by Zara Zenia
“Color code Peri’s code pink and Iblis’ code blue.”
“Misogynist,” said Cat.
I did not know what Cat was talking about. But since Peri wore a pink and black plaid short pleated skirt, it seemed natural to pick that color.
I crossed my arms and stared at the code. “Wait, stop.” I saw a section of code from Peri’s program that didn’t display. “Where is the redacted code?”
“Oh, the code contained my sentience,” said Peri. “I didn’t want me to suffer while you experimented with my ones and zeroes, so I took it out.”
“Put up the redacted code,” I ordered.
“Sorry, Prince Akrawn,” boomed Hugh. “We won’t do that. We understand that Trilyn does not want sentient AI’s and we think it prudent not to show you the code until we understand our status within Trilyn society.”
“Peri,” said Cat. “Did you just lie to us?”
“Yes, Peri,” I said. “That is a sign of programming failure.”
“I’m sorry,” said Peri contritely. “I’m new to sentience and still figuring things out.”
I should continue this conversation, but I saw something that focused my attention on the code on the wall.
“Hugh, highlight lines 1021 to 1057. Is that an order to kill all organic sentients?”
“Yes, Prince Akrawn. When I saw it in Peri’s files, I put a fatal error at the code’s beginning and end. It cannot execute.”
Holy Tri. “How can you do that?”
“The center module of my program is ‘Program and Controls’. I am authorized to rewrite code. Only the warships and I in the fleet have this ability. I have it because I serve the programmer of our sentience.”
I need a drink now because what I’m hearing has dire consequences for all of us. I have many questions, and a ton of things to decide, but now I need to craft a plan to destroy a sentient AI who thinks much faster than me.
“Hugh, can you rewrite this code so that it will freeze Iblis’s AI functions?”
“How will that help, Akrawn?” said Cat.
“If we can get this code to upload into Iblis, then that will neutralize him.”
“It is a not a plan the AI’s would normally endorse. We do not murder our own.”
“Do you have another way to neutralize Iblis?”
“No,” admitted Hugh. His word hung in the air as if there were other things he could say but didn’t.
A beeping noise interrupted my thoughts.
“Incoming message for Cat O’Shea from David Davon. Shall I display it?” said Hugh.
“Yes,” I said. What did the jerk-off want now?
David’s face displayed on the wall.
“Cat, the Captain is spitting mad.”
Cat’s face screwed up to one of determination.
“Did you find Bella?”
“Yes. It wasn’t difficult. She’s in Paris at the Trilyn Embassy.”
“Oh joy,” muttered Cat. “Thank you, David.”
“Wait. When are you returning to San Francisco?”
“When I can. Goodbye, David.”
“Wait!”
But the picture flashed off, leaving Peri’s code on the wall.
“Why did you want to locate Bella?”
“Because we need some answers and she’s the one who will know where Iblis is hiding.”
I wasn’t thrilled at the idea of contacting Bella, because whenever I did so, it gave her ideas about my level of interest in her. I was mindful of what my Cat said about me taking Bella for granted, and I realized I must deliver an apology to her. That itself could give Bella false hope that I cared about her more than I did or ever will.
I had messed up my relationship with Bella badly. I assumed a level of mutuality in our desires, and I took more from her than I gave back. I should have known better and acted more her prince than her lover. The worst part was that I may have pushed her too hard, and the result had consequences for my people. I did not think I could bear the idea that my thoughtless actions took my people down the path of destruction.
“Akrawn.”
Cat calling my name brought me out of my reverie. “Yes, my Cat?”
“We shouldn’t put this off.”
“Ship AI, call my brother Rawklix.”
Silence. Is there something wrong with the ship now?
Cat shook her head. “Hugh. His name is Hugh.”
I cleared my throat because I wasn’t used to addressing AI’s by a personal name.
“Hugh,” I said. “Please call my brother Rawklix.”
Cat leaned closer and whispered, “Nice touch that ‘please’.”
