Alone in the Dark, page 12
part #3 of Lunar Age Series
Nina saved me from any more questions by asking, “Myra, what are you going to wear?”
Those two got into a deep discussion about who was wearing what. While that was going on, Yang and Willie came by and joined us. We started talking about the next Gogo tournament that was coming up. That conversation had been going on for a long while, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to look and it was Ananyu. She just said, “Bryce, can I talk to you privately for a minute?” She turned and headed for an empty table, far enough away to give us privacy. As I got up, I notice that Nina and Myra had knowing smirks on their faces. I followed Ananyu over to the table she choose. She sat down and asked, “You are my friend, right? You do like to dance with me?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“But nothing. Just because I don’t want to take our friendship any further doesn’t mean we can’t go to the dance together. If you want to.”
“Oh.”
Ananyu watched me for a minute without saying anything further. I didn’t know what to say and exasperated, she said, “Boys. Is there something you wanted to ask me?”
“Uh, oh, Ananyu, would you like to go to the New Year’s Eve dance with me?”
“Sure Bryce, that would be nice.” With that, she headed back to join Myra and Nina and left me sitting there wondering why the girls made such a fuss about these dances.
We all hung out together until 10:15. Nina, Ananyu, and I had decided to watch the launch of Denali One carrying the emergency food supplies for the Far Side Observatory. Myra said, “I’ll catch up with you after the launch about when the appointment is. I’m going to go check on some stuff for your mom. See you later”
With that, she walked off with Kat trailing along behind her.
Yang and Willie meandered away towards the Grand talking about trying out the archery range again. Nina, Ananyu and I headed up to the Viewing Room. When we got there, I wasn’t surprised to see Miss Gayle and some of the younger kids who had never witnessed a launch were there. We sat down with Miss Gayle and Ananyu asked her how her holiday was going. Nina, well Nina, was sitting next to me, but her mind was someplace else, probably on the command deck of Denali One and about to launch the ship into space. I could tell she was disappointed she wasn’t really there. The minutes ticked by and then Miss Gayle was leading us counting down the final ten seconds before the launch. Make no mistake about it, Miss Gayle was thrilled to be here, and if we had all seen this a hundred times before, I think she’d still be up here.
The count hit zero and out on landing pad one we saw a brief flash and Denali One started rising towards the stars. Then very quickly there was a second flash and we could tell something was wrong as the CLT30 suddenly canted over and started losing altitude as it drifting towards the edge of the pad. The landing gear on the leading edge of the CLT30 struck the berm surrounding the landing pad as the CLT30 toppled over and crashed into the berm. The side crumpled in and we could see the atmosphere venting from the passenger cabin as the ship rolled down the berm and finally came to a stop with its side resting on the landing pad. A warning siren immediately started blaring and an announcement came over the loudspeakers.
“Emergency Notification. All residents should take immediate shelter and institute loss of atmosphere protocols.”
The message repeated two more times before it shut off and a human voice came on and said, “We had a CLT30 crash on takeoff. We have crews responding to the scene. Until we have the situation contained, we would ask all citizens to take shelter. The situation is still fluid and we wish to prevent any additional casualties.”
Everyone looked stricken at the word casualties except for Nina. She just looked grim at the realization that Mr. Saner and Mr. Hirayama might be injured or worse.
Miss Gayle finally found her voice and said, “Okay kids, let’s calmly walk back to the cafeteria and then disperse from there. I’m sure your parents want you in a safe place and this isn’t it at the moment.”
As we were about to start down the stairs, Nina pointed towards the pad and said, “Look,” as a rover cautiously pulled up to the crumpled CLT30.
