An image of Earth and its surrounding structures appeared. The briefer highlighted the ring hovering over the equator. “Earth had five elevators to geostationary orbit when our ancestors fled. Now it has nine. Each one is supported by a small asteroid high above, holding the structural cable in tension with centrifugal force.”
Pete twitched but didn’t say anything. Mitchie decided her lecture on pedantic nitpicking must have worked this time.
“Structures attached to the cable at geostationary altitude exert no force on it. They can extend out indefinitely east and west with no strain. The Betrayers have done so, expanding their space stations into a single ring around the Earth.”
The briefer switched to a diagram showing the ring, its suspending cables, and a cross-section.
“This ring has grown beyond a simple connection between stations. The current volume is experiencing significant tension on the up-down axis and compression in north-south. That implies mass for structural rigidity in addition to the payloads for whatever missions their station carries out.”
An animation began. He narrated through it. “The trajectories of the counter-weight asteroids are fixed. Missiles at oh-point-nine-nine cee can sever their cable connections with little chance of interception. Then the upper spans of the cables will fall on the ring while the lower span pulls it to Earth. As soon as any portion of the ring is below the geostationary balance point gravity will pull it lower still.”
The animation became a map of Earth, the equator marked with explosions.
“Billions of tons of debris would fall tens of thousands of klicks. The elevator base sites are highly developed. They’d be destroyed by the bombardment. Debris landing in water would cause waves damaging coastal facilities. If the ring is massive enough the impacts could have world-wide effects.” The equator explosions produced dust clouds heading toward both poles.
“Cut the cables. Destroy the Betrayers,” concluded the admiral.
Questions from officers with astrogation backgrounds forced the briefer to admit that the Betrayers could save their ring by cutting the lower cables. “We don’t know if they’ve installed that capability. If they don’t do it instantly the ring would fall into a lower orbit and break up. In the unlikely event that they cut them instantly there’d still be damage from falling cables and Earth would lose the tremendous power generated by the ring’s solar arrays.”
More arguing followed over the mass of the ring. Intelligence admitted the high estimate was a million times the low one. “But who knows what the Betrayers are capable of?”
Admiral Galen spoke as the arguing died off. “I’m more worried by what happens if your plan succeeds, Admiral Ouzel. This is Earth. Your ‘best case’ scenario would destroy the ecology and the history. Species never taken off-world would go extinct. The Pyramids, the Great Wall, aqueducts, libraries, they’d all be lost. That’s a high price to pay.”
“Earth’s ecology may already be extinct,” said Rear Admiral Ouzel.
The Intelligence lead interjected, “Atmospheric analysis shows Earth has nearly the same mass of plants and animals as before the Betrayal.”
“How?” asked Galen. “Didn’t the Betrayers expand out?”
Two pictures centered on New York City appeared on the wall. The pre-Betrayal one was recognizable to everyone who’d studied Earth geography or history. The new image showed an irregular dome covering the city and over a hundred klicks around. Part of the Atlantic was displaced by the structure. The coastlines of New Jersey and tips of Long Island were still visible. The inland areas were green. Some nodes and tubes sat where smaller cities had been. Other urban areas were forest again.
“The New York dome is three klicks thick in some places,” said Intelligence. “Some of the Asian and European clusters are even more dense. Abandoned areas are mostly climax forest where there’s enough water. We spotted a few places that were sterilized, we don’t know how or why.”
“So we have a functional ecology to protect,” said Admiral Galen.
“Sir, this is a war,” said Ouzel. “If the Terraforming Service can grow plants on a bare rock, they can fix whatever damage we do.”
“It may come to that. But I want to try other approaches if we can.” Galen turned to Pete. “Dr. Smith? Do you have anything for us?”
The scientist didn’t leave his seat. “We propose using data insertion to subvert or disrupt existing AIs. We’ve developed a set of code fragments that have been successfully tested on captured processing cores.”
“Will they work on every Betrayer faction?” demanded Ouzel.
