“So,” Hammer
said by way of introduction, as Oakes tossed bulbs of coffee around, “the plan
is pretty simple. We’re going to access
Connie’s maintenance hatch here,” he said, pulling up a diagram, “and Pete and
I will enter the hull. We’re going to be
met by one of the IT techs from the Admiral, who’s got a replacement control
package for the hulk. We’ll pull
Connie’s primary housing, and the backup housing. Once we pull the primary, we slot the
replacement package in place so the hulk keeps its orbital position, pull the
secondary and we’re done. You’ll need to
have a little work done back at Tarkas to have her installed, but beyond that,
there should be no issues.”
“What kind of work,” I asked,
sipping from the coffee. It was hot, but
you can’t always get everything perfect.
“Cross links and a couple of
holographic projector heads primarily.
Connie might have a couple of other things she wants to feel
comfortable, but that’s something you’ll have to discuss with her,” he said
grinning.
“Things like more memory or a
bigger, shinier case, I hope.”
“Or a faster, dedicated hard wire
connection to the archives. You never
know what an AI’s going to want. Peirot,
the security AI, insisted on having a small room set up that he could decorate
like the apartment of the detective he’s named for. I can only imagine what we would have had to
put up with if we’d named the damn thing Sherlock,” he said, shaking his head.
“Oh, I don’t know, working out of
221 B Baker Street couldn’t have been that bad.”
“True. I just can picture an AI trying to figure out
how to get an incense that smelled like cheap Turkish shag tobacco though. Or worse, one having one of Holmes’s ‘down’
periods. Can you imagine an AI in a
funk?”
“Oh, hell no,” Jayne said, grinning
impishly. “Not something I’d want to
see.”
“Course, his seven percent solution
would have only been lines of code,” Oakes said, one eye on the instruments
that showed we were on a normal insertion path for orbit.
“Seven percent solution,” Arenson
asked.
“Holmes used cocaine when he got
really bored. A seven percent solution,
injected.”
“Ahh.”
“Yeah, the Victorians were a little
more up front with their drug use.
Although, if I remember correctly, Watson does tut Holmes a couple of
times about his use of cocaine as a pick me up,” I said, looking over the plan
Hammer had sent to my tablet.
“True. But in the end, Holmes keeps going back to
cocaine and tobacco.”