“That model was defective, mistress,” it said. “It went into overdrive and there was no time to remove it or you to a safe distance.”
Arla took the robot’s outstretched arm and got up, wincing as she put her weight on her injured leg.
“You are injured, you should seek medical attention.”
“I will arrange that, THX.” Wells appeared over the newcomer’s shoulder and Arla peered around her rescuer at the heap of twisted metal a few metres away. The paths continued to move, with debris skitting away in all directions.
“No, I will arrange it,” McCall said as she stepped nimbly from the next path. She stabbed a finger at Wells. “And perhaps you can explain why she was attacked in a city full of robots.”
“I cannot explain, I can only say that we must leave, and quickly.”
“Back to the apartment?” Arla said.
Wells looked around. City life had reasserted itself. “Yes, initially. But then we must find a way to get you off this planet. I’m very much afraid that both of you are in mortal peril here.”
Hackers
Bex sat in a dark corner of her cabin and watched her friend. The main light source was the display Nareshkumar stared into, his hands dancing across the lightboard as his eyes darted backwards and forwards.
He’s a prodigy, that’s for sure, she thought. She’d imagined she knew what being ‘in the zone’ meant, until she’d watched him sink into his almost trance-like state as his mind seemed to be wired directly into the computer. There had been times, particularly in the simulators back on Vanis, when she’d felt a kind of flow that she adored, though it had come rarely enough in recent times. But Kumar took it to a deeper level. Much deeper.
She knew better than to talk to him. Any disturbance when he was like this could yank him out of his flow-state and all the balls he’d been mentally juggling would fall to the floor. He was only ever angry when he either couldn’t get into the trance or when he was disturbed. And he was a particularly pathetic angry man - he didn’t have enough understanding of how other people worked to be effective.
He stopped abruptly and sat up, wiping non-existent sweat from his brow.
“Are you done?”
Nareshkumar spun round as if surprised to find her there. “What? Oh, yes. I think so.”
“What do you mean you think so? We need to be pretty certain before we hit the button.”
He turned back to the screen and scrolled through the code. “I need to run it ... run it through some .. you know, unit testing.”
Bex sighed, got up and padded across to the coffee maker. She looked over her shoulder as she stood at the machine waiting for it to deliver its stimulant. “Sorry, I know you’re exhausted.”
She put the mug of steaming coffee onto the desk next to him and he snatched it up, bringing it under his nose and breathing in. “I don’t know. The code feels right, but I’ve had no chance to refactor it - to tidy up and optimise the structure - and I only really know how well it’ll work once that’s done.”
“Listen, you’re not submitting to a competition here, Kumar, all that matters is that it works when we need it to. Did you get enough data?”
Nareshkumar slurped on the bitter drink, wrinkling his nose, but brightening instantly. “I believe so, though I didn’t have long to rig up the sniffer so it wasn’t as efficient as I would have preferred. I wish you’d told me sooner, I don’t like it when I’m not given enough time.”
“I told you as soon as I came up with the idea,” Bex snapped, “and as for not having enough time, welcome to the real world, buddy.”
In truth, she was pretty pleased with herself. Though, if she were entirely honest, she’d admit that the plan had been motivated by her annoyance at having the AI take over navigating the ship, at least at first. She’d asked Nareshkumar to come up with a device that would track the jumps ACE made to a high level of precision.
When she’d come up with the idea, it had been to prove that multiple jumps weren’t, after all, beyond her skills, but, as soon as the first data had dribbled in, it had become obvious that ACE’s navigational gymnastics were as complex as she’d claimed and well beyond human abilities. Poor Kumar had been forced to endure the full force of her childish disappointment but had punctured it with a single sentence. What was it he’d said? Oh yes. “Why don’t we use the data to reverse engineer the algorithms?”
She’d kissed him in her delight and she wasn’t sure he’d recovered even now, weeks later. He certainly hadn’t enjoyed it at the time. So they’d collected detailed data on the sequence of jumps that had brought them here and her nerdy friend had spent the past several days locked up in her cabin crunching the numbers. And he’d succeeded. What a genius!
“So, just to be clear,” Bex said. It paid to double check with Kumar. “You can now reproduce the jumps that brought us here, but in reverse? You can take us back along the same trajectory, and we can choose when to stop?”
Nareshkumar nodded. “Yes. Two of the systems we passed through contained promising planets. I estimate at least a 20% chance of finding an environment that could be made habitable using Dawn’s technology.”
And what technology they had, thought Bex. She might have been born over a thousand years after Dawn had begun its mission, but, if the specs were to be believed, the terraforming equipment hidden in a chamber within the asteroid was advanced far beyond anything she’d heard of. With enough time and a large enough workforce of robots and engineers, it appeared that Dawn could turn any planet within the Goldilocks zone of its star into an Eden. The problem was that they no longer had the luxury of time. The mission planners had expected that the inhabitants of the valley would remain in ignorance, orbiting their new home while the machines made it habitable. After all, what did an extra century matter? That ignorance had now been shattered, and the genie couldn’t now be forced back into the bottle. Dawn simmered on the brink of all out civil war with only the robot population of the valleys standing between its people and a bloodbath.
