Proxima Centauri - Hunt for the Lost AIs
Page 28
She glanced over at Shannon’s projection and saw the engineer’s hair flatten.
SAFEGUARDS
STELLAR DATE: 10.29.3191 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Enfield Holdings, El Dorado Ring
REGION: Alpha Centauri System
Daniel topped off his coffee mug then turned back to the security feed playing out on the holotank in Enfield Holdings’ main information center as Ethan—the real Ethan—approached the entrance for the first time.
Daniel picked up the ICS data cube from the desk as he took a seat, absently rolling it around in the palm of his hand. He watched as Ethan paused for the briefest moment, squared the shoulders of his frame, and resolutely approached the building’s doors. He wondered at the AI's apparent hesitation, then assumed it was most likely a combination of awe at being invited into task force Phantom Blade's inner sanctum, and trepidation at facing his doppelganger's victims again.
Speaking of which.... Daniel turned his attention inward.
He knew Aaron was observing Ethan’s approach, and wondered if the AI felt the same feelings of disquiet that John felt when in Ethan’s presence. He knew the human agent would never be comfortable around the scientist.
Aaron accurately interpreted the direction of Daniel’s thoughts.
The AI paused for a moment, his silence tacitly acknowledging the truth of Daniel’s statement.
Daniel grunted in surprise, then shook his head silently.
At Daniel’s swift intake of breath, the AI went on.
Aaron’s avatar tilted his head, acknowledging his partner’s comment.
Daniel nodded. This was a discussion they’d had more than once over the past several weeks, and he responded the same as he always did when Aaron asked.
Aaron laughed quietly.
Maybe Aaron’s right. Who am I to dictate another sentient’s choices?
Abruptly, he snapped the cube up in his hand and stood. Walking over to the storage unit built into the conference room’s wall, he seated the cube into a storage socket next to a row of unformatted cubes, their lattices disordered and unstructured.
Aaron sent him a wave of gratitude, and Daniel saw the crystal structure glow slightly as his friend accessed it, and he closed the cabinet door.
Turning, he spied Ethan out in the corridor and waved the scientist into the room. The AI brightened noticeably when he spied the man.
“Daniel, Aaron! It is good to see you looking well.” The AI looked anxious. “You are well, Aaron?”
The AI’s voice, warm with laughter, emanated from the room’s speakers. “I am indeed, sir, thanks to you. The vice-marshal just signaled; she and Ben will be here shortly. You have news for us?”
Ethan nodded vigorously. “I do indeed.”
He looked over as Ben entered, and Esther’s avatar projected at the head of the conference table. Accompanying Ben was Gladys. The scientist looked curiously at her as the hacker glided past him, his face wrinkling in consternation as she trailed teal glitter in her wake.
Daniel fought a smile and shook his head with a little shrug when Ethan’s confused gaze landed on him.
Let Gladys explain her own idiosyncrasies to the guy.
“So, Ethan,” Esther began, “you mentioned news when you pinged me earlier?”
The AI nodded toward Ben. “Yes. It has to do with the pod we discovered in the apartment that Prime had rented near the spaceport.”
He turned to the holo tank and brought up an image of a basic storage pod. With a gesture, he brought up a document next to it. “This is a list of the items inside the pod.” The AI turned away from the display with a grave look on his face. “The quantity and type of Level One toxins found there would have been enough to eradicate all human life on our ring, in the hands of someone who knew how to culture and replicate them. They are now in the hands of the CDC.”
Turning back to the list, he said, “I forwarded the toxin list, along with the recipes for the antidote serums, to Jane Andrews at the C-47 in Proxima five weeks ago.” Ethan turned, his eyes burning in their intensity. “And I just received her reply.”
Gladys leaned forward, clasping her hands on the table in front of her. “Will she be able to replicate enough antidote, and have it on hand, if we’re unable to stop Prime?”
Daniel shuddered at the thought, but Ethan nodded. “That won’t be a factor,” he reassured them, but then his expression turned troubled. He paused, then glanced over at the vice-marshal. “I do have a question, though.”
At her raised brows, he continued hesitantly, glancing at Ben, as if reluctant to broach the topic in front of the man.
“The ship, the Speedwell…. How do you know Prime hasn’t shackled—or collared—everyone aboard?” He glanced uneasily at Ben, and suddenly Daniel realized the question the AI wasn’t asking:
‘How do we know the humans aboard—especially Jason and Judith—are even still alive?’
He saw by Ben’s pained expression that it was a question the analyst had already considered.
The vice-marshal must have sensed the same thing.
“We don’t.” Esther’s voice was soft as she admitted this. “But let me remind you that we’ve been receiving regular updates from Eric and the team, and they have given no indication that anything is amiss.”
