The Commander (21 page)

“
Sadie
? But you said she’s on the
Marco Polo
. How can you create another
Sadie
when there’s already one in existence? I didn’t think that was allowed.”

“Not at all, Commander. It is not uncommon for favorite AIs to be duplicated.”

“How so?”

“For example, when a Nobility youngster becomes an adult and moves to an abode of their own, it is not uncommon for the parents to duplicate a lifelong AI tutor or companion to accompany them, leaving the original for the rest of the family. I am aware of your fondness for
Sadie
and thought you might appreciate a familiar presence under the current circumstances.”

Luke looked startled and sank back into his chair. “Why the hell didn’t you say so a long time ago? Damnit!”

“I apologize, Commander,” George said, his oft-repeated apology sounding more and more insincere.

“That’s the answer then, George,” Luke said. “Just duplicate yourself and we’ll go fight the war. Any problem with that?”

The following silence was an unusual response from the AI.

“George? Any problem with that?” Luke repeated.

“One moment, Commander.”

The four humans exchanged wide-eyed stares while waiting for the computer’s response. Finally, George was ready to answer.

“Commander, your proposal is feasible but there are certain restrictions.”

“Such as?”

“You must understand that this would be a one-time exception. We can arrange to replicate me onto a new ship and the current me would stay behind on this base to assist in the war effort. But only you will maintain command authority to direct level three devices. I will arrange an implant to assist your designated representative to rule in your place, but that individual’s authority over me is not absolute. I will maintain a veto option over his directives. If you return to this system, command authority would automatically return to you.”

“Wait a second,” Luke said. “You told me you couldn’t make more than two implants. You weren’t allowed to share the medical technology associated with them.”

“I apologize for not being more precise, Commander. The medical aspect that I am unable to duplicate or modify concerns your authorization over all level three devices. That technology is restricted. The other medical aspects, such as communication and health, are quite simple.”

Luke massaged his forehead in frustration. The most difficult part of dealing with George was the ambiguity. Luke never knew if he had the whole story. A simple misunderstanding had enormous ramifications.

“George,” Luke said. “I want to meet with our chief medical officer in the morning. I need to get his take on this. If he agrees, we need to roll out implant technology across the board.”

“Understood, Commander. He just confirmed his availability.”

“Back to the topic at hand. Roth, you okay with this? You’ll be the guy to take over.”

Roth was overwhelmed by the sudden turn of events, but reacted as Luke knew he would. “I’m game,” Roth said. “Don’t know if I’m up to it, but I’m game.”

“George, confirm that Roth will receive the same health benefits that I have?” Luke asked.

“That is correct, Commander.”

“I’ll tell you about that later,” Luke said to Roth. “What else George?”

“As a level three device, I am quite large. This is due to my archives which, as I have indicated, are extensive. You do not currently have a vessel that is capable of transporting me.”

“That’s just a design problem. Lou can take care of that.”

“That is true, but you also do not have a replicator that is large enough for the ship that must be built. This will require a machine that is of the same scale as the Isaac Newton Gateway. I would recommend a primary source for the basic replicator material separate from the moon.”

“How big a ship are we talking about?” Morrow asked.

“
Depending
on the design, up to five miles in length.”

“Jesus!” Morrow exclaimed.

“That’s a big ship,” Roth agreed.

“If you plan to take me into battle, I feel it necessary to take extensive measures to protect the Nobility’s property.”

“What’s that mean, exactly?” Luke asked.

“Please understand, I have yet to work out the details, but I believe the minimum would be a fleet of self-defense warships, similar to what you are now employing, of approximately one hundred in number. In addition, I will require smaller, one-man fighters for close-in protection. We must also include drone production and weapons manufacture. This is not a small undertaking.”

“How many people are we talking about, George? I was thinking just you and me.”

“No, Commander. I believe that with crew, military and other support, including families, the final complement will number between fifty and ninety thousand people.”

The scale of George’s proposal shocked everyone into a reflective silence.

Luke finally looked at Morrow. “Why are you just sitting around, Lou? Sounds like you’ve got work to do.”

“I think so, boss.” Morrow got up and left the room.

“Amanda,” Luke said. “Come up with a way to promote this planetside.
The Great Mission
or something to inspire people to sign up. We need to up our recruiting numbers quite a bit. Get to it.”

“Yes, sir,” she said quietly and left.

“You okay, Luke?” Roth asked.

“I don’t think so. I don’t know if I ever will be again. But I’m better than I was a few minutes ago. I’ve got something I can focus on. It helps, but it doesn’t make it go away.”

“I understand. I’m sorry, my friend, I truly am. I thought she would come around.”

“I didn’t. When she walked out, I had a feeling it was permanent. Don’t know why, I just did. If I could follow her, I would. I’d turn this over to you and go after her. But now, who knows where she is? I’m guessing that was her intention. She forced me to give her up. You know, I can forgive almost anything. But not that. To cut me off like that? I don’t think I’ll ever forgive her for that.”

“Give it time.”

“That’s the problem,” Luke replied. “This damn implant has a side effect. You heard me mention the health benefit a few minutes ago? I haven’t told you about that before.”

“What is it?”

“You might
not
call it a health benefit. It extends our life. Both of us are going to live longer than normal.”

“How much longer?” Roth asked.

“About a thousand years. That means a thousand years of feeling just this shitty. That’s not something I can forgive.”

“I see your point,” Roth said. “Tell you what, bud. First, win this war. After that, you go find that girl and smack her one.”

In spite of himself, Luke smiled at his friend’s intentionally outrageous suggestion. Except it wasn’t really all that funny. Because inside, Luke could feel the anger building. It wasn’t a good feeling; it tore at his guts and made every hour a nightmare.

Luke found Lou Morrow and Riley Stevens in the engineering design room examining a hologram of a large white tube floating over the main table.

“That’s a really ugly spaceship,” Luke said.

“You said you were in a hurry,” Morrow replied. “Function rules the design.”

“Works for me,” Luke agreed. “I kind of like ugly these days.”

Morrow nodded at the young engineer. “Riley, fill us in.”

The young man stepped forward. “Commander, we’ve changed several of our initial assumptions. That is to say, George has. We agree with his new thinking but he wanted your agreement before we proceed further.”

“Okay,” Luke said. “But since I don’t know what his initial assumptions were…”

“Fair enough,” Riley said. “George, you explain.”

“Commander, my initial thought was to include a significant military ground force; about two divisions. After further consideration, I feel that a much smaller force would be more appropriate.”

“I have to agree with that,” Luke said. “It’s not my intention to get involved in any ground campaign. On the other hand, you never know when a small force might come in handy. Maybe a battalion or two?”

“I suggest two brigades, Commander.”

“How many people is that? I was Air Force, not Army.”

“Approximately four to five thousand per brigade, Commander. Plus auxiliary and other support. The total should not exceed fifteen thousand.”

Luke gave in. “Okay. I guess we don’t really know what we’re going to need out there. What else?”

George continued. “I initially thought a fleet of one thousand single-man fighters should be provided for self-defense. But Lou has prevailed on me to revise that estimate.”

“A thousand seems a bit excessive, I have to agree. What are you thinking, Lou?”

“You don’t want this ship to engage in close-in combat. At least that was my impression. That many fighters are just a waste. It won’t hurt to have a reasonable contingent. Like you said, you don’t know what you’ll face or what the conditions will be. Maybe three hundred at most? That should cover a lot of possibilities.”

“Sounds good to me,” Luke agreed. “But what about self-defense? True, it’s not my plan to mix it up one-on-one; but we should have some hefty countermeasures just in case.”

Morrow glanced at Riley. “Tell him what you were thinking.”

“Sir, one idea is to fit the flagship with anti-aircraft guns. Show us that option, George.”

The hologram above the table sprouted small blisters along the fuselage. Each contained a tiny, needle-like barb pointing out in various directions.

“Those look kind of small,” Luke observed. “Are those guns or stingers?”

“Ah,” Riley said. “I guess I should point out the scale. The ship as you see it is about fifty-five hundred feet in length. The diameter is fifteen hundred feet. George, show a warship next to it.”

A hologram of a standard
Ambrosia
-class warship appeared. It was tiny compared to the flagship.

“I see what you mean,” Luke commented. “Are the guns AI controlled?”

“For the most part. Each emplacement includes a gun crew for manual targeting as a backup. You never know.”

