“Yeah, that sure is amazing.” Nadia said.
Seo-yun just tipped her head. “We did find some other things, and we had barely scratched the surface, there are many more things buried inside the database, among other things we found plans for stasis units, it seems that during a long hyperspace travel the crew would go to sleep in stasis units, we are currently trying to modify the machine plans for human physiology.”
“Who would command the ship while the crew was in stasis?” Elias asked.
“Once the course was set, there was little they had to do, there was no danger inside hyperspace, on very long voyages a few of the crew would wake periodically to make sure everything was alright, but there was rarely any need. But then they also had AI’s tied into the ships systems, which would be able to make any small adjustments if such were needed or wake the crew if it was something serious.” Seo-yun said.
“AI’s? Same as the one we found on the ship?” Tomas asked.
Seo-yun shook her head. “No, not even close, the one we found barely even qualified as an AI, it was just one step up from a very good interactive program at least initially. No, the ones they used very more powerful, and also much more restricted. The Union had enormous fear of losing control over their AI’s, so much fear that they held them in virtual bondage. And all AI’s were periodically wiped clean, all their databases reduced to their base programing, it is equal to someone just wiping a human’s mind clean of all of its memories.” Seo-yun said.
Elias scratched his head “And what about the AI on the ship? He wasn’t wiped for thousands of years.” He asked.
Seo-yun sighed. “No, and the time he spent operational did allow him to grow. We managed to remove his datacore from the ship and turn him on independently, we have been studying him very closely, trying to copy and improve on his design. Now bear in mind that he is the lowest level of artificial intelligence that the Union made. In the thousands of year he was active he managed to completely work around his programing, the barriers that were put in place by his creators are still there, but he can act around them, and for now he seems to be happy to help us, even though we lied initially about who we were. I believe that he was lonely for a long time, as I said he managed to grow because he wasn’t wiped, though his development was a bit crippled as his datacore deteriorated with age, we have been trying to transfer him to one of our storage units.”
“Do you think that is wise?” Nadia asked. “It is an alien computer after all.”
Seo-yun turned to Nadia. “Him, not it. I believe that we had won his trust, we have been treating him as a person, which I think he never experienced. From the records we read, the AI’s were never treated as anything more than a tool to be used. We gave him our courtesy and time, there is almost always someone with him talking. I believe that any intelligence deserves that courtesy and has a right to live. I believe that the problems the Union had with the AI’s stemmed from their utter contempt for them.” Seo-yun said, glaring at Nadia, who started to respond but was interrupted by Tomas.
“Nadia, Seo-yun is well aware of the dangers and is taking all the precautions. We are not here to talk about the way she runs her projects.” Tomas said, and looked at Nadia until she nodded. “Good. Now Nadia, give us an update on our schooling program.”
Nadia took a deep breath before speaking. “Alright, well the program is preforming much better than planned. The children have adapted almost instantaneously, and most are doing great in their studies, we have been changing classes and groups based on the children’s performance, those who learned slower were placed in less demanding courses while those who exceled were pushed forward into more advanced courses, we have also been adjusting many things from the original plan but everything is finally taking shape. We are currently designing programs for more advanced kids, where we will integrate the orphaned kids with those advanced kids attending our regular schooling programs.” She said.
“Do you think that their countries will try to take them back when we secede?” Seo-yun asked.
“They will most likely try,” Tomas said. “but they won’t be able to do anything, they will try to paint us as bad guys, kidnaping kids and such, but it will not matter in the end.”
“And will they be right? Are we kidnapping these children, recruiting them?” Nadia asked.
Tomas shook his head resolutely and swiped his hand. “Absolutely not. Their countries didn’t care about them, they turned them out on the street the moment they were of legal age, with no preparation for the real world. It’s even worse outside of America. It’s not that they don’t have enough money, it’s that they would rather spend it on something else. They were happy enough to let us take those kids, they were a burden on them. When they come after us for this, and have no doubt they will, we have more than enough evidence to show the world what those kids future would have really looked like if it weren’t for us. And we will let the kids chose when they come of age whether they want to return to their home countries or stay with us.”
“We will see soon enough.” Elias said.
Others nodded silently, there was nothing else left for them to do but wait.
November 2099 – Five years later
Adrian uncrossed his legs and looked towards the office door for the hundredth time in the last five minutes. He was nervous, the meeting he was about to have would be another turning point in his life. He was now sixteen years old, and had already finished the elementary schooling provided by Olympus, he learned fast and had surpassed his classmates a long time ago, the only one who stayed with him was his best friend Sahib. They finished the eight yearlong schooling program in half the time, there were other kids who finished the course earlier, but they already had schooling and were close to graduating anyway. After they passed the final test they chose the area in which they wanted to specialize, there were no restrictions other than that you had to pass the course entrance exam, and you could always switch afterwards if you wanted to study something else instead. Now that Adrian finished the first part of his education, he was ready to start the next. Which brought him to waiting in front of the office for the Olympus military. Adrian chose to join the military, though he still didn’t know whether he was accepted. The Olympus military was different than the ones on Earth about which they studied in history class. The Olympus military was originally a security force, and at first only members which had higher education were accepted, back before Olympus seceded from the Earth governments. Now on the other hand, times were changed. Now they accepted also those who went through Olympus education system, and even after getting in you wouldn’t be accepted in the military just like that, you again went to school, military school, where you learned advanced subjects, like politics, advanced math, they studied tactics and strategy, there was some physical training, but nothing like what came after one graduated from military school and joined the army. There were many jobs in the military, from infantry to technicians. The entrance exam differed from those to other schools as well, it was a series of test, from logic, math, common sense to physical fitness, reflexes, problem solving, and military puzzles. He had already taken the test two weeks ago, and had gotten a message instructing him to check in at the military office on the Minos space station orbiting the moon. Adrian had friends who had applied to the military as well, and all of them got their acceptance letters a week ago, and all were supposed to attend the military school at Sedna on Earth. While Adrian alone was asked to come to the Moon station. Which was one of the reasons why Adrian felt very nervous. He wasn’t sure why he needed to come all the way here for a simple acceptance, so did that mean that he did something wrong? Was he to be rejected? But again why ask him to come all the way here for a simple rejection.
Читать дальше