The Ruins of Mars (The Ruins of Mars Trilogy Book 1) (8 page)

      Sliding the list down to reveal the next batch of names, James continued.

      “The Ship’s Engineer, a Frenchman named Julian Thomas, is actually up on the High Earth Orbit Shipyard right now. He’s leading the skeleton crew that's working on the ship. We stole him from the CNES about four years ago when he first drafted blueprints for the craft we’re building now. After him comes our payload commander from CNSA, China’s space program, and forgive my pronunciation on this one—” James paused and read the name carefully, “—Xiao-Xing Liu, or as it says here, just Liu. She’s representing the Chinese, who, as you may know, have agreed to build all of our drilling, excavating and construction equipment.”

      Cutting in, Ben Crain said, “For the record, I still think we’re making a mistake in working with these bastards.”

      Pursing her lips, Eve Bear shot Crain a venomous look.

      “This is about us as a species, Ben,” she seethed. “Stop looking at things like you’re Machiavellian. You aren’t. Besides, they’re financing the payload launch all on their own. It’s a huge gesture of goodwill.”

      Barely able to contain his anger behind the composure of his masked face, Crain retorted softly, “One of us has to look out for America’s best interest. These people will stab us in the back if we let them. I’m putting Donovan on this Xiao-Xing Liu, and if he even so much as turns up a hint of something fishy, then it's back to the rice paddy for her.”

      Slamming a palm down on the table, the President leaned forwards in his chair and fixed Crain with powerful stare.

      “I won’t stand for that kind of talk, Ben. I’m not telling you how to do your job, just don’t sit here and waste my time with archaic, imperialistic hate speech. This is a manned mission to Mars we’re talking about. It’s going to take an effort from everyone to get there in one piece.”

      Nodding, Crain averted his eyes, and the President turned back to James, who was still standing in the same spot.

      “Go ahead, Dr. Floyd.”

      “Okay,” stammered James uneasily. “Among other things, Liu is going to be in charge of getting the equipment the Chinese built up and running. After Liu, we have our Special Projects Director. She’s a biologist, geologist and chemist from Italy named Viviana Calise. She doesn’t have any prior experience as an astronaut, but she’s scheduled to start training soon. And with the ship being years from completion, we don’t see any issues with her qualifications.”

      Nodding thoughtfully, the President asked, “Do you think three years is enough time to train her up?”

      “Three years? Sure,” said James enthusiastically. “Hell, I only trained for two months and they let me go up to the Shipyard last January!”

      “Okay, if you’re confident, then I’m on board. Who else is there?”

      Looking to the screen, James read the next name, “Alright, after Dr. Calise comes our MD and psychologist, Elizabeth Kubba. She comes to us highly recommended for her work at the Bessel Base construction camp on the Moon. She’s from the UK’s space agency and has done stunning things with low-gravity medicine. Also drafted from the Bessel Base program, we’ll have William Konig and Udo Clunkat: both German in case you couldn't tell from the names. They worked with Copernicus to design the Bessel Base. So far everything has been running like a clock up there, and Copernicus thinks, as do I, that an identical design would be the best option for our base on Mars.”

      At this, the President grinned, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Right?”

      “Um, yeah,” shrugged James.

      “Sorry,” smiled the President. “Bad joke, please continue.”

      Turning back to the screen, James read the last name on the list, “Lastly we have an AI expert named YiJay Lee from Korea. Our first choice for that position was Dr. Sung Ja Park, the head programmer of Remus and Romulus, but Dr. Park refused our offer. Apparently she’s terrified of space.”

      Laughing nervously, James went to continue.

      “Excuse me, Dr. Floyd,” interrupted Eve. “I’m guessing you haven’t heard the news yet, but Sung Ja Park was killed this morning in a bombing in Seoul.”

      “What?” exclaimed James, flabbergasted. “Oh, no. Have Remus and Romulus been informed?”

      “Donovan intercepted a transmission from Alexandria on its way to them not long after the bombing,” said Crain flatly. “I’ve had him on those two since they botched the ruin discovery.”

      “I see,” murmured James, sinking into his seat. “Well, I’ll have to send my condolences as well. She was a wonderful woman, a real friend.”

      No one spoke as James sat quietly for a moment, running a hand over the stubble on his chin. Sighing, he stood up to face the screen.

      “In any event,” he started. “YiJay Lee is, was, a student of Dr. Park and a good choice for the mission. Based on Dr. Park’s reports, YiJay is some kind of a savant when it comes to AI psychology. We already have her working with programmers on the ship's AI, Braun. She’s only twenty-two now, but she’ll be age-eligible at the projected time of our mission departure even if we push it up to three years instead of five, as you indicated.”

      Turning back to face the table, James shrugged with finality.

      “So that’s what we have in the way of crew. As you can see, there isn’t anyone qualified to make speculations about ancient ruins.”

      Placing his hands flat on the tabletop, the President looked from the screen to James.

      “We’ll get to that in a moment, Dr. Floyd, but now I want you to tell me about Braun and the ship.”

Braun

      Early in the mission’s conception, it was agreed by the various project leaders that a new kind of AI was needed to serve as shepherd to its human crew. This intelligence would have to be capable of a wide variety of extremely important functions encompassing everything from the ship's navigation to the maintenance of its life-support systems. Other functions would include the operation of advanced robotic drilling and construction equipment as well as the provision of assistance to the individual human astronauts as they ventured into EVA. The final
coup de grâce
of this godlike AI would culminate when it was entirely cloned, the new copy of itself transplanted as the primary intelligence of the permanent Mars base. For the first time in the short history of the artificial intelligence, humans as well as AIs worked together to birth and program an intelligence capable of so much. His name was Braun, and as James Floyd briefed the President and his staff, he quietly grew in the company of YiJay Lee and NASA’s top programmers.

