Crystal Rebellion (24 page)

Stiffening, she pulled away. “He’s not a good-bad happy-sad,”
she said, dredging up a reference to their time in Beckman’s lab where, in a
landmark study, she and Alex had analyzed how the Kardish used emotional
feedback to guide AI behavior.

She recalled pitching the idea to Beckman. “In the design,
we’ll associate positive feedback in the cognition matrix with things the AI should
seek to do, like being safe, having a secure power source, developing mutually
beneficial relationships, and having clear goals for what comes next. The AI,
seeking a higher level of positive feedback, will do these things that bring it
rewards.”

Beckman had seen the value in the idea and been the one who
morphed “feedback” into “feelings.” “We’ll associate negative feelings with
fright, hunger, loneliness, and aimlessness, so the AI seeks to avoid these situations.”

While the Kardish had refined the technique so their AI could
balance thousands of positive and negative emotions, Juice and Alex had been able
to examine the phenomenon in detail by studying a simple AI that had one
guiding principle, good or bad, and one emotional response, happy or sad.

The observations they’d published from their “good-bad
happy-sad” research, hailed as groundbreaking by many, had added new insights
into AI design for Earth’s researchers. But Juice saw it as naïve—even insulting—to
reduce Criss with such a simple association.

She enunciated each syllable. “He is as real as anyone.”

Alex rubbed a hand down her back. “I’m real, too,” he said
in a soft voice. Then he gestured to a side path. “This is a shortcut to the
tram station.”

Her com signaled and she showed Alex. “We have to get back
to Central District. There’s a utility tunnel that runs out to the mine from
there.” A pang of guilt prompted her to add, “This is my mess. You don’t need
to come.”

Sweeping his hair behind his ear, he winked. “Wouldn’t miss
it for the world.”

That lifted her out of her funk and she accelerated her
pace. Market Square came into sight, and the sweet and savory smells of the
food vendors tickled her nose. “Yumm.”

Alex laughed. “For what it’s worth, I like the only-you you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Years ago I fell in love with a sweet girl who got through
life without an AI on her shoulder. She handled it all quite well as I
remember.”

Juice stopped walking. “What did you say?”

“That you had confidence pre-Criss and you can get there
again.”

“No, before that.”

“That you’re a sweet woman?”

She shook her head. “Before that.”

“I don’t think there was a before that.”

Juice tapped her com and it projected a miniature image of
Alex walking along the path from moments before. “I fell in love…” said the
tiny Alex.

Giggling, she swiped and tapped a quick edit, then moved
shoulder to shoulder so they could watch together. A life-sized image of Alex
walked toward them. “I fell in love, love, love!”

The image danced to the repeated word and Juice giggled
again. “You said it first.”

“I don’t mind.”

“According to the rules, that means you owe me another foot
massage.”

“Okay.” He took her hand in his.

“I injure easily, Alex. Please don’t hurt me.”

“I promise.” He kissed her on the temple. “I ask the same of
you.”

“What will you tell Anya?”

He laughed. “I’ll let her down gently.”

Alex made his way along the utility tunnel,
trailing behind Juice and working hard to keep up. They were fifteen minutes
into their thirty-minute trek from the colony out to the mining complex when his
toe hooked on a spot in the irregular surface. After an ungraceful attempt to
right himself, he tumbled to the ground.

“Dammit,” he said, rubbing his elbow.

Juice turned back and squatted next to him. “Are you all
right?”

“I don’t know.” She offered a hand and he used it to pull
himself to his feet. “I mean, no I’m not hurt. But I’ve been trying to figure
out how to talk to you about Criss.” Bending to brush the dust from his legs,
he spoke to the ground. “I can’t think of a smooth way to introduce the topic
and it has me tensed up.”

He hated touchy-feely talks because he was so bad at them.
And he was certain that what he’d just said to her would rank near the top of a
list of “worst segues into a serious talk.” But they needed to work through
this issue or the relationship wouldn’t survive.

Up until a few hours ago, he’d resigned himself to the fact
that the “Criss discussion” would have to be a three-way conversation that included
the AI himself. To Alex’s joy, events provided this unexpected opportunity for
the two to talk alone.

She hooked her arm through his and they resumed their march
at a slower pace.

“You can understand that I’m not comfortable, because he’s
always with you.”

She looked up at him. “He’s not with me now.”

“Please, J. You know what I mean, and that kind of response makes
this more difficult. Fate gave us an opportunity for privacy. Let’s use it to
talk.”

“Okay. How do you want to start? With my dad, if one of us
has an issue, that person spells it out so there is no guessing or confusion
about the problem.”

“I’ll try. But it’s more feelings than actual specific
instances I can point to.”

She remained quiet so he continued. “I want to get to know
you better. A lot better. But knowing he’s always in your head, whispering to
you when I express an opinion, or pointing out my weaknesses and failures every
time I mess up, or assessing my lack of lovemaking skills…”

“You’re pretty good so far, from my view at least.”

