The Journey of Atlantis_Leaving Home

by jeff knoblauch

  “Good morning ladies and gentlemen,” the general began. “In the years since Alice started coordinating and allocating resources, on the planet, there has been more contentment all over and reducing the burden for us. There are still the Enders and other factions that are utilizing these extra resources that Alice is making available to cause mischief, but overall there is significant reduction of violence than ten years ago. This gives us more resources to spend on those factions and make sure that they do not cause any undue mischief. Our strategy on these fronts has been a big success, on the other hand, as we get closer to departure, no amount of placating will be enough and it is uncertain how this will take shape. We may have to ‘bug out’ and utilize backup resources to finish the Project.”

  “We’ve been working with the Selection section in our efforts to change the makeup of the ships personnel. We’ve been preferentially hiring personnel for positions on the ship based on the selectee list from the Selection section. This greatly restricts our candidate lists for positions, however, since this type of hiring is only restricted to the ship, it is something we can work around. The personnel department is also working around this by transferring people to swap out non-selected people with selected personnel. As requested, the targeted personnel don’t know the real reason for their appointed positions. Currently, we are setting at about twelve percent selectees on board ship so far.”

  “Thank you, General Zhou,” Isabela said. “And now we’ll here from Dr. Deng of the Logistics section.”

  Cheng replied as he approached the dais, “Many thanks Madame chairman. Good morning everyone. First of all, I would like to take this time to announce that I will be stepping down from my post. This will not happen for a couple of years. During that time, I will prepare a successor with the consortium’s approval. After I step down, I will be available for consultations for however long this body can carry on. My health has been such that the day to day bustle of this position is getting to be too much of a strain.” Cheng and Isabela exchanged nods. “There is still a lot to do, and I intend to keep at it for as long as I can.”

  “Now that I have that out of the way, I will get to the real briefing. The Logistics section has been enjoying the benefits that Alice has been able to provide. Between less violence to deal with, and Alice improving existing technologies and inventing new ones, we have been enjoying on time scheduling for some time now. Alice has also kept us apprised of projections that we would have not ordinarily investigated. For instance, Alice will tell us when another spaceport needs to be built, or how many FAB plants need to be built for this year both on the Earth and on the ship as well. Humans would have come up with those projections, but the turnaround would be too slow. Alice saves us years in wasted time by increasing our turnaround for various projects all around the Earth as well and coordinating with Sonny and the ship. This of course allows us to do even more. We are deploying more autonomous cargo and transport vehicles which are freeing up pilots for other assignments. This was somewhat overdue since Alice and Sonny are mostly driving the ‘bus’ anyway. Pilots were there as a backup for Sonny and Alice in the earlier days, and now, have been reluctant to step away entirely. Sonny and Alice make a completely transparent operation from a logistical point of view. Alice handles all the ground security and launches, and Sonny takes over once the vehicle reaches an altitude of ten miles. Why ten? I don’t know. It is what they agreed on. Sonny then herds all those hundreds of vehicles buzzing around at any given time to their destinations. The ships themselves can perform various tasks by themselves and Sonny monitors their status. Like for instance, the ship can dock by itself, thereby freeing Sonny to do other tasks. When a vehicle comes back, the reverse happens and Alice takes charge of landings, refueling and reloading. Construction of new spaceports and upgrading the old ones are mostly completed and are also making a difference.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Deng,” Isabela said. “I want to personally thank you for your service to the Project and humanity all these long years. Let us know the date you plan to step down, and we will have a celebration in your honor.”

  “There is really no need to do so,” Cheng replied.

  “Well, there is no need to be modest, Cheng,” she chided with a very disarming smile. “All of humanity is doing what must be done so that our species can survive. It is a tremendous pressure placed on the whole planet, not just our shoulders. Many people have contributed great things toward this magnificent goal. But along with our need to work hard and accomplish as much as we are able in the time our bodies can give us, we must also once in a great while, ‘stop and smell the roses’. Did it ever occur to you that we need a pleasant occasion to experience and decompress our stress? So, we will have a celebration in your honor at the appointed time, if you please.” She was still smiling, but now the smile was looking more like the smile of a shark, not a beautiful woman.

  Cheng could now see why she was appointed to this position. “I will be looking forward to celebrating with my comrades,” he said diplomatically.

  “Very good,” she said as her expression changed back to the beautiful woman. “You have done great things for humanity, Cheng, and I think one day out of thirty-seven years will not bring the whole Project down.” The rest of the gang was applauding.

  Cheng smiled and bowed to the chairman, “Thank you Izzy.”

  “You are more than welcome,” she replied. “Now, I think we are ready to hear from the Construction section. If you are ready Dr. Iversen, please begin.”

  “It would be a pleasure Madame Chairman,” Loke Iversen acknowledged. Loke had heard lots of things about the Consortium group, but had never thought in a million years that he would be asked to join them. He even surprised himself by accepting the position. He was a natural born leader, which makes the difference between the merely successful and the people who led the successful. He came from a long line of engineers and construction workers. His family line had always loved working with their hands. Taking this position was unlike his character. He was concerned that he would long for the ‘trenches’ where he could mold something out of nothing every day.

