Chaotic futures, p.27
Chaotic Futures, page 27
“Captain, how many Woot annuals do you expect to pass before you’re ready to leave here?” Withern asked.
“Perhaps three,” Eshtitor replied.
“What to do about all of this?” Withern mused.
After having met the elderly Woot, no one was under the illusion that she was uncertain about what to do. A plan was forming, and she was only buying time until she figured out how to present it.
“Captain, I expect to hear how you’ll compensate the Woots for the use of our resources,” Withern said. “Frieda, you’ll no longer restrict the number of individuals who will offer service to the Woots. It’s time for our citizens to learn the various races who exist among our stars.”
Turning to the Liberation foursome, Withern focused on Juno and Kelley. “Can either of you speak for the conclave?”
“We can,” Juno responded. “I’m an emissary of Commander Tocknicka who is a conclave representative.”
“Wonderful,” Withern replied, brightening. “Then we have all the pieces.”
“Do you speak for all Woots?” Gaylene inquired.
Withern laughed. “It’s a challenge to keep my household in line,” she said. Then sobering, she added, “No one speaks for all our citizens. Our world is ruled by many dresats, who control fiefdoms. Although, the sisters are helping us dilute their power.”
“What is it you wish from the conclave?” Kelley queried.
“I want the conclave to maintain a balance,” Withern replied.
“What would that look like?” Mila asked.
“Woots treasure our sisters,” Withern replied. “There must be no interference with them. The Dwerve captain owes us. Ensure that his debt is paid. Finally, Imperator Doktorg admits that his race would destroy the captain’s ship. That must not happen. Therefore, I require the conclave protect us until the captain can sail his ship.”
Withern’s audience stared at her in awe. She might be elderly and a citizen of a feudal society, but nothing had stopped her from grasping the greater events that might influence Woot development. Furthermore, she was adamant about taking steps to help her world.
“We must talk,” Juno said, indicating the group surrounding Withern.
“If Gaylene will return me to my home,” Withern requested. “I wish the warmth of my hearth and a hot drink.”
Gaylene eased Withern into her substantial arms. She was concerned for Withern, whose grasp was weak and whose breathing was shallow. She was extremely careful to handle the elderly Woot gently.
After Gaylene and Withern left, Frieda linked to implants and comms. She left it to Cyan to translate for the Dwerves and Doktorg.
Frieda sent.
Turning to Eshtitor, Frieda said, “I apologize. You did not deserve Withern’s criticism for failing to help the Woots. That was my decision to isolate you.”
“It can be easily remedied,” Eshtitor replied. “I’ve tens of thousands of Dwerves who are anxious to visit a world with atmosphere.”
“We’ll have to take small steps, but I know where they could do the most good,” Frieda responded. Then Frieda returned to the conference link and asked,
Both Frieda and Cyan tipped their heads and placed hands on the left side of their chests.
Kelley acknowledged the ancient manner of respect that was first granted among Méridiens.
“Kelley must be someone special,” Bedoah whispered to Eshtitor and Quanitine.
“He is,” Cyan quietly replied. “Not just because he’s more than three centuries old. His parent served Alex Racine and Julien, the human and the SADE who created the sisters.”
There were too many unknowns for the Dwerves to unpack. But they didn’t miss the reverent hush in Cyan’s voice.
When Eshtitor heard the translation, he was energized. The more Dwerves who could be acclimated to a populated world, the more demand there would be for the Dwerves to find a home of their own.
“How can we help the Woots?” Quanitine asked via Cyan.
Frieda laughed good-naturedly. Much of the pressure she’d felt trying to navigate the needs of the Woot society had been eased by the present discussion. “We’ve only begun to deal with the dresats,” she said. “We count nine who work closely with us. Four more are in the process of listening to us. There must be hundreds left.”
Aboard the traveler, there was a sense of races cooperating.
“We must tell Withern,” Frieda said, emotions ascending in her kernel.
Just then, Gaylene stepped into the traveler. “Withern has died,” she announced tearfully. Her eldest shared her last words. Then she sent them to Frieda.
Translating the Woot language, Frieda said, “Withern told her eldest that Woots must join the stars. Rather than the traditional burial, she wanted the sisters to send her body there.”
Sadness engulfed the traveler’s passengers, and young Bedoah’s distinctive sobbing underlined their pain.
Juno and Kelley sought Frieda and Cyan. They gripped the Woot sisters’ hands and touched foreheads to commiserate. In that moment, Juno declared that she would assist Frieda in bringing Withern’s wishes to fruition.
Afterward, Frieda and Cyan shared the Woot and Dwerve languages with Juno and Kelley.
Juno sent messages to Commodore Ticnikrok and Captain O’Hara requesting their presence at the Woot planet. As the flotilla neared the planet, Juno updated them as to the unusual players who coexisted in peace. Then she requested a crystal casket from Captain Giselle.
Ticnikrok chose his Trident to be the one to transport the traveler carrying Withern’s casket.
Woots came from miles around to attend Withern’s send-off. Even nine dresats and their commanders were present. They watched ten sisters carry the heavy gleaming crystal casket from the house to the traveler.
