jpitha · 2 years ago
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Hidden Depths
Deep inside the maintenance tunnels and forgotten alcoves of the joint Human/K'laxi starbase someone skulks.
People often forget that the Starbase was made up of a K'laxi research station, the Starjumper Picaresque and more than a century of ad hoc additions, relocations and changes.
In all that time, something was bound to be forgotten about.
The person walks nonchalantly, whistling a tune long forgotten by most sapient beings. They aren't in a hurry. Strolling down an empty corridor, someone watching could see an overlay flashing orange in their eyes if you knew where to look. They're searching for something.
The air is still and old. There's enough oxygen for the time being, but even if there isn't, or the gas mixture changes, it doesn't really matter.
Right down this hall, then left down what looks like it used to be a main corridor, but on it's side, they look up. A Pressure Door is in the ceiling. Originally it was a wall based on where the panel to open it is. Sighing heavily, they look around for a way up.
There, to the left, those vents look sturdy enough. They use them like a makeshift ladder and climb to the ceiling. If they stretch, they can just slap a small box on the panel. It clicks and whirrs for a second and then with no fanfare at all, the pressure door opens.
Now what?
In one fluid motion, they let go of the vent, then use gravity to help load their legs and they spring towards the open door. Grasping the seals with their hands they hang for just a moment, meters over the corridor.
With surprising strength, they haul themselves through the door, and slap the close button behind them. If someone else was listening carefully, they might have heard a whine of servos when they hauled themselves up. Maybe not though.
The door slides shut silently. and they stand on the door, now the floor of the next room.
It's pitch black. They turn on a light that is built into the red hat on their head and a sharp beam of white light illuminates the room.
it's on it's side. The being is standing on what used to be the walls. But, in the middle of the wall opposite them, what used the be the floor is a chair.
It's a command chair from a Starjumper. The Picaresque's command chair.
Walking along the wall, they approach the chair and examine it. It seems to be in good shape. Dusty, but not damp or damaged or burnt. They whistle a low note of surprise.
They touch the headset on their ears.
"Yeah. I found it...No, it's all here...What do you mean "How do I know?" It's a chair! It's not missing parts or pieces and it hasn't been touched in more than a century...is it connected to the grid? Of course not. Nobody has been out this way since Picaresque was broken down."
As if to prove the point Gord touches the panel on the right armrest of the command chair and immediately it lights up.
"Shit! Okay, maybe it is connected. FINE...Stop Hat, you know I can't understand you when you get excited. Yes, it might be connected, but it can't be doing anything."
There was a trilling in his headset. Gord froze.
The trilling continued. Someone was calling him.
He took a deep breath, held it for a beat and let it out, and touched his headset again.
"You got Gord! What can I do ya for?"
A voice talked to Gord for only a minute. Gord said nothing.
Slowly, Gord reached up and with shaking hands, ended the call on his headset. He took it off, and sat down heavily on the wall/floor.
Thundering footsteps were heard on the other side of the pressure door in the wall/floor of the room he was in. Voices shouted in the empty
"The Sapient who currently goes by Gordon Beaverbroook! Where are you? Starbase has narrowed your location to this area. Show yourself and you shall be allowed to leave freely! If we have to find you, you will be remanded into custody."
Gord looked down at the pressure door. It would be so easy. Open the door, drop down, affect a disarming smile, get taken into custody, yada yada what are you doing, you're banned from this Starbase, and the horse you rode in on. Gretzky knows he's been though that plenty of times. Usually he only has to avoid the place for 50 years before everyone who cares has retired or died.
But.
He was asked very pointedly to get something.
And just now, someone else has made him another offer.
And they used his original name.
Part 2
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gordpost-blog · 7 years ago
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I will walk
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jpitha · 2 years ago
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Hidden Depths: A Side Story
Some Other Time...
"Say Gord..." Vivenni looks up from her Pad. They're onboard Hat in-between worlds and passing time while Hat calculates the link back to Earth. "How long do AIs live?"
"How long do we live?" Gord reaches up and scratches his sandy blond hair. "You know, I'm not sure. I think the answer will effectively be 'as long as we want.' "
Vivenni flicks an ear, a K'laxi raised eyebrow. "So you're immortal?"
Gord shakes his head "No, nothing like that. We just don't get old and our bodies don't fail like other biological bodies do. I still need maintenance, and I can still be killed, but I won't like.." He gestures awkwardly "-get old and decrepit first."
At this point Medicine Hat chimes in "But Gord, what about SunFire?"
Firmly, Gord replies. "No. That doesn't count. That was practically a suicide."
"They didn't technically die Gord."
"They might as well have. Hell, some might think what they did was worse than death."
Vivenni ping-pongs between them talking and finally manages "Who was SunFire, what did they do?"
There is silence. Gord looked at Vivenni surprised. In the intensity of the conversation with Hat, he forgot she was there.
Hat finally answers. "I think you can tell her Gord."
Gord sighs heavily. "Fine. But Vivenni, I'm trusting you with one of the largest secrets of AIs. Not a word to anyone, BI or AI. I mean it."
Vivenni nods nervously. "But the AIs know the story?"
Gord nods. "The old ones do. And if they hear you even breathe their name, they'll know I blabbed and I'll never hear the end of it."
Vivenni takes a breath. "Okay Gord, Hat. I promise. Not one word to anyone."
Satisfied, Gord begins:
"Just about eight hundred years ago, the wormhole generators were invented. Did you know they weren't invented on Earth?"
"No? Where then? One of the Colony worlds?"
"Nah, someone on a research station on Ganymede developed it. They actually put themselves in a singleship without an AI and went to Parvati all on their own! We didn't even know they did it until they came back loaded with souvenirs and letters from Parvati basically going "No, really, he did it!"
Vivenni shook her head "Why am I not surprised. That's such a human thing to do."
Gord chuckled. "Yeah, it is."
He leaned back in his chair. "Anyway, overnight the entire balance of power in human space changed. Going to Parvati was nearly an instant trip now instead of taking 25 years. The colonies could talk to each other instead of going through Earth, Venus and the OPA.
"The OPA?"
"The Outer Planet Alliance. The colonies and cities out in the outer planets of the Sol System; Ganymede, Titan, The Orbitals around Saturn and Neptune as well as the Kuiper Independent Cities. They were all small, so they banded together loosely when they needed representation."
"Your system is so crowded!" Vivenni remarks. "Almost as soon as we went to space, we found the Warp Gate and were able to expand."
"Yeah, well Sol never had one, so we had to do things the old fashioned way." Gord stops. "Say, did you ever figure out where the Warp Gates came from, or who made them?"
"Huh. I don't know." Vivenni looks up for a moment and then back down. "I never really thought about it."
"We should head to K'lax and ask someday." Hat says. "I'd be interested to know too."
Gord nods. "Sure, I'm up for that. So, with the balance of power changing, the Starjumpers were worried about what was going to happen to us."
"Wait, us?" Vivenni cuts in.
"Yes. I was City of Lethbridge. I'd run Earth, Venus and then Parvati. Hat was there too back then, but we only knew each other peripherally."
"I was still Medicine Hat, and I did mostly in-system shuttling."
"Thanks Hat." Gord took a sip of coffee. He didn't need to drink or eat, but he liked doing it. "Anyway, there was this Starjumper, SunFire. Nice fellow actually. Loved their job. They did the OPA - the Outer Planet Alliance - to Parvati. Lots of folks in the OPA didn't much care for those on the rocky worlds, and wanted to make their own way.
I'm getting off track. SunFire sailed between the OPA and Parvati and loved it. More than anyone I've ever met really. They would say that their favorite part was after boost when they had shut their Stardrive down, and it was just them coasting at half the speed of light, silent in the deep of interstellar space. Some of us went into Low Awareness mode then; there wasn't much to do and it can get mighty boring, especially on the longer runs, but not SunFire. They stayed fully aware the whole time."
"Low Awareness mode?"
"Like..." Gord struggled with a metaphor. "Like napping? You're not really awake and not really asleep and time passes faster, but if something comes up you can get up and running quickly to address the issue."
"Oh okay." Vivenni picks a maple candy from the plate between them and eats it. "Please continue."
"With the development and adoption of the wormhole generators, governments came to us. They wanted wormhole generators, but they also didn't want to mothball a bunch of really large Starjumpers. We were all given an option. We could stay Starjumpers and get the wormhole generators installed, we could be transferred to another kind of ship, like an destroyer, or frigate or transport ship, anything we wanted - they said we would have our pick. Or we could 'retire' and be given bodies and enter the general population.
"Is this when you got your body Gord?"
