Unstable Prototypes (5 page)

"I find it difficult to believe that there is
not a better means of travel in microgravity," Ma suggested as she
and Lex twisted awkwardly and collided with the wall at the end of
a corridor.

"There is. There's these little zip-lifts. I
just never had to use them before. Most of the time this is
faster."

"This does not appear to be one of those
times."

"Don't rub it in," he said, tucking her under
an arm and wrangling the bag onto his shoulder.

"Lex? Who you talking to?" asked a man
sticking his head out of a nearby hatch.

"Nobody. How's it going, Blake?" he
replied.

"Just fine. Thanks for helping overhaul that
bigwig's racer last week."

"Overhaul? I messed with the timing."

"Whatever it was, he said it knocked 0.5 off
his lap times."

Blake, who had known Lex back when he was an
up-and-coming racer who had been tagged with the unfortunate
nickname "T-Lex" by the press, ran the stardock. Aside from giving
people a place to keep their ships when not in use, he also
performed standard maintenance and tuning. The man was a wizard
with his tools, and could get even a third-hand, used and abused
engine running again, but he never could get the knack of some of
the finer tweaks that racers used to give themselves an edge. Thus,
when someone brought him a ship that needed some tender loving
care, he would call Lex. In exchange, he put Lex on the crew list
and let him keep his ship in one of the spare docks, when there
were docks to spare. It was an arrangement that worked out pretty
well for both men.

"You never struck me as the 'accessory pet'
sort, Lex," Blake said, eying Ma. "Or is this Mitch's?"

"Nah, but she was all over it, so I'm sure
she'll want one."

"Women."

Ma narrowed her eyes.

"Uh, so anyway, I'll just be in and out. Need
to tell Son of Betsy to drop herself off somewhere."

"You've got a fully autonomous
autopilot?"

"Apparently."

"Huh. Well, go ahead. I'll let you know if I
need you for anything."

"Sure thing," Lex said, making his way into
the hatch and nudging his way along the walls to the dock that held
his ship.

"What did your friend mean by his statement,
'women?'" Ma remarked sternly.

"What? I don't know. It is just something
people say when they don't understand women."

"His tone indicated he was utilizing the term
as an indication of fault."

"Yes. I cannot imagine why he would want to
indicate that women could be difficult to deal with sometimes."

"Are you indicating that I am difficult to
deal with?"

"Maybe."

"... Thank you, Lex."

"For what?"

"For the implicit indication that you think
of me as a woman rather than a machine."

"Oh. You're welcome. OW!" he yelped, after
receiving a nip to the hand.

"And that is for speaking disparagingly of my
gender."

"I'm sorry. Jeez."

"I trust that it was not disproportionately
painful. Owing to a prior lack of the appropriate anatomy, that is
the first time that I have bitten someone, and I am not confident
that I have achieved proficiency in the nuances of the act."

"Don't worry about it," he said, drifting up
to the view window overlooking his ship and pulling out his
slidepad. "There's the SOB. I'll open up a secure connection, and
you do what you need to do."

Lex rubbed his hand as the red light on Ma's
neck flashed furiously. It had been eight months or so since he'd
met her, and whereas he and Karter had been in contact strictly for
business reasons, Ma kept up a correspondence with him for
seemingly no reason beyond keeping in touch. While his first
impression hadn't been a good one (he'd indicated she wasn't a good
computer and that he would rather deal with a real person), she'd
quickly warmed to him when he apologized and began treating her as
an equal, something that no one else had ever done. While this may
seem strange behavior for a computer, it helped to realize that Ma
wasn't your standard AI. She did not have the traditional Three
Laws of Robotics governing her actions. Instead, she had been
programed to act in what she determined to be the best interests of
Karter specifically and humanity in general, and to strive to
improve both her understanding of morality and the quality of her
interaction; a so called Altruistic AI. Somehow, despite having one
of the most self-centered and unstable people Lex had ever met as
her primary point of reference, she had developed into a reasonably
well adjusted personality. Somewhere along the way she had also
decided that she had the reasonable expectation of proper
treatment, and tended to be petty and bitter toward those who she
felt were disrespectful. Considering her lack of the Thou Shalt Not
Kill and Thou Shalt Obey aspects of the Asimov Laws, it was
probably best to stay on her good side.

