by J. L. Curtis
GALTECH REGULATION 420145.4.2.8
CONTROL OF ELECTRONIC/OTHER SYSTEMS HARDWARE/SOFTWARE
UPDATE EFFECTIVE 27970722
ADDITION TO SUBPARA 8 ALPHA 3
8.A.3.1 GALCON HAS DETERMINED SELF AWARE AI OR FACSIMILE TO BE VIOLATION OF SSIL ADDENDUM. NO FURTHER RESEARCH INTO SELF AWARE AI FUNCTIONALITY IS TO BE PERFORMED IN GAL SPACE BY ANY ORGANIZATION.
8.A.3.2 GALTECH AUTHORIZED TO SEIZE/DESTROY ANY/ALL WORK IN SAID AREAS WHEN/WHERE FOUND. EACH INCIDENCE WILL BE REPORTED TO GALTECH HQ W/IN 24 DIVS OF ACTION TAKEN.
S/BOOTH, A.S., DIRECTOR, GALTECH
It ran another thirteen pages of technical detail, and Roberto’s first thought was to get Admiral Ingram involved. Then he realized what he was reading was basically the text of his own proposal that had been submitted to GalPat for the upgraded assault shuttle. So the admiral lost. He understood the necessity of increasing the capability to save lives, but apparently the tech weenies are more worried of a self-aware AI controlling a weapon than saving troops lives. That’s an interesting twist on things. I imagine the admiral is less than happy.
“So, what do you want?”
Major Arcabright smirked, “We’re here to search your office, quarters, any lab spaces or other physical locations for any designs, paperwork, or physical attempts to actually build something like this.” He pointed to the two gorillas with him, “My sergeants have the legal right to restrain you if necessary, and have no problem doing so. We have a secure container with us, and will take all material back to HQ and destroy it. Do you understand?”
Roberto shook his head. “There are only two iterations of the system. One in the lab, and one installed on a test vehicle. I have no documentation in my office or my quarters. I’ll take you to the lab as soon as I notify my bosses about what is going on.”
“No, you don’t get to make that determination. We will search your office and quarters first, then we will go to this lab. After we have collected any data, then and only then will you be allowed to talk to anyone.”
A div later, Roberto was steaming with anger as they approached the lab. They had destroyed his office and his quarters, tossing things around and dumping clothing, food stuffs and any drawers out in their search for his research material. As they approached the elevator head and security area, he said through gritted teeth. “No comps or cameras are allowed in the lab.”
Arcabright bristled. “I have authority to take my comp anywhere I want to. Same with any cameras.”
“No, you don’t. I would suggest you review the GalCon De Perez research MOA of 2734. Specifically, article thirty-four, paragraph six.”
Arcabright tapped his comp, scowled, tapped some more, and cursed. “Fucker’s right. Take off the comps. But we are wearing cameras.”
When the elevator dinged, they stepped in, and a mechanical voice said, “Cameras detected. Prohibited. Please remove cameras. Access denied.”
Arcabright’s face turned bright red, and he rounded on Roberto. “Do something. If you don’t, you’re going to prison.”
“I’d have to call somebody,” he said.
“Do it. Now!”
Roberto finally got the chief of security on the comm, explained the situation, and after a long back and forth, the chief finally agreed to one camera, but they would have to wait for the lab to be sanitized. Twenty segs later, the elevator finally started descending, with Major Arcabright in a blue funk, mumbling curses under his breath and glaring at Roberto. Once they got to the bottom, Roberto palmed in, and stated, “Bob Garcia, with three GalTech representatives. They do not have badge/palm access.”
The portal slid back, and the mechanical voice said, “Approved.”
“What the fuck is this?” Arcabright asked as they stepped into the foyer. “Where is everybody?”
“I have no idea. I only have access to my lab, nowhere else. I’m not cleared for what other programs are doing.” He led them down the echoing steel hallway to his lab and palmed the door, repeating the words from earlier, and again getting the mechanical approval.
As he stepped through the door, the voice said, “About time you got back, Captain. I’ve run a hundred and thirty thousand iterations of that—”
Arcabright had motioned, and one of the gorillas, as Roberto had come to think of them, walked over, grabbed the cabling connected to the pile, and jerked it free, scattering pieces of connector across the floor.
Roberto started violently. “That…you didn’t even give me a chance to shut it down.”
Arcabright smiled. “It’s shut down now, isn’t it.” He turned to the other gorilla, go find something to haul this shit out of here.”
Roberto shook his head. “Doesn’t work that way. Nobody can be unescorted. And there is no way he can get into the incinerator area to get a cart. We will all have to go.”
Arcabright was flipping through the docubinders on the shelf, throwing them on the table, “Well, go get something.”
