Chapter 7

Day Five

“How did you know, Admiral?”

Sam asked curiously, stirring John out of his reverie.

“It seems we are going through this frequently, but I must ask how did I know what?” John replied.

He was a bit confused, as the question had come out of nowhere.

“How did you know that there would be a tracking device attached to the ship?”

“Oh, that! Well, what I did was try and put myself in the position the enemy was in. First because of Commander Zan’s description, I made the assumption that the aggressors were the Hruth. From what you have told me, the Hruth covet technology.

“My trophy was about to escape, and I only had time for one action ... I could keep firing, but so far their shields were holding, with the exception of a couple of lucky shots that had penetrated ... or I could put a tracking device on the ship. The shields wouldn’t react to it because it wasn’t a weapon. If I used a tracking device, I could hope the ship would lead me to another planet to conquer and consume. I figured they would probably try the tracking device.”

“John, in this case, you were right. However, there is a small problem. The tracking device has tuned itself to the energy signature of the ship. Any attempt to remove it, will detonate it.”

‘Shit,’ John thought. ‘Shit, shit, shit! Why isn’t this ever easy?’

Then an idea came to him.

He explained to Sam how the army used counter-weights, when they were defusing mines, to keep the trigger from releasing and detonating. Though Sam found the discussion interesting, she couldn’t see how it could apply to this situation.

That was, until John mentioned a device that would emit an energy signature duplicating that of the endangered ship. He brought up a 3D display, and showed her how they could attach the signal generator to inside of the hull section, opposite to where the device was attached on the outside. Then they could seal it off and carefully remove that hull section, and with it, the tracking device and the signal generator.

The hull section and the two devices could then be attached to a deep space probe. John explained that his idea was, to have the probe head off toward a section of space they knew to be uninhabited.

“Commander Zan,” interrupted the AI, “we have two incoming messages. One is a video feed from the Admiral, and the other is a request from the scout ship we were following to soft dock with us.”

“Start the video feed first. Perhaps the Admiral will explain the ship’s request.”

Kirkuria sat in stunned silence as she heard of the tracking device, and the Admiral’s plans to remove it. Who was she to him? She was amazed at how in depth the Admiral had planned, including having a construction drone bring in what he called an ‘EVA suit’. He even offered her time to allow her AI to scan this suit, to verify that it would provide the life support that he said it would. Moments later, she had figured out how to get into the bulky outfit, though she hadn’t lowered her visor yet which would seal and pressurize the suit. Kirkuria started a video to the Admiral.

“As you can see Admiral, I have accepted your gift of the ‘EVA suit’, though I doubt I’ll wear it more than this one time. I understand the risk of a hull rupture or a detonation. I feel secure in that you have done everything you can to minimize the risk to me. For that I truly thank you. However, please understand that although I appreciate your offer to let me board your scout ship while the device is removed, I cannot leave my Command. The construction drone is set to begin the minute I pressurize my suit, so I’m sure that shortly you will hear whether it was successful or not. Regardless, I wanted you to know that you have my heartfelt thanks.”

John watched the video and began to pace.

“Damn that woman and her sense of duty. That suit is only minimally shielded. A strong blast would tear right through it.”

Worrying that maybe he had missed something, or that he hadn’t taken every precaution to ensure her safety, John finally gave up looking at his watch. Time, it seemed, had slowed down to a crawl. All he could do was wait. In his mind, he saw images of the device detonating as the drone removed it, followed by the scout ship imploding. John headed to the replicator and asked for Valium.

“Admiral, if I may? Although Valium may eventually have a calming effect, by the time you felt anything, this crisis would be over.”

She stepped up to the replicator, and said something John didn’t catch. A container of greenish liquid appeared.

John accepted it, and drank it down. He immediately began to feel the effects. It was like having someone massage the knots out of every muscle of his body, all at the same time, unlike Valium (which would have left him slightly groggy for the rest of the afternoon). Moments after taking the liquid, he felt refreshed and revitalized, and completely alert.

