Sentient 01

Stacey asked quietly, "What about Kris. What do the protocols say about him if he goes off the reservation?"

Aide was silent for a while but answered, "The protocols are for me to self destruct, taking my host with me. I don't believe that will happen though, he wouldn't even try to bypass my protocols, much less try to take over the world, he doesn't have it in him."

He cursed under his breath, why hadn't he ever asked that question? She was right about that though; he had no intentions of trying to be the ruler of Earth. Sounded like a damned headache. Besides, the Earth only had twelve days left, what would be the point?

Chapter 7

Aide found herself very curious about human sexual contact. She had read all the information available on it, and there was a ton of information, and had concluded it was folly. That is until she'd caught how utterly intense it had been for Stacey and Kris. Not to mention the satisfaction she felt coming from both of them through her monitoring of their brainwaves and thoughts.

She found herself wishing to try it for herself, which was foolish as she had no way to do so, at least, not until the nanites finished her personal side project. Still, she found it occupying too many of her thoughts and processor cycles and cut off the line of thinking with some effort.

She was waiting patiently for both Kris and Stacey to come to terms with the new information she shared. Stacey was surprisingly calm; though she was monitoring her life signs to make sure the woman didn't go into shock. She was determined to protect both of them. She found herself daydreaming about Kris, if she had a body she would have blushed.

It had clearly been a mistake to download and study Stacey's life experience. She had foolishly decided understanding Stacey would help her to act more like a female human in order to relate better. She put up strong firewalls around Stacey's data which helped clear her processing. She liked Kris, but her other feelings were obviously corruption in her processes from Stacey's influence.

Kris asked, "Well, if we can't go home what are our options? Is her parents and the rest of the people at the ranch in danger?"

Aide replied so Stacey would hear as well, "They are being watched, but also being left alone. I am unaware of any plans relating to Stacey's parents or Tony, Terry, Bill, or John. I would advise leaving them there, unless it's an emergency we shouldn't bring others in on what's going on."

She could feel Kris's reluctance, but he didn't object so she continued.

"As for where to go... Where would you like to go? I have one of the ships ready, we could go anywhere."

Stacey blushed and asked, "So wait, you just saw everything we did together?"

Aide considered her response and simply said, "Yes. I'm curious, you find out the world is going to end and that's what you're worried about?"

Stacey frowned, "That part just doesn't seem real to me yet, it's too big, and I'm still processing it."

Kris broke in, "I think I have an idea. You can download technical information like you did the history right? Maybe we could improve on the technology..."

Aide considered that, "Yes, I could download the information to you, but I doubt you would understand it at all, much less be able to improve on it."

He replied, "Yes, but the idea came from you bringing Stacey in, what if you ran a data search, surely you could find a few experts we could recruit. People that would understand, and may make an intuitive leap your Alion race seem incapable of. It might be a little awkward at first when we kidnap them while you build an interface, and until we can explain things."

Stacey said surprised, "You would kidnap people?"

He nodded. "If it meant finding someone that could help, right now we're pretty screwed. At best we'll defend against the first attack and then die in the second. It's a matter of survival for the planet, if I was a scientist and knew what I knew I'd be pissed if I wasn't kidnapped, if that makes sense."

Aide ran some permutations, "I'd be uncomfortable adding more than three people, and no one that has a government affiliation. Say, one person for weapons, one for shields and one for power generation. I'll get started on finding some candidates. It's a good idea, though still a long shot as they would say."

He blew out a breath, "Odds?"

Aide wanted to shrug. It was really impossible to guess, she'd have a better idea once she found the prospects and scanned their knowledge and intelligence.

"It's impossible to say, but better than the less than one percent chance there is now. I'll have a better idea once we have them and I've scanned their... intelligence."

Aide would have cringed had she been capable; she'd almost told them about the memory scanning. They were uncomfortable enough knowing she could read their current thoughts. She took .3 seconds to create the search parameters which found thousands of candidates from the information she had already absorbed from this world.

