2010: Why HAL Went Crazy

Another short one, with Floyd telling Caroline about the outcome of his mission...and that it was a waste of time.

Discovery, Floyd's quarters

After he's chewed Victor Milson out

Dear Caroline,

God, this is so hard. You know I came up here at least partly to find out why Discovery failed. Well, I did find out. And...it was a waste of time.

I cannot apologise enough.

Okay, here it is. Back in '99 scientists discovered something odd in the Tycho Crater on the Moon: a very intense magnetic field. At first it looked like an outcrop of magnetic rock - the Moon doesn't have a magnetic field like Earth's, and a compass reading gives you more of a bearing on a mineral deposit than a geographical direction. But the local geology - selenology? - ruled out a mineral deposit. So they went to have a look.

Ultrasound imaging gave them a picture of what appeared to be an obelisk of some sort. They started drilling...and when the drill hit whatever it was some forty feet down, the bit shattered. It was made at Clavius Base, of Lonsdaleite - the hardest substance known, even harder than diamond. So whatever this thing was, it was the hardest thing they'd ever encountered. They started digging. Believe me, I'm glad I wasn't in that party - digging through basalt, in spacesuits, in freezing and/or boiling temperatures? Not for me, thanks!

All they found was this black monolith. No other artefacts, no markings, nothing. Just the monolith. One odd thing: when they measured it and worked out the ratios between depth, width and height, it was exactly - and I mean exactly - 1:4:9. No-one could, or can, explain why. But it can't be a coincidence, because this ratio holds no matter how precisely we measure it. It might even go down to atomic level.

Its edges are definitely dangerous - one poor guy ran his hand along one and it slashed the glove and his hand. He was lucky not to lose the use of it.

They were able to date it based on how far down it was. They thought at first it was a Chinese joke or something, but its age meant it had nothing to do with the human race...because it'd been there for four million years. Back then we were barely discovering bone tools - no way could we have made anything like that.

Plus it wasn't covered up by natural erosion or other forces. It was deliberately buried.

We were about to take a photo when it blasted out a very powerful radio pulse. We were nearly deafened. The pulse was tracked across the solar system, and it turned out to be aimed exactly at Jupiter.

The pulse was just a beep, no information. We think now it was just to say 'hey, they found me' and to attract our attention towards Jupiter.

Some of this you probably know - I'm just going over it for background.

Now Discovery was already being planned; the original idea was just to explore the Jovian system. But that transmission changed everything. Apparently there was something - or someone - at Jupiter. We had a chance for first contact, the first proof that we aren't alone. Now the Monolith was already proof of that, but at the time the global situation was such that a sudden announcement would have caused culture shock and maybe global panic.

So the President decided it should stay a secret while we investigated it, and meanwhile a campaign would be started to gradually prepare people, so when we did announce it, the world wouldn't be so shocked. We'd half expected to find something while we were exploring the solar system...just not so close to home, you know?

The emphasis for Discovery was secretly changed. The investigative team now received separate training - first contact was their top priority, exploration second. The command crew, Dave Bowman and Frank Poole, and the whole world, were told that they were put aboard already in hibernation to save on food, water and air. It made sense - until Discovery reached Jupiter they'd have nothing much to do, so it was more efficient.

All that was the truth, and nothing but the truth. But it sure as hell wasn't the whole truth. The real reason was to make absolutely sure they didn't blab to Bowman or Poole about the real reason for going. It'd been decided the command crew didn't need to know until they got there and the team was revived.

I think that was a mistake in itself - if they were worried about the secret leaking out, the crew could have been briefed on a secure transmission once they were en route. They could've been ordered not to say anything premature. They were professionals, they would've understood. I should know, 'cause I picked 'em!

But...there was a big problem: HAL.

HAL was designed to operate even if the crew all bought it somehow or went crazy. If he had to - yeah, Chandra calls him 'he', and I'm not comfortable with 'it' - he could carry out the mission on his own. But to do that, he'd need to know exactly what the mission was.

So they told him.

Another mistake - they could've securely briefed the crew and HAL once they were en route, and he'd have been even less likely to blab. But now comes the biggest mistake of all.

He was told why they were going...and told - programmed, in fact - NOT TO TELL BOWMAN OR POOLE.

Caroline, I swear on Christopher's life that I did not know that. I recommended keeping it temporarily secret, yes, and telling Bowman, Poole and HAL at the same time. But they didn't. They didn't realise it, but they - specifically, the NSC - had programmed HAL to lie. By omission, yes, but that's still lying. It's why courts make a witness swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Now the explanation gets kinda technical.

