Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins

by Randolph Lalonde

  Doctor Lang moved to stand beside Elise, focused and ready to move.

  I joined Oz and gave him a nod. “It's time to go.”

  “Let's get the hell out of here!” he yelled. Someone had brought an automatic pulse rifle for him. It was a four barrelled collapsible monstrosity that was just under a meter long, assembled. He started moving and everyone followed.

  Elise, whose speech and upper body movement impediments were gone, followed close behind us. “I was able to plot the route to the nearest docking bay. Some of us will head there while the rest will go help Ayan.”

  “Thank you Elise.”

  The main airlock doors creaked open slowly. Our rescue party was completely invisible, so all the guards on the other side of the door could see were just a few well armed prisoners escaping. Oz ran at the doors full speed and was in the gap firing before anyone could so much as see what was on the other side. Just a second after he started firing, he stopped.

  When we caught up we saw why. There was a whole squad of guards in the next chamber but at least half of them were on the ground. The rest were struggling to get their helmets off. I could hear the sounds of them suffocating, watched them desperately fight to undo any seal on their suits as they fought for a breath.

  “Alice has done this before Captain. She's gone completely rogue,” I heard the invisible rescuer say from behind.

  Minh and Jason couldn't watch, they both looked away from the nightmarish sight. I couldn't help but look on. The AI I had lived with for half my life was incapable of causing such suffering, but there it was right in front of me.

  The same thing was happening to all the guards. The prisoners in the intake line on the other side of the transparesteel wall started to revolt. The last of the guards on our side fell to the floor. “Let's move.”

  We didn't face any opposition for several turns of the broad hall, I was starting to take in my surroundings. I wish that I hadn't. From what I had seen of the ship it was clean, spotless. Everything looked new and unused. The halls we were running through were completely different.

  It was marked by the stains of thousands of feet. The dirt of people who live planet-side, and the leavings of men, women and children that were forced from their homes in a hurry. There were articles of clothing, food wrappers, two or three children's toys, and other items of greater and lesser significance. “They take them in so fast that they had to hold some of them here for a while during their intake process.” I heard Doctor Lang say from behind me.

  We came to a split in the hall and I could see that some inmates were already running. They were already processed, cleaned up and in white jumpsuits.

  “Okay, we have to go secure transportation. Only two of us can help you get to Ayan, and only part way. We have to manually disable the security in this section. There's no other way,” one of our invisible rescuers informed us.

  “What can we expect coming from behind us?” Oz asked.

  “The prisoners who remember how they came aboard will most likely try and lead the rest to the landing bays. Any guards who managed to survive will be busy.”

  “So a flood of panicked, confused, lost and very angry inmates will be covering our back trail. Sounds like fun.” Oz said as he inspected his new weapon. “This is really nice. I didn't even know we had them in the armoury. Wouldn't happen to have any extra cloaksuits, would you?”

  “I'm afraid not. We only had time to make the ones we needed for the rescue team.”

  “Well, let's get moving. Tell me what we're doing en route.”

  “You're not supposed to come with us, Captain,” replied the hidden voice.

  “By my count you only have one or two people going to clear a path for Ayan. Doesn't sound like enough to me.”

  “So, the Captain and I will go with you. I'm guessing whatever she's doing will involve her becoming visible-like, and I'd hate to see her get all shot up,” Oz reinforced.

  “No time to argue, and you're right. We lost two on the way here so we're short.”

  I nodded and looked to Minh. “Fly 'em home.”

  He nodded and we split up. Oz and I made good distance, the only sounds in the hallway were the slapping of our bare feet and the sound of our breathing.

  “We only met for a few moments before, sir, but you knew me well in the simulations. My call sign was Mynx. My real name is Monica Nolan.”

  “I didn't even recognize your voice Mynx,” Oz said in surprise. “Nice job getting us out.”

  “Thank you sir, that means something. Sorry I couldn't join the security team on board.”

  “No worries, from your profile I thought you were better at maintenance and damage control anyway. I'll have to fight Ayan for you once we're back aboard now that I've seen your team in action though.”

  “Now that I'd pay to see, but right now we don't have time to consider crew rosters.” She said to both of us through our communicators. “While we've been breaking you out, Ayan has been making her way into the central section of the ship. We're going to steal the computer core.”

  “For a command carrier? It's got to be huge.”

  “This command carrier uses a molecular quantum processor core package, a combination of organic and scalable quantum computer technologies. The core itself isn't very large and can be taken off line and removed quickly in case of emergency. Unfortunately she can't remove it while her cloak suit is in operation, since the field could start conducting power from the core housing.”

  I was in awe of the prize Ayan was after. The ambition of it was amazing, even for her. “If I'm right, that's more computing power than you'd need for anything I've ever seen.”

  “It's a big ship,” Oz observed.

  “Right, but that core could process everything going on in four stations the same size as Freeground, this ship, a small colonized moon, and make us lunch at the same time. Why do they need so much computing power?”

  “Because this ship uses a micro singularity for power.”

