by Kit Falbo
Is this guy joking? “I respectfully decline. I want access to the archives and a way out of here.”
“I can have someone out there in twelve.” He pauses, the look I’m giving him must show that I find that unacceptable. “No six hours. I’ll grant you archive access while you’re there. Pretty much all I can do from this office anyway.” I can see him type away. “There, I’ve set it up, so you have six hours of archive access Mr. June. Sorry for any inconvenience.”
The connection ends, and I slump into the chair. “You find any way out?” I query my UIs.
“Nope.” says Belle. Tess beeps a negatory as well.
I turn back to the building manual. It will be best if I know what to expect when I head to the archives. If it’s anything like this lobby, it is best to prepare by doing the research. An hour later, I think I know what to expect. I place my hand on the elevator lock. It does an identity check, similar to what Lily had to go through when entering the museum. The door slides open, and I hit the down button. “Unauthorised UI detected.” The elevator announces. I have Tess leave. “Unauthorised UI detected.” Won’t even allow my school one. I have Belle leave as well.
“Hold the fort.” I tell them and hit the down button again. There is a shudder, and a creaking groan as the elevator starts it’s trek down. That makes my heart skip more than anything, even the fact that I am trapped in the archives until I'm rescued. I’m used to the smooth well-maintained function of technology.
It took some reading between the lines, and it helped that I had to read up on the basic history of the computer science library to find the place, now I understand why this installation is how it is. Before the AMU was founded and took over as the primary force in the college, the local and interplanetary military were big with joint projects at the school campus. The two biggest donors were weapons manufacturers, who were also magical practitioners as a hobby, and when the satellite campuses opened up, they jumped at the chance to move their more sensitive and dangerous works off-site. That is one of the reasons why my UI were not allowed in. About half the floors I’m restricted from as well, thankfully, I can access the one I want.
Twelfth floor, stepping out onto it, I immediately admire the aesthetics of the layout. Empty, except for structural supports and podium after podium, each has a clear solid covering around a dormant UI. I look at the first podium I come on, it’s last year's model, a Ruthridge, useful for organizing houses. It’s a midrange model, probably selected because of budgetary reasons. A simple turn dial lets you choose the length you want it active, between three and thirty minutes. Then you can push a button to turn it on. Next to that is a small screen and an odd data port I don't recognize, which is rare. All the cases seem to be similarly set up. I just need to find the right ones.
I know that twenty-five-year-old UI have the bug and hundred-year-old ones don’t. It’s probably best to split the difference and start from there, so, about sixty-three years ago. There has to be an organizational chart somewhere for this floor. A person walks out from around a corner. My heart bucks, stomach clenches, I jump back in surprise and clap my hands together hard creating a defensive shield around me. The air smells like burning dust from the discharge. Defensively, it’s not as powerful as wearing the Joontal suit had been, but it should buy a spare moment. “Use of that kind of technology is restricted in the archives.” It’s a male voice with a robotic tone I’ve come to associate with most non-human encounters like UIs.
My eyes focus on the figure who scared me. Humedroid? One of those rare UI-human quasi-illegal creations? No this is a full-sized mechanical silver humanoid UI, illegal in most places, and why I had only let Booker use my Joontal suit in the privacy of my room. “Well, you scared me. Maybe a little warning first.” I make the defensive shield drop but not my readiness.
“I’m the caretaker. We rarely get visitors here, and I am to assist and monitor them. You may call me, Dan.”
“Your housing isn’t exactly kosher.”
“I was grandfathered in.” I try to remember how long ago that was. I would ask my UI if I had them. “I was created with the founding of the library, three hundred and sixty-seven years ago.” Dan states, clearly picking up on my contemplative look.
“Damn.” I mutter eyeing the UI with some new found respect.
“It’s Dan. How may I assist you?”
“I’m doing some research on an issue I’ve seen in some UI core codes, and I’m trying to find the year it first started showing up. I want to run some tests to see what I could find out.”
“We do not allow outside diagnostic programs to interact with the archived UI.”
“It’s a visual test. I show them something, and test the response.”
Dan seems to think about this. “Like a Rorschach test?”
I don’t know precisely what that is. “Probably.”
Dan nods his head, but it is a stiff movement. “I will observe you and help you as you need it.” He sounds neutral, but I suspect activating my defensive trick, set off some warning bells in his system.
He directs me exactly where I want to go. I work my way down from there. It turns out seventy-three years ago is the first time that the UI base code stopped have the bug. I check a few years past that just in case it has to do with the model. “There a way I can get a sample of some of the older base code to build a new UI?” I wonder out loud.
“If the UI is over seventy-five years old, public domain blueprints should be available for some of the code.” Dan interjects.
“But where would I get that?” I’d done research when rebuilding Muninn, and Tess couldn’t even find that type of work through the usual places.
“The Computer Science Library archives were designed for such tasks. If you wish to produce your own UI using such methods, you will need an industrial nanoscale printer, as well as a planetary and universal license approving such a creation. Hobby licenses can be procured, but limit the number of units you can produce.”
“Can you provide that to me, and resources to help do this?”
