Borne On Wings of Steel Read Online Free Page A

their never-ending war began.
    Next came the sixth battle, and the Alpha ship's single fatal flaw crippled it—for it was merely a war machine—and nothing more.
    The T'kaan discovered this weakness and destroyed it.
    The scientists who created the Alpha ship learned from that mistake.
    They improved on their design with the second AI ship, the one Kyle and Jaric knew as Mother .
    The scientists also programmed the second ship with science and human psychology and literature—and more. This would enable the ship not only to learn —learn more than simply how to fight better with each experience—but to grow and become more alive with each and every experience.
    The second AI ship was more than simply a warship.
    And secretly, with a hasty plan to save a handful of human survivors before the final battle, the scientists downloaded more—much more. Every piece of knowledge, science and lore—every aspect of recorded data about humanity throughout all history. From every collection of knowledge across the Fifty Worlds, the scientists downloaded everything to the AI ship.
    They stored it all in the unimaginably vast memory systems created specially for this second AI warship—synthetic human-DNA memory systems.
    The ship contained every recorded experience of the human race on which to draw upon, to learn from...
    But the escape plan failed as the T'kaan attacked early.
    With only three small children onboard and the collected memory of the human race, the AI ship observed in silence as the last human stronghold—planet Earth—blew apart.
    The others never arrived to make the final escape.
    The AI starship wrestled with its core programming as it left the destruction behind. The ship's turmoil grew as the young children cried out to it for direction and for comfort.
    And for love.
    Jaric remembered it all too well. And why they still searched for other human survivors, although it seemed hopeless.
    "Which way to the Search-terminals?” Jysar's tone reflected his own emotional tension as he and the others watched the distraught humans.
    "I wouldn't get your hopes up too much,” Rok said with a nod. “Remember Jarbornir, we were certain we had found a valid lead about other hoo-mans.” Rok's thick Kraaqi accent slurred the last word.
    Jaric sighed with the memory of six months ago.
    "Yes,” Jysar agreed. “The evidence seemed rock solid—a small remnant from a race destroyed by war-like aliens who took refuge there only a short time ago."
    "But they were not humans, and the race which destroyed them had not been the T'kaan.” Kyle shook his head sadly.
    "I think the one that really got to me was last month, when we landed on Krasas,” Jaric said as he turned to face the others again.
    "We should have suspected something the moment he asked for money in return for his knowledge,” Rok growled. “I knew we could not trust that slimy alien the moment I first laid eyes on him."
    Jaric looked up at the moist skin of the Zuuk. “Present company excepted."
    Kyle's face became puzzled. “I thought the saying went, ‘Present company accepted.’”
    "Now I'm confused, hoo-mans say same thing twice.” Rok looked from Jaric to Kyle.
    Kyle began to chuckle. “Well, almost. At least our meaning is meant to be the same, but we did say different words—the last word."
    "We've run into a lot of dead-ends,” Jaric said sadly.
    Kyle bit his lower lip. “Well, we've had a couple of really hopeful leads turn out to be nothing the last few months. And the one that hurt was the lie we spent money on, hoping it was true."
    "We must be more prudent in our use of questions, as well as the information about humans we share in our search.” Jysar looked at the two young men. “But most of all, we must weigh carefully any results we find—especially when it's exactly what we want."
    "Yeah, if it's too good to be true—it probably is,” Kyle mused.
    "Well, here on RahajMr we'll query a super-massive knowledgebase. Yes, we will