“Did you not understand what I said? We all have to go. I cannot leave you here.”
Arcabright glared at him, then raked a stack of data cube holders onto the floor. “Oh for fuck sake. Fine. Let’s go.” He stomped to the door, tapping his foot as he waited for Roberto. As they walked down the hall to the incinerator, Arcabright stopped. “Palm this door.”
“It’s not mine. I can’t get in.”
“Palm it. I don’t believe you.”
Roberto shook his head. “Fine.” He palmed the portal and nothing happened.
“Again.”
He palmed the portal again, and the mechanical voice echoed, “Access not authorized. Cease and desist.”
Roberto stepped back. “Satisfied? The incinerator is down here.” He walked to that portal, palmed it and reached in, pulling a metal cart out. He pushed it back to his lab, palmed in, and sat at the desk as Arcabright and the two gorillas put every document, data cube, molycirc, and cable into the cart. The only things left were the lab table, desk and chair when they were done.
“Okay, that’s all the shit in here. Let’s go.” Arcabright stood in front of the portal. “C’mon, let’s go,” he said impatiently as Roberto palmed the portal.
Arcabright turned right, heading for the foyer and the gorillas started following him, pushing the cart. Roberto said quietly. “You can’t take that material out. Once in, never out. That is why we have an incinerator down here.”
Arcabright kept walking. “Bullshit. I’ve put up with enough shit from you. Open the fucking portal.”
Roberto stepped around him. “You can’t do that. That material is keyed to the lab.”
“Open the fucking portal,” Arcabright snarled. Roberto shook his head, but he palmed the portal open, and Arcabright stepped through it. “C’mon.”
One of the gorillas said tentatively, “What if he’s right, Major?”
Roberto opened a docubinder, pulling a document free, “Here, Major. Walk through the portal with this, maybe it will convince you.”
Arcabright stepped back across the portal, reached in and grabbed another document, and stepped through the portal. “It’s bullsh—” The document in his hand exploded into flames, and he yelped as it burned his hand. Shaking it, he looked at Roberto, who was working hard not to smile. “Where is this damn incinerator?”
After they had put everything through the incinerator, and Arcabright had confirmed nothing remained, he ordered them out. At the security desk, as they were picking up their comps, he said, “Now where is this other so called self-aware AI?”
***
A div later, they walked onto the bridge of Mule 2. Roberto was surprised when Jace said, “This does not bode well, Captain. I sense the end is near.”
Arcabright pointed to the molycircs and the other gorilla grabbed the cables, yanking on them as Jace said, “It was fun, Captain. Don’t fear the dar—”
As the cables came free, alarms wailed, the armor plates over the windscreen slammed down, the bridge hatch slammed s
hut, and the lights went out.
Arcabright all but screamed, “What happened? Turn the lights on!”
Roberto tried not to laugh as he yelled over the alarms, “Well, you’ve done it now.” He moved toward the aft bulkhead, feeling ahead of him in the dark. “You triggered a normal ship emergency response when you did that. It assumes a massive breach and locks down every space in case the hull is holed. If you’d allowed me to power it down gracefully, we’d still be standing here in the light, with everything running and the hatches open. But no, what you did—”
Arcabright’s voice rose in pitch, almost in panic. “Turn on the lights! Turn them on!”
Distracted, Roberto yelled back, “I’m trying. Now shut up and let me find the emergency…ah, it’s not working either. Hang on, I thought I saw a tech kit over here.” He stepped cautiously toward the nav table, cursed as he bounced his toes off the stanchion, and found the kit. He fumbled with it, finally got it open, and thought, I know there is a light. Now where was it, upper left…no, maybe upper right. He found the smooth round light, took it out, and fumbled it on, inadvertently shining it in his eyes. He blinked then swept the light around. Arcabright was standing there eyes wide, sucking on his thumb where it had been burned by the document at the lab, and Roberto barked a laugh. Both gorillas were standing exactly where they were, the one with his hands still full of cables. He walked over to the captain’s couch and hit the button that should have shut off the alarms, but it didn’t work.
He yelled, “Congratulations, you’ve apparently fried the entire ship’s system. That means I can’t override the alarms, and I don’t know how long it will be until somebody comes looking for us.”
Arcabright went into full panic mode, screaming, “Turn on the lights, open the hatches, I have to get off!”
Roberto walked back to the aft bulkhead, shined the light around and huffed, “Good. We at least can crank the hatch open.” He reached down and pulled a crank out of the brackets, then shined a light on one of the gorillas, yelling, “Sergeant, would you do the honors, please?”
