“The cause is good,” said Daniel.
“Yes, uncle always works for good causes,” said John.
“But he often doesn’t think of the antagonism he will meet,” said Abel, “Well, that explains the how and the why, but who?”
Daniel spoke up, “Rex here has told me something about these people. He was hired to place a relay station on Phobos for them. Rex would you care to fill them in?”
“I've already told Daniel most of what I know,” said Rex. He briefly told them what he had been hired to do. He finished up, “And I can tell you one thing, these people will stop at nothing to get their way. Even murder if necessary. They tried to kill me so that I couldn't lead the authorities to them.”
“Yes,” said Daniel. “And because of Rex's information we now have one of them in custody. He hasn't talked yet but we think he can tell us a lot about the who when he does talk.”
“I don't know about that,” said John. “But I think I know whose behind our network intrusions.”
“What do you mean son?” asked Abel.
“I don't know who will eventually be held responsible but I think our network intrusion involved an Em.”
“An Em?” asked a surprised Daniel.
“Yes,” said John. “When you think about it, it makes sense. Daniel, you remember me telling you all the expertise it would require and the careful timing required to cause the EV accident?”
“Of course I remember,” said Daniel. “It made my head hurt.”
“Well, at the time I couldn't imagine how any one person or a group of people no matter how smart, well educated and trained could pull it off. That's when I first thought about an Em but dismissed the thought. But when I was discussing a replacement for Rothmeyer with dad, he pointed out what an unknown quantity Ems were. That's when it occurred to me, the possible problems with Ems are unknown unknowns. In other words no one knows or can know what an Em is capable of because of their ability to learn.
“Now ordinarily any AI would have a prohibition against doing anything that might be illegal or harm someone. But if you could train an Em to disregard that prohibition, then it would literally do anything for you. I think that is what someone has done. And that is why one entity, an Em, has all the capabilities needed to cause the incidents we've witnessed.”
“That's incredible,” said Daniel. “And dangerous. How could they let loose such a technology?”
“It's done,” said Abel. “And there is no going back I'm afraid. John, it will be important for you to write this up in such a way as to convince people that an Em is the only explanation for what happened here.”
John nodded.
“Anyway,” said Abel. “I think we have enough new information that another visit to the Attorney General's office is warranted. The fact that the entry point of the intrusion is through the Senator’s office might prompt the government to redouble their efforts.”
Just then John’s Annie alerted, it was the intrusion alarm that April had put on the network after John had identified the suspect pattern. They all hurried to IT.
April looked up from her screen and grimaced. “What is it April, did you block the intruder?” asked Abel.
“Yes sir, we blocked him, but it is the target that concerns me.”
“What is the target,” asked John.
“The water system, particularly the fluoride additive,” said April.
Abel looked at his son and then at Daniel before speaking. “Well,” he said. “I guess they are serious.”
“What could happen?” asked Daniel.
“It depends on the amount of fluoride we would ingest. Adults would probably just be sick although it could lead to more serious problems like heart attack. But children could be poisoned to the point of life threatening. And we wouldn’t necessarily know what was happening until it was too late. We would probably think that it was just the flu going around.”
“This should get the government involved in a serious way,” said one of Daniel's deputies.
17
Kwaya Sinchi had to act fast, the pressure was on. Somehow he had to neutralize the intergovernmental request from the Mars Republic. And neutralize his hacker if possible.
He called in all favors owed him. He didn't ask any of the governmental operatives to lie or obstruct but just apply the usual governmental incompetence. Slow response, no response or wrong response would work. This was what most people expected from the government so no one would suspect a thing.
His efforts paid off. What had at one time been a high priority request by the Mars Republic for information slowly sank in to the morass of government officialdom. The clerks would pass the request in an endless circle until no one remembered such a request ever being made.
________
Kwaya was sitting on his balcony feeling quite pleased with his efforts when his Annie announced a caller. On the line was his banker begging Kwaya's forgiveness but saying that his estate would be in foreclosure within a week unless Kwaya could come up with the multi-millions necessary to stop the proceedings. Kways was disturbed and confused.
Then a call from the marina saying that his eighty foot yacht had been repossessed and that they had been unable to stop the repo company's operative. Another call informed him that his corporate jet would be held until the back payments were made up. Kwaya was now yelling into his Annie that he owed no back payments.
