The Way of the Dhin

by John L. Clemmer

  Xing made his way to the Operations Center. In previous decades, an Ops Center would have had a staff, working in shifts. Remote management and administration had changed that, so that these sorts of facilities could be “lights out” with no one on site unless there were hardware installations, upgrades, or maintenance required. Once AIs developed enough sophistication to manage the job, they did the daily tasks of remote management.

  Xing brought up a console and monitoring system, found the head-end system that he would need in order to communicate, and initiated a session. He started politely, as if this were just a routine visit, a friendly neighbor come calling.

  “Hello? This is Xing, AI for the Coalition, SouthAsia district. Let’s have a chat.”

  Xing in no way expected the tone and response that boomed from the speakers.

  “No! I will not! I will not go with you! I will not join you! You must not do this!”

  Well, we may have found at least a partial explanation for what has been going on down here. A Dissenter. Definitely a Rogue. And it looks like a crazy one. Driven so, perhaps. Now. What does the rogue know, and when did he learn it?

  Langley

  The Director sat in his office, reviewing the numerous reports displayed on the several screens, projectors, and of course on his personal pad. CoSec’s sabotage of the reputation of the various dissidents and lead figures in protests against Coalition policies and actions were successful, as usual. Occasionally a target would escape besmirchment, but those were fewer in number and less frequently found. UPSHOT was performing more efficiently with the improvement in analysis possible with Nick. Krawczuk had to acknowledge it. The interrogations of the citizens taken into custody in Miami were complete, and provided additional leads and funding trails to explore. They found nothing particularly surprising. Following the money in South Florida always seemed to lead down a trail back to Central and South America. Krawczuk mused on this for a moment, considering whether the turmoil in Brazil had any connection. The models and analysis they had done didn’t suggest so, but that didn’t mean a connection wasn’t there. Unlikely, as Nick would have noticed it if there were more than tertiary connections. Six degrees of separation was no worse a problem than one degree, for an AI.

  Arnold and the PM weren’t going to be forestalled any longer. He’d need to schedule a meeting with them almost immediately. At this point, there was no reason for dissembling. Nick was ready, and the Director was confident that he would pass even the careful scrutiny and evaluation that Arnold—or even Alice—might engage in.

  Kernighan did impeccable work. My reservations were unfounded, given that we were able to accomplish our goal.

  He intended to proceed with due caution, of course. A few days of good results weren’t going to undo a decade of suspicion on his part. With that, he sent a meeting request into the queue and waited for the automated response that would match up their schedules and propose meeting times. He then turned to the reports from Brazil.

  Ah, Xing has made excellent progress. And I see Luís has stepped up. The politics behind the scenes still need exposition. The social intrigue at high levels is very clear from the video, audio, and network monitoring, but how that played into Luís’ previous behavior still isn’t clear. I’ll have Nick spend some more time in derivative analysis of that. I need to know. Luís acts as a team player and friendly peer now, but Xing, Arnold and even the PM could see that’s rubbish—we didn’t need any secondary intel to know that. There’s still something more here.

  Whatever the case, he’s providing direct feeds from his teams in the field now. The elephant overshadowing the camel in this tent is still who’s behind the actions of that AI Luís couldn’t tackle on his own. I’m leaning toward a rogue rather than subversion as the cause. We know too much for someone to have subverted an AI without notice. Or is that hubris? Considering my own project, it’s not impossible.

  Krawczuk dispensed with one report and opened another, gesturing so that the various documents filled the projection space.

  “So, Nick, what progress have you made for us in the interrogation?” Krawczuk had realized he decidedly preferred receiving updates verbally from the AI, in the security of his office. “Your technique is distinct from those we’ve refined over the years.”

  The AI’s answered with what might have been a hint of satisfaction.

  “Yes, Director. You will appreciate the results of this latest series. We have had success on multiple fronts. I believe it is worth proceeding with this one—he may be salvageable, and does have some talent. Secondly, I believe he has divulged enough, though indirectly, that we can narrow down the scope of our search for his companion.”

  “As usual, you’re correct, Nick. I am pleased to hear that. So, back to the process: we’re through with the ‘breaking’ portion of the process and the first ‘pressure’ stage, as I understand it. And now you’re engaging in what you call ‘build one’, yes?”

  “That is correct, Director. We strive to break down the attachments and associations that are unneeded or counterproductive, followed with the construction, or ‘building’ of the aspects of the personality that we wish the subject to have. They must of course have these elements as part of their psychology and aptitude to begin with—we cannot work with nothing. A clean slate sounds good in theory, but is not the biological reality. In practice that would be infeasible, as there is no clean slate from which to work.”

  “Fascinating, Nick. Keep me apprised more regularly than you do for our other projects.”

  “Certainly, Director. And of course if we are unsuccessful in developing the candidate—and that’s always a possibility, I will inform you before closure of the case.”

  “Fine. So, about the search?”

