Mark sat in stunned silence. Trillions of real people like himself. Ordinary people with plans and dreams, rich and poor, living in huts and houses, flats and mansions. People who weren’t even aware of intelligent life other than their own. People who had conquered space and spread across the galaxy, People who had no knowledge of what had invaded their galaxy or the terrible price they were going pay to save other ordinary people in other far off galaxies. People whose lives ended, incomplete, unfulfilled. The sheer scale of it was overwhelming.
“You will see now why we will not allow the use of AI fighting machines. Not anywhere in the universe, by anyone. If this situation arose again, the People would do the same thing again. Our only hope is to prevent it ever happening again.”
Mark slowly shook his head. To be put in an impossible position like that was unthinkable.
“You may wonder why I have told you this part of our history. We do not share it outside of the People. We are all taught it when we are young, but never speak of it again unless something happens that means we need to.”
Mark was still shocked by what he had heard. A chill went through him as he realised this could have happened in the Milky Way galaxy, that all chance of life would have been permanently snuffed out six billion years before the Earth’s sun was even formed. “So what has happened now that you need to speak of it?” Mark almost whispered.
“Some of the AI fighting machines escaped. We hunt for signs of them all over the known universe and occasionally find their remains. In ten billion years they could travel a very long way and this galaxy is well within the sphere they could have reached. None we have found are functional now, but many of them have technology intact. I have been informed it is possible that Tk'ng Dach Rrn has discovered the remains of one of them and may have access to some of their technology.”
“Do you mean he might be making weapons using their technology?”
“No, Tk'ng Dach Rrn’s own technology is not advanced enough to be able to reverse engineer the AI fighting machine’s technology, their level of artificial intelligence is an order of magnitude more advanced than anything that any civilisation has. It is not very much inferior to the People’s. The danger is that if he has recovered any weapons, he may be able to power them up and use them. Your plan may not be as easy to execute as you first thought. I would urge you to reconsider the idea of going into Tk'ng Dach Rrn’s fortress. It can be destroyed by orbital bombardment.”
“But if the fortress is bombed, Tk'ng Dach Rrn could still escape. Possibly with weapons that could even be used against the People.”
“That is a possibility. My best estimate, using Mother’s AI to test scenarios, is that there is only a twelve point nine percent probability that he would escape orbital bombardment.”
Mark sighed. “That’s too high. This must end. The only way to be certain that he is dead is for someone to witness his death. I am the only person who stands any chance of doing that. If I fail, trigger the bombardment. I understand that the Ants are adept at it.”
“If by adept, you mean being able to reduce to dust everything within a hundred and fifty kilometre radius, then yes, they are.”
“I can see why Sally is reluctant to let them do it. With the new information you have given me, I’d like to run some scenarios of my own. I need advice too. I’ll talk it over with Orange. He doesn’t need to know anything you have told me, he already thinks I’m either going to get killed straight away or captured and tortured to death. I assume that Kate - er, I mean, my AI, isn’t the best instrument for comparing scenarios, can I use Mothers main AI to help?”
“So you still feel the need to name things that don’t need naming? Using your AI in conjunction with Mother’s main AI would be a good idea, but you don’t have to ask, you have full access to any of Mother’s systems or assets. I appreciate you checking with me first though. Come back and tell me the results when you have finished, won’t you?”
“Of course. Orange is supposed to be spending time with me on tactics, so I can easily arrange it. I’ll go and find him now.”
Mark stood up and blinked to the team quarters.
Branches Everywhere
Orange was laying on his bed, Simon was sitting at the table eating, complaining to Orange about all the interviews, follow-up checks, and reports they had to do for the new recruits.
“So, how many of these interviews do you have to do?” Orange asked Simon.
“The HR AI does all of them.”
“So, none of them. How many forms do you personally have to fill in?”
“Well, me personally, none. The HR bot does that.”
“And how many follow up checks do you have to do?”
“The HR AI does all of them of course.”
“I see. And how many reports do you have to write?” Orange asked.
“I don’t write the reports, they are generated by the HR AI, but I have to make sure they are all done, and the interviews and follow up checks.”
“What’s involved in that Simon?”
“Well, I ask the AI if they are all done.”
“Are they always all done?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Let me see.” Orange said. “You are making a new career out of complaining about the interviews, follow-up checks, and reports that have to be done for all of these new recruits, but your only involvement is asking the HR AI if everything has been done. I am I correct.”
“Fuck you!” Simon shouted angrily. “It’s all right for you. All you’ve got to do is run bloody scenarios through the tactical AI. You don’t know how fucking lucky you are!” He stood up, threw his meal on the floor and stomped out.
Orange looked up at Mark. “And how can I help you?” He asked.
“I need some advice. Can you help me, please?”
Orange swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up on it. “If I can. What do you need advice about?”
“I want to review my mission plan so I have got some alternative plans available in case things don’t go as expected. We can use Mother’s AI to run the scenarios.”
