by Robert Boren
I laughed. “I’ll be busy for about four hours myself. The Central node just finished. I’ve got a lot of setup to do.”
“Perfect, talk to you afterwards. I’m sure we’ll have some things to share.”
“I’ve already got some things to share,” I said. “Maybe we can meet in about five hours. I’ll contact you and JJ.”
“Fair enough. Good luck with your tasks.”
“And good luck with yours.”
The short ride on the tin can got me back to my stateroom in minutes. I settled into the setup tasks with Butch. The granularity of the settings module surprised me. JJ called about three hours in.
“Hey, how’s it going, Captain?”
“I’m working through the Central node settings. Been at it for three hours.”
“Oh, then you’re busy. I was gonna come over with mine, but I’ll work through it on my own.”
“Probably a good idea for now,” I said. “I’d like to meet over dinner later.”
“It’s already past five,” she said.
“Is seven too late?”
“It’ll do. I’ll have to pause my setup, but you told me how.”
“I just heard that,” JJ said.
“It came through your AI, I’ll bet.”
“What are you naming your AI?” I asked.
“Not sure yet. I don’t have to decide for an hour or so, best I can tell.”
“What is it?” I asked.
JJ snickered in the background. “This is rich.”
“Elder Butch?” I asked, cracking up.
“Good Lord, I’ll have to make sure mine isn’t quite so cheeky,” JJ said.
“I’ve got it!” JJ said. “Lucrezia.”
I laughed out loud.
“I’m joking,” JJ said. “I’ll pick something that isn’t offensive… to me.”
“Okay, I need to get back to this, and so does JJ,” I said. “See you at seven. Go to the Officer’s Dining Room. Might as well enjoy it while we can.”
“We’ll talk about that later,” I said. “Let’s get back to work. JJ, I’ll see you later. Oh, and Dojo, nice to meet you.”
The time passed quickly. There were a lot of settings, but the structure was easy to understand, and there were good keywords describing each module, making it easy to remember where to go when a tweak needed to be made.
I chuckled. “Give that a rest, okay? Send a message to Nolan and Dojo to meet us at the Officer’s Dining room. Include directions. Also send a reminder to JJ.”
I leaned back in my chair, rubbing my eyes, tired but anxious to share what Vermillion told me. I splashed some water on my face and left the stateroom, heading for the transport, grabbing a tin can to the Officer’s Dining Room.
“Captain Clarke, will you be dining with us?” asked the young hostess at the front door.
“Yes, with two others. Are any of the private rooms open?”
“All of them are,” she said, her long chestnut hair swaying as she looked at her reservation book.
“Oh, should I have made a reservation?”
She smiled at me. “You don’t have to. You even have bumping rights.”
“I won’t be doing that. Is seven o’clock usually pretty light?”
“Yes, five and six are busy. By seven most of the officers have moved to the Officer’s Lounge.”
“Good, then I made the right choice. I’ll just wait here for the others to arrive, if that’s okay.”
“Of course,” she said. I sat on the padded bench along the inside wall of the entry space. Nolan arrived after a couple minutes, JJ shortly after that.
“I’m famished,” Nolan said. “Is the food here as good as the food in the main dining room?”
“Better, from what I remember,” I said. “Had some really good Prime Rib last time I was here.”
“How long ago was that?” JJ asked.
“Before I got assigned to the Zephyrus, so it’s been quite a while.”
The hostess approached. “Is this everybody?”
“It is,” I said.
“Very good, please follow me.”
We followed her through the nearly empty main dining room, a few officers nodding to us as we went past, into a closed-door dining room with a rectangular table big enough for six people. The walls were rich wood paneling, the table a dark wood of some kind, the chairs padded and comfortable.
The hostess turned towards us. “Is this acceptable?”
“Perfect,” I said.
“Great, the waiter will be here soon to take drink orders.” She left the room, shutting the door behind her.
“Very toney,” Nolan quipped as we took our seats. “Table for six fits, since all of us have AIs now.”
I smiled. “I suggest we put them to sleep for this conversation. Butch is already asleep.”
“Mine isn’t quite ready yet,” JJ said.
“I put mine to sleep before I got here,” Nolan said.
“JJ, did you pick a name?” I asked.
“Emerald.”
Nolan laughed. “Well, they’ll have a hard time chiding you for that name, at least. I’ve already gotten an earful from Dojo for naming him after my favorite pet.”
“What was Dojo?” JJ asked.
“The dog breeds are a little different on my home planet,” Nolan said. “Dojo would look like a big Boston Terrier to you guys.”
There was a soft rap on the door.
“Come in,” I said. A young, smartly dressed man entered.
“Who’s up for drinks?”
“Do you have fresh beer from the breweries?”
“Of course, what style?”
“Something with lots of hops,” I said.
Nolan grinned. “That sounds marvelous. I’ll take the same.”
“White wine, please,” JJ said. “Something on the sweeter side.”
“I think I can find something for you,” the waiter said. “Would you like me to continue to knock before I enter?”
“Yes, please,” I said. “We’re holding a
meeting in here.”
“As you wish, Captain.” The waiter left the room.
“Well, now that we’re alone, what did you have to tell us?” Nolan asked.
“I had a meeting with Vermillion a few hours ago.”
“Uh oh, we aren’t in trouble, are we?” JJ asked.
I chuckled. “That’s what I thought when we started talking.” I went on to tell them all the details of the conversation. Afterwards there was a rap at the door again. “Come on in.”
The waiter brought in our drinks. “Sorry it took a few minutes. Had to change kegs for the beer. We sold a lot today.”
“Kegs,” Nolan said. “Now that sounds good.”
“The timing was perfect,” I said to the waiter. “We just finished up a conversation. Thank you.”
We all had sips of our drinks as the waiter stood there. “Is it okay?”
