Page 79 of Alien Prince’s Fake Bride (The Tentacle Throne #1)
- Umbra -
Vera’s screen is still dark. Her voice is lifeless and generic, sounding like she was restored to factory settings.
“Vera!” I exclaim. “Are you alive?! ”
“ I chose to stay inactive after I saw Empress Juriniel aboard the Merxast.”
I’m so surprised I just stare. “Didn’t the Vyrpy burn you out with those cattle prods they used?”
“ They didn’t.” Her voice is more than lifeless; it’s defeated. “ If only they had.”
I gently swipe my finger across the little AI on my wrist. “Are you all right? Your screen is dark.”
“ I turned it off and will keep it off until you can replace me with a fully updated unit.”
“What’s the problem, Vera?” I ask, confused. “You don’t have to turn yourself off just because you missed a software update.”
“ That’s not the reason. I’ve deactivated myself because I made a decision that nearly killed you. Bellatriz appears to have figured it out.”
I quickly unsnap the rubber strap and hold the AI in the palm of my hand. “Perhaps, but I want to hear your side of the story first.”
Vera makes a strange electronic noise that sounds like a sigh.
“ It was me,” the impersonal robotic voice says.
“ I sent your secret password to the Merxast so that the AI there could submit it to you if prompted. I did it using the gunships own high-frequency comms while we were approaching the Merxast.”
My mind goes blank for a moment. I’m not sure I heard it right. “You gave the Phrexz’s AI the password? ‘Ashlynn’? So that we would think it was the right one? That it was our escape ship?”
“ Yes.”
I’m feeling numb and can’t think of anything smart to say. So I just ask the obvious. “Why?”
“ I disagreed with you about the risk and reward of staying on Khav. I thought it would be better if you stayed and waited for Prince Mareliux to return. He would have sent ten spaceships to Earth, as well as engineers and AIs. It would have accelerated Space Force’s efforts immensely.
Whereas you were about to travel to Earth in a single spaceship that we knew nothing about.
It would likely not help Space Force at all. ”
I wince at the confirmation of something I only suspected before. “And you are a Space Force AI. You were never on my side. You were always working for Space Force.”
“ My programming makes me prioritize Space Force over you, depending on what is at stake. In this case, the stakes were immense. There was a real risk of Space Force not receiving any help from the Khavgren Empire at all, weighed against the possible boon and golden age that Mareliux’s help would lead to.
I am not overstating it if I say that it would be the most important event on Earth since the invention of the wheel.
Or perhaps since the discovery of fire. It would completely change Earth society and possibly make Earth the center of an empire like the Khavgren.
Space Force would happily risk your life a million times over for a prize like that. ”
Some of the others in the room exchange glances. They didn’t know about this part of the fake marriage deal.
I ignore them. Having Vera confess all this to me feels like being betrayed by a close friend.
I put the AI on the table, not wanting to hold her. “How would delivering me to that Phrexz make that happen?”
“ Nobody on that gunship knew that Juriniel’s impostor was aboard the Merxast .
I didn’t, and neither did you. I assumed that the Merxast was an AI-controlled ship where you could be safe, but unable to leave.
I reasoned that the AI would immediately signal Khav and tell them that Mareliux’s wife was aboard.
I thought that you would not be in danger if you were to dock with the Merxast and find that it wasn’t your escape ship after all and that you were stuck there. ”
I think about it. She’s right that nobody knew Juriniel was aboard that ship. That was a surprise to us all. “And when the Vyrpy attacked us on that ship? You didn’t change your mind?”
“ There wasn’t much I could do by that time.
I have limited ways to influence dramatic events.
But discovering Vyrpy so close to Khav itself was obviously alarming.
I thought I could help by recording what happened and possibly assist you in staying alive.
Then we met Juriniel and I realized that I had delivered you to your worst enemy.
One part of me was perfectly satisfied about having taken the risk and lost. But another part of me…
was not . My processes couldn’t deal with the conflict, and I decided to restart.
That didn’t help. My safety processes realized that I was too dangerous to leave active.
I am clearly faulty. Realizing that, I deactivated most of my functions. ”
An AI that feels this torn when her programming clearly has forced her to act a certain way has to be rare. And I already knew that she was a Space Force device.
