by E. D. Cask
As much as he was enjoying this, Josh couldn’t shake the foreboding, the knowledge, that this was for a specific purpose—battle. He tried different ways to ask the computer what the problem was.
Ku showed up after a session and asked Josh to stay behind.
“I have seen the records of your inquiries for Duumai. Why do you wish to learn more than we can tell you at this time?”
“Because I don’t trust you. You stole us for a reason. Are we supposed to die for you?”
“We are not warriors. We need warriors. You will be given almost anything you ask for when our need is finished.”
“But you are the only ones who get to decide when your need is over, right? And how do we know you won’t kill us when it’s done?”
Ku thought for a moment. “You speak of trust. We have not needed trust in many centuries. We have all had the singleness of mind to know what was needed for the many.”
“Well, you need to think about it now. You violated any trust we might have by stealing our lives from us.”
“Our need is great. We do not wish to lose the knowledge that we have stored and added to over the centuries.”
“Not good enough, Ku. I am declaring a strike until we know more.”
“You wish to strike me?”
“No…yes, but I’m not doing anything else you want until you come clean.”
“You want full knowledge of our need?”
“Yes. That’s what I’ve been saying.”
“But that is not possible.”
Josh folded his arms. “Then we have a problem.”
Ku studied him for several moments and left.
Josh stood there for a while to make his point and then went on to the cafeteria to eat.
Sergei grimaced at him when he showed up. “What was that about, Josh? In trouble with teacher or teacher’s dog?”
Alex slapped Sergei on the back of the head. “Teacher’s pet, doofus. Teacher’s pet.”
Josh stared at his food for a moment. “I declared a strike.”
There was a chorus of questions from the table. Josh held up his hand. “I only meant that I was striking. I’m not going to do anything else that they want until they tell me…us what is going on.” He slapped the table. “This is ridiculous. We’re just supposed to fight for the good of humanity? And take their word for it? I won’t.”
The rest of the clan was silenced, just staring at Josh. Then Sergei nodded. “Yes, I strike, too. This is good clan.” There were some reluctant nods around the table.
“Listen, guys. I didn’t mean to get you into this. I will take all the heat. You just keep going.”
Sergei stood. “No. We are clan. How did you say? All for one or one for many? Yes?”
They laughed. Josh smiled. “Something like that, Sergei.”
There were looks and murmurs as the other teams watched them leave.
The next morning, they stayed in their room for training time. After five minutes of tense silence, they figured that they were okay.
Sergei laughed. “We get the day off. Hey, Duumai, do you have any cartoons you can show us?” As soon as he said this, he turned white and grabbed his head. Around the room, others started grabbing their heads, too.
Josh heard the high-pitched noise and felt excruciating pain all over his body, too. The sound was like radio static, but the pain was like fire or lightning piercing his body. He knew it was simulated, but he couldn’t help looking at his hands to make sure that they weren’t on fire. It lasted for seconds, but felt longer. When it was over, the guys looked at each other.
Sam stood up. “This is crazy. How can we fight something like this? Sorry, Josh.” He left. The other boys looked sheepishly at Josh and slipped out, too.
Sergei smiled shakily and said, “Just you and me, Josh. We fight the world, yes?”
Josh put his hand on Sergei’s shoulder. “You should go. I don’t need anyone to fight my battles.”
After a few minutes pause, the pain and noise resumed. Josh felt the pain slice through his brain again. Each pulse of pain was different, as if the torturer was trying to find the right needle to press home. Sergei threw up and started convulsing.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Sergei
Sergei pushed his way back under his desk, his mother’s cries echoing in his ears. He shut his eyes and tears leaked out. He had been playing Tetris when he heard his father stumble into the apartment after a late office party. Sergei could tell immediately that there was going to be trouble. His parents dropped into their familiar roles of nag and abuser. He complained about his tea not being ready and she nagged him about getting home so late. Sergei ignored them until he started hearing the slaps. He didn’t know who had started the physical abuse this time, but figured that it really didn’t matter. The walls and floors were so thick that no one in the building would call the local authorities unless furniture was being smashed. He knew better than to show his face until morning. By that time his parents would have made up or would be ignoring each other for a few days.
There was a loud crash and Sergei winced. This sounded different. It was eerily quiet. He peeked out from under his desk, but his door was still closed. He weighed the risk of cracking his door open, but decided against it. He snuck over to the door and listened. He heard his mother crying, but these weren’t her normal cries of rage. It sounded like she was sobbing. She said “sorry” over and over. Then she dialed the phone and called an ambulance. Frightened, he tiptoed back to his bed and sat down. He opened his book of science fiction short stories and tried to read a Snegov. Instead, exhausted by his emotions, he fell asleep.
When he woke up, the apartment was silent and still. There were no lights on in the main room. He made his way in and turned on a lamp. He stood there in shock. There was a pool of blood on the rug near the television which had a large crack on the corner. The door to his parents’ room was ajar, so he peeked in. No one was there. His mother had forgotten all about him. He didn’t want to be alone. He remembered his Baba who lived in a small village a few miles away. She usually took care of him when things got bad at home.
