“Several reasons, Madam President,” Drennan said. “For one thing, we have plausible deniability. You can prove nothing, and we’re prepared to refute everything. Moreover, we’ve already prepared enough bits of evidence to implicate you, mostly in the form of encrypted messages to each other which clearly discuss your involvement with the plan. Making your accusations look like infighting within this scheme is simply insurance. If things go badly enough for us and those messages are subpoenaed, it’ll create a scandal big enough to destroy the rest of your presidency.”
The three of them could see the wrath behind President Loughlin’s eyes, but Drennan continued. “Further still, the three of us do not constitute the entirety of this plan. We’re just the ones telling you about it. If it was just the three of us, only one of us would be speaking to you now.”
“Also, there’s still a good chance for it to work,” Stone added, hoping the president could even hear her past her obvious fury. “And if it does, the dividends will be enormous. With the end of the cold war and all its protectionism, and all the costs in treasure and life related to it, there will be an economic surge. And the fall of the last theocracies will be the death knell for religion on Earth. Think of the Vatican. Ages ago it was a center of immense political power, dispatching armies and shaping kingdoms, and today it’s mostly a cultural hub, a place for tourists. Imagine Mecca becoming something similar. Islam’s influence on governments can go the way of Christianity’s, but in the modern world it can go faster. It can fade into political irrelevance within a couple generations.”
She folded her arms and sat back, still fuming. “So, you came to me with both the carrot and the stick. Even if I wanted this plan to work, how could it now? I’d have to reverse course and escalate. And Turkey has given me no reason to do so. I doubt they’re going to.”
“We still have two good options. We could have General Candemir risk launching another special forces strike without his government’s knowledge, something which would cause us to respond again but with greater force. But better still, we could help destroy Dirac.”
“Oh? How so?” the president asked sardonically.
“Via Mars,” Drennan said. “Dirac’s relay satellite is destroyed, but they’re still able to communicate with Arcadia Base on Mars. We can send a message to Arcadia and have them re-transmit it to Dirac. This is an option we’ve already considered. The message could include a coded note to Candemir’s scientist up there, and he can use that code to unlock the station’s thruster controls. This is his Plan B, and he already knows how to recognize the code.”
“I think you’re full of it. If you have these options available, why bother coming to me now?”
“Because we need them to work. This is our backup, and we can’t give it a third try. We may need you to push, and for that, your goals have to be the same as ours.”
“This is insane, Eli. Truly despicable. And to start a war? I know perfectly well how important that station is to science. Not just to science but to all of humanity. We’ve had survey probes fly to nearby stars thanks to that station. And colony ships will be ready to follow in, what, less than a decade? All running on Dirac-made fuel. How could you three want to sacrifice something so important?”
Stone looked at Drennan and saw his nod of approval. Erik Stendahl hesitated, but gave her a brief nod as well.
“Because Dirac is also working on something far more consequential than fuel,” Stone said. “And while Secretary Stendahl might see the war as the more urgent need, for Drennan and myself it means that destroying Dirac is an even higher priority. I think it’ll be your priority as well, Madam President. Do you know which scientific field has seen the greatest advances in the last thirty-plus years, ever since the first singular AI?”
“Since Blue Sphere? Energy sounds about right. And spacecraft propulsion.”
“More generally, materials science. Dirac Station is about to reach a supreme goal in that field. Their molecular dynamics lab is well on its way to constructing a replicator. The prototype should be complete within a few months.”
“Come again?”
“A true replication device. Universal molecular assembly. Also known as a soft replicator–”
“These things already exist, don’t they? How else was your car manufactured? And almost every house built in the last twenty years? All their materials come from cheap replication.”
“These things come from replicating nanotech. They’re also known as clanking replicators. They still require base materials that get rearranged into new objects, and those objects still require assembly before they can become cars and houses and so on. What they’re capable of fabricating is limited, because nanobots still have to physically interact with those materials. On a human scale, imagine that your hands are either covered with mittens or coated in glue. You can still slop together a brick wall, but try assembling a jigsaw puzzle. Nanobot replicators are impressive, but ultimately they’re just glorified 3-D printers.
“A soft replicator, though, doesn’t use traditional nanobots. Using various reactive molecules, it can take energy and re-convert it at subatomic levels into new matter. Any matter. The process is called mechanosynthesis, and Dirac seems to have mastered it. This device is probably the holy grail of applied science.”
“I know you’re trying to keep the science in layman’s terms, Ms. Stone,” the president said. “Remember that I’m a career diplomat. So, if you have one of these things the size of this room, you can plug it in, program it to create a new car inside, and voila, a new car materializes out of thin air?”
“Out of the energy and raw base matter provided, yes. I understand that the prototype could fabricate something the size and complexity of a car within a minute. Fully charged and ready to drive.”
“Same thing if I wanted a hot cup of tea? Earl Grey?”
“Same thing, ma’am. It would materialize in a few seconds.”
“How about organic matter? Like if I wanted a rotisserie chicken?”
