Episode VI: Beta Test (13 page)

Selene, Earth's Moon

Sol System

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I
suppose it's a good thing that I didn't hear from Natasha again for quite a while. It meant, to me, that everything was going well, and she was doing what she needed to do in order to help the Shallan people. I did spend some time thinking about her though. Did I give her the right tools for the job she needed to do, will her commands allow her to do the tasks? I worked through each of the questions at different times, only to come to the conclusion that even if I hadn't, there was not a whole lot I could do about it at this point. I did leave Susan's autonomous clone programming in; Galtar was a Core World, and GMASS was by far larger and more complex than the High Command station. Granted they did not have crystal processors, but they still had very large and powerful computing systems.

I set my worry over Natasha aside and focused on the many tasks I still had to accomplish. There were a lot of AI needing to be created, tested and made ready for installation in almost every conceivable place. For the civilian and mostly civilian applications, we would start with Sarah as a base template and expand or modify her code into the application we needed. Now that Athena was finished and tested, we had a base to build the military applications from. Granted, I did use Sarah as a base for the ship AI that had already been installed, but then again, Athena was based on Sarah as well. The good news was that we had decided to keep the Computer Sciences department on the moon, as it was less of a military oriented department than a good share of the others. Then too, this was where Sarah was.

I had already planned for another base class AI for the Mars base. There would be a small city there as well, but the civilian parts of the Mars 'colony' wouldn't need a separate AI for a few years yet. However, right now the priority was to get the core worlds upgraded and to relieve the load on Susan. I had received status reports from the teams doing the installations on the core worlds as well as the High Command station that several of the facilities had been completed and rapid progress was being made on the rest.

The crystal team had already begun preparing the load of crystal processors that would be sent. The crystals would be packaged in very special shipping containers that not only shielded the crystals, but had a really neat power bleed-off system installed. The memory module containing the AI to be installed in the crystal being shipped had a 'slot' built into the crate. The module would be inserted in the slot, and the crystal would supply the small amount of power required to keep the module powered and the AI 'alive'. There was an additional auxiliary power lead that could either add power or take away any extra generated power. There would be more than one crystal in each of the crates though. For example, for an installation like a Core World or for the station, several additional crystals were being sent along as main memory storage for the AI. So the power connections for the crates were very important.

Athena and two other new AI had already been sent over to be inserted in the crates for shipment. The other two AI were for the main communications network controller as well as the Novalus system air/space traffic controller. Two more crystals were of immediate need for the Novalus system; the planetary control AI and the local communications node AI. The other core worlds would only need three AI each; ATC, communications and the planetary controller. However, once we got the originals 'built' for Novalus, we could simply make copies for the other core worlds and only need to alter their appearance as well as adjust their personality programming for any racial specific nuances and appearance.

All in all we made great headway in getting AI programmed and ready. We managed to stay just ahead of the crystal growing team, even after they expanded their micro gravity facilities and moved the entire production system out there.

The new armor did get finished pretty quickly. The emergency medical system containing Christy's biocytes still had to be tested under real battle field conditions, but that was a test that would have to wait until the suit actually made it into combat. The new armor still used the 'moly-form' method of creation, just like the original set, but the process took a little bit longer. Vance ordered that all the Marines be outfitted first, then the fighter pilots, and finally the ships crews.

Who got outfitted first wouldn't matter though, after checking with Sarah to get a sold number of military personnel currently stationed at the base, we increased it by ten percent and made sure we had the material needed for the armor; including the crystals. The crystal team had those crystals set to 'continuous mass-production' so there would be enough new processors to outfit the Alliance military as well as the newly forming Colonial Guards.

Colonial Guards would be a small, armed force under the direct control of the colony’s Governor. I tended to think of them as Colonial Militia. It would be their job to protect a colony until the Alliance could respond to an attack and then to protect the civilians during evacuation once the Alliance did arrive. The Alliance military did offer to train them, but instead, the 'Militia' hired retired military instructors. They did contract with the Alliance to purchase some of the equipment that was simply not available on the open market.

By and large, a colony world did not rate receiving an AI controller. However, depending on the population, complexity, or importance of the colony world, they could be given one. In fact, there were six AI on the list that would be going to installations that were still listed as colonies. Because of the risk, these AI would have special programming that would ensure their destruction if the colony were to fall to an enemy. In some cases, like the AI slotted for the munitions factories on Harvorloc VI, the AI would not only destroy itself, but also the entire facility and a good portion of the planet.

Time passed for us on the moon. The Mars military base was well underway, as were most of the new large ship building stations, and all the other projects being undertaken in the Sol system. For the most part, Earth had calmed down, but the governments were still resisting accepting Core World status. There were only a few hold-outs remaining; China, Russia, Britain, Canada and the United States chief among them. In the case of the United States, the matter would most likely be resolved in the next election. However, the Congress was taking steps to make certain the Core World question did not make it the ballots.

The politicians were under pressure by many of the major campaign contributors to make this issue go away. The energy industry was already showing the effects of the introduction of hydrogen powered vehicles and power plants.

Several smaller power cooperatives had accepted the installation of safe, clean reactors capable of producing massive amounts of power. In turn, they were able to lower the price of electricity to their members to record low levels. The cooperative had only to pay the wages of the staff and maintenance crews. In rural California, there were no more 'rolling brownouts' during peak power situations. In the ‘northern tier states’, those that had electric heat breathed a sigh of relief when winter usually drove their electric bills above acceptable levels.

In countries that accepted Alliance moderated U.N. control, hydrogen powered vehicles made all other vehicles obsolete and no one would buy them. Gas stations either went out of business, or converted themselves over to service the new type of vehicle.