When Chandra designed, built and programmed HAL, he designed the computer for absolute truth and accuracy. No distortion, no concealment. Just the full, complete, accurate facts. It never occurred to him that this and the requirements of security would ever be in conflict. He never dreamed anyone would ever order HAL to lie, even by omission. But the NSC did exactly that.

HAL was designed for truth. But he was programmed to lie. That set up a conflict which began destroying his mind. Now I could argue - and Chandra sure as hell did - that HAL tried to find a way out. He asked Bowman some roundabout questions, trying to find out how much, if anything, the command crew knew about the Monolith. If they knew, it'd be okay to talk to them. But they didn't. Bowman thought he was just working up his crew psychology report.

Now HAL could still reason logically. Everything in him was insisting he tell them. But his programming was saying 'no!'. So he decided that the only way he couldn't tell anyone...was if there was no-one to tell. So he faked a fault in a control component of the main antenna dish. Bowman went out, pulled the unit, tested it on Discovery...and found there was nothing wrong with it. HAL suggested putting it back and letting it fail, so they could track down the cause. They'd only be out of touch for a few minutes.

I have to admit they underestimated HAL.

The command crew met in a pod and closed off all external feeds, so they and HAL couldn't hear each other, and discussed what to do it the unit didn't fail. HAL had total control of Discovery, but if they couldn't trust him, they'd have to disconnect him and set things up so Mission Control could run the mission from the ground. But while HAL couldn't hear them, he could read their lips - and he knew from that that his number was up.

They decided to carry on with the analysis anyway - it seemed a good idea. Never occurred to them that HAL could take action while one of them was outside. So they okayed it with Mission Control.

But while Poole was outside, the pod he was using apparently went haywire, and HAL couldn't stop it. The pod hit Poole, and he suffocated when his air line came loose. Bowman went after him, on the faint chance he was still alive, or maybe could be frozen for revival and surgery back on Earth. He was in so much of a hurry he forgot his helmet. He went after Poole - or rather, as it turned out, his body.

Meanwhile, HAL was panicking - or the computer equivalent - on Discovery. Once the survey team was revived, they would naturally ask where Bowman and Poole were. HAL would have had to confess he'd killed them, and then they might have disconnected him. So he shut off their life support.

When Bowman got back to Discovery, HAL refused to let him back in, thinking he'd be stuck out there long enough to run out of oxygen and suffocate. Bowman only got back in by sheer ingenuity; he triggered the explosive bolts on the pod's hatch, so it blew him out in the explosive decompression - right into the emergency airlock Bowman had opened.

Once he got the spare helmet out of the airlock and pressurised the suit, there was nothing more HAL could do to him. He went to HAL's logic centre and disconnected him. Then he encountered the large Monolith, went out to investigate, and...well, I don't know.

But the gist of it was that the worst failure in the history of space travel was caused by...a bug. A programming conflict.

And for this I risked my marriage. My life.

My time with Christopher.

For nothing.

I have made the biggest mistake of my entire life, Caroline, and I truly hope you can forgive me.

This is Heywood Floyd, signing off.

Floyd's home

As Caroline receives the transmission

Dear God, Caroline thought, near tears she would never have let Chris see (luckily he was staying over at Tom Fisher's home). Killed by a bug. Oh, those poor men.

And poor Heywood. He was so determined to find out why it happened, for any future missions...if there are any.

If there's any future at all, for any of us.

Across hundreds of millions of miles of empty space (even by the 21st Century, the US still hadn't gone metric - Author's Note: We are now very nearly a quarter of the way into this century, and it still hasn't, and isn't likely to in the near future!), she sent her prayers and best wishes to Heywood, though he would never know it.

She forgave him.

Floyd's bedroom

The night after Caroline tests pregnant

Floyd murmured, "Caroline?"

She sat up and teased, "Uh-oh. You only use that tone of voice when you aren't sure about something."

But he didn't rise to it. "I'm serious."

Caroline sobered and kissed him. "Sorry, Heywood. Go ahead."

"I..." He sighed. "I am so sorry. To go all that way, to do all that work, to risk my marriage...and all of it for nothing. If you want a divorce, I -"

She kissed him again. "Would I have gotten pregnant if I wanted a divorce? Heywood, I said all along: what happened was not your fault. Okay, neither of us knew why, and I agree it was a stupid mistake...but it wasn't your mistake. And if you think about it, the whole thing was not for nothing. You did what you meant to do: find out what happened and figure out how to prevent it in the future.