“It would be great to use Mothers AI, but shouldn’t you get Alan’s permission first?”
“Apparently not, but I have done anyway.”
“OK, I’ve got some downtime now. Shall we go to the meeting room?”
Mark, his AI, Orange and Mother’s main AI reviewed every step of Mark’s plan, dissecting it to establish every event that could possibly happen and running multiple scenarios to test outcomes and devise contingencies and backup plans. Orange didn’t have full information about the phase shift protection or any information about Mark’s concealed weapon, just that he would have something. When they had finished and Orange left, Mark, his AI and Mother’s main AI started again making allowance for the full capabilities of the phase shift protection and the concealed weapon, This didn’t take as long as the original planning session as nearly all the potential problems had already been identified.
When they had finished, every foreseeable eventuality had been planned for. Mark was still concerned that there might be a vital unforeseen eventuality. Mark blinked to the command centre to update Alan as he had promised.
He explained to Alan how they had created walk through scenarios to cover every possible event so Mark now had a massively branched plan that led to a successful outcome no matter what happened or what went wrong.
Alan sat quietly when Mark finished.
“So, we’ve planned for everything. There is nothing that can go wrong. The plan can’t fail, can it?” Mark asked.
“You are still not one hundred percent confident, are you Mark.” Alan stated.
Mark looked down at the table, then looked up at Alan. “No, but the plan covers every eventuality. How can it possibly fail?” He asked.
“We don’t know for certain that Tk'ng Dach Rrn has got hold of any of the AI fighting machines technology. If he hasn’t, it should be quick and straightforward. But there
are two unknown factors at work here. If he has got some of their technology, we don’t know what he has got but the biggest problem is that we don’t know what all of their technology is. We’ve never recovered any technology from the AI units we have found that gives any clue how they overcame our phase shift protection, or found anything we can’t protect ourselves from. We know that technology we can’t protect ourselves from existed. If Tk'ng Dach Rrn has access to unknown technology, it is not possible to plan for a successful outcome.”
“Do you have any suggestions?”
“Yes. I suggest you abandon this course of action and let the Ants conduct a campaign of orbital bombardment.”
Mark sighed. He felt he had been doing too much of that lately. “We’ve already talked about that. The risk of Tk'ng Dach Rrn escaping is too high. I’m going ahead with it.”
“You must do what you think is right Mark. It is perhaps unfortunate for you that you are a Friend of the People. If you weren’t, what you are planning would not be an option for you. For this, I am truly sorry.”
Mark smiled. “If you had offered me the chance to become a Friend of the People and I could have foreseen this, I would have turned you down. But now, I am the best chance to put an end to this, and for that, I am grateful Alan.”
Mark held out his hand and Alan shook it with his upper right hand.
“When I was on Earth, I wanted my life to change and have some meaning to it. This wasn’t quite what I had in mind, but if I am successful, I will have saved the future of everybody on Earth, even if they never know it. If I fail, well, at least I will have tried.” Mark said. “Thanks Alan.”
The next four days went by quickly for Mark, back to the constant round of running and close combat training with Mike and assault course training with Simon. Mark didn’t think he needed any more training from Simon, but it seemed to cheer him up. The break from fighting was bringing back Simon’s depression and outbursts of unprovoked anger.
The Fifth Day
When Mark woke up on the fifth day, his AI gave him the message that Sally wanted to see him when he was ready. Mark quietly got out of his bunk so as not to wake Mike, asleep in the bunk below him. or Orange, asleep on his bed. He quickly showered and dressed and walked to Sally’s quarters. Her door opened as he approached it and he walked in.
Sally was sprawled across an armchair with her legs over one of the arms and her eyes were shut. Mark thought she was asleep and backed up towards the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Sally mumbled, opening her eyes blearily.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. You look like you need to sleep.” Mark said.
Sally yawned and sat up in her chair. “Yes, I do. I wanted to speak to you first. I’ve been on sleep suppressors too long and I need to get some real sleep. Then I’m going to be with the invasion force preparing to start the assault on planet. This is my last chance to see you before I meet you with the team to drop you off at the fortress. I wanted to tell you personally that we’re ready to go. I’ve got a bigger army now than I have ever commanded, bigger than I thought I would ever have or want. It has turned into a bit of a machine, I feel like more of a figurehead than a leader now. But - that’s enough of my problems. Mark, are you sure you want to do this? Alan has concerns but he won’t tell me what they are. He keeps pressing me to pull you out of this and get the Ants to carry out an orbital bombardment on Tk'ng Dach Rrn’s fortress.”
“So why haven’t you done as he asked?”
“Because you must know the reasons he doesn’t want you to go, but you are still determined to do it. Also, because if I were to stop you, and I’m not sure I could, you would never forgive me.”
Mark smiled. “I don’t suppose he mentioned the twelve point nine percent probability that Tk'ng Dach Rrn would escape an orbital bombardment? Anyway, you still have that option if I fail. Sally, I couldn’t live with myself if I decided not to go through with this and Tk'ng Dach Rrn escaped to continue this war. I have my own concerns about this too, but I also worry about your safety. You may not survive this either.”
