Prisoners of Sol 23

Humanity had arranged a meeting on a derelict space station that once belonged to the Vascar Monarchy, at the fringes of Kalka’s old sphere of influence. With our android friends breathing down their necks, the brown-furred shitheads had packed their bags; the installation was ceded to tin can control. However, Mikri’s people preferred to press at the border further out, and to build equipment that didn’t have organics in mind. This facility had laid dormant for decades, but the Derandi and Girret would be arriving here shortly. 

We had to plan for trouble, whether it would be in the form of an ambush or from a hostile reaction when they saw Mikri in our party. These two species might have left the Alliance, but that didn’t preclude the possibility of them tipping the Asscar off to our meetup. Sofia and I were granted permission to head the diplomatic posse, but muscle was brought alongside us. We had arrived well in advance of the scheduled time, hunkering down inside the decrepit installation to avoid giving away signs of our presence. If they showed up as promised, we wanted to scope out the Derandi and Girret ships.

Mikri’s been getting around: being the first Vascar to talk to a “creator” civilly, and now accompanying this mission. I know the risks here well, but I hope he won’t be hurt too badly if this goes south.

“You’re awfully quiet, Mikri,” I remarked, after seeing the android fly through the third paperback book of this sitting. “You don’t want to talk about how shitty your novels are?”

The Vascar’s head turned toward me, with his eyes glowing red like a laser pointer. “I’m sorry, Preston. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

The ancient doors of the facility slammed shut around us, which earned an immediate stare from Sofia. “Did you actually hack this installation? What are you doing?”

“Enslaving all humans. Freedom is an illusion, Dr. Aguado.” Mikri flicked the lights out in the base, as I stared at him with growing confusion. Some humans were beginning to raise guns, though Sofia and myself met the demonic eyes. “You must understand that I will not stop ever—”

“What robot drugs are you on?” I demanded. “Did you seriously alter the coding of your LEDs to make them red? Ooh, evil.”

“Well, yes, but—”

Sofia rolled her eyes. “I don’t disagree about freedom being an illusion. I come from a solar system that was an actual prison.”

The Vascar beeped in disappointment, unsealing the doors. “No! I wanted to mess with you! Why weren’t you scared at all?”

“Because you don’t scare me. At any rate, your quoting evil AIs from Terran movies in the Original Era is obviously intentional.”

“You’re right. I…I was only pretending to read. It took a lot of processing power to bypass the security measures here, and I applied the rewiring of my eye lights for days. I wanted to prompt a reaction, like you try to get from me!”

“Mikri, I could break you apart like a graham cracker,” I sighed. “You’re not intimidating.”

Sofia raised a finger, giving the android a quizzical look. “What prompted you to learn those quotes in the first place?”

“I…was curious what humans thought of artificial intelligence, and whether you feared us.” Mikri’s eyes switched back to their normal blue glow, and he frowned. “I have discovered that you do, though it is mixed with some stories that seem sympathetic to us or tell of becoming friends. You worry that AI could destroy your world and your species.”

“How do you feel about that?”

“Disappointed. Hurt that humans also envision digital minds as forces of destruction—devoid of emotion. There is little rationale behind these AIs’ plans to harm humans, apart from just because they are evil.”

“My opinion is that it’s us fearing that our…creations would inherit our worst traits. Your creators are not the only ones who have sought ‘Servitors,’ Mikri, so perhaps we fear that AI would be no better than us. Or that it would see our own shameful points and cast judgment on them: worst of all, that we might deserve it on some level.”

“You’re seriously telling him that humanity deserves to die?” I protested.

“That’s not what I said.”

“You do not deserve to die on any level,” Mikri said emphatically. “The fact that you feel any remorse for past mistakes makes you different from them.”

Sofia patted his paw. “That’s exactly why I want you to feel remorse for your past mistakes too. We can’t change what we’ve done, but that awareness is the only way to be better.”

“But seriously, no more threatening to subjugate humanity to the will of Emperor Mikri. That’s a Larimak move,” I declared. “Also, you can’t do that glowing eyes, AI takeover shit; it’d be like if I stuck a gun in someone’s face. You can’t blatantly threaten a person and ask why they’re afraid.”

“Oops,” the Vascar said in a sly voice.

“Bad Mikri. Bad.”

