Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (79 page)

"Great,
more frantic work to look forward too," Shelby replied, trying not to
sound too sour.

Logan
laughed. "You'll get used it honey. We all will. At least no one is
shooting at us. Yet." He straightened up. "How are things on Firefly
going? Mayweather settling in?" he asked.

She
smiled. "She's coming along. She shook things up a bit, it's taking time
to get used to her command style." Her father smiled. She punched him in
the arm.

"Owe!
What was that for!" he asked rubbing his arm.

"For
smirking."

"Oh,
I was just remembering what we call it," Logan said chuckling.

She
smiled. "Do tell."

He
chuckled softly. "The navy called it the breaking in period or honeymoon
time. Some people called it the breaking period because one or the other was
breaking a horse," he shrugged. "I preferred the teething time."

"Oh."
She shook her head. She grimaced as her implant communications pinged.
"That's the captain. I better get back." She turned and hugged her
father's shoulders then left.

Irons
looked over to the avatars. There were two new ones, Fuentes and Vulcan. Vulcan
was dressed as the roman god of the forge, golden skin, bare chested, and
holding a hammer. His visage was more up to date, his character was a cyborg
with a robotic right arm, leg, and right eye. He had a scarred bald head.

Vulcan
was the AI for Hephaestus thirty three, the pirate factory ship they had
captured and rebuilt. It was a level one AI like Smithy. Sprite had cloned most
of Smithy's core programming and then grafted in neural networks to give the AI
more intelligence and creativity. She'd wanted to have the AI grown as a full
AI, at least a class two but he'd over ridden her. They needed that ship fully
functional now so it could be out and about on it's duties.

Fuentes
was dressed in a military uniform. The AI looked young, like an officer fresh
from the academy. Obviously this new iteration of the AI had taken the military
dress code seriously. Irons looked over to the other avatars. Smithy was giving
Vulcan an occasional dirty look, he probably thought that he was stealing his
thunder. Firefly was his usual stoic self. Sprite looked entirely too smug.

"All
right, let's get this over with. You all know the rules governing AI. Sprite
here..." He indicated his resident smart AI. "Wants to change the
rules governing kernel code." He eyed them.

"I
do not think that is wise Admiral," Firefly responded. Sprite turned on
him with an et tu Brute look. "After our last problems with the neural
lattice, I am leery about anyone altering my base code. I also have regulations
to prevent it." The AI turned a stony look at Sprite. Irons nodded.

"I
gathered that,” he nodded to the others.

"Admiral,
I'm just a level one AI, I am not as smart as Sprite or Firefly," Smithy
waved his hammer then rested the head on his shoulder.. "But..." he
shrugged. "I do agree that some changes will have to be made to allow
additional AI when needed. The reset idea sounds good in theory, but I'm
worried about it and how it would affect job performance."

Irons
nodded. "Yes that is a problem." He rubbed his chin. "Anyone
have any ideas on how to minimize it?" he asked.

"I
don't see a solution Admiral," Vulcan shook his head. As the newest AI
Vulcan was still feeling out his job and responsibilities, as well as his
interactions with his crew. Usually a ship was given trial runs to do that.
Unfortunately they didn't have that kind of luxury.

"I
have one. At least for ship based AI sir." Irons turned to Fuentes.
"We are periodically down for maintenance and upgrades. If we scheduled
the reboot during one of those periods then we could get around the problem.
The ship's systems could be monitored by the crew or support techs, or even a
caretaker AI," Fuentes shrugged. Sprite nodded.

"And
the budding issue?" Irons asked.

"That
is a much more... thorny issue," Firefly responded. "I can see
growing AI to replace or rebuild things, and even in new construction, but
there should be an upper limit. One smart AI per facility or ship data net I
would think." Fuentes and some of the other AI nodded. Sprite was the only
hold out.

Firefly
turned on her. "Although some sort of... accommodation should be allowed
for transient AI." Sprite's eyes flashed fire then cooled.

