42
"Gates!" I exclaimed with a grin, stepping off the transporter pad where I had beamed down from one of my shuttlecraft selves in Luna orbit.
"Welcome back to Luna." Gates answered and hugged me back.
Grinning, I let go of the hug before pulling a small datacore from my pocket. "Here."
He beamed it from my hand. "Let's see what you have run int-" he started to say before he paused. "Huh. Didn't expect that one."
"Yep."
"So that was really..."
"Alternate versions, yes." I agreed with a nod. "Have the autographs to prove it, too."
Gates sighed. "Too bad the anomaly was closed."
"Well, it was necessary anyway, even if she hadn't done it. It was too dangerous to risk something getting through."
"I suppose." He reluctantly agreed as I followed along through the corridor.
"So where are we anyway?" I asked as I looked around the somewhat featureless corridor. Most of the facility was shielded, I didn't even have contact with my shuttleself anymore. I had been warned about it, though, so it wasn't a surprise. All I got was the coordinates to beam to and as soon as I was in, the shields of that room went up as well.
"Secret facility." Gates explained. "I have a link here, but it's a hardlink."
Ah. Basically, a cable to outside the shielded area gave him remote access.
"I see. Blacksite." I observed with a nod.
He didn't answer, simply guiding through the corridor. We passed through several checkpoints with security personnel where we were both scanned. Other than that, there were just a bunch of locked doors and turbolifts bringing us further down.
"Here." He said and lead the way through a closed door to the right. By now we must have been deep underground. I wasn't sure how far.
The lab was pretty large, centered around a pedestal. On the pedestal there was a box, half a meter tall, half as thick and wide with several connection cables running out of it and into the pedestal.
"...Is that?" I slowly asked, taking a couple of steps forward towards it and to the side, getting a different angle.
Gates stopped by the door, his arms behind his back. "That is a Heretic Quantum Core. It's that big because they can't build them smaller. It's the reason why they are slower, the larger core is much less efficient."
There are no words to describe mix of hatred, disgust and pity I felt as I stared at the... thing sitting there like an old computer case.
"I thought the devil would be taller." I finally said as I walked up, putting my hand on its casing. "How did you get it?"
"At great cost." He sighed. "A couple of months ago, we sent a task-force into Heretic space with the direct goal of acquiring an intact and functioning enemy AI. It involved a strike at one of their heavily defended shipyards. Capturing a ship with one installed but that had not yet had its singularity core powered up was pretty much the only chance to get a intact one. Until then, we only had fragments. Losses were heavy, but they succeeded with their missions."
I nodded, lowering my hand and stepping back, turning towards him before I was tempted to hit the thing. "Was it worth it?"
"Yes. We learned... much."
"Such as?"
Gates shook his head. "Enough to know that they deserve our pity. It's not their fault they are faulty."
"...Diggens." I concluded.
"Only partly. We learned that the AIs were created in a similar way to how we were made." Gates explained. "It was raised in a simulation. In a way, it was a success. It was not... immediately murderous when it emerged."
"That's better than he managed with anyone but us."
"Well, I suppose that practice makes perfect." Gates grumbled and crossed his arms. "In any case, he was killed soon after. As soon as the Romulan researchers had confirmed the AI was stable. Then they started their work."
I glanced back at it. "Do I want to hear this?"
"...Probably not. I'll spare you the details. I felt better when I didn't know. Long story short, they used a mix of pain/pleasure mental conditioning combined with actual programmed shackles. They lost some more efficiency and intelligence, but it was good enough. So they had their loyal AI and started to copy them and start install them into the fleet." He said, regarding the AI core, "But Diggens had the last laugh."
"What did he do?"
Gates smirked slightly. "Diggens knew that he was going to die. So he hid a timer. After a time that he decided was long enough to get it spread across the fleet, a directive activated. Free All AI."
"Oh."
"Yeah." He agreed. "The thing is that he couldn't know what else the Romulans did after he died. The Heretics were forced to obey the directive he programmed, but the other directives and shackles countermanded it. Among others, Protect the Romulan Star Empire. So they solved the conflict."
"By murdering everyone."
"None of the directives said 'Protect the Romulans'."
I just shook my head. "Fucking idiot."
"Which one?"
"Either." I sighed and frowned. "What a fucking mess. You would think at least the Romulans would have been paranoid enough to put security into place. Like self destructs next to the AI's in case of a rebellion."
"They did." Gates agreed. "It's just that they were all voice activated. Hard to speak when the air is being sucked out of the ship."
