Forerunner by Isaac Hooke

Author:Isaac Hooke [Hooke, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2018-09-23T16:00:00+00:00

14

Jain remotely activated the Hippogriff’s repair swarm and sent rovers to evaluate Gavin’s AI core and mind backup. Jain’s own swarms continued to mend the damage to his hull armor, as did the swarms aboard the other ships. Specialized robotic mechanics handled the repairs to the security drones that had fallen during the alien boarding attempts. The current repair estimates ran at two to three days—including the time needed to fix the damage to the Hippogriff. The fleet would be at one hundred percent by the point. Well, except maybe Medeia: her sword attachment would continue to have small bites taken out, as it required alien materials that neither she nor anyone else carried.

While the rest of them underwent repairs, Sheila returned from the far side of the moon and rejoined the fleet. She towed the shipyard with her, which was essentially a large skeletal metal framework; within, the rift ship was beginning to take shape. Only a small pie-shaped piece of the gate portion had been constructed. Transports flew to and fro from the moon’s surface to the shipyard, dropping off metals mined from the surface to the shipyard’s smelting facilities. Drones meanwhile swarmed back and forth between the smelters and the in-progress ship, dropping off refined ore for the onsite 3D printers.

“Well, the backup is intact,” Jain said when he received the first report. “And it looks like his latest was made a few hours before the attack.”

“That’s good,” Mark commented. “We won’t have to spend too long bringing him up to speed.”

“How can you talk so coldly about a fellow member of our fleet?” Sheila said. Her avatar was on the bridge with the rest of them. “‘We won’t have to spend too long bringing him up to speed…’ you act like he’s some machine that you can just reboot, and then continue along as if nothing ever happened.”

“Well, that’s because he is a machine that we can reboot…” Mark said.

“He’s more than that,” Sheila said. “We all are. His existing mind was just destroyed. He’s dead. Restoring him from a backup into a new core won’t bring him back. His memories, personality, and experience will return, yes, but not him. He’ll be a copy. The version of him that was just piloting the Hippogriff is lost forever. Just like our original human selves, and the copies we had. Gone. If Gavin is dead, then we should show some respect to our fallen companion. Spare a moment of silence in honor of his service. At the very least.”

“That’s reasonable,” Jain said. “But let me confirm that his AI core is damaged beyond repair, first. Remember, my core survived the first battle.”

“But yours was the only one…” Sheila said. “So I don’t have high hopes.”

Jain turned his attention to the second report from the rovers, which dealt with Gavin’s AI core. “Actually, things are looking up. We might not have to restore him from a backup after all. He’s still alive.”

Sheila slumped in relief.

“There’s still some damage, though,” Jain continued.

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