Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  Irons winced. Like any organic an AI was dependent on its ability to see, process, and manipulate data about the environment around it. Take that away and the AI quickly slid into insanity as it tried to find something, anything for it do.

  “I was going to shut the AI core down but I thought of something better. I have however locked it out. All self destruct signals have been terminated and their systems reset with my own personal password. I'm allowing it a feed from your sensors Admiral, that seems to be calming it some.”

  “That is also a breach Admiral,” Defender replied, eyes glowing like hot coals.

  “Well excuse me for trying to do the right thing!” Sprite said turning on her partner. “I'm only doing it to get it calmed down. Once the crew gets some sensors online it will settle down.”

  “Agreed,” Irons sighed.

  “What?” Vargess asked. Irons opened his eyes.

  “Sorry. Talking with the others. The AI is... borderline rampant. On the other side of the border line. Definitely a problem. Sprite has locked it down for now and we're feeding it my sensor feed to try to get it to calm down.”

  “Oh. Shit,” Logan sighed, shaking his head. “The self destructs?”

  “Taken care of.”

  Irons felt another presence tentatively knocking on his firewall. Sprite looked and then smiled and opened a window. “I'll be good Admiral. I'm sorry,” the AI, Fuentes said. “I've lost so much,” it whispered. It's avatar was a ghost of itself, A tattered faded old man in a navy uniform.

  Suddenly Irons felt a flicker of power then a lurch as his body fell. He instinctively grabbed the nearest thing, tucking his legs under him. His boots hit the deck and he went down on one knee. The lights blinked and then came up slowly then dimmed, then came up to half power.

  Around him crew members were picking themselves and their gear up off the deck. “Someone want to tell me what the hell just happened?” Vargess snarled.

  “Ah, sorry sir. It looks like engineering just got one of the backup batteries connected. Everything just sort of happened at once,” a tech said looking around. She rubbed at the small of her back where she had landed on the edge of a console. After a moment she touched her helmet.

  “We're getting reports of intermittent life support sir,” she turned to Logan, then confused, turned to Vargess and Irons. All three nodded.

  A tech came in and held up a Wi-Fi booster. Irons waved her over to him. “I take it Sprite called for you?”

  “Ah, yes sir. Is that all right?” he asked, looking concerned.

  “Perfectly. Plug in here,” Irons tapped a jack next to him. When the tech did he stepped back.

  Irons felt Firefly join the others and nodded. Data was flowing back and forth. Fuentes was soaking it up like a man deprived of oxygen.

  “Ah, Commander Vargess, if you'd like to take command here, I want to go ream, I mean counsel some people about proper procedures and giving us warnings...” Logan said darkly.

  Vargess smiled grimly and nodded. “By all means.” He turned to the Admiral. “With your permission of course sir.”

  “But of course. I'm going to roll up my sleeves and do a little digging here. Have fun,” he smiled.

  Irons filed the report and closed the window on his HUD then turned to look at Logan and Vargess. "Your assessment gentlemen?" he asked. It had taken them nearly a month to get Fuentes back to Anvil.

  "The tin cans are beat up, but we can work with them. Both have extensive damage, it's going to take months to repair. Fuentes' AI is pretty chewed up. Only a part of its core was hard wired to that particular data center. We're using Firefly and functions from Sprite to rebuild it," Logan shrugged.

  “The hardware side of the equation is a bit different,” he frowned. "Unfortunately I've been bumped down on replicator time. Anvil didn't tell me why." He gave Irons a look.

  Irons nodded. "I was expecting it. Now that we're rebuilding the system, everyone and his brother has his hand out for parts," he grimaced. "We're just going to have to wait our turn. Fortunately we've got other means," he smiled. Vargess looked confused.

  "Hephaestus? No she's still repairing herself and the other civilian ships. Firefly's you mean?" Logan asked. "It'd take years!" he sighed shaking his head.

  Irons smiled. "No, months. I've got Firefly replicating the parts for another military grade replicator now." He pointed to his right arm. It was jacked in. "That's why I have to be jacked in." He shook his head as Logan's expression cleared.