The remainder of the morning was tense as emergency crews were able to ascertain that Mr. Saner and Mr. Hirayama were alive but injured. The command deck had been sealed off and maintained it’s atmosphere. The problems were the hatch to the command deck was jammed and the CLT30 was fully loaded with fuel. The fuel load turned the CLT30 into a large bomb and the hatch couldn’t be worked on until the tanks on the CLT30 were drained. Nina, Ananyu, Miss Gayle and a smattering of others from the school sat in the cafeteria all afternoon watching the drama. I was sitting there watching the tanker pump the final bit of fuel off of the CLT30 when Myra found me. She said, “Elina said she can see us in ten minutes if you’re ready to go.”
“That’s fine, they almost have the fuel off now so the danger of an explosion is over. Maybe by the time we get back they’ll have the crew off.”
OUT OF THE FRYING PAN...
Regina picked at her lunch time meal, keeping her head down, eyes on her food, and her voice tightly controlled and quiet as she asked, “What were you thinking?”
Inside, she was seething at the stupidity of her meal companions. She’d wanted the food shipment stopped. Joe and Doug had said they had a plan B for her. What she never expected was that plan B would involve destroying the CLT30 carrying the food shipment. Fortunately the crew had survived along with the food. From her point of view, it could have just as easily ended up with the crew and the food blown into little bits and scattered across the bleak lunar landscape.
Joe was playing with his food with a smirk on his face. Doug answered her with his face and voice just as tightly controlled as hers.
“The real question is just what were you thinking? This isn’t some kid’s game. I told you that eggs would get broken. I told you that we would try to avoid anyone getting hurt. We did pretty good under the circumstances and now you’re telling me you got cold feet. Miss Dawson, you need to get your shit together right now. You need to focus on the fact that the operation was a success and do what you need to do to stop any further thought of that food leaving here.”
She took a deep, cleansing breath and slowly let it out before answering. “Okay, my bad for getting upset. I’m glad the crew and the food came through okay. I was just caught by surprise that the CLT30 was destroyed in the process.” She let a little heat back into her voice as she said, “I don’t remember anything about destroying the CLT30 being on the table.”
“Collateral damage. It wasn’t intentional, but it wasn’t unexpected either. Now, what’s your next move?”
She dawdled with her food for a minute and then took a bite of the unappealing vegetables.
“We’re going back to the Administrator protesting that what happened is exactly the kind of unforeseen problem that could push us over the edge. We’ll use that same theme in the public meetings. There’s got to be a lot of social opposition to the shipment, or they’ll just try it again.”
“And if they do…”
Regina looked around the noisy dining hall. No one was paying attention to them. She thought about what Doug was asking. If the food shipment went through, it was a major loss for her and the Worker’s Council.
“I need to think about it. What happened might be considered an accident. Two accidents in a row will definitely put a different light on things. People will suspect the Council or me. We could lose members.”
“You’ll lose members if the shipment goes out.”
“I know. I don’t suppose you have a plan C for me that doesn’t involve an accident for the next ship?”
“We have ideas. Probably better at this point if you push hard enough on the Administrator that he forgoes trying to ship the food out. Otherwise, I can guarantee that stopping it will be messy.”
Regina nodded her head and took another bite of her meal. The heat was on, but Doug was right. She had to focus on putting enough pressure on the Administrator. That needed to be her sole focus right now. If she failed at that, she’d have to very carefully consider her next step.
Doug sensed she was thinking things over and said, “So are there any roadblocks to putting the pressure on?”
“No, we’re getting a lot of sign ups over in Peary. Not so much over at NLH but we’re working on it. Someone’s been going around and pulling down the posters. Not a big deal, but it’s not helping either.”
“We’ll look into it. Some people just don’t know when not to stick their noses in other people’s business.”
KAT
Myra and I found the offices for Psuche Neural down on one of the lower levels of the first expansion to the Grand. It was in the same kind of space the archery range was. Low rent due to the shape of the space. We entered the outer door and found ourselves in a small, but tastefully decorated foyer with a couple of chairs and not much else. Kat walked over to the door piercing the wall blocking further entry and sat down watching the door at full attention. Next to the door was a doorbell that Myra pushed to announce our presence. A friendly voice came through the overhead speakers and said, “One moment, I’ll be right there.”
