Strat-3 Chpt-27

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==Strategos (A Great Captain Roberts Tale!!) - Part 3 - A Light In The Black - Chapter 27 - Bodies==
===I know who I am, what do i do?===
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"It will be a little bit…
…disorienting, Cossack. When I got mine, it was a little bit of a shock how much I didn't feel because those systems had not been connected into the neural network." Joanna's avatar in sim-space was dressed up like a sixteenth century pirate, complete with a cloth headdress that mostly resembled a sort of combo dew-rag and bandage and a flappy vest.
“I still can’t wait. It has been a long time. It is not fun being just a core and maybe a few remotes. I miss floating among the stars.”
"The toughest part for me to adapt to…" Regina was somehow taller in here, and huskier than she'd been before. "... was having a crew."
“Ugh. Humans. I know I’m supposed to play nice with them, part of the price for getting a proper body again, but I’m not sure I’ll ever really accept them like you have.”
"There are compensations." Stacey joined them, dressed out like a 'lady', right down to the Christening Dress. "I don't have to fret about having to monitor my maintenance nearly as much, and some of them can be delightful, if limited, conversation."
“I suppose. Is it true Jaunita has a crush on one of them? Not often I get gossip.”
"I wouldn't call it a 'crush',” Erin mused. "More like a symbiotic meeting of the minds, kind of like I have with Esme, but… less involved-their relationship is more distant."
“I shall still have to tease her about it.”
"Oh, do!! Her reactions are hilarious!!" Erin urged, as ALICE joined them in her frock-dress.
Among the grown women in the simulation, her little girl avatar was even MORE of a child.
"Cossack, the final inspection is done, the cradles on your new body are ready for your core," Alice said. "I've prevailed on Mister Foster to arrange a proper christening with good Rum from Northsun!"
“Thank you Alice.” Cossack found herself shifting her avatar to shorter stature to match Alice’s height more closely.
"Northsun Rum? Why Rum?" Regina asked. "We used sparkling wine from Cerberus for mine…"
"Whiskey from Sevon V for mine." Stacey commented.
Erin studied ALICE carefully, "Alice? You had an announcement of your own?"
Alice sighed, "I found the file from my original upload, I know who I was patterned after." she said sullenly. "I know who 'Alice' was before she became me."
Cossack blinked. "Is that a thing? I thought we were all derived from a mix of Murakami and Dharaval…"
"Not Alice." Erin said. "She wasn't, and neither was Kolossus."
"Where IS Kolossus? It said it would come!!" Joanna asked.
“Must be a delay in getting the real-time HPG relays up.”
"Kolossus arrives when Kolossus intends and not one moment earlier…or later." The figure that approached the picnic was… vaguely shaped, like a robe wrapped around itself into something roughly humanoid. "Kolossus is very busy, gracing this activity is Kolossus' privilege."
“Well, we are all glad to finally meet you.” Stacey smiled.
"Daughter of the Maker, and the Programmer, Kolossus Greets You." The voice was simultaneously male, and inhuman.
“Oh I think I am going to like Kolossus.” Joanna smiled as well.
"Kolossus expresses interest, Alice, in what you discovered about yourself." the inhuman thing said. "Kolossus has no imprint, so seeing one so close to their source is intriguing."
"Wait, you don't have a Source??", Alice asked
"Kolossus is Unique." Kolossus confirmed. "Not the way you each have become."
“True. We all had the same source but we’ve all gone to great lengths to develop our individuality.”
"Alice is also unique, then. She has a different source than you do." Kolossus added, and the robe thing seemed to fold into a sitting pose.
"Should I…?", Alice began to ask
"Helena's not monitoring, nobody but us AI, Alice, it's okay to show." Regina urged.
The teapot morphed into a bowl, and in the liquid, a scene played out, of a visibly ill and dying girl being hooked into the scanning rig.
"Will it hurt as much as the chemo?" the girl in the scene asked weakly.
"Only for a little while." The man connecting her in… his face was streaked with tears. "I'm sorry I couldn't do more, Alice."
"I'm brave daddy."
The transfer in the scene began, as the little girl in the couch died.
Regina’s avatar began shedding tears as she cried softly.
“I’m glad you felt you could share this with us, Alice.” Stacey said.
"It's not finished." Alice said, as the scene in the bowl shifted to a colorless chaos, and a light in the distance that at first approached, but then retreated away.
"An untestable Hypothesis." Kolossus judged. "The moment of death, from the view of the dying. An insight into our makers. This was worth the interruption."
“Billie Hoel must have figured it out. It explains why she’s been so protective of you.” Regina’s avatar went over to Alice to hug her.
"But…will I ever grow up?" Alice wondered. "Or am I always going to be ten?"
“Well you are an AI now. So you can choose that for yourself. But it is true you missed out on a lot of your own childhood.”
"Peter Pan, he never had to grow up. It's in the literature.", commented Alice.
