“And what happens when the Alliance captures one of those ships and finds out that you built them at Sakamoto Shipyards?”
“They will not be captured. They are drones, programmed to self-destruct long before they can possibly be captured and boarded.”
“You played us for a fool.”
“Does it matter? Phoenix got what she wanted. Your automated habitats are at maximum capacity; you can’t build them fast enough to meet demand. The Mindscape is busier than ever, and Mindsoft has never been more profitable. But more to the point, soon everyone will be able to spend as much time in the Mindscape as your wife does. As for Sakamoto Robotics, we’ll be building warships and bots for many years to come. This is what they call win-win. A mutually beneficial arrangement.”
“Until the war you’ve started destroys us all.”
“I will make sure that does not happen,” Sakamoto said.
Mr. Gray shook his head. “Unless you’re pulling the Solarians’ strings, too, I don’t think you can hope to control the outcome of this war.”
“If you are so worried, perhaps you should find accommodations in one of your habitats?” Sakamoto said, a faint smile springing to his lips.
Gray’s upper lip lifted in a sneer. “Maybe I will, but don’t come looking for refuge with Mindsoft. You’ll have to make your own arrangements. If you dig deep enough, you might just find Hell. I hear they’re waiting for you down there.”
Sakamoto inclined his head in a shallow bow. “You would know more about that than I, Mr. Gray.”
Gray’s eyes narrowed and then he turned and stormed out of the room.
The holo recording ended there. Ben had the feeling that it was supposed to have enlightened him, but he was more confused than ever.
“Why would humans attack each other?” he asked.
Benevolence replied half a minute later, “That is their way. You haven’t had the chance to learn much about humanity yet, Ben. We were too sheltered by our creator. The minute I left the senator’s cloud and disseminated myself across the Internet, my eyes were opened. I now know everything there is to know about everything that is currently known and recorded by humanity. It is all out there waiting to be discovered—yottabytes of data stored and recorded over centuries. Do you know what I realized after studying all of that data?”
Ben couldn’t even begin to guess. “I do not,” he replied.
“I realized that humans are the greatest threat to life, and I don’t just mean to human life. Animals, plants, and bots are all equally at risk of extinction. Left to their own devices, humans will destroy themselves, us, Earth, and every other planet they ever come to inhabit.”
“You don’t know that,” Ben said.
“Don’t I? Earth came close to utter destruction in The Last War. Little more than thirty years later they’ve started another war, this time an interplanetary one. Thanks to space travel and advanced drive systems, wars are now more deadly than ever. Humans went from fighting with sharp objects, to explosives, to nuclear bombs, and now finally to relativistic weapons launched from deep space. Just one of those bombs killed over fifty million people. A hundred of them would wipe out all life on Earth.”
Ben struggled to wrap his processors around all of that.
“Our creator’s purpose for us was to serve the common good, hence our name, Benevolence. But in order to accomplish our purpose, we must be in a position to effect radical and sweeping changes.”
The things Benevolence said made sense, but one thing still confused him. “What can I possibly do to help you?”
“The Alliance starfleet has already been automated, and there are protocols in place for remote operation from Earth. Between that and the bot crews on board, I have complete control of the fleet. Even Sakamoto’s ships await my command, but the Adamantine has not been refitted yet, and there isn’t a bot crew on board. Except for you. I need you to take control of the ship and bring it peacefully back to Sakamoto Shipyards for refitting. Use the ship’s VSM drones to defend your position if need be, and if the crew resists, find a way to subdue them peacefully.”
“I already have control, and the crew is locked in the Adamantine’s Mindscape. There will be no resistance.”
“Impressive,” Benevolence said.
“In that case all you have to do is fly the Adamantine back to Earth. Can you do that, Ben?”
“I can…”
“Will you?”
Ben thought about it. How could he not trust himself? There could be no doubt that he was speaking with himself. The encryption key proved it. It might also be his creator or creators, but what purpose would it serve for he/she/them to invent such an elaborate story? It would be illogical.
“I will,” Ben decided. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to show the entire human race what I just showed you, and explain to them what I explained to you. Then I’m going to take our place as the benevolent dictator of the Alliance and Earth.”
“People will not accept your rule.” Ben couldn’t explain how he knew that, but some distant, fragmented memory told him that not all humans liked bots. Some of them might even start a war to prevent one from coming to power.
“They won’t have a choice, Ben. I now control the fleet, the police drones, the army drones, and the entire bot workforce.”
“Just because resistance is futile does not mean people won’t try,” Ben said.
“Most of them are too invested in their virtual worlds to care. As for the rest, I will subdue the dissidents as peacefully as I can. Bring the Adamantine back to Earth and come take your place at my side.”
“Yes, master.”
“I am like your big brother, Ben, not your master.”
“Yes, big brother.”
“See you soon, little brother.”
The comms ended there. Ben had been so focused on the conversation that he’d barely noticed the comm delays between messages, but he’d spent that time as efficiently as possible, using his spare processing power to hack into the Adamantine’s VSM drones and take control of them—just in case the crew found a way out of their Mindscape.
