The Last Iteration: All This Has Happened Before … Chapter 29
The Last Iteration: All This Has Happened Before …
Chapter 29: Be Careful of Throwing Rocks in a Looking Glass House
Word Count: 1,470 words
Rating: T (PG-13)
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my craziness in this nBSG/Voyager crossover story. Battlestar Galactica belongs to Glen A. Larson, Ron D. Moore, David Eick, the Sci-Fi Channel, various and sundry companies and whoever owns them. Star Trek: Voyager belongs to Gene Roddenberry, Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor, Paramount Studios, UPN, Viacom and whoever else owns pieces of the Star Trek franchise.
Spoilers: For nBSG - to Crossroads Part 2; for ST:V - to Endgame. Everything beyond is definitely alternate universe and a fairly cracked one at that!
Summary: The survivors of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and the crew of the intrepid starship Voyager must find a way to break the cycle …
The Last Iteration: All This Has Happened Before …
Chapter 29: Be Careful of Throwing Rocks in a Looking Glass House
Felix Gaeta watched as the Federation ship grew to fill the front canopy of the shuttle as they approached it from astern. He gasped as the shuttle bay doors opened, seemingly leaving the hanger open to the vacuum of space. But incredibly, the people walking around without space suits didn’t seem to care-or even notice.
“Ah ... why isn’t your crew being sucked into space?” Lee Adama asked; the awe was evident in his voice.
Harry Kim, seated in the co-pilot’s seat next to Paris, chuckled low and delightedly. “Differential force field,” he said as a blue haze shimmered for a second when the Delta Flyer entered the hanger. “Keeps atmosphere in and vacuum out, while allowing us to cross it at will-they’re also integrated throughout the ship in case of hull breaches to hold our atmosphere in until emergency bulkheads can be put in place.”
“Energy-state theoretics integrated with solid-state engineering?” Felix gasped.
Kim chuckled again. “It’s been a while since our force field technology moved out of the theory stage,” he said as the Flyer settled on the deck. “One of the things the Captain wants us to look into-in addition to weapons and shields-is if your ships can support emergency field generators and how they might be integrated. Come on, Commander Chakotay is waiting for us.”
As Felix tried to wrap his mind around the concepts and the sheer scope of the technology Voyager’s captain was willing to share with them, Kim led the Colonials through the shuttle and out the rear hatch to the tall, handsome man wearing a command red turtleneck.
“Everyone, I’d like you to meet Commander Chakotay, Voyager’s First Officer,” Kim said by way of introduction as Paris, Torres, Seven of Nine and Moag left the shuttle. “I believe you would call him the Executive Officer. Commander, allow me to introduce Mr. Lee Adama, personal envoy of President Roslin, Captain Karl Agathon, Lieutenant Felix Gaeta, Lieutenant Anastasia Dualla, Lieutenant Sharon Agathon and her daughter, Hera.”
“Welcome to Voyager,” the tall Commander said with a pleasant smile as he shook each of their hands. “All right, first things first-let’s get everyone to sickbay and assure the doctor that the shuttlebay’s biofilter is indeed still working.”
“Biofilter?” Felix asked as they all followed him out into the corridor; he got the feeling that he was going to have that note of confusion in his voice a lot while he was on this ship.
“When you went through the differential force field, you also went through a broad spectrum biofilter, Felix,” Paris answered with a knowing grin as they got into a small elevator. “It scanned the shuttle and occupants for any communicable deseases that might be harmful to any of the species on the ship, and filtered them out. Anything it couldn’t identify, it would have logged and alerted the doctor to take care of it with a more focused medical treatment, if necessary. If it had found anything remotely harmful that it couldn’t filter, it would have alerted us to keep the shuttle in quarantine.
“However, I’ve just realised that there’s something important we should explain to you before we get to sickbay,” Paris said with sudden concern.
“Mr. Paris?” Commander Chakotay said sternly as the Colonials looked on apprehensively.
