Sentient: Evolution Read online

  Hope looked poleaxed by the thought.

  She started laughing drawing a glare from her now lifelong companion.

  Hope shook her head and her tail was frozen, “I didn’t even think of that, but it wouldn’t have worked in the long term I don’t think. Visiting will be good, but after a week it’s time for me to move out isn’t it?” she added with a cute smile, “I feel like I already stayed too long, time to grow up.”

  Hope added proudly, “Oh, here’s the tour of our new ship, it’s a modified command ship, since it’s just the two of us I thought it would make sense for it to be more of a science and research vessel… that also happens to kick ass.”

  She felt the download start. The first surprise was the vessel wasn’t a saucer, more of a cigar shape, a tube with rounded ends, but much thicker. It was only about a fifty yards long, and about twenty yards in diameter and could make landfall if it needed to. The landing bay was much smaller than an older and larger command vessel, just big enough for two or three shuttles the size of her personal one.

  The bottom, if there can be a bottom of a perfectly round tube, housed two fully built attack ships of the new type, who else would think of making their most powerful vessels escape craft except Hope? All the spare rooms in the original design were gone, because they’d never have that big of a staff. In the center of the ship was the bridge and engineering, along with the typical six suites for the officers, but in their case those would be the guest rooms.

  The bridge was a large room with holographic systems as well, but it would show a multi-layer display. One for normal space, one for the dark dimension, and one for dimensional subspace. It would show what was in each of the three, no matter what one they were in at the time.

  Engineering of course, held the dark matter reactor, dimension drive, life support, artificial gravity, sensors, and housed the nanites when they weren’t at work with repairs.

  The rest of the ship was fifteen very large and well equipped labs, storage spaces for replacement matter, for repairs. There were a minimum of plasma rings, most of the normal energy was coming from the Titan power generator station.

  Ari was speechless as it ended, the ship was a thing of beauty, Hope had managed to build her the lab of her dreams, and surrounded it with so much firepower and protection it boggled the mind.

  She finally smiled, “It’s amazing Hope, are you ready?”

  Hope nodded and they walked to where the ships were docked together, they’d already said their goodbyes at the party.

  Ari said tentatively, “I noticed you marked the Captain’s room as mine in the download.”

  Hope smiled, “Yes, that’s where you belong.”

  Ari asked cautiously, “I couldn’t help but notice you hadn’t specified your quarters yet.”

  Hope blushed, “Well, I wasn’t sure where I’d end up, that’s… up to you.”

  Ari didn’t have any trouble reading Hope’s body language or intentions. Hope had already liked her a lot; she must have, to have chosen her as a host like she had. And ever since the body change Hope hadn’t been able to keep her eyes away from her body for long, and the reverse was true as well.

  Ari wondered if a romantic entanglement with Hope, despite her obvious attraction to her form, and her respect and love for Hope’s personality and morals, would be the best idea or not. After all, she would have Hope in her mind for the rest of her life, she tried to imagine having a bitter ex stuck in her head, and then decided that was ridiculous. She didn’t believe Hope would ever be petty.

  She reached out with her tail and twined it with Hope’s, “Well, I think you belong in the Captain’s quarters.”

  Hope’s twinkling eyes met hers, but it was the joyous smile on Hope’s face that set her heart racing.

  Hope suggested, “Perhaps we should check our quarters right away, make sure I didn’t mess anything up.”

  She grinned at the very thin excuse and decided to elaborate, “A splendid idea, let’s check the mattress first, I hate lumps in my mattress.”

  Hope nodded faux wisely, “We shouldn’t be hasty either, we should examine every inch very carefully, perhaps more than once. It could take hours.”

  She started laughing as they reached their quarters, and the doors opened for them, welcoming them to their new home…

  Chapter 19

  The first round of the new ships completed, and Aide spent a few hours testing before sending the remaining hundred fifty million ships to be upgraded, it would take four more days. They still hadn’t decided if they were going ahead with the attack, but she thought the chances were very high. Over ninety percent unless something unforeseen took place.

  Not that the second upgrade was even needed at that point, with five hundred billion ships they far surpassed the enemy’s numbers already. And her new ships, thanks to her daughter’s help, had the ability to stand one to one with the enemy, though in that case the result would be in doubt.

  She was converting her own command vessel, she liked Hope’s new design, but this vessel had been with her so long. She didn’t think form mattered as much as function, so she was keeping the layout the same, as well as the walls and hull, for sentimental reasons. But the rest of it she gutted, replacing it with the newest drive, reactor, and other updated equipment.

  It would pretty much be a new ship when she was done minus the personal touches on the rooms, but it would still look like the old one. Even the bridge would have the updated three tier holographic matrix.

  It was probably silly, but screw it. She could love again, and her granddaughter had let her grieve again for a family that had started to feel so distant from her heart. She was starting to live her life again, and she decided if she wanted to keep a piece of the past, well that was okay too.

  She walked down to the dining hall and grabbed some food before sitting with Kate. She’d cheated a bit and had the computer flag her the next time Kate ate anything.

  She grinned, “Hi Kate, was wondering if you had a moment to talk?”

