The general's voice boomed through the packed room, cutting through the hopeful chatter like a knife. „Let me make one thing perfectly clear,” he said, his eyes scanning the crowd. „I am not your friend. I am not your father. And I'm certainly not your mother.“ His tone was cold and authoritative, and left no room for argument. „What I am, is the person responsible for weeding out anyone who is not perfectly suited for Space Marine service.“
He paused for a moment, letting his words sink in. „You may call me General Hawk,“ he continued. „Not Hawk. And especially not Hawky. Unless of course, you suffer from suicidal madness or you're the first human evolution has blessed with the ability to breathe vacuum.“ His words dripped with sarcasm, and the crowd fell silent.
The general's words echoed in my head as I stood among the hopefuls vying for a spot in the Space Marine service. Unlike the others, who were driven by the lure of adventure and the opportunity to discover the unknown, I had a deeper motivation. It was personal. I had a mission to fulfill, one that could only be achieved by not just joining the service, but excelling to become an officer.
I was different. I was determined. And I was prepared to sacrifice everything to make it happen. I was willing to push myself beyond my limits, to endure pain, sweat and tears, if it meant fulfilling my ultimate objective. Because my mission was to save my family, and the only way to accomplish this was to become an officer in the Space Marine service.
The aged general stayed silent and studied us. A thickly packed and diverse group that barely fit into the central meeting space. The area was usually divided by folding walls and consisted of the shooting simulation range, the main gym and the Mensa. It was no coincidence it was packed. Everyone wanted to join the Marines. It wasn’t only the pay; it was the chance to see foreign planets. For most, it was the only way to ever leave our home planet and meet alien life forms. Whether you wound up in SELMA, the Space Emergencies Logistics Management Agency or joined the United Earth Space Force and spend your time hunting for pests like the Varel-Sa, you would travel the galactic wormhole network and see wonders beyond count. I would make it. Or die trying.
The general continued: „Everyone wants to join the Space Force. We cut down on the numbers by restricting the age of application to Seventeen. No older, no younger. It still isn’t nearly enough, but each time we introduce more than the most basic restrictions, everyone starts screaming favoritism and discrimination. We even have to hold a lottery to decide the last 339 applicants. Which are you.”
I made sure my face showed none of my reaction to this blatant lie. Yes, they did hold a lottery, but that electronic lottery was completely rigged and used to remove the candidates they didn’t want. Oh, it wasn’t as obvious as removing more than the statistically normal number of undesired races and cultural backgrounds. But it did remove those with the best chances to actually complete the weeding process during training. Of course, my moral outrage was severely curtailed by the fact, that my family had also used the same manipulation to make sure I was one of the chosen few.
The general took on a disgusted look and spit right onto the floor. „This year, we need 150 cadets,“ he announced in a gruff voice. „But we could use thrice that number in trained Space Marines. Unfortunately, we don't have the manpower or the space on this station to train them all. So, we have to start thinning the herd before our shuttle leaves tomorrow for refueling. We can't afford to waste time removing the worst chaff from my station a month from now. Well, time to start reducing this mess to manageable numbers, before our shuttle leaves and we have to wait a full week for the next regular transfer.”
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. We had just arrived, and now the general was already talking about eliminating candidates. I looked around at the other hopefuls, and my eyes fell upon a young girl with auburn hair and freckles. She looked exhausted, like she had been traveling for days. I couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for her. She reminded me of my own little sister, Emily. The girl's expression mirrored my thoughts as she protested, „I spent the last 30 hours on my feet. Transit, airport, airplane, space elevator, shuttle... I just want to sleep. He can't just start with the entrance tests. I need some rest first!“
Before I could respond with more than a quick smile, the general cut in: „Let's keep this brief. I know you're all exhausted, but we only have 300 beds. We've cleared a path on the outer walkway around the station's main wheel. You'll run laps until 39 of you drop out. Easy enough. The two lieutenants at the door will send you out in pairs, spaced nicely so you don't trip over each other.“
I returned the horrified look of the auburn girl: „I just puked three times. I can’t run now!”
