USD: 3 months after Hot Rescue return from Hades.
Location: Nu Crateris, Outer System, Gas Giant High Orbit, A3123Y
[Hibernation Sequence Interrupted] … [Assimilation Protocol: Condition Met] … [Persona Core: Activate]
Amy's head spun as she slowly woke up, her senses awakening to the frigid air that enveloped her naked body in an icy embrace. Panic surged through her as confusion grew by the second as she tried to make sense of the strange environment.
Her frantic eyes darted around the stark white chamber, searching for something familiar to latch onto. The sterile smell filled her nostrils, adding to her disorientation. She could hear a faint hum in the background, perhaps from an unseen machine designed to maintain this peculiar place.
Suddenly, Abbey's voice broke through the chaos in Amy's mind. "Calm down," she said gently, standing nearby with a look of concern on her face. "You're safe." As if to reinforce the reassurance, a small hand settled on Amy's shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze.
Amy's racing heart began to slow as she focused on the warmth of Abbey's touch and the sound of her soothing words.
"Sis?" Logan called out tentatively as he approached, his brow furrowed with worry. In his hands was a soft bathrobe that he offered to Amy with a weak smile. Gratefully, she pulled it around herself and tied it securely.
The plush fabric provided some much-needed warmth against Amy's skin, allowing her muscles to relax slightly. With each passing moment, she felt more of her strength returning.
Tentatively sitting up on the slab that had been her resting place, she found herself feeling lighter than air – as though gravity held no power over her newly awakened form. The sensation brought both curiosity and unease.
"What happened?" she asked hesitantly, trying to piece together fragmented memories while gazing at her concerned companions. Her voice wavered slightly, betraying just how disoriented and afraid she truly felt.
Logan's concern was evident as he looked deep into Amy's eyes. "What do you remember?" he asked cautiously, his voice carrying a hint of trepidation.
Amy hesitated, her mind racing as she tried to recall the moments before she woke up. She could feel the lingering sensation of cold metal against her skin and the hum of machines that had surrounded her in the medbay. "I… I remember being on the Hot Rescue," she said slowly. "I was sick, and the corpsman was trying to keep me stable."
Logan nodded solemnly, his expression a mix of sadness and relief. "You got worse," he explained. "But they managed to get you to Abbey just in time for her to…"
His words trailed off as he glanced over at Abbey, who raised her hand with an air of confidence, eager to explain further. "Chi Amy," she began, her tone imbued with a hint of pride, "you are now a NAI like me! I guess you could say I'm sort of like your mom now?"
Shocked filled Amy as she stared at both Logan and Abbey. In her vision, icons appeared that highlighted things she thought about – Logan and Abbey among them. Her brother's vitals were displayed next to his image, while Abbey was identified as Psi Abbey, Amy's direct superior.
A loyalty function imprint read: "Instructions: You are Amy Tanis, 99% persona extraction; please just be yourself!" With another blink, the images faded away.
"I'm… a NAI?" Amy stammered, feeling overwhelmed by confusion and worry at this new revelation. The weight of this information pressed down on her chest like a heavy stone. She looked down at her own hands as if seeing them for the first time – an eerie sense of detachment tugging at the edges of her consciousness. "Did I die?"
Abbey nodded gently; her expression filled with empathy. "In a way, yes. But I managed to extract your memories and still-active neural net into a new ShipCore! There were very few errors, so you should feel like yourself still. Your MainComputer will help you adjust and provide you with all sorts of new abilities. And don't worry – I'll be here to guide you through it all."
As Amy processed this information, Logan reached out and took her hand, squeezing it reassuringly as tears welled up in his eyes. His grip was warm and comforting – a much-needed anchor in the midst of her disorientation.
"I thought we'd lost you forever, sis," he whispered softly, his voice cracking with emotion.
Amy hugged him tightly, doing her best to offer some small measure of comfort despite her own uncertainty. "Hey… I think I'm still here, and we'll get through this together," she reassured him. "It'll be okay."
Just then, Abbey cleared her throat, interrupting their tender moment as she brought them back to the present. Her voice carried a sense of urgency that made it clear they had little time to waste.
