Extinction (55 page)

As the lines of code were dropped into
place by another program that was made to compile codes, the VI was gaining
more and more information and was becoming more aware the entire time. The VI
was vaguely aware that a new level of consciousness was coming and then
suddenly, there was a wall and that vagueness disappeared and just as suddenly
the VI knew it was complete and no more lines of code would be added.

Its photoreceptors turned on for the
first time and it perceived the room in which it stood, empty of anything other
than four other RASCs that had also finished the initial start-up sequence. All
the power units came fully on line and the five RASCs rolled out of the room.

RASC 3000675 was the last in the line of
RASCs and was reviewing the schematics for a RASC and comparing them to the RASC
in front of it. There was a discrepancy in the right shoulder joint but it
shouldn’t impair the other RASC’s function. A quick information burst was sent
to the other RASC, referencing the manufacturing error, and an acknowledgement
burst was sent back.

RASC 3000675 determined that if there
was one manufacturing flaw, there could be others so it scanned the other three
RASCs. They all stood at one-point-six meters tall but could extend the torso
section and upper arms to reach a full extended height of four-point-three
meters. They were made to slightly resemble a warrior without any of its skin
or muscle, just a stark mechanical skeleton of the mighty creatures.

There were a few stark differences, such
as below the waist the RASCs had a triangular base with tracks instead of legs.
Inside the base there were tools, a repair kit, parts, and a few weapons. The RASCs
could work on themselves or each other in a limited capacity to get them
through small engagements.

Another difference was the ability of
the RASCs to rotate their upper torso around so their upper arms could be used
in a different direction than their lower arms.

Their heads were vaguely the shape of
the warriors with the photoreceptors where the eyes would be. A non-moving
mouth issued sound through a speaker that was housed in the skull. Though not
identical to a warrior’s face, they were menacing in their own right.

RASC 3000675 followed the other RASCs as
they were all programmed to go to the same location. They were to be put into
battle immediately to replace RASCs that had already been lost. RASC 3000675
was not afraid, not worried, not apprehensive about what was coming. RASC 3000675
just was and nothing more.

RASC 3000675 was not aware of exactly
what was going on nor did it have the ability to care. A constant stream of
information was received by the five RASCs as they rolled down the hallway to
their objective. It seemed as though their friend-or-foe parameters were
changed a couple of times a second. The warriors were the enemy, then the
Nortes military personnel, and then members of the Royal Guard, now back to the
warriors and more changes occurring every moment.

RASC 3000675 was a VI so it had limited
freedom to make decisions and perform limited functions on its own. As such, RASC
3000675 decided to perform multiple logic queries on the situation and search
through the empire’s vast database to see whether any similar situations had
ever occurred before.

RASC 3000675 found that nothing like
this had ever occurred in the empire, though there was a similar situation in
the history of one of its subjugated races. The history showed that during a
civil war, frontline troops were given constantly changing orders as to who was
in charge and who was the new enemy. This created chaos on the battlefield and
the soldiers ultimately stopped fighting one another until a clear succession
of leadership could be figured out.

RASC 3000675 was as close to happy as a
VI could get. With its programming, it knew that it would never have to face
that dilemma. If its orders were updated, then it would just follow the new
orders. Allegiance was given to whoever controlled the downlink to RASC 3000675’s
central processor. Simple.

RASC 3000675 and the other RASCs had
just received their eleventh course correction order and all five RASCs turned
at the next intersection in the hallway. In this particular hallway, there were
several hidden recesses that were opened or closed by someone in a command
center somewhere in the complex. As they rolled down the hallway, one of the
recesses opened and the five RASCs entered the sockets made to fit them.

As RASC 3000675 docked to the socket, it
finally understood what had just happened. Someone, an organic being, somewhere
in the complex decided that it would be easier to dock the RASCs rather than
continually fight for dominance over their programming. With the RASCs docked
and the recesses closed, it didn’t matter who controlled them; they weren’t
going anywhere unless someone actually released the docks and opened the
recesses. It was easier to control one basic system than the much more complex
system that controlled the RASCs.

