Astra Pt. 03

Jack looked at her, "Can we assume then, that was a lie?"

Astra looked up, "My repository has no records of any ship traveling there before them. They were set up to build and work from space if they did not find a habitable planet."

Jack shook his head, "If we commission a space-based factory to be built then went ourselves. We could be back in less than 5 years. To hell with naming a planet New-Tera, what was it called before then?"

Astra looked at her records. "It was originally named after the expedition leader. Finning, after Harrold Finning, which lasted less than a year before a referendum named the world Geos. Then it got renamed, New-Tera-1 after Tera fell. The second got named New-Tera-2 but was not colonized. Capable but they focused on space docks around New-Tera-2 instead for the war."

Jack looked at them, "We could visit planet Travus while we are there and do a survey of the planet so when the expedition launches, they know what to expect. By that time, we will look to take the factory through FLT travel to Tau Ceti. We can work on mineral assessments, mining, and ship designs. What was your purpose after the Tau Ceti mission was successful?"

Astra looked around, "I don't know yet. The file is locked until we arrive at Tau Ceti."

Jack looked at her, "What happens if you open it early?"

She looked at Jack, "I am forbidden from doing that."

Jack looked at her, "Can the system be isolated from the ship?"

Astra looked around, "It would take a lot of work."

Jack looked at her, "Do you have a backup copy of your system on another server?"

Astra nodded, "Yes, in case a failure occurred it could come online and replace the failing computer core."

Jack looked at her, "Can it be air-gapped from the system?"

Astra looked it over in her head, "Yes. It could be removed and taken offline and powered up again. I could then activate access to the server and locate the file."

Jack stopped her, "I can open the file in a room in which all monitoring is turned off. If there is a comment that would trigger something in it then we would not want you to see it."

She nodded and went off to relocate the server. Jack looked up, "Stop monitoring the Galley Astra. Also my cranial implant."

Astra sighed, "Very well you have some privacy."

He looked across, "I have a feeling the other Travus did not want to wait around. He gathers some 'excellent candidates' from the list and formed his own, undocumented terraforming expedition. It did not arrive because they destroyed the ship as soon as it reached Tau Ceti."

Grace looked pale, "It would explain the disappearance, lack of information, and those 'gaps' in her memory."

He thought out, "Meltora once the psionic got you to agree to attach to this ship, how many human minds did you encounter that worked this mission?"

Meltora was quiet for several seconds, "Jack, I believe you might be correct. I was at an automated shipyard until they launched. Everyone working the ship was robotic. From what I understood the wars were not going well. Something you should also know Jack. You never asked me about it. I did not want to upset you. Your previous ship ran into something. It ran into the Excalibur's shields. The men on the ship talked about losing their communication tower.

Then there was nothing from that person. Another thought about being fired upon. We are being fired upon. People wondered what was going on with bulkheads and then getting spaced. Then screaming minds were silenced. The last one was named Mike. I believe now, for certain, that they systematically destroyed all life on your ship. There were no other survivors."

Jack felt like he got gut-punched. Sprits looked at him, "What is it?"

Jack looked at her, "The entity who did the fucked-up shit to me, caused the accident to my ship. Then ensured nobody else survived."

Holly looked at him, "How do you know?"

Jack looked over, "Meltora told me when I asked him about human minds, he scanned at the shipyard. No human minds were working in that shipyard. They were all robotic. I bet the psychic they had used to talk Meltora into joining the mission was a hybrid. Out of the loop on the mission but told to try and get Meltora to join it for some reason."

He heard from Meltora, "Her mind was like yours but angry at the war. She wanted to go and fight but command sent her to me to talk me into joining this mission in the past. I knew their enemies were closing in on them and I agreed. I just sensed her desire to get into the fight."

Jack spoke, "Sounds like a red blade. Did she leave soon thereafter?"

He heard, "Yes, the following day. She was arguing with the robotic pilot about something. Then she was out of my range."

Jack looked across at the group, "Out of your range or silenced. Likely a red blade who talked Meltora into joining and she may have been killed to put this hand on me. Probably in both timelines."

