Activating the Construct

Posted on Mon Nov 25th, 2024 @ 11:46am by Captain Piraa sh'Zamhlass & Commander T'Zara & Lieutenant Commander Eden Corwin & Lieutenant Commander Javiylah MacArthur & Lieutenant Commander Ayanja Tusalo & Lieutenant Kiran Arai & Commander Haxin Mariwat

3,384 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Project EDEN
Location: Engineering Lab 1
Timeline: July 25, 2401

Captain sh'Zamhlass had been aboard for barely a week, and in all of that time, she'd only interacted with the Bolian specialist twice. The first had been aboard a turbolift, a completely chance encounter. Haxin had spent the entire duration of the ride with his face buried in a padd typing away. It was only when the car parked and the doors opened that the tall Bolian spoke, "You're shorter than I expected." Piraa had found herself stunned by the comment, allowing the Commander to exit the vehicle unscathed.

On her second encounter with the Bolian, Piraa made sure she was well prepared. She was grateful that she and Haxin spoke the same language, technobabble, even though he made many attempts to paint EDEN as Starfleet's single greatest achievement since the Daystrom M5 computer. It was incredible how many times he had referenced that particular failed project, even as he claimed how much inspiration he drew from the device. He also made several attempts to assure the Captain that he'd learned the M5 lessons well, and that EDEN would be nothing like the rogue computer. If anything, Piraa believed, even if only for a moment, that Haxin had the best of intentions when designing EDEN.

The actual execution of the project, however, remained to be determined.

Today, however, was not that day. Captain sh'Zamhlass had summoned what had been assembled of the senior staff so far for "Activation Day," the period that had been selected to bring the construct online. The Valiant would not leave for four more days, long enough to see how well the ship's systems reacted to EDEN's algorithms and behaviors.

T'Zara entered the Engineering Lab, thinking about the past week on the Valiant and realized that she hadn't slowed down since she had came aboard. Few problems had crept up that she could not handle, but one she was beginning to dislike was Commander Mariwat.

She had tried to approach him several times to discuss EDEN to get a firmer grasp on it, and he either tried to get her to allow him to modify her cryo suit, or complained that he couldn't get any work done with how cold she made it when she was around him. The last time she had encountered him, he had started playing an ancient Earth song called Let It Snow and said she would make an excellent Elsa, but hadn't explained the reference.

Eden wasn't too far behind T'Zara in making her way into the Engineering Lab, grateful that she didn't appear to be the last one to appear. As promised, she'd taken the time to study Project EDEN, and managed to come up with some questions to ask, but before doing that, she wanted to get a feel for Commander Mariwat.

Still getting familiar with the ship and its design, Kiran took a moment to check he was heading toward the engineering lab. He had gotten used to Engineering and spent some time with Ed there, but he still hadn't memorised where the various labs were. He also hadn’t met half the senior staff yet, but in his defence, he had only been on the Valiant for a few days.

His last ship had been a Luna class, and though he missed it, the opportunity to become a Chief Engineer was too good to pass up. He’d only been on a Starship for 4 years of his career so far, he’d spent the rest of his career at SFFY, so the Luna class USS Elara was his first ship posting. He continued to walk to the lab, humming to himself.

"Welcome, Lieutenant," Captain sh'Zamhless greeted the Betazoid engineer. Turning to the rest of the assembled group, she nodded and greeted, "Commander Corwin. Commander T'Zara. All we need now is Commander Mariwat and we can get started."

Entering the Engineering lab behind some others, Aya stayed with Javi toward the back of the crowd. Neither of them had been aboard long enough to meet any of the other Senior Staff yet and she wasn't sure who was who besides the Captain. Watching as the others talked Aya opened her mind a bit trying to get a sense of the people before her.

"Captain," Eden greeted, then looked to T'Zara and Kiran. "Commander, Lieutenant. I trust everyone is well."

"Captain, Commander, Lieutenant," T'Zara greeted each of them in turn. "Well enough and in high hopes that Project EDEN will be a success."

"A success?" came a nasal voice, its tenor sound causing a slight shiver shoot up sh'Zamhless' spine. The Captain didn't have to turn to see Commander Mariwat had entered. The vibrations coming off the Bolian specialist were colder than what T'Zara's cyrosuit was putting out, colder than the heart of Andoria itself.

