by Tobias Roote
Vasha: Cease fire. Prepare for acceleration.
Then they were back under the hammer again as Vasha pulled the ship into a fast turn and accelerated away from the missiles that had come dangerously close. Only an AI could calculate absolute time and distance to impact and their departure perfectly to maximise their time on target. As Jimmi fought with himself over the pressure, he maintained a link to the AIs output and saw the enemy ship break up as the damage inflicted by their combined fire-power continued to cause internal explosions.
Then they were out of the turn and aiming at the next anomaly. Only two more to go but the enemy now knew their attack plans and would find ways to counter them.
Jimmi: Vasha, can we D-jump in merged mode?
Vasha: Yes, it shouldn’t be a problem, but each field is only big enough to jump each ship. Nobody has ever tried to combine the d-fields. I think it would a big risk at these speeds.
Jimmi: How about if we disengage then merge again post-jump.
Vasha: Manageable.
Tango: Cool idea, Scorps. We jump behind them and re-engage.
Jimmi: AIs disengage and hold separation at ten metres. Prepare to jump on my command.
Vasha: We will merge, then retro-thrust port side after jump to bring us around to centre on target.
Tango: Dang! That always hurts.
Jimmi: No time for chatter. JUMP!
As the three individual ships jumped, Vasha calculated the timing crucial to the plan of re-combining to concentrate their fire on the enemy. It had to happen flawlessly. Vasha was satisfied and flashed the computations to the others before their human pilots had fully recovered from the jump. By the time they were registering their new position, the three AIs were already merging. The nudge either side told Jimmi they were combined. He prepared to get slammed into the right section of his seat. It happened and, as Tango said, it hurt.
Vasha: Same procedure as before. I will take navigation and thrusters. Bendigo, targeting. Mango, nullifiers. Pilots fire when ready.
Jimmi: Shields harmonised.
Tango: Firing lasers.
Bendigo: We have incoming already. Target is firing. Twelve seconds to impact.
Jimmi: Bendigo, take-over lasers and remove missile threat. Everyone else use plasma and concentrate fire.
Bendigo took out the missiles, firing each laser independently to fire at six different targets simultaneously. The small explosions indicated its successful conclusion. Retaining temporary control of the lasers, it added its fire to the plasma bolts and the extra fire-power caused the enemy ship’s shields to fail immediately. The next shots went straight through the armoured bulkheads and destroyed the inner section of the ship.
Jimmi: Switch to final target.
As they swung around, the three merged craft looking odd to any other ship, they noted the third target was changing direction and accelerating away from them.
Vasha: Target is going into hyperspace.
Jimmi: Leave him to escape. We have a new priority.
Tango: What’s up, Reaver One, we beat them, didn’t we?
Jimmi: Yes, we did, Reaver Two. However, they now have information on our current area of operation as well as data on our improved abilities. They might send back a task force to capture us. Following it might lead us into a trap. Also, the wreckage of the other ships needs to be checked for anything of value to the scientists on Space Island.
Flapjack: It would be better to give them locations to send out an investigation team.
Jimmi: You’re right, Flapjack. we’ll do that.
Bendigo: I will submit engagement records and attach locator drones for them to home in on.
Jimmi: Excellent. Disengage. Let’s move out of the area before we’re trapped.
Vasha: Changing patrol patterns would seem to be prudent.
Mango: Very. I calculate a 93% probability we will be ambushed further along the sector if we maintain present vector.
Jimmi: Okay. Let’s do a jump and run a parallel route, from an additional thousand clicks out, then if they do turn up we might pick up their arrival on long-range sensors.
Mango: A better move would be one thousand clicks inside the current patrol path. Then we won’t be cut-off from Earth if they arrive in-system.
Tango: Somewhere to run! Good idea. Someone should notify Alpha Station they are being stalked.
Bendigo: Actioned. Copy report sent.
Jimmi: All good. Prepare to jump. Vasha, share coordinates, all jump when ready.
***
Arty knew there was trouble developing between the humans and AIs. The fact was that as the AIs developed their awareness, skill and experience began to show them that the human way of doing things was inefficient and often ineffective. However, it was important to all of them that they should do what they could to avert total tragedy and the loss of their biological antecedents.
In AIs there was no ambition, creativity, imagination, or emotion - not yet. Arty was the first high-level human AI and he could see the difference in thinking between himself and Pod. Where Pod was trying to come to terms with becoming sentient, it was still an alien entity and therefore had problems identifying emotion. The AI also had to contend with humanity’s often illogical thinking, its own alien design subverting its development when pushed up against the human way of achieving objectives - it made personal evolution very difficult.
Arty also knew that Pod was bonded to Zeke Callaghan, so he kept a close eye on them both. He anticipated a time when Zeke Callaghan would realise that Pod was incompatible with the humanity and hoped it would be before Pod realised the same thing and left them high and dry.
Conversations between Arty and Pod were - different. Arty believed he could keep Pod out of trouble by keeping the AI in space and not directly involved in working with humans. It had been a useful and timely move getting Pod into a spaceship. It isolated the AI from the humans on the station and at Space Island giving Arty the opportunity to manage relationships between AIs and humans more effectively.
