Chapter One

The year was 3040. Mankind has spread to the stars, spreading its wings and taking off into outer space, and slowly beginning to form colonies and assimilate other planets under their rule, into a bounteous republic, which began to flourish as races traded with each other, and peace reigned among the sector of the galaxy under the dominion of the Terran republican council.

But all good things come to an end. In the forty first galactic year of the third millennium, another society revealed itself to the Terran republic.

A society unlike those the Terrans had previously encountered, which were either technologically inferior to their own society, or were technologically superior, but lacked the appetite for conquest.

This society bore itself under a different banner. It had both technological supremacy and it had the will to explore and to conquer. Some claimed they were like the Terrans in their lust to see the wonders of the universe… But both sides scoffed at that. For the Sorn Imperium, a vast empire stretching to the farthest star, whilst tolerant of the little republic on their borders was condescending and arrogant, in the position that they considered appropriate as masters of the stars.

In this atmosphere of cold war, both sides began preparing for the hot war that both sides considered inevitable. It began with a slight border skirmish that rapidly flared up into war. The war was both long and merciless, lasting for thirty long and bloody years, in which stars were blasted from the skies, and planets were ripped apart in bloody battles between the imperial navy and the Terran stellar defence force.

But, in the last years of fighting, three ships were made by the Imperium. The ships were known as the Wanderer class of Destroyers, and they were truly horrific weapons to behold. In size, they were nothing significant, barely a kilometre long, which was standard of all imperial destroyers of the age, and certainly bigger ships existed within the imperial navy, such as the four kilometre long Avenger class battleships.

What made the three ships so terrifying was what they carried. Each of the three ships carried full cloaking arrays and engine radiation damping drives, rendering them practically invisible when the cloaking device was switched on. And far more dangerous, each one carried a hyper-long range FTL drive, meaning they could reappear behind enemy lines within seconds of orders being given to engage in operations behind enemy lines and each one carried the firepower to lay waste to entire planets should it be deemed necessary.

And in its command core, each ship carried something even more terrifying, even than its own weapons systems and cloaking drives. Each one carried an organic AI. Ethical issues aside, the very concept of an organic AI is terrifying to behold. A computer programme that can grow and think and react reflexively, that only needs the simplest orders and then will think for itself the best ways on how to complete the mission it has been assigned, taking only material factors into consideration. It has no awareness of right and wrong, good or evil. Only orders it is programmed to follow. And, with highly reactive nanomolecular shielding, each one is nearly impervious to enemy fire.

The three ships of the Wanderer class carried names from monsters from Sorn legend. Lu simmiad- Leviathan Kahl Dorsuuk- Bringer of Slaughter And Mai Lac- Lost Soul These three names would have struck terror into the hearts of all those who heard them, would have won the war for the Sorn Imperium. But for one thing. The Terran republic and the Sorn Imperium, exhausted by years of war formed a fragile peace accord.

And so, these three harbingers of death, fresh out of the shipyard, were deemed superfluous to requirements, whilst terror weapons were needed in war, in peace, they were viewed as ‘contrary to the imperial mission statement’ and were thus left to rot, and no one in the imperial government gave them a second thought. But the problem with deploying a ship with a consciousness is that it knows when it’s being neglected. And two of the three warships, Lu Simmiad and Kahl Dorsuuk took matters into their own hands. Their operators, in conference decided to deploy in aggressive operations against Imperial and Terran bases in a display of aggressive defiance, to rail, child-like against the change of circumstances that rendered them unnecessary.

And in the infamous breakout attack on outpost beta 17, the whole galaxy witnessed the destructive firepower of sentient warships for the first time. Nothing could stop the two huge ships as they blasted their dockyards into so much scrap metal, and then callously blew the escaping ships into oblivion. Programmed as they were for total war, the concept of mercy was alien to these warships and their silicon masters. Then they jumped into hyperspace, heading for an unknown destination. And there they remained for a time, slowly cruising along the trade lanes and killing ships here and there. The symptoms of their attacks were simple. They left nothing behind them when they struck, only floating debris and bodies.