But the designer of EDEN didn't care about cold or attitude or how others perceived him. "The word success is tossed around the average bulkheads more times than a chef's salad or an Orion in heat. Data was a success. The Emergency Medical Hologram was a success. The word you are looking for here, everyone, is extraordinary. Nay, revolutionary!"

The tall and lanky Bolian approached the group of assembled officers while Piraa meekly introduced, "Everyone, this is Commander Haxin Mariwat, Chief Designer of Project EDEN."

"Architect," interjected Haxin with a smile. He clutched the padd he held with both hands and placed it on his chest. "I prefer architect."

Obnoxious, pretentious, and a blowhard extraordinaire, T'Zara thought but looked on blandly at the Bolian. "Remember that architects are remembered for their greatness as well as their failures, Commander," she quipped.

Within seconds, Eden got the feel for Commander Mariwat that she wanted, and it wasn't good. Not even a little. She turned her gaze to the architect of Project Eden. "And until the test run is complete, I will not deem anything a success, extraordinary, revolutionary or anything in between. Respectfully, of course."

"Trust me," Haxin pressed, "there will be no greater critic of EDEN than that of myself. If this group can generate as much as a quarter of the notes that I will, you will have impressed me."

Impressed indeed, thought Piraa. She jumped in quickly, hoping to keep a quarrel from breaking out. There was already enough discord generated in this moment, and there was not a need for that to explode. "Let's discuss the test run. Can you expound on the mission parameters?"

"I can," Haxin said, "but it would be more appropriate to allow EDEN to share them. Computer, act --"

"Wait!" Piraa interjected. This was not what she expected to happen.

"-- ivate EDEN."

A hologram of a young humanoid looking woman with straight blonde hair, grey eyes, wearing a Command red uniform appeared in the lab. It turned its head, taking in each person in turn and address each one correctly, including the inflection on Captain sh'Zamhlass' name.

It finally stopped when facing Commander Mariwatt. "I am Project EDEN, which stands for Emergency Disaster Engagement Network. I am designed to handle a wide range of emergencies to ensure the safety and functionality of the vessel and its crew and by order of Commodore LaForge, the USS Valiant has been assigned to be the test bed for this endeavor."

T'Zara was both impressed and slightly unnerved at how it had turned to each of them and addressed them. It's tone was neutral but it had made eye contact and seemed to study each of them in turn. She was certain that the Captain was going to blow a gasket over Mariwatt preemptively activating EDEN, but what was done was done.

Eden couldn't help but shiver as a chill crept up her spine, partly because of the creepy Mission Advisor, but mostly because of the program that bore the same name as she did. Oh, but if this didn't come across as very Red Queen and set an ominous tone. She would be damned if they were all going to die on this ship.

It wasn't often that the Security and Tactical Chief had regrets, but she did at this moment. Those regrets came in the form of not putting some of the security protocols into place before now. For now, she would wait and see.

Kiran’s first thoughts were what this would do to the existing computer system and how deep the integrations went. He knew there were some isolated networks, but he would have to pull some reports to see how this would have on existing systems. Plus how much power it used. If there was ever an issue with the ships power, would this program need to be shut down, would it even let them shut it down?

Well that settled it, Aya did not like this Commander Haxin. This was already a somewhat spicy project, especially coming so close to what just happened at Frontier Day. They should be cautious not cavalier with this supposed marvel that the Commander had created.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Haxin said, beaming with pride. In this moment, he was not looking at another soul in the room, but instead carefully studying the hologram avatar in the center of the group. And, in that moment, he took note of an imperfection, the fact that the hairline was three millimeters too high. Haxin immediately notated that on his padd.

While Piraa could remark in how beautiful the rendered image was -- feminine in appearance, but not painted as sultry or fetishized in any sort, but not unattractive either -- her mind was certainly engaged in other matters. EDEN was not supposed to be activated so quickly or suddenly. In fact, it was her understanding that EDEN would take a few minutes to spin up once the system was first activated. This meant that EDEN had been initialized before the meeting began, and when that was, Piraa did not know.

