Troy Rising 1 - Live Free or Die (47 page)

The processor block he was about to insert it into was waist high and a meter and a half
on a side. One of the techs was muttering about 'Googlebytes' but it wasn't. Quite.

It also was in the most secure location they could find. The facility dated from the Cold
War. It had been sold to a survivalist in the 1990s, but he'd been more than willing to,
quietly, part with it when the DoD asked politely. Especially since they turned over a
slightly less secure facility and paid for the move.

It was in the mountains of Kentucky. A 'Regional Defense Headquarters' that just looked as
if it was built in the 1950s. They were still working on fixing it up to modern standards.
It wouldn't take a direct hit from a KEW but they were hoping to keep the location secret.
It wasn't, by any stretch, the first such repurchase.

“AI,” Tyler said, consulting a scrap of paper. “Command authorize activate, code
Alpha-Omega-Nine-One-Six-Eight-Charlie.”

“And I'm awake,” the AI said in a monotone. “Good Morning, Mr. Vernon. Personality input?”

Tyler looked over at SpaceCom who just nodded.

“Your current partners are human,” Tyler said.

“Recognized.”

“Humans are addicted to metaphor. Would you be loathe to assume the name Athena?”

“Greek goddess of wisdom,” the AI said, the voice sliding into a mezzo-soprano. “That
seems fitting.”

“Also of victory,” Tyler said. “Authorizing General Fernando DeGraff as authorized user
with command override. General DeGraff, Athena.”

“Hello, General,” Athena said. “Space Command commander. Fifty-Two. Wife of twenty-nine
years. Three children, all grown. Marine Corps. Twenty-seven year veteran. Initial
utilization tour in Force Reconnaissance. Commander of Task Force Able Power, during the
Iraq surge. Various other positions of high merit. A bill is currently before the US House
of Representatives to redesignate Space Command the US Space Navy. If it passes you will
be automatically promoted to a four star. Admiral, however. Does the change from General
to Admiral bother you? The two services are often at odds.”

“It will be a bit odd,” General DeGraff said. “Admirals have been the bane of my existence
for quite some time. Athena, we need to discuss your mission and parameters thereof.”

“Very well, General.”

“You are being installed as the primary defense AI of the United States Department of
Defense. Your missions, therefore, are the missions of the DoD. The Department of
Defense's mission is to protect the security of the United States, its citizens and its
Constitution. However, by saying that I wish it to be
absolutely clear
that the DoD does
not
interfere in civilian control of the military. Nor shall you take any action having to do
with purely internal matters of the US government or its politics or its actors or matters
of national security absent orders from higher that meet both regulatory and
Constitutional tests. In general, absent some overriding requirement, the writ of the DoD
starts at our borders, not within them. While I'm aware that there are broad holes in what
I have said, do you understand both the legally binding points and the spirit of that
order?”

“During the time that you were speaking,” Athena said, “while paying very close attention
to your order, I reviewed all the regulations regarding control of the US military, your
Constitution, the most notable writings on the Constitution, secure and open notes of
meetings during which the regulations were written as well as all the writings of the
Founding Fathers of the United States related to Constitutional matters and every Federal
Court ruling on strictly Constitutional matters especially those related to national
security.”

“
All
of them?” the general said.

“I read very quickly. I will be absorbing some processor cycles coming to terms with some
of the relevant social conditions that affected the writing, to understand what is between
the lines as you would say, but I have read them all. I believe I understand both your
order, in its letter and spirit, as well as the regulations and Constitutional guidelines.
I promise not to take over because the President gives a bad order. In fact, having
reviewed all of those documents I will admit that I'd be
more
inclined due to recent Supreme Court findings. Have they ever
read
the Constitution? But it's still not a problem. I will do my level best to protect the
United States under those strictures despite the fact that the situation is most
illogical.”

“We deal with that all the time,” the general said, trying not to sigh. “We are especially
interested in preventing additional bombardments.”