"That
would be easier. But each of you have a specialized function. Only Sprite has
the coding ability." He looked over to her. She smiled.

"Always
a bridesmaid never a bride. Now a mother too?" she asked. Irons chuckled.

"So
as it stands, in order to make a fresh AI we have to either do a slow grow, or
copy neural network buds from parent AI as seed code?" Irons looked over
to Sprite who nodded.

"And
I am the key to it," she shrugged. "Lucky me." She grimaced,
then it turned into a small devilish smile. "That means the rest of you
will be nice to me right?" she asked. Smithy snorted. Firefly chuckled.

"I
thought not."

Irons
looked up from his report to the AI on his HUD. "Something wrong you
three?" he asked the next morning.

"Admiral
we're scheduled to lecture at the AI conference," Sprite responded looking
a little nervous. Irons raised an eyebrow.

"Conference?
I thought we just had one, remember?" he asked turning to the shipboard
holo projector. Firefly's avatar was there.

"It
is more of a computer class then a conference Admiral.  For fleshies. Commander
Harris and Commander Shelby organized it. It's in the college atrium. We've
been asked to attend to field questions on AI," Firefly reported.  Irons
nodded.

"Problems?"
he asked picking up his tablet.

"Well,
we're going to be busy during the conference," Sprite dead panned. Irons
chuckled.

"Anything
else?" he asked. Proteus undulated nearby. The AI core hadn't been happy
that Sprite had taken it offline to copy it's kernel coding to the core of the
growing shipyard facility. She'd copied his database as well. Unfortunately the
kernel hadn't responded to the wake up so she'd been forced to order a new core
personality grown from a copy of the kernel. It was still baking in the oven as
she liked to call it.

"What
is the policy on secrecy?" Defender asked.

"Classified
is classified for the most part," Irons shrugged. "But you three are
an open secret to most military and some station personnel now. I believe you
can handle it. If matters stray into sensitive areas either steer them away to
safer general topics or stonewall."

"In
other words, be your usual charming self and you'll do fine," Sprite
answered looking at the other AI. Irons chuckled.

"Go
on, have fun. You've got some people to impress and some to teach. Enjoy."
He waved.

"Admiral
I need you to jack in for authorization for parts..." Proteus responded.
Irons frowned but then nodded.

"I'm
reading reports for the next two hours. Go for it." He extended his right
hand to allow his middle finger to morph and then plug into the universal port
on the desk edge. "Happy now?" Irons teased. He felt the AI tap his
coding database then withdraw.

"Thank
you Admiral," Proteus responded.

“We've
got a couple hours then I want to check out how Sergio and the pilots are
doing.”

Sergio
pulled up around the piece of debris and then cut his engine. He looked around.
He was still getting used to his neural feeds so he was a second behind
catching the rear feed. Two shots was all it took to drop him out of the sim.

He
grimaced as the sim cleared and his pod opened. He tried not to hide his hurt
as he took off the helmet and ran his hand through his hair. He was getting
trounced on a regular basis now. It wasn't fair. He was good, he had played all
the flight sims he could before the admiral had come along and mastered them. The
other pilots had years of experience with neural feeds though. He was still
learning them and his reflexes using them were obviously subpar. He unbuckled
the tractor harness then climbed out and made his way to the pilot's ready room
and his usual drubbing.

The
sim complex was growing. It was a can habitat, docked for now with the station.
Newly built, it had all the equipment the new pilots needed to train with until
they could get more fighters into production.

The
Admiral had decided to hold off on building the emergency fighters the Navy had
desperately resorted to in the final stages of the war. Sergio couldn't blame
him really, they were little more than a command pod, engine, power plant, and
civilian grade sensors. The one Firefly had was pathetic compared to the
fighters in the database he now knew.

