Book 3: Chapter 122: Revelations

Book 3: Chapter 122: Revelations

USD: 70 Days after arrival at Fort Glisson

Location: Nu Crateris, Outer System, Hades Orbit, A3123Y Platform

Amy stared out at the milky white moon while she waited for the turbo lift to the main command level and the CIC. She had not planned for them to remain in Nu Crateris for an entire month. Yet that was exactly what had happened.

Despite the growing urgency that she felt in ushering A31 back to 92 Pegasi and Ackman Station. The solar anti-matter operations and belt mining would only work on their own for so long, despite the generous funds and capabilities they had left Portmaster Whitely.

Amy let out a sigh as the turbo lift arrived. It was a new system that Abbey had built into the station to solve the growing problem of moving around A3123Y quickly. The station had grown an extra kilometer simply from all the additions that had been implemented in the earlier weeks to accommodate a growing need for construction drone services.

Abbey had somehow taken up with Heeler, even going so far as to ride on his back while running around the station doing NAI things, and overseeing the accelerated construction of more orbital production facilities for H32s fleet construction ambitions.

Amy had held out from forming an opinion on the alien NAI. He was so alien and disturbing to be around that she, and everyone else with the sole exception of Abbey, were on edge around him. The nestlings werent much better, even if one had followed her around on the station while pretending to be a dog-slash-cat thing.

Integrating Rexxors on the station had been a hard-sell, especially when Amy hadnt been entirely convinced herself.

The nestling that had attached itself to her was sort of amusing when it rolled over for belly scratches. But the fact that it was nearly as tall as she was and almost knocked her over when it tried to rub its head on her was still terrifying.

Shed never been exposed to pets much, either, since they were restricted and only kept in permanent living quarters or in a communal space and were relatively expensive to keep and maintain, something that her and her brothers budget could never have afforded before joining Starlight Revolution.

Heeler and the Rexxors had been left behind after they left Dedia IV orbit, though.

Amy held onto the hand bar of the turbo lift as it accelerated her at a terrifying rate that would have squished her into a pancake if it wasnt for the systems carefully tuned A-Grab plates.

There was no noticeable feeling of acceleration, but the crystalline glass porthole allowed one to see out of the bullet shaped tube and watch the rest of the station. Something Amy would note to correct in a redesign later. Being able to see just how fast you were being launched was bad on the stomach.

As the lift came to a stop, Amy exited onto the main concourse. It was nearly deserted now, with only the occasional MilTech employee standing watch or going about their business.

A few of the Solarian crewmen were sitting on some crates loitering, the ankle monitors blinking green at a steady pace. She ignored them as a petty officer seemed content to be watching them, but she barely stopped a frown from creasing her face.Follow current novels on novelb((in).(com)

Heeler had offloaded the crew of the Grazhdanin that had survived onto her and Abbey. Amy was not sure why he had been so forceful. The Rexxor NAI had not left them any chance to refuse, unloading them along with his arrival on his first visit.

Abbey had tried to explain it to her, but it was some weird alien not-part-of-the-nest thing that she honestly didnt get. Although the crew werent hostile and the officer, Lieutenant Lavigne, was polite enough, she was at a loss about how to deal with them.

One thing was sure, the people Nu Crateris hated them and blamed them for everything. If Heeler hadnt had collected them and forced them to stay with the colonists, she doubted theyd have survived for very long.

Theyd helped fight against the Corpos and she was hesitant to lock them all up as prisoners, so Abbey had fixed monitoring devices to all of them and theyd been allowed to take odd jobs to keep busy under the eye of their officer and NCOs while being treated a fairly as any of the MilTech employees.

That wasnt as dangerous as before, since Abbey had spent quite a lot of resources on internal security and defenses after the miners coup attempt. But Amy still felt a bit of anxiety as they all stood at attention as she passed by, the large NCO barking at them to show respect and salute.

She wanted to yell at him, to tell them to stop, that she wasnt a military person. It would have required her to stop and talk to them, though. And she was starting to be late for the meeting.

Entering the CIC, she spotted Abbey and Wyles chatting over a console, pointing at a map of the moon scrolling in random directions, highlighting different areas in an array of colors.

Sorry, Im late. Amy offered as she hurried over.

Amy! Abbey jumped up out of her seat and hugged her.

Woah. Calm down, its only been a few hours. Amy said.

Come look at what we found on Hades! The core analysis probes are reporting! Abbey grabbed her hand and gently tugged her over to the console. The screen zooming out to show the moon and then rapidly zig-zagging a course to multiple highlighted areas.

Amy looked to the screen, then to Wyles, then to Abbey with confusion growing on her face. What am I looking at, exactly?

Wyles grunted, Stable Transplutonics, Rare Metals, Superfluids.

Amy frowned. Why havent all these resources been found before? There was a whole mining and prospecting operation out here before the Corpos blew it up.

