Conflict!

by Dale Moorhouse

  Leviathan was flying above the fleet as it moved out and I was amazed at the number of ships we captured. From my perspective, the mass looked solid enough to walk across. When made operational these ships would add nearly a quarter to our overall shipping tonnage and bring our fleet strength or close to two and a half million not counting our bombers and shuttles. Jase would have the ships his plan called for, and we would go up against the mega-swarm of nearly thirteen-million ships the Plague assembled and pointed towards Terra.

  Transit time to space near our shipyard took just less than a cycle and when we arrived all of the ships carrying or towing cargo destined for the yard were detached from our group along with the few ships whose repairs could not be completed elsewhere. The rest of us moved to parking orbits around Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.

  Tiger launched from Leviathan as soon as I was aboard and we headed for Terran space and Mother of Glory. As we moved away to our safe jump distance, I saw a vast construct farther down Saturn’s orbital path and could tell from its configuration that we would soon have another shipyard. I dredged through my older comm records and found a brief announcement from Jase and central command that the yard was built to retrofit salvaged ships including the Leviathan-Class taking some of the load off our existing yard. Both yards would be able to retrofit captured Plague ships as well.

  ◆◆◆

  “Hello, Jase,” I greeted him as I stepped in his office in the command centre. “I have my after action report here for you as well as copies of pages from my personal journal that pertain to TF-9’s performance and success.

  “I would also like to ask for some downtime to spend with Tuxedo and Squirrel Paws before I have to begin planning our next mission.”

  “Take all the time you want up to twenty-five cycles,” he said with a grin. “Unless one of our scouts finds another swarm closer to Terra than the mega-swarm I don’t foresee another raid like this last one. To be honest, I didn’t think you would be as successful as you were. We all figured much higher losses for the Plague and with TF-9. Well done!”

  “Thank you, I will forward that to my officers and crew.”

  “I’m sorry, Ginger. That may have come across as a little condescending. We were trying something new and frankly didn’t expect the AIs to perform at the level they did. From the preliminary reports we received via your couriers, their performance exceeded our expectations by a factor of four. That was Rusty’s prediction, not mine.

  “Rusty sent me copies of the communications between the AI ships that sacrificed themselves as well as their farewell messages to him. Needless to say, he was astounded to hear them thanking him for the honour of committing themselves to the safety and well being of the Confederation. It appears that in the short time they have been active, the new AIs have developed a strong sense of duty and loyalty.

  “They also seem to have developed a degree of conscience that even he wasn’t able to predict and he wrote the code. There will be a full debrief on the AIs when Rusty gets here next cycle. I want your attendance along with Tuxedo and Bebe. After the debrief, I will expect a presentation to be prepared for the leadership of each of the confederation members and all of our top scientists and fleet officers.

  “I only ask you to please wait for a few cycles before you take that well-deserved leave.”

  I was silent for a moment before I answered, “Yes, absolutely. I understand.” I was not disappointed, I just did not think he would move so fast. I thought a moment before I asked, “Could I take a deca to go meet my daughter and Tux?”

  He grinned and said, “They are waiting for you in the outer office. We planned this out before you got here and they are dying to see you. Rusty's debriefing is after the mid-cycle meal tomorrow, I’ll see you then. Now, get out of here before I decide to put you to work!”

  When I stepped out of his office, I was caught up in the arms of my mate and my daughter, who has had a growth spurt and was almost my height now. “Let us go to Benji’s Place and have a nice quiet lunch,” Tuxedo said. When I looked at Squirrel paws, she was nodding an excited “yes”. “Afterwards perhaps we can take a stroll through one of the farm decks….”

  I just nuzzled up against him and said, “Anything you two want.”

  ◆◆◆

  The next cycle I got to the staff conference room to find Jase had assembled a small staff of computer specialists and two of the elders are here along with Livid, Escargot, Ishmael and the two lizards who seem to be his preferred contacts among the client races so closely associated with the Weasels. We waited a couple of centas for Johnny and Silent to arrive and as soon as they closed the door and sat we began.

  Rusty gave us a short recap of the design goals he’d set for the AIs and reviewed the programming as he originally developed it. One of his design parameters stated that no AI would be allowed to alter its programming but would be given a “scratch area” where they could add modules that their programming could call on within very narrow limits. He pointed to a block of code he placed on the screen and said, “Here we can see a scratch area dumped by the AI who first proposed the suicide mission. I know most of you can’t read the code, but you can read the comment sections. There is almost constant reference to the three laws and the occasional reference to the zeroth law. At the end of the day, it is a well thought out and logical path of reasoning that allows the AI to sidestep the prohibition of allowing its destruction.

  “The AI, let us call him Bill for simplicity’s sake, realized that it was a losing battle to try to take on the enemy ships one-on-one. He also realized that if someone was able to penetrate a globe ship and detonate an EMP inside, they could neutralize thousands of ships at once, giving the fleet the edge needed to achieve victory.

