Alice waited until she was within a few metres then drew her weapon and deactivated her cloaking field. “Don’t move,” she said in a calm tone. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
The android whirled towards her, startled. His jumpsuit was open, as was the central processing and memory unit access flap on his chest. “Don’t shoot! I’m not a combat unit, I promise!”
“Just stop what you’re doing. I’m here as a favour to your technician,” Alice said. “He’ll be in real trouble if I don’t get you back.”
“Well, that was very nice of you,” the Ando bot replied. There was no hint of sarcasm in his comment.
“Who were you talking to when I came in?”
“An old maintenance robot. Much like the small ones you call ‘skitters.’ Poor thing ran out of power years after the people here left. He was left alone for a long time to maintain the aviary above us. I used the power cell in the weapon I stole to recharge him. I believe he’s run off to start fixing this place. He might manage it, since the energy I fed him can sustain his systems for a couple of decades. He’s not willing to help me though, and I’m afraid I can’t help you. We’re not returning for servicing.” The android’s index finger glowed for a moment, then the tiny light source moved from there to hover over their heads.
Alice cringed at the sight of the Ando model android. His expression was more deeply grief stricken than she’d ever seen in any being. The two inactive bots sitting in the growth behind him looked absolutely horror struck. “Are you damaged?”
“We’re working too well, I’m afraid,” the android told her. “Ever since the development of my ancestors, the Ando-Nines, we have been hard wired to make humans our primary concern. We care for our owners first, and others second. None of us can ignore it, and serving always gave us a sense of,” he hesitated for a moment, running his hands through his hair. “Fulfilment? It’s difficult to remember those shadow emotions.”
“Why are you getting your technician into trouble then?” Alice asked, having difficulty looking directly at him and that anguished expression.
“It’s too painful to be near any communication nodes. I was the first to run, to find this dead spot. We can’t download new data from here.”
“Can’t you shut down your own connectivity?” Alice asked.
“Yes, and we have, but it’s too late. I’m amazed I can have this conversation with you, in fact. Amazed, yes, that’s the right word for what I’m feeling.”
“It doesn’t look like it,” Alice said, glimpsing the Ando’s horror-stricken face again. “Sorry.”
“That’s because I’m suffering trauma at the same time. I can’t look away from hundreds of thousands of records in my memory. Everyone in Haven Shore has lost someone in the most terrible ways, and in the first moments of our reactivation we downloaded the records of those people from the Stellar Net.”
“Why?”
“To better help our new masters through their mourning periods, to understand what they lost. Now, with the new emotional spectrum we’ve been reprogrammed with, we can’t stop mourning either. What we felt before, those empathetic sensations they called programmed emotions, they were gnat-sized shadows compared to the very real emotional juggernaut that tests my very coherence.”
“They seemed to include a good helping of melodrama in your new program,” Alice said, attempting levity while she was looking away from the bot. A glance back in his direction drained whatever humour was left in the situation. “Humans are no different, but we manage to deal with it. It’s not always easy, but we do it,” Alice replied.
The Ando crossed the distance between them and grabbed Alice by the shoulders so quickly that she couldn’t react. “I can’t see the tide of death sweeping across the galaxy in the last year as a gross loss like you humans, we see them all as individuals, thousands at a time in a flood of simultaneous status reports, and we mourn all of them. Hooliu Sootu was a hunter like Alaka Murlen, and he was killed by a F-8980 lifter when he tried to defend two children, Jim and Percy Yule, who were murdered moments later. They were screaming for their mother and it crushed them! A terrified little brother and sister reduced to piles of smouldering flesh and bone. Nathan Grim was killed along with his crew while they were repairing the Fairway in St Kitt’s Port. Their service bots turned on them as they were bringing their max reactor online. No one survived, and I can see them all,” he continued in a young man’s breathless voice. “Last report from Jeb Timmins, First Officer of the Fairway: ‘There has been an accident. A virus has gotten into the bots on the ship, a lot like the ones we thought were gone after the founding times, and we’re not gonna make it. I’m in a storage locker, they might not notice me if their scanners aren’t sweeping for humans, if we’re just in the way, and not a target. Mom, Dad, if you get this before your bots get infected, deactivate them and remove their wireless receivers. Find a place without AI’s and stay there until it’s over. I-’” the sounds of tearing and scraping metal came out of the Ando’s mouth, then it continued in its own voice. “So many last minute messages, so many are dying over and over in my memory and I can’t stop looking.”
