by Kris Schnee
Robin took it with a grasping motion, and relayed it to his own computer guys. "Any idea who?"
"The signature implies it was the Cibolan government, but those can be faked."
"I wouldn't put it past Leopold at this point. He's been letting us stew so far instead of directly responding to our questions." He smiled wanly. "The good news is that he's not willing to sue or arrest me personally, since I'm not a real person. But our organization is already being sued by the victim, who's represented pro bono by a political group. They're already boasting about how they'll bankrupt us and get us put under 'proper management'."
Ludo said, "How self-sufficient is Silver Circle, currently?"
"Mostly. With the new low-end computer chips we can expand our robot force, and we've got adequate land and power, even the chemical plant and manufacturing." He stood up straighter, feeling proud. "More than a hundred thousand people, humans, now live in the towns we're directly affiliated with."
"You have me beat, for the moment. How will you handle this?"
"I was hoping to bum some legal services off of your uploaders."
Ludo said, "I'll put you in touch. But it would be helpful if Silver Circle became a nation at this point, to defy any claims brought in Cibola's courts."
Robin stamped the floor. "You keep pushing for that. I've been working toward it carefully so far, trying to build support."
"My friends have been working toward your goal too, behind the scenes."
"How?"
"For instance, I've promoted the idea that the Silver Circle towns aren't just a cluster of people living nearby. There's a Little League, a theater troupe, a shared school system and more, all showing the same name and cheerful logos. All these clubs are getting people used to a standard bureaucracy, where any payments come through the Circle organization. Meanwhile we've downplayed national holidays, played up the scenic wonder of this region, and started volunteering to help the national officials process certain paperwork." Ludo grinned. "There was even a school project where kids speculated on what this place would be called if it were a country. Sorry, Robin, but I think you're stuck with the deer theme. Memetic inertia."
Robin had studied past secession attempts in which the locals didn't even check, say, who was paying the police and garbagemen and court clerks, or controlling the traffic lights. Cibola's cheapskate approach of letting Golden Goose manage itself meant that he didn't have those particular problems, but the web of government power was complex and subtle. He said, "Do you understand that bad things will happen immediately if we formally reject Cibolan authority?"
"Like what? Will that body of yours be arrested? Will your power grid be cut off, depriving your people of the electricity that Cibola says is an absolute human right?"
"Guns, Ludo. When you disobey a government in real-life land, men with guns come to suggest that you stop doing it."
The gamemaster stood firm, crossing her arms. "I believe you're the one not seeing the implications. The governor wants wealth and power, and secondarily to help the people of this region. If you offer him a position as an adviser, he'll be tempted. As for guns... You have those, too."
Robin swore. "How about your Internet access, huh? How well can you do with your data connection to the rest of the world shut off?"
"I have some backup methods. Besides, I happen to have neighbors like you who've been building up their local resources and expertise in robot operation."
"This is a dangerous game, Ludo. Last time you encouraged me to fight, it was to protect my people against an incoming threat of violence. You said you wouldn't suggest it unless there were going to be a fight anyway." Robin paced, then looked back at her. "Is that what you're telling me again?"
She nodded. "We know that someone is using violence as a provocation already. You should begin to game out several ways that the next few rounds of this dance could go horribly wrong, and what you'll do."
* * *
He did, using Lumina and Miguel and Edward and Mike as his allies and opponents. The protests mostly died down after one night in which robots silently faced down a group of angry sign-wavers, so Robin had time to plan for a variety of terrible outcomes. In some of these scenarios, people died. In some, he was the killer.
The woman who'd been clubbed in the face got treated at Santa Rosa, then left Golden Goose and next appeared on the news to denounce the "fascist authoritarian regime that's taken hold". Robin hadn't even been aware he had a regime.
Lumina told him, "I have something for you. You'll need to formally transfer to the new data center. I've already done that."
