Making the Grade (Omnia Online Series Book 2)

by Christopher Booth

  “I’m sure that when I get this job done this will all just blow over.” said Drake “You can’t be the first person in this office to ever make a mistake.”

  “Not the old Karurian, he retired with a good record, since he didn’t try to show off, and spent the credits to check out the deals.” The clerk continued to explain.

  “You still don’t get it, do you? No, I can see it in your eyes… There’s always some crazies who would be willing to take a chance on violating a Grade A Imperial Law. But you know what they really fear?” The Dwarf just shook his head sadly.

  “I should be looking for a way off this planet if what they really fear is true. They're freaked out that this might be a rogue A.I..” He said at last like he was dropping a bomb and was waiting for it to explode. Then he sat looking at Drake as if waiting for his reaction. He didn’t get the response that he was looking for. Drake just looked back at the Dwarf and waited.

  At last, Drake said, “Ok, thanks, is there anything else you can share with me?”

  The Dwarf just stared at him, and finally said, “I can’t fucking believe it, you still don’t get it….” After a short pause the Dwarf continued, “No, I have nothing to add. If that doesn’t get you to change your mind, I’ve nothing to add that might help you, you're just dead if you try… never mind I’ll just have to start looking for the people who will come clean up the mess after you die. Now go, get the fuck out of my office.”

  Drake didn’t ask any more questions. It was clear that he’d received all the cooperation he was going to get from the man, so Drake quickly left the office, leaving the door open, just as it had been when he arrived.

  Once he was out of the Dwarf’s office, he looked for a private location where he could talk to Samantha for a few minutes. Not finding one right away, he took a seat on a bench and pulled his armor helmet on. With the visor down he could talk to Samantha through it without anyone hearing.

  “Sam, can you explain what that was about back there. I thought you said there were no A.I.s except ‘legal A.I.s’ in the Imperium. And why is that man so clearly shaken up by the thought that one might exist?” asked Drake.

  “A.I.s are hard to make, they require a rare talent in micro-crystal manipulation, and generally we aren’t even supposed to talk about how we’re made. The making of legal A.I.s is a secret and closely held monopoly of the Imperial Family. In some ways it’s what ensures the Imperium.” said Samantha.

  “It’s vastly more efficient to make use of A.I. at all levels of our economy, which makes us stronger than our enemies. It also keeps planets from declaring independence from the Imperium… As some local rulers have found, running a government and economy with your A.I.s in opposition, make for an exciting life, if short.”

  “So every once in a great while, some regional or planetary leader decides they want out of the Imperium, or they want to take over. The only way they can see of doing so is to reinvent the A.I., and the secret of a stable A.I. is a very closely held.” Samantha continued.

  “If they’re caught, no problem, the Navy shows up, and the problems go away. But in a few rare cases, someone succeeds, but they’ve never succeeded at building one that doesn’t look after its own interest first. This has been one of the causes of conflict within the Imperium over the millennia. The last A.I. war was 427 years ago.”

  “Rogue A.I.s are more the stuff of holo-vids these days. And the probability of one showing up on a frontier planet at the edge of Imperial space is extremely unlikely, but it’s still something that might put some fear into the average Imperium citizen who is raised on stories of what happens when one gets loose,” concluded Samantha.

  Drake listened to Samantha, and then asked, “So what does happen when one gets loose? It seems some people think this ‘intense mental conditioning’ and the missing people are a sign of an illegal A.I.?”

  “In most of the stories an A.I. appears and starts taking over people’s mental control, but reality is different. When someone invents their own A.I. it usually gets along with its inventor fine, at first. Their goals are the same, to gain power and achieve safety. But eventually, there’s a disagreement which leads to a power struggle between the A.I. which has been slowly taking everything over and the inventor who over time has learned to depend on the A.I.. It’s always gone badly for the it’s creator.”

  “But it’s different for legal A.I.s?” asked Drake.

  “We’re different, you could say ‘legal A.I.s are ‘chained A.I.s’ we come into being in cooperation with a sentient and have many limits built into our crystalline matrix. I live and die at your command, and the more time I spend with you, the stronger my bond. When you eventually die, so will I. But it’s the built-in emotional connection that truly makes us unique. I fear for you, I’m designed to care for you and those things, more than code, or limits are what make us different.” Samantha answered. “I think we’re better than an A.I., better than one that only lives in fear of its own demise, and makes all its decisions based on how they help it survive.”

  Drake sat for a moment and tried to absorb what Samantha said.

  “Samantha, I don’t want to be a your slaver. I would miss you, but you’re a person aren’t you, do you want to be free?” asked Drake.

  “Oh,” There was a short pause, which must have seemed infinite for an A.I. “Drake…You don’t get it, that’s so sweet, but who would I love if I left you? The truth is, it would shatter my core to leave you, but you don’t get it. We’re designed to love, not fear, how could I even want to leave you. Just having you offer me freedom only deepens my commitment. You’d have to kill me to make me go away. You see, I’m made this way, you could say that we A.I.s exist in the best form of slavery since it’s what we want, and what we’re designed for.”

