Datasets:
BlinAI
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Testo

Dataset card Data Studio Files
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"Look, I'm not going to ignore an opportunity to save a kid, even if it means adding a little more risk."
"'A little more risk'? Is that how you'd characterize the harebrained stunt you pulled in the cargo bay? The objective here was to retake the shuttle so you c...
"Huh. I thought the test was to do the best job possible."
"'Doing the best job' means minimizing risk. This time, it meant sacrificing innocents."
"But I didn't have to: I found a way to save both the boy and the mission."
"That's a sim. In the field, those instincts will get you killed."
Caine yanked off his virtual reality helmet. "Fine. So I flunk. Go get some other student. Please."
MENTOR
Downing pushed down his annoyance. "Caine," he said calmly, "you know you can't just walk away from this job. You're too much of a security risk, given everythi...
Caine folded his arms. "So how will you ensure my continued cooperation? Threaten to withhold information about my one hundred missing hours?"
Downing shook his head. "That would not be effective enough."
Caine's eyes widened, then became very narrow. "Oh. I get it. If I don't shape up, then you stick me back into the freezer?"
Downing shrugged. "Let's not let it get to that point, shall we?"
Caine stared at him, yanked the leads off the sensory suit and stalked out of the sim chamber.
A moment later, Nolan entered from the sim operator's booth. "Well, that went well."
Downing pulled off the virtual gloves with which he had controlled the actions of one of the two terrorists in the cargo bay. "Caine won't be a safe operative...
"Is that what's bothering you-or that he not only won, but pretty much broke your sim?"
Downing thought about it. "Both, probably. He certainly made me feel a right dolt: I designed a sim to force him to choose between his mission and his conscie...
"Look, Caine's clever and he's got a lot of breadth, but he lacks expertise and real field experience. And he's not a genius at everything, you know. Hell, ta...
Downing looked at Nolan, having heard the hanging tone. "Except . . . ?"
Nolan shrugged. "Except that, because he tends to avoid preconceptions, he can constantly integrate almost everything he knows to solve problems. You and I se...
Downing returned his virtual reality goggles to their protective case. "So when we included the netting in the sim, we gave him a tool we weren't aware of."
"Right. And that couldn't have happened with the old sims, where there was a lot of restriction regarding how many items in the environment were manipulable. ...
Downing grabbed his dataslate, started making notes. "I still say he's not right for the mission."
"You mean, you're still pissed he got the better of your sim."
Downing rounded on Nolan. "No, I'm pissed that he's got a better soul than he should. He's too decent a bloke for this shite, and you know it."
"'Too decent'?"
"Of course. You saw the end of the sim: sooner or later, Caine's fine moral sensibilities are going to get him killed."
Corcoran leaned back, his eyes assessing. "Rich, I can't tell if you resent him or admire him."
Downing stared at his superior. "Nolan, I not only admire Riordan; I envy him. He isn't up to his neck in the lies that we peddle, that we live. And that's wh...
Nolan smiled. "Well, he can be trusted to do the right thing, can't he?"
"Yes."
"Then he's predictable. You can work with that."
Nolan smiled and left Downing sitting speechless, mouth open-partly at his superior's easy sagacity, and partly at his ruthless pragmatism.
* * *
When they arrived at Epsilon Indi five days later, Downing accompanied Nolan to the pinnace that would ferry him to the Earth-bound shift-carrier Commonwealth...
Downing shook Corcoran's wide, strong hand. "Yes. He's 'Odysseus'-who wound up getting lost and not coming home, you might recall. Not exactly an auspicious c...
Nolan smiled. "Odysseus was a proto-polymath, though. How does The Odyssey begin? 'This is the story of a man who was never at a loss.' We could do worse, I t...
Downing frowned. "It would still be better if we sent a professional operative."
"I would if I could, Rich. But that won't work on Delta Pavonis Three. If, as we suspect, the megacorporations are trying to conceal the evidence of sentients...
"So we hope."
Nolan's smile widened as he waved. "I'll miss your sunny optimism, Rich. Don't waste any time getting back to Earth."
Downing returned the wave and wondered when Caine Riordan might be able to make such a return trip himself.
If ever.
PART TWO
Delta Pavonis and Junction systems
June-October, 2118
Chapter Three