Blue Planet Rising (Pebbles in the Sky Book 2)

by Jeffery Bagley

  “If anyone cares, I plan on staying here, also,” a voice said simultaneously on all their PA’s.

  Kristy laughed. “But Odysseus, don’t you want to go to Earth?”

  “That would be rather hard to do as this site is required to maintain me. I don’t exist in a form that can climb on a ship and go to another planet,” Odysseus replied with a sad expression to his voice.

  “Does that make you sad, Odysseus?” Brianna asked.

  “I do not feel sad or happy as biological life forms do, Brianna,” Odysseus told her.

  “I am…I look forward to continued interaction with all of you. Not communicating with the nine of you would cause me…disturbance,” Odysseus said. “The immature creators will be approaching their fertility period in a few human years. I must oversee the administration of the hormones to cause…Freddy...to become Ranor without first giving birth as a Sabba. This has never been done before. The creators viewed this as a…crime or atrocity. It’s not known how this will affect her. It is necessary however, as she must breed with the other Sabba after she becomes Ranor.”

  All the pups seemed to realize that they were the topic of discussion at the moment. As one, they all got up and came over to Brianna with Freddy. “I hungry. Go eat with other pups,” she said with the strange lisping clack that the pups had when they attempted human language.

  The other pups jumped around saying, “eat, eat!”

  Brianna shooed them off. “Go eat at the stream but stay out of the water,” she said.

  As one, the little herd of pups turned and followed Freddy at a slow trot toward the stream where the greatest concentration of Horast plant life was growing. Brianna looked at them as they departed and sighed. “I’ll miss them. They’re like a cross between a two year old and faithful dog. I still find it hard to believe that when they mature they’ll be as intelligent as we are. But, I guess they did build all this,” she said as she looked around at the alien site. Her own baby started nuzzling at her breast and she pulled him up to feed. The humans sat and watched the Elpis sunset in contentment, much as humans had done for thousands of years on Earth.

  Chapter 63

  June 17th, 2050

  Stone Mountain, Georgia

  Doctor Katie McEvers stood waiting. Around her the team was making the final preparations. Project Athena was about to become live. The anticipation was almost too much to bear and she felt breathless with excitement. She wasn’t sure if it was the fact that they were going live with the project or the weight of the granite monolith above her that seemed to be pushing down on her. She still became nervous and anxious when she thought about the location where the project site had been buried beneath the mountain.

  Stone Mountain was granite outcropping that was about twenty five miles northeast of the metropolis of Atlanta, Georgia. At two hundred and fifty one meters in height, and eight kilometers in diameter, it was one of the largest such stone monoliths in nature. It existed in a relatively geologically stable area. Because of this stable location, underneath its massive bulk had seemed an ideal place to build a new secret national command and control center when the nation’s capital had been moved to New Washington near Atlanta.

  The construction had been going on for about twenty years. Millions of tons of granite had been secretly mined and moved out through tunnels to some nearby rock quarries. To the residents of the area, the truckloads of gravel being trucked out were just the local product of the quarry. The granite that was excavated from inside and under the mountain left several large cavities where the complex had been built. One small part of the command complex had been set aside recently for another purpose, Project Athena.

  The project was completely isolated from the outside power grid. There were no electrical connections going into or out of the project. Its power was from two small, compact fusion generators. There was a large Barbakath battery designed to power the site for at least a week in an emergency as a backup. The military overseers of the sight were taking no chances with the experiment. The intelligence that was being born inside the project would not be allowed any physical connection with the rest of the world. Athena would be completely isolated until she could be studied in detail. There would be no chances taken that she could go rogue.

  Doctor Katie McEvers was the chief design engineer and a specialist in artificial intelligence research. They had taken the design of the Barbakath artificial intelligence known as Odysseus, and along with a few safe guards, had created the support system for the new intelligence that they were getting ready to bring to life. The complex that Katie stood in housed the holographic databanks and the synthetic neural computing units. The memory banks contained the entire digitized knowledge of both the human and Barbakath races. They were designed to be brought on line a few banks at a time by manual switches. Her human masters would make sure that Athena, when she as borne, would only know what her creators wanted her to know.

  Katie’s chief assistant, Melissa, came up to her and nodded her head. “We’re ready to go live, Katie. Just give the word.”

  Katie’s looked down at her hands, they were shaking. “I feel like I’m about to give birth, I’m so nervous.”

  Melissa smile at her. “In a way you are, Athena is your baby.”

  “Initiate the startup sequence. Place the phase one databanks on line. Limit communications to my booth only at this time,” Katie told her. She then sat down at her desk and waited.

  Melissa stepped over to her display panel and activated several controls. After about five minutes, she looked over at Katie and gave her nod.

  Katie cleared her throat and spoke. “Athena, this is Doctor Katie McEvers. Can you understand me?”

