Scorpius 23, m0039, continued
As the team's vehicle approaches the Zeus Tourist Resort, it becomes clear from Web traffic that the press have picked up on both their presence and that of Giovanna D'Aquila, the first survivor of the airship crash to return to civilisation. They promptly offer her assistance in dealing with what will follow - that's their job, after all - and she accepts the offer. She's evidently smart enough to be careful about what she says, and the team help her to prepare a response to the obvious first questions ("I cannot say very much while the investigation is still underway..."), and work up a press release to appear over her name. They also offer to see her back to the hotel room which her wearable has already chosen for her, and she accepts that offer too. Her wearable is also already handling matters such as getting some of her possessions out of storage while her luggage on the airship is being identified, extracted, and flown back. The team are being cautious enough that everything that arrives for her will be scanned for bugs...
When the rover reaches the airlock and the travellers disembark, they discover a couple of enterprising reporters already waiting. Both Jianwei's and Florence's instincts for practical tactics desert them, and the group is brought to a halt by the importunate reporters. However, Giovanna keeps her head and remains bland, and Jianwei does some smooth talking, giving the others a chance to get away
However, as the group is entering the lobby of Giovanna's hotel (her personal AI automatically checking her in), Vajra's cybershell suddenly locks up and falls over. The other two team members move quickly to assist, trying to determine what has happened; Aunty establishes contact with Samadhi, first carefully validating his ID codes, and Samadhi reports that Vajra is still running on the shell's systems, but isn't responding at all to external stimuli. Jianwei invokes his director status with the company that nominally "owns" Vajra for legal purposes in some jurisdictions to authorise Samadhi to take control of the cybershell. Once Samadhi has the shell back on its feet, if a little unsteadily, the group quickly heads up to Giovanna's room for privacy as they run more basic checks. First, though, Jianwei borrows Vajra's electronic gear and sweeps the room for surveillance devices, finding nothing. After a short while, with no signs of Vajra returning to "consciousness", they ask Giovanna (who's understandably a little perturbed by this turn of events) not to discuss it with anyone, and head back toward their own rooms.
On the way, they contact Quentin at the embassy, first reporting their successes, then describing what has happened to Vajra. Quentin "talks" to Samadhi, then leaves him to walk the shell home. Quentin is evidently perturbed by this turn of events, but has no idea yet of its causes. Aunty is monitoring the technical news channels for any evidence of anything similar, but nothing has shown up, so Jianwei calls the Emergency Response Service, and leaves a message, and after a few minutes, Captain Brooks-Carter calls back. He notes their concern, but this seems to be an isolated incident at present; he comments that it may well remain so, as far as he can tell - he understands that Vajra is a rather non-standard sort of AI...
Quentin too gets back in touch; he's been probing Vajra's systems, and his conclusion is that Vajra's low-level processes are, essentially, looping. What they're processing remains unclear - he's not taking any large data input streams - but this has evidently locked up his higher personality functions. ("Oh my God, he's garbage collecting!" someone mutters.) It's quite possible he'll come back on line when this process is complete, so there's no question of restoring him from backup yet.
The team get back to their own rooms, Samadhi lies the cybershell body down, and the team plugs him into a high-speed fibre-optic port while Quentin gets in touch with some experts. As there's little they can do themselves, the two organic beings decide that, rather than ordering dinner in, they might as well go and get the feel of what pass for streets in this place. So they head out to a restaurant and bar to do some listening.
There's only so much to listen to, in fact - perhaps the most interesting thing they hear during the evening is a news report on the Web, which suggests that Peng Chiang-Kwan was put in nanostasis as soon as the rescue teams reached the crash site, but that was longer than anyone would like, and now a lot of specialist human doctors, AI experts, and advanced cybershells are being mustered to attempts a prolonged and careful uploading exercise on him; it'll be a while before its success or otherwise becomes clear. There are no reports of misbehaving AIs.
Then, in the bar, the pair are approached by a well-dressed man, ethnic Chinese in appearance, who identifies himself as Kai Ssung-So, the insurance company agent. He's blandly polite, and still seems to be looking to exchange information quite openly; he seems convinced - or determined to convey the belief - that software problems are the key to this mystery. Smooth as he is, Jianwei senses that he's seriously worried about something. Meanwhile, Florence remains reticent, just reining in her distaste for anyone Triad-connected - and noting that Ssung-So is accompanied at a distance of a few yards by another man, also Chinese to go by his features, well-built and self-contained - not exactly a disguised bodyguard...
As the pair are returning to their hotel, they take another call from Captain Brooks-Carter. His own people have been looking at the airship tour company's computer systems, and they think that someone has been tinkering with the logging components. They believe that there's something highly capable loose on the local Web, and he reckons that the Europeans might want to know that. In response, Florence mentions that there may be Triad agents currently operating in the resort; the captain takes a note of that, but isn't immediately concerned - detecting a Triad presence somewhere on Mars is rarely news.
