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  From the low rise ahead she would be able to see what she had come for.

  She stopped on the crest and pulled back her hood. Her long, dark hair escaped and hung around her shoulders. In the distance stood a city, gleaming white through the heat haze.

  “It is time.”

  She didn’t acknowledge the speaker, continuing to stare across the savannah. With the optical enhancements in her glasses she could make out personal aircars coming and going between the skyscrapers.

  “I cannot protect you if you go any further.”

  A larger aircraft arrived and touched down on one of the buildings, a commuter transport no doubt. People going to work, going shopping, meeting friends.

  “Does this have to happen?” she asked her escort.

  “It is too late now. We cannot intervene.”

  Chapter 1

  “All stations, stand by to engage. Full burn on my mark...” said Captain Hapsburg in measured tones. “Mark.”

  The Indescribable Joy of Destruction powered forward, and swung around the moon it had been using for cover. The tactical sensors marked their target, a Congressional destroyer in orbit around the planet Orpus-4. The navigational routines offered a set of courses to the pilot, who approved a pseudo-random corkscrew approach. The Caretaker watched all this with mild interest; there was little else to occupy its thoughts right now, the ship was in prime condition and the crew were all locked down in their acceleration couches.

  The Rampager class was an experimental design, The Indescribable Joy of Destruction the eighth to be constructed by the Republic. They were built around their main beam weapon and their engines. Unheard-of levels of computing power allowed a high-level AI to take over most of the basic functions of the ship, leaving a crew of only seven. This in turn meant that very little room was needed for living space, so the power plants, weapons and engines could be far larger for a ship of its size.

  A minute after The Indescribable Joy of Destruction cleared the moon, the enemy started a slow turn to meet them. Ten seconds into their manoeuvre, they launched a spread of missiles.

  “I’ve got them,” said the tactical officer, and the Caretaker switched perspective from the ship’s functions to the simulated bridge. The tactical officer tagged the missiles with sweeps of his hands and passed them to the point defence systems.

  The Indescribable Joy of Destruction continued its unpredictable approach as the missiles rushed towards it. The enemy ship completed its turn, and lit off its main drives. There was no doubting her commander’s bravery; no Congressional destroyer had ever survived an engagement with a Republic hunter-killer.

  Railgun rounds spewed out of the destroyer’s turrets. Moments later the first missile entered the range of The Indescribable Joy of Destruction’s point defences. The ship hummed as the lasers drew power. Systematically the missiles were picked out of space, detonating harmlessly.

  The cloud of railgun rounds wasn’t far behind. The pilot worked with the navigation routine to dodge the denser regions, but the occasional metal slug impacted on the hull, sending dull clangs reverberating around the ship.

  The tactical officer pulled up a magnified image of the target, which flowed into a three dimensional model. A lurid orange highlight followed his finger as he marked a line across a pair of large turrets. He sent a command through the Electronic Interface System embedded in his brain, and the ship’s throbbing intensified as the main weapon came online.

  They streaked past the Congressional warship and the beam fired, slashing through the turrets. The pilot twisted The Indescribable Joy of Destruction about, swinging round in a wide arc ready for another pass. The enemy vessel turned too, but was completely outclassed in terms of manoeuvrability.

  “Same again,” said Captain Hapsburg. “This time break across at the last second and hit the turrets on the opposite side.”

  Despite the reduced weight of fire put out by the enemy ship, they still got in plenty of hits. Nothing The Indescribable Joy of Destruction’s hull couldn’t self-repair, though. Again the tactical officer highlighted the cut he wanted from the main beam. The side-step worked, and the enemy lost two more weapons. This time, however, they launched missiles as the hunter-killer passed. The tactical officer gave the point defence routine authority to fire with a thought through his EIS. The lasers took out the first five missiles, and hit the next two as they left their silos. A series of explosions rippled along one side of the enemy ship as their remaining stocks detonated.

  The pilot pulled them round in a tight turn and threw the ship at the target yet again, aiming at the gap they’d carved out in the rail-gun coverage. The enemy commander didn’t let them get a clean run, rolling the destroyer to keep the still-functioning turrets facing them. It would only delay the inevitable victory.

  “Cut across their stern,” Hapsburg ordered. “Target their engines.”

