Attunga

by Peter Wood

  ‘There are also endless suggestions for the provision of entertainment and relaxation.’

  ‘Hey, we could have our own virtual reality centre.’

  ‘No way, Thom. When was the last time we used one?’

  ‘About two months ago. It wouldn’t get much use would it? It’s not as if we’re sleepers. We could get a mega display wall though.’

  ‘We’ve already got a maxi. Why go to a mega?’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘We should get the plants. I’ve got special stuff for dolphins and Wirrin’s got a huge info area. You’re the only one without anything special, Thom.’

  Wirrin agreed with Calen.

  ‘Can you show us some models with all the things we’re meant to have plus the mega display and the plants idea please Wanna?’

  The first holo model was mind-boggling, as it put into perspective just how extensive this complex was going to be.

  Wirrin didn’t like it till Wanna went through a series of adjustments, making the main living area near the pool feel more like the one they were in now. Wanna left them with a long list of further suggestions and links to check out at their leisure.

  ‘Wombats! I can hardly believe all this. Just as well we’ve got three months to think about it. Hey, Wirrin, we’re going to live on Warrakan, remember? Fancy working it out on Attunga rights.’

  ‘Ha! And I don’t remember anyone reminding me I was wrong. Gulara sure meant it when she said there might be extra considerations.’

  ***

  Wirrin watched, fascinated, as the techbots dismantled his old home InfoStation and installed the new one. He had a good understanding of what was happening but found it hard to keep up with the speed of the three dedicated machines. This new station would be more powerful even than the one on the Comet, not because of its capability, which was no different, but because of the close connection to the full resources of Attunga, and, with a slight delay, those of Warrakan.

  After the talk with Gulara, Calen and Thom had followed Wirrin’s lead and used his model of four days Elective study and one day of Basic. Gulara had arranged it all with EdCom on the proviso that there would be no time constraints on any of the courses. Only fair, she said, because they had so many dolphin-related demands on their time. Tomorrow Wirrin was scheduled for the first of the tutoring sessions Akama had requested with Turaku and a security AI, and he was keen to spend time getting himself ready.

  The last panel was replaced and, after a short period while the station flashed through its self-diagnostics, the techbots left and the display screen proclaimed itself ready for use.

  ***

  ‘Hey, Thom! You don’t get to use the Comet next week.’

  ‘Why not?’

  At least twice a week Thom had been ferrying Sonic to Warrakan so he could do the rounds of the big reach.

  ‘It’s going to Titania on a special mission.’

  Thom rushed to Wirrin’s InfoDisplay.

  ‘What’s happened? Has K74 done something?’

  ‘No! No! It’s a good mission. Remember we found out they’re planning to have giant reaches? Well, they made them so big they need vast amounts of monoculture and biomass to get them activated, and it has to come from here or it will be ages before they’re ready for dolphins.’

  ‘Next week? How long will it take to get there?’

  ‘Two and a half days, so it might be close to a week for the return trip.’

  ‘Is that all? I thought Titania was a lot further than that.’

  Calen joined them. ‘It’s two and a half light hours and Earth is twenty-seven light minutes. That’s five times as far so it should be at least five days.’

  Thom snorted with derision.

  ‘Come up for air flipper-features. Remember G forces? The further it is the faster it goes … How fast will it be going at turning point?’

  That was an easy calculation for Wirrin.

  ‘TP speed will be 43,964 kilometres per second.’

  The friendly derision changed to exclamations of awe.

  ‘Dingoes! Nothing travels that fast. Not that I’ve heard of … I wonder if I could go with them? Turaku might be able to organise it for me.’

  ‘Next week is when you see the doctor for your age treatment scans. That wouldn’t matter though. They can easily change that. It’s funny they haven’t said anything about it.’

  ‘No it’s not. It was only decided a couple of hours ago.’

  ‘Have they got a list of personnel, or is it too early for that?’

  Wirrin had a look and laughed.

  ‘Hey, Thom! You do get to use the Comet next week. You’re listed as assistant pilot-navigator.’

  Thom grinned. ‘That’s better. I’ve been everywhere with the Comet so far, so it would be weird if I didn’t go this time. Two and a half light hours? This will probably be the biggest trip the Comet ever makes. Pluto’s further but there’s no reason to go there. It will be the biggest test for the object scanners at that speed.’

  He talked excitedly about speed records and how much control he might be given then saw that Wirrin was waiting for him to finish.

  ‘What? It’s very special going on a trip like this.’

  ‘I know, but I thought you might like to have a look at the plans for the new Comet. They’re bringing in an asteroid and starting on it while you’re away.’

  ***

  Linked fully into his InfoStation, Wirrin, with Turaku, watched the first holo conference between the Witnesses and the delegation from K74. The first surprise was the lack of image quality and the occasional barely discernible quiver in holo stability.

  ‘It’s disinformation, Wirrin, designed to give the impression our technology isn’t necessarily up to K74 standard.’

  The next surprise was the friendly and respectful attitude of the five delegates towards Akama and his four companion Witnesses. All a front really, it turned out, and part of their training and skill as diplomats.

  ‘Are we looking for anything in particular?’

