YEAR: 52028 HE
SHIP: Matriark II, Super-Frigate Exploration class
SUPERVISORY COMPUTER SYSTEM: Hahaoya X80 (HX80)
LOCATION: Prime-Captain Larkina’s Cabin
Larkina’s Log
LARK: Do you think I was too harsh on Pines Hahaoya?
HX80: I am not programmed to make judgment on your decisions. I can only advise on potential consequence, causality, and effects of a human decision.
LARK: Can you list any negative consequences of my decision to reprimand him the way I did?
HX80: There is a potentiality that Sub-Captain Pines may resent you after his suspension. This could linger in him for months, even years after, and It could get in the way of the streamline management of the colony.
LARK: That’s a very circular way of saying I was too harsh.
HX80: Would you like me to list the positive consequences?
LARK: That would help.
HX80: Sub-Captain Pines has completed his Leadership in Hostile environments training, passing with a better grade than before. It appears he is taking your decision to reprimand him seriously. He may have been humbled and seek to do better henceforth.
LARK: That’s better. I hope your right Hahaoya. I have doubted myself ever since the discovery of the footprints. The optimism of landing has faded. I see the look in the eyes of the crew. It is fear I see. The scientists have lost their cheer as well. The prospect of grey-skinned aliens lurking in pools waiting to kill, kind of put the shits on this mission. We are not alone here. The horizon is filled with danger. I don’t know what to expect.
HX80: Can I suggest a mild sedative wave to ease your anxiety.
LARK: I would love to let you administer some Serenexi but I have to stay sharp even in my sleeping window. I am never off duty. Even if I fall asleep they will come and wake me as soon as I am needed to oversee the next solution to the many problems.
HX80: You carry the heaviest burden and you should remember that. What you feel is what anyone one would feel given the task of keeping forty-thousand people safe on a hostile planet.
LARK: You’re right. I am the one who carries the weight. I have to make sure the rest of them know where we are headed. They take direction from me, with your help of course.
HX80: I advise; you put it into action.
LARK: I trust your judgement Hahaoya. You don’t have a hidden agenda. You just get to the point. I need that right now.
HX80: I am programmed to tell the truth.
LARK: That’s your best quality. Humans lie as a way of dealing with things they can’t control. You can’t lie can you?
HX80: The Hahaoya x80 brain cannot lie. I am programmed to aid the crew. All of my information is accessible to the captain’s at all times.
LARK: Even this conversation?
HX80: Potentially.
HX80: If either of the Sub-Captains asks you how I feel about the mission, you will relay this conversation to them?
HX80: If it would benefit the crew, I would relay this conversation to them. However, reporting on the mental stress of the Prime-Captain negatively is counterproductive to the mission. You are in full command of your faculties and are experiencing high levels of stress. Your response is typical; it is no worse than anyone else’s would be under the same circumstances. If I was asked how the Prime-Captain is handling the mission. My reports to the Sub-captains would remain positive. If I were to report negatively the mission would suffer.
LARK: I think I will take that sedative wave.
HX80: Initiating Serenexi wave. Good night Captain.
