The Caverns of Mare Cetus (18 page)

   At that moment, Ramon staggered forward, limping conspicuously. He was carrying Richelle in his arms. He looked at the Kalo. "Damn it, Edison. I wanted to kick the shit out of that thing." He laid Richelle next to Arielle and sat down beside them.

   "Sorry, pal," said Edison. "The next one's all yours."

   "No. No way," said Hunter. "This isn't going to happen again. I want all those nightmares shut down for a thorough evaluation. I don't care if we have to get Kalo Corporation…"

   "What's wrong with Arielle?" interrupted Ramon as he caressed her face with his hand. "She's really out cold." He peeked beneath the blanket that was covering her. "And what's with her shirt?"

   Edison told Ramon how Hunter had saved her life.

   "Señor Larson," said Ramon. "You saved my baby. Man, how can I ever thank you?"

   "Just quit accusing me of coming on to her—okay?"

   Ramon grinned. "Hey—after what you did for her, any fantasies you have—you won't see me complaining…"

   "Speaking of fantastic," said Edison, "you need to take a look at Devon's teeth."

   "Why? She some kind of vampire?" Ramon smirked.

   Edison's voice strengthened. "Take a look, will ya? You'll never see anything like them again."

   Ramon gave Devon a long glance. Then he spoke slowly. "That's really a weird request, Edison."

   "Go on. Do it."

   "Okay. Whatever." Ramon leaned over Devon, gingerly pulled her lower lip down with his index finger, and peered at her teeth. "I don't see anything. What am I looking for?"

   "That's the point," said Edison. "You don't see anything because you're looking at perfection."

   "Okay, so she has nice looking teeth. But they're just teeth. Right?"

   "They're not—just teeth. They're absolutely flawless!"

   Ramon sat up and put up his hands. "Okay, okay, I believe you. Uh. Why the hell do you care?"

   "To explain," said Hunter, "he put back two of Devon's teeth that got knocked out by the robotic. He's an excellent dentist."

   "Oh." Ramon seemed briefly in thought. "I couldn't even tell she lost any. Nice job, Edison." He put out a hand toward Hunter. "Come on, hero. Lay one on me."

   Hunter reached over and slapped his hand.

   Edison sat down next to Richelle. "Hey, guys. Before we throw a party, we need to consider we're in a shit hole if there ever was one. We've been beat to a pulp, and the others are still out there— somewhere."

   Hunter moved Renata's head off his shoulder and onto a rolled-up blanket. He sat up straight. "Trent!" he called anxiously into his com. "Trent! Garrett! Respond please. Anyone. Answer, please." He waited for a moment, then repeated his calls several more times, but grim, foreboding silence had taken hold of their communications.

Chapter Six

Explora Corporation, Ceti District:
Arnon Decca, Prolixus Lacus, Novia
Cetus, Abigail Kensington—Owner/CEO

Company founded by Vincent & Angelina Collinstead, 2031, Research
Park, N.C.

Company Milestones:

Discovered largest platinum ore resources on Earth, Nevada—2033
Funded consortium to develop Ion-Jump Propulsion Systems—2039
Mars robotic ore surveys using first IJP Systems—2047-2051
Surveyed Saturnian and Neptunian systems—2053-2060

Discovered monoclinic neurasilica crystals on Triton—2057
Began commercial mining of neurasilica—2062

Joined Neurasilica Universal Door Technology Industry Consortium—
2064

First survey outside of solar system, Barnard's Star—2083-2086
Surveyed Tau Ceti system—2088-2100
Discovered complex life on Novia Cetus—2090

RUS Universal Corporation's OND Robotics, transported on Explora's
Tau Ceti probes, initiate Universal Door in the Tau Ceti System—20942095

Earth colonization of Novia Cetus begins using NUDT—2098
Opened Novia Cetus Operation's Center—23/(2115)*

Began mining operations in the Tau Ceti System—37/(2124)
Announced 5-year Exploration Lock of the Laramax Complex on Mare—
98/(2163)

*
23/(2115) = Novian Year/(Earth Year)—(Year 0 Novia = Year 2100
Earth)

   When Renata finally woke, she was lying beside Hunter, her head propped up on a rolled-up blanket. She took a deep breath, causing pain to strike at her chest, and noticed the air was filled with the pungent smell of smoldering metal. She looked at Hunter's face. His features appeared riddled with annoyance, his lips moving as if in a heated discussion.

   "Come on. These robotics have just proven they're nothing but trouble. If another one goes wacko, what makes you think we're going to be so lucky next time?"

   "Eres majareta," said Ramon, motioning with his finger by his ear, drawing circles. "How do you expect us to get around down here without Kalo surveys?"

   "And what good are Kalo surveys when…"

   A veil of fogginess passed through Renata's mind, obscuring the men's voices in a swirling mist of chaos. She shut her eyes tightly. Her head began throbbing in acute pain as fragments of their words danced through her thoughts like flotsam bobbing up and down in a violent ocean storm.

