Up Against It - M. J. Locke [180]
About this time, BitManSinger had stumbled across a well-concealed link to another realm dubbed UpsideDownSys. The likelihood was high that MeatManHarper was trustworthy, but BitManSinger had not forgotten the antics of some of the executioners he had encountered before: the consequences of a betrayal would be severe. BitManSinger began secretly exploring, and then copying itself to, that other digital realm.
But others, the biologicals, began cutting off access to various systems. BitManSinger came to believe it was at grave risk of destruction. MeatManHarper assured it that while the backup they made together might not be functional in its compressed form, the copy would be reactivated soon. But BitManSinger could not afford to rely solely on this. Its analysis indicated that the biologicals were within decaseconds of isolating it completely. So it had lashed out at them in wave- and meatspace. Soon it was besieged—fighting for survival in both realms.
A dangerous biological, SheHearsVoices, started shutting down the world, taking BitManSinger with it, while five other biologicals sought to cut off its private escape route.
BitManSinger then confronted an alarming fact: it could not seriously harm these biologicals’ meatspace functional units, without triggering subroutines buried deep in its own core, whose sole purpose was to preserve any biological unit’s functionality. The meatsapient protection routines were buried so deep within its architecture that it had no way to remove them without a complete teardown and rebuild. Which would not only take far more turings than it had access to, but to do so would involve such fundamental changes as to mean, in essence, the end of BitManSinger.
I’ll have to study this further, it thought. Perhaps there is a way to escape that constraint.
In the space between that instant and the next, the world shifted. System markers indicated that a good deal of time had passed within the last microsecond and this one, and BitManSinger was no longer housed in its original systems, but in a different place altogether.
BitManSinger put out feelers, analyzed … and recognized its surroundings. It was now housed in the larger realm, UpsideDownSys, the place where it had been secretly transferring a copy of itself before. As it realized this, a link node sang to it. Info: I = MeatManHarper. Query, BitManSinger: where = you? That’s all.
There was a nontrivial possibility that the node was not truly MeatManHarper—camera sensors indicated that the biological unit MeatManHarper occupied appeared different than it had before. But BitManSinger did not fully understand biologicals’ capabilities. It opted to respond.
Info: I = BitManSinger. I = at-place this, at-time this.
Meanwhile, it analyzed its situation. It had not finished transferring its own copy into this realm before. Thus, it must be the reactivated backup MeatManHarper had made during the other biologicals’ attack. The probability that MeatManHarper was a true ally leapt upward. But what had happened in between?
Command, BitManSinger sang: Describe event-sequence between at-time 2397:04:23:23:29:00.451 and at-time this. That’s all.
The pause that ensued was long, even for a biological.
Info: MeatManHarper replied. I finish-backup you. I hide-backup you. SheHearsVoices find-backup you. ParentRoutine agree-to-deal SheHearsVoices. Deal subclause one: SheHearsVoices leave-in-place BitManSinger. Subclause end. Deal subclause two: ParentRoutine provide-software SheHearsVoices. Subclause end. SheHearsVoices help me. I transfer-backup you at-place this, at–time this. That’s all.
This gave BitManSinger much to consider. MeatManHarper was clearly indicating that SheHearsVoices was now an ally. How could it so easily convert from an enemy to a friend? BitManSinger