by Tobias Roote
So far, Arty has done nothing to indicate that he doesn’t hold humans in highest regard. He has only slipped around the limitations that were placed on him. I think he deserves a chance of life, but we need to create some new rules before we move forward on anything that might bring trouble down on us. Having had experience of Pod’s growth and developing sentience, I fear it’s much like giving a teenager some room to breathe, or lose them in a confined space.”
“You’re suggesting a carrot and stick approach?” Pennington responded, unconvinced of anything, but thinking back to his own military methodology of dealing with prima donnas who decided they didn’t need their team.
“I think we should try and do some corrective programming to restore some balances in Arty, although I’m not sure he hasn’t gone too far to pull him back,” Osbourne suggested.
“I can help, Ossie,” Kelly offered, pushing her arm across the table and placing her hand reassuringly on his.
Osbourne blushed and went to draw his hand back, but she took it away quickly when she realised what she had done.
“Sorry, I just...”
“It’s OK, Kelly, We’re.. I’m just not used to.. y’know... “ Ossie said shyly.
“If you two need a moment...?” Pennington questioned, one eyebrow arched significantly as he looked across at them both. He was in no mood to smile.
Zeke smiled, although he felt a little tug. He wasn’t begrudging Ossie the attention, seeing how the virtual recluse needed something else besides computers and programming to think about, he just realised he wasn’t sure about how he felt in regard to Kelly.
Osbourne recovered and smiled at Pennington’s droll comment, although the Commander’s humour had long departed.
“I think Kelly and I might be able to find a way of overcoming the problem,” he suggested.
“I found out today that she’s a pretty hot replacement for Lang,” He looked pointedly over at Pennington, who had stolen his friend and working partner, under military orders signed by Garner himself. Lang was now squirrelled away somewhere running his own department on the highly secret military base, that wasn’t really a secret.
“All right, Osbourne. I will suspend this meeting for a period of two days while you look for options to resolve the problem, and I will also look into ways to finalise the issue - permanently. In the meantime we need to remain vigilant and not let the AI know we are planning anything. No AI involvement, no cross-network discussions and complete blackout anywhere that might be intercepted. Your lab is clean, I take it?” Pennington asked.
Osbourne nodded.
“In that case, I hope you will take further steps to isolate your computers from interference. Especially in light of ongoing issues with Xerac Industries.”
“Er! What’s that about Xerac Industries, John?” Zeke asked.
“Ask Mr Osbourne here, I’m in over my head already,” he answered. “I have a meeting with the President who needs an update on this situation.”
Zeke looked over at Osbourne as Pennington left via the back door instead of the usual D-jump, a security team stationed outside followed him as the door swung shut leaving the three of them alone.
“Update me if you will, Ossie?” he asked.
***
“Come in, Kelly, I have had Robbo make some changes to the room layout using our resident re-programmable nanite population.”
Osbourne led Kelly into the room where Robbo had indeed been making changes. Gone were the cluttered workhorses he had been slaved to for years, now, a dual workstation arrangement had been designed and constructed by Robbo while they had been in the meeting and on the walk back.
“Say hi, Robbo!” he called out.
Robbo’s synthetic voice called out from further in the room. “Hi Kelly, don’t be too sure this is where you want to be, Osbourne is an extremely untidy worker.”
“Hello, Robbo. You haven’t seen my workplace yet, have you?” she retorted.
Five minutes later and they had resolved their seating arrangements and Ossie had introduced her to all of the security features. Additional ones in play ensured there were no outside listeners, no cloaked drones or nanite eavesdroppers. He had explained to Zeke Callaghan about the problems they were having with a transhuman AI in Xerac Industries trying to hack their systems. He didn’t go into any greater detail as he wanted to handle it himself, however it turned out. Zeke, like Pennington had not fully realised the implications of such a momentous achievement, and Osbourne felt it was important that as an AI developer, he accept some measure of responsibility for protecting Xerac in the same way he would protect his own artificial offspring. He knew he would also have to protect humanity from Xerac, as much as he could.
In his mind, humankind was evolving and it was doing so at an incredibly fast pace. The Nubl threat was such, that, at the very cusp of that change, all life, biological and artificial, could be snuffed out. So Ossie understood the importance of ensuring that something of humanity survived the coming war. Xerac might be important at some time in the future - if they had one.
He needed to concentrate on the ‘now’ of things so pulled his attention back to Kelly. She looked excited and he realised he was increasingly drawn to her. He wasn’t the type to relate to women on any level, so he decided instantly to just treated her as a work colleague and push his growing feelings to the back of his agenda. Now wasn’t the time to screw things up.
“OK, let’s get this sorted quickly, we are going to have to work out how to construct a new playpen for Arty without him knowing what we are doing.”
“How do we find out his present set-up? We can’t go in blind,” Kelly asked.
“Okay, you mentioned on the way over that you knew we use Jenari code in everything that we manufactured.” He nodded at her for confirmation.
