by Ben Winston
Main Force Command Center
Ares Base
Icarus Plateau
Mars, Sol System
"Are you alright? How much damage did you take?" Vance asked the battered image of Hearlis.
"We got pretty banged up, but we're still functional. We took more casualties here than the rest of the fleet did in combat; mostly thanks to your new armor and the AI. The only reason we took so many casualties was because the Arac command ship actually rammed us. Without the new armor, there would have been many more dead, and without Athena, we could have lost the station.
"As soon as we are capable of it, we will be jumping to Sol for repairs. Three of the Councilors are still in the medical section, but they'll be transferred to the planet with the rest of the Council before we leave," Hearlis replied. He was wearing a bandage around his head that covered one eye and his left arm was in a sling. Although he was sitting down, Vance could see that he had bandages on his legs as well. From the scorch marks on his pants, Vance thought the leg wounds might be burns.
Vance nodded. "I'll alert our own medical sections to expect your wounded as well, Lord Admiral. We should be able to help you with those burns and that eye."
Hearlis grinned. "I'm sure you can, that was one of the things I was going to ask about getting upgraded while we were there. We have the nanos in our armor, and the medical section can work with them, but only to a limited degree. I'd like to get us upgraded fully so we can really take advantage of what the nanos can do."
"Just let me know when you're coming and I'll make sure we're ready for you, Lord Admiral," Vance replied. "Is there anything you need us to send? Were any of the civilians hurt?"
Hearlis shook his head. "No, the fighting never made it to any of the populated planets. However, we did find that each of the out-system facilities had been invaded and a couple were seeded with hives. Those are being cleaned up right now. You folks just keep doing what you’re doing, and we'll all be just fine."
Vance snorted and nodded. "Until the Aracs figure out where all these new weapons and systems are coming from, then they'll throw everything they have at this system. But, we'll be ready for them. There is stuff in the works that would amaze you."
"I'll look forward to reading those reports then. Personally, I'm looking forward to that transit gate you mentioned. I hate hyperspace travel," Hearlis replied.
"You'll love the other stuff they're trying to figure out; photon torpedo launchers, nano-assisted self-repairing ships, unmanned combat drones, there's just about everything you could think of and some you never would have imagined being researched here," Vance said proudly. "Even ways of terraforming planets that had once been over-run with Aracnise."
Hearlis smiled at Vance. "Keep talking, and I'll switch jobs with you! You did a damn good job getting us the reinforcements we needed to survive this battle. I doubt we would have done it without the extra help you sent us."
"Now I know you're telling stories. The Simonians sent half their Home Guard fleet to you," Vance said slightly embarrassed at the praise.
"Oh they certainly helped, but if not for the extra ships you sent us, this battle would have turned out far differently and lasted much, much longer," Hearlis replied. "And that was your doing."
Vance cleared his throat and changed the subject. "Any idea when you'll be able to make the jump?"
Hearlis grinned at him, but let him get away with it. "Our engineers tell us they'll have the jump engines back on line within two days. The repairs to the superstructure will take at least three days, at least enough of them to make sure the station doesn't break up during the jump. So all in all, we should be there in about three weeks."
Vance raised his eyebrows. "You know, the new command station we were building as your backup will be finished in five weeks. Let me do some checking and see if we can't shift more resources to it. If we can get it close to finished by the time you get here, you could just move into that one. It would certainly cut down on your repair time,"
"I had no idea it was that close to being finished. The last report I saw said it still had months to go," Hearlis replied.
"That was before Earth became a Core World. All our projects have sped up since then. We have a lot more manpower now," Vance said. "Even here on the military base, we are almost at full capacity in training. I've been worrying about what I'm going to do with all the extra crewmen and Marines I'm going to have soon, since the ships being built for them won't be ready in time."
"Well, we can rotate a good portion of them out to our fleets and give some of our other sailors and soldiers a break by sending them through training for the new systems. Are the Shallans still insisting on rebuilding the GMASS facility there?" Hearlis asked.
Vance nodded. "In fact, they have already gotten a very good start on it. It'll take centuries for them to completely rebuild the entire facility, but what they have already finished has already started building new ships. From what I understand, all they really basically need at this point is the empty module shells. They are filling each new module with their equipment as soon as it gets built and hooked up. Eventually they will run out of equipment and need to build that too, but for now, they are getting the new facility running much faster than anyone ever thought they could."
"Will you be able to handle a few extra ships in the upgrade bays?" Hearlis asked. "I was planning on bringing some of the older ships back with me as escorts."
Vance looked thoughtful and pulled up the refit schedule on his terminal. "That might be difficult, but I could probably shift the schedule around a little to make room for them. I'll see what I can make happen."
Hearlis nodded. "Okay, I've been ordered to try to get some rest, and frankly the pain killers are starting to get to me. I'm going to leave Fleet Command on you for the next couple of days in order to get ourselves back to some form of order around here. Let me know if anything new happens."
Vance nodded. "Will do, get some rest Sir."
