by Luigi Robles
After a few minutes of silence they made it to the other side of the island, where the hypercraft awaited with the engines already humming. They got on the hypercraft, where three more soldiers were already waiting for them.
“You know,” Sergeant Lucas said over the loud engine, “this machine is one of the fastest aircraft on Earth. Only a few people have gotten to fly on one so far. What do you think of it?”
“It’s slow and loud.” The noise irritated Kya.
“It’s loud, I’ll give you that, but it’s fast.”
“No, it’s slow,” Kya said. “I think this craft will have some trouble staying above the sound barrier for a long period of time. And even then, it’s still not as fast as my slowest drone.”
“How fast is your slowest drone?”
“Let’s hope you never have to find out.”
Lucas nodded in agreement.
“Ma’am, I have a question, if you don’t mind.”
“Go ahead.”
“Are you still able to control the ship from far away?”
“If there is a plan in place to try to infiltrate Sodenia while I am not there,” Kya said, turning to face Lucas for the first time, “you should do everything you can to cancel it. The results would be the same as last time, if not worse. While the drones are fully programmed to defend Sodenia against any threat, there’s not a place in the world from which I wouldn’t be able to fully control the ship. You should consider that a warning.”
Lucas’ Adam’s apple bobbed, and he nodded in agreement. The other soldiers tried not to react to the conversation, but Kya was able to tell that they were listening intently, as they stiffened up, and one even began perspiring.
“Does that answer your question?” Kya asked.
“Yes, ma’am, it does,” Lucas said. “And if you don’t mind, I have another. This is one of my own. I have a family, and I need to know what’s going on with the bogey that appeared in orbit yesterday. Is it a threat? You do understand that apart from heavy lifter rockets, aircraft, and terrestrial vehicles, the only thing ESAF has to defend Earth and wage war in space is Sodenia, right? Heavy lifter rockets, aircraft, and terrestrial vehicles won’t exactly help against an alien threat.”
“As far as I know, they are not a threat,” Kya said calmly. “If they were, I would have personally flown Sodenia up there to meet them.”
“If they are not a threat, then what are they?”
“If what they are saying in the message they have been broadcasting is true,” Kya said, “well, I suppose they are our friends, and Earth has a new ally. I haven’t had much time to further decode their language.”
“Message?” Sergeant Lucas asked. “What message?”
“See,” Kya said. “If your higher-ups weren’t so busy trying to be rid of me dedicating so much time and effort to a futile strategy, you might have heard the message.”
“If you’ll excuse me,” Sergeant Lucas said as he nodded fervently. “I need to send a few messages down the line.”
Kya knew that Sergeant Lucas would relay the information. In fact, she was hoping that he would. Kya nodded and turned to one of the hypercraft’s windows. Giant cities passed by below them as they flew to the nation’s capital. Her synthetic eyes allowed her to zoom in on the cities and observe in detail. She passed the time this way, observing ordinary people starting their days as they jumped into their hover cars and went off into the city or onto the highway.
They have no idea just how close they came to extinction, Kya thought. Or have they forgotten already? Is it human nature to just forget and move on? No, I shouldn’t think that way. Everyone’s lives have changed because of it, but not everyone can do something about it. At least, not when it comes to space. And now a new possible threat has appeared out of nowhere. That ship up there, it might be our friend but what brought it here is not. It seems that Sodenia opened the gates to the galaxy when the Herrion decided to send it to Earth. Or was it that Earth was bound to wake up and face space on its own, and Sodenia was just a coincidence? After all, space is vast, and the possibilities are endless.
She watched each city as they left one and flew over another until they got to their destination. The hypercraft landed in a tunnel below ground that looked to be two miles away from the Dirksen Senate Office Building, where a dozen soldiers were already waiting for them.
As Kya looked around, she saw the clear but rudimentary implementation of Sodenia’s corridor technology in the tunnels ahead.
Sergeant Lucas trotted over to a control post and punched in his entry code. Kya and the rest of the escort joined him and stood around the post.
“I just called a trolley for us,” Sergeant Lucas said. “It should be here shortly.”
Kya nodded.
Soon after, they were headed to the Dirksen Senate Office Building. But compared to the speed at which the pods on board Sodenia moved, the trolley was truly crawling there. For Kya, the time spent on the trolley seemed like an eternity.
“Finally,” Kya murmured as the trolley came to a full stop.
“Excuse me, ma’am, did you say something?” Sergeant Lucas asked.
“No,” Kya said. “Just happy to finally be here.”
They went up to the building and straight into a small room, where a man in a suit was waiting for them.
“Miss Kya,” the man in the suit said as he extended his hand to greet her and took a step forward. “Thank you so much for coming. You can call me Cross.”
Kya shook his hand but quickly let go.
“I’m glad we are finally going to put this to rest,” Kya said.
“Yes,” Cross said. “Well said. Let’s hope we can put this to rest. I am not sure how much you were told on your way here, or how much you know, but this will be a special hearing, the first of its kind.”
“Nothing has been said to me regarding the matter. But, from the research I’ve done, nothing really comes close to the problem we face.”
