Jeremy looked over at Aaliss. “Tell Leeda we have several other matters to attend to and then we’ll meet. Ariel, inform Major Wilde we’ll be needing her presence at the Tower. Tell her it involves Leeda and Reesa.”
-
Brenda made her way to the Tower and then to one of the upper floors where she was supposed to meet Leeda, Reesa, and Fleet Admiral Strong. She had a strong suspicion this involved either the missing Originators or their suspected stasis chambers. Just the fact they had requested her sent a cold chill down her back. She knew from past experience, particularly with Reesa, that the young Alton research scientist always managed to get herself into danger. Now she was dragging Leeda along as well.
Reaching the designated level, Brenda stepped out of the elevator and walked down the well lit hallway to the room where the meeting was to be held. It had been nearly three hours since she had been told about this and she was burning with curiosity. Opening the door she went inside, finding Leeda, Reesa, Bartoll, Jankel, Fleet Admiral Strong, Governor Barnes, and Admiral Kalen sitting at a small conference table. There was also another Originator she was not familiar with.
“I’m not late, am I?” asked Brenda, feeling she had made an error.
“No, Major,” Jeremy responded with a slight smile. “The rest of us just got here a little early.”
Feeling relieved Brenda took the only remaining seat across from Fleet Admiral Strong. Maybe now she would find out what was going on.
-
“We’re all here,” Jeremy said, looking down the table at Leeda and Reesa. “Care to explain why the two of you insisted on this meeting?” Jeremy was prepared for anything as he knew the two had a history of finding what others could not.
Reesa took a deep breath. “We’ve discovered a possible conspiracy involving a small group of Originator AIs. It’s possible this group has been acting on orders given to them by the Defenders of Zorn not to allow any hidden stasis chambers to open.”
“What?” said Bartoll, his eyes widening in disbelief. “That can’t be possible. It would have to involve thousands of AIs to include all the Shrieels. We would know about it if such a conspiracy existed.”
“We believe it did at the very beginning,” Leeda said. She gestured to the other Originator at the table. “This is Faboll Lavar and he has been helping us in our research. I’ll let him explain what we found.” Faboll was a computer specialist and AI programmer who had been on the Seeker.
The Originator took a deep breath and then began to speak. “When Leeda and Reesa first approached me about helping in their research I did not expect to find anything. However, as I examined computer files in the archives of the hub from the time of the pathogen something became very clear: a number of the files had been tampered with. A very large number of files.”
“Tampered with?” asked Bartoll, looking confused. The archives on the Communications and Transport Hub held information from all the Shrieels and bases of the Originators. The amount of information stored was massive. “In what way?”
“Dates changed, missing information, and other inconsistencies,” Faboll explained. “As near as I can tell, the Defenders of Zorn managed to reprogram a number of our AIs to do their bidding. I finally managed to locate one of the affected AIs two days ago and bring it in for study. What I discovered is astonishing.”
“You’re not going to like this,” Reesa said grimly. “It shocked all of us when we found out what had been changed in the AI’s programming. We’ve restricted that knowledge to just those of us in this room as well as the other Originator AIs who have been helping us in our research.”
Jeremy looked over at Faboll waiting for him to explain. He was already coming to realize he wasn’t going to like what he was about to hear.
“Evidently the Defenders of Zorn became aware of an effort on nearly every Shrieel to preserve some Originators until a cure could be found. Many Originators believed the Dominator would return with the cure while still others believed it would come from the research being done at the Communications and Transport Hub.”
“It was eventually discovered here at the hub,” Bartoll said. “Those of us on the Dominator might have discovered the cure if not for the interference of the Defenders of Zorn using the ship to conduct military research.”
“When it became apparent the Dominator might not return in time, all research into the pathogen was transferred to the hub,” continued Faboll. “It was assumed the AIs would eventually find a cure from the many threads of research started by Originator research scientists. It was believed at least one or more of those research threads would eventually lead to a cure. Once that was done some Originators who were in the early stages of the disease would be awoken and distribute the cure to the necessary facilities on the Shrieels which contained stasis chambers.”
Bartoll looked perplexed. “That would indicate there are some hidden stasis chambers here at the hub.”
“Yes,” Leeda answered. “Probably quite a few since they would be responsible for distributing the cure.”
“When did all of this take place?” asked Jeremy.
“Toward the end,” Faboll answered. “You must understand most of my people believed a cure would be found before the pathogen completed its deadly work. When a cure was found there would still be billions of Originators who had not yet succumbed. When it became apparent the cure wasn’t going to be discovered in time, the remaining leaders of the Originator Council began making preparations to save what they could of the race. On nearly every Shrieel, secret facilities were constructed and those who were the least affected by the pathogen were put into stasis. Great care was taken to ensure those facilities remained secret and secure. In the last days mobs of dying Originators searched for some of the facilities as rumors of their existence spread. Many of our cities were damaged and almost destroyed in the rioting. Those have all been rebuilt by the repair robots and our AIs. We’re not certain, due to the missing data, but we believe the surviving council members ordered the combat robots in our warships activated and sent them to the surface to eliminate the remaining Originators to prevent the discovery of the stasis facilities.”
