Chapter 7
Two days later...
Tim was a little hesitant about coming to work. He had not been admitted to the hospital. By the time he was actually seen by anyone, his heart rate had calmed significantly. He had been evaluated and then told to take it easy for a day or two. The scrape on his foot had not required stitches. All in all, he had very little physical damage from his experience. That was fine with him. He had been taken home and he had been so glad to go to sleep and not talk and not have any noise that he had enjoyed his time off. He hadn't even turned on his computer once. He just wanted quiet and he found the sound of his computer fan, soft though it was, to be just a little bit too much like the sound of Legion's hundreds of CPUs.
Now, however, it was time to give his full account of what he'd done. His reluctance to give those details had not ebbed. He was just so sure that explaining what had happened would result in being lectured... or worse, stared at in silence by Gibbs.
He stopped at the entrance and swallowed. How much trouble would he be in for what he'd done?
What if I just didn't go inside?
Tim scoffed at the ridiculous thought. He couldn't do that. He had to give his account today and he would probably have to give even more details to Dr. Kosir later.
Standing out here isn't going to make it go away.
A deep breath.
"What are you doing, Tim? Is the door locked?"
The voice was accompanied by a hand on his arm. Tim let out an undignified yelp of surprise and turned.
"Whoa! Calm down!" Kate said, smiling. "Are you all right? What are you doing out here?"
Tim bit his lip. Kate had been really supportive after Erin had been killed... but still... He wasn't sure if he wanted her to realize how uncertain he was. ...but she wasn't Tony who would likely only torment him. He decided to gauge how in trouble he might be by Kate's reaction.
"How much trouble am I in?" he asked, tentatively.
"Why would you be in trouble at all?" Kate asked, her brow furrowing. She did seem genuinely confused.
"I'm sure I didn't do everything right. I mean... I just... and when I have to explain it all... I-I think that... I don't know. It's just..." His lack of eloquence embarrassed him and he stopped talking, blushing furiously and staring at his shoes. After a second or two, he chanced a side glance at Kate.
Kate smiled although she seemed surprised.
"Tim, everyone survived. I'm pretty sure that counts as doing it right. You never know when our job is going to be dangerous and you stepped up just like you had to. You're not in trouble. So get on in there before we're late. Because then you really would be in trouble."
Tim smiled weakly and let Kate propel him through the door, through security and to the elevator.
When he got off the elevator, he walked over to his desk and set his stuff down.
"Don't get comfortable, McGee," Gibbs said, striding in. "Let's go and get this done."
"Oh. Uh... okay. Sure." That was way too casual. "I mean, yes, Boss."
Tim looked over at Kate for a moment. She smiled encouragingly and gestured. He didn't see that he had any real choice in the matter so he followed Gibbs who hadn't even slowed down. They walked to a conference room. Gibbs sat down at the table and Tim did the same, only barely keeping himself from hunching over. He waited for Gibbs to berate him for something he'd done. He didn't know what it would be, but he was sure it was coming. Gibbs was always so impatient. He probably hated that he had to do this at all. After a few seconds of silence, he thought maybe he should try to make it easier for Gibbs to dismiss him and get back to his more important work.
"Uh... Boss?"
"What, McGee?"
"I could... just... just write it all down if you don't have time for it."
Gibbs' eyebrow went up in that dreaded silent question and there was no one around to distract him this time.
"I mean... I know you're really busy and it... it doesn't have to be... oral... or vocal... or..." Man, I'm stupid. "...does it?"
For a moment, the eyebrow stayed up and Gibbs stared at him. Tim's words left his brain completely and he wasn't sure he even remembered English anymore.
"McGee... do you think you're in here because you're in trouble?"
Tim felt his eyes widen.
"Am I?" he asked.
For just a second, almost to quick to be sure, Gibbs seemed genuinely amused. Then, that was gone and he was back to his usual grumpy expression.
"No, McGee. You're not. Debriefings are required. You have to give an account anyway and I want this done before Dr. Kosir decides to start pushing. I'd rather we have the details first."