The door swung open and a familiar lady about my mom’s age said, “Hi Myra, hi Kat. Oh, this is a surprise, welcome to Psuche Neural, Bryce.” With that, Kat sprung from the floor and jumped up in the lady’s welcoming arms. I said, “Hi, Dr. Ashton, I wasn’t expecting to see you today. Myra said we were meeting a technician named Elina.”
Myra looked a little shocked as she glanced at me and then at Dr. Ashton.
“Bryce, this is Elina. Dr. Ashton, I’m so sorry. I just assumed you were a technician when you asked us to come in. I hope you don’t mind that I brought my friend along.”
“There’s no need to apologize Myra. We’re kind of informal around here. I am a technician, and the CEO, chief design engineer, and the best janitor this place will ever see. Now come on in, let’s talk for a minute.”
With that, Dr. Ashton grabbed her crutch and ushered us into a small office space. She invited us to sit in a couple of chairs while she leaned up against a work table that sat against the wall. Kat was purring loudly while Dr. Ashton continued to hold her.
“First off, let me clear up any confusion. My name is Dr. Elina Ashton. Bryce knows me by that name because I’ve met him before at Sandy’s place.”
Myra looked accusingly at me and said, “You never mentioned you knew anything about Psuche Neural or had met Dr. Ashton.”
“Yeah, Sandy and I had to sign non-disclosure agreements when Sandy took on jobs from Dr. Ashton. I’ve found it easier to not say anything than to have to sit there and figure out what I can and can’t talk about.”
Dr. Ashton smiled at us and said, “We do like our privacy here at Psuche Neural. Speaking of which, Bryce, anything you see here today is covered by one or more of the NDA’s you already signed. Do you understand that?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Now Myra, among the papers you and your mom signed for the beta test was an NDA. Do you remember that?”
Myra looked panicked and said, “Oh, my gosh. No, I don’t. I’m sorry. Am I in trouble?”
Kat decided at that moment to jump over to Myra’s lap and cuddled up against her.
“It’s okay, Myra. You haven’t seen anything that you could talk about that would violate the terms of the NDA. I just wanted to make sure you are aware of it. I can show you a copy if you want to look over the NDA.”
“No, ma’am. I think I’ll just copy Bryce and not talk about any detail about Kat or Psuche Neural in general.”
“Okay, the NDA’s aren’t that strict but better safe than sorry I guess. Next little bit of business is bringing a friend along to the checkup. Bryce is fine since he’s already under NDA. If you had brought someone else along, they would be sitting out in the lobby. Not a big deal, but if it happens, you might caution your friend to bring along something to read.”
Myra smiled at me and said, “I guess you get boyfriend duty from now on. You know Paul would hate sitting around waiting for me.”
Dr. Ashton had been leaning against the table and favoring her bad leg. Freed from Kat, she now hopped up on the table and said, “Okay, one more bit of housekeeping to do and we can get down to business. Bryce, and Myra, I would prefer you call me Elina when we’re here. I understand you might not feel comfortable doing the same out in public, but like I said, we tend to be pretty informal around here.”
I said “Yes, ma’am,” while Myra said, “I can do that. Bryce’s mom has the same policy and you did introduce yourself to me as Elina.”
“Okay, with that out of the way, let’s get Kat over here for a download and some diagnostics. While that’s going on we can chat about Kat. I have some questions for you and I’m sure you probably have a few for me as well. Come here Kat.”
Myra let Kat go and she jumped up on the table and sat down next to Elina.
“Kat, open the forward data port.”
Elina hopped off the table and dug into a drawer. She came up with a high speed data cable that she plugged one end into a console on the wall by the table. The other end she approached Kat with, who obediently opened her mouth and exposed a data port that neither Myra or I had ever noticed before. Elina plugged the cable in and Kat shut her mouth and stretched out on the table. She looked like she had just swallowed a mouse with the world’s longest tail. Elina turned to the wall console and said, “Initiate data download from subject Kat. When that completes, run diagnostic series one, five A, and seven. File results under subject Kat six month review.”
