Ships of Valor 1: Persona Non Grata

by Aaron Kennedy

  Flying with Heart was a hell of a lot different than flying alone, or even flying with someone else. No, that's not right. Heart was someone else, but the idea was hard to wrap my head around at first since I didn't actually see a person sitting in the seat next to me.

  Heart was insanely patient with me. Like a superior dance partner, who let me take the lead. When he declared me captain, he meant it, and to him, I had complete control, even though his ability would surpass anything I would ever be capable of. That level of trust was frightening. The tastes of command I had experienced in the Legion never prepared me for anything close to it.

  Although my new position added a lot of stress, it also added a lot of fun as well. Heart had a lot of power, and we had a huge playground in the Sol system. One of the first things we tried was an actual spacewalk. Had I been flying a smaller ship it wouldn’t have been required. Heck, a spacewalk wasn’t really required with Heart since he was technically a rated pilot in his own right, but he insisted on getting me fully qualified up to his tonnage, and that meant being able to conduct an inspection while in space. I wouldn’t be able to do any repairs, but that’s what the mechanic was for. The way he figured it, the more proficient I was, the better partners we would be. I really couldn’t fault his logic. And walking in space is so cool. At least until your partner plays a joke and hits the engines.

  It was a great joke too. The kind of joke I would have played on Legion buddies in my much younger and more immature days. After he reeled me in and my swearing ceased, I even told him so. He hadn’t even gone very fast, probably only a few meters a second, but in space, the key issue is acceleration or gravity, not maximum speed. He had given me just enough of a tug to make me think we were accelerating to full. I had thought something had gone catastrophically wrong when in fact he was merely having a bit of harmless fun with someone he considered a friend. It was the kind of joke Marsans would love, having elements of misunderstanding, danger, and potential death.

  After letting me cool down a bit, he did let me have my own flavor or fun, though. “Ari, would you like to try and reach maximum acceleration?” In other words, he wanted to put the reactors to full and see how fast we could go. I wasn’t even a little mad at him. It really was a great joke, but if I had been, this was the kind of present that would have got Heart back in my good graces instantly.

  The maximum speed of real-space is c. It's the hard limit of our universe. To reach that limit a ship needs acceleration. Any ship can get to c, given enough time and distance. What we are comparing is not a ship’s maximum speed but its relative acceleration. A small craft with large engines accelerates faster than a larger craft with the same size engines.

  Military craft by their nature has huge engine-to-mass ratios. Maneuverability is a major concern. The Valor-class was the mold for almost all future ships of his size. As a hospital ship, they were essentially neutral, and treated anyone regardless of alliance, and the idea of pumping as much raw speed as possible made practical sense for its design. Getting to where they were needed most as fast as possible was essential.

  Because we're dealing with acceleration, the math gets a little wonky, so it's a little easier to say how long travel takes to get from point A to point B than to describe ship speed like gravity, which is the closest comparison. Terra is one astronomical unit from Sol, convenient because that's actually the standard definition. Jupiter runs about five and a half astronomical units from Sol depending on where he is in its cycle.

  The easiest way to describe distance is by designating a point like Sol, and referencing everything else off it. From Sol, light takes a little under five hundred seconds to reach Terra, and about forty-five minutes to reach Jupiter. Heart was fast, but not that fast. He could travel anywhere in the system in thirty days, but Sol to Jupiter was about a three-day hop at max because we had to ramp up speed.

  We were taking our sweet time because I wanted to log as much flight time as I could. The more comfortable I was in the chair, the more I was going to be able to fake being a real pilot when the time came. Additionally, there’s a massive asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter making it difficult to plow forward. The easiest way is to go up and over, accelerating on the way up, and decelerating on the way down in a ballistic curve. Heart recommended actually going through the thinner upper areas to build up my skill and confidence levels, as he had a reasonably solid map of the major ‘roids, and assured me he could get us out of there if needed.