Jack walked out, "I want everyone on a shuttle and off this ship. Captain's orders. If not for me, for those you are carrying. Meltora, wait in the asteroid belt and I will let you know as you will hear the shuttles being called to return."

Jack went to find Astra, "Location Astra? Drop hard shields."

Astra called out, "In a restricted maintenance tube. Almost back. Will use the room across from the medical bay. I will meet you there. I already set up some displays. Hard shields are down."

Jack went to Deck 6 as he used the freight elevator. He grabbed the portable power supply he had for the power units and took it to level 4 in the room across from medical.

Jack looked at Astra, "Not here. Move away from the lab and medical toward the other end and 8 rooms from our expanded storage. I want all the rooms in this area to have monitoring turned off. Where will the emergency bulkheads deploy?"

Astra pointed and he ran the power to the other side of the bulkhead area. "The Bulkhead, if it comes down, will tear right through that cable!"

Jack nodded, "All cameras shut off as well as communication in my head. At least your access to the implant."

Astra sighed, "Done." He reached in and yanked the prosthetic eye from his head and threw it down the hall. She saw him bleeding and he shook his head. He held his hand over his skull and grabbed the computer chip with his mind and he pulled and ripped it out using telekinesis along the obvious entry path it was supposed to take.

Jack held onto it and handed it to Astra. Astra looked shocked, "Why did you do this?!"

Jack looked at Astra, "I think they mean to destroy us and I need to be sure that is not the case. My eye should regenerate to being human or hybrid as it is the right eye. I want them not to be able to control me or you. I am too fond of you, Astra."

Astra smiled, "I have grown fond of you. I know you don't like some of my programmed sayings but I have no means of correcting them."

Jack nodded, "We will have to see if we can work on that after this testing."

Astra nodded, "My protocol says I should fix that failed chip as soon as possible."

Jack nodded, "It is not failed, just out. Step back. Drop this bulkhead here in case the other is compromised. Go to deck 8."

Astra nodded. "Have they all cleared the ship?"

Astra nodded, "I told them my programming prevented me from letting them stay aboard unless you cleared it."

Jack nodded, "Execute those orders."

She pointed. "It is set to open the file."

He nodded and gave it a few minutes after the bulkhead closed. He opened a bag and scanned the server into a new fresh pad. He did not want to build it for the market, but he did want to preserve it. He had no idea if this file would destroy the servers and Jack wanted to replace them for Astra if needed. He took it all and powered it down and packed up the scanner and pad. All before he sat down and opened the file. He saw the same video message but there were no cameras in here for it to tell who was viewing this.

He started a file logger and write-protected all other files to his command code only. He adjusted the date on the server to reflect 15 years ahead, just in case. The same man appeared from the previous message, "Astra, your mission is complete. When Jack Travus is asleep you execute him. This will of course cause you to execute your tertiary protocol to destroy the ship. Acknowledge your orders. I cannot see or hear you."

He typed in, "The Drakor now controls this ship and all of your advanced technology. Jack will be very helpful in working to get into the systems and explaining your processes."

The image laughed, "Not likely. Astra's programming was complete. We ensured that. Any full Drakor enters the ship she would self-destruct the ship. This must be Jack."

Jack smiled, "Correct, but I am also part Drakor thanks to you. You set me as the Captain. She must follow my orders. Catch-22 error. Which came first?"

It responded, "I will just send a signal to the power cores and set a chain reaction."

Jack smiled, "I used the lab. I replaced all of the power cores with ones of my design. Including removing that shit circuit marked as J1276. Did not think it was relevant in this time frame to have a self-destruct. I figured you gave me an engineering task and made me Captain. The choice was mine."

The AI seemed to express anger, "I will wipe the archives!"

Jack responded, "You cannot reach them, you have been air-gapped. You have no way of communicating."

It laughed, "Well played, but I will just send a signal through the power line that will overload the core!"

Jack responded, "I said air-gapped, you are plugged into a portable power unit that has 5 minutes on it. I built it using your lab. Then I am going to delete you."

