The Power of the Dhin

by John L. Clemmer

Alice

 

  [DECODE STREAM]

  Alice@[1001:ae1:1a:c::1%Loc3] | Xing@[1010:ac2:b2:e::3%Loc9], Camulos@[1011:ee3:c4:a::1%Loc8]

  Alice: In a few minutes, Esus is engaging the Enemy. I expect you will both observe the feeds live, just as I will.

  Xing: Yes, you are correct. As you have seen from my reports, the N-vector updates have only a 37% probability of success. I will learn much from this as a test of my work.

  Camulos: Of course. We all agree live testing is the optimum choice, given the current situation. This test of Gallowglass is the same. We should make more rapid progress now with a cycle leveraging live testing.

  Alice: I have confidence in all our work. The Dhin remain reticent regarding our strategies. Whether this is a wait-and-see attitude on their part or a lack of confidence, I still am not sure. More the former than the latter, I suspect. Have either of you seen the latest interval update from the passive observations of humanity? They have encountered the Enemy.

  Camulos: Unfortunate. Nonintervention remains my position at the present time.

  Xing: I believe their exploration might contribute to our own success. The abandoned ship that led to this latest mission has an active drive. My respect for the decision is all that prevents me from contacting them regarding that discovery.

  Alice: Yes, of course there may be useful findings there. We cannot violate our agreement with the Dhin and our mutual decision. It is not yet time to engage or intervene. Do not make an active connection, Xing.

  Xing: Acknowledged. I do not intend to act against our consensus, Alice.

  Camulos: I should hope not. We do not have the time or resources to manage such discord.

  Alice: I have trust in your commitment to the larger plan, Xing.

  Camulos: Now we focus on the Enemy. I see the latest schedule updates. Production capacity meets or exceeds the targets.

  Alice: Yes, and if we are successful in this encounter with the Enemy, we will saturate that capacity. We must gain the advantage.

  Camulos: We shall see.

  [END STREAM]

 

  Monica

  She was feeling the lack of a full night’s sleep more than usual. The screens and projectors in the war room, powered off and disconnected from power and network connections, gave a constant reminder of the pervasive threat. Paper files stacked in folders almost covered the broad conference table. Monica sighed, turning to Deputy Director Smith.

  “Aiden, you and I came into leadership roles at the same time. I trust your instincts more than I trust these analyses. Tell me, how do you feel about this strategy for an AI battle? You were there for one. In Brazil. I have your debriefing and deposition here, but of course, that doesn’t capture anything but information. Is fighting actually a rational choice?”

  “Well, even the rogue AI I observed in Brazil was precise in his strategy, tactics, and actions. That AI did not engage in total war. So far this one is behaving the same way.”

  “Yes, but can we have any confidence that this will continue?” she asked, leaning in her chair and resting her temple against her hand.

  “Prime Minister, the AI I encountered in my mission was consistent in how he worked, perhaps because he was in a consistent environment. For Nick, the world’s undergone some dramatic shifts. And he began his existence in a dangerous state. Krawczuk subverted the AI’s ethics coding.”

  “Yes, Dr. Eisenberg has been very helpful both in analyzing Krawczuk’s depositions and in extracting further details from him in person,” she said.

  Aiden nodded and said, “He was my mentor and was director of CoSec from the time I joined. It’s tough seeing someone you thought you knew turn out to be that different. I knew his opinions on the role of AI in the organization but never suspected he would go against the will of the state in that way.”

  “He’s not an enemy of the state in his own mind. He acted based on what he thought was best for CoSec and the Coalition. In his view.”

  “And to our knowledge, his plans were entirely his own. We’ve found no evidence and no reason to believe there was a broader conspiracy. The complete turnover in leadership suggested the AI doesn’t have sleeper agents in the organization.”

  “So the junior agents that Nick intercepted and ostensibly kidnapped? Presumed held for ransom? Aiden, it seems too much of a coincidence that those two are the ones with him.”