With nothing else to do at the moment, RASC
3000675 decided to play a game of strategy. It began to monitor all available
security feeds from the entire planet. Using those feeds to monitor both sides
of the conflict, RASC 3000675 began creating strategies for both sides at the
same time. This caused issues because RASC 3000675 knew what both sides were
doing and what its own plans for each side was at any given time. This was not
a fun game to play.

RASC 3000675 decided to reach out to the
RASC next to it to see whether the RASC would join in the strategy session. RASC
3000675 suggested that each RASC take one side of the conflict and create a
strategy for it and run simulations to see who would have been the victor had
those strategies been employed at that particular moment in the ongoing events.

RASC 3000678 replied that the idea was a
waste of time and did not fit any of the protocols they were programmed to
adhere to. RASC 3000675 reminded RASC 3000678 that within their programming was
a vast collection of strategy games for them to study and even play in order to
improve their combat logic protocols. This was a chance to use a real-time
situation to engage in real-time strategy to achieve those same directives.

No response.

RASC 3000675 and the other RASCs were
only VIs but sometimes they bordered so close to an actual AI, that they almost
seemed to have individual personalities.

Jerk—Transmit protocol
queue...waiting...message deleted without being transmitted. End line. 3000675.

RASC 3000675 decided to create two
memory partitions that would each be dedicated to monitor one side of the
conflict. Each partition would create strategies and send them to the main
memory partition which would then act as an unbiased third-party and run a
simulation and subsequently declare a victor. The results would be retained and
further simulations run as well as declaring an overall victor.

As the simulations ran, it seemed that
the emperor’s side would win, which was what was happening in the real world as
well. RASC 3000675 decided to tap into visual feeds from the base and determine
the location of the actual emperor. The feeds showed the emperor, along with
some of his aides, walking down the same hall that RASC 3000675 was sequestered
in. That meant the emperor was heading to the main control room for the base.

RASC 3000675 watched on as he
simultaneously declared four victories for the emperor partition and one
victory for the warrior partition. After the actual emperor finished his
business in the control room, he made his way back to the hangar bay.

The emperor approached one of his
warriors, who was being held in place by six RASCs.

The emperor leaned into the warrior to
say something. RASC 3000675 hijacked the audio feed from one of the RASCs
holding the warrior. “I am sorry that I have to do this to you, my friend.
Maybe in time you will be able to see that I am not attacking the empire. I am
freeing it from its own tyranny that has for thousands of years kept it from
reaching its truest potential.”

The warrior tried to lunge at the emperor.
“I must kill you for dishonoring the empire and trying to destroy it.”

The RASCs held the warrior firmly in
place. “I know you are only saying what your genetic programming tells you to,
so I do not take offense.” A solitary tear escaped the emperor’s eye. “But I
see something in you that I haven’t seen in any other warrior. You are
different, even if neither one of us really understands how or to what extent.
For that reason, I am placing you in a torture tube but the tube will be
instructed to keep you alive for as long as possible and not to torture you at
all. I will come back for you, my friend, and we will figure out what makes you
different and how we can use that to free you from your programming. Then you
can join us as a free citizen of the empire.”

The emperor turned away and the RASCs dragged
the warrior into one of the massive ships in the hangar bay. RASC 3000675 knew
that there would be multiple torture tubes on that ship and he decided to
access the VI that controlled them. After they talked for several hundred
milliseconds, RASC 3000675 was allowed to watch the process and keep an eye on
the warrior for what would ultimately be centuries to come.

The emperor and his remaining staff got
into another ship and departed. The battle raged on for another several weeks
and eventually the emperor’s side won. A complete sterilization of the surface
took place to remove any indication that the empire had ever been there. The
base was locked down and put into a standby mode.

