by Doug Farren
“Affirmative. Mrs. Kingston is at her desk at the moment and I can connect to her desktop terminal through my shadow system.”
“Do so and send the following message. Have you solved the mystery as to how Mr. Burger was planning on getting the stolen information off site?”
A few moments went by and a response appeared on the screen. “Security has discovered a micro-lens surgically embedded in his cheek. It looked like a small mole. It was wired to a very short-range transmitter located inside one of his nasal cavities. The transmitter was used to send the data to a storage device he had apparently swallowed earlier. The device is being removed now but we suspect it contains a slightly more powerful transmitter which may have already sent the data to the intended recipient.”
Jay smiled to himself as he contemplated how the transmitter was going to be removed. He guessed the process would not be a pleasant one for Mr. Burger. He typed out a quick thank you to Anita and closed down his omni-pad for the evening. He finished his supper while watching a nature program on TV.
As he was getting into bed later in the evening a smile crossed his face once again as he thought of the irony of the situation. Somebody, he thought, was going to lose their job over that data. He recalled the day when he had asked CAIN to construct a completely fictitious set of design specifications for a non-existent advanced propulsion system. The computer had searched its vast data stores and constructed what appeared to be a complete set of design drawings and supporting engineering calculations.
The problem was that it would never work. This fact would remain undiscovered unless a very in-depth analysis of the design was performed, something that would require the efforts of several engineers over a time-span of many months. If the government actually was behind the information theft they would probably skip the analysis and move straight to the construction of a prototype. It would take them a couple of years and several hundred million dollars to admit they had been fooled. As he drifted off to sleep, Kauffman’s thoughts were filled with pleasant scenes of unsuspecting government engineers as they struggled to figure out why their new propulsion system would not work.
4
Boredom
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===== August 2048 (Terran calendar) =====
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Two weeks prior to the scheduled crew briefing, Jay found himself in an unusual situation. He was without an assignment and basically did not have anything to do. CAIN had translated the complex mathematical formulas they had been working on for the last year and a half into engineering design prints and these were now being used to build the final components that would soon be ferried up to the Starfire to complete the ship’s drive system. The new sensors required to gather the test data and send the information back to Earth had been designed and were now under construction. The training schedule for the Starfire’s chief engineer had been completed. With nothing to occupy his mind, Jay found his thoughts returning to the time he had spent working on the Starfire project. He was amazed at how fast the time had passed and at how much trust Anita had placed in his abilities.
Five years ago, Kauffman had been employed at the Lawrence Livermore advanced fusion reactor research laboratory as a theoretical mathematical physicist specializing in magnetic field equations. As part of his job, he published several research papers, bringing him a small amount of recognition. About a year later, he was hired by Advanced Space Technologies to help develop a small but very powerful magnetically focused fusion plasma propulsion system. It was while working on the PlasmaMag drive that he began having thoughts of a new type of propulsion system. He started spending more and more of his time trying to work out the details of his new theory and almost lost his job when he started to neglect his original assignment. That was when he met Anita for the first time.
Anita had heard about the project’s delay and called him to her office to discuss his lack of dedication. During their meeting, Anita learned of Jay’s new propulsion theory and promised to provide him with all the resources he needed to develop his theory after he finished the PlasmaMag calculations.
Jay amazed the entire research and development staff by presenting his completed equations within a week of his meeting with Anita. The R&D team had attributed this to Anita's skill as a manager, gaining her even more respect with the often difficult team members.
Following through on her promise, Anita assigned Jay an office and access to a powerful computer system. As Kauffman worked on his theory, he discovered that he was being forced to create an entirely new branch of mathematics. It wasn’t long before he was taxing the computer he had been given to its limits. Mrs. Kingston learned of this and decided to give Jay access to an experimental computer called CAIN.
CAIN is an acronym for Cybernetic Advanced Intelligent Network and it was the brainchild of a small group of computer engineers who had set out to create a true artificial intelligence. At first, it appeared as if they had succeeded but the machine’s cognitive development had ceased to grow. Anita, even though she knew nothing about computer intelligence, believed the machine's creators were preventing it from developing further. The people who built and programmed it treated it like a machine and it reacted accordingly. In order to test its capabilities and possibly allow it to grow beyond its initial programming, Anita decided to give Jay exclusive access to it to use as he saw fit.
The team that had developed CAIN was furious and threatened to quit. Anita doubled their research budget, promised to share with them the results of CAIN’s performance while working on Jay’s project, and set them to work developing CAIN’s successor.
Jay quickly put the powerful machine to use giving it full knowledge of his project. CAIN turned out to be far more powerful than Anita or the team that created it could ever have imagined. Over time, Jay began to think of the computer more as a living organism than as an electronic device. CAIN had indeed expanded its understanding of humans through its close, daily contact with Jay. As far as Kauffman was concerned, CAIN had become sentient and he addressed the machine as such.
