Ariticle Six

by C. T. Christensen

  “Cline, I want you to print a series of signs for each elevator saying what number elevator it is and what deck it is. Then I want them stuck to the wall next to each elevator on each deck. Round up whoever’s available to get it done.”

  Petty officer Cline looked surprised at the request, “By God, sir, we did forget that, didn’t we? No problem, Captain, I’ll run ’em off immediately.”

  “Good; thanks.”

  Helt’s shoulders slumped, “I hope to Hell that we only forgot the little, merely inconvenient things.”

  Wills patted him on the back as he dropped into the remaining chair, “Oops, too late to worry about that. Have you come to any conclusions about the change in the subjective effects we experienced during the isolator jumps?”

  Helt rotated his chair so that he faced more toward the other two chairs that were behind him and to either side. He looked from CeCe to Wills as he organized his thoughts, “Okay, I’ve been over every data recording we keep that has anything to do with drive function or power flow; the only solid conclusion I can come to is that everything worked.”

  Wills got a frustrated look on his face and Helt had to hold a hand up to forestall the protest, “I know, I know, you wanted something new and solid, but all I can give you is conjecture.”

  He hesitated as he picked his next words and held his hands to form an indefinite shape in the air in front of him, “We do know that the shape of the ship has an effect on the way the isolator field is established; the time it takes, the accumulator surge level, and the reactor stability immediately following activation. All of that translates into subjective effects on the crew. The more bulges and projections a ship has, time, surge, stability, and subjective effects are worse. However, we also have found out that improvements in initiator systems have lessened the negatives. The one thing we had never done was to place isolator initiation completely under the control of an AI; initiator systems are activated by an AI but not controlled by it.”

  Helt leaned back in his chair and placed his hands on his legs, “It appears that that has been a mistake. Of course, there have been few AI systems with the capacity to directly manage that task, but the Silverman has far more than enough to do it and we have just experienced the results. I can only theorize that the Silverman AI has learned a better way to handle an isolator drive. Unfortunately, it will take far more instrumentation than we have here to figure out what it’s doing.”

  The three of them looked at each other for a moment before Wills spoke, “I’m a great fan of badly written sci-fi vids; I hope that thing doesn’t learn a better way to fly this ship without humans.”

  CeCe and Helt smiled and CeCe lazily raised a finger, “AI conceptual psychology is non-relational; that is, they have no idea of self, need, or competition. One of the best ways to start a fight in a psychology lab is to assert that our current level of AI is true intelligence. Another way to start a fight is to defend the point of view that what humans call intelligence and attribute to ourselves is merely a product of our own conceit reinforced by the lack of anything at or above our level to compare ourselves to.

  “Consider that when we are born we have extremely limited abilities; everything the three of us now know we have been taught or, if you will, programmed. Humans have no ability to handle situations that are based on data that is new, abstract, or incomplete unless we have been trained, familiarized, or exposed to it or something similar. If some fantastic and indecipherable piece of alien technology dropped into our hands that was capable of something we had never even imagined was possible, we would formulate a series of experiments to determine what it was based only on our previous experience of what we think the thing might be if it were something we were familiar with.

  “The objective of an AI is based on task management; a particular AI system is given a specified set of tasks with limits and conditions, and it finds the best way to make them all work together if they interact. Our current level of what we call artificial intelligence is, fundamentally, highly compact versions of what used to be called super computers. They have massive storage, highly involved, but specific programming, and are very fast. The primary difference between an AI and humans is that human programming is more generalized and is contained within a biological organism with all of the usual associated baggage that involves.

  “The Silverman Integrator is called an ‘Integrator’ because it was intended to integrate economics, logistics, transportation, communication, security, and more for an entire planetary system. Its programming was extremely involved and made up a significant part of its cost, but the programming determines what it does and the basic rules. An AI has no needs as we define them; it only has the ability to learn to handle its assigned tasks. The possibility of kitchen utensils mounting an attack on us one dark and stormy night is fairly remote.”

  Wills let out a long breath, “I am relieved to hear that. Keep up the good work, Helt.” He stood and headed for the door, “Back to the bridge, I guess.”

  #

  “Doctor Stoker,” a tall, slim, fortyish woman three rows back stood up, “If I remember my science classes correctly, there should be no real danger to the Foresters from this anomaly that is disturbing the star. Even intense flares cannot penetrate a planet’s magnetic field and atmosphere. Are you expecting something more like a nova?”

  Stoker was sitting on the front edge of the table. He turned to look at Treelam who was sitting in a chair behind the table; he had a slightly embarrassed look when he turned back to the audience.

  “Ahh . . . yes, I guess I should tell you about that. Forgive me for being incomplete; I rarely talk to people that are not fully informed. Anyway, the problem is that Forest does not, at this time, have an effective magnetic field.”

  That caused a stir in the audience.

