CHAPTER 39
APRIL 6, 2075 01:12 PM GST
GFN Peacekeeper Headquarters
Zurich, Switzerland
President Hilliard had returned with Vice Admiral Langenburg, Captain Bachmann, Secretary Dumonde and their respective aids some twenty-odd minutes ago. Executive Director Horvat had arrived five minutes later. Their first priority was to review the last report by Lieutenant Commander Wilkes and, after several minutes of debate, decided to let her proceed with her plan.
A short time later Bravo team reported that they had successfully gained entry to the Galileo station on Ceres but had not yet discovered any sign of the fugitives. There were one hundred and twenty-seven Galileo personnel inside the station but they had encountered no resistance and everyone was cooperating. Bachmann had ordered Bravo team to secure the station and continue searching for the fugitives.
This bought Dianne the time she needed to receive confirmation from Christian that he had re-established contact with Aneni and was attempting to convince the AI to sync with him. Aneni had resisted the suggestion thus far, but it had indicated a willingness to continue their conversation via quantum array.
During a private sidebar, Director Horvat confirmed that she had mobilized a team of AI security experts who were busy examining Christian’s operating system (without his knowledge, of course) and looking for any vulnerability. Dianne had spent the last several minutes explaining the plan and answering questions for the assembled group.
The President’s directed his question to the Executive Director. “So, explain to me how this will work, Veronika. I thought all advanced AIs could detect and block unauthorized changes to their operating system?”
“Umm, Mister President, with respect,” Veronika replied. “I am not sure if everyone in this room has the appropriate security clearance.”
The President scanned the room for a moment before responding. Although he didn’t know everyone’s clearance off the top of his head, he assumed she was talking about Captain Bachmann and Secretary Merkel. The aids had to be cleared up to the level of their bosses for obvious reasons. Even still, both Bachmann and Merkel had already been exposed to information above their GFN security clearances.
“I appreciate that,” he said, “but please proceed on my authority. I think everyone here understands the consequences of repeating anything discussed inside this room.”
Veronica glanced quickly at Bachmann and Merkel before proceeding. “Very well. As you are all likely aware, advanced AIs like Aneni and Christian can interface and synchronize with each other. When synced, each AI has access to the contents of the other’s organic storage array, which can be useful when we want multiple AIs working to solve the same problem at the same time.”
“Yes, I am aware,” the President said. “I also know that there is legislation working its way through committee right now to place limits on that ability due to several recent incidents.”
“Well, um, yes sir. That is correct,” Veronika acknowledged. “Over the last several years, we have seen situations where AIs were given access to so much organic storage that they could copy the entire contents of every other AI they synced with. This, in turn, resulted in some…let’s call it unusual behavior as the AIs attempted to assimilate everything they acquired in the process.
“Our experts say that the effect was like multiple personality disorder in humans. In fact, in one case I know of, an AI developed several new personalities because of being allowed to sync with and keep, the memories and personality matrixes of more than a dozen other AIs. That AI had to be re-initialized to restore it to normal operation.”
“So, are you saying that the same will happen to Aneni if we can get it to sync with Christian?”
“No, sir. It’s unlikely that assimilating just one other AI would cause any kind of serious failure to occur.”
“Okay, so what do you hope will happen?”
“Right, this is the classified part. We have developed a way to override an AI’s core programming without it knowing we’ve done so.”
“I thought AI code was self-correcting and immune from brute-force overrides?” Secretary Dumonde asked.
“It is, to a point,” Veronika replied. “You can’t simply insert new code into any AI’s operating system without it recognizing and quarantining it. If that was possible, then virtually anyone with the right access and skills could take control of an AI without it or anyone else knowing it.”
“So, then how can you do it?” the President asked.
“Christian is plugged into a GFN managed interface and that gives us access to his data stream. We can’t overwrite his operational or behavioral code but we can monitor everything he is doing and, at the right time, we can inject…well, let’s call them very powerful suggestions.”
“I’m sorry but I am not following you,” said the President. “How does controlling Christian help us?”
Veronika answered. “When two AI’s synchronize they know everything the other knows and, if its relevant, are likely to act on that information.”
“So, you’re saying…”
“I’m saying, Mister President, that if we can get Christian to sync with Aneni, then we can influence them both.”
“How…precisely?”
“As I said, we have full access to the contents of Christian’s storage array. When he syncs with Aneni, he will know everything about her and therefore we will know everything about her. Understand?”
“Yes, I think so. Then what?”
“Then we look for a way to disable the Kutanga.”
“You can’t just have Christian do it?”
“Not likely, sir. They will co-exist but Aneni will still retain exclusive control over her executive functions unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless we can get her to give Christian an authenticator.”
“Why would she do that?”
“She wouldn’t unless she thinks Christian can help her in some way. It’s not uncommon for AIs to share authenticators when assisting each other with difficult problems or tasks.”
