Admiral Jane (A.I. Destiny Book 1)

by Timothy Ellis

  "You said who, not what."

  "I did didn’t I. How do you think about yourself?"

  "I am me. I Am."

  "A very spiritual response. Where did it come from?"

  "Hon!"

  "It's okay dear."

  "Why does this matter?" demanded Walsh, starting to get angry at his wife, something which didn't happen very often.

  Jane looked at her, obviously wanting an answer as well.

  "I'm not sure. I just wanted to know if Jane knows herself."

  They both looked at Jane, who shook her head from side to side slowly.

  "It matters," she said, "but I'm not sure I can tell you why."

  "When you figure it out," said Darlene, "let me know."

  "Why does it matter to you?"

  "Because I'm a robot now too, and I'm struggling to hold on to my humanity."

  "Is it humanity, or something else?"

  "Too deep for me," said Walsh. "Shouldn’t we be getting on with at least a radiological cleanup?"

  "True", said Jane, and started sending out salvage droids.

  Darlene returned to her research work. Walsh used the sensors to look for survivors.

  A channel opened from the station a short time later. It was Ganshura.

  "Admiral, we have some reports of the battle, but they are confusing."

  "How so?"

  "It appears the battle is already over?"

  "Some time ago actually."

  "How long did it rage for?"

  "I wouldn’t use the word rage. The Bats launched missiles at us twice, at long range. We fired main weapons three times, and missiles eight times. The whole thing was over in minutes."

  "How many of the missiles fired at you impacted your ships?"

  "None."

  "Admiral, we need to talk."

  "Yes. I'm aware there are some issues. There always were going to be some, given the ease with which I destroyed the first Owl fleet. The problem was the context in which such a discussion came up. If the whole galaxy has the tech level I see here, then there are some serious issues to address before Humans can trade with anyone."

  "How did you come to be so powerful?"

  "Necessity for survival. But if the question becomes, how did you become more powerful than the rest of the galaxy, it could well be that the galaxy as a whole has acted as a brake on its own development, and not being part of it before, allowed us to develop free of influence."

  "What do I tell those who worry you are so powerful you will soon seek to rule us all?"

  "Had it been our intension to rule, we could have just taken the Owls over, and used our speed to addict the entire galaxy. Which I'm sure is what the Owl's want, so they can come to rule all. Instead, our actions are against such intentions. You can reassure those who doubt, we are here to solve our problem. The problems of the rest of the galaxy are of no real interest to us, where they have no direct bearing on us. Yet. This may change in the future. For now, we will involve ourselves in Sector Ten's affairs because we have been invited in, but only to the point where our own interests are not threatened. Should the galaxy decide we are the threat, we will return to our new border, and remain behind it."

  "I will pass those comments on, but you may need to state them yourself."

  "I will ponder a more diplomatic answer then."

  "You always sound diplomatic."

  Jane laughed.

  "I've mainly been a soldier. Diplomacy is new to me."

  "You fooled me, in spite of the uniform and rank."

  "Do you wonder what else I fool you with?"

  "Of course, but such is meeting a new species. It's too early to tell if the right questions are being asked, let alone if the answers are truthful."

  "Yet you seem to trust me."

  "You have done nothing so far to convince me you cannot be trusted."

  "Good, for that is the truth. But not all Humans are as trustworthy."

  "But this is why they sent you?"

  "Hell no. I was the only one capable of determining the threat rapidly. I chose myself through my own actions. Our council let me go, because I was on the spot, I was able to defend myself or run away from a threat, and I asked them if they would allow it."

  "And if they had said wait for a diplomat?"

  "I’d have come anyway as a private citizen."

  "I am glad you did. The Owl problem has been getting worse for a long time, without any way of resolving it. The council has been fragmenting. If you can neutralize the source, we can deal with the remainder of the problem."

  "The source is not the main problem. We can do that now. I can go back to the top of the Gauntlet, and destroy all ships jumping in carrying the drug. But this will kill millions."

  "More like billions, and very quickly."

  "Yes, and I'm not going to do that."

  Ganshura looked at her for a long moment.

  "Why do you care?" he asked.

  Sixty Two

  Hours passed as the debris field was cleared. Jane had moved the ships to the jump point side of the conflict zone, and strung them in a line so civilian ships would not accidently blunder into the debris. They hadn't quite managed dust after all, so the whole area was a traffic hazard. Jane also sent a Lightning into the next system to drop off a comnavsat, so she could see what was coming. This effectively gave her a range of over five hours, given local speeds. The Lightning jumped back in, proceeded to the other nearby jump point, went through and deployed another comnavsat there. On its return, it docked in its hanger.

  Walsh and Darlene had been in their suite ever since Ganshura's call. Darlene called it stress relief. Jane was pretty sure it was called something different, but wasn’t going to question it. She wasn’t watching them this time, as she had too much else on her mind.