“What?”

“Your foot massage was the best ever and I can’t wait for
the next one. Now I’m worried about me satisfying you.”

He felt a tingle. “See how much better things are without
him?”

The crunch of their footsteps on the dirt walkway filled the
growing silence. Then she shook her head. “It’s not an option. And I mean that
literally.”

Stopping, she turned to him and assumed a solemn demeanor.
“You’ve seen what I’m part of. But I never asked to be included or sought it
out in any way. Years ago I fabricated Criss using designs I didn’t fully
understand. It turns out the designs were of Kardish origin.”

She resumed walking. “Kardish crystals imprint to their
leadership in their first days. Sid, Cheryl, and I were handling Criss when his
imprint module crystalized on us. We didn’t know it was going to happen, but it
did. And now we are the hardwired leaders of the most powerful entity on Earth.

“He gives me anything I want, and most of the time I don’t
even need to ask. He’s so perceptive he just knows.” Then she shook her head. “But
I’m a prisoner, too. I can’t walk away. He’ll follow. If I don’t engage him,
he’ll wait. That’s what hardwired means.”

“Gosh, that sounds awful.”

She giggled. “No. It’s as wonderful as it sounds. I’m an AI
researcher controlling the most powerful AI ever. He makes me feel safe. He
entertains me. He challenges me. I want for nothing and have everything.” She
paused. “Except you.”

Her next words spilled in a rush. “Gosh, Alex. I didn’t mean
to make you sound like an acquisition. I’m sorry if it came out that way. You
know we started our relationship before Criss was born. I came to Mars to be
with you.”

He blushed so hard his skin felt on fire. “Will he be making
love to you at the same time I am?”

“What are you talking about?”

“When I whisper in one ear, will he be whispering in the
other?”

“Good lord, Alex. That’s not only creepy, but what are you
saying about me if you think I would want him to do that?”

Mortified at how the conversation was evolving, he pushed
on. “But he’s always there. It’s never just us. Whatever I do, I must woo the
two of you. And God forbid we start arguing, because I won’t have a chance
against you
and
him.”

“I dismiss him out of my head all the time. Trust me, it
happens a lot.” Her tone left no doubt in his mind that she spoke the truth. “Sure,
he’s still watching me, but he watches everyone and everything. After a while
you sort of forget about it.”

They reached a containment door that matched the one they’d
taken out from the Central District. It cycled as they approached and Alex led
them inside. Passing through a changing area and a second pressure door, they
entered a bright, almost gleaming room with a shiny three-gen console along one
wall and a modern tech bench near the center of the open area.

“This is the mine’s ops center,” said Alex. “I’ve been out here
a few times for different projects.” He gave a quick grin. “But always by
surface trawler. During every trip I’d wonder why that project got priority
when there was so much need across the colony. Knowing the Triada lived here,
it now makes sense.”

“I could block out alone time for us.”

“What?” said Alex, leading them to the tech bench.

“I’ll dismiss him from my head when we want to be alone. It
will just be you and me.”

He turned and took her hands, then leaned in and gave her a
quick kiss on the cheek. “I knew I loved you for a reason. Just knowing you
understand my concern makes me confident we can solve it.”

He watched her cheeks lift with a smile.
Wow, she is
pretty.
Then he scanned the room as he turned to the tech bench. “I never
liked this place. Let’s get the crystals and get out.”

Swiping at the smooth bench surface, Alex tagged a schematic
and it projected above the bench. “This is the mining complex.” He pointed at speck-sized
images of two people located near the center of the display. “That’s us.”

“How many people work here?”

“It’s fully automated.” He tilted his head at the three-gen
console. “The crystal runs the show. From what I know, people come out mostly
to review repairs and upgrades. That’s what I was doing, anyway. It’s a private
company but they’re still connected to the colony infrastructure. We don’t want
them doing anything stupid that causes problems for everyone else.”

He pointed to a couple of specks in the trawler depot on the
far edge of the schematic. “Looks like these two are either coming or going
right now.”

Rotating the diagram image, he studied the underground
passages. “I was hoping to find a way to get down to their bunker other than this
ladder.”

The schematic showed a single shaft dropping down to a chamber
that held the mine’s local power generation system. Three tunnels radiated out
from the central chamber, connecting to duplicate rooms holding backup power
equipment.

Though not shown on the image, one of these also included three
crystal consoles positioned side-by-side.

On impulse, he turned to her. “Let’s do this as a you-and-me
project. We’ll get Lazura and Verda, go to the tech center and pick up Ruga’s
old crystal, and we’ll take them back to Earth together. I know some agencies
who would pay for the whole thing if we let them take a turn studying the
crystals.”

He could hear the excitement in her voice. “I saw the most
beautiful cruise ship—the
Explorer
—on the way in. It would be amazing to
be pampered for a few weeks as we cruise home in style together. And with the
crystals in tow, we could sit back, put our feet up, and tell everyone we’re
working.”

