The Hot Gate - [Troy Rising 03]

by John Ringo

  ”There are, according to our analysis, a number of factors, sir,” Murphy said. “But the most central aspect is their dissatisfaction with the Myrmidons.”

  “We supply Myrms to a lot of different groups at this point,” Tyler said. “Why’s it such a problem with our Latin brethren?”

  ”Being blunt?” Haumann asked.

  “Have we met?”

  ”There are problems with the systems coming out of Granadica,” Haumann said. “Especially the Myrmidons. Production systems don’t seem to have the same issue. Just mobile finished products. Everyone else deals with that by performing a hard eval of the bird. Generally, they do the main maintenance programs. That catches most of the problems. All as far as we’ve been able to determine. After that the birds are in good shape.”

  “Digressing,” Tyler said. “Why don’t we just do the same thing?”

  ”Because it takes trained personnel,” Knut said. “We just don’t have the people. As in there is a labor shortage of personnel who are capable of working in space and who have the necessary skills. The Navy does. That’s part of the labor shortage.”

  “Okay. Still not fixing the problem but it makes sense. Go on.”

  ”Bottom-line, our ‘Latin brothers’ don’t perform maintenance at all. So naturally they don’t catch what’s coming out of the factory wrong. And by the time the problem crops up, when they actually are forced to use the birds the way they’re intended, sorting out which is warranty and which is bad maintenance is nearly impossible. Although we’ve found... We had to go over some of the birds that went down. They were screaming that everything was warranty work. When we started pointing out obvious items that indicated a complete lack of maintenance...”

  “It became an even bigger issue,” Murphy interjected. “There was ... call it a major culture clash.”

  “Okay,” Tyler said. “Last digression. The point that the One-Four-Two can work the problem and they can’t doesn’t work, does it?”

  “The Latin countries have officially accused Apollo of supplying the best birds to the One-Four-Two because it is an American unit and supplying them with our rejects,” Murphy said.

  “Joy,” Tyler said. “So we have problems with Granadica. Which has in part, and also due to their own negligence which they are unwilling to admit because you don’t admit you’re wrong in Latin culture, ever, created an issue with the Latins in the Alliance. Even if we fix the problems with Granadica, that’s not going to fix the other problem because they’re still not going to do the necessary maintenance. The birds are still going to end up broke. So what will?”

  “They want to produce ‘their’ Myrmidons at their factories,” Haumann said. “Full access to the designs and theory.”

  “Okay,” Tyler said.

  “Excuse me, sir?” Haumann said.

  “Okay,” Tyler repeated. “They want to make the birds, they get to make the birds.”

  “Sir, there is a significant profit issue here,” Haumann said delicately.

  “I didn’t say there wouldn’t be a licensing fee,” Tyler said. “But if they have the ability, or even think they have the ability, to produce Myrmidons I don’t see why they shouldn’t. Or even their own design as long as it meets the standard of the Alliance. Go for it.”

  “Sir,” Knut said, delicately. “The Myrmidon may look robust but it is a very complex piece of technology. Not to be indelicate...”

  “I don’t think they can do it, either,” Tyler said. “I said let them try. There’s a reason we pump the things out of Granadica, who also produces most of the parts. Just the stator plates on those things are a bitch and half to build. I don’t think Boeing would find it easy to make a Myrmidon. I suspect they know they can’t make Myrms. This is called calling their bluff. Knowing Latins they have something else they want and are expecting to negotiate us down to that. I’m looking forward to finding out what it really is. When they finally get around to being honest about it, let me know. Now, Granadica. To be clear again. My quite able President of Engineering, working with the thousands of engineers I employ, ‘outside experts’ and even Glatun AIs cannot figure out what’s going wrong. So you’re throwing it on me?”

  ”We’re stumped,” Haumann said. “And it’s getting to be a major issue. At this point the choices are full quality control, that is, test everything that comes out and fix it, which would not only be hugely expensive but we simply don’t have the trained personnel, or figure out what’s going on with Granadica.”

  ”The Glatun cyberneticists that came in with Benefactor Gorku are not fabber experts,” Knut added. “They’re general cyberneticists. Their initial verdict was a sort of progressive dementia. Rare in an AI this relatively young. But due to its constant exposure to radiation it was possible that its processors were beginning to be affected.”

  “Initial,” Tyler said.

  “She passes every single check,” Haumann said. “She is, as far as they can tell, cybernetically perfect. Pretty much as good as the day she was made.”

  “Human cyberneticists?” Tyler asked.

  “Ditto,” Haumann said. “And the AIs agree that she passes all checks. She just is getting worse and worse about the quality of her production.”

  “Anybody asked her...” Tyler said then thought about it. “Yeah, you don’t ask Granadica direct questions in the negative. She has to know that we’re wondering, though.”

