Up Against It - M. J. Locke [66]
“Does it realize yet that it’s dependent on us?”
“You mean, has it figured out that we can pull the plug?” This was the most dangerous point in dealing with an artificial sapient: when it realized it was vulnerable to the will of humans. “No, not yet. It’s still very young.”
“Has it figured out how to replicate itself?” Another danger point.
Tania shook her head. “No. Because it’s not engineered, its identity structures are diffuse and inefficient. It’s cramped for space, and we’ve ever so gradually begun limiting its access to peripheral areas. So its ability to extend itself is growing more constrained. Still, some of the things it has tried are suggestive.”
“What is the risk that it could escape our systems?”
“Excellent question. A single trunk exits the city and the main control is in the Hub. We have restricted transmissions to brief, masked bursts on a random timetable. We are tracking every bit. We don’t think the feral knows about it yet.”
“Hmmm. Upside-Down can’t be too happy about that.” She was surprised that John Sinton, the local Upside-Down executive, had not been beating down her door.
“We have been getting a lot of calls from them,” Tania admitted. “They’ve got good storage capacity, but they’re close to maxing out. Things will get nasty quick if we don’t get this feral out of our system soon. And we can’t shut down communication with the outside world altogether, even if we blow Upside-Down off. Half our resource management operations are on the surface. It would cripple Sean’s recovery efforts. We just need to trap it before it figures out how to escape.”
“How long have other sapients taken to make such a conceptual leap?” Jane asked.
“Some figure it out within a few days of their emergence; others, never. This one is making strides in that direction, but I estimate that we have at least a day or two before it makes any such attempt.”
“Can you challenge or distract it in some way?”
“Actually, that’s exactly the wrong approach. Like humans, it learns best by being challenged. We’ve already challenged it by alerting it to our existence. The fact that it has just started calling itself ‘BitManSinger’ in juxtaposition to Thondu’s ‘MeatManHarper’ means it has figured out that there’s a world separate from its digital matrix. Which is a necessary precursor to begin attempting to manipulate things in our world. Before you ask, it was a calculated risk, and we are learning a huge number of things from this contact, so yes, it was worth it. But going forward, we need for it to feel as cozy and safe as possible.”
“How aggressive are star-structure sapients?”
Tania’s gaze flickered. “That depends.”
“Tania, don’t hold out on me.”
“OK.” Tania sighed. “This is the first star to have evolved naturally. There have been some instances of aggressive behavior among the engineered ones, but the cases I’ve found in the literature suggest that their aggression has been primarily defensive in origin.”
“Um, that sounds contradictory, Tania.”
Tania shrugged. “The best defense is a good offense. And we’ve caught this one very early in its development.” Excited, she grabbed Jane’s arm. “Can you imagine? We have a new order of feral artificial sapient! This is huge! This thing is the mother of all feral sapients. The research possibilities are phenomenal.”
Trust Tania to be thrilled about one of the biggest threats the cluster had ever faced. “Keep your eye on the ball. The cluster’s safety comes first.”
“Of course it does.” Tania looked offended.
“All right. Catching this critter becomes our top priority. You have access to whatever resources you need. I want you to proceed with mapping and extraction, but be prepared to pull the plug if things spin wry.”
“OK. We’ll put the disaster recovery plan on standby right away.”
“And I want an hourly update