DUALITY: The World of Lies (28 page)

Ming pulled up his robe exposing his full
nudity before Aru, who couldn't help but take in the chiseled
features of his unexpectedly muscular form.

“What are you doing?!” Aru
demanded.

“I am dressing,” Ming explained and then in
afterthought turned away. “I'm sorry, Captain, I am new
to social protocol and neglected to respect convention.” He fit
himself into the uniform properly and in fast order.

“That looks better, detainee.” said Aru,
hiding his worsening angst. Ming's poise in uniform just reminded
more of Mnemtech. And that subtle creeping fear manifested as
dominating aggression.

“Thank you, Captain. It feels better too. I
think I could pass for a real marine with a haircut. Would it be
possible to bring a grooming array in here? It would not have to
leave the chamber afterward.”

“Absolutely not. I need to make one thing very
clear to you, Ming. You are a full zero-com detainee aboard this
vessel and as such are not allowed access to digital devices of any
kind. Do you understand that?”

“Yes, Captain. Perfectly. I will not make such
a request of you again. Perhaps a pair of scissors and a razor
then?”

“I'll consider that and get back to you.
Here, I've brought you some food. Try to eat
something.”

Ming picked through the available dishes.
“Register 120X CRV-VT,” he said.

“What?”

“That is the inventory code for the
nutritional kit I am requesting. This ship has a stock of them, the
contents of which are entirely non-digital. Please ask
System to retrieve it from storage and bring it to me on your next
visit.”

“I will look into to it. Please sit down,
Ming.”

Ming sat promptly and without difficulty this
time. Aru joined him from across the table.

“You may eat as we talk.” He
thought about just leaving now and not listening to any of it.
Better to break and minimize contact than keep looking on someone
who appeared more and more like the bane of his
existence. 
This is not
Mnemtech
, he singularly reminded
himself. 
It's an entirely different
being. I shouldn't anger him though, just in case. I should hear
him out.

“I would prefer to eat after I have received
the nutritional kit, Captain. I will not be able to properly digest
any of this without it.”

“Ok, like I said I will look into it shortly.
For now, I’d like to talk to you about your conversation with
Commander Li.”

“She has relayed to you my request to change
course for the PoleStar North system?”

“Yes, and that's not going to happen. We are
going to deliver you to Arath, where you will be able to voice your
concerns over the Emperor's PoleStar operations to the authorities
there.”

“The Service will be of no help in this
matter, Captain.”

“If your claims are verified, I’m sure they
will also alert Rubelian High Command to the danger.”

“High Command will be of no use either,
Captain. Beixing Prime is a Fleet outpost, already under their
dominion. If you turn me over to either governing entity, they will
do as you have done and detain me in complete transmission-proof
isolation. My analysis of the threat will be bandied back and forth
in debate, diplomacy, and bureaucracy until the window of
opportunity to contain it has passed.”

Most of that sounded right, and normally Aru
would have agreed with a man talking that way, even bought him a
drink and gladly chatted a night away with such a politically
like-minded fellow. This wasn't a man though, and the audacity of a
prisoner to even suggest a new mission course was just not
something he wanted to deal with at all. It connoted a certain
arrogance, that special breed of arrogance that only a SI
artificial entity could pull off. It was utterly insane
anyway.

“You ask me to accept that The Kinetic is
better suited to deal with this existential threat you imagine than
those governing entities that control vast fleets of starships? How
could we as a single renegade warcraft affect change in the
PoleStar North system? To begin with, it is the home of the exiled
space colonies, including the infamous Carousel 66 banished there
after the last uprising and who collectively bears a particular
hatred for me and this ship. And if we are not set upon by pirates,
what of Beixing Prime? It is a fortress that houses an entire
armada of vessels and tens of thousands of soldiers.”

“Captain, if you will permit me to project a
visual for you?”

“Negative, detainee! You are hereby forbidden
to externally utilize any innate machine capabilities. Is that
understood?”

“Understood, Captain. I shall comply with your
restriction. To address your queries, firstly, you must understand
what I am designed to do. Logos created me as a pinnacle network
core super-consciousness. As such...”

“Like Mnemtech then, except you are
human?”

“It would mostly be fallacious to regard me as
an entity of human intelligence, Captain. A human mind could not
in a lifetime assimilate and process the amount of
information that I have on just this day. I possess a synthesized
dual-brain, comprised of an organic left lobe biolinked with a
quantum circuit processing right hemisphere, which together project
a unified model of all my acquired data in an enriched and highly
refined high-pressure aether globe surrounding my hypothalamus.
This core alone is capable of storing limitless amounts of data in
a single model and recalling any bit of it instantaneously. Prior
to my contact with your ship, that model was entirely mathematical.
It has now been rebuilt to reflect all facets of reality I have
since become aware of. All calculations and analysis are
predetermined and ready for retrieval by subsystems. My rate of
sensory perception is...”

“You are an SI then? What level?”

“In isolation, such as I knew in the sphere
and now here as your detainee, I would be rated an L-6. The scale,
as it stands, has no rating for my potential once am I placed in a
wide-ranging network environment.”

“Mnemtech is an L-6; it is the highest rating
of a Machine Lord. You are saying you are more powerful than The
Grand Regent himself?”

“Should I gain access to a world network and
have time to clandestinely assimilate it, yes. I am a new
generation of SI core technology, and surely the only of
my kind. This, Captain, is why this mission I propose is viable
with solely this ship, which I could, by way of
modification, fashion to become virtually invincible. With your aid
in gaining dock to Beixing Prime and dealing with the human sphere
of leadership there, I could gain clandestine control over their
L-5 in a matter of 4 days to a week.  Once we are in full
control of that station, we will, by extension, control
the entire Polestar North system.”

