Theogony 1: Janissaries (11 page)

“I’ll talk with the president,” replied Calvin. “This is
something we need. I know he’s trying to gather all of the heavy metals and
rare earth elements that he can. We’ll get enough to implant everyone. I’ve only
got one question.” He paused, a sheepish look on his face. “How do you...um...how
do you turn the implants on?”

“They’re always on,” said Steropes. “They are powered by
your body heat.”

“OK,” replied Calvin, becoming slightly frustrated with the
whole process, “then how do I make them
do
anything?”

“Oh, that,” answered Steropes. “After 5,000 years with them,
everything is second nature, and you forget what it was like getting them the
first time. Just press your tongue to the roof of your mouth twice. It’s kind
of like double-clicking a computer mouse.”

Calvin double-clicked the roof of his mouth and was rewarded
with a heads-up display at the bottom of his normal vision. There were a number
of titles: Shopping, Entertainment, News, Sports, Education, Military, Search and
Tools. All of them were grayed out, with the exception of Education, Search and
Tools. “It only looks like a couple of the choices are active,” noted Calvin.

“That is true,” said Steropes with a sigh. “We’re out here
without connection to society. If we make it back to Olympos or one of the
civilized planets, the other ones will become active when you access different
computer systems.”

“So, Earth isn’t civilized?” asked Calvin.

“Not as far as implants go, anyway,” replied Steropes. “Once
you’ve got that whole unified planetary government thing taken care of, maybe
we’ll talk.”

“What is running Education, Search and Tools, if I’m not
accessing any computer systems?” asked Calvin.

“The ship’s artificial intelligence (AI) is running those
functions in the periphery of its consciousness,” replied Steropes. “It also
handles communications in the absence of a planet-wide network.”

Calvin’s eyes narrowed. “Is that how you communicate?”

“Sometimes,” answered Steropes. He changed the subject. “We
renamed the AI ‘Solomon,’ for the Solomon Islands, when the ship’s name changed
to
Vella Gulf
. In order to call someone, you need to access the AI. For
example, to call Arges, you would say, ‘Solomon, call Arges.’”

“Do I need to do it out loud or can I just think it?” asked
Calvin.

Steropes smiled. “All you really need to do is think it, but
many people find it helpful to say it out loud while they’re learning to think
it the right way.”

“
Solomon, call Arges
,” Calvin said and thought. A
black window appeared in the lower right corner of his vision, with the label
‘accessing’ inscribed on it. After a couple of seconds, Arges’ image appeared
in the box.

“
Arges, here,
” he commed. “
Welcome to the net.
”

“
Just trying the implants out for the first time,
”
Calvin said/thought.

“Remind him that you need military access,” instructed
Steropes.

“
Arges, Steropes said to remind you that I need military
access,
” Calvin sent.

“
Stand by.”
There was a pause and then, “
You have
it. You have Commanding Officer-level access, so you can further authorize your
units.
” At the same time, the label for ‘Military’ came on. “
Anything
else?
”

“
That’s it, thanks,
” replied Calvin. “
Out
.”

“
Have a good day,
” said Arges, and then there was
what felt like a ‘click’ as the connection closed.

Calvin looked back at Steropes. “So now that I have
implants, what can I do with them?”

“You are able to interact with the
Vella Gulf
in a
number of ways,” Steropes replied. “You can access the training and education
programs by going to ‘Education.’ Need to learn a new language? That’s how to
do it. You can also search for information using the search function, which
gives you access to most of the information in the
Vella Gulf’s
memory
banks.”

“Let me guess,” said Calvin. “Some things won’t be available
because we don’t have a unified planetary government.”

“Correct,” answered Steropes. “Eventually, you will also be
able to use the ship’s transporter system once you get scanned. You’ll just
call up the AI, and it can beam you most places you’ll want to go. That is
probably one of the first things that you will want to develop rules for, so
that your troops don’t abuse it. It’s not ‘free’ as it uses a significant
amount of power to transport, which means that we’ll need to refine more fuel
sooner. Additionally, the more often that people transport to the planet, the
more chance there is that someone will see them. Someone appearing out of
nowhere would be very hard to explain.”