“They ordered our own people killed?” asked Bartoll in disbelief. “I can’t believe any member of the council would approve such an order.”
“They were desperate and the situation called for extreme measures if they wanted to ensure the survival of our race,” Faboll replied. “They couldn’t allow the mobs to find the hidden facilities so they killed the few surviving Originators. They took great pains to hide this information and to reprogram all the AIs not to remember. Then the surviving council members went into stasis.”
“How many?” gasped Bartoll, his face turning pale. “How many of our people were killed?”
Faboll hesitated and then answered. “From the research I’ve done it appears to have been several hundred million. It was toward the very end and most of those not in stasis chambers were in the last stages of the disease.”
“That’s worse than what the Anti-Life threatened to do to us,” Bartoll said, finding it hard to accept Originators could do such a horrible thing.
“It was a decision aimed at saving your race,” Jeremy said after a few moments. “Those few hundred million were already dying. Your council made a hard decision. Whether it was right or wrong we won’t know until we find one of those hidden facilities.” Jeremy turned back to Faboll. “What else did you discover from the Originator AI? There must be more.”
“The Defenders of Zorn managed to ensure every Shrieel had a number of their specially programmed AIs. These AIs were tasked with finding all of the hidden facilities and making sure the Originators inside did not awaken until Zorn and his group had control of the Shrieels. They may have searched for hundreds of thousands of years until they found them all.”
“So when word of the successful development of a cure was broadcast to all the Shrieels, none of the hidden facilities activated because the renegade
AIs had found them and ensured the automatic awakening sequences were turned off,” said Brenda with a look of understanding.
“Precisely,” said Faboll. “The Originators in the Shrieels continued in stasis unaware of what was happening around them.”
Brenda looked more confused. “Why didn’t the Defenders of Zorn stasis facility on the dark matter Shrieel not activate when a cure was found? Surely they received the same message as all the others.”
Reesa shook her head. “We don’t know. Something went wrong with their plan and we have no idea what it was. We may never know since the dark matter Shrieel was destroyed.”
“What about the Originator AIs the Defenders of Zorn reprogrammed?” asked Governor Barnes, sounding concerned. “Are they dangerous?”
“No,” Faboll answered. “They were only programmed to find the hidden stasis facilities and deactivate the automatic awakening sequence.”
Admiral Kalen’s eyes narrowed sharply. “What would happen if a member of the Defenders of Zorn came into contact with one of these AIs? Could he gain control of it?”
“You’re thinking of Commander Alvord and the four others who refused to renounce the philosophy of Zorn,” Bartoll said worriedly. “Faboll, what would happen? Alvord has been demanding access to a small ship ever since his awakening.”
Faboll looked surprised at this question. “I’m not sure. In order for Alvord to be able to take command of an AI in such a manner would indicate the AI or AIs had been programmed to recognize his command authority.”
“Do you still have possession of the AI?” asked Jeremy. That’s all they would need would be an AI revolt in the middle of trying to decide what to do about the Eternals.
“Yes,” Faboll replied. “It’s been temporarily deactivated. I will examine the AI’s programming further to see if such a command exists.”
Jeremy looked over at Bartoll. “I don’t trust Alvord. There has to be some reason why he wants that ship.”
“Is it possible there’s another hidden facility of the Defenders of Zorn?” asked Jankel who had been quietly listening.
Bartoll looked over at Jeremy. “It could be,” he admitted. “Zorn may have built other facilities besides the large one on the dark matter Shrieel.”
“Is there any way we could trace a ship if we turned one over to Alvord?” asked Jeremy.
“Alvord is a smart commander,” Jankel said. “He would be expecting us to try to follow him. He would take precautions. I would not recommend allowing him access to a ship.” Jankel looked intently at Bartoll. “If I were you, I would put Alvord and those still loyal to him back in stasis. He’s a danger as long as he’s awake.”
Jeremy shifted his eyes back to Leesa and Reesa. “Are any of these AIs originally programmed to search for these hidden stasis chambers still functioning?” Jeremy wondered just how many there might be.
“We are extremely long-lived,” answered Leeda. “But it is doubtful if any still survive. The AI currently in our possession has only been active for twelve thousand years.”
“Then how did it receive its programming?” Jeremy felt confused.
“We have several facilities where we create new Originator AIs,” explained Bartoll. “When an AI reaches a point where it needs to be replaced another similar AI is constructed and some basic core memories are transferred from the old AI to the new.”
“I myself have been through this procedure over twenty times,” Leeda said. “It allows us to retain our core personality and those memories we find necessary to our being. It is possible the programming the Defenders of Zorn emplaced in the original AIs was carried on to the new ones.”
Jeremy was surprised by this. He had assumed many of the Originator AIs had been around for millions of years such as Kazak and Albate. Albate was the military AI on board the Seeker.
“In all likelihood the knowledge of where these hidden stasis facilities are located is retained by only a small group of AIs,” Faboll said. “Probably only two or three on each Shrieel. Most of the others likely lost their special programming once all the facilities were found. A few, such as the one we have in our possession, were kept around in case a facility was missed. The fact that none opened when the cure was discovered seems to indicate the AIs did manage to find all of them.”
