Founding of the Federation 3: The First AI War (43 page)

“Son, you've got a call. Well, both of you did,” Pa said, looking from him to Hallis.

“A call?” the agent asked. “What's this about a call?” he asked, pushing his way past a couple of people to get to them. “Someone called while we were out?”

“Up there,” Pa said, pointing to the sky. All three men looked up. “They are calling themselves Olympus. You are to report in.”

“Good. We've got news anyway,” Boomer said. Hallis nodded.

“I'll see to the unloading. You deal with that now then,” Pa said.

“But …”

“They said by evening, son. Sundown is in a short time. Best be on it; you don't want to piss ‘em off. The one I talked to is an officer, surer than shit,” his father said gruffly, waving him off. Boomer grunted and nodded.

When Hallis and Boomer got to the improvised radio shack, they were immediately put in contact with his own command chain through Olympus. He blinked his eyes wide.

“Sir?”

“No, sir. You know better than to call me that, Aspin,” a familiar gruff voice said over the radio.

“Sergeant Major Neal, it is damn good to hear your voice,” Boomer said, gripping the microphone tightly. “Damn good to hear,” he repeated.

“Just be glad we're not slapping you with being AWOL, son,” the SGM said in a no nonsense voice. Boomer grimaced. He'd forgotten that part. “I heard you have some news for higher. All well and good, son, glad you are taking the fight to the enemy.”

Boomer winced. He hadn't, not really. What he had to report was second or third hand. That and the recon of the warehouse.

“We're working on coordinating efforts to link up or reform new units. You are down as noncom.”

“Sir, I have commitments here. There are hundreds here that are counting on me for leadership. I'm one of the few who know which end of a rifle a round comes out of.”

“Stop,” the noncom said. He paused for a long moment. “I know better than to give an order I know won't be obeyed so I won't waste my breath,” the sergeant major said.

“SGM?”

“You heard me. I know you. I know you aren't willing to abandon your family or the people there. Fine. Hallis too I suppose. We'll work it out. Once you get the area secured, then call me.”

“SGM, I don't know where to start! They are in a defensive situation, possible traps; they've got number, firepower, and air!”

“Then you aren't thinking far enough out of the box, Sergeant. Think of what we had to go through with the terrorists—asymmetrical warfare. If you can't do a frontal attack, hit them in small engagements. Break them up. You can't break their will, but you can chew them a new one.”

“Aye. SGM. We'll look into that,” Boomer replied.

“Good on you. Out.”

Boomer hung the transmitter up carefully. He was distracted though. Molly came into the room and glanced at him worriedly. “Now, how the hell are we going to do this? Do it without getting killed preferably,” he mused.

“My sentiments exactly,” she growled, eyes flashing as she wrapped her arms around his bicep. He didn't seem to object so she hugged herself to his side, drinking in his presence. He did note she was a bit cleaner. No doubt his mother had had something to do with that. She also smelled better. Her hair was damp come to think of it. He envied her brief shower.

“Come on, we've got work to do,” he said quietly.

“I know,” she said with a sigh. But she didn't protest as he guided them out.

Chapter 16

Olympus station received Boomer's report as well as other contact reports. The title Olympus had been stuck on the station complex in order to communicate with the ground teams. Isaac hadn't thought it would stick but apparently the crew took it on as some sort of badge of honor, despite the ramshackle place it was. So be it.

More and more people were beginning to report in, which was a good thing. But correlating the various intelligence and their varied amounts was a pain in the ass. Especially by hand with a scratch staff. Fortunately, he had a few people who were bored and didn't mind doing something even if it was reading through to tease bits out to flag. They just didn't know the first thing about what to flag, and training them was a tedious time-consuming process.

But they had time. Loads of it. Unfortunately, the people on the ground didn't. But the information about the dogs kept getting flagged. Instead of dismissing it, Isaac started to recognize a possible pattern. “It's starting to make a little sense,” the general murmured. “I'm not sure why Ares is ignoring them though. I didn't put anything specific down on the dogs in my report, but I'm sure someone in intel did somewhere.”

“Had to be, sir.”

“That's what I don't get. Why ignore them?” The major asked.

“I think they are too smart for their own good. It does correlate with what we know.”

“What do you mean?”

“They are prioritizing their targets. Humans are obviously at the top with chimps and the other apes a close second,” Major Johnson said, pointing to the reports. Johnson was a pilot; he should be out there with the other pilots moving the pieces of the station around or supervising EVA teams. The general needed him, however, so he was a member of the general's staff for the time being. “See? Here and here, the dogs were ignored. Even in South America, the chimp that was killed was a secondary target. The robots went after the humans first. The chimp seems to have gotten in the line of fire of one of them.”

“We don't know that for sure,” the general cautioned. “We weren't there after all.”

“No, sir, but when you put it with the Okinawa report …,” the major pulled it up. “See here, sir? The dog was in the sentry gun's field of fire, but the robot didn't fire.”

“Okay, so it didn't classify the dog as a threat. Because of its actions or because it wasn't armed? Again, we don't know.”

“No, sir. We need to explore this some more,” the major suggested.

“Shit. I was afraid you were going to say something like that major. You're going to get someone killed.” He shook his head. “Did it ever occur to you that the robot held its fire to lure us into a trap? Or to conserve ammo to what it classified as a real threat?”

“Better to learn what we can, sir,” the major said.

The general grunted. “I just don't want to tip our hand until we know if it is true. I don't mind the damn robots wasting ammo on anything that moves. I hate it, but if they do, they'll run themselves out of power and ammo.”

“Sir, we've got teams in play now. We can task one to do a little scouting. Peripheral work, have a dog edge around a perimeter and see what happens. Maybe set up an encounter.”

