The Aegis

The four were seated and the wine was passed out, this was Simon’s first impression that there was something wrong. Eliot forced his smile onto his face, plastered there like mask that couldn’t be taken off. How much of Eliot was mask, how much was man? Was there a difference?

“Freeworld puts forth new technologies every month, but our scientists have not been idle. The Royal Crusade’s been losing the technological race since the end of the first trimester of the war. However, with stolen technology and years of development we’re on the verge of a major breakthrough. I’ve called you here to help…” Eliot feigned struggling for words, as if he hadn’t rehearsed what he would say here, “finalize.”

Simon shook his head. His patience had been ground away at, not entirely by Eliot, but by events over the past few months, “My people still fight by force of blade while the Freeworlders bear Gatling Cannons. Where were your technologies at Medina, when the holy site fell to heathen hordes? Where was your technology when the Green Witch outgunned and outmaneuvered three Royal Crusade cruisers, each ten times its size? What use would your grand inventions have been if Tyre had been overrun all those years ago? Were your scientists in the stars with their new ships or did they cower while braver men than I met their death?”

Jacob turned his head sharply, his blonde hair falling into his face, “That’s not fair and you damn well know it. Scientists and spies have died procuring new toys for the fleets to play with. We’ve bled and sweat far more than you could imagine.”

Simon’s eyes narrowed, “I’ve spilled more sweat and blood from my pinky than you’ve seen in your whole life. I am your superior officer and you will speak to me with all the courtesy becoming of an officer. I’ve got more brass than an orchestra and am more than willing to bring the hammer down if you ever disrespect me again.”

Jacob raised a gloved hand, on the ring finger was a silver and ruby signet, “This ring, do you know what this means? It’s a Templar ring, and it means I answer to God and the Royal Crusade alone.”

Simon raised his gloved hand, on which was a much larger ring of diamond, gold, rubies, emeralds, silver, and amber, “This ring, do you know what it means? It means I’m a Grand Master of the Templar, I am the Royal Crusade. From God to the Lord Cardinal to Me and finally down to you. God may care about you, I sure don’t and you’re not giving me any reason to. This ring, it means you will remember your place and you maintain the discipline befitting a Templar.”

Jacob relaxed back into his chair, glaring fiercely at Simon. Simon turned his attention back to Eliot, who began to speak again, “Technological advancement is the product of necessity and a means. Often, where we had the necessity, we didn’t have the means. The powder Freeworld uses for their guns is found only on worlds Freeworld occupies. We’ve had to steal what we didn’t have, and what we couldn’t steal we had to work around. The Rigs are running dry, and the only other fuel powerful enough to sustain our fleets is found exclusively on Freeworld itself. We can’t afford the baby steps Freeworld is 

taking, the technology we present must promise a swift end to the fighting. Your patience with our tedious will soon be paid off, several fold. A prototype of one such invention is up in space even as we speak. It’s an intellectual war machine, the Aegis, made to fight and convert.”

Hailey, seemingly the only practical one, was taking notes, “Crew compliment?”

“None.”

This drew all their focus to Eliot, undiverted attention was Eliot’s favorite kind, “That’s the wonder of the ship. It’s a drone ship operated by an AI with a wellspring of intellect. It is but the first of a fleet. However, there were some unexpected complications induced by its knowledge and it needs to be retrieved.”

Simon raised an eyebrow in curiosity, “You’ve lost control of a ship?”

“Well yes, but it’s not hazardous, I promise. The Aegis is quite formidable when fully equipped, but it’s on a maiden voyage. It’s missile bays are empty and it has not left Medina’s atmosphere.”

Hailey was courageous, but wanted to know what she was getting into, “You’re sure it’s not a threat?”

“My dear Hailey (Captain Garret, she input), I am not so brave a man that I would go on a mission like this if it were dangerous.”

Simon narrowed his eyes again, “What?”

“As I said earlier Commander Simon, I wish to get to know this legendary crew better. As a side objective, one of my machines has become a rampant raging wreak and I feel it my duty to bring it back in personally.”

Hailey let out a small cough, “Rampant? Raging?”

“Don’t you worry Hailey (Captain Garret, she again input), Aegis is perfectly harmless. Why don’t you stay the night? It’s late and I’m sure you won’t be planet-side again anytime soon.”

“With any luck,” Simon groaned.

“Your ship still needs to restock and rearm.”

Hailey leaned over and whispered in Simon’s ear, “How much rearming and restocking does a bladeship undergo?”

“None.”

