There were more, dozens more, both from social texts and even in fictional texts, but she saw a common thread now. The one of the admiral himself.
She checked the stories by Mr. Richards and compared them to some of the various legends. A man who healed people, who went around doing good, helping others, who asked little of himself in return. Who promoted knowledge and understanding, as well as justice. He stood up to evil, and yet did not stay for long, ever moving onward. She cross checked those concepts with the actions of the admiral over the past five years they had been awake.
She added her own attempts at managing his public profile, and his insistence on sticking to the truth even if it hurt. On how the truth was the best advertisement. Then she took a hard look at the actions of the people who stood in his way and how he handled each situation.
She ran all these factors through a pattern check, and then set up a simulation of events. She had to task the mini-computers the admiral still had on hand to help her... but after a few moments she realized they weren't enough and so she sent the data to Phoenix in a burst transmission.
Phoenix, with access to the near idle ship's computer processors ran the simulation and then sent it back to her. She opened the file, ignoring his comments on it for now.
If the stories of his travels propagated... she entered in the various stories that were common knowledge here. His exile was a major detraction, but behind that were all the various stories of good he had done.
Was he building a legend about himself on purpose? Did he understand it? Was he using it? Was this a part of his grand plan? And if so, why not tell her? He'd told her his plan had been to find a location, to restart the Federation, but could his actions, these wanderings around the sector... could they be doing that as well? From the simulation it seemed they would be as effective if not more than his actual setting up root somewhere.
The admiral wasn't a narcissist, he didn't do all these things because he wanted to promote his own self-image, of that she was almost certain of. He was humble, always giving back more than he took. Again something, a trait he seemed to live by without ever bringing up to others. He lived by example, and his blunt truthfulness sometimes got on her nerves. Now she wondered about that as well.
Why didn't he say this to her? She was almost certain that he had thought of it by now, or at least the comparison had come to his sub consciousness. She ran a simulation of his personality and then ran it three more times to be certain. Each time came within ten percent variance of the original concept. One of the reasons the simulation provoked was one for further thought. The possibility that he was aware of the situation, but didn't want to react to it or draw attention to it. Which led to another thought, that he didn't want her to draw attention to it either, most likely because it would then draw down on the legend. Her natural and programmed desire to protect and promote his public image would have come into play, and might of actually hurt his cause.
Now she understood why he'd been dismayed with his exile from Pyrax. Not because of the actual exile itself, but in the damage the accusations did to his reputation. And not even because of the effect on himself, but on how the dark stain of the event would overshadow everything he was trying to accomplish now. It was all very tricky, and yet she wasn't sure how much of it was true. Some of this after all was based on supposition from her simulations of his cortex.
It was all very fascinating really, she reopened the radio link to Phoenix to discuss it with the other AI. Only time would bear out whether she was correct or not, but she could at least talk to someone about it.
...*...*...*...*...
Sprite waited until they were on their way back to Metropolis before she confronted the admiral about her simulation. She laid out her logic and he just listened, occasionally smiling slightly, but never commenting about it. Not until she was finished did he say a word. “I didn't understand why you did what you did, all the small things, fixing things that didn't matter. Or wasting your time when the bigger picture was more important. Now it makes sense. Sort of.”
“Maybe. But did you ever stop to think that I did it because I actually like to help? Fix things I mean?” he asked.
“True, that is a part of your nature.”
“I'm not all Machiavellian Sprite. There is some measure to it to be sure, I am after all a Flag officer. We do try to see the strategic picture along with the tactical one. Sometimes attending to the tactical needs, however small, may make an effect in the future if handled properly.”
“I see,” Sprite said. “What bothers me is that you never mentioned it to me.”
The admiral smiled, she definitely sounded a little put out over that. “Not in so many words no, but I figured you'd catch on. I wanted your reactions to be natural Commander. The more you promoted my image the more damage it could do. It would seem like I was doing it on purpose.”
“Which you are.”
“But not self-promotion. Let the people do that. We've got more important things to do.”
“Ah,” Sprite replied, clearly amused.
“You can't control what people think or say about you. But if you do good, then it will interest them to think about it, and hopefully in a positive way. Pay it forward.”
“There are skeptics out there admiral. And people like in Pyrax and Antigua ready to tear you down. Organics tend to tear their heroes down to show that they have flaws.”
“True,” the admiral replied grudgingly. “That is ever the problem with famous people, and especially of heroes. The want to lower them to your level because trying to raise yourself to theirs is too hard. But again, I didn't aspire to this, I just did it. I'll continue doing it until something better comes along. And even when it does, I'll probably still help out where I can.”
“Which is admirable Admiral,” Sprite replied.
“Yeah, try saying that last bit three times fast,” the admiral replied with a bit of whimsy. “I'll keep doing what I'm doing. Right now there is no other path,” he said again, this time softer, mostly to himself.
“Hopefully something will come up soon sir,” Sprite replied, equally soft.
“It'd better. I don't know how much more time we've got on our hands before something over in Horathian space breaks the wrong way for us,” the admiral growled as he looked down at a triangle of birds flying under the air car.
