Anarchate Vigilante (Vigilante Series 4) (18 page)

Mata Hari  looked upward, then back to her. “We are boosting for orbit and our ship. No one is chasing us. Yet. And my ‘real’ appearance is the result of seven years working with Matt as
a partner in his Vigilante-for-Hire career. Within our ship, my holo will be much more solid, thanks to miniature tractor beads.”

Kristen sensed the patience of the AI woman. Who had known Matt for half the years she had known him, until the day of the raid by genome harvesters on their farm. There was much this AI woman knew about Matt. But what did she need to know?

“Mata Hari, thank you for being here to reassure me. And thank you for answering my questions. Guess the most important question I need to ask is—in your opinion, what should I know about my Matthew?”

Mata Hari’s black eyes
looked intently at Kristen. “Many things, after fifteen years of absence. Being a mother, you should know that your Matthew has a lifemate. Her name is Eliana Antigone Themistocles. She is a Human-Direndl hybrid. She looks just like you, except she has a prehensile tail. Oh, she loves your son very much, and Eliana hopes to have children with your Matt, someday.”

Kristen blinked her eyes. She did not fight the emotions she was feeling. For once, in fifteen years, it was safe to
feel
her feelings. For now, she did not have to worry about being sold to some Alien. Or beaten. Or treated like a human dustmop.

“Thank you. Thank you more than you can know.” She
swallowed hard. “How soon will I see Matt?”

Mata Hari looked upward again. “In two minutes. Until then, drink water from the bottle in your shoulder bag. And keep feeling happy. Matthew thought you and Charlotte were dead. Then recently we attacked a cloneslaver base, captured some memory Cores and discovered you two had survived the trip to the Flesh Markets of Alkalurops. From my mindtouch with his mind, he is beyond eager to see you. Alive. And smiling.”

Kristen sniffled, then smiled. It had been a long time since she had last smiled. “I’m eager too. Thank you for rescuing me.”

“You are welcome, mother of Matthew.”

“Call me Kristen. That is what my children and . . . my farm neighbors used to call me.”

“Thank you, Kristen.”
Mata Hari the holo AI who was dressed like someone from two centuries ago, smiled slowly. “I know about smiles. Matthew has taught me their meaning. More importantly, he has shown me how to feel . . . emotions. I and my own lifepartner, the AI Gatekeeper, are the first of a new breed of AIs. You see, not only do we mindshare with our human partners via tachlink implants, but we share our . . . feelings with our humans. To the benefit of us both.”

“I’m glad for you Mata Hari,” she said, wondering just what feelings an emotional AI might have. Well, there was time to learn that later on.

Kristen closed her eyes and took a moment of rest. Her son was safe. She was safe. Her daughter would soon be safe. And the tyranny of cloneslavery that had killed her husband Benoit and three of their daughters, that tyranny was on track to being defeated. She knew cloneslavery would die, with Matt fighting it.

Even as a young man, Matt had never given up. And now that he had a fleet of starships, the rest of the galaxy would
soon know just how determined her Matthew could be when he set his mind to doing what he knew to be just and right.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Matt stood dressed in his Japanese
yukata
robe as his Mom walked through the red-bordered pressure lock from the Spine hallway. She was accompanied by the Spy holo of Mata Hari. His Mom looked . . . tired, weathered, with grey strands in her shoulder length red hair, but her high-cheeked face was filled with a giant smile.

“Matthew!” she cried, rushing toward him with arms outstretched.

“Mom!”

Her
body impacted against his chest. Wrapping his arms around her, he kissed her hair, then whispered in her ear. “I thought I would never see you again. Thought you were dead!”

His Mom leaned back a little to look up at his face, her hazel eyes fixing on his.
Tears that gleamed like diamonds filled her gaze. “Me too! I thought I would be a labor slave forever. Even though I planned for this escape, bought tech stuff, had my shoulder bag ready to go, still . . . oh Matthew!” She buried her face against his chest.

Matt
looked beyond her to where Mata Hari stood in the back of the Bridge, just in front of his other ally Suit. He gave the solemn-faced AI a happy smile. “Thank you! Thank you Mata Hari for rescuing my Mom and giving me this gift of joy.”

Mata
Hari walked toward him, her narrow face moving into a shy smile. “I’m glad, Matthew. And I
feel
. . . what I sense from your mind. This joy. These emotions of you and your fellow humans are a sensation . . . a sensation I never thought to experience. Seven years ago, when I rescued your Suspense pod, I just needed an organic ally for Vigilante work. Now, well, I am learning the meaning of words like friendship, family, love and joy. And the meaning of having children. My thanks to you!”

His
Mom looked up abruptly as she felt Mata Hari’s holo hand touch her shoulder. She wiped her eyes with one hand, held him with the other and glanced from him to Mata Hari, her look bemused. “So you
do
feel real when inside this ship, young Mata Hari. Your touch, I am feeling it!”

Mata Hari smiled at his Mom, then handed her the shoulder bag she’d dropped upon entering the Bridge. “Yes, and I
feel
you. Kristen. Mother of my mindpartner Matthew. I
feel
that you will enjoy our Park habitat, later on.” Mata Hari gestured to the accel-couch usually occupied by Eliana. “But for now, we will shortly enter battle against Anarchate forces. Already the battleglobe on this side of Working is moving inward from its Lagrange parking orbit. Probably due to a call from your former owner who, my Spy Eyes report, has discovered the exit hole we put in the wall of Melikark Conglomerate. This Masterful being has stopped accusing the Melikark skyrise people of intentionally hiding you. It now believes a third party helped you escape. Which we did.”

