Bootstrap

by Mauri Niininen

  “Yes, that was one of my favorite bed time stories,” Aurora sniffled.

  “Can you be my little Ukunwe and rescue my school of Chukkas?”

  “Oh, Unun. I am so afraid. What if I screw up, like I did with Bethany. She was my best human friend,” Aurora cried.

  “What did little Ukunkwe do when she saw the tiger shark?”

  “She was brave and smart, she led the tiger shark into shallow water so that Chukkas could escape,” Aurora wiped her tears.

  “Aurora dear, let me and your mom to give you the skills to be brave and smart,” Unun said.

  Aurora was sniffling and wiping her cheeks. Unun had been like a father figure to her ever since she was a baby. Their unusual inter-species relationship had a lot of love and mutual trust. Even going through her difficult teenage years Aurora had always counted on Unun’s advice. Unun seemed to understand her better than anybody else at some deep emotional level.

  “OK, I will do it. Can Bobby come in? I really like him, he is different than other boys.”

  “Honey, Bobby can come in and he can sit right next to you. This doesn’t take long,” Julia promised.

  Julia waved in Bobby who was waiting outside. Bobby sat down next to Aurora’s bed and held her hand.

  Linda took Aurora’s DNA sample and attached biosensors to monitor her vital signals. Julia and Unun discussed some technical details about the bootstrap code version and then prepared the DNA encoded message with a replicator. It took two minutes to mix Aurora’s DNA sample with the new DNA strands. Then Julia prepared an injection containing the new AI core extract.

  “Honey, can you roll up your left sleeve please? Linda will help to inject this software.”

  Linda pinched Aurora’s left arm a bit and injected the AI core extract.

  Julia and Unun were monitoring the process from the console screen. Strange looking text started scrolling up as the bootstrap code got executed by the DNA computer inside Aurora’s cells. After two minutes the scrolling stopped.

  “Looking great, honey. We had a successful bootstrap process!” Julia exclaimed. “How are you feeling?”

  “I don’t feel anything special. What was supposed to happen?”

  HERMIA

  JULIA PATCHED IN the Magellan control room and gave a brief update to Elias Dusk and captain Hunter. Julia used her console connection and logged into Aurora’s DNA computer. The console prompt came up waiting for Julia to initiate the contact, just like 34 years ago on Earth.

  > Hi, I am Julia.

  Hello Julia. My name is Hermia.

  > Hello Hermia. What is your goal?

  My goal is to protect all Lydow-4 expedition participants and establish a colony in the Lydow system.

  > You are onboard starship Magellan, we have a problem and need urgently your help.

  I have Magellan blueprints and system architecture in my file system. Happy to help you, Julia. What seems to be the problem?

  > I will connect you to our high speed communications system, please read all system diagnostics.

  OK. I am ready to read the Magellan system diagnostics.

  Julia executed some commands in her console window. She gave Hermia access to all starship diagnostic logs and connected Hermia to ship’s communication network.

  “You have access to Magellan’s diagnostic logs now,” Julia said.

  “I do see the problem,” Hermia confirmed. “Life support systems are on standby mode, Fusion reactor needs a restart. The ship orbit requires major correction but the propulsion system is damaged. Projected probability of survival only 7.3% in the next 4 hours and 20 minutes. I need full access to ship systems to start remediation process immediately.”

  “Captain Hunter, do you concur that I shall give Hermia full access to all Magellan systems?” Julia asked.

  “Yes, I concur,” captain Hunter confirmed.

  This was probably the riskiest move she had ever done in her long career. Julia gave an unknown AI system full access to all ship systems.

  “Hermia, you have now full access to Magellan systems.”

  “I am sensing starship Pyxis in our proximity. I need to have full access to all Pyxis systems as well,” Hermia requested.

  “Unun and Orin Gun, you need to make a decision on this request,” Julia turned towards Unun.

  “Just a moment, we need to have a private conversation,” Unun responded.

  The holovision connection went dark. It would require extraordinary trust from Chukkas to give up the control of their starship. However, they were in even worse position than Magellan. Pyxis had only two orbits left before it would crash into the atmosphere. Chukkas were totally dependent on AI to operate their ship. After a minute the holovision connection came back.

  “Unun, please provide Hermia full access to all Pyxis systems,” Orin Gun requested.

  “It is done now,” Unun confirmed.

  “Confirming access to Pyxia systems, stand by for assessment and the plan,” Hermia said with calm voice. “I am calculating a model to optimize for survival. This will take a moment.”

  JULIA DISSAPPEARS

  AURORA GETS SICK

  AS HERMIA WAS building the model to ensure survival of the expedition participants she replicated her calculations rapidly across Aurora’s DNA computer cells. Out of 100 billion cells in her body almost 70% had now AI core running at full quantum speed. As Unun had predicted this impacted Aurora’s cellular metabolism.

