Belters

Chapter 01:AD 2050 Kuiper Belt – John Huss Elliot stared at the numbers flowing over his screen. “John… How is sector forty-three… I’m reading a slight variance in the processing speed.” The disembodied voice of John answered back, “I find all systems within acceptable parameters.” Life in deep space remained boring. Even the most advanced ship in the solar system could not make the tedium of space travel any more exciting. The John Huss was a marvel of computer engineering, and Elliot was fortunate to be one of the crew, the only person who kept the computer system running smoothly. The loneliness of space was compounded by the fact that Elliot spent his shift alone, segregated in the main computer core, far away from the rest of the crew. His only companion was the computer interface that made the John Huss unique. He removed his augmented reality helm and let it retract to the storage armature. A push of a button rotated the workstation from a bed to more of a recliner. Past the six backup monitors hung a portrait of John, an elderly black man, statically placed over the direct access panel to the computer core. The first in its class, the Huss, was an experimental ship designed around the unique computer and the life it held. Very few things on Earth could claim to be the first and unique. Elliot felt honored to be stationed on this one. The posting was a career-maker, a once in a lifetime chance. Life proved a word thrown around too lightly these days. Too many people were quick to ascribe human qualities to inorganic beings. Even toys with complex algorithms were ascribed lifelike qualities, but the John Huss was different. The test ship John Huss, built by the FlyRight Corporation, was the first of its kind. A hybrid between man and machine. Inside the one thousand terabytes of storage, Elliot was responsible for maintaining the first human brain digitized into a computer and placed into the body of a ship. The first installed to work in tandem with a true artificial intelligence. A ship built to change the way humans explored the stars. Touted as unified intelligence, or UI, many in FlyRight saw the merger as the next step in human evolution. The holy grail of computing, true artificial intelligence proved harder to achieve than programmers originally envisioned. No matter the complexity of the design or the intricacies in the code, there were some things a human brain was vastly better at doing than a machine. Many described the shortcomings of the algorithm as a lack of soul. In truth, it came down to the hundreds of unique connections the human brain might make during the course of the waking day. Programmers never cracked the code to allow the machines to distinguish between right and wrong or removed the bias incorporated in every human programmer. Where a human brain could not compete with a machine was the crunching of numbers. Calculations that might take a human a lifetime, the proper program finished in seconds. What the John Huss did was meld the two, human and machine, into one. Given the low temperatures of space, information flowed at breakneck speed. Orders of magnitude faster than the quickest computer on Earth. Elliot knew there was more involved. After long discussions in space with John, Elliot knew the machine was alive. John Huss’s soul somehow beat inside the memory modules of the ship’s systems. FlyRight did one thing right: they named the ship after the man who was the brain of the thing. Ship and brain could not be separated. The ship had stopped accelerating, Elliot pushed off from his workstation and floated to the oil painting of John. Long hours had been spent examining this face, anything to learn more about the person inside the machine. Safeguards were in place. John didn’t have full access to the ship systems yet. Even with the extensive training the old man had before he passed on, there was an extreme amount of adjustment needed to perform at the anticipated peak performance. Resistance to the new normal persisted in the shadows. Many in FlyRight doubted this project would ever work. There were simply too many unknowns lurking in the UI system. Back on Earth, irrational fears of the unknown held back advanced computer experimentation. In an effort to demonize the humans brave enough to make the first steps into the digital realm, the name PITA was hung on the brave as a label of degradation. A play on words. Most brains could be held in a petabyte of storage. It also remained the acronym for pain in the ass. Humans normally feared what they didn’t understand. Fear of AI, or computers in general, and destruction of humanity drove the Earth’s governments to pass laws that forbade the advancement of computer science. Even human augmentation with cybernetics had been legislated into paralysis. Lawmakers didn’t care about science, or the lives damaged by their decisions. The next election or, more importantly, staying in power became their only concern. The more constricted the laws of Earth became, the more businesses formed into great combines to wield their influence. Tax laws in the early twenty-first century had made multinational corporations more powerful than the governments that struggled to control them. Legal skirmishes turned into several coups d’état shaking the foundations of democracy to the core. The populations of Earth struck back at the more egregious players of the corporate world. Mobs of “freedom” fighters destroyed company assets, doxed shareholders’ private information, even murdered the employees. All in the name of social revolution. Through much pain—for a short time, the governments of Earth regained control of the system. The corporations merged, changed their names, and worked hard to clean up their images. For the safety of the investments, the most powerful combines shifted their nefarious operations into the covert world of black ops. Conducting distasteful or illegal business operations in the shadow world of the darknet and shell corporations and, when possible, using private contractors for the wet work. Anything to give