29 - Board Meeting

“I’d like to welcome you all to the first official meeting of the Sullivan Survival Society,” Maya said, kicking her bare feet upon the table before her. It was a thick mahogany slab that was mirror shiny and dark as coffee. Sunlight streamed in behind her from floor to ceiling windows that overlooked a bustling generic cityscape.

Bell frowned and looked around. “This is what you’ve been spending the last week on?” he asked as he pulled out a large leather office chair. “This is why you’ve refused to let me use the VR system for the last three days?”

“Hey, man. It took a while to get the second VR gear set up and connecting with this one. Dang crazy proprietary code and such. Just be glad we can now both hang out in the same simulation,” Maya said. “Also,” she waved her hand around, “perfection take time.

“I do not wish to share a simulation with you. It is a private time for me,” Bell said.

“Yeah, banging battle queens, right?” Maya grinned as Bell scowled.

“It is interesting,” Nanaseto replied, breaking the ensuing silence. The horned doctor seemed to glide across the carpeted floor as she walked. She had feet, but her stride was short and quick, reptilian in its movements. Maya hadn’t seen the holographic doctor in full daylight or in what amounted to a physical presence, so it was a bit odd for her to watch as the doctor sat down in a chair and it gave a squeak.

The fourth figure in the room gave Maya pause.

Whereas Nanaseto was programmed with a form that the species she represented would find comforting and somewhat attractive, Tender had no such programming. His first form had been a large mottled yellow and white being, but then after Turrethead’s destruction of that body; he had taken the ramming AI’s form, which was a puck shaped spider-like creature. But in the simulated world the choice of his avatar had been up to him.

Maya didn’t know if she should be creeped out or flattered. The rogue AI had chosen an avatar that was an altered copy of Maya. She had been a little horrified when they had taken the VR system for a test drive. Tender could access the system as he had a technician’s override from the pub.

“The simulated world ain’t big enough for two of us,” Maya had declared when she saw the mirror image walking up to her. “How the heck can you do that anyway?”

“Nanaseto provided the molecular scans of your body,” Tender replied. In her voice.

“Seriously. Does no one care about privacy?” Maya demanded.

“Is this causing you distress, boss?” Tender asked.

“A little bit, but I’m more pissed with Nan.”

“I will revert to a default image,” Tender said.

“No. It’s fine. You do you, Tender… uh.. just do less me, if you would.”

As Tender didn’t know much about human physiology and Maya always hated the character creation aspect of games they bumbled through settings until Maya finally gave up and used a modified appearance based on her own body.

Tender walked into the room, he was a thin and wiry male with carmel colored skin and short hair. The avatar was a male version of what she would look like and Maya was a bit disturbed that it looked a lot like Pops had in old photos. Instead of Pops’ slightly crooked teeth and large canines, Tender sported straight and brilliant white teeth.

Bell looked at Tender and snorted in derision.

“Easy there, bud. No one laughs when they see you. Well, not anymore,” Maya said.

“Your over protectiveness of this AI is bordering on concerning,” Bell said. “It is neither a child nor your mate.”

“What you don’t have the concept of friends in your world?” Maya demanded. “That’s a narrow view of the world, distilling everything down into fuckable or relative.”

Bell blushed a dark blue, which Maya found interesting. The headset they were all plugged into was advanced enough to interpret their emotions and then translate it into the simulated world.

Tender explained that the VR setup was a full dive unit, which basically disconnected her brain from her body and sent it off into a simulated paradise.

She and Tender had spent hours wandering through the pre-programed sims that Tommoth had offered for his patrons. They were, as she expected, very pornographic and disturbing. It seemed indulging in vices in a world with no consequences was a dream shared by many SIL across the multiverse.

She had been so mesmerized that she had spent far longer than the hour she had allotted on the test dive. One hour had turned into eight as they jumped from one simulation to another, wandering across alien worlds and looking down upon megacities that spanned whole continents.

The second shock came when she logged out and discovered that an hour hadn’t even passed yet.

“Ah, I had forgotten,” Tender had said, his head bobbing in what she could only call embarrassment. “There is an option that allows you to adjust the time dilation experienced within the simulation. The VR setup allows one to experience time at ten times the speed of the outside world.”

