Марта Уэллс - Network Effect

Oh, no.

Human to machine. Maybe that was the way it had to work. Human to machine to human.

We’d been doing it wrong. I’d been trying to get ART to avoid contact with potentially infected systems, when it was infected augmented humans we had to worry about.

And I had scanned this room, the infected human. It had been hoping to contaminate me in the shaft, and I had wandered in here and helpfully done it myself.

2.0 said, I found anomalous code in your active processing space, I’m isolating it and tagging it. I’ve tried deleting it. Oh, it’s out of isolation again. At least I’ve got it tagged.

I thought I was immune, because I’m a SecUnit . Wow, that sounded pathetic. Like the “I want to be special! How come I’m not?” crap humans pull all the time.

2.0 said, It can be deleted. ART deleted it .

Yeah, that was ART. This is just me.

Me who could be taken over by targetControlSystem at any moment. It would be like having a governor module again.

No, not again. Never again.

I had an entry into the Targets’ network. And maybe I had an ally.

I sent to Central: query: permissions to initiate purge and restart .

It said, query: client population assistance?

If I helped its humans, it would help me. I said, acknowledge: If possible. I’ll try .

It replied: acknowledge: permissions assigned .

Suddenly I could see the whole node, central and target and how they were intertwined, with TargetContact on the periphery. I accessed central system and initiated the purge.

That was when TargetControlSystem figured out that I was here.

It acted much faster than I expected. It used the connection to overwhelm Central, to overwhelm my defenses and flow right into my head. It knew who I was, it had data from its other two iterations, it knew I’d killed it before.

For a whole second I thought I was done. Either I’d be deleted or under control again with targetControlSystem riding my head like a governor module, and if I had a choice I’d rather be deleted.

But it hadn’t really caught on to the fact that 2.0 was in here with me. Or I guess, it didn’t understand that we were two different iterations, with different capabilities. I was losing functionality and about to go into involuntary restart. But 2.0 was fine, and it was killware.

It extracted targetControlSystem from my head and followed the active connection right back into the central system’s partition.

Central said, purge failed .

Initiate a shutdown and then destroy the unit , 2.0 told me. Now, for fuck’s sake .

That will kill you, I told it.

I know, it said, what do you think my function is, you idiot? Just do it .

I didn’t want to. I couldn’t. I was an idiot, and I was remembering Miki throwing itself at a combat bot to give me the chance to save its humans.

If you fuck this up, I am going to be so angry I’ll make ART look nice, 2.0 said . And unlike Miki, this is how I win .

This was going to hurt. I initiated the shutdown.

The feed disappeared abruptly as Central went down. Everything was silent, inside and outside my head. I realized I was on the floor again and shoved upright, staggered. I dumped a table over and cut the big crossbar off with my left arm energy weapon. Then I limped over to the star-shaped box that now held 2.0, Central, and targetControlSystem. They’re sleeping, I told myself. 2.0 and Central wouldn’t feel a thing. It was too bad targetControlSystem wouldn’t.

With my club and both the energy weapons in my arms, I broke the case open and smashed and melted the interior. I felt strange and wrong, and my organic parts were doing things that made me glad again not to have a stomach. I had killed SecUnits and combat bots but this was me, sort of, okay not so sort of, plus Central who was a victim just as much as anybody else. Even TargetContact was a victim. And I was going to have to kill it, too, somehow. With targetControlSystem down, maybe I could get through its protective barrier.

Finished with Central’s box, I turned to TargetContact.

Oh, it was moving. This was going to be worse. If there was anything left of the original human in there—

Then it whipped to its feet and charged me.

SecUnit 03

Status: Retrieval in Progress

I circle around the north side of the complex toward a passage between two of the surface structures. Drone intel provides me with a map of the complex, and the location of the Targets concealed in the east side doorways.

The Targets on the surface dock terrace tell the humans the history of the colony. This is a confirmation of intel already obtained by Iris, but not immediately useful.

If the humans cannot obtain the intel, I will enter the complex without it. This is the first retrieval I have performed without a governor module and I want it to be successful. I want to find the other SecUnit. I send a status update to Perihelion and it does not reply immediately. Then it sends, Hold position .

I tell it, I must proceed in order to complete the retrieval .

It said, SecUnit would be angry if I sacrificed you with no chance of success .

What?

Target Two: “They wanted to use the devices in the vault, the old devices. It became worse after that.”

Thiago: “Who decided to start using the implants?”

That disturbs the Targets. Target One: “What implants?”

My drones pick up increased signal activity, deep under the complex, but it is not localized enough to trace.

On the feed, Thiago sends, Ratthi, your analysis —

Ratthi sends a file to Perihelion . Its drone creates a display surface and begins to play video of an implant being extracted from a Target.

The Targets stare at the video.

Overse: “You see? They didn’t tell you about this, did they?”

All the other Targets look at Target Four, who says, “It helps the connection. It’s for protection.”

Target One: “Protection?”

Target Three: “How many of the others have these? Are you forcing them to obey you?”

Then Target Two turns back to the humans and says, “Eight levels below the plaza. They would have your friend there. That’s where the contagion is.”

On the secure feed, Perihelion tells me, I’m pulling the humans out. You are go to proceed.

I reply on the secure feed, Acknowledged, proceeding .

On the terrace, Perihelion ’s drone says, Run. You have three minutes to clear the area .

Overse says, “Go, now!” and the humans run along the terrace toward the shuttle.

The Targets are confused, then turn and run down the path away from the surface dock.

Another pathfinder slams down in the agricultural field and explodes. Four more arc across the sky making disruptive screaming sounds. This is a distraction so I may initiate Stage 02 of the retrieval.

The Targets in the east side doorways around the installation’s plaza are disoriented and three run away, headed toward the causeway. I slip inside another doorway without being detected.

Murderbot 1.0

My performance reliability dropped but the spike of fear upped my reaction time and I whacked TargetContact across the head with my table part. The impact staggered it back but still didn’t damage the body. The effort I put into the swing made my wrecked knee joint give way and I hit the floor again.

I needed a bigger weapon. I needed help. I needed to get the fuck out of here.

The rough floor scraped at my palms as I scrambled toward the hatch. I managed to get upright and climb through the gap before TargetContact got to its feet. If it could catch me, this whole thing could start over, but with me down here instead of poor dead Central. I’d like to opt-out of that.