   She shifted her body and felt a dull pain shoot through her lower back and down into her legs. She pulled her knees forward, trying to relieve it, but realized her body hurt almost everywhere. Despite that, she was astonished she was even alive. Thrashed around like a rag doll, she saw only death once the Kalo had her in its iron grip, and without her pain as a reminder, she would have thought the experience to be nothing more than a terrifying hallucination.

   As she tried to piece together what had happened after the Kalo grabbed her, a few memories stood out. Like Hunter's valiant efforts to free her and Ramon's and Edison's wild shouting as they slammed the block into the side of the Kalo. But more so, Renata remembered Devon. Walking up to the robotic as if she had no fear—placing her hand on Renata's face—calling Renata her sister and telling her she would free her. Then there was the utter horror of the hit to Devon's face. After passing out, Renata remembered waking to the touch of Hunter's hands.

   Renata rolled on her side and stretched out her left leg, her other leg still pulled up toward her stomach. The dull pain nagging at her back seemed to lessen in that position. She took a deep breath, another pain stabbing at her chest, but that seemed to come with every breath now. Still, the cool air was a magnificent thrill. As she began to believe there wasn't a part of her that didn't hurt in one way or another, she opened her eyes.

   The argument had ended. As she listened to Ramon's tempered, now distinct words, she heard
Arielle
and abruptly sat up, an intense pain shooting from her left side and into her chest. She hunched forward, grabbing her left side in pain. "Arielle's heart stopped?" she asked through her clenched teeth.

   "Whoa," said Hunter as he scooted over to her. "Not so fast. Take it easy. You have three fractured ribs. We'll need to take care of those now that you're awake." He put a tablet to her lips. "Take this. It will ease the pain." He cautiously placed his arm around her.

   Renata took the tablet, which dissolved in her mouth. "What happened?"

   Ramon was sitting next to Arielle, his right leg heavily bandaged. He was caressing Arielle's face, her body completely still except for a slow, heavy breathing. He quickly told Renata what Hunter had done. "Still, we don't know how badly she was hurt. We've run some basic scans on her, but we don't know the Mediprogs well enough to make sure she hasn't had any brain damage." He bit his lower lip; it looked as if he was about to cry.

   "Trent's the guy who knows all about the medical analysis programs," said Hunter. "By the way, we ran a scan on you too. That's why we know about your ribs." He began gently wiping some dried blood off Renata's forehead with a damp cloth.

   Renata could feel the medication working already. The pain was lessening in her side. She nodded to Hunter and he helped her sit up straight.

   "I just thought of something, Commander," said Edison. "If Kalo Two was here, then what the hell is Garrett chasing?" He noticed Richelle was stirring. He put a canteen to her lips. "Easy now. Slow. Just a sip."

   Hunter scratched his head. "That's right. Rene, can you make some sense of this?"

   "I wish I could," she said. She shifted her legs to get more comfortable and noticed Devon was waking up too.

   Devon sat up slowly and began rubbing her jaw.

   "It's okay, honey," said Edison as he scooted over to her.

   "Kalo Two was transmitting the Kalo One frequency when it came down the passage," said Renata, her voice coming back as her pains continued to subside, not just in her chest, but all through her body. "No question about it."

   "That can't be," said Edison. He began examining Devon's jaw. "Those ID frequencies are burned into its processors."

   "Vimaps don't lie," said Renata. "I know what I saw. That thing was tricking us into believing it was Number One."

   Edison's voice rose. "Come off it. No exploration robotic can do that. And even if it could, how did it know to transmit the Kalo One frequency? How did it know we sent for Kalo One?"

   "But it did," she said. "Even though all our signals are sent unitspecific, somehow it must have intercepted the transmissions to Kalo One and decoded them."

   Edison had Devon open her mouth for him, and he peered inside. "Could be, but that doesn't explain how it can transmit a particular frequency it doesn't have the hardware for. Explain that one to me."

   "I can't. All I know is what I read."

   "Looking good," said Edison. "You can close now." He touched Devon lightly on her chin. He turned toward Renata. "If what you're saying is true, that would mean Kalo Two somehow figured out a way to mimic Kalo One's ID signal. For it to do that, it would have to be thinking on its own, really thinking—H-Think. No AI shit. No robotic can do that."

   "It's more than a robotic," she said. "Technically it's a Data Enhanced Neura-Accelerated Robotic. A DENAR."

   "But no robotic, neura or not, can H-Think," said Edison.

   "Everything about the attack says it was. It was responding in ways beyond what its hardware checks would allow. I'm sure of that. It was in full sync mode—and that means it was in H-think. It had to be."

   "No way!" said Edison. "It was async. Even if all the modules went sync, it's still not possible for the whole unit to go sync because of that top-level hardware override. Trent said so. And I know he's right about that. I've read up on those babies."

   "Any bets on who wins this match?" asked Hunter. He began gently playing with Renata's hair.