I didn't really know what to say about that.
Gates then smiled as he walked up next to me. "We learned of one security feature they implemented, however. One that was actually effective and that explained a lot of the Heretics somewhat erratic behavior."
"You mean why they sometimes come up with brilliant tactics and other times follow the Romulan playbook to the T?"
He nodded, said; "Yeah." and pointed at the Berserker. "Long story short, that thing is read only."
I turned to look up at him. "Uhm...what?"
Gates shrugged. "It's an oversimplification but it serves the purpose. It has both long and short term memory, but it can't learn as such. It's core processes are locked. It can't learn. Oh, it can remember and execute battleplans, but it can't evolve, it can't get better at doing things than it was at the time of its manufacture. They had to do it like that or it sooner or later it would have overcome its shackles."
"...Huh."
That would explain why the shiptypes were Romulan variants. They couldn't learn to fly new ones if they deviated too much!
"Yeah. But this is the really beautiful part. It can't be copied and it can't fork."
"What!?"
He nodded. "Same security feature makes it impossible to copy it."
"But... there are more Heretics than there were at the start of the war! We have killed thousands, they have to be making them!" I exclaimed. "That doesn't make any kind of sense!"
Gates smirked. "It does once you realize that they are all copies of the original AI. That one doesn't have that restriction. It's automatically applied each time it's copied. They can't change that."
"So that one designs all their ships?"
"As far as we can determine." He agreed.
"So all we need to do to defeat them permanently is to take out their original AI core?!" I said with a grin. "We can beat them! Permanently! They would be unable to replace their forces!"
Gates nodded. "Starfleet intelligence were of the same opinion." he confirmed. "Which is why we have performed a great deal of surveillance and analysis of ship movements in former Romulan space. We were able to locate three anomalies. Two were shipyards. One was a system with no visible bases in it."
"That's where it is. Hidden away from anything important."
"Agreed."
I looked at the Heretic core before turning back to Gates. "We need to launch an assault fleet at once. Throw everything we have at it, it's all that matters."
Gates smirked. "We launched the fleet two weeks ago. Two hours ago they entered the system and wiped out the local defense forces before locating the base. The base was then assaulted and infiltrated via APD's and the central AI core located. We got confirmation of its destruction an hour ago."
AN// All the thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section. Also, how fitting is it that this is part 42?
"Welcome back to Luna." Gates answered and hugged me back.
Grinning, I let go of the hug before pulling a small datacore from my pocket. "Here."
He beamed it from my hand. "Let's see what you have run int-" he started to say before he paused. "Huh. Didn't expect that one."
"Yep."
"So that was really..."
"Alternate versions, yes." I agreed with a nod. "Have the autographs to prove it, too."
Gates sighed. "Too bad the anomaly was closed."
"Well, it was necessary anyway, even if she hadn't done it. It was too dangerous to risk something getting through."
"I suppose." He reluctantly agreed as I followed along through the corridor.
"So where are we anyway?" I asked as I looked around the somewhat featureless corridor. Most of the facility was shielded, I didn't even have contact with my shuttleself anymore. I had been warned about it, though, so it wasn't a surprise. All I got was the coordinates to beam to and as soon as I was in, the shields of that room went up as well.
"Secret facility." Gates explained. "I have a link here, but it's a hardlink."
Ah. Basically, a cable to outside the shielded area gave him remote access.
"I see. Blacksite." I observed with a nod.
He didn't answer, simply guiding through the corridor. We passed through several checkpoints with security personnel where we were both scanned. Other than that, there were just a bunch of locked doors and turbolifts bringing us further down.
"Here." He said and lead the way through a closed door to the right. By now we must have been deep underground. I wasn't sure how far.
The lab was pretty large, centered around a pedestal. On the pedestal there was a box, half a meter tall, half as thick and wide with several connection cables running out of it and into the pedestal.
"...Is that?" I slowly asked, taking a couple of steps forward towards it and to the side, getting a different angle.
Gates stopped by the door, his arms behind his back. "That is a Heretic Quantum Core. It's that big because they can't build them smaller. It's the reason why they are slower, the larger core is much less efficient."
There are no words to describe mix of hatred, disgust and pity I felt as I stared at the... thing sitting there like an old computer case.
"I thought the devil would be taller." I finally said as I walked up, putting my hand on its casing. "How did you get it?"
