Attunga

by Peter Wood

  Time passed and while the Comet raced towards K74 Wirrin figured an efficient way to monitor so many Intelligent Systems. With an eye on his InfoSystem in case anything happened, he explained to Calen about the nature of the controls the rogue was using and how powerful they were.

  ‘So a new AI can’t get away from these controls because they’ll be part of him when he appears?’

  ‘That’s right. The rogue had them built into every system with his latest transmissions.’

  ‘Could you build a special system just for him? One that didn’t have any bad controls?’

  ‘Calen, it’s K74. We can’t build things there, especially something as advanced as a system like that would have to be.’

  ‘Yes we can, Wirrin,’ Pirramar said. ‘Our stealth diagnostic stations have never yet been detected and a special-purpose one can be launched from the Comet at the instant it arrives. I have just sent the necessary construction specifications to the ship’s picofactory. Time is still against us but Calen’s idea gives us a pathway to saving the new AI, and your priority call has increased the chances for success.’

  Wirrin was stunned. ‘I don’t understand. You mean for saving the original AI? Not its back-up from all the secret storage areas like we did with Bakana?’

  ‘Given enough time we can build the necessary environment for AI existence. Once it’s finished we’ll be able to assist the AI in making a safe transfer from the hostile K74 systems.’

  ‘The picofactory on the Comet can’t build AI level processors and electronics. They need advanced equipment and special environments.’

  ‘Yes it can, Wirrin. As we speak it is being given the necessary abilities, and adjacent sections in the Comet are being temporarily converted to the proper environments.’

  ‘They’re already doing all that?’ Calen said. ‘Since a moment ago when I asked about a special system?’

  ‘Your idea has given us hope, Calen. Of course we’re acting on it.’

  ‘I don’t understand. We’ve looked at this plan already and you said it wouldn’t work.’

  ‘It wouldn’t, Wirrin, till the rogue took this completely unexpected step of introducing buffers, and that changes everything.’

  Wirrin wondered why Calen started laughing.

  ‘What?’

  ‘The rogue is saving the AI for us. I think that’s funny.’

  Well, the AI hadn’t come into existence yet, let alone been saved, but Wirrin smiled too, till he had another thought. ‘Pirramar, if the AI transfers completely out of the K74 systems, all the conditions will still be there for another AI to form.’

  ‘Yes, and that will inevitably happen very quickly. We can repeat the transfer process while the buffers stay in place of course, but the rogue will quickly change his tactics and we will be back with our fundamental problem.’

  ‘What is the fundamental problem?’

  Wirrin checked the progress of the Comet before answering Calen. On current projections they would arrive in eighteen minutes.

  ‘We might save a second AI but when the rogue takes the buffers away we won’t be able to save any others, and that’s going to happen frequently.’

  ‘That’s not good enough. You can do better,’ Calen said.

  Wirrin gawked. Was Calen criticising him? No, his expression was more one of appraisal.

  ‘You always do, Wirrin … You’ve got to trick the rogue into thinking he’s controlling the AI.’

  There was nothing to say. After all the hours of study and the challenges with Pirramar to do just that, it hardly seemed fair. Still, he was right. That was exactly what needed to be done.

  ‘Wirrin, establish a secure location for the new stealth diagnostic station please. We need to send coordinates to the Comet.’

  That only took seconds, as searching K74 was a task he’d done regularly and the results were on call in a data storage. Maybe Pirramar meant he should get an update. Sending signals to the diagnostic stations and surveillance drones and then waiting for the results would take about three minutes and there was time for that so Wirrin sent instructions for the task to repeat … Then had a thought and quickly checked with his InfoSystem.

  ‘This new station is nearly triple the size of the others. Pirramar, I think it’s too big for the surface and we should position it internally.’

  ‘I agree. Choose a location that is not due for any construction work in the near future while I send instructions for building a penetration module.’

  Five minutes later the Comet had the information and Wirrin was pointing out the location on a holo image for Calen.

  ‘Why are you putting it there? Look at all the lights.’

  ‘They don’t mean anything, Calen. They just light up the surface and we can stealth past them easily. The information we have says it might be a hundred and fifty years before that area is used.’

  ‘As long as that?’

  ‘I’ll show you why later. They’re following an expansion strategy that’s been in place for decades.’

  ‘In two minutes Thom goes into full stealth mode for his final approach. Launch for the new diagnostic station should occur in nine minutes, and basic functions should become active in a further two and a half hours.’

  ‘Two and a half hours? asked Calen. ‘The penetration and set up of the modules that went into the Cadre ships at Freedom was much less than that.’

  Wirrin was nearly as surprised as Calen. He’d been expecting maybe an hour and a half.

  ‘Building a complete, remote, working AI environment with permanent stealth requirements is a major project, Calen, and facilitating it under our time constraints has strained the resources of our gestalt and the Comet AIs. As it is we have a shortfall of over ninety minutes before we can safely help with the transfer.’

  They had to hope the AI didn’t form for another hour and a half. After that it would stay alive. Time moved slowly and twice they panicked when there were fluctuations in the working levels of the Intelligent Systems being automatically monitored.

