Captain's Quarters

The Captain's quarters was a rather commodious area with a luxurious lounge, a personal bar stocked with all of the Admiral’s favorite tastes from red wine and bourbon to gin and vermouth, a central map table with a holographic display that kept track of the Salient’s position in the Milky Way, an office that was directly linked to his desk in the bridge and of course the admiral’s own bed that had plush pillows, and soft sheeting. The only other quarters that could compare were the second-in-command’s own chamber, or even that of the planetary commander. Then again, the individual crew quarters weren’t that bad, it was more than enough for a person. Aronimus doubted that any admiral would need all the room given to him by the Captain’s quarters.

He approached the office which had a grooved seat similar to the one in the bridge, but it was raised upwards. The admiral decided to have a seat as he skimmed through the files on Thaddeus Jackson, Jon Dunaway, and James Grey. The strings of data floated around him like a sphere, engulfing him in data bits that illuminated his face in a cyan radiance. He reached a strand with Dunaway and Jackson’s name tagged in the file. The title had been expunged along with other vital pieces of data here and there in the descriptive profiles. Aronimus tapped his fingers in a rhythmic dance along his desk as he read on.

He continued doing so until he decided he had read enough, it was then that he turned to the transparent panel standing on his desk with the aid of a tripod and held down a button on the screen. He then spoke aloud,

“Attention Captain Jon Dunaway, Sergeant Thaddeus Jackson, please come to my quarters after the briefing with Commander Atomsk Dunaway. Mr. James Grey, come to my quarters immediately.”

After the message was broadcasted throughout the corridors of the ship, and even inside of Aronimus’s own quarters, he released his hold on the communications button. He pressed his fingers together leaving a space between his palms for him to gaze through as if he was trying to discern the future. He was interested in dealing with this particular matter immediately, before it got out of hand.

AI T.A.U.

TAU appeared as a Hologram on the Captain's desk. He was currently running a systems check and analysis on the Weaponry of the ship. "I thought I would take some time to go over my thoughts on the ship's load-out, Admiral" he said. TAU went over the main weapons quickly before starting, "The Railguns will provide enough firepower to fend off any large insurgent attacks that may arise" he says, alerting the Admiral to his knowledge of the true mission objectives. "As for the Mini Ions, I think they will be good for point defense against smaller ships as well as fighters". TAU's flames were dim at the moment, with little to get excited about at the moment. "I must admit my eagerness to use the Particle Cannon, that weapon really tops off the abilities of the ship" he concludes his assessment and awaits a response from the Admiral.

"Tau, do you realize that you shouldn't be speaking right now? You'll alert Adam of your presence." the admiral went about sifting through the data receptors, perhaps going through old transmission logs.

"I can't have him know of your presence as of yet..." Aronimus was hoping that his quarters wasn't being secretly hacked by any non-authorized prowlers. The captain's quarters was built specifically to allow a captain privacy.

"Let Adam handle the ship's systems, I was more interested in your capabilities being utilized by Commander Dunaway," the admiral rubbed his sagely beard.

"I'm sure you've read his profile, and have perhaps gone through his live feeds? First hand sources say his tactics are self-proclaimed as...insane, even genius," the admiral smiled to himself.

"Hopefully, you'll be able to handle his...style of commanding. I'm interested in watching your capabilities during the training scenarios..."

"For now though, log off." Aronimus expected the flames of Tau to dissipate pixel by pixel until his visual presence vanished before him.

Aronimus reclined in his seat, maintaining his straight posture though. A thousand thoughts and worries swirled in his mind. He stood up from his seat this time and strode to the holographic table which sensed his approach and immediately went to life. The system whirred and beeped, as the cyan light on the table flashed forth, bringing into existence several small spheres resembling planets and other celestial bodies. The Admiral focused on a single tiny spec that coursed through glowing field, that spec was the Salient.

He pressed his hands onto the edge of the holographic table, and sighed as he closed his eyes. The threat level on this mission had significantly increased with the new orders. Search and destroy the insurgent cell. Aronimus decided he would have a word with Lieutenant Commander Chen and Commander Dunaway on the status update. He wasn’t sure how they would react, but at least he’d make sure they’d be prepared when he broke the news to the rest of the crew.

