Freedom Star

Chapter 6

Jon gaped at the sphere. He’d spoken to artificial intelligences before, but they were limited, single-purpose devices incapable of—or at least uninterested in—carrying on a conversation outside the limits of their specific, programmed function. This thing had just made a joke.

Sort of.

He cleared his throat. “Do—do you have a name?”

“Because I am unique, a personal phonetic label would not seem to be required—however, I have noted that humans seem to attach some importance to such things, so, yes, I have a name. I am called Hal.” Jon had the distinct feeling that was supposed to be some kind of a joke, as well, but if so, it was beyond him—as was this conversation. He looked to Ellia for help.

“Hal’s existence is known only to a very few people,” Ellia said. “No one inside the government, and only three of us, including our leader, among the anti-government forces. I discovered him more or less by accident, while doing some computer sleuthing. The other two people who know about him don’t know that I know about him.”

“Why?” Jon said.

“Because of something I’ve become increasingly convinced of. The fact that Corporal Nesgard double-crossed me today makes me almost certain.” She looked grim. “Somewhere, at a very high level, we have a traitor.”

“My analysis concurs with Ellia’s,” said Hal. “It increasingly appears, from the shards of data I have been able to gather, that this ‘Revolutionary’ movement is well-known by the government and subtly controlled to relieve the pressures within society that might eventually result in radical change, without actually harming the established system in any way. For example, examination of the recent targets of Revolutionary attacks—such as the Tidewater ship beacon, three weeks ago—reveals that the impact of their destruction, in those cases where the attacks were successful, was minimal. The Tidewater beacon was due to be decommissioned in six months and had already been phased out of the navigational array, a fact which the organizers of the attack somehow failed to uncover. As another example, the attack on the—”

“I think that’s sufficient, Hal,” Ellia interrupted.

“I was merely trying to give your young friend as complete a picture of the situation as possible,” said Hal, somehow managing to sound miffed.

“So you think one of these two leaders within your organization who know about Hal may be the traitor?” Jon asked.

Ellia nodded. “I think what happened today was that you were too tempting a target for the government to pass up, so they decided to use their influence in the Revolutionary force to nab you. Corporal Nesgard was obviously one of their plants. I would have delivered you straight into their hands if not for those jungle-trained eyes of yours.”

Jon shifted his position in the big blue chair to relieve some of the pressure on his sore back. “I still don’t understand what the rationale was for trying to keep me out of government hands in the first place.”

“You underestimate your importance,” said Hal. “As I just stated, what Ellia and I have begun to term the Loyal Revolution appears to be carefully designed to not have any real impact on society, except by siphoning off troublemaking elements such as herself.”

“Thank you,” said Ellia.

“You’re welcome. You, however, are the leader of a band of true Revolutionaries, the children of the leaders of the failed rebellion on Earth, who escaped from one of the Commonwealth’s high-security work and re-education compounds and have eluded capture for several months. Your recent destruction of an armored transport, while a very minor blow against the Commonwealth, was nonetheless a true blow, unlike those the Loyal Revolution has been striking. You have become something of a symbol to those who oppose the Commonwealth. They were quick to announce your capture—they have yet to announce your escape. The official goal of the Loyal Revolution was to seek to join forces with you, to perhaps supply you with weapons and logistical support so you could continue to wage guerilla warfare in the lowland jungle. That goal was stated before your capture was even known. Somehow the Revolution learned almost immediately of your escape, through mysterious means, and arranged to have a team—Ellia and Nesgard—in the force searching for you, officially to preserve you from capture, establish relations with you, and return you to your troop in the jungle.”