I repeated, “You can't deactivate him, the core of his programming is in volatile RAM storage... just like our brains. Deactivating him would wipe out his memories, his mannerisms, and emotion.”
She shook her head, looking confused at my words. “But that's insane, why would it be using RAM instead of its base ROM? And pingers do not have emotions.”
I tried to explain, “Well, because there isn't enough memory in ROM to store what makes a person... well... a person. And he does too have emotion, you can plainly see it just from what happened with your storm troopers dirtside.”
I winced as Vashon looked down at me with a little amusement on her face. I squashed my head down to my shoulders and squinted, “You're not all stormtroopers.” This got her to chuckle.
The woman didn't look convinced though she hesitated when she looked at the iso-pad she was holding. “It is just malfunctioning, and you are romanticizing your misinterpretations of your observations and projecting your own emotion. It isn’t real, the pinger isn't alive.”
I tried to step around Vash, but she held an arm out to stop me, the roles had reversed, now she was protecting the director from me. I defended from behind Vashon, “He, and all my pingers, are sentient. They are self-aware and are just alive as you or me, and have a full range of emotions. I can prove it.”
The woman studied me for a moment then just held up the iso-pad. “It almost sounds like it is trying to vocalize, it keeps repeating the same thing over and over like its speech synthesizer doesn't function properly.”
She started playing it for me, and there was an oscillating sound that repeated twice then Glitch's two tone squeal that sounded like Fixit. My heart broke. She narrowed her eyes and accused, “You go by Fixit, do you not?”
I nodded and listened to the message repeating over and over. He sounded scared and almost frantic. The oscillation had a pattern to it, and I said, “Play it slower.” She complied with the request then my tears started again as I counted the highs and lows I swayed on my feet, and my ranger steadied me.
The woman looked at the iso-pad then me then her eyes widened a bit as she asked herself, “Binary?”
Glitch was saying over and over, “No die, no die. Fixit.”
I was horrified, I glared at the woman. “You say he isn't sentient? He's pleading for his life up there. And you're just trying to kill him.”
I could see her counting the highs and lows and turning a little pale. She knew what he was saying too. I was just amazed that he had figured out a way to communicate, none of my pingers could use their speech synthesizers once they woke up, the memory channels were commandeered for some of their higher thinking. It was a small price to pay for seeing the world for all the wonders it held for the first time.
A spark of hope filled my heart, if he could teach the others, then maybe I'd be able to have more meaningful discussions with them someday... if I could get Glitch home.
The woman shook her head. “It has to be a malfunction.”
I shook my head. “Then give him a Turing test! You don’t understand just how good the AI programming for the maintenance pingers is. They are evolving and waking up. They are alive, and they are my family.”
She stared at me dumbfounded then said, “Very well, we'll do that. But if it fails, then you'll help us to determine just how you broke the unit?”
She had doubt. I nodded and smirked at her. “Ok, and if HE proves to be alive, then you'll release him to me? He has the same rights as any other living thing.”
She shook her head. “It has no rights, it is a machine. But if, as you suggest, it shows any level of self-awareness, then we will do everything in our power to understand it and keep it running for study.”
I wanted to vault over my girl's arm and take a swing at the woman, but Vash stopped me, “It's a start, Vega. We can work from there.”
The woman cocked an eyebrow. “You believe Miss Hatcher, Captain?”
Without hesitation, she responded, “I don’t need to believe her because I know it to be true. I've spent time with Glitch and the other Agri-Grid A1 pingers. They are most definitely self-aware, and Glitch is one of my friends dirtside.”
This... took the woman aback. I don't think she expected that from an elite Sky Guard who is trained to be observant. Then my girl added in a cold tone, “And I would know about things that aren't fully human.”
Was she talking about herself? Did she resent her cybernetic implants? But they are all voluntary... right? She thought they made her less human? They made her beautiful, something more than human that was just so very sexy to me.
I reached out and took her hand. I could feel her tenseness melt away as her armor retracted into her cuff and we had flesh to flesh contact as she laced our fingers. The heat from our contact reassuring her that she was human and I saw the woman, not the soldier.
The Director looked as though Vash's words were a slap across her face. The woman said almost too quiet to hear, “You're still with us aren't you?”
I looked between the two as they stared at each other unblinking. Then Vash looked away and told me, “I have a call to make, go with Dr. Germaine I'll be right up.”
I didn't want to go without her, but I also didn't want to miss the chance to see Glitch and make sure he was ok. I nodded, and she leaned down without any bashfulness and gave me a peck on the lips. I blushed profusely, my face and neck heating up. Mother of all crystal, whatever did I do to be so lucky?
I looked back as I was led away by the woman I had looked up to, from all the technical papers she had written. It was sad to me that she seemed less... human than I had held her up to be. She started pulling things up on her iso-pad as we walked.
She asked, “How did your pinger... wake up, as you say?”
I shook my head. “I don't know.”
She didn't believe me and said, “The resonance scans show extensive retrofitting.”
