In a large meeting room of Orionix SpaceTech Inc. in Kern County, a crucial meeting was underway. The agenda was to hand over operational control of the ground stations built by Orionix to NATO Central Command. There were also numerous technical aspects that needed clarification on both sides. Although a contract had been signed earlier, the GOD EYE Project had at that time existed only on paper and in theory. Now that it had come to life with the Virginia NATO Data Centre successfully completing its beta phase... both parties needed to re-evaluate their respective responsibilities under the agreement. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎
The GOD EYE Project was a central, satellite-based surveillance system for counter-terrorism, jointly developed by Heimdall Inc. and NATO. Initially dismissed as overly ambitious and unrealistic, the project was now preparing for full deployment after its successful beta test.
Representing Orionix and Heimdall were Teresa Li, Vice-Chairman of Heimdall Inc.; Major (Ret.) Henry Martyn Robert, Deputy CEO of Heimdall; Dr. Drake Graham, CEO of Orionix; and Dr. Robert Doyle, Head of Engineering at Orionix.
From NATO’s side, Vice Admiral Martin J. Connell, Deputy Chief of Staff for Capability Development under the Strategic Warfare Development Command, attended the meeting along with several technical officers to formally take over all Orionix ground stations worldwide.
Dr. Katherine Johnson, Director of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, was also present.
As Orionix’s headquarters was situated next to Edwards Auxiliary North Air Force Base, the base commander, Brigadier General Joel M. Andrews, joined the session as well.
At present, Eleanor was unavailable, being occupied at the Ascendance Academy of Midgard. Even if she had been available, she would likely have avoided such technical and tedious meetings. In the early days of Heimdall, she had attended negotiations with partner organisations, but after Teresa joined the company as her secretary, Eleanor had delegated the responsibility of public representation entirely to her. Officially, she was only Vice-Chairman of Heimdall, and the company’s public face, even on its official website Teresa Li was the only company representative.
Vice Admiral Martin J. Connell, his uniform a canvas of service ribbons, opened the proceedings. "Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the North Atlantic Council, I congratulate you all. The beta phase at the Virginia NATO Data Centre has exceeded even our most optimistic projections. The system is..." he paused, as though searching for a word weighty enough "...truly effective. It is now time to formalise the transition from a proof of concept to a fully operational NATO strategic asset."
Teresa Li smiled. "Thank you, Vice Admiral. On behalf of Heimdall and Orionix, we are proud to have delivered on our promise. We are ready to proceed with the handover of the nineteen primary ground stations, as stipulated in the contract."
She paused briefly, then added, "Now, as the CEO of Orionix, Dr Graham will continue the meeting on our behalf."
Dr Drake Graham rose and activated a holographic display that shimmered to life above the table... a global map traced with luminous golden lines linking ground stations from Alaska to Antarctica.
"The infrastructure is not only complete," he began, "but has been operating in synchronised standby mode for the past month. Data integrity stands at 99.96 percent, and latency remains well within the stipulated parameters."
Brigadier General Joel M. Andrews of Edwards AFB leaned forward, his tone measured. "This is all very impressive, Dr Graham. But my concern isn’t the what... it’s the how. Your data-fusion algorithms, your compression techniques... they’re a generation ahead of anything my people have seen. We need a full technical disclosure. We can’t have an unknown system sitting at the core of our primary surveillance network."
Dr Graham inclined his head politely. "General, we understand your concern regarding operational security. However, as per Article Seven, Section Two of our contract, the core intellectual property of the processing algorithms remains the sole property of Heimdall. What we are providing NATO is actionable intelligence. For transparency, your technical teams have already been granted full operational access to all input and output streams for verification and integration purposes."
Vice Admiral Connell nodded slowly. "The contract does stipulate that, Dr Graham. But the General has a point. The sheer predictive capability you demonstrated in Virginia... it didn’t merely track targets; it anticipated their movements. That moves beyond surveillance... it enters the realm of strategic foresight. And that," he said gravely, "is a capability we must fully understand."
Teresa Li sensed the conversation was edging into dangerous territory, so she decided to smooth things over.
"Vice Admiral," she began evenly, "that predictive capability is the result of our proprietary Synaptic Weave Analysis. It doesn’t predict the future. It simply processes vast datasets... human movement patterns, logistics, and communications metadata... at a speed unattainable by conventional systems. The core AI framework is already accessible to the NATO personnel assigned to manage the ground stations. We have not concealed any aspect of its operation from you. However, we will not be disclosing the underlying technology."
She paused briefly, then continued, her voice measured but firm. "We are fully aware of the project’s sensitivity, Vice Admiral. That is precisely why we included the Data Sovereignty Clauses and the Opt-Out Protocols in the contract. Each member nation retains full authority over its own data. Heimdall merely provides the looking glass. How that glass is used is a matter of policy, not technology."
Vice Admiral Connell exchanged a glance with his aides before responding.
"There are already factions within the Council," he said carefully, "who see its potential beyond counter-terrorism... border control, non-proliferation, monitoring of military build-ups..."
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