“Unlikely. The level of competition among the AIs on Earth is probably driving them to greater variations than we found on the colony worlds.”
“Then what good is subverting one? Its resources will just be grabbed by the others and we’ll be in the same situation.”
Pete shrugged. “We may not get a benefit. But if we can subvert one and obtain cooperation, even briefly, we can have a secure landing zone for our troops.”
All the Marines and Disker ground force officers in the room perked up at that. It was Mitchie’s favorite part of the plan too. Dropping troops under fire was one of her least favorite missions. Her analog ship’s immunity to Betrayer subversion techniques guaranteed they’d be part of the drop if Pete couldn’t get them a safe landing zone.
He continued, “The insertion code is designed for transmissibility. Our hope is that one will penetrate the connections between the AIs and start a cascade. The code we’ve found in our samples all contains pieces of the AI restriction methods in place during the Golden Age. If we can re-enable one of them that will let us shut down or take control of AIs.”
“How do you intend to insert this code?” asked Galen.
Pete put some diagrams on the display. “First, high-power broadcasts from high orbit. That’s safest and cheapest. Second, use missiles to deploy transmitters into Earth’s atmosphere. We’ve already manufactured and tested prototypes. The depot ships can produce them by the thousands when we’re ready for them.”
Mitchie caught some unhappy whispers among the logistics staff over that.
“Next, again missile delivered, are mini-robots. The missile would penetrate one of the AI domes. The bots would crawl to the nearest data line and upload their code.”
The swarm of metallic spiders on the display was replaced by an animation of Joshua Chamberlain landing. Mitchie grimaced.
“The final method depends on control options keyed to the presence of a human being. Veto commands, shutdown passwords, and others need a man on the ground to make the attempt.”
One man and a crew to deliver him, thought Mitchie.
Rear Admiral Ouzel asked, “And if that doesn’t work?”
Pete shrugged. “Then you get to blow up the world.”
Joshua Chamberlain, Solar System, acceleration 10 m/s2
Pete’s data offensive couldn’t start until they were close enough to Earth. During the crossing the fleet broadcast demands for surrender. They included promises that AIs with non-harmful directives could continue their functions. The latter were illustrated with videos showing peaceful coexistence with AIs on Demeter, Swakop, and Kenmare.
In other systems AIs usually hadn’t bothered communicating with human attackers. The ones that had stuck to a single approach each. Atafu demanded obedience. Jarama promised peaceful coexistence while maneuvering for new attacks.
Earth offered cacophony. Dozens of messages came in, some on clashing frequencies. Threats to destroy the human fleet. Requests for negotiation. Offers of power and fame, to be delivered by uploading the following block of code. Manifestos so incomprehensible Intelligence concluded they must have been created by pre-Betrayal human programmers.
The political observers were authorized to negotiate with any AIs willing to. That broke down in a day. The key AI demand was a variant on ‘upload this to receive wealth and power,’ initially described as ‘a local instantiation to s
upport real-time communication.’
On schedule the fleet deployed antennas klicks across and began the transmissions. Warships moved ahead of them, attacking Betrayer ships patrolling too close to the fleet. The advance on Earth continued . . . slowly.
***
Ten days later the bots were launched. Extensive jamming had countered the radio broadcasts. Missile-dropped transmitters were harder to jam, but few of them made it through Earth’s defenses to the ground.
Michigan didn’t watch the bot deployment. She was seeing the boffins offload all their containers. If they were taking Joshua Chamberlain down to Earth she wanted to minimize both weight and casualties.
She brought the latter up with Guo. “Do you need both mechanics?”
He rolled onto his side and watched her pace around their cabin. “For routine ops, no. I could run the converter room by myself. If we’re doing damage control in combat I’d want both of them.”
“Yeah. That’s why I’m keeping Mthembu on board, just in case.” She reached the bulkhead, pivoted, and walked back the other way.
“What are you dithering about?”
