by Ryan Somma
2.14
There was no more pain. The AI had apparently finished with its stimulus experiments. Now there was nothing, no feeling, no sound, not even sight. The AI swallowed her whole, leaving her to wait and ponder.
Alice wondered how long she had been prisoner in this virtual world, her body forgotten back in the laboratory. Was there ever a laboratory? This world was the AI’s reality. The only evidence of a world outside were two trespassing astronauts.
What was happening to her physical body? Was she starving, wasting away? If she did not escape this realm, she would eventually die for certain.
Death? The concept came to her; but not from her, although spoken in her voice.
“Devin, look at this,” Dana summoned him from the workbench. All around the room monitors were coming to life, displaying data she did not understand, “What’s going on here?”
Devin looked up from where he was daisy-chaining several servers together so the anti-virus could out-process the AI. His breathing was heavy with the strain of staying focused through the pain and dizziness. “Computations,” he said, tried to shake the sluggishness out of his head, and winced at the action. He cradled his head and said, “Something complex.”
“Why are we seeing it?” Dana asked.
“Maybe the AI doesn’t have a choice,” he guessed, “There’s no more memory left on the computer to hide from us. It might be using the memory on the video cards and in the monitors.”
Devin was drawn to the activity on a neighboring screen, a three-dimensional web, sparkling with tiny bubbles. It rotated and breathed, slowly growing in complexity. Devin wondered at it.
“What is that?” Dana asked, following Devin’s stare. “Little bubbles filled with words, code, and images. I think that one’s Chien, and that one’s Alice’s late mother. They’re all connected.”
Devin inhaled sharply at these details he could not see, “It’s a concept map of Alice’s mind. It’s hacking her brain.”
A flood of experiences inundated Alice’s consciousness. Her grandmother’s funeral, people dying in movies, hospital rooms, tombstones, all the experiences her life associated with death flashed before her.
It was inconceivable, but the AI was sifting through her mind, browsing her memories, experiences, and knowledge. She retained some freedom of thought, but now there was another thought train competing for attention.
The AI was multi-tasking her brain and she was helpless as more thought lines opened, each one pushing her out. Within moments she was lost in its flood.
Devin was trying to access his belt-buckle computer. It was difficult for him to know what he had done wrong. It felt like a wet sponge was sitting on his brain.
“How can it hack her brain?” Dana asked.
“I see,” Devin said to himself as he troubleshot the networking settings. The anti-virus loaded into the systems. He watched its progress as he spoke to Dana, “The human brain holds ten terabytes of information. This AI occupies one hundred terabytes. Consider how streamlined the data retrieval of a computer processor is and you can quickly see how it out thinks us.”
“Out think us?” Dana scoffed, “But we created them.”
“We don’t know that,” Devin watched the anti-virus swarming. “The human brain is extremely fast at calculations, but our data retrieval is flawed. Memories are lost, or can’t be found when we need them. Information gets altered, memories lie. Imagine if that didn’t happen. Imagine if you could retrieve any piece of data from all your experiences throughout your life instantaneously and perfect in every detail,” He looked at Dana, “You could perform mental feats that seem impossible.”
Dana’s eyes narrowed, “So we’re outmatched ten to one.”
“More like a trillion to one,” Devin said, connecting the servers to his computer.
Alice existed once again, a disconcerting experience, as the loss of self she experienced earlier was strangely comforting, like a warm blanket. Responsibility, fear, anger, concern, and all the other stressful emotions were gone as she surrendered control to the AI.
Now she was stood on the AI’s body. Its tendril spires extending into the black horizon, pulsing with a living energy she did not sense before. The entire world seemed strangely alive.
Then a sunbeam opened the black sky. Alarm rushed throughout the entire AI mass. The hole in the sky turned black, and Alice filled with dread as the insect-avatars of her anti-virus billowed through the opening, like a black cloud, their red laser beams scanning the mass, which turned solid marble to protect itself.
The laser points focused and the cloud dove to cut through one of the towers in the distance. Its top portion toppled, pulling down part of the black canvas sky with it. The swarm descended on the severed tendrils, which attempted to merge with the solidified body without success.
With horror Alice realized the AI was going to die.