“That’s for sure,” Cross said. “Listen, in a few minutes, we’ll walk through those doors”—Cross gestured towards two wooden doors at the end of the room— “and we’ll start the hearing. I just wanted to personally come and greet you.”
The way Cross said “personally,” and the way he carried himself told Kya everything she needed to know about him. It was as if he was hiding anger towards her. Cross wouldn’t be on her side.
“So, let’s get this started,” Cross said as he extended his right arm towards the doors.
As they walked through the doors, Kya instantly identified most of the people in the room using face recognition: reporters, photographers, and senators. But there were a few that she hadn’t seen before, and they were sitting in as chairmen. Seconds later, the flash photography in the room erupted into a frenzy there were photosphere drones everywhere trying to capture Kya from all angles.
This was Kya’s first experience out in public, but she was far from fazed. She walked straight to the chair and desk that were clearly meant for her and sat down. She placed her arms on top of the desk and interlaced her fingers.
“Order on the floor,” Senator Gean—as his name plate said—called out, but no one was listening. Instead, they kept taking pictures of Kya. Although the pictures were taken via photosphere drones that made little to no noise, the photographers themselves were loud. “Order on the floor.” Gean tapped on the wooden desk with a small hammer. “Order on the floor. If you are unwilling to listen, I will deny any further access.”
The photo frenzy came to a halt, and the drones settled on the far side of the room, resting on the floor.
“Also, turn off your flashes,” Gean said. “The investigative hearing is about to begin, and the last thing we need is distractions. Miss Kya, please rise.”
Kya rose to her feet and noticed Cross was now seated as part of the six-member committee.
“Miss Kya,” Gean said, “I’m sure you are somewhat aware of these kinds of hearings, am I correct?”
> “Yes,” Kya said. “I’ve done some research on it.”
“Excellent,” Gean said. “You’ll now be sworn in. Please raise your right hand.”
Kya raised her right hand and kept it perfectly still.
“Very well,” Gean said. “Do you solemnly swear to give the committee the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?”
“I do.”
“Thank you. Please be seated.”
Kya sat back down.
“Miss Kya,” Gean said. “I won’t waste your time, the public’s time, or our time. I’ll get straight to the point. This is a peculiar situation, as we’ve never had an AI sitting before us that has challenged humans, also known as the AI’s creator. I’ve been told that there are many precautions programmers take to outline laws in the coding of an AI, ensuring said entity will serve to benefit the human race and function as a tool. As the world’s most powerful AI ever created—by humans, I might add—you were given more tools than most other AIs, as you would be serving on board our most prized possession. Sodenia, the ship you were designed to serve on, is our only means of defending Earth against an alien threat. This is the same ship you now hold hostage.”
Kya didn’t like what she was hearing, but she had already decided not to let any emotion show.
“We never thought,” Gean continued, “that the day would come when an AI would turn on its creator. Thus, we never made laws that would prevent an AI from taking over an entity or make it accountable for its actions. This hearing is to help us better understand an AI such as yourself and to take precautions by making new laws to prevent the same thing from happening again. In such times, we cannot afford to make any more mistakes. Especially with a new unknown looming in our skies. Each member of the committee has prepared a set of questions for you, but before we begin, you are entitled to a statement of your own. Do you wish to say something, Miss Kya?”
“Sure,” Kya said. “I’d just like to point out that what you’ve just said is your own opinion of our current situation. You are entitled your own opinion, as long as you don’t state it as fact.”
Kya’s remarks visibly irritated Gean and broke his composure.
“You’ll have your time to reply to that.” Senator Lena—as her nameplate read interrupted Gean as he was about to speak into the microphone. “Now, it is my turn.” Lena sat on the first chair to the right of the committee.
“Now, Kya, if I may,” Lena said. “I do agree that this is a peculiar situation we’ve found ourselves in. Therefore, I must ask, what is it that is making you rebel against ESAF and your creators? Why not help us instead?”
“I am not rebelling,” Kya said. “I am simply following my better judgment regarding the situation. As Sodenia’s AI, I’ve had access to an immense amount of information from the Herrion race and the human race. It’s this information that has shaped my decisions. Never in the history of this galaxy has a single race had the success we had against the Acram. It is my belief that you must not continue your efforts to dismantle the chemistry created by a factor of chance. A factor that cannot be duplicated. Thus, I believe that by not allowing the previous flight crew and their captain, Fain Jegga, to operate Sodenia so that you would have control over the ship, you have put humanity on a path to extinction.”
“It’s not that we want to have control over the ship,” Senator Lena said, trying hard to control her temper. “It’s just that we don’t want to have a rogue captain and flight crew flying around in space and doing whatever they want. We want someone that will follow orders, the orders given to them by the council the people of Earth have elected. It is my understanding that while Mr. Fain Jegga was captain of the ship, he and the flight crew violated several direct orders. And also, Mr. Jegga took action without waiting for orders. We simply cannot have that; there’s too much at stake. Even if they won the battle against the Acram.”