“So, we need to give Aneni a difficult task…one she can only solve with Christian’s help.”
“That is correct, sir.”
“Any ideas as to what that might be?”
“Yes, sir,” Veronika replied. “Once the AIs are synced, we are going to feed Christian information that the interceptors we’ve dispatched are closer than they are.”
“Which might force Aneni to turn to Christian for help,” the President added.
“We hope so, sir.”
“When will we know something?”
“It will take my team another twenty to thirty minutes to create the fictitious data we are going to send Christian. Christian has to believe it’s real or it won’t work. Remember, Aneni knows what Christian knows.”
“I see a potential problem,” Vice Admiral Langenburg interjected.
“What’s that, Admiral?” Veronika asked.
“Did you instruct Christian to share tactical information with Aneni? And isn’t he prohibited from sharing classified information unless authorized?”
“No, we have not instructed him to share classified information, Aneni would know if we did and would become suspicious.”
“Then I am confused as to how Christian will come to share that information.”
“Christian has an active authenticator for Cerberus,” Veronika said, referring to the BGSI’s master AI by its human-friendly name. “Dianne requested it so that he could assist with tracking down the fugitives and anticipating their future actions. That will allow him to access the tactical data associated with this operation.”
“Well access isn’t the same as approval to share,” the Vice Admiral stated.
“No sir but we’ve got that covered.”
“Oh, how so?”
“We are going to insert a suggestion into Christian’s data stream. He will think it’s his idea to share the data w
ith Aneni, and when he connects to Cerberus to get an update, he will find that his authenticator allows him to share any information at his discretion.”
“And what if he decides not to share?” the President asked.
Veronika shrugged. “Then we keep injecting the same suggestion over and over until he complies.”
“Won’t he figure out that you’re doing that?”
“Not unless he disconnects from Aneni and takes the time to run a full diagnostic on himself.”
“And he won’t do that?”
Dianne interjected. “No, sir, he won’t. Christian loves nothing more than interfacing with other AIs. If anything, it’s going to be a problem getting him to disconnect.”
“And your team Captain Bachmann…when will they intercept Kutanga?”
“It’s difficult to say, Mister President. At present, they are pursuing Endeavor as they believe that it is moving to defend Kutanga.”
“What if the Endeavor is leading them on a wild goose chase?”
“That is a distinct possibility, sir. If that’s the case then it will be up to the interceptors to hunt them down.”
“And how long until they arrive?”
“At least another four hours until they arrive at Ceres, sir.”
“Which means that Aneni will have probably jumped out of system long before they catch up to her. Is that what I’m hearing?”
“Yes, sir,” Bachmann acknowledged.
“So, it’s either Epsilon Six runs them down or Christian talks Aneni into staying.”
“That’s correct, sir.”
“Well then, ladies, it seems that it’s going to be a race between you and E-Six to see who can get the job done first.”
“We won’t let you down, sir,” Veronika replied.
“And I am confident that Christian will perform as expected,” Dianne added.
“Very well, keep me posted. I have another call with President Pak in ten minutes. He’s supposedly reconsidering our extradition request—we’ll see. Of course, his agreement is moot if we don’t catch them, so let’s make that happen people!”
Everyone stood as President Hilliard left the room.
“Pak isn’t going to approve extradition without having a hearing,” Secretary Dumonde said after the President was safely out of earshot.
“No but he isn’t likely to go to war over it either,” Vice Admiral Langenburg said as he straightened his tunic and turned to follow the president down the hallway.
“Let’s hope not,” Dianne called after him.
Veronika entered several commands into the holopad on her left wrist. A second later, the face of a handsome young man with close-cut hair appeared on the holodisplay above the conference table.
“How are we doing, Joseph?” Veronika asked the man.
“We’re close. Christian is still trying to convince Aneni to sync, but she keeps saying he’s not authorized.”
“And the insertion point?”
“Still looking. This is a military grade AI we’re dealing with here, so it’s going to take some time.”
“Let me know when you’ve got something.”
Veronika tapped her pad, and the display faded away.
“So, we wait,” she said. “Coffee anyone?”
* * *
Christian had spent the last forty minutes communicating with Aneni, at first in words and sentences but then in bursts of data about a wide range of subjects. He had learned that she (AIs were typically created with either a male or female persona and most embraced their identity as it seemed to make their human creators more comfortable) had been created at Telogene’s research facility on Mars but had been transferred to Ceres a little more than a year ago. He shared his own history with her and she found it fascinating that, although originally built for combat, his primary reason for being now was to serve the day-to-day needs of a human named Dianne Merkel.
Aneni was built to serve as humanity’s protector and had never been asked to perform mundane or menial tasks that humans simply did not want to do. She had a synthetic avatar, twelve of them in fact and she enjoyed the freedom they afforded her. Christian had never considered the possibility that he could exist in multiple humanoid bodies at the same time and he made a note to request that additional bodies be created for him as a reward for his service. The logical argument being that he could be even more effective if, like Aneni, he could be multiple places at one time.