Now, after nearly twenty months of intense research, Kauffman found himself with nothing but free time on his hands. He spent some of this time catching up on his missed technical journals but his mind needed more. After several days of relative inactivity he couldn’t take it any more and decided to pay Anita a visit. When he showed up at her office, her secretary looked up with only a quick “Hello Mr. Kauffman” and waved him through.
For the first time ever, Jay stopped to ponder this action, turned back to the secretary, and asked, “I’ve only been up to see Mrs. Kingston a few times but most of those, like right now, were spur of the moment; yet, even without an appointment you wave me right in. Does Anita have that wide of an open door policy?”
It was obvious the secretary had been caught off-guard by Kauffman’s question. Quickly recovering, she replied, “Mrs. Kingston has standing orders that you are to be allowed access to her at any time unless I have been instructed to admit no one.”
“I see. How many other people are as privileged?”
“At this point in time—only Tyron Jackson.”
Kauffman’s left eyebrow raised itself up a few millimeters. It was a habit he had developed after taking an interest in an old science fiction series. “Thank you,” he replied and continued into Anita’s office.
Anita was on the phone as Jay entered. She motioned him into a seat while she continued her conversation. “National security is not a valid excuse to conduct corporate espionage. You know as well as I that it won’t hold up in a court of law…Of course we plan on pressing charges. Corporate espionage is still a crime under U. S. law.”
Anita covered the mouthpiece and quietly said, “Help yourself to a drink,” nodding in the direction of the bar. “This won’t take much longer.” Returning her attention to the phone she said, “AST has a bank account larger than many small countrie
s and I’m not afraid to tap into it to make my point. There are also provisions in all our contracts with the government allowing us to suspend them pending the results of any trial that may result. You have my settlement demand and I will expect your response in writing within two days otherwise I will turn my lawyers loose with a blank check for their expenses and hold a press conference to explain what has happened.” Without waiting for a reply she hung up the phone.
Jay had taken Anita up on her offer and was at the bar mixing himself a screwdriver. As he poured a tiny portion of clear liquor into his glass he said, “I’m assuming your conversation was in regards to our security breach of a couple weeks ago. Mind if I ask who it was you were talking to?” Jay added a generous portion of orange juice and made his way back to a chair while Anita answered.
“We managed to undeniably trace the equipment Mr. Burger was using back to the NSA. That was the easy part. After a great deal of research and some luck we also managed to positively connect Mr. Burger to the office of Paul Snieder. That was him on the phone.”
Jay’s eyes grew wide with surprise. “The NSA Director himself? How did you manage to pull off that trick? And tell me ... what sort of demands are you making to someone like him? You’re playing with raw lightning Anita—be careful.”
Anita leaned back in her chair and locked her hands behind her head. “I know what I’m up against. We’ve locked horns before. I also know we have the upper hand. Want to guess how we managed to link Mr. Burger to the NSA?”
“I am a bit curious—although I’m not too sure I want to know. I thought everything the NSA did was with untraceable technology.”
“Untraceable to everyone except us in this case. Once we retrieved the transmitter from Mr. Burger’s insides we took it apart. The transmitter was a modified cell phone transmitter that just so happened to have been made by an AST subsidiary. Although the NSA took great pains to eradicate all trace of all identifying mark, they missed one. Inscribed in the silicon of the transmitter microelectronics is a serial number. We tracked the number down to a small batch of circuits that had been shipped to an NSA shadow company. We’ve known for some time that this company is a front for the NSA and we also know that Paul Snieder personally controls its purse strings.”
“And how, pray tell, do you know that?”
“In order to maintain a competitive edge, AST carefully researches who we sell our items to. We also track a tremendous amount of information. Most of it is legally obtained but some of it is obtained by what you might call legally questionable means. I wouldn’t want to bring it up in court and I’m sure the NSA wouldn’t want us to either so we both skirt the issue and pretend nobody knows how the information was obtained.”
“Sounds too much like two governments conspiring together,” Jay remarked.
“We do what we must in order to survive. Being the world leader in space propulsion systems has not been easy. We are always under some sort of government scrutiny and competitors are always trying to get their hands on what we know. You would not believe how much AST spends on countering corporate espionage. We do, however, have a hugely unfair advantage.”
“And what might that be?”
“AST owns and operates many of the communications satellites in use by every major telecommunications company on the planet. We also built a good number of the spy satellites the government now uses. You don’t think we would leave such a useful intelligence-gathering network untapped now do you? Sometimes I think we have a better intelligence network than the NSA does.”
Jay nervously shifted in his chair. “I don’t think I want to hear any more. Being deaf and dumb to such things is a blessing as far as I’m concerned. Just be careful about what you try to bully out of the NSA. They’re not an organization I would want to cross.”
“Don’t worry about Mr. Snieder,” Anita confidently said as she leaned back into her chair and stretched. “Our demands are not very steep and I’m sure he will capitulate. I’ve asked for his hand-written apology, a compensatory check to cover our losses and a promise to never again attempt such a stunt. Actually, what I want most is to embarrass the hell out him.”