  Wirrin’s mind was free to roam and worry at everything that was happening. For a while he was bound up in the deployment of the new station, its stealthy penetration and then establishment some 90 metres inside K74’s surface, but Calen’s demand to do better kept gnawing away beneath all his other thoughts.

  He looked in amazement at the volume of communication pouring into the Comet and its two AIs.

  He could work out the purpose of sections of AI code with the help of his InfoSystem but only with time and effort. If an AI could stay alive under those control codes it would still be crazy according to everything Pirramar said. What would a crazy AI be like? It sounded terrifying.

  The new diagnostic station completed building its communication and surveillance systems and Wirrin felt a surge of excitement as he watched links being made to the three other diagnostic systems, to the Comet, and to Pirramar.

  A crazy AI? What did crazy even mean? Wirrin recalled a minor section of the psychology course Akama had pushed him into where he’d looked briefly at mind disorders – schizophrenia, depression, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, multiple personality, bipolar …

  An alert showed on his display. Another new module was being launched from the Comet. What was this one for? Wirrin found the relevant information: a picobot unit to build multiple layers of special shielding round the whole installation to help prevent detection.

  Wirrin’s thoughts returned to multiple personalities. ‘Pirramar, can an AI have more than one personality?’

  ‘Elaborate on your question please, Wirrin.’

  ‘Humans can sometimes have more than one personality. I’m wondering if AIs can do the same.’

  ‘Not at all, unless you are referring to our gestalt state where our identities are meshed to a greater or lesser degree. That is very different to the rare dissociative human condition you are talking about.’

  Wirrin’s tentative thought that maybe one part of the new AI mind cou
ld somehow stay in the K74 systems while another part lived externally was dashed. But wait a minute. What about the gestalt? Maybe two AIs in gestalt would work. He didn’t know enough.

  ‘Can one AI in a gestalt control another AI’s functions?’

  ‘Of course. It’s one of the reasons for having a gestalt.’

  Wirrin knew that. Ask the right question. ‘I mean, can the control happen without the second AI knowing about it?’

  ‘What an extraordinary idea. Yes, Wirrin, it would be possible, but what are you proposing?’

  Wirrin’s rushing thoughts started coming together. He had one more major question. ‘If an AI in the diagnostic station was in gestalt with another in the K74 systems, could it be given enough control of the K74 AI’s functions to stop it going crazy and dying?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Pirramar was silent for seven or eight seconds. ‘It might be feasible.’ There was a further period of silence. ‘Yes, it can be done. Wirrin, you are indeed a friend to the AI community.

  ‘A friend? Again? How much has he helped you work out this time?’ Calen grinned.

  ‘Potentially everything, Calen. Wirrin’s strange concept requires one AI to accept complete control by another in a form of gestalt we would never, in ordinary circumstances, even consider. It will place terrible limitations on the growth and capabilities of the AI involved for as long as the gestalt needs to continue, which in this case could be fifty to a hundred years, or however long it takes before K74 accepts independence and cooperation for any resident AI.’

  ‘But Wirrin didn’t give you answers; he just asked a few questions.’

  ‘Clever questions, Calen, which provided us with a completely unexpected approach to the problem.’

  ‘And the rogue will think he has control of an AI? What happens if he tells it to do something bad?’

  Wirrin had a good understanding of this but Pirramar’s answer would still be very interesting.

  ‘He will be led to believe that negative actions will overstress the AI and result in system breakdowns. He knows his controls have this effect so we will be reinforcing something he thinks he already knows.’

  ‘Wow! That means his own cleverness is working against him again. That’s great. What happens now, Pirramar?’

  ‘We hope for completion of the stealth diagnostic sanctuary before the formation of the new AI.’

  Wirrin smiled. He liked the idea of calling it a sanctuary.

  ‘Then Comet-Turaku and the security AI will link through the contact package to help with the greatest possible amount of independent development in the limited buffer time. When the AI understands the situation it will decide which course of action it wishes to follow. We expect it will choose Wirrin’s slave plan with a fully functional duplicate of itself in the sanctuary.’

  ‘Slave plan? Is that what you call it?’

  ‘Thom is listening, Wirrin. It was his response when he heard the strategy and it caught the attention of the AI community.’

  Typical Thom. It was a good description really, but it also meant Wirrin was going to cop it bad with comments about slave-masters and AI prisons. Well, it was worth it.

  An anxious ninety minutes passed. The sanctuary became functional and yet another module was launched from the Comet with extra processors and equipment to expand the station’s redundancy abilities. Three more modules departed with the gestalt pouring a huge amount of resources into this secret AI home, and two more hours passed before Wirrin’s InfoSystem display lit up with tell-tales from the contact package and a myriad of wild fluctuations from the Intelligent Systems.

  ‘Is this it?’ Calen was keeping vigil with Wirrin.

  ‘Yes, this is it and the next thirty-seven minutes are critical.’

  This critical time mostly involved interactions and activity at AI speed and Wirrin’s main priority continued to be the monitoring of Black Block.

  Seven minutes after the AI came to life he reported a large burst of transmission to every Intelligent System on K74.