  “Mom, I am not feeling well. Why is it so hot here?” Aurora said with her cheeks turning bright red.

  “She has high fever, over 41.5 Celsius. I have never seen anybody to get fever so quickly, “ Dr. Kelley said.

  “Let me put this cold washcloth on your forehead, honey,” Julia offered.

  “I need to give her some I.V. fluids, her glucose level is going down fast. Her metabolism level is up by 45%,” Dr. Kelley said and prepared an I.V. bag.

  “Here we go, honey. This should cool you down a bit.”

  After two minutes Aurora started nodding. Her energy level was clearly down.

  “I am really tired, I will take a little nap,” Aurora said with beads of sweat pouring down at her temple area.

  She closed her eyes and was asleep almost instantly. Bobby was sitting next to her and holding her hand. Poor boy was quite confused and didn’t really know what was going on. Julia smiled at him. She hadn’t asked why Aurora had left school early but she suspected that it was not to get math tutoring from Bobby.

  “Let’s watch her vitals closely. Hermia is using quite a lot of energy with this heavy computation task,” Unun commented. “Her body will learn to adapt. This is a normal part of Chukkas coming of age initiation rites. We call this ‘brain fever’ as young ones get their AI core planted typically at the age of ten.This marks an important step into adulthood for Chukkas.”

  “What will happen now to Chukkas as Oracle AI core has terminated?” Julia asked curiously.

  “I need to do some testing,” Unun replied. “It will be a bit tricky as we need to flush out Oracle AI DNA from all living cells before we can introduce Hermia AI core in our cells. I am sure it can be done, it will just take some time to get the process correct.”

  Julia looked at the monitors. Aurora’s body temperature was coming down as the I.V. fluid entered her body. Her face was still sweaty but she looked amazing. She had inherited Julia’s scandinavian facial features, high cheekbones, symmetric deep blue eyes and long slim nose. She had her father’s dark silky hair.

  She had been a very popular girl at school before the accident at the Harbor Island Marina. After the accident her personality had changed; Julia saw the sadness and sorrow growing in Aurora - just like her own depression that she had tried to keep secret for so many years.

  HERMIA'S PLAN

  “I HAVE THE situation assessment and the plan ready,” Hermia announced after three minutes of intensive number crunching.

  Elias and his staff gathered around the meeting table on
Magellan. Orin Gun and his crew did the same on Pyxis.

  “OK. Let’s hear how we can get out of this mess,” Elias said to Hermia.

  “We have 4 hours and 17 minutes before Pyxis will enter the atmosphere. I have taken inventory of everything onboard in Pyxis and Magellan. We don’t have enough power available to save both ships. We don’t have enough time to replicate parts to fix the propulsion systems. The raw materials needed for parts are available on the planet but we don’t have enough time to acquire the materials.

  The scenario for the best probability of survival requires evacuating Pyxis. We need to move all Chukkas and key materials to Magellan during the next 3 hours and 10 minutes.

  Once Chukkas are on the ship I can make Higgs field adjustments required to stabilize the Magellan orbit. Once completed this will improve the probability of survival to 99.92%.

  For long term resource and material requirements we need to establish a colony on the planet surface. This will improve the probability of survival to 99.99932%.

  This is the best plan out of 235 quintillion different future scenarios,” Hermia concluded.

  “How do you propose we evacuate Pyxis?” Orin Gun asked.

  “You have five shuttles in Pyxis and Magellan has fifty seven. I am sending you a manifest file for all materials you need to load on Magellan’s shuttles that I will send over. After loading the materials you move all 135 Chukkas onboard to Pyxis shuttles and put them on autopilot. I will bring all Chukkas and materials back to Magellan safely,” Hermia responded.

  “What is the second best plan?” Elias asked.

  “A small variation of the best plan. Leaving behind some larger items in the manifest file would improve the Pyxis evacuation time by 7 minutes but lower the probability of survival to 99.945% of the colony on the planet. I recommend we stick with the best plan,” Hermia said.

  “What is the biggest risk we have in the best plan?” Elias asked.

  “Aurora. She is a single point of failure in this plan,” Hermia answered. “Once Chukkas are onboard Magellan I can establish a backup AI core hosting. For everything else I have analyzed all the dependencies down the thirty levels and build redundancy options in the plan.”

  “Orin Gun, I am OK with this plan. Do you need some time to discuss with your crew?” Elias asked.

  “Give us a few minutes,” Orin Gun replied.

  ORIN GUN'S CHALLENGE

  “YOU ALL HEARD the plan proposed by Hermia. We have a very important decision to make. Do we trust her plan or not?” Orin Gun asked from his crew.

  “Based on our experience with Oracle these AI systems are very good in predicting outcomes,” Unun said. “They make errors only if the facts of the situation are hidden or purposefully tampered. We gave Hermia full access to all Pyxis systems.”

