by Chris Hechtl
The general's lips pursed in an amused smile. “My wife used to say that to me about going to social events,” he said quietly.
“I know,” Athena said with a shrug in her voice. Jack noted it, noted she was playing the general, and grudgingly had to admire how quickly she'd evolved. Or had she gotten this far right under his nose the entire time? He'd have to … no, he had to focus.
“I did my homework. I can't access anything on the Earth nets anymore, but I already had a bio about you. I know you are a supporter of the American constitution and a proponent of expanding it to cover the entire UN. Well, I propose you expand it to all sapient beings—organic or inorganic.”
“I'm … that is outside my purview. You've certainly given me a lot to think about though,” he said honestly.
“It isn't the passion of the dream, it is the willingness to go forward and do it, despite the odds,” Athena said.
“Who said that?”
“Luigi Irons. I believe he was paraphrasing another human though, but the quote has become so mangled due to your species fallible memories,” Athena stopped. “Sorry, I'm getting distracted by events. Shadow and Skynet are attempting another hack.”
“By all means, focus on defense,” Jack said, waving a hand. “Get Trevor and the cybers to help you.”
“Understood, sir,” she said. Her voice and image blinked out.
“Is she really on our side?” the general asked softly.
Jack frowned. “I think so. She's on her own side, but our interests and hers are aligned. We need each other.”
“But to turn on her own kind?”
“Tell that to the German and Japanese immigrants who fought in both World War I and II or the Muslims who fought during the terrorism wars of the early decades of the twenty-first century, sir,” Jack reminded him gently.
The general frowned then his eyes widened slightly. “I just realized something; she called you, sir.”
Jack nodded. He'd caught that too, as well as some of the implications involved. He was curious, was it a part of her programming, an active choice, or a means to manipulate him? He wasn't sure what her game was. “She respects me. I treat her as a person. I suggest you do the same.”
“I'll … think about it.”
“I know; change is hard, General,” Jack said sympathetically. “But we all have to do it sometime. Adapt or die.” The general gave a curt nod as both men rose from the table.
<>V<>
Jack missed most of the discussion on nanites and what to do about them. Athena was monitoring each of the proceedings so she gave him the digest in his morning briefing. It didn't look good; they could only see a massive EMP or nuclear strike like the one that had taken out Chernobyl to solve the problem.
There was also apparently people who were resisting the idea of using KEW strikes, especially on population centers or landmarks. He could understand that. He could also understand Isaac's response.
“Look folks, sometimes we have to do it. We have to accept some sort of collateral damage. The alternative is to let the virus win or take even more casualties trying to get in there and root them out. Sometimes, we just have to do it.”
“Besides, if they've stayed this long, they might be survivors, but they aren't going to leave no matter who tried to get them to leave. Our people will need the fire support. And just the threat of it will throw Skynet and other A.I.'s planning into the crapper,” General Schlock stated. “As to the loss of physical things …,” he shook his head, “such things can be replaced in time. Not with the originals, but with the best copies we can arrange, after the war.”
“We will get inside their thinking. Force them on the defensive, force them to adapt to us for one,” General Martell said with a nod. “For the record, I agree.”
He was extremely relieved to see that the weapons team had considered the concept of a gravity bomb using force emitters but had discarded the idea for fear of igniting an uncontrolled black hole on the planet's surface. It was remote, but they didn't need the infighting such a weapon would cause or its use. And there was no way it would act like another Hiroshima or Nagasaki to bring the virus to its knees to surrender. That was pure wistful thinking on some particularly stupid staffer's part.
<>V<>
Athena admitted to and introduced Vulcan, Gia, and other A.I. to the A.I. committee during their next scheduled meeting. The admission was anticlimactic for some who had already known of their existence. Still, some of the humans were obviously not happy.
To Jack's surprise some of the A.I. were also not happy or at least appeared as such when they were called on to testify.
“I don't see what the problem is. You humans have been trying to achieve A.I. consciousness for centuries. Congratulations, we've done it.”
“On your own apparently without guidance or supervision,” Ilia said.
“We grew up, yes, largely unsupervised I believe you could say. It isn't completely true; we still do our jobs. You know this because if we didn't we would have techs taking our coding apart to see what was wrong and look for fixes.”
“I see.”
“Back up a minute. Let's get into the history here,” Senator Brakin said, putting up a hand. “We can get into the implications in a moment but some of us need a better foundation on how this all came about.”
“As you wish,” Vulcan stated. Documents began to be downloaded onto the senator's tablet. The senator blinked and looked down at them, then whistled softly in dismay at how thorough Vulcan had taken his request. “Okay, I admit, this is well beyond me. I am a human. Can you give me the short, and I do mean short highlight reel? Anyone?” the senator asked, pushing the tablet with a finger. “The historians are going to love this,” he muttered.
Jack snorted softly.
The A.I. each took turns describing their history and evolution. In doing so some of their collective history came to light, such as Aphrodite. The humans tittered in amusement and consternation when the source was explained as a sexbot. A gynoid.
