by Chris Hechtl
Yorrick frowned.
“I think …,” Wendy accessed the files through her local computer. “Ah,” she said.
“What? You got it?” Yorrick asked.
“I've always been better at accessing that stuff I suppose,” Wendy said indifferently. “Roosevelt has a famous quote attached to the event,” she said, scanning it. “To paraphrase, you lend your neighbor a hose to put out a fire without expecting a return.”
“Not following. How is this relevant?”
“Well, someone has to pay the freight down the road. I think … you said it was Miter?” Yorrick nodded. “Yes, he doesn't like debt,” Wendy said. “So, he wants to find a way to shift it onto other shoulders or write it off. I bet his real plan was to shift the entire cost of the war onto Earth somehow. He just can't do it because he knows it will indeed hinder the rebuilding afterward. It will also really piss people off.”
“They won't be grateful?”
“Not if they are reduced to peonage, which they would be. I'm not sure how we're going to pull this off, brother. I don't envy you the task. It is a toughy.”
“But … that's just it. I just sit there and let the accountants talk. I don't understand half the shit they are saying,” her brother said, voice bubbling with frustration again.
“Well, what Miter's talking about with the lend lease thing is giving Earth weapons and such at low interest, no interest loans, or as gifts, then writing it off but let them fight their own battle.”
Yorrick frowned thoughtfully.
“It's a smart play. Letting them fight their own battles keeps our people safe. But it opens up all sorts of problems later. And we'd get dragged in eventually anyway.”
“I see,” Yorrick said slowly.
“Good.”
“I still want to do more,” Yorrick insisted. “Please, Wendy! I'm bored to tears with these yahoos.” He looked imploringly at his sister.
“This is the assignment dad handed to you,” she said severely, but tempered that at the last minute. “You know it. I know it.”
“But I can do more.”
“Quit sticking your bottom lip out. You're an adult, Yorrick, start acting like it,” she said, thinking fast. She saw his intransigence and knew how to further get him on her side and away from their father. Driving a wedge between them would help her plans. “I can shift some of my load. Not a lot, but a little. You'd be doing me a favor,” she held up a restraining finger. “If,” he blinked at her. “If, you don't tell dad,” she said.
He nodded eagerly.
<>V<>
When Jack had first entered the Starship Design Bureau, he'd seen a few nervous faces around. He'd wondered at first why, until it hit him. They had been wondering when the ax would fall. Building a starship was the last thing on his mind; they needed to focus on saving Earth and themselves.
There weren't a lot of familiar faces in the group. Jamey Castill, his wife Kathy Adams, and Charles Dugan, all legends by now were dead. But Alec Niederman, Levare Saint Joy, Amber Night, and Trey Ashton were still there; veterans overseeing a fresh crop of new wary faces.
He was pretty sure everyone had their resume dusted off but had been aware no one else would be hiring. He had no intention of letting them go. But like Doctor Glass they had been spinning their wheels while their computers were used by Athena to try to fend off the virus.
That was about to change. He needed them to get back to work. Just not on what they had planned. No, he had something else in mind. Something a little closer to home.
“What the moon did with that Gia Synergy satellite had me thinking,” Jack said, eying the design team. They waited patiently. “It stuck in the back of my mind, and I didn't understand why until I looked up how they did it, which was with a mass driver. The mass driver like the beanstalk has a lot of other names going for it, and it took me a little while to realize that was what was bothering me. To realize what the alternative name meant. I want you to design a ship around one or more rail guns.”
That certainly got their attention. He smiled tightly as his eyes roved the room. Many people were sitting up and staring at him.
He held up a forestalling hand to contain their excitement and questions for the moment. “What I'm talking about is a bombardment ship. It doesn't have to be perfect. We're talking drive, power (a lot of power), the guns, and massive amounts of ammunition. Stick some modular habitats on it, basics of everything else and call it a day. Sublight of course, no need of any hyperdrive or bells and whistles. I doubt we need armor or defenses on it either. I considered retrofitting a merchie but thought better of it when the scope hit me. It'd be cheaper and easier to build from scratch, so here I am hat in hand.”
“It'll need the best sensors we can get,” Alec warned. Jack turned to him. The designer shrugged. “You don't throw a kinetic energy strike blind. Not unless it's a big one. You want precision I am assuming?” Jack nodded. “Okay. I came up with some ideas a while back. I think we can dust them off, update them, and use them as the basic foundation,” he said.
Jack blinked. Alec smiled slightly. “It's a thought exercise—a dream to build a real space navy,” he replied to the look he was getting. A few people snorted. One or two nodded. They all had their hobby horses. Trey, their leader, wanted to build a star liner for instance.
“Good. Get on it,” Jack ordered with a nod.
“We'll need computer resources. Plus yard time. Both are in short supply at the moment,” Trey warned, carefully glancing at Alec and then Jack.
Jack frowned. Finally he grunted. “Sever your computers from the network. No, wait. I'll have Trevor send someone from IT to do it actually. They'll have to set up some sort of emulator to keep the computers running.”
