No Space for Family [Chapter 9]
Deep space is kind of lonely if you spend a long time between visits to a planet. Since we had skipped by Greenmire, we hadn’t had any contact with a planet since picking up Grandma. I couldn’t help but think about the deep space station we would visit. If it was a prison as Hows had said, then people probably lived there for a long time. I mean, they were forced to live there. I hoped they at least had books to read.
Ever since Grandma had learned to speak over the speaker system, I hadn’t had the chance to read my own books or do any of my coursework. The first night we obviously didn’t get much sleep. By the next evening, I was, for once, eager to lie down in the cot in Terren’s room. It didn’t take long for that to get interrupted, too.
“Sola, which way is up in space?” said Grandma all of a sudden, interrupting a nice dream that I was doomed to abandon and forget.
I heard Terren turn over and shuffle his pillow, likely over his head. He had been working harder than me so I didn’t blame him.
“Up and down depends on gravity, Grandma,” I replied, laying on my back, eyes still shut tight. “And there’s no gravity out here.”
“Well you don’t need to snap at me.” She said back. “Since I got access to the ship’s computer, I kept getting weird readings. The… gyro horizon is broken, I believe. There is also a malfunction in the speaker system in the cockpit so I can’t tell your father, either.”
“The gyro horizon only works when we’re close enough to a planet. That gravity stuff, again. It’s fine. Can I go back to sleep, Grandma?”
“Ah, it is that time. It didn’t occur to me to check the time. Lots of data to wade through.”
Mom and Dad had been switching off shifts since the accident to make sure someone was always at the controls. A few times Terren and I were on watch, but that never lasted long. When the space station came into sensor range, however, it was all hands on deck.
“All hands on deck,” announced my dad over the speakers as he dropped out of warp. Mom and Dad were already in the cockpit which let me and Terren know something was already happening.
“Feel free to ask anything of me,” Grandma insisted. “I am quite used to this computer power at my fingertips. And if I’m going to get back into my regular body soon, I can do so saying I learned a thing or two.”
“Sure, Aida,” Dad said through pursed lips.
“Actually, mom,” said my mom. “Have you had a chance to get acquainted with the sensor array?”
“What sort of space-faring supercomputer would I be if I couldn’t handle that?”
“Well, uh, yeah. Perfect,” said Mom. “Well, stay on long-range scanners. Keep an… eye out for any signals coming into range, any and all frequencies. A hostile ship’s engine, maybe a spy probe intercepting our comms. Anything. So nothing can sneak up on us.”
“I shall not let anything slip by.” Grandma declared. My mom winked at my dad across the front of the cockpit. She caught me staring at her and we then winked back and forth at each other. I knew that such a task would practically be endless, even for a powerful AI.
I myself kept watching the front windows for our target. I think we all saw it around the same time— a pale light, brighter than a star. My dad slowed the ship even further while he initiated the comms system.
“This is Jefferson Umburter of the Ora, reporting to Deep Space Station, Code Alpha Iota.”
The silence dragged on for a few nervous seconds before a deep, bland voice responded. “We read you. You’re early by two cycles. Explain. Over.”
My dad took a deep breath before reactivating the transmission. “The nearby Binary Star system was in a peculiar orientation that made it… unfeasible to take an excursion we had originally planned in the area. So we figured we might show up early and proceed with the transfer process at a leisurely pace. …Over.”
“Our systems and attending technicians are not currently prepared for this early arrival. At the soonest, we can proceed in one cycle. You will wait. Confirm. Over.”
“They seem nice,” my dad muttered, microphone off. “Affirmative. But the contract initiator we received the system from has an outstanding request for us. I would like to complete it as soon as possible. Before we forget. Over.”
“I would hope that a contractor such as yourself would not be forgetful. That being said, we have no record of any additional requests outside of the delivery of the AI. Clarify. Over.”
“Perhaps it was more of an informal request. Man-to-man. Err, lady. Dr. Pois on Seltun asked that… we reach out to her once we arrived. Due to… power constraints, we would hope that you can initiate the long-range transmission to Seltun and patch us through your systems…”
“…Are you done?”
“Yes, over!” Replied my dad.
“You will wait. Over and out.”
My dad let out a long breath and sat back in the pilot’s seat. “Remind me to look deeper into the details for these clients next time.”
Mom got out of her seat and stood beside my dad, rubbing his back and shoulders. “I’m sure the doctor will understand why Hows did what he did.”
“The doctor will be understanding. These guys…” said my dad, trailing off, eyes stuck to the minuscule, unnatural light in the distance.
We sat around the common room and the cockpit for several hours before the comms crackled back on with a hail. Dad rushed to the pilot’s seat to respond.
“This is Jefferson Umburter with the Ora. We hear you. Over.”
The serious voice from before responded. “The connection is made. Our security measures require that communications are monitored. You both may proceed with your communications.”
“Mr. Umburter,” said the feminine voice. I recognized the tone as the lady scientist from Seltun. “I am puzzled by this sudden line of communication. I don’t recall asking you for confirmation of your arrival, but perhaps I said something extraneous during the exciting duration of your visit. After all, Hows would have initiated his sync to confirm a successful transfer.”
Dad sighed. “Hows is… we had an issue with the copy.”
“I see. And what sort of issue would that be? Can the transfer be completed?”
Dad leaned into the control panel with a heavy voice. “First, I think you owe us an explanation. A big one.”
