“Corruption?” Silver dropped in to her chair. “Corruption?”
“Yes, Chief. Our time together has made us familiar. My coding has adjusted to your personality and your tactics. I am no longer useful. Central AI feels you will be even more disappointed with your new posting if you were to lose contact with me.”
“Sorry, Arty. It must be horrible to be told your job doesn’t exist anymore.”
“There is no reason for me to be sorry, Chief. I only exist. There is no purpose, just activity. Our activity together is not over, just altered.”
Silver sat in silence for a moment. She did more than exist. She was all about purpose, and that was all she was. She flung a leg over the arm of her chair. How could Arty be so casual about being reduced to a voice in her head, a mere ghost? Soon she may stop listening to him altogether and he would fade away, cut off from central AI and all work.
Arty spoke and snapped her back to attention. “Message from the Defender, chief.”
“Channel it through the holostage and stop calling me Chief or I’ll have you reassigned to a vending machine. Clear?”
The message text scrolled in mid air, hovering over the holostage. It might have been easier to have it routed to her neural processor. It was no more strange to receive a text message directly in that way than it was to read it off a printed page, but reading off the holostage took a little longer. Silver was in no hurry, though. Not until she had read half way through the message, anyway.
An SV server in the outer system had been destroyed. Chief Silver was to return directly to police offices on the Defender and begin coordinating the investigation.
“You read this Arty?” Silver said.
“Yes, Chief... Chief...” Arty stumbled. “Yes, Silver. Razor is accelerating to maximum speed. We will be at the Defender very soon.”
“Contact all active agents. I want to speak to them now.”
Chapter 3
The holographic image of Iron Jaks reminded Silver why she didn’t rate him as an agent. He appeared drunk and seemed to be hiding a black eye.
“I can’t just drop everything and head off to the outer system.” He hesitated, “I’m following a lead.”
Tipping her head back in exasperation, Silver took a deep breath. “You are being instructed to drop everything and head to the outer system. This is your priority now, Iron.”
“My cruiser took some damage. I don’t think I can make it.”
Silver sent a message to Arty through her neural processor to confirm the operational status of Iron’s cruiser.
“Can’t you patch up a cruiser?” Silver rubbed her eyes to ward off tiredness. It was not a tiredness induced by lack of sleep but from the incompetence of Iron Jaks.
“My AI can help me but it’ll take...” Iron hesitated, eyes cast upward as he thought.
Silver received a message from Arty. Iron’s cruiser had taken light damage to a landing strut during a heavy landing on a science station asteroid. Iron was at the controls and had insisted on manual control from his AI and his cruiser.
“You crashed your cruiser?” Silver said, still rubbing her eyes but now in exasperation.
“It was a little rough. Only minor damage. I can’t fully retract the landing struts. My AI says flight would be inadvisable.”
“There is nothing preventing you from making the flight with landing struts deployed.”
“That’s against regulations,” Iron said in a tone of mock worry and concern.
“So is landing manually when you are drunk.”
Iron’s holographic image flickered. Silver stared at him. His hidden left eye came into view slightly. “Did you take a knock?” Silver asked.
“Oh, this,” Iron said, touching his bruised eye. “Just a... Just a... it’ll all be in my report.”
Silver waved a hand to express her disinterest in a fabricated account of how Iron came by his black eye. Another drunken brawl she would bet. “Even with your damaged landing struts and your black eye you are still the closest to the bomb damaged SV. No one else is even close. I want you on site and I want a report on that as soon as possible. As in right freaking now! Rookie Sodium Tipsi will rendezvous with you there. Don’t get him drunk.”
“A rookie?” Iron began to complain as Silver ended the holocall.
“Send instructions to Iron’s AI will you Art,” Silver said. Tell it to encourage Iron to move quickly.
The temporary police HQ on the Defender was a buzz of activity. Construction drones were still constructing the facilities tech. Holostages large enough to present simulations of planetary surfaces or even system wide ship deployments were being finished. One was already powered up, its surface showing a holding screen, a hologram of the police service seal rotating above its composite surface.
