First of the First

by Andrew Maclure

  “I’m worried about the safety of the rebels.” Mike said. “If the rumors get to the aristocrat leaders, they’re likely to send the army to the rebel headquarters, with all the activity there they should be able to find them. They’ll start rounding up everyone they know who is associated with them. It will take a while before we can get our own protection force set up.”

  “And there is the issue of weapons and armor to be resolved.” Mark said. “Sally, you remember the expeditionary force with support ships De’Nesh was organizing, what happened to them?”

  “They are still on standby. They weren’t needed on Gnn’Ath, but I thought it prudent to have them ready if they were needed. I know what you’re thinking, but I can’t deploy them here without a good reason. That would be interfering with a sovereign state and could be construed as an invasion. Apart from the fact that it would destroy the credibility of my army as being impartial and neutral, neither the Ants or the People would approve. However, it is within our charter, which I had ratified by the Ants and the People soon after my army was formed, that I can declare a place as ‘an Area Of Interest’ and use minimal force to defend it. The downside of that is that I have to identify it publicly to all interested parties, so everyone will know where the rebel headquarters are. What do you think Mike?”

  “We could defend it.” she replied, “If we have appropriate weapons, it would only take a few of us to repel any ground forces. The Herassan armed forces aren’t particularly effective. You’ve seen Bryd Sa Dett and his so called elite troops in action. They haven’t been involved in anything but controlling civilians for over three hundred thousand years. I doubt there are many Herassans around now who were alive then.”

  “So you haven’t completely cracked the non-aging thing?” Mark said.

  “Yes, we have, but before most Herassans have reached two hundred thousand years old they have either died by their own hand or by accident, some get killed. Almost all the survivors go into retreats, some in Herassan space, but mostly in mixed species groups scattered throughout the galaxy where they continue their lives in quiet contemplation and meditation. Some go and live simple lives in agrarian colonies which use little or no technology.”

  “Which will you do Mike?” he asked.

  “I’m pretty sure I’ll be killed before I have to make a choice. With your implanted Peoples protection, you won’t get that option.”

  “The discussion about your deaths may be fascinating to you two, but we have more pressing issues.” Sally said, “We’re going to need additional automated defense systems on the ground. We’ll split into two teams and each will stay here on guard for half a standard galactic day. We’ll use your shuttle to move personnel between the ground and the Swift and leave the lander there to support the team on the ground.”

  “And we can flood the surrounding area with surveillance drones to give advance notice.” Mark said.

  “I presume the Swift has good sensors and can detect and analyze movements in the area for unusual patterns?”

  “Kate, what are the surveillance capabilities of the Swift?” Mark asked his AI

  “I can tell the defense systems AI to monitor all military communications and alert me if there is any kind of mobilization or activity directed here.”

  Mark passed this on to Sally, who said, “OK, I need the Swift to make some automated and self-propelled guided anti-air batteries, eight sets should be adequate. We’ll need mortars with battle fog canisters as well as battle fog grenades and dispersants. I need you to authorize my AI to use the People’s signal blocking capabilities to selectively jam any Herassan army AI to AI communications as well as their mission comms.”

  “Anything else for your shopping list?”

  “That will do for now. I want to spend some time with the Swift’s three dimensional tactical projector. Can you give me access to that too please?”

  “Kate, make it so.” Mark said to his AI.

  “Pardon?” it replied.

  “Can you make all that happen please. It’s what Captain Picard said to Riker, his first officer in the old Star Trek TV series when he wanted something done.”

  “Really? You think the Swift is the star ship Enterprise?”

  “No, of course not! It’s just a saying. Can you do it please?”

  “Aye aye Cap’n. I’ll jump to it and run down to engineering. By the way, Scotty just said ‘ye cannee change the laws of physics’ and that the dilithium crystals are wearing out or need oiling or something.”

  Mark sighed. “Can you just do it please, without the pantomime version of Star Trek.”

  “Aye Cap’n. I’ve already done it. Would you like me to beam you up now? Don’t forget to set your phaser to stun.” His AI changed its voice to sound like Captain Kirk, “We come in peace. Shoot to kill!”

  “Kate, it’s wearing thin. Can we communicate normally please?”

  “Of course Mark. I thought I would join in with the fun. Shall we have our next conversation in the style of Star Wars? May the Force be with you. I’m pretty sure I can make a passable light saber for you. I can’t wait until we do Doctor Who. Get ready to Exterminate the hostiles. I can make your shuttle look like the Tardis.”

  “Are you bored Kate?”

  “Not really. By the way, there’s a sonic screwdriver in the synthesizer for you.”

  “Are you having a problem getting all that done? Sally asked. “It seemed to take a long time and you look troubled.”