Dan is perfectly still. “We do not have an industrial nanoscale printer, but I can provide blueprints, manuals and other educational tools for such a project. Then, I will escort you out of the archives. Do you have an external drive I can use?”
I’ve been using the tablet that I stored the clips on to test the UI. I hand it to him. We walk to several cases, and he sticks the tip of his finger into the unique ports and transfers the information to the tablet. Dan then escorts me back to the elevator, staying as close as he can without touching me. It is almost like he doesn’t trust me.
With a creak and a groan, the elevator makes it back to the top floor. It’s clear the UIs might have gone a little stir crazy, trapped with no signals in or out. The area is now almost spotless, Tess is in a corner attacking some cobwebs. “She won’t settle down.” Belle complains from her resting spot on the desk.
“It’s hard to go from constantly connected, to being sealed off. How have you been handling it, Belle?”
“I’ve been reviewing your school work. If you’re going to insist on getting this silly degree, you should have considered testing out of some topics. We should do that for the next term so that we can be more efficient with your education.”
I check the time. Two more hours until they come and let me out. Pulling out the tablet I start to read the materials Dan had uploaded to it. It’s a welcome sound when the door finally opens. Ravi is being led in by the older, balding man who I met over the hardline communication. Ravi is a pace behind and walking like an invisible chain is dragging him onward. “You can’t just leave like that when a visitor comes!”
“I thought he was the replacement you promised me.” Ravi whines back.
“Not my fault you’ve switched majors four times, you could have been out of here two years ago.” The older administrator blinks and Tess crawls back to my side. “Thank you for waiting. It’s quite difficult to get good help.”
Chapter Twenty
Dimi has a girlfriend. My chances of waking up to spectacular penises has dropped. He’s now working on more romantic ones, like flowers or hearts. He’s also just not in our dorm room as much anymore. Lily has a class, and I’ve finished my homework. No performances are lined up for me, and there hasn't been a challenge since I made my last opponent throw up, by looking like I was dissolving in acid. It is rare to be this alone in my room, with only my thoughts.
Building my old-school UI is more complicated than I thought it would be, paranoia keeps me from letting my modern UI do the grinding, detailed work on it. My house wouldn’t be able to hold an industrial nano-scale printer. The cost would also have nearly bankrupt me if I did buy one. Thankfully there is one on campus. Unhelpfully I'm the low man on the totem pole and even with my name on the list, faculty and grad students keep on jumping me for priority.
The public is starting to sour on this new association run Wizard Joontal. He’s yet to accept any of the piles of challenges he’s gotten. The attempt on my life has only bought so much patience from the public, once he returned to the Lowman estate. The excuse of a lack of footage is the contract on the Wizard J show, ignoring magic battles is different. Commentators are only gently criticizing him, probably due to the AMU, fans not so much. I’m annoyed they might ruin my intellectual property, or worse, harm Lily’s.
I’m also starting to wonder if my accident prone Talos June presentation lacks longevity. I’m toying with taking damage that reveals some cybernetic understructure for maybe transition into some new form. Asking Lily if she would consider the idea of being a robosexual, if I do a full character transition, only got me a bunch of light-hearted poking. She says it’s too early to do such radical changes.
I feel like I’m waiting for this new UI, that I can use to check things out before I can move forward. Can it find what the others are missing on the attack on me? How prevalent is this bug, and is it why performers are dying at an uncomfortable rate as opposed to human stupidity?
“Your slot at the nanoscale printer is opening up in an hour.” Belle informs me.
“What!’
“Professor Worth canceled his tactile detections class because his students are all crustaceanous bottom dwellers. Scores of the graduate students canceled their projects for the class, which has caused you to move up the list.”
I thought I had weeks. I pull up the current base code version I’m working on almost like I'm sewing a three-dimensional cross-stitch pattern. Working on this project has made me realize just how much I didn’t know while rebuilding Muninn. Much of that work consisted of replacing individual parts and not messing with the code. Forming a new bond with him helped take care of the Damaged User Intelligence Need Syndrome. The same DUINS that Booker had suffered from, causing me to transfer him to Lily.
I’m basically putting together a proto-brain, that once bonded with, gathers goals, information, and stimuli to form a fully mature UI. Like Belle was when I first activated her, the base code cluster was set to focus on education, college life, and diversity. During the set up I was able to use the flexible nature to add in other goals. It’s not perfect, even as a primary goal, she seems to lack any interest in looking into the attack on me. There are fewer options for me as I build this new one. I collected from Dan only those that were outside the start of the first appearance of the bug, going with public domain ones helped there. The result is a less flexible base code. I can focus on three traits and hope the information and stimuli that I'm presenting it with when it boots up is enough.
Zooming across campus, I should get there early. All the fabricators are in the engineering complex, I turn the corner, and I halt my anti-gravity skates in their tracks a hundred yards or so from the building holding the Nano-scale printer. “Why didn’t you tell me about this Belle?”
“I didn’t see anything about it in any of your messages.” She says with a little dismay.