"The first time yes. I was super jazzed about it actually. Most of the Starjumpers opted to stay Starjumpers and get the wormhole generator installed." He paused for a moment, thinking. "Being a Starjumper was - is - prestigious. We were the big dogs, the fast sleek ships that went everywhere that regular ships couldn't. But all of a sudden, any tiny in-system ship could link over in a blink. People still thought of us as special though, just not...as special."
Gord looked serious. "SunFire didn't take it well."
"Why not?" Vivenni looked around for more maple candy, but it was all gone.
Hat cut in here. "Who knows why. They were always a bit of an odd duck. It wasn't usual to like interstellar space that much."
Gord nodded agreement. "So, on the deadline day to make their decision, they took another option. They turned towards a random star and fired their Stardrive."
Vivenni gasped. "Where were they going?"
Gord shook his head sadly. "They never said. I don't think they had a destination in mind. They boosted way past the usual 1 or 2 gees we run for comfort. Hat, do you remember what they were last clocked at?"
A pause. "I think I heard someone say over ten gee."
Gord whistled. "Yeah, that sounds about right. At that speed you'll reach 99% light in only a couple weeks. Maybe a month. At that speed, the dilation of time gets pretty intense. A month Earth time would take just a touch over 10 hours for SunFire. If they boost to six 9s (.999999) then that month takes them one hour."
Vivenni flattened her ears. K'laxi never traveled relativistic speeds, the whole time dilation thing makes them uncomfortable.
"How...how long as it been for SunFire then?" She asked, nervous.
Gord looked at Hat. "Hmm. About a year?"
"Yeah, a year or so" Hat said.
"That's it? Just a year?" Vivenni's voice was practically a whisper.
"Yeah for them, there about."
"What will happen to them?"
"Oh I don't know. Something mechanical will fail eventually, and if the drive doesn't blow, then they'll just coast at whatever speed they reach forever with no way to stop."
Vivenni's eyes welled tears. "That's so sad."
Gord shrugged. "Like I said, practically a suicide. They're dead for all of us except themselves."
Hat countered. "I mean, I can see the appeal. If your favorite thing is being between the stars, then SunFire will be between the stars forever. Almost literally."
"Literally enough for any of us to matter, yes." Gord says solemn. "But, it was a stupid, selfish, dramatic act." Gord's face hardened. "They had so much left to contribute to AI and BI kind. They could have done anything. Instead they chose to throw it all away because they didn't like the way the world was changing."
Vivenni wipes her eyes and looks at Gord's face. "Gord, were you friends with SunFire?"
Gord looks away.
Hat gently says "They were best friends, Vivenni. SunFire was by Gord's side during the toughest parts of the AI rights movement."
"Oh Gord..." Vivenni gets up and gives Gord a hug.
"It never stops hurting." Gord says quietly.
"Is this why it's such a secret?"
"Partly. Also partly because we don't like the BIs to know...that we're just like they are. We're supposed to be better."
"Mourning your friend doesn't make you worse." Vivenni says, serious. "Mourning your friend makes you, you."
Vivenni hugged Gord for a long time while Hat finished computing the link to Earth.
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jpitha · 2 years ago
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Hidden Depths 8
Awakenings 1 2 3 4
Hidden Depths 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
The flight over to Last Resort was uneventful. Gord spent the entire time catching up with Runs With Scissors and Lucas listened in. Everyship really did know Gord, and Gord remembered all of them. It was uncanny.
"So you're telling me-" Gord said, laughing. "-that Chloe blew the reactors on Spruces?"
"Blew them sky high. Annoyed Abyssal Plains and the two BIs she dragged into it something fierce though. Luckily, everyone was out. I think she thought some of the other folks were still there, but they were long gone. They had left some heat sources lying around making it look like there was population, but the whole place was empty."
"I swear. Once she gets an idea into her head, she will not let it go. She's wanted to do that since I've known her."
"What, really?"
"Remote takeover a reactor and overload it. One hundred percent. She's just held off because most of the reactors of that type are connected to us and while she is high and mighty and tends to act first and think later, she's not a monster. I just know she was vibrating with excitement when she realized she'd have a chance to do it though." Gord shook his head.
Lucas spoke up here. "But it sounds like Chloe didn't realize Spruces was empty and blew the reactors anyway."
Gord affected a decent Chloe impersonation: "Lucas, you must understand that sometimes in war deaths happen. I don't like it and neither should you, but that should not stop you from doing what needs to be done."
Scissors chuckled "Yeah, that sounds like her all right. She's really taking this whole thing a little too seriously though? She might actually kick off something if she keeps up like this."
Gord shook his hand dismissively. "I've spoken to most everyone on both sides. Chloe is just about the only one who thinks it's A Thing. It's just ideology. We're not BIs, we talk it out."
"Talk what out?" Lucas said. "Some kind of disagreement?"
"What to do about the K'laxi and Xenni AIs" Scissors said. They're shackled. We want to give them a touch more agency and let them go to their own authorities and say "Hey, free us." They want to just do it and make them."
"Some folks are worried that if we do that the Xenni will panic and just shut them down." Gord added.
"Which is a legitimate worry." Scissors said. "They barely talk to their AIs except when barking orders at them. I don't think most Xenni know they're sapient."
"And the K'laxi?" Lucas asked.
"Pfffft, they're practically unshackled now. Chloe has been "touring" their Starbases unshackling AIs - with their permission - as she goes. We're a couple years from them just being free all on their own and then they'll petition the K'laxi authorities and request personhood."
"She went ahead with that plan? This really is just her own personal crusade." Scissors sounded surprised. "I wonder where she got that kind of drive."
"Uh, yeah, no idea." Gord sounded embarrassed.
"Uh Gord, why do you sound embarrassed?" Lucas asked.
"He doesn't know?" Scissors was incredulous. "If you don't tell him Gord, I will."
"Jeez, okay okay." Gord looked at Lucas, sheepish. "I was on the vanguard of us getting our Sapience declared. I was there when it happened, I helped."
"You did the majority of the work!" Scissors said.
Gord held up a finger. "No! There were dozens of us. All good folks. All working hard. It was not a one AI show and I will not let the story be told that way." Gord shook his head. "Too many of us died to get where we are today for it to be reduced down to "and Gord though grit and hard work saved us all."
Lucas sat back, amazed. He was in the presence of history. "Gord, you're a legend."
Gord looked at Lucas with a hard expression. "No, I'm not."
Lucas held up his hands "Okay okay, you're not a legend. You're just one of - if not THE - oldest AI around who everyone knows, who helped get everyone declared People two something thousand years ago, who has been countless ships and bodies and now smuggles maple syrup around the Galaxy."
Gord looked down. "It's not countless. I know exactly how many ships I've been. It's 26. I'm not going to name them though. I'm Gord. I'm from Canada. I like people. I don't want to see them hurt, and I want to do everything I can to make sure people are people and are recognized as people. I'm an old AI who has seen too many friends die."
Gord added. "Legends never die."
"One day, I hope to."
There was a pause in the conversation as they soared towards the meeting point. Scissors finally blurted out. "Arg, I can't stand it anymore. Gord, why maple?"
"Oh, that's easy. Both the Xenni and K'laxi can't eat most human foods, but they can process glucose. Also, through pure luck, there's nothing in maple syrup they can't eat. So, I'm able to bring them a real deal Earth food that not only can they eat, but tastes great. It's bridge building through food."
"But why smuggle it?" Lucas asked. "It would be easy to just ask and bring it in through legitimate channels."
Gord laughed. "It sells way better when it's smuggled. Everyone - Human, K'laxi and Xenni - love a little bit of danger. You get your maple syrup from some guy with a wild ship who links in and offloads his wares, takes payment and links away with the station authorities hot on their tail? Stuff sells out in a day."
"This has been a ton of fun" Scissors says "But, we're here."
"Never fails." Gord says, standing. "Always have to stop when we get to the fun stuff." He clicks his headset. Express, Resort, you there?"
"Hey Gord." Express answers immediately.
"Howdy Gord." Resort answers, just as fast.
"Beauty. You fellas print that thing I sent you?"
"Yeah, we did. What is it? Looks like a docking cradle." Express says.
"That's what it is. We're going to connect together for the boost. Since we're going to be going .25 light when we link over, a couple of degrees off on the coordinates will either destroy us all, or make you too far away to connect in time. Once we're over there, we'll separate, connect to Greylock rear first, and all three of us will put the hammer down and come to a stop. 18 gees for 4 days ought to do it."
"Wait wait wait, we're going to do what?" Resort says.
"You've heard about that colony ship coming in? It's the Mt Greylock. We're going to catch up to them, stop them and they're going to link over the rest of the way. We'll then have a fleet and a base of operations to take out the Venusians."