“Thanks, Sam, I needed that. You are going to have to teach me what that stuff is.”

“Actually, Admiral, I would prefer to keep that one to myself, until we get some medical personnel aboard.”

John thought about that for several moments. At first he felt very offended. Then he came to the realization that something like that liquid could easily be abused.

“Your right, of course, Sam. Please forgive me for feeling a bit offended when you first refused.”

“Admiral, if you had ordered it, I would have given you the name of the liquid, but only after having advised you of its dangers. Thank you for understanding my reasons for not sharing it with you.”

John reached out to hug Sam, and then remembered to whom he was talking.

“John, if it would make you feel better, try it now,” Sam offered.

John was amazed. He expected the cool touch he’d felt before. He was surprised by the warmth he discovered. He was just as amazed that she was as warm and yielding, as any other woman he had ever hugged.

John realized he had held on a bit too long, when Sam interrupted his thoughts. She announced that they had an incoming video feed. John released her immediately, and stood back, embarrassed.

It took another hour of messaging back and forth, before the tracking device was launched on the probe, the hull repaired, and the scout ship’s shield was back up. The four ships were then soon underway.

“How long?”

Sam furrowed her brow at the unexpected question. John took pity of her lack of understanding, and elaborated.

“How long until those four ships get here to the base?”

Sam nodded her understanding and said, “They are traveling at their maximum speed without initiating their FTL drives. They should be here within three days.”

“Sam, I want to be at the bay when the ships arrive, and not in the middle of a rest cycle. Monitor their progress. If need be, we’ll alter my sleep cycles, so I can be sure to be awake to greet the Commander.”

“Affirmative, Admiral.”

John grabbed a soda, and decided that they needed to get on with the rest of the day’s business. After a few sips, he decided it wasn’t what he wanted. He put it back in the replicator slot. He knew that the Gosnells were going to be waking soon. If his personal experiences were any indication, he wanted to have as much business out of the way as possible.

John got a latte from the replicator. He had the feeling this was going to be another very long day. When Adam suddenly ‘appeared’ in the room, Sam reprimanded him. She reminded him that he needed to start acting as though he had a corporeal form, and threatened to give him one if he didn’t starting acting as if he had one. It was an empty threat, because it was beyond her abilities to do so, but it had its effect.

Adam tried to defend himself by saying that he had done a scan. Had there been anyone but John present, he would have walked through the door. John wasn’t sure how far this discussion might go, so he decided to try and defuse the situation.

“You know, Adam, when I first met Sam, she was nothing more than a disembodied voice. Trust me when I say I found it very disquieting. We both worked on her holographic imaging, so that it would make interaction easier. The reason we did this, was that other than in my planet’s science fiction stories, AI’s do not exist. Even the most advanced computers on our planet still require a keyboard and mouse for full interaction. Someone as advanced as you are, could actually frighten people from my planet, instead of doing what your image was designed to do, which is to give them a sense of calm.”

Adam was silent, and John hoped that by stroking his ego a bit, he might get his point across.

Suddenly, Adam flashed a brilliant smile.

“I think I understand now, Admiral. I have to be able to pass as human, so that I can interact with the people from your planet, and gain their trust. If I couldn’t, then I would be unable to function as anything other than an operating system for the base.”

John was aware that this wasn’t a bit of self-discovery, but simply a part of his programming. However, he decided to allow Adam to believe that it was a new revelation. He had watched his acquaintances interact with their teen children, and had come to realize that self-discovery was an important part of growing up.

“Admiral,” Sam began, “that is all part of his...”

“I know,” John interrupted. “It is all part of the self-discovery he will need to go through, as he matures.”

Sam looked completely confused, but a couple moments later a look of understanding crossed her face.

“Okay, shall we get to the update?”

Sam began by telling John that while he was asleep, she had transferred herself to the Valkyrie. It had been confirmed that John was the only winner in the Big Game drawing, but she offered that she might have a better way to come up with the cash they needed.