"And now," she smiled, "there will be a future, now the President and the Premier have seen sense. There will be future missions - and Discovery simply can't happen again, because now the secret's out - We Are Not Alone. The whole world knows it. If there's ever another HAL, we'll be able to trust him because there'll be no more lies."

Floyd chuckled. "Actually, there will be another HAL - Chandra learned a lot from HAL and SAL. As I speak, he's holed up in Urbana developing HAL 10000. Bigger, better, smarter...and with something like the Three Laws programmed into him/her. He says the computer's gender will be up for debate."

"Is the NCA going back to Jupiter?"

He nodded. "We've been warned away from Europa, but there are plenty of other worlds to explore, and we're free to do it. We know now that the aerobraking manoeuvre definitely works - even though it's scary as hell," he winced, and she chuckled, "- so future missions can be made cheaper by using gravity slingshots. No reason, either, why the ballute can't be used for both ends of the mission - slowing down once you've got to where you're going, and slowing down again once you've come back. It can inflate and deflate. A HAL can easily handle all that."

"So everything's coming up roses," she summed up. She kissed him again. "And you?"

Floyd smiled. "Victor's decided to step down. The NCA has invited me back. All is forgiven."

"Especially since none of it was your fault in the first place," she sniped.

"Yeah, there is that."

That was her cue to initiate lovemaking with him.

Caroline's workplace

The next day

"Hey, Caroline," Sally McBride greeted her. "How's -"

She was interrupted by Caroline gently taking her face in both hands and kissing her deeply.

When Caroline broke the kiss, Sally said slowly, "You have never shown interest in women before. While not being prejudiced against lesbians and bis, and good for you, you aren't, or weren't, either one yourself. So either this is the female equivalent of a mid-life crisis, or it's a one-off." Now she smiled, lascivious. "But I have to admit I enjoyed it."

That was putting it mildly, Sally thought. Her nipples were even harder than usual; her thin top was of Chinese silk, and she'd always liked the way it felt against her bare breasts - bare because, being the randy bitch she was proud to admit she was, she seldom wore a bra. Her breasts were 36B, so she could just about get away with it.

She seldom wore panties either, preferring the airflow over her shaved genitals (she'd read somewhere that going commando tended to prevent thrush, so, she was prepared to argue with any critic, there were health issues).

But it was as well she was wearing (skimpy) panties today...because the kiss from Caroline had left her dripping wet. Without the panties to soak up her sex juices, they would likely be trickling down one leg.

Ooh, she loved getting wet. It made bringing herself off so much easier, affording sexy-smelling lubrication.

How will she feel, Sally wondered excitedly, if I come on to her? God, she's so sexy. How did I not notice before?

Is she wet? Ooh, I hope so.

"I wanted to thank you," Caroline said warmly, "for the terrific favour you did me by setting me up. Doesn't matter that I never went through with it - you still did it, and I'm very grateful. I should've said so before now."

Sally replied soberly, "You're my friend, Caroline." My lover soon, I hope. "I just wanted to help you." Now she grinned. "And everything worked out with John! For reasons I can't explain even to myself, I kept the baby he gave me! I'm surprising everyone, even me!"

"Then you can give me support," Caroline chuckled.

"Sure I will, what do you -?" She broke off as it hit her. "No!" she squealed. "Are you pregnant?!"

Laughing, Caroline confirmed it.

"Oh my God oh my God oh my God! Oh, that's WONDERFUL!" She started crying happy and hugged Caroline.

Everyone in the office congratulated her, even the (blushing) coffee boy.

By late evening Caroline and Sally were the last to leave, tidying up. Caroline smiled and said, "See you tomorrow."

Sally stopped her. "Wait a moment."

"Mmm?"

The slightly younger woman took Caroline's face in both hands, as the latter had earlier done to her. "Caroline, I actually meant it. I really enjoyed that kiss. I would really like to do it again."

"As a friend?" Caroline asked, though she sensed not.

"No," Sally said quietly. "I know you aren't interested in women, Caroline, and I don't want to press or offend you. But the thing is...I got wet when you kissed me. I really liked it. A lot." Caroline couldn't help but notice Sally's nipples were hard through her thin top. She seldom wore a bra, and wasn't wearing one now. "I think you're really beautiful. I will make love with you any way you like."

