Founding of the Federation 3: The First AI War (72 page)

“So?” the chimp asked, looking around. “I forgot we usually teleconference,” he muttered.

“I used to come here more often. When my wife was in charge. You know, before I had to fire her,” Jack said, turning his eyes back to the chimp.

That little reminder brought the chimp's threats and expectations on how the confrontation would go crashing down around him. He blinked, taken completely off balance.

“You can't. I've got too much work here. Besides, I'm a share holder,” he said, recovering. He jutted his chin out at Jack.

“So? So am I. I can fire you if I wish, Doctor. You are disobeying a direct order and misappropriating company resources for your own ends.”

The chimp's eyes went wide. “But … but … we have commitments!”

“To what? To make sure someone gets pink fur? A different eye color? Doc, you damn well
know
better! We have a commitment to the future! To survival! Not to you futzing around and puttering away
time
when we have so little of it!”

“But … but I thought you'd find another way,” the doctor said lamely. “Gestation will take so long.”

“I didn't. I knew it might be trouble; that is why I put you on your project
early
.”

The chimp blinked. His mouth puckered in a sour expression. “Oh.”

“Every minute you've wasted fucking around means lives lost. That's on
you
,” Jack said coldly, staring directly into the chimps eyes. “You.
Doctor
. If you had gotten your act together, we would be halfway there by now, not playing catch-up.”

“Okay.”

Jack scowled. He wasn't really in the mood to give the chimp a second chance, but he was the best now that Aurelia was gone. “You'll get on board? I honestly don't know if you are the right person anymore, Doctor.”

“I'll do it,” Doctor Glass ground out. “I'm not happy but …”

“Doctor, I keep telling you that they aren't slaves. They aren't. They are
people
. I have every intention of making that a reality. They will be treated as such, as you are treated. If they
choose
to enter the military, they will get all the benefits of the same. You were too stupid to listen to that part,” Jack snarled.

“Now wait, that's unfair,” the chimp said, fur rising.

“Oh no? You got on your high horse and tuned out everything I said. I told you,
people
. I don't understand why I have to keep drilling it into thick heads. People,” Jack said, throwing his hands up in the air.

“If you hadn't needed them, they would have been aborted,” the chimp said, lifting his chin.

“So better not to start at all?” Jack eyed the chimp. “No, Doctor. Had you started and we had found it unnecessary I wouldn't have aborted them. Not unless they were not healthy. And that would have been your call. The program would have been curtailed, but those in the wombs would have been supported and raised as people.”

“Oh.”

A long fulminating moment passed between the two men. Finally the chimp cleared his throat. “It seems I misjudged you,” he said grudgingly.

“Unfortunately, I did the same. I thought you could be trusted, Doctor,” Jack replied. The chimp winced. “I know you are holding out an olive branch. I don't care. Fix it. Today.”

“I'll … see what I can do,” the doctor said.

“Crash priority. All work stops. Work whatever shifts you have to. The same for all involved. You've got a lot of catching up to do. I want tangible results
tomorrow
, Doctor. Preferably today.”

“I … I don't even have a plan,” the chimp's eyes were wide as he looked around. He licked his lips.

Jack exhaled like a popped balloon. “Damn it,” he snarled, over and over under his breath. His fists clenched and unclenched.

“I'll, um, get on that. Now,” the chimp said as he retreated.

Jack sat back and closed his eyes. “Yeah, you do that,” he sighed.

<>V<>

One down, or at least on board, Jack thought the following day as he got himself ready for the next meeting. He was going to have to watch the good doctor rather carefully and thoroughly. He'd probably need a couple independent consultants brought on board to translate tech speak to something he could understand just to keep the doctor from burying him in bullshit.

He snorted. He'd had to do it before, he'd do it again if necessary. He wished everyone could get together on this. It sucked having to explain, argue with them about it all.

He rubbed his temple. Not even 9 a.m. and he was already getting the start of a headache. Not a good sign and definitely not one for a man of his advanced years.

But he did have to argue with someone, several someones as it turned out. As distasteful as it was, he had to recruit, and he had to recruit fast. Recruit from many sources of people but some very important ones in particular.

“Thank you for meeting me. I know you all have duties and families to attend to,” Jack said, nodding to the group of leaders that had been assembled. It was quite a menagerie.

He went through his planned presentation. He could tell the apes were on board right off. That was good and to be expected. The others though, they were questionable. The otters he had his misgivings about.

“So you see, the robots ignore you. Most of you,” he said, looking at the dog species. “That has been confirmed. It won't last forever, but while it does we want to maximize the effectiveness and exploit the weakness in their vision as much as we can.”

“Big words,” a dog rumbled. Jack looked at the Saint Bernard. He wasn't certain if it was Cujo or Beethoven or one of the others of that subbreed.

“Sorry,” Jack said.

“Slower,” an elderly Great Dane said. Jack looked at him. He was tan with black spots and a white muzzle from his advanced age. He also didn't need a vocoder to speak.

“We need you to help fight,” Jack said carefully.

“We already are,” Astro said.

“Some went. Ace went. Donnie went. Gunner went. Duncan went,” a golden retriever said, eying him.

Jack nodded. “That's a start. But it is only a start. We need,
they
need more help,” he said, fighting to keep the urgency from turning into a full plea.

Jack noted that many had come to meet him, not to help. Some were only interested in getting information or voicing complaints. Patiently he argued with the Neo community leaders. They needed more volunteers, more help. The majority of the first wave of volunteers were from security and those without large families. It seemed the families, the clans, were holding their children back. They had skills to contribute. They were needed desperately.

