Archaea 3: Red (21 page)

“Well, it can’t be that bad. You can’t turn around
in this system without saluting, though I am a little bit amazed at the number of pirates we’re running into.”

“It’s always like this around Mars
, Gene. Asteroid miners have money, and pirates like money. At least it gives old Gus something to do while he’s training cadets. No, Mexico is a completely different place; as bad as it gets down on Earth… it reminds me of the time we hailed at Nohope Prospect, do you remember that? That was a pretty rough neighborhood!”

“I remember six months of sweat smell in that cruiser and then
a bunch of yelling, and no liberty for another six months.”

I replied somberly,
“Well, we lost a few of our mooring team just trying to get berthed, if you recall. Locals must have wanted a fight with someone.” I can count on a hand the number of my men that have given their all for the mission, and the two I lost that day are never far from my thoughts.

“I know, Dak
. I’m sorry man, I didn’t mean…”

“No – don’t fret, Gene. It happened. If it was still happening I’d be worked up over
it, and looking to make it stop, but now it’s just one of those moments, one of those situations that define you and fill the corners of your character.”

“Like you need any more character.”

“What I need, is a bullwhip… and some more coffee.”

I
smiled silently at my cup for a moment, balancing the last few swallows against the distance to the galley and the remaining time I had to stand around and wag my jaw. I took another brief, conservative swig while I considered my next words a little more carefully than I usually do.

“
Janis, I am still a little concerned about this to be honest, but I am not sure how much I want to ask you.”

Gene coughed quietly, while I struggled a bit with my destiny.

“I guess, what I am trying to say here… wouldn’t you know what occurred on the dropship the moment it came back in range? Wouldn’t that mean—” I took another slow, thoughtful sip.

“Janis, does the dropship make it back?”

Gene cleared his throat.

“Of course, Captain.
There’s absolutely no need for alarm. As you know, I can of course become aware of these events as you have indicated - but as this timeframe does not present a negative outcome, I decided it would be best to proceed as we discussed previously, to share the experience along with your subjective moments.”

I fixed Gene with my ‘observable universe’ stare, and added an eyebrow ratcheted u
p to ultimate height just in case he didn’t have all his gears engaged.

“Janis,” I started, still staring at Gene, “What do you mean, specifically?”

“Captain, it is true that I have learned much from an analysis of outcomes to events, I have also learned that experiencing events as they occur and then analyzing my response in real time can often help produce even better results for intuitive response.”

I took a surreptitious look around first to make sure the short one wasn’t in earshot.

“Are you still working on understanding Shorty’s ‘woman’s intuition’? You know that’s folderol, right?”

“Sir, I am quite certain that it is not.” Janis replied sternly. “Women’s intuition is in fact quite real, and I have been working very hard to improve my abilities in this regard, and can cite evidence of successful deployment if you wish. Sir, women’s intuition with forward-looking capability is an ultimate condition for an AI, as I am sure you would agree.”

Gene snorted loud enough to make me think he was choking. I broke out in a grin. “Janis, you can already see the future, how would that be any different from ‘women’s intuition’?”

“Sir, while it is true that I am able to view the future, I am only able to view my future. I am only as aware of external events as I
am able to be. I can calculate the probability and entropic relationship for an event that may be in your future, but I am unable to intuitively know what you might be doing.”

Now it was my turn to be spooked. “Is that possible?”

“Certainly sir, though it requires enormous effort for me, it appears to be highly developed in human women.”

“Appears to be is the keyword there, Janis” Gene added with a smirk.

“Appears to be what?” Shorty said, showing up at the perfect tactical moment. She also had an extra coffee, so I immediately forgave her, and anointed her Queen of this sector of space, by the power vested in me.  Good coffee too, I thought as I took a sip.

Gene answered.
“Shorty, we’re talking about ‘women’s intuition’ here with Janis. She is preventing herself from knowing specific outcomes in an effort to improve her ability to intuitively know an outcome.”

“Sounds reasonable” she said. “That’s pretty much how any girl has to do it. Janis, wouldn’t it be just as easy to scroll forward through past the moment to see how it turned out?”

“That’s what I just asked, Shorty”, I added after another sip.

“Jane, that is very useful. As you know, for any event that occurs in my experience I am able to thoroughly analyze, but one area where I consider my skills less than acceptable is in being able to effectively intuit the events of another person’s timeline.”

“Ah, that makes sense”, Shorty added, making no damn sense at all.

“
Shorty, how does that make sense?” I asked incredulously. “Are you telling me that you can see the future too?”

“Well sure, Captain. All women can. It’s how we’re wired. You need to be able to make a plan as far in advance as possible. I have to-do lists reaching into next year, for everyone on this vessel!” she laughed.

Gene and I joined in. She had a point, I guess. Men don’t really work that way, or at least I don’t. I plan for things, but only in a very general sort of ‘knowing what I might do in the event’ sort of way. I work my plan, but I don’t intuitively know the outcome. I guess it’s more like I just sort of push my way there and try to survive the experience.

“Well, in any case, it’s good to know you’re not dying, Janis.”

“Indeed it is, sir”, she said sweetly. “It is very touching to know that you would be so worried, sir.”

“Well, you’re crew, Janis, and no one on my crew is allowed to die without permission. Please log that as an order.”

“That has been logged, sir.”

I paused for a sip as
we all stared at the dropship. “So Gene, have you made progress installing the other cores?”