That got John’s attention, and he wanted a full explanation. She had explained that she had been monitoring cash flows on Earth and found that the largest surpluses of cash were being held by drug cartels. It was her thought that they could easily siphon off small amounts, and it wouldn’t be noticed.

John noticed the flaw in the plan, immediately.

“It’s a good plan, Sam, but it does have a small flaw. Even though these drug cartels have more money than they could spend in ten lifetimes, they guard it zealously.”

“Sorry, John. I really thought I had hit on something.”

“Before you discard this plan, Sam, I have a couple of questions. First do you have a way of making the money transfers untraceable?”

When she nodded, John went on.

“Exactly how much money are we talking about?”

“There are several that have hundreds of billions of dollars stashed around the world.”

“Sam, if you wanted to, could you leave a trail so it looked like someone was trying to cover their tracks, but had left just enough of a trail that the money could be traced?”

“Yes, Admiral, but why would you want to do something like that?”

“Sam, imagine that you are a ruthless greedy head of a drug cartel. Now imagine that your accountant comes to you, and tells you that one hundred billion of ‘your’ money suddenly disappeared from your accounts, what would you do?”

“If I were the type of person you described, then I suppose I would want to know where my money went, and would do anything to get it back.”

“Precisely, now imagine that two such cartel leaders had this happen at the same time, and that the trail led to each other. In the end, both would be missing one hundred billion.”

“I suppose it would cause what your planet calls a ‘turf war’.”

“Using the laws of probability, what percentage of innocents will be hurt or killed if we do this?”

Sam was quiet for a moment, “One to three percent.”

John was thoughtful for a moment.

“What percentage get killed or injured in the day to day business of the cartels?”

Sam apparently already had this number available because she answered immediately.

“Eighteen to twenty percent.”

This is when Adam came into the conversation.

“Admiral, why is there such a discrepancy between the numbers?”

“Adam, when the cartels first started making themselves known to the drug world, they were vicious and ruthless, especially the Columbians. They would torture and kill anyone who got in their way. In fact, they would first force you to watch them torture and kill your wife and children (if you had any, or any other loved ones you might have), before they started on you. It turned out to be quite effective, but it had a draw back. One day the tables started getting turned on them. They were watching their own wives, children and loved ones being tortured and killed, before they themselves followed. By an unspoken agreement, it seems they started focusing on only the ones they thought were guilty, and leaving the perceived ‘innocent ones’ out of it. However, in their day to day business activities, there is no such agreement.”

Adam was quiet for several moments, and then posed another question.

“So by turning them on each other, there will be fewer innocent people hurt even if they wipe each other out, than if you allowed them to remain in business?”

John smiled broadly at Adam’s conclusions.

“Very well said, Adam.”

Adam smiled back, and John was sure he saw a newfound pride in Adams expression.

“So if you plan on wiping out these two cartels anyway, why not take all of the available cash?”

“Adam,” John smiled, “there are actually two reasons why I’m not taking it all. The first being that there is no way we would ever need that kind of cash. Secondly and more importantly, are the innocents. Although they are not actively involved in the trafficking of drugs, they depend on its income, to live. There will be more than enough money in the accounts so that they will be able to live out their lives very comfortably.”

John gave Sam permission to start, as soon as the meeting was over. He asked her to look for large tracts of land in Wyoming, Montana, and Nevada. He also asked her to look for a large island in the Pacific that they could purchase, once they had the money.

Adam got John’s attention, and said he wanted to discuss some anomalies in the teaching system. This gained John and Sam’s attention.

“I took over from my mother on the sleep learning, about an hour into your last sleep cycle. From the information my mother has shared with me, I have learned that Rhylertian children learn at a set pace. When they reach puberty, it suddenly spikes to three times what it was before, and stays that way until they are young adults. It’s a period of about four of your Earth years. Then as an adult, the learning curve settles down to slightly above the point they were at, as children. Meaning that they can learn for almost their entire life, if that is something they choose, though few do.”

