Thinktank

Posted on Fri Jun 16th, 2017 @ 6:01pm by Commander Cor Cordale & Lieutenant Valeria Mordin & Lieutenant Hel Samedi & Lieutenant JG Elliot Keller

Mission: Awakening
Location: Meeting Room One

- Primary Engineering -

Cordale made a beeline through the halls of the lower decks of the Victory, straight through to the heart of Primary Engineering. He was a Thux on a mission. He passed by crew hands, passed by ensigns, and finally found the pair of boots he was looking for.

"Hel..." he paused to catch his breath. "Hel... hey, I got a present for you. Well, less of a present and more of a request for a consult, but it's a present as well."

"Wanna help settle a dispute between two Delta Quadrant races, and check out some of their tech at the same time?" he paused, "One of them relies on droooooooooones." he sing-song'ed the word 'drones'.

"You had my attention - " Hel mused, setting down her PaDD. She had been checking over the ratios in the intermix chambers, just routine maintenance and safety checks. " - but now you have my curiosity." she added. "What kind of drones are we talking about?"

"Well, from how I hear it... practically their entire military." Cordale answered. "Fighter craft, ground troops... 99% of their entire military." Cor sounded honestly impressed.

Hel gave a low whistle. "Best way to keep your personnell safe, that's for sure. Drawback is that without properly trained combat troops you're entirely reliant on a small number of highly trained maintenance people, programmers, commanders. And I wonder about the drones' programming, true AI? Or just elaborate decision engines? How do they deal with unforeseen situations? The mind wonders and wanders." she mused.

"First questions first though, What's this about two races and their dispute, and what can I do to help?" She asked. "I'm just an engineer. Not a mediator nor a politician." The pale engineeress added with a shudder at the thought.

"That's exactly where we come in." He smirked, "The dispute is over a piece of hardware. There's concern their controlling technology might have just woken up."

"You just spoke the magic words." Hel smiled. "I'm no AI expert, but I've read books by some. There are tests we can run to determine whether an AI has woken up or not - I'll go and see if I can't find some of them we can run to see whether it has or not."

Cordale gave a nod, then offered Hel a hooked arm, "Then, shall we?" he offered with that big goofy smile of his.

"Such a gentleman." Hel smiled, hooking her arm with his and letting him lead the way.

- Meeting Room One -

Valeria turned to the assembled crew here. Their mission was to come up with the facts for the briefing that would help settle a dispute involving her people and the Dalacari... one of their longest allies in their home quadrant of space. She waited until Cordale and his assistant returned before moving on. It was only polite, since he had asked. Also, easier to just talk about the topic once, rather then bring the Thux up to speed.

"Let's start with the initial call for aid." Valeria mentioned, and pulled up the archival footage. The screen on the wall changed to the Federation symbol for a moment, indicating the footage's length, timestamp, and other archival information. Then, it changed to a Ts'usugi. A male rabbit-like being in a military uniform, tall and proud. There was a translator at work, but it wasn't the standard Federation Universal Translator. Perhaps it was something on their end...

:: "This is Shipmaster Koichi of the Imperial Cruiser Razor's Gale. A situation has arisen that requires outside arbitration, and as you are the listed organization of authority in this region, we call to you. This is a matter which could potentially jeopardize a treaty between ourselves and the Dalacari. Their drone fighters may be compromised, as may the system that controls them. No hostilities have occurred, nor are any expected. Repeat, a third party is required to arbitrate. Coordinates to follow." ::

Valeria let the image of the Federation of Planets linger on the screen, in case the data needed replaying or further analysis. "So, let's start with everything we know from here." she paused, "I'm awaiting further permissions from an Imperial regulator on what I can say about the Ts'usugi military, but as far as the Dalacari military, I can tell you what I know."

"They utilize almost an entirely drone army. There are very few actual Dalacari in the field, as they're incredibly susceptible to injury. They coordinate their forces using a device called a Thinking Engine. Despite the name, it isn't self-aware in the slightest. That is one of the non-negotiable parts of our defense treaties with the Dalacari. They are forbidden to engage in true, un-restricted AI research."

"Any questions before I continue?" she figured she'd let someone else get a word in.

Elliot raised his hand. "Would it be possible to get copies of that agreement?" He asked.

Valeria gave a nod, "Of course. Should be-" she was interrupted by an incoming comm. "Lieutenant Mordin, you have an incoming comm request. Shall i patch it through?"

She gave a nod, "Must be the Buoy. Yes I'll take it here." and one of the wall panels turned from the standard static artwork to an image of another Ts'usugi, male, dressed in a dark uniform. A soft violet illuminated the area around him, which cast the whole of his appearance as something sinister. "Valeera Mordeen." The operator on the other side called, "Message from Special Requisition. Permission granted on all topics except Clearance One. Acknowledge for the record."

Valeria gave a nod, "Acknowledged. All expect Clearance One."

The operator gave a nod, "Logged. Any further requests from the network?"

"Yes. A complete copy of the Joint Defensive Accord involving the Dalacar Republic and the Empire. Please." she requested, and the operator gave a nod, "System. Rack twelve, cube seven. Retrieve documentation thirty seventy nine five." and on the operator's side there was a chime. "Transmitting requested documentation. Can the network assist you further, citizen Valeera?"

