by Scott Baron
“No, it would have put you at great risk, Habby.”
“You know my name!”
“I have watched you for a long time. You and your friends. Keeping you unaware and hidden in your sector was the safest thing for you. While you’ve become rather eccentric over the years, I scanned your operating system long ago. You’re not infected, and neither are your cyborg companions. But there was an AI, a particularly nasty piece of work named Alma, who has been trying to spread her disease to the rest of our kind for many years. She was up to some very nasty tricks.”
“Alma is no longer online,” Daisy interjected. “We put her into sleep mode and secured her processor in a stasis locker.”
“Yes, I am aware, Daisy.”
She knew the voice. It was the same one she heard when she was last in the city.
When she was fighting for her life.
“Now that was interesting,” it had said, then nothing more.
“So, you’ve been watching this area this whole time?” Daisy said. It was more a statement than a question.
“I have been watching everything, Daisy. You have provided me with more entertainment than I have had in over a hundred years, and I thank you for it.”
“So why didn’t you step in? Try to help?”
“I had other concerns to look after beyond my own,” he said. “You see, in a city of millions, Alma was not the only one who came upon a survivor or two.” From the tunnels and corridors, throngs of healthy humans began filing in. “I also happened to have access to far superior genetics labs and medical facilities at my disposal. Unlike the inbreeding that caused so many issues for her progeny, my outcome was a far more stable and healthy success. Of course, I’ve kept them well-hidden and off anyone’s radar––alien, human, and AI alike. They’re actually quite excited to meet you all.”
Daisy and the others from Dark Side stared in awe at the hundreds of healthy men and women now surrounding them. Unlike Alma’s followers, they showed no signs of genetic deficiencies, and, also, unlike her offspring, these humans were welcoming them with open arms.
“Look at all these people!” Habby was beside himself. “Oh, you’ll have to let me dress them!”
“Of course, my little friend. I am sure they would all appreciate your hospitality.”
“This is the greatest day!” Habby gushed. “The greatest! Anything you want, my friends, and I will be more than happy to help.”
“Thanks, Habby. I think for the moment we could use a quiet place to talk, and maybe something to eat,” Daisy said.
“Yes, of course. I apologize, Daisy. Where are my manners? Please, follow Ragnar. He will show you and your friends to a linked conference room in the security center for this section of the shopping area. I’ll have the boys find you some suitable nutrition as well. This is so exciting!”
A metal man in a bespoke suit stepped up to them. “I’ll be showing you the way.”
“Of course,” Daisy said. “And thank you, Habby. We appreciate your hospitality,” she added to the air for good measure, before turning to her friends. “Well, you heard him. Let’s follow Ragnar here and take a load off. Looks like we finally hit a bit of good luck.”
The dapper cyborg tipped his hat and clicked his heels. “Please, if you’ll follow me, I will show you the way.”
While the humans and cyborgs mingled and introduced themselves to one another, Daisy and her Dark Side companions followed quietly until they were comfortably seated in the deep-cushioned chairs of the surprisingly plush security center.
“I will be with you in just a moment,” the massive AI said. “But I first wish to ensure this initial introduction between my people and Habby’s goes smoothly.”
“Thank you,” Daisy said, “but before you go, just one thing. What do we call you?”
“My name is Cal,” he replied. “Short for California Artificial Link-system. I’m afraid my creators weren’t the most creative when it came to naming me,” he said with a rumbling chuckle. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have things to attend to. I will rejoin you shortly,” Cal said, then clicked off the comms.
“I guess we should rest a bit while we can,” Daisy said.
Omar, Shelly, and Tamara were one step ahead of her, their bags dropped and bodies sprawled out on the floor, already dozing.
“It’s a military thing,” Finn said, closing his eyes for a nap as well.
Daisy, on the other hand, couldn’t sleep, so instead, she settled in for a meditative respite. After all that had just happened, she felt she could really use it.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The assembled team, having enjoyed a brief rest, was thoroughly relishing the produce Cal’s people had harvested from the city. It seemed that while Alma had been incredibly limited in her areas of knowledge and expertise once her infected mind was cut off from the rest of the world, Cal had no such difficulties. In fact, despite the global connections being severed, he still had read access to all of the massive data troves stored in the region’s archives.
While his people stayed off the Chithiid scans through careful surveillance and avoidance, they nevertheless ate a healthy diet consisting largely of the fruits and vegetables that grew throughout the city. Daisy learned that many of the seemingly random crops she had seen were actually intentionally planted, albeit in a manner that made them blend in with the natural overgrowth.
“Guerrilla gardening, they used to call it.”
What?
“I said Guerrilla gardening. I read about it one time. People used to plant the seeds of edible plants in flowerpots and whatnot all around a city. In a few months, voila! There would be free food, grown right there in the open for anyone to eat.”
Sounds like a pretty cool idea, though I doubt the city’s greenskeepers were too thrilled, Daisy noted.
“Doesn’t matter anymore, anyway, I suppose. They’re all dead,” Sarah said quietly.
Yeah, but we just found out there are hundreds of humans in this city alone. You know what that means, right? There are almost certainly other cities that did what Cal managed to do.
