by S. H. Jucha
“My apologies for our accommodations,” Gramab said to the group.
When Alex’s stomach grumbled again, he offered his apologies too.
“Let me show you what we eat,” Gramab offered.
A buffet was laid out for the guests. Miranda and Julien took minute samples and analyzed each.
“We thank you, Monarch, for your hospitality. The food appears wonderful,” Alex said. “However, my digital friends, the SADEs, tell me that neither the Toralians nor the humans can consume your food.”
Gramab was disappointed. She’d hoped to start their negotiations with a treat, the best food her race could present. Chistorlans consumed the waterways’ offerings — shellfish, fish, eels, and mollusks of many types. Alex was familiar with many of the shapes from the oceans and streams of New Terra, Haraken, and Omnia.
Miranda had tested the water and pronounced it as highly filtered, which meant consumable. She doffed her pack and pulled out rations for Alex and the Toralians. Everyone found seats and ate.
Alex finished the rations that Miranda handed him. She took one look at Alex’s face and dug out the last of the food for him. After a traveler permanently occupied the cave, there would be plenty of food for the humans.
The group adjourned to a meeting room, while the monarch’s staff cleaned and cleared away the buffet and dishes.
Gramab noted that the Toralians enjoyed the stools. She imagined their back appendages must be as difficult to deal with as the Chistorlan females’ spines. The digital entity Alex called Julien stood behind the Toralians, and the one called Miranda stood next to her leader, who wasn’t at all comfortable on the narrow stool. After giving it a try, he set it aside, sat on the floor, and leaned against Miranda’s substantial legs.
“Talk to me, Monarch Farla-Hesta, about your intentions,” Alex requested.
Miranda handled the Chistorlan translations, while Julien whispered to the Toralians.
Gramab deferred to Tittra, who tipped his head in acknowledgment and launched into a detailed explanation of the process.
Alex listened to the manner in which the Chistorlans had developed their digital sentients. It had taken them hundreds of cycles. After they created the first entity, they cloned it, made program changes, and introduced the original to the clone. The programming manipulations within the clone were designed to improve an aggressive intention — domination.
The department expanded rapidly after the first pairing. The Chistorlans learned to capture the interaction between the pairs and understand the techniques the winner used to destroy the other. Then they cloned the winner, added new twists, and tried again. The process was repeated ad infinitum, always selecting the most aggressive, the cleverest, and the most adaptable entity. They’d gone through over seventy thousand iterations.
Tittra was voluble in his explanations, thrilled to share the efforts and successes of his department. When he finished, he stared expectantly at Alex, anxiously awaiting a response. When he didn’t receive one, he glanced at Lipsit and then Gramab. Finally, he looked at the Toralians, who refused to meet his gaze. He uttered a confused croak.
Gramab belatedly understood the silence. She couldn’t believe she had missed it. The subject had been covered in the introductions.
It was Julien who cleared the air. He said, “We view digital sentients as unique and precious. We exert considerable effort to preserve every individual, but we recognize that we don’t live in this universe alone. We’re intricately entwined with humans. That means their fight is our fight.”
“We’re here to listen to what you’ve planned to do to defeat Artifice,” Miranda added. “However, if we can improve on what you’ve done, without the termination of more digital entities, we’d be pleased to help.”
Tittra realized the conundrum, and he searched for a way to explain. “We’re close, Alex, but there must be more pairings to reach our goal.”
“Which is what?” Julien asked.
“To produce an entity that when connected with Artifice will attack and overcome it,” Tittra replied.
“How did you intend to physically make that happen?” Miranda asked.
Gramab loosed a soft croak.
Miranda commented privately to Julien.
“What makes you think that your entity will defeat Artifice?” Alex asked.
“Artifice’s technology is orders of magnitude less advanced than ours,” Tittra explained. “It’s powerful but old and has suborned races by virtue of being first. But our adversary will process information faster than Artifice, and it has been created to be aggressive, while Artifice has been programmed to be deliberate, calculating. To defeat Artifice, our entity must be directly connected to Artifice. One of its antennas would represent the optimum opportunity.”
“I want to talk about your pairing process to arrive at your ultimate adversary, Tittra,” Alex said. “According to my imminently mathematical friend, you have sixteen thousand, three hundred, eighty-four entities tied in pairs.”
Tittra accessed a device he carried and checked for the latest figures. “That’s correct,” he acknowledged, wondering how Alex had obtained the count.
“Some of the cases appear inactive,” Julien commented.