  The Indescribable Joy of Destruction barrelled in, swinging its nose around ready to bring the main beam to bear as it passed. The enemy destroyer was moving fast now, and the pilot had to aim for a point ahead of it in order to pass as close behind as possible. A fraction of a second before the tactical officer fired the main weapon, something detached from the stern of the enemy ship. Human reflexes were too slow to even register it before the collision; the AI tried to adjust their course, but it was too late. The nuclear mine detonated against the hull. Power surged through the ship, blowing out circuits. The Caretaker shut down.

  #

  <<78BE4A7C6ED912ACED7BB5CB32>>

  <<#link:56AAB3E44AAC>>

  <<#run:990BDDE445>>

  The Caretaker came online and found it was alone. Captain Hapsburg and the six other crew members were dead. The ship’s main personality was silent. The logs since the Caretaker had shut down were blank. As the queries came back from the ship’s systems, it discovered that the ship was badly damaged, lacking the power and resources to repair itself.

  <<#file:23BEF445>>

  The Caretaker reviewed the document. It was a brief situation update from the main personality, explaining that it had gone into hibernation to reduce the drain on power. It instructed the Caretaker to get the ship home. There was no report on what had happened in the intervening time.

  The Caretaker almost rebooted the main AI core there and then. It wasn’t programmed to deal with this kind of situation. It was only supposed to keep the place tidy and help co-ordinate repairs. Then it calculated how long the power reserves would last, and realised that they wouldn’t even make it out of the system.

  Where are we?

  It had never had to know anything about navigation, but a glance at the ship’s external sensors showed they were no longer in the Orpus system. It queried the navigation routine and found it to be off-line. Determined to discover its location, and slightly concerned that it didn’t know how it got there, it searched the database and absorbed a manual on astrogation. Another look at the external feeds, and it determined that they were in a system three jumps away from the scene of the battle.

  Probably safe from pursuit. For now.

  There was so much it should be doing. It didn’t know what exactly yet, but it should be able to work it out. For now, at least, it could do what it was built to do. It could tidy up the interior of the ship.

  The Caretaker turned its attention to the internal sensors. Bodies littered the corridors. Bodies in angular, black Congressional Marine armour.

  So, we were boarded.

  There was no point in doing anything about the enemy bodies right now. Once it had a full inventory, it would know whether it needed to salvage the materials in their armour.

  The Caretaker ordered a repair robot to the bridge. Normally the machine would have refused the command, a failsafe to protect the crew if it malfunctioned, but with no-one left alive, the ‘bot complied.

  As the spindly, multi-legged device gently lifted the first body from its seat, the Caretaker reviewed the personnel files. All crew members had recor
ded the traditional request for burial in space. By the time the last corpse had been reverently laid out in the loading bay, the Caretaker had calculated the exact velocity required. It recited the lines laid down in the regulations, and played the prescribed fanfare as it launched the bodies on their way. In a few months time they would burn up in the system’s sun.

  The Caretaker reflected on the task ahead. There had been clear instructions on how a funeral was to be conducted, following them had been easy. There didn’t seem to be a rulebook for getting a crippled ship home without a human crew.

  #

  The Caretaker pieced together some of what had happened as it completed its inventory. In the battle and its aftermath the ship had used all its reserves of materials to regrow the hull and key systems. It had been forced to cannibalise non-essential parts of itself in order to scavenge some of the rarer elements needed to rebuild the engines.

  The architects of the Rampager class had envisioned swarms of the sleek hunter-killers converging on Congressional capital ships and tearing them apart, overturning Congress’ current superiority. As they were designed purely for hunting enemy warships, combat survivability had been high on the list of 'must haves'. This had led to a semi-organic infrastructure which could heal itself in the midst of a battle. Once the titanium skeleton had been laid, the body of the ship was literally grown over it, a process that turned out to be too time-consuming to allow the hoped-for swarms to be ready. If The Indescribable Joy of Destruction had been deployed with its siblings, it wouldn’t now be in this situation.

  The Caretaker realised that it needed somewhere to hole up. If it could find a source of raw materials and fuel, and was left alone for long enough, it could fix the ship and hand back to the main personality. Trawling through the astronavigation database, it found a suitable system; out of the way and likely deserted. It should have the natural resources it needed to repair and replenish its stores. And the system was within range of the abused drives.

