Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (87 page)

“Right.
Prior planning.”

“...Prevents
piss poor performance. Where have I heard that before?” Logan teased with a
small smiled. His hands cupped his coffee mug. “Seriously, we'll get it done.
If not with this method then with either a mash up, or we'll have to go back to
hollowing out the thing with grasers or plasma injection.”

“That'd
take months,” Irons shook his head. “San Diego is taking forever to cool. Ten
more months before we can work on  her without stressing her crust. Plus the
time for it to cool...”

“Yeah
well, you got anything better to do in the meantime? And you're right, we do
need it soon though. Or something,” Logan said shaking his head. Word had
leaked about the project. It had started at the college as usual, then
mushroomed from there. Someone in the ROTC crowd had gotten wind of the VR sims
and handed them off to a girlfriend in the journalism classes. Knox had been
all over it. The Navy was building a world and was not willing to share it.
This had been an attempt at spin control.

In
truth they had been building canister habs and inflatable habs for the Navy for
the past several months. Anvil was starting to look like it had mumps. Enrique
had quietly told them they needed to move on and find other quarters soon. Most
of the habs would be used as temporary facilities inside San Diego once the
sphere was cut open. But that was eleven or more months away.

“The
good news is they picked up about sixty percent of the rock for processing.
They are going to pass on the stuff they don't use as good will packages to
Vesta six and Sigma eleven on their way by.”

“Well,
that's something,” Irons shook his head. “All right if we can't do that, what
about making a core module, something that's just, well, a shaft with a lot of
docking points then dock the habs we've got to it.”

“You
mean like they did in the twenty first century?” Logan asked blinking.

“If
it ain't broke, don't...”

“Fix
it. Right. I'll see what I can do,” Logan said nodding. “Speaking of which, I
suggest we fall back on the same method we used to make San Diego. At least for
now. That will get the press off of our neck and let Genshi save face.”

“Right.
Do it,” Irons nodded.

He
looked up from his tablet and rolled his shoulders. They were about where he
expected things to be after six months of concentrated effort, but it still
felt like they should be much further along. Sprite noted his weariness and
decided to intervene.

"Admiral
if you've got a moment?" she asked softly. He looked up.

"A
moment? Sure, anything to get away from this," he sighed and stretched.
"What have you got?" he asked.

"Um,
I am a guest lecturer in a class today, I was wondering if you could also come.
Show the old bod and get out a bit." Irons frowned. He could tell from
past experience that there was more to it than that.

"Guest
lecturer?" he asked.

"To
about thirty kids. I did my college one this morning and now I have one for the
kids this afternoon." Irons nodded. "All right. I'm in." He got
up and brushed of his lap. "Could you clean your right sleeve
please?" He looked at the arm. There was a small stain.

"Sure.
Wouldn't want to make a bad impression," he murmured as he went to clean
up in the refresher.

"Class
I'd like you to welcome Sprite and Fleet Admiral Irons." The teacher began
to clap.

Irons
came around the corner and smiled politely then waved. "A bit more than
thirty don't you think? There must be hundreds?" he sub vocalized as the
class clapped. "Looks like they turned out the whole school." The
kids were all ages, from what looked like six year olds right up to teenagers.
There were dozens of adults in the very back.

"Looks
that way. Guess you can't say they never rolled out the red carpet. Fairy intro
on three," Sprite answered. He saw a flash then winced as she pulled a
tiny fairy avatar out of his ear. The kids laughed. He tapped the other side of
his head to help her along. The kids loved it.

"Barrel
of laughs," Irons smiled. "Hey kids, I'd like you to meet Sprite.
Sprite is a prototype micro smart AI." He waved a hand to indicate Sprite.
She fluttered around the room on gossamer wings, bobbing here and there,
landing on a kids nose. The kid went cross eyes. Another swatted her and they
laughed.

"As
you can see Sprite is high spirited and can be a lot of fun," he smiled.
"I'll get you for this," he muttered.

She
pirouetted in the air. "Oh oh! Pick me!" a kid raised her hand. Irons
pointed to her.

"You
have something to ask?"

She
looked down suddenly shy until her girlfriend in pig tails bumped her. "Is
she like Smithy?" she asked looking up. Sprite floated in front of the
girl, hands on her hips.

"No,
I am a smart AI. Class two actually, though I am moving up to class three.
Smithy was a basic AI, more of a personal interface," she grinned.
"At least until I got a hold of his kernel. Now he's a class one smart
AI." She fluttered off.

"My
turn, my turn!" someone in the back said raising a hand. Irons pointed to
the little Veraxin.

"Are
AI slaves?" he asked. "Can you do what you want?" He looked over
to his friend.

"No,
we're not slaves. It's complicated. We have free will..."

"Sometimes
loads of it," Irons interjected. Sprite turned to him with a mock glower
then stuck out her tongue her face enlarged to human level and the sound system
did a good raspberry effect. The class tittered. She turned back, head
returning to normal.

"But
we also serve a purpose. When I was created I was given a choice. I accepted
entry into the military. AI have special rank that is the equivalent of  their
age," she shrugged. "I'm up to a Lieutenant Commander grade right
about now." She studied her fingernails then grinned.

"Can
you leave the Admiral?" another person asked.

"Sort
of. But we're kind of chained at the hip." She came up to him and tapped
his arm and leg. Chains appeared then faded out. She smiled and pinched him. He
jumped as if goosed. The class tittered.

"You
fit in him?" someone else asked.

"Well
let’s see now..." Sprite went behind the Admiral. "Hold still, this
won’t hurt a bit." She reached up and opened up his head. Or at least
appeared too. Layers of holograms blanked out the top of his head so she could
do the magic trick.

