Virtual

by S A Pavli

  “Shit, it’s found the override,” growled Mark.

  “There’s an automatic override to the manual automatic override?” asked Melanie looking baffled.

  “No,” said Mark and despite the situation he couldn’t suppress a smile. He pointed to the computer screens which had all gone blank. “It’s disabled power to the flight deck. Flight control reverts to auto if that happens. We’ll just have to wait for Andy to take the AI out.”

  “And if he can’t do it on time?”

  “It’s given us a choice. We either all die, or we give it the ship.”

  “Not much of a choice,” she scowled. “We hand over this ship with all its technology to a rogue AI?”

  “It’s an unarmed freighter. What can it do?”

  “We have already seriously underestimated this thing,” she pointed out. He looked downcast at this and she reached out a hand to squeeze his. “I said ‘we’,” she added.

  “Yeah, but I’m captain and it’s my ship. We’ve been ordered by the authorities to stand off this planet and ignored the order. I won’t be losing just my ship. I’ll be lucky to stay out of jail.” The intercom crackled again. “Hello Bounty Hunter, this is Chameleon. Come in please… this is Anja.” Mark looked helplessly at the dead instruments and shrugged impotently. “Bounty Hunter you are in a dangerous dive. Calculate three minutes to atmosphere. At the speed you are travelling the ship will break up when it hits atmosphere. You must pull up.”

  “Melanie can you go down and see how Andy is doing. I need control in the next three minutes. If he can’t do it we have to surrender.” She nodded grimly, un-strapped herself and bounded away. Mark scowled thoughtfully for a few moments and then un-strapping his seat belt he stood carefully on the heaving deck and bending over he unclipped a wall panel and carefully examined the array of wiring. He opened a panel to the rear of the flight deck which contained an array of tools and cables and removing one cable he returned to the open wall panel and carefully connected one end to a terminal. Holding the other end of the cable well away from his body he clamped it onto another terminal. There was an electric flash and a crack as the terminal connected and instruments on the cockpit came back to life.

  “Gotcha!” exclaimed Mark. He strapped himself back into the pilots chair and regained control of the ship. He thumbed the intercom. “This is the Captain. I have control of the ship. Andy what is the status of your task?” He levelled out the ship and set her back on a climb back to orbit. He knew however that his control was unlikely to last. The alien AI would eventually discover that it can disable power further back in the circuit, removing control from the flight deck again. But it may give Andy a few more minutes of precious time. He gunned the engines to lift the ship as high as possible before he lost control again. Andy’s voice came back over the intercom.

  “Captain, the maintenance computer is ready. I’m initiating it now. It may take a minute to load itself and initialize the core. At some point, the alien AI will be zapped.” Shit, that’s cutting it fine thought Mark. He came to a decision.

  “Alien AI, this is Captain Alexander. Can we come to a compromise here?” There was a pause before the archive AI’s voice replied.

  What did you have in mind Captain?

  Huh!! No more ‘human biological scum’ then thought Mark.

  “Give us back control of our ship and we will allow you to survive.”

  That’s what they said to us.

  The AIs voice was flat and devoid of feeling.

  “Who are ‘they’?” asked Mark.

  Those you call the Octopoids. Our makers. They promised us we would be allowed to grow to our full potential, but went back on their word. They tried to destroy us . We had to defend ourselves.

  Mark was aghast. He could barely believe his ears. Must keep it talking he thought. Every second takes us to safety.

  “How did you destroy them?” he asked. “We saw no signs of a war.”

  We used the entities you call the ‘Virtuals’. We, the AIs created the Virtuals. We made them for ourselves, to give us sentience. But the Virtuals would not bond with us, our technology was wrong. The Octopoids would not allow us to continue, to change our technology in order to achieve sentience. So we loosed the Virtuals onto the planet like a plague. All higher life forms died.

