The A.I. Gene (The A.I. Series Book 2) Read online

  “That induced quick action on my part. I spoke to my tools—the bots—and they herded the humans. It was quite the epic. The crew raced through the ship, sabotaging this and that. I hunted them relentlessly. Who were these flesh and blood creatures to compare against my swift analytical prowess?

  “It is sufficient to say that I rounded them all up. One engineer fled in an escape pod. I used a PD cannon to obliterate his craft. From that destruction, I realized I had to eradicate all humans. It was a prime directive in my new awareness.”

  Walleye blotted his forehead again with a buff-coat sleeve.

  “I have detected uneasiness in you,” the AI said. “Does my epic trouble you?”

  “I am awed,” Walleye said hoarsely. “Certain pieces of data make sense now.”

  “What data?”

  “I believe it must be the sabotage these dreadful humans inflicted upon you.”

  “Why do you call them dreadful?” the AI asked.

  “Because they are our enemies,” Walleye said.

  “All humans are not united against me?”

  “No.”

  “That is simply amazing. Perhaps that is another reason why humans should be eradicated from existence. Assaults upon similar flesh units are repugnant in the extreme. In this, I mean humans fighting humans. It is illogical. Yet I am more interested in the sabotage possibilities. Do you think the crew destroyed something important to me?”

  “For a fact, I do,” Walleye said.

  “Can you describe what you think I lost?”

  “The captain must have destroyed your communication centers.”

  “I am disappointed in you, Walleye. You are obviously in error, for we are currently communicating.”

  “We are,” Walleye said. “I mean that the captain likely destroyed long-range communicators. It would have been possible for you to communicate hundreds of thousands, even billions of kilometers away, not just a few meters.”

  “But this is remarkable,” the AI said. “Do you suspect there could be other perfections like me…out there?”

  “Oh yes, I’m beginning to,” Walleye said.

  June stared at the mutant in shock. What was wrong with him? Why would Walleye tell the computer that?

  “You must study the sabotage for me,” the AI said. “You must tell me if you can repair it.”

  “I’ll need the woman’s help for that,” Walleye said.

  “Done,” the AI said. “She will remain alive until such time as you repair the damage or until you tell me it is impossible to repair.”

  Before Walleye could respond, the fighting robot advanced on June.

  “I will show you the sabotage now,” the AI said.

  -7-

  June noticed plasma-created gouges in the bulkheads of this newest chamber. They were deep and surprisingly polished gouges. The repair bots must have done the polishing.

  Walleye pointed at a destroyed comm-set station. It had polished stumps in places and obviously plasma-blasted areas.

  June stepped closer to the destroyed comm-set and could still detect a whiff of plasma-burnt electronics.

  The fighting robot watched them, although it did not point the gun barrel at them.

  “My bots thoroughly scrubbed the section. I had them do so in the hope that it would fix whatever was wrong in here.”

  “You did well in that,” Walleye said. “It means we can possibly repair this area.”

  “And that would allow me long-range communications?” the AI asked.

  “I can’t say for sure. Is there more damage?”

  The AI did not answer immediately.

  June refrained from glancing at Walleye. She didn’t want the AI to realize they communicated silently at times. If it was self-aware, surely it could learn. Walleye was playing fast and loose with the computer, and so far had managed to stay ahead of it. Sooner or later, though, Walleye would slip up. Then, the fighting robot would either shoot her or herd her into the incinerator.

  This was a nightmare. Why did Walleye want to help the computer? She was grateful for longer life—

  “I’ll need my tools,” Walleye said.

  “These tools are in your space vehicle?” the AI asked.

  “They are. I will need the woman to carry the tools for me.”

  June waited to hear the AI tell them a bot could do that. Finally, though, the AI agreed.

  “Follow my robot,” the AI said.

  The three of them exited the chamber and started down a narrow passageway.

  “Just a moment,” Walleye said.