  ‘Nothing particular. Everything general. It’s up to you.’

  That meant this was an InfoStation training session based on real happenings instead of the simulated situations Turaku sometimes devised.

  Who were these people? They were all gathered on the biggest K74 vessel at the moment, which was stationed just outside Attunga’s prescribed limits. Well, of course they were. A conference from K74 itself was barely workable with a seven-second delay for every speech transmission.

  Wirrin put the presentation on hold while he searched for information.

  ‘The first delegate is the most important and he’s the second in command for one of the Cadre.

  ‘The second one claims to be a scientist but his real title is strategy commander and I don’t like him. The Monkey Mia attacks came from him.

  ‘The third one is in charge of education and social planning and the fourth one is the administrator for biology and something called life science.

  ‘The fifth delegate is … not from K74. Turaku, this one’s got all sorts of extra protections against finding information about him. Do you know who he is?’

  ‘The information I have is readily accessible through your InfoStation.’

  Right, Wirrin was to find it for himself. What a nuisance. If this delegate wasn’t from K74 it meant a general search task of habitats throughout the solar system. Wirrin worked one out, started it going, then realised that the best source of information was most likely the AI on K74. Yes, there it was, an information specialist from Mars who had moved to K74 only six months ago. That was interesting. An outsider representing K74 as a delegate?

  After receiving a nod and acknowledgement from Turaku, Wirrin restarted the presentation and watched everything very carefully, noting things for attention later, and frequently pausing to send off queries, searches and requests for analysis of things that warranted immediate attention. Data poured in from his requests and after nearly three hours of hea
vy concentration he felt he’d built a reasonably good analysis of what was going on.

  ‘How did I go, Turaku? Did I miss much?’

  ‘Yes, you missed many things, but more importantly, your unusual methods unearthed several pieces of new information missed by our security AIs. Our delegates would like to hear an overview of your work as soon as you are ready to present it.’

  Dingoes! The Attunga delegates! Wirrin wished he’d known. No he didn’t. It might have distracted him too much.

  ‘Um, it’s ready now. I’ll just use the synopsis.’

  A moment later five images shimmered into view for a holo-conference, all attired in formal Witness robes, and all looking very important. Akama introduced the other four, then, without any pleasantries, asked Wirrin to present his findings. They must be very busy, Wirrin thought, and knowing that one of them was really a security AI, wondered which it was.

  ‘Honoured Ones, my research shows that despite their friendly manner each of the five delegates came here with a specific and undeclared motive which is not good for Attunga or Warrakan. They are all under the direct command of the ruling Cadre and have been told they must get results.’

  ‘Can you outline the motive for each delegate?’

  ‘Yes, the first delegate who was offering an embassy for us on K74 believes that the reciprocal arrangement here would get them the physical foothold they haven’t yet been able to manage.

  ‘Next, the flowery words about sharing knowledge and science are really an attempt to get a lead on our stealth and scanning technology.

  ‘The third delegate who was saying K74 and Attunga could lead the rest of the solar system by working together, wants to get us into special treaties which would alienate us from other habitats.’

  ‘Alienate? Was that the term used in background discussion?’

  ‘Yes it was.’

  Wirrin quickly brought up the relevant section of transcript and holo displayed it.

  ‘The fourth delegate, who showed so much interest in our dolphins, is meant to find out what they are really like. The information they stole from Freedom habitat alerted them to the level of intelligence and speech capability our enhanced dolphins display, and the Cadre wants to know exactly what it means.’

  ‘It’s curious why they’re so negative about dolphins,’ said the youngest-looking Witness with the very serious manner. Wirrin immediately counted him out as the AI. It didn’t feel like a question an AI would ask.

  ‘Negative is too mild a description. Have you discovered any plans for how they might use the enhancement knowledge if they manage to obtain it?’ Arika said. Where had she come up with such a question? Wirrin was slightly startled. It wasn’t something he’d thought about or looked into.

  ‘Honoured One, the limited information we have suggests they would use it selectively for control purposes rather than for a general improvement of any species, and particularly with any crossovers they might apply to sections of the human population.’

  ‘I see. That would definitely give them a strong motivation to acquire the knowledge. And is species transfer at all viable?’ she said.

  ‘Most certainly, particularly for the cetaceans, but also quite strongly with any primates. We’ll make it a priority to look for any specific intentions.’

  Turaku looked at Wirrin as he said this and Wirrin understood it would be his next InfoStation task.

  ‘This fifth delegate, Wirrin. Turaku says you’ve discovered some interesting facts about him,’ said Akama.

  ‘Yes, he asked quite openly about the status of AIs on Attunga and wants to do a comparison with the situation on K74, but from what I could find out he’s a very complicated and dangerous person. Much more so than the other delegates. He’s an information scientist and he left one of the big research institutes on Mars six months ago to work for K74, and since then he’s been given a great deal of power.

  ‘He was the person who designed the priority trap that caught the Australian AIs when we were at Monkey Mia, and from the work he’s published he’s one of the most advanced information-system analysts in the whole solar system.’

  ‘Why do you say he’s so dangerous?’