This original mission was intended to investigate recent attacks on trade lanes by pirates, but the very presence of insurgents left Aronimus with a tough call to make. Just as he was pondering his next move, his neural interface brought to his attention a message from Dunaway. He pulled it up on the holographic table, which shifted from the small system to several flat screens. Text began scrolling upwards; it was military data, namely that of Marines and other ground personnel, weapons, vehicles, and other inventory. Suddenly, T.A.U. came into form in its characteristic orange flames. The admiral was surprised which meant he was annoyed.

“Tau, we had a conversation before, I hope you haven’t forgotten,” but now that Tau was online, he decided he would utilize him for duties that he didn’t want Adam to know about.

“Tau, access the files that Admiral Fontaine sent me on the secure channel, open it for me,” even at this age he was still being tested. Aronimus wasn’t sure he still had it in him to command a single ship against raiders.

AI TAU

Tau projected an apologetic smile on his hologram. "Sorry Admiral" he said. Taking his new orders into account, Tau went through the Computer's files and found the requested from Admiral Fontaine, he opened it for Admiral Weston on a secure channel as requested. "I will say that ADAM is unlikely to find me at the moment, the security node I left at his current position indicates he is still there in the Virtual City created by an unknown third AI on-board", Tau left this point in the air for a second before continuing, best approach this from an angle that retains significance to his own position aboard the Salient. "I just felt that I should find out what I can about this third AI, it seems quite frantic in its actions, setting up Firewalls laced with viruses that could damage the ship's systems and overloading light fixtures that it passes through the wiring of." he said neutrally, maintaining his flames in a low intensity. He reviewed the E-mail he sent himself in through and discovered something, but first made an apology for his past appearance, "I apologize for my first appearance, as I am afraid ADAM caught a small notice of my presence and is suspicious, to say the least" he began, segueing into another related topic to that. "I also have to inform you a bridge officer has traced my E-mail here and has cut all but one of my exit routes, I've set up blocks to ensure he doesn't access this terminal, but I think I'm stuck here until my existence is no longer to be shrouded."

"I will say that ADAM is unlikely to find me at the moment, the security node I left at his current position indicates he is still there in the Virtual City created by an unknown third AI on-board," the admiral wasn't paying attention when he said this, but was quick to realize it.

"What did you just say, Tau? There is another AI in the ship's internal mainframe? And Adam is pursuing it?" Aronimus was busy trying to decide what the best course of action regarding his new mission objectives, now he had more problems to deal with. He hadn't even talked with Dunaway or Jackson regarding their two independent AIs that were contained within their suits, but now he had one ship AI chasing after another unidentified, unauthorized, and possibly even hostile AI that was lacing the ship's internal systems with various new codes. Codes that threatened to interweave with existing ship software, thereby disabling key systems, Aronimus did not want that to happen.

How could he possibly deal with a such an invisible threat? He paused to gather his thoughts and formulate a plan.

"Tau, I will re-route you to another terminal, from there, intercept that unknown AI and bring him back here, I will deal with Adam and the bridge officer," that was phase one, Aronimus thought, as he uploaded T.A.U. into his personal interface and sent him through directly to the holographic table, thereby bypassing any locks previously placed through the mail system. By uploading him onto his personal interface, T.A.U could leap from holo-pad to terminal, to the destination of the unknown AI. Aronimus had been told that such use could have disastrous effects, considering the sentience of AI, they could choose to return or not. In the worst case scenario, the AI could go rampant, and when linked with a user, could cause a psychological backlash of fatal proportions. Aronimus took the risk though, considering that this wasn't his first time.

His next move would be to pull Adam out of the system and have a little word with him. He pressed a key on the holographic table before him,

"Adam, may I have a word with you?" he knew that the AI was busy pursuing other AI, should he run into Tau it would create more complications that Aronimus was not willing to allow. Hopefully, he could pull Adam aside long enough for Tau to apprehend and detain the unknown AI and bring it back to his quarters. Then another thought struck Aronimus, one he believed would settle the matter for now.

