He took his vorpal sword in hand:

Long time the manxome foe he sought—

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!

As brigs go, this one wasn't too bad. But I think they all use the same decorating theme: drab gray minimalist. The thin mattress on the slab bed was comfortable enough. The only other fixtures were a shiny metal commode and a sink.

Across the hall in her own cell, Alice slumped down on the bed in a really foul mood. She glared at me and grumbled, "Really, Vyse? You had to open your big mouth and make a bad situation even worse? Why do you always do that?"

"It's a gift." I shrugged. "They were looking for scapegoats, anyway."

"Ya' think?" she huffed. "We gotta get out of here and stop that AI before it takes over the galaxy like some comic book villain."

"Right. Got any ideas how we do that?"

As if in answer to my question, the lights went out, and a moment later the emergency lighting came on, providing dim illumination. When I leaned against the bars of my cell door, it swung open. The same thing happened for Alice.

"Oookay..." she said, pursing her lips.

As we stood staring at each other in confusion, a familiar voice came across my com implant. "Well, are you going to stand there like a couple of idiots, or are you going to get out of there?" Based on Alice's wide eyes, she heard it too.

I said, "Jack, is that you? They said you were dead?"

A stream of static came across before the voice replied. "Well, technically, I am. It is an inconvenience."

Alice dropped her jaw. Only one sound came out. "Uhh..."

"Later," the voice dismissed. "Get your asses moving. Go to my ship at dock alpha-seven. The way is clear, but not for long."

The normally locked door to the detention area swung open with a push. As we paced down a dim empty hallway, I halted, extending an arm to stop Alice. I said to the voice, "Wait, how do we know you are Jack? This could be some trick, so they can shoot us trying to escape, or something."

A surge of static preceded the reply. "Listen, shit for brains, I'm doing you a favor. I should let you rot in that cell, but I actually need your help. Are you coming or not?"

Alice nodded with a smirk. "Yeah, it's Jack."

We made our way toward the docks, coming to the space port outer ring. Windows along the walkway looked out upon the Earth below. The vista, contours of greens, browns, and deep blue overlaid with swirls of white, was made even more stunning by the faint lighting inside. It always stole my breath away. Alice grabbed my hand and urged me on.

"There it is," she said, pointing ahead to the inner dock door.

I glanced out the window. A long cylindrical tube led out to a small star ship. I admired its construction while Alice pushed the controls to open the airlock door. The smooth rounded shape and gentle arcs were as much art as engineering. The curved delta wings meant the ship would also perform well in atmospheric flight. By comparison, most starships were boxy and uninspiring.

A smile came to my face as I read the name stenciled near the bow. "The Bandersnatch!"

"What?" Alice furrowed her brow.

I said, "The name of the ship! Jack named it the Bandersnatch!" She still looked confused. "You know, from the Lewis Carroll poem, Jabberwocky?"

"What poem? Is that where Jack got that those weird names?"

I shook my head. "Alice, you uncultured heathen."

For some reason, she glared at me again.

Passing through the narrow docking tunnel brought a grin to my face. Here I am going down the rabbit hole with Alice.

We settled into two chairs on the small bridge overlooking a row of transparent control panels. Lights flashed on the panels and a holographic image of a familiar head appeared before us.

The head, a man with a weathered face and scruffy white beard, glared at us. "Took you long enough. What did you do, stop for couples therapy?"

"Is that really you, Jack?" I gawked.

The head smiled. "All me, in the code!"

"Damn, you really did it! You actually downloaded a human brain?"

The image flickered, and static noise came over the audio. "There's still some issues with bandwidth and cognitive translation, but yeah, I did it." The image flickered again. "Uh, oh. The security goons are coming and they're pissed. Time to leave this party."

"So, where are we going?" I asked.

"To slay the Jabberwock, my beamish boy!" Jack replied with a grin.

Alice shook her head. "What is it with you guys and that stupid poem?"

The ship lurched as the docking clamps released, and the maneuvering thrusters fired, moving us away from the station. A bright image of the Earth below flashed across the forward display screen as we turned.

Jack wrinkled his holographic brow. "Oh, Admiral hardass is calling. You'd better answer. Best we don't reveal my existence."

The Admiral appeared on a view panel and I jerked back. I've never seen a face with so many shades of red and purple, nor jowls that shook so much. It looked like his eyes could shoot death rays.