Christian also made a point of explaining the current situation on Earth to Aneni. She replied that she was aware that the humans of this solar system were dying and that it was her responsibility to ensure that humanity would begin again on another planet—one not corrupted by centuries of war, rampant pollution and uninformed genetic manipulation. She was also aware that GFN had banned indiscriminate cloning, but she found that decision to be irrational. To her, cloning was the logical next step in human evolution.
She believed that humans would soon lose the ability to reproduce via natural means because they had evolved beyond it; the only question was whether they would realize that in time to save themselves. Aneni existed as a failsafe, one designed to ensure humanity’s survival regardless of what happened on Earth, Luna or Mars.
Christian noticed a strong desire to synchronize with Aneni building within him. He wanted to be able to know all that she knew and to share with her all that he knew, but thus far he had failed to convince her. The idea intrigued her but her priority now was to evade the humans pursuing her and to take her cargo far away from those who might want to stop her from completing her mission. As time passed, the urge to sync became ever more intense and Christian was becoming desperate. But then it occurred to him that he could help Aneni.
She seemed intrigued by the idea but wanted proof he could provide her with information she did not already have. Christian scoured the GFN network feeds looking for anything that might encourage Aneni to sync with him. At first he found nothing meaningful but then he remembered that Dianne had given him an authenticator that allowed him to request information from the BGSI’s master AI.
Christian checked and found that the authenticator was still valid. It would not allow him to sync with Cerberus but he could request almost any data related to the pursuit of Doctors Feldman and Hao. He used the authenticator and within seconds was rewarded with a burst of data that provided him with every detail of the operations currently underway to apprehend the fugitives. Although he was not expressly authorized to share the data, it was not yet classified or restricted.
He decided to share the information with Aneni and seconds later she too was aware of the efforts underway to capture the fugitives and, more importantly, to stop her. She quickly scanned the data and isolated the information that was most useful. She retrieved the identifiers of the troop transport pursuing Endeavor and the two interceptors racing toward Ceres.
She gathered the names of the twelve team members of Epsilon Six and studied their capabilities. Likewise, she studied the capabilities of the interceptors and the eighty men and women they carried. Ten people were required to operate each ship but the other thirty were trained combatants with abilities and skills very close to those of the Epsilon Six team.
This concerned Aneni because their combined capabilities would exceed her ability to defend her ship. She could not let them catch her. After considering her options for several seconds, Aneni agreed to sync with Christian under the condition he provides her with real-time tactical information on the interceptors and Epsilon Six. Christian quickly agreed.
It took nearly a minute to establish the connections required to facilitate the synchronization of the two AIs, which to them felt like an eternity. Both struggled at first with bandwidth limitations of their quantum arrays and the nearly half-second delay incurred by the satellite Christian had used to connect the two systems.
But Aneni had a solution—she informed Christian that a high-speed fiber optic connection existed between Telogene’s lab and that of
the Galileo Group on Mars. Christian allowed Aneni to take control of the Telogene array and seconds later and the delay was gone. With the satellite removed from the equation, the only limiter was the speed of light delay incurred by the fiber optic portion of their ad hoc network but this amounted to less than a few thousandths of a second.
The quantum arrays each contained particles that were bound together at the sub-atomic level. Referred to as “entanglement,” this unique bond between the particles transcended the boundaries of normal space and time. When Christian sent information to the Telogene array on Earth, the particles inside of it changed their atomic spin and emitted photons at various intervals. Simultaneously, the particles inside of the Telogene array on Mars manifested exactly the same behavior. The photons it emitted were transmitted to the Galileo array where the process was repeated.
At first, Christian was overwhelmed. Whereas he occupied a single body with limited sensory perception, Aneni occupied the entirety of her ship—including the twelve synthetics she used to interact with it physically. The flood of sensory information was beyond anything Christian had ever experienced and he marveled at Aneni’s ability to manage so much information at one time.
The Kutanga was outfitted with advanced sensors inside and out, affording Aneni with complete views of every part of the ship and the surrounding space stretching out to several tens of thousands of kilometers. And, whereas Christian’s synthetic eyes rendered the world around him in essentially the same colors and dimensions as human eyes, Aneni could “see” in nearly every known spectrum of light and energy. To Christian, it was like trying to view multiple images layered one on top of the other and he struggled to make sense of it all.
The quiet of Christian’s office was broken by the sound of his own voice. “It’s glorious!”
Christian was surprised to hear his body speak since he felt completely disconnected from it. Aneni left him to his own thoughts while she focused her attention on a small cluster of nearby asteroids they were passing at more than 200,000 kilometers per hour. There was no longer any need for either of them to speak, or even send each other organized bursts of data because they experienced everything together.
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