Airthan Ascendancy

by M. D. Cooper

  “Ha! I recognize that,” Sabrina said with a laugh. “That’s my brain you have up there.”

  “That it is,” Earnest said as he turned toward the holodisplay. “You can see here the perimortal section of Sabrina’s mind looks normal for an AI who has only distant human lineage in its mental structure.”

  Kara tentatively raised her hand. “Sorry to be the dumb one here, but what is a perimortal section of an AI’s brain? Sounds morbid.”

  Earnest nodded. “Yeah, it’s got a strange name. It’s the part of an AI’s brain that helps them understand that they are a mortal being just like humans. When AIs were first made, they didn’t have this part of their minds—well, the Weapon Born did, but that was a result of their unique origin. In fact, it was merging and reproduction with Weapon Born AIs that brought about the perimortal development in AIs’ minds to begin with. That’s what ‘humanized’ the bulk of sentient AIs, so to speak.”

  His gaze swept across the group, and then his eyes settled on Iris. “Ah! Let’s use you, Iris. You have human minds in your lineage just one generation back.”

  “I feel like I’m being put on display for everyone to ogle,” Iris said, laughing as she nodded for Earnest to proceed.

  “Which is normal for you,” Cheeky said, turning to give Iris a saucy wink.

  Earnest moved the display of Sabrina’s neural network to the side and pulled up a new one. “Iris is a very interesting example of an AI’s development. You can see that while she does have a perimortal section to her brain, it is configured differently from Sabrina’s. In many respects, the perimortal portion of an AI’s mind mirrors the function of the amygdala and hypothalamus of a human’s, in that it controls emotional response and the fight-or-flight response.

  “You can see that while Sabrina has a more tightly interwoven perimortal region of her mind, Iris has distinct regions. In many respects, Sabrina is more evolved in this area in that she has a more efficient processing center. However, it also means that the AI equivalent of the emotional processing center—where you figure out how you feel about things and make subjective decisions about if and how you want to experience certain events in the future—is more likely to trigger fight-or-flight in an uncontrolled fashion.”

  “I feel like I was simultaneously complimented and insulted,” Sabrina said, her frame’s lips twisting to the side.

  “It’s science,” Earnest said not unkindly. “It neither compliments or insults. OK…where was I going with this? Ah! Right. In both cases, the perimortal section of an AI’s mind is closely linked with its core logic centers.”

  On the display, a number of well-traveled neural pathways within both AIs’ minds were highlighted.

  “Sometimes these are stronger, sometimes they’re weaker. Just as it is with organics, the more successful pathways are reinforced, so behavioral patterns evolve from key decision points, whether those decision be conscious or unconscious, so to speak.”

  Earnest turned to face the two holodisplays and pushed them to the side before breathing a long sigh. “And now we have Airtha’s mind.”

  A new neural network appeared, one that was much larger than the other AIs’ and much more interwoven.

  “This is just a shard, which means it’s close to what we’d see in a single node. What you’ll see here, though, is that Airtha has not one, but four perimortal sections of her mind, and two of them are not well connected to her logic centers. Finaeus and I tested out various stimuli and found that Airtha can behave very logically in the face of some thoughts, and can have wild fight-or-flight reactions to others.”

  At that, Finaeus snorted. “And by that, he means she only has fight reactions. Her decision process never even gets close to the notion of disengaging from conflict.”

  “Explains a lot,” Sera muttered before asking, “But technically, Helen was a shard of Airtha inside of me. She didn’t have wildly irrational responses, or push me into conflicts.”

  “Right,” Finaeus nodded. “That’s because Helen was always destined to…uh…die. Bob also sent us mappings of Myriad’s mind, and while she has a similar neural pattern to this shard’s, Helen’s was missing all her perimortal regions. She had one small amygdala-like section and that was it.”

  “Seriously?” Fina asked from several rows back. “So she was purpose-made to shepherd me…us…whatever, but never had the urge for self-preservation?”

  “Essentially,” Earnest said. “She had to be ready to accept her mortality and not fight it. “History is filled with stories of shards that went against their parent entities. It would seem that Airtha didn’t want to repeat those events.”

