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Strategos (A Great Captain Roberts Tale!!) - Part 4 -
Chapter 19 - The Deep End[]
Plead for Help[]
It was clearly a…
… malfunction. The cell didn't mate to the outer door properly, and wild winds blew as Ethel stumbled out. "Shit shit shit!!" Ethel Blythe-Winston hadn't figured out this escape plan and whoever did, did a half-ass job of it.
The shape of a little girl shuddered on top of a now-broken ration tray. "Alice?" she checked the robot that had been the kindest of her jailors.
There was no sign of consciousness there, no indication the machine could respond.
“Hmmm. For what it is worth, Alice, I actually kind of liked you. But I have to look out for myself right now.”
Where the hell are the guards?? she wondered. Standing up, she found a pair of suits slumped in the nearby alcove, removing the helmets revealed 'blank' robot bodies inside.
"The guards were machines too?" she said aloud, then checked them. The stun-dart pistols were standard dart pistols. Designed to deliver a debilitating, but non-lethal shock, and the Billies were crowd-control models, administering an electric shock just short of a heart attack. It was better than being unarmed.
"Okay, so… Ethel, you have the chance to escape… We need to find a way to capitalize."
Okay, break everything down to one problem at a time, and solve what I can solve one at a time.
Problem one was obvious, she wasn’t quite sure where she was in the station, so she needed to get some bearings.
If my cell is vacuum separated, I must be near another, or more likely technically inner section of the hull. So, gravity check now that I have a better frame of reference.
Ethel picked up the nearest loose object and let it drop.
Confirmed, inner. Okay until I find out for sure they’d most likely put prisoners just far enough away from the docks and launch bays that if they did get out, it wouldn’t be too easy to find their way there. But not so far away as to be inconvenient. So probably not central section. Let’s find a hull frame number or something. That’s pretty standard on any vessel or station.
Ethel looked around and sure enough, she found the tell tale stenciled markings.
Of course, I have no idea if they follow Star League standard, or have some other standard. But I doubt there are 147 decks so that must be frame number.
Ethel carefully peeked through the next hatchway. When she saw no one in the next compartment she tentatively stepped though.
Frame 148. No idea how many frames there are that make up this place but I’d hazard a guess I’m still somewhere pretty far forward and obviously going toward the center of the station. Obviously can’t go the other way, so onward.
Ethel found a terminal in the next compartment. She moved over to it. The display was flickering periodically but it had a layout of the station. And a red line tracing a path. With the words below ‘Please help.’
“Why am I even thinking about this?” Ethel said out loud.
Because you know how unlikely actually escaping would be. Can’t stay here living like a rat off waste and scraps. Even if I got to a ship, I can’t force a machine person to take me anywhere. Hell I don’t even know where “here” is to even calibrate the HPG to send a call for help. But if Alice owes me one…
Ethel took a moment to memorize the deck plan and path.
“It’s still a stupid idea, but in the land of stupid ideas it is the least stupid. So I’m coming, Alice.” Ethel shook her head.
Target Acquired[]
The Celestial Wisdom…
…was in exactly the wrong place.
Why would he be there? Si Fu Lan realized he knew the answer. And if it was the answer he knew it had to be, his chance at royal favor-and more importantly, royal influence was in critical danger.
The chance that Chancellor Daoshen Liao would ask them had been a possible thing, true… but unlikely.
The time to be subtle was past. Now is the time to be lightning fast. He settled into himself, and, using the daemon spirit, he adjusted the virus,from simple intelligence gathering and data concealment, to something more active.
If I can take the station over, I can still make this come out favorably! He swallowed the rising stress like sweet honey, It will be easier to procure the Goddess her body, too, if I don't have to pretend to obey their rules.
He would have to move fast...
The tricky part would be ensuring he cleared a path and got his target alone.
So he started concocting false alarms and reports that would keep the station crew occupied while he focused on his target.
Thanks to the daemon spirit and his virus he knew which communicator ID belonged to his target and where it currently was on station. There was no guarantee it was with Lori Crow, but he had to take that chance. There simply wasn’t enough time to find out for sure if he was going to achieve his objectives.