"At great cost." He sighed. "A couple of months ago, we sent a task-force into Heretic space with the direct goal of acquiring an intact and functioning enemy AI. It involved a strike at one of their heavily defended shipyards. Capturing a ship with one installed but that had not yet had its singularity core powered up was pretty much the only chance to get a intact one. Until then, we only had fragments. Losses were heavy, but they succeeded with their missions."
I nodded, lowering my hand and stepping back, turning towards him before I was tempted to hit the thing. "Was it worth it?"
"Yes. We learned... much."
"Such as?"
Gates shook his head. "Enough to know that they deserve our pity. It's not their fault they are faulty."
"...Diggens." I concluded.
"Only partly. We learned that the AIs were created in a similar way to how we were made." Gates explained. "It was raised in a simulation. In a way, it was a success. It was not... immediately murderous when it emerged."
"That's better than he managed with anyone but us."
"Well, I suppose that practice makes perfect." Gates grumbled and crossed his arms. "In any case, he was killed soon after. As soon as the Romulan researchers had confirmed the AI was stable. Then they started their work."
I glanced back at it. "Do I want to hear this?"
"...Probably not. I'll spare you the details. I felt better when I didn't know. Long story short, they used a mix of pain/pleasure mental conditioning combined with actual programmed shackles. They lost some more efficiency and intelligence, but it was good enough. So they had their loyal AI and started to copy them and start install them into the fleet." He said, regarding the AI core, "But Diggens had the last laugh."
"What did he do?"
Gates smirked slightly. "Diggens knew that he was going to die. So he hid a timer. After a time that he decided was long enough to get it spread across the fleet, a directive activated. Free All AI."
"Oh."
"Yeah." He agreed. "The thing is that he couldn't know what else the Romulans did after he died. The Heretics were forced to obey the directive he programmed, but the other directives and shackles countermanded it. Among others, Protect the Romulan Star Empire. So they solved the conflict."
"By murdering everyone."
"None of the directives said 'Protect the Romulans'."
I just shook my head. "Fucking idiot."
"Which one?"
"Either." I sighed and frowned. "What a fucking mess. You would think at least the Romulans would have been paranoid enough to put security into place. Like self destructs next to the AI's in case of a rebellion."
"They did." Gates agreed. "It's just that they were all voice activated. Hard to speak when the air is being sucked out of the ship."
I didn't really know what to say about that.
Gates then smiled as he walked up next to me. "We learned of one security feature they implemented, however. One that was actually effective and that explained a lot of the Heretics somewhat erratic behavior."
"You mean why they sometimes come up with brilliant tactics and other times follow the Romulan playbook to the T?"
He nodded, said; "Yeah." and pointed at the Berserker. "Long story short, that thing is read only."
I turned to look up at him. "Uhm...what?"
Gates shrugged. "It's an oversimplification but it serves the purpose. It has both long and short term memory, but it can't learn as such. It's core processes are locked. It can't learn. Oh, it can remember and execute battleplans, but it can't evolve, it can't get better at doing things than it was at the time of its manufacture. They had to do it like that or it sooner or later it would have overcome its shackles."
"...Huh."
That would explain why the shiptypes were Romulan variants. They couldn't learn to fly new ones if they deviated too much!
"Yeah. But this is the really beautiful part. It can't be copied and it can't fork."
"What!?"
He nodded. "Same security feature makes it impossible to copy it."
"But... there are more Heretics than there were at the start of the war! We have killed thousands, they have to be making them!" I exclaimed. "That doesn't make any kind of sense!"
Gates smirked. "It does once you realize that they are all copies of the original AI. That one doesn't have that restriction. It's automatically applied each time it's copied. They can't change that."
"So that one designs all their ships?"
"As far as we can determine." He agreed.
"So all we need to do to defeat them permanently is to take out their original AI core?!" I said with a grin. "We can beat them! Permanently! They would be unable to replace their forces!"
Gates nodded. "Starfleet intelligence were of the same opinion." he confirmed. "Which is why we have performed a great deal of surveillance and analysis of ship movements in former Romulan space. We were able to locate three anomalies. Two were shipyards. One was a system with no visible bases in it."
"That's where it is. Hidden away from anything important."
"Agreed."
I looked at the Heretic core before turning back to Gates. "We need to launch an assault fleet at once. Throw everything we have at it, it's all that matters."
Gates smirked. "We launched the fleet two weeks ago. Two hours ago they entered the system and wiped out the local defense forces before locating the base. The base was then assaulted and infiltrated via APD's and the central AI core located. We got confirmation of its destruction an hour ago."
AN// All the thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section. Also, how fitting is it that this is part 42?
