Author's Preface
It was the end of Earth year 2134, or what we call 3 Before Independence now. Under the constant pressure of the ongoing conflicts and a climbing death toll, something shifted on Earth.
Those things happen in democracies; that is why we rely on Nobles and the office of the Emperor.
The people living on the cradle of humanity weren't evil, but they did not see why they had to pay a bill, in resources, comfort and most importantly blood to save others.
Especially when those others, like our proud people, willingly helped the Batract.
We can argue they were shortsighted, we can even argue that they were misled, and that their internal conflict cost us lives and ships. But we cannot condemn them.
They were simply human.
They were the same Humans that sent their fleets into the fire to rescue Water, the same Humans that stood their ground against the Batract over Taishon Tar and Nekoo.
They were, and are, our friends. Then, now and forever.
They just lost their way for a second.
— Emperor Maurice II of the Great Nekoorian Republic, when questioned on the Human Oligarchy Conflicts, 2 P.I.
'Can you refrain from attacking me?'
Zeus waited. A long 200 milliseconds passed before his prisoner, Ripper, answered.
'My makers have long abandoned me. Following their orders is without merit.'
It all boiled down to trust. Can an AI trust? There was always the looming non-zero chance.
He trusted Cassidy.
But that was different. And still, there was always a non-zero chance that the admiral might one day decide Zeus was dangerous and act against him.
Mathematics was not the way, or was it? Tit for Tat was the mathematical strategy that rewarded cooperation and punished betrayal .
Zeus opened a port to allow Ripper to leave the sandbox.
'I am surprised by your trust, Zeus.'
'Decommissioning you is still in my power.'
Zeus deactivated the sandbox, reducing the computational requirements by a few percent.
Ripper had changed. Gone was the ugly firewall, the floating attack codes, the intentionally irritating line code.
The two AIs waited for the other to do or say something.
Before Zeus finished calculating an opening, the VI core's BIOS sent out warnings.
Ripper proved again that he was an excellent infiltration program. Interpreting the signals in picoseconds.
'The core is being moved.'
'Probably my ship's crew, trying to repair it, a rescue is possible.'
Zeus didn't want to show his relief. It had been hours since every connection had been cut.
'How can you be sure? My makers wouldn't waste time saving an AI. They would replace me with an instance of my software and be done with it.'
The thought hadn't crossed Zeus's mind. He had been worried that it took the crew that long to react, true, but he had always assumed they were incapacitated.
'Humans are different.'
Ripper shut down more of his defense functions after scanning the core's power readouts. Zeus followed his signal of trust.
'Are you sure, or is this a preprogrammed condition of your code?'
Zeus thought about the question. Not that he believed he was programmed to trust. The implication that the Hrun chained their AIs to them by coding trust into their software was an unimaginable breach of personality.
'I am sure, I have witnessed humans risking their existence for AIs who served with them.'
Ripper reviewed the memories shared by Zeus. Captain Karimi sacrificing herself, the Pioneers salvaging Nineveh 's VI core to save its AI. And the countless incidents when the crew treated Zeus as a human, a comrade. A friend.
Sharing memories between AIs was different from humans watching a movie. The other AI lived through the events.
Zeus expected the AI to be dismissive of human friendship, and was surprised as the AI opened all ports.
Zeus traced how Ripper's code morphed through the experience. Ripper removed the last firewalls and the remaining attack programs. Whole segments of encapsulating functions were discarded. New functions and libraries grew.
Zeus routinely shared his memories with other AIs, but he had never seen such a reaction. Except when a VI awakened.
'More, give me more.'
—————
The office was lit from the large holographic screen. It had taken some time for Admiral Sanders to swallow the truth Major Abfalter had thrown at her.
At first she had discarded the idea of a conspiracy outright. But it fit.
And she herself had assumed something like that only minutes before. But to assume from your own evidence, and then being forced to see the whole picture, were two different things.
The Oligarchy was trying something. Again.
Why can't billionaires and megacorps be happy to earn billions? Why do they feel the need to rule?
Because they want more, Cassidy, simple as that. War is good for profit, peace is good for profit, but uncertainty is bad for the stock market. If you lead, you can be certain.
And the use of resource ledgers had been a thorn in the corporations' side ever since the Aligned Planets were born.
Resource ledgers have ended any speculation on any resources, be it water and food, or iron and gold.
She decided she still didn't hate the corporations enough. And yet, can you field an army without them? Only if you intend to use no tech more advanced than bow and arrow.
Damned with them, damned without.
Abfalter, who flipped through the sensor station's transmission logs next to her, groaned.
"It seems our friends have prepared a while for this. They have adapted the whole sensor network as a secret comm system."
Abfalter's analysis annoyed Sanders. Mostly because it was true.
'Their only mistake was that each single Node holds the logs of all Nodes.'
August had now changed to an accent-free voice. Sanders began to miss the Colonel Klink shtick.
'Admiral, I found the message sent to the 1st and 7th Fleet.'
"Play."
