Admiral Jane (A.I. Destiny Book 1)

by Timothy Ellis

  A few hours later, Jane and Walsh were reviewing the rules and procedures for the council meeting the next morning. Since Jane needed to deliver the briefing on humans, Walsh would be taking their seat in the council itself. He was finding it hard to not show his nervousness.

  An email came in from Fred, and Jane popped up a hollo screen so Walsh could see it as well.

  "Admiral Jane, I have news. The council has discussed your request for an entity name. It was largely agreed that Empire of Man was too pretentious, and anything including the word empire was as you said, giving off the wrong impression. It was a long discussion, but in the end it was agreed you may call us 'The Human Federation'. We are after all a collection of different groups with a common governing body, but each group manages its own internal affairs."

  Jane nodded. For her it was a good choice.

  "The family discussed moving, and in principle, we will move to the right planet. The consensus though was we would want the area pacified before moving. We also don’t particularly want to move any time soon. The older members of the family are attached to Gaia, and would be sad to leave. On the other hand though, there is a group of young people I see on a semi-regular basis, and they tell me there is a lot of negative activity going on behind the scenes. None of it is threatening, but comments to the effect 'runners think they are deserving of more space than anyone else' are becoming more frequent. For teens whose families have a history of being military or mercenary, such comments don’t go down very well. I'll keep an eye on it, but you may be right when you told me there could be trouble once people saw how underpopulated this city is. I'll discuss the situation with Justine next time I see her. And keep you informed of developments. In the meantime, keep up your efforts to find us a permanent home."

  "Fred out."

  "Interesting," said Walsh. "I didn’t put your connection together. So you're one of those Hunter's?"

  "Adopted."

  "And the Gauntlet?"

  "Would be an ideal Hunter's Run."

  "Where did that name come from?"

  "The media thought it up. Friend of mine crossed a series of systems faster than anyone else had ever done it, and was subsequently granted ownership of them. The name was used as a joke to start with I think, but it stuck."

  "THAT friend?"

  "That friend."

  "Someone to see you," said Barf from the doorway.

  Jane removed the hollo screen, which was causing Barf to go bug-eyed.

  Barf actually bowed, as the being entered the office, and quickly vanished.

  Jane was shocked.

  "Ganesha?"

  The being was strange, even by this galaxy's standards. It had two legs, making it distinctive on that basis alone. But it also had four arms. The strangest aspect however, was the head. Instead of a nose, it had the trunk of an elephant.

  "You know Ganesha?" said the voice from the council.

  "We've met," said Jane. "Several times actually."

  Walsh shot Jane a 'wow' look.

  "Then I am honoured to meet you. Ganesha is a legend from our people, who supposedly once was like us, but evolved to achieve deity status. We do not worship him, but he is revered. To have revealed himself to you, makes you special."

  "Not so special I suspect. But the circumstances were unusual."

  "So it is with him. What do you remember most about him?"

  "He has this habit of thumping tables."

  The laugh was deep and melodious.

  "We are the Ganeshavestura, at one with Ganesha. My name is Ganshura. I lead the council."

  "Shouldn’t we be visiting you?" asked Walsh.

  "Normally yes. But I make it my business to welcome new members in person, before they take their seats in council. Until then, the protocols do not apply."

  Jane waved him to a seat, and they all sat. He was a large being, and selected a larger, solid seat. He sat it solidly, back rigidly straight.

  "What can we do for you, honoured council leader?"

  "It's not what you can do for me, although you have already done a lot. I am here to deliver your seat allocation."

  He pulled out a tablet and pushed a button. A screen wound down from the ceiling, and a floorplan of the council chamber displayed on it. There was a dot in the front row, not far off center.

  "Surely not?" said Walsh.

  "Indeed yes. With your population and exchange rate, you rank in the top five percent in this sector. Slightly lower in the whole galaxy."

  "I wonder how we'd have rated if we'd met you a year ago?" pondered Jane.

  "Why would it have been different?"

  "Oh sorry, did I say that out loud?"

  "You did. Explain."

  "Hard to give it the right context. Let's just say, something strange happened on the very edge of the galaxy in our space, and our current population is only the about twenty percent who survived."

  The elephant face looked at her seriously.

  "You should definitely mention that tomorrow."

  Fifty Eight

  Walsh filed into the council chamber, feeling small, and underprepared. There were only fifteen other beings ahead of him, and hundreds behind. He was glad to be able to switch off his sense of smell. The scents from some were quite pleasant, but pungent was a good description for others. The word stench was also appropriate. He made a mental note about warning any human ambassador to find a way of dealing with the sensory overload before taking the seat. PC override of the senses was going to be essential for whoever sat this seat.

  The seat had been specifically designed to suit his body shape. It explained why council hadn't sat the day before, since if they were slotting him in, most of the chamber had been shuffled, which must have been a big job for someone.

