In spite of their alliance, Kevin refused to rex his guard within the transit sphere of the Lord General. He’d fought the man for too long for even thirty years of cooperation to ease his paranoia. Perhaps he would be more at ease if it was just his life on the line. Eight hundred Jinn served on him and he valued those lives.
Darkness surrounded his hull, relieved only by his own hull lights. The Xian and Arahant sat on his top deck, chatting amiably. If anything, the Arahant contingent was more frightening than the Xian. Fortunately, they were far more trustworthy. Kevin thought the Sage of Confgration every bit as terrifying of an opponent as the Lord Annihitor.
Longstanding policy of the nation of Mercom dictated projecting force away from the home world of Terra so that Xian and Arahant would contest control of unempowered worlds instead. While most enemies could be easily handled by a Jinn War Barge, there existed a few whose threat dictated not only national military strategy, but also that of the loose world-wide alliance.
The War Barges went on resource collection missions on the unempowered worlds to serve as easier targets, retreating whenever faced with a serious threat. They provided a lightning rod to attract attacks on foreign soil and simultaneously demonstrated the might of Jinn technology in battle. Should that ever not be enough… well, they had War Barge Theresa stationed on the home world for that. Strong though Lord Annihitor and the Sage of Confgration may be, they would not fare well in battle against a level twelve War Barge specializing in antimatter.
Kevin watched his allies in the darkness using a combination of radar and infrared. They maintained their peace. Meanwhile, his Gravitonic Field quivered awkwardly in the confines of the space. Though the Lord General’s transit sphere was easily rge enough to hold a war barge, its volume could never compete with the range of effect his engines had.
Deep within the core of Kevin’s structure, matrices of magnetic monopole gyroscopes distorted the fabric of spacetime to create an effect made possible by his conceptual realm. The gyroscopes were running at their absolute minimal effective rate, but that still imparted more force than he wanted. Turning them off was not an option. Not unless he wanted to drop like a rock the moment they returned to normal space.
His radar picture suddenly depicted a small gap in the mirror-like boundary around him. He immediately made an announcement to his crew over the intercom. “Arrival immanent. Prepare for action.”
The centimeters-rge hole in the containing sphere rapidly enrged. From experience, Kevin knew the hole would grow until it erased the sphere from existence entirely. He didn’t intend to wait that long. Daylight flooded the environment, allowing his optical sensors to come into py.
Kevin spun up his Gravitonic Field and moved forward into the new world. Immediately his detection subsystems lit up with numerous enemy contacts. His thoughts moved more rapidly than a biological brain could ever match, analyzing the data being sent to him.
He spoke to his bonded shipmates over the electronic hard line. “Thrakkar dropped us directly on top of the monster incursion. Give me fifty percent of maximum on generator one. Target airborne opponents and fire on my command.”
As the electricity avaible to him rose, Kevin watched the Xian. A few had begun to tentatively lift into the air while squinting at their surroundings in the sudden light. Simirly, the Arahant had yet to move. The area was clear of allies. “Fire first salvo.”
Every ser lit up for one second of pulsed operation, slicing apart flying monsters with beams of coherent light before winking out. In the meantime, he studied the scene before him. The monsters forming from the chaos oozing through the dimensional breach were not particurly rge or dense. In the distance, a fleet of vessels were poised to intercept the beasts.
“This is somewhere between a css one and css two incursion. The locals would probably be able to fight it off themselves. I’d estimate a sixty percent reduction in global popution. Confidence of ninety percent.”
His tactical officer spoke onto the hard line. “Are we going to hit the scorpion with the schism beam?”
Kevin didn’t even need a moment to consider the query. “Negative. Our allies can neutralize it with far less colteral damage. I’d hate to drill a hole into the pnet’s mantle for so little cause.”
“Acknowledged.”
“Communications, get in contact with the naval fleet. I want to talk to its commander. Once that is done, reach out to the new Sage of Foresight using the virtual copy of Hector’s communication device so we can arrange her pickup.”
He shot forward to pce himself between the local vessels and the incursion even as his allies were mopping up the monsters. This trip hardly seemed like it needed a war barge. They could have sent the Lord General to fight off the incursion and pick up the girl. Though Persuasion didn’t trust the Lord General any more than Kevin did.
Hopefully the new Sage of Foresight would be worth it.
“Kevin, I have the admiral of the fleet on the line.”
He attached to the radio subsystem. “This is War Barge Kevin Actual. Am I speaking to the individual in command of the naval fleet?”
“You are.”
“Excellent. At this time, I am instructing you to maintain your distance from the incursion. A Coalition Army task force is handling this one. You can maintain your current distance and observe, but do not come any closer.”
The response took a while to come. “Uh, War Barge Kevin, a fleet takes time to stop.”
Kevin spun up the magnetic monopole gyroscopes and molded space to drag the oncoming vessels to a stop retive to the incursion. The water grew eerily calm around the fleet under his influence. “You have been stopped, admiral.”
There was background shouting from the side of the locals before the admiral came back on. “Uh, sir? What are your intentions on this pnet?”
“We came to stop a monster incursion and pick up a specific individual. We will be leaving your world within days.”
“Can you share the name of that individual?”
“That is cssified information, admiral.”
“How do we know you don’t intend to conquer our pnet?”
Kevin rotated his foremost sensor module in a gesture that had come to be his version of rolling his eyes. Not that anyone would be able to see it. Or even know the meaning behind it if they did. Sometimes a human just needed a physical outlet for a thought or emotion. That need didn’t go away when one uploaded. “Admiral, a lie would serve no purpose. If I wanted to take over your entire world, no one could stop me. As it is, you have nothing valuable enough to bother taking. War Barge Kevin out.”
His communications officer got his attention once more. “The Lord General says the fun is over and he’s going to leave.”
“Wish him safe travels.”
“You don’t want to speak to him in person?”
Kevin didn’t hesitate to demure. “If he asks, I’m still talking to the local popution.”
The Xian began to rise into the air when a transit sphere grew into existence, going from a tiny spot to something the size of a small city in a few minutes. The surface dimpled, inverted, and allowed the army to enter. A few minutes ter, the sphere shrank as it sank into the chaos between worlds.
“Well, that’s a relief,” he said over the hard line. “I still can’t stand the man.”
“By all accounts he is fond of you,” the communications officer said.
“Because I fought him dozens of times and survived. Xian are insane. What is the status on contacting the target?”
“There is no communication network in range compatible with the device Hector Thoreaux carried. I have begun infiltrating communications satellites.”
“That seems unnecessary,” Kevin said. “Let’s just unch a drone to the mainnd to piggyback our call.”
A familiar figure approached one of the internal stations used to interact with him. The Sage of Persuasion, Caroline Echo. Kevin liked to think his mind immune to her talents, yet he often found himself wondering if all her many requests were truly reasonable or if his judgment was compromised in some fashion.
“Things seem to have gone well, Kevin.”
“We hardly needed a war barge.”
“Perhaps not. Have you contacted Evelyn Smith?”
“Not yet.”
Caroline smiled in a way that caused Kevin to double the processing resources dedicated to their conversation. She was prettier than she should be. Kevin had left behind human biology hundreds of years ago and his appreciation of aesthetics had become firmly detached from the hormonal rush of carnal desire. The fact that he enjoyed the sight of her so much always caused him concern.
“I want to be the one to make the call.”
