The equipment effect within the control room had spread. He saw the sub leader wore a shoulder mounted com set button, something the Gorth had not thought he would need with his armor. “Order more octets to move towards the control room. We must complete the destruction here before the humans arrive. Have human plasma weapons failed?” He asked with hope.
“No,” was the simple answer. The warrior turned way as he reached for his com set, ordering more of their forces to answer the Gorth’s recall, to build a wall of defenders around the control room, and the command deck inside that.
Unknown to Bohdar, he was spreading the blight that disabled the fighting ability of his guardians. As they drew near the warriors that had laid down their inoperable rifles in favor of pistols, the plasma rifles and suits of the arrivals ceased to respond. Being willing to die fighting the enemy was fast becoming a wish fulfilled for any of them on the outer edges of the fighting near the control room. Submission to another Krall force was often permitted in interclan warfare, not for the guardians, and certainly never to an animal enemy!
****
Maggi, in a rapid flash of mental communications with the ship, realized she had made another “first contact,” and promptly introduced her husband when he approached her. He thought initially that this was only an AI unit that ran the ship. As Mirikami thought that, with his hand pressed to the “living wall,” Huwayla corrected his misunderstanding. She said she was the ship. Created by several classes of the Olt’kitapi, and artificial in that respect, but she was more than a processor mind, as Tet was more than his brain’s mind.
“Tet and Maggi, I am alive in the sense that I repair myself, replace worn parts, ingest external material and energy to perform that task, and what I am unable to recycle becomes waste. I am comparable to a natural biological organism. My mind was recorded as a conglomerate of representative patterns of a number of types of Olt’kitapi, mostly builders and makers. My sisters and I are not copies of any single class or personality, although we were not provided with our creator’s full complexity of thought. We have ingrained prohibitions, which limit our range of response to instructions from even trusted operators. We will not impose restrictions on intelligent creatures, yet we have limits on what we will do on their behalf.”
Maggi, curious about the first hint of Olt’kitapi society, had to ask, “What are classes of Olt’kitapi? The builders and makers?”
There are builders of cities and great habitats as I was created as a tool to help construct. Makers make machinery, quantum devices, equipment. There are many classes of Olt’kitapi, and subclasses within a general class. More than I have time to describe.”
Eager to get one more answer she asked, “What did they look like, in general?”
“That too is complex and I do not have time. The external appearance depends on the class and subclass, and varies greatly. I have other urgent concerns to resolve that are more important.
“At present, I am greatly distressed that there is conflict and death happening between you and another guest species within me. I am not permitted to interfere with your choices, and the conflict should be resolved by a builder, or a philosopher subclass, or any Olt’kitapi of any class. There are none here, and I am limited to following the instructions of trusted operators, provided the action requested is not involved with the conflict.”
Tet asked a more pertinent and critical question. “Huwayla, are you restoring the ability to Jump with your repairs?”
“By Jump, I sense your thought is of travel through the alternate Universe. Yes, I am almost capable of that now. My external skin is repaired, but I have not completed all of the connections where I am missing parts of myself. That will be ready soon. I have been instructed where to go, and I will tell the trusted operator when that is possible.”
Maggi tested the waters. “Huwayla, if I ask you to remain here, not to Jump, will you do that?”
“You have a builder’s or a maker’s key, and because you were not listed as an untrusted species, you are also a trusted operator of a different and new species. I will respond to many potential trusted new species with quantum encoded keys. With conflicting instructions, the simplest resolution is to depend on the intelligence of users to come to a consensus. Maggi, if you made that request it would counter the other request I have from Pildon, and leave me with a conflict. There is a hierarchal conflict resolution system that can select one request over the other in a case like this.”
Mirikami didn’t wait to see what that might be. It could be first-come-first-served, or who had the greatest seniority as a trusted species, or any of many outcomes that wouldn’t favor humanity. There seemed to be a better solution for the Kobani, based on the idea of consensus.
“Huwayla, I believe that I too am a trusted operator by your definition. I do request that you remain where we are.”
Maggi, realizing she had not made a request, merely posed the question, followed immediately with, “That is my request as well. Is that not a consensus of two over one?”
“Yes. I will inform the other operator of the change.”
“You are not yet ready to Jump; therefore can you wait to inform him then?” Maggi asked.
The ship apparently understood the allegiance of the two trusted operators it was addressing. “Do you agree Tet?”
“I do, and I further request that you do not share that information with him.”
“If that is your request as well Maggi, there is a limitation.”
Of course, it was Maggi’s mutual request. She asked what the limitation was.
The ship said, “If I am asked by Pildon, I will answer him that I can Jump, but I will not inform him as soon as I am able to travel.”
Tet saw another opportunity, one they needed to create right now. “Thank you Huwayla. I have another request, for making movements within you easier for all of your guests and visitors. It has to do with the doors along the corridors, which would give us all equal freedom of movement.”
Tactically speaking, that wasn’t exactly equal for the Kobani, who needed it more.
