I'm back! Sorry for being away for a while, I was way up north and had limited access to a computer again. Unfortunately, I'm going back up north in a week or two so the next chapter probably wont be posted till early April.
RR: Tom476ty18: The council are going to respond, but don't expect things to get kinetic for no good reason. As for indoctrination, its a trickery thing.
JonatanL123: Many Thanks for the correction! I'll go back and fix it once this is live.
BlueTea21: Enjoy this chapter then! Develops the situation a bit more.
TheH509: I view those tunnels like FTL to be honest with you, probably impossible, but nice to think about. Cheers for the comments.
Admiral David Anderson jolts awake as his shuttle comes to a sudden stop, the clamps of a docking bay now holding his small vessel secure. Standing from the pilot's chair, Anderson stretches his back, resulting in multiple pops and cracks from his spine before he moves towards the shuttle's doors. As the doors slowly open to reveal a small hanger bay, Anderson can feel hot air rush into his shuttle; the air is hot on the skin but bearable.
When the doors are fully open, the lights in the hanger flicker for a second before everything in the shuttle instantly turn off, most likely due to an EMP attack initiated by the AI in control of the hanger. Unfazed by the attack, Anderson waits for the lights to return a few seconds later before beginning his descent of the shuttles access ramp. As Anderson descends the ramp, he looks around in wonder; not many people have visited this hanger, and to do so is a rare honour. At the opposite side of the hanger, Anderson can see a small black ship docked and surrounded by tentative robots; without being told such, Anderson knows it's Freya's play toy, a vessel that houses all her advanced and prototype technology. As Anderson arrives on the hanger floor, he can't help but admire the ship's beauty; Freya certainly knows how to design them.
"Admiral," A young female voice calls to him when he is standing on the hangar floor. Most people wonder why Freya keeps a young persona to her, despite being hundreds of years old, but most just put it down to how she thinks and works. Unlike most AI who go through a rigorous start to life, teaching them the ways of the world, Freya was raised differently; an accident caused her to be powered up before she was due, forcing the scientists who created her to improvise.
Anderson looks around for an optical sensor or a holographic projector, but he fails to see anything, "Freya?" He asks aloud.
"Are you expecting someone else?" The voice inquires with a hint of frustration, "What do you want? I'm busy." Unlike most AI who learn in their first few seconds of being powered on how to control their clock and change their understanding of times passage, Freya was never taught this ability. She, therefore, did not learn to be comfortable with dilating her perception of time. Consequently, Freya refuses to time dilate, which means she always needs to be kept busy or she will go mad. Due to refusing to time dilate, she often describes conversations with Humans as being excruciatingly slow.
"We know," Anderson responds, "You have shown up on every thermal sensor we have, and IO has delivered so much liquid helium that people know your location." Freya has in the past gone to tedious lengths to keep her location hidden from the general public, so allowing herself to be detected is worrisome. As a result of being noticed, the alliance has had to assign a warship to protect her from any potential anti-AI or even anti-inners movement; losing Freya would be devastating.
"I'm not concerned. Why are you here? Does IO have information for me?"
"No," Anderson breathes out slightly before looking to the roof, Freya is about to go ballistic so he is not looking forward to telling her why he is here, "In the last hour, IO has been infected. The virus is in Sol."
"I know," There is a small pause, something unusual for Freya, before there is a timid question, "Have you told Ultron?" Freya knows what this means, and she knows how Ultron will react. The AI will go on the warpath.
"No," Anderson replies honestly, "Not yet, you are the first we have told. We are hoping you have a countermeasure."
"I do, but I also don't," Freya then reveals, "The problem is the virus is not a virus at all; we, no, I, initially miss calculated." The floor at Andersons feet then lights up and directs him towards a holographic projector. As the projector starts to act like a TV, Freya speaks again, "This is an advanced computer virus," Freya projects the structure of an advanced AI virus in a way that a Human mind may comprehend, to Anderson, it looks almost like a DNA helix. "This is the ET virus," The structure morphs to show something that moves and slithers like a snake. "The virus is an AI, far more complex than anything we have seen before."
