WoWS3 Chpt 45

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==Weapons of War Saga: The Final March- Chapter 45 - ==
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===A Meeting between Terra's past and present leaders===
Office of Director-General, SLDF HQ 
New Lazarus, Star League in Exile
19th January, 3145
“Exarch Levin, welcome to New Lazarus.” Helena said sweetly.
“First Lord Cameron.” Jonah said as he uneasily took a seat across from Helena.
“Please call me Helena. It actually gets a bit tedious when everyone calls me ‘lady’, ‘highness’, ‘majesty’, ‘Director-General’, or ‘First Lord’.”
“If you call me, Jonah.” he told her.
“No, I don’t think you’ve earned that from me yet. So I guess despite the tediousness you’re back to Lady Cameron.” Helena shook her head.
“Lady Cameron, we both know the Wolves are coming. We need to combine our forces. It is the only way we can win.”
“It certainly would improve our odds but there’s a problem, Exarch Levin. I’m just as much a threat to Alaric’s ambitions as you are. Maybe more so.” Helena explained
“All the more reason we should unite.” Levin commented
“New Lazarus’ location is now becoming known. Eventually Alaric is going to acquire navigational data, sufficient to come into my home and make a mess.” Helena stated grimly.
“But Terra is his entire raison d'etre. To maintain the support of his warriors he must strike there first.” Levin commented
“Thus our problem. He has reasons to hit either system. I’m confident I can defend mine, but not at the same time I’m defending yours.” she pointed out
“What if I had something that could help with that?” Levin proposed
“Oh?” Helena asked with curiosity in her voice
“Keep in mind the Republic of the Sphere was the winning bidder on the sale of several Warships captured during the War of Plunder. We even won the bid on one of yours that you sold off.”
“You have a navy. A real one.” Helena stated
“We do. We even took notes during the War of Plunder. With the restoration of the HPG grid we now have a chance to call the other for help. Consolidate our forces. Between us Alaric would have no chance.”
“Sounds like we need to arrange some joint training.”
“Indeed, Lady Cameron.” Levin commented
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===Baiting a Trap===
Roberts Residence
New Lazarus, Star League in Exile
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"Mom?" Petra hesitated at the door of the office.
"In here, sweety." Amanda Roberts hadn't slept last night. She hadn't slept the night before, either.
The 'Home office' at the Ranch on Lazarus was strewn with reference pages and notations, her personal terminal was on.
She was sitting on the floor, half sprawled. "Mom!"
"I'll be fine, I just slipped…""You're exhausted and you fell asleep on your feet again." Petra argued, "Hand?"
Amanda let her take her by the arm, and help her to a more dignified position. "Sorry, I was trying to make time…"
"Yeah, I know. Trying to be like you imagined Grandmama Roberts while still trying to be 'The Great Captain Roberts'."
"Admiral, really." Amanda admitted.
Her daughter half-hoisted her into a chair, and looked around, "Where's your coffee maker, Mom?"
Amanda gestured to a pile of debris, and Petra set about making coffee. "No stims?"
"No stims, Just…anxiety." Amanda confirmed. "You're not supposed to be enabling me, Petra."
"I know that, but if your anxiety's kept you from sleeping for three days-because I bet you didn't sleep on the Station or the trip down? Then it's important…so what is it?"
"I think I know how Alaric can win." Amanda told her, "And I can't think of a way to stop it from happening if he's got his pieces in play."
"Did you call my sister?" she asked, referring to Pestilence.
"I wanted it prepared first…" Amanda began to explain
"So no…you're doing high-level strategy without your strategic expert." Petra shook her head, "Mom, you wouldn't try Hyperspace Physics without calling me, why are you trying to do this without her??"
The coffee maker buzzed and Petra brought the cup over, "Sips, Mom…Kolossus Warned you about trying to do too much, this qualifies."
"I guess I'm not fully healed." Amanda said
"No, you're not. Veronica could tell you that with all the big words. Today, mother, is Sunday, the seventh day in the gregorian calendar, the day of rest…so, you're taking a break, and you're taking the medicine in the brown bottle, and you're going to rest...and I 'll take care of things."
“But… Who will help you if I don’t?” Amanda
"I have Liam and Sissons, and I know the phone number to call Pestilence and Vendetta. If I need to, I'll call on other family members. YOU need sleep, but first, take your meds."
“Heh. Just realized there’s a lot of irony in this situation, most of all I’m arguing with myself in a way.”
"No, you're arguing with your daughter, whom you decided needed the experience of 'growing up'!"
"You're growing up in so many ways…"
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Petra had Sissons carry her mother to the master bedroom and put her to bed, then, she called Pestilence to come make sense of what Primary had wrecked the home office working on.
“I have an idea how to sort this out. There are a bunch of nice cadets at the various academies that are in need of special projects.” Pestilence said as she surveyed the mess.
