Chapter 15: Proving Ground

The boat coasted above the waves, the salty taste of sea spray on Steven’s tongue as he looked out over the ocean, its azure surface shimmering in the midday sun. The squawks of sea birds joined the hum of the engine, a flock of them coasting along beside the vessel, riding in its wake. Their destination was already looming on the horizon – one of the many small islands that dotted the archipelago, its blue-green trees swaying in the breeze.

“I still can’t believe that the board of executives agreed to this,” Ipal said as she appeared at his side, her sheaths whipping in the wind like long braids. She was wearing her vest and skirt rather than her loose-fitting tunic.

“It’s a crazy idea, but why hire aliens if you don’t want them to pitch weird projects?” he asked with a shrug.

“It feels like we’ve barely been able to see each other outside of work these last few days,” Ipal added as she gazed out at the water. “There’s been so much work and preparation to do.”

“It was kind of last-minute, but we got it done.”

Ever since Yemi had brought news that the company had greenlit their project three days prior, they had been working overtime to get everything ready, triple-checking code and going back and forth with executives and contacts from the Valbaran Navy to get everything ready in time. It had been a pain in the ass to get the appropriate permits and to secure the tech – the Valbarans were married to their bureaucracy – but it had finally come together.

They were now on their way to the island where the demonstration was to take place. The flock had memorized the script that Steven had written, and he’d been over it so many times that he could practically recite it by heart, but he still felt his pulse quicken as he watched the little land mass grow larger. The company was taking a chance on him, and this was an expensive undertaking, but they stood to gain potentially decades of lucrative contracts if he succeeded. If he didn’t, well ... he’d probably be fetching drinks for the foreseeable future.

“If this goes well, let’s celebrate,” Steven suggested. “We have a lot of overtime pay to burn through.”

“I think a day off would be warranted,” she replied with a flutter of agreement.

They coasted into a small port that was nestled in a lagoon, stepping off the boat and walking along a short pier that led to dry land. The flock followed behind Steven as he made his way along the beach to where a small group of white buildings were clustered just beyond the sand, nestled in the swaying palm trees. Just offshore was a floating pontoon, one of the Tona’me’yotl LPD turrets bolted to its deck, bobbing up and down gently in the surf.

It was an unassuming device, the main body made up of a rounded box covered in lenses and cameras that all reflected the sunlight in different hues, the largest of them glinting as the pontoon rose and fell. It had a radar dome on top of it that looked kind of like a big marshmallow to Steven’s eye, and the whole assembly was mounted on a round platform that allowed it to turn in a full circle – the connection points to either side of it letting it swivel up and down. A few densely packed cables trailed out of its chassis, braiding together into a single insulated power conduit that ran through the surf, up the beach, and into one of the buildings. The turret was about the same height as Steven at a little under six feet, but the dome on top extended that to maybe nine.

A few Valbaran Navy personnel in jumpsuits with blue camouflage were milling about, checking the cables and holding tablet computers in their hands, looking up as the newcomers arrived. Yemi was already there, acting as a liaison for the company, bobbing out to meet them with a feather greeting.

“Everything seems to be in order,” he chirped, pausing to check his own tablet computer briefly as he walked across the beach. “I must say that when I transferred to Kalahar, I wasn’t expecting to be put in charge of a laser cannon for a day.”

“It shows that the board trusts you,” Steven replied, giving him an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

“We have sufficient power delivery, and the conference call to the clients will be going through as scheduled,” Yemi continued. “The emitter arrays and microphones are set up and have been tested. All systems are green.”

“I must reiterate that these are the worst conceivable conditions for such a demonstration,” Paza grumbled, flashing an irritated red. “The laser isn’t even designed to be fired in an atmosphere.”

“That’s precisely why this is a good idea,” Steven replied. “If they see it functioning to spec in adverse conditions where there are all kinds of particulates and water droplets in the laser’s path, they’ll understand that they can put it in basically any environment where their ships can operate. Besides, if we’d asked the board to send it into orbit, it would have cost ten times as much. They never would have agreed to that.”

“We should trust Steven’s plan,” Tilli said.

“Are you sure the program is ready?” he added.

“It will work,” Paza replied confidently. “Every line of code has been checked and triple checked.”

“We should trust Paza’s code, too,” Ipal added with a smile.

“Oh, I trust it,” Steven said with a nervous laugh. “I’m staking my job on it, in fact. Right – everyone needs to get into position. We should be starting soon. Remember your lines? Who am I kidding – of course you do.”

