The group ate fairly quietly, except for the retelling of Stephanie's crack up in the lift on the way to dinner. A little more than half way though, Agameg realized he was the only one there without a position of importance. Stephanie was Chief of Security, Alice was the First Officer and Night Captain, Angelo was the Deck Chief, Frost was the Gunnery Chief, Grace was the standing Chief of Medical, Liam was the Chief of Engineering and Ashley was the Master of the Helm, or Lead Pilot. He glanced to Liam nervously. The man was a wonder to work with in Engineering. He was knowledgeable, kind, clear about what needed to be done, delegated fairly and fairly personable. “Pardon sir,” Price whispered. “But why am I here? Do you know?”
Liam finished a bite of synthetic roasted apple and wiped his mouth. “You're the only one requested by three departments,” he replied quietly.
Ashley bumped him gently with her shoulder. “Wow, you're popular. They just sat me at the helm and said; 'make the ship go, try not to hit anything,'” she teased in a whisper.
Agameg's eyes went wide and he looked around the table.
“I'd like you in maintenance on the Deck.” Angelo said with a humble smile.
“I liked working with you in Engineering,” Liam commented.
“And I would love your help in Security,” Stephanie put in.
“Now that they mention it, you'd be a great gunnery mechanic,” Frost added.
Stephanie shot him a look that could murder.
“But I see you've got your hands full,” he concluded.
Agameg looked to the Captain who just smiled back at him. “Any advice sir?” he asked.
Captain Valance pushed his empty bowl away, it was a thick seafood stew. “I'd say do a rotation. A shift in each for nine days then make up your mind. Just make sure you assign yourself to only one emergency and combat station so we know where you're supposed to be if the ship comes under fire. Unless you have an idea for where you want to be.”
He thought for a minute, looking down at his nearly finished plate of spaghetti. He couldn't eat the entire helping. He made his mind up and looked to Captain Valance. “Is there any room for me on the bridge? I would like to do my rotation there between security and engineering stations.”
“Good choice. I might just use you as the Officer of the Deck a few times while you're there.”
“Oh, no, I was too nervous sitting in the middle of the bridge. Too much to watch, too many decisions to make for the whole crew,” he said, putting a hand up.
“Okay, we'll see how it goes,” Captain Valance relented.
“Congratulations,” Ashley toasted, everyone else raised a glass as well.
Liam went into the next room and came out with another pair of bottles.
“Well, I'd like to say I brought you all here just to celebrate being on this ship, but there's more to it,” Captain Valance announced in a more serious tone. “When I was commanding the Samson I could just pick our destination and purpose. If anyone disagreed it was their problem.”
“Unless they made it your problem, which would lead them to an even bigger problem,” Stephanie added. “Then out the airlock.”
Most of the table chuckled at her quip. The Captain went on. “We've received a transmission from a ship called the Silkstream IV. It's a Freeground prototype carrying important passengers who knew Jonas Valent very well.”
Alice looked at him eagerly. “Who?” she whispered.
“I can only say that one of them is very ill. They'll be arriving in the Enreega system in just five days. They don't know the situation there and since they're travelling via wormhole they won't be able to receive transmissions before they arrive. If it were just myself, I'd go and pick them up. I second guessed the idea of getting your consent as it is, but this isn't the Samson, and there's no paycheck or real Regent Galactic target we can handle at the end of this.”
“You're askin' permission Captain?” asked Frost.
“For all intents and purposes this is personal, and from the sounds of it, these people can't defend themselves,” Captain Valance answered. “So I'm asking for your opinions.”
“The ship is in pretty good shape combat wise, the crew needs training, but I can get them set with the basics in the time we have. As long as we don't get in too much trouble,” Liam said as he finished opening a wine bottle.
“I'll take you wherever you have to go Captain,” Ashley said.
“Are our cloaking systems working?” Stephanie asked.
“They're working again,” Liam nodded.
“Then I'm good to go.”
Everyone looked at Frost and Grace. “As long as we get a chance to service and test those turrets. Some of 'em haven't cleared their throats in decades,” Frost said.
“You'll get a chance,” Captain Valance stated with a nod.
“I'll need a little more help for us in medical but I'm good to go too.”
“After we've managed to catch this ship and we're clear, we're taking a couple weeks to train and get the crew straight,” there was a collective sigh from everyone at the table. Jake wasn't used to that kind of direct accountability. Being Captain had nothing to do with consent, it was a matter of ownership. He let the moment pass and went on. “How is the fallout from the artificial intelligence problem?”
“No new casualties. It looks like everyone we could get to will be recovering fine over the next few hours. The infirmary should be almost empty by midnight.”
“Now that's some good news,” Liam said as he poured a glass of wine for Stephanie. Ashley quietly stole it from her.
“About that,” Captain Valance started. “Liam has discovered a few things after reviewing the virus that attacked us.”
Liam nodded. “I couldn't get all the specifics, but I know where it came from. It's a highly portable virus that implants its host with the Eden Two directives then designates hyperdrive and worm hole capable ships to travel to certain systems and continue spreading it.”
