Blood Impulse

Part 19.4 - HUMANITY'S MACHINES

Homebound Sector, Haven System, Flagship Olympia

Manhattan regarded his temper tantrum with little interest. No matter how violent his fury made him, it could never harm her. Her presence in that room was only a hologram, a trick of the light that eased her communication to biological entities. "I warned you repeatedly, Charleston," she said idly, "We do not know what Gives is capable of."

Reflexively, Reeter grabbed onto another glass and flung it at the wall. Crushing things, shattering them, it made him feel powerful, like he was in control, though at the moment he was anything but. "Play it again."

She obeyed, and Reeter turned his attention to the video. Sent by Tyler, it was taken from the Gothic's communication with the Singularity. Trimmed to the moment of interest, Reeter watched the enemy's command center be thrown into chaos. Again and again, he'd watched it: the moment high thrust kicked in without warning. Again and again, he listened to the crew cry out in surprise, scouring each of their faces for some sense of foreknowledge, but it wasn't there.

Now he watched the helmsman directly for the tenth time, staring intently at his hands. But again, the pilot's hands never touched the controls. They hovered nearby, awaiting an order, then recoiled as the acceleration took hold. The ship had moved without the direction of its helmsman, and while there could be a dozen explanations, Reeter refused to believe in any of them. "It's impossible." Manhattan had very precisely calculated the orbital mass driver's trajectory. The Heaven's Ladder should have dealt a crippling blow.

"It is very clearly possible, Charleston." Somehow, the Singularity had managed to dodge the Haven's Ladder. "The question is how."

Studying the crew's reactions again as the video looped, it was clear they were as surprised as they could be, no sign of understanding or realization. They knew nothing of any ally or capability that could have thwarted the attack. It was clear enough, "No human could have reacted that quickly."

"One of them did." She had studied this footage under her deepest data analysis programs. "Gives knew it was coming." He'd braced himself and grabbed his XO before the acceleration took hold.

Reeter growled, watching the man directly this time, then searching his desk for something else to break. "This is the only evidence I needed to know what he was hiding."

"I see nothing conclusive here, Charleston." This was damning evidence that Gives was hiding something, but it did not clarify what. There were several potential explanations.

"It's obviously an AI." The damn thing had taken up residence in the Prince's head. No wonder the man seemed so smart, yet so emotionally mute. Due to the fragmented state of humanity's AI, none of them could emulate the full breadth of human emotion, despite being once human themselves.

"We cannot confirm that." Manhattan narrowed her violet eyes, "Whatever spared the Singularity was not only tied to Gives, but also to the ship itself." It was nothing so simple. "Wichita is the only other surviving AI fragment. She is not strong enough to distribute her main processes across two hosts, especially if one of them is biological." Digital AI either inhabited a human mind or they didn't. There was no halfway, unless the human in question was either a heavily modified cyborg or constantly wired in. It was clear enough that William Gives was neither of the two. His fleet medical files insisted he had no implants or prosthetics of any kind. He was fully human, and under her observation, had never been physically wired into anything.

"Beyond that, I'll remind you that the Singularity is an incompatible host for a digital AI." The ship had been designed to prevent that. "Neither me, nor Wichita, nor any Hydrian AI could usurp control of the Singularity's systems." While such an entity could be stored in the central computer, they would be a passenger only, with no hope of controlling the ship unless the automatic controls were activated.