  He looked over to Vargess but Vargess raised a hand. "I got it. I remember. Only flag rank can make another replicator, and only if they are plugged in." He shook his head. "Sneaky. It's still not going to get us around some of the bigger parts. We've got a lot of frame repair to do." Irons nodded.

  "You're right, but it is a step in the right direction, and it gives us a little more autonomy," Mayweather smiled. "So only you can make replicators?" she asked turning back to the Admiral.

  Irons nodded. "Warheads, replicators, and most of the military grade banned list. I can't make medical nano though." He shook his head. "Well, I can do an end run around the problem if I have too, but it's easier to have a medic do it." He shrugged.

  Logan nodded. "We were running out of medical nano and materials during the war," he sighed shaking his head. "The Xeno's hit every hospital they could, crippled us. That's why there weren't that many people with good implants later on. It's also why they introduced the Cutlass fighter."

  Irons grimaced. "Yeah, the strategy was effective."

  Firefly nodded. "We're working to fix it. The medics are working out protocols now. We've got most of the crews of the ships with implants, and even our newbie’s who only had civilian grade are being upgraded case permitting," the AI reported. Irons smiled.

  "We're going to work on reactor and fuel parts next, then basic life support." Logan picked up a tablet. “Fortunately Fuentes is a leg up on Damocles, Damocles was completely gutted.” He shook his head. “Her AI core was gone. Not by us by the way. It was physically removed sometime earlier. Probably why they were able to use her at all. A proper Federation AI would never have supported piracy.”

  "I dumped the list there already, it's also in your inbox. We'll limit the station's contribution to simple things that we can't make easily or simple things we need in bulk and can wait on if we have to do so," Irons shrugged. "That's the best we can do for now."

  The others got up. "Commander, there is a sim exercise later this afternoon, feel free to sit in and contribute," he smiled to Vargess. Vargess was one of his experts on small ship tactics, but he was still getting the hang of larger capital ships' pros and cons. Fortunately Fuentes was a fast destroyer, and since she was laid up, he had plenty of time to get to know her better.

  "What about those HKs?" Harris asked.

  "What about them?" Irons asked.

  "We could repair a few of them right?" he asked doggedly.

  "We've been over this before," Mayweather sighed. "They're crap Harris, get over it." He looked mulish. "No really. they are crap," she looked over to Logan who nodded.

  "We can make an HK in a couple weeks to a month on station now commander," Logan said.

  Harris froze. "Seriously?" he asked turning to Logan in surprise.

  Logan shrugged. "They aren't much more than a heavy tug or tender. Engines, guns, limited life support and limited sensors and electronics. Anvil's finished building our replacement small craft, if we really wanted too we could set up a factory line."

  He looked over to Irons. "I don't think we're going to though," he shrugged.

  Harris turned his attention on Irons. "Why not?" he asked.

  "Well, one, we can't get the dedicated replicator time to build them at this time. Two, repairing them would take away time from repairing some of the other ships." Some of the commanders grimaced at that. "Three, as Commander Logan stated, they have a limited range and limited function. We could only use them in limited situations, but we need to ke
ep all our options open."

  He opened his mouth to continue by Firefly beat him to it.. "And four, they are great at attacking unarmed civilians, but they are just targets against a larger proper warship," Firefly finished. Harris gave the avatar a look.

  "He's not kidding," Irons said. Harris returned his attention to the Admiral. "But my fourth point was going to be the manning issue. They would suck people away from the other ships, distributing them in penny packets. And with tiny compliments, they would have to be stationed on a ship or a colony near a jump point. Which..."

  Harris nodded. "Which would invite defeat in detail since we'd have to cover all the jump points. Gotcha," he said shaking his head. “I hadn't thought that through I guess.”

  "Took you long enough. Some genius you are," Dan teased.

  "Oh shut up," Harris chuckled.

  "All right, let’s get back to work," Irons waved.

