Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (77 page)

He
opened his mouth to continue by Firefly beat him to it.. "And four, they
are great at attacking unarmed civilians, but they are just targets against a
larger proper warship," Firefly finished. Harris gave the avatar a look.

"He's
not kidding," Irons said. Harris returned his attention to the Admiral.
"But my fourth point was going to be the manning issue. They would suck
people away from the other ships, distributing them in penny packets. And with
tiny compliments, they would have to be stationed on a ship or a colony near a
jump point. Which..."

Harris
nodded. "Which would invite defeat in detail since we'd have to cover all
the jump points. Gotcha," he said shaking his head. “I hadn't thought that
through I guess.”

"Took
you long enough. Some genius you are," Dan teased.

"Oh
shut up," Harris chuckled.

"All
right, let’s get back to work," Irons waved.

“Right,
about the small craft. We're getting some flack over Anvil getting the lion's
share of all our industrial efforts,” Sprite said.

“Well,
Anvil is the capital and center of industry in the system,” Logan said slowly.
“We're based here, so it stands to reason we'd have most of our industry here.”

“Yes
well, some of the assembly would like to change that.”

“Ah.
So they want us to what? Move the base?” Vargess asked looking from the AI to
Logan. Logan shook his head.

“I'd
say they want a piece of the action,” Irons said, knitting his hands together.
“What do you think we send them a simple contract? Open bid?”

“Open
bid would work. But instead of giving them something complex Admiral, I
recommend we give them simple things. At least at first.”

“And
if they say anything?” Logan asked.

“Like
what?”

“Like
why are you treating us like a child? Why are we getting the dregs?” he said.

“Well,
we could tell them it's a test to see if they can handle the production quality
and the quota,” Sprite said looking amused.

“But
running with your idea... and it's not bad,” Irons held a hand up, “I think we
should part out small builds like the small craft. Engines at one colony,
avionics at another, interiors at another and so on and so forth.”

“Share
the wealth.”

“Exactly.
That way we get everyone involved and they all get a piece of the pie.”

“Which
means their representatives will get behind it to protect the interests of
their colony. It also ties them together.”

“But
they are all going to want bigger pieces.”

“It's
a big system. We can encourage them to use what they learn from building the
small stuff to build and sell civilian materials on the open market. Civilian
grade of course,” Irons said smiling.

“And
that will help jump start trade and the economy,” Sprite said smiling again.
“But there is a limit, at least within... oh... I get it,” she nodded and
smiled again. “The long view again. Sneaky Admiral. Sneaky.”

“What?”
Vargess asked looking at her in exasperation. She opened her mouth but Firefly
beat her to it.

“You
see Commander, by getting the colonies to build the materials and to trade with
each other it will do several things. One it will set up a competition for
those making the same products. For companies that make products that are
interdependent it will tie them together. But the Admiral is also thinking of
the long term. Which is that it will force them to find more markets. First
here in the system, then outside of it.”

“Which
means opening trade with other systems,” Logan said sitting back. “Assembly or
even warehouses will want to get rid of old inventory to make room for new,
which means either recycling it or trading it to freighters and nearby
colonies.”

“And
once they saturate nearby ones...” Firefly said.

“It
expands. I get it. I get it.”

“Exactly.
Let's get to it,” Irons nodded.  "Dismissed."

"How
is Damocles and Fuentes’s core sorting out?" Irons asked the AIs.

Firefly
looked over to Sprite. "I'm a ship AI, I don't have the coding subroutines
of Sprite," the AI sniffed.

"Bit
of a tiff?" Irons asked amused. They'd been at it three days. In computer
time that was a virtual life time. They should have a plan of action but he
hadn't seen one cross his desk yet.

"Something
like that." Sprite answered giving the other AI a glance.

"Well
knock it off. You each have your own unique abilities, so use them." He
sat back. "So, again, how goes the cores?"

"Too
soon to tell. We had to chop off the first two thousand three hundred and five
iteration’s in the early budding stage. Fuentes is coming along. We're using
what's left of the core and the hardwired firmware as a template."

Irons
raised an eyebrow. "You had to nip them in the bud?" he asked, amused
once more. Fuentes had made it to the station two days ago and crews were
swarming all over her. She didn't need her AI fully functional
yet
, but
it would help speed matters along.

"Exactly.
Or in this case, more of a preventive tumor extraction," Sprite grimaced.
"The neural lattice had some side effects we didn't anticipate." She
waved and a text file scrolled. He could barely follow any of it, coding wasn't
one of his strong skills. Neural network coding was a bit beyond him.
"None of it was mentioned in the original paper or it's appendix."
Another window opened. It showed a decision tree growing exponentially. But
instead of growing along predicted lines it was exploding along the wrong
tracks.

“I
have a student, a Centaurian named Veber working on it now. He seems to have a
gift for it. I'd say he will make a good cyberneticist soon.”

“But
not soon enough. However back to the subject at hand. The problem is this
reliance on trying unproven and highly dangerous experimental procedures.”

“There
has to be a first time for everything you know,” Sprite snapped back.

Irons
nodded catching on. "That's the nature of the row?" Irons asked. Both
AIs nodded. "Fine, go back to the old tried and true methods then,"
he shook his head. "It will take time, but if it's the only way that
works, then so be it." He gave Sprite a look.

"I
thought it would work," she said.

"It
could, given more time and experimentation. We can run sims during off time.
Just not when I'm busy," Firefly offered. "But you know an AI's
lifespan is proportional to the length of time it has to grow up and stabilize
and the net it has to grow in. If we take short cuts, we could be in trouble
down the road."

