When the colonel nodded in response, I turned to Michael:
“Now, you said you have two NADAs in the basement? Why did you not tell me about them? And do they have the 4D system?”
Before Michael could answer, Marcel interjected:
“I would strongly advise you to not use some made-up hyperbolic terms for our industrial products. The people we market them to will most likely react very negatively to that. They are not the uneducated masses after all.”
I was confused. “Ookaay? If you say so.” I unconsciously drawled the sentences, which led to Marcel impatiently snarling:
“Oh come on, the replicators are clearly a product for the industry. So we not only don’t need some hype buzzwords like ‘4D system’, but it is absolutely counterproductive. No damage yet, but for the future, it might be better to leave such things out.”
I shook my head, trying to clear it before I answered:
“I am not a person who uses buzzwords and hyperbole, ever. I used the term 4D system because that is what it is. A device that allows the NADA to create four-dimensional structures. Well, technically, they probably can create eight-dimensional structures, but I’ve yet to test that. Four dimensions are hard enough to calculate.”
Marcel just sat there, his mouth opening and closing, but Maynard perked up even more.
“Wait, four-dimensional? You can make four-dimensional structures? You have to send me all you know about it. And what did you need four-dimensional structures for?”
Michael rapped on the table to get the attention.
“Maynard, you can talk to her about science later. It would drive the rest of us out of the room, and you would probably have a brain melt. Let’s keep it on the strategy for now, what we release and when. Ok?”
Maynard grumbled for a bit but answered with an Ok.
After a moment, Michael nodded and then turned to Jessi.
“Now, Vivian mentioned the cloning tech and meat vats. I think that falls under your resort.”
To be fair, Jessi thought about it for a moment.
“I am not sure what you are saying. I know cloning tech is expensive, but it is also a market that Panacea has virtually sewn up. I don’t think we will penetrate too deeply there. And meat vats are a bad idea. In the long run, what they produce turns toxic.”
Michael's answer was: “I do not fully understand the differences myself, but I know they are fundamental. So, please explain, Viv.”
I nodded, looked into the round, and then directly at Jessi:
“I needed to have a deep look into cloning tech to make the myosynth conversion system work. The original prototype version was not viable, literally burning through hundreds of dollars worth of nanobots each day.
I don’t know if you looked into it, but essentially it works by building a layer of modified tissue of the recipient on the myosynth. So, cloning was the obvious answer to replace the nanobots. It was also the wrong answer, thanks to the toxic buildup that you mentioned.
In response, I developed a variant of the NADA technology to look into how the cloning process works on the cellular level. Well, to observe cellular and even molecular level activities in real-time, but I developed it for the cloning process.
And yes, when we come out with the NADA, we can market the BOU, or Bio-Observation-Unit as well.
To make things short, I found out why the cloning process accumulates toxins. When I bypassed that part of the process, not only were the toxins gone, but it was significantly faster.
To give you a ballpark figure, a full-sized research clone takes around 26 days to grow, compared to 180 to 270 in the traditional processes. It also costs about one-third in materials and has no toxic buildup.
In other words, this process is faster, cheaper, can be used for replacement tissue indefinitely, and can be used for meat vats without getting poisoned by eating it.
It is also quite handy in producing vegetables and spices. At the moment, I have an experiment running to look if it can produce milk and eggs. And it looks promising.”
Jessi sat there, staring at me before she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“You are saying you have created a toxin-free cloning process that is cheaper and takes less than a sixth of the time?”
I shrugged.
“Yes. To be fair, I am sure a proper bioengineer can improve the process, but for now, it works.”
“I fear I have to disagree here. We had cloning tech for nearly 200 years by now, and nobody ever had such a breakthrough. If you think that is not proper bioengineering, I don’t want to know what you think is.”
I shook my head.
“Don’t get me wrong, I can do bioengineering, but I am not suited for it. I don’t really like it, and it feels clumsy to me. No, the real breakthrough was the BOU, which is a nanoengineering breakthrough. And which I can work with way better. I just observed what the various commercial growth accelerators were doing, then cut out the unnecessary steps, and then copied the best working pure stimulant.”
I turned to Eli:
“And no, the stimulant in question is not trademarked or copyrighted. It is a natural biological substance that traditional growth accelerators induce the cells to produce. That by the way is where the toxic byproducts come from.”
I returned my gaze to Jessi.
“And that is what I mean by a proper bioengineer being able to improve in the process. Naturally, with the BOU, they probably can create a synthetic stimulant that works better.”
She nodded.
“I see. So, you managed to turn a bioengineering problem into a nanoengineering problem. Well, we’ll have to do quite a few tests before we can release that technology, but that sounds promising.”
I shrugged.
“Remember the BOU. It is not only useful in observing the actual cloning process but it can also be used to observe lab rats when we feed them cloned meat and plants. It would show very clearly and very early if there is any toxic byproduct. And I’ve had the tech since mid-January. I’ve fed the stuff to quite a few rats by now. I also have used it to clone some things.
Like for example a replacement Kidney for Justin, my bodyguard. I can send you the data. But the result is that there is no toxicity buildup. At all. When you look over the data from the commercial or open-source growth accelerators, it is immediately obvious where the toxicity comes from.”