Back at their rooms, the pair talk to Quentin again. He notes that one problem in trying to diagnose software problems with Vajra is his status as, well, probably a former TSA military asset; he's hardly well-documented. But Quentin and his advisers are convinced that Vajra is in that shell somewhere; hopefully, the loop will eventually terminate. They're bemused, though, and worried. Still, all the biosapients can do for now is get some sleep, leaving Dougal and Aunty to learn how to play Robo Rally. Before they settle in, they do get some assurances from Quentin that, if Vajra awakens in "kill the squishy things" mode, he'll warn them, or something.
Scorpius 24, m0039
Jianwei wakes first, and reviews the news channels over breakfast. As a trained memeticist, he concludes that this whole incident is maybe being exploited to raise general fear-uncertainty-doubt levels across the planet. He looks deeper, but if his first guess is right, this is a well-engineered campaign, and not easily traced. He mentions the theory to Florence when she wakes, and they wonder who could be responsible - Negative Growth or other such preservationists might have an interest in spreading such memes, as might the various Martian Independence groups; it's certainly a challenge to the current power structures.
As they finish breakfast, another call comes in from Captain Brooks-Carter. By then, Jianwei has assembled a quick presentation analysing this possible campaign, and he takes the opportunity to pass it over; the Captain in his turn says that he has been asking questions, and he believes that the team may have a point about the Triads; his own team's best guess is that they were looking to muscle in on the tour company, although nobody is admitting anything. But this doesn't explain the airship crash; reducing share values and intimidating managers would be one thing, but destroying the company's image and profitability would surely just be foolish and inefficient.
Then, in Florence's room, another voice speaks.
"Where am I?"
Showing posts with label Rover. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rover. Show all posts
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
On Site and Back Again
Scorpius 22, m0039, continued
Along with civilian-model vacc suits, the team have hired a heavy rover, which is now available to them - although they do spend a few moments discussing whether they need to head out to the crash site. It's a couple of hundred miles from the Zeus Resort - they should be able to make the run inside a day, if it looks like good use of their time. The rover really is the only option; at this altitude, the only flying vehicles capable of operating and of landing in the wilderness are a few specialised, fuel-hungry, and expensive vectored-thrust flyers with very little carrying capacity.
So they review more data. Quentin has now pulled some strings and acquired some imagery of the incident from weather satellites; it's not great for resolution, but it's usable. It shows the Zeppelin's gasbag failing - perhaps quite rapidly - and a descent that looks, at least to a trained pilot like Florence, to be fairly controlled at first, but with rapidly increasing instability. However, Florence can't say much for certain; she's not qualified on airships.
Jianwei decides that a personal visit to the Emergency Response Team's HQ is in order, and the rest of the team might as well come along. He talks his way quickly past the receptionist - avoiding "crank" or "time-waster" tags on support NAI displays really isn't very hard - and gains a brief interview with Captain Brooks-Carter, who is polite, though clearly busily engaged with multiple VR displays even while he's talking to them. Jianwei says that the team would like to visit the crash site, and while the Captain is a little cautious about the possibility of them getting underfoot, he doesn't ask them to refrain. They offer to transport any small items that might be useful on the site; while the Captain doesn't come up with much, he does say that they might take a shipping box of additional rescue gear.
So the team set out. Samadhi plots a route and Florence drives (breaking for lunch on a relatively flat stretch where she trusts the supplied vehicle NAI to manage safely enough). Meanwhile, Jianwei mostly naps, and Vajra and the team's support AIs collect and collate information on the crash as it appears on the Web. It seems that there were ten organic beings on the airship: the three European citizens, two Chinese tourists - Peng Chiang-Kwan, now reported deceased in the crash, and Teng Sui-P'ing - three American citizen passengers - Alan Becovani, a resident of Mars, and Sarah Louise-Smith and Ira Solway-Cortez, both up from Earth - and two crew with Nix Olympica citizenship - Carl Davidson, the captain/pilot, and Eugene Marquez, the steward.
After a few hours, the rover is approaching the crash site, and Jianwei wakes up and begins checking local data feeds and streams. He calls the E.U. citizens, who are still here receiving medical attention; they are still recovering from the stress of the accident, but are currently feeling relatively comfortable, with no immediate special requirements.Actually, it soon turns out that the medical personnel on site feel that it's about time to transfer the crash survivors to better, static, medical facilities; the ambulance rovers will be leaving shortly - before the team have actually quite reached the site, in fact.
Still, the team do reach the site, hand off the case of rescue gear to a robot which says a polite thank-you, then start moving around the area, avoiding getting in anyone's way while taking visual images from multiple viewpoints for future reference and recording all the v-tags that they can identify. After a while, when they pause a couple of medical personnel and another rescue worker wander over for a chat and to accept the team's open offer of tea. This lets the team pick up some more knowledgeable gossip about the crash; it seems that everyone involved is finding the details a little odd. Eventually, the team ask if they can give anyone from the rescue teams a lift back to civilisation, and some of the techs consider this.