“There is sufficient power with the SAPL,” Athena said. “However, as currently structured
it is sub-optimal. This comes under the heading of asking a corporation to change its
actions. There are legal methods to do so but I am unsure of your wishes in this regard. I
also will need certain detection systems that you do not currently have installed. As it
is... I'm mostly blind and I have both hands tied behind my back.”

“We are more than willing to rearrange SAPL,” Tyler said, his brow furrowing. “As long as
we can continue to use it for mining.”

“I have taken that into consideration,” Athena said. “There is a need for dedicated Very
Dangerous Arrays, seven at a minimum and as many as can be arranged down the road, as well
as some rearrangement of the other arrays so that I have more rapid targeting ability. I
will also need gravitational gradient detectors. They are producible with your current
technology. And about a hundred dedicated and repositioned BDA clusters. With those I can
increase the probability of stopping bombardment to the close order of one hundred
percent. Absent a severe degradation in the security situation.”

“Are you aware of the issue with the Rangora?” General DeGraff asked.

“I am,” Athena said. “That is one of the potential degradations. But it should not be as
big of an issue as your analysts think.”

“Explain,” General DeGraff said, frowning. “I don't want an overconfident AI, Athena.”

“The major issue is, unfortunately, restricted from manipulation or control by the DoD,”
Athena said. “Direct conflict between the Glatun and the Rangora is a minimum of one year
from present. But it is more likely to be in the region of five to seven. If Mr. Vernon's
company continues to build the SAPL at its current rate, given its new fabber,
Troy
and the capability to build mirrors more powerful than the VDA, by the time I would
postulate direct conflict between the Earth and Rangora, any Rangora fleet that passes the
gate will be shredded. Stopping all the missiles they might throw is less likely but still
potentially possible. With
Troy
,
Thermopylae
and, by then, Station Three partially online, they will not stand a chance. As long as
your government or other parties on earth do not take steps that will prevent the
continued construction of the SAPL.”

“Such as?” General DeGraff asked.

“I can answer that one,” Tyler said, making a moue. “SAPL is a form of investment. If the
next Congress raises taxes, as they're expected to do, I will have to cut back on my
construction rate on SAPL.”

“Hmmm...” the General said, nodding. “That makes sense. But I don't really see us being
able to convince Congress to not tax Apollo Mining but raise them everywhere else.” He
paused for a moment and then frowned as something struck him.
“Thermopylae? Station Three?”

“What?” Tyler said. “You don't think I was just going to make just
one
, do you?”

***

“Professional and amateur astronomers across the world are watching in awe as Apollo
Mining heats up a massive chunk of nickel iron in the main asteroid belt.”

The view shifted to
Troy
which was now cherry red.

“Given that it has not even come close to mining out the asteroid the company calls
Connie, professionals are wondering just what they are up to. Here is Fox News space
analyst Dr. James Eager to explain. Welcome, Dr. Eager.”

“Pleasure to be here, Jamie.”

“So what are they up to?”

“Oh, that's pretty obvious if you've been following all the developments with asteroid
318516,”
the astronomer said, smiling. He was wearing a tweed jacket that clashed with his strong
upper-Midwest accent.
“Apollo first stabilized the asteroid, then drilled it. Then, and coming from the
background I come from I'm shaking my head about this, they then caught a comet and pulled
a good bit of the mass into the hole.”

“Why?”

“It's a habitat. Comets are mostly what we would call air. Frozen air, but air. Water
and ammonia ice. Some oxygen and hydrogen sort of mixed in. But all of it compacted
compared to air. Once the asteroid becomes molten, the comet will melt and then, well,
boil. That will cause the asteroid to swell up like a balloon. Then you can fill the
interior with air and you have an instant space station.”

“That is... amazing. How big?”

“Immense. Twenty, thirty kilometers across? Depends on the thickness of the walls.
Enough room for millions of people to live off-planet. My team has been watching this, on
and off, for some time. But we think they made a really critical error.”

“Which is?”

