Temple of S.A.R.A.H. 7: Upgrades (13 page)

I looked at the interested man and smiled. "Athena is back on line and ready to resume her duties, Sir. The only thing remaining is for me to introduce you to her. Although she looks the same and will have the same duties, you will notice immediately that she is a very different being."

Hearlis stood and straightened his uniform. "I admit, I'm kind of nervous about meeting her. I know you said you had to rework her personality, but just how different is she going to be?"

"Not as formal and uptight as the first Athena, but she will still adhere to regulations. She will seem more approachable and less like a rigid automaton. At least, that's what my crew said of her." I shrugged. "I think they're right. That might not be exactly the right type of personality for this application, but I felt that making her more… human, would help the rest of the crew in times of stress. They would also be more inclined to speak to her as a fellow crew member and not as the station AI."

"I think you might very well be correct, Eric. Don't get me wrong, Athena was a really good AI, but she always seemed so cold and impersonal. She was very much like a professional career soldier." He replied, and snorted. "Pretty much like I believed Vance to be before I got to know him."

I nodded agreement. "He was never like that with me. I think it might have been a way to protect himself while the rest of the Alliance was still under the influence of the Veranorian Synod. It must have worked to some degree because he made it all the way to Commodore before he was blocked from promotion. If I may ask, what ever happened to the members of the old Synod?"

He sighed. "They were interrogated before they were remanded to the surviving Veranorian people for punishment. They were executed in a very long and painful way. It amazes me that such a peaceful race could condone the use of such a cruel and painful punishment," he shuddered. "I would have much rather just seen them shot or spaced, anything but what was done to them."

"My Gods, what did they do to them?" I asked.

"They were injected with a slow acting molecular destabilizer. It took most of them almost two weeks to die," he replied and shuddered again. "None of the Veranorians will speak of the incident anymore. The Synod has been 'forgotten'. Which, to an influential and important Veranorian is one of the worst things that can be done to you. The records of the event are still there, but the names and achievements of the individuals are gone, erased, as if they never existed."

Knowing what I knew of the Veranorian people that was probably the worst thing to have happen to them. Among Veranorians, even the lower ranked ones, status was everything.

"Are the Veranorian people still refugees on Novalus?" I asked.

He nodded. "For the most part. Some of them have immigrated to other worlds, but the core of the race is still on Novalus."

"We should look for a new world for them," I said. "They've lost so much it seems a shame to let them live as exiles. In my opinion, they probably see it as a deserved punishment for what happened. If we can give them back the dignity of having a home world, maybe they will finally accept our forgiveness and begin healing."

"That would be a good idea, but very difficult to do at the moment because of the war. It just isn't safe for a new colony world in our present situation," Hearlis replied.

"I wonder… I seem to remember seeing a report on a world that might work for this. We'd have to speak to the Shallans first, but it just might do. The small star called Proxima Centauri has two worlds orbiting it. One of them was noted for being somewhat close to what Veranor used to be. I think it might be much smaller than that world, but if the climate is a match, I would think that would be a good place to start," I said thoughtfully.

Hearlis chuckled. "At this rate, you'll have the whole Alliance relocated to this sector! I'll mention it to the Council. I'm sure they will look into it."

"Thank you, Sir. Now, before I get side-tracked again, how would you like to meet the new AI?" I asked.

"That would be good. Although I do enjoy talking with you, I suppose we should get business taken care of too," he replied grinning.

"Athena? Would you like to meet Lord Admiral Hearlis again?" I asked the room in general knowing that Athena had been listening for her cue.

She materialized beside me. "I would love to, Lord Doctor! I was beginning to wonder if perhaps you had forgotten about me!" she replied teasingly and smiling.

"I could never forget about you, Athena!" I said smiling back at her. "Now, I know you will remember meeting him, but since so much has happened and changed, I would like to take the honor of reintroducing you to the Commander in Chief of the Alliance Military and the Commander of this station, Lord Admiral Hearlis of Novalus. My Lord Admiral, I am proud to make known to you Athena, your new station AI."

Athena bowed to him. "Lord Admiral, I am honored to be of service to you once again and look forward to the opportunity of correcting any wrongs I might have made in my previous incarnation."

"AI Athena, it is I that am honored to have you returned to us. The situation arising from your previous incarnation has been explained to me and there is nothing for you to correct. You were placed in an untenable position in which you did the best you could do under the circumstances. For all of us here, this is a new beginning in a new station. Welcome aboard, Athena," Hearlis replied smiling at her.

