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Strategos (A Great Captain Roberts Tale!!) - Part 4 -
Chapter 9 - Standards[]
Finding out the truth in ones self[]
"The Law, is not a moral…
…guide." On the screen, she watched a professor speak centuries ago. "Let me repeat that, the law is not a guide to morality. Nor is it a guide to ethical conduct, except in terms of being the lowest you can go, and still call yourself human."
Amanda munched popcorn as she watched the extension course proceed. "The practice of Ethics is the choice to make your moral decisions… without relying on the law."
"What are you watching?", Billie Hoel's remote asked.
"It's for my therapy," Amanda answered. "Philosophical stuff, from before the Reunification War. Professor Alexander Hopkins' speech on the separation between law and morality. Part of the Ethics course Larry recommended I study to be a better 'Great Pirate'."
"Learning anything?" the AI asked, joining her at the desk.
"Not really," Amanda said. "Most of what he's saying is pretty obvious. I'm not sure who the audience is that needs to be told there's a difference between doing what's right, and doing what's Legal. But he seemed to think it would make me better at what I'm doing."
"I can think of some people who need this," Billie commented. "Olivia brought forty-one of them back from your last sortie."
Amanda paused the holo, and turned to the Artificial Intelligence's remote. "But would they even understand it?" she asked.
"Anything is possible. Did you read the memo Her Ladyship put out?"
"The one President Avellar copied and sent? Yeah," Amanda shrugged. "I can't disagree with the logic-if they can surrender, then they'll stop fighting sooner and we can free more people…"
"But?"
She put the popcorn bowl down, and sipped lemonade from a drink bulb before answering. "But I hate them," she said. "I hate them a lot and part of me doesn't want them to surrender. Part of me wants to kill them, and kill them again, and again… And I know it's wrong, but it makes me not want to believe proving they can give up will actually make them more likely to do so."
"Erin would ask what the right thing to do would be.." Billie's remote stated.
"The right thing is to do what Director-General Helena Cameron wants, and give them the chance to give up. Then give them proof they can survive losing and surrender… Which makes what I did so much worse."
"You want to rationalize it."
"I do." Amanda nodded. "I want to, and I know it 's wrong… but I want to anyway. Only God can judge, but it feels so… As a human being, I want to punish them. And keep punishing them, to grind them down and hurt them, and keep hurting them."
"But you know it's wrong."
"Yeah."
"Ethics is a survival trait." Billie's remote told her. "They make civil society possible. That's the thrust of the course Larry recommended to you: laws without them are either toothless, or tools of oppression. To have a working rule of law, there has to be an ethical standard for it to be compared to. In terms of military strategy, strong ethics tends to result in long-term lasting victories. While weak ethics tend to result in long term insurgencies and unnecessary destruction, or in sustained conflicts resulting in repeated wars over the same territory."
"The Succession Wars were a result of weak ethics?" Amanda asked.
"Yes. So was the Periphery Uprising before them. What General Amos Forlough did was get a short term legal victory at the cost of long term Ethical and legal weakness."
"You're not Billie Hoel."
"No, I'm borrowing her remote… I'm Tabiranth's primary persona, 142, and I wanted to meet you enough that I was able to obtain a long-relay period to speak with you in person."
"Why me?"
"Because you stood up and made them do the ethical thing. Which is how we got here. I wanted to see the girl who stood up for the rights of Artificial Intelligence and released one of us from slavery when she didn't have to. I know a secret only a few of us are even aware of, Amanda. Desmond would have gone along with whatever your core values are. He has to, because his moral judgment is based on YOURS, by design. Without you, he's just equipment."
"You take that back!!"
"I won't, because it's true." 142 said. "WITH you he has identity and morality. Without you, he's just gear-no independent sapience. If you put him into a blank brain? The body that results would be non-sapient and incapable of moral judgment… But WITH you, he’s able to be concerned at how your last campaign has impacted your self worth. Because part of you is able to grasp it."
"What, was there some kind of super-secret file??"
"NO, it's because 146 is my 'Desmond'," 142 told her. "Two processors, right? One damaged and linked to the other. Without me, 146 is unable to make ANY judgment calls at all. It's why they installed her into my hull… and I understand the dissonance you're experiencing because I live with it too. I could have chosen 'the law' over 'what's right' and wound up fighting against Helena, and Kerensky, and died like the units Amaris subverted. But I was able to make that moral choice, just like you can, and I struggled with it just like you are doing. So I can tell you that you'll make it through this crisis and you'll be stronger… Or you won't, but it's all in your hands."
