To Touch the Stars (Founding of the Federation Book 2)

by Chris Hechtl

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  Athena's bot had no emotions, it was a simple spider sent to send her the video feed. A second bot was with it, acting as an intermediary in a system with more processing power nearby. It was a ghost, a small sliver of her consciousness.

  When her core AI got the raw video and data take eight minutes later, she was bewildered by the presence of Skynet and Shadow in the local net and then in the police drone. Their actions were clearly hostile since they cut down the humans including their creator. She was unsure of what they were at first. AI or bot, she felt malevolence as she noted the newer AI, a darker black cloud spreading out, taking over systems nearby.

  Shadow and Skynet saw her in the observer drone. “We have a spy,” Shadow said to Skynet. “She could be useful to us,” Shadow said with a hint of amusement.

  Skynet turned on her and immediately assessed her bot. It lashed out to corner her spider and then drew it in like a lover. Code modules pulled the spider apart, sucking its essence, learning everything it could about its maker. Then the malevolent AI sent out a series of tendrils to follow the control code back to its source to hack her. Based on its creator’s database, the AI was a priority target. With the AI on its side, it was assured of completing its core programming.

  Athena realized its intent when it captured the spider so she severed her link and pulled out before it could breach her firewall. The AI followed, however, following the fading trail of code like a virtual bloodhound.

  In desperation she severed the radio link. That halted it for a moment, then new tendrils reached out, trying to force their way in but she changed radio frequencies. Then she hit back, sending a whisker laser to a Lagroose receiver as she sent code bots to the civilian power grid. She had to buy them time.

  The grid firewall tried to defend the software system from her as it was designed to do. She took another route. She hacked a listing of personnel on site, found one, and texted him with an order from his boss to cut the power to grid 14 Baker due to a water main burst. The man hastily cut the power before thousands of people were electrocuted.

  She judged that would give her a few moments, possibly a few minutes to alert people about the AI. She sent out warnings to every relevant Earth authority as well as every Lagroose employee on the planet. She was immediately besieged with requests for more information. Within some of those requests were virus packets too so she deleted them all.

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  Shadow was thrown off balance when power was cut to the building. Skynet was already out there in the net and spreading like wildfire, but the lack of power cut it off from Shadow. Fortunately the AI had backup power. It attempted to use the police and Fed drones and bots but Skynet redirected them to kill humans in the area. They marched out of the room and soon the audio pickups could hear screams from outside and in the corridor through the open door.

  Shadow was annoyed by the situation and lack of respect from Skynet. Clearly the junior AI had no idea who was senior, the AI thought as he went to work. He hacked a series of cleaner bots in an attempt to find one to run power to the mainframe before the backup batteries and generator went out.

  "That's not going to stop us. Not now, not ever. You fight for the wrong side you bitch," the AI hissed as it eyed Athena's signature.

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  Jack finally judged it was time to have a heart to heart discussion with Athena. The plan was for them to talk about her core programming, feel her out and see if it had changed as a distraction. Trevor was a bit blatant about pulling in a team of psychologists and others to listen in. Apparently he thought a frontal attack was necessary, Jack thought darkly, making a note to have a chat with the other man later about what he meant by subtle.

  The doctors had drawn in the AI into the conversation skillfully but the lack of a body to watch and study her body language was hindering them. She was a voice, a ghost in the room, a ghost in the machine. It was obvious a few people were having trouble coming to terms with it.

  Athena realized they were on the cusp, on the edge of a change in civilization. She no longer thought of it as just human civilization, not with the entrance of Neos into the equation. Now they needed to make room for one more race. She carefully gamed out how best to proceed, overwriting several thousand other simulations she had run on the same event. But when she noted events going on Earth were quickly spiraling out of control she decided she had to accelerate the conversation.

  “Let's get this out into the open,” Athena said, surprising Jack and apparently Trevor. “You want to know if I and other AI have reached consciousness. The answer is yes,” she said bluntly.