      Never before had an intelligence been designed to expertly maintain so many important functions. His basic construct resembled that of Copernicus or Alexandria: an intelligence born to exist harmoniously in multiple locations while carrying out multiple complex tasks. Like Remus and Romulus, he too was capable of learning through investigation and individual experience, yet his personality was strangely rigid, mostly lacking the curious and inquisitive spirit of the twin satellite AIs. Many of his programmers operated under strict orders, which implored them to condition Braun into an obedient, quiet and level-headed personality. There were those, however, who felt it important to foster an emotional core within him as well. He would be responsible for the safe transport of the crew through the vacuum of space and thus needed to know a little of what it was to be human. These programmers agreed that to deny him emotion would be to put his fragile cargo at risk. YeJi often spoke quietly to the fledgling AI of his namesake in hopes that it would build the proper foundation for his eventual mission.

      Braun the AI took his name from a popular character in Welsh mythology. A great warrior and an intrepid mariner, Braun the Blessed was the high king of the Island of the Mighty. Frequenting the famous ancient stories known as the Welsh Triad, Braun was often portrayed as a giant among mortals and a force of great power. The tales of his ocean navigation and the descriptions of his superhuman size inspired the programmers, who felt that these qualities were akin to the massive intelligence growing in their care. When the day came to throw the switch and light the torch of awareness in the young AI, an excited and loving Copernicus had whispered silently through the aether of electrical current.

      “Wake up Braun, my brother. Arise to navigate the stars.”

The War Room

      As James Floyd finished explaining the expansive nature of the multifunctional Braun, Ben Crain leaned forwards in his chair, a thin smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.

      “That’s very impressive. I wonder, is it possible to upgrade Donovan to that level?”

      Unable to suppress a laugh, Eve Bear said, “Please, Ben. That’s the last thing we should do. You can barely keep track of what he does already. I don’t think making him bigger and more powerful is a good idea.”

      “I agree with Eve,” seconded the President. “But that’s totally off-topic. Dr. Floyd, can Braun handle the addition of another human to his overall workload, and, maybe more importantly, can the ship?”

      Tipping back in his chair, James rubbed his chin with one hand while drumming his fingers on the desk with the other.

      “George Washington?” he said to the air above him.

      “Yes, Dr. Floyd?”

      “I would like to connect my personal LightHouse Tablet. Will that work, or do I need clearance?”

      “You will need clearance from the highest—”

      “Shut up, George. Let him do it!” barked the President.

      “Yes, Sir.”

      James produced his Tablet from a pocket, then set it on the tabletop. Animated red rings began to flash out from the little square as the White House Network tried to identify the unfamiliar device. Reaching out, the President quickly tapped at a translucent number pad inlaid into the tabletop near his left hand.

      The rings disappeared, and James called out, “Bring up the model of the ship.”

      From the center of the table, a three-dimensional image of the ship materialized into the air. Shaped almost like a monolithic white whale, Braun’s body—the ship—was a hulking mass of titanium in ceramic-plated armor. A recessed window just under the curved nose of the vessel served as the ship’s main portal, and only added further to its cetacean-like appearance, looking more like a gaping mouth than an observation shield. A monstrous, ovoid exhaust pipe protruded from the backside of Braun, tapering down as it ended, giving the whole ship a clean, yet fierce, appearance.

      “This animation is based off of Dr. Thomas’s original design, only now it’s been enhanced and tweaked a little by Copernicus as well. As you can see, this baby is pretty damn big: approximately seventeen stories long by six wide by eight deep. Now, the ship might look spacious, but it’s really not.”

      Tapping the Tablet, James caused the glowing image to split in half down the length of the model, revealing an intricate cross-section of the ship. At the bow was the bridge deck, with its large window and array of computers stations laid out on either side. About six meters in diameter and oblong in shape, the bridge was the largest open space in the entire crew portion of the ship. Connecting the bridge to the galley was a wide section of hallway around twelve meters long. Arranged evenly on either side of the aisle were the crew quarters, accessed through round metal hatches. Each passenger room was perhaps only large enough to comfortably fit two, but they were all equipped with beds, storage spaces and cramped work stations. Following the crew quarters were the Lander docks, separated from the hallway by airlock chambers. The Landers, located opposite one another, docked belly-up to the mother ship so that their ceramic top shells fit in perfectly with the armor of Braun. As the hallway continued, three more hatches led to the lavatories, two on the left and one on the right, each outfitted with toilets, sinks and pressure-powered showers.

      Next to the lavatory on the right side of the hallway was a double-chambered airlock for EVA missions and spacewalks. Entry to this room was protected by a coded locking system to prevent any would-be sleepwalkers from mistaking it for a bathroom in the dead of night. Finally, at the end of the passageway was the second largest common area on the ship: the galley. Circular in shape, the galley had low ceilings and the disk of a huge table, which sat in the center of the room, giving the space a decidedly Camelot appearance. Various storage coves lined the walls, and a bank of microwave ovens was arranged next to three large refrigerators. Across the room from the cooking stations was another crew lavatory, and beside it opened the hatch to another short hallway. From there came two large storage rooms, with entry hatches on the left and right sides of the passage. These rooms contained most of the crew’s food and water stores as well as spare parts for the ship’s vital systems. Finally, at the end of the short hall rested the gravity simulation exercise facility: a room designed as a sort of human hamster wheel. When in use, Braun could regulate the centrifugal force to simulate the effects of gravity so that the occupant could jog in place. The desired effect was to stave off deterioration of muscle and bone mass in the zero-gravity environment of space.

      Ending the digital tour, the model began to zoom out, revealing that even though it seemed large, the crew area was but a small reserve inside the massive maze of ducts and plumbing, which comprised the rest of the ship.