After a while longer, a call comes in via satellite relay. The caller identifies himself as Kai Ssung-So, an agent of the insurance company which was providing medical cover for the Chinese passengers on the airship. He seems smoothly courteous; the team get the impression from various details that there may be another person present and monitoring the call at his end, but can't pick up any other details. Ssung-So too has an obvious interest in the incident, and understands that the team is picking up independent information; he would appreciate access to anything which they are prepared to release. He is evidently far too sophisticated to offer payment, but he can promise future favours, should anything the E.U. embassy need fall within his capacity...
Jianwei, knowing the value of favours on Mars, takes the time to contact Ambassador Schmidt, obtains clearance, and agrees to Ssung-So's request. He'll be sending checked and, where necessary, edited information, of course, but Ssung-So is smoothly grateful.
Although the site is currently being illuminated by an orbital mirror or two, sunset is still noticeable, and the team feel that they've done what they can for the day, and settle down in their vehicle for the night.
Scorpius 23, m0039
Waking and rising fairly early, the Europeans set out. The injured tourists have been taken to a scientific station with good medical facilities about half-way back to Nix Olympica, a little way off the direct route, and the team have decided to detour that way to check how things stand; two of the rescue team decide to accept a lift there. As Florence drives a little too fast over the rocky ground (but recovers from her mistakes quickly enough to avoid accidents) and everyone talks to the two techs about what they saw at the site, Vajra receives an anonymous Web message, suggesting that he might like to check the ownership of that Chinese insurance company, or its agent's past employment records. With little else to do with their time for an hour or two, the team quietly take up the suggestion, digging through financial records and personal pages on the Web.
These don't turn up any obvious dirt, but the company's ownership is dispersed and only lightly documented. There's no proof, but on Mars, this kind of paper trail might well hint at Triad ownership or strong Triad influence. As for Ssung-So - his consultancy work has involved a number of companies, all culturally Chinese, but is only lightly defined - and the companies are almost all in the import-export business, which hints at Triad smuggling operations. Is he somebody the Triads might want to use as a consultant whenever possible, for some reason? Or could he actually be some kind of Triad troubleshooter? And who might have sent this tip-off, if he is?
Florence, who doesn't like the Triads at all, is muttering under her breath.
The team stop for lunch at the medical facility, where their passengers leave them with polite thanks. They've determined that Mahler and Melk are happiest to stay there for now - Melk seems not to want to travel too much yet, and there's no good reason for her husband to leave her - but Giovanna D'Aquila would like to get back to civilisation and has been well patched up. As they have spare space in their rover and are supposed to be offering what help they can to E.U. citizens, the team are more than happy to give her a lift. Indeed, this gives them a good chance to chat with her about the crash, and she's happy to cooperate and to give them access to her wearable's recordings of the period in question.
Apparently, she had recently retired for the night when the airship's emergency alarms sounded, and within seconds she, the other passengers, and the steward were following the standard emergency procedures which were being quoted at them by their AIs, including suiting up for vacuum, while the pilot attempted to manage things from the control compartment. To judge by the mounting verbal responses from there, the airship's behaviour degraded progressively and unexpectedly as it went down, until it hit the Martian surface painfully hard. As the team had already gathered from other sources, Peng Chiang-Kwan was simply horribly unlucky, getting in the way of a shattering structural member during the impact; it apparently punctured his suit and his torso. Whether the medical services can restore him, as an organic individual or as software, remains to be seen.
The team take another look at technical issues. The pilot blew the second, undamaged gasbag immediately after impact, very correctly; could the mechanism intended for that purpose on the first gasbag somehow have been triggered? After all, that would reduce the entire incident to a single cause - massive software malfunction, possibly malicious. (Although it would have to be an implausibly broad failure that both blew a gasbag and scrambled the airship guidance controls.) Unfortunately, everything says that the emergency gas release mechanism really shouldn't be that easy to trigger. Anyway, software sabotage that blew one gasbag could surely almost as easily blow both, producing a more guaranteed catastrophe that would be easier to pass off as an accident than this pair of problems without a close connection...
Meanwhile, Florence has engineered a detour for the rover. She hasn't seen the edge of the Olympica escarpment before, and it's not far out of their way. Unfortunately, the team's AIs do an unusually poor job of route planning, and Florence finds that she's having to compensate for a twenty-degree slope for some distance. Fortunately, her skills are up to the task.
Along with civilian-model vacc suits, the team have hired a heavy rover, which is now available to them - although they do spend a few moments discussing whether they need to head out to the crash site. It's a couple of hundred miles from the Zeus Resort - they should be able to make the run inside a day, if it looks like good use of their time. The rover really is the only option; at this altitude, the only flying vehicles capable of operating and of landing in the wilderness are a few specialised, fuel-hungry, and expensive vectored-thrust flyers with very little carrying capacity.
So they review more data. Quentin has now pulled some strings and acquired some imagery of the incident from weather satellites; it's not great for resolution, but it's usable. It shows the Zeppelin's gasbag failing - perhaps quite rapidly - and a descent that looks, at least to a trained pilot like Florence, to be fairly controlled at first, but with rapidly increasing instability. However, Florence can't say much for certain; she's not qualified on airships.