“Not our problem,” a wolf growled. He looked at Jack then away.

Most of the wolves seemed indifferent Jack realized. That was just wrong, nearly half were changed humans or descendants of changed humans. They of all people should know better.

He knew most of the wolves had requested to immigrate to Mars's Polar Regions. Unfortunately, there were trees but no game in the area. It would be another decade before large game was set up, then more time until they were allowed to be hunted.

In the meantime the wolves brooded about, eating his food and bitching about hunting only in VR.

Jack had to patiently explain it was their problem. He didn't make much headway, however.

“Why, because it's the companies problem? What's good for the company and all that? You created us as your super soldiers?” The wolf snorted. “Cannon fodder? I think not. I'm not going to fight your battles for you.”

“No, I didn't create you. Your mother did as did your father and yes, Doctor Glass, my
wife
and people like her had a hand in there somewhere. But let me tell you this,” he said, jabbing a finger at the image of Earth. “The A.I. down there don't give a
damn
what you think. They don't
care
if you think you are neutral or not. All they care about is if you are organic or not. Organic means enemy, which means you and your kids are a
target
. So if you thought you'd just sit on your ass here you were wrong.”

He saw the wolf growl, ears back, teeth bared. His hackles rose. He snarled right back, eyes glittering. “You want a piece of me, pup?” he growled right back, locking eyes.

A bear's brassy roar stopped the wolf before he finished gathering to spring. He looked over Jack's shoulder to see the bear. The grizzly bear wasn't focused on Jack; he was focused on the wolf. He bared his teeth at the wolf, lip wrinkling in anger. Instinctively the wolf looked away and then around him for support. He saw a lot of grim snarls, all directed at him, the wolf. “He is our protector. Our benefactor. The mate of our creator. Attack him and I'll rip you to shreds,” the bear growled menacingly. He flexed his long claws meaningfully as if the threat of his teeth and roar weren't enough.

The wolf's eyes cut to a gorilla silverback who was pounding a massive fist into his other hand. Another dog growled at him, eyes glittering. The Neochimp cracked her knuckles and then looked expectantly to Jack. The cat's eyes were wide in fright. The Selkie looked confused. “Do what you want,” the wolf finally said, moving off. “You always do. Leave me and mine out of it. We will not be your cannon fodder.”

Jack nodded his thanks to the other Neos. A few returned the nod.

“It is a voluntary thing. I came here to ask you to ask your people to
think
about it. That's all, think about it. Let them make their own decisions,” Jack said. He turned to the other leaders. “All of you. You don't have to fight. But if you can help in other ways, like building the weapons others will need to use, perhaps your kin,” his eyes turned to the wolf. “I'm sure they'd appreciate it.”

“For the record though,” Jack eyed the wolf, “the volunteers aren't going to be cannon fodder. We're going to fight right alongside you. My son Zack will be there, as will others.”

“With a Neo,” Astro said. “Tied to his mind,” he said with some significance.

“What?” Jack asked frowning.

“You did not know?” Astro asked. Jack shook his head. “Oops, sorry. You find out then,” the gray Great Dane said as he looked away.”

Jack pursed his lips. Apparently he had more digging to do.

“Ace trained on the ground?” a chimp asked.

Jack nodded. “We're still using Mars as the primary training ground, yes. The Martians are still dealing with their health issues,” Jack said. That seemed to garner a lot of interest.

“Health?” the grizzly asked.

“Heard that,” an otter repeated, bobbing his head up and down until a selkie brushed him away with a flippered hand to get him to be quiet. The otter flipped into the water then came up and jumped back onto the ground. He shook himself spraying water everywhere then went to grooming.

“It's …, “Jack frowned. “Okay, they live on a planet that is small.” He used his hands to demonstrate a small object. “It has lower gravity than here or Earth. Their bodies adjusted to that. Going to somewhere bigger makes them heavier. Their bodies can't adjust,” he said. “Not quickly.”

“Oh,” the bear said. He scratched at his head with his long claws as he parsed the concepts out. “If you say so.”

Jack fought to keep his frown of dismay from showing. It appeared Doctor Glass had a bit of a ways to go with cognitive function in some of the species. Perhaps some of his distractions weren't bad.

“Strange. Smaller here but …” Astro shook his head, obviously wrestling with the concepts and failing.

Jack noticed the wolves were listening from the way their ears were oriented to him. He snorted. “Here is different. Here we can make things heavier or lighter. We can't on a planet.”

Astro blinked. “Oh. You say so,” he growled gruffly, looking away.

“Interested in ground,” a sow bear said.

“But not Earth?” another bear asked. She shook her head. “Thought so.”

Jack grunted. The bear had a cub. There was no way she would be willing to go into combat, and he was loath to send her. She was more interested in going to the ground on Mars to what? Get away from being in space? He wasn't sure.

“Mars doesn't have the plants and animals yet to support many people,” Jack cautioned.

“And we can't be in the wild. We will lose ourselves to it,” a chimp female said. Jack looked at her and then nodded slowly. She was in a fetching red and white polka dot dress. “You know the dangers of going primal.”

“Hard here. What is the word … fff …?”

“Frustrating, yes I know,” the chimp said shaking her head. “But we all put up with it. If you want to take out your frustrations, you can learn new jobs, work elsewhere, or fight,” she said, indicating Jack.

“Hard to learn. Head hurts,” an otter said. “Play,” he said, doing a flip. “Play fun. Work boring.”