Valeria quickly glanced at the others, then the proverbial light bulb went off. "Updated specifications for Dalacari exploration craft."

The operator gave another nod, "System." and there was that come again, "Rack ninety, cube eighteen. Retrieve specifications designate Dalacari. Forty through fifty eight. All sub-specifications." there was another chime. "Transmission to begin. Can the network assist you further, citizen Valeera?"

"This assistance is sufficient Operator. You have our appreciations." and the Operator gave a nod. "Terminating connection." and the line of communication ended. Valeria looked visibly relieved, "That clears a lot. Almost everything. Though considering the stakes." she mused as she loaded the Joint Defense Accord to a PADD for easy viewing.

"Thank you Lieutenant I appreciate it." Keller commented as he took the PADD and began his research.

With the latest schematics on hand, Valeria pulled up an image on the wall panel of a sleek, smooth Corvette design. Antenna pointed towards the rear of the craft, while the entirety of the design itself seemed to suggest speed... and a certain awareness of style.

"This, is the average Dalacari corvette. The piece of hardware in question is this..." and a single section of the craft was highlighted, deep within the actual structure itself. The system then was isolated and shown in detail: A massive computer system centered around a three foot diameter sphere, with circuitry designed after a neural network from the looks of it.

"The Thinking Engine. The heart and soul, if you would, of the Dalacari drone defense force. It stores battle strategies, old and recent, and as each system fails or succeeds it tabulates and considers new strategies. Failures get removed from consideration, while successes are allowed to evolve. The longer a conflict takes with the Dalacari, the more skilled their drone forces become." Valeria pointed out. "The mission is to determine if this system has become self-aware... and if it has, where to proceed from there."

Hel gave a low whistle at the corvette design. "Niiiice. Sleek design. Love it." she mused. "Gonna be difficult ascertaining any sort of awakening without getting our hands on one of those cores, though. Don't happen to have one lying around you can give to us to tinker with, do you."

Valeria shook her head, "The Dalacari fiercely protect their Thinking Engine designs. The only way to physically inspect the core is to board their craft when we arrive."

Then she gave a soft smile, "I think you'll appreciate this aspect of Dalacari design." she brought the full ship schematics to view, "Can you identify the Medbay? Engineering?" she listed off a few other systems. "Dalacari designs have two of every major system. The only thing they have one of... is the Thinking Engine."

"Very symmetrical design, too. Makes sense, I suppose. Redundancies where possible." Hel mused, scratching her chin a bit. "Remind me, the Dalacari are a binary species, right?"

The rabbitess gave a nod, and pulled up a picture from her recently acquired update. "I'm impressed. It's good to see someone who appreciates an education as much as I do." and the image was not of one being, but two. They walked in sync, they moved to compliment one another, everything about them seemed to indicate they were twins, or family.

"This is one Dalacari. Every Dalacari is twins, two bioforms and one shared cloud tele-empathy field. One consciousness shared between two minds. The end result, is one of the most unique creatures the Empire, and perhaps anyone, has ever come across." Valeria said, with almost a touch of wonder in her voice. That aspect of exploration, to find new life and new civilizations. "They have such a capacity for curiosity, for discovery." then the smirk showed up, "But if you wrong them, you'll be buried under a drone army."

"That's.....Thought provoking." Keller commented at that comment.

"Just do not ever refer to a pair of them as a Single Dalacari. Use any other term, but never call them Single." Valeria warned, "There's a serious mental and physical condition that arises when one of the pair dies while the other lives. It drives them insane, and they either crumple within and become detached, or go raving mad and become sociopathic."

"They are one of our most trusted allies, because we need them as much as they need us. We just aren't fond of saying such out loud." Valeria commented with a smirk.

"Sounds complicated to the uneducated observer." Keller said as he a,de notes on his PADD. "In some ways it sounds like a kind of symbiosis, one cannot exist without the other."

"You mean the Dala-whoosits, or the treaty?" Cordale asked. Valeria shook her head, "Dalacari. Though yes, Mister Cordale has a good question." she corrected, with a smirk.

"The people themselves." Elliot said in response.

"As I understand it, it's like a distributed processing system spread over two platforms via short-range wireless protocol." Hel offered. "You know, speaking as an engineer." She smiled. "Unique but not beyond a capacity to explain or understand."

"Fascinating." Elliot said with a curious nod. He was a Diplomat first off and he was stil learning but it made for a very interesting learning curve.

Tas


Ooc: The JDA is a very wordy agreement between the two races. It establishes that neither race will initiate hostility against the other directly or through agents or proxies. It establishes a buffer zone of 15 systems between claimed regions called the Non Contested Range. Open for science and resources but not for colonization. Dalacar can call upon the Ts'usugi for military aid, and every Dalacari exploration mission can call upon Ts'usugi escort. In exchange, Dalacari will share star maps and resource surveys, and will not engage in research into unrestrained AI. Both parties are forbidden to further research into WMD tech. The treaty seems to heavily favor the Dalacari, but from the placement of the noncontested range, one quarter of Ts'usugi space is considered Protected, leaving them free to focus defense on the remaining 3/4ths.

OOC: http://wiki.pegasusfleet.net/index.php?title=File:Dalacari_Corvette.jpg -- Ship in question (Dalacari)

OOC: http://wiki.pegasusfleet.net/uploads/1/1c/Dalacari_Racial.jpg