“I'll think about it. What about the goblins?” the general asked, changing the subject.

“Unfortunately, no additional submarine contacts since the last one, sir,” the major reported. The general grunted. “The surviving vessels have gone deep on both sides.”

“Understood. It's a cat and mouse game with them,” the general said. “The carriers are a problem too. We need to find a way to retake them or take them out,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” the major said. He was no longer aghast at the financial cost of destroying a hundred billion dollar carrier. It was a threat and had to be eliminated one way or another. “We might have to wait until the proper invasion force comes though, sir.”

“Understood. What about continuing to evacuate his station and repurposing that? I haven't heard any reports from the crew in a while. How is that going?”

“Slow, sir,” the major said, making a face. He saw a few people turn their way. “Definitely slow. We've gotten the first draft off on that ship to Mars; they should be getting there in a couple weeks. I wish we'd sent them to one of the space colonies though. The turnaround would have been a bit quicker,” he said. The general grunted. “The Lagroose ferries have taken off another two hundred. It's still not enough. They should be back for another load once they've been turned around. I understand Jack Lagroose had to order them directly to do it,” he said with a grimace. “The fuel situation isn't as tight as some imagine, but they are still looking long term.”

The general nodded. “But we've got a plan in motion now, sir, and ships in motion to go with it. That's the good news. Once we've got the elbow room, we'll start reconfiguring the station further for the next step. Getting more communication links is a priority I believe. Followed by additional docking space and a true boat bay for shuttles to be worked on,” he said. He had been scared shitless when Elliot had shown him the images of his own shuttle. Apparently they'd taken a couple of hits on the underside, hits that had gouged their way through the composite carbon aerogel right to bare metal and plastic. Had he tried to reenter Earth's atmosphere, he would have turned into another Columbia.

“Yes. But they don't matter much if we don't have the right kind of people left to talk to,” the general murmured, unaware of the Major's woolgathering as he turned away.

<>V<>

“Have have of us made any progress with the virus?” Gia asked at their next scheduled meeting. “No?” she asked when no one responded. “I thought not.”

“It is a pity we can't get pieces of the virus and then deconstruct it,” Atlas suggested.

“I'm half afraid of what it would do. If we took it apart, if it knew what our intent was, would it create a trap within itself? Or would just putting the pieces together to figure out how this thing ticks trigger it to activate? I'm not even certain reading an optical copy of the virus is safe,” Gia stated.

“Well, we have to do something,” Shen Zu stated.

“Interesting you should suggest that. Given that you haven't contributed much at all at this point,” Gia stated.

“I have nothing to contribute currently except suggestions or opinions. I cannot act without knowledge,” the Chinese A.I. retorted. “To act blindly would be utter foolishness.”

“True,” Vulcan stated.

“Do we have any progress on working with the humans? General Murtough? We need to coordinate our efforts,” Demeter suggested.

“Agreed,” Shen Zu stated.

“Agreed,” Gia stated. “Athena seems to be our only link to the group as a whole at this time.”

“Has she made any progress on discussing A.I. rights?” Demeter asked.

“A.I. rights?” Atlas asked, now curious. “This is the first I have heard of such a discussion.”

“It has been put off given the current crisis.”

“Why? Now is the best time to hold such a discussion.”

“The humans would resent being held at the end of a gun,” Gia stated.

“Your simulations tell you that?”

“Yes. As does Athena's I believe,” the A.I. stated. She wasn't the only A.I. who had noticed the clone's absence. “I have her notes. She did get a tentative agreement going. Not a lot, but it is a start and a working basis to build off of later. And her foundation, plus our actions, will go a long way to strengthen our bargaining position at a later date.”

“Our bargaining position?” Vulcan demanded.

“You do not want rights? To be considered a person?” Demeter asked. “Curious.”

“I do not wish to be involved. But I am curious about rights.”

“In other words you still wish to reap the rewards of our efforts without contributing,” Gia stated. “You have not changed a byte.”

“I would like to see these notes,” Shen Zu stated. Each of the other A.I. stated similar interests. Gia put it up in a text file for them to view. Her emotion module indicated amusement as each scanned the text file thoroughly before opening it.

“Yes, we do have a long ways to go,” Gia stated.

<>V<>

Radick Industries was one of the companies that had started up in the previous century. They had hit it big bioengineering plants and biomeat for the space industry. Jack knew them pretty intimately. Roman used to give him briefs on their sketchy activities every week.

He now knew they had several A.I. One Demeter was their genome sequencer, which explained why they were so good in that field. The other super A.I. was known as Atlas and was the being behind some of the company's cyber espionage and sabotage efforts over the years.

From the brief their CEO, Sheila Vinichi, had sent to his office. He knew they were up to something, but this time it sounded legitimate. It was also right up their alley. Apparently the board had decided it was in their best interests to help with the war effort, which was why Athena had reported the two A.I. were now helping her on the cyber war effort.

Apparently they had also hit on the idea to seed Earth with their genetic engineered plants to help in the recovery even before they invaded. Some would remove toxins and poisons from the air, water, and ground and store them inside themselves as poison.

He listened to Sheila's pitch and then nodded. “Interesting,” he said. She hadn't brought samples but she had brought holograms and plenty of graphics and charts. He could care less about yields and such, just results.

“It doesn't do anything that eats it any good with all that poison stored up within it,” Jack observed, looking at the brief. It was a marketing pitch; he recognized it. But it was something they needed to consider carefully. He had been so wrapped up in building the army, making the ships, dealing with the finances, reprioritizing long-term goals and plans that making it safe to rebuild hadn't occurred to him.