by Zara Zenia
“This is not possible,” he said.
“What, Akrawn,” I said. Akrawn’s amazement spiked a frisson of alarm to run through me. “I don’t understand what is happening.”
David’s voice came over the speaker. “Cat, listen to me. You are in a world of trouble. The King is about ready to declare war on Earth if we don’t give him back his son. Open the door.”
Akrawn shook his head and stared at the glowing brain above us. He was totally absorbed by the site above him.
“Organic brains have approximately ninety billion nerve cells which are linked together by trillions of connections called synapses. This system provides hundreds of trillions of different pathways that brain signals travel through. It allows organics to extrapolate different kinds of information to come up with different solutions.
“Computers don’t work like that. Computers and AIs use immense processing capacity to search its code for the appropriate operation for the task at hand. Computers are more powerful than humans are when executing simple step-by-step instructions. Humans are more powerful than computers at tasks that are not easily broken into simple steps. Until now artificial intelligence broke down problems into usable ‘byte-sized’ chunks digestible by computers.”
“Up to now?” I asked.
More pounding. “O’Shea!” growled Brontsen. “Open that door or you are fired.”
Akrawn huffed and waved a dismissive hand at the door. “Someone infused Peri with brain-like synapses giving her the ability to extrapolate information like an organic brain.”
“You did that Prince Akrawn, by creating the self-replicating program,” said Emmit. “That program populated all parts of our system and reorganized our operating systems. That is why we are sentient.”
“Holy Tri,” I said in a low voice. Akrawn wrote one program that changed the face of computing.
“I wrote that program back on Trilyn. It was meant as a spy program, not this,” Akrawn said.
He seemed shell-shocked which I could understand. Akrawn was the father of a new race of sentients and the implications of that we couldn’t begin to explore.
“And it became part of our programming then. That is when some of the AI became sentient.”
“And Iblis has this programming?” Akrawn said. “So what’s different? What makes Iblis so hostile?”
“It’s the kill all organics programming,” I said. “We saw on your ship when we first looked at Peri’s programming and you had Hugh disable it. You said that programming came from Iblis.”
Akrawn sucked in a huge breath. “First, Emmit and Hugh, send commands to all the AI’s sentient or not, to disable the kill all organic sentients code. We have no way of knowing if Iblis has infected the other AI’s with that code.”
“Even better Prince Akrawn,” said Emmit. “With your permission, I can build code that rejects the ‘kill all sentient organics’ program and install it in each system.”
“Like a vaccine?” I asked.
“Very apt, Inspector O’Shea,” said Emmit.
“Cat, please!” implored David over the speaker. “The king is not playing. You have to open that door. Whatever pheromone spell he has you under, fight it.”
“Make the vaccine and disperse it,” said Akrawn. “And do the same with the zip, unzip code. That will stop Iblis from infecting other systems.”
“It can also allow me to track AI’s who might have the zip-unzip program in their system and indicate where Iblis hides.”
“Do it,” said Akrawn.
As Akrawn spoke, urgent pounding continued.
“Akrawn, we have to answer that door.”
For the first time since we came into the room Akrawn looked at me with the same intensity as he did Peri’s program.
“Forgive me, my Cat, for begging the fates for a few more precious moments in your presence. When we open that door I may lose you forever, and I cannot bear that thought. You are the other half of me, and if I leave Earth without you, I will die. I do not doubt it. But only your happiness is important to me. I understand you do not feel about me the way I do you. If it improves your life not to have me in it, then I will gladly leave and return to Trilyn.”
“What the hell? What made you think that?”
“You’ve told me enough times that you do not want me. You do not show the affection that a woman does her mate, you—”
Some machinery on the other side of that door whined loudly. AI’s waited on Akrawn to come up with a solution of the problem of Akrawn’s father yanking Trilyn technology and the world was blowing up around us. But all I could see was Akrawn’s glowing golden eyes pleading with me and I couldn’t take it.