  ”Oh, it’s come up,” Knut said with a slight sigh. “She has a pretty good grasp on English, and even Swedish, invective. She swears up and down that all of her checks show the systems are but fine and blames it on the crews.”

  ”No critical failures?” Tyler asked.

  ”No,” Haumann said. “That’s been the main point that’s kept this relatively low-level until recently. Also the reason that we’re having issues with the reports from the 143rd. The 142nd finds problems all the time and duly reports them. We then charge them back for the time they take finding and in most cases repairing the problem. And they’re all secondary system. Not related to air, power or astronics.”

  “And no pattern?” Tyler asked.

  “Oh, there are patterns,” Knut said. “Grapnels are a particular issue. But no definable pattern. Not mathematically or production statistically.”

  “How...” Tyler said then paused. “Argus, you’ve looked at this?”

  “Yes, Mr. Vernon,” Argus said.

  “And you can’t find a pattern?”

  “It is, as Mr. Stormkartr said, virtually patternless from a manufacturing perspective. The fact that grapnels often fail is not the sort of pattern we need to find. It is various components of the grapnels. If we go to quality control, I suppose that the first check would be grapnels. But it is often other systems. Or nothing. It is as close to random as anything you could care for.”

  “Which means you’ve calculated how random,” Tyler said. “I know you.”

  “Yes, Mr. Vernon,” Argus said, for an AI a touch sheepishly.

  “How random?”

  “There is no such thing as perfect randomness, Mr. Vernon.”

  “How close is it? If you can define that since it’s an asymptotic curve.”

  “It is within a fraction approaching tau to six hundred and forty-nine million, Mr. Vernon.”

  “That’s pretty darned random,” Tyler said.

  “It is of sufficient randomness that it would be quite useable as a code variable, Mr. Vernon. It is more variable than cosmic background radiation which has become a standard of randomness. I have a hard time saying this, but it is as close to perfectly random as anything I have ever seen. Even ... elegantly random.”

  “That’s your answer,” Tyler said.

  “I’m not seeing it,” Haumann admitted.

  “I wouldn’t expect you to,” Tyler said. “Or Knut. I’m glad you brought this up. Knut, I need a team.”

  “Yes, sir?” Apollo’s manufacturing president said.

  “I’m going to need one of t
hose Glatun cyberneticists,” Tyler said. “More for show than anything. And I’m going to need some of your engineers. Good people. Preferably people who are respected in their fields. People with pipes and Ph.D.s and stuff after their names. Doctor this and Herr Professor Doktor that. And I’m going to need some other people. I’m trying to figure out exactly who. I’m trying to figure out... Okay, we need some Navy people, obviously. Is there a Navy team looking at this?”

  “Teams” Haumann said with a sigh. “We’re being very... interactive. Following your general ethical tenor we’ve included the Navy in analysis from the very beginning.”

  “Good. There an admiral?”

  “Admiral Duvall is the chief of NAVSPAC quality analysis,” Knut said. “She’s been actively involved in the process from the beginning. And just as frustrated as we are.”

  “Good, bring her,” Tyler said, musingly.

  “Just call up the CNO?” Haumann asked. “Sorry, sir, but...”

  “I’ll call the CNO,” Tyler said. “I’m aware that I’m trampling on protocol but while I’m willing to involve myself, I’m not willing to play protocol games on it. Are there, well, users involved on these teams?”

  “There are extensive test flights and analysis as part of the process...” Knut replied, then paused at Tyler’s expression. “I’m not sure what you’re driving at, sir.”

  “I mean are there any people who have actually had to deal with the problems as part of the teams?” Tyler asked. “The engineers who work on the boats. People from the 142nd, things like that?”

  “Ah,” Knut said, nodding. “There are point-of-use personnel occasionally called in for technical survey purposes.”

  “Oh, they must love that,” Tyler said. “What sort of people? I mean, pilots, the boat engineers?”

  “Generally senior technical people,” Haumann answered. “Flight engineer officers, who are required to be astronautical engineers so they have the... lingo.”

  “The flight engineering warrants as well,” Knut noted. “They work much closer to the problem. We really have been working this issue, sir.”

  “I can see that,” Tyler said. “And I don’t know that I can fix it. But I’m starting to get a feel for what’s going on and we’ll see if I’m right. Finding a fix, though...”

  “Sir?” the CEO said, frowning.

  “Going to keep that close,” Tyler said. “Argus, that last reference doesn’t go to Granadica. When she finds out she’s been a source of discussion, she’s going to be curious.”

  “Yes, sir,” Argus said.

  “If necessary, lie,” Tyler said. “And, yes, I know you’re not good at it. That’s part of the plan.”

  “Yes ... sir,” Argus said.

  “This team,” Tyler said. “I want all of the above but... just one. I want that admiral, whatever you get down from that, captain I think, some of the type of guys that serve coffee...”

