It's Hell To Choose (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 9) (29 page)

“And these Puck Battle-Carriers?”

“Those are military units comprised of twenty-seven, forty-foot long shipping containers. The container in the middle is a full E.I.; the surrounding units hold Pucks from 1 through 20 kilograms in weight.”

“I’m sorry, I’ve missed the memo on ‘E.I.’?” Jeo asked.

“Electronic Intelligence. TOM coined the phrase for any ADAM constructed AI unit” Samantha answered.

“Why not just call them AI’s?” he said.

“There is a differentiation between AI and EI. AI are designated as self-aware, EI’s are constrained to deal with specific tasks, allowing a significant portion of their computing power to be focused only on those particular tasks.”

“That would make them pretty damned focused on their role, that’s true” he mused aloud. “How much computing power is in one Battle-Carrier?” Jeo requested.

“I’m sorry, but that information is not available at this time” Samantha responded.

“Well, I could hope to know but no reason for me to know.”

He turned around to sit on the bed and stare at the two project plans again. “So, they’ve taken something we have a lot of and started crafting temporary defensive platforms using Pucks. Different weights and speeds provide different offensive and defensive abilities. Since we are out here in the middle of no-air, we don’t have to worry about wind and aerodynamics. I wonder if they can use rocks …Aw, shit. We can’t pack them efficiently unless they are manufactured a certain way.”

Jeo got back up and went into his tiny bathroom, “Samantha” he called out, “bring up the schematics on the Puck designs that go on the Destroyer, please.”

He came out of the bathroom brushing his teeth as he viewed three models. A cone, a round ball and a Puck, the standard hockey puck design. The cone had the tip ground down, probably for ease of racking and stacking.

Jeo considered what he needed to build and walked back into the bathroom to spit out the toothpaste.

“Samantha, talk with ADAM and see if we can procure the first hundred thousand of each design through existing means. Provide the option to exchange twice the raw material for the finished product if appropriate, and also a small amount of gold, start with five percent of total spend on the purchase order. Route ADAM’s review through Jeffrey and get his input and report back to me.”

“Understood, Jeo.”

He looked at his working schedule. “Take off two weeks from the existing program plan assuming this idea works.”

He puttered around his room for fifteen minutes, trying to decide if he wanted to take anything else to go out to the asteroid belt or not, when Samantha spoke again, “Jeo, Jeffrey is calling.”

“Please move down the two schedules and place his video above” Jeo answered Samantha and turned to the wall again.

Jeffrey’s face appeared above the projects on Jeo’s wall, and he looked around Jeo’s room before smiling, “I see you are almost packed. Ready to go out to the Asteroid Fields?”

Jeo shrugged, “To be honest, this moving around in space is so… ‘basic’ now, that it feels like a special trip, but not a ‘unique’ trip. Does that make sense?”

“I understand. It is amazing how quickly we become accustomed to what was before considered impossible.” Jeffrey turned his head to the side, nodded to someone off the screen and turned back, “So, I have this report from ADAM. Not a bad idea, but why are you requesting this?”

“It’s that schedule you guys want. I figure that the offensive and defensive pucks are pretty generic. It isn’t until you add the gravitic engines to them that they become so damned destructive. If we can either buy existing parts or get them manufactured right now, then we can have something available sooner rather than later.”

Jeo paused for a moment, then continued, “To be fair, it was the use of the containers as defensive and offensive platforms that made me think about this. We are just duct taping this stage of our defense together, right? So, I didn’t believe that we had to be pure asteroid manufacturing just to get ready sooner.”

“Why are you providing twice the raw materials and some gold?” Jeffrey asked, “I think I understand, but let’s make sure I’m not guessing.”

“Off the books” Jeo replied.
 
“Nothing we need is very complicated so we can go to countries with a low tech but solid manufacturing ability and trade versus spending cash. We are going to be raw material rich, but cash poor if we don’t figure something out about banking. We need to create partners where we can to sell off some of this stuff without much fanfare.”

“Ok, Bobcat wins the pot and might I say you are a devious son-of-a-bitch. Glad you are on our team” Jeffrey finished.

“Glad to be here, too. Now, if you could just make it a bit easier to meet people, we might get something going” Jeo added.

“Yeah, well, I think you will appreciate the QBS Crew Quarters that will be on station soon. So, don’t get too comfortable on the Hephaestus; you won’t be on it for too long.”

“Oh? What can you tell me about the Crew Quarters?” Jeo asked, surprised that another ship was coming out to the cloud with them.

“Nothing much, right yet. But, I think you will like it. Your project is approved, but make sure you have the metals to trade with our suppliers, ok?” Jeffrey told Jeo.

“I will, ciao!” Jeo held his smile until Jeffrey cut the line.

“Samantha, drop both project plans and pull up the designs for the manufacturing station.”
 
A 3D wireframe of the station was projected on his wall. “You know what, display this holographically.”

Jeo turned around to find the manufacturing facility MF01 design he had been working on, using structured girders manufactured on site. “Samantha, let’s see what we can source and stick in those forty-foot shipping containers instead of constructing components ourselves. We only want quality components from smaller countries whose currencies are weak against the U.S. dollar.” He turned the model around with his hands and then pulled his arms apart increasing the detail and the size. After thirty minutes, he asked Samantha, “Can you get William on the line?”

“Unfortunately, no. It seems that the Polarus is under attack, so we are not permitted to communicate at this time.”