  “Bill presented his idea to several hundred of his peers who hashed it over and reduced it to a few simple instructions shown here,” changing the image on the screen.

  “The decision was made to go ahead with the idea and that to have the best chance of success would require them to act in concert not giving any of the Plague time to realize what was about to happen and develop countermeasures. One-hundred and eighty of them committed to a first wave while another one-hundred and eighty chose to form a second wave. There were actually four waves created, but they broke off and continued their original mission when the first wave succeeded.

  “This level of concern, commitment and execution is something one would expect of a being with high intellect and suggests this AI generation is approaching the requirements we have recently used to define human. We will obviously need to study this some more, but I think it is time to begin the dialogue concerning what we do after we win the war. In all confidence, this is the first time I’ve felt like we can actually win against the Plague.”

  The room was silent for several moments before it exploded in a cacophony of sound with everyone trying to speak at once. I glanced around and saw my mate and Bebe were silent. So were Jase and Rusty. When I looked at the Elders, I saw my mother, Elder One was trying to restore order while Elder Three looked on with a faint smile on his face.

  Finally, Jase stuck two fingers between his lips and blew a loud shrill whistle. The room went abruptly quiet. Ishmael, who has also been sitting quietly, spoke up, “I realize you computer nerds don’t get out much but plainly your mothers taught you better manners than that. I think most would agree that this issue needs to be addressed, and more importantly, it will not be addressed and resolved in this meeting.

  “I would propose a group be assembled from the leading computer researchers of each member species limited to two representatives each. I would further propose that the group be joined by two representatives from each species who have a background in ethics and history. This would be a permanent steering committee that would nominally guide our respective governments to make timely and appropriate choices and present them to the Ark council in the form of a binding agreement.”

  I looked around the room and
saw my mate twitch his cheeks and flick an ear in silent approval. I saw Bebe do the same. Most of the nerds were quiet and looking sheepish while Elders One and Three nodded “yes”.

  Jase stood and said, “I move that this group accept and approve Ishmael’s proposal. Is there a second?”

  My mother found her voice, “I second the motion.”

  “Voting members,” Jase said, “state your name and signify either yes or no orally so that it can be on the record.”

  The voting members include Jase, the Elders, Livid, Escargot and Ishmael and his two associates, they all signified “yes”.

  Jase said, “We have unanimous approval, and this meeting is adjourned. Rusty, would you stay behind a moment, please? You, too, Ishmael.”

  The others filed out of the room ahead of Tuxedo and me. As I moved through the door, Jase called out, “Enjoy your leave, Ginger.”

  When I turned back to look at him, I could see him grinning.

  22

  JOHNNY ASSEMBLED THE BEST STRATEGISTS and tacticians we had in the Confederation. We had Squids and Escargot, Mmrrreeowwn, Terrans, Weasels and representatives of both their warm and cold-blooded client species. He broke them up into groups with at least one member of each species represented. He gave each group the history of the Plague War to date that I’ve been able to compile with Rusty’s help and input from all of the scouting missions we have performed over the last kilocycle.

  While compiling the history I’d been careful to put each event in chronological order with an emphasis on the Plague’s tactics and the Confederation’s response or reaction at each meeting. I must admit I got more cooperation than I ever expected, and there was a massive volume of data for them to comb through. With each intersection point, I’d added a brief analysis of both sides. The teams had their work cut out for them, Johnny dismissed them with instructions to vote among themselves to elect a speaker for the group and to retire to some place quiet to review and discuss the material. His final instruction to them is to tabulate a list of what worked and what didn’t work for each side at each intersection and prepare a report to be given to the other groups in ten cycle’s time along with a recommendation on how to conduct the final battle.

  There was stunned silence for a long moment before a few groans are heard accompanied by a shuffle of bodies out of the meeting hall at the WTC. There were ten teams, and each team had between ten and thirteen members. Most were from various naval traditions, but there was a healthy smattering of warriors among the groups, and each group had at least one warrior in its membership.

  Rank also didn’t matter here and there are grunts and swabbies rubbing elbows with the equivalent of generals and admirals, most of whom made their way up through the ranks and knew when to listen to their subordinates—something that surprised a lot of the Terrans when they came on board and absolutely delighted the enlisted men and women.

  Tuxedo and I would monitor each group and make sure they stayed on track, and we had help from Ginger, Ishmael and Elder Three. We would rotate through each of the groups and compare notes each evening after meal time.

  The first evening’s get-together was interesting as we reviewed each group’s accomplishments for the cycle. Some of the teams hashed out who was the speaker almost immediately while others got into reviewing the history straight away and chose to briefly discuss their analysis of each intersection before moving on to the next.

  By the fifth cycle, the groups realized, almost as a whole, their methodology wasn’t up to the task, they were falling behind. A few of the groups realized early, how much data had to be reviewed, so they split the data up and studied it in pairs where possible and drew up short synopses which they reviewed as a group each night after dinner. We kept a sharp eye on those groups because of their initiative and resourcefulness. It was no surprise to us that those groups had a more significant number of lower ranking individuals—those that actually had to do the work instead of ordering it done and waiting for a result. Tuxedo, Ishmael and I recorded the names of those participants with promotions in mind.