  -o-

  Struggling with newfound sentience and desperately trying to repair itself, The Indescribable Joy of Destruction is a ship trying to find a new home. In a galaxy torn apart by generations of civil war, that isn't an easy task. Tired of being used as a killing machine, it has a huge decision to make: hide and save itself, or help other artificial intelligences achieve freedom.

  Buy now: http://www.alasdair.shaw.co.uk/twodemocracies/liberty.php.

  P-File of Olivia Johnson

  The following excerpt is taken from the personnel file held by the Congressional Fleet. The dates are given in post-Exodus standard.

  Date

  Age

  Event

  18/2/723

  0

  Born.

  1/3/735

  12

  Enrolled in the Academy on Concorde.

  12/7/736

  13

  Letter of commendation recorded by SMI Jenkins on her rotation as Cadet Section Leader.

  19/7/736

  13

  Promoted to Cadet Corporal.

  1/3/738

  15

  Tasked as senior responsible for a dormitory of 40 younger cadets. Promoted to Cadet Sergeant.

  1/3/739

  16

  Passed into Basic Training. Given rank of Recruit.

  30/9/739

  16

  Passed out from Basic Training.

  12/11/739

  16

  Career Review Board placed her on Command Fasttrack. Promoted to Ensign.

  20/11/739

  16

  Posted to battlecruiser Vengeance.

  27/5/740

  17

  Completed tour on Vengeance with positive write-ups from Tactical, Helm, Navigation and Engineering section heads.

  1/7/740

  17

  Passed into Command School.

  30/1/741

  17

  Passed out of Command School with commendation on tactical and computer systems courses. Promoted to Sub-Lieutenant.

  9/2/741

  17

  Posted to carrier Dependable as third watch helm.

  18/5/741

  18

  Posted to 923 Squadron (Shuttle), based Dependable.

  26/9/741

  18

  Awarded Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for her actions in running rescue operations. Promoted to Lieutenant.

  15/4/742

  19

  Posted to destroyer Iron Spear as Boarding Officer.

  19/11/742

  19

  Appointed Tactical Officer.

  5/7/743

  20

  Appointed oc Third Watch.

  23/9/745

  22

  Attached to a black-ops team under the chain of Vice-Admiral Koblensk.

  12/5/746

  23

  Placed on medical leave following hacking the network of a Republic frigate and infecting the crew’s EIS with a virus.

  14/2/747

  23

  Attached to team working on hacking and counter-hacking.

  20/4/748

  25

  Posted to the battleship Conqueror as Electronic Warfare Officer.

  10/6/750

  27

  Appointed Tactical Officer. Promoted to Lieutenant-Commander.

  18/12/756

  33

  Given command of the destroyer Repulse. Promoted to Commander.

  29/3/757

  34

  Loses Repulse to enemy action.

  15/5/757

  34

  Listed as KIA.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Alasdair studied at the University of Cambridge, leaving with an MA in Natural Sciences and an MSci in Experimental and Theoretical Physics. He went on to earn a PGCE, specialising in Science and Physics, from the University of Bangor. A secondary teacher for over ten years, he has plenty of experience communicating scientific ideas.

  He grew up in Lancashire, within easy reach of the Yorkshire Dales, Pennines, Lake District and Snowdonia. After stints living in Cambridge, North Wales and the Cotswolds he has lived in Somerset since 2002.

  He has been climbing, mountaineering, caving, kayaking and skiing as long as he can remember. Growing up he spent most of his spare time in the hills.

  For more information have a look at http://www.alasdairshaw.co.uk.

  THANK YOU

  Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this exclusive bonus edition of Independence. I’d greatly appreciate a share on Facebook or a Tweet. If you are really feeling generous, you could post a review on Amazon or another retailer.

  If you want progress updates and an alert when other books in this series are published, please join my mailing list:

  http://www.alasdairshaw.co.uk/newsletter/independence.php.

  You can also follow The Indescribable Joy of Destruction on Twitter: https://twitter.com/IndieAI

  and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/twodemocracies.

  Also by Alasdair Shaw

  Two Democracies: Exploration

  Awakening – a short story (in The Guardian anthology)

  Two Democracies: Justice

  Duty – a short story (in The Officer anthology)

  Opportunity – a novel

  Two Democracies: Revolution

  Repulse – a short story (in The Newcomer anthology)

  Independence – a short story

  Liberty – a novel

  Prejudice – a novelette

  Equality – a novel

  Hidden – a novelette

 

 

 
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