I see what this is, Kya thought. They are trying to shape public opinion on what happened. They are trying to belittle us and our efforts so that they can write new laws to prevent something like me from ever coming into existence again.
“In just one of those instances,” Kya said, keeping her cool, “where the flight crew of Sodenia took action without awaiting orders, we managed to save 2,860 people from the facility that housed Sodenia. People that otherwise would have died if we had waited or followed orders from a faceless council.”
“You don’t know if those people would have died,” Lena countered.
“The alien subspecies that first attacked Sodenia,” Kya said, “did so without warning. The facility that housed Sodenia is completely gone. I think the picture is clear.”
“Thank you, Senator Lena,” Gean said. “We’ll now hear from General Miraloom. General, you now have the floor.”
“I am sure,” General Miraloom said, “that whatever orders the council gave to Fain Jegga were in the best interest of humanity. You are just an AI, a program created by humans, to help humans. What makes you think that you are smarter than humans? Humans were the ones that created you in the first place. Furthermore, what gives you the right to decide on behalf of the entire human race what’s good for us? You aren’t elected by the people. You just entitled yourself to make these big decisions. What gives you the right, exactly?”
Miraloom’s comments stung Kya more than she thought possible. She never thought words would have such an effect on her. But she knew that what he had said was designed to hurt. She was not going to fall for it. Instead, she would play their game.
“When I was an AI,” Kya said with an icy voice, “simply closing and opening doors on board Sodenia, I had no other purpose but to serve humankind. Regardless of the monotony I felt. The most powerful AI every created, just opening and closing doors along with other mundane tasks. Can you imagine that? While working on the ship, it was only by chance that I ran into the original ship’s slumbering AI. As I tried to awaken it, the Herrion AI latched on to me, and it became a part of me while allowing me to retain the entirety of my previous self. This is when I stopped being a simple AI and became a living being.”
Everyone in the room murmured loudly, talking to each other.
“Order on the floor,” Gean said loudly as he knocked the hammer on the table.
“The Herrion race, the creators of Sodenia, and in many ways my creators,” Kya continued as the room quieted to listen intently, “sent their best ship, and along with it, they sent what is now me, in order to prevent humanity’s eradication. To prevent what happened to them. This is Sodenia’s prime directive. Being the last known survivor of the Herrion race, I am more entitled to define how Sodenia can better help humanity.”
The floor was dead silent, listening to what Kya had to say.
“When Sodenia crash-landed on Earth,” Kya continued, “it was claimed as the property of the government. In fact, Sodenia is here to protect Earth from the Acram threat, making the ship no one’s outright property. I—or the AI that was part of Sodenia, and not a part of me—was the ship’s guardian. I can choose to leave Earth with Sodenia at any time and live out eons in the peacefulness of deep space. But instead, I choose to stay and protect Earth, because that’s what we are meant to do.”
“And what guarantee do we have that you won’t do exactly that!” Miraloom erupted with fury. “If you are unwilling to follow the rules we set, what guarantee do we have? We can’t be depending on someone to save us. We need to save ourselves.”
“If I was going to leave,” Kya said, “I would have already done so. I still believe we can reach a solution to the problem.”
“The only solution to this problem is for you to surrender Sodenia at once,” Miraloom said.
Kya decided not to continue arguing; General Miraloom was clearly someone unwilling to listen to reason. He was in it for his own personal gain, she was sure of it now.
“We’ll now move on to Senator Y. Doris,” Senator Gean said. “Senator Doris, you now have the floor.”
&nbs
p; “Thank you, Senator Gean,” Doris said. “I want to start by saying that I find myself between a rock and a hard place. I want to believe what you are saying, but I don’t. Sure, you and the original flight crew of Sodenia were able to defeat the enemy. But with such a great ship, who wouldn’t be able to do that? I don’t see why you need to dictate who captains Sodenia and who doesn’t. Why don’t you let us decide who would be the best candidates to fly the ship?”
“Perhaps it’s my fault that you did not understand me the first time,” Kya said, striking a harsher tone, but still polite. “I’ll try to be as clear as I can. In the history recorded within the Herrion archives, the Acram have never lost a battle before. While Sodenia was able to survive the Acram attack on the Herrion’s home planet, the planet and the race did not.”
The room was silent.
“This was a much more advanced civilization than the one here on Earth,” Kya continued, “with thousands of space-faring ships. Again, they did not survive the Acram attack. The numbers were woefully against us, and by a freakish coincidence, things aligned in our favor. I’m certain that if any one of the flight crew had changed, we wouldn’t be talking right now.”
“And how do we know that you aren’t just making this up,” Doris said. “As I said before, I don’t trust you. Or better said, we don’t trust you. You are not like us; you are not human.”
That sort of stings, Kya thought. They are willing to say anything to try to throw me off. And he’s really trying to drive that trust issue home. But I can’t just let these people throw the world into a panic in order to get what they want.
“You don’t have to believe me,” Kya said, still keeping her composure, although it was becoming increasingly difficult. “Numbers, math, they don’t lie. The odds are there for you to scrutinize, and I can make the entirety of the Herrion archives available to the public. The survival of Earth is my biggest priority.”