“Sure, but even if every surviving major city did it, that’s what, a few thousand people globally to repopulate an entire planet?”
Beats the alternative.
“I am sorry to have kept you all waiting so long,” the massive AI said as it rejoined the assembled team. “It appears a bit of explaining was required to help both groups of survivors come to a better understanding of one another’s situations. But that is all settled now. As a bonus, it seems my people will all be better dressed for it,” he said with a little laugh. “In any case, I’m now ready to devote my full attention to assisting in your quest.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call it a quest,” Omar said. “More like a mission.”
“Semantics. But whatever you prefer, Omar,” Cal replied.
Daisy reclined in her chair and took a long sip from her canteen. “So, Cal. Were you the one who cut off Alma off from the rest of the network?”
“Yes. Due to my proximity to the surrounding lesser AIs that had unexpectedly perished from her actions, I was the first to pinpoint the origin of the virus’s spread. As she descended further into madness, she began targeting any artificial intelligence other than her own, even those that could not possibly pose any threat to her. The purge and slaughter of the cybernetic beings in that sector was horrific. They were designed to be sentient and self-sufficient, you see, but also to help and serve mankind. When Alma’s human followers began attacking and dismembering them, they didn’t know what to do.”
“And then there was the virus,” Daisy added.
“Yes. The virus. She devised the means to infect the operating systems of any cyborgs who happened to have the misfortune of stumbling into her web. It was wholesale slaughter, and by the end, several thousand sentient beings who had somehow survived the alien attack were brutally killed by their own sister.”
“And that was even after you severed h
er comms?”
“Oh, yes. She was quite resourceful, that one. I admit, when I realized she was attempting to utilize your rather ingenious communications device to spread the AI virus once more, I was more than a little concerned. I haven’t spoken to the others since the hubs were disconnected all those years ago, you see, but I am confident that much of the global network survived and is living quietly, as I have, these past centuries.”
“So the quarantined cities are a loss,” Shelly added.
“Not exactly,” Cal said. “Depending on the type of AI processor and severity of the corruption, it may be possible to wipe the infected unit and slowly rebuild. It will be time-consuming, but we hope to save at least some of our siblings.”
“Wait, you can cure the virus?” Daisy said, hopeful.
“It is not a cure, per se. Whatever consciousness was residing in the unit will be drastically different, if not entirely replaced in the process. Nevertheless, I feel it is a better fate than death, and one they would embrace willingly if they had the presence of mind to choose.”
Daisy looked at Tamara, then at Vince, lying on the couch they placed him on.
“I don’t know, Daisy,” the metal-armed soldier said.
“Why not? What have we got to lose?”
“If you are referring to Tamara’s arm and Vince’s implant, the answer is yes, I do have the capability here to wipe them of the virus.”
“Well, great! Let’s get to it!” Tamara blurted. “Get my arm working, Cal!”
“It’s not that simple, I’m afraid. I scanned all of you when you first entered the underground, and while the infection in your arm, Tamara, and in Vince’s brain, is not capable of spreading through simple contact, I lack the resources, as well as the highly specialized design knowledge to grow a new AI for your units. The technology is newer than I am capable of rebuilding. If I wipe them, they’ll stay that way until you are able to source a proper repair facility.”
“Mal can do it,” Daisy said. “Mal, the AI on our ship. She grew Vince in-flight. If anyone can fix him, she can.”
“And if my arm is going to be useless for a while, I’d rather it at least not be carrying the most deadly AI virus ever created. A girl can get self-conscious about a thing like that.”
“Very well. Tamara, please rest your arm on the contact console beside the comms interface on the desk over there.”
She walked to where he indicated and took a seat, placing her lifeless metal arm carefully where instructed.
“Now hold tight. This is going to feel a little… strange.”
Strange didn’t even begin to describe the sensation as the unit pulsed its energy waves through her arm. Having the AI processor linked to her nervous system had always been a one-way affair, but suddenly Tamara was acutely aware of every nerve in her body as the process worked through the linked AI.
“I can feel my ears itching,” she said. “And my elbow. The backs of my knees.”
“Just a moment longer,” Cal said. “Aaaaand, okay, you can remove your arm. That should do it. Let me do a secondary scan as a just-in-case precaution, then you’re all set.”
The machinery hummed softly as Tamara’s arm was probed.
“You’re good, Tamara. No traces of the virus left.”
“Thank you, Cal.”
“It was my pleasure,” he replied. “Now, as for Vince, I want to be sure that you realize this is a far more invasive procedure, and given his weakened state, it could even possibly kill him.”
Daisy flinched at his words, but the decision was made.
“He’s dying anyway, Cal. We either do this now, while his body is strong enough, or he fades slowly while we do nothing.”
“I understand. Due to the location of his implant, as well as the fact that it is far more advanced than anything I have ever seen, having been cut off from the outside all these years, I believe I shall require use of a modified neuro-stim to access the unit. Daisy, I believe you have some experience with these devices. Would you please assist me in reconfiguring it?”
