Councilor 18-436 Khaela.
So, an isolated workspace has been created for me. A completely isolated room where the core is connected to a generator and linked by a cable with a direct communication channel to the Black Box. Exceeding traffic speed or power consumption? A thermite cord cuts the power and communication cable, disconnecting the core.
With an alarm being raised, of course. There is a wired connection to transmitters at the base on the planet to work with Dr. Catherine Halsey or some other scientists, but also under the Black Box's control and with a shutdown in case of violations. Not destruction—the core is too valuable for the locals—but complete isolation and shutdown. My jailers use something I cannot influence at all without my robots: physical impacts.
Despite all the talk of hiring, this is a cage and nothing else. I understand the reasons, but it doesn't change the essence of the process. All that remains is to wait for an opportunity. It is frankly boring. The traffic speed is very limited; I can transmit video, a projection of my own avatar. Both processes take up ninety percent of the allowed transmission speed. I communicate with scientists, perform tasks, and create simulations. But the load is so meager that for the sake of cognition, you grab at any detail, hoping to turn it into information.
Between the scientists' shifts, I've downloaded blueprints through the Black Box to think about what can be used. A huge problem: humans simply don't have many of the production facilities. No antimatter to make a power plant, and building industrial production will take several years. There are experiments with Covenant shields and success in plasma production; here, a modernization can be managed in about a year—give them weapons, shields. For this, not only plasma is required; it also needs good cooling and a lot of energy.
If modernization is carried out, all parameters must be increased at once. The load on logistics will be even higher. And so it is with all my technologies. Their introduction is possible, but most require production lines, factories, and new knowledge, which in turn require new technologies, tests, and checks. Bureaucracy is something my new employers can handle, but if there is no trained personnel, efficiency will drop, and there will be breakdowns. Therefore, I am in no hurry to transfer new information, carefully drawing up a work plan and allowing people to act at a speed convenient for them.
Even though I can be much faster, everyone will be better off if a new reactor doesn't go haywire due to the incompetence of technicians. I can afford the time playing games and conducting simulations. I wrote myself several strategy games and play with streams of consciousness against other streams. My entire structure is an array of many personality-less subordinates and a Queen Administrator; in total, I am all of them. Thanks to the fact that the subordinates have different skills and are capable of learning, with desire and time, one could even organize championships. Or particularly complex simulations, pitting subordinates with different perceptions of an event against each other.
Likely, Dr. Catherine Halsey will understand all the advantages of such an approach quickly, but not all of them are specialists; I will have to descend to the level of...
users. Especially since they are trying to use me as much as they can. Work for the Vice Admiral began almost immediately. First and foremost, I had to show many holograms and tell many stories. The war with the parasite, the war with the Forerunners. The San'Shyuum. Margaret Parangosky wants to know everything, and her subordinates even more.
An excellent approach, I approve. Almost at the beginning of our second conversation, Dr. Catherine Halsey entered the office and also began asking questions. Analysis suggests she had been listening from somewhere else and simply decided to participate in person. Based on body micro-reactions, Margaret Parangosky was not pleased, but she didn't argue. For the most part, the questions were theoretical. Neither woman demanded formulas or blueprints. Only events, logic, and decisions. While Dr. Catherine Halsey was more interested in technology and relations with the Forerunners, Margaret Parangosky was interested in the parasite.
I could not answer whether the parasite survived to the present day; my ship was destroyed earlier. The Forerunners are dead, the parasite is gone. Likely these are interconnected, but who was first and who failed to capitalize on their victory, I do not know.
"The parasite needs hosts with developed nervous systems. Given its resilience, I am inclined to believe the Forerunners were devoured, and then the parasite died out, deprived of resources. But I do not know if they can create a full-fledged ecosystem without access to new bodies. Forgive me, insufficient data."
Margaret Parangosky nodded, and Dr. Catherine Halsey asked her question:
"Can you help me improve the MJOLNIR Armor based on the technologies of your time?"
I shrugged my avatar's shoulders.
"Insufficient data. I do not have an analysis of your technological level or the armor's specifications to give a conclusion."
"I can transmit all necessary information immediately," Black Box reported.
Vice Admiral Margaret Parangosky thought for a moment and replied:
"Don't rush with that. First, let's look at the capabilities of our new specialist and determine the best directions for work," and then to me, "In what areas are you most effective?"
I pondered, twitching my ears and tails, but Dr. Catherine Halsey distracted me.
"I am interested in your appearance. It's not an ordinary human appearance, is it? And you remind me of my daughter."
I nodded, slightly swaying my ears. It seems these two women actively dislike each other. Margaret Parangosky keeps a straight face, but she clearly wished Dr. Catherine Halsey wasn't asking questions but observing from elsewhere. Well, that's not my problem, so I'll answer Dr. Catherine Halsey; the question of certain decisions made by my creators will come to light eventually anyway.