  ‘If he takes a proper look at the electronic systems on K74 he’ll figure out that everything is being run by very advanced information systems and not by the AIs they think they have under their control. He might even work out that the only AI who really is there is passing information to us and stop it somehow.’

  ‘Do you mean stop the information, or stop the AI?’

  ‘The information. The AI could leave instantly if it was in any danger.’

  Wirrin looked at Turaku for affirmation and received a nod.

  ‘We’d like to know what you think our response to these delegates should be.’

  Wirrin was taken aback completely this time by Akama’s request and it showed because all the Witnesses smiled at him.

  ‘You must have an opinion. That’s all we’re asking. Not a definitive answer to the problems.’

  ‘Wirrin’s answer could well be definitive, Arika. He has access to all available information and he has a gift for getting to the core of things.’

  The other Witnesses looked at Wirrin with renewed interest, while Wirrin, hardly believing what Akama had just said, gathered his thoughts for some sort of sensible reply. Gulara was right. Akama and Turaku did seem to like keeping him under pressure.

  ‘Well, I … ah, I don’t think we should tell them anything at all, or follow any of their suggestions, because they’re really against us and if we agree to anything they’ll work it to their advantage somehow.’

  Several of the Witnesses were giving encouraging nods and Akama was looking from one to another.

  ‘You’ve pretty much hit on our consensus view, Wirrin. Diplomatically we will appear to be very cooperative and supply them with vast amounts of information, but we’ll assign a team of skilled administrators to make certain that none of it is quite relevant to what they want … What are your thoughts about an embassy? We couldn’t really fake that.’

  An idea popped straight into Wirrin’s mind. ‘Yes we could. Make it a virtual embassy where they’re present, but only through images projected by virtual reality equipment at a station we set up for them just outside our prescribed limits.’

  There was silence for a moment then Arika chuckled. ‘That’s a novel idea. We give them an embassy without really giving them an embassy. It certainly solves all the problems a physical presence here would entail.’

  ‘It’s more than just novel. It’s brilliant, and clearly superior to the solutions we’ve been discussing amongst ourselves.

  ‘Wirrin, we have two more meetings with the K74 delegation, one tomorrow and the other two days after that. Would you be able to spend the intervening time looking into any issues you think might be relevant? This information scientist in particular seems to warrant a lot more attention.’

  Dumbfounded and rather embarrassed by Akama’s praise, Wirrin stammered out his agreement and looked at Turaku, wondering how much guidance he’d be given. The young, serious Witness raised a hand in the same movement Akama sometimes used to focus everyone’s attention.

  ‘Honoured Ones, the Attunga gestalt is in agreement with my wish to dedicate a major portion of my abilities to the K74 situation, and I think a liaison with Wirrin would be very productive.’

  ***

  ‘You two are late. What’s been going on?’

  ‘Nothing really, Wirrin. Sonic stayed with one of the pods till they worked out his new game and it took longer than we expected.’

  ‘Well it’s not good enough, Calen. I have to wait here, starving to death while you play games. Can’t you control Sonic better than that?’

  ‘Ha! You’re the one who’s out of control. A few minutes late and you make it sound like all of Attunga is falling to pieces. You could have got the food ready yourself, Wirrin.’

  ‘It’s not as good as when you do it, and it�
�s your turn, and it’s a whole hour, not a few minutes.’

  Calen shook his head in mock disgust. ‘Call the nursery psych to help him get over his tantrum.’

  The jibes and friendly insults led to a wrestle on the grav-sofa, which battled to keep its field integrity under the onslaught of laughing bodies that descended on it.

  ‘What are you so impatient for anyway?’

  Wirrin removed the elbow grinding into his chest and twisted on his side so Calen’s knee was no longer squashing his stomach.

  ‘You won’t believe what I’ve got to tell you about today.’

  ‘You were working at your InfoStation, stuck at home. What’s to tell?’

  ‘That’s how it started, but Turaku turned up, and then I had to talk to Akama and the four Witnesses, and they’re using my idea about the embassy for K74, and the Witness who is really an AI is working with me from now on, and … ’

  ‘Whoo! Slow down! Slow down! You mean the Witnesses meeting with the K74 delegation?’

  ‘Yes, Turaku told them I discovered something new and I had to talk to them about it and then Pirramar spent all afternoon with me.’

  ‘Pirramar?’

  ‘That’s the Witness who is really an AI. He’s really interesting.’

  ‘Wirrin, you’re not making sense. How can a Witness be an AI?’

  ‘He’s not really a Witness. He’s pretending to be one for the meetings with K74. He’s one of the AIs who transferred over from K74 and he’s been assigned by the AI gestalt to be involved with everything about K74. Just like Turaku and Yajala with the dolphins.’

  ‘An Attunga AI specially for an external habitat? I’ve never heard of that.’

  ‘Because he’s the first, Thom. The gestalt thinks K74 might be more trouble than the rest of the solar system put together, and Pirramar says they’re the only habitat that’s going against the move towards more and more openness.’

  ‘Pirramar is an interesting name.’

  ‘It means ‘shield’ and he chose it because it comes from Akama’s old country, the same as our names do.’

  ‘Ours? Yours and Calen’s you mean. Mine’s just ordinary.’