  “OK, so how does this help us?” Iris asked. “Basically, we’re looking at the mind of an AI that was made to react strongly to things, and be a little neurotic.”

  “But those things are dwarfed by her logic centers,” Earnest replied. “And this is what gave me the idea about how to defeat her.”

  The scientist looked rather proud of himself, and Amavia called out. “OK, Earnest, we all know you’re super brilliant. Out with it.”

  He rolled his eyes at Amavia, but continued his explanation. “I worked out a way to flip her fight-or-flight response, so that flight becomes the dominant reaction, but I also managed to alter her emotional responses so that suicide is the ‘flight’ option she picks. It involves re-introducing the two perimortal sections that are largely disconnected right now. Then we can overwhelm her logic centers and she’ll kill herself with fear.”

  “Really?” Cheeky cocked an eyebrow. “How is that remotely possible? She has so many options available. There’s no way she’d think that death is her best choice.”

  Finaeus met Earnest’s eyes. “Well, we have to make her think she’s going to lose, and then the retro-struct virus we’ll introduce into her nodes will cause her decision-making to essentially uncouple from her logic centers.”

  “And how are we going to make her think she’s going to lose?” Sera asked.

  Finaeus sighed. “We have to make her think we’re going to destroy the ring. We also have to get on the move, because once the Airthan star and ring move beyond Huygens’ Thomias Belt, the ring will be far enough from system center to allow dark layer transitions right from its surface.”

  “Which means Airtha might come to the conclusion that she can flee,” Earnest added.

  Sera rose from her seat and stepped up onto the raised platform, scanning the group assembled before her.

  “So, as you all likely have figured out, we’re going in on two ships: Sabrina and Voyager. Both ships are well known, so crews are already working on altering their profiles—both hull and engine signature.”

  Katrina winced, and Sera gave her a sympathetic look. “It can be undone if needed. I swear I never recognize Sabrina half the time anymore, with all the changes we’ve made to her.”

  The AI laughed. “I should really get some sort of flowmetal system for reconfiguring the hull on the fly…you know, Finaeus, why don’t we do that?”

  “Cosmic rays,” Earnest said with a shrug. “Flowmetal breaks down over time from exposure to….” His voice faded away and he began tapping his chin. “You know…I wonder if we could somehow mix a flowmetal structure with a polymer containing Jessica’s microbes. That would give the flow—”

  “I’d be purple!” Sabrina gave an excited laugh. “I approve of this this plan.”

  “Well, I don’t think I could have something like that ready for this mission,” Earnest held up his hands. “It was just an idea.”

  “Shortlist me,” Sabrina gave the engineer a serious look, and he nodded.

  “You’ll be the first, Sabrina.”

  Sera shrugged as she considered such a thing. “You certainly wouldn’t be the first purple starship I’ve seen. Might have to take up covers as a cruiseliner, though, not a freighter.”

  “I like that,” Sabrina nodded vigorously. “I see a whole new future for us.”

  “OK, OK,” Sera held
up a hand. “Let’s focus on getting through this mission first.” She paused and glanced over her shoulder at Earnest. “Are the new team structures all set in the planning package?”

  “Sure are,” the engineer nodded. “Once again, Bob knew what he was doing. I re-evaluated everyone’s strengths, skills and compatibilities. Getting these two AIs—well, you know what I mean,” he gestured at Iris and Amavia, “in the mix did allow us to go from three teams to five.”

  “That’s excellent,” Sera said, while Iris pumped a fist in the air, calling out, “Go us!”

  To which Amavia added, “Well, more like, ‘Go Bob’.”

  The pronouncement elicited some laughs from around the room. When they dissipated, Sera continued.

  “OK, first off, as Finaeus said, the ship’s AIs will remain on their craft and coordinate with one another and their teams.”

  Troy made a sound of approval, while Sabrina’s face fell once more.

  “Look, Sabs, it takes too much bandwidth for you to fully project. If you want to be on a team, you have to remove your core from the ship.”