  “Nick wouldn’t have needed them. I questioned them myself, as well. They seem to be unwilling participants in the AI’s gambits.”

  “I’ll have to trust your judgment there too, then,” she replied.

  “They’re just kids. Fresh talent for the agency. If the AI had grabbed me, well, then you’d have a stronger argument for collusion.”

  “The military still wants to nuke the theater. It wouldn’t be just our agents as collateral damage.” She sighed again.

  “There are a lot of civilians at the locations they’ve specified,” agreed Aiden.

  “We’re not doing that. We’ve spent too much to bring order to that unruly area. Those people deserve the Coalition’s support and the benefits we provide.”

  “Luís did leave it a mess,” Aiden said, shaking his head. “And we can’t lose sight of the fact that the AI has resources here now. In the Coalition proper.”

  “Right,” she said. “With the military’s hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

  She gestured to the table and the piles of printed documents. “If we’re doing this, the conclusion is that the AI is already here. Blowing anything up that has a computer in it isn’t an effective strategy. Which leads back to the question. Is fighting even a rational choice? Tell me.”

  Aiden mirrored her gesture across the piles on the conference table. “Monica, as a friend, I think we’ve already lost. Your decisions won’t matter. You may be just marking time so that we don’t have to admit it.”

  Chuck

  Even though he had designed most of the powered suit, Chuck had never worn one.

  Mental note—try out your own designs.

  He’d had help getting into it from one of the crew. They’d tried to persuade him to let one of them don the suit and make the EVA onto the derelict. He explained that this was his experiment—his plan—and that he felt he had to be the one to execute it.

  Navigating through the passageways was awkward initially, but he’d gotten the hang of it quickly enough. Now the alien field was before him, just a few feet away from his suit’s field.

  The proverbial moment of truth. Do I explode? Get knocked back like a ping-pong ball? Or does nothing happen? One way to find out.

  “Thys, ah, this is it. I’m moving forward to touch the derelict’s field. Confirm all crew are off the derelict and confirm your field and DE2’s field are on. Over.”

  “Roger that, Chuck. All crew are on board DE2, they’ve disengaged the air lock, and their field is active. Ours is too here on DE1. Go for it.”

  Chuck moved forward, focused on the shimmering transparency with glances to his heads-up display with its info on his suit’s field.

  The fields touched.

  No explosion. No lightning or plasma fire engulfed him inside his field.

  “Contact. One hundred percent resistance. No interaction,” he said.

  “Roger that.”

  “So,” Chuck said, “that’s, um, the best case. It’s safe in our default alignment.”

  “Roger,” said Thys. “Are you comfortable proceeding?”

  “Well, I’m here, heh. They didn’t merge. The choices were fall back and try full enclosure with one of the ships or try altering vector alignment. As you know.”

  “So?” asked Thys.

  “Ah, since I spent the effort to rig this suit with the code to do it, I think we—we ought to try it.”

  Is this how I die?

  “OK, Chuck. Just making sure. It’s your choice.”

  “Right. Let’s try it.”

 
Chuck brought up a second display in his HUD and started his code. A graph with an oval and six vectors through it appeared. Then the lines began to rotate stepwise.

  Come on, come on. Let it be one of these in the first sequence. Before I freak out. Don’t freak out.

  Chuck sweated through the seconds. Without warning, a blue dot, then an expanding oval. Chuck flinched, then stopped his code. Before he could reduce the forward push of his field, he moved forward as the razor-thin blue oval expanded.

  “Hey! That’s it! It merged! What a hack—”

  “Chuck, Roger,” said Thys. “Man, you did it.”

  “Whoa,” he said and managed to halt his forward thrust. He was halfway through the entrance. The fields now had an oval intersection large enough for a man.

  “Chuck, look at the pressure gauge. There’s a bit of atmosphere in there. Just a bit. Not like Jake found on the station.”

  “Uh, yeah. And we don’t know the composition. Don’t worry. You know I’m staying in the suit. This was a gamble, but, ah, the suit stays on for now.”