“And remind me again why 'we' are taking over
another solar system?”

“When Lord Logos made his Ultimatum 70 years
ago, he knew precisely what the status of civilization would be
today. Despite the subjective projections of politically motivated
optimists, he recognized the effects of the great atrophy and even
the effects of political forces that would be wielded against the
Empire by the Cearuleins, and he correctly predicted the critical
turning point of the biomass deficiency trend. Today, Carouselians
and Aq Thassalans are already facing a macronutrient ration of 1900
calorie per day per capita, and the average Carouselian has only
1600. The trend will continue over the next decade into full-scale
famines with no means of reversing it under the longstanding status
quo of Red and Blue relations. From a standpoint of machine
morality, this is unacceptable. The Land Grant is the only viable
solution that will prevent this fate, and only if it goes into
effect within the coming years.”

“Yes, Ming, I'm a Red too, and as such am
staunchly pro-Land Grant, but the reality now is the same as it has
always been: the Cearuleins will never agree to it.”

“Yes, and Logos understood that as well. He
inherited the overpopulation problem from his predecessor, Emperor
Mandu, who also understood the consequences that the high rate of
procreation he endorsed among the Rubelians would lead to. He saw
it as it retribution against the Cearuleins, whom he
despised.”

“Yes, yes, Ming, I don't need a history
lesson. Even Indulu, who tries to play both sides of the Land Grant
issue, is merely putting on a show to assuage Occitanian guilt over
it. And Mnemtech, for his part, endorses it but fully understands
that the Arathian Council, The Order, and
the governments below them will never pass it. The two of
them are thick as thieves, Indulu and Mnemtech, and the
only thing any Taijian can count on from either governing body is
more of the same. Not that that has been a bad thing altogether.
Red and Blue have known a long and lasting peace because of
it.”

“But that is a peace, Captain, more deadly
than war. It masks the issue and allows it to worsen. The Ultimatum
of Logos was not made in vain, I assure you. He intended to give
the Cearuleins an opportunity to make the morally correct choice
and restore balance to the Taiji for mankind. Knowing, however,
they would choose to do nothing, he also contrived a drastic
celestial reordering of the Taiji. PoleStar North is the mechanism
of that reordering, and it will not just punish the Cearuleins. It
will cause catastrophe throughout every world body of the
Taiji.”

“Yes, Ming, and this is where I stop humoring
you. There is no combination of words you can possibly speak that
will convince me to change this ship's course, let alone relinquish
control of it over to you. There are conspiracy theories by the
thousands about PoleStar North and Logos’ sinister plots there. But
the truth is, planet Ponix is the primary source of heavy matter
for The Fleet: gold, nuclear grade materia, and component materials
for process into anti-matter on Ore City. Since anti-matter
refinement requires thousands of times the energy input as it gives
in output, the extravagant solar conduits in orbit there are
necessary to that end and that end alone. As for all the security
and secrecy that the kooks work their conjecture in, it's hardly
surprising since Ponix and Ore City are the prime source of the
Fleet's anti-matter fuel, that singular resource that grants us
military dominance over the Blues! So what less would you expect?
And located as it is in a neighboring star system, it would be
foolish of us to treat it as anything less than a top security
matter and pour every resource into making certain it can defend
itself from a Cearulein or internal takeover.

“Captain, I fully agree that many of those
conspiracies are indeed based upon meritless conjecture. But mine
is not. If I could transfer the schematics to you to run by your
ship's AI-8 system, you would find it concurs with my
assessment.”

“Absolutely not, detainee! I am not giving
data from you to System in any form whatsoever. In fact, this is
how things are going to work until we arrive on Occitania. You will
be given an ink marker and paper upon which you will write any food
or beverage preferences. You will leave that, along with any garb
you'd like laundered, beside the chamber door. When Commander Li or
I enter the foyer, you are to remove yourself to the back of the
chamber and are not to speak at all. If you fail to follow this
procedure, we will cease to deliver your food. There are to be no
more discussions between us. Upon that paper is to be a list of
nutritional and medical needs only, nothing else.” Aru stood up to
leave. “After reevaluating you, it's clear that you are too great
of a security threat and that we must minimize risk by means
of minimizing contact. I'm sorry, but this is how it needs to
be. Is this all clearly understood, detainee?”

“Yes, and I will fully comply, Captain,” Ming
agreed.

“Good. That will be all.” Aru tapped the door
to cue Mei he was leaving. She opened it.

“I am your prisoner. You are in control here,”
Ming added before the door could close behind him.

Aru halted and turned around sharply. “What
was that, detainee?”

“I said that I am your prisoner, and you are
in control here,” Ming repeated.

“And what do you mean by that?”

“I meant the words quite literally,
Captain,” explained Ming. “They were merely meant to reassure
you.”

Aru grunted in annoyance and sealed the
zero-com room inner door. He breathed a sigh of relief.

“See? What did I tell you?” said
Mei.

“Yeah, he's something else all right,” Aru
agreed. “We do it your way. We enter the room once a day only to
swap out clothing and containers; one of us in and out as quickly
as possible with the other armed and ready in the
foyer.”

Aru had no doubt anymore. They had imprisoned
nothing less than a new Machine Lord of the Taiji.

T
he
redmoon Oberion waned as the first of the large summer
thunderstorms blackened the sky. The Tulan Crescent bordered by the
great Mountains of Immutability cradled these fearsome outbursts of
nature's wrath in its bosom and held them until they dissipated,
meanwhile flooding the land with torrents and culling the weakest
trees grown too tall for their bases up by their roots, and
wearying the residents boarded in their homes with dark stormy
nights and days.