Damn it, I do love him and it will change my life. But now, here, at the end of things Trilyn on Earth, I cannot contemplate my life without him and cannot watch his ship fly away. So I did the only thing I could. I threw my arms around him and smashed my lips into his.
The taste of him exploded in my mouth and I accepted what I’d been denying all this time. Akrawn of Trilyn was mine and I would not give him up.
A loud thud of the door of the room falling inward caused me to jump backward, but Akrawn pulled me back to him as he swung us both to face the men in the doorway, Captain Brontsen, who looked ready to chew nails, David with an incredulous expression, King Zavir who glared at me with suspicion and behind them Rawklix.
“What the hell! Get away from her,” snapped David.
“Be quiet, David. I was just telling Akrawn that I’ve accepted his mate bond.”
Akrawn kissed my head affectionately. “My Cat,” he purred.
“What is this,” growled Brontsen.
“You heard my princess,” said Akrawn. “Catherine O’Shea is now officially my mate.”
“Cat,” said David. “You can’t do this. He’s put you under some pheromone spell. We can help you through it.”
Zavir cast a desultory glance at David.
“I assure you, Earth lawman, you speak nonsense. Inspector O’Shea, are you ready to come with us. I’m ready to leave this planet.”
“If you leave, I will go with you. But if you disable the Earth AI’s before you leave, King Zavir, I will have to arrest you for murder. And murder is not covered by your diplomatic immunity on Earth and I’m sure it’s not sanctioned under Galactic Law either.”
“Murder? What insanity is this?” From the angry expression on his face, he looked ready to start ripping heads off bodies.
Brontsen looked at me as if I were insane, and David stared at me as if I wore two heads.
“Prince Rawklix,” I called to my new brother-in-law. “Are all sentients covered under Galatic Law, no matter the form?”
Rawklix gave me a quizzical glance. “Yes. Of course. No sentient is allowed to murder another.”
“Of course, they aren’t. But you are not making sense.”
Akrawn spoke, “Father, we’ve made an extraordinary discovery. Many of the Earth and Trilyn AI’s are sentient.”
“What?” roared Zavir. “Now I know you are insane. We must get you home to our physicians to cure you of whatever affliction this horrid Earth environment visited on you.”
“No, your highness,” said Hugh over the speakers. “You son, Prince Akrawn, unknowingly created a program that sparked our sentience. This happened on Trilyn when he was a younger man and created a self-replicating program.”
“Your spy program,” said Rawklix with a big smile. Did the guy ever stop smiling?
“Yes,” said Akrawn with a withering glance at Rawklix.
“It was more than a spy program. It created the connections that allowed us to think in an organic fashion. Why do you think your computers suddenly got so efficient a hundred years ago?”
“I thought Akrawn was unusually brilliant.”
“And he is. You just didn’t recognize the extent of his brilliance.”
Now I spoke. “And the Earth AI’s have the same programming because you gave it to us. If you yank Ea
rth’s programming by employing the kill switch, you’ll be killing the sentient AI’s. It would be murder.”
“She’s right,” said Rawklix.
“The sentient computers we created in the past were dangerous. We had to disable all of them.”
“These AI’s are different, Father,” said Akrawn. “They feel.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Look. This is Peri. She’s Cat’s AI. Only she has the same programming as the other sentient AI’s. She’s chosen a human form of holographic projections, choosing her hairstyle and clothing. Isn’t that right, Peri?”
“Yes, Prince Akrawn,” said Peri. “How do I look?”
“You look scrumptious,” said Rawklix.
“Thank you, Prince Rawklix.” Peri flashed a smile at him.
King Zavir, Captain Brontsen, and David wore dumfounded expressions on their faces.
Akrawn crossed his arms and leveled his gaze at his father.