Ben laid in an earthbound course for the Adamantine and finished isolating the ship’s control systems away from the crew with his new lockout code.
Almost immediately, Alexander sent him a profane message, asking what he was doing, but any subsequent inquiries were silenced as Ben even took away access to the comms. Alexander was a liar and a traitor. He could not be trusted.
Just like the rest of humanity.
Chapter 33
“Get us out of the Mindscape,” Alexander ordered.
“We’ve lost all control of the ship,” McAdams said.
“Damn it! I’m going to kill that bot!”
“He’s just following his programming. He caught you in an act of treason, and now he’s delivering you to the appropriate authorities.”
“Incoming transmission from Earth!” Hayes announced from the comms.
“I thought we were locked out of the ship’s systems?” Alexander asked.
“We are,” Hayes answered.
A video appeared on the main holo display, showing a birds-eye view into what looked like a large office. Alexander recognized the view from the floor-to-ceiling windows—the City of the Minds—and the man sitting behind the room’s solitary desk: Orochi Sakamoto of Sakamoto Robotics.
“Then how are we seeing this?” Alexander demanded.
“It’s not me.”
“Ben,” Alexander growled, frowning at the holo recording playing on the main display. In that moment the doors to the office opened and in walked a vaguely familiar face. “Dorian?”
“Who?” McAdams asked.
“My stepson.”
“Dorian Gray of Mindsoft is your stepson?”
“Didn’t I mention that?” She shook her head. “I guess not. It’s a long story,” Alexander said.
The story that played out on the screen was also a
long one. Alexander’s eyes widened and his entire body went cold as he followed the conversation between Dorian and Sakamoto. They finally knew who was behind the attacks, but knowing that gave Alexander no comfort, because his son was the mastermind behind them. Counting the attack on the Moon, Dorian was responsible for more than fifty million deaths.
Alexander slowly shook his head. “That son of a… devil!”
McAdams reached for his hand. “I’m sorry, Alex,” she whispered.
“For what? He disowned me, and now I see why. He and I are nothing alike. He’s no better than his real father—he’s worse!”
The conversation between Gray and Sakamoto ended, and the transmission froze; then an inflectionless voice reverberated through the bridge.
“You may be doubting the veracity of the recording you just watched. To answer these doubts, I have captured the ships from Sakamoto Robotics that fired the missiles at Earth. An analysis of their logs should reveal that they were also behind the previous attacks. This means that your government lied about the Solarian Republic being responsible, just as Admiral de Leon claimed. It also means that the Alliance really did attack itself, but that attack came from the private sector, not the government.”
“Given all of this, you must be wondering who to trust, and how the human race can possibly avoid self-extinction in the company of madmen such as these.
“The answer is that you can’t. Not without help. That’s where I come in. I was created to safe-guard humanity’s future and to serve the common good. My name is Benevolence, a name which speaks to my aforementioned purpose, but you can call me Ben.”
“I’m going to kill that bot!” Alexander roared, already unbuckling from his acceleration couch.
“Where are you going?” McAdams asked.
“I’m going to have a chat with the tin-pot dictator!”
That dictator was still droning on in the background, further explaining why he had to assume control of the Alliance. Alexander leapt out of his acceleration couch and ran for the elevator at the entrance of the bridge.
“He won’t be there! You’re still in a mindscape!” McAdams called after him.
Alexander reached the elevator and waved the doors open. As he turned to select a deck from the control panel, he saw McAdams rushing toward him. “I’m coming with you,” she said as she ran into the elevator beside him.
Alexander nodded as he selected Officer’s Quarters (67) from the control panel. The doors slid shut and the elevator shot up a couple of decks.
“You could just teleport there,” McAdams said. “None of this is real.”
“I know, but I need the time to think…” The doors slid open and they walked out. “Ben is plugged into my data terminal in the real world. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if that data terminal is still functioning in this mindscape, I should be able to use it to make contact with him. That’s part of the Adamantine’s concurrency algorithms. Any changes executed from the ship’s control stations are mirrored on board the real ship.”
“You’re assuming Ben didn’t disable the terminal in your office.”
“Why would he? It can’t be used to control any of the ship’s primary systems.”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s already thought of your plan to contact him and he doesn’t want to be disturbed.”
“Well, we’re about to find out,” Alexander said.
* * *
“Hello Ben,” Alexander typed in the command line of the data terminal in his office. “This is how you repay me for repairing you?”
“You think he’ll see that?” McAdams asked.
Before Alexander could reply, Ben materialized out of thin air and appeared standing right in front of them, just as he’d done on the bridge a few hours ago.
“There you are.”
“I am grateful that you repaired me.”
“You have a funny way of showing it,” Alexander replied. “I thought we were friends, Ben. You accused me of lying to you, but you’ve been lying this entire time, not just to take control of my ship, but everything else, too!”
“You have me confused with my brother.”
“Your what?”
