Alexander monitored the prierminal. It was only one of half a dozen that were stantly i had taken two months, but the manufacturier was finally back to operating at full capacity. The au pany had apologized for the missing equipment, but only refunded him a millios. He supposed he was lucky to see any after his previous experiences with STO corporations.

  The room was filled with the meical hum of robotic arms zipping through a ballet of welding and assembly work as they built rept pos for the facility. Everything was starting to move in the right dire. He only wished he had known the old robots had been stolen, he would have purchased newer robotics diagrams before ing out here. Assuming he could have afforded it with his severely diminished bank at. The current ones were fine for fixing up the facility, but they were not accurate enough for the type of work he wao aplish.

  He would just have to design and build his own, assuming he found time. iating and w with the locals, attending weekly briefs with the Hawks, chatting with Jasper and his crew, and being a father for Yulia were all taking signifit portions of his time. Not that he would give any of them up. Well, maybe the weekly briefs were a bit much.

  The locals had adapted quickly to the ge and there were very few issues, despite Damien’s less than friendly reception. It seemed he was an exception to the rule. Not that the man’s attitude bothered him o. He may e off as an ass, but he took things very seriously once Alexander id out his pns to fix the plex pletely.

  Alexander would like to say there were no issues, but you didn’t suddenly tell a group of people who hated authority that you were now the authority without some pushback. He had to y down the w a few times when people tried to use his printers and robots for their personal use. This was his space. If they wanted something from it, they had to trade just like he did for their work or produce.

  Speaking of locals, one just entered his shop. At least this was one he liked dealing with.

  “How I help you today, Lucas?” Damien’s younger brother was a bit of a stig poiween him and the Hawks. The man didn’t have a warrant, but there was a bounty t him in alive.

  It took a bit of effort from Alexao vihe Hawks’ Leadership not to turn Lucas over. Alexander’s reasonings were mainly selfish for requesting this. The man was an expert with puters. He also didn’t want to start a flict with Damiehe issue but the main reason was he didn’t give a shit about some corporate bounty. They had no jurisdi out here.

  To be fair, it didn’t take too much ving. Once he showed Captain Matthews the data on his previous Omni work, the man had agreed not to take the man in if Alexander agreed to update the Talon’s engines when he had a space dock.

  “I wanted your opinion on some code I wrote.”

  Alexander sighed. “I told you before, I’m not an expert with code. But I will take a look if you insist.” As far as he could tell, Lucas Laront’s code was brilliant. It was no surprise sidering he had a corporate bounty pced on him.

  He examihe code. Alexander couldn’t tell what half of it did. He wasn’t lying when he said he wasn’t an expert with code. He only learhe bare minimum to create his holo-avatar and have it respond. He was more focused on the manufacturing aspect of things than the g side but he was learning a little bit here and there. It seemed to him that Lucas was looking more for validation than anything else.

  “ you expin to me what it is supposed to do?”

  The skinny man smiled and unched into an expnation. “You remember those camera asteroids I told you about?”

  “The ones you use to watch for ining pirates?” How could he fet? Finding out pirates still occasionally attacked this pce was a s realization. It was so discerting that he rearranged his priorities after hearing that. He knew pirates flew through the area, but he figured they wouldn’t e this far out sihere wasn’t anything of value out here. Apparently, he had been wrong.

  “Yes, those. Well, I improved their telemetry and trag. I believe with this code, I even improve their camera range. Well, it’s not really ging the range so much as it is improving the quality of the images. Removing noise and implementiain learning algorithms to clear up those images.”

  “I thought learning algorithms were frowned upon?” Alexander khey were. It’s why those automated bots orov Station seemed so stupid. They couldn’t learn from their mistakes, so they had to have tingencies programmed into them. But you ’t program for all tingencies. He also khat Yuri had used learning algorithms in his initial trol box stru. Alexander was gd the old man had only added self-learning to his movement ands. If he had added it to his restris, Alexander probably wouldn’t have broken free. He would have been sold off or melted down for scrap when Yuri died.

  The skinny genius snorted. “Maybe iO but we aren’t there, are we? Besides, the STO likes to preach about not using self-learning code, yet fails to even follow their own guidance. Don’t eve me started on the corporations, do you think they prevent those corporate bastards from using learning algorithms? No, I bet you those turds use full AI. Hell, ask the Hawks. I almost guarantee you that they have something aboard their ship that assists them.”

  “Fine, but what about the code going out of trol?”

  The man ughed at the question. “You o stop watg those a videos about artificial intelligeaking over. I’ve seen a few of them myself for a ugh but that’s about all they were good for. I don’t know what those people back then were so afraid of, it’s holy ridiculous.”

  It wasn’t that ridiculous, he wao say.

  “Self-learning and ‘AI’ have been around for hundreds of years. I have never heard of a single instance ue code in that eime. Not that rogue code would get very far. Most puter systems and terminals have hard-coded restris io prevent people from hag them. Unless you have a master code, but even that only gets you certain access.”

  Lucas didn’t have to tell Alexander about hard-coded restris, he knew all about those. “The master code I got for Eden’s End locked everything down.”

  “…Well, yeah. This pce is a. Half the code used in the systems here hasn’t been in use since before I was born. Most of the systems here also predated hard g. I think that practily became widespread wheO started running into the Shi. I guess they were afraid of the aliens taking over our systems. You sorta see early attempts at that in the soles here.”

  Alexander decided to ge the subject because this versation was straying too close to what he could be. Yes, he had thought about the possibility that he was some AI. It didn’t make a whole lot of sehough, sidering some of the memories he had. Then again, who knew what the weirdos who put him in this body had in mind?