Students holding signs, paper, poster board, electronics ones, ring my destination. They have slogans like ‘Not our Right to Create Life’ and ‘Freedom. Every Beings Right.’ It’s a somewhat mixed bag. “Student abolitionists.” I moan. There are those who feel we should create no more UI, because they are slaves and others think they should all be free like they are in Freedom Station, despite the awful mortality rate of the UIs who reside there.
I look closer, and see my problem is not just the ring of agitators around the building trying to prevent people from going near it, several protesters have chained themselves to the entrance. If I miss my slot, I’ll be bumped to the back of the line again. I walk up, trying to be casual. “Join our fight against humanity’s chains!” someone yells to me.
I hear something and pause blinking, listening harder. “Ve Vill Overcome!”
My eyes meet the source, and I walk over. “Dimi, what are you doing here?” I’m a little perplexed, Dimi probably cares the least about UI, in any respect, then any person I've ever met. It’s not that he hated them as some did; he just didn’t care.
He pulls me in close. “It’s my girl. The Voman is passionate.”
“I kind of need to get in there, to do that project I’ve been fretting about.”
“Vhat that is Veeks avay.”
“A lot of students canceled projects, and my spot has moved up to start in about forty-five minutes. Do you think you can sneak me in?”
I can see Dimi start to think about this request. He starts to look a little torn and distressed. I realize my mistake. His father’s mining company is only men. I don’t know if it was religious or some other antiquated reason. They stress the brotherhood of the job. Now he has a girl, and after living with mostly men. It’s something he doesn’t want to mess up. “Look, Talos…”
I hold up my hand. “I didn’t mean to pressure you that way. I’ll figure out how to get in, but I must warn you, it might be unexpected.”
I walk away from the protest, thinking about how it’s set up. The crowd. The chained entrance. The resources I have available. “Tess, Belle, how quick can we get permits for a performance out here, and what type of restrictions are we looking at?”
Half an hour and I have what I need, permits, permission, extra gear from the base, extras from a butcher shop, and a short scripted piece in production. Cocky, arrogant, careless, I work myself into character. Magic, Cameras, and action.
I swagger my way over to the protest. “I must say, I find you all so inspiring.” It's a simple trick to have my voice project loud and clear to everyone. “Did you know that the association of magic users almost makes it a requirement to use UI? I was thinking to myself after being inspired by the cause. If only we could show them how spectacular magic can be without their use. Then it hit me. I can be the one to show them that magic doesn’t need UIs and you, my people, will be the perfect audience.”
I wave my hand with a flourish, and my body slowly rises while haloed in golden light. The thing about this kind of audience is that most UI abolitionists don’t have UIs to fill them in on me, my shtick, or what will most likely happen. My fans, or Lily’s, who at least pay some small bit of attention to me, will know to expect something to go horribly wrong. I can see Dimi pale a little. He’s seen some of the videos that I’ve done, just as a courtesy, because he’s my roommate.
This version of me is quick and flashy. I summon a maiden of fire and a maiden of ice and have them dance. Teasing close encounters with me catching fire, freezing, or even having a reactive explosion as they touch. Fans watching will still want to guess what way I will dramatically injure myself. I’m juggling and appe
aring to swallow knives.
I bow after the last knife disappears. “Of course, those are all parlor tricks. To truly show what we can accomplish without UIs, it needs to have a grand finale! I ask that you keep your eyes on me!”
The simulacrum that is me explodes. Much of the red is similar to the color spraying wands I had used during my last birthday party as Wizard Joontal. The butcher's extras add that bit of realism that only real flesh can do. The spray covers the audience, particularly those chained to the door, who now find the chain has dropped away. The fake head, controlled by Tess, flies off like it is blasting into the distance. A small acting company is recording a dramatic reenactment of finding and saving my head. So they can attach to a newly grown body, that will get posted for people to watch later.
I have eight minutes, and my invisibility is imperfect but should be good enough to let me slip inside during the chaos. Two of those whose chains fell away are already making their way away while panicking a little. A little push and I make it inside.
Visible once again, I go to the counter. “Talos June. I have a spot reserved.”
The industrial nanoscale printer is a thing of beauty. It doesn’t just allow for individual atom and molecule reproduction, but it lets you bend and twist and weave the specially created structures together like you’re knitting a masterpiece. The result is a three-dimensional, flexible core in a shell that allows for the creation of UI. You build the heart, brain, soul into a single piece of hardware, yet sensitive enough to push out the consciousness to control other creations. Muninn's died, and Bookers got singed pushing out and trying to protect me in the fight that nearly killed me. Something is fantastic about being able to create life.
It does all the work, not like my hands get to direct the movements. The program to design the UI that i've been working on has a lot of support, as the details are far above me. I did the research, and all I could get was glimpses how exactly the technology works from the texts Dan had provided. What personality traits am I focusing on achieving? What goals and motivations do I want it to have? How rigid or flexible do I want its calculations and problem solving to be? I chose three main traits that I'm molding into it. Wonder, because that is how I feel doing magic. Determined, because I hope that with its help I can figure out the problem I’ve just been unable to deal with. The last one I’ve been debating, too late to change it now anyway. Inventive, I need to help to correct whatever this thing is that has gone wrong. I enter my blueprints and wait for it to finish.