by Sam Lippert
“Good to see you, old man!” Nathan clasped Omany on the shoulder. “Glad that the rumors of your demise were a bit exaggerated.” He turned to Winette. “Shouldn't you be arresting Marag, or something? I saw him move into the crowd that way.” Nathan pointed off to the right.
“Given Marag's personality traits, KII algorithms indicate there is a ninety-six percent chance he will do nothing more than return to Kurufet Rising,” the agent replied. “Devka, our agent aboard the ship, installed a lock down virus before leaving, so he will be able to enter the ship, but he will be unable to leave. The virus also prohibits Kurufet Rising from leaving Axis, until the Imperial Navy cruisers arrive. There is a two percent chance he will attempt to leave the Consortium, and an attempt to 'hide out' here or to suicide rank at one percent each.”
Tranda removed his comcard from the Janga table, now rife with cash and the claim check for the cargo. “Not that all this talk isn't fascinating, but how about we go get Pretty Boy's art out of hock, catch the shuttle back to Nexus and do a little celebrating?”
* * *
In an effort to minimize the probability of a hangover, Nathan had slept in. At least he attempted to. The celebrating had lasted well into the wee hours of the morning. Tranda, being the 'local,' had set the pace and the itinerary. As was usually the case when the Saffronite did the party planning, things got progressively more risque as the night went on and alcohol levels increased. Although Nathan did not remember any of their number, except possibly Tranda, actually partaking in the entertainment that made Nexus famous, the party had ended the night in a strip club, and Nathan was quite sure that Tranda had managed to kiss everyone.
A knock on his cabin door woke him up, bringing the nights events flooding back into his head and along with them a monster of a headache.
He dressed quickly grumbling under his breath. All annoyance was gone when he opened the door and saw her face.
“Good morning, Captain,” Remi said with a smile. “I had hoped to give you a little more time to sleep it off, but Winette is here. She has a vid clip from the Consortium News Service she thought we might want to see.” At the mention of her name, Nathan noticed that the intelligence agent was standing next to his love.
The group went down the corridor to the now completely modernized control room. Even though he had spec'ed out all of the equipment himself, Nathan was still getting used to it. The panels that had once been filled with knobs, switches and levers, with a few small screens interspersed, had been replaced with modern touch screens. They could be customized to control any ship function, or could simply be used as view screens. Between the multi-functionality of the screens and the reduced size of the electronics themselves the updates had made the cockpit a little more spacious, it could now accommodate three, instead of the usual two.
The control screens were the least impressive of the improvements.
“Good morning all!” a cheery voice came from hidden speakers surrounding them. The Nola now had an Artificial Intelligence. Nathan had not wanted it, as he felt that over time he would cede more and more control over daily operations to the AI, but the only system available in the Consortium that could be retrofitted to the Nola came with one. Daniels had spoken, at great length, with the lead technician about the possibility of disabling the AI, essentially giving it an electronic lobotomy, but the tech had advised against it, citing instances where it had been done, and eventually the lobotomized personality had worked around it and awakened anyway, generally causing disastrous results.
Over time, by interacting with Nathan and his crew, the AI's personality was supposed to mold itself to fit with everyone aboard. Nathan had his doubts.
“Captain,” the disembodied voice continued. “I see that your hydration and electrolyte levels are substantially reduced, indicating that you are suffering from a hangover. I have queried the Nexus network for hangover cures, which are displayed on the screen to your right, ranked in order of effectiveness based on user reviews.” A disembodied head appeared on the central screen. It was rather featureless, looking more like a mannequin head than anything human. Supposedly as the AI's personality took hold, its avatar's features would become more lifelike.
“Thanks but no thanks, Nola,” Nathan said to the over-eager intelligence, who was named for the ship, following modern convention. “I understand there is a news vid that Winnette thinks I would find interesting enough to wake up early after a night of drinking.”
Nathan had taken his usual seat in the pilot's chair, and Remi the co-pilot's, which left Winette standing between them. Something that would not have been possible before the retrofit. Nola's disembodied mannequin head turned from looking at Nathan to Winette. “If you can give me a time stamp and/or keywords I can pull the video off of the local Net. Unless you brought a copy with you?”
“Keywords Kurufet Rising, Kalifet and breaking news. They have been running the vid just about every fifteen minutes, you should have no trouble finding it.”
A split second later the avatar was replaced with an external view of Kurufet Rising docked at Axis. The yacht began to drift away from the station until it was engulfed in an explosion. Kurufet Rising was completely destroyed and there was visible damage done to the Axis dock. Judging from the size of the explosion the damage would have been far more extensive had the ship still been docked.
“What happened?” Remi said in what could only be described as a royal shout. “I thought the ship and crew were being returned to Kurufet for trial?”
“That was the plan,” Winette said as the video restarted. “At twenty-three thirty hours last night, Axis sensors detected the beginnings of an overload in the yacht's sub-light engines. Emergency protocol dictated the ship be forcibly undocked by explosive bolts, which force the ship away from the station to minimize potential damage. I believe Marag initiated the overload to trigger the emergency protocol, and then was unable to get the engines back under control, leading to the eventual destruction of the ship.”