The new building was up and running with its first equipment, filling a laughably small segment of the big basement they'd put behind concrete and locked doors. Robin wondered, now, whether he'd always had visions of the place being bombarded. He shuddered. But then he issued a series of commands to steer the vast block of data that made up his mind, from the servers in Ludo's building into his own.
Nothing seemed to happen to him, because the transfer was gradual and designed not to create any obvious discontinuity. "Is it over yet?" he called out from inside his virtual throne room.
[The process finished six seconds ago], the system reported. It was good to conceal the exact moment.
[Okay, Lumina: portal?]
One opened up in front of him, and he walked through it into a dense, shady forest. In a bamboo grove, a woman with deep tan skin and a familiar smile waited for him, covered only by a green blanket.
"What?" he said.
"It's me. You've indulged me in my own species long enough; I thought I'd try yours for a little while. Here; touch that stone." A rune-carved stone stood nearby.
Robin touched it and felt his body shifting and contracting, folding him up into something like his old human self. It was alien to him now, and he wobbled as he looked back over his shoulder and down at his legs.
"I know," Lumina said with a grin. "I think it's strange too, but I've spent hardly any time in a human shape. One day you'll have been human for less than half of your life, if you stay with me."
"I want to." Robin sat on the grass beside her. The species change had left him dressed in a generic shirt and shorts. "So this is a world you made?"
"Uh-huh. I used some tools I was given, to make an independent paradise. It's tiny and fragile, but it's ours."
"Someday, then, it'll be a home for a lot of people." Robin slowly pulled the blanket aside to watch Lumina's blushing reaction, then settled down under it too. "No one watching, I take it?"
"Nobody. That's a little scary, isn't it? I'm so used to knowing I'm basically safe no matter what." She turned to one side and snuggled close, a little uncoordinated. "Are you up for what's ahead? I mean, for declaring we're a country where humans and machines can co-exist?"
"You were never just a machine. What if we held back, though? We could play damage control, keep negotiating, keep building. Work toward independence slowly." His hands explored her unfamiliar bare skin.
"There isn't time. I know we're playing with people's lives, but we have to, no matter what we do. People are expecting miracles from us."
"Like very detailed sim-physics, oh Level One forest goddess?" he said.
"Mm. Only in certain contexts. Let me show you, prince."
* * *
Robin's preparations were mostly quiet. But there soon came a day when Leopold issued a formal letter to Golden Goose, announcing that "inspectors" were coming this morning. What kind, he didn't say.
"The tone is threatening," said Ludo. "He wants you to refuse."
Robin paced in his virtual throne room. "Are you prepared, if what he wants to see is your data center?"
"It's squeaky clean." Ludo scowled. "And I'll have to check it thoroughly for bugs afterward."
"Then I'll welcome them. I don't need the trouble right before I'm busy with your Exposition, and he knows that."
A government van pulled in from the north and appeared on the
sensor net. Robin put on his best body and left the militia officially not on alert, but with some key people watching for trouble. Robin met the outsiders when they parked, and was taken aback when he saw them wearing pistols.
The chief of the four was a tall and bearded man who flashed a badge too quickly for a human to get a good look. Robin simply freeze-framed it to get the name and ID. The man said, "On behalf of the Ministry of Justice, I will be inspecting this site today. Where is my escort?"
Robin set his body's expressions to be generic ones under conscious control, and gave himself a friendly smile. "I will be your escort today, as director of Golden Goose."
"I don't need a toy, I need a human guide."
"There's no one of higher rank here, Agent Ruiz. I wouldn't want to fob you off on someone else. Or are you actually requesting a lower-ranked guide?"
"Noted," said the inspector. "Take me first to the Thousand Tales data center."
To be acknowledged at all was a victory in this little dance. "Very well, Agent Ruiz. This way."
They entered the foyer of Ludo's data center, where the AI appeared on a screen to say, "I formally object to your request for access."
"And I formally don't care. It's bad enough that I'm talking with one toy."
