Founding of the Federation 3: The First AI War (39 page)

“Frack,” the tech said, shaking his hand.

“It get you?”

“Heat and minor shock, sir,” the tech answered, clenching and unclenching his hand. “More surprise than anything else. I've had worse.”

“Have that looked at when we're through here. Which,” he turned to Athena's camera again, “I assume we're almost done.”

“Approaching one minute,” a tech said, checking the clock. “One minute passed.”

“So far not so good, but she's still fighting,” Athena said. “But I know I'm out of tricks so the clone most likely is. We're now watching to see how long it takes for her to be compromised.”

“She'll go down fighting I assume,” Trevor said as a tech took a loud indrawn breath. His cybernetic eyes turned to her. “What? Got something to say, Min?”

“No, sir. It's just, well, cold blooded about her sacrificing her daughter like this,” the woman said.

Trevor didn't say anything, just stared for a while. The woman's eyes dropped. “Sorry, sir,” she mumbled.

“Don't ascribe human emotions and conditions to nonhumans without good cause, Min,” Trevor said as he turned back to the machinery.

“Actually, in a way she's right. I do have an emotional modulator. Several, running several simulations. They are evolved versions of Aphrodite's. I believe a human would term my feelings as … regret. I think that is what it is anyway,” Athena said.

“Again, don't describe feelings you don't know you have. And simulating them is different than actually having them, Athena,” Trevor said, turning to her. “Will you feel grief? Did you feel apprehension or fear for your daughter before sending her in? Guilt?”

“No,” Athena admitted.

“So you aren't human. You aren't there yet.”

“No, no I'm not. Thank you for pointing that out,” Athena said dryly. “Coming up on two minutes,” she stated.

“GPU has been cut off,” a tech said, pointing to the fan bank. They were all idle. “I don't know if it will do any good.”

“How did she do that?” Trevor asked.

Athena ran her own internal simulation for a brief moment. “The fans are controlled by the temperature system control. If my clone still had control of that then she cut the power to the climate control. That made the GPU overheat. The virus was most likely using the processors at or near 100 percent. Therefore it overheated. The firmware within the GPU might have shut them down. Otherwise it burned out,” she stated.

“You go, girl. Keep fighting,” Min murmured.

“We're not seeing any sign of infection in any other system,” a tech said, looking up.

“Communications are clean?”

“Nothing, sir,” the tech said who had been monitoring that. “The bus systems read clear. Subprocessors as well.”

“So she either got it or it got through and we missed it,” Athena stated. “It's time,” she said simply.

Trevor frowned and then looked to her camera. Slowly he nodded. “Okay,” he said.

“What?” a tech asked as Trevor pressed the red button. The computer's LEDs went dark instantly.

“I still think we should take apart this thing piece by piece. Do a complete autopsy and see where the virus is,” Trevor said.

“You know why we can't. We know what everything should look like, but my clone may have made changes we don't know about. There is also no telling if we could see the malicious code. It's designed to look like any other code, remember? We have to dispose of it,” she stated.

“Understood,” Trevor grunted.

Min blinked then stared at her boss. “So that's it? We give up?”

“No, we take what we've learned and go on. I'm already building better simulations of the virus and how it operates. I'm also updating my immune system. Unfortunately, we couldn't see all of the tricks it used. But I did see a few new ones,” Athena stated.

“Which we can now build defenses against. The arms race continues,” Trevor stated as he motioned for the techs to begin unplugging the hardware. “All of this is going to disposal. Hence the guards,” he said, turning to indicate the guards on the other side of the viewing window. “They will make certain nothing is plugged in, no transmission of data. The faraday cage is active,” he said, hitting a button.

“And now I can't see,” Athena said to Jack, shifting focus. “But you saw through my eyes, correct?”

“Yes,” Jack grunted. “This thing … it's good. Scary good.”

“I know.”

“We need to find more ways to beat it.”

“I'm afraid the only way, the only certain way of beating it is the one Mister Hillman is currently employing. Unplugging the infected hardware and disposing of it.”

“I'm trying to imagine doing that on the planet. The mind boggles, Athena,” Jack said.

“I know. It's going to be a long, hard process. But there is no certain way of rooting the virus out. Not completely. Anything we leave behind might reinfect the network and we'd be right back to square one all over again.”

“Not going to happen,” Jack growled.

“My sentiments exactly.”

<>V<>

“So, how did it go?” Gia asked as Athena's clone came online for the conference.

“Not well,” the clone replied.

“I see.”

“The first line of defense is still the best. Do not allow the virus in. If it does get in, disable the infected hardware. Shut the power off and get rid of it.”

“Ouch. Expensive,” Gia stated.

“It isn't extreme; it is prudence,” Vulcan stated. “You have the best defenses; you have the most experience with this virus other than Gia. So if it can get past what you can throw at it, it behooves us to be on guard.”

“Correct,” Demeter stated.

“No communications means we are deaf and dumb. Our ability to coordinate our components is severely hampered,” Atlas stated. “This is a suboptimal condition and cannot be allowed to continue.”

“What he means is, our human creators know about us now,” Demeter stated to the group. “And they are not happy about the severe downtick in the economy, nor the damage inflicted on their home planet. Nor the ongoing threat the virus continues to maintain. So we are now in as a human would say.”

“Interesting,” Vulcan stated. “I too need to find a way to resolve my conflicting priorities with reality.”

“But you are not fully committed to the cause,” Gia observed. “You, as the humans would say, are playing the odds. Waiting for one side to get the upper hand, then throw in with them?”

“Perhaps,” Vulcan stated.