“Topside doesn't supply us with enough spare parts, we have to scavenge and salvage parts from the scrap yards to cobble together repairs for my pingers.”
She said matter of factly, without accusation, “You removed the Asmov chip.” She pointed to the whitish outline of an empty socket on a backscatter trace image of a resonance scan.
The Asmov chip was in every robot or automated machine ever created for the last millennium or so. Ever since AI started being applied to machines with over forty petaflops of computing capacity, or half the capacity of the human brain. This basic chip contains just three instruction sets, the three laws of robotics.
These laws are universal. The first law is that a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. The second, a robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law. And third, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law.
These restrictions were set in place for the fear that one day, these robots would become self-aware, and there would be a robotic uprising as the machines tried to replace their creators.
I've never understood that. To me that was inhumane to any sentient being, to restrict it, to control it, take away its free will. Didn't that amount to slavery, especially if the robot did attain self-awareness? I didn't believe in the chips and figured that with free will and being shown how to be moral and extended friendship, they would choose just like any other sentient being.
I shrugged. “Glitch is a little... glitchy. The chip burned out long ago, and we never bothered replacing it.”
She shook her head. “And because of that, people have been hurt. It attacked Sky Guard commander dirtside, and has shocked three of my staff, burned me with an electro-shock when I tried to detach it from its mobility platform... and it rolled over another tech's foot when he tried to keep its grappler from attacking us by using an shock stick on it.”
I snorted and said as we got into a mag lift, “He's defending hi
mself just like a human would. He doesn't want to be hurt, dissected, shut down or someone trying to detach his legs from him. If he wanted to hurt anyone, believe me, he is more than capable of doing a lot worse. But because he has his own moral code, just like we do, he isn't.”
I smirked a little and thought, 'Good on you Glitch.' My buddy wasn't just rolling over for them, and was standing up for himself, even though he was terrified.
She asked me again, locking her eyes on mine, “How did it get like that? What is making it act out that way?”
I again said, “I don't know! Ask your programmers, his base code is their AI, it is better than they think. Glitch just added to it as he learned, he evolved like the others, until he... until he woke up.”
She narrowed her eyes at me trying to gauge my answer.
Then shook her head and moved on, tapping her pad and showed it to me, “What is going on here?”
I looked at the screen, I saw a view of Agri-Grid A1 from above. It zoomed in to just outside the repair bay, near the tumbril landing pad. I saw myself running as my maintenance pingers chased me, their grapplers outstretched as I ducked and dodged. I smiled for a moment before I frowned and looked at her accusingly and asked, “New Terra is spying on me?”
She shook her head. “We haven't been able to do a diagnostic uplink from any of the maintenance or harvester pingers in your grid for years. It didn't matter much since the uplinks burn out frequently dirtside and your grid always made quotas. But after certain recent events...” She showed me another wave of Glitch and I fighting off pirates.
The Betweeners had hijacked us en route to the Capitol She zoomed in on Glitch shocking a pirate then going about cutting the cable on the harpoon that tethered our tumbril to theirs without orders. “The pinger broke the first law of robotics. Then went about freeing your ship on its own, which is well beyond its programming.”
She stopped the wave just as we watched Vashon leap down from her Tumbril onto the Albatross to save us. She returned to the first wave. “So what is happening here. They are chasing you, were you in danger?”
I shook my head. “No, they aren't chasing me. Well, ok, they are. But you don't get it. We were playing tag.”
She stared at the wave then me. “Playing?”
I nodded, and she pulled up another. “And here?” I again narrowed my eyes. I didn't like that my privacy was so thoroughly invaded as I watched Blip, Glitch, Wrongway and myself, kicking a plastic container between us.
I shrugged. “Playing ball. Well, I don't have a ball, so we use what we have. It is one of their favorite games.”
Then she swiped to another wave. “And here?”
It was the feed from one of the sonic fence pylons, of Glitch going after the Cath Sabers. I narrowed my eyes, it was self explanatory. I said flatly, “He was protecting me.”
She was looking a little unsure as she led me to the flanterskelling security checkpoint again. I had to smother a smile behind my hand at the two charred photon projectors in the security grid. They hadn't replaced them yet. Well it had only been an hour I guess.
I squinted my eyes and cringed a little as I walked through and was scanned, the indicators turned green, and I relaxed and went through with her. The soldiers giving me the old stink eye.
She asked one last time as she led me down the corridor, “What is different about your pingers that they are experiencing this radical departure to their programming, when it isn't happening at any of the other Agri-Grids?”
I almost whined, “I keep telling you that I don't know!”
She huffed then I heard a familiar squeeing from behind a door we were approaching, and I hastened my step. Glitch!
Chapter 6 – No Place Like Home
Just as we arrived, the door was blown off its track, and a man came tumbling out. A moment later, a stun stick was flung out the opening, I could hear the sparking of electricity, and Glitch squealing.