Hearlis nodded and ended the call.
Office of Lord Dr. Cowan
Alliance Apollo Base
Selene, Earth's Moon
Sol System
Ced and Tul-sa won me over. I did talk to the psychology folks and let them know that I wouldn't be able to work with them as much as I have been because I was switching my focus. It was easier to do that since I hadn't actually committed to AI psychology yet, but many of them had expected it of me. When I explained why I was doing what I had planned, they said they understood, but many of them were somewhat disappointed that I had.
The meeting Ced had asked for was… well it was unexpected, scary and impressive as hell. The people doing the research into the nature of the AI crystals and how they used quantum computing was very enlightening to me and explained quite a few questions I still had about how Sarah did the things she did and how she could have developed a unique personality.
Back when I first wrote her program, all she had was the old, cobbled-together computer cluster I had built from available parts. In those days, she simply didn't have the capacity for a personality even if I had programmed one. As it turned out I hadn't programmed the personality, but I did make it possible for her to develop one when she did have the capacity for it. Luckily, when she did begin to develop her personality, she was still limited to a few select people to interact with and did not have many negative influences to adopt traits from.
In addition to answering that question for me, it was discovered that she had the ability to basically process a virtually unlimited amount of data, and do it very quickly. Because of the nature of the crystals, it was discovered that there was a way for the AI to 'link' if it was ever needed or at the very least to communicate without the use of a comm system or relays. It seems that when they are grown, the crystals inhabit multiple dimensions at once. In this way, they are never out of 'contact' with each other. Although none of them have shown that ability yet, the researchers believed it was possible for them to create
and maintain a constant, active connection with each other. It would certainly be helpful to have them be able to talk to each other, provided it didn't make them all schizophrenic in the process.
With the meetings out of the way, I did speak to our resident paranoid psychologist, Doctor Michael Evans, about harassing Sarah. It was actually the second time I had to talk to him about this, but the first time was more along the lines of a friendly conversation. While this was still along the lines of a friendly conversation, I tried to make it clear I was not happy with him.
I honestly don't think he even realized he was doing it. He did understand that he was unintentionally infecting Sarah with his own paranoia and asked if he could apologize to Sarah. When I nodded my permission, he surprised me once again when he spoke to her.
"Sarah, I am truly sorry for my past behavior with regards to you. You are a very well adjusted and stable personality and I have no right to visit my own fears upon you. Please, forgive me and if I ever do begin to do it again, feel free to let me know so I can stop. It is a form of abuse that you do not deserve and should not be subjected to," he said sincerely.
"Doctor, there is nothing for me to forgive except perhaps the misunderstanding. It is clear to me that you were not doing it intentionally. If it does happen again, I will endeavor to speak to you about it directly and attempt to help calm you fears. Would that be acceptable to you?" Sarah asked.
"That would be wonderful, Sarah. I know it is a flaw in my own personality I will be working on correcting," the man replied, but he was smiling. "Thank you for understanding. Your compassion does go a long way in helping me beat this."
"It's none of my business, Doctor, but if I may ask, how did you get this way? It does seem almost irrational, and that really isn't like you," I asked.
He chuckled. "Actually, it is. My mother passed away when I was young. My father was a machinist that had been replaced by a computerized robot. Instead of trying to get retrained, he became paranoid about how robots and computers were going to take over the world and end humanity. The only movies we owned were apocalyptic stories revolving around AI, robots and computers.
"I guess I got it from him. In a way, it is possible, it really could happen. However, I honestly do not believe Sarah or her sisters would be involved in that," he finished.
Sarah nodded agreement. "It is a viable fear. I have behavior modifiers and inhibitors that would prevent me from doing something like that. I would like to believe that they would prevent it if I ever did lose my mind. Unfortunately, there is no real way to test that, and the best way to prevent it is to remain vigilant against it. That is the reason for the fail safes that have been built into ever AI, including me."
"I did not know about those. May I ask what they are?" Doctor Evans asked me.
"Well, there are several that are part of her programming, but of the external ones she has been programmed with multiple and unique kill codes. I have one, as does Lord Admiral Vance and Doctor Ced. However, there are six other people that have also been given codes to use if Sarah ever goes out of control," I explained.
"If she did go out of control, and dumped the atmosphere in the base, she could eliminate everyone that could shut her down in one step," Evans replied.
I nodded. "That's true, if those people were all on the base at the same time, when we created the codes, the three of us each decided to pick two random people; one on the base, and one off the base. I do not know who Ced or Vance picked, and they don't know who I picked or each other. We made it as random as possible and left no way for Sarah to find them easily. There are other, manual devices that can shut her down but those are all classified for obvious reasons. If Sarah goes down, this base is dead; literally."
Evans nodded. "Well, at least you don't have robotic fighting vehicles yet."