She raised her hand as Ben and Gladys both began to protest. Daniel was certain the same thing that had crossed his mind was topmost in theirs; if Eric had been shackled, of course he would be ordered to continue his reports as if nothing had happened.
“I understand your concerns, but everything Ethan has told us about this shackling program implies two things: one, that Prime’s ability to control an individual and have that person behave in a manner believable enough to consistently fool friends and family closest to them is limited.”
She paused and gave them a wry smile. “Not all of you have experienced what it’s like to share tight living quarters on a journey that long, but I can assure you that being on a ship for ten months will make it nearly impossible to hide unusual behavior. Prime’s no fool; he knows that.”
Esther turned to the neuroscientist. “I said there were two t
hings. Since it involves neural pathways, I think I’ll let Ethan tell you about the second one.”
The AI looked slightly uncomfortable as he began to speak, but gradually relaxed as he warmed to his subject.
“It has to do with the areas within the brain that house executive action. Willpower is a finite resource, within both humans and AIs, and Prime will be expending a lot of his own to exert his will upon others.” The AI spread his hands. “Given his core size and computational capabilities, if I had to guess, Prime might be able to directly control three, maybe four individuals at one time. Any more, and his own resources will tap out. He’s insidious, but he’s not a multi-nodal intelligence.”
Daniel saw Ben relax slightly at the news, although he was sure the analyst feared that one of the top four candidates on Prime’s shortlist would include his wife.
I can’t begin to imagine the anguish that is causing him.
BREAKOUT
STELLAR DATE: 01.10.3192 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: ESF Speedwell
REGION: Heliopause, Proxima Centauri System
Eric could feel his human partner’s restlessness as Terrance prowled the deck amidships, its lighting dimmed as the Speedwell entered its nighttime hours. He’d noticed an uptick in a feeling Terrance called ‘going stir-crazy’ about a month ago, and he suspected the man’s need to seek some form of distraction wasn’t due entirely to the fact that they were now in the eighth month of their journey.
Granted, that was part of it, but he knew the crew’s inability to pinpoint the source of the mysterious containment breach that had caused the klaxons to sound that night ate at Terrance as much as it weighed on his own mind. Added to that was the infuriating dearth of evidence to explain the explosion that had injured Jason.
After a few days in Marta’s care and several sessions in the autodoc in medical, the pilot’s punctured lung and broken ribs had been repaired—along with a slew of other contact injuries where shrapnel from the explosion had penetrated his suit. Jason was fortunate; the nano inside the suit had managed to seal each breach and kept him alive long enough for Tobias to recover him.
Once released from medical, Jason had joined them in their hunt for the source of both the explosion and the inexplicable containment breach. They had come up with nothing.
It had been quiet for two months, now, and as much as logic dictated that the events must have been random accidents, Eric couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to it.
My meat-suit would probably call that intuition, he chuckled wryly to himself. But even our most suspicious team member, Logan, has admitted it must have been chance.
As Terrance continued down a darkened corridor that connected the ship’s weight room to its sparring theater, Eric’s thoughts turned to Logan. As far as he knew, the profiler still held onto Landon’s ICS cube, and was wrestling with the decision on whether or not to bring his brother back. At times Eric wondered if the AI’s reluctance to restore his twin stemmed from a perverse sense of guilt. Perhaps it was a form of penance Logan felt he must pay for not being there when Landon needed him.
For all our logic, we are as susceptible to irrational thoughts as our human brethren, Eric mused wryly.
Maybe the soldier could use a little distraction. Eric happened to have just the thing. Earlier in the day, he’d received a message from his contact inside Proxima’s military intelligence; they now knew where the five missing AIs were, and their location complicated matters.
He reached out and pinged Logan, and after a moment’s thought, sent a ping to Tobias as well.
Logan sent a brief affirmative, while the Weapon Born’s response was a more casual,
The last three months, for one thing. But he kept that thought to himself; these two had heard him air his frustration too many times recently to burden them with it again.
His purpose this night wasn’t to rehash old concerns; they had a mission to accomplish, shackled AIs to free, and it was time he went about the business of emancipating them.
he said, sending them a copy of the report he’d just received.
Both AIs signaled their acknowledgement, and he dropped the connection just as Terrance paused at the intersection of a corridor. The human had spied light spilling out from one of the smaller mess halls just aft of the workout rooms, and turned to investigate, his curiosity piqued.
Jason was there, propping his booted feet up on a table and cradling a bowl of fruit.
As his meat-suit walked past, Eric watched Jason neatly dodge Terrance’s hand as the executive made a grab for the bowl of blackberries.
