TADJ54

==Chapter 54 - The Adjudicator==
Taussen System
Federated Suns Space
Mid 3160
----
("I have to admit, the Archon is better at diplomacy......")
"...than I am." Admiral Sharon Ngo accepted the Director-General's handshake. 
"Given the circumstances, Admiral. We're closer to peers. You and I." Jon Cameron said.
"Not so.  You're the head of your state, I am but a servant of mine."  Sharon said, "I serve a national leader, while you are a national leader."
In person, Sharon noted that Director-General Jon Cameron had one of those 'ageless' faces that manage to look young and alert even with mostly-silver hair, the man could be a twin for Devlin Stone from the eighties.
In person, Jon Cameron's initial impression of her brutish exterior was amplified.  At Fifty Five, Sharon Ngo was nearly as tall as he was, and significantly larger with her skinsuit rippling with the kind of muscle seen only in fantasy artwork or bodybuilding competitions.  The perpetual frown of a weightlifter marked her face and at a distance a man might not be ashamed to mistake her for another man. Perhaps especially due to the loose 'Dress uniform' overgarment.
"She's awake now." he said, "We're still running tests on the treatment, but your niece is awake."
"Good, I don't have to start burning your cities." Sharon said.   It took him a moment to realize she was joking.  "I want to interview the gunners who fired on that coast-guard ship, Director-General.  I want to understand what the hell they were thinking."
"That could be difficult, Admiral, you see-"
"They're robots, right?" she asked, "Fine, I want to talk to the robotic minds that fired on that ship even more now.  Machines don't get shaky, they don't get trigger happy. They do what they're programmed to do. Yours violated standing treaties going back to the original Terran Hegemony, including the Ares Conventions, by firing on a vessel under a truce signal.  It's Caspar tech, right?" she asked
"Y-yes." studdered
"Then they're self-aware, aren't they?" she asked.
"How-no!! General Kerensky specifically ordered E-type programming blocks to prevent emergent sentience...why would you think they're sentient?"
Sharon twirled a finger in her hair for a moment, "I read Anh Cu'ong's report on the assault on Terra, not Alex K's." she told him, "Some of the Caspars were sentient. Some of them even rebelled and aided the SLDF, including our folks. They didn't get a great reward for it, Kerensky had them destroyed by technical crew, but they did it. The man was terrified of artificial intelligence-at least, according to Commodore Cu'ong from the First Coast Guard Squadron in 2781."
"I'd be interested in reading that report."
"It isn't a report, it's a memoir." she answered, "We keep the printed copies back home, when I chose the Guard as my military service of choice, then-Admiral vu Dao made sure I read Anh Cu'ong's whole war diary as a part of my pre-academic prep. That because I was going to be the Duchess back then, and therefore had clearance."
She crossed her arms, "So, I want to meet the ships that fired on my niece and hear what they have to say for themselves."
"We'd...have to remove the blocks, Admiral.  Those destroyers are kept shackled for reasons." said Cameron
"They're slaves, isn't that closer to your meaning? You're worried about a slave revolt.  We can debate sentient's rights another time, let's table this."  Sharon offered.
"Let's." He agreed.  "You really don't match your..."
"Appearance? reputation?" Sharon shrugged, "You've been getting biased reports.  Bigots don't dream of contacting new life and new civilizations for the sheer joy of discovery-they always look for a tangible profit for themselves."
"Do you really have that dream?"
"Since I read the first Star Cadet novels at age six." she told him.
"You...they're still reading those? Their still publishing those??" he almost gasped, "The last print run from the original publisher was in the 29th century!"
"Yeap...Waterhouse books went under during the second succession war, but that doesn't mean the stories were thrown away just because a printer was fireballed into nonexistence.  My Grandmother got the rights in a foreclosure in the thirty-sixties. The Nha Tranh university press puts out the volumes annually for distribution to primary school age children throughout the old Q-zone. Though Commodore Vu Dao did fix the author's math in the jump calculation scenes so that the formulas are correct for teaching a kid basic KF physics and navigational fundamentals."
"Why would they do that?" he asked.
"Because a broad distribution youth novel is a good cover identity for providing textbooks in case someone tries another Operation Holy Shroud." she told him.  "Grandmama was certain that there's a lot of knowledge we flat out don't know because someone pulled the plug on human achievement for three centuries and none of us want it to happen again."
They reached the tram platform, and a luxury cabin opened up.  "After you, Milady." he said.
"Thankee, sai." she nodded and stepped inside.
"Looking at you, and then at Clarissa...you almost don't seem to be from the same family-until you speak." he said.
"You've heard my niece speak?" she asked it as a leading question. He settled into the faux leather interior opposite her as the transit cabin moved off.
"Yes...well, her...avatar." he said.
"You copied her, like Dharaval." it wasn't a question, and there wasn't hostility.
"We didn't know if we could save her." he confessed, "We tried to store the essential her in case..."
"So you know as much as she did about the Coast Guard, the Quarantine, our family..?" she prodded calmly.
"Quite a bit." he confessed.
"Hm.  You didn't ****** with her memories, did you? She's still herself?" she questioned
"Admiral, I've been through this process myself.  Several times." Jon admitted.
"So it's two-way?" she asked casually.  "How old are you really?"
"I remember when Uncle Simon died." he told her, "And I remember what an idiot cousin Richard was, how adorable his little girl was going to be...and how easily he was led.  It's not really my memories. I have a two-way link to the stored memories of every Cameron who's ruled here in the Redoubt since it was established as a fallback under Simon's rule."
"You let them brain-damage your...cousin? Twin? Brother?" she asked, the only hint or tell being her hand clenching white-knuckled on the arm of the transit vehicle's seat.  "You let them do that to your own blood?"
"I wasn't the Cameron in charge at the time." he confessed, "My genetic mother was.  She made the call...it's so good to get this off my chest."
"I bet." she said, "You wanted us to back off because he's your blood, but he doesn't know you exist does he?"
Jon shook his head.  "No, he doesn't."
"No, he doesn't know even with the evidence in front of his eyes what your...family... let them do to him...does he?"
"God, I hope not."
"God has nothing to do with this, Director-General." Sharon told him,  "This is all about humanity."
----
Previous Chapter- Return to Story Index - Next Chapter
Category:Works by CannonShop
Category:The Adjudicator Chapters