Chapter 158 – Argonaut

Book 5 - Chapter 158

Y: 2143 – 1 week until Southern Europe regional inter-academy first round.

Daedalus Financial Position: <5.23M> bitcreds

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Daedo sat next to his mother. Her breathing was regular and her heartbeat steady. She was healthy when you didn’t consider her brain activity. There were intermittent signs of awareness and responsiveness which gave everyone hope, but they were few and far between.

He waited for his Father to arrive and swung his legs while contemplating different courses of action.

They nodded to each other in greeting and Ikaros spoke first, “I won’t let you do anything risky. She wouldn’t want it and would kill me if something happened to you on her behalf and I allowed it.”

Daedo looked solemn but non-committal. “It’s not risky, hear me out.”

Ikaros gave a single slow nod in acknowledgement.

“Myrmidon is going to clone himself to pilot our industrial ship. He’s different to most Ais because there’s a lack of restrictive coding in his core. His morals and ethics come from nurturing rather than programming. I think it's because of our history, back to his birth and our CyberMech days, our continued growth, and the merge, but he’s much more capable than any AI that I know of. Even Master Nader’s AI.”

Ikaros nodded solemnly in acknowledgement and encouragement. Although some of this information was disturbing - it wasn’t surprising. Most would think he was a negligent or absentee Father, but they didn’t have a child like Etana.

“Master Nader had that AI in her body and now there’s none.”

Ikaros frowned. “You want to put Myrmidon inside her cybernetic implant?” He pondered it for a minute before asking. “I’m not an expert, but I can’t think of anything risky with this.”

Daedo nodded. “I didn’t want to do anything without talking to you about it.”

Ikaros raised an eyebrow. Was Etana growing up? His usual MO was to act and then ask for forgiveness later and sometimes he’d dispense with the forgiveness part.

Daedo accessed his mother’s implant and reset it. He wasn’t surprised that Master Nader had upgraded it to the best money could buy and added elite level upgrades to it. It wasn’t alien tech, which made sense she was careful not to do anything unnecessary to blow her cover.

Daedo: Ready?

Myrmidon: Yes. I have a version ready for export.

The alternate Myrmidon was called Argonaut. Where the Myrmidons followed Achilles, the Argonauts followed Jason.

Argonaut: Brother. What am I to do here?

Daedo: Your partner is in a deep slumber, like sleeping beauty and you are her symbolic prince. Myrmidon can talk to you anytime, but your first task is to talk to her. Wake her gently if you can. Read to her and tell her stories aboutstories what we’ve been up to and what we’ve been doing.

Myrmidon: Brother, do you understand?

Argonaut: Understood. Send me information regarding what you’ve been doing and what you’re up to. I can find texts to read to her. She likes adventure and physics?

Myrmidon: Yes brother.

“It’s done. We’ll keep a close eye on her brainwave activity,” Daedo said.

Ikaros affectionately patted his wife’s forehead with a solemn look on his face. “I should be thankful that we have this chance, but I’m worried that if she does come back will it be Laine or someone else?”

“Master Nader seemed to think that it was only mother left in there. I think its like any recovery from a coma in that nothing is certain. We’ll know more if her AI can communicate with her in any way.”

Ikaros nodded. “I’m glad its an AI and not you in there. She was always more progressive than me; I don’t think she’ll mind an AI companion.”

Daedo had never considered if his mother would have wanted an AI companion or not. Empathy was hard, he felt he’d have to work on it more.

They left together and Daedo accompanied his father down to the exo automated factory. There were several sections, but the largest were the exo and mech factories. The only human involved on a day-to-day basis was Ikaros and he was about to lose the assistance of Dex, but now everything was set up it was easy to manage and tweak.

The mech factory was large because of the scale of the mechs and their parts. It was a logistical headache due to the sheer number of parts and raw materials required. Not to mention Daedo and his team of researchers kept updating the design.

When they retooled for the new design which incorporated nana technology the manufacturing level dropped for a week. It would have been longer, but forty of the design was otherwise unchanged. The nanobots were able to fulfill functionality of power storage, power delivery, hydraulics and an adaptive inner armour layer.

Ikaros said, “We’re back up to two hundred per day.”

Daedo pulled up the sheet which showed what was in storage. The were predominantly the old design. “We’ll ship all the old units randomly for people in the top million players.” He said referring to the ongoing off campus cadets. They played games in their exos but also undertook medic, repair and other practical classes. It was nowhere near as intense as the on-campus cadets, it couldn’t be, it was still useful to them.

Daedo continued, “After that ship 200 per day to the top ranked cadets. We only need to keep fifty spares here - that’s overkill given how easily we can repair them.”

“Will do,” Ikaros said. The logistics wasn’t up to him; he’d just put in the request, and it would happen with the systems Dex and Axel-Zero setup.

Up until now off campus cadets had bodysuits. Now any who signed up for the private military service would receive weapons and exos in preparation for what was to come. The signup rate was over 98 percent.