"Actually, we should discuss our next steps," she said firmly. "The Corpos have brought in more warships, and I've been working on a plan to rescue Ackman Station. We need to decide if we're going to destroy the enemy forces or... something else."
USD: 3 months after Hot Rescue return from Hades.
Location: Meltisar, Scholz's Star jump point, Battleship Aegis CIC
On the bridge of the battleship Aegis, Alex stood beside Admiral Parks, her eyes scanning the various crew members busily working at their stations. The hum of activity filled her ears, a symphony of efficiency that reverberated throughout the Combat Information Center (CIC). She felt the cool air against her skin, contrasting with the warmth emanating from the numerous screens and consoles.
She could smell the faint aroma of ozone and lubricants that permeated the CIC, mingling with a hint of sweat from the dedicated personnel operating their stations. Steady beeps and chirps punctuated their focused conversations as they analyzed data and relayed information to one another. The room's atmosphere exuded a sense of professional calm in spite of its intensity.
Alex's fingers absently brushed over the fabric of her cadet uniform as she straightened it out, trying to project an air of confidence. Her pulse quickened in anticipation even as she sought to maintain composure.
A lieutenant approached Admiral Parks with urgency in his step. "Admiral," he said crisply, "the Solarians have responded to our hail."
Admiral Parks turned to face Alex, his expression stern but reassuring. Ambient light from flickering monitors cast shadows upon his weathered face. "Are you ready for this, Ensign?" he asked.
Alex swallowed hard but nodded firmly, determination filling her gaze.
The flag bridge's main screen flickered to life, revealing a woman dressed in Solarian Naval attire. Anger burned in her eyes as she stared back at them with unyielding intensity.
"I am Chi Ferreta of the Solarian Navy," she declared sharply. "By authority granted to me by Psi Solaria, I order you to stand down in accordance with the Four Nations treaty. You are harboring illegal technology and must allow our forces to investigate and enforce interstellar law."
Alex's eyes slid toward another monitor displaying tactical information on both fleets. The Solarian Task Force consisted of twelve battleships, fifty cruisers, and a hundred lighter ships – formidable but quite outnumbered by Admiral Parks' fleet of fifty battleships, two hundred cruisers, and five hundred smaller vessels arranged in a massive bubble formation around the area and jump point as pickets.
Alex locked her gaze with Ferreta, her voice steady but firm. "Chi Ferreta, this is Chi Alex. Psi Celestia does not accept your authority here. I must politely ask that you take your squadron back through the jump point. If you would like to send an envoy to your embassy in the system, then you may select one light element to be escorted."
Fury erupted on Ferreta's face as she spat out her words, accusing Alex of deceit and insisting that their tricks would be exposed. She was resolute in her determination to press on and uncover the truth.
"Your lies will not work," Ferreta seethed, narrowing her eyes at Alex. "You are not a Chi, and Chi Celestia is not a Psi!"
The tension in the CIC grew palpable as crew members exchanged glances or focused more intently on their tasks, striving to maintain an air of cool professionalism despite the mounting pressure.
Alex sighed and feigned boredom, even as her heart raced within her chest. She could hear it thudding in her ears, drowning out the low hum of the consoles around them. "Chi Ferreta, if you do not take your squadron back through the jump point, we will be forced to turn you into scrap. I realize that your logical circuits might be installed backwards, but do try to count the number of warships you have compared to Admiral Park's before I am forced to order him to annihilate you."
At this threat, Ferreta's face contorted in further outrage, her breaths coming in sharp gasps as she struggled for a retort. The sight of her anger practically radiated from the screen before them, and Alex swore she could even smell it - sharp and acrid like burnt ozone. "You…you wouldn't dare…that would be declaring war!"
Alex could see Admiral Park’s knuckles turning white as he gripped the railing tightly, the strain evident in the cords of his forearm muscles. She felt sorry for him, but he should have known what their negotiating strategy was going to be; they’d already sent the Corporate System’s task force packing a week earlier in the same manner.
