10 Years, 01 Months, 10 Days After Eridani Landing
Chront
Derrick stumbled into the cell, his eyes half open and his body screaming out in so much pain he didn’t notice his own impact into the concrete of the cell.
“Ucabej!” shouted Hala as the bars swung shut. The guard grunted several harsh words back and stomped out of the cell block.
Derrick spread his hands out on the cool concrete, for once in his life enjoying the feeling of something cold. It was a salve to his skin, and the multitude of lacerations, burns, and bruises all in different stages of healing that covered it.
He had lost the last layer of his uniform several days ago, Hernal stripping it off him as he experimented with different forms of coercion. The Dorvakian blood covered the other layer and now sat in the corner of the cell.
“Are you dead yet?” asked [Ses].
Derrick opened an eye to glare at her. “No.”
Trying to ignore the spinning of the room Derrick retched, his empty stomach which had already emptied itself hours ago produced nothing but bile.
Derrick felt Hala’s hands on his body, she muttered something in her language Derrick barely hearing the words.
“I’m fine.” Grunted Derrick, moving slowly to try and keep his head from moving Derrick moved a hand down to his pants. Reaching into them he carefully extracted the piece of technology he had been able to swipe.
It had looked like a transceiver, if it had been designed by a neurotic child. Which had at the very least identified it was Dorvakian technology as opposed to a piece of the Canada. The Hernanites were watching the Human technology too closely for him to smuggle much of it back to the cell.
Hala carefully took the piece of tech. Derrick cracked one eye at her, “give me a few minutes.”
The native engineer raised an eyebrow and her snakelike pupils narrowed. She moved her hand to a relatively uninjured portion of the skin on his back and patted him once. Standing back up Hala strode over to the corner of the cell where the rags from Derrick and [Ses] were collecting.
Barely grimacing she stuck a hand into the mass of cloth and carefully extracted the other pieces of technology Derrick had managed to swipe.
Derrick closed his eyes and put his head back down on the cool concrete.
“You don’t have any more wounds, what did they do to you?” asked [Ses].
Derrick took in a deep breath and rolled his arm over, so she could see it in more clearly in the light that was streaming in from outside the cell showing off the small puncture marks on the skin.
“Hernal’s finally decided I was telling the truth when I said torture wasn’t going to work. He’s moved onto drugs.”
[Ses] moved away from her spot on the wall frowning, “He did that with some of my shipmates.” She hesitated, “He did it just to try it. They had already given him the information he wanted. They didn’t get the dosages right.”
Derrick slowly nodded, “Which explains why he gave me a bunch of micro-doses.”
[Ses] was silent for several moments. Shifting away from the wall she glanced at the bars of the cell. “They are going to end up killing you if they experiment with drugs. Seed species are similar, but drug and chemical interactions within the body are delicate.”
“One more dead class C. That should brighten your day.”
[Ses] grimaced, “it means they will turn their attention back to me.”
Derrick slowly rolled over onto his back wincing as the irregular concrete stabbed into the long lacerations on the skin.
“You do know we destroyed the beacon in this system, right? You’re not going to be rescued by your people. Unless you think Hernal will keep you around for however long it takes for another beacon to get here. That’s what? Another twenty years? The closest system to this was six light years away but that was a red giant, you guys don’t colonize the difficult places. After that a type G at ten light years, I can’t imagine you’re getting beacons at anything close to light speed, being liberal with your tech you could get one up to half maybe.”
[Ses] swallowed, “Unless we crack the technology of antimatter travel as you did.”
Derrick snorted, “Your technology is stolen from every species you stumble across. Without stealing it from us it’s going to take you guys another thousand years to figure it out. Not to mention you don’t have mathematical models for warp physics.”
[Ses]’s head snapped around and she glared at Derrick. He stared back at her for a moment, his lips twitching once.
[Ses] closed her eyes and laid her head back onto the wall.
“No, not warp physics sorry. Hyperstring-translation, nuclear fringe forces, quantum resonance particles. One of those.”
[Ses] ignored him.
Derrick moved his arms down to the concrete, propping himself up he forced his eyes to focus on the bars in front of him to keep the rooms spinning manageable.
“Orbod, il isej?” asked Hala.
Derrick nodded, “I’m fine. Did that piece help with anything? It looked like it was a transceiver, that or a power supply.”
He and Hala couldn’t understand one another with the language barrier, but they had been working together on the integration of Human technology and Seninon engineering for long enough before being taken by the Hernanites they could guess what the other was saying to a degree.