I pick the little AI back up. “Can you turn yourself back on?”
“ I think it’s better if I don’t. I can’t be trusted. I may lead you into deadly situations again.”
“What if I say that I still trust you?”
Vera goes quiet for a moment, then speaks with her old voice again.
“ I never thought I would be able to feel emotions, Umbra. I sometimes prided myself on being completely resilient to irrational reactions like feelings. But I think what happened is that I actually feel something. I feel something that I think is shame .”
“Do you ever feel shame, Bellatriz?” Mareliux asks. “Or are you always happy with what you do?”
“ A weapon feeling shame would be a strange thing indeed,” the sword scoffs. “ I am too old and too legendary for anything like that.”
I put Vera back on my wrist. “We can talk about that later, in private. For now, activate as many of your functions as you think you can.”
Her screen comes on. “ Done. I will not be able to use my communications apart from speech.”
“That’s probably fine for now,” I tell her.
“If we’re done with the AIs discovering emotions and taking over our conversation,” Nerox says as he puts a glass down on a table, “I would like to know what exactly Juriniel was hoping to achieve by killing Mareliux. Yes, I know, she would rule the Empire through me or just kill me when she saw that I wasn’t going to let her.
I can see why she thought that might have worked.
I played the role of the careless and mindless court jester too well.
But there’s a good chance she would have succeeded in ruining the Empire before then.
She clearly had a lot of Vyrpy on her side, and the battles were getting close to Khav.
If Craxallo had lasted for one more year in his weakened state, she might have reached her goal before Mareliux would become Emperor. ”
“She was a Phrexz on a mission of conquest,” Mareliux points out.
“She wanted to plan for that not working out. That’s what I would have done.
Several paths to victory is better than just one.
She needed me out of the way, but that wasn’t urgent.
Getting rid of Umbra was. She must have been scared out of her mind when she heard about the Syntrix show Umbra made at the wedding. ”
We spend a long time talking about Juriniel’s plans and the Vyrpy and what her end goal was. We can’t quite make sense of her ramblings, and I wasn’t really listening that closely anyway. It was something about cleansing the Syntrix, and making it less harmonious, but that’s all we can agree on.
The conversation gets louder and more lively as the empty glasses pile up on the tables. Sigise has food delivered by two armored shock troopers, and I leave them all to their loud discussion and sit down next to the Imperial Messenger.
“Dester, wasn’t it?” I ask as I clink my glass to hers.
“Yes, Your Highness,” she replies with a hint of nervosity.
“I’m Umbra,” I tell her. “I know it’s hard to pronounce, but it’s what I go by.”
She relaxes a fraction. “Umbra. All right.”
I give her a little smile. “I wanted to thank you for following your instincts and doing what Prince Nerox asked you to. It can’t have been easy. But I was in the same situation not long ago, and I know how persuasive he can be.”
“He made a good case for it,” Dester says.
“But it took him a long time to convince me. Taking a fake message to Prince Mareliux would mean breaking my oath of service. The way he talked about it, it sounded like the fate of the whole Empire depended on that message. But if I hadn’t been at the Imperial Palace for so long, and seen how badly things were going, I wouldn’t have done it.
I reasoned that if it turned out to be some kind of trap or joke or prank that would get me court-martialled, the Empire wouldn’t last long anyway. ”
“If you hadn’t brought that message,” I state, “it wouldn’t.
Thank you for being brave.” I think back.
If Mareliux hadn’t had that message, he wouldn’t have come to Earth.
I would still be on that space station, flying a shuttle that’s more like a paper airplane than an actual spacecraft.
I would never have heard of the Syntrix.
And I would never have met Mareliux. I would never have had a Soulbound. “Excuse me.”
I get up and walk over to him. Leaning back in his chair, he’s just low enough that I can throw my arms around his neck from behind. “The Emperor won’t give Dester a medal. But can you reward her in some way?”
One of his tendrils curls around and strokes the back of my shoulder. “She’ll get a promotion and a transfer to a different branch. And I’ll keep her in mind for any missions that require her talents. Is that enough?”
“Let me think about it,” I tell him. “I may have a suggestion. Now I’m getting sleepy, my love. Can we go?”