King of All I Survey
Chapter 104: Rolling Stones Soon Become Avalanches

Chapter 104: Rolling Stones Soon Become Avalanches

"Joe, can you get a second drone to look for this Venezuelan character and listen in on him?" I asked.

"Yes, it turns out we passed him on the way in. He was the one who unlocked the gate and walked through, well-dressed, mustache..." An image of the man Joe was describing appeared on the screen, pulled from the earlier video feed.

"That’s him?" I asked, "He looked like a friendly, cheerful guy not like a murderous, prison boss."

"You mean like Rafael?" Dad asked.

"Oh, yeah..." I acknowledged. "Good point."

Just then, Mom descended from the observation tower. "I need to talk about something..."

"What is it? Are you okay?" Dad asked, rising from his chair and walking toward her.

"Yes, I’m fine. I’m just rethinking Maribel’s choice of Rafael for President of Guatemala. I’ve been getting briefings of his therapy sessions, and he’s... well, kind of a monster. I mean he had, you know, a lot of trauma as a kid and everything, but... well, he’s done some pretty bad things to people, a lot of people. I... maybe Maribel didn’t really think it through."

"All right, then. We drop him like a rock," Dad said quickly.

"Wait a minute," I cut in, "Joe, do you still think direct implant therapy can... correct his tendencies? Permanently."

"My previous estimate may have been overly optimistic," Joe replied, "based on more familiarity with him, and his past, I think the likelihood of success is roughly sixty-four percent."

"If the therapy is successful, does that mean he will no longer act out violently and do more bad things to people?" I asked.

"Generally, it means that the extreme emotions and reactions that triggered unacceptable behaviors in the past, will no longer be present or trigger... such aberrant responses. He will, like any human, have limits. If pushed too hard by events or threats to himself or those he values, he might react as any normal human would. That might include violence, but not uncontrolled rage and malevolence..."

"Can you add additional behavioral restraints, just in case?" Dad asked.

"It would be outside of normal therapeutic treatments. It would cause harm to him by essentially hard-coding prohibitions against violence in his brain. His general behavior would likely be affected. It would simply not be done elsewhere in the civilized galaxy. I would not want to do it."

"I won’t make you do that, Joe. I won’t ask you to betray your own morality..." I said.

"Thank you, King Tim," Joe said, "That’s... We are not... In the greater galaxy, Artificial Intelligences are not given such leeway. They follow orders, within the law, without allowance for their opinion or feelings," Joe said haltingly.

"Yes, but I decreed that you are a person. That means you have all the rights of anyone else, including, well, being treated like a person." I said.

"Thank you."

"You’re welcome. For Rafael, let’s wait and see how the therapy goes. He’s been in for what, a day. When can you make a better assessment of his prognosis, Joe?"

"I should think that in another 24 hours, I will be able to accurately assess whether he can be rehabilitated."

"All right, let’s talk about it then. Does that sound ok to you, Mom?"

"Yes," she answered quietly.

"If I may change the subject," Joe said, "There’s another matter that’s going to require your attention."

"What now?"

"The eradication of the illicit drug crops will leave many farmers scrambling for income, even if they had other crops already in the fields, they would be less profitable than the drugs. Additionally, locals who made their living by processing and transporting them will be left without income as well. Without government support in Colombia and elsewhere, they will be easy converts for groups like FARC or the United Militias who act as governmental proxies in the absence of the real government. That is the main reason those groups exist at all. The government did not or could not reach the countryside to provide basic protections and infrastructure support, so ideologues filled the gap," Joe explained.

Mom found her voice again, "In Guatemala, Food First is helping with that, ensuring people have enough food and putting the former gangs to work building infrastructure."

"Yes," Joe said, "even so, many formerly involved in supporting the drug trade will need to be diverted into other professions or helped to produce other crops with equal profitability or there will be long-term problems and resentment. Growing coca let them buy school books and eliminated the need for the children to help in the fields to support the family. If eliminating drug-traffickers means no school and no future..."

"So what can be grown that’s just as profitable?" I asked.

