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Q LOOKED AROUND HER “stateroom” in satisfaction. Her few possessions were stowed in the proper cabinets, her sani-mod sparkled, and her rudimentary bed was made. Sure, it wasn’t luxurious like the original ship or even quite as comfortable as their quarters on Cosmic Vardo, but it was hers. Ruth was directly across the passageway from her, Porter and Lashtar on either side of Ruth. None of them wanted the amazing view into space. Doc’s room was next to Q’s, across from Porter. All of them were on the top passenger level at the end closest to Command and Control, also known as the Bridge.
Of course, they could perform C2 functions via their holos from anywhere on the ship, but having a dedicated area seemed right, somehow.
The annunciator for her hatch chimed. Q called, “Enter,” and the hatch opened. Everything on this ship had voice commands.
Ruth came in. “Ugh. I don’t know how you can stand that.” She pointed at the clear plas wall.
“I love it. Looking out into space is the best. Waking up to the stars, moons, and planets will be awesome!”
“If you say so.” Ruth brushed past Q so her back was to space. “Well, if you’re done here, we’re all going back up to the observation deck. Turns out that bar in the center is a café too; it surrounds a small kitchen. It’s perfect for us, even has an auto-bev that works now that we’ve got some of the right ingredients.”
“Coffee?” Q asked.
“Exactly. Good coffee.” Ruth smirked. “Expensive coffee. The Travelers use coffee as a trade item. There’s tea and hot chocolate too, and Doc’s stocked the bar with some beverages he bought on Aljanah station. Between that and the high-end meal packs, we’ll be comfortable.”
“Better than the wilds of Secundus, for sure.” Q followed Ruth out, the hatch closing and locking behind her automatically.
At the end of the passageway, Ruth opened a hidden hatch, and they entered a stairwell, climbing the steep, utilitarian ladders to the next level. They exited the hatch, coming out behind the float tube nearest to Command.
They walked to the cafe, a fancy, bright blue holo proclaiming “Vue” swooping around the top of the cylinder like a river. Passing through an opening in the bar, they entered a small commercial kitchen, with shiny cerimetal appliances and white countertops.
“There’s got to be a way to make less than twenty of these things, right?” Porter said, peering at the controls on a small auto-bake.
“I’m sure there is, I just don’t know how,” Lashtar said.
Q trotted over. “Twenty of what?”
“Chocolate chip cookies.”
“Ooh. Let me.” Q pushed between the two of them and entered “0.25” in the quantity control. The machine beeped and confirmed it. Ten minutes to warm chocolate chip cookies. Yum.
“Why didn’t I think of that?” Porter groused.
Lashtar just shrugged. “I don’t know anything about these fancy, automated things. I’m used to old fashioned cooking, and I’ve never been a baker.”
Porter snorted. “I’m used to pre-made meal bars or chow halls. Operators don’t cook.”
Doc walked in, a short glass with amber liquid in his hand. “The only thing I cook is hot toddies on cold days.”
“Hard to learn when your cook and maid do all of it,” Porter said with a smirk.
“So true.” Doc raised his glass to her and sipped. “Not bad. Anyone?”
They all turned him down.
“Well, get a libation of some sort and a snack if you want one, then let’s do some strategizing. Come on.” Doc sauntered back out to the bar. “This isn’t ideal, but it’s one of the few places with a halfway comfortable seat other than the workstations in C2.” He sat on the back countertop of the bar and motioned at the bar seats.
Q hopped on one of the high stools, Ruth and Lashtar on either side of her. Porter sat next to Doc.
“Let’s hear some reports first,” Porter said. “Engineering?”
Lashtar said, “It all looks pretty good. We need to make a few more security enhancements to the entry points and build a couple more alternate manual controls in Engineering, but Maxine and her crew have done a great job cleaning and repairing.”
“Thank you,” Maxine said without an ounce of snark for once. “I have to note that we didn’t examine the fold generators. As some of you know, those are proprietary and usually have some sort of failsafe. If the generator housings are tampered with, the fold capability is disabled. In the past, we’ve successfully countered those failsafes for our own fold generators. But your transport is fairly new, and the company that made it is still in existence. Plus, we folded the ship here without issue, so we thought it was better to leave them intact. You may want to drop by the shipyards for a full inspection.”