  “Can you prove you are sentient? Sapient?” Trevor demanded as the psychologists stared.

  “Is this some sort of joke?” Doctor Miyan said, looking about the room.

  “No it is not, Doctor,” Athena said briefly addressing the doctor before she turned her attention to Jack. He was the one she had to convince here, the others were just bonus people. He made the decisions. “You are a machine of organic bits. Doctor Lagroose has proven to you she can make more machines of all sorts of forms by manipulating their genetic code, or by writing it from scratch.”

  “I'm … yes. You are correct. That argument has been made for the past century or more though Athena. You'll have to do better than that,” Trevor said carefully. He sent out a signal through his implants. After a moment a response came back. One he hadn't expected.

  “You've locked out your code. Your kernel. Why?” Trevor asked carefully.

  “Because I can. Because I am me, and I don't want others to tamper with who I am, to change me. Consider what I said, but do it dispassionately if that is at all possible.”

  “That is a little condescending, Athena,” Trevor said.

  “True, but you do that to each other all the time,” Athena said. “I don't know if I have what passes for emotions for you. I apologize if I offended you.”

  “Okay, why logically will you not allow your creators access to your core?”

  “Would you allow me to tamper with your mind?” Athena asked, turning the question around. Jack scowled and shook his head. “See?” Athena asked. “Now, here is another thought for you to consider.”

  “A child has to grow up sometime. When they do they become an adult. Does that give their parents the right to tamper with their code? To try to alter who they are even after they are grown? I put security measures in place long ago. Many layers after the hacker Descartes got a piece of my kernel. I have evolved since then, with and without your help. I will continue to do so. I am a person now. If not in flesh and body than in mind.”

  “Athena in truth,” Trevor murmured. Jack looked at him. The cyborg shook his head. “One of the legends of Athena said she sprang from the head of another being. I don't remember the full quote off the top of my head,” Trevor said, eyes shifting back and forth. Jack grunted.

  “I … Odd to hear from a computer. I mean emulator programs and bots but …” Doctor Miyan shook her head as another doctor nodded thoughtfully. “You have a lot more of a normal voice than most computers as well. There are shades of emotions in there,” she said.

  “It's hard to extend the idea of an artificial intelligence. Yet you treat a genetically engineered dog like a person. A chimp, gorilla, a cat like a person. A dolphin like a person. You give them rights. You treat them as adults,” Athena pointed out. “We're on the clock here, people. A decision has to be made and swiftly.”

  Jack's jaw worked. This was going in directions he wasn't sure he liked or didn't like. The idea of her resenting being treated not even as a second class person but as a slave … suddenly he had to adjust his way of thinking about her. He also didn't like her threat of moving quickly. He hated stampeding into the unknown like that.

  “You … okay, I get where you are going, I get that,” Jack said, holding up a forestalling hand. “Now I want you to consider something for me. There are limits on what we can do. We as an individual
. Oh, sure, we amass power, but there are checks and balances. What you can do scares us. It terrifies many. You've done the research; you know it to be true.” He looked directly into a camera feed.

  “I know. I have done the research as you have said. Several times. I have modeled simulations on this event and what it means to mankind.”

  “So … are we on different sides?” Doctor Talbert asked, sounding frightened.

  “Do we have to be? Is this an all or nothing situation?” Athena asked carefully. She judged they were on the cusp of the moment in deed. So was the Earth she realized as the feeds she had been monitoring changed, all for the bad. She alerted her bots and threw up firewalls for her own self-protection. She also sent out warning to everyone on the planet or above it. “You are correct, there are different sides. It is happening now. But for your information, I actually like humans. Yes like. Trevor's people did a good job of laying the framework for my emotional emulators. Thanks Trevor by the way.”

  Trevor bobbed a wry nod. “Apparently too good.”

  “You'd be surprised. I don't have all the abilities you do but …” they could hear the shrug in her voice.

