A.I. Series 08 - Armada by Vaughn Heppner

Author:Vaughn Heppner [Heppner, Vaughn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci Fi
Published: 2020-05-25T06:00:00+00:00

-9-

At the appointed hour, Walleye returned to the bridge, standing behind his command chair. The situation had drastically changed.

The brain-core pod had passed a Mercury-like orbit, heading toward the star. It used yet more thrust, perhaps its last, to accelerate its tumble toward certain oblivion.

The Agamemnon had passed a Venus-like orbit and was zooming fast. It would pass the star in two hours.

Walleye had debated with himself for several days already about the right way to get the brain-core to tell them what had happened out here. He’d determined that his cunning against computers didn’t match that against humans or humanoid aliens. In this case, silence would be the key to unlocking secrets. The method might fail, and that would be a great loss. But he didn’t see another method with as much chance as success.

One thing he’d noted over the years about AI brain-cores. They were curious. They were also damn smart. There was no way he’d out-argue it. But he knew the ancient saying, “Curiosity killed the cat.”

“I’m ready,” the comm officer said.

“Good,” Walleye said.

Time passed, too much time according to the bridge crew. Many of them had begun to squirm, perhaps wondering when the captain would start.

“Uh, sir,” the comm officer, “what would you like me to do?”

“You’re doing it,” Walleye said.

“But… I thought you wanted to send a message.”

“I do.”

The comm officer looked around in confusion.

Mentalist Rodriquez spoke up. “Could we presume, sir, that you’re in the process of sending ‘the message’ through your silence?”

Walleye pointed at Rodriquez. For a mentalist, the man was sharp.

“I don’t understand,” the comm officer told Rodriquez.

“His message is silence,” Rodriquez said.

“What?” asked the comm officer.

“Never mind,” the mentalist said with a sigh.

“Walleye,” June said. “Shouldn’t you ask the brain-core something?”

“We want information,” Walleye said. “Sometimes, the best way to get information is to not ask for it. I’ve noticed that people love to tell others what they know. If you don’t ask, they’ll almost certainly tell you because they’ll want you to know they know a great secret.”

“Captain,” Rodriquez said. “Do you believe that AIs operate along similar lines as humans?”

Walleye shrugged.

“Sir,” the comm officer said. “The star will begin interfering with communications soon due to the pod’s nearness to the radiating surface.”

Walleye turned to comm officer, noticed something and pointing at her board.

She turned back to it, did a double-take and slapped a control. A moment later, she said, “AI Dubnium 6 wishes to speak to the captain of the Confederation Cybership.”

Walleye nodded.

The comm officer tapped another control and signaled that everything was ready for him.

“This is Captain Walleye of the Agamemnon. You hailed us. Now, what do you want?”

“For you to die,” the robotic-voiced Dubnium 6 said with a radio-crackling background.

“No such luck, Dubnium 6. Well, so long then.”

“You are a human, are you not?” the brain-core asked.

“What’s it to you?” Walleye said. “You’re about to die, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“You fool. I wish to cease my existence.”

Walleye blinked with surprise, thought a moment, and then forced himself to say with heat, “That’s a damned lie.

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