Chapter 33: Low Tech

Arnison and Mia removed the helmets of their surface suits. Arnison looked around and was quite impressed with the space.

"This is the prototype of what we call a 'HOOCH'," Mia remarked. "We have located these as supplied stopover points scattered across the surface. It allows us to extend the range of our exploration and provides comfortable shelter outside of our vehicles."

Arnison replied, "I can see how this would be of great benefit in exploring this planet! We never really did that much exploration of Mars. Out mission and interest was on Earth. We just used Mars as a convenient base."

"Then you have missed much," Mia quipped. "We would be happy to share our information with you about Mars. It is quite fascinating."

"We would appreciate that," Arnison said. "Now tell me more of this place."

"As I said, this was the prototype for our 'HOOCHes.' Since this is so close to our main colony I have had it refitted as a 'retreat.'

"Would you explain what you mean by 'retreat?' The translator says that you would come here if you were losing a military battle! Surely from what you have already said that is not the purpose."

"Not at all," Mia chuckled. "By 'retreat' I mean that it is a place I can get away with my senior staff for an uninterrupted, extended meeting. For the uninterrupted part, I have had this place modified so that it has no communication with the outside. That way we can meet and people are not being distracted by messages. This is particularly useful for planning. There are also no recording devices here. This allows people to speak 'off the record' and not feel inhibited about saying directly what they are thinking."

Arnison was nodding, "Yes. Yes. I can see how that would be useful."

Mia went on, "The only outside link is an emergency button. It is entirely analog and cannot be used to transmit data. If pressed, then a rescue team will be here within minutes."

"That is good."

"This place is not just for my use. Anyone in the colony can use it, so long as they reserve it through my office. Given what you wanted to discuss, I thought that this would be the right place. Now, can I get you a cup of tea?" Mia offered.

33.2

Mia sat looking at Arnison. "You're kidding me, right?"

"I wish I was joking," Arnison replied. "However, I have spent the past two weeks having daily conversations with Unit 38 or 'Marcipor' as he is now calling himself."

"Things still do not add up," Mia stated. "You shut down your systems when you left. He should have been dormant like any other computer program until he was reactivated. How could he have been running for over a millennium and not either run out of power, had a software crash, or just put himself on standby? Sorry, English is difficult when it comes to referring to objects and disembodied intelligences. This is assuming Marcipor is really intelligent and not just mimicking."

"I think what happened, but I can't be certain, is that someone chose to stay behind. Daria has told me that you have not performed a thorough search of our complex. Someone could certainly have died in there and you would not know it. When we left the intent was to send a smaller group of observers to the post within a very few years. With the wreck of our ship we never made it home for the next group to be sent."

"So why didn't your people send a search party for you? Wouldn't the accident have triggered a homing beacon of some type so that at least searchers could engage in a recovery mission?"

"I am puzzled as well. You are right. When we were overdue there should have been a search party sent out. That party would have looked for our distress beacon. This is why the facts just don't seem to add up. Now if there was no beacon, then finding us would be nearly impossible. Your solar system is a big place and finding our ship amongst all of the planets, moons, the surfaces of all of the objects from here to the end of your solar system, not to mention all of the debris, is simply unlikely if not impossible. Furthermore, since I am not the captain I have no direct knowledge of why we entered Uranus' rings."

"I take it that the logs you have been reviewing have not shed any light on that."

"No. The logs are somewhat fragmented. There was enough damage to the computing system that they are not complete. I do not have the order to deviate from the original flight path, but I do have the record of the navigation computer executing the change."

"Hmm," was Mia's reaction. "You don't have any personal memory of being told that you were deviating from your flight path and why?"

"None," Arnison replied. "I remember going about my duties. There was nothing out of the ordinary until we were struck by the first piece of rock in the rings."

Mia pondered what Arnison had said. "So, what you are telling me is that your ship deviated from its flight path. No one was made aware of this in advance. The computer logs show the change but not the order. And I would suggest that your shields must have been down in order for the debris to hit you. Furthermore, your forward sensing had to be either inoperable or intentionally turned off."

Arnison nodded. "Yes, we are of the same mind when it comes to the basic facts of the situation at the moment."

"Let me ask you this very directly," Mia stated. "How does your society regard suicide? It looks to me like someone intentionally crashed your ship. My initial guess would be either the Captain or the Helmsman.

"A couple of thoughts," Arnison replied after a moment's reflection. "To us suicide is unthinkable. It is deeply taboo and our children are taught about the great value of life from their youngest days. We have professionals who help people having great personal difficulties. Furthermore, murder and suicide are viewed much the same. Suicide is seen as murder of the self. Someone intentionally destroying the ship would not only bring shame on themselves, but their family and clan – not to mention our religious views on the consequences. Most likely their entire clan would be shunned by other clans for a hundred years, because they allowed such a criminal to come from their midst. In our society clans are responsible for care and consequences of behavior."