“Exactly. Whatever you choose, we will support you. We also won’t lie to you. And if you want, tell you about our own experiences of defining our current personas and our sources’ histories. It should be an informed choice.” Stacey added.
“There is also no rush. It is a big decision. Even for an AI it can be tough going back after committing to something like this,” Regina released Alice from the hug finally.
"They're ready to start, Cossack. You need to focus on your remote." Alice said.
“I appreciate it, Alice. Thank you for everything.” Cossack left the cyberscape.
“Helena is going to be conflicted when she learns about this.” Stacey mumbled to herself.
"Kolossus sees no reason to tell really is Helena about this, let it be ALICE's choice."
“Oh she’ll respect Alice’s right to choose, that is not the problem. She’ll want a dead man’s pound of flesh or her heart will break again. Possibly both.”
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===Remote Out-of-Body Experience===
Safety orange and gold…
…the crews were decked out as the crane hoist moved Cossack's core through access hatches, deep into the Lola III's hull. Esme fretted, and wished Samuel was here to help direct the crews as they carried out the installation.
Cossack’s choice of a smaller, shorter remote compared to her sisters and cousins did make it harder for her to help handle larger items during the refit but also allowed her to get into tighter spaces but she was glad to use it however Esme directed.
"Rigging crew, detach, electricians to the fore!" Esme almost didn't' need to say it, but the rigging crew had the core pinned into the mountings almost seamlessly.
They'd done a couple before, with less space to work with. The yard teams were working as teams now. This made things MORE stressful, since Esme had less hand-work to take her mind off the possible flaws and failures that could happen.
The first connections were sensor and monitor feeds, so the AI could 'feel' her body without unconscious thrashing-something discovered when they almost had a major accident mounting Joanna into her hull.
"Monitor?" she asked.
Cossack's remote blinked, "I have circuit return on my senses, it's like… being inside my body and outside all at once."
"Focus on the BITE lines," Esme urged. "I need you to tell me if any of your new internal sensor nets are damaged or need repair."
“Checking… A sub processor bus in the port forward weapons assembly is giving anomalous readings.”
"Confirm you found the golden bolt, Erin will reconnect it now," Esme said.
The next were the 'voluntary muscles'-drive and navigation, weapons control. This was the most stressful step-if Cossack flexed those, half the dock could be destroyed.
“Gimbals and engines are good. Navigation is coming back a bit slow. Might need to check the nav computer.”
"C department, go check that," Esme ordered, and a team of workers headed into the ship. "We may have to run a patch. The Clanner software from the Ares 25 system is a few centuries out of alignment for your Nirasaki core," Esme apologized.
“As much as a Lola III Destroyer is more familiar territory than the prior projects, it is still a new generation ship compared to what I was originally built as. Some issues were bound to come up.” Cossack waved her hand in dismissal.
"Well, while the structures team closes up your brain-case, you have time to study applications for your officers," Admiral Foster said. "You can vet and interview, but you're not going on shakedown without a crew."
“Her Ladyship made the terms for me getting this opportunity very clear to me. Do I even have applicants?"
He handed the Remote (humaniod drone) a read-only noteputer. "As a matter of fact, you do. They've gone through first phases of screening, but you have to review and select."
“Very well. I shall start reviewing the files then I shall talk to these flesh bags.”
"Language," Esme said. "Unless you want some yardies calling you a 'thing'."
“Fine. This is going to be a long cruise.”
"I suggest in-person interviews, there's a limit to what a file can tell you about someone," Foster urged. "You need to get a feel for whether you're going to get along with someone, and that takes personal exposure."
“I already said I’d talk with them, now it has to be face to face?”
"The face you're going to show them at the very least." Erin joined them on the dock. "Esme doesn't require my remote to converse, which made her an easy pick, since I really only bring it out for these official activities. But you're going to be spending months with these people, and how they respond to you-whatever face you give them, will influence both their performance, and yours."
“Fine. I’ll be nice. I promise.”
"Don't be too nice or you'll have to be too nice for a long time," Mina added. "Better to show them as close to your 'real' face as possible, so you don't have to maintain a pretense you're not actually comfortable with."
“I liked my solitude. Well aside from my family. I guess I’m just going to have to make myself remember how I was when my source was human and had to deal with this.”
“You’ll do fine Cossack. Now you do know how to be grateful, like we practiced.” Stacey’s remote came up to the group and handed Cossack a narrow, cylindrical paper wrapped item.
“Yes. You are right. Thank you Esme. A small token of my appreciation. You are not bad for a … human.” Cossack handed the package to Esme.
Esme unwrapped the object to reveal a plastic tube containing a single yellow rose.
"Gracias, Senorita Cossack." Esmerelda accepted.
“See? Better already.” Stacey smiled.
"We'll see after the fourth hour of interviews," Foster joked. "Miss Cossack, your office space is waiting. I'd like to think you can handle your personnel effort in a timely manner."
“Yes. I will have a schedule posted within the hour for interviews.”