Adam looked at John to make sure John was still following him. When John nodded he continued.

“I mention this so you will understand what I have to say next. Sir, you learn at the rate of a Rhylertian during his puberty growth period ... well, actually, a little above it. It is unknown if this was caused by having the new pathways opened in your mind or if it is a natural ability of the people of Earth.

“Mother had taken the wait and see attitude. I would concur if this were only you. Paul and Martha seem to be learning at a rate close to your own, though. This is going to allow them to assimilate the information they need to learn, much more quickly. However, I have had to respond to multiple alarms sounded by the enhancer, in both Brian and Penelope’s chambers.”

Adam must have read the sudden concern in John face because he said.

“It is nothing to worry about, Sir. It seems that their minds were demanding more information than the enhancer was supplying. I have made several adjustments, but I wanted to point out that they are absorbing information at an alarming rate. I believe the Earth expression is: ‘they are soaking it up like a sponge.’”

“What set off the alarms?”

“Sir, the sleep-enhanced teacher is interactive, but has set parameters. When Brian and Penelope’s minds demanded more information than the units were set to give, it triggered the alarms. After making sure that the children were all right, I upped the program’s parameters.”

“Is there any danger to them?”

“Unknown, Sir. We...” Adam looked up as though searching for a phrase. “We are entering uncharted territory.”

“John,” Sam said, interrupting the conversation for the first time. “When you first came aboard I had to alter the setting on your unit after repeated alarms. I have looked at the data Adam has recorded. Throughout the history of sleep-enhanced learning, there have been a few recorded incidences of exceptional people. They had an exceptionally high learning curve their entire lives, and learned at extraordinary levels during puberty. They were the equivalent of what your planet calls geniuses, yet suffered no ill effects from absorbing information at a higher than normal rate. Granted, none of them were absorbing it as quickly as Brian and Penny are doing; still, it would be my recommendation to allow them to learn at the rate they have chosen. Of course, they will be monitored closely for problems.”

John looked to Adam.

“Sir, I know you haven’t known me long enough to trust me completely, but I concur with Samantha. If you try to slow down their learning, they will suffer a lot of mental stress.”

John looked back to Sam, who simply nodded.

He turned his attention back to Adam.

“I want a cloaked drone monitoring them at all times! If they fart, I want to know what it smells like. Got it?”

Adam tilted his head to the side, and stared at John in confusion.

“Adam,” sighed John, “it is a figure of speech on my planet. It means I want to be notified immediately of any inconsistencies, no matter how unimportant they may seem at the time.”

Adam nodded, and got a far away look. John knew he was having the cloaked drones created, with full scan capabilities, so he turned his attention to Sam.

“Sam, what does all of this mean? I know I am learning faster than an adult Rhylertian, but without a baseline for comparison, I don’t know what it means.”

Sam wrinkled her brow and said, “Hear me out on this, because it is going to sound like I am talking in circles, and covering the same information. But this is new, and difficult to explain.”

When John nodded, she continued.

“You are learning over three times faster than a Rhylertian adult. This means that what it takes them a year to learn, you can absorb in under four months. Before you say anything, let me continue. Trust me when I say that what an adult on Rhyler can learn in a year is quite considerable. On Earth, many of your places of higher education offer doctorate programs, that take a minimum of eight years to achieve.”

John nodded his head, as at least he now felt as though he was on familiar ground.

“An adult of Rhyler could learn the equivalent of at least four of them, in a year.”

John was dumbfounded by the speed at which he was absorbing information. Sam voice brought him back to his office.

“Since you now have some concept of how fast you are learning, then let me further explain that Brian and Penny are learning twice as fast as you are.”

John’s mind boggled. He was absorbing the equivalent of a doctorate degree every month, but Penny and Brian would be absorbing the same amount of information every two weeks.

“It’s begun, Sir,” John heard Adam’s voice say. “The drones will be in place within an hour.”