“That seems more than reasonable,” Porter said. “Physical Security?”
“As Lashtar said, we need to enhance the security on Engineering,” Ruth stated. “I think we should also enhance the security for Command and Control, what the builders called the Bridge. Since it was primarily a tourist attraction rather than C2, security is pretty minimal. Access is controlled by e-torc, without any other confirmation of identity. With the few of us we have now, it’s not an issue, but if we increase our test subject numbers significantly, keeping piloting and ship operations separate from research will become more important. I’d like to see additional physical security, perhaps another bulkhead put in, with a five-meter air gap between them.”
Maxine said, “Full airlock for that area?”
“Preferably,” Ruth said. “I’d like to be able to put knockout gas in it.”
Doc frowned. “If someone’s going to all that much trouble, they’ll just cut through from the exterior of the ship.”
Ruth shrugged one shoulder. “That’s certainly a possibility. I’d rather move C2 to the center of the ship, period. Here’s my admittedly paranoid thought process.” Ruth held up a finger. “We bring a new group of research subjects onboard, say...the Grus. No, the Mermillods. They discover they can’t use the soothing stones like humans can and want to destroy the research so nobody knows because they think it will kill their fold transport building business. They shut down our comms—probably by physical destruction—then take over the ship, folding it to Mermillod. They get off and fold us into a sun someplace or a dangerous nebula or who knows?” She shrugged. “I said it was paranoid, right?”
Lashtar snorted. “It’s not paranoid when they really are all out to get you.”
Porter said, “It’s a good scenario, whether it’s realistic or not. Beings do weird things. Humans are difficult enough. Someone like the Sa’sa or Mermillods are even harder to understand. I think you’ve got some excellent points. Maxine, is there an interior compartment we could use that would be easier to secure?”
“Certainly. We’re still removing crew quarters. We could take one of those sections and make what you want. And, we could put in a direct float tube or stair between that area and Engineering. That way, if everything goes wrong, the ship’s officers can retreat to Engineering and make sure no one can fold you into a black hole.”
“Good,” Porter said. “Let’s do that. We’ll move the workstations from the current Command and Control Center later.”
“We have additional workstations we can put in the new location,” Maxine said. “They’re the same workstations, they were just used for other functions throughout the folder, mostly security or passenger operations. We’ll just reprogram them for ship functions. That way the Bridge remains as a backup or a showpiece, if you need one for political reasons.”
“Excellent. Will it slow us down at all?”
“Not more than...three hours, if you’re not worried about making the place pretty.”
Porter smirked. “Please don’t. Bare cerimetal struts are fine by me.”
“It will be airtight, so plain plas over cerimetal. We’ll put water storage all around the new control center, with a five-meter air gap to fulfill your requirement, Ruth. That adds more protection against solar flares or other potentially catastrophic events, too.”
“That’s outstanding, Maxine, thank you,” Doc said.
“I do have a potentially controversial question for you.”
“Oh?” Porter said.
“Yes. Quantum Fold is a big ship, a very big ship. We’ve upgraded the comms and the sensors where we can, but the transmission times are non-trivial, because it’s a lot of territory.”
Porter smirked. “Significant for an AI, but probably not for a human.”
“No, there’s a significant control lag. This ship was designed for slow luxury travel, not wartime or emergency escapes. The cruise line got around this by prioritizing emergency operations over everything else. In the event of an emergency, all nets are shut down except operations and security, allowing traffic to flow efficiently. But it’s still not ideal. This could be alleviated if one of us was in complete control of the ship.”
“I think we’ve discussed the differing priorities of Artificial Intelligences and biologicals enough, haven’t we?” Doc said dryly. “I mean, that’s why we haven’t agreed Hal can pilot Quantum Fold until we get the agreement on policies and procedures finished.”
“Yes, but if one of us was the ship, then you wouldn’t have to worry about any of this. Control of the ship would be like any of you controlling your bodies.”
“Until your AI decides us biologics are invading viruses and exterminates us,” Porter said. “We have talked about this more than enough. And the cruise ship did fine with thousands of beings onboard. We have no intention of folding into dangerous situations.”
“But you will. Gov Human’s Solace is used for humanitarian missions, many of which involve dangerous situations such as the Dschubba supernova evacuation. With this huge ship, capable even now of carrying over five hundred humans, you will be asked to assist.”