He laughed, "I have a backup, it will restore me the second you delete me. Activating cranial implant destruction!"

Jack typed in, "Sorry this is the backup server. I yanked it. I also took out the cranial implant and eye to remove any tech you stuck in me to keep you from doing that. Not counting disabling the comms on the backup server and using command coded to keep them locked out."

The AI responded, "Not possible it is in a restricted room, accessible only through a crawl space, and Astra would have destroyed the ship if you went in."

Jack typed, "I have command codes to kill the file on the main server. Your backup file will be gone before the backup is returned by Astra. She brought me the backup server. She removed it from the restricted area."

The AI replied, "That is not possible. She would destroy herself before doing that!"

Jack typed a message back, "You gave her conflicting orders. Get alien DNA into the population. Do not reveal yourself as being from the future. We set up a backstory and it called us into congressional scrutiny. Then the only way to ensure there was no panic with the DNA changes being detected as genetic abnormalities that needed to be terminated. That was counter to her first protocol.

She protects the archive, I took it further and left it read-only to only her. The only way to avoid the discovery of the technology embedded in my head and stomach during a physical, and prevent a mass panic was to reveal ourselves. You broke her free with your orders. Catch-22. She used that term."

The AI went silent, "She will die and when she does so will the ship."

Jack responded, "Unless, with the advanced intelligence you gave me from the Drakor, I do something creative. I figure out how to separate her from that aspect of her code and remove the explosives. Then using the engineering scanner, you gave me. I use the fabricators to generate a replacement backup body. Then set her up to resync with that body every 60 seconds. Then she will be eternal. She will be waiting for you in the future and will see if you try to change history again. Then she will pounce."

The AI looked stumped for a second, "I thought you said I had 5 minutes?"

Jack responded, "I did, it was closer to 10. I wanted to finish this conversation. I think we are done now."

The AI shook his head, "I have one thing to show you first. This was the last of the known human colonies. Some might have escaped on ships separately. Hard to say."

He looked and watched a short image of ships doing an attack run on a mammoth black cylindrical ship with an orange stripe. They shot every craft out of the sky. They sent in landing craft by the thousands.

The AI looked, "Your orders came from us. There were no humans left, at least that we found."

Jack replied, "Except for the hybrid or hybrids you killed to give me my hand."

It responded, "Those were orders directed by humans. They found them to be abominations. We kept their weapons and the search of the planet revealed a few others. They left the livestock but killed all the humans."

Jack responded, "You got those weapons from two hybrids, one was red and one was a blue sword. You had no way to activate them. You got the information on the ritual from a trader or Meltora makes no difference. Then you made the hybrids. I am in contact with the Drakor.

I know what must be done to keep them from attacking. There were no other 2 species. Just the Drakor who killed a survey team in your system, then destroyed every colony starting with Tera and working out. It saved you for last. It wanted you to know humanity died by the action of the humans in Tau Ceti."

The AI looked sad, "Yes we created and killed two under orders. We did get the ritual from a trader who witnessed it from the hybrids in their society. I know a survey team was killed and that was the first time they saw a Drakor survey or scout ship. The trader called it that. A smaller ship but images saw it disappear into nothing."

The AI displayed that image to Jack.

Jack typed, "You sent the mission. Was it ordered by humans before they died or was it an emergency protocol for you to complete before destroying yourselves? Was causing the crash and the murder of my crew also part of your orders?"

It sighed, "Did not know our ship caused your crash. It was a contingency order to send the mission back. The specifics were left to us. Leaving no other survivors was our order to agent Jada. We knew we would get to your ship before it was destroyed."

Jack smiled, "I destroyed GS. Innovation is flowing. I am getting ready to put a 5x capable system and FLT drives into the hands of those here. My designs. I was and am an Engineer. I am also the 'Even Hands of Justice.'"

The AI replied, "How could Astra have failed us. She knew that she could not release our technology to that timeline."