Sally sighed.
“It must be catching.” Mark thought.
Sally said “We plan to start our assault in fourteen hours. Alan is visiting all the rallying points for the remaining new troops, landers and weapons to collect them and is then taking us to Tk'ng Dach Rrn’s planet. We will deploy orbital weapons to take out all of their orbital facilities at the same time as we launch our first wave. If you can confirm Tk'ng Dach Rrn’s death, we will withdraw and thirty-six thousand Ants will take our place. Otherwise my army will continue with the assault and launch a search and destroy operation for Tk'ng Dach Rrn.”
“Bloody hell! Will there be life of any kind left on the planet afterwards?”
“There is no animal life higher than a slug on the planet, even in the oceans. Ti’rrk has passed our request and the Peoples strong desire that minimal environmental damage occurs, but experience has shown that there won’t be much left after the Ants have had free range in a war zone. That does mean Ti’rrk won’t be joining the team when we go down with you.”
“That’s pity, but it’s only a brief decoy attack. I hope I’ll get to see her afterwards.”
“We’re all hoping we’ll get to see you afterwards.” Sally said.
“I’ll pass over access to Tk'ng Dach Rrn’s systems to Mother’s AI. Neither my AI or I need the distraction of that now. Alan will give you complete access to it, but I’ll keep the covert command and control.”
“OK.” Yawned Sally.
“Let’s get you to bed now. You look like you need it.”
“Not now, I’m too tired.” Sally said with a smirk. “You’ll have to wait until this is all over.”
“No, no - I didn’t mean - I meant - you need to get to sleep.” Mark stuttered, deeply embarrassed.
Sally laughed at his embarrassment “Go on, I’ll get myself to bed. You go and do what you need to get ready. I’ll see you on the docking bay.”
Still red-faced, Mark blinked out and into the command centre. Where Alan was sitting at the main console.
“You look a bit flustered Mark.”
“I’m fine. Are you busy?” Mark asked.
“Well, we have nearly finished loading the last of Sally’s new soldiers, then we’re going to Sally’s shipyard to collect more landers, but Mother can handle that.”
“Sally has her own shipyard?”
“She can make sure that the craft built there are all standardised. If she were to get them donated by grateful civilisations, they would all be different.”
“Oh, right. Tell me, when I am ready for my own craft, where will it come from?”
“The People have several construction facilities across the universe. When you specify what you want, it will be provided by the most appropriate facility.”
“OK, that makes sense.” Mark said, though he had been hoping for something more specific.
“Have you changed your mind about going into Tk'ng Dach Rrn’s fortress by yourself?” Alan asked.
“No. It has to be done. I have asked my AI to pass over the direct access protocols to Tk'ng Dach Rrn’s systems to Mother. You’ll share that with Sally?”
“Of course. Any last minute thoughts?”
“I’m concerned about getting out of there, whether I succeed or not. It won’t be safe to bring a lander to the fortress, I’ll have to get quite a distance from it to get to a safe place for it to land, but it’s possible I’ll be trapped inside.”
“Don’t use a lander. Call down the shuttle and leave in that.”
“Suppose I am deep underground. How will my AI be able to get through to call the shuttle down? More to the point, how will I get to the shuttle?”
“Your AI uses subspace communications. You could be in the centre of a neutron star on the other side of the universe and it would be able to communicate with the shuttle. And don’t worry about getting to the shuttle, it wi
ll get to you.”
“What do you know about Tk'ng Dach Rrn?” Mark asked Alan.
“He is very intelligent, so don’t underestimate him. It is very unlikely he will know you are a Friend of the People, and if he does, he probably won’t know what that really means. He will know about you and your background, that you are from a pre-emergent species and will almost certainly underestimate you. His species, of which he is the last survivor, emerged about two billion years ago, and he is very arrogant about the fact that he is from one of the oldest surviving civilisations in the galaxy. He believes he is superior to any other species and that pre-emergents are primitive and of low intelligence. But you need to be prepared that he may know more than you expect. No organisation can guarantee it doesn’t have information leaks, we have open access into their systems, he may be getting information from Sally’s side.”
“Got it. You know, he sounds like some of the people I have had to tolerate in my life back on Earth. I’m looking forward to taking him down.”
“Do not be too blasè about this Mark. You know It could go wrong. Stay focused and get your AI to call down transport if you need to get out of there or as soon as you can confirm Tk'ng Dach Rrn is dead.”
“Did you hear that Kate?” Mark asked his AI.
“I can confirm that Mark. This is my fight too.” His AI answered.
“Make sure you are well nourished and rested before you leave. You may need to be there for some time and when you are captured, you won’t have any sleep suppressors with you.”
“I’ve only been up a couple of hours. We are planning to leave in a lander an hour after the assault is launched. I won’t be able to get to sleep before then.”
Unwilling From Earth Page 39