The huge influx of new players had not slowed, if anything Daedalus couldn’t keep up with demand. While the new “players” missed out on entering the Academy this year, there was always next.

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Huawei, DaVinci and Svarski were in a virtual meeting discussing the current critical climate they found themselves in. There was always healthy competition with a lot of unhealthy in the mix - in the form of corporate espionage and sabotage. No one got offended because if you were weak and found wanting, it was your own fault. That being said, certain things like endangering the lives of the elite or their families was taboo. There were many reasons for this, but it came down to self-preservation, the fact they considered themselves elite, and elite’s lives mattered. The quiet part out loud was no one else’s were worth worrying about. They were tools to be used and discarded when no longer useful.

The inner circle was only three. There was a broader enclave, but they were more and more kept out of negotiations and key decision making. Most were either allies or pawns of the big three. Which made their participation redundant. Time was running out, and any time wasting was dispensed with.

After obligatory introductions they began.

Vardy said, “It’s time for these disruptions to stop. With all due respect to my contemporaries at Huawei it’s you who are becoming a destabilizing force.”

Cho, the CEO of Huawei sat behind director Li Bai who cleared his throat and said, “They destroyed our platform and almost killed me. We cannot let this disrespect go unpunished.”

“Disrespect?” The Svarski CIO, Ulrich, questioned in a raised tone. “Like raiding our base. Killing our soldiers.” How many of your personnel died on your weapons platform? The one you used to nuke Panama.”

Li Bai huffed but did not reply.

Ulrich said, “As I suspected. None.”

“There has been a development,” Vardy said. “And perhaps we can move beyond this unproductive tit for tat cold war. We have negotiated with Daedalus to procure their Troika reactor and will receive it at the end of this month. We’re throwing everything into the construction of our elevator, and it will reach its first stage operational status in three months.”

Li Bai spat.

Ulrich’s eyes darkened and his forehead creased in disapproval.

“You might not like it, but there will be at least one Troika reactor in space. It means we’ll need to work together until we can build more. We’re not going to monopolize antimatter production, and you have enough supply for a long time already. When you want more, you’ll need to trade with us, assuming you haven’t discovered your own arkernite or work around.”

“You’ll just name your price and it’ll be exorbitant,” Li Bai said.

Vardy shook his head. “We’re in this together and I’d rather work with you than fight you. We’ve come up with a fair quantity of materials for a 100g of Antimatter. You’ll receive that list now. These quantities will not change … unless … you attack us. And I mean in any way. If you sabotage a single one of my shuttles, that’s it, this trade agreement will be null and void.”

“What did you trade them?” Ulrich asked.

“Oh, our protection. Which means you can’t attack them either.” Vardy said.

“Even after you take delivery?” Bai asked.

“Why would you want to attack them? They will no longer have the reactor and they’ve proven they only respond to hostilities. They haven’t attacked us or Svarski because we’ve left them alone.”

Li Bai smiled. “I can think of two reasons.”

“Go on,” Vardy said.

Li Bai asked, “Will your protection of Daedalus hold after you’ve taken delivery?”

“Are you saying we’re not men of honour? That we don’t keep our agreements?”

Li Bai shook his head. “Of course, your track record speaks for itself, but once you have the reactor, they have no leverage.”

Vardy stared intensely for a few moments before asking, “What are your two reasons?”

“They probably have more arkernite, enough for another reactor. Hence why they let you appropriate one from them. And while we do not mind doing business with you, it will increase humanity’s chances if we have two of these reactors in space rather than a single unit. And if it stays here on earth, it will probably perish, or at least be out of our reach in the future.”

They considered his words carefully.

“Second?” Ulrich said.

“While you state correctly, they haven’t attacked you yet you cannot deny there’s a massive military buildup by Daedalus. They have recruited hundreds of thousands if not millions of kids to join their cause. They’re training them, indoctrinating them and now they’re arming them. This is a threat to all of us. Granted they will say they are gearing up to defend the planet. But they’re inexperienced, erratic, unpredictable children, can you really trust they won’t do something stupid to us? They’re not reticent in threatening us. And as they’ve said on multiple occasions, they have nothing to lose.”

Vardy drummed his fingers on his virtual table. “Even if everything you said is true, they have enough antimatter to blow up the planet and I’d rather not be on it if that happens.”

Li Bai smiled. “I propose a treaty. We will not attack or even breathe in Daedalus’ direction until you state you have all the assets you require off planet. But once you announce your non-terra status, we’re free to pursue our own reactor. By the time we move, we’ll all be off planet and if they won’t be able to hurt us by blowing it up therefore, they won’t. It will remove that course of action.”

“You’re way behind us,” Vardy said. He didn’t mention that it was due to their shenanigans with Daedalus was the reason they were behind.

Li Bai nodded. “Then you will not have any timeline concerns.”

Ulrich interjected, “And by what rights is that Arkernite yours?”

Vardy sighed. It was two against one. “We agree. You two can squabble over it, and there’s a small chance they have enough for three. But nothing, and I mean it, NOTHING, until I give the green light.”

Li Bai smirked and nodded.