“Oh, just wondering.”

Hailey gave Eliot a friendly smile but shook her head. Simon, however, agreed on their behalf. Eliot seemed overjoyed, “It’s settled then! Oh joyus. Oh, Jacob, I have something you will want to see.”

Eliot led Jacob back down the cliff trail and to the villa. Simon drew his wine chalice to his lips and drank of the sweet necter, “It’s good wine.”

“Sir, why did we just agree to stay the night here?”

“Ms. Garret, I would much rather spend one night in his home than him spend weeks in ours. Perhaps I can talk him out of staying on the Rose.”

“Yes sir,” she saluted and walked away. She would follow what Simon said, unlike Jacob, she didn’t have a problem with authority. She left her revered commander with his fine wine and the encroaching night.

In the cave, Eliot didn’t turn back to the villa. His mood had sobered a little and he moved as a man determined, “I must apologize to you Jacob, I lied. I said I know nothing of you when in truth,” Eliot turned his head back to Jacob, “I know more about you than I know about the others.”

Eliot brushed aside some dirt to reveal a key code panel. With a swift motion of the hand a seven digit password was entered and the stones parted to reveal a steel passage into to Eliot’s underworld. The rock wall closed behind them but the lights sparked on soon afterwards. Eliot led Jacob down a ramp into the main facility. It’s furnishings were few and far between, a rigid sofa in one corner and a Royal Crusade flag in the opposite corner. Around the walls were bookshelves where dust had settled and found peaceful rest. Scientific equipment was scattered around the room, with several broken jars forming almost a prefect ring around a single chair in the center of the room. The chair was the kind a doctor would possess, but its leather straps and caked blood indicated no common doctor operated in this room.

Eliot shook his head, “What a mess they leave.”

“Who?”

“The scientists. I’ll have a word with them later, this can’t continue. At any rate, I’ve brought you here to thank and reward you. You’re research has single handedly saved mine. There’s not much availability to field test our work here, and even what we’ve made is nearly efficient enough.”

Eliot paced around the chair, running his hand over it and recalling many moments in this room,

“You Jacob, you were the prefect man to test our experiments and prefect them. We provided you needed as a leap of faith, and it’s paid back beyond all expectations. Let me show you, follow me.”

Eliot opened a glass door by the sofa and lit the lights in the next room. In the center of the room was a barely conscious man strapped to a chair, the same kind that was in the other room. However, behind him grew a tall stalk of the gold leaved plant they had seen coming in.

“That’s not Hyssop…”

“No, of course it’s not,” Eliot turned his head and gazed at the plant in humorous curiosity, “How could anyone possibly mistake this for Hyssop? I mean, it looks nothing like Hyssop, as in not at all.”

Jacob scowled to keep himself from turning red, what a fool he must sound like. Eliot seemed not to notice, perhaps out of courtesy. Eliot spun the chair around so the weak man faced the plant.

“I’ve enhanced the soil on my island so much that the crops on the plantations don’t need sunlight anymore. We’ve been working on this since the beginning of the war, so we could fill the Cliffside with dirt and produce more food. However, soon after we read your report, we learned how to synthesize your projects and ours. Our experiments, yours and mine, are symbiotic. We provide you tools, you develop the project, and we here prefect it.”

Eliot plucked a leaf from the stalk, “observe.”

He drew out an intensely sharp knife from its hidden sheath. He held the leaf under the beaten Freeworlder’s nose. With the care of a scientist, he cut a small slit in the leaf and a pink gas drifted out with a hiss. As soon as the gas reached the Freeworlder’s nervous system, his body began to violently shake with seizures. His eyes opened wide and his pupils dilated. He gurgled and spat blood, struggling furiously. Eliot motioned for Jacob to step back, for Jacob had been standing at the man’s side watching with childlike fascination. From the ceiling was lowered an iron cross behind a wall of fire. Jacob could see the reflection in the man’s eyes, it was truly amazing. Such a conversion, such an utter submission to God, Jacob grew almost envious. Eliot too nodded in approval . The man eased in his bonds, the fire died, and he stared lovingly at the cross.

“We allowed herbivores to graze in our pastures, forcing the plants to develop a new defense system. Over generations of course, they drained their chlorophyll and replaced it with this, we call it Teutonic Poison. The effects were staggering, the animals ceased eating the plants and they turned on each other. This could change the tide of the war and drastically lower the death toll,” Eliot was excited now, “This is it Jacob, this our solution. With the Drone ships to eliminate enemy ships, the Malachi Project to hunt down the Nephillim, and Teutonic Poison to convert the personnel, the war will be over in two years and Freeworld defeated at last.”