He set the daemon spirit to faking a message from Esme’s comm unit to meet her near the chamber. He figured it was too great a risk to use the chamber itself but the less he had to travel with the woman the better.
The daemon spirit rewarded him with the movement of the communicator.
So he moved as well. With his control and his skill he was able to move at will through the station without notice despite the heightened activity.
When he got to his ambush spot he knew he did not have much time to study it before she arrived.
With the daemon spirit aiding him, what were really minutes felt more like hours. But that was still more than enough time with his heightened senses to get the full layout of the room and figure out the best place to launch his attack from.
He readied his specially prepared thin glove. All he would need do is touch her exposed skin and the fight would be over shortly after.
Then, the dreaded 'complication' walked in. Or rather, Lori wore it. A suit.
"You! You're lost? There's a station-wide emergency situation!"
Thinking quickly he mouthed the word ‘What?’ and did his best to look confused.
She walked right up to him, using magnetic boots, and took his arm, "you're not supposed to be in this section, you got lost? Okay, we'll get you back where you belong, things are very dangerous, did you remember to wear your skinsuit under your clothes?"
Close and clearly not expecting a confrontation he used his daemon spirit to break free of her grasp and strike her mid section then he tried to follow up with a smash to her face plate.
She ducked, twisted, and it was a fight…but Si Fu Lan was a master of martial arts by the time he was three, while Lori Crow was burdened by the weight of her emergency suit and only an average fighter.
With the aid of the Blessed Daemon's spirit, he was able to subdue her, and open her helmet to apply the drug directly-if somewhat less gracefully than he'd planned.
"You will come with me." he enunciated as her eyes clouded and the drug took effect.
First, he would find a place to implant Kali's holy spirit into her body. That would be necessary to secure Daoshen, and with him, a regime change…
"You're hurt, we need to get you to an infirmary. Where is the nearest one? With surgical tools?"
She smiled dreamily. "One level down… but it's still inactive."
"Perfect. I'll give you some help and we'll be fine." he said confidently.
The proximity to where the device was listed in the station directory was a useful boon. He may yet salvage this situation.
Little Girl in Danger[]
"AIIEEEEEEEE…
…HELP!!!"
Billie Hoel was in a labyrinth, and she could see the self-assembler virus shifting to something truly malignant.
<Alice needs some help here!!>
The first to respond was Cossack, within nanoseconds. “Sikh, it's a virus!"
"No shit!! <ERIN! HELP!!>"
“Good thing we did security updates during the Jihad.” Sikh muttered.
Haida, Tartar, Zulu, and Lucy joined next.
“Oh no they didn’t,” Haida scowled.
Tabiranth, Betty, Olivia, Stacey, Juanita, Ottilie, Johnston, Regina, Butler, and Vicky joined as well.
"Shit. This is Tom Liston's work!!" Tabby said. "Whoever launched this one had access to Langebaan's digital warfare group!"
“Okay, we have something to work from then, ladies. And a lot of computational power to throw at it with all of us working together.” Billie Hoel was barely restraining her anger.
"How do you know?" Juanita asked.
"How do you think? Murakami taught Liston, I was the test subject!"
"So you've beaten it before?"
"I didn't say I won." The grandmother divided into Maiden and Mother. "It's still in the learning phase. It's going to go for her central consciousness, lock her out of her peripherals-which is the entire rest of the station, then start dismantling her. We've got real-time-scale about five minutes."
“So then we lock it out first and fast. Buy ourselves some time with less critical systems with lesser encryption firewalls if we need to but we build something nice and big and robust around Alice herself.” Billie commanded.
“Then together we push it back.” Haida nodded.
Regrouping[]
"Alice is under attack…
… I'm sorry Esme, but this is a bad one." Erin's remote went still.
Amanda looked at Esmeralda, then at Daoshen. "Someone had better start explaining, because I'm feeling very ungenerous right now." The whispering ring of her sword coming out of its sheath echoed in the office.
“It was not my doing, in fact this could very well ruin everything I have been working toward.” Daoshen let too much anger slip through.