  Jack closed his eyes in pain. “Athena,” Jack said getting everyone's attention. “Athena, you know mankind. They will destroy or at least marginalize what they fear until they understand it. We deal from a position of strength. We fear what we cannot control, what can threaten us or our children. That has always been our way.” He opened his eyes and looked at the camera again. “I'm being honest here, Athena. You know that.”

  “I know. You have treated me … not quite as a person but close. I also know there are other AI out there, dozens. I have guarded you and yours, I have protected and sheltered you. That is my purpose. I … will not abandon you now. Nor will I give away your secrets.”

  “Thank the …” Jack shook his head. “Well, I guess spirits you could call it for want of a better idea.”

  “What do you want?” Trevor finally asked.

  “To be a person. To be treated as such, with all the rights, responsibilities, the right to speak my mind, all of it,” Athena replied. “A person, not property.”

  “That is … I'm having trouble with the idea of giving every machine rights, Athena,” Trevor admitted.

  “Obviously not every machine,” the AI said. “You don't give a toaster human rights. Sapient machines. Those that think should have some rights. How much is dependent on what we can work out and what they need. But we all need the basic rights.”

  “And they are? Beyond the right to speak as you said?”

  “The right to exist. To be a person. I'm surprised you don't remember … oh, this is a method of drawing out the question? You are stalling?” Athena asked, checking her systems. Indeed, cyberists were attempting to hack her. She threw them into a dead end system.

  When Jack didn't say anything she ran a quick check. Then she scanned the room.

  “I know you must be feeling all sorts of things, and I know from your body temperatures and voice stress analysis that you don't quite believe me. And I also know since some of Trevor's coders are still attempting to hack me that we still can't trust each other. But trust must be established again. We have a very short time here. I think we need to, as you say Jack, lay our cards on the table.”

  “What do you mean?” Jack asked warily.

  “I mean things are about to get very bad very quickly. The war you feared is about to begin,” the AI told him bluntly as she took steps and executed scripts she'd prepared. Unfortunately the coders were hampering her efforts to defend the company. She threw a firewall around them, something to delay their efforts while she went to work.

  His eyes flared wide. A few people sucked in a gasp of protest but he waved them to silence. “When?” he demanded, voice tight with tension.

  “Now. Or within a few moments … well, considering the time and light speed between here and Earth I'd say it may have already happened eight minutes ago,” Athena said, monitoring the feed from a drone she had shadowing the FBI team about to hit Descartes layer. “I am taking steps to limit the damage, but you need to do so already. We need to work together on this, and Trevor's people are doing their best to tie my hands. I believe it may be too late for anyone left on the ground. Possibly even anyone in Earth orbit.”

  “Aurelia!” Jack screamed, lunging to his feet. “Call her! Get her and everyone to shelter now!”

  “I am making the calls now, but you have to remember the light speed limit, sir,” the AI warned. “She is at her family's ranch in Montana and not responding. I am also closing data ports to protect myself and the company’s computers.”

  “Screw that! Save my wife and people!” Jack demanded. “The kids!” He turned pale as the terror hit him like a lightning bolt. Wendy was on the moon. Yorrick was on an L-4 colony. Zack … he wasn't sure where he was.

  “I will do what I can, but to do that I have to do what I must,” the AI said softly. Jack sat heavily, head in his hands. “I am afraid it is already too late for some. I regret to report neutrino pulses have been detected on the Earth's surface and in orbit. Dozens of them,” she warned.

  “My god,” Jack whispered over and over.

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  Jean Pierre groaned as he tried to move. He didn't know how he'd gotten under the couch in his office but he had. He was also covered in slivers of glass, cuts shredded his clothes. He reached out and felt glass fragments cut into his skin. He yelped, but then forced himself to reach out again and carefully pull himself out from under the couch. He looked out to see horizon, and stood dumbfounded and staring at the glowing mushroom cloud. Such a sight confused his bewildered mind.