  “No, it’s all set up. It’s my bloody AI. I think it’s having a nervous breakdown.”

  “I heard that.” his AI said.

  Mark shook his head. “I’m going to ask Alan if he can run diagnostics on it when we meet him. I’ve had a response from him. It’s night-time where he is on Chookli'ch. He can meet us any time in the next four hours.”

  “He’ll come here?” Mike asked.

  “No, we’ll have a VR meeting on board the Swift. Let’s get on the shuttle, the sooner we square this with Alan and the People the better. What we are proposing goes well beyond what I’ve spoken about to him or Bob. I ought to speak to Sean as well. He’s still sitting up there in his craft waiting for something to do. You can brief the team from the shuttle can’t you, Sally?” Mark said.

  ◆◆◆

  As soon as the shuttle docked on the Swift, Mark blinked them all to his VR meeting room. Now that Sally and Mike had the location, he’d have to create another hidden room when he wanted to blink himself off the Swift.

  They each took a seat and Alan appeared in the room.

  “How are things on Chookli’ch?” Mark asked.

  “It’s very dull. You can spend too much time lying in a muddy puddle.”

  “Why are you spending time lying in a muddy puddle? Have the locals got so fed up with you that they threw you in one?” Sally asked with a smile.

  “Mark has previously made the same comment; he will explain it to you later. I think it best if we focus on the issues at hand.

  “You’re right.” Sally said and outlined the events so far. “So, within the People’s guidelines and without pissing your race off, how far can we go in supporting Mike’s objectives? Specifically, can we use the Swift to manufacture weapons and armor for the rebel defense force? I have in mind an up to date version of the RX4040 but equipped with an AI lock so only accredited users can fire them, body armor of an equivalent specification and technology to the Herassan army, and smart-helmets with integrated energy field armor made from a freely available pattern.”

  “That does not breach the People’s guidelines, and neither would the use of your team to assist as a defense and peacekeeping force as you have declared the rebel headquarters an Area Of Interest, though culturally it might pose problems of acceptance of the legitimacy of the rebellion later on.

  “Mark, as the Tolen are now present in the galaxy and are aware of your involvement, it would be prudent to update them with your intended actions.”

  Sally smiled at
him, “Thank you Alan, your advice is greatly appreciated.”

  Turning to Mike, Alan said, “To enable your proposed constitution to work, you will need a secure democratic voting system that broadcasts all the required information for a proposal to all your citizens simultaneously, and it needs to be able to count and verify every vote without any errors and without any delay between the vote being cast, counted and recorded for future verification in case of any dispute. Your civilization does not have that technology. You could acquire some of it from a more technologically advanced civilization, at a cost, but only the People have instantaneous communications technology. If you are successful in making the changes you propose, the People will provide all the technology required to facilitate this form of government. We have provided this support for many civilizations in the past and it is our intention to continue to do so in the future. The technology is compartmentalized so that you will not have access to its workings, neither will you be able to modify it or change its function. Repeated attempts to do so will result in the technology being removed. I make this clear now so that there can be no future misunderstanding. We will, of course provide much more detailed information about the scope and limitations of the technology we could make available before implementation.”

  “And what does this cost us?” asked Mike.

  “There is no cost, either in recompense or in obligations to the People. You are only required to use it in a responsible manner. Guidance will always be available to you from the controlling AI, or directly from one of the People if you request it.”

  “How can we make sure that the People don’t interfere with and manipulate our democratic process?”

  “The entire process is transparent from end to end and detailed audit trails are created so that disputes can be easily checked and resolved.”

  “But with your technology, you could obscure the transparency and amend the audit trails and falsify results.”

  “What you say is true Mike, and there is nothing we could do to allow you to prevent us from doing so, apart from giving you the technological capability of accessing and customizing the underlying technology, which we will not do. If you wish to use our technology you have to accept our assurances that we will not interfere with your democratic process in any way, and you have to ask yourselves what we, the People, would gain from doing so, bearing in mind that we are by a long way the largest and most technologically advanced civilization in the known universe and are present in trillions of galaxies. We have no ambitions to rule the universe, quite the opposite. How could we possibly benefit from manipulating your democracy?”

  “You may have no ambitions to take over the universe now, but that might change in the future.”

  “I understand your concerns Mike, but I truly believe it is not possible for us to change. However, you are not compelled to use our technology, it is an offer which you may choose to accept or decline.”

  Sally said, “We have taken enough of Alan’s time and we have much to do. Let’s get on with it.”

  Alan said, “Before you leave Mark, I need a private word with you.”

  “We’ll go to the pool; we can talk there.” Mike said, and she and Sally blinked out.”

  “What is it?” Mark asked anxiously.

