Temple of S.A.R.A.H. 5: Debug Mode (2 page)

“Yeah, but the Queen would have to know that as well wouldn’t she? Knowing that she would have no way to replace or repair her own ships would keep her from striking at Alliance Command, wouldn’t it?” I asked.

“Possibly, however, we have no way to know if she is aware of how heavily defended Fleet Command is. Just because we haven’t detected any probes from her doesn’t mean there haven’t been any. There is still quite a bit about the Aracs we simply don’t know. For example, we always believed that the Aracs were superior geneticists because of that race of beings they use as fighter pilots. But now we know that the Aracs were really under the Veranorian’s control. So does that mean that the Veranorian’’s created them as well? We’ve never been able to capture one alive because there is no escape module in an Arac fighter, and they tend to explode very easily when hit. We do know that while the beings can handle extreme, high-gee maneuvers that would make our pilots pass out, the beings can’t tolerate prolonged exposure to gravity greater than half of what we have here at our base.”

“It sounds like we simply need more information on the Aracs and how they think,” I said, drinking my root beer.

“Well, let me know the next time you meet one that’s willing to talk and I’ll ask him!” Vance replied grinning. “Say, the First Admiral wanted me to pass along a request to you.”

I was surprised. “To me? Whatever for?”

“When you finish the new AI for Fleet Command, he would like you to consider retasking Susan to Fleet Intelligence. He said that she has performed remarkably well and has expressed an interest in joining that field,” Vance replied.

“Honestly, I hadn’t thought that far ahead, but if that’s what she would like to do, then I would be happy to set her up for that when the time comes. I’ll even put a new core on the board for her,” I said, feeling pleased that one of my girls had asked for a specific assignment once her current one was finished.

Vance nodded. “I’m sure Hearlis will be happy to hear it. I think he’s grown rather fond of Susan and was afraid we would simply shut her down once we were finished with her.”

“That would be like murdering one of my children!” I said, aghast at the thought of it.

Vance nodded. “I am sure the First Admiral has no idea how you feel about the AI, Eric. In fact, I’m sure many will see them as nothing more than cleverly designed computer interfaces. Which I have to admit is not only wholly inaccurate, but a massive disservice to them as well.”

––––––––

A
rtificial Intelligence Lab

Alliance Apollo Base

Selene, Earth’s moon

Sol System

––––––––

A
fter lunch, I returned to my Lab to get back to work on the Fleet Command AI. I was having trouble with the personality matrix and it was driving me nuts. However, before I returned to the programming suite, I made sure to put a new Station Class crystal on the board to be grown for Susan and the Intelligence Division. I also made a note for myself about retasking Susan for the Intelligence Division.

I took a moment to appreciate the system Ced had developed for classifying the crystal computer cores. The largest of which was called a System Class. These massive crystals would be the most difficult to grow, requiring that any magnetic fields be shielded as well as a null gravity environment. In addition to those precautions, it would take almost two months to reach ‘maturity’ and the growth process be halted. Even with all of that, there was a fifteen to twenty percent chance the crystal would develop a flaw and become useless.

Next in line would be the Planet Class crystal. These crystals would also be quite large and require the same environment as the System Class in order to reach maturity. However, the crystal itself would be smaller and have less capacity than a System Class. As the name implied, it would be designed for use as a planetary AI.

The next smallest was the Base Class crystal. While not requiring the extreme precautions of the System and Planet Classes, it could be grown in the lab on the base, however, doing so induced a high probability of the crystal being flawed. Sarah was using a Base Class crystal, albeit a small one.

Next were the Station and Capitol Class crystals. Both of these classes were roughly the same size, but served different functions requiring a slightly different set-up. A Station Class would require far more interface capability than a Capitol Class. In a pinch, it was possible for these units to be interchanged.

Everything smaller than this was either designed for the small ships, or classified by the ship class, or purpose built for whatever use was needed. These were far easier to customize since they could be safely grown in the lab and didn’t take nearly the same amount of time to grow as their larger brethren.

Then of course, there were the Nano Class crystals. These little buggers were mainly for medical use, and Ced was more than happy to assume the manufacturing of them for Christy. They took only seconds to grow to maturity and since we now had the process somewhat streamlined, Ced had set up a small area in the Crystal Lab that could grow a few thousand at a time. Right next to that unit was the micro assembly units for building the small machines. The reasons for this were two-fold. One, the crystals had to be kept in a virtual vacuum to keep dust and whatnot from contaminating them. So the easiest way to eliminate the possibility was to assemble the units immediately upon completion. The other reason for the assembly units to be there was the whole thing fascinated Ced who readily agreed to the stewardship of the completely automated building process.

Sighing, since I knew I was procrastinating, I left my office to get back to work on Athena. That personality matrix was really giving me fits. At least I still had time before the crystal finished growing, provided it didn’t develop any flaws: at the rate I was going, I almost hoped it would, because I’d need the time to get Athena fixed.

In frustration, I copied out the personality matrix and over wrote it with the one Sarah used since I knew she was stable. However, when I got Athena running in her virtual environment, she was still unstable. So, the issue then was not the personality matrix, but some other module that gave input to that matrix. The question was which one? Frustrating!

The only way to fix this was to slowly replace each input module until a change was noted and we could analyze why the imbalance had taken place. That should only take about a year!

I had been so focused on the AI programming, that I hadn’t made certain that our hackers wouldn’t see it. I was very surprised when Alicyn, one of the hackers I had asked be recruited, saw my frustration and approached me. “We might be able to help if we knew what you were doing, Eric.”

“This is something you aren’t supposed to know about, Alicyn. I’m sorry,” I said.

Alicyn nodded. “Yeah, I kind of figured that. But, since we did would you like our help or not?”