Frieda flew the traveler to collect three Dwerves and a Krackus. Then she rendezvoused with the commodore’s Trident, which sailed toward the system’s star.
The mourners donned environment suits, and the bay was depressurized.
The sisters carried the casket to the edge of the bay and set it down. A chief and two techs activated the tethering system and targeted the casket. Then the beams were manipulated until the casket floated beyond the bay.
When the Trident was in position, Ticnikrok signaled Kelley, who read the words for the dead. As the final words were said, the Trident spun, and the beams shut off per the controller’s signal.
The casket flew onward. In about seven cycles, Withern would have her final wish. She would be the first Woot to have reached the stars.
22: AI Challenge
OTHALIAN AND DAMLAARIAN PLANETS
IMPERIUM EMPIRE
Captain Jameson turned and walked swiftly down the Trident’s central corridor to reach the bridge. He expected his replacement within a cycle or two. This arrival seemed a little early.
Muttering a second oath, the officer tapped hurriedly on his telemetry panel to isolate the first signal and study the second one.
Jameson left his command chair to study the holo-vid where the officer had sent the data. In a wire model, he could see that a line drawn between the peacekeepers would bisect the Othalian home world.
At a nod from the captain, the first officer called the crew to battle stations. Pilots hurried to their travelers, and a crew chief and three techs prepared to launch the Elvian probe if necessary.
Jameson watched the data on the peacekeepers. Their course took them straight toward the inhabited planet, where Juno and her companions had returned a resident.
Jameson said.
Despite the encroaching danger, Jameson laughed heartily. Sherie and he had been sailing together for many annuals, and they had an easy camaraderie.
Sherie paused to calculate the peacekeepers’ vectors and their present velocities. It concerned her that they were under full acceleration and headed directly toward the inhabited planet.
Next the SADE added the Trident’s timing to intercept the first peacekeeper, allowing the additional time necessary to disable it. Immediately, she revised her calculations, believing that disabling the engines was an incomplete operation. An AI might continue toward the planet and launch full batteries of missiles if that was its programming.
Before Jameson approved her request, he sent an urgent message shipwide,
Sherie signaled a pilot to abandon his traveler.
There was no hesitation on the part of the pilot. He signaled the hatch to drop as he raced through the main cabin. With a jump, he was through the hatch and running for the airlock. Behind him, Sherie closed the hatch.
As well, the chief and his techs were ordered to secure the Elvian probe. They returned it to its cradle, deactivated it, and abandoned their bay.
The pilot and the crew had no sooner made the corridor than three travelers launched. If there had been the usual complement, there would have been a fourth, but the Elvian probe occupied the space where a traveler would have sat.
Sherie sent the three travelers streaking toward the peacekeeper approaching from below the ecliptic. Then she swiveled the Trident as the bay doors closed and accelerated the ship at the peacekeeper attacking from above. This was where the watcher sat, and she was keen to contact this peacekeeper.
As the travelers raced toward their target, one pilot was surprised to come to a halt soon after starting out. Then a second traveler halted about halfway to the attacker.
The two pilots were linked to their controllers, and they noted that Sherie used their ships as relays to the third empty traveler.
Sherie chose not to directly approach the Trident’s adversary. When the Trident attained the necessary velocity, she angled away from the attacker and made for the dark. Two quick transits had her ship sweeping down on the battleship from behind.
Following Captain Jameson’s orders, Sherie chose not to target the engines. Instead, she swiveled the warship and aimed both beam weapons at the peacekeeper’s bow. As the Trident swept past the enemy ship, the front fourteen meters of the peacekeeper was eliminated.
After ensuring there had been no missile launch, Sherie reversed course and headed toward the watcher. While she closed on the peacekeeper, she monitored her line of travelers.
The unoccupied fighter neared the oncoming attacker.
Ports opened, and the barrels of closeup gun support were visible, which suited Sherie’s plan. She programmed the controller’s final tactics.
The AI aboard the peacekeeper registered the single fighter on approach. According to its programming, the small attacking ship was considered a nuisance. Preparations were made to eliminate it as the ship passed. Knowing the velocity of the target, the AI could coordinate the closeup guns more accurately than a weapons crew. Within the AI’s programs, the assurance of disposing of the immediate attacker and the other two that waited was rated nearly one hundred percent.
This is the point where an AI, essentially machine intelligence, failed to anticipate a SADE, who was experienced in ship-to-ship combat.
Within the AI, minute calculations continued to update the guns. Unfortunately for the AI, the traveler wasn’t programed by Sherie to strafe the battleship.
At the last second, the traveler veered.
The peacekeeper’s guns fired, and the traveler’s shell was damaged, with some heavy metal penetrating the empty pilot’s cabin.
But it was too late for the AI, the traveler smashed into the bow, obliterating the machine intelligence and much of the peacekeeper’s bow.
Above the Othalian planet, Sherie observed the watcher turn and accelerate. She calculated that the distance would continue to close, but that she wouldn’t catch the adversary before it entered the dark.
Still, when the Trident got close enough to eliminate much of the comm lag, Sherie reached out to overtake the peacekeeper’s systems.
When Janus detected Sherie’s intrusion, she sent,
Janus replied.
Then Sherie watched the peacekeeper with Janus aboard disappear into the dark.