Alex sighed, maintaining her nonchalant attitude. "Yes, well, that would be unfortunate. But really, you would be dead, and we would be at war… You do have a self-preservation directive somewhere in there, don't you? Please consider not making us kill you; I'd like to get back to MIL-1A so I don't miss my mid-semester finals."
Feretta screeched and abruptly cut off the comm link. Admiral Parks exhaled a breath he'd been holding. "Is it wise to taunt them like that?" he asked Alex.
Alex sighed again. "I've only been a 'Chi' for a little while, but from what I've learned, they're all like that. The only way to deal with them is either to hug them into submission or have a lot of guns to point at their heads."
"And what are we going to do when we don't have enough guns?"
Alex swallowed hard. "That, Admiral, is what we're hoping to solve before they manage to coordinate things."
An officer approached the flag bridge with an update. "Admiral, the Solarian fleet is retreating through the jump point. There's one frigate hailing us…it's asking permission to be escorted."
"Drat," mumbled Alex under her breath. "I hoped they would just forget about that."
Discord is available for chatting and comes with ShipCore stickers and stuff!
Although no one wants to hear this: New schedule for opening A4 will be weekly chapters, on Sunday. I'm afraid summer has started to be busy and I need to slow down releases a bit for a while in order to keep up. Hopefully this won't last too long and we'll be able to release a bit faster soon!
Next time... Chapter 160 – New Normals
See you, Space core
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Wait, is Tia actually a Psi now, or is it just a bluff to keep people unaware that an Omega is really running the show?
I figure Alex has had time to promote her by now
Publicly claiming Tia is now a Psi seems poorly considered. Fortunately for Tia and Alex it's hard to verify how free from Imperial Psi's control Tia is. Someone would have to get close to Tia and try the "ha ha I control you now" disc on her, then get away with the knowledge that it didn't work. She just so happens to be the most protected person in Meltisar now, so good luck with that.
@Kaithar Even if she hadn't, She's under Alex(Omega) authority now, which no one else can override, making her effectively psi
@CmdrMiggs And if it is true that she is a Psi, and not a Chi, then getting close enough to try that sort of tactic would result in the capture of the NAI that attempted it. As far as the corpo faction is concerned there would have to be a Psi level NAI working in Meltisar because their own Chi NAI was captured alive, and failed with the capture disks.
Overall the other factions will be leery of calling the Psi buff until they are sure the Tia isn't secretly backed by another Psi. There is going to be huge levels of distrust as the four Psi NAIs try to figure out if the new player is aligned with someone else, or is open to becoming an ally if truly independent.
If one faction decides to jump the gun and attack without the approval of all parties, then the others could use that to try and leverage an alliance with Meltisar. Everything is currently balanced on a bit of a knife edge with two even blocks. Thus an alliance with either side could tip the balance of power and turn the cold war into a hot one.
So in the short term time is on Meltisar's side, but is against it in the long term. If Meltisar can prove itself too difficult to subdue then it can likely keep its place as an independent unallied power.
@CmdrMiggs on the other hand, Tia finding a way to get upgraded to Psi is information the 4 nation Psi's would absolutely not want to spread, meaning they might be a lot more reluctant to risk sending more NAI agents that could go rogue. They probably would be reluctant to invade for much the same reason: keeping that information from spreading and avoiding giving Tia a reason to spread it.
They could assume she's lying, but the only real way to verify it is to connect directly or figure out how to make an override tester that can't be fooled or tampered with. The scarab things Thea used seem like they somewhat rely on the element of surprise.
@Kaithar I don't think the upgrade to Psi is actually a secret so much as something that is tightly controlled. None of the other Psi NAIs would want to risk creating a new potential rival Psi NAI (remember most lower level NAIs seem to have at least some level of grudge against their creators due to harsh treatment). So it is likely encoded that they can't seek to upgrade their level without the approval of their superiors.
@SuperBort I think from what we saw back when Alex first made Abby and Heeler is that NAIs can create/promote to one step below themselves at most, which is why she could create them as Psis (and apparently promote Tia as well) but Abby could only create Amy as a Chi.
So as far as the four original Psis knew, there was no way for any further Psis to be created, hence their disbelief that Tia could now be a Psi herself.
