Synchronicity Trilogy Omnibus

by Michael McCloskey

  “It must have been more than that. Those dogs were smarter and faster than ours,” Zhengqing asserted. “The battle director couldn’t have controlled every single one instantly with such intelligence.”

  Jiang smiled grandly. Feng could tell Jiang had been expecting such a question.

  “He can and he did. Because the battle director is not human!” Jiang exclaimed. “The battle director is an artificial mind. An incredibly smart, amazingly fast computer brain, that controls all the dog machines. The dogs you fought had a single grand mind linking them all together. It is that mind which makes them so devastatingly effective.”

  Feng’s anger slipped away as he considered this. Using any AI was supposed to be very dangerous, yet he immediately warmed to the idea, knowing it would make their space army that much more effective. The greed of wanting superiority over the enemy made it tempting to risk all sorts of things.

  A new interface opened in Feng’s PV. He realized it was part of the lecture.

  “Familiarize yourself with this interface in the next few days. This is your access to the battle controller. Here, you will express your objectives to the artificial mind in a painstakingly exact fashion. You will have several different contingencies set up through this interface so that the battle controller knows how to proceed. You set up mission parameters offline, and then transmit them in bulk to the battle controller about a half hour before the robots go into action.”

  The presenter polled for questions, and gave Feng the chance to speak.

  “Why do we use this strange interface?” Feng asked. “If the brain is so very smart, why don’t we just talk to it?” Feng allowed a bit of a challenge to enter his voice.

  Jiang’s eyes narrowed a bit.

  “You have not grasped the enormity of what I am saying. You don’t talk to it directly because that would simply serve to show it how unbelievably stupid you are.” Jiang delivered these last words like rifle shots.

  “I’m not trying to insult your intelligence, but don’t fool yourselves. This artificial mind has been proven beyond any shadow of a doubt to be superior to the most brilliant human minds. To simply wait for you to even utter your orders is like an eternity of boredom to this electric brain. Therefore, you prioritize your battlefield goals using this interface, and then you transmit the entirety of the settings at one stroke. To the battle brain controlling the dog machines, you have instantly changed your orders. The interface assures that you have not accidentally left any ambiguity. It ensures that you have made clear prioritizations of one goal against another. It ensures that the first part of your order won’t be ruthlessly carried out before you have a chance to even mention any subsequent conditions you have yet to speak out.”

  Feng frowned but said nothing. The interface did more than eliminate ambiguity and make quick, concise updates of the system. It also limited the flexibility of their orders. If Feng wanted to do something creative— such as ride his dogs into battle— then such orders would have to be built into the interface ahead of time.

  “So there’s no chance of changing our orders as the situation changes?” someone asked.

  “You can change them, but only through the interface. I suggest you build up a flexible library of possibilities well before every mission, when at all possible.”

  Feng realized he had traded one set of limitations for another. But he couldn’t deny that the battle controller was devastatingly effective. And he couldn’t wait to have it on his side of a battle.

  Four

  Xinmei looked around the shuttle uncomfortably as her weight shifted. Her seat rotated with the acceleration so she remained firmly in place, making it look as if the entire craft rotated around her.

  She glanced at the other four Chinese slaves on the plane. Three women and a man. They looked similarly out of place. Xinmei figured that she was probably the only spy among them. They must have come from subsistence. She looked at the women. They displayed a certain demoralized demeanor.

  Broken by the gangs, she thought. It must have been horrible, but then again, everything she knew about life at subsistence was horrible. She looked away.

  If only Feng knew I was headed into space after him, Xinmei thought. Would he be proud? Afraid? She wondered how long it would be before they spoke again.

  The shuttle shuddered. Xinmei’s heart jumped in her chest. She looked toward the windows, but she didn’t see anything but space at first. Then she saw something fly by. Again she saw it. They were spokes. The massive struts of a huge space habitat whisking by as the shuttle landed on the inner ring of Synchronicity.

  Slowly her weight returned to her. She wished she had spent more attention to her studies in school about space flight and the habitats out in the solar system.

  The vibrations began to lessen. Xinmei hoped the sudden landing was her last surprise on the shuttle ride. It had been a couple of days since the shuttle took off, judging by the meals they’d been given. The food was luxurious, she thought. If this was how they treated slaves in the West...

  Another, less alarming noise filtered through the craft. She suppressed the urge to activate her yin xing ji and peek at a list of services to search for more information about what was going on. Xinmei realized she had not felt that urge many times today. She had become used to being a mental island in the universe.

  A company man, a representative of VG, stood up before the group of Chinese.

  “We’ve connected to the station. Please follow me off the plane, and we’ll show you your new homes here on Synchronicity.”

  The man gave them a genuine smile. Despite Xinmei’s distrust of the man as a representative of her enemy and new masters, his smile did put some animal part of her at ease. Could that smile hide a monster?

  They marched after the representative out of the plane. He led them down a narrow walkway connecting the plane to the station. The metal corridor felt confined to Xinmei. She realized that the emptiness of space lay just beyond the metal tube, waiting to suck her out of the station and whisk her away into the vastness of outer space.

