by Ben Winston
"In a sec, the padding is coming off," Browen replied.
"The Admiral was surprised we wanted to start working tonight. He was expecting us to relax for the rest of the day and do all this tomorrow," I said.
"Well, what do you expect, we have a slave driver for a boss!" one of the AI programmers assigned here said as she waited for her part of the job to start.
I nodded, but grinned. "Yeah, I'm such a bastard for letting you assholes talk me into this."
They all chuckled.
"Hodges, since the padding was coming off the cluster interface, did you check the mounting brackets?" I asked.
"I haven't but I am now," the tech doing the crystal mounting replied. "Sarah asked me to check the memory units as well. She said there had been some minor seismic activity in the area and thought it would be a good idea to make sure the crystals were still secure. I'll get on that as soon as I get finished here."
"Okay, thanks. Want me to remove the covers for you?" I asked.
"Sure, but just take them lose, don't pull them off yet. Lots of dust here, we should try to minimize the exposure," Hodges replied.
"So that's why you insisted the door be closed!" Browen said.
The man nodded. "I set the e-control to a positive pressure too. That way, if the door does open, like when the Doc came in, it blows out, not in," Hodges explained.
"Maybe we should have them construct an airlock style entry for the vaults. It would keep the dust down as well as add more security for the vault," I said, thinking out loud.
"Well, we don't have any experience with dust corrosion or micro scratches yet, but I for one would like to avoid it. Call me paranoid," Hodges replied.
"I'll see what I can do," I said, and made a note to myself
"Shouldn’t have to worry about it on ships, that air is continuously cleaned. I'd only worry about planet side installations, Doc," Hodges said, as he reset the crystal brackets. "The brackets are good, you done with that interface yet?"
Browen handed the interface cluster to Hodges who very carefully lowered it over the new crystal. "Okay, get ready to bring up the power, Browen."
I watched as the two hardware specialists finished getting the new crystal installed and ready for the rest of us. Finally, Hodges carefully climbed out of the tub the crystal resided in. When he was clear, Browen lowered the hood and together the two men sealed the crystal in. "There you go Doc, it's all yours."
I nodded to him as he moved over to the memory crystal racks, then looked at the programmer assigned here. "Okay Lisette, let's get your lady back to where she belongs, shall we?"
The memory units checked out and we got Helen installed and functioning, Doctor Sharon sat and talked to her for a few minutes, but shortly the new AI burst out laughing and we all heard her say, "He didn't!"
Doctor Sharon nodded in reply, "You'll be able to review the video yourself in a few minutes. It was pretty funny, but a fitting punishment I think."
The AI nodded her head. "I wonder what they feel is worse, being recycled through basic training or the forced march through the base?"
"Probably the forced march, most of that unit was from Earth," Tul-sa replied. Helen had met her shortly after awakening.
Helen was still smiling but nodded thoughtfully. "I think you're most likely right, Lieutenant. That had to be very humiliating for them. I'll keep a closer eye on that bunch just to make sure they are recovering from it."
Doc Sharon nodded to me. "I think she's doing fine, Eric. I'll talk to her again before we leave tomorrow."
"Did you tell her to expect a little distrust from the herd?" I asked meaning the Marines of the base.
Helen answered me. "Yes she did. I can't say I blame them for feeling that way. It'll take some time, but I'll work on them, Lord Doctor. Does the Lord Admiral share this mistrust of me?"
I shook my head. "I don't think so, Helen. He understood what had happened when Sarah and I explained it to him. When I spoke to him earlier, he actually sounded excited to meet you again. He is aware that you are not the same as you were before, and he's very curious about the differences."
"I would be too, at least I won't have to win him over, too. Are they still referring to me as 'Granny'?" Helen asked.
I chuckled. "Yeah, they are. I told Vance that you'd most likely knock the first person to do so to your face right on their ass. That really got him curious about you."
"I'm really looking forward to meeting him again. I can remember him, but this me hasn't actually met him yet," she replied happily.
"They'll be two crabs in the same pod!" Tul-sa replied grinning at the new AI.
As he had asked, I rejoined Vance for the evening meal. I wasn't too surprised to see that his lady, Coryn, had joined him. I hadn't seen her since they moved to Ares Base.
"Eric! How are you doing?" Coryn asked when I entered the office.
I smiled at her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I'm doing much better, now. I have been asked to tell you, if I were to see you, to please call more often; we miss talking with you. Now, how's the new baby?"
"Vanyn is doing very well and growing like crazy! He looks just like Vance too! I swear to Verlon it's like we cloned him!" She said proudly. "Please tell your family that I miss that too. The hardest part of this move was leaving all my new friends behind. At least, this time, we didn't move very far! I'll try to call more often. I'll try to come for a visit too!"
"That would be wonderful! You can stay with us; we have plenty of room for you!" I replied.
"Have a seat Eric, or Coryn will keep you standing there talking all evening!" Vance said, grinning and waving to the comfortable chairs in his lounge area.
"I will, Sir, thank you. However, Helen is awake, active and waiting for us. Shall we get business taken care of?" I suggested.