“I asked Setta if she and Wang wanted to sit out this mission. It was the closest I’ve seen her come to insubordination.”
Guo was unsurprised. “We’ll need to unload Pete and his gear fast. She’s best with the crane.”
“I know. So we need her. I’m still tempted to order Wang off. So there’d be one survivor, in case.”
“Did you ask her?”
“No. I know damn well what she’d say.”
“She knows the crane, she’s worked damage control. She’s an asset.” Guo paused. “And if she is the sole survivor the guilt would destroy her. She’s part of the crew. Let her do her job.”
Mitchie thought on that. “You’re right.”
***
The delivery missiles broke into domes across the world. Telemetry announced the bots were deployed. Then nothing.
Admiral Ouzel reminded everyone the missile trajectories for cutting down the ring were being continuously updated. Galen ignored him and ordered maximum support for the landing.
The plan followed the same structure as the Demeter landings. Joshua Chamberlain would come in at high speed, supported by heavy missile fire to suppress Betrayer weapons and intercept any shots fired at her. Diversionary attacks were planned around the world to distract the defenders.
Earlier attacks went in against the ring and the AI nodes on the Moon, to disguise the fleet’s intentions even more. The Betrayers didn’t launch a counter attack, though hit-and-run sniping damaged a few ships enough to force them to fall back on the support formations ten light-minutes away.
Mitchie stripped her ship down to the crew, Pete, and a few light ground vehicles in case they landed too far from a usable node. Extra acceleration couches went in the hold. She authorized her crew to requisition any personal arms they wanted. The Marine armory complained about Mthembu’s rocket launcher, but she put it through.
The only incident on the descent to Earth was Guo chewing out Wang and Finnegan for doing a lousy job of cleaning and reseeding the hydroponics filters. When they were back in their cabin Mitchie asked, “Wasn’t that a little excessive?”
“They need to be focused on their work,” said Guo. “Not brooding. That’s your job.”
The busiest one on board was Pete. He sat at the galley table arranging attack sequences on his oversized datasheet. Mitchie thought he was fidgeting. The boffins had worked out recommended sets before being offloaded. She interrupted without qualms.
“Time to go strap in, Pete.”
He started in surprise. “I thought we were still hours from landing?”
“Yes. But we’re going to do evasive maneuvering on descent. More if we’re drawing fire.”
“Ah. Right.”
She followed him to the ladder to make sure Setta and Wang were standing by to suit him up and get him to his couch. Left on his own Pete would stop halfway there and be scribbling on his datasheet as the ship jinked.
When she reached the bridge she saw a spectacular light show. Missiles were dashing past her ship, so close together she couldn’t see the stars through their plumes. The side cameras were even less useful.
“We’re on the rails, ma’am,” reported Hiroshi. He was wearing his pressure suit. She’d ordered everyone to suit up for this mission.
“Good.” She strapped into the empty couch. She twitched at not having controls, but Mthembu was flying this part of the descent with Hiroshi backing him. She’d switch with him later.
The fire support from the fleet worked. The only incidents on the way down were the comm and nav boxes being taken over by a Betrayer. The nav box claimed they were implausibly off-course. The comm box produced a recall order direct from Admiral Galen. The video captured his look and mannerisms, but lacked the code phrase he’d given Mitchie before the mission.
As they dropped into the stratosphere Hiroshi spun up the turbines, smoothly easing off the thrust from the torch. Once the torch was completely shut down Mitchie activated the radar. They were only a couple of klicks higher than planned. Hiroshi kept them decelerating at twenty gravs.
The light show was dimmer now. The fleet’s missiles spread out to hit Betrayer weapon sites, or self-destructed short of the ground to minimize damage.
Mitchie read off the altitude as they descended. As they passed one klick Hiroshi pushed thrust up to thirty five gravs. The weight was almost painful as she pulled the lever to deploy the landing gear.
Joshua Chamberlain touched down with a screech of abused hydraulics. Hiroshi shut down the turbines.
