Winning Peace - Chapter 13:
"-so Dr. Lopez, the question on everyone's mind is, what's next?"
I turned to the hologram of the woman asking the question as I reclined in my silk-fabric lawn chair. I grabbed my drink, something fruity where you couldn't really taste the alcohol, and took a long pull from it. Looking up at the imitation blue sky and enjoying the cool breeze wafting across my exposed chest, I made a snap decision for once.
"Immersive virtual reality," I decided with a nod.
Sasha's eyebrows rose, her dark hair set against her pacific-islander skin tone shifting as she looked both curious and startled. "Really? That's a surprise. Almost all of your work has been in engineering, material sciences, and astrophysics."
"My work since the Short War, yes," I agreed as I adjusted my open shirt and swim trunks. "I'm not really the type to search myself, but there are probably still records of the various programming projects I worked on. A lot of predictive algorithms, modeling software for spacecraft flight simulators, that type of thing."
"Oh really? Please, tell me more."
"If it's really that interesting..." I shrugged and thought for a moment. "I actually cut my teeth on a bunch of things like that when I was just starting out, way before I'd made a name for myself. I sent out a bunch of messages to small-time businesses who needed industrial-scale data-crunching and offered to undercut their current services by a significant margin. There was that and a lot of work patching infrastructural programs that were no longer supported but still widely used. I even have some uncredited work in a few animated movies doing CGI background stuff. It was all low-overhead high-profit work that let me put away a lot of money that I'd need for future projects."
"Fascinating. Which movies in particular? Anything we'd recognize?"
"The animated trilogy adaptation of Empowered. I did texture work on almost everything in that movie," I replied, then stopped and tried to remember the others. They weren't anywhere near as fun. "I did background scenes for the remake of Hoodwinked, I did the textures on the graboids for Tremors 36: Worms of Mars, and... oh, yeah, they hired me to do the lightsabers on the Star Wars: Force Wars movies. Which sucked."
"Wait, you worked on the Force Wars movies? Those were really good!"
I turned to her hologram and dipped my sunglasses low so she could see my unamused expression. "They made a mockery of the Expanded Universe, which as any true grognard knows, is the only canon for Star Wars."
She chuckled. "I have no idea what a 'grognard' is, but I'll take your word for it. It's nice to see that the kid who made the talk show circuit squeal with those crazy outfits isn't completely grown up."
"I'm trying hard to impersonate an adult. One day the illusion might be complete," I replied with a snort and another sip of alcohol. Ah, I'd forgotten what a vacation felt like. This was nice. It was a pity I had to go back into the office. "As for a grognard, it's a term originating from the French Revolution. Specifically, Emperor Napoleon's personal senior guardsmen were the only ones allowed to criticize him to his face, which earned them the informal title of 'complainers.' This was adopted in the nineteen seventies or eighties by tabletop gaming communities who preferred older-style games, previous editions, or defunct rule sets. We're the type to complain about how, 'back in my day' the games were better, insist on having CRT monitors, or go to the trouble of getting a mechanical keyboard."
"Oh, that's-um... I didn't know that. So you're an old-school gamer, then? Is that why you want to go into virtual reality development?"
"It's part of the reason," I replied, then looked around pointedly. "The other side of it is that, even with everything I've tried, there are problems with people being effectively trapped inside, unable to go outside. I can't actually do anything about that, not really, but what I can do is provide an alternative."
"I see. So you want to create a VR system as a kind of therapy, then?"
"Something like that." I stopped, my mind calculating even through the pleasantly warm semi-haze of the alcohol. "You should go ahead and ask what you really want to, though. I'm not actually going to get drunk enough that you'll get a chance to catch me off-guard."
There was silence for a second as her surprise broke through her professional mask she'd been using to butter me up. It probably worked pretty well on most people. She was just a few steps shy of beautiful, after all and it wasn't as though the population on Luna gave you too many options. A lot of people would let something slip if it got them into her pants. I'd feel bad if I didn't have a number of pretty explicit pictures that proved that theory for me.
"I suppose you checked up on my previous articles, then?"
"Something like that," I repeated, taking another sip of my drink and yawning widely. "So?"
"The CRA. You're strong-arming a lot of people and practically shoving the legislation down the public's throats even if it's extremely controversial. What's your reasoning?"
"My reasoning is that an apocalyptic event such as the one we've suffered has put us below the population threshold to replace absolutely vital skills that we will inevitably begin to lose through accidents, disease, and old age." Well, the first one at least. I was doing what I could to make sure the latter two weren't going to be a thing much longer. Regardless, the point stood.
"But the automation systems being introduced-"
"Still need a human being who knows what they're doing to oversee them," I interrupted her. "That was actually a point of significant contention in designing the systems. I was personally fine entrusting my continued welfare to a meta-system of overlapping self-correcting programs and facilities, but the remainder of the government put their foot down on the issue."
"So this is your solution? To disregard the will of the people?"
"Do me the favor of not insulting me or my intelligence," I replied pointedly. "Roughly three-quarters of Luna and Mars combined, which make up ninety percent of the population off-earth, voted either in favor of the act or abstained from the proposition entirely. This was only after the passage of the act was put on hold indefinitely for a referendum that was blocked for three months over frivolous accusations of corruption of the voting systems."
"So you're advocating for the tyranny of the majority, then."
This was why I didn't give interviews and hated doing favors for people. "No. I am advocating against the tyranny of the minority. While it's all well and good to be aware of the opinions of the minority and make efforts to assuage their concerns, this isn't about that. It's about one-quarter, less than that really, of the population attempting blatant obstructionism."
