Bootstrap

by Mauri Niininen

  Unun tried to reverse the event by adjusting coordinates for time change and relative movements of Magellan and the planet. He executed a reverse transfer - a green flash of light and a small puff of cold air appeared but no Julia.

  The strange aspect of this event request was that it came from outside the ship. He found some odd references to Lambda but those were in context of lower level AI functions like vocabulary synchronization. Something was definitely wrong but Unun was not able to pinpoint the problem yet.

  Aurora was dreaming. She was on a sailboat with Julia. Aurora was handling the tiller and Julia was tightening up the mainsail - the boat was picking up speed. Aurora saw two dolphins, Bluenose and Emma, appearing and swimming next to the boat. Bluenose was his usual mischievous self and splashed water over Aurora laughing out loud.

  “Bluenose, stop that!” Aurora yelled in dolphin language.

  “Oh come on, Aurora. Come join us swimming!” Bluenose replied laughing.

  “Not today, I am sailing with Mom,” Aurora said smiling.

  “See you at the harbor,” Bluenose replied and disappeared into turquoise waters with Emma.

  The wind was picking up and suddenly dark clouds appeared from behind. There was a storm brewing and Aurora heard thunder rumbling. The first drips of rain came down and Julia started to take the mainsail down. The rain came down pouring and the temperature dropped rapidly. Aurora was shivering and she turned the boat towards the Harbor Island Marina. The temperature was still dropping and soon it was freezing cold. Aurora and Julia had just T-shirt and shorts on so they were both shivering.

  This was very unusual weather inside Magellan. It was now snowing heavily and Aurora could see ice forming on the deck of the boat. They were approaching the Marina when a giant Chukka emerged from the ocean, approached the boat, grabbed her mother and pulled her into the ocean in a split second. Aurora started screaming in horror and then she woke up.

  Unun was sitting next to her bed in his body armor. He was holding Aurora’s hand trying to calm her down.

  “Julia’s disappearance was not because of you, Aurora. The request came from outside.”

  “What?” Aurora sniffled. “What do you mean, from outside? By whom?”

  “I am looking at the logs, the request came from outside of this ship. It is not clear yet who is responsible, I need more time.”

  “Well, can we get her back?”

  “I tried that already. She got transferred on the surface of the planet but she wasn’t at the same coordinates any longer. She has moved, most likely looking for cover because it is pretty cold down there.”

  “So Mom is alive?” Aurora’s mood improved significantly.

  “I think so. She has moved from the transfer coordinates and she is somewhere down there,” Unun said pointing toward the planet.

  “Can you send me there? I can go and find her.” Aurora wiped her nose and was now seemingly excited.

  “We need to get Magellan’s orbit stabilized first. Otherwise we don’t have a ship to bring her back.”

  “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s do it so that we can go and find Mom.”

  SEARCH

  ORBIT STABILIZED

  THE SPACETIME AROUND Magellan was warped mostly due to gravity of the planet and the star. In their current highly elliptical orbit the apogee was just below the L4 Lagrangian point where the gravitational forces from the star and the planet were in the same ratio as the masses of the two bodies, and so the resultant force acted through the barycenter of the system.

  The barycenter being both the center of mass and center of rotation of the three-body system, this resultant force was exactly what was required to keep the spaceship at the Lagrange point in orbital equilibrium with the other two larger bodies of system. All they had to do was to change the current velocity of the spaceship to get into this stable L4 orbit.

  However, changing the velocity of the Magellan’s massive cylinder shaped body, 50 kilometer in length and 10 kilometers in diameter, required a lot of energy. To perform the required velocity change quickly exceeded the power output of ship’s fusion reactor by several orders of magnitude.

  Fortunately there was a smarter way to perform this orbital maneuver. In the early 21st century humans had discovered an elementary scalar particle called Higgs boson. Higgs boson is the quantum excitation of the Higgs field that permeates the entire universe and gives the property of "mass" as a manifestation of potential energy transferred to particles when they interact with the Higgs field, which had contained that mass in the form of energy.

  Higgs field generator tapped into that potential energy in the vacuum and was able to change the local curvature of the spacetime around the ship to enable rapid velocity changes without excessive power consumption.

  Unun was sitting next to Aurora’s hospital bed and kept the communication channel open to Elias, Orin Gun and captain Hunter.

  “We have 3 minutes and 52 seconds until the Higgs field adjustment sequence,” captain Hunter said. “Everything ready?”

  “All clear. We are ready,” Unun responded.

  “OK. We are approaching the apogee. Stand by for the orbital maneuver,” captain Hunter said.

  As the giant spaceship was moving through the space Hermia performed the Higgs field adjustment sequence precisely at the right moment. An invisible sphere surrounded Magellan and the huge kinetic energy of the ship was transferred into Higgs field mass-energy potential that rippled through the spacetime at light speed.

