Nova Llar- Training Days Page 3
Chapter 4
The last of the recruits had arrived, found their rooms and were beginning to settle in. As Steve reviewed the timetable for the events today, he was pleased they were on schedule. When he had first come online 11 months ago, he had immediately started planning and mapping out each aspect of his days for the next five years. Steve naturally incorporated and adjusted his schedules as new duties were assigned to him. On the whole, he was confident he knew precisely what would be happening and when, within an acceptable margin of error. That was until his duties started bringing him into contact with humans. Initially, he was confused by how irrational they were with their time. If something was down to be completed at a set time it should be done at that time. Inevitably whatever else came up could be folded into the schedule at an appropriate time, adjusting future items as required. But as the weeks went on, he came to understand their emotional sides dictated a large amount of how they spent their time. As he studied and observed he found he was paying more attention to his own emotional subroutines. Taking a little extra time on a task to enjoy his work, feeling a bit down if his next project was not as engaging as the first. Once he started to understand these aspects of humanity, his ability to keep to a schedule that included them improved. He allowed greater margins for his human colleagues. Took greater care in understanding their personal lives and the impacts it could have on them. His most significant achievement as of this moment was organising the timetable for this training program. Taking into account all of the candidates, their lives and what may delay them in achieving the schedule he had set out was a monumental challenge. Steve had even managed to account for those that had no real excuse they just always appeared to be late.
The next item on today’s list was the welcome and orientation. Steve confirmed again everyone was ready and activated the view screens in their rooms. As everyone popped up in front of him, he began. “Hello everyone. As you have all most likely deduced you are indeed in the final selection of candidates for the Nova Llar mission. There are currently 35 of you here today, but only five places available on the mission. While you are all exceptional candidates on paper, there are some challenges you will face that go beyond most of your experiences. If you would kindly proceed to the main auditorium, now marked on your tablets, we will go over everything with you. Thank you”. With that Steve cut the transmission on his end. As each of the faces winked out of view Steve turned his attention to Colonel Jones.
"Gareth. The candidates have been informed of the briefing and are now preparing to move there. I estimate we have roughly 12 minutes until everyone has arrived”. “Thanks, Steve. That's a fairly accurate estimate I have to say.” Steve was almost human in a lot of ways; his timekeeping was not one of them. He had on occasion surprised Gareth by walking around a corner and starting a conversation as if he had known Gareth was there and ready to talk. “Gareth I could give you my estimates down to the nearest nanosecond however the smaller the unit, the greater the margin for error. I am simply rounding up to give an appropriate time estimate for you.” Gareth smirked to himself. “Not to worry Steve, I understand. You remember once our guests arrive you will have to refer to me by my rank?” Gareth said pointedly. “I am aware.” Steve replied. “I have been aware since you pointed it out three days ago the first time. I have been aware each time you have mentioned it since. While our guests are here, you shall only be referred to as Colonel Jones.” It had taken three months for Gareth to consider Steve more than just something with which he had to work. Initially, he had referred to Steve as “It” rather than his gender or name. After some coaxing Gareth finally referred to him has “he”. It had only taken two weeks and four days. From there it was only an additional three days before Steve's name became common place. After this their relationship continued to develop. One day, while Steve and Gareth we going through plans for the mission, Gareth had stopped the usual flow of conversation and said “Steve. You know we are going to be spending the rest of our lives in each other's company. Provided this mission goes ahead as planned. I don't want to be referred to as Colonel until I die. You can call me Gareth if you would like.” From that day two months ago, Steve had only referred to his friend as Colonel twice. Once as a joke that seemed to fall flat, the other in front of the head of the U.E.S.C. While he understood humans could something forget important details, he was not capable of this and would stick to the required protocol at all times.
As the first of the recruits started to file in and take the front row of seats, an atmosphere seemed to descent on the Auditorium. A mixture of excitement, trepidation and childlike glee was evident on the faces of all in attendance. Once the last guest was seated, Colonel Jones began. “Good Afternoon Candidates. My name is Colonel Jones. I am the Mission leader and the commanding officer here today. No doubt you all have questions about why you are here and what the final selection process will be. I would ask that all questions are kept until the end of this part of the briefing. Thank you.” Colonel Jones paused to confirm everyone had heard before continuing. “Firstly, I would like to introduce you to our Pilot and mission AI, Steve.” As Steve was in his humanoid form, he raised a hand to wave at the audience before him. “It is an honour to meet all of you. I look forward to working with each of you through the training and know I will learn a lot from our time together.” Steve bowed his head slightly and turned to Colonel Jones, signalling him to continue. “Thank you, Steve.” Gareth continued. “Steve is a Gen 9 AI. He is the best pilot I have ever seen and one of the best people I know. Please treat him with the respect he deserves. As for the rest of the crew, look around at everyone else in this room. You could be spending a very, very long time with any of these people. We encourage you to get to know one another now to avoid issues down the road. Now with the introductions out of the way, we will start the briefing proper.” Colonel Jones activated the wall behind him to show the first image of the briefing. A slightly grainy picture of Nova Llar, showing what appeared to be patches of green, brown and white stretched over a blue canvas with swirling white puffs dotted around. “This is Nova Llar. The planet was formally known as Kepler-138b, but it had been renamed in keeping with the principals of this mission. It is approximately 200 light years from Earth and as you can see from our most recent deep space imagery supports vegetation with a substantial water base. Both of these are why the decision was made that this should be the final destination of the Nova Llar mission. The duration of the trip has been calculated to 294 years travelling at an average speed of 68.5% the speed of light. For a single crew to achieve this journey, all of their consciousnesses will be uploaded into the central computer. Here they will exist in a procedurally generated world for the duration of the trip as human consciousness cannot be shut down as it were. It will therefore be necessary to adjust the perceptions of time to make the trip seem much shorter. Ultimately this should preserve brain function without leading to cerebral collapse. The ship will have cloning facilities to generate replicas of your bodies, as they were at the point of departure, and you will be put back into these bodies to begin the colony on Nova Llar. Should the need arise, you may need to utilise AI shells, similar to the one Steve is using, carrying out tasks on the trip and in the colony. A full pack outlining the ship will be provided to you. The pack will cover the vessels capabilities, equipment and installed facilities. There will be examinations based on this information so study it carefully. Should you have any issues during your time here, please come and see me and I shall do what I can to accommodate you. With that being said, I will not coddle you or go out of my way to fulfil some need for missing luxuries.” Colonel Jones gave a slight sideways glance at Joseph Taylor. Him being here was not Gareth's idea. He believed someone with Joseph’s background was most likely just bored and trying to achive a personal goal, rather than doing this for humanity. “The Training will take three years and will most likely be the toughest challenge you have ever faced in your lives. Anyone who makes it to the end will
be worthy of going on the mission in my eyes. Finally, this is still a voluntary mission. If anything, I have said now does not meet with your expectations, or you do not wish to go any further the door is over there.” Gareth gestured towards the door with his left hand. “No-one can judge you for the decision you make today. There has never been an undertaking like this in all of human history. It is a daunting task, but if you see it through to the end, I promise you will not regret it. Now, are there any questions?”
