The First Nova I See Tonight by Jason Kilgore (best ereader for pdf and epub TXT) 📗

around some draped vines. "When AVA goes missing, it appears that it was stolen by pirates or mafia. What mafia don or pirate captain could resist possessing a murderous artificial intelligence that nearly obliterated all life on two planets?"

"Not murderous!" Juarez spat. "We are pacifists. AVA is a pacifist."

"Sure," Dirken said, "and those blasters you're pointing at us are pop guns."

Yiorgos grunted. "I seem to recall that AVA threatened to launch all weapons systems on both Mars and Earth. Seems like the opposite of pacifism to me."

"Have you ever heard of M.A.D.?" Juarez said. "Mutually Assured Destruction?"

"That was a weapons philosophy back in the nuclear era, right?" Yiorgos asked. "Ancient nations building so many nukes they could destroy the whole world. Part of those missile silos you mentioned."

"Sí," Juarez replied. "Ironic that AVA would be kept in one, is it not? M.A.D. is the idea that any aggressive action between two nations would result in the destruction of them all. Thus, no one would risk it, and you have peace."

"No one sane would risk it," Dirken corrected.

"AVA is not insane, amigo. She is far more logical than any human. She had calculated that when given the choice between disarming all systems or having civilization destroyed, humanity would choose to disarm."

"How can you claim that?" Yiorgos asked. "Opposing nations threatened each other, and their Mars colonies, with annihilation, each thinking the other had made the threat."

"AVA would not have allowed it to go so far," Juarez replied.

Dirken squeezed through a thicket, then wiped the sweat from his brow. "And this is why you think AVA will 'save mankind?' That she will threaten to destroy the Earth unless we disarm?"

"There is more to the story. In my position, governing half of Earth for the United Worlds, I can say that we are in a precarious time. Nüwa and Tesla are more economically stable than Earth, without the overpopulation, pollution, famine, and extreme climate, and are self-sufficient now. They threaten to break away. Secessionists are gaining power. Pirates and gangs, like the ones you encountered in the last couple of days, threaten our safety and commerce… as do smugglers like yourself," he added with disdain. "And Earth needs those worlds for protection from alien civilizations like the Reptiloc Empire or the Aquarian New Dawn, who wish nothing more than to invade and take what resources we have left. Earth is rich in water, after all."

Dirken slowed to a stop and rested a moment, turning around to face Juarez. His armpits were saturated with sweat. His wrist had grown raw from the handcuffs. The heat and humidity of the jungle left his throat dry and his head woozy. "I can relate. I'm very thirsty. Do you have any water?" His gaze dropped to the hilt of Juarez's sword. There was what looked like an activator switch. Maybe some form of plasma blade? But he had no chance to lunge for it. Too many weapons aimed at him.

As if reading his mind, the Aussie waved her blaster at him. "Keep moving, mate. There'll be water at the temple."

Temple? he wondered again. Damned cult. "There's that astounding 'pacifism' in action, I see." Dirken turned and kept walking. "So, you want to re-activate AVA in the hope it can convince the other worlds to stay in the United Worlds federation, is that it? Somehow I don't think an A.I. overlord with an itchy trigger finger and a penchant for hacking is the answer."

"Enough talk for now," Juarez growled in response. "It is time to walk in silence. And speed it up!"

A number of the small devices incorporated into the Acolytes' robes were buzzing or lighting up, and this was met with what seemed like growing alarm. Dirken heard the Aussie whisper something to Juarez. He couldn't make it out, other than the words "coming soon." After all they'd been through, Dirken truly didn't want yet another crisis on top of the already fucked-up situation they were in.

They marched through the jungle in silence for about twenty minutes. The low hills gave way to a flat plain. The leaf litter and vines gave way to lower, thinner trees and a wet, sometimes mushy ground. Dirken was accosted by a swarm of mosquitoes. Most animal species, including man, had suffered heavy losses from a couple hundred years of rapid climate change, he thought glumly, but these damned blood suckers seemed to thrive. He swatted at them as they hummed in his ears, but the handcuffs made his attempts fruitless. Mosquitoes were another reason to avoid this planet. He didn't really think of Earth as his "homeworld," anyhow. Birthplace of humanity, sure, but also its deathplace, leaving humankind spread across the stars with no common world. Earth was barely habitable now in most places.

They followed a trail that skirted the worst of the wetness and greatly sped their progress. The trail was raised and oddly straight as if built upon some long-forgotten causeway. Soon the first signs of civilization appeared. But it wasn't recent civilization by any stretch.

At first it just seemed like random piles of ashy-gray rock covered in vegetation. But the piles grew larger. Followed lines. Had straight edges. And then, peeking through the foliage, Dirken spied a mound, half-buried in ages of soil, made with a base of these gray stones and rising about ten meters to where a much larger gray slab emerged from soil and ferns. Intricate carvings covered it, heavily-weathered. Dirken picked out a masculine face in profile with a feathered headdress. Sloped forehead. Long, rounded nose. Large disk earrings. Rounded yet blocky designs surrounded the sage visage. And then they marched on and the mound was lost in the undergrowth.

Dirken pointed at the mound and looked back at Juarez. "Is that…?"

"Sí," Juarez said. "Just wait, smuggler. You will see."

"Look, Governor, you have the Heart back. If that's all you wanted, why not just let us go?"

"You know too much, smuggler. Besides, we still have use for the two of you."

Dirken looked ahead to