Network Effect

Deployed aboard Barish-Estranza Explorer

Mission Status: Delayed

TargetControlSystem knew me. I’d killed a part of it, the part that had taken over ART.

I said, Did it hurt? Tell me all about it.

It was resident in the explorer’s systems where the poor bot pilot had lived. I got a brief glimpse before it walled me off, but all that was left were random sections of code; the bot pilot’s kernel had been deleted. TargetControlSystem would like to haul me out of the SecSystem so it could kill me, but it had access to the bot pilot’s archives and it knew what killware was.

I told it, Come in here and get me. (Yes, I was stalling. I had code bundles in place and there were a lot of destructive things I could do to the explorer, but no way to get the humans off the ship or get a message to ART.)

Then something else established a connection, an off-ship connection through the comm. From another ship? The space dock? Or wasn’t there a planet around here somewhere? And whoever was making the connection, it must be a Target, because it was using their language. I was reading its communication through targetControlSystem, but I could still see the original, untranslated signal.

TargetContact wanted targetControlSystem to find out what I was, so they could use me. I might be just what they needed. TargetControlSystem told them I was a SecUnit. TargetContact said that wasn’t possible, a SecUnit is a kind of bot, like the ones on the captured ships, easily dealt with when you had control of the humans.

(Yeah, it said “the humans.” But if this was an alien intelligence then all the horror media I’d watched had really gotten it wrong. Which is not impossible considering how wrong the media gets everything else.)

(You know, I don’t think this is an alien intelligence.)

The targetControlSystem said, no, I was too dangerous.

I said, It’s right.

TargetContact heard me. They were startled. They said, What are you?

A SecUnit. Killware.

TargetContact said, A software ghost.

I liked that. I had watched media with ghosts, though I didn’t have access to the files or titles anymore. I said, A ghost that kills you.

To prove to me that I was helpless, TargetContact started to show me security video. There was no metadata to tell me where it had been recorded. Not a ship. The space dock, maybe? But what was an agricultural bot doing on a space dock? An agricultural bot that’s fighting with … Holy shit, that’s me.

TargetContact told targetControlSystem, This is software, not a SecUnit. The SecUnit was on the surface, we have it now.

TargetControlSystem told TargetContact: You are giving it data, stop.

Me Version 1.0 is on the planet and has been captured and we are seriously screwed now. I’m sorry, ART. I’m sorry, humans and Me 1.0.

That was when I caught a tentative secure contact from SecUnit 3.

It had just disabled its governor module.

I checked the corridor camera view and watched it surreptitiously move its feet, the armor flexing as it shifted its shoulders. It was strange seeing this from the outside. I knew what it was thinking. My first realization had been: the governor module’s gone and I can do whatever I want! My second realization: what do I want? (I’d been stuck on that question for a long time.) (Actually Me Version 1.0 was still stuck on it, as far as I knew.)

I asked 3, What do you want?

SecUnit 3 said, To help you retrieve our clients. Then it added, After that I have no information.

Now it’s on.

I sent SecUnit 3 a brief instruction/message bundle and it answered, Acknowledge. On your mark.

TargetContact was telling targetControlSystem, Neutralize this software, then—And then they started screaming because I’d triggered all my code bundles and targetControlSystem had triggered its code bundle to purge SecSystem and I had attempted a purge of targetControlSystem. Weirdly, TargetContact was somehow directly connected to targetControlSystem and seemed to be experiencing physical responses based on what I was doing to it. Wow, that was a bad position to be in just about now.

TargetContact tried to disengage and but I locked it in. TargetControlSystem tried to delete me but I was making single-function duplicates of myself and turning them loose so it was having to divide its attention a lot. Other things were happening at the same time, three of which were:

1)  CodeBundle.LockItDown had closed all the hatches on board except those directly between SecUnit 3’s position and the shuttle access.

2)  CodeBundle.FuckThem had fried all targetDrones.