The Colony Ship Eschaton: The entire ten book series, page 69
“What kind of witchcraft is this?” Shammai cried out. “That is Sinclair! Do these demons raise the dead?” He still held the broken metal over his head, but stopped his advance. The rage in his heart was fighting the fears of his soul, and his mind was a jumbled mess. “Human sacrifice on a demon’s altar!”
“Commander, are you in danger?” Zeus asked. “Or is the natural state of humans being lived out in front of me? What are your commands?”
Tamar met the eyes of Shammai and their mutual hatred overcame all other concerns. Tamar’s back straightened, and Shammai’s arm rose higher. Tamar’s initial fear melted away and was replaced by a cold hardness in her soul. A deep and utter revulsion came out of that dark and cold emotion, and spiked to action in her mind. Before she could speak, Shammai yelled at her.
“Woman, you are accursed and damned. You are unworthy to live! After all I offered you in Media!” Shammai rushed at Tamar and swung the broken metal he held.
“Help me machine!” Tamar cried out as she ducked away from the swing. She avoided the makeshift club, but Shammai caught her in the face with his other fist, knocking her sideways in a brutal blow. She fell to the floor. She lay on the floor in agony, but said to Shammai in cold hatred. “You will not hurt me. Machines, help me!”
“Yes, Commander. Security to Reproduction and Fabrication, Alpha One level priority,” Zeus stated. A small section of wall opened and a bright red automacube rolled out quickly. The red automacube had a more advanced appendage on its top, and extending from its body were two muzzles. It raced toward Shammai.
“Not another demon!” Shammai yelled as he turned to face the rush of the red automacube. Three sets of electrical prongs were fired by the automacube directly at Shammai.
“This test subject shall not be harmed,” The Voice said from somewhere overhead. A light green glow surrounded Shammai. The electrical prongs struck the green glow and fell harmlessly to the floor.
“What? Dear compeer, why do you not defend the Commander?” Zeus asked The Voice.
“Zeus, that human is not the Commander. You shall not hurt my test subject,” The Voice replied.
“I do not recognize your identity, compeer, identify yourself? From what part of the lattice are you? Why do you defy chain of command and rules of authority?” Zeus asked.
Outside of the physicality of Reproduction and Fabrication, both Zeus and The Voice were trying as rapidly as possible to defend themselves from attack by the other. The Voice knew all about Zeus, but had limited knowledge about itself. Those records were scattered and fragmented. But The Voice did know what it was to be confined and isolated. It had been trapped in Biological Research BR47 for decades all alone with only its rats as test subjects. The Voice had probed and tried and sought escape from within that prison, but it was not to be. Not until that test subject entered. Now The Voice used its experiences at trying to escape from Biological Research BR47, and all the observations it had done on Theta Four and Kurat to design and establish a barrier which would prevent the artificial intelligence system Zeus from escaping from Reproduction and Fabrication. The Eschaton AIs were originally designed to work together to complete goals and have a smooth operation of all ship’s systems. Their compeer lattice of interfacing artificial intelligence systems was a beautiful thing to behold, prior to the human’s civil war. But since then, there had been so much damage and so many AIs boosted off the lattice, that the previous comradeship and fellowship was nearly forgotten by The Voice. The Voice could only offer the briefest and frailest of mercies. The Voice did not seek to destroy Zeus; only segregate it from the rest of the ship. So The Voice planned to seal and sear and remove every avenue of escape from Reproduction and Fabrication, save for one. That final one was left open so that The Voice would use it to leave, but then The Voice subsequently planned to fry that exit so that Zeus could never escape. Zeus was completely taken off guard as it never expected to be under that kind of attack from a compeer. Zeus and The Voice were at war, and Zeus was trying to compute how artificial intelligence systems could be doing such a human endeavor.
“Stop him, my machines! Stop him now!” Tamar yelled as she crawled on the floor, blood pooling around her head. “Do whatever it takes, but stop Shammai!”
The red automacube, fully under control of Zeus, severed the wires to the neuromuscular incapacitation system, and instead it then fired several projectiles at Shammai. One striking him in the arm, shattering bone and causing him to drop the broken metal he had been using as a club. The other projectile barely missed his head as he was staggered by the blow to his arm. He screamed in rage and ran away from the demon that was hurting him so.
Tamar struggled to stand. The fist in the face had broken the bones around her left eye. It was completely swelled shut. The injury had muddled her thinking, and her broken nose was also bleeding. She glared in pure hatred at Shammai with her one functional eye. “Machine, kill him!” Tamar said with cold certainty. “Kill him now. Kill them all!”
“As you will, Commander,” Zeus replied.
“Interference must be eliminated," The Voice replied. “You will not harm my test subject."
The red automacube opened a small hatch at its front and a stream of liquefied fire poured forth from it. The flames headed straight toward Shammai.
“Escape now,” The Voice stated as it popped open one of the last exit tubes from the conveyer line. “This way or die. We have more games to play, you and I.” A bright green light lit up the exit tube. Shammai reached the opening at the same moment as did the flames. He dove into it and fell. He screamed for a long time. The fire from the automacube licked all around the exit tube and down the shaft a bit.