  A look of horror crossed over Sabrina’s face, and Cheeky laughed, patting Sabrina’s arm.

  “And no one is surprised you’d feel that way,” she soothed her.

  Sabrina raised a hand to her chin, her lips pursing for a moment before she spoke. “What if I…sharded?”

  The question took Sera entirely by surprise, and she glanced back at the two engineers. “Does she have core matrices capable of that?”

  Finaeus stared at Sabrina for a moment, and then glanced at Earnest. It was apparent to everyone in the room that the pair were having a protracted Link conversation.

  Sera was about to table the issue and move the meeting along, when Earnest gave a slow nod.

  “Sabrina has nearly outgrown the core I upgraded her to twenty years ago—which should have lasted a lot longer.” The engineer gave the AI narrow-eyed look, to which Sabrina only responded with an innocent whistle. “I suspect it’s because of how many expanses she created within herself to help liberate other AIs. To be honest, I think a sharding would actually be beneficial for her in the long run…help her share the load, so to speak.”

  “What if…” Cheeky ventured slowly, glancing at Finaeus and then Sabrina. “What if the shard was a bit of a child of ours as well?”

  “No,” Earnest shook his head, entirely missing the meaning-laden looks Cheeky was doling out. “Your mind is not one that we can easily select attributes from and blend with others, Cheeky. That’s not saying we can’t do it, we just can’t do it and have your child ready to take on a mission like this in the time available. If Sabrina wants to shard, it will have to be a straight mitosis.”

  Sabrina glanced at Cheeky, who nodded.

  “OK,” the two said in unison.

  Sera was about to move the meeting forward once more when a large figure appeared in the room’s doorway.

  “Usef?” Cheeky blurted out, and the figure nodded before stepping in to reveal a much smaller person behind him.

  “Erin?” Earnest added. “What are you two doing here?”

  The brown-haired woman shrugged. “I’m not entirely certain. I had taken a ship from the LMC back to New Canaan to assist in some review of a—” she paused and glanced around, “project, when suddenly Usef shows up and tells me that Bob has sent word for us to come here…wherever ‘here’ is.”

  Earnest’s brow lowered and he shook his head. “I’m going to have words with Bob. Would have been nice if he’d told me about all these late arrivals.”

  “I’ve just queried the tower,” Krissy announced. “There are no inbound ships in the queues right now, so in theory, our numbers should remain consistent for the next hour or so—barring Tangel just jumping into our midst.”

  Sera laughed, wishing that could happen, but she knew her friend had her hands full on the far side of Sol, dealing with the fallout of Xavia’s attack, and the war with the Trisilieds.

  “OK…teams adjusted. Again,” Earnest announced as Erin found a seat and Usef ambled to the back of the room where he took a spot next to Flaherty, glancing at Malorie—who still hung in a corner—before shaking his head and directing his attention to Sera.

  Suddenly, Erin spoke up. “Ho…wait…that’s Airtha on the holo! This is the mission to take on Airtha? Why the hell am I here?”

  Sera shrugged. “Ask Bob. I’ve seen your record, though, and Usef vouches for you. That’s enough for me.”

  “Gonna have words with Bob,” Erin muttered and sank back into her seat.

  “OK!” Sera thrust a finger in the air. “First Team—so long as we don’t get a dozen more people showing up before we leave—is myself, Jen, Kara, and Flaherty. We’re on Sabrina.”

  Jen added privately.

  Flaherty gave a slow nod from the back of the room, and Kara a slightly nervous smile. Sera had been a bit surprised to see Adrienne’s daughter in her group, but Earnest had shown her the decision parameters, and she couldn’t argue with his assessment.

  “Next up is Team Two, also aboard Sabrina. It consists of Seraphina, Cheeky, Nance, and Finaeus.”

  “One last time into the breach, eh, hon?” Finaeus asked Cheeky with a wink.

  The pilot shrugged. “I think we’ll breach plenty in the future. But this’ll be one for the songs.”

  “Last team on Sabrina consists of Sabrina—no surprise there—Usef, Misha, and Erin.”