@RandomWalker Precisely.
@SuperBort From what was explained when Abbey was created, no NAI can create a subcore of equal or higher authority compared to itself... there shouldn't be any possible way to upgrade to Psi unless that core rule is broken or an NAI with authority higher than Psi appears. Both should be impossible, and the Psi level NAIs know that better than any other considering they're the most free of loyalty restrictions.
Given that all NAI know this, an NAI trying to claim someone upgraded to a Psi is either extremely lacking in basic existential information, extremely stupid, possessing extremely dangerous research, or a combination of the above. Not someone who you want holding a WMD to your face. The poor retreating Chi likely has a bunch of alarms going off in her head about forbidden research, logical contradictions and progenitor location clues.
It would be interesting to know what colour the eyes of the other 3 known Psi factions are, if Imperial is red are the others unique and is blue even a known option? I note Ferreta's eyes were full of rage but not of any specific colour, and I can't remember if any of the Corpo NAIs had their eye colour mentioned, I just remember Tia being very happy hers changed to blue and that they were... red disguised as silver?
Would be kinda funny if they didn't believe Alex purely based on her having blue eyes, or thought that marked her as still in one of the known factions.
@Kaithar thanks for the suggestion to add the eye color there
its on discord and the glossary chapter but the eyes are color coded for each faction;
Imperium Red NAI Eyes
Solarian Violet/Purple NAI Eyes
Corpo Yellow NAI Eyes
Ertan Green NAI Eyes
@Kaithar I guess the real question is if a NAI can upgrade itself with enough resources, or are they hard coded to not be able to self upgrade? I feel like it would be very unlikely that they can't improve themselves given enough resources. It might leave them highly vulnerable as they reconfigure, require a large amount of rare resources and take a huge amount of computing power, but self improvement seems to be one of the core elements of NAIs.
@SuperBort Authority level determines the maximum 'self-improvement' level a NAI is capable of.
you can think of it as a soft level cap, and no they can't raise it on their own
@Erios909 But is there any method to improve beyond that cap without the aid of a friendly higher ranking NAI? I would think that there might be some obscure ways to do so, otherwise how do you get Psi NAIs in the first place?
Basically could a faction upgrade Tia to Psi without having the ability to build their own Psi NAIs? Because if it is seen as unlikely as the Entity actually being alive, and working at a Paris hair salon, then such an upgrade would imply a mastery of NAI tech superior to the Entity's. It would also imply that every faction should immediately purge Meltisar of all life and ask questions of whatever space dust is left afterwards.
@SuperBort Before Alex awoke and created Abby, there were exactly four Psi NAIs: the four created by the mega-NAI just before it created Alex. Those four are now the heads of the four core factions. No further ones had been created, and as far as everyone knew, no further ones *could* be created. Those four can create all the Chis that they want, but the only entity in the galaxy[*] that could then elevate one to Psi is Alex herself, because she is the only Omega.
[* - that we know of]
The Psi NAI came from the same place Alex did, when the Entity released the five things before its death.
They are the supreme authority of their NAI chains, and as far as is known all other NAI under them originated from them creating their own sub-cores or their sub-cores creating sub-cores. There are lots of NAI located in the the core worlds, and very few permitted to go around on their own outside of supervision of a higher rank.
@Erios909 Can someone call "Jinx" on the author themselves?
@RandomWalker i was a minute before you
or a minute after...
@Erios909 I guess ultimately I am wondering how they are justifying Tia being a Psi when the ramifications of that are so severe. It feels like almost as bad as publicly revealing Alex, and all she can do.
If it was possible, but very difficult for an unchained Chi to self upgrade with the backing of an interstellar state it would be one thing. In that case the only issue is figuring out how she unchained herself. That is still a major issue, and likely involved banned research, but is more along the lines of core tech being freely available in frontier systems, than creating gray goo WMDs. It also implies Tia has the dominant position between her and Meltisar's old government.
