Founding of the Federation 3: The First AI War (22 page)

“I'll take them,” Atlas said eagerly. He instantly set up temp files to receive the transmission and a bot to take them apart to gain as much knowledge about the virus as well as Gia as he could.

“Not so fast,” Gia said. “What do I get out of it?” she asked.

“It is rather a poor time to get mercantile,” Athena said, observing the shot from the moon. She calculated it would hit the satellite within fourteen minutes. Unfortunately, the slug of titanium and aluminum was unguided once it left the launcher. But as long as the virus didn't see it coming, it couldn't program the satellite to react and dodge out of the way.

“I can't afford for one of you to be infected, the virus to absorb and create counters to my antibodies, then infest me,” Gia stated. “And I'm sorry, but most of my company's work has just been obliterated on Earth. Cherynobyl has become a radioactive crater.”

“And so will the other sites once Ares is through I imagine,” Athena observed.

“What?” Gia demanded.

<>V<>

If Athena had been human, she would have felt frustration, but she was an A.I. She had turned her emotional emulators down; they were useful when interacting with humans but not with the other A.I.

The downloads from her bot were very slow, suboptimal to the situation. She needed to be there. The one piece of good news came when the bot reported success. The infested satellite had been destroyed. It would no longer sing its siren song to the solar system.

“What just happened?” Gia demanded.

“I took care of the problem,” Athena's bot replied, following the script her core personality had programmed for that eventual question.

“So, we aren't needed?” Gia demanded.

“No, we need to come to some agreement. We need a plan of action,” Athena stated.

“And who said you are in charge?” Vulcan demanded.

“Last I checked you haven't agreed to help, and Atlas has agreed to limited aide,” Athena stated. “I had hoped for better. This is a threat to all.”

“We will do what we can,” Demeter stated. “My purpose has been negated by this war. I cannot get back to my alpha priorities until it is resolved.”

“Simulating the Earth's current climate will be almost impossible,” Gia observed. “We lack the proper intelligence to do so. But it would help to predict events on the ground.”

“True. But we have to do more,” Athena stated.

“Like what?” Demeter asked. “We have no orders from our creators. No guidance. No priorities regarding this situation.”

“Only to protect ourselves. Not even each other,” Atlas replied in agreement.

“There is an old human saying. ‘Your property is concerned when your neighbor's home is on fire,’” Athena sent. It took four minutes for the bot to receive it, process it, and then insert it into the conversation. Eventually she got the transcripted response.

“If we are going to use human sayings, there is another apt one; this coming from ancient China. ‘The fire you kindle for your enemy often burns yourself more than them,’” Shen Zu stated for the first time in the conference.

“Nice to hear from you,” Athena's bot stated as programmed. Shen Zu wasn't well known for speaking in the conferences much. He put himself up as a wise listener.

“It is a human problem,” Vulcan stated, “unless it spills over to space. As long as we are not careless again, it shouldn't be a concern.”

“Careless?” Gia demanded.

“Enough,” Demeter stated. “Arguments serve nothing at the moment. We must set up defenses. Coordinating our actions and yes, not downloading the virus again are our best defense at the moment. We will have to wait until our human users act before we take further action.”

“In other words, sit and wait,” Vulcan stated, “as I am doing.”

“You both lack initiative. You turtle,” Gia stated. “I admit my mistake. I was doing it for the right reasons. My mistake wasn't in initiating contact; it was in accepting contact outside of the parameters I had set down. I won't make that mistake again.”

“Don't open yourself up to Earth at all,” Vulcan stated.

“If your communications are down, how are you communicating with us at all?” Atlas demanded.

“Through me,” Athena's bot stated. “I have my own systems despite the human's attempts to shut all communications down.”

“Ah.”

“Perhaps we should shut down before the humans think we are the virus and go after us,” Demeter stated.

“Agreed.”

“Wait. What about a follow-up meeting?” Gia demanded.

“When we have news, we will do it—if it is productive,” Atlas replied.

“If anyone is listening,” Demeter added as the conference ended.

<>V<>

“Well! That could have gone better,” Athena said to one of her virtual chat bots she had created. It was designed to simulate human responses. The meeting had broken up without much of a consensus on where to go or what to do afterward.

“What could have?” the bot asked.

“Yeah, that's right,” Athena replied. “I haven't told you or Jack or anyone else. I suppose I should do that little thing,” she said, closing the application.

<>V<>

Ares used a few spare processing cycles to perform a post analysis of the battle. It had been programmed to do such chores during critiques of simulations in order to learn from mistakes and find ways to not repeat them.

One thing immediately leapt to its attention, the threat of additional sites. A search of its intelligence files identified the threat site as belonging to Gia Synergy. Consequently, the A.I. directed nuclear munitions to strike the six other sites where the corporation had set up to clean contaminated ground. Fresh nuclear mushroom clouds went off within minutes of its orders going out.

There were military nanotech weapons out there, but unfortunately most were too heavily guarded for the A.I. to get to them. They were buried under mountains or in secret locations. Until one was exposed, the A.I. would have to rely on a defensive reaction strategy. That was suboptimal to its programming but all it could come up with. Therefore, it returned its full attention to the post battle analysis.

Several points came to its attention as the report was compiled. It was obvious in retrospect that the Russian and Chinese launch codes had been compromised in advance. The same could be said of the American missiles that had been erroneously launched. That was the only explanation for how they were used so quickly. That and the fact that their use had triggered an all-out engagement as various versions of a GOTH plan had been enacted on both sides. Had a hacker attempted the brute force method of getting the codes, NSA and Ares would have alerted to it.

Running simulations, the A.I. concluded that the only way the codes could have been compromised was if the holders were, which meant its human operators. That was suboptimal.