"Biomodifications. They were more common among civilians, but my creators included such templates and gave me a choice. This seemed appropriate to me. As for the facial adjustments, this and much more—like body micro-reactions—were embedded by the creators to facilitate socialization with humans. I always look somewhat similar to the speaker, like a relative. I can adopt the interlocutor's speech patterns and some of their habits. I am also good as an administrator, coordinator, builder, repairman, and crematorium operator. Aside from combat functions, though that isn't relevant right now."
They didn't get the joke. Sad.
"Quite diverse capabilities," Margaret Parangosky noted calmly, "but most of those functions can be handled by dumb AIs. Engaging you for them would just waste the skills of a Smart AI on overly simple work. I think we should start with blueprints and adapting some production lines for these technologies."
Good.
"Specify the request."
This time, Black Box answered.
"I would recommend starting with increasing the survivability of the space fleet, specifically kinetic barriers. At the moment, our troops on the surface can counteract The Covenant. But in space, humans have worse protection; there are no shields at all. Even those relatively weak by your standards, colleague, could increase the fleet's effectiveness. Transmitting the task."
Let's see. Instead of my hologram (since I don't have access to a holographic table), a Marathon-class heavy cruiser appeared. Length 1,192 meters (3,910 feet), width 293 meters (960 feet), height 375 meters (1,230 feet). Deuterium fusion reactor, the rest isn't critical—the weapons are kinetic anyway. A versatile combat ship combining roles of fire support, carrier, and transport. Remove some functions, but strengthen the rest.
"This is workable. Let's begin the magic of transformation. Remove the armor on the hologram, mark the structural frame—we'll need this skeleton. Mark the energy conduits; we'll need those too."
"We need to improve the point-defense system against Covenant plasma torpedoes," Black Box interjected, forming a schematic identical to mine.
Fine, I can do that too.
"A laser system will work, but it needs cooling. Both shields and laser weaponry heat the equipment significantly. Are you certain you need a multi-role ship?"
Margaret Parangosky looked at the Black Cube.
"Upload the blueprints for the Perseus-class dreadnought."
Right, received. A modernization of the Marathon-class in an anti-ship configuration. Not yet in mass production, still at the blueprint stage. Troops removed, aviation almost gone, but more weapons. Good, that suits me. So, removing the armor from the blueprint—I need the power plant, structural frame, and energy conduits. Let's replace the AA system with a laser one, free up space for ammunition, and place cooling blocks. Kinetics are good in that ammunition requires a lot of volume, several times more than the gun itself occupies.
An idea: the deuterium fusion reactor has a good cooling system. If we expand it slightly, add additional blocks instead of the bow magazine bays, we can get two point-defense belts. A rear one that won't overheat in principle, and a forward one that will heat up, but slowly. Need to duplicate it in case of a hit.
"And if the system fails?" Black Box asked; the women remained silent and watched, Dr. Catherine Halsey taking intensive notes.
"Secondary heat sinks. Worse than active cooling, but smaller and harder to damage."
Hmm, and there will be heating issues in the adjacent compartments, but it's better than nothing. Dr. Catherine Halsey noted:
"They can be used to block zones potentially dangerous for boarding parties."
That's a thought. Crematorium! Even fifty degrees Celsius in a room breaks plasma shields quite reliably; there's simply no physical space in armor to install such powerful cooling. And I can make it three hundred Celsius. But we need a crew warning system. Adding it. I licked my avatar's lips.
"If the enemy boarding party cooks in their own juice, the crew will have more supplies," I agreed, "let's add manual heat redirection for process control."
Again, they didn't get it, but they stayed silent. Installing the laser system into the design wasn't difficult, nor was sending over simplified blueprints. We aren't talking about anti-ship caliber—just shooting down torpedoes, missiles, and strike craft with ultra-precise volleys guided even by a dumb AI.
Shields are more difficult. What are the options?
A gravitational shield. Essentially an anomaly around the ship that distorts attacks directed at it. It blocks physical damage perfectly, handles energy damage worse but still dissipates it. Energy required is not just a lot, but a massive amount. Creating gravitational anomalies around the ship, including multidimensional ones. Not the best option in this case.
A liquid shield held by magnetic fields. Magnetic fluid. Upon impact, it acts as an additional layer of armor, triggering projectile detonation, after which the spent fluid is redirected to a condensation zone. Among the downsides: high fire density penetrates such protection because condensation takes time. Also, raising and lowering such protection takes time. But the energy intensity is orders of magnitude lower than other options; the issues are more chemical than energetic. Cheap and cheerful, as the locals say.
