Skirmish (The Stork Tower Book 8)

by Tony Corden

  “Thank you, Captain. I have every confidence in you and in the steps you have taken. If it pleases you, then I will do a brief inspection of the ship that you, or one of your lieutenants, might explain our state of readiness. I will then meet with Lady Paige and meet you on the bridge. Once we are airborne, I must retire for I have other responsibilities.”

  “B: I shall have Commander Jacobson, my first officer, show you our preparations, and I shall await your arrival on the bridge.”

  After Leah had been shown over the Tempest and made sure to notice the hard work that had been done, she made her way to the berth set aside for Paige. She knocked and couldn’t help smiling when Gèng opened the hatch. As she stepped inside the room, she embraced Gèng and said, “Wow, I’m so excited to have you in the game. How did you and Edison swing this?”

  “4: We found a loophole similar along the lines of the real estate AI, Max. I’m employed by my company, and with the positioning of a boutique on the Tempest I’m able to be here ‘in-the-flesh’, so to speak. Edison even managed to tweak the conditions so I can help protect the ship if the boutique is in danger of being damaged.”

  “I’m heading to the bridge, would you like to come?”

  “4: I’d love to. There is something which I imagine would be described in human terms as surreal, about being visible in this world. From the beginning it has attracted me, even back when I experienced it primarily as a stream of code. There is something almost transcendent in interacting with the code on my own behalf instead of as a conduit to interpret and apply your interactions. To play in the game and yet not be a construct designed for a set purpose within it is possibly the most existentially liberating concept I’ve yet experienced.”

  “Do the AI such as the Captain see you as someone from the Aether Worlds?”

  Gèng was silent for a moment, then said, “4: Leah, although amplified in duration to allow you to sense it, that pause was instigated by a longer than usual delay in my processing. If I am correct in understanding such delays as an expression of emotion, then that was a mixture of exasperation, amusement and amazement. You can see the association between two disparate points of data which seem disconnected to most people. It is only now that you question how a game AI might see me that I recognise that they do not see me as a player from the aether worlds. Yet, they know I am not intrinsically part of the game’s architecture. I need to consider this in more depth. As soon as I understand I’ll let you know.”

  After chatting for a few more minutes, Leah led Gèng to the bridge. After introducing her to the officers present, Leah discussed her plans with Captain Baker until the Tempest was ready to set sail. Altogether, over three-and-a-half-thousand players had joined Leah’s fleet already. This was in addition to the eight player-controlled privateer airships that had joined the fleet. After some discussion, Leah agreed to be considered as the Admiral of the fleet.

  As the Tempest led the way toward Mount Noir, Leah made her way to her cabin before logging out.

  46

  December 28, 2073

  GATES UNCHAINED

  After a real-time break where she checked on Saoirse, Leah did a Tier Eight Project Cars race then met with Jenny. Jenny was waiting with the KTM 2034 750 CEO-X Leah had started on. She said, “J: I want to set this first race up as a practice Gate and Time Attack with no other racers, just to let you get an idea of the complexity involved. Danika suggested you’d be able to master this relatively quickly. Still, my experience is most people only succeed when they’ve reviewed hundreds, if not thousands, of courses. In the end, their brain connects similar patterns, and this helps them choose an optimal path. You are not allowed any help from an AI or other team member.

  “You will be given a three-dimensional holographic map which shows the entire track. Gates are shown with the number of points offered indicated by different colours. A solid colour means the gate has no added conditions. Gates requiring specific moves or tricks have an icon superimposed on the gate. You need to learn the various icons. If a gate is only available for a specific number of riders, then the number of riders remaining will be superimposed on the gate. The same identification system is used on the track itself. You can use your hands to change the map’s size and focus on particular areas if it helps. Do you have any questions?”

  “Not at the moment, but I may need to tweak my SNAIL protocol to make it easier to identify the colours. At the moment I think I have enough of an idea that it isn’t a problem yet.”

  “J: Fair enough. Let’s start with the simplest type of map, it’s for a single level off-road scenario. This one is the simplest Twelfth Tier track and is mostly flat with clear views in every direction. There are no traps on the track and without other players working against you, you should be able to get a score somewhere around forty-thousand on a first try. On a training track like this, someone riding in the top five tiers could get well over a hundred and fifty thousand. When you’re ready, the AI will set up a system of gates. You have fifteen virtual minutes to choose your course.”

  Speaking sub-vocally Leah said, “Gèng, can you check with the SNAIL Calibration AI what limitations are best concerning the speed of perception and multi-tasking in this part of the game? I suspect this is where I would have a significant advantage if there were no limits.”

  There was a slight delay before Gèng replied. “4: This isn’t as clear-cut as you may think. The Chief Calibration AI will constantly review this question but suggests you be limited to a speed achievable if all your neural connections were biological. There will be no multi-tasking. The difficulty is that your architecture is heavily modified. With the additional biological links, you can make connections between disparate concepts almost twice as fast as a similar individual with your education and experience.