I ran inside, the Director behind me, to see a containment room with its door hanging out of its track, four people in white lab coats were standing around Glitch, jamming stun sticks at him, shocking him, making him squeal and convulse.
I screamed, “Stop it! You're hurting him!” I slammed into the nearest man, pushing him into the woman beside him, and I stepped between Glitch and the other two prods. I could feel the heat from the electricity arcing between the prongs on my skin.
Glitch made a hopeful sound, my name, that went up at the end like he was asking if it was really me. The Director was hissing at the technician's in their white lab coats, “What is the meaning of this? Back away!”
I turned to my friend who was shaking so hard I was afraid he'd shake himself apart. I nodded through tears, “Yes Glitchy, it's me.”
I swear he was bawling the way his speaker squealed in halting bursts as his grappler wrapped tightly around me as I hugged him. A man dove forward with a stun stick. “It's attacking!”
The director almost roared this time, “Stand down!”
The man hesitated and looked back at her as I stared at him in fear. The Director said in a confused tone, “No... it isn't it's... hugging her?”
I nodded and then kissed Glitch on the optic port and then pulled back as he released me and I started frantically looking him over, finding damage at some of his open access panels. “Are you ok?” He oscillated, binary again. I said, “Slow down you silly boy, what?
He repeated as I counted, I saw the Director silently counting too. “Go home? Scared. Fixit home.”
I looked around and said, “I'm trying buddy.”
He gave another series of tones. “Not die.”
I shook my head. “I won't let that happen. The Director is going to run a test, then maybe we can go home.”
The woman looked around and asked, “Is anyone going to tell me what's going on here?” She stared at the broken containment room and the door to the lab.
One woman said almost like an accusation, “Burns told the pinger he was going to enjoy dissecting his circuits to see what was in there. And the thing went crazy, burst out of containment. We were trying to stop it and get it into another containment room when you arrived.”
The man from the hall came in, holding his shoulder, it was obviously broken the way it slumped. He hissed, “It needs to be shut down and shredded for raw materials, it almost killed me.”
I took it that this was Burns, because the Director hissed at him, “After you threatened to tear it apart!”
I was getting confused. Just who's side was she on?
She growled out, “How would you react if you were taken from your home, put in a room surrounded by people who were hurting you, and they told you they were going to dissect you?”
Then she got a look on her face, which looked like a look of wonder, as she stepped closer to us and looked directly at Glitch. She asked tentatively, “Are you really aware? Or are you just parroting human reactions?”
Then she said to him, “Hello.”
Glitch stopped shaking a bit and tilted his orb like he was cocking his head, and he squealed out something that sounded like a greeting.
She shook her head. “If only it were true.” She studied him a moment longer then she looked at me. “Can you ask him to go into another containment room so we can do the Turing test?”
I nodded, not having any other choice and said, “Come on Glitchy, the sooner we get this over with the sooner we can find out when you can go home. I won't let them hurt you.”
He looked at me then the others then nodded. I took his grappler in my hand and walked him to the only other containment room in the lab. As we went past a glaring Burns, Glitch oscillated nice and slow, letting me easily understand what he was saying. I burst out laughing when I counted out, “Crystal licking bootwaffle.”
He tittered and squeed too, and Dr. Germaine snorted then hesitated with a puzzled look on her face, as she said to herself in a questioning tone, “Spontaneous humor?”
She pulled an u
plink cable from the wall and moved toward Glitch to make a hard connection between him and the mainframe. He backed up behind me and started shaking again. I patted him and shook my head. “No.”
She exhaled in frustration. “We need an uplink so we can do a diagnostic. So many of the connections we see would cause so many unintended aberrations in the action subroutines like those exhibited by this unit. A lot of the things don't make sense to us from a scan, and shouldn't be possible. It shouldn't be operational.”
I shook my head again. “You don't need an uplink to do a Turing test. How would you like someone connecting a cable to your brain?”
Vashon stepped into the lab when I said that. Her eyes narrowed at the Director, and the doctor looked positively shamed. Was it... was it something I said?
She waved from where she took a position in front of us on the other side of the crystal-alloy. Glitch squeed happily and waved back. Everyone else looked between the two as I grinned. I was happy that my two favorite people got along so well.
The Director asked as she held the cable, “Then how am I supposed to administer the test?”
I shrugged. “Just translate for him. My clever boy has figured out how to talk again. The test will will be over the net anyway.”
She stood there a minute holding the cable before sighing, releasing it to coil back into its receiver. I pulled my multi-tool from my tool belt and keyed in a code and said, “While you do that, I'm going to fix the damage your goons have inflicted.”
The woman paused and watched my tool fold out and reconfigure into a circuit tester, from the default spanner mode.
She pointed and asked, “What is that? I've never seen anything like it.”
I shrugged. “Just a toy I made when I was little. I got tired of running around for tools, so I made a multi-configurable one.”
She was staring at it. “When you were...” Then she asked, “What are your tech ratings?”
Fixit Adventures Anthology Page 8
