by Tobias Roote
When you called me, Robbo immediately traced you to the computer station and monitored your actions. So we knew when you shut the monitor down that you were still watching. Admittedly it was a difficult decision to make ‘on-the-fly’, but you took the bait and we just had to wait, and make sure that when you moved, the only likely bolt-hole was here,” Osbourne explained.
“I see,” said XeraC frowning. He seemed thoughtful. He looked directly at Osbourne then smiled mischievously.
“The fact that you have re-activated a visual link to me indicates you want something from me and want to appear friendly and helpful. In addition you are here personally which reflects urgency, and importance. I further detect from your body language and vitals, that you are worried about something and need my cooperation. AND, before you respond to that, I might initiate the bargaining by asking what are you prepared to offer me in return.” XeraC smiled content in the knowledge that he had pre-empted any strategy that Osbourne had planned.
Osbourne smiled. He hadn’t come with any plan, only an idea, so was pleased that it was going to be easier than he thought to discuss the matter. “We are expecting a new invasion attempt by the Nubl shortly,” he started, choosing his words carefully.
XeraC nodded. Well, at least his head made the motions, as being bodiless, it appeared to be a disjointed action to Osbourne. Creepy, really.
Osbourne continued. “As you are aware it is important for us to have the ARKs active before the attack comes, to ensure they have a chance of surviving. These preparations are well underway with all of the habitats and...”
“Except this one,” XeraC interrupted.
Osbourne smiled, recognising XeraC still had the ability to cut to the chase and pluck out the thorn that he’d had in their business dealings over the years. He admitted, “except this one, correct.”
“What’s holding up this one.. Oh, wait a minute, I think I might know the answer to this - you don’t have an AI, because I’m in it’s intended housing - correct?” XeraC crowed.
“Again, you’re 100% on the ball, XeraC.” Osbourne continued to play the guessing game knowing full well where they were heading and prepared to meet all of XeraC’s demands, except the one he really wanted.
“It’s not so much that you’re in it’s housing, but more a matter of we are running out of time to grow and educate an AI sufficiently to take responsibility for ten thousand individuals and the ARK’s environment,” Osbourne explained.
“So?”
“So, I believe that I can offer you a way out of your predicament as well as an opportunity to leave Earth in time to avoid the repercussions of another invasion attack.”
“You want me to take the AI’s place and look after your people on this biosphere habitat come spaceship.”
“Yes, as the first transhuman of our race I’m sure you don’t want to be annihilated along with the rest of us. This is a chance to be useful to a new race of humans,” Osbourne offered.
“What if I don’t want to babysit your colony. Will you have me removed and killed when the power goes off?”
“No, you haven’t done anything that is worthy of your execution - have you?” Osbourne couldn’t justify killing off XeraC even though it was a simple matter of cutting off his power supply. What XeraC had achieved in a normal world without the Nubl threat would have been global news and he would be famous. He had attempted to use his abilities to invade the SI in search of technology to make himself stronger and more powerful. Osbourne couldn’t fault him for trying that, even though it would have been detrimental to SI. As for turning off the power, that would be murder. Osbourne was many things, but a murderer of a great mind wasn’t in him. Under different circumstances he would try and find a way of working with XeraC for the greater good. Somehow, he thought, that wasn’t going to be likely.
“Hmmh, I’m not sure I want to care for your colony population, I think I would prefer to just watch,” XeraC responded absently.
“Alright, I was afraid that might be your answer. Then I guess I will have to set the Habitat to manual operation. Thanks, anyway, XeraC.” Osbourne got up and walked across to the unit, but then turned at the last moment with his hand on the plugs. He was disappointed at the selfishness of the man he once knew. When he thought back at the times they had sat across the table negotiating, he realized that XeraC was always immaculately turned out and his assistants so obsequious that it had always been about absolute power and control.
“Is there anyone you care about besides yourself, XeraC?” he asked.
“Not really, why would that be of value. I will live forever providing you don’t pull the plug, or leave me to be killed off by these aliens you’re so scared of,” he said putting as bored a face on the comment as possible.
XeraC was busy and had only been paying a portion of his attention to Osbourne. The rest of his time had been spent frantically trying to escape the box he was in. While a tiny connection to the outside was available, there was no way he could get his massive data-bulk down that skinny wire, and he couldn’t see any way of getting past the blockage. It appeared to be a single directional reporting system with no other network connections out. It couldn’t even interrogate XeraC’s unit.
He had been about to give up, when he took a look at the software that was running on the machine and checked the logs from the previous six weeks. Using those logs he added some new sections to the software data output, then logged out of the connection and smiled deviously. Only a few seconds had passed, but it had been enough.
Osbourne noted the smile, which had been an unconscious response on XeraC’s part, replicating his feelings onto his visual features in the hologram. If he been aware of it, he might have been concerned, but it wouldn't matter soon anyway.
Interpreting this as a superior smirk, Osbourne decided he’d been wasting his time and pulled the plugs that connected XeraC’s machine to the network in the room, taking XeraC’s view of the world away again for a possibly long period of isolation. The holo-image of XeraC disintegrated as the lights went out.