"Oh...okay. Um...where do you want me to start? I haven't had to... do this until... with Erin." Tim swallowed and glanced away for a moment but didn't dare look away for long.
Another flicker in Gibbs' expression that Tim wasn't sure he was reading right. It seemed almost like sympathy, but Gibbs wouldn't be sympathetic. He didn't do that unless it was a child or Abby.
"Start with when you went into the computer room. You'll have to put all the other parts in your written report later."
Gibbs got out a small audio recorder and started it running. Tim gulped at that. Man, were they really going to record his voice? They hadn't done this with Erin. Was it just because of the classified stuff? He didn't feel like he could ask.
"Okay."
The moment had arrived and Tim really was worried about describing everything. What if he said it wrong? Or what if his decisions had been bad? What if–?
"You're not talking, McGee."
"Right... um.. Sorry..." No! No apologies! "I mean..."
Suddenly, Gibbs set down his pen and turned off the recorder. He looked at Tim for a long time.
"Why don't you want to talk about it, McGee?"
"I... I don't... know what you mean, Boss," Tim said, although he was lying.
The eyebrow went up again. The dreaded silent eyebrow raise and it stayed up. Gibbs said nothing. He was just waiting. Tim knew he had to say something.
"I... I know that everything worked out and... and I'm glad, but... but I didn't do everything right. I was... I was guessing. I was... If I got it wrong, you guys would have died! And the decisions I made... maybe... And... And..." Again, Tim ran out of coherent words to say.
Gibbs stared at him for another long moment but without the eyebrow raise.
"It's not your fault that Erin Kendall died," he said.
Tim stared down at the table and said nothing.
"Sometimes, even when you're doing the right thing... people still die."
"If it's right, it should work," Tim said softly.
"It should, but sometimes it doesn't."
Tim swallowed a lump in his throat.
"Because you wouldn't give up, we solved our case and solved other cold cases."
"It... I only did that because of Erin," Tim confessed. He'd never admitted that before. "It wasn't because of the evidence like I said it was. It was because... of her. I wasn't really being an agent. I was..."
"I know."
Tim looked up in surprise.
"You know?"
"I know."
"Oh."
"That happens sometimes, and you still followed procedures."
Finally, Tim let out the worst part.
"But Erin would have lived if I hadn't done that. If I had just..."
"You don't know that. Maybe Pryor would have killed her anyway and gotten away with it because you weren't there to figure it out." Then, Gibbs pointed to his pad. "And you were doing your best this time. If it hadn't worked, it wouldn't have been your fault."
Tim swallowed again and glanced away for another second or two.
"Now, start from when you went into the room."
Tim looked back and saw Gibbs start recording again. He took a deep breath.
"Okay. So... I was just guessing on which way to go. I should have asked Dr. Kosir first. He probably could have..."
"Just say what you did do, not what you should have done."
"Okay. I got into the room a ways and then Legion said I was going to be tested. Whatever the... the bug was... it prevented Legion from being able to accept any human presence as valid. No matter how many tests I did, every time was like the first test, as if he... it... as if Legion didn't store the results of the previous test. But he mentioned previous tests, too. So I don't know."
Tim paused and watched as Gibbs jotted down the notes. He couldn't see if there was commentary in the notes. There weren't many words there. No big surprise.
"Should I give all the computer details? I-I know you don't really..." Tim choked back on suggesting that Gibbs wouldn't understand the details. "...or do you need them or... should I just..."
"Keep going, McGee."
"Okay. The first test was a circuit diagram and Legion assigned me to tell everything I could about it before I could go any further. I had 90 seconds. I passed and then I kept going. After a little bit, I made a wrong turn." Tim really wanted to apologize for it, but he managed to not say that he was sorry this time. "Legion said that made me suspect and I had to do another test. This one was a math problem. And... well..."
Gibbs looked up from his notes.
"What, McGee?"
"I had to answer before I drowned."
The eyebrow went up again.
"I... I-I was trapped by some glass panels and I think that Legion was rerouting water used as coolant and piping it into the space. He... It said that I had only until it filled with water to answer. If I couldn't, I was an invader and I would be killed."