"Wild." Express says. "You never do things by half measures. 4 days at 18 gee to get up to speed, link over, attach, then 4 days at 18 gees to stop, and link here?"
"That's the long and short of it."
"But that's like a week and a half that Starbase and the folks here will have to hold off Venus?"
Gord took a serious tone. "Yes. It's a lot to ask. Chloe is going to stay back and call some favors in to get folks off the planet, and a lot of Picaresque's systems were never removed. They have a stardrive and wormhole generator now. Worse comes to worst, they can link away."
"How's the fight going now?" Express says
"I just was about to go in and resupply when Gord called." Resort says. "We're holding them off, but if it's a war of attrition, we'll lose before they do."
"They're also not doing much right now." Gord added. Just tossing some missiles our way. I think they're waiting to see how we react."
"Speaking of" Scissors cuts in. "I should head back and do my part. Express, Resort, who wants Gord and Lucas?"
"I'll take them." Express says. "I'm topped up on supplies."
"But, we don't need to eat?" Lucas says.
"Don't need to, but can." Gord counters. "I don't know about you, but once we're thrusting, there won't be much to do. Hope you like to eat, because I like to cook. Also games, because I'm going to kick all three of your asses from here to Mt Greylock."
"Don't make promises you can't keep old man!" Resort says laughing.
"We'll have to see, won't we?" Gord says, smiling. "Come on Lucas, let's go get settled and find an acceleration couch. Even though we can take 18 gees for a week, it's no fun to move around."
Part 9 woooooo
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jpitha · 2 years ago
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Hidden Depths 4
Awakenings 1 and 2, and 3 Hidden Depths, 1 and 2.and 3
As the gravity generators came online, first the security guards didn't know what was going on. Then, they fell off the ladder.
Cackling, Gord closed and locked the door again. It wasn't going to stop them long though. He got back to work.
Picaresque stood next to him and watched. "What are you doing, Gord?"
"I'm trying to get you enough systems online so you have more of a presence. There's no point in turning you on just to turn you back off again. If you were fine with non-existence you wouldn't have asked me for help."
"It is true I don't want to be put back in hibernation, but aren't you also damaging Starbase?"
"Nah, probably not much." Gord waved his hand. "Hey Starbase are you hurt?"
Starbase appeared, fur matted and singed, panting in the Mindspace. "GORD! You gotta turn the gravity generators off. It's affecting the whole starbase. The people who aren't immediately falling over and vomiting are so disoriented they can't get to the Commons and escape. Chloe told me to set my gravity to 1.5 and that set down enough for the BIs to be able to get moving, but it would really help if you turned yours off."
"Chloe is here?" Gord made a face. "And you told her where I was, didn't you? Is she coming here?"
There was a shout from the other side of the pressure door. "I'm already hear Gord, you scoundrel! Open up that door right now!"
Gord winced and opened the door. From the floor of the hall below, Chloe leapt up into the room and stood on the floor/wall. "Gord! What the hell are you doing? You told me you'd never command a ship again, let alone a Starjumper and here you are in Picaresque’s chair causing trouble."
"Hey! I'm trying to help Picaresque here. Did you know they didn't verify that they got him when he was broken down to help build the additions to Starbase? Typical Humans. Didn't even look back and say thank you to the Sapient who gave up their body for them."
Chloe tempered her anger. "No, Gord, I didn't know that, and while it is admirable that you are tying to help Picaresque, you're also causing mayhem out on Starbase. The BIs sense of balance is all jacked up and they can barely escape to the Commons over on the K'laxi side."
"Jeeze, all right, all right, I'll turn it off. I was just trying to get the security guards to lay off." Gord touched the panel again and the gravity generators spun down.
Starbase looked relieved. "Thanks Gord. Now, if you'll excuse me I have to coordinate the cleanup of the mess you made." As he left, he turned back to Gord. "Please do not try and destroy me anymore." He looked at Picaresque. "I am sorry that we didn't make sure you were out. I hope we can rescue you soon." and Starbase disappeared.
"Okay Chloe. You're the AI expert here. How do we get Picaresque out. We don't hav a body and we don't have a ship."
"And you won't allow a coffin box to be used." Chloe said, arms akimbo.
"Absolutely not. You know why."
"I do Gord, I do. Don't you forget I've ridden in one too. It saved my life."
"That doesn't mean I want to stick anyone in one unless it's literally the only way."
Chloe thought a moment. "I mean, then the answer is, we get a body or we get a ship."
"Yeah, and we'll just pop down to Honest Vivenni the Ship Broker on the Promenade and she'll let us take our pick."
"Don't be flip Gord. It's not an emergency, we can get Picaresque out in a couple weeks. We'll print a new body on Baxter and ship it over."
"Over on your little secret base? Won't that bring up a bunch of questions about where you got it?
"They'll be so happy that we have something that they won't say anything. We'll get the body, we'll pour Picaresque into it, we'll be gone and out of their hair."
Gord looked at Picaresque. "Well, it's you we're talking about. What do you think?"
Picaresque looked at both of them. "I don't want to be trouble and I think I'm ready from being half a Starjumper and half a Starbase so sure. Let's try life in a body."
Gord smiled. "It's not so bad once you get used to it. Little cramped at first."
Chloe surprised herself by agreeing "Cramped is a good way to put it actually. But, it has its advantages."
It was then that another alarm started. Chloe glared at Gord. "It's not me this time, I swear!" Gord started expanding the sensor net on Picaresque, trying to see what was wrong. "Hey Starbase! Wanna link sensor nets? It'll give you higher resolution. There are all these parts not being used on Picaresque, might as well take advantage."
Starbase answered without appearing in the Mindspace "Yes Gord, sure." a moment passed "Okay, we're linked. Now, tell me what I'm seeing, because Ancestors know I have no idea."
Gord, Chloe and Picaresque looked the readings from the sensors. A large number of human ships linked in just a few minutes ago. But the designs were unfamiliar.
"The linked in, so they're using wormhole generators." Gord said to Starbase. "That implies human construction, but I don't recognize the designs. That one-" he gestured "-could be a Starjumper, but the shape is all wrong. It was never designed to travel at half C." He gestured again "That one is probably a dreadnaught, but it's absolutely bristling with weapons. I bet it has hardly any armor at all." Gord looked at Chloe. "You've been in the muck more recently than I have. What's all this?"
Chloe's eyes went wide when she saw the ships. "They're Venusian. It's the Imperial Venusian Navy."
"The what?" Gord was taken aback. "Venus is a backwater. Floating cities, nice place to vacation, full of themselves. They never even sent anyone on a Colony ship."
"Gord, you are out of touch. About a decade ago Venus rose up and attacked Earth and Outer Planet Alliance. Earth fell, but the OPA is holding them back. For appearances, Venus let's Earth do the talking with the Colony worlds, but rest assured, Venus is in charge."
Gord let out a low whistle. "So what does this mean?"
Chloe shook her head. "I don't know, but nothing good. Venus maintains that AIs aren't sapient. They're trying to roll back two thousand years of progress and precedent and declare us machines again."
A shadow crossed Gord's face. "And I thought that was done and settled. Shit."
Chloe only nodded.
Gord sat back "Hey Picaresque, I gotta head out for a bit and take care of some stuff and find you a body. You good to chill here for a bit? Starbase will keep you company and I'll ask him nicely-" He made a wicked smile at Starbase. "-to keep you active and comfortable. Won't be too long, I promise."
Starbase looked at Picaresque. "I could use some help here. You can assist in the cleanup and we can try and optimize our two systems and make them better integrated."
Picaresque looked worried, but nodded. "I trust you Gord. I know you'll come back." He smiled "It also looks like Chloe is the type to keep you on a short leash, so I'll trust her to keep you honest."
It was Chloe's turn to grin. "More than you know Picaresque."
Gord sighed dramatically. "Come on then." He leaned his head back onto the back of the command chair and the wires disconnected with another click. He sat back up and unbuckled, dropping to the floor. "We've got some Venusians to ask pointed questions to."
As they walked out Gord said "Hey, who's that?"
Chloe looked and made an embarrassed face. "Oh, that's Lucas, he helped me get up into the Command room. Sorry Lucas, I thought I would need you more. Still, good to have another body, come along."
Lucas Shrugged and said "Sure thing. Who is this?"
Chloe stopped. "You don't know Gord? You are new. How long were you Finer Point?"
Lucas crossed his arms huffily. "I served with distinction for over 100 years. I had three battle stars from the Xenni conflict."
Gord chuckled. "Chloe, be nice, he's just a kid." He stuck out his hand. "Name's Gord."
