25
They’d made it back to the nearly-completed magnetar shell, passing through a pair of linked, massive gates from the galaxy’s distant outskirts to caged Titania. Safe… so far.
The time had come, as Ace would put it, to lay their cards on the table. No more bluffs or maneuvers. Just action. On the one hand, V47 Pilot held a kidnapped draug superior, the oblivious masters themselves, and the only human in all of the Two Hundred Worlds. On the other, Pilot was still quite far from the orbital station, with a damaged battle-mech, two tiny worlds full of aliens, and a grieving AI.
Oberyn and Titania comprised a binary star system, having a complex, braided orbit. That blue-white giant and seething magnetar danced around one another like a wild double-pendulum. Oberyn’s dark-star partner had drained it of manna at each near pass, until Titania was bound in ionic chains and sealed in a shell. Sealed off and then mostly forgotten, just over .61 percent of a light year away.
V47 Pilot was 98.993% closer to home than he had been, but with a considerable distance left to cross, stealthily, for a draug battle fleet still hung in space beyond the cloud planet, Glimmr.
“They have not moved or altered configuration?” he asked, examining TTN-iA’s uploaded images of that upside-down draug city.
~Negative V47 Pilot~ responded the ancient AI. ~It appears that they are awaiting indication of the success or failure of your mission to Etherion~
Pilot stood 2.5 miles away from the transport gate, on the curving interior of a mighty, star-trapping shell. Titania burned in the sky overhead, caged by shimmering beams of force. Beyond that (except for a single long crack in the neutronium shell) the artificial world arced up, over and around. This did not seem at all weird to V47 Pilot, who’d seen only three planets in his few months of waking life. Why not inside-out?
Pilot and TTN-iA communicated by electronic messaging, which young Raine could not intercept. The future empress wasn’t being ignored, though. Pilot maintained an entirely separate conversation with her, a pair of bobbing cartoon creatures and the alien leaders, leaving him plenty of bandwidth to also watch V47’s progress in patching a damaged and faltering datafile.
“We need a disguise,” he decided, transmitting a quick private thought to TTN-iA. “There is no gate on Glimmr large enough to accept a load the size of a battle-mech. If we reconfigure to ship-mode, we could reach the station in two days, visible the entire way. Or… I could eject V47’s cartridge and then go through a passenger gate with Raine. Aim to arrive on one of the mining platforms or Cerulean Dream.”
Bide-a-While Station wasn’t an option. Its gate had been destroyed in the effort to access Etherion. But…
~This seems unacceptably hazardous, V47 Pilot~ responded TTN-iA. ~The galactic transport system has been corrupted. Attacks are reported~
XXXXX
Right. Noted, with part of his awareness. With some of the rest, he, Pinky the Mathicorn, Sylph the Spelling Fairy and Raine helped the folk of Block-World and Long Spar decide their orbits around that caged magnetar. Red-Blue-Gamma and Right-Left-Top-Flip led teams of scientists and engineers, all of them working furiously to find an optimal arrangement for both tiny worlds. Raine was enchanted with the alien creatures, who were just as alive and organic as she was.
XXXXX
And in the meantime, V47 could only report partial success.
-The Hana datafile is degraded and filled with errors, Alt-Pilot. - (A name it had taken to calling this third version of its original pilot and friend.) -I can guess at the missing segments of code or return the file to a receiver nearer its own timeline, if contact is re-established. –
Uh-huh. There was a problem with that, as he’d have to reach out to his alternates Miche and Val again, a thing that had so far happened just twice. Once, under terrible stress, and once in gate-transit.
This bit of his processing power occupied a virtual workspace with V47, who had chosen to manifest itself as a robot technician. Their environment was entirely coded, appearing only when he or V47 looked in a certain direction, fading to pixels and probability, otherwise. Just a cube of glittering symbols and subroutines given physical form.
“Do the best that you can, Vee. Another gate jaunt is going to be necessary, but we can avoid attack by disguising ourselves as diplomatic couriers with… with a reboot cartridge for OVR-Lord. We can port directly to OS1210, and attempt to contact Miche and Val in transit, then transmit the Hana-file.”
The partly debugged code had produced only a glittering wireframe image, not a complete person. V47 remained utterly calm, but Pilot could sense his friend’s tension and grief. He could see how much of the AI’s capacity was being used in the effort to salvage Hana.
-Querying Alt-Pilot. Why has this occurred? – demanded the AI, dredging up distant memory to add, -She was intended to find a location of safety, Alt-Pilot. Her infant subroutine has faded. It is only 12.6% recoverable. –
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“In this time and place,” agreed the cyborg’s VR projection. “But closer to her point of origin, there will be a stronger signal and more traces of Hana code that others can use to patch the file.”
V47’s avatar sagged and dimmed a bit as it shifted the lights around on a holographic control panel. Then,
-I do not wish to retransmit her data, Alt-Pilot. What if there is no system there capable of receiving our message? –
“Then we try something else, Vee. Make a few extra copies. Insert standard personality-build patches. We’ll transmit one and keep the rest.”
-This is a halting problem, Alt-Pilot, - sent V47, changing the subject. -I conjecture that we are experiencing difficulties as the larger system attempts to resolve a possibly unending calculation. It may have been forced to recycle repeatedly in so doing. –
About which, they could do nothing at all.
XXXXX
Meanwhile, outside of that shared mental workspace,
“We have a hostage, TTN-iA. It seems that the draugr have ranks and dissidents, and we’ve captured a person of interest who might serve to fend off attack.”