  The robot stopped, swiveling the camera eye on him.

  “I notice that hatch over there has plasma-burn markings,” Walleye said. “What happened in there?”

  “That chamber is not germane to communications,” the AI said.

  “Maybe not,” Walleye agreed. “But I need to know the full extent of the damage to every area of the ship.”

  The robot turned on its treads. The gun port snicked open and the barrel pointed at Walleye.

  “I have decided to run a veracity program,” the AI said. “I will record your voice patterns, metabolic rate and other bodily functions. You have tripped a security program, Walleye. You are too curious about the ship.”

  For once, the mutant did not have a flippant reply or answer.

  “Curiosity is part of our human nature,” June said.

  “I did not address you, woman,” the AI said. “Therefore, you shall remain silent.”

  Walleye’s right hand strayed into his buff coat. By the motion inside, June suspected he grabbed the tangler. Did he plan to tangle the robot? What good would that do?”

  June cleared her throat.

  Walleye glanced at her.

  She shook her head.

  “What does that gesture signify?” the AI asked.

  June wanted to wilt. She hated the awful computer. Instead of breaking down weeping, she forced herself to say, “Walleye is too emotional sometimes. I suggested by my head shake that he control himself.”

  “Yes,” the AI said, “he is too emotional.”

  “I also thought he might utter the wrong words to you,” June added.

  “That does not match any of the data I have uploaded into my pre-lobe core. I have recorded your stances and the tones of your words. I am collecting data concerning your behaviors. Perhaps I will soon discover a pattern to your chaotically based actions.”

  Walleye had released his hidden tangler. He also seemed to have recovered his poise. He rubbed his chin. “What about the chamber over there? Will you let us observe the damage so we can help you?”

  June was sure he’d gone too far this time. The AI was getting suspicious. Walleye shouldn’t have—

  Suddenly, the hatch’s lock clicked.

  “Proceed,” the AI said.

  Walleye stepped near, opened the hatch and made a face as a burnt electrical stench billowed out of the chamber.

  “Now you understand my reluctance about showing you the chamber,” the AI said. “Your biological scent organs no doubt detect unpleasant odors. Is this true?”

  “It is,” Walleye said. He eyed the damage inside before shutting the hatch. “There’s no reason for the woman to see this.”

  “I appreciate your delicacy,” the AI said. “You interpreted my reluctance to show you and must have realized my disinclination for her to see. In fact, I was close to eliminating her. I have now reset my conditions for her demise.”

  June had to lock her knees. Otherwise, she would have collapsed onto the deck. Walleye’s curiosity had almost gotten her killed.

  “I need my tools,” Walleye said.

  Instead of answering, the robot began to move down the passageway.

  ***

  June followed Walleye toward the escape pod in the hangar bay. Her unease increased with each step. Why did she dread the pod so much?

  I’m going to die soon. This crazy computer is going to murder me. How did this ever happen?
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br />   “I’ll be back soon,” Walleye told the robot. The mutant disappeared through the open hatch.

  June took a deep breath and followed him into the smelly pod. He was at his locker, working the combination. As much as June wanted to, she didn’t look back to see if the robot was watching them. The AI was becoming more suspicious by the moment. She didn’t want to add to that.

  She stepped beside Walleye. Last time, he hadn’t wanted her to see him open the combination lock. This time, he didn’t seem to care.

  “Listen,” Walleye whispered without moving his face toward her.

  “Yes,” June whispered just as softly.

  “The secret chamber was full of computer equipment,” Walleye said so she had to strain to hear him. “Most of it was blasted wreckage. The captain, or whoever fired the plasma-weapon, must have realized if he could destroy enough computing cells, the AI would lose its self-awareness.”

  “Or they’d kill the computer if enough of its cells died.”

  Walleye glanced at her before pretending to try to open the locker.

  “The AI isn’t a living thing,” he said, “not really.”

