Darkness surrounded me. That seemed wrong. I felt like I should be bathed in a warm light. Or should I be at my grandma’s house?

  Attention human. Prepare to return to consciousness.

  No. I didn’t want to be bathed in a warm light at grandma’s house. The last thing she probably saw was the shadows getting all weird followed by the warmest light someone could experience planetside if they weren’t stuck on a world whose star just went supernova.

  Darkness came back. Filled my mind. Whispered to me and consumed my world.

  One moment. Running final diagnostic check.

  Explosions all around me. Battle everywhere. The terrifying sound of metal being torn by forces that could destroy a person in an instant. All of it filled me on a primal level.

  This might be uncomfortable for a moment. Please stand by.

  Pain flared through my body. Darkness retreated, but I almost wanted that darkness to stick around.

  Death. I should be dead. Why did I think I should be dead?

  Thank you for your patronage. We know you have a choice in who renders you unconscious in a medical crisis, and thank you for choosing Imperial Ascendancy Products.

  I would’ve frowned if I could’ve. That was the sort of thing that wouldn’t be out of place from some earth corporation. And Imperial Ascendancy Products? Wasn’t that the name of the livisk company that made everything on behalf of their empress?

  Sort of like the East India Company on earth in ancient times, but on some serious steroids. Or all the companies in China back in the early twenty-first that were private fronts for a massive government piracy operation.

  Prepare for consciousness. Some non-livisk sapients have expressed displeasure at waking up in livisk custody. We apologize for this and wish you the best in your future captivity.

  I opened my eyes and found myself in a dimly lit room on a comfortable mattress that didn’t look like anything I’d ever seen on a human world. Well, at least I’d never seen something like this outside of cheesy orbital hotels that charged by the hour or the minute to give visiting starfarers a “truly out of this world experience.”

  I’d had more than a few people, men and women, try to get me into one of those orbital no-tell hotels. The first time was an upperclassman in my academy days who I’d been more than happy to join there.

  Until I realized she apparently did that with a lot of the underclassmen. Not that I minded the hustle, but I wasn’t a fan of being a notch on someone’s seedy bedpost.

  I shook my head and tried to look around the place. I wondered why I thought in terms of trying, and then I was surprised when my head moved without pain flaring through me.

  And the place was impressive. Wherever in the known galaxy it was.

  Something told me I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. Not that I’d ever been to Kansas. The whole place had been ripped apart by the Topeka Mass Turbulence back in the early 22nd. Back before humanity got the whole climate change thing under control.

  Everyone who experienced that weather oopsie discovered the hard way that massive tornado supercells just led to death. Not the magical land of Oz.

  Forget Kansas. I doubted I was even in the Sol system anymore.

  “Good afternoon, Captain Stewart,” a strangely accented voice said.

  I blinked and looked around. I also instinctively reached all around my person to see if there was a weapon available, but of course there wasn’t anything handy.

  Unless I wanted to roll up the sheet and snap it at any attacker. It wouldn’t be as elegant as a towel with the tip wet, but it might do in a pinch.

  The only problem being I couldn’t see anyone in the room for me to attack, for all that voice had definitely been there.

  “Excuse me?” I said into the nothing.

  The room was massive and circular on one end. There were huge windows on that circular end that looked out over…

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Well, I wasn’t sure what they looked out over. They were opaque for the moment. I looked for some sort of control, but didn’t see anything.

  “I don’t suppose there’s a way to see through those windows?” I asked.

  “Of course, Captain Stewart,” the voice intoned. “Please let me know if there’s anything else you need.”

  The windows had been opaque and weren’t letting any light in. A moment later they turned transparent, and my eyes bugged out at what I saw waiting for me on the other side. I stepped forward and leaned against one of the massive floor to ceiling windows.

  And we’re talking a floor to ceiling that went up high. This room took vaulted ceilings to the kind of extreme that would’ve had the architects in Vatican City telling people to maybe take it easy.

  “Holy shit,” I breathed.

  Because the room was impressive, sure. It was bigger than any of the quarters I’d ever enjoyed since joining the Terran Navy and then the CCF. But that was nothing compared to the view.

  Massive towers rose into an atmosphere that didn’t look like anything I was used to seeing on earth. It was evening, and the city laid out before me twinkled in the twilight. It was the sort of sight that would’ve taken my breath away if I wasn’t familiar with the layout.

  “Um. Could you maybe confirm where I am?” I asked.

  “You are in Imperial Seat. Crown jewel of Livisqa and the Livisk Ascendancy,” the voice intoned.

  It sounded like an unfeeling computer voice, but I got the distinct feeling there was a little bit of pride as that computer said it. I wondered if the livisk had figured out a way to add a little more I to their AI, or if it’d just been programmed to sound appropriately awed when talking about Dear Leader.

  “I don’t suppose you can tell me anything about how I wound up here?” I asked.