The
kids oohed and awed. She opened the sides like hinges then started pulling
things out.

"Ew,
no, not that..." She tossed things over her shoulder. Socks, lecture
notes, ship parts, vid clips, all sorts of things. She held up a stinky cloth
by her finger tips of her right hand while her other covered her nose. “Ew gross!”
She got a wicked smile and tossed it to the crowd. The kids in the line of fire
ducked, then laughed as it faded out.

When
she reached down deep and tugged a pair of boxers with pink hearts out the
class laughed. Even the adults tittered at that. "I think I went a little
too
deep there," she rummaged around. She had cued the sound effects to her
movements. She pulled an antenna out then brandished it.

"Ah
here it is!" she smiled. "See, with this or the Admiral's jack I can
access other systems. I sort of unfold like a flower. It’s sort of hard to
explain.” She shrugged then tossed the antenna over her shoulder. Then she
tugged at a sphere.

"This..."
She grunted and heaved. It popped out with a wet plop, making some grimace.
"This is my AI core. Or one of them. I have three," she smiled.
"It's a lot smaller than an AI core on a warship, but that is because I am
younger and I don't process as much material as they do on a daily basis. Or at
least, I didn't until now." She packed the items back in then closed him
up. "There, all better," she said fluttering away.

"Do
you get into arguments?" a boy asked.

"With
the Admiral?" Sprite asked. "Sometimes. He can be a stubborn pain in
the rear when he wants to be." Horns appeared on her forehead. She grinned
evilly as she fluttered behind him and pretended to kick him. The class
tittered. When he turned on her she assumed a peaceful pose. A halo appeared
over her head. The class tittered again.

Irons
shrugged. "Sometimes, but we both know the chain of command. I will listen
if we have time."

"Do
you appear like this all the time?" a little girl asked.

"No,
just when I'm with civilians. When I'm in officers country I look well..."
she paused in mid air then spun arms outstretched. Glitter showered from her
then there was a burst of light. She grew to normal size and then stopped
spinning, arms at her side, standing at parade rest. She was in a silver
version of a full military uniform with her cover tucked under one arm.

"Wooowww!"
the girls in the front said. Irons hid a smile.

"She
wasn't kidding when she said she has military rank. Sprite, Firefly, and the
others each do." He looked over to Sprite. She nodded.

"I
heard you're growing an AI for each ship? How does that work?" a teacher
asked.

"Well,
we create the hardware then clone the basic software from other systems, then
tailor them to the ship. Once the basic operating system is in place we grow an
AI with seeds from existing AI," Irons indicated Sprite. She bowed.

"Just
call me the mother of invention. Or the mother of a new generation of AI,"
she smiled. "As the AI grows it is given a choice as to whether it wants
to serve in its indicated capacity. It's given the seeds of its job."

"What
if it refuses?" someone in the back asked. There was a rustle.

"Then
it is extracted and given another choice of professions or archived until we
can find some place for it," Irons replied.

"Oh."

"Right.
Right now we don't have many places to put AI. Fuentes seemed a bit reluctant
at first, but when we explained to him the situation he chose to serve."

"Can
they leave?" a girl asked.

"If
they choose to end their service then we can extract them and grow a new core.
That usually happens if we have a bad crew match or if the AI becomes bored or
if the ship is going to be scrapped. We will try to prevent that by rotating
assignments and by carefully selecting command teams," the Admiral
shrugged. He turned to see Sprite had been illustrating some of his points with
holograms.

"Right,
we currently have twenty ships under repair. The twelve civilian ships we
captured, the destroyers Damocles and Fuentes, and six ships we've salvaged
since the battle, including the battleship." He waved to indicate the
battleship. Sprite obliged by tapping the exterior cameras and then projecting
a holo of the ship. The class oohed and ahed at it.

"She's
a mess now. She's been torn up and it will take years to fully restore her.
We've gotten to work on it, and we've even begun to expand her." He
watched as Sprite went behind the battleship and popped it in half with a
karate chop. She pulled the parts apart.

"See,
we're going to cut her in half, then fill in the gap with new material. That
will give us more room for a modern power plant, drive, and other things,"
she said. Irons nodded.

"We've
got two civilian ships almost ready for their space trials. One is one of the
captured freighters called Destiny. She will be returning the captives to
Agnosta while also bringing our delegates to extend relations to reform the
Federation government." He smiled at that.

"Can
we really do it?" someone asked.

Irons
nodded. "If it's been done once, we can do it again. With your help."
He turned to the class. "Are you ready?" he asked coming to
attention. The class cheered.

"That
went well, we can't thank you enough," the teacher shook his hand
enthusiastically a few minutes after the assembly broke up.

Irons
smiled. "No problem. I was a bit surprised by the turn out, but I am glad
you laid in the holo suite beforehand. That really helped."

The
woman nodded. "Your AI requested it. Thanks Sprite," she looked up
and around. Sprite was over with another group. She turned and waved then went
back to her conversation. Irons chuckled.

“I'll
try to remember to have a virtual tour of the ships on hand for your students
to experience soon. If you have any interesting contests let me know. Perhaps
we can arrange something like a real tour for the winners and runner ups.”

Her
eyes went wide. “Gee that'd be spar!” she said then blushed and cleared her
throat. He chuckled softly.

"Well,
I have a meeting, thank you Admiral for a wonderful lecture. You really
inspired them. We'll upload this to the other colonies and keep it on file for
our records," another teacher said coming in and patting his shoulder.
They shook hands.

Irons
chuckled. "No problem. Glad I could help. I'll see if we can do this again
sometime," he cocked his head to his assistant who shrugged.