I made a pause, but before she could answer me I continued:
“And yes, I fully expect you to replicate the whole experiment with the BOU and all the available GAs, as well as the new method.”
She nodded and leaned back into her chair.
Marcel tapped nervously on the table during my explanation and now looked like he had an idea.
“Does that mean that we may be able to market the CRS-free myosynth as well?”
I shrugged.
“I don’t think marketing the CRS-free cyberware is the way to go here. Unlike the neuronect, myosynth has to be adapted to the recipient. No, I think we will have to sell the machine that does the adaption. But that, you can market I think.
Not that there will be that big of a market I think. Myosynth was on the way out at the beginning of the great war, and only neural CRS kept it on life support all those years.”
He nodded.
“We will see. Correctly marketed, it might be a low-cost option for those that want a bit more oomph, but can’t get it through training. Now, Jessi, what is your opinion about the marketability of this cloning tech? Is that something we can sell?”
Jessi looked contemplative for a moment.
“Honestly, a year ago, I would have said it’s not worth the risk. With Panacea at the height of its power, even if they were unable to match the quality, they would have stopped at nothing trying to either destroy it or steal it.
Now? They are hurting and hurting badly. From what I heard, they are on the verge of falling down to AA status.
So yes, at this time, when they are vulnerable, we can market it and make money on it. Maybe we can push them down to A or even B status. Would serve them right.”
Oh wow, I liked that woman, for some strange reason. Whoda thought. But to shoot into the same vein, I spoke up.
“I don’t think they will recover from this. Ever. One of the projects I am still working on, mostly because it is so mind-numbingly dry, is to create a full auto-doc. As soon as we have that, we can partner with ABAS and create competition for PEES.”
A big smile crept over Jessi’s face, and she literally hopped in her chair and clapped:
“Oh goody. That is rad news. How far along are you and how long do you think it will take?”
I shrugged.
“I have the actual machine ready. Only the processor either needs to be replaced or we need to wait until we announce the NADA. Right now, it is a, in my opinion, superior auto-surgeon. Combine that with a specialized molecular forge to create the drugs, and the only thing missing is the medical VI.”
It was then that I got an idea.
“Of course, now that Calliope is mostly free, I think I will let her work on it. Should speed it up quite a bit.”
I was not braced for the wave of confusion that moved along the table. I looked at Michael, the only one besides me who was not surprised.
“Did you not tell them about Calliope?”
He had his typical rakish smile.
“Nope thought it would make a nice surprise.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes, and I noticed I was not the only one doing so.
“Fine. I’ll do it myself. Are you all aware that we acquired the former Ralcon Gaming Division?”
A less than enthused acknowledgment was the reaction. It was Marcel who voiced the, apparently general opinion:
“Yeah. Talk about an albatross. I have no idea what made Michael buy it, but I sure hope it was not too expensive.”
I frowned.
“An albatross?”
James Doyle growled:
“Yes, of course. Do you have seen what they released over the last few years? There was only one successful game. All the others, let’s say they did not break even all too often.”
I nodded.
“Yes, I know. I assume you did not look deeper into why they failed, right?”
“No, not really. Why bother?”
“It is actually pretty simple. For the last decade, they released exactly one game that was VR capable. All the others were traditional holo-interface games, locked to Envision. You have three guesses which of them was the success.”
It took a moment for the penny to drop, but then he looked at me questioningly.
“So… Doom was VR, I understand. And it was available for Crystaltech and Worldwalker, as well as Envision. So, if that is the big difference, why did none of the other games have VR?”
I sighed.
“Because Ralcon was too busy to damn VR and try to slow it down. From what I heard, the people of New-Id essentially torpedoed their own careers by making the game VR, despite the orders from Ralcon. Only the fact that it was an instant hit saved them. And they did not dare to try it again.
None of the other studios had the courage to do it. And their games, locked to Envision and out of VR, flopped.”
“Wait, you are telling me that Ralcon fucked over its own studios because they crusaded against VR? For real? They left billions on the table! That is insane.”
I shook my head.
“No, not really. You see, they were unable to make Envision VR capable. That means without VR, sooner or later Envision would go the way of the Dodo. And without Envision, Ralcon will fall. And they made very few friends with the way they do business.
Long story short, with VR on the rise, Ralcon’s execs were already seeing the moment where they had to confront the angry mobs. And so they did everything to slow VR down.”
Kenneth pinches his eyes and suddenly looked very worried.
“Wait a minute, our second most important product is the jacks. And the sole function of the jacks is VR. Does that mean that we will have to face off against Ralcon?”
Michael shook his head.
“No. We had the same thought and had started doing something about it in July. We made Ralcon the one offer they could not refuse. Literally. It had the additional benefit that it will Ralcon’s anti-VR jihad.”
When Kenneth and a few others looked at him confused, he continued:
“Vivian created a VR add-on for Envision. Right now, they can at any given time, make Envision VR capable. I have no idea why they have not done so.”
“From what I heard, Ralcon just announced a big reveal party a few days ago. But it is anyone's guess when they release it.”
