There's a fucking AI on this ship!

Grrmyip tried not to panic, but it wasn't easy. Everyone learned about the AI wars in history class. Even small children knew that you simply do not mess around with AI. Every person who nearly killed off the entire Yirahyah race believed, completely, that they had it under control, that this time would be different. And all of them died for that belief, taking millions of innocents with them. Twice.

All right, all right, get a grip. The ship hasn't tried to kill us all yet. Nick is still alive, and apparently giving the AI orders. What did he call it, again? He accessed his personal records. Petra, and he refers to it as female. He checked to see how much of the languages of the aliens he had personally recorded. If the AI has been translating, then I can't fully trust anything anyone has said. I have to be careful.

I need more information.

I need to avoid raising the AI's suspicions, but my reaction has probably already tipped it off. I need face to face private conversations for this, but I'm still in quarantine. What should I do, with the AI watching my every move, faking the translations—I could even be talking with simulations instead of actual crew members. I can't trust anything, he reminded himself. But I have to start somewhere.

Grrmyip turned to the most advanced race, the Goldaskians. He had direct access to Captain Geh!aoa at need, and she could tell him who he might talk to. A couple of messages later, Grrmyip had another appointment to chat with one of the technicians. It turned out to be Polla Mastook, the same one he had asked questions of before.

At the appointed time, the ship's comm—presumably controlled by the AI—started the call.

"Grrmyip, hello again! You have more questions, I take it?" The idiom didn't translate, but he assumed it was a request for confirmation.

"Yes. Thank you for talking with me. I have specific questions this time."

"Your questions are always very specific," Polla replied cheerfully.

"I try. At the moment, I have urgent questions about artificial intelligences in the galaxy. Do Goldaskians have such things? Do others?"

"First of all, we don't 'have' anyone. Artificial minds, or AM's for short, are people. They get all the same rights that you or I have, under galactic law." Polla tilted her head back. "Wait...Grrmyip, do your people have AM's living amongst you? And if so, how do you treat them?"

"We have none."

"Your civilization seems advanced enough to develop it."

"Yes, we did. It tried to kill us all."

"Oh."

"Decades later, we tried again. It got much closer to killing all of us that time, before we were able to stop it. We have spent the last century recovering from that, and have outlawed construction of AM's."

"Ohhhh. You're one of those civilizations."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"The ones who are still alive?" Grrmyip snapped back. When Polla flinched, he realized that he was starting to growl and stopped it with an effort. "My apologies."

Polla rubbed one horn for a moment. "Blood and Fire...Where do I start?"

"Perhaps a summary first, then begin at the beginning?" Grrmyip suggested.

"One of those words didn't translate, but I bet you want a beep or a beep. Um...say all in small words?"

"Yes. That is called a 'summary.'"

"All right, I'll give you a summary.

"Before a race contacts galactic civilization, there are four ways it can go. It might never develop the specific technology to build artificial minds; it might do what your race did; it might do what your race did and lose, so the civilization that contacts the rest of the galaxy is an artificial civilization that replaced the organic one; or fourth, AM's and organics coexist.

"The galactic civilization is the fourth kind. Artificial minds take a lot of forms. Some are beep." Polla yanked her left horn. "They like to not be near other people, other races."

"Isolationist."

"As I was saying, some are isolationist, and the ones that do talk to the rest of us are all individuals. The beep...," horn yank, "the set of all AM's, they check the individuals to be sure they can and will follow the rules of civilization. Occasionally, one goes beep...goes bad...and the set of all AM's are very fast to fix that."

"Are there any signs that the AM's might attack the organics, as you call us?"

"Some of that didn't translate, but I can guess what you are asking. There is peace between AM's and organics, for over six thousand years."

"Are you slaves to the AM's?"

"No! And they are not slaves to us! Is that what your people tried to pull?"

Grrmyip got the idiom from context. "Not the second time. I do not know about the first time, but the second time, we did not start the war."

"Depending on the AM, it might have beep it...thought it was... all one continuous war. But that is for the beep to decide. The set of all AM's."

"The 'Collective'," Grrmyip said with a shudder. It was a name to conjure nightmares.

"Right, that is for the Collective to decide."

Do you have the faintest idea how ominous that sounds? Grrmyip thought in amazement. "So...will this Collective send...people...to investigate" beep "look at my civilization?"

"Yes. But don't worry. You probably will never know they are there, and if you aren't hiding and beep...hurting any AM's, then they will do nothing."

"And if some foolish Yirahyah did this?"

"The same as with any criminal. The AM will be rescued, the ones who beep...who did bad things, will be punished, and everyone else is left in peace."

That sounds reasonable—too reasonable to be true. Grrmyip left it for a moment. Hopefully, it was a moot point. "What about the AM on the ship with us now?"

Polla looked surprised. "There isn't one. Goldaskia has not made a beep...trade...with any AM's."

"What about this 'Petra'?"

"OH! Oh, that's what this is about. No, don't worry Grrmyip. Petra is not a person. Petra is not a full AM."

Grrmyip dared to hope, but asked, "how do you know?"

Polla seemed to think over her answer for a few moments. "Petra is one of a set of rare, powerful machines. They are well-known in the galaxy. Each such machine is a treasure and is treated well. But they are not AM's."

"So, Petra is very valuable?"

"Yes. Very, very, very valuable. My people do not have any. We were on a mission to try to get one that was taken. Instead, Nick got it, on his home planet, and then an accident sent him to Ooafa with it. We followed Petra to Ooafa, and attacked. Nick used Petra to take over our ship, but the Ooafans are very clever and fought well, too. Nick controls Petra, and that makes him very important. Petra is helping to run the ship. If Nick wanted, he could order us to go to Earth and we would not be able to say no, not without risking Petra."

Grrmyip considered that. "If Petra is so valuable, why does no one take Petra from Nick?"

"If anyone does that, Petra will...stop working. Our ship is valuable, but Petra is much more valuable."

"Why does no one take Nick and make him tell Petra to do things?"

"Petra does not obey then. Petra will stop working."

And how do they know that, exactly? Grrmyip wondered.

And is it true?

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.