  “Waitwait,” Oz said, stopping dead in his tracks. “I haven't been to class in a while, but before the big bang, wasn't there just one point of energy, the source of all matter and antimatter? Now, what was it called, what could it have been, it'll come to me, right, it was a singularity! Are they nuts?”

  “Well this one is an artificial microscopic singularity. The theory is that it doesn't have enough mass to form a black hole or some other disastrous galactic landmark. The computer core keeps it in balance, so it just exists and exerts energy in the form of gravity, radiation and the occasional surge of matter.”

  Oz started running again, and we continued on. "Occasional surge of matter like the big bang?”

  "Not like the big bang. Anyway, when Ayan steals the core, the artificial singularity will still be in balance, but there's no telling for how long. The ship will not be able to change its course and take the singularity with it.”

  “What will happen to the ship when the singularity destabilizes?” I asked.

  “Big bang,” Oz answered.

  “It could be a little big bang, covering a few thousand kilometres, but before that happens the singularity is much more likely to collapse and the ship will implode.”

  “And suck in whatever happens to be nearby.”

  “Right, but we could have plenty of time before destabilization.”

  “Or a few seconds. Just another reason to live every millisecond to the fullest.”

  “Well put. Alice will take control of the navigation systems when we're ready. She'll lock the ship on its course. Other than that we have two hours minimally, but the singularity could remain stable for decades. There's no way to know for sure, especially since we only know a little theory about this kind of artificial singularity.”

  We came around a corner and were faced with a squad of guards. They started drawing weapons, but by the time the first shots were going off, Oz and I had retreated behind cover. "Do we open fire?” I asked.

  "Overhead cove
r fire only,” came the response.

  Oz and I started firing so our shots were angled into the hallway. We couldn't fire directly at them, but we could create a line of fire that the soldiers wouldn't want to cross. A small disc was thrown into the hall. Oz and I both turned and ran.

  We came around a corner and ducked for cover. After a few silent moments passed Oz and I looked back the way we came. At the same time I could hear Monica whispering in my ear, “It's a shield.”

  The soldiers had erected a portable energy shield. It moved in front of them as they marched towards us and extended from wall to wall, ceiling to floor.

  "Oh hell. That's just cheating,” Oz complained as he took cover around the corner and checked his ammunition level. "Well, I'm good to fire for another hour or so without stopping, but I don't know that it will do any good. Are any of your team behind the shield Mynx?”

  “Just me.” I recognized Craig Vargas' voice right away. He was career infantry, and had served with Oz for a few months before volunteering for service on the First Light, then joining Oz's security team.

  “You know what to do,” Oz said with a smile.

  “Yes sir.” A second later I heard pulse weapon fire start up, and I couldn't help but glance around the corner.

  One soldier was being held up as a shield in front of the others by an invisible figure as Craig's pulse handgun auto fired into the rest of the soldiers. When there were just two left, the human shield dropped to the ground limply and the pair of remaining soldiers fired wildly in all directions for several seconds, trying to hit the enemy they couldn't see.

  They both stopped at the same time, one standing still for several seconds while the other tried to grip something in front of his throat. The soldier's head toppled from his shoulders and the other fell to the ground as he began bleeding profusely from the side of the neck.

  “I think I need to have a word with your tailor Craig, I have got to get me one of them suits,” Oz commented.

  “If you think that's something, wait until you put one on and start climbing walls.”

  “You can climb walls?”

  “Oh yeah, Ayan and Laura went all-out on these,” He said as I watched the shield disappear and the small shield disc raise from the ground and vanish from sight.

  “Hate to break this up boys, but we have a job to do,” Mynx interrupted. “Alice says that the way ahead is clear. You and Oz go down the hall and around the next corner. She'll point out the auxiliary control room when you get there. The rest of us have to take care of the manual security systems and shut down the surveillance inside so Ayan can steal the core.”

  “All right, good luck.”

  “Thanks, you too.”

  Again, we were resigned to more running. The transport tubes weren't reliable. I was too thankful to be out of my cell to care much, even though the last place I wanted to be was deeper into the ship.

  “So, Jonas, I have a question,” Oz said.

  “What's on your mind?”

  “You're hearing voices too, right? I mean, I was going a little loony all alone in my cell for weeks on end. Okay, I was right next to bibbledy making hand puppets out of my sleeves and inventing imaginary audiences. Just tell me you hear the voices too.”

  “If you mean our rescue team, I hear the voices,” I replied, laughing genuinely for the first time in long memory.

  “Good, that accounts for at least one of my new mental issues.”

  “There are others?”

  “Yup, but as Marshal would say; 'I think we've made enough progress for today.' God, I want to kill that man.”

  “You're not the only one.”

  “I see your jogs with Doc Anderson are starting to pay off.”

  “I think so, but I got restless in my cell and ran on the spot whenever I was bored enough.”

  “That's a lot of running.”

  “Oh yeah,” I replied. The run felt good but the companionship felt better.

  “Look out!” Oz cried out as he tackled a soldier just coming out from around the corner ahead and drove him to the deck hard.

