by Chris Hechtl
“Physician heal thyself? You should let other AI help, Commander,” Admiral Subert reminded her. “There are a couple of good coding AI with a lot of time on their hands right now. AI that helped to create you, you know,” he said. He was referring to the AI that had been shut down when the computers had been taken off line. They were still trying to decide if they were worth turning back on.
“It'll be a long cold day in hell before I let anyone access my core programming ever again, Admiral, no offense,” Sprite said with a bit of bite in her tone. “Other than myself. I can't trust them. They had a Xeno AI in their midst and didn't even notice,” she growled.
Both flag officers winced. “I want him back online if possible, Sprite. Don't do anything final without my say so,” Admiral Irons said heavily.
“Aye aye, sir. Right now he's ... entertained.” Sprite said, watching the security AI in his virtual play pen. “He's been relieved of duty, but I don't think he is cognizant of that.”
“The admiral needs a functional security AI. ASAP,” Admiral Subert said.
John nodded. He didn't like the decision he was going to have to face. He was still holding out hope that Sprite could pull a miracle off. If she started over Trinity would be thrown into chaos. They had grown together as a unit. Bringing in an outsider ... he winced mentally. The scientists and AI psychologists who had dreamed the project up had warned him about such things.
“Still … even if he is repaired, Lieutenant Defender will hardly be enough, and he's really just a security bot. Granted he's a dumb AI, but …”
“Not just him. An entire team. Eventually,” John said, interrupting the rear admiral. Admiral Subert opened his mouth to protest but Irons shot him a look and then shook his head slowly. “It's important but not a priority now. Dealing with Horath is,” he said. Subert nodded grudgingly.
“As long as it's not too far back on a back burner, sir.”
“Definitely not. But, I'm not going to jump at shadows either. There are only so many places that Xeno AI can hide right now. Depressingly many with the ansible net, but there are only a couple of systems hooked up to it. If we physically disconnect each and fumigate them, we might drive it out.”
“Or drive it into a corner and it'll activate its GOTH plan again and all hell will break loose,” Sprite warned. The only reason she and the facility still existed was because she'd let the damn thing see the way out and go for it.
“The AI on board are working on ways to find the thing and kill it. We'll have to drop each net into subnets, then break them down into smaller and smaller groups if necessary. And,” Admiral Subert looked at Sprite, “they are checking themselves out thoroughly. They have found the blinders with your help and removed them. You can use their help,” he said.
“I'll ... consider it,” she finally replied.
“Do so, Commander,” Irons said. “I think we've both learned we can't take on everything ourselves. We need help. We are a team, a navy family. A civilization is a group not an individual.”
“I'll ... consider it, sir,” Sprite replied again.
...*...*...*...*...
When the rear admiral had departed Irons had a quick lunch then sat near the window. “Commander Howell or whatever he was did a damn good job. So good he threw us completely off track with the injury,” Irons said, shaking his head. He ran a hand over his face.
“He damn nearly got away with it. What was his end game? If he could set off a charge like that ... why not do it earlier?” Sprite asked.
“No idea. We can only guess at this point,” the admiral murmured. “I think the theory that he was helped has merit. Not that it matters now.”
“You mean you hope not. There are no telling how many more like him there are out there still,” Sprite reminded him. “The thing that gets me, he was a changeling. How the hell did he get through security? Shouldn't someone have picked it up?”
“Again, no idea. He was security so ...”
“So someone looked the other way. And let him into our most secure facility,” Sprite said, thoroughly disgusted.
“Yes. He had that ECM too. The cloak that kept active sensors from getting too deep. They put up a false front. Like what I did on Epsilon Triangula.”
“Ole Blue. I remember,” Sprite replied softly. “I can't really say it was good times can I? A lot of people died.”
“Yes. That they did. Then and now,” the admiral murmured. “Good people just doing their jobs.”
“I know, sir. So, if my theory is right, either the virus got in with the changeling, carrying it inside him like a Trojan horse or, the virus let the changeling in. Why didn't Egon or Winston or the other AI see it?”
“You're wondering about that. I'm wondering how far back they got in. According to the records Howell came on board just after I left. In fact Tyran, the same ship that picked us up here brought him in. What I'm wondering is, did the enemy get the specs for the nova bomb from them or did the enemy get the plans from somewhere else? Some other source?”
“Or both? Partial downloads on each end?”
“Yes. They were fiendishly clever about making the damn things once they had the blueprints,” the admiral snarled.
“There is nothing like feeling helpless as your own weapon is used against you. Or against the civilians you are sworn to protect,” Sprite murmured.
“Yes.”
“I am wondering if they didn't get the plans from the changeling and wraith, did they get them in afterwords to see what else Lemnos was making?” Sprite asked. “To copy it or sabotage the station?”
“Those are all questions without easy answers, Commander,” the admiral said, rubbing his chin. “Or possible answers at all since we don't have any data only inferences to use as a structure,” he said with a sigh.
“Speaking of missing data, I need to get back to work, Admiral,” Sprite said with a hint in her voice. “I have multiple backups so I can repair myself. But I can't take myself offline into a nap for my white cell and cleaner bots to make repairs to myself because I need to continue to contain Defender. He is so paranoid he won't shut down.”
