The Empire: AI Empire 3 (Mind Refurbs Book 15) by Isaac Hooke

Author:Isaac Hooke [Hooke, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-14T06:00:00+00:00

Jason had invited the others to use his home VR environment as the negotiating platform. He had set up a large conference table in front of the mountain lake, and sat with Eric, Hephaestus, Jain, Jacobs, Jhagan, Molly, Risilan, and Tanis. Zaneer was also present, but he participated in observational mode only—Molly didn’t want to risk him ruining the negotiations.

There were two other female Mind Refurbs present, whom Tanis had named Greta and Lisa: the negotiators. The two had kept mostly silent so far. Jason expected them to take over when it came time to hammer out the details of the actual treaty the Mapi would eventually sign.

Across from them were the true-to-life avatars of the Mapi representatives. They looked very much like the starships they piloted: these big, branching structures of wood looming on the other side of the table. Apparently the Mapi were sentient plants of some kind. Sap flowed through their bodies instead of blood, and bark coated their exteriors instead of skin. Their multitudinous appendages were covered in blue and purple needles—leaves. Those leaves shed from their arms when they moved them. Whether the same shedding occurred so easily in real life, or was an artifact of the VR environment, Jason couldn’t say. He certainly hadn’t programed leaves to fall so easily in this environment.

After the introductions:

“We peace, you,” the center tree said, a Mapi that had identified itself as Dwight, oddly enough.

Jain glanced upward and spoke to the air. “Xander, when are you going to have the quirks worked out of the translation engine?”

The Void Warrior leader must have received a response, because he shook his head and returned his attention to Dwight.

“We would like peace as well,” Tanis said.

“What terms, you?” Dwight asked.

“We wouldn’t ask much of you,” Tanis replied. “The big one is we’d want your ships available to fight when we call upon you. Not much different than the terms of the Link. In exchange, we’d offer protection. If ever you were attacked by aggressors, we’d send ships in from all our races to protect you against attack.”

“No bioweapon, quota?” Dwight said.

“We don’t have a bioweapon provision, no,” Tanis said. “We use robots and mechs as our ground forces. But we might potentially open up a bioweapon division at some point, since we have so many subject matter experts available now, from the Banthar, Tyrnari, Zanefyne, and now yourselves.”

“We may keep our weapons technology to ourselves?” the Mapi beside Dwight, named Zinc, said.

“Ah,” Tanis said. “We’re not like the Link, where technology is hoarded from other races. Information flows freely among our alliance. If you join, we’ll expect you to share the details of your offensive and defensive technology with us. We’ll be sharing ours with you in turn.”

Zinc didn’t answer, and Jason wasn’t sure whether to interpret that as an approval, or objection.

Lisa leaned forward and spoke over Channel B, a private comm channel that excluded the Mapi. “If they don’t share their weapons tech with you, is that a deal breaker?

“No, I suppose not,” Tanis said.

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