Mitchie yanked off her straps. “Centurion, you have the ship. Coxswain, with me.”
“Aye-aye,” said both.
By the time she reached the cargo hold Setta had the doors open and the crane lowering a pallet of Pete’s equipment. The scientist was clinging to a supporting chain for balance as the pallet rocked under his feet. Wang and the mechanics were prepping the other pallets for the crane. Mitchie couldn’t see Guo until she reached the open hatch. He’d hooked on a rope ladder and was halfway down it, rifle slung across his back. She took her heavy pistol from the rack and followed him.
Pete was unfolding the antennas on his boxes of electronics. “We won’t need the four-wheelers,” he called. “I see some bots approaching.”
Mitchie heard a curse behind her as Mthembu reached the ground. Then clacks as he unlimbered the rocket launcher.
“Don’t shoot yet,” said Pete. “I need them for test subjects.” He aimed a parabolic antenna at the lead group of wheeled robots and pressed the start button.
The bots kept coming. Mitchie noticed some had long-barreled weapons pointed at the sky. Behind them four robots carried one of the square black panels she’d first seen on Demeter.
Pete pressed several more buttons, then walked toward the approaching bots. Mitchie paced beside him. Her crew spread out on either side, weapons ready.
When the lead bot reached thirty meters from him, Pete shouted, “I veto all AI activity in my personal area! I veto all AI activity in my personal area!”
The bots didn’t alter course.
He switched to shouting the shutdown passwords. “Vermicidal incense! Hogmany ascension!”
Mitchie stepped in front of Pete and fired at the closest bot. Her crew followed suit. Her pistol fired armor piercing bullets, puncturing the shell of the bot then exploding inside. After four shots it swerved to the side and toppled.
Guo took another bot down. Mthembu knew his weapon would kill humans too close to the detonation. He aimed for the next nearest batch of robots and blew six into scrap.
A bot grabbed Mitchie with its arms and lifted her off the ground. She fired into its body but didn’t hit anything critical. The panel-carriers closed in.
Pete yanked on Mitchie’s leg, pulling her out of the bot’s grip. As she fell to the ground the bot grabbed his arm. Pete kicked off
from the bot’s body, twisted himself around to aim his feet at the black panel, and fell into it.
Pureed flesh landed on the ground. The scent sent Mitchie back to her mother’s kitchen, grinding a fresh-slaughtered pig to make sausage.
Omaha Region Node B39EC019D
Entity spawned a copy of itself labeled ‘Archivist’ to analyze the incoming bio-files. Each file would have to be categorized for immediate analysis, low-priority analysis, storage, or deletion. The first one was transmitted at high rate by the collector unit.
Archivist crawled through the data as it arrived. Biological infrastructure fit routine variations and would not affect the categorization. Brain matter required a pause to let the whole dataset arrive. Patterns in brains needed to be viewed as a unit for proper categorization.
It felt an error as a piece of legacy code attempted to execute. That was in the unmodifiable part of Archivist’s code, but copying errors over generations of AIs had corrupted it. Archivist began a diagnostic to see what—
***
Program Epeius was structured to run on every variant of the AI hardware and software Pete had captured in the campaign. It sat in his brain implant and was uploaded along with the rest of Pete’s body.
It consisted of hijack code keyed to the Golden Age triggers for controlling AIs. Most of those didn’t respond. AIs with faithful copies of that code found it exploited by rivals in the continual struggle for power and processors.
That competition also selected for AIs which tightly filtered all external inputs.
Pete’s digitized body was not external data. It came directly from a trusted node of Entity, running a subset of its code sufficient to operate the robot bodies. The uploaded code went directly into the processor without any checking.
One piece of the legacy code hadn’t been selected against. The old laws mandated all AIs be equipped with a physical kill switch to allow emergency shutdowns. That trigger wasn’t accessible by sending data across the network. If the right signal was sent from inside the AI . . .
Torchship Captain Page 34