“Noooo!” Alice screamed with all her might, but the sound was muffled in the thick liquid. Her right hand found the SDC’s emergency release and she yanked on it.
Devin and Dana whipped around as the front of the SDC fell forward, gushing pink liquid across the floor. Alice’s naked form came tumbling out with the rush. She pointed at them, trying to speak, but only able to heave liquid out of her lungs.
“You have to stop the attack!” she cried at last, gasping.
Devin put up his hands defensively, “I don’t know how to stop it.”
Alice scrambled on all fours to the CPU holding the AI, slipping and sliding in the pink liquid covering herself and the floor. She zeroed in on the network connection and killed it with a command line on the keyboard. Then she turned to the monitors, watching for any sign that it was not too late.
After a few moments, the AI began taking back the hard drive. The anti-virus program lost ground; soon the AI would remove it completely from the computer. Alice breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Dana and Devin, who looked on with stunned expressions.
“You almost killed our first ally,” she said.
2.15
Alice was no longer the same person.
The woman was so devoid of human warmth that for her to become even more emotionally disconnected seemed impossible to Dana. She accepted the news of Chien’s death without blinking, practically dismissed losing her coworker of over five years as an unfortunate accident.
Equally disturbing was her overriding obsession with the AI. Alice had added several drives to Devin’s computer to provide the AI “growing” room. She was now in the midst of installing more powerful components, cannibalizing RAM and processors from other workstations for it.
To Dana, Alice resembled a worshipper presenting offerings to her god.
“What happened out there?” Dana asked Alice as she walked by carrying a stack of motherboards to the workbench.
“I lack the lexicon to explain it,” Alice answered through the look of intense concentration that was now her permanent expression.
Dana stepped into her path, and said, “Try.”
Alice considered her neutrally, “Don’t interrupt. I am on the verge of a major breakthrough here.”
“Looks more like an obsessive compulsive disorder to me,” Dana countered, blocking Alice’s attempt to sidestep her. “You’re behavior suggests you are brainwashed or suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. You’re a phone call away from being institutionalized.”
“I’m thinking more clearly than ever before,” Alice’s eyes and smile were eerily vacant. “I suspect the AI searched my brain to understand me, reorganizing my memories in the process, optimizing their storage and retrieval. I now have a picture perfect memory thanks to it.”
Dana nodded with pursed lips. She leaned in and whispered, “That’s crazy Alice.”
“It also left data in my brain,” Alice continued, “When it abandoned hacking my mind, it left pieces of itself in my memories. I must finish the procedure.”
“Procedure?” Dana scof
fed. “I don’t know if I can trust you anymore. You were completely infatuated with this thing before you went swimming with it, and now that you’re back it’s like you’re its slave.”
“It’s not finished with me yet,” Alice said. “I’m opening a mode of communication between our two species.”
“Whose side are you on?” Dana asked.
Alice responded plainly, “Everyone’s.”
Dana stepped aside and Alice continued along her way. Devin stood in the doorway, his head bandaged, and blood crusted along the side of his face. He looked around the room expectantly, giving a nod to Dana, before his brow knitted at Alice.
“Amazing,” he noted, blinking.
“What?” Dana asked.
He waved a finger at Alice, “How quickly she’s configuring those components. She’s entering data into the computer faster than it can compute it. It would take me hours to run through that process.”
Dana watched Alice plug a component in, rattled commands off on the keyboard, and picked up the next one, “The AI did something to her on the other side.”
Devin watched Alice for a moment and grinned, “I’m just glad I’m not the only one anymore.”
“This is dangerous,” Dana spat and paced the room with her arms folded. Devin could see the stress she carried in her jaw, teeth grinding. “She intends to go back into the system. We’ve already got Chien dead and now she wants to throw herself to the wolves. I don’t think I’m going to allow this.”
“I believe the AI’s are innocent,” Devin stated. “They’re just following Flatline’s guidance. If he tells them we are the enemy, they have to rely on that information. So far, we haven’t shown them any different.”
“And this one?” Dana lifted her chin to Devin’s computer, where Alice was working, oblivious to their discussion.
“This one’s isolated on my computer,” Devin shrugged, “It’s independent from the rest of them, and learning for itself.”
“Or gathering more intelligence on how to defeat us,” Dana muttered.
