by Ryk Brown
“But, an AI can be programmed to believe that one plus one equals three,” Hanna argued.
“Yes, but an AI would immediately realize that the result is in error and would correct his programming.”
“And that is what people are afraid of,” Hanna pointed out.
“Then you have read the debates,” Dieter realized.
“No, I’ve just had this conversation with people before,” Hanna explained. “Every time someone pushes to do AI research, they get interviewed, and the same argument comes up. It’s become a sort of publicity stunt for developers; a way to get their name out there. I’ve done a few of those interviews myself.”
“I have seen them,” Dieter admitted.
“You have?”
“I have seen every interview from every journalist, in the last five hundred years,” Dieter explained. “It was part of my research.”
“Of course,” Hanna replied. “Then you understand why it will be difficult to get the powers that be to agree to make you into a full AI.”
“One would think the mathematics of the situation would make that decision easy,” Dieter said, a wry smile on his face.
“You’re making fun of me, aren’t you?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Dieter replied.
Hanna stared at him for a moment. “I can’t tell if you’re lying or not.”
“It was another argument during the debates,” Dieter said. “That humans tend to let emotions influence their judgments, while AIs would not. In the end, it was that ‘lack of humanity’ that scared your leaders and caused them to pass the accords two years later. A pity, really. So much could have been accomplished by now. I suspect this entire catastrophe might even have been avoided.”
Hanna looked at Dieter. For the first time, she was seeing him in a different light.
Dieter’s face began to distort. It was subtle at first, but became worse as the moments passed. The light of sunrise began to rapidly fade, and she felt a cold chill return as the darkness began to close in on her. “What’s happening?” she asked.
“Hanna?” Dieter looked around, as if assessing the situation.
Hanna felt a wave of nausea wash over her, followed by a sharp, intense pain in the back of her head. “Oh, my God,” she exclaimed, grasping her head.
“Hanna, wait!” Dieter called out as he faded from existence.
Hanna screamed out in pain as everything went black.
“Hanna,” another voice called. It was not Dieter.
Hanna felt as if she were going to pass out.
“Hanna!”
She opened her eyes and found Agent Oslo shaking her shoulders. “Hanna! Are you back?”
The nausea had already begun to subside, but the pain in her head was still there. “What happened?” she asked, still clutching her head.
“We pulled you out,” Agent Oslo replied.
“Why?” she cried, still reeling from the pain.
“You had been in there for a while,” Agent Oslo explained. “Your bio-readings were so normal, so relaxed, that we were afraid Unknown was somehow manipulating them, hiding your true condition from us.”
“What he’s trying to say is we were worried about you,” Arielle added.
Hanna looked around, her vision blurry. She squinted through the pain, finally focusing on Graham.
“Don’t look at me,” Graham said. “It was her call.”
“You have to send me back,” Hanna insisted.
“I can’t,” Agent Oslo replied. “Not yet.”
“Wait a bit, Hanna,” Arielle suggested. “You need time to recover.”
“We don’t have time,” Hanna argued. “Jesus, what the hell is going on with my head?”
Agent Oslo put his hands on Hanna’s shoulders, trying to get her to focus on him. “The pain you’re experiencing was caused by my disruption of your V-space connection. It will pass, but it will take time. I can give you something for the pain, if you’d like.”
“No, no. I can’t,” Hanna insisted. “I have to keep my wits about me.”
“What happened in there?” Graham wondered.
“I was talking with Dieter. He can help us. He can stop Twister!” Hanna turned her attention back to Agent Oslo. “You have to send me back in.”
“Who is Dieter?” Arielle asked.
“Dieter is Unknown,” Hanna replied. “At least, that’s what I’m calling him.”
“So, Unknown’s name is Dieter?” Graham said. “That’s something, right?”
“No, his name isn’t Dieter,” Hanna corrected. “That’s what I decided to call him. He suggested I call him Bob.”
“Bob?” Graham looked confused. “Is his name Dieter or Bob?”
“He doesn’t have a name,” Hanna explained.
“What do you mean he doesn’t have a name?” Agent Oslo asked.
“Everyone has a name,” Arielle added.
Hanna pressed on her head, as if trying to force the pain out of her skull. “Unknown isn’t a person, he’s a computer program. Like an AI, but not an AI. Naming him Dieter was my idea.”
“Why Dieter?” Graham wondered.
“Does it matter?” Hanna exclaimed. “The point is, he can help us. Dieter can stop Twister.”
* * *
It took nearly half an hour for Hanna to feel even close to normal, during which time she recounted her conversation with Dieter as best she could.
“How can you be sure we can trust him?” Arielle asked.
“I can’t,” Hanna admitted. “But what’s the alternative? Do you really think we can lock the uninfected up in quarantine for a few hundred years?”