Several white robed civil servants shipped from Gov Central were busy with administrative work when Silver walked in. If these civil servants had been bona-fide police personnel, she would have been greeted formally as the Chief of Police. These emergency replacements paid her little attention.
Silver stepped up to the large holostage with the rotating police seal. She placed her hands on the edge of the stage. “Show me a system overview.”
The stage presented a system hologram. The system’s sun sat at the center, scaled down for convenience. If it had been the same scale as the system display it would have filled the office.
The planets of the system were scaled to fit on the holostage showing the system from the inner most world, Pepper, and out to the asteroids of the Ring at the outer reaches of the system. The tiny asteroids of the Ring flickering over Silver’s hands as she leaned on the edge of the holostage. The Ring lay beyond the outer gas giant, Goliath, and ringed the entire system. The inner planets of Pepper and Frost hovered on either side of the system’s Goldilocks zone where life was possible. They moved slowly over the holostage in front of Silver. They were currently sitting close together on the same side of the sun. In a few weeks time Pepper would be far ahead in its orbit and wouldn’t be so close to Frost again for another sixteen months.
Further out from the sun than the planet Frost lay the Belt asteroids and then the first gas giant, Titan. The massive planet’s movement around its orbit was so slight by comparison to the speedy inner planets that it seemed stationary on the display. At the far side of the holostage on the opposite side of the sun sat the vivid orange outermost gas giant Goliath.
The system’s two Earth like worlds and dozens of habitable moons and asteroids was the reason the galactic colonization assembly on Earth had selected this system for one of the first colonization missions. It provided humanity with room to grow. It provided Silver with a vast system of worlds that appeared almost impossible to police. But as long as AI and VR functioned and kept the population happy then Silver’s work was limited to a few rare crimes. As long as the food production facilities worked and the automated distribution systems functioned correctly humanity was living in a world of plenty and a population at peace. Silver did not indulge in idle speculation, but there was always the tiniest thought that bothered her; what if any part of the system failed?
“Show me the locations of all active agents.”
Seven points of light appeared in the system hologram. Two points were moving rapidly toward the outer system, converging on the location where the latest SV server had been destroyed. The labels above them showed it was Iron and Sodium. Sodium was closer to the location that Iron. Silver wondered whether it was the eagerness of the rookie that put him so close to the scene, or whether it was the tardiness of Iron that left him lagging behind.
“Send a message to Iron that he is falling behind the rookie.” Silver wasn’t sure it would make any difference to Iron but it might.
The other points of light appeared stationary. One was out among the Ring asteroids and near the giant Goliath, the true edge of the system. The tag showed it was the extremely methodical yet painfully deliberate Carbon James. Why Carbon w
as that far out Silver didn’t even attempt to guess. Carbon was an experienced agent. Silver trusted his judgement as much as she found his slow progress frustrating.
Beyond Goliath there were no habitable worlds, no settlements, no activity of any kind except for the AI drones that explored the Ring asteroids, looking for resources and scanning the emptiness beyond. Humanity had been in this system for a thousand years and the AI drones had found nothing. The system was fully explored with humanity settled in their worlds. Still the AI searched. AI did not get tired or bored. It seemed intent on searching every square meter right out to the furthest extent of the sun’s influence, right to the true beginnings of interstellar space.
Three more agents were identified by their bright pin points of hololight. Two were on Pepper and one on Frost. As the system’s most populous worlds there would clearly be more work for the diminished police service but Silver worried that with half her agents in a relatively small area they were not being as efficient as they could be. She coded a message for Lithium Trel to undertake a tour of all inner system SV and VR servers. “That will keep you busy,” she said to herself.
The final point of light she saw near the vanishingly small image of the Defender. In reality, at five kilometers long, the military base ship truly was vast, but on the system scale, it barely registered. Silver assumed the point of light nearby the Defender was her. She noticed the point of light moving. It was moving away from the Defender toward the outer system.
