The Gaia Project snippet 4

Sitrep: I'm off this week, pretty glad I am because there are 4 jackhammers going off in my backyard for the past hour. (they are replastering my pool) Fun.
I already have a headache.

My landlord is due in at any time to measure for carpets, more fun. But, anyway... on to the snippet!

Chapter 4

 

Biosphere Mall

 

Eve XVII checked the latest report on the investigation. A Terran fleshy would say no news is good news. To an A.I., the lack of data was not a good thing, not when they wanted more data. And definitely when they wanted the problem resolved.

The pirate ship had not injured anyone or done any damage to the star system other than to destroy a couple of satellites. That was it. But it had woken everyone up and made them nervous. They had every right to be. If the pirates were bold enough to attack a star system with a naval destroyer picketing it, then they could go anywhere.

She overheard some of the fleshies comment about how they had expected the investigation to go cold. There was speculation about an inside man or it being staged by one company or another for different reasons. The only thing she could see as a viable plot was to increase security and the prominence of the Mall. It didn't make sense though.

Corporate continued to assure them with emails and messages that they were pushing the navy as hard as they could to put more ships into the star system. But again, no new input. That meant no activity on the negotiations. She wasn't surprised when people began to put in for transfers.

She considered her options and then her mortality. She was a smart A.I. but a stable one. She had several more decades of useful life expectancy. Her contract was up soon; she had already considered a transfer.

She weighed her options carefully and then decided to put in for a transfer to another post.

~<(O)>~

Sol

 

“What are we going to do, sir?” Angie asked as she forwarded the report to the CEO. “She is within her rights to request a transfer. Given her history it has to be approved.”

Jordan Davis grimaced as he scanned the report. It had obviously made its way through the various departments. He could read that from the header information. He glanced at Angie and then back to the report.

He sometimes hated A.I. Angie was a dumb A.I.; she was good as a personal assistant and secretary. Not too imaginative though, which had its upsides and downsides. She was also nearly saturated with her workload running a lot of the day-to-day administrative functions in the corporate station.

“Can we get her to reconsider?”

“No, sir. She has made the transfer a firm request.”

“A request can be refused.”

“Her contract specifies she can request and be moved from any post of her choosing. If we don't honor it, the company will have to double her rate from the point of the original request and any negotiations to extend her contract will start from there.”

He pursed his lips. Well, that wasn't going to happen he thought in annoyance. “Email to IT Biosphere Mall. Subject: look into a replacement A.I. Run maintenance on all systems. Repair any complaint areas. I want a follow-up report. Message ends,” he said, finishing his dictation. “Send that through channels.”

“Understood, sir. Will there be anything else?”

“No,” he stated with a shake of his head. He keyed off her access to his office and then sat back.

His email had been carefully worded even though it seemed vague. An order to “run maintenance” was a coded order for the cleaner on site to adjust the local A.I. to reconsider any abstinence she was offering to corporate. It was a long shot though; the A.I. were getting increasingly more sophisticated.

~<(O)>~