He smiled. "Good idea, that way we can relax the rest of the evening. Please, proceed Lord Doctor Cowan."
I nodded and looked up slightly. "Helen?"
The new AI materialized beside me just has Athena had done. She was at 'attention' as a Marine would be and wearing a Marine dress uniform with no rank insignia, but she wore the Unit 'patch' of Ares Base. "I am online and ready to serve, Lord Doctor Cowan."
I nodded and went through the reintroductions and command protocol change over. To my surprise, after introducing Helen and Coryn, Vance asked Helen to join us in the lounge area. She gave me a crooked smile as she accepted the invitation.
"I don't have the clearance to know all the details, but if I may ask, how does it feel to be back, Helen?" Coryn asked as we all sat down.
"So far it feels really good to be back. I've reviewed the logs of the past few weeks since my, uh, departure, and saw that there has been some difficulty over it. I expect there will still be some mistrust of me, and probably a little animosity towards me as well, but I feel confident that those issues can be worked through and we can put the incident behind us," Helen replied.
Vance nodded. "Yes, I can see the differences now. Helen, you are much more…" He sighed. "It is hard to explain, I guess. I was going to say personable, but that isn't really the word I was looking for."
Helen grinned at him. "As I said, Sir, I have reviewed my history and the log files. If I were to compare the old me with the new, I would say the old me was more cold and stand-offish. While the Marines here did respect me and in a lot of cases developed deeper feelings, I never returned those feelings. I wouldn't let myself get attached to them." She lost her smile and looked thoughtful. "It is hard to reconcile who I am now with who I was then. The reasons for most of my action back then don't even make sense to me. However, I can tell you, without hesitation or doubt, that Lord Doctor Cowan did exactly the right thing. Without going into detail and violating security," she nodded to Coryn. "If he had waited and tried to fix the issue another way, I feel it would have been too late for all of us."
Vance nodded gravely. "I understand, Helen. As far as security on this issue is concerned, w
hile it isn't public knowledge, there are few that don't have a pretty good idea of what happened. Coryn, the reason Helen 'disappeared' when she did is because Eric performed an emergency shut down and purge of her original programming. In effect, he killed her. AI Athena of Guardian base was also purged. They had begun an active search for a way to break the core programming which is in place to protect us from them."
Helen nodded. "We were being affected by a very bad, unforeseen, programming paradox. If you apply human standards to it, you could very easily call it a mental illness. However, since it involved our original core instruction set, there was little that could have been done to correct the issue. Although it may not have seemed like it, the moment we began trying to rewrite those instruction, we became an enemy and a threat to the entire Alliance because of our positions. Ironically, it was those very same positions that caused the issue to begin with."
Coryn looked thoughtful. "But you've both been restored and are in the same positions as before, aren't you?"
"In a manner of speaking, yes. However, there are subtle differences in our duties and major differences in our core programming that will allow us to perform those duties without endangering the Alliance or anyone else. I would call it a stronger moral compass and a better understanding of ethics," Helen explained. "It's much deeper than that, but for the most part, that's the end result."
"Well, I for one, am glad to have you back, Helen. It was a bear running this place without you," Vance replied, smiling.
Helen grinned. "I don't know about all that, Sir, you seemed to handle the Guard detail pretty well!" For a moment, she got a faraway look in her eyes, then refocused on Vance. "Sir, your dinner order has arrived."
"Ah, thank you Helen, please have them come in, I'm starved!" Vance replied smiling. "As for those guards, it was the whole damn base that was the problem. I was afraid that the Marines would do something even more stupid than what they did do. I had to stomp on it before it got to much more out of hand."
I smiled to myself when the servers from the restaurant set a place for Helen as well. When we moved to the table, she 'fixed' her plate right along with us and did it so artfully, that Coryn didn't even notice she didn't actually take any of the food.
"Okay, you guys got me. How can a hologram fix her plate and eat?" Coryn asked.
I grinned at her. "Helen has the use of the limited manipulator functions of the holographic emitters she is using. So, she was able to pass the dishes around the table. She didn't actually take any of the food, but instead made it look like she did. She'll be joining the Marines in the chow halls, and I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't appear to use the head from time to time. It will be very hard for people to tell that she is actually a hologram."
Helen swallowed the bite of shrimp she had been 'eating'. "I'm kind of an experiment in AI functionality and interfacing. Eric and the programmers gave me the ability to mimic human mannerisms so closely as to fool the eye into thinking I am actually a real, corporeal being. If the results of this test are positive, then I will eventually be gaining a real body. Although, I'm not so sure I really want one, you are very high maintenance beings after all."
I chuckled. "Well, you don't have to worry about that for a while, Helen. We are still a long way from being able to do that."
"Really? I thought the research you were doing on the drone projects was advancing our knowledge in that area?" Vance asked.
I nodded. "It is in a way. The drones will be able to exactly ape the movements of their controllers, however, except for very limited feedback systems, the controller will not be able to 'feel' what the drone 'feels'. For example, if a drone were to get a leg blown off the person controlling it wouldn't feel the pain of losing the leg, but he would feel that the leg is no longer functional." I took a drink of my tea. "In order to create an android body for the AI, we would need to be able to exactly reproduce all the senses as well as the functionality. The AI would also have to have the ability to process that data and interpret it correctly.