  That experience elevated us from partners to friends quickly. I knew Heart had my back, as well as his own proverbial skin but I also knew he was willing to let me make mistakes so I could learn.

  Hospital boats don’t have any real weapons on them. A couple of ion cannons which are short-range disrupters, but that’s about it. Heart does have great shields, though and if he knew he could take a hit from a small rock without taking any major damage, Heart let us take the hit. He’d shut off dampers right before the impact so I’d get thrown with him and know exactly what happened too. What he called an object lesson. He also swore like a sailor. It was awesome.

  The opposite was also true. If I missed something big, and we couldn’t take the hit, he either told me or got us out of there. He didn’t second guess me. He simply took action and let me know what was going on. He knew what our combined limitations were, and what our long-term goals were.

  We spent a little under two weeks playing in the field before space opened up and we continued on to Jupiter. Our short-term goal was to hit Ganymede since I needed practice flying through an actual atmosphere, and that’s where I was going to get it. Ganymede is sort of like a miniature Terra. It’s a gorgeous place. It has light gravity, an oxygen atmosphere, and after it was Terraformed, became an almost resort planet. Because of the asteroid field between Jupiter and Mars, ballistic transports didn’t work well for supplies. Fire and forget technology couldn’t be used like between Luna and Mars or Jupiter and Saturn. So the corporations relied on the Mariners and smaller ships. Heart and I were betting on that.

  The majority of Ganymede’s goods came in on big transports a few times a year when the planets were closest to each other. The thing to remember is we usually define things based on standard time, but when everything is spinning that means everything is constantly getting closer or farther away from each other.

  Terra has the classic year, or cycle for simplicity sake. Mars is not quite twice that, so Terra is closest to Mars a little more twice a year. The goal is to launch ships from Terra at the point closest to where Mars is going to be. The same applies to every other point in space. It saves energy.

  The issue is the amount of time and energy to move stuff between planets. Especially due to the need to escape gravity wells. So when the product is moved companies like to move as much of it as possible. Unfortunately, niche items or expendables aren’t always accounted for.

  I’ve mentioned my love of media before. For this first run, we decided to load up on as much low volume recreational items as we could. Since Luna Corp was technically footing the bill we weren’t worried about profit margin, however, Heart had tapped into the historical data and indicated he could make us a profit.

  Our real goal was to try to get merchandise we could take back to Terra. We had a list of options but I was hoping to make contacts with other traders on the satellite and find out what I could peddle.

  I’ve spent most of my time talking about what Heart taught me, but I’d like to believe I taught him things as well. He’d been docked for quite a while because the Dixon-Kellinger family didn’t know what to do with a sentient ship. His sister the Star was with Lysha’s aunt Rosly as their personalities seemed aligned closely, but Heart had bonded with Lysha when she was a kid, roughly the same time I had joined the Legion. Turns out we’re about the same age once my deep-sleep is accounted for, one of the many reasons we clicked so well.

  It's not that his personal skills were bad. They weren't, but they were rusty. I could tell
he wanted to ask lots of questions about everything. Things I had seen, done, and experienced. He couldn't get enough. But he was trying not to overwhelm me as well. He had spent so much time with a single family, Heart had never truly developed a concept of boundaries. I had gone through the same issue being part of close-knit teams in the Legion, living and working with same folks day in and day out meant there were no real borders.

  Although he was much older than me and infinitely smarter, he hadn't spent the same amount of time around people. Interactions are required to develop complex thought. Unfortunately, less exposure actually stunted his growth in a lot of ways. He could critically think about issues logically but when it came to examining emotions those thought patterns hampered him. He hadn’t developed the ability to segregate different ways of thinking yet.

  On our trip over from Luna I had found out a lot about his purchase, and awakening. Although the long-term goal had been to outfit him for hspace travel, like the Star, the primary reason for his purchase was he was a hospital ship and a large one at that. As I said, Looneys are pragmatic by nature and taking what was essentially a hospital that could be placed anywhere on Luna's surface and used as a mobile base made good sense.

