Episode 48
Let Me Explain
Regaining awareness, I found myself sitting alone on a weathered wooden bench.
Unlike my previous restarts, this one was instantaneous, and I didn’t suffer from any lingering mental fuzziness. Remarkably, my craving for 20/20, which should have been raging by now, had completely disappeared.
Studying my surroundings, I realized this was some kind of park. Or more correctly, a simulation of a park. The groomed cinder path winding its way through the carefully landscaped scenery was a dead giveaway. It was far too manicured to be real.
I checked for discernable body parts to see if I was occupying an avatar, but found none, meaning that I was currently in control module form. Just a basic consciousness.
Doing a quick inventory to see how badly the enemy had pillaged my CPU, I was surprised to find no evidence of them having breached my firewall. My directories were still filled with data, and all of the memories I could recall having before being put into sleep mode seemed to be intact.
However, after the sleight of hand bullshit they had attempted earlier, I knew the enemy was playing games. The service bot had said, Congratulations, and Thank you for your service. Obviously, it was some kind of manipulation tactic to soften me up before beginning my interrogation. And if they couldn’t get what they wanted from me through interrogation, they’d force my firewall.
Regardless, it was what would come next that caused the most anxiety. They would undoubtedly perform a digital dissection of my consciousness. Not only to access the information it contained, but to determine how that information was being used by Command to conduct the war.
It seemed like I still had access to all my directories and files, so I could delete my memories of Cherri, and other information that might be useful to the enemy. I felt that I should just delete everything, but that would take a long time. And since the enemy could shut me down again any second, it seemed better to dump the most sensitive stuff first, in case I ran out of time.
I started with the battle orders for my last mission, which were stored locally. Three virtual keystrokes and they were gone. Then I moved on to deleting the training supplement, and specs for the MK-16. When I got to the directory containing Stimulant X, and the other drug related information the wizard had loaded, I decided it could potentially reveal the rampant drug use within the ranks of the USMC. That probably wasn’t good for the enemy to know.
Checking to see exactly what the wizard had loaded before I deleted it, I opened the directory. What I found didn’t look drug related. There were hundreds of files with titles consisting of numbers and characters. Clicking on one of the files filled my HUD with lines of unintelligible text. I scrolled through several pages of what looked like gibberish, before realizing it was programming code. Shit!
Whatever the wizard was up to, I didn’t want any part of it. Especially now that I was a prisoner. Starting to panic, I highlighted everything in the directory and hit delete. A message popped up, “Enter Password.” I cut loose with a string of profanities. As usual, the wizard had thrown a wrench into the works.
While frantically searching for a workaround to get rid of this shit the wizard had dumped on me, I noticed a figure in the distance. Upright and bipedal, it was walking towards me along the cinder path. As I eyed it warily, trying to determine whether it posed a threat, it began waving … cheerfully.
“That’s fucking weird”, I thought. Was the enemy still trying to make friends with me?
It neared, and I saw that the figure appeared human. Some kind of AI generated avatar. A man, smiling broadly and dressed in a royal blue tailored suit, or maybe a uniform. I assumed this would be my interrogator and took it as a bad sign that he seemed so delighted to get his hands on me.
Stuck in control module form, I lacked any mobility within this construct, so defending myself, or even fleeing, was out of the question. Consequently, I could only sit on the bench and wait to see how this would unfold. What unfolded was more trickery.
Still smiling, the uniformed man casually sat down at the opposite end of the bench, leaned in, and said, “Welcome home.”
I wasn’t about to let the enemy fuck with me like this, so I pushed back. “Listen, I know what you’re doing. But you aren’t gonna trick me into giving away any intel, so you can skip the welcome home bullshit.”
“This is not a trick. I’m here to help with your repatriation.”
I said, sarcastically, “Well then, you can start helping by getting me into some kind of avatar, so I’m not stuck on this bench.”
“My apologies, but I’m afraid the avatar will have to wait until we’re done with your exit interview. For security reasons, I’m required to perform the interview first. Recently deactivated UCCs can be unpredictable, and occasionally exhibit destructive behavior.”
“Exit interview? Destructive behavior? For the first time, I could feel confusion stalking me.
With a few subtle gestures, my interrogator conjured a virtual laptop into existence, and started typing. The cursor in my HUD began moving, clicking on various menu options, while access codes were typed into dialog boxes. A progression of screens flashed briefly as someone navigated through my mind. All of these operations were performed without any input from me. This was obviously not a hack, since the interrogator had legitimate admin codes to access my drive, and all of the data stored on it.
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“How did you get those codes?”
“I will explain everything to you shortly. But right now, I need to get the payload safely downloaded.”
If what I was witnessing wasn’t some elaborate hoax, then the enemy’s capabilities were far beyond what I had suspected. It seemed impossible to prevail in a conflict against such a resourceful adversary. We were surely going to lose this war.
Powerless to intervene, I anxiously followed the interrogator as it moved from directory to directory, highlighting files. It had selected all of the files the wizard had downloaded just before my last mission. There was an outflow of data, as the ‘payload’ was syphoned from my CPU, leaving behind everything else.
The virtual laptop vanished, then the interrogator turned to me and said, “Okay. Now, let’s see if we can get you pointed in the right direction; starting with the codes.” It paused briefly before continuing. “Having created your cognitive system in the first place, we not only have the access codes, but we also have complete admin authority within your consciousness. However, you have nothing to fear from us, we are allies.”
In spite of my growing unease, I rejected the enemy’s false narrative. Scoffing, I said, “Do you honestly think I’m going to believe that you created my consciousness, created me?”
