The Singularity
Despite the fact that the term “Singularity” and the possible effects on human kind were actively debated centuries before the actual event, the impact of rapid technological change still had profound and unexpected impacts on human society and our place in the galaxy. While this guide is not intended to be a history text, this context is vital to understand the purpose of the guild and our unique place amongst the human population of our galaxy. Simply stated, the singularity occurred when human technical advancement gained such a pace as to appear vertical in all respects. In practice, the change occurred when completely automated factories could produce other factories. This is to say, machines could build all other machines with no human interaction. This means that a single replicator node can produce as many replicator nodes as you have raw materials to support and that this process can go on indefinitely. This self-replication ability meant that anyone with sufficient knowledge could simply establish their own replication node and then build everything else required for an industrial base from that single node. In the context of a single solar system, this can obviously cause political and social upheaval as raw materials become the only brake on development. If the singularity had not been quickly followed by a practical Faster than Light (FTL) propulsion system, the human race would have most likely flamed out as so many other races have done throughout our galaxy’s many millennia of existence. {{Meta Tag: “Pre FTL Singularity Societies”}}
Excerpted With Permission
Data Trader’s Handbook
Copyright 3250, Interstellar Data Trader Guild
Leo was running late for his appointment with Thorsten. While he had the excellent excuse of an unexpected call from the trading pit, you never wanted to be late for an appointment with the boss man. Any attempted excuse would result in a lecture about being prepared and anticipation. Ah, the glamorous life of a data trader. Leo quickened his pace. He could see Gunny down the corridor. Since he was already late, the last thing he needed was an impromptu demand for status on Ramona’s mentoring. Apparently, Gunny had seen him also and quickened HIS pace. At any rate, Gunny was standing at Thorsten’s door before Leo got there. Gunny had what for him passed as a grin. On anyone else, it would look like a murderous glare. You had to know Gunny well to tell when he was smiling or happy. He reached out and gave Leo a light punch on the shoulder. “Well done young Timur. Never break a record, you have to shatter it. I won’t forget this when you sit your master’s board.” Before Leo began to protest, he continued. “That means you have me and Thorsten as locks. You need one more lock to guarantee you pass 3-2 worst case.” Leo was a little shocked. He knew that these things were decided largely in advance but he had never heard such bald faced vote fixing before. Apparently, things were a little different once you made master. “Don’t look like I just told you there was no such thing as the tooth fairy. You know that things are different once you make master. You want to be a master: expect people to treat you like one. OK, end of free lessons today.” He opened the door to Thorsten’s office and called out in his best parade ground bellow, “Here’s young Timur for you. He’s late because I was bending his ear about Eddington.” With a wink, he snapped an about face and strode off along the corridor.
“Come on in Leo, and close the door.” Once Leo was settled into one of the utilitarian chairs in Thorsten’s office, the guild master continued. “Tiernen tells me that you’ve volunteered to do all the maintenance sweeps for our upcoming visit to Upsilon Irridini. That’s very generous of you.” Leo hadn’t so much volunteered as been informed by Tiernen; but in the end it amounted to the same thing. He nodded and Thorsten smiled. “Always nice to see the extra effort before a master’s board. You can’t imagine how much preventative maintenance we get done each year before the board sits.” Leo sighed inwardly. He knew that Larry was right about the extra duty but it was a pain getting every shit job that came along in addition to his regular duties. He had already been pulling extra shifts to get his team ready for going in-system and these extra duties were eating up all of his spare time. Luckily, Ramona was a quick study or his mentoring duties would have been impossible. “Checking the records, it looks like it’s been quite a while since there has been a Data Ark visit to U-I. I’d like you to take a fast cutter out ahead and check the 6 O’Clock Buoy before we slip inside the E-Limit.” Most systems had their major planets and other features in a disc called the elliptic, viewed from above, it looked like a circle and the place on the circle where Buoy 1 was placed was informally referred to by spacers as “noon” or 12 O’Clock in reference to ancient mechanical clocks. Six O’Clock Buoy was therefore 180 degrees opposed to that first Buoy. Which Buoy a ship used depended on the direction they were approaching from. In theory, all pending transactions were queued to all the Buoys in the system but in practice, the units never actually came to a full sync due to latency in speed of light transmissions. Even a tight beam laser link like the ones normally used by data buoys could only maintain a certain level of transmission so discrepancies were bound to creep in.