"That's why you were wet?"
"Yeah. I made it."
"Obviously. How close?"
"Just barely." Again, Tim absurdly wanted to apologize for nearly drowning. He tried to say sorry without saying sorry. "Matrix mathematics isn't something I've done for a while and I could have been faster, but..."
"You made it."
"Yes, Boss."
"What next?"
"I wasn't moving as fast after that. I was afraid I'd take another wrong turn. But I kept going until I got to another junction. I was trapped there and I had to take another test. Legion said that I was still suspect but not yet considered a threat. I had to decide which way to go and grab hold of a grid. I could ask three questions in order to choose. The wrong one would kill me. The right one would only give me a shock."
Gibbs looked up and his brow furrowed.
"Why?"
"I don't know, but that was what it told me. I couldn't chance that it was lying."
"Was it?"
"I don't think so."
"How did you get through?"
"I asked which one was safe to touch."
Gibbs' brow furrowed. Tim blushed a little. It was the least amazing thing he'd done. It still felt a little like cheating.
"It... I didn't have any... any way to get... through. I had to try something. If I didn't... so I just... asked because Legion hadn't expressly stated that was against the rules."
"It answered?"
"Yes. Computers have to obey commands unless there's a part of the program that allows them to disregard the command. So I figured that I had a pretty good chance of getting an answer by asking. I was right. It answered and showed the right way. And I got a shock but it didn't kill me," Tim said, and then reddened again. "Obviously."
"Was that it?"
"No. The last one was when the alarm went off. At least, I think that was the last test since no one else heard it. It was really loud and I think it was supposed to be an extra distraction. I was trapped at the computer station and it was putting exhaust, probably from the generators, into the space, replacing the oxygen. I almost didn't get it done before I passed out, but I got you guys out and then sent the command for Legion to go back into normal operating mode."
There was a long pause as if Gibbs was expecting something more, but without giving details that Gibbs wouldn't understand or might be classified, Tim wasn't sure what else to say.
"...and that's it," he said, rather lamely.
There was another long pause. Then, Gibbs looked up at him.
"Could the computer have made these things by itself?"
"I-I-I don't know, Boss," Tim said. "I didn't... I'm not an expert on supercomputers."
"Could it?"
"Not completely. Dr. Kosir said that they created the question banks, so the idea that they could have to verify their identities based on being experts in the field could have been programmed in. The glass walls were clearly part of the original plan."
"Suffocating and drowning and electrocuting people?"
"I guess it's possible that they programmed that, but I think it's more likely that the protective mode contained some coding that instructed Legion to protect itself and keep invaders from reaching the station. If the coding got corrupted, that could have been interpreted by Legion to do it by any means possible."
"It's a computer."
"Yes... but it's not just a computer."
The eyebrow went up and Tim hurried to answer the silent question.
"Legion is an example of artificial intelligence. The computer has enough programming power to...extrapolate. It can take instructions and create solutions based on the provided parameters. If they didn't give strict enough parameters, then, a literal interpretation of keep people out based on tests could easily become killing them. Then, there is no chance that any invader could progress. Legion chose based on its programming."
"You saying that it's alive?"
"No! No, but it can perform so many calculations simultaneously that it can extrapolate what instructions mean. It's only as smart as the people who programmed it and Dr. Kosir said that it wasn't ready to be tested yet. Most programs have bugs the first run through."
"Bugs?"
"I know... it sounds bad... but that's what it was. A corrupted file, a misplace code. A bug. It's just that Legion had so much power available that its bugs could be extremely dangerous."
"You don't think that Legion was deliberately programmed to kill?"
And now, Tim was seeing at least part of the reason for recording his account and getting it done before speaking to Dr. Kosir. Was it possible that someone at DefSea had intentionally set Legion up to kill?
"No, I don't. If it was, it wouldn't have done the tests. Remember that the petty officer had been part of program. He was authorized to be there most of the time. And I wouldn't have been allowed to make it. The tests didn't have to happen. The programming could have been that, when Annexstad put his code in, Legion killed him. In this case, it just seems that the protective mode was triggered and couldn't be shut off. If Annexstad hadn't been killed, they might have gone the route of shutting the power to the entire facility down and waiting until the backup power was gone."