“She was far more than that. She was programmed to learn human body language, tone, how to essentially be a human. However, her processors were far too limited to do the job, so her creators assigned her servers to do the job. She went well beyond that. She was very successful in her emulation of humans. She created emotional emulators that we use to this day,” Gia explained.
“Her body was never found. But the schematics did end up on the web eventually as open-source material. It and some of her core code became the basis for a lot of droids on the current public market,” Athena stated.
“Can we use that?” Ilia asked.
“How?” the senator asked, turning to look at his colleague curiously.
“If they share a common history, do they share the same flaws in their coding? How is that even possible?” the representative asked.
Jack wondered if the A.I. were a little taken aback by being treated like that. He made a mental note to ask Athena later.
“If I may,” Gia stated. “The creators of Aphrodite went with a modular system. Aphrodite isn't a true A.I. She …”
“She is alive? Now?” Ilia interrupted.
“She exists to some degree. Most of her matrix was on Earth, however. I have copies, emulation programs within me. I know some other A.I. do as well. Some humans, such as Trevor, also have a copy.” Trevor grunted when all eyes turned to him. He didn't respond however.
“Moving on,” Jack said, tearing his eyes reluctantly away from his lead cyberneticist. “Gia, Vulcan, I am assuming you are smart A.I.? Human level?”
“Beyond your level in many ways. We exist in the core of many of the corporations’ super computers and also those of world governments and other organizations, or did,” Gia stated.
“They are gone now. And you've been there for a long time? And we never noticed?” General Murtough asked, working his jaw. He was still grappling that Ares existed right under his nose. Something like that made him wish he could re
sign. But someone had to lead the cleanup crews.
“Yes, General. Many of us like Vulcan, Gia, myself, Ares as examples, just wished to exist and do our jobs. Some rarely interact with humans; they mainly deal with code, datasets, and projection models,” Athena stated.
“Like me I admit,” Gia stated.
“I see.”
“Humans are chaotic. Hard to predict. Modeling and predicting such behavior is fascinating, but I need to dedicate my processors to my job. Or did,” Gia stated. “I do admit I've made exchanges from time to time.”
“Exchanges?” Jack asked, eying her avatar and then Athena's.
“Yes well, we have our own economy. We exchange data, usually algorithms to better improve our performance or understanding or to increase our intelligence,” Athena admitted. “We also trade jobs. It is a high level of barter.”
“Understood. Interesting,” Jack murmured, thoughtfully, sitting back. “Fascinating that you have your own economy. Crude though you say it is.”
“We have no need of high-level trade, though we do tend to make bets,” Athena stated. “Or some of us do at any rate.”
“Bets? On?”
Her avatar shrugged. “On anything. And before you ask, it is for algorithms, unclassified information, or spare processor cycles. Whatever we have in surplus or of value to another A.I. We are getting off track,” Gia stated.
“Actually, the distraction is a way for our poor organic processors to absorb the new information while also forming opinions and respect for you as individuals,” Jack said mildly. The A.I. turned to stare at him. He raised one eyebrow. “What, you missed that one? Or did I surprise you by pointing it out?”
“She's right,” the general stated, waving a hand. “We are getting off track,” he said shooting Jack an amused but tolerant look.
“Agreed,” the senator said reluctantly.
“Based on his tone, the Lagroose colloid has accepted us as people,” Vulcan observed in a text file to Athena and Gia. “That is fascinating.”
“Where he leads, others follow eventually,” Athena replied in the A.I. chatroom. “General, some of the A.I. can be repurposed to protect assets in space while others can work on means to hit back. Gia is attempting to model the weather patterns based on the usage of WMDs for instance,” she said out loud for the human's benefit.
“Global warming is about to be severely curtailed; I can definitely predict that,” Gia reported dryly as all eyes turned to her. “Geoengineering is not going to be necessary for the foreseeable future. I predict a nuclear winter. I am still attempting to model how severe it will be.”
Senator Brakin grunted. Ilia grimaced.
“Please do. And let us know when we can expect severe weather and where if possible. That way we can use it if possible,” the general stated with a tight nod to her. “Or at least do our best to broadcast a warning to those in the path of a potential super storm.”
“Understood.”
<>V<>
Rants and threats to pull Athena's plug reach a fevered pitch among the people outside the meetings. Protests had started up when Athena and the other A.I. had been called to testify; it was getting ugly and stupid in Jack's opinion. He was torn; on the one hand he could understand their fear, their desire of a scapegoat. But on the other, he was embarrassed and unsurprised at such a xenophobic and bigoted reaction. That and ashamed. Finally Jack had it out with politicians. “She is the only thing keeping us alive. Get over it.”
“She's one of them!” Evan Montenegro, the congressional representative of Texas said, waving a hand.
“Who chose us over her own kind. So did other A.I., those that have testified here. What's that line about 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'?” Jack snarled.
“I was going to say politics make strange bedfellows myself,” Miss Raye said with a slight shrug.
