Jacob sat in a recliner inside his virtual apartment as twelve drones spoke at twelve different colleges across the globe. It was rather surreal that he could even do this. When he first came up with the avatar trick, he had mostly done so for Barry and Katherine’s benefit. That way, they could interact with Jacob while he was free to keep working.
Only two things made it possible. The first was his fellow humans and how their data interacted with the normal storage. The second was the fact that Jacob had access to an entire AI’s worth of processing capacity, and he wasn’t using it for anything other than low-level monitoring for the few systems aboard Melody’s hull that were operational.
The avatars weren’t AI copies or separate entities. They were him sort of. Jacob originally came up with the idea when he realized Melody and every other AI must have an ability to interact with multiple people at once.
Realizing that and implementing it was another thing entirely. Jacob might have access to the AI’s processing power, but he wasn’t an AI. Training his mind to process multiple inputs had been a grueling challenge, one he had done in secret. The first split had been relatively minor. He actually succeeded by complete accident when his mind wandered while Katherine was complaining about something during breakfast.
Realizing he was still responding to her while he was in another drone actually broke the connection, and the avatar vanished mid-conversation, which irked the woman and made Jacob chuckle even now. He quickly got better, though, and it wasn’t long before he could maintain that avatar as long as he wanted.
During the trip to Earth, he pushed that training even farther, until he reached his current limit of twelve avatars. It was a far cry from what a full AI could do, but it was an impressive feat for a previous meat bag.
He did have to remove his avatars from the station, just to meet his requirements on Earth, but it was worth it.
The summits had pulled in every single political appointee of note, apart from the Russian delegation, which had tried to get them shut down after declaring that he blew up their research outpost and killed a bunch of innocents.
Either nobody was buying the Russians’ story, or more likely, nobody cared, because every other nation that he had invited to the talks had shown up.
Jacob really didn’t care why nobody listened to the Russians; he just found the whole situation amusing. Not only had the Russians tried to kill his drone, but they had blown up their own facility and tried to blame the whole thing on him. If anything, that probably made the world powers want to get their hands on the Concord tech even more.
“How are things on the ground?” Jacob asked Katherine during a momentary lull in the talks.
“Fine,” she said. “The Marines are escorting me around, but they are staying out of my personal business. I should be finished up in a day or two, assuming the people I contacted respond. Some might not…I wasn’t very kind to them.”
Jacob was shocked that Katherine had shared so much. She wasn’t exactly an open book.
“I’ll leave you to it, then.” It was human nature to be curious, but he was smart enough to know not to dig into her business. If she wanted to talk about it, she would.
This new openness was a good sign, however. Now if Jacob could only get Barry to be more sociable. He wondered what the man was up to while both Katherine and he were focused on Earth. Probably improving his drone design.
***
The holding area door slid open, and Barry strode into the room and stopped in front of the only occupied cell on the entire station.
“You’re not Captain Jacob, are you?” the alien behind the clear door asked.
“No. My name is Barry. I have some questions, and I was hoping you could answer them for me.”
“What’s in it for me?” the woman asked tiredly.
Instead of answering, the cell door flicked open silently, and the woman scrambled back. It took Barry a moment to realize why she was terrified.
“Apologies. I’m not here to harm you. Consider a bit of freedom as a reward for your assistance.”
“Does Captain Jacob know you are doing this?” the woman asked warily as she stepped out of the small cell.
“No, but he gave me discretionary control of most station resources while he is busy with another issue. Please, walk with me.”
It didn’t take any more urging for the filthy woman to fall in line beside him. Jacob might think Barry was unnaturally focused on his projects, but at least he noticed the state of the poor woman. Her clothes were dirty, her hair was a mess, and she probably smelled awful. You could tell she had tried to keep some semblance of dignity thanks to the small washbasin in her cell, but it was insufficient for the task.
The only thing Jacob had done for her was feed her, and Barry found that a bit vindictive, but not outright cruel. The woman had killed someone after all.
When they reached the exit to the cell block, the woman froze and almost backpedaled when she saw what was waiting outside the cell block. Barry placed a firm hand behind her back to prevent her from retreating.
“Don’t worry about the combat drones. They won’t act so long as you behave.” There was a reason Barry had waited until Jacob and Katherine were both occupied to speak with the eiraxin woman, but he wasn’t dumb. The combat drones that Jacob had finally been able to build with the extra material that had come in were a safeguard against any treachery this woman might attempt.
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The four-legged balls of death were only about half the size of the Astryx models, and they didn’t have a shield emitter or the massive cannons. Instead, four smaller void cannons were mounted on them. The smaller weapons didn’t make them any less deadly, however. They were just as deadly, if not more so, against most targets. Barry really wished he knew how the weapons functioned.
“Do I have a choice?” the woman asked.
“You could always go back to your cell,” Barry shrugged. “But I assume a shower and a fresh change of clothes might sway that decision.”
“I’ll take the shower and clothes,” she replied almost immediately.
“What is your name, by the way?” Barry asked as they started walking down the hallway, the two combat drones shadowing them.
“Xing’che,” she replied, glancing back at the drones. “Those aren’t Concord-designed drones, and I’ve never seen such a small Astryx model. Who designed them?”
“Jacob did,” Barry replied. “He based them on the Astryx design.”
Bary had to admit that the design was rather ingenious. The leg section and upper body were separate, allowing the sphere to rotate freely in nearly any direction. It was also dirt cheap, quick to produce, and easy to replace if it got damaged. The station now had two dozen of the mechanized drones roaming the halls, and more were slated for construction as other tasks on the production line were completed. It didn’t really matter if the drones couldn’t fire the weapons without someone piloting them. Their mere presence was deterrent enough.