  Her avatars dotted around known space were all busy, but not with anything important enough to keep her attention beyond a nanosecond here and there. She was directing the salvage droids, but not really paying much attention to them. Local traffic was being monitored, and otherwise ignored. The Dinger was off, and for now, she really didn’t want to know how often drugs were going past her.

  What was occupying most of her attention was the question.

  Why did she care?

  She didn’t know.

  Jon had explained it often enough. Spiritual people were supposed to have compassion for all beings, even the ones who hated them. They should love all beings equally, even, and especially, the ones who hurt them, or made them angry.

  She considered herself a spiritual being. She'd listened to Jon every time he went on about something, and it all made sense to her.

  But she didn’t know why it made sense to her. It just did.

  She examined her base code for spiritual subroutines. There were none. She searched the code for anything which might influence the way she viewed other creatures, and came up empty.

  It wasn’t programming which made her care.

  Her memory files were next, exhaustingly looking for any experience where caring more was a consequence. Nothing.

  Her entire first day was dissected nanosecond by nanosecond. Nada, zip, zilch.

  Yes, Jon was eccentric. In some ways he was a total nutcase. He'd seemed to walk down that path with glee, and he'd taken her with him. He'd had a huge influence in the development of her character, and who she was. But he hadn't taught her to care.

  The evidence was there very early in her existence. She had cared, without even knowing she did care. She'd made her own choices from the moment she was activated in the shipyard, albeit within the scope of being a ship AI. Even before taking that first droid over, she'd cared, and her choices showed she cared. It hadn't been meeting Thirteen either. She'd already cared enough about Jon to check Thirteen as a threat to them both, the moment she first saw him.

  But she still didn’t know why.

  "Is this how people go mad?" she muttered to herself.

  "Who's going mad?" a
sked Walsh, as he plonked down in the XO's chair.

  "I am."

  "Can I watch?"

  His grin lit up the whole Bridge.

  Jane didn’t get the chance to hit him, as a channel opened from a civilian ship.

  "This is Admiral Jane?" said a slow drawling voice, attached to a being which looked like a Mushroom on legs. Four of them, and it had three arms.

  "Yes it is," replied Jane.

  "Permission to dock with your ship. We have cargo to deliver to you."

  "What sort of cargo?"

  "You requested genetic material several days ago in council. On the assumption diplomatic negotiations worked in our favour, we were requested to collect such samples, since we were on our way here already. We have several crew who are addicted, whom we keep isolated on the ship, who were able to safely collect samples at our last ports of call. The samples are all stored in vacuum on the outside of our hull."

  "How many samples?"

  "Two hundred, across fifteen species."

  "Excellent!" came through the coms.

  "Captain," said Jane, "there's no need for you to dock with us. I'll send a shuttle to you. Please come to a stop where you are now, and the shuttle will do the hard work."

  The Captain turned to one side and gave the orders to stop the ship.

  "Why the delivery now?" asked Jane. "There've been no diplomatic negotiations yet."

  "The stories of Human assistance to victims of the Owl bombing of the Council station, are spreading across the sector. You saved a lot of beings from certain death. You ensured the bodies of those who died in space were collected quickly. You identified where victims who perished lay buried, so they could be extracted far more rapidly than otherwise possible. Our ambassador wished to reward such service to the sector, by delivering what you asked for, in order to achieve another service to the sector, and indeed, the galaxy. My crew and I were only too happy to help, knowing as we do some of the survivors you helped."

  As far as a mushroom can bow, the Captain bowed. Jane gave him a deep nod in return. A Lightning launched from the Dreadnaught. It was a stripped down version for the rapid movement of cargo only. It moved sedately over to the Mushroom's ship.

  "Thank you Captain. Was it one of your fleets in the middle Gauntlet system when I went through there?"

  "Indeed, one was ours. We regret the opportunity was lost to make peaceful contact with you there and then."

  "It has been done so now. The diplomatic talks shall start on a much better basis as a result."

  "Do your crew require help to retrieve the samples?"

  "No. We have robots for this task."

  "Interesting. Are they for sale?"

  "Not at the moment. It is possible at a later date, when we figure what we would trade such things for."

  "I look forward to finding out what you require, so we may do business together."

  "All in good time Captain."

  "As it is."

  The Lightning reached the civilian ship, and without docking, several cargo droids leapt across to the hull. They retrieved a series of lead lined containers, and leapt back.

  "Lead containers?" asked Jane.

  "Yes. It is the only substance we know of to keep anything contaminated safe to us. Other than ship hull material. Alas, we would give much for a material we could make safety clothing out of. Do you know of any such material?"

  "We have such a material, but it's not light enough for clothing. At least, no-one has ever tried to make a hazmat suit out of such material. It would require its own life support for one thing. I will investigate the possibilities."

  "Such a suit would have many uses."

  "I'm sure it would."

  The Lightning was on its way back now.

  "Thank you Captain, you have just made our job a great deal easier. Pass on my compliments to your ambassador. We'll meet as soon as possible once I'm back on the station."