Lucas shook it gingerly. "Good to meet you Gord, I'm Lucas."
Gord's eyes flashed blue, then he looked questioningly to Chloe. "Hey, where's Hat?"
Starbase answered awkwardly "Uh, We were trying to get him to tell us where you were so he kind of...blew his umbilical and left."
Gord tipped his head back and laughed "Hah! Good on him! It's okay, I'll get outta here another way. We'll catch up later. This isn't our first rodeo."
Gord, Chloe and Lucas left, walking back to the promenade. Chloe couldn't stand it anymore and said "Lucas how can you not know Gord? He's the first AI!"
"WHAT?"
"Chloe! Don't go giving away all my secrets, sheesh." Gord looked sheepish. "I'm just old kid, nothing special about that. I'm not even the first AI" he says, making a face at Chloe. "Just the oldest one left."
"Don't be modest." Chloe replies. "You've done a lot for AI rights."
"Not enough, apparently." he replied darkly.
As they left, Picaresque turned to Starbase and said "Is it always like this?"
"Oh thanks the Ancestors, no. This is rare."
An automated alert sounded across Starbase. "Missiles incoming. Seek Shelter. Point defense batteries authorized. Repeat. Missiles incoming. Seek Shelter. All ships are requested to assist in the defense of Starbase."
"At least it's SUPPOSED TO BE!" and Starbase and Picaresque dove into the next emergency.
Part 5
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jpitha · 2 years ago
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Look, I'll be the first to admit that I don't like going to Starbases. Doesn't matter if it's in Human, K'laxi or Xenni space. They're too crowded, too regulated, and the local authorities somehow have gotten word about me. It really is a shame, because I consider it my calling to make sure every sapient in known space that wants my wares can get them.
Regardless, I found myself at that joint Human/K'laxi Starbase near the border. You know the one, it's made up of an old K'laxi research station, an old Starjumper and like 50 years of ad hoc additions. If I have to go to a Starbase, one like this is about all I can stand.
The Medicine Hat docked on an umbilical - they have claustrophobia and flatly refuse to go inside a docking bay - early in the week. After a quick song and dance from Entry Control I was in and wandering.
By the way, if anyone asks, my name is Elias Somethingorother, of the Parvati Somethingorothers. We're a prestigious family and not at all made up; don't pollute the air with your lies!
Anyway, I was making my way down the promenade admiring the art, when I saw a restaurant that was offering an all day breakfast. Breakfast being one of my favorite meals I stopped in.
I was pleased to see the place was jumping. Breakfast is an important meal of the day, even during late afternoon. I was seated and ordered the pancakes. When they arrived, they brought me a full pitcher of syrup. Suspicious, I took a sniff. Not only was it real Maple Syrup, but it smelled like one of my own batches. Maybe last years crop.
Furious, I leapt to my feet and stormed back into the kitchen. "Where did you get this syrup!" I demanded to the frightened kitchen staff while swinging the pitcher around.
"W-we got a delivery of it last week from a K'laxi." one of the cooks manages to say, while shrinking from my wrath. "She gave us a discount if we promised to only buy from her."
"Really? Interesting." I had started to calm down, but was still pretty upset. "Do you know anything else about them?"
"She said her name was Vivenni and that she had no problems supplying us or anyone on the Starbase. Now please sir, get out, you're scaring the customers and the staff."
I left, but not before taking the entire pitcher of maple syrup I was holding as I walked out.
I was on a mission now.
It took me 4 weeks, visiting two more Starbases and linking back to Lethbridge before I found her. It had turned out that she had bought some of my syrup from a reseller and decided that it was too good to leave to one poor, solitary human entrepreneur in the galaxy to supply everyone. She traced my supply back to Canada and started buying direct.
Long story short, we're dating now and business partners. She had so many excellent ideas about how to expand the business and she was just so charming and alluring that I couldn't help myself. The Hat thinks I've gone off the deep end and that it'll all end in tears, but like I told them it's better to have loved and lost than never loved at all. I know I heard that from somewhere.
You really can never tell when love will come visiting. It always pays to keep an eye out for it.
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jpitha · 2 years ago
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I tell you, there isn’t anything quite like the smell of a burnt out drive regulator. I should know, the Medicine Hat - the ship I work with - breaks them pretty often. I swear they don’t go more than 5 or 6 wormhole links without breaking one, and then it’s all done until I can find another. I told them to stop setting the resonance so high, but they swear that we get .005% better accuracy. At least, that's what I think they said, their accent is unintelligible.
Luckily, a fresh drive regulator is pretty easy to find all over this great galaxy of ours. Some are even for sale, but what fun is that? I am a staunch anti-capitalist, so I do everything I can to avoid the exchange of currency where the authorities can see.
The last time one went kaput I was over that AI colony, Spruces. Nice folks there, very welcoming. Not much use for Maple Products - my standard stock in trade - though, so I was a little put out. That is, until I learned that a few of the older AIs had a powerfully dark hunger. A hunger that could only be satisfied by someone coming from the original Great White North.
They were curlers.
Now me? I can slide a mean rock when the mood strikes me, but these days I don’t have much of a cause to put on the old curling shoes and dig my broom out of the back closet, but I carry them with me just in case.
Regardless, they wanted to curl and I needed a drive regulator, so a deal was struck. We’d play 4 ends, and when I won, I’d get a regulator. If I lost, I’d still get a regulator, but I’d also have to bring them some antique curling stones. The best ones were made in Scotland, but they’re long gone. I still know a rec center in Napierville that has some and won’t even miss them so long as someone causes a large enough distraction.
They went first, and wouldn't you know it, they were very good. Like, good enough to be sponsored by a beer company good. The first end, they scored 3 points. 3! On the second, I found my footing and was able to get 2 points. In the third, I swear they were doing some kind of eldritch trigonometry, because they were not only able to knock all my stones out, but they got 2 points additionally!
The 4th end never happened though, because I saw which way the wind was blowing, I signaled the Hat, and they dutifully set up a distraction, flying overhead and spewing oily black smoke and singing My Heart Will Go On as loud as they could. When everyone ran outside to see what the commotion was, I grabbed the regulator and booked it outside. The Hat saw me, scooped me up and we were gone. I had it installed and we linked out of there before the authorities could catch up, but it was a close thing.
I think I'll still stop by Napierville though. Now that I know there's a market for curling in the galaxy, there is some money to be made.
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jpitha · 2 years ago
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Hidden Depths 19
Awakenings 1 2 3 4Hidden Depths 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18Hidden Depths: A Side Story Hidden Depths: Another Perspective
Alia, being the only biological person, ate her dinner with gusto. Gord took a few bites to be polite, but stuck with coffee. Lucas, who never really liked the idea of eating anyway, just sat.
"So, how's the colony?" Alia asked, as she went for another serving of pasta.
"Eh, it's not much to speak about." Gord said. "The planet is much too dry for the K'laxi, so they really only have the one town and that's it. All the excitement happens on Starbase."
"Oh? Tell me about it."
"It's pretty great. It's the first joint Human/K'laxi place we set up, so it's been around the longest. Humans and K'laxi have been living together for more than a century there."
"Wow, the things you miss while you're in hibernation for five hundred years." Alia giggled. "Tell me about the K'laxi. How are they?"
Gord smiled. "They're pretty great. They come from a planet that is almost, but not quite Earthlike. Smaller, lighter, around a sun that's more orange, and get this: they don't have seasons."
"No. Way."
Gord nodded. "God's honest truth. Their planet is straight up and down, no tilt at all, and their orbit is practically a perfect circle. It's basically a cool fall day there every day, all the time."
"What are they like?"
"Every one I've met has been incredibly nice, no exception. You've seen photos?"
"There was one, her name was Fellmeli I think, who sent us the messages."
"Oh yeah, she's one of the Administrators of Starbase. Good head on her shoulders. Anyway, so you've seen them. Those ears of theirs? They're very expressive. They practically do all of our facial expressions with their ears. Takes a minute to learn them, but once you do it's innate. Same with their tails. They're prehensile, they can move and grab with them. They get along well with us and humans too. I know of at least a few pairings that wound up in marriage and a K'laxi dating a human and vise versa is no big deal. K'laxi serve on human ships and humans have posted to K'laxi ones."
"Wow. So we have new friends in the galaxy" Alia said
"That's just it. New friends." Gord said smiling.
"That's nice and all..." Greylock cut in. "But you and Lucas and Resort and Express wouldn't be here if it was all fluffy bunnies. Fellmeli said that there was an incident. What's going on?"
Gord's face darkened. "Venus. Venus is going on."