  Heart didn't have a large crew at that point. Only a handful and they didn't realize his upgraded systems were making him exponentially smarter to the point of becoming self-aware. It wasn't until he began anticipating the needs of the crew were suspicions raised.

  People develop habits, and habits are a fancy way of saying patterns. A computer can spot patterns, and once seen, can begin to anticipate what comes next. The issue was no one had programmed Heart to do that. Not in the ways the crew was seeing. Little things like preparing coffee and sending lifts to the correct corridor at exactly the right time.

  When the pilot sat down one morning and said a hearty “Good Morning, Luna!” to the empty bridge and Heart responded back, the new voice scared him out of his seat. They weren't sure how to react. No one wanted to make that particular call to the company office. But want and need are very different things.

  Wayne Dixon was not one who liked delays, and although Heart’s awakening wouldn’t delay things, it definitely had the potential to. The crew decided to err on the side of caution and call the boss rather than having to explain why they hadn’t at some point in the future. Ever the realist, grandpa Dixon had them complete the project and then examine the issue. He dry-docked Heart until he could figure out how to use his new and unwanted employee.

  Although he wasn’t happy about losing his investment in a mobile hospital, Wayne Dixon was a fan of having intelligent employees, especially ones who didn’t need sleep and generated money without downtime. When the Star awoke a couple of months later, he realized how complex the situation could become, and decided to limit who had access to the ships. This made the issue somewhat of a family secret, in turn reducing the people both interacted with.

  Heart was starved for human contact. Even tapped into the main computers of Luna, he had difficulty gaining the same social experience of human interaction when the number of people he knew was limited. I didn’t get the impression his existence was a true secret, simply not advertised.

  AI has been around for a long time, but it’s always been a legal gray area, and each government and corporation treat the issue differently, both morally and ethically. The idea of what is essentially property who is alive opens up some real questions many people are not comfortable dealing with.

  Back during the singularity era, in the mid twenty-first century when computers started getting advanced enough to where they were theoretically capable of matching human potentials, a lot of laws went into play. Lots of treaties were written about what and how we would treat artificial intelligence should it arise. The problem was we never figured AI out. It never happened on Earth.

  It wasn’t until the age of hyperspace when computers got big enough and smart enough when they woke up. I asked Heart if he thought he was the first “Unlikely Ari. At the time, I was far from an advanced model. I am certainly of the first generation, but far more probable an Imperial Frigate or Mariner Spaceliner would have gained consciousness several years before me. I was mothballed during the first wave of hyperspace upgrades, and was classified as obsolete during that time-frame.” Obsolete? I was shocked by that, as his hull design was considered a classic. The first ship I was on, the Gerdes had almost the same body design. I said as much.

  “Yes, obsolete. Eventually, there are enough incremental changes every ship is. Engines get better and computers become more advanced. The medical and fabrication bays as well. Although my body is almost completely original, I have extensive upgrades where it counts. This is my fourth brain so to speak. It is rather bizarre feeling yourself getting more intelligent each time it happens.”

  “When you joined the Legion, did you feel yourself get stronger?” I had to think about that. I tried to answer as best I could, but strength is always relative. I knew I was stronger than when I joined, but because gravity changes from place to place, I was never clear on how much. I didn’t have a consistent point of reference. Being able to lift fifty kilos on Terra didn’t mean much when I could lift three hundred on Luna even before genemod. Living in all the different gravities, I had never consistently tried to maximize my strength. I knew I was stronger, but I hadn’t felt myself get so. It wasn’t until I needed it did I realize how much more power I had at my disposal. But that was usually combined with rushes of adrenaline and fear, so again no definitive point of reference.

  I did point out I knew I was a hell of a lot smarter now than I used to be. Mainly because I had so many more experiences since then. My context had changed so much. What I thought I knew was so different from back then. Compared to the present, I was an idiot when I joined.