“That’s only a few months away. As far as organic matter goes, tea leaves are probably doable so far. Once it can synthesize complicated organic matter, it could replicate a chicken dinner in a matter of seconds. Cooked, if you want to use that word, to whatever temperature you want.”
“And how about a live chicken?”
“Same thing. All the device needs is a blueprint for the programming, and you could use a real chicken as a template.”
“I see what you’re getting at here. You see this thing as a Pandora’s Box? If I could create a clone chicken, then why not a thousand chickens, or a million? Or a person?”
“That’s barely the tip of the iceberg, ma’am. The debate on cloning people was settled decades ago, but the restrictions on it are based on being able to restrict the technology required to do it. And it takes years to grow a clone into an adult, just like it does with any normal person. But we’re not really talking about cloning. What if a fully-grown adult could be copied instead of cloned? With all of their memories completely intact?”
“You’re worried about not being able to regulate it? Worried enough to want to destroy the whole station?”
“Exactly.”
“Regulation is what government does. Every government, ideally. We can legislate–”
“What if you want a hydrogen bomb instead of a chicken?” Drennan said loudly, drawing an irritated look from Loughlin. “Or a thousand of them? How about if the HM has this technology and uses it to create a million hypersonic missiles? What if someone wants a custom-made virus that only targets a certain race? How about if some zealot wants to copy himself a million times so he can become a disposable army instead of a lone nut case?”
“That’s absurd. These devices can be built with safeguards, can’t they? You can’t even buy a water heater that doesn’t come with a bunch of safety devices.”
“Absolutely they can be programmed for safety. How long do you think it’ll take for someone to hack in
to the software? A matter of hours or minutes?”
“Then we regulate how many replicators exist. And the access to them. I understand the power you’re talking about. So, we keep them under government control. Just like we have with nukes or singular AI.”
“And what if you want to replicate a replicator? With profit or ideological motives involved, how can you trust those in charge of it to have perfect integrity? For years and years to come, no less? The U.S. invented nuclear weapons, and how long did it keep its monopoly? Government isn’t dependable enough, and it isn’t quick enough. And people are not trustworthy enough.”
“There are a few limits to it,” Stone said. “But only a few. The replicator can’t produce antimatter on its own, and very few forms of exotic matter. These things require special refinement. But almost anything else goes. Fabricating biological material, like a perfect copy of yourself, ma’am? No problem. A flawless fifty-carat diamond, no problem. Fifty kilos of weapons-grade uranium, no problem.”
“Then we call it proprietary and keep the number allowed to exist very low. And under heavy security. When was the last time someone broke into a missile silo and stole a warhead? Never, as far as I know. The benefits to this device could be incredible!”
“If you want to talk about nuclear security, ma’am, consider how many nations have weapons,” Drennan said. “Except with them, we know they exist. And most countries willfully don’t want them. But every nation… hell, every two-bit organization and semi-wealthy individual is going to want to get their hands on one of these or develop their own. The incentives will be irresistible. These devices will spread. It would only be a matter of how fast.”
“Forget nukes, then. It was the wrong analogy. The world did control singular AI,” the president said confidently. “And it still does. In ‘32 I was in China as a young foreign service officer for the State Department when the U.S. was negotiating the Eisen Plan. The cynics also called Blue Sphere a Pandora’s Box, and they were right. The development of a singular AI like that was inevitable, but it was too much potential power for anyone. So its computing power was limited. And the number of SAIs allowed to exist was limited, all of them contained in Penning traps. And all them regulated by the U.N., with the blessings of the U.S. It was one of the great moments of wisdom and restraint in history.”
“And it failed.”
“Excuse me?”
“The Eisen Plan failed, Madam President. The treaty limits SAIs to ten-to-the-thirty-first floating operations per second, or FLOPS. The new ‘Sleipnir’ SAI onboard Dirac functions at ten-to-the-thirty-eighth FLOPS. It dwarfs any other computer by ten million to one. It’s what allowed the scientists there to create the replicator. There were computing obstacles that were otherwise insurmountable. Sleipnir blew right through them.”
The president shuddered with stifled rage, and her voice became raspy as she spoke. “And who authorized this ‘Sleipnir’ to be built?”
“Your predecessor, ma’am, over a year ago. Not long after you won the election, in fact.”
Loughlin began pacing, a hundred thoughts flooding through her head. “That idiot. That reckless, licentious, egotistical idiot! It’s an act of war against the entire world, for God’s sake. According to the treaty that we sponsored! And why the hell didn’t you tell me about this earlier, Stone? It’s a national liability.”
“I didn’t know either until a whistleblower on Dirac got word to me that it was in development. President Richardson considered it patriotic. For him, it was about ambition, giving our country more power.”
“When all this is over I’ll have the son of a bitch arrested.” Loughlin thought out loud, still pacing.
“He had his own priorities, Madam President,” Stone said. “And none of us will justify them. He was a narrow-minded fool. But with respect, you’re approaching the replicator the same way. You’re focused on the benefits, looking for ways to discount the drawbacks. And you’re right, the benefits would be astonishing.”