Jianwei decides that a personal visit to the Emergency Response Team's HQ is in order, and the rest of the team might as well come along. He talks his way quickly past the receptionist - avoiding "crank" or "time-waster" tags on support NAI displays really isn't very hard - and gains a brief interview with Captain Brooks-Carter, who is polite, though clearly busily engaged with multiple VR displays even while he's talking to them. Jianwei says that the team would like to visit the crash site, and while the Captain is a little cautious about the possibility of them getting underfoot, he doesn't ask them to refrain. They offer to transport any small items that might be useful on the site; while the Captain doesn't come up with much, he does say that they might take a shipping box of additional rescue gear.
So the team set out. Samadhi plots a route and Florence drives (breaking for lunch on a relatively flat stretch where she trusts the supplied vehicle NAI to manage safely enough). Meanwhile, Jianwei mostly naps, and Vajra and the team's support AIs collect and collate information on the crash as it appears on the Web. It seems that there were ten organic beings on the airship: the three European citizens, two Chinese tourists - Peng Chiang-Kwan, now reported deceased in the crash, and Teng Sui-P'ing - three American citizen passengers - Alan Becovani, a resident of Mars, and Sarah Louise-Smith and Ira Solway-Cortez, both up from Earth - and two crew with Nix Olympica citizenship - Carl Davidson, the captain/pilot, and Eugene Marquez, the steward.
After a few hours, the rover is approaching the crash site, and Jianwei wakes up and begins checking local data feeds and streams. He calls the E.U. citizens, who are still here receiving medical attention; they are still recovering from the stress of the accident, but are currently feeling relatively comfortable, with no immediate special requirements.Actually, it soon turns out that the medical personnel on site feel that it's about time to transfer the crash survivors to better, static, medical facilities; the ambulance rovers will be leaving shortly - before the team have actually quite reached the site, in fact.
Still, the team do reach the site, hand off the case of rescue gear to a robot which says a polite thank-you, then start moving around the area, avoiding getting in anyone's way while taking visual images from multiple viewpoints for future reference and recording all the v-tags that they can identify. After a while, when they pause a couple of medical personnel and another rescue worker wander over for a chat and to accept the team's open offer of tea. This lets the team pick up some more knowledgeable gossip about the crash; it seems that everyone involved is finding the details a little odd. Eventually, the team ask if they can give anyone from the rescue teams a lift back to civilisation, and some of the techs consider this.
After a while longer, a call comes in via satellite relay. The caller identifies himself as Kai Ssung-So, an agent of the insurance company which was providing medical cover for the Chinese passengers on the airship. He seems smoothly courteous; the team get the impression from various details that there may be another person present and monitoring the call at his end, but can't pick up any other details. Ssung-So too has an obvious interest in the incident, and understands that the team is picking up independent information; he would appreciate access to anything which they are prepared to release. He is evidently far too sophisticated to offer payment, but he can promise future favours, should anything the E.U. embassy need fall within his capacity...
Jianwei, knowing the value of favours on Mars, takes the time to contact Ambassador Schmidt, obtains clearance, and agrees to Ssung-So's request. He'll be sending checked and, where necessary, edited information, of course, but Ssung-So is smoothly grateful.
Although the site is currently being illuminated by an orbital mirror or two, sunset is still noticeable, and the team feel that they've done what they can for the day, and settle down in their vehicle for the night.
Scorpius 23, m0039
Waking and rising fairly early, the Europeans set out. The injured tourists have been taken to a scientific station with good medical facilities about half-way back to Nix Olympica, a little way off the direct route, and the team have decided to detour that way to check how things stand; two of the rescue team decide to accept a lift there. As Florence drives a little too fast over the rocky ground (but recovers from her mistakes quickly enough to avoid accidents) and everyone talks to the two techs about what they saw at the site, Vajra receives an anonymous Web message, suggesting that he might like to check the ownership of that Chinese insurance company, or its agent's past employment records. With little else to do with their time for an hour or two, the team quietly take up the suggestion, digging through financial records and personal pages on the Web.
These don't turn up any obvious dirt, but the company's ownership is dispersed and only lightly documented. There's no proof, but on Mars, this kind of paper trail might well hint at Triad ownership or strong Triad influence. As for Ssung-So - his consultancy work has involved a number of companies, all culturally Chinese, but is only lightly defined - and the companies are almost all in the import-export business, which hints at Triad smuggling operations. Is he somebody the Triads might want to use as a consultant whenever possible, for some reason? Or could he actually be some kind of Triad troubleshooter? And who might have sent this tip-off, if he is?
Florence, who doesn't like the Triads at all, is muttering under her breath.
The team stop for lunch at the medical facility, where their passengers leave them with polite thanks. They've determined that Mahler and Melk are happiest to stay there for now - Melk seems not to want to travel too much yet, and there's no good reason for her husband to leave her - but Giovanna D'Aquila would like to get back to civilisation and has been well patched up. As they have spare space in their rover and are supposed to be offering what help they can to E.U. citizens, the team are more than happy to give her a lift. Indeed, this gives them a good chance to chat with her about the crash, and she's happy to cooperate and to give them access to her wearable's recordings of the period in question.