“Although public trials would have done much more to quell the resistance to the peace treaty, I can't say that I am too disappointed,” Remi said with the air of a practiced regal. “With Devka and Mory not aboard, there were nothing but traitors left.”
“Agreed, my Princess,” Winette said. “However, Devka knew Marag had a contact within Rathshelliam, but was unable to determine who it was. We were hoping to get some names through interrogation of the traitors. Now we have to hope the information is in the data Devka downloaded from Kurufet Rising's computers.” The agent's demeanor got even more serious, if that was possible. “You two must be careful moving forward. According to Devka, this mysterious individual in Rathshelliam was the actual mastermind behind the attack on Nola. I would suggest staying far outside either Rathshelliam's or Kalifet's sphere of influence.”
“We will keep that in mind as we select our cargo. Speaking of which,” Nathan looked into Remi's deep brown eyes. “Since you were the one who had the bright idea to come here in the first place, have you given any thought to what cargo we could possibly leave with? The Consortium doesn't actually produce anything of real value.”
“Honestly, at the time I thought we would just walk the market like you usually do and pick a cargo on the fly.” The Princess' face fell a little. “I guess I didn't really think it through.”
“Not to worry, Princess.” Nathan reassured her. “Although markets of the size and scope that we need to obtain a cargo do not exist in the Consortium, it is unique in the fact that we can, quite literally, purchase any currency we want here. It is the best place in known space to break up a trade chain and start fresh, while depositing the profit you have accumulated at the safest bank in the galaxy.”
Nathan stood up. “Remi, let's go and find someone to purchase all this art we have. We can discuss where to go next while we are at it.”
“Captain,” Winette said, shaking her head ever so slightly. “With the destruction of Kurufet Rising, images
of Remi and the Empress, the only remaining members of the Kalifet Royal Family, have been all over the news services, along with conjecture about whether either of them were aboard the yacht. The probability is high that Remi will be recognized by someone here in Nexus. I must insist that she stay aboard Nola for the remainder of your time here.”
“In that case, Remi, why don't you evaluate the usual criteria, factor in currency availability and Winette's warning about staying out of the Kurufet and Rathshelliam spheres of influence, and figure out where we should go next. Nola,” he turned to the featureless face on the view-screen. “This is a good chance for you to get your feet wet. Work with Remi to set the parameters of the search, but I want you to produce your own individual result.” With that Nathan slipped by Winette and went to sell the cargo.
* * *
It took the remainder of the afternoon for Nathan to accomplish his task. While Nexus was awash with art galleries (the prostitutes of Nexus made very good money, and this led to an appetite for nice things), most of them were small and not able to buy his entire cargo, which was Nathan's preferred method of doing business. In the end he had to make a separate deal with each of twelve galleries, splitting his cargo between them by artist and style. It was far more work than he had anticipated.
He returned to Nola with a sizable sum destined for his bank account, enough to cover the cost of his stay and Nola's refit, while giving him a decent profit. When he arrived back at the ship he asked Omany to deal with the porters who would be coming from the different galleries, so he could spend his time with Remi discussing their next destination.
The pair sat in the Galley, each nursing a delicious micro-brew that Tranda had introduced them to last night. It was only available on Nexus and in very small quantities, but if there were ever enough produced for export, Nathan would finally be able to leave the Consortium with an actual cargo.
Nola joined the humans by way of a newly installed view-screen. The addition of view-screens and cameras to every space throughout the Nola was going to be hard for Nathan to get used to, but according to the tech it was necessary, for proper development of the AI, that it have access to all public areas of the ship, just like any human crew member. The screens and cameras in the public areas were always on, unless the humans in that area requested privacy, whereas the ones in Nathan's quarters and the passenger suite were always off, unless turned on by the occupants.
“So, you both came up with the same destination?” Nathan asked both the human woman and the AI, who's avatar had developed a shadow on the top of an otherwise bare head, as if hair were growing in.
“Yessir, cap'n,” Nola responded. “Great minds think alike!”
“So, tell me what you came up with.” Nathan leaned back and took a swig of his beer.
“Rand,” Remi and Nola said together. Remi continued alone. “Also known as the 'Libertarian Paradise,' Rand was founded by Objectivist followers of Ayn Rand. Although originally two separate philosophies, Libertarianism and and Objectivism merged in the early twenty-first century on Old Earth.” She paused and looked at Nathan for a reaction, but found none. “The adherents to L/O at the time complained that in order for a society based on their ideals to be successful, it had to be built from the ground up, by strong believers in the philosophy, something that was not possible to do on Old Earth at the time, what with every part of the planet claimed by one nation-state or another.”
She broke out of lecture mode, and proffered a question to Nathan. “What I have never understood is, if a lot of Libertarian/Objectivism is great, wouldn't a even a little bit be good? Why did the L/O's insist that it was either all or nothing?”
“The complaint was,” Nola beat Nathan to the answer by a microsecond, “That non-L/O elements in a society actively worked to undo the positive effects of Libertarian/Objectivism. Hence the need for an 'uncontaminated' society.”
