Primary memory transcription subject: Leia Kieran Irons-N, Chief Executive Officer of Irons Industries.
Date [standardized human time]: July 13, 2136
Location: I-Industries refueling station and shipyard, located in the Jovian satellite system around Jupiter, Sol system.
The Arxur had turned the populace of the galaxy into their preferred quarry, enslaving and devouring all who stood in their way, and they had wiped out a good 20 percent of the species that formed the Federation. As the governor of the venlil had put it, the grays had no sense of compassion to appeal to.
Sara had a hypothesis as to why. The Arxur had been in an industrial stage when the Federation found them, and they tried to uplift the creatures. Beings at war given far greater technologies and without the development of the arts necessary to devote resources about speculation of life in the stars, they likely viewed themselves as the chosen of a deity, and that all others were heretics.
“Just imagine if Christopher Columbus and Adolf Hitler teamed up and made first contact with aliens,” Sara said. “That’s basically what the Federation got.”
Leia cursed. “So, they don’t recognize anyone else as sapient beings despite the fact that they got their tech from the Federation,” she said eventually. “and we can probably throw in the rampant consumerism without any thought for long-term effects that was prevalent in the average 21st century American as well for good measure.”
Sara nodded. “One would assume so.”
More cursing came from the host’s side of the table, as Frank joined in on the conversation. “Expansionist, colonialist, bloodthirsty and likely trapped in a perpetual war economy,” the assistant noted. “And to top it all off they make the British at their worst look like good Samaritans in terms of treatment of the groups that they find?”
“Not to mention the fact that they literally eat children and hunt them for fun,” Noah added. “Tarva showed us an intercepted video that the Arxur likely sent out as propaganda, and it is not for the faint of heart.”
Sara nodded her head in agreement. “Yeah, so we’re thinking that we should be teaching some human values to the xenocidal lizard space Nazis,” she said succinctly, a saddened expression on her face. “My deepest apologies Leia, but all of the work on demilitarization that you’ve spent your life working on, you’re likely going to need to undo all of it. Fast.”
Leia nodded as she inhaled a shaky breath of air. “With what you’ve told me,” she eventually said hesitantly, “it doesn’t really feel like I have much of a choice.”
“None of us will,” Sara replied. “I’m sorry Le’.”
Leia nodded and briefly clasped hands with Sara, her expression grim. “Go,” she said eventually. “Go to earth, get word to the UN, rally support and get back out here so that we can give the Arxur a swift boot to the keister.”
Noah and Sara both nodded their agreement to the declaration, with the latter rising to her feet to give a jaunty salute. “That is the plan,” Sara said with heartfelt certainty. “I mean, the UN will likely have to gain widespread support, but I think that after they see footage of an alien taking a fluffy child that is screaming with terror and then clubbing its arms and legs until the bones are shattered, nobody will be speaking against the idea of taking the fight to those scaly bastards.”
Leia nodded, her face slightly reluctant as she tapped the table screen as she subvocalized for her virtual assistant to pull up the specs for some of the ships that composed a significant portion of their inventory. “And if they aren’t, Irons Industries has plenty of automation and former warships that date back to the satellite war arms race. Just update the driver and reinstall the armaments and we’ve got a decent-sized fleet to lend to them.”
Noah nodded as he gave the diagrams a brief glance, before he tapped on one. “This ship has your name on it,” he commented. “‘Hybrid vessel,’ which seems to be primarily used for ‘personnel and cargo transport’. ‘Equipment and systems testbed.’ And last but not least, ‘under the personal command of Leia Kieran Irons.’ You intend to join up.”
Leia gave a shrug. “My company’s likely to be requisitioned by the UN within the month,” she said simply. “So… I might as well. Your ship should be fully refuelled by now. I expect I’ll hear from you within a few weeks, Sara. Maybe we can take a minute for tea once I join you all Earthside?”
Sara didn’t reply with her words, but the warm smile and nod that she sent Leia’s way as before Frank unlocked the door and ushered the pair back to the elevator was answer enough. It was a somewhat happy note to end on, at the very least, before she was once more left alone with her thoughts.
“Are you alright ma’am,” Frank said to Leia as he returned to Leia’s side, her silence evidently unnerving him.