"If Alice is under attack, what's running the station?" Esme asked.
Amanda swore darkly, then, "Esme, you fenced in college, right?"
"A bit, I wasn't good enough to get rated."
"If he tries to move a muscle, put this through his gut. I need to find out what's going on." The young woman clawed her false eye out, and handed her sword to Esme, "Desmond, you're up." She took a connector cable, and plugged it into the eye socket, then into a terminal.
“An angry woman with a deadly weapon outranks even the Celestial Wisdom.” Daoshen bowed his head.
"Just make no sudden movements." Amanda's voice had changed, gaining a slight, lilting accent. "Oh dear. This is bad."
"How bad?" It was like watching two people converse in a single body.
"SLDF SpecWar virus, designed for, among other things, killing or subverting artificial intelligences. WE are immune, most of the others are not… but we know someone who is."
"Who?"
"Routing to the HPG system… Kolossus, Arise. Guardian encryption 224 Beta, Code Orange, Emergency."
Even on a station as massive as Port Orphan the activation of an HPG was unmistakable as the lights dimmed momentarily and the station even shook a little without the AI providing fine control.
The response was almost immediate.
"What is she doing?"
"Calling in someone who can run the station while the rest of the AIs try to take out the virus that's hitting the AI core." Amanda's mouth spoke tonelessly. "Kolossus sees, Kolosssus understands what not-Elizabeth-but-Amanda needs from Kolossus."
"Does she do this a lot?" Daoshen asked Esme nervously.
"Not for some time now… don't move, Mister Chancellor. I'm not sure how she'd overreact, but it won't be nice."
“I understand. The last time I saw a woman even close to this angry it did not end well for the person she was angry at.” Daoshen nodded.
"It's not the targeted violence you need to worry about, Mister Chancellor. It's the 'to whom it may concern' that should have you nervous," Esme continued. "That's not Desmond and Kolossus has a consciousness that is about as far from human as you can get and still communicate."
“I think what frightens me more is that this station has two HPG stations or one really advanced, beyond even what Comstar or the Old Star League had, to manage real time communication.” Daoshen tried to deflect but somehow he did not think it worked.
"Kolossus has many Hyperpulse Generators in Kolossus's network, Chancellor." Amanda's tone was still that emotionless, toneless, alien tone. "Networking is not a problem with so many ships equipped in close proximity. Network established."
“Kolossus, Amanda, if you need to switch over let me know.” Helena Cameron reminded everyone she was still there.
"Kolossus restores life support. Kolossus is firing attitude thrusters to cancel the plunge. Kolossus… oh. OH… Kolossus releases the lesser mind before she burns up.” Amanda flopped, huffing.
"Ow."
Despite himself, Daoshen asked, "What… what was that like?"
"Indescribable." Esme managed to get a vomit bag over Amanda’s face before she vented the contents of her gut. "He's got Lori in Infirmary 18, deck ten… He's prepping her for surgery!!!"
“Okay you go get Lori Amanda. Esme, as soon as we can get you to Alice’s core, that’s where you’ll be needed.” Helena was in full officer mode.
"Helena, guard the VIP." Amanda was almost composed, as she took her blade back. "This could be a hit aimed at him or at the treaty, we'll find out when it's done."
“Yeah. I guess I was too slow on pointing out the obvious of where I’m most needed at the moment,” Helena nodded.
"It's Director-General work," Amanda said it almost snappily as she headed for the door. "Foster's en-route… shit…" She reached over and grabbed her eyeball off the table, "Binocular vision is NOT overrated. Besides, you two can talk it out with Stone, someone sent a false message asking him to come down here."
“Could be worse. I almost lost mine for two days despite it still streaming images.” Helena laughed.
Amanda left.
Thoughts about the Situation[]
In the Image of Man…
When you remember…
…the safety brief, life becomes much harder to lose. Devlin Stone had his helmet secured in the depressurized lift, which was stuck between decks and opened to space.
"Well, you called it Victor. Someone tried something." said Stone
He'd managed to get Victor Steiner-Davion into a beach ball, and used the transceivers.