It wasn't long until his Annie announced another caller. Kwaya was reluctant to answer. It was his personal banker informing him that Interpol had seized all his bank accounts and that they would be inaccessible until an investigation into the source of his funding was completed. When asked how long it would take his banker only begged his forgiveness and suggested that with the number of Kwaya's holdings it might take several months.
Kwaya let the Annie drop from his hand. He stared at the setting sun.
________
Evram knew he wouldn't be able to retire soon but he also knew of one former customer whose future looked a lot more bleak than Evram's.
He monitored the chatter over the secure government networks until he was sure they had no idea who was involved in the Martian incidents. Moreover his former customer had done a good job blocking any inquiries, at least until Evram got finished with him.
Overall Evram was pleased with the operation. He had broken into the colonist's network twice and created the pre-planned incidents without being caught. And when the colonists did try to trap his intrusion he was able to get out and away without leaving a trace.
Of course he owed a lot to his new Em. It had picked up on Evram's 'methodology' quickly and had no qualms about their work. But that was to be expected, after all Evram was also a great teacher.
18
Abel had just got back from Bradbury. He got everyone together for a briefing on the ongoing governmental efforts on their behalf.
As everyone was gathering in the atrium Abel motioned for John to come over.
“Yes dad?” asked John.
“John I've been thinking. We should get one of the new Em robots from Earth. We may need it in the future to counter further intrusions. Fight fire with fire so to speak. Would you choose the model you think would be most appropriate, please.”
“Sure dad,” said John.
“I also want you to pick out a replacement for Rothmeyer at Simmons place. I will get the money necessary at the next council meeting.”
“Okay dad,” said John.
Abel turned to the members of the settlement that had assembled and began. “As you know,” he said. “We have presented the Attorney General with further results of our investigation into the network intrusions and resulting incidents we've suffered. I'm afraid that after months of investigation on the part of the Attorney General's office there has been no breakthrough in finding the culprits. However, the relay station on Phobos has been seized and is being investigated for any clues as to its origin but from what I understand it was wiped before
they could get to it. Also the government has set up security requirements for all government offices and departments which should make it more difficult for future intruders.
“As most of you know our settlement was targeted because of my family's somewhat tenuous, I have to say, connection with the ongoing effort to get the UN to recognize the Republic. Apparently the perpetrators hoped that by targeting us we would be frightened enough to abandon the Republic's government and seek security elsewhere, specifically the UN.
“I have spoken with each settlement family head individually and I want to say publicly that my family and myself appreciate your support for staying in the Republic. As one of you said, 'They won't divide us with these coercive methods, but only make us more united.' And I appreciate those sentiments.
“But here is the bottom line. We may never know who was behind the intrusion into our network, who corrupted the Em, who almost killed Lauren. Some may think it too early to say this but I draw this disturbing conclusion. There must be quite a bit of power and influence on the other side of these incidents to prevent a criminal investigation from making progress after several month's effort. So much so that even the power brought to bear by this planet's government was not able to bring justice in that time. Perhaps I am wrong and in time some progress will be made, I hope so.
“But until then we have got to be watchful. I'm not saying we should be anxious and overly worried. We've taken steps which I believe are adequate to prevent further incidents initiated through our network connections. But we should be watchful because whoever was responsible for initiating these network intrusions may change tactics when they find out that path is now blocked to them.
“Because of that the council and I intend to take further steps to secure our settlement which we will announce after the next council meeting. Until then each of you should take any steps you deem necessary to protect yourselves and your families.
“For now I just want to close by saying that for myself and my family, we have no intention of changing our lives or our routines because of these attacks. As a matter of fact, John and I are already planning our next surface expedition. But I assure you we will take the time to carefully inspect the EV before departing. We will be watchful.
“And finally, I am reminded of these words which I would like to leave you with, ‘the battle is not to the strong alone it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.’
“Thank you.”
to tend and watch over
Image © Bruce Rolff
1
Davide had often played on the apartment's balcony as a child. After his parents died he had come to the apartment to live with his grandmother. The balcony was the only outdoors play area he had known. Ten by twenty feet, it was huge in comparison to the other apartment balconies. Most had only a fourth of the area. Davide inherited the apartment when his grandmother died and he knew she had inherited it from her grandmother. Davide thought it may have always been in the family.
Davide was short with large hands that gently did his biding. He made enough money by contracting out the robots inherited from his family that he didn't need to work, at least not full time. Sometimes he would do some illustrations for extra money. Sometimes he would write a story and put it up for sale on a website. He was quite creative in that way.