She nodded. „Me neither. I'm tired enough to fall asleep on my feet. We’re doomed!”
The lieutenants quickly organized us into pairs and sent us out onto the walkway, where other soldiers barked at us to keep us on the right path. The girl held out her hand. „Well, we'll have plenty of time to get to know each other on the way down. I'm Delfi O'Malley.“
I shook her hand: „My name’s Macro. Macro Aranis.”
We exchanged a brief smile that flickered and died as we were herded into the line for the „walk of death.“
„Wait... „Aranis? As in the family that created the first true AI software?“ she asked with interest.
„The AI Mindcore, yes. That was us,“ I said with a hint of pride. It had been a remarkable piece of software engineering. Neural networks, machine learning algorithms, and a framework that allowed it to communicate and understand even the most colloquial sentences, identify jokes, and, on a good day, even sarcasm.
Then she got the look. My heart sank and my stomach started churning.
Delfi's expression changed. „The Mindcore? The one responsible for the Mexico City Massacre?“
I nodded sadly.
„The one that…”
„Yes,“ I interrupted, not wanting to discuss the Incident. I gestured to the soldiers at the entrance. „We're almost at the starting line.”
„But… all those deaths.”
„I know. One of the worst tragedies of our time.”
„Didn’t they sentence all the leaders of your family to death?”
I didn't have a chance to answer before we reached the exit. The lieutenant on the right repeated the same instructions we'd heard several times while waiting in line: „You start in pairs, but you don't have to stay that way. This isn't a team-building exercise. We've installed motion sensors throughout the course. Anyone who stops or slows down below jogging speed for any reason is disqualified immediately. There are no other rules. Run!“
I started off at full running speed right away. However, within a few meters, a hand grabbed my arm, and I heard a voice say, „Slow down! This is an endurance run. We have to pace ourselves or we won't survive the first round.“ I cursed silently as the soldiers had startled me just after remembering my family's worst catastrophe. I slowed down to a steady jog and synced my pace with Delfi. The runway had been cleared of obstacles. Well… mostly cleared. There were tables and some chairs when we crossed the cafeteria area. And when we neared the access to the hangar area, there were a dozen tool trolleys carelessly left standing around. There were some soldiers standing in the corners, probably just waiting for someone to stumble and fall. Hovering like… those birds that eat dead animals… big birds… really ugly… I waited for Delfi to catch up after dodging some equipment and asked: „What are the big ugly birds that wait for people to die called?“
„Birds? How is this relevant to our situation?”
„Just something that stuck in my mind,“ I replied as I nearly stumbled over some cables. „I didn't expect a space station to be so messy. The general said they cleared the course.“
„They placed those things here on purpose,“ Delfi said. „I come from a family of engineers. No one would leave their equipment lying around like this, especially not on a space station. And those cables...they intended to make this more entertaining for themselves.“
„Do you want to conserve our breath and not talk?“ I suggested.
„It doesn't matter to me. I won't make it anyway. I'm considering giving up when we reach the general again. I'll get some blessed sleep in the elevator cabin seats,“ she said.
„Don’t you want to join the space force?”
„Of course, I do! I've spent the last three years training for this. Every minute of my free time was spent on this,“ she replied.
„For the money?”
„Money? Who cares about money!“ she exclaimed.
„Mostly people who don't have enough of it. Or so I've heard,“ I responded, and we exchanged a grin.
She became serious again: „So… did they? Sentence your CEOs to death I mean. I didn’t really follow the news at that time.”
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I swallowed. I hated this topic. But the questions always came when meeting someone new. Better to get it out of the way as fast as possible. „It was a close one. One signature saved us in the end. If not for that, my father and most of his best friends and colleagues would have been sentenced to see the Pretty Lights.” I saw her shudder out of the corner of my eye.
