His relationships were going strong, he spent time with all of them, plus Dahlia, for the mornings and meals. Alyndra had him alone in the afternoons, Nadia in the evenings, then all three of them back with him in bed, and then his personal time with Chrystal on line. He paid his mates the attention, and gave them the love that they deserved. It almost seemed like another full-time job, if a rather pleasant one.

  Not that he was complaining, but how they hell did his father handle ten? Obviously, his father couldn’t give time to each of his mates every day, like he did, and did it by days. Still, for three mates, time every day seemed to work for him though.

  He wasn’t complaining, he was very happy, and he’d have even more time once this was over and he could explore their own galaxy, nearby Earth first. The Milky Way was chartered already of course, every star accounted for, but there were half a trillion stars, and millions of them were G-type, that was a lot of unexplored places and who knew what they would find.

  It wasn’t a job exactly, it was just what he wanted to do. He realized that unlike many he didn’t put his self-worth with a job. He just wanted to explore, create, and learn. No, the way he measured his self-worth was keeping his mates happy, and how he acted towards others, and what he could create. That was the bar by which he judged himself. He also knew it would take a long time before the societies on Earth and even Mars were ready for such a thing, and energy to matter conversion could be more commonly used.

  He hoped he’d be around to see it.

  The campaign was going well, and it wasn’t until there were only four planets left, that the Kascorix finally pulled something out of their hats, and it was ugly…

  They dropped out of subspace three light minutes from the Kascorix world.

  The data slowly came in, there were six hundred and fourteen ships, three hundred and forty of them in the space he was responsible for.

  Chrystal frowned, “They’re doing something new, spreading out to surround us before we reach weapons range, I’m also not seeing any subspace energy in their shields at all.”

  He frowned, “That last part worries me more than the first part, but let’s not allow them to surround us. That just sounds bad. Plot us an intercept course with their outside ship in the crescent.”

  The problem was that it really didn’t sound bad at all, the act of surrounding them meant they wouldn’t be as effective in getting through their shields. But that, plus their shields made him nervous. He couldn’t discern a reason for such an ineffective strategy, and feared that he had to be missing something.

  He turned to Dahlia, “Any ideas what they’re up to?”

  Dahlia shook her head as she stared at the holographic table.

  “None.”

  Chrystal said, “Sixty seconds until we’re in range.”

  He shook his head and pushed away the nerves, they couldn’t deal with it until the discovered what it was about.

  The holo-table space plot exploded with new information and he narrowed his eyes.

  Chrystal said, “The rest of the Kascorix ships skipped behind us… to cut off a retreat? They’ve also launched thousands of shuttles. None of them are within the space allocated to the Canosians.”

  What they’d just done was incredibly dangerous, skipping a short distance in subspace inside a system was a good way to get dead.

  “What the fuck are they doing? I mean outside of the obvious.”

  The plot looked like two bowls trying to come together in a sphere formation around all of his ships, not only were they facing over six hundred Kascorix ships, but thousands of shuttles as well. The second group of ships had also dropped all subspace energy from their shields. They were still outside firing range, but it seemed stupid.

  “What’s with the damn shields being out on their ships?”

  None of the four ladies answered him.

  They were headed toward the edge of where the bowls were coming together, but he didn’t think they would make it out before they were encircled, the time lag on the data had tipped them off too late.

  “Fire as soon as they’re in range.”

  Two hundred and fifty-five two second beams reached out to tear through the enemy ships and cut them in half.

  Three Kascorix ships exploded into gases, the rest simply absorbed the shots.

  None of the Kascorix vessels returned fire, and the bowl was quickly moving in on his fleet, at this range he only had seconds before they arrived, and he couldn’t run. Any direction he retreated in would just close the distance faster on the opposite side. He realized their intentions were to ram him.

  “Jump us out of the solar system, now.”

  His stomach twisted at the thought of running, but he wasn’t suicidal like the Kascorix. He breathed out a sigh of relief when they came out a light hour from the solar system, the minimum safe distance for a jump through subspace.

  Nadia asked, “What just happened?”

  He shook his head, and examined the readings on the ships he’d fired at. A few moments later he had some answers.

  “They overloaded their subspace shield emitters. Enough to take our shots and dissipate them. But the results of doing that lead to serious field instabilities, that’s why three exploded, they spread our energy out, and a field fluctuation caused the energy to hit their whole ship at once, making it worse.

  “It also explains why they didn’t shoot back, or have any subspace energy in their shields. With that overloaded field setting it would be like playing Russian roulette each time their shield channels and dissipates energy.”

  Alyndra said, “If they couldn’t fire, they must have been planning to ram us and overload their power cores. That would have been quite effective.”

  It would be, of course it would only work if they could close the distance, that’s why they’d surrounded his ships, so he couldn’t retreat and fire.

  He nodded, “It looks like we’ll have to do it the hard way. Chrystal take us back in at ten light minutes, and head back in.”

  Dahlia asked, “What’s the plan?”

