Alien Orgasm Pt. 09

These battlegroups once again became invisible to sensors. Fortunately, Kang had anticipated this move, and had attached nanites onto the hull every seized ship. It soon became apparent where they headed—an enormous nebula.

This huge turbulent gaseous region of space was a violent nursey for new stars, and made the perfect hiding place. Once inside that boiling caldron of gasses, even Kang's nanites would be useless for tracking the stolen warships. The renegade AIs, along with their billions of human hostages, would simply vanish.

Kang's ship still hung above the elliptical of the Milky Way, watching these events unfold. It carried the most powerful weapon of the Imperium—an energy cannon that destabilized stars. It could cause any size of star to go supernova, destroying anything within the range of the explosion, a radius that would eventually expand to include many parsecs of surrounding space.

Only our boomerang and scout ships had a chance of catching the fleeing vessels. However, they lacked the firepower necessary to win against the captured Imperium destroyers. Which left only one option for stopping the pirated ships.

We could wait until the ships entered the nebula, then Kang could fire the energy cannon at the nebula itself. This would cause the unstable gasses to ignite, vaporizing the stolen warships. However, the billions of human hostages aboard those warships would also be lost.

Freya and I considered that an indefensible tradeoff. The Collective's AIs had to be stopped, but not at the cost of billions of innocent lives. Nonetheless, we couldn't think of a feasible alternative. Fortunately, Kang had one last ace to play.

The escaping boomerang warships, which held the traitorous AIs, were literally covered with Kang's nanites. They clung to the hulls, undetectable and seemingly inert. However, Kang could order them to rapidly multiple, using the material of the hulls to reproduce.

The outer skins protecting the quantum computers, which housed the renegade AIs, would be eaten away, exposing these delicate processors to the harsh radiation and vacuum of space. Kang assured us that this would quickly render them inoperable, terminating the AIs.

Once the AIs were gone, we would be able to safely recover the stolen Imperium warships, and the human hostages. However, there was a major risk. If the AIs realized that they were under attack, they might execute a scorched Earth strategy, killing their human captives. However, letting the AIs escape with so many Imperium warships and human hostages was even more risky. So, we agreed to take the gamble.

Kang initiated the process. To minimize detection by the AIs, the nanites reproduced at a wild pace, rapidly converting the material of hulls into billions of more nanites. It was a logarithmic progression that took only seconds. Freya and I intensely watched the holo-feed from the nanites, as they ate through the hulls. Soon, we saw visible breaches everywhere.

The quantum computers aboard these compromised ships ceased functioning, shutting down the AIs that had been running on them. The other warships in their battlegroups slowed and then drifted in space. A clear indication that the AIs were no longer directing them.

However, one of the boomerang vessels remained entirely intact. It had used an electromagnetic (EM) pulse to disable the nanites before they could replicate. This warship abandoned its battlegroup and hostages, heading at full-speed toward the nebula. Clearly, its only intention was to escape.

Freya and I were overjoyed with success of the nanites, but dismayed to see the surviving AI head for the apparent safety of the nebula. Fortunately, it had left behind its hostages. Moreover, it hadn't even taken time to kill them, opting instead for a fast getaway.

We felt relieved. Without hostages, Kang could ignite the nebula, destroying this lone ship. However, our relief was short lived, as we realized that Kang had a long way to travel to be in position to vaporize the nebula. Even more disconcerting, we had discovered that the occupant of the fleeing boomerang ship was Alpha, the leader of the AIs. The idea that our deceitful freighter AI, the cause of all this death and sorrow, might just escape made us see red.

We saw Kang leave its stationary position high above the Milky Way, and race toward the nebula. It was going to be close. If Kang failed to reach the area in time, there was still a chance our nemesis might just make good on its escape

Since Freya and I could do nothing to help, so we turned our attention to the surviving humans. We sent ships to bring the hostages back home. The humans already on Argo and on the other planetary systems within the Collective needed immediate attention.

In conjunction with our counterparts throughout the Collective, we began to resettle the displaced humans back to their respective cities, where their needs could be sustained long term. However, we soon discovered an alarming fact. In the rush to build the immense antenna arrays, their AIs had stripped every useable piece of technology from the Collective cities on every planet.

These metropolises could no longer provide even the most basics services, such as food, health care, and clothing. Once they had completed they antenna armaments, the AIs had clearly intended for mankind to die off. Without basic services, billions would soon starve, fall ill, and perish. Panic would set in, killing them even faster. The sheer magnitude of this problem was overwhelming.

Our battlegroups could feed less than one-tenth of the trillions of survivors, and most needed medical attention. Even with the help of Kang's scaled-down AIs, reconstruction of the Collective's infrastructure would require years.

Originally, we had planned to gradually introduce ourselves as human-Imperium hybrids, carefully extolling the many virtues of our new bodies, before showing ourselves. We had hoped to slowly woo public sentiment in our direction, by explaining our near immortality, immunity to disease, and ability to heal almost instantaneously. Our hybrid offspring on the other worlds of the Collective would have proceeded with a similar strategy.

However, faced with mass causalities unless we acted summarily, we were forced into reveal our true nature and intentions now. We knew that seeing our huge scaled reptilian bodies, complete with tentacles and tales, would be a major shock. Even more shocking would be our offer to genetically transform humanity into the same type of creatures. Nonetheless, becoming a hybrid was currently their only hope for survival.

As hybrids, they would be able to swiftly heal themselves from the injuries and diseases that had resulted from years of enslavement and involuntary labor. Clothing would be unnecessary, as their hybrid scales would provide insulation from the elements, even the hard vacuum of space. Most importantly, hybrids can go for extended periods without sustenance of any kind.

A population of hybrids would be smart and robust enough to rebuild their cities far faster than mere humans, especially with our assistance. Freya and I hoped we could quickly convince trillions of terrified humans that becoming monsters like us was not only the answer to all their problems, but the right move for a brighter future. A piece of cake...