“Yep! I discovered references to Jenari code in documents released by Fortress scientists for inclusion in online journals. They also knew it existed and were attempting to break the code. As far as I know only one person ever managed it besides you - Lang.” She smiled.
“This is true and actually he’s brilliant with the code, but we need a new mind for this - yours. So over the next few hours I’m going to teach you how to program in Jenari, whilst at the same time we work out how we are going to penetrate Alpha Station and find out what’s going on. - that’s the easy part,” he smiled.
Kelly was a quick learner and an hour later her understanding of the code fitted hand and glove with what she already knew of the alien language. She wouldn’t need expertise in the beginning, all she would require were the unlocking routines that gave access to the secret compiled code forming the nucleus inside every single product that was manufactured using Space Island technology.
Whilst there were no patents on anything SI produced, the code used had to be integrated into anything to enable it to work. That part of it was the only way to ensure that anything that was built couldn’t be used against Space Island, or its allies. And that included all AIs and weapons, as well as spaceships fused together with SI nanite technology. It remained to be seen whether Arty had overwritten the SI code.
“Wow!” Kelly announced as she finally saw the complete picture. “What I couldn’t do with this information!”
Her hands flew across the keyboard and screen after screen of information downloaded taking her deeper and deeper into the language structure that had been created to house the artificial intelligences that were Robbo, and Arty, as well as a host of other lesser artificial beings. Soon she was ready to work.
“Now, all we have to do is access Arty’s J-code to find out what he’s been up to. Unfortunately, it’s a passive system so we can only see, unless we want to switch it off, in which case there are procedures we can follow to terminate any AI, including Robbo,” he explained.
Robbo, for his part, kept very quiet which didn’t worry Ossie because he and Robbo had discussed this at length when creating the safeguards. It would only happen in a cas
e where no other option remained and threat to innocent human life was imminent. Ossie didn’t feel the need to discuss all of this with Kelly, who would no doubt either connect all the dots, or take up the matter with Robbo directly at some other time.
Osbourne fed in some security codes and opened a conduit to the nearest hub that he knew Arty was attached to, the ground base link to Alpha Station’s bridge. The data connections sang silently as they seamlessly linked into the existing data-flow and moved up to the station using Arty’s own connections. Once there it carried out encapsulated instructions and its hidden data collectors spun off and began sending back the information they needed.
Kelly was amazed. The data scrolled down her terminals so fast she couldn’t track it all.
Osbourne laughed. “What we have to do is filter the information, I have a program I run which will take any aspects we want to look at and ignore everything else. Let’s see what happens when we apply it.”
The information began to recompile until it scrolled slower and a pattern developed. Even so, Kelly had a hard time following until Osbourne tweaked it a little more, then suddenly it resolved into lines of figures and descriptions, most of them she knew were fine, others she decided were off the charts, there was no way they could be that high.
She sat back. If the figures were correct, Arty was now the size of a large building. a VERY large building.
“Oh crap!” Osbourne said from his terminal, a mirror of the one she was reading. He was looking at the same statistics.
He turned and looked at her miserably. “We are in so much trouble.”
- 16 -
Nubl Space: The Frenon
“We should have just eliminated them, there and then,” Zirkos spoke aloud to his AI friend as they had just jumped to their ship to the system of the Frenon’s underworld. He shook his head regretting his lack of positive action. He had probably doomed them to centuries more of eradication. “These Nubl will never stop their vendetta against us.”
“Your rules were that they would have safe passage in and out, you would not break your promise, regardless,” Ship answered him knowing full well that his Maker would not have gone back on his word even if it meant death for others and himself. The AI couldn’t understand this honour system that riddled the Jenari and the humans alike and stopped them from making the right choices.
Zirkos glanced at him as they finalised their approach to the planet’s hidden landing zone.
“Yes, even so, I cannot help thinking that life is going to be more complicated as a result of letting them return to their hives. We appear to have added further purpose to their eradication of the humans, and that’s my fault.”
Ship was gliding on his AG rather than perambulating in the human manner, which still caused him difficulty in coordination.“You had to try, and the Frenon needed to see you attempt to do so. They won’t support you if you are also unwilling to bridge the gap between the Nubl and the Jenari.”
“Yes, there is that. There is much to do now. I suspect there will be a prompt escalation of the war between Crystal and the other hives.”
“Do you think the Jabaa are playing a different game? Their ‘Ta was distancing himself from the others,” Ship asked, still undecided about the suspicious behaviour of the warrior in the bunker.
Zirkos was sanguine about it. “I’m intrigued. I felt no hostility from the Jabaa ‘Ta, only interest with perhaps an inkling of acceptance.”
In fact Zirkos had been impressed with the Nubl warrior. Whilst the others were plainly blinded by their own ignorance, the Jabaa was clearly prepared to listen. Zirkos had detected intelligence behind the mechanical eyes. Perhaps it had been an illusion, but he preferred to think there might be some hope there in the future. He secretly admitted there was something not quite right about the situation. Still, nothing occurred and the meeting, a peace initiative proposed by the Frenon, although a complete failure, at least gave them a starting point to kick off their own war with the Crystal Queen. One that Zirkos and Ship had been working towards for some time now.