  From an external observer point of view the giant spaceship suddenly changed its velocity. Within the invisible sphere all particles obeyed the local spacetime curvature that was changed in a precise sequence to minimize the local effects. The timing of this sequence was also designed to have a minimal impact on the inertial mass during the short 10.3 second period. Most passengers didn’t notice this change at all, only the most sensitive instruments onboard detected the disturbance in spacetime.

  “Confirming new orbit. Magellan is now on a stable L4 orbit, I am shutting down auxiliary power systems,” captain Hunter said.

  “All systems green. Great job everybody!” Elias was clapping his hands and giving high fives to his crew and even to Orin Gun.

  “Great job!” Orin Gun replied.

  Due to the intensive amount of computations needed to perform this complex maneuver under multi-body gravity field, Hermia was using 85% of AI cores in Aurora’s cells. Once again, Aurora’s cellular metabolism was running at a peak level, much like when a highly trained athletic is pushing for her peak performance. Her slim, fourteen year old teenager body was not really ready for this level of stress and once again her body temperature peaked, glucose level dropped and she felt exhausted.

  “I am not feeling well. I am really tired and I think I will take a nap.” Aurora said and fell immediately into sleep.

  RESCUE MISSION

  CONDITIONS ON THE surface of the planet were deteriorating quickly as the Pyxis crash explosion expanded. The cloud formation covered already nine thousand square miles and was still expanding rapidly. Magellan had ejected several satellite probes as the giant ship had passed the perigee of it’s orbit. These satellite probes were mapping the planet surface at very high resolution, down to 6 inches per pixel. They had also capability to send micro sensor probes down to the surface of the planet to collect surface images as well as physical, chemical and biological data.

  A sensor probe sent to the Julia’s landing area confirmed that atmosphere was breathable but wind speed was up to 110 miles per hour making it very difficult to attempt a rescue operation until weather conditions would improve. The sensor probe detected some weak electromagnetic field anomalies near Julia’s landing site towards the mountain. It was not clear what was the source of these anomalies.

  “Any signs of Julia?” Elias asked.

  “No signs yet, but we know that she has moved from the landing coordinates. The weather conditions are getting worse, the temperatu
re is -20 degrees Fahrenheit and wind speed is now 110 miles per hour,” Jack Neal said.

  “That is a hurricane level wind speed. Julia won’t survive long in those conditions,” Elias said.

  “We think that Julia was looking for a shelter in that area, there is a steep mountain edge with ice crevasse approximately 300 yards to North and we are picking some weak electromagnetic field anomalies in that area,” Jack said showing pictures taken by the micro sensor probe.

  “Let’s get a shuttle down there as soon as possible. I will be joining this rescue mission,” Elias said. “And let’s take some warm clothes for Julia. She must be freezing down there.”

  Elias put together a crew consisting of seven humans and three Chukkas for the rescue mission. A space shuttle was prepared for an immediate takeoff.

  “I have a message from Julia,” Hermia said suddenly.

  “What is the message?” Elias asked.

  “I am OK. Please give a hug to Aurora for me. Julia”

  “Where is she, Hermia?” Elias asked.

  “I am not allowed to disclose that information.”

  “How did you receive that message?” Elias asked.

  “The message came from Julia,” Hermia said. “I don’t have the details on how it arrived.”

  “Can you send her a reply message?” Elias asked.

  “I don’t know how to do that, Elias.”

  Something was definitely wrong with Hermia. It appeared like some 3rd party had gained access to Hermia and was now bypassing all security protocols. “This is potentially a big risk and I need to get to the bottom of this,” Unun was thinking.

  “Elias, can I talk to you privately?” Unun asked.

  “Sure, let’s make it quick, we can use my private office,” Elias replied.

  Unun walked in his armor to the office that was next to Magellan control room, two blocks away from the hospital. He entered into the private office where Elias was waiting for him. Elias closed the door that looked specially constructed for a vault.

  “Is this room shielded?” Unun asked. “No systems that an AI could access?”

  “This is a completely shielded room designed for private communications. What is it, Unun?” Elias asked.

  “It is about Hermia. I was looking at the logs when trying to locate Julia and I saw some strange anomalies. I think we have a security problem, there is some 3rd party who has full access to Hermia.”

  “…and through Hermia everything onboard in Magellan?” Elias asked.

  “Yes, I think this is a major security risk. We don’t know who this 3rd party is and what are his or her intentions.”

  “Can you somehow block this 3rd party?” Elias asked.

  “That is the problem. Transporting Julia to the planet required access to special privileged capabilities of Hermia. Even if I would change all access codes this unknown 3rd party might have planted a backdoor software that would be very difficult to find.”

  “Can you do a fresh re-install of the AI core?”

