Starborn Smith [Stargate, Battletech Multicross]

The video continued before I could get my mind wrapped around what I had just been told. "If you ever return to the Exodus Fleet or the Inner Sphere, those names might carry some weight. If you can use them for your own gain, then do so, but do not let them hold you down or define who you are. James doesn't know, so I leave it up to you whether to tell him or not."

The man on screen chuckled lightly. "Take care of yourself, son, and know that I will always love you."

The video ended there, and I was left in disbelief. "That can't be all…"

I spent almost 10 minutes trying to access the terminal to no avail. I bit my thumbnail; I could try resetting the main computer… no, that would erase everything. If I wasn't in zero-g, then I would have slumped into the chair. 

"God damnit!" I smashed the table; I nearly pushed myself off the ground but I managed to grab a railing just before I was too far off the floor. I was pissed. No matter what that man had said about 'not letting it define me,' that wasn't exactly up to me. Anyone from the inner sphere who knew would constantly compare me to my predecessors. 

Even worse, I couldn't just let this slide. While House Cameron hadn't been the ones responsible for the creation of the neo-feudal status of the Inner Sphere – no, that had been James McKenna – the people who were apparently my ancestors had been more than happy to take the reins of power for personal gain. Now, for some, god forsaken reason, I felt responsible for that. 

To make matters even WORSE, the Cameron name came with advantages. Using the name would give me resources; people, hell, entire worlds would be at my command. 

Suddenly, the terminal changed. The original request for a password was replaced with simple text requesting a confirmation of identity. "What the hell does that mean?"

A slot popped out of the side of the holotable, a green, thumb sized light sat on the top. I stared down at it for several moments. "Sure, why not." 

Upon placing my finger in the slot, it blinked red several times before returning to a standard green color.

Another face suddenly appeared on the holotable. This one was much less expressive. "Identity confirmed; Arthur Cameron. Greetings. You may refer to me as XI-02."

It hit me then; that was why the computer core had been so weird. The Hegemony must have a separate software platform for creating Artificial Intelligences, especially on the limited computational technology of the inner sphere. 

Being rather curious, I began with the basic questions. "What is your purpose?"

The AI immediately responded. "I am an experimental Hegemony AI meant for rapid information coalition and processing." 

"Who is your current commander?"

"Arthur Cameron."

I groaned. There was no way Elder James knew about this; he was going to be so pissed. "Right. Well, don't do anything. I'll be back in a few minutes… scratch that, it'll probably be a few hours."

I took the elevator back down to the cargo deck. From there, I floated down the length of the Cargo Access tunnels to get back onboard the Manassas. I went straight back to the secondary cargo hold which contained the set of Transportation Rings. I found it currently guarded by two of the villagers. 

"I need to get back to the village." 

He nodded and grabbed his radio. A moment later he nodded for me to get on the ring platform. I did so and he activated it. With a woosh, I found myself gently falling onto the ground. I steadied myself for a moment before looking at the nearest guard. 

"Where did the Elder go?"

He blinked, but pointed off towards the nearby confederate dropship. I rushed over and found him talking with Elder Annelise. He saw me coming.

"Arthur? You're supposed to be assisting Lieutenant Sarti."

I waved him off. "You need to see the recording, Elder…" Another idea came to me quickly, "Actually, can you perform an ancestry test?"

Elder James frowned. "We only have records for a few noble families…"

I simply nodded at him and he got the idea. Grabbing his radio, he spoke. "Dorian, come to the landing site. I need some assistance"

Barely 10 minutes later, they had drawn some of my blood and Elder Dorian was running the tests. The device beeped once. I turned to the Elder to see him freeze, confusion, disbelief, and something else all running over his face before it fell away to a calm indifference. 

He handed his compad over to Elder James who looked at it. He stared for almost ten seconds before he let out a deep, guttural sigh. 

"Your father sure kept his secrets close." 

He handed the compad back to Elder Dorian. "What else did your father's message say?"

"Just to use the name as I saw fit, not to let it define me, and that he was leaving me the Cobalt Eye."

He nodded. "I knew about that last one at least."

I chuckled nervously. "There is… also something about the ship."

Elder James squinted at me. "What?

"The Cobalt Eye was an experimental platform. You know how the Star League was stuffing automation into all of their tech… well, they shoved an AI into the Cobalt Eye to aid with data processing."

The Elder froze, his eyes narrowed. For several long, tense moments, he was silent. Finally, another sigh left him as he slumped over and started rubbing his temples. "You always cause me so many problems, Arthur."

After a moment, he turned to Elder Dorian and Elder Annelise. "Dorian, Annelise, you two are going to the negotiations in my name. I'm going to be gone for a few hours."

They both nodded, and I followed Elder James to the Transportation Rings and back up to the Manassas. We found Elder Callum and Lieutenant Sarti both in the Drive Control room. "Callum, I need your help, and possibly your advice." 