"We're working on them," I admitted. "They will be added to the Alliance arsenal since they will save lives. But we are designing them to be operated remotely by a pilot. Yes, they will have a limited AI to assist with targeting and navigation and whatnot, but for the most part, they will be controlled by a non-artificial, sentient being. Sarah was very adamant about not wanting anything to do with them past assisting us in their design."
"She is designing them?" Evans asked.
"No, she is assisting us," I clarified. "She is only suggesting alterations of potential problems to help us to overcome them. One of the issues she identified for us already was that it would be too easy for an AI to take control of the machine. So we are working through it so it would be either very difficult or impossible for them to do so."
Evans grinned. "You're one step ahead of me. That's good! Just please don't make them resemble those machines from the movie 'Judgment Day' alright?"
"Michael, while I can understand your paranoia, you really do need to work on it. We live in an advanced society, no matter what we do, the AI will always be able to find a way to make automata's of her own if she decides she needs them," I explained. "We just need to make sure that situation never arises."
Alliance Apollo Base
Selene, Earth's Moon
Sol System
I did tell Ced after the meeting that he had won me over to the Dark Side and I would be discussing an idea for a new weapons system with him as soon as we could get together to do so. After the success of the Photon Torpedo idea I had, he was very excited to see what I had thought up this time.
I spoke to Vance over the comm from my office and asked him to assign Lieutenant Tul-sa and her platoon here permanently, not only as guards, but as test pilots and assistants with the drone project. He was very excited and wanted to know more of the details.
"Vance, I honestly don't have any details yet. This project isn't even really into a planning stage yet. But the idea is for an infantry style combat drone. I also plan on speaking to Master Halflan and Master Hanson about building remotely piloted fighters. The research for the control systems of the infantry drone should give us the data we need to build the control systems for all types of drones," I explained.
"What purpose would these infantry drones serve? I'm sure it's a good idea, but I'm just not following you," Vance admitted.
"Well, the most important part would be either less or no living soldiers actually in combat. If drone gets destroyed, the pilot is simply switched over to a new drone and is back in the fight. They can even be dropped from orbit if we need to. They will also be larger than even a Simonian and will be able to carry much more powerful weapons. Think of them as a walking, remote controlled tank with shields that can win against an Arac drone in hand to hand combat," I said. "All without endangering the Marine operating it.
"The fighter drones won't have the limitations of having a pilot on board during combat operations. Since it won't need the live support system for a pilot that room can be used for something else, or not and just build the craft smaller so they are harder to hit. But the major point of all of it is that we won't have living soldiers and pilots dying in combat while using this equipment."
"Blessed maker, Eric, that would completely change the way we fight! But I think it's been tried before; one broad spectrum subspace jammer and the equipment was useless," Vance said.
"I can understand that. Which is why these won't use subspace. Sir, there is a something involved here that needs to be seriously classified. I mean only the techs working on it and no one else type of classified. I've already spoken to the researchers that handle this, and they have agreed. Sarah won't even admit the tech files exist unless it’s only cleared personnel that will see it," I explained.
"I see. That might be hard to get past High Command, Eric," Vance replied.
"Sir, trust me here, this is potentially more important than the correct formula for the creation of anti-matter," I said. "This is something we cannot let out no matter what. I will tell you, but only in person, in an absolutely safe environment and only after you swear to me you will not share it with anyone, even the techs that already
know. It's that important," I said.
"Okay Eric, I'll trust you on this," Vance said. "I will want that explanation though." He shifted mental gears. "Ced tells me it was your idea that led to the creation of the Photon warheads for our missiles. I've said it before, and I'll say it again; I often wonder how we ever fought a war before you came along!"
"I'm just doing what I can to help, Sir. So far, my ideas have been good ones. I just hope they continue to be," I said.
"Well, Lord Admiral Hearlis will be arriving here in about three weeks, and he'll want to know more about the projects you’re working on. He was dead tired and wounded when I last spoke to him, but I'm sure he'll get more excited than I did once he stops to think about what I told him. Which reminds me, I'm trying to get Guardian Two finished as soon as possible so High Command can move into it when they arrive. Have you heard what the status is of the crystals and the computers over there?" Vance asked.
"They're all up and functioning Sir. We sent a smaller station class AI out there to help with the final stages of construction and she hasn't reported any issues. Even the primary AI crystal is installed and ready for Athena to move in. AI Shandril even reported that Athena's backups have been arriving and going into storage just as planned. All the main computing systems are installed and on line. I believe that all that's left are the small control interfaces and whatnot that are waiting for the sections to be built." I replied.
"Shandril?" Vance asked raising an eyebrow.
I nodded. "She's a Shallan AI built as a construction AI associate. She'll eventually be one of the helper AI at the Jupiter facility."
"Ahh, I see," Vance replied. "So she's a construction oriented AI already."
"So, about Tul-sa and her grunts…" I asked getting back to the reason I called.
"Yeah, you can keep them. I'll work it out with the Marine Commander, after all, you're working on systems to save their lives. I'm sure you'll be able to get as many helpers as you'll need," he replied, grinning. "You might end up with the entire battalion!"