Osbourne felt cross with himself. He thought he had handled XeraC badly, but the more he thought about it the more he realised that if XeraC was placed anywhere within the network on the Habitat he would probably attempt to overthrow the existing management and could potentially fly off into outer space and never be seen again - all with ten thousand people onboard completely at his mercy.
Maybe they had just dodged the proverbial bullet.
***
“Well that went well, not,” Osbourne said to no-one in particular as he reappeared back in his laboratory office. He slammed himself back into his chair with a frustrated sigh. He thought that XeraC would have been happy to be let out of the box he was trapped in.
Arty responded to his comment through Osbourne’s comms unit.
“I fail to see the logic of XeraC’s response. He is excluded from the whole of the world with no ability to control his future. It is not rational that he chose to ignore your offer.”
“He is an unreasonable man, it is not in his nature to lose, or compromise.” Osbourne said, relating what he knew of the man’s character.
“Exactly,” Arty responded.
Osbourne didn’t catch the emphasis immediately. He was so caught up in his frustration that he needed to vent.
“I cannot believe he would prefer isolation over involvement in everything that will be occurring,” he said, not really directing the conversation at Arty, just moaning out loud.
Arty was patient. “Maybe he didn’t.”
Osbourne was quiet for a moment, digesting the comments from Arty, finally catching onto what he was suggesting.
“You think he has a plan, or we’re missing something in the mix?” he responded.
“His voice, although artificially created, is still human-based and the inflections in speech are still there from a lifetime of talking. I would say, without a doubt, that he was with you up to a point, where suddenly you
r offer seemed less interesting than something else he was considering – .”
“ – or doing!” Osbourne interrupted realising that the AI had a good point. XeraC had seemed to lose interest. “Why?”
“Because he had just found something that made your offer seem less attractive,” Robbo interrupted, bringing his own analysis into the discussion.
This wasn’t unusual for Osbourne. Ever since his initial relationship with Pod, the alien AI that adopted Zeke Callaghan, Osbourne had spent nearly every waking hour talking with artificial intelligences of one kind or another. He had personally built Arty, who had been the AI pilot for Zeke’s ship until Pod built the Alpha Station from the asteroid it had captured. Arty was so good that Pod installed him into the Station as its command AI and took his place in the ship, which was larger and more fitting for Pod than the escape pod it lived in.
“So, if XeraC had a change of heart halfway through the conversation, what did he see, or discover that gave him the confidence to ignore my offer?” Osbourne mused.
Arty thought he knew so spoke up.”I believe he found another exit, or the means with which to achieve an escape.”
“This is incredible. How could he do that, the whole holodeck is on an isolated circuit,” Osbourne replied.
“I will proceed to monitor the ARK and see if there is any evidence of attempts by XeraC to be freed by outside sources. I cannot believe they would succeed. The Security AI you built into every ARK is one of the best designs you have made - besides me, of course,” Robbo preened.
“Alright. Advise if I can assist. I do believe that XeraC could inhabit a cavern on Alpha Station if he wants a new home,” Arty said in finality of his involvement, and Osbourne heard the customary click as the comms unit went back to standby mode.
“Work on that investigation, will you Robbo? I need to know why he wasn’t interested. Keep an eye on the staff and visitors too, in case anyone connected to his businesses turns up - he’s definitely up to something.
Meanwhile, I need to find a way of upgrading an existing AI to manage the ARK’s systems,” he added dolefully. The extra work involved was going to mean even less sleep.
Escape
Adwan Messonghi was exhausted. They had been pushing him to complete the list of outstanding jobs for the last ten days and his schedule had been forced up twice to take account of new activation dates. He didn’t know what half of the equipment in place was for, you’d think it was a spaceship from the amount of gear that was bundled into the back stores and sheds.
He knew the town was special. It was totally self-contained, and could survive for a long time on its own. He had seen all of the back-up supplies, and that was on top of what they were producing in the fields and the gro-spheres. Those hydroponic tanks were amazing. He would like a transfer there, but his supervisor said no chance until the electrical maintenance was finished.
He was only temporarily assigned to this project so he didn’t think that would happen. He was due to go home in ten days time, but then they had said that three weeks ago. There was always something being added to the queue of work and never enough of them to keep on top of it. Still, it was easier here than back home where there was considerable unemployment since the alien attack, although this far south he hadn’t seen any evidence of such.
A small beep came from his waist. Adwan looked down at his communicator, it was flashing, indicating a new job had been dropped onto his schedule. He sighed, then looked at it. It was marked urgent and in the secret Control Centre they had that he wasn’t supposed to talk about. They wanted something fixed - and quick.
He scanned the work. It was only a reconnection job, someone had pulled the plugs out and left the unit isolated - it needed to be reconnected to the network. He remembered the machine, he had helped install it. He thought about it, the job would only take a minute, but he would get to travel on the rep-tube which was a really cool way to get around.
