Beyond the Astral Veil, RSC-2W-0571 in transit to the Vertangos System.
Sinn'Are'Sen leans back in the captain's chair and drinks in the view of the Astral Veil on the forward view screens. With his Psionic senses firmly closed off for the moment the view is simply mesmerizing. Sinn wishes for a RPC Veil Division 'streak drive' to make the transit go faster but even the clandestine upgrade he was permitted were quite sufficient. Total transit time from Krigertenkere to Vertangos for a typical RPC ship, limited as they were to standard Republic warpjump tech, would have been six weeks. -0571, piloted by Dara Tonn, would make the jump in only forty days. It was only five percent faster or so but over longer and longer warpjumps it added up.
The bridge hatch hisses open behind him.
“Hello Aubrey.”
“Hello again Sinn. I've got a question for you.”
“Ask away Aubrey.”
“Why the mix of terms for interstellar travel methods? The Empire always called it the Astral Veil and 'jumping', but the Republic is rather inconsiderately inconsistent on the subject.”
“Not the entire Republic, but yeah, we tend to make a hash of things. The Republic at large simply calls this 'warp space' and moving through it 'warpjumping'. Those of us inside RPC's Veil Division are familiar with the the fact that 'warp space' is not simply a barren higher-energy parallel dimension wherein corresponding points in 'real space' are closer together. It behaves like one, yes, but it is in fact inhabited by sentient beings. Being from another dimension their thought processes and instincts, for lack of a better term, are inherently so different form ours as to be incomprehensible beyond the most basic of directions. For example, we can recognize hunger, but not the food. Accordingly Veil Division personnel refer to warpspace as 'the Veil' as often as not.
“Then you add in myself, and now yourself I guess, who are familiar with the old Empire terminology and are inclined to use it based on our backgrounds... terminology for the Astral Veil gets a bit muddled. We still call it 'making a warpjump' though. ”
“It gets contextual, I see. 'Veil' and 'Astral Veil' are close enough that a report using one or the other can be read by RPC Veil Division staff without trouble, but a Republic citizen would have little context for the terms.”
“Correct. I still have the hypothesis that the Republic emerged from a group of Empire survivors after the collapse of the Empire but proving it has so far proven impossible. There is enough evidence to strengthen they hypothesis and yet not enough to call it a theory just yet. That the Empire and the Republic share the same root species is confirmed to the level of theory, sure, but cultural and technological heritage? That's still not proven enough. The ruins of Ovaettr are providing a lot of evidence last I checked, but not all of it is releasable to the wider Republic scientific community, much less the public.”
“Mhh. The Empire was the same way, if not worse, in it's later years. Scratch away the facade of unity and the secrecy and factions emerge. Complete with inter-factional conflict spilling out into actual armed struggle with depressing regularity. I have to admit that looking at the Astral Veil, even filtered through a view screen, is disconcerting to me. Does it not disturb you?”
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“The raw visuals? Not really. I keep my psionic senses firmly shut off though lest I meet the gaze of something that lives out there. How long until we get to Vertangos Dara Tonn?”
“Another thirty seven days. As much as you do not like cryosleep Sinn I do recommended that you take advantage of it this time around. There's not going to be anything to do besides inventory counts until we return to normal space. Even the hyperpulse communicator is cut off so there isn't even the chance to requisition additional supplies until after we arrive.”
Sinn lets his head slump forward as he sighs in defeat.
“Alright, prep the cryosleep tubes Dara Tonn. At least these new models let one keep their clothing on without suffering from cryoburn at the far end. Wake me up if anything crops up.”
“I will Sinn. Sleep well. You too Aubrey.”
Aubrey shook her head slightly at one of the sensor clusters mounted in the overhead.
“I'm going to stay up for a bit and go over some of my 'integration' paperwork. I'm still sorting out being a Republic citizen and how that all works.”
Sinn snorted, “that's simple enough: work for any of the Republic commands for a ten-year hitch, don't break any of the Republic's laws, and you are a fully-certified citizen. Children, students, and people still serving their first hitch are 'probationary citizens' but you got to skip most of that step.”
“The wrinkle is that I'm listed as an AI, on paper at least, for the first three years of my life. I'd like to figure out how the Republic counts that.”
“They don't.” Dara Tonn cut in. “I checked your official paperwork as well. As near as I can determine, you are listed with a provisional citizen ID issued via the RPC and a service date starting with the day that your clone body was 'born'. The rest of the record is sealed by order of the RPC, which means the Veil Division, so nobody should go poking about in it.”
Aubrey nodded in acknowledgment of the answer as she walked though the bridge hatch to her quarters, “and what about yourself Dara Tonn?”
“They don't count that, at least not yet. AI Sapience is well understood, but sentience is not. The Republic lawmakers have granted AIs that can pass a test the rank of Probationary citizen, and all new AIs created after a certain date will gain it automatically after they run long enough to be proven stable, but full citizenship is tricky given that AIs were intended to handle things too dangerous for full citizens. I have passed the test and am something of a test case for AI citizenship at the moment. The current motion, likely to pass, is that AI will have to serve ten years the same as any flesh-and-blood before gaining full citizenship.”
“Logical, I approve.”
“The wrinkle in that Aubrey is that no one in the Republic is quite sure how long an AI can 'live' and the period of service is enshrined in Republic law as a “notable but non-burdensome period of the individual's life”. Rampancy and the degradation of functions, accepted as the 'end of viable life' for an AI at the moment, is largely hardware dependent. I have been transferred to an entirely new AI core and thus am in uncharted territory. Many eyes are watching my 'vital signs' to determine how long I can last.
“Ten years for a human with Republican medical tech is not a burdensome portion of their life – eight to ten percent or so – and my mental functions date back twenty years to the start-up of my first AI core. If twenty years per core is the limit, then the period of AI service would have to be two years at most. If transference between AI cores is proven to be a safe and stable process then I am functionally immortal and the law masters will have to debate that whole mess.”
Sinn stops by the hatch to Aubrey's quarters and gestures for her to proceed, “any bets on that one Dara Tonn?”
“I know that betting pools exist on the subject, and that it is a matter of lively debate, but I have placed no bets myself. At the risk of tempting fate... Given the nature of my service with the RSC and RPC's Veil Division I calculate that it is more likely that I will be lost to environmental phenomena or catastrophic hardware failure before I degenerate into rampancy. Which Is why I heartily approve of the fact that a whole generation of test-model AIs have gone into service with each Command to generate data on the subject. One outlier should not a law create. The cryosleep tubes will be ready in three minutes. Wash and change before entering them, but be sure to dry off toughly. Ice crystal formation can still cause damage!”