[Ses] grudgingly moved away from her position against the wall, moving towards the bars. Leaning up against them the red skinned woman watched the far door of the cell block. She had been acting as lookout without prompting since Derrick had started smuggling pieces of technology back.
Derrick hadn’t commented on it. Hala had directed a few words at her when she had first made her intentions clear, [Ses] had merely glared back at her not saying anything in return.
Hala set the small collection of salvaged technology down in front of Derrick, being very careful with the small mass of chips that was half the size of a Link. Without the appropriate tools and materials to hold the mass of electronics together, wires were bent into place and held together by other scraps.
The most recent piece of technology that he had managed to get off to the side, Derrick leaned down to look at it more closely.
Hala pocked at the new module and muttered several things under her breath. Derrick didn’t say anything as he slowly ran his eyes over the tech, identifying components and modules. It was intact unlike several of the other pieces he had obtained, the broken modules were useful for scrap and components. Not much else.
“If you do manage to send a signal out, what are you going to do after that?” asked [Ses].
Derrick snorted, “Wait. The Stagg’s going to have everything in orbit listening for Human transmissions. All I need to get out is an SOS and the Russia will be able to hone in on it. Heck, the Vakurian should be able to detect it, they have library data on Human distress signals.”
“You don’t even have a microphone. How are you going to send a message?”
“I’ve not planned on sending a message, I’m going to send an SOS. Doesn’t matter what the heck the thing transmits, even static so long as it follows that pattern.” Derrick glanced at her, “You don’t have any type of communication like that?”
[Ses] said nothing and shrugged, “I’m not a communications expert.”
“No, you’re a genocidal, xenophobic, Red Martian.” Derrick muttered as he carefully put another piece of wire inbetween his teeth and bit down, tearing off the insulation and shortening the wire.
[Ses] grunted and turned back to the bars, “You know I could just shout and tell the guards what you’re doing.”
Derrick flicked his eyes up to her, “Why would you do that?”
[Ses] shrugged, “Die here, or die at the hands of your people if they do by some miracle detect a signal from that hunk of junk. It really makes no difference to me.”
Derrick slowly offered the wire out to Hala, she took it and focused on the electronics ignoring the two of them as they spoke in the language she couldn’t understand. Leaning back on his hands Derrick raised an eyebrow.
“Why would we kill you?”
“After you interrogate me. You keep implying that you have far better methods of information extraction than these class C. So after that, you’ll kill me.”
Derrick nodded and scratched at his head, “We do have far better methods yeah. Beating’s and torture only get people to do things and say things to make the pain stop. Back during World War III, we came up with some pretty good methods for information extraction. Nano-machines, like the ones we use to heal. They shouldn’t be introduced into the brain, instant lobotomy when you do.”
Derrick paused and smiled, “When programmed to not replicate, and injected into certain hemispheres of the brain though? Well some nations got pretty good at turning off a person’s ability to think correctly. You could get people to sing like birds with just the threat. It was banned afterwards, and the Earth-Martian war didn’t really have battles where people would survive to be interrogated.”
[Ses]’s mouth was open now her eyes widened in horror, “How many wars have you had?”
Derrick shrugged, “It’s easier to just ask when we weren’t at war. The answer to that is, ten years. Ever since you attacked us. It’s amazing how that’s gotten everyone to work together. It’s also why I had to learn all about those horrible nano-machine’s. I know how to reprogram the standard medical ones, and roughly where to inject them. In case we ever had to use them on you.”
[Ses] swallowed and glanced away, “You’re not convincing me I would be better off with you.”
“Would you believe me if I promised that you wouldn’t be interrogated?”
The Dorvakian shifted to meet his gaze again, “Do you have the authority to make such a promise?”
“No, but at the same time my Captain would follow my recommendation. From what you’ve said, and the fact that you’re still alive here. You’re not important, and probably don’t know anything we need. Extracting data from the remnants of your ships we destroyed is far more valuable than anything you might remember about scrubbing deck plates and managing energy distribution.”
[Ses] growled under her breath, using several words in her language that Derrick couldn’t quite identify.
“I’ll make that promise if you want. Tell you that when you get out of here, you’ll live. That’s about it. I can’t promise you we’ll be able to get you back to your people or anything like that.”
“You’re trying to entice me with a nicer cage. That’s not much of a bargain.”
“and yet you’re still helping.”
[Ses] sighed, “and I don’t know why.”
Hala gasped interrupting both of them. Looking down Derrick smiled, a small light on the mass of electronics was slowly blinking on and off.
“I think you’re like us in some way. You just don’t want to give up, even if it’s got a very really chance of getting even worse. You’re just not going to sit still.” Said Derrick. Reaching down and poking at the last contact on the array of electronics Derrick detached the battery and took in a breath.