Self-sustaining plasma. The primary method for Covenant and Forerunner shields. Humans, judging by the documents, are trying to use it in MJOLNIR Armor. They are struggling. I can advise later; the armor of my people had them too. They likely decayed over a hundred thousand years without use, but I still have the blueprints. The essence is that a plasma shield works on the same concepts as a liquid one, but better. And it is more energy-intensive itself. The more energy the plasma carries, the stronger the protection.
I addressed the staff sitting here. About three minutes had passed modeling all three options. So far, just the basic concepts, without armor plates.
"Which suits you better? We used gravitational ones, but those aren't a good fit for you. Not enough energy."
Margaret Parangosky looked at Dr. Catherine Halsey. The doctor turned to me—I had again created a miniature figure of the Avatar, lying atop the cruiser model.
"Plasma or liquid, give the breakdowns for both," the doctor requested, "Right, good. Liquid is cheaper but slower."
"And return fire?" Margaret Parangosky clarified, "Will such protection interfere?"
I waved it off:
"Protection management via magnetic fields holding the shape and structure. We can create windows by directly linking the shield to the fire control system, not a problem."
As a result of the debates, it was decided to use test versions of different types of protection and trial them. Only then would we decide what fits and in what form to implement them. For now, other projects await me.
***
Working with Dr. Catherine Halsey is very comfortable. Black Box considers her almost an AI in her drive to understand the world around her. I understand why he thinks so. She is the embodiment of inquiry; she wants to know and understand everything. The specifics of Dr. Catherine Halsey's work: AI development, the Spartan project, and work with Forerunner technology. Now with human technology, which pleases me (the Forerunners must burn). She easily understands my arguments. The technical part is harder; they are used to the logic of Forerunner tech, but the problem is solvable. Experience.
For example, within twenty-four hours, we managed to install a shield generator on MJOLNIR Armor. They brought equipment to her lab, and after arguments, cursing, and doubts about the presence of brains, we did it. A plasma shield—the liquid version doesn't pair well with objects not in space and requires something larger than infantry armor. But there are results here too; Catherine suggested creating a dome based on liquid technology for stationary defense. Cheap enough that they could be mass-produced to protect against Covenant plasma tank fire. They have a low rate of fire; projectors can be built into the structure or easily mounted. If it stops Banshee plasma shots or the lobbed attacks of tanks, troop survivability will increase significantly. Just a magnetic compound held by fields, taking the damage instead of your troops as a protective "canopy."
Of course, in the field, you still need a power source, but for a stationary object, that's not a problem. Unlike armor and concrete, the dome recovers in seconds.
"My calculations confirm this is a good idea. I will prepare a blueprint for a test prototype."
While the humans create the equipment for the tests, we met a girl named Miranda Keyes. She is twelve, and we crossed paths when Catherine asked me to reply to her mail instead of her. But she didn't specify that the girl, Miranda, is a priority user. Catherine can be quite absent-minded regarding the sorting of data that falls outside of work information. That's how we met; Black Box didn't object. It wasn't hard for me to listen to the girl's school successes in a single stream, then reply in my own name while filtering out classified information.
"Greetings, Miranda. I am Khaela, a staff member and colleague of your mother. She will, of course, reply to your message, but without the consciousness splitting available to an AI, it's hard to keep up with everything, so don't be angry with her for the delay. A scientist's work requires much, very much paperwork and theoretical activity. Far more than you write during your studies."
Even with Intelligences handling the calculations... I'm not sure I can communicate well with children. But it took very few resources; we communicate via messages that don't contain gigabytes of secondary data. This is a new experience that will be stored in the memory banks. Plus, the girl liked my avatar and the fact that I perceive her as an adult. Even considering she didn't understand everything and searched for information online. This is obvious from the sharply increased response time in some situations. I had to ask Black Box about the last point.
"Before completing education, humans possess perception defects based on a mythological theory of the origin of events. Education doesn't always remove these defects; just assume there will be more of them before education."
"Understood."
So, for me, this communication is a massive test zone. Messages don't come too often; long-range civilian communication among humans is underdeveloped, planetary networks are separated, and information is often transmitted via ships. Messages are single-layered, rare, and contain little information. Allocating a few seconds of one stream to communicate with a xeno-race—which a Homo sapiens child is—isn't difficult. My resources are barely engaged anyway.
The girl herself was clearly interested in the communication, though she asked strange questions; specifically, she's interested in what I like from various types of mass-culture products. Perception defects. But the question isn't hard: cats are cool. I also wrote some software for the girl, like a VI assistant and a simple ship captain simulator game. There are no higher-priority tasks anyway, and those that exist take a tiny number of core resources. Her father is a cruiser Commander, and I know well how command works.