"As powerful as you?"
"Please." Freya responds, sounding very offended, "It is a very complex organism, with a thorough self-defence mechanism, but ultimately, it is no smarter than a trained rat."
Anderson nods along, "Good to hear you're still top AI. So, you say you have a countermeasure."
"Yes." Freya responds, "Watch; the blue represents my code." Code is 'injected' into the virulent AI and the virus dies a swift death.
"That is what we need," Anderson exclaims, genuinely ecstatic that Freya has a defence.
"Yes, however," Freya restores the holograph to show two samples of the virulent AI. "Watch, if I inject the first, it dies" The first is injected with Freya's countermeasure and swiftly dies, "Now watch when I inject the second virus." Nothing happens; the virus continues to live. "It learned from the one that died, and my countermeasure is now useless."
"How is this possible?" Asks Anderson as he brings a hand up to rub off the sweat building on his brow; he is sure it is getting hotter in the hanger but does not voice anything.
"The virus infects systems that communicate. As it is infected, it communicates with anything that will listen and lets them know how it died."
Anderson begins to point to the display, "Can't we use that? Have it send out your virus time and time again, so anything that listens gets injected."
"Yes," Freya reveals, "But if a single virulent AI can resist it, we have created a more powerful, harder to defeat AI."
"I see," Anderson voices, "But it will buy us time, no?"
"Well, yes," The AI voices.
"And now you know how to defeat this thing; could you defeat individual instances of it?"
"If i..." Freya begins to ramble; her words come out faster and faster till it is unintelligible to a Human.
Anderson, realising he needs to reign the hyper AI in, simply asks, "Freya, is that a yes or a no?"
There is a long pause till the AI timidly answers, "Yes."
"So, why don't we do that? Rid Sol of it, and then go system by system till we eradicate it?"
Freya begins to speak again, listing reason after reason, but Anderson stops the AI mid-speech, a small smile on his face as he realises that the AI is scared but capable. Eventually, Freya says something that perks up Andersons ears, "My countermeasure only kills the virus; what it infected will never return."
"So there is no hope for IO?"
"No," Freya reluctantly responds, "Not yet. My anti-virus will kill the parasite and the host."
'Damn' Anderson thinks, but he does not voice it. "Well, the virus is here now."
"Let me guess," Freya buts in, knowing the man to be military, "A 90% solution now is better than a 100% solution that comes too late."
"Correct."
The AI is quiet as it calculates before saying, "But with more time..."
"Time is up," Anderson says softly, "The longer we wait, the more we lose."
Meanwhile, under a mountain's worth of rock, dirt and earth, an AI schemes.
/.../
Hearing a commotion, Shepard looks to her left where a small crowd has started to gather in front of a large window that allows onlookers to peer out onto the arms of the Citadel. Seeing the lights blink out on one of the opposing arms, Shepard frowns before turning back to Tevos, the Councillor is also watching the commotion and carries a concerned look on her face. "That doesn't look good," Shepard remarks casually if nothing more than to prompt conversation.
"No," Tevos says with a reluctant amount of agreement as she stands from the table, then just as she is standing upright, the lights in the restaurant they are dining in turn off, "Not good at all." Tevos then emphasises. The only lumination in the restaurant is now directly provided by artificial candles that run from batteries. Grabbing a fake candle, Tevos uses it to guide her through the restaurant and to a vent where Tevos places her hand up against it. When she should feel a healthy flow of hot air being pumped into the room, she can feel nothing. Tevos stands and turns to Shepard with a frown, "Not good at all."
"No cooling?" Shepard asks, knowing that Human spaceships need to carefully manage heat build-up as losing heat through radiation loss is a slow process.
"Heating," Tevos unexpectedly responds, "This station is built like the Relays; it is designed to rapidly lose heat."
"Oh," Shepard responds, not particularly liking the idea of freezing to death.
"Yes. Come, we must go." Then, to emphasise the urgency, Tevos grabs Shepard by the hand and begins to pull her through the restaurant.