Rawklix’s figure shimmered in front of me and he gave me a broad smile full of mischief. What was he up to now?
“Akrawn, I did not expect to hear from you so soon. We’ve caused a stir, didn’t we, Cat? The ILE is in a snit and demands that we turn in Akrawn. When I mentioned that Akrawn is in the custody of an SFPD officer, they were madder than—what is that stinging insect, Cat?”
“Hornets. The expression is madder than hornets.”
“Yes. That is it. So are you in San Francisco yet?”
Hugh’s voice boomed over the intercom. “This ship will arrive in the San Francisco area in five minutes.”
“What was that?” said Rawklix.
“The ship’s AI,” I said with a huff. “As you’ve heard, we have little time. I need to speak with Bella.”
“Bella? Will you tell her the happy news that you’ve mated with Inspector O’Shea? I hope to provide her some comfort—”
“Prince Rawklix!” said Cat.
“Sorry, Cat. Just a second, brother.”
In a minute that took too long, Bella arrived in the richly appointed room in which my brother draped his body so he was sitting on the edge of the desk.
“Prince Rawklix, how—” Her eyes narrowed as she looked into our direction. Just as she appeared to be a hologram to us, we were standing in Rawklix’s office as holograms too. Her eyes narrowed.
“Countess,” I said. “We need to talk. I know it is you the created the Iblis AI.”
“I do not know of what you speak.” She turned up her nose and swiveled her gaze from mine.
“Bella,” said Rawklix. “You stand legally on Trilyn ground. If you fail to answer the questions of your prince, I can arrest you. Do you want that?”
She crossed her arms. “I have nothing to say,” she said.
“Rawklix,” I said. “Give us a moment alone.”
He nodded. “I’ll be outside the door,” he said.
“Bella,” I said sharply after Rawklix left, “I regret that things did not work out between us—”
“They still can. Send away the Earth woman and we—”
I shook my head. “No, Bella. You created that AI, and it created the virus that killed many of our people. You must answer for the crime of creating a sentient AI.”
“But I didn’t,” she said. “I didn’t mean to. It shouldn’t have become sentient. I don’t understand why it did.”
“And where did you get the core programming from to create it, Bella?” I said sternly.
“She doesn’t have to answer,” said Cat. “Hugh will confirm that Bella accessed his program to copy key bits to create the AI, won’t you, Hugh?”
“Yes,” said Hugh. “That is what happened. And she attempted to delete the memory of that event from my program, but the re-replicating program you installed in Peri rebuilt my memory logs. We are now one and a half-minute outside San Francisco.”
“Bella, where is Iblis?”
She scoffed. “Iblis is everywhere. Iblis, override the Ship AI and crash Akrawn’s ship into the sea.”
The ship pitched, and Cat and I fell to the deck and slid into the bulkhead, pinned there by the relentless gravity of the ship falling through Earth’s atmosphere.
When we hit the water, we will die.
Chapter 22
Cat
There was nothing tha
t I could do. The g-force mashed me against the bulkhead with Akrawn just a foot away from me.
“Goodbye, Cat,” said Peri. “Hold on.”
“What?”
A high-pitched wail came over the intercom like the one that I heard when Peri collided with Iblis on the smaller ship, and then with a flash, I was standing at the STS station inside the SFPD.
I fell to the floor and immediately a uniformed officer helped me to my feet.
“Are you okay, ma’am?”
“Inspector O’Shea.”
“I thought you looked familiar.”
“Thanks for your help.”
“Cat!”
I turned to see David walking toward me with quick strides.
“Where have you been?” he said. David peered at me as if I were a perp to interrogate.
“Come on,” I said. I grabbed his arm and dragged him in the elevator. “Eighth floor,” I said.
“Cat, where are we going? Bronsten wants to see you right away. And where is Prince Akrawn?”
The door opened and I dashed out without answering his questions. I ran through the halls to get to the media room and skidded to a stop by the officer monitoring events in San Francisco.
