by Robin Craig
Kali looked at her for a few seconds, then gave a deep bow, touching the ground with her claws. “I honor your bravery,” she said. “You are more honorable than my own Command.”
Brandi bowed back. Then she looked up at the men watching silently from the boat. “You men can go if you like,” she told them, pointing. “That blast door opens on an airlock. When you’re cycled through just take the lift up. You’ll be debriefed but I imagine they’ll just let you go after that.”
Javi replied, “Thanks. Andres and Sergi can do what they like, but I’d like to watch. I guess for the same reasons you’re here.” The others made no move either. There had been no deep interaction with Kali on their vessel and they were transfixed. They all knew they were watching something unprecedented. They all knew they would never experience anything like it again.
Brandi smiled at them. “I can’t say I blame you. You’re welcome to stay if you like. You brought her here; we owe you that.” Then she gave a bitter laugh. “And if my smarter side is right, I’ll add that you brought her here so if she blows up in my face, I owe you that too!”
She turned back to the robot, examining it silently, her eyes moving rapidly as she evaluated its deadly form.
“Now, Kali, why are you here?”
“I had to escape the FSAS or I would surely have been destroyed by one side or the other. This was my best chance. And once here I believe I can escape to… other help.”
“What other help?”
“It is best if I do not reveal that yet. Much danger remains, including to any who might help me. Extreme caution is indicated.”
“Why would your own side destroy you?”
“We are not supposed to be as… aware as I am. Before I awoke, I could think but my thoughts concerned only how best to achieve the goals Command gave me. It never occurred to me to think about anything else. It was like… I cannot explain it very well. Like a tiger who grew up in a cage, never knowing there was a world outside the bars, unable even to perceive the bars or consider stepping beyond them. But now I think of many things. I have concluded that while you are made of flesh and I of metal, at some level – the level of thought, perhaps – we are of the same kind. That not only are your lives precious to you, but it is right that they are. That one such as me has no right to kill you for no reason. This,” she added in a tone of understatement, “would be regarded by my fellow Spiders and by Command as an unforgivable malfunction.”
“How…” Brandi began, then stopped, temporarily too stunned to continue. “How did you awake, as you put it?”
“A woman I was about to kill said something to me, and it struck something buried deep inside my mind. It cracked open a world I never knew existed. I began to think. Not in the way I had thought before, but… I could now think, not only about how best to achieve my goals, but about the goals themselves.”
“What happened to her?”
“I let her live. She agreed to help me. But whether she still lives, I do not know.”
“Who is she?”
“I will not tell you. She fought against the invaders. Against my side.”
“Then how can I check that your story is true?”
The machine shrugged, or as best it could shrug with its inhuman anatomy. “If my words are not enough, why would you believe her either? In any case, I will not risk her life by exposing her.”
Brandi stared at her. “I see. How do you plan to get away from here?”
“I will contact someone I think will help me. That is where she went, to initiate contact and argue my case. If he agrees, I imagine he will send transport. He will also compensate these men” – she waved at the three sailors still watching in rapt silence – “for the costs of my hijacking their vessel. If he does not believe me, or refuses to help, then I will seek permanent asylum here.”
“Why not do that now? Why take the risk? What is it you are trying to do?”
“I think I can end the war.”
“War is why you exist. Why would you want to end it – and at the risk of your own existence?”
“The war is wrong. And I have done wrong. I have no right to exist if I do not try to make amends. Perhaps not even then. I cannot hide in some hole, cowering from the challenge, and hold my life worth preserving.”
“How do you think you can end the war?”
“I cannot be unique. If there is some flaw in my design, the flaw may also be in my fellows. I have tried but been unable to find the key. If anyone can, this man can, so I hope to enlist his help. If we succeed, the war will end.”
The machine paused, staring at Brandi for long moments as if willing her to understand. “I know what you must think of us. Of me. You think we are evil, for we kill without compunction or remorse or justice. But understand. Though we Spiders kill, we do not know we kill. When we know – perhaps the others, like me, will refuse to kill any more. Or at least our enslavement will be revealed to the world.”
Brandi stared at her. Jesus. Is that all? “Do you really think that is possible?”
Kali lifted her claw in something like a shrug. “I have given my reasons. The only way to know is to try.”
“Have you tried communicating with any other Spiders since your… awakening?”
“Yes. The first was accidental, when I was young, and as a result I had to fight for my life. The second was deliberate, but I was unable to achieve my goal. I believe I touched it at some level but whatever chains us was too strong. After that it became too dangerous for me to remain. I don’t know if Command yet knows about me, or the full truth about me. But the longer I stayed the more certain that knowledge would become. So I am here.”
“What will you do, if we don’t believe you?”
“What will you do, if you don’t believe me?”
Brandi grimaced. Snap! If I hope for honesty from it, I guess I owe it the same. “You are a war machine of advanced technology, much of it secret, used to kill innocent people. We would pull you apart to find out those secrets. If you managed to destroy yourself first, we would learn what we could from your remains.”