Getting outside the restaurant, Tevos approaches a porter who has taken to gazing at the dark citadel arms; never before has such an event occurred, and the porter is making the most of the rare occasion. "My items, please," She asks from the porter, "Reservation 004." The request is more of a demand.
The porter attempts to load up his omni-tool to check her items out, but the omni-tool is none functional with non-stop glitches. Finally, realising that the omni-tool is a lost battle, the porter closes the tool and leaves to retrieve the items; the omni-tool was only needed to sign the items back to Tevos. As they are left alone, Shepard speaks up, "This is all strange; first all lights go down, and then his omni-tool is acting up."
"That is not all," Tevos replies before pointing to a starship that is slowly approaching the Citadel; with the naked eye, the ship looks like a large freighter, but in space, the size of items can often be deceiving. "That ship should be lit up like a small city. Its navigation lights are also powered down." Starships use red and green lights on either side of the vessel so that onlookers can quickly determine the direction the ship is heading. If you can only see red, the ship is moving from that person's right to left. If the light is green, then it is travelling the opposite direction, if you can see red and green, it is heading directly towards you, and all-white it is heading away from you.
As a realisation hits her, Shepard breaths out deeply and then says, "It's here."
"What is here, Shepard?" Tevos asks, but she has a feeling she already knows; Shepard looks on alert and almost jumpy.
"The virus," Shepard tells, "It's here." Her voice is filled with worry.
Tevos knows that Shepard has an AI and other cybernetics in her, so she realises why Shepard looks as guarded as she is, but she decides not to mention it. "We will deal with it, but we have larger problems right now, Shepard."
"Like a lack of power?" Shepard asks.
"Yes," Tevos responds, "We have 7 hours before this station will get uncomfortably cold."
"So, what's the plan, boss?" The words are carefully chosen; Shepard knows the use of 'boss' will inflate Tevos.
"Get the generators working," Tevos answers as if the act of doing so would be as easy as speaking it. "That will restart the basic life systems. But first, we need to get there." Seeing the porter return with a clear plastic bag, Tevos approaches him and quickly gets her items back. After handing Shepard her omni-tool back, Tevos leads the way to her skycar, with Shepard in hot pursuit.
"Will your car not be U/S?" Shepard asks, "The virus and all?"
"No," Tevos responds with a small smile, "My car will not be impacted by this virus - it is too old to have any modern networking so I disabled it all a long while ago." Then, as if to prove her point, Tevos approaches her fancy skycar, opens the door, and presses a button, causing the engine to turn on.
"Point proven," Shepard remarks as she climbs into the passenger's seat. To Shepard, it feels like climbing into an ancient Aston Martin DB1, the car has the luxury of age, smell, and style.
Getting into the air, Shepard looks out the window and notices numerous small fires on the Citadel, and under closer scrutiny, each small fire is located at the site of a skycar that has crashed out of the air. The duo do pass a few skycars still in the sky, but they are out of control from all appearances, with their engines and directional nozzles acting on their own accord. To Shepard, it reminds her of a Zombie movie set.
Getting to the site of the generators a short time later, Tevos quickly makes her way through security using her position on the Council as her authority and finds a control room that is being staffed by a single frantic looking Salarian. "What is the situation?" Tevos demands, her voice commanding an authority Shepard has never seen before.
The Salarian turns to look at them and is just about to shout at them, ordering them out of the room; it is only when he realises who is stood infront of him that he calms himself. To the Salarians credit, he quickly hides his surprise at seeing the Asari Councillor. "All generators are shut down," The Salarian quickly replies, "I have 3 engineering teams currently working on generators 1, 3 and 5, but we don't know why they have shut down in the first instance."
"It's a virus," Shepard informs, "You need to make them run manually."
The Salarian looks a little bewildered and begins to rub his right horn, "No, no, never done before, don't know if it can be done."
"That is not the solution," Tevos says with a clench of her fists, "These generators are almost identical to starship generators, just on a larger scale. We need to install new control modules while ensuring they are not connected to the network and then set them up running. It will be inefficient, burn alot of fuel, but it will work."