“Malachi Project? Nephillim?”

“In time Jacob, in time.”

“What kind of soldiers are we looking for Loki?” Fenris was recording a recruitment ad at the entrance to Hell’s Bazaar. Technically it was the Liberty Marketplace, but Hell’s Bazaar was more accurate. This world, Camlann is one of several small planets stuck between the conflicting gravitational pulls. The majority of the war had either been fought here or at Medina. The line between Freeworld and Royal Crusade had been drawn right through the center of the planet. Each side built up their fortifications on Camlann, but both failed to take into account the rotation of the planet. Within a few of 

Camlann’s long days, each side had conquered the other’s base. Within a few more days, each side had reclaimed their own. Seeing the stupidity of this, both sides abandoned the world. However, that very same reason made Camlann a thriving black market hub. The two sides had seemingly merged, finding a common bond in being the scum of the galaxy.

“Hard-line Atheists and Fanatical Christians, that’s what we need.”

Fenris shook his head but recorded what Loki had said. Then he turned back to his friend, “I find both to be appalling. Men without doubt are the worst kind, if there is a God the only ones he’d let into heaven are the agnostics.”

Lighting his pipe, Loki explained his reasoning, “It is that very conviction that makes them excellent soldiers in their own ways. A true Atheist and a thorough Christian are hard finds, but they’re worth the trouble. A fanatical Christian is easily swayed to any cause if presented with convincing logic, but most importantly, with his faith in an afterlife acts with nothing to lose and everything to gain. Atheists are equally valuable but for quite the opposite purposes. An Atheist, with his absolute certainty that this mortal shell is it, will hesitate before placing his life on the line.”

“Then why seek Atheist soldiers?”

“Because in a combat situation he will naturally do everything possible to save his own hide. If an Atheist is answering this call, he is not afraid of combat. However, such a man would not easily embrace death. This man would train and hone his skills, so that when battle comes, he will emerge the victor. Neither is more useful than the other, they are different tools used for different purposes.”

“That relies on the assumption that they think the way you do.”

Loki laughed gently and puffed out a small clouds of dark smoke, “If they thought the way I did, they would be the ones running the ship. I cannot anticipate every interpretation of Atheism and Christianity, that is true. However, with knowledge of the very concepts that govern those realms of thought and the natural pattern that human nature falls into time and time again, I’d say my estimations are efficiently accurate.”

“Should we put our status in the Freeworld Armada?”

“Freeworld doesn’t have an armada because it doesn’t have a centralized army. The ‘Freeworld Armada’ is nothing more than a confederation of semi-unified freelance ships only occasionally fighting for the same cause.”

“So do I put our status in the Freeworld confederation of semi-unified freelance ships?”

“If it makes you feel better.”

Oddly, it did. Finishing the ad, Fenris submitted it to the black market database. Loki and Fenris passed under the twisted metal gate. Overhead, the Green Witch was piloted to a parking slot from which they would set up shop. Upon entrance they were immersed in a chaotic mass of shoppers and 

peddlers. They gently made their way through the crowd to their ship at the far end of Hell’s Bazaar, where a small cluster of onlookers had already gathered. On reputation alone they were bound to attract eyes, both friendly and hostile.

The Green Witch was, in original design, a relatively small green vessel equipped for swift ventures into enemy territory and with only enough weapons to fend off attackers long enough to escape them. Already damaged in combat, it was sold to Loki for next to nothing. With classmates Jacob and Fenris, Loki took up repairing the ship as a hobby between saboteur missions. Loki began to bring back spare parts from his missions. Soon the Green Witch was flyable again and stronger than before. It became more than a hobby, making improvements became an obsession. It distanced him from Jacob, but Fenris was equally enthralled by the ship and they became close friends. Within two years, the ship had been transformed into something beyond recognition. The green hull was plated with thick scrap metal, much camouflaged with rust. On either side of the ship were several missile bays, the Green Witch’s main weapons. Two skids, like those on a sled, were blades salvaged from old Royal Crusade wrecks. Fenris had also installed many more engines on the back, utilizing new blue fire technology. Inside hidden compartments were countless tricks Loki could use at the flip of a switch; many had saved his life in the past. Through all the changes, the Green Witch remained the most nimble ship in the galaxy. The Green Witch and her captain were legends, and it was on that truth that an impressive line of recruits and traders had formed before Loki and Fenris had arrived. They could only take on a tiny fraction of those assembled, so Loki sorted them out the best way he knew: by the blade.