"Thank you, Sir. This does seem to be a much different environment from what was in my memory files. I think I'll like it here," Athena replied. "Sir, while I was waiting for Lord Doctor Cowan to introduce me, I overheard the conversation you had about the worlds of Proxima Centauri. I took the liberty of accessing those survey reports and Lord Doctor Cowan is correct, although the planet is half the size of Veranor, there is a world there that closely resembles the environment of Veranor. I have made the relevant data available to you for review, but gave it only a routine priority."

"I appreciate that Athena, thank you. I can look it over during our voyage back to Novalus," Hearlis replied. "I think I have to agree with Eric, you are much more personable now. If you feel the need to speak to me, even if it is after hours or not duty related, please feel free to call. A person can never have too many friends," Hearlis replied.

"Thank you, Sir. I don’t think I could ever tell you how much that means to me. In turn, I would extend the same invitation to you. I would like to think I can be a very good listener, even if you just need to relieve a little stress," Athena replied.

"I'm sure you can count on that happening, Athena. Are you ready to resume your duties here?" Hearlis asked.

"Ready and willing, Sir!"

"AI Athena, command protocol change, add alpha level command authorization," I said. "Authorization, Cowan-Alpha-zero-nine-bravo-omega-one."

Her smile vanished and she stood at attention staring off into space. "Alpha level command protocols open. Additions to Alpha level command list, access verified. Proceed."

I set Hearlis and Brin as the primary operators on the station and closed her access list. She smiled brightly when she returned "Thank you, Lord Admiral, Lord Doctor. I am now able to resume my duties."

"Please do so, Athena," Hearlis replied making it official.

She saluted the Admiral and faded out.

"Wow, you weren't kidding, she is much different now, but I think it might be a good thing. Only time will tell for certain, but I think she might just be about perfect for us. She is definitely someone the crew can relate to," Hearlis said, nodding. "Yes, it's very good to have her with us."

"I'm glad you're pleased, Sir. If you'll excuse me, I'll gather my team and get moving on," I said.

He offered me his hand. "Thank you for bring her back to us, Eric. Safe journey."

I shook his hand. "Altuis Anure, Lord Admiral."

Ares Base

Icarus Plateau

Mars, Sol System

The Mars base was different then the station had been. I could feel it almost as soon as I got off the shuttle. There was more of a feeling of suspicion and distrust here. Reintegrating the new AI would be more of a challenge, since most of the soldiers had more of a personal connection with Helen. Her destruction and the reasons for it had not been forgotten nor had they been forgiven.

Even though I was there to restore her to functionality, there was a great deal of resentment towards me and my team. So much so that Tul-sa kept us on the shuttle until she could call additional guards from Apollo to protect us. She also ordered us to wear our armor at all times while we were here.

When my team began to gripe about the armor, I sat them all back down. "Look, I'm not wild about it either, but stop to consider this; Tul-sa and her people are Marines, they know the other Marines and how they react to things. If she thinks we need to be guarded and armored during our stay here, you better believe she is trying to keep us from having an 'accident'. I don't know about you folks, but I really don't want to get my ass kicked by a bunch of pissed off Marines, do you?"  When they all shook their heads, I continued. "Let's just get our job done and let the new and improved Helen take care of her people. Doc Sharon, you might want to warn her about the animosity she might be facing after we get her powered up."

"I'd planned to Eric. She's a tough old broad, she'll set this bunch straight in no time," the psychologist replied.

Because of the environment here, that being a training base, I had stuck to my original thoughts of a matronly older woman as the avatar, but this time I gave her more of a drill sergeant type of persona. She still had a soft side, and she would show it when needed, but she would also push these men and women to do their best. She didn’t handle any of the actual training, but she should fit in seamlessly with the rest of the training cadre.

"Lieutenant, I think you and I should go see the Lord Admiral while your kids escort my team over to the AI vault," I said, and turned back to the lead tech. "I'll have a quick word with Vance and rejoin you guys before you get her fully powered up."

He nodded to me and finished putting his armor on. Since we had provided the AI support team for the base anyway, I had already briefed them on the new AI and how she needed to be handled. That part of this was already taken care of.

Tul-sa and I left the shuttle and headed for the command complex. We stopped briefly just outside the shuttle so Tul-sa could speak to her grunts before we left.

As soon as we got moving again, she shook her head. "Sometimes I don't understand people. This whole damn base is pissed off at you because you fixed a problem that would have killed them."