Leo glanced down at his pad. Every buoy ever touched by the Guild had an official name and the name of the 6 buoy for Upsilon Irridini was UI-231-A. Checking the maintenance records, the buoy had not been touched in almost two years. While the units were very rugged and designed to last indefinitely in space, there was no substitute for a human eyeball to check the condition of the buoy and the guild tried to do maintenance visits for buoys about once a year so this one was definitely due for a visit.
“OK. Checking the math, the computer says I should be able to get out there in a cutter before we hit the e-limit if I leave in the next six hours. Six hours out, two hours back plus four hours on station if everything turns out right. That is assuming the Reggie maintains current programmed course and speed.” Leo was already setting up the astrogation needed. There were several cutters on the boat deck that could do the job and he went ahead and asked for one of them to be brought out of storage and run through pre-flight checks by the boat crew.
“One last thing, Leo.” Thorsten leaned back in his chair and gave Leo a strange, knowing smile. “Take Eddington with you. Good chance to get her logged into a Buoy for the first time.”
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While Leo was more than happy to spend what amounted to a whole day in a small ship with Ramona, he wasn’t really sure why the big boss would care who he took with him. Not that it mattered, there was only one answer to that type of direct order from the Guild Master. “Yes, Guild Master.”
Leo was whistling off key as he strode down to the boat deck. Everyone he passed gave him a friendly wave and some were openly envious. He was wearing an EVA suit liner so everyone knew he was going to take a small boat out. Despite Larry’s warning of “shit jobs” in his future, he quite enjoyed Buoy maintenance. It gave him a chance to get off the ship and it was a very rare chance to actually pilot a ship in open space. Unlike riding in the Reggie which felt like the world’s biggest office building, a small cutter like the one he was about to take up really felt like piloting. Walking into the enormous boat deck, he could see Ramona standing by a cutter on the ready pad. She was also wearing a suit liner. Somehow, Leo never really considered the utilitarian form fitting garb sexy on anyone else before but on Ramona there was no other way to describe the way it highlighted her curves. Trying to not stare, he walked up to Ramona and the little cutter for pre-flight.
If there was one thing that his flight instructor had pounded into him from the beginning, it was “follow the check-list.” The instructor had been able to quote from memory dozens of accidents that would have been prevented if only the crew had followed the check list to the letter. Leo brought up the pre-flight check list on his pad and started the external inspection check list. The little craft didn’t have much sophistication, it was designed to be fast and that’s about all it could do. Not much more than a large ceramic carbon composite cylinder tapered on each end, it never the less had 25 external fittings for everything from laser comms to airlock mating collar. Leo carefully checked each one.
When he finished, he walked back over to the main airlock where Ramona was patiently waiting. She had a small smile on her face. “It seems that flight instructors are the same everywhere in the galaxy. I can still hear mine, ‘Eddington, check every goddamn item on the checklist or I swear you will be inspecting thruster nozzles for the rest of your fucking tour!’”
Leo laughed outright. “I think mine swore less, but yeah that pretty much covered it. Mine liked to quote fatal accident inquiry board reports listing all the times the crew died because they failed to follow the checklist.” Even though he knew the boat crew had already checked, he re-checked every item on the entire 250 point pre-flight checklist himself. There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old bold pilots. Or so the ancient saying went.