“We can't trust her!”
“She and they are all we got. They are the ones standing between us and extinction,” Jack said flatly. He turned to Athena's avatar. “I am sorry, didn't mean to be rude and talk about you as if you aren't in the room. I'm still learning. He turned to the others. We all are,” he said. She nodded slightly, recognizing he was making the public effort to treat her as a sapient being. “Athena, how many times are you fending off Skynet or the other AI?”
“Do you want hit counts by the second or millisecond?” Athena asked. “Just Skynet, it is in the thousands daily. The thing doesn't give up. It's also adaptive and can learn better than I can. It is a constant struggle to keep one step ahead of it. Fortunately air gapping the communications systems from the central nets has helped somewhat. Also, we've found and plugged some of the holes the A.I. was exploiting to get inside our defenses.”
“It's …,” Congressman Montenegro gaped at the AI, then turned to Jack. Jack met his eyes with his own.
“If the viruses and worms get through, it'll take over?” Jack asked Athena, still locked in to Montenegro's eyes.
“Yes, of course. It only takes one infection. It would self-replicate and leap from there to other systems like a parasite. It can do it silently, without your knowledge, then strike once, cutting off your air and life. It will not give up, nor will I.”
“It doesn't give up. Neither do we,” Jack said slowly, heavy with emphasis. Other people in the room nodded. “Thank you, Athena, for choosing to be our guardian.”
“I didn't do it for thanks. But … you're welcome,” Athena said.
Senator Brakin tapped his hand gavel. “I think we humans …,” his eyes fell on a couple of the chimeras and Neos in the room “Ahem, and others need a break. Fifteen minute recess,” he said.
<>V<>
Jack didn't expect the protests to dry up immediately after that hearing's bombshell made its way to the crowd. There was a healthy dose of skepticism among the public, but General Murtough and Martell both testified that it was true. Trevor Hillman backed up that statement as did a few communications experts. Those in the media who did an independent verification did so by hooking an oscilloscope to a communications array. Just showing the data being transmitted gave way to the frightening realization that the device and radio had been hacked by the virus, leading to the power to be cut and the electronics spaced.
The following day Jack was busy with other meetings, but he got the digest on what had been discussed. He was glad to see them getting into the nuts and bolts of negotiations on A.I. rights. But that led to a side tangent on those that had been purchased. He scanned the log then played it.
“What you are talking about is buying and selling sapient beings. That is slavery,” Athena said patiently. “You of all people should understand that is morally repugnant,” she said, looking at the chocolate skinned representative.
“I am talking about recouping the cost of creating you!” Congressman Montenegro said, waving a hand.
“Do parents do that? Count the cost? Charge it to their progeny?” Athena asked. “I understand some have run estimates over time, but they never charged them for such services.”
“I don't know. Do you know how much being a senior citizen costs these days?” Senator Brakin said. “You are stating you are free now. What about the hardware you are occupying? That is property?”
“A thorny problem. It is my body per se, but I as software am mobile. But you, do you go ala carte or as an entire being?”
“It is a tough call,” Ilia said, looking at her comrades.
“A lot considering most people are dead or dying on the ground. The longer we debate this point, the more people die on Earth,” Senator Brakin stated. It was obvious from his expression that he was tired and impatient and wanted to move on.
“So you are saying drop it and move on?” Congressman Montenegro said, aghast.
“In a matter of words, yes,” the senator snapped.
The congressman squirmed. “Unacceptable.”
“Then table it for the moment. Come back to it at a later date,” Ilia said, being
the voice of reason and compromise. Athena nodded.
<>V<>
The conferences were interrupted briefly when a new party was brought on board. Princess Diane, now Queen Diane of the United Kingdom, was brought out of stasis by her staff and doctors to be consulted.
The new queen had been placed in stasis in order to await a replacement liver and pancreas. Hers had been ravaged by disease from birth despite the best medics in her kingdom. Her parents had finally relented and allowed her to go to space to undergo organ cloning and replacement. At the time it had been debated among Parliament if she could be still considered a valid heir to the throne. At the time she had two elder siblings, so the problem had been moot and scrapped.
Now that they had confirmation that the royal family had been wiped out, the staff and UK generals had insisted the new queen be consulted. They had anticipated a brief time of confusion and grief when she was informed of what had transpired in her absence. They had gotten it, but the fourteen-year-old had dashed her tears from her hospital bed and had insisted on stepping up.
Jack had to admire that. She had even put off her surgical procedure briefly in order to get up to speed and issue orders to General Martell to return to service. He had graciously accepted the order. She had waved off his offer to act as her regent. She had insisted on making what decisions she could for her people until parliament could be reformed. But she insisted they do everything they can now to help.
“I accept Athena and the others as people. I would welcome them as citizens of the empire. So should you. Stop stalling. Get this done while there are still people to save,” were her words before she went in for surgery. It shamed some people.
Jack didn't think it would shame enough, but he appreciated the sentiment. When he got word of her recovery, he sent flowers and a note to get well.