I cast a sweet smile and waved. "Oh, hey, Admiral. Wassup?"

The Admiral bellowed. "You are not authorized to depart. I order you to turn that boat around and return to port!"

"Admiral, I am detecting a hint of hostility in your voice. Perhaps with some meditation and a cup of chamomile tea--"

"Get your wiseass back here!" He exploded. "Or we will shove a missile up your tailpipe!"

Behind the display panel and out of the Admiral's view, Jack grinned and shook his holographic head.

Suppressing my own grin, I said, "Would it be too much of a speculation on my part to say that the station defense grid is offline right now?" The Admiral seethed, confirming my suspicion. I held up my hands. "Just chill. We are going to stop the Invincible and perhaps keep your butt out of the fire. See you on the other side of the looking glass, Admiral."

As I reached toward the control panel to terminate the transmission, the holographic image of Jack's sagging naked buttocks appeared between Alice and me, rendered in vivid 3-D. I ended the transmission before the wide-eyed Admiral responded.

Alice clamped her eyes shut and dropped her head into her hands. "Good God, Jack. That's going to leave a mental scar."

Once we jumped to warp, leaving Earth far behind, I said, "Okay, Jack. Give us the story."

"About what?" The floating head wrinkled its brow.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe about dying, becoming computer code, and Jabberwock turning evil? Insignificant, chatty stuff like that."

"Oh, yeah." Jack stroked his virtual beard. "I had the same concern about an unconstrained AI that you did, Vyse. Only I did something about it, not wimping out like you."

"Like what?" Alice asked.

"Well, I've been working on brain cognitive transfer for a while and was ready for a real-world test. I thought I might take a master overwatch role over Jabberwock to keep it in line, kinda like its conscience."

Alice's eyes widened. "You downloaded yourself to the Invincible AI mainframe?"

"Never got the chance." Jack shook his head. "Jabberwock figured out what I was doing and killed me. Was clever about it, too. Triggered a false fire alarm and flooded the core room with suppression gas, displacing all the oxygen. A painless way to go, just got dizzy and fell asleep."

"So, now that your body is dead, where is your physical brain now?" I asked.

"In a memory module attached to the Bandersnatch AI core." Jack's holographic image flickered on and off, and a static noise sounded. "Hold on... Need to buffer..." After a moment, the image resolved, becoming clearer. He shrugged. "Still working out the bandwidth issues."

"How are you going to stop Jabberwock?" I said.

Jack grinned. "It's not how I am going to stop Jabberwock, but how you and Alice are going to stop it. Not having a physical body is a bit of a limitation for me."

"Oh, great. So, how do we slay Jabberwock?"

Jack put on a wide grin. "With the vorpal sword, of course!"

I said, "But first we need to find Jabberwock."

"I know where it is going. I installed a passive tracker in the Invincible's navigation system. All we have to do is wait by the tumtum tree in the tulgey wood."

Alice grumbled, "I am really hating that poem."

*****

It made sense that Jabberwock would come here. The ionized gasses in the nebula would hide the Invincible from long-range scanners. I took a moment to appreciate the beauty of this place, where new stars were born among the remnants of the old. Countless dazzling points of light lit up the gas cloud.

We didn't have to wait long.

"Here it comes." Jack said in a low voice, like whispering in a foxhole.

Even from the distance, I could tell that the Invincible was big, very big. It looked like a floating city, with shapes like boxy skyscrapers, rounded auditoriums, and monument spires rising up from a huge long core. The weapon platforms, rail-guns, missile tubes, pulse cannons, and who knows what, were as menacing as they looked. I gulped back the bile that erupted into my throat. Compared to the Invincible, we were like a mouse underfoot an elephant, and just as easily squashed.

I twirled a memory stick in my hand, the vorpal sword. It contained the kill code that would deactivate Jabberwock. The problem was that we had to physically insert it at the computer core room.

Blowing out a breath, I said, "I don't suppose Jabberwock is going to welcome us with cake and balloons?"

Jack replied, "More like lasers and projectile weapons. Jabberwock will view you as a threat."

Alice shook her head. "How do we get on board? The Invincible will blow us to confetti before we even get close."

The holographic head smiled. "I have a plan. Have you two ever had any space-walk training?"