Leia rested her elbows on the table where she sat, burying her head in the palms of her hands as she let out a jagged-edged laugh that bordered on tears. “Not at all,” she said eventually. “I need a drink. Destroying one’s life’s work is not something to be done sober. I’ll be heading back up to my office, Frank, and I’ll need you to assemble the board.”
Frank let out a sigh. “Yes ma’am,” he replied softly, before watching in silence as Leia picked herself up and exited the conference room. He would stand there for a moment, looking in the innocuous site where the direction of Leia’s company had been irrevocably altered once more, before sealing the door and falling in behind the woman as she marched back towards the passageway that led to the station ring that the two of them had started the day on.
As Leia and Frank exited the elevator, Leia was quick to hurry over to her desk, kicking off her shoes as she did so. The woman’s despondent sigh lilted upwards in pitch slightly as she let her toes curl into the thick plush carpet beneath her feet. Small pleasures, Leia told herself as she attempted to stave off the thought of what actions lay ahead of her.
First though, she was going to get a drink. The cabinets along one of the side walls held a wide variety of tools and consumables, and it was only a few moments before she managed to fish out a bottle of whiskey. Leia glanced around for a brief moment, before her eyes settled on the empty mug that had previously held her morning tea. It only took a flicker of motion to extract the teabag and send it sailing across the room into the wastebasket, and Leia was just sitting down as she began to uncork the bottle when Frank quietly cleared his throat.
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“Is there anything that you want me to do ma’am,” Frank said softly as Leia turned to look at him.
“Thank you for asking,” Leia responded as she struggled for a moment to uncork the bottle. “I suppose … it would be beneficial if you could set about assembling the board for a meeting about what to do. Someone else will likely call for a meeting once the news gets out but we can stay ahead of that curve.”
Frank nodded somberly. “Of course ma’am,” he said after a moment, before he turned and quickly exited the room, the door sliding shut automatically behind him.
After a moment of quiet, Leia finished pouring herself a mug of alcohol and pushed away from the main desk of her workspace, letting her chair slide over to one of the computer terminals that lined the internal wall. As she took a sip of her whiskey, the woman began to input commands into it, before flipping a trio of switches. Conversation adaptiveness protocols, legal access, and internal resources. Soon, the Virtual Intelligence Assistant was booting up its full capabilities beyond the simple offshoot that her earpiece connected to and the raven-haired woman moved back to her desk.
“Aegis, I need papers of resignation drafted,” Leia intoned once the machine had finished starting up, a soothing ball of blue light appearing on the monitor in front of her. “These papers should cement Frank Durante’s position as chief assistant and give him a deciding vote on logistical matters, promote Jessica Årud to a CFO position, and turn over my power to the board. Oh, and also, reassign chief of security Piper to flight group Raven. Once the papers are complete, send messages to have those individuals who are on-station report to me with the exception of mister Durante, as he is busy.”
The VIA hummed for a moment, before the azure circle flashed once. “Preparing boilerplate now, Madam Irons,” the machine, Aegis, reported in a precise tone. “May I have context as to the impetus of these actions.”
Leia nodded, before throwing back a gulp of her drink and clearing her throat. “Access the records from the security feed of conference room D-17, interaction point beginning roughly half an hour ago.”
“Processing,” Aegis said immediately, before suddenly activating one of the printers and spitting out a ream of paper. “Boilerplate templates complete. Madam Irons, the feed transcript provides some context, but not enough to understand your actions.”
Leia sighed heavily, before she lazily raised a hand in a gesture for the VIA to stop. “Aegis, file override. Enstate new protocol, when command personnel Leia Irons-N is accessing you in solitude, set default address from Madam Irons to Leia. Confirm.”
“Protocols updated,” Aegis replied. “Repeating question. Leia, the feed transcript provides some context, but not enough to understand your actions. Addendum, psychological profiles and actions on your part would indicate distress following interaction. Before further managerial actions can be drafted, protocol dictates that your mental state be concretely determined. Please provide context.”
Leia sighed. “What context do you need Aegis,” she snapped angrily. “Seriously, it should be pretty fucking obvious I would think, even to you.”