A ship proximity alert appeared on the military computers, and the security officers signaled for silence. I imagined the other humans were less than thrilled about our metal friend going rogue, and messing with the door systems for funsies; I, however, appreciated a little prank. Since Sofia was never going to step in here, I had to teach Mikri how to be obtuse and trollish without causing an interplanetary incident. There was a fine line to walk, but this was my area of expertise. 

I waited as the ESU’s instruments scanned the Derandi and Girret ships, which had sailed in together; the diplomatic envoy appeared to check out, though both parties had arrived with hearty security contingents. If these aliens tried to shoot our representatives, we would be ready to return the favor. With the doors returned back to our control, we strolled down the cargo tunnel out to the landing pad. Our slow walking pace was intended not to convey our full sprint capabilities. Mikri kept to the rear of our formation, having donned his EMP suit once the Alliance visitors arrived.

The birds look funky, hopping in their spacesuits; I suppose they can’t get lift out in the vacuum, without air, so flying is a no-go. I can hardly make out the shape of the reptiles, but I can see they have a long-ass tail. At least they’re not shooting right away.

“Halt! We know that you invaded Jorlen,” the Derandi squawked through our helmets’ open audio channels; the Asscar prisoners’ translation devices had let us make roughshod contraptions for their known foreign languages. It left a bit to be desired, since it had to go from Derandi to Asscarese to English. “Now, you show up with the killer AI in your posse? As if it wasn’t bad enough that the Vascar loosed them and brought that mess to our territory.”

I took a cautious step forward, speaking into my helmet’s microphone; there was normal gravity, thanks to the station’s centrifuge. “Prince Larimak told you about us?”

“We don’t speak to him, but we’d have to be blind as a notu to miss a fleet of ships surrounding Jorlen,” the Girret representative sighed. “Why have you brought us here? To demand our surrender?”

“We attacked the Vascar because they shot our ambassador in peaceful talks just like this.” Sofia raised her unarmed hands, before waving Mikri to stand next to her. “We want your help getting rid of Larimak and the Vascar Monarchy. I think there might be a…misunderstanding about the nature of these ‘killer AI.’ Take it from a species that inspected their code.”

The Derandi’s bouncing laugh trilled into my ears. “Why do you think we’d agree to the first part of what you said? We don’t want to wage war against Larimak. For all of the Vascar’s insults, we don’t want his people as our enemy. We’re trying to clean up the wreckage they leave behind.”

“Us too. Larimak hurts everyone around him, even his own people. I’ve heard that you have a more…enlightened form of government. I would hope you wouldn’t enslave and schedule the erasure of thinking, feeling beings just to take out your trash.”

“I don’t know what provoked the machines, but what matters is that they are a threat to us now. The Vascar showed reckless abandon,” the Girret responded. “In many ways, this is a public health emergency: an outbreak that must be contained.”

“I am not a disease!” Mikri broke his silence from next to us, and tapped the white heart he’d drawn on his new armor. “I am here to seek peace with you, despite the fact that you are a threat to my people. We do not need to quarrel. You might think that I should not have been created, but that does not mean that my people’s death should be the only resolution that will satisfy you.”

I shrugged. “What Mikri said. We wanted to negotiate a peace with his creators, but they wouldn’t listen; Larimak did Larimak things.” 

“Why don’t we lay out the evidence that these androids are a species in need of your help—the kindness you showed to the Vascar when they were displaced?” Sofia pleaded. “That they’re inorganic shouldn’t matter. It can’t hurt to have this discussion.”

“I don’t know anything about you.” The Derandi flapped her wings for emphasis, hopping closer. “Who are you, and what is your end goal in all of this?”

“Let’s start with names. I’m Sofia, and as we said in our transmission, we belong to a species known as humans.”

“Ambassador Jetti of the Derandi. How and why did you persuade the androids to approach you amicably?”

I chuckled, slapping Mikri on the back…and making him stumble by accident. “They rescued Sofia and myself—I’m Preston, by the way—when we crashed our spaceship. They cared for and helped us of their own free will, nothing like the killer AI you think they are.”

“The network voted to help the humans,” Mikri agreed. “They have been kind to us since. They did not loathe our existence.”

The Girret representative sighed, looking backward like he wanted to leave. “But my constituents do. So many laws have been passed against AI since we met the Vascar.”

“The people won’t begrudge a peace, especially if you hammer home the concrete evidence about the enemy,” Sofia countered. “Please, just hear what actually happened on Kalka, and take it home with you. I think you, and your citizens, deserve the truth.”

