaker

to get the ship home. There was no

report on what had happened in

the intervening time.

The Caretaker almost rebooted

the main AI core there and then. It

wasn't programmed to deal with

this kind of situation. It was only

supposed to keep the place tidy and

help coordinate repairs. Then it

calculated how long the power

reserves would last, and realised

that they wouldn't even make it out

of the system.

Where are we?

It had never had to know

anything about navigation, but a

glance at the ship's external sensors

showed they were no longer in the

Orpus system. It queried the

navigation routine and found it to

be off-line. Determined to discover

its location, and slightly concerned

that it didn't know how it got

there, it searched the database and

absorbed a manual on astrogation.

Another look at the external feeds,

and it determined that they were in

a system three jumps away from

the scene of the battle.

Probably safe from pursuit. For

now.

There was so much it should be

doing. It didn't know what exactly

yet, but it should be able to work it

out. For now, at least, it could do

what it was built to do. It could tidy

up the interior of the ship.

The

Caretaker

turned

its

attention to the internal sensors.

Bodies littered the

corridors.

Bodies

black

in

angular,

Congressional Marine armour.

So, we were boarded.

There was no point in doing

anything about the enemy bodies

right now. Once it had a full

inventory, it would know whether

it needed to salvage the materials

in their armour.

The Caretaker ordered a repair

robot to the bridge. Normally the

machine would have refused the

command, a failsafe to protect the

crew if it malfunctioned, but with

no-one left alive, the 'bot complied.

As the spindly, multi-legged

device gently lifted the first body

seat, the

from its

Caretaker

reviewed the personnel files. All

crew members had recorded the

traditional request for burial in

space. By the time the last corpse

had been reverently laid out in the

loading bay, the Caretaker had

velocity

calculated the

exact

required. It recited the lines laid

down in the regulations, and

played the prescribed fanfare as it

launched the bodies on their way.

In a few months time they would

burn up in the system's sun.

The Caretaker reflected on the

task ahead. There had been clear

instructions on how a funeral was

to be conducted, following them

had been easy. There didn't seem to

be a rulebook for getting a crippled

ship home without a human crew.

The Caretaker pieced together

some of what had happened as it

completed its inventory. In the

battle and its aftermath, the ship

had

used all its reserves of

materials to regrow the hull and

key systems. It had been forced to

cannibalise non-essential parts of

itself in order to scavenge some of

the rarer elements needed to

rebuild the engines.

The architects of the Rampager

class had envisioned swarms of the

sleek hunter-killers converging on

Congressional capital ships and

tearing them apart, overturning

Congress' current superiority. As

they were designed

purely for

hunting enemy warships, combat

survivability had been high on the

list of 'must haves'. This had led to

infrastructure

semi-organic

a

which could heal itself in the midst

of a battle. Once the titanium

skeleton had been laid, the body of

the ship was literally grown over it,

a process that turned out to be too

time-consuming

to allow the

hoped-for swarms to be ready. If

The Indescribable Joy of Destruction

had been deployed with its siblings,

it wouldn't now be in

this

situation.

The Caretaker realised that it

needed somewhere to hole up. If it

could find a source of raw materials

and fuel, and was left alone for

long enough, it could fix the ship

and hand back to the main

personality. Trawling through the

astronavigation database, it found a

suitable system; out of the way and

likely deserted. It should have the

natural resources it needed to

repair and replenish its stores. And

the system was within range of the

abused drives.