Barry didn’t know how Jacob’s would compare to the originals, but they fit their purpose on the station just fine. They were also proven to be a significant improvement over the combat drone Jacob had cobbled together from a maintenance drone, even without shields. At least that’s what the virtual tests showed. Most of that improvement came down to just how fast they could acquire their targets and fire, but they were also more nimble, being able to shift in any direction instead of relying on a tracked torso.
Jacob had asked Barry to look into possible improvements for them, maybe even miniaturizing the shield generator design that Jacob had access to, so it could fit on the drones. Barry knew nothing about how shields worked, so he didn’t know how Jacob expected him to figure that out. Besides, he was more interested in transferring some of that technology over to the bipedal drones and improving those. Specifically, the coupling system that held the sphere in place while allowing it to rotate freely on the subframe. He also wanted to copy the leg joints, which were much smoother than the current ones he was using.
It was too bad that Jacob only got surface scans and video recordings of the Astryx drones. A full scan would have saved so much effort.
Xing’che didn’t respond or speak until after she showered and cleaned up. Barry waited outside the room, but both the station AI and drones were keeping tabs on her.
She stepped out thirty minutes later, her hair still damp, but she was looking much better.
“Are you ready to answer some of my questions?” Barry asked.
“Yes. Can I ask some of my own?”
“You can, but I may choose not to answer them. Come. We can talk on the way to the cafeteria.”
“Why are you doing all this?” She asked.
“Because I require answers, and it’s much easier to get answers from a compliant source than one who sees no hope.”
“I see,” Xing’che replied.
“Not what you expected?”
“No,” she admitted. “You are different than either Jacob or Franky’dee.”
“Jacob has different priorities and worries than I do and Franky… Well, Franky was shortsighted and foolish.”
“And you’re concerned about the future?” she asked.
“Something like that,” Barry admitted. “What happened during the war?”
The question seemed to surprise the woman. “Is that what you want to know?”
“One of the things. I’ve perused the station’s databases and the information publicly available on the Astryx network, but I would like your take on what happened.”
“Why?” Xing’che asked. “I’m sure you’ve already made up your mind about my people. I had thought your group some lost eiraxins when my people first encountered you, but that belief has been shattered by your reactions. Just who are you and where did you come from?”
“I’m trying to put a puzzle back together, and some pieces aren’t adding up. Until I have the full picture, I won’t be passing judgment on anyone. I can’t say the same for Jacob or Katherine, but they are their own people.”
Xing’che didn’t miss the fact that Barry had ignored the last question, but she didn’t push. “So Franky’dee wasn’t lying. There were only four of you this entire time? How far my people have fallen to be captured by less than a handful of people.
“Technically, only one,” Barry replied. “Jacob was the only one awake during that encounter. The man may be lacking in some areas, but I have to admit he is highly motivated and resourceful when it matters.”
“Your words cut even deeper,” Xing’che winced.
“The truth is often painful, but hiding from it serves nobody.”
“You would make a terrible politician,” Xing’che replied bluntly.
Barry laughed at that. “I would indeed.”
The woman sighed. “I don’t know the full story behind the war. I doubt anyone alive still does, but I will tell you what I know. The parts stripped away from the Astryx official historical accounts.”
Barry listened to the woman’s story, and while she was right, she didn’t have the full picture; she did fill in a few key pieces that had been bothering him. It wasn’t yet enough to determine what had truly happened, but it was more than he knew before.
“And the lau are just gone?” Barry asked.
“As far as I’m aware,” she replied with a shrug after taking a bite of her food. “Killed off because they refused to fall in line. That’s one of the reasons I’m so adamant to get some of my people off our home world. You experienced the lengths they will go to keep us under their thumb.”
“The attack?” Barry asked.
Xing’che nodded. “I had plenty of time to think about it, and that’s the only thing that makes sense. Jacob refused to tell me who was behind the attack, but it was a t’uk vessel, wasn’t it?”
“As far as I’m aware, yes. So you think they followed you this far just to eliminate you?”
“Hearing you say that makes me sound like I’m more important than I am. If I die, someone back home will take up my mantle. I might have been their main target, but they could have seen the station and the planetary conditioning vessel as a threat as well. It’s impossible to say without questioning the captain of that ship or who sent them. I assume that isn’t possible?”
“No, the ship was destroyed, but we might be able to ask the person who sent them if you can give us a name.”
“My guess would be Representative Naal. I doubt he would cooperate, however. The t’uk representative hates eiraxins with a passion.”
“You’re probably right,” Barry admitted. “But I don’t plan on questioning him myself. I’m going to forward this information to Judicator Ghrroaqq to look into. I suspect he will have more luck getting answers from this representative than I ever could.”
Xing’che laughed at that. “I wish I could be there to see the man’s face as a judicator shows up to question him directly. It would almost be worth returning home to be locked up for the rest of my life.”
Barry didn’t think the woman would be as amused if she had the same information that he did.
Jacob’s data about the sabotage on the planetary conditioning vessel, which could only have been carried out by someone with access, and now Xing’che’s own testimony that the lau had been eradicated, pointed to a single conclusion. The t’uk were the ones who had betrayed the Concord Imperium.
He had no clue as to why they would do such a thing, or how the most recent attack fit in, but he suspected the answer was important to their long-term survival on the station.
Jacob was too preoccupied with fixing his ship to see that, and Katherine’s prejudices about aliens were blinding her, which left Barry to put the pieces together. Not that he minded. He loved solving complex problems, and this one promised to be huge.