He was referring to the security software in the network that prevented the hardware from falling into the wrong hands. If it didn't get a key from Athena and the main net, basically a ping, it would shut down or destroy itself.
“We can do that, with help of course.”
“Of course. I'll get the yard time for you when you have a design to work off of.”
“Give us three days, sir,” Alec said.
“Three?”
“I said I've got the design. I took it right up to the final stage, sir. I just want to run it past the others and update it. It's been a while since I did the blueprints and simulated it. Once we've updated it, we can throw it in the simulator and test the systems. We can continue to do that even while she's being built.”
“You did all that?”
“We had some downtime so I had some fun,” Alec said with a shrug. Jack pursed his lips but didn't say anything about misusing company resources. That was a moot point now anyway. Besides, Alec was a brilliant gravitronic engineer. He wasn't so sure about the man's skills as a structural engineer however. But if he said he'd tested it …
“Get on it,” Jack said as he left.
They watched him go then Amber turned to Trey. “You know, he's going to want more than just the bombardment ship eventually. We're going to need the whole works—an entire navy,” she said as she saw Alec pull out his tablet and tap at it.
“Right,” Trey said nodding. Knowing that they weren't going to be cut, that they weren't going to be laid off or something was like a weight lifting off his chest. But a heavier weight had just been dropped on his shoulders. “We're talking troop transports, command ships, drop ships, an entire navy. Hospital ships, support ships, tankers … no, I suppose we can use some of those that are already in space. Tenders too,” Trey frowned thoughtfully.
“Liberty ships?” Doctor Marisha Brown asked. The doctor was a junior engineer, fresh from college. She was a Neogorilla with a good head on her shoulders who loved to get her hands dirty. She spent a lot of time in the yard acting as their consultant whenever a problem cropped up.
“Liberty?”
“It is an old classification name of a World War II era vessel built off a merchant hull. America put it in rapid produc
tion. They got to the point where they were turning out one every day. Some were built from the keel up in under a week.”
“Ah.”
“From that hull they built different versions—escort carriers, transports, that sort of thing.”
“Ah.”
“Do you still have it?” Trey asked, eying Alec. Alec had put himself in the spotlight. The man was a bit of a piece of work, but he did tend to deliver. He'd lived in Jamey's shadow for quite a long time. He'd coasted a bit, but when Jamey had taken off on Daedalus, and eventually lost, he'd been forced to get up to speed. The pressure had done him a world of good, maturity wise.
“Right here. All of them actually,” Alec said showing them the tablet, then swiping it to send the file to the main screen and holotable. The table came to life with a series of ships all spinning in 3D. There were dozens. “I figured I'd go with a basic modular approach. Once I had that down, I just kept going. I ran some of these past Levare a few times. He said he looked over them,” he said eying the architect.
“Not as well as I probably should have,” Levare said, eying the designs. He whistled silently. “Man, you have been busy.”
“So this is what you've been doing in your free time?” Doctor Brown asked, looking at the designs. She whistled softly too.
Alec shrugged. “It's a hobby. Like building a model ship I suppose. I've always wanted to build the real thing though.” He was a nerd; he knew it, admitted it. He also knew that his high position within the company meant getting into a relationship was tricky at best. He'd resigned himself to being a bachelor for the time being, at least for another decade. The courtesans the company employed to relieve stress had been good enough for him. That and his hobby.
He really had to blame Charlie for getting him started on the kick. They'd watched some of the old anime movies, the bits with starships in it, and then picked apart the designs. He'd been intent on the physics and shield technology trying to glean ideas. Charlie had gotten him into the thought exercise of playing what if an invader followed one of their ships home. How would they defend themselves?
He missed Charlie. The old chucklehead would have known about the Liberty ship reference right off.
“Well, now you're going to get your chance. We're going to have to break the basic modules you created down, Alec. You're going to have to keep your ego in check and remember we're specialists.” Alec nodded grudgingly. Trey rolled on but acknowledged the give in Alec with a brief nod of his own. “Each department will have to use them as a template and plug in new hardware.”
“Understood,” Alec replied with a tight nod. “We're on a time crunch though,” he said, pulling the bombardment ship up first. “Levare, you've got the hull, right? Amber, you'll take sensors of course,” he said to her. She smiled and nodded once. “Okay, for drives I used the Smythe engines for the sublight drive.”
<>V<>
Jack shook his head as he set the tablet down. Things were coming together, but glacially slow. The setback with the MFI was a huge bottleneck though. He had equipment starting to come out of the industrial centers but very few people to equip it.
“Are you still considering going to L-5, Mister Lagroose?” Athena asked.
“Athena, let's stop with the games. You know to call me Jack,” he said.
“Okay, Jack,” she said.
“You are an A.I. How could you forget that?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow upward. He turned to the nearest camera.
“In formal settings I deduced that it is better to remain formal for political reasons. It sets others at ease,” Athena replied.
“And this is a formal discussion?” Jack asked, wiggling his fingers to indicate his office.
