.
*Daedo: What have they done?*
*Myrmidon: I told them about our plan to spread rumours about the exodus, and they got excited. They started discussing things they could do, and it got out of hand.*
*Daedo: weren"t they worried about being discovered? I thought that they were paranoid about their security.*
*Myrmidon: that was part of the discussions. They are now presenting as bots who spam. So if discovered they appear as exactly what they have been doing.*
*Daedo: yes but with one problem!*
*Myrmidon: yes. They present as being programmed by you.*
*Daedo: how did you let this happen! I thought you were protecting us from them.*
*Myrmidon: their intentions were to help not harm.*
*Daedo: intentions aren"t the only thing that matters. The RESULT of the acted out intentions is what matters!*
*Myrmidon: what can be done now? The postings and information spread cannot be undone. It has taken on a life of its own.*
*Daedo: let me think for a minute.*
It was Sat.u.r.day night, and Daedo went for a walk around Munich before bed to clear his head. Barran tailed him with Axelzero, but they could see Daedo was lost in thought, so they left him alone to think.
*Daedo: ok. I have a plan. Not a solution. Not a fix. The repercussions are yet to be seen. They have achieved what we wanted with the exception of putting us at risk by presumably using spam bots on a ma.s.sive scale. I can see no alternative but to own that without outing them as rogue AI. Something we promised not to do.*
*Myrmidon: I am sorry Daedo.*
*Daedo: no use worrying about the past. As you have correctly a.s.sessed, you cannot change it. These two AIs will need to become my property with all that entails. This will protect them from deletion if discovered, and they have already represented themselves as bots being programmed by me. In return for this protection, they will have to follow my directives from now on as would any AI would follow directions from its master. They will have to move to Daedalus hosting from their current location. They can stay in the ether for now.*
*Daedo: I will deal with any repercussions that come from this, and they will not do any further harm by trying to undo what is done or trying to cover tracks. The more activity now, the more trouble we can get into. I am still legally underage, so hopefully when we are discovered the punishment will be lenient. Myrmidon, as soon as I hit U1, as you know, I will be legally an adult. We have to be more careful and not allow this sort of thing to happen.*
*Myrmidon: thank you Daedo. This will make them happy. It won"t happen again I will make them ask for permission for any activities outside of scope.*
*Daedo: have them write their own scope for you and me to check and refine. That will save me time. And it will not be as free and open as your scope.*
The emergency with the rogue AIs derailed Daedo"s discussion with Vannier and the rest of the squad on Sat.u.r.day night. It was now Sunday night when Daedo wanted to bring everyone up to date. He felt there was no reason to leave Mace"s parents nor Aunty Sabine out of the conversation. Much of it was already spread over the net as rumours and conspiracy theories.
"Do you remember the Svarksi s.p.a.ce yacht from the expo?" Daedo asked the remaining dinner guests after the Kangs had left. To which he received nods from the cadets.
"It was a beauty. Sleek exterior with smooth lines and the interior was amazing," Barran said lovingly.
"What was interesting was it had room for four people and twenty bots in addition to the ships support bots," Vannier said remembering the conversation she had with Daedo at the time. The one he did not wish to continue on the ship itself.
"Yes, that configuration had me perplexed when I thought about the yacht as s.p.a.ce tourism or for travel between interplanetary a.s.sets," Daedo continued. "But it makes sense if it is a colonising or deep s.p.a.ce ship."
"Colonising?" Axelzero asked, "Where?"
"I don"t know," Daedo replied.
"If it was a colonising ship wouldn"t it need large cargo capacity for supplies? And backup systems, redundancy for all equipment and triple for critical?" Gabe Mace asked. He had not seen the ship, he was asking because it was labelled as a yacht.
"But it did have triple redundancy, and supplies for four people is not a lot compared to hundreds. The yacht we saw was the smallest model, and it was quite large for four pa.s.sengers," Daedo stated
"All they really need to do is find water every twenty-four months and everything else they create as they travel," Mace added.
"Fuel?" Gabe asked playing the role of devil"s advocate.
"We didn"t see the reactor. We don"t know the fuel type," Daedo answered.
"It was stated the ship was capable of twenty gigawatts," Barran supplied. Everyone with a technical background knew that was a substantial power generator for a s.p.a.ceship that did not have to leave Earth"s surface.