“The doctor, sir,” the younger man said anxiously. “If they have trouble with the Cylons, they may have trouble with the doctor.” Comprehension dawned on the tall commander’s face at Paris’ cryptic statement, before Felix realised what they must be referring to-considering the state of high technology on the ship, it could only mean-
“Your doctor is a Cylon?” Felix blurted out in horror before he could sensor himself. As if the air had been sucked out of their collective lungs, his fellow Colonials gasped in shock.
“No!” Paris replied firmly as the lift stopped and they exited. “Our doctor is categorically not a Cylon, but he is an artificial intelligence and a good friend.”
Lee took a deep breath before saying, “I think you need to explain, Lieutenant Commander Paris.”
The other man nodded. “Just call me Tom,” he said absently before continuing. “Look, when Voyager was kidnapped and flung across the galaxy, we suffered a lot of casualties-over a third of our crew died, and because this was her maiden voyage, we were short-crewed from the outset. Among those who died was our entire medical staff,” he said sadly as they stared at him in shock. “Now, everyone on board knows basic First Aid, but because our doctors and nurses died, our field medics had to be cross-trained from other departments-for example, I’m Voyager’s lead pilot, while Sam’s a geologist and planetary scientist. But none of us are properly trained doctors-at best, we act as nurses and can perform emergency triage until we can get the injured to sickbay. However, integrated into our sickbay systems was an Emergency Medical Hologram-an interactive hologram-programmed with the knowledge of over five hundred of the Federation’s best doctors.”
“Wait a minute,” Sharon said. “How can a hologram be a doctor? They’re just simple illusions of light designed to trick the eye and brain.”
Kim laughed. “Remember what I said to Felix about force field theoretics not being theoretical for us anymore?” he said, eyes twinkling merrily as Felix gaped in confusion. “Well, as an offshoot of our force field technology, we’ve learned to make holograms that can be as real-looking and real-feeling as you or me. It all depends on how you manipulate the field containment.”
“And you trust this thing to be your doctor?” Dee said in outrage; Felix knew that although she trusted Adama, her trust didn’t extend very far towards Sharon and definitely not to the Cylons.
“The Doctor is a hologram, Dee,” Tom said quietly, “not a thing. And while he might be an annoying pain in the ass sometimes, he is our friend-a friend who has looked after us for over seven years and has literally snatched all of us from the jaws of death at one time or another.”
“That his body is made up of force fields and photons, while his mind is contained in our computers, is just another manifestation of this wide universe of ours,” Commander Chakotay said quietly. “We do understand your distrust of artificial intelligences and cybernetic organisms, but you must understand that your experiences with artificial intelligences are not necessarily that of other people.”
“Yeah, during the infancy of our computer age, and research into artificial intelligence and robotics we got lucky,” Tom said with a smile. “On our world, we had a scientist and thinker who postulated about artificial intelligence long before we were even able to build our first rudimentary robots-that’s our term for your original mechanical Cylon. Dr. Asimov set out what were termed “thought experiments” as a series of popular fictional stories about the effect of robots in human society and postulated that in order for it to work, you needed to give the robots three laws: a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; a robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would confilict with the first law; and a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not confilict with the first or second laws.”
Paris chuckled again softly at their incredulous expressions as they stared in shock; as far as Felix knew, none of the early Cylon scientists had even thought in this direction.
“But that would condemn them to be slaves,” Sharon said in a low, hoarse voice.
“Yes,” Paris replied smiling at her. “And by the time we figured out the first artificial intelligences, we also realised Asimov’s laws would be far too simplistic to work for long-any intelligence needs the ability and capacity to grow and learn. So instead of laws, we learned to give our AIs ethics.”
“What?” The collective shock of both Cylon and Colonial humans was voiced in one explosive, unified shout.
“How?” Sharon croaked after a few moments of stunned silence.
“You start with ethical subroutines in their programming, to give them a foundation of right and wrong,” Kim explained soberly. “And for the rest, you treat them as you would another human being and teach them as you would a child. And we also have made mistakes, don’t think that we haven’t, but we’ve learned from them. It’s only been within the last twenty-five years that AI rights have become an issue, starting with the android, Commander Data of the starship Enterprise, and it’s only been lately that the rights of all sentients have been extended to holograms. But on this ship, the Doctor-all sentient artificial and cybernetically-enhanced beings have the same rights as all organic beings.”
