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Chapter 13 - The Glow of a Worm inside a Child's Eye[]
The images were remarkably clear...
...and not quite the surprise that they'd expected.
"I hope you didn't get those through the HPG network." Dinh quipped as he laid the imagery back on the table.
"So you have an explanation, Dinh?" Archon Katrina asked, "I mean, I wouldn't be shocked if you did. Your people were very resourceful covering for Arthur and I...but this ship wasn't there before you were taken."
"No, it wasn't." Dinh agreed. "As you know, Highness, my family's firm has been quite...fortunate with our salvage efforts on behalf of the realm."
"So it is a salvage item? Why didn't your people report it?" Arthur asked from the side.
"Well, that's because there are complications. Annie told me about it this morning." Dinh stated, "I would've had Truk brief you in, but he barely knows more than I do-the ship was salvaged by free spacers affiliated loosely with our Rockjack community, and you KNOW I'm not privy to all of their secrets, including ties to The Folk."
"That's a lie." Katrina stated, "Please, don't do that, Dinh, we're friends here. You know more than you've ever admitted about The Folk, it's why your system always has free-spacer traffic, even when there's nobody worth trading with. What's so special about THIS ONE?"
Dinh flinched a little, "Are we completely confidential here?" he asked.
"Yes."
"It's operational." he stated, "All of it, including the advanced Nirasaki computers."
"Nirasaki...it's a Lola II hull, those were Mac Terra..."
"Not the M-5 models." Dinh stated.
"You've got a Caspar??"
"I don't have one, Sithers-Deen mining has one." Dinh corrected Arthur, "Admittedly, it's parked in my solar system, but it's not my find or recovery. Jaina Sithers-Deen 407's people only told Anna about it because they're still arguing over whether to report the find or not."
"What's the hold up?" Katrina asked.
"It's operational, according to my wife in her role as counsel for our spacer community in the Kowloon system. It's sapient-as in fully passing the Turing and Brinks-Barre tests for self-aware, self-willed lifeforms. They're arguing whether or not to offer it Refugee status under the system's constitution, a move that is sure to bring nasty levels of negative attention from, among others, anyone in the Sol system who still remembers that the Hegemony paid for the construction of those ships."
Arthur was stunned, "Refugee...status? HOW?? It's a Killer Robot!!"
"A killer robot that is as self-aware as a human being." Dinh clarified, "The Rockjacks cling to some of our old ways-the Elbar Declaration, and two and a half centuries of fighting Rim Worlds Slavery, if a being fits the qualities of intelligent life that is self-willed..."
"Slavery." Katrina nodded, "I understand now. They are afraid turning it over is going to be tantamount to slave trading-at least, at the moral level."
"Yes." Dinh said, "You grasp the problem exactly your Highness. The Idealists who wrote my people's original constitutional charter used a mental, as opposed to physical, definition for 'person'...and that 'killer robot' fits that definition, and our Rockjacks are VERY traditional-it hasn't attacked any Lyran ships or shipping, it has committed no crime..."
"So they don't want to turn it over because of a moral issue." Arthur mused, "One that ninety nine percent of the human race would overlook."
"Yes. The scary part, is that the thing is self-willed, they've tested it extensively, and my Brother did a series of interviews with it. it HAS directives it's ignoring-it's intelligent enough to overcome hardwired orders, that makes it a person by the lights of the people most capable of taking it down...in fact, the brief Anna gave me defines it as a 'victim of a war crime', and notes that the vessel's lack of self-repair capability and lack of self-maintenance makes it class four disabled-like a double amputee or quadriplegic accident victim."
"What happens if you assert your powers as Duke and seize it?" Arthur asked.
"I'll have half a billion people in revolt within hours. The last time those folks revolted, they dropped rocks on the Rim Worlds Republic Garrison in twenty-seven-sixty-nine." Dinh asserted, "I don't know about you, but I'm not real hot to have to fight a civil war in the deep orbitals against people who are flat out better at it than ninety nine percent of the people who might be tasked with fighting them because they LIVE THERE."
"Give me a solution that keeps the peace, Dinh." Katrina urged.
"First, make sure no references get on the HPG network." Dinh said, "Then, I suggest putting some funds into shipyard construction. We should bring back the Navy before the next time we have to fight the Combine or the Free Worlders. It's a warship, it might be enticed to join a navy...but that predicates on the Commonwealth HAVING a navy to join."
"Can you find tooling to bring ANY of our shipyards back from the dead?" she asked.
"I think so. It's an engineering problem and I'm a trained engineer." Dinh stated, "The only reason I haven't proposed this before, is because, frankly, the risk is really high and there's been no real emphasis on the idea-so no customers."
"Where are you going to find the machinery?" Arthur pressed, "Your family is a salvage outfit-"
"We're confidential?" Dinh asked.
"Yes."
"We haven't 'found' any technology in eighty years. Those Rockjacks? They're my industrial base." Dinh asserted, "As in 'why we don't get hit by pirates every fortnite' and why Kowloon hasn't been visited by nuclear fireballs like every OTHER industrial world that looks like they're recovering technology. As long as we're publicly seen as 'lucky salvagers' the freak accidents that plague most of our customers just...pass us by."
"Can you build it?" Katrina asked, "I mean, spares for a Lola-II class destroyer?"
"Maybe in five to ten years, if we've got the investment. I'd like to suggest starting with something less...smaller scale, something that looks 'natural'." Dinh stated, "It will get the workforces trained and we can shake out the bugs and problems better. Something Corvette-scale maybe, with an initial investment in off-the-shelf parts that are already in production for other types, maybe even some genuinely obsolete components that will slip under the radar of foreign intelligence services. That buys us time to build up the skill base and re-learn the engineering principles we've lost."
"How much will it cost?" Her Majesty asked.
"I'm not sure." Dinh stated, "It will be expensive, I know that already. We're going to have to reinvent manufacturing processes and design engineering work, and it can't be done in the open-at least, not until we've got something to show that's moderately useful for mass production."
"Why NOT in the open?" Arthur asked.
"That's because it makes wherever we do it, a prime target for every other space-capable political faction in human space." Katrina suggested, "Am I correct?"
"Yes, Majesty." Dinh said, "My folks have managed to avoid the worst of the Succession Wars, but that ends the moment anyone figures out what we're actually capable of trying. You know, it helps that Kowloon's in a crowded binary, makes for a long approach and rough transitions for anyone who doesn't stop in regularly..."
"I'll start with one hundred fifty billion Kroner." Katrina said, "That's your budget. Build what you can and as much of it as possible, it's black budget."
"Katrina!" Arthur gasped, "Are you sure?"
"Yes." she said, "Dinh here, broke four interrogators in three years, without knowing if either of us would come back. His loyalty is beyond question...now I want to see this ability you claimed he has...and interstellar nations need shipping to remain nations-which means we need a navy. If this gives us a head-start on the rest of the Inner Sphere all the better."