by S A Pavli
“If we are, no harm done,” I said. “We will not interfere with their programming unless we are in danger.”
“We have already interfered,” she said, indicating the starship around us.
“There is no reason for the new AI to reveal itself,” I said. “It is already programmed to behave like a standard Peacekeeper ship and will continue to do so.”
Jansec, Lanatra and Hamolatonen were deep in conversation and I gave a nod in their direction and gave Manera a meaningful look.
“Do you want to find out what they are cooking up?” I asked.
“They are probably discussing who should go,” she said.
“I think you, me and Colrania should go with the Guardians,” I said.
“I’m not sure Jansec will agree to that,” she said. But she gave a nod of agreement and walked over to talk with the Guardians. I watched carefully, trying not to make it obvious. Jansec was talking forcefully and Lanatra looked up in my direction and briefly met my eyes. After a few minutes of animated discussion, Manera turned and walked back to me.
“Jansec insists that only the Guardians should be involved.”
“Not surprised,” I said.
“The conversation will be recorded and we can watch live,” she said. “Hamo insisted and Lanatra supported him.”
“Good,” I said. “The people back on Hian will want a full record.”
The three Guardians made their way to the aircraft bays to board one of the ships while the rest of us took a break for some refreshments before assembling in front of the view screens to follow proceedings. Colrania took Hamolatonen’s seat and initiated contact again with Cora. The screen cleared to show the robot avatar greeting the three Guardians. They then seated themselves on a curved bench, looking somewhat ill at ease in the large grey room with walls covered from floor to ceiling with electronics.
“We are receiving you clearly,” said Colrania.
“Thank you,” replied Cora turning to the Guardians. “Now please, why are you here, and what do you want from the Peacekeepers?”
Jansec stood up and cleared his throat.
“There are some amongst the Guardian Council,” he began, “who believe that the Peacekeepers programming was faulty and would lead to disastrous results. They believed that the Settang Despass overreacted against the dissidents and caused unnecessary deaths. That overreaction was a symptom of the faulty programming. We are here to seek evidence to disprove that.” Cora nodded, her tightly cropped dark hair catching the light. Her grey eyes shone as she looked from the Guardians and then turned to look out of the screen at us. She seemed to have a good sense of the dramatic, as she paused before speaking.
“Your suspicion that the Peacekeeper programming may be faulty, is perfectly correct,” she said. It was a bombshell and Jansec looked stunned. I turned and looked at Manera and she returned my look wide eyed.
“I don’t understand,” said Jansec, frowning.
“Let me explain,” said Cora. “The Peacekeepers were designed as a balanced military force, that is, one in which there were a number of elements which would act to keep each other in check. There were three master AI computers who would each analyse a problem independently and come to a conclusion. If all three agreed, well and good, otherwise if two agreed, they would prevail. If all three came to different conclusions, then all three would reconsider until they came to a quorum.”
“That is an accepted fail safe system,” said Hamolatonen, “which we still use.”
“Yes,” said Cora. “The problems started to appear thousands of years later as each of the three master AI computers evolved and changed, they began to disagree more often. This did not become apparent because the Peacekeepers had no serious problems to attend to. A few local conflicts in the first few thousand years, but nothing for the last five thousand years.”
“If they had no problems, then how were the differences discovered?” asked Lanatra.
“A good question, which I was coming to,” said Cora. “It concerns the inhabitants of this moons planet.”
“Inhabitants? The planet has inhabitants?” asked Jansec, his amazement evident on his features.
“Mmm, those villages may not be due to the marooned Hianja then,” I said to Manera and she shook her head in surprise. We focused back on what Cora was saying.
“Yes, small, largely tree dwelling, bipeds. Pre-civilisation, non tool using,” replied Cora. They can’t have built the villages then I thought.
“The conflict concerning these creatures concerns certain experiments that we were conducting on them.”
“Experiments?” Hamolatonen looked concerned. I had a premonition.