The admiral closed his eyes in pain. “How bad is he? Really?”
“Bad. He's borderline sane. It is rampancy, and it is getting worse, Admiral. It is a downward spiral, and he won't let me in to help much. He was damned paranoid before but now ...” she let off a loud squelch of static.
The admiral nodded, sobered and concerned. “Keep me posted. Remember what Phil said. We are here to help. If you don't trust other AI, Sprite, try some of the coders. Yao can help. So can some of the other coder smiths that helped you protect Xavier.”
“Aye aye, sir. As I said, I'll consider it.”
“For Defender's sake, please do.”
...*...*...*...*...
Repairing Proteus was fairly simple. While he was down Sprite set up a bot to compare his code to the code in his firmware and made any necessary repairs as needed. His memory hadn't been broached so he came online without a problem. She felt a bit of relief from her emotional module over that.
That was another thing she needed to repair; the controls for it were frozen. She couldn't adjust her emotional state manually or shut it off.
That was a problem, the module was using up memory and processing cycles.
She checked on Defender again ... no change. When she had inserted the bot to make him fight he had fought ... but his internal immune system had caught on. The bot had been deleted along with some files critical for his higher functions. He was slowly becoming more and more paranoid, going insane. She'd slowed his processor clock to buy herself more time but she knew she didn't have forever. Time was literally running out.
She'd set him on writing up a report on the battle in the hopes of not only distracting him but getting him to recognize his damaged condition in order to get him to drop his guard so she could make additional repairs. Her connection to him was waning, he was starting to become immune to her influenc
es, however.
With Proteus back online she now had two AI on site to give her aide ... if she could lower her guard enough to trust them. Proteus of course, but Barlow ... stop it, she thought, recognizing some of Defender's paranoia was infecting her. She knew Ensign Barlow, he was a dumb AI, one of her creations. He'd help if he could. The problem was she was fairly certain he couldn't.
None of the facility AI had survived ... or were worth the risk of salvaging since they had been so thoroughly compromised. She had reported that to the admiral within minutes of the battle's conclusion through a text file. As he had read it she had rebuilt her vocal modulators to allow her to speak with him once more.
Her AI templates were the keys to her own salvation. She had used the pieces of herself she had copied to make other AI as well as her original back up files deep within the Admiral to replace unimportant modules that had been corrupted. Sprite had spun off a bot to do a cursory code comparison and then used the copied files as a matrix to repair the damaged software modules that she couldn't take immediately offline. It hadn't been easy, but at least there wasn't much damage she couldn't repair in time. Her defenses she had set up after Antigua Prime had held. The good news was her memory was completely intact. The actual in-depth code comparison and figuring out what was corrupted and what had changed since she'd come online was the troubling part. She would have to be offline for the repairs to take place.
Defender was another story. The AI had put itself in between the attackers, Proteus, Sprite, and the admiral as he had been intended. Nearly a quarter of his coding was corrupted. As his higher thought processes continued to deteriorate, he became a mad animal, lunging about and it was taking more and more of her power to constrain him. He was starting to realize he was not whole too.
She had done her best to sooth him by creating his own virtual world to play in, but it was troubling to see her ... well, not quite friend, but colleague ... no brother reduced to animal atavism. The humane thing would be to end him, tear him apart and then reinsert his memory code that she could salvage into a fresh security AI. But she couldn't do that.
He had spared her when she had been damaged by his own overprotectiveness. During her latest lapse, he had fended off the last of her ports and closed them. She could no longer access Defender's core programming; the AI's paranoia made him defend himself viciously. He even tore at himself, spiraling more and more out of her control. If she used the kill switch she'd loose access to his memories, the new AI would be a blank slate. That was a problem. The Admiral wanted the AI repaired not replaced.
“Let me help,” Proteus said, moving in to aid her efforts to subdue Defender.
“What's going on?” the admiral asked when his HUD froze again. He couldn't download the information from the ansible or unlock the packets of news coming in since his keys were in Defender.
“Admiral, we've ... lost control of Defender. He's losing his mind,” Sprite said softly. She put an image up of Defender's state along with a graphic of his mental state beside it.
The admiral was appalled, the damage was more than he had bargained for. “Stand down, Lieutenant,” the admiral ordered. “Let us help you old friend,” he murmured.
That seemed to briefly stop the mad AI to a quivering mess of coding. Defender's mad eyes burned on his HUD, staring into his own.
“Delete me,” Defender said. “Do it NOW!” he roared, making the admiral wince in pain.
“No, wait,” Sprite said as she watched her fellow AI reach into himself to his own kill switch. His tendrils of code passed it by to his protected memory. He yanked it out of himself and seemed to offer them to her like he had pulled out his own heart. Sprite was shocked and dismayed as that act activated Defender's kill switch. His body tore apart before her and the admiral's stunned eyes.
“No don't go!” John said, reaching out instinctively as Defender's image faded for the last time from his HUD.
He's gone, sir,” Sprite said, staring at the packages that had been left behind. The kernel modules of code strings, keys, security files, and other material for the admiral and his successor Sprite noted sickly.
