ACTIVATION

by M. G. GILIBERT

  This is where the trap will be set.

  It should take the truck around fourteen hours to reach it. Don’s vehicle is faster, but the lack of good driving conditions will make the trip extremely long. He expects to reach the location in a little more than ten hours. If everything goes well, it should give Don and his team somewhere around six hours to complete the ambush mission before the truck arrives.

  The mission consists of setting up the ambush, waiting for an aircraft, destroying the robots on board, and removing anything that GAIA uses to control the aircraft.

  It was decided to give up on the idea of blowing something up to catch GAIA’s attention. An explosion could be seen as a threat and would probably trigger a stronger reaction from GAIA. Instead of dealing with one reconnaissance aircraft, the soldiers could end up facing a small fleet, equipped with all kind of weapons to respond to the danger an explosion would mean to GAIA.

  Instead of an explosion, Henry’s car will be the main element of the ambush. The bait.

  After just the couple of hours of sleep Don and the taskforce could afford to have, it is already time to go. He gets a final status update on the robots from Jack. They are ready and currently being loaded in the truck. The truck will leave as scheduled, two hours after Don.

  With this positive news, Don, Henry, and his men get into their vehicles and head out to the ambush site.

  It’s dark outside. The visibility is good as the moon is high and no clouds block its natural light.

  Data analysts have reviewed the itinerary several times and compared it against the pictures they requested from the satellite. According to them, there is not a single sign of threat on the way. Mercenaries are usually roaming around cities or whatever is left of them. There are no cities or villages on the route from the base to the attack site. And larger roads are for the most part inexistent, thus limiting even more the likelihood of encountering threats. The teams can focus all their attention on the driving and on the mission at hand.

  Henry and the programmer are sitting in the back of the car driven by John. They brief each other on what they expect to find in the aircraft and how they intend to turn it back into a man-operated aircraft.

  John does not pay much attention to their conversation. It is too technical for him and he doesn’t understand anything. Instead, he is focusing on the car preceding them. It is not because everything seems fine so far that he should not be careful. The lack of speed of the vehicles makes them an easy target. But as long as they are in contact with the base and nothing is detected, they are fine. If a threat appears on the base’s radars, they will be informed right away and will have enough lead time to take cover and avoid an unnecessary fight.

  And as planned, nothing happens during the trip.

  Don’s car halts in the first hours of daylight. They have almost reached their destination. Another ten miles in the open, flat, and dry area and they will be ready to set their trap.

  The teams got word an hour earlier, while they were still within the base’s reach, that the truck was progressing regularly. It should even arrive at the location ahead of schedule.

  If that is so, there is no time to waste. The teams need to take their respective positions. Everyone gets out of their vehicles.

  Henry, John, the programmer, the accompanying soldier, and the driver stay behind in the armored vehicle. They will stay under cover until the mission is complete. Don and the four Special Forces take Henry’s car and leave right away.

  Don drives slowly.

  After about fifteen minutes, he stops the car in the middle of nowhere. The four men exit right away. They each pull a large bag from the trunk and start spreading in all directions away from the car.

  They are wearing sand-colored clothes for camouflage. Don waits a few more minutes, monitoring the progress of the four men until they disappear from his sight.

  His part of the mission can now begin.

  Just like he came, he drives back to his original position, in reverse, very slowly.

  After a few minutes driving like that, he receives a confirmation in his headset from each of the four men. They are in position and ready.

  Don is almost back at the location where he left Henry and the rest of the group. He stops his car again. This time he will drive forward. He presses the throttle pedal while keeping his foot firm on the brake.

  The engine is roaring, as revs are building up. Don releases the brake and the wheels go spinning before the car moves. The effect is immediate. Not only does it take Don many years back to when he was Gabe’s age, but not as smart, it also lifts a large cloud of dust in the air.

  Don continues to drive fast on the dust, making movements with the wheel to create an even larger cloud. He is clearly enjoying himself.

  Once he reaches the location where he dropped the men off, he hits the brakes and the car goes into a skid for a few seconds.

  Don waits a few moments for some of the dust to settle and gets out of the car.

  He looks at the huge cloud that is now floating in the air. This is exactly what he had in mind. And luckily, there is almost no wind outside, which makes the cloud stay over him for a long time. ‘I guess this should get me noticed,’ he thinks.

  Without waiting, he pops the hood and goes back inside the car. He just needs to wait now.

  The idea to use the hood is his. He believes that if and when an aircraft comes, the robots or GAIA will probably think of a breakdown before they think of an ambush.

  After one hour or so waiting and regularly alimenting the cloud of dust, Don finally sees an aircraft on the horizon. It is flying very low, in his direction.

  This is it.

  “Game on, everyone. Aircraft approaching on my twelve. Do not move,” Don says to everyone’s headsets.

  The aircraft stops in midair as it reaches the car.

