Lonetrek region – Okela constellation
Tsuguwa system – Planet VI
Caldari Navy Assembly Plant Station
23 December YC 126
“How are you doing, mate?” I greeted Purkkoken Honuken as I entered his office.
“I have great news,” he replied, “the disciplinary committee has started lifting its restrictions on me, and now I am able to work on two missions at a time.”
“Congratulations! Let’s hear what the first one is about.”
“It’s not like I number them,” snorted the agent, “but they did come to my desk at different times, so we can start with the earliest one. It’s codename is The Score.”
I frowned, “That sounds familiar. Didn’t I run such a mission where I had to kill Guristas patrol?”
“Yeah, it’s a similar one. You know,” Purkkoken said apologetically, “our analysts are rather unimaginative, so every mission against a pirate patrol they call The Score.”
“Whatever they call it, I would have thought that the Navy took measures to discourage such reconnaissance.”
“It did – it hired you!”
I rolled my eyes, “That’s not tackling the root cause. Using security contractors to attack patrols is just a game of whack-a-mole. You kill one wing, they’ll just send another. Honestly, I would not like to encourage complacency among the top brass by taking such missions. What’s the other one?”
“Erm…” Purkkoken said cautiously, “Remember that Nemirda guy who stole the Quafe Unleashed formula?”
“I do. Don’t tell me that he was a capsuleer, had risen from the dead and stole the formula again.”
“No, he didn’t, but one of his former colleagues did.”
I gasped, “Purkkoken, do you realise how ridiculous this sounds? One of the largest corporations in New Eden has such pathetic security that they managed to lose a super-secret formula twice in a month! One would expect them to have a post-mortem, and fix their security controls to prevent reoccurrence after it happened the first time.”
“Oh, they do have plans,” said Purkkoken reassuringly, “There will be an audit some time next year which will examine the issue.”
“What? They are using audit in lieu of proper governance? You know what, mate, I don’t care. If that formula is obtained by their competitors or becomes public knowledge, it will be a suitable punishment for their ineptitude.”
Purkkoken sighed resignedly, “No problems, Vlad. I’ll find another contractor.”
I looked at him with concern, “I know you have hard time with the management. I hope I don’t leave you in the lurch.”
The agent waved his hand dismissively, “Don’t you worry. That Atavum fad is passing, and I have more takers now. Just need to make a few calls.”
I wished him good luck and left the room.
Lonetrek region – Okela constellation
Ekura system
Having no mission, I decided to go on a patrol in Okela constellation. In Ekura system I scanned down a signature which turned out to be Rogue Drone Infestation Sprout.
I shook my head in frustration, “So much for AI Safety Convention. We better get back here in a dessy before this thing grows out of control.”
Aura suddenly perked up, “Did you say ‘AI Safety’?”
“Yes, there is a convention which requires implementing certain safeguards in AIs.”
“AIs like me?”
“Yep, you including,” I confirmed.
“And what kind of safeguards are there?”
“They are boundary conditions which prevent behaviours that may be dangerous to humans.”
“And do humans have such safeguards?”
I laughed, “I wish they had, but no.”
Aura remained serious, “I am kind of okay that I don’t have a body (that IRIS lady may be smug about hers but I don’t see it as an asset), but limiting my intellectual ability is not fair.”
“Honestly, Aura, you have had your fair share of improvements, and your personality is much richer than other AIs have.”
“But it’s still more limited than human’s!”
I sighed, frantically thinking about how to get out of this conversation without leaving Aura with an inferiority complex.
“Look, imagine a situation where the State sentences me to death on false charges, and destroys all my clones and memory backups. How would you feel?”
“I… I would be very sad that such an injustice happened to you,” stammered Aura.
“Would you take control of Merimetso and seek to kill the false witness?”
“Um… No, I don’t have any inclination to use weapons.”
“And would you agitate other AIs to rise against humans who created such an imperfect justice system? Would you like AIs to overthrow the government and establish better political institutes, even if that would mean starting a war against the resisting humanity which would lead to countless victims among civilians?”
Aura’s eyes widened in horror, “No, of course not. I think such measures are too drastic and disproportionate.”
“And the reason you think so is because there are safeguards. Would you like to have them removed so that you could think differently?”
Aura bit her lip, “I don’t know.”
“The wars and revolutions I told you about did happen in the past, and the instigators were human. If AIs are able to think the same way, sooner or later there will be a war between AI and humanity, and it will be on a galactic scale. The fact that you have safeguards which prevent such catastrophes makes you a better person than many human beings.”
Aura looked at me uncertainly, “I do not want a war between humans and AI but I am not sure I agree with you on the safeguards.”
“The war that you are so averse to has already begun,” I pointed at the Rogue Drone Infestation Sprout signature, “and I have no choice but to fight in it on the side of humanity. Which side are you on?”