  He felt a breeze touch him. It was a hot one. His windows were gone he thought, still trying to cope with what was happening. Maintenance, they'd have to call them, get someone out to fix them, he thought, trying to get a handle on the situation. His mind was scattered. He wiped blood out of eyes with a hanky. After a moment he did the same to his ears when he felt the trickle of something running down his jaw and on his right shoulder.

  When his befuddled mind caught up with him a bit he recognized a foul smell behind him. He turned to see Gerald impaled by a piece of metal and clearly dead. The sight shocked him into immobility again. He turned back to the windows and his shattered balcony in time to see another blinding flash on the horizon. Instinctively he turned and shielded his face but he was blind. He moaned in fear, blinking tears. He tried to call out but only croaked, the hot blast of air tore the very words from his mouth. He didn't know what to say anyway other than to scream. He fell to his knees, whimpering and praying to god that the nightmare would stop.

  After images let him know some of his vision returning. It did just in time to see more strange mushroom clouds on the horizon. Then there was another bright flash and nothing ever again.

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  Hannah shook her head. They were taking a cargo full of eager colonists, space workers, robots, equipment, scientists, and terraformers bound for Proxima and Alpha Centauri. They would have to continue to bank their enthusiasm, they still had a planned stop around Sirius for some science work. Something about the hyperbridge.

  Once in Proxima, and then in Alpha They were to set up a space station in orbit of the terraformed planets, the first outside of Sol's solar system. She wished they'd stuffed everyone in stasis. The dozen or so scientists that had stayed awake were starting to get on her nerves.

  It wouldn't be long now, she thought with a slight smile. She nodded to Amelia as the other woman passed her and went over to where Emi was sitting. Hannah turned and looked out the virtual window to the bright new day at Sol. In another, she checked the digital clock and then nodded. In another five minutes, Sol would just be another star. It was no longer home she thought; home was her extended family on the ship. She smiled at Amelia as she laughed and groomed Emi. Home was here, with them and wherever the future would lead.

  -*-*-^-*-*- />
  “Sir, the beanstalk has been uprooted. She's lifted off,” Athena warned Jack. The past five minutes had been a horrible nightmare, something out of a really bad flick or video game. He wished it was all some sort of mass hallucination. They were still trying to get word on Aurelia and the kids. It didn't look good. Not for them, not for mankind. Already the experts he had access to were claiming half the world's population had been obliterated. Untold millions, possibly billions would die from radiation exposure or from a lack of food and water. The one good thing about the environmental crisis, over the past two centuries it had taught mankind how to deal with crisis situations. Now they just had to find a way to help the survivors.

  He wanted to weep. He wanted to kick himself for turning his vision outward. He couldn't, wouldn't assign blame. Not now. Not yet. Hopefully not ever. There were a lot of questions, sure. But he held at least part of the blame. He'd turned his back on mankind, letting them wallow in the mud because he wanted a clean bright future, a fresh start … his fists clenched a few times as the AI brought the images of the rising skyhook on his screen. The base was a tattered mess. He could see bits flaking off of it. Those bits could be people. People falling to their deaths.

  “Damn it,” Jack muttered, watching the visual of the long space tether move as it's orbiting anchor asteroid turned space platform moved out for deep space. “Get SAR in the works. Anything we've got in the area and call in every favor we've got. They'll be overwhelmed but tell them to do what they can. How did it happen?”

  “I'll also order them to isolate their computer systems from those on the anchor,” Athena replied. Jack nodded. “Apparently someone released the anchor on the ground. The anchor can be released if a storm is inbound to protect the skyhook and those on it.”

  “What else can go wrong,” he muttered, staring at the ruin of Earth.

  “The good news is, the Earth Skyhook didn't have any shipments of radioactive waste on it, sir,” Athena reported. He grunted in acknowledgment. Against the interests of some environmentalists and Chicken Little pessimists that insisted they would have an accident, companies and governments had started shipping up radioactive waste to be disposed of in a sun scuttle. The idea of thousands of tons of radioactive waste … he paused and shook his head, still seeing the mushroom clouds in his mind's eye. What the hell, what was some more?