by M. D. Cooper
“We’re going to need more. How many people are on Europa again?”
“Population? The Jovian moons are estimated at eight billion at this point, I think.”
“And the ships we had at Europa barely made a dent in their overall traffic. Someone was also able to destabilize the deuterium market and strangle our fuel supply.”
“The bigger ships just scoop their own fuel, is my understanding.”
Arla turned from the window, looking angrier than Jirl expected. “That’s not what I’m talking about. We are apparently at the mercy of some hostile actor. Is it Carthage Logistics? Psion Group? Some government? None of this is adding up, and I don’t like things that don’t add up. That’s not how the world works.”
Alexander, Jirl thought, recalling the name Yarnes had said almost fearfully. He hadn’t mentioned it again during the demonstration.
“There’s one bright side in all of this,” Arla said. “Something I’ve been thinking about ever since we got the update on Clinic 46. How many Weapon Born seeds were stolen from that station?”
“Close to two hundred and fifty.”
Arla smiled. “We were trying to figure out how to disperse them, and now someone else is going to do it for us.”
“Are you sure about that?” Jirl asked.
“Anything as valuable as those seeds isn’t going to stay in one place for long. And as soon as one is activated, we’ll have its location and access to the system it’s controlling. If whatever entity that’s moving against us tries to use our own seeds to attack, they’re in for a surprise. And if it’s one of those AI-savior types trying to set them free, that’s going to blow up in their faces as well. Weapon Born are killers. It’s their purpose, the only joy in their lives, if they can be said to live. The damn researchers can’t seem to agree.”
Arla sounded too sure of herself for Jirl’s taste. Jirl didn’t like to make assumptions about events on the other side of Sol. She could barely protect her own son in the same city. How could she assume people’s actions out at the Cho and beyond?
However, she maintained her composure. Her duties were to gather and present data, to ask pertinent questions, to manage Arla’s affairs, and to remain calm in the face of uncertainty. None of those tasks required her opinion.
As Arla continued her rant, Jirl thought about her son Bry and what she would make for dinner when she got home so that he might actually eat something. She was beginning to suspect he preferred injecting calories to even smelling food, and she was worried that might lead to addiction. She wondered if they should look into some form of augmentation that would allow him to process the caloric substitute without the act of piercing his skin. They had similar systems for the few diabetics who hadn’t been genetically cured.
Cooking was one of the joys of Jirl’s life. She had loved cooking for Bry’s father. It seemed especially cruel to her that she both couldn’t connect emotionally with her son and also couldn’t cook food for him. Preparing food was the most basic human expression of caring.
Jirl watched Arla and wondered if AI would ever do something like cooking for each other. If they were alive, how would they express selfless caring? How would a human do the same for them? What if they rejected an expression of love, something true sentience meant was inevitable.
Humanity hated the idea of sentient AI because it meant humanity could be rejected. The creation could reject its creator, just as Bry rejected Jirl’s food and shied away from her touch.
Better to make them all slaves or destroy them altogether.
“We’re not evil, Jirl,” Arla said, drawing Jirl’s attention back by using her name.
Arla had been watching Jirl as she daydreamed. Her boss shook her head with a half-smile, her neatly-coifed hair shining in the light from the windows.
“Stop looking at me like that. This is a war for the survival of humanity.”
Jirl nodded. There was no suitable reply except to re-focus Arla on the task at hand. Jirl closed the display with Dr. Avery’s information, gathered her leather portfolio and stood from her desk, brushing the creases out of her suit. “We’ve got fifteen minutes until your next appointment,” she told Arla. “Time to get a coffee before we need to be there. How does that sound?”
Arla gave her a dazzling smile. “I was just feeling a bit tired,” she said. “That sounds wonderful. You always take such good care of me, Jirl.”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
STELLAR DATE: 10.04.2981 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: HMS Resolute Charity
REGION: Jupiter, Jovian Combine, OuterSol
The command deck of the Resolute Charity was a solemn place with no crew aboard. The lighting was designed to center over workstations, leaving the oversized holodisplay in the center of the space as dark as a shrine. Currently, the baleful eye of Jupiter, mottled brown, white and gray, floated in the tank, growing gradually smaller as the dark around it swelled with distance.
At one of the secondary astrogation consoles, Andy leaned back in the cushioned chair, which was more opulent than anything he’d experienced in the TSF. Even the harness was a material that didn’t chafe when he leaned forward to study the program running in part of his display, which showed two pigeons talking to each other using word bubbles.
He was the only human aboard the Resolute Charity. Even Cal Kraft’s wounded friend had gone out in one of the last escape craft. The remaining pirates had either escaped or killed each other in briki-fueled firefights. The atmosphere was mostly clear now but Andy still wore his personal air filters just to be safe. The cylinders made his nostrils itch.
Andy had spent the last hour playing the pigeon dating simulator with Cara, who was back on Sunny Skies.
“I really don’t see the point of this game, Cara,” Andy said finally, answering yet another dialog choice that may or may not benefit his horny teenage girl pigeon.
“You want to be the prom queen, Dad. It’s simple.”
“Why do I want to do that?”
“So everyone will like you,” Lyssa said over the game’s audio channel. “It’s very important in ancient human society.”
“I think it’s still important now,” Andy said. “Kind of how society continues to function. You do nice things and hopefully other people do nice things back. Everybody likes everybody.”
He heard Fran laugh in the background. “Is that really what’s going on in your head?”
“A person can hope,” Andy said.