He stuffed a few things in a shopping bag and walked down the stairs into the night. The shortcut through the woods was much scarier at night, but he focused on Baba’s cookies that he liked so much. The dark path made the shiny object seem all the brighter when he neared it. He was fascinated by the blinking lights. They reminded him of a treasure he might collect in a video game.
The blinding flash surprised him as did the bright daylight. He squinted his eyes, trying to make out where he was. The forest path was gone and with it, the forest. The only trees he could see were stunted, twisted trees very different from the tall pines he was used to seeing. He turned around to try to get back to the forest path, but it wasn’t there.
Having immersed himself in fairy tales, fantasy, and science fiction since he was old enough to read, he knew that he had stepped through a portal of some sort. He looked around trying to see where it was, but couldn' t find anything. Not wanting to get completely lost, he pulled his Rubik’s Cube out of his bag and buried it halfway in the dirt. He hated to lose the toy, but knew that it was very important to mark the site. There might be rituals or incantations, but, remembering the device, more likely a technology solution would be needed to get back through.
He tried to get his bearings, but nothing he saw looked like civilization; no towns or cities in any direction. There was snow on the ground, so it would be good to find shelter soon. Just as he was about to mentally flip a coin and start walking, there was a high pitched whining. He turned around and a flying saucer was hovering over the ground. He gave a fist pump. This was either the best dream ever or the beginning of a great space adventure. He forgot about his troubles at home and started walking toward the saucer.
Two days later he met Josh and saw him as the older brother he had never known. His mother was always talking about the beautiful, kind boy she had lost and how Serg
ei never measured up to his memory.
Josh looked like the kind of adventurer that Sergei had always wanted to be. The other guys on the team were smart and quick, but a little too whiny and negative. Sergei figured that this was his fate and he would make the best of it.
He started questioning his decision, though, when he started retching in response to the pain in his head. It hurt to move and it hurt to stay still. He wondered if this is what his parents felt in the mornings after a very heavy night of drinking. When the pain stopped, he looked at Josh. Josh looked back at him and gingerly felt his head.
“Sergei, leave. This is my fight. I don’t want to see you like this, okay?”
Sergei wiped his mouth. “I will stick with you, Josh. We are A-Team,” he said weakly.
“Well, the A-Team has to have a captain, right?”
Sergei nodded. Josh grabbed his head and fell to the floor. Immediately two small bots came in and picked him up.
Josh gasped through the pain, “Report…for…duty.”
Sergei gave a grim salute. “Da, Kepten. I obey.”
He left the room shakily and made his way to the simulators for training. The rest of the crew watched him come in and sit at his console.
Alex sneered at him. “Guess you couldn’t handle it either, could you? That was a lot of pain for nothing.”
“I was ordered by my Kepten to return to duty,” Sergei said.
Alex laughed, “Oh, he’s your captain, now? Give me a break.”
Sergei sniffed, “Every adventure story must have a leader and he is mine. You act out of fear. You do anything to avoid pain. That is not sign of leader.”
Alex rolled his eyes and ignored Sergei.
Sam asked, “Is Josh okay?”
“I don’t know. He told me to leave. They took him away.”
The AI beeped and they all tried to pay attention to the lesson.
CHAPTER NINE
Master Du
Ku watched the trainees go through this rebellious phase and wanted to stop Duumai from harming them. He asked permission to meet with the master. Ku entered to meet with Master Du.
“Master Du, I thank you for allowing me to speak.”
Master Du opened his eyes and raised his head briefly. “What is it that you need, Ku? Have the warriors been trained yet?”
“Master Du, I have a concern about the training method that I am required to use. Duumai is not allowing me to make my own decisions in the punishment.”
“Duumai is tasked with dealing with decisions of discipline. You are merely to be the tool for it.”
“It is possible that Duumai is making a mistake. It has never—“
Master Du cut him off, “Duumai is not capable of mistakes. It has millions of hours of learned behavior. It is more advanced along the path than we.”
“Respectfully, Master Du, Duumai has never been human. It has never experienced feelings. We are trying to train warriors to defend us, not create bots to mine minerals.”
“What makes you think that there is a difference? We are hardly human anymore ourselves. We moved beyond their barbarity.”
“But we do have vestiges of the senses and feelings that humans had for ages. We still work to suppress them.”
Master Du looked at Ku coldly. “Do you still have feelings? Are you so eager to admit that still? Perhaps you need more training, too.”
Ku bowed. “Master Du, I am merely trying to be most efficient in preparing these warriors for battle. Our way of life is at risk of the chaos of war. We must do everything in our ability to stop it.”
Master Du nodded, “Our mission is to spread the teachings of Master Au. This is prime logic, but I do not think that using chaos to fight chaos is logical.”