the appearance of social acceptability to the major companies. All in an attempt to keep the lawmakers off the trail, shareholders happy, and the population ignorant. That was why the construction and testing of this special ship moved off Earth into space outside the orbit of Saturn. Over a million kilometers outside the orbit of the Ceres international station. John Huss was built in a secret facility far from the prying eyes of the Earth authorities, maniacal protestors, and stealing spies of the other corporations. Most people smart enough to know understood that, in space, the corps made the rules and enforced the laws. They decided what was most important. Individuals stood little chance against the combines. Smart people knew to not cross the companies if they wanted to live. Power grew exponentially stronger the greater the distance from Earth’s gravity well. The governments of Earth focused on the problems of climate change, overpopulation, doing what they could to survive on a dying planet. The masses that scraped by living in space did so with no support from the few elected governments representing the stations. The combines never worried about niceties as a social contract, human rights, or life and liberty. Increasing the wealth of the shareholders’ investments was the only responsibility the combines concerned themselves with. Elliot smiled while he studied the old man’s eyes. The wrinkles in the dark skin and gray curly hair made John look kind and wise. The computer tech wished he’d known the man before he uploaded and died. It would have made the process easier for the two of them. For the moment, John made little extra conversation. In time, Elliot prayed that all would change. AD 2100 Inner Belt – Daniel Frazier “There was a time I strained to see the stars at night… now not so much.” Jacob had been mining long enough to do this stint with his eyes closed. His powered vac-suit did the majority of the work. He was there in case the computer needed a gentle nudge in the right direction. All thanks to the joys of algorithms, Jacob remained a passenger along for the ride—most of the time. The heads-up display of the pressure helmet told him he had three hours left on his shift, with plenty of life support to spare. Power… all systems remained level in the green, five by five in the lingo. “I’m not sure if I’ll ever reach Earth, not even if I’ll return to Mars.” Ava’s voice echoed in his ear. “All that water and air… The thought of it all makes me moist.” “Everything makes you wet.” A stern voice cut in over the coms. The glaring eyes of captain Allen Wang flashed into Jacob’s mind. Something about the disapproving tone of the ET’s voice made the miner cringe. The captain proved a hard man to read. Geometric facial tattoos that disappeared under the navy turtleneck and the lack of gravity didn’t help with reading the man’s body language. Given he’d spent his entire life in near-zero gravity, the captain towered over seven feet tall. However gaunt Captain Allen might look, the man was strong for his type. Taller than most Earth sports stars. The problem the captain faced was he would find the gravity of Earth crushing. Even the relatively light gravity of Mars would be unbearable to the ET. He was stranded to live out his life among the stars. “Aw, Cap’n… this is so boring out here… Can’t we keep each other company?” Ava mewed. She had a way of talking that made everything seem about s*x. The stern voice of the captain rolled over the speaker, “Ava, I wouldn’t mind, but I’ve heard the same words coming out of your mouth since you both started six weeks ago. Jacob, you need to tell her why you strained to see the stars.” “Captain Allen, you know why.” Jacob wanted to chuckle to relieve the tension of the work, but he couldn’t find it in his heart. Allen was an ET, a man born of the belt. He was a creature of space now and forever. Jacob knew the captain would never be drawn to Earth like anyone born in a gravity well would be. Normally emotions were hard to interpret over the com’s unit. Not Allen’s. His words dripped with disdain for the Earthers. “That’s all right if you don’t want to admit Earth has become a shithole, with more people wanting to leave than stay. Pick a calamity, overpopulation, pollution, acid rain, global warming, unemployment… the list goes on. I see no reason to need to visit the place.” Ava cut him off. “Captain, that isn’t fair.” “No… the captain’s right. Anyone with the skills, brains, or the money wants off Earth as quickly as possible. The waiting lists for the elevators off Earth is… unacceptable or too expensive for most. The Ravens are making a fortune shuttling people off-world. Any of the low-earth orbit stations like Gagarin Station are always looking for people to mine the trash field. Anyone with half a brain is fighting to escape…” Jacob wanted to add, like rats deserting a sinking ship, but didn’t. He escaped the gravity fifteen years ago at the tender age of twenty. There was no reason for him to ever return to Earth. Ravens were the general slang term for the body smugglers, the modern-day coyotes. Taken from the first gang that started the practice. Now they would stuff ragtag ships with anyone who paid and fly them into low-earth orbit for a price, if they didn’t take your gold and leave your body in the mountains covered in a shallow grave. There was no need to throw a person out of the airlock. Lifting a kilo of weight into low-earth orbit, specifically, a refueling platform like Gagarin Station, proved an expensive business. The remote Earthside locations of the smuggling sites made a body disappear all the easier. “Move that chunk, will ya?” Ava’s voice cooed into his ear. “Don’t want any Tommyknockers dropping it on us.” Humans might have advanced into space, but their ancient superstitions traveled with them. People born off Earth were the worst offenders. Gremlins, Foo Fighters, Trolls, and all manner of fabled creatures made the jump into space. Not for real but in the stories and insecurities of the uneducated crews that worked the mines.