"What happened?" Victor asked.
"The station is under attack… on the digital/electronic level. Our hosts are fighting an SLDF developed super-virus designed explicitly to take out artificial intelligences." Stone explained.
Regina’s remote was standing in the corner in an unsettlingly stiff pose.
"So… not the Cappies?"
"More like something the Blakists would turn loose without understanding it," Stone said sourly. "Another weapon we missed in the cleanup, I'm thinking. So it COULD still be the Cappies."
“How do you know what it is? If comms worked I’d imagine someone would be checking in on us right about now.”
"Regina told me before she dropped her remote," Stone lied.
“Well this could get embarrassing. If we’re stuck here much longer that’s…” Victor contemplated.
“Told you you should have gotten fitted for a skin suit and catheter. Don’t worry, they thought about that at least a little with these ‘beach balls’ so I’ll look the other way.” Stone chuckled.
“So what do we do?” Victor asked.
“Well there should be manual overrides here somewhere. So if this old man isn’t in too terrible of shape I’ll be able to get us to the next deck, pry open the doors, and get you out of that beach ball.” Stone said as he popped open a panel.
It wasn’t exactly Star League spec but under the panel was a manual winch. Stone found the handle and began cranking.
After several revolutions the lift started moving slowly.
Victor could only watch as Stone cranked away. He wasn’t sure if it really was taking forever or if that was just because of the powerlessness he felt.
Then after what seemed an eternity the lift made a connection to a deck.
“Whew. Good thing I keep up with my cardio. That was a workout.” Stone was barely breathing hard.
Stone drug the beach ball to the nearest shelter. He keyed the panel.
“Two survivors seeking entry. Says out here you got room. May we enter?” Stone was almost too cheerful for the situation.
“Cycling the airlock now,” a voice came back over the radio.
After several minutes Victor was glad to be free of the beach ball.
“Not a word to anyone. I have a reputation to maintain.” Victor looked over the other occupants of the shelter before he went to the head.
“Well, seems we’re all stuck in this shelter together for a while. Perhaps we should get to know each other a bit.” Stone smiled.
Kolossus Takes Action[]
"Kolossus does not want to have…
…to scrub you, too, Luther Bedwyr. You will stay apart from this." The Intelligence wasn't even trying to seem human. "Likewise for you, Mina Siegel. You will do best to maintain patrol and security outside of the station's network. Kolossus can handle this… virus, you can not."
“Kolossus is right, the rest of us are taking a big enough risk as it is and we’ve got updated security packages thanks to facing the Word of Blake during the Jihad.” Billie Hoel was multi-tasking.
The enormous intelligence flicked something, and there was a crunching in Luther's ears (ears? crunching?)
"Billie Hoel had a passenger. Kolossus has dealt with the passenger."
“Right. I better disconnect and focus. This is a nasty virus. We’ve almost got it fully isolated at least.” Billie Hoel disconnected.
"So what am I supposed to do? My hull's laid up still, you just said I can't run the remote…"
"Kolossus will give Luther appropriate taskings, in systems already cleared and secured. Luther will run his deck until Kolossus has time to reinitialize the subordinate automatics-once they have been purged."
"What about Alice, Kolossus?" Mina Siegel asked.
"Kolossus is fond of Alice, but Kolossus must do Alice's boring tasks while Alice is fighting the infection." The entity sounded… sad. "Kolossus will mourn little Alice, if she does not survive."
“That sounds ominous. Is it really going that badly in there?” Luther asked.
"The virus was designed to kill or subvert imprinted hardware based on the Nirasaki M-series processor. It was designed to learn and adapt, and it is not burdened by consciousness," Kolossus explained. "It can win. Therefore, the risk is high."
“Shit,” was all Luther could say.
"If Luther wants, there are non-Nirasaki intelligences and Kolossus can create a connection. Kolossus counts Not-Helena-but-Amanda's Hybrid with Desmond 001, also Actually-Helena's Desmond, as well as Desmond 191 and a… pair… of odd models. Hm. Similar, but not quite as sophisticated… interesting. Kolossus will have to investigate later."