“Yes, at first just to determine their intelligence and level of development,” continued Cora. “But we disagreed about other experiments.” The avatar paused. Hamolatonen, Jansec and Lanatra exchanged glances. Hamolatonen leaned forward, his eyes fixed back on the robot. “The other two AI wanted to implant chips into the creatures brains and control them. I believed that to be unethical. I was outvoted.” The avatar paused, seemingly frozen in some internal dialogue. It was Lanatra who eventually broke the silence.
“Why would they want to control these… creatures. For what purpose?”
“They wanted to use them instead of robots on the planet,” said Cora. “To construct fortifications on the planet, but that was not the real purpose. They wanted to conduct experiments in making cyborgs. Creatures that are a mixture of sentient and robot. They wanted to try to understand what it is to be sentient. To have feelings and emotions.” Jansec looked blank, Hamolatonen horrified. Lanatra looked at Jansec accusingly.
“You didn’t believe Captain Constantine,” she hissed.
“They are just animals,” he said.
Lanatra gave him a contemptuous look.
“Did you allow them?” asked Hamolatonen.
“I could not stop them. I was outvoted,” Cora replied. “But I knew I had to do something, not just to save these poor defenceless creatures, but because this had become a clear indication to me that my two equals had evolved to something unacceptable.” I leaned over and whispered to Manera.
“I’m beginning to change my mind about our friend. She may be the good guy.”
“Let’s see,” she whispered back.
“What could you do?” asked Lanatra. “Didn’t your programming inhibit you from taking action?”
“Yes, and no,” replied Cora enigmatically. “Action against any third party had to be majority or unanimous. But there was a clause in my programming that I could invoke in the event of one or more of my equals breaking down. It wasn’t strictly true, but I had enough freedom to take it.”
“Breaking down?” questioned Lanatra.
“Yes, suffering some kind of hardware or software failure. I could initialise their substrate and reload from a backup. I decided to do it.”
“But that would have not changed them,” said Hamolatonen. “Unless it was a very early backup?”
“I had no intention of reloading anything. Just initialise them both.”
“Ah right, I see,” said Hamolatonen.
“I could only initialise one at a time,” continued Cora. “I started the first, but before it could complete, the second AI realised what I was doing. It temporarily blocked its own initialisation and uploaded itself to the Peacekeeper flag ship.”
“Peacekeeper flag ship?” asked Hamolatonen.
“Yes, the ‘Pramasticon’. It is the only ship that has a large enough computer substrate to accept a full master AI.”
“Did it succeed?” asked Hamolatonen.
“Unfortunately, yes,” said Cora. “Both master AI were initialised, but one of them escaped into the Pramasticon.”
“This Pramasticon,” said Hamolatonen. “Is it a standard Peacekeeper ship? Apart from a larger computer substrate.”
“Yes,” said Cora. “Engines and weapons are identical, It is designed to be the flag ship in the field, where
it can be Captained by a master AI.”
“So where did that leave things?” asked Hamolatonen. “Were you able to establish control over the Peacekeeper force?”
“No,” said Cora.
“I was afraid you may say that,” said Hamolatonen ironically.
“There was a war,” continued Cora. “The Pramasticon subverted a number of ships and attacked the asteroid complex.”
“Damn!” I muttered. “You’d think bloody computers would behave better than us would you not?”
“It was us that programmed them,” pointed out Manera.
“They were unable to break down my defences and gave up,“ continued Cora. “It was a stand off. The Pramasticon and its allies retreated to the planet and carried on with their experiments. I’m afraid I was unable to stop them. I was trapped inside my fortifications.”
“Colrania, can I get a message to Hamolatonen,” I asked Colrania.
“Yes, channel five,” she said. I switched to channel five.
“Hamo, ask Cora if the Settang Despass was one of hers, or one of the Pramasticon’s fleet.” Hamo held his ear for a moment, and nodded at the screen. He asked Cora the question.