  “Right, about the small craft. We're getting some flack over Anvil getting the lion's share of all our industrial efforts,” Sprite said.

  “Well, Anvil is the capital and center of industry in the system,” Logan said slowly. “We're based here, so it stands to reason we'd have most of our industry here.”

  “Yes well, some of the assembly would like to change that.”

  “Ah. So they want us to what? Move the base?” Vargess asked looking from the AI to Logan. Logan shook his head.

  “I'd say they want a piece of the action,” Irons said, knitting his hands together. “What do you think we send them a simple contract? Open bid?”

  “Open bid would work. But instead of giving them something complex Admiral, I recommend we give them simple things. At least at first.”

  “And if they say anything?” Logan asked.

  “Like what?”

  “Like why are you treating us like a child? Why are we getting the dregs?” he said.

  “Well, we could tell them it's a test to see if they can handle the production quality and the quota,” Sprite said looking amused.

  “But running with your idea... and it's not bad,” Irons held a hand up, “I think we should part out small builds like the small craft. Engines at one colony, avionics at another, interiors at another and so on and so forth.”

  “Share the wealth.”

  “Exactly. That way we get everyone involved and they all get a piece of the pie.”

  “Which means their representatives will get behind it to protect the interests of their colony. It also ties them together.”

  “But they are all going to want bigger pieces.”

  “It's a big system. We can encourage them to use what they learn from building the small stuff to build and sell civilian materials on the open market. Civilian grade of course,” Irons said smiling.

  “And that will help jump start trade and the economy,” Sprite said smiling again. “But there is a limit, at least within... oh... I get it,” she nodded and smiled again. “The long view again. Sneaky Admiral. Sneaky.”

  “What?” Vargess asked looking at her in exasperation. She opened her mouth but Firefly beat her to it.

  “You see Commander, by getting the colonies to build the materials and to trade with each other it will do several things. One it will set up a competition for those making the same products. For companies that make products that are interdependent it will tie them together. But the Admiral is also thinking of the long term. Which is that it will force them to find more markets. First here in the system, then outside of it.”

  “Which means opening trade with other systems,” Logan said sitting back. “Assembly or even warehouses will want to get rid of old inventory to make room for new, which means either recycling it or trading it to freighters and nearby colonies.”

  “And once they saturate nearby ones...” Firefly said.

  “It expands. I get it. I get it.”

  “Exactly. Let's get to it,” Irons nodded. "Dismissed."

  Chapter 25

  "How is Damocles and Fuentes’s core sorting out?" Irons asked the AIs.

  Firefly looked over to Sprite. "I'm a ship AI, I don't have the coding subroutines of Sprite," the AI sniffed.

  "Bit of a tiff?" Irons asked amused. They'd been at it three days. In computer time that was a virtual life time. They should have a plan of action but he hadn't seen one cross his desk yet.

  "Something like that." Sprite answered giving the other AI a glance.

  "Well knock it off. You each have your own unique abilities, so use them." He sat back. "So, again, how goes the cores?"

  "Too soon to tell. We had to chop off the first two thousand three hundred and five iteration’s in the early budding stage. Fuentes is coming along. We're using what's left of the core and the hardwired firmware as a template."

  Irons raised an eyebrow. "You had to nip them in the bud?" he asked, amused once more. Fuentes had made it to the station two days ago and crews were swarming all over her. She didn't need her AI fully functional yet, but it would help speed matters along.

  "Exactly. Or in this case, more of a preventive tumor extraction," Sprite grimaced. "The neural lattice had some side effects we didn't anticipate." She waved and a text file scrolled. He could barely follow any of it, coding wasn't one of his strong skills. Neural network coding was a bit beyond him. "None of it was mentioned in the original paper or it's appendix." Another window opened. It showed a decision tree growing exponentially. But instead of growing along predicted lines it was exploding along the wrong tracks.

  “I have a student, a Centaurian named Veber working on it now. He seems to have a gift for it. I'd say he will make a good cyberneticist soon.”