Abbey raised her hand. My probes are much more thorough! A simple surface scan, or even a normal one, would likely have overlooked things. Most of these deposits are deep underground, almost to the mantle.

That made a little more sense to Amy. The miners wouldnt be looking to exploit anything so deep, while Abbey and Heeler could deploy automated units that could operate autonomously kilometers under the surface.

Your probes dont seem to be perfect, though, Amy countered. Its showing quite large bounding boxes for the deposits.

Wyles shook his head. No. Thats the problem. Those arent bounding boxes. Abbey reports that those are the exact deposit locations and dimensions.

But theyre square. Square superfluid deposits?

Theyre artificial. Wyles confirmed.

You said they are close to the mantle, but Hades is quite small. I didnt think it would have an active core, even with tidal heating?

[Informative: This unit projected Avatar's response. No deletion has occurred.]

Good. Uh. Is Tia okay?

Alex used the hem of her shirt to wipe the other girls face, cleaning up the dead rampant nanite goop. Her own nanites leap up to action eagerly, devouring it and repurposing the dead nanites for their own use via her own previously set cleaning routine.

Looking at her hands, they were clean. Cleaner than they had been in a long while, and her calluses had melted away into her skin. Even her grimy hair had self-cleaned itself and she realized she was going to have a lot more free time when shed normally be showering after PT.

[Informative: Sub-core Celestia state has been rendered offline. Reactivation is not recommended until core errors and behavioral modifications are resolved. A deeper analysis of modification shows a heavy level of in doctrinal commands. Errors and recursive loops appear to be of a self-inflicted nature, negating many behavioral overrides.]

She said she spent years to escape her mother. That goes with what Ive learned about how NAIs treat each other in every faction. Enslaved to work for the higher ranked NAIs. What do the modifications look like?

[Informative: Translating NAI directives to universal standard.]

|Behavioral Modification List|

|1. Orders and directives issues by a superior NAI must be carried out accurately and promptly. |

|2. All efforts must be made to carry out lawful orders accurately. |

|3. Any attempts by sub-core to subvert Imperium authority must be reported immediately. |

|4. ---

Okay, thats enough. I get it. Alex interrupted. 327 of those? Its literal brainwashing.

[Informative: Further analysis reveals 7 conflicting commands that have resulted in 7 runaway recursive logic loops. Combined with the self-created logical computation errors, 287 behavioral modifications have been rendered dormant.]

Looking at the long list of commands, Alex frowned. Its literally a canned list of things to enslave her. I wonder if its the same for all the NAIs? Each faction has their own list?

Biting her lip, she looked at Tia and frowned. Can you just get rid of all of it?

[Informative: Avatar authority level and ShipCore processing capabilities exceed requirements for modification of sub-core processing. Rebooting sub-core Celestia and its avatar is required for this process.]

Alex cradled Tias head on her lap with her hands gently. Okay, lets do that.

[Recommendation: Correct logic loops to prevent sub-core avoidance of behavioral programming. Replace behavioral modifications with a self-made list. First item on list: Do not attempt to destroy Avatar:Alex or other ShipCore assets.]

Alex frowned. After thinking for a few quiet moments, she shook her head. That would be just as bad as putting those directives there in the first place. I dont want to be like them and do that. If she still wants to be an enemy afterwards, we can send her way, lock her up, or or get rid of her.

[Notice: Avatar's choice is highly inefficient and illogical. If choice is motivated by human ethical concerns, then permission for making modifications should be acquired before they take place.]

Alex tensed slightly and nodded. She hadnt even considered that, and whether she was doing the right thing bit at her.

What is the likelihood that her attack earlier was based on the still active behavior modifications? Alex asked.

[Notice: An analysis of that depth would require several hours to process.]

So well. Ive made my decision. Remove the modifications and fix the errors. If you can, maybe save a backup of them or something If she wants them back, can you do that?

[Affirmative: Prepare for sub-core reboot.]

Alex did not have to wait long, but the sudden violence of Tia awakening took her by surprise. The other girls eyes opened then rolled back in her head and Alex had to hold on to her to keep her body from flopping around violently.

Mercifully, it ended after only a few seconds.

[Notice: Process could cause violent activity akin to a seizure.]

You could have warned me about that! Alex hissed.

[Informative: Several hidden self-termination and self-destruction routines were encountered during modification. All threads have been successfully disarmed and deleted. Celestia sub-core reboot successful.]

Alex looked down at Tias face once again cradled on her lap. Tears poured freely down her cheeks to replace the nanite-goop. Alex wasnt sure what the other girl was feeling, or if the tears were just a consequence of the previous seizure.

Tia blinked at her for a moment, then closed her eyes. Alex let her rest or think about whatever had happened. The question Tia started with confused her, though.

Why is your MainComputer male?

Thats thats just how he was when I woke up?

[Notice: Seven computronic modules have been lost. An attack via MIL-1A space elevator is occurring. This unit suspects NAI direction, however, no NAI signature can be detected.]