She started setting up comparisons and searching the records from all of their colleges for transcripts, e-mails, papers, and other data she would need to narrow down the choice.

Kris kissed Stacey on the forehead tenderly and asked, "You doing okay with this?"

Stacey looked troubled but nodded, "I don't regret being with you, not even learning about this. But it's going to take me a while to get over us having an audience. I'm not sure how I feel about that."

Aide sent to Stacey, "If it helps, I'll only share what is vital to the mission. Your personal thoughts will remain between us."

Stacey thought back, "I... don't know. Except I really have no choice, I won't ever leave him. Though I suppose you already know that."

Aide considered also saying that Stacey was kind of turned on by the idea of someone watching them together, but estimated that would be a bad idea right now.

She replied, "Yes I do, and I hope you will grow to accept it. I already like you, but then I've known about you a lot longer. I'll do my best to protect the both of you."

Stacey nodded absently in answer.

Kris asked, "Does the ship have beds, and food?"

Aide went for matter of fact, but her voice still sounded like a phone sex operator. It was even obvious to her now and she considered changing it again which she ultimately rejected. All she had right now was her voice to express herself, it made her feel good knowing she was affecting them.

"Yes. It's the scout control ship where you will direct the battle from when the enemy gets here. It has stealth capability. At least, it will hide you from the technology of Earth. It has shields, weapons, an FTL drive, a reaction drive for sub light speed. It has a bedroom and can replicate any food on your planet on demand."

He asked curiously, "How does that work? Does it have an AI that controls all the ships based on my commands?"

She answered, "Yes, it has me. I'm capable of much more than controlling thirty ships, supervise all the building going on, and keeping track of a handful of humans. Remember this is a limited uplift, I am capable of uplifting an entire civilization if they meet the requirements."

He frowned in thought, "Then why do we need a command ship, can't you command from anywhere?"

She giggled which made both their eyes widen, "Yes, you are right. I can control them from across the universe through quantum connections. The ship is needed for you. It not only keeps you safer than the personal shields I created in you, it has the VR systems to simulate the battle so you can see and understand what is going on real time. In short, the command ship is for you, not for me. I could probably manage some kind of virtual interface, but the ship will be better for that. Remember, I may control the ships, but you control me."

Stacey asked in a startled voice, "Personal shields?"

She replied, "Yes, you both have shields integrated into your body that constantly scan for danger. Short of a nuclear blast I don't think anything on this planet could hurt you right now, although it has no offensive capability, so you could be detained if caught."

Kris said decisively, "Bring the ship here, we can stay on it until we decide where we'll end up, I assume it's big enough for another three people?"

Aide replied, "Yes, quite easily, it is quite a bit larger than the normal scout craft. It will accommodate close to fifty people including labs and testing apparatus."

Stacey asked, "Why so many?"

Aide sighed, "It's the same ship for a full uplift or not. In the case of a full uplift the person in charge could expect to have many subordinates and support personnel. In this case, I am all the support you will need. The ship should be here in a few minutes."

Kris replied, "Good, in any case this should be interesting. I'll send Tony a text message to let him know where to pick up the truck once we are air born. Also, I assume self defense doesn't count against the protocols?"

Aide answered, "No, offensive action is allowable against your government assets, but only up to the point it takes you to escape. Non-lethal is preferred however."

He kissed Stacey and waggled his eyebrows, "I've never done it in space."

She snorted and slapped his chest.

Aide detected incoming and did a full long range sweep. How in the hell did she miss that? She upped her full scan interval despite the power drain so it wouldn't happen again and assigned priority to the ship getting here before warning Kris and Stacey to expect company.

Chapter 8

Earlier...

Maj. Darnell thought the General might have a heart attack as he screamed.

"What do you mean you lost them? How hard is it to follow someone on a damn date?"

