by Chris Hechtl
“Yes,” Trey said, nodding. “That is the worst area.”
“Think we should avoid it? Here be dragons or something?” Kathy quipped.
Trey snorted. “I wish. But the UN put a lock on all the worlds previously discovered and all the worlds that are currently being discovered by publicly funded astronomers. The big boss made a deal with the UN and other megacorps that we won't fight them on that, but any place we find on our own is ours. They divided up the sky a thousand light years out from Sol. Guess where we picked?”
Kathy groaned. He nodded slowly, grimacing. “That's right,” he drawled. “So, guess where we're going?” He asked.
“No one makes it easy,” Kathy exhaled, looking thoroughly disgusted. “So, having accomplished pilots to man the helm is going to be critical. I'll just go see if we can get the dolphins more practice time. Better sims would help,” she said.
“We'll do what we can,” Trey said.
“If we can … I don't know, find a way to turn the data into a game, maybe …” she frowned thoughtfully as she looked up to the bulkhead, staring off into space. “They respond better to games …” she mused quietly.
“Games?”
“Yeah,” she said, coming back to the here and now. “So, if we can figure out a way to make it fun, maybe a simulator of a flight? Water? I'm not sure …” She shrugged helplessly.
“That's … not a bad idea,” Trey said, making a note. “Right now we've got the bubbles, and you steer a yoke like you would on a submarine. Anything on the sensors comes up you plot and maneuver around it.”
“But they pop up too fast so you'd have to have fast reflexes. There is no time to plot a course sometimes, right?”
“Tell me about it,” Trey agreed with a growl. “Just another thing to figure out a fix for. But couching the sensor data in another form might help. We'd have to keep it simple since it's coming fast, but I'll see if we can … hmmm …”
“Have fun talking with the coding geeks,” Kathy said, headed for the door. “Don't forget the dolphins have echolocation. If they can find ways to feed that sensory experience, all the better.”
“Huh? Oh yeah, yeah,” he said, waving a dismissive hand. “Go figure out how much food they need. Variety I bet? I'll shoot Charlie a memo to start planning on covering for the farm and stuff then shoot programming a memo. A flight simulator …”
Kathy shook her head wryly as she left, wondering what she'd started.
Chapter 7
September 2155
Kathy oversaw a team of coders and programming bots who perfected the dolphin interface and helm simulator. At first it was a simple interface of basic shapes. Most were made out of triangles, harkening back to the early days of virtual sims. But one of the coders got into the project and turned the black background into a virtual sea. The obstructions turned into sharks or reefs to dodge around, while rings were set as goals for the dolphins to swim towards and through. The rings would be programmed by the computer with the assistance of the ship's navigational team. They would be used to keep the ship on course. That was much more acceptable to her than pain stimuli.
They found that the dolphins were incredible when it came to the project. They had great stamina, being built to swim and move constantly. The problem was engaging their minds to keep them from getting bored and letting their attention lapse. Or letting them get too mischievous, which amounted to the same problem in the end.
Some of the coding had been farmed out to New Perspective, a new startup of kids she'd heard about. All young, they had started out around the age of eight writing code and algorithms before they'd gotten into viral marketing campaign tools for different age brackets. The media thought of them as darlings, so they'd gotten a boost in free positive publicity. Apparently the company as well as Radick Industries had each tried to buy them out, but they had politely declined each offer. They were firm about their independence, and from what Doctor Lagroose said, Jack respected that greatly. Which was why he'd gotten them involved in the fin game. To NP it was a game idea, which explained the NDA contracts they'd signed.
The kids had taken the “game” and tisked tisked, then practically rewrote it from scratch. They were still getting the bugs out, but it was ten times more effective than before, at least that was what Kathy's layman eyes told her.
When they tested the new and improved system out the dolphins squeed happily. A few bugs were found and listed to be resolved. They paused for a reboot, and one of the coder bots managed to slip in the corrections and then recompiled the simulator's base code.
The dolphins were found to be naturals at helming a starship once they got a handle on the virtual reality simulator. She realized they treated it as a fun new game to play. Their scores however were ten times better than the best human pilots, and she was pretty sure they'd only get better with practice.
To be fair they gave the human pilots a chance to pilot the simulator a few times. None of the pilots scored anywhere near what the dolphins had. Once the reports were all in and digested by the engineers, they passed on their recommendations to the design board who then passed them on to Jack Lagroose and the board of directors.
Jack had been waiting for the report. He called a special session of the board in through a virtual conference call. They'd been debating the concept for weeks; everyone was thoroughly tired of the topic. A simple vote green-lit the project in under ten minutes. He passed that on to a surprised Trey.
“Well! That was quick!”
“Get it done,” Jack ordered simply. Trey nodded. He got a glimpse of Aurelia carrying Zack into the room over Jack's shoulder before Jack cut the video call.
The inclusion of the dolphins to the crew caused major changes to the Pioneer class ship design. The main engineering was fine, but the redesign of the habitation areas proved a daunting task. Shoehorning in the water they would need life support equipment, habitation volume, aquafarming, the equipment for that, as well as the supplies they'd need to support the dolphins caused a chain reaction that moved through the other sections they'd thought safe to lock down and go forward with. Charlie spent long hours with his team trying to stamp out the problems.