“In the beginning there were probably hundreds of thousands of AIs searching for the hidden stasis chambers,” explained Leeda. “You must remember that Zorn was a council member and could very easily have had numerous AIs reprogrammed. Over the years that number probably shrank as fewer were needed to seek out the chambers. I would guess now, from the research Faboll has done, we are talking only about a few thousand perhaps less.
“How do we find these AIs?” asked Jeremy. This sounded like a potentially dangerous situation.
“We can’t,” Bartoll said. “There are over two hundred million Originator AIs. Those we seek may be well hidden.”
Jeremy stared intently at Leeda and Reesa. “I want one of those AIs found!”
-
Brenda suddenly thought of a possible solution. “What would happen if we spread a rumor that we have discovered a hidden stasis facility?”
Faboll nodded as he considered Brenda’s suggestion. “It might lure one of the AIs we’re seeking to the facility to inspect it to see why it hadn’t activated.”
“It would have to look authentic,” Bartoll said, his brow furrowing in a deep frown. “We could not risk using any of our AIs to construct it since we don’t know if any may have been reprogrammed.”
“The Altons could help,” suggested Jeremy. “There are bound to be a few AIs we can trust such as those working with Leeda and Reesa. There may be others as well.”
“Our repair robots could do much of the work,” said Bartoll. “They can easily be programmed to construct the facility and then their programming erased so they would not remember what they had built.”
“I would limit the use of our AIs to just those in our research group,” suggested Faboll.
“Could you scan an AI prior to having it work on the facility to make sure we’re picking ones we can trust?” asked Admiral Kalen. “It is possible they could have infiltrated your group. We don’t know for sure how many of these rogue AIs there may be. It may be a few dozen to hundreds or even thousands.”
Faboll thought for a moment and then slowly nodded. “Yes, it would be possible.”
“Jeremy shifted his eyes over to Major Wilde. “Major, I’m reassigning you to this project. You will be in charge of security. I believe Captain Werner can handle your Marines for the time being.”
Brenda nodded. “We have a major assault on a Dyson Sphere vortex Control Center coming up shortly. I’m sure he can handle it.” Once this assault was over, only two would still be controlled by the Simulins.
“Very well,” said Jeremy. “Let’s find one of those AIs. There may be more surviving Originators than we thought possible.”
“I hope so,” Bartoll said. “We’re going to need them to conduct research if we want to win this coming war with the Eternals.”
Brenda let out a deep breath. Why was it anything involving Reesa was always dangerous? Once again they were going up against the unknown. Brenda wondered where this security detail would take her. With Reesa, there was always the unknown and nothing ever went as planned.
-
In the Median Galaxy, Fleet Commander Norlan was studying the videos from Fleet Commander Solten’s battle with the Originator vessels. Norlan was still feeling angry over the failure to capture the survivors from the original battle in that system. He had already ordered the commanders of the two battlecruisers tasked with finding those survivors to be demoted. They would spend some time working in the mines in the Stralon Star Cluster as mine supervisors. It was dirty and hard work and would serve as suitable punishment. Mine supervisors also had a very high mortality rate.
“Why would they risk so many ships to rescue whoever was on that planet?” asked Se
cond Commander Telan. “It makes no logical sense.”
“There must have been someone of high rank stranded there,” Norlan answered. “They nuked the site to ensure we recovered no useful intelligence. I am starting to think this proxy race the Originator AIs have come up with may be far more dangerous than we originally thought.”
“In another eight days we will have nine thousand Eternal battlecruisers in our fleet. We will find out then how dangerous this race is.”
“I am concerned the council is not taking this threat as seriously as it needs to. This fleet could have been assembled in a matter of a few days. By waiting to launch our attack on the Shrieel in Galaxy X-938, we have given them time to prepare. We are still too focused on extending our empire into other galaxies. Those resources and ships should have been used against Galaxy X-938 instead.”
Telan nodded and then spoke. “I am not sure whether they are underestimating the enemy or just being cautious. After all, these are Originator AIs and they have demonstrated their technology is on an even par with ours. With their Shrieels and the galaxies they control, we may find ourselves fighting a very dangerous adversary. That’s what our mission will determine. I’m sure if we return and inform the council the Originator AIs and this proxy race are far more dangerous than thought, the council would send the necessary ships and resources to deal with the threat.”
Norlan shifted his eyes to the viewscreens, showing numerous ships of his fleet. Hundreds of the four-kilometer-long battlecruisers were visible. It would be the most powerful fleet he had ever commanded.
“Nevertheless, we are the Eternals and have the resources of over ten thousand galaxies at our command. We are superior to our ancestors, the Originators, in every way. Our lifespans are far greater, our mental capacity is more, and we could crush them with our physical strength. If they still existed there is no doubt in my mind they would cower in fear before us.”
“We are the Eternals,” responded Telan. “In time, we will teach the Originator AIs what real military power is. Perhaps this proxy race the AIs have found can be useful. Once they realize our power and accept us as their rulers they can be put to good use.”
The Originator Wars: Search for the Lost: A Lost Fleet Novel Page 10