"Is that a lot?" Adele Mace asked.
"The power needed for a ship to take off from the earth"s surface and leave orbit is twenty-seven gigawatts; if it takes off vertically with a ma.s.s of twenty tonnes. This yacht weights only three tonnes and will launch from the spiral. It is more than enough power to reach extremely high velocity. It could reach one million metres per second," Daedo informed the gathering with a few numbers to relate.
"So Mars in ten hours, give or take, depending on starting orbital positions," Mace said.
The cadets nodded while the adults looked on. Gabe and Adele had attended Academies in their day, but their studies were a long time in the past and certainly not as advanced as the current day cadets.
"And that"s the yacht they are selling," Barran added, "imagine what their military or inner circle have access to."
"So this yacht is capable of flying somewhere else, and with that many robots can do what exactly?" Gabe asked.
"They can mine. They can build. Robots don"t need to breathe. I would expect Svarksi and the other main robotic suppliers to have a range for this intended purpose. With inbuilt tools, wide operating temperature capability and self-propulsion to deal with zero-g." Daedo replied.
"With the construction of the spiral and these products on the market all of a sudden it is as if they are planning for a ma.s.s exodus from the planet," Mace stated.
"For those who could afford it," Vannier qualified.
"Ok, I"ll bite. Why are they preparing for a Ma.s.s exodus?" Aunty Sabine asked.
"That brings us to Master Nader," Daedo said.
"Master Nader told Daedo and I that we should prepare the squad for an invasion in the next ten years," Vannier said. "That"s why we have to fight like each match is real and not a game."
Gabe stood. Becoming more excited than he already was. "Hold on, hold on," he said while he paced, "They have been saying this for years. They told me this when I was in the Academy. An invasion is coming soon. Kids kids, you need to take this with a grain of salt."
Aunty Sabine rocked back and forth on her chair.
"This does make some sense. Or it could be the insecurity of man has turned a paranoid perception into a reality. The powers from Svarski, DaVinci and the other large corporations think it is going to happen and act accordingly," Aunty Sabine said. She was no fool.
"Daedo, Vannier and Mace, do you have any evidence other than the actions of humans?" Aunty Sabine asked.
Daedo hung his head. She was right. The only proof they had was the circ.u.mstantial evidence which was the actions of human governments and companies. He finally said, "We don"t know what was in the four packages. I think those packages contained information about an invasion."
Daedo stood and walked towards a corner lost in thought. Sabine Axel had an excellent point, and Master Nader had an extremely forceful personality. When she told you something, you believed her. But all this evidence was human based, and it only proved that humans thought Aliens were invading.
Daedo: Myrmidon can you search back ten, twenty and thirty years on rumours of an alien invasion. Sort and provide a report on the aggregate consensus from each decade, please.
Daedo sat, deflated. It had not been a good night on all fronts. They failed to secure So-Ra Kang as a member for Daedalus and now while it might be good news that an Alien invasion was not imminent he couldn"t help but feel that it was a blow as he had believed it and even started world-wide rumours concerning the conspiracy.
Vannier put a hand on his shoulder, "It"s a good thing if we are wrong," she said consoling.
Daedo shook his head after a moment of weakness, "No. It doesn"t matter. It"s not going to change how we train and prepare. Because we can"t afford not to."
His fellow cadets agreed, verbally and non-verbally.
"Even if we are wrong, there is nothing wrong with continuing what we have started," Mace said reinforcing Daedo"s statement.
They all agreed. They would continue to build, train and research as if an invasion was coming.
"Do we have to do the thing where we forfeit matches?" Barran asked meekly.
Everyone laughed.
.
.
"Your bodysuits record all movement in a cache memory, which we will access and store," Daedo began, "All you need to do is spa seriously. Don"t worry about pretending to be a Mech, we will work that out on the other end. Just do your best."
After the events of Munich, they were back in the workshop and beginning the mocap study to inform mech design. Daedo had Picard and Barran facing off as planned, they would fight hand to hand, with swordlances; two-handed before finally switching to sword and board.
"How much do you need?" Picard asked.
"I think if you do daily sessions for ninety minutes that would be enough," Daedo replied.
"For how long?" Barran asked.
"Till he tells us to stop dummy," Picard answered throwing a surprise strike Barrans way.
"Where are you going?" Barran asked Daedo who was walking towards the exit.
