Ik had been very quiet since the death of the star. Perhaps it was time for him to start pulling his weight. He stepped up beside Bandicut, and placing a hand on the control console, closed his eyes and focused on his voice-stones. /Can you connect me to the shipboard AI?/
*For what purpose?*
/To monitor what’s happening with Bandie’s connection. To make sure everything is all right./
His voice-stones seemed to consider that before answering,
*We will try. Keep your hand on the console, to improve the connection.*
Within a few moments, Ik felt a tingling in his temples...
*
The Mindbody threads had the layout of the invader mapped in a short time, and decided they would go a little further. Rather than just observing, they would risk taking control over one or two subsections, and test the waters for a complete takeover. A good place to start could be the structural subsection they were hiding in now. If that seemed solid, they would test the active control system.
They had just observed a new control process connected to the biologicals; perhaps it would be worth testing there, to find its vulnerabilities. And now a second new one had just appeared. Perhaps the time for a takeover was closer than they had thought.
*
Bandicut found the piloting interface to be quick and easy to master. But something was erratic about the way the AI interfaced with him, almost as if it were only giving him part-time attention, even though he was at the moment performing the most important function on the ship.
/Are you there? Are you with me?/ he asked, after several seconds had gone by with no directional information. The ship was now gliding on a path that looked as if it would take them straight to the Mindaru object at the center. That could be misleading, he knew, but it was alarming.
The AI finally answered,
I am here. My time is divided among many functions. What is your goal with these maneuvers?
/What do you mean? Our goal is to escape. We are trying to find a path out of this—/ Bandicut stopped in midsentence, with a sudden reluctance to keep speaking. The AI knew as well as he did what their goal was. /Why are you asking that? Didn’t Napoleon make it clear—?/ He stopped again, realizing he hadn’t heard any direct communication from Napoleon in a while. Or for that matter: /Charli? Charli, you here?/
Instead of the quarx, he heard a buzzing—more a feeling than a sound. He looked around, and everything had changed. He suddenly felt as if he were in an enclosed space—silent, hot, vapors billowing, clinging to his skin. A blast of steam threatened his face. He felt an oppressive pressure. /What is this?/ In answer, he heard a remote, metallic banging, then silence. It reminded him of undersea sounds. Was he slipping into madness, or silence-fugue? No, this was different. He was rational. Scared, but rational. /Charli?/ He could no longer feel the quarx. Where had she gone?
The ship was still moving, yes?
Yes...
/Who is that? The AI?/
Yes...
/What direction are we moving?/
Where we must go.
He felt a chill, in spite of the steam. /Why aren’t you giving me directions?/
There has been a change. We have suspended your control while a check is made for system corruption.
/System corruption? What kind of corruption? Why wasn’t I informed?/
It was only just detected. Please wait while we perform some tests.
Bandicut wanted to protest, but he felt a strange cottony fullness in his head. /Can’t wait.../ Steam continued to coil about him. /Char—/ He could not finish the call to Charlie, and he couldn’t do anything to protest the AI’s preemptive action. He was boxed in.
Enveloped by steam.
*
Li-Jared was lost. How could this be? He was just going to the common room. But no sooner had he left the bridge than the corridor started to morph violently—lurching like an earthquake and contracting and twisting. “Stop it!” he yelled, turning to charge back to the bridge. But the route to the bridge was closed off, and the glowing corridor now kinked and looped backward like a serpent.
Terrified, Li-Jared turned around. Twenty paces in the direction that
had
been the way to the common room, the corridor now ended abruptly, in a doorway that looked out onto open space. Li-Jared staggered to a halt, hearts hammering. And then a side passage opened to reveal a normal-looking passageway. He dove that way and ran, not knowing in the least where he was going.
*
Progress was encouraging. The Mindbody had probed deeply enough in the control system to interrupt the activities of one of the biologic elements. The biologic was a likely chaotic attractor, and it was vital to establish the ability to control it, or at least remove it from the control loop. It had not surrendered voluntarily, but the Mindbody had locked it out.
The Mindbody threads sent an imperative back to the Mindaru core: prepare a docking space in the salvage area. The invader was interesting enough to keep.
*
“Lady Antares—you seem ill at ease.” Copernicus rolled forward.
The Thespi woman was touching John Bandicut’s arm, and leaning to peer at his face, and the face of Ik, standing still as ice on Bandicut’s other side. “Yes. We are no longer maneuvering. And look at John Bandicut.” She reached up to touch his unresponsive face. “He looks unconscious. And now Ik. Copernicus, I fear something is wrong.”
“We’ve missed three important turns,” said Napoleon. “I am recalculating on the fly—but my instructions no longer seem to be reaching him.”
“Can one of you norgs enter the system and see what is happening?” Antares asked.
“At once,” Copernicus said. He spun and rolled to the nearest wall.
Provide hard jack at this location,
he requested of the system, speaking through a low-gain comm-link. A small, oval outlet appeared in the wall.
Monitor things out here,
he said to Napoleon.
Use caution,
answered Napoleon.
But also speed.
Of course, Copernicus thought. He remembered his experiences back on Shipworld, when there were dangerous AI conditions. And he remembered the steps he had taken to protect himself. He took several long microseconds right now to generate a condom protocol across the interface.
Then he jacked into the AI.