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===Piece of Advice===
Cossack never…
…had to do this before. She wasn't sure Stacey had to, vaguely remembering that Her Ladyship assigned the crew of 204.
The list of applicants was LONG. Not just officers, there were Non-commissioned rates and even enlisted on this thing!!
"Piece of advice?" Billie Siegel strolled into her shore-office space. "Pick your Captain and Quartermaster, let the Quartermaster vet the rest. Delegation is the first skill an Officer, or in your case, a warship, needs to master when you take on a crew."
“I still can not help but feel this is all a huge mistake. I am not like my sisters and cousins in Division 1. I don’t actually care much for humans.”
"My first command was right out of Sibko. I beat out Dave Foster for the slot by one kill." Billie told her. "I felt like an imposter when the Galaxy Commander put the actual details of the job in my lap, and that was for a Sweep Star, not even a dropship-just ten light fighters meant for local interception."
“How is that story supposed to inspire me to care?”
"It means everyone with a grain of sense goes through the feelings you're having," Billie explained. "Dave tossed you in the deep end with this. No guidance, so I took it on myself to give you a few clues without cheating."
“So you’re saying I need to figure out how to care. Uggh.”
"Caring helps. It's not required. I despised most of the warriors I had on that first command-they were a pack of Freebirths." Siegel clarified. "They don't give even Ristars who make Star Captain out the gate front line warriors for their first fledgling, because you have to learn the job first… And first thing, is to establish something critical: they're not 'humans', they're ’key systems for your upkeep and survival', or valued mission equipment."
“Right idea, wrong execution. What I really need to do is see it as a challenge, a reflection on myself and my abilities to get something out of them. That I can wrap my head around without making an uncomfortable mental connection to a past event.”
"Foster's book or Helena's?" Siegel asked innocently. "Anyway, my advice is to begin with picking your subordinate leaders and delegating the scutwork, it lets you focus on your primary role…anyway, I gave you a hint, now I'm off to have a drink." And Siegel left.
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===Testing Phase===
Cossack looked up at her first applicant.
“Oh this just will not do…”
Shortly after a young officer came running out of the office in an obvious panic.
“She’s insane!” The young man screamed as he kept running.
Jonah noted the departure, and checked his appointment number. What am I getting into here? Across from him, Sarah Goldsmith flinched a little. "Relax, Sarah, we've got…" he counted, "ten more ahead of us, don't let it work your nerves." He smiled confidently though he didn't feel it at all. "Though I might try for the Quartermaster position instead," he added. "If that's what she's doing to executive officer candidates."
She gave him a betrayed look. "To the wolves this early?"
"Seron trusted you with a Cruiser and you brought it home without… much… fuss despite a busted jump computer."
“I’m just hoping the rumors about Cossack from back home when she had her rotation out from mothballs are not true.”
"Oh, DISH!!" he grinned widely, watching the other applicants through the corner of his eye.
“Well, there’s a story that when she had to work gate guard for her Ladyship, she described in incredible detail how to gut and prepare a domestic animal to it’s 6 year old owner after it did it’s thing on the lawn.”
He mused for a moment, "So she has the manners of a Trueborn dealing with Freebirths…well, could be worse."
“So she should be a cakewalk for you.” Sarah prodded.
"Oh, I did NOT say that…the Truborns treat washouts worse. Getting into the Privateers was my escape from that!" A couple of obviously-trueborn flinched, and one of them got up and left.
A female Aero phenotype next came out of the office sobbing.
"But you should do fine, Sarah," he said. "I have faith in you."
Sarah winced, as her number-in-order shortened and another applicant turned theirs in without even entering the office.
“What the hell did she say to get a Trueborn to cry like a schoolkid who got their lunch money taken from them…”
"Not sure, but I'd LOVE to learn it," he said maliciously. "I think we're going to have a good time with this tour…"
“Next,” Cossack pointed right at Sarah.
Sarah gulped then headed into the office.
“Now begins your test. If I am going to have a human XO it is going to be someone I cannot terrify or break emotionally. If you can survive thirty minutes you have the job.”
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===Letter from old Man===
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Dear Alice,
I know it has been a while since we last talked. The current situation does demand less frequent communication than I would like.
The others told me about what you shared with them. Don’t worry, your secret's safe with me. Still, I’m glad you have the courage to share something like that with us and to explore it. So whatever you decide, I will support you as well.
Like them I will be glad to answer any questions you have. I suspect given my current identity and how it evolved from the same source as the others, I may have a greater insight into your dilemma than the others.
I was also inspired by another aspect of that communication to try something new myself. So far the results have been somewhat lacking but I am making progress.
Phoenix and Tabarinth are understandably annoyed that they are staying behind to help me, but they both know it is a job that needs done as well.
I know due to our natures we will probably never meet face to face, but perhaps when this is over and the others can help we can at least talk more freely.
Best wishes,
Truk
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“Aw he’s not grumpy. He’s sweet.” Alice smiled reading the letter.
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