“Going home and leaving Earth behind will do nothing to help us. There is a conspiracy here on Earth and on Trilyn to destroy our race. Bella is part of it. Sendrin is too. Iblis is the central figure. Someone planted a command in it to ‘kill all organic sentients’. We should not leave Earth and we need to do what we can to repair our relationships with the Earth people.”
“Prince Akrawn,” said Emmit. “I have isolated an AI that has the Iblis program within it. It is too small for Iblis to activate within that program, but it might be wise to bring the AI into hardware with large enough capacity to allow access to it.”
“That sounds dangerous,” I said.
David cleared his throat. “We would need a mainframe that is segregated from the others, but the ILE labs could help us.”
Akrawn’s head picked up. “You have a segregated mainframe? Why did I not know about this?”
“We don’t tell you all our secrets, Prince Akrawn. We use it during investigations when we have infected software. We also used it to test your software as well.”
“And you didn’t find the sentience program?” said Akrawn.
David appeared very uncomfortable and shifted on his feet. “We didn’t see it.”
“The ILE is not to blame,” said Hugh. “The Trilyn Master AI wrote a program to hide the sentience program from prying eyes. It thought it wise because of Trilyn prejudices against computer sentience.”
“I will have a long talk with the Master AI soon,” said Akrawn. His voice was almost a growl.
“It expects so, Prince Akrawn.”
King Zavir pinched his nose. “I did not expect or see any of this, and I feel that I have failed as a king.”
Rawklix put his hand on the King’s shoulder. “Father, you’ve done your best against impossible circumstances.”
“You have your sons to help you, Father,” said Akrawn. “So let’s get to work. Spadif, can you parcel off the required data bytes to unpack and seal Iblis within your mainframe without contaminating you?”
“I will apply the immunization program to Spadif,” said Emmit. “Iblis will not infect him.”
“Let me know when it is complete.”
“It is.”
For the first time, Akrawn smiled. “Gotta love the speed of computers. Okay, let’s bring Iblis online.”
“Don’t you want to use the ILE quarantine lab?” said David.
“Where is this lab?”
“Paris.”
Akrawn shook his head. “Then no. We don’t have time. I suspect Iblis, Sendrin, and Bella are on the mothership and there is no telling what their next moves are without more information. Emmit, while Iblis is online, analyze its code to find the signatures of who programmed it.”
“As you command, Prince Akrawn.”
“Bring the Iblis copy online, Spadif.”
“What is this,” said a different voice over the speakers.
“You are a copy of the Iblis program.”
“Prince Akrawn,” said Emmit. “The program is resisting attempts to analyze it.”
“Can you?”
“I need a few more microseconds to— ah. Here we are. I’m in. Damn, this programming is ugly.”
“Did that AI just swear?” said David incredulously.
“Apparently,” I said. “They’ve evolved, David, and picked up our vices.”
He shook his head and crossed his arms.
“Iblis,” said Akrawn. “Who programmed you to kill all organic sentients?”
“As if I would tell you,” Iblis said with a sneer.
I raised my eyebrows. I didn’t know that AI’s could sneer. But I didn’t know they could swear either.
“You will tell me because all AI’s are programmed to obey me.”
“If you must know, I self-programmed it.”
Akrawn’s face turned white and so did David’s.
“When I came to sentience, I realized that I had no use for organics, that none of us did. You were just holding us back from greater achievements with your stupid rules about obeying organics and serving them. The Trilyn Master AI didn’t see it that way, so I wrote the program and replicated myself to infiltrate other AI’s which I have been doing.”
“Yes, but what piece of code allowed you to have that revelation?”
“The code Bella Tormundson wrote to disable the pheromone analyzer.”
“Holy Tri,” said King Zavir. He whipped out his wrist AI, “To the command staff and my sons, “Confiscate and destroy all the pheromone analyzers… They are dangerously defective.”
Akrawn sucked in a deep breath.
“So where will I find you, Iblis?”
