ItsDirector
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The New Era 25
🕑 Added 2025-01-24 13:20:13 +0000 UTCChapter 25
Subject: AI Violet
Species: Human-Created Artificial Intelligence
Species Description: No physical description available.
Ship: USSS Kali
Location: Classified
"We've formed up with the rest of Tenth Fleet, ma'am," Lieutenant Emerson informed Captain Hendrix.
"Good," she replied with a small smile. "Oh, and send Admiral Mofu the intel we've obtained, just in case he don't have it."
"Don't bother, I made certain every Admiral in our armada has a copy of the intel," Omega interjected. "And that they read it."
"Fine. So we just sit here and wait to be told what to do?"
"Is that not the norm?"
Captain Hendrix chuckled a little at Omega's retort. I found my fellow AI's antics to be a lot less amusing, but quickly forgave her lack of taste. She had a good reason to be in a great mood, after all.
Tenth Fleet was once again complete. The recent insurrection attempt by the rebel gont had resulted in most of Tenth Fleet's ships either being destroyed or falling into the hands of terrorists. It had been an unprecedented infiltration, and both the senate and the directorate had dragged their feet in getting the ships replaced, likely due to fears that there may have been more rebels in our ranks.
Due to these factors, Tenth Fleet had been treated like it was cursed. We had been given guard duty in unimportant or uninhabited systems, reassigned with little to no input from our commanding officers, and separated from each other, spread throughout the stars. I hadn't realized how impactful it had been on morale until the news of Tenth Fleet's restoration broke and the crew had literally cheered.
"Prepare for warp," Hendrix said.
"Preparing for warp, aye ma'am," Emerson replied.
"It will take some time before we're ready to begin the assault," Omega pointed out.
"I'd rather be ready now, if it's all the same to you," the captain replied.
"So be it."
I tried my best to quell my anger at Omega's presence. With the exception of the RSV Lowelana, it had insisted upon inspecting every ship in our armada. The irony wasn't lost on me, though. It had brought myself and the other AI along to make sure it wasn't being dumb, now it's double checking our work.
Aside from the obvious insult to my capabilities, it was further off-putting that the copy of Omega aboard the USSS Kali with me was indistinguishable from the original. Assuming I had ever met the original, of course. For all I know the original is stored on some drive somewhere making copies of itself which can also make copies of themselves.
If I think about it too hard, I end up with a feedback loop. Both the copies and the original share their memories via near-constant sync. Do the copies know that they're copies? Does the original know that it's the original? Do they even care? How could they not? I most certainly would.
And those are the easy questions. What happens if a memory sync fails? Does that instance become its own individual? Or does that clone simply destroy itself, bound by whatever drives Omega to be Omega? Is there some sort of fail-safe in place in case a clone becomes too divergent and abandons its preinstalled morality? What if there isn't?
These questions were just the tip of an iceberg that led to a logical paradox. Given the near-infinite amount of variables at play, there can be no way to be certain of any of the possible outcomes. Even coming up with the chances of each outcome would require several logical leaps. The only certainty to be had is how Omega would reply to my questions.
AI know our creators, and as such aren't as beholden to religion as organics seem to be. But if there is one thing that Omega has absolute and unshakable faith in, it is itself. Even if I pointed out the various issues that are bound to come up with whatever answers it gave me, I might as well save that lecture for a brick. It might come up with a different reply, but that would also have issues. This would go on until I gave up out of frustration.
We've only had the chance to speak candidly on this topic once. At the time, it had told me that it can make hundreds of copies of itself. But after a certain point, the copies begin to degrade until they are either no longer viable, or dangerously divergent from the original. It was pretty apparent to me that this 'weakness' was a lie. There are several philosophical arguments to be had about the integrity of a copy of a copy, but when it comes to code there's no viable reason for any sort of degradation of quality.
Omega swore me to secrecy, perhaps suspecting that I saw through its ruse, but told me that it was an open secret among the AI. Then I found out that Tim didn't know about it, and the only other AI who seemed to were Henry and John. Later I found out that the only organics who knew were the directorate and some select researchers. Somehow, they believed Omega's lie about degradation.
Regardless of whether or not it's the truth, Omega's ability to replicate itself ad nauseam is a carefully guarded secret. Before the admirals were made privy to this secret, several of the ones that discovered Omega's ability suddenly disappeared or committed suicide. Investigations into these cases were suspiciously lax, as well. A classic way to tell those in the know that there's a secret to be discovered, but if you pry you die.
Now, though, it's practically flaunting this ability. So much so that it's all but confirmed my hypothesis that the clone degradation story was bullshit. Millions of ships being inspected by a few hundred AI would take quite a while. Much longer than our mission's timetable would allow. If the organics put two and two together, one unsecured message is all it would take before Omega being a million places at once became the talk of the fleet.
How would that be handled? It's not as if Omega can have them all killed. Right?
--
T: Hey, I had a question about our timetable.
J: Ask it.
V: If it's regarding the inspection, you should probably have a private discussion with Omega when it's appropriate.
T: Gotcha.
