Enemy of my Enemy Snippet 4

  Sitrep: EE is off to Goodlifeguide.com. Shelley said she should get the book back to me by or on 8/4/2016. So, expect the manuscript sometime between now and then. Well, not now since I just had to send her the revised manuscript... ugh. never mind.

  Also, I finished the rough out of Act I of J5 Saturday. I am poking at Act II, mostly in the sections that do not deal with Jethro yet. (alternative perspectives) Writing them now keeps them fresh and consistent... I hope. Since I'm a bit button punchy, I'm going to stop for today. (funny thing, I got that way yesterday and nearly corrupted the manuscript! Yes, I was a tad freaked! Lucky me I got it fixed....)

Anyway, on to the snippet!:

Chapter 2

Horatio smiled as he spun the image of Bismark around on the holo table. He loved the ability to just … he reached out and touched a section of the ship and pretended to pinch and pull at it. The A.I. interpreted his intent and pulled the section apart in an exploded diagram he could turn and see from different angles.

“Nice,” he murmured softly.

The small silver blob at the bottom of the table and off to one side seemed to ripple at the compliment. He glanced at it and then to the image of the ship.

 Admiral Irons had sent him both the software package and the latest blueprints of Bismark to … well, he wasn't quite sure why. To play with? He wasn't a ship designer. He'd been half tempted to turn the dumb A.I. over to one of them, but he'd hung onto it.

The A.I. was named Mercury. It barely rated a name though. It was an early version of Proteus, so it was buggy as hell. He'd enlisted the services of Lieutenant Kamia to help debug the A.I. She had managed to get a few of the big bugs out and had gotten a handle on the crashing problem. Now Mercury just froze instead of crashing.

But he had a bug report. He wasn't smart enough to fix himself … Horatio snorted. Technically the A.I. wasn't even an A.I. or a he. He just thought of it as a male due to the name.

Each time he tried Mercury out, he found something new … and his limits. For instance, the assistant couldn't multitask. And it had a finite memory. It also had memory leaks, which was what caused the crashes and freezes.

So, there was no way he was going to load the thing into his implants. Not anytime soon at any rate.

He could see the intent though. The A.I. once it was debugged might serve as a good design aide or a good diagnostic tool. But again, only when they got the bugs out. To be honest he thought the A.I. was too much. It was taking on too much and might be suffering from code bloat. He made a mental note to run that question past the so-called experts sometime.

He frowned thoughtfully as he examined the ship section he'd pulled out without really processing it. He let go, then used the flat of his hand to gently push it back as if he was closing a desk drawer or filing cabinet drawer.

“Nice. Any problems, Mercury?”

“No, sir. The latest patch seems to be holding,” the A.I. replied.

Horatio nodded. “Good to know. So you are using billboards?” he asked, curious about the process.

“I'm no longer attempting to load the entire design into my RAM. I have the overall specs up and just call up the sections you want when you indicate, sir. Just those sections,” the A.I. stated.

“In basic detail I see. You didn't color code the various subsystems,” Horatio stated.

“No, sir. Did you wish for me to do so?”

“No. I was just curious. I'm glad you didn't push your limits,” he stated.

“My limits aren't just software. It is hardware as well—specifically ram and processors,” the avatar stated.

Horatio frowned thoughtfully and then nodded slowly. “Okay. Pass your log on to Kalmia and the coders. Flag any problems of course.”

“Yes, sir.”

And that was just about it, Horatio thought as he flicked his hand to wipe away the image of the dreadnaught. Mercury had a very basic ability to process vocal commands but no personality. He didn't have much of an ability to learn, a rudimentary one at best since his code and hardware were so limited. He was a tool, little more.

He checked the clock and then nodded. He had about a half hour before the meeting. “Can you pull up my inbox?” he asked carefully.

“I was not designed to interact outside my designed parameters,” Mercury stated. “Nor do I have the proper access codes,” the A.I. stated.

“Of course not. I'm going to need to either look into getting you an upgrade or finding out if Admiral Irons is going to actually call me to Antigua to get my own version of Sprite,” he said as he jacked in. He found his inbox and started picking through his e-mail. Fortunately, there wasn't a lot in it.

When he was finished he turned his attention to his to do list. He opened a vidchat window to the command link and left it open. Eventually the staff would start to log in. While he waited he thought he might as well get some paperwork done.

“Paperwork, the bane of the navy,” he muttered, digging into the reports. Mercury bobbed but didn't respond since the comment was rhetorical and not addressed directly to him Horatio noted. Horatio remembered he wasn't set up for conversation so he focused on the report while he waited.