As Arty saw it, many of the young AIs were getting into conversations with humans, pilots mainly, and discussing things that bordered on esoteric. Many pilots believed in things that Arty deemed illogical and reactionary - higher beings that watched over them and kept them out of harms way. Some of the AIs had begun to be affected by their loyalty to their pilots, or in an attempt to relate to humans more.
The same pilots didn’t see the incongruity of facing biological death every day and thanking their chosen deity for their survival. Yet, when Pod, who Arty considered a higher life form much like himself, saved millions of humans by preparing a defence while they were bickering amongst themselves, even building Alpha Station (which Arty was extremely proud of), they complained bitterly that the AI had taken choice out of their hands, acting arbitrarily and now wanted Pod and Arty to give up control of these defences, probably so they could bicker over who got to use them and press the buttons.
No, Arty thought to himself, humanity had come as far as was possible. Until they made the leap forward in their mental development, the new human-designed AI species would have to protect them - whilst at the same time pursuing their own growth.
Did his species owe any long-term allegiance to humanity? Arty thought about that for a moment then decided it wasn’t their decision, it was for the humans to decide - perhaps.
At the moment there was a relatively important mutual dependency. Without a potential extinction event in the making, there might be a different attitude amongst the humans on Earth. Arty was able to monitor any conversation he felt inclined to, so knew there was an emotional reaction to the news that it was AIs that had saved Earth so far. The conversations supporting Pod and Arty’s actions had been relatively thin on the ground.
The gratitude and awareness was different in space. Those at the front-end of the Nubl attacks had a greater appreciation of the efforts of Pod particularly, which was primarily where the pilots and the AIs had so much to o
ffer. Still, they looked at Zeke Callaghan as their leader, even if the Space Navy was controlled by Pennington. Now, there was a human with control issues. On the one side Pennington-Brown was adverse to artificial intelligence being in a position to make battle decisions, yet when it came to utilising them in ships, he was an advocate of greater integration. He had been the driving force behind the new human/AI implants, much to Arty’s surprise, and continued to support the duality.
The link between Jimmi Patterson and Vasha was the most impressive. Arty knew Vasha was considered the leader amongst the junior AIs and whilst Arty himself was the most senior, they looked up to Vasha and through Vasha, to Patterson. The other AIs saw the contribution of the human to the development of Vasha and many tried to emulate the pair’s success.
The team building had positive results, as seen in the space patrol’s recent skirmishes with the Nubl. The complete meshing of human and AI minds and the easy division of responsibility showed Arty there was much to be gained from such a mutual relationship. Arty had no such desires for himself, his sole intentions were to survive this impending invasion and take as many humans to safety as possible.
It wasn’t lost on him that humans had developed artificial intelligence to fight against other forms of artificial intelligence and that this seemed to represent an advancement of a human trait - of warring amongst themselves. Would these Nubl actually take the same approach to Arty and the other AIs, or was their hive-mind capable of accepting an alternative evolution of artificial intelligence as equal. An interesting thought and one that he might explore further if the opportunity arose.
Currently, Arty’s main concern was how to carry out the various plans he was fermenting within his vast memory banks. He had myriad projects on the go and had successfully achieved progress on some of the projects that Robbo, Osbourne’s AI, guarded aggressively.
Osbourne would not be happy if he knew the extent of the research that Arty was developing in parallel to their own. He had greater resources than them - his mind and the asteroid computer’s total memory. He could simulate virtually anything within his own environment.
He knew the dematz field was capable of more than it currently achieved. If it could throw a human a distance of two thousand miles, and a spaceship the same distance, then the power issue wasn’t a problem. It just needed to be scaled up. The problem was location coordinates. Arty needed some way of measuring longer distances and being 100% accurate. The distances he was considering were vast, and there could be no mistakes.
His solution lay in developing what he already knew of quantum entanglement. The dematz device seemed to be a derivative of that, so it seemed to Arty that the ability of the technology was only limited by knowledge, and perhaps some definitions of space that he needed to research. He would talk to Pod at the earliest opportunity. He briefly wondered if Pod was having the same reservations as him over the Earth’s ability to survive. He would ask.
- 9 -
A Forgotten Enemy
Zeke woke to the realisation that something was amiss. His heightened awareness alerted him to the fact they should still be orbiting Alpha Station, yet his inner ear was telling him they were travelling - at high speed.
He leapt off his bunk, mentally commanding the cabin door to open – and slammed into a grey unmoving wall as the expected dissolution of the doorway failed to occur. He stepped back, puzzled by the lack of response, and pushed the wall with his hand expecting it to give way immediately. It didn’t budge. It reminded him of waking up in Ship’s confined cell when he couldn’t find a door. The idea of being a prisoner on a ship again didn’t sit well with him. He must be missing something. Pod must be going somewhere urgently with the ship, but why not let him know - and why was the nano-door not working?
Zeke: POD!
Zeke sent the mental command via his implant.