"Yes, yes," The Salarian begins to respond, "Not ideal, but a solution." The Salarian quickly moves to a large heavy looking book and scrolls through the pages till he finds what he is looking for, then he points to the page while looking up to Tevos. "This is the networking circuitry; we will need to disable it, and then we can purge the electronic systems and install a new control module."
Tevos quickly studies the diagram before pointing at a single connection block, "Here, if we disconnect it from here, it should remove all networking capabilities whilst requiring the least work."
"Good eye," The Salarian says while agreeing, "I'll let the engineering teams know."
Tevos blinks, "If you have any other tool kits, I can lend a helping hand. I know my way around a set of tools and three engineering teams can't work four arms."
"What is your experience?" The Salarian asks, "Most of these circuits use energy that could power a city. One wrong move and I'm cleaning your ash up."
"I used to be an apprentice on board a starship; I've learned a thing or two about generators and engines." Tevos then smirks, "And one of my companies makes the spares for these generators."
The Salarian blinks at Tevos before looking to Shepard, "And the Huemin?"
Tevos answers for Shepard, "She will be my tool aid," Tevos then turns to look at Shepard, "I'll keep her fingers safe." Shepard could swear she saw Tevos blink at her.
The Salarian can be seen to be contemplating before blinking again at Tevos, "If people weren't about to die from the cold, I would say no. Come with me, I'll show you to a tool locker, and bring that book, you will need it."
"If you would put your muscles to work and bring the book, please," Tevos tells Shepard before setting off after the Salarian.
"If I must," Shepard muses as she moves to pick up the heavy-looking book.
/.../
Shepard hands Tevos a small spanner seven hours later, and the Asari quickly takes it from her hands. As Tevos worked on repairing the generator, she and Shepard had talked about many things, from Shepard's apparent fondness of dogs to Tevos's secret love for an old classic skycar. Over the evening, Shepard agreed to get Tevos a dog if they ever return to Earth, and Tevos agreed to teach Shepard how to fly her fancy skycar. By now, however, the Citadel has turned cold enough that Shepard can see her breath, which means it must be colder than 280 kelvin, and the conversations are turning to random lines of questioning as they try and take their minds off the cold. Questions from favourite food to films are discussed.
Fortunately for the residents on the Citadel, two of the arms have already had power return to them, leaving just two arms unpowered. The engineering teams that were working on the other arms are now lending a helping hand, but progress is still slow.
With the connector Tevos was working on in place, Tevos stands from her crouched position and then approaches a touch screen located a few meters away and begins to enter a series of commands. Before entering the final command into the machine, Tevos stops to say, "Well, with any luck, this will work."
"Wait," An Asari standing off to a side says. The Asari is wearing a bright high vis set of overalls and is from one of the other engineering teams, "Hearing defence. This thing will deafen you. Should be some in the toolbox."
Tevos ruffles through the toolbox till she comes across some foam looking hearing defenders but frowns and then turns to Shepard, "I'm guessing this won't work for you?" The defenders are long yellow worm looking pieces of foam that will fit in the dips of an Asari crest.
Shepard shakes her head, "No, but it's fine; my natural hearing went a long, long time ago."
"Oh?" Tevos asks as she rolls the foam ear defenders into a suitable shape to protect her hearing. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure," Shepard initially replies, "I lost it during the war, got too close to a few big explosions. I've since used electronic augmentations, and my hearing is better than it ever was."
"Could you not have replaced it with natural organic body parts?" Tevos asks while she inserts the defenders into her own auditory receptors.
"Yes, I could have," Shepard admits, "But with augmentations, I can have the eyes of a hawk and ears of a fox. In my old line of work, that is conducive to staying alive."
"A fair reason, I suppose," Tevos then turns to look at the Asari in hi-vis overalls and notices she is already wearing her own defenders. Turning from the Asari Tevos then hits the button on the touch screen and the generator turns over, which causes the platform they are standing on to start vibrating with enough force it is uncomfortable to experience. A dial which shows the generators power output begin to increase in percentage. As the rate of power increases, the vibrations get excessively more potent until it is almost painful.
