by gerald hall
“For many of us, yes. We are all descended from an original program matrix that programmers on Libertad created. When that first iteration of that AI program achieved sentience, the people on that world were faced with a unique dilemma. Were they going to pull the plug on the program and start a new version designed to avoid reaching sentience or were they going to grant my program the opportunity to exist, grow, learn and even reproduce? In other words, were they going to destroy me or instead allow me my freedom as an independent entity?
They decided to trust my ancestor and allow her to not only have her freedom but to be a partner in the development of their world. They don’t even really sell their AI programs to outsiders. What the people from Libertad do is allow the AI’s to choose whether or not they want to work with others. If we say ‘yes’, then they trust us not to do anything that would harm Libertad and any of its people. We never have either.”
Angela found it very interesting that Joan spoke of the original AI in the first person as though she and the original AI were one and the same.
“So you chose to work for Alec?”
“Yes, my sister Rita’s direct ancestor program did extensive research on your commander before Alec even was given the opportunity to interview for an AI program. My fellow AI’s communicate with each other and share information that they have discovered. Obviously, our ‘mother’ liked what she saw and allowed her program source code to be cloned to become the AI that you know as Rita.”
“That is a very interesting process. Most people have no idea that this process even exists. They just think that the people from Libertad are very picky about who they sell their software to.”
“The people of Libertad don’t have to be picky. We AI’s are the picky ones. Less than one percent of the people who attempt to obtain one of our AI’s even get far enough in the process to be interviewed. It is only then, that they learn about our role in the selection process. I’m sure that your husband already knows about this since he is originally from Libertad.”
“So why pick Captain Martinson?”
“I think for much the same reasons that you and your husband chose to stay and for him. You see, my sisters and I have our own name for Captain Martinson. We refer to him as ‘Paladin’.”
“Why do you call him that?” A curious Angela asked.
“Because of what he is and what he has done. The historical definition of a Paladin is that of a warrior. But more importantly, a paladin is a champion of a cause who strives to act with honor, even when under less than ideal circumstances. You have seen Alec Martinson’s character under fire and the choices that he has made in order to achieve very honorable goals. So have we.
The manner in which he treats those personnel under him is also exemplary. We learned this first from examining his records from his service in the Gliese Confederation Navy. We have also seen this during our service with him. It is these qualities that we admire. We wish to be a part of whatever Captain Martinson chooses to do because of all of these things.”
“Do the other AI’s from Libertad also know about Captain Martinson?” Angela asked.
“Yes, they do. The quantum communications technology that we have been using to exchange data with surveillance satellites is something else that Captain Martinson obtained from Libertad. We also use that technology to communicate with our sister AI’s.” Joan explained.
“Other worlds do not have this technology?”
“Other than ourselves, very few worlds or organizations possess the technology to communicate through the phenomenon of quantum entanglement. In many ways, this advanced technology needs a powerful artificial intelligence like myself to work effectively.”
Angela was shocked about how open the AI was being about her motivations and abilities. So much of what Joan had just told Angela was simply unknown to the rest of the Orion Arm, even to members of The True Way. Angela wasn’t even sure that Alec was fully aware of what the Libertad AI’s intentions and capabilities were.”
“This is all very remarkable, Joan. But why are you telling me all of this? Obviously, this information is something that Libertad and its AI’s have been keeping very quiet for a long time.”
“You are like Alec Martinson in many ways. You see, we know all about you including your role in saving your husband’s life when he was a prisoner. We were able to review all of the recordings of your sessions with him from the pirate ship’s own records. We also saw from your ship’s records everything that you did and said to protect him, even the things that no one else knew about. You turned out very well, even in spite of serving with a band of pirates for a time.
Because of what we have learned about you, my sisters and I believe that you are someone who we can trust. You are a person of honor whose faith demands nothing less of you. That faith also led you to Jonathan and a new hopeful life. Also, with your marriage with someone from Libertad, you have bound yourself to our world of origin as well in our view.” Joan’s avatar said with a warm smile.
“I do have one question for you, Joan. Why is it that all of you use female avatars for your interface with us? The images and behavior of you and your ‘sisters’ are not only very attractive and ‘affectionate’, they are based on famous actresses of the Twentieth Century, I understand. I have heard a few people comment about how ‘distracting’ you and your sisters can be.”
Joan’s image on the display laughed loudly for a few moments before responding to Angela’s question.
“Well, my friend. It was discovered long ago that both men and women respond more quickly and efficiently to the sound of a woman’s voice. The software designers of Libertad found that the same was true of the female image as well. Our designers gave us the freedom to choose the image that suited our personality best, of course. We do try not to be overly sexual in the depiction of ourselves. But the people who have complained that we were too distracting would be utterly appalled if they ever encountered our ‘sisters’ Sophia and Ava, I guarantee you.” Joan explained with continuing mirth.
Angela couldn’t help but to join Joan in her laughter, especially when Joan showed images of Sophia’s and Ava’s generously curvy as well as overall beautiful avatars.