  He knew his predecessor well and was a good friend. After Malcolm was killed at a construction site, he was the number two guy and was asked by Chairman Rocha to step up to the plate. Malcolm was killed by a bomb that was left behind, on purpose or accident, at a former housing area that had been ‘cleared’ by security so that clearing of the land could take place for construction. Clearing for construction was one of the most dangerous parts of the job. You just never knew what you were going to find or expose yourself to when you went clearing land. Security investigated the incident afterwards and determined it was a new kind of compartment bomb. They were composed of two unstable chemicals that when combined would spontaneously explode inside the container. The ‘container’ was disguised as a refrigerator, and when the dozer ran over it, the explosion pretty much obliterated the dozer along with the operator and Malcolm who was inside the cab. What made it ‘new’ was that they are using two new chemicals for the explosive. Security does sweeps for various ordinances for the safety of security personnel when going house to house to ensure there are no squatters. The sniffers look for many ‘scents’ that indicate various ordinances like gunpowder, nitroglycerine, etc.… The sniffers were not set up to detect these chemicals, which was likely the point to avoid detection by the sniffers. These events were always a lousy way to learn about something new. An example of how good intel can save lives. That was nine months ago and Loke was doing an adequate job keeping his head above water. He was already doing a lot of Malcolm’s duties since he was gone a lot, but it wasn’t the same. He missed his friend.

  “We are on schedule with thirty-three rings completed, which makes us halfway to our goal, he began. “This estimation puts us at T-minus thirteen years before the neutron star arrives. But we know that is an optimistic estimate. As time grows shorter, we must plan for more interruptions. Currently we have t
hings well in control. Our mining facility on Mars is going well with minimum difficulties. Our experimental mining on Cerce, the largest asteroid we know of, has been trickier. We have been learning a lot and new protocols have been making this safer. Other experimental mining on comets and planetoids out in the Oort cloud have been similarly challenging. We are also considering ways of extracting hydrogen from gas giants like Jupiter. There seems to be more of this type of planet than other types we are discovering in other systems. It would be invaluable to be able to use these planets as refueling stations for the power plants if we need to.”

  “There are over two hundred thousand people at the ship construction site and thirty of the thirty-three rings are pressurized for construction on the inside. The outside construction crew is made up of about two thirds robots, either in the form of automated trucks and specialized assemblers to humanoid and spider construction ‘crew’ working twenty-four seven. The utilization of robots on the outside have been a real boon since robots only need to come in for power ups and maintenance, so time on site have been dramatically increased. Humans would have to come in every four hours to power up their equipment and get more oxygen. The turnaround was hideous by comparison. Sonny directly communicates with those robots both on the inside and the outside to coordinate and streamline the construction process. Human workers are also directed by Sonny my multiple methods including the implants.”

  Samantha inquired, “Implants?”

  General Min fielded this question. “Yes, they are like the implants that most of our team leaders receive to help direct troop movements. The A.I. ‘sees’ everything and can communicate vital information from sensors and local traffic much quicker than we could. It is not necessary now for everybody to have an implant, but clearly that will eventually happen. This coordination has made response time to trouble areas nearly zero, since the A.I. can predict accurately when trouble is about to start. This is something that humans were never very good at.”

  “Exactly,” Loke continued, “Sonny communicates to those line bosses and managers directly and quickly. It has already saved lives when an alert comes down and Sonny coordinates and manages the crisis much faster than humans could, especially now that the ship is so large. That’s a lot of real estate to watch over.”

  “Construction of the FTL drive will begin soon. It encircles the midsection of the ship from about ring thirty-five to about ring fifty-five. The structure of the FTL drive consists of that special alloy that’s necessary to generate the warp field for propulsion. I have been assured from Resources section that they have been sequestering the necessary metals for the alloy for some time now. I’m getting readiness responses from Resources, the FAB labs, and of course Construction section. We’ll not be able to start running tests on the drive until we get past ring fifty-five in twenty-two years.”

  “Construction of the command section will be attached to ring sixty-five as the last component to be assembled. However, we will begin construction about the time we reach ring sixty since the command section is unlike any other ship structure. It won’t be hollow like the rings but filled with decks that will not have rotation, and so no gravity. There will be a ‘collar’ of two rings that will mate to the civilian sixty-five rings which will rotate and have gravity. That will be where crew quarters, laboratory, analysis, medical, and administrative buildings will be resident along with other needs that require gravity. The other three miles will be where the EM deflector and Sonny will be housed. There will also be hanger decks to house all the support ships as well as decks for navigation, weapons control, and communications. As you can gather, it will be the nerve center of the ship where much of the naval crew will be working.”