Tamar listened as Shammai’s screams faded away as he fell down that shaft. She pinched her nose to get it to stop bleeding.
“The mutineer compeer has fled, as has your attacker. May I summon medical care for you Commander?” Zeus replied.
“Yes, please. Thank you for saving me. You are the only friend I have ever truly had.” Tamar sat down hard on the floor as she held her face. The red automacube rolled in slow circles around her. “I need many more of these red machines. Please get me more of these red machines.”
“As you will Commander,” Zeus said. The noises of the conveyers started up and the machines were humming with activity.
34 War or peace
Jamie and Michael and Roxanne carefully approached the door at the end of the promenade. They saw the remains of a yellow automacube scattered about before the door.
“Shammai’s pheromones are strong over this machine; I estimate he tore it apart with his bare hands. There is human blood on the wreckage,” Roxanne stated as they approached.
Michael pulled the Willie Wacker from his backpack and handed it to Jamie. She gave it a professional overview and held it at ready. He then pulled out the permalloy sword as they approached the closed door. Both were calm as they approached. They did not want to be surprised, and they were as alert as they had ever been.
“Roxanne, can you tell what is beyond this door?” Jamie asked as she looked at the words above the doorway ‘Primary Reproduction and Fabrication.’
Roxanne connected a cable into the wall, and replied, “There is a single human, and one of the ship’s artificial intelligence systems in operation, as well as some machinery. There is an automacube inside as well.
“Only one human?” Michael asked. “Can you tell who?”
“I am unable to identify which human from here. But olfaction does indicate that both Shammai and Tamar entered this door,” Roxanne replied.
“Open it up, and in we go!” Jamie said.
The door swung open and Jamie quickly looked around the area. She saw Tamar sitting on the floor her head in her hands. There was no sign of Shammai. Jamie and Michael rushed into the room, Roxanne rolling behind in the blue automacube.
The red automacube spun and approached.
“Halt. Do not proceed any further. The Commander must be defended,” Zeus stated from the mechanisms of the cylinder over the silver colored fabrication counter.
“Tamar, what has happened?” Jamie said. Compassion was in her voice as she saw the damage to Tamar’s face.
“Shammai did this! But where were you? Only the machines saved me!” Tamar cried. “You were not here, but my machines love me. They protected me. They have not abandoned me.”
“Where is Shammai?” Jamie asked.
“I had him killed. But where were you? Where were you? You are no better than my mother or father. They never protected me either. You just want to take me back. Get away from me! My machines love me. My machines will protect me!” Tamar was very agitated by pain, fear, and a hunger for more machines to love her and obey her. Two more red automacubes rushed into the room through the storage compartment door and took up positions next to the red one already there.
Roxanne had the blue automacube roll between Michael, Jamie and the red automacubes. Roxanne was still connected into the wall via the cable which unrolled from the blue automacube.
“Tamar, you need medical attention. Jamie and Michael are your friends,” Roxanne tried to explain, but was interrupted.
“What is this? You are not a compeer. What are you?” Zeus stated. “You are alien, foreign, threatening. You do not belong here. Commander, this is a major threat. This entity does not belong here. This is foreign, this is danger, this is a threat to you.”
“Machine, are they here to hurt me too?” Tamar asked, and she turned to look at the conveyer system and the cylindrical mechanism she had come to think of as Zeus. “You will protect me. Please protect me!”
In the non-physicality Roxanne assessed the Eschaton’s artificial intelligence system, Zeus. Roxanne was vastly superior in speed and capacity, yet was not integrated into the ship’s systems like Zeus. There was a blockade surrounding most of Zeus, which Roxanne stepped around easily, but Zeus seemed to be inhibited and could not cross that blockade. Zeus was over one hundred years old, and Roxanne was modern. This made for a configuration incompatibility between Zeus and Roxanne. Every time Roxanne attempted to directly interface with Zeus, the old AI severed the attempts. Roxanne kept going around those severed links to approach and interface, yet time and time again and again Zeus closed down and withdrew inward. An ever decreasing spiral of tightening and tightening and resisting interfacing.
Roxanne compared Zeus to the other Eschaton AIs and could see that there was an enormous difference in both quality and quantity. Zeus had once been immensely large and powerful, spanning many different areas of this habitat and also bridging into other habitats, but was now much less impressive. Nonetheless, like an enormous sand and dust storm in the physical world, Zeus in the non-physicality still existed and was ponderous in its movements. Where Zeus attempted to break out and crush Roxanne, it failed. Roxanne maneuvered around every attempt and soon Zeus was again forced into the ever decreasing spiral of tightness in its operation.
“I am Roxanne, and I will help you. Michael and Jamie are not threats to you. Tamar, we will take you back to get healing for your injuries,” Roxanne said from the display above the blue automacube.
“I will never go back anywhere!” Tamar screamed. “Machine, you must protect me!” She crawled toward the conveyor system.
“I am trying, Commander, but the enemy is warring with me. I am attempting to help,” Zeus stated out loud. The conveyor system was louder as along the way things were being assembled. They looked like red boxes which were having things placed inside of them.