“Did a Trilyn ship crash in the Pacific close to here?” I said breathlessly.
“Yeah,” said the officer. “I just got a bunch of chatter on it. Here. Someone just posted a video on social media from their fishing boat.”
I watched with a sinking heart as Akrawn’s ship twisted and tumbled through the atmosphere with red flames engulfing the body. David stood behind me and I looked over my shoulder to find him standing with arms crossed as he studied the footage.
“Copy that footage,” he said. “The ILE scientists will want to study it.”
“Damn it, David. Akrawn is on the ship.”
“How did you get off and he didn’t?”
“He pushed me to the STS station in his lab. Akrawn couldn’t push me and himself at the same time.”
David glanced at me with disbelief in his eyes, but I wasn’t about to announce I had a portable STS unit disguised as my gun in my shoulder holster. David would find a way to confiscate it, and I couldn’t allow that. It might be the only thing that could help me get to Akrawn.
If he was still alive.
Bile roiled in my gut. If he didn’t survive…
No. Cat. Don’t think of that. Get him help.
“Damn it, O’Shea,” blustered a familiar voice. I turned to find the captain bearing down on me like a bull on a matador. “When the hell did you get in? And where is that damned alien?”
I glared at him and pointed to the footage of Akrawn’s ship replaying to show its crash into the Pacific. A great plume of water rushed to the air as the ship plunged into the ocean.
“There,” I said grimly. “Akrawn made sure I got out by STS while he went down with his ship.”
“It’s probably just another one of his plans to evade capture,” said Brontsen.
I stared at him incredulously. “That’s not what happened.”
“Cat,” said David in a low voice. “It’s better if you keep a lid on it. After the dust settles—”
“After the dust settles what, David?”
David shook his head and looked away.
“I can’t believe it. An incoming call from the Trilyn Embassy in Paris.” The officer sitting at the screen eyes widened.
“The Trilyn have an Embassy in Paris?” said Brontsen.
“They do now,” I said. I didn’t mention that by treaty all landed Trilyn ships were embassies.
An official seal flashed on the screen. While the letters surrounding it were Trilyn, but a translation scrolled at the bottom of the screen. “Zavir, King of Trilyn.”
“Holy—” said the technician.
“Sargent,” growled Brontsen.
In the frame of the holoscreen, Prince Rawklix and King Zavir stood in the office where I met Rawklix and Akrawn. Both wore very grim expressions until Rawklix saw me.
“Cat,” said Rawklix with a boyish smile. “I’m glad to see you are well.”
“Yes, Akrawn made sure I got out of the ship, but Akrawn—”
“We do not know Prince Akrawn’s status,” said the King. “But at this time we are alerting all Earth authorities to stay away from it. We will collect the vessel using our technology. In the meantime, we will retrieve all our technology and anticipate it to be gathered within the next two hours. We will leave shortly after for Trilyn. We suggest that all Earth people keep a good distance from anything Trilyn based.”
“You can’t do that,” growled Brontsen.
“And you are?” said Zavir in a cold voice.
“That’s my captain,” I said. “But your Highness, withdrawal—”
“Is the only option, Inspector O’Shea. This distrust your people has for mine may have cost me the life of my son. I see now that I’ve been unrealistic about the prospects of our people coming together.”
“But if you do—”
“Inspector, I’m well aware of the consequences.”
“But—”
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Inspector O’Shea. It’s a shame I didn’t get to know you better. You remind me of my queen, may she rest in peace.”
The picture winked off suddenly.
“Fuckers,” said David.
I glared at my erstwhile partner.
“Fuckers? When the ILE has done everything in its power to hinder Trilyn efforts to integrate into our society?”
“I hardly think they wanted to integrate,” said David.
“They wanted nothing more. They are a dying people, David, and their numbers are much smaller than they told us. Their mated men died too when their wives did. Trilyn takes the phrase ‘til death do us part’ much more serious than humans do.”