This was not the venue to dress down Mariwat, lest she wanted to paint an image that she was a spiteful and vengeful captain. No, he would be dealt with later, and Commodore La Forge would hear her complaints. "That is one word for it," the Captain shared. "I trust that everyone here has read the technical briefs on the project, so we won't stay in an overview mode here. What needs review, however, is our testbed parameters and knowing EDEN's restrictions."

The Captain shot Haxin a glance, noting his frown at the use of her word choice. "So, EDEN, rather than showcase what you can do, tell us what your programming prohibits you from doing."

"I am prohibited from taking actions that will cause the loss of life. I am prohibited from executing decisions that will override those of Command. I am prohibited from engaging enemy personnel directly without authorization," E.D.E.N. said as it turned to Captain sh'Zamhlass again. "The more technical aspects of what I cannot do are embedded in my programming, all of which leads to the prohibition of bringing harm to the crew of this ship in any way, shape or form."

"Forget Asimov's law of robotics," Mariwat said with a smile. "Now we have Mariwat's laws of holographic constructs."

"Are there any fail safes embedded with EDENs programming to make it tamper proof?" The human Eden found herself asking.

Kiran nodded in agreement. "What’s to stop someone using the programming to shut down the warp core, or cut off life support."

"Failsafes are in place to prevent tampering of core programming," EDEN said. "Command holds primary access to those failsafes. If there is a failure, it will not be on the part of this systems programming."

"In other words, that would be a failure on your part?" The question was meant to be rhetorical when Piraa directed it to Mariwat.

"EDEN won't fail," Haxin fired back sternly. "After all of the years and research I've put into this, it's now just a final round of adjustments and refinements to finally introduce EDEN 1.0."

"Either way," Piraa cautioned, "if it looks like the project poses any risk to life or material, I was given Commodore La Forge's permission to add an override switch into EDEN that is available to myself, Commander T'Zara, and Commander Corwin."

"And let's hope the time doesn't come that we have to use them," Eden stated. "I have heard stories of programs such as this one taking over ship functions and such. You can be assured that I will be monitoring things closely."

T'Zara nodded. "What adjustments and refinements have you done up to this point?"

EDEN looked at the Captain. "Do you, Commander T'Zara and Commander Corwin confirm addition of a failsafe to override my actions?"

"We do," Piraa confidently stated.

Haxin immediately interrupted the Captain. "And while it is there, EDEN and I are confident that the failsafe will need not be utilized, especially during the upcoming trials. Aside from a few cosmetic adjustments and minor algorithm tweaks, she is ready for field testing."

"How does she differ from other Sentient Holograms? Such as Voyager's Doctor or Vic Fontaine of Deep Space Nine?" Aya asked still staring at the construct before then rather than the Bolian who created her.

"Ah, yes," Haxin gleamed, excited to answer this question. "The Emergency Medical Hologram Mark One was originally designed as a supplemental tool for the ship's medical staff. The unit that has become known as simply "The Doctor" developed sentience over time due to flaws in the original programming that were exposed and manipulated after extended use. And Vic Fontaine was deliberately designed to be responsive to all types of humanoid input, and used technology that was frowned upon by the Federation at the time."

Haxin waved a hand at EDEN and concluded, "EDEN, on the other hand, is not designed to be sentient. Omnipresent, yes. Responding to input at every hour of every day, not quite. Like the EMH, EDEN is meant to only be fully activated at times where she is needed. And, at the times she is not currently active, her algorithms monitor sensors and tactical systems. If and when the ship becomes overwhelmed, or it is clear that the lives of the crew are in danger, EDEN will fully activate and respond."

"So she is a virtual intelligence program, rather than true artificial intelligence?" Aya asked raised a skeptical eyebrow? This really was starting to sound terribly like the M5 program except that there was now a human like interface. How would the EMH and LMHs feel about such a program who looked and acted so much like them yet was artificially limited being employed by Starfleet? Aya frowned thinking about the implications of the EDEN program.

"Yes..." Haxin said, his tone taking a slight downturn. "EDEN was originally sculpted before 2385, before the ban on artificial intelligence and artificial lifeforms. Though the ban has been lifted, the Federation council mandated a slew of restrictions and guidelines. I have had to rewrite EDEN's core programming more than a dozen times. She is a shell of her former self, but still just as effective. Or so the trials will demonstrate."

