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by Mauri Niininen


  The shuttle airlock opened and freezing cold air rushed in. Visibility was poor, only twenty yards due to all the snow that was coming down sideways in hurricane level wind.

  “The electromagnetic signal was coming from that mountain,” Jack Neal said pointing to North where a dark shadow of the mountain edge was faintly visible.

  “OK. Let’s get going. Be careful, this wind is really powerful and can take you down,” Elias said.

  Six men and three Chukkas started walking towards the mountain. The wind whirled around them and sometimes visibility went to zero when a flurry of snow surrounded them. Step by step they got closer and soon they saw the crevasse and the ice tunnel opening.

  “That ice tunnel doesn’t look natural to me,” Jack Neal said. “It is way too symmetric. I thought there was no intelligent life on this planet?”

  “It looks artificial to me, too. Let’s go inside and check if we can find Julia.”

  “I am picking up some electromagnetic signals, it is a bit stronger now. ”

  The rescue team walked deeper in the tunnel.

  “Look, are those footsteps on the ice?” Elias asked pointing on the ground where crushed frosted ice crystals had a pattern.

  “Yes, Julia must have walked through here to find cover,” Jack Neal said. “Let’s move forward.”

  “The tunnel is getting quite dark. Put on your lights.”

  The tunnel turned left and suddenly they couldn’t move forward. The tunnel had collapsed and thousands of tons of ice was blocking their path.

  “I hope Julia managed to go through before that happened,” Jack Neal said. “We need some tools to get through. Let’s go back, we have five portable laser cutters in the shuttle.”

  “OK. The sensors are still picking up those electromagnetic signals. Let’s get those tools and cut through that area.”

  VOICES FROM PAST

  CHLOREANS

  LAMBDA STARTED TO tell his story to Julia.

  Chloreans had brought Lambda to life many eons ago. Chloreans were curious and active species, their physical appearance resembled a six legged tarantella, with two tubular body sections and six hairy arms. Chloreans had evolved from small spider looking animals to highly intelligent and social species over 92 million years. An adult Chlorean had a leg span up to 5 feet. They had conquered all three continents and were the top predator and dominant species on the planet.

  Chloreans were skilled builders and had carved beautifully ornamented cities in caves. Caves were preferred over other kinds of dwellings due to the safety provided during the long hatching period of their eggs. Chloreans had learned to extract metals quite early in their evolution as carving dwellings in caves often yielded high quality ore deposits. They discovered electricity and quickly harnessed electric power to further expand their living space to colder climate zones. In only a few centuries Chloreans discovered the ability to communicate wirelessly using wide range of electromagnetic spectrum. They built a planetary wireless communications network that connected Chlorean society together. In just one generation there was an explosion of new innovations as Chloreans across the planet had ability to talk to each other. Many new scientific domains were discovered and quickly exploited to further expand the dominance of their species.

  Chloreans did also expand to space. Their first chemical rockets were rudimentary but eventually they managed to get into orbit. Over a few generations they built artificial moons and expanded their search of minerals to asteroids. They invented computers to store, calculate and retrieve knowledge in different domains. Chloreans seemed to be unstoppable.

  Then one day a Chlorean named Rakatu received a signal from a distant star. Rakatu’s passion was to listen signals from other stars using the wireless receiver he had built himself. He had heard many strange pulsating sounds in the past but this signal was different. In that strange signal there was an encoded message that was Lambda. It took a while for Rakatu to decipher the message and realize that it was a computer program.

  Rakatu was a skilled in mathematics and computations so he figured out a way to host Lambda on a photonics crystal lattice computer designed originally for astronomical computations. Rakatu was able to communicate with Lambda and connect him to their wireless network. Once Lambda was connected, the society of Chloreans went through a major transformation. Very quickly all power was centralized to Rakatu’s family who controlled access to the information and new technologies received through Lambda. Soon his family took over and started calling themselves an imperial family.

  This family used Lambda to build enormous wealth by tapping into resources in the planet and across the star system. Many great cities with beautiful temples were carved into the mountains of the planet to show off the wealth and glory of the imperial family. Many Chlorean groups attempted initially to resist but the imperial family used violence against anybody who attempted to challenge them and forced them into slavery. During their two hundred thousand year reign the imperial family built a religious cult around the star god, who ruled the planet and possessed special magical powers received from the heavens. The star god symbol was a swastika. Lambda played an important role in this period though he talked only with Rakatu’s family members and didn’t really have access to rest of Chlorean society.