Jeo turned back to the wall, “Bring up satellite 221 and view,” He saw nothing but white. “Shit! Clouds.”

He dropped to the bed.
 
“Guys, I hope you get through this ok” he muttered.

Outside TBQ Base, Colorado - USA

The afternoon sun was waning as Michael and Boris screamed towards the base. “Lance, we will be arriving in twenty seconds.”

“Michael, can you take care of the group still outside? Eric has been shot three times, but he and the Guardians inside still have them blocked. They can’t get any further, but we don’t have anything available for the outside response at this time without opening more holes inside. Kevin says he would rather not do that” Lance responded.

“Understood, Lance” Michael replied.

“Do we attack as people or not?” Boris asked.

Michael started smiling.

“Uh oh. You are smiling, I’m not thinking I’m going to enjoy this much at all” Boris grumped.

“Oh, trust me, you
will
enjoy this, my old friend. Very much, just wait. ADAM, take us in at a thousand feet, then open the doors” Michael commanded.

“Vat!” Boris turned in alarm towards Michael, “You taking me down? Because I don’t see any parachutes in dis Pod.”

“I’m going to drop you a few yards inside the main entrance, change to a bear and attack those inside from the rear. I’ll grab those outside.”
 
Michael smiled, “This will be enjoyable, I promise!”

“That’s because bullets don’t hit you when you are disappeared, yes?” Boris asked.

“No, they don’t hit me” Michael admitted, “but if they are fast enough and get me while I’m solid, they still hurt.”

Boris grinned, “Good, I wouldn’t want this to be a walk in park for you.”

—
 

 
Captain Julien’s Karet eyes flashed as he listened to the group chatter, “What the hell?” He turned to his second, “Are they actually saying a bear is attacking them?” His second’s face showed confusion, but he nodded in affirmation.

“What the hell is a bear doing in a firefight?” he wondered aloud. “How the hell is there a bear in MY firefight?”

“Sir, we have the first responses from the spy drones.” Captain Julien stood up to walk over to the data specialist.

“Why are all of the incoming data packets so small?” he asked.

“Sir, they are coming back empty. All wireless communication on the base is directed to the internet, none of it hooks into the bases internal systems” was his reply.

“That’s impossible. There is always a lazy ass on the inside that screws up. Or, is that only in the companies I’ve worked with?” he asked out loud.

The specialist agreed. “I can’t say, yet. However, right now the only communication we can intercept is general Internet. We will try to locate a device that connects both externally and internally.”

“At least we got the spyware inside. Now, all we have to do is get it to communicate with the outside.” He sighed and looked up to the top of the ridge, considering all of the people that had been lost so far. “I just don’t want all of this to have been in vain.”

—

“General?” Kevin spoke from his location in the Pit.

“Hmm?” Lance looked up from his board.

“I’m getting information from Tom that the base has short encrypted blasts emitting out.” Kevin supplied, “We are waiting for the encryption to be broken.”

“Well, that explains one part of their op. Insert some sort of spy-tech.” He considered, “Dammit! We are going to need to do a cleanup of the base after this.” He shook his head. “If they would have just given us another month, it wouldn’t have mattered. We would be in Australia.”

“Yes, we would have been gone,” Cheryl Lynn admitted, “but now we have to prove nothing is here so no one attacks our remaining people.” She had gone from being horrified that her kids were not protected on the base to being happy they were with Darryl and Scott, and not here.

Kevin was chewing the inside of his mouth when he spoke to someone on a side channel and then came back, “Just got off the horn with Stephanie and she says that the exit hole is available if we need to start moving people in that direction.”

Lance considered Stephanie’s option, realizing that moving people down the hole would cause additional problems. “No, but close the blast doors. I don’t know what kind of munitions Michael’s friend warned us about.”

Kevin nodded and went back to speaking to his head of Engineering.

“Kevin” Lance said, and Kevin looked over to him, “Interrupt all communications but ours on the base. Nothing but Etheric.” Kevin nodded and passed the information over to the base’s E.I.

—

Eric took a peek around the corner and pulled back. This time, no shots came screaming in his direction. The group had been hearing a bear roaring for the last minute and Eric had been informed that it was ‘one of their team’.

Eric looked over at Gabrielle, who smiled back. She also had her pistols out. The two of them had been commanded to keep this hallway protected and not to let anyone pass. Eric had already been hit three times before he got into the groove. One was on his protected chest, one had grazed his arm, while the other had hit him in the shoulder. Fortunately, it went all the way through and, while very painful, the shoulder was working well again.

Gabrielle didn’t have one hit at all. Damn, but she was going to be giving him shit this whole week.

He raised an eyebrow to ask if they should look, and she swept a hand as if to say, ‘After you’. Eric waved her off. There were some orders that you should follow, and some you should break. Right now, holding this area for the General was one he felt they should obey.
 
Not chasing after his curiosity about why they had a roaring bear coming down the hallway towards them.

From the sound of the gunfire, the bear was getting closer.

—

“Dammit!” Captain Julien swore, “They’ve blocked all communications.” He wanted to rip off his headphones, throw them down, and stomp on them.
 
Staring at the ridge again, he walked back to the video monitors they had set up in their camouflaged tent under the trees. The batteries had been a pain to deal with, and if something didn’t finish in the next thirty minutes, the choice would have to be made to use generators or go dark.