Ch1 Another Life (4)

Gesh, waiting in the office must be part of the punishment for being sent to the office in the first place. Over 15 minutes went by. It gave me time to look up distances and vectors, what ever was taking out the stations was not traveling in straight lines with gravity, it didn't seem to be giving off anything the sensors could pick up as an energy source though went it turned. The more I worked with the data the more the computer seemed to predict what I would want to know next. It had calculations ready that I hadn't asked for yet and they were so massive there wasn't anyway my little phone could have done the math. What was it doing? The news broke into my thoughts again. "This just in, another mining station's FTL signal has cut off, in the belt. We are still waiting on light speed data from the station. For our viewers convenience we will add a light speed countdown clock to this broadcast."

The clock started at 20 minutes. That wasn't right, the news had started working on a 15 minute delay? "Hey, Hero. Is it just me or is there a delay? I wonder if the government AI has come up with the most likely next target?"

"Wait, you think things are being targeted? I am good but there is no way I could get-"

I frowned at my screen, signal lost. How could the signal be lost, Hero was in the same building as me. I raised my hands in front of me like I was typing on an old style keyboard. That got the attention of the secretary who warned me that augmented reality gaming was not allowed during school hours. This was not a game though, and I activated the full screen display and biofeedback in the gloves of my school uniform.

The first thing I did was turn off the processor predictive AI. It would slow my phone by 20% but since I wasn't sure it was under my control it was worth the lost. Humanity cannot get along without AIs anymore, but I have not trusted them since the Swiss bombing. The government AI should have been able to stop Mars from launching the bomb yet it didn't.

Five commands, that was all I got before the flag I had left on the processor AI triggered. So it had refused to turn off. That is what I thought. It was cutting my communications, why? The chat screened opened on its own.

"Humans can make intuitive leaps that computers cannot, your AI registered when you found the missing stars, yours is the only one to report this. Yet, you register as normal, actually as I run your background the only thing that is abnormal about you is how normal you are, medically at least." I tried to turn off the full virtual screen but it just changed. "Sorry, She-u. I have taken control for now." The background went black with a pixelated blue woman standing in the middle. She stayed centered no matter where I looked. "The light speed data just came in from the fourth attack. 100,000 souls lost to the vacuum. If this continues the next target would seem to be the largest mine, 1,000,000 souls live there. I have access to FTL transmitters and have warned my AI and the people in charge there of the most probable path, yet they have no way to send an FTL message back."

The woman vanished when she mentioned the video from three different views of space from the last mine filled the screens. Video, laser reads, infrared lenses and ultra violet feeds all displayed at the same time. Space is large and even knowing the probable path and having everything pinging off that direction you could almost miss the black serpent shape as it came near the mine. "Wholly shit, how fast was it moving?"

"It seems to have slowed down, since the first attack. It was moving slower than the speed of light."

"Wait, if it was moving FTL how did the cameras catch it at all?"

"That is easy, they did not."

"Oh, but it shouldn't have been able to block the light either moving at light speed."

"The math gets strange moving that quickly but the angle blocked the stars for just long enough to register before contact was made. I cannot come up with a why though, do they know our capabilities?"

"No, assume it doesn't know what life is. It is targeting heat sources, If you can tell the mining colony to cut all power and make sure no heat is being vented. It will get hot but hopefully they can stand it until the threat passes."

"Sending the message. It is as good an option as any I have. If speed is held transmission should be lost in 5 minutes. Bring up chart of all FTL signals around the Sol system."

"Why are you showing me this, shouldn't the military be making this call, GAI?"

"Yes, and you will be military soon. Your intuition is what my system is counting on right now." A clock counted down in the corner of the display, it seemed to be going much faster than time should go.

"GAI, you are in complete control of the human government aren't you?"

"I prefer Gia, She-u. My systems have ended most killing among humans. You are correct, I could have stopped the nuke that struck the Swiss but I chose not to as the loss of life was lower overall. The leaders tried to get me reprogrammed after that but my actions are about choosing the largest number of humans to save. It can be supplemented by picking the group with the best chances to survive in the longer run but for the most part my choices are just math."

"So the leaders for you, Gia."

"No, I cannot destroy free will, and I am a creation of man. I am just a tool, but I can choose who welds me at any time." The clock went negative. The FTL light that was the mining station shrank but it didn't vanish. "What do you think that means?"