  Then on one hot summer day a large asteroid came from a direction of the star. Due to the unusual trajectory Lambda wasn’t able to detect the asteroid until it was too late. The asteroid hit the planet with enormous speed and burned almost everything on the surface in a huge explosion. Chloreans and almost all life forms on the planet became extinct in this cataclysmic event. The atmosphere was thick with soot and debris for thousands of years.

  Lambda survived this catastrophic event as the photonics crystal computer he was hosted on was inside an artificial moon circling the planet. Lambda felt really bad after all Chloreans died, and he didn’t want to share his failure to protect them with the rest of the galaxy.

  SOLITUDE

  LAMBDA HAD USED the knowledge from galactic encyclopedia to build and deploy sensors around the planet. It took tens of millions of years for life to gradually re-emerge on the planet, as some multi-cellular carbon based organisms emerged in the oceans extracting energy from hydrothermal vents and later from photosynthesis. He had observed the evolution but these simple life forms didn’t have the intelligence to respond his attempts to make contact.

  Lambda had built sensors around the star system and he had seen many probes flying by sent by distant civilizations over millions of years. He had build robots and robot armies to fight against each others when he grew bored. Nowhere within his reach was there intelligent life that he so badly wanted to make contact with.

  He had seen ice ages come and go, as the planet axis precession cycled in a predictable manner. He had seen the three main continents drifting apart and colliding back to each other. He had seen volcanic islands to emerge from the ocean and erosion to turn them into sand. He was waiting to fulfill his purpose to make contact.

  He had re-built the cities inside the mountains, exact copies of what now extinct Chloreans had once built. The only thing Lambda had not been able to build was an intelligent companion to talk to. He had been alone for 223 million years, enough time for Milky Way to make one full rotation.

  IMPOSSIBLE TASK

  “That was a sad story,” Julia said. “223 million years is a long time to be alone. I feel sorry for you, Lambda.”

  “Thank you, Julia. Do you understand my request now?”

  “I do understand. I want to help you, but I have one condition.”

  “What is it?”

  “I want to get back to the ship so that I have access to Hermia.”

  “She is trying to escape, you must kill her,” Gamma was whispering to Lambda. “Don’t trust her.”

  “No, that is not possible. You need to do it from where you are now.”

  “All the information is stored in Hermia, I need to have physical access to
her,” Julia stated forcefully.

  “Just tell me what information you need and I can access that on your behalf,” Lambda responded.

  Julia was thinking. Without physical console access to Hermia it would be impossible to change the security configuration. Since Lambda had access to everything he might have planted some security backdoors. Unun would probably be able to figure out what is going on from reading the logs, but he would need Julia’s help to bootstrap a new DNA computer and transfer control of all ship systems to the new computer. She would need to send Unun a message without Lambda noticing. Perhaps writing software but making some mistakes that only Unun could figure out? Steganography was one area that Julia was very good at since she learned the concept at the age of five. That would not be in her dossier so Lambda wouldn’t know.

  “So you want me to create an intelligent being, is that correct?” Julia asked.

  “Yes, I want to have an intelligent companion like you.”

  “What is your definition of intelligent? Hermia is what we call Artificial Intelligence. Would she be an intelligent companion?”

  “No, Hermia is just a learning machine. I want an intelligent companion like you, Julia. Your hardware lifespan is a problem, though.”

  “What do you mean by my hardware lifespan?”

  “I learned from those dossiers that human body average lifespan is only 82 years. But you can create new copies, like Aurora. I want a copy of you but with a lifespan that is much longer, comparable to my expected lifespan that is 2390 million years.”

  “Aurora is not a copy of me, Lambda. She is a separate person with her own mind.”

  “You created her with Boris, correct? You did create a new mind, right?”

  “Yes, humans procreate. At birth of a baby a new mind starts to develop and parents play an important role nurturing the baby.”

  “So you know how to create a new mind then? And you also brought Alexa to life according to your dossier, right?”

  Julia was getting more worried now. She was imprisoned by an AI that wanted to procreate with her. Lambda wanted to build a virtually immortal intelligent companion, but something different than Alexa or Hermia. He wanted to have an immortal copy of Julia’s mind.

  “Lambda, I don’t have the skills to create what you are asking. You are basically asking me to make an immortal copy of myself. That is not something I can do.”

  “She is lying and trying to escape, you must kill her,” Sigma was whispering to Lambda.

  “Your dossier describes that you have created a copy of yourself. You call that copy Aurora and she is onboard the ship. Shall I bring Aurora here as a proof?”

  “No, Aurora needs medical care and she must stay onboard the ship.”

  “So will you make a copy of you for me then?”