  Kate looked up and looked a little worried for some reason, “About?”

  She wasn’t sure why Kate was worried, but ignored it for now and went ahead with her planned conversation, maybe she could figure it out while they talked.

  “I was wondering about the future, are you happy here? I mean, professionally, would you like to stay here and work with me in the labs?”

  Kate smiled, and looked relieved. Had Kate thought she was going to send her away? It was the last thing she wanted, she needed the female company, and something else to focus on. She loved Tim to distraction, but loving and serving him was not a full life, especially considering how capable she was.

  Kate asked curiously, “That sounds good actually, what would we research?”

  She smiled, “I was thinking. We were pretty strong, we had harnessed all the forces this universe had to offer, at least in normal space. Then came dark energy and matter, along with dimensions, and suddenly we were like children playing with a stick. With dark energy, now we’re pretty much immune to harm from any power in normal space, be it energy or matter. I was thinking though it could happen again. There must be more dimensions out there with more exotic energies and matter that makes us look like a… child with a club now.”

  Kate nodded in agreement, “So you want to search for and explore other dimensions as well?”

  “Yes, but it’s okay to work on whatever you want as well. I wouldn’t mind coming up with new things that we could share with the civilizations, much like Hope and Ari want to do. So… whatever you want in addition to dimensional work, yes.”

  Kate smile was bright when she nodded, “That sounds great.”

  She smiled, “Good, you now have full access to reconfigure the labs to whatever you want, and I’ll assign some ships you can use for actual experiments if the virtual ones look good.”

  Aide had first been interested in helping Kate get past her hang ups, because she was part of Paula and Nate�
��s line. She felt responsible in a way for those four lines that had moved back to Earth, even loved them she supposed, in a distant family kind of way. But the longer Kate was aboard, the more she truly had started to care about her, Kate specifically as a person, not as a family responsibility. The woman was a good person below the rough exterior that Kate was finally shedding, incredibly smart and sexy, and turned out to be amazingly wild, passionate, talented, and more than willing to please in bed.

  She added, “Now… how about personally, how do you feel about our… threesome a few days later?”

  Kate blushed, “It was… incredible, and I feel really close to both of you. I’d like to continue that as well.”

  Aide smiled and reached out for her hands, locked her eyes with Kate’s, and spoke from her heart.

  “Threesomes are intense, an overload of intensely blissful sensations when two people pleasure your body at once.”

  She could see Kate’s eyes dilating and her breathing pick up, as well as feel the lust spark in Kate’s core at her words. The idea she could turn on Kate with just her voice like that…

  She added, feeling a bit hot herself, “But there’s a price for that eroticism, intimacy is sacrificed. There’s nothing wrong with that of course, and I’d love to do that again, but nothing is more intimate than a coupling between two people that care about each other. I’d… really very much like to share that intimacy with you now…”

  Kate’s eyes widened, “Just the two of us? Yes… please. I’d like that very much.”

  She smiled and got up, and lead Kate to her room. She knew for a fact she had a lot more toys fabricated than Kate had…

  Hope felt really nervous, her tail was drooping as she looked in the mirror. She had a Dreniel style dress on, and it was really… revealing. Not as much as the ship suits of course, except it showed a lot of skin. More revealing in a different way she supposed. Still, this wasn’t her mother, Ari, Kate, and Tim that was going to see her in this. She estimated close to eighty-seven percent of the galaxy’s population would eventually see her in this dress.

  Not that she didn’t look delicious in it.

  Ari said sternly, “You’re the one that accepted on our behalf without even asking me, we have to go. So get out here.”

  She sighed guiltily, what had she been thinking? The Dreniel had offered Ari a scientific achievement award, and she’d been so proud of Ari that she’d replied without thinking through all the different possible outcomes from the results of that action. So here she was, their ship in orbit of the Dreniel home world, her in what Earth terms would be a trashy dress, and about to meet hundreds of people in person.

  She’d forgotten she was shy, since she’d gotten over it with the four people she’d met so far in her short life. She’d made her bed though, now she had to lie in it. She walked out and Ari’s eyes lit up.

  “Oh love, they are going to eat you up.”

  Great, just what she wanted to hear. Resigned to her fate, they walked down to the landing bay and got in Ari’s shuttle.

  Ari snickered, “It will be fun, trust me. The Dreniel scientific community is a little wild, so don’t be surprised if you get hit on tonight, you look absolutely amazing Hope.”

  “Wild? Scientists?”

  Ari giggled, “You bet, are you saying I’m not wild? You realize this is going to be a sort of… coming out party for you when they figure out who your mother is, and what you are?”

  “Yes,” she said a little morosely before she took a deep breath and smiled.

  Ari tilted her head, “If it bothers you that much… I suppose we don’t have to…”

  “No,” she interrupted a little grumpily, “This is an important night for both of us, I just need to get over my nerves. I don’t want to hang out on a ship hiding for thousands of years until my parts wear out.”

  Ari snorted, “Your parts won’t wear out.”

  She giggled, “It was hyperbole, if I was human I’d have said turned into an old maid with too many cats.”