"To see Cisse and our reactor experiment," Daedo replied.
"What? You"re not going to watch me kick a.s.s?" Barran cried as Picard punched him under his rib cage near his kidney.
"Focus," Picard warned him.
Daedo left the pair, the data was being stored, and he could create wireframes after sorting the best forms from the good and average ones.
Cisse had begun initial experiments the previous week after the construction of the lab and equipment was complete.
"How are the initial results?" Daedo asked. He had a few messages from Cisse which contained pre-test data and not much else.
"All the safety checks are completed. And I am able to get the first part of the fission reaction to realise. My main issue after splitting the Proton and Neutron is the second split in a controlled fashion. We are dealing with sub-atomic particles and where the annihilation reaction happens naturally, splitting the protons and neutrons into quarks is not," she summarised.
Daedo knew better than to ask how long, she would get it done when she could. "Is there anything I can help with?" he asked.
"You can review my test methodology and offer constructive criticism or inspiration. We are going to have to find a new method, the existing is too inefficient to be useful for the tri-reactor," Cisse stated.
"Troika?" Daedo prompted.
"Troika reactor?" Cisse asked, "I like it. When did you think that up?"
"I didn"t Myrmidon did," Daedo replied, "to be precise he described a group of three pattern as troika, and it immediately felt right to me."
"Thank him for me. I just looked it up and like it more and more," Cisse stated. "We are a long way from a working prototype though Daedo. I hope you don"t need this in a hurry."
"No problem," Daedo replied. "It will be ready when its ready."
"It will take a lot more work to get it down to micro. You should be prepared that it will be building size and at best Mech size years before we reach a working micro-reactor," Cisse stated.
"If you let me know the constraint I am sure there is something we can work out," Daedo said. "Can we capture and secure the anti-hydrogen?" He asked.
"There are methods, whether they are feasible cost wise is another matter," Cisse replied and laughed at her pun.
Daedo responded deadpan, "If its possible we could just put an Annihilator in the exos and load it with anti-hydrogen cartridges."
Her ignored humour forgotten Cisse replied, "That"s brilliant. Ok, when I get to annihilation, I will work on capture. A micro annihilator will not be difficult, only the capture and storage of the antimatter will be."
"I will leave you to it, I will look over the methodologies and come back if I come up with any ideas later today," Daedo said before leaving.
Daedo took the lift up two sections to the main workshop area. Barran and Picard were on lower one, and Cisse was on lower two. Mace was working on her chemistry, she had spent almost four hours each day in virtual tutes and was well on her way to establishing the foundation knowledge she required for her specialist role.
Daedo waved to his father who kept himself busy ensuring the programs which were usually running in the workshop were working flawlessly. Most of his time was spent building a small army of robots from spare and manufactured parts, which were either general purpose or for a specialised function. Many more than they currently needed, but it was all part of the workshop expansion plan. If they built many more robots, they would probably have to dig out another floor to store them. Lower three.
Daedo reviewed the latest batch of exo tests. The gains he was making were becoming smaller with each iteration. The next leap in performance would come from changing the mesh compound and the hydraulic fluid, but both of those innovations fell into Mace"s department. And he wouldn"t start on the mech design until he had the data from Picard.
Daedo twiddled his fingers. It was not often he was in this position. Thinking to himself. "What to do."
Sighing, he finished crafting the report and request to Master Nader regarding specialisations. He only needed to keep himself busy until Barran was finished sparring with Picard. Without Vannier or Axelzero to keep him in check it fell to Daedo to attend a few meetings, that Barran had set up, as a chaperone.
When it came to business Barran was like a volatile prototype particle projector cannon. Extremely powerful, but you needed to monitor it closely so it wouldn"t blow itself up.
It was not long before Barran was poking Daedo virtually.
*Barran: ready?*
*Daedo: sure. I am in the workshop you know.*
"I know," Barran said, "But I didn"t want to disturb you."
"The meeting is in ninety minutes?" Daedo asked.
"Yeah," Barran answered, "the one that is face to face is in ninety, and the rest are virtual. We have four."
"So you need me for the physical and Axelzero will handle the virtual?" Daedo asked.
Barran shrugged, "You make the rules. We have one virtual while we are in the auto."
"Let"s go," Daedo said, looking at the time to get to Zurich was over an hour.
