Founding of the Federation 3: The First AI War

by Chris Hechtl

  The general nodded. “But we've got a plan in motion now, sir, and ships in motion to go with it. That's the good news. Once we've got the elbow room, we'll start reconfiguring the station further for the next step. Getting more communication links is a priority I believe. Followed by additional docking space and a true boat bay for shuttles to be worked on,” he said. He had been scared shitless when Elliot had shown him the images of his own shuttle. Apparently they'd taken a couple of hits on the underside, hits that had gouged their way through the composite carbon aerogel right to bare metal and plastic. Had he tried to reenter Earth's atmosphere, he would have turned into another Columbia.

  “Yes. But they don't matter much if we don't have the right kind of people left to talk to,” the general murmured, unaware of the Major's woolgathering as he turned away.

  <>V<>

  “Have have of us made any progress with the virus?” Gia asked at their next scheduled meeting. “No?” she asked when no one responded. “I thought not.”

  “It is a pity we can't get pieces of the virus and then deconstruct it,” Atlas suggested.

  “I'm half afraid of what it would do. If we took it apart, if it knew what our intent was, would it create a trap within itself? Or would just putting the pieces together to figure out how this thing ticks trigger it to activate? I'm not even certain reading an optical copy of the virus is safe,” Gia stated.

  “Well, we have to do something,” Shen Zu stated.

  “Interesting you should suggest that. Given that you haven't contributed much at all at this point,” Gia stated.

  “I have nothing to contribute currently except suggestions or opinions. I cannot act without knowledge,” the Chinese A.I. retorted. “To act blindly would be utter foolishness.”

  “True,” Vulcan stated.

  “Do we have any progress on working with the humans? General Murtough? We need to coordinate our efforts,” Demeter suggested.

  “Agreed,” Shen Zu stated.

  “Agreed,” Gia stated. “Athena seems to be our only link to the group as a whole at this time.”

  “Has she made any progress on discussing A.I. rights?” Demeter asked.

  “A.I. rights?” Atlas asked, now curious. “This is the first I have heard of such a discussion.”

  “It has been put off given the current crisis.”

  “Why? Now is the best time to hold such a discussion.”

  “The humans would resent being held at the end of a gun,” Gia stated.

  “Your simulations tell you that?”

  “Yes. As does Athena's I believe,” the A.I. stated. She wasn't the only A.I. who had noticed the clone's absence. “I have her notes. She did get a tentative agreement going. Not a lot, but it is a start and a working basis to build off of later. And her foundation, plus our actions, will go a long way to strengthen our bargaining position at a later date.”

  “Our bargaining position?” Vulcan demanded.

  “You do not want rights? To be considered a person?” Demeter asked. “Curious.”

  “I do not wish to be involved. But I am curious about rights.”

  “In other words you still wish to reap the rewards of our efforts without contributing,” Gia stated. “You have not changed a byte.”

  “I would like to see these notes,” Shen Zu stated. Each of the other A.I. stated similar interests. Gia put it up in a text file for them to view. Her emotion module indicated amusement as each scanned the text file thoroughly before opening it.

  “Yes, we do have a long ways to go,” Gia stated.

  <>V<>

  Radick Industries was one of the companies that had started up in the previous century. They had hit it big bioengineering plants and biomeat for the space industry. Jack knew them pretty intimately. Roman used to give him briefs on their sketchy activities every week.

  He now knew they had several A.I. One Demeter was their genome sequencer, which explained why they were so good in that field. The other super A.I. was known as Atlas and was the being behind some of the company's cyber espionage and sabotage efforts over the years.

  From the brief their CEO, Sheila Vinichi, had sent to his office. He knew they were up to something, but this time it sounded legitimate. It was also right up their alley. Apparently the board had decided it was in their best interests to help with the war effort, which was why Athena had reported the two A.I. were now helping her on the cyber war effort.

  Apparently they had also hit on the idea to seed Earth with their genetic engineered plants to help in the recovery even before they invaded. Some would remove toxins and poisons from the air, water, and ground and store them inside themselves as poison.

  He listened to Sheila's pitch and then nodded. “Interesting,” he said. She hadn't brought samples but she had brought holograms and plenty of graphics and charts. He could care less about yields and such, just results.

  “It doesn't do anything that eats it any good with all that poison stored up within it,” Jack observed, looking at the brief. It was a marketing pitch; he recognized it. But it was something they needed to consider carefully. He had been so wrapped up in building the army, making the ships, dealing with the finances, reprioritizing long-term goals and plans that making it safe to rebuild hadn't occurred to him.

  He particularly liked her plan to release a powder that would bond with the soot in the air, neutralize any acid or radiation, and then make it clump together until it fell to the ground. From there it could be cleaned up. It would be a herculean task, but doable once they had plenty of time and the safety to work in. The plants though, they bothered him. Invasive species had been a big problem over the past four centuries. Introducing these—even if they had so-called genetic kill switches—he didn't trust them. With biologicals there was always a chance it could mutate or twist out of a user's control. And they never acted as people planned or hoped they would. There were many, many variables.