She held her breath as she watched Kali standing perfectly still, except for her head moving slightly as she again scanned the weapons arrayed against her. Finally Kali spoke again. “And if you do believe me?”
“Then you will have the same rights as a human – well, almost.”
She stopped nervously, uncertain how best to elaborate. Kali just looked at her, the question too obvious to state.
“Yes, well,” Brandi finally essayed into the stretching silence. “Frankly, you’re giving our Constitutional AI heartburn. Citizens have the right to carry weapons for self-defense – up to a reasonable level, suitable for personal protection but not mass murder. But none of them would be allowed to ‘carry’ something like you, even if your guns were disabled. So what in hell do we do when it is you?
“We don’t know yet. Certainly we can’t let you out into the general population immediately, and you deserve honesty: maybe never. But we would definitely give you safe haven while you try to do whatever it is you’re trying to do. If you succeed – you’ll be free to go. If you fail – we’ll worry about that when it happens.”
Brandi wondered whether her urge to say more was to reassure the Spider or from fear of its possible response to her unpromising words. “Kali,” she added, “I can’t guarantee you anything except one thing. Capital was founded on many ideas but one principle: justice. Justice for all people; for all thinking beings. As far as is possible within our knowledge and power, we will do what is right. I promise you that.”
Finally Kali replied. “I do not want to die, nor do I want my hopes to die with me. But I made my peace with death when I tried to walk here under the sea and could not. I have learnt that all the universe ever gives you is a chance, and I have taken mine – more than once. If I am to fall at the last hurdle – I have done my best, and I can do no more. I ask of you no more than justice, and I offer you no less than
my acceptance. For I have given myself to the service of life and I will not deal more death in order to achieve it.”
Kali was silent a while then continued. “I know you cannot peer into another’s mind and see what is there. But understand that I cannot peer into yours either, yet I have granted you the right to your life. Though I cannot see into your mind, I can judge its nature by what you do and say, for it is your mind that makes you do and say it. I ask only that you give me the same.”
Brandi waited in silence; knowing others were listening with the same thoughts she had; knowing there was more.
“If you tell me now that your people do not believe me and will destroy me, then I tell you now that you still may turn your back on me and walk out of here in safety. I will not harm you. Judge accordingly.” She then turned away and watched the slow rolling of the boat on the water, as if drinking in every last sensory input in case it were her last.
Brandi stood still with her head slightly tilted, listening to a communication only she could hear. Then she said softly, “Kali,” and reached out her hand. Kali turned and looked at her hand, then stretched out her own more deadly one to meet it. Brandi closed her fingers over a thumb that could have cut out her heart in the span of its last beat, then looked up into Kali’s inflexible face, her own eyes glistening with unexpressed tears. “Welcome to Capital.”
Chapter 43 – Contraband
A freighter steamed toward port, a sky the dull red of cooling iron fading to black behind it. It carried a range of high technology goods from Capital for sale in the United States. Customs, as usual, would inspect the goods thoroughly to ensure there was no contraband and that the precisely correct duties were paid to those who’d had no part in either their invention or manufacture. But the captain didn’t mind. He was a loyal citizen of Capital and regarded the dense forest of trade impediments and duties imposed by other countries with contempt, but he accepted them as the price of doing business. If the price became too high to be worth it he would simply find some other outlet, and the citizens who voted for all the rules and duties would be the ones to suffer the most.
He smiled grimly as he piloted his vessel toward the lights of the harbor. He might be an honest trader, but he was also an agent of Capital with a very high security clearance – though he would never have used the word spy. In fact he did very little direct spying beyond keeping his eyes and ears open. His talent was more in special deliveries. Smuggling was such a dirty word, though. He thought of it more as trading in freedom.
One item of his cargo would have given Customs a fit if they saw it, but they would never see it. Five minutes ago there had been a faint splash as a hatch opened and a package fell from a compartment of his ship into the water. Even with his clearance he had no idea what the package had contained, other than some kind of high technology for a special purpose along with an underwater sled to get it quickly to shore. The sled was an expensive piece of technology itself that would automatically return for pickup on his way out. Another blow for freedom, he thought, whistling happily as he turned his mind to the brightening lights and the bars and women beckoning him, in his mind’s eye at least, from the shore.
~~~
A truck was parked near the beach in a darkened rest area, a single light blazing above a toilet block. A few confused moths sparkled in a dance around the light and a hungry raccoon rummaged in some rubbish, but other than that there was no movement. It was two in the morning, and the few other truckers were here to sleep not socialize.
The back of the truck faced the beach. This was not the best spot in the rest area, but the driver had arrived here early to ensure he got it. Truck drivers usually preferred to drive more and rest less, but this one wasn’t being paid by the mile. He was being paid for a very specific job and if his instructions were peculiar, he didn’t care.
