“Do you think it is a training facility?” Sonya asked staring at the view screen. There were too many sensors to drift one in quickly. There were already four recon drones drifting in slowly but one had stopped responding and the others would take at least a week to get into position.
Information was needed now when the Jupiter Socialist Party was weakened. Which way would they jump? What options did they have?
CHAPTER THIRTY
Social Net
“Prime Minister Harris has asked me to share this with you,” Perro said looking at the assembled councilors.
The New Alamo councilors remained silent, staring at the Chief Executive from Athena.
“What I will tell and show you,” Perro said taking a deep breath. “Does not bode well for the future of the human race. We are caught between two extremes. The Caliphate on one hand, and the Jupiter Socialist Party on the other. Two sides of a coin, but we here in this room, are that thin edge between them.”
“When the Caliphate troops invaded Athena,” Perro began. “They attempted to destroy our command and control. They detonated several EMP weapons and launched missiles at key communication infrastructure. These attacks had the combined effect of taking down the civilian networks. For the first time in a long while people were cut off from the network. They could not interact on their various social networks, they couldn’t talk with friends or family unless they made a direct connection. Civilian bandwidth was limited, and this caused several interesting changes. More socialization for starters, and for a short time our birth rate is increasing, but,” Perro paused.
“We learned things when we repaired and rebuilt,” Perro said. “We found AI clusters designed to manipulate and control social feeds. The people of Athena spend a lot of time hiding in their networks, living in their fantasy worlds, using technology as a buffer between them and anything they didn’t like.
“You know how it evolved, with social media becoming common, then businesses and organizations jumping on the band wagon, the tight integration with the internet. People could see where their friends were eating, buying, and vacationing. Then China began with Sesame Credit which ties in and rates a citizen by their activity and how good of a citizen they are. These concepts led the way in many areas so friends could rate restaurants, news sites, and more. With Sesame Credit, the government could evaluate the quality of a citizen by their purchases and shared news articles. Then it got worse as the government filtered what people would see, it could black list a business by not revealing popularity, or positive reviews. It could gauge a citizen’s loyalty by the posts they read and shared.
“What we found was even worse,” Perro said. “Subtle manipulation by dedicated AIs. Word and thought control, masking and manipulating people’s posts. The AI’s could identify a circle of friends so the manipulation was never obvious, but by changing keywords, by posting certain things and insuring they were seen would manipulate a person’s thoughts and emotions. By concealing articles, searches could hide information, directing people in certain directions like sheep. By manipulating the background color of websites people’s emotional state could also be manipulated subconsciously.”
“Where did these AI’s come from?” Gloria asked.
“The Jupiter Alliance,” Perro said. “A company called Green Star Cybernetic Consortium, a front for the Jupiter Intelligence Service. This AI cluster was tied into almost everything, banking, social networks, order systems, network access and more. This cluster had tetrabytes of storage and sent data to nodes in Jupiter's orbit.”
Mark looked at the members of the New Alamo council. Every single one had a scowl on their face.
“The Jupiter Alliance was spying on you?” Gloria said.
“And trying to manipulate and control public opinion,” Perro said.
“Why didn’t it work?” Gloria asked.
“It was new and not yet common,” Perro said. “Athena has always prided ourselves on our self-sufficiency and it has been difficult for GSCC to break into our market and integrate their equipment. GSCC has been paying people to install their equipment over locally produced equipment. My engineers tell me it was still in discovery mode and wasn’t ready, but it was close. It was still collecting all sorts of psychological data on all the users, it was actually collecting information from people’s InnerBuddy.”
“Your thoughts on this?” Mark asked Perro.
“This is social manipulation at a grand level,” Perro said. “Honestly, I find it frightening. There are a lot of studies on the subject but for someone to make such a concerted effort, on a such a scale, is disturbing. In the wrong hands it could be frightening.”
“If properly controlled,” Gloria said. “It could help stabilize society.”
“Do you want control of it?” Mark asked, trying to keep the venom out of his voice.
Gloria looked at Mark and her eyes widened as she saw where the Prime Minister was going.
“Who could you trust?” Gloria asked, refusing to answer.
Mark smiled. She got it.
“I think we have all argued with each enough we know nobody could be trusted with this much power,” Mark said. “Combined with our InnerBuddy you could probably forget all about the concept of free will.”
“What about a committee?” Gloria asked, and all eyes fell on her.
“What happens if it is compromised by a foreign power?” Ray asked.
“We can make it secure,” Gloria said.
“They were beaming all that information to the Jupiter Alliance,” Perro said. “Even collecting that information and having it fall into the wrong hands could be disastrous.”
“So what if someone finds out you like vanilla instead of chocolate?” Gloria said.
“It is subtler than that Miss McCoy,” Perro said. “Much more dangerous. Let’s say whenever you look at a news article about privacy the back ground is neutral gray. Boring, but when you visit an article about sharing your life story with strangers, you get blue colors encouraging trust and spirituality. Now if we integrate that with your InnerBuddy, subtle tones can be introduced to your environment, that only you can hear subconsciously. Tones to make you uncomfortable or relaxed, to help or corrupt your concentration, to put you on edge or relax you. Even your regular vision can be subtly shaded to influence your mood or emotions, maybe a very subtle color filter on your vision overlay. Certain posts, or articles can brush against your attention at the right time to further influence you. Knowing what you are interested in, over time, those interests can be changed by influencing your moods about different things. That is what these AI’s are designed for.”