  He replied, “We’ll use gravity weapons to take out shield emitters, and then beams. The trick is not letting them surround us again. Based on their psychology even if it’s suicidal they’ll chase us forever as we tear them apart. So move into weapons range, then reverse course and stay ahead of them, and carve them up.”

  Nadia asked, “Why ten light minutes?”

  He shrugged, “Just in case the Canosians threw out the plan when we bugged out, I want a good look at things before we close.”

  Chrystal said, “Skipping now.”

  They were in subspace for less than a second, and it took a moment for the passive scanners to kick in.

  He laughed.

  “It’s not every day you see yourself.”

  They’d only retreated a few minutes ago, so their passive scans showed their own ship and the Kascorix trap closing in around them. He shook his head in amusement.

  “Take us in at point three five, launch five shuttles and send them in at point four so we get an idea of what we’re rushing into this time.”

  Then they waited for the light to catch up, and for them to close the distance. Perhaps he had come back too far out, but he felt cautious. He’d only been seconds away from losing his fleet and all the lives in his care. Including Alyndra and Dahlia. The only survivors would have been him, Chrystal, and Nadia, and who knew how the latter would take to being digitized.

  The closer they got the clearer the picture became. The Canosians were still on their side of the five light second border of responsibility, and all six hundred and eleven ships were still on his side. Not to mention thousands of shuttles. The enemy turned as one and rushed at them.

  The battle went mostly to plan, when the two sides reached energy range he started a retreat. Then it was like shooting fish in a barrel, since they couldn’t fire back. It twisted his stomach, and was completely insane.

  The enemy shuttles were small, and were simply ripped apart by gravity emitters, the larger ships took longer, as their emitters reached out and tore large holes in their defenses, and then sent a wide subspace energy pulse at the ship which annihilated matter and created large holes through the enemy ships. About one in twenty simply exploded, when their own shields betrayed them.

  It was a slaughter, not a battle, and it turned his stomach. Afterwards, they moved to the planet and created a factory as they usually did, a short time later they were hailed by the Canosians.

  Shirilla said, “If you agree, we can take the next planet now. My people were not involved in the fight, there is no need for rest and repair if you don’t require it.”

  He was glad he was an A.I., because the thought of even more death today turned his stomach. He likely would’ve thrown up at the thought if he were human. He also knew she had a point.

  “Very well, signal us when you’re ready.”

  Shirilla cut the signal, their race wasn’t big on goodbyes.

  The next battle was back to business as usual. Either the leaders on that last world acted independently, or they’d rejected the new approach because of its failure. Regardless, when they broke for lunch they only had two worlds to go, and this nightmare would be over for him.

  He knew all the arguments, the Kascorix were a blight, a cancer to every other intelligent race. They had to be contained before they destroyed another galaxy full of life, it was why he’d come to this galaxy in the first place. He couldn’t save everyone, but he was here for his people, and those in the empire.

  But the death and battles were leaving a mark on him, and he wondered if he would feel any satisfaction when this was over, or just empty…

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  He was extremely nervous, more nervous perhaps, than he was in the battle with kamikaze Kascorix. It was later that evening, and he was in virtual world, on Earth with Nadia. They had a date of sorts. He looked around at the ski resort, it was quiet as they headed up to the lodge. They planned to do some skiing, but that wasn’t the only part of their plan, and it wasn’t skiing that had him so nervous.

  Nadia took his hand and smirked up at him, “Would you relax. They’ll love you.”

  He squeezed her hand, “I love you, are you sure this is a good idea?”

  Nadia giggled, “They want to meet the man that turned my life upside down.”

  He scowled down at her gorgeous and beloved face, “That’s not comforting.”

  The woman he loved smirked up at him, and then went up on her tip toes to give him a soft kiss. As usual, he got a little lost at the feeling of her in his arms, and the barely audible soft feminine moans she made into his mouth. He lost track of everything else, it was just him and her.

  She was mesmerizing.

  He would do anything, risk anything for this woman, including meeting the in-laws. He was just worried they wouldn’t approve of their human daughter falling for an A.I., especially if the mother was expecting children one day. That was a conversation they hadn’t even had yet. There were alternatives of course, but they hadn’t discussed them.

  This was also a first for him, which probably accounted for much of his nervousness, no woman had ever taken him home before, obviously. Not that her parents lived online at a virtual ski resort, but the idea was similar.

  She still looked amused at his discomfort, but her gaze was also filled with love and surety, which was comforting in a way. No matter how this went, she was his, and he was hers.

  He took a deep breath and stood up straighter, it was time to man up. He usually didn’t let any lack of confidence show. Women didn’t like that kind of thing in a man. He squeezed her hand one more time, and then they walked into the chalet which looked like a two-story log cabin. Of course, this was a private party, something impossible out in the real world, but the virtual world meant the mountain was theirs for their visit.