  “But not soon enough. However back to the subject at hand. The problem is this reliance on trying unproven and highly dangerous experimental procedures.”

  “There has to be a first time for everything you know,” Sprite snapped back.

  Irons nodded catching on. "That's the nature of the row?" Irons asked. Both AIs nodded. "Fine, go back to the old tried and true methods then," he shook his head. "It will take time, but if it's the only way that works, then so be it." He gave Sprite a look.

  "I thought it would work," she said.

  "It could, given more time and experimentation. We can run sims during off time. Just not when I'm busy," Firefly offered. "But you know an AI's lifespan is proportional to the length of time it has to grow up and stabilize and the net it has to grow in. If we take short cuts, we could be in trouble down the road."

  Irons suppressed a shiver. "The last thing we need is a rogue AI."

  "Amen," Firefly responded quietly. Sprite nodded. "We're using limited smart emulation systems in the corvettes. We've come up with a micro AI core for each. Once they are installed it will take a couple days for the cores to grow and stabilize."

  "Well, you can do that when the corvettes return with the last of the delegates. Or if something happens, on their next scheduled down time for refit." Irons flicked a tablet with a finger. "Whenever that will be," he said shaking his head.

  "Both tin cans have the replicator parts?" he asked. Firefly nodded.

  "I'll need to be on hand for the initialization procedures. Let me know when they are ready for me," he waved. "You two have sorted out what needs to be repaired or replaced on the destroyers right? The electronics I mean." Irons gave them a look.

  "Sensors, communications, electronics, the list is all there. By the time we get them sorted out they will be almost entirely new," Firefly waved. Sprite chuckled.

  "What?" Irons asked.

  "He's jealous. We've got the new mod core schematics from the Io archives. We didn't get to add too much to Firefly, so he's jealous that the tin cans are getting better electronics first," Sprite teased.

  Firefly glared. Sprite stuck her tongue out at him. "Unlike some of us who have no native hardware or have to share others..." Firefly shot back.

  "Now now children," Irons said with a hint of exasperation. "Get along. That's an order," he wave
d.

  Logan grimaced as he looked over the briefing. Vargess came in and sat down. Logan looked up as the commander cleared his throat. “Something I can help you with Commander?”

  “Yeah, shoot this junta or committee or council, or senate, whatever the hell they are calling themselves this week.”

  “Now now,” Logan sat back and smiled. “What's got you swearing? You've been awake, what, seven weeks now... that I take it is time enough to run into trouble?”

  “No, just politicians being politicians as usual no matter the century,” Vargess shook his head.

  “Oh?”

  “One of the council members called Sun-Yat and tried to redirect her to a nearby colony.”

  “Okay... that's ah, not right. I take it they got a lecture on the chain of command.”

  “No, I did the lecturing to the captain of the Sun-Yat when I spotted her leaving her post. It seems the council member wanted a ride.”

  “Yeah, I can see that's a little annoying. We're not a taxi service.”

  “Oh it gets better. He didn't want it for himself. It seems he wanted it for his mistress on another colony. His wife found out and told her to leave town.”

  “Oh lovely,” Logan chuckled.

  “I told the dear councilman to get other transportation.”

  “Good for you.”

  “But that brought up another problem. Sun-Yat got whiff of a wreck on an asteroid.”

  “Another?”

  “Not exactly. It seems she's a science ship. She fled here and was turned into a colony when her hyperdrive died. Her fusion reactor packed it in a couple centuries ago and she was abandoned.”

  “Hmmm.”

  “She seems to be in good condition,” Vargess handed over a memory chip. “Prelim scan squirted from Sun-Yat. She's a bit bent around the edges but since we're dredging up everything...”

  “You think we'll eventually need a science ship,” Logan nodded. “I'll pass it on to Matilda.”

  “Matilda?” Vargess asked. “Why not the Admiral?”

  “She's a civilian ship. A science ship as you said. Civilian,” Logan frowned. “You didn't hear the latest tiff?”