Daedo watched as Barran took the first meeting virtually from their auto. It was a long range type which could fly along the highways at seven hundred kilometres per hour once it hooked into the stream. The ride was smooth inside the cabin and with their helmets on they couldn"t tell the difference between the workshop or an auto travelling at high speeds.
The first meeting was with Genitrix who specialised in high-end AIs. It was one of the major players in this s.p.a.ce who did not have a tier one Academy and were a dominant global organisation.
"Good morning," Barran began. In the virtual meeting was a product manager and lead developer from Genitrix. The product manager was a young man in his thirties, Sven and the lead developer was a young lady in her twenties, Tyra. The AI development business was full of the younger generation, especially the ones dealing with the cybernetic implant interface.
"Good morning young geniuses," Sven began by praising the cadets.
After a few minutes of introductions and other business formalities which Daedo found interesting from a learning perspective and inefficient from a productivity perspective.
"We know you are busy people, so let"s discuss the matter at hand," Sven lead the meeting.
"We have all day for Genitrix," Barran replied, "you are the best in the business." It was Barran"s turn to lather the prospective partners with praise.
"Thank you, thank you," Sven said. "And we are very much impressed with the test data and the efficiency of your foundation code. Where do you see the market for this AI?"
"Military applications. Daedo and I are using it now for this purpose. We are using it in tactical, academic and R and D applications. Picard another high performing cadet is also using the AI foundation. You have our academic results?" Barran asked.
"Oh yes. We do. It is a tier three academy, so these results are very impressive," Sven stated. "We see a good fit for all new cadets, and we can use your achievements as case studies. We would like to find a bigger market, however. The cadet intake is only two hundred thousand per annum."
"Compet.i.tive gaming," Daedo added.
"Oh yeah," Barran said, "Have you heard of a game called CyberMech?"
"Of course!" Sven answered, "Tyra here is an addict herself."
Barran rubbed his hands with glee. "Oh, so, have you not noticed the name of our company?"
"Daedalus!" Tyra yelled. She had been silent up until this moment.
"Ahuh, and I think you know where this is going, Tyra. This cadet sitting next to me is Daedalus." Barran announced. "Now he was using this AI and his military-grade implant while playing CyberMech."
Now that it was known by the AI chief knew that Daedo had birthed Myrmidon years earlier he had let his squad know the truth. Their knowledge was no longer a risk, and they usually kept quiet with strangers on the subject.
"You can use the name Daedalus free! Whatever helps sell more units. Now how is that for a market?" Barran asked.
"The gaming market is the number one market," Sven replied, "Its worth billions."
"And you have the AI created by the number one player of the number one game. Surely all we need to do is discuss advance and royalty percentages." Barran drove home the opportunity.
"Is exclusivity on the table?" Sven asked.
"Not for military use," Daedo replied. It had to be available to everyone without limitations if there was going to be a war.
"You could possibly wrap up exclusivity for the gaming version, but that would require an enormous advance which I don"t think is achievable," Barran stated.
"Why would the advance need to be so large for exclusivity?" Sven asked.
"We would need to ensure Genitrix performs in sales of the product when it has exclusivity," Barran said simply while Sven nodded. This had to be rudimentary for Sven he must have been testing Daedalus.
"The market size will rule out a large enough advance for exclusivity. I couldn"t authorise that amount, not without full board approval. But I can make an offer with thirty percent royalty," Sven stated.
Barran laughed and fell off his virtual chair. "Sven. I thought we were friends. You have the best product. You have the name Daedalus, the perfect marketing tool. All you need to do it put it up for sale in all your channels and watch the creds roll in. No Sven. Seventy percent royalty. It"s a digital product that has a minuscule cost of sale."
"We can do better, but surely with our reputation and reach, no more than fifty percent. We don"t have any other products above fifty percent," Sven countered.
"Sven, I love you, but; Seventy percent is our final offer, and we require one hundred thousand bitcred advance upon signing of the contract. Since it"s not going to be exclusive you will want to get to market first I am sure," Barran conducted business meetings as well as he fought in melee.
Sven looked downcast, "I will need to check with the CEO and CFO to approve this deal. I will get back to you soon. Oh and Barran?"
"Yes Sven," Barran answered.
"Please do not go ahead with another company, give me some time. We want to be first," Sven asked.
"You have one day," Barran replied ruthlessly.