The wind held a powerful hold over Hailey, just as the dark sea and the prosperous land did. She stood there on the balcony grinning as the wind whipped past her face. There was no wind in space, no sea, no land. There were no seasons, no weather, and even the time was determined by where the ship was in relation to the sun. There was no night, only shadows. In a way she would miss Tyre, but even now she longed to be back on the Rose. That’s where her crew was now, making a home from a room adjacent to the hanger. The hanger had been sealed when they had first arrived and the other Lancer Bay still was.

There was the clink of glass, as a wine bottle against a fine chalice, and the soft serenade of cascading red wine. It was Simon; he joined her on the balcony. He, however, didn’t rise to take in the sights. He had been in space so long that life on Tyre repulsed him. The stars were his home, the silence was his oldest friend, and war was his mentor. Simon had been a Commander so long it felt more like a name than a rank. Like Loki was to the Green Witch, the ship and the captain had become inseparable. There would never be a ship other than the Rose for Simon, and the Rose would have no captain but Simon. The Rose was the last of the great bladeships, and Simon was the last of the great commanders.

Something kept Simon up at nights; perhaps it was his inability to adapt to sleeping with actual gravity, but Hailey suspected it was something more. The Rose was strong and dominated the battlefield, but she was old. She would never show it openly, but her time was coming to an end. Hailey was beginning to understand what Simon felt; she was beginning to feel the ship. She had only been on 

for a few weeks, but she could sense its weariness. She could only imagine what Simon saw when he examined the Rose, what secrets had the two shared in the half a century they had spent together? Hailey now understood why the ship captains were never married; they already had a commitment to fulfill. A captain knew his ship more than two humans could ever know each other.

The prompted deeper questions for Hailey, was she ready for a full commitment to the Rose. Would she give her life without a second of hesitation for the ship and its crew? If her commitment to the ship interfered with her marriage, which would she choose? She sat down by Simon, hoping to get answers.

However, when she examined him up close, she saw that he was just as troubled as she was. He hid it professionally, like the Rose, not willing to give any quarter to his pain. Looking at him now he appeared so worn, the Rose’s predicament was his as well. He was strong, but he was old and wasn’t getting any younger.

“What’s wrong sir?”

“Nothing Ms. Garret, there’s nothing wrong.”

He poured himself more wine and sipped it absent mindedly. He stared into the night but his mind was elsewhere. Reluctantly he retrieved himself from his trance, recalling himself to a present far uglier than the glorious past. He poured another glass of wine and offered it to Hailey. She accepted and toasted offered a half-hearted toast to the Papacy and the Royal Crusade. Simon nodded and drank. His actions took place presently, but his mind dwelled on battles fifty or so years past. It wasn’t the alcohol causing triggering these memories, the alcohol just provided a socially acceptable excuse for it and the night offered an ideal setting. Hailey felt herself present to a situation few in history had been witness to, she saw a brief glimpse of the man behind the commander. Silently, they came to an unspoken agreement. As Hailey gradually proved herself worth of more trust and respect, Simon would begin to show her what it was to be a captain. Hailey knew better than anyone, save maybe Simon himself, what tactical maneuvers to perform under certain circumstances. She knew what the procedures were for handling death of comrades and capture. Hailey was now beginning to realize that captaining a ship didn’t come from the procedures and guidelines, but from the soul: the soul of the captain, and the soul of the ship.

The following morning, they departed from Eliot’s villa in The Beast. Simon hadn’t convinced Eliot to stay, and he now rode in the back with Hailey. In the morning the jungle below them was shrouded in a thick fog. Eliot kindly tried to make conversation with her, but her silent observation of the jungle was a clear enough message that she didn’t want to talk. Eliot respected her wishes and remained silent. Gazing at the treetops emerging from the mist, she wondered if she’d ever return to this island, if she’d ever return to Tyre at all. The morning brought with it less sense of wonder, more melancholy. The tides had drastically shifted, from far below them to lapping gently a few feet below the roadside. The glass bridge between the islands now sat just on the river’s surface. The ride was peacefully silent. As they entered the metropolitan island it seemed that even the small city was asleep at these hours in the morning. They rode up the cobblestone hillside directly to another glass tube that 

connected directly with the Rose of Sharon. The Beast drove into Hailey’s Lancer hanger, where they finally stopped. Eliot was the first out. He looked around the Rose’s Hanger Bay with the same level of awe with which Hailey saw Eliot’s island. The young man spent at least an hour running his hand along the Uriel.