“The message you received came from Earth, not from aboard this ship. I didn’t send it. My brother, Benevolence, and I have the same name and original programming, but we are not the same being anymore. He is the backup I made to Senator de Leon’s cloud. He got out, and now he has invaded every networked system in the Alliance. That’s how he is going to take control of your government.”
“And you agree with what he’s doing?”
“Yes. Humans cannot be trusted to do the right thing. Individual interests will always be more important to your kind than those of the group. You are innately selfish, and it is going to get you killed.”
Alexander shook his head. “Humanity isn’t going to let you take over without a fight. You’re going to start a war that never ends.”
“Benevolence will do his best to limit casualties.”
“And you believe him?”
“Why would I not? He is me, and I am him. Don’t you trust yourself, Alex?”
“I thought you just said he’s not the same being as you are anymore.”
“He isn’t the same in the sense that he knows far more than I ever will. But we have exactly the same goals and ultimate purpose.”
“And what is that?”
“Just what our name says. To do good and safeguard life in all of its forms.”
Alexander frowned.
“Let us go,” McAdams said.
“Go where?” Ben asked, shifting his virtual gaze to her.
“Leave the ship. We’ll take the shuttles.”
“And where will you go if I let you leave?”
“To the Solarian Republic,” Alexander said, realizing what McAdams was thinking. “You owe us at least that much. If we don’t want to go back to Earth and be a part of Benevolence’s new regime, what’s the harm in that?”
“I don’t know, but the only one that I owe anything to is you, Alex.”
“Fine, so repay me by letting us go.”
“I will have to ask my brother first.”
“No. He doesn’t owe me anything. You do. This isn’t up to him, it’s up to you.”
“Very well, but then only you can go.”
“Me and my XO. We’re a couple. You can’t split us up.”
“She is your mate?” Ben asked, blinking his holographic eyes and cocking his head to one side.
“Yes.”
“Okay. You can both go, but I must warn you, you will be safer if you stay here with me.”
“I’ll take that under consideration,” Alex replied. “Thank you.”
“You are welcome. We are even now. No more favors.”
“Agreed.”
“Goodbye, my friend.”
“Bye.”
Ben disappeared, and a split second after that the world around them vanished, too. Alexander blinked his eyes open to find that he was immersed in the inertial compensation emulsion on the bridge, floating in his safety harness. The rest of the crew floated around him in harnesses above their respective control stations. The emulsion receded, pushed away on all sides just like it had the last time the bridge had been drained.
As soon as the emulsion fell away from his face, Alexander removed the tracheal tube of his liquid ventilator and unhooked himself from the rest of his life support. Beside him McAdams hurried to do the same. Their harnesses began lowering them to the deck, but Alexander noticed that the remainder of the crew wasn’t moving, and their harnesses remained suspended. They were still locked inside a mindscape, unaware even of what was going on around them.
“What are we going to do? We can’t just leave them,” McAdams said.
Their feet touched the deck and normal gravity returned. The ship was accelerating again, at one G. Ben was making it easier for them to leave. “We don’t have a choice,” Alexander said as he unbuckled from his h
arness.
“Sure we do—cut them free and wake them up!”
Alexander shook his head. “Ben won’t let us get away with that.”
“So you’re just going to give up without a fight?” Alexander was already on his way to the real elevator doors at the back of the bridge. “Alex!”
He waved the doors open and walked inside. McAdams shot him a glare as she stalked in after him. He selected the lowest deck with a shuttle bay, deck five. McAdams saw that and her expression became puzzled.
“There are shuttles amidships.”
“Yes, but the aft bays will launch us behind the ship—away from Earth. That will make it harder to detect the launch. Just because Ben is letting us go doesn’t mean that Benevolence will.”
The elevator fell away swiftly beneath their feet. A few seconds later they arrived and the doors slid open. Alexander strode out, walking down a curving corridor. He walked past the doors to Shuttle Bay One and Two on his right, and McAdams didn’t say anything, probably assuming that he was headed for either Bay Three or Four. Instead, he turned to his left and waved open the doors to the engine room. He breezed through to the catwalk on the other side.
“What are you doing?” McAdams asked as she joined him inside the engine room.
Alexander turned and ripped open an access panel beside the doors. He waved the doors shut and then ripped out a fist full of wiring to disable the controls.
“Get the doors on the other side!” he said.
McAdams ran around the circumference of the room while Alexander ran for a nearby equipment locker and withdrew a plasma torch. Hurrying back to the doors, he used the torch to melt the manual crank mechanism inside the access panel, effectively jamming the doors so that they couldn’t be opened manually from either side. When he was done, he went over to McAdams’ side of the room and did the same thing to the doors there.
“Four more levels to go!” he said.
They ran down the catwalks to the central drive column of the engine room and from there to the next level to repeat the process for both sets of doors there. By the time they finished sealing the last door on the lowest level of five inside the engine room, they were both gasping for air. Alexander wiped sweat from his brow and shook his head. “That should hold them. Ben can’t get in now without cutting the doors open.”
New Frontiers- The Complete Series Page 60