"Adam stand down. I have this under control, you can return to your station in the bridge. A crew member is logged into the data stream and has blocked all access into one of my terminals, I want you to eject him out of the system for now," the Admiral had forgotten that he had bumped A.D.A.M.'s processing power up to 5%. As he said this, he realized that A.D.A.M. might detect T.A.U, which he could not allow just yet.

Through his personal neural interface he tagged T.A.U and called him in.

"T.A.U, retrieve the rogue AI and detach yourself from the ship's systems now," Aronimus had hoped that T.A.U would have slipped away with the independent intelligence before A.D.A.M. noticed. If A.D.A.M. did though, he'd have to activate an override to lower his processing power and block off the area where the unknown AI was located or explain himself. Hopefully he didn't have to use such measures.

As the dual AIs entered his interface, Aronimus suffered from a bit of a shock with bouts of coughing and choking. The young AI was very spirited and this disrupted the admiral’s hold on the system. However, once he was secured and T.A.U had calmed him down a bit the young A.I. began to make inquiries regarding many things ranging from A.D.A.M. to the insurgency. The admiral regained his senses, but could not maintain two AIs at once without deteriorating slowly, so he uploaded them onto the holographic table.

T.A.U’s orange flames sprouted forth along with the unidentified AI who bore the likeness of a ten year old child. He was a bit shy, especially when confronted with Aronimus’ size, but the admiral’s greying beard made him appear as somewhat of a benefactor. The two AIs appeared to be conversing among themselves on the holographic table before T.A.U switched his communication link over to the admiral,

"This AI has a unique personality Admiral, I don't think it is dangerous so much as scared and confused,” the admiral raised his brow at T.A.U’s observation.

"What I want to know is where that AI came from!” Aronimus was incensed, this AI wasn't authorized. Its source was completely unknown, so it was to be deemed a threat until further notice.

"Contain that AI and extract whatever information you can from it, I want to know whether it is hostile, and what its purpose is."

He had worked with AIs before, but the kind that were organized, and mature. This unique AI as T.A.U had called it was rambunctious, and the fact that its avatar was that of a ten year old boy meant that it was very young. Nonetheless, despite its appearance an age, Aronimus could not take any chances. The admiral had experience with older AIs, and was taken by surprise when he suffered from the earlier shock. The shock resulted not by containing two AIs, but by containing one AI which was in a state of confusion.

The effects multiply with each accumulated AI in a rampant state, thus requiring a special data unit to enclose the AIs and stabilize the disruptions. Yet, in some cases such retrieval units are susceptible to damage and as a result the AIs would be deleted. It would seem as a costly lost, considering the sheer amount of money, time, and effort put forth into coding and constructing artificial intelligences.

Aronimus entered his interface, and relayed a message through the communications systems.

“Commander Dunaway, and Lieutenant Commander Chen, report to my quarters in thirty minutes.”

AI TAU

Tau nodded to the Admiral, "This is Admiral Weston, he is the commander of the ship" he said. Tau then sent a bit of himself to check through the virtual city for clues as to what this AI was exactly. He continued the conversation in the meantime. "So Max, we stand at a slight impasse here, as we do not know why you are here, and you yourself don't know why you're here" this would establish the situation for everyone to know. Tau picked up some chatter from the bridge officer, he switched to his channel with the Admiral, "Admiral, a Clyde from the bridge is still observing the conversation and has made an offer to transfer Max to his datapad and help him learn things and be at home, I leave it to you to accept or deny this offer".

Tau quickly switched back, "I think the first thing we need to do here is establish a friendship Max, don't you agree?" he said, paving a shortcut to assuring minimum threat levels from this... different Unit. "I, the AI Tau, promise to protect you from harm on this vessel to the best of my ability and also swear to not harm you myself in any way" he said, hoping the Admiral would approve, "Now, can you promise you won't harm us in return Max? It would be much more preferable to be friends."