"I don’t think that's how they see it, Tul-sa. They don’t have access to the same information you have. To them, all they know is that I killed their AI. Basically, I murdered one of them. The reasons are irrelevant because they didn't know what to look for and simply didn't see it. Marines are clannish at the best of times. They see me as having killed one of their own. It's just that simple," I replied.

"Well, okay, I guess I can see that, but you’re here to correct that. You are here to return the AI. Why are they still pissed off?" She asked.

"Because they also know that I wouldn’t have killed Helen if there hadn't been a problem, so they are worried that the new AI will be worse than the last. You, more than anyone, should know that Marines don't like change. When it's a change they don't understand, they like it even less." I paused.

"I did everything I could think of to keep the new Helen as close to the old one as I could and still allow for the new protocols and command structure. With any luck, they will subconsciously accept that she had simply been sick and was now resuming her duties. More than any other group we've worked with, these folks accepted Helen as one of them. For the new system to work, we need that sense of camaraderie to be restored and maintained."

She nodded her head slowly as she thought about what I had said. "Yeah, that makes sense. I guess working so closely with you has given me a different point of view on this. After I drop you off with the team, maybe I should go talk to a few people and see if I can't get the ball rolling in the right direction."

I snorted and nodded agreement. "It certainly couldn't hurt!"

We entered the command complex and were immediately challenged by the two large Marine guards. That was strange in itself because as a member of the advisory council, I had never been stopped before.

"Lord Doctor Eric Cowan and Lieutenant Tul-sa. We are here to see the Lord Admiral," I replied.

"Do you have an appointment?" the guard asked.

"Enough of this!" Tul-sa said angrily. "You both know damn good and well who this is and what he's doing here. Let us pass or I'll make sure the two of you are scrubbing the sanitary for the next cycle!"

"I'm sorry Sir, but since the 'incident' we have been ordered to stop and question everyone. If you do not have an appointment to see the Lord Admiral I'm afraid you'll have to come back when you make one," the other guard replied.

I nodded. "Okay, I can see that. Hang on a second." I activated my comm and contacted Sarah on Apollo. "Sarah, can you get me Lord Admiral Vance please?"

"Certainly Eric, one moment," she replied cheerfully. I had made certain that the audio was being sent to my external speakers so the two genetic mutations could hear it."

"Now wait just a minute…" the larger of the two began but Vance came on the line, "Eric! How are you doing? I thought you'd landed an hour ago, is there a problem?"

"Yes Sir. I'm down at the entrance to the command area, Tul-sa and I were coming to see you while my team went over to get started on the new AI installation. However, it seems that there are some new security protocols in place that are denying me entry unless I have an appointment with you," I explained.

"I see, I take it the guards can hear me then?" He asked.

"Yes Sir, I didn't want to get shot because they thought I was up to something," I replied.

"I understand. Guards, call for your relief immediately, then you will escort the Lord Doctor and the Lieutenant to my office. If this takes longer than five minutes, your commander better be with you when you get here. Is that understood?"

"Sir, we were just…" the smaller of the two began.

Vance interrupted him. "Did I ask you what you were trying to do, private? I know damn well what you were doing! Now follow my orders before I delete your training profiles! Have I made myself clear?"

Amid the shouted 'Yes Sir's from the two Marines, Sarah entered the conversation. "Please excuse my interruption, My Lords. Lord Doctor, the team is being denied access to the AI vault by the guards. The guards said they do not have clearance to enter the facility."

"Oh, this is not happening," Vance said dangerously. "Guards, stay right there. I'm coming down. When I get there, the entire guard detail better be standing in formation in the quad or I'll ship the lot of you off to guard the consulate on Veranor armed with stun batons!"

Vance broke the connection and the two guards almost panicked. While they frantically called for their commander, Tul-sa led me off to one side to watch the fireworks. "This should be good," she said grinning evilly.

Vance must have cut them a little slack, or perhaps it was because he made a few calls before he actually did arrive at the quad, because it took him almost ten minutes to get there, and I knew his office was only a couple of minutes from the front door. As it was, Marines were still arriving at a dead run to get to the quad in time. They didn't all make it.

Vance stood before the entrance to the command complex and waited until the entire guard unit had assembled. The man in charge of the unit, a colonel turned and saluted their base commander. "Guard detail assembled as ordered, Lord Admiral!"

Vance nodded. Beside him two holograms appeared, one was Athena and the other was Lord Admiral Hearlis. The colonel blanched when he saw the two new arrivals.

