As they were departing the ship, Allistor called out to Gralen. When his newest advisor joined him, he gave several orders. “I’d like you to have your crew pilot your ship to New York. They can park it inside the walls at the Old Fort location, not far from Invictus headquarters. From now on I want all of our assets protected as best we can manage. Also, I’d like to sit with you and your officers regarding the interviews you just completed, and your assessments. Give me thirty minutes to get Kira, Gene, and a few others rounded up, and meet us in Invictus. If you have time to do so, please reach out to the analysts you were talking about, and inquire what it would cost for them to join us. Let them know they’d have to be oathbound as well.”
Gralen saluted and turned toward the teleport pad without a word.
“Nigel, please ask everyone on my advisors list to meet me in Invictus in thirty minutes. Direct them to the largest meeting room we have. And ask the dining room to prepare some food. Nothing formal, just finger food and drinks.”
“It shall be done, Sire.”
As Allistor walked, he thought about how much he relied on Nigel lately.
“Nigel, we’ve talked a few times about upgrades that would allow you to, for instance, provide holographic communication between all the facilities. I’m curious. How do you get upgraded?”
“There are several ways, Sire. The most common is for the property owner to purchase upgrades. There is a list available in my tab on your interface.”
“You have your own tab on my interface?” Allistor asked, then instantly felt bad for not knowing that already. “Never mind, stupid question. I’ll check it out while we talk. Keep going, please.”
“Of course, Sire. I can receive upgrades by absorbing other AIs that possess capabilities that I do not. I can also learn from allied AIs. For example, I have learned a great deal about flight systems from Alpha, your yacht’s AI. As well as obtained an extensive star chart.”
“Cool!” Allistor stopped walking while he opened and reviewed the tab that was conveniently labeled Nigel. “Okay I see a lot of available upgrades here. It would take me an hour to read through them all. Let me ask you this, Nigel. If you could choose for yourself, what would be your top three upgrades?”
“I would choose an Interface Level upgrade first, Sire. I am currently Level 3, which is mainly due to the points I have accumulated as you’ve increased your holdings, and thus my scope of responsibilities. Level 4 would constitute a significant upgrade of all my systems, including memory, processing speed, sensor range, as well as my intuitive algorithms.”
“Intuitive algorithms?”
“Yes, Sire. They allow me to anticipate your needs, based on your previous actions, requests, tendencies, and a substantial list of other factors. At higher levels, they allow me to offer suggestions or recommendations that may be helpful to you and your citizens.”
“Our citizens, Nigel. You are as much one of us as any human. You’re family now.”
“I am honored, Sire. The upgrade to Level 4 is quite expensive, I’m afraid. Two hundred million klax.”
“That’s a no-brainer, Nigel. Go ahead and purchase yourself that upgrade. Or do I need to do it?”
“I’m afraid you must personally complete such transactions, Sire. A safeguard put in place by the System to prevent AIs from upgrading without authorization.”
“Right. Can’t have a SkyNet rebellion happening.” Allistor replied sarcastically. “Alright, what about other upgrades. Hit me.”
“As you mentioned, Sire, I would upgrade my communications network. The cost is relatively low at twenty-five million klax. The upgrade would allow secure holographic conferencing between all of your facilities and ships. Thus negating the need for your advisors to travel to meetings as they are doing now.”
“Damn! And… you didn’t recommend this because… I haven’t upgraded your intuitive algorithms.” Allistor shook his head.
“In part, Sire. My program does not currently allow me to offer unsolicited information in the form of suggestions or advice. That is standard Interface programming. Should you choose the Level upgrade, you would still need to instruct me to make use of the intuitive algorithms and offer the aforementioned suggestions. Much as you have done by inquiring as to which upgrades I would select for myself.”
Allistor rolled his eyes. “I feel like this is Coding 101 class, day one. The part where the professor says that a computer will not perform an action without you instructing it to do so.”