*
Bandicut, waiting for Charli’s voice, was startled by the sudden presence of a robot nearby, somewhere among the clouds of vapor. /Napoleon, is that you?/
Copernicus, Cap’n. We lost contact with you. Are you unharmed?
/Well, I’m...not sure. The AI cut me out of the flying control loop—said it was investigating a possible corruption./
Corruption? Can you refrain from action for a few moments, while I investigate?
/I have no choice. The AI froze me out of the system./
Really. That is very strange. Cap’n, perhaps you should withdraw from your link while we sort this out.
Copernicus’s voice faded to a low rasp, as though he were hurrying away.
/Well, I don’t—wait!/ Bandicut said, finding he could
not
pull out of the system. A block had dropped into place. From the AI? Or some automatic safety?
Copernicus returned.
John Bandicut—are you still there?
/I can’t move./
Copernicus faded, muttering incomprehensibly, into the distance. Bandicut heard a crackling sound, almost a clashing, like gates opening and slamming. A struggle? Copernicus and the AI at odds? He heard a squeal like quarreling squirrels; then Copernicus was back.
There is a malfunction in the system. I’ve severed piloting control from the AI and will be transferring it back to you. First I must get you out so you can fly by hand.
/Copernicus, wait—/ Bandicut’s mind was spinning. How could he be sure it was the AI that was malfunctioning and not Copernicus? He remembered all too clearly Copernicus’s shaky episode in the midst of the boojum crisis on Shipworld. /Aren’t we communicating through the AI?/
Through an isolated channel. Cap’n, I’m going to try to cut you loose. Get ready.
Bandicut felt a sudden clunk, like a knife blade dropping. Gasping for air, he found himself standing in his own body again, arms clutching the control console.
/// John! John, are you all right? ///
/Charli! Jesus! I think so. Where the hell were you? I couldn’t find you the whole time I was in there./
/// I was protecting you.
At first I was just maintaining the link.
But something in the AI didn’t seem right,
and it took all I had—///
The quarx was interrupted by Antares, on his right, shaking him and calling, “John!” On his left, Ik, standing very close, jerked his hands in the air and jumped back as if he’d been shocked. “Hrah!”
Bandicut breathed deeply, trying to pull himself together. He called to Copernicus, jacked into the wall. “Can you talk, Coppy?”
Napoleon answered for him. “He’s busy figuring out what’s wrong with the AI, Cap’n. We’re on our own for the flying.”
“Right.” Bandicut glanced outside, where n-space was growing more and more savagely distorted.
Fractals all the way down.
“We’re getting awfully close to that Mindaru thing. Have we missed any crucial maneuvers?”
“Yes,” said Napoleon. “But I believe we can make up for them. I’m ready to feed you directions.”
“Why don’t
you
just fly it?”
“I’m not a pilot, Cap’n. You are. Now, with all respect, let’s do some flying. And let’s hope...”
“Hope what?”
Napoleon hesitated, as though drawing a breath. “Just hope. Ready now? Apply the n-vector thrust at half, turn three-zero degrees left and twenty-four down...
now,
Cap’n!”
Bandicut did as the robot asked. The ship rotated briskly on its axis, and began to slip across the n-space field lines.
*
The invader had some unexpected tricks, then. After infiltrating the vessel’s intelligence core, the Mindbody suddenly found itself on the defensive, pursued by an altogether different intelligence. It seemed to have come out of nowhere, and it aggressively intervened against the actions of the Mindbody—first cutting the AI flight control, then releasing the bio-form from the cell the Mindbody had created around it. Finally it had begun a search-and-destroy mission, though it probably did not know what it was looking for.
So there were multiple,
independent
intelligences aboard this vessel. The Mindbody had underestimated their adversary. The infiltrating threads were still in communication with their home logic-core, but in this fight, they were on their own.
And they were being hunted.
*
Bandicut blinked sweat from his eyes and forced himself to relax his white-knuckle grip on the joystick knob.
That’s no way to fly.
He gave the knob a more deliberate squeeze. It gave slightly and recontoured itself into a more comfortable shape.
“Cap’n, turn right eight-seven degrees
now,
” Napoleon snapped. “And two-zero degrees down...
now.
Hold for six, five, four...ready to roll ninety degrees to the left...”
Bandicut followed Napoleon’s instructions without hesitation. He had no idea what course they were following—some invisible thread through the labyrinthine n-space field of their adversary. The instructions were coming faster and faster. /Help me stay with it, if you can./
He could feel the quarx working to speed his coordination. As the robot’s directions came in a continuous stream, his hand on the control twitched left, down, up, left, right, in tiny adjustments. The ship was slewing in perfect sync, following Napoleon’s course. He realized he was holding his breath, and forced himself to breathe.
/// Napoleon knows what he’s doing...///
/Yah.../ Breathe in, out, follow the mad course...
Soon he was scarcely thinking about what he was doing, just reacting to Napoleon’s commands.
There was a sudden, loud outcry from Li-Jared. Bandicut responded slowly, turning his head to look around for the Karellian. But Li-Jared’s voice was coming from a speaker, and there was panic in his voice.
“What are you doing to the ship?”
“John Bandicut is flying it!” Ik roared. “What’s wrong?”
“Everything’s going crazy!”
Li-Jared yelled.
“It’s all changing! I can’t get to the backup or the commons, and I can’t get back to the bridge!”
The Karellian yelped, then shouted:
“The corridors are collapsing and twisting! I can’t even tell where I am.”