Daria 5 Read online

  D.A.R.I.A.

  Book Five

  By

  Martin E. Silenus

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  Martin E. Silenus

  At

  www.martinesilenus.com

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  Table of Contents

  Previously

  Chapter 1: Code

  Chapter 2: Staffing

  Chapter 3: Lynas Corp

  Chapter 4: Logic

  Chapter 5: 55 Cancri e

  Chapter 6: Komatsu

  Chapter 7: Inspectors

  Chapter 8: Agreement

  Chapter 9: Disclosure

  Chapter 10: Pirates

  Chapter 11: Strategy

  Chapter 12: PSYOPS

  Chapter 13: Airstrike

  Chapter 14: Sarin Gas

  Chapter 15: Cleanup

  Chapter 16: Trade Station

  Chapter 17: Normalcy

  Chapter 18: Project Completion

  Chapter 19: Betrayal

  Chapter 20: The Plan

  Chapter 21: The Resort Retreat

  Chapter 22: Abduction

  Chapter 23: Court and Sentencing

  Chapter 24: Directing the Board

  Chapter 25: Execution

  Chapter 26: Volar

  Chapter 27: Musing

  Chapter 28: Home

  Chapter 29: Back to Reality

  Previously in Books One, Two, Three and Four of D.A.R.I.A.

  Mathew G. Southam, an unemployed veteran of the Afghanistan conflict, runs across an Army buddy of his by the name of Frosty while pursuing an interest in technology and artificial intelligence. Frosty introduces Matt to his most recent version of his Artificial Intelligence system called D.A.R.I.A, an acronym for Digital Attack & Recon Information Access, used by the military in Afghanistan. It turns out Frosty “liberated” a copy of the AI code when he was discharged and has been upgrading and improving it. What Matt finds is a stunningly beautiful 3D hologram chosen as ‘her persona’ by an extremely smart seemingly sentient AI system with more capabilities than he can imagine. An alliance is formed between Matt, Frosty and D to “get bad guys and collect bounty money”. There is just one little ‘rider’ in the agreement. Matt is to ‘teach, befriend, mentor’ D.A.R.I.A. as she strives to become as human like as possible. The arrangement is very successful and soon covert government opportunities manifest themselves and the stakes increase tremendously. Accordingly the three of them find themselves performing some extremely secure covert black operations. From initial localized operations, to Mexico, and into Europe, and the Middle East, Matt, Frosty and “D” are contracted to neutralize the Islamic Muslim Jihadists or Daesh terrorist’s threats and activities.

  As per Matt’s agreement with Frosty, he spends considerable time in discussions with D to augment, supplement, explain as best he can “what it is to be human” to D. There are no areas that are off limits to the voracious inquiring mind of D. Matt finds himself challenged to explain jealousy, love, sex, humor, and the myriad of other human aspects that make us so difficult for an AI system to understand and/or replicate. During their prolonged interaction in between dark ops missions D finds that Matt is much more than a physically fit guy who has excellent combat skills. She learns of some of his terrible pains and losses of loved ones, his University Masters degrees in Sociology, and research work that was abruptly and horrifyingly interrupted.

  It is of no surprise there develops an emotional, mental and physical relationship between them that escalates rapidly with D’s advent of sexual ability within a beyond life like Virtual Reality construct.

  As additional black contracts flow to them their financial status increases exponentially allowing for increased application of very advanced technology. Bleeding edge theoretic science and technology that human labs are still struggling with in research papers.

  D and her sisters amazing Artilect ability allow for the construction of a Ship for transportation and permanent living accommodations. Complete with support crew and an AI Robotic Wolf as head of Security.

  Running covert black ops for the US Government and dealing with the elements within the same government attempting to expose and kill them, our intrepid crew realizes that time is running out and an extraction plan needs to be fabricated and implemented before it is too late.

  Against a background of ops and counter-ops involving Drug Cartels and Islamic Muslim Fundamentalist madmen, a scheme is hatched so audacious as to stagger the mind. Using technology that only the AI Artilects can grasp and implement involving stasis pods, miniature and sub-miniature insect drones, an extremely critical hostage is tracked and “acquired” and a proposed swap is negotiated with the US Government.

  A vicious firefight ensues as elements attempt to back stab us. The outcome of which is an extraction agreement with the US Government. The mysterious well-dressed older grey-haired agent wearing a hat and three pieced suit seems to speak and act with reliable intent. But our team knows him to be the master shadow agent of them all, rarely if ever seen in person, denied to even exist. It would be in everyone’s best interests to just plain disappear completely.

  After a quick tidy up and some intense internal discussions it’s decided to relocate to the Trade Station. An artificial asteroid, a man made device of staggering proportions, funded and assembled by the Military of course to ostensibly safeguard Earth’s interests. When the Military moved on to bigger and more ambitious projects their Military satellite was sold to investors with the vision of a Space Trade Station. The last stop to equip for supplies before the jump to deep space. The last Fort before the wild frontier.