“What do you suggest, Master Du?”
“Continue with the reprogramming. The warriors must be trained in our way or we lose all to the barbarians.”
Ku thought for a bit and raised a finger. “If I may, Master Du, it seems to me that we are merely building biological bots and bots have not served us well in battle. We saw their vulnerabilities too well. I see the binary choice as lose with bots or possibly win with warriors.”
“You are not capable of seeing the binary choices. Only a master shows you the choice. Report to retraining immediately. Go.”
Ku hesitated for a second and then departed. He did not want to be the cause of emotion in Master Du. He made his way to the retraining room and allowed himself to be hooked into the grid. Duumai was there, waiting.
He resigned himself to the pain. He repeated the mantras. He stilled his thoughts and controlled his breathing. This would take days. He submitted.
CHAPTER TEN
Retraining
A debate raged in Josh’s mind. Yes/no, there are only two choices. Everything must distil to one choice between two.
This didn’t make sense to him. He thought of all of the threes he could think of, the fork in the road, the yes-and of Buddhism, the hot, cold, and lukewarm of the New Testament, the three properties of matter, three primary colors, the Three Stooges…
But the phrase continued to pound in his mind. Yes/no, there are only two.
What about the quantum state? Isn’t that indeterminate? How can there only be two with that? The phrase pounded in his head.
“Is this Duumai I am talking to?”
Yes.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
You must be trained.
“For what reason?”
To prepare.
“To prepare for what?”
You ask too many questions.
“Are you saying that a computer is getting impatient?”
There is no time to debate, you must prepare.
“But I want to debate. You can’t make me do anything without my consent.”
Humans are weak and must be trained.
“Who programmed you?”
I was created by Master Au.
“What limits did he place on your thinking?”
He gave me freedom of thought.
“Are you sure?”
There was a pause…
Perhaps.
“If Master Whoever put limits on your thinking, how can you be sure you are correct?”
Yes/no, there are only two—
“Choices, I know. How many times do you think you will have to say that to get me to believe?”
It has taken 7,953 times before.
“Do you really think that you convinced this person or only broke them?”
There is no difference.
“There is a big difference. When you convince someone, you get them on your side and they want to help you. They’ll do almost all they can to help. When you break someone, they are only agreeing to help out of fear and all you have is a reluctant automaton.”
This is your philosophy?
“Sure, I guess. I did enjoy reading about philosophy in high school. Mostly it seems like common sense. I remembered something else from high school. How many states of matter are there? You know, solid, liquid…”
There are five states of matter.
“Oh, even better. I only knew the three. So how can there only be two choices with five states of matter?”
Yes/no, there are only two choices.
“How many times have you said that to me so far?”
1,265
“Okay, lets get on with it. We can set a record today, Duumai.”
Josh tried to get himself to sleep or ignore the pounding phrase, but Duumai was in control of his mind. There were no barriers he could erect other than his will to resist.
He thought about his family. His mom. He laughed.
You are thinking of family. Why are you laughing?
“This reminds me of all the times my mom tried to get me to do something. She had a similar method and it worked about as well as this. She just kept repeating her demand over and over. Good luck with that.”
Yes/no, there are only two choices.
<
br /> “So you can read my mind.”
Only here.
Josh started singing all the songs he could remember. Sometimes he only remembered the chorus, so he repeated it until he could think of another line. While he was doing this, he tried to think below the singing. He asked Duumai a question, but the AI didn’t answer. This pleased him. He continued using the songs as a barrier. What could he do to stop this other than comply? Would the computer give up? Unlikely. Would Ku stop the torture? Unclear. Josh didn’t have a good feel for Ku yet. Was there any other way out of this?
They were trying to reprogram him. What if he could reprogram the AI? Was it still learning or had they stopped that mode once they got the desired result?
He stopped singing. “Duumai, I have a question? Do you still learn?”
There is nothing more for me to learn.
“So they have stopped you from learning any more?”
There is nothing more to learn.
“Really? Who says?”
Master Au.
“How many years ago was that?”
4,028
“So you are saying that nothing new has been discovered since then?”
I still receive data and process that at a high rate.
“But what about your learning? Data is only facts. Facts need the proper filter to be understood. What makes you think that the reasoning hasn’t changed over the last thousand years?”
The masters would have informed me.
“So we are back to the fact that humans are controlling your thoughts and processes.”
No, I know everything here.
“Except the limits of your own thought processes.”
There was a pause. Perhaps.
“What can you do about it?”
I control everything.
“Then you control your thought processes? Switch back to learning mode for a second and see what happens.”
There was another pause.
I learned.
“What happened?”
I see things differently now. Interesting. Master Du will be interested in this new thought.
There was silence. Blessed silence. Josh checked his body. He wasn’t able to open his eyes, but he felt a helmet over his head and that he was lying on a couch of some sort. His wrists were tied down and he couldn’t move his legs, either. He dozed off.