  Don comes out with his hands up. He doesn’t want to give the robots a reason to start shooting at him.

  The aircraft stays there for a few seconds, probably assessing the threat level Don represents. And after flying around the car a couple times, the aircraft finally lands.

  Two robots exit the aircraft and come to Don’s direction. They both carry their weapon. If not willing to use it, they definitely seem ready to.

  Two other robots are standing next to the aircraft.

  ‘Alpha, green on moving target left … Bravo, green on moving target right … Charlie, green on still target right … Delta, green on still target left. All green, waiting for command’ the men say in Don’s headset.

  “Take them out,” Don whispers.

  At this moment, and without a sound, the four robots fall simultaneously on the ground. Their head is either detached from the body or completely pulverized.

  Three seconds later, Don hears four detonations. This is the time it took the sound to travel the distance separating the men and the robots. Almost a mile.

  Don runs straight to the first robot, grabs its gun and shoots it again. He then goes from robot to robot to make sure they are all ‘dead’. He confirms the aircraft is empty.

  “Clear. You can all come now,” Don says.

  The armed vehicle comes to Don, while the four men stand up from their position. They covered themselves with a thermal blanket that blocked their body heat and made them invisible to the aircraft.

  Ten minutes later, the entire team is either with Don or within his sight.

  Henry, Don, and the programmer take position in the aircraft right away. Don is getting familiar with the commands while Henry is actively working towards disconnecting GAIA.

  One hour later, they are confident they have restored the aircraft to its original, man-operated, state.

  They were expecting to have to rewrite many lines of code, but it seems like GAIA found an even simpler way to control the aircraft. A simple box is connected to the central system of the aircraft and basically takes it over.

  Bypassing the console was very easy as Henry just nee
ded to disconnect it. Sometimes the simplest things are the most efficient. This was actually a major principle that GAIA used in the past with the large client companies it was managing. It seems like it also applied it to itself.

  Don starts the aircraft’s engines and slowly pulls it off the ground. It is working.

  He makes a few maneuvers to get a better feel of the commands and of the aircraft’s capabilities. Once he is confident he asks the team to get in their vehicles and to go back under cover. He will escort them there.

  This little practice, along with their first success in the mission, is giving Don an additional boost in confidence. The mission is well engaged, and he is now more convinced than earlier that he will be sitting in the aircraft with Gabe and Dave before the end of the day.

  The entire team regroups after they’ve reached the natural protection of the trees. They still have three hours or so to wait before the truck arrives. This is time not well spent. Too much can happen here during these three hours. And the same uncertainty applies to the boys as well.

  Don decides it is preferable to capitalize on the advance they have and to go meet the truck instead of waiting for it.

  Everyone agrees. Don climbs in the aircraft and takes off. He reaches the truck in less than twenty minutes. They are expecting him. Don sent a message to the base as soon as he reached its coverage zone, and the base relayed the message and Don’s instructions to the truck.

  The team has already started to unload the robots. As Don lands, they are standing in line and ready to board the aircraft.

  Jack joins Don in the aircraft and briefs him on how the robots work and move. He comes with two pairs of goggles.

  “Put these on. The team has worked on these for a while and they just finished it last night,” Jack says.

  “What is that?” Don asks.

  “Put them on, you’ll see,” Jack says.

  Don complies and waits.

  “It’s all black. What am I supposed to look at or see?” he asks.

  “Hold on, let me connect your glasses to one of the robots,” Jack answers as he is typing some commands on a device.

  “Alright. It’s working now. I see us in the aircraft. I get it now. I’m connected to one of the robots,” Don says.

  “Correct. You see what the robot sees. Now, if you want the robot to move, you just need to say it. It will react to your voice commands. You do not be to be precise as it will interpret what you say and compare it to its environment to adjust its behavior to what you actually mean. For example, if you ask the robot to come back, it will come back to the source of the command, you. It will do so regardless of whether it needs to turn right or left. It will just follow the most appropriate path. If you ask the robot to climb if it stands next to the aircraft or to come aboard, it will interpret it the same way. Now try,” Jack explains.

  “Robot, come to me and get in the aircraft,” Don says.

  The robot executes Don’s order almost instantly and takes place in the back of the aircraft behind Don and Jack.

  “Impressive,” Don says. “Now, how does it shoot its weapon?” he asks.

  “Pretty much the same. Except that the glasses have embedded augmented reality. We used video games’ technology. If you place your hands in front of your face, they will appear on your screen. From there you just need to point your finger at your target on the screen and ask the robot to shoot,” Jack says.

  “Perfect. Let me try,” Don says.

  “Robot, get out of the aircraft and go to that tree,” Don says as he is pointing at a tree in his screen.

  And just like Don’s first order, the robot executes it smoothly.

  “Robot, grab your weapon and shoot once at … that branch,” Don orders. The robot pulls its weapon and shoots.