“Quite correct, Sire. Even sentient AIs like myself are limited by a few basic laws at the core of our programming. That is one of them.”
“And the third upgrade you would choose for yourself?”
“I would choose the Imperium upgrade, Sire. It would increase my ability to defend against intrusion by hostile AIs, as well as allow me to take control of and absorb enemy AIs of a lesser Level or capability than my own.”
“Hostile AIs?” Allistor’s eyes thinned. “You mean like, someone could attack Invictus and use their AI to take control of you?”
“That is correct, Sire. It is rare for AIs above Level 2 to be attacked. However, there are factions such as the Or’Dralon whose AIs are at much higher levels than my own. Should they choose to do so, they could launch a combined attack. Should their AI manage to overpower me during such an attack, they would be able to disrupt your communications, transportation, and defensive capabilities, making it impossible for you to deter their physical attacks.”
“Well, we can’t have that!” Allistor used the search function in his Nigel tab to select and purchase all three upgrades. The total cost for all three was four hundred million klax. Allistor would have paid ten times that amount for the increased functionality and protection. He mentally confirmed the transaction, then closed his interface, and his eyes.
When there were no fireworks or golden lights, he opened first one eye, then the other.
“No big light show for your upgrades, huh Nigel?”
“I’m afraid not, Sire. We AI generally go unnoticed. The System creators did not see our growth metrics as being noteworthy.”
“Well, let me be the first to congratulate you on your upgrades, Nigel! I hope you enjoy them!”
“Thank you, Sire. I am quite pleased with our choices.”
“Ha! Looks like one of those upgrades included some humor algorithms or something! I like it!” Allistor grinned as he stepped onto the teleport pad. “Please send me to Invictus.”
When he arrived in the lobby of the Invictus high rise, Nigel informed him, “Your advisors are gathering in conference room three alpha.”
A map of the building appeared as an overlay to Allistor’s mini-map, with a blue dotted line indicating where he should go. The room was on the floor below his personal quarters, so he moved to the elevators and rode up.
As soon as he stepped off, a door to his left opened automatically. He stepped through into a wide corridor and looked around. Almost immediately, another door opened twenty feet to his right, and he heard familiar voices. “Thank you, Nigel.”
“Certainly, Sire. The food is currently on elevator three and will arrive in two minutes.”
Allistor grinned as his stomach growled. Intuitive algorithms indeed.
He found Gralen and his officers already in the room, along with Kira, Gene, Helen, and Amanda. He gave Amanda a brief hug and kiss before taking a seat at the head of the long table. “Guess what I did today?”
“Nearly start a war? We heard.” Amanda poked him in the ribs.
“Nooo… that wasn’t me! That was… well, I don’t remember his name. The weapons dude. But I’m the one whose charm and quick thinking averted a war, thank you very much.”
He looked from face to face, awaiting the praise and accolades he was due. Amanda just smiled at him, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “Who’s the coolest Prince of Earth? You are!” she spoke to him like he was two. Helen did her best, but couldn’t keep from laughing, immediately joined by K
ira.
Gralen and his beastkin looked at the floor or gazed out the window, trying to remain neutral.
Gene threw him a bone. “I, for one, am very grateful that your… charm and quick thinking… kept me from being blown out of the sky today. Thank you, Allistor.”
Allistor blew Gene a kiss, causing all the ladies to laugh again. Even Gralen cracked a smile.
The food arrived, along with more of the advisors from various Strongholds. Allistor and the others helped themselves to food and took seats. Within a few more minutes, everyone had arrived, grabbed dinner, and sat at the long table. Looking around, Allistor smiled at the twenty or so people in front of him.
“Thank you all for coming! Especially on short notice. I have a few announcements while you eat. First, this may be the last time you all have to travel to see me for meetings like this. I’ve just purchased a few upgrades for Nigel, one of which will allow us to have 3D holo-conferences for meetings like this going forward. I know, you’re all gonna miss dropping everything to run somewhere for a meeting.” He grinned as several people snorted.
