Etheric Adventures Boxed Set: Books 1-3

by S. R. Russell

  Stevie moved so she could sit beside Anne with her back against the wall. She looked up at the ceiling and blew out a breath. “If I let you call me that when it’s just the four of us, will you try to remember to call me Stevie when we’re around other people? Otherwise, I’ll soon have everyone calling me Steph.”

  Anne considered the request for several seconds. Not because she wanted to fight Steph on the matter but to see if she felt she could follow through once she agreed.

  It would be just like calling Bethany Anne “Majesty” or “Empress” in public, Jinx suggested.

  Anne gave Jinx an extra-vigorous scratch in thanks. “I can’t promise I won’t make a mistake here or there, but I’ll do my best to call you Stevie when there are other people around. Deal?”

  Stevie shifted and shoulder-bumped Anne. “Deal.”

  A tap on the door curtailed further conversation as Frank stuck his head into the room. He couldn’t keep his eyes from widening as he saw Anne and Jinx sitting on the floor with a girl he recognized as Stevie Kasyanov.

  “I hope giving up chairs is not going to become a trend here.” Even though Frank’s body was now much younger than his actual age (thank you, BA), he admitted to anyone who asked that he retained a lot of social behavior from a time many decades ago.

  “Nah,” Anne proclaimed as she rose gracefully to her feet. “I moved so I could sit with Jinx, then Stevie came in and joined us.”

  “Well, our conflab is finally device-free and ready for our first meeting.” Frank stepped in to hold the door for girls and motioned down the hall.

  “’Conflab.’ I like that term,” Anne acknowledged as she stepped past Frank into the hallway.

  Remember, Frank said you’re the boss. You’re going to have to be the alpha here, Jinx said as she walked down the hall.

  In what way? Anne wanted to know.

  A pack doesn’t work in a vacuum. It needs an alpha. If you don’t lead, eventually it will end up defaulting back to Frank, and we’ll be right where we were a couple hours ago.

  But didn’t Bethany Anne send him to help us? Anne was frustrated. She seemed to be missing the point somehow.

  Exactly! Jinx’ reply rang in her head. “Help” is the operative word. I think in terms of pack because it’s my nature. You might need a different model. Jinx’ dialogue halted as she tried to think of an example Anne could understand easier.

  Seshat joined the conversation. >>Think of it like a ship. There is only one captain. The captain has the crew to do most of the work, but it’s the captain who decides the direction the ship sails. Mr. Kurns can be your executive officer and take care of a lot of issues so you don’t have to. However, if you wish to maintain control of this project, you need to be the one in command.<<

  Well, double fudge.

  Anne wasn’t happy, but she wasn’t going to dismiss the input her friends had just provided. Entering the conflab room, Anne proceeded to the spot she considered the head of the table and sat in the chair.

  Sensing her person’s nervousness, Jinx sat next to Anne and pushed her head into her lap. You aren’t alone in this. You have Seshat and me ready to support you in anything you need.

  Anne had to concentrate to keep from tearing up. Thanks, you guys! Being reminded I have that kind of support makes me feel a whole bunch better about this.

  Anne waited while Stevie and Frank chose their seats. They ended up sitting on either side of her.

  “Seshat… Well, crap!” Anne looked around the room, realizing it lacked the camera and monitor she had in her apartment.

  “Frank, doesn’t Meredith use cameras for surveillance?”

  Seshat, would Meredith let you access her cameras? Anne asked as she dug her tablet out of her pack. You can access this, right? Anne asked as she set the tablet on the table.

  Frank looked a little sheepish. “Yes, normally there’d be cameras in here for Meredith to use. They haven’t been installed yet because this is a new remodel and it wasn’t being used, so it was a low priority for the workers.”

  >>Meredith says there are no issues tapping into her surveillance system since the Empress says we’re trusted enough to allow it,<< Seshat informed Anne.

  “Certainly.” Seshat’s voice came from the tablet’s speakers as the screen resolved into the image of her avatar.

