Wings of Light., No L and no C this time. Ok, there is quite a bit of c. Options

[jack cloudy]

Next one. Ok, several things first.
1: THIS IS NOT FANFICTION. No, this is a story taking place in an original universe. I hope no one minds.
2: Don't expect regular updates. This is an attempt at a professional novel so I want to plan it out and get all the good stuff in it. Foreshadowing, multiple plot lines, character interaction, cool hardware and a god, or maybe two.
3: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Also known as: Technobabble and Handwaves explain everything.
4: The laws of robotics are not implemented here. Sorry Isaac, but I want them to drive the cool stuff. They don't have time to babysit some organic wimps.



WINGS OF LIGHT

CHAPTER 1: Lights, colours, not here.

Without a sound, the SS Hesphire moved to its destination. It would have been useless to expect any sound as such a phenomenon had a hard time travelling through the vacuum of space.
,,This is your captain speaking. We are approaching the wormhole leading to the Eden system. The estimated time for our arrival is approximately half an hour from now. There will be a short burn for course corrections. We advise that all passengers strap themselves in till we’ve entered the wormhole and stabilized our course. If you require any help, our crew is willing to assist you. Thank you.” The disembodied voice echoed through speakers all over the ship.

With this announcement, everyone dropped whatever he or she was doing and moved to the observation deck. Entering a wormhole was always an exciting event for those who were new to interstellar travel. There were also those who were not new to interstellar travel. They also moved to the observation deck, though for a different reason.

Belonging to the second group was Paul Anthony Detroit. Every single cell of his body revealed him as a true veteran of space. He smoothly sailed from wall to wall, without any of the awkward bouncing of the average tourist. His clothes were tight fitting like those worn by all true space farers, yet without looking like a diver’s suit, oversized pyama or any other kind of embarrassing outfit newbies wore. The passengers he passed were mostly less successful in their choice of clothing. Wide, flowing clothes were fashionable these days yet had the unpleasant habit of getting stuck between doors or flowing away from the areas they were supposed to cover. Easy to use belts for strapping down clothes to the limbs were standard issue on civilian ships carrying passengers.

Thanks to his skill at zero g manoeuvring, he arrived well before the other passengers and secured the best place of all, the ceiling. Instantly, a steward pushed off against a wall to reach him.
,,Please mister, you may want to sit in one of the seats. Free floating during course corrections are not advised.” The young man, barely in his twenties, warned. Detroit looked down at the traditional name tag and smiled.
,,Well mister Rein, I can assure you that part of a g is not going to be a problem for me. Unless the SS Hesphire is using an illegally rigged High-performance Fusion torch and will be running multiple gees. In which case I would have to arrest everyone onboard.” He responded with the cool tone of voice that could come from only one kind of person. Military officers, the high-ranking ones.

The steward wisely backed off, allowing Detroit to enjoy the view. The man looked how everyone else entered the observation deck and got strapped in. There was some chaos but the stewards managed to get their job done and everyone strapped into a chair. He smiled again as he thought of the faces they would pull upon seeing a wormhole.
,,This is your captain speaking. We shall initiate our burn in 30 seconds. Anyone who is not yet secured should grab the nearest support and hold on for the next few minutes. Thank you.” This time, Detroit did follow the advise. He reached out and grabbed a small handle jutting out of the glass dome that covered the observation deck at the nose of the ship.

Little puffs of hydrogen jetted out of the minuscule thrusters spread across the Hesphire’s hull. The long cylindrical vehicle turned its nose around slowly. Two minutes later, the thrusters fired again to stop the rotation. Now the main thruster at the far end of the ship fired. Unlike during the turn, the acceleration caused by the main thrusters was felt by the people onboard. It felt as if you were suspended in the air under a parachute with a gentle breeze pushing you along.
,,This is your captain speaking. We are entering the wormhole in five…four…three…two…one…entering now.”

Necks were stretched in awkward positions, eyes seemed to bulge out of their sockets. The stars disappeared, to be replaced by pure darkness. Slowly, a hint of disappointment spread across the two dozen or so faces gathered on the observation deck. Detroits smile grew bigger.
,,No lights, no fancy colours, no humming sounds, no sudden acceleration. This ain’t your average holovision show. Welcome to real space. It is boring, it is slow and it rarely takes you anywhere interesting. At least you won’t find bad looking aliens with worse looking rayguns at every corner.” He spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. Then, he laughed. Yes, the passengers would be angry with him for the rest of the trip but why should he care? It would only be a week or so and then he would be back where he was supposed to be. On a ship of his own. One with guns, big guns.
“And twenty-two wormholes away from the action.”

[jack cloudy]

Another short one.