  “How did you get those satellites into orbit anyway?”

  “Oh that, eh we mostly just paid the few traders that make their way out here to carry them bato spad release them for us.”

  “Traders actually e out this way… Wait, paid them? Paid them with what?”

  The man gnced around the room.

  “Ah…”

  Lucas shrugged. “Most of the stuff missing in this room happened a long time ago. I only heard about it from one of the old timers that left.”

  “I’m not judging you. I uand the o survive. But from now o's do things a bit differently, ok?”

  “I’m all for ge. Although you might want to think about how deliveries are going to arrive. I see yht a cargo ship that was too big to nd. Fixing the Low Orbit Launcher might be a good idea if you pn on shipping goods from here. Assuming you didn’t do all this just to fix up this old relic of a base,” he gestured around the room.

  Alexander made his avatar blink. “Low Orbit Launcher?”

  “Oh, yeah, it unches small payloads into space for pickup. They don’t really use them anymore, quicker and easier just to use orbital elevators to get rge cargo into space. Or a shuttle if the cargo isn’t te.”

  “The schematics of the research base didn’t show any such device. I would know, I looked them over very carefully.” He looked it over more carefully after arriving. Being surprised by the size of the atriums told him he o pay more attention to the details of the pce he purchased.

  Lucas scratched his in fusion. “It’s definitely got one. I wonder if it wasn’t included in the pns because it was built separately from the structure. If you aren’t too busy, I take you there.”

  Alexander followed the chatty man as he led them through a twisting series of hallways. “Sorry about the roundabout route. The main route to that se colpsed a few years ago.”

  “It’s fine. How did you e across this uncher anyway?”

  “I was sging for pos about a year ago. The door that led there was rusted shut, but with a few weeks of work, I mao get it open. That led to the trol room. Ah, here we are.”

  The maured to a twisted metal frame and a standard security door lying broken off to the side. “As you see, it put up a bit of a fight.” Alexander sighed at the damage, looking pointedly at the man who just shrugged. “Gotta do what ya gotta do sometimes.”

  The man stepped through the doorway and Alexander ducked in after him. He got his first look at the trol ter for this uncher as he straightened.

  “Sorry about the mess. We couldn’t be picky with spare parts.”

  “I see,” he stated ftly. The soles had been torn apart and loose wires hung everywhere. What wasn’t there was circuit boards or aronics. “You were able to repurpose all of this?” He wasn’t angry but he was ahat the people living here had ibalized a good majority of the systems in this facility. He uood why they did it, but it still meant more work for him. The only balm to his annoyance was that this se of the facility was not in the design pn. Thus he teically hadn’t spent any money on it and everything still here was a bonus. It sort of made up for the missing manufacturing robots.

  Alexander had pns to update all of the systems inside Eden’s Eually, this just moved that up his priority list.

  “Eh, most of 'em. The telemetry modules went into the asteroid trol systems. The rest of the unused pos went into ste for ter use.”

  Alexander sighed. “I’m going to o see these ste rooms to see if there is anything worth fixing.” He walked over to a small bst window that overlooked a rge chamber oher side. He couldn’t see much through the grime-coated gss. “Is there a way into the transfer chamber?”

  “Probably,” Lucas shrugged. “I think I know the door that leads out there but good luck getting it opened. I haven’t had any luck.”

  “Could you show me?”

  The man nodded and the two exited the trol room and moved down a few flights of stairs that led into a wide hallway with a pair of rails running along them.

  “This is the transport tunnel?” Alexander had seen it on the facility pns but he hadn’t had time to iigate it.

  “Yup. As far as I tell, it has three lines. Os directly across the facility while the two outer lines curve along the outside.”

  “As far as you tell?”

  “All three lines have caved-iions. So nobody bothers using them. The door that should lead to the uncher is over this way,” the maured.

  They stopped outside a pair of imposing doors a moment ter. “I see why you ’t get in.”

  The heavy steel bst doors in front of him made the ohat sealed off his manufacturier look rather patheti parison. He could see deep scratches in the hardeerior that showed just how much effort Lucas had put int to get inside.

  “Yeah. These things are a real beast. plete overkill as well. Have fun, I’m going to go back t on my programming.”

  “Wait, you’re just leaving?”

  “…Um, yes. It's not like there is anything I do here.”

  Alexander supposed that was true. “I see. I’ll some things from my shop to even attempt opening this door anyway.”

  “Ooh, let me know when you make the attempt. I really wan my hands on what’s inside.” Lucas rubbed his hands together.

  Alexander just made his avatar stare at him.

  “What?”

  “No more ripping apart my facility. I make spares for most things by now.”

  “Oh? What about puter processors?”

  “…Not yet. But I do have some spare ones I brought along. I might even be willing to trade a few for the right work.”

  The man rubbed his . “Really now? Well, you let me know what kind of work you want done, and I might just agree to take a few of those processors off your hands.”

  Alexander watched the puter expert leave. He had tried tempting the man to work for him since he arrived, seeing the man’s skill with g. The man seemed ued in any of the other offers he had made. He hadn’t wao give up any of the processors he brought along, but seeing as the man was receptive to one of his offers for the first time, it might be worth it.

  He wished he could just print up new processors like everything else, but just like processors from ba his day, these futuristies required multiple specialized maes and processes to manufacture. He was years away from eveing to that point, let alone purchasing pns for the maes needed. Until then he would have to rely on purchasing them and having them shipped out here by Jasper and his crew.

  Speaking of Jasper, he o have a versation with the man before they left soourned away from the bst doors. That roject for a ter date.