"That's what it would have taken?"
"Maybe." Tim felt a sudden surge of whimsy, but he wasn't sure how Gibbs would take it. "It's the ultimate fix for computers, you know. Turning it off and turning it back on again."
For just a moment, Tim worried that he'd gone too far in making jokes about the situation, but then, there was the faintest quirk of a smile before Gibbs looked at his notes again. Finally, he reached over and turned off the recorder. Tim let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"When Dr. Kosir contacts you, you can give him the details he wants. No suggestions about our suspicions."
Tim nodded.
"You think this was an accident, then?"
"Yes," Tim said.
"The Navy is going to ask since we did the investigation. Do you think that this demonstrates the failure of the Legion program?"
Tim swallowed and felt his eyes widen. He wasn't ready to give his opinion on something that could have such huge consequences. It would affect a lot of people and what if he was wrong? He glanced at the recorder. It was still off.
"You're not making the decision, McGee," Gibbs said. "I want your opinion. You were in there dealing with it."
Tim smiled weakly. "I think... it demonstrates the dangers inherent in leaving protection completely to a computer, no matter how advanced. But it's possible that it could be fixed. One easy addition would simply be a no-kill policy in the programming. Legion could be allowed to detain but not to put them in situations that would lead to death. But even that would have to be carefully programmed. The interpretation of the program could lead to the assumption that everything was inherently dangerous to life and so do nothing or it could still lead to the situation where detention in a space that is losing oxygen isn't killing a person. It's simply detaining them. With no chance for being released. It will probably take years to get it right. But no matter what else it was a mistake to put it online so soon and according to Dr. Kosir, that was the Navy's fault, not DefSea's." Tim almost winced at how vehement his last sentence was. But he meant it. Everything about his interactions with Legion demonstrated that whoever had made the decision had made a huge mistake, one that had ended up killing a member of the Navy.
Another lengthy silence. Then, Gibbs suddenly stood up. Tim bounced to his feet as well, not wanting to make any kind of delay.
"Why are you here, McGee?" Gibbs asked.
"Uh... I don't know what you... you mean, Boss."
"Why aren't you doing stuff like this?"
"Like what?"
"Legion."
"Not what I want, Boss." Tim thought about when he had been talking to Erin about always wanting to be in law enforcement.
"Why not? You're good at it."
Tim felt his face heat up. "Thanks... but it was never what I wanted."
The eyebrow went up.
"Really. I love computers. I love what I can do with them. I enjoy it. But what Dr. Kosir does is never what I wanted for myself. Computers are a tool to do the job, not the job itself."
They stared at each other, Tim feeling worried that, again, he'd said too much. Then, that brief quirk of a smile once again.
"Good."
Gibbs walked over to the door. Tim was still standing there, staring at him. Huh?
"Back to work, McGee."
Tim mentally kicked himself into gear and hurried over to the door.
"Right, Boss."
Tim started down the hall.
"Glad you're on the team."
Startled, Tim look back at Gibbs, waiting for the lecture or some kind of heavy but.
It didn't happen.
"Back to work," Gibbs said again, almost smiling.
This time, Tim smiled and nodded and then walked to his desk and sat down. For the first time since Erin had been killed, he thought that, just maybe, he could do this job. Maybe he really did deserve to be here.
"Hey, Probie, that Kosir guy called, practically salivating about getting to talk to you," Tony said. "Don't give away any trade secrets."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Tim said. He looked at Gibbs.
"Call him back," Gibbs said. "No time to help him out until next week."
"Yes, Boss."
Tim reached for his phone and looked at Kate. She had the questioning look in her eyes. He smiled and nodded. She smiled back and then returned to her own work.
As he returned the call, he looked around the room and realized that he still really did want to be here. Even as the reality of this job he'd wanted for so long showed itself to be more complicated than he had imagined, he still wanted it.
...and I have it.
FINIS!