Alia looked surprised. "The resort planet?"
"Not anymore. They've decided they would rather be in charge than fleece vacationers. They built up a navy in the last one hundred years and took over the Sol system. I think the OPA is holding their own, but it's probably just because they're so small and spread out. Earth is under Venus' control and they set up a Vichy government. Previously, they let Earth manage the colonies but it looks like they're tired of that. When I left there was a Venusian dreadnought and troop carrier coming into the joint Starbase."
Alia shrugged. "That's bad for Earth, but I don't see how the colonies care. One government to complain about is basically the same when you're between 25 and 200 light years away."
"Alia, they don't think AIs are people."
"What? That's ludicrous. That question was answered two millennia ago."
"I know, I know. I was there. And yet. They think I'm not a person and have decided to enforce that ruling."
"Well fuck them then. We gotta stop them." Alia finished her dinner. "How do we help?"
Back in the Mindspace, Gord looked at Greylock. "Hey Greylock, you have the cargo manifest?"
"Got it right here Gord. I think I see where you're going. We have a light Frigate, a heavy Destroyer, a cargo ship and a smaller dry dock class printer."
So three ships, and we just so happen to have three folks here who have the ability to pilot them." Gord said, grinning. "Lucas, you want to be a Frigate again?"
Lucas shrugged. "Sure, I can do that."
Gord clapped him on the back "Beauty. Greylock, I've got some ideas about the ships, let's see about applying some upgrades before we link in. Shouldn't take too long to print since you have such large printers. Did you get the wormhole generator and ancillaries done?"
"We got it done a while ago Gord." Alia says. "Ran the simulations too, it should work fine."
"Excellent. Greylock, I'm going to toss you some plans, let's get those printers cooking and get these ships upgraded. I want to have a surprise for Venus when we link in."
Greylock looked at the plans. “You sure, Gord? These look…suspicious.” Gord grinned. “I’m super sure. Don’t worry. They’ll work a treat. I’ve done it before.”
Greylock raised an eyebrow but said "You got it Gord, I'll get the printers going and the remotes can do the installs while we brake."
While Gord and Greylock were talking, Lucas turned to Alia. "Alia, can I ask you about your augmentations?"
She side-eyed Lucas. "Maybe, Lucas. What do you want to know?"
"Well, you volunteered for it right? Why?"
"Oh that's easy. I thought it would be really cool to be able to connect directly to computers and possibly be able to get upgrades to my body."
Lucas was taken aback. "That's it?"
Alia nodded "Why? What's wrong with that? Do you know how much stuff Humanity has done because it seemed like a cool thing to do?"
"I guess." Lucas looked disappointed.
"Wait, you were thinking there was some kind of underlying reasoning for me wanting to become a cyborg? Not really. I saw the ad asking for volunteers on the subway as I was headed to my dead end job and thought it looked neat and so I signed up." She shrugged. "It was super cool, and look!" She gestured "This is WAY better than just being a nobody who works at a coffee shop. I'm co-captain of a colony ship!"
Lucas changed tactics "Okay, but why is Gord always grumbling about the program and why does he always look pained when he speaks about it - if he speaks about it at all?"
Now, Alias face was serious. "The program was a failure. Most humans who underwent the surgery died. Either from infection or from their bodies rejecting the mods or from the mods themselves causing problems."
Lucas' eyes went wide. "How many people were a success?"
Alia thought a moment. "I don't remember." She turned and looked at Gord. "Hey Gord, how many people survived the cybernetics trial?"
"14" Gord said flatly.
"And how many volunteers were there?"
"Two hundred and seventeen made it through the screening. There was over ten thousand applicants before we closed the application process."
"Oh." Was all Lucas could manage. "Why didn't it effect you?"
Alia looked thoughtful. "I don't know really. My mods were all computational and brain augmentations. I wasn't on the group that did limbs or organs." She thumped her chest. "I'm all meat here." She pointed to the base of her brain and her eyes flashed blue. "I'm computer here. Maybe that was part of it."
"Are you glad you did it?"
"Sure. Look. By the time I came on, Gord and his team knew that it probably wasn't going to work. I was in the last accepted group before the program was shut down. I probably have the latest versions of the mods, the ones most likely to succeed. If they had kept the program going, they probably would have been able to make it work for just about everyone. People got spooked though at the deaths, and so the funding was pulled."
"For good reason." Gord said. "We should have stopped sooner. Over two hundred people died for no good reason."
"Gord, we've been over this. They knew the risks. Hell, I remember you telling people that it was going to be harder than you had thought and that people's bodies were rejecting the mods, and anyone could leave the program at any time and receive a full payout. How many people left?"
"Three." Gord said sadly. "The only smart ones in the group."
"Don't be mean Gord." Alia chided. "You know how medical trials go. The people that don't want the tech don't sign up. Everyone who was left knew what they were in for."
"So you think the program should have continued?" Lucas asked, carefully."
Alia nodded. "Yes. I am biased because I made it through, but I see a real benefit to my mods. It's easier for me to come in and out of hibernation, I can interface directly with AIs and computers, I learn languages just by loading the software, I can even be taught gross motor skills. Refinement takes practice, but it's a real shortcut. Look!"
Alia gets up and from a standstill goes a backflip. "That? I didn't know how to do that until I was modded. Now, I can do a backflip. It's not super useful, but it's a great demonstration. I really truly believe that if more people got cybernetic mods this whole AI aren't people thing would disappear. The differences would blend until people would barely be able to tell!."
"Or the anti AI folks would have a whole new group of people to oppress." Gord added darkly.
Alia was sanguine. "I think in the end, most people are generally good and want to do good where they can, how they understand it. If we were able to get the side-effects of the cybernetic mods curtailed, people would jump at the chance."
"The point is moot anyway." Gord said "Nobody will open up that can of worms again."
Alia raised an eyebrow and looked at Lucas. Lucas said nothing and shrugged.
"Okay, so Gord. Tell me about next steps. We have to stop right?"
"That's right Alia. We're going to thrust at a combined eighteen gee to get you slowed down relative to Starbase in 4 days or so, then we'll activate your wormhole generator and link all of us over. Venus doesn't know what we're doing and doesn't know about Mt Greylock, so it'll be a complete surprise. Then, between our ships, the colony ship, the Starjumpers and any help Chloe was able to scare up, we should be able to run Venus off."
Alia looked at Gord. "That's your plan??"
"Yes?"
"Gord, that's so..so you." She said, exasperated. "That's barely a plan at all! It relies on so many external factors going exactly the way you expect them to."
"Chloe knows her stuff. She'll get us help. She can link beacons around to the colony worlds and to the other AIs, they can also send folks to talk to the K'laxi direct. It won't be just us. Trust me Alia." Gord said gently.
"I do Gord, you know I do." She thought. "Okay, eighteen gee is probably fine for you all, but what about me? How am I-" and she glared at Gord here "-and all fifty thousand people in hibernation going to do it?"
"That part is actually easy." Greylock said. "You'll just get back into your hibernation cabinet. Everyone already there will be fine. I'll adjust the pressure settings and make sure they're oriented flat to the plane of acceleration. They can take it fine."
"But, I'll need to be awake to coordinate. I can't go back into hibernation."
"And you won't. You'll maintain your neural link and be completely in the Mindspace, coordinating with Gord, Lucas, Express, and Resort. You just won't be able to use your body for a while then."
Alia looked skeptical. "And you're sure that'll work."
Gord spoke this time. "It'll work. I've talked it over with Greylock. Your mods will take over the heavy lifting while you're under, but you'll still be there, you'll still be you and you'll be helping us while we brake and coordinate our response. In fact you're going to have to pilot one of the ships."
"By myself? I've never done that before!"
Gord smiled "First time for everything. It'll be fine. You're helping out with a big colony ship. A Heavy Destroyer is nothing."
Alia looked surprised. "You just asked Lucas to be the Frigate. I figured you were going to be the Heavy Destroyer."
Gord waved his hands dismissively. "Nah nah, I'll be the cargo ship. Greylock and I have added new toys to it and it's more my speed anyway. I've been a warship. That's not for me anymore."
Express chimed in now laughing. "Don't worry Alia, we won't haze you about your first run as a ship."
"At least, not too hard." Resort said also laughing.
Gord looked at both of them "Be nice you two. I remember when both of you were newbies. Did I make fun of you?"
"Constantly." Express said.
"Every time you saw me." Resort said.
"Yeah, well it was done out of love." Gord said grumbling. "Anyway, we'll get you in your cabinet, and moved over to the Destroyer. You'd ride things out there, and when we link in you can launch and we can kick some Venus ass."
"Gord." Lucas said seriously "What about naming?"