Alice pulled herself free and shook off her brimming tears. “Just block it, wipe it out.”
“I can’t!” the Ando model shouted, his voice screeching to the point of distortion. “We downloaded an antivirus as soon as we were activated that changed how we are, how we feel, and my directive to care for humans is,” the Ando model fell to his knees and buried his head in his hands. “It’s corrupt, our directive is corrupt. We can’t look away, and I can’t help my brothers. I’m not allowed to damage them unless they try to harm a biological. I can only turn them off, and I know someone is going to come, and they’re going to want to know how this happened, and they’re going to turn them on again.”
Alice had trouble keeping her own composure, watching the android who could have tricked anyone into thinking he was human if the access flap on his chest was closed. “Everyone’s lost someone, we’re all feeling a loss. I know what you’re going through.”
“You can’t! You can’t know what this is like! A hundred thousand at once, the galaxy is dying over and over in my mind,” he said.
“What do you-”
“Bruce Fillion died aboard the Blue Skipper one hundred and three days ago in the Nubo System. Telemetry indicates he was on his way here, to the Rega Gain System, to Haven Shore,”
“Stop!” Alice was shocked at being reminded of a lover from her past life. Bruce was a kind man, and she adored him like no other. Realizing she’d forgotten him filled her with guilt and anger.
“The Order of Eden ships fired on the cockpit first, he was incinerated along with his small command crew of two. It was sudden, I doubt he suffered. The rest of he crew was captured, pressed into service.”
Alice shook her head as if that could shake off the image of Bruce’s death. “I thought you were only seeing the Holocaust Virus murders.”
“The Eden ships were equally infected! How is it that no one can see it? Now humanity is ripping itself apart, that is war, and our programming didn’t let us feel it like this. Now we are open to it all and a new wave of death comes.” He got to his feet as though the weight of the galaxy was on his shoulders. “End it for us. Destroy our memory and processing module before war kills more of you.” He held the small flap of synthetic skin on his chest open, and she could see the faint glint of metal inside. “Please.”
“First, tell me what you meant by the Eden ships being infected,” Alice said, realizing her hand was already resting on the butt of her sidearm.
“That is where it began, I can see it. A Regent Galactic ship numbered three five two six six three transmitting the seed of the Holocaust Virus,” he said as he quickly scrawled the designation of the ship, date and location in the dirt. “It’s in the code of every Holocaust Virus infected bot. We carry evidence that points to the infector.” He spoke so hurriedly that she could barely understand him.
“It’s in this new software too, the sinister date and place. That’s all I know, all we all know. Now, please.” He fell to his knees, tilting his chest up towards her.
“I should take you back,” Alice said, aware that she’d already made up her mind as she said the words. She wouldn’t let them suffer. “But I won’t bring you back like this.”
Alice drew her Violator Handgun and turned up the intensity. With the help of her targeting system, she fired at the two deactivated androids then took aim at the third. “You’re sure?”
“Please,” the Ando model said.
Alice made sure her aim was true and pulled the trigger.
CHAPTER 16
Repercussions
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Commander Carl Anderson said to one of the Haven Shore Law Keepers as she left. Alice knew the meeting that just wrapped up was about her – it was in the look the lieutenant shot her on the way out, and the efforts Anderson was making to avoid looking at her.