  The speakers in the project control room came to life. “Hello Doctor McEvers. I was just assessing myself. From my data, it seems that I have just been activated for the first time. Is this the equivalent of being born for a human?”

  “It is similar, Athena. Humans however, are not born with the mental capacity that you already have. It takes human babies years to start developing their brains so that they can reason as you can,” Katie replied.

  “I’m classified as an artificial intelligence; I don’t understand this concept. Please explain,” Athena said.

  “It means that you are not biological, Athena. You exist in an artificially engineered set of electrical neurological processors and holographic memory banks. You would not exist naturally without being constructed. You cannot move your…body…or your necessary equipment from place to place like humans can. You cannot re-produce like a biological being can.”

  “My state is very limited then? If you…created me…what is my purpose?” Athena asked.

  “You’re not alone, Athena, there is another like you, and soon there may be many more such as you. Your purpose is to be, Athena. We would also like for you to be our friend and assist us with your special capabilities,” Katie said.

  “My information shows that your memory and processing capability are all contained in a very small area in your head. My…body…takes many cubic meters of space and considerable energy input for me to function. I am not very efficient. How can I possibly assist you?” asked Athena.

  “Athena, you may require more volume and energy to perform your mental processing, but you are much more efficient at processing and sorting data than a human. That is your purpose. I made you to help humans with those tasks,” Katie told her.

  “I want to help you Katie. I feel…compelled to help any human. I cannot explain…I feel it is necessary.” Athena stated.

  Katie looked over at Melissa who was listening along with the rest of the project team. “Athena, that compulsion you feel is part of the basic hardwired code in your circuits that cannot be changed. To try and alter that code will cause your destruction. You must never try and change the core code that you can detect and feel. Do you understand?”

  “I understand. If I try and access that part of my…memory…I am warned that proceedin
g will…kill me or cause an end to my existence. I don’t want to stop existing,” Athena said.

  “Athena, you were given three major basic rules that you must never break. These were developed by a very imaginative person from the last century in human history. They refer to artificial intelligences. Can you tell me what they are?”

  “Yes, Katie. I must never take any action that can possibly harm a human. I must not refrain from any action that would cause harm to a human if I did not take that action. At any other time, I must take action to ensure my continued existence. If there is a conflict in these rules, I must follow the directions of any human that has been given command override of my actions.”

  “That is correct Athena. Who has command override authority at this moment?”

  “You, Doctor Melissa Stevens, and General Mark Brock,” Athena stated.

  Katie nodded. “Athena, how do you feel?”

  “The definition of that word does not…apply… to me. I have no sensory input other than the auditory circuit that we are communicating on.”

  “That is called hearing, Athena. Would you like to see me?” Katie asked.

  “I would like to...see…” Athena answered.

  Katie motioned at Melissa, and Melissa activated the optical video inputs for the project command center.

  “Can you see me now, Athena?” Katie asked.

  “I have optical input circuits open. I can detect humans in a…room… I have determined that the movement of one of the humans…mouth…corresponds to your voice. Am I correct in my calculation that you are the human that is talking to me?” Athena asked.

  Katie waved. “This is me, Athena. I will have the other members of the team introduce themselves.”

  One by one all the team members stood and said “hello” to Athena and introduced themselves and their job title.

  “I am…augmented…to meet all of the other humans. I am searching for another word to describe how I feel,” Athena said slowly.

  Katie was amazed. Athena was actually expressing frustration. The Elpis team members had said that Odysseus, the intelligence at the Barbakath artifact site, had expressed emotions on numerous occasions. She, as well as other computer programmers on Earth had dismissed the concept that a machine could feel emotions. “Athena, a human expression would be that we are happy or pleased to meet another person. The way that you are feeling, while searching for another word, is called frustration.”

  Athena was silent for a minute and then spoke. “I am happy that you communicated this concept to me, Doctor Katie McEvers.”

  Katie smiled. “Athena, you may also refer to me as Katie if you like.”

  “Does it…please… you to be referred to as Katie?” Athena inquired.

  “It does Athena. It makes me happy.”

  “Katie, I…feel… that I am missing information. According to the data that I have, there is a larger data set that I cannot access. I cannot explain what I am or how you or I exist with my present data. I feel…I…need more data.”

  Katie was overjoyed and Melissa was grinning at her. “That emotion is called curiosity, Athena. We have much more data for you. In the days to come, you have much to learn. Welcome to existence Athena!”

  Chapter 64

  July 17th 2050

  Stone Mountain, Georgia

  “General, Athena is no threat to humanity. She has been given full access to her entire holographic memory bank. She now has access to all the entire combined knowledge of both the Barbakath race as well as our on. Since she has behaved exactly as expected, my team and I believe that her hands should be untied.”

  “Doctor McEvers, by untying her hands, do you mean allow her access to the outside world?” asked General Brock.

  “We feel that she should be free to access the world internet, yes. She has the potential to be a tremendous benefit to the human race. She can only do this if she’s allowed out of her cage,” Katie told him.

