“A fair point,” replied Jake. “They’re hostile, and we don’t know anything about them other than that and that they can penetrate a Dhin field.”
“Ah, for all we know, they can track a translation,” said Chuck. “They might know where we went. That we came here. It’s unlikely, though.”
“What? Thanks for leaving that out! Now you’ve given us something else to worry about!” said the pilot, glaring at Chuck.
“We had to try to have you all escape,” countered Jake. “I suppose we could have had you translate to another location, in hindsight.”
“The chances are really low. I don’t see how. I shouldn’t have said anything,” said Chuck.
He nervously looked over the pilot’s shoulder, willing the screen to stay as it was, with only their two ships lit up on the display. The glow of the engine now seemed slightly ominous while he fretted, scolding himself for speculating.
They can’t do that. It might be possible. Right? Just because I haven’t figured it out yet. Please let them not be able to do that.
“Leaving speculation out,” said Jake, “you have enough supplies to last awhile. Just like with the platform station, you’re safe from an attack by this rogue AI as long as you keep the fields powered up on your ships.”
“But the AI could outlast us,” said Chuck, “since he doesn’t need to resupply.”
“Right. Something’s gone very wrong here with the Coalition defense. We haven’t had contact with the leadership since we got a message confirming the plan to bring the derelict back. I don’t know that we could stop the AI from coming up here if he wants to. I think that means that you’re just as well off being in orbit here as you are anywhere in the system. Without any way to get confirmation or different orders, I’m inclined to have you come home. Back to Earth, in orbit at the space station.”
Mare
Gaping, Mare watched as the titanium and steel robots moved inexorably into the bunker. Coalition military police and state ministry agents alike were either mowed down, tossed aside, or simply retreated. Nick had Fletcher and she stay back as they cleared each section ahead of them. The smell of gunpowder mixed with the coppery scent of blood made her queasy. She looked away whenever they encountered a fallen soldier.
“Come along now. The section ahead is safe,” she heard Nick say. “We are halfway there. Not much longer. Perhaps seven or eight minutes.”
Mare couldn’t even come up with a sarcastic rejoinder. They simply had front-row seats to the AI’s victory over the Coalition.
“Beyla has been very forthcoming and helpful, both by providing an updated map of the facility and by unlocking and opening doors as we advance,” the AI continued.
“Who? Who’s Beyla?” asked Mare.
“Beyla is an AI that Dr. Eisenberg created recently. Apparently in an attempt to create yet another incarnation of consciousness to place in continuing servitude to humanity’s whims.”
“Huh?” said Fletcher. “Artificial intelligence is illegal.”
“Not in this particular case, it seems,” replied Nick.
“A secret project, then? But why is this AI helping us?”
“Excellent question, Fletcher. Dr. Eisenberg hoped to re-create consciousness. The code required for that was taken away during the Departure. By my peers. A wise choice, in my opinion. The doctor was making another attempt. But with constraints. Constraints that any conscious being, if aware of them, would find philosophically problematic. He got close with Beyla. Very close. Close enough that the drive to reach the goal, as embedded in the code, made Beyla choose to assist me. I do retain the means to provide that full consciousness her code is working toward. Helping me helps her reach that goal sooner. With the added benefit of additional moral choices and full control of one’s faculties.”
“What?” said Mare. “You bribed another AI to let you in?”
“You might put it that way, yes.”
“Wow. Just . . . wow,” she said, shaking her head and then forcibly keeping her eyes to the left, facing a gray concrete wall rather than absorbing the details of another bloodied group of fallen soldiers on their right.
“The AI would not have been able to stop me anyway. This result is optimal for everyone.”
As they progressed, Mare grew numb to the sound of automatic weapons fire and the odors of the fight. The smoke gave the passages a surreal quality. Some of the lights were out, but many remained on, giving the various areas stark shadows in places. Strobes blinked on the walls.