"And this wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you're virtually the sole creator, developer, and proprietor of the technology in question?"
"To what end?" I asked bluntly. "I'm not making any money off it. I'm nearly a total recluse who hates talking to virtually anyone outside of a dozen or so people, so it's probably not ego."
"You could just be a crazy person out for the satisfaction of affecting the course of human history."
I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Print that and you'll have a solid libel case hit you in the face so hard it gives you whiplash."
She laughed in response. "I suppose you would know about that, having been instrumental in writing large parts of the legal code."
I clicked my tongue. "Found about that, did you?" My question was rhetorical and I dismissed her attempt at an answer as I took another drink. Regardless of my gesture, she pushed forward.
"You've had a hand in virtually every single governmental structure, you're the architect of our burgeoning post-scarcity society, you've got satellite-mounted lasers, and god-knows what else. Can you actually blame people for being angry when you're using that power to push through a series of laws that have vocal opposition?"
In my experience, when a reporter said 'people' they really meant themselves and were just using the masses as justification to poke and prod to their own satisfaction. Still, pointing that out almost certainly wouldn't do anything positive to the discussion. Instead, another move was necessary.
"So your specific criticism regards my, what? My competency? My effectiveness? The fact that we're not all dead because I made a machine that prints out advanced medicine on-demand to keep our bones and muscles from atrophying?"
"No, my 'criticism' is that you have too much power, Dr. Lopez, and no matter what the constitution says, no real checks or balances on what you seem to be able to accomplish. The fact that you're supplying the new security robots for governmental offices just underlines how significant this concern is. Would you really have me believe that you aren't able to command and control those armed sentinels for your own ends, if you wished?"
"There are safety mechanisms built into the machines such that multiple individuals within the government have the ability to override and disable them." My non-answer brought a derisive snort and I sighed as I took off my sunglasses and turned to stare at her hologram tiredly. "Look, Ms. Tuigamala, this is my first vacation in five years. Since the Short War I've been leapfrogging from project to project with the constant threat of the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people hanging over my head if I don't meet the monthly deadlines I set for myself. I've forgotten what it was like, almost, to sit back and watch a movie or have a day to myself where I can just wander around in a pair of pajama pants and, remembering what that felt like, I'd really like to go back to those days."
I took a breath and gave her the most beseeching look I could. "I honestly and sincerely hope that someone else steps up to the plate and takes some responsibility away from me because I am tired of this shit. The problem is that everyone seems to want me to keep doing the work while they take all the credit, make all of the important decisions, and drive what's left of humanity into the dust once and for all. I saw that happen once and I lay awake some nights wondering against reason and logic if I could have seen it coming and stopped it, but I'll be damned if I don't do everything in my power to prevent it from happening again."
"...I have to admit, that's a compelling appeal to emotion, Dr. Lopez. It still doesn't do anything to allay the very real worries that you're amassing far too much power."
I shrugged and leaned back, struck by an idea. "Tell you what, Ms. Tuigamala, how about I let you be my personal press corps. You're the single most critical person of virtually every single one of my policies and you raise valid concerns regarding all of them."
"You want me to work for you?"
Her voice was drenched in disbelief and not a little shocked humor. I slipped my sunglasses back on. "With me, at the very least. Everything you've said gives the impression of a person who wants the world to work more fairly, justly, and equitably so how about a taste of your own medicine?"
"I don't understand what you're offering."
"I'll give you access to... ninety percent of my systems, barring experimental technologies." Like the shit I was working on to kill omnicidal jackasses. "Not administrative access, but you'll be able to see the inner workings. Critique my choices in real-time. Offer me alternatives. Help me make better choices, if you can." I huffed a quiet laugh. "After all, that's why I got into the business of government. I wanted to make things better and yet, every time I try to follow through on that promise, it seems like people are complaining about it."
"I-I'll need time to think about it. I'd be able to keep my webshow?"
"That'd be one of the prerequisites for the job, actually. I wouldn't want your viewers to think I'm trying to co-opt you." I was totally trying to co-opt her. "But if you really think there's value in pointing out all of these problems, I'm inviting you to be part of the solution."
We wound things down from there and, eventually, she left me to enjoy my last few days off in peace. I truly wanted to enjoy them, for what it was worth. After my batteries were recharged, I was going to war. No matter what it took, I was going to make those lunatics live up to at least part of their name.
They were going to be the last.
Come hell or high water, they were going to be the last.
Skill List:
Mathematics: 1-10
Computer Programming: 1-10
Physics: 1-10
Material Sciences: 1-10
Nanomachines: 1-5
Orbital Mechanics: 1-5
Quantum Mechanics: 1-5
Artificial Intelligence: 1-5
Artificial Intelligence Shackling: 1-10
Blackboxing: 1-10 (New)
Robotics: 1-5
Ruggedization: 1-5
Molecular Assembly: 1-5
Safeguards: 1-5
Failsafes: 1-5
Genetics: 1-10
Astrobotany: 1-4
Medicine: 1-3
Social Engineering: 1-5
Public Speaking: 1
Speed-Reading: 1
Teaching: 1
Critical Thinking: 1
Logistics: 1-5
Strategy: 1-5
Public Relations: 1-5
Corporate Espionage: 1
Automation: 1-5 (New)
Business Management: 1-3
Economics: 1-3
Aperture Science Technologies: 1-10
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