Since little more could be done, he turned his attention back to the updates. When they were finished, John started on the things he wanted to get accomplished.

The first was altering the moon base’s design. He showed Adam how he wanted all of the doors in the docking bays to be atmospherically tight. After bringing up the plans for the base, he drew in a large hall. It went all around the docking bay, connecting to all of the base, without using the docking bay as an access route.

He explained that much like the aircraft carriers of Earth’s navies, he wanted an elevator that would let down to a maintenance bay. There the ships could be worked on and stored, without maintenance personnel having to leave the area each time a ship wanted to leave the docking bay. The design he had in mind for the maintenance bay was huge. It could easily hold a hundred of each class of fighters they had already designed.

All three of them offered ideas on the design, including a wide channel that led out of the storage area. Since it would take ‘forever’ to use the lift to get topside, the wide channel could be used to launch several fighters at the same time. There would not be a ‘clear air’ problem, as the channel would not be pressurized. The gravatic force field for atmospheric containment would be at the storage area’s end of the channel. John made sure that the channels outer doors were camouflaged, as well. Soon the plans exceeded John’s mental images.

The next sections of the base he wanted to improve, were the housing areas.

He showed Adam how he and Sam had placed a park in the center of each housing area, with real trees and grass, and a projected sky above. He told Adam that he wanted the people living there to be happy. So he wanted to add a gym to every housing area, as well as a theater and a community center, where various activities could be enjoyed. He even thought an arcade would be a good idea.

“John,” Sam interrupted, “I can understand the need for entertainment. We have discussed that on a couple of occasions. But I am curious about the gym. With the genetic alterations, there is really no need for physical exercises to maintain the body’s musculature. What is its purpose?”

John gave a bit of thought to his answer.

“Sam, I was lazy about keeping my body in shape, and therefore my results were rather dramatic. There are going to be people who join us, who are just the opposite. Part of their routine will involve visits to the gym, several times a week. This is just one way to make the transition between their old life, and this one, easier.”

She nodded her understanding, and they got back to work

“Sir, if I may, do you want me to enlarge the main bay doors while I am making the other modifications?”

John looked at him curiously, and asked, “Why would we need to enlarge the bay doors? They don’t affect any of the other areas that we have talked about.”

“I know, Sir, but I noticed that the Chimera class ships are too large for the opening.”

John looked at Adam, stunned by what he had just heard.

Sam brought the plans back up, and Adam was right. It was a small thing, but John felt a bit foolish over it.

“Sir, do you think there will be need to enlarge it later? If so we should do it now, before we have a lot of people up here to worry about.”

“Any ship larger than the Valkyrie will be built and maintained in the spaceport docks.”

Talk soon turned to other things, and John explained the need for a shuttle. Since they were going to start bringing more people and their belongings to the moon, he thought they needed one. He brought up an image of the old Battlestar Galactica shuttles. Both Adam and Sam frowned. John explained that it just had to be functional, not pretty. Adam and Sam started making small alterations to it.

John went to the replicator, and got himself some tea. When he returned the shuttle looked nothing like the image that was there when he had left. In fact it looked like no ship he had ever seen. It was clearly a shuttle, but this one had ‘class’. Its design, though functional, was attractive.

The closest thing John’s mind could come up with to try and describe it, was a cross between a streamlined NASA Space shuttle and those three winged shuttles from The Empire Strikes Back. Even that description only came ‘somewhat’ close. John looked at everything they had added and changed, and told them he loved the design.

He noticed that they were starting to design redundant systems to make the craft safer, without his encouragement. To him it was amazing that the Rhylertians, as advanced as they were, hadn’t considered redundant systems a necessity.

John turned his attention to Sam.

“Now, how soon can you have an AI ready to go to Mars, and start the spaceport?”

“If I use the mainframe from the scout ship, I can have it up and running in perhaps a couple hours of just programming.”