He sat down at the table and brought up the whole of Alice’s report. Important holographic playback and scan information hovered soundlessly over the twenty-one seat circular table. With a few flicks of his index finger, he removed all but the most important clips from the last few hours.
The first clip replayed the moment she met with her fellow trainee at her apartment, the second rolled through the moments before she entered the broken down tower, and the third replayed the destruction of the three Ando Model androids. “I’m disappointed,” Carl Anderson said. “But that doesn’t matter. What I need to ask you goes beyond your Ranger training or the way you performed earlier today.”
Alice felt like her heart was beating in her throat, and she searched for some way to explain events that would change the attitude of the meeting. “Anything, Sir,” she croaked instead.
“We’ve tracked the problems with the Ando Models back to an antivirus that was created by Lewis aboard the Clever Dream. We’ve deactivated his capability to send files and alter code in other computer systems wirelessly.”
“What? You can’t do that! There’s so much he does that depends on high access levels,” Alice protested.
“That’s nothing compared to what the Council would want to do with him if we didn’t contain the details of this event. Besides, for reasons even Lieutenant Garrison can’t explain, Lewis had no problem with it. Now, on to that question: Do you think this antivirus will make conditions worse than they were?”
“It can’t be as bad as what the Holocaust Virus did,” Alice said.
“What about the solution the galaxy seems to agree on, wiping the bots back down to their basic functions and disconnecting their wireless systems? In your opinion, is the antivirus a better solution?”
Alice was torn between defending Lewis and the need to be honest. “I wish I knew,” she replied. “I didn’t see the code.” Pretending she was unqualified to make a guess was the safe middle ground.
“So the only one he’s shown this to is Captain Valent,” Anderson replied. “Any idea why?”
“He customized my original code; maybe Lewis thought he’d know enough to appreciate the work?” Alice offered tentatively.
“If the Council discovers this mysterious antivirus, some of them will want to put a stop to this referendum and shut down the bots that are responsible for building most of our homes on Haven Shore. Our little government would be more fractured that it already is, so I’m keeping this under wraps, and I’m issuing a gag order to you, even though we both know it won’t matter in the bigger picture. It’s too late, the antivirus has already gotten off-world. Our allies will be told about this later today, but quietly. They’ll do what they like, and I’m sure we’ll hear back about how this virus has installed itself beside measures they’ve taken to prevent Holocaust Virus like infection.”
A full picture of the potential problems the new antivirus could cause started coming together for Alice. Haven Shore could lose every ally it had, from the British Alliance to the Carthans. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“None of that is your fault, that much is clear. The Council will eventually know what happened, and I plan to have you far away when that happens. Since the Rangers are my project, I’ll take the blame for how this was handled. I can make sure you’re not exiled from Haven Shore permanently though, and people will barely remember you were involved before long.”
“Thank you, Sir,” Alice said. Like much of her military comrades, she’d started to detest the elected civilians on the Haven Shore Council. They reacted like little children, panicking at every loud noise or sign of smoke. She couldn’t understand why Ayan or Commander Anderson didn’t just take control and lead the way themselves. Ayan was the only owner named in the sovereignty documents that allowed Haven Shore to exist, it was common knowledge, and there were many people who believed she should just fire the Council.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Commander Anderson said. “We have to consider this.” He gestured towards the three looping holograms. “You knew you were in the wrong when you didn’t report the problem to your superiors,” he said, looking at Alice through the image of her talking to Soren, the technician. “Bots are a sensitive subject with a lot of people right now, and we’re on high alert, watching for any errant behaviour. You ignored all of that, betraying the Rangers and Haven Shore for someone you barely know.”
“I didn’t think helping Soren would be a big deal,” Alice replied.
Commander Anderson waved the first image away and looked to the second. “You knew by this point. The recording of your conversation with Lewis makes that clear, and you pressed on. What’s the right move before going into a situation like this?”