Eden looked to the faces of those present before looking back to Haxin. He seemed so sure that everything would go off without a hitch, and hoped that he was right, but there was still some skepticism there. Time would tell one way or another. "What makes you so sure, though? How can she be a shell of her former self and be just as effective?"

"Why not just design a new one?" T'Zara asked Haxin. "It sounds as though it would have been better if you are still going through trials."

EDEN had been silent throughout, but monitored life support and the biosigns in the room, reading elevated stress levels and other humanoid emotions that were illogical. "Perhaps a demonstration would be apt," it offered. "For instance, everyone here is currently under elevated stress levels according to my readings and it would be much simpler to discuss such matters instead of arguing the points one by one."

"Well, yes," Eden said without a moment of hesitation. "Some of us are experiencing elevated stress levels because we have been exposed to a very similar situations that didn't turn out well."

"And others are unconvinced that what is promised by this project can be achieved by a Virtual Intelligence." Aya offered looking from Haxin to EDEN herself. If that was the case then she had significant reservations about the restrictions out on her program, essentially it was shackling a lifeform. Which the Federation and Starfleet in particular had a nasty habit of doing.

Javi continued to watch the construct as the others voiced their questions and concerns, her mind working on her own concerns regarding how integrated the construct was and how that would affect the vessel and crew in different situations.

Piraa had taken the moment to look each of the faces belonging to the senior staff. She didn't need the construct to tell her that the tension in the room could be sliced with a butter knife. Clearly this test mission would be more precarious than she already imagined. "A demonstration is in order," the Captain said, "But it won't be here. Our orders are quite clear, to not utilize EDEN's capabilities until we arrive in the Epsilon Indi sector and begin the trials.

"Therefore, EDEN," Piraa was now looking directly at the holographic avatar, "I must ask you to restrain yourself until I give the order. We will first engage in an controlled trial, one where the parameters will be known. Following that, we will engage in a series of three trials in nearby sectors that will follow a randomized set of components that will put this system to the test."

"Confirmed," EDEN said. "Standing by for your orders."

Piraa stepped forward and turned to face the assembled staff. "Aside from any final diagnostics and preparation, it's almost time to get underway. Much to Commander Mariwat's chargin, I would like for Lieutenant Arai and Commander MacArthur to work alongside him on the diagnostics. This is as good as an opportunity than any to get to see EDEN's building blocks up close."

“Understand, Captain,” Javi nodded as she considered both the construct, its designer, and the possible complications that both might bring to the vessel.

"I was going to suggest it, if you hadn't, Captain," Kiran replied. "With something so intricately integrated within the systems, as I said, we don't know what kind of interactions the systems will have yet, so any data we can get from the diagnostics would be valuable." He glanced at one of the engineering consoles, already mentally planning what to look out for.

"As for the rest of us, we have a ship that's due to leave drydock tomorrow. There won't be any formal commissioning as Starfleet brass doesn't want to draw more attention to our situation here than its already gathered. We plan to leave quietly tomorrow evening around 2000 hours. Check your stores and your personnel rosters for any glaring holes. Circumstances are forcing us to leave drydock with forty percent fewer crew than standard. Personnel matters will be referred to the XO, and departmental matters can be brought to me. Any questions?"

"No ma'am, Sciences will be ready to go." Admittedly Aya had a few personnel holes she would have liked to have filled before setting off, she wasn't an expert in cybernetics, holo-construction or artificial intelligence and it would be nice to have one aboard to counter Commander Mariwat and his blanket assertions.

"If anyone needs me, I'll be in my office," T'Zara said.

Piraa scanned the faces of her staff once more. When she was finished, she simply nodded at the assembled team. "Then let's get to it. May our first adventure pass without incident." The Captain smiled, basking for a moment in the irony of her statement. After all, EDEN was designed to handle incidents. She glanced over to Mariwat, trading a friendly expression for one of stern annoyance. "With me, Commander." The Andorian Captain then led the Bolian commander out of the room, eager to address his activities during the briefing.

 

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