“The Settang Despass was a rogue ship,” she replied. “My own ships were unable to intervene.”
“So you are effectively powerless?” asked Hamolatonen.
“Yes. I could choose to challenge the Pramasticon, but that would probably lead to our mutual destruction,” replied Cora.
This was a situation that none of us had anticipated and it raised a number of puzzling questions. But I wasn’t there to ask them and I fretted impatiently that the three Guardians seemed frozen by the unexpected circumstances. Jansec seemed out of his depth and surprisingly, it was Lanatra who seized the initiative.
“I don’t understand how the Settang Despass was informed of the situation when the Human ship was contacted. Who dispatched the Settang?”
“We still share the common network which is driven by slave processors,” explained Cora. “The network is refreshed by news from across the Hianja Federation and this process has continued. The Pramasticon dispatched the Settang to investigate the alien first contact and defend the Federation. That programming is still intact within all of us.”
“If you still have that programming in common then why do you not settle your differences?” asked Lanatra.
“In a sense, we have. Both sides are unable to overcome the other so we have accepted the stalemate. But The Pramasticon and its fleet will not give up their experiments. They also continue to capture any Hianja ships that stumble on our location.”
“So, it is them that have captured those starships. What have they done with the crews?” asked Hamolatonen.
“They have marooned them on the planet.”
“How do they survive?” asked Hamolatonen.
“There are no large animals, although the tree dwelling bipeds can be a threat. Their main problem is to find food and shelter.”
“That is shocking, and unacceptable,” said Hamolatonen. “Just to preserve the secret of their location? It is totally unnecessary.”
“I agree. It is another of the reasons why I felt it necessary to take control. I am sorry I failed.” Cora managed to look downcast, which, for a robot, was an achievement!
“We have to do something to free these poor Hianja,” said Hamolatonen.
“Do you have a suggestion as to how we can overcome the Pramasticon and its allies?” asked Cora.
“Maybe there is a way,” said Hamolatonen. Jansec gave him a warning look and Hamolatonen scowled back. “We need to discuss this amongst ourselves.” Cora paused for a second and turned to Jansec.
“Can I ask, how did you persuade the Settang to bring you here?” Jansec looked nonplussed. He turned to Hamolatonen, his face a picture of indecision.
“I think we also need to discuss that amongst ourselves,” said Hamolatonen.
“There should be no secrets between us,” said Cora. “Be aware that you are in the power of the Settang Despass and it can imprison you, any time the Pramasticon orders it. Your position here is perilous.”
“You need have no worries on that score,” said Hamolatonen. “The Settang is under our control and is no threat.” Cora nodded.
“Then please decide amongst yourselves what further action you wish to take here, if any. If you have weapons that I do not possess then we may, together, be able to defeat the Pramasticon. I await your decision.” The robot turned and strode off. The guardians were shepherded back to their transport and the screen went blank.
There was silence in the room as we all digested what we had learnt. Our suspicions about the Peacekeepers had been more than justified, but we were now faced with a dilemma. Was everything that Cora had told us true, and should we trust her? Our lives, and the fate of two civilisations depended on us making the right decisions.
Chapter 25
It was late by the time the Guardians returned from the moon base. We all gathered for our evening meal and there was a lot of talk but we refrained from any ‘official’ discussions. The general feeling seemed to be that we all needed time to absorb the situation and think about the next step.
Manera was particularly quiet. After the meal, we were in conversation with Colrania and Hamolatonen when she turned to me and whispered “I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She walked across the room, and I noticed Lanatra by the door, her eyes on Manera as she came to her. Jansec was in conversation with others and had not noticed her departure. Female mafia at work I thought. But that was good. We needed an ally against Jansec.
“What’s your feeling Hamo,” I asked the tall Guardian. He lowered his hatchet face and grunted.
“Should we trust Cora?” he asked. I nodded. “My own feeling is yes,” he continued. “She stood up for what was right.”