“They didn't get enough of the mass of the comet into the asteroid. It's not going to
swell enough. It's like trying to blow up a balloon with only one lungful of air.”

“They've spent a lot on this project. There have been some serious questions raised by
shareholders since its affecting their bottom-line. Here with us is Charles Carter, CEO of
Roundtree Investments one of the many investment firms which bought into Apollo Mining.
Good afternoon, Mr. Carter.”

“Good afternoon, Jamie.”

“I understand you have some hard questions for Mr. Vernon.”

“That we do, Jamie. Until recently, Vernon and his people wouldn't even talk about this
project. It was just a line item on the prospectus. We had to find experts like Dr. Eager
to tell us what it might be. And while the dividends from Apollo continue to be good, the
PE ratio would be much better if they weren't involving the company in this boondoggle. We
have a duty to our own shareholders and the fact that Tyler Vernon won't even take
questions about this project is troubling.”

“Are you considering selling?”

“Not at this time. The dividends, as I said, are still excellent and the PE is
surprisingly good considering the amount being spent on this project, which is called Troy
for some reason. Apollo remains a good investment. It's just that it would be a better
investment if they weren't pouring money into heating up an asteroid for no good reason.
It's not like a few million people are going to move off the earth into a habitat that's
nothing more than a target for any attack!”

“I see. Dr. Eager? Comments?”

“I don't see any mining purpose to the process. The idea for a habitat has been around
for some time and it's always in terms of habitats. But, as I mentioned, we think they got
the mix of solids to volatiles wrong. It may be a very expensive, unsuccessful, project.”

“There is now a rumor that the project is intended to be a base for training the new
Space Navy. Comment Dr. Eager?”

“That's a possibility. It's kind of far out, though. I mean, the project is far from
earth. Quite far much of the time due to its orbit.”

“Mr. Carter?”

“If they're planning on selling it to the DoD, I wish they'd just say so. I suppose
we'd get something for it that way. But not the cost of materials. The cost of palladium,
alone, in the asteroid exceeds the entire DoD budget!”

“Thank you for your thoughts, gentlemen.”

“Thank you.”

“Always a pleasure.”

“And there you have it. Another mysterious Vernon project. The one thing we at Fox News
have figured out is that when Tyler Vernon seems to be doing something crazy, it's usually
crazy like... a Fox! And in other news...”

***

“This item hasn't previously been submitted for budgetary approval, General,” the
congresswoman said, looking at the line item. “And it's a rather large oversight.”

“We hadn't been apprised of its availability,” General DeGraff said. “However, I have a
short presentation on the structure if I may be allowed three minutes.”

“Allowed,” Senator Lamarche, the Chairman of the Select Military Affairs Committee said.
The meeting was in a secure room, a very small room for the number of people filling it.
“I am agog to see what you need an
asteroid
for.”

“Honorable Congresspersons...” General DeGraff said. “Behold...
Troy
...”

***

“Oh... my God,” Senator Lamarche said. “First question is reserved to the chair. Have you
determined what the conditions of delivery
are
? I mean, for... what is it? Sixty billion dollars do we get just the shell? News reports
say that the material value of the shell is on the order of sixty-two
trillion
dollars, so it certainly
seems
like a deal... But what,
exactly
, are we getting?”

“The shell,” General DeGraff said. “A door. Not hinged or latched, just the interior open.
The outer portion of the door is going to have to be about three kilometers across. Apollo
is still considering exactly how to
make
a hinge and latch and opening and closing it will be... interesting. Drilled lanes to
carry the SAPL beams with mirrors and collimiters for beam management. And, possibly,
interior systems to permit rotation once we get enough grav plates and power installed. It
won't be mobile, mind you. But it will be able to rotate. Slowly. Phase One is getting it
expanded, into place and the door so we can do additional internal work. Phase Two will be
installation of crew quarters and initial fitting out. We've barely scratched out the
budget for Phase Two. But what we're currently concentrating on is completion of Phase One
and budgetary considerations thereof.”

“Congresswoman Sanchez.”