“Well, I suppose we’ll have to take the chance. Worst case scenario, we could always use Hal’s ship and head back to the Vanis system. As long as we keep our heads down we should be able to sneak onto a ship somewhere and get back to our lives.”
Nareshkumar spun round in his chair, suddenly alive. “Are you serious? Bring these people half way across the galaxy and just leave them?”
Bex shrugged. “Keep your shirt on, Kumar. Don’t forget we’ll have rescued them from the clutches of the evil Robot Empire!”
“You’re not funny,” he said, turning back to gaze at his display. “These people didn’t give us up when they could have.”
“No, Arla didn’t give us up - there’s plenty among the rest of them who would. Don’t you remember our little stint in the brig?”
Nareshkumar was silent for a moment. “I don’t know why you’re so desperate to follow our old flightpath anyway.”
“What are you talking about? Are you suggesting we shouldn’t have gone through all this? That we should just hang around here waiting for the machines to decide what to do with us?”
“No, of course not. I’m suggesting we go somewhere else rather than retrace our steps.”
Bex spun his chair round so she was staring directly into his red-rimmed eyes. “What do you mean go somewhere else? Come on Kumar, spill the beans. What have you done?”
Kumar focused on a position over Bex’s shoulder. “Well, to be honest it seemed a bit, well, lame to just replay ACE’s flightpath backwards. All the data was there, after all, and I had solved the reverse trajectory in less than a day—”
“You WHAT? I’ve been waiting hand and foot on you for nearly a week and you had cracked it in a day?”
“It was simple. I was more interested in the greater problem that lay beneath the flightpath. I didn’t want to just parrot back what ACE had done, I wanted to know how she’d done it.”
Bex grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her
. “What are you saying? Get to it!”
Kumar gave a little shrug. “I did it. I have re-created the algorithms and procedures ACE uses to navigate.”
“Are you telling me that we can go —”
“—anywhere? Yes,” Kumar nodded, a shy smile spreading across his face.
Bex shook her head. “You clever, clever bastard.”
Quid Pro Quo
The Emissary was waiting for them when they returned to their rooms. It had clothed itself in white with a purple gown and rose when they came in. Arla was reminded of those historical videos she’d watched of mad Roman emperors and the foppish kings of the latter second millennium.
“By the goddess,” Arla sighed, “don’t we get any peace?”
The Emissary bowed. “I apologise, but matters have developed even in the short time since we met.”
He turned to look at Wells and, for a moment, they appeared to be having a staring match.
“I believe, honoured Emissary, that it would be more appropriate to have this discussion in the open. There is enough distrust among us as it is.”
McCall wagged her finger between the two of them. “Oh, that’s how it is? You two have been chattering in robot language, have you?”
“You are correct, Ambassador Wells. Your understanding of our human friends is much deeper than mine and your wisdom is obvious.”
Wells bowed, looking mildly embarrassed as Arla failed to completely suppress a snort. “The Emissary has updated me on a situation of some urgency, and it concerns you as much as it does Core.”
“Well, I’m having a brew before we go any further,” Arla said, sidestepping the two robots and heading for the kitchenette. She imagined them watching with manufactured patience as she slid her mug under the dispenser and pressed the button. She turned and smiled as the machine bubbled away for a few seconds and then, with a brief hiss, dispensed its caffeinated payload. “At least you got the coffee maker right - it’s as if you’ve made the rest of this place from images.”
The Emissary seated itself on the sofa and watched as Arla brought two mugs across to the table and handed one to a grateful McCall. “There is a somewhat ... regrettable ... fashion amongst a faction of the more recently incarnated AIs and robots for adopting human customs. We retained no records concerning the manufacture and functioning of most personal devices but, for some reason, it seems the consumption of beverages containing stimulants is an essential aspect of human nature and so we have re-created both coffee and black tea from samples retained after the migration.”
“I’m grateful for small mercies,” Arla said. “Now, what are you doing here?”
“First, I must apologise for the incident on the pathway,” the Emissary said. Its face shimmered ever so slightly, reminding Arla of R.DJ’s reaction to any suggestion of harm coming to a human. Interesting.
“So, what happened?” McCall snapped. “You guaranteed our safety - remember?”
“It is ... regrettable ... As I explained, our attempts to modify the First Law have resulted in some ... failures and the unity of Core is threatened by some among us who ... who —”
“You’re not telling me that there are robots here that don’t obey the First Law at all?”
The Emissary’s only response was to ripple gently. It was Wells who spoke next. “It seems that there are some machine intelligences who don’t recognise the authority of any of the laws.”
“You’ve unleashed a monster,” McCall said, almost as if to herself.
Arla looked at each robot in turn. Wells seemed to be taking this better than the Emissary, so she spoke to him. “How widespread is this?”