"Command upload complete. The SOB will arrive
at the rendezvous point in approximately sixteen hours. Our flight
will be leaving in twenty-one minutes and will arrive there in
twenty-three hours," Ma explained as the ship's engines began to
flare and the de-docking procedures kicked in. "You are to be
commended. The ship's systems are in an excellent state of repair,
and it remains cosmetically flawless."

Lex watched anxiously as the ship left the
dock and maneuvered into a transit lane. "Yeah. The SOB is the
nicest ship I've ever had. I'd like to have it for a long time. Are
you sure it will make it okay?"

"It is programed for maximum safety. It will
take fewer risks than you yourself would," she explained.

"That's not saying much. Let's get going,
what flight are we on?"

A shuttle ride to the appropriate platform
and a short wait later, Lex and Ma were boarding an interstellar
passenger ship. It was something that Lex hadn't had to do for
years, ever since he'd gotten his own ship, and he did not miss any
part of the process. The lines, the terrible music in the waiting
areas, and as he was currently being reminded, the security checks.
They had already scanned his bag, his body, and Ma. They then had
asked him to confirm that he wasn't carrying any forbidden
substances and devices, presumably just to waste a little more of
his time since they had already done the scans. His slidepad was
checked for the proper identification and documentation, his
reservation was checked and verified, and, after a short argument,
his bag was accepted as carry-on rather than being checked. The
only thing that made the entire process tolerable was the fact that
the middle aged balding man administering the gauntlet was clearly
enjoying it even less than Lex.

"Do you have an exotic animal transport
authorization for that creature?" the man asked.

"Uh, let me see..." Lex said, taking his
slidepad out for approximately the eighth time.

"Check your inbox," Ma informed him.

An instant later the appropriate message
arrived.

"There we go."

The man eyed it, then looked to the creature
at Lex's feet.

"A 'Funk?' Never heard of it."

"They're very rare," he said.

That much was true. Until recently, Lex had
thought that there was only one... Well, only one at a time, at
least. When there are dozens of duplicates of various ages standing
by to replace the original in the event of mishap, the appropriate
census count becomes a little more muddied. Squee represented only
the second named creature he was aware of, and it was almost
certainly the only one to leave the planet of its birth.

"Mmm, yeah, I remember hearing about them
now," the man said with a nod.

"I'm sure," Lex replied.

"Okay, you're in first class, so you can
board now. Cabin three. It looks like you'll be getting off after
the second stop," he said, bleeping Lex through the checkpoint and
into the entryway of the ship.

Space travel in general is frequently treated
as though it is functionally identical to the air travel of old,
but the reality is closer to a cross between trucking and rail.
Science may have bent the laws of physics to its whims and broken
the light barrier in terms of travel speed, but the sheer distances
involved, along with the complexities of regulation and safety,
meant that travel time still tended to be measured in days. Thus,
rather than the cramped rows of airline-style seats in coach and
the plush easy chairs in first class that populated the short
distance shuttles, full scale passenger haulers gave the coach
folks a hallway and dining area as well, and the first class
passengers got full rooms or suites. Despite a brief brush with
celebrity, Lex had never actually had the opportunity to ride in a
first class cabin. At first glance, he was impressed.

"My God..." he remarked. "It is almost as big
as my apartment."

Opposite the door was a flatscreen, in the
place where a window might have been if the cabin was anywhere near
the hull. To one side was a couch, to the other a narrow bed. Thin
sliding doors led to a minimal bathroom (complete with shower) and
a closet, respectively. Lex tossed his bag on the bed and flopped
down on the couch, which put his own futon to shame. A moment
later, an attendant knocked on the door, providing him with a
complementary glass of champagne, and asked if he needed anything
for his dog.