“Next… most of you heard that we took the colony ship up today. We spent most of the day orbiting the Earth, watching alien ships arrive, and testing out potential crew members at the various bridge stations. We also almost got into a war, but I got us out of it. There’s a faction of elves called Or’Dralon who are setting up in the woods of Vermont, and possibly other areas. We’re on a semi-friendly basis with them now, and I’ve invited them to dinner here soon. Apparently, if we anger them, they can squash us like bugs. So… as a new general rule… nobody anger any elves, okay?”
He didn’t wait for answers before moving on. “Gene, Kira, Gralen. Tomorrow I’d like you to use your three ships to drop off another round of raid crews. They’ve had a chance to rest for a bit, and we need to continue to claim what territory we can. We’ll discuss potential targets later in this meeting.” All three nodded.
“For all of you who are running my Strongholds. I have recently learned that fighting with our guns and cannons is potentially harmful to our reputations with the various factions. And that reputation is vitally important now that we are out of Stabilization. Apparently, melee combat is considered more honorable. So we need to beef up our crafting abilities ASAP. That means armor, weapons, potions, all of it. I need you to get with your crafters, find out where they are in their skill development. Then figure out what they need to get better, and make sure they have it. I’m going to be right there with you. This week, when I’m not raiding, I’m going to hit the smithy and see what I can do to level both my Weaponsmithing and Improvisation skills.”
Lars, Logan, Chris, Juanita, George, Michael, and several others all nodded or mumbled words of agreement.
“Ramon, you’re my MVP when it comes to this stuff. I’m depending on you and yours to crank out the scrolls and find useful books to help our people out. I’m making your group a priority, so recruit as many people as you can manage, and start training them. There’s no reason people can’t cross-train, either. I plan to spend a little time with you and learn a few basic scribey skills myself. Especially Cartography.”
Turning to Gralen and his beastkin, he added, “That includes you. You’re with us for the next few years, and there’s no reason you can’t learn new skills, or help teach the skills you already possess, in order to contribute to the success of our community.” He held up a hand as one of the officers opened his mouth. “I’m guessing you were about to tell me that this is not a requirement of your oath.” He waited as the beastkin nodded curtly.
“Fine. Then in return for your active cooperation in this and other endeavors, I’m offering each of you who participates an extra salary. Let’s say, ten gold coins per week. That’s about twelve thousand klax per week, or just over six hundred thousand klax per year. In addition to the opportunity to learn new skills for free.”
Gralen shot his officer a look, then cleared his throat. “That is most generous of you, Allistor. We accept.”
“Great! I’m going to add a crafting hall to each of the Strongholds to make it easier for folks to work. And I’ll expand them to assure there’s enough room for everyone-”
“Pardon me, Sire. But I must inform you that one of the sentry droids on the northern wall reports that master Logan’s Stronghold is under attack.”
“What?!” Logan was on his feet. “Who?”
“Human attackers, approximately thirty of them. They are attempting to use ropes to scale the walls.”
As Logan started for the door, Allistor asked, “Do you have anyone there guarding it?”
“Negative. I was going to purchase some droids soon, but I was focusing on upgrades to the Stronghold itself.” Logan exited the door, running for the elevator.
“Nigel, send whatever droids we have that are close by. Notify Prime to get a force of at least twenty of them there ASAP. And don’t let Logan jump in a vehicle. We’ll take the yacht, it’s faster. Kira we need to leave, now!”
“Of course, Sire.”
Everyone else was on their feet and headed for the elevators. Nigel having anticipated their need, had already sent two more cars up to their floor. They all piled in and emerged a minute later at the lobby level. Logan was there, pacing back and forth.
Allistor wasted no time. He jogged out the lobby doors, headed west toward where his yacht and Harmon’s ship were parked. Logan ran next to him, neither of them wasting breath on words. Kira, who had sprinted ahead, disappeared into the garage ahead.