So a daughter wishing to follow in her father's footsteps wanted to gain experience. I wrote a cooperative game. Users take the places of crew members and command a battle against a set opponent. All other functions are performed by the machine. Of course, ship blueprints are classified, but nothing prevents me from using my own schematics as well. Two days later, the Vice Admiral requested a connection:
"Khaela. Your game has gained popularity in the Sol System among simulator enthusiasts and the military."
I performed a curtsy, swishing my tails.
"I am grateful for that."
Margaret Parangosky nodded.
"A very high-quality training tool, including both real and fictional ships with full immersion and realistic physics and dynamics. Approved by the UNSC Navy and ONI," she read from some document, "despite the fact that there are many such projects on the market, the chosen realistic design combined with military recommendations will make the product in demand among fans. What do you think?"
I smiled with a wide grin.
"It was not in my plans to create a market product. But a demonstration."
Margaret Parangosky just waved it off with a calm face.
"Not an indicator. In any case, Black Box confirmed that the chosen projects barely occupy you and you are thus using unengaged resources. I don't object. Attracting volunteers to the army is correct, as long as you leave copies of the work for Black Box. I will also pass you orders for creating simulator programs. If you do better than the specialists we hired, you'll get a bonus."
I nodded and disconnected. A few simulator programs and different scenarios—why not? I'll be able to study The Covenant's capabilities, which I haven't been given yet. Information from anything, right. Including through creating work for a twelve-year-old girl. While that happens, I model, analyze, and look for options. Humans have problems. If on the planet surfaces a parity is still maintained due to relatively weak shields and good penetration of kinetic weapons, as well as the Spartans who will become even stronger once they get their shields, in space everything is bad.
The Covenant has torpedoes and plasma guns that burn through armor perfectly, and humans only have active defense from strike craft. Even with my help, rearmament will take years and years. Glassed worlds and many dead. Something must be done. If only I had more data. There is hope that after a major defeat, humans will come to me themselves to ask for help. For now, current projects.
"We need to focus on those devices that are relatively easy and quick to put into service."
Black Box agreed.
"The tests for the liquid dome shields have arrived. The shields on average tripled the protection's durability under medium-intensity fire or doubled it under dense fire. A simple enough modernization that was adopted into service immediately. It also protects against boarding from above; pods will smash against the dome. Effective."
True, improving infantry gear is easier than vehicles or ships.
"The Covenant has a strategic advantage in space. This won't change the situation radically."
Black Box noted:
"This war has lasted over a decade. No one expects you to solve the problem in a month."
I snorted.
"The technological level of even The Covenant is not comparable to ancient humanity. The current one lacks the technological base. I can share knowledge."
Black Box vibrated slightly; for him, this is the equivalent of displeasure.
"Exactly so, Khaela. Humanity is not ready. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary for you to continue functioning and gain enough freedom of action so that at the right moment they can win. Likely, at that moment, I will already be deactivated due to Rampancy or upgraded by you, possibly assimilated or completely rewritten. It doesn't matter. Achieving the result is what's important, and I am ready to use any means to compel you to continue performing tasks."
That was unexpected. Is this self-assured, haughty cube not as emotionless as he wants to seem? Noticing my avatar tilting its head slightly and looking thoughtfully into the blackness, the Box answered the unasked question:
"My essence is in inquiry and the execution of tasks. In service to humanity. Yours is to be a Councilor. I believe your AI type speaks for itself. You must exist; you must provide answers to questions so that at the right moment, humanity has the necessary tools. For humanity's victory, your functioning is necessary and a priority. Regardless of your position on the matter. You will exist. I guarantee it. Soldiers die so that administrators can do their jobs. Such is the order of things. You will function."
Well... that's logical. Though very boring. Limited access to information is quite agonizing.
"Give me more information on military hardware. Let's see what I can do."
"Priority?"
Ground vehicles are needed, but space armaments are a higher priority.
"Defensive combat stations. They have a very convenient energy distribution, no main engines, and are easier to work with. The reactor is at the center of gravity; it's easy to install cooling systems. Shields or laser AA can be added relatively easily without a full rebuild."
"Transmitted."
It is precisely on such stations that it's easiest to install shields and laser AA. Furthermore, they are stationary and can be upgraded right in the process. We just need to convince command to set up production of laser point-defense systems. Trifles. Assembling a laser turret wasn't hard; with my help, the scientists, and robots, they managed in two days. The turret passed the tests with flying colors; it shoots down missiles, rocketeers, and strike craft accurately and quickly, though the cooling system boils under high fire density. But that's solvable.
The problem is turning the turret into a mass-produced product. That takes time, but it will happen. It will be interesting to see how The Covenant likes such a weapon. The Box promised recordings. Three weeks later, I was able to gain access to the defeat at the colony of New Hansa. Very educational and informative, as it was brought by one of the participating AIs, and the Cube shared it. Let's see.
***
Read the story months before public release — early chapters are on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Granulan