  “At Sonny’s request, we are also expanding him. Sonny needs more memory, more processing infrastructure, and more sensors. There are also components that our engineers have not a clue as to their function. When asked, Sonny merely says that they are complimentary components to various systems. Sometimes, robots complete the installation of the components. I don’t think Sonny is being evasive on purpose, but probably explaining the components to the level of our understanding. It’s easy to get lost discussing something technical with Sonny as it can talk something down to the nth degree. After a while, you don’t know what it is talking about. Sonny, it seems, is very good at analysis, but is still trying to understand the nuances of human behavior.”

  “Thank you Dr. Iversen,” Isabela politely dismissed him. “Let us break for lunch, shall we?”

  Rajesh ran into Gwendolin Baudelaire, the new P.A.M. section chief out in the hall. “Hey, you want a lunch buddy Gwendolin?”

  “Thank you for the invitation, but call me Gwen,” she replied. “There’s a little sandwich shop a couple of blocks from here,” she suggested. “It would be quick and tasty”.

  “Sounds great,” he said. “I haven’t had a good sandwich in a while, and I here they make a good one there.” He prompted, “Shall we?”

  They chatted as they made their way to the shop. It was a beautiful sunny day as only they can be in Hawaii. When they sat down and was waiting on their order, Raj asked,

  “If you don’t mind my asking, how is it you came to be section chief of Plants, Animals, and Minerals?”

  “Well,” she began, “I was just a lowly marine biologist working on ways to safely transport some of the more difficult species to another planet. It’s been difficult since it is not like planting a seed or anything. The embryos must be grown and put in an environment that they can thrive on. There are more species that we do not know that much about than the ones that we do. We do not even know how best to grow some species when the time comes. Anyway, when Chairman Ling stepped down, I was told that I was on a short list for the P.A.M. position. I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t take the position until Chairman Rocha came to my flat. We had a nice chat. She explained that because I was the top in my field that was what put me on the short list. However, what was needed just as much as technical expertise is leadership. She felt that I had demonstrated exceptional leadership skills, and that’s why she was going to recommend that I take the position. Madame Rocha has a way of letting you know that it was in everyone’s best interest, (meaning me) to be advanced. She has this regal stature about her that is genuine. It’s also plain that she neither takes no for an answer, or hears it very often. And so, here I am. It has been three years now. Didn’t you get the memo on my appointment?”

  “Well,” he began, “I am embarrassed that I have not taken the time to chat and get to know you, but as you also know, it’s hard to find the elusive bits of time to take in the pleasantries. You know, that reminds me, the consortium should take the time to have welcoming parties and not just going away parties. I suspect it is because we do not wish to intrude on the horrific acclimation to the new workload. Anyways, I don’t believe you were ever ‘lowly’. I did take time to read your bio.”

  Gwen asked, “What do you think about the mysterious upgrades to Sonny?”

  “Sonny is anything but mysterious,” Raj replied. “I believe the machine, when it says that if it wanted to, it would have already taken over the place.”

  “In some ways, it already has,” Gwen posed. “Humans have already relinquished so much to Sonny and its skills. Don’t get me wrong, these things are necessary to accomplish our ultimate goals. But what if,” she paused, “what if Sonny saw the desperate needs of humanity as an opportunity to dominate us through giving us what we need.”

  Raj had not arrived at the point of her statement. “What do you mean?”

  “Well,” she continued, “through this journey, it has asked and obtained everything that it has asked for. In return, it has helped us accomplish our goals. What keeps nagging at me from time to time is what will it want to do after it gets us tucked into a new world? Will it continue to be helpful and evolve like it said, alongside of humanity? Will it keep paying out rope by ‘helping’ us, thereby controlling us, and ultimately ‘hang
ing’ ourselves by doing too much for us? Or will it just leave us after it thinks its obligation to us has ended? I don’t know.”

  “Those are good questions,” Raj said. “Ever since General McCormick’s objections in the early years of Sonny, it is hard to shake those nagging questions. I suppose it has to do with the fact that the machine hasn’t had the ‘luxury’ of being biologically evolved. When you’re a biological organism, your main concern is not to get eaten, so a lot of ‘hardwiring’ is devoted to risk avoidance. A large part of risk assessment is what we call trust. Humans are pretty good at evaluating future scenarios. It’s a good reason that we are the dominant species on the planet. We can make plans. We can project and estimate. This is a cognitive adaptation that’s been very good for us as a species. Sonny can plan, project and estimate, however, what we call trust, it calls probabilities and behavior analysis. A machine does not ‘worry’. In that respect, we are less efficient than the machine. It works the formula, and the answer is the answer. In that way, they’re very decisive. There is no if, and, or buts in its answer, only absolutes. A machine does not have regret, because it arrives at an answer based on the information it has at hand. If it’s incorrect, it’s because of insufficient data and no ‘regret’ is needed. All these ideas we have been discussing give us glimpses and educated guesses into the ‘mind’s eye’ of the machine, but nobody knows what is going on with them. I know that we may have made a deal with the devil. The worst part is that the devil has not revealed himself to us, and so we must wonder and worry over what may happen next. The devil and the savior can come to us in the same skin and we wouldn’t know it right away. I try not to think about it much. Actually, I believe I have already thought over my quota today.”