  “Sergeants?” Haumann asked.

  “I think they’re called commanders,” Tyler mused.

  “That’s not...” Knut said, then thought about it. “You only deal with the Pentagon, don’t you, sir?”

  “Yes,” Tyler said. “But that’s not who we really need. We need... This isn’t about parts, people. It’s about people. Argus, is Paris busy?”

  “Not terribly. Would you like me to contact him for you?”

  “Please,” Tyler said. “Paris?”

  “Here, Mr. Vernon.”

  “What was the name of that cute coxswain that flew those kids up?”

  “You are referring to Engineering Mate Second Class Dana Parker.”

  “Wait, I thought she was a coxswain,” Tyler said. “We talking about the same person?”

  “She was recently transferred to the 143rd and her engineering rate reactivated. She is the NCOIC for Division Two, Bravo Troop, One-Forty-Third Boat squadron. Most notable in general for her spectacular entry to the main bay during the First Battle of Troy.”

  “That’s her,” Tyler said. “Comet. Does she have experience with the problems coming out of Granadica?”

  “Yes, sir,” Paris said. “She was an engineering rate during the first part of her initial utilization tour on Troy and is now an engineering NCOIC. She can be said to have extensive user experience and is a good... maintenance engineer. But she has very little theoretical background in either fabber operations or cybernetics.”

  “You ever talk to her?” Tyler asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Paris said. “I have spoken to her on numerous occasions in the course of operations.”

  “Just that?” Tyler said. “You don’t... chitchat?”

  “Despite my upgrade I don’t spend much time in chatting, sir,” Paris said. “But, in fact, I have occasionally engaged in not-strictly-operational conversation with Engineer’s Mate Parker.”

  “Like her?” Tyler asked.

  “AIs do not, as such, feel emotion, sir,” Paris replied. “I have however noted that an occasional conversation with EM Parker has a tendency to improve my overall operational processes.”

  “Paris, I’m not asking if you’re willing to launch a thousand ships over her,” Tyler said.

  “That’s mixing the metaphor rather badly, sir,” Paris pointed out. “It was in fact...”

  “I’ve read the Iliad,” Tyler said.

  “To the extent that it can be said that I ‘like’ someone, for AI values of ‘like’ which are not the same as colloidal likes, I can be said to like her. Before you ask, the same can be said for both Leonidas and Athena. We’ve had the conversation. Leonidas was less sanguine about it until he had experience of her.”

  “I’ve never talked to her,” Argus said.

  “You should give it a try,” Tyler said. “But just as I’m sure she tries not to take up your time, give her the same courtesy. Okay, her. Paris, anybody else like her? Somebody else you talk to not strictly due to necessity?”

  “Not of the same order, sir,” Paris said.

  “I’m trying to figure out how to do this,” Tyler said. “Connect Leo in, will you?”

  “Leonidas is online.”

  The AI of the Thermopylae had a voice nearly as harsh as Hephaestus’.

  “Leonidas, EM Parker.”

  “Has that come to your attention, sir? As far as I was aware it was a strictly military internal issue.”

  “My response of ‘has what come to my attention’ should answer the question.”

  “You are aware of the conditions under which EM Parker earned her sobriquet of ‘Comet,’ sir.”

  “Yes.”

  “I am given to understand at the time that there was a question whether to give her a medal or a reprimand. As far as I know, this issue was resolved by simply doing nothing.

  “For far more complex reasons, EM Parker is currently in much the same situation. Just on a much larger and more complex scale involving not only socio-political aspects but aspects of international politics.”

  “What the hell did she do this time?” Tyler asked.

  “It is, as I said, complex, sir. Do you wish to spend the time?”

  “Not now,” Tyler said. “Unless it interferes with the following. I need her, or someone who knows her, to pick some military personnel senior to her to go on a field trip. Parker will be on the trip as well. The actual purpose of the senior people will be to... I think the best way to put it is they’re really there to cover her ass. She’s going to be running in some really high circles and she’s going to need people who can cover her back. And I can’t ask her to pick them because that would interfere with the politics in a way that would make the whole thing pointless.”

  “You could have asked me the same question, sir. Leonidas: Barnett, Hartwell.”

  “Agreed. I would add someone junior, in fact,” Leonidas said. “Which would go a long way to resolving certain current issues for Parker as well as myself. EM3 Dario Palencia. He has experience of maintenance and warranty issues as well.”

  “
A South American?” Tyler said, wincing. “I don’t know if you know it but we’re having—”

  “I’m aware of the current issues, sir,” Leonidas said. “I am a neutral in the dispute between Apollo and the Latin American countries that supply the personnel and equipment for the One-Four-Three. However, the intent is to resolve some of the issues, sir. The socio-political aspects of this dispute have served to reduce my capability for war-making. I do not ‘like’ that.”