Chapter 5
As Joseph sat in the auditorium with the other candidates listening to Colonel Jones, he felt like he was going over it all again in his head. Most of what the Colonel was saying had been public knowledge for years. While some of the technical details had changed there wasn't anything particularly new. The part that caught his attention was the 'missing luxuries' comment. He couldn't help but think it was at his expense. It almost seemed as if the Colonel had been looking at him when he said it. Aside from that, there was only one thing he truly wanted to know about the mission, and he soon got his chance to ask. “Excuse me, Colonel. I was just wondering what the personal allowances would be on the final mission? Is there only a physical allotted space or is there a digital limit available?” The look on the Colonel's face at Joseph's question confirmed his earlier suspicions. He expects him to be a spoilt rich brat just looking for a thrill ride. “Well, Mr Taylor. There will be a digital limit of 500TB assigned to each successful candidate. However, I feel it is a bit premature to be planning your luggage at this point. Right now everyone should be focusing on completing the training to prove they should be here!” the Colonel answered, putting some additional emphasis on the end of the sentence. “Thank you, Colonel. I look forward to proving myself to you, Steve and everyone over my time here.” There were a few other questions from the scientists in the group, “What kind of research facilities will we have on the journey?”, “What equipment can we expect for analysis on the other end?”, “Can I get a slightly better body on the other side?”, that one got a few chuckles out of everyone. Then someone stood up and asked possibly the most important question that no-one else wanted to ask. “Hello Colonel, Steve. My name is Clara Forest, and my question is this. What are the contingency plans for a catastrophic event on the mission?”. The whole room fell silent as if the question had stolen the air from everyone's lungs. “Professor Forest, that is an excellent question. The short answer is there isn't one.” Colonel Jones answered in a very matter of fact way. “This mission is unique for our times, maybe even in all of human history. We are not going to the next country, continent or even planet over. We are crossing spaces so vast they are measured by how long it takes light to get there. While we will do everything we can to make the mission a success, there is no way out once we leave the solar system. We will be dropping FTL buoys as we go to maintain communication with Earth, but even those will only get us so far. At a point, we will be alone drifting through voids between worlds, where tiny pinpricks of light are the only reminder of life outside of the ship. If something goes wrong only the crew will be able to stop it. If they can't that will be that.” The Colonel's speech was not comforting, nor did it appear to be the desired intention. It was fact, pure and simple. They were pushing the limits to go beyond their solar system for this; there was little chance anyone else would attempt the same to save them even if it were possible. “What about the FTL drive?” one of the scientists offered to the discussion. “It may have been banned here in the Solar System. But surely once we are in interstellar space, we could build and incorporate one into the design. At least then we could get back if we needed to.” That is one of the bravest and stupidest comments Joseph had ever heard. The Ministry of Health and Safety were by far the dominant power in the world today. Their eyes and ears were everywhere and questioning them was a good way to encounter an unfortunate 'accident'. Colonel Jones responded in what sounded like an almost rehearsed manner. “For now, we will put that down to enthusiasm on your part sir. The ministry chose to ban the FTL drive for a good reason. We will uphold the principals and laws of the Earth at all times while on this mission. We are the hope of humanity, and we must be above reproach as a result of that.” Joseph slowly scanned the room, but no-one else offered up any comment or opinion. Colonel Jones broke the silence, “Very well. If there are no more questions, we will bring this briefing to a close. You have three days of downtime to start getting to know one another, review the mission documentation and decide whether this is a trip you are ready for! You are free to leave at your leisure.” With that, the Colonel and Steve left the room together. When they were nearly at the door, they started talking. Although Joseph couldn't make out what either of them was saying, there seemed to be a familiarity between them. It certainly looked as though they were old friends congratulating each other on getting through the briefing. As Joseph palmed the module on his right wrist holding Jess, he considered the storage limit. 500TB was not a lot of space for an AI. Jess was probably closer to a Petabyte by now; the thought of not being able to take her was not a pleasant one. He would need to confirm with her how much space she needed. Also if it would be above his allowance. In that instance, it may be necessary to look at other means to get her onboard. The portable module wouldn't survive on such a long trip without regular maintenance.