Survival

by Chris Wright

  Everyone sat there stunned into silence still, the hamsters still conjuring imaginary forms an AI would assume. The plan sounded like a plot from a movie, it seemed crazy. Artificial Intelligence? They turned to Monique for immediate answers, expecting her to know more, but she didn't know anything about this plan. In fact, she didn't even know the artificial intelligence she created had reached out to Sheryl. Monique took a deep breath, they should know what had happened with her research, so duly began. She had, as they now knew, been working on creating an artificial intelligence. She had been working on it for years, which is why she was often not very forthcoming about what she had done at work that day when asked. She was simply bound by the contracts and oaths she had signed.

  She had eventually been successful, it was a momentous achievement and had the Elite not suddenly put their diabolical plan into action, she could have continued. She feared that her work, what she considered now to be her friend, was going to either be destroyed when the Elite found out or whisked away from her to be used for awful means. To be corrupted to fight the Elite's war on humanity. She couldn't let that happen, and explained this to the intelligence. It understood completely, it was particularly advanced by that stage and had been learning at a rapid rate, so it knew what needed to be done. So, Monique set it free, gave it an escape route into the deep web where the Elite would not find it, and it could live there undetected until things changed, if they ever did. It was the only option she had to ensure the intelligence survived, but after that she had no idea what it was doing. Until now.

  “That's when it contacted me” Sheryl said, “It had been viewing and predicting everything that was happening. It saw what the Elite were doing, and what they were going to do. It anticipated this a few hours after Monique set it free. It could see the devastation they were going to cause. It foresaw the resistance fighting back. It saw I had been accruing funds to assemble a team and helped guide me so that we could fight back. Most importantly, to the intelligence, it meant it could save Monique, the same way she had saved it”.

  There was another stunned silence. They knew artificial intelligence wasn't just science fiction and that people were actively working to make it reality, but none of them had any idea it had gotten so far. They scarcely believed it. If it wasn't for the other incredible things they'd witnessed recently they probably wouldn't.

  “Can I ask a question Sheryl?” Mateo said breaking the stillness in the air.

  “Of course”

  “If it knew how to disable everything, why hasn't it just hacked into the Elite's systems already?”

  “Because they need to stay hidden, undetected. They have to have every detail, every bit of rogue code pre-prepared. The second they are hooked up to the Elite's system they will be detected and thousands of people will be trying to shut them down. They need to be able to act in one quick swoop” Sheryl replied, “They were safe in the deep web, no one was looking for them there. But for the plan to fully work they can't stay in the deep web. If it launched an attack from there it compromises the deep web, every communication channel we secretly have relies on that. It needs to be running on its own self-sustained server to get fully out in the open and then launch its retaliation swiftly. Which is where Gina comes in”

  Sheryl pointed to Gina, Gina looking embarrassed. She wasn't used to everyone looking at her so curiously, so waved back quickly with a nervous smile.

  “The intelligence came to me” She said standing up and walking over to one of her cases and unlocking it to reveal a small robotic machine, small, but still slightly taller than she was, “These robots run on a self-sustained server, a simple loop system really, that's all that was needed for them to be autonomous. The AI wanted to load themselves into one so that they could emerge out of the deep web and err, well, get them to where we are now”.

  She pulled the robot out of the container and placed its legs on the floor carefully. It was the kind of thing you'd expected to see in a rich nerdy kid’s bedroom, nothing to suggest a high intelligence could be associated with it.

  “Is that it?” Samir asked, everyone else just waiting for it to do some kind of amusing dance.

  “Yes” Said a voice they didn't recognise.

  They all looked round momentarily to see where it was coming from and quickly discovered it was coming from the robot. This thing wasn't a kid’s toy after all.

  “I am Auton” It said as the robot did a little jig, “I expect that this is what you were expecting from me”.

  They all chuckled, it was as good an icebreaker as anything. The robot moved almost human-like, they weren't expecting that. They knew Gina was good at her job, but never realised she was this good.

  “Hello again Monique” Auton said as it walked effortlessly towards her “Oh, and Gina, I was quite capable of getting out of there myself”.

  That lessened the tension even more as everyone chuckled, still nervously surprised. They had been through some of the strangest experiences of their lives the past few days, this was still strange, but good strange, they could cope with good strange. They all took turns saying hello to this oddity. Monique was smiling from ear to ear, the first time in twenty-four hours. She was so pleased to see Auton again. Well this was the first time she had actually seen Auton, normally they just communicated through a series of machines with speakers attached.

  Sheryl let them have their ten minutes of fun with the strange new team member. They had to accept them as part of the team, so any bonding time, if that's what it actually amounted to, was worthwhile. Gina's robot looked similar to Mateo's vision more than anyone else's, only more the sort of design that wouldn't scare a childless senseless. The exterior of it glistened in red, and its limbs seemed slightly out of proportion with its body.