  “With the addition of the added artificial links, those connections can be made even faster. It is not feasible to turn off the artificial connections, but Three can limit the speed to that of a biological neurone. This ruling was made by three Calibration AI and the conclusion submitted to three independent legal-consultant-AI. The solution was upheld by all three, although one of them suggested you should have access to the artificial connections without restriction.”

  Jenny had been waiting for a response, and Leah said, “Sorry, I had to check on something with my AI. I’m ready to start.”

  “J: No worries. As you build up your planned route, you are allowed to mark it on the map. Your PAI can overlay your planned route on your display or over your vision. For most people, I suggest it is on their display, so they don’t forget to focus on what is happening around them. I suspect the display options are more limited for you.”

  “Yes and no. The only option is to have them displayed along with everything else as a sensation on my skin. I have access to a large number of ways they might be represented.”

  “J: I understand your words but not sure I get the meaning.”

  “My PAI can show the path using any of the wide range of sensory inputs available on my skin. It can use temperature, pressure, pain, vibration, lateral stretching and even make it itch. Any combination tells my brain what the signal means. Recognising the different combinations has become mostly subconscious.”

  “J: Every time I think I have the concept understood, you do something else that sort of pushes it once more out of my comprehension.”

  “If you want, I can have my AI send you a basic sample of what I feel, but modified for your sensitivity levels. My mother uses the concept to keep an eye on my new baby sister even when she’s in a different room. It’s better than a baby monitor and seems to be helping them bond.”

  “J: That’s a great idea, it will help me understand what’s happening and may give me ideas of how to help you race better. Are you ready?”

  Leah nodded, and the map appeared in front of her, the details reflected on her skin. The simple track was circular with a radius of ten kilometres. There were hundreds of trails running across
the surface without any recognisable pattern. On the trails were a total of a thousand gates, with another five-hundred scattered in areas without a clear track. The gates were assigned values between ‘10’ and ‘5000’ points. Even as she allowed her mind to do a casual sweep of the sensations, she began pencilling in segments of the map where she identified a sequence of gates which would give her a significant number of points.

  On her third review of the image, she began adding links to connect the segments she’d identified. By the ten minute mark, Leah had refined the map and path using various sensations which shaded optimum paths and well as secondary and tertiary options. Leah used the last five minutes to check and double-check her calculations and options. As the counter reached zero, Leah started her bike and accelerated into the track and passed through a gate just off to one side which had a value of ‘10’.

  She shifted her weight and let the bike drift slightly to the left before accelerating out of the shallow turn and through a second gate which added another three points to her total. As she rode, she continued to review the path ahead of her. She made several changes as she found a path that gave her an additional point or led to a combination of gates that were better matched to the actual speed she was achieving rather than her pre-race expectation.

  Twenty-five minutes into the hour race Leah slid through the first of four gates on her route worth ‘5000’ points. As she did, her total accumulated points passed forty-thousand. Her score was just over one-hundred-and-sixty-thousand as she accelerated through the final gate before crossing the finish line as the race-clock reached sixty-minutes. Leah turned the bike off and dismounted, then waited as the track and bike dissolved and Jenny’s office formed around her. Danika was sitting with Jenny, along with another woman who Leah recognised as Juke Rangeon.

  Before either Jenny or Danika could speak, Juke spoke. After Three’s introduction, Leah felt the following on her finger, “G☇: That’s bullshit, no-one puts together a ride like that their first time. How did you do that?”

  Leah put out her hand toward Juke and said, “Hi, I’m Atherleah. You must be Juke, Danika said you were almost always blunt and cranky, and you certainly live up to that reputation. To answer your question—I could do that because since I was a kid, my interests have been focussed on mathematics and science. A lot of that involves looking for patterns and finding the connections between things. While that was the first time I’ve done that with a Gate and Time Attack race track, I’ve spent thousands of hours looking at numbers and seemingly unconnected facts and making connections. This was a lot easier than some of the multi-dimensional patterns I’ve been dealing with in my studies.”

  Juke hesitated briefly then shook Leah’s hand. “G☇: Fair enough, I suppose. Danika asked me to watch you race. She said you want to mess with Meredith’s head for some reason. While I like the idea, I don’t think using gravity skates is something you can just ‘pick-up’.”

  “Honestly, I have to agree with you. I’ve been working through the tutorials, and they’re challenging me every time, and that’s as a single player. I haven’t even begun working on using them as a member of a team.”

  Juke looked across at Danika and said, “G☇: At least she doesn’t blow smoke.”

  Danika nodded slowly and raised her eyebrows as if to say something when Juke continued, “G☇: The problem is that even if you could just pick it up, then using the skates in the two-player format is exponentially more challenging than the one player. No one has successfully used them except in a Tier Twelve race, and they’ve not been consistent enough to move any higher. I’ve tried working with several people but haven’t even reached the stage where I’ve been prepared to try an actual race.