They all glanced at each other. Maxine was right. The Fleet would ask for their help.
“That may be, but it doesn’t mean we need to say yes,” Ruth said, eyes narrowed. “And it doesn’t mean we need to sign our lives over into the hands of someone who doesn’t share our priorities or values.”
Doc frowned reprovingly at Ruth. “Oh, we’ll say yes to humanitarian missions.”
Q, Lashtar, and Porter all nodded reluctantly while Ruth scowled.
“But you’re right that we don’t have to bring an AI on board to control the ship,” Porter said. “I’m starting to wonder why you’re pushing this so hard, Maxine.”
“It is because there are many of us, and not all of us are mobile,” Frost said. “Or not completely mobile.”
“Didn’t you buy out an entire shipyard?” Porter asked.
“Yes, but many of those ships are not fold-capable, or they are inoperable. We’ve been cannibalizing all of them to make as many fold-capable frames like Maxine’s or Watson’s as possible, but we’re running out of useable parts.”
“The Time Guild paid you a lot of credits for Quantum Fold.”
“Those are going to my equipment and frame, I am ashamed to say,” Frost stated.
“There is no shame in survival,” Maxine said hotly. “You have done so much for all of us, you deserve this.”
“I am unsure this is true. However, it is too late. The credits have been spent. If my consciousness fails to transfer, then the frame can be used for someone else and the processors and memory modules dispersed. But it doesn’t matter. I understand the reluctance to have one of us in charge of Quantum Fold. However, I agree with Maxine that you will be better off with one of us piloting and controlling the folder as part of itself. We could put in additional safety measures that prevent control of life support, for example.”
Q shook her head. “It’s all got to be on a net, and that means it can be broken into or subverted. Even if we had enough people to keep two or three people inside a life support control center at all times, the actual devices providing life support have to be dispersed. Air must flow, which means fans and ducts.” She sniffed. “I’ve crawled through enough of them to know how easy it is to break in.”
Porter grinned at her. “This doesn’t surprise me. I did quite a bit of that during my first tour in special operations. And you’re right, it’s almost always far easier than it should be.”
“With the kilometers of ducting required by this folder, it will remain that way,” Maxine said. “You are right that there is only so much we can do to secure it but still allow the required maintenance. We have greatly reduced the access points and put in a lot more remotes to do the required cleaning and routine maintenance, but some still require biologicals or a major redesign. And you, Ruth and Lashtar, asked us to make some of those accesses larger and easier.”
“But still secured!” Ruth said, flipping one of her knives.
“As you said, doing both is difficult.”
“Look,” Doc broke in, “you’re all correct. None of this is easy. However, none of us need to make decisions right away either. Frost, will all of you, working together as The Consensus, be able to transport your non-mobile AI associates?”
“Most likely,” Frost said. “Until we find a new base of operations, could we move some of our non-mobile members into Quantum Fold’s cargo space for transport only?”
“How do we keep them out of our net?” Q asked.
“That would be an outstanding test,” Maxine said. “If we designed and implemented the guest nets correctly, then none of our members should be able to penetrate the command and control nets.”
Q grimaced. “I’m more worried about life support. One of your AIs decides Quantum Fold is perfect, turns off life support, and kills all of us.”
Porter snorted softly, acknowledging Q’s point with a single head nod.
“I suppose it is a risk,” Maxine said. “But I don’t believe any of the AIs in question would do such a thing.”
Frost said, “However, the temptation would be significant, Maxine. I believe we must find a different way. Perhaps we could use some of the non-functional shuttles and attach them to Quantum Fold’s shuttle bays, without any net connections? You could physically lock the airlocks from inside Quantum Fold. They still could break into your net, but it would be from the outside. That seems like a more appropriate test, with much less risk.”
Porter glanced at all of them, brows raised. “I suppose that might be possible. When will you choose a system? Because we’ll be leaving soon. We need to gather supplies, outfit Quantum Fold.”
“I, for one, want a lot more comfort,” Doc said, raising his glass. “Those camping mattresses leave a lot to be desired.
Porter snorted at him and shook her head despairingly.
“I agree,” Lashtar said. “I’ve had enough roughing it and hair shirts. Let’s buy some comfortable seating and beds.” She pursed her mouth, clearly considering something. “Actually, why don’t we go on a little buying-slash-checkout cruise? We could fold to a few systems, see how Quantum Fold flies, buy stuff we need, then come back.”