“Holy shit, you mean I could spend a whole day inside and only two hours would have passed out here?” Maya gasped.

“Yes.”

“How was it?” Bell asked.

“Fucking awesome,” she grinned. “I could feel everything and smell and…” She shook her head, looking around and suddenly feeling the weight of the semi dark room they were sitting in; verything looked drab and dull. “Yeah. I can see why this would be addicting.”

Maya had read too many speculative fiction books about the horrors of simulated realities to be dragged into the joy of a dream.

“Dreaming won’t get you anywhere, working will,” Pops used to say.

Maya loudly cleared her throat. “We’re here to discuss current projects and expected completion times,” she said in her best business voice. “It’s been a busy week. I figured we all should touch base and discuss upcoming projects and ensure we’re all on the same page. Synergy. Think outside the box.” No one reacted to the words. “Tough crowd.”

“You woke me for this?” Bell demanded.

“Grumpy,” Maya replied. “Hey, I told y’all that a meeting was gonna happen the last thirty minutes left on my therapy. Plus a high leveled Alchemist like you doesn’t need more than three hours of sleep.”

There was only silence at the table.

“Alright. I’ll go first,” Maya sighed. “As you know, this whole mana channel therapy is consuming five hours out of my day. But I haven’t just been banging silicon battle queens from the Tanevaleen Sector all day; instead Tender and I have been jail breaking the VR system.”

Maya waved her hand and the Hanganathorie floated above the table before them. It wasn’t a representation of the ship currently, but how it appeared when first launched. She snapped her fingers and the ship changed to its current appearance.

“A couple of days ago, dang feels like weeks ago, we found out there’s a couple of GNB125B’s minions still running around. They’re brain dead little rats, but they’re a nuisance. Anyway, Bell and Tender managed to capture two of the little shits. From there Tender and I managed to hack its little rat brain and Tender got some mobile eyes to rummage around the ship. Take it from there, Tender.”

“Thank you, boss,” Tender’s new voice was melodious and deep. He had taken a liking to it and now used it to communicate with her in the real world. “I have been using my new minions to map and survey the rest of the ship.” The image of the ship rotated and zoomed in, showing digital representations of the two rats scurrying through the ship. Where they went, a small cone of green light followed, and the areas they mapped were marked in green also. “Upon further dissection of Rogue AI GNB125B, we were able to salvage many different intact components.”

A rack of rogue AI components rose up beside the image of the ship. Rogue AI components were originally copies of System Tech components, but through tinkering by rogue AIs the designs had bocome more ‘organic’ and less engineered. Some would say Rogue AI tech wasn’t as good as System Tech, but on sheer versatility, nothing beat AI tech. Also, from a purely visual aspect System Tech crystals were translucent white, whereas rogue AI crystals were red and cloudy.

“This is an molecular scanner. It produces high detailed scans. A standard sensor package for rogue AIs as they need it to determine what components to loot. We have been using a modified version, higher powered and more stable to begin scanning all important areas and determining how badly the components within each machine have been damaged overtime.

“Air, humidity, ambient radiation are all as damaging as mana. We have also been using that data to create a full simulation of the ship.” Tender waved his hand and the conference room setting vanished and they were floating through an enlarged version of the Hanganathorie’s dark corridors. The realistic sight of the pitted and dark corridor was overlaid with a wireframe, highlighting the various machinery and equipment.

“We set up a color code,” Maya added. “Red for damaged and green for good to go. Then we triaged that down into ‘needs some work’, ‘needs a lot of work’, and finally scrap.”

The highlighted machinery were adjusted to show the colors. Everything was covered in various shades of red. With a few greens scattered throughout.

“The rogue AIs who inhabited the ship have salvaged most of the higher Tiered materials. There were reinforced areas, the battery storage rooms, that were not stripped and others like the medical room that were ignored. If the intention is to launch this ship again, I’m afraid that it will be impossible,” Tender said.

“This ship managed to travel into a dimensional instability,” Bell said. “Surely, it can create another instability we can travel through.”