#
Chapter 30
Chapter 29: Be Careful of Throwing Rocks in a Looking Glass House
Word Count: 1,470 words
Rating: T (PG-13)
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my craziness in this nBSG/Voyager crossover story. Battlestar Galactica belongs to Glen A. Larson, Ron D. Moore, David Eick, the Sci-Fi Channel, various and sundry companies and whoever owns them. Star Trek: Voyager belongs to Gene Roddenberry, Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor, Paramount Studios, UPN, Viacom and whoever else owns pieces of the Star Trek franchise.
Spoilers: For nBSG - to Crossroads Part 2; for ST:V - to Endgame. Everything beyond is definitely alternate universe and a fairly cracked one at that!
Summary: The survivors of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and the crew of the intrepid starship Voyager must find a way to break the cycle …
The Last Iteration: All This Has Happened Before …
Chapter 29: Be Careful of Throwing Rocks in a Looking Glass House
Felix Gaeta watched as the Federation ship grew to fill the front canopy of the shuttle as they approached it from astern. He gasped as the shuttle bay doors opened, seemingly leaving the hanger open to the vacuum of space. But incredibly, the people walking around without space suits didn’t seem to care-or even notice.
“Ah ... why isn’t your crew being sucked into space?” Lee Adama asked; the awe was evident in his voice.
Harry Kim, seated in the co-pilot’s seat next to Paris, chuckled low and delightedly. “Differential force field,” he said as a blue haze shimmered for a second when the Delta Flyer entered the hanger. “Keeps atmosphere in and vacuum out, while allowing us to cross it at will-they’re also integrated throughout the ship in case of hull breaches to hold our atmosphere in until emergency bulkheads can be put in place.”
“Energy-state theoretics integrated with solid-state engineering?” Felix gasped.
Kim chuckled again. “It’s been a while since our force field technology moved out of the theory stage,” he said as the Flyer settled on the deck. “One of the things the Captain wants us to look into-in addition to weapons and shields-is if your ships can support emergency field generators and how they might be integrated. Come on, Commander Chakotay is waiting for us.”
As Felix tried to wrap his mind around the concepts and the sheer scope of the technology Voyager’s captain was willing to share with them, Kim led the Colonials through the shuttle and out the rear hatch to the tall, handsome man wearing a command red turtleneck.
“Everyone, I’d like you to meet Commander Chakotay, Voyager’s First Officer,” Kim said by way of introduction as Paris, Torres, Seven of Nine and Moag left the shuttle. “I believe you would call him the Executive Officer. Commander, allow me to introduce Mr. Lee Adama, personal envoy of President Roslin, Captain Karl Agathon, Lieutenant Felix Gaeta, Lieutenant Anastasia Dualla, Lieutenant Sharon Agathon and her daughter, Hera.”
“Welcome to Voyager,” the tall Commander said with a pleasant smile as he shook each of their hands. “All right, first things first-let’s get everyone to sickbay and assure the doctor that the shuttlebay’s biofilter is indeed still working.”
“Biofilter?” Felix asked as they all followed him out into the corridor; he got the feeling that he was going to have that note of confusion in his voice a lot while he was on this ship.
“When you went through the differential force field, you also went through a broad spectrum biofilter, Felix,” Paris answered with a knowing grin as they got into a small elevator. “It scanned the shuttle and occupants for any communicable deseases that might be harmful to any of the species on the ship, and filtered them out. Anything it couldn’t identify, it would have logged and alerted the doctor to take care of it with a more focused medical treatment, if necessary. If it had found anything remotely harmful that it couldn’t filter, it would have alerted us to keep the shuttle in quarantine.
“However, I’ve just realised that there’s something important we should explain to you before we get to sickbay,” Paris said with sudden concern.
“Mr. Paris?” Commander Chakotay said sternly as the Colonials looked on apprehensively.
“The doctor, sir,” the younger man said anxiously. “If they have trouble with the Cylons, they may have trouble with the doctor.” Comprehension dawned on the tall commander’s face at Paris’ cryptic statement, before Felix realised what they must be referring to-considering the state of high technology on the ship, it could only mean-
“Your doctor is a Cylon?” Felix blurted out in horror before he could sensor himself. As if the air had been sucked out of their collective lungs, his fellow Colonials gasped in shock.