-*-*-^-*-*-
Aurelia and Kathy made a point to actually ask the dolphins again if they really wanted to go. They had beaten around the bush. Kathy'd asked them, but she hadn't been sure the dolphins had really understood the concept. Aurelia made a simulation to show them how far they would go from their home and how they wouldn't be able to interact with people. She presented to them the dangers too.
Then the two humans watched from the sidelines as the dolphin pod leaders talked it over and then agreed when they realized they'd get the chance to see new seas. Kathy wasn't sure if they understood the dangers and the concepts. She felt a bit ambivalent over that.
“I feel like a traitor,” Kathy said, frowning as they exited the habitat.
“Why?” Aurelia asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Do they understand they won't be actually swimming in the oceans? That we can't risk them?” Kathy finally asked Doctor Lagroose. The older woman shrugged.
“We'll find a way to get the point across. Just having them on board will be good for them and our people. It will also be a neat game for them and a useful career choice. A vital one in our case.”
“At least until the computer techs and Athena figure out how to emulate what they are doing somehow,” Kathy said, wrinkling her nose.
“Don't bet on it. Maybe, but it might take time.”
“Unless you humans do some engineering on yourselves,” Athena interjected.
Aurelia Lagroose looked up with a frown. She'd noticed Athena had seemed to be evolving a bit of late. No doubt the coders had been working on her, improving … her frown deepened when she realized she'd thought of Athena as a real she. She shook herself, made a mental note to explore the situation later, and then returned to the discussion at hand. “Thank you but no. Tinkering with our own genetics is o
ut. Jack made that clear. I'm not sure about it, but I have to agree we have to draw the line somewhere.”
“Besides, if we did go that far we'd alienate a lot of people. We don't need to make more enemies; we've got enough as it is,” Kathy said with a sigh.
Aurelia gave her a sidelong look and then nodded slowly. “True. Too true unfortunately. There are always narrow, small minded people out there who can't handle change or new things. They just won't accept them or will demonize them. It's a pity they can't be more open minded,” she said. Kathy nodded.
Peter Jordan, janitor third class overheard their discussion and scowled as he worked on fixing number 4 bot's tangled track before he emptied it's bin. He was not happy about the animals. His Christian upbringing forbade man playing God. He yanked out the hair that entangled the track and then flipped the catch bin open. “Of course, filled with fur. Why not,” he muttered. Animal fur mostly, judging from the brown and black. Some of those chimps he'd seen wearing clothes.
That was wrong, he thought, looking up. Not only were they tampering with God’s creations but they were also giving their Frankenstein creations jobs. “Next they'll be after my job,” he muttered darkly.
He finished with the bot 4 and set it down in the charger. There was a pile of trash around the trash can; the robots couldn't dump the cans properly when they were overflowing. Mrs. Lagroose hated to have her office cleaned; it was only cleaned once a week.
They didn't have a lot of paper, all written records were electronic of course. No, most of the trash was empty food containers, plastic silverware, and other detritus. He swore as something gummy and sticky got all over his hands. “Damn it, can't they recycle shit?” he demanded, getting louder.
He'd been on the job for a year; he'd thought it had been a great stepping stone to something better within the company. It wasn't working out that way though. He'd gone to a good Christian college and passed his business, marketing, and ethics courses with okay, not a 4.0 but at least a 2.5., 2.75 he corrected himself. He deserved better than cleaning up after people, he reasoned.
He'd taken the job with Lagroose since his pastor had told him that the community needed to keep an eye on them and it would give him an in. He'd cared less about the spying, he'd said so. But now he wasn't so sure. Someone should know about the crap they were doing. “It's not right,” he muttered. “Playing God.”
“Pete, we need you to dump whatever you're doing and go clean the animal cages on level four,” a familiar voice said.
“Four? That's not my deck. I'm on two remember? That's Tim's job.”
“He's busy. You got elected. Chop chop, the assistant there is pissed about it. He's called me three times in the past twenty.”
“Why can't the bots get to it?”
“You and I both know they can't handle corners and tight areas,” Lisa said with an exasperated sigh. “They think the boss lady will stop by, and she complained about the smell the last time.”
“Damn it. Why do they need cages if they are making the animals smart? Why not teach them to clean up after themselves?” he demanded.
“These are the control animals. The assistant will get the animals out for you,” Lisa said patiently.
“I'm cleaning her royal high and mighty's office right now. When I'm done I'll get around to it,” Pete said in disgust. He turned to make sure bot 4 was working okay. It was, toddling along on its small wheels to clean the floor. Bot 4 was the floor cleaner for that section; he could leave it alone since it was autonomous. It'd go to its charging station to dump its load and recharge when it was finished.
“Hurry up. And make sure you put some potpourri out. She likes anything but lavender,” Lisa ordered and then clicked off.
“Yes your majesty,” he said snidely, going through the motions. He banged about though, rough since he resented his upcoming unpleasant task. He mumbled acid comments while he oversaw the robots cleaning the other offices. When the office was finished, he gave it a squirt of air cleaner and then pushed his cart to the elevator down the corridor.
