The Circuit: The Complete Saga by Bruno Rhett C

Author:Bruno, Rhett C.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2021-06-07T16:00:00+00:00

14

Chapter Fourteen—Adim

The White Hand hurtled through space toward Ceres Prime. ADIM sat in the captain’s chair on the command deck in a fully aware state. Cassius himself was asleep while the ship’s computer, Gaia, had them on autopilot, but ADIM had to be ready just in case something happened.

The stars danced slowly by. No matter how many of the belt’s scattered asteroids passed in the distance, nothing bothered the White Hand. Even though they were traversing countless miles of Ceresian space, its stealth systems were far too advanced to be caught by anything but top-of-the-line scanners. According to Cassius, the Ceresians were far behind in that technology.

ADIM heard something moving behind him and snapped to full attention, his head whipping around one hundred and eighty degrees.

“Relax, it’s only me,” Cassius announced as he entered. He appeared to be well rested, which was not a state ADIM was accustomed to seeing him in. “We should be there shortly.”

“Twenty-four minutes precisely,” ADIM said.

“Good.” Cassius walked up to the captain’s chair. ADIM went to get up so that his creator could sit down. “I need the exercise,” Cassius said, stopping him. “Gaia, show us the last location of all Tribunal ships uploaded with the Vale Protocol.”

“Yes, Captain,” the White Hand’s virtual intelligence responded promptly. A minute went by without anything happening.

“Forgive me, ADIM,” Cassius groaned. “She’s not as fast as she used to be after all these years. I’ll have to clean out her memory banks sometime and see if I can improve performance.”

Finally, a hologram shot up from the command deck’s main holoprojector, displaying all the planets, moons, asteroids, and artificial stations comprising the Circuit. Tiny red dots popped up along it, each of them blinking. ADIM eyed it curiously.

“Creator, can’t your protocol be used to disable the entire Tribunal fleet?” he asked.

Cassius exhaled. “Unfortunately, no. When I designed this program, I served the Tribune loyally. The ability to disable ships on command can only be controlled from within the Enclave in New Terrene, and even then there are strict fail-safes. The Vale Protocol requires both an iris scan and a subdermal handprint from an active Tribune to be accessed. I was very thorough. It will, however, take them a little longer to figure out how to block our ability to at least see the location of all linked ships. This is a gift I think the Ceresians would greatly value.”

Cassius pointed to Jupiter on the map, which harbored the brightest cluster of red dots in its orbit. “They are amassing here,” he said. “Waiting patiently for the signal to wipe out the Ceresian culture for good this time. Tribune Noscondra’s cruiser remains stationed over Mars, and look, Tribune Yashan and his sizeable fleet are preparing to leave Earth to position themselves at the edge of the asteroid belt.”

“Leaving Earth and her moon undefended,” ADIM stated.

“Why waste ships on what they’ve already won?” Cassius replied. “After losing their taste for the old war, the Tribune resolved to slowly bleed the Ceresians out over time until they came crawling over to the side of the faithful.

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