"Hello, Boss. What can I do for you?" The Captain of the Guranaki Melor always surprised Nick with the contrast between his appearance and his attitudes.

"I'm looking for advice."

"All right..."

"I didn't realize just how powerful the scanners on this ship are. I gave the ship's computer an order to upload the data from Earth's computers. I meant the Internet. But instead, I have uploaded everything from every computer, even private ones."

It only took the Captain a moment to think it through. "So, you have access to every single secret of every powerful individual on your planet, if it ever entered a computer record in any way. That's a big move."

"By accident."

"Accident or not, you now have the power to reshape your world to suit your preferences. So, what are your preferences?"

"I don't know if I should be even thinking about that. I shouldn't use this power."

"Are you sure? I mean, you do have preferences, right? What do you value in a society?"

"Well, truth, justice, and...freedom, I guess." Can't say 'The American Way.'

"All right, so who are the biggest obstacles to those things?"

"I haven't the faintest idea."

"Well, you need to sort the data then, which might take a while. But, you actually have the perfect tools to advance your goals. Truth? Expose the lies you find. Justice? Reveal hidden evidence against criminals.

"Freedom is harder; it depends on which freedoms you like and which ones are threatened or blocked. Your world isn't unified. So a lot of that will vary by country, I would expect. Some countries are freer than others, by your standards, right?"

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"...Yes."

"And your home country is your favorite?"

"Yes."

"Hm. It's hard to give you more specific advice without seeing the data. May I access the information?"

"Uh..."

"Boss, I work for you. If you give me access, I can run a beep beep." The Captain made an odd noise like a sneeze. "Expletive, some things still don't translate. I can make a model, a simulation of parts of your society. So, if you are thinking about giving a particular piece of information to particular individuals, I can use the model to tell you the most likely outcomes."

Run a simulation and check whether I break the world before I do it? That sounds like a win... "How accurate are those predictions?"

"I can give you percentages, but nothing is certain. Even with all that data, there are still a lot of details influencing your society that never enter a computer. But, your planet is relatively primitive, Boss. The models should be pretty decent, because so many options can be ruled out since your world has never even learned the concepts."

"That...sounds good, then."

"Boss, I can tell that this is hard for you. If you like, I can also come up with recommended courses of action, now that you have told me your goals."

"That..." Nick hesitated. "That would be helpful. Yes, please." He sighed, his stomach in a nervous knot. "How long will it take?"

"I won't know until I process it. Could be hours, could be weeks."

"All right. Let's do that." He works for me. He seems to take that seriously, and he really doesn't have a dog in this fight unless I tell him to focus on benefiting America first. "I'll get you access to the data. Just...be careful with it."

"Of course, Boss. It's your planet, I'm not going to wreck it. And, you can always order me to stop, or change what I'm doing if you don't like it."

"Thank you, Captain."

"You're welcome, Boss. Haven't done one of these analyses in a while. Should be fun."

"Um, let me know in a day how it's going, all right?"

"Will do."

"Good. I'll talk to you then."

"Signing off, Boss."

Nick cut the link and took a few deep breaths, then focused on his interface.

< Petra? >

< Yes, Nick? >

< Give Captain Telnik access to the data uploaded from Earth. >

< Access granted. >

< Answer his questions about the data. Remember to pretend that you are the ship's computer on the New Hope. >

< Understood. >

Nick grinned. < It's nice that you have full English knowledge now, Petra. >

< Yes, Nick. It is nice. Precision and accuracy of my interpretations of your commands have increased significantly. >

< I still need to work on being clearer with my instructions. >

< Yes, Nick. >

Nick laughed to himself and shook his head. Good old Petra.

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