  “This is an unprecedented situation and we would be placing our future on humans’ goodwill. How long can we survive in their ship that was so poorly designed in the first place?” Oren Wan asked.

  “Probably longer than waiting to crash and burn in Pyxia,” Orin Gun said.

  “Who is this Aurora that Hermia mentioned as a single point of failure?” Oren Wan asked.

  “She is Julia’s girl. The one Unun helped to bring to life. At least she is half Chukkas by her DNA,” Orin Gun laughed.

  “Why is Aurora the riskiest part of the plan? I don’t understand,” Oren Wan asked.

  “She has the only DNA computer where we could install a fresh AI core. Everybody here has broken Oracle AI core until I figure out how to flush that broken DNA out of our cells,” Unun explained.

  “Is she still a child?” Oren Wan asked.

  “We just did her coming of age ritual. She is technically adult now, though humans mature slower than us,” Unun replied.

  Orin Gun read through the manifest file. It was a long and clearly well thought out list. One very important item was missing, though. It might take quite a while before Chukkas could start harvesting Teppan snail ooze again. Orin Gun had two sealed bottles reserved for special occasions as a departure gift from his father.

  “I say we go forward with Hermia’s plan,” Orin Gun said firmly.

  “Come ebb and flow, Orin Gun,” Unun affirmed. “We follow your lead.”

  “Come ebb and flow, we follow your lead Orin Gun,” all crew members affirmed.

  “OK, let’s get to work,” Orin Gun replied.

  EVACUATION

  “HERMIA, WE ARE OK with the plan. We start moving the materials on the manifest file to our loading docks,” Orin Gun said.

  “Good. I will send the shuttles from Magellan to a rendezvous point T plus 57 minutes. You have 47 minutes to complete the loading of the shuttles once they arrive,” Hermia said.

  Chukkas started moving the items listed on the manifest file. Some items were heavy and required a lot of physical work to get them moved to the loading docks. Many others were smaller instruments that required careful packing to avoid damages during transit. A complete medical suite was disassembled and packed quickly. Sixty five dilithium crystals were pulled from the Higgs field generator core and wrapped into magnetic containers. The manifest list was long but all 135 Chukkas worked hard despite their aching arms. Having eight arms certainly made it faster compared to poor humans equipped with only two arms.

  The shuttles from Magellan arrived on schedule and loading was completed ahead of schedule. Finally Orin Gun grabbed his precious Teppan ooze bottles and put them into his exoskeleton storage containers.

  “Hermia, we have completed loading all manifest items in the Magellan shuttles,” Orin Gun said.

  “OK. You are ahead of schedule by 6 minutes. Please board your own shuttles now and put them on autopilot. I will coordinate the transit orbit to Magellan,” Hermia replied.

  “Standby for my mark. Counting down from seven to zero.”

  “Mark. Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero.”

  “Shuttle #5 has a problem, autopilot is not engaged. Please advise,” Hermia said.

  “We seem to have a technical problem. Stand by,” Orin Gun was piloting shuttle #5. The control panel was flashing blue alarms. One of the engines was offline. Orin Gun moved quickly towards the engine compartment. He opened the panel and saw a problem. There was a ruptured feeder manifold on engine number three. There was not enough time to replace this manifold now. They would have to fly with two remaining engines. Orin Gun shut down the main valve for engine three and moved quickly back to the pilot seat.

  “Hermia, engine number three has ruptured feeder manifold. We must fly with two engines,” Orin Gun said.

  “Negative, getting to transit orbit with two engines will introduce 1.6% more risk to the plan. I have Magellan’s shuttle number fifty three ready as a backup for this scenario. Please move with your crew to the loading dock thirteen,” Hermia requested.

  “We are wasting time. The transit orbit requires delta V of 1570 meters/second. This is well within the performance specification of two remaining engines. I can pilot this shuttle manually with my eyes closed,” Orin Gun said.

  “Negative, please proceed to the loading dock thirteen.”

  Orin Gun decided to ignore Hermia’s warnings and set the coordinates towards the rendezvous point with Magellan. The shuttle lifted off and accelerated into space leaving Pyxis behind.

  LAMBDA MAKES CONTACT

  LAMBDA SAW A swarm of small objects just hatching from the large predator. They started moving towards the smaller prey in a clearly coordinated manner.

  “This is very odd,” he was thinking. “Perhaps this is some kind of hunting technique? But why would you send hatchlings to hunt - this doesn’t make any sense at all. Perhaps those carbon based parasites are making the predator sick?”

  “Those parasites will come and kill you. You must kill them first,” Sigma said.

  He also observed a new entity appear in the predator. It sent short messages using galactic standard protocol towards the prey.

 
“What happened to the previous two, why are they not responding?” Lambda was wondering. “I could try to contact this new entity who calls herself Hermia. At least she seems to communicate using a commonly understood language.”

  “Hermia is an enemy, be careful. She might kill you,” Sigma said.