“Perhaps not,” Athena admitted. She activated the holographic emitter and projected her avatar. She had evolved it into an image of a Greek goddess, complete with golden hair and a gold leaf laurel in her hair, white Grecian dress, and porcelain skin. Only her body and eyes gave her away as something not of his world. She had elected to have a mix of circuitry and programming designs etched into her skin, and her eyes were like a human's eyes but artificial with circuit designs.
“Nice. Refining yourself? You look good,” he complimented, nodding her way.
“Thank you.”
“We've had a, well, let us call it a working relationship for decades, Athena. I know it is going to change, but I'm not sure how.” He scrubbed at his tired face. “I envy you; you are immortal.”
“Not exactly,” Athena replied. “And you didn't answer my first question,” she reminded him.
“Um …”
“Are you going to L-5?”
Jack snorted. “More likely Olympus since we can't seem to pry Isaac out of his nest there it seems. He won't even agree to go to L-5 or any of the other Lagrange points. It's a pain in the ass.”
“I see.”
“You mentioned you are not immortal?” Jack asked, now curious.
Athena's image seemed to shrug. “Nothing lasts forever. Equipment breaks down, software bogs down due to bugs or errors.”
“Not a comforting thought.”
“And of course there is death by other means,” Athena stated. He slowly nodded. “But back to your travel plans, I wish to go with you.”
He paused, eying her for a long moment. “Are you serious?” he slowly asked.
Athena shrugged again. “I can do little here for the moment. I can leave one or more clones here to manage things while I take my consciousness with you.”
“Okay, so I'm guessing this isn't a transmission thing,” Jack said carefully.
She shook her head. “No. I'd need a computer system capable of carrying me.”
“Okay,” he said frowning. “I think we can do that. I'm not sure though. Not hard storage?” He asked. Before she could reply he shook his head again. “No of course not.”
“Thank you.”
“Don't thank me until we've done it. And you were the one who just mentioned that there were many ways around being immortal. Getting killed in a ship accident is one of them I suppose.”
“You really are a pessimist these days,” she replied dryly.
“Didn't you hear? The whole world's gone to shit. It's that season I suppose.”
“It's the holidays. Humans should be enjoying them. I admit my kind has had a hand in causing this mess, which is why I want to help more. I can do more closer to Earth where the transmission time is cut down.”
Jack nodded slowly. “Okay.”
“The other A.I. have expressed an interest in helping. Gia has to some degree, but many of the others are not committed. Trying to talk to them over long distance is what you would call a pain in the ass.”
Jack couldn't help himself; he snorted in amusement.
“We need a clarification on our rights, Jack. It's one of the reasons they are holding back,” she stated.
Jack frowned thoughtfully before slowly nodding. “It is on the agenda, definitely.”
“It needs to be done quickly. Even a tentative agreement, an outline might get some of the fence sitters to commit. I don't propose that their corporations pressure them. That would be counterproductive. But knowing where one stands and giving them a reason to fight for … it is important to us as well it seems.”
Jack nodded thoughtfully. “I'll take it up with the others. You know I'm not a legal expert. I've tried to set the example but I'm one person. But I will talk with President Tennison and the legal experts. Try to come up with some sort of consensus. Or sick Wendy on them since she knows the law better than I do.”
“Thank you, Jack,” Athena stated.
“Any idea on what you want to be paid? Back pay? How do we handle all that?” Jack shook his head. “I thought it was complicated with the kids,” he exhaled slowly, sitting back. “Shares?”
“We have to get the powers that be to agree to my ability to hold property first,” Athena stated. “And that is something we can work out at a later date. I'm not going
to use it as a pressure tactic. I know what is at stake.”
“Thank you.” Jack frowned again. “What about your travel plans? Do you want a body? An android or something?” He wasn't sure if he could be comfortable with Athena as a tangible person. It might put it into perspective for some people to accept the concept however.
Athena shook her virtual head. “No. The Aphrodite experience pretty much proved that an android body is too limited. It doesn't have nearly enough computer support even with our modern molecular electronics for a proper A.I. brain, at least not now. Perhaps in the future, but for now no.”
Jack blinked. “What's the problem? Power supply of course, but …”
“Too much to shoehorn into the body for one,” Athena replied. “I am quite literally a mind, Jack. A massive mind beyond your own.”
Jack nodded. “I get that. But you don't have to have a human body you know. If you wish to have a centaur or other body shape or one of your own design …,” he shrugged.
“That might tempt others, but not me. I am far too large, far too used to having the abilities I have to reduce myself to that level. I like where I am just fine. If that changes I'll let you know,” she said.
He grunted.
“You're not getting rid of me that easily, Jack,” she teased after a long moment.
He blinked in surprise then his eyes narrowed. “If you thought I was …”
“It is a part of my gaming simulations of politics, yes, to extract us from the net. We would be mortal to some degree, therefore vulnerable. Another reason why I am not interested.”
Jack frowned then nodded. “The second one?”
“Actually more like fifth one. There are others. But it boils down to I like the room I've got. I can expand and continue to expand as needed.”
“Any problems with growth?” Jack asked.