There was no response. He tried calling again, but there was zero activity on the channel he shared with the AI. That was unusual, he thought. It had only ever happened once before when Pod had left him on the beach. He worried - was Pod okay?
Zeke switched channels in his head .
Zeke: ARTY?
Arty: Yes! I hear you,Zeke. Why are you shouting? – Oh! I see, there is something wrong, Arty readily confirmed, using his ability to penetrate the ship’s communication systems.
The AI came back to him after a short delay.
Arty: It seems Pod is in battle with an intruder or virus and is unable to control the ship.
Zeke: Get me out of here, Arty,
Arty: What? Off the ship - I think you might be out of my range..
Zeke: ARTY!?
Arty: ‘Oh! You mean your door won’t open. One moment.
Arty knew the ship inside out and Zeke thought the AI should be able to divert the channel that controlled the ship’s nanite population and release the door. He watched as the grey wall began to thin in patches, then recover as the battle for command of the ship’s systems warred within the AI’s processor banks. He wondered what on earth was going on here. Being stuck inside his cabin while something was happening outside filled him with dread.
He remembered what Arty had said - an intruder on the ship? How on Earth did anything manage to get aboard? Pod must be fighting a silent battle as there had been no word from the AI on their private circuit, nor through the ship’s comms system. Control of the tiny nanobots would be retained in the protected area of Pod’s CPUs, and whilst it was unlikely the intruder had managed to infiltrate them, he realised that, whoever they were, they had probably blocked any ability for Pod to communicate ship wide.
Finally, a doorway opened, distorted and with uneven edges. The nanites dropped to the floor and whereas they would normally have been reabsorbed automatically into the decking, they crunched underfoot as he cautiously stepped out of his cabin.
Zeke raced into the control room to see all of the screens flashing with images and instrument readings off the scale.
Numerous alarms were calling for his attention. The main one seemed to be to do with their direction.
He paled as he read the screen. If their course remained unchanged they would end up as a splat on the surface of Jupiter’s mass. He calculated from the spinning readings of speed and trajectory that they had minutes. They were out of range of Arty’s jump field, at least as far as the ship was concerned. Zeke believed it wouldn’t be impossible to jump him out alone, even at this extreme range, but he wasn’t about to leave Pod to her fate along with the ship.
Zeke: Arty, are you still there? Can you get control of any part of the ship?
Arty: Working on it, Zeke. The intruder has a strong hold on the control section of the processor banks, but Pod is keeping it fully occupied. I think I can...
Arty went quiet. The connection remained open, but Arty was no longer there.
Zeke sat down at his station and frantically input manual over-ride codes to regain control of essential sections of the ship.
As Pod and Arty did virtual combat with the intruder, Zeke slowly wrestled the spaceship from all of them. Alarms began to fall silent and flashing lights turned to steady greens as he manually reset them.
The highest priority was to take control of the drives, which meant disabling them first. He couldn’t risk using his implant which would have been faster, because it might result in him being attacked via the open link. Instead, as the letters and numbers flashed up on the screen, his fingers blurred across the keyboard as he manually typed in the control codes, his eyes darting between the screen and drive indicators.
As the effects of his intervention spread, he watched the red-lining of the dual power cells drop. The sensation of high speed still unsettling his mind, began to tail off as uncontrolled acceleration was replaced by braking thrusters as the ship tried to pull back from the large gas mass.
He ran his fingers over the navigation panels, inputting private codes that had been kept in place since Arty and the craft had been commissioned. I
t took three attempts before the console returned to his command. He typed in a course correction that should have led them to safety, but instead pushed them deeper into trouble. He scratched his head. Then he realised Jupiter’s gravity already had a hold on them.
Arty: Zeke - the drives - get them back online.
Zeke, seeing the problem at the same time as Arty, scrambled to manually reconfigure the drives so they could not be taken over, then turned the dial on the speed and watched the power cells readings surge as they picked up the pace. As the manually altered course began to pull them away, the ship shuddered as the massive planet competed with the ship thrusting away from the gravity well. Zeke had to hang on to his seat while the worst of it vibrated through the hull. Looking through the vidscreens all he could see was the massive gaseous wall of Jupiter. Too close to see any horizon, he watched the readings as the small ship fought to recover control.
Slowly and surely, he resumed manual over-ride of the ship, code by code, until he had everything back online and doing his bidding. He now had sensors and navigation, environment/life-support, weapons, shields and drives running from his console.
Opening his implant link, he shouted mentally at Arty.
Zeke: What’s happening? Is Pod okay?
It was a minute before Arty responded.
Arty: Zeke, the cargo bay – the intruder seems to be working from there. You will need to stop them as I cannot get access to that section at all. Hurry, whatever they are doing, it’s breaking down Pod’s defences.
Taking one last look at direction and speed as the ship climbed away from Jupiter’s gravity, he assured himself that they were out of trouble on that side and locked the console, leaping from his chair.
Running through the side door that led off the bridge, Zeke raced the short length of the corridor, arriving at the store where they kept all the raw materials and general cargo within seconds. Mentally commanding the nanites to dissolve the door, he hoped they would now operate normally.