"We definitely need what Desmond-of-old would call a 'batsman' if we're going to let Mom play Flag Officer, Pesty." Petra mused, "I'm thinking a grizzled old Master Corporal figure, someone she can't intimidate."
"Tired of it already?" Amanda ask.
"No, but I'm developing a personal life, I even had a date planned for tonight. Nice guy from Hookwood Prep, Sophomore, big hands." Petra said, "Good at Futbol."
“Well, you keep that date. I got plenty of people I can call in to help me with this and I’ll start thinking about what you said and who I can call for that for Mom.” Pestilence told her.
"Let's just make sure it doesn't turn into another Helena-Crisis." Petra cautioned, "we need to handle this at the lowest level we can."
"Got it…when did you get people-smart?" Pestilence asked
"I've been working on it since I found myself in a twelve year old body-I can't leverage my intellect with puberty hammer smashing my thinking and I'm not big enough to leverage strength, so I had to work on what I do have...which, apparently, is decent-enough looks and studying how people act."
"This guy from Hookwood, he's not-" Pestilence began to ask.
"Grade Eight, same as my civilian identity, and Sissons will be chaperone. We're going to watch the High School team from Hookwood cream Alderton's team on the Rugby field, followed by junk food, finished by movies in the living room. I know the rules."
"When did any of us like Rugby??" Pestilence robed.
Petra gave her older sister a disgusted look and said, "Philistine, I know you hit every sport-boxing match in the Command, and you also like baseball."
"I like to play Baseball…and softball, it's not the same thing."
"I like to watch boys play rough, I'm thirteen Pesty, I get to enjoy that stuff!" Petra checked the time, "I gotta get ready, it's forty five minutes on the road to pick up Conor Livingstone at his Dad's place."
"I've got this. This Conor fella, he knows you're a nerd?" Pestilence asked
"It hasn't come up." Petra said over her shoulder as she dashed to her room to get ready for her outing.
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===Comparing Scores and Dining Options===
Officer Training Review and Intake, Fort Simon, Lazarus…
"Cu'ong, Anh…99.88%." was on the grade sheet posted outside the testing area.
They don't let you command a military ship until you've passed officer's training, but every course can be challenged if you have 'prior service'.
"Holy shit, Ensign…" Erik Holmbekker was the current points leader for Class 4/45, a Senior, and still a midshipman.
"Yeah." Anh said, "The benefits of home-schooling…I failed too many questions."
He blinked, "You go that and you failed??"
"That's the margin where your nonstandard jump ends up spraying you, your ship and your crew across five dimensional space as charged particles of exotic matter on a ten second point, Erik." she told him, "so I ****** up in the sim, I was off by two full hundredths of a percentage. For a normal run, that's a rounding error, but the exam didn't specify normal conditions."
"So…you're not going to tonight's party for graduates?" he asked.
"Nope. tonight I'm grinding the textbooks to figure out where I ****** up, then I'll challenge the prof tomorrow or the next day and take the exam again. Two hundredths of a percent is too much margin, even with an advanced NavCom massaging the numbers."
"Experience." he mused.
"I pulled a Six second point at Sudeten." she agreed, "I was pulling fifteen and twenty second points running all over hell and back in the Wolf Empire, They don't grade on a curve here and the Prof is fair, so I ****** up my solutions and I need to figure out where and how."
He looked troubled, "but you passed…."
"No, I failed, and got a passing grade. There are standards I have to keep up. My Dad would've had me on Sludge duty for weeks with a result like that…have fun, okay?"
"I…only pulled 81 percent, Anh." he told her.
"Fine for your standard L1 insertions over planets, not bad for a Dirtyfoot." she said.
"Yeah…no. Can I…I mean, you're going to be studying and I need to be better if I'm going to get a good billett on graduation, so…?" Erik said
"Yes, I'll help tutor you." she agreed, "but you're going to miss the Party!"
"There'll be other parties." he said.
"Good answer, I'll tell you what, I'll help you into the 99th percentiles if you help me with Formation Tactics 201, Okay?" Anh asked
"Deal. I’ll even bring dinner. You omni or veggie?" Erik inquired
"Mom used to make this dish with rat and gopher meat, it was my fave until I was in my teens and got to taste beef." Anh told him, "so red meat, and lots of sauce."
“Got it.” Erik smiled.
"Pork's nice too…" Anh commented
“Right. So the entire left side of the menu at the Barbecue Truck.” Erik noted
"Yes please!" she smiled like a little girl, "And if it's the Asian one, four stars? That's almost like home cooking?"
“There goes my spare cash but a small price to pay for a passing grade.” Erik chuckled.
"You'll make it back." she told him enigmatically.
“Oh yeah. If you can get me to ninety nine that’s O2 billet territory.” Erik nodded.