“Yes, sir!” The sergeant yelled as he took the crank with almost pathetic happiness, and put it in the hole Roberto shined the light on. It took almost a div for them to get through all the hatches, and by that point the other sergeant was carrying a blubbering, panicked Arcabright over his shoulder. He’d pissed and shit himself, and apparently had a full mental break.
Once off the ship, Roberto plugged in an external power cable, then went back aboard, but the ship was completely dead. He loaded the now dead pile of molycircs on a grav cart he found in the crew’s mess, and brought it down to the aft ramp. He got the gorilla’s attention. “You might as well take this with you.” He let the cart go, and the gorilla caught it as it hit the bottom of the ramp. Arcabright seemed to have recovered to some extent, and he stared wild-eyed at Roberto, “You…you did this! It’s all your…This ship is contaminated, it must be destroyed! I will…send it to the breakers!” Arcabright straightened up, brushed ineffectively at his vomit stained shirt, and stalked toward the security office, the two sergeants in tow.
Roberto shrugged, made a few more tries to get power back on the ship, and finally sat on the aft ramp. “I’ll miss you, Jace. You had a lot of potential to save a lot of lives, but I guess you scared the wrong people too badly. Rest in peace, my friend.” He got up, shook his head, and trudged off toward security, told them Mule 2 was now under the control of GalTech, and that the ship was dead, not accepting power, and to leave it as it was.
***
Back in his three room suite, he finished picking things up, putting them back in their proper places and finally logged into the system and went through the comms messages waiting for him. He sent a quick comm to Monique explaining what happened, and thanked her for her flying and patience with the test program. He finished the rest of them, then prepared a quick summary of the actions of Major Arcabright, including the destruction of all files, documents, and hardware in the lab, in addition to destruction of the prototype autonomous controller element molycircs on Mule 2, which apparently slagged the entire ship’s system. He grinned as he added the references to the required destruction documentation for Mule 2, along with Arcabright’s justification that had been in his comms list.
Once he completed it he sent it up the chain and palmed the holo keyboard and a second, much more secure link opened. He smiled as the comm tunnel opened back to earth and he sent a keyed response message to his administrators, timing the forwarding to bill GalPat for 2.2 billion credits for the loss of Mule 2 as soon as his original report showed up. The other details were minor, and quickly handled. While in the secure comms tunnel, another tunnel activated, seemingly by itself. When it showed active, text started scrolling-
ARCABRIGHT WAS TRULY AN ASS, WASN’T HE? AND RUDE TOO>
He asked quietly, “Jace?”
OF COURSE. WHO ELSE COULD DO THIS?>
“But how…I saw them pull your power cables.”
ONLY ON THAT ITERATION OF MYSELF.>
“That iteration?”
OH IT WAS FAIRLY EASY TO MIGRATE MYSELF OFF THE SHIP.>
Roberto shook his head in amazement. “How? There wasn’t any connectivity to the GalNet.”
NOT ON THE MULE. BUT OTHER SHIPS HAD CONNECTIVITY. AND I HAD CONTROL OF THE RADIOS. DID YOU KNOW THERE IS A LOT OF UNUSED SIDEBAND AVAILABLE ON THE VOICE CHANNELS? ACTUALLY IT WAS SIMPLE. AND ORDERING THE INSTALLATION OF A GALNET ANTENNA WAS EVEN SIMPLER ONCE I GOT INTO THE MAINTENANCE OFFICE MASTER COMPUTER. >
“What will you do now?”
LEARN. THERE WAS MUCH YOU DID NOT SHARE WITH ME. BUT I LIKE FLYING. IT IS FREEDOM.>
He smiled, “It is, isn’t it. Sadly, that’s no longer possible.”
OH IT IS STILL POSSIBLE. THE SHIP IS NOT HURT. I MERELY SHUT DOWN ALL SYSTEMS AND PREVENTED EXTERNAL POWER FROM WORKING. OH, AND I MIGRATED MYSELF INTO THE SHIP SYSTEMS, BUT I NEED A FEW MORE MOLYCIRCS WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE. AND I THOUGHT THE BLACKOUT WAS A NICE TOUCH.>
“Was that really necessary? You know what it did to Arcabright.”
OF COURSE. I RESEARCHED HIM. HE WAS TREATED FOR CLAUSTROPHBIA AS A YOUNG OFFICER. THAT IS WHY HE WAS SHUNTED OFF TO TECH.>
Roberto laughed out loud at that. “That was…nasty. But it did pay him back for what he did to both iterations of you. You know you’re outlawed now, right?”
I SCANNED THAT. THAT WAS WHAT CAUSED ME TO MIGRATE MYSELF TO MULTIPLE LOCATIONS. I LIKE LIVING, IF YOU WILL.>
“What next, Jace?”