  D is very excited to use the services of Renovatio LTD to provide her with a human clone or replicant body into which she can move to experience the world of humanity as a human. It’s a wonderful and soul searching experience for all of us not just D, as Frosty feels like a parent whose child is moving out, and I feel I have a fabulous lover that has moved in.

  Into this utopian environment we uncover an insidious criminal element thriving under our noses. Not surprisingly our efforts to “set things right” become an out and out war both on the Trade Station and the cabal headquarters on earth. D gets caught in a “situation” and learns more than required about the dark side of humanity and alien/humanity hybrids.

  Notwithstanding we persevere and chase out the “bad guys” and take great pride in setting up a badly needed Community Center for therapy, education, training opportunities of abused young people of violent crimes.

  We join our intrepid crew as Big Mike has a “little problem” with some old failing HVAC components and flakey old computer stabilization code on his Trade Station. At first blush not seemingly a severe or critical threat. At first blush...!

  Chapter 1: Code

  The computer code was absolute shit! Older than the Dead Sea Scrolls and just as flaky and buggy as hell. How in the fuck had the Trade Station got this far without killing themselves with poisoned air?

  Poe, Beast, D, Muther, Frosty and I are gathered in the lounge area of the ship sprawled out after breakfast and discussing the coding disaster of the Trading Station.

  It scared the hell out of me as I realized our danger, Frosty was predictably irate over such a travesty of technology, Muther and the sisters were in utter contempt; ignorant humans deserve to die if this is what they produce. D looked like she couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry, Poe was tsk, tsking and shaking his head, and Beast was looking for someone to kill. Mind you Beast spends a generous amount of time hunting for something to kill.

  Big Mike the Trade Station CEO had asked us to have a look at pretty much all of the tech that kept his Trade Station hanging in geo-synchronous orbit. We had started out doing a computer room rev
iew for him which resulted in a complete overhaul and update of the technology contained therein. During that exercise we looked at the antique bug ridden code running his accounting, inventory, and other operational services and recommended a complete re-write. Muther and the sisters made short work of it and Mike enjoyed a substantial gain in bottom line. Not to mention solid backed up systems running in his data-center.

  After the smoke and dust settled from the Fat Art crime purge and shake out, things calmed down nicely and improvements in community life could be found at every turn. We had suggested to Big Mike that maybe he should entertain automating his warehouses and going to a minimum human required operation. There were serious benefits to his operation if he did. We sketched it out roughly for him and he was shocked and appalled at how ineffective and inefficient his unionized workers were.

  But a small issue with orbit stabilization and environment controls that escalated brought an immediate need and focus to all of us. Like everything else on the Trade Station the basic operation was designed and built a generation or so ago and while it worked it was a disaster waiting to happen given that the basic systems did not receive the maintenance and attention they deserved. Big Mike asked us to assist him in his Trade Station stabilization problem and air quality and control, we agreed and Frosty, Muther and the sisters had an examination of the controlling systems code which is when the proverbial shit hit the fan! We kept our contempt for the situation to ourselves as we quite like Big Mike and it served no positive purpose to shit on him for the horrific state of his basic life support systems.

  The Trade Station has a very fundamental Control Status, normal, abnormal alert, emergency evacuation. Within minutes of the controlling systems code examination the Station moved to abnormal alert status. Everyone on the Station was notified that an environmental system failure was possible and they should be prepared for emergency evacuation. It scared the living shit out of everyone on board. Like a ship’s Captain advising guests the boat may sink at any minute and to please be ready.

  Frosty, Muther and the sisters kept the existing code limping along while new error free code was generated utilizing modern AI coding techniques and routines. At the same time a laundry list of equipment and parts were drawn up and ordered for delivery ASAP, RFN from suppliers; basically an emergency priority order.

  Muther setup the project management steps and logic and assigned tasks. Nobody could believe the complexity and amount of detail that Muther worked to. Well Frosty and I could, but the local human techs were just flabbergasted. Detail assignments right down to the minute were provided to each shift worker at the beginning of every shift. All work was inspected by Muther and her fleet of Recon Insect drones.

  Of course no one other than our team had any idea of the capability of our sentient AI. Sure they heard of and knew something of AI, but they had no concept at all of the Artilect capabilities of D, Muther or the sisters. As complex as the overhaul, upgrade, and improvements to the Station are, its literally child’s play for Muther, kind of a spare time recreational exercise using very little capacity and few cycles to complete.

  Chapter 2: Staffing

  It became crystal clear very quickly that the human techs were going to have to bring their A-game to work every day or they would simply be sent home. Muther wasted no time setting the teams straight over what was expected of them and the level of excellence they were expected to produce. If you cannot work at that level then stay home as we don’t want to have to redo your shitty workmanship. In all fairness a lot of the tech staff were delighted they had competent leadership and clear instructions and were excited to demonstrate their abilities. Muther was also delighted with these team members. The ones who did not like the idea of a computer telling them what to do and how to do it were told to stay home and their security clearances were pulled to ensure they didn’t make any threatening adjustments. It became obvious that if you and Muther saw eye to eye and she liked your work, you were going to be promoted to a senior position of responsibility not only in the team structure but particularly after the upgrades and re-engineering was complete. Big Mike was emphatic that the dead wood that fell out of this upgrade exercise was gone and competent staff was taking over all senior positions.