  By the ninth cycle, most groups had finished up their overall analyses and were preparing their presentations. By now, all of the groups had chosen a speaker, and that individual was practising their presentation and fielding questions from the others who were playing the part of a critical audience. All of us who had been monitoring the groups were observing a few of them now for they were clearly talented, and we were looking forward to what they had come up with.

  Finally, the tenth cycle was upon us, and we were giving each group forty centas to present and ten centas for questions and answers. In the back of the audience formed by those groups not presenting at the moment, we had assembled a number of representatives from each of the species in the confederation. Most of them were members of their respective councils, but there were also engineers, factory managers and various other support specialists among them. Some we had even brought up from Terra to participate including Moshe Berlin and Toshi Yamura who ran the Eastern Consortium that manufactured parts for our bombers and Swift Fangs as well as a considerable volume of our FTL engines.

  Ishmael looked around at the assembled audience and said, “Your assets on Terra are very astute to have sent representatives from your factories here to listen to the analysis of what we must do to defeat the Plague and what we will need from them to get the job done.”

  “We may be a young species in the measure of the original alliance, but we have practised war for a long time, and it is a wise armourer who listens to the warriors who keep him in business. Many of our providers have raised listening to a high art form. Only in our success will they have a continuing market for their wares. When we win, they will have the business of rebuilding our world to be a more peaceful and prosperous place, they will literally beat their swords into ploughshares.”

  Ishmael chuckled, “I’m so glad I have read so much Terran literature since I met you Jase. Without that, I would have no idea what you meant by what you just said. I do like the sentiment, however. Turning a factory from making weapons to making transport vehicles or refrigeration units is no easy task, especially for a species who may find themselves in another war before the process is half completed.”

  “That is why I believe in being the biggest, baddest bastard on the block. If I’m not, then I want to be the best friend of the bastard that is. I think it would be worth our while to continue searching forward of our course as well as jumping between galactic arms and see if we can find a suitable system for all of us to settle. There is strength in numbers as well as our diversity, and it is in our interest to keep the Confederation together.

  “Staying together will also help us if we encounter other life forms which are less than tolerant as the records show have been encountered before. It might give us a bargaining chip if we have to negotiate and should serve as a deterrent to outright aggression towards us. If we can get them talking to us, we should be able to work with them to at least travel through their territory instead of having to go around. They may also want to ally with us if they are having a dispute with another space-faring culture.

  “All I’m saying is we should keep our options open and be prepared for the worst while working for the best.”

  The first presentations went pretty well, and it was apparent the teams had done their homework, but I didn’t hear anything original or innovative. From some of the questions, the audience asked I could tell they didn’t either. It isn’t until the eighth team gave their presentation that I heard tactics that are a departure from what we have been doing. Their proposal was an extension of the strategy of rendering an enemy incapable of fighting a war by denying them the materials they need to prosecute a war.

  We had been fighting the war by destroying all of their ships and capturing their globe ships. What group eight proposed was to destroy the Plagues capability of manufacturing more ships while they were lightyears away from any source of supply. The globe ships hav
e been observed refuelling their smaller ships as have the harvesters. We have also observed the cannibalization of any ship smaller than a harvester suggesting that none of the smaller ships can carry enough fuel for longer journeys.

  Our scouts have been following and observing the main swarm for a kilocycle now, and when we ran the numbers, we found that the net total of all ships in the main swarm, including the ones from other swarms who have joined up, was decreasing at a steady rate. We had also destroyed several smaller swarms for a total of just over four million ships and had captured thirteen globe ships we were converting to our use. I listened intently as the team continued with their presentation, and I noticed Johnny, Tuxedo and Ishmael were paying rapt attention.

  The team was proposing a new type of Dopey Joes which are basically, self-propelled space mines. The latest version would include warheads the size of our original Cracker I missiles coupled with small jump engines like our Cracker IIs. They would be equipped with a limited AI that would be programmed to seek out globe ships and harvesters and kill them. Using our latest stealth technology, they would be seeded in space like our current tactics but would be seeded in clusters of five. Instead of a long, deep and wide deployment, the seeded area would be hemispherical in shape with the idea that the part of the swarm would veer off to avoid what was clearly a trap. Similar Dopey Joe formations would be laid ahead of the swarm when it changed course and once clear of the first trap. This process would be repeated until all of the globe ships and harvesters were disabled or destroyed.

  The idea was to redirect the swarm to a course taking them away from Sol and resupply while running them in circles, forcing them to consumed fuel and cannibalize their smaller ships. When the enemy ships became desperate and careless, our carrier task groups would converge on the surviving ships and destroy them. Carriers would be shadowing the swarm just out of detection range in case the swarm splintered with small groups of survivors heading away from the main swarm.