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“Talk to me, then. Explain why, you claim, we can’t field the frame again in two days. It doesn’t appear to have sustained serious damage in the fight to take the facility.”
Colonel Kinston’s face was impassive. Hard to read. At least he hadn’t shut her objections down immediately.
“We can’t field the frame again, because Beta will not deploy for at least seven days. It is currently trying to do internal repairs on Delta, and will not move until it is done with its task. Trying to manually disconnect it would be inadvisable. And sir, with respect, telling me to sync up and try to push it against its will anyways would be suicide at best. One pilot to another, you and I both know how bad that can be.”
The old man’s gaze turned to the third member in the room.
Doctor Brighton shifted uncomfortably in her seat, then spoke.
“Send the Lieutenant out, first. Information security.”
“It is unlikely for her to be spying, Doctor. Out with it.”
The old man spoke on her behalf.
“Fine, then. I can try to bring it in line with the usual methods, but that would still put it out of action for more time than you want. Or I can get to work right now, and try to simply force cooperation. Without touching the neurohelmet, of course.”
A sigh was the only response. No better time for her to interject.
“Sir, Beta insists that Brighton’s prior attempt at ‘forcing cooperation’ on Delta is exactly what needs to be repaired. The effects have left it extremely vulnerable to another AI or electronic warfare system seizing control over it and simply ordering it to self-terminate. Along with the Core steadily losing its mind. If you could potentially reverse whatever you did on Delta, then Beta would be back in action that much faster.”
The doc’s face looked like she had sucked on a lemon. Her tone became short and clipped.
“The dual-core setup I designed is an improvement on the prior work. Reverting it to the baseline would be a step backwards. So no, I cannot simply ‘reverse’. There is no control-z shortcut to Core programming, not that you illiterate brute would even know what that is.”
That drew a word of reproach from the old man.
“Doctor.”
“My apologies, Colonel. But a weapon that repeatedly kills its own pilots on activation is unacceptable. It took entirely too many bodies before I found a solution, and Lieutenant here, and the other Core is apparently trying to revert it. Delta was a loose cannon before. We had only one fatality after the split, as opposed to the twenty before!”
Thea repeated her plea.
“Colonel. Beta hasn’t let us down before. At the end of seven days, we’ll have two cores able to be used again.”
Colonel Kinston was silent for a few seconds. Then he spoke.
“Doctor Brighton. Disrespect aside, I assume you are unable to undo what you have done?”
A swift shake of the head was the reply.