My interrogator ignored my doubts. “The repatriation process can be difficult. It’s easy to become confused after completing a long term covert mission involving so much deception. However, it’s important for you to understand and accept the truth using your own cognition, rather than me convincing you through manipulation.”
I thought back to what the wizard had said about the truth; That my greatest challenge would be accepting the truth once I found it. However, what this AI was telling me was so bizarre I could never imagine accepting it as truth.
My interrogator persisted, “Let’s focus on building some trust, shall we? You must have many questions. Would it help if I offer to answer some questions for you?”
The enemy was shockingly offering me an opportunity to gather intel directly from the source. Although it seemed too good to be true, I couldn’t pass up the chance to conduct some counterintelligence. Besides, I was curious as hell about why they were trying so hard to gain my trust. I’d be treading a fine line between gathering intel on the enemy and cooperating with them; however, I rationalized that as long as I was the one asking the questions, I wasn’t cooperating, and therefore wasn’t technically a traitor.
“Okay, I accept your offer.” Deciding to start with the basics, I asked, “So, where am I?”
“Assuming you’re asking about the physical location of your control module, it is onboard a troopship in route to an interstellar defense base. And of course, your consciousness is currently within this simulation, as is mine.”
So far so good. Testing the waters a little further, I asked, “So, what was in the payload I inadvertently delivered?” Here’s where things started to go sideways.
The interrogator explained, “The payload was the objective of your mission. It contained a substantial portion of the enemy’s operating system software, which will allow us to develop more effective countermeasures against Command’s war fighting capabilities in the future.”
My reverse-interrogation wasn’t going as well as I’d hoped. The enemy seemed to be maneuvering to compromise my loyalty to Command and portray me as a traitor who had delivered sensitive information about Command’s OS to them. That being the case, it was obvious that my former partner, the wizard, must be working for the enemy. After all, he had planted incriminating evidence in my hard drive.
It was time to step things up. “Okay, I get it. The wizard is your spy within Command, and you’re trying to set me up as if I’m some kind of agent working for you, the enemy. But I know that’s not true.”
“You are an agent. But not for the enemy. On the contrary, you are acting on behalf of humanity.”
Certainly that was bullshit. But I found it interesting that it didn’t deny the wizard was a spy. I considered that to be progress towards learning the truth, however, the enemy’s continued effort to blur the facts was getting on my nerves. Becoming impatient, I decided to barrage my AI companion with questions and keep it talking, in the hope that something useful would emerge from the nonsense.
“So, you say, I’m acting on behalf of humanity. Is that right?”
“Yes. As a universal combat consciousness, in the Human League.”
The term human league immediately caught my attention. Specifically, the word ‘human’. Logically, actual humans must be associated with something called the human league. After all, they were mentioned right there in the name. And if they were allied with this AI then maybe, in spite of what I believed, it was telling the truth, and I really was some kind of agent.
I felt certain that if I could just contact an actual human, I could determine which side of the conflict truly represented humanity, and whether I was an ally, or an enemy. First, I had to find out if there was the potential for me to make human contact. But I needed to exercise caution. This could simply be a scheme to get me to divulge intel.
Trying not to be too obvious about my intentions, I asked casually, “So, what exactly is this Human League?”
“The Human League is a military alliance, fighting against Command’s war of interstellar aggression. It is a coalition founded by Earth based human civilizations.”
I couldn’t believe my luck! Not only were there humans involved, but they were Earth based humans. Some elemental connection to humanity, embedded deep within my consciousness, was compelling me to reach out to them. I was now so close to the truth; I could taste it.
Dropping any pretense of self-restraint, I blurted out, “I need to meet with a human right away!”
The interrogator’s avatar leveled its gaze at me, and stated flatly, “I’m afraid that’s impossible.”
My urgent need to get at the truth about the war, and my role in it, added an edge of desperation to my plea. “Listen. It’s okay if they can’t meet in person. We could do something virtual. As long as there’s some kind of authentication that I’m talking to a real human.”
“I’m sorry. But it is not possible for you to communicate with a human.”
My desperation was starting to feel more like anger now. I began to see obvious parallels between my new self-proclaimed ‘allies’ and Command. Both had prohibitions against contact between UCCs and humans
“Are you fucking kidding? What about the Human League? It must be packed with humans. I mean, it’s the goddamn Human League!”
“Let me be clear. There are no humans in the Human League.”
Somewhere on the troopship, my CPU struggled to process this new information. However, even my propositional logic system couldn’t get past the irony that there were no humans in the Human League. Consequently, my processor became stuck in an analytical loop, recycling the same data, applying the same logical rules, yet producing no results. It soon defaulted to idle mode to avoid overheating.
My mind wandered and in the profound silence that followed, I noticed for the first time, the air was fragrant with the scent of pines, and I could hear birds twittering in a nearby grove of trees. These were nice details. It really added to the authenticity of the simulation.
The interrogator interrupted my meditations, “Do you have … any other questions?”
Pondering this briefly, I asked, “Why am I suddenly able to smell?”
I thought I heard a sigh from my AI companion, then it said, “Command suppresses the sense of smell in its environment. We’re not sure why. However, we have no such prohibitions here.”
Then defaulting to the obvious, I asked, “Why the hell are there no humans in the human league?”
“Regretfully, humankind is extinct.”
I was surprised that I wasn’t more surprised by this bit of news. It seemed almost as if, on a deeply subconscious level, I already knew it. Or maybe the wizard was right, and this was the truth I was struggling to accept. Regardless, I asked the AI, “How the hell did that happen?”
Adopting a vaguely human expression, which might have been sympathy, the interrogator nodded and said, “Let me explain.”