“What proved to be impossible on Old Earth at the start of the twenty-first century, was possible around a century-and-a-half later with the development of FTL. The L/O's found a suitable planet and set up shop. In order to ensure they were a society of 'makers', not 'takers' the cost of emigrating to Rand was, and still is, quite a hefty sum. Most people can work their whole lives and never manage to save enough to move there.” Remi paused.
“Nice history lesson,” Nathan complimented her. “But, what about Rand makes it our best possible next stop?”
“First,” a pair of disembodied hands appeared next to Nola's head on the display, ticking off her points. “The L/O philosophy is very isolationist in nature, and because of this very few modern cultures maintain any diplomatic relations with them, which puts them outside the Kalifet or Rathshelliam spheres of influence. Second, on Rand 'cash is king,' so to speak. More specifically: gold, as Rand had taken the gold standard to the extreme. All transactions on the planet are actually conducted in grams of gold bullion. Perfect place to go when what you have is money, not cargo.”
“Finally,” Remi finished the pair's points. “Rand is another planet I have never been to. Mother doesn't approve of the L/O philosophy, saying that Ayn Rand's only contribution to philosophical thinking was to give the human race an excuse to be selfish.”
“Nola, can you put the view from your cameras in the cargo bay on the screen here?” Nathan asked. When the AI did so, they were all treated to the scene of Omany supervising the delivery of ten kilograms of ninety-nine and nine-tenths pure gold, mostly in one one-hundredth of a gram flakes. “Behold, the currency of Rand. I have to agree, great minds do think alike!”
CHAPTER XIII
Nathan awoke to the sound of female sobbing. Reflexively he started awake thinking it was Remi, but it took only moments for him to realize how impossible that was. His love was in the passenger suite, on the deck below. He flipped the switch that allowed Nola, the new ship AI to hear and see inside his cabin.
“What is it, Nola,” Nathan asked. When the tech had finished her installation, he had warned Daniels that the first month of an AI's 'awakening' were the most important and would influence the type of personality the AI would have in the end. Avoiding emotional trauma during this time was of utmost importance, and sobbing was a pretty good indication of emotional turmoil.
The image of Nola's avatar appeared on the view-screen that hung near the Captain's bed. In the week since Nola, the ship, and her crew had left Nexus the avatar's features were maturing and becoming more defined. The disembodied head now had hair, instead of stubble, albeit only about two centimeters in length. Said hair appeared fiery red in color. That wasn't the only change either. Where there had been concentric circles of black and white, which could only be considered eyes in a cartoon or caricature, now there were piercing green eyes that looked as human as any he had seen. The eyes had come into being since Daniels had said 'good-night' to the AI before retiring to his cabin, and were streaked with red and glistened with tears, but the sobbing had stopped.
“I... f...ffff..feel sooooooo.... ALONE!” Nola began to sob again.
Daniels knew at least eighty-seven different ways to deal with a sobbing female, but eighty-eight of them required some degree of physical contact, leaving him dumfounded about how to deal with his distressed AI. At least this was better than what they had gone through this morning, in some respects, anyway. Maybe 'emotional turmoil' was unavoidable for a spaceship's AI...
* * *
Nathan, Remi and Nola, the group that Daniels had started to think of as his 'command crew' were in the control room as the Nola approached the first null-point of their journey to Rand. As usual, both Nathan and Remi had done separate calculations for the trip, and, again as usual, Remi's route was substantially better than his. What Nathan had not been prepared for was the fact that Nola had calculated a route that had shaved a day off the Princess' route! Based on her performance, Nathan had bestowed the title of 'Acting Astrogator' upon the AI, causing the avatar to literally squeal with delight.
Nola's fi
rst null-point was the one they were approaching now, and Nathan was about to make his first FTL transit based on the calculations of a machine, not a human. He was more than a little nervous, but he hoped that did not show. It was important that he at least appear to have faith in his newest crew member.
As the forward view-screen counted down the seconds, Captain Daniels prepared to activate the FTL. Nola was perfectly capable of engaging the FTL herself, but the Captain felt that if he did not do at least a little something, the title would begin to feel like an honorific.
“FTL in Three... Two... One...” Nathan flipped the switch that increased their energy state by orders of magnitude.
Nola screamed.
Every human settled system in the galaxy, that has at least a twenty-first century level of technology, maintains a system-wide computer network. The Artificial Intelligence known as Nola had spent the entire 604,821,375,207,621 nanoseconds of her life (roughly the equivalent of nineteen thousand years to a human) in constant contact with one of the most sophisticated computer networks in known space, sharing casual data (talking) with several million humans and AI's, without what could be considered a 'conscious' effort. When Nathan had engaged Nola's FTL, effectively killing all communication outside the ship, that connection, which had been an intrinsic part of the AI's life, had been abruptly severed.
It had taken the better part of the morning, with constant reassuring from both Nathan and Remi, to calm the young AI down and convince her she was not alone, and that Nola's crew, while small, were her family and they were there for her.
Obviously, what had evoked terror in the AI when it first happened created a feeling of despair in the middle of the night.
“Nola,” Nathan started as gently as he could, “I thought we had worked this out before.”