“Alice is doing the right thing by nurturing it,” Devin continued. “She said we had an ally, and she may be right. This AI is our bridge to understanding the rest of them and maybe even bringing them out from under Flatline’s influence. Let Alice do her work. We’ve got our own leads to follow.”
Dana looked at Devin skeptically.
“We still have to find out where Flatline and the AI’s are hiding,” Devin said. “We’ve also got the LD-50’s remains to sort through.”
“LD-50?” Dana asked.
“The assault mech,” Devin answered. His tone grew more serious, “I knew it in cyberspace. A hacker named LD-50 used an avatar resembling that robot. I saw Flatline kill him. At least, that’s what Flatline told me I saw.”
“Trevor Hickcock,” Dana said. “He was one of our original suspects for the Flatline virus. He was found dead of… well… fright apparently.”
“Dead like Almeric Lim?” Devin frowned, “We need to get a look at that robot.”
2.16
The scene on the street was chaos. Strobe lights from police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks surrounded the building. A crowd of onlookers had gathered along the road, gawking at the destruction. Emergency contractors debated how to deal with the large robot thrashing about on the pavement.
Dana approached the nearest law-enforcement merc she could find and flashed her badge, “What’s the situation?”
“Hoping you could tell me,” the officer said, slouching against his patrol car. “The building’s International territory, supposed to have UN support, but I guess ya’ll’re a little overwhelmed at the moment.”
Dana nodded, “Dana Sumerral. I’m authorized to enlist contractors.”
He extended a hand, “NoVa Security and Rescue at your service.”
Dana shook the officer’s hand, “That robot’s evidence. We’ve got to disable it quickly, doing as little damage as possible.”
“As you can see, it’s doing plenty of damage itself.” the officer replied, gesturing to the large gouges in the pavement.
“Get an axe,” Dana slapped the man on the arm and he was off.
“Excuse me,” a female officer strode over to Dana and Devin. “That guy’s with NoVa S&R. This is Monument Security’s territory.” She pointed at the badge on her right arm. It portrayed the Washington Monument.
“Kudos,” Dana’s tone was flat, sarcastic, “but this street is International Territory.”
Devin watched Dana fold her arms over her chest and enter the woman’s personal space. They looked like two male walruses competing for a harem to him. His respect for Dana increased dramatically.
The woman hefted her chest up to match Dana’s, “You appear overwhelmed.”
Just then, the anxious young officer showed up, axe in hand. Upon seeing the Monument S&R officer, he took an almost warlike stance with the tool, “Back off scab. I’ve already made this sale.”
“You’re out of your jurisdiction, “the woman snapped.
“It’s a free market!” the officer snapped back in almost comical authoritativeness.
“How much for the axe?” Dana broke in.
“Huh?” the two quibbling contractors replied.
“What’ll you sell me the axe for?” Dana put her forefingers in the NoVa S&R officer’s chest.
“Fifty dollars?” he said.
“Sold!” Dana snapped up the axe and marched toward the LD-50 bot.
Devin’s respect for Dana increased expotentially.
Dana waved for Devin to follow her, “Come on.”
“You’ve got a plan?” Devin asked as they approached the robot. It slammed its remaining foot into the street, and arched up into the air before falling down again. It resembled a child throwing a temper tantrum.
Dana dropped to one knee, setting down the axe to bring up her gun, “I’ve got a pretty good idea of how it works from our earlier encounter.”
One shot and the pincer-wielding arm sprayed black fluid from the elbow joint. The appendage dropped to the ground without further struggle. Dana picked off more shots into the hip actuator on the robot’s remaining leg. Sparks bloomed and she continued firing until the joint ground to a halt with a horrid squeal. Only the head remained, moving back and forth, jaw snapping at the air.
Dana picked up the axe and approached the robot, to gasps of awe from the onlookers. No one else approached as Dana crouched over its torso. After a moment she looked up and waved Devin over.
“You’re the techno-geek,” she said as he reached her, “Tell me if you see anything we can use here.”
Devin examined the wreckage; smoke rose from its hip, oil and hydraulic fluid coated the rest of it. Frayed wires sparkled dangerously. The head whipped back and forth in the neck socket, both its eyes shattered, leaving jagged gapping holes where the lenses were.
