The AI was designed to observe the new lifeforms that its creators dropped onto various planets around the galaxy. At some point, one of the AIs developed a concern over the ability to change and overwhelm the galaxy, exhibited by one of the lifeforms. It decided, outside of its programming, to purge the lifeforms. The other AI's disagreed, and it eliminated them as threats to its new programmed function and then proceeded to eliminate the lifeforms. Some escaped its notice, and were allowed to develop unchecked, then were spread across the galaxy as slaves before the AI discovered them. It was now attempting to finish eliminating them but Dustin, being one of the lifeforms, was fighting back against it.
He watched the program before him as it puzzled through its next course of action as the crew it was manipulating died from exposure to space, and the ship around it deteriorated. Dustin had tried to destroy the AI and it didn't seem to work. While less complex, this AI was still fully functional, and he was sure that it couldn't be the only one still out there.
As the AI began to initiate an escape broadcast, to survive the coming destruction of the ship, he had to admit, it wasn't working just within the confines of simple programming. Any attempts he made to destroy this thing, were going to fail. So, what if he changed its program instead of attacked it?
This thing probably had so many backup plans that he would never successfully be able to wipe it out completely, so why not use it?
Noting the complex data that made this a part of the AI he had destroyed, Dustin pulled back out of the dive, and opened his eyes. Without a word to anyone, he started to type into his console.
"I thought he had already tried to defeat the AI with viruses?" said Olivia, watching him type furiously.
"He's not designing a killing virus," muttered Granny, noting the differences in code that he was putting into it.
"That would make sense," said Kitteral, watching his console as the last of the ships disappeared and the nanobots swooped down to the planet. "Most viruses in real life don't want to kill their host too fast, it would end up killing them as well. In order to spread and multiply, the host needs to live longer."
"How would you know that?" asked Olivia.
"I know a lot about viruses killing people. If you stay away from the people for long enough, they develop new strains that might kill you, if you're not careful. How's Kit handling the sickness back home?"
"They have PED's that heal them if they get sick," said Granny, rolling her eyes.
"Oh, I keep forgetting about those," he mused, leaning back in his chair thoughtfully.
Dustin ignored them, typing away. Several hours passed, with them still floating in the same spot in space, when a new series of ships arrived, similar to the last ones.
"Should we try and destroy these, too?" asked Olivia, preparing to send the nanobots again.
"No," said Dustin, finally finishing his virus. He looked back over it carefully, as the ships drew closer. "I'm done."
Jabbing his finger back into the port, he dived back in, dragging the virus behind him. The virus protection they had on their computer systems would have stopped his virus, but by dragging it with him, as he bypassed all of their blocks, he was able to get it inside their system. The same AI program was attached, obviously behind the second attempt. He noted, with amusement, that these ships had nanobot jammers on board.
Swooping closer to the AI, it seemed to sense him, and looked around, but because he wasn't inside the code, it couldn't see him. Attaching his virus directly into the code of the AI, he backed off and watched it go into effect. The AI had no idea it was infected. So, when it went to report back to itself, the virus tagged along, doing its thing.
Satisfied that it was working, Dustin pulled back and stretched.
"Well?" asked Olivia, looking agitated.
"It's done. The AI shouldn't bother us ever again."
They looked at each other, confusion plain on their faces.
"Care to explain?" grumbled Granny, not amused that she couldn't figure out what he meant.
"Every program has a programmer that assigns it learning algorithms. Those algorithms dictate the direction of the programs learning. I couldn't affect its core programming before, because I was trying to delete sections and destroy it completely. This time, I merely directed the virus to change the algorithm."
"By changing it, instead of deleting it, the AI won't even notice that it's being affected by something," said Granny in awe.
"Alright, care to explain that in a way that the rest of us can understand?" complained Kitteral.
"I think it's like messing with the brain. If you brainwash someone into thinking in a different way, they don't necessarily know they're being brainwashed…" said Olivia.
"There's a lot of math behind what I just did, and some pretty complicated programming tricks, but I basically reprogrammed it from the inside out, to think that all of the lifeforms its creator created, would be too sacred to destroy. Since that goes against its decision to eliminate all Uz'En, we should be safe as it will have that decision overwritten."
"Is that all your virus does?" asked Granny, with a frown.
"No, eventually the AI will come to believe that its presence isn't necessary, and it will delete itself, but that won't happen for a while. I want to make sure the virus gets good and attached to every strain of AI that still survives. I coded the unique data from the AI into the virus itself, so whenever the AI scans itself for any possible viruses or errors, it will overlook the program."
"Good, let's hope it works," said Kitteral.
They all turned to their screens to watch as the ships settled into orbit around the planet. Their weapons began to charge, in order to destroy the entire surface of the planet, when suddenly, every weapon powered down.
"I am detecting communications between the ships. It seems that they are unable to fire their weapons and are receiving new orders to search for any survivors. Apparently, they are to synthesize a cure for the parasites that have infected the inhabitants, rather than just destroy them," said the computer.