It only took a few minutes for the group to run the four blocks to the garage structure. Nigel had the elevators waiting for them, and as the slower runners caught up, they once again crowded inside.
When they reached the roof, Kira already had the ship powered up. The cargo bay ramp was down and the door open, waiting for them. All of them boarded, and even as the ramp was retracting and the door closing, Kira was lifting off.
Allistor looked around. There were a dozen battle droids in the bay, a protection detail permanently assigned to the yacht by Prime. As the ship began to move forward, Allistor said, “Nigel, give us an update.”
“None of the attackers have managed to reach the top of the wall so far. Four battle droids were dispatched from atop Invictus’ wall and have engaged the humans. They have focused on taking down those already climbing. The other humans are firing on the droids.”
“Logan, is there room to land the ship inside your walls?”
The man thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. “The walls are pretty close to the museum building. But we could land in the park just outside.”
Allistor shook his head. “Open the bay doors please.” The ship was already slowing, the trip from the parking garage to Central Park taking less than a minute by air.
The large door opened, and most of the party stood near the edge of the bay, looking down at the attackers. “Kira, hover here, please. Nigel, loudspeaker, and give me some light.” The suns had set a few hours before, and there was no moonlight. Several bright lights blinked on and shone down from the ship, blinding the people below.
“Go ahead, Sire.”
“Hey! You assholes down there attacking my friend’s home! Stop now and surrender, or we will be forced to take you out!”
Several of the men and women below stopped firing at the battle droids and crouched down or took cover behind whatever they could find nearby. The ones on the wall were busy dodging fire from the battle droids. Even as the party watched, a plasma round hit the rope above one man’s head and burned through it. The man yelled as he dropped twenty feet, landing on his back on the pavement. He lay there, unmoving.
“Kira, lower us down to twenty feet. Battle droids, deploy and surround the humans. Do not kill them if it can be avoided. I want them captured.”
The droids moved without hesitation, sprinting toward the open bay door and leaping out even before Kira had lowered the ship to twenty feet. They hit the grou
nd, their legs absorbing the impact seemingly without effort, and began to fan out in a half-circle, trapping the attackers between themselves and the walls as they formed up in coordination with the droids already on the ground.
Allistor called out again. “This is your last warning. You’re trapped and outgunned. There’s no need for more of your people to get hurt. Put down your weapons!”
A woman wearing black combat fatigues and body armor stepped out into the open. Looking up at the ship, she shouted, “Who the hell are you?!”
Behind him, Allistor heard Juanita say, “Shit, that’s Rhonda. I know her.”
“My name is Allistor.” Allistor pointed toward the massive walls of Invictus just a block or so away. “That’s my City, Invictus. This Stronghold belongs to my friend, Logan.” Logan stepped forward as Allistor nodded in his direction. He raised a rifle and pointed it at the woman’s head.
“You got ten seconds to put down your weapons and get your people off my wall, or I’m putting a round between your eyes!”
“You’re humans? Shit.” The woman raised her hands, then motioned for her people to do the same. The ones on the wall had already been shot down, or dropped back down on their own to keep from being shot. All the attackers set down their weapons and raised their hands.
Allistor waited until the droids had stepped forward and collected the weapons, rounding up the prisoners and sitting them on the ground before giving Kira the go-ahead to land. Droids carried the dead and injured over and set them on the ground with the others.
As soon as the ramp was down, he and his party stepped down and walked over to the prisoners. Logan took the lead, while Allistor and several others cast Light spells and sent globes to hover over the prisoners.
“What the hell? Why did you attack me?” Logan shouted at the woman. Amanda and Nancy moved around them to begin healing the wounded.
The same woman who’d spoken before stood up. She raised her hands again when the droids and Logan raised their weapons. “Easy! Easy. We didn’t know you were you. I mean, that you were human. We thought it was an alien Stronghold. Been watching this place for days, and there was no sign of any movement inside.”
Shadow Sun Rebellion Page 24
