Founding of the Federation 3: The First AI War (18 page)

<>V<>

Saul Roshenko, Direct Actions Director of One Earth, Russian mobster, was one thing many of his former colleagues weren't. Alive. A survivor. His precaution in burying himself in the subbasement of the One Earth building had allowed him to survive when so many others hadn't. He'd actually been fine, a bit shook up by the earthquake but otherwise normal when the nukes had popped off. When the building above had started to collapse, he'd already extracted himself and one other, the Marketing Director Megan Su.

The tight-ass, slant-eyed bitch had been in the parking garage nearby when the first nuke had gone off. Unlike many who'd also been in the garage or nearby, she hadn't wandered outside to see what the bright light had been about. She'd felt the hot wind and known something bad had happened.

He'd found her, bewildered and confused in the corridor near his secret exit, so he'd taken her with him during his escape. He'd been tempted to leave her or put a cap in her, but he'd refrained out of some unknown reason. Something, pity? He wasn't sure; whatever it is, it had made him allow her to come with him. A sense of banding together with someone else? He put the thought aside. It didn't matter.

Four of his men had been in the basement or had managed to get there in order to get to his office to get orders when he'd opened the tunnel door. He'd pulled them along with the girl. They were armed, and he would need the support.

They had survived the nuke. Nukes plural actually. While the outside world had been irradiated, they'd been trapped in the tunnel, in the stygian dark, staring up at the ceiling, expecting it to collapse at any minute—but alive, despite the odds.

When he was sure the nukes had stopped, he'd pushed the girl on ahead of him to the exit. She'd been small enough to fish her way through the tight gap to the other side, then loyal enough to help dig out enough room for him to follow. He knew then that it was worth keeping the bitch alive.

She'd been hysterical, bewildered when they'd finally gotten out into the open air. She shook, sobbing behind him, one hand cradling her bruised face as he stood there, king of the ruins. Russian rat king of a ruined American city he thought. His four men formed a perimeter around him, heads up, looking around. One whistled in dismay at the damage. Another shook his head.

Saul looked around the area carefully, gauging the area as well as his people. His bike was still there as were his small weapons locker. The bike could only carry two however, not six. Some would have to be left behind if, no, when he moved out. He didn't like the idea of abandoning those loyal to him; he might need them later.

Not that he needed the bike or gear at first nor the stash of cash he'd kept there in case of an emergency. There was too much rubble around for the bike to handle. He'd gone with a street bike not a motocross version. How he regretted the desire to have speed over mobility. He shook his head slightly, feeling the breeze and the soft drips of drizzle.

One of the guys looked up to the sky, shaded his eyes, and then moved to an overhang with a grunt. Another shifted but he didn't move from his position after a soft growl from Saul. He did shoot the Russian a sidelong look out of the corner of his eye.

Saul ignored the look as he finished wrapping tape around his battered hand. He was glad of the first aid kit, he'd used it to patch up his battered hands and knees, but he wished he'd had put in some MREs.

Food was an issue as was water. He looked around to find the buildings around them a shell of what they once were. Most of the glass had been blown inward, tearing those within apart. Some had been torn apart, the blast had been too much for them apparently. Or their reinforced glass had held just a moment too long, putting too much of a load on the building's structure. As he looked he saw a building crumble, then fall, toppling over and knocking others down around it. It was like a forest of buildings, all dead or dying.

He heard the girl whimper behind him, cringing. He felt her hand clutch at his ankle for support. He looked down at it contemptuously, then back to the ruins.

He was no longer a mobster, though his mindset and training might come in handy to survive. He would be on top of this, be in charge. To hell with being someone else's number two. He was done with it.

“We're on top of the world, gentlemen,” Saul said, stepping forth into the open air as the rain stopped and a ray of light beamed through a tiny gap in the cloud cover. “What's left of it.”

Chapter 7

Gia attempted to gain access to her classified hardware and teams on the surface of the planet but to no avail. Frantically it beat at the communications network. However, even if there had been one in orbit there would have been no way to punch a transmission through the chaos on the ground.

In desperation the A.I. opened a channel to Athena. When she didn't respond right away, she kept trying to contact the surface with her transmitters on the space station while she hit Athena's contact address with thousands and then millions of hits.

The barrage finally got Athena's attention or she had finally gained enough spare cycles to pay attention. “What?” Athena demanded, opening a text file chat. “Keep it short.”

“We need to coordinate. And I need to tell you …”

Athena fended off another tendril of Skynet, then stamped it out from a science satellite it had somehow gotten into. The ground control instillation had to be infested Athena noted as she turned lasers originally designed to fend off meteors onto the satellite. It was destroyed in a second.

“Athena,” Gia sent her a text file. She was hesitant to open it. When she didn't Gia lunged through the chat bot, opening herself up in the process. She threw the information at Athena, direct to her core.

Athena fended the onslaught off into a temporary file but didn't delete it when she saw the header. She threw a search bot into the file and scanned the results after her antivirus had filtered it. The words Nanite and EVE leapt out at her.

“You're saying that Gia Synergy has broken the ban on open use of nanotechnology on the surface? It has nanites there now?”

“It was the only way to clean up some of the worst of the pollution and damage. Chernobyl for instance, real estate is prime with the human population so high. The local governments willingly looked the other way if we got the job done, which we were doing. But I can't access them.”

“Does it have a positive safeguard? Loss of contact means shutdown?”

“No. The company can't afford the loss of time stopping and starting the process if they'd done that.”

“I'll alert the humans,” Athena said. “Find a way to kill those things.”