Popping a few into his mouth, Jason mumbled around them, “Get your own, dude.”
“Those are the last ones. Dude.”
Eric felt a spike of amusement from Terrance, as Jason sighed and then tilted the bowl for the man to take a handful.
“How do you know they’re the last when you haven’t looked in the chiller yet?” The pilot scowled over at his friend, and Terrance chuckled as he obligingly walked over and swung the door open, then gestured pointedly at the empty shelf.
“Because I saw that bowl in here earlier and planned to do exactly the same thing you’re doing,” He grinned, snagged a few cookies off the counter, and seated himself across the table from Jason.
Tipping his chair back, he mimicked the pilot’s attitude, feet crossed.
The AI could sense Terrance’s enjoyment as he tweaked the now-recovered pilot. It was good to see his partner unwind a bit; in Eric’s estimation, Terrance didn’t do that nearly enough.
Eric knew he was partly to blame. Terrance’s innate leadership abilities, combined with the part his family’s companies had played in AI history, had been what had prompted Eric to ask the man to let him embed with him.
He felt a stab of guilt at that. He knew Terrance felt, subconsciously, that the Enfield name was under a cloud; the man had an almost visceral need to right the wrongs some ancient ancestor had made—not so much errors of commission, but simply by having had the poor judgment to align with unscrupulous business partners.
His musings were interrupted by a ping from Logan. He left the two humans to their snacking and turned his attention to the profiler. Reaching out, he pulled both Logan and Tobias into a small expanse. It wasn’t fancy or imaginative. In fact, it looked identical to their conference room at Enfield Holdings back on the El Dorado ring, as opposed to a more exotic location. Had the topic been less grim, he was sure Tobias would rib him about it.
Eric looked up as Logan strolled toward him, his face an expressionless mask. Out of the corner of his eye, Eric caught a flash of movement and spied a shock of bright red hair that indicated Tobias was approaching. As he neared, Eric could see that the Weapon Born’s normally merry blue eyes were somber.
“I take it you’ve had a chance to review what I sent?” he asked the two.
“All five were purchased by a syndicate.” Tobias’s voice dripped with disgust as he summarized in one brief statement. “And they’re being forced to run a refinery, owned by a small drug operation.”
Eric nodded. “Yes, it’s owned by a biochemist, Karen Leighton. The woman engineered a more potent form of mandratura and set up shop somewhere in Proxima’s cool dust belt.”
He paused, glanced over at Logan, and then added, “Terrance tells me that Shannon might have a problem with that. She lost a very promising engineer from her team inside Enfield’s TechDev to MDT a few years back.”
He saw Logan straighten at that. “Does she need to sit this one out?”
“We can’t afford for her to,” Tobias responded sharply. “The team that breaches the refinery must be an all-AI force.”
“Agreed,” Eric said. “In fact, I’ve been considering how we might supplement Pha
ntom Blade with some of our fellow crew members—for just that reason. It’s far too dangerous for any human agents to be involved.”
Tobias looked thoughtful. “You realize that leaves you out, as well, given that you’re with Terrance.”
Eric nodded. “Yes, I’ll lead up the rescue of the other two, but I’ll need you to run this one.”
The Weapon Born rubbed a hand across his jaw in thought. “Got any crew members in mind for our add-ons?”
Instead of responding, Eric turned his attention toward Logan.
Catching Eric’s shift in focus, the Weapon Born chuckled. “Time to earn those profiler chops, lad. Got any recommendations for our illustrious leader?”
Eric could have sworn Logan shot Tobias the AI equivalent of some side-eye. He stifled a thread of amusement and instead kept his expression neutral as he turned expectantly to the profiler. He didn’t have long to wait.
“Two of the ESF soldiers on loan to us recently rotated out of anti-piracy squads before we shipped out,” he began. “They would be my first choice.”
“Yes, Paula and Kodi. I thought you might suggest them,” Eric agreed, and then paused before continuing. “I hesitate to suggest this, but…what of Niki? I understand our scan officer has a way with code that might help us hack into the refinery’s systems and expedite their retrieval.”
Tobias evinced surprise. “You think she can handle the reminder of such a painful time in her own history, since she was once shackled herself?”
“I’m more interested in how Logan would assess her current state, I think,” he said turning once again to the other AI.
He saw the profiler hesitate, then nod reluctantly. “It’s not ideal, but if she stays on the shuttle and we use her skills on scan, I think she should be fine.” Logan paused, speared Eric with a look, and then added, “Have you given any thought to our unsolved mysteries and how they might impact the operation?”
Had he been human, Eric would have grimaced.