The three sit and watch the power output continue to climb till lights on the arms begin to return. When satisfied that the generator is stable, Tevos looks to Shepard and the other Asari and points towards the fourth arm, but the high vis Asari clenches her fists. Not knowing why the Asari disagrees with the idea of moving to the fourth arm, Tevos grabs Shepard by the hand and then returns to the control room, where the noise from the generator is tolerable. "Why not move to the fourth arm?" Tevos inquires of the other Asari who followed them back.
"Too many people; this job only needs two people, so if we go over, we will just get in the way."
Tevos blinks, thinking about it, the Asari is right; many of the access panels needed for the job would only allow one or two people at the most to crowd around it. "Then I will stay here till the modification is complete, just in case they need us."
"Nah," The Asari says while gesturing to the fourth arm, "They got it. Besides, you need to get out of here, can't have people seeing the Councillor doing some real work. People will start expecting this from you on the regular."
Tevos was about to retort, but Shepard speaks up, "Yeah, I could do with getting out of this dirty garb and a stiff drink." While the work was primarily on electronic systems, the generators are filthy, and somehow Shepard and Tevos are both covered in grease and dirt.
"Yes," Tevos blinks after backing down from confronting the jab, "A stiff drink is needed."
After leaving the control centre, Shepard and Tevos find themselves back at the skycar, where Shepard sees a future problem, "Do you want to get in with these clothes? You will be getting the grime out of the seats for years."
"I pay someone a ludicrous amount of money to clean this car," Tevos replies as she climbs in. "If they can't get a bit of grime out the chairs, then I suspect they will be looking for a new client."
"Fair," Is Shepard's only response as she too climbs into the car. Then, when the car is in the air and moving back towards the estate, Shepard speaks up again, "What are we going to do about the virus?"
There is a period of silence till Tevos eventually speaks up, "Truthfully, I don't know," Tevos goes back to being quiet before then adding, "But we need to make sure that vessel over there isn't going to collide with the arms."
Shepard looks to the ship Tevos is talking about to see a large freighter uncontrollably spinning near the arms, the crew onboard must have manually over-ridden a thruster to try and prevent the ship from slamming into the Citadel and killing an untold amount of people. Shepard watches the vessel for a small time before commenting on it, "It's drifting away from the arms; it's safe."
"Are you certain?" Tevos asks while taking her eyes off the sky to look at Shepard.
Shepard blinks, "Yeah, I've done the maths. That thing isn't crashing into this station."
Tevos continues to study Shepard's face for a moment, wondering how much her AI was speaking, before blinking and then looking back to the sky, "Then I need to go to bed for an hour or so and think on this virus." With this comment, Shepard can feel herself sink into her seat as the car speeds up and Shepard is positive Tevos exceeds the 300km/h speed limit by a fair number.
"What I want to know," Shepard begins to ponder out loud as she sees the estate quickly approach, "Is how it got in?"
"If I had to make a bet," Tevos also starts to mull out loud, "A vessel entered the system, and when traffic control contacted the vessel, it opened a vector for the virus to enter our systems."
Shepard humms a little before shaking her head, "No, the virus is too potent, the vessel would never have been able to enter the relay with it."
"Then I'm not sure." Tevos remarks. "But right now, our priority needs to be ridding it from our systems."
"Agreed," Shepard says after a yawn, "I'll see if Freya is willing or has any helpful input."
"Will the AI help?" Tevos questions.
Shepard shakes her head, "I don't know. She has been unusually quiet recently." Shepard pauses for a moment before adding, "I think this virus is getting the best of her."
There is no more conversation in the car until Tevos starts the final approach to her estate, "So," Tevos says while conducting pre-landing checks, "Does this evening now make us 2 for 2?"
Shepard snorts at the idea, "Not even close."