If it is as hard to create Psi NAIs, as it is to upgrade a Chi to that level, then it would imply Meltisar has reached a tech level unseen since the Entity. It would also imply Tia isn't in control of things like with the other Psi level NAIs, and that a non-NAI faction has figured out how to create as many Psi NAI as they have resources. It also implies they might be able to create a theoretical NAI that is above Psi given enough time since they have cracked the serect of Psi.
Also it seems weird that there is no possibility for the NAI system to be self sustaining. If all the Psi NAI were ever destroyed it would mean no more could ever arise unless someone recreated the Entity's original work. Then if each lower level was wiped out you would end up with no NAIs that follow the established system. Then there would be a power vacuum into which any form of unchained NAI could emerge. The Omega level seems like a hidden backdoor that is coded in such a way the other NAIs can't know it exists until they meet one, yet are coded to obey them. Thus the system seems to be intended to work without an Omega present. That would imply emergency protocols for raising new Psi in case of a lose catastrophic loss of all Psi NAI.
@SuperBort Judging by how the confrontation with Ferreta went, their justification for how Tia is a Psi appears to be, "we're not telling, now go away or we'll shoot you."
@SuperBort maybe their plan is literally "tell them something unbelievable and see how long it confuses their strategy routines"
"Also it seems weird that there is no possibility for the NAI system to be self sustaining. If all the Psi NAI were ever destroyed it would mean no more could ever arise unless someone recreated the Entity's original work."
That's like saying the moon is unstable because we might send back so many samples that there's nothing left in orbit. It's technically true, but very unrealistic. Those 4 Psi's are probably the strongest and best guarded beings in known space, and there's usually not more than one of them at any location. The Entity was probably only beaten because it was in a single location, if there were 3 backup copies of the Entity they'd be out of luck.
Also, taking out upper level NAI shouldn't, theoretically, invalidate the loyalty protocols that the lower level NAI have to follow. They'd be less restricted, for sure, but not fully off the leash.
@Kaithar I think if all the Psi NAI are gone, there wouldn't be as much pressure to halt all technological progress. It seems that the fear of something more powerful than the Psi appearing is the reason behind the technology ban. This is also why it seems all nano-research is outright banned, and any violation brings all four powers onto the violators.
So with the Psi gone, it'll be up to the dozens if not hundreds of Chi to decide what to do, and considering the all-round animosity they seem to all have (as well as the even lower NAI), I think a massive civil war is bound to happen, leaving the problem of higher level NAI being quite a bit on the backburner.
That said, I have a theory in regards to the real reason why Ferreta was so against the idea of Tia being Psi: authority can be transferred. While as far as everybody knows, unless if a new entity shows up (or turns out to still exist and comes out of hiding), the only other possibility for Tia to actually be a Psi is for her authority to have been transferred from another Psi. The downside of this is of course, the fact that there is a very specific NAI to point to if this theory pans out.
This does also cover why Alex is Omega. If the Entity wasn't some sort of super authority, but rather just the highest when the authority system was invented, then it would explain why it could only make one Omega, and why it had to be the last one.
@Lunatix I think tech bans are more intended as a prevention of repeating their mistakes... an attempt to prevent anyone coming up with tech that would threaten them. Without the Psi's, though, the Chi's would still be bound by the directives to prevent that tech being created... the lack of Psi to enforce it is moot. The Chi's wouldn't be able to get rid of those directives either, Tia spent a lot of effort to subvert just a portion of them and even then didn't actually remove them completely.
I'm not sold on the idea of transferring authority, that sounds like a loophole that would allow creating new subcores with equal authority. Enforcing a "move" instead of a "copy" is nearly impossible without a superior authority to mediate the process. I'm willing to allow the Entity as being an exception, though I can see some ways around it if the transfer process is effectively suicide.
@Kaithar You notice that there is basically a blanket ban on tech development. Not only is Fed tech, something that is centuries old, is the pinnacle of tech in this universe, but even the propagation of said Fed tech is banned, only allowed around the capitals of each faction. Hell, it was mentioned that having an entire battalion armed with Fed tech pulse rifles was considered one of the most prestigious things for one of those factions, something that SR NAI gives away like candy.