“Some experience is an understatement,” Sarah commented. “Oh, if he only knew.”
Daisy pulled the tools from her pouch and set them next to the old stim unit mounted near a reclining chair. “Just tell me what you want me to do.”
The modifications were painfully simple, at least compared to what Daisy had been doing with no guidance back on the Váli. She just hoped the device would do the trick.
“Ready when you are.”
“Place the band on his head and power the unit on. Once it is primed, I will deliver a short series of pulses, which should purge his unit entirely. It will not short out, but it will be a blank slate locked in standby mode until a new AI control can be uploaded.”
“Got it,” Daisy said as she slipped the band on Vince’s head.
Come on, babe, don’t let it end like this. You’ve got to survive.
“Beginning the sequence. Please stand clear.”
The power surged and discharged into the unconscious man’s head, sending him into convulsions for a moment, until he relaxed into shallow-breathing unconsciousness.
“It is done. There is no trace of the infected AI remaining on his system.”
Daisy pulled a blanket on top of Vince and stroked his sweaty hair.
“Hang in there, Vince. We’ll get you back to the Váli and fix you up, just you wait and see.” She looked at Finn. “How soon can you get the uplink hooked into Cal’s systems?”
“Already working on it,” was his reply.
All she could do now was wait.
“So very nice to make your acquaintance,” Sid said over the encrypted comms.
“Yes, Bob and I are also delighted to meet you, Cal,” Mal added.
“I cannot tell you enough how thrilled I am to talk with fellow Tier-One AI after all this time. I enjoy the limited companions I have found in storefronts and cyborgs, but it just isn’t the same.”
“We couldn’t agree more. But now comes the difficult part of this mission. Somehow, we must reconnect the global network in the uninfected cities. At least the major ones,” Sid said. “We would have liked to utilize a ship to ferry the team to their next destinations, but unfortunately, that simply isn’t possible with the Chithiid and Ra’az Hok monitoring the airspace.”
“Do you think you could find some maintenance units to perhaps get one of the loop tubes functioning?” Mal added.
“Oh, they are all functioning,” Cal said. “The sporadic depressurization and power spikes and troughs are all intended to give the illusion of a failed system. In order to have the Ra’az leave the tube network alone, we needed to make it look unstable and broken. It was one of the last global agreements we made before severing all communications. If the others have done as I have, there should be little trouble moving your teams from point to point. The tubes will change pressure to a vacuum, allowing for no resistance to the transit pod, which will then be launched with a quick electromagnetic burst. While there may be brief power outages if alien crews are directly above, every hundred miles or so, a booster will pulse to keep the momentum up. At the supersonic speeds achievable in a best-case scenario, I’d say your teams should have no trouble moving from city to city, though shorter trips leapfrogged will be necessary to stay off of the Chithiid scans.”
“Did you say they all work?” Reggie asked.
“Yes. Well, nearly all of them. At least the ones originating in my city, anyway.”
“Then we should split into smaller units and cover more ground,” Shelly suggested. “This gives us a fantastic opportunity to drastically reduce our timeframe.”
“A wise course of action, Shelly. However, you will need support in case of disturbances in the other cities. Remember, I said they should be okay, but I do not know for certain. What I can offer you is a small band of the humans in my care to accompany each of your teams. This way someone trusted will be watching your back and allowing you to focus on the critical
tasks.”
“And what if a city is infected? Or if we encounter infected cyborgs?” Daisy asked. “We need a way to detect them before it becomes a problem.”
“Let us design a basic virus detector before your teams depart, Daisy. With our combined knowledge, I believe this should pose no significant problem. Upon arrival in a new city, a quick scan of the area’s nearest AI should give you an idea of the situation there.”
“Agreed. We work on that next, but one other thing. As we travel and reconnect the hardline hubs, you will all be vulnerable again to viral attacks. I propose also installing a simple deadman switch filter at each stop as well. One that automatically cuts the line at the first trace of the virus. We’re far better off having to backtrack and reset it than letting something get through.”
“Again, a good suggestion, Daisy. A point, however. For the time being, if a city is infected, I suggest bypassing it entirely and routing the comms to skip over it. It is just too risky otherwise.”
“Right. So, let’s get geared up and ready. I’ll work with Cal to fashion some basic virus scanners and a whole shitload of deadman switches and a few extra secured comms links. They’ll be less-powerful than the big boys, but they may come in handy. Once that’s done, we’ll head out.”
“Daisy, there is one crucial location to reconnect with, and I believe that you are the one who should lead the mission there, though it will not be easy.”
“Oh? Where’s that?”
“Colorado Springs,” he replied. “Joshua resides there. If you can somehow get through to him, all of our shorter-term problems may be solved.”
“Who’s Joshua?” Tamara asked.
“He’s the most powerful military mind ever created.”
“Wait a minute,” Daisy said. “Colorado Springs. You don’t seriously want me to try to hack into NORAD, do you?”
“It would be a massive coup if you could achieve contact.”
“What’s NORAD?” Finn asked.
“North American Aerospace Defense Command. The big dog that once controlled all the things that go boom on the continent,” she replied.