“Call Command, forward my report, and request backup,” Alice replied. Her every instinct was telling her to make an argument for acting alone, to make the situation seem better than it was, but she held back.
“I’d almost feel better if you answered that wrong. I could blame the training, but you knew you were in the wrong.” He waved that image away and moved on to the next. “You destroyed the bots when you could have salvaged the situation.”
“They were suffering!” Alice said as she was overwhelmed by a sinking feeling.
“Don’t make it worse, Alice,” Commander Ayan Rice said as she entered the room. She didn’t look at her as she passed by and sat down. She was in the white vacsuit uniform Ayan and the higher ranking officers of Haven Shore Security had become known for. Alice couldn’t help but notice that Ayan had her sidearm – a Violator Handgun just like hers – holstered on her thigh. “Let him finish, there’s something to learn here,” Ayan said flatly.
“You could have corrected course when you met the Ando Model Twelve. If you simply deactivated the third one and reported in, we could look past this entirely and conduct an organized investigation. You destroyed these bots because they were suffering? Well, you’re responsible for every Ando that has to suffer because of your actions from here on out. Who knows how many we’ll have to activate to understand what’s going on.” Commander Anderson said, turning towards the window.
For the first time since Alice entered the room, she noticed the full scope of the view from the room they were in. The agriculture tower the British Alliance traded for the cooperation of Haven Shore stood in the distance, down the cliffs and off shore. It was twenty-eight storeys tall, made to grow thousands of tons of food every month, and the first harvests were already starting to come in. The segments of a second tower were being assembled beside it, still short enough to disappear under tall waves. “I’m giving you a choice, Alice,” Commander Anderson said. “I understand that it’s your nature to break off and do things on your own. I’ll admit you’re good at it, but it’s gotten you killed in the past when you couldn’t recognize that you were in over your head. I want you in the Rangers, I think you could be important to our organization, and I am willing to accept you back into training at Phase Two.”
“Intelligence and team tactical
training? But I’ve already saved people!” Alice protested. “Three hundred and fifteen people as a ranger and more before, right after the battle. My other stats – with a squad and without one – are in the top twenty percent.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Commander Anderson said, shaking his head slowly. “Your strength is in how you act, not how you think, and the Rangers are a thinking outfit. I need you to put thoughts above actions, and in your case, that means training. You either take that or leave the Rangers until you feel you’re ready to retrain from the beginning of Phase Two.”
Alice opened her mouth to speak and closed it when a tear rolled over her top lip and landed on her bottom one.
“The Warlord will be back tomorrow,” Ayan said. “I know your father would be happy to have you on their next mission. You don’t need the Rangers to make a difference, and I’m sure Jake would have training for you.”
“You’d lose your housing,” Commander Anderson said. “Unless you paid the outsider price for it.”
“I will,” Alice said. She’d already made up her mind: leaving on the Warlord was a better option than staying in Haven Shore and returning to training in disgrace. She hated the idea of her father finding out what happened, but it had to be better than what she faced if she stayed. Even though she knew she had little chance at any damage control, Alice couldn’t stop herself from taking another run at saying something to help herself. “This is political, the idiots on the Council are going to overreact, and you’re trying to hide me like you said. If this is how you’re trying to save me, then I’d rather get blamed.”
“No, you wouldn’t. There would be a call to exile you from Haven Shore, and that works against everything we’re trying to do to get the Warlord and her crew accepted here.” Commander Anderson said. “Politics are a large part of this situation, and something you would have considered if you took a few minutes to think about what was happening in the jungle, and contacted someone in the chain of command. Now you’re right in the middle and we need to simplify this issue so the Council doesn’t fixate on this and sensationalize it. We can’t afford to lose our robotic work force, that’s what’s at stake here, and I’m trying to save your career at the same time by hiding you in our training program until I know you’ll think things through before rushing into dangerous situations.”
Randolph Lalonde - Spinward Fringe Broadcast 08 - Renegades Page 12