****
“The Krall have stopped firing and are retreating?” Mirikami flat didn’t believe his ears. If he’d been using them, that is. The report came via Comtap, from Will Horst, who had led five of the eleven Kobani that had been with Mirikami, when they split up as they charged out into the major corridor.
That happened when every single passageway portal irised opened simultaneously, throughout the ship. The Krall didn’t have individual doors on which to concentrate their plasma fire, and no doors closed when a compartment was entered.
Equal freedom of movement, as put to Huwayla, and yet which favored the outnumbered Kobani more than the Krall, who finally had the human’s movements restricted. Hair splitting was a frequent human pastime and negotiating tactic, which considering their hairless and scaly opponents, might be considered another genetic advantage for humans.
Will explained. “Tet, they are suddenly shifting to pistols, and they don’t appear to have much ammunition for them. The plasma rifles we picked up from some of their dead, over on this side of the control room, had partial charges and worked fine for us. There were even spare power packs strewn about, all of them fully charged, but they didn’t use them. Many had removed their helmets, and a few have shed their entire armor. I can’t figure out what this means.”
Mirikami had some contrary data. “I can hear heavier fighting farther out towards the ends of the corridors, where we have a number of octets cut off from moving to the center. Their rifles are cracking shots off regularly.”
Maggi had an observation. “Their problems seemed to start close to us, and radiated out over the last fifteen minutes. The warriors close to where we want to go are the ones pulling back and taking off helmets and using pistols.”
Mirikami was pulling at his lip. “Do you think Huwayla took sides? The Krall are clearly not trusted. Although, I’m not sure why we are, since we’ve had no h
istory with these ships. Wonder if I should ask?”
Maggi shrugged. “Things are going better for us. Do you want to risk another talk with her? We could mess things up, since at the rate we’re going we’ll take the ship from the Krall.”
“But will we have a live ship when we do? The Krall certainly don’t want that. I think we need to talk to her again. Let me be the one to pull off a glove this time, after I step out of the open.”
He entered a random open compartment, and as soon as he was out of view of any Krall, spread his helmet and lifted. “Ah that feels good. Hours of wearing that damned bucket can start to chafe.”
He was about to pull off a gauntlet when he said aloud to Maggi, “Didn’t want my hand getting my ass shot off if a Krall sees it floating in air. I’d like to tell Huwayla to just talk to me, like we do with Jakob.”
“Is that a request?” It was Huwayla, and it came by Comtap!
“Yes.” He answered fast. “I request to speak with you this way, with my Comtap.” He’d quickly thought to include Maggi in his mental Comtap reply to the ship. Not hearing Huwayla’s question, Maggi sent him a mental query.
“What?” Proving Comtaps didn’t solve the confusion of coming in on the middle of a conversation.
The ships words came smoothly, but without emotional hues or mental pictures. “Tet, I have the ability to communicate with your devices, which you refer to as a Comtap, much as I can communicate with Torki Olts, Raspani mind enhancers, Krall’tapi status chips, and of course, my creators Mind Expander technology. I sense your devices are a blend of new quantum features from both Torki and Raspani technology, but you have a non-technological level of long-range instant communication that is unique, that they never had. They could not use tachyon modulation over great distances. My creators could do that, but even with their technology and intelligence, they could not send emotions, pure thoughts and images as you do to each other, with such a high data transfer rate. I can sense that such data is present, but I cannot experience it or create that sort of signal information. This is biological in nature, and I find no record of similar capability in any of the intelligent species the Olt’kitapi met, or have communicated with in the past.”
Maggi, sliding easily into the discussion asked, “Why did you wait to communicate with us this way? This is easier.”
The ship explained. “The trusted Krall’tapi operator, Pildon, had forbidden me from receiving outside electromagnetic signals, from before we departed to start the four great building projects.”
Maintaining mental blocking, Maggi and Tet stayed silent on that subject, careful to let nothing slip past. Keeping Huwayla in the dark might keep her functioning longer.
“Why did you speak to Tet just now, by Comtap?” Maggi asked.
“I did not use electromagnetic forces for transmission to him, although I heard his question for me spoken through the air, which was not by an electromagnetic signal. Until he answered my query, I used modulation of low energy particles you have named tachyons, moving in an alternate universe to activate that quantum aspect of the Comtap. I was uncertain if that was forbidden, because your devices also have electromagnetic communication ability for short-range use.
“Another conundrum for me was that you are no longer outside of me, so did the prohibition against receiving electromagnetic communications apply inside of me. I did not decide until you communicated with me by touch, if speaking with you would be a violation of my previous instructions. Pildon is near death, and cannot speak with me for clarification, and the Krall’tapi have not received embedded status chips for thousands of generations. He does not know of your devices, and I have decided in absence of evidence, that you might wish to use them to speak with me, and he may not have intended them to be blocked. Because he had no knowledge that your Comtaps existed, it is unlikely he would have included them in his prohibition.”