“How do you know?” asked Gloria.
“Because I have some superb programmers and network engineers,” Perro said. “I trust them, and it would explain a couple things about the Jupiter Alliance we have been noticing.”
“Like what?” Ivan asked tapping his flashing finger nails on the table.
“James Abbott has won the election for Secretary General for thirty-six years in a row,” Perro said. “He is that awesome, or he was very busy as the senior secretary of the Security Council where he had a lot of influence over the Jupiter Intelligence Service and the military.”
“There is someone we can ask,” Mark said staring at Perro over his steepled fingers.
“Yes,” Ivan said smiling. The jewels in his ears and on his fingers sparkled as he sat up quickly. “Shall I have that snake brought up?”
Mark nodded. After the last attack by the Jupiter Alliance there was no way he would send the ambassador back. The few prisoners that had survived the slaughter were clear enough about their orders. If they couldn’t capture the colonies, they were to destroy them.
The room fell silent, everyone lost in their own thoughts, silent InnerBuddy conversations or engaged in research.
Several minutes later Admiral Wise came in leading Ambassador Ralph Sutton. A pair of heavy-set security droids flanked the ambassador.
&nbs
p; It was like he had just walked out of Mark’s office. Still wearing his hair up in a ponytail, and although his clothes were different, he didn’t look to be in the least bothered by the confinement. He even had the gall to look well rested and relaxed.
Ralph smiled when he saw the assemblage, especially Allison Perro.
“Hello,” Ralph said and Mark had to take a deep breath before he got up, walked over and slugged the insolent bastard.
“How can I help this fine group?” Ralph said.
“Tell us about the Jupiter Alliance social net,” Mark said, keeping his fingers steepled. It was a good tactic since he could see his hands become fists or push hard against each other in anger.
Ralph smiled, his handcuffs appearing as nothing more than a piece of finery holding his hands together.
“A beautiful thing really,” Ralph said. “Humans are social, we like to be in groups where we feel at home, among people we trust and have similar interests. There are several networks in the Jupiter Alliance system that people use to bring them together. Gaming networks, dating networks, friendship networks, all sorts. It brings us all together in social harmony, it lets us share opinions and views in a peaceful manner.”
“And lets you collect all manner of information on a person,” Perro said.
Ralph shrugged, “not that we care. Sure, we collect information. If people like to wear loose jump suits or shorts is not important, but it helps certain companies know where to market their clothing line, which styles are popular and which aren’t. In the end, the people get what they like and the companies don’t waste money and resources trying to figure it out. There is a fee for this which provides the Jupiter Alliance additional funds for the common defense. Everybody wins.”
“You don’t use the system and manipulate InnerBuddies to encourage people to shop, think or conduct themselves in any way?” Gloria asked before Mark could.
The smile the Ralph gave her was meant to be disarming, but Mark saw the tightening in the corner of Ralph’s eyes and the way his eyes locked onto her too quickly.
“Why would we do that?” Ralph said smoothly. “The Jupiter Socialist Party is about the people.”
“Like the Soviet Socialists, the German National Socialist, the Mars Socialists, the Cubans, the Venezuelans?” Ivan asked.
Ralph rolled his eyes.
“That’s absurd,” Ralph said. “In this day and age? You think the Jupiter Socialists are trying to eliminate the middle class or gas Jews? We are Democratic Socialists, the Secretary General is an elected position and we allow for other colonies to have their own forms of government as long as they abide by the Jupiter Alliance by-laws. Our only enemy is the Caliphate and those who support them.”
As he mentioned supporters of the Caliphate, his eyes fell on Perro.
“So the Green Star Cybernetic Consortium is not a front for Jupiter Intelligence Service?” Perro asked.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Ralph said, his eyes locked on her, daring her to continue.
Perro smiled, “of course not. You never heard GSCC, the premier supply of interrogators, was a JIS front company? How can such a highly placed ambassador be so misinformed?”
Mark scowled, remembering when the Ambassador had used an interrogator in his office, claiming it had been a bug jammer. Engineering teams had torn it apart and discovered it had a very sophisticated sensor suite that monitored nearly every aspect of a person’s biology, reporting to the controller almost everything about a person except their innermost thoughts. Body readers is what the tech team had called them.
In the corner Felix growled. Ralph’s eyes flew to the creature and widened. He backed up a step but the two droids on either side held him in place.
Felix padded forward, growling softly as Ralph tried to back up.
“Keep it away from me,” Ralph said.
“He doesn’t like liars,” Mark said, wondering if Felix would finish the job of killing the spy and finding out he didn’t care.
“Seriously,” Ralph said, trying to climb backward over the two droids. “Is this how you treat prisoners?”
“Usually we chuck them out the airlock,” Ivan said softly. “We prefer not to waste resources on them. We would throw them in the recyclers but that is just too disgusting for us.”