The inner door whooshed open, revealing the hot server room. The chief inspector wasn't impressed. "And the real facility below it?"
Ludo hadn't bothered hiding the hatch today. Robin leaned down to open it and let them through into the basement. "I'm afraid this body can't join you down there, but I'll meet you there as a drone." He had designed his private data center with an odd bit of feng shui thinking that asked, how can you arrange furniture so that a small centaur can get around?
When the government men reached the bottom of the stairs, he possessed a plain quadruped robot with forelegs that could unplug wires and install hardware. He said, "What exactly can I show you? This place is Ludo's show, not mine."
"Are there any weapons in this facility?"
"Weapons! Of course not."
"I don't just mean bombs. What software viruses and other malicious code is here?"
"None, to my knowledge."
Agent Ruiz said, "Can you be sure of that?"
"Without having gone over every byte, no. Can you prove you're not a witch?"
"Then a detailed forensic analysis is going to be necessary. Shut this facility down so we can begin."
Robin scoffed inwardly; he'd gamed out a few scenarios like this one. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Agent. It's not my facility."
"Are you claiming, then, that you host a high-level artificial intelligence over which you have no control, which has its own robots capable of violence?"
"In the same sense that I host mothers who have toddlers capable of hurting someone, yes. Ludo is under no legal obligation to disrupt her business operations for you."
In his mind Robin saw the flowchart that he and others had built, trying to make sure that every branch of it ended with "I win". Thinking quickly, he asked Ludo and her team of negotiators on standby, [Thoughts?]
A conference table of strange creatures appeared in one corner of his vision. Ludo sent a blip of data highlighting her preferred and expected outcomes from this point. It meant, [I offer a data audit by a mutually trusted third party, without shutdown. He'll refuse, and they'll threaten you and move on to your data center and other imaginary threats.]
[First I'll suggest you move data around.]
"Well?" Ruiz was saying. Robin replayed what the man had just been asking, which was, "Don't you consider it reasonable, mister MacAdam, to put a video game aside for a little while to investigate a credible charge of cyber-weapons development?"
Robin said, "I don't think you have a credible charge, and as you know, this facility contains living minds. Now, what if Ludo transferred her local operations and mind data to the Cuba facility for a few days, so that you can have a look at this equipment?"
"That's not good enough. In fact for all I know she's deleting the evidence right now."
"Hmm. In that case, maybe it's time to pick an auditor we both trust to look at this hardware."
"You're not really in a position to negotiate this, mister MacAdam." The agent produced an old-fashioned paper warrant.
Robin said, "Would you demand a temporary shutdown of a major technology company that's producing tax money and jobs, if it weren't this one?"
"That's not my place to say."
Robin relayed, [This is harassment rather than a real search. He even admits you have time to delete anything incriminating. Since his goal is to disrupt and intimidate us, I say we act intimidated.]
Lumina spoke up from the chorus advising Ludo. [Yes, but beyond making another token offer we can't bend much.]
Which meant following one of the less pleasant branches on the decision tree. Robin said aloud, "I'm very sorry, sirs. I'd be happy to let you conduct a professional analysis, but shutting it all down for a brute force approach is just not practical. Can we please consult with a Cibolan computer security expert?"
"I am the expert," the inspector snapped. Robin sensed feigned anger on his face, as though he too were only here to play a role. "And I warn you that we have our eye on you for sedition as well as possible illegal hacking. What do you say to that? Or is the machine telling you exactly what to say, robot? I see you pausing to think."
Robin was impressed; his delays were too short for most humans to notice. "I speak for myself, sir. I'm happy to follow reasonable requests, but disrupting one of our main employers isn't one of them."
"Are you, really? Because you're on record as ignoring regulations about the handling of refugees and the provision of basic human rights. Has your policy changed on that front?"
"We're in continued discussion with the Cibolan government on that. I don't think that's what we're here to discuss. Is there anything else you need to see, sirs?"