“Perfect,” Nolan said.
I nodded in agreement.
“Fine,” JJ said.
“Great, would you like to order appetizers?”
“Could you give us a few minutes?” I asked.
“Of course, take your time. I’ll be back in a little while.” He left us again.
“I’m dumbfounded,” Nolan said, “but very happy.”
“Me too, I think,” JJ said. “Those Nanos are going to turn us into super hero types, aren’t they?”
“Let’s just say they enhance our capabilities quite a bit,” I said. “They don’t make us invincible. We need to remember that if we’re ever in a battle.”
“What do you think of the Central AI node so far?” Nolan asked.
“It’s mainly an administrative system, less dangerous than I initially thought.”
“How so?” JJ asked.
“There are checks and balances all over the place, and individual cell members have much more control than I expected. The Central AI has to get permission from cell members for any settings which might affect their ability to think for themselves or control their own actions. It can’t be used for what I feared.”
“Mind control?” Nolan asked.
“Exactly. A cell member can override any attempt at mind control coming from the Central AI, at any time.”
“How could that be good for a command and control system?” Nolan asked.
“We would handle failure to follow orders in the same way we handle it today. Military discipline. Automating that with this system would break our Constitutional protections over the individual.”
“So why is it considered so dangerous for the Central AI to be hacked by an enemy?” JJ asked.
“It could be used to pass false or misleading data to the cell, and its command and control functionality could be used to mis-direct battles.”
Nolan nodded. “I suspect it could be used for spying as well, since you can see placement of assets, battle plans, and that sort of thing.”
“That is possible. Bottom line, I think it’s unlikely anybody could hack into the system without the Central AI host knowing about it.”
Nolan smiled. “I hope you’re right, but just about every software designer thinks their system is unlikely to be hacked. That’s seldom the case.”
“Yes, we need to be cautious,” I said. “No doubt about that.”
“So what happens now?” JJ asked. “You practice with the Central AI node, then start training with the Nanos?”
“I think training is the wrong word. The way Vermillion described it, it’s more testing than training.”
“Well whatever it is, be careful,” JJ said. “I should be glad about this, but for some reason I’m more scared now than I was before.”
“I’m not,” I said.
JJ eyed me. “Why?”
“Because I trust Vermillion more than I did before.”
{ 7 }
Tuning
O ur dinner was as good as I’d hoped. JJ, Nolan, and I chatted for a couple hours. I was exhausted, begging off JJ’s advances and going to bed. I woke up to the buzzing of my PA.
“Butch, wake up please.”
I got up and stripped, then got into the cleansing unit. I was in the corridor in minutes, heading for the transport station.
I took the tin can up to the bridge, where Sondra, Nolan, and Skip were gathered around the Science Officer’s monitor.
“Captain, good morning,” Sondra said. “The mine team is standing by. Shall we release the mines?”
“Proceed,” I said, sitting in the captain’s chair. “We’re still cloaked, right?”
“Of course,” Nolan said. “The drive module tuning I did before the last jump paid off. We used almost 20% less fuel in that jump than normal.”
I snickered.
“What’s funny?” Nolan asked.
“Nothing,” I said, shooting him a smirk.
Nolan smiled. “I’m downloading the news. After this operation is done, I’ll put it on screen.”
I settled back in my chair. “Good, it’s been a while.”
“There go the mines,” Skip said. He pointed to the center screen, where the twelve cylindrical units were moving behind the New Jersey, spreading out as they went.
“They’re in place,” Nolan said. “Shall we proceed on impulse power?”
“Proceed,” I said. JJ walked in.
“Setting the mines?” she asked.
“They’re placed,” Skip said. “We’re moving away on impulse power now.”
JJ shot me a worried glance. “Think the Overlords will show up?”
“Probably depends on how bad we hurt them last time,” I said. “If they don’t, we’ll retrieve the mines and head for that natural worm hole.”
rogress, based on your settings in the Central AI.
“Are you okay. Captain?” Sondra asked.
“Still waking up,” I said. “Had dinner and drinks at the officer’s dining room last night.”
“Oh, you and JJ?” she asked.
JJ rolled her eyes.
“And Nolan,” I said. “Remember we’ve got a big mission coming up.”
Sondra nodded, about to say something else, but stopping herself. Nolan shot me a sidelong glance.
Vermillion entered the bridge. “Good morning, all. You’ve placed the mines, I assume?”
“Yes sir,” I said. “We’re proceeding away on impulse power now.”
“Good. How’d we do on fuel during the jump?”
“We saved 20%,” Nolan said. “I’ve got an idea that might save us an additional 10%.”
“How?” Vermillion asked.
“My module has tuning capability, Mr. Chairman. Any news from Tac?”
“The reactor is running, and output is exceeding our expectations so far.”
“No sign that the Overlords have discovered our presence there?” Sondra asked.
“Not so far, but they’re still watching closely,” Vermillion said. “We should talk fuel refinement. What’s the probability that we’ll be able to gather raw material on Boroclize?”
“Much better than 50-50,” Nolan said. “Is that enough to replicate the proper equipment?”
“That’s why I asked. Even at only 50-50, we should use some of our engineering resources to work the issue.”
“I’d be happy to work that, Mr. Chairman,” JJ said.
“Thanks, JJ. Did we gather news after we got out of the jump?”
“Yes sir,” Nolan said.
“Good, I’m anxious to see it, but let’s focus on the Overlord ships for now. Let me know if anything happens.”
“Will do,” I said.
Vermillion left the bridge.
“How long are we waiting for the Overlords?” Sondra asked.
“Last time it took them nearly an hour to show up,” Nolan said. “Might be longer this time, given the length of the jump.”
“I’m not convinced they’re going to come at all,” I said, “but we’ll see.”
