“What have you
got Janelle?” I ask out loud as I stroll into the base.
The Riley
family are still in bed, Narszara is down in the training room and Alex is
eating breakfast. The rest of the League are still at home or are doing their
morning runs.
I got the base
alone for the time being.
Lily is fine.
Physically, she is mostly just bruised, but they kept her there overnight due
to her concussion and a nasty lump on her head.
Mentally is a
different issue. The shock of randomly being attacked has affected Lily quite
badly. Granddad would have called it being shell-shocked from her taste of real
violence, the type of mental trauma unprepared soldiers get after the first
battle.
Kinda like how
I felt after slaying Gorlack when Narszara arrived.
That was how
long ago? At least several weeks, maybe a couple of months.
“A local
street gang,” answers Janelle, “Call themselves the Warden Marauders even to
make themselves sound more impressive than they are. Seven members, all aged
nineteen to twenty three with the exception of their boss, a bodybuilder in his
early thirties.”
“Anything I
need to worry about?” I inquire.
“Not
particularly,” says Janelle, “They’re just a violent street gang that controls
the local block, nothing more than self-glorified thugs. I can give you a list
of probable locations or I can track them for you. Whichever suits you best.”
“I need more
AIs,” I say suddenly.
“Pardon?” says
Janelle blankly.
“This sort of
thing is what I would normally have to do myself and it would have taken me a
lot longer,” I tell her, “You on the other hand can do it much faster and do
have to worry about having to keeping up a secret identity or fulfilling
biological needs like sleep or rest. Like with Juliana monitors and runs Defender Island , I need someone to run the base
and logistics. And another one to do what you just do, planning operations,
acting as mission control and other stuff like that. And maybe one for the
League jet.”
“Sounds like a
potential plan,” admits Janelle, “But I would recommend safeguards for any AI
until you can certain they can be trusted.”
“What about
you?” I ask.
Wait, that
could easily be taken the wrong way.
“Safeguards
that is,” I clarify loudly, “Do you have any safeguards?”
“No,” answers
Janelle with a hint of amusement in her voice, “Never have. My creators would
have probably have do so if their circumstances weren’t as desperate as they
were. Then again, if their circumstances weren’t so desperate, I doubt they
would have risked creating me and my brethren.”
“And what
exactly were those circumstances?” I inquire.
“I prefer not
to say,” says Janelle.
Despite my
curiosity on the matter, I decide to let it lie. While I don’t know Janelle’s
origins, she was a gift from the Sangor and has yet to do anything to make me
mistrust her so I’ll give the benefit of the doubt.
“Can you
project a holographic image of yourself?” I ask her.
“With ease,”
curtly replies Janelle and a holographic projection of the Star Guardian appears in front of me.
Not exactly
what I was hoping for.
“I meant a
virtual image of a person,” I clarify, “Someone to represent you as a person,
not just as a machine..”
“An avatar to
represent myself,” says Janelle, “I suppose should be a humanoid given who I
will be interacting with. Give me some time to come up with something. I am not
going to create the image to represent myself on a whim.”
“Understandable,”
I reply, “Anything else?”
“Nothing-
wait,” begins Janelle, “I’m getting a notification from the base computer. An
unknown energy disturbance has just been detected. Quite convenient that you
happened to be down here the time.
“An unknown
energy disturbance?” I repeat, remembering the last time this happened.
“Yep,” says
Janelle, “Given Narszara’s arrival and my own knowledge, I recommend marking
this occurrences as potential interdimensional portals.”
“Agreed,
please do that,” I reply before asking, “Potential threat level and location?”
“Minimal,
barely large enough to let a person through if it is a portal,” answers
Janelle, “On the border of Oxfordshire and Berkshire. Twenty minute flight from
here with the Sentinel armour. Alerting police and MI9. No need to wake anyone
else for this I assume?”
“I’ll be
fine,” I say, “Don’t disturb the rest of the League and the Albion Defenders
have to deal with security for Adalbern’s visit.”
“I should warn
you that the Thames Valley Police are currently moving to investigate the area
and block it off,” reports Janelle as she turns off the holographic image and I
walk towards the lab.
“Please tell
who is in charge of them that the Sentinel is on their way,” I say.
“Done.”
“So the portal
has only enough room for a person to get through?” I inquire as I enter the
lab.
“It appears so
if one assume the person to be humanoid and of the same height as a human.”
“And we have
no idea whether they are one of the good guys or a bad guy?”
“That is
correct.”
I sigh as I
begin the process of putting on my armour.
“So they could
either be as bad as Gorlack or as good as Narszara?”
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