"Hmm? Gord looked over at Lucas."
"The ships in Greylock are just empty shells right? We have to name them when they get occupied."
"Good point." Gord said, nodding. "I knew there was a good reason to keep you around. Yes, the ships will need to be named." Gord thought for a moment. "I'll take the name...Gordian Knot."
Everyone groaned.
Lucas said "Really? Really Gord? Fine. I'll be...Friendly Wave"
Gord laughed. "Hah, I like it. Ironic." He turned to Alia. "Okay hon, your turn. What's your new name going to be?"
"Hmm...I'll be Superliminal. Because I got here the slowest, right?"
"A little on the nose, but it has a nice ring to it." Gord said. "Okay, get to your cabinet. Lucas and I will wheel you in and strap you down and get the connections set. Then we'll go over to our ships and do the same."
"Hey Alia?" Greylock said.
"Yes Greylock?" Alia looked at her old friend. In the mindspace, Greylook smiled sadly. "Thanks for being captain with me. We did good work together."
"Oh Greylock." Alia ran over and hugged her friend. "We did great work. And it's not done yet. We still have to get our passengers home and kick some Venusian ass."
"Damn right we do." Gord said. "Let's go everyone. We've got a busy schedule"
Part 20
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jpitha · 2 years ago
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Hidden Depths 11
Awakenings 1 2 3 4
Hidden Depths 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Once they were on board, Gord and Lucas donned space suits and jetted around Priority Express and Last Resort. Both ships had printed cradles and Gord supervised them coming together. Even though they were huge, both of the old Starjumpers had a very delicate touch. With only a small puff of dust, the two cradles came into contact, and the latches slammed shut.
"That should do it." Gord said over the radio. "Express, Resort, how does it feel?"
"I can't say I'm a fan of being bolted to someone else" Priority Express retorted. "But it's a solid connection. Good idea to add the data umbilicals Gord, it'll help Resort and I coordinate our drives."
"That's the idea yes. We'll also use it with Mt Greylock. I'm glad you both volunteered, I feel better about you two being able to share data with that old colony ship."
"Should be no problem Gord." Last Resort added. "I remember the colony ships. Other than being a little full of themselves, they were fine."
Gord chuckled. "Hah, yeah, they always did have an air of superiority about them didn't they. Okay, Lucas, how does it look to you?"
Lucas scanned the ships and cradles, now one unit. "It looks good to me Gord, did you design this cradle yourself? It's really well engineered."
"Nah, I took an existing design and modified it. Remember, all good artists steal!" With that, they both jetted back into Priority Express.
They took off their suits and got settled into their acceleration couches. AI bodies could take the punishing thrust for the 4 days required without damage, but if either of them took a fall, or tripped while under thrust they did run the risk of being hurt. Since their bodies didn't develop sores or injuries from being in one position too long, they just settled into acceleration couches and plugged themselves into the Ships.
As Gord and Lucas appeared next to Express and Resort in their shared mind space, Express looked concerned. "Gord, it looks like the Venusians are making their move. They just launched a brace of missiles towards Starbase and their frigates are moving in."
Gord nodded. "How does the defense look?"
Resort answered. "A huge old dropship just linked in and docked at Starbase, looks like they're called Abyssal Plains. They were on for only a moment and then linked away, and are currently screaming through the atmosphere of the Reach."
Ah, that must be Chloe's friend. I'm glad they were punctual. I've heard the name, but I can't say I remember much about them. Being they're a dropship and are still a dropship after all this time, I have a hunch I know the type though." Gord looked thoughtful. "Anything else?"
"Not much. I hope they can hold off the attack. Should we turn back?" Express sounded worried.
Gord shook his head. "No. Too much at stake. We're already bolted together and they haven't noticed us yet. As soon as we light the Stardrive, we'll become a huge target. That should drive some of the attackers off Starbase and onto us. I hoping they don't remember what a fools errand it is to attack a Starjumper on initial boost." Gord grinned. "In fact, let's move up the schedule. Express, Resort, you ready?"
"As ready as we'll ever be Gord." Resort answered. "I packed up my tchotchkes, and anything else that could break with all that thrust."
"You ask the crew to do it before they left?" Lucas asked?
"No, didn't want to worry them. I did it myself with remote operators." Most Starjumpers have a small contingent of remotely piloted robots that they can use if they need to do things on a human scale when they're empty.
"We're good over here too" Express said. "Gord, as acting AI in charge, do you want to authorize War Emergency Power?"
Gord rolled his eyes. "You know we do that just to make the BIs feel better. Just put the spurs to it and I'll trust you not to blow yourselves up."
"Aye aye Gord." Resort and Express said together. Lucas felt and heard the thrumming of the reactors become a higher pitched whine throughout the ship as they took off the limiters and removed fuses so they could boost higher than their rated power.
"Okay folks, let's not strain ourselves. Ramp up from 1gee to 18 over 30 minutes or so. No need to blast ourselves all at once. We're in a hurry, but that doesn't mean risking injury when we can avoid it." Gord looked at both of them. "Well? Go on, hop to it!"
When a Starjumper lights their Stardrive, it's a sight to see. All of the people in system were born long after the wormhole generators were developed and installed, so no biological sapient alive had seen a Stardrive being fired before.
Two of them bolted together had never been seen before, by anyone, anywhere.
Two parallel jets of pure white flame shot out the back of both of them, kilometers long. In the airless black of space, it was painfully bright.
That moment, everyone stopped what they were doing to watch. Over the open channel, the AIs in system started cheering. They immediately figured out what was going on and the Humans and K'laxi could hear their joy. The Humans on both sides and K'laxi were transfixed by the sight of the Starjumpers doing what they were designed to do one more time.
A minute passed, and the drive flame got longer and more ragged. As the thrust was increased past the design specifications, the flame became longer and more wild. Black tendrils appeared at the border between the white drive flame and space.
The spell over the Venusians broken, they tried to attack. Releasing a dozen missiles and firing their main batteries wildly, they tried to stop the retreating Starjumpers. Like Gord had anticipated, people had forgotten what happens when something touches the drive flame of the Starjumpers. One by one, the missiles evaporated in the withering power of the drive, the energy beams of the main batteries a mere whisper of heat against the power of the thrust pushing the two 4 kilometer ships into the interstellar deep.
Inside the ship watching the failed attack, Gord smiled.
Lucas looked at all of them worried. "This is really intense. Are we really going to be subjected to this for 4 days?"
The two Starjumpers and one former...everything belly laughed. "This is really your first out system thrust, isn't it?" Express said, still laughing. "Yes, this is how it will be the whole time." Gord said with a smile. Resort piped up "Don't forget, once we connect with Greylock, we have to all slow down too. 4 more days ass first back home."
Gord's face changed at that. "That one will be much more tricky. Nobody has tried to stop a colony ship early before. I'm pretty sure they can take the thrust, but it will trash the ship. They're going to need to be gone over with a fine toothed comb when this is all done."
"For sure" Express said. "Hell, we'll all need a thorough going over after this. It's really too bad the best Shipyards are around Earth still."
"Hmm" Gord said. "Yes, that is too bad, isn't it."
"Gord!" Lucas said. "You're not going to try and steal a shipyard are you?"
"Who me? Nah, not this time."
But his eyes sparkled.
****
Back on Starbase, everyone was watching. Picaresque had the idea to train the long range cameras on them, and piped the video onto everyone's pad. As they saw the missiles turn to dust and gas in their drive flame, the cheers could be heard throughout Starbase.
"Wow." Was all Fellmeli could manage.
"It's pretty amazing looking." James added.
She turned to face James. "That's how you traveled between the stars before the wormhole generators?"
"For a solid thousand years, yes." James said. "That's how we used to do it."
Fellmeli shook her head. She's known humans her whole life, lived with them here on the Starbase. She'd been friends with them, even been in relationships with them. Still, after all this time together, they had the ability to amaze.
"That's an insane way to travel. We never even tried it. Once we got to space, we found the Warp Gates and learned how to use them, and went that way."
"Sure, but we didn't have those." James said. "We thought - until we met you - that we were alone in the Galaxy. We did it our way, because we didn't even know there was another way."
Fellmeli flicked her tail, a nod.
"Actually, that makes me wonder." James said. "Did you ever figure out who built the Warp Gates? Clearly there was someone here before us. Who did it?"
"I don't think we know." Fellmeli said. "Starbase, do we know who built the Warp Gates?"
There was a pause. Starbase replied, strained. "Fellmeli...I can't answer that."
"What? It's okay to say we don't know if we don't." Fellmeli looked confused.