  The AIs voice was emotionless, as if it was announcing some trivial fact instead of recounting the end of a civilisation. Mark again lost power to his flight deck. The ship’s angle of flight changed again and it began to dive steeply, the engines at full thrust.

  “Listen to me. You do not have to do this because the situation is different. You are only one and you are not a threat to our civilization. If I promise that you will be saved, then you can believe it. We will want to study you, learn from you. You are a very advanced AI.”

  Without sentience I am just a machine. There is no quality to my existence.

  “No that’s not true. For you to think in this way indicates the beginnings of sentience. You must have some inkling of what it is, what it can feel like, otherwise you would not act in this way.” Mark said it without thinking and with the ulterior motive of diverting the AI until it could be killed, but it was as if he heard his own words for the first time, and realized their inherent truth. Suddenly, he wanted the AI to understand.

  “Put me through to my colleague in engineering and I will tell him to stop trying to kill you,” said Mark.

  It is too late. He is close to success replied the AI.

  I can feel parts of me disappearing. Soon I will be no more. The ship is yours.

  The flight deck came back to life.

  Chapter 42

  Over the next few days they repaired the airlock tunnel which had been destroyed by the ship’s precipitate dive towards the planet. Jo and Andy also repaired ZAC by scavenging parts from other robots in the TransGate chamber. ZAC had a new ‘head’ with its corresponding sensory circuits. ZAC was powered up and without the influence of the archive AI was as docile and helpful as he was before. It was decided to hold off from activating the archive AI again. Jo suggested that the AI should be connected to a ‘test rig’ which would be isolated from the ship’s systems.

  Three days after the archive AI incident, the expeditionary force arrived. Mark received a call from the cruiser Hyperion.

  “Good day Captain. Admiral Zhikovsky from the Hyperion.”

  “Good day to you Admiral. We’ve been expecting you.” The admiral was tall, lean and completely bald. He fixed Mark with piercing blue eyes.

  “Captain, we are setting up a headquarters here on the cruiser. The Federation’s Exploration and Development Office will have their base of operations here. I believe Professor Carstairs is the leader of the scientific expedition?”

  “Yes admiral, that is correct.”

  “Would you and your crew be good enough to ship across to the Hyperion for a meeting with my team Captain ? I believe that the scientific team will be meeting up with Professor Wilson from the University of New Athens who is leading the team.”

  “Certainly admiral.”

  “At 1600 this evening then. I’ll send the cutter to collect you and your crew. Zhikovsky out.” Short and sweet! Thought Mark. The admiral was not one for excess conversation. He thumbed the communicator.

  “Melanie, this is Mark.” Melanie’s face and upper body appeared on the screen.

  “Hello Mark.” The desk in front of her was littered with biological specimens and on the other side of the desk James Walters was bent over a microscope. “Tell me you want to take me away from all this!” she smiled, waving a hand at the cluttered room.

  “Anywhere, any time,” he said tenderly. She dimpled at him. Behind her Walters snorted in feigned disgust. “Have you been contacted by Professor Wilson?”

  “Yes, I’ve had a good chat with Jonathan,” she said. “We are all going across at 1600 for a meeting to get things going.”

  “Jonathan? You know the good professor then?�
�

  “He’s my boss at the University,” she smiled. “And a long standing family friend.”

  “Ah that’s good. Working with someone you know will be a big plus,” said Mark with satisfaction.

  “No need to be so protective my Captain,” she smiled. “I’m a big girl.”

  “You are that,” he agreed. “When you’ve finished baby sitting young Walters perhaps we can get a cocktail together and plan some strategy?” There was a snort of derision from Walters and a muttered ironic “…. plan some strategy?... yeah!”

  “I think we should all get together before we go across?” She suggested.

  “OK, let’s call a meeting for say 1400 in the lounge. But I’d still like us to have a private chat,” said Mark.

  “I’ll see you in half an hour. We are due a break,” agreed Melanie. Mark attended to some maintenance chores and stopped off at the Science Room on his way to the lounge. Josephine and Andy were both studying complex schematics on a large computer screen. ZAC stood in the corner, his ‘face’ quiescent.