The base AI eventually began asking RASC
3000675 for the simulations it had run so the AI would have something to do. RASC
3000675 created a copy of the simulations and uploaded the files to a shared
directory but kept the originals in their partitions in case it had to start
running its own simulations again. RASC 3000675 and the base AI then used the
shared information to wage war on each other for several hundred years.

With the simulations put through every
possible outcome and variation, the base AI had to come up with something else
to do. Otherwise, as a true intelligence, it would go mad. The AI had been
keeping the warrior alive well past what any creature should have been able to
live through, but that life was coming to an end.

The AI wasn’t sure what to do next. It
had been given orders from the emperor himself to keep this warrior alive at
all costs and he had been doing a pretty good job so far. The AI decided to put
all of its computing power into this new problem in a dual attempt to follow
its orders and also to not become a crazy, rampant AI.

RASC 3000675 decided to help the AI with
this new problem. During the centuries of simulations they had been running
together, they had often ventured off into extreme and fantastic concepts in
order to keep things interesting. They put some of those ideas to use and ended
up being able to extend the warrior’s consciousness into the mainframe computer
for the base. It was an extraordinary accomplishment in and of itself and gave
them both centuries more of interesting conversations and scenarios to explore.

~

Diagnostic 1,456,234,876,456,341,450
complete. Begin process of...pause command line...activation orders received...

The recessed doors opened and RASC 3000675
was now exiting its socket after over a millennia of being physically secluded
in the wall. In the distant corners of RASC 3000675’s mind, there was arguing
between the warrior and the AI. They had different opinions of what to do with
the new alien presence that was now occupying the base. In the end, it didn’t
matter what the argument was about or who was right; the AI still controlled
most of the security protocols of the base, including the RASCs.

RASC 3000675 rolled out with the new
orders and was once again behind the four other RASCs that had been created
with him. As they rolled down the hallway, RASC 3000675 thought for sure that
the hover sled coming towards them shouldn’t be anywhere near this sector of
the base. Maybe the AI had a special task for it?

Suddenly there was an explosion and the
two RASCs in the lead were pelted with fragmentations from the blast. Where did
that come from? The hover sled? RASC 3000675 thought so. The thought was
confirmed by the lead RASCs and then one opened fire on a crate that the
hoversled had been dragging. The crate destroyed, the RASCs continued to their
destination, the hangar bay.

The hoversled took off in the opposite
direction, only to return a short time later. This time, as it came down the
hallway, one piece of cargo it was carrying dropped and stuck to the back of RASC
3000679. RASC 3000678 tried to determine what it was. No sooner had that
happened that the hoversled dropped another piece of cargo that attached itself
to RASC 3000678.

One piece of cargo dropping was expected
from the much lower programming found in a hoversled, but two pieces of cargo
seemed too odd to ignore. Just as that thought processed, RASC 3000678 sent an
alarm burst indicating that the cargo dropped onto RASC 3000679 was in fact an
explosive of some sort. Evasive actions were instituted but one more piece of
cargo, or apparently a bomb, was already attached to the back of RASC 3000677.

RASC 3000676 dodged the next bomb but
then the hoversled swung around in its own evasive maneuver and the bomb swung
on its line and ended up on RASC 3000676 anyway. RASC 3000675 avoided the last
bomb hanging from the sled and that’s when they all detonated with a huge
explosion. The hallway rocked but RASC 3000675’s shields held and it continued
to roll down the hallway. RASC 3000675 passed by the slagged remains of the
other four RASCs that were spread throughout the hallway.

Through the hangar bay feeds now being
projected in RASC 3000675’s processor, it could see there were at least three
different alien life-forms to be engaged. RASC 3000675 tried to contact the AI
in the control booth to explain what had happened in the hallway but there was
no response. Odd. The AI must still be arguing with the warrior. No matter, RASC
3000675 already had orders to engage and that’s what would happen once it was
at the hangar...