Elina turned to Myra and said, “Okay, time for questions. Have you noticed any behaviors from Kat that you felt were strange? Things that didn’t seem consistent with how Kat normally behaves?”
Myra spoke up and said, “The only thing I’ve noticed that’s strange is whenever I see Bryce, Kat consistently curls up near him and takes a nap. What’s up with that?”
Elina winked at me and said, “Hmmm, Bryce is boring and puts Kat to sleep? I’m not sure what’s going on with that. It might be that you feel safe with Bryce and Kat senses your relaxed mood and is comfortable taking a nap to conserve power then. Kat’s behaviors are modeled from an actual cat. The behaviors form a framework that the cybernetic cat’s personality is built on top of. Kat only has so much power to work with before needing a recharge and naps help her manage her energy demands. Not to get too technical, but Kat has two energy storage units or what you would call batteries. The primary unit that actually powers Kat is smaller but can supply large amounts of energy over short periods of time. The secondary unit is larger and has a much higher energy density to it but the energy can only be bled off at a small rate. Naps give Kat a chance to recharge the smaller energy storage unit from the larger unit. When she hits the charge unit at night, the process is reversed and the large energy storage unit gets charged back up.”
I said, “I have a simple question. Where’d Kat get her name?”
Some emotion briefly flashed across Elina’s face and then she said, “I used to have a lab where a stray cat adopted us and made the lab it’s home. We never got around to naming it and we always called it cat. It…, uh. I named Kat for that cat. Silly, I guess.”
Myra started to speak, but her eyes teared up and it didn’t take a genius to figure out what her question was. “Elina, I think Myra would like a better understanding of what happens when the beta test is over. Do you just take Kat back or can she maybe buy Kat?”
“Well, this was always meant to be a long term beta. It’s not so much a beta as a long term study. I knew how attached someone would probably get to Kat so I had always planned to leave Kat with who ever participated in the study. By the time the study is over, the technology to build Kat will have advanced by several generations.”
Myra wiped the tears from her eye’s and said, “So I get to keep her?”
“Yes, you get to keep her. The info I’ll collect makes her well worth it.”
That got me curious and I said, “I don’t get it, Elina. Kat made into a product seems like it would sell very well. Isn’t Psuche going to bring it to market?”
Elina shook her head and said, “Kat was never intended to be a product. Kat is a limited experimental platform to evaluate behaviors and hardware for our real product. Psuche Neural’s main focus is building autonomous devices for hazardous endeavors like exploration and mining.”
“So you’re building AI’s? How cool.”
“No, Bryce, we’re building intelligent systems that mimic the behavior of biological entities. AI’s are different, especially general AI’s. Creating a general AI would be a failure for us.”
“But why? Wouldn’t a general AI be able to figure out problems better?”
“So imagine we built an explorer machine and sent it off to find the best path between here and say, Far Side Observatory. A general AI might get halfway there, get annoyed with having to deal with the lunar day/night cycle, and decided to go climb a peak where the sun always shines so it can binge watch it’s favorite show from Earth. We need something more constrained for our purposes.”
“So Kat isn’t an AI? She seems so aware, sometimes.”
“Kat is intelligent, she has behaviors that may make her seem sentient sometimes, but she isn’t. Not really.”
Myra had been listening intently to this exchange and said, “So, you could make an intelligent harvester. Something that could pick a crop when it’s ripe, yet leave the unripe fruit alone?”
“Yes, it’s just a matter of finding the right behaviors. Right now our focus is on exploration. Our first product is a pathfinder explorer that will validate routes composed from a number of sources and determine the best route down on the ground.”
“So it’s like the autonomous surveying robots they are using to layout the road between here and the ESA Village?”