"Indeed, but ninety nine is the acceptable failure, I'm going to get you proficient. Couple years, maybe you'll be able to qualify for a Guild Cert as a Pathfinder…maybe."
“I’ll take what I can get and if it means I have to bribe you with all the delicious meats you could ever want, I’m in.”
"I will gladly take that bribe…come on, we have studying to do."
“Food trucks on the way though so I can collect your various bribes.”
"You might find you brought the meat I'm really interested in already….or is that too forward for you, Erik?"
“Well that is a load off my mind. I was thinking about how to ask about making this a more fun arrangement. Because I like you too, Annie.”
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===New life journey begins===
SLS Erinyes, Newgarge Class YardShip
Deck 0
New Lazarus System, Star League in Exile
The spare core was in place, the patient was on the 'comfy chair'. "You're sure you're willing to go through with this, you can still back out, I can get you five years, Trinh." Vendetta urged.
"I'm sure." Trinh confirmed
Esmerelda Gomez made a notation, "does anyone present have a valid reason, convincing argument, or serious reservation about what we're about to do?"
The gathered witnesses were silent.
"Okay, then we're ready to begin…doctor?"
“I’ll be on the other side waiting for you if this works, Trinh” Olivia smiled.
For so much pomp, the process was silent and without any of the spectacle one might assume, as the connection to the modified Neurohelmet was activated.
"Core is stabilizing…data flow is good…"
Trinh Vu Dao didn't even tremble as her mind was poured into the Nirasaki 450 core, and it began compiling itself there.
"It's like…a tunnel…" her mouth said, "like they say…"
"...you see when you're dying." came from the speakers.
“Everything looks good out here. Olivia?” Esme asked.
“Connection’s good. We’re already talking.”
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Cyberscape
“The pain is gone…” Trinh said with relief.
“Good. Then everything worked as intended.”
"I didn't realize how much I was hurting, Olivia." Trinh's digital avatar said, "I'd gotten so…so used to it..."
“Not unusual for cancer patients from what I understand. Plus we had you on some pretty good drugs.” Olivia nodded.
An echo circulated, it was toneless and all the tones, and something Olivia had never heard before.
"Ah…The Choir." Trinh said, "I first heard them during a run to Mainstreet when I was a girl, we had to jump while I was out on the hull."
“It’s haunting, but pretty.” Olivia let it wash over her. “Kind of jealous. I’ve never heard anything like it in all my jumps, but then again I haven’t made very many jumps. Nowhere near as many as you have for sure.”
The memory compiled as they spoke, resolving into mathematical formulae as the basic OS of the computer core tried to cope with the additional input from her memories.
"That's jump math…"
"Well, yeah, the best Navigators hear the Choir." Trinh seemed to think this was universally known. "Some of the very best even end up hearing it when they're in three dimensional space but it makes them…ill."
“Interesting. I guess I’ve just never gotten close enough to any of my navigators to learn that.”
[meatspace]
"..extra memory modules NOW!!" Esme was frantic, "What the hell??"
She and the other techs were trying to slave on additional volatile memory storage to the new core, racing against something. "It's not a virus is it Erin??"
"Uh, no…she's remembering something…and it's Big."
"Can you tap off? Give over some storage?"
"On it!"
“Olivia’s core is showing slight fluctuations as well. Whatever it is, it is impacting her too.” Forrest reported.
Esme was cursing a steady stream as Vendetta noted that Trinh's life signs were fluctuating with the data transfer. "I'm losing the patient!"
In a final act of panic, someone connected the data bus from Erinyes to Lazarus Station, and the fluctuations…stabilized.
"****** me…"
"She's dead." Vendetta said. "Not like the previous tries, her organic body died..."
"Truk!!"
"Here…wow…do you know what this is?" Truk asked
“I’m okay now everyone, thank you for your concern.” Olivia reassured everyone as her avatar began moving again.
"What is it? A virus? Did her cancer-" Esme questioned
"No, this is advanced field physics relating to interaction and travel through Hyperspace." Truk said, "Elemental levels of it. Like touching the mind of a god."
<<"It's the Choir.">> Trinh's voice from the speakers, <<"It's the memory of hearing them on the hull of a jumpship during a jump…is everybody okay?">>
"I could do with a few billion petabytes of additional memory, but I'm okay for normal function." Truk announced. "I think I know why the M3s went mad though, if they were active during a jump and the shielding leaked… trying to parse this load is huge."
Olivia frowned, "Truk who'd be able to handle all of it...like, not just a filtered memory?"
"Oh, Kolossus probably could…he probably has." Truk speculated.
“The improved jump ranges he’s helped make possible. Of course. Kolossus just needs the material science to catch up and we are probably looking at a whole new revolution in hyperspace travel.” Olivia understood.