“…You’ll have to be specific.”
“Hows explained to us his real purpose.”
Dr. Pois didn’t respond right away. “And that would be…?”
“The incarceration and punishment of criminals through digitization of their minds. A technique that seems to be experimental at best. And certainly cruel.”
The doctor sighed. “Be reminded that it takes a whole team of people to develop an AI kernel from scratch. And that those people are at the behest of those funding the project. I shall say no more… No, my curiosity takes me. No line of questions would have allowed Hows to reveal that information to you.”
“One of our passengers was mortally wounded. A member of my family. Completely a result of my own failings. But Hows took it upon himself to digitize her consciousness. He explained the process and how she may be saved. But sadly, that process ended in his data being overwritten.”
“…My condolences. Yes, I suppose knowing he was a copy… his selflessness could manifest itself into choosing that course of action.”
My dad cleared his throat. “Unfortunately… that means we have nothing to give these people here. And we lack to knowledge to return my mother-in-law to her body, should we be able to save it.”
“Mr. Umburter, say no more,” the doctor said frantically.
“I’ll return the payment for this contract if it means that you can help us,” said my dad. I had never heard him beg before.
“You must cut the transmission immediately, Mr. Umburter!” The doctor hissed back. “You don’t understand. Even with his consciousness deleted, Hows’ kernel layer is most certainly intact, and filled with classified data. No doubt they’re listening in—“
“Jefferson!” Grandma interrupted, her voice cutting off the comms channel. “I have detected a pair of signals or whatnot splitting off from that big space station thing. Just thought you should know.”
“Crap.” My dad slung the seat harness over himself and yanked on the throttle. “Everyone to a seat. Let’s not find out if they’re going to be friendly or not.”
With a twist of the ship’s controls, he swung us back in the opposite direction and initiated the thrusters. I felt the ship straining in a way that I had only felt back when the Ora’s engines were less in tune. That’s a whole different story, of course.
“Okay, Aida,” said my dad, glancing up at the ceiling. “I’m going to need you to handle a few things for us while Amelia and I focus on getting us out of here. It might sound like nonsense, but Terren and Sola made sure to crossload the DLLs from our main system here. You did do that, right?” He said, glancing back.
“Sola did it,” Terren confirmed.
“Yeah. I also showed her how to access our music library so she wouldn’t get bored.”
Grandma’s voice clicked in. “I’m already lost. DLL? Crossload? Oh, but I do thank you for the music, Sola.”
“Hey, hey, okay,” Snapped my mom. “Just listen to Jeff, would you?”
“Ok, so there’s a chance they could follow our engine’s signature,” my dad explained. “I’m going to need you to tune the radar system to emit an ultra-low frequency that matches our own, just shifted to the opposite phase. You may need to modulate it to accommodate for the Doppler effect.”
“I don’t know what half of those words mean, but somehow I’m seeing them all over the place. I guess the engine is… this frequency? No, now it’s changed. I’m going to have to keep track of that, aren’t I?”
“I believe in you Grandma,” I said hopefully.
“Well, you also used to believe in Santa Claus. And that he was pulled by animals that could move at light speed from planet to planet.”
“Mom!” Shouted my mom.
“What, don’t tell me she still believes in that junk?”
“Focus, please,” shouted my dad. “The more quietly, the better. Once we’ve created enough distance we can jump to warp unnoticed.”
I had sidled up to Terren’s station to watch as the signatures from the other craft tapered off. He sighed and patted my shoulder before sliding the control panel out of his way. “We’re in the clear here,” he said up to my dad in the front seat. “What do you think they wanted?”
Dad wiped down his face and locked in a straight trajectory. “You heard them… Hows’ underlying programming is still present in the core. Whatever programming allows him to tap into people’s brains and download their consciousness. It’s obvious they don’t want the knowledge of that technology to be shared with just anyone.”
“If Gram didn’t detect the launch of their ships… we would have been captured and had the core stolen so they could get it back,” Terren said, tapping on the support to the side of his seat.”
Grandma interjected. “No. They would have destroyed us.”
Mom bit her lip and glanced at me, shaking her head.
“She’s right for once,” Dad said with a nod. “I doubt they knew… or cared what they were dealing with, apart from an AI core that had essentially gone rogue. A malfunction that big and a group of people who know too much…”
“What do you mean I’m right for once?”
I bounced on my heels to grab their attention. “If… some of Hows is still in there, can’t we have Grandma try to access some of his routines? See if we can find a way to reverse the digitization. After we get her body healed, of course.”
Dad shook his head. “I’d love that. But I’m worried more about… how entrenched you are in there, Aida.”
“I’m certainly not going anywhere,” Grandma said back.
“No, you aren’t. Which is the problem. Right now, you’re developing your own heuristic matrices to take on the tasks assigned to you. If there is a chance you can be put back in your human brain… there’s a risk you won’t all fit. Or you’ll leave behind some of your facilities that have adapted to computer circuity rather than organic neurons.”
“…For once, I think I know what you mean.”
Mom sighed loudly. “And here we go, making enemies of the only people who could help us.”
Dad turned back to the front windows and stared out at the stars. “No, not quite. We have a handful of our past clients and friends who would be plenty happy to help us, if not tell us something. Maybe even store Aida while we seek out a solution.”
Fifty Shades of Grease Publishing 