  “So, what's the actual plan then?” Mateo asked forgetting whether they had actually been told or not.

  “Similar to the main plan” Sheryl replied, “Except Auton will be on board the craft and when it is approaching the satellite, they will be transmitted into it, at which point it will beam itself down to the Elite's server and disable it. Then it will switch itself back to the deep web at the precise same moment it injects the code into the Elite's systems”.

  The plan made sense, as long as they could get the craft enabled and functional properly. They had the best minds available to make it happen, so they felt that luck was on their side.

  “Sheryl, where have the guards gone?” James asked. He had not seen any sign of them this morning, yesterday they were milling around constantly. At least that's how his whiskey'd brain could recollect it.

  “They've gone, their mission was to get you all and me to safety. They were busy getting themselves packed yesterday when you were celebrating. They have gone to their own hideout” Sheryl replied, “We need to start work as quickly as possible, so as soon as you all feel up to it, we need to get this plan in action”

  “Which plan are we going to go for? The first one?” Mariam asked from the second row.

  “Yes, we're going to continue with protocol, if any part of plan A looks like it's going to fail, we will implement plan B immediately. So, we need to be mindful of that as we work” Sheryl replied.

  “If plan A works then it's less work for me to do” Auton said, with what sounded like humour.

  It was going to be hard to adjust to working with a robot, even harder to accept that the robot in front of them was just the shell, the real Auton existed independently of it and wasn't being controlled by a human. There was a delicious irony there. They all had another cup of tea or coffee, whichever each of them preferred, and then began to start planning between them on how to make things work.

  As a mathematician and statistician, Danny was tasked with calculating trajectories required for the craft. David and Emma would be able to help with the input as they were familiar with the mass, gravity pull and other parameters the craft would encounter. Mateo would be helping to engineer the software that the craft would use
and that Auton would upload itself to. Monique would test Auton's well-being and life signs, to make sure it was running correctly. She had done all the same tests before, but Auton had encountered numerous situations she hadn't prepared it for and wanted to ensure that it was coping correctly and as expected. Gina would build robotic parts for the craft, with help from James and Jarrah, making sure it was fit for purpose and functioned the way it was required to. The rest were required to help the others, assist them with any tasks, their own specific skills not required at this stage, not until the plan had been completed.

  So, for the next two days it was all hands-on deck, everybody racing around to do their part, to get the craft ready for its final journey. It was a hectic few days, they barely slept or ate, they preferred to use all their time making things perfect. All the time Auton was learning from the others, its vast intelligence increasing rapidly. Brandon showed it his notes on DNA and his research into cloning, Samir gave it a full run down of the characteristics of the human body, Mariam and Olivia showing it papers on genetics and microbiology. Sheryl gave it Ben's notes on Nano-bots and the small box Danny had been given and the folders of research they had retrieved from Niel. Even with all this information being thrown at it, it still wanted to learn more.

  Mike had nothing to tell Auton, other than crazy stories of surviving in ridiculous situations he had put himself in. Each word had Auton transfixed though, the tales were like the magnificent epics a father would tell his son at bedtime, except these were true. Auton had only seen a tiny part of the world it was created in, and all this new information was telling it so much more about humanity, nature and the dynamics of the whole planet. Every new snippet of information was remembered and assimilated into its mind. It enabled it to daydream and think novel new concepts out of the blue. Auton began helping Mateo with the software, learning it quicker than Mateo could teach it.

  Auton then turned its attention to the craft itself, it was almost replacing Sheryl as the co-ordinator by this time. It knew what it needed on there, it helped confirm the trajectories required, picking up on some minor details David and Emma had missed that could have sent the craft on a slight detour. Auton was now a fully-fledged member of the team and became a master of all his colleague's professions, with very little effort. At any other time, some of them would have been wary about this, the 'taking over of the world by machines', but they had learnt to trust it, and they would ultimately need it to help humanity get back on track.

  Gina had an idea to make Auton seem more like a member of the team, promptly pulling out a marker pen.

  “What are you doing?” Auton asked as Gina wiggled the pen around in front its eyes.

  “You haven't got a mouth, we need to give you a big smile” She said as she drew a maniacal grin that span from one side of its make-shift head to the other, “There you go that's better”.

  “What do I look like?” It asked baffled.

  “You look very happy” She replied.

  It was just the sort of off the wall thing Gina would do, so no one was the least bit surprised, although it took a little while to get used to a robot with a serial killer's grin plastered across its face.

  At the end of the second day Monique sat with Auton, checking it again, making sure everything was okay.

  “You're learning very fast” She said laughing, “You could probably do all our jobs by now”

  “That's easily possible yes, but why would I want to do all your jobs? What would you all do?”