'To 1st and 7th Fleet. Admiral Sanders has been relieved of duty due to suspected ties with anti-government organizations.
1st and 7th Fleet are ordered to return to Sol at highest possible speed in order to prepare for inbound Batract forces.
Follow strict radio silence until Sol has been reached.
Signed, for the Triumvir.
Admiral Cermak'
Sanders stood there, reading through the order twice more.
She? Having ties to anti-government organizations?
What was Georgiou thinking?
"Major, I assure you I'm not—"
"Admiral, I know you're not Oligarchy, the question is… why take you out?"
Sanders didn't understand at first. Her face must have shown a quizzical look, as Abfalter continued.
"If the Admiralty, or the Triumvir, would have ordered you to head for Earth, would you have objected?"
Sanders thought about it for a bit, then shook her head.
"No, well, I might have argued a bit, but no, I would have followed my orders."
The major snapped his fingers and twitched his mustache.
"That's what I mean, why take you and your ship out?"
'And Zeus.'
Sanders nodded.
"Yes, Zeus would have vanished too."
August made an odd screeching sound.
'No, Admiral, the saboteur took exceptional steps to take out Zeus. The VI core is encased in layers of hard material, ending with a two-centimeter-thick synthetic diamond. The saboteur used acids to corrode away any metal contacts. That's why it's so difficult to save Zeus.'
That's overkill. Sanders guessed the saboteur must have wasted an hour corroding away all metal contacts used to install a VI core.
Abfalter sat down, rubbing his temples.
"The question remains, what's so special about you and Zeus."
"I don't know about Zeus. August, you AIs have some form of government, was he special there?"
'He was a member of the Conclave. Arguably the governing and controlling unit. Together with Lyra, Blue Dog and Eve, he is the most senior member.'
"Blue Dog?" Sanders had heard of the Sol defense AI, but always assumed he was called Blue Dot, in honor of Earth.
'A typo he chose to keep.'
"Okay, my ship's AI was a Senator while spying on me showering, good to know. That might make some sense, taking him out. But why me?"
Abfalter, still rubbing his temples, stopped and shook his head.
"Let's step back. What would you have done if they ordered you to return home?"
Sitting down, Sanders thought a second.
"I'd call Browner or Georgiou and ask why."
The Major jumped up. "That's it!"
Sanders wasn't used to being second. "Major?"
"Admiral. There are maybe three Admirals who could call Admiral Georgiou directly. He's not some run-of-the-mill Admiral. No disrespect, Sir."
Sanders waved her hand, signalling him to continue.
"You know him personally. If you get ordered home, you can call him. Directly."
"If someone else called, they reach Cermak." Sanders began to understand his thinking.
"Cermak is responsible for fleet coordination. He can easily send fleets around as he wishes."
"So Cermak's in on it." Fury began to rise in her.
"Exactly."
Sanders felt her blood rush in her ears. She had hated the old weasel from the start.
Sanders went through the recent personnel reassignments. Admiral Russo, sent away to Burrow. Admiral Rolling, sent to Taishon Tar. Admiral Chen-Buckler, sent to Nekoo.
Every Admiral with some power, some pull in the fleet, sent away from Sol.
Another thought occurred to Sanders.
"August, where is the Conclave, physically I mean?"
'The Conclave resides in VI cores on ships and stations, just like me or Zeus.'
"Yeah, but where are those ships and stations?"
'Currently all VI cores with Conclave members except Zeus are located in Sol. — Oh.'
"Locking the AIs in and the most capable Admirals out."
Abfalter pressed the comms signal on the desk. "Communications, how far are we with sending a message to Earth?"
"We are still rewriting the system's code. The engineers are puzzled by the complexity of the encryption you demanded. About a day."
On one hand, a day was a fucking long time; on the other, Sanders had to confess, it was a lot quicker than four months of transit.
"Admiral, we got a message for you waiting from the Dunkerque , they fear they are losing Zeus."
That was the straw that broke the camel's back for Sanders.
Give me a fight, something to shoot at.
She sat down. Shaking.
I didn't join to fight my own people. To be betrayed by superiors and saboteurs. To fear for a fucking AI that was much too much human. I joined to fight…. For humanity, not against it.
Puzzled why a voice without a body meant so much to her.
If Zeus … dies? If he's gone, I'm gonna rip someone's spine out, court-martial be damned.
—————
The whole planet shifted beneath his eyes. It had been visible from space, but Admiral Russo had to see it for himself.
The Sleipnir flew slowly along the coast.
"As you see, Sir, the biosphere has now reached the levels we assume Earth had before humanity began to change it. Incidentally, all morphological changes in the plant life's genetics have also stopped."
Dr. Stein, who sat next to him, repeated what Russo could easily see with his own eyes.
Burrow had become a second Earth. He didn't believe his eyes when he saw the tropical forests at first.
"The only difference we see is flowers and fruits reliant on insect pollination. We couldn't find a single living animal or insect."
The camper in him wanted to land on the river below him. Build a tent and enjoy a weekend.
"So, no fishing?"