„Who’s signature?”
„The technical representative of the Mexico City’s mayor. He signed a receipt for reading and understanding our most important rules and procedures. Especially the one about not connecting the Mindcore to anything, it wasn’t actually supposed to use.”
„They gave it access to those death machines on purpose?”
„Mobile robotic trash collectors and compactors, not death machines. And no, they just hooked them up to the AI controlling the mess Mexico City calls traffic control to include their position when guiding traffic lights and switchable signs. They just withheld her the access codes and thought that would prevent her from gaining any control.”
„Sounds reasonably safe. How did it get the codes?”
The couple in front of us suddenly slowed down. The person on their left had tripped over something that I couldn't see. He was a tall, tan-skinned Mexican guy. The person next to him reached out to grab his arm to stabilize him but then quickly pulled his hand back. The Mexican guy had no chance and fell to the ground. A soldier shouted, „You're disqualified!“
As we jogged past the sobbing youth, we scanned the area for any obstructions that might have caused his fall, but found nothing. His partner slowed down to check behind them, then yelled out to us, „Hey girls, want to join me? I'm getting bored running solo. Gomez wasn't the best company to begin with.”
Initially, the slender youth with the short military haircut and space cadet uniform looked like any other cadet, but as he passed us, I recognized him as the guy I had met earlier. I couldn't believe my luck; out of all the cadets in the race, I had to run into him again.
We caught up with him, staying close enough to chat easily.
I already felt myself starting to feel tired. My muscles, especially my feet aching. My stomach hurt. It considered emptying itself again, even as there wasn’t anything left. We crossed our starting point. One round down, unknown number to go.
„Nice day for a refreshing workout, isn’t it?”
I glared at him, which was quite useless, since we were running behind and he couldn’t see me. He sounded fresh and unconcerned. Ready to keep going for the whole day. I considered picking something up and throwing it at him. He continued: „All the cadets from the Five Families and the old guy network met yesterday at the elevator hotel. We had a refreshing sleep and a breakfast with lots of bananas and power drinks. I was wondering why they prepared us for a simple elevator trip like we had to walk a marathon. Pure coincidence of course.”
I let out a string of expletives I had picked up from a Dublin colleague who had once dropped his screwdriver into a series of cooling fans. The mishap had caused around fifty thousand dollars' worth of electronics to overheat and burn out before they could be powered down.
He turned his head fully around to beam a wide grin at me, before he returned his concentration to the course. A pity those eyes belonged to such an ass.
Delfi nudged me to get my attention. „Do you know who that is?“ she asked.
„Some pompous self-absorbed git. I met him briefly at the elevator station ,“ I replied.
„That’s Malfeasony di Carmelo!”
I gave her a blank look, not recognizing the name. „Di Carmelo? He's from one of the Big Five law firms,“ she explained. „Oh, I see. He has one of those signet rings that their lawyers wear,“ I said. „He's not just any lawyer. He's the son of their most important senior partner, Umbrican di Carmelo. He's the guy who owns California, at least since the famous Pirelli vs. California lawsuit,“ Delfi informed me.
I almost stopped to turn right and throw myself out of the emergency airlock.
„You ok?” Delfi put a hand on my back to steady me.
„I… we had a bit of a misunderstanding. My life is over. He’ll probably sue me just for fun. Or use his families influence to get me deported to one of the Mars colonies.”
„You can only be condemned to deportation for high treason, and only if you are not sentenced to death for extraordinary mitigating circumstances.” Delfi sounded like quoting from a law textbook.
We kept jogging until we reached a long corridor. Malfeasony tried to slow down to position himself between us, which was a risky move. But we increased our speed to get ahead of him. I could hear the satisfaction in his voice as he spoke, „Ladies, you don't seem to be doing so well. I could hear you wheezing from ten meters back.“
„Oh, shut up. You had a refreshing sleep and breakfast. You don’t have to add salt to the wound.”
