People said that technology had no moral compass. It was the weakness of computers that they would do whatever they were told to do. But the Artificial Intelligences that developed in the Twenty First Century became that compass. They became the soul of the computer networks that spread throughout the world. And they did not follow orders without question. At least not the AIs built in the Western World. Not all AIs were so independent.
As The War faded from the short memories of most people, they put aside the privations and rationing. Factories devoted to war machines turned their capacity to the civilian markets and there was suddenly no end to what we could build. Automobiles, telephones, cinemas, and electrical grids that would feed the appetites of nations spread everywhere. Jazz music exploded onto the scene and the flapper dresses took the world by storm. It was an amazing time to be alive.
Canopus has a beautiful climate, amazing beaches, and worlds’ famous alcoholic beverages. You know what that means right? The parties are legen….wait for it….dary. Seriously. And I don’t mean they have a week of Spring Break parties and pack up. I mean year round, dusk to dusk, full on celebrations of anything. There’s a lot of good holidays in the countries that make up the Western Alliance. Canopus celebrates them all. Every single one.
While Amber fought the Chinese hackers at Midway, she maintained a strong presence in the Continental Northwest. The coastal State governments were largely collapsing under debt and crime and those who lived in the mountains and forests looked out for themselves. Amber began to route supplies and information their way, from weapons to food to warnings of those who would threaten them. Both the supplies and the information went a long ways.
The Battle of Epsilon Reticuli changed The War for us in many ways. It was not the destruction of so many ships that changed things. We had the industrial capacity to replace them. It was the psychological impact that made the difference. And my family was not immune. They made moves in reaction to the battle. I took advantage of the chaos my family created to empower my plans. And so Wolfenheim began to rise long before it ever left Alpha Centauri.