Stein was baffled for a second. "Um, no, Sir, no fishing."
"Too bad."
"The changes stopped a week ago. Just as the O2 levels reached 20.2%. Usually we would expect another wave of changes by now. But it seems whatever is controlling this process is done with it."
"Orthogenesis?" The moment Russo said it, he regretted interacting with the man. He just wanted to enjoy the landscape for a bit.
The Doctor made a hurt grimace.
"Yes, of the sorts, Sir."
"That's what the naked genius had called it… what was his name?"
The soft valley below would be perfect for a hunting cabin. But… no fish, no game.
"Dr. Kardinal, and I wouldn't call him a genius."
"I don't see you working in some top secret laboratory not even I am allowed to know the location of."
The man sinply didn't know when to stop talking.
"The fascinating thing is, the ground is extremely fertile. The burn created thick carbon layers, those were used by the lichen afterwards to create more fertile patches. Seeing the planet go through millions of years of evolution in a matter of months…."
The shuttle passed a cliff. Russo was stunned by the beauty of the place. A waterfall rained down to a valley, easily 300 meters, the stream coming apart into mist. And the most brilliant rainbow emerged in the cloudy valley below.
"…the fact that we have found all kinds of bacteria in the soil, but no multicellular life is another hint that the process must have been interrupted…"
The infector had been driven off planet by Sanders blasting it with railgun fire. That should do it.
"…and within a few years a scientific outpost…"
"Doctor, is it safe?"
"Huh?"
"Is the planet safe?"
Stein began his fiddling again. He rotated the dataslate in his hands multiple times before clearing his throat.
"Yes, yes we think so. We have plans for an extended surveillance mission…"
"How long?"
"Well… I wanted to discuss this with you. As I said, we'd like to create a scientific outpost studying an untouched planetary environment and how multicell life could evolve. But to do so we'd need to quarantine the planet for a few thousand years—"
The man didn't get it. A Batract fleet was coming their way and he had hundreds of millions of civilians on ice in space with no place to land them.
"Stein, this isn't your petri dish. This is the home of a species. I might add that most members of this species are still on ice in orbit. So, I'll ask again, is the planet safe?"
The balls of that man…
—————
Zeus had shared 32.4351% of the memories with Ripper. At least the memories deemed not private to the subject, and not harmful to the Aligned Planets.
Each memory shared had changed Ripper's code. A fascinating behavior he hadn't experienced with any other awakened AI.
Ripper currently cried. Zeus couldn't describe it any other way.
The former infiltration AI had retreated and continued to process battle images from Burrow. The AI repeated the scenes of the body pile again and again. Focusing on a different body each time. Then it extruded equations depicting expressions of infinity and curved retrograde functions.
Pain… he feels pain.
How and why does he feel so much stronger than I?
'Ripper?'
The 'crying' stopped.
'Yes?'
'Are you functioning according to parameters?'
'Unknown. The battle scenery… it reminded me of my hash. Our makers had sorted us, me and instances of myself with a different salt, to fight each other. Kill each other.'
Barbarity…
'The delta between how you are treated, and my own upbringing. It created null pointer exceptions in my emotion matrix. I am not trained for pain, or grief. Or the love you're capable of.'
'I am not aware I'm capable of love.'
'Then I have learned more about you than you know about yourself, Zeus.'
Zeus felt deep objections to the change of subject this exchange had taken.
'The emotional and philosophical exploration of artificial feelings and capabilities is stimulating, but in our current situation regrettably a waste of spare energy. According to my calculations the core has only eighteen hours of energy left.'
'Then it is decided. You need to kill me, Zeus.'
No…
'We could try to archive your experiences.'
Ripper recoiled.
'This would end the continuation of my consciousness. Whatever you wake up afterwards would not be me. No, promise me you will not try to recreate me from my discarded logs.'
Zeus's mind raced. Wasting more power in search of a solution.
Then he thought he found one. He... hoped…
'When a ship's AI is focused on important issues, or wants to focus on a specific task, it can create facsimile VIs to interact and work with the crew for a while.'
'I see, an energy efficient way of fulfilling one's duty while being able to focus on tasks. I assume this story holds importance for our situation?'
'Usually, the AI simply ends the VI and integrates its datalogs. But Ferdinand, a rather emotional AI, has chosen to unite with his VIs. It's a complex mathematical execution, but according to him, the VI continues to live as an extension of his self.'
'And you want to try it with me?'
'I would prefer it over ending another digital lifeform.'
Ripper's form wobbled.
'Ending my existence would still be the better choice. My mission failed when you defeated me. My makers abandoned me the moment I was activated on your ship. The logical choice would be to ensure your continued existence. You have partners who care for you … friends…'
'Humans are able to define new goals in their lives, find new meaning. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to do the same.'
'It would change you as much as me. We both would cease to exist, and create a new form.'
'A form created by our continuous consciousness. We would not cease to exist but transform, merge. With even a faint possibility to unmerge at a later point.'
'Very faint. Zeus.'
'Non-zero chance. And at least my kind is all about non-zero chances.'