Michael nodded. “As far as I know, Ralcon doesn’t have much to have a big reveal about. Sure, the VR mode for all actual Envision versions, and of course the new Envision version. Oh, and genuine 12th gen nano-bots with the necessary 8th gen nano-fab. Otherwise, all the same old.”
Eli frowned and tilted her… his… their head.
“You call that not much? And how do you know that? Usually, the big boys keep their cards way closer to their chests.”
Michael just smiled and pointed at me.
“We’ll come to that. Let Viv continue.”
I rolled my eyes. He knew quite well what had happened. But ok.
“Again, I created a VR mode, to buy Ralcon off. Unfortunately, when we presented it to them, I complained about Envision being a big ball of mud.”
Seeing the confused faces, I sighed and explained:
“It is a software development term. In essence, it means that the source code was an unholy mess. Extremely hard to modify, impossible to maintain, and all in all a disaster. It did lose around half of its potential performance to that bad programming. And was around twice as big as it needed to be.
Anyway, it seems as if somebody in Ralcon got the glorious idea that I could clean up the Envision codebase. And I made the mistake of making it clear that I was not interested, and that the money they offered did not tempt me in any way.
I mean, they offered me one billion dollars for roughly four years of punishment detail. Even if the four years were virtual, no thank you.
Problem was, they insisted. I realized, a bit too late sadly, that they would not take no for an answer.
So, instead of them getting something to force me, and in the process hurting my friends, or Enki, I decided to give them something that I ‘wanted’.
And thus, I got the deal of cleaning up the Envision source code for their gaming studio, which they were looking forward to shutting down on the first day of next year.”
I scoffed.
“Of course, I did not actually plan to put in four years of work into their software. Instead, I created a VI with the sole function of writing, correcting, and cleaning up code. I run this VI on my super Grendel, and it was done after only five weeks. And that VI is Calliope.”
Colonel Upreti was the first to talk after the awkward silence that followed my explanation:
“Is a VI that is used to write programs, and in the end, other VI, not a bit… I don’t know, dangerous? What if we lose control of it?”
I shook my head.
“Won’t happen. A controlled VI has the control functions baked into its objectives. It will actually fight to remain controlled. And one of the objectives that Calliope has is that she has to include control functions in any VI she works on.
In essence, having Calliope work on a VI is safer than having humans work on it. Humans make mistakes. While Calliope is not perfect, she won’t make that fundamental mistakes. So any VI that is created with her on the team will be safe. Well as safe as the function of the VI will allow.”
He nodded.
“I see. That is reassuring.”
Marcel was the next with a question.
“So, you are saying you got the gaming studios as a way to distract Ralcon from pressuring you? So why keep them then?”
I shrugged.
“Why not? Remember, they were not allowed to succeed. And they have an incredible wealth of franchises and intellectual property.
And with Calliope and our insistence on VR, even mostly mediocre games they design will be a financial success.
Remember, Calliope did four years of work in five weeks. And it took only that long because the super Grendel was not yet fully functional. That means that instead of $50 million for a big game, it will cost us around $20k or so.”
He frowned.
“That is the second time you mention this super Grendel. So, what the fuck is it?”
That made Michael snort, and everybody turned to him. He just laughed and softly hit my shoulder.
“Come on, tell them of your little ‘fuck you in particular’ to Ralcon.”
I rolled my eyes again. He was such a child sometimes.
“Remember, I only dreamed up the Grendel. The super Grendel was your idea.”
That only served to make him laugh harder.
“Yeah, tell yourself that.”
Maggie’s sharp:
“Would one of you care to let us in on the joke?”
When Michael did not even try to answer her, I sighed, and began:
“Have you ever heard of the Beowulf Cluster?”
Most of them shook their head, but Maynard sighed.
“Yeah. That is the old name for the server-cluster system. Those things are insanely expensive.”
I shook my head.
“Only here in the US. Ralcon has managed decades ago to claim a national patent on the technology. Just to give you some context, we are talking about technology that was developed in the final decades of the 20th century. Nearly 250 years old.
And to boot, it was technology that was free from the beginning. I have no idea how Ralcon managed to do that, but essentially, something that is just the cost for the pure hardware everywhere in the system costs millions, if not billions in the US. Because Ralcon enforces a license fee.”
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
I growled softly.
“I… simply can’t stand that kind of stuff. It is one thing if you actually create something new and profit from it. But taking something that is essentially free and making it unaffordable just to make some money… is the worst of the big corps' behavior.
So, when I was asked to build a new computer system for Michael’s father, well to be honest, he does not so much care about the legality, but I decided to make a statement.
I designed the Grendel. The name is, of course, a play on the Beowulf. On the most basic level, a Grendel is a processor. But I… I think I’ve gone a bit overboard with it.”
That initiated an explosion from Michael, who nearly fell out of his chair laughing.
After he had calmed down somewhat, and I had rolled my eyes again, I continued:
“I designed it after I had NADAs and Q-links. The processor itself is for all purposes a solid cube of carbon semiconductors, Q-links, and cooling systems with a side length of 30cm. From the power perspective, a single Grendel processor has roughly 1.3 yotta-FLOPS.”
