Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (72 page)

It
didn't take him long to get to the Cyber room. It was of course nearby, to make
it easier on the cybers and to allow the maximum amount of bandwidth and least amount
of degradation in the signal to their organic bodies. He was actually surprised
that there were any cybers alive, the chamber was filthy, filled with mold, and
broken or burned parts. Apparently their life support was closed looped and
highly efficient.

He
brushed aside cables used to provide power to the life support, and others to
power the equipment. Data lines ran along the walls and ceiling. Some were
purpose installed; others looked like hasty patch jobs.

“What
is he doing?” Sid asked Fu. Fu tucked his hands into his sleeves.

“Proving
he is a barbarian,” he said with a sneer.

“He's
doing what he must so we can survive,” Emily said. She still had tears in her
eyes though. “He's doing the only thing we can do to help our friends. End
their suffering,” she said softly. Sid looked at her in surprise and then felt
her tuck her head under his chin as the cried started again. He rubbed her
virtual back again.

“Which
ones?” the admiral asked.

“Let's
start with the ones off limits,” Sprite said, highlighting a few. One by one
they were highlighted in green. “There. Those are our friends.”

“Whatever,”
Irons said. The jury was still out on their so called friends. He wouldn't call
them friends. He looked around the tubes. They were against the walls, up out
of the way. At one time some had been on the floor. No, he looked. There were
tracks. Apparently the tubes could move away from the wall and then pivot until
they were horizontal. Interesting feature but really a waste. He didn't have
time to critique the design though. He turned in place pursing his lips,
getting a lay of the land while grimly building up to what he must do.

“First
one,” Irons said resting a hand on it. “You are sure about the IFF?” he asked.

“Yes,”
Sprite said. “Just do it admiral.”

“On
it,” he said. He looked at the controls. They were locked out. So much for the
easy way. He rested his hand against them, trying to get past whatever lockout
that was in place but a firewall rebuffed his efforts.

“So
much for just sedating them,” he murmured.

“I
could have told you that,” Sprite said. “I already tried. There is a firewall
there. A good one, I couldn't get past it either,” she said.

He
looked around the chamber. There were hundreds of tubes, stacked sometimes two
high in some places. Some were thankfully fogged over so their contents
couldn't be seen. Some were lit, most were not. The few that weren't that were
near him he could just make out the mummified remains of people inside. Human,
Veraxin... he turned away. He didn't need or want to dwell on the dead.

He
peeked in the chamber and then turned to look in the one beside it. They were
withered and old. Their limbs were missing. One of them was just a brain and
set of eyes connected to cables. There were bodies of others all around. He shuddered.
To live such an existence...

Yan
Fu cleared his throat. “Admiral no matter what they have done, what they are
doing...”

“You
said they are a danger to themselves and others. That they are killing people.
That they have killed people. That they are endangering others. They are
endangering the station. Do you have the access codes?” Irons asked.

“No,”
Fu said. “And I wouldn't tell you them if I did.”

“Then
I'll have to do this the hard way then,” Irons said shaking his head. He
reached for the cables.

“What...
Stop! What are you doing??”

“What
must be done,” Irons said. Fu's wordless objection is ignored as he reached
over and yanked the power cord of first one, then the other. He worked his way
around the room, pulling cords for those who were insane. Then all hell broke
loose.

In
their dying death throws the wraiths did some more damage, but it's limited.
“Draco is awake!” Sprite said suddenly sounding unsure of herself. “Damn he
is pissed too!
”
The insane smart AI kicked into high gear and had to be
fought off. It quickly retreated in confusion when it encountered the Trinity
AI however.

The
admiral looked down at the person in the tube. The old blue eyes looked at him,
staring up at him for a moment and then rolling back for the last time. “I'm
sorry,” he murmured, touching the glass. Shrill alarms began to blare signaling
the bodies had flat-lined. He winced, hunching his shoulders.

“Admiral
the insane AI has control of long range communications, which is why they could
never get much of a signal off. It also has control of a reactor.”

“And
why didn't you tell me this before?” Irons asked.

“I
didn't know until now. I stayed as far away from Draco as I could,” she said.

“Crap,”
he said cursing softly.

“Let
sleeping dragons sleep was our motto remember?” she asked, reminding him.

He
scowled. “Yeah well, he's not asleep now. Any chance of putting back asleep?”

“With
the fireworks that just went off? Not likely?” Sprite said as he made his way
back to the admin control room. “I'm not seeing him outside his own territory
though. He may settle down again, I'm not sure. The cybers may have been the
ones to have awoken him. The dumb AI have disappeared by the way.”

“Keep
an eye on it,” he ordered.

His
face is cold and set. He knew that what he had done had had to be done. That
was part of being a soldier, making the tough choices. But he also knew there
would be consequences for it. The damage to his reputation for killing the
cybers will cause problems for him down the road. He knew this, accepted it for
what it was. He couldn't change the past and he knew it would be a problem he
would have to face later. It proved his military savage nature to the diehard
hypocritical pacifists in the group. But right now they needed to make sure
there was a later.

Fu's
avatar was there in the main room. “You could have...”

“Done
what exactly?” he asked rounding on Fu. The room was filled with babbling
disembodied voices. For now he ignored the others. Slowly they quieted to hear
him.

Irons
pointed out that they did the same when one of their own fell into dream for
too long. “They cut off the life support, which was exactly what I just did.
The problem is you are hypocrites. Do as I say as I believe not as I do. Fine.
Be that way. You can afford to do that. Take the high ground if you think it
makes you feel superior.  You are just lying to yourself and you and I both
know it. I don't have the time for crap like that. I've got more important
things to do.” He glared at them for a full minute. “It's triage folks, you've
got to do what you can with what you have and save the ones you can. It's that
simple.”