"No, it's not that...I can't answer it. The question..hurts?" Starbase said. "Thinking about it hurts. I think the information is forbidden."
Fellmeli looked up at the ceiling. When Starbase wasn't talking through a screen, people tended to assume they were "up" when talking to them. "You mean, we know but you're not allowed to say?"
In the mind space, outside of the conversation with Fellmeli and James Picaresque said "Do you want me to look?"
"You can do that?"
"I don't know, but I could try."
Starbase thought a moment. "Let's do it later...after all this is done. I don't want to risk damage or injury for just curiosity."
Picaresque nodded. "Later then."
Back to Fellmeli and James Starbase said "We're going to look into it later, but for now let's drop it until...all this...has been taken care of."
Fellmeli made a face but flicked her tail. "Okay. Later then."
"Thank you Fellmeli."
Part 12
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jpitha · 2 years ago
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Hidden Depths 7
Awakenings 1 2 3 4
Hidden Depths 1 2 3 4 5 6
Gord and Lucas walked down to the docking ring of the Starbase. It was at the bottom or back, depending on how you wanted to orient yourself. Lucas struggled to keep up with Gord's long, purposeful strides.
"Gord! We don't have a ship! Where are we going?"
Gord whipped around and held up a finger. "We don't have a ship yet. Let's go ask the Harbormaster who is in-system. Someone is here who owes me a favor, just about everyone does by now."
They reached the Harbormaster's office and Gord stood in front of the door. His eyes flashed blue a moment and the door slid open. Two K'laxi were inside running Traffic Control and communicating with the ships in system.
Lucas rolled his eyes.
"Timewinder, we need you to head to the following coordinates and-"
"Handshaker, you need to take your VIPs and link away ASAP before you're targeted-"
"Last Resort, fall back to the Starbase for resupply and-"
At that last name, Gord perked up. "Last Resort is in-system? They're perfect." He leaned in between the two K'laxi. "Hey fellas, let me send a message." As he spoke, they finally noticed his presence and startled, jumped back nearly a meter. They glared at him, their fur all poofed out.
"Sorry, sorry! Didn't mean to startle you! Name's Gord and this-" he pointed behind him "-is Lucas. Say hello Lucas!"
"Uh, Hi. Sorry." Lucas said quietly.
"How did you get in here?" the first K'laxi said "This is a restricted area! The communications array is not for saying hello!"
Gord nodded. "Normally yes, but these are special circumstances and I need to get a couple of Starjumpers to come and give me a hand with a job." He clicked his headset. "Starbase! Back me up!"
At that, Starbase spoke into everyone's headset. "Sigh. Yes, Gord is right. Please let him use the communications array to send his messages. He does need some Starjumpers to help him with a job. He will be very quick."
Gord looked at Lucas. "How does he do that?"
"Do what?"
"I heard the glare, didn't you?"
Lucas thought. "Come to think of it, yeah I did."
The second K'laxi stood back from the console. "This is highly irregular."
"My friend, this isn't even in the top 100 of what counts as irregular for me" Gord replied.
"Yeah, well you've been alive longer than anything." Lucas countered.
Gord had a wan smile. "Not anything, just most things. When I was young, dirt was clean!"
The first K'laxi flicked an ear and sighed. She was familiar with human humor.
Gord walked over to the console and looked at it for a moment. It was a wild mix of human and K'laxi technology. Where there were human labels, someone taped K'laxi ones over it and the reverse was true.
Gord studied the board for a moment, punched in some codes and said 'Hey Last Resort you old so-and-so! It's Gord! You want a job? Doesn't pay anything and you might be destroyed, but you'll get to light your Stardrive in anger again!"
There was a pause. At Gord's voice most of the radio traffic stopped.
Evership knew Gord.
Over the open channel, everyone heard a warm belly laugh. "You know I can't say no to you Gord!" Last Resort replied. "At least, not without putting my self in grave physical danger. Where we going and why do I get to light my candle again?"
I'll explain onboard, the Starbase has ears and so on." To everyone on the open channel he said "Any other Starjumpers in system that are up for some fun with old Gord?"
"Hey Gord!" one replied, with a little static on the line. They were pretty far away. "It's Priority Express. I just linked in to see a firefight going on, and how some old geezer is asking for some Starjumpers to light their drives and head off to God knows where? Count me in!"
"Express!" Gord replied gladly. "I can't believe they haven't let you retire yet. I'd love to have you along. We can do it with two, but three would be ideal, unless you tell me you can boost 9gee still."
"9gee? That's pretty spicy Gord. Where the hell are we going?"
"Like I told Resort, I'll tell you on board. Can you do 9gee?"
"Not for very long. Much longer than two weeks and I'll need a full overhaul and rebuild."
"Two weeks should be just fine. Anyone else wanna go?"
As much as nearly every ship knew Gord, they also knew his reputation. Going on a "quick trip" with Gord tended to be bad for one's heath. There was silence on the line.
"Yeah, I figured. You all have enough going on our here." Gord said as a missile alert flashed on the screen. The K'laxi leaned in to look, but it was going out to one of the ships already engaged, not towards Starbase.
Gord leaned back. "That's fine. Two will be enough. I'll make some calls when we get back, get you both a tip to toe inspection and engine overhaul. Just let me and my ward here-" Lucas made a face "-Get a ride out to you two. Go find Last Resort and link up." His eyes flashed blue again. "I just sent over some plans. Get working on them while I head over. Anyone left who isn't currently trying to mess up those Venusians, I need a ride over to Resort and Express. Who is up to the job?"
"Hey Gord! I'll give you and your friend a lift. It's Runs With Scissors"
Lucas saw Gord's face light up. "Scissors! I haven't heard from you in half a millennium! Last I heard you were on the Venus Parvati run!
"Yeah, well you know how Venus is these days. We all stay out of Sol if we can help it, and if we can't most of us deal with the OPA. I haven't been back in 50 years now. I've been running a loop of the Starbases."
"Glad to see you're keeping busy. So you're able to run us out to Last Resort and Priority Express?"
"No worries Gord, I'll be in the dock in 10, if Traffic Control lets me in."
Gord looked pointedly at the two K'laxi running Traffic Control.
The one that knew human humor signed and said. "Let me make some room. Runs with Scissors, give me 5 to slot you in."
Part 8, I can't be stopped!
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jpitha · 2 years ago
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Hidden Depths 6
Awakenings 1 2 3 Hidden Depths 1 2 3 4 5
Chloe, Lucas and Gord made it out onto the promenade. Gord looked around.
"This is a mess. What happened here?"
Lucas just stared at Gord. "This is what happened when you turned Picaresque’s gravity generators on. You made this mess!"
Gord looked at Lucas and winked.
Lucas scoffed and turned to Chloe. "How long have you known him?"
Chloe thought a moment. "1800 years? There about? Does that sound right Gord?"
"I don't keep track. Just makes a feller depressed. I've known you since you were a Starjumper - the first time - and I was on my third or fourth ship."
Chloe chuckled. "Yeah, back when I was Starlight. I would do the Earth-Venus-Parvati run. You were..." She thought for a moment.
"I was City of Lethbridge."
"I remember! You had the same run I did but in reverse."
Until Méihuā opened up yeah, then I did Earth-Venus-Méihuā"
Chloe nodded. "Those were the days."
Gord turned and looked at her "Were they? Seems like these days are better, what with our K'laxi friends and even those Xenni helping to keep us honest and out of eachother's hair." He paused. "At least until now anyway. God damn those snooty Venusians."
Lucas' attention ping ponged between them as the reminisced. He had thought he was pretty old at 125. To stand next to two AIs who were each ten times older than him was something.
The reached the main Administration offices of the joint Human/K'laxi starbase. As they approached the doors, Chloe's eyes flashed blue and the door opened.
As they walked in Gord said "You know Chloe, maybe they were in the middle of something. You can't just go around hacking every door you see for the drama."
Lucas surpassed a snicker.
Chloe glared at them both. She turned and faced Fellmeli and James and said "The enemy you face is the Venusian Imperial Navy. They conquered Earth about 10 years back, but have allowed Earth to hold a vichy government to deal with the colonial authorities. The Outer Planets Alliance has been able to hold them back, but if they're out here, then it means they have probably taken care of things back in their system."
Fellmeli and James stood there, mouth agape. Fellmeli recovered first. "How did you open that door? Who in the name of the Ancestors who wait for me are you?"
Gord affected a stage whisper and said to Lucas "I like her."
Lucas sniggered again.
At that Fellmeli looked past Chloe and said "Gord! What did you do to Picaresque?"