  The first floor was one large room, with a large fireplace in the center of the room and black tile. In the back, there were stairs up to the second floor. On the left side of the floor was a lounge with couches, chairs, and a television. To their right up a short three stairs, was a bar area, with tables and chairs. It all had a rustic look to it.

  There were three people looking over at them from a table near the bar who were obviously Nadia’s family. Her father was just over six feet tall and had the same raven black hair, just short. Her mother had dark brown hair, as did her brother, but he could see a little of both siblings in each parent.

  Her father looked serious, her mother and brother looked curious, and he took a deep breath and headed over that way. Her father looked down at their hands where he was holding hers, but he didn’t let go as the man looked up.

  He nodded at them when they got close.

  Nadia said, “Mike, this is my family, James and Caroline Lane, and my brother James Junior, he prefers Jim though. Everyone, this is Mike.”

  He smiled, “Nice to meet you all.”

  He pulled out a chair for Nadia, and then sat in the chair next to her.

  James grunted, “I hear your putting my daughter’s life in danger, in the front lines of some damned war.”

  Nadia gasped, “Dad!”

  Caroline bit her lip, and Jim shrugged in an apologetic way.

  He nodded gravely, “There is some risk, but it was her decision. I didn’t want her there, and asked her to use a virtual body until the Kascorix issue was decided, but she refused. I’ll protect her with my best, but I don’t control her, nor would I want to.”

  Nadia squeezed his hand, “Damned right, it’s my decision. And we talked about this already.”

  James grunted, “So we did. I just wanted to see what he thought about it.”

  There was a rather awkward pause.

  Caroline cleared her throat, “So what do you do Mike?”

  He replied, “I’m on the senate on Xaran, for Mars. That’s actually how I met your daughter. I’m also an explorer, or will be, soon.”

  He hoped so anyway. Just two more worlds left, and they could go home, as long as the Canosians cooperated anyway.

  Another awkward silence, who knew meeting the in-laws would be so hard?

  James grunted and sounded begrudging, “Well, my daughter seems extremely happy, more so than I’ve seen her in years. Could you explain to me what you are, I’m not really sure I understand it.”

  Nadia blushed at the first part, and looked angry at the second. Jim looked at him curiously, and Caroline looked away as if ashamed of what her husband just asked. He wasn’t sure what to think, James had a poker face going, he couldn’t tell if the guy was just curious, or if there was some prejudice involved there. He wouldn’t even hold it against the guy, his existence would be very controversial on Earth if it was widely known. Maybe this was a bad idea, then again didn’t every male get the third degree from a lady’s father?

  Caroline stood and asked uncomfortably, “Drinks?” and walked off toward the bar.

  Jim cleared his throat, “I’ll help mom,” and stood up and followed.

  They came back a minute later with five draft beers, and a full pitcher.

  He finally said, “That’s not a simple thing to answer, I’m rather unique. But in essence I’m a human that was digitized and enhanced. I never had a human body though, but like you I started out with no memories, or opinions.”

  Caroline asked, “Enhanced?”

  He nodded, “Humans have a range of expectations about their senses, and what they can experience with them. When a human is digitized, there are strict structures and software programs to ensure their experience is genuine and it feels exactly the same to their mind as a flesh and blood body. If it didn’t, their mind would reject it quickly leading to insanity in most cases, and death.

  “There are some differences of course, a digitized human mind doesn’t dream the same way a flesh and human body would, and their new memory recall is eidetic in nature, but as far as emotions, reactions, the senses, and feeling of self, it’s all identical to their flesh and blood bodies.

  “However, I never had a human body to gain those experiences and expectations, so my human mind never had that original frame of reference for existence. So in short, it was safe for my digitized mind to experience more. I have all the normal human senses, which is required to prevent my human instinct from causing issues, but I can speed up my perception, and even read and parse the code online. I can make changes etcetera. Those enhancements are the part of me that came from my A.I. mothers. I can pretty much do what any A.I. can do, outside of specialties.”

  He took a sip of his beer, and let them all digest that. He felt uncomfortable, and for the first time he felt a little bit like a freak. He was different, from everyone else. Both on Earth and Mars. He smiled when Nadia entwined her fingers with his, and squeezed. As long as she was okay with it, he was golden. He’d prefer to get along with her family of course, but if not… he’d deal.

  Another awkward silence.

  Jim took a sip of his beer and then said, “There’s really only one thing I want to know. Can you ski?”

  Nadia giggled.

  He smiled, “Let’s go find out.”

  The rest of the day went fairly well. They skied and had a good time. By the end of it, he was almost sure that Jim and Caroline were okay with him, and happy for Nadia. The father was a tougher nut to crack, he didn’t do or say anything that could be construed as overly disapproving, but then he wasn’t exactly friendly either. Something to work on perhaps. Possibly though, the man was just taciturn in nature with everyone.

  The other thing was that polyamory, Chrystal, or Alyndra weren’t brought up at all. He wasn’t sure if Nadia had told her parents about that little detail, or if she’d kept it to herself. He certainly wasn’t going to bring it up, not many people understood that sort of thing.