Callum simply shrugged and nodded, while the Lieutenant nodded for them both to leave her to her work. We once more made our way down to the cargo access bay that was used for docking with the Cobalt Eye and entered. From there, we rode the elevator to the Bridge. 

Once more, the holotable lit up. "Greetings." 

Elder James looked at the face. "Who is your current commander?"

The impassive face replied instantly. "Arthur Cameron."

Elder James continued, "Have you ever been under the command of anyone who fought against the people of the Star League or its interests?"

The AI responded. "My only commanding officers have been Arthur Cameron and Alistair Sinclair née Cameron."

Elder James frowned. "What was your year of commissioning?"

"This vessel was commissioned on the 3rd of June, 2756; Maiden Voyage was on the 18th of November, 2766."

The Elder continued to frown. "Why did construction take so long?"

"My designers struggled to fit a sufficiently powerful computational device into the hull. A total of seven years were required to design and build the experimental computer core that I run on."

Elder James continued asking the ship's AI questions for almost twenty minutes. By the end he seemed much more at ease, though I couldn't really understand why. 

Moving away from the questions about the ship's construction, the Elder started asking about more recent information. "What was your last assigned task?"

The AI responded in the same neutral tone that it had been using for the last 30 minutes, "I was tasked with watching nearby star systems for signs of any human civilization. Before that, I was assigned to find Terra using previously mapped stellar data."

Elder James actually scoffed at that one. "That prick. He said that he was the one who found Terra."

The AI – though its voice remained neutral – sounded almost annoyed. "That would be incorrect. I was the one responsible for finding Terra's location."

I stared back and forth between the two. "Wait, we know where Terra is?"

Elder James snorted. "Of course we do." 

The AI continued for him. "I have used 13 different stellar navigational techniques to confirm the current location of Terra."

I continued, "So why didn't you return to the Inner Sphere?"

Elder James let out another deep sigh – fair I suppose; it was a rather long day for him. "The Inner Sphere is over 30,000 light years from our current location. It would take us 22 years to make it back, and that's assuming that the Manassas' drive was fully operational and in perfect working order."

I raised an eyebrow. "Okay, but that's with Inner Sphere tech. What about a Goa'uld ship – one of the Tel'taks. Those things can travel at 32,000 times the speed of light. It'd be back in less than a year if it travelled non stop. Or maybe one of the Colonial Jump Drives. We saw that the Dendredians have some Colonial ships. Those things have a recharge time of like… 30 minutes."

Another thought hit me, "Or what about we just use the Stargate. Terra should have two Stargates, and I can practically guarantee that some of the nearby worlds will have Gates as well."

Elder James nodded. "We'll have to try, but not now. I'm not sure a lot of the villagers will want to return to the Inner Sphere."

A thought hit me. I turned to the impassive face floating above the Holotank; "Approximately what year is it in the Inner Sphere."

The reply came immediately. "Accounting for distance to the target and speed, it should be sometime in the middle 30th century."

Elder James nodded. I looked at him strangely. "Why didn't you tell me what year it was?"

He shrugged. "You never asked. We don't even know the specific year; we just had an estimate, a rather unreliable estimate at that."

I let out a sigh but nodded. "What do we do now," I asked the Elder. 

He turned to Elder Callum who was watching in silence. "Callum, do you know anything about AI systems?"

Elder Callum rubbed his chin. "Just some first hand experience with combat drills against Casper's before the war. I'm pretty sure that anyone with any technical expertise relating to AI are dead."

The AI confirmed Elder Callum's words. "That is correct. All of my creators have been confirmed dead. Any who survived have likely died of old age."

"What about the Cobalt Eye's former crew? The message said they were onboard the Manassas when the missjump happened."

Elder James shook his head. "I need to get the technical crew back first. It'll be weeks before I have enough Engineers revived to even consider reviving non-essential crew members."

Several moments passed and Elder James let out a deep sigh. He turned to me, his voice more grave than I had ever heard it. "Arthur, you are this ship's commanding officer. The AI is your responsibility. Am I understood?"

I nodded. "Yes, Elder."

He nodded back. "Good. Let's go."

The Elder left me in the Drive Control room with Elder Callum and Lieutenant Sarti. The KF Drive was an absolutely monstrous device. It had a massive quantity of things that had to be checked and confirmed before we even got around to power it up. With just three people, just trying to figure out all the changes that had been made would likely take weeks if not months. Luckily it would only be a few more hours before another Engineer would be back amongst the living and able to help us with our work. 

By the end of the day, everyone was exhausted. We use the Transportation Rings to get down to the planet's surface. They were effectively instantaneous and the Leopard had already returned to the Planet's surface since it was being used as the Elders' main base. 

The entire day felt like one massive roller coaster ride. I didn't even know where to start. Luckily, I didn't have to; the moment I was in my bed, I was fast asleep.