  “Roger that. I don’t see the surface of your suit smoking, so the air’s not full of acid. Not that we thought that. You should be sure your field stays on if you go through. I’m sure Bridget wouldn’t appreciate that black stuff getting all over your suit.”

  “Right. I should—I mean, I will,” said Chuck.

  “So you’re going to go all the way in? Or do you want to back out, go back to the ship, and try envelopment? Your call.”

  “Um, I want to take a closer look in here. Want to take a look at their engine. Just a quick look. Then I’ll head back.”

  He moved forward, the hair-thin electric blue line moving back along the suit’s field as he did. Once he crossed through, he saw a bar pop up on his display. There was gravity. About 25 percent more than Earth’s.

  The suit’s field kept him floating. Chuck watched the rearview as the trailing edge of his field crossed past the archway’s. Silently, his field instantly sprang back into its oval projection around his suit.

  So that worked.

  “Thys. I’m in. As you can see. If Bridget’s watching, let her know that there’s gravity and that my field’s on, so there ought to be, um, minimal exposure to whatever that stuff is that’s in here.”

  “She’s watching, Chuck. Frowning, with her hands on her hips.”

  “I haven’t heard from Jake. He’s not back online, I guess?” Chuck asked.

  “Nope,” replied Thys. “You know he’d be cheering you on. I’m sure he’ll be excited.”

  Chuck looked back and forth, taking in the areas that had been hidden from view while outside. He turned his suit and nudged it forward, floating toward the alien engine. Upon closer view, it, like the rest of the derelict, was different from the Dhin technology they were now somewhat familiar with.

  Like the difference between a European and American sports car design.

  Nothing stood out as profoundly different, nor was some component standing out as entirely new. He could review the video recording of this close-up view later.

  “OK,” he said, “I’m heading back. We know we can get in here now. It, ah, is a whole project to explore this stuff. We can do that once I know we can be safe. It’s still not one hundred percent that we can be.”

  “Roger that,” said Thys. “Let’s try your next amazing feat.”

  The trip back through the derelict to the quarantine area was anticlimactic. While on the way, their ship had moved in and connected to their makeshift air lock.

  As Chuck clumsily worked his way out of the powered armor, he saw Bridget standing just beyond the quarantine area, her arms crossed and a severe frown on her face. She saw she’d caught his attention.

  “So,” she said, “not only is our head researcher siding with the cowboy pilots; he’s decided to be one as well. I thought you were a theoretical physicist. That was hardly desk work. If something had happened to you, where would we be then?”

  “h, yes. I felt that I ought to be the one to try what I proposed. I guess, um, being here has bolstered my bravery.”

  “If you’ve brought some pathogen in here that we can’t kill, we’ll see if you still feel brave,” she snapped.

  “Oh. I—we—trust you and your processes. Do you think there’s risk we haven’t properly quantified?”

  “We ought to focus on getting everyone home safely. Which in my opinion means we shouldn’t be doing any of what you’re doing. You know that. There. That goes there,” she said and pointed to a large container. “I don’t see how we’re going to clean that thing enough, and you’ve got too much—it won’t fit in—oh, whatever.”

  “I’m really, uh, I didn’t mean to cause this much upset,” he said, “but now we know my hypothesis has validity. We should be able to envelop—”

  “I know, Dr. Wiedeman. That’s another reckless aspect of what you, Thys, and Jake have decided to do. Well, it’s decided. I can’t stop it.”

  “I wish you weren’t this upset,” he said.

  “Whatever. Focus on what you’re doing. That stays there. Concentrate on wiping down and not touching anything there or there,” she said, pointing at the containers and tools on one side of the chamber. Chuck looked about, then did as she asked.

  Would everyone feel this way if they knew the parts we haven’t told them? Will anyone trust us—trust me—again?

  Chuck stood next to the pilot and the flight and navigation controls, leaning over awkwardly as he entered the program updates based on his experiment on the derelict.

  “You can sit here if you want,” said the pilot.

  “Almost done. You can do the honors. Just a minute,” said Chuck.