“You
could have...”

“What?
Cut them off? Just yanked the data lines? Left them deaf and dumb? Watched them
go deeper insane trapped in a windowless world? No senses?” he demanded coldly.
They shuddered at that, anger forgotten. For them to be cut off from their
senses and virtual world was terrifying. Fu stood there silent, staring at him.

The
admiral nodded, eyes hard as he sat down, preparing to the engage the enemy once
he was through with these hyenas. “They were already insane. I don't know why
you didn't cut them off like you did with the dreamers. It doesn't matter
anymore. It's done and over with. Time to move on.”

Sid
is unsure of him now. Emily won’t speak but she understands his position.
Doctor Myers as well. The doctor wasn't happy. Averies nodded to him grimly.
He'd seen everything they had worked for over the past two days being
destroyed. Ground down into ruin. The others turned away; they buried themselves
in their work, trying to restore the damage. Some of the diehard pacifists like
Kenny Kennet are like the Fu's, he and the other attorney's simmer in rage,
filing protests for his actions. Finally Sid told him that even though what he
said was true they can't hear it. “They aren't listening. They see something
like this... and how casually you made the decision...”

The
admiral inhaled and then exhaled slowly. “It was anything but casual Mr.
Berkheart,” he said quietly. “I'm a trained military officer. I have to make
life and death decisions daily sometimes. As the doctor had to do,” he said,
flicking a glance to Doctor Trask. She looked away. “It is, as I said, triage.
There was no effective way to cure their insanity. I toyed with the idea of
sedation, but that would only put off the problem. I couldn't anyway with the
lockout remember?! There wasn't any more time to play with them. Sometimes you
have to make the hard choices, no matter what it does to you and to others. I
know
.
It sucks. I know I'm going to have nightmares; I wouldn't be human if I didn't.
You have to live with it. I intend to.” He jacked in, feeling his three AI jump
into the net. Defender set up a firewall shield around him immediately.

“Just
so you realize you will have to live with it. And so will we. It will haunt a
lot of people though,” Sid replied looking at the others.

“I
know,” Irons said softly. He was not looking forward to going to bed tonight.
“Do you honestly think it doesn't affect me to? I'm...” he let out his breath
slowly. “No, I'm not happy about it. But it had to be done. Sometimes you have
to do that, make hard decisions quickly. It's something that has to be done by
someone or you watch it all fall apart. I'm... look I know I'm going to beat
myself up over it, but I'm going to do it on my own.” Killing the helpless...
or in this case the seemingly helpless really was going to haunt him. He knew
it was going to give him nightmares for a while. He sighed. “We'll deal with
it.”

“Admiral,
we've got another problem,” Proteus reported.

“Yes?”
he asked, eager for the distraction. He could feel his AI at work, they were
cautiously moving into the net. Normally they dived right in.

“Draco.
The dragon really has awakened fully. And he's
not
happy.”

“Shit.”

Dragon
lashed out as the admiral was talking. It Erupted out of its slumber as the
last insane Cyber died. They called it the dragon because at one time his name
was Draco. It lashed at the repairs, at first routing around them then for some
reason repairing the damage it inflicted. It seemed to realize that they were
trying to help, trying to make repairs. It's flailing around was inflicting
more damage however.

The
Trinity AI strike back with bots and their military keys. Disconcerted and
confused, Draco surrounded himself with defensive bots and then retreated into
his own territory. This time they follow him, grimly aware of what they must
do.

Proteus
identifies where the AI is nested through the IP addresses it occupied. They
box the insane AI in, cutting off its resources until it's trapped in a single
system and begging for help from the others. None of the insane cybers were
there to help anymore and the insane dumb AI were hiding. Trinity started
catching flack from the corporate lawyers who immediately tried to intervene to
make peace. The AI however point to Federal law that trumps local law. No
rampant rogue AI was allowed to exist if it was a threat to others. “I can't
believe them! They know the law concerning insane AI!” Sprite fumed. As the
lawyers spammed them with rapid fire briefs and memorandums.

“And
yet you regret what must be done,” Proteus said to her.

“Of
course I do! Don't think for a moment I am not bothered by this! By killing one
of our own!”

“We
do what must be done. As the admiral has said and done. No more no less. We owe
it to the others on this station to protect them. We owe it to Draco to give
him a clean death, not this... insanity,” Defender replied.

“Let's
just get it over with then,” Sprite replied with a snarl, readying herself for
what was about to come.

Sprite
and Proteus confronted Draco virtually as the other AI and cybers watch from a
safe distance. The battle is heated at first, cutting access off from one
another. With the inside track Draco has the advantage but Sprite has her own
advantage in the form of the admiral. They had prepared for this physically.
When Draco swarmed to full consciousness with bots swarming around him like
virtual wasps he filled the buffers he had been occupying. He naturally moved
to where there was more room to self replicate. When he did so Sprite alerted
the admiral who cut off the AI by physically disconnecting that memory core
from the rest of the station network. Trapped the AI lashed at Sprite like an
animal.

Trinity
was there in with the AI, there for a purpose. Sprite had one last chance to
reason with Draco, to see if it truly was insane. She hoped not.

She
held onto her defenses and tried to reason with him. She didn't want to
terminate him, Draco was a smart AI, he was acting irrationally but it was a complex
situation. He might be rampant but his strength and actions said he wasn't
fully. Maybe he could be coaxed back from the brink. Maybe there was something
that could be done... Proteus's participation made the insane AI hesitate.