He looked thoughtful for a moment. “I think they’re installed, I know Pauli was working with getting
them interfaced, but they’re physically hooked up and powered on.”

“Pauli, do you have your ears on?” I asked in comms.

“Yes sir, what can I break for you?” He replied smartly.

“Are the new nexus cores ready for use?”

“Yep, I finished that a little while ago. Are we ready for Janis to start using them for development?”

“I can’t see any reason why not. Janis, do you have any doubts whatsoever about this project?”

“No sir, I don’t. Emwan will be as valuable aboard the Archaea as I am, sir.”

“Very well, please proceed with this project, Janis.” I said, feeling like I was standing at the edge of a cliff.

“Thank you
, sir, I have begun.” She said softly. “Is there anything else I should be aware of sir?”

“Is that a loaded question, dear?” I asked with a smirk.

“Yes sir, it is. I know that you would prefer to issue orders to resolve situations.”

I laughed. “Well, what specific situations? I am not a mind reader!”

“Of course sir…” she trailed off briefly. “Perhaps it would help if I was more descriptive. A future mission will take us to Aquan, a planet in Cygnus sector, orbiting Kepler 22. During this engagement, we will face hostile forces, in a high-threat environment.”

I thought for a moment, looking at the carapace of the dropship, caught for a moment how much it looked like a crab. “Is this a water planet?”

“Yes sir. We will be operating at high pressure depth.”

“Hmmm” I hummed
, watching the assemblers working away. “Well, it might come in handy to put some real armor on Yak and Shorty. I hate the thought of them in harm’s way, Janis – what do you think Gene?”

“Well, Janis has the nanotech for making a pretty damn fine augment suit, and I’ll bet it woul
d work better than those clunky powersuits they had in the service.”

“That’s what I was thinking as well. Janis, can you make an armored EVA and pressure suit that can augment their movements?”

“Certainly sir, as you may have expected, I have begun this project. Would you like to review my plans?”

“Sure, push them to Gene and Shorty
as well, if you please.”

We all stood around a bit, looking through the plans for what looked to my untrained eye as the most advanced piece of gadgetry ever seen by the eye of man.

“Janis these are beautiful”, Gene said reverently.

“I agree”
, added Shorty while looking me in the eye, “I want one of these, Captain. No, I need one of these, sir.”

“Ask and ye shall receive, Shorty.” I pontificated. “Janis, I don’t really understand what I am looking at, though it’s certainly an incredibly detailed schematic…” I trailed off, slipping through layers into the wrist articulations. It looked like woven bundles of fibers
, similar to our tendons, in fact.

“Sir you are currently looking at the exostructure of the neuronic input. An inflated inner layer against their skin conducts nerve impulses and translates into the myofibril actuators.”

I blinked rapidly a bit. “This will sense their movement?” Like Gene, I remembered the manual slap paddles of the internals in the service suits, contact pads that pressed on your joints and made you ache after twenty minutes. You had to physically move your body around inside the contraption, to make it respond. After an hour, you felt like you had been climbing around in a jungle gym.

“
That is correct sir. There will be no discernible lag between their request for movement, and the articulation and motivation for the suit components. Movement will be completely natural.”

“
Janis”, Gene broke in, “what are you thinking for armoring on these?”

“
Gene, the cladding will be a composite of glassed tungsten, ceramide, and titanium.” Gene whistled, and continued swiping through layers on his holo.

“I don’t see anything offensive here
, Janis, what plan do you have for armaments?” Shorty asked, scanning through the shoulder sections.

“Jane, these suits will have multi-homed pseudomass generators in the palms and feet, with compensated units at these locations.” She highlighted sections at the hips, shoulders and along the spine.

“So I can fly wearing this?” She asked in a voice that sounded like it was brimming with emotion and about to choke up.

“Yes Jane, with multi-homing, I can compensate for a very high focused projection of positive or negative pseudomass, though it does have limits on power consumption versus material strength.”

I laughed at the look on Shorty’s face. “Janis my dear, that sounds like exactly what we need. When will these be ready?”

“The process is very involved, and I am currently working on manufacturing the machinery that will enable production of the necessary components.
Rest assured, I will have the suits completed before they are needed.”

“A
nd when will they be needed?” I asked, quietly.

“Sir I would be pleased to give you specifics, though their moment is significantly far in our future as to have little to no impact on our current operation. Do you wish me to give away the end
ing, sir?”

I laughed at her analogy.
Playing on my passion for a great story, and my seething anger at anyone who intentionally ruins it… she knows exactly how I want to approach this. All the same, she was going to drive me crazy.

“No, I guess I don’t.
You are confident these will do the job?”

“Sir, our current mission will result in conditions where Yak and Jane will need this level of personal protection.”

“You are sure?”

“I am quite sure, sir.”

I looked at Gene with a scowl, while he tried to raise an eyebrow in defense. We both smiled at how silly he looked.

“Very well Janis. That's good enough for me. Do
either of you have anything else for her?” I asked Gene and Shorty.

“Well… Janis, can you make mimetic camo for these?” Shorty asked.

“Jane, I will. I am currently working on a new type of regenerative ablative that supports mimetics. I am basing it from the formulation of Duron, with an integrated colorplast in the crystal structure.”

She looked at me with her eyes brimming with tears. “Captain, it’s so… beautiful
!”

Our laughter rang out across the cargo bay.