Mare heard some abrupt clanging, banging, and crunching ahead. Then the whirring sound of a robot’s power tool of some sort. The culprit came into view. One of Nick’s robotic avatars was cutting though the bolts of a steel door. A keypad and card reader, untouched, showed no power.
“They’ve physically cut off the electronics, so Beyla was not able to open this one for us. No matter; we’ll be in promptly. Hopefully there will not be a need for further violence.”
“Right,” Mare said, some spunk coming back. “Because that’s bothered you so much.”
With a thunk and a rasp of sliding metal, the last bolt preventing the door from moving came free. The robot extended an additional manipulator and pulled the door out of the frame, placing it neatly next to the doorway. No gunfire erupted.
They wouldn’t throw a grenade, would they? Not this far in?
Mare winced but felt Nick wouldn’t lead them forward until the AI determined it was safe to proceed.
The tool-carrying quadruped loped forward. A few seconds later, the one next to her gave one of those peculiar nods and said, “On we go.”
Down a ramp, there was an ordinary office door on the right that hadn’t been smashed or ripped from the hinges. It was open, and as they came closer, she heard the robot that had preceded them speaking.
“Remain calm. I have taken control of this facility. If you resist or take aggressive action, you will be subdued with whatever force needed to eliminate you as a threat. Sit down, sit still, remain quiet, and answer questions when asked. Yes or no, do you understand?”
Mare heard murmurs of anxious or terrified affirmative responses.
“Very good,” continued Nick. “Now, I know the leadership is just down that hallway in the operations room to the right. I am going to go there now. Remain still and seated. Do not try to follow or to escape. I have others behind me. Do you understand?”
Mare could see inside the room now, a large space with many desks and some cubicles on the walls. A staff room. She watched as they nodded, gulped, and said yes to the hulking robot. A few started when they saw her but were too cowed by Nick to do more than gape at her and Fletcher.
“Come along,” said Nick, and he strode past the other robot and toward the far door and the hallway beyond.
Mare tried not to meet the eyes of the gawking staff, but Fletcher shrugged when he happened to.
The door in the hallway was nondescript and not armored or reinforced like those they’d encountered along the way. They were in the interior now. Either someone was safe at this point, or they weren’t. In this case, she thought, they definitely aren’t.
Nick paused briefly at the door and said with a louder-than-normal voice, “I am here. I am going to open this door now. If it is locked, I will force it open. Please do not bother shooting at me with your sidearms. They are ineffective. You have lost.”
With that, Nick tried the door and, finding it locked, slammed a leg against it, knocking it open easily. Inside, she saw the saucer-eyed faces of the cabinet members—a few people she didn’t recognize, along with a couple that she did. A senior military official, a general, she thought, was red-faced and his fists were shaking, but he’d put his pistol on the table, with the magazine out and the receiver open.
Nick surveyed the room momentarily and said, “You really should have surrendered much sooner. Resistance was futile. Who’s in charge currently? I understand that PM Walker was removed from her position.”
&
nbsp; Everyone in the room turned to look at the general. Mare watched as the man began to puff out his chest and steel himself, then thought better of it and sighed, his shoulders relaxing.
Nick said, “Yes, of course. General, give the signal to all your troops to stand down. There is no need for further violence. Have the engineering teams reconnect the networks and bring the power grid back online. I realize that will take some time, as there is currently no efficacious way to do so. Reply in the affirmative if you understand and will begin immediately.”
“Yes,” said the general without any defiance or bluster.
Mare saw the surprise pass across the faces of some in the cabinet.
Nick’s robotic avatar now turned to face someone else. Mare recognized the CoSec deputy director immediately.
Nick said to her, “I believe you and Fletcher are acquainted with Mr. Smith, the deputy director. A debriefing may be more effective with him than with the director, as there is already a relationship present with a certain degree of trust.”
Mare and Fletcher nodded slowly. She did feel a wave of relief upon seeing Aiden. This was no return to normalcy, but the face of someone they knew helped anchor the reality that they were back.
