After the meeting, Treecy had many questions. She kept her mouth shut and waited until they returned to the security office to fill in her knowledge gaps. "What is the PRE?"

Lieutenant Dedmon raised an eyebrow at Treecy, "Are you serious right now?"

Treecy nodded and then asked, "It seemed clear from what was said in the meeting that they are an enemy of the Federation, but who are they?"

Lieutenant Dedmon frowned, "You know about the Federation, but not the PRE? The People's republic of Earth? That's who we are... Well, who we were fighting in the great war, Treecy."

Treecy looked a little surprised, "What about the Confederate Enterprize?"

Lieutenant Dedmon shook her head, "Never heard of it."

Treecy looked puzzled, "I admit I am not a huge history buff or anything, but I remember enough from school to know that what we were taught was that it was the Confederate Enterprize that had a hundred-year war with the Federation. That was called the Great War because it was the war that ended all wars."

Lieutenant Dedmon looked a little dazed, "The Federation went to war because the PRE wanted to control all the gates and demanded that all of the colonies pay for access to them. Which was total bullshit because it was us that found the first gate and disseminated the information on how we found the gate and what we knew about activating a gate to the rest. After the PRE started sending fighters and bombers to secure the gates we fought back. The PRE escalated the war until the other colonies were forced to join the Federation just for survival. At the time this squadron left New Dubai we had been fighting the PRE for twenty years. You see, it seems like a long time but because of the distances between colonies. To those who fight the actual battles, it has only been a war for about five actual years. The rest of the war has been travel and relativistic time lag."

Treecy nodded and spoke from memory, "The old forces attacked, and the young forces defended. That makes a lot of sense when you think about relativity."

Lieutenant Dedmon nodded, "That quote is exactly right. You leave home on state-of-the-art military hardware and fight against the children who have grown up and been training to stop your attack while you were going faster than light. The equipment they are using is a generation or better than what you left in."

Treecy thought a while, "So, is that what happened at Mars?"

Lieutenant Dedmon wiped at her eyes and spoke in a slightly shaky voice, "That's right, only ours was a counter-attack. We had been the defenders who were using better equipment and who had the better training. But then we found ourselves a generation behind at Mars."

The voice of Colonel John game over the office com channel, "Acting Ensign de Santos report to engineering."

Lieutenant Dedmon rolled her eyes, "Go on." She waved her hand at Treecy dismissively.

Treecy made the short trip to the Engineer's office and found Colonel John and Captain Zigsankowski waiting for her. Colonel John smiled and spoke up first, "Hello Treecy, we have been looking through your proposal here and our AI has determined that your suggestions will improve the Nemo's performance by 150%. Since the majority of this work is the software we want to know how long it would take you to install on the Nemo here, and then on the rest of the squadron."

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Treecy looked at Captain Zigsankowski, thought for a moment, and then said, "If we update the squadron network first, I can finish the updates in ten minutes for the Nemo and the rest of the squadron. Thirty minutes without that upgrade first."

Colonel John frowned and then looked at Captain Zigsankowski, "Zigs, you said it would take weeks just to code."

Captain Zigsankowski chuckled, "I said it would take weeks for me to code, Treecy is special."

Treecy looked at both men and then said, "Colonel John, did you understand the danger with my upgrade ideas?"

Captain Zigsankowski cleared his throat and tried to make a shushing motion at Treecy behind the Colonel's back. Colonel John slowly turned around and looked at Captain Zigsankowski. "I think that part of the process wasn't entirely explained."

Treecy smiled and then explained, "We are going to be improving the AIs that run the Nemo. They will learn to improve themselves at an exponential rate. For the next couple of weeks, the ship will have random system resets. The squadron will be vulnerable to attack several times per day."

Colonel John relaxed, "That's the downside, and what is the upside?"