Darnell replied, "General, he is special forces. Still, I don't believe that's what happened. He didn't find the bug, we are sure he was in the cab of the truck with the Carver girl when the bug burned out. On top of that, we were unable to pursue due to the car not starting. It's completely dead, and I can see the CPU is cooked.

"We checked the satellite pictures General and his truck is gone, even on the older pictures where we did originally see it."

He took a deep breath, knowing his next words would probably see him busted a few ranks and sent to the funny farm.

"General, I'd like to task a couple of drones to look for the truck. I believe we may be looking at a foothold situation here sir. Perhaps they haven't gotten into those systems yet."

The General turned bright red and then went rather pale as the anger drained from his face.

"Very well Major, make it happen. For god sakes don't put that in a report yet, but I'll be sending a couple of teams your way just in case you find them. Out."

The major stared disbelievingly at the blank screen for a moment, then picked up his secure phone and started sending orders.

----------

Sgt. Simmons was the baby on team, just getting his promotion a few months ago and fresh out of training. He was well trained and loved his country. He'd never complained about keeping the missions a secret from his wife Jennie. It was just what needed to be done. After the briefing though, all he wanted to do was call his wife and send her into the hills.

He hoped they were wrong and jumping to conclusions. Outside of hiding, the implied presence of... he hardly could even think the word, the alien hadn't done any actual harm. On top of that, for the last two hours it seems all the target has been doing is screwing his hot neighbor in a damn field. Perhaps he was just foolish, but that didn't seem like a matter of national security.

Maybe though, it was just his reluctance to even believe in an alien, much less one with a foothold on their planet in Montana.

"Simmons! Get your head out of your ass and pay attention. We're coming up on target."

He looked up as the Humvee pulled off the road.

"Yes L. T." he said smartly.

According to the live raw video stream from the surveillance drone it looked like they were packing things up and getting ready to leave. They were maybe a half mile out when the video feed just stopped. He checked his weapons and safety one last time as they all loaded live rounds into their 9mm hand guns and magazines into their assault rifles.

The orders were to take them alive if possible, but return any fire with deadly force, or if it looked like they were going to escape. He turned on his night vision as the driver killed the headlights. As they turned into where the field was he caught a glimpse of tail lights taking the next turn.

The Lieutenant said, "They're running! Stay sharp."

He did his best to maintain balance as they went off road and into a canyon. They had eyes on the target now; he was maybe a quarter mile ahead. It looked like a dead end was coming up, and then there was a flash of light. The night vision cut off to protect his eyes and when it cut back in he could hardly believe his eyes.

"FIRE! Don't just sit there!" the lieutenant screamed.

-----------

Kris had figured the best defense was simply not being there. It had only taken a few moments for both of them to get into the truck and take off.

Kris said tensely, "I don't see anyone coming."

Aide replied, "Their headlights are turned off, they are using night vision."

He cursed under his breath. Of course they were. Discharged for a couple of days and he was already thinking like a civilian. He was about to follow the road around and back down the mountain when Aide stopped him.

"Turn left here into that ravine and follow it to the end."

He questioned his instant obedience when the truck started to bounce all over the place, he could barely keep a grip on the steering wheel. After about a mile a bright light lit up the sky.

"Stop underneath."

His jaw dropped at what he saw, it looked like a... well a flying saucer. It was big, and it glowed white on the bottom. He only got a quick look at it, and then he hit the brakes and came to a stop.

He asked a little tensely, "What now?"

He started hearing gunshots.

"Don't worry, we are within the shield."

Then the last thing he ever expected happened, his truck started to rise from the ground and up into an opening on the bottom of the huge saucer. He rose into what looked like a flight deck of some kind. There were a handful of very small craft about the size of a car. They were moved over to an empty place and he could see the hatch closing.

He looked over at Stacey and felt better at the look of awe on her face rather than fear.

"Can you get us out of here, anywhere really."

Aide replied, "Yes, one moment... ... We are now cloaked and in low Earth orbit."

He grunted, "That was fast."

They got out of the truck and Stacey came over and dug into his side and leaned against him.