“The data and engineering details on what was used to bring the ship to this place are unfortunately hidden away behind Tier 2 locks,” Nanaseto replied. She had taken the job of digging through what information was left in her data banks and those storage devices they had found. “The salvage rights that Maya obtained for the ship do not extend to Tier 2 locks.”

“Which is a crock of shit,” Maya muttered. That information had been a slap to her face. She had won the ship fair and square, but apparently her [Salvager] ability was too low to be granted anything above Tier 1. “We can’t even figure out where the other AIs are too.”

“Yes,” Nanaseto said. “The ship’s security locks have hidden the information and refuse to yield their locations.”

“Just what we need. More AIs,” Bell muttered.

“So, to summarize. We’ve got some roaming eyes around the ship, we’ve been mapping it for all the salvageable pieces, Nan’s been rooting through all the data we’ve found, and the ship is irreparable. We can get systems up and running, we can rebuild some of it, but its never going to fly and its never going to take us home.” Maya said, letting a little emotion into her voice. “It’s just a massive mana core filled with garbage that can be salvaged and refurbished into working machinery. For our long term survival.”

“That core’s a real problem too,” Bell said moodily. “You were gone less than two weeks and already another rogue AI had taken over. We’ve been here for nearly that same amount of time and its only a matter of time before we see them snooping around.”

“Stop jinxing it,” Maya rapped her knuckles on the table and then summoned a salt shaker and tossed it over her shoulder.

“We’ve been lax on the security,” Bell said. “I also take blame for that. My time has been spent trying to establish the algae in its new location. It has been far more difficult than I realized.”

“Yeah, I don’t know how you do it.”

“Channeling mana,” Bell said. Maya raised her middle finger at him. “As of today, I can say that the algae-“

“Junior.”

“The algae has stabilized and now is fully blooming. “ Bell grinned. “I have gained levels in [Gardener]. I have gained the ability [Farmer] and [Unconventional Farmer] and the Skill Algae Sense.” His voice oozed with pride.

“Holy crap. I didn’t know you got that much,” Maya said excited. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

Bell shrugged. “A person’s levels are a person’s business,” he said.

Maya clapped her hands and a small cake appeared before Bell. The cake’s top popped open in a shower of confetti and a small figure rose from it; a six armed insect figure began gyrating and stripping off buckles across her body.

Bell glared at her. “You spent time and energy and thought to create this?” He gestured at the still dancing figure.

“It’s called a pop-out cake and its a tradition among humans with a long history,” Maya said, her lips twitching. She waved away the cake and cleared her expression. “So when can we dine on sweet, succulent Junior?”

“We can harvest today, if we need to,” Bell said. “I have the Clean Harvest skill that will allow thirty percent of its biomass to be extracted without harming the algae. That comes out to be about twenty two kilograms.”

“Can we make more Junior pools?” Maya asked.

“Yes. Now that the algae has stabilized and adapted to its new environment, we can begin seeding more ponds. As you cannot channel mana, any additional expansion will require that I do it.”

“Yeah and I really wanted to wade around under burning red lights. Sucks to be me,” Maya muttered.

“Any expansion, though, will have to be done in the main mana core room,” Bell said.

“Whoa, why’s that? Won’t the mana mess up Junior clones?”

“I’ve stated that the algae can be used to make low grade bases for potions. The mana trace on the algae isn’t that strong, but I believe that we can begin modifying it to become something we can use. There is an ability called [Mana Modified Organism] that allows one to shape the mana mutation of a biological organism.”

“We are already short on power,” Tender said. “I believe we will have to begin finding a method to reconnect the main mana core.”

“The rogue AIs had a real party down in engineering,” Maya said. “Damn near everything was ripped out. The power conduits, relays, and even wiring have all been stripped and repurposed. Plus the unshielded core ain’t doing us any favors.”

“I would suggest the continued refurbishing of mana batteries,” Nanaseto piped up. “Although the batteries are degraded, there are a few ambient mana condensers that were not looted by the rogue AIs. If they are installed in the mana core room, they will be able to absorb the energy coming off the core and slowly recharge the mana batteries.”

“Ah, yes. The mana core that exists in my current form acts in the same manner,” Tender replied. “I have a condenser that takes ambient mana and stores it within mana batteries. I had not considered that.”

“You are only a low grade rogue AI processor, after all,” Nanaseto replied.