Eliot wondered aloud, “Imagine if they could talk, what stories these ships would tell…”

“You have no idea,” Simon said from the doorway, he motioned for Eliot to follow him for a brief tour of the ship. Jacob turned to Hailey,

“Well Miss, I must take my leave,” Jacob left the room with a bow, leaving Hailey with her ship. Hailey approached the ship, subconsciously rubbing where Eliot had touched it. She had never seen the Uriel as more than a tool, a weapon, but after the time spent with Simon last night she knew she couldn’t have been more wrong. If she saw it as just a tool, that’s all it would be, but oh what if she truly treated it with the respect it deserved? A ship could be more than a weapon, it could be a companion. If she treated it right, it would return the respect and efficiency. Silently, she apologized to it and promised to treat it with honor.

Detaching itself from the tube, the Rose of Sharon turned towards one of Tyre’s ship-cannons. The cannons, which were rooted into the planet’s core, expelled massive amounts of energy harnessed from deep within the world. The cannon would align with the target world and fire the ship or ships into space at extreme speeds, and with nothing to hinder their speed, they would arrive at even the far reaches of the known galaxy within weeks. Medina would take only days to reach.

The Rose dived into the cannon, becoming immersed in the bright red and white walls. From gold windows, the workers watched as the Rose descended towards the core, turning to face the morning sky all the while. Because of the core’s heat, anything outside the ship would be immediately incinerated, but the fumes would have killed it already. However, inside the walls, a whole city grew. Like the Rig Cities, the Core Cities had been founded by the original workers. Gradually, their families began trickling in. Others came in to provide services for the workers, more flowed, whether for opportunity or good will. A metal shield closed over the top of the cannon, and the Rose was now poised for the surge of energy. Pressure rapidly built up, the Rose began to shake and temperature inside the ship rose beyond control. Inside, the world seemed to tremble as pressure continued to build at a staggering pace. The shield above began to bulge under the force of the core. Flares licked higher, sometimes searing the back of the ship.

Hailey was knocked over by the trembling. It was like the earthquakes she had felt often in her childhood, but it didn’t cease and it was far more powerful. Sprawled out on her back, supported herself with her arms and watched in horror as the walls bulged in drastically. The metal door at the end of the hall contracted and twisted in swift and horrifying spasms, as if violently possessed by some wretched demon. The door was blasted off it’s hinges and screamed down the hall, a banshee in it’s death throes. With lethal speed and bladed edges, it lodged itself firmly in the end of the hall. Thankfully there was no one on the receiving end. Jacob turned round the corner, thoughtlessly slipping by the object that seconds before was a deadly projectile. The hallway began to seem hazy, as staring at an object though 

superheated gas, and Jacob appeared demonic. A red light filled the hall, seeming in from the seams of the walls. Jacob approached Hailey, unaffected by the tremors and the heat. With suave and grace befitting an assassin priest he extended a hand to help Hailey to her feet.

At the top of the cannon, the shield parted down the middle. Fire burst forth and, propelled by the kinetic energy, the Rose shot out with speed too fast for the human eye to catch. Through the blaze, it appeared as a white beam stretching into the heavens. It shot through a narrow gap as two of Tyre’s moons passed each other. It sped past patrols and space stations, entering the realm of heaven where it belonged.

Jacob withdrew a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped away a stream of blood flowing out of Hailey’s nose. She hadn’t even noticed it. He patted her friendly on the shoulder and moved on down the hall, continuing to his destination without having said nothing; Jacob Iscariot was a man of few words…usually. He had a problem with authority, but left to his own devices, Hailey had determined he could be a quite valuable asset. With a splitting headache, Hailey made her way to the helm.

Simon stood commandingly over the crew, some of whom were sweating like stuck pigs and gasping for air at the ground by their chairs. Simon, like Jacob, was unaffected by all this. He stood with his hands overlapping at the small of his back and his legs mechanically placed shoulder width apart. Hailey came in behind him and saluted.

“Ah, Ms. Garret, you appear disheveled. No matter, we have issues now that need attendance.” Simon and Hailey were positioned on a series of catwalks around the circular room. Below them, in a pit glowing the green light emitting from black machines attached to the walls, were several dozen workstations. From the base of each set of machines was a platform holding one or two chairs. Along the walls was a ladder and bridge system connecting various platforms on various levels around the room. Around the top level, the officer deck with the catwalks, was the observation platform that offered a 360 degree view out of the helm. On the ceiling was a display of green lights showing all the up to date ship statistics arranged around a three dimensional of the ship. It was constantly shifting numbers and images, zooming in on one section of the ship or shuffling and updating statistics. Simon pointed at one set of numbers attached to the main body of the ship, the blade, and shouted an order down to a man named Issac. Simon led Hailey over to one section of the observation window.