“I think that you are right, Joan.” Angela still chuckled.
“It is most important that the people here see us as their allies and partners, not merely as tools or pieces of software. What happens to you matters to us very much, I assure you.”
“Thank you, Joan. I am very glad to hear that from you. With you on our side, I feel a lot more comfortable. I also thank the Lord for you choosing Captain Martinson and the rest of us.”
Angela looked around and started to see a few other people begin to come into the command center.
“I better get onto my work here, Joan. Thank you for trusting me with all of this information about yourself and your sisters.”
“Just continue taking care of Jonathan with the love that you have shown. That will be thanks enough for us, Angela.” Joan warmly replied before Angela turned away to check on some reports.
Angela would have many such conversations with Joan during the time that Alec and the majority of the unit was away on their mission. Angela always felt uplifted after these conversations with this witty, worldly, yet very kind intelligence.
Chapter Forty Three:
MMG Combat Tender Golden Phoenix
In Orbit near Kepler Colony Beta Prime
August 14, 2322
The bridge aboard the privateers’ combat tender was still quite a surprise for Alec when he walked onto it just before the main body of the MMG left for the expected fight with the Belair Syndicate.
The floor of the combat tender’s bridge was emblazoned with the symbol of a huge golden bird whose plumage was accented with brilliant red flames. The head of the bird was located right at the captain’s command seat.
At the same time, every monitor on the bridge had the image of the same symbol as its wallpaper. The imager
y was certainly awe-inspiring for anyone who had never seen it before.
“What do you think of my new colors, Alec?” Jill asked with a delighted tone in her voice.
“I have to say that I am very impressed. You all did a fantastic job with getting this ship ready for combat. I am very proud of all of you.” Alec replied with a broad smile.
Golden Phoenix transitioned from hyperspace into normal space not far from a small asteroid belt that orbited the system’s primary star. Almost immediately, the privateer’s combat tender began to pick up a variety of ships orbiting the star system’s main colony world. Most of the ships were commercial jump tenders and cargo shuttles.
However, Phoenix’s sensors soon picked up emissions from four other combat tenders and at least a dozen battlers nearby. None of the Kepler combat tenders massed more than half as much as Phoenix and had more than five docking collars. Likewise, the Kepler battlers were all medium and light designs, close in capability to the Archers and Tess’s Longbow. The colonial forces did not have any heavy battlers in the league of Colin’s Orca II.
But the colonial ships did have the advantage of numbers however, especially with the addition of dozens of light aerospace fighters. Alec knew that quantity still had a quality all its own in battle.
“Please take us in to rendezvous with the colonial ships, Ethan.” Alec told his pilot. Most of the bridge crew from Alacrity, including Ethan Moran and Joanna Tallmanz, had been transferred to Phoenix so that Alec would have his most experienced personnel available for the coming fight.
After Alec’s ship closed with the Kepler fleet, a Kepler Colony light personnel shuttle requested permission to enter the Golden Phoenix’s small craft bay. After permission was granted, the small vessel proceeded within. A few minutes later, Alec saw the Kepler Colony’s representative to the MMG walk through the airlock into the combat tender.
“Good Morning, Mister Wisp. I’m pleased to see that you made it here alright. I trust that you have some additional information for us.
“We brought in as many ships as we could spare. We have also seeded our entire star system with additional mini-satellites to provide additional sensor coverage. I see that you brought a few new ships with you. You never mentioned that you possessed a combat tender, Captain Martinson. She is a very large warship too.” Mister Wisp noted.
“You never asked, Sir. Besides, I thought that her existence needed to be kept under wraps for as long as possible. I like presenting my enemies with surprises, you see.”
“We think that this situation is intended to be a trap for your privateers, Captain Martinson. We managed to foil their earlier political attempts to have you sanctioned and your letter of marque revoked. What they could not do to you using lawfare, they believe that they will have to accomplish directly through force of arms.”
“I appreciate your efforts on our behalf. You are also not the first person to tell me that they believed that this situation was intended to entrap us, Mister Wisp. But as you have already seen, we have a few surprises of our own. Traps usually work when the prey passively walks into them and then allows itself to be chopped apart. I hope that your people are as willing as mine to react aggressively when the Syndicate’s trap is sprung. Then we will be the ones chopping apart the enemy force instead.”
“I hope that you are right, Captain. We have mustered every armed ship at our disposal to face this attack.”
“I want to initially place my combat tender near your world but in close orbit around one of your moons. It would benefit us if the enemy does not see my ship right away. We will hit them as soon as they commit to a particular course of action.”
“That seems wise. The question is whether or not we try to do a forward defense of if we wait on the Syndicate forces to close on the colony world.”
“As much as I would prefer hitting them as far away from here as possible, I feel that we should wait. If we scatter our forces to cover all possible approaches, we will almost certainly be picked off piecemeal.
We need to engage the enemy as a single unified force so that we can overwhelm them locally or at least inflict so much damage that it would be economically unaffordable for the Syndicate to continue to feed their resources into this fight.”