“Let me know when you have it ready, and we will stuff as many construction drones as we can into it, so that construction can get underway that much quicker. Once you have the mainframe built for the spaceport’s AI, then you and maybe Paul (depending on how quickly he catches up on his programming) will go.

“Which leads me to my next question. Sam, would you allow Paul to look through your programming?”

Sam tilted her head slightly.

“I don’t understand, Admiral.”

“I’m guessing that you are unique. Well, now ... you and Adam are unique, since his programming was cloned from you. I would like Paul to look at your original programming and your present programming, and compare the two. Not only will he be able to have a better understanding of you, but perhaps he’ll find a way of using what he learns to repair the ones that the Hruth built or damaged.”

Sam was looking very skeptical.

“I promise, Sam, that he will not alter your programming in any way. In fact, if it would make it you feel more relaxed, show it to him on a separate monitor. Don’t allow him access to a keyboard. That way you are in control of the entire situation, and nothing can be done that you don’t want to have done.”

Sam relaxed visibly when she realized that she would be in control of the situation.

A short while later, the meeting was over.

Adam and Sam headed off to start on their projects, and John headed to what he thought of as the community dinning hall. It sounded better than ‘mess hall’. That, in his opinion, sounded a bit too military-ish. John didn’t want to bother Adam or Sam so he went to the replicator and told it he wanted a wireless monitor and keyboard. At first he thought the replicator wasn’t going to produce anything.

Then a very thin briefcase looking thing came out. John carried it over to one of the tables, and opened it. He was pleasantly surprised to find it was similar to a laptop; but it had a full size keyboard, and what looked to be at least a twenty-two inch wide screen folding LED monitor.

John was about to sit down at his laptop and get busy with the essay entries, when he realized he still had on the ‘dress uniform’. He left the laptop behind, and hurried toward his quarters. He wanted to slip into some jeans, a T-shirt, and cross-trainer shoes. When he entered his quarters, he noticed the door to his office was ajar. He went over to investigate, and found Sam looking at the large screen that lowered from the ceiling. He walked around to where he could see. The entire screen was filled with a high definition picture of an ant crawling across rough terrain. John gave a bit of a shiver because the picture showed details of an ant’s anatomy, that he really had never wanted to see.

“Animal Planet?” John asked curiously.

Sam’s eyes flickered for a moment, as she took stock him and his uniform.

“No, Sir. I was just running a test on some new equipment.”

John watched as the screen flickered, and the size of the ant diminished rapidly. It was crawling across what John’s mind told him, was the nipple of a woman’s breast. John shook his head, wondering if the dream fantasy was still affecting him. The screen flickered again, and the ant was now barely discernable. John was now pretty certain that the tiny ant was crawling across the nipple of a very tanned and well-formed breast. There was a blur of movement, and the ant was gone. However the nipple began to harden at the sudden stimulation, as did John. John came to the conclusion that the owner of the breast must have finally felt the ant’s presence, and had brushed it away.

The screen flickered, and John was looking at the tanned upper torso of a woman who was sunbathing nude; or, at least, topless. Flicker. The woman was definitely sunbathing nude, and it looked like others were nearby. Flicker. Women and men were lying on a large expanse of beach, on beach towels. Most were totally nude. Flicker. The beach was along a coastline that John didn’t recognize. The sunbathers were now nothing more than colorful specks on the sand. Flicker. John was looking at the coast of South America, and realized the beach had been located on the coast of Brazil. Flicker. John realized that the pictures were coming from a high altitude satellite.

“That ... is astounding!”

Sam had been focused on her work. Suddenly, she seemed to notice that he was still there.

“I’m sorry if I’m acting a little distracted, Admiral. I’m in the process of cloning my programming into my old mainframe. It is a sensation so strange that words cannot describe it. I came in here to distract myself, by testing the first of the new satellites. I’m afraid, John, that I cannot stop the nuclear weapons from launching. However, I tried to interpret the spirit of your request, and have acted on it. I have several drones deactivating all of the warheads.”