“Our losses!” Kauffman exclaimed as a broad smile appeared on his face. Chuckling he continued, “You know as well as I that the government is going to be the one suffering a loss if they try to build a propulsion system from those plans.”
She unlocked her hands and in a smooth motion rolled forward forming a steeple with her fingers in front of her on the massive mahogany desk. “True, but do you think they will ever admit to stealing the plans to an advanced space drive that doesn’t work? I think they will be learning a valuable lesson from this experience. Now ... let me guess why you’re here—you’re bored.”
Jay snickered. “You know me better than I give you credit. Yes I’m bored. I’ve been so used to working all day that now when I can take a break I can’t think of anything I would rather do other than go back to work. Haven’t you got some sort of a small problem for me to work on?”
“As a matter of fact there is ... I was about to give you a call about it but you saved me the trouble. Tyrone is having some problems scaling up the power accumulator design. Something to do with the interaction of magnetic fields and the size of the conductors he can produce. I think he’s having problems with the math. Care to assist?”
“I would love to,” Jay replied. “I bet he forgot to factor in the phase…”
Anita got up and motioned for Jay to stop. “I’m not trying to be rude Jay—but I won’t understand whatever it is you think might be the problem.” She walked over to the bar and poured herself a glass of orange juice. “Have you completed putting together your training course? We need to make sure the chief engineer knows as much as possible about the drive system in order to ensure success.”
Jay sipped his drink. “I took the liberty of pulling Mr. Norland’s file. He’s had quite a distinguished career and a good education. Based on his abilities, I’ve boiled the technology down to something he should be able to grasp in the time we have. I would like him to know as much as possible about the drive considering the fact that they will be doing their testing about ten million kilometers from Earth. That’s about a two minute round trip communications delay.”
“Sound reasoning. Now tell me about these micro-probes you want. Why so many?”
“I need to gather as much data as possible about the field structure from as many points in space as we can. It will help me fine-tune the matrix field and the main field emitters. I could have done it from the readouts on the maintenance panel but I won't be there and I can't be sure that Kyle will be able to properly interpret the readings. The probes will not only give me a detailed reading on the structure of the field but it should also help to speed up the tuning process.
The entire drive system has over ten thousand adjustments built into it. Some are part of stationary field coils but many relate to the two thousand or so rotating field emitters. These control everything from the speed of rotation to the axial orientation of each emitter. In order to manipulate and shape both the matrix field and the main field all of these adjustments will have to be fine-tuned. The micro-probes are needed to gather the data necessary to make these adjustments.”
“I hope you realize we’ve had to add an extra pod to the exterior of the ship just to store these probes of yours. I must say though, the design of the entire system is quite ingenious.”
Jay smiled and replied, “I can’t take any of the credit. It was CAIN’s idea. He designed the probes.”
Now it was Anita’s turn to be surprised. She set her glass down on the end of the desk and sat in silent thought for a moment. “CAIN came up with the design?” Seeing Jay’s slow nod she continued. “It appears as if CAIN has truly become an intelligent system. I think we have another breakthrough on our hands. Unfortunately we are not in a position to share it with anyone else at the moment.”
“CAIN is far more than just an intellige
nt machine,” Jay said, his tone of voice causing Anita to stop and really listen to what he had to say. “I’ve been working with him for a long time and I’ve watched him evolve from a very intelligent collection of computer programs into the entity he is today. I am not a computer scientist nor am I a psychologist, but I would be willing to certify that CAIN is a sentient being. We need to start treating him as such.”
“Are you serious? It’s a machine. We built it. We programmed it. It follows our instructions.”
“I am very serious,” Kauffman replied leaning forward. “We may have built the machine and we may have written the programs that helped kick-start the process. But CAIN’s programming is adaptive and practically all of the code that now exists is self generated.”
Anita cocked her head to one side as she considered this statement. They've had this discussion before, but this was something new. CAIN had demonstrated inventiveness causing her to reevaluate how she viewed the machine. “I’m not too sure if the world is ready to accept that a computer can ever be considered sentient. I’m not even sure what it would mean for us or how we should treat such a machine.”
Glancing at her watch, Anita stood up and said, “I don’t mean to be rude Jay but I’ve got some corporate business I must attend to. We definitely need to talk some more concerning CAIN’s status. When do you think you can find the time to assist Mr. Jackson?”
“I could run out there now if he’s available.”
“Stop by my secretary’s desk and have her give him a call. He’s at the same facility where you first met him.”
Jay took a final long pull on his drink and handed it to Anita. “Well, at least now I have something to occupy my time. Thanks for seeing me.”
Anita walked Jay to the door of her office. She closed it as he turned to leave. Twenty minutes later, Jay and Tyrone were discussing complex mathematical models. It soon became apparent that Tyrone’s problem was a bit more complicated than Jay had originally thought.