Removing a wall panel, searching for one particular wire among dozens of others, pulling out that wire before plugging it in again. It was mindnumbing work, no matter how important it might be.
,,376…….377…….378…..” At the 379th wire, a loud static erupted from the wall mounted speakers. For a moment, Detroit was forced to clamp his ears shut against the screeching. Then the static fell, to be replaced by a perfectly neutral voice.
,,Secondary AI is now active. Internal communication restored. Checking vital systems. Please Standby.” Resounded throughout the ship.

The grayhaired captain frowned after hearing the emotionless voice of the computer. The Techheads had told him that reactivating the secondary AI would be nearly as hard as reactivating the Primary AI. In other words, practically impossible. He pushed off against the wall and moved over to the nearest intercom station. His hand hovered over the buttons. He made his selection and brought his mouth closer to the device.
,,Forest, are you there?” He asked. He’d opened a channel with the observation deck, or at least he thought he had.

After a few seconds, the channel opened at the other side as well.
,,Forest here. What is it, sir?” The sound on the other side wavered a bit. Was it because the intercom was still not functioning properly, or was it something else.
,,The Secondary AI has been activated. Give the Techheads my compliments, ok?” Detroit replied.

The other side of the line was silent for a long time.
,,We didn’t do a thing. I’ll try to find out what caused it to activate. In the meantime, perhaps you could plot a course home?”

Detroit nodded to himself.
,,Fine, I’ll do that.” He spoke into the microphone before closing the channel and pressing a large, green button marked with AI.
,,Course plotting. Waypoint one, wormhole entrance. Proceed to wormhole. Upon exit, proceed to waypoint two. Waypoint two is orbital trajectory around Paradise. One g constant burn.” He ordered, suppressing a sigh.
,,Course plotted.”

Instantly, red lights lit up throughout the corridor.
,,Announcement. One g burn commences within thirty minutes. Please maintain proper orientation.” The emotionless voice informed.

Detroit no longer suppressed his sigh. He was feeling frustrated with the new AI. He knew he shouldn’t be, since it was the exact same type of AI he’d worked with for years before coming to the Crystal Star. Yet still the step back was awkward.
,,It’s just a soulless machine. Of course it can’t understand a more flexible order.” He reasoned with himself and froze up.
,,I actually thought that, didn’t I? Strange, even with all the arrogance, the jokes, the lack of respect, the constant nonsense and irritating vocabulary, I still miss it. Soul might not be the most pleasant AI ever, but at least it would have done the exact same thing as the Secondary AI is doing right now. Only then, I could have kept my order at a simple ‘let’s go home’.” He gripped a handhold and pulled himself along, shaking his head.

Karl needed some time to think after his conversation with the captain. He too had heard the AI announce its activation. But he simply couldn’t figure out how it had done so. None of the Techheads knew how it worked here. If this was any other ship, he would have reasoned that someone flipped one of the master switches which were located at several strategic areas. But not here, not onboard the Crystal Star. The AI was conveniently located in a completely sealed off bunker of sorts. There was no master switch here. Then, how come it reactivated?

,,Only one way to find out, ask nicely.” Like Detroit did a moment earlier, Karl pressed the green button.
,,I want to know who flipped the switch.” He spoke.
,,Unable to comprehend. Please verify.” The soulless AI responded. Karl gritted his teeth.
,,Damn those primitive wirecollections with their static vocabulary.” He cursed, which caused the machine to repeat its words. Karl took a deep breath to calm down.
,,Give information: Id of giver activation command.” He said, pronouncing each word separately. It had been a while since he’d last used one of the older AI types. He hoped he’d chosen the right words.

,,Activation command was given by Primary AI.” Karl physically reeled back, sending him across the observation deck in an uncontrolled spin.
,,Damn it, keep your head at this. You’re in a freaking zero g environment.” He scolded himself as he returned to the intercom station.
,,Soul was the one who activated the Secondary AI? Then she must be still alive! But why didn’t she just re-establish control herself, instead of delegating the job to the Secondary AI?” He wondered, not knowing whether he should be happy or worried.
,,Give Status report on Primary AI.” He ordered next once he was back in position.

,,Primary AI is offline. Cause: Central Processor disconnected. All other hardware is operating normally.” The computer reported, following a moment later with the announcement about the one g burn. Karl released the button and left the observation deck. The day had exhausted him and he would take a nap now. If it hadn’t been for the crisis, he would’ve been sleeping already.
,,At least I learned something. The NLO-type AI has a Central Processor which is apparently very important. It’s probably undamaged. In essence, all that happened was someone pulled the plug. Once we get home, the experts are likely to have her back within five minutes.” He thought happily. His mood sank as he realized something else.
,,The only one who could unplug her was herself. Damnit, she shut herself down. What’s this, some kind of computer suicide?”