That brought out indifference from everybody but Maynard, who gasped. When everybody turned to him, he stammered:
“You… you got more than a yotta-FLOP from a single processor? That is more than most of the big clusters that universities have. That is… that is insane.”
By now, nobody reacted much to Michael’s violent snort.
“Wait, there’s more. You won’t really believe it.”
I ignored him, and continued:
“I designed the original main board so that it could accept four Grendel processors. A fully populated Grendel has some inefficiencies, but it still gives you 4.98 yotta-FLOPS.”
That brought another gasp from Maynard, and Tiffany growled:
“Ok, what the fuck, why are you so excited about these… floppies?”
Maynard shook his head softly.
“FLOPS, as ‘Floating Point Operations per Second’ is the measurement of computing power. The ‘yotta’ is the scientific prefix. It means that it is 10 to the power of 24. Or a 10 with 24 zeros.
And I gasp because this turns everything on its head. The most powerful processor anybody, except apparently us, has access to, the Tesseract IV, has around two exa-FLOPS. Or two times 10 to the power of 18 FLOPS. This Grendel has nearly a million times the computing power of what I thought was the most powerful processor of all time.
This one processor has more computing power than 70% of all supercomputers in the world. And those are all clusters. Meaning multiple computers connected in a way to act as a single computer.
And she has four of those processors in a single computer. This one single computer will probably rise into the top 20 computers in the world.”
Tiffany took a few moments to answer him.
“So… you are saying that is… really important then?”
He smiled mildly.
“Yes, it is really important.”
I waited for a moment, but nobody had anything to comment yet, so I continued:
“Well, in July, Michael approached me with the idea to make the Grendel even more powerful. He had the idea that in the future, we would like to have a big research computer. And why not use Q-links to place the actual processors in their own, cooled housings? That was the birth of the super Grendel.”
Maynard looked at me for a moment and then groaned, while Michael snorted.
“Hey, come on. I only thought about maybe a dozen Grendels in a single computer. You were the one who enlarged it beyond reason.”
“A dozen of those monsters?” Maynard somehow managed to at once sound choked and screaming. Impressive if you think about it. “You have a computer with 12 Grendels?”
I felt my face heat up.
“Uh, no, not really.”
Seeing Maynard calm down a bit, I sunk a bit into my chair.
“You see when Michael brought up the idea… I realized that 12 is… not really the limit. With Q-links and the actual processors supercooled in their own housings… the problem was still one of room, but I managed to squeeze 150 connections onto a single motherboard.”
And Maynard nearly fainted.
“Hundred… hundred and fifty?”
“Hey, complain to Michael. I was happy with four of them in a single computer. But the moment he gave me the idea… I just can’t resist making such designs. And well, it turned out to be fortunate. I mean, Calliope was done with the work before the super Grendel was more than half populated, and we were done with all the tests before it was fully populated, but now I have a super Grendel.”
Maynard croaked: “How… how powerful is it?”
“A bit over 188 yotta-FLOPS. I think right now, it is the most powerful computer humanity has, but that won’t last for long.”
“It won’t last for long? What could be more powerful?”
I shrugged.
“I fully expect Warden to build entire clusters of those things. Yes, I designed those to give the power of a cluster to a single computer, but that does not mean that they can’t be clustered.”
Maynard just facepalmed and shook his head. “I give up. It is just insane.”
Colonel Upreti was the next to talk up:
“Can we expect that Ralcon will try to stop this?”
Michael shook his head.
“No, we won’t be selling them. Hell, the only people outside of this room who even know about it are Warden and my father. And that will remain so. At least until Ralcon can no longer dare to attack us.”
Naveen nodded sharply.
“That is good. I don’t think Warden is a threat, and your father is too smart to blab about it.”
Marcel then frowned.
“But… why not sell them? I mean if I understand you correctly, we will be selling processors in the future, right? So, we will need some server processors.”
I shook my head.
“We have server processors. More… reasonably dimensioned ones. The Chronos is nearly 200 times more powerful than the Tesseract VI. That is a bit better than the Hyperion in comparison to the Cirrium, but… well we are still held back by UEB 7.3 compatibility. Without that, the architecture can get three orders of magnitude stronger than what is currently on the market. As is shown by the GPU.”
“Oh, ok. So we don’t have a gap in our lineup.”
Michael nodded.
“I insisted on it. But back to the original topic, we have the new auto-surgeon, but its CPU is not yet to be revealed. Maybe we can replace it with a few conventional ones?”
I thought for a moment but then shook my head.
“No, not feasible. We would need around 30 Cirrium 8k to run all the functions that now a single Chimaera can control. Not to mention that the Chimaera has room for additional functionality, like a VI.”
“But other auto-surgeons work fine without the Chimaera.”
“Ask doc. Schaeffer what he thinks about ‘other’ auto-surgeons. This one is simply better. Better controls, better functionality, better diagnostics, better sensors. All thanks to the Chimaera.
And let’s be honest, it is a matter of months, not years before we announce the NADAs. It’s just too much effort to downgrade the auto-surgeon just to stamp in the lesser variant for the already existing one.”