His behavior was picked up by a software bot programmed to monitor Aurelia's office. That triggered an alert to security. Naomi Brinks, the guard on shift, picked up the alert, checked and flagged it as a false alarm and went back to her reading.
However the comments were overheard by the software bot as well. Since they were in its memory buffer while Miss Brinks reacted, his comments were translated into text and then passed through a software security bot. That in turn was passed on to Athena who reviewed the recordings and then triggered a security review.
Just as Peter finished cleaning the animal stalls he was confronted by two unsmiling guards. “Um, hi fellas, something I can help you with?” he asked, wiping his hands off.
“Sir, you'll have to come with us,” the taller of the pair said.
“Why? What's going on?” Peter demanded, stopping what he was doing. The bewildered janitor was confronted quietly at the end of his shift and then escorted out. He was clearly unhappy by the security officer on either side of him, bewildered by the rapid security response. Being escorted turned into a major gossip event. Usually that happened just before a termination.
Kathy was shocked and dismayed as well as she rounded a corner and nearly walked into them. “What the hell happened?” she demanded.
Aurelia frowned, holding a finger up as her right hand cupped over her ear. That told the other woman that she was getting a message. Kathy waited patiently as Aurelia finished listening and then nodded. “All right. Understood. Keep me posted,” she said and then pulled the earwig from her ear. She plugged it back into her tablet and then sighed.
“What happened?” Kathy asked.
Aurelia stared off into space and then shook her head. “Apparently the janitor spouted off a bit. Security picked up on it. Normally they ignored it but Athena got wind and did an in-depth review. Apparently new intelligence was uploaded, and Mister Jordan's family and associates was in it.”
“So? That's them not him. And what a man says is his right!” Kathy said.
“Even about what we do here?” Aurelia asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Um …”
“That's right, it is a serious problem,” she said with a frown. “The security breach potential …” she shook her head and looked worried. “We'll talk with him, possibly move him to another department. I wish I'd seen this coming, I might have been able to nip it in the bud. Unfortunately, we try to limit what people not in the projects know, so they can’t get the wrong idea.”
“You can't see everything,” Kathy said loyally. She licked her lips and then shook her head. “And you can't help what people think or say. It's human nature to fear what they don't understand.”
“We've thought for the longest time that ignorance was bliss. We'd let people toddle along happily doing their thing. What they didn't know couldn't come back and bite us in the arse,” Doctor Lagroose said dryly. She really hoped Jordan didn't get into further trouble. He knew a lot, and he'd worked for the company for a year. They could erase his memory and create a cover story, but she was deeply uncomfortable with that practice. All sorts of side effects were potentially involved … the ethics … she fought to keep her frown from becoming a scowl. “But the longer this project goes on, the bigger it gets … the more potential for other people, people who are prone to xenophobia to see it and spin it in a negative light.”
“Especially some of the other projects? Are you afraid you've gone too far?”
“Maybe too far too fast, but the genie is out of the bottle. What we do about it … where we go from here is the question,” Aurelia said simply. “We're not going to sterilize them and tell them they can't be people. We have a couple dozen new semi-alien races to eventually introduce to mankind. I just need to remind myself to step back and let them be people,” she said wryly. “At least the adults. But telling the solar system about them … Mars won't have any issues but Earth?” She shook her head.
“Knowing our luck it'll come out when we aren't ready. Using the dolphins for the starships alone will assure us it's going to come out. I think I need to talk to some people in public affairs,” Doctor Lagroose said drearily. “Bollix, getting them up to speed will be a royal pain,” she said, making a face. “And then answering questions with the media …”
“Limit exposure? Is that what you are thinking, Doctor?” Kathy asked.
Aurelia nodded. “For now, just the dolphins. We'll have to consider them a pilot program as far as releasing info about the Neos. We'll see how the public accepts or rejects them.”
“Well, the good news is, we'll prove they are sapient. Worse comes to worse they can go to a new solar system,” she said. That earned a raised eyebrow from her boss. “I'm imagining a world of Neos,” Kathy said, shaking her head.”
“It's … definitely appealing,” Aurelia said slowly, turning the idea over and over in her head. “The fanatics won't be able to touch them,” she said. She made a mental note to explore that idea in detail later.
“Well, up here no one can get at them. Or us,” Kathy said, sounding relieved.
“Oh, how I wish that were true,” Doctor Lagroose murmured. Kathy turned to stare at her but she picked up a culture dish. “Come on then, we've got work to do. I want to get this next set of splices completed and tested by tomorrow,” she said. “I know the pod leaders want hands for their next generation so they will be able to better manipulate objects and their environment, but I'm not sure if it is possible to give them what they want and keep the flipper shape, and the whole idea of adding an extra set of limbs is nuts.” She shook her head. They had been using the locked recessive genes to explore returning the basic flipper shape to the limbs the cetaceans ancestors had had over three million years ago. Identifying them had been easy, the entire genome of the dolphins had been mapped at the beginning stages of the uplift program, long before they'd started making changes. Turning them on hadn't been hard, but finding the right combination that didn't cause all sorts of headaches and heartache was.