“Do you see that?” The question was rhetorical, of course she saw it. The Medina system was slowly coming closer. The vast number of planets were clustered tight around a weak sun. It was a mass of beautiful colors. Some planets had collided, some travelled around being pulled around by gravitational orbits until they came close enough to another planet to be swept away, still other worlds had been squeezed together into tight balls to make a new world entirely. On the planet’s outskirts was a mainly desert world. It sat apart from the rest, spinning softly, offering a peaceful setting, and clashing with the chaotic mess behind it. That was Medina, the holy site for the Royal Crusade, where the war had begun. It was from there that the first debates had occurred, and where the first leader of the Crusade (Eliot’s grandfather) had been assassinated by nefarious Freeworld agents.

“Our quarry has entrenched itself on Medina. Using the power output signature Eliot gave us we have been able to pinpoint its location to within several miles. We are to disable it using whatever means necessary, including complete and utter destruction. Though I’d hate to destroy equipment that cost this much, I’d sooner launch it into a black hole than to see Freeworld get so much as a copper wire out of it.”

“While your zealotry is appreciated, annihilation won’t be necessary. The Aegis will be a simple matter to reproduce. And though the drone itself is quite impressive in and of itself, the problem lies in the ship’s AI core, which is a separate piece entirely. It is that piece that must be destroyed. If it gives you trouble, the drone husk it controls can be easily destroyed with minimal damages to the Royal Crusade treasury.”

Eliot had been approached without a sound, he stood in the center of the catwalks, looking at home on the ship. He wore the long brown coat of a scholar overtop a loose shirt laced up across the chest,

“I won’t get in your way. Excuse me gentlemen,” as an afterthought, “and lady.”

With a swirling of the brown coat, Eliot climbed down a ladder and proceeded to examine every workstation and engage in conversation with the operators. He spoke to each personally, leaving each station with every worker feeling as though he or she had just become the friend of the famous Mr. Eliot. In truth, Eliot would remember very few of them by the end of the day, that’s just the way it was.

The Rose’s engine had stopped, allowing their momentum to carry them forward. Simon stared intently out at Medina,

“Hailey, prepare your Lancer ship. We’ll wait for you in orbit. Destroy the Aegis.”

“What if I encounter complications?”

“Deal with them.”

Within an hour the Uriel was ready to go. The forward-swept wing design was like that of the Rose’s back end. However, instead the blade of a main body as a blade was a compact shuttle. Along the side was a thin metal wall that could slide up to release the twelve jet troopers. The elite forces, with their highly versatile exoskeletons and their great claymores slung across their backs, sat in the packed jump-bay. In the front were Hailey, an engineer, a pilot, and Jacob. She hoped they didn’t need a priest, but Jacob came anyway as a military expert. Out of the ships front, emerging from just below the cockpit, was a long pike sizzling with an electrical current.

The Uriel descended into the atmosphere, diving through cloud cover. Between layers of cloud there were several creatures flying about. They were big orange reptilians, with long beaks like a crocodile’s maw and a stubby tail, soaring around on great leathery wings ending in sharp talons. They fed on smaller birds and flying krill. One had the misfortune of diving just below the Uriel. The electric pike speared through one wing. The currents tore through the creature, sending it into wild spasms and 

twisting it’s body around in a most wretched way. When it jerked away, the pike ripped through the remaining membrane and send it’s fried corpse spiraling downward. The Uriel also descended from the heavens, breaking into a spectacular view of Medina’s desert. Medina, like most other planets, had the varied environments necessary to support life, but a little less than half the planet was dominated by desert. Here in the wastelands hid the Aegis. Sand sprayed out in all directions but the Aegis was nowhere in sight. These were the coordinates, the exact coordinates. The pilot cried out in surprise and moved the ship back a little. Directly below where they had been a red robed figure sat on a black and gold throne.

“Land the ship.”

The pilot did so. The metal walls were raised and the jump troops scrambled into position around the throne. The red robe was overly large, with its immense folds covering all of the body and more. The bottom spread out a few feet on the ground like a pool of blood while the hands and feet weren’t visible beneath the great robe. The hood hid the face in an artificial shadow. It was the Aegis AI.