The crew had cleared the beach, leaving Steven and the flock standing in front of the laser as it floated on its pontoon. Sitting on the sand between them and the nearby buildings was a blocky device about the size and shape of a travel trunk. The lid swung open to reveal a mess of projectors, a hologram flickering to life to float in the air above it. It was made dim by the sunlight, but Steven could see three human men shown from the waist up. The way that they were clustered together suggested that they were watching a smaller display. A little camera dome the size of a softball popped up out of the trunk, its lenses glittering as they zoomed and focused, feeding a live stream back to the viewers.

The three clients were in another system, and it was a demonstration of their Navy ties that they could afford to rent out a quantum satellite for a purpose such as this. It wasn’t a minor feat by any means.

“Gentlemen!” Steven began, clapping his hands together. “Thank you for being here. Welcome to our demonstration of the Tona’me’yotl laser point defense system. You may already be familiar with the model TMY-6, but by installing our upgraded tracking and FoF software, this off-the-shelf Valbaran model can meet and even exceed your performance requirements for next-generation point defense systems. It can be fully integrated with existing UNN software through a simple patch.”

“Yours was the only contractor that asked to show us a live demonstration of the technology,” one of the men began, his distorted voice coming through a speaker. He was an older gentleman with weatherbeaten features and a Navy cap, steepling his fingers as he spoke. “We’re interested in seeing your presentation.”

“The TMY-6 features a ytterbium-fiber laser that can project a pumped beam capable of reaching targets at ranges of fifteen kilometers in a vacuum,” Paza began, stepping forward in her little vest. “The technology is already mature and has seen combat, notably during the battle of Ker’gue’la, where it was deployed on Consensus ships. It was successfully able to intercept both light enemy craft and missiles by blinding their sensors and prematurely detonating payloads.”

“With the addition of our software package, the TMY-6 can be fully integrated with existing UNN operating systems,” Ipal added. “It has improved target tracking and identification, and it can work in tandem with other systems for increased coverage and better target prioritization. Each turret has its own radar and optical package for redundancy, allowing the TMY-6 to communicate with its mesh network and continue operating even after sustaining damage that would disable other competing systems. Even with both its optical and radar systems compromised, it can still fire at targets using information relayed through the network.”

“Our software also includes machine learning functions that allow the TMY-6 to share data and experience fleetwide,” Mima continued. “Target identification profiles can be updated in real-time, allowing the software to adapt to changing battlefield conditions and assess new threats as they develop.”

“It does all of this while being fully compliant with UN regulations concerning lethal autonomous weapons systems, also known as LAWS,” Steven said. “I’d now like to give you a personal demonstration of some of these features.”

He walked over to a crate that was placed on the sand nearby, fishing out a disk-shaped object about the size of a dinner plate. It was hollow, somewhat like a donut or a tire, with a single propeller blade mounted in the middle. Ezi was standing by with a tablet computer, waiting for his signal as he turned back to the camera.

“These are small target drones. As you can see, we’ve painted some of them with a little UN logo, which the turret has been ordered not to target.”

He nodded to Ezi, and she hit her tablet, a swarm of three dozen drones rising from the crate with an audible whir. They hovered in position, waiting for further instructions.

“Note the gyroscopic stabilizers on the turret,” Paza added, gesturing to the floating pontoon as it bobbed up and down on the waves. “Even during high-speed maneuvers, a TMY-6 equipped with our software can remain on target.”

On cue, Ezi swiped at her screen, the cloud of drones zipping out over the water. They went through their programmed flight path, swerving and dodging randomly, some rising into the air as others skimmed low over the ocean. The laser turret kicked in, Steven dropping his sunglasses as it swiveled with alarming speed and fluidity, a bright beam of light emanating from its lens. It emitted pulses that held on their targets only long enough to disable them, melting through the polymers and slagging the metal, sending the smoking wrecks tumbling. In the space of a few seconds, all but a few of the drones had dropped into the sea. Those that returned landed on the sand, the turret still tracking them, scrutinizing them with its optics package.

“As you can see, the system is able to detect very subtle differences between targets and act accordingly without direct supervision.” Steven walked over to the crate again, lifting another drone. This one didn’t have the little painted UN logo, and there was a small basket attached beneath it for carrying cargo. “Friend or foe identification and safety features are top of the line. Why don’t we up the stakes?”

He fished in the pocket of his jacket for a moment, then produced his phone, raising it up so that the viewers could see it.

“Having a new one of these shipped all the way out here would be inconvenient, to say the least.”