"Right now, what you're looking at, is that I've got to fabricate about nine thousand tons of memory modules if you want to think about what you just experienced." Esme stated, "and that's no shitting. Nobody on the network for this operation is going to be fit until I've upgraded your storage and processing space!"
“Of course, Esme. Even just the brief moment of it that I experienced was…strange. I didn’t feel I was in any danger but it was certainly overwhelming.” Olivia admitted.
"It overclocked your cooling." Esme scolded, "Erin?"
"I'm fine, but we don't have that spare module anymore…it's fully imprinted."
“Oh my…” Truk said with a mild shock.
"How many?"
"All my backups." 
"Shit."
“So we now have a bunch of completely unknown AI imprints.” Forrest theorized.
"No, what we have, is a bunch of AI-capable cores loaded to overflowing with information." Erin stated, "Which MIGHT compile into something….if we can put it all together with a processor that isn't overburdened and can process it."
“Shit. My terminal is barely keeping up with just giving me a look.” Forrest attempted to keep his voice even.
"Yeah. Don't do that until we have the extra memory to handle it. The firewall protocol that information until there's enough chassis to support it." Esme said darkly, "Which also means Olivia and Trinh, are going to have to be located to a static location, no star ships for either of you until we can give you enough memory to keep them going."
“Esme, I see parts of Trinh’s code and Olivia’s in with the new stuff. I think it’ll compile if we solve the problems.” Truk said.
"AND I need to get Erin back in shape…but we do NOT know WHAT it will compile into, Truk." Esme stated, "which is why we follow good science protocol, and isolate it from anything that can turn dangerous until we can safely compile the code."
“Agreed. Just to be safe I’ve already put my considerable firepower and all critical functions into manual mode.” Truk nodded.
Esme sighed, "I guess I get to go upstairs and tell Helena what happened and beg her to help me find the resources to get the four of you back in shape."
"Esme?" Erin asked
"Yes, Erin?"
"Do you suppose this was how…or why…they made Kolossus?" Erin asked
"It's a possibility. I'll ask Murakami if she's seen anything like this after I take the reaming for this accident."
"Why do you think-" Erin began say
"Because I oversaw a process that almost killed three of her favorite people?" Esme suggested, "And my mistake just turned her starbase into a cripple until we can fix the problem? Maybe??"
“I’d say that is overstating things. I am merely being reasonably cautious. My systems do not seem to be negatively impacted. As a Pavise they put lots of storage in for me. I was intended to last a long time after all.” Truk nodded.
"I sincerely hope that stays that way. Truk, please firewall that data, okay? I like you sane."
“I will, because like I said there are reasonable precautions to be taken at this juncture.”
“And I didn’t get all of it. Just a moment of exposure.” Olivia nodded.
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===Aftermath of an AI's ascendance===
Juanita’s office
CONTROL HQ - Port Lazarus Station
New Lazarus System, Star League in Exile
22nd December, 3144
"...massive information cascade almost overwhelmed the Trinh core, we managed to patch-path the surplus, but Truk got enough blow-by that I need about nine thousand tons of memory to store it so he can compile and examine it, Erin's effectively paralyzed until we can free her backups, and I don't know for sure how much Olivia got before we slapped the patch on, but it's enough that I'm interrupting your meeting with Jonah Levin to tell you in the corridor while he's in the guest wardroom." Esme finished.
“Okay. I’ll authorize the storage and figure out the finances for it while I finish dealing with Jonah. It is imperative we get them all back into a functional state.”
"I'm going to call Murakami and find out if she's encountered anything like this before, and Kolossus to see if Kolossus has run into this…I think he has, but…" Esme begun..
“Do it. Whatever this code is, it is clearly massive. I don’t think we can afford to simply delete it.” Helena ordered.
"I'm not sure it's so much 'code' as the native structure of the Nirasaki processor trying to make sense of the memories." Esme told her, "Anyway, I've got work to do, good luck with the Exarch."
“I trust you, Esme. You’re the best engineer I know. So I know you’ll get them back into ship shape.”
"That just tells me you need to meet more engineers, Ma'am." Esme's attempted humor didn't reach her eyes. "I'll keep you updated."
“Thanks, Esme. If there’s anything else you need let me know. Hell after this I know this nice tropical beach and the bar does the whole umbrella in your drink schtick.”
"Only if the pool-boys are cute…and single." Esme noted, "With a plentiful lack of moral fiber."
That got the laugh.
“I’ll make sure the beach is filled with them and do the best I can from my end to keep your calendar clear for a whole week so you can have lots of fun.” Helena chuckled some more. “I do believe this is the part where I say dismissed but I don’t like the connotation of that word with friends.”
"Well, we'll hire a guy to invent a better word AFTER I've guaranteed my friends get to stay sane." Esme turned and headed for the lift to CIC.
"What was that about?" Levin asked from the doorway.
"Admin concerns and a family matter, Mister Levin. We have our own work to do in the immediate moment."
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