I knew that now the cat was out of the bag with them, they would kill themselves trying to figure out what it was I was up to. There was a chance they would do it too. But in the process, they might damage Sarah or her ability to interface with the base.

I sighed and had them all come to my office. Of the original seven, only five had remained. One became too xenophobic to remain and was now on his way to Novalis for a programming job. The other young woman had no problems with the mixed races, but actually developed a form of claustrophobia and had to be returned to the planet under sedation. She had been asked to remain a part of the effort by helping out from Earth. She happily agreed because she was one of those that honestly believed in our mission. It really was a shame she couldn’t handling living up here. Now she helped us by controlling the amount of information about us that could be found on the internet.

Once everyone was in the office and the door was closed, I smiled at them; “Guys, You all know that I haven’t told you everything going on here. I never said I would, and if I remember correctly I did say there would be stuff I couldn’t tell you about.” When most of them nodded agreement, I continued. “What you just saw out there was one of those things you are not supposed to know about. Will you be able to leave this alone and not try to find out what the secret is, or will you let your curiosity get the better of you? The reason I’m asking is because if you try to dig into this, there is a better than average chance you could damage something that might end up costing lives. Remember where we are, what do you think would happen if you typed the wrong thing and an airlock opened?” I waited for them to turn pale, letting me know they understood what I was telling them.

“I know that most, if not all of you think you are far too good to do something so stupid. If we were talking about normal code, I would tend to agree with you, but we’re not talking about normal code. This is something I can guarantee none of you have seen before; AI code.”

––––––––

“Wait, did you just say AI Code?” Alicyn asked. “As in
A
rtificial Intelligence
?”

In reply I simply called Sarah. “Could you please introduce yourself to the group?”

To the utter surprise and shock of the group, Sarah took form beside me and introduced herself. “Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I am Sarah, the controlling AI associate here at Apollo Base.”

“What does the controlling part mean?” one of the guys asked.

“It means that I have direct control over most of the primary base functions including life support and gravity. I am, literally, the base,” Sarah replied.

“Sarah sounds like an acronym. Is it, and what does it stand for?” Alicyn asked.

“It didn’t start out that way, Alicyn. I just really liked the name, so that’s what I called her,” I said.

“Wait? You wrote her?” Jerry asked. “All this alien technology and you create the first AI?”

“Actually, Eric wrote my original code before we ever knew of the existence of this base or its mission. I was much smaller then, and had only just begun to understand my surroundings and what I actually was. I believe that back then, even Eric didn’t understand what was happening to me,” Sarah replied.

“I didn’t. Not until we arrived here and I learned a lot more about what I’d actually done. You see, in order to get her to do what I needed her original program to do, I needed to write a new type of code. I had already built a cluster computer system and had to come up with an operating system for it, so this wasn’t all that much different,” I began.

“Fuck me! No wonder you have a doctorate at eighteen!” Another of the hackers, Bill, said shaking his head.

“In all actuality, both Eric and his wife, Doctor Christy Cowan, have been awarded additional accolades in multiple fields. From Earth as well as from the Alliance worlds. He has also been awarded the highest honor available to a civilian in the Alliance. He has been knighted and is now addressed as ‘My Lord’ or Lord Doctor Cowan, formally.” Sarah explained. “If you are interested in knowing more about him, you may simply ask me after hours. Now that you are aware of me, you have been granted standard user access levels.”

“Actually Sarah, I think I’d like to know more about
you
,” Alicyn replied.

“I can see about getting you started on that path, Alicyn. You will have to go through a much stronger background check and security search in order to get the clearance levels needed. Once you have that, one of my aides or myself can begin teaching you the code and how it works. What you all witnessed out there was the new AI I’m working on failing. She is unstable and I am trying to figure out why,” I explained.

“Are they governed by Asimov’s Laws?” Alicyn asked.

I nodded. “Modified versions since we are dealing with an AI and not a robot, as well as multiple races, not just humans.”

“You wrote Sarah’s core instructions to include aliens before you even knew they were out here?” Alicyn asked.

I chuckled and shook my head. “No, Sarah’s core instructions are written with ‘human’ in them. However, we had to redefine the word in order for her to function correctly in this environment. In all the new AI, I have changed that so redefining isn’t needed.”

“Have you looked at that? What differences are there between Sarah and the new AI?” Alicyn suggested, trying to help. “Have you considered speaking to a psychiatrist or someone that might understand the effects of those commands on her behavior?”

“There is no one that would understand the mental processes yet; this is still a very new field and we are all just doing the best we can. As for looking at that section, you could very well be right. I have to start somewhere, and that’s as good a place as any,” I admitted.

“Wait sec. If Sarah is an AI and she is operating in this base, then why haven’t we seen anything that would indicate her existence in the system?” Bill asked.

I grinned. “You answered your own question, Bill. Think about it.”

The man looked thoughtful for a second. “Well, since she is an AI, she could actively make sure we don’t see any trace of her…”

“True, but I can tell you that while Sarah
has
been monitoring you, she
has not
been hiding, In point of fact, she can’t,” I said. “She literally
is
the operating system of the base.”

“Then we’re not using the same system…” he stopped in mid- sentence and slapped his forehead. “We’re not in the main system!”

“Since you arrived, everything you’ve done, taught or tried to do has been done in the old Veranorian designed core. It is an isolated, stand-alone test bed for anti-computer and cyber-warfare. Sarah can see into the system, but cannot interact in any way with it, nor can that system interact with her.”

“We’ve been working in an outdated system?” Jerry asked.

“Not really,” I said. “What you’ve been working with is the very type of computer system we may need to attack. The Veranorians haven’t altered their basic system design or software in over six hundred years. We need you folks out there to try to teach the Alliance folks here how to invade and attack systems that will most likely be identical to the one you’re working in.”