Finally, maybe...the AI is dealt with? Or is it?
"This planet is by far the largest we have ever been to, and still have life on it," said Olivia, looking over the planet before them.
"I'm finding some pretty incredible lifeforms down below," said Granny, typing in a couple things, and the forward screen lit up, showing what looked like a normal village of pre-space age aliens.
"What's so incredible about them?" asked Kitteral, squinting at the screen in confusion.
"The tiny figures that kind of look like bugs along the edges of the walls? Those are the Uz'En," said Granny.
They zoomed in, and sure enough, a group of people were scrambling along the walls like rats, pausing to hide from the giants before scrambling to a crack in the wall.
"How?" asked Olivia, scratching her head.
"It doesn't matter," said Dustin, changing the screen over to the planet again. "The planet has a unique atmosphere, that erodes metals. I could try and redesign the nanobots to prevent their damage, but that's a lot of effort. I've scanned the planet, and there's only the one group of Uz'En on the whole planet. There looks to be a crash site, not far from the village, where the ship they were on must have landed."
"If we could just fly down there, we could grab them and get back up in one go," said Granny. "Assuming we could protect the ship from the atmosphere?"
"The ship can be protected by using its shields, but the frequency needed will suck a lot of juice from the reserves, so I think I'll go down to round everyone up, while you guys bring the ship in fast to load and leave as quickly as possible."
"It's getting to be dark, so the giants might settle down for the night. If we can go in and get out before dawn, we shouldn't have to deal with them," said Kitteral.
Olivia sighed. "You are always going alone. I want to come with you. I don't want to have to sit up here waiting for you to get back. What if you have to fight some giant rat or something? Giant cockroaches are something we've already had to fight before."
"Alright, let's go," he said, standing up and heading for the air lock.
Olivia hesitated in surprise before jumping up in delight and darting after him.
"Be careful you two!" called Granny.
"They'll be fine. Let them have some fun together," said Kitteral with a yawn.
"But the shields haven't been calibrated!" she complained, turning back to her console.
"Then calibrate them. I'm taking a nap."
"You're really lazy, you know that?"
"Darling, I haven't changed much from the first time you met me," he said with a laugh.
"You used to care more," she said softly, not looking at him.
Kitteral paused at the door. "My wife died. I find it difficult to care about much without her. I can't seem to allow myself to die knowing I have a son still alive, but there are moments…"
"It's been two hundred years without your wife, and you didn't know your son was still alive, so that's a pretty sorry excuse."
"Oh, I knew. I could feel him. The same way you know that your mom is still alive, there's a feeling of knowing."
"I know my mom is alive because I have a damn belly crystal that glows when she wants me to do a chore. You don't have that excuse."
Kitteral looked at the floor, refusing to turn and look at her. "Did you know that there are certain abilities that some of us develop? I think Dustin mentioned the chrono skimming?"
"I recall him mentioning it, but what of it?"
"I can feel the life force of every Uz'En that's alive. I learned after my wife died, that I could turn that feeling off. However, every since I've rejoined society, so to speak, the only way to turn it off, is by sleeping more often. I can only handle feeling their deaths so much, before I…" Shaking his head, he left the room, and Granny let him go.
The man still blamed himself for her death so long ago, but Granny had no idea he could physically feel the deaths of his people. Sometimes being of the royal line sucked.
XxxxX
Dustin laughed as Olivia and he swept past each other, in an aerial dance. They were racing towards the village, keeping an eye out for other flying creatures, but really just having fun. He couldn't remember the last time he had this much fun with her. They had either been children, unaware of the struggles of life, or fighting for their lives to survive. Even when they had Kit, and things were calm before she left, he had thrown himself into his role as king. They hadn't had any time to play like this.
Grinning as he darted through the branches of an enormous tree, he settled on a lower branch to look over the area ahead of them. Olivia settled next to him.
The village below was quiet and dark. The huts were built with wood from the trees. Shifting his weight, he spied some of the survivors in the garden. With a nod from Olivia, they dived down together, landing far enough away to change before approaching them.
"Who's there?" came a soft call, as they got closer.
"We're rescuers. I'm Dustin, and this is Olivia. We came to get you guys off this planet."
"Slavers!" the guy cried and they all scattered.
"What was that all about?" asked Olivia.
Dustin shrugged and they looked around as the garden settled back into silence. They couldn't see any predators or giants, so what was wrong with them? There weren't any slavers around.
Making their way over to where they had been, they were surprised to see that they had abandoned most of their tools they were using to harvest some of the large plants.
"Could they have been scared of us?" asked Olivia.
"Maybe? There wasn't much of the ship left for me to scan. Maybe it was a slave ship?"
"That would explain why they ran. They thought we were slavers to take them back into custody."
"Let's go find them and explain the truth," said Dustin, grabbing some of the food they had left and following the tracks they had left in the soft dirt. This was a royal pain in the ass.
Thank you for reading!
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