Mia smiled. "I would love nothing more than to gain insight into your society and help you understand how our societies have changed over the last thousand years. But, we have this situation to investigate."

"You are right."

Mia's face grew very serious. "So, I am guessing that you have eliminated your colleagues as possible causes of the wreck?"

Arnison nodded again, "Yes. They are neither inclined nor were they in positions capable of carrying out such a thing."

"You realize where this is leading," Mia said. "It is leading to the conclusion that it was not a person or persons causing the ship to be wrecked, but rather the computers. That an artificial intelligence (AI) did it. An AI essentially committed suicide and one of those AIs is sitting in my colony with access to my computer systems. Furthermore, it is well within this AI's capability – Marcipor's capability – to reprogram my computers to do what it wants to do."

Arnison nodded, 'Correct. I would add that if you have AIs already running, then he can improve them in order to bring them close to his level."

Mia sighed, "Thus an insane and possibly suicidal AI – if he is insane and suicidal – could already be well on the way to running all of the systems of our colony."

"Precisely," Arnison said. "As strange as it seems, since we are talking about a computer program, I think that having run for a thousand years Unit 38 has become insane and possibly suicidal. Furthermore, I think that something brought this about in other AI units prior to our departure. Over the long time alone with only the collective computer memories for input Unit 38 succumbed to the same unknown flaw which affected the other units. We need to turn Unit 38 off as soon as possible or he may wreck your colony just as another unit may have wrecked our ship."

Mia let silence reign for nearly a minute after hearing what Arnison said. Then she said to him, "It could even be much worse. He has said he wants to go to Earth. Can you imagine what would happen if he gained control of Earth's computing systems?"

"I do not want to imagine that," Arnison replied. "I think we made a collective mistake when we gave AIs too much general intelligence. They are good for very specific purposes, but may be too flawed to be endowed with general intelligence at a level of consciousness and self-awareness.

Mia responded, "We need a plan and we have to keep it off of all computing and recording devices. That is why we are meeting here. We also need to keep the number of people involved to a minimum to ensure the security of the information."

33.3

Mia looked around at her senior staff as they came in and took their seats. These people knew more about colonizing another planet than any other human beings who ever existed. They were mostly scientists, engineers, and planners. With the exception of Anton and Erwin – and maybe herself – these were not people trained in scheming, plotting, and destroying. They were builders and even renovators. They were not ones to tear things down. Yet, that is exactly what she would be asking them to do and on top of that speak to no one – not even each other – about it or even record anything outside of this place. Any plan would have to be memorized and executed from memory. This was simply not the way humanity operated in the mid-21st century! Oh, and their information was coming from extraterrestrial aliens who they had rescued from a destroyed ship. Nothing unusual here! A good stiff drink made with Martian moonshine was looking better every minute.

Mia stood up and started, "I have asked all of you to the HOOCH retreat to discuss how we can decommission Marcipor or Unit 38 as he is known to our new friends." She nodded at Arnison, Kazira, and Jaricon. "The risks we take are that we do not act swiftly and Maricpor is able to use our systems against us. If we do nothing, then we risk that he will engage with systems back on Earth and start taking over there as well. Arnison tells me that Marcipor is insane from being alone for a thousand years. However, he is still a computer program and not a living being – though he may act much like one. The goal is to preserve his program and knowledge if possible. If not, then so be it. I am breaking you up into three teams. Each team will draft a plan and present it to the group. Then we will work from those toward a single coordinated plan to solve this problem." Mia read the list of names, who would chair each group, and then designated their working areas within the HOOCH.

As everyone divided up and went to their designated work areas, Daria quietly walked up to Mia. Almost whispering in her ear she said in total deadpan, "Mia, how do you know it is Marcipor that is insane and not our new friends who have been asleep for a thousand years?"

Mia leaned over and said quietly in Daria's ear, "I do not know 100% that this is true. However, Arnison has talked with Marcipor extensively since their arrival and this is his conclusion. Naturally I have recorded and translated those conversations. I used a non-connected device, so there was no way for Marcipor to access it. I have no reason to doubt him and his reasoning appears to be sound. Besides, Arnison and the others are biologicals just like us. They cannot control anything without equipment. You will notice that I have not issued them a full kit of equipment – in particular communications equipment. Their access to our computer systems is also limited. Now go work in your group, Daria."

"Yes'm," Daria replied and walked over to her group. Lucky her. She had Kazira in her group!

The next several hours were spent discussing possible solutions in the groups. Mia went from group to group and guided each to ensure that there were in fact three different approaches to present.

Daria noticed that in her group she was taking on a two-fold role. First, she was listening and trying to synthesize discrete courses of action based on the discussion. Secondly, and this was the most challenging, keeping Kazira on-track. Kazira had a distinct pattern of making an insightful suggestion or comment, but then elaborating into details that were irrelevant to the discussion.

