Page 18 of Chapter 4

[macnut]

Page 18 of Chapter 4 is up taking us back to the fierce space battle between the Stellar Vanguard and the Vesparion mothership, which has been raging on while our heroes battled the "bugs" on the ground.

One thing about AIs in the Vanguard universe-they have a great deal more rights and responsibility that you might see in typical Star Trek/Wars type stories. The AI "Stella", for example, controls navigation, communication and weapons, and assists Mekri with helm duties. When the team leaves the bridge, there is no need for a relief crew-the AI can handle all duties by herself. She could run the ship 24/7, but likes working with a biological crew, and it's been found that a well-trained crew adds to the efficiency of ship systems on most vessels.

That's the in-universe explanation anyway. The 4th-wall breaking explanation is that a large ship entirely devoid of crew is rather boring, and you'll see more of that crew next page.

[JEDraft]

One additional thing I thought of in that regard is the continued self-interest of the human species, as well as the impressive power of bureaucracy.

I imagine a two to three year voyage on a largely automated ship whose systems are so interrelated with hundreds of independent redundancies that there is only a one quintillion to one chance of even the coffeemaker being affected. And yet, picture a government whose bureacrats are desperate to justify their paychecks and all sorts of nonsensical laws are possible. Even in the above scenario, there would be a law that, at all times there MUST be a crew of waking, sentient beings attending the ship. Why? "In case of emergency." And yet, emergencies are virtually impossible! What are they imagining? Why can't the characters just go into hibernation? "In Case." In case WHAT? "In case of emergency" But - I just TOLD you ...

So, of course, there would be an emergency once in one quintillion flights, and guess who would be the crew it happens to? Our heroes. Etc, etc.

Anyway, just a few of my thoughts.

[macnut]

Nice thoughts JE, thanks for sharing them.
_________________
The MacNut
Creator of The Vanguard, classic superhero space opera adventure.