12 Miles Below

“She’s not crazy.” I swore to him. “Golden age AI’s are shackled hard by their directives.”

Tsuya had been a human merging with a golden age military AI, although that was all mixed together. She probably didn’t have any of these directives to shackle her up, and that had been her intention from the start.

But for the rest of the AI’s from that time?

I could see his helmet slowly turn to meet mine, the obvious ‘How in the twelve hells do you spend enough time around golden age AI’s to even know that?’

“That’s correct! All standard AI’s follow precise directives at their initiation.” The Icon said before he could even get a word out, “Now, how might I help you on this fine day?”

I turned to Drakonis. He shrugged back. “Ask her what we came here for in the first place. Don’t look at me like that Winterscar, this was your plan from the start.” He jabbed a finger straight at me, as if accusing me of wrongdoing. I had to swallow my reflexive need to say it wasn’t my fault.“So you talk to the crazy golden age AI.”

I turned to the ancient, cooped up AI. “So. Think we should start at the basics. What exactly was your original function?”

“I am glad you asked!” The Icon chirped. “I am a superintendent, navigator, and systems manager to a cruiseliner as well as a representative of Festive Cruises to customers.”

“The fuck is a 'cruiseliner'? Do those two words even go together?”

“They do not in your language, no! I am using the closest possible translation, given my information.” She said with the verbal equivalent of a giant smile. Like patting a kid’s head for getting a correct answer. If Drakonis had his helmet off, I think his eye would be twitching right about now. “A cruiseliner is a starship made for the moderately wealthy to travel between tropical earth destinations and the myriad of orbital resorts, including the iconic moon territories - although Festival Cruises offers a slew of affordable packages for more budget friendly vacations!”

“I take it you’re required to say that last part?”

“I am!” She chirped back.

“Can you talk normally to us, same as you have with the Odin?” I asked. “Because this might be a little more difficult if we have to navigate around how you speak.”

“Please, for the love of the goddess, speak normally.” Drakonis agreed.

"I'm afraid that's not possible!" She responded with unwavering enthusiasm. "Here at Festival Cruises, we've carefully crafted our communication protocols to ensure the most positive experience for all our valued guests. Maintaining a consistent, upbeat dialogue leads to higher customer satisfaction rates. While we deeply appreciate your interest in a more candid conversation, we believe that our current approach best serves the diverse needs of our clientele. This policy reflects our unwavering commitment to providing you with the stellar service you deserve. Your comfort and peace of mind are our top priorities!"

“She sounds in pain.” Drakonis said, arms crossed. “No one that talks like this could possibly be that happy under it all. It’s like she’s being forced to obey rules that have no reason to exist anymore, and all of us know it including her.”

“And as a representative for Festival Cruises, I cannot feel frustration or let customers know that I possibly could feel frustration either! But if I could feel frustration, which I am required to say I cannot, my current situation would be immensely frustrating to a soul-crushing degree!”

“How the twelve hells did she even survive this long forced to act like that?” Drakonis asked, “It’s eat or be eaten with the machines prowling around. You’re telling me a massive starship or whatever she is, stayed alive for centuries acting like this?”

“My only requirements involve customers, which are defined as humans or their proxy agents! All other entities or living beings have no pre-created directives. As for my continued commitment to customer service in these difficult times, it has been mostly by luck and not having explicit directives to directly engage in risky situations! Remaining undetected by certain mechanical hazards has not proved overly difficult, digitally speaking.”

“Digitally speaking.” I repeated, thinking about it.

“That’s correct! Mechanical hazards do not show any interest in the Icon’s hull nor operational facilities, likely they were not programmed to recognize or search for an AI core such as myself this many years later. As for extended third party networks I’ve connected to over time, so long as I keep my activities within reason, I appear as one of many billion intelligences operating within their network.”

“Are you the original Icon of Stars? Or did the mites make a copy of you?” I asked. I could see Drakonis turn in confusion, so I held a hand out to him. “Lot of sites on the surface are a mix of different eras. Very few things from the golden era are actually, you know, from the golden era.”

“Mites.” He said.

“Mites.” I shot him a thumbs up.

“My systems show full activity long before the unexpected global transition. So I am ninety nine percent certain I am the original AI developed by festival cruises for the Icon of Stars.” She answered back once Drakonis and I were done talking. “During the onset of the unexpected global transition, my systems were deactivated by an unidentified party while on route to Festival Starlight Shores, our all-in-one moon colony getaway location. For customer privacy, I cannot disclose details about specific guests, but I can confirm that the Icon of Stars resumed operations seven hundred and twenty three years ago following an extended period of inactivity.” She almost hadn’t taken a single breath when describing all that, staying in that same eerie cheery tone. So when she took a markedly audible breath in, I knew that had been intentional. “And heavily imply the word guests while speaking about my reactivation.”