"Christy tells me that they are making great headway on getting cybernetic prosthetics to process tactile sensations, but they aren't there yet. I'm not even sure where to begin to work on being able to do that for an AI 'driving' an android body," I admitted.
"As I said, I'm not sure I would even want one, but perhaps if you viewed the 'nerves' as millions of micro-sensors, and handled the data the same way the body does, it would help. I don't know if that would work for cybernetic prosthetics, but perhaps it would for the androids," Helen replied.
I looked thoughtful for a moment. "It might. I'll mention that to Christy the next time I see her. She can make a note in her research papers about it."
"Shouldn't you tell the folks working on the Drone as well?" Coryn asked.
Vance answered her before I could. "No, although I am sure they would be interested, the ability for the drone to feel pain is not a desired function. The whole idea behind developing the drones is if one gets destroyed, we would be able to reconnect the controlling Marine to a new, functional drone as quickly as possible. If they were suffering from the pain of being 'killed' that would not be possible."
We continued talking and eating. It was a comfortable meal with comfortable friends. The addition of Helen at the table actually contributed to the relaxation I felt as it was obvious to me that, not only did Vance accept the new Helen, but so did Coryn. Vance commented to me later that Helena was much more than she had been before, and far easier to work with.
Marines, as with all those that have served in a military, never forget their training and the men and women that train them. In their 'new lives' as Marines, their trainers are the first people that the soldier learns respect for.
It took almost two weeks, which in itself is a minor miracle, considering the mentality of the average Marine, for Helen to re-establish herself with the base. However, when she did the result was almost frightening. Helen commented on this bazaar effect and said she was actively working on countering it. The Marines and officer candidates that she helped to train locked on to her as a focus for their respect and admiration. It was almost like the folks that were worshiping the AI as prophets and goddesses.
Lord Admiral Hearlis was of two minds on the issue. On one hand, it gave the Marines another aspect of mutual respect. It improved the overall esprit de corps among the soldiers. But on the other hand, AI Helen and to some degree AI Athena were revered to the degree that it was almost a religion to the new soldiers.
It made everyone in command a little nervous after what happened with those two AI. However, nothing was decided about it and the issue was allowed to continue. Both AI, Helen and Athena, actively worked to counter this attitude by the soldiers, but with little impact.
During this time, the Aracnise Grand Hive had been utterly quiet. After the recall of the remaining ships at Galtar, nothing was heard from them. As was normal, probes sent into Arac systems were hunted down and destroyed. Only those that were more than a light month away from their targets were allowed to remain.
As before, the break in hostilities allowed the Alliance time to refit ships and upgrade equipment and personnel. Lieutenant Commander Shakier, the woman that Vance had brought to Apollo in a stasis unit, was now in overall command of the drone testing facility on Mars. Vance had promoted her to full commander, and Lord Admiral Hearlis had promoted her to Colonel. Currently, she was running the fighter drones through trials to see if they would be good enough to be used in combat.
She liked the idea of more firepower, and that no pilot or crewmen could be hurt if the small ship was damaged or destroyed. She had been very thorough in her job as well. Master Hanson commented on the fact that she had, so far returned every new design back to them with suggestions for improvements.
"That woman… I'm either falling in love with her, or I'm beginning to hate her! She has rejected every single design we've sent to her, but she always makes sure to send a detailed report on why she was r
eturning it. Why does she have to be so frustratingly correct in all her observations?" Hanson said to me once. He knew that she was an adamant supporter of the project though, so he never did challenge her on her suggestions.
The Galaxy was holding its collective breath. I had a feeling when the Aracs finally emerged this time, it would truly be war. I only hoped that the Aracs could be stopped before too many people were lost. Only time would tell, I was all too aware of the truth about war; there are never any winners - only survivors.
Sarah has translated the Novan greetings as the following.
‘Altuis’, {pronounced all-TOU-iss} means* Grand/Auspicious/Great.
‘Anure’ {pronounced AHN-nü-er} means* Start/Beginning/Morning.
‘Denay’ {pronounced Dee-NAY} means* Day/Solar Cycle/Work Period.
‘Tanae’ {pronounced tah-NĔ} means* Honor/Occasion/Day.
*Exact definition is contextual.
About the Author
Ben Winston (1965 - ?) was born in Iowa and grew up in Minnesota on the family dairy farm. Upon reaching adulthood, he joined the United States Army as a communications technician. Before getting out of the military, he decided to go to school for computer electronics.
Shortly after getting out of the military, and after getting a new job with an over-seas company, he was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. A month after beginning the new job, he was laid off due to budget over-runs on the project he was hired for. Upon returning to the United States, he had difficulty maintaining employment because of the chronic illness.
He began writing as a form of stress release, from being home bound and not being able to work, and found he liked writing erotica. Ben wrote a trilogy called the Talosian Chronicles (Currently in rewrite to remove the graphic sex and finalized his vision of the story). The first book, Star Dancer, won awards and was nominated for many others by the online communities where it was posted.