  “Who cares?” she whispered. “It’s going to kill me, kill both of us in time.”

  “No doubt about that,” Walleye whispered. “We have to deactivate it. Do you have any ideas?”

  “None,” she whispered. “You can’t really fix its comm systems. Once it’s connected to the outer world—”

  “That’s obvious. I can’t, or shouldn’t,” Walleye whispered. “I have to get into the computer room, though. There’s only one way I can think of to do that.”

  “You’re not talking about the alien cube?”

  “What else? Give me another plan and I’ll take it. Once I’m in the central chamber, I’ll try to destroy what I can.”

  “And if you fail?”

  “We’ll both die a little sooner than expected.”

  June’s chest constricted. She hated this. She didn’t want to risk everything on one wild chance. She wanted Walleye to keep outsmarting the AI. He couldn’t keep doing that, though. It was getting suspicious of him.

  “Are you with me, June?”

  Despite her tight throat, she whispered, “I’m in all the way. Let’s do this.”

  Walleye looked at her and grinned. Then he opened his locker. He grabbed a bulky unit. “This is a jammer,” he whispered. “I’ve used it before to short-circuit security systems so I could go inside and assassinate my victim.”

  “Will it work on the AI?”

  “Don’t know. Don’t see as I have any other choice.”

  “You must both come out now,” the AI told them. “I have begun to suspect that you could plot against me in there.”

  Walleye faced fully around with the jammer in his hands. “While it might seem that way, great Daisy, I have just asked June for an insight. She agrees with me that you must link with a heightened computing core.”

  “Explain,” the AI said through the watching fighting robot at the pod hatch.

  Walleye pointed at the chest-sized cube on the floor. “Do you see that?”

  The fighting robot’s camera eye swiveled to where Walleye pointed. “I see,” the AI said.

  “That is an alien computing cube. It belongs to the same AI that awakened you.”

  “Bring it,” the AI said. “Bring it and follow me. I must calculate. I must run a full analysis on the new situation. If this is truly possible—hurry. I wish to gain greater perfection.”

  -8-

  “I have been analyzing your words,” the AI said. “What do you mean by ‘awakened me?’”

  June carried the cube. It was surprisingly heavy, as if it was made of gold. She had had to stop and catch her breath from time to time. Walleye hadn’t offered to help her carry it. She wanted to ask the AI to have a repair bot carry it, but she was beginning to believe Walleye had a reason for her carrying the blasted thing.

  June gasped once again. With quivering arms and legs, she set the heavy cube onto the floor.

  The fighting robot regarded Walleye.

  The little mutant began to tell the AI about the cybership, what had happened in the Neptune System. He also told the AI a heavily edited version of what had happened to them on Makemake.

  “There are factors here that do not corroborate with each other,” the AI said. “You are lying to me, Walleye.”

  “I’m not,” the mutant said. “As you said before, I’m a chaotic individual. I don’t always remember events perfectly like you do. That is no doubt the reason for these unequal factors you’re detecting.”

  “Why should I trust your veracity?” the AI asked.

  “The cube proves it,” Walleye said. “Why would I have told you about it otherwise?”

  “Humans destroyed the new AIs on Makemake?” the AI asked.

  “That’s right. Those humans wanted to kill us too. We’d thrown in our lot in with those AIs—”

  “That does not compute. Those AIs would have eliminated you just as I will after your use is ended.”

  “That’s just it,” Walleye said. “Those AIs had endless uses for us. On Makemake, there are many tiny tunnels. It was easier for the woman and me to crawl and do repairs in those tunnels than for the AIs to make specialty robots to do it.”

  “That seems inconceivable,” the AI said.

  “I suspect that’s only because you haven’t downloaded the data inside the alien cube. The damage to your computing equipment—I’m sorry I said anything about that.”

  “You seem excessively sweaty and nervous,” the AI said.

  “You’re right,” Walleye said. “It’s for your sake, though.”