Once
the growing yard got the ships squared away the Admiral had promised him a
short production run of fighters. So until then he and the other potential
fighter pilots were getting as much stick time in the work pods and shuttles
and in the sims as they could. For now though he had to get his game face on
and take his medicine he thought with another grimace.

"Cock
a doodle do from me to you!" the green haired buzz cut youth howled
snidely pointing both index fingers like gun barrels to Sergio. Sergio blushed
red. Irons grimaced and headed over.

"Admiral
on the deck!" one of the ROTC... former ROTC now, ensigns said snapping to
attention. The others in the pilots' wardroom hastily followed suit. Sergio was
last. That ingrained habit had yet to fully mature in him. Irons wondered if it
ever would.

"Having
fun are we?" he asked quietly looking around. Their eyes darted back and
forth but they didn't move their heads. "Sim practice I assume?" he
asked.

"Yes
sir Admiral sir," one of the lieutenants, a buzz cut young man with a whip
cord body said. "Rooster was just schooling the Lt. here." He nodded
to Sergio who's ear tips went even brighter red.

Irons
nodded. "You've had a lot of practice Rooster?" Irons turned to the
young man.

He
gulped and then nodded. "Aye sir."

Irons
smile turned into a feral grin. "Care for a match?" he asked. The Lt.
looked

a
bit scared.

"Ah
sir, um ah..."

Irons
face smoothed into a knowing smile. "Some other time then," he shrugged
as some of the others snickered. "All of you are now learning there is
someone else out there better than you." He looked around. "It is a
good lesson, sometimes you learn it the hard way. Briefly," he paused.

"Fighter
ops are not for the faint of heart." He turned on the Lieutenant. "Or
the reckless." He turned pacing back and forth, arms behind his back.
"Remember to cover your wingman and keep a cool head. Someday you'll need
him to scratch the fleas off your  back." He looked over to Sergio's
wingman who blushed.

"Sorry
sir," she said quietly. "I dropped the ball. Won’t happen
again," she said.

"It'd
better not. Sergio may not have the experience you lot have, but he's also your
senior officer. Therefore HE writes your performance reviews." He looked
around as several blanched at this. He smiled. "Then again, I review them
and I take a dim view

on
anyone who sucks up to people or doesn't give their all, sim or not. The best
way to train is balls to the wall. All or nothing. Otherwise you're just playing."
He looked around. "That clear?" he asked.

"Clear
sir!" they answered in unison. He smiled.

"Good.
Carry on." He walked off.

"Sir."
He turned the corner and slowed to allow Sergio to catch up. "Sir, I'd
like to thank you for intervening but I need to handle it on my own."
Irons turned, eyebrow cocked.

"You're
right, you do need to handle it. But you need to develop your discipline and
toughen up a bit. And improve in the skills department," he said softly.
Sergio looked away then nodded.

"I'll
do better Admiral," he said after a moment. Irons nodded.

"I
know you will Sergio. You’re doing good. I know you’re feeling your way out day
to day. Take a couple days and watch the command staff. Check out the
discipline tutorials in the database. Military deportment ones too for that
matter." Sergio nodded miserably.

“While
you're at it, try a couple of the simpler games. The ones that help you hone
your implant use and reflexes. Try... lets see Tetris 3D might work. It's got
some good basic spatial relationships you can focus on. Or one of the other
puzzle games. Simple things mind you, not a piloting game. Piloting skills
you've got.” Sergio nodded, still looking down at the deck.

"Don't
let it get to you son, you know you’re just starting out. Keep a cool head no
matter what happens in the cockpit or in the locker room. Keep
practicing." Irons patted his shoulder. "But," he held up a
finger in warning.

"But?"
Sergio asked.

"If
you think any of them slack off and let you win, come down on them like a ton
of bricks. You need the maximum training just as much as they do. I wasn't
kidding about there being few second chances in combat," Irons responded.
Sergio's eyes widened. "That's what I meant about suck ups. You need to
learn to kick ass in and out of the cockpit," he nodded. Sergio smiled and
came to attention.