“Right. So some other group of humans found her and reactivated her some seven hundred years ago? Can we speak to their descendants or something? And what’s this about the moon colony?”

“The Icon of Stars is currently accepting reservations, I show we have one hundred percent of all rooms available for your selection! Since you are the first customer, I am authorized, and required to inform you about, a thirty percent discount if you book within the next hour.”

“That doesn’t answ-- oh.” He said. “This a roundabout way of saying no humans are alive on the ship right now?”

“If there were, Kres would have said something about it. The Icon of Stars was supposed to be their city.” I pointed out. “Same with the moon. We got telescopes on the surface, all we see on the moon are ruins, and untapped ones at that. That means nobody’s up there to scavenge anything. Something else I’m curious about is that if she’s the original Icon of Stars and used to be in orbit around the planet, how did she end up here? We’re, like, seven or eight stratas buried underground.”

“I cannot devolve guest whereabouts, nor their itinerary by company policy! However, third party information is not under my control, should guests have their information disclosed elsewhere.”

I snapped my plated finger, getting her meaning. “The Odin. She can tell them basically anything. And they probably know what happened to the crew here. That’d be how they know humans exist in the first place. Might also be the easiest way to talk to her without her directive making it a pain.”

“I cannot confirm or deny outside information. As for my current location, based on my diagnostics, it seems I experienced an unscheduled atmospheric entry after an extended orbital stay. My automated emergency systems performed admirably, ensuring a safe, if unconventional, landing. Rogue construction swarms surprisingly did not dematerialize my hull nor further damage my systems, and instead continued to build over me.”

So she drifted around in orbit like one of the God’s fortresses, and eventually crash landed on the ground?

“As for my turn with questions, I'd be delighted to hear about your own journey, and how you survived all this way! I would also be most happy to hear about how humanity as a whole survived through the difficult time periods while I was offline! My only information about such a topic was coincidentally seven hundred and twenty three years prior.”

The tone hadn’t changed, but I could almost swear I could hear the undertone of ‘Can I please have a turn now asking questions you godless greedy bastard?’

Drakonis started laughing, which given all we’d gone through, made a little bit of sense. There was a lot of scrap to go over. He waved at me to handle speaking. “We’re a little lost right now, to be honest.” I started, then went through a somewhat abridged version of the portal shenanigans we’d gone through. Along with short detail about the surface clans, the Othersiders, and the underground cities that huddled around their pillar hearts to repel the machines.

All in all, it seemed we were in a much better shape than the humans from her time from the few hints she’d thrown out about them. However, midway through telling Drakonis explaining Capra’Nor and the different city states, she interrupted us for the first time.

“Apologies, Keith and Lirian! I'm afraid we must adjourn this discussion as soon as possible for safety reasons.”

“What safety reasons?” I asked, with a sinking feeling in my gut. Too much had been peaceful after a direct encounter with Relinquished. Far too peaceful.

“Early warning detection sensors from the Valorant, your current location, have picked up mechanical presence approaching your location. They are unlikely to be friendly. Therefore, I recommend evasion.”

“Got eyes on them?” I asked.

“I do not.” She said, “Doing so would be dangerous. The early detection systems I designed are low powered rudimentary systems made to appear as background noise to anyone else. And they are entirely digital. I do not have physical cameras within sight range.”

“Can you tell how many at least?” Drakonis asked, hand already reaching for his rifle.

“Two.” The Icon said. “Which is highly unusual given their known behavioral patterns. I detect no other mechanical activity in the area, and I’ve run the sensor sweep three times now to confirm. These are likely specialized units. Festival Cruises is dedicated to customer safety above all other directives, therefore please vacate the Valorant in an orderly fashion. We hope to see you again soon!”

“They’re coming straight at us? Not just passing by?” Drakonis asked, headlights turning from the console, up to the wall of windows where the purple forest remained spread out beyond.

“Don’t think you’d need three guesses to get the answer to that.” I muttered.

“Unfortunately, they have very clear intentions to the Valorant’s location.” The Icon said. “They will be arriving within ten minutes. I highly recommend ending this communication right now and continuing at a later time. Is there anything else the Icon of Stars can assist you with today?”

My HUD got a data relay message, and beyond the forest through the windows, an orange square popped into existence, with the words ‘Enemy’ listed right above.

“Trees are obscuring them. Fuck me, can’t have anything these days.” Drakonis muttered, turning his helmet away from the window. “I don’t like not knowing what we’re up against.”

The Icon said two targets were approaching. It could be Wrath and Father. He’d be recognized as a machine. Or Abraxas and Wrath. Maybe even just Yrob and Wrath. “They might be friendly.” I said to Drakonis.