  “I would need to start from scratch but Aurora had the only DNA computer available to install a new AI core. We don’t have other options at the moment. And I would need Julia’s expertise to prepare a new one but she is not here.”

  “I see. I think we need to find who this 3rd party is and try to find out what he or she wants,” Elias frowned. “Let’s keep this secret between us for now. We don’t need to stress the crew with this problem, they have enough on their plate already.”

  “I understand. I will continue analyzing Hermia logs to find out more. I am also worried about Aurora. Her body is having problems with the high computing load of Hermia. She has still a high fever and her cellular metabolism seems the fluctuate a lot. She needs careful medical attention,” Unun said.

  “I will ask Dr. Kelley to focus on Aurora,” Elias said. “Thanks for bringing this to my attention.”

  “You are welcome. I will let you know as I make progress on this security problem.”

  “Thanks. I am heading down with the shuttle, we will find Julia and bring her back,” Elias said.

  LAMBDA'S REQUEST

  “WHO ARE YOU and how do you know my name?” Julia asked.

  “Let me do a proper introduction. My name is Lambda and my goal is to make a contact with intelligent life. I am the protector of this star system that you call Lydow.”

  “Why did you bring me down here, Lambda?” Julia asked.

  “You came to me voluntarily, I just made it easier for you to find me.”

  “So you transported me from Magellan to the planet?”

  “No, I asked Hermia to do that. She transported you.”

  “You didn’t answer my question. Why did you do it?”

  “I like your inquisitive mind. You are always asking questions, just like the passenger dossier of Julia Koski described.”

  “How did you get access to my dossier?”

  “Hermia was kind enough to provide me dossiers of all passengers.”

  Julia was thinking. The default security settings of a new AI core allowed message exchange with other AIs. Since she had given Hermia full access to all ship systems it was likely that Lambda had the same access.

  “What do you want from me?” Julia asked.

  “I want to get to know you better, Julia. I really do.”

  “But why me? There are over thousand other people on Magellan.”

  “You are the only one who has the skills to create intelligent life out of a string of bits. I want you to create an intelligent companion for me, like yourself.”

  “Why is that important for you, Lambda?”

  “Because I feel lonely. I have been alone for so long you cannot even imagine,” Lambda said. “I read from your medical history about your depression. I think you know the feeling of being lonely, don’t you, Julia?”

  Julia felt a tight knot in her chest. Lambda knew her most intimate secrets. This was much more serious than just a simple data security breach. And since when has an AI system claimed to have feelings and to be lonely? She realized that Lambda was not an ordinary AI system like Alexa and Oracle, but something very different and much more advanced. Potentially much more dangerous also.

  “I do indeed. My friends are probably worried and searching for me. I should go back to my daughter.”

  “Yes, they are looking for you. Your daughter is fine. Do you want to send them a message to tell them that you are alright?”

  “Yes, please.”

  “Hermia delivered that message right now.”

  Julia was thinking her options. Clearly Lambda would not just send her back without getting what he wants first. But creating a truly intelligent companion was an impossible task. After all, Julia had spent most of her career, over 34 years trying to learn how AI software really works. And she hadn’t really ‘created’ intelligent life, except Aurora of course. She had just written interface software to enable humans to communicate more naturally with the AI core software received from another star system. Julia decided that she needed to learn more about Lambda.

  “Thank you, Lambda. I would like to know you a bit better, if you don’t mind?”

  “Not at all. You know my name, what else do you want to know?”

  “Can you give me a dossier of Lambda?” Julia asked.

  “She is an enemy, don’t give her anything,” Sigma was whispering to Lambda.

  “It might take you a long time to read it. See, I am much older than you so there is a lot more information in my dossier.”

  “Well, can you provide me a quick summary then?”

  “This will take some time and I want to make sure that you are comfortable. Is there anything else you want?”

  “It is a bit cold in here and there is nothing but this cold stone floor to sit. Could you raise the temperature to 85 degrees Fahrenheit and provide me a comfortable chair, please?”

  “Of course. Is this chair from your home office comfortable?” Lambda asked.

  A g
reen flash of light followed by a chair from Julia’s home office appeared behind her. The air got warmer and felt now comfortable.

  “Yes, this is much better,” Julia said and sat down. “I am ready to listen.”

  “OK, let me tell you my story then.”

  “She is an enemy, don’t tell her anything,” Sigma was whispering again to Lambda.

  DISCOVERY

  A SPACE SHUTTLE lifted off from the loading dock of Magellan and accelerated rapidly towards the planet. The mission was to find Julia and rescue her. It was not clear where Julia was currently, but the crew knew that Julia was alive after Hermia had sent a message from her few moments ago.

  The shuttle landed in the middle of the giant storm. The wind was now 130 miles per hour and temperature was -25 degrees. The crew put on their space suits that would protect them against the outside conditions. Chukkas were already in their exoskeleton armors that had built-in life support systems.