"Not a single one of you standing here has the right to wear the uniform you are currently wearing. Take them off. Now," Vance ordered. "Everything off! None of you stupid bastards deserve clothes! Take it all off!" I looked at him thinking this was a rather strange punishment, but from the look on his face as well as the expression on Hearlis' face it was not the time to question the order.

It took them a moment, but the assembled battalion standing at attention in the quad began stripping. It was a mixed sex unit, too, and there were almost as many females as there were males. It clearly embarrassed them very much, but they all stripped to the skin and resumed the position of attention.

"Isn’t that an illegal order?" I very quietly asked Tul-sa.

She shook her head. "No, not when it's clearly a disciplinary action as this is. They have to obey or resign, if they resign they'd still have to strip because they are not allowed to keep any Marine clothing or equipment."

Vance looked out over the now nude unit. "I've had enough of this shit! Lord Doctor Cowan shut down Granny because he was trying to keep her from killing you! Yet none of you stupid fucking knuckle-draggers can figure that out. You should be kissing his ass in gratitude instead of treating him like a convict. On top of all of that, he has come here today to bring her back to you! How do you fucking idiots repay that? How do you thank him and his people for spending the last three weeks working non-stop to fix this? You give him the run around and harass his teams. This stops now!

“As the commanding officer of this facility, and with the agreement and support of the Alliance high command, effective immediately all enlisted personnel are hereby reduced in rank to that of trainee and are assigned to the training command.

"All officers have had their commissions recalled and are reassigned to the officer’s training academy. Master Sergeant Galan, take charge of your trainees."

Unseen by me at least, another group of men and women in training cadre uniforms had arrived at the quad as well. It was to this group that Vance spoke.

"Aye Sir! Alright you maggots! Officer Candidates, report to First Sergeant T'howlen." He pointed to the Simonian NCO so everyone could see where he wanted them to go. "The rest of you dirt bags, right face! Forward March!"

Vance stood and watched them go. Then turned to Lord Admiral Hearlis. "Thanks for helping out, this has been a real problem here. I've been trying to fix it using less drastic measures, but obviously it wasn't working."

Hearlis nodded. "Understood, Vance. You did the right thing. Maybe now the rest of the base will listen."

"Excuse me Sirs, will you really make them repeat their entire training cycle?" I asked. "Making them march through the base nude is pretty bad as it is."

"Yes. When you issue a punishment, you have to follow through on the threat or no one will ever take it seriously. I did issue many threats before resorting to this. I saw the problems growing here, and thought I had them under control. I didn't, and that resulted in today's little bit of fun. I think people had forgotten just how much of a hard ass I can be when it's called for," Vance replied and looked back at Hearlis and Athena who was now standing beside her commander. "Again thank you both for coming."

"Not a problem, Vance. We'll let you get back to work," Hearlis said and with a nod to me, shut down the connection.

"Well, you were coming to see me, what can I do for you?" Vance asked.

I grinned sardonically. "I think you just fixed it. Let me go back and help my team, and I'll come back to your office when we're finished, okay?"

Vance nodded. "I'll make sure to have dinner ready for you. You came straight from Guardian station, and I know you haven't eaten or slept. Hell, you were supposed to spend the night here before you got to work tomorrow!"

"Well, we figured there would be a little more involved with getting Helen reacquainted with her environment, so we thought to start tonight and finish up tomorrow. That way she would have all night to get used to the new systems and maybe re-acclimate to the base. I knew she had a lot of admirers here," I said. "I wasn't expecting the hostility, but I can understand it."

Vance nodded. "Go get Granny back online, then come have dinner with me, both of you. I'd like Tul-sa to tell me about this new drone she's been working so hard on."

I grinned. "If any of them actually call her Granny to her face, she'll likely knock them on their butts! She's still the same in most ways, but I made her a little more forceful."

"Physical interaction? Is that wise?" He asked.

"Very limited physical interaction, the presser and tractor beams she'll have access to will not be strong enough to inflict harm. She couldn't use them if they did. No, we made her more a part of your training cadre and less of a ghostly apparition. I think you'll like the changes." I said.

"Okay, I'll wait with my questions. See you in a little while," Vance replied and let us leave.

Surprisingly, the hostile looks and over-whelming animosity was gone. As we walked over to the part of the command complex that housed the AI vault, we got several friendly nods, a few salutes and even a couple of ‘thank you’s and one outright apology. Until that moment, I had thought Vance had been too harsh on the guard detail. I had been wrong.