  Built into one arm was a voting panel. It had a small screen for displaying what was being voted on, and three buttons. Yes, No, and Abstain. His tablet bipped. It announced his tablet had been synced with the chair, and asked him what language he preferred to view. He was more than surprised to find Human listed, which he selected.

  "Welcome Ambassador Walsh," said his screen.

  "Did you give them our translation software?" Walsh asked Jane in AI mode.

  "No. Not as such. I updated our details on their system, and patched their translation software. It saves me needing to speak someone else's language to be understood in future. A human couldn’t have done it the other day. They would have had to talk, had it translated and broadcast, waited for the responses, had them translated and spoken back to them, rinse and repeat. Far slower, and with less nuance. I was going in and out of AI mode so fast, they couldn’t tell the difference."

  "So they think you're a natural linguist, and don’t know we can access their core systems?"

  "Possibly, and not yet. Some of them may figure it out when I start speaking, and they hear human for the first time, with a translation in their own language. I was speaking Owl last time, and they could have thought I'd learned it thinking it was a common language."

  "Hmmm. Should I be worried?"

  "I doubt it. If anything, someone who can hack their systems as easily as we can, should be of great use to those designing the systems."

  "Or no use at all."

  "Stay positive."

  "Easy for you to say. You're not the one sitting in the middle of a zoo."

  "No, I'm the one it'll be easier to throw things at."

  "You’re safe. They checked nothing came in except tablets."

  Jane hesitated.

  "I was going to say tablets would hurt, but obviously they won't. Hold on, I'm being called."

  Jane followed the puce coloured fuzz-ball into a waiting room. A screen showed the council still filing in. She looked around the image until she found the Owl. It was one seat down from the other day, and looking thunderous. Its gaze was fixed on Walsh, who was a good deal around the chamber from it, and below. If it had eye disintegrators, Walsh would be dust already.

&n
bsp; "Don’t look, but someone hates you."

  "Only one? I feel like I'm standing in the middle under a spot light, with everyone trying to decide how they eat me."

  "They'd break teeth if they tried it."

  "Ha-ha."

  The screen went blank, and the fuzz-ball beckoned to Jane.

  "I'm on. Wish me luck."

  "Break a leg."

  Jane didn’t respond, as she went over what she wanted to say. She was ushered into the center of the chamber, and strode up to the raised area. The room quietened. Instead of speaking, she went over to the computer and mimed entering data. The first page of the list of stations in Gaia appeared on the wall screen, sorted by population size, with all references to the system itself removed. She unplugged herself, and stood in the center, orienting herself on Ganshura, who was completely visible this time.

  "Greetings galactic ambassadors. I am Jane Hunter of the Human Federation. I carry the rank of full Admiral in our military forces, and am one of only four to carry this level of rank, another being our home system Admiral under my supervision, and the other two being ground soldiers."

  As she expected, the questions started immediately. Any ambassador was allowed to ask any question whenever they liked, as long as the presentation was allowed to continue in an orderly way, at a good pace. Jane expected to be bombarded with questions from every direction but the doors.

  "Explain your definition of Federation please."

  "We are a single species, but multiple races, covering a wide range of variance in some characteristics. Some are coloured as I am, being a pinkish white, while others scale through the various shades of brown almost to black. We are all the same basic shape, but individual features vary enormously. While we use a single language for convenience, we actually have hundreds of different languages and dialects. We have many different belief systems, and political systems. The end result of all of this is we group together for various reasons, and while we are governed by a council such as this one, each individual group is also autonomous and independently governs itself. As such, we fit our definition of a Federation."

  "Thankyou. You fit ours as well."

  "If you will observe the screen, you will see the first page of a list of stations currently in our home system. They are listed in decreasing order of population."

  There was a lot of sound, as beings expressed their emotional reaction to the list.

  "Page one you say?"

  "Yes."

  "Why do so many people live on stations? Do you not have a viable planet?"

  "In fact, we have four in this system, and another dozen within our protected zone. However, we used to live elsewhere. Six of our months ago, a disaster threatened us with extinction. Those who could flee, did so. We saved about one in five."

  "Didn’t you say your population was twenty five billion?"

  "I did."

  They did the math, and the chamber erupted. Jane stood there, looking around with a smile on her face. She made eye contact with Walsh, who was sitting there quietly, and winked at him.

  There was no attempt to quieten down the chamber, but it did so in its own time. The rules were clear. Reactions were not suppressed, but there was a time limit. The penalty was ejection, and not being able to vote for the remainder of the session.

  "What was the nature of the disaster?"

  "We don’t know."

  "How can you not know?"

  "We do not know. All we do know is the volume of space where we used to live, is no longer there. The jump point we fled through, is no longer there. And there is no longer any memory of what happened."

  "You met Ganesha," said Ganshura. "How do you remember this?"

  "My mind is different to most humans. I remember far better than the average. I retain the most memory of all, but even so, most of what I think I know is based on guesses."

  "You think you met Ganesha?"

  "I met Ganesha several times. Also Kali, and a number of other higher beings. But it was Kali who was taking an interest in what happened to us."