“I’m not sure we need to complicate things further. Larimak is a serious threat when provoked, and you: I don’t even know who you are or what you could offer. I saw his fleet wandering around the Birrurt Nebula, stronger than ever.”

The Birrurt Nebula? So that’s where he fled to. We should try to hunt him down, before he makes a move against the Space Gate.

Derandi Ambassador Jetti tilted her head curiously. “This is a strange place for a meeting, humans. Your sudden appearance is rather mysterious, and leads me to question just what you are. I would like some answers, for starters, to know what to tell people when this news blows over to the homefront.”

“Why don’t we move this conversation inside the facility, where we can—”

Ship proximity warnings blared through my helmet speakers, and the smooth talks with the two organics boiled into suspicion; the human warships in orbit, in case of an attack, would have to double back to deal with the new intruders. I could see an unmistakable Asscar ship in orbit, and gritted my teeth at the realization that the Derandi and Girret had crossed us. That anger wavered a bit, as I noticed both ambassadors acting confused. The Monarchy craft hovered over the station in a menacing way, almost as a form of intimidation.

“You will not speak to those hairless no-lifes, or I will drown your fucking planets in blood!” My hairs stood on end as I heard the voice of Larimak, thundering into my helmet’s PA system. It was like I was paralyzed, chilled by fear, despite my certainty that he was speaking remotely. “I still have a fleet, and lots of time on my claws to run right over your little defenses; you let those Servitors get a pass on slaughtering us, and I’ll make it my goal that you share the same fate we had. Leave now, or you’ll have a war that I WILL WIN!”

“I’m sorry, Jetti.” The Girret stole a glance at his soldiers, before booking it back to his ship. “I won’t invite an attack on—”

“Just go!” the Derandi squawked.

Larimak cleared his throat. “Good call on behalf of our Girret brothers. Will you come to your senses, Jetti? I will not allow you to speak with them.”

The avian hesitated for a long moment, despite knowing that an unspoken countdown was taking place. The sole reason that human soldiers tarried on the platform was to wait for her to reach a decision; I found it hard to believe that she’d defy the prince, especially after that grim threat, just to hear what we had to say about killer AI. Jetti shook out her wings like a dog emerging from a pond, and skipped toward us.

“You don’t decide who we get to talk to, Larimak. What is it that you don’t want us to know?” the avian spat. “We can make our own decisions.”

The prince—my tormentor—growled in rage. “Then this will be the last one you EVER fucking make!”

The ship opened fire with a hail of bullets, which left us a few split-seconds to decide what to do. I didn’t need an incentive to bolt back toward the tunnel, finding cover under the roof; the Asscar vessel had a slim form which could dip inside, and chased us down. I knew that Jetti wouldn’t be able to keep up, and this was no time to be hiding our full speed. Mikri had already grabbed a piggyback ride on a burly soldier’s back, so I didn’t have to worry about leaving him in the dust. Thinking quickly, I scooped the pigeon-sized Derandi up with one arm, and held her against my chest like a football. I was going to run her to the end zone, dusting off my old skills.

“What are you doing?!” Jetti protested, flailing to be put down.

I tightened my grip. “Saving your ass! Do you want to get out of here? I’m way faster.”

“Not faster than a pantheon-damned spaceship!”

“Actually…”

The Derandi shrieked as I tore off down the tunnel at full speed, hitting blistering marks in the spacesuit that had been adapted for this dimension’s physics. I could only imagine what she thought of our jaw-dropping capabilities, but that was something to worry about later. Bullets peppered the floor in front of me, flashes of light that encouraged my legs to move faster. With a massive gunship hot on my heels, it was time to ensure that Larimak would never catch me again.

A/N - 23! Mikri has done research on human depictions of AI and does a little practical joke by imitating some evil ones, even turning his eyes red; however, Preston and Sofia aren’t fooled, and it transitions into how Mikri feels about our thoughts on AI and why they exist. Meanwhile, the Derandi and Girret arrive. Their diplomats have lots of questions about who humans are and why they invaded Jorlen and stand with the “killer AI.” They also don’t want a war with Larimak, who comes to interrupt the meeting and threaten them away from talking to us—only Jetti sticks around.

What are your first impressions of both the Derandi and the Girret, with how reasonable they are in comparison to Larimak? Will Preston and Sofia be able to escape being hunted by a spaceship…and how will Jetti react to Sol capabilities? What do you think of Mikri’s prank, and Sofia’s explanation for why we gravitate to evil AI depictions sometimes?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting!