“I don’t understand,” said Philips. “Don’t you already make the curriculum?”

  “For some things I do,” Wheeler said. “But there are some things that I have no influence over...things that are government mandated and that I have zero say in. I want those things opened up to the teaching staff.”

  “Fine,” said Philips. “I’m sure Graham will be happy to listen to all of your ideas on improving the education of tomorrow’s Marines. Not sure how he’s going to feel about the exchange program, since the guys on Sanctum 9 have been persona non grata to the top brass around here for some time now.”

  “Exactly. That needs to change,” said Wheeler. “This is the first shot fired in the war to change the status quo.”

  “Deal!” replied Philips. “I’ll brief the Admiral on your request. Can I count on meeting you at the Lighthouse at 1500?”

  Wheeler stood up, pulled his shoulders back, stuck his chest out and raised his hand in an exaggerated salute. “Sir, yes sir!”

  “At ease solder,” replied Philips as he stood up, downing the last of his coffee with an audible gulp.

  Wheeler put his arm around Philips again and pointed him towards the door.

  “I’ve got packing to do now. Good luck on getting your other recruits to say yes. They’re probably not as nice as me.”

  Philips shrugged. “We’ll see. Once I lay it out for them, there’s no way there’re going to refuse.”

  Chapter 3

  Captain Philips had known Leah Thomson since their days at the Academy, where he studied combatives and space superiority tactics while she worked on cutting edge research with the science department. Leah had been brilliant back then and Philips expected her to be even more brilliant now.

  Their last mission had earned her the right to the Level Two Augmentation Implants of her choice. While Philips might have selected implants that would increase his reflexes or vision, he was sure she would have selected anything to boost her intellectual abilities.

  While many people had Level One implants for routine medical or task specific reasons, Level Two implants were considered an honor, and only bestowed upon those the government felt had earned the right to “wear” them….and could be trusted with their use.

  That was a good precaution, Philips thought. What if someone with a grudge against the government, for example, were given implants that could be used against the leadership? A creative criminal could easily find ways to exploit any advantage such implants conferred upon them…something the government was keen to avoid.

  It was rumored that all Level Two implants secretly included certain fail-safe mechanisms that could be activated by the government in the event any implant wearer became a security threat.

  That also seemed like a good precaution to Philips…what normal soldier or law enforcement official would want to go up against an enhanced adversary. No, the implant system as it stood today made a lot of sense.

  While official numbers were hard to come by, unofficially it was believed that between one and five percent of the human population wore augmentation implants above the rather common Level One types.

  --

  Leah’s last known address took captain Philips to the Ivy Township, a suburb of the Citadel’s military exclusion zone. While Cedar Downs was popular with academics and administrators, Ivy was a haven for artists and intellectuals. It had a lot of shops with a bohemian vibe, and open spaces where people could congregate to discuss politics, display their art or share ideas about virtually any subject.

  Given the time of day, Philips figured Leah would probably be at one such open space, known by the locals as Thinker’s Square, and probably engaged in an animated conversation on some heady topic with a fellow scientist.

  Philips strolled through Thinker’s Square on the lookout for Leah’s very distinct hairstyle – loosely curled shoulder length brown hair, punctuated with phosphorous green streaks. Leah felt this helped her fit in with the Ivy crowd, and also provided a distraction she could use in a pinch.

  What sort of “pinch” Philips wasn’t so sure about, as she had never elaborated on her logic.

  After a few minutes, Philips spotted Leah sitting at a concrete table, her back turned to him as she very energetically chatted with a man that could have been a professor at one of the local universities.

  Walking within earshot, Philips heard Leah explaining something called Sandara’s proof to the man.

  “And so,” Leah said, “it’s not so much a function of time, as it is a function of the space where time is being measured.”

  The man nodded.

  “That always made sense to me,” said Philips, interjecting himself in their conversation.

  The man looked a bit annoyed at the interruption, but Leah jumped to her feet and gave Philips a big hug.

  “Happy to see me?” Philips said, a smile on his face.

  “Always happy to see you,” Leah replied. Turning to the man she had been talking to, she said “I’m so sorry. This is Sam Philips. Sam meet Willian Donelly. William teaches science history at Bernard’s down the street. We were just chatting about your favorite subject. Join us.”

  Philips offered his hand to Williams, who promptly shook it before repeating Leah’s invitation. “Please, won’t you join us?”

  Philips shook his head. “Thank you, but I can’t. I’m on the clock.”

  Turning to Leah, he said “I have to speak with you right away. In private.”

  Leah quickly scanned his face, a look of understanding almost immediately washing over her.

  “One second.”

  Turning to William, she said “William I’m so sorry we have to cut our chat short. I really do have to see what this is all about. I’ll see you next time, okay?”

  Glancing at Philips, then back to Leah, he said “I understand. Thank you for a fascinating discussion. Let’s do it again very soon.”

  Bowing in her direction, he turned and walked away.

  Waiting a few moments for William to be out of earshot, Leah looked at Philips and asked, “so what’s this about?”

  “Can’t talk here. Are you still at the same address?”

  “Yes, right around the block.”

  “Good. We’ll talk there.”

  --

  Once inside Leah’s apartment, she put her hand over Philips mouth and gestured for him to be quiet.

  Then she tapped the face of her watch with a finger and said, “now we can talk.”

  “What did you just do” asked Philips.

  “I know whatever it is you want to talk to me about is confidential,” she replied. “I activated my privacy screen. No one can eavesdrop on us now.”

  “Hackers can always get through those things,” said Philips.

  “Not mine,” she said.

  “Anyway, I doubt anyone is listening,” Philips said.

  “Secrecy through ignorance? Hiding something in plain sight?” asked Leah. “Yes, that works sometimes. But you can never be too sure.”

  Philips shrugged. If anyone had been spying on him, the details of his very secret mission were probably already out.

  “So, what are we talking about?” asked Leah. “Let me guess, you want me to join you on a secret mission to an undisclosed location.”

  “And how did you know that?” a flustered Philips asked. “Have you been spying on me?”

  Leah laughed.

  “Me spy on you? Don’t flatter yourself flyboy. You are not that good looking.”

  “Well,” replied Philips, “I’ve been told otherwise.”

  “Yeah maybe. So, am I right?”

  “Yes, and how did you know?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” she asked. “You wanted to speak with me in private about something urgent. That implies secret mission right there, given our history and all. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  Philips nodded.

  “The fact that you are asking me to come along,” Leah continued, “tells me that you are not expecting a lot of combat but might be expecting some. However, you are expecting scientific challenges to come up. That pretty much summarizes my resume. I can fight a bit, but I prefer to play scientist. ‘Bout right?”

  “Just about.”

  “What else do you have to tell me Sam?” she asked. “I’m short on details.”

  “The short version,” replied Philips, “is that MILCOM has learned about the existence of something – might be a weapon – that does some strange things. They want us to go find it and bring it back.”

  “That’s is?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Yes, more or less.”

  “When do we go?”

  “So, you’re in? Just like that? No more questions? No conditions?”

  She laughed. “You know I have a lot more questions, but my guess is you don’t have time to tell me right now. There will be a formal briefing session on all this at some point in the very near future, right?”

  “Leah, you don’t even need me to speak anymore,” Philips replied. “You’ve already outlined the plan for the next several days. All I can add right now is to meet me at 1500 at the Lighthouse. We’ll ride it up to the Resolute. They are expecting us at 1800 sharp.”

  “I can do that,” she replied. “Are we traveling light?”

  “Good question,” he said. “Assume we’ll be supplied with everything we should need by the Navy. But feel free to bring anything extra if you want to. I don’t know how much of our own stuff is going to be allowed on this mission, but I’m guessing we are traveling light.”

  Philips glanced at his watch. “Hey, I need to get going. I’ve got one more stop to make before I head over to the Lighthouse.”

  “Who else is going on this mission Sam?” she asked. “Besides the two of us.”

  “It’ll be a surprise,” replied Philips. “We’ll have a meet and greet at the Lighthouse.”

  “Fine. See you then,” Leah said.

  Philips thanked her and left her apartment. His next stop was far but still within range of an air taxi. Lucky for him that all his pre-mission stops were on Foothold. Had they been on other planets there would have been no way he’d make the Admiral’s deadline. Maybe they were all fated to work together on this, Philips thought. Whatever it was, he was just glad his picks were so amendable to signing up on such short notice, and so easy to work with too. That was one of the perks of getting to work with good friends who you could always count on to have your back.

  Chapter 4

  The taxi ride to the Percola Outers had been long but comfortable. Most air taxis these days were run by AIs and were programmed for customer satisfaction. The AIs were polite to a tee and precise in their navigation. The taxis themselves were kept in perfect condition and featured lavish amenities for those wishing to pay for them.

  The service was far and above anything human-piloted air taxi services could offer.

  What’s more, the AIs were more honest. Whereas human pilots would sometimes take passengers via the scenic route to pad their bills, the AIs, by default, always took the most efficient routes (unless you told them not to). And for reasons that escaped captain Philips, human-piloted taxis tend to be less well kept, more prone to failure and featured fewer creature comforts.

  So, it wasn’t surprising that they were quickly going out of style.

  However, human pilots were still available in some places, although on industrial worlds they represented a minority, and often reserved for those who could not afford the AI-run services.

  It was a bit ironic that human-provided services were fast becoming second tier, cheaper, no frills options, whereas not too long ago marketing messages such as “hand made,” “hand selected” and “hand crafted” were used to denote a finer, richer quality product. This was still true in fewer and fewer areas of the consumer goods economy – notable for foods and beverages.

  The reality was that the AIs did have special advantages over humans when it came to weaving in and out of congested skyways and travel lanes.

  The only area where human pilots were one hundred percent of the time preferred over AIs was in military applications, where the government didn’t believe it was a good idea to allow autonomous machines, especially those equipped with offensive weapons, to run independently and unsupervised.

  Captain Philips paid his fare and stepped out of the air taxi. He personally didn’t mind the AI taxi pilots like some other people did, and he was certainly no luddite, but he completely agreed with the government’s position on the use of AI in military application.

  So, he wondered if any of his friends, especially Leah, would find it odd that he was now visiting Karl Mendelsohn, the inventor of the first military grade AI to pass muster with a government review panel, which permitted him to experiment with what were essentially armed, intelligent robots.

  Karl spent most of his time at his lab, a large, squat structure near the outskirts of Percola Outers, which itself was a remote and still rural town in the far outer suburbs surrounding the Citadel. Karl liked it out here because the open, empty land provided him with every opportunity to test his inventions without worrying about collateral damage. Beyond that, the government panel that had granted the exemption to study armed AI stipulated that such permission would only be granted if his facility were located in a sufficiently remote location where his activities were unlikely to cause harm to any human life, commerce or other related activities that fell under the legal concept of “civilizationally essential.” That basically meant that while Karl had been granted the right to conduct research on arming AIs, the government could easily limit the exact areas of research to anything it liked.

  Karl had once complained that the government didn’t allow him to arm BERT, his Biologically Enhanced Robotic Tank, with tactical nuclear warheads.

  “Well of course they won’t let you do that!” Philips had exclaimed. “You could destroy an entire city with those things.”

  Karl had just frowned at Philips’ apparent support for the chains the government had put on his research. Karl was a believer in the benefits of AI, even the type of AI that could wage unsupervised war on behalf of humans.

  All in all, though, Karl was a good friend and Philips had tremendous respect for him. Karl was brilliant, he was a visionary, and despite sometimes being a bit too naïve and maybe even a crank, he really had Humanity’s best interests at heart, and saw his AI work as a boon to a brighter future.

  The government agreed.

  But that wasn’t why they had allowed his work to proceed, albeit in limited form. They were much smarter than that. They used Karl’s enthusiasm and naivety to gently nudge him towards projects they were most interested in, under the guise of helping Karl explore his dreams.

  So much for idealism.

  Philips shrugged as he thought about that. His very presence here was aiding and abetting the government’s little subterfuge. Frankly, Philips agreed with the government one hundred percent on this one.

  Karl’s lab was protected by a silent security system. So far, it had allowed him access through the outer visitor’s gate and had not interfered with his walk up from the gate to the middle perimeter. The gate there was manned by two armed human guards.

  They wore light armor, nothing as heavy or advanced as that worn by Marines, but still enough to protect them from small to mid-sized caliber fire and basic energy weapons.

  Philips glanced at their name tags.

  The man’s name was Alan Dewey and his partner’s name was Sharon Costa.

  Sharon made eye contact with Philips first and flashed an easy smile at him. She was stunningly beautiful and exuded a sense of confidence that the captain found alluring.

  Wow, he thought, Karl’s taste is impeccable when it comes selecting his security staff.

  With a hand on her sidearm she said, “how can we help you today?”

  “Hi. I’m captain Sam Philips. Naval Command, Inner Worlds sector. I’m here to see Doctor Karl Mendelsohn.”

  She nodded and quickly ran her fingers over a control console situated low behind the guard desk.

  Shaking her head, she said “I don’t see you in our appointment book. Is Doctor Mendelsohn expecting you?”

  “No. I didn’t have time to make an appointment.”

  “I’m sorry. You’ll have to confirm an appointment with his secretary before we can let you in. For future reference, you can pick up a copy of this facility’s access protocols right over there,” she said, as she pointed to a rack filled with visitor information packs.

  “This is urgent Naval Command business. I don’t have time to make an appointment. I need to see the doctor now.”

  “Sir. My partner has provided you with instructions on how to gain access to this facility,” said Dewey, a slight hint of annoyance coming through in his tone.

  Squinting his eyes for effect, Philips looked at the male guard’s name badge and said “Alan, isn’t it? Well, Alan, I really must see the Doctor now. Not later. Not when I make an appointment. Not when you decide to let me in. I need to see him now. Right now! I suggest you open the gate and let me through.”

  Both guards gently placed their hands on the butt of their side arms, although neither had drawn their weapons yet.

  Philips raised both hands to shoulder height, exposing his palms in the classic I’m harmless gesture. He really meant these guards no harm, and he’d hate to ruin his chances at perhaps getting to know Sharon better…but he really needed to see Mendelsohn right away.

  “Look,” Philips said, “I know you have a job to do, and I know you have protocols to follow. Why don’t you call Mendelsohn and ask him if he’ll see me?”

  Sharon seemed to consider doing that, but Alan was not willing to compromise just yet.

  “Sorry, sir. But rules are rules. You will have to return when you’ve made a confirmed appointment.” Pointing to the path behind Philips, the guard added “you may exit this facility by following that path out to the public roadway.”

  Philips shook his head.

 

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