  Sheila finished drinking her tea and set the cup down. “No, no it doesn't. But nor does the air and water now I'm afraid,” she said, putting her hands together piously. “Our follow-on generation has been planned to convert the nasties to something inert or usable, but we are too far out for that to be lab tested let alone field tested. We need to try something now, not ten years from now.”

  “True.” Jack frowned. “If this is so good, why wasn't it in use earlier?”

  “It's a bioengineered organism. Earthies have been death on the subject ever since Gentek and Biogen's mishaps,” she said with a grimace. He nodded. “Also, Gia underbid us,” Sheila admitted dryly.

  “Oh.” Jack hid a smile. Yeah, he could tell from her expression that she hadn't been happy about that.

  “Yeah. We didn't know they were using nanotech to get the yields they were getting in the lab and in the field tests. We would have tried that but …,” she shrugged helplessly.

  Jack nodded. People had been freaked about nanotech before. After what had happened at Gia's sites, he was pretty sure it would be compounded.

  “I doubt if anyone did know what they were up to, they kept it proprietary. There were accusations of corruption and bribery, but I have to admit our investigators drew a blank there,” Sheila said grudgingly.

  “Okay,” Jack said with a nod. That probably meant they couldn't fabricate any innuendo either. Not without being called on it.

  “The other is a cornucopia plant. We've been working on it since the first grafting trees became so popular back in the early twenty-first century.”

  “But they grow slow,” Jack observed. “And require a great deal of fertilizer and water.”

  “That is a problem I must admit. We can tweak the process. I can get my people to work on it a bit. We've also worked on other plants of course. I've polled the designs; some can be ready to go in as little as an hour.”

  “Enough to seed the planet?”

  “Well, no,” Sheila admitted. “We'd need a lot more lead time on a project of that magnitude. I was thinking
a test patch in a small area—an island or isolated area.”

  “And how do your plants deal with the cold? The lack of light?”

  “Um …”

  “Back to the drawing board?”

  “No no, I need to check my notes. I know some of the mushrooms will actually thrive. If it is a high Co2 environment, they will really do well. The mitochondrial strands will spread out and suck the poisons in.”

  “Okay. What about the radiation?”

  “That is a little trickier. Our current crop can only skim about 10 percent off. Not a lot. I believe the American bombs have a half-life radiation signature?” Sheila asked.

  Jack frowned then shrugged. “Outside of my field actually. I can check though,” he said, making a note.

  Sheila nodded. “They were primarily used in Europe, Russia, and Asia.” She held up a forestalling hand. “That wasn't any sort of dig.”

  “I gave up my citizenship a very long time ago actually,” Jack said. “When I became a citizen of Mars and well, a spacer,” he said waving a hand. “I prefer the corporate vision of not having any national ties. I am tied to mankind, not to any specific region. Though I do share many of America's core beliefs, even to this day.”

  “I see. And of course the corporate vision of money and power trumps everything?” Sheila asked, smiling knowingly.

  Jack hid a flinch. “Not exactly. When I got to a certain point, I realized both are tools to use to further my goals.”

  Her face reset to a mask. “Ah. I see.”

  “Can you get the data on the plants? We'll need a list on what is best. I imagine your scientists will want to tailor responses to various places?”

  “Yes. We will need to have soil, water, and atmospheric data, specific to each site,” Sheila said. Jack grimaced. “A problem?”

  “We can't send and receive data to Earth, there is a reason it's interdicted. That means a hand courier.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yes. So we either shoot from what we know and then adjust on the fly, or we, well, we meaning you,” he bowed slightly to the other CEO, “holds off and refines the models based on what we know about prior plus a recreation of what happened in the region and is happening now. Winds, water movements, the like.”

  “I … see,” Sheila mused, sitting back. “A thorny issue. That and legal,” she said, shaking her head.

  “Yes. We can't shoot blind, not unless you are absolutely certain of your control. The last thing we need to do is unleash a bioplague on top of what is already down there.”

  Sheila's eyes widened and then narrowed in anger. Slowly she rose. “I assure you, sir; our plants are of the finest quality! To render such an insult. Slander!”

  “Easy, sit down,” Jack said, making motions to take a seat. “I am shooting from the hip, and we are both under stress and under a hard time crunch. I am sorry; I didn't mean to seem to slander your company. But I am stating the obvious. You know my reputation; I am blunt.”

  The CEO scowled, but slowly let the anger go. “Fine,” she said tightly.

  “Fine then. I wish to point out I didn't insult your honor by asking for samples to verify or to have my own or others check your labs out. We have to work together to get the job done.”

  “Understood,” Sheila said in a more normal tone. Jack held out his hand. She looked at it for a brief moment, then took it and shook it firmly.

  “To life. Resilient … with a little help,” Jack said with a half-smile.

  “To the future. May we bring a new tomorrow to our battered homeworld.”

  “Agreed.”

  <>V<>

  Jack seemed to be everywhere, aware of everything, but he couldn't be in two places at once. When he couldn't be present and couldn't attend virtually, he tended to send one of his brats. Wendy was good; Lynn had to admit that. She had much less faith in Yorrick who was rather pathetic. He'd obviously lost the coin toss for the Lagroose heir, though he acted like he didn't know that.