  “What’s happened to Sally? She seems almost friendly.”

  “She’s having a difficult time. She’s re-evaluating a lot of things in her life, including her attitude towards you. She even said she may have been wrong about you, and I’ve not known her say she was wrong about anything, ever.”

  “That is interesting.” Alan said. “I hope she resolves her inner conflicts and that we can become friends. As you know, I am fond of Sally and I admire what she has achieved. It hasn’t been easy for her. She has suffered greatly.”

  “What did go on between the two of you? All I know is that it has something to do with her being an Aarnth, but no-one will tell me anything about the Aarnth, and every time I’ve tried to find out anything from my AI, it tells me that information is not available to me. Why?”

  “That is something that Sally must tell you, when she is ready. Your and Sally’s destinies are intertwined, as are yours and mine. All will be revealed to you in due course.”

  “You can see into the future? I didn’t think that was possible!”

  Alan nodded, the People’s equivalent of a smile. “No, we cannot see the future. As far as we know, the known universe is non-deterministic, so it is not possible to know what is going to happen in the future.”

  “So how can you say our destinies are intertwined? That doesn’t make sense.”

  “I said that as far as we know, the known universe is non-deterministic. This is a subject of overwhelming interest to the People for reasons I don’t wish to discuss, so a great many of the People research it. We try to find patterns in what appear to be random events by using deep statistical analysis, which has revealed many interesting phenomena, but this doesn’t help us see the future.

  “There is a field of mathematics, which your race calls stochastics, which analyzes random processes, those things where the movement from one state or position to the next is dependent only on its current state or position, and has no relation to previous states or positions. If it were a deterministic process, and the initial point was known, you could predict each step towards the end result with certainty. We have developed sophisticated stochastic process analysis tools that give a statistically high probability that we can predict outcomes – but those predictions are not totally reliable. We can apply these tools to complex random systems – such as an individual’s life and how they interact with others, that gives a high probability forecast of the trajectory and outcomes of the person’s, or group of people’s, journey through life and how they will affect events in the sphere of their potential influence. Is that clear?”

  “Not in the slightest, but I think what you are trying to say is that by using some kind of mathematical mumbo jumbo you can make some good guesses about what might happen.”

  “It is not ‘mumbo jumbo’ as you so dismissively describe it, but hard science. Other than that, you have grasped what I have told you.”

  “OK, my intertwined friend, I’ll leave you to get back to your mud-loving amphibious friends.”

  Mark stood up and blinked out.

  Chapter Fifty

  The New Team Member

  “I thought you two were plotting Mike’s next move?” Mark said to Sally, who had taken off her jumpsuit and boots and was laying on the beach by the pool.

  “I’ve had a busy day.”

  “Yeah, right. All we’ve done is sit around drinking coffee, waiting for something to happen while Mike’s been in a firefight, been taken prisoner, had a hand to hand fight to the death and faced down a cafeteria full of angry rebels.”

  “Yes, exhausting, isn’t it?” she said, grinning.

  “Should Mike be out there swimming, with that gash across her face?”

  “She’s fine. The water is clean and sterile. At least it is if Simon hasn’t been in it yet.”

  “Why pick on Simon? Does he have a personal hygiene problem?”

  “No, but he’s big, he’s a mammal and he’s an easy target.”

  “Ranesh is a big mammal, why don’t you pick on her?”

  “Would you want to risk pissing her off?”

  “On reflection, it’s best to pick on Simon.” Mark said.

  “Mike needs a break, she’s had a tough day, and it’s not going to get any easier for a while. What did Alan want?”

  “Oh, just People’s stuff, he wanted to tell me all about stochastic process analysis.”

  “Really? That’s interesting. How much do you know about stochastic processes?”

  “I can pronounce it, but that’s about my limit.”

  “You should learn about it. It’s useful when trying to understand battlefield dynamics in larger scale conflicts.”

  “Yeah. Sounds fascinating. Bu
t right now, however much I’m admiring what you’re wearing, I’ve got to have a meeting with the Tolen.”

  “But I’m not wearing anything.”

  “Yes, you should wear it more often, but not in public. Anyway, I’ve got to go now.” Mark blinked to his new VR room. He connected with Bob and his image appeared in the room.

  “Hello Mark. You know how much I prefer to meet face to face. Come and meet me here.”

  Mark sighed. He didn’t entirely trust the idea of blinking himself halfway across the galaxy without a ship around him and dressed just in a jumpsuit and boots. He didn’t like to think about what would happen if he missed, even though he knew his implanted phase shift protection was supposed make him invulnerable, and as it was originally designed for environmental protection he would be able to breathe in space with it. Mark tried not to think about it and blinked to Bob’s ship.