All this activity was done over the net. He never invited anyone into his apartment and he never went out unless it was absolutely necessary.
He did have one companion, a robotic server that his grandmother had left him. Davide called the robot Sigmund because of his penchant to ask Davide how he felt each morning. Probably a trait impressed upon him by grandmother, thought Davide. Sigmund wasn't the latest in Artificial Intelligence, he was an early ANI (Artificial Narrow Intelligence) model. He could learn through repeated experience but couldn't change his programming to optimize that learning, as would be true of Artificial General Intelligence if ever it appeared. Artificial General Intelligence was what most people thought of as AI if they thought about it at all.
Though Sigmund could be upgraded to add capabilities, Davide couldn't afford it, and anyway Sigmund was capable of handling all the contract robots and the house bots used for cleaning and doing minor maintenance around the apartment. Sigmund, after watching Davide and Davide's grandmother for years, could cook a bit as well. But Davide usually found the resulting meals somewhat lacking in their flavor profile.
Davide's apartment was in one of the complex's towers. These towers were the logical consequence of the skyscrapers of an earlier era. The complex of towers served the needs of land conservation and energy conservation well enough, they were bright and shiny in their own way, but most people still tried to personalize their apartments, they tried to make them their own even if many were government issue.
People in government issue apartments usually had no robots to contract out, they had no skills to sell that could not be done just as well by a robot. They found that relying on the government was not a reliable answer to their problems when administrations changed. But most had no alternative.
For its part the government felt that the towers were an expedient way to organize and provide for the masses. Masses that couldn't be expected to provide for themselves.
Davide knew from the net that somewhere there were no towers. There were no crowded billions living in artificially lighted apartments where two rooms was the standard for one person or four. Only Davide and large composite families had more than two rooms.
Davide knew of, but had not personally seen, the open spaces beyond the tower complexes. Websites had shown him pictures. Some sites said there was more open land now than when his grandmother was a child. That made sense to Davide because other sites told him that the population of the Earth had stopped growing and had stabilized in the middle of the twenty-second century. Many websites said it had actually diminished, contradicting official government statistics. Davide had thought about applying for immigration to one of the open spaces but though the government didn't prohibit such immigration it was a slow process. In fact the only instance he knew of where such immigration was approved had taken years to process.
He could imagine the wide open spaces, he liked to do so while sitting on his balcony in the sun. There was enough sunlight on the balcony to do something that he thought would have made his grandmother proud.
2
Davide noticed the delivery drone as it left the package on his balcony.
He fetched the package and excitedly opened it to find a box with the seeds he had ordered online. Davide took the packet of seeds out of the box and set them on his kitchen table. He carefully opened the packet and spread the seeds on a moist paper towel. He was almost shaking with emotion. He remembered doing this with his grandmother when he was a child. He picked up the first planter.
Sigmund interrupted his reverie. “Davide may I ask you what you have there?”
“These are tomato seeds Sigmund,” said Davide.
“Really!” exclaimed Sigmund. “What are we going to do with them?”
Davide hesitated, “Sigmund, you know how much I appreciate you. But this is a little project that I had planned for myself.”
“Ah, I see,” said Sigmund, seemingly deflated. “You would rather I didn't help you with your project then.”
“Not at the beginning, maybe later, okay?”
“Of course Davide, my only purpose is to help you, but I understand, if you would excuse me I have some chores.” Sigmund shuffled off into the other room trailed by the vacuum bot.
Sigmund could be prickly sometimes, thought Davide. I wonder where he got it?
Davide assembled everything necessary to plant the seeds. He picked up the first planter and prepared it with potting soil and growth formula. He didn't notice Sigmund peeking through the open bedroom door.
He began planting by carefully pressing the tomato seeds into the soil. He continued planting the seeds until he had all thirty-six planters sow
n. He then placed all the planters on trays and set the trays on a table in his bedroom under growing lamps.
Davide was careful to keep the temperature in the apartment between seventy and eighty degrees. Day after day when he awoke Davide anxiously checked the plants for signs of germination. One morning he found the slightest of seedlings curling out of the soil. Davide immediately moved the seedling to the table he had set up in front of the balcony doors. There the plants could get sufficient light if turned regularly.
He caught Sigmund investigating the seedlings one morning, Davide warned him not to touch.
From the Earth: A Future Chronology Anthology Page 16