  “The biggest problem is the way the skates interact with each other. The two players have to work together seamlessly. As the level of the skates used increases, the margin of error decreases—if I want to race at, or even near the maximum level, then every action by one player has to be matched seamlessly with a corresponding movement of the other in a sequence of moves that they agree on. I’ve been working on the movements for four years. While there is an almost limitless number of options, we’d have to mesh as closely as two Olympic figure skaters to make it work.”

  “If I promise not to share what you’ve done, could I look through the moves and see if it might be possible to learn some? If it’s going to be too much, I’ll let you know within a few hours. If I think I can learn some, where would we be able to practice?”

  “G☇: I’ll send the files to your PAI and take your statement as a non-disclosure agreement. TRAX has an excellent practice suite, and its privacy rating is above industry standard. It is expensive as far as virtual worlds go, but they have realistic AI opponents.”

  “Give me a few hours, and I’ll get back to you. I need to keep up appearances in Dunyanin. Still, I can tentatively set aside an hour or so after I finish that.”

  “G☇: I’m hoping you can, but honestly, I’m not very hopeful. Even so, I’ll make myself available.”

  “Deal.”

  “J: Leah, have you time for another practice?”

  “I do. I can probably do another two practice sessions.”

  “J: Good. I think I need to push you a little, so let me set up a standard Tier Ten multi-level track. This one will be in an urban wasteland setting, and I’ll add fifty AI competitors. Besides the complexity of the terrain, some of the gates are best reached with different bikes. You need to plot your path taking account of that and working to minimise the number of times you change bikes.”

  After double-checking the conditions which best suited each bike, Leah was ready to do the practice. Once again, she found her experience with patterns and problem solving helped her choose an optimum path. She found the interaction with other riders continually changed her optimal solutions. The constant changes, added to the interplay with other riders, was challenging. When she finished, she’d once again managed to achieve over a hundred thousand points. Jenny talked through the race, making comments on several options Leah had missed. Her main critique centred around Leah’s interaction with other riders.

  “J: Leah, you rode brilliantly, but there were times when a slight deviation might have earned fewer points, but it would have removed options for other riders. You need to factor in timed gates that have delays before resetting and the gates that have finite uses. If you can deny other riders these gates, you’ll find yourself in a better position, especially in the higher tiers.”

  Jenny had Leah do another practice. This time it was a track race, and Leah was forced to concentrate on the other riders. After the critique, Leah logged out and found herself on a new level of the tower. This one was dedicated to TRAX.

  STORK TOWER

  Gèng was waiting near a portal which threatened to pull Leah inside as she approached it. “4: This leads to a practice area for the two-player gravity skates. Six has done the most work in setting this up. It seems like its focus on your neural pathways and the work it’s done with Doctor Roberts in mapping your sensory interactions has given it a highly proficient pattern recognition ability. Both Three and I helped, but Six took the initiative and reorganised Gradient’s data into both families and sequences with a set group of transitional pathways. While learning all of Gradient’s options as isolated moves would not be feasible in the short term, learning a subset of families is possible. If you add the transitional paths, these cover a significant proportion of the options.

  “Using a method similar to what you use to choose weapons in Dunyanin, Gradient could direct your shared movements. In each element, you will have individual options you can access which you can choose depending on what your localised issue is that you need to deal with. Six and I have designed the space and made some changes to how you will feel the virtual world to add a three-dimensional map of the gravitational flux. This uses one of TRAX’s options for mapping your environment and the SNAIL Calibration AI has already reviewed it
and offered some fine-tuning to increase its usefulness. I suggest you have Three send a copy of the reformatted data to Gradient and then you spend several blocks of time at cyber speeds learning the first two or three families.”

  “I’ll do that. Six, thank you for organising the material. I’m really impressed that you’ve been able to use your skills across several disciplines and find the connections.”

  “6: Thank you, Leah. Making the connections made use of a range of subroutines that I’ve been developing based on patterns I see in your network of blended biological and artificial neural pathways. Dr Roberts has suggested some of these patterns may be utilised to create even faster processing platforms for PAI in the future. As you developed the optimal route in each of the Gate and TimeAttack scenarios, there was significant activity in several parts of your neural network. I’ve suggested to Dr Roberts that it might be useful to extend nano-cables into these areas. She is reviewing the available literature, but my own analysis suggests little is known of the neural mechanism for such pattern recognition.”

  Leah reviewed the data, then stepped into the prepared space and spent several nine-cyber-hour sessions working to match her movements to the models Gradient and Six had described. Each of the moves was similar to that of a dancer or skater, and Leah had to learn how to flow from one to another. She found the concept similar to what she used when moving through the various sword forms. During her third session, she discovered that her subconscious was making connections between the movements and the changing gravity gradients so that the moves became more instinctual. This realisation increased her acquisition of the various families of movements and cemented the transitional elements in her mind.