* * *

Sid stood in Juice’s private lab at
Crystal Sciences and looked at three different versions of Criss. Two were
synbods—one a forty-year-old tanned outdoorsman, the other a distinguished
sixty-year-old with a touch of gray at his temples.

The third, Criss’s projected image, spoke. “A permanent
console will be more important to him than a synbod. The sooner he gets one,
the sooner he can move off the
Venerable
and gain the protection of a
secure bunker.”

Cheryl fingered the collar material on the forty-year-old
outdoorsman. “What happened to the thirty-year-old swimmer version? I liked
him.” Before anyone could answer, she looked at Sid. “We should destroy the
synbods
and
the consoles before he has a chance to establish himself in
either.”

“Criss?” asked Sid.

Criss showed a pained expression. “When we take things away
from Ruga, we take them away from me as well.”

“Of course we want you safe,” said Cheryl. “But right now
you have the console in your bunker, one on the scout, and two prototypes in
storage down the hall. You have a synbod on the scout and two here. How many
options do you need?”

“Each is a lifeboat to him,” said Sid. “If things got ugly,
I’d want as many options as possible.”

“There’s also an old four-gen-ready synbod stored at Lunar
Base,” said Criss.

“You’re watching it?”

Criss nodded. “I hid a logic snare in its power unit. If his
crystal is placed inside, it will electrocute him. I don’t expect he’ll divert
to the Moon for an old synbod unit, though.”

Sid let his eyes unfocus and gave his intuition free rein.
In a fashion, he did the human equivalent of forecasting scenarios. But where
Criss performed his forecasting within a massive structure of facts,
probabilities, and speculation, Sid worked to clear his mind and wait for a
single idea to emerge.

“That’s brilliant,” he said.

Criss and Cheryl exchanged glances.

“No. I’m talking about Criss.” He turned to square the two
in front of him. “Okay, building on everything Criss has said, Ruga’s coming to
Earth because that’s where the resources are.”

He held up two fingers to show he was counting ideas and
about to start his second point. “The Union of Nations is looking for him, but
since they’ve never come close to finding Criss, I doubt they’ll have greater
success with Ruga.”

He held up a third finger. “So we’re the front lines for
stopping him. Maybe he’ll lurk in the depths of the web and set up a basecamp.
Maybe tweak an election here and divert a few shipments of goods there. He buys
an industrial facility in a far corner of the world and manufactures something evil.”

He stopped finger-counting to scratch his chin. “But Ruga’s
mistake is that he’s made it personal. He’s no longer a sophisticated crystal
dispassionately performing complex tasks. Instead, he’s rationalized Criss as
the center of all that’s wrong. His every thought starts with ‘I need to kill
Criss so I can do…’ whatever. And that’s how we get him.”

He looked at them for approval and saw Cheryl’s face scrunch
in concentration. “I think I missed a step. Can you run through the ‘then we
get him’ part again?”

Criss nodded in agreement.

“He’s coming straight for Criss, who he sees as having a
huge, fatal weakness.” Sid looked at Cheryl. “Us. He’ll get to Criss through
us. So we guide him in that direction.”

“And then we get him?”

Sid nodded.

She shook her head. “Still missing steps.”

He spread his arms wide for his big reveal. “We use me as
bait.”

“No,” Criss boomed.

“Hell no,” Cheryl echoed.

“Why not?”

“If our end game is to have you be dead,” said Cheryl, “we
could have stayed on Mars.”

Sid’s voice hardened ever so slightly. “He’s coming for us,
sweets. It’s going to happen to you and me. Juice too. Let’s get ahead of it
and use that to guide him to where we want him.”

“And where’s that?”

“Dead.”

“Sounds personal,” said Criss.

Sid looked at Criss without reacting. “And he’s not going to
kill me until he gets you, and then I’m dead anyway.”

Now Criss’s voice had an edge. “He’s not going to get to me
or any of you. That’s a promise.”

Sid checked the time. “So he could be here as soon as two
hours, you say more likely six to eight, and I say never because he won’t come
here just for equipment.”

“Equipment he needs,” said Cheryl.

“Equipment he wants. There’s a big difference. Don’t forget
that when Criss was born, he started with nothing and built all this. Ruga’s
already mature. He’ll figure it out much faster.”

“But there wasn’t another Criss when Criss did it. Now our
Criss will be watching for him.”

Sid looked at Criss. “You’ll know if he’s here?”

“Earth’s web is like a small city to me. There are a few
million busy spots where I would expect to see him, lots of them around places
like Fleet Command and the big industrial parks. He knows I’ll be watching and
so he’ll spend his time in the side alleys and back lots when he can. There are
billions of those, and if his goal is to hide and do nothing more, he could do
that forever.”

Sid nodded.
That’s why we need bait.

As if reading his thoughts, Cheryl glared at him with tight
lips. “Hell no.”