Apparently, she had recently retired for the night when the airship's emergency alarms sounded, and within seconds she, the other passengers, and the steward were following the standard emergency procedures which were being quoted at them by their AIs, including suiting up for vacuum, while the pilot attempted to manage things from the control compartment. To judge by the mounting verbal responses from there, the airship's behaviour degraded progressively and unexpectedly as it went down, until it hit the Martian surface painfully hard. As the team had already gathered from other sources, Peng Chiang-Kwan was simply horribly unlucky, getting in the way of a shattering structural member during the impact; it apparently punctured his suit and his torso. Whether the medical services can restore him, as an organic individual or as software, remains to be seen.
The team take another look at technical issues. The pilot blew the second, undamaged gasbag immediately after impact, very correctly; could the mechanism intended for that purpose on the first gasbag somehow have been triggered? After all, that would reduce the entire incident to a single cause - massive software malfunction, possibly malicious. (Although it would have to be an implausibly broad failure that both blew a gasbag and scrambled the airship guidance controls.) Unfortunately, everything says that the emergency gas release mechanism really shouldn't be that easy to trigger. Anyway, software sabotage that blew one gasbag could surely almost as easily blow both, producing a more guaranteed catastrophe that would be easier to pass off as an accident than this pair of problems without a close connection...
Meanwhile, Florence has engineered a detour for the rover. She hasn't seen the edge of the Olympica escarpment before, and it's not far out of their way. Unfortunately, the team's AIs do an unusually poor job of route planning, and Florence finds that she's having to compensate for a twenty-degree slope for some distance. Fortunately, her skills are up to the task.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Go Fetch Rover
March 28-Scorpius 2, m0039
The next couple of days are fairly quiet, giving the team a chance to review their various financial and practical positions. Actually, as they're collecting extended-hours and hardship-posting rates, the team have no significant financial problems; Florence (who's getting pretty good money for someone in her effective social situation) sees a chance to establish a secure financial and social position, while Jianwei is saving as he anticipates a year or two's sabbatical when he returns to Earth at the end of this assignment.
Scorpius 3, m0039
And then another call comes in, passing the non-sapient filters to arrive at Jianwei's virtual desk.
"Good morning," the caller says with the calm smoothness of an AI. "My name is Callisto-Capri. I act as local negotiator for the Granadine Partnership. We are a European corporate entity, so I have been advised to contact you about this matter."
"Uh, good morning. What can we help you with?"
"My dog appears to have gone missing. Local law enforcement is proving unwilling to assist very efficiently."
Jianwei blinks a little at that, but patches the other two into the conversation while he asks for more details. (Vajra is performing routine data management for the embassy; Florence is visiting a local school, playing the part of the friendly free European bioroid for the kids.) "How long has your dog been missing?"
"Just over two hours now..."
It does rapidly emerge that "Ferdinand", the dog in question, is a K-10A uplift - if nothing else, the pictures that Callisto-Capri provides show the distinctive slightly expanded skull structure. The team are a little bemused by this problem - and they can certainly imagine how Marshall Kirkowicz will have reacted if Callisto-Capri called her first - but it does seem to be a legitimate worry. The Granadine Partnership, it emerges, is a Europe-wide association of design consultancies which does enough business on Mars (in the form of numerous small contracts) to justify maintaining a presence here. Callisto-Capri handles negotiations, aided by an assortment of non-sapient software, while Ferdinand acts as a porter and "physical representative". It might seem more sensible for Callisto-Capri to rent cybershells as necessary, but Jianwei and Vajra recognise some pretty routine memetic finesse here, especially when they get hold of the company's Web brochure, and perform a quick and cynical analysis. By employing an organic being as part of their team, the Partnership projects an image of sympathy for organic needs and concerns - doubtless essential for a consultancy specialising in ergonomic design issues. On the other hand, Ferdinand was produced locally (with Mars adaptations built in from the embryo stage); he's a cheap organic employee. Florence swears that Dougal is muttering about Ferdinand's job being to look cute and get scratched behind the ears...
Jianwei is feeling a little unsure about the status of this problem - but then, thinking about the legal situation of uplifts, he mentally classifies this as akin to a missing child case. Well, it might work like that, or a theft... It does seem to merit some attention.
Ferdinand may not be a full citizen by EU law or that of many other jurisdictions active on Mars, but as Granadine's only organic employee on the planet, and an individual with many individual rights under EU law and convention, he does have a small apartment of his own in one of the accommodation blocks scattered around the city - and that was where he was last seen. He apparently left as he would for work that morning, but then dropped out of contact. The team start looking for accessible cameras that might allow his movements to be traced - with only limited success - and Jianwei cross-examines Callisto-Capri about its knowledge of various relevant topics. The AI denies any knowledge of business rivals who might have any likely motive for stealing/kidnapping or attacking Ferdinand - Granadine really aren't in that sort of business. When it comes to questions about the dog's social life and acquaintances, though, it rapidly becomes clear that the AI has a typical low-sapient level of emotional cluelessness. It claims to think of itself as Ferdinand's friend, while not being very sure about his off-duty activities, friendships, or interests.