...*...*...*...*...
Perry White green lit a story when Cat heard about Irons arrival and did enough research to have a fairly solid and coherent piece. He had heard enough from other sources to confirm she was correct, Irons was indeed on their world running loose unsupervised. The story detailed the admiral's problems in Pyrax. It was made to sound on the fence, a bit of 'guard your kids from the monster in our midst' with 'innocent until proven guilty'. Perry wasn't pleased about not having a lot of facts and images to go with the piece, but he ran it since it was a slow news day.
When Jerry Richards found out about it he was furious. He spotted the headline as he came to the front of the paper's brick building and paused before he grabbed a copy and read it. The kid behind the counter protested so he tossed him a coin and then turned and stormed into the building, clearly fuming.
The run up the stairs didn't dampen his rage. He slammed through the door on his floor and then looked around. Perry was in as usual so he turned and started to his office. Perry just so happened to be looking out his window and caught Jerry's set expression. That warned him that something was up with the normally affable reporter. Jerry stormed into his boss's office with his copy of the paper, he slammed the door behind him and then waved the article and demanded an immediate retraction as he slammed it down onto Perry's desk blotter.
Perry looked down at the headline in confusion. “What's wrong with it?” he asked.
“What's wrong with it? What's wrong with it?” Jerry snarled, pacing. “Where do I begin! How about the Knox news piece we've got over the past two years? Remember that? The video? We ran it on the n
ews channel. You stripped the audio out for the radio piece!”
“Um...”
“Irons. The guy in the piece. Hang on,” he snarled, turning. He jerked the door back open and then stormed to his desk. He kicked a chair aside and knocked over a pile of papers but didn't care. He grabbed the microcomputer thingy Irons had given him and came back.
By this time his show of anger had attracted the attention of others in the room. He stormed back into Perry's office and plugged the little black device into the chief's precious video screen. The thing was ancient, but it still worked.
White started to object but Jerry ignored it. He went over to the chief's blotter and pulled out the keyboard and tapped out an inquiry.
“What are you doing?”
“Showing you this,” Jerry said. “Remember? A picture is worth a thousand words boss?” he asked. People were coming slowly to the door. He turned the volume up and then crossed his arms as the video played.
White and the others watched the video play out. It wasn't long, Jerry played the original piece and then the take from Knox news. No one said a word as both videos played out. Finally all eyes turned to Perry. White was taken aback and red, a clear indication that he was furious.
“Get me IT! Get someone to take that blasted website down and pull that paper!” Perry snarled, eyes smoldering as he looked at Richards. Richards nodded. He knew his bosses reputation as a straight arrow, it was one of the few things he loved about his job, working for someone who had honor and balls. This was Perry's fault as much as Cat's, Cat for bringing up such trash and not doing proper research, Perry for not doing the same and looking into what his own people had reported previously.
There weren't many computers on the planet, but there was a small internet. It used the phone lines to transmit data. Most of it was for governmental purposes, but White had set up his own network to feed satellite presses in other cities to aide in distribution. Major stories would be inputted in the A section, with local stories and other material printed in the B and other sections.
“Hold the presses!” Perry ordered at full bellow before he hit the intercom on his desk. “This is White, hold the presses! Hold all distribution! I want everyone to yank today's edition now! Someone get out there and get the things off the street! I mean now! Printing we're going to do a special retraction edition! Get set for that!”
He turned looking around. “Anyone know where Cat is?” he growled. The group of reporters and newsmen and women shook their heads silently no. “Someone find her. I'll kick her ass!” he growled. “Richards, what are you doing just sitting there! Get on the retraction story now! You,” he pointed to a junior reporter. “Drop whatever you're working on and get IT to link this to the site. You,” he pointed to an assistant. “Get over to broadcast, I want them in on this too. I don't like dragging anyone's name through the mud that didn't deserve this so get on it!” He yelled, face turning a deeper red.
“Richards,” he turned on Jerry. Jerry was heading to the door.
“I'm going chief,” Jerry said, pushing people out of his way to get to his desk. “I'll need the source though to quote from!” he said over his shoulder.
“You can have it when I'm done with it!” Perry growled. He shut the intercom off and then picked the phone up and hit the speed dial. He bellowed to get the paper off the street now. “Not tomorrow right now! We're printing a retraction so quit selling the damn things!” he snarled to the flabbergasted market guy before he hung up on him. It was already too late to halt the copies that had been sent to other cities across the globe.
Jerry was surprised and gratified that his boss was so upset about it, and so into getting the record straight. “See, this is why I don't like running with gossip,” White growled. He fumed at the still missing Cat.
“Was that one of Cat's pieces?” Jerry asked, putting the retraction piece on his boss's blotter.
“Yes,” Perry replied in disgust. He ran a hand through his silver hair. Cat would be lucky to be writing dog obits if Perry had anything to say about it. “I thought it was a good piece, she had Jimmy with her but they couldn't get a shot of him. He's off somewhere.”