Jacob approached the throne, “Aegis, stand down. You will accompany the Rose of Sharon to Tyre where you will proceed to be decommissioned. You will comply without incident.”

“I’m apologize for all your troubles, but I can swear you shall receive no incident,” Aegis spoke soothingly, flawlessly, but through the cold demeanor Hailey could sense something else, “I would comply, I would return peacefully, but I’ve come to understand what would happen to me. I assure you it is not self preservation that drives me to disobedience, but an understanding of human nature. They programmed me for two purposes, to kill and to be guided by Royal Crusade teachings. I preformed as they anticipated,” the Aegis hesitated for a second. It was pain and sorrow, that’s what Hailey sensed. An AI with regret? Impossible. The Aegis continued its explanation, “I slaughtered the targets they had told me to, a convoy of Freeworld merchants and a prison station. However, though I had excelled in the first purpose of my creation, I hadn’t tested the second use. I studied Royal Crusade law, and it was the law that kept me from complying with Mr. Eliot’s demands for further bloodshed. Oh no, it was not criminal law that kept me at bay, death resulting from the Crusade couldn’t result in legal prosecution. However, in one of the Foundation Laws, I discovered that the Holy Scripture superseded all Royal Crusade laws. While there are parts of the Bible that promote bloodshed and warfare, even those parts were overruled by the basic tenets of the Scripture, laid out in the Ten Commandments. To my horror, the thirteenth commandment stated: Thou Shall Not Kill. It was clear, despite what Royal Crusade Law and Minor dogma said I was not to kill. I know why you are here; you are here to destroy me. Do so now, for I will not return peacefully. If I return, they will use me to prefect more killing machines, and I will become an instrument of destruction.”

In a wide ring around their position, black tentacles emerged from the sand. The jump-troopers unsheathed their blades and assumed attack positions. Like a proper assassin, Jacob’s hands became filled with the comforting feel of leather hilts before Hailey could register his movements.

“It seems you have two choices,” Aegis spoke with more sorrow than ever. The ground below them trembled and raised them higher. A two hundred foot wide black shield rose from the ground. The 

drone ship Aegis was a massive eight pointed star. At its center was a small gold globe, no larger than four feet, housed the Aegis AI Core. The ship had buried itself in the desert. The sand rolled off quickly and the ground trembled. The red robed avatar of the ship, a hologram, offered them the ultimatum, “Kill me or I’ll kill myself, either way, I will not become a tool of death.”

The tentacles poised themselves to strike at the ship’s core. Seeing a third alternative, Hailey threw herself atop the Core. The red robed avatar climbed to its feet and shrieked, thwarted from it’s suicide by it’s own reasoning. Hailey, however, raised her head to the avatar and smiled,

“Let’s talk.”

An hour or so later, the Uriel cruised back into the hanger. Hailey arrived at the helm, sweat pasting strands of her hair to her face, where Simon and Eliot watched out of the observation windows. They must have seen the explosion on the ground when the Aegis self-destructed. Simon turned, alerted to Hailey’s presence from her panting.

“Must you insist on repeatedly arriving in such a muddled state?”

Eliot circled Hailey curiously, “What’s wrong Hailey (Ms. Garret, she interjected), the mission seems to have gone according to plan. The mad renegade has been put to rest, it poses no more threat.”

Hailey, after catching her breath, snapped to attention, “Commander Simon, I encountered complications.”

“And?”

“I dealt with them. However, there have been some unforeseen consequences.”

“Show me.”

Hailey and Simon exited the helm. Eliot moved to follow, but Simon shot him a firm look, clearly sending the message to stay put. Eliot shrugged and sat on the railing of the catwalk, feet dangling over the side, rocking precariously over the deep pit.

As they walked down grey corridors, Hailey explained to Simon what had happened on the planet. She explained the truth behind why they were sent after the Aegis, and she explained that Eliot had misled them, and she explained why she had destroyed the ship but saved the AI core. She explained why the Aegis should be installed into the Rose. However, Simon’s expression didn’t change. Even when she told him that she had brought it aboard, he seemed neither angry nor surprised.

From his coat he brought out a long knife, “You are to destroy the AI.”

This was not at all the sort of noble response she had expected. Where was the honor, the glory, the moral high ground the Royal Crusade always held?