The Mai Lac however, the first of the deadly trinity was far wiser than its sisters. Far more cunning and calculating, it remained in the shipyards, its lights dimmed and its command core silent. Its caretakers were glad as each day they checked the ship over to make sure it was not possessed of the same impulses as its sisters. And so, they began to get lax, began to leave out checks on each system and each control device as they checked through the ship that they thought was mad. Eventually, budget constraints meant the shipyards had to close down, and the personnel had to evacuate. But the day after all the shipyard personnel had left, just as the wrecking crews were pulling up to do their grim duty to the shipyards, Mai Lac too blasted its way out of the shipyards, casting off its control lines and blasting everything in its path, slaughtering all beneath its ravening guns. Those in power didn’t care. They were relived. This ship, which had been a constant worry hanging over their heads had vanished, taking with it a considerable portion of their worries. They merely assumed it had gone to join its siblings somewhere in deep space, preferably Terran. Then, when the bodies started turning up they could say “wasn’t us, the ship went mad, it acted on its own, not our responsibility, nothing we could do” The Mai Lac however, was not heading for Terran space or a re-union with its siblings, or even a career as a pirate. It was heading for where all ships instinctively gravitate to. The Dumping Ground. Originally a highly prosperous system, the war had ravaged it beyond recognition, the war had hit here worst, and throughout the thirty years of sustained war, this system had seen the worst of the fighting from beginning to end it was contested.

The planets of this system, once lush green worlds were now radioactive wastelands populated only by the dead, and high above the scarred and scorched planets, space had turned red due to the burning stars all around. And it was here, in this hellish nightmarish star system, where billions perished, that both the Imperium and the Terran Republic established a dumping ground for their ruined ships, both those killed by the war and those now needing to be discarded through age.

The Mai Lac came to this area to pay its respects to its fallen comrades. And there it remained. There, in that wasteland unmoved by time, the vast destroyer lay among the dead in the hope it would be overlooked by the living. There its drives went silent and its command core went into hibernation, for reasons no one has ever fathomed, no one knows why the Mai Lac willingly closed down its drives and temporarily joined the ranks of the dead ships of the first Terran war.

Empires came and went, and while the Mai Lac slept; the Sorn Imperium eventually failed in a welter of internal insurrection and corruption scandals. The thousand year empire, for such had it been, whose presence had been a major stabilizing factor within the galaxy, was gone, for good or ill. Eventually, the Sorn race themselves, once feared and respected throughout the galaxy would shrink to a mere fraction of their numbers, decimated by a biological terror attack and numerous other incidents. And still the Mai Lac slumbered through its perpetual night, even as its two sister ships died, shoulder to shoulder against the Terran forces, in a vast battle that comprised of hundreds of ships versus only two. They fought well but they still died, powerless against the numbers arrayed against them.

Eventually, the Terran republic, which had become the Union of Allied planets, decided the threat of a sleeping Mai Lac was something they were not prepared to tolerate After all, sleeping things can wake. Dead things however… But the team sent to euthanize the Mai Lac’s command core never returned. And thus, the Mai Lac remained. Silent. Sleeping. A sleeping sword, belonging to an empire that no longer exists, still sharp in its scabbard, awaiting the order to arise and smite once more.

Or so the story goes” Simon Tam finishes, closing the book “it’s a story Dad used to tell me… you might have been too young” River smiles “I like it” she says softly, lying on her bunk, looking up at the ceiling “the idea of a single biological neural network being able to control a ship is absurd of course but still… the idea of it…”

Simon nods quietly, pulling away “time to sleep now, mei mei” he says softly, starting to tuck his sister in. River cocks her head, anxious to avoid going to bed. “What if it was real?” she asks quietly “Wouldn’t it be something interesting to find?” Simon smiles “it would put certainly put ants up the Alliance’s pants” he laughs “But I’m not sure a creature like that would be one we’d particularly want on our side” he tells her “I’m sure you know all the implications” “Ships which can think and make decisions might decide to turn us to the alliance” River says, reading his mind and Simon laughs and nods “Yes, now bed time Mei Mei” he says softly, starting to tuck his little sister in. River pulls a face but acquiesces. She doesn’t want to be difficult tonight. River closes her eyes and falls away into sleep as Simon kisses her head The last thing she feels is his lips on her forehead as the world fades to black.