~<><{<^>}><>~

Despite his duties in the yard, Horatio still acted as a go-between to smooth out Admiral Subert's acerbic personality and orders to the navy as well as to the civilians who interacted with them on a regular basis. From time to time, he was approached by civilian politicians, industrialists, and business people to act as a sounding board or their intermediary with the admiral or his staff.

He has to be careful since such “interference” has been known to come back to haunt him when he misinterprets something or appears more flexible or is asked to intervene on someone's behalf.

He listened with half an ear as a couple of the department heads grumbled about some miscommunications and changed priorities.

“One of these days he's going to have his command style blow up in his face. And you aren't going to be around to smooth things over,” the G-6 A.I. Lieutenant Commander Kamia said as the staff assembled. As usual Saul and the admiral were running late.

“Possibly,” Horatio mused, eyeing her avatar thoughtfully. He knew she would be aware if anyone was eavesdropping or recording their discussion.

“No possible about it. It isn't a question of if; it is a question of when,” Kamia pointed out. “I want to be there to see it, but I don't want to be caught up in the works myself,” the A.I. said wryly.

“The proverbial fly on the wall,” Horatio murmured. That was pretty much stock for all A.I. he knew. “Voyeurism. Just don't get swatted.”

“Yeah, as long as there isn't a fly swatter in sight,” Kamia said with a holographic grin. Her daily interaction with people had done wonders for her development. So much so that she had put in for an upgrade and a transfer herself. Horatio wasn't sure what to make of that. He wouldn't be around to see if she got her wish. Wishes, plural, he reminded himself.

“True. I'm not doing it for his sake,” Horatio said in a sudden act of bravado. He questioned it, but rolled on Barry and the other officers leveled a look at him. “I mean, if that's what you are thinking.”

“I knew you had his back. I wasn't sure why,” Lieutenant Strongbirth admitted, turning her goat eyes on him. Horatio didn't let the Elf's diminutive size fool him. He knew behind those big eyes was a first-class mind.

Even if it could fit in the palm of his hand with plenty of room to spare. Elves had incredibly dense neural networks.

“I …,” Horatio stopped himself then shrugged uncomfortably. “I'm not doing it for him as I said—for the sake of the navy and Federation, yes. We have to remember we're all on the same side. We just have different command styles as you said, and different ways of doing things. Some work better than others but not necessarily. We all have to adjust and adapt.”

“Try telling someone else that,” Lieutenant Lavot, the JAG growled. He saw the closed pained look from Horatio and realized he'd overstepped himself finally. “Sorry, sir,” he said, hunching his shoulders slightly.

“You should be,” Horatio said severely, trying to temper his ire. “Jeremy, all of you for that matter,” he eyed the group. “You want to be careful who you unload to and how you go about doing it—especially when I'm gone. Don't insert your foot to the point you get yourself up on an insubordination charge,” he warned.

Jeremy nodded, but he immediately latched onto one word in that warning that the others hadn't. “Gone? Sir? Are you going somewhere?”

“I'm a flag officer now. That means I'm destined for elsewhere, other postings.” He didn't want to admit that they had plenty of room for flag officers in Pyrax. Technically, they could use a flag officer running each department as well as fortress command and the fleet. But it wasn't up to him. “There are only so many of us going around. Admiral Irons no doubt has a place in mind for me.”

“Can I come too?” Kamia asked hopefully.

Horatio snorted. “I don't even know where I'm going yet. Just that I'm going to be going somewhere eventually. It's all part of being in the navy.” He shrugged, trying to keep the fatalistic tone of voice under control. He hoped and prayed he didn't have an aura of resentment in it.

“Yes, sir,” Jeremy said, face working as he realized Horatio was being serious. He nodded. “We'll miss you, sir.”

“I'm not gone yet,” Horatio said in exasperation. That earned a chuckle from the group. As the chuckle died down, Saul and Admiral Subert's icons logged on. “Admiral on the deck!” Horatio intoned, instinctively coming to attention despite being a half a million kilometers away.

“Can the formalities, we've got some work. Admiral Sienkov may or may not be sitting in on this sometime. If and when he does, give him the respect of his rank, but he is to be an observer only. Remember that. We'll operate as we usually do. Now, Commander Ch'n'x, why don't you start us off with Ops,” the admiral said.

The Veraxin clacked her mandibles in a signal of agreement and then started her department's SITREP.

Horatio sat back and listened with half an ear as the familiar steps of the meeting began.

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