Anyway, camera records from Ferdinand's apartment block do show him setting out that morning, alone, and a quick cross-check of time stamps suggests that he went off-line at about that time. He has a wearable AI aide, of course, but it's non-sapient; he can probably order it to cut communications with little difficulty. Poking around his financial records, which Callisto-Capri, as his de facto guardian, can access and provide, suggests that his main hobby is participation in a quasi-Neolithic virtual world. In fact, he plays the part of a dire wolf there. So do a lot of humans, mind, and he seems to have some casual friends in his pack; judging by the conversations on the game's associated discussion group, they may or may not know his real-world nature.
A little more poking around accounts and cross-questioning of Callisto-Capri determines that, when the Granadine staff need transport, they hire rovers from a company in the city - and Ferdinand has enough access to company accounts to get hold of one of these. It then turns out that the hire company is based just a couple of blocks from Ferdinand's residence, in the direction in which he seems to have been heading when last sighted.
By now, Florence has made her excuses and slipped out of the classroom, and the team decides to head to the hire company in person. They find another office operated by a LAI - but one which proves quite cooperative, especially given Vajra's skill in interfacing techniques. The company, while not especially dubious, is a relatively cheap, casual sort of outfit, and yes, they rented a light rover to Ferdinand just that morning. After all, he's a known regular customer, and his wearable is certified as a competent driver, so it can have full access to the control systems... But the rover has a locator beacon that can't be turned off, and the LAI is happy to check where it is right now - which proves to be some miles out in the desert, moving but not heading in any particular direction, and not responding to radio calls.
The team look at each other, put one of the hire company's heavy rovers on the consulate account, and set out after the missing dog, as Jianwei installs an uplift-dog psychology skill set on Aunty. They make good progress - Florence is a skilled driver - and find Ferdinand's rover soon enough. It's still not going anywhere in particular, but is chasing round and over various dunes. The team have magnifying optics with them, and are able to make out Ferdinand, alone aboard the other vehicle and looking rather excited.
He sees them, too, and promptly drives straight at them. It seems that he's got his NAI doing exactly what he asks, with neither that nor the vehicle's own systems providing any sort of safety overrides. The team have an exciting few moments, with Ferdinand testing Florence's driving skills in a game that seems too much like chicken, giving them a better view of his expressions; Aunty's conclusion is that he's gone mildly atavistic. Eventually, though, Ferdinand decides that he wants to get away from them; fortunately, both rovers have similar performance, and with better driving skills aboard, the team are able to stay with him.
At this point, Florence decides on a rather dramatic plan to deal with this problem. Having confirmed that the hire company can provide override codes to unlock and open any of the rovers' doors, she leaves the team's vehicle under the control of Samadhi, who seems to be the second-best driver available, opens a side door (ignoring any automated safety system warnings), and clambers up onto the roof of the rover. Then, when the two vehicles are a reasonably stable distance apart, she jumps the gap with elegant precision. Once she's safe on the smaller rover's roof, she tells the automatic systems to open a side door, and somersaults in.
Of course, Ferdinand has seen her coming, and doesn't appear pleased to see her, attempting to slam her out straight away. She deflects the attack and gets the door closed - but then a vulgar brawl ensues in the footwell of the rover, with Ferdinand attempting to sink his teeth into the opponent who he seems to be abusing as an "Uncle Tom". (He also turns out to have some police dog-style training.) After fending him off for a moment, Florence brings her stun glove into play, and even manages to paralyse him at one point - but he shakes off its effect too soon. On his part, he manages to land a bite on her arm, although that's protected by an armoured sleeve, and hangs on until she lands a headbutt on him that makes him let go. Then, she has a thought and grabs at his wearable with her shock glove. This knocks out its electronic systems for long enough that the rover's own computer takes over and slows the vehicle to a halt.
Ferdinand is still fighting, though, and Florence is getting annoyed enough that she resorts to more or less beating him senseless. She's even setting up for a kick with her high-heeled boots when the door opens again; the other two of the team have brought their own rover up to the scene, and Vajra has emerged with a vortex pistol. A well-aimed blast of tranquilliser gas batters Ferdinand down - and more importantly, renders him unconscious.
Florence is left muttering that her martial arts lessons neglected to cover techniques for fighting in the footwell of a moving land vehicle, and resolves to press her sensei about this subject, the next time she gets the chance. As she dusts herself down, Vajra applies cufftape to immobilise Ferdinand, and Jianwei arrives, and - aided by software running on Aunty - makes sure that none of their prisoner's wounds are serious. Then Jianwei and Vajra load him and themselves onto their own rover, Florence takes charge of the smaller vehicle, and they all turn back to Port Lowell.
Jianwei takes the opportunity to carefully cross-examine Ferdinand - who, it rapidly emerges, has not only gone somewhat atavistic, but has absorbed a large dose of the "Animal Reparations" meme. (All the Reparationist literature which he's been downloading recently - including chimp-uplift David Pan's Dominion - would have been a clue.) Along with his attitude to Florence, he dismisses Jianwei as an oppressor and Vajra as a "lick-spittle pawn of the humans". Granadine aren't going to be getting much work out of their employee, and are going to be facing a serious bill for specialist therapy...