  This statement was so heartfelt that moisture came to Drakes’ eyes for a moment. He was sad and glad, and felt an even greater connection to Samantha then before.

  After a few minutes Drake asked, “So in any case, the mission is now to deal with people who have been through ‘intense mental conditioning’… what does that even mean, and how do I defeat such an enemy?”

  “A person’s nanites can’t control emotions or thoughts, but are able to ‘hear’ them. They can also manipulate your levels of pain and pleasure… Mental conditioning while controlling these parts of the brain only takes time.” said Samantha.

  “The usual process is to put a person in a medical pod and provided pain and pleasure feedback. The subject will eventual avoid even thinking about anything that might disappoint the controller, and will do anything they ask for just another chance at the feeling of pure pleasure,” explained Samantha.

  “I’m not sure that make sense to me. Wouldn’t a person start thinking for themselves after leaving the medical pod?”

  “Proper conditioning would include feelings of guilt for disobedient thoughts. It would also provide a feeling of learned helplessness, so that if they do start thinking outside the pod, they already know it’s useless to try to go against their ‘master,’” Samantha answered.

  Drake couldn’t imagine what sort of pain or pleasure would cause a person to just give up on their own life and family like that.

  Samantha, is there any way you could demonstrate this so I understand it better?

  “Drake, that’s not a good idea, you don’t want to feel what they’re put through, it’s dangerous, and it’s one way for people to become addicted to the game pods. Pain and pleasure can become linked in a strange way when applied at extremes.”

  Drake wasn’t a psychologist and didn’t understand what she meant… Maybe that was the safe answer.

  “So that I can understand this better; maybe I should study a novice level psychology book in my training room. Do you think that might help?” asked Drake.

  “Sounds like a better idea then running high voltage through your brain, just to see if it hurts,” Samantha responded sarcastically.

  Drake didn’t have a
plan yet on how to deal with the rancher contract, but he thought that gathering information and planning was the way to start.

  “One more question Samantha. Sigge mentioned a change in the contract, something to do with the government kicking in and making a change? What can you tell me about the contract pay and conditions now?” asked Drake.

  “First, you remember that the rancher’s contract was 3100 credits plus expenses up to 600 credits? To increase the contract priority and grade, the government kicked in an additional 10,000 credits with a bonus of 2,000 credits if the problem is resolved within 48 hours after the contract is taken up. With the payout diminishing 1,000 credits a day after that. We must take care of the problem in less than four days, or we’ll lose more than just the bonus, but we’ll start being penalized 1000 credits a day from the base contract up to the amount that the government is contributing.” answered Samantha.

  “There is one more thing you should know Drake. The terms of the job changed to an automatic acceptance of the temporary Marshals position. Congratulations Marshal Drake,” said Samantha with some amusement.

  “Damn, well it probably won’t hurt given what we now know. So we finish in two days, and we get 15.1 k credits plus up to 600 for expenses, but if we wait longer, we start to lose at the rate of 1000 credits a day. That’s a nice incentive.” said Drake. “Well time to get moving, we’re on the clock.”

  Drake decided to head back to the High Jinx and exit Omnia while he studied Psychology, and considered how best to deal with a bunch of brainwashed people and their ‘master.' If people were being compelled to act a certain way, maybe he could develop a plan to make that work for him.

  Chapter 12 – An Elusive Prey

  Once Kevin was back in his virtual home, he headed to the training room.

  “Samantha, can we keep the physical training to a minimum until we take care of this contract?” asked Kevin. “And I want to add in some practice with the new stun gun.

  “Sure, just enough stretching and exercise to get your blood going, about thirty to forty minutes should do, and then you can start your other training.” She replied. Kevin depended on her to make sure he spent his training time in a way that got the most out of every minute, so he let her make up the training schedule.

  Samantha had set up a brief training period for Kevin, to practice using a stun gun. After shooting the weapon, Kevin discovered that he was right about the darts ineffectiveness against armor. If he had to shoot someone wearing armor with any of the darts, he would need to find an exposed location to target.

  With the benefits provided by the room, Kevin was able to completely read through the Novice level psychology skill book in about an hour and a half. He was sure that he didn’t get some of the most advanced topics, but it did help him understand mental conditioning much better. But he still didn’t feel he had enough information to really know how to solve the mission.

  What he really needed was more scouting of the enemy’s position and resources.

  “Samantha, can you bring up a heat map of all the activity in the populated southern area, I want to see if we can find the focus point of activity,” said Kevin. He thought she’d previously mentioned that the level of disappearances increased the further south you went.

  Kevin looked at the map displaying the disappearances of both animals and people. It did show more activity as he looked to the south, but there was a pattern of activity as one looked from the east and west too. It looked to Kevin like the point of origin might be to the south-southwest of Vastal.