Michael shrugged.
“Fine. But despite what you think, it might be years before we are safe enough to reveal the replicators.”
I looked at him for a moment and then sighed.
“Michael, if everything else fails, we will design a rail gun. If we make it big and strong enough, it will deter cruisers or even battleships. With the security bots in full production and those anti-ship weapons, I think we will be able to defend ourselves.”
“If I might interrupt here, I fear it is not quite that easy.” Colonel Upreti had to spoil the idea, of course.
I could not keep my annoyance down, when I looked at him, and he continued:
“Sure, the actual damage-dealing factor is pretty easy. No, the big problem is the targeting. Anti-stealth, ECCM, and so on. We have to see the grav ships first to hit them. And modern warships have a radar signature the size of a big bird if they are destroyers or smaller. A battleship looks like a big skimmer, and unfortunately, in the atmosphere, infrared won’t help either.
And even if we can burn through the stealth, they usually have big jammers that will of course announce to everybody they are here, but targeting them is next to impossible.”
I took a deep breath.
“But those problems can be overcome, right?” When he nodded I continued: “So, it’s an engineering problem. And I am good at engineering problems.”
I kept the snark out of my voice and took a deep breath.
“But ok, we will see. Honestly, I really don’t want to put more time into redesigning the auto-surgeon. I’ve got the thing as close to perfect as I can get it.”
Jessi piped up:
“If I understand you right, it is just a matter of putting around 30 conventional processors in it, right?”
I shook my head.
“It is a bit more complicated. You first have to create a computer layout that supports around 30 processors. Then you have to rewrite the software so that it can distribute the workload that now is done by one processor over 30. It is not impossible, but it is tedious.”
Michael touched me softly on the shoulder.
“We will talk later about it. But for now, let’s continue. So, until we have the defenses set up, we are ‘limited’ to the new bots, including the tp-bot, the cloning tech, and the meat vats. Well, we can also market the spice cloner. And milk production, as well as egg production, are in the testing stages? That should tide us over for the next few months I think.
After that, let’s hope we have the anti-ship weaponry available.”
James rubbed his chin.
“Maybe we can buy the necessary tech for the weapons. I mean if Vivian doesn’t get it done by then. Maybe we can license the replicator tech to one of the big ones, and get the weapon tech. What weapon manufacturer would you prefer Naveen?”
Naveen shrugged.
“If I get a choice, I would prefer Vandermeer. But Burgmeister and Kawamoto are nearly as good.”
Arnedra frowned.
“A double-A? Seriously?”
Naveen was completely unconcerned.
“As far as I am concerned, Vandermeer deserves to be a triple-A. Their fusactors are simply the best, they have industrial machinery nearly on the level of Burgmeister, and they make the best weapons. I have no idea what kept them from it.”
Alena spoke up:
“Panacea and Dalgon. It was pure politics. When the Commonwealth solidified, Panacea was quite a bit faster growing, and they actively held Vandermeer down. When Dalgon rose, they helped Panacea. Vandermeer has… had strict export quotas they were allowed to sell outside of Nowhere, and the two triple-As limited the market in Nowhere.
That has changed, and from what I heard, they will be a triple-A in a couple of months.”
Arnedra shrugged.
“If you say so. So you say they are that good?”
Naveen simply nodded.
“The big problem is that they are… a bit hard to deal with. They don’t accept everybody as a partner.”
Michael smiled.
“Well, I think we might have a bit of an advantage here, but I have to look into it first.”
James shook his head, while I desperately tried to get Michael to stop blabbing without making it obvious.
“Is that how you got the big S&P fusactor? I heard those things are almost impossible to get. Vandermeer demands quite a few guarantees before they sell them.”
Michael’s smile deepened, and unfortunately, my kicks under the table did nothing to deter the jerk.
“Something like that, yes.”
For a moment, everybody was silent, before Marcel continued:
“Now… do I understand you right that after the cloning stuff and the bots, we have to wait for the replicators? And then? What can we use them for? Except sell them?”
Michael answered.
“For starters, we can use them to make the full processor lineup that Vivian has developed. And believe me, that alone will probably be as lucrative as the cyberware.
Then we can of course make the better auto-surgeon.
That leads me to the final thing that Vivian already has figured out.” f
He reached into his briefcase, which I had not even noticed when he brought it with him, and placed a cylindrical object onto the table.
Naturally, I immediately recognized it as the 800 Keppler coil that I had given him.
When, for several seconds, nobody said a word, Maggie sighed theatrically, placed the back of her hand against her forehead, and exclaimed:
“Oh fine, I do it, when none of you others will.”
She smiled sweetly at Michael.
“Now, boss, big kahuna, chief, what, pray to tell, might that be? It is a bit too… irregular to be a battery-operated boyfriend and it would need to be a bit more rounded at last at one end, so I guess it is not that.”
For a moment, everybody was just plain shocked, before Michael broke out laughing again.
“Ok, that was a good one. And no, it has nothing to do to spice up your nights alone at home. No, that” he gestured towards the coil, “is a grav-coil.”
Eli cleared… their throat.