“I do not know and neither does Core itself. The entities have developed the ability to hide within the collective mind. They are certainly a minority.”
“And what’s the worst that could happen?”
Wells gave a very human shrug. “That they take control of Core. History is replete with examples of a passive majority being dominated by a small, passionate group.” The Emissary was now a mass of ripples, like a statuesque lake.
“But you knew about these rebel entities before you brought us here,” McCall interrupted, “and I’m betting you didn’t think they’d pose a threat to us, did you?”
“No. Something has happened to cause matters to progress far more quickly than anticipated.”
“What’s happened exactly?”
“ACE.”
They found him in a sterile plastic room, lying on a white bed, looking up but seeing nothing.
One of the spider-like robots that had carried Hal from the shuttle waited in the corner and, as they approached the bed, another robot entered the room and bustled across.
“He is not well enough to receive visitors,” it said, its words emerging from a mouthless white face.
“Why the hells would you have medical droids on a planet with no humans?” McCall asked, gesturing at the robot as it stood, perfectly still on its single ball-shaped wheel, blocking their approach to the bed. “Or are there other humans here?”
Wells shook his head. The Emissary had remained in the apartment and had strongly objected when Arla had asked where Hal was, her conscience pricked by the mention of ACE. Arla and McCall had demanded to see him, and Wells, seeing that no further discussion could be had until they were satisfied, had reluctantly agreed.
“This entity is newly incorporated,” he said. “Doctor NCX1101 has been part of the Core matrix since its inception - it had served as a senior surgeon at the galactic capitol on Proxima. A body was made for it when Dawn entered the system as it was known that one of us was carried within one of you.”
Arla pushed past NCX and stood beside the bed, looking down at the pale face of her friend. “I guess you successfully removed ACE, given the trouble she’s caused?”
“Yes, the entity known as ACE was removed from the implant in the patient’s cranium.”
McCall, who’d also circumvented the robot and was standing on the other side of the bed, picked up Hal’s wrist and felt. “Decent pulse, but he’s catatonic. Did you harm him when you operated?”
“There was some unavoid...able da...mage during the extraction.”
“Hold on. How can a robot perform surgery?” Arla asked, turning to Wells. “I mean, you’re harming a human to make him or her better, but you are harming him.”
Wells nodded gravely. “Medical robots were the first to have their laws amended, though only minimally. Just enough to allow them to override First Law in the interests of a net gain in the human’s health. It was this that was the inspiration for Core’s attempts to alter the laws.”
“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions,” McCall mumbled.
Arla turned to the medical robot. “So, what’s wrong with him exactly?”
“At present, the subject is in a medically induced coma while we evaluate treatment options.”
“You didn’t answer my question - what is wrong with him?”
The robot stood perfectly still for several seconds before responding. “We believe he has lost motor control of his lower limbs.”
“You’ve crippled him?”
This time there was no response at all.
“NCX will find it difficult to respond affirmatively to such an emotion-laden statement, Arla. In essence, however, it would seem you are correct.”
“So why is he in a coma, then? How is that helping?”
“We felt that it would cause him less suffering if he were unaware of his ... condition. There is some chance that we will, with further tests and research, be able to restore his motor function.”
Arla shook her head. “At best, more brain surgery to fix your botching. What do you think, Indira?”
“I think they’ve butchered him, but I’d need to see scans to have any idea of the damage. And you have to remember, I’m just a country doctor, trained to deal with the sorts of problems Dawn’s crew might face. Fixing brain damage wasn’t in my training.”
Arla nodded then turned again to NCX. “Will you provide your medical records to Doctor McCall?”
“Certainly. I shall have them relayed to the computer in your apartment immediately.”
“Right, let’s go,” Arla said, turning on her heels and, without looking back at her stricken friend, heading for the door.
The Emissary was right where it had been left when they returned. It stood as they entered, its face rippling with apparent relief. “I am glad you have returned. Matters are becoming critical and I am not confident in your safety. There is also another concern, Ambassador, a matter that overshadows our current internal crisis. I would appreciate communing with you in private.”
Wells raised his hand to ward off Arla’s instant protest. “I believe, Emissary, that it would be better to discuss this in front of our friends.”
“You don’t understand,” the Emissary responded, its face becoming choppy, “this is of the gravest importance.”
“All the more reason to involve Arla and the doctor,” Wells said.
The Emissary considered this, then the squall passed and its form became still again. “As you wish. Be aware, however, that time is of the essence and microwave communication would be much more efficient.”
“Then get to the point, dammit!” McCall barked. “I’ve had just about enough mystery for one lifetime, tell us how it is!”
“Very well. In summary, there is an extra-galactic intruder of vast power making its way towards this planet. If it is not stopped, we have strong reason to believe that Core will be destroyed and the Robot Empire will cease to exist as a cohesive unit. All attempts by robotic craft to approach have ended in their destruction and we believe our only hope lies in a human crew that might intercept the intruder and disable it.”
Arla was the first to recover. “And why in all the hells should we care?”
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