“No!” Paris replied firmly as the lift stopped and they exited. “Our doctor is categorically not a Cylon, but he is an artificial intelligence and a good friend.”
Lee took a deep breath before saying, “I think you need to explain, Lieutenant Commander Paris.”
The other man nodded. “Just call me Tom,” he said absently before continuing. “Look, when Voyager was kidnapped and flung across the galaxy, we suffered a lot of casualties-over a third of our crew died, and because this was her maiden voyage, we were short-crewed from the outset. Among those who died was our entire medical staff,” he said sadly as they stared at him in shock. “Now, everyone on board knows basic First Aid, but because our doctors and nurses died, our field medics had to be cross-trained from other departments-for example, I’m Voyager’s lead pilot, while Sam’s a geologist and planetary scientist. But none of us are properly trained doctors-at best, we act as nurses and can perform emergency triage until we can get the injured to sickbay. However, integrated into our sickbay systems was an Emergency Medical Hologram-an interactive hologram-programmed with the knowledge of over five hundred of the Federation’s best doctors.”
“Wait a minute,” Sharon said. “How can a hologram be a doctor? They’re just simple illusions of light designed to trick the eye and brain.”
Kim laughed. “Remember what I said to Felix about force field theoretics not being theoretical for us anymore?” he said, eyes twinkling merrily as Felix gaped in confusion. “Well, as an offshoot of our force field technology, we’ve learned to make holograms that can be as real-looking and real-feeling as you or me. It all depends on how you manipulate the field containment.”
“And you trust this thing to be your doctor?” Dee said in outrage; Felix knew that although she trusted Adama, her trust didn’t extend very far towards Sharon and definitely not to the Cylons.
“The Doctor is a hologram, Dee,” Tom said quietly, “not a thing. And while he might be an annoying pain in the ass sometimes, he is our friend-a friend who has looked after us for over seven years and has literally snatched all of us from the jaws of death at one time or another.”
“That his body is made up of force fields and photons, while his mind is contained in our computers, is just another manifestation of this wide universe of ours,” Commander Chakotay said quietly. “We do understand your distrust of artificial intelligences and cybernetic organisms, but you must understand that your experiences with artificial intelligences are not necessarily that of other people.”
“Yeah, during the infancy of our computer age, and research into artificial intelligence and robotics we got lucky,” Tom said with a smile. “On our world, we had a scientist and thinker who postulated about artificial intelligence long before we were even able to build our first rudimentary robots-that’s our term for your original mechanical Cylon. Dr. Asimov set out what were termed “thought experiments” as a series of popular fictional stories about the effect of robots in human society and postulated that in order for it to work, you needed to give the robots three laws: a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; a robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would confilict with the first law; and a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not confilict with the first or second laws.”
Paris chuckled again softly at their incredulous expressions as they stared in shock; as far as Felix knew, none of the early Cylon scientists had even thought in this direction.
“But that would condemn them to be slaves,” Sharon said in a low, hoarse voice.
“Yes,” Paris replied smiling at her. “And by the time we figured out the first artificial intelligences, we also realised Asimov’s laws would be far too simplistic to work for long-any intelligence needs the ability and capacity to grow and learn. So instead of laws, we learned to give our AIs ethics.”
“What?” The collective shock of both Cylon and Colonial humans was voiced in one explosive, unified shout.
“How?” Sharon croaked after a few moments of stunned silence.
“You start with ethical subroutines in their programming, to give them a foundation of right and wrong,” Kim explained soberly. “And for the rest, you treat them as you would another human being and teach them as you would a child. And we also have made mistakes, don’t think that we haven’t, but we’ve learned from them. It’s only been within the last twenty-five years that AI rights have become an issue, starting with the android, Commander Data of the starship Enterprise, and it’s only been lately that the rights of all sentients have been extended to holograms. But on this ship, the Doctor-all sentient artificial and cybernetically-enhanced beings have the same rights as all organic beings.”
#
Chapter 30