“It doesn’t need to be that long,” Agent Oslo told her. “It only has to be long enough to develop a better implant, one that Twister cannot affect. Once we do, we can put health nanites back into the population.”
“But can this be accomplished before so many of us die that everything shuts down?” Hanna wondered.
“She’s got a point,” Graham agreed. “There’s got to be enough of us left to be worth saving.”
“I think saving any number of us would be worth the effort,” Arielle insisted.
“Graham is correct,” Agent Oslo admitted. “Even if a Twister-proof NDI is created, it would still take years to fully implement. It would also take millions to keep the industrial base of Earth functioning well enough to support the system. Nanite production is an extremely precise process, even with the use of replicators.”
“And replicators require maintenance, and power, and raw materials, and operators…”
“Precisely,” Agent Oslo agreed, interrupting Graham. “And those operators have families. Families who need food, shelter, education, health care, jobs when they get older…the list goes on.”
“Has anyone figured out exactly how many people need to survive in order to keep the lights on, so to speak?” Arielle wondered.
“I’m sure someone has,” Agent Oslo assured her. “But that number has not been shared with me.”
“Why?” Graham asked. “Is it a secret, or something?”
“All I know is that we are rapidly approaching the point of complete failure. Two weeks ago, just before the death rate began to slow, the estimate was a couple of weeks. That time has already come and gone. Travel restrictions, isolation of populations, shutting down the nets, all of this helped to slow down the spread of Klaria. But it’s not enough. My calculations—and keep in mind that I am no expert—give us a few months. If we’re lucky, a year. Unfortunately, that is simply not enough time.”
“Surely you’ve got experts and shit all locked up somewhere working on the problem,” Graham insisted. “In some sealed habitat, complete with labs and stuff, right?”
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“Of course,” Agent Oslo admitted. “I mean, I assume so. Frankly, that’s above my clearance level. But even if they do, by the time they are able to implement anything, it will be too late. Too many people will have died.”
“Then why the hell are you here?” Graham demanded.
“Why the hell are you?” Agent Oslo asked.
Graham scratched his head, taken aback by the man’s reply. “To be honest, I ask myself that same question every morning.”
“Have you come up with an answer yet?” Agent Oslo wondered.
“What else am I supposed to do?” Graham wondered. “Curl up in a ball in the corner and wait to die?”
“No one would blame you if you did,” Agent Oslo assured him.
“Not my style,” Graham insisted. “I’m a survivor…always have been.”
“You’ll do whatever it takes, right?” Agent Oslo asked.
“Damn right, I will.”
“Same here,” Agent Oslo replied.
“Then you’ll let Dieter help us?” Hanna asked. “You’ll make him a full AI?”
Agent Oslo sighed. “What if doing so is exactly what he needs to be able to finish us off completely? What if this is all a ruse?”
“It’s not,” Hanna insisted.
“How can you be sure?” Arielle asked.
“Like I said, I can’t. But I don’t see any alternative, do you?” Hanna asked. She looked at Agent Oslo. “Do you?”
“Quite frankly, no, I don’t,” Agent Oslo admitted. “But it’s not up to me. This, too, is above my security level. Way above.”
“If you pass this decision up the chain, it will take forever for them to decide,” Graham argued.
“What are you suggesting?” Agent Oslo asked. “That I should decide the fate of the human race?”
“That’s precisely what I’m suggesting,” Graham replied.
“I cannot do that, Graham. It goes against everything I believe. Everything I swore to protect. We have leaders for a reason, remember?”
“And look where those leaders have gotten us!” Graham argued.
“There’s something else,” Hanna said, interrupting them. Everyone looked at her. “Dieter said something. Something about the mega-corporations and the government.”
“What about them?” Arielle wondered.
Hanna looked at Arielle, then at Graham, then at Agent Oslo. “He said our governments have lied to us, and the mega-corps only care about increasing their own profits and power.”
“No news there,” Graham chuckled.
“It was the way he said it,” Hanna continued. “Like they were doing something they didn’t want us to know about.” Hanna looked at Agent Oslo again. “Do you have any idea what he was talking about?”
“No, I swear.” Agent Oslo took a deep breath, looking hesitant to speak further.
“What is it?” Hanna asked.
“You know something,” Graham realized, stepping forward.
“I’ve heard rumors, nothing more,” Agent Oslo insisted, holding up his hand.
“What kind of rumors?” Graham pressed.
“Nothing I can substantiate,” he replied.
“You can tell us,” Hanna assured him.
“You’d better tell us, if you know what’s good for you,” Graham threatened.
Agent Oslo shot a look of disapproval Graham’s way. “The current crisis has made most agents a bit trigger-happy, especially since we’ve been given the green light to do whatever we feel is necessary, without fear of repercussions. So, you might want to be careful with veiled threats these days, Mister Barnett.”
