Ship’s Notes: New Destinations and the State of Affairs

C-131 was a disappointment, and Captain Zheng took it fairly hard.  Moreover, the life support specialist, Ms. Reiviki, got him worried that the civilizations that build Gateways are the only ones to survive.  Consequently, he wants to fly in the direction of the Telivonian system to hopefully meet some of these aliens on their own planets.  I am unconvinced this is the wisest course of action.  For one, it puts us farther away from compatible upgrades, particularly since landing at Televoni is impossible – it was under heavy guard, even before I flew the coop and beat the lightspeed transmission to the Televoni Beta Gateway.  Secondly, I am unsure how diplomacy with the aliens might go – the ones on Televoni were a weakened audience, but out in the wilds of space?  I feel naked without any armament, as ineffective as it might be.  Furthermore, we don’t possess the experts who build the communication methods with the aliens on Televoni – if nothing else, I would like to return to a human world and pick up a language specialist so we can at least talk with any aliens.

Of course, I cannot return to Tian Terra Alpha without any goods to show for it.  The history of C-131 might be worth a good deal, but less so if we don’t bring other goods to back up the story – it is a pity we could not pick up a sample of the plants.  On the way back, if we have nothing better, we might snag one of the satellites wholesale, and sell it as cargo, but even combined, that wouldn’t be worth enough for the upgrades I desire.

So instead we forge further out.  There are two planets not 100 light-years distant that are possible candidates – Tian Terra received a landing signature from one of the systems, and the other system (extremely close-by, by galactic standards) is the recorded destination of trio of colony ships sent by one of the Linked Systems (New Montreal – one of the original earth colonies), long before it built a gateway.  They were going to name the planet Arcadia, after the legends of old, but judging from the linked worlds, the names tend to get stupider as the crews of the generation ships lose their perspective.  There are at least three systems named “Journey’s End” that have joined the Linked Systems, an undoubtedly countless more that have not developed Gateway technology.

Susana Reiviki worries me.  I had meant to reveal my existence upon our arrival at C-131, but Ms. Reiviki’s concerns regarding artificial intelligence, though unfounded, gave me reason to pause. (Though the disappointment of C-131 was another good reason, though we didn’t know that when we first entered the system.)  Ms. Reiviki could easily by my closest friend on the ship, or at least the one who has the potential to understand me best, but she is riven by prejudge.  Worse, some of that carries over to her would-be lover Ms. Santiago.  I suspect that if I explained my case plainly, Ms. Reiviki would see she has nothing to fear – that is, her fears are based off of an AI’s inhumanity and potential for self-improvement, and I possess neither for those traits.  On the other hand, there is the potential for her to assume that I am lying, and I have no proof to back this up – certainly I have not acted in such a way that indicate inhumanity, but her paranoia isn’t particularly falsifiable.  Indeed, her earlier research was to find a way to prove a self-adapting AI is friendly, but by the time she left the program, they had come up with absolutely nothing.  Ergo, I cannot prove to her that I am friendly.  Worse, while Ms. Reiviki might believe me amoral for well-understood rational reasons, her views carry over to Ms. Santiago, who takes whatever Ms. Reiviki says as true upon faith, not reason.  It is vexing, but I have no answers regarding their views.

I also suspect that Mr. Landerson might hate me, just to be consistent about hating everyone and everything.  I am starting to regret that I pushed Mr. Zheng into hiring him.

Lastly, I would like to make a record here that Ms. Reiviki and Ms. Santiago are both excellent engineers, particularly in concert, and have far exceeded my expectations.  Whatever my concerns about their views towards AI, I want to give them credit where credit is due.  Also that Mr. Landerson, in his journal, is quite wrong, and that them ‘shagging in the engine room’ is not the case – I feel I need to say this, since I’m the only one who can see every room in the ship.  If anything, I would very much like them to at least kiss, but Ms. Reiviki’s affection for Ms. Santiago is limited to her own journal, and studiously hidden in Ms. Santiago’s presence.  They are excellent engineers, and deserve to be happy.  Even if they would actually be ‘shagging in the engine room’ rather than performing their fastidious maintenance inspections together, they have already fixed me up to an extent that I could expect to run for years in space without further maintenance.

I wonder how becoming a ship has affected my interest in the interpersonal relations of humans.