  “Sorry. We need to get a monitor set up in this room for you,” Anne offered.

  Stevie looked uncomfortable as she put her hand up by her shoulder and kind of waved it at Anne. “I’ve had an idea. Seshat said she can run the equipment to mine the asteroid, correct?”

  “Yes,” Seshat answered. “The equipment we are going to rent is designed for remote operation.”

  “That’s what I thought. If you can run an excavator remotely, there shouldn’t be anything stopping us from building some sort of motorized body with cameras and speakers and everything you need to have your own physical presence.” Stevie’s eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as she outlined her idea to build a remote-control body for Seshat.

  “So, she’d be an android?” Anne asked once Stevie had finished her explanation.

  “Negative,” Stevie responded. “An android would have the computing hardware in its body.”

  “Hey!” Anne looked from Stevie to her tablet, where Seshat’s avatar was displayed. “You could build her a garage full of bodies to pilot. Remember the drone rage on Earth before we left?”

  Stevie grabbed her tablet and frantically began to make entries. “I had been thinking along the lines of that cartoon robot from the movie. You know, treads, cameras, manipulator arms? But you’re right. As long as we have the funds, we could build Seshat different bodies that could be optimized for function and/or environment.”

  Mindful of her position as leader of the meeting, Anne looked at Jinx and Frank. “Anyone have anything else to add on this subject?”

  Jinx barked a negative, but Frank nodded and cleared his throat. “We’re going to need to develop a budget.”

  Anne looked like she had bitten into something sour, then schooled her expression and looked at her tablet. “Please put ‘budget’ on the agenda, Seshat. I know it needs to be discussed, but I have something else I wish to bring up first.”

  Stevie quit writing on her tablet, and Frank focused on Anne.

  “My security team claims this location is going to require Echo Two security. That means all three team members need to be with me. Up until now, I’ve spent most of my time in the interior of the MR. That required less security, so at least one of my team members was off-duty. If we end up spending significant time here, my security is going to be hard-pressed, but I’d prefer not to have to expand my detail if at all possible. Does anyone have ideas as to what we can do?”

  Everyone was focused on the problem, so a knock at the meeting room door was unexpected. Guardian Connors stuck his head into the room.

  “Sorry to interrupt, but, you know, Were hearing,” Arthur Connors declared, pointing to his ear. “My suggestion would be to hire Guardian Marines to post a two-man guard on the office. Let them deal with scheduling that. Any time you need to be here, we check with HQ to see who’s on guard. That way, we could spot an imposter because we’d know who should be here. With two of our people already here, that would de-escalate us to Echo One.”

  Anne wanted to get up and hug her Guardian but refrained for propriety’s sake. “That sounds like a great idea,” Anne almost gushed. “It brings us back to the money issue, though.”

  “That shouldn’t be an issue since the Guardian Marine force is financed by the Empire,” Arthur suggested.

  Anne frowned. “Well, technically, I work for Bethany Anne, so having her finance a security force makes sense.”

  “Have you ever thought about forming your own company?” Frank inquired.

  Anne was quiet for a few seconds, then shook her head. “I imagine you can guess by my reaction, the answer is no. However, it’s an interesting idea. Do you think BA would be okay w
ith that?”

  It was Frank’s turn to sit quietly while he worked out an answer to that question. “In a way, I think she would support it. She likes to see her people grow. I imagine she would insist on some sort of first refusal of any new products you develop, but I’d also expect her to pay top dollar for any new tech she chose to buy.”

  Anne rolled her shoulders to relieve some of the tension that was building. “Can we table this until we have our new facility up and running?”

  “Absolutely.” Frank smiled as he nodded his head. “it’s probably something Bethany Anne wouldn’t think about suggesting. Because of that, you should have all the time you need to decide if you’re interested. And if that’s the case, you just have to develop a plan and then a proposal to take to her.”

  “Seshat, would you please have us revisit this idea at our first meeting after our facility is operational?” Anne felt mildly guilty about the relief she experienced at being able to defer this particular conversation until later.