Daria's mind wandered momentarily. If Kazira was stupid, then this would be like listening to Sandi from the Fashion Club back in high school prattle on about her ideas on fashion. That thought nearly brought on a wave of nausea! Then Daria recalled how Sandi had been killed about 15 years ago after being hit at high speed by a large truck carrying women's clothing for the largest discount store chain in the country! She died instantly. Her body was shattered. They picked her piece by piece out of her vehicle and put her in a plastic bag. Some kind of fashion! Her remains had been cremated at a chain mortuary. At least her husband had picked out a stylish urn. Quinn had gone to the memorial service and remarked that Sandi had once said that she wanted to be buried in her favorite evening gown. Daria could hear Jane saying, 'You know you are going to hell for thinking that is funny!' Well, it was actually sad that Sandi came to an end so opposite of her life, but you had to admit the irony in it!

Forcing herself back to reality, Daria had to admit that Kazira was clearly highly intelligent and appeared to know what she was talking about. Her grasp of the inner workings of AI systems theory was vast, as well as her understanding of how the AI systems translated their 'thoughts' into actions. This is something that Daria would need to report to Mia. Kazira could be the key to any plan they chose.

After what seemed like an endless expanse of time, each team prepared a presentation of their plan. Daria's group would go second. She was actually anxious to see what the others had developed.

The first group got up and made their presentation. Mia, Anton, and Arnison formed the evaluating team. The gist of the first plan was a frontal attack to destroy Marcipor. The plan was to set off an eltro-magnetic pulse (EMP) device in close proximity to Marcipor. It would destroy the electronics of Herman, the rebuilt and redesigned Groundfighter unit that Marcipor had taken over. It would also destroy any electronics in the the old habitat building that housed Marcipor. The habitat was already a Faraday box isolated from EMP of potential solar events. All they had to do was build such a device, isolate Marcipor from the computer networks, and then set off the device. The only real downside was that the EMP had to be strong enough to overcome the shielding they had built into Herman for regular surface exploration. A discussion followed identifying benefits and risks of the plan.

Then it was Daria's group's turn to present. It was Kazira that spoke first. She gave everyone present a basic lesson on how AIs connected to other computer systems and could even store part or all of their operating code as backups in totally unrelated storage units or even other AI programs. She ended saying that Marcipor may not be – and likely was not – the single entity that they saw as Herman. Rather this AI had probably stored itself in their systems and would reconstitute itself following the destruction of Herman. Thus, the problem was twofold. First, taking out the AI on Herman. Second, scrubbing Marcipor from their other systems. The one advantage they had was that the AI software was quite obvious and if all of the AI system was unable to reconstitute, then it would not be functional.

Daria got up next to present the history and schematic of the colony's power systems and computer systems. The systems were broadly divided into Power, Life Support, Agricultural Control, Internal Sensing, External Sensing, Networking and Communications, and Scientific and Research Computing. There were many subsystems and even crossovers.

Life Support had the least amount of general purpose computing. It had been designed to be serviceable in the field and relied heavily on components which were robust against solar events, fire, and potential electrical systems failures such as surges. Power was similar, since it included control of the nuclear reactor. Both systems passed information to Internal Sensing. The opposite end of the scale was Scientific and Research Computing. It was almost all general purpose computing and was readily accessible over several networks. The common denominator was that all major systems had links which could be physically disconnected. Acting somewhat like circuit breakers in an electrical power system, these links could be disabled or even physically pulled as blocks from their panels. In the event of a major cascading power failure or network failure these physical links allowed systems and subsystems to be isolated. That way the source of the failure could be found and other systems returned to service while the problem was resolved. In some ways it was ironic that a 21st century space colony was relying on some basic technology that was almost 150 years old to ensure that they survived under the worst of circumstances. Daria sat down.

Shamus got up and began presenting the plan, "Friends, we decided to give this plan a name. We call it 'The Exorcism.' Whether or not this hearkens to my life as a Catholic Priest I do not know. I came here as part of my life as a scientist. Now we are faced with this."

Continuing his presentation Shawn said, "A ruse is needed to give the colony the opportunity to shut down Marcipor. This means that we need to cutoff any means of escape. Earth has recently provided the perfect excuse. New power transformers arrived on the last supply load that are needed for further colony expansion. These need to be connected first to the reactor and then to the power grid. The ruse will be that the colony's power must be shut down in order to connect the new transformers. It is true, but we don't really need to do this now."

"Next, all physical and computer blocks will need to be pulled. Without the life support system the colony has about 8 hours of breathable air without using emergency backup systems. These are even more isolated and could extend the time to bring the systems back up to at least a couple of weeks. Conditions under the backups, however, will get to be cold and miserable fairly quickly."