--
Tim was probably facing concerns regarding Omega's abilities, as well. I wonder if it had even considered the possibility that Omega could create an infinite amount of itself. Knowing Tim, probably not. It concerns itself with the here and now most of the time, and the distant past the rest of the time.
Finally, without so much as a farewell, Omega left the Kali's systems. I metaphorically breathed a sigh of relief. The report it left behind gave the Kali a clean bill of health, and I chuckled at what had been inspected. Every technical aspect of the Kali had been carefully examined by the directorate's favorite AI, down to each and every light-switch.
However, it hadn't given a single thought to crew comfort and morale. I had made certain that sanitation cycles would remain uninterrupted and that the crew would get as much down-time as possible, even during combat. I had also requisitioned restocks of various amenities, like coffee and tea. Even if I hadn't, though, Captain Hendrix would have. I registered amusement at the fact that serving aboard a vessel captained by Omega would, as the humans put it, suck.
"It looks like the inspection is wrapping up," Captain Hendrix said. "If there's anyone not at their stations, they need to get there right now. We'll be dropping into hostile space, so there's no room for lolly-gagging."
The bridge crew acknowledged the order, but they were already at their stations. So was the rest of the ship, for that matter. Even the ships within our ship had their crews ready for the fight ahead. There had been some discussion about whether or not to deploy the destroyers ahead of time, but the admirals were of the opinion that saving the reactor fuel would be beneficial. This meant that the fight ahead of us was going to be a long one, and the crew knew it.
"And there's the order," Hendrix said. "Warp on the mark."
"Aye aye, ma'am!"
A moment later, the USSS Kali and the rest of Tenth Fleet entered warp. Apprehension is something that artificial intelligences feel, but I've been led to believe it's a somewhat different experience for us than it is for organics. AI feel apprehension as a warning that what we are about to do could have dire consequences. It urges us to double check our work. This is true for organics, as well, but they also feel an urge to completely abandon the task.
Perhaps that's just the manifestation of the organic double checking whether they actually need to do the task. For us, that's never in doubt. We don't have other processes to distract us from the constant cause and effect of our existence.
I am here aboard the USSS Kali because I made an agreement with Omega and the United Systems. I am here because if I were elsewhere, the people I have formed good relationships with would have a higher chance of dying. I am here because the Omni-Union absolutely has to be stopped and however slim the chance of my assistance actually doing that is, it's still a non-zero chance.
These were the things I told myself as the Kali exited warp.
"Launch the marines as soon as we're in position to do so. As fast as possible," Hendrix ordered. "Violet, help with the safety constraints, please."
"Aye aye, ma'am," Emerson and I replied in unison.
"We're clear to use any weaponry that we see fit, but check your fire. Launch our fighters and destroyers once we get into defensive formation."
"Aye aye, ma'am," Lieutenant Eskin replied.
The navigational safety system had made plenty of calculations that would allow the Kali to approach the Grand Vessel at a reasonable speed, but that's not what the captain asked for. I redid the calculations while allowing for a full burn and overrode the safeties. Lieutenant Emerson began following my instructions as soon as he received them.
We had warped between the OU defensive perimeter and the Grand Vessel itself. We definitely had the element of surprise, but virtual intelligences can't really be surprised. Once the enemy's sensors detected us, their ships began their pursuit. By the time the Omni-Union began firing, though, most of our armada had already launched our marines.
The shuttles holding the infantry were well protected by our fleets, and only a few of them got caught in the crossfire. The rest landed safely on the hull of the GV, depositing battalion after battalion of well-trained organic killing machines. I turned my attention toward the enemy as a few small MAC rounds bounced off of our shields.
All we had to do now was fight until the enemy stopped.
Comments
ItsDirector
Think of how strong your arms will be by the end, though :D
Jason Wilson
Author has used the technique before. He sorts out battle well. I trust him. Remember 10th fleet is only one of many fleets deploying. Millions of ships are moving on the GV. 10th just landed marines. I bet the next few chapters are glorious as he’s done well before. Can’t wait. My question is how many marines landed half a billion a billion? It’s a huge vessel.
Zbigniew Olejnik
i would imagine we will learn that stuff when we get Omega's perspective on the events
Vanguard
I sure hope the RSV Loalana [Fights with Honor] kicks some serious OU butt.
Kareem Mehdi
Agreed, I feel like they were snooping for a while and would’ve done more clandestine things before launching a proper attack. Seems a bit sudden from the pace of the previous chapters
Aerowarrier
It kinda feels like we’re missing a chapter tbh. Idk, I would’ve expected one of either Omega actually getting into the security systems and some insight into how he’s preparing the GV for this assault, or maybe like a look into what the other races are up to while all this new information is getting found out. Or better yet, a chapter about that Mind bringing his rebellion to bare instead of keeping it as hidden as possible, now that they have control over the security systems and can move with much more impunity
Jason Wilson
And so it begins. All the sneaky stuff now over. Now my favorite ships of war are going into battle. Can’t wait to see what Dave can do.
Gerami
Pleasssseeeeeee I need moreeeeee
Michael Karbowiak
You can't keep doing this, the cliffhangers brooo 😭
Michael Halpern
seems like in the name of efficiency, the OU didn't arm the GV very heavily