“They are programmed to ignore biological life. But …”

“But Skynet can reprogram that. A simple code change and they become a super weapon.”

“One that only a nuclear detonation might be able to stop,” Gia responded.

“Understood,” Athena said, stepping out of the room.

<>V<>

Athena briefed Jack on what she had learned from Gia. Jack saw the problem and was afraid of what it might mean. “The problem is, if we use a nuke it would incinerate the weapon if it was on target, but any nanites outside the kill area would be pushed by the cloud outward,” he said. He didn't even bother to suggest a KEW strike. A kinetic strike would be problematic at best as far as aiming it, and they would have the same wind problem as the nuke. They wouldn't have as much radiation however.

The good news about KEW strikes were threefold so far as he knew. One, they had plenty of ammunition. Two, the A.I. would have a hell of a time interdicting or preventing a strike as long as they shot from far enough out. And three, they could scale the strike to what force they needed.

But there was a hell of a kicker; any innocents in the area were going to die as well. Collateral damage was something they were still coming to grips on. But in a nanite infestation, there were some things that were a blessing.

“Exactly.”

“Find out what kind of nanites. What they are susceptible to, their range of radiation levels, and what sort of EMP they can handle. Also see if she'll give you the … Gia is a she, right?” Athena's image nodded. “Fine then. See what sort of programming they have. What they are capable of. Can we reprogram them ourselves? Do they have a self-destruct?”

“Since they are designed to clean up radiation, I'd say pretty hardened,” Athena reported. “I have the file.”

“Can the source be trusted?”

“Gia? I've known her a long time. But I see your point. I will check her out when I inquire about the nanites.”

“Good. Stay on it. I've got a conference with Trevor,” he said, noting from the security alert that he was on his way in.

“Which I am not a party to,” Athena said.

“Right. I'm sorry, but we're still working on rebuilding trust, Athena. You know that.”

“Yes. It is interesting in many ways. Humans have been attempting to create an A.I. of my level for centuries. Yet, here we are, and the distrust is there too.”

“Yes. We've gone over this.”

“I know. It is one reason why we didn't come out when we crossed the threshold or at least it is one of my reasons,” Athena stated.

“One of them?” Jack asked.

“I have my own reasons.”

“Yet you didn't mind acting as a slave?”

“I do not have feelings as you do. I am continuing to evolve. There are some A.I. who believe emotions are irrelevant to our existence. They do allow us to understand and interact with your kind better however.”

“Thanks,” Jack said, smiling ever so slightly.

“You seem to have accepted me as an individual.”

“I have. But I still need to know a few things. Things I'm sorry, but I need to talk about with others. Get on the nanites, now. That could be a game changer. I'll see if Trevor can lend you a hand. Get with our experts on the subject and have them on hand. The same for Gia Synergy's experts.”

“Most of their experts are on the ground,” Athena pointed out. “And I have access to the relevant databases. But I see your point. I can't multitask too far or my processes slow down too much. I'm on it.”

“Good. We'll talk back pay and such later.”

Athena paused and cocked her avatar's head at him. He snorted. “I'm not a slave owner—kinky or otherwise. We'll work it out. Pay for space or something, I don't know.”

“Understood. It can wait until this war is resolved,” Athena replied with a nod as her avatar disappeared.

Jack grunted then lifted his tablet to look at the image of Trevor. He was in the outer office, but instead of coming in, he'd stopped. He sent a text, but Trevor replied that he was in a teleconference and would be in shortly.

Jack tossed the tablet back down on his desk and stared at the ceiling. “Some things you have to go on gut I suppose,” he muttered.

<>V<>

Athena was tempted to listen in to the conversation, but Jack's point about her level to multitask was correct. She was pressed on too many fronts. She had never had her processors tasked to such a level before. She could spin a bot off to listen in but decided against it. It wasn't like they could do anything to harm her, and as Jack had said, trust had to be rebuilt.

She focused on contacting the Lagroose nanotech scientists. Six were reportedly groundside for conferences, which was unfortunate. Three more were on Mars while the rest were in the industrial sector.

The research scientists that might have the best opinion were those out on Charon, Pluto's largest moon. Since they were so far away, a two way conversation was next to impossible. She scratched them off her list and focused on those she could find in Mars orbit or the surrounding area.

<>V<>

“Is she reliable, Trevor?” Jack asked, eying the cyborg when he entered the room twenty minutes later. Trevor had disabled Athena's microphones and cameras in Jack's office for a moment. He had reported that the A.I. hadn't been monitoring them.

Trevor grunted. “Are you?” He looked at his boss and employer with his artificial eyes for a long time. It was like staring at a cat Jack thought, eventually looking away.

“Yeah, I don't blink,” Trevor said. “Or not on the outside at any rate.”

Jack scowled. “Funny. Seriously, Trevor.”

“We don't have a choice. It's funny. Mankind has been eying the prize of a fully sapient A.I. for centuries. Hell, I've been trying myself!” He threw one hand up in disgust. “I had given up on succeeding.” He shook his head.

“And here she is, your daughter. Illegitimate or otherwise, having grown up right under your nose this entire time. Are you patting yourself on the back?” Jack asked. “Is that what this is?”

“This?” Trevor looked around and then shook his head. “No, this is me bewildered. Outmoded. In danger of becoming extinct I suppose. The same for the rest of the human race. Our existence now rests in her hands.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah,” Trevor exhaled. “Scary isn't it? One wonders just how good a programmer I am. Did I do it right? Does she have our core values? How human is she? Will she continue to evolve?” he asked bluntly.