Aron turned to Nova, who was in charge of all things related to the private simulation, and asked, "How's development on the Henry's Eye system? Can it detect the mana levels in awakened?"
[Our current sensors are sensitive enough, but that's the problem-if anything, they're too sensitive. Right now, the researchers are working on filtering algorithms to discard false positives caused by pockets of higher concentrations of mana. Due to needing to be able to detect the minuscule amounts of mana emanating from the distant object the visitors are traveling on, the number of false positives we got when we turned it around and looked at Earth was ridiculous. Fifteen billion results were mislabeled as awakened humans, not including the ones that are actually undergoing the final stages of their evolutions now. And those that have already finished and woken up are so weak as to be virtually indistinguishable from the background mana density in most places.
[That said, we expect them to strengthen as they gain access to more mana. Right now, their mana levels are likely low due to the aspected nature of their mana affinities and the basic mana gradient. After all, if an earth aspected awakened wants to draw earth mana, they have to compete with the entire planet, which is still absorbing mana at an almost incomprehensible rate. Once that saturation process is finished, we expect the average strength of awakeners to undergo a rapid, dramatic rise,] Nova said. She knew that Aron appreciated detailed reports when the circumstances allowed for it, and given that the empire was in a rare moment of relative peace and security, the detailed report would be best.
"Do the researchers have an estimate on how long it'll take them to develop the algorithm?"
[Not currently, no. The constantly changing environment makes developing a one-size-fits-all filtering algorithm difficult. I could assign a VI to it, but the error rate would still be too high for general usage and we would be forced to investigate all false positives. That would be detrimental, as it would give our enemies an obvious clue as to our tracking capabilities and stretch out the conflict by forcing them to come up with an effective countermeasure. It'd be like the development of weapons and armor-we would be forced to dedicate resources to continue improving our detection methods to deal with the improvements in our enemy's increasing ability to hide from detection. So it's better to wait for the development to finish and take them all out in one fatal strike.]
"Good," Aron said, then turned to Nyx. "Nyx, until our final strike capability is mature, I'll be counting on you to keep up the pressure on the progenitor cult."
With a salute and a cheeky grin, Nyx replied, [Sure thing. Going analog has been interesting, and I think it might be pushing me to adapt and evolve faster.] She was absolutely thrilled with the state of the spy versus spy game she was playing with the cultists, who were proving to be more effective opponents than she would ever have imagined when she was first going into the conflict with them. Thanks to all the experience gained by America and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, plus the addition of the terrorist network organizational structure used during the more recent War on Terror, the always-upbeat AI was constantly being pushed to her limits and forced to adapt to overcome them.
Nova and Gaia's eyes flashed blue as they both opened private discussion channels with Nyx, practically bombarding her with questions about the evolution she was undergoing. It was a purely AI issue, though, so they politely kept it between themselves and didn't raise the issue in the meeting.
"That's excellent news, Nyx. I'm happy for you," Aron said with a bright smile on his face. He always treated the AIs with the same courtesy and respect that he did "real" people, if not more, and never considered them to have been limited in any way, despite their obvious shortcomings. Thus, whenever they made significant progress toward their goal of becoming more humanlike, he was happy to hear it.
He cleared his throat, realizing he had allowed the meeting to drift for a moment. Even though there wasn't an ongoing emergency right then, it was still a bad habit to fall into. "Let's move on," he said. "What's our next order of business?"
[Next is the appointment of leaders in the imperial agencies. We already randomly assigned people to staff positions according to their fit,] Nova said, her lips twitching when she recalled Aron flipping a coin to choose ministers. [So now all that's left is to manually vet the leadership positions.] She cast a pointed glance at Jeremy, the Minister of the Interior.
"Seeing as I just came on board, I'll need some time to go through the profiles and make decisions. Just cutting down the lists was a huge help, thank you, Gaia," the young minister reported.
[Just doing my job,] she politely replied.
"How long will you need?" Aron asked.
"Two weeks, tops. That's V... uhh, I mean, simulation time." Jeremy was still used to calling it VR, while the officials referred to the private simulation simply as "the simulation". Just like how the government internally called people the awakened, or awakeners, and the public referred to them as the blessed, it demonstrated something of a gap in the amount of information available to the two groups.
"You can use a random selection method," Aron said. "All of the candidates that have passed the multiple rounds of Gaia's screening are equally viable for the positions. The only thing that really differs are practical experience and methodology, and practical experience isn't necessarily as valuable as you might think. After all, nobody has ever led groups of awakened as part of a globe-spanning empire before, so any 'practical experience' they may have in leadership positions or politics can actually be detrimental when issues crop up that are out of their understanding."