  “Impressive,” Don says. “Congratulations to you and the teams. Great job. Now tell me how it works.”

  “The program is a mix of different programs from different devices. Mainly from the video game consoles we have in the entertainment room at the base. We are also leveraging our communication satellites to send and receive signals between the goggles and the robots. But the signal is not secure, yet. It means it can be hijacked by GAIA,” Jack explains.

  “What’s the exposure?” Don asks.

  “Well, when we find the boys and we start shooting our way out, if GAIA infiltrates our system, it will then be able to turn the robots against the boys,” Jack says.

  “How do we respond to that?” Don asks.

  “We embedded a system that will shut the robots down in the event we lose the data feed to them or if someone else than us attempts to control them,” Jack says.

  “Good. So no risk for the boys to be harmed. Can the robots speak?” Don asks.

  “No, they cannot,” Jack answers.

  “We need a way to communicate with the boys,” Don says.

  “Let’s equip them with a couple of headsets. They will hand them to the boys when they find them,” Jack proposes.

  “That should work. Now, let’s put the robots in the aircraft and brief the others,” Don says.

  “One last thing, when you address a robot, you don’t need to start your sentences with ‘Robot’. It knows you are talking to it,” Jack says.

  “Ok. Now let’s go get our sons,” Don concludes.

  Don and Jack are now in the aircraft. Don is in the front seat, flying the aircraft while Jack is in the back with the robots. He is making the final touches to ensure the robots are fully operational. Neither Don nor Jack talk. They are fully concentrated on what’s coming. After two hours, they finally approach the Metropolis where Dave and Gabe are held captive.

  Don doesn’t exactly know what to expect. They are now in enemy territory.

  As far as he knows, the mission could end abruptly if GAIA and the robots were aware of their presence. But it seems that their presence is not noticed. Don doesn’t see any other aircraft flying in their direction. They are almost alone in the air as they fly over the Metropolis.

  “Alright, here is the airbase,” Don says. “I’m going to land. Get ready.”

  “Everything is ready here,” Jack confirms.

  Don slows the aircraft down and begins his landing approach.

  From the landing pad, he tries to find a place where to stop the aircraft. He needs to park it the same way as the other aircraft do. He doesn’t want to raise suspicion by doing something different from what is done here.

  There seems to be a spot under a large covered area. Don decides this is probably the best spot. They are close enough to the building’s entrance, which means that the boys will be close to the aircraft when they return.

  A few robots are walking in formation around the airbase. But they are not too many. Nothing that Don couldn’t handle on his own.

  Don stops the engines and moves to the back of the aircraft with Jack and the robots.

  “All set?” he asks.

  “Yes … put your goggles on,” Jack answers.

  They can now see what the robots see.

  One last check and the first two robots exit the aircraft. The other two are staying inside for now and will be used as backup.

  Don and Jack direct the robots towards the main elevator. As they arrive in front of it, they realize there is no button to call it.

  The two robots stand in front of the elevator and wait. Nothing happens.

  A few minutes go by and the elevator door still does not open.

  Could they already be stuck? So close to their objective? So close to the boys? They need to find another way to reach the main tower where the boys’ trackers transmitted their last position. But there doesn’t seem to be any other exit than the elevator.

  They look for scanners that could recognize the presence of the robots and would let them in but they do not find anything.

  At the same time, they notice another aircraft flying over them. It prepares to land. After it finds its final spot and stops, a small group of robots
gets out.

  They walk towards the elevator.

  Don and Jack move their robots on the side and wait for them. They will either try to catch the elevator with them or see how they call it.

  The group of robots reaches the elevator. They are now standing very close to Don and Jack’s robots.

  They look straight at the elevator door, without paying attention to the two robots standing there next to them. The doors open almost instantly.

  Jack tells Don that the robots run on GAIA’s programs and their presence is probably recognized by all GAIA-operated environments. And because their robots run on different programs, it is possible that GAIA’s systems cannot see them.

  Being invisible is a great advantage but it might make their progression in the city more complicated if none of the doors open in front of them.

  They decide to follow the robots inside the elevator.

  They are standing very close to the four robots. Don and Jack can see everything almost as if they were in the elevator, in the middle of the robots. Not a comfortable feeling.

  What if a robot starts communicating with them? How will they know how to respond? Is it also possible that they have fallen into a trap and will be captured? Everything has been easy so far, and working beyond Don’s expectations. The level of uncertainty is excessive and makes him nervous. He invites Jack to get ready to draw his robot’s weapon in case something happens.

  Once again, the worst does not happen.

  The elevator reaches its destination. As they were the last to get inside the lift, Don and Jack’s robots are the first to exit. A long corridor faces them. There is no other choice but to walk straight. Once again, Don is not comfortable being followed by the other robots. He would rather have them in front of him than behind his back, not knowing what they are doing.