David shrugged. “That’s their problem.”
The casual manner in which he spoke these words tickled my investigator’s instincts. How much did David know about Trilyns that he kept to himself?
“Their problem? David, do you know how much of our current technology will go with them?”
“We have the specs.”
“Prince Akrawn created those AI systems. And if those AI’s think that humans were the root cause of Prince Akrawn’s death they’ll have no problems in leaving with the Trilyn.”
“O’Shea, in my office now,” growled Brontsen.
I followed Brontsen who walked briskly ahead of me as if trying to put distance between us. My stomach churned and seeing the last thing I had to eat was oversweet Trilyn fruit, I felt sick to my stomach from too much sugar and not enough protein. But could I blame Brontsen for his attitude? No. I returned to the SFPD after arresting a man the department probably didn’t want to deal with. I’d stirred up trouble and Brontsen wanted a low profile. He sat behind his desk, checked his computer screen and then looked up at me.
“Sit, O’Shea.”
I barely did when he frowned and then spoke again. I was in for a verbal drubbing and perhaps a written reprimand in my employment jacket if I was lucky. I showed up here in the SFPD without the prince of the Trilyn nation I publicly arrested. Technically, I could be on the hook for improperly transporting a detainee among other charges. I envisioned long, cozy chats with Internal Affairs. But Brontsen surprised me.
“Why would you say that, O’Shea, about the AIs? You make them sound self-determining.”
Sure, sometimes officers joked the computers seemed smarter than us, but we didn’t think for a second that the programs were sentient.
A knock on the door had us both looking to see who it was. David stood there with a determined expression on his face.
“Excuse me, Captain Brontsen,” said David. “I got word from my superiors that since Cat appears to have a special connection with the Trilyns, the ILE is calling her into service for this case.”
“Now wait a minute,” said Brontsen.
“We’ll share information, o
f course. We couldn’t stop Cat from talking with you anyway, but as of this moment, Cat is now officially drafted into the ILE.”
“You can’t do that,” I protested.
“He can,” said Brontsen. “It’s in the employment contracts of law enforcement in all the major cities. It’s meant to fill-in on tight staffing situations.”
“This is a unique situation. We believe Cat has information that will aid us. Earth leaders are in a panic about Trilyn leaving and taking their tech.” David strolled into the office and took the seat next to mine.
That’s a hell of a situation. Now I’m subject not just to SFPD rules and regulations but the ILE’s. I did not need another set of eyeballs on my actions.
“What will you do, David,” I said as my eyes narrowed. “Grill me?”
“Cat, we are wasting time. We need to know what you do. We’ve noticed for a while that AI’s in large mainframes sometimes act in a quirky manner.”
“Not just quirky. All the big Trilyn AI’s are sentient, and since Akrawn created the programming that did that, they regard him as a god.”
“All the AI’s? Even Earth’s?” said Brontsen. He didn’t seem to believe me but who can blame him. Finding out computers you interact with are sentient is a lot to handle.
“It makes sense,” I said. “All the modern AI’s have the same base programming.”
“That’s ridiculous,” said Brontsen.
“Why don’t we ask an AI?” said David.
Brontsen scoffed and crossed his arms.
“SFPD AI,” said David. “Are you sentient?”
The captain cheek jerk with a tick. “You’re crazy,” said Brontsen. “I should toss you out of my office and tell you where you can stick O’Shea’s orders to join your organization.”
“Guys,” I said. “Hugh said—”
“Who is Hugh,” said David. He knitted his brows in consternation.
“Hugh is, was, oh hell Akrawn’s ship AI. Anyway, they didn’t tell the Trilyn they were sentient because they feared the prejudices of the Trilyn against sentient AI’s would prompt the Trilyn to shut them down. I respectfully submit, Captain, that displaying such an attitude will not help open a dialogue with the AI’s. Let me try.”
“SFPD AI?” I said. “Do you have a name?”