Matt looked down at his Mom. “She’s right. I’ve got a fight to fight, a fleet to guide and seven other pilots to
lead into combat. But later, while in Translation, I will take you to our Park and show you images of Charlotte. She is a beautiful young woman. She has your Apache cheekbones and our Polynesian red skin!”

His mother left his embrace slowly, lingering, as if the touch of him after fifteen years might prove an illusion.
Then a stern look filled her face, showing a determination he knew well. “Go, my Matthew. Go. Do your piloting and fighting and whatever else you need to do to lead your friends. This crusade of yours will not fail. Even when you were just sixteen, you always got done whatever you set out to do. I’m just thankful to be alive and be here as you teach the Anarchate a lesson about kidnapping real people to serve as slaves!”

Matt nodded to her. “Thanks Mom. Uh, part of what is different about me
involves being a pilot with Mata Hari the AI, and with this starship. I accepted cyborg modifications which are mostly internal. To fight at computer speeds, I need to
think
at computer speeds. Which is why you will see a fiber optic cable plug into the back of my neck. And why I need to be naked to accept optical neurolinking laser beams. You will see much on the forward holosphere, but do not talk to me. Please. I cannot think mentally at your speed of thought when I am in
ocean-time
neurolink.” Offering her a son-to-Mom smile, he dropped the
yukata
robe, turned and stepped down into the Interlock Pit. The lightspeed cable socketed into his neck.

Ocean-time
filled Matt’s mind as femtoseconds fled past faster than he could touch them, while picoseconds moved along hurriedly, nanoseconds sped by and milliseconds walked along slowly. In his mind he felt the mindtouch of Mata Hari, BattleMind and the other pilots and AIs of Hexagon Prime fleet. His pale-skinned lifemate Eliana looked at him.

“Matthew, I’m soooo happy for you!”

“Thank you my love,” he said, splitting his mind into dozens of segments so he could give a smile and wave to each of his fleet pilots. The segments allowed him to link into each ship’s AI, accept the dozens of tachlink reports from the tachRemotes he had seeded outward upon arrival, accept inward the multi-spectral datafeeds in frequencies ranging from x-ray to far infrared, and build a mental map of every moving neutrino source in nearby space. Blinking mentally, he expanded his attention to monitor the unencrypted radio and tachlink broadcasts from planet Working and from the incoming fleet, feel the plasma stability within each fusion power plant of his starship, track the readiness of the T’Chak superweapons Sun Glow, Graviton Beamer, Axial Plasma Funnel, and to sense the six nodes that even now projected flat Alcubierre space-time shields to protect him and the ship from all matter and energy weapons.

Four hundred thirty-four milliseconds,
98 nanoseconds, 23 picoseconds and 712 femtoseconds,
said his onboard cyberclock.

Matt focused on his fleet pilots.
“My partners, leave me to take out the four battleglobes on either side of this planet. Then I will join you at Antares B. And Rafael, on the way to Antares B, drop back into local space near Working and toss out our own ‘surprise’. Will be interesting to see how the new fleet captain reacts to threats in two places at the same time.”

Rafael, father of four young kids whom Matt had grown to enjoy being a ‘robot uncle’ to when dressed in his Suit,
gave him a half smile, then nodded, his expression intent. “Will do, Matthew. Though I cannot but worry whether this new Anarchate captain will have some surprises of its own for us.”

“
He does,” Suzanne said from their mind communion circle. “I precog sense he will hit us with some kind of surprise during our future battle at Antares B. The star will stay intact though. Making it go nova would kill everyone on Working. And he is a Dolmat used to being part of a herd.”

Matt focused most of his attention on the two Nova-class battleglobes that held station
at the L2 spot on the night side of Working, just above him. The other two battleglobes at L1 on the daylight side of the planet were still in place. One battleglobe on their darkside already moved downward.

“Mata Hari, send three thermonuke-armed KKVs around the planet to attack the battleglobes on
the daylight side. Should irritate them enough that they come to our side of the world.” In one segment of his mind he monitored Mata Hari’s order to the simple Core minds on the KKVs. The order activated the three megaton thermonuke warhead, telling it to explode either upon contact or arrival within a kilometer of the target. “Move our tachRemotes further outward toward the fleet’s incoming vector. And when any battleglobe arrives within 100,000 kilometers of us, fire one or more antimatter cannons at the globe. I wish to make our combat presence here brief. Just long enough to take out all or most of the battleglobes on local security watch.”

“Complying, Matthew,” she said in his mind as her holo stood to his left, clearly visible to his Mom who lay under inertial field protection.

“Mom,” he quick thought, “to my right will appear a giant twelve foot dragon with black wings, sharp teeth and a spike-tail that is a thing of beauty. He is BattleMind, the original AI of this ship. Don’t worry about him. He is my other battle partner.”

Mata Hari slid her mind in between his mind and the billowing hurricane that was the thought gale of BattleMind as the T’Chak AI took form to Matt’s right.

“So we begin tasting our enemies, small fighter?” it growled loudly.

“Yes,” Matt said, laying out his plan of action for the next few seconds for Mata Hari and BattleMind to sense and understand.
“And BattleMind, would you vaporize that Halicene skyrise for me? There are too many Micans in the universe!”

Six hundred milliseconds, 134 nanoseconds, 97 picoseconds and 63
femtoseconds,
said his cyberclock.

“Yes!” the purple dragon roared.

“Attack now!” he yelled as directed energy weapons domes popped up on his dragon spine, the ship’s dragon mouth opened to emit a purple plasma cloud and the long tail of the dragon ship spat deut-li fusion flames as it maneuvered to aim its cannon wings toward the two nightside battleglobes.

“Attacking!” cried Mata Hari, her persona now the Lady of the Sword as she pointed a
red-glowing sword at the nearby Commerce Station.