And so the team return to the embassy - and the discovery for Florence that the EU psychiatrists who worry for her most have requested full implant sensory records for the day. While Jianwei is prepared to vouch that a flying leap between fast-moving vehicles wasn't really as crazed idea as it might sound - for her - she is going to have to spend a lot of time reassuring them about how she felt about all this.
(Analysis of the logs is also reported to reveal that Dougal was wearing his virtual Stetson and yelling "Ride 'em cowboy" while Florence was on the roof of the rover, and "Yee haa!" when she jumped, followed by "Watch out, you've got me onboard!" on landing. Florence swears she wasn't paying much attention to non-priority items, and didn't notice at the time. The psychiatrists put a note on the "influence over AIs" section of Florence's file.)
The next couple of days are fairly quiet, giving the team a chance to review their various financial and practical positions. Actually, as they're collecting extended-hours and hardship-posting rates, the team have no significant financial problems; Florence (who's getting pretty good money for someone in her effective social situation) sees a chance to establish a secure financial and social position, while Jianwei is saving as he anticipates a year or two's sabbatical when he returns to Earth at the end of this assignment.
Scorpius 3, m0039
And then another call comes in, passing the non-sapient filters to arrive at Jianwei's virtual desk.
"Good morning," the caller says with the calm smoothness of an AI. "My name is Callisto-Capri. I act as local negotiator for the Granadine Partnership. We are a European corporate entity, so I have been advised to contact you about this matter."
"Uh, good morning. What can we help you with?"
"My dog appears to have gone missing. Local law enforcement is proving unwilling to assist very efficiently."
Jianwei blinks a little at that, but patches the other two into the conversation while he asks for more details. (Vajra is performing routine data management for the embassy; Florence is visiting a local school, playing the part of the friendly free European bioroid for the kids.) "How long has your dog been missing?"
"Just over two hours now..."
It does rapidly emerge that "Ferdinand", the dog in question, is a K-10A uplift - if nothing else, the pictures that Callisto-Capri provides show the distinctive slightly expanded skull structure. The team are a little bemused by this problem - and they can certainly imagine how Marshall Kirkowicz will have reacted if Callisto-Capri called her first - but it does seem to be a legitimate worry. The Granadine Partnership, it emerges, is a Europe-wide association of design consultancies which does enough business on Mars (in the form of numerous small contracts) to justify maintaining a presence here. Callisto-Capri handles negotiations, aided by an assortment of non-sapient software, while Ferdinand acts as a porter and "physical representative". It might seem more sensible for Callisto-Capri to rent cybershells as necessary, but Jianwei and Vajra recognise some pretty routine memetic finesse here, especially when they get hold of the company's Web brochure, and perform a quick and cynical analysis. By employing an organic being as part of their team, the Partnership projects an image of sympathy for organic needs and concerns - doubtless essential for a consultancy specialising in ergonomic design issues. On the other hand, Ferdinand was produced locally (with Mars adaptations built in from the embryo stage); he's a cheap organic employee. Florence swears that Dougal is muttering about Ferdinand's job being to look cute and get scratched behind the ears...
Jianwei is feeling a little unsure about the status of this problem - but then, thinking about the legal situation of uplifts, he mentally classifies this as akin to a missing child case. Well, it might work like that, or a theft... It does seem to merit some attention.
Ferdinand may not be a full citizen by EU law or that of many other jurisdictions active on Mars, but as Granadine's only organic employee on the planet, and an individual with many individual rights under EU law and convention, he does have a small apartment of his own in one of the accommodation blocks scattered around the city - and that was where he was last seen. He apparently left as he would for work that morning, but then dropped out of contact. The team start looking for accessible cameras that might allow his movements to be traced - with only limited success - and Jianwei cross-examines Callisto-Capri about its knowledge of various relevant topics. The AI denies any knowledge of business rivals who might have any likely motive for stealing/kidnapping or attacking Ferdinand - Granadine really aren't in that sort of business. When it comes to questions about the dog's social life and acquaintances, though, it rapidly becomes clear that the AI has a typical low-sapient level of emotional cluelessness. It claims to think of itself as Ferdinand's friend, while not being very sure about his off-duty activities, friendships, or interests.
Anyway, camera records from Ferdinand's apartment block do show him setting out that morning, alone, and a quick cross-check of time stamps suggests that he went off-line at about that time. He has a wearable AI aide, of course, but it's non-sapient; he can probably order it to cut communications with little difficulty. Poking around his financial records, which Callisto-Capri, as his de facto guardian, can access and provide, suggests that his main hobby is participation in a quasi-Neolithic virtual world. In fact, he plays the part of a dire wolf there. So do a lot of humans, mind, and he seems to have some casual friends in his pack; judging by the conversations on the game's associated discussion group, they may or may not know his real-world nature.
A little more poking around accounts and cross-questioning of Callisto-Capri determines that, when the Granadine staff need transport, they hire rovers from a company in the city - and Ferdinand has enough access to company accounts to get hold of one of these. It then turns out that the hire company is based just a couple of blocks from Ferdinand's residence, in the direction in which he seems to have been heading when last sighted.
