RTS System in the Apocalypse: New World

Hans remained quiet for a moment.

"And when you turn it back on?"

Kordula looked at him.

"That would take a while. Aside from repairing the destroyed units, I also have to find a replacement drive for that."

Hans raised a brow. "You had a kill-switch, but not a blank-slate backup?"

"Listen, each automated security system adjusts and learns differently. If I want that thing brand new, I need authorization from my bosses and a nerd who’ll pull the strings back to where they were."

"So not anytime soon, then."

"Not any goddamn time soon. And I guess it works great that way. You don’t want the same thing that put nightmares on those people be back in just a couple of days. The plant still needs more fixing. And don’t ask me how long."

Hans looked at her for a moment.

"Then what’s with your obsession over handling it yourself?"

Kordula’s expression changed slightly.

"What?"

"You can’t bring it back online. You don’t have the authorization, the replacement drive, or apparently the nerd you need to do it."

He tapped one finger against the table.

"Yet Fairy told me you’ve been hovering around anything connected to ASS-116 since the moment you got out."

Kordula’s brows tightened for the first time during the entire conversation.

"I don’t have to report all of my actions to you now, or do I, Commander Golden Eagle?"

"No." Hans leaned back. "But I hate people lying in front of my face. Or the kind who doesn’t tell me the full story."

"I didn’t lie."

"But you left something out."

Kordula said nothing.

Hans watched her for several seconds. "You’re preserving more than the machines."

Her expression remained still.

"What was it?" He smiled. "The records?"

He narrowed his eyes slightly. "Don’t take me for a fool. I know a thing or two about artificial intelligence. Training it with historical data is one of them."

He remembered what she had just told him. Every ASS adjusted differently.

"You’ve been archiving what ASS-116 became."

She gritted her teeth, her fists still tightly clenched. After a while, she closed her eyes and laughed.

"You remind me of one annoying bastard."

"I’ve heard worse than that."

"Yes, I’ve been preserving it."

"Preserve it for your bosses?"

Kordula’s smile weakened. "Amongst other things, yeah. So what? You want to stop me?"

"Why would I?" Hans shook his head. "That is indeed important data."

"You think you can decipher AWP projects so easily? DAEDALUS wasn’t compartmentalized because of pure bureaucracy."

"I didn’t say I am the one who’s going to decipher your projects. You see, you’re not the only one who can be my source on DAEDALUS and its various programs."

"Bullshit. Just because you think you’re a Hand means you know everything?"

Hans leaned back against his chair and let that implication sit for now.

"I don’t need to know everything. I just need to know who knows the parts I don’t."

Kordula snorted.

"What? I thought someone like you would’ve had all the information you needed. You even have your enhanced soldiers. What’s stopping you from knowing more?"

"DAEDALUS is highly compartmentalized. We both know that’s how it works."

"It was."

"Then why would you expect one person to know all of it?"

Kordula stared at him for a moment. Hans continued.

"You know AWP. Probably better than anyone I’ve met so far."

"Probably?"

"Don’t get excited."

Her eyes narrowed.

"But DAEDALUS outside your program? I have someone here I’d rather bet on."

Kordula’s expression changed.

"Someone here?"

"Yes."

"And you really think this person knows more about DAEDALUS than an Overseer like me?"

Hans shrugged.

"About AWP? No. About everything surrounding it?"

He paused.

"Possibly more than both of us."

Kordula laughed.

"Now you’re definitely bullshitting me."

"Maybe."

That answer stopped her laugh sooner than a denial would have. Kordula watched him more carefully.

"And I’m supposed to believe you just happened to find someone like that?"

"I find strange people. All the time. Do you think it’s not strange to see a person bend nature to its will with a slight of their hand?"

Matilda remained silent near the wall. Kordula glanced toward her.

"I’ll call your bluff. Who is he then?"

Hans did not answer immediately and turned toward Matilda instead. She leaned over and listened on as Hans whispered.

After a while, she nodded her head and left the area.

"What? You think her going outside to fetch a nobody is going to work? That won’t pressure me, Commander. You have to do better than that."

Hans chuckled. "To see is to believe."

Matilda returned several minutes later.

Callum opened the door first.

Tyrus entered behind her, already looking mildly annoyed at being dragged away from whatever he had been doing.

"I was doing something extremely beneficial for mankind yet you dare to—"

He stopped.

Kordula had gone completely still.

Tyrus stared at her figure.

She stared back at him.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Hans looked between the two. That was not the kind of reaction he had expected.

Don’t tell me they—

"Heh." Tyrus’s eyes reddened. "No wonder this place reeks of machine oil and inflated clearance. They actually kept you alive."

Kordula’s eyes widened.

"And I was wondering why the room suddenly smelled like antiseptic and arrogance. Someone finally let you out of your petri dish, haven’t they?"

"Still pretending maintenance manuals count as intelligence?"

"Still poking meat in jars and calling it progress?"

Tyrus’s face twitched. If looks could kill, they would have murdered each other several times now.

"Commander!" He shoved past her and marched toward Hans’s desk, slamming both hands against it. "I was hoping you found a competent DAEDALUS Overseer. Instead, you brought me the human equivalent of a manufacturing defect."

"Who are you calling defective, you bastard?!"

Kordula followed immediately. "At least my machines usually work when I tell them to. You spend your life growing things in controlled environments and still somehow end up with an ego larger than the specimen!"

Tyrus spun around.

"Excuse me?! My work requires sterile conditions because contamination ruins perfectly good research! The likes of you wouldn’t understand cleanliness in any sense of the word!"

Kordula scoffed.

"Yes. I remember. I remember it very, very clearly. Everything around Tyrus Shearman must be sterile, controlled, labeled, and preferably incapable of disagreeing with him."

Tyrus stared at her.

"You ambitious bitch."

"Petri-dish bastard."

Hans and Matilda watched the two shout over each other while Callum quietly reached behind himself and closed the door.

The poor Commander slowly lowered his head and massaged his temples.

Goodness me. I brought this upon myself now, didn’t I?

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