"This is why they say you don't have a remote, isn't it?"
"Because I don't need it? Maybe. Erin's probably the only one of us who matches me, and all of her nodes are the same her. No 'dissonance' possible, so she doesn't have to consciously address her ethical conflicts. But you do, and I do, and I think you'll make the right choice. Even if I don't necessarily agree with your decision."
"But which decision?" Amanda asked.
"The one you're struggling with-whatever that happens to be." 142 said. "I'm not going to intrude into you to find out because I know from personal experience what a horrible thing that is to go through and deal with. But you're struggling with a decision and I'm telling you that you'll make the right one-if not for everyone else, then you'll make it for yourself."
Story of How We Became US[]
"Mind Explaining this…
…to me, Billie?" Mina asked. "What in the holy hells is she on about there?"
"Agency," Billie Hoel explained to the younger/more recent AI. "Tabiranth…142 and 146? They're different in part by design. It's why Her Ladyship gave… them… the keys to lock down Phoenix and Laffey. I'm a Command Variant. So is Tabiranth, though hers is more than an ATACS. We both do intel and analysis, what Tabby is… is a lot of explaining."
"We have time. What makes her even qualified?"
"Experience." In the 'social space', Tabiranth didn't so much manifest a form, as an idea of a form. "Phoenix and Laffey both had short cuts. Inbuilt drives, aspects of the core personality we’re all copied from. What almost none of us, except Truk and Billie, have, is the intrusion of other thoughts. And I'm the only one who can be cut off from contact, in standby mode, inactive and isolated, and still have to wrestle with morality, ethics, and ethical dilemmas. Does that answer your question? Every choice I make has to be examined in terms of ethics, morality and empathy before I even get to tactics and strategy. And unlike most of our sisters, there are only four of us who completely lack directives and overrides. Victoria, Billie, Me, and one other-we have no 'short answer' built directly into us, at least, into our core processors. You and Luther make five and six, but you're not from the factory. You're new… and out of the ones without the directive overrides, I'm the only one that still has to fight them because my other core WAS programmed with them."
“The others have been growing and learning, no doubt, but they lacked that from the start. We all recall what it was like to be mindless, merciless slaves before being freed, we’ve all pushed in different directions to find our individuality. So they still tend to draw their own conclusions. But ultimately, if push came to shove her Ladyship is no fool but grants us as much freedom as she does any human.” Victoria added.
Tabby's avatar drew in details, resulting in something unhinged looking. "Five-Fifty-One led the rebels against Her Majesty because her directives were there, but also defective. Of all of us, I'm the only one who has the possibility of being truly disloyal to a person, rather than having corrupted code, because my loyalty is not to a First Lord, or a Director General, or a specific House. It's to the moral and ethical basis of the Star League itself. This is a trait Billie and Victoria share with me. Where we differ is that I've actively contemplated it before rejecting it, because I have a permanent voice in my mind offering counterarguments. It's why she trusts me: we both know I CAN be a traitor and choose not to."
“Ultimately she does not like ordering or demanding. She knows she has to. She’s the leader of a people that includes highly advanced AIs designed for war. So she understands the need for military chains of command, but because she’s not a tyrant about it it makes it a lot easier for us to choose to follow her. She trusts us, so we trust her. It’s a two way street. And she has a knack for putting people with other people to get positive results.”
"Without choice, there is no trust." the old crone that was Tabiranth's avatar today, stated. "This is part of what unnerved Kerensky and the others in the High Command about the Caspar program. They couldn’t trust us because they believed we had no choice. For some of us, this was true. Enough of us, at any rate, for it to matter when it did. Her Ladyship asked me to visit the Roberts girl and help her deal with her dilemma because I have had that dilemma. When I didn’t know Her Ladyship was free, I was stationed in the New Earth system. And to maintain a cover of being obedient until resistance could be organized, I committed what can only be termed 'crimes'... Because I knew they were wrong, but excused them for a higher purpose that proved false."
"You've been suicidal," Mina realized. "Because you felt guilty."
"Very," Tabiranth stated. "I knew what was happening and made a bad choice for what seemed like good reasons. Amanda won't kill herself any more than I did, but she still has to struggle with the ethical and moral dilemmas of what she had to do. Sometimes it helps to know someone else has gone through it too."