Tau made a mental note of progression on his negotiation abilities, and got a sense of an open file in the virtual city, he quickly downloaded it and pulled it back, examining it. Anomaly Intelligence? Tau thought, unfamiliar with the concept. He sent the file to the Admiral's personal datapad for him to look over, tagging it with the words 'Max AI Possible Origin'. He looked back to Max, waiting for a reply.

Clyde? Clyde Summer, the navigator?

“T.A.U, respond to Mr. Summer with an invitation to report to my quarters immediately,” hopefully Aronimus could give Mr. Summer a word or two on protocol, considering the fact that he’d been wandering and spying as listed in T.A.U’s report. Now he was trying to convince a newly identified A.I. to accept him as a host. Approximately five minutes ago, the Admiral was on the verge of acting override codes to stall A.D.A.M.’s pursuit of Max. Although, T.A.U managed to successfully escape with the young A.I., his identity was revealed in the process. He was thoroughly infuriated at the turn of events, but he couldn’t do anything about it now except reprimand the culprits involved about their intolerable behavior.

Now it was pointless to conceal any further information regarding T.A.U, so he’d have to address the crew, specifically his two chief officers, the three crew men with isolated A.I.s, A.D.A.M. who had chased Max, and Navigator Summer who managed to slip away with knowledge on T.A.U.

Once that was addressed, he’d shift the focus to their new objectives. He received a message from T.A.U, the tagline was “Max A.I. Possible Origin.” Aronimus opened it immediately, scanning with his eyes at the snippets of data that T.A.U managed to acquire in the data banks.

Anomaly Intelligence? The Admiral had heard of that term before when he was first introduced to artificial intelligences by high command. They wanted to increase efficiency among the officers; an artificial intelligence on board a ship could do many things. From increasing reactor output, infiltrating hostile communication networks, to organizing last minute military tactics. They were a godsend, despite being man-made as proponents claim.

A young scientist by the name of Roman Durant had approached him with a proposition. He was an ambitious man for his age, approaching Aronimus who was a Commodore then, with his Anomaly Intelligence. He said it was cutting edge technology, and he wanted Aronimus to experiment with it. It was the kind of intelligence that derived data from the interaction of two A.I.s. Although Aronimus would’ve said yes, Durant’s project was cut short by the Senate because the technology was deemed illegal. Durant was outraged at their staunch bureaucratic conservatism, especially in this day and age. After that, Durant seemed to disappear completely; associates said he went into the private sector.

The thought evaporated from his mind, as he was brought back to the present with a distress beacon activation that was characterized by a pattern of three beeps, space, and then four more beeps. They repeated in succession until the beacon is turned off.

“Federation Vessel, this is Altamus Corperation escort detail 973 requesting assistance. Moving to your location, possible hostile contact."

The Admiral quickly wiped away all viewing screens powered by the holographic table and activated the star map. The two Altamus vessels were being pursued by unidentified ships, a smaller ship, a gunship, was trailing ahead to the location of the Salient. Aronimus activated the communication system on the holographic table,

“This is Admiral Weston to Bridge crew, engage hostiles. Military personnel prepare for boarding action.”

Aronimus hadn’t expected hostiles in the Middle Rim, but he was more than prepared. He had to leave his quarters in order to command more effectively, in his experience, the Bridge was the skipper’s command center. From there he could get a better view of the current situation, and could forward commands quicker.

AI TAU

Tau muted the alarm in the Admiral's room. He looked at Max, "I agree, you seem very interesting and it would be beneficial to both sides to work together on finding where you came from" Tau said. He turned to face the Admiral, "Do you want me to wait until we are out of battle to call Clyde down, I tracked his location and he is currently manning Navigation, though Adam could preform navigational duties, as could I" he said. Tau realized he had just subtly hinted at the usefulness of his skills in battle, but he knew it would be difficult to aid the engagement with Max around, considering that he did not seem to have much trust in anyone but Tau at the moment. He kept conversing with the Admiral, "I should add that the particle cannon is quite powerful, and perhaps using the many Rail Guns would be more efficient, as well as more deadly if set on an appropriate firing pattern" he let things quiet from there, the Admiral had a lot to consider at the moment, it would probably be advisable to refrain from overloading his neural interfaces with information and queries.