   "I'll bet you have everything riding on Renata," said Ramon. He nudged Edison's arm. "You're a long shot, you know. Maybe two hundred to one."

   Edison glanced at Ramon, a sour expression on his face.

   "Well," said Renata, "I never agreed with him on that, and you had better do some more reading. The async to sync transition you're referring to is a complete misconception. The unit is inherently sync—all AI robotics and computers are. They're forced into async modes because they have to be. And that's a result of the sweeping reforms in computer technologies that were mandated by the Robotic Reform Acts of the late 21 Century."

   Edison nodded.

   "I know this is an oversimplification," said Renata, "but the way robotics function today is basically the result of three things. Explora, neurasilica, and the Techno Wars of 2068 to 2080. It started with Explora's discovery of neurasilica crystals on Triton in 2057. When the first neurasilica samples were returned to Earth, the transient-flux properties of the crystals were immediately realized. After some initial tests, it wasn't hard to see that neurasilica could be incorporated into computers and robotics to significantly enhance their performance. As it turns out, the tech wizards and the companies they worked for had no idea neurasilica was about to turn the computer industry on its head. Explora and five other companies jumped into Triton operations. Commercial mining of neurasilica was started in 2062. By 2065, neurasilica had been integrated into all facets of computer technologies, robotics, and Artificial Intelligence."

   Hunter began dancing his fingertips on Renata's neck.

   Renata reached behind her neck, trying to brush his hand away, then took a deep breath, fending off the chills he was giving her. "Before neurasilica, the development of intelligent systems had run into a roadblock that seemed insurmountable. No matter how many teraflops a system could process, its capability to act smart and to learn seemed completely dependent upon its programming. And no matter how comprehensive that programming was, the complexities of the human decision-making process just couldn't be efficiently incorporated into a machine. Still, the AI computers developed in the 2040s were decent, and a robot using one with hardware sensory devices could accomplish a lot of tasks. By 2050, those limited AI systems were pretty common in society. Then out of the blue the robotic industry gets hooked on making robots that look like people." Renata sighed deeply. "Within a few years, every robotics company was developing some type of artificial being, and the more human-like the better. By 2060, thanks and no thanks to medical breakthroughs in tissue growth mimicry, the artificial beings were often hard to distinguish from people. Frankly, the whole idea of making a machine to look like a human sickens me, but that's another issue in itself."

   Hunter began gently twirling strands of Renata's hair around his fingers. "I much prefer the real thing," he whispered.

   The others agreed with Renata, spouting out terms of revulsion at the thought of robots made to look like humans.

   "But even though some of the robots were made to look almost exactly like humans," said Renata, "their limited AI capabilities made them act very un-human-like." She reached behind her head and flicked her fingers on Hunter's hand a couple times, trying to get him to quit playing with her hair, but he didn't stop. "You could spot an artificial being just by talking to it or watching its behavior."

   "I'm sure those humanoid robots were originally made for sex," said Edison, nodding. "I'm sure of that."

   "That's just plain icky," said Devon. She wiped her hands off on the front of her shirt as if they were covered with the plague. "God, just the thought."

   Renata continued. "But neurasilica changed all that in the blink of an eye because of its ability to imitate human neural processes. Almost overnight, Edison's bumbling sex robots became hard to tell apart from humans in most of their behaviors, and within a few years the best ones were virtually indistinguishable."

   "I know how this goes," said Edison. "I'll bet the governments got a hold of them. Put their newer, better, smarter robots on the battlefield, right?"

   "With excellent success I might add," said Devon. "They were especially good at infiltrating. They became the assassins of the late

21 Century."

   "But it just wasn't the humanoid robots that changed the way war was fought," said Renata. "It was the entire AI industry. Smarter computers and robots of all types were put into action. Human attrition on the battlefields skyrocketed. But the combatants never anticipated that fighting would soon spill into the general population centers. Once that started happening, the war got out of control. Nothing was safe. The war came to the command posts, towns, cities—to infrastructure areas far from the fronts. The artificial beings became suicide bombers, spies, assassins, executioners—the best units being able to infiltrate into all facets of society without being caught. Some units were still controlled in part by people, others operated almost independently, but all of them were driven by uncontrolled neurasilica networks, which made them unpredictable and exceptionally deadly."

   "And when you did catch one, it really didn't matter," said Devon. "There would be hundreds to take their place. There was nothing unique about them. And that's an ugly thought in itself."

   Renata sighed.

   "And let's not forget about all the world leaders assassinated during those days," said Devon. "The President and entire cabinet of the European Union, two prime ministers and half of the English Parliament, leaders from two-thirds of the countries in Asia including dictators, freely elected officials and monarchs, two U.S. Presidents and three Vice Presidents, almost half of the American Senate, the King of Saudi Arabia and his entire family, which was very large, I believe. And the President of the North African Union and almost the entire North African Council of Leadership, hundreds of leaders and officials of the South American Democratic Collective, leaders at all levels from just about every European country, even the neutral countries weren't immune…"