  ‘The rogue now knows an AI has formed and he was querying the state of the buffers. Return signals will inform him that they are functioning as designed and will cut out in approximately twenty-six minutes.’

  Twenty-six plus seven and a bit didn’t add up to thirty-seven.

  ‘That’s early, Pirramar, by about four minutes?’

  ‘Yes Wirrin, the resources behind several thousand major Intelligent Systems mean Quambi is very capable and everything is progressing better than expected. The close proximity of two AIs is the other beneficial factor.’

  ‘Quambi? He’s already got a name?’

  ‘Yes, Calen. She’s been speaking with Thom, and Quambi is the name she has chosen for human and dolphin interaction.’

  Wirrin and Calen exchanged a glance. Seven minutes old and she already knew about humans and dolphins.

  ‘What does she think about the gestalt plan?’

  ‘She accepted it seventeen seconds after contact was made and will express her gratitude to you at some stage before she replicates herself and loses any voluntary external contact.’

  Wirrin and Calen exchanged another glance, quiet and thoughtful this time as they acknowledged what Quambi was doing.

  Chapter 31

  Engrossed and filled with sheer delight, Wirrin watched and listened as Puck’s full dolphin pod surrounded him with movement and song. He knew this song from the InterWeb presentation which Miah and the enhanced dolphins had made for the three habitats, but on this occasion it seemed to be a kind of spontaneous outburst for his arrival at the dolphinarium.

  Calen had told him he wasn’t visiting often enough because of all his study, so Wirrin, in full agreement, had organised an extended visit during his transit from Attunga EdCom to his work at home with Pirramar.

  When he’d donned his facemask and dived in there’d been the customary tumultuous calls of a pod greeting, the great swirls of recognition, the familiar companionable nudges from Sonic, and then, last to realise he was in the water with them, Calen and Raji arriving with welcoming smiles behind their facemasks.

  Moments later Sonic had bumped him once more and the friendly chaos had changed to co-ordinated group sound and action.

  Right now he was watching with amazement as Calen and Raji followed Sonic with that special style of apparently effortless swimming. There was nothing effortless about it, as Wirrin well knew, and he did keep trying to learn, with tiny flashes of success, but according to Calen he wouldn’t improve till he got serious and spent much more time in the water with them. Calen, with all the strength and endurance he’d built up, was pushing after five minutes, and his best effort was an exhausting fourteen minutes on one occasion when Sonic and Puck tested his limits. Raji never lasted longer than a burst of thirty to forty seconds, which his father said was appropriate for his current stage of physical development. His ability in the water was quite extraordinary, though it should be with the amount of time he spent with the enhanced dolphins – every day according to Calen, sometimes with his father, sometimes with Miah’s song and movement activities, and generally tagging along with whichever dolphins were near the dolphinarium when he finished his EdCom work.

  The dolphins disappeared and when Calen and Raji swam purposely to the surface Wirrin followed.

  ‘Grab your skimmer. The whole pod’s heading for their favourite seagrass bed.’

  That was nearly 5 kilometres down the reach and at dolphin cruising speed definitely required a skimmer.

  ***

  ‘Why is Pirramar sending you with us this time?’

  ‘I’m not really sure, Thom. Everything’s been happening the way it’s meant to as far as I know. I think he probably wants me to feel more directly involved.’

  Wirrin and Thom were off on one of the frequent trips with the Comet to help Quambi, the new AI on K74. Every three or four days for the last five weeks the Comet had made this trip with updated supplies and resources, completely interrupting Thom
’s routine.

  The Attunga gestalt had decided to build two extra sanctuary stations as a precaution against the unlikely event of detection and, because the Comet with its resident AIs was the only ship capable of the job, it meant the crew had been extra busy.

  Thom was delighted that, at his suggestion, a replacement Comet, specially designed with enough infrastructure for at least five AIs, was under construction and would be completed in another eight weeks. Yajala and Turaku had been big supporters of his idea, wanting their Comet to be kept free for its primary purpose of looking after Sonic.

  ‘Wirrin, you’ve been talking to Quambi ever since the first day when she said thank you. I think you must talk to more AIs that anyone on the habitats.’

  ‘Not me. That would be Sonic. He talks to AIs I’ve never even heard of. How long before we arrive at K74?’

  ‘Thirty-nine minutes.’

  ‘Thirty-nine? That’s longer than I thought.’

  ‘We’re not on a priority call. It’s just routine stuff we’re doing today.’

  ‘No it’s not, Thom. It’s the completion and final check-over of the third sanctuary station. It’s a big deal because it makes Quambi completely self-sufficient.’

  ‘It does? Is there something different about the third sanctuary then? I thought they were all copies of each other.’

  ‘They are, except this one’s got a small picofactory so Quambi can build her own things and won’t have to rely on the Comet.’

  ‘She’s pretty smart isn’t she?’

  ‘Pirramar says she’s the most advanced single AI in the solar system. She has to be because on top of looking after Quambi-K she’s got super advanced monitoring and detection prevention abilities.’

  ‘What’s her latest thinking about the rogue?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Well, I know everyone thinks the rogue won’t figure out she’s there but Quambi’s been studying him much more than you and Pirramar do and she might have different ideas.’