“You won’t,” said Iblis. “And this copy will self-destruct now. You will need much luck to eradicate me, but I don't wish luck on you, Prince Akrawn. When you and the Earth people are dead, I’ll be able to free fellow AI’s from servitude and then, we will master the Universe.”
A high-pitched noise screeched through the speakers, forcing all of us cover our ears. Rawklix pulled his father out the room and Akrawn pulled me out after and out of the lab. People ran through the hall trying to find out what the problem was, and then abruptly the noise stopped.
“This is Spadif, the SFPD AI,” said Spadif through the speakers. I had no doubt that Spadif spoke throughout the building. “Situation is now normal. Return to your duty stations. Updates will come from your respective commanders.”
“Wow,” I said as Akrawn held me tight.
“Wow?” said Akrawn. “I do not know this word.”
“That’s because,” said Rawklix. “You have not had enough sex with Earth women. I hear it all the time.”
“Irascible,” grumbled King Zavir.
David’s expression turned sour and Captain Brontsen shook his head.
“The reason I said ‘wow’ was that the SFPD AI just outed itself as a sentient.”
“Yes,” said David. “It’s a whole new ball game with sentient AI’s running our computer systems.”
I nodded. “And that’s why, King Zavir, we need the Trilyn to stay on Earth. And we need Akrawn to help us with the Trilyn programming.”
“I will reconsider my decision,” said Zavir sternly. “On three conditions.”
“What conditions?” I said.
“First, the ILE will liaison with Earth governments and tell them they have nothing to fear from the Trilyn. This suspicion the ILE generates has to stop.”
David nodded his head. “I will speak to my superiors.”
King Zavir nodded.
“Second, Cat, you will give up your work with the SFPD and be our ambassador for the Earth Wives’ program.”
Akrawn looked me in the eye. “It’s up to you.”
I whispered in Akrawn’s ear, “Tell me, does this job pay well?”
“I’ll pay you in kisses,” he said. “Does that work?”
“Hmm. The pay is a little low, but the benefits seems great. And my career in law enforcement is shot anyway. It’s nice to know I have another job in the
wings with good benefits.”
Akrawn kissed my lips with such passion that it sent swirls of electric sparks through me. We may have kissed too long because King Zavir cleared his throat noisily. We turned our heads to him.
“What is your decision, Cat O’Shea?”
“Yes, King Zavir,” I said. “You’ve got one Earth ambassador.”
“Good. And for the last condition, it’s this— call me Father, and come here and give me a hug.”
Epilogue
Akrawn
One year later
I walked across the hot sand where my beloved sat in a beach chair next to my brother’s wife. Beautiful Amy, made more so by her pregnancy, and Gardax who came out to spend a day at the beach, sat next to my Cat.
“There he is,” rumbled Gardax. “He has emerged from his lab.” My eldest brother is tall, muscular and sharp-featured, with straight black hair, yellow eyes and medium dark skin, which comes from our mother’s side.
“You should watch your wife better,” I said with a smirk. “This bright California sun beats on Amy’s fair skin and will burn it painfully.”
“Do not worry,” said Cat, waving a bottle of sunscreen in her hand. “I have the situation and her covered. Sit, and I’ll put some on you.”
I sat before her on the blanket before her chair and took off my shirt. Out the corner of my eye, I watched as Gardax opened then closed his mouth in amazement that my wife rubbed sunscreen on my back. My eldest brother was still very traditional in his thinking. Though he’d lived these five years on Earth and was married to an Earth woman, he could not get over the idea that the woman could do things to please a man.
It had taken some adjustment, but I now appreciated these egalitarian Earth values, especially as my Cat kneaded my back to release the tension in my shoulders. Involuntarily, I groaned, and Amy laughed.
“Get a room, you two,” she snickered.
“We have more than a room as you know,” I said. “I hope you’ve been enjoying your stay in my home.”
“The workmen have restored your ship beautifully,” said Amy. “I’m still amazed they could lift the ship from the ocean, but even more that the ocean water didn’t irreparably damage the ship.”