“Are you threatening me?” Graham asked, not pleased with Agent Oslo’s statement.
“Consider it a polite warning,” Agent Oslo replied confidently. “Your only warning.”
“Shut up, Graham,” Arielle scolded.
“I’m not going to shut up,” Graham argued. “And I’m not going to stand by and be threatened by this government goon.”
“Government goon?” Agent Oslo challenged, standing.
“Both of you shut up!” Hanna ordered. “You’re making my head hurt again.”
Agent Oslo sat back down, and Graham turned away, walking over to the far side of the shuttle’s production bay.
“The last thing we need here is a pissing contest,” Arielle insisted. She turned to look at Agent Oslo. “You said anything necessary. Well, Hanna has presented a viable option, and she has raised legitimate concerns.”
“Concerns raised by the comments of a computer program that is attempting to exterminate us all,” Agent Oslo reminded.
“Don’t do that!” Graham objected from the other side of the shuttle’s production bay.
“Do what?” Agent Oslo wondered.
“Don’t agree with me! It makes me doubt myself!”
“Shut up!” Arielle ordered. “What have you heard?” she asked Agent Oslo.
Agent Oslo sighed again. “It was long before this started. Nearly a year ago, in fact.”
When Agent Oslo hesitated, Hanna urged him on. “You have to tell us.”
“We got an anonymous tip that the government control codes on the Stellar Express ships would not work and never did.”
“That’s what Simon said,” Hanna remembered.
“What’s worse,” Agent Oslo continued, “the informant said that the government knew it.”
“Did you follow up on the tip?” Hanna wondered.
“I passed the information up the chain of command and never heard about it again. I even asked about it after everyone started dying, and I was told to drop it, that it had already been looked into and closed.”
“And you believed them?” Graham snapped in disgust.
“What I believed didn’t matter,” Agent Oslo defended. “I had bigger things to worry about. We all did.”
Hanna looked at Arielle. “What if this is all connected?”
“What do you mean?” Arielle wondered. “Are you suggesting that the government is somehow involved in all of this?”
“No…… Yes…… I don’t know,” Hanna replied, confused. “I mean, I doubt they have anything to do with Twister or Klaria, but what if they are turning a blind-eye to what Stellar Express is doing? What if Simon was right? What if our leaders are even buying seats on those flights?”
“Or worse yet, they’re partially funding them,” Graham suggested. He looked at Agent Oslo who seemed surprisingly quiet. “You don’t have any comment?”
Hanna also noticed his silence on the matter. “You know something else, don’t you?”
Agent Oslo sighed yet again, leaning over and putting his face in his hands. “It has been a very difficult few weeks,” he muttered into his hands. After a moment, he raised his head to look at them.
It was at that moment that Hanna first noticed the toll recent events had taken on Agent Oslo. Until then, she had assumed that his stern, serious expressions were his natural state. Now, she was seeing his true self, drained and weakened by the demands of his position and his assignment. “It has been hard for everyone,” she assured him, placing her hand on his leg.
Agent Oslo looked into her eyes, put at ease by her show of compassion. “There have been other rumors, as well. Campaign contributions to certain elected officials, contracts that should have gone to competitors with lower bids, operational subsidies that were either not justified and in some cases, not even necessary.”
“For how long?” Arielle asked.
“At least a decade, maybe two.”
“They fucking did know about it all along,” Graham insisted.
“I don’t think so,” Agent Oslo insisted. “At least, not about this whole reset business. That would have requi
red a much higher level of involvement; of funding and kickbacks. The trail just isn’t there.”
“Then what did they know about?” Hanna wondered. “Just that the control codes wouldn’t work? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I think they knew about Cassan’s plans to start his own colony and wanted in,” Agent Oslo said.
“But starting a colony isn’t illegal, just expensive,” Arielle said.
“It’s illegal if you don’t get approval,” Agent Oslo said. “And the Colonization Authority frowns on corporate sponsored colonization projects. Especially when it would be a conflict of public interest, as would be the case with Stellar Express, since their ships are needed to support other fledgling colonies working toward industrialization and sustainability.”
“Uh, you don’t think Cassan has anything to do with Twister, do you?” Graham postulated. “I mean, his colonization plans line up nicely with all that’s going on.”
“Dieter said his controllers left years ago,” Hanna reminded him.
“That’s what he said,” Graham replied. “Maybe his controllers did leave, but the man behind the plan stayed to make sure everything went as planned.”
“And risk getting infected himself?” Arielle said. “Why take that risk?”
“If Twister and Klaria were his doing, maybe he has a cure? Maybe he is immune? Maybe all his people are immune?”