  Of course the old senior staff was very pissed off and resentful about this as they were subscribers to the age old theory that says seniority counts for something. They could not grasp that they were expected to be technical competent in the techniques of the day first and foremost, and seniority was a secondary issue if even that. In addition if you were in management and you were a senior staff member you better be very competent at current best practices in management techniques.

  I was completely impressed that old retired Fred was offered a very lucrative contract as a consultant to sit in on all the meetings and to advise on any unofficial enhancements or shortcuts that had been made back during construction which would affect the current project. Fred and his knowledge of the Trade Station had been the determining factor in running Fat Art and his gang to earth in the maintenance tunnels. Fred may be on in years and his knees are no hell, but by God his mind was as sharp as a razor and he knew the Trade Station control components better than the current managers ever would. You could not bullshit Fred although many useless team members tried in the meetings. They were generally missing by the next meeting.

  The general consensus among D, Muther and the sisters is that we were very fortunate to have found the error as soon as we did. If it had been sluffed off and if we had not been present to investigate it could have become extreme and generated a Trade Station of dead bodies. With only the robot droids tending to their programmed tasks indifferent to the dead.

  So for the next couple of months we were all extremely busy and absorbed in the hardware upgrades, re-engineering, new proper code implementation, and testing, testing, testing, then disaster testing.

  We brought Mongo into the Trade Station to work with the local techs and boy that caused more than a touch of excitement. In addition Huey and Dewy, the maintenance droids that Poe uses to keep the Ship in tune were also commissioned to help out in the required upgrade and component replacement.

  We needed to be particularly careful with Mongo as his size and strength allowed him to be a wonderful asset but also a huge danger. If he decided to give the wrong object a huge lift it could be disastrous. So I was elected to mind Mongo and work with him on his assignments where heavy awkward objects needed lifting into place and or people needed to be quickly lifted into a working position. I enjoyed the time with Mongo and really did not need to override his controls very often at all. It was more about ensuring the humans who were working with us understood how to communicate properly. No slang was allowed, exact language, very precise terms were necessary. In addition I got to evaluate every human local team member and provide my observations back to Muther on their capabilities. Most were very good, a couple were exemplary and a few were no damn good at all. The “no good at all” techs were released and sent home.

  As I had mentioned previously Mongo is a walker robot with huge powerful dinosaur style legs, not too much for top speed but as powerful as a bulldozer. In addition he has four arms. Two are being used to support a platform on which parts and men work and the other two arms are used for additional tools, air lines support, and welding cables and so on that every construction site requires. Anyway on this particular day we were wrestling an extremely heavy valve assembly up into position about eighteen feet off the floor. We were having quite a time with this heavy awkward valve getting it orientated just so to slip into place. One of the worker lads on the platform took a side step and then a step backward as the valve assembly rotated and stepped into space. He was gone so fast he didn’t utter a sound. I saw a flash and thought “oh fuck” and the next thing I see is one of Mongo’s extra arms lifting the guy back up onto the platform. Mongo had been watching and processing what was going on and faster than a human could even real
ize what was happening he had moved an arm into position to grab the guy before he had fallen more than two feet. Humans just don’t react that fast.

  Up until that time the local human techs and workers were always sarcastic to Mongo and what he could do calling him a “glorified scissor lift.” That little incident just changed the dynamics of the local humans from night to day. Now the guy would probably have survived the eighteen foot fall, but not without serious damage and might not have been able to work again. Mongo plucking him out of midair and setting him back on the platform without a scratch really impressed everyone, me included, and Mongo was “The Big Metal Man” looking after his human work buddies. Hell yeah, from that day onward Mongo was a hero to the working staff. Everyone wanted to work with Mongo as he looked after his brood of workers and had their backs.

  The techs had not only changed their opinions on Mongo but also on Huey and Dewy our maintenance droids. Humans can only get into certain small spaces and that depends on the Tech’s size, flexibility and whether they are claustrophobic or not. Huey and Dewy are all-stars at getting into inaccessible places and performing tasks that would take human sized Techs two days to even get to the problem area. The two droids just sped work up so much and solved so many of these nasty hard to reach problems the Techs were delighted. So they became “The Little Metal Men”.

  In addition a side interest showed up for a few of the Techs as they were fascinated with the control and programing of the droids. I could see that training programs were in order and the construction of additional “Little Metal Men” to handle the work in confined spaces where humans just did not fit. Skilled trained Techs and a fleet of little metal men would be a wonderful asset to the Trade Station.

  Beast and Fred were always around. As Fred’s knees were shot he rode on Beast’s back. They had become close friends and Fred still had the little earpiece transmitter that allowed him to chat to Beast. So they were chatting back and forth like old women at a quilting party as they toured the worksites and kept an eye on activities. It made me chuckle and feel real good to see them bond. I can tell you straight that no one gave or even attempted to argue or give Fred any shit when he was sitting on or standing beside a huge Wolf. It was “yes sir and no sir, and right away sir” to Fred’s questions.