“What did you tell me about hope?” Cara asked. “Hope isn’t a plan?”
“I’m leaning away from that. Too cynical.”
Once shuttle 26-11 was back on board Sunny Skies, the old freighter had boosted hard to match velocity with the Resolute Charity. Lyssa then parked her attack drones around the old freighter’s body, resembling dragon’s scales on the visual scan.
Andy had stayed behind to pilot the Resolute Charity as Lyssa focused on clearing the ship of scavengers and crew, using utility drones to herd them toward escape vehicles or their own ships.
Now Andy was the only human aboard as they accelerated away from Jupiter’s moons.
Eventually they finished the game, or had at least reached a point where they could pause as far as Andy could tell—he still wasn’t Prom Queen and felt no closer to the goal—and Cara admitted she was tired and wanted to sleep. The rest of the crew had gone to their rooms hours ago, May and Fugia having pushed Harl into the autodoc for a few hours and Tim taking Em to his room after showing Petral how the puppy had learned to sit and roll over for treats.
Cara had taken the news about Brit differently than Andy expected. When he said her mom was going after Cal Kraft, even though she was still occupied with getting Petral off the Resolute Charity, she grew quiet and then said simply, “Okay.”
Andy and Fran had maintained a Link connection since the shuttle returned, and he wasn’t surprised when she drifted off to sleep as well, Sunny Skies following the programmed flight path alongsi
de the Resolute Charity.
When he was certain he and Lyssa were alone, Andy asked,
Andy laughed.
Now Lyssa laughed.
Andy thought back to the woman she’d appeared as in Xander’s expanse. It was difficult not to think of Lyssa as she had modeled herself back then.
Lyssa didn’t answer right away. Eventually, Andy asked,
Andy nodded.
Andy blinked.
Lyssa said.
Andy laughed.
Andy laughed for a long time, enjoying the sound of his laughter in the empty command deck. His sides hurt from braying laughter.
Lyssa said.
Andy slapped his knees and stood to stretch.
As he left the Resolute Charity’s command center, Andy glanced back at the holodisplay. Jupiter had grown perceptibly smaller. The gas giant looked less malevolent from a distance, more like a piece of shell worn down by ancient oceans. He turned and walked out into the main corridor, where a maintenance drone was repairing the damage Brit had done to the shuttle bay airlock.
One leaves, another arrives, he thought. Welcome to the family, Lyssa.
The End
* * * * *
Find out what waits for Andy and the crew and family aboard Sunny Skies when they reach Neptune in Lyssa’s Call.
There they’ll learn what Alexander’s plan for AI and humanity truly is, and whether or not it aligns with what they believe.
Also, if you’ve enjoyed Lyssa’s Flight, please leave a review on Goodreads or Amazon.com.
To keep up with the latest news and releases about the Aeon 14 books, sign up for the newsletter at http://www.aeon14.com/signup.
AFTERWORD
“To talk about AI, we are really talking about ourselves,”
– User “RUR”, matrixcommunity.org (https://goo.gl/qEWgjo)
With the introduction of a spectrum of AI, I expect you will want more information on how various sentient beings differ at this point in the history of Aeon 14, as well as how they relate to ascended AI like Bob. We’ll get there in Lyssa’s Call, I promise, and it’s going to be awesome.
Michael and I have had many conversations about how the AI in Aeon 14 may evolve from research happening today. I’ve taken liberties with the idea of Seed AI and we’ve done our best to combine current speculation with interesting characters, exploring how humanity might evolve around AI, and vice versa.
One interesting quote I have on a Post-It is: “AI does not yet exist. Or as soon as it does we don't call it AI anymore.” What that says to me isn’t that AI won’t come to be, it’s that humanity will grow around it the same way we don’t call a cell phone a handheld computer. That part is really interesting to me.
It’s easy to forget how huge the universe is, how long time is, and
how those two factors add up to just how alone we are. We may have to create the only alien race we ever meet. That’s the kind of statement that makes you want to sit back and exclaim, “Dude, that’s crazy.” But I believe we’ll do it if we can. Just like we’re going to “uplift” our dogs, cats and parrots. (If you aren’t familiar with uplifting, check out David Brin’s Uplift Saga.)
I feel so fortunate to be able to tell this story, and I’m very excited about where it’s going to go. We’ve started with a single family doing their best to survive, and we’re about to crack open all of Sol in the year 3000. We’re about to bring two races together, human and AI, and forge a future full of stories you’ve already grown to love.
As always, let me know what you think and what you’d like to learn more about. You can always email me at [email protected] or check in at the Aeon 14 Facebook group.
In Lyssa’s Call, Book 4 in the Sentience Wars, Lyssa is going to learn just how different she is from both the Weapon Born and the other AI in Sol. We’re going to meet Alexander and learn his plan for all of AI and humanity, and see how Mars, Terra and the Jovian Combine are preparing for an imminent conflict.
Despite what Andy says, we’ll learn that sometimes hope truly is a plan.
Thanks for reading,
James S. Aaron
Eugene, 2018
THE BOOKS OF AEON 14
Keep up to date with what is releasing in Aeon 14 with the free Aeon 14 Reading Guide.
The Intrepid Saga
- Book 1: Outsystem
- Book 2: A Path in the Darkness
- Book 3: Building Victoria
- The Intrepid Saga Omnibus – Also contains Destiny Lost, book 1 of the Orion War series
- Destiny Rising – Special Author’s Extended Edition comprised of both Outsystem and A Path in the Darkness with over 100 pages of new content.
The Orion War