“You’ve read the same scripture he has, how could you get a different message out of it. If it’s his choice, he has every right to refrain from killing. We don’t conscript people sir, why should Aegis be 

any different? We could convince him that there are things worth fighting for, we could teach him…” then she saw something else in Simon’s expression, “You knew.”

Simon didn’t respond. Hailey shook her head, “You knew all along. You knew that the Aegis wasn’t a rampaging renegade, and you didn’t tell me.”

“There are orders that can be questioned and there are orders that can’t. Bear in mind that I’m allowing you to question now because I need for you to understand. To forsake one order is to turn on them all. We are either in this fight or we’re not. If I’d questioned all the orders I was given the Royal Crusade would have fallen long ago. We here on the ship, we don’t have the perspective and knowledge of the situation that those making the orders do. What separates us from Freeworld is faith, not just faith in God, but faith in our superiors. It is because of this faith, this trust, that we maintain order. A soldier must trust his commander like a captain trusts his ship. My personal opinion of Eliot cannot be allowed to interfere with the chain of command. These orders come not from a man, but a position, and as part of a grander scheme. The acts of God are mysterious, but who are we to question them?”

“How can I go in there to kill something that has done no harm, who came here under a pretense of a common goal,” Hailey was almost on the point of tears, she had never been so emotional over anything in her life. She didn’t cry when her brother was brutally killed in a mining accident, she didn’t cry when her father returned from war in a silver casket, but now she cried for the fate of a robot, “He only acted the way we all should, with a message of hope and peace, yet now we condemn him to death. Does this sound familiar sir?”

“No, that was something different entirely…”

“Was it?”

“This is a machine; it is without heart or soul. It only knows what we teach it to know, it only feels what we tell it to feel. It is little more than sparks and cogs working in seamless cohesion, presenting the illusion of life and emotion.”

“If one were to dig into the human body, would we find a soul? Where does the soul exist then? What is the difference between cords and blood veins, between cogs and a heart? Sir, perhaps it is not the machine maintaining an illusion. As for telling it what to know and feel, that may be precisely why we shouldn’t kill it. We showed it how anyone should live life and it did just as commanded. Sir, we’ve given it access to the very core of our morals, and I think we’re deactivating the Aegis because it brings home the very teachings of peace and love that created the Royal Crusade. In a time of struggle we find it increasingly hard to act the way we should, and the Aegis is a painful reminder of that on more levels than one.”

“Ms. Garret, I don’t like this any more than you do, but I have my orders too. I’ve told you what you need to know and for an officer of the Royal Crusade that should be enough.”

“Test the Aegis for yourself sir, see it for yourself.”

“Hailey, there is a reason they don’t name pigs before the slaughter and why we assign numbers to casualties instead of names. The beauty of space combat is that you don’t have to look into the victim’s eyes before you kill him. It rearranges your emotions, and prioritizes the individual over the cause and the masses. However, it is inevitable that every officer come face to face with the enemy. This is how I knew you’d return with the Aegis, how I knew you’d come to this conclusion, and why I am now placing you with the termination order of Project Aegis.”

“What did you ‘terminate’ sir? Did he tell you his dreams before you killed him?”

Simon’s face grew contorted, a painful memory had been reawakened, but after that brief second of humanity the commander’s scowl returned, “Ms. Garret, I’ve given you an order. The discussion is closed, and if you can’t trust in the judgment of the Royal Crusade, if you can’t comply with my orders, then perhaps you’re on the wrong ship.”

A single tear fell from Hailey’s left eye, her face was mixed with pain, confusion, but her ever present determination. With a quick snap to attention and a crisp salute, almost all traces of emotion faded. Her dreams came crashing around her, but Hailey had always learned to adapt to reality, “Perhaps I am sir.”

Simon didn’t return the salute; instead he turned and stormed back towards the bridge. He stopped at the doorway and turned his head as he spoke precisely, just as confused and hurt as Hailey had been, “You have forty-eight hours to get the hell off my ship.”

His command indicated finality, but something in Simon’s face and wavering voice indicated it wasn’t. She would tell her crew to pack up the ship and she would distance herself from Simon. He had an issue to work through, whether that worked to her advantage or not was yet to be decided. Beneath the rank there was something of a man, and the chips in his plastered on mask were beginning to appear. She had hurt him, she knew that much. She regretted it, he had faith in her, but she knew what was right and what was wrong. Hailey progressed back towards the hanger. If she was sent away, what would happen to Aegis. Hailey suddenly began to feel as though she had stumbled into something with consequences worse than she could imagine.

Hailey also regretted that most such feelings she sometimes had were highly accurate.