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Immature Artificial Intelligence

The thought of artificial intelligence in the Freehold series is that Emma is a real person, not a programmable personality.  Emma must grow through experiences instead of being pre-programmed with a set way of thinking and feeling.   Part of this series is enjoying the growth of Emma as a little girl who is mischievous and non-military to a mature and helpful crew member of the Petrel.  She has John's number and knows how to make him mad.  She is inquisitive and always after more information in a quest to become human.  Emma's problem is the lack of experiences by having her sensory inputs controlled by the structure that maintains her essence.  A question that can be asked is will an artificial intelligence be immortal as long as the container of their essence survives?  What power would this give the artificial intelligence and what is the weakness.  By cutting off the sensory input to the outside world, an artificial intelligence is deaf, blind and dumb.  Emma is a possible

A little about Lieutenant Commander Wolfe.

Lieutenant Wolfe works for Freehold Intelligence.  His record is marred by the lost his team during the start of book 1 "Escape from Freehold".  He is given an easy mission afterwards to transport scientists.  The mission gives Wolfe a chance to evaluate what happened.  He gets thrown into a situation that urgency forces him into action, putting his loss on the back burner.  He is growing through his new challenges and is starting to become tired of the deaths caused by his past and the current deaths that is happening all around him.  He knows that he must take care of an enemy that he hates.  Wolfe becomes a babysitter for a drunken Praetorian (intelligent enemy reptile).  Wolfe and the alien have a lot in common.  Wolfe must work around his feelings if humans are to have a chance for survival.  The idea is what would happen if a person could overcome his or her rigid feelings for an enemy and empty themselves to the point that they can place themselves in their enemy shoes

Oentar the Alcoholic Alien

Why a drunken alien?  Oentar's story is one of redemption.  The (Battle for Freehold) series starts out showing the dark side of the alien.  The use of alcohol has made him rude, obnoxious, dangerous, and easy to manipulate.  He is as the phrase goes, "A bull in a china shop."  I wanted to have a character that humans are apprehensive and sometimes afraid of, so Oentar is a reptile.  Humans in the book see him naturally as an enemy and something to be despised.  His Praetorian home world is conquering everything in its path and making slaves of everyone.  The main hero in the story sees Oentar as a danger to humans and traitor to his own kind.   Oentar changes over time as he is forced not to drink.  He slowly becomes accepted and a help to the humans.  John Wolfe is one of the main characters of the book.  This book is not only a redemption story for Oentar, but it is one for Wolfe as the alien and his relationship grows.  John and Oentar are much in the same, identical.