Chapter 70 A new home world.
The deal was good for all of them as the Brunari Admiral wanted only to take his flagship and six other vessels to escape far away from the Federation with his people.
It turned out that he was preparing his escape plan for years and got many females of his species to serve in his fleet so that he could vanish when the opportunity presented itself and start a new colony for his people as far away from the federation space as possible.
The problem was with the rest of the species that were mixed into his fleet as he didnt want to kill them all.
Now he had a solution to that problem as humans would send them back.
The price for his freedom and that of his crew was the information that only the highest ranking officers and officials were cleared to have access to.
The Council accepted that deal as it really cost them nothing and potentially brought a wealth of knowledge that they needed.
-The first thing you have to know is that the federation is not in fact the main mastermind behind the attacks on the other species.
In fact they are just a pawn,but we don't know who is using them as our spies and intelligence agencies were not able to find that information.
The Admiral started sharing the information.
-The most we were able to establish is that the Urakari are the de facto leaders of the federation even if it looks like the federation is a democracy in reality it's just a facade.
We were not able to find out the goals of the federation itself but the urakari have their own agenda and are working on bringing something called the Zerg into this galaxy.
Whatever this Zerg is,the bugs believe that once they succeed to get it into the galaxy they will rule the whole thing and no one will be able to stop them.
Simon was shocked hearing the term Zerg as it was the name of a species from the game he once played and if the Urakari managed to bring something similar to the Milky Way galaxy then they would be in a lot of trouble.
On the other hand it was almost impossible for the Zerg that the bugs wanted to bring into the galaxy to be anything similar to the ones in the game.
-Then we need to figure out what this Zerg thing is and how to stop it from coming to our galaxy.
Simon said and he knew who to ask for more information regarding this thing.
The Atrandi might know something about it as they specialized in the research of all things.
-Let me finish and then you can figure out what to do with the information I shared with you.
The Corybdus said.
Simon nodded and kept quiet for now.
The rest of the information was mostly tied to the federation and the more the Admiral revealed the more the humans were shocked as the federation forces alone were counted in over two hundred million warships and that was just a conservative estimate.
The rest was mostly about the tactics and what to watch out for when dealing with the federation.
He also shared the Brunari predictions on Federation expansion and it wasn't good news for humanity.
The Alliance suddenly looked as just a minor problem in the light of what the council learned.
Most of the information was new to the Terrans and now they more or less knew what was awaiting them in the near future.
After the admiral shared all the information he had and answered some more questions he was sent back to his cell so that the council could have a discussion about the information they just received.
-We need to speed up our ship production and the research in the weapons and defense capabilities.
The American president stated the obvious.
-We are already working as fast as we can on that and there is no way for us to speed it all up anymore.
The French president said and he was right as humanity built and researched like crazy.
The problem was the time,as humanity got to space only a little over two years prior and they already had a fleet of over 1,5 thousand ships which was extremely fast.
The main problem was that they didn't have enough time to prepare more ships and it was possible that they would lose more ships as the Alliance attacked them.
According to the Corybdus they had a year at most before the next attack fleet came for the Elani.
Even with the help of the colonies that started the construction of their own fleets and some more ships from the systems that were rich in natural resources but had no planets to settle so humanity just built a space dock in them to build more ships.
The human fleet would not exceed more than four thousand ships at this rate.
The Terran ships were powerful but they were not invincible and with enough forces the alliance would just destroy them with their numerical advantage.
-Then what can we do to prepare for the upcoming battle?
The president of Brazil asked.
-There is not much we can do at this point other than we are doing already.
We just don't have enough time and no one could have predicted that we would be facing such a threat this soon.
Mikael said.
-There is a solution to the problem at least for the upcoming battle.
Athena spoke for the first time in this meeting.
-Go ahead Athena, what do you propose?
The chairman asked.
-The data from the recent engagements shows that the ships with onboard A.I have over 25% higher kill counts and 10% higher survivability rate so I propose to create more of us and equip all the ships frigate class and higher with an Onboard A.I.
This proposal shocked everyone as they did see the potential in having a fleet which was more deadly and better survival rate.
The problem was that there was no way to predict that the A.I will be cooperative and accept their role in the fleet.
They could of course use some kind of restrictions but that would be no different from slavery and they didn't want to be slavers not to mention that the A.I had their rights and one of them was a right to their freedom.
-Athena,we would love to have an A.I onboard all of our ships but you also know that we can't force them to do what we want the same way that we couldn't force you to sign your contract.
Simon said.They had this conversation many times and it all boiled down to the impossibility of predicting the new A.I's behavior and they sure as hell couldn't create thousands of them just to find one that would agree to sign a contract especially when the law stated that eliminating an A.I was the same as murder of an organic sentient.
-Actually we had a little discussion on this topic and the answer is the same as it was for us.
If they want to have something then they have to work for it under a contract.
It's not like all of them have to work on a ship,they can easily work alongside your scientists or in the shipyards and many other fields that would give them the work and in that case we would be able to speed up many projects that are under way.
This was a walid point,the more A.I's would certainly speed up research and smooth out the logistics which in turn would speed up the building of the fleet.
-This is a good point but what would stop them from leaving our territory for better benefits elsewhere if someone proposed that to them?
Mikael asked with some concern.
-Actually we have a solution in mind for that but we just don't have enough funds amassed yet to make it a reality.
Athena answered.
-If you share your idea with us and the funds are the only problem then we can work things out.
The chairman said.
-Actually we were thinking about buying a planet for ourselves and the equipment to sustain us on the surface along with some drones and droids to service the equipment and build infrastructure for us.
That would allow us to have a homeworld and join the council as a species and not just contracted workers.
This revelation shocked everyone present.
-Athena you are already a part of the council and the citizens of the Terran Council space so why would you want a planet? especially when you can go to any planet that is colonized wherever you want?
Simon asked not understanding what they were thinking?
-We know and we are grateful for all the help and kindness you all offered us but everyone on the council has their own country or a planet and we would like to be the same as you all.
Is it a strange thing for us to want to have our own home world?
She asked.
She and her A.I brothers and sisters wanted a home for themselves, a place that was all their own and was not aboard a ship.
Everyone laughed or chuckled at her attitude that was a bit similar to a teenager in that moment.
-It's not strange Athena but it also does not require you to buy a planet.
All you had to do is to ask and we would gladly find you a planet that is suitable for your home world and then you could just buy the equipment that you need and start building the infrastructure for yourselves.
The chairman said still smiling
Athena was speechless when she heard that, the same as the rest of the A.I currently in the system.
-So you're telling me that we all over thought it?
-Basically, yes you did and though it's admirable that you were planning to buy a planet,we would have a hard time selling you one as we don't even know how to set a price on a planet.
So we will just find you one that meets your requirements or if you have found one already then just give us the location and we can start by sending some ships there to do a survey.