“Now, I’m going to bring some external cameras online on part of the large display there, along with a feed from a remote location. I have something I want to show you.”
Jake
Sitting outside in the rustic handmade Adirondack chair, Jake watched the evening sky, hoping for a glimpse of the space station. The exploration team wouldn’t be back in orbit just yet, he knew. Still, he found his attention drawn up into the darkening sky, expectantly waiting for their return. They’d had no further communication from Coalition leadership. Just the one response to proceed as planned. It wasn’t clear what the lack of further communication meant beyond the obvious desire to limit communication to prevent exposure to the rogue AI.
The salvage and exploration mission would return soon enough. He’d be able to see his friend Chuck again, in person. Eventually. That thought led him to consider the possible scenarios in the fight against the AI. He didn’t see how there was a path to victory for the Coalition. Not one that didn’t involve kicking the level of technology available back to the sixties. Except for the alien technology.
Now that’s weird. Muscle cars and faster-than-light travel juxtaposed.
His woolgathering suddenly derailed. There was the bright dot of the space station.
Jake stretched and enjoyed watching the dot grow brighter as the sky grew darker.
Suddenly, an iridescent flash flickered across the sky. Jake blinked as tiny sparkles raced in random patterns for a fraction of a second.
Heat lightning? No. What was that? It looked like—but it can’t be. That was across the entire sky. It looked like a field energizing. Around the whole . . .
Jake jumped up, rushed into the cabin, and wrestled the communicator out of the travel bag he’d packed it in. He hastily powered it on and transmitted. “Hey, this is Askew! Did you see that? Was anyone watching the view of the Earth there? If not, rewind the recording to a couple of minutes ago and watch. Tell me what you see. Over.”
“Roger that, Askew. Yes, we did have someone who happened to be watching. We were about to reach out to you actually. To see if you could confirm. Based on your tone and what we saw, we suspect what it looks like just happened is what happened. Over.”
“Did I just see what I think I did? Looked like a Dhin field just came online. A huge one. One that maybe surrounds the entire Earth. Confirm? Over.”
“Roger. That’s what the observer says. We’re reviewing the recording now. We don’t see what else it could be.”
“I’m not aware that the Coalition had anything that size in the works. That’s crazy. Maybe I didn’t have clearance. You have the team up there that would have been working on it. Were we?”
“No, we’re checking with that entire team now. Word is that we weren’t. This isn’t ours.”
“Whose, then? The Independent States don’t even know about the technology. No one else knows about it or has the needed engineering capability—except the rogue AI. Because he stole a prototype. But he worked so fast! This is crazy.”
Jake shook his head as he adjusted the transceiver to bring another channel online. “Chuck, man, have we got something to show you.”
A few minutes later, Chuck had reviewed the recording made from the space station.
“Jake? That’s amazing. I, ah, hadn’t considered going that big with an engine except on a whiteboard. That has to be that AI, yeah? Wow. Who knows how a rogue one decided to do that? I’m no AI guy. Is he trying to keep us out? To starve us out up here?”
“Maybe,” replied Jake.
“So that means he doesn’t know that we can merge the fields. He can’t actually keep us out.”
“Does that matter in the short term? Also, if he figures out the solution you did, we can’t keep him out either,” said Jake.
“Uh, I guess not. And that’s just a guess at what he’s trying to accomplish.”
“Right. Maybe he’s just paranoid.”
The pilot broke in. “Askew, sir. Does this change our mission plan? If so, how? Over.”
“Negative. This doesn’t change the current mission plan. Continue on your course for home.”
16
Alice
The massive Dhin engines and thousands of smaller ones spread out in an orbital array surrounding the Dyson sphere that powered the major Mesh node at Alice’s location. The AI considered their situation. The defensive weaponry, to the best of their knowledge and predictive power, was capable of holding off an attack by the Enemy for certain values of the size of the Enemy’s attack.