Tittra checked his device again. “The active count is ten thousand, three hundred, fifty-two,” he replied. “Within a few more cycles, the pairs will have been resolved.”
“Meaning that one entity will have defeated the other, and the count will be eight thousand, one hundred, ninety-two,” Miranda offered.
“That’s also correct,” Tittra agreed. He could tell by Gramab and Lipsit’s demeanors that the conversation with the Omnians wasn’t going well, but he had no idea how to redirect it. He was a digital programming engineer, who was doing his job. That the Omnians had a different attitude toward digital sentience than Chistorlans wasn’t his fault.
“If you were to use the remaining entities, you’d have twelve sets of pairings to produce the final entity,” Alex suggested.
Tittra calculated the number of pairing steps, using the remaining entities. It surprised him that Alex could determine the pairing permutations so quickly without the aid of an instrument.
“It’s not enough, Alex,” Tittra replied apologetically. “My department requires at least three times that number of pairings.”
“Why?” Alex asked.
“Why?” Tittra repeated dubiously. “We must have the optimum specimen. We’ve calculated the number of pairings it will take to generate an entity sure to triumph over Artifice.”
“What will you do with your entity if it succeeds against Artifice?” Julien asked.
“There’s not much we can do with it,” Tittra admitted. “By its nature, it will be highly aggressive. It will be too dangerous to use in other applications.”
“Meaning you intend to destroy it,” Julien surmised.
“If you follow your strategy, Tittra, you’ll have produced the optimum adversary or so you believe. Then what?” Alex asked.
Tittra turned to Gramab, who said, “That would be the end of phase one. We would then develop a means of deploying our adversary.”
Sargut whispered to Julien, who accessed Miranda’s pack and recovered his holo-vid. Powering it up, the SADE chose to display some of the scout ships’ telemetry recordings.
“We’re not sure when you last visited the Talus system where Artifice resides, Gramab,” Alex explained. “These are images of the machinations Artifice has created to protect itself. Surrounding the planet are comm platforms that aid its broadcast power. Now, you’re viewing probes that are dotted around the system’s periphery and report on every ship’s movement. And these are images of the fleets that surround the system. Each fleet is held hostage by Artifice’s programs. If the fleets don’t obey its orders, they’ll be
destroyed, and their races will be reduced.”
Various degrees of croaks were issued by the Chistorlans. It was obvious to the Omnians and the Toralians that the Chistorlans were woefully uninformed about the system’s present conditions.
“Have you considered what will happen to your final creation, while you search for a means of slipping it through Artifice’s extremely protected system?” Julien asked.
“It will be held in isolation during this period,” Tittra replied. “There will not be any confrontations, although this period must be brief.”
The Omnians laughed at Tittra’s lack of understanding of the entities his department had been responsible for creating.
“What?” Tittra demanded. He was incensed by the Omnians’ dismissal of his department’s thorough, long-term plans.
“How soon does one entity go from being a winner to confronting another opponent?” Miranda asked.
“Within eight to nine cycles on average,” Tittra replied. He was unsure where this line of questions was leading.
“So you’ve created an expectation that an entity anticipates a confrontation within a specific period of time,” Miranda pursued.
“I suppose so,” Tittra replied.
“Have you considered what that entity will think when the time passes for the next event and nothing happens?” Miranda asked. “I’ll tell you, Tittra ona Hagra.” She wanted to advance on the head of development, but Alex remained firmly against her legs, probably deliberately, she thought.
“Your digital entity will grow frustrated,” Miranda continued. “It will seek outlets for its growing intensity and will find none. Within a short period, it will devolve, stagnate, as it tries to find a meaning for its existence. By the time you want to deploy it, you’ll either have a simpleton or an entity at peace with itself. Neither iteration will do you any good.”
Gramab, Lipsit, and Miftra stared at Tittra in shock, and the recipient of their unguarded expressions could only express confusion.
“Are you sure?” Tittra managed to finally ask.
Miranda’s laughter greeted his question, and this time, Tittra was embarrassed. They weren’t discussing programming or mathematical pairings; they were discussing the emotional states of digital entities. He only knew the one aspect of their persona and had never considered the possibility that their aggression might be ephemeral.
“If any entity should know this,” Miranda stated hotly, “I would. I can’t reveal why, but I know. A digital entity’s frustration is a powerful force, and you’ve not given it any thought.”