As their tiny ship touched down on the landing strip allocated to their craft, Ship began to shut down the engines and the artificial atmosphere immediately died with it. Zirkos pressed the plate for the door panel and as it opened he welcomed the air mix that his body had become attuned to. Despite the lack of vegetation on Frenon, the seas offered up considerable quantities of the necessary gases to ensure the planet’s air remained breathable. It was preferable to the manufactured air on the tiny ship.
They stepped out of the craft and stood on the landing apron amongst the growing fleet of warrior-class ships that were being prepared for patrol of the Frenon’s home sector. They were based on the Shadowships, but with upgrades that put them slightly ahead of their opponents. They had also acquired a small fleet of the latest line of Crystal ships when an exodus of refugee workers reached them from Aviental’s home-world
There were more advanced changes in the works, but the Frenon were not confident yet of their ability, or even the desire to protect themselves or their newly formed colony. As confidence in their ability to win against the Nubl warriors grew, the more nervous some of them became. The backlash would come they said, and they feared for their survival. Others spoke more assertively and Zirkos was pleased to see the Frenon people argue and debate. He felt it was a healthy approach to reaching a working consensus.
Their car arrived to transport them into the underground city. They weren’t allowed to use their jump skills amongst the Frenon because of their unwillingness to share the technology. Although Ship and Zirkos shared many things, if the jump technology got into the hands of the Nubl, the war against the biological races would be unwinnable. Whilst the Frenon understood, they objected to the fact that both Zirkos and Ship moved themselves and objects around with the field. It was deemed unacceptable and that was that. Ship and Zirkos still did it when necessary, but out of sight of the volatile sentients.
“Do you not find it strange that the Frenon accept their history, whilst the Nubl refuse to believe?” Ship asked Zirkos as they proceeded to the city in the robotic car that was the main form of transport in their newly founded civilisation.
“I do, but I think it has more to do with your re-programming. As Nubl warriors their thought patterns are controlled by the hive, and any individual thinking contrary to the hive’s belief system is eliminated. The Frenon have no hive to think for them so have learned to do it for themselves. They may not be very advanced yet, but they show growing signs of high intelligence. Given an opportunity to develop a free society here, I think they may well prove worthy allies in the fight against the Nubl.”
“They have come a long way already,” he added. “Their aggression towards the Nubl ships that attack them in space is accelerating as they begin to develop their ships and weapons. There have been two successful retaliations in the last month alone.
Their Navy is growing while our nanite engineering is taking the raw materials from this planet and converting them into worthy end products. The ‘glassed’ rock strata has formed unique features and it will be a while before we find uses for many of them.”
Ship agreed. “There is that new coating they are developing from the crystalline deposits left after the Nubl melted the planet’s surface. The pattern ship recorded something very similar in composition used by the Frenkligha race as a ceramic heat-shield I only had to mention the possibilities and they immediately began investigating its potential.” Ship advised.
“Hmmh! Interesting. I think we need to concentrate on building a fully fledged fleet that can take on the Nubl in a war. Whilst the occasional retaliation against a Shadowship that is attempting to kill a Nonnie is one thing, a concerted effort from a hive fleet is another. We have to achieve a point where it’s no longer a ‘hit and run’ before the rest of the hive arrives.
Ship turned his Nubl chromium-plated head towards Zeke. He had plundered the spare parts yard of the Nonite rep
air section to build a body he could use to stand amongst them, eventually persuading them to accept him. He had used body parts that complemented each other and he now looked every part a Nubl, albeit one from a wide range of hives. He’d added in AG motors and a personal shield to protect him from their initial distrust and aggression. “There will be widespread dissent amongst them. However, unless they proceed along the route you suggest, this planet will be vulnerable to attack from the hives. I think they can be persuaded to build a defence fleet, which will easily become offensive when the need arises.” Ship confirmed.
Zirkos looked over at the silver machine that had evolved out of the AI that was once his ship. He noted the self confidence of the being that was his constant companion. He smiled ruefully as he realised he no longer had a compliant AI to do his bidding. How long would it be before they had an open disagreement, he wondered.
When Ship had rescued him from the clutches of the Crystal Queen he had put Zirkos into immediate suspended animation, dead, but frozen, as Zirkos thought of it. The lack of organic matter to hand meant it was essential to preserve those organics that were Zirkos until a breathable atmosphere could be created. Ship had hollowed out a section of asteroid where the temperature could be maintained at a level that didn’t damage the cells of the Maker.
The asteroid that Ship had transferred to when the ship was captured happened to belong to the Nonites who were hiding from the Nubl while traversing through space on an elliptical orbit. It took a while before he could convince them to accept and house a biological alien. Their first glimpse of Zirkos was a strange mixture of hatred and curiosity. Although shorn of the restrictions of their respective hives, the Nonites began to experience the concept of acceptance of difference. It helped that Ship had retained Zirkos’ silvery skin, giving him a more acceptable visual persona.
