Mitchie answered, “Stay wary, but I think this might actually be good news.”
***
Admiral Galen ordered a general cease fire. He thought trying to settle the final peace terms over an open channel would invite hecklers and rumor-mongers. A quick conference with the other admirals decided to rely on an AI expert on the site over waiting three days to bring in a diplomat. Galen transmitted, “AI, you will speak with Dr. Peter Smith to settle the details.”
Pete discovered his new assignment when a panting infantryman dashed into the bunker and handed over a data crystal.
Guo cut short the scientist’s complaints over having his research interrupted. “Wouldn’t it be easier to ask it how the data is structured?”
Pete shut up for a long moment, then laughed. “Yes, but that’s not as satisfying as figuring it out for myself.” He read the transcript of the original truce conversation and his instructions from command, then led Guo and Chetty out of the bunker.
The researchers couldn’t spot any bots from the bunker. Captain Kim’s command post looked like the best place to get directions.
The actual command team had been forced out of the tent to make room for the wounded. The captain demanded, “Is this cease-fire going to last?”
“Yes, if I do my job right,” said Pete.
Captain Kim directed them to the nearest AI bots. He assigned a squad to escort the researchers. Guo had an NCO-to-NCO chat with the squad leader to ensure they wouldn’t interfere with the negotiations.
The perimeter troops didn’t want to let them through. Their sergeant had a crease on his helmet and a bandage on his leg. Guo noticed the dirt on his uniform didn’t match the soil and concluded it must be explosive residue.
A call to the captain settled it.
The squad leader insisted on one of his men leading the way to check for traps. The woods seemed peaceful. Birds and butterflies flew about. A squirrel ran up a tree to escape them, giving Guo a guilty reminder of their test subject.
The point man raised a hand. “We’re surrounded,” he said.
Guo looked around. He couldn’t see any bots.
Pete shouted, “I’m Doctor Peter Smith. Admiral Galen tasked me to communicate with the artificial intelligence.”
A branch over his head bent double, flipped away from the tree, and spread out legs as it landed upright. More bots peeked out around trunks. The undergrowth shook as others shifted to complete the circle around them.
A rustle in the leaves drew Guo’s attention up. A bot perched on a fork. Most of the bots were human designs with weapons added. This one had to be pure AI creation—lean, sharp, a pair of pistol barrels with legs.
“Can you understand me?” asked Pete.
The branch-bot bent over to write in the dirt. “YES. SPEAKER COMING,” read the precise letters.
Guo called to the infantry squad. “There’s another one coming. Keep calm.”
Two came, both human made. A flying deliverybot carried another bot. The smaller one was designed for playing music. It still had “Pavel’s Portable Parties” written on both sides with the late business’s contact numbers. The boombot scooted to a couple of body lengths from Pete before speaking.
“This unit is in connection with all Demeter artificial intelligence nodes. Human Peter Smith is recognized as representative of human governance.”
“Good,” said Pete. “First. Have all AI units ceased combat operations?”
“All offensive operations have ceased. Units are using evasive tactics to avoid humans violating cease fire.”
Pete gave Chetty a look. The intelligence officer moved off and spoke urgently into his handcomm.
“We will enforce the cease fire,” said Pete. “I must negotiate a permanent agreement with you. You must not act on anything I say until the permanent agreement has been approved by my superiors.”
“This is acceptable.”
Guo studied the boombot. It had no expression to change, no variation in its tone of voice. He decided Pete was the best choice for negotiator. A professional diplomat would be crippled by the absence of all the cues he looked for.
The AI had conceded Pete’s initial demands, such as promising to not convert any more people to data. Now they were bargaining over
how much hardware would remain under the AI’s control. Chetty took notes on a datasheet.
Guo thought, This will take a long time.
BDS Aurora, centrifugal acceleration 10 m/s2
“Commander Long, reporting as ordered, sir!”
Admiral Galen returned her salute. “Long. Have you ever been elected to political office?”
“No, sir.”
“Have you ever been appointed as a diplomatic delegate by a government?”
“No, sir.”
“Did your orders instruct you to give the information acquired on your mission to anyone outside your chain of command?”
“No, sir.”
“Then where the fuck did you get the authority to call a global cease-fire and negotiate with the enemy?”
Mitchie decided apologizing wouldn’t help. Not that she wanted to. “I didn’t have the authority, sir. It was just the right thing to do.”
