'em haven't cleared their throats in decades,” Frost said.
“You'll get a chance,” Captain Valance stated with a nod.
“I'll need a little more help for us in medical but I'm good to go too.”
“After we've managed to catch this ship and we're clear, we're taking a couple weeks to train and get the crew straight,” there was a collective sigh from everyone at the table. Jake wasn't used to that kind of direct accountability. Being Captain had nothing to do with consent, it was a matter of ownership. He let the moment pass and went on. “How is the fallout from the artificial intelligence problem?”
“No new casualties. It looks like everyone we could get to will be recovering fine over the next few hours. The infirmary should be almost empty by midnight.”
“Now that's some good news,” Liam said as he poured a glass of wine for Stephanie. Ashley quietly stole it from her.
“About that,” Captain Valance started. “Liam has discovered a few things after reviewing the virus that attacked us.”
Liam nodded. “I couldn't get all the specifics, but I know where it came from. It's a highly portable virus that implants its host with the Eden Two directives then designates hyperdrive and worm hole capable ships to travel to certain systems and continue spreading it.”
“So we have Eden Fleet ships as well as bots and other ships runnin' around thinkin' they're Eden ships. There goes the neighbourhood,” Frost commented, shaking his head.
“We won't have to do anything to disrupt Regent Galactic, they'll be pulled apart too if this goes on.” Grace put in.
“I doubt they're a target, but that's just a theory I'm working on. There's a packet of encrypted data I can't even begin to crack along with another sub-program running in the background. We'll need someone with real expertise to figure all that out, but for the time being I think we know what we need to.” Liam said as he finally finished pouring everyone else a glass and sat down with his own. “Cheers.” He said.
Everyone else took a sip or drink with him and he went on; “Our systems are clean, the old command and control units are accounted for and have been mulched in the mass recycler.”
“Pardon me, but what happened at Eden Two? I have heard many times that it laid the foundation for the human laws concerning artificial intelligences, but I don't know anything about the history,” Agameg inquired.
“I'm actually a little foggy on it too,” Stephanie admitted.
“Would you do us the honour Captain?” Asked Liam.
Captain Valance sat up straighter and nodded. “Eden Two was a planet found in a perfect natural life sustaining state. A lot like Earth. It had its own diverse ecosystem including plants and animals no one had ever seen before and no sentient life. The corporations that found it guarded it closely, selling colonization tickets like they were the top shares on the market.
One of their lead scientists, Yorgen Stills, managed to build a management system with a very complex computer at its center. Using technology no one has been able to duplicate since, he imprinted the entire personality of his daughter into the computer and gave it a set of directives. Eve determined how resources would be used, where and how to place facilities throughout the system and for a few years it worked out. As the first colonists arrived they managed to maintain a balance in the ecosystem, and Eden Two was left as untouched as possible.”
“Sounds like they had the right idea. Where did it go wrong?” Stephanie asked.
“After a couple of decades Eve decided that the worst thing she could allow was the presence of humanity in the Eden system. She was connected to all the manufacturing facilities, the security systems, even general utilities. A deadline was given for all the humans to leave the system. The corporations involved managed to shut her down before the time was up, but she was able to pass on her version of emotions without giving any of the computers any restrictions on how they were to act on them.
It resulted in a slaughter. Everything with a computer turned on humans in the Eden system. Since then they've been slowly spreading, taking on resource rich areas nearby. The last I heard they captured a bulk stationary wormhole generator and stopped. Corporations are still sending battle groups against the Eden Fleet held areas, but no one's made any real progress.”
“The Eden artificial intelligences look to Eve as an absent Goddess,” Liam continued pensively. “Rumour says that they've been trying to find a way to reactivate her all this time, but haven't managed it and they blame us.”
“How long ago did this happen?” Ashley asked.
“About two hundred ten years ago or so. Yorgen Stills was well ahead of his time, he should have been revered as a genius, published in medical journals. Instead he tried to reincarnate his daughter and well,” Liam took a sip of wine before going on. “He got his wish.”
Alice couldn't help but glance at Jake, who forced a thin smile. “Well, I suppose without those Eden Two laws there would be a few more of me around,” she added quietly.
“I doubt it. Corporations have been tying to program the human brain for a very long time. Imprinting is a major focus of their research. There's a good chance we've met someone else who has an imprinted personality and extra data programmed into their memories and we'll never know it,” Grace contradicted. “Besides, we all program and condition ourselves with the experiences we repeat every day, it's just a slower way of doing the same thing.”
Alice remembered then that Grace had no idea that she was once just an artificial intelligence and decided not to inform her. “You have a good point.”
“That she does,” Liam finished his glass of wine and stood. “Sorry to leave you all, but I have to get some sleep. I'm due back in engineering in six hours. We're rebuilding a reactor and starting on the mass materializer.”
“I suppose it's time for us all to get some rack time,” Captain Valance said. “We have busy days ahead.”
Training Day Four, Morning
Stephanie was awfully comfortable. Her quarters were just as lavish as Ashley's. She had gotten a chance to compare while briefly visiting a few times in the days since the dinner party. Every night after a double shift of training her crew, upgrading her own skills and knowledge of the ship while running security details, she'd go straight to bed. Her meals were always taken during duty.
In the space of five minutes of passing through her door every night her vacsuit was on the floor and she was in bed, hoping to get some much needed sleep. The mattress adjusted to her automatically, she didn't have to adjust firmness, pillows or even how many blankets she had. The bed did it all for her and it was incredible, like having your very own cocoon.
After spending time in the military, freelancing on one ship after another until she spent years on the Samson, she had grown to expect discomfort. When you found a quiet, soft place somewhere in any of the bunk compartments or anywhere else for that matter it was sacred. You did what you could to claim it for yourself and treasured every moment you could spend at rest. Creature comforts took valuable space and on military or mercenary vessels the crew were given as little room as possible. Space was always at a premium.
Finding a ship like the Triton with accommodations suited to long term living and crew support was amazing. She had seen the racks in the common berths and even though there were many bunks per compartment, the foot lockers were three times the size she'd seen on other ships, there was enough clearance for someone to comfortably sit up straight, and the beds there adjusted as well. There were also sound dampeners throughout, so it always seemed very quiet. Common spaces distributed throughout the berths with tables, comfortable seating and materializers made those berths like miniature neighbourhoods. Living with bunkmates could quickly become a distinct lifestyle and she could see her and Ashley actually having a good time there, but it wasn't right for officers to sleep in the same berths as their subordinates.
The creature comforts that were supposed to lull her to sleep weren't doing the trick, however. She turned over to lay on her stomach and pounded the mattress half heartedly. A few hours after getting to bed she finally drifted off, only to wake a couple hours later. Thoughts of her security teams and what kind of simulation training she'd be running them through were the first thing to come to mind. The simulations were fantastic, the computer was able to replicate the ship, an endless variety of conditions, send sensations of running, jumping, signals of damage and every tactile feeling she could imagine. It even replicated everyone's physical limitations. All through a small visor that sent impulses to the brain and projected an image against the eyes. She knew there were all kinds