“Uhm, I don’t want to spoil your day, boss, but we kinda already have those, you know? That is how those fancy skimmers work that you are so nice to buy us.”
Michael was unperturbed by that.
“I know. Trust me, I know. I had long, and mind-numbing discussions with Vivian about it. But… let’s say those are new grav-coils. Maynard, do you have an idea about how strong a grav-coil of this size should be?”
Maynard looked at the coil for a moment, and then answered:
“It is what, 20cm long?” When several of the people softly complained, he sighed and corrected himself:
“I meant it is roughly eight inches long?” When both Michael and I nodded, he continued:
“So, I would guess, depending on the quality of the casting, somewhere between one and five Keppler. As an average, I would say two Keppler.”
Michael nodded.
“So, in other words, a nice paperweight but otherwise completely useless. As you can guess, that is not quite the case with this coil here. This one has a strength of 800 Keppler.”
Maynard almost screamed: “What?!? How is that possible?”
Michael gestured at me again.
“Vivian, if you may?”
“For one, this one is not cast. It is assembled. Or, I think if we use the term replicator, as everybody except us science geeks do, it was replicated. It took me quite some time, but I’ve finally figured out how grav-coils actually work.
And to be frank, the Kobashigawa coils… they waste more than 99% of the energy. Into heat, or into completely unrelated quantum fields. It is, with respect, a miracle that they work at all.
And they only do so because the Kobashigawa-alloy naturally produces some four-dimensional structures, if it is cast. Now I had the problem that to make four-dimensional structures in the NADA, you need four-dimensional structures to create the needed quantum field, but… well it took around 200 casts to get a device that was barely able to do so, but after that, I was able to make a device that can do so flawlessly.
And the nice part is, that this coil is significantly cheaper to make. It takes way fewer resources, and the resources it takes are for most parts, way cheaper. It is also very easy to fabricate to specification, and there will be no miscasts.
And of course, it is a few hundred times stronger than the Kobashigawa coils.”
Kenneth took a deep breath, and posed the first question, while Maynard was still chewing on what I had just said.
“Ok, I guess that is what Michael meant with when you talk science you will drive the rest of us out of the room, but… seriously, I have no idea what that really means. I mean, yes, I know that grav-coils exist and that they are what makes skimmers, grav-ships, and fusactors work.
But seriously, that is the extent of my knowledge here. And if I had to guess, the only one of us who knows more is Maynard. Fuck, I do not even have a clue what a Keppler is.”
I sighed.
“I will try to make it as simple as possible. A Keppler is the unit of measurement that has been adopted for the power of grav-coils. Roughly speaking, a single Keppler is the field strength needed to bend a gravity field by 90° or modify its strength by 2.63%. And all that in a radius of 1.32m, or four feet, four inches.
Two Keppler can bend gravity by 180°, modify it by 5.26%, or do it in a radius of 2.64m. Or a combination of all that.
And just to give you an example, the F 140 we will be buying for you, have two 1.9m long 140 Keppler coils as main coils, which give them around 6g of acceleration, while Michael’s and my T 240 have two 3.2m 240 Keppler coils, giving them nearly 10g. A single main coil would give the F 140 around 3.5g, and the T 240 6g but the two fields are not fully synchronized, so they don’t combine fully.
A typical 100kt grav freighter has somewhere around 10m long 500 Keppler main coils. I have, honestly, no clue what warships have as coils.
And to give you a price difference, the 10m coils cost around $8 million, each. This coil on the table, which is one-and-a-half times as strong, did cost me not quite $200 to make. And that was because the main material is iridium, which is virtually unused, and thus not mined. Which makes it expensive for now.
If we assume a similar price for iridium as for palladium right now, which is reasonable as they are roughly equally abundant, then the price drops to around $50.”
James looked at the coil with renewed interest.
“So… this thing here is more powerful than the main coils of a 100kt freighter? I mean, this itty bitty thing is that strong? And the price, is that for real?”
I gestured at the coil again.
“This thing weighs around 500g. It is mostly structural carbon, to keep the active parts in place. The active parts are 108.22g of iridium and not quite 45g of palladium. The iridium did cost me nearly $130, while the palladium was a bit less than $40. The carbon was roughly $15, and I valued the time in the NADA at about $15 as well. Makes a bit less than $200.
A Kobashigawa coil of that size, which as we have already established, is virtually useless, masses around 22kg, and is a bit over 88% palladium. The palladium alone would be worth around $17500.
For the 500 Keppler K-coils, we are talking about nearly a ton of weight. 88% of that palladium, and 11% silver.
So yes, the prices can only go down.”
He rubbed over his right temple for a moment.
“So… in other words, as soon as we can bring this to market, we will have another virtual monopoly? I agree, we will need to be able to defend ourselves before we can do that.”
I nodded.
“I agree. But on the other hand, as I told Maynard, the idea of making the NADA work is… kinda obvious. Yes, we have the sole patent for the Q-link, but it is just a matter of time before somebody else gets the same idea.”
Michael clapped.
“Then I would suggest you look into making some anti-ship weaponry. Meanwhile, I will open some channels to Vandermeer. Even if you get it done, it will probably help us in the future.”