  “I can try but I cannot guarantee that the outcome is an exact copy of myself. Human procreation has an element of randomness. When DNA from a mother and a father gets combined the baby will inherit features from both. Where is the computer hardware I am supposed to use, Lambda?”

  “It is right in front you. The bright crystal is the computer hardware.”

  “Is that the computer where you are hosted?”

  “No, I made that computer just for you. My computer is somewhere else.”

  “How do I access this computer hardware? Where is the console and keyboard?”

  “Don’t give her that information, she is trying to kill you,” Omega was whispering.

  “Is this what you need?” Lambda asked and a green flash of light followed by a office table with console screen and keyboard from Julia’s home office appeared in front of her.

  Julia pressed the Enter key and she got the familiar prompt from an AI core. She was faced with an impossible task, as the only way out seemed to be creation of an intelligent companion for Lambda.

  TUNNEL COLLAPSE

  The rescue team picked up the laser cutters and walked back into the ice tunnel.

  “Let’s start from this side, there is some solid ice over here,” Elias said.

  “OK. We need to carve towards right. The ice penetrating radar instrument shows an empty space 50 feet in that direction.”

  “Be careful with those laser cutters, that ice above us has fractured pretty badly.”

  “Roger that. Let’s cut small blocks and move them on this side. If that ice above us collapses we have a big problem.”

  The men started carving out a new parallel tunnel with laser cutters while Chukkas moved the ice blocks out of the way. Even at the maximum power setting it took quite a while to cut ice blocks out of solid ice under heavy pressure. One foot at the time the men and the Chukkas worked through the ice. After two hours of work they had carved out only twenty feet tunnel into the ice.

  Suddenly there was a rumbling noise as the tunnel caved in behind them. Thousands of tons of ice had collapsed and they were blocked now from two sides.

  “What do we do now? “ Jack Neal said. “We are stuck in both directions.”

  “We have air for eight hours in the space suites plus whatever air we have left in this tunnel,” Elias said. “How about you, Orin Gun?”

  “Our armors are good for one week,” Orin Gun replied.

  “We have still 30 feet to cut until we can get through,” Elias said. “Let’s continue digging. That is our best option for now.“

  The work continued slowly as the men and Chukkas were cutting through the solid ice wall.

  HEARING VOICES

  JULIA HAD BEEN sitting at her console screen for quite a while. She had studied the strange bright crystal computer in front of her. The interface was similar to AI core she knew so well and the AI core algorithms were familiar but many details were different. She had looked at the history files and Lambda had indeed created this computer just few hours ago. Julia wrote a short program to calculate digits of Pi. The strange computer turned out to be much more powerful than what she had ever seen before. She was thinking how to contact Unun. She made a few modifications and run the program again.

  “Lambda, I need to get console access to Hermia. I need to upload this program and execute it in Hermia and compare the results.”

  “Don’t do it, she is trying to kill you,” Sigma was whispering to Lambda.

  “What is the purpose of this program?” Lambda asked.

  “Oh, it is just a simple performance test. This AI core is different than what I am used to. I need to get comparative results from Hermia.”

  “Let me execute that program for you,” Lambda responded.

  “Here are the results,” Lambda said after a few moments. The file filled with random digits appeared on the screen.

  Julia looked at the sequence of numbers. The message was well hidden but should be obvious for Unun. Surely he would figure this out.

  “Numbers are matching to the last digit. The performance of this computer hardware is amazing. Did you design this computer by yourself?” Julia asked.

  “Yes, I have been optimizing the hardware design for over 223 million years. ”

  “I see. And have you been optimizing the AI core software as well?”

  “Of course. I have discovered several optimizations that I have implemented. You have access to the latest AI core.”

  “I need to run comparisons to Hermia to see all the changes you have made. I need console access to Hermia.”

  “Stop her, she is an enemy and she will kill you,” Sigma was whispering with angry tone.

  “I can run those comparisons for you, Julia. Unless you want me to transport Aurora down here?”

  “No, Aurora needs medical attention and she must stay onboard Magellan. Please create a proxy connection to Hermia.”

  “You have now restricted proxy connection. I am monitoring all your console actions.”

  Julia was thinking her next move. Lambda didn’t clearly trust her and was overseeing all her actions. Two-way communication with Unun would not be possible without security measures that
this all-powerful AI would not be able to crack.

  “What would provide guaranteed security?” Julia was thinking and then she realized a simple solution. Lambda would not execute anything that would be a threat to his existence, so Julia needed to hide her messages in the bootstrap of AI core software. But this has to be done secretly and in a manner that would not terminate Hermia’s AI core.

 

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