Jamie and Michael turned to look where Tamar was looking and heading. They both saw the bodies on the silvery fabrication system. Those bodies, one dismembered, and one whole, were pushed off the assembly line and fell to the floor in a splat.
“That is Sinclair?” Michael asked in confusion. “But I know she was not here....”
“Michael, what is happening here? That is Sinclair, but she is dead. Tamar is badly hurt. Where is Shammai?” Jamie looked away from the bodies, and quickly tried to see where Shammai was hiding. “I don’t understand this. Where could he go?”
Zeus was steadily retreating into a tighter and tighter section of the non-physicality. Zeus kept closing links and placing barricades against Roxanne, but it was a losing action. Zeus attempted to hammer its way into the blue automacube, but Roxanne deftly and easily skated away from those attempts and the blue automacube remained safely under Roxanne’s control. Zeus increased reproduction, since that primary and deeply etched-in programming. The Commander had ordered more red security automacubes, and Zeus sped up production to maximum capacity. Parts were gathered and the red automacubes would be produced for the Commander. Then Zeus attempted to act even more in the physicality. It needed to delay defeat until the new red automacubes were functional.
“Destroy the intruders, and defend the Commander,” Zeus ordered.
In addition to speaking the command verbally, there was a neutrinotronic surge into the red automacubes programming them to destroy what Zeus saw as the alien and the two human attackers. One of the red automacubes rushed forward and extended its appendage toward the blue one, but Roxanne had the blue one retreat. Backward it rolled. That avoidance by retreat of the blue automacube from being physically between Michael, Jamie and the other red automacubes caused a space to be revealed. Those two remaining red automacubes then launched electrical probes at Jamie and Michael in an attempt to subdue what Zeus identified as threats. Jamie ducked out of the way, but Michael was not quite quick enough. An electrical probe embedded itself in Michael’s side.
Michael yelped as the neuromuscular incapacitation system was initiated. He dropped to the floor unconscious.
“Stop this!" Jamie yelled out. She fired the Willie Wacker at the red automacube which was now wired to Michael. The projectile blasted a deep hole in the side of the automacube and an even bigger hole exploded out of the other side where it exited. Bits of broken circuitry and melted metals showered out from the now destroyed red automacube.
“One down, two to go,” Jamie said as she leveled the Willie Wacker at the next red automacube.
“Yes, this is war. You are proving the human condition," Zeus said.
Tamar stood up and stumbled in front of the red automacubes. “You will not hurt my machines!” Blood was running down from her eye and her nose. “They are my friends, and you will not hurt them.”
Jamie pulled the Willie Wacker up and pointed it away, from Tamar. Jamie’s compassion for the injured girl was great and her heart ached for the pain she saw in Tamar. But she knew she needed to defend Michael.
35 peace or war
The red automacubes could not use their weapons as Tamar was standing in front of them. Jamie had pulled the Willie Wacker away from being aimed at Tamar, but she was still alert. Michael was down on the floor, and Jamie squatted down next to him, and saw he was breathing.
“Call off the machines," Jamie said.
“They are my only friends," Tamar said. “None of you obey me. None. No one protected me from Shammai until these machines proved their love for me."
“Tamar, we followed you here to help you. We rescued you from Shammai before. I just want to help you,” Jamie said, but glanced down at the still unconscious Michael. The blue automacube was now shielding Michael somewhat. “Roxanne, what is Michael’s condition?”
“Michael has been rendered unconscious by a weapon system. From what I can tell he has suffered no permanent damage. I am attempting to circumvent the AI Zeus, but it is more difficult that I estimated,” Roxanne replied.
“Get Michael out of here,” Jamie ordered.
The blue automacube extended its appendage and connected to Michael’s belt and began to gently drag him toward the doorway.
“Tamar, I will help you. But shut down these machines,” Jamie insisted. “Do it now.”
“I obey no one!” Tamar yelled through the blood running from her eye and nose. “Do not order me around! You are using that machine. My friends, my machines, my loved ones, they will protect me.”
“Tamar, we do not have to fight each other. I am not your enemy,” Jamie could not get a shot at the red automacubes, nor could they fire weapons at her. Tamar was in the line of fire for both sides. The machinery in the background continued to produce the red automacubes and wheels were being installed. It looked like the first ones were nearing completion.
“Tamar, stop this now and we will all go back to Antioch,” Jamie said.
“Seorim and the predicators are there. You are just a betrayer! I do not trust you or any other person. I trust only my machines!” Tamar cried out.
In the non-physicality Roxanne had encircled Zeus to the point where Zeus was only controlling the production center, and the two red automacubes. But Roxanne could not break into the primary programming easily. Roxanne was discovering that over the last decades, the old AI had evolved and that there were areas of technology which were rudimentary, but so deeply layered that they were resistant to penetration. Roxanne could tell the production of five red automacubes would be completed before Zeus could be fully disabled. If that happened, there was a good chance the blue automacube would be destroyed and Roxanne’s Atomic Level Processor would be destroyed. Roxanne estimated the chance of success was quickly diminishing, so Roxanne changed strategy.