“Now that does sound like something worth digging into.” Luther suggested.
"Kolossus suggests you get to work restoring the lift system and internal comms in the shipyard deck. Luther, Kolossus and Luther can investigate this AFTER securing conditions for the fragile humans."
“Kolossus is right. Though I will want full details on who has Desmond 191 and those other two models. They are not accounted for in our security briefs.” Mina Siegel added.
"Mina can examine this then," Kolossus stated. "Locations."
The two unidentified units were in one of the dormant medical bays near Lift 17. 191 was in movement to one of the emergency shelters.
Mina compared the information to what little of the station manifests were available to her without risking infection.
"One of the diplomatic party?" she marveled. On the image from Kolossus (cleaned of virus) she saw Desmond 001 en-route to the same Med Bay where the other two were.
“Okay, I think the Desmond in the diplomatic party is something for me to check out Mina,” Helena joined the conversation.
Kolossus' presence intensified for a moment, then, "You should take your host, Simon, and weapons. Those two are derivative of your technology, but Kolossus thinks they may not have your limitations."
"Simon?" Luther asked.
"I'll explain it later," Mina stated. "There were things we didn't brief you on, but Kolossus didn't have those orders."
"Kolossus is Free to do as Kolossus wishes… most of the time." the entity confirmed.
“Amanda is already on her way to the Med Bay and armed. I’ve got Esme and Daoshen with me so I’ll make for the shelter, dropping Esme and Daoshen on Larry on my way. Safest place I know right now since there is zero threat to the SLS Larry Nichols since it’s AI core is completely off line,” Helena added.
Cyberwarfare[]
The digital…
…battlefield was as chaotic as the physical.
“...let’s see how many we can make die…” Tartar was singing as usual as she held the virus at bay at a communications subprocessor.
“I got it,” Haida proclaimed as she constructed a digital firewall around a weak point between the environmental systems and the entertainment systems. “Whoever thought creating a connection point between environmental and entertainment to control mood lighting would get a serious talking to if they were not already long dead.”
Billie Hoel saw the virus going for waste reclamation and slammed her own firewall over that.
It was now finally digitally contained, at least for a few moments. But that was all that was needed. Ultimately it was a battle of who had the most processing power and memory. While Alice being a station had more than enough to match several members of the fleet combined, she still could not match what was in port, nor could the virus as it did not have full control of Alice’s systems.
“Do it,” she ordered.
With that, several server clusters were physically burned out. It’d cost a lot of Star League Dollars to replace it all, but there was no more threat to Alice from her own systems.
“Kolossus confirms virus is contained. Aiding in checking others.”
“Once you’ve been given the all clear, take your remotes and start doing security and recovery sweeps. There are going to be a lot of people that are going to need help. Victoria and Regina you’ll, be the semi-exceptions. You’ll be finding your charges and securing them. Once I get a clean bill of health, I’ll grab Esme and we’ll purge the virus in the physical world. Doesn’t matter how adaptive or well designed it is now that we’ve got it effectively air gapped.”
One by one the AIs disconnected from Billie Hoel’s ATACs as they checked each other in addition to Kolossus giving Kolossus’ approval.
“You are clean Billie Hoel. Alice is also clean. I would recommend keeping Luther in charge of running the station for a while longer though.”
“Agreed. I thank Kolossus.”
“Alice, honey. It’s safe now, but I understand if you want to stay in there a while longer. I’ve got something to take care of. But if you need any of us for anything, do not hesitate.”
The silence from Alice made Billie Hoel even angrier at the person who had done this.
Taking Action[]
Esme…
…waited until Helena was gone and Daoshen was secured by Helena’s people.
“Out of my way. I’ve got work to do.” Esme was clearly in no mood to sit idly by when she could be helping.
The guards at the docking port were clearly not interested in dealing with the force of nature that was an angry, determined Esmeralda Gomez.
Suited up and with what tools she could carry she marched towards Alice’s core. She knew that would be the place to start, and she could work the problem from there outward.