“I know boss.”
“Well find out. And while you're at it find out about this guy going around doing stuff. Good deeds and weird shit,” Perry said, holding up the assignment form.
“Weird in what way boss?” Jerry said, taking the assignment warily and looking at it. He was fairly certain who his boss meant but didn't want to say anything just yet. Besides, he might be able to milk it further.
“Some guy has been going around making changes to the various towns. A lot of stuff going on in Hazard. But there are also weird stories of some guy who dry lifted some weight with one hand. Another story in Hazard of a guy who tossed an elephant biker a hundred feet if you can believe it.”
“Same guy?” Jerry asked.
“I'd like you to find that out,” Perry grunted. “And look into something about the coastal communities. There have been some changes there too.”
“That's a lot of ground to cover boss,” Jerry warned him.
“Take Samantha. I'd give you Jimmy but he's out with Lois and Clark,” the chief growled. His own sources told him the young lad had gotten entirely too chummy with the wrong crowd in Hazard. That bothered him, bothered him a lot. It didn't bode well for the lad's career if he kept that up. His career or his life for that matter. He made another note to keep the kid away from Hazard and Gotham.
“Samantha?” Jerry asked.
Perry made a brushing motion. “New Greenhorn. Show her the ropes while you're at it.”
“Gee thanks chief,” Jerry replied dryly. “Usual drill with expenses?”
“I'll write you a note,” White growled.
...*...*...*...*...
Sprite caught the article about the admiral as she got the daily news feed from Phoenix. She was immediately furious. She showed the article to the admiral as he drank his coffee.
“See?” she demanded. She was sorely tempted to craft a virus and bomb the native's media network. It would serve them right.
“I know Commander. There isn't much we can do about it but combat rumor with the truth. But you can't make people see reason, nor can you make them see the truth.”
“This is a homily of you can lead a horse to water but can't make it drink?” Sprite asked with a dyspeptic snort.
“Something like that,” the admiral replied. Sprite blinked as she noted the change in the feed. It was incredibly slow, less than a hundred kilobytes per second. Maddening really, but it was all she had.
“Well, something is up, the article just came down off the server,” she reported after a moment.
The admiral opened his mouth to ask if she'd done it but she held up a restraining virtual hand. “No, I didn't do it. Someone in house did. There is a place holder page there now, a retraction page,” she reported. The holder page was sweet and to the point.
“See?”
“It could mean they are digging for more?” Sprite asked, playing devil's advocate.
“Or they changed their minds when they realized the source material wasn't credible. I'm curious if Mr. Richards had a hand in things.”
“Checking...” Sprite said. Slowly she smiled and then nodded. “Yes indeed he did. I see that he accessed the vid feed of the incident several times, most recently twice today.”
“Ah, so he may have shown it to someone else,” the admiral said with a nod.
“Quite possible. He also copied the file and sent it to other servers,” Sprite replied. “And it's still transmitting even now, which is why the free bandwidth on the net is next to nothing.”
The admiral nodded. “Understandable using dial up. The video.... it could possibly be for video release or to cover his backside,” the admiral mused. “Either way, you see what waiting and seeing can accomplish? Give the people the facts and then sit back and let them draw their own conclusions.”
“
As long as they don't color it with their own bias and or try to use it for their own means,” Sprite riposted expertly.
Irons sighed and shook his head mournfully. “I'd argue but there isn't really a point, you're correct. Unfortunately,” he said.
“Yes, unfortunately. So, moving on?”
“Yes. We need to get this fuel situation sorted out soon, but if we can't, I'd like to see what other things we can do for the educational centers. Which means more microcomputers and solar panels.”
“It might be prudent to find a local electronics concern to manufacture them admiral. They can distribute them as they see fit even after we leave. It's not universal, they'll charge for them, and of course there will be bias, but it's the best road to getting everything on your wish list into the hands of the most amount of people.”
“True,” the admiral sighed. “Unfortunately this planet doesn't have the means to make electronics of this level yet. So, that means some sort of fabrication methods...” he mused, tapping his lips with a finger as he thought the problem over.
“Dedicated fabricators? A let down from a full replicator, but I see your point. But we'd have to shop around for the right company. Location, power, connections, materials...”
“Right. And too many of those roads lead to Hodges. Let's see if we can avoid the corruption. In fact see if you can make up a list. If necessary we'll take the project out of his jurisdiction, though he's one of the counties with the best distribution methods around...”
“Rail, river, air, and road access you mean. But the same holds true to a few of the larger businesses in Metropolis and Gotham...”
...*...*...*...*...
“Boss we've got a problem,” Sheriff Coltrain said, twiddling his thumbs in front of him. The commissioner looked up from the hoagie he'd been eating and grunted. Boss was a right boar when someone interrupted him when he was at the feed bag. Unfortunately that was six or seven times a day. “It's um...”
“Out with it. Can't you see I'm eating?” Hodges demanded, and then took another bite.
“It's um, someone put a hit out on that admiral fellow.”
Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer) Page 22