“You weren’t right. You were lucky. You ran off based on a preliminary analysis. It’s a miracle that the enemy didn’t take advantage of you to set us up for a sneak assault. It still may. We can’t tell. Which is why we have chains of command and civilians at the top taking responsibility for the big decisions.”
The words Fuck you, I saved thousands stayed locked behind her clenched teeth.
“For more than a year I’ve trusted you with some of the most important tasks we had. Now I find I can’t trust you. You’re going to do whatever you want, not what you’re ordered to, not what the Disconnected Worlds need done. So I’m going to be damn careful what china shops I let you into.”
He waited to see if she’d say anything before continuing. “I had thought that recon mission would give me grounds to finally get you promoted to captain. Even had my yeoman start the paperwork. That’s been shredded. You were up for a couple of valor awards. That paperwork’s shredded too.”
As if I fucking care, she thought.
“And I’m going to have to write a personal note to Admiral Chu saying, ‘You told me so.’ Now get out of my office.”
Mitchie saluted, performed a precise about-face, and walked out.
She found Guo waiting down the corridor.
“How did it go?” he asked.
“Bad. Let’s get out of here.”
“Okay.” He walked alongside.
Someone called “Long!” as they passed a cross-corridor. Mitchie cursed under her breath.
Director Ping strode up to them. “Do you realize how much planning you’ve ruined?”
“No, and I probably don’t care,” she answered.
“We’ve been planning for the resettlement of Demeter since the treaty of alliance was signed. Millions of people would be transferred to make it a functioning world again. Except what we had to offer them was ownership of the land and buildings. Now you showed the owners still exist. What are we going to give the migrants?”
“Aren’t you happy they’re still alive, or will be someday?”
“I’ll be happy when someday comes. They can’t get any work done now. There’s square klicks torn in the cities by battle damage and someone has to repair it. How are we going to pay for it?”
“Auction off Swakop. If the AI there goes for the same deal the planet should be in good shape. But now I’m going to sleep.”
She turned away.
Guo stayed silent until they’d made a couple of turns. “You don’t look tired.”
“I’m not. But I like the idea of going to sleep without being afraid of my dreams.” She looked up at him with a smile, the first she’d had since being called back to the Aurora. “Want to help me with that?”
Demeter, gravity 7.5 m/s2
Pete’s lab was in the ce
nter of Endymion City. It had the most surviving processing power of any city on Demeter. His team had knit all the computers they could find into a single massive array. Chetty speculated that it would be the most computations applied to any single problem by humans.
“All nodes are ready,” declared a technician.
“Read her in,” directed Pete.
Three data blocks sat in the middle of the lab, covered in high data rate cabling. Their contents flowed out to the processing nodes, carefully arranged to let each simulate a portion of the body. Adjacent nodes would trade their overlapping layers back and forth to stay synchronized.
The researchers watched their screens fill with descriptions of a human being. The lead doctor said, “She’s conscious. High adrenaline levels. Brain activity indicates panic. Not a reaction to the sensory isolation, that’s how she was when recorded.”
“We can accept sound,” said the tech.
Pete leaned forward. “Mrs. Gurnsey? Heather? This is Dr. Smith. Can you hear me?”
Mitchie looked at the simulation clock. The system was taking over a minute to simulate one second. The eardrum-models were being shaken to match Pete’s speech. How long it would take for the patient, if that was the word, to react was unknown.
The simulation began speaking 43 real seconds later. The tech saved up the whole statement before putting it on the lab’s speakers. “Yes! What happened? I can’t feel anything!” The voice sounded like a normal human.
“You’re in Hermes Hospital. You’ve been terribly injured. I promise you we’re giving you the best care we can. Do you remember what happened?”
Brain waves and vocal cords reacted immediately. The playback was delayed to speed it up for the listeners. “We were running. The bots went rogue. They were grabbing people. I just remember running. Did they get me?”
“Yes, but the Navy’s driven them off again. You’re safe now. The rogues are destroyed.”
“My children, my husband, did you find them?”
“Yes, they’re here too. You’re all going to need extensive treatment to recover.”
The doctor reported, “Stress levels are going down.”
“That’s enough,” said Pete. “Discontinue the simulation.” Screens blanked out across the lab. “So this proved it. We have real people in those boxes.” The room filled with chatter.