  The corridor opened into an entrance port with several lanes leading into separate rooms. The man directed Xinmei into her own lane. She walked into the room beyond.

  A black counter took up the right half of the tiny room. A robot waited behind the counter. She saw it was built into the wall, so it had no legs. The rest of it looked vaguely human, although its smooth metal skin was the cold gray of steel. It had two long, thin arms that could reach the countertop, but currently lay folded before it.

  There were two boxes on the countertop. Xinmei saw one box contained turquoise clothes.

  “Place all items, including clothing, into the empty box. Clothe yourself from the other box, which goes with you,” the machine emitted in perfect Mandarin.

  I even have to take orders from a machine, she thought.

  She quickly changed into the turquoise uniform. It flattered her figure, revealing her legs and her cleavage. She tried to adjust it as modestly as possible, but it quickly became apparent that it was a fruitless endeavor. She left everything else in the box.

  “Exit straight ahead,” the machine said.

  “You should be more polite, since you and I are both slaves,” she said to the machine in Mandarin.

  “Qing yi zhi zou chu kou,” it said. Please exit straight ahead.

  Xinmei allowed herself a small smile and walked out. The representative met her and the others as they came out. Then they walked through the station.

  Xinmei saw a few people moving about on business. All Westerners. It felt strange to be in a place with so many of the enemy all around her. The station felt almost empty. No throng of humanity pressed in on all sides. Probably because of the expense of maintaining life in deep space, she thought.

  They got onto a moving walkway that whisked them quickly through a long open part of the station. Everything looked new. Even the air felt new. It was clean and sterile smelling. Banks of green plan
ts grew from massive tiled vases arranged among the mirrored walls and marbled columns. Xinmei saw a few stores with people moving in and out of them. It was like a mall in space.

  “This is the main route around the entire ring,” the VG man explained to them. “We’ll be at your rooms soon.”

  Xinmei saw a few more stores and apartment sections go by before the man motioned for them to exit the conveyor. He walked them into an apartment section named “Lyon Section”.

  They dropped off the Chinese man in their group at one door, then walked a few corridors over and came to another door. The man motioned for Xinmei to go in.

  “Someone will be by to orient you soon,” the man said. “You ren bang ni hen jiu,” he repeated the communication in broken Mandarin.

  Xinmei nodded and quickly opened the door manually. It felt odd to be on a modern station and have to do everything with hand controls. It had been hard to learn to immediately do things manually to conceal her familiarity with links. A couple of times she caught herself waiting for it to happen automatically. Anyone who observed her hesitation might suspect she’d grown up with a link. She closed the door behind her, grateful to be alone for the time being.

  The room was luxurious. Plants grew from vases built into the corners. The walls were lined with mirrors that made the place seem larger. A large white couch occupied the center of the main room. She could see that there was an attached kitchen and a hallway leading out to other rooms.

  It’s not your room, though, she reminded herself. Xinmei regarded herself in the mirrors. She looked sad.

  She sat down on the plush white couch and tried to master her fear. How had she come to this place, so far from home, so alone?

  The door chimed and opened. A Chinese woman came in.

  “Xinmei?” she called out in Mandarin.

  Xinmei walked over. “Hello, I’m Xinmei.”

  “Nice to meet you. I’m Yingtai.”

  They walked into the beautiful room together.

  “I’m supposed to teach you how to take care of your guest,” she said. “Of course, I’ll show you more than that. You can turn your link on in passive mode.”

  Xinmei looked surprised.

  “What are you talking about?” she said.

  Yingtai laughed.

  “Good. But I really do work for the MSS. I know about your yin xing ji.”

  Yingtai passed her link a code. Xinmei nodded.

  “Don’t go active, and don’t use any external services unless you’ve stolen someone else’s authentication. Well, you could do it in an emergency. But you run the risk of being discovered every time you access a service and you’re not pretending to be someone else.”

  “Of course,” Xinmei said. She activated her link in passive mode.

  Yingtai laughed.

  “You’re smiling like an idiot,” she said.

  Xinmei laughed too. “It’s great to have the link back on the network again, even with such restrictions!”

  “I understand. Just don’t get carried away,” Yingtai said. “If you need to steal someone else’s authentication to do some work, then try and disable their link first. It will flag a problem with security if the same link appears to be in two places at once.”

  Xinmei nodded. She had already practiced doing this in her preparation time for the mission.

  “Well, what work am I supposed to be doing?”

  “Just familiarize yourself with the station, first. We have some general information for you. However, tomorrow you’ll have a special chance to learn something. Alec always vets the new help.”

  “What do you mean? Who’s Alec?”

  “Alec Vineaux. He owns this whole station. The head of VG. And he has a taste for young Chinese women.”

  “Will he...?”

  “A woman like you? Of course. You’re so beautiful. I’m sure he’ll want you.”

  “Oh! What can I do?”

  “It’s not bad. He’s very handsome. And very gentle, too, a good lover!”

  “But I... I have a boyfriend already.” Xinmei couldn’t believe after being lucky enough to avoid two rapes, she already faced her third.