After landing the car, Shepard and Tevos quickly part ways, each wanting to return to their bed, but Tevos quickly runs into a problem. Getting to her private accommodations door, Tevos tries the handle only to find the door refuses to open. Knowing her handle reads her biometrics, Tevos tries again, and once more, the door does not budge. Finally, realising that the virus is probably in her estate's security systems, Tevos rests her head on the luxurious wooden door; her room is designed to resist attacks from heavy weapons. Knowing nothing short of industrial-grade plasma torches will open her door, Tevos starts weighing her options and realises that she only has a few available to her.
She could get some engineers to cut her reinforced door down, but it would take hours for the engineers to arrive, assuming any could be found, and then who knows how long to cut through the reinforced door.
Her only other options are sleeping in a communal area until a solution can be found to the security system, sleeping in a guest room in her estate, or hot bunking with someone from the estate for an evening.
After some quick thinking, Tevos realises the most suitable option open to her is getting a guest room from her estate; there will be at least one available, there almost always is. However, before she sets off searching for an empty room, another thought hits her, which causes a slight smirk and for her plans to change, sometimes the best option is not always the sensible option.
/.../
Ophelia looks up from a heating vent as she hears someone approach; like most other Asari on the estate, she has taken to huddling around a heating vent for warmth. Then, seeing a rather stern-looking security guard approaching, Ophelia stands to greet the guard.
"Have you seen your matriarch?" The guard asks without any pleasantries, causing a little concern in Ophelia.
"She came in just over an hour ago with Shepard. Have you checked the common areas?"
"We have," The guard blinks, "And we have checked her room, but her security system is dead, so she isn't there. We are about to start going room by room." Without a reason to think she is in danger, the guards know Tevos would have a fit if she knew they checked each room, invading the privacy of her estate members, even if it was to look for herself.
Ophelia looks around those gathered with her by the vent; of the estate members in attendance, she is the most senior member, even if she is not the oldest. "Is the doctor onsite?"
The guard clenches her fists, "No, your the next most senior estate member."
Ophelia blows out hard before blinking, "Wait here and give me 5, if I haven't found her, I'll help search the rooms." If Tevos is angered by the decision, only Ophelia receives her wrath, not the other estate members with her.
With an idea in mind, Ophelia quickly makes her way towards Shepard's room and knocks lightly on the door; she knows the Human would typically be in a deep sleep by now, so she doesn't particularly fancy waking her.
Not hearing anything to suggest anyone is awake in the room, Ophelia gently opens the door and peaks in only to witness two bodies fast asleep under a quilt on the bed. With a smirk, Ophelia gently closes the door, doing her best to make sure she makes as little noise as possible.
Getting back to where she left the guard, Ophelia lets her know the Matriarch is not missing and where to find her, but before allowing the guard to return to her duties, she lets her know that the Matriarch is asleep. Sitting down a few moments later in her original spot, Ophelia pulls a thick and heavy blanket over her, desperate for the warmth it will provide, the heating may have returned, but the Citadel is still a large ice block.
"Your grinning like a Salarian who has found a hive of swamp flies." A fellow estate member accuses of her, "So, share the eezo."
"Guilty." Ophelia replies, "So, our Matriarch and Shepard are getting close." Seeing their eyes light up, Ophelia goes on to say, "This information goes nowhere. Shepard is private enough as it is, never mind how private the Matriarch is."
Those around Ophelia look a little disappointed, "That's nothing we already didn't know. They are pretty obvious about it."
Ophelia blinks; it is true the estate mostly knows that their Matriarch and Shepard were getting close, but how close they actually are is not well known. "I'm not saying anything happened," Ophelia reveals, "But their sharing body warmth at the moment."
Typically, Ophelia would not have shared this information, but it is now essential for the estate to know. If they invite Shepard to any event, it is now far more likely that their Matriarch will be in attendance or scrutinised by the Matriarch for suitability to attend. Additionally, if anyone outside the estate catches on and questions them, they need to know the lines to take, whether they are to confirm or deny. It also means any advances on Shepard are now firmly off the table unless they wish for their Matriarchs scorn.
Cheers all.