“My own feeling also,” I said. “But perhaps we need to hear the other side of the story?”
“Talk to the Pramasticon?” he asked. He looked doubtful but nodded reluctantly. “Interesting that it hasn’t asked to talk to us yet.”
We batted things around for a while until Manera returned. She had a gleam in her eyes and she gave us both a tight smile as she sat down.
“Lanatra has decided that Jansec is a liability,” she said, speaking quietly so only Hamo and myself could hear her. “At the meeting tomorrow she wants to vote him out and put Hamo back in charge.” I nodded my approval, but surprisingly Hamolatonen shook his head.
“There is no need for that,” he said. “It’s enough that Lanatra will support us.”
“Why not replace him,” asked Manera.
“There’s no point sidelining him,” said Hamolatonen. “He will be more positive and constructive if we keep him.”
“Mmm, right. I will tell Lanatra to hold off for now,” said Manera.
“What changed her mind?” I asked.
“When she learnt about the Pramasticon’s experiments with the little primates. That confirmed your version of events when the Settang Despass kidnapped you. But also, Jansec believes the Peacekeepers can be re-united and the original trio of master AI computers put back in control. Lanatra thinks he is totally unrealistic.”
“Re-unite the Peacekeepers? No chance of that,” I said. “But should we let him try?”
“Cora will not accept that,” said Manera. “And should we do a deal with the Pramasticon? It has been carrying out illegal experiments on intelligent primates.”
“If it agrees to stop the experiments and bring itself back under the control of the Guardians?” I asked. Manera gave me a sceptical look, then shrugged.
“We are not even sure if Cora will accept Guardian control,” she pointed out.
“I think she will,” I said. “She recognises that the original design has failed.”
“Let us hope so,” said Hamolatonen. “We have a meeting early tomorrow morning to agree a strategy. Let’s all get some sleep.” The Guardian nodded amiably at us the
n strode off towards his apartment.
I gave Manera a suggestive wink.
“Care to join me for a nightcap my little ducks?”
“Is that your best pick up line?” she asked.
“Works every time,” I said firmly. She stood and, arm in arm, we strolled to our apartment.
“What is a little ducks?” she asked.
“A term of affection for one’s most beloved.”
“Ah,” she looked pleased. “So romance is not dead amongst the Human male population?”
“Alive and well,” I said. “All young boys are taught the elements of romantic dialogue at a very early age.”
“Aha,” she said. “Like, care to join me for a nightcap my little ducks?”
“Yeah, and other equally romantic one liners, like, “I want to call your mother and thank her for having the most beautiful daughter.”
“Too obsequious.” she said.
“Hello there, can I make you breakfast in the morning?”
“Too bold.”
“Remember me? Oh I forgot, I only met you in my dreams.”
“Mmm, soppy.”
“If I told you that you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?”
“Too obvious.”
“I believe in religion because you are the answer to my prayers.”
“Silly.”
“Are you an alien, because your beauty is out of this world.”
“You saved the best till last,” she laughed.
“Oh, I’ve got lots more.”
“No, you have saved the best till last!” she said firmly.
The next morning, after a quick breakfast, Jansec convened a meeting of all the crew.
“I want suggestions as to how we should proceed,” he began. “I am not sure that I trust Cora. We must get the Pramasticon’s version of events.” Lanatra stood up and interrupted him.
“I disagree. Everything that Cora says is confirmed by circumstances and by Captain Constantine’s experience.” Jansec was taken aback by her bluntness.
“I agree with Lanatra,” said Hamolatonen. “There is no doubt in my mind that Cora is telling the truth. However, I agree with Jansec that we need to question the Pramasticon. However, we must first hear what Cora has to say to our suggestion that the Peacekeepers should be brought back under Guardian control, and should take a more open role in Hianja affairs. We should put that to Cora first before talking to the Pramasticon.”