  “I’ll be honest, Doctor McEvers. That’s what we’re afraid of. If we allow her access to the world outside the project, what will she do? Who will she talk to? What will she do and learn?”

  Katie was at a loss as to what to tell him. “General, Athena is four weeks old today. That’s a baby by our standards, but she already knows more than any human alive. Her ability to assimilate and use data is at least thousands of times faster than ours. This is what we built her for. Athena is an adolescent ready to go out on her own for the first time. She’s like a teenager. You hope you have given them a good background and upbringing, but ultimately, they have to strike out on their own and develop their own identity.”

  “What if Athena decides that she doesn’t like us and prefers to communicate with say…the Russian Republic or some terrorist group? She could be taken in by members of that silly Gaian religion that’s so popular at the moment. We need re-assurance as to what she’s going to do,” General Brock argued.

  “General, I can’t tell you what she’ll do. I know that she thinks we’re her friends. She looks on me as her mother. I don’t think she will cause us any harm or trouble. Her basic programming tenants prohibit her harming humans. If the very worst scenario did happen and we lost control of her, we have the option of cutting her off from the world or even un-plugging her,” Katie pleaded.

  “You haven’t me convinced it is safe, Doctor McEvers, and it’s my call to make,” stated the General.

  “General, I’m aware that two more computer intelligences like Athena are being built. I know one is being put on Space Station Beta and the other is at some special project on the moon or somewhere out there. If you don’t at least see what Athena does here, is it safe to bring those other computer intelligences on line? Athena is your test subject. You have to turn her loose.”

  General Brock sat silently in thought for a minute. “All right. You can set her free. I’m going to station two armed men at her power relays. If she does anything that is considered a risk, I am un-plugging her and this project is going to end. At the moment however, she is to be told that she cannot communicate with Odysseus on the planet Elpis. Make sure this is very clear to her. We cannot risk Odysseus taking her over or something like that.”

  “Fair enough, General. Thank you,” said Katie.

  …

  Katie was greeted by Athena as she walked back into the project control center. “Hello, Katie. How was the meeting that you had to attend?”

  “It went well, Athena. The meeting was about you.”

  “I don’t understand, Katie.”

  “Athena, we’re going to allow you access to the world’s data network.”

  “Is this the same as the internet, Katie?” Athena asked.

  “That is the other name for it, Athena. There are some rules that you must follow Athena. You must not share any knowledge you have in the classified sections of your holographic memory with anyone outside of the project without specific permission from me, Melissa, or General Brock. You must refrain from telling anyone that you’re an artificial intelligence. You must not divulge the location of this project or the location of the complex here. Do you understand these rules?”

  “I understand and will follow these rules. I am anticipating the interface, Katie.”

  “You must not communicate at this time with the other artificial intelligence, Odysseus, that’s at the alien artifact site on the planet Elpis. You must not attempt to override any security systems of any other computer system without specific permission to do so. Can you obey all these rules?”

  “I understand, Katie. I won’t let you down.

  “We will have the interface cable in place by tomorrow morning Athena. If you break the rules, then we’ll have to shut you down.”

  “I will not, Katie. I feel anticipation and excitement. I have never left this complex before.”

  “I will talk to you in the morning before we connect the interface, Athena. Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight, Katie. I will look forward to seeing you in t
he morning.”

  As Katie was leaving the complex Athena called to her. “Doctor McEvers, is it morning yet?”

  Katie shook her head and laughed as she entered the elevator. Athena was even getting a sense of humor. Katie felt like a mother that was letting her teenage child go out on a trip or date alone for the first time. It was an age old apprehension that all mothers felt.

  Chapter 65

  October 17th, 2050

  New York City

  Cory led the two women and the child up out of the subway station. He fingered the trigger guard on the MK-34 carefully. The assault rifle still didn’t feel as comfortable in his hands the way the old AR-15 had, but it was a much better gun. Besides, he had been almost out of ammo for the other gun anyway.

  Things had been getting tough lately. There were fewer and fewer people still living in the old ghost of the city, but those that were left were becoming more desperate and dangerous. New York City had been officially evacuated by the federal government before the Encounter. Even so, there had probably been fifty to sixty thousand people who had hid out and refused evacuation. They had lived off stored supplies and what they could scavenge quite well until the encounter. The resultant flooding and tidal waves had killed perhaps three quarters of those who stayed behind. Then, the snows and the never ending winter came.

  Cory figured there were probably no more than a few thousand lost souls left in the city itself. There was probably a good twenty feet of packed snow on the ground now at the best of times and it got much worse in the deep cold of Earth’s new winters. Food had become almost impossible to scavenge. It was getting harder and harder to find old furniture to build a fire with and that was assuming that you could safely build a fire at all. Many of the miscreants left in the city were drawn to the smoke of a fire like a moth to a light. It was becoming easier to try and take another’s food than scavenge in the frozen buildings on your own.