The holographic observers looked on as Steven gently placed the phone in the basket, releasing the drone to hover in the air. Ezi swiped at her tablet again, and three drones painted with UN logos rose from the sand to join their unmarked counterpart, starting to orbit around it. They headed out over the water, the turret tracking them like a dog following a tennis ball as the little formation began to dart around. Even while rising and falling in the surf, it remained fixed on the white disk, Steven silently hoping that Paza was as thorough as she thought she was.

“The system won’t engage if there are any friendlies in the line of fire,” he continued, gesturing to the drones. The turret almost seemed desperate in its desire to slag the target, but with friendly drones making sure it never had a clear shot, its laser remained dark. “None of this behavior was programmed for the purpose of demonstration. The system was simply fed FoF information and acted independently within the bounds of its targeting parameters.”

“The following is a data sheet containing performance characteristics and the results of our simulations,” Paza added as she used her tablet to forward the files. “Please let us know if you have any questions.”

The clients had a short back-and-forth with Steven and the flock, asking them about various functions and features of the software. They seemed impressed, just as he had hoped, the bombastic demonstration serving as a better pitch than any slideshow could have. The Valbarans were very knowledgeable, but they would occasionally be asked questions they hadn’t planned for, and Steven was able to sweep in to keep the momentum going without them having to pause to reach a new consensus.

By the time the conference call ended, the clients seemed satisfied, their hologram fizzling out to leave Steven and his friends standing alone on the beach. They waited for the camera dome to fold back down into the trunk, then let out happy chirps accompanied by celebratory feather patterns. Even Paza seemed pleased with herself.

“I think we did it!” Ipal exclaimed, hopping on the spot as her green and yellow plumage waved in the breeze.

“That was so cool!” Ezi added. “Did you see the way that laser melted the drones into slag? I never thought we’d actually get to see one in action when we took on this assignment.”

“Do you think the Earth’nay seemed impressed?” Tilli asked, turning to Steven.

“Oh, for sure,” he replied as he allowed himself a sigh of relief. “I guarantee you that none of the competing companies put on a show like that. Thanks for not barbecuing my phone, by the way. You guys did a good job with that software.”

“Was there ever any doubt?” Paza asked with a smirk.

“Very nice work,” Yemi said as he bobbed down the beach towards them, a few Navy personnel emerging from the buildings behind him to tend to their laser. “Everything seems to have gone off without a hitch. The executives were watching the feed, and they’re very pleased with the outcome.”

“We couldn’t have organized any of this without you, Yemi,” Steven replied. “You have to be the most ruthless secretary on the planet to have gotten all of this ready in only a few days.”

“It’s my job to make sure that things run smoothly,” he replied, glancing up from his tablet. “By the way, we’re going to need to collect those downed drones. Environmental regulations won’t allow us to just leave them there.”

“It looks pretty shallow,” Steven said, starting to roll up his pants. “I guess Mister dense-bones over here is gonna have to take care of it.”

“I believe we have a small fishing net on a pole that you can use,” Yemi offered.

“How many drones were there?”

“Thirty-two, not including the ones that landed back on the beach,” Ipal replied.

“I feel like we could have found a more efficient way to do this, but I suppose it was my idea,” he grumbled. “Alright – looks like I’m going fishing.”

“I think we did pretty well today,” Steven said, the wind blowing his hair as their boat sailed back to Kalahar. He could already see the city in the distance, the two fin-shaped buildings that straddled the port rising up above the water. The flock was at his side, watching the seabirds glide along above their heads.

“It was certainly audacious,” Ipal replied. “That’s why the company hired you, after all – to think of things that no Val’ba’ra’nay would.”

“He certainly succeeded in that,” Mima chuckled.

“It’s very strange seeing you without shoes,” Tilli muttered, glancing down at his bare feet. He was holding his dress shoes and his socks in hand, his pants still rolled up past his knees.

“I’m not walking home with wet socks,” he replied.

“I must admit that I was skeptical at first,” Paza added. “After seeing the way the Earth’nay clients reacted, however, I believe it was the right course of action.”

“That office is as good as ours,” he said.

“That remains to be seen, but I am confident,” Paza replied with a smile.

“How long do you think it will take before we know whether we got the contract?” Steven asked.

“It could be as little as a day, depending on how eager the clients are,” Ipal said. “If they want to purchase the software immediately, the initial deal can be signed pretty much without delay.”

“Here’s hoping,” Steven said, watching the port come into view ahead of them.