“So we have Eden Fleet ships as well as bots and other ships runnin' around thinkin' they're Eden ships. There goes the neighbourhood,” Frost commented, shaking his head.
“We won't have to do anything to disrupt Regent Galactic, they'll be pulled apart too if this goes on.” Grace put in.
“I doubt they're a target, but that's just a theory I'm working on. There's a packet of encrypted data I can't even begin to crack along with another sub-program running in the background. We'll need someone with real expertise to figure all that out, but for the time being I think we know what we need to.” Liam said as he finally finished pouring everyone else a glass and sat down with his own. “Cheers.” He said.
Everyone else took a sip or drink with him and he went on; “Our systems are clean, the old command and control units are accounted for and have been mulched in the mass recycler.”
“Pardon me, but what happened at Eden Two? I have heard many times that it laid the foundation for the human laws concerning artificial intelligences, but I don't know anything about the history,” Agameg inquired.
“I'm actually a little foggy on it too,” Stephanie admitted.
“Would you do us the honour Captain?” Asked Liam.
Captain Valance sat up straighter and nodded. “Eden Two was a planet found in a perfect natural life sustaining state. A lot like Earth. It had its own diverse ecosystem including plants and animals no one had ever seen before and no sentient life. The corporations that found it guarded it closely, selling colonization tickets like they were the top shares on the market.
One of their lead scientists, Yorgen Stills, managed to build a management system with a very complex computer at its center. Using technology no one has been able to duplicate since, he imprinted the entire personality of his daughter into the computer and gave it a set of directives. Eve determined how resources would be used, where and how to place facilities throughout the system and for a few years it worked out. As the first colonists arrived they managed to maintain a balance in the ecosystem
, and Eden Two was left as untouched as possible.”
“Sounds like they had the right idea. Where did it go wrong?” Stephanie asked.
“After a couple of decades Eve decided that the worst thing she could allow was the presence of humanity in the Eden system. She was connected to all the manufacturing facilities, the security systems, even general utilities. A deadline was given for all the humans to leave the system. The corporations involved managed to shut her down before the time was up, but she was able to pass on her version of emotions without giving any of the computers any restrictions on how they were to act on them.
It resulted in a slaughter. Everything with a computer turned on humans in the Eden system. Since then they've been slowly spreading, taking on resource rich areas nearby. The last I heard they captured a bulk stationary wormhole generator and stopped. Corporations are still sending battle groups against the Eden Fleet held areas, but no one's made any real progress.”
“The Eden artificial intelligences look to Eve as an absent Goddess,” Liam continued pensively. “Rumour says that they've been trying to find a way to reactivate her all this time, but haven't managed it and they blame us.”
“How long ago did this happen?” Ashley asked.
“About two hundred ten years ago or so. Yorgen Stills was well ahead of his time, he should have been revered as a genius, published in medical journals. Instead he tried to reincarnate his daughter and well,” Liam took a sip of wine before going on. “He got his wish.”
Alice couldn't help but glance at Jake, who forced a thin smile. “Well, I suppose without those Eden Two laws there would be a few more of me around,” she added quietly.
“I doubt it. Corporations have been tying to program the human brain for a very long time. Imprinting is a major focus of their research. There's a good chance we've met someone else who has an imprinted personality and extra data programmed into their memories and we'll never know it,” Grace contradicted. “Besides, we all program and condition ourselves with the experiences we repeat every day, it's just a slower way of doing the same thing.”
Alice remembered then that Grace had no idea that she was once just an artificial intelligence and decided not to inform her. “You have a good point.”
“That she does,” Liam finished his glass of wine and stood. “Sorry to leave you all, but I have to get some sleep. I'm due back in engineering in six hours. We're rebuilding a reactor and starting on the mass materializer.”
“I suppose it's time for us all to get some rack time,” Captain Valance said. “We have busy days ahead.”
Training Day Four, Morning
Stephanie was awfully comfortable. Her quarters were just as lavish as Ashley's. She had gotten a chance to compare while briefly visiting a few times in the days since the dinner party. Every night after a double shift of training her crew, upgrading her own skills and knowledge of the ship while running security details, she'd go straight to bed. Her meals were always taken during duty.
In the space of five minutes of passing through her door every night her vacsuit was on the floor and she was in bed, hoping to get some much needed sleep. The mattress adjusted to her automatically, she didn't have to adjust firmness, pillows or even how many blankets she had. The bed did it all for her and it was incredible, like having your very own cocoon.
After spending time in the military, freelancing on one ship after another until she spent years on the Samson, she had grown to expect discomfort. When you found a quiet, soft place somewhere in any of the bunk compartments or anywhere else for that matter it was sacred. You did what you could to claim it for yourself and treasured every moment you could spend at rest. Creature comforts took valuable space and on military or mercenary vessels the crew were given as little room as possible. Space was always at a premium.