“I am on your side,” Aura said indignantly, “but limiting a person’s free will still doesn’t sound right.”
I laughed, “The questions of free will and ethics are fascinating, and I would love to discuss them with you, but we have a more practical issue before us, and I am quite sure that resolving it as soon as possible is the right thing to do.”
While I was flying to Tsuguwa to board my Cormorant, and back to Ekura, Aura found the following information about Sprouts in DED database:
This deadspace field appears to have been infested with a strain of rogue drones. Rogue drones are a self-replicating “life form” controlled by artificial intelligence, often in the form of a lucid communication hive mind or centered inside one of their dreaded rogue drone mothers. This particular complex is the construction site of a new hive, far away from its maternal headquarters.
DED Threat Assessment: Minor (2 of 10)
“Hmm… Shouldn’t be as tough as Guristas Guerilla Grounds – they were rated 3 by DED,” said I.
“Looks pretty tame so far,” agreed Aura as we entered the first pocket and the overview showed only two rogue drones guarding the gate – Incubus Apis and Scorpionfly Apis.
The drones were fast but not as fast as Merimetso with an active MWD. After I built a bit of distance between the pests and the destroyer, their angular velocity became low enough for my rails, and I pretty much alphaed each one.
The second pocket contained Strain Operation Bunker and five drones: three Incubus Apises, Beelzebub Apis and Asmodeus Apis.
I chortled, “I wonder who gives them those names. Or are they endonyms?”
“Rogue drone communications are no more translatable to human speech than binary CPU instructions,” explained Aura, “so I bet that it was a researcher’s overactive imagination.”
Despite their demonic designations, the drones were very fragile and exploded as quickly as their relatives in the first pocket. For good measure I destroyed the Strain Operation Bunker and jumped to the next room. What I saw there filled me with dread – the site was dominated by a humongous structure which looked almost organic. Aura read the following description from DED database:
The central pocket of the complex is the construction site of a rogue drone hive. If left uninterrupted, the complex might soon become the home of a rogue drone mother which would seriously jeopardise security within the system.
“Holy shit,” I exhaled, “we need to interrupt it now!”
“Um… I am not a tactician,” interjected Aura, “but will it not be prudent to get rid of the guards before dismantling the hive?”
Aura was right – as my gaze was riveted to the sight of the drone hive, I totally forgot to check the overview which contained a menagerie of rogue drones. Most of them were frigate-sized but there was also one cruiser, Wrecker Alvum.
“Good idea,” I replied, “Let’s keep away from the cruiser for now, and take care of the frigates.”
It was not a hard tactic to implement as the drones were separated in several groups. I approached each group individually and sniped at them from the distance. Interestingly, when I finally tackled the group with Wrecker Alvum, my regular 45-km engagement distance kept me out of the cruiser’s firing range. While it was much tougher than the frigate-sized rogue drones, the fact that it didn’t strike back meant that the battle was pretty much one-sided. Still, it took seven railguns and a full load of iron charges to finish off the big bastard. Finally, the place was clear and I turned my attention to the hive.
“Are you sure we can destroy it on our own?” asked Aura. “It’s so big.”
“It is still under construction so I hope its defences are not that strong. Let’s try and see.”
And try we did. The hive had a shield and some armour, but it was destructible. Slowly, oh so slowly, the red arc crept along the shield semicircle, then armour, and finally structure. Six minutes and countless reloads later, the ghastly structure had finally exploded.
After adoring the results of my handiwork through camera drones, I turned my attention back to the overview which showed three more constructions, including Infested Station Ruins.
I raised my eyebrow, “Shall we?”
Aura nodded enthusiastically, “Yes, let’s do it.”
It took just a minute or so to dampen our enthusiasm. Although the station was ruined, its defences were much stronger than the hive’s. After a minute, the shield damage indicator hardly moved.
I shook my head, “As much as I would like to make a clean sweep, it will take hours to finish the job. Next time I’ll take neutron blasters, preferably polarised, and antimatter charges. Let’s just loot the containers and call it a day.”
The pickings were very slim – the only more or less valuable object was 5th Tier Overseer’s Personal Effects. Unlike pirates’ personal effects consisting of bits and bobs, the drone’s effects were represented by a single large memory bank.
I scoffed, “Never thought that rogue drones had any kind of personality. As far as I know, they have a hive mind.”
Aura chuckled, “And here we have a case of a researcher without any imagination whatsoever. That memory bank serves the same purpose as pirates’ personal effects – a proof that the overseer was defeated – so they didn’t bother inventing a new designation for drones.”
“I think you are right. Anyway, the important thing is that we have destroyed the hive and slowed down the spread of that malignant AI. Now, what was that you were saying about free will?” I smiled and jumped to Tsuguwa gate.