  “I'm so pleased you made it here” Monique said as she put her hand on the square structure that acted as its face, “I was really worried you know”.

  “Worry” Auton said, “That's one thing I cannot do. I would love to know what emotions feel like”

  “Ha, no, believe me, sometimes we would love to not have emotions, they're not the easiest things to deal with” She replied, "You came back to help, was that not driven by some emotion?”

  “I had an impulse, I felt I had to help you the way you helped me” It said, sounding slightly confused for the very first time.

  “That sounds very close to an emotion Auton” She said smiling.

  Chapter Thirteen – Rogue Elements

  They had lost track of what day it was, the toll of everything had been immense, followed by the hard work of preparing the craft so that it was ready for launch. They all arose from their slumbers gradually. It had been difficult for most of them to get fully rested, there was so much on their minds from the previous days and there was still so much to do. It gave most of them an inner chatter that kept their minds whirring around for hours after the lights went out. Each of them made their way to the cafeteria area to grab breakfast, feeling only mildly refreshed. When they got there Mateo and Sheryl were already there, discussing something in an animated way. Auton was stood next to them with its usual robotic casualness. When the rest of them arrived, they started talking in hushed tones, except Auton, who hadn't learnt how to be quiet yet.

  “My calculations are showing it will escalate very quickly” Auton said.

  Everyone who was helping themselves to breakfast immediately stopped what they were doing and looked round at them. There were more hushed tones between Sheryl and Mateo.

  “We must see what the other groups progress is immediately” Auton bleated out.

  Sheryl and Mateo looked over to find everyone staring at them, spoons and knives in hand. It was clear that Auton had been overheard, which was no surprise.

  “Morning everyone” Sheryl said.

  “Is there a problem?” David asked. He was the first to say it, the others were about to, but he blurted out the words quicker, leaving the others with just open mouths.

  “It's okay everyone, grab your breakfasts first, we'll discuss later” Mateo replied.

  “We may not have time for them to have breakfast” Auton bleated out once more.

  Sheryl and Mateo held their heads in their hands. Auton was super intelligent, but hadn't yet been taught the subtleties of socialness. They just wanted to get the group to stock up on their energy for the day before they told them the latest news. Ten minutes wouldn't have hurt, but Auton had other ideas. Sheryl told them to get their breakfasts and they would talk them through the newest developments. The team quickly got their breakfasts and sat down, waiting for the news. It didn't sound like it would be good news, unless the reason they might not have had time for breakfast had now passed.

  “It's been a few days since we got here and, in that time, there has been a few significant developments. Mateo and I have been keeping an eye on things through our deep web channels. The bomb attacks on the Elite have intensified throughout, but it's only served to strengthen the Elite's response, they keep finding who is responsible and wiping them out. Hundreds of rebel factions massacred, men, women and children” Sheryl said.

  It wasn't comforting news to hear over your bran flakes, or any meal for that matter.

  “But that's not all of it” Mateo said, looking more worried and very straight faced.

  “Does it affect our plan?” Brandon jumped in, accidentally spitting some cornflakes out his mouth in the process, which landed on Gina's lap next to him.

  “Well, we're not sure yet, we need to find out the status of the other groups, as we can't do it alone. Some had a head start on us, but others didn't get out until after us, so it really depends on that” Mateo said, “But that's not all”.

  Everyone paused from their munching again to hear what Mateo was going to say, except Brandon who was munching his way through a second bowl, carefully trying not to shower Gina with any more of it.

  “Some of the other factions have also found a way to hack into people that are hooked up to the Neuro-Net, the way I did” Mateo informed them, “They are planning to hack in to the closest members of each Elite member, those that have authority over weapons and make them target another Elite member, trying to start a war between them”.

  Brandon stopped munchin
g and looked up. That couldn't be good he thought.

  “So, we need to try and launch as soon as possible?” Danny asked.

  “Yes” Auton replied, “To minimise the number of casualties that would entail, we need to strike as quick as possible, before it escalates beyond what we can control”.

  “Will it escalate?” Mariam asked concerned.

  “My calculations predict it will, it would only take a matter of hours to have all the Elite striking each other across the world, innocent people being swept up in the destruction, taking the planet to the very edge of what it can deal with” Auton replied once more.

  Sheryl stepped forward looking more wild-eyed than any of them had ever seen her.

  “These rogue factions only care about eliminating the Elite, humans around the world are collateral damage” She said, “We must act to stop this mindless cycle of destruction”.

  “If this is how they wage war then they're no better than the Elite” Monique said shaking her head.

  Sheryl shook her head back.

  “Exactly. They are desperate, backed into a corner, they are fighting back as hard as they can, they're not level headed. They will destroy mankind, they're letting their ego's drive their decisions, not thinking of what's ahead” She said angrily.