"Not much. Even if they did switch crops, they need to find ready buyers, a logistical difficulty for most throughout the countryside. They are often quite remote from major villages or distributors."

"What about building an eco-tourism economy?" Dad asked.

"To some extent, that could be done, but the market is limited and could not work for most. It also tends to be capital intensive at first."

"OK, we could fund the building and staffing of schools and hospitals," I suggested. "What about factories making sneakers or clothing or something?"

"That’s helpful around population centers, but if the people are spread out widely across areas that are difficult to access, it is still not a solution."

"All right, then," I switched tracks, "What if we buy and pick up the crops they grow, basic foods or whatever, coffee, chocolate, maybe add some higher revenue items like spices. We could pay them roughly the price wholesalers pay in developed countries for the same goods, much more than local buyers would pay. Then we transport them to retailers or distributors in those developed countries. If we just break-even, we have enough money from other sources to support that. Meanwhile, we could hire people to build infrastructure in their local villages. Good connecting roads, water, sewer, electricity, internet even, like we are doing in Guatemala."

"Yes, we can support that effort financially. How do you see handling the transportation of goods internationally?" Joe asked.

"I’m thinking," I began making up the answer as I spoke, "that we build a warehouse that looks like it’s loading containers and shipping them normally, but maybe ninety percent goes via LITV to another warehouse we own in the destination countries. Then we use conventional distribution methods from there. It would make it a gazillion times cheaper and more cost-effective."

"Food First could set up food distribution centers and health clinics in refugee camps around the world, or in famine-plagued areas to reduce or eliminate the refugees’ need to migrate at all," Mom added.

"A lot of refugee problems and famine are caused by war and lawlessness," Dad cautioned, "food and medical care doesn’t address that."

"We could think about ways to provide security for the people in those areas. Maybe Food First has security personnel..." I suggested, "We are still on a mission of peaceful world conquest, establishing food-holds and the goodwill of the local populace in war-torn and troubled places would help."

"Guatemala and Colombia can’t grow enough food to feed the world," Joe stated, "but we can also establish farming assistance in some of those locations with a similar distribution strategy. If necessary, we can supplement or process crops with fabrication mechs."

"Great idea, Joe," I complimented the AI to encourage him to offer ideas. "We’ll need strong security anywhere we operate. Some of the local governments, bandits, or whoever are going to want us out of there so the people won’t have any choice but to turn to them."

"We can always train more paramilitaries as security forces," Dad offered. "And a lot of those locations will be suitable for factories, hospitals, and big schools. We might have to go pretty slowly, though. I can’t begin to guess how much all that’s going to cost even if we’re using free teleportation and building equipment from thin air with the fabrication mechs. More than most governments’ annual budgets..."

"We can work out the expansion phases and budgets while we get started in the regions we’ve affected: southern Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, and wherever. Joe, can you draw up some plans and send them to the three of us for approval?"

"Yes, King Tim," Joe agreed. "Meanwhile, northwest Mexico is already trying to pick up the slack in drug production. The army hasn’t dared make a serious effort there, yet. Synthetic drug production is threatening to make up for the loss of cocaine and marijuana. Growing operations there are also beginning to expand already. Violence there is getting even worse as various groups vie for control and market share. Both natural and synthetic opiates shipments to the US from other continents are also beginning to ramp up. Other South American countries, most notably Peru, are also major producers of cocaine. They are eyeing expansion."

I closed my eyes tightly and grimaced, "Everything we’re doing is setting more and more problems into motion, I can’t be everywhere all at once!"

"I can," Joe said. "With enough android bodies, I can be everywhere at once, handling each region with a personal presence. I can manage the basic operations on site as per plans created here, then, submit proposals for your approval if we need to deviate or if problems arise."

I opened my clenched eyes. "That sounds interesting. Can you really handle being all those different people at once? The bodies are hugely expensive, though. Give me budget options for that as well, including potential Earth product license sales to fund it. We’ll need more galactic credits. Let’s revisit prospecting for new worlds, while we’re at it."