Shelby 8 Snippet 2

 

Chapter1

 

New Tau Metropolis

 

AdmiralShelby Logan sat curled up in her favorite reading spot reading an articleabout Admiral Irons’ day. She was amused by it. The single article had beenturned into a series over the course of a year. She had just found it anddecided to scan it. She wasn’t certain what the writer’s original intent hadbeen. Perhaps to knock Irons for being the king? If it was, the impact had beendifferent. The story had taken on a grudging tone over time.

Thewriter had timed the admiral’s schedule down to the half second in intimatedetail. It was probably enough to give any paranoid security type fits andnightmares since it was a clear window into the admiral’s life and schedule.The first article had been shadowing the admiral in one of his ‘in house’ dayswhere he spent the entire 24 hour period in the White Station.

So,no real show of transportation or his security out of White Station. No doubtit had been carefully scripted by the staff for the benefit of the reporter’sviewpoint. She nodded slightly to herself as she considered that idea. It madea certain sort of sense.

Skepticswho had read the initial article and the follow up and seen the video time stampshad scoffed and claimed it had been fabricated as a fluff piece to make theadmiral seem like a hero. Others had commented that it did the opposite; theadmiral was more machine than man. In a way it was true, the admiral was acyborg after all. He was the most advanced cyborg in existence. Who could sleepjust 3 hours a day and function at that high a level for the rest of the timeperiod? It just didn’t seem possible, and yet he made it look easy, jugglingmultiple tasks at the same time without being frazzled.

Otherpeople wondered about how anyone could function in such a high stress job. Thatstarted a debate about ending the presidency and moving to a more committeestyle of government.

Shecould just imagine that. Government ala rub-Goldberg? Committees rarely gotanything done. They were there to shift the blame to a collective over anindividual. She could not imagine one handling a crisis at all well.

Ofcourse that might be her near lifetime of military training and experiencesshowing, she thought with puckered lips as she scrolled onward.

Thepiece had eventually been followed up by six others, each a slice in the lifeof the President. Several showcased that power was not for the faint of heart.Only a fool wanted the job was the take away from some of them, especially thedays where admiral Irons consoled the families of victims or fallen militarypersonnel.

Therewere a few pieces that were amusing takeaways for her. Like when he playedhookey in the station, sneaking down to the maintenance area in order to helpout. Or the one day where they looked at his AI. She nodded slightly as shescanned that one.

Shewas familiar with Admiral Irons AI. He had originally had 3, Proteus, Defender,and Sprite. Proteus was a dumb AI the admiral had crafted himself as a designaide for engineers. The original had been debugged by Sprite and a cyber teamand was in widespread use by engineers across the navy. Proteus was supposed torun the admiral’s nanites and help him with repairs and design work. With theadmiral’s butt practically welded to a chair in the president’s office, the AIwas severely underutilized. Admiral Irons had apparently convinced the AI togrow a little. For the past few decades Proteus moonlighted as an instructor atthe academy.

Infact one of the reasons the admiral stayed in his office so much was the WIFIor the ability to jack in to allow his AI to have unfettered bandwidth to goabout their duties. She nodded to herself. She sometimes felt a little guiltythat she didn’t jack in as often as she probably should.

Defenderhad been a dumb AI that she had fortunately rarely experienced. He had been theadmiral’s watchdog, protecting the admiral and the Federation from all sorts ofthreats. It had also protected the navy from the admiral should he go rogue.The AI had deleted itself after being severely damaged in a fight with a rogueAI on Antigua Prime.

Spritewas the single smart AI of the original Trinity package. She had been thekeystone to the others. She had evolved to the point of needing to extractherself from the admiral’s implants in order to continue her evolution. She wascurrently a serving admiral.

Shehad extracted herself shortly after Defender’s death. But she had used some ofher core and some legacy files from Defender to forge a replacement, Protector.Protector acted as the admiral’s adjunct and flag lieutenant. They had spent somuch time together now they worked seamlessly.

Sheflicked her fingers down to another scene, another of her favorites. Theadmiral had played hookey again, this time taking on a surprise guest lecturerole at the academy. Apparently he did it monthly when he could steal the time.Sometimes it was just for a few minutes, other times it was an entire hour. Shecould imagine the impact he had on the academy students to have a lofty admiralpop in from time to time.

Herlips curved slightly in a smile. Both of those hookey stories gave her ideas.She wanted to try them. She missed getting her hands dirty. She also missedteaching, though she’d never really been a natural at it. Not even when she’dbeen her dad’s assistant on Anvil station back in Pyrax.

Therehad been mentions of two other incidents when the admiral went off script. Shehad to wonder if someone had been trying to make the admiral look like a rogueor humanize him. She wasn’t sure. The first had been when the admiral hadcaught a ride into the shipyard and had helped out with several ships underconstruction. She couldn’t fault him for that. He’d done something constructiveeven if he’d put himself in a ‘risky situation’. She didn’t agree with thereporter’s sentiment.

Thesecond had been when the admiral had popped into a Marine work out session andtaught an hour long class in self-defense. No doubt the admiral had been thereto blow off some steam and get some hands on again, though the reporter hadmade it out like he had been showing off or showing the Marines up.

Sheshook her head. She sometimes wished the reporters would stick to the facts.She understood the need for color to put things into context, but she didn’tcare for the spin.

Hertake away from it was that the admiral carved time away for himself. Probablyto remain sane more than anything else. She nodded slightly to herself. Yeah,she needed to do that more for herself.

Shelooked up and then over to the window she was sitting near. Beyond the glassships moved in deep space. They were distant dots, but she could see theblinking lights.

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