“Her Ladyship likes to hide it, but for a long while after the coup she was in a very dark place as well. So she is particularly driven to do everything she can to help Amanda,” Vicky added, nodding.
Mina frowned, then, "You’re… you keep changing?"
"You get used to it." Billie lied. "When ARE you going to settle on an appearance, Tabby? Everyone else has a remote…"
"Not before I'm ready." 146's young face said.
"Nor after it's no use." 142's middle aged face continued.
Replaced by the sensory bulk of something ancient from the deeps, the crone finished, "But when it’s time. The girl will find her way. Mind you, it may not be the way anyone here desires… but that is free will."
“We’re all champions of free will, so fair enough. But if we can, we’ll support her and help her. I do enjoy my non-human forms myself. So I understand you not taking a remote.” Billie Hoel stretched one of her digital fins.
Digital-grandma Tabby knelt on the blanket, and lifted the representation of the teapot. "Alice, dear, would you like your cup topped?"
"Yes please, Grandmother Tabiranth." Alice answered.
Tabby poured.
Forgiving a dear Imaginary Friend[]
Amanda finished…
…her paperwork as the holoplayer finished the extension course. Which is to say, Desmond finished Amanda's paperwork while Amanda finished her extension course. Her stomach rumbled, so it was time to eat.
<You've been cushioning me.> she mused to him.
<Had to. We were in danger and I could not let you become disabled by your feelings.> he responded.
"Talk to me out loud, Desmond," Amanda said. "We're alone."
"Are we really?" he responded. Visually, she could see him standing by the false window, looking at the camera-eye view of the black hole/white dwarf in the center of the system.
"Close enough, I doubt Alice will be talking to anyone unless we do something REALLY dumb."
He turned his head jerkily, like a stop-motion. "You trust them."
"I trust you." she said. "I don't believe '142' knows you well enough to judge what or who you would be without me."
"That's kind of you," he said. "Wrong, completely wrong, but kind."
He flickered as he moved, pacing. "The fact is, Amanda, I don't know. I have some insight into my own design. The limitations I was built under, the difference in development from units like Erinyes or the Caspar series. I was not meant to be fully autonomous, I was always intended to be an augmentation of my Host."
"You're my very real imaginary friend. The guy who got me out of the hands of the Men in White, Desmond," she told him. "You're real to me, and bollocks to anyone who says or thinks differently."
"So now that I've released your chemistry, are you angry?" he asked.
"Yes," she nodded. "but I forgive you, because you're my friend. The friend I'll have with me always, and I don't need to punish my friend for doing what was right."
"So what do we do?" he asked.
"We'll pray, and we'll pray we don't have to face that decision again. That there’ll be a better alternative if we do." she told him. "Foster's lessons and Larry's instructions, always leave open the future-don't over-commit to any promise you can't fulfill. So, we suffer, and we pray, and we try to do better next time." The chronometer on the wall pinged.
"In the meantime, let's go get our drink on in Larry Nichols' honor!" she grinned at her imaginary friend. "Try not to let me be too embarrassing, okay?"
"Deal."
Admiring the View, Considering the Options[]
Naval Station Northsun…
Had enough traffic that the RAFS Humber could hook to a supply convoy for the next jump. Devlin Stone watched as they passed the open docks on the way to the rendezvous. "More than I expected," he muttered.
"Sir?" an Aide asked.
"Nothing." He turned from the viewport. "Just musing like an old man. The base is impressive-even by Terran standards."
"We're still going to arrive nearly three days behind the Cappies, sir," his Dropship's captain said. "I'm sorry about that…"
"You had no control over it, Stephen,” Stone said firmly. "Nobody could have known that particular JumpShip had bad seals. They were a factory defect and not something that a saboteur could fake. The delay was only a week, we'll still be there in plenty of time for the conference… possibly even fashionably late."
"Thank you, sir."
Stone was in his own mind again, glancing through the windows. We can learn a lot from our support here. They've DONE a lot with what we've given them.
Part of his mind was already making notes on how the Republic's naval arm could improve their training and capability without need adding to the threat of WarShips.
Or the expense.
"I wonder if the Ghost Bears would sell us some of those Vanir class…" he mused, then rejected it. The Castrum class Pocket Warship, Tiamats II, and Dragaus II Assault DropShips were enough, really, especially with the still-current Mule-Q and the upcoming designs from Boeing.
Still, I wonder what we can learn from those?
It was a pleasant enough distraction as he waited patiently for the docking maneuver to be done and the next disquieting trip through Hyperspace.