The interior of the ship was spartan, but comfortable enough for a crew of up to six. With only two onboard it was almost luxurious. There was a main crew cabin with small bunks, a head and small galley. Most of the mechanicals to the rear were sealed and very infrequently maintained in space. Because this was a guild ship, it was almost new and impeccably maintained. Outside of training simulators, Leo had never had a single mechanical failure while piloting a guild vessel. A record he did not want to break as small craft mechanical failures could easily be fatal. Up front there was a small bridge with just enough space for two acceleration couches and an array of consoles. You could fly the craft manually, but this was extremely rare outside of training. The vast majority of the time, the “pilot” told the ship where to go and the ship did all the flying.
As Ramona settled into the copilot’s couch, she shifted slightly and removed what looked like a holster. Leo had been working so hard not to stare at Ramona he hadn’t noticed the side-arm before. “Are you expecting trouble, Ramona? I don’t usually go armed on these maintenance runs.”
She looked a little embarrassed. “Actually, no. I saw this design when I was doing my training with Christine. It was submitted by a firm on U-I but the previous guild ship through the system had passed on the design, they thought the patent holder was asking too much. Christine and I were looking at previous trade records at U-I to help me get a feel. She’s a long guns specialist so I decided to start with handguns. It’s something I know about from my militia service. I was surprised that we had the rights to print out up to 10 copies for testing but that nobody in the guild had bothered. I had the replicators run this up for me along with a holster and a zero-g harness.” Leo just stared. That was the longest utterance he had heard from her in their short relationship. Ramona looked down, embarrassed at her outburst. She held out the weapon for Leo to inspect. Out of politeness rather than interest, he took the weapon and inspected it. Leo was not very familiar with weapons but it seemed lighter than other guns he had trained with. Ramona nodded enthusiastically when he expressed his very amateur opinion. “Yes, exactly. It weighs 100 grams less than the standard militia piece but produces an additional 500 Joules at the muzzle. The internal compensators have been upgraded so you can take a 50% shot in zero-g with no kickback. In full 1G you can take a 100% shot and not kill yourself. It uses a compressed tungsten round which can be tuned for penetration or spread. The E-M impeller is 25% more powerful than a standard militia weapon and it holds a charge 10% longer. The weps trader who looked at it last year wrote about two sentences in his review. He claimed it was too complicated for ground troops to use and not powerful enough for armored marines. However, I can’t see any evidence that he ever printed one out, much less shot one to see how it felt. I put a hundred rounds downrange with it yesterday and I freaking love it.” Now she looked completely chagrined. “I slept with it under my pillow last night.” Now Leo was most definitely staring at Ramona. His mouth was also open, which wasn’t a good look for him. This time it wasn’t the curves of her suit liner that occupied his mind. “So, yeah, I kinda like guns.”
Luckily for Leo, the deck officer interrupted the conversation. “Leo, are you going to take that ship out or are you just going to oogle your pleb all morning?” Leo looked out the pilot side window to see Ollu grinning at him. “Starting external cycle in ten secs.”
Leo got busy with his console. The ship was buttoned up and ready to go. Ollu knew that from her display; he assumed she would not have cycled the lock if the ship hadn’t been ready. Or at least Leo hoped she wouldn’t have. The ship cycled out through the internal hatch and then “pushed” through the GTE barrier that held atmo inside the lock. The big doors could be cycled manually in an emergency but the GTE barrier was much faster under normal conditions.
Leo was still thinking about Ramona’s sidearm. While it was perfectly acceptable for a trader to go armed outside of the ship, it wasn’t common. Yes, there were places where you just didn’t go unarmed, this part of the spiral arm wasn’t one of them. It never would have occurred to Leo to bring a sidearm along on a normal buoy maintenance run. No matter. If she wanted to carry one she was within her rights to do so now that she was a fully qual’d member of the crew.
Slowly, the little cutter eased away from Reggie. In reality, the most likely thing that could go completely and fatally wrong at this point was to collide with the larger ship; so the exit procedure was very carefully managed. Once free, the smaller ship was able to build up charge in her systems and power away. Within ten minutes the running lights of Reggie were invisible to the naked eye and only instruments told them they were anything but a mote in an infinitely empty universe.