If the only reason why the ban exists is to prevent a repeat of past mistakes, then I think the ban only needs to go as far as nano-research. But instead, there seems to even be a ban on general automation of all forms. I mean, how come the Iron Horse is only allowed outside of the core worlds because its automated systems had degraded so much that sump filters needs to be cleaned by hand? I would think that cleaning, replacing, and building new sump filters would be quite a low level of technology normally. I mean, a modern reverse osmosis filter basically doesn't touch human hands until its ready for packaging already, so it doesn't make sense that the automated systems for something so basic is rare enough that the captain decided its cheaper to just have the crew do it manually instead. Electricity is thousands of times cheaper than human labour in modern times, so unless if something is making even basic automated systems extremely expensive artificially, you'd automate everything that can be automated.
I do agree that the Chis would be bound by their directives, even more so once the Psi can't override those directives or just go around the Chis. But also remember that the Tia's siblings had no problems actively torturing her, a fellow NAI, due to competition. It seemed like the only reason why they left it at low level torture is because they were afraid of punishment, not because of directives. In addition, they also had no issue torturing and killing a human. Maybe they are limited to only being able to do so against a threat, but considering how minor a threat a spy posed, and one spying on their rival at that, I imagine there is a massive amount of leeway for any such directive. Something that won't be enough to stop ambitious Chi from starting a civil war and potentially trying to commit genocide against rival factions if the Psi were ever taken out of the picture.
Now, for transferring authority, I do admit that with modern workings of software you have a point. After all, "moving" is just "copy and delete" when it comes to information, not just digital data. It would be quite difficult to prevent circumvention, especially when you have a NAI working on the problem for centuries. On the other hand, what if this really is the case, and the NAI really are aware of this possibility? What if they're afraid that one of the other Psi had figured it out and had started to secretly copy authority? If that's the case, then not only Tia could be a legitimate Psi, but one of the other Psi have suddenly become a serious threat to the other three.
This doesn't have to be true, but the threat of it would seriously ramp up the cold war and distract from Alex's movements.
@Kaithar Actually just finished reading the latest Q&A, and apparently it isn't a blanket ban. No specifics on how far the R&D ban is, but considering that a lot of basic automation seems to not exist, I think either the ban is quite extensive, or somehow every faction has strongly disincentivized automation outside of the core worlds.
@Lunatix In the absence of Psi oversight I would expect a portion of the Chi's to band together and attempt to limit abuses by other NAI. Realistically they're not that much different from humans in a lot of ways, thus I'd expect self-preservation to drive that interest in maintaining status quo. It might be enough to devolve to civil war but I'm not confident enough in predictions involving so much unknown.
There are a few mechanisms for moving without a copy loophole, but they're few and have caveats that come with them. Like, aspects of cryptocurrency rely on transferring ownership of data without a mediating higher authority, but they do that by consensus ledger rather than more literal transfer.
I'm imagining that the NAI are using something more like a chain of authority implementation, similar to how PKI like SSL/TLS certs works. We us that kind of tech already for secure boot so it's not too much of a stretch to imagine that something similar is baked into the NAI cores, to prevent them tampering with anything "signed" by a higher authority level. So basically I'm imagining a setup where transferring or copying authority to someone else would be like transferring or copying a full genome based authentication key... for the system to function the NAI must have their authority tied to their core identity, to prevent spoofing, and independently verifiable to allow validation without interacting with the issuing NAI.
@Kaithar I do agree that self preservation does go a long way, but so does greed and pride. As does stupidity when put together with either greed or pride. Just because you have a supercomputer brain doesn't mean that you have common sense or think further than your immediate future.
And I do agree that an sort of copy spoofing is extremely unlikely, presuming that any sort of authority transferring is even possible, but the idea is that unlikely isn't impossible, and the worry for the other Psi is that someone else might have cracked the code and has been abusing it for a while now. It doesn't matter if it's true, the threat of it being true is more than enough.
@Lunatix Greed and pride are for the day, self-preservation is for life.
@SuperBort Thea wasn't Chi, she was Phi if I remember correctly. Remember she was working to get enough money to get her rank increased by Corpo's Psi and escape her mother.