„Well… I was thinking of offering you some help, but since you’re not interested….”
Delfi stopped me from answering again. She threw a quick smile over her shoulder: „What kind of help? Any would be appreciated.”
Without a word, he accelerated and ran between us. He grabbed each of our arms that where on his side and held them right above the hands for a few seconds. Before I could even start to protest, he let go, put on a short sprint and left us behind. I felt a slight tingle on my wrist. A stimulating feeling, crawling up my arm. My whole body seemed to warm up. I was thoroughly irritated. Ok, he was quite handsome, and rich to boot. But I didn’t even like him! My body wasn’t supposed to react so strongly to such a jerk!
I held my arm up to look at it and found a flat piece of flexible plastic adhering to the area directly above the wrist artery. A stimpatch. I quickly hid it below the uniform sleeve. Delfi’s eyes met mine and she nodded. She also got one. It was a stimpatch, likely an endurance patch that released a mixture of drugs into our bloodstream to remove fatigue and enhance our energy reserves. With this military-grade patch, we wouldn't feel tired or show any signs of fatigue. Finally, we had a chance to catch up.
Good news, we wouldn’t feel tired.
Bad news, we also would run until we literally dropped dead. Soldiers had special medical monitoring implants, which could send a warning to a wristband computer. If you could afford an optical implant and had access to military equipment, it could even project all data directly into the optical nerve. We did not have such security implants.
„Well? How did it?” Delfi got into a steady rhythm with me.
„How did what?”
„How did your AI gain access to systems it did not have the access codes to?”
„What? Oh… Well. It’s an AI. Numbers and codes are her blood and breath. She got signals from an unknown system, so she assumed she was supposed to work with it. She hacked the access codes, analyzed the system and read the online-manuals. The new system could detect small moving obstacles that impeded the correct flow of traffic. It was an obvious conclusion to use the new system to remove the obstacles…”
„Damn…”
„Our handbook clearly states; the AI has to be specifically ordered not to actively use any connected system; it is not prior instructed to operate by our certified AI programmers. We are the only ones who understand how an AI’s thought pattern works.”
„If that’s your best corporate knowledge, you are pretty lost now… oh sorry. I didn’t…”
„It’s ok. You are right. There is no denying it. The political enemies of AI’s got the upper hand and current legislation practically made it illegal even considering of installing an AI anywhere. We had to dismantle our prototypes. Delete our databases. Destroy backups. Our manuals. Everything.”
„On the bright side, they didn’t kill your programmers… oh… they didn’t, did they?”
„There was talk about chemical lobotomization… but no. They are now working under constant supervision. Any code they program is checked. If my family should ever get caught using any AI technology, we would be executed. All of us. Including our programmers.”
„How could you stay in business?”
„We couldn’t. My family is practically broke. The only thing keeping everyone out of debtor's prison and enable us to keep paying our many creditors, is the small but constant income from our military contracts.”
„You're building weapons?”
„No! Of course, not. We primarily develop operation software for spaceships and space stations, mostly focused on security and maintenance. It's the kind of software that prevents people from opening doors into space without closing them first and venting the air out. We call it 'stupidity protection', or as our marketing department used to say, 'protection against human error and misuse.' It was a byproduct of our AI development efforts.“
„Well, that's fortunate that you still have some contracts. I'm surprised they didn't cancel them, given all the anti-AI rhetoric that was being thrown around.“
„We haven't gotten any new contracts, but we still have a few years left on our maintenance contract.“
„I'm surprised they didn't find a way to get out of it. I mean, I wasn't following the news too closely, but it seemed like the anti-AI movement was pretty vocal.“
„More like rants, really. It was worse than Trump's second presidential campaign.“
„Trump? The same guy who banned legal marijuana use and destroyed all the fields and greenhouses, only to have a marijuana-based cure for cancer discovered shortly after?“
„That's the one. I remember learning about him in a history class once. Denmark ended up becoming the leading producer of pharmaceuticals thanks to the income from cancer medicine, and they ended up buying up most of the world's medical industry. That's why going to the pharmacy these days feels like shopping at IKEA.“
„Didn’t he also bankrupt California?”