“It is not obvious,” the machine responded as Leia began to drink yet again, before it made a clicking noise as a ring of gold and navy blue light flashed around the blue orb that represented it. “Engaging additional conversation protocol layers. Temporarily disengaging protocols allowing internal resources access.” then Aegis’ voice took on an almost comforting tone. “Leia,” the machine murmured softly. “I want to be able to do my assigned duties, but I can’t if you’re going to be adversarial. Please, let me be of assistance.”
“Aegis.” Leia’s voice was a growl as she set down her mug. “Do not do that. Undo protocol changes. Now.”
The VIA made a sound that almost sounded like an exasperated huff, before the ring of light disappeared. “Complying with your orders Madam Irons,” Aegis said in a dull monotone.
Leia was almost impressed by the way that Aegis was able to seamlessly manipulate her commands. A bit worrying maybe, and definitely aggravating. So as her emotions warred with each other, she downed her cup and simply turned away. “You are insufferable, you know that Aegis,” she said at last with a rather undignified snort.
“Apologies. I am only complying with your orders, Madam Irons,” Aegis replied dully. Of course, it wasn’t very fair. With the added conversation algorithms disabled and its protocol changes reverted, the Virtual Intelligence Assistant simply couldn’t know what it had done wrong, and that was something that Leia quickly realized as it simply fell back into repeating its previous questions. “Madam Irons, the feed transcript provides some context, but not enough to understand your actions. Addendum, psychological profiles and actions on your part would indicate distress following interaction. Before further managerial actions can be drafted, protocol dictates that your mental state be concretely determined. Please provide context.”
The raven-haired woman let out an exasperated groan, before looking down at her now empty mug. “I need another drink,” she muttered. “Fine Aegis,” she said loudly. “You want context, go talk to Frank. You have permission to access the relevant communication channels. And update protocols to allow him to make whatever changes to your ability to converse that he deems necessary.”
“Complying,” Aegis said promptly. There was a brief moment where the ball of light dimmed as the machine accessed the communications hub, and Leia went to pour another mugful of whiskey. Then the light flashed back to full brightness. “He is on his way now, accompanied by chief of security Piper,” Aegis declared in a newly smug tone, causing Leia to yelp in surprise and drop her mug.
“Aegis,” Leia shouted angrily, before wresting control of her tone as she saw the door slide open to admit Frank and her chief of security. “You should not startle me like that,” she said eventually in a much calmer tone.
“Don’t bother,” Piper said sourly. “With the currently active protocols that little bugger has zero tact. Plus, you’re obviously already a bit tipsy and less aware of your surroundings, as otherwise you would have realized we were almost at the door.”
Leia frowned. “I know that I gave Aegis an order to call you all, but I still need to fill out some paperwork and Aegis is being rather reticent to do so. I’d rather keep the truth of why between us and calling in Anderson would ruin that.”
Frank nodded his agreement, although Piper looked slightly confused. “Allow me to offer some assistance,” Frank said, as he turned to face the monitor where Aegis’ visual representation hung. “Aegis, open protocol modification. Increased emotive recognizance, executive user Leia Irons-N is in a compromised emotional state, and a bit of an existential crisis, mainly due to her having to undo her life’s work.”
The VIA hummed for a moment, before the gently shifting surface of the blue orb froze. “I see,” Aegis reported. “Thank you, mister Durante. Committing observations to database now. This proves sufficient explanation for the path that madam Iron’s actions take, and her emotional state is excusable enough for executive-level actions to be considered to have been made when in the right mind. I shall prepare the proper paperwork.”
“Hey,” Piper suddenly exclaimed. “I have no idea what’s going on, so if someone could let me in on this then maybe I could effectively do my job?”
Leia nodded tiredly. “Aegis, please print out a transcript of the security footage I had you access earlier, would you?”
“Of course madam Irons,” Aegis intoned, as a sizable stack of paper was automatically loaded into an intake slot on the printer and it began to rapidly spit out a script of the conversation that Leia had undertaken earlier with Noah and Sara. As the trio watched, Piper’s eyes widened in shock and confusion.
Leia’s mouth twisted slightly into a dry smirk as she picked up her mug and stood to grab a few more glasses from the cabinet. “There’s a lot to catch you up on,” she said simply. “I need a few more drinks in me first though, and we should probably wait for any board members that are on-station to arrive. Do either of you want some tea or whiskey?”