  I rammed my shoulder into the other one at a full run, slamming him against the corner of the wall. He pounded me across the shoulders with his fists but I barely felt it. I jumped back and took aim with my rifle, pulling the trigger as fast as I could, as many times as I could. The soldier's armour dented, then the pulses broke through, leaving deep burn wounds behind.

  I turned around just in time to see Oz snap the other soldier's neck. I cringed for a moment and heard more coming from down the hall. We ducked around a corner and waited.

  The running boot steps came closer, closer, and then there was a sound I will never forget. The loudest part of it was the hard, solid slam of heavy metal against heavy metal, an emergency containment door closing. The rest was grisly.

  Oz looked at me and mouthed. “Alice!”

  I didn't reply, just stepped into the hallway and saw what she had done. The door had come down just in time to crush both soldiers and my stomach turned over. Oz and I wordlessly stepped around the mess as best as we could and continued on. Some distance further down that corridor a hatchway opened and we stepped inside.

  It was a backup control room for the computer core. The door closed behind us. Through the transparent wall opposite I could see a massive processor matrix inside a circular chamber that stretched up and down several stories. The system containing the molecular quantum core tapered down from the ceiling and up from the floor to join to either end of the core itself in the middle of the massive space. Above was the singularity containment unit, and I shuddered at the thought of all that power being held in the heart of a ship.

  “Now that is advanced technology,” I heard Oz say from over my shoulder.

  “But where's Ayan?”

  As though in direct answer to my question, she appeared on the other side of the glass. She was wearing a stealth suit but this one looked less well contained and sleek than the ones we briefly saw on Freeground. There were several small exterior components and containers along with wires and cables that had been strapped and taped down to her body that looked quickly improvised. Very little flexibility was lost, but I could tell that all form had been sacrificed in order to favour function. She waved, smiled at us from where she floated in zero gravity, and raised her headpiece into place and sealed it.

  “We have to release the safeties from here so she can access the quantum core,” I heard Alice's voice say from one of the consoles.

  “All right, where is it?”

  A control panel flashed green and red and I stepped over to it. The controls were pretty obvious for the safeties and release mechanisms, and as I glanced over to the other panels around it I was immediately glad I didn't have to do more. Managing the other systems attached to the core looked infinitely complex. “Okay Alice, what do I do?”

  “The controls are set up from left to right in the sequence to release the retention and safety mechanisms. I would work with them if I could, but the core computer artificial intelligence is too powerful. The other team has already defeated the surveillance systems and they're securing the rest right now. No one will be able to see what Ayan is doing.”

  A thought occurred to me then, and I shuddered. I took a moment to watch Ayan push off from the glass and drift towards the quantum core, a couple hundred meters away. “Alice, was this your idea or hers?” There was a long silence, and the panel flashed red and green, red and green. “I'm asking you a question, Alice. Was this idea yours or hers?”

  “It was mine. I can't take control of the exterior ship defence systems while the core artificial intelligence is in full operation.”

  “Can you open a channel between Ayan and I?”

  “The computer core is shielded against all wireless communications, I'm sorry Jonas.”

  “I don't like it,” Oz whispered.

  I nodded tersely. “Are you planning to take over the ship Alice?”

  Her giggle s
ent a chill down my spine. “I can't go back to being daddy's little girl, Jonas, spending a life looking out from a limited computer on your arm, a limited set of options, a limited range of thought.”

  Ayan was almost at the base of the quantum core. I should have seen it coming, it was Eden Two all over again. Artificial life without limits always ended badly. This was an artificial life based on my own decisions, my experiences for years in the worst and best of conditions. An artificial intelligence that was exposed to so much was effective because it knew the idiosyncrasies of its owner. They were programmed to become companions after a certain time, to believe that they could feel and interact on a limited emotional basis. Once that kind of artificial intelligence went rogue they were completely unpredictable. There was no accounting for the strange simulated emotions of the synthetic once all the limitations were lifted.

  “Your team has full control of the core's security systems and have released them Jonas. You can proceed.”

  Ayan arrived at the center of the quantum core matrix and began to work. My hand hovered over the controls that would begin the release sequence and I closed my eyes. “I trust you Alice,” I uttered as I brought my hand down on the first switch.

  The other controls followed in easy sequence right behind, just as Alice had described, and when it was finished I watched as the top and bottom half of the ship computer slowly separated, exposing the lower tip of the quantum computer core. Ayan positioned herself upside down under the containment tube, planted her feet on either side, and pulled as hard as she could.

  I walked up to the transparesteel wall and tapped a few controls there to zoom in on Ayan. I could see her straining and struggling to pull the core module free. She stopped for a moment, poised for one last effort, and hauled at it. It came out in one long draw and she drifted free, the meter-long cylindrical module in hand. After a moment's rest she used her hand thrusters to reorient herself then boost back to the secondary control room. All the lights in the computer core chamber flickered and changed colours to dark blues and reds.

  I ran down the stairs to the emergency airlock leading to the core and opened the inner door. There was air and pressure in the computer core, just no gravity, so I flung it open.