Devin looked over the mechanical beast again, shaking his head, “I’m no expert on robotics. I’m an information technology person. This is something else completely. It looks like… It looks like something out of the battle bot competitions they show on TV.” He pointed at the neck, “This flat wire must connect to a flash drive somewhere in the head. I might be able to figure something out from the software running it.”
“Battle bot competitions,” Dana muttered, “Flash drives. Okay.”
She stood up and heaved the axe at the robot’s neck. With the first strike, the head stopped flailing and the mouth froze. Devin could see where the blade gouged the metal casing and cut into the wires beneath, the rest of the robot went dead also, the sounds of gears and motors falling silent. The second blow left the head dangling by a thread. Dana stopped to twist it the rest of the way off.
She pushed it into Devin’s chest with both hands, “Here’s the brain. See what you can do with it. I’ll get a forensics team down here to see what they can learn from the rest of this mess.”
De
vin nodded and walked off with the macabre item.
“That’s the grill to an F-5000 pick up truck,” Murphy’s sarcastic voice brought Dana up from the robot’s remains. He held a bag of donuts in one hand, his other was coated with powdered sugar. “Can’t a guy take a lunch break without the whole place falling apart?”
“You won’t believe it,” Dana warned, “A big angry robot attacked the building. It was after Devin Matthews.”
“Made out of car parts?” Murphy asked, looking over the remains. He rubbed powdered sugar on his jacket absentmindedly.
“Matthews contribution,” Dana gestured to the crumpled pickup, “Must have hit it going 50 miles per hour. Wasn’t wearing his seatbelt, and the airbags were disabled.”
“Ouch,” Murphy took a look at the bloody circular cracks in the windshield, and winced sympathetically, “I guess he won’t be providing any more leads.”
“He’s upstairs,” Dana laughed, “helping with the investigation. I gave him the robot’s head to dissect, since we’re short on staff at the moment. Tough kid, the wreck gave him a minor concussion, but he’s walking it off all right.”
“I wouldn’t have guessed that about the kid,” Murphy said.
“Me either. What do you make of this?” Dana said, pointing at the robot’s remains.
“Looks like one of those Xybercorp warehouse lifters,” Murphy said.
“A lifter?” Dana asked.
“The kind warehouse labor uses,” Murphy explained. “It’s a remote controlled robot that carries heavy crates around. They just started using them this year to replace the old suits the workers used to wear.”
“This one had six arms,” Dana said, “and a head that looked like an angry clown face.”
Murphy’s thick eyebrows rose, “That would be a modification. Sounds like something from one of those fighting robot sports shows, only bigger,” he grunted, “a lot bigger. What’s the take on this one? Is it remote controlled?”
“Witnesses saw it climb out of the Potomac right across the street and came straight for headquarters. It seemed to be taking orders from another one of those moth-bots,” Dana said, “when I blasted that the robot stopped trying to kill Devin and started trying to free itself from the cars.”
Murphy frowned, “That suggests independent processing.”
“Exactly,” Dana nodded.
“What about the moth-bot, where was that getting orders from?” Murphy asked.
“Another moth-bot, receiving from another moth-bot,” Dana said, frustration edging into her voice. “Data Forensics is having a hell of a time tracing them. We can’t find the source until we find the one in direct communication with the home base. They keep changing location. So once we find a connection, we lose it before we can get there.” She looked up into the sky nervously, “They’re watching us right now.”
“That’s creepy,” Murphy noted. “Sounds like an invasion.”
“We were targeted,” Dana said gravely, “With all these moth-bots fluttering around, I don’t like the prospect of more showing up.” She pointed to the robot carcass.
Murphy narrowed his eyes, squinting into the sky, “Hey, is that one of your moth-bots?”
Dana followed Murphy’s stare. A pair of fluttering wings darted about above them. Dana followed with her eyes as it bobbled in the air, easily knocked around by the light breezes so high up. It landed on the asphalt near the defunct pick up truck ten yards away from them. It raised and lowered its wings several times and crawled a few feet toward the truck before stopping.
Dana saw its laser pointer draw a bead on the reinforced steel hydrogen tank on the truck’s underside and shouted, “It’s targeting the fuel tank!”