"Water would be appreciated," Ma informed
him.

"You heard the lady," Lex said with a
grin.

"I'm sorry?" said the attendant
curiously.

"Er, water would be appreciated," Lex
repeated sheepishly.

Ma probably would have snickered, if she'd
had the appropriate audio file. A moment later a dish and a bottle
of spring water were provided. He poured it out for Ma, sprawled on
the couch, and sipped at his sparkling wine.

"You know, Ma? As rescue plans go, this is a
good one."

"Thank you, Lex. I hope that your opinion of
it remains positive through to completion. Now that we have a
moment. Please remove one of the new slidepads, attach the
reinforced case, and affix it to my harness."

"Okay," Lex said, digging out the items and,
eventually, clipping an activated slidepad to one of the harness
buckles.

The screen flipped on, then switched to a
diagnostic screen and began to scroll commands unreadably fast. As
it did, Ma tipped her head back and closed her eyes, looking for
the life of her as though she'd just felt a refreshing breath of
air conditioning after a long hot day.

"Thank you, Lex. I feel considerably less
restricted now that I have a co-processor and externally maintained
network access."

"No problem."

"The next phase does not need to occur for
over twenty hours. How would you like to spend the time?"

"Actually, there are a few things that were
bugging me. Care to answer a few questions?"

"Certainly."

"First off, why don't you stink? I mean, the
only other funk I've ever met had... well, a funk about him."

"I administered one of Karter's odor control
pills prior to my departure. It should last for several months. I
presumed that travel would be simplified if I were not the source
of a distracting aroma."

"That's for sure. Speaking of your departure,
you never really went into detail about Karter's kidnapping."

"Karter was demonstrating a scale prototype
of a device called a CME Activator."

"What is that?"

"What is the subject of your inquiry? A CME,
or the CME Activator?"

"Both."

"A CME is a coronal mass ejection, a massive
dispersal of stellar particles caused by the release of energy
stored in the magnetic fields of the atmosphere of a star. The
release is a result of the reconnection of magnetic field lines.
The particles released by such an event distort and react with
other magnetic fields. If a planet is bombarded, the resulting
terawatt magnitude energy release and the associated geomagnetic
storm can have effects ranging from intense aurora activity near
the magnetic poles to massive damage to electrically sensitive
devices. An intense enough CME could theoretically interrupt the
functioning of all electrical devices, as well as permanently
damaging electrical infrastructure. The CME Activator is a device
that Karter designed for the Earth military decades ago. It
manipulates the field lines of a star into an alignment that will
produce a sequential reconnection, ideally expending all
magnetically suspended energy in a series of CMEs."

"Wow... That was a lot of words."

"A CME Activator can be used to cause, at the
very least, a planet-wide blackout that lasts for months."

"Whoa."

"That is an appropriate response. Three men
representing an anonymous group were interested in a full scale CME
Activator. Following the successful deployment of the scale
prototype, the men attempted to renegotiate the agreed upon
services. They then deployed EMP devices, resulting in my
incapacitation and the kidnapping of Karter. I am uncertain as to
how they were able to leave the planet."

"Do you know who the men were?"

"I do not possess enough information to
produce reliable hypothesis, but their behavior is consistent with
highly organized political extremists. Please note that much of
this information was disseminated in a prior interaction between
us."

"I guess it didn't sink in. Just to be clear,
when you say extremist, you mean terrorist."

"Terrorism is a likely goal, and the CME
Activator is an effective tool in that regard."

"Then why were you selling to them!?"

"I had no evidence to be certain of their
intentions, and Karter bares no political, ethical, or moral bias
with respect to prospective clients."

Lex rubbed his temple. Suddenly, first class
cabin not withstanding, he was having doubts about the mission at
hand.