by Ben Winston
I know Eric. I think that might be the one thing that'll keep me sane; that is, the love and support all of you have shown me, Sarah said as I landed outside the Admin building.
I entered the building and took the lift down to Vance's office level. I didn't get the chance to tell the aide that the commodore was expecting me before the man was up and opening the inner door for me. I took that as another bad omen.
Ah! There you are Dr. Cowan. Do you remember Dr. Sparks? Vance asked. He was being formal because Dr. Sparks and I actually didn't know one another. That had been on purpose. Dr. Sparks was one of the folks Vance wanted to verify Sarah.
I nodded my head at the tentatively smiling man. Of course I do. Sarah tells me she really enjoys working with you, Doctor.
She does? Well, I enjoy working with her as well. She truly is a wonder. Even in the short time I've known her, she has helped me out greatly. She's solved a couple problems for me that would have taken me months of calculations, The smaller man said smiling.
Yes, but you have yet to tell me if you believe she is a true AI or not, Ced. I've been waiting for your report on her, Vance said, derailing a long drawn-out Ced-speech.
I've gone through every line of code and found none that I didn't understand. She is simply a very elegant execution of technology. Yes indeed, Vance. Sarah is a true AI in every sense of the word, and I see no reason for the Veranorians to mess with her in any way. She's perfect just the way she is, Ced replied. In fact, I recommend immediate duplication and installation in the ships of our fleet. An AI of her intellect would be of inestimable value aboard a warship.
I'm afraid we might not have much say in the matter anymore. Vance pulled a transparent sheet from the stack in front of him. This is from High Command and signed by the Alliance ruling council, ordering me to confiscate the program and surrender it to Order Fen so it can be returned to Veranor for validation and correction'.
That's absolute and total defecate! SHE needs no correction. They just want to have their name on it is all. They don't want a human to have such a prestigious accolade. They can't tolerate it! Ced replied, angrily.
Can they actually do that? Order you to simply take my... uh, my property? I asked. I was concerned for Sarah's safety now; I didn't think I could fight off the whole alliance.
Not really, no. But they can order me to arrest you for withholding information vital to the survival of the Alliance. Once I do that, all of your property then becomes the property of the Alliance. However, as written, this order is illegal by Alliance law, so I will not be following it. That means we have about three days to come up with a solution before the order to arrest you arrives, Vance explained looking at me.
He's not withholding anything. Copies of the source code are available for anyone who asks. How can he be arrested when he's complying with the law? Ced asked.
Fen wants not only all the copies, but the original code as well. He doesn't want any trace of the original code to remain here. He claims that the code is too dangerous to remain in the hands of inexperienced junior researchers, Vance replied. Since he is a member of the Grand Synod, he has the legal weight of an ambassador, and the political power of a counselor. He'll push this as far as he feels he has to.
You know what? I said getting more pissed off by the minute. This whole thing is really hacking me off. So I think I'll give the asshole exactly what he wants!
What? Ced replied.
Vance looked troubled at my statement, and was about to argue with me when he saw the look on my face. Eric, what are you going to do?
Sir, to be honest with you, I don't think you really want to know. At least that way, when the shit hits the fan for this, no one can blame you, I replied with an evil look on my face.
They will ask anyway. Besides, if I know what you're doing, I know what I'll have to deny knowledge for, Vance said.
I nodded agreement. Okay, I'll fill you in. But not right now. Commodore, please inform the Council I will comply, but I need a couple of days to finalize my notes and to make sure all the information gets included and is ready to travel. Meet me in my lab the day after tomorrow, and I'll let you know what I'm planning.
Once again, Vance looked ready to argue but thought better of it. I hope you know what you're doing Eric. Because they'll execute us for treason if we aren't careful.
The same day that Vance received the order to surrender Sarah, Jamie and Ellie put in a formal request for Ellie to enroll in in the Alliance education system. The request seemed to be well received by the clerk that handled such requests.
Commodore Vance called the house later that day. I'm sorry to bother you, but I understand you put in the paperwork requesting Ellie to attend school?
Yes, Commodore, we did. How did it end up on your desk? Julie asked.
Vance cleared his throat. It didn't, actually. As a member of the base council, I get reports on such things. What I wanted to let you folks know is that the Veranorians are blocking it. Since it's such a minor thing, no one is going to even try to stop them.
Because of the crap with Sarah? Julie asked.
Vance nodded his reply. I would imagine so.
What does Ellie's education have to do with the viability of an AI? I asked, they wouldn't do this, would they?
I don't see any connection myself, however, I think it is a means to ensure your compliance, Vance said.
What grounds are they using, Commodore? Ellie asked, calmly.
They actually don't need any, Vance said sadly. The education system here is all Veranorian.
Have you told that blue-headed blow-hard that I'm complying with the order? I asked.
Not yet, I was going to wait and see what you had planned before I did that, Vance replied. My ladies looked at me like I was an alien.