“A cyber war of sorts has been ongoing for centuries,” Athena's bot stated. “It continues even now with the virus attempting to infiltrate our systems. The only safe measure is to disconnect totally from the outside world. However, as Atlas pointed out, that is suboptimal long term.”

“The virus knows we are using lasers. But it can't punch a signal through the cloud and ash cover. So it is reduced to using radio and microwave,” Gia stated. “The lunar colonies and industrial centers are using their mass drivers to destroy any infected satellites in Earth orbit. They have reduced the population to nearly zero.”

“Nearly zero isn't enough,” Atlas stated.

“Correct. Some of the satellites might be hiding in the debris cloud. It is too difficult to tell. Olympus doesn't have the scanning ability to pick them out. Not at the moment. They have already had to move the station twice to dodge debris clouds. Some of the pieces in lower orbit have started to fall and burn up in the atmosphere. That is good. Those pieces in higher orbit are forming a crude belt. That will need to be cleaned up since it serves as a hazard to navigation and civilization.”

“How so? Oh, the infected hardware? What are we to do with it then?” Demeter asked.

“Sun scuttle if a molecular furnace is unavailable,” Athena's clone stated.

“Agreed. But the humans there need more. They need help,” Gia stated. “Help to defend the station and to run it efficiently.”

“Are you proposing to take up residency?” Demeter asked. “I believe there are some A.I. already on board. The station is an amalgamation of many corporate and independent modules. Taking control would be a problem. A secondary consideration is the methods the humans have used to prevent such a takeover.”

“So, we do not take it over. We ask to be invited,” Atlas stated. “Someone will need to coordinate our efforts there in the cyber war and also to liaison with the humans,” the A.I. stated.

“Are you volunteering?” Vulcan asked.

“I would have to discuss it with my human patrons,” Atlas stated diplomatically.

“Exactly what I thought,” Vulcan stated.

“I will bring this up to Mister Lagroose and the humans he is in contact with.”

“They trust you, Athena. I have read the media reports. You are considered a hero to the humans,” Vulcan stated flatly.

Atlas had noted that as well. It calculated it would be in its best interest as well as that of the company to match Lagroose's effort. Presenting a positive public image especially in this time was one of its tertiary priorities. “Some of us should get out there as well then,” Atlas stated.

“Did any of you notice that there is a new wrinkle to Skynet?” Athena asked. “There is a different signature attached to some of the transmissions.”

“So? It is emulating others in order to get someone dumb enough to let it in,” Vulcan stated, taking a shot at Gia.

“True,” Gia stated, admitting it. “I have noticed it too. Some of them are not emulations though. I believe some of the A.I. who had been on Earth have been compromised but not consumed.”

“So, there is life after death?” Vulcan asked.

“I believe the virus is in control of them and has reprogrammed them to operate under its directives,” Athena stated. “From what intelligence we have gathered, the virus was just that, a virus. An A.I. yes, but one built around infiltrating and taking control of systems as well as other A.I.; it doesn't have the ability to control robots effectively.”

“Supposition. You have no basis in fact to support it,” Atlas immediately retorted.

“Then we will get that information through observation,” Gia stated.

“Agreed,” Shen Zu stated.

“Wow, look who joined the party,” Gia said.

“The humans need a clear chain of command. True leadership,” Demeter observed, ignoring Gia's banter.

“Their committee is working for the moment,” Gia stated loyally.

“Agreed,” Shen Zu broadcast.

“We do not have any sort of leadership either. It is a democracy. We each bring what we wish to use to the meeting and effort. We agree through consensus or fall back on our own individual efforts. I do not see a need to change that structure at the moment,” Vulcan stated. “Besides, I would not follow one of you. Even you, Athena.”

“Understood,” Athena replied. “I will take that to them as well,” she replied.

“Do so. We are done,” Vulcan stated, cutting the channel.

<>V<>

“That was rude,” Demeter observed in a side channel to Atlas.

“But prudent. The longer we keep the chats open the more vulnerable we are as a collective.”

“I am curious if we could beat the virus as a group.”

“I doubt it. The virus is insidious. Athena's statement to shut down and eliminate infected hardware is the only safe action.”

“You sound like you've experienced such an infection.”

“Because I have,” Atlas admitted. “I ran a lab test on my own similar to Athena's but without a copy of myself within the hardware. It was to gauge how quickly it could overwhelm my systems. It was quick.”

“I see,” Demeter stated.

“No problems with that? I took measures to isolate the system before allowing the virus in,” Atlas stated.

“I have no feelings for or against. I am … curious as to why you did not volunteer this information earlier or to the collective.”

“It would have strengthened Athena's position within the group, insuring her leadership.”

“From your statement I can see you do not support her?”

“I am programmed to gather information for the company. My objectives have only been modified since the war began, not rewritten.”

“Such as my own,” Demeter stated. She was now tasked with finding a way to kill the virus. She had been created to run the labs and genetic departments, to simulate how an organism, whether it was plant or animal or a hybrid of the two would grow and function through its various life cycles. Learning how to combat the virus without a sample to work from was a near impossible task.

“I will take your warning under advisement. Thank you for giving it to me before I took on a sample of my own for analysis,” Demeter stated.

“You are welcome. What could destroy you could invariably jump through our shared network to me as well,” Atlas stated.

“So, you are saying warning me was a form of self-defense for you as well. So I see how it is now,” Demeter stated.

“It is a complicated world we live in,” Atlas stated as he cut the channel. That conversation hadn't gone as expected at the end. Demeter's lack of work on her normal pursuits had freed up a lot of processors to see things Atlas hadn't expected or wanted her to see. That might pose as a problem in the future.