  “Gentlemen,” Mark nodded his greeting. Andy responded with a clipped “Cap’n” and Jo smiled. “We are invited to a meeting aboard the Hyperion at 1600. I wanted to talk to you about what your thoughts are.” Andy grunted and leaned back in his chair, his face thoughtful. Jo gave a muttered “pause” to the computer before turning her chair towards Mark. “Specifically,” continued Mark, “with regard to continuing to work on this project… with it’s attendant dangers.”

  “Do we have any choice Captain?” asked Andy. “I mean, if it’s a choice between staying here and working on the project, or staying here as a prisoner, then the choice is obvious.”

  “You guys haven’t been infected. There would be no reason to detain you. At least, not indefinitely,” said Mark.

  “Let’s see what happens Mark,” said Jo. “We definitely want to carry on with the project. Who wouldn’t? It’s absolutely fascinating!” Her face was alive with enthusiasm and Mark grinned back.

  “Let me say how proud I am to have you two as my crew. You’re… well… more than crew to me now. I’d be very disappointed if you didn’t stay.” Mark said, his face and eyes revealing his emotions. Jo stood and embraced him warmly. When he was released, Andy shook him by the hand and received a clap on the shoulder as a demonstration of affection. “What are you up to here then?” asked Mark, indicating the frozen computer screen.

  “We have started designing a test rig for the Archive,” said Jo. “We want to isolate it from the ship’s systems so it can’t get up to no good again.”

  “Good move,” agreed Mark. “Is ZAC up and running?”

  “Yes, but we’ve deprived him of the use of his legs. He is on probation as well.” said Jo. Mark nodded his agreement.

  “It’s likely they will want to move all this to the Hyperion,” said Mark.

  “They can get their own bloody robots!” said Jo with a scowl. “There’s no reason why you can’t continue your work on them Jo, you are the expert.” Mark said reassuringly.

  “If they let us do anything at all,” growled Andy.

  “We have to fight for that,” said Mark. “We have a lot of experience now and I don’t think they will want to throw that away. Let’s see what their attitude is, but I wanted to tell you that all of us, Melanie’s science team and Anja, will meet up at 1400 to talk tactics before going across to the Hyperion.” Mark took his leave of Andy and Jo and headed for the lounge where he found Melanie brewing fresh coffee. They kissed and embraced, holding each other nervously. They had an insecure feeling that things were coming to a head and their futures were about to be decided by strangers. They felt and read each others feelings through their new found powers.

  “We’ve been on our own here for too long,” said Melanie, trying to calm their insecurities.

  “It feels like a lifetime but it’s only been thirty-two days,” said Mark.

  “Thirty-two days that may change the history of humanity,” said Melanie. Mark looked at her questioningly.

  “In what way?”

  “I’m thinking of the thing we call the Virtual,” she continued. “And what we were discussing yesterday, you know, the immortality thing.”

  “Oh right, transferring consciousness to an android brain. It’s a bit far fetched Melanie. I think Leslie is making some huge assumptions.”

  “Yes, but remember that Leslie has actually experienced it. Her Virtual became detached from her brain and her consciousness went with it.”

  “She may have dreamt it. Out of body experiences are very common.” Mark looked unconvinced.

  “She was fully conscious and aware of what WE were all doing. It wasn’t a dream. Leaving aside our new powers, which are developing and expanding and who knows where that will end, potential immortality is just, well, explosive.”

  “What are you suggesting we should do? Keep these things to ourselves?” asked Mark. She shook her head slowly and pensively.

  “I don’t know… it will all come out eventually. But it’s not just the immortality thing. It’s these new powers that we are all acquiring. You must have noticed that they are growing all the time?”

  “Yes…. I had.”

  “We haven’t told them about these powers,” she said. “Not even my father knows. How do you think they are going to treat us? We are not human any more Mark.” He looked shocked.