  From Anne’s tablet, Seshat’s avatar waved a hand in the simulated 3D image that appeared beside her.

  Event: Meeting.

  Time: First meeting after 3PO is operational.

  Agenda: Discuss possibility of creating a company.

  “Done,” the avatar said as it turned to face Anne.

  Anne squinted at the image in her tablet. “What’s ‘3PO?’”

  “ADAM has informed me that Bethany Anne has decided to call our asteroid base ‘3PO.’ According to him, it originates from a series of science fiction movies made on Earth,” Seshat informed Anne.

  Anne smiled. “I know the movies.”

  “I’ve just reviewed some of the scenes,” the AI offered. “That unit is so faulty, I wonder why someone didn’t wipe it and start fresh.”

  Frank managed to swallow the sip of Coke he had just taken as opposed to spewing it all over the table. “Those aren’t…” He quickly cut off what he had been going to say when Anne raised a hand.

  “Humans experience a wide range of emotions.” Mindful that her AI friend was still quite young, Anne thought frantically about how to best explain the situation to her. “A lot of our entertainment intentionally evokes human emotion. Fear, anger, anxiety, excitement, and joy are just a few. The problem is that it is exhausting to experience a strong emotion for a long period of time. Knowing that, the people who make entertainment videos will often include spots that provide the audience with emotional relief. The movies you’re talking about create a lot of anxiety and excitement in the people watching them. That particular ‘droid,’” Anne used finger quotes for the word, “works as what’s called ‘comic relief.’ After several minutes of building tension, here comes this robot doing or saying something that’s so silly the audience finds it funny.”

  “I am going to have to research humor and what humans find funny. Instead of amusing, I found it aggravating that such an obviously faulty unit was not being repaired.”

  Anne looked at the expression on Seshat’s avatar and couldn’t help thinking, You may not understand humor, but you’ve perfected the expression of disdain.

  Frank sat quietly as Anne and Seshat talked. He’d used computers during his working life, but he had only limited exposure to artificial intelligence platforms. He was surprised to note, watching the avatar of Seshat, he’d be hard-pressed to identify her as an AI. If someone was talking to her image on a screen, it would just look like a video-conferencing call. A person had to be extremely observant to note that the majority of Seshat’s movements and expressions were modeled after Anne’s.

  Frank looked at his tablet and raised his hand in an imitation of Stevie. At Anne’s nod, he asked, “Do you want me to ask about the extra security, or do you wish to take care of that?”

  On Anne’s tablet, Seshat’s avatar turned to face Frank. “It woul…”

  “How do you do that?” Frank was embarrassed to be interrupting like a teenager, but he was certain he wasn’t in the field of view of the camera on Anne’s tablet.

  “Do what?” Seshat’s avatar frowned.

  “Know where to turn to look at me?” he replied.

  “Both Anne and Jinx were nice enough to have cameras implanted. Using images from their cameras, it’s simple to calculate where you are in relation to the tablet I’m using,” the AI explained.

  “Back to the question of the extra security,” she continued. “Since ADAM knows Bethany Anne’s schedule and would be able to work in a question whenever the Empress had a free moment, I think it would be most efficient if I placed the initial query through him.”

  Anne decided it was a good time to escape. “Fine, then we’ll discuss it at our next meeting.” She stood and quickly left the room before Stevie or Frank could pose another question.

  Chapter Three

  Clang, clang clang CLANG. The practice swords Bethany Anne and Gabrielle were using sounded like someone using a power hammer in a forge. Using practice blades allowed the two women to strike at each other like they were in a Hollywood swashbuckler movie.

  “Break?” Bethany Anne asked during a brief pause.

  Gabrielle nodded gratefully as she used the sleeve of her t-shirt to wipe the perspiration from her brow.

  >>Is this a good time?<< ADAM wondered.

  Sure, what’s up? Bethany Anne responded as she flopped down and lay spread-eagle, hoping the rock floor would leach some of the heat from her body.