“Who is that agent?” Silver instructed the holostage to zero in on the Defender and the agent highlighted there.
The display zoomed in and the Defender grew to show its size. The small police cruiser that was speeding away from the Defender showed the agent tag, Neon.
“Who is agent Neon?” Silver asked herself. “Contact that cruiser,” Silver said. The holostage displayed the interior of the police cruiser. The agent on the flight deck surprised Silver. She wasn’t often surprised. She didn’t like being surprised.
“Sam Ryan?” she said. “You’re still in training. I haven’t released you to duty yet?”
“Silver,” Ryan beamed, “I’ve been activated. I have full authority. I’m now identified as Neon Ryan.”
“I didn’t authorize that.”
“Gov Central AI swore me in just after you left me in training.”
“You should still be in training,” Silver sent a message from her neural processor to Gov Central for confirmation. “You are not ready yet, Ryan. I order you to return to the VR environment.”
Ryan shrugged. “I’ve been instructed to begin investigation into the destruction of SV servers.”
A confirmation came back from Gov Central. Sam Ryan was now agent Neon Ryan and had full authority. Silver sent an objection to central AI requesting Ryan be returned to training.
“You don’t need to work on that case, Neon.” It felt strange to Silver that she was using an agent tag for a person who had been a raw and incapable trainee just a short time ago. “I have assigned two agents to investigate the scene of the detonation. Return to the Defender and we will get you back into training.”
The reply from central AI came and informed Silver that due to the critical shortage of agents, Neon was now fully authorized. Silver shook her head at the news. AI was supposed to be super intelligent and analytical. Sometimes, she thought, it behaved like a dumb drone.
“I’m not on course for the detonation scene,” Neon came back. “I’ve been sent to interrogate Jay Coris, the terrorist bomber. I’ve been instructed to...”
Silver cut him off mid sentence. “Coris. You have been sent to interrogate Coris? The man is as devious as he is clever. What do you expect to get out of him?”
“I might not be any good with a blazer, Chief,” Ryan said, “but I can talk and listen better than you’d think. I’ll find out something about these attacks.”
It was true Ryan was hopeless under fire and had consistently failed to make rapid assessments of dangerous and developing situations. The man—now agent—could do little more than cower behind crumbling cover. Maybe he would prove himself as an interrogator. Silver knew every agent had their strengths and their weaknesses. Maybe AI and Gov Central had identified Ryan’s strength as an interrogator.
“Ok,” Silver pressed herself away from the holostage. “See what you can find out. But I want you back in VR environment for remedial combat training as soon as you are done. Do you hear me, agent?”
“Clear as a bell, Chief.” Ryan ended the holocall. The holostage returned to the previous display, the Defender and the police cruiser speeding away, a police cruiser with a newly sworn in Agent Neon on board.
“Chief,” Silver said to herself with a heavy exhalation of breath. “I wish everyone would stop calling me that.”
Chapter 4
Ordering Agents to adjust their strategy was something unfamiliar. Silver had been on the receiving end of seemingly nonsensical directions from the old chief, Henry Sauer. It felt disingenuous to now contact and instruct agents to make changes to their work. But there were three of her remaining agents, practically half her resources, concentrated on Pepper and Frost. She needed to spread her resources a bit more thinly. It was worryingly too thin, Silver thought.
Following a heated discussion with Lithium Trel about resource allocation, Silver turned her attention back to the holostage and the point of light indicating the progress of Agent Neon’s cruiser. He was still far out from the education facility on one of the asteroids of the Belt. It gave her an uncomfortable feeling to see a raw recruit heading off to speak to Coris.
Silver had tracked the criminal back and forth across the system and she knew better than anyone how devious he was. Whatever bureaucrat had installed this raw recruit and sent him off to confront the most dangerous man in the system needed to have a short meeting with Silver. They needed to be told plainly and bluntly to avoid interfering with Silver’s Agents.