Irons
suppressed a shiver. "The last thing we need is a rogue AI."

"Amen,"
Firefly responded quietly. Sprite nodded. "We're using limited smart
emulation systems in the corvettes. We've come up with a micro AI core for
each. Once they are installed it will take a couple days for the cores to grow
and stabilize."

"Well,
you can do that when the corvettes return with the last of the delegates. Or if
something happens, on their next scheduled down time for refit." Irons
flicked a tablet with a finger. "Whenever that will be," he said
shaking his head.

"Both
tin cans have the replicator parts?" he asked. Firefly nodded.

"I'll
need to be on hand for the initialization procedures. Let me know when they are
ready for me," he waved. "You two have sorted out what needs to be
repaired or replaced on the destroyers right? The electronics I mean."
Irons gave them a look.

"Sensors,
communications, electronics, the list is all there. By the time we get them
sorted out they will be almost entirely new," Firefly waved. Sprite
chuckled.

"What?"
Irons asked.

"He's
jealous. We've got the new mod core schematics from the Io archives. We didn't
get to add too much to Firefly, so he's jealous that the tin cans are getting
better electronics first," Sprite teased.

Firefly
glared. Sprite stuck her tongue out at him. "Unlike some of us who have no
native hardware or have to share others..." Firefly shot back.

"Now
now children," Irons said with a hint of exasperation. "Get along.
That's an order," he waved.

Logan
grimaced as he looked over the briefing. Vargess came in and sat down. Logan
looked up as the commander cleared his throat. “Something I can help you with
Commander?”

“Yeah,
shoot this junta or committee or council, or senate, whatever the hell they are
calling themselves this week.”

“Now
now,” Logan sat back and smiled. “What's got you swearing? You've been awake,
what, seven weeks now... that I take it is time enough to run into trouble?”

“No,
just politicians being politicians as usual no matter the century,” Vargess
shook his head.

“Oh?”

“One
of the council members called Sun-Yat and tried to redirect her to a nearby
colony.”

“Okay...
that's ah, not right. I take it they got a lecture on the chain of command.”

“No,
I did the lecturing to the captain of the Sun-Yat when I spotted her leaving
her post. It seems the council member wanted a ride.”

“Yeah,
I can see that's a little annoying. We're not a taxi service.”

“Oh
it gets better. He didn't want it for himself. It seems he wanted it for his
mistress on another colony. His wife found out and told her to leave town.”

“Oh
lovely,” Logan chuckled.

“I
told the dear councilman to get other transportation.”

“Good
for you.”

“But
that brought up another problem. Sun-Yat got whiff of a wreck on an asteroid.”

“Another?”

“Not
exactly. It seems she's a science ship. She fled here and was turned into a
colony when her hyperdrive died. Her fusion reactor packed it in a couple
centuries ago and she was abandoned.”

“Hmmm.”

“She
seems to be in good condition,” Vargess handed over a memory chip. “Prelim scan
squirted from Sun-Yat. She's a bit bent around the edges but since we're
dredging up everything...”

“You
think we'll eventually need a science ship,” Logan nodded. “I'll pass it on to
Matilda.”

“Matilda?”
Vargess asked. “Why not the Admiral?”

“She's
a civilian ship. A science ship as you said. Civilian,” Logan frowned. “You
didn't hear the latest tiff?”

“Ah,
no...”

“Well
now  that elections are over and the politicians are settling in it seems the
system senate put a ban on Naval salvage of civilian vessels unless they
contain cryopods or ,quote, pose a threat to a colony.”

“Oh...
lovely,” Vargess grimaced.

“Well,
they are right, and despite the mutterings of poaching, we do have enough
platforms without adding civilian ships to our mix.”

“But
what about support ships?”

“I
guess we'll have to make our own won't we?” Logan's smile was a grin.

“Oh
aren't they going to twig about that?” Vargess asked.

“They
can try. But we've got the only shipyard in the system. That means we can build
what we want... once we get it finished.”

“Now
that is a piece of good news.” Vargess turned to leave then paused. “Why
Matilda?”

“I
thought the college should get first crack at it. Since it's a science ship
they will be best to use it after all. They could use it for exploration or as
a roving college.”

“Well,
whatever works,” Vargess shrugged.

“Damocles
is coming along nicely. But I see Fuentes is leaping ahead as expected,” Logan
said changing the subject.

“Yeah.
That she is. We've got her first computer core going in. Since the Admiral is
out and about it will be a while before we can get him and Sprite back here to
initialize her AI.”

“Ah,”
Logan nodded. “I noted the schedule shift. I'll drop a note for him to try to
make time.”

“Oh
no hurry. We've got a lot of damage to repair. And since we're at it, I'd like
to upgrade her power rooms. She's got the old civilian class Smythe 2900
engines I think because someone slapped them in in a hurry. Since she's down
anyways...”

“Oh
hell,” Logan sighed. “You are talking a complete gut job by the time we're
finished.”

“Exactly.”

“I
was hoping to do that in a later refit you know.”

“Why
wait?” Vargess smiled. “It just means we'll have to tear her down to do it
then. Since she's all opened up anyway we could save some work down the
road...” he said suggestively.

“Decisions
decisions,” Logan said shaking his head.

“That's
why they pay us the big bucks,” Vargess smiled.

“We
get paid? Since when?” Logan joked. “All right, I'll look into it. I don't know
what we have available. I haven't been stocking new engine parts you know, and
it's not exactly like we have any we can use nearby,” he grimaced. “It's also
going to throw my building schedule all to hell.”