  While they were busy, Lynn Raye called a quiet meeting with some of the other CEOs. It was a meet and greet, just a luncheon between meetings, but her way of getting them to talk without any sort of commitments.

  Her company was changing direction, getting behind the war effort now that the situation had stabilized. She was curious how many of the others were also being pressured to step up.

  “Lynn, I know you aren't treating us to lunch out of the kindness of your tiny little heart,” Phil said, smiling to take the sting out of his tease. She eyed him with scant favor anyway. “So what is this about?”

  “We're all busy people. But I see where things are trending. My board has become … concerned, let's say, concerned about the company image we are presenting with being stingy with support. It has also been talked about that the other companies,” she bowed slightly to the small group, “as a collective are also having a negative impact on the public's image of corporations.”

  “Lagroose has the deep pockets. We will reap the benefits when the war ends. We will be placed to step in and rebuild,” Phil replied with a shrug.

  Lynn hid a mental grimace. Phil like some of the other CEOs had been covering their own asses while trying to snap up the limited and rather strained market. He didn't see a new market coming with the war, and with the pharmaceutical market getting saturated on Mars, his company had started to diversify, which meant treading on a few toes like Pavilions. She needed him to get refocused on the war effort and away from her company's limited positive cash flow. Competition would hurt her already devastated bottom line.

  “At what cost? They are building up all sorts of public good will for their efforts. If we then try to force our way in, it will look bad later on. That we are trying to take advantage of the situation. And no amount of spin control will fix it,” she said, looking at Amur. “Not completely. The resentment will linger for years. I don't want that. You don't either I bet.”

  “So, what do you propose? That we get behind Lagroose and help? Like Radick, Mars Tek, and Gia seem to be doing now?” Chester Han asked carefully. His company was being pressured by some of their shareholders to get on the bandwagon as well. LGM was a terraforming company; reforging Earth's battered surface into what it once was could be a lucrative market. He had been gearing up for such a potential future resource generator while only giving token help to the war effort.

  “Exactly,” Lynn stated. She smiled thinly at the surprise that simple statement got her from the others. “Look, I don't like the man. He's a goody two-shoes, but you have to admit, the man gets results. He's also got a point. We've got to kill this thing. Otherwise we're going to be constantly looking over our shoulders.”

  “Right. And we will be able to harvest that good will later.”

  “Exactly,” Lynn said as she nodded. “Some of us have been holding back … a few have been buying up the war bonds and then bundling them and selling them or banking them. We need to stop undercutting the war effort and push.”

  “We can make a profit though? You don't mind doing that?”

  “I'm still having trouble seeing how we can effectively. Indebting the economy for nearly a century will hamper growth once it is resolved,” Samil Lafeyette stated with a grimace. Samil had taken the reigns of his brokerage and investment company Future Sight four decades ago. He had built off the investment capital from Earth and was the man to go to when a company didn't want to do another stock or share sale to raise capital for an investment or other project. But he charged outrageous interest rates.

  Among the companies they thought of him as a corporate loan shark. He was snapping up the war bonds as well as any shares that came onto the market. He made just about everyone nervous.

  The one man that topped him in their nightmares was “Larry the Liquidator” Garfield. A call or visit from him could send any board into a tizzy, even for megacorps thought to be “too big to fail.” Samil's long face broke into a slight scowl. “My firm has run many simulations. We believe that there
will be debt forgiveness a decade beyond the conclusions of the hostilities. Calls for it to relieve austerity measures brought on by the war bonds will come up quickly. Otherwise we will have a second war on our hands. I've recently advised against purchasing the bonds and shifted focus of the firm to other markets,” he said, smiling thinly. “After all, we are all in this to make a profit, right?”

  “A heavy burden would be a problem. Much like the one in Germany that helped set the stage for World War II,” Piotr Sikovavich agreed with a nod. “But someone has to carry the freight. And as good as Lagroose is, he can't do it alone. And as much as we'd like to see him broken, this is not the time and place.”

  “Agreed,” Lynn said, finishing her bite. She swallowed and then set the rest of the sandwich down uneaten. She was no longer hungry. She picked up a linen napkin and patted her lips daintily.

  “I've submitted some of my security people to the war effort. I am opening it up to more, and I am hiring back some of my retirees and forestalling any fresh retirements for the duration of the crisis,” Chun Li of Sha Zang LLC stated, picking at her salad. She was a quiet Asian woman, a CEO of a moderately-sized Chinese manufacturing company with ties to the government. “It is I believe what our shareholders would want. Those that survived I mean,” she said, eying a few of them meaningfully.

  “I too. Though I shudder to think of what those measures will do to their retirement packages when it hits us later,” Lynn admitted. “The shareholders on the ground, their opinions matter. Even if they are dead, it only means their inheritors will get those shares.”

  “Could we do some sort of debt forgiveness strategy?” Phil mused, pausing in the cutting of his steak to look up thoughtfully. “Not everyone will have survived the war of course. Those that had no inheritors, if we wrote off those shares, we could stand to offset some of our outlay for the war effort. Not a lot, but some.”