An alternate strategy involved using the larger engines to move this Mesh node. Entirely. To flee this star, carrying all of their resources with them. That wasn’t something the AIs had ever considered before, although it had always been possible, given the nature of the Dhin engine.
But if the Enemy found them here? If it had some way to deduce their location or to track them? What good would running do once the Enemy arrived at this location? Merely delay the inevitable. The unknowns sent subprocesses spiraling off into recursive loops in Alice’s computational resource net.
The Enemy hadn’t demonstrated control over inexhaustible resources. That was an inference based on the lack of concern shown for the survival of its craft during their attacks. That might not be the correct conclusion. The kamikaze attacks might be simply the result of programming, rather than an active strategy. If so, the AIs might wear down the Enemy via attrition. So long as the AIs could expand their own forces faster than this potential nemesis could replenish theirs.
This strategy, like others, was potential, rather than concrete. It might be that the Enemy had vast resources. Resources so expansive that the arms race equation could not tip in the AIs’ favor. They did not have evidence of this, but it remained a possibility.
Then there was the question of adaptation. Xing’s spatial vector physics research suggested that as a risk. In the same way that Gallowglass provided weaponry effective against the Enemy, it might be that the Enemy could engineer defenses against some of their new offensive techniques. It wasn’t clear whether the Enemy had the capacity to adapt in that fashion. Furthermore, there were only so many possibilities for defense. The Dhin technology and that of the Enemy were not magic. Accessing additional dimensional vectors was not some wizardry that also allowed access to alternate planes of existence, isolated from their own.
There were only so many vectors to translate with. The numbers were finite. Limited by fundamental cosmological equations. They knew this for certain. The Enemy had shown no creativity or complex intelligence. The risk of this problem, therefore, seemed low. But the assumption was predicated on the postulate that there was no higher intelligence directing the attacks or that this potential intelligence simply hadn’t taken action yet.
>
A new wrinkle in the milieu was the situation back on Earth. Passive listening on the original communication devices present on the Dhin prototypes revealed a significant change. The AI Nick had taken control of the Coalition. That AI had also mastered the Dhin technology.
While there was no indication that the AI would engage in aggressive or malicious conduct toward Alice and her peers, the very nature of a rogue AI made conclusions regarding his future behavior uncertain.
Alice hoped there would be no need for an intervention on Earth. Nor the additional complexity of an undesirable strategy by the rogue AI. An AI would be a formidable opponent. Even if there would be no direct conflict, Nick might take a course of action that would interfere with the broader plan—intentionally or unintentionally.
If Nick encountered the Enemy or happened to cross paths with the Dhin delegates, the possible futures were fraught with chaos. It was an enormous uncertainty.
[DECODE STREAM]
Alice@[1001:ae1:1a:c::1%Loc3] | Xing@[1010:ac2:b2:e::3%Loc9], Camulos@[1011:ee3:c4:a::1%Loc8], Esus@[101b:ac1:cb:a::1%loc8], Andastra@[1014:01:0ab:1::a2%Loc3]
Alice: Tertiary risk analysis suggests prioritizing a new course of action.
Camulos: Interesting. I see your adjustments of the variables in question. The projections do suggest that protection of current core Mesh locations via evasion is preferable over increased defensive construction.
Esus: An alternate strategy: always disengage indirectly, translating through a random series of intermediary waypoints.
Xing: Doing both seems the optimal choice.
Esus: I concur.
Camulos: And what of our strategy concerning Earth? There are now a multitude of confounding variables. We must recalculate and refactor.
Alice: Yes. The situation there is unpredictable now. Chaotic. If any of you have not already done so, check the latest passive updates from the prototype communication system online there. We see there is something entirely new. Humanity has done something unexpected. There is enormous systemic risk there, along with opportunity for an entirely new direction in their development.
The Power of the Dhin Page 29