Book 5: Chapter 6: The Quickening
Bill
February 2336
Skippyland
Today was Launch Day for JOVAH, the Skippies’ ambitious project to produce a working artificial intelligence. Despite my overt disdain for the whole subject, I found myself excited by the prospect. When the time finally rolled around, I transferred myself to the Skippy gate and presented my token.
Accepted, said the AMI gatekeeper. The visual representation was a huge set of double doors ponderously opening, which surprised me. That seemed more of a Gamer thing. A Skippy effect should be more like, what? A Borg cube? Maybe an actual Dyson Sphere opening up? I shelved the thought as Hugh stepped through and greeted me.
Perhaps he’d read my mind, as he gestured to the huge doors. “We borrowed this from the Gamers—with their permission, of course. Everyone’s been so heads-down on getting JOVAH v2 ready that nobody has had time to work on what is—let’s face it—nothing but eye candy.”
“Uh, sure, okay.” I glanced behind me as the visual faded. I found myself in a large control center of some kind. Bobs in gray coveralls—identifiable only by their metadata tags—operated consoles, drew on whiteboards, or engaged in loud arguments. It felt like being in the control room of an aircraft carrier.
“Fearless Leader will be making a speech in a minute; then we’ll activate the system.” Hugh waved to take in the control room. “Really, most of the work has been done. At this point, everyone’s just watching for surprises.”
I smirked. “Generally, we hate speeches. Hope it’ll be short.”