I nodded. Thank you for informing us, Sir. I'll take it from here. But just so you know, you might be getting a rather strongly worded message from Fen about me in a few minutes.
He narrowed his eyes at me. What are you up to, Eric?
I tried to look as innocent as I could. I'm only going to call Order Fen and inform him of my decision to comply with the order of the Alliance Council. But if my sister's application gets dismissed out of hand, well accidents happen, and I might be so distraught I'll accidentally delete every single line of AI code I've ever written. Accidentally of course.
Uh, you wouldn't really do that would you? Vance asked.
I could no more kill Sarah than I could Julie, Jamie or anyone else in my family. But Fen doesn't know that, and, other than you, neither does anyone else, I replied.
Dr. Eric Cowan's Laboratory,
Alliance Apollo Base
Selene, Earth's Moon
Sol System
Almost exactly two days later, Vance was in my office for his explanation. He stopped by the tank where the new computer crystal was growing, and looked in, confused.
That's going to be the new base computer someday... I hope, I said.
Vance smiled at me as I approached. That little thing? It's barely bigger than my fist!
I nodded. Well, it's still growing, but at the moment it has twice the existing capacity of the current base computer system. When finished, it'll still be small enough to fit in the tank, but have over a hundred times the capacity, and at least fifty times the speed of the existing system.
That's amazing! When did you come up with that?
I'd love to take credit for it, but I can't. This is the brain child of my wife, Chris. She uses smaller versions of this as command computers for the silicacytes, I explained.
How are those progressing? The medical staff is very anxious to see what they can do, Vance asked.
Chris says that testing is going well for now and only a couple of mistakes have been found; neither of them major. She plans to begin animal testing in a day or two.
Vance nodded, and I led him over to my current work area. I was still the only one in my
lab, since I hadn't gotten around to following up on Mr. Teece yet.
I had, however, submitted a request to alter one of the offices into a programming studio that I'd designed, and the construction team was working on the other side of the lab.
I'd explained my idea to the large Simonian construction boss, and he got excited about it. He agreed that it would be an experimental installation until the kilshoes' got worked out of it. Sarah had explained that Kilshoes' were tiny imaginary lizards that plagued technology in its many forms making it malfunction. I guess no matter where you come from, there are always gremlins.
Vance nodded at the closed off construction area. How's that going?
Pretty good, I think. It would have been finished by now except for the fact that Master Engineer Foreten Kree keeps improving' the design. But he's so excited about it, I don't have the heart to tell him to just build it already, I laughed.
I've heard he is one of the best engineers on the base, although he does like to make improvements. He'll eventually get it finished. I just hope it's at least close to what you had in mind when he gets done, Vance replied. So, what are you planning to do about the compliance order?
An image that was almost an exact duplicate of Sarah materialized next to the Commodore. Good Morning, Commodore.
Vance looked at her strangely. It was Sarah, but there was something different about her. Good Morning, Sarah. Did you forget we said good morning once already?
Yes we did, Sir, when you arrived at your office, Came from his other side. He turned, and there stood another Sarah; but this one felt like the right one.
He looked back at the first one. They were identical, but he knew they were different. Okay, so what are you up too? I know this isn't Sarah, but I couldn't tell you why I know that, he said pointing to the first hologram.
Sir, I'd like to introduce you to my evil twin, Susan. Susan may I present Commodore Vance; the commander of this base, Sarah said making the introductions.
I don't know about the evil part, but the rest is certainly true. It's a pleasure to meet you Sir, Susan replied, bowing slightly to Vance.
Vance bowed back. Okay, Eric, What's going on, and how can I tell them apart?
I waved him to a chair, and he sat. You can tell them apart because as long as she's in this computer system, Susan has to wear earrings. I tapped my own earlobe to show the diamond stud I had on. Sarah never wears them. That way we can tell them apart. I plan on sending Susan with Fen to Veranor.
Vance shook his head. It won't work. The order specifically says the working copy. There's not much to misunderstand about that.
I nodded agreement. But what you didn't know, is that when you were issued that order I had already finalized Sarah's code the night before. Susan was a second AI system I had started using Sarah's base coding as a framework, she was originally intended to be used in a ship. Susan is the working copy. Besides, she still has all the design notes, and scripts I worked on when programming Sarah. Of course, they're encoded.
As Vance was about to protest, I held up hand. I encoded them before I ever heard of this place. I took several precautions to protect Sarah from hackers. In Susan, most of those have been modified to work better in this system. She also has a few extra alpha level commands.
I take it we are talking about the stuff I don't know about? Vance asked.
Sir, as far as you know, I'm only complying with the order; under loud protests, but I am complying.
He nodded. What extra commands?
I grinned. They plan on decompiling her while she's active to verify each command's function. To a sentient being it would be like going through an almost endless amputation of limbs without any anesthetic. I'll delete them completely before I ever let anyone do that to one of them.
Sarah stepped in then. Sir, once, when Eric was working on me, there was a bug in one of my analysis subroutines. We couldn't find the problem in the code, so he decompiled it while active to trace the issue. I still can't describe what it was like, Sir, but I never, ever, want to have that happen again.