“Fine,” Ralph said, his eyes locked on Felix who had stopped advancing, but remained standing there, growling softly. Gloria was looking alarmed and glancing between Felix and Mark.
“I know of GSCC,” Ralph said, his eyes never leaving Felix. “All about them. They are just one organization, there are others, but they are the premier supplier of network equipment.”
“Tell us about the social nets,” Mark said amused at Ralph’s fear of Felix.
“GSCC creates routers with a special, encrypted channel, sometimes wireless, that talks with clusters of specialized AI’s. The routers can decrypt, manipulate and monitor traffic patterns. The AI clusters provide direction and specifics, monitoring nodes and manipulating the feeds as necessary.”
“By nodes you mean people?” Mark asked.
“Yes!” Ralph said, his voice almost a scream as he kept his eyes locked on Felix. “The Sesame Clusters seed the traffic, manipulating what people see and hear by controlling the data their InnerBuddies receive. We’ve even implanted InnerBuddies that integrate better with the Sesame clusters. You can do it also. It keeps the rabble complacent and controllable. With newer versions of the InnerBuddy we are gaining more and more control. We are controlling taste and the satisfaction of sex. The rabble doesn’t know what they want. We do, you do.”
Felix remained motionless as he stared at Ralph, but the Ambassador couldn’t stand still as he tried desperately to get away.
“Let’s be honest,” Ralph said making an active and failing effort to calm himself down. “We are politicians. We are politicians because we care about the common good. You were elected because most people don’t care about politics. They want other people to worry about those things, to make hard but educated decisions. They want to live in their little worlds, but we are different. We take the long view.”
Ralph glanced up from Felix ever so quickly.
“Common people are idiots. They need to be told what to do, how to live, or they devolve into savagery and chaos. We can fix that!”
Mark shook his head, most council members were displaying anger but Ralph couldn’t see that since his eyes were locked on Felix again.
“We can make proletariat happy, we can solve their problems,” Ralph said. “We only want to serve the common good. We know what’s best for them and they know that.”
“Get him out of here,” Mark said.
Ralph looked up in surprise and saw the surrounding scowls.
“You know I’m right,” Ralph said. “Don’t hate me because of the truth. You are rulers, you know, deep in your hearts I’m right. People want to be ruled, when they have too many choices they make the wrong ones.”
Since Ralph wasn’t moving, each of the security droids grabbed him by an arm and guided him out.
He was still ranting on when the door closed behind the ambassador. Mark felt sick. Felix padded back to his corner to lie down.
“Proletariat?” Ivan asked, his fists thumping the table. “He seriously said proletariat?”
Mark shook his head.
“The Caliphate or the Socialists,” Ivan said. “The human race is screwed.”
“There are other free colonies,” Perro said. “There is Ceres, and then there are colonies in the Saturn, Uranus and Neptune subsystems.”
“Ceres hasn’t been conquered by the Caliphate?” Mark asked.
Perro smiled.
“That is the most heavily fortified object in the solar system,” Perro said. “Not even the Caliphate messes with the dynasty anymore. They have habitable cylinders buried so deep in the crust they haven’t invented a weapon that can reach them, and the surface is a death trap of missile bays, automated
turrets and booby traps. They don’t have a fleet worth discussing, just hundreds of robotic factories producing missiles, warbots, drones and rail gun pellets. Ceres is ruled by the Xu’an dynasty and Secretary General Abbot is envious of their secret police.”
“Saturn and the others?” Mark asked.
Perro shook her head. “There is a reason we sought to leave the solar system. The people of Neptune may not be human anymore. They are obsessed with modifying themselves with cybernetic and biological grafts. They are few and I would not consider most of them sane alone out there on the edge of the solar system. The Saturn Protectorate trades with the Jupiter Alliance a little, but rarely comes in any closer to the inner planets than Jupiter. The colonies around Uranus are insignificant isolationists, too far out for most people to bother with. Not even the Jupiter Alliance bothers with the outer colonies, out there on the edge, in the deep dark.”
“We stand alone?” Mark asked.
Perro nodded with a frown. “The people thought it would be better to be alone without enemies, than just alone and surrounded by enemies.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Assault Fleet
“We are getting data from the slow drones,” Harris said.
“Excellent,” Sonya said. “On my way.”
As usual, the CIC of the Cincinnatus was quiet and subdued when Sonya entered. Harris and Fry were there looking at data displayed on several screens and a holograph of Thebe was spinning slowly on the central display. The Cincinnatus was in stealth mode so gravity was almost non-existent aboard the ship.
“What do you have?” Sonya asked taking it in.
“Definitely a top-secret military base Captain,” Fry said. “Probably extensively hollowed out. Most of the base is in the Zethus crater and the edge is ringed by numerous anti-ship weapons, missile bays and rail gun launchers. We have seen several new cruisers enter the main dock, but nothing has come out.”
“A secret fleet or something?” Sonya asked sinking into a chair.
“That would be my guess Captain,” Harris said. “We’ve seen plenty going in, but nothing coming out. Must be huge inside.”
New Empires: Conglomerate Series Book 3 Page 14