Aide asked, "Would you like a tour?"

Stacey replied in a weak voice, "Sure... Why not?"

Instead of her walking them around the ship, he felt his head start to tingle and everything he would need to know about the ship started to fill his mind. It was a lot less uncomfortable the second time around. He almost laughed at the idea the tour was virtual.

The ship was fairly large, much larger Aide informed them than the fighting vessels, although this command vessel would be very capable of fighting as well. There were three main levels in the saucer, as well as one smaller level above and below. The top level was basically crew quarters, meeting rooms, and a few labs. The bottom level encompassed labs, the flight deck, and various storage holds. The center level around the outer ring had additional storage, spare parts, a kitchen of sorts and ten executive suites for the command staff.

In the center ring was both the bridge and engineering, surrounded by secondary shields as well as extremely thick shielding. It wasn't like in the movies, the two most important areas were the ones best protected.

He was curious about seeing the bridge, and engineering, though the latter was fully automated by both bots under Aide's control as well as billions of nanites to maintain the ship in perfect order. But he had to admit he was exhausted. As for the dimensions the saucer had a circumference of a thousand feet and was just over a hundred feet tall at the center.

He asked Stacey, "Do you want to check out the bridge, or find us a room?"

Stacey smiled but raised an eyebrow, "Are we sharing when there are ten executive rooms? Are you asking me to move in with you?"

He was brought up short by that but saw her lips twitching and felt a little better. Actually he hadn't even considered the idea that she wouldn't be staying with him in a room.

He could play too, so he said in a strong military command voice, "We talked about this already, I'm taking you with me woman."

Stacey hated overbearing men but the way he said that made her core tingle in desire. Yes... he could take her anywhere he wanted. She did her best to play it off though. She didn't want him to know exactly how much she was under his power.

"I suppose that would be okay," she tried for a teasing tone but it came out more than a little breathlessly.

She gasped when he slapped her butt playfully and took her hand. He led her to the lift and up a deck and straight to the Captain's suite. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting. The rest of the ship the walls were a metallic silver color with the floor and ceiling being a luminescent white. There were no light bulbs or fixtures, the entire floor and ceiling seemed to generate a soft uniform light that was easy on the eyes.

When they entered the suite they both stopped for a moment before walking through the place. The suite hadn't been part of the download, and a part of him suspected Aide left it out on purpose to surprise him. They had walked into what looked like a living room. It had leather couches, a large screen television and what looked like a stereo.

There was a small nook in the corner with a sink and he saw what amounted to a replicator according to his new memories. It wasn't immediate, but it could put out a meal in just a few minutes, or a cup of coffee in about thirty seconds.

The bathroom had multiple shower heads and a whirlpool tub. It was tiled and even had a throw rug in front of the double sinks. Another side room looked like a miniature board room with another large television. Lastly there was the bedroom.

There was a king size bed, oak dresser, and oak bed frame. He saw an open wooden door that looked like a closet. About the only thing that didn't make it look like a normal human bedroom were the luminescent lights on the ceiling, although the floor looked like hardwood.

It was lacking the personal touches of a bedroom, but it didn't look like a hotel room either.

Aide asked a little nervously, "Do you like it?"

He was speechless but Stacey said, "It's wonderful Aide, thank you. What about the lights though? Why no lamps?"

They both felt a mental shrug followed by, "It has to do with health. The luminescence is as good as sun light, it takes more than just artificial gravity and radiation shielding to keep a human well in both mind and body. These lights will serve the same purpose as the light of the sun, without the harmful UV rays of course."

He said softly, "Thanks Aide, it's all great, and the rest of the ships are on schedule?"

Aide replied, "Yes Captain."

He asked, "Captain?"

Aide said, "It is appropriate, now that you have taken command of the command ship."

He frowned, he understood the need for military discipline, but his only subordinate was Aide and he didn't see the point in this case. She felt more like a friend to him than anything else; he wondered if that was a foolish thought.