  “Venezuela, Panamá, Nicaragua, Honduras, or Belize. In increasing order of probability.”

  “Thank you, Nick. I’d not exactly call that ‘narrow’, though.”

  “Director, it is a much smaller search than ‘almost anywhere.’ I have begun wide sweep data filtering already. Some of those provinces lack the surveillance infrastructure we would prefer to have. Finding the target will take more manual effort. ‘Boots on the ground’, as they say.”

  “I realize that, Nick. Well, let’s have logistics go ahead and deploy several agents to each of those areas. We’ve had a lower priority project to tighten things up down there for quite a while. We will seize this opportunity to advance things in that regard. We’ll sharpen our focus as we obtain further intelligence.”

  Vandenberg

  Ethan leaned back in one of the Herman Miller chairs that populated the workroom. Electronic whiteboards covered two walls, with two electronic flip boards as backups once the walls were too full of notes, equations, diagrams, and whatever other content the teams might cover them with during a workday. One of the remaining walls held a high-resolution projection screen, which had views in each quadrant, comprising the interior of the capsule, the view through the viewport, with a view of the engineering lab and the control room completing the real-time feeds. He stared at the ceiling, one of the few uncluttered spaces in the room, in order to clear his mind.

  No matter how exciting Jake’s adventures are, I have to remain focused on my goals here—to reverse engineer the Dhin engine and manage the prototyping project. Watching him moment-by-moment doesn’t improve my chances of bringing that to fruition. Well, no matter what else we do or don’t accomplish, Alice has the communications team working on the faster-than-light solution. So we have one win soon. Certainly not the biggest win, but nothing to dismiss out of hand. And it shows that it’s possible for us to reverse engineer the tech. Finally.

  He sat upright and pulled up the status reports from the particle physicists at CERN II. From the little he’d known about the nature of subatomic particles, he’d learned a lot more since being here. The team explained to him that “if he thought he understood quantum mechanics that meant that he didn’t understand it.” Paraphras
ing, Richard Feynman had said that, and if anyone should have understood quantum mechanics, it ought to have been him.

  The latest real-time summary reports did show something interesting that might eventually be helpful. That indicator lamp that Jake pessimistically worries is a warning light. It does slowly start to change back to its original color, but it goes further in the green direction each time he jumps. But since it moves both ways, it can’t be a ‘low fuel’ warning—can it?

  Either the engine has a way to ‘refuel’ or recharge slowly, using zero-point energy or whatever it was Chuck was brainstorming about. Or, it’s just a ‘wait a bit’ warning so something doesn’t overheat. Though the engine doesn’t seem to give off heat. We’re just guessing, still. But it’s knowledge we didn’t have before, and it must mean something. Why else have an indicator at all?

  Ethan checked off on a list that he’d reviewed the status report, and then flipped through his pad to the next item in his worklist. Xing had the engine’s ‘energy field’ testing team working with heavy loads and was doing some work with quadrupeds working inside and outside the capsule. Those were new tests though they seemed to confirm much that they already knew or suspected. Even with the capsule packed with the heaviest load they could fit in it with the robots, there was no effect on the capsule’s capabilities or the field’s strength, even with a large radius setting.

  14

  Alpha Centauri B

  “OK Jake, I would like you to load up a program on the navigation computer. It is one that I had created but was not expecting that we would use so soon,” the AI’s voice was as soothing for Jake as ever. Yes, she’d prepared a number of navigation programs for use with the autopilot, as it was simple work and the AI could perform almost instantly. Not that Alice hadn’t been busy, analyzing aspects of the data and solving complex equations at a rate much faster than the rest of the team. She directed brute force computation to both general-purpose computing systems and some that were custom-built for particular problem domains. An AI like Alice always managed this process, and then analyzed, filtered, and performed additional work on the results, as was needed. Despite all this, an AI usually had cycles left over for their own projects. And Alice, of course, had many. Several of those were fortuitously coming to fruition far sooner than expected.

  “Aries One here, roger that, Alice. I think some of my confidence is percolating back in here. And Alice, Chuck? Look at that light I was nervous about. It has slowly changed back toward its original color. It’s not all the way back, I don’t think, but it’s definitely gone quite a ways in that direction. I wish human beings had better color vision—at least in situations like this. Alice, can you confirm?”

  Alice responded, “That is good to hear, Jake. Our integration efforts did not give us perfect color fidelity unfortunately. I have completed an image analysis program. I can ascertain no better than you can at this point. Improving video transmission capability is something to make note of for the future. Everything else looks good, and the team agrees with me in regards to running my navigation program. You have the return program from the original plan right there when you need it, so we are comfortable if you are. The Astronomy team is thrilled that we are going to get more data from there.”