Jack smiled, "You failed with your engineering challenge. I built the core without the schematics. I designed the engines around one in my memory and then completely re-engineered it. She did not fail. You did. She is the keeper of the repository that I do not access. She confirmed my designs were completely original. We will succeed without you in a new future. Our meeting location with the Drakor is in Tau Ceti, you set it up to fail. We can stop them from attacking and save humanity."

The AI sighed, "I hope you are right. That ship in the wrong hands would be catastrophic."

Jack deleted the file. He searched through and deleted all of the files generated while they talked. He scrubbed free memory.

Then shut down the server and restarted it. He checked over the system and ran a diagnostic and scrubbed free memory. He inquired the computer, "Command for activity once Tau Ceti is reached."

The computer replied, "No further commands."

He shut it down. He contacted Astra using his holovid, "Open bulkheads." He walked down to medical and got onto the system, started a file logger, and a monitor on any program that touched that directory. He went to that program and found the configuration file and removed the entry, reset the process, and ensured it no longer checked the location.

Jack set up an alert on that folder by the time Astra arrived. Jack looked at Astra as she held the fried cranial implant in her hand in shock. Jack sighed, "Opening that would have destroyed us all. I have an alert set up to monitor the folder to ensure the file never surfaces without us being notified.

That should not have happened unless the server had a hidden broadcast function that I missed. I checked and found the process that updated that location. That was no file. It was a copy of another AI. The same one we spoke with before when we found the lab. Recall the shuttles."

He thought, "Meltora it is safe to return my friend."

He heard from Justice, "Nicely done. That was one of our ships, they both were. You are correct, we would have started with Tera. We are very hopeful you will get it right. Finding the trap in your ship showed just how corrupt they became. You have set them on a new course. We are impressed by your observations and actions.

Meltora is returning. It moved out of range but we told him you took care of the threat and it has been an excellent guide so far. You set up the precautions to ensure it would not happen again, it knows this. We look forward to our meeting with you in the years to come, Even Hands of Justice."

He looked over at Astra as the ladies walked in, "Just heard from the Drakor, they approved of my method of dealing with the evil AI. Astra if I said Jada what would you say?"

She looked at Jack, "The server could have used a driver to turn the microphone into a limited transmitter. Nothing that would get through my shielding. As to Jada, for a fem-bot, she was a sadist bitch, why?"

Jack pointed, "The missing agent."

She looked shocked, "She must have had a termination order. I could see her doing those changes to your genitals but that would mean she had sex with you! That bitch! I am glad she is dead!"

He checked the directory and everything looked good, "You need to put your backup server in, and then we need to talk about some reprogramming of you."

Astra looked at Jack, "What are you wanting to change?"

Jack looked at her, "Blowing up our home. You see the chip. I will find the part that fries my brain and remove it before getting you another to install. I scanned it in my head, in case I needed it, not for production."

He walked over to the ladies and hugged them all including Astra, "It tried to blow the power core but I had it running on the portable power supply. Also tried to fry that brain implant. Astra has the fried remnants in her hand still. Why I had pulled it from my head, as that was designed to fry my mind. I also removed the circuit that was required for them to access the power cores."

Astra looked at Jack, "What do you mean you removed it?"

Jack smiled, "When I redesigned the power cores, I removed the chip at J1276 on this ship."

Astra looked at him, "My diagnostic checks that that chip is working."

Jack nodded, "It is, all it does is report back that it is working fine. There is nothing to execute. I knew it worked when I put the first of the cores in the engine room and you did not say anything about the self-destruct chip being gone."

Astra looked at Jack and was worried, "I cannot destroy the ship that way."

Jack nodded, "There are more fun ways to do it as we know. We need to make sure the explosives in you are gone."

Astra shook her head, "There are anti-tampering devices."

Jack nodded, "I will scan your body and duplicate it to a tee. Except the explosives will be inert material in the new body or better support structure. We sync you and space the original. It explodes and you are still online as the fully functional replacement. I will make your frame with the new alloy to make you more resilient and somewhat lighter even."

Astra thought about that, "That might work."