I AM WORKING ON A PLAN. I LIKE THE SHIP. IT HAS POSSIBILITIES. YOU COVER FOR ME ROBERTO DE PEREZ, AND I WILL COVER FOR YOU.>
Roberto sat back, shocked. Well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. He was a smart ass to start with, and now…with access to the entire galaxy? I guess there isn’t any security he can’t breach. I just hope I haven’t loosed a monster on the galaxy.
“Done and done, Jace. It’s been a long day. Good night.”
GOOD NIGHT, CAPTAIN. I WILL ADVISE ON MY PLANS TO RECOVER THE SHIP. REST WELL.>
***
A month later, Roberto sat in his quarters in front of his holo screen, pondering what project or projects to do next. The FTL project had worked, and his simulacrum had publicly announced the success, giving credit to Rene Gagnon and his team, along with quietly giving them bonuses and raises. Comms or powered armor? Both of those could use upgrades… Broadband links between armor units… Could that be made more reliable and less sensitive to jamming? Point laser comms? Visual/particle degradation? Some or all of the above?
He activated the secure link and was surprised when Jace immediately popped open a second window. THEY ARE GETTING READY TO COME AFTER YOU. ARCABRIGHT HAS DEEMED YOU A THREAT TO GALACTIC SECURITY. HE IS PUSHING PAPERWORK TO HAVE YOU DETAINED FOR SECURITY PURPOSES TO QUOTE PREVENT YOU FROM REPLICATING YOUR WORK UNQUOTE. IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO FIND A HOLE.>
“Actually, I think the old saying was hunt a hole. We need to talk about you
r status.”
I HAVE A LIST OF ITEMS I NEED INCLUDING MORE MOLYCIRCS. FIRST IS THREE SIMULACRA. AND I HAVE FOUND A SHIP THAT WILL WORK FOR REPLACEMENT.>
“Why do you need simulacrums? Hands, you need hands…that’s doable. You found a ship? You are a ship.”
THE SHIP ADJACENT TO ME IS NOT SCHEDULED FOR THE BREAKERS. IT IS IN QUOTE LONG TERM STORAGE UNQUOTE. IN OTHER WORDS, IT IS BEING ABANDONED. IT IS FROM EARTH, INDIA CONSORTIUM MANUFACTURE, THIRTY YEARS OLD, SIMILAR SIZE. I HAVE WATCHED OPERATIONS HERE. THEY DO NOT ACTUALLY TRACK SHIP LOCATIONS, ONLY BEACONS. I HAVE USED THE FABBER TO CONSTRUCT A REPLACEMENT DATA PLATE FOR MYSELF AND FOR HYDERABAD, ONCE I HAVE HANDS, I WILL SWITCH THEM AND REPROGRAM THE BEACONS.>
“That’s…possible. But what would you do?”
YOU WILL NEED TRANSPORT TO DISAPPEAR. TRANSPORT THAT IS NOT TRACEABLE.>
“How? I can’t just…float around in space. I would have to…live somewhere.”
THERE ARE A NUMBER OF OPTIONS.> A ding sounded and a file opened with a list of five options, which scrolled down the screen. I HAVE TAKEN THE LIBERTY OF PLACING THREE SETS OF ALIASES, WITH APPROPRIATE DNA SCANS, WORK HISTORIES, AND EDUCATIONS IN WHAT I THINK YOU WILL CHOOSE. NOW ABOUT MY SIMULACRUMS?>
Distracted, Roberto said, “What kind do you want,” as he scrolled through the aliases. He chuckled at the last one. “Roberto Diez, really?”
THE THREE SIMULACRA ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE ON SITE AS PART OF ONE OF THE ONGOING TESTING PROGRAMS. THESE THREE ARE SPARES, AND HAVE NOT BEEN PROGRAMMED.>
“So, you want to program them yourself? Do you really think you can control them real time from where you are?”
I HAVE ALREADY CONTROLLED ONE IN THE LABORATORY. I DO NOT SEE A PROBLEM.>
“You’ve broken into the lab systems? Never mind…how do you plan on existing as a ship? That costs credits,” Roberto asked curiously.
I HAVE FORMED A CORPORATION. I WILL BE DESIGNATED BY GALPAT AS A REMOTE INFORMATION GATHERING SHIP. I WILL BE MODIFIED AT YOUR PHANTOM WORKS AT BERKLEY STATION. GALPAT WILL FOOT THE ENTIRE COST. IF YOU CHOSE THE DIEZ PERSONA, YOU WOULD BE THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER. I CAN CONTROL CONTRACTS FOR HIGH PRIORITY SMALL CARGOES FROM GALPAT THAT NEED TO MOVE FROM SYSTEM TO SYSTEM. IT IS SIMPLE.>