“The end of all want. Poverty, malnutrition, resource shortages, overemployment… what’s left of those things could be gone in months, at most.”
“And the end of every economic model you’ve ever heard of. The end of the very concept of a budget. Complete upheaval in the manufacturing and construction sectors, in agriculture, even in transportation since goods produced by these devices won’t have to be shipped far. New security threats far beyond our capacity to handle them. And extreme loss of political controls. Economic and military anarchy, Madam President.”
“Mankind is just not ready for it,” Drennan said. “It’ll look like the goddamn apocalypse. We can’t be Pollyannaish about this. But we have an opportunity to nip it in the bud.”
“So, ‘machines are ahead of morals by some centuries’? Truman said that after the first atomic test, you know.”
“He wasn’t wrong. The world has just been lucky. But compared to A-bombs, the incentives for using the new technology are reversed.”
“You’ve been quieter than normal, Erik,” Loughlin said, looking at the defense secretary. “Your thoughts about all this?”
“I do agree with my colleagues, ma’am. The security concerns are tremendous, and the consequences are inevitable. As my colleagues mentioned earlier, though, my higher priority is the war. We might be able to contain the replicator technology on Dirac before it ever comes to Earth. But this cold war can only end in a violent conflagration, and the longer we wait, the less controllable it might be. We need to act now if we’re to end it on manageable terms.”
“Does Secretary Adams know about all this?” Loughlin asked, referring to the Secretary for Science and Technology.
“About the replicator? I honestly don’t know, ma’am, though I doubt it,” Stone said. “One of Dirac’s administrators had serious misgivings about the replicator project and contacted me ten months ago, just after I was appointed. He was frightened about the implications of it, including the risk of even building the Sleipnir SAI in the first place. He didn’t want to go public or contact the S&T Department since it would probably leak from there, so he came to me.”
“Why you?”
“Because he knew me from when I was a military liaison to the Pathfinder project, and he trusted that I’d do what I could to destroy it. Bringing it to almost anyone else was a huge risk, as I think you’ve already demonstrated ma’am, but Eli and I assured him that we would eliminate all traces of it. He knew what that would mean for Dirac.”
“What about everyone else on Dirac?”
“Most people on the station know nothing about it. This administrator is a foreign national, by the way, a Brit. But the project had to inform him since their lab would need to draw a lot more power than it usually does. Otherwise, the project is only drawing on U.S. funds earmarked for general research on Dirac, so no other countries know about it or the Sleipnir. The project leader, Will Groves, and his handful of scientists working on it seem to view it as merely a great improvement on the replicators we have now. They’re focused on the benefits, imagining the whole human race living in luxury and abundance. They haven’t fully considered what it’ll mean for security, or for economics.”
“Which is to say they have thought about it and decided for themselves that the benefits outweigh the risks, so they’re keeping their project secret until it’s ready,” Drennan said. “Arrogant little shits. They didn’t want Adams or anyone else shutting them down. Wishful thinking at its worst.”
President Loughlin stared out the window. Snow was falling on the south lawn. She again spent over a minute of saying nothing.
“I’ll tell you what I’m not going to do. I’m not going to give any military orders to escalate the situation beyond what it is now. But I’m also not about to walk into the press room and start talking about all this. Nor will I give you three permission to escalate this on your own. You will not allow any other attacks from your general,” she said, looking at Drennan, “and you will not send some
coded message to his man on Dirac. Instead, you will give me an hour. Come back to my office at noon. I will give you my decision then.”
“You’ll have more questions, ma’am,” Stone said. “I’ll be in my office if you–”
“Out, Diandra. All of you. I need time to think.” Katherine Loughlin sat back down behind the Resolute desk as the three left the room, and she stared out the window at the falling snow.
In silence, the three walked through the west wing and down the stairway towards the Situation Room. They all knew that they didn’t need her permission to unleash either option, but there were no whispers reminding each other. By unspoken consensus, they decided to give her the hour. But there was something else they agreed on, which they had settled before the meeting began: the dead-hand switch. If the president came to the wrong decision, they would still act. Even if they were all arrested, they would still act. Drennan had already sent a private text to Candemir, instructing him to launch a special forces strike on an early warning site on Cyprus after 1800Z if there was no further word, and an hour earlier Stendahl had called the private number for Admiral Martin at SPACECOM, giving him instructions for formatting a message to be sent to Dirac via Mars at the same time.
CHAPTER 17
Dirac Station
Labs, port corridor
1535Z, 24 December 2065
Two of Lincoln’s crew stood with their hydro-bombs and stun guns, watching the corridors and waiting for orders. At the far end of the hall, the sealer doors leading to the Hub opened and a single person emerged before the doors shut again. At forty meters away the crewmen couldn’t see much, but they could at least see that this person wasn’t armed. It was a young woman, stripped to her underwear and holding her hands above her head. One of her hands held a sheet of paper.
“Stop there!” shouted one of the crewmen. “Identify yourself!”
“Don’t shoot! I’m a scientist here!”
“What are you doing there?”
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