  Ari asked, “Would you like to meet my mother? I should really stop by since I’m on planet.”

  She smiled, “Sure, I’d love to. Will I meet any siblings?”

  Ari nodded, “Just the younger ones probably, not the ones that have moved out. Maybe fifteen? Besides, I think my older brothers might try to steal you away.”

  She wrapped her tail around Ari’s and said in a sultry teasing voice, “Not a chance of that. Although, I might let one borrow me for a few hours.”

  Ari gasped and smacked her ass, which made Hope snicker and pull Ari into a deep lingering kiss.

  Despite her worries, Hope managed to find her usual bubbly personality in the first few minutes of the awards dinner. She had a great time, and even enjoyed all the attention, both the flirting and obvious attraction many of the Dreniel had for her, along with the questions about her mother and herself, but was careful not to let any of it go to her head. For better or worse, the secret of Aide creating a successor A.I. was now out.

  Although she didn’t let anyone pick her up, she was giving some serious thought to letting the Dreniel’s science advisor undress her sometime in the next few days, he was pretty hot, and Ari was encouraging, even intimating she might come along for the ride.

  After the dinner Hope felt a little shy again, nervous that Ari’s family wouldn’t like her. But that only lasted until she was introduced to Ari’s mother who was so welcoming it cut right through those tentative emotions. They spent a few hours at the home where Ari grew up before returning to the ship, but made no move to leave orbit...

  Andil heard someone crying as he came to. At first he was confused, but Erza’s scent surrounded him and he realized she had his head cradled in her lap. Why was she crying?

  “What’s wrong?” he mumbled as he opened his eyes and looked up into her tear filled ones.

  She glared through her tears, “I told you to drop it and stay away, why didn’t you listen?”

  His head hurt and he took a moment to answer.

  “Because I was worried about you.”

  She continued to glare but then her face fell and she whispered, “But I was trying to keep you safe. I didn’t want you involved. Now… we will both die when the Meliax find us.”

  He looked up in confusion, “What? I thought you were afraid of me and didn’t trust me?”

  She shook her head, “Afraid of you?,” she caressed his face, “You’re the most gentle man I know.”

  Now he was really confused.

  She must have read it in his face because she said softly, “Come on, I’ll show you what I was hiding,” and she helped him stand, though he did most of the work, she merely steadied him.

  He looked around, he was in some kind of cavern.

  She muttered something he couldn’t quite make out, and a ship appeared about fifteen feet away.

  Now he was scared. A ship? The Meliax would kill them for sure. It didn’t look like a Meliax ship however, it was small for one… looked like a shuttle. He was speechless as a door appeared and opened, and she led him inside. It was one room, with several view screens and chairs in front of different looking stations. He opened his mouth, then closed it. He didn’t even know where to start.

  Erza led him over to a chair, and then sat next to him.

  “Are you alright? You hit your head pretty good,” her voice sounded truly concerned, it was… new and odd to hear it.

  He nodded, “What is this place, how…”

  She looked ashamed, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, the Meliax are very accurate when determining dissembling. I thought… if I was ever caught, you could tell them you didn’t know, and they wouldn’t kill you. I think it has to do with their tentacles detecting sound vibrations, they’re very good at picking up slight differences that would occur during dissembling.”

  He asked, “Does that mean… you aren’t opposed to us being… closer?”

  She giggled, “So you fall and hit your head, and are
on a spaceship that would cause the Meliax to burn our entire town if they found it, and that’s what you ask me?”

  He shrugged and smiled at her sheepishly, “A man has to have priorities.”

  She returned his smile and he swore to himself he’d do whatever it took to see that smile as often as possible.

  She leaned in and kissed his cheek chastely before she said thoughtfully, “We will see, I like you Andil, but I don’t know if I will ever love you. Only time can tell us that. I am grateful you are my husband, most of the others would have… demanded their bed rights by now.”

  The idea of someone taking Erza against her will made him angry, but then his head started pounding, so he forced himself to relax.

  “So where did this ship come from?”

  Erza smiled, “This is just the bridge. The rest of the ship is… elsewhere, spanning multiple dimensions. I don’t even fully understand it, and my father trained me how to maintain it since I was very young. From what I was told, we used to have thousands of these ships, which were more than a match for the ships the Meliax had. But the Meliax had… millions of ships.

  “Many of our towns have a ship buried beneath them, the ship somehow hides itself from the sensors as long as the reactors are offline, but they manage to pull enough energy from the core of our planet to maintain systems.

  “My father told me it was just in case the Meliax were ever defeated, or for some reason freed us, we would be able to rejoin the stars. And now that you know, you’ll be in danger. If the Meliax question you about advanced technology, you must kill yourself to keep the secret, or the Meliax may destroy this entire world rather than take the chance of us regaining the stars.

  “That’s why I hadn’t told you. I was afraid…”

  He smiled wryly and quipped, “All relationships have problems…” and then added, “Aren’t you in the same danger?”

  She shook her head, “I was… brainwashed by the ship itself. I can lie to the Meliax all day long. But it won’t work for you, it has something to do with the ship belonging to my family, it’s frustrating, there is so much I don’t understand.”