By now, Florence has made her excuses and slipped out of the classroom, and the team decides to head to the hire company in person. They find another office operated by a LAI - but one which proves quite cooperative, especially given Vajra's skill in interfacing techniques. The company, while not especially dubious, is a relatively cheap, casual sort of outfit, and yes, they rented a light rover to Ferdinand just that morning. After all, he's a known regular customer, and his wearable is certified as a competent driver, so it can have full access to the control systems... But the rover has a locator beacon that can't be turned off, and the LAI is happy to check where it is right now - which proves to be some miles out in the desert, moving but not heading in any particular direction, and not responding to radio calls.
The team look at each other, put one of the hire company's heavy rovers on the consulate account, and set out after the missing dog, as Jianwei installs an uplift-dog psychology skill set on Aunty. They make good progress - Florence is a skilled driver - and find Ferdinand's rover soon enough. It's still not going anywhere in particular, but is chasing round and over various dunes. The team have magnifying optics with them, and are able to make out Ferdinand, alone aboard the other vehicle and looking rather excited.
He sees them, too, and promptly drives straight at them. It seems that he's got his NAI doing exactly what he asks, with neither that nor the vehicle's own systems providing any sort of safety overrides. The team have an exciting few moments, with Ferdinand testing Florence's driving skills in a game that seems too much like chicken, giving them a better view of his expressions; Aunty's conclusion is that he's gone mildly atavistic. Eventually, though, Ferdinand decides that he wants to get away from them; fortunately, both rovers have similar performance, and with better driving skills aboard, the team are able to stay with him.
At this point, Florence decides on a rather dramatic plan to deal with this problem. Having confirmed that the hire company can provide override codes to unlock and open any of the rovers' doors, she leaves the team's vehicle under the control of Samadhi, who seems to be the second-best driver available, opens a side door (ignoring any automated safety system warnings), and clambers up onto the roof of the rover. Then, when the two vehicles are a reasonably stable distance apart, she jumps the gap with elegant precision. Once she's safe on the smaller rover's roof, she tells the automatic systems to open a side door, and somersaults in.
Of course, Ferdinand has seen her coming, and doesn't appear pleased to see her, attempting to slam her out straight away. She deflects the attack and gets the door closed - but then a vulgar brawl ensues in the footwell of the rover, with Ferdinand attempting to sink his teeth into the opponent who he seems to be abusing as an "Uncle Tom". (He also turns out to have some police dog-style training.) After fending him off for a moment, Florence brings her stun glove into play, and even manages to paralyse him at one point - but he shakes off its effect too soon. On his part, he manages to land a bite on her arm, although that's protected by an armoured sleeve, and hangs on until she lands a headbutt on him that makes him let go. Then, she has a thought and grabs at his wearable with her shock glove. This knocks out its electronic systems for long enough that the rover's own computer takes over and slows the vehicle to a halt.
Ferdinand is still fighting, though, and Florence is getting annoyed enough that she resorts to more or less beating him senseless. She's even setting up for a kick with her high-heeled boots when the door opens again; the other two of the team have brought their own rover up to the scene, and Vajra has emerged with a vortex pistol. A well-aimed blast of tranquilliser gas batters Ferdinand down - and more importantly, renders him unconscious.
Florence is left muttering that her martial arts lessons neglected to cover techniques for fighting in the footwell of a moving land vehicle, and resolves to press her sensei about this subject, the next time she gets the chance. As she dusts herself down, Vajra applies cufftape to immobilise Ferdinand, and Jianwei arrives, and - aided by software running on Aunty - makes sure that none of their prisoner's wounds are serious. Then Jianwei and Vajra load him and themselves onto their own rover, Florence takes charge of the smaller vehicle, and they all turn back to Port Lowell.
Jianwei takes the opportunity to carefully cross-examine Ferdinand - who, it rapidly emerges, has not only gone somewhat atavistic, but has absorbed a large dose of the "Animal Reparations" meme. (All the Reparationist literature which he's been downloading recently - including chimp-uplift David Pan's Dominion - would have been a clue.) Along with his attitude to Florence, he dismisses Jianwei as an oppressor and Vajra as a "lick-spittle pawn of the humans". Granadine aren't going to be getting much work out of their employee, and are going to be facing a serious bill for specialist therapy...
And so the team return to the embassy - and the discovery for Florence that the EU psychiatrists who worry for her most have requested full implant sensory records for the day. While Jianwei is prepared to vouch that a flying leap between fast-moving vehicles wasn't really as crazed idea as it might sound - for her - she is going to have to spend a lot of time reassuring them about how she felt about all this.
(Analysis of the logs is also reported to reveal that Dougal was wearing his virtual Stetson and yelling "Ride 'em cowboy" while Florence was on the roof of the rover, and "Yee haa!" when she jumped, followed by "Watch out, you've got me onboard!" on landing. Florence swears she wasn't paying much attention to non-priority items, and didn't notice at the time. The psychiatrists put a note on the "influence over AIs" section of Florence's file.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