Hooray, thought Calvin. More paperwork and procedures to put
together. Although…this one would be good for the two XOs to coordinate. He
smiled, thinking about the military axiom, ‘A job delegated is a job
completed.’

Seeing Calvin lost in thought, Steropes said, “Well, I have
to go get Night. He’s next. Bullseye should be just about finished in the other
room.”

“Umm…OK,” Calvin said as he left. Calvin decided to have
some fun. “
Solomon, Calvin
.”

“
Good afternoon, Lieutenant Commander Hobbs. How may I be
of assistance?
”

“
Well, you could start by calling me Calvin, if that is
permitted.
” Calvin replied.

“
Certainly, Calvin. What is the nature of the assistance
you require?
”

“
Can you send me a map of the ship that I can superimpose
on my heads-up display?
” Calvin asked. Within a second, the map appeared in
his in-head display. “
Awesome! Could you please mark my quarters and the
bridge?
” Two points of light appeared on the map. “
Thanks, Solomon.
”

“
My pleasure.
”

Calvin decided that he’d like to see the bridge of the ship.
Maybe it had windows, and he could see the lunar landscape, if indeed that was
where the ship was. Now that he had a moving map that showed his destination, negotiating
the passageways and stairs was fairly easy, and he made it to the bridge
without any wrong turns.

Calvin had a thought. “
Solomon, call Bullseye
.”

“
Umm…uh…hello?
” Calvin chuckled. Obviously, Bullseye
hadn’t had any more initial success with the implants than he had.

“
Hi
Bullseye
,” Calvin commed. “
How are you
feeling?
”

“
I’m feeling GREAT
,” Bullseye replied. “
I think
I’ve got more muscles than Night does now.
”

“
I know exactly what you’re talking about
,” said
Calvin. “
All the benefits of three years in the gym, without any of the
pain. Unfortunately, I’ll bet we now actually
have
to
go
to the gym in order to keep it.
”

“
Probably
,” agreed Bullseye. Calvin noticed that Bullseye
was the first one to figure out how to sigh over an implant. The ground troops
may love spending hours upon hours at the gym. Not so much for the aviators.

“
Hey,
” Calvin said, “
the reason I was comming is
that I was heading to the bridge. Want to come up and see if there’s a window
on this ship?
”

“
Sure,
” replied Bullseye. “
How the hell do I find
you?
”

“Solomon, Calvin, please send Bullseye a map and
directions for how to get to where I am.
”

“
Done,
” replied Solomon. The map appeared on his
heads-up display.

“
That is just TOO DAMN COOL!
” exclaimed Bullseye. “
I
am really going to like some of this new technology.”

With the help of the map, Bullseye quickly joined him at the
entrance to the bridge.

The double door didn’t open at their approach. “
Solomon,
Calvin. Is Commanding Officer-level access good enough to get onto the bridge?
”

“
Yes it is,
” answered Solomon, “
as is Executive Officer-level
access.
For some reason, your clearances weren’t associated with the
bridge. I have corrected the problem.
” The doors opened, sliding to both
sides.

The two officers walked in to find a round room about 30
feet in diameter. At the front of the room was a set of eight screens, in two
rows of four, which covered the front wall. About ten feet from the screens was
a dual console for the helmsman and engineer. Centered an additional ten feet behind
that console was the captain’s chair, with the executive officer’s chair and
the squadron commander’s chair on either side of it. An additional chair was
next to each these, making a row of five. As befit his rank and station, the
captain’s chair was the largest. Calvin didn’t know how he recognized what each
station was, but as he looked around the room, information about them came into
his mind. He finally realized it was coming from the implants.