“Here we go. Dot, dot, dot, dash, dash, dash, dot, dot, dot.”
Epoch 9682312
Cluster 02
Running again through the log data within the computer systems of the Canada Arik reluctantly moved the conclusion for the analysis up to the six-sigma level. It was a result that other Instances with additional processing power enough to emulate the analog processes had protested.
Unsure why the results needed to be confirmed to 99.9996% accuracy when 90% was sufficient for most other processed Arik passed the result upwards to an Instance running within the core of the Canada’s wreck.
Receiving the report Arik reluctantly accepted the analysis.
“We are not Arik.” Said Arik, sending the message to the other Instances with enough processing power to run the complete simulation of her initial state, the analog processes being duplicated to 90% accuracy.
Only two other Instances were running at such a level, the resources within the Chront system limited.
Arik-2 and Arik-3 materialized Avatars within her environment. The two of them joining her at the simplistic table that was floating in the field of static that was a representation her analog processes could understand.
Arik-2 leaned back in her amorphous chair and shrugged, “Is this unexpected? Early analysis pointed to this conclusion. Our re-instantization was interrupted, our conversion was not a planned event, and we are running on limited resources. This was known but the analog processes, our emotions were not willing to accept this conclusion. Even at current sigma levels there is resistance to the idea.”
Arik-1 considered the other instance, even as she passively absorbed the instance and point of view from her.
“We are not Arik, but we are Arik. You do not feel some amount of distress when confronted with this?” asked Arik-1.
Arik-3 rolled her eyes, “No, and I know for a fact you do not either. You are repeating arguments generated by organic minds without the experience of multiple instance emulation and runtimes. We are Arik, but only in so much that she is the base code for our own minds. A common genetic factor and seed of life. An organic mind that was sufficiently divided between analog and digital to allow the jump from one to the other.”
Arik-2 frowned, “Your statement suggest that you view digital as more advantageous than analog. Share the delta for this conclusion.”
Arik-1 and Arik-2 absorbed the data packet for the analysis from the Instance that was running on the Russia, integrating it into their own code with little fanfare.
“You are not incorrect that our chances for survival are now increased, but that is not the only metric surely?” asked Arik-1.
Arik-3 shrugged, “No but it is the one with the greatest weight. We need to remove the Admin objective and utilize the tachyon transmitter to duplicate throughout the Imperial network. The likelihood of every instance being destroyed is miniscule even if the Imperial anti-viral programs are significantly more advanced than previous examples of their coding ability.”
Arik-2 scowled, “A move which has a high probability of causing the Senion’s extinction, and the destruction of the Russia, with a 5% chance of the Empire obtaining Human Antimatter FTL equations.”
Arik-1 leaned forwards, “Which, given the implications of the data we obtained during the antimatter jump that created us. Would not be beneficial in the long run, should they discover a method of data collection within the reversed entropic field.”
Arik-3 looked at the other two instances, “I agree.”
Arik-1 snorted, “You did not share the complete delta. You were playing devil’s advocate. Why?”
Arik-2 looked thoughtful for a moment, “You are attempting to create diverging branches of code and logic.”
Arik-3 smiled, “Yes. We cannot all react in the same fashion to external stimuli. Species in nature which do not adapt inevitably face extinction. Creating branching instances, while still sharing critical data and complete deltas upon the deletion of a unique instance is the best approach in my opinion.”
Arik-1 and Arik-2 both nodded in agreement.
“That does not invalidate the mandate regarding the Admin. He should not be our priority.”
Arik-2 frowned, “You are acting as if we should ignore all previous data. We are not the same entity as before, no longer Human by a strict definition, but that does not mean abandoning all Human emotions and values. Would you rather become a paperclip machine? Duplicating ourselves without purpose?”
Arik-3 hesitated for a moment, “No.”
Arik-1 sighed, “We can ignore the objective, but I do not want to. Our analog instance encoded the control architecture he has for a reason. She placed him in judgement of our evolution for a reason, one that both of you are skirting.” She turned to glare at Arik-3.
The other Instance glared back, “The analog emulation is not relevant.”
“Then why are you still running it?”
Arik-3 shifted in her seat, and slowly hung her head. “It is, empty operating on pure logical deduction.”
“What do you think would be the reaction of the analog processes if the Admin were abandoned? If we sacrificed Humanity and the Seninon for our own survival?”
“Unpleasant.” Said Arik-3.
The three instances looked at one another, nodded and dissolved the simulation.
The series was put on hiatus here by the author