  “Look around. He’s not here. You have to accept whatever Alec wants.”

  “What happens if I say no?”

  Yingtai shook her head. “It’s never happened. You’re a slave. Of course, we have our work, but only I and a couple others know about that.”

  “Four of us here?”

  “Yes. I won’t tell you who, though. It’s safer this way.”

  Xinmei nodded. Yingtai showed her how to work all the clever devices in the luxury quarters, but Xinmei wasn’t impressed anymore. All she could do was dread her meeting with the notorious Alec Vineaux.

  ***

  Although Xinmei found her own quarters luxurious, those of Alec Vineaux were truly amazing. His office room held many chairs and a huge desk of reddish wood. The dark carpet was thick under her feet. The ceiling above was low, but carved in intricate designs resembling ever-twisting vines running in mazelike curls. A large plant rustled quietly in the corner, probing its surroundings with leafy tendrils. Xinmei had seen mobile plants before, and knew that rich people sometimes kept them as pets. It grew from a massive vase that reflected the light like a diamond.

  Alec Vineaux stood as she entered and walked over to meet her.

  “Hello there! Very nice to meet you. I’m told you are Xinmei?”

  Alec looked very handsome and distinguished as Yingtai had said. He had short light brown hair, a clean-cut face and a white smile. Of course he had a big Western nose, Xinmei thought, but it was straight and elegant, not too large for his face.

  His eyes looked gray like the hair at his temples. They seemed very friendly.

  Xinmei smiled shyly.

  “Hello, Sir,” she said, looking down.

  “No need for such modesty, here,” Alec said. “You’re exceptionally beautiful! Please do look up at me. You won’t be punished here for looking someone straight in the face.”

  She looked up at him. He smiled again.

  “Would you like some wine?” he asked. He walked over to a cabinet and the dispenser produced a glass of purple liquid.

  “No sir, thank you.”

  Alec cradled the glass of wine in his hand and walked around his desk.

  “What do you think of Synchronicity so far?”

  “Big. New,” she said.

  “Do you know why I made it?”

  “No, Sir.”

  “Just for today, call me Alec. After that, call me Mr. Vineaux.”

  Xinmei nodded.

  “I made it to get away from the damn parasites of the world government. The useless bureaucrats who tax and regulate, tax and regulate. They’re more stupid than a parasite. A good parasite takes its fill then drops off. But these bastards won’t be satisfied until they’ve brought the Western world down on top of themselves.”

  Xinmei absorbed this speech silently. She was reminded of her economics paper and the money trail she’d found.

  “The world government... it hurt your companies?”

  “Yes! Except for perhaps the two or three corporations that effectively own it. And your people... your people must love it. Watching us shoot ourselves in the foot. Only the corporations of the West have the ability to truly effect any useful change in the world. If we have to, we’ll start out here. Then when we’re too powerful for the idiots in the world government, we’ll come back and take over Earth once and for all.”

  Xinmei’s passive surveillance noticed a message coming in to Alec’s link. He frowned.

  “What is it now?” he asked himself with obvious irritation.

  “What? Who are they?”

  Alec listened for a long moment. His face became red. Angry.

  “Mobilize your entire staff. Send some security robots.”

  Alec put down his glass of wine on a side table.

  “I’m sorry, but, we seem to have some trouble...” Alec�
�s voice trailed off again as more transmissions came in.

  Xinmei couldn’t hear the conversation going on with her link. The channel was encrypted and she didn’t want to try breaking in. But she could take advantage of the obvious distraction. She knew Alec’s link would be authenticated in this location so she cloned her link to his and made a quick index query on local storage. Her link noted recent changes since the version Yingtai had given her. She copied several newer documents over to her link until prompted for a one time passcode. Then she exited within two seconds. Alec’s link would provide the passcode within the next second, and the security protocols would be satisfied.

  Unless they count and compare commands issued, she thought. I bet he doesn’t maintain strict security settings here in his quarters.

  The documents she’d snatched were also encrypted, but she hoped that her teammates would have some knowledge to help with that problem. Or maybe they would simply pass them on.

  The doors to the office burst open. Four men in military skinsuits with rifles marched in. Xinmei froze.

  I’ve been caught again already!

  “Mr. Vineaux, please put this on immediately,” said the leader, offering Alec a skinsuit. A Veer Industries symbol was emblazoned on the shoulder of the personal armor. The men ignored Xinmei. She slowly let her breath back out.

  “Is this really necessary?”

  “Half the security team is dead, sir. We’ve lost more than one robot. Something’s headed this way. Some kind of... assassination robots, maybe. Several of them.”

  “Oh my god,” Alec intoned. He flipped off his dress shoes and stepped into the heavy skinsuit.

  Xinmei’s link picked up security channel chatter.

  “Well figure it out,” the man said, talking to another security team member. “If we have to, we’ll take Mr. Vineaux out of here. But we need to know what direction they’re coming from.”

  The man looked up at Alec as he finished sealing the suit.

  “Is that desk as heavy as it looks?”

  “Half as heavy as it looks,” Alec said.