Blood Impulse

Part 35.2 - THE ENEMY

Mississippi Sector, Battleship Singularity

Three deafening shots rang out.

The reek of gunpowder hit the air.

But Admiral Gives felt no impact. Instead, he found three bullets suspended in midair about a foot from his chest. Damn it.

Monty's eyes were wide. "...That's impossible." The inertial dampeners were offline. He'd checked. He was not a fool. A gun was only a viable weapon aboard ship if the inertial dampeners were not active. And beyond that, the dampeners should have stopped the bullets near the gun, not most of the way across the room. It was almost like the inertial dampeners had been activated specifically to 'catch' these bullets, though that should be impossible.

Admiral Gives felt the ghost's presence manifest in this room. He did not need to see the look of sheer discontent on her face. He just prepared himself for the inevitable scolding.

"You seriously didn't even try to dodge?" Was he trying to die?

"He had nine more bullets," assuming the clip had been full. The odds of dodging all of them had been effectively zero. Exhausted, the Admiral reached forward and plucked the bullets from the air. "You shouldn't have done that," he told the ghost.

"You think I am going to let him shoot you?"

Well, "It wouldn't be the first time," the Admiral muttered, placing the now-useless bullets atop his desk.

"Idiot," she cursed. "You were wearing a vest last time." Letting him get shot had been the plan.

"It still hurt."

Oh, you naddlethworfing... She never finished preparing that expletive as she registered Gaffigan raising the pistol again. "Put the damn gun down, Lieutenant," she snapped at him.

To Gaffigan's surprise, he found himself instinctively obeying, as if someone he respected had just harshly scolded him. It took his awareness a minute to comprehend the reality of the situation. It's here. They were no longer alone. The AI's avatar had finally shown itself.

Montgomery Gaffigan whirled on it, but every scathing word he had died on his tongue the moment he saw her face. He had expected a menacingly perfect pixie face similar to that of Manhattan. He had expected long lashes and beautiful eyes. He was not expecting to recognize the face of the Marine who had freed him on the Olympia. "You..."

"Recognize me, do you?" she said, throwing her hands onto her hips. "Yeah, that's twice I've saved your ass." Or at least two times he was conscious of. "You're welcome, by the way."

Monty didn't know how to react to that. He'd expected a lot of things: a nightmare, a monster, a death threat and hatred, but he had not expected sass. It was extremely off-putting.

"You get used to it," Admiral Gives sighed.

Monty looked over to the Admiral, unsure he'd heard that correctly,but the man only reached over and grabbed the mug off the desktop. Now, he stood calmly sipping from it as if nothing was amiss. That was disconcerting in itself, but Gaffigan found his attention drawn back to the avatar. "You freed me on the Olympia. How are you here?"

"I told you when I freed you. Charleston Reeter is not my commanding officer. In fact, the idiot you just tried to shoot is."

In the calming lamplight, Monty tried and failed to make sense of that. Humanity's AI were not obligated to serve humanity's needs. They possessed their own objectives. It made no sense for any of them to claim a commanding officer, which meant this could only be a manipulation. It was trying to gain his trust. "Why?" he asked. "Why did you free me on the Olympia?" What objective had that served?