“Yet, I have still accomplished more than your high grade AI core,” Tender said.

“Easy there, kids. No personal attacks at the dinner table.” Maya warned. The two AIs glared at one another and remained quiet. Bell glared at everyone and folded two of his arms. “Yeesh, we need some company getaways and trust falls real soon.” Maya cleared her throat and brought up a virtual machine. It was a box with two robotic arms attached to it. “This is going to be Tender and I’s next project. I’m calling it the Builder Box Deluxe.” Maya grinned, but no one responded to the name. She sighed again. “With time dilation I can spend up to two days, subjective, in this VR sim every time I need to do therapy. I could just sleep or whatever, but time is money and as Bell’s just stated, we’re in a dangerous situation. What Tender and I have been doing is creating a building program based on scans and molecular readings of real world items on the ship. With Nan’s help we’re making an inventory, scanning the parts of machines, and uploading all that information into the VR sim.”

“You intend to build within the VR system and export it out into the real world?” Bell asked. He looked uncomfortable.

“Problems?”

“Yes, well. I see what you are attempting, but it will not lead to growth in your abilities or skills,” he finally said.

“Well, I can’t channel mana and from what I can see, ability levels are knowledge based. If you have the knowledge and do it, then you’ll gain the levels.” Maya replied.

“It doesn’t work that way,” Bell said. “You need to physically do it, not use a machine as a surrogate. This VR system is like a dream, you’re not actually doing it even if you’re gaining knowledge. The System only awards you if you’re doing it yourself; in the real world, not dreaming of it. Otherwise every SIL would be overly powered from their dreams alone.”

“The Builder Box is more of a workaround. We’ve been having trouble breaking some of the code to just program the boxes from inside the sim, but we can record everything I do in the sim and export those movements out into the Builder Box. I’ll still be shifting and sorting the mana batteries, but the real world work will be done by the box. The rogue AIs did a number to the manufacturing module, sadly it might not be usable to make System Tech components, but luckily we have a high grade, Tier 1 ship to dismantle.”

“I estimate about seventy five percent of the current components will still be functional for hundreds of more years,” Nan said.

“Instead of building, we’ll be recyclers,” Maya said. “Everyone has been dwelling too much on mana channelers, I’m sure that’s a real threat on your worlds, but not here. We’ve got hardly anything living here, no SIL to channel mana, but we do have a butt load of rogue AIs. They’re the threat and we don’t need to channel mana to kick their asses.

“Even if I won’t be gaining levels in Abilities, I’ll still be gaining plenty of knowledge. Also this builder box will be made from the salvaged rogue AI parts. We can’t make System Tech with Rogue Tech, but we can assemble it. There’s no law against that, hopefully. If it works right, then we can make System Tech builder boxes, which means we’ll be able to sort through all the mana batteries faster, re-build items quicker, and all that good stuff.”

“I’m not thrilled about this,” Bell said.

“I must agree,” Nan added. “The use of ‘Rogue Tech’ can lead to many unfortunate accidents, namely rogue AIs.”

“I will be overseeing these builder boxes,” Tender said.

“I redouble my concern,” Nan said.

“This is all a workaround anyway. We don’t have a manufacturing module, we don’t have blueprints, but we have the parts. If we could make a manufacturing module and program it to build, then I would. Hell, if I could get Tender to do all of this on his own, I’d shove the work on him. But his mitts are too big and we ain’t savvy enough to attach more nimble digits to him. But using the other rogue AIs we’ve killed as a base for the box, recording my movements in the VR sim, and then making it copy those movements is the best we can. It’s overly complicated and inefficient, but that’s just the way I roll.

“Plus it can’t go Skynet on us. The box barely has a brain and Tender will be streaming all the data to it.”

“As long as its in a secure room,” Bell grumbled.

“Yeah. We’re gonna have to shove it somewhere that nothing can disturb it anyway. It will be copying my movements, if anything changes in the room, it’ll be missing pieces and screwing things up. So a heavy scanned room and pieces that remain in one spot without being disturbed.”

“Overly complicated indeed,” Nanaseto remarked.

“We are attempting to modify some of the rogue AI code to give it proximity sensors and to halt its movements if anything is out of place,” Tender added.