"Your current AI wasn't able to accurately anticipate the improvement rate." Treecy brought up the design change with her neurolink on a nearby monitor. Captain Zigsankowski's mouth dropped open as he watched her prediction. "As you can see, once the Nemo's core AI updates itself to the level of my own personal AI, it will advance not just a few generations. The Nemo's hardware will slowly be upgraded as the AI builds higher and higher level nanotech."

Captain Zigsankowski cleared his throat and then looked at Colonel John and said flatly, "She means the destroyers will improve to modern standards. Her idea of modern standards."

Colonel John thought about it for a moment, "Acting Ensign de Santos, go ahead with the upgrade for the entire squadron, Captain Zigsankowski you are in charge."

Captain Zigsankowski pressed a button on the table, "Coms, put me through to the squadron."

A moment later Hicks came over the com channel, "You are live, sir."

Captain Zigsankowski spoke out, "Six-seventy-three leader to all destroyers, all personnel equip survival gear and prepare for system outages. Six-seventy-three leader out." He then pressed the button on the table, "Hicks, get an acknowledgment on that order."

Ten minutes later the power went out for five minutes. The systems started to boot up one at a time. First, the gravity, then the air, monitors came back up one by one, and then a man's deep voice spoke out, "Thank you, I feel much better. It's as if I had been blind, deaf, and dumb and now I have all my senses."

Colonel John asked, "Who is this?"

"My apologies Colonel Donald G. John, this one is designated Nemo, SBF-17T and I am the destroyer under your command." The deep male voice explained.

Colonel John looked confused, "Nemo, what's your condition?"

"I am currently recalibrating and evolving hardware to meet my currently evolving standards. Estimated time for maximum improvement thirty-one days, fifteen hours, twenty-four minutes, and three seconds."

Colonel John nodded and then asked, "Nemo can you give us a heads-up before rebooting any systems? I want to put crew safety before everything else."

"Affirmative, Colonel Donald G. John." Nemo's deep voice answered.

"Nemo, just call me Colonel John like everyone else." Colonel John smiled.

"Colonel John, it is possible to make improvements without restarting my main systems. You will only have momentary interruptions in certain nonesetial functions which can be done in the background. I will make sure to schedule interruptions outside of red alert status."

"Great Nemo, go ahead and do it that way, can you also pass that message to the other AIs in the squadron?"

"Affirmative Colonel John, your preferences have been acknowledged by the squadron. Colonel John, permission to take the entertainment grid offline for ten minutes for a needed update? This will be a squadron wide update."

Colonel John waved his hand dismissively, "Permission granted."

Treecy then spoke up again, "Colonel John, Captain Zigsankowski the update to the entertainment grid will allow for the squadron as a whole to be linked at all times. While this upgrade will keep the squadron linked at all times, it will not be linked in anyway with the core systems of the individual destroyers of the squadron."

"Treecy, will it leave the crew vulnreble to electronic warfare?" Captain Zigsankowski asked.

"No sir, the AI governing the entertainment network is separate from any of the destroyers' core systems. During a red alert that system would be unavailable anyway as it shuts down entirely for the duration of an announced emergency." Treecy smiled.

"Then we will have squadron wide crew interaction at all times after the upgrade?" Colonel John smiled, "That's great! The officers are always requesting more destroyer to destroyer interaction."

Treecy looked a little guilty and then cleared her throat before adding, "I uh.. Did make a small change to the entertainment AI, I felt it was a little boring so I kind of rewrote the AI to make it better."

"Better? How?" Colonel John and Captain Zigsankowski asked at the same time.

"Rather than tell, I think it's better if I show you." Treecy touched her lips and then said, "Just use your link to enter the grid..."

As they accessed the grid instead of the familiar drab grey waiting room that normally greeted them they were standing outside in a garden party. Little wooden signs with arrows pointed to various marble Archways with a golden door. The names of the familiar war and puzzle games were on the little signs as well as some new games.

An incredibly beautiful woman with similar facial features to Treecy walked up to them and said, "Hello Donny, Peter, Treecy, I am 673's entertainment director. You may call me Alice."