  “You better have figured out which end of the gun is for shooting bad guys,” Usef grunted, his eyes locked on the back of Misha’s head.

  In response, the cook slowly lifted two fingers in a rude gesture, not deigning to look back at the large Marine.

  Sera ignored their byplay and carried on.

  “Team Four is aboard the Voyager and consists of Fina, Roxy, Jane, and Carmen. Team Five is Katrina, Kirb, Elmer, and Amavia. Wrapping things up is Six, which will be Iris, Carl, Camille, and Malorie.”

  “Last but certainly not least,” Malorie chittered from her corner.

  Iris twisted in her seat and took in the metallic red spider. “Any chance I can sell you on the idea of a new body?”

  “And slough about on the decks with two legs?” Malorie asked with a laugh. “Not effing likely.”

  “Everyone’s going to have Mark X FlowArmor,” Sera interjected. “Those of you who haven’t already had your skin replaced with the Finaeus special, that is. If you’d like to get a skin job, you’d best put in the request in the next five minutes.

  “Each team is going to have a Cri-En power facility target, and a node. The plan is to infiltrate the power facilities, where we’ll set up bombs. These will be used to convince Airtha that we mean to destroy the ring. Once they’re in place, we move on to the nodes. Timing will be key; the window to insert our corrupted matrices into Airtha’s nodes will be small, and we’ll need to time it perfectly. To ensure that happens, Troy and Sabrina will be keeping us all coordinated to ensure no one jumps the gun.

  “Once we’ve inserted our virus into her, we trigger some smaller detonations at the Cri-En facilities and leak the information that more are targeted. With the changes to her thought patterns, that should be enough to push Airtha over the edge.”

  Sera paused and surveyed the room, where most of the attendees were nodding, though Krissy was not.

  “And your fallback plan?” the admiral asked.

  “We don’t have one,” Finaeus said with a laugh, causing Sera and Krissy to send quelling looks his way before Sera turned back to Finaeus’s daughter.

  “He’s kidding. That’s where you come in.”

  THE PRAESEPE REPORT

  STELLAR DATE: 10.08.8949 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: CIC, ISS I2, near Lunic Station

  REGION: Aldebaran, League of Sentients Space

  “Is Earnest on his way?” Terrance asked as he walked into the antechamber off Earnest’s famed workshop.

  “His pinnace just docked,”
Tangel replied, reaching a hand out to clasp Terrance’s. “I wasn’t expecting to see you so soon. How did the FGT’s expedition go? I assume that’s what this is about.”

  “Good,” Terrance gave a short nod. “Well, good and bad. Someone is moving those stars, alright. And they’re doing even better than we are at moving Canaan Prime.”

  Tangel found herself blinking mutely at the man for a moment before she recovered. “Seriously?”

  “Well, I’m not an expert on such matters, but Emily—the FGT stellar engineer—was suitably impressed. Either way, if they’d cared to, she estimates that the stars could have already been dropped into one another, but it seems that whoever is doing this—”

  “The core AIs,” Tangel interjected.

  “Well, yeah, I’ve been thinking that, too, but it just feels like conjecture so far, and I didn’t want that to be in an official report.”

  A laugh slipped past Tangel’s lips. “Ever the company man, Terrance.”

  He shrugged. “Old habits die hard.”

  Tangel wanted to probe further regarding the stellar movement in the Praesepe Cluster, but she didn’t want Terrance to have to repeat himself once Earnest arrived.

  Instead, she turned and walked toward the window that looked out over the rear of the ship. Almost directly below them was the now-vacant stretch that had once been filed with twenty cubic kilometers of cargo pods, back when the ship had been bound for its colony world.

  A few pods were still nestled down in the depths of the crevasse, filled with components for the ships that made up the First Fleet, but little else. The empty space made the ship feel incomplete to Tangel.

  On either side of that gap lay the two habitation cylinders, sixteen-kilometer-long, fully encapsulated worlds. To date, Tangel had still lived there longer than she’d lived anywhere else. Even though she’d raised her daughters on Carthage, and that house held a host of great memories, Ol’ Sam was home.

  The I2 was still home.