Bell frowned again, but said nothing.

“Alright, any other news?” Maya asked.

“As the algae pon-“

“Junior.”

“As the algae pond has reached maturity, I have begun searching the external trash piles for any materials that I might be able to use. I have not practiced my alchemy in months, but being an [Alchemist] is not just the use of biological material, but also elemental material. A cursory glance through the local pile, I’ve already spotted some resources that can be used to make various alchemical bases and solutions.”

“Health potions? Mana potions?” Maya asked, hopefully.

“No. Those require various specialty bases. I believe we can begin producing some small amounts of explosives and even supplement our biomass resources.”

“There’s biomass in them thar hills?” Maya asked. Then she paused and thought about the giant alien that she had robbed. But that being hadn’t been a fleshy type, instead it had felt like metal or stone.

“You realize that machinery wasn’t the only thing brought through,” Bell said. “Plants, animals, and other biological entities were also brought to this place, but as they died, their bodies suffered some kind of cellular collapse that turned them into nothing but bones or base elements in a matter of weeks.”

“It’s called rotting,” Maya remarked.

Bell sighed. “No. This is not the normal rate of decay I would expect. As everything on the bodies that was brought over was dead, that included the bacteria that would begin the process of decomposition. Yet even without those bacteria, the rate of decay was greatly accelerated.”

Maya raised an eyebrow at that. “A product of this screwed up place?” Maya asked.

“Perhaps. With the medical AI’s help, I would like to analyze the materials that I have found in the trash piles, even the dirt around here is strange,” Bell said.

“What’s up with the dirt?”

Bell shrugged. “I don’t know. It doesn’t feel right,” he said.

“Well, it’s the rainbow sky hellscape. Nothing around here is even halfway normal, even the damn dirt,” Maya said. “You can analyze this stuff, Nan? If Bell brings you back samples?”

“Yes, I can. Recently I have also rediscovered my mobile medical platform,” Nan said. She raised a hand and an image appeared before them. It was a dull red box that was about two feet tall and had four small legs at the bottom of it. Nanaseto moved her hands again and the box opened up to reveal half a dozen thin arms that extended and moved around, along with a blue glowing orb that was an eye. “It is a short ranged device that can be tied into the signal boosters you’ve already installed. It will allow me a range up to two kilometers from my main AI core. Systems on board include wide spectrum testing, chemical analysis, and low grade healing.”

“Is it fully functional?” Maya asked, leaning forward and eyeing the machine.

“I have only recently accessed some of my periphery devices and discovered it. From the diagnostics I’ve run, it is in working order, although the need to top off biomass and other chemicals is required. The mana battery will also have to be checked.”

“Awesome. Mobile Doctor Nan.” Maya grinned. “It’s remote control, you can’t download yourself into it?”

“The processor installed within is too low for me to fully transfer over,” Nan replied. “I can only connect and pilot it. Also the mana battery is not powerful enough to run my AI core.”

“Well, at least we can have you around the ship if we need some healing,” Maya grinned. She looked around the table. “Anything else.”

There was silence at the question.

“Well, I guess this is an end to the first Sullivan Survival Society meeting,” Maya said. “Let’s all have a good and productive day. A productive worker is a happy worker.”

“I am not in your employ,” Bell grumbled.

“But I’m feeding and housing you. Even more importantly, I’m giving you my friendship,” Maya smiled. Bell grunted and rose from his seat.

“I don’t-“

A screeching noise filled the simulation.

Tender jumped to his feet and a large window appeared before them. On it was an external display of the Hanganathorie, one of the rats was on watch as they were in their meeting. Maya didn’t know why it was being displayed, but after a moment she watched as a dozen legged creature slowly move into view.

As they were overclocking at ten times normal real world time, Maya watched as the creature moved in slow motion.

“We’ve got visitors,” Maya sighed.

“I knew this would happen,” Bell cursed. “We should have prepared defenses earlier.”

“Spilled milk and bolting horses,” Maya rose to her feet. “We’re all in agreement that Bell caused this mess by saying that rogue AIs would attack soon?”

“Yes,” Nan and Tender replied.

“Excellent. Meeting adjourned.”