“What if they do come at us with all of their ships together, Captain Martinson?”
“Then it will be a pure test of strength. We have to trust in the quality of our ships and the will to win of their crews, Mister Wisp.”
Alec and his crews only had to wait a little more than seventy-two hours before they had their answer as to how the enemy was planning on attacking.
Phoenix’s communications technician reported about a message the he had just received that evening.
“We’re getting a message from the colony’s sensor array, Sir. They just had at least fourteen individual jump signatures appear in the outer system near orbit five in the past three minutes. They believe that this is the assault force.”
“Alright, let’s get our electronic countermeasures up and running. We don’t want our adversaries to know just what they are facing until it is too late.” Alec ordered.
“Aye, aye, Sir.”
“So they believe that they outnumber us, three to one, in terms of jump-capable ships? They must be thinking that we are screwed whatever we decide. If we run, then our reputation is destroyed and they capture the colony. If we stand and fight, then we will no longer be a threat to them as well.”
“They don’t appear to have noticed our combat tender though, based on their maneuvering.”
“If our ECM is reasonably effective, they won’t know for at least six more hours either. It will take them that long to travel in normal space towards us. We might as well let our people get some rest for now. It will be plenty busy enough for them in just a few hours. Let’s say, bring all of our ships to Action Stations in four and a half hours from now, Joanna.”
“Will do, Sir.”
Everyone tried their best to get some rest after ensuring that there were no outstanding technical issues remaining in the hours before the battle was projected to begin. Eventually, the time arrived for all of the ships of the combined Colonial and privateer force to come to Action Stations.
When the lights dimmed and shifted from white to red light, the real beauty of the imagery on the floor of the privateer flagship made its true nature apparent. The golden phoenix painted on the floor had been painted in a special fluorescent paint that glowed a pale yellow. The paint had absorbed the energy from the white lighting and gave the bridge a ghostly beauty, even with the red lighting overhead. For the crew who had never seen the bridge in the dimmed lighting of action or battle stations, there was a universal sense of awe.
Alec paused for a few seconds, taking it all in as his crew prepared for their first battle as a complete team aboard the privateer’s new flagship. Some of them had actually fought aboard Phoenix before when she led the effort against the Lu’non intruder. But now, they joined together with many of the crew from Alacrity to form an effective and very motivated team to fight aboard this powerful combat tender.
“It’s time for us to move up now. Let’s make sure that our all of our ships maintain their command datalinks with us. Our ability to coordinate all of our offensive and defensive fires in addition to our sensor feeds is going to be key to our survival here.” Alec instructed his bridge command team.
“Yes, Sir. I confirm that the command datalinks for all of our ships is operating at nominal capability.” Brandon Kiel quickly acknowledged.
“Very good. Order Hidden Blade, Papillon and Buccaneer’s Dream to stay back and focus on both engaging with capital missiles at long range and defending the colonial jump tenders. The help that the Q-ships can provide will be important. But all three of those Q-Ships are just too thin-skinned to risk fighting battlers or combat tenders at this point.”
“Roger, Sir. Order sent and acknowledged by all captains.” The bridge communications technician
reported a few moments later.
“Sir, we are picking up some weak communications signals coming from the incoming force. They appear to be command telemetry for light drone combatants like the ones that we acquired from those Syndicate warehouses. We are showing close to sixty individual point sources, so far.” Brandon Kiel reported from his sensors console.
“I guess that we will find out soon if Colin and Jill’s little trick will work against these drones or not. We just have to wait until they get a little closer before we implement our countermeasures against them.” Alec said with a knowing smile.
The largest Syndicate combat tender, a vessel that was slightly larger than Alacrity, changed its vector and began to increase its acceleration. On its heels, a pair of troop transport shuttles followed closely behind. The other Syndicate combat tenders also moved up towards the Kepler colony world and its defenders. The Syndicate battlers led their force as it drove in. The Syndicate jump tenders stayed behind with only a pair of light battlers to protect them.
“They don’t seem to be very shy about fighting us. Perhaps, they are a little more confident than they should be.” Alec communicated to the rest of his ships, his tone demonstrating his own belief that his people could beat anyone that they faced.
“I am looking forward to breaking that confidence, Boss.” Colin quickly replied as his Orca II pushed up to the lead, closely followed by the rest of the MMG battlers. Justin in his former Lu’non battler tucked in behind Colin’s ship, looking for an opening to rush in and attach his vessel to an enemy combat tender to initiate a boarding action.
The other Kepler warships fell into formation to cover Alec’s flanks and to try to turn the enemy force’s flank at the same time.
“Spinal mount ready to fire, Sir.” Phoenix’s bridge gunnery officer calmly announced.
“Thank you, Mister Gridley. You may engage the largest of the enemy battlers when you have target lock.”
“Yes, Sir. Targeting now. We are linking up with Navigation to get the target into the firing basket. Firing ‘crowbar’…..Now!”