There were some adjustment pains. Jobs were lost when the new technology was introduced and people grumbled. However, there was plenty of food and medical care. There were even other jobs created and retraining was offered for free to anyone that wanted to accept it. Very slowly, the world was changing.

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O
ffice of Lord Admiral Vance

Alliance Apollo Base

Selene, Earth's Moon

Sol System

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"S
ir, Lord Admiral Hearlis is calling for you," Sarah said softly before taking form.

Vance nodded. "Thank you, Sarah. Please put him though."

"Vance! Good to see you. How are things going at your end of the Galaxy?" Hearlis asked as he took form in one of the seats in front of Vance's desk. Vance had stood when Sarah announced the call and saluted his superior. Hearlis grinned and returned the salute without getting up. "Relax Vance, no one's dying yet."

Vance nodded and retook his chair as Sarah faded out, leaving the men to their discussion. "We are ahead of schedule on most of the projects. The new armor is finished, aside from actual combat testing. We are equipping all of our forces with it now, and we have a shipment almost ready for you. The convoy will arrive at Novalus before splitting up to make their deliveries. How do you like the new AI?"

Hearlis smiled and shook his head. "You know how I felt about AI Susan; she was a wonder and a benefit to all of us. But this new AI, Athena... He shook his head again. "They are two very different personalities. I can honestly say that now I know what you meant by Athena being purpose built for us. It's like night and day."

Vance smiled and nodded. "Eric explained to me that not only was Athena purposely programmed for you, she also doesn't have all the duties that Susan was controlling. Now that there are separate AI in each of the major areas, Athena will have less of a load than Susan was under. So, you should see a pretty major improvement in over-all performance."

"Might I inquire as to how AI Susan is doing?" Hearlis asked. "I was a little concerned when Lord Doctor Cowan insisted that her entire code be withdrawn back to his lab."

"He explained it to me as he wanted to put her through some psychological tests as well as a standard performance evaluation. He said she operating under far more strenuous conditions than she was designed for, and he wanted to make sure she was still stable and healthy. He said he had already ordered a crystal for her. He plans on granting her wish in gratitude for her service. So, you should try to warn the Intel branch they are going to be getting a dedicated AI," Vance said.

Hearlis nodded. "That's good, she deserves it. I'll make a note to go see her after she's taken up her new post." He seemed to shift slightly. "The reason I'm calling today is that we are getting ready to begin the assault on Galtar. AI Natasha has complete control of the system. However, she reported that she cannot gain direct control of the Arac queen.

"Because of the events on Veranor, the Synod ordered a few changes to the control systems of the queen. One of those is that all of the queens be infected with some kind of virus that will kill them without daily injections of an anti-agent. AI Natasha said she can kill the Queens at any time, thus rendering the rest of the hive inert.

"She also has managed to attain a complete copy of the Synod's database. Freaking Arac's are telepathic! They can communicate over interstellar distances without any other equipment. It's confined to their species, which means they can't read our minds or anything, but a queen can communicate with any part of the horde at any moment during a battle. They also have instinctual memories, a newly hatched queen has all the knowledge of her mother, which is how and why a new colony can get up and running so damn quickly. I'll send you the entire file on them, but it's pretty clear that the Veranorians knew what the hell they were doing when they made these beasts."

Vance nodded. "That would certainly explain a great many things. I've had several requests from differing groups here to enter into research to create a chemical weapon that will kill the Aracs without damaging the environment or any other life forms. It would seem that a lot of the new scientists from Earth feel that a bug infestation should be handled with chemicals."

Hearlis looked thoughtful. "I've had a few of those types of requests as well. The problem is that since Aracs die as soon as one is captured, there is no way for them to really test their ideas except in combat. However, with the addition of this new database, the possibility exists for them to get a lot of research into the nature of the enemy and perhaps come up with something in that way." He looked thoughtful again. "Tell them they can begin research using the data Natasha retrieved from the Synod. However, before any compounds are created, the Council will have to approve it. For now, research only. It might be a good idea to find a small airless moon or asteroid for them to work in. Someplace we can easily quarantine if needed."

"That might be the problem right now. We are stretched pretty thin on crews. Of course, as long as they don't start mixing chemicals, we should have time to get some of the other projects finished. Maybe they can simply get a copy of that agent the Synod injected their Queens with?" Vance said.

"That was my thought as well, we'll just have to see what ideas they can come up with," Hearlis said. "How soon will that supply convoy be departing?"

Vance quickly pulled up the data on his terminal. "They are scheduled for departure tomorrow evening around twenty five hundred.” (The alliance ran on a thirty hour clock as a standard across all worlds and installations. Twenty-five hundred would be equivalent to nine or ten o’clock pm on Earth.) “They'll be jumping directly to you, so transit time will be about a week and a half. They'll be bringing the new armor platen as well as a million armor processor crystals and all the biocytes needed for a million suits."

A 'platen' was the design plan followed by the 'moly-form' machines that actually created the armor.

"They will also be bringing more AI and processor crystals for the rest of the main Core Worlds," Vance finished.

"A convoy of two or three freighters huh?" Hearlis asked.

Vance grinned. "There will be a total of five heavy freighters and four mediums, Admiral. Three of the heavies are loaded with commercial goods from Earth. It would seem that the Alliance is eager to explore the goods of its newest 'Core World'.

"Sarah has requested a civilian hyper-com node just to handle the increase in electronic data requests. It would seem Earth's music and literature are very popular in the Alliance. There is a growing amount of data requests from Earth as well of the same nature, although most of it is for Novan productions, the other races are included in that."