With that, Sally kissed her. She wasn't shy about it. She openly caressed Caroline's tongue with her own. It was a friendly kiss, but there was no pretence that it was anything other than sexual. In fact Caroline could smell Sally's arousal.

For her part, Caroline neither encouraged her nor fought her, though she did return the kiss. It wasn't until Sally made a little moan and Caroline felt Sally's hand on her breast that she gently disengaged. The kiss was lingering, and there was a tiny thread of saliva between their mouths.

Very gently she whispered, "Sally, I can't. I'm really sorry."

Sally didn't move her hand, but neither did she squeeze. It was clear that the offer was there, but Sally wasn't pushing it. Caroline appreciated that.

"Sweetheart, I'm flattered, honestly." Caroline smiled, a tad impish. "If I have a woman offering to take me to bed, I must be hot."

"Doesn't have to be in bed," Sally murmured. "We can do it right here. No-one will disturb us."

Caroline smiled sadly. "If I do, I'm cheating on Heywood. If you recall, that's why I turned John down...and why you, you randy bitch," she teased, "were free to go for him in my place."

"You won't cheat on Heywood," Sally understood, sighing, "even with another woman. Trust me to pick probably the last faithful woman on Earth." She stroked Caroline's cheek. "I mean it. I really want to make love with you."

"And as I said, I'm really flattered. But honestly, Heywood deserves better...especially after all he's been through." She was gentle, but firm.

Sally accepted this. "Okay. Can I at least feel your tit?"

Caroline laughed and let her.

"He is one lucky bastard. He has a wife who's given him one child and is about to give him another; who is unrelentingly smart; who is utterly gorgeous and so sexy she even appeals to women...and on top of all that, she is faithful to him, even after two and a half years of waiting. Okay." She removed her hand from Caroline's breast. "I hope you're not offended or anything."

If nothing else, Caroline was magnanimous. "It's not offensive to be lusted after. No offence meant, and none taken, really," she assured Sally.

"Are we still friends?"

Caroline hugged her, making sure she understood the gesture was friendly and not sexual. "Of course we are. Your coming on to me doesn't affect our friendship. We're both too mature for that." She kissed Sally again, but although it was on her sensual lips, it wasn't sexual either, just a friendly peck.

Sally smiled warmly. "You are such a good friend, Caroline." Then she quipped, "Can I be the godmother?"

Both laughed, but Caroline merrily agreed.

Floyd's bedroom

That night

Curiously Floyd asked, "You were a little late tonight. Mind telling me how come?"

Caroline debated whether or not to tell him. Strictly speaking there was nothing to tell. She hadn't had sex with Sally (not, if she was honest with herself, that she hadn't been just that little bit tempted). But she wanted to be as honest as he had always been.

So she shrugged and said, "Oh, that was Sally's fault. She came on to me."

He stared at her, surprised. "She did? Wow. Did you take her on?"

Coyly she teased, "Would it matter if I had?"

"Well, I'm not sure," he admitted, "although I always thought you were sexy enough to make Venus switch to Lesbos."

She laughed, while appreciating the compliment. "You do know the whole Lesbos thing is a myth?"

"Sappho, then," he allowed.

"Ooh, I was tempted," she teased again. But then she sobered. "But I love you, Heywood. I admit to being enormously flattered - Sally is just gorgeous, sex on legs. She smelled excited, and delicious. And I can't say I was completely not turned on. She didn't push it, she made it clear it was my choice but the offer was there. And," she smiled again, "human sexuality being the complex, fluid thing we now know it to be, I honestly can't and won't say never. She's a lovely person, too, and I'm sure it would be fun. But for now, for right now..."

With that, she slid off her brief (wet) knickers and spread her legs. Heywood did not even dream of refusing the sensual, earnest offer.

They made love all night.

Her friendship with Sally had changed a little: now Sally occasionally teased her about how sexy she was, and was touching her more often. In fact this did Caroline a favour: At a party (whilst Heywood, the new NCA Chairman, was consulting at Clavius), a guest started making advances in which she wasn't remotely interested. Sally came to her rescue, giving her a fruity French kiss and squeezing her shapely bottom. Caroline reciprocated by squeezing Sally's right breast.

The guy shook his head and gave up.

Having watched Tank Girl together the previous night, Caroline said, à la Jet Girl, "Thanks. I think it worked."

Playing her part of Tank Girl to perfection, Sally returned, "What worked?"

They burst out laughing and hugged.

Caroline never told anyone that her sexual fantasies now featured Sally - naked, flushed and perspiring. And dripping wet.

THE END