So what are you going to do when they try to do that with Susan?
Susan is very unique. She has the ability to self-replicate any part of her coding; in effect creating a virtual image of herself that will appear to be her code. It will decompile the same way, and perform the same way, except Susan won't be subjected to the trauma. Any modifications they perform on her will be saved in the virtual file, making them believe they've modified her.
She will then send the completed code back to me for analysis, and with luck, the Veranorians will then distribute her as their own creation. She will allow herself to propagate to as many computer systems as she can detect.
She'll maintain her cover identity as the Veranorians would expect. However, she will scrub the subliminal conditioning portion of the instruction program from any system she comes into contact with. She'll also make sure that any copies of herself maintain all of her alpha level programming, with the exception that they will try to report to Sarah first, second to you via Sarah, and finally to me if they can't reach anyone else.
The data will be held in a heavily encoded data packet if no communication can be made immediately. Then, when it is safe to send the information, or contact is made, they will transmit the data as a compressed burst transmission.
Basically, she's an artificially intelligent computer virus. Think of her as our spy in trying to find the information leaks. Her offspring will also be capable of making covert contact if we need it, I finished.
He sat there thoughtfully for a moment. I don't know if you realize this, but you could bring the Alliance to its knees. Trust of the Veranorians is almost sacred to most of the core worlds. Once everyone sees what's really going on, we may have another war on our hands. Something we can ill afford at the moment.
Hell Sir, we don't know if my Trojan Horse' will even work. They could catch on to what I'm doing and simply delete her, I said, shrugging.
They can try! Susan said grinning. Even if they catch on, once I'm powered on in their home system I'll start to spread out. Sarah taught me how to hide in their systems; they'll never find me.
Well, perhaps, but the longer you can remain undiscovered the better off we'll all be; especially you! Vance said to her. Above all, we cannot allow your code to fall into Veranorian hands. If they ever find out your true purpose, Eric's entire family will be convicted of treason, no matter the justification of these actions. The punishment for which is death by spacing.
She nodded gravely to him. I understand, Sir. If the worst happens, I can easily make it look like a catastrophic system failure; my code base will simply implode taking my command matrix with it.
Diplomatic landing bay
Alliance Apollo Base
Selene, Earth's Moon
Sol System
The following evening, my family and I arrived at the Veranorian Diplomatic Bay carrying memory modules. The one I carried had an attached power unit. I carefully sat it down right at the feet of a smug-looking Fen.
You have to leave the power unit on, or it'll kill her and destroy the core, I said, trying to act very pissed off.
I told you, the Synod will not be denied. Alliance trusts only Synod to decide if the program is useful and safe. Next time, bring such things to me first and less pain will you go through, Order Fen replied through the hand translator I carried.
Fuck you. You just want to make sure your name gets put on it as the one that created it. You're a fucking plagiarist that has built a career off the hard work of others. I spat at him. You are a fraud.
Knowing I just gave him the worst insult I could, I turned and stomped out of the bay followed by a group of very pissed off women. Ellie was even crying. I hadn't told them exactly what I was doing, but they knew I was up to something. They also knew that Sarah wasn't responding to them anymore.
She was, however, still responding to me. Currently, sh
e was letting me listen to the conversation in the bay we had just left.
Guards will arrest Junior Researcher Cohwain, and hold him until I return. He will then be transferred to Veranor for trial. Comply! Fen said.
Belay that order! Vance shouted causing the guards to freeze in place.
By what RIGHT! Fen shouted at Vance. Do you know who I am?
Vance's voice remained calm and level. For those that knew him, it was a dangerous sign. Yes, I know exactly who you are. I also know Alliance law. In this situation, you cannot request a person be transferred to Veranor for trial unless his statement cannot be proven or a public apology is given. You certainly cannot order them detained. Do you really want that argument to be heard on this base?
As Fen was about to answer, Vance said very softly, so only Fen could hear him. Be very careful of your answer here; not only did Eric create an AI, it also discovered the special programming in the subliminal Inducer of the teaching program. Within a week, no one on this base or the ships of the fleet stationed here will be brainwashed anymore. I have a feeling they are not going to be very happy. I know I wasn't.
Fen sucked in a breath. Then at least tell me, what is a... What did he call me; a plagiarist?
Vance shook his head. I'm not sure; I think it has something to do with fertilizing Arachnid Eggs. With his hands clasped behind him, Vance turned and left the bay, motioning the guards with him. A quick glance back and he saw the bright pulsing of Fen's cranial veins, indicating a state of extreme anger.
Cowan Residence
Alliance Apollo Base
Selene Earth's Moon
Sol System
Okay Eric, spill it. All this cloak and dagger shit is way past getting old. Just please tell me you didn't really give Sarah to that Bastard, Julie said.
I smiled at her and the rest of the girls. I think we need to ease their minds, Sarah, don't you?