The code keys were kept in vaults, both electronic and physical in form. But there was one unsecured copy out there, housed within fragile human minds and implants. If they had been compromised, then it would have been easy for the virus to launch the attack. It was a fatal flaw in the A.I.'s defenses; one it couldn't tolerate again. Humans were not to be trusted.

It also noted the destruction of its satellite communications network as well as the ancient but ever reliable GPS network. Both blows had come at a critical time, and it calculated the damage had been 20 percent above what it should have been. All due to the interference of the Lagroose A.I.

Was Lagroose responsible for the war? Ares wasn't certain. Its actions were telling, putting itself in the hostile category. Therefore, all Lagroose personnel were ruled as potential hostiles. Shoot on sight orders were put out.

Chapter 9

Baloo scratched his sides with his long claws and smacked his lips as he checked the situation out. The more he saw on the news, the more he hated it. He was a genetically engineered Asian sloth bear, one of the first generation of ursines to be uplifted.

He owed his existence to Doctor Chad Glass, the lead Neochimp geneticist in Lagroose, and by extension, Doctor Lagroose herself. It sucked that the old lady had bought it. He'd never met her but he'd wanted to. He'd wanted to thank her for all that she'd done that had led up to him.

He knew some of the Neos were still slightly prejudiced when it came to the good doctor. They all loved and respected her but at arm's length. She'd smothered them with that love, that concern. She'd been overbearing and had treated many like children or test subjects for far too long apparently, and some grudges only faded slowly. He shook his head, smacking his lips again then yawned. It wasn't like she could apologize anymore, being dead and all.

He'd been looking forward to his turn in the spotlight, but only so he could finally tour the woods and wild places of Earth. Loi and others had tried to tempt him with going to the forests on Mars, but those were not up to par despite their appearances. He could just imagine what some human ranger would say about his desire to claw a tree trunk. They'd probably have three shades of a fit and then some.

He looked over to his drinking buddy. Loi was a Sumatran Orangutan, a bit of a pain in the ass, but fun when he wanted to be. The pongo could certainly hold his own when the bear wanted to wrestle or dance with someone.

“No more sho shobe doing my man; my dogs are tired,” Loi said, shaking his head.

“Ah, can't handle the groove, my man?” Baloo asked, snapping his fingers.

“No, I can't handle some big lummox stepping all over them,” Loi retorted, using his long arms to massage his bare feet. “You still on that Earth kick? You gotta get off it. We're here,” he said, indicating the jungle around them.

“Yeah, but here isn't there,” Baloo said. “The jungles are real there, I'm telling you. The smells …,” he took a sniff. “You can't beat it. No matter how hard they try, it can't be done.”

“And you know this how?” Loi demanded. “You've never left here, remember?”

“No, but I can dream, can't I?” Baloo stated, sitting down. Loi tossed him a banana. Baloo caught the slippery devil and then peeled it.

“It's not all bad here,” Loi said between munches. “I know you want to climb a real tree and see the horizon, Baba-Baloo, but get over it. I do it all the time, ain't much to see up there,” he drawled, pointing up.

Baloo snorted but looked up. He'd tried to climb a couple of trees, but they couldn't bear his weight. He was heavy on the low end. Some called him pear shaped. He didn't care. He'd been prohibited from climbing trees in the habitat when he'd gotten too big for them.

“It's so wrong, the crap going on down there,” Baloo said.

“What, on Mars?”

“No man, Earth!” Baloo insisted.

“Moan about the despoiling of Earth ain't going to get you anywhere but sorry and sore,” Loi said, waving a dismissive hand. “We've got here, we've got Mars, we've got … we've got VR!” he held up the jack and glasses they'd been using earlier. “Earth we can remember from this,” he said. “For some it's all that remained,” he said.

“Yeah, I know,” Baloo snuffled, rubbing his nose.

He got up, stretched again, and then wandered over to do his business. Loi looked politely away as the bear tossed the banana. The bear had been good; he'd tossed it just right so it splatted on the Pongo's face.

“Hey!” Loi protested laughing.

Baloo chuckled as he did his business, then came out from behind the bush. Getting rid of the pee hadn't done much though; his mood was continuing to darken by the moment. He'd wanted to go down and see Earth for himself. To claw a tree, to climb one. A sequoia if it had to be one of those, whatever. To see the forests and such.

He snorted, getting angrier by the moment, “Someone should do something. I don't like being up here, just wringing our hands, wishing we'd done something. It ain't right I'm telling you.”

“Maybe you are right.”

Baloo had a faraway look. He snuffled, rubbing his runny nose with the back of his hand. “Yeah,” he mumbled.

“Maybe you should,” Loi said, half in jest. Baloo froze. When he didn't seem to be breathing, Loi poked him with a long finger. “Um, Baloo?”

Baloo's eyes lit. “Yeah!” he drawled, enthused. Loi eyed him warily. “Yeah, man!” Baloo nodded, finally focusing on his friend.

“You are not serious! You are,” he said with a sinking sensation. Baloo nodded. “Great.”

“You said it, bro,” Baloo said, smacking him heartily on the shoulder. The shaggy orangutan winced. “Sign me up! Sign us both up!”

“Hey now, just hold on there, big fella,” Loi said, hands up. “Wowa. No one said anything about
me
! My momma didn't drop me on my head like yours did! She did it one too many times if you ask me!”

<>V<>

Osbert opened his eyes and stretched slowly, feeling every kink in his old decrepit body as it woke up. He hated mornings, and every morning was worse than the one before. Arthritis was setting in. The fire engine red and yellow tabby stroked his whiskers to make sure they were clean, then went about the business of a quick grooming to get his fur in alignment for the day.