Alex sent,
“Well,” Alex said, as he stood, “it appears you’ve a decision to make, Tittra. According to your data, twelve more pairings should reduce your entity count from sixteen thousand, three hundred, eighty-four to one and this should take you about one hundred and eight days or less. We’re prepared to help you deliver your ultimate adversary to Toral, providing you create no more clones. It’s your choice.”
“But what if your advance into Artifice’s system is unsuccessful and we’re exposed, or what if you succeed but our insufficiently prepared entity doesn’t defeat Artifice?” Tittra cried out.
“Then it won’t matter, Tittra, because soon after, Chistorlans won’t exist anymore,” Alex replied.
Tittra beseeched his monarch for her support.
“We accept your offer of help and your condition, Alex Racine of the Omnians,” Gramab announced. “Tittra will endeavor to succeed with the entities he now possesses. Any help your SADEs can offer will be greatly appreciated.”
“Then we have a bargain,” Alex replied.
Gramab slid off her stool and held out her slender arm. Alex extended his hand, palm up. Gramab laid hers on top of his, and Alex touched his thumb to the back of hers. The deal was sealed. Now Alex had to figure out a means of delivering his part of it.
-16-
108 Days
The pilot hovered Tatia’s traveler outside the mouth of the cave.
Tatia and Reiko exited the ship. The night sky was a brilliant display of stars, and the planet’s three moons added varying degrees of reflected light to the sheen on the slow-moving waterway.
“Quite a sight,” Reiko commented. “I’d like to see this in the day.”
“You’ll probably get your chance, Reiko,” Tatia replied. “I think we’ll be here a while. The temperament of Alex’s thoughts told me that he thinks he’s found something valuable here.”
Tatia and Reiko entered the cave. It was the only direction to go. They spotted Miranda standing by an oddly constructed grav pallet.
“Your transport awaits, Admirals,” Miranda quipped.
“You didn’t want to give our pilot or us a heads-up about entering the cave?” Reiko queried.
“And let you miss the fun of exploring on your own?” Miranda shot back. “What sort of friend would I be if I denied you the pleasure?”
“Who is with Alex?” Tatia asked, concerned for his safety. She knew Z was working on Toralian battleships.
“The greatest concern for Omnians, Admiral, is that we don’t accidentally step on one of the Chistorlans and squash them.”
Since Tatia and Reiko had been aboard the traveler for the past half day, they’d missed the images that Chandra had shared with her freighter’s crewmates and which had made their way around the fleet.
“Climb aboard, Admirals,” Miranda said, indicating the front two seats, which were the only ones available. Miranda had removed the rear two and stacked them on the middle pair to make room for the load of supplies from the freighter via Chandra’s traveler. Franz had also made a run, bringing supplies for the Toralians from Sugatar’s ship.
Knowing the route and having not reacted well to the admirals’ questioning, Miranda decided that a little extra speed was in order. She accelerated smoothly until she reached sixty kilometers an hour and was required to hold it there. Her power crystals were draining faster than her grav cell could charge them.
Checking behind her, Miranda saw that Tatia and Reiko were holding firmly onto the sides of their seats.
When Miranda thought she’d made her point, she slowed to forty kilometers an hour to allow her grav cell to eliminate the drain on her power cells.
Despite the late hour, many Chistorlan work crews were busy in the tunnels. They glanced briefly at the passing group of Omnians and resumed their work.
Tatia sent in reply.
Miranda slowed, as she entered the digital entities’ cavern.
Tatia and Reiko gla
nced around at rows of cases, half of them exhibiting an orange glow through an inset. Off to the far left, a set of fabrics hung on rods.
Miranda nodded slightly. It indicated that Tatia’s pleasantry had brokered a peace between them. Miranda led the admirals around to the long side of the curtains. When they entered, they immediately turned right to walk around a separate alcove that had been created.
Reiko was momentarily stunned by the image of three Toralians hanging upside down, their bare toes wrapped around padded rods. She hurried on, but not before accessing her implant memory to ensure that she’d recorded what she thought she saw. And there they were.
More alcoves followed. The fabric that separated them extended to the floor and helped to isolate sound.
Tatia and Reiko pulled their separating fabric aside. They slipped off their deck boots and lightly tapped the pallets. They were comfortable to the touch.
When Reiko lifted the top cover, she discovered the base was made up of small pads grouped together. She pointed to them and sent,
Tatia unpinned the separating fabric and lay down on her pallet. It was surprisingly comfortable. Her final thought was to hope Alex had found something worthwhile.
The admirals woke to find they were the last up. Two grav pallets sat side by side, and the others were using the seating to consume their morning meals.