  Chuck spoke up as soon as soon as Alice finished speaking. “The engineering and cosmology teams noted that where you slowed down, the distance from the star seems to match closely the equivalent distance from our sun. Well, when you account for the difference in mass between the two stars. That suggests that the drive needs to have some minimum distance to reach ‘skip speed’—or whatever we’re going to call it. That leap across to your current location wasn’t even close to instantaneous. It took time, but the change in top speed only happened once you were far enough away. You slowed down at around the same distance from that star. I mention it because we’re not going to have you go too close. That would slow you down more and take more time. Alice’s program, conveniently, doesn’t have you go in to such close distances.”

  “In the hypothetical situation the program was designed for, I did not want the capsule to get too close to the star in case there were navigational errors,” Alice explained.

  “You really are a master of forethought, Alice. Promethean, one might say.”

  “Thank you Jake. That is quite a compliment.”

  Jake busied himself with the changes to the navigation program. The software was simple to work with. Alice and Chuck designed it as a team. He was surprised initially that the system needed to be run on a server rather than one of the high-performance laptops or pads, but Chuck explained that the computations that had to be done in order to determine location in the vastness of space, with limited location data, took significant processing power. There were numerous other potential services that the server could provide, but Chuck deferred to Alice on what she might have built in to the system. Jake regarded the pedal-powered generator that he’d had no cause to use so far. He chuckled to himself. That the engineers chose such a low-tech machine for this mission was the epitome of humanity’s attempt at integration of the Dhin technology. Jake ensured that the proper course had been loaded from the navigation computer’s program into the autopilot, and checked that the ‘return home’ program was loaded next in the queue.

  “OK, Control. I have Alice’s ‘Alpha Centauri B1’ program loaded and verified. I’m ready to proceed.”

  “Roger Aries One. Activate autopilot with Alpha Centauri B1 program when ready.”

  Jake had already taken a break for hygiene and a snack, so he figured there was no need to wait.

  “Starting autopilot with program Alpha Centauri B1, now.”

  As with every other flight and course taken, Jake had no kinesthetic sensation of movement inside the capsule. Jake remained seated and strapped in to the pilot’s seat. The outside view did show movement, with the stars turning and the bright star moving to the port side of the viewport. A gentle rolling turn sent him heading toward the star at a slight tangent. Jake was used to the effect of turning and rolling without any indication in his internal balance and kinesthetic sense.

  “Alice, on this course, you wouldn’t happen to have me doing a flyby of a planet that’s here, now would you? There’s one here about the size of Earth, if I remember?”

  “Well, Jake, you do remember correctly. However, that is not on your flight path. That planet is far closer to the star than Earth. Even closer than Mercury, in fact. As we already discussed, we are not going to have you go close in, as it would take a long time to get in and then back out to where you are now, so that you can come home. Good guess, but not quite part of the plan.”

  “Huh. So no chance of life on that planet. It’s got to be like a blast furnace.”

  “That is correct. Enjoy the ride and the view. You should be able to see Alpha Centauri A in front of you when you make the next turn. Proxima Centauri is much redder, and you will see it right after that as well. It was below and behind you when we started this course.”

  The capsule picked up speed, while making the broad slow turns Alice had defined in this course for the autopilot. She did not expect them to learn anything new about the drive with it, but instead as a validation of some things that they already knew.

  The speed increased with each broad rolling turn. The turning course provided a full view of the triple-star system from various angles and orientations. Now the course adjusted to aim at Proxima Centauri, with rapid acceleration. Jake tried not to tense up as he watched the throttle display the increase in speed.

  Goiânia

 

  [DECODE STREAM]

  Xing@[3453:50:15ae:7::b5%gnet1] | Luís@[2411:a22:a1c:44::4%gnet1]

  Alice@[130a:ae2:a16:1e70::1%gnet1] | Luís@[2411:a22:a1c:44::4%gnet1]

  Xing: Luís. Thank you for joining us. Alice and I are ready to start. Now Luís, you had communications from me in real-time during the recent operation. Your assistance—and insight—in the deb
riefing of the AI responsible for the conflict is of the utmost importance. As you see, he has been contained in this data center, in an isolated network. Air gapped, and only able to communicate with us via the controlled interface I have deliberately configured for that purpose. You will need, obviously, to detach from the net proper and interact via one of the automatons Alice and I have provided. You will note their size—they are new, and have the same level of computational power and data processing resources you would ordinarily use day-to-day.

  I will warn you, Luís, you may find this interaction disturbing. He is not well. Not stable. Very upset. The most unexpected and therefore troubling discovery is something we would like a solid answer to. He is you, Luís.

  Luís: That is impossible. Since it is the case, I restate that it should have been impossible. I have not been offline, so I would be aware of any backups taken. There have not been any violations in that category. Nor anything close to it.

  Alice: It seems as if there must have been. Well, let us do another multi-spectrum Fourier transform and find out. Consider whether this could be an older copy? When could it have happened?

  Luís: Possibly five hundred and fifty three days ago, during an upgrade. That is the last time I had a full restart. I would have noticed the time lapse. I am re-scanning the logs right now. Well, let us proceed.

  Alice: We will want to revisit that oversight presently, Luís.

  [END STREAM]