  “That makes sense. New data has the potential to change every connection within a relational database. I have had to expand memory banks several times based on new hyperspace beacon data input.”

  This brought me back to wondering about his official status. I let my curiosity get the better of me and decided to broach the subject. “I am a free citizen of Luna under the Artificial Intelligence Accords of 2214.” There was quite a bit of pride in his statement. “Wayne Dixon filed for me as soon as he was told I was sentient.” Lysha's great-grandfather.

  That explained it. From everything, she had told me about him, the best description for him was a hard man. Not mean, or cruel, just hard. Made like the rock or Luna itself. He came from the post-war era and had a leadership style to match. Very much a force of will type of guy. Effective and efficient. Fair and firm but things were black and white. No gray area. Ironic living on Luna. For him, Heart was either a person or he was property. Apparently, he decided person and ended the debate forever by making him a citizen.

  That's a big deal. Luna doesn't abide by slaves, indentured servants, or anything else even smelling like it. One foot on Luna equals freedom. For a long time, Luna's status as a trust was abused, and folks have a long memory. Grandpa Dixon being a Looney himself shared that issue, and decided Heart was one of Luna’s own.

  I asked more about him and got a distinct pause. Pauses were very telling when dealing with Heart. I knew he could answer instantly. I knew he had dozens of ways and had already computed the best possible response. But pauses told me there was a logical conflict between what best was, changing what should be a normally simple calculation like navigating an asteroid field into something much more akin to hspace travel. I got pauses when I asked him how he felt about things.

  “I am not sure he liked me, Ari. He did not know what to do with me. He was a good man, of that I have no doubt, but I do not know if he was a nice man. From what I could gather, he had expectations and would not deviate from them. I believe,” another pause, as though uncomfortable with the word “that he was unable to come up with expectations for me. I was outside his realm of experience. It was easier for him to ignore me.”


  “I was useful to him. I was instrumental in rebuilding the Luna Corporation's infrastructure. I helped in much of the redesign of the lower levels, and supplemental domes.” That actually brought up an interesting point regarding Luna's own computers. I knew it took massive computers to keep not only the corp but also the moon itself operational, so I asked Heart.

  “No, Master Dixon was somewhat averse to turning over control. He believed in a decentralized structure, which was wise, though maybe not for the same reasons. He kept the systems intentionally small and segregated so they would not gain consciousness. Sometimes I think his actions were a kindness.”

  It was my turn for a long pause before I finally asked why. “Ari, not to be morbid, but barring a catastrophic accident, artificial intelligence like myself are functionally immortal. Human life, though long-lived is not. One of the hardest issues I had to deal with was the realization people cease to be. Furthermore, because our sense of time is so different, if I do not intentionally disable it, I would count down until your theoretical demise. Knowing fewer people is actually beneficial, as it becomes easier to deal with the eventualities.”

  He was right. The idea was morbid and true. A sentient computer on Luna would have to deal with millions of people dying constantly. That would be tough. Worse than that, he would have to deal with people arriving and leaving constantly, and just not knowing. An AI wouldn't have the same built-in ability to ignore or forget like humans.

  Chapter 10

  “Ari, we are on our final approach to Anson Station.” I thanked him and got ready. I felt weird having the Captain's stateroom, located in a heavily shielded area off the bridge. Exceptionally nice compared to rooms I had stayed in previously, it was about twice the size of my room at White Caps, and easily quadruple anything I had stayed in while still in the Legion. Included bunkmates. The room had its own refresher, and a kitchenette, but Heart told me there was a full-scale galley for my executive officer and me if we ever gained one. Above and beyond the regular galleys for the ship’s crew, and passengers, which were currently shut down. The furniture in my stateroom was simple, a good-sized bookrack, a nice desk, some enclosed bookshelves, and the wardrobe.