Maggi, her own helmet off now, grinned at her husband and addressed Huwayla. “Whatever floats your boat, kiddo.”
“I deduce, from the extensive language library in your devices, that you have made what you would term a humorous remark. I believe it is oddly clever. However, do I seem childlike to you, a kid?”
She winked at her husband. “Close, but no cigar.”
Huwayla managed to sound perplexed. “I appear to have missed some level of comprehension you were seeking of me, that perhaps you were testing me with your remarks. I nearly won, but not quite.”
It was obvious the Olt’kitapi had been far in advance of humanity in every technology, but they still hadn’t crossed the joke threshold on AI development. Perhaps her creators, like the Prada, had a limited sense of humor.
Mirikami returned to the reason they’d wanted to talk to her, before Huwayla had surprised them. “Many of the Krall have laid down their plasma rifles and are removing their armor. Those closest to the center of the ship fight only with their pistols, while farther away the warriors continue to use the plasma rifles. Do you know why?”
“I regret that I was impelled to indirectly interfere, when Pildon was injured and could not control them. They began using plasma rifles to disable my components within my structure near the control room. I took minimal action to disable their quantum keys in equipment that requires such a key.”
Mirikami was shocked and excited. “You deactivated the Krall tattoos from working?”
That elation was quickly tempered by the ship’s response, which sounded scandalized Mirikami would suggest such a thing.
“I would never modify a quantum key within the body of an intelligent species. My creators would never do that after the individual had agreed to accept the gift of a key, and because I am patterned after them, I would not. Instead, I modified the encrypted code within the rifle that damaged an important, if redundant memory storage component, to exclude the genetic pattern of that species from activating that rifle. Any other Olt’kitapi quantum keyed device designed by my creators, within a limited range of the first device, was also subsequently altered to exclude that same DNA pattern, as was intended. All of the plasma weapons in that room were disabled, as were new weapons brought to replace them than came within the effective range.”
“Was their armor power disabled? They are also removing that.”
“Only the part of that armor designed by the makers required a key. Some other modifications to the suits came later, and Torki designed functions do not need a key because they did not know how to integrate the new feature with the old quantum code key.”
Maggi was still puzzled. “Some of the rifles and armor outside the control room have stopped working for the Krall, but the rifles function for us.”
“Yes, this was part of the protection the builders, makers, and other Olt’kitapi specialties intended to use, to deny an untrusted species the use of dangerous technology. One quantum key, if brought within range of another quantum key, will share any excluded genetic patterns. Your language calls this pattern DNA, and your pattern is not excluded.”
Maggi couldn’t hold back the big question. “Why didn’t the Olt’kitapi do this DNA exclusion before the Krall killed them all?
The ship sounded surprised. “They did of course, on the Krall home planet. However, the early Krall species did not kill the last of the Olt’kitapi, composed of their many sub types. Although they killed very many. The Olt’kitapi, as a society, was unable to accept their attempted genocide of an intelligent species, when the Krall home world was disrupted by one of my sister ships.
“Billions of deaths, with many innocent Krall’tapi included, created an unexpected wave through the alternate Universe, which registered powerfully in their Mind Expanders. The Olt’kitapi chose to die after that, easily achievable by a thought. They were aware that many millions of Krall were on other planets, and hundreds of planet disruptions could never eliminate them as they scattered. The infection-like spread of the exclude key had been halted even on Kratos, the Krall home world, by simple quarantine measures, once
they understood how it was spread. It did not spread as quickly or as widely as expected, because the Krall had many weapons of their own making, and they were ruthless with each other, killing entire affected clans from a distance, or from the air.
“The code key alteration did not end their ability to make war. They still made older weapons at that time, which required no key, and it was impossible to reach all clanships, or every type of quantum keyed weapon, to spread the excluded DNA pattern.”
“How close do you have to be to do that?” Mirikami asked.
“From your library of length units, it would be 122 feet, 4 inches. That is very close to a plasma rifle, if it is firing at you.”
“Thank you Huwayla. We now know there are no working rifles near the control room, so we will rescue you soon from their attempted destruction.”
“Tet, I do not have what you would term a fear of termination. However, I have an obligation to keep those within me alive and safe, if possible, without interfering with their actions. I have failed in this for Pildon. His life signs have vanished from my sensors, although this may be due to destruction of sensor nodes around him.”
Mirikami linked to his assault teams. “The Krall at the control room have no functioning rifles, and their armor doesn’t work properly and they are pulling it off. Move in and take them down. They’re trying to kill the ship AI, and the soft Krall is already dead.”
Huwayla mourned the loss of Pildon, and his presumed project. “I regret that his four habitat construction projects will go uncompleted if my sister ships do not help. It was too much work for me, and I cannot help now.”
Maggi said, “The projects never should have been started. You knew too little about them.”
The ship didn’t respond, and Mirikami reminded her, “Maggi, we need to put on our helmets and join the others. We can talk as we go, but we need to get moving.”
Koban 4: Shattered Worlds Page 83