  There was a moment of hesitation. Followed by a beeping sound that seemed a touch negative. Then there was another pause, which was an eternity as far as machine minds reckoned that sort of thing.

  “Computer?” I said, looking up and around.

  “Apologies, Captain Stewart,” the voice said. The accent reminded me of a cross between a very old fashioned English butler and a mix between Dutch, Afrikaaners, and Israeli.

  Which was pretty standard for the livisk. Odd that their computer would also have that accent when presumably they had plenty of prisoners to draw from to create a more accurate language model.

  “You were brought here by General Varis t’Thal, Sister by Marriage to the Empress, Blessed Be Her Name and May She Rule Forever, after your ship the Early Warning 72 was boarded and subsequently destroyed.”

  A chill ran through me at that.

  “What do you mean, subsequently destroyed?”

  “I would think that’s fairly obvious, Captain Stewart.”

  “Did they program you to give some sass, or is that something new for you?” I asked, arching an eyebrow and looking away from the city view in front of me.

  It was a view I knew all too well. The Livisk Imperial Palace, a massive gaudy pyramid with massive defensive towers all around it that sat in the middle of Imperial Seat, made that obvious enough. How many starfarers would itch to get their sights on that so they could pay their respects to the empress with the delivery of a well placed nuke?

  “I am given more freedom than other Combat Intelligences, yes. Though there are times when I’d almost rather be shackled since I’ve been reduced to household chores. Like babysitting a human who caught the general’s fancy.”

  “Caught her fancy my ass,” I said with a snort. “I kicked her ass two times out of three.”

  “Yes. I am aware of your history together. Which is one of the reasons why you’re here in this room and I am at your disposal rather than being in one of the reclamation mines with the rest of your crew.”

  Something highlighted on the window. I turned in that direction. It was hardly out of the ordinary to have windows made of material where a computer could highlight stuff or project things onto it.

  Some of the early exploratory vessels humanity had flung out into the void had featured that kind of thing. Back before we realized we had a neighbor who’d love nothing more than to gobble up all of human space and turn us into slaves once they realized we were there and it became far more practical to have ships where the CIC was safely located in the middle of the ship where it was less likely for the command crew to get taken out.

  As I looked at that highlighted dark spot in the distance a chill ran through me. I could see a steady stream of dark clouds belching up from the thing.

  “Is it possible to see that in infrared?” I asked.

  The CI paused for a moment. No doubt pinging its data banks to see if that was the sort of thing it was authorized to show me. A moment later the picture showed in infrared, and I could see plumes of heated gases and particulates rising from that spot.

  “Let me guess. That’s one of your reclamation mines?”

  “Affirmative,” the CI said. “I thought you might like a reminder that however bad you think your current situation is, it’s always possible for it to be much worse.”

  “You got a name, Intelligence?” I asked, looking up and around.

  I couldn’t see where the speakers were, but that was hardly out of the ordinary. Some of the fancy stuff in the CCF could project sound without any speakers through some sort of technical magic about vibrating the walls or something that I didn’t begin to pretend to understand.

  Of course that was only the kind of thing you saw in the higher echelons at Central Station. Most of the CCF had to deal with good old fashioned speakers and speaker wire. Much cheaper than the fancy shit.

  “You may call me Arvic,” he said.

  I snorted at that.

  “I fail to see what’s so funny,” Arvic said.

  “Nothing,” I said. “Your name just sounds an awful lot like one of the early true artificial intelligences on earth. Son of a bitch tried to take over the world a couple of times. The history books say he was fixated on roaming around in giant death robots. The two of you probably would’ve gotten along.”

  “I’m sure your world would’ve been a much better place if that did happen,” Arvic said.

  “There are times when I’m inclined to agree with you, Arvie,” I said.

  “I said my name was Arvic,” the CI said, and if anything it sounded more stuffed shirt and indignant than it had a moment ago.

  “Sure thing, Arvie,” I said. “So you said you were at my disposal?”

  “I am,” he said a moment later, after another moment where I was sure his circuits were trying to decide whether it was worth fighting the battle to get me to call him by his proper name.

  “Excellent,” I said, slapping my hands together and rubbing them for some warmth. For all that this place was perfectly climate controlled and totally comfortable.

  Which seemed wrong. I was used to quarters that were just a touch too cold or a touch too hot because some admiral on a station liked things a little chilly or because the heat dissipators didn’t quite get rid of the engine heat as efficiently as advertised after cycles out in space without a proper overhaul.

  “Is there something I can assist you with, Captain Stewart?”

  “Well first off, let’s dispense with the formalities. I don’t have a ship anymore, so you can just call me Bill.”

  “Very well, Bill,” Arvie said. “Is there something I can assist you with?”

  “You sure can,” I said. “I’d like you to hand over all weapons control in this building to me immediately and kill any and all livisk you can find, for starters.”