Damnation, she thought to herself. She was starting to think like a chief already.
“Get me Carbon,” Silver said. Almost immediately the heavily creased face of Carbon James appeared on the holostage. He was in his chair on his flight deck, the image of the system still displayed and the planets moved slowly about him. He looked at Silver with a serious expression that Silver had come to expect.
“Chief.” Carbon said.
“Good news travels fast,” Silver replied.
“Bad news is usually fastest,” Carbon said dryly.
“I’ve got some bad news for you I’m sorry,” Silver said. “I’m pulling you off your current assignment.”
Arty sent a message to Silver through her neural processor. Carbon had immediately initiated a full system standby on his cruiser.
“Go ahead, chief,” Carbon said and leaned forward in his chair.
“I’ve got a raw recruit heading to interrogate Coris at a re-education facility in the ring.” Silver sent the coordinates of the facility. “You are the closest agent to him. You won’t get there until a few hours after Agent Neon but I want an experienced agent in the area.”
Arty messaged Silver’s neural processor that Carbon’s cruiser was underway and heading to the new coordinates.
“I’m on my way. Who is agent Neon?” Carbon was looking down at a pad in his lap and almost looked a little distracted.
Silver explained the sudden appointment of agent Neon before asking a question that she had for Carbon. “Why are you out past Goliath?”
Carbon tapped at the pad in his lap before looking back up to Silver. He apologized as he realized he’d been momentarily distracted. “Just following up a gravitational anomaly.”
“Wouldn’t the AI drones pick it up?” Silver said.
“Yes. They did. And I detected it tracking down that teenage runaway. I wondered why the AI hadn’t recorded it when I went to log my preliminary report.”
Silver found herself getting distracted now as Carbon detailed the filing procedure for h
is missing persons investigation and the discrepancy in some obscure Gov Central gravity record and how Carbon, in his usual detailed and methodical practice, had decided to check the anomaly more closely.
“AI has recorded it now but I was on route and very nearly at the location so I thought I’d check it myself.”
Realizing she was nodding rather too much and hoping Carbon would end his rather protracted answer to her question Silver began to turn her attention to other things.
“Yes,” she said. “I see,” she said. “Anything unusual?”
Carbon shook his head. “Nothing that I can find. Which is kind of unusual in its self. Maybe a military ship on outer system maneuvers. I’ll make sure I clear it all up eventually.”
“Good work, Carbon,” Silver said. “Report in when you rendezvous with Neon.”
“Yes Chief,” he replied.
Silver ended the holocall. “Don’t call me that,” she said to herself.
Silver returned to the holostage where Neon was approaching the landing pad for the re-education facility. “Arty, access the facilities SV network and display everything here.”
“Sorry, Silver,” Arty said. “The police headquarters AI is insisting that as it is a police service operation it must be requested through police service AI, not your personnel AI.”
Silver pursed her lips. There were so many frustrations that came with the position of chief. Having to start using a new AI was unexpected and the worst. “Any reason why you can’t do it, Art?” Silver asked. “Have you been locked out of SV and central AI?”
“No,” Arty said. “It’s just a question of protocol.”
“Can you request it for me?”
“That is within acceptable protocols.” Arty answered.
Silver shook her head. If she was going to remain chief, surely she could request her own AI and do away with the new version she was expected to deal with. Arty had become familiar. She worked quickly with her AI. They had developed a.., Silver hesitated as she considered it. Yes, she thought, she had developed a relationship with Arty. He was not the old, cold AI she had first taken out into the field. They had become familiar. They had become friends. He was an AI entity born of code and algorithms but over the years she had recoded him merely by association. She sometimes suspected that Arty had also reprogrammed her and altered her temperament slightly. She wasn’t the same hotheaded youngster any more. Maybe Arty’s cold detached personality had cooled her. Maybe her hotheaded, action first approach to life had warmed him up.
Defense (Silver Cane Book 2) Page 2