Guo leaned over to Chetty. “Did they save the simulation?”
“No,” he replied. “Pete’s worried the sim’s not accurate enough to do all interactions correctly. So he’s going to go off the saved version in the blocks every time.”
Mitchie put her hand on her husband’s arm. “What’s the matter?”
“Did we just kill someone?” demanded Guo. “That was a living, thinking being . . . and now she no longer exists.”
Chetty tried to answer but tripped over his words as the question sank in. “It’s . . . well, I don’t know.”
“Oh, God.” Guo covered his eyes. “Where is her soul?”
Mitchie took his hand in both of hers. “Hey. She’s still there in the block.”
“But what of the one just created?”
She cast about for an analogy. “Think of it as . . . when an egg is fertilized but doesn’t implant. Happens all the time. God knows sometimes life is just a flicker.”
Guo held still as he absorbed that. “Okay. I can live with that.”
“Then let’s get out of here.”
***
Walking through the streets of Endymion City they could feel the violence in the cracks and stains. The park they found was peaceful, hardly changed from when humans were there. The AI hadn’t damaged it with a bunker, instead putting one in place of a warehouse across the avenue.
Mitchie and Guo sat on a bench, looking at overgrown grass spreading down to the pond. Ducks swam on the water as if they were still on Old Earth. The grass grew taller in some places but they avoided wondering why.
Guo raised his eyes to the data storage bunker. “I wonder where their souls are. Hovering where they were disintegrated? Staying with the storage blocks? Or gone to heaven?”
“They could have gone to heaven and then come back when we rebuild their bodies,” offered Mitchie.
“Would that be blessing or cursing them?”
She didn’t answer.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t be going on about this. You have enough bad dreams already.”
“It’s all right. I’m sleeping better now anyway.”
“With saving them?” Guo waved at the bunker.
“That. And also I’m seeing hope.”
“Hope for what? That they’ll let you retire so we can enjoy life?”
She laughed. “No, they’re going to keep me in harness as long as they can, even if they don’t trust me. The Fusion would freak if someone with so many of their secrets was not under military control.”
“Then what?”
“I swore to spend my whole life fighting the Fusion, to punish them for killing Derry and everyone else they’ve hurt with their obsession for total control. I didn’t think we’d win. I just wanted to do what I could and buy time for freedom.”
Mitchie watched a duck take off. “Now . . . well. The whole point of the Fusion’s existence is that the Betrayers can only be stopped by controlling every action of the human race. We just refuted that. Every time we take a world back from an AI more people will realize there’s no need to obey those rules. Eventually the whole thing will shatter. And I’ll be here to see it.” She looked up at Guo. “If I don’t go too often to the well.”
He chuckled. “So what do you want to do after the war?”
“I don’t know. When I went to space the family agreed my cousin Albert would inherit the ranch. We could buy a piece to build a house on.”
“Oh, I like that. We could have a nice big house with room for a family.”
“Family? Is this whole conversation just about yanking my implant?” Her words were stern. The way she snuggled into his side wasn’t.
“Well, I’ve been thinking about it ever since I proposed. Didn’t you give it any thought when we married?”
“No. I just thought the wedding would make you happy and it would be my last chance to make you happy.”
His arm tightened around her. “I’m glad it worked out better than that.”
“Me, too.” More ducks took off from the pond. “When the war’s over I won’t need my implant anymore.”
Guo leaned down to kiss Mitchie.
See the conclusion of Michigan Long’s adventures in
TORCHSHIP CAPTAIN
Michigan Long blackmailed her enemies into joining the war against the AIs. Now the secret she used is leaking out and the Fusion is shattering. Caught in the middle of a civil war, she will have to use any weapon that comes to hand--her wits, her ship, her mate.
Available now on Amazon.
About the Author
Karl Gallagher has earned engineering degrees from MIT and USC, controlled weather satellites for the Air Force, designed weather satellites for TRW, designed a rocketship for a start-up, and done systems engineering for a fighter plane. He is husband to Laura and father to Maggie, James, and dearly missed Alanna.
About Kelt Haven Press
Kelt Haven Press is releasing print, ebook, and audiobooks by Karl K. Gallagher. Torchship Captain will be released in 2017. For updates see:
www.kelthavenpress.com
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If you enjoyed Torchship Pilot please leave a review on Amazon.com.
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