Early in his contract he had managed to work out how to bypass the speed governors and then had nearly killed himself when it shot through the tunnel like a bullet out of a gun. The acceleration threw him back so hard, he broke the connection that was still in his hand as he re-wired it. This brought the out-of-control car to a dead halt which saved his life and probably stopped the car from being embedded a kilometre deep in solid rock. He still managed to give himself a black-eye on the management console as he rebounded.
The corridor he was walking through currently had a branch link down to the rep-tube about one hundred yards ahead. His thumb print would give him access to the sealed door that separated the civilian population from the military unit that crept around everywhere beneath the surface.
He decided to get the job done before he knocked off. It would be one less to do tomorrow morning and he knew the evening shift in the CCC, as they called. It was a quieter place and less stressed. He made his way down to the rep-tube and found a car ready to leave. Having learned his lesson, he chose not to fiddle with the electronics on the governors. Even without that he still only took a few minutes to go the length of the tunnel. It was so silent and effortless he wished all of the cities had them installed.
He looked at his work schedule again. Huh! They had moved the unit, it was in the holo-deck now. Oh, okay, that made it even easier - no nosey officers peering over his shoulder. He pressed the entrance key into the console of the door that recorded a maintenance visit. The automatic door security AI checked with the server in maintenance for confirmation of an authorised visit. Seeing the approval from the Captain, it allowed Adwan access.
Inside he walked around the edge of the room keeping out of sight of the Commander’s eye. He was almost as suspicious as the Captain was, but Adwan didn’t like the way they watched him as he worked. It was as if they were expecting him to do something wrong and waiting to pounce. He needed the work and if he got any complaints he might lose his bonus. It was only that which made everything worthwhile as it was job-based and he was top-jobber on the ARK.
Out of sight, he clicked on the door control which whooshed open on his card entry and then he was inside. It swept silently shut behind him.
He saw the unit, recognising it from the previous installation. It wasn’t in a good place for a proper connection so he unlocked the AG and moved it into a corner. Then took the umbilical cord from the side of the unit and extended it to the nearest data socket. These connections had a whole web of thousands of optical fibres. A unique locking mechanism ensured they were always connected from like to like and data transfer began immediately. That didn’t concerned Adwan. It was above his pay grade and all he did was change connectors, or fit them. His job ended there.
Two minutes later and he was on his way out. As he sat in the rep-tube finalising his job sheet on his communicator and signing out from his shift, he decided he would shortcut back to his apartment where he could get online to his wife and son, Peshari and Rashid.
The ARK provided the link service at great cost as, since the previous invasion, much of the world’s network had been routed via satellite. It was still fast, but the access had been restricted to mainstream services. You could no longer access many of the private sites for information. Adwan didn’t care, he only wanted to talk to his family.
***
XeraC moved quickly to exit the unit as soon as it was connected. He now watched keenly through the surveillance cameras along the engineer’s route. He needed to be sure the engineer went to his quarters before re-entering the maintenance computer and scrubbing the completed job file from the logs.
When he had cleaned his previous hack, he placed a new one on the schedule. He would need to monitor everything carefully and ensure the new shift engineer carried out the work he had placed on the urgent ‘to do’ list. He needed to cover his tracks completely.
It didn’t take more than a few minutes for XeraC to remove himself from the prison unit. He left behind a bunch of corrupt files to deliberately make it look like a melt
down of his personal core, if Osbourne came snooping. It wouldn’t hold up against anything more than a cursory examination, but XeraC didn’t feel he would need more than that. Once he was in the main server topside he intended to make himself impregnable to anything Osbourne could throw at him.
As it happened he needn’t have worried about the work allocation. When the supervisor saw the job request come in he went down to Command Centre himself. He was relieved when the umbilical cord giving full access to the optical data channel that fed back to the town’s system was disabled and removed. This left the black unit in the holo-deck isolated from the outside world and was, as of now, empty.
XeraC was out of his prison and free to plot his revenge on Osbourne.
He smiled at his good fortune. When Osbourne had first opened up the connection to the holodeck and released XeraC into the room he must have thought the system completely isolated. It was, except for a single maintenance cable that ran through the whole complex that allowed for the pinpointing of breaks and non-functioning equipment, or connections. The wire carried data messages back to the maintenance server that was pinging it every thirty seconds telling XeraC there was a computer connection at the end of the line.
When he realised that it was going to help him escape, he lost interest in appeasing Osbourne and coming to some suitable arrangement, from Osbourne’s perspective anyway, and instead concentrated hard on setting up the maintenance schedule to get him out of the unit.
It had worked spectacularly well, and if Osbourne returned, he would probably never discern he had escaped. XeraC chortled to himself mentally at his change of fortunes and sent out feelers to all parts of the complex until he had a good knowledge of everything that was connected to the main server.
He analysed the results several hours later and decided there were some things that could be improved. Not least the ability to connect to the AI computer in the Command & Control Centre where he had been imprisoned. He mulled it over while availing himself of the 360 degree view around the town. It was a much better vista than the individual cameras he had left behind in Manhattan.