Alien - Inferno's Fall by Philippa Ballantine;Clara Carija;

Author:Philippa Ballantine;Clara Carija;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags:  
Publisher: Penguin Random House LLC (Publisher Services)

1 7

F U R I O U S B U R N

The Righteous Fury scorched her way through the Shānmén system like a meteor. Ahead, she blasted her intentions on secure frequencies to the UPP. She used the specific emergency codes authorized by General Ristic.

No answer came in response. Based on her father’s experience, Mae concluded there was trouble ahead, rather than UPP forces.

Zula instructed EWA to plot a trajectory that would get them as deep as possible into Shānmén’s atmosphere. Threading the needle between so many gravity wells, and doing so at high speed, would have been beyond the most talented of human pilots. Only an advanced AI could make such complex and precise mathematical calculations.

EWA cradled space-time in one section of her awareness, Mae knew, while maintaining an understanding of the fragility of her human crew. The AI identified that knife edge and danced along it. Mae, hovering on the fringes of a connection with the ship, felt awe at EWA’s delicate and powerful computations. A lick of a subroutine washed over her. She identified it as jealousy. The emotions her father passed down to her were almost as complex as the mathematics EWA wove.

It still puzzled her, the way the AI had shut Zula’s daughter out of a deeper connection with the network. Mae scanned for any signs of malfunction or duplicity. If any foreign code had invaded the AI of the Fury, it would have to be dealt with.

While the behavioral inhibitors would stop an AI or synthetic from harming a human, in some situations the rules might be bent. Her father’s files included reports on the “zero-th quandary.”

If the actions of one person endangered a larger group of humans, the question arose, might a synthetic eliminate the individual to save the rest? Reports of such behavior had filtered out, but the authorities suppressed how synthetics had discovered this loophole. It would horrify humans that the zero-th quandary might allow synthetic brains to work around their basic tenets.

Zula’s dry cough pulled her daughter back to the present. She muttered a string of curses. Mae moved to check the setting on the g-chair system. Major Yoo remained under, and Erynis was silent.

“My mouth tastes like shit,” Zula said, working her tongue over her teeth. Mae glanced away, uncertain if she should offer some condolences or ignore the outburst. On her first mission as a Colonial Marine, her mother had suffered a debilitating spinal injury. She’d gone through multiple painful and traumatizing surgeries that resulted in physical and emotional scars. They left her with a distaste for medical procedures.

“Best not to mention that,” the Davis subroutine counselled.

Mae took that advice.

“Your electrolytes are out of balance,” she said, glancing at the readout on the back of the chair. “I will get you a wakening beverage.” Her mother’s hand latched onto her arm before she could turn to go.

“I’ll manage. What’s the status?”

While Zula struggled out of her seat, Mae tapped into EWA’s logs, not caring if the ship might consider that rude.

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