Additional consoles ran down the sides and across the back
of the room. “Science.” “Operations.” “Security.” “Communications.” He also
instinctively knew that the operator at the Operations station controlled the
offensive weapons, while the Security station operator controlled the ship’s
defensive systems, weapons and shields. There was also one more station that he
knew had something to do with policy, but it didn’t seem to translate
completely into his mind from what the Eldive had originally intended for it.
It was confusing.

As the officers walked onto the bridge, they saw Arges
sitting in the captain’s chair watching the screens in the front of the room.
Looking over to see who had entered the bridge, Arges jumped and pushed a
button on the command chair. All of the screens died simultaneously. In the
glimpse that Calvin got before the screens went out, he saw that four of them
were operational. The President of the United States was on one of them,
talking to a meeting of his cabinet in the DUCC. He recognized the Russian president
on a second screen. The third screen showed a heavy set man with features that
appeared Chinese. He missed who was on the fourth.

“Yes?” asked Arges, sounding surprised. “I wasn’t expecting
you here. Can I help you?”

“Wasn’t that the president on one of the screens?” asked
Calvin. “Having been there a couple of times myself, I wasn’t aware that
cameras were allowed in the DUCC.”

“Umm, well, yes, it was the president,” answered Arges, “and
generally, no, cameras are not allowed.”

“And yet, there was one,” chimed in Bullseye. “I saw him
too,” he continued, looking at Calvin.

“Well, as the saying goes, keep your enemies close and your
friends closer,” replied Arges.

“That is
not
how the saying goes,” said Calvin. “I’d
really like to know what you were doing.” Hearing Arges start to bluster
something about ‘need to know,’ Calvin put up his hand to stop him. “Arges,
I’ve had enough of being kept in the dark while we did your bidding. We’re about
to leave on a mission that we know almost nothing about. We don’t have much
training on the systems that we’re supposed to be using, and we have absolutely
no idea
where we’re going or what we’re supposed to do.”

Hearing another ‘need to know’ coming, Calvin put up his
other hand. “Just stop with the whole, ‘need to know’ bullshit. We’ve taken a
lot of things on faith from you, but it’s time for you to put your cards on the
table. If we’re going to risk our lives for you, you need to tell us just what
the hell is going on.”

“He’s right,” said Steropes, who had entered silently behind
him. “If they are to prepare adequately for this mission, they need to know
more than what we have told them. We can’t expect to have their loyalty when we
have not been totally honest with them.”

“Damn right!” exclaimed Calvin. “And stop shaking your head,
Arges; Steropes is absolutely right!”

Arges stopped shaking his head. “There are still many
reasons why we can’t tell you everything,” he said. “For one, you still do not
have a unified world government. It goes against everything that we stand for.”

“I think if I hear the words, ‘unified world government’
used one more time as a reason to keep me from having something that is mission
critical, I’m going to have to kill someone,” said Night as he walked in behind
Steropes. “I have been busting my ass to train the people that are most likely
to get killed in this mission, and I am sick and tired of being intentionally
kept in the dark. How about if I promise not to take over the world? Would that
be good enough?”

Calvin looked at Night and flinched. Already in tremendous
physical shape before, Night was now HUGE, with muscles on top of muscles. In
spite of that, he moved with all of the grace of a cat. Angry, he now looked
like death personified. Calvin was just glad that Night was on his side. As he
came around Steropes and moved closer to Arges, Calvin could see that Arges was
very
physically intimidated by Night. As he should be.

“We need to do the right thing and tell them everything,”
reiterated Steropes, hoping to avoid any further confrontation.

“Agreed,” said Brontes, walking into the room. “It is past
time that we stopped keeping information from them. We need them to be prepared
for this mission if they are to be successful.”

Seeing that everyone was strongly against him, Arges seemed
to wilt a little. “I do not think that it is wise to give them all of our
collected knowledge,” he said at last, “but I will agree to release all of the
information that they need for the mission.” He paused. “What do you want to
know?”

“How about telling me about the replicators?” asked Calvin.