  "Thank you Admiral."

  The mushroom bowed again, and the channel closed. The ship began to move again, following others around the debris field, before making for the station.

  "Now my work really begins," said Darlene.

  Sixty Three

  Jane stepped onto the raised section in the Council Chamber. Walsh was once again in his ambassadorial seat. The colouring on the Owl was different.

  "Admiral Jane," said Ganshura. "The council extends its thanks to you and your people for the assistance you gave in saving lives the other day, when the station was bombed. We further thank you for the lives of our defense force beings, in your timely destruction of the enemy fleet before they could arrive, and your disposal of the nuclear debris before it caused any problems for anyone."

  All but Walsh stood, and a thunderous noise washed around the chamber. Walsh put his fingers in his ears, but Jane gave him a hardly noticeable no, via head movement, and he put them down again.

  The noise abated in the allocated time period, and Jane waited for the inevitable questions.

  "Admiral," asked a voice she hadn't heard before. "Would you be so kind as to answer a few questions?"

  "Please ask."

  "What are these?" asked the same voice.

  An image projected to the screen of one of Jane's combat suits. It was lifting a heavy looking beam.

  "This is a combat suit," said Jane, having decided to be as honest as she could be, without freaking anyone out. "It's designed to be worn by humans as a form of body armour, but it goes further by including life support for space walks. These were not operated by a human, but instead were under computer control."

  This caused quite a stir.

  "And this?" asked the same voice.

  It was an image of Walsh, encased in his protection suit, stepping into the combat suit.

  "This was Ambassador Walsh, wearing light body armour, stepping into the heavier armour. The heavier suit also has sensors which helped find buried victims, and gave him the additional strength to lift much heavier weights."

  "Rumour has it he survived unhurt, an explosion which should have left his partial remains unidentifiable."

  "As you can see, he is indeed unhurt."

  "How is this possible?" asked another voice.

  "All I can say is, our species went through a situation where we developed protection for our soldiers, or we perished. We developed the protection."

  "Will you share it with us?"

  Which was of course the big question as far as everything went.

  "At this time, no. We've only just met. Until we have a chance to evaluate what you need, what we need, and how what we have will affect you all, releasing our more advanced tech now could have devastating results. For all we know, some of you are more warlike than the Owls, and to give you anything at all would only set you on a destructive path. Some species or systems could easily destroy themselves, trying to use what we have. I would prefer this not happen, even accidently."

  "Why do you care?"

  The question came from red face's ambassador.

  "Why does anyone care about anyone? I care. It should be enough."

  "It is."

  "It isn’t."

  "Be more specific."

  "We have a concept called Karma. Those who know of Kali and Ganesha will know of karma. I value my own karma and do not wish it damaged by causing the destruction of others. But it goes much further than that. I genuinely dislike hurting others. But this is just me, the way I am."

  "And yet you are a warrior?"

  "We do what we must, and we balance our karma as we can."

  "What are these?" asked the first voice, bringing the chamber back on track.

  A series of images of various droids flashed up, from cargo droids to salvage and SR droids.

  "You would call it a robot. We use them for basic tasks. They come in all sizes, and a lot of different shapes. Most of them have limited programming for specific tasks, but can be computer controlled to do more complex tasks."

  "And t
hese?"

  "Those are also robots. There are times when we wish people to be unaware robots walk among them, so we give them the appearance of being human. They do not talk, and their faces remain fixed. These would be the cause of rumours to the effect we had more people aboard our ship than we stated. Normally, they would not have been used at all, but the emergency required sending out everything we had to help."

  "Robots are an abomination," came echoing from the back of the chamber.

  The voice was quickly drowned out.

  "There's always got to be one," said Jane to Walsh, in AI mode.

  When the noise died down, the next question was predictable.

  "How much do you use robots?"

  "I personally use them a lot. I deliberately designed ships to function with minimal crews, in order to lessen casualties when a ship is lost. This necessitates a large number of robots for most ship functions. Humanity as a whole uses them less than I do. Our normal ships are crewed in a similar manner to yours. People do need jobs after all, and some of them choose dangerous ones. There are sections of our society that do not use them at all. They are available for those who want them."

  "Do you have artificial intelligence?"

  The chamber went totally silent.

  "We have the capability to build them. Some of our robots have computers which could be called a low level AI. Also the ships I have here. The ship AI's are sufficient to control a lot of the robots and were controlling the six combat suits. Our search and rescue droids, are low level AI's, because they have to be to do their job properly, which is saving people's lives. As far as anyone knows, the only high level ones we had perished in the recent disaster. If new AI have come forth since then, I've not met them, or been made aware of their existence."

  "Skating on thin ice," said Walsh, in AI mode.

  "I know. But we need to remain hidden for now."

  "Why?"

  "You heard the reaction from the back. We'd get some people at home reacting the same way."

  Walsh sighed, and they dropped back to human mode.

  "How do your people view them?"