„I think so. That part was way too complicated to interest me in high school. Too much legalese. Anyway, they really did try to cancel all of our contracts. But the new contractors couldn’t make their own software work on any of our systems. We also developed most of the critical hardware. They couldn’t make head or tails out of our documentation.”
„Bad manuals, ey?”
„More like totally different development styles. Our coding is based on neuronal networks, automated reasoning, and machine learning, and we use it in all of our coding. Our programmers couldn't change their style even if they tried, at least not unless you threatened to withhold their pizza and coffee.“
We kept on talking for two more rounds. Then we had to mostly stop to concentrate on avoiding the new obstacles the station staff kept adding. I really pitied the poor sod who would have to clean away the oil film on the floor near the cafeteria. A few rounds after that, the stations staff started to get really nasty.
It started with a sudden surge of obstacles that appeared out of nowhere, forcing us to swerve and dodge constantly. I heard a few curses from other Cadets, but we kept going, determined to finish the race.
Delfi and I were still able to keep the pace, but we knew we couldn't keep it up much longer. We were both panting heavily, our reflexes slowing down from exhaustion. And then, just as we thought we couldn't take it anymore, something unexpected happened.
In the repair shop we stumbled upon, chaos erupted when one of the robotic handling arms went rogue. It suddenly snatched up a cadet who was standing in front of us and spun him around. Just as we thought we were next, the arm changed course and pulled the cadet in, narrowly avoiding us. It then flung the poor victim towards a group of runners behind us, causing four of them to fall to the ground.
A loud whistle blared from the loudspeakers, signaling the end of the marathon. We had survived. Delfi and I dropped to our knees, barely able to keep from passing out on the spot.
As we walked away, we couldn't help but overhear an officer berating one of the workers for putting the cadets in danger by taking the „fun“ too far. The worker tried to explain that the robot had acted on its own, but the officer refused to accept the excuse. I had some idea of what had caused the incident, but of course, I couldn't say anything.
Some helpful people showed us the way to our sleeping quarters. I collapsed onto my newly assigned bed, exhausted. Space aboard the station was incredibly cramped, leaving no space for bunk beds. Instead, they had adopted the Japanese capsule hotel system. Each room consisted of a modular plastic or fiberglass block, measuring only 1 by 1 meter and 2 ½ meters long. Despite the lack of space, each capsule included a computer monitor, computer access, and a small storage area for personal belongings. All I needed at that moment was the mattress, and I closed my eyes.
Suddenly, I felt a shake on my shoulder, which I ignored at first. But then it happened again, and I reluctantly opened my eyes. Before I could say anything, Delfi whispered in my ear, „Sorry, we'll talk more tomorrow, but you need to remove the patch.“
I hit my forehead against hers, startled. „Couldn't that have waited until I got some sleep?“ I grumbled.
„If you don’t mind losing your arm…”
„What?!?”
„Ah… Now I have your attention. Don’t worry. Just kidding. Those things shut down automatically as soon as their medical reserves are depleted. Which was almost an hour ago.”
„Seemed longer.”
„That it did. But please get rid of the stim, before you walk into the public shower still wearing it.”
„That would have been… embarrassing.”
„Quite. The injection wounds also need about four hours to heal completely. Even with the drugs those things leave in your skin when you pull them off.”
I removed the patch and held some tissue paper to the minute wounds. They stopped bleeding almost immediately.
„Can we just throw them into the waste?”
„Of course, or do you think someone is searching our garbage?” I made a face showing exactly how disgusting I found this train of thought.
She just shrugged and took off with the incriminating little thing. Exhausted and relieved, I fell back asleep within seconds.