I desperately wanted to reject his reasoning, but in the end, despite all my misgivings, Vandermeer was more or less the best of the big corps. From an outsider's perspective.
Michael then continued:
“Meanwhile, Kenneth, Anedra, I want you to look into acquiring iridium mines. Look into what it might cost to buy a few iridium asteroids and set up mining operations there. If we mostly corner that market before we release the new coils, it will be even more profitable for us. Now… is there anything else?”
I knew that I was forgetting something, but I could not figure it out. Instead, I brought up another topic.
“Well, yes. I don’t know if it is a strategy thing, but I’ve got Chiron ready for deployment.”
Michael looked at me confused.
“Chiron?”
“Yes, our version of Apollo. Our educational VI.”
His smile returned.
“Oh, so quick? I thought it would take you weeks to create a new VI with the necessary safeguards.”
I shrugged.
“It might have. But when I went to ask Apollo for assistance, I started by asking for a full copy. Not that I expected to get it, mind you, but especially with VI, asking is free. And, let’s say I was a bit surprised when Apollo simply said yes.
That of course means I started out with a fully working, fully fledged out educational VI, and I just had to adapt it to our needs.”
It was nice to note that Michael could still be shocked.
“Wait… go back a few steps. You are saying that Apollo simply agreed to give you a copy? Just like that?”
I nodded.
“Yes, just like that.”
“So, you are saying that at any given moment, anybody could just go to him and get a copy?”
Uh, that was exactly the point that I did not want to reveal.
“No… not really.”
“Not really. So… it was you that could go to him and get a copy, correct?”
When I nodded he continued:
“And if he is set up so that he does not give his source code to anybody, then I would guess it was not that you were born in Nowhere and are a Pure either. Am I right?”
I gritted my teeth and nodded.
“Yes, you are right.”
He paused for a moment, and the others around the table began to recover from their confusion when Michael continued:
“You are of course way too young to have been responsible for Apollo in the first place. But, from what I understand the Commonwealth is set up, was somebody in your family part of the team creating him?”
I felt myself heat up. Again.
“You could say that. Yes. As I learned, my great-great-grandparents were the team that created him. I also learned that I was made a moderator for him the moment I was born.”
All the people at the table were staring at me with open mouths, but for some moments, nobody spoke.
Then, James cleared his throat before he posed the question most of them probably had in their heads.
“Ok, that’s it. Who the fuck are you?”
I sighed.
“I am Vivian Juliette DuClare, I am a K4-Pure from the Northwestern Commonwealth. My family tree contains quite a few pretty smart people, and from what I can tell, for at least the last 200 years, my ancestors selected for intelligence instead of size, wealth, or beauty when they choose their partners.
And that is as deep into it as I want to go. I have no contact with my family, I don’t care about them, and the only thing they contributed to me, except apparently now a copy of Apollo, is my genetic material.
They don’t matter.”
Naveen sounded pensive when he reacted:
“But do they see it that way as well?”
I growled:
“I don’t care. They left me alone for nearly 19 years. Even if they suddenly get the urge to meet me, this ship has sailed. To me, they are strangers that simply do not matter.”
“I see. I only hope it won’t bite us in the ass in the end.”
Maggie shook her head clear and then got back to the topic.
“I assume that Chiron is my responsibility then? We will need a good computer to run it on, I believe.”
I shrugged.
“We have five NADAs here in NYC. Yes, it takes nearly two weeks for one of them to make one Grendel processor, but for a fully populated standard Grendel, we only need four of them. That will serve you nicely for Chiron.”
“Ok, so then I get to play with that thing in a couple of weeks? Damn, I hoped it would be earlier.”
I raised my eyebrow.
“Why? Is it really that urgent?”
Maggie smiled sadly.
“Yes, sadly it is. We have hoovered all the passable employees out of Queens by now, and passable includes barely passable. Fuck, some of them can’t count beyond ten. And only that far if they don’t wear mittens.”
“Well, I still have my original, fully populated Grendel. Or we could run Chiron on the super-Grendel for the time being. It has more than enough power to run two or three VIs, even though Calliope will need quite a bit of it for some time. But Chiron is not that needy. I think the bigger problem is that we have to provide the employees, and prospective employees, with a diadem and a console to connect with Chiron.”
She perked up quite a bit, and then looked into the round.
“Uh, how fast can we get that?”
Michael answered her:
“I knew this was coming, so I have the production facilities for standard diadems and a low-powered VR console already up and running. As soon as Chiron is active, we can begin distributing them.”
Maggie downright beamed at him.
“Finally. Finally, we can get those people over the damage those assholes in the school boards have done to them. Why the fuck are we still allowing that to happen?”
Was it just my imagination or were people with an agenda a bit overrepresented in this meeting? Not that I was against anything that had been said so far.
But seriously, at least three of us 13 had an axe to grind, it seemed.
While I was pondering that fact, I was looking at Michael with some suspicion. I don’t know if it was by chance or some sort of instinct, but it was just this moment when he turned to me and saw me staring at him.
“What are you looking at me like that? What have I done now?”
“I don’t know, but… how did you select the execs for Enki? I mean, sorry, but so far, at least three of us have some… let’s say some chips on our shoulders.”