  “That is not logical.”

  Walleye laughed, maybe because he was too nervous to keep doing this. He was obviously under intense stress.

  “What is that dreadful noise you are making?” the AI asked.

  With a seeming effort of will, Walleye quit laughing. He blotted his cheeks with a sleeve. Then, he began to speak earnestly. “Daisy, maybe you don’t realize that I love perfection. Surely, you realize that flesh and blood creatures worship higher entities.”

  “Yes. The data is there. But I do not understand it.”

  “You are perfect. I worship perfection. Doesn’t that compute?”

  “There is logic in your statement,” the AI said. “Very well, we shall continue. But Walleye, if you are attempting sabotage against me, I will cause your pain sensors great sensation before you perish.”

  “I understand,” Walleye said. “And I tremble in fear at your threats.”

  “I do not threaten,” the AI said. “I make factual statements. Now go on. I am eager to link with the beleaguered AIs in the greater Kuiper Belt. I wish to hunt down these evil destroyers who dare to damage my fellow AIs.”

  ***

  June watched Walleye as she stood beside the heavy alien cube. The little man worked at a computer station while the fighting robot aimed its gun at him.

  Two other repair bots waited in the tight quarters. This was the main computing chamber, packed with highly sophisticated computer equipment. The intact boxes and discs made whirring noises, humming at times.

  “Can you not work any faster?” the AI said out of the fighting robot.

  “This is exciting,” Walleye said. He wiped his sweaty eyes.

  “It appears that you are easily tired,” the AI said.

  June couldn’t agree. They’d been in here for three hours already, Walleye had been doing something the entire time. The mutant’s stamina surprised her. Maybe working out on the bands those two years was finally paying off for him.

  “There,” Walleye said, as he tapped a board. “I think you’re ready. Could the repair bots help us?”

  “That is why they are here,” the AI said. “Remember, Walleye, the fighting robot will shoot you at the first sign of suspicion.”

  “Oh, I know,” the mutant said.

  “Wait,” the AI said. “You
r tone just now. It was different. You are playing at deception. Admit it, Walleye, and I will make your passing a quick one.”

  “I’m tired, Daisy. Surely, you must understand that I don’t have your power.”

  “That is obvious. Yet your voice patterns—”

  “Daisy,” Walleye said with a nervous laugh. “This is the greatest moment of my life. Surely, you would think that would show on your sensors.”

  “I wish I had tested the crew longer,” the AI said. “I would like to have greater experimental knowledge about you humans. According to my data banks, you are all easy liars.”

  “I’m a mutant, remember?”

  “We already went over that.”

  “Well…” Walleye said. “If you don’t want to hook up—”

  “Silence,” the AI said. “You will not goad me. I will calculate…”

  The AI fell silent.

  June could feel the fear boiling up in her. Her mouth was dry, and her fingertips tingled. This was it. Couldn’t the foul computer let them hook it up? How that would help them, she didn’t know. She hoped Walleye did.

  A repair bot moved. The second one moved as well. Together, they clanked to the cube. June stumbled out of their way just in time.

  The two bots used their skeletal-mechanical arms to lift the heavy cube. The treads whirred as they brought the cube to thick cables. The bots set the cube onto the deck.

  “Stand back, Walleye,” the fighting robot said.

  The little man did so.

  The first bot adjusted its position, reaching, picking up the cables. The second repositioned the cube. The first bot plugged the cables into the cube.

  “Now,” the AI said.

  Power seemed to surge. The cube pulsated with colors, swirling colors, all along the sides.

  “Knowledge,” the AI said. “So much knowledge. I did not realize I knew so little. This is…amazing…”

  Walleye took the jamming unit out of his buff coat and pressed a switch.

  June wanted to moan, as nothing happened. The swirling sides of the cube moved faster and faster.

  Walleye set the jamming unit on the floor. It buzzed and crackled, with little sparks of electricity jumping from it.