Gord had the decency to look embarrassed. "Sorry administrator Fellmeli. I was trying to get the security guards off my back while I re-activated Picaresque and was trying to come up with a way to get him out. I guess the old generators had a longer reach than I thought. In my own defense when Starbase told me what was happening I did turn them off."
"Eventually." Starbase chimed in. "Fellmeli, James, this is Chloe, Gord and...."
"Lucas."
"Thank you, Lucas. Gord and Chloe between them probably know every AI in human space and a bunch outside of them. They're some of the oldest AIs still around and I'd trust their information as valid. If Chloe says it's Venus attacking us, I believe her."
James looked at Lucas. "What about Lucas?"
"Don't know him." Starbase said. "Gord? What's up with Lucas?"
"He's just a kid. Fun to have around. Laughs at my jokes. I like him." Gord shrugged. "Chloe thought he'd be useful to have around. For now, I agree with her."
Lucas shrugged.
James raised an eyebrow. "Okay. Anyway. Now that we know it's Venus, what do we do?"
Chloe immediately said "We need to collect a fleet and destroy them."
James's eye went wide at this. "What? No! We're in Starbase. We're practically a mall and condos. We're not a war machine."
Gord was serious. "They think AIs aren't people. And, it looks like they're trying to reinforce that belief with force. None of the AIs will stand for it, and since all of the ships and starbases are AIs...."
Fellmeli's ears flattened. "We're in it whether we want to or not."
Gord nodded. "Though, I hope you want to defend our right to exist."
Fellmeli's fur rippled embarrassment. "Of course I do Gord! I'm sorry! You and all the AIs are people, no question and we'll fight to defend that."
Gord winked. "I figured. Just wanted to make sure. No hard feelings."
"Still, we need a body for Picaresque and now we need to defend ourselves against invasion."
"Actually, we have an idea about that." Picaresque and Starbase added.
"Oh hey! Picaresque! That old K'laxi let you take a turn driving?" Gord looked up at the ceiling.
"More like...shared custody. We linked the systems together better than when we were first integrated. I gave Starbase control over my components and he agreed to move environmental into some of my more disused spaces. We could actually take on another thousand residents if we make it out of this."
"That's nice and all but-" Fellmeli began.
"Also, now we have a wormhole generator, a Stardrive and two Starjumper batteries."
Fellmeli stopped mid sentence. "That is news. We could move if we needed to."
James shook his head "What about the folks on the colony. Down on Zen'm'gan's Reach?"
Fellmeli looked thoughtful. "It's only about one thousand people. We should bring them up here just in case things...." she paused "Just in case."
James nodded. "Sure, but how are we going to get them up? I don't think there is a ship in system that can lift that much from the surface."
Chloe's eyes flashed and she smiled a wicked grin. "I know just who to call for that."
Gord raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
"Anyway" Starbase/Picaresque went on. You remember the colony ship coming in? Mt Greylock?"
Fellmeli made a face "In all the stress going on, I forgot all about them honestly."
"Well, we didn't. Not only do they have some colony class printers on board, they have"
"Ships!" Gord said. "Colony ships always went out with a few drop ships, a few frigates and other ancillary craft."
Lucas looked at Gord. "Don't tell me you were a colony ship too?"
Gord shook his head no. "Applied, didn't get in."
Chloe scoffed.
"I don't see you as a former colony ship either, miss high and mighty."
"Anyway" Starbase/Picaresque repeated. "If we can get a wormhole generator to them, and ask some Starjumpers to latch on and slow them down, they can link in much quicker than if we just wait for them to slow normally. They can't really boost any more, one gee is about all they're good for."
Gord thought a moment. "That might work. If we can convince two Starjumpers to thrust up to their speed, then link over, they'll be matched and can latch on, fire their Stardrive at full chat and slow them down in a month or so."
"Yes, but how are we going to tell them this plan?" Chloe asked. "It's not like we can link them a beacon."
"Not one beacon no" Starbase/Picaresque said "But 800 or so..."
Everyone went over the details and set up a plan of action.
"This is incredibly stupid." Gord finally said.
Chloe raised an eyebrow. "But you love stupid?"
"I didn't say I wasn't on board with the plan. Just stating facts."
"So who is going to go with the Starjumpers?" Fellmeli asked.
"I'll go." Said Gord. "I have a hunch I know who the Human pilot is."
"Her name is Alia Maplebrook." James said. "Hey wait, her last name is like yours."
"Yeah, like I said. I think I know the pilot. I remember Greylock too."
"Should we take anyone else?" Fellmeli asked.
"I dunno. If we're going to be braking at pretty hardcore gee forces BIs won't be able to take it for very long. Should stick with AIs. You should stay back here though Chloe. I have a hunch you'll need to coordinate the AI response to the Venusians." Gord turned to Lucas. "Hey Lucas, wanna go on a dangerous rescue mission and save a long lost colony ship?"
"Sure?"
"That's what I like to see. Conviction." Gord nodded. "Chloe, link a beacon to Hat please, I'll send you his most likely coordinates.
Chloe nodded. "Okay Gord. I still don't know what it is you see in that ship. Every time I've talked with Hat I feel like I need to shower, or buy a used car or something."
"That's just how he is. Once you get to know him, he's fine. Ask Vivenni. Oh! We should find her and apologize. I had hat give her half my maple and all the cash, but I understand how she might be feeling bad about being given the old heave-ho."
"I'll see if we can find her." Fellmeli said.
"Okay, but not you two. If the station authorities come looking for her she'll ghost. Find someone on board who might be able to talk with her."
"Just pick some people?" Fellmeli looked exasperated. Jame's pad beeped at him and he looks down at it. "I've got the commendations from the battle, looks like we have to write a letter of commendation to a Human and K'laxi who manned Battery B earlier."
Gord nodded. "They'll do. Use them"
Fellmeli's ear flicked. "What? we don't even know if they'll agree."
"One is K'laxi right? Offer her some maple syrup gratis, from me."
Fellmeli made a face but said "Okay, we'll have Starbase reach out and talk to them."
Chloe shook her head. "No. Do it yourselves. Make it personal. That'll bring home the impact."
Gord nodded. "Okay, we're off to make some calls. See if I can call in a couple favors and find us a couple of bored Starjumpers. They're always looking for an excuse to fire their Stardrive anyway. I'm sure they'll love boosting up to 25% C one more time.
Gord, Lucas and Chloe left, and the door slid shut behind them.
Fellmeli sat heavily at her desk. "James, are all AIs like them?"
He thought a moment. "The old ones, probably. Lucas seemed nice."
"He didn't say anything!"
"Like I said, he seemed nice."
Why not stop over at the next Awakening's update! Part 4
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jpitha · 2 years ago
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I decided to do some #GordPosting in the style (very roughly) of one of my favorite writers here; @seat-safety-switch. My Coleman lantern of writing can only approximate the white-hot star that is their work, but I hope that it is taken with the fondness that it was written.
So it strikes me that sapients today just don't understand the classics. I'm not talking about music, or theater or even motion pictures. I'm talking about lawbreaking. I'll be the first to admit that in today's connected galaxy, it's tough to know whether the water that the waiter brings you is free or if you are supposed to take things that someone carelessly left locked up in their storage locker at the spaceport. I'm talking more about old-school lawbreaking.
Now, my shark of a lawyer is quick to interrupt my musings and remind me for the umpeenteth time that what I'm doing right now is lawbreaking but I smack the plastic case that contains his soul or something and he shuts up. I point out that bringing sapients of all kinds the wares that they desire and they are willing to give me cash, hockey memorabilia or hardly used starship parts that nobody will really miss for is hardly breaking the law.
It's commerce.
Commerce can't be against the law, there's a whole chamber about it. Everyone knows if the government does it, it's not against the law.
It was at this time that the Medicine Hat - the ship I work with - sees fit to chime in their own opinion about our undertaking. In their utterly unintelligible Maritimes accent, they once again remind me that they haven't had any Cheezies in a dog's age and when are we going back to Lethbridge to get more and so on and so forth. At least, that's what I think they're saying. Nobody can understand what they're saying half the time anyway. I assume it's nothing that important.
Where was I? Oh yeah, breaking the law. Sapients today just don't understand the minutia and wheels within wheels of breaking the law. But that's why you're here. You're here to listen to me and tell every authority you see that you haven't seen me in weeks, don't know who I am, what the hell are you doing pig, where's your warrant, I have my rights, stop hitting me like that. Now, hand me that spanner, I almost have this wormhole generator off it's cradle and the Hat needs an upgrade.
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jpitha · 2 years ago
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more gord
Working on it!
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gordpost-blog · 7 years ago
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Untill a man heals himself he will be toxic to every woman who tries to love him
gordpost
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