A King's Ship (Empire Rising Book 2) (41 page)

*

An hour later James walked into the recovery ward of the Royal Marsden Rehabilitation Hospital in West Sussex. Lieutenant Scott had been transferred there as soon as
Endeavour
had reached Earth. James wanted to make sure she was being looked after properly before he left for Chester. Jil’lal had made him promise that he would personally make sure she received the best treatment. A quick COM message to Andrea had ensured that the best rehabilitation center in Britain had taken Scott immediately.

“How is she doing doctor?” James asked the woman in charge of Scott’s care.

“Remarkably well,” the doctor said. “We have taken her out of the induced coma and are beginning the first stages of helping her cope with what she went through. Her new legs and fingers should be grown and ready for transplant in about a week.”

“I thought
Endeavour’s
doctor said she needed to stay in the coma until her new legs were attached?” James queried.

“No, not exactly.” The doctor began. “Recent studies have found that if the patient is made aware of the loss before the operation then they appreciate the new limbs more. If they just wake up with a new leg or arm they instinctively know something is wrong and yet they can’t figure it out, for on the outside it looks like everything is exactly the same. Helping them realize the loss they have gone through helps them cope with the new arms or legs. The real problem comes if they have gotten used to not having a limb. Then attaching a new one can be much harder to adjust to.”

“I see,” James said. “Can I talk to her?”

“Certainly, actually she has been asking for you,” the doctor said as she turned and lead James into Scott’s room.

“Hello Captain,” Scott said with a smile from her bed as soon as he walked in. For anyone who had known her before it was obvious that she had lost much of her beauty. The Marsden might be able to get rid of a lot of the scar tissue but she would never be the same. Her smile however, was exactly as James remembered it.

“Hello Lieutenant,” James said, taking her hand. “It’s good to see you finally awake, we’ve missed you.”

“It seems I’ve missed a lot,” Scott said. “Though no one around here knows exactly what happened after the explosion, I was hoping you could you fill me in?”

“Well, of course,” James said before he dived in to telling Scott about capturing the Overlord and stopping his fleet.

“It seems you are all heroes,” Scott said.

“Not any more than you are,” James replied. “You saved Jil’lal, she was at your side daily until we dropped her off on Vestar.”

“I’m glad she is ok, and that reminds me,” Scott said. “That’s why I wanted to speak to you. The explosion. It wasn’t a booby trap or anything like that. It was an alien ship like we thought.”

“A Kulrean ship?” James asked, curious.

“I don’t think so,” Scott said. “It was armed to the teeth and it spoke to me.”

“Spoke to you,” James said in surprise.

“Yes, it seemed to have some sort of artificial intelligence that communicated with us. It was even able to identify us as humans,” Scott said.

“Identify you?” James repeated. “Then if it wasn’t Kulrean or Vestarian you mean there is another alien race out there. One that knows we exist.”

“Yes, I believe so. And if the Vestarians obtained their advanced technology from them then they must be far more powerful than we are,” Scott concluded.

“What did the RSN intelligence agents make of all this?” James asked.

Scott hung her head, “I didn’t pass my psych evaluation. They say I have post-traumatic stress and survivor’s guilt. I’m not sure they believed me about talking alien ships.”

James wasn’t surprised. Humans had abandoned the development of artificial intelligence more than two hundred years ago. The research had got to the point where the AI’s were basically self-aware. However, try as many times as they could, the researchers could never instill a sense of morality into the machines. The results had been truly terrifying. The AI’s had come to see humans as the cause of all humanity’s problems. Their logical solution had been the enslavement of humans to the direction of AI’s. If they had been allowed out of the laboratories they would have tried to take control, all for the good of mankind. As a result, AI research had been banned.

The common consensus had been that any alien race they would encounter would have come to the same conclusions. AI’s were just too powerful to actually allow them to exist. James hadn’t spoken to Pemel about any Kulrean AI’s but he made a note to bring it up when he got to Earth.

“I believe you,” James said as he turned his attention back to Scott. “This is something we will have to take very seriously. But for now you need to get better. If you make a full recovery then the rest of the navy is much more likely to take you seriously.”

“I know,” Scott said, squeezing his hand. “I’m going to do my best. It helps that you believe me.”

29
th
December, 2466AD, New Delhi

“Our request for a trial was denied then?” Prime Minister Slaman Devgan asked.

Yes, but it served its purpose,” Sha Roshan the Minister for External Affairs said. “The British think we have put the matter to rest.”

“So they suspect nothing?” Devgan followed up.

“I wouldn’t say they suspect nothing,” Roshan answered. “They will know that we must be considering our options towards Haven. Yet I believe they will think we are taking our time, weighing our options.”

“Then we must press ahead with our plans,” Devgan said confidently. “Admiral Kapoor, how are your preparations coming together?”

“A messenger freighter has just returned from our colonies,” Admiral Kapoor began. “Our fleet is prepared and ready to move. They are just waiting for a large enough ground force to be gathered. The latest report estimates that we will have gathered fifty thousand troops by the end of next month. By then, the fleet will be ready to move.

“I have placed Admiral Kumar in charge of the main attack force. Admiral Khan will remain behind with one battlecruiser to block any British attempt to send ships to Haven. Once we secure the colony Admiral Kumar can release more ships to Khan to beef up our defenses. The only way the British can get to Haven is through our colonial space. If we move fast, the British won’t be able to stop us. The majority of their large warships are still undergoing refits after their war with the Chinese.”

“It is settled then,” the Prime Minister said, “send your messenger freighter back to the colonies today with the go order. As soon as enough ground forces have been gathered Admiral Kumar is to make her move.”

The End

You can follow James, Gupta and all the others in the next book in the Empire Rising series – Return to Haven, coming soon!

If you enjoyed the book don’t forget to leave a review with some stars. As this is my first self-published series every review helps to get my work noticed.

Sign up here to the mailing list for updates on future books

https://www.facebook.com/Author.D.J.Holmes

[email protected]

Comments welcome!