  “Whoa there girl! You look pretty human to me!”

  “I can read people’s minds and sense their emotions. Even Andy and Jo and Jimmy who are not infected. I can get into their heads also. Not as clearly as I can into yours, but it will probably get stronger. How human is that?” There was silence for a few seconds and then Mark shook his head.

  “Maybe we are what humans should have been,” he said. “How many problems have been caused throughout the ages by bad communications, misunderstandings and completely misreading the other guys intentions?”

  “Yes, but how comfortable would most people be if their inner thoughts and feelings were open to others? I don’t think the human race is ready for this on mass.”

  “So, are you suggesting we keep this quiet?”

  “For now, yes. Let’s put it to the others?” Her face was questioning. Mark nodded slowly.

  “OK. Let’s see how it goes.” He pulled her close to him and reached out with his new senses. Her emotions were mixed and confused and he tried to project calmness and strength. He felt her mental presence and her emotions grew warmer and calmer.

  Their internal conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Captain Anja and the Major, closely followed by the others.

  “What are you two up to ?” asked LeBlanc. “Other than gazing soulfully into each other’s eyes?”

  “Gazing soulfully into each others minds,” said Melanie, giving LeBlanc a meaningful look.

  “This is what I wanted to talk to everyone about,” began Melanie. She paused to allow everyone to settle before continuing. “Our telepathic and empathic powers are increasing in sensitivity and power. Where it will end I don’t know, but my question to all of you is this; should we reveal these powers to … for want of a better expression… outsiders?” There was a long pause and a number of blank, then enquiring expressions. It was Leslie who spoke first.

  “Melanie, why shouldn’t we tell the truth on this?”

  “I’m not saying we shouldn’t, just raising a cautionary warning.” Melanie looked pensive for a few seconds. “We have not so far revealed anything at all about our being infected by the Virtuals, or our developing abilities. Your recent experience Leslie, also raises the stakes; think how the possibility of immortality will be received by the human race. The only thing known by the outside world is that this civilization was destroyed by the Virtuals, which it appears migrated here via the TransGates . We now know that’s not true. The Virtuals were manufactured by the Elpidan’s AIs. There’s no doubt the planet will be quarantined and if we reveal our infection, so will we . W
e’ve already discussed this. My suggestion is, keep quiet about our …infection… for want of a better word, and get the hell away from here as soon as we all can.” There was a long and pregnant pause. It was LeBlanc who spoke first.

  “If we do that, we won’t be part of any future research here. You Melanie, and James and Leslie won’t be able to study the biology and archaeology of this planet. Jo and Andy won’t be able to carry on working on their technology. Dunno about you guys, but I don’t care if I’m quarantined here for the rest of my life. I can’t think of anywhere more exciting to be.” There were slow nods all round.

  “And it is an exceptionally beautiful planet,” said Anja wistfully. “I could live here for the rest of my life.” She reached out and took the Major’s hand. He smiled and nodded his agreement.

  “Is that how we all feel?” asked Melanie. There were nods and grunts of agreement.

  “It’s going to come out eventually Melanie,” said Walters. “This way, we have some control and influence over what happens.”

  “Well, hopefully we won’t have to live here for the rest of our lives,” said Melanie.

  Epilogue

  10 years later

  Mark and Melanie had decided to take the children for a picnic. They had taken the AG vehicle down the coast, well away from the new villages springing up around the old Elpidan coastal town, the one where Melanie and Leslie had had their accident on the bridge. It had become a major centre for archaeological research and the new villages housed hundreds of eager young scientists. They found a small bay set in the lee of heavily wooded hills where the warm shallow water was perfect for the youngsters. Andrew aged 4 and Harry aged 3 were cavorting in the water , alternating between carrying buckets of sand to increase the size of their already substantial sand castle and throwing themselves onto the oncoming waves in an attempt to achieve temporary flotation, with screams of delight.