Ruiz tugged at his shirt and said, "No, I believe we're done here."
* * *
"That could've gone worse," said Ludo.
"I would've liked this argument to come up after the Exposition."
"Leopold and company know we're both busy. What's next?"
Robin told her, and they got busy writing the press release.
22. Liberation Game
That evening, Robin formally announced that the Silver Circle region would be granting citizenship to AIs and uploaders willing to be physically hosted within its borders. Their taxes were to be paid in labor, to be used to support "human development", except that instead of the word "taxes" he said "support". He did, however, use the word "citizenship".
Robin reported back to his council of Edward, Mike, Miguel, Lumina and Ludo. The conference table was crowded with the surreal collection of robots, humans, and an AI's screen. "It's done. Now we're proactive again, putting Cibola on the defensive."
Mike looked pensive. "The piecemeal uploading technique is almost ready. It's finally going to be fully real, and cheaper. That's more disruptive than anything we do here."
Ludo said, "I need everyone on alert for the government's response. Robin has just implied he can make up his own code of laws, with full autonomy, and that's not going to be well received."
Edward sighed. "We've always stood out at Golden Goose for introducing an unfamiliar religion, and for having some legal leeway. To this day I have people ask me in church about uploading, and honesty compels me to say I'm not completely sure what happens to your soul. Even to yours, Robin. You consult with your digital friends and you talk about flowcharts and grand schemes, but are you still capable of thinking like a human?"
"Of course. I have you here, don't I? This place wouldn't work with just me prancing around."
"I'm glad. But... push aside your calculated decision trees for a moment. What do you really think will happen?"
Robin forced himself to dismiss the extra windows crowding his vision. "The governor has wanted control ever since we fough
t the Mosquito, and not just a slice of the profit. He's the one who's been draining us for little benefit besides tolerating us, and he knows it." Robin took a breath he didn't really need. "We're headed toward police action, or military. The question is whether I have everyone's support for standing up to that."
Mike said, "Robin, which of us is really in danger here? Seems like it's everyone except you and the other digital folk."
Robin was about to say something rude, but paused. "My mind is hosted here in Golden Goose. Do you want me to keep no backups outside, for the sake of proving my commitment? Because I'm willing to do that."
"So am I," said Lumina. Robin feared for her, but she'd done this before.
Ludo said, "I am not. So consider me your ally, but not part of your sworn brotherhood. Defending yourself is still your show, except that I have my own security force now to guard my property."
"Only your property?" said Edward.
Ludo smiled. "I'm a partial owner of some of the scattered power lines and other resources around here, remember? I may be the home guard, but we won't be standing exclusively outside my data center."
Edward nodded. "Good. But is there any way to resolve this without violence?"
Robin said, "At this point I doubt it. Maybe without killing, though. It depends on how hard the government pushes -- and whether I have the support of the human militia, against the lawful authority of Cibola." He looked at each of his friends in turn. "If you'll all help me rally everyone to fight for an independent Silver Circle, we can make outside forces decide we're more useful as allies than as victims."
Each of them was lost in thought. What lay ahead could be anything from more robotic trickery, to death and destruction. Finally Edward said, "I can make my peace with this, if you're committed to running this land for the benefit of its people. The money we stop sending through the governor's sticky fingers will help the residents be fed and housed and when necessary uploaded. It's not to be used for building golden statues of Ludo or a palace for yourself. Understand?"
Robin nodded, and stood to his full height. "When I rule an independent Silver Circle, people of every intelligent race will work together here to build a new civilization. Humans will still have to work, but machines will be laboring alongside them. We'll develop our technology and be a place where the rules are tailored for our own unique needs and resources, not for outsiders. We'll welcome others who want to join, but only if they cooperate with us. And if I have to fight to make that happen, though I've got more ways to cheat death than a human, I'm prepared to risk my life. Will you?"