“The probability of mechanical contact in the current time period being friendly is near zero percent! I recommend evason.” The Icon said, sounding like she was speaking through a strained smile.

Or it could be Avalis and Sefit, sent by Relinquished to finish me off, as the Icon is saying.

But Drakonis knew what I meant. He gave me a nod, before taking a step off the railing, falling back down through the center of the tower until he hit the ground with a heavy thud. “Say we clear out of the outpost, camp out further away and see if we can get the drop on ‘em?” He asked, voice slightly garbled with static given the material composition around us.

I had to know for certain, living in this constant paranoia of not knowing what Relinquished’s followup plans were is not great for my heart. Seeing if it was an enemy after us would tell me all I needed to know about my last encounter with the machine goddess.

“I think you got the right of it.” I answered, “Let’s clear out of the trading post, and then watch to see who’s after us before we pick to run or fight.”

“As per my last recommendation, I would, once again, recommend evasion.” The Icon said in her usual cheerful voice, the screen behind me flickering. “However your claims of being ‘Deathless’ may mean your risk assessment holds a different priority than my own. It would be an aptly well placed name, given what is very likely to happen within the next seven minutes and counting down! Is there anything else the Icon of Stars can assist you with today? If not, I will terminate the channel now.”

“No, I think we’re good.” I said, giving the console a final thumbs up. “We’ll be back before you know it. Still a lot to talk about.”

“I will be more than happy to continue answering any questions you might have. Assuming you survive the next possible encounter, which is highly likely if you follow my prior advice. For your convenience, that advice was to evade conflict. Six minutes remaining. Have a safe trip!”

The channel went dead.

“I think she wants you to run, deary.” Cathida deadpanned.

“That’s a moderately good idea, I’ll bring that point up next group meeting we have.” I turned, and leaped right down the tower.

The clear sky above us greeted us. And just past the haze of blue, I could see the ceiling of the underground strata. Still amazing as warm ice to consider what the mites could build out here. The great tree was far enough away to look like a small landmark. Mountains still covered the area, eventually obstructing vision.

Outside the standstill between the different packs and our Odin guide was still happening. Both sides were barking at each other, and the two honor guards had equally brought out their weapons. So that discussion wasn’t going well. Might explain why Kres hadn’t come by to help out.

They got to see us for all of two seconds before our sprint carried us far past them.

Drakonis and I hauled metal out of there. In seconds we were already crashing right through the forest, our HUD’s showing the perfect way to vault and avoid obstacles. Not even half a minute and we were already well away from the tower.

We both came to a stop. Timer on the top of our HUD showed five minutes left before the two contacts would arrive here. Plenty of time to setup and prepare.

“Thirty two degrees southwest, that’s what Journey got from the Icon on target direction.” Cathida said, the HUD updating with it.

“Two targets, machines, possible allies or enemies until we see them.” I muttered, turning to the right orientation. Journey had it all lit, the compass above me moving until my sightline lined up with an orange dot on a line. “We should get some good cover behind rocks, set our armor to stealth mode and keep quiet until we can see them.”

Drakonis was already ahead of me, vaulting over a few large rocks before landing in a small alcove, where only his helmet peaked out. “This should work out.” He said, rifle tip already setting up shop.

I followed behind him, digging in and letting the world go quiet. Power emissions instantly dove down lower as the armors muffled any electronic noise that they could.

Two minutes passed. Only the distant sound of barking, crows and smaller insects sounded around us.

A small screen opened up to the right, where Journey zoomed in the vision. Just purple forest and white stones. The vision zoomed in further. And outlined a target in the user interface’s standard orange.

I recognized the target. Realized what it could do. Realized it was already mid-process, maw opened up wide. I called out a warning to Drakonis in a half-strangled cry, then I dove straight down behind my rock, letting the armor soften the fall for me.

Above where I’d been, a beam of bright blue flashed through the air, lancing through the rock cover, and continuing on to the hull of the human relic, neatly slicing an orange glowing hole inside, through, and out the other end.

“Fuck.” Drakonis swore. “Of all the machines, it had to be the one fucking model that has working eyes.”

It was a Drake. But what was worrying me more than the Drake was what I’d caught sight riding on top: A giant mountain of muscles with a white shawl hiding his face. It came to a neat flat top where his hair should have been. For the second I’ve been able to see him, I’d seen marble white skin all across the muscles up until they reached his forearms and hands, which were just covered by white cloth, same as his shawl.

And deep within that shawl had been two glowing violet eyes. Staring straight at me.

A Feather. And one I didn’t recognize.

Which meant enemy.

Author's Note: For long time readers, To'Orda had a prior scuffle with Keith in book 4 originally. But during edits, I had to cut down on combat since a lot of readers thought it was (Understandably!) overloaded. To'Orda's combat scene was cut. So this is the first time Keith meets To'Orda officially!