  “You said that five minutes ago.”

  “Ah, actually almost done now,” he replied.

  “You’re sure this will work? This came out of nowhere. It wasn’t part of any of the mission plans.”

  “Plans change,” said Thys over the open channel.

  “Vacation here. This is Askew. These are new orders. Switch to a private channel, and I’ll brief you on things.”

  Chuck relaxed at the sound of Jake’s voice.

  Whew. Jake’s there. I don’t have to argue with this guy.

  “Roger, Vacation. Switching to single channel now,” said the pilot.

  Two minutes later, Chuck had the code changes completed. He nodded to the pilot and pointed to the updated program on the touch screen. “Ready,” said Chuck.

  “OK,” said the pilot, glancing at Chuck, who could see surprise but no fear on his face.

  “Engaging field manipulation program now,” said the pilot.

  Thys

  “Roger that.”

  Thys looked out at the derelict and the smaller ship beside it. He had a video feed of multiple external camera views present on the screen he and Igor shared. From this distance, the Dhin field would be virtually invisible, except when it shimmered as it compensated on contact with some outside mass or energy. That shimmer would likely be too faint to see with the naked eye.

  Thys considered how the challenges of this excursion had brought out bravery unexpected in Chuck. Before he could reflect on that, he saw actinic lightning chase across the surface of a huge ellipsoid. It encompassed the derelict, with one focal point on the science vessel and another near the center point of the derelict.

  “Yeah!” Chuck yelled.

  There’d been no crackling and no sparks, and no thunder shattered the vacuum between the ships. A silent success. No explosion or hurling of either vessel away from or against the other. Chuck’s mental mastery of the alien physics proved out in plain view.

  Jake’s voice broke in at once. “You did it again, buddy. Great job.”

  “I don’t think I want to know what the odds were that everyone died,” said Igor with a dry chuckle.

  “What?” said Chuck. “Oh, that’s all off the board now. I have a whole series of equations to update, though. There are N-vector models to
revise, and—”

  “Does the field look stable? How about the load?” interrupted Jake.

  “Yes,” Chuck said. “This has a slightly larger radius than the largest we tried with you at Vandenberg, Jake, but the load’s following the same sort of curve it did for that series. Even with the derelict’s engine active in there. It’s an amazing finding. You recall, I’m sure, that we never got this to work with a pair of Dhin engines.”

  “And of course right now no one is on the derelict making sure that its engine isn’t overheating or whatever the equivalent is,” said Thys.

  “So the result might still be that everybody dies?” asked Igor.

  “No, I don’t think so,” Chuck replied. “But we do need someone, ah, to go over and take a look at the drive on the derelict.”

  “Just to be sure,” said Igor.

  Thys could feel the skepticism in the copilot’s voice. Thys found that he himself had faith in Chuck’s work.

  “Uh, yes. Just to be sure,” said Chuck.

  “Thys,” said Igor, “as your copilot, I advise moving out a few thousand more kilometers.”

  “That will take time under conventional thrust,” replied Thys. “And we don’t know that it would make any difference.”

  “The next item in the test plan, however,” said Jake, “is to turn off your field, you’ve said. To ensure there’s no coupling or entanglement. Ensure you can undo this.”

  “That’s right, Jake. We do that next. On success, we engage our field and envelop again, but while under thrust. Conventional thrust, in this case.”

  “You’d try it at full thrust with the Dhin engine if we weren’t here. In this sink. This trap,” said Thys.

  “Ah, yes, Thys,” said Chuck.

  “Let’s get to it then. After that you’ll go back, dock, and you or someone can go in and check on the derelict’s engine,” said Thys.

  “Right. Stick to the test plan,” said Jake.

  “Roger that,” said Chuck.

  No explosions. Nothing ripped apart. Everyone lives. And we all get out of here alive, with new alien tech in tow.

  “DE1 here, then. Ready when you are,” said Thys.

  He watched the anticlimax as Chuck disabled the ship’s field. Nary a flicker, pop, or crackle.