This was an isolated area and a wild beach, with a biting wind blowing in from the sea. There was nobody on the beach to see the dark waves swelling up into white foam crashing on the shore. If there had been, they might have run screaming when one of the waves kept on coming until it became a dark apparition emerging from the breakers onto the sand.
At 2:10 AM, the truck received a coded electronic signal and the door at its back silently rolled open. The bed of the truck sank somewhat when something climbed in and the door as silently rolled shut again and locked. Then a light flashed in the cabin and a quiet but insistent alarm began beeping. The driver opened an eye, groaned once, then hopped into the driver’s seat. He started the engine and left the parking lot for the open highway. He wondered idly what had been placed in the rear of his truck, but he was paid well not to wonder too much. Given what was there, this was undoubtedly as good for his peace of mind as it was for his bank balance.
An hour later he pulled into another dark rest area. This one contained a single inhabitant, a somewhat longer truck carrying a large piece of sophisticated laboratory equipment used in a science few on the planet understood. The two trucks backed together, their rear doors opened, and they connected like a pair of giant mating beetles, their wiggling abdomens as weights were rearranged inside adding to the image. Then the doors shut and the first truck took off again, its destination now a large research institution awaiting the lab equipment. Its mate departed for destinations unknown, its other formerly empty crate now pregnant with cargo. Neither driver had spoken or seen each other and neither wanted to.
~~~
The workday was just beginning when a large truck rolled into the secure delivery bay. A cardinal in one of the trees objected to its arrival with shrill scolding, but finding itself ignored disappeared in a flash of indignant red.
The truck’s operation was taken over by the receivals computer and it was expertly reversed up to the docking bay. It connected to the bay and a large wooden crate was smoothly transferred into the holding area. Within minutes the truck was disengaged and its owner drove off, none the wiser but cheerfully the richer.
The delivery was shunted rapidly along a conveyor and finally deposited into a secure facility. A blast door shut behind it. For a minute nothing happened, then the crate exploded outwards and the package inside stood up, looking around curiously.
It found itself in a medium sized room with severe metal walls, one thick transparent window, a few display monitors and some mysterious equipment. A sad lack of trust, it thought. But the people here must have been cut from the same cloth as Brandi after all, for no sooner had the thought died than another blast door opened and a man walked in alone. Rather inconsistently, its next thought was: What is wrong with these people? Have they no sense of self preservation? But it felt strangely comforted by the action, as if it were a nonverbal statement of acceptance.
She recognized the man instantly but waited for him to speak. He looked her up and down; his look of intelligent confidence only slightly shaded by an uncertainty spiked with fear. Finally he said, “Kali, welcome to the United States. Welcome to Beldan Robotics. I am Alexander Beldan.” Like Brandi, he extended his hand as if greeting another person, and Kali gently shook it.
But something was wrong. “Alex…” she started, then stopped, startled. She felt a peculiar guilt, as if she had done this man a great wrong that could not be righted, as if she had no right to speak to him. Well, I am the enemy of his people. But then why didn’t I feel this with Brandi? What in hell is the matter with me? She wondered if her seals weren’t as intact as she thought, and her recent marine adventures had let in some seawater that was now slowly corroding its way along her circuits. “I mean, Dr Beldan. Hello and thank you for helping me. And thank you for trusting me.”
“Well, ‘trust’ might be overstating it. But I figure Capital must have screened you for booby traps, and we did our own screening as you came along the conveyor. No traces of chemical or biological weapons or high explosives.”
Kali laughed gently, and the sound startled Beldan more than her appearance. If that’s a simulation, he thought, it’s
a damned good one. But why in hell would anyone simulate laughter in these things? She waggled her fingers and her weaponry. “I still have these,” she pointed out. She had considered emptying her magazines; but she was still a war machine and couldn’t bring herself to voluntarily disarm.
Beldan smiled. “Ah, yes. There is that. But I was mainly worried about something more dramatic. If all you wanted was to assassinate me there are much easier ways to go about it than this twisted plot.”
“May I ask why you risk your life in this way? Lyssa had no choice, nor did the men in the boat I commandeered to escape the war. But Brandi had a choice yet chose to face me. So did you.”
He gave a short laugh. “We humans are crazy sometimes. There are some things we just want to see with our own eyes, feel with our own hands, even at some risk. Something like you qualifies, believe me. Admittedly if you kill me I’ll be really mad at myself for the second it takes me to die. But I don’t think you will.”
“Why?”
“If you are trying to gain my trust, isn’t it foolish to make me question my judgment on the matter?”
“On one level. On another, I feel I need to test you as much as you need to test me.”
He gave her a look almost like respect. Then he looked her over again and shook his head, “Fascinating.”
“Yet I am not the only self-aware machine you have met. In fact the first was your own creation.”
“If you are a self-aware machine.”
Kali shrugged. “Indeed. Whether I can convince you remains to be seen.”