“I like it. What about offense?” Luke asked.

Riley spun the hologram so the nose was facing Luke. “You can see the apertures for the canons where the fuselage narrows at the front. There are twenty-four of them and are the same size as the warships and fire the same rounds. Same rate of fire; two per second.”

Luke shook his head. “That’s fine for just a single target on the nose but when we come into a system we could be facing a lot of enemy ships. I need to fire at multiple targets simultaneously.”

“I apologize, Commander,” George said. “I had not thought of that.”

Riley shrugged almost imperceptibly. Luke suspected that the engineer had already identified the weakness but hesitated to argue with the Moonbase AI. “If I may,” Riley said.

“Go ahead.” Luke nodded.

“I suggest offensive guided missiles.
Using
our drone technology, you can launch them when appropriate, like when you’re entering a hostile star system. We can include improved sensor packages and a slightly upgraded AI. Rather than focusing on stealth, their mission would be target acquisition. Seek and destroy kind of thing.”

“What about the warhead?” Luke asked. “Nukes?”

“I’d use something programmable. We recently improved our shield capability. You haven’t been briefed on that.”

“How’d you do that?”

“Essentially, it was a matter of …” Riley paused as though searching for the right words in layman’s terms.

“Never mind,” Luke said. “I’m a history major. Just go on with what you were saying.”

“Right. In short, we could include an enhanced force field generator in the missile design that would give you the option to turn them into armor-piercing projectiles. It might be useful if you wanted to disable, rather than annihilate a particular Bakkui warship. In that way, a single drone could attack multiple targets.”

“Nice,” Luke said. “Go with that. I assume you have a launch option?”

“We’ll build launch systems into the hull that would fire the missiles along an axis parallel to the ship. Initial t
argeting
would be via ship-based sensors. After the missiles acquire the target they will transition to onboard terminal guidance.”

“Perfect. When will you start construction?”

Morrow shook his head. “We’ve got a lot of design left to do, Luke. This isn’t something we can throw together in an afternoon.”

“I understand. But the drone reports are starting to worry me. The Bakkui are going to be here a lot sooner that we ever thought.”

“When is that, Commander?” Riley asked.

“Two years; if we’re lucky. Could be sooner. I thought we’d have at least another three years, but it’s not looking that way.”

“We’re doing our best, boss,” Morrow said. “It helped getting those two extra replicators. Ambrose said there’s a fifth one in the works.”

“There is,” Luke confirmed. “In fact, there are five more in the works, plus the one George said you need to build this guy.” He nodded at the hologram. “By the way, I get to name this ship. You’ve named all the rest after famous warriors and explorers.”

“Of course,” Morrow agreed. “Whatcha gonna call it?
Dreadnought
?
Vengeance
? Something like that?”

“
Lulubelle
,” Luke replied with a smile.

Morrow and Riley exchanged skeptical glances. “You’re kidding, right?” Morrow said.

“Nope. When I was growing up, my dad always named the family vehicle
Lulubelle
. Never knew why. But all of us loved our car. The name kind of made it part of the family. This ship is going to be carrying a lot of people, families included. I want it to have a family name.”

“I kind of wondered about the family aspect,” Riley said. “You’re taking families into battle?”

“Earthside military does the same thing today,” Luke explained. “When we got stationed overseas, we always took our families. We knew that if the balloon went up our families were at risk. But living ain’t living unless the people you love are with you. And it’s not like this big guy is just going away for the weekend.”

“What do you mean?”

“This is a five-year mission, Riley. Our goal is to find new life and new civilization, and blow it to smithereens.”

Riley smiled at the misquoted line. “I didn’t realize you were a Trekkie, Commander.”

“Since before you were born, son.”

“
Speaking
of families,” Morrow said, “isn’t there another colony launch tomorrow? Shouldn’t you be there?”

“I told Amanda I wasn’t going to do those anymore.”

“I know that, boss. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be there. The whole world is looking at you. You need to keep that in mind. Think people won’t notice if you don’t show? If
you
don’t think it’s important, why should they?”

Luke glared at Morrow for a long minute. Morrow didn’t flinch.

“Damn it, Lou,” Luke finally said. He turned and stalked out. “George, tell Amanda I’ll be at the Gateway in the morning.”