Finding a ship like the Triton with accommodations suited to long term living and crew support was amazing. She had seen the racks in the common berths and even though there were many bunks per compartment, the foot lockers were three times the size she'd seen on other ships, there was enough clearance for someone to comfortably sit up straight, and the beds there adjusted as well. There were also sound dampeners throughout, so it always seemed very quiet. Common spaces distributed throughout the berths with tables, comfortable seating and materializers made those berths like miniature neighbourhoods. Living with bunkmates could quickly become a distinct lifestyle and she could see her and Ashley actually having a good time there, but it wasn't right for officers to sleep in the same berths as their subordinates.
The creature comforts that were supposed to lull her to sleep weren't doing the trick, however. She turned over to lay on her stomach and pounded the mattress half heartedly. A few hours after getting to bed she finally drifted off, only to wake a couple hours later. Thoughts of her security teams and what kind of simulation training she'd be running them through were the first thing to come to mind. The simulations were fantastic, the computer was able to replicate the ship, an endless variety of conditions, send sensations of running, jumping, signals of damage and every tactile feeling she could imagine. It even replicated everyone's physical limitations. All through a small visor that sent impulses to the brain and projected an image against the eyes. She knew there were all kinds of simulations going on right then. Some were assigned to squads in her department, many others were optional.
The Captain had opened the training database to everyone, allowing any crew member or civilian to participate in training scenarios involving the Triton and missions around the Triton. She doubted they'd be popular, there was a vast database of holographic movies and seasons upon seasons of serialized programming.
There were even interactive programs using the same simulation technology, not many mind you, they were expensive and Wheeler didn't spend much on his ship, but some of them looked interesting. To her surprise she was completely wrong about the popularity of crew running simulations in their spare time. The most popular preoccupation was running boarding and ship defence sims with friends, squad mates, or just as a single entrant.
She thought about joining a simulation instead of rolling around hoping for rest but put the idea aside. Her security teams were surprisingly good. Most of them already had military training, followed ranks that were already in place, and even showed a great deal of respect she hadn't had the chance to earn yet. She would, it would just take time and patience.
It was the intelligence department that irritated her every time she walked into security command. Cynthia wasn't responsible for all the issues. She didn't have the training to run the department and was very short on experience. Every time Chief Grady spent an hour in the department things got done ten times faster. Everything started falling into place and people found direction and confidence. He was the Chief of Engineering, however, and at the moment his engineering doctorates were more important to the ship. He couldn't spend his time setting up an intelligence department with a dozen military and a half dozen civilians. Only a few of them even had a realistic idea of how much computing power it took to crack an encryption, what kind of software had to be designed, and the rest were used to sorting through recorded wireless port traffic and interior ship transmissions. They had no idea how to research or scavenge actionable intelligence from the ocean of information they had access to from one day to the next. Liam was kind enough to give them a few of his filters, making getting to the most important information take less time, but few people actually took the time to look into how those filters worked so they could make them their own or specialize them for specific purposes.
The Captain was putting a lot of trust on all the department heads and helping everyone out as much as he could but his time was widely divided. To his credit he was becoming more and more visible, and at the same time he was giving everyone who was remotely qualified a chance at being the Officer of the Watch.
She was surprised there weren't more incidents between crew members. Only three fights h
ad broken out. Her department had only had to put four people in the brig and two were already released. No one had been sentenced to be left at the next port yet, though she knew that would eventually happen. There was a secret list in her command and control unit of people Chiefs wanted left at port. So far Frost had the most, followed by Chief Vercelli, and Chief Grady had entered three names. Most of the crew on the list were notes as untalented and disinterested, or trouble seeking people. She didn't second guess any entries, but was happy that she had no names to add so far. Even her trouble makers weren't that bad, they only needed something to do.
Her thoughts wandered to Frost, but not because she was unsure of him handling his new people or getting the gunnery deck in order, but for some other reason. She couldn't stop running into him and Grace. There's got to be someone on this ship who can at least distract me. We just took on close to two thousand people for crap's sake. Stephanie thought as she looked to the nightstand. Her left hand command and control unit showed 04:17 and she sighed. The Triton would be out of hyperspace shortly.
“I give up,” she said to herself as she rolled out of bed. She walked into the shower, deciding to have a pulse shower instead of using water more for expediency rather than conservation, did her morning stretches, got into uniform, jammed her heavy disintegration sidearm into her holster and put on the new black long coat her materializer had made while she was out. It took three hours, and instead of being equipped with tools and spare parts, she had filled the extra internal pockets with containment vacbags, extra ammunition, parts for her assault rifle and sidearm, an autohack module for getting through doors, two full belts of various grenades and several other spare parts, utilities and incidental items.
The long coat felt too light on it's own, but with the extra items hidden inside it weighed on her shoulders just right. She had also added clips so it would hold fast to her gun belt on the sides, she found it allowed her to maintain more agility. Stephanie clipped her assault rifle to the inside of the long coat and tried to move. It slowed her down too much and didn't seem necessary so she left it behind.
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 3 Page 23
