Chapter 16: Horti Plans

The canteen was quiet. Craig and his sons sat on the other side of the table from Horti and Aubrey. “Hi, Sean and Harry; I want to pick your brains if I can?” Horti asked.

“Do you want the dirt on, Dad?” Sean asked. “I know where he kept the photographs of himself as a baby.”

Craig blushed.

“No, I have serious questions and advice to ask. My project has begun. I want to consult a Collective database specialist who knows the military supply and logistics systems. I intend to compare our system with theirs using comparable items over similar distances,” said Horti.

“Why compare the Dinnion and Collective military logistics systems?” Harry asked. “The Dinnion one is probably miles better.”

“You guys know the Collective AI people. I like the bugs and will be happy to work with them. The one here should beat the Collective one by a long way, as the AIs here are much more powerful, but I suspect it does not. My supervisor thinks as you do. I think otherwise. The AIs here may be wonderful, but this system is slow. I may not know why, but I want to know if it is slow. External consultants have never compared it to any other similar system, as there is only one military logistics system here. As part of the wider Empire, we have many similar military supply systems to which we can compare ours.”

“Horti, I bet the Naturalista chief Honcho has slowed it for a reason. If she intends to plan a coup, she will use a better system and paralyze the current system,” said Craig. “The Mob saboteurs did something similar in the Cassius Empire.”

“How much time do you have for the project?” Harry asked.

“I have until the end of next year, but I want to finish it this year, Harry.”

“How much time can you devote to it each week?” Sean asked.

“I will spend every afternoon and all Friday on the project. I finish early on Thursday,” said Horti. “I will take an afternoon off if we play borm.”

“I know an outstanding professor who is a database nut. He went to spend some time with Porquenta. We will speak to him and get back to you by this evening,” said Sean. “I think it is a great way to go. Horti, we will help you as much as we can.”

“Grandpa loves this type of problem; I can call him and chat,” said Harry.

“I would love to get him involved, but you know him. If he is interested in an issue, he will pump resources in, and before we know it, there will be one of his thousand-person intelligence teams here. He will meet Horti or hear more about her than he should. We can use Philippa to help Queen Basarab or Orma Chatzke. We could consider getting Porquenta involved if needed but let us steer clear of Dad. We take too big a risk if he meets Horti before the end of the year. We are nearly halfway through the year,” said Craig.

“Tell us what else you have been doing and how long have you been at it?” Sean asked.

“I have been busy for a month. We have six simulator-level connections to the AI, and I can do all the work from a room at the University,” said Horti.

“Is that the best place to be?” Sean asked.

“Most of the students have exclusively worked on the project from the University. I located the army center, which is the base of operations. I decided to spend most of my time on the military base,” said Horti. “I want to be at the center of the operations. It is the only way I will find out what I must.”

“Aren’t you putting yourself in danger?” Craig asked. “How did you get access?”

“I contacted the base and spoke to the general in charge of system improvement. The general was delighted I showed interest in his system and gave me high-level clearance. He also gave me a link and an excellent place to work in the same office as he is. He is friendly and says I am the first student who has shown any direct interest in his area for ten thousand years. The canteen is superb, and I have met many general officers and their senior staff,” Horti explained.

“I wonder how they will react to comparing systems?” Sean speculated.

“I checked out the idea with the general. He likes the idea of comparing the Dinnion to the Collective system. He wanted to know why I chose the Collective. His eyes sparkled as he asked.”

“The bastard believes they are way ahead of the Collective,” said Sean. “He would be less keen on the Uzliumbax. How did you explain why you were considering the Collective?”

“I explained it was the only place I had a viable contact, as I knew students who had studied there. He and his staff are supremely arrogant about their AI and their product. They can’t wait for me to set it up. They think it will take eighteen months.”

“I think a pilot of ten products will tell me 99% of what I need to know, then they can compare ten thousand products while I am out of there,” said Horti.

“What have you found so far?” Harry asked.

“They can’t deliver next door in less than four days. The quick response teams complain the most. They have a warehouse a kilometer away. They can’t even pick up what they need most of the time,” said Horti. “They train every week on a new scenario. Their AI generates a random event, and they must respond quickly. They order crisis-specific equipment and supplies.”

“What happens?” Sean asked.

“There is no urgent supply system. They send a team to pick it up at a base storage center if they can. Many scenarios put them on distant desolate planets with simulated complications preventing them from sending people to nearby bases to look for equipment. I found supplies and equipment are stored in separate locations. That makes it almost impossible for a rapid response to occur. They order and store huge amounts of everything to deal with the most frequent scenarios. It blows the budget, and they get into trouble. They also land up with lots of unnecessary stuff.”

“How reliable is the four-day delivery system?” Sean asked.

“You can get everything you need reliably wherever you are in four days,” said Horti.

“What about the units in the capital?” Craig asked.

“Lots of stuff they need is stored on a planet in a distant location.”

“What is the problem?”

“That I have yet to find. I was thinking about why someone would do it this way. I agree with Craig’s coup hypothesis. Planning a coup, I would ensure a quick response was impossible. I would then prevent delivery by sabotaging delivery from remote locations,” said Horti.