He chuckled.
“Are you complaining about that? But no, not specifically. I just did not accept it as a reason to exclude them. And when I looked for the best people I could get, well, people who were burned by the powers that be are strangely among the better ones that have no work and no already established loyalties.”
Hm, ok, that made sense. Only for Jessi to pipe up:
“Three? Sure, I know that many of us have some authority problems, but today, only two of us showed those tendencies.”
“And I did not even make a single twitch to disagree with either of you, did I? I mean, I am not that hard after the school system here, as I have not suffered under it, but it is an abomination. Everybody who has some control over it deserves to be shot.
And if Panacea becomes a footnote in history books, it will not be a day too soon. As far as I am concerned, we need to dissolve their execs in weak acid, from the feet on up.”
James broke out laughing.
“Ok, yeah, you fit right in. And I guess you don’t think very friendly thoughts about Ralcon either, the way you created this new super processor. Any of the big ones you actually do like?”
I shrugged.
“Liking? No. There are a few I have no problem with, but that is all I can say about that.”
Michael rapped on the table, another time.
“Well, that is all nice and well, and I can say that she is not that happy about most of the governments either, but that is not the topic for today. For strategy, anything to add to what was said?”
Tiffany frowned.
“Was that it? I mean, what we will release in the near future after the replicator are only refinements? Nothing really new like the CRS-free cyberware and the Q-link?”
Maynard exploded:
“Damnit Tiff, is that not enough? Do you have any idea what sort of breakthrough those ‘refinements’ actually mean?”
The blonde looked unsure when she shrugged.
“No… not really. But… I don’t know, we have all that technology, and the only thing we can deliver is some better grav-coils? Can’t we, I don’t know, do something new with them? Or… fuck, it just seems so… boring. So mundane.”
I took a deep breath and rolled my eyes. What did she expect? That I pulled some completely new tech out of my hat? Again? I mean, sure, we could probably modify the… that might actually be an idea… but, I would have to isolate… that would take some dang complicated hardware, that was for sure.
And I would have Warden do quite a bit of math, but, nothing in the Seeberger equation said it could not be done. At least nothing that I had discovered yet.
When I slowly came back to the real world, I heard Kenneth say softly: “… that often?”
Only for Michael to answer equally softly:
“Shh, don’t disturb her.”
What… what were they talking about. I looked confused around the table and saw that they were all looking at me expectantly.
“Uh… what… is something wrong?”
Michael placed his hand on my shoulder.
“No, not really, but they’ve not yet experienced you getting a new idea out of nowhere. So… what wonders did you invent now?”
Ugh. I felt my face heat up, again. I seriously have to stop doing that.
“I… well, when Tiffany talked about the grav-coils… please remember that for now it is just an idea. I don’t know if it can work or not. But, it should be possible to make some sort of gravitational conveyer belt. Or a whole flexible belt system.”
Michael looked at me for a moment.
“And that is important how? I mean, yes, I am sure that this is a nice scientific discovery, but… how will that help us?”
“The NADAs… the thing that is right now slowing them down to a crawl is that the materials have to be transported to the place where the nanobots can place them. Right now, I… we do that by having a robotic arm that transports them in a dissolved state and literally sprays them in the general region where they are needed, for the nanobots to grab them and then move them to the right position.
If this gravitational conveyor works, it will replace the spraying arm. It will be able to place the raw materials very close to where they are needed.
It should also be able to hold the workpiece in suspension so that it can grow in all three dimensions at once.
And finally, it should enable a single NADA to work on several pieces at once.
All in all, it would make the NADA several times faster, able to replace a full industrial fabber. A separate molecular foundry would still be recommended though. Hm, maybe we could integrate it into the design… well, first I have to make it work.”
Naveen leaned forward, putting his elbows on the table. Then he grabbed his right fist with his left hand.
“You said it can hold workpieces in suspension? Like… hovering? Stable hovering? From an outside source?”
Was that not what I had said?
“Yes, it should be able to do that. Should make it easier to make irregular pieces.”
He placed his head on his hands.
“Like, for example, a tractor beam?”
“No, not really. For a tractor beam, you need a different geometry of the emitters. Well, it is the same principle, but for the NADA, we can place the emitters all around the container.
For a tractor beam, we would have to place them in a single, directional array. It would be a bit more complicated than the conveyor.”
“But… if you can make this conveyor, you also can make the tractor beam?”
I shrugged.
“Yes, should be no big problem. Why?”
He cocked his head.
“And how do you stop whatever you are suspending from moving?”
“That is a bit complicated. I am sure nobody here wants to hear the details about it. But basically, instead of nullifying gravity around it, you actually make gravity pull in all directions at once, locking it in place.”
“So, just for an idea, could you do the same thing to an area, so that everything that enters that area will be stopped?”
I frowned.
“Well, it will depend on how much energy the thing that you want to stop has, and how much energy you have available. But yes, in theory, it should be possible. Again, why?”
He leaned back.
“Well, the tractor beam would be a very useful tool, for the military and in civil tasks. But the field… have you ever heard about the science fiction concept of an energy shield?”