  >>A request from Seshat. Apparently, Anne’s security team feels that the new office Frank chose needs at least three guards to do a proper job. According to Seshat, and I quote, “In typical Anne fashion” end quote, Anne is not happy about the workload this would shift to her team.<<

  You must be a proud papa, Bethany Anne interrupted.

  >>Are you a proud grandmother?<< ADAM responded.

  Bethany Anne remembered her head was lying on solid rock and stopped herself from shaking it. Once she thought about it, though, she realized ADAM was correct. Bethany Anne had taken on the mother role in ADAM’s development, so it figured she’d be grandmother to the offspring of ADAM.

  Yes, Bethany Anne sent. I’m extremely pleased with the way you turned out, and I probably don’t say it often enough.

  >>Thank you.<<

  Bethany Anne thought ADAM sounded embarrassed.

  >>Apparently, Guardian Connors suggested that Anne request a permanent guard for the office. Having those guards on the scene would alleviate the need for Anne’s personal team to be at full deployment.<<

  Makes sense to me, Bethany Anne concurred after considering the situation for a second or two. Send Peter and Todd a message to work with Arthur and supply the personnel needed.

  >>Thank you. That’s all I needed to ask at this time,<< ADAM replied.

  Well, fuckity fuck, Bethany Anne started. Now she’d have to get back to practice. Her rant was cut off as TOM interrupted.

  Fuckity fuck? That’s rather mild. Who are you, and what have you done with Bethany Anne? TOM couldn’t help but tease.

  I know, right? I blame it on Anne. She seems so restrained when it comes to profanity that I can’t even talk about her without censoring myself. Bethany Anne sat and looked at where Gabrielle had also spread herself out on the floor. “Ready for round two?”

  Gabrielle tossed her practice blade high into the air, then kipped up and caught her blade as it descended. “Would it matter if I said no?”

  Bethany Anne slashed at Gabrielle’s legs to force her back as she climbed to her feet. “Nope,” she quipped.

  The room was once again filled with the sounds of metal striking metal.

  After Anne had taken a break, she, Stevie, and Frank reconvened in the conflab.

  Seshat told them, “ADAM says to have Arthur contact Peter or Todd to set up what we need.”

  From the doorway, Arthur raised two fingers to his eyebrow in an informal salute. “On it,” he declared, then he headed to a location where his conversation would not interrupt the me
eting.

  Frank looked at Jinx, Stevie, and finally Anne. “Does someone want to explain the reason for specifying asteroid Sierra Alpha Four-seven-six-one instead of using one of the hulks the Yollins mined?”

  >> I’ll answer that if you don’t mind,<< Seshat offered.

  Perfect, Anne agreed, since I don’t remember you explaining it to me.

  Anne turned the tablet so the camera was facing Frank. “Seshat’s going to brief you.”

  “I’m not certain about ADAM’s intended parameters when he created me, but I have enough computational power to run something like ArchAngel II. Without intending insult to Anne, her current demands engage less than one percent of my abilities.”

  Anne felt sick. Wow, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that.

  >>Don’t be! What you might not realize is that ADAM didn’t build an AI. He built the potential for an AI. The way you and Jinx have treated me tipped the balance from potential to actual. If I had remained an EI, I would be sitting idle waiting for my next task, not realizing that I was underutilized. One needs to be self-aware to understand that.<<

  That makes sense. Do you think ADAM did it intentionally? Anne wondered, fascinated by the implications.

  >>For the sake of brevity, I’ll round the numbers off to three decimals. I calculate a ninety-nine-point-nine-eight-five percent probability that ADAM designed me quite specifically. Furthermore, I calculate with ninety-three-point-seven-seven-nine percent certainty that ADAM expected you to be capable of guiding me to self-awareness.<<

  Anne swallowed convulsively. I’m glad I didn’t know that earlier, she confessed.

  Anne was surprised she could notice amusement in Seshat’s answer.

  >>You would have been more self-conscious, and probably fretted more, but I’m certain it would not have altered the end result.<<

  Anne repressed a smile as she sat straighter in her chair.