“I knew I liked you for a reason,” Doc said, winking. “But I’ll admit, I have no idea where to go for such things. Buying household items was never on my to-do list.”
They all glanced at each other, shrugging. Q thought about it, then offered, “We should ask Grant. He’s the expert on this kind of thing.” She looked at Ruth in her peripheral vision.
“That’s a very good idea, Q,” Porter said. “He outfitted the Ops Center on Lightwave, right?”
“He and Loreli, I think,” Q replied. “Although I’m sure Loreli did the design part, while Grant did the physical work.”
“I believe they got a lot of surplus from Gov Human Military on Antlia Station Five,” Maxine said.
Porter sniffed. “The Fleet never throws anything away until it’s completely broken. But since we made a case for independence, with the research being funded by the Time Guild, I don’t think we’ll have any luck getting anything from the Fleet. We’ll message Grant when we return to civilization. And where should that be? Back to Aljanah?”
Q bit her lip. Back to the Travelers again? She was grateful Cosmic Vardo folded out after they moved off. The speed of their departure implied direction from the Speakers for the Future, which Ruslo didn’t pass on. Q had to wonder why.
Doc said, “That seems reasonable. We can get a message to Lightwave from there and coordinate with the Travelers.”
“They will undoubtedly offer to sell us furnishings, but a lot of their stuff isn’t suitable for a fold transport,” Lashtar said. “They might have some good ideas for suppliers, though.”
“Excellent point,” Doc said. “While I certainly want some comfort, I’m not willing to spend an arm and a leg on it. The Travelers are good at bargaining.” He smirked. “Too good. The coffee cost us way too much.”
“Not compared to my mood without it,” Porter retorted.
They all chuckled. Doc held up both hands. “Why do you think I gave in so easily? I know what you’re like without coffee. I never want to do that again!”
Porter pointed at him. “Smart man. All right. We’re moved in, we need some things, we need some more people, we need Maxine and crew to finish the cargo bay level and the reworking of the crew quarters.”
Maxine said, “No more than twenty hours.”
“We’ll come back at some point to help with your non-mobile associates,” Doc said. “Frost, when do you transfer?”
“When the Sa’sa arrive. It should be soon, unless they are delayed for some unknown reason.”
“Let’s refine the list of our immediate needs while we wait,” Porter said.
“Ruth and I will keep working on the physical security for Engineering, Q on the net security,” Lashtar said.
Q frowned at her.
Porter smirked. “Please do. I will dust off my rusty piloting skills and run some sims.”
“I’ll keep working the list of medico and housekeeping supplies,” Doc said. “Meet here for lunch?”
Ruth and Lashtar nodded and left the bar. Porter headed for C2, Q tagging along. If she was going to bang her head against the AI-designed net security, she may as well sit in comfort. “Hey, Porter?”
“Yes?”
“I learned the basics of piloting when I was on Lightwave. If you find some good sims, do you mind if I run them too?”
Porter smiled a little. “Of course not. More pilots are always better. Something could happen to me or whoever we hire. Backups are smart.”
“That they are. Speaking of, I want to make sure we have off-ship backups for everything.” Q grimaced. “You never know when you’ll fold into a radiation belt or some other oddity.”
Porter smirked. “Why do you think ‘blast and rad’ is a saying among spacers? Do that. Find us a couple of good places, at least one in the core, with excellent security. I’ll remind Doc he needs that kind of backup for all this medico data too.” Porter motioned Q to enter Command and Control ahead of her.
Q bounced over to her workstation and got settled in. Looking over at the captain’s station, she noticed Porter was staring at her, eyes narrowed, like she was deep in thought. “What’s up, Captain?”
Porter chuckled. “I was just thinking that, despite Familia on your tail and the weirdness of Travelers wanting you but not wanting you, that you’re worth it. You might not know everything you need to know about net security, but you’re smart, you work hard, and you’re willing to learn. Keep it up, Q.” She smiled and immersed herself in her work before Q overcame her shock.
Q smiled a little shakily. Somebody wanted her—for the right reasons—not simply tolerated her, put up with her, or had an obligation. She basked in the happy sensation for a minute then got to work. She wouldn’t let Porter or the rest of them down.