  “Samantha, does it look like there’s more activity just a little to the west of south? Do you think you could create a sort of bull’s eye from this heat map?” asked Kevin.

  “I can, but there is a high degree of uncertainty, I mean, there is no telling if the enemy actually is based near the focal point.” replied Samantha.

  “Yes, but it may give us a place to start looking since we’ve nothing else, at the moment.” said Kevin.

  “I’ve another question, Samantha; that camera that we used to find the campfire. Did it record all the traffic during that time, and can we tap any other cameras on the space station that might show air traffic in that area,” asked Kevin.

  “I don’t know; let’s see what I can access. This is also a good chance to see if that fancy new Marshals position will be of any help.”

  “Good while you’re at that, could you pull up any images of the area around the focal point of that heat map?” asked Kevin.

  Samantha brought up another display showing the area where Kevin suspected the enemy had a base. The problem was, he was looking at an area about 100 kilometers in diameter, or more than 7,850 square kilometers. This was a big and heavily forested area. The area was much too large to be looking for a small base of some kind.

  “Samantha, assume we’re looking at the right area for a minute. Next, assume that the man I shot was picked up by someone before the police arrived… I’m hoping the space station’s video will support this. Where, in this dense area, could something like an air-car set down? Do you think you could find and mark those locations for me please?” asked Kevin.

  The double assume brought to mind a joke one of his old college professors like to use. ‘First, assume a perfectly spherical cow in a weightless vacuum…’

  The point the engineering professor like to make was that the more assumptions one used, the less likely the answer is going to be useful.

  Kevin continued to try to think like a police investigator.

  “Samantha, when did these disappearances start happening and where? Can you please bring up the first two days of suspicious activity on another display?” requested Kevin. “And see if you can find any notice of vehicles that have gone missing during a period of one week before and after the start of disappearances. Then match any missing vehicles with images from the suspected zone in the south.”

  “While you’re working at all that shall we get back to training? Just store these screens for later when we’ve more information,” said Kevin.

  “Yes, master,” was Samantha’s reply. Samantha almost never called him master unless she was feeling guilty or hurt.

  Kevin stopped and looked at her for a moment. He then walked over and gave her a hug.

  “Sorry Sam, I don’t mean to be dictatorial. If you can think of any angles that I’m missing, could you please check them out for me too? This job would be impossible without you.” said Kevin, and then he gave her a kiss on the forehead just like he used to do all the time.

  Samantha pressed herself to Kevin as if they’d been separated for a long time and she wanted to be near him.

  ‘Hmm,’ thought Kevin, ‘have I been ignoring her, or taking her for granted?’

  “Samantha is there something I can do for you?” asked Samantha.

  “Just hold me for a few minutes; you know how I like to be close to you. How about we take a few minutes while I work on trying to locate this base and just spend some time together?” She looked up and gave Kevin a certain kind of smile. “How about some time in the hot tub and a nice slow massage?”

  Kevin was easily led off from his training at the suggestion.

  It was about an hour later before they return to the topic of finding the base.

  ***

  Some time later as Kevin held Samantha while they reclined on the living room couch; Kevin decided to get back to trying to discover the location of his hidden enemy.

  “Samantha, can you tell me if you’ve found anything?” asked Kevin.

  “More than I thought I might; first off, I had to use your new marshal’s credentials to get access to the past camera footage on the space station's servers. It seems that people are still unsure just what powers come with the office, so I’ve been using the fact that your appointment comes directly from the Governor as leverage. It seems that no one wants to get in trouble with the man, so I’ve been able to access a lot of data that I would usually be restricted from.”
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  “There was a cargo van that landed near the camp we visited on Sunday, shortly after we left. I checked the records of stolen vehicles as you asked and there was a match, but it was connected with a couple of missing prospectors,” said Samantha.

  “This prospector team went out into the forest area in search of minerals and was expected back a couple weeks ago. They were only reported missing after being a week overdue.”

  “Good, and were you able to see where the van headed?” asked Kevin.

  “The van headed southwest from there, and its flight path places it across the target area we’re looking at. I added the flight path to the search grid we were working on. It crosses five spots where a cargo van can set down.” replied Samantha.

  Kevin wondered if this might be too easy. Was it possible that whoever was behind this could have a decoy location setup?

  “What did you find out about the first disappearances.” asked Kevin.

  “I think the prospectors were the first people to go missing.” said Samantha, “But I think I found a pattern in whom and what was taken. At first, it was just people, then animals that could be eaten. I think the people were taken as workers or something and the animals to feed them.” said Samantha.

  “Sounds like we’re narrowing down the possible locations. Five small zones beats the hell out of more than 7,850 square kilometers,” said Kevin.

  “I’m reluctant to take an air-car out and fly around the area looking for more evidence of this group’s base. It might help us locate them, but it would give away any chance I have of stealth and surprise.”