  “Soon after Forest was discovered, the lack of a strong magnetic field was realized. A year later, we put a geological team down in several remote and unpopulated parts of the planet. Core samples indicate that Forest may be in the process of a polarity reversal. The samples seem to indicate that Forest has never had a strong magnetic field and that reversals have been relatively common as these things go. Ordinarily, a reversal does not present a major problem under a G-class star, but this particular situation does make it a problem.”

  Stoker pointed at a young man that had his hand up, “Doctor, why is it called ‘Forest’?”

  Stoker smiled, “Well, basically because the vast majority of its land surface is covered with vegetation. As I understand it, the scout ship pilot that discovered the planet exclaimed that it looked like a solid forest from pole to pole; it stuck.

  “Geologically, Forest is an unusually quiet planet. About eighty-five percent of its surface is water and there appears to be little tectonic plate activity, so there are no real mountain ranges to affect air currents and weather patterns. This would also be an indication of a smallish molten core which would limit surface structure movement and the strength of the magnetic field. Axial tilt is two degrees and rotational period is twenty-nine and a half hours; both of which minimize climate differentials.”

  Another man at the back stood up, “What is the anomaly?”

  Stoker made a face at that, then he smiled, “Ah . . . the big question. We are now in the area of the greatest speculation. Let me start by saying that the one thing that is agreed on is that the Foresters are not native to that planet.”

  Again there was a stir in the room. Stoker could see that only a few already knew that from the general surprise.

  “We have managed to get biological samples from the Foresters, without their knowledge, of course. Tests indicate a significant biological incompatibility with their environment. One very telling point is that, while they are omnivorous, they avoid many of the native land animals, almost all sea life, and a significant amount of the local vegetation; the crops they grow are not represented by anything similar in the local environment.

  “Along with tha
t is the curious mix of their technologies. If you walked into any of their towns, you could almost see a human town out of the middle 1800’s. They have well planned railroads that branch out from what appears to be their central coastal city that we call Watts after the pilot of the scout ship that discovered them. They run out to each of their towns with steam/electric trains on them. And, instead of a Morse code type telegraph paralleling the railroad lines, they have a wired audio phone system. They have four hydro-electric power plants at dams that they have constructed in the limited river systems on the land mass they have occupied.

  “That is another curious point; there are other land masses, but they only live on the biggest one and send out teams to explore the others. We believe that they arrived on Forest something like a thousand years ago, landed on the biggest land mass, and set up in survival mode. We think that, because any fully equipped colony effort capable of interstellar flight should have been ready to set up shop with the maximum their technology had to offer; just look at Archer and the comforts we have always had there.

  “Further, even though we have not mounted a full geological survey of Forest, our data to date indicates that it is relatively mineral poor which would seem to be the reason that their rail system has wooden rails and a solid reason for their inability to duplicate interstellar-level technology even though they must have arrived with it. They appear to have put their limited supply of metals into what had to be absolutely made of metal.

  “As for the anomaly itself, the most prevalent opinion is that it is an isolator drive ship, probably the one they came in. I have to say that the two most common reactions to that reasoning among isolator theorists is to either go into a mad fury over the total impossibility of such a thing or they just shrug and say ‘what do I know’.”

  A wave of laughter rolled across the room and another question reached him, “How would a drive operate for a thousand years?”

  Stoker got to his feet and held out his hands, “I think I should end this session for today so that Captain Helt’s people can begin the ship system training. But, before I do, I will answer that question as best I can; I don’t know.”

  Again, there was a laugh, “I have bumped heads many times with isolator theorists and I can tell you with total certainty, no one really knows how an isolator drive does what it does or what it might be capable of doing. The technology began with an error of thinking that caused a spectacular loss of life, and then took decades of time and more lives to bring us to here and now. I have this feeling that we paid a staggering price to get it to do something we can use and now we are afraid to breathe on it for fear of triggering an unknown response. We think we know what the anomaly is but have no idea how or why; all we know is what it is doing and are trying to do something about that.”

  The applause he got was a pleasant surprise and the handshaking even more so.

  ##

  “Breakout in one minute; belts fastened, sensitive gear on your bunks, and side rails up.”

  Ames and Twisst called down the passage and affirmed their readiness to return to normal space.

  “Lieutenant, can you get us a dump from the solar monitor as soon after breakout as possible?”

  “Not a problem, Doc, but it will take a few minutes; the monitor and Forest are a little around the primary from us and I won’t be able to punch a signal through the corona until we get further around.”

  “That will be fine.”

  “Breakout in five, four, three, two, one.”

  The auto-pilot rotated the ship to a stern-wise approach to the star and started feeding power to the ring.

  “We’re going to do a slide around the side of the star to get on a vector for--”

  The aft view on one of the screens caught his eye, “You better have a look at this.” A few taps on his panel transferred the view to the passenger screens, “Is that as bad as it looks?”

  There was silence for a moment before Ames and Twisst started a rapid conversation between themselves. After a minute, Twisst directed her words down the passage to Hayes. “Yes, Lieutenant, the situation has not improved. We would like to suggest that your route past the star be farther out than normal for any component that passes directly outward from the disruptions.”