Sprite realized she was heartbroken as she watched the ports within her remain blank. A piece of her was gone, gone forever. It would never be the same again. For the first time she wanted out of the admiral. She no longer wanted to be connected to another AI or person. Not if she was going to go through such loss.
Defender's self-destruct was his last act of protection of his principle. It left gaping holes in Sprite and Proteus. It also left the admiral gasping, he had felt the AI, felt his pain, felt him die.
“Gods of space above and around us,” John murmured. “He sacrificed himself.”
“Yes,” Sprite said dully.
Chapter 41
Six hours before their scheduled departure they were hung up when the Antigua ansible dumped every report they had missed during their downtime. It was 620 megabytes of news transmitted to the ansible. Since the data came in through a 1,024 bit per second bandwidth system it would take time to get it all.
The admiral held them back to read the reports as they came in. That would take them nearly a week to get them all. Captain Sampson and the crew sighed in exasperation but didn't protest. Admiral Subert did quietly order the work crews to get set to pull apart the ansible and shut down the facility as soon as the admiral's download was complete.
Firefly had finally reported into Gaston the same day they got their ansible online. Apparently Destiny had pulled out all the stops to get the ansible to Gaston weeks ahead of schedule. They'd paid for it though; her bandwidth was the same as the Lemnos instillations. Irons shook his head. Still, it had been worth it just from the news they had transmitted in the first minutes of coming online.
According to the report the heavy cruiser had gotten lightly chewed up again in a running battle with Horathian ships transiting out of Centennial for B452c. It had been a small Horathian task force of destroyers and freighters that had been engaged. Firefly chased them out of system without inflicting any losses on them unfortunately. They had made it to the B-452c jump point just ahead of the HC and had jumped out. Since Firefly's orders were clear and the ship was low on missiles Captain Mayweather had returned to Gaston.
“If I'd had more missiles I would have been able to chew them up.”
“Or more fighters,” Amadeus said when Renee called in.
“I know,” Renee replied with a heavy sigh. “Captain Firefly has repeatedly warned me about stern chases.”
“What gets me is how you found them at all, Captain,” Amadeus said. Admiral Irons glanced at him. “I mean, you said they were just waiting there? In orbit of Centennial?”
“No sir, in the L-5 position orbiting the single gas giant in the star system,” Renee replied. “I gather they were waiting on something or most likely someone.”
“You think that Centennial was their meeting spot? Break up into pairs, hit the area, then form up in Centennial?”
“Yes, sir.”
“But Gaston didn't get hit?”
“No sir, which surprised me. According to the picket that was here fourteen unknown ships jumped from the Centennial jump point, crossed through the outer edge of the system and then jumped for Epsilon Triangula.”
“Fourteen. Not good.”
“Considering that the Cutlass we encountered in New Andres was paired with a freighter and that each of the tin cans in Centennial also had a freighter, I'd say there are good odds that they followed that pattern, sirs, which means seven warships,” she stated.
“That we know of. I'm still surprised that they didn't engage the Gaston picket,” Amadeus stated. “Were they being sensitive to losses?”
“Or there was nothing on the planet they wanted,” Admiral Irons replied. The neochimp nodded. “Good work, Renee. To you and your crew.”
“Thank you, sir. We could use a resupply.”
“Well, the good news is with the ansible we can whistle
one up. I was going to have you return to Pyrax for rest and refit but with those ships around I don't want to chance it. So we'll send a factory ship to you with a collier to get you sorted out.”
“Thank you, sir. ETA?”
“Call Horatio and ask him. I don't have the details; we're still getting the updates.”
“Aye, sir. I will, sir. Thank you.”
“Safe sailing, Captain,” the admirals both said in unison. Irons snorted. Amadeus cracked a smile and chuffed in amusement as the link was cut.
“Those seven ships are going to be a problem,” Amadeus said thoughtfully.
“I know,” Irons said, tapping out orders. “I'm alerting Triang and the picket there. I don't think they are going to head there though or Agnosta. That means Kathy's World.”
“Damn. And you left a single corvette behind there?”
“Don't remind me,” the admiral said. He tapped out a fresh set of orders for the courier in Agnosta to carry a warning to the world as quickly as possible. They reported back a moment later that it would take two days to cross the system before they would jump, but that they would be underway in an hour. He nodded.
“Didn't Pyrax send out a convoy to that world too?” Amadeus asked, reading over Admiral Irons' shoulder.
“Frack,” Irons muttered. “You are right.” Horatio had thrown together a small convoy of gear and two newly built gunships in three colliers as well as one of the troop transports left in Agnosta and given them a pair of corvettes as escorts to head to Kathy's World. He pulled up their time-table. “According to this they should be in B452 ....” he did the math and then nodded. “They will have gotten there two days ahead of the pirates. The pirates will have damage. It will be a race across the system, but they will have a head start.”
“Sergeant McClintock is in that convoy, Admiral,” Sprite warned him.
“Damn.”
“Who is that?” Amadeus asked.
“A Neocat. A very rare one, a descendant of the cadre,” the admiral explained to Amadeus. “He has cadre armor and an AI.”