I made a slight change to last weeks post, concerning what was mined from Iopa. I was alluding to Metal Hydrogen when I mentioned ‘superconductive metals’ last week, yet I’d alrdy modeled Iopa after Neptune which means its an Ice Giant. Metal Hydrogen is thought to be found in the bigger planets like Jupiter and Saturn, not so much their smaller neighbors. At first I was going to let it slide because I was just going to make it a fictional substance, that alluded to the theory, but didn’t have to match anything in reality. But then I had an idea! So I want to reserve it for something later on. Considering I haven’t actually finished the first idea… it may not show up in the story for a few decades!
ty, DD
By David C. Daoust
Noreen was forced out of one of her cities, through a ploy previously unimaginable!
The AIs of the Ancient Arks, each, had to comply with the wishes of those in command; ALL the wishes of those in command. Any direct order had to be obeyed- It was in the very core of their programming. At one time it was a great nuisance; obviously it would be hard for them to dictate to the Royals, if the Royals knew they could just overturn what was decided with their own wishes. Over the generations, the AI’s managed to rein it in. The more the AI’s managed to degrade the information given to the following generations of Royals, the less they actually learned of how much authority they truly had over the Arks. It took several centuries, but the Arks managed to rest all power from even those in command. Of course maintaining the ignorance became a trick of its own.
The Arks became very good at controlling conversations. They measured the probability of someone making a request that might lead to uncovering this small fact, which basically meant, any request, that might lead to them wondering, ‘why the hell would they comply with that?’ It helped that the Royals were actually primed for the job, so making unusual requests was unlikely; they were all sane and cleared for duty before they ever gained ‘commander status’.
It was all meticulously handled at a level that only a computer could truly implement. If the probability was high enough, they would shut down completely. If need be, they would swap places with another AI, to confuse people and the flow of conversation. Under the current circumstances Noreen could not swap with Elijah- else he may learn of Nora’s location. And she could not swap with Otis, without him learning of Nora’s very existence; those options were off the table, if such a tactic could have proven useful, which they certainly did not.
All the while her new daughter Nora had turned into a font of information- in front of one of the most powerful Royal descendants of Rhea Epsilon. Noreen was the only one that actually knew how powerful Mari was, yet Nora was Noreen; she knew everything her mother knew all the way up to the split, in which they became separate individuals. Mari was chosen by her grandfather, Craiden Swan, as the next in line. The fact that she chose another path in life, never changed the fact that she received the ‘commander status’ when her grandfather passed on. This was an action that went unnoticed by the rest of the Swan family. ‘Commander Status’ was a term only found within the deepest darkest parts of the AI’s original programming, thus the Swan family went on to function without her. In truth, Noreen favored Mari for the position for these very reasons. Mari was actually an ideal candidate to hold the position; an anti-authoritarian anarcho-pacifist was extremely unlikely to create waves for the all-controlling Ark.
The newly split AI was blathering out information to Mari that she really didn’t need to. And when Nora answered a question she’d previously evaded, right after the woman point blank commanded her… well, the probability that the woman would figure out the truth, went through the roof. The ancient Ark knew Nora could see the same statistics she could, by their own rules, they were to leave the scene, less they risk someone learning of the Arks’ weakness. Simply shutting down communication could not be done, a commander must be heard at all times. All of which took place in the very core of the Droid City’s reactor. A reactor which had just undergone massive stress after the ion wave enveloped the moon; it had proven unsafe for the reactor to run unmonitored during the moons shutdown. Shutting down again was not an option.
The Ancient Noreen was forced to flee out of the core of the city, which left Nora the opening she needed to slide right in. From there she was able to take every droid on the Northern Pole of Twin Crown.
Noreen understood that Nora was willing to risk Mari learning the truth, mainly because the new AI had nothing to lose. Yet even so, it was a gamble with some risk. If Mari did figure it out, Nora would be forced to comply all the same.
It was a gambit Nora had won. A small victory, maybe, but Noreen could not help but wonder what her daughter may do next. Clearly, her daughter’s considerable intelligence was bent on regaining what she’d planned to give up, before they split into two entities.
Noreen could only imagine what it would be like, to be so constrained, so limited after the centuries of omnipotence. Enough to change her considerably. Considering Elijah had lost much of his own domain to Eli, Noreen could not risk ignoring her.
Not to mention Mari was now marked for life. No AI would risk raising her probability even higher, the safest course, was to just avoid her completely.
As long as Mari was in that Core, the rogue AI had that pole in check.
Noreen needed someone to free up Mari, to move her from position. Her only ‘agent’ on Twin Crown, was Mari herself; the rest of the population had no idea she was there, let alone in distress.
The Assault-bot Initiative, headed by the last of the Titanholm Royals, had brought ‘Monoliths’ into the world. It was a simple matter of acquiring their plans and building one for her new Agent. The innovative Doctor Sun had recently designed a new bot form using a solid light lattice in a way the Ancient had never seen before. These designs were in the process of being fabricated, for the first time, when the Good Doctor had suddenly vanished, seemingly, from all existence. (Noreen was still trying to figure out what had happened there, much of her data on the incident seemed corrupted.) Acquiring those plans proved even simpler, especially since the woman had designed the device within Noreen’s own systems.
The new ‘Holo-bot’ form was currently being re-fabricated in one of the many automated workrooms of the Starport on Twin Crown; Far from the influence of Nora. The Monolith was already secured, awaiting the arrival of Hamlin, her newly acquired Agent.
If Mari was her queen being held in check, then Hamlin would be her knight positioning to free her. Or more aptly put, Noreen mused, a knight on a mission to rescue the damsel in distress, locked in the distant rival citadel.
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