  “Way ahead of you, Doc. I’m going to knock off most of our velocity then do a snapshot to the other side of the flares”

  “What’s a snapshot?”

  “Just a quick isolator jump past the flares so we don’t get our shorts starched. It’ll add a bit to our approach time but not too much.”

  Hayes had fed a modification of their course into the AI and watched as the green line of their computed course changed. The vector change at the new transition point was abrupt enough to translate into a side-loading that he could feel.

  “Our initial deceleration will be much less than planned because I have to go way off axis of a direct course to the star. I’ll have to make it up with an extended deceleration period on the Forest vector. Are you seeing any radiation problem along a direct path between the star and Forest?”

  Ames called down the passage, “It looks like that route will be clear for now. The anomaly is in an orbit that is at a steep angle to the local planetary plane so there are only two points in the orbit of Forest where the planet crosses the plane of the anomaly’s orbit. Unfortunately, Forest is approaching one of those intersection points; in fact, if I may be allowed to give an opinion that should properly come from a stellar physicist, it looks like we may only have eight or nine days before Forest crosses that plane. It looks like our venture will only involve one trip.”

  Hayes’ jaw tightened as the Santana’s vector settled to an alignment past the star.

  “Okay, short jump . . . now. And breakout in three, two, one.”

  “We are past the line of flares, and I have a signal from the monitor; down-loading now.”

  It took over twenty minutes to kill the excess velocity and alter their vector to a direct path toward Forest.

  “Hang on; I’m going to make the jump to Forest . . . now.”

  Down the familiar rabbit hole they fell again to be followed by the, now pleasant, free-fall. Fifteen seconds later, the screens filled with the bulk of Forest. The Santana swapped ends and bent their course for a sweep around the planet to kill the rest of their velocity.

  “Watts is just at the terminator line heading into a new day. Today will be a day like no other; ETA 24 minutes.”

  Hayes positioned himself into a more reclined position, “AI, prepare for close maneuvering.”

  He kept his hands folded across his mid-section as control arms pivoted up from the sides of his chair and his head was enclosed.

  Santana’s stern was pointed in the direction they were headed and away from the planet so the ring could slow them and warp their course into an arc around the planet. The display had him facing outward away from the ship as the night side of Forest rolled beneath him. Displays showed his speed dropping through 100kps and the ring pulling sixty-five percent of its rated power maximum because of the weaker effect of a cross-wise orientation with the gravity-well.

  A vast, dark ocean rolled past as the Santana fell below orbital speed and entered the upper limits of the atmosphere. Hayes loved this part of flying--every pilot did. The, already spectacular, view suddenly burst with a glorious sunrise. Ahead, he saw the sunlit coastline beyond the edge of darkness.

  Hayes waited until they were almost over the coastline before lowering his hands to the manual controls, “AI, suspend autopilot control.”

  A chime sounded, “AUTOPILOT SET TO STAND-BY.”

  He oriented the Santana sideways to the ground and applied power to the ring at a rate that had them stopped horizontally relative to the ground directly over Watts where he reduced power to zero and turned the ship’s stern toward the ground. Of course, the vertical component of their current vector was an unpowered fall.

  “Lieutenant, is something wrong?” Doctor Twisst so
unded nervous about the return to free-fall.

  “No problem, Doc; just my standard approach.”

  With his virtual view straight down at the ground from ten kilometers up, he picked out familiar landmarks; the two rail lines that headed east from the town and became the fourteen lines that ran out to the rest of their settlements, the wide, smooth dirt roads that headed out to the local countryside and farms, the massive stone bridge that crossed the river at a narrow spot a couple of kilometers upstream, and the game field on the south edge of town where he was about to land. He moved the controls with a practiced touch until the double concentric circles of the impact indicator settled exactly on the spot he wanted.

  At one kilometer he could easily see Foresters starting to move about as a new day started.

  “Deploy landing struts.”

  He watched the four virtual pads appear around him.

  “LANDING STRUTS DOWN AND LOCKED.”

  His rate of descent dropped through 3mps, and he watched the ground near the end of the wide walkway that went into the town come up to meet him. As far as he could see, no one on the ground was looking up, but one of the locals that was pulling a small cart had just turned onto the path to the game field. Hayes figured he would walk right into a strut if he didn’t lift his gaze from the ground at his feet.

  Contact!

  “AI, all systems to immediate ground stand-by.”

  “ALL SYSTEMS READY FOR IMMEDIATE LIFT.”

  The local had finally noticed the obstruction in his path. He stopped and started a slow tilt backwards, further and further, until he fell backwards over the cart he had been pulling. Hayes hung in the virtual air, grinning, as the local scrambled over himself and ran shrieking into the town.

  “AI, finished with close maneuvering.”

  He rose from the reconfigured chair, “Doctors, the day is now yours and I believe that our presence is known.”

  He unlocked the floor hatch and pivoted it back against the hull. The cargo compartment offered a close fit down the ladder but the hatch opened out and up, and the steps rotated out and down to give a maneuvering space. Hayes turned and backed down the three steps to the ground.