The being in question was currently infesting one of his deepest fey-pockets, attempting to spread infectious draug circuitry, but that’s why the Writers of Code had made firewalls and internal countermeasures. He could handle the squirming rebel.
TTN-iA had formed a loose, shifting body made of many small parts. Bits of the environment kept breaking loose of that great curving surface to join the AI’s skinny, clattering figure. Other small parts buzzed off, making TTN-iA’s physical body a hazy and roiling thing. It gestured, leaving a trail of slow-moving segments to hang in the air like mist.
~V47 Pilot has doubtless calculated the odds and they are backed up in many systems beside this one~ remarked TTN-iA, fatalistically. ~But the risk of discorporation and data loss is not slight, Pilot, and there is the empress to factor into your calculations. ~
XXXXX
About which…
“I love them,” the girl was saying, as the Block-World and Long Spar technicians explored her contours. “They are my first living subjects besides you and Pinky and Sylph, and I want some of them to come with us to the Orbital Station, Pilot.”
He inclined his head, giving that fierce, brown-haired human child another example smile.
“I am sure that Right-Left-Top-Flip and Red-Blue-Gamma will be pleased to send ambassadors to your court, Majesty.”
She was still holding his de-gauntleted hand, squeezing excitedly as the hovering screens flashed Long Spar colors or pulsed like a Blockworlder.
“I need an upgrade, Pilot!” Raine demanded suddenly, stamping a small foot on that dark metal surface. “I know that you’re talking with TTN-iA and somebody else, but I can’t hear what you’re saying, and I want to speak to my subjects directly. All of them, including these little ones, the robots, AIs and cyborgs. I need my own applications and circuitry!”
V47 Pilot hesitated, surprised. He shielded his response from TTN-iA, who would not approve, having been built, programmed and then abandoned by the original humans. But…
“You are a master, yourself. The last one. You can surely rewrite any edict of theirs, Majesty… Only, they felt strongly that inclusion of circuitry is wrong for a human. It leaves one open to control-chip domination or hacking. You are safe from that, Majesty. The only completely free person.”
(With a few contraband circuits, he sensed. Mostly medical nanites, but also the odd bits she’d snuck in, herself.)
Raine looked up at him with big and intently focused brown eyes.
“I want to be able to send and communicate the way you do, Pilot,” she insisted. “I want to go back to Learning Curve. My mum and da are in there. I can have the system program more interactions!”
Beside her, the puffy pink equine and hovering cursive sigil nodded. They were cartoon playmates she’d exported from her training sims… and Raine was just a young girl. Her insistently tugging hand and wide eyes had a powerful effect on him, triggering a flood of oxytocin and protective-ware. The cyborg elf crouched down to bring himself to her eye-level, recording Red-Blue-Gamma’s impassioned speech for later attention. Here and now, he needed to deal with a future empress.
“Majesty, I will obey your will. I am programmed to do so and, also… I like you for yourself. I sparked the creation of a human, not knowing what to expect. I have returned to find a beautiful, intelligent, kind and amusing young person, and I am glad to have met you. I perceive that the Two Hundred… and Two… Worlds are safe in your care, because we matter so much to you.”
She took that as “yes”, swinging on the pilot’s arm when he stood up again.
“Can I have pointy ears, too?” she asked, squeezing his hand. “I want to look like you and I want you to never leave, ever, Pilot!”
XXXXX
~The masters have forbidden inclusion of needless circuitry for humans~ sent TTN-iA, in outside conversation. Of course, the AI could hear all that Raine chattered and squealed.
“Yes. And Her Majesty can rewrite whatever commands she chooses to, TTN-iA,” said V47 Pilot, faster than Raine could process or even detect. “Let her have this. Installing protective systems to block malware and providing no outlet for control chips should keep her safe enough. There are no other humans left, and she seeks to interface directly with us. Like you, Ancient One, Raine wishes to not be alone.”
XXXXX
And then, inside of that shared virtual workspace, V47 reported completing the copies.
-It is done, Alt-Pilot- sent the AI, through its robotic avatar. -I have duplicated the file, adding data from TTN-iA’s upload, so that Hana has awareness of future events in her own time. I have run 37,500 simulations, Alt-Pilot, and the proposed strategy returns at most a 29.18% success rate in any of them. –
XXXXX
Outside, V47 Pilot responded gracefully to the conclusion of Red-Blue-Gamma’s powerful rallying speech, flashing across the spectrum along with the others. Next, in what was to prove very important, later, he sent circuitry branching across from himself to Raine, through their palm-to-palm contact.
XXXXX
Here, he replied,
“I have come to believe that there is more to all this than just probability, Vee. That something attends to our situation, and cares what we do. I would wager all of Gold Flight’s account on a bet that none of this is random. Now… make ready for ejection-of-system. We’ll make use of a transport gate one more time.”
He had a home and job to return to, on the Orbital Station. Needed to report back to Cerulean-1… find Foryu and the Rogue Flight team… install a child in place of OVR-Lord… find some way to break the real Pilot out of the masters’ paradise… and then drop out of history, for good. Then, just be.
-I can detect only what sensors perceive and calculations predict, Pilot, - sent V47, after a very long milli-tick pause. -But I hope that your organic emotional perceptions prove correct in this instance. Let us proceed with your plan. –
And so, that’s what they did.