  The chamber was dead silent now.

  "Kali saved them. There is no other explanation."

  "Why the memory loss?"

  "Mere mortals are not to remain privy to the workings of the highers."

  "Mysticism."

  "Fairy tales."

  "Something happened," said Jane. "Something which killed four fifths of our population and left the rest stranded on stations and ships. What, doesn’t really matter. Here and now is what concerns us."

  "Nicely said."

  "What of the threat?"

  "Gone, as far as we can tell, given the jump point has vanished. There are those of us who believe a small group sacrificed themselves to save all, and did it in a way which not only saved our people from extinction, but saved the entire galaxy from extinction."

  "Do you celebrate this group as heroes?"

  "We would, if we remembered them. But we do not. We do however have gaps in our records which indicate there were people we do not remember. We're in the process of resettling our people. Which is why having a threat like the one we face from the Owls, is such a concern to us."

  "Are you a warlike species?"

  "No. But also yes."

  "How can you be both?"

  "At our core, we believe in peaceful co-existence. But as individuals, we react to stimuli differently. Some will always flee violence. Some will always embrace the violence. And there are those who fight because they feel they have no choice. We do not tolerate bullies, thieves, liars, or dictators. We will oppose those who impose their will on others, and who kill those who dare to believe differently. Individuals vary how they react to such things, but we go to war when enough of our numbers feel strongly enough about an issue. Our last minor war was less than two years ago, not including the disaster which then fell on us. Ironically, the advances in tech made during that conflict allowed us to save so many people later. Before that, we largely had peace for a century. We protect the weak, police laws, and encourage the violent into occupations which channel their aggression and anger to positive pursuits."

  "Such as your military."

  "Yes. We have a large fleet, and a ground army, currently mobilized to blockade our own people inside the safe zone, and the Owls out of the poisoned zone. Please do not send ships to our space at this time. The fleet on guard on the other side of Owl space have orders to destroy any ship jumping in. I will let the council know when it's safe to send ships to our space, and eventually we will welcome trade with everyone. But only by totally excluding all ships, can we be safe. Our ground forces are currently working on ways of eradicating the plant and its propagation animal."

  "Are not your people vulnerable doing this?"

  "We have developed a safe way of walking the planets. But to date, the eradication has only been partially successful."

  "There is no safe way."

  "How can any interaction be safe?"

  "How much progress with eradication have you made?"

  The Owl was silent, but taking in every word.

  "The how is a secret we must keep for now, and only our military possess it. We have so far been able to completely eliminate the plant and animal, but the roots and seeds still remain. Other alternatives are being pursued."

  "You said you don’t tolerate bullies?"

  "Correct."

  "Then what took you so long to go to war with the Owls?"

  "By our standards, I thought it was actually quite fast. But I must point something out. There has been no official declaration of war on either side. A state of war exists, but only because the Owls chose to fire on us, and refused to talk. The necessities for getting here in timely fashion, with Owl fleets continually firing on us, necessitated taking offensive action to avoid delays. We do not want a war. There are enough other things for us to concentrate on, and it's why so few of us were sent here. We are rebuilding a civilization, and we need all our people concentrating on o
ur future, not getting itchy trigger fingers. Should the Owl ambassador choose to talk now, we will listen. The threat their poison represents to us makes diplomacy difficult, but not impossible."

  All eyes turned to the Owl, who sat there staring at Walsh. With no reaction, they turned back to Jane.

  "How is it we hear your native language and a translation into our own?"

  "Ah, now. I did wonder if anyone would notice. I have to admit to doing something naughty."

  They waited for her to continue.

  "Our skills with computers are significantly more advanced than yours. I hacked your computer, and changed your translation software to include ours. It made addressing you a little easier for myself, and will make conversing with us in the future much easier for everyone. I know it was wrong, but I thought it worth doing. However, to offset the damage of the act, I offer the updated translator software as a gift, freely available to all."

  "You could have asked."

  "True. But the demonstration also had its purpose."

  "These skills are for hire?"

  "Perhaps. For most of those who program computers, your current hardware would be too outdated for them to use. But this is one of the things we can explore when we look at ways of trading with the galaxy. We have skills we already know you need. We don’t yet know what skills and products you have we may need. All of this will be explored in time. Once the threat to us has been removed."

  Ganshura rose.

  "We welcome the Human Federation to the Galactic Council. This council ends."

  Fifty Nine

  The explosions rocked the station midway through its night cycle.

  Walsh was in the embassy suite, trying to learn up about the species they were meeting the next day. The room completely disintegrated, but his suit had time to snap into full protection mode. After falling for a few seconds, he found himself in the middle of a mass of debris, at the bottom of a hole defined by the jagged edges of six decks. An instant later, and he was buried in still falling debris.

  Pink had no idea what was going on. Its suit had turned into full protection mode, it fell a short distance, and now couldn’t move. It hoped its dinner companions were safe.