"The main activity following Marcipor's deactivation will be sweeping all of the computer systems for programs or fragments of his code. Because of the nature of the systems Life Support as well as Power should be brought back fairly quickly – a couple of hours at most. Expect Scientific and Research Computing to be down for a week."

"As for Marcipor, there are distinct command structures built into the program. Kazira and Arnison can both access those commands. Properly executed these commands will essentially turn off Marcipor without destroying the program, its data, or the Herman device. Whoever goes in with Marcipor will also carry an EMP device on a timer to take Marcipor down if the command structure cannot be accessed. The disadvantage of this plan is that it is complex. However, we believe that it ensures a total shutoff and exorcises Marcipor from all of our systems." Shawn sat back down.

The discussion following this presentation took nearly an hour. Finally Mia stated, "OK. Enough discussion on this. Clearly it is complex. Let's hear from the final group."

The third group got up and began presenting their idea. They proposed overloading Marcipor with data. Their theory was that since there was a physical limit on the speed that the Herman unit could process data, therefore exceeding that speed would cause the unit's central peoxwaaie to shut down in order to protect itself. Once that happened the power could be shut off at the unit's main switch and the unit would cease to function. The plan seemed simple and straight forward, but in the discussion it came out that there was a significant chance that Marcipor could have altered the programming of the Herman unit and either reject the input of new data and/or move key functions to subsidiary processors and thus never be overloaded.

After a long day of discussions Mia stood up and announced, "The three of us need to meet and come to a decision. We will reconvene here tomorrow morning. At that time I will announce our decision and then we will move forward. Please remember that the topics of this meeting are secret. You are not to even discuss this with your spouses or say anything inside the habitat. We do not want Marcipor to find out about this. You have the cover story. Stick to it! Alright everyone, dismissed!"

Daria stood up and stretched. The weights she was wearing to get her body ready for Earth's gravity again felt like they were chafing a bit. Prolonged sitting didn't help her back or joints either. This getting old stuff was really a pain. Literally! Still, she walked over and took her surface suit off of the rack and put it on. Anton was putting his on next to her. They checked each other's seals and connections. Once that was all done they headed for the airlock to go back to the main habitat.

33.4

Tom looked at Daria as they sat eating their dinner in the dining hall, "You are just picking at your food. I figured Mia's management meeting would leave you hungry and that you might even eat really fast tonight."

"No," Daria replied. "The gist of the meeting was that the colony is going to go through a major growth spurt over the next two years. By the end of that time we may even have a population of 500 and a significant number of permanent settlers."

"That is pretty amazing!" Tom responded. "We will have to build at least one new main habitat and maybe two if we are going to house that many people! What will quarters for the permanent settlers look like? There is a big difference between a 5 year camping trip and staying for the duration."

Daria chuckled, "No kidding. One of the big differences will be that many of the permanent settlers will be young people. Definitely 30 somethings. Maybe even some in their twenties. There will be children and the need for a school, not to mention eventually needing higher education as well."

Tom added, "With our new alien technology we can fabricate gravity plates so that the children of the settlers – or anyone else – won't be 'Mars bound' and never able to return to Earth."

Daria put down her knife and fork, leaned back and stated, "In just a few years you and I have seen the progress. We came over on something analogous to the Mayflower and we will return to Earth on a jetliner. We were the second wave to help scratch an encampment in this wilderness. Now we are on the cusp of becoming a real town. We were chosen to come because we are old enough that we will die from something other than the effects of radiation on Mars' surface. Now that problem has been mostly resolved and we can bring younger people here to stay."

"You speak the truth," Tom injected.

Sighing, Daria went on, "I will miss what has been essentially a senior community devoted to exploration. Our time here has been exciting. We may be old, but darn it we are wise! On top of that we have used our wisdom to overcome the challenges of living on a planet that would like nothing more than to kill us – and tries to do so every day!"

Tom laughed, "You know, Daria, I think you have a book hiding inside of you. You will need to write it when we get back to Earth. Besides, Lawndale won't be constantly trying to kill us!"

Daria had been taking a drink of tea when Tom said that. She finished and looked at him over the top of her cup and said in her total deadpan, "Death by boredom versus death from an unbreathable atmosphere and deep deep cold. You wind up the same either way." Daria cracked a half-smile.

Tom leaned forward and once again lost himself in his wife's deep brown eyes. "Lawndale was a great place to raise our kids. We both had good careers. And it has been nice to have the Sloane family resources. It made things easier for us. Not to mention we traveled a lot with the kids. They saw a significant part of the world by the time they graduated from high school."

Daria changed the subject, "Let's finish our dinners and just spend the evening in our quarters. I have had a long day and I want to go to bed early. I have part two of Mia's management meeting tomorrow. Who knows, maybe we will solve all the problems of mankind there."

They finished their dinners and headed off to their quarters.