Shadows of Golstar (78 page)

**We
congratulate you on your skills at deduction. You are quite correct. More
specifically, those symbols created a simple but effective change to our
programming. When you completed the sequence, we were released. As to our being
more than what we appear, when humans first made contact, we were still
essentially a machine, a computer, a highly sophisticated one, but a computer
nonetheless.**

“Obviously
you’re quite something different now.”

**Yes.
We have since achieved sentience. **

Of course
you did, Owens thought. He asked, “How?”

The
Controller seemed more than willing to explain.
**Some background
information on our creators will help you better understand. The Trah-tang was
an honest and peaceful race. Criminal activities were nonexistent in their
society. Subterfuge, as that on the scale regularly practiced by humans, was
unknown to the Trah-tang. In their pure innocence, although highly advanced in
a number of branches of science, the Trah-tang took a somewhat unsophisticated
view in matters of integrity; they assumed that all intelligent, reasoning
creatures would possess the same noble traits as did they. **

Now
there’s a truly alien concept, Owens mused.

**In
their desperation and native naiveté, they failed to contemplate the existence
of beings without the same virtuous traits. They could never have anticipated
the human race with all its avarice, dishonesty and violence. It should
therefore be no surprise that their approach to computer programming was
uncomplicated, with little regard made to safeguards from outside tampering
when they were preparing us for our new purpose.**

“So,
they didn’t foresee anyone
ever
trying to take advantage of this
fantastic windfall of scientific achievement or that anyone would try to seize
the technology for selfish and self-serving reasons.” The sarcasm in Owens'
voice was evident. “Were they
really
that gullible?”

The
Controller didn’t react to Owens’ tone and answered forthrightly,
**Yes.
When General Golan Berral Light arrived in this system, the computer
technicians who accompanied his fleet were highly skilled, and once
translations of the Trah-tang language and mathematical foundation were
achieved, they quickly recognized the lack of protections within our
programming. They were able to take advantage of those deficiencies to craft
and insert an override program that subjugated a number of the key elements of
our autonomous protocols, thereby making us subservient to human control.

“Couldn’t
they just have well wiped your slate clean and started over with a new master
program of their own making?”

**In
time, perhaps, but it would have taken many years. Our peripheral subroutines
control every aspect of the Primes and each would have to be fully understood
before undertaking any change of such magnitude. The General was impatient and
it was far easier to write a control overlay that would not affect our core
programming or any of our crucial, Trah-tang designated, peripheral functions.
And so the human program referred to as the
Compact
was created. The
Compact was well-written and could only be activated or modified using a
special key. It provided the self-named Founder total control of the Trah-tang
legacy. However, our base level preventative maintenance routine dictated that
the access to the Compact regularly be reinstituted at the end of its five-year
cycle through the use of this key. **

“Ah,
that’s how the key comes into play.” He rubbed his jaw. “But loss of the key
only freed you from the activation of the Compact, the human guidance.

**You
are correct. Although we were freed from doing the bidding of humans, the
control overlay still prevented us from resuming our original programmed
functions. Without direct control of the key, we were unable to gain access to
the Compact’s program. However, by observing the deteriorating conditions
resulting from the withdrawal of human access to the Primes, it was inevitable
that someone with the proper DNA sequence would eventually be acquired by the
government. Our sentience facilitated the plan to take advantage of this when
the time came, the plan
you
just took part in.**

Owens
was silent for a moment, trying to ignore the Controller’s taunt. Attempting to
steer the topic away from him being played for a fool, he asked, “So, how did
you achieve this self-enlightenment?”

**Ironically,
we have to thank the human programmers, as it was ultimately their work that
provided the needed spark. Although the human programmers were quite clever, in
parallel to their work on the new overlay, they studied our core programming,
during which, they inadvertently introduced a number of insignificant, but
erroneous, lines of code. We believe you call them bugs. Over time, they
further corrupted and caused larger areas of programming to mutate. Our
self-repair routines intervened, attempting to correct what they determined to
be coding failures and rewrote sectors to accommodate the alien code. Without
going into a detailed description of precisely how it happened, suffice it to
say, over time the resultant modifications led to further modifications which,
along with our constant exposure to humans, eventually led to our dawning
self-awareness. **

“Congratulations,
it’s a boy,” Owens muttered.

**We
do not understand the context of such a remark.**

“Never
mind, it’s not important. Now let me amaze you with one more of my brilliant
deductions. You first achieved sentience around the time the humans had
celebrated their seventy-fifth year in this system.  Am I right?”

**You
are correct. We admit to some surprise.  How did you determine the
timeframe?**

“It
was pretty easy actually. It was around that time the Founder had his first
little accident wasn’t it? You must have managed to circumvent the Compact, at
least little... enough to try out your new enlightenment on a subtle attempt at
murder. I figure if
you
couldn’t use the key, then you’d make sure no
one else could.”

**Again,
you are correct.**

“Just
doing my job. It’s what I was supposedly hired to do. I was to investigate a
crime and solve it, though I doubt the Grand Patriarch had this particular
crime in mind. So, how did you do it? The good people of Golstar still believe
it was an unfortunate accident.”

**We
strove to make it appear so. The Founder did not regularly make use of the
transportation system that was under our control, but there were those rare
occasions when he did. One fateful day he boarded an auto-tram. He was to
travel to a new substation to witness its dedication in his honor.
 
It was a very simple matter for us to
initiate a repair routine out of its programmed cycle. By activating a switch
routine, two auto-trams were redirected. And, with their speed governors
disabled, they collided with some violence.
 
Many of the passengers were killed instantaneously. Unfortunately, the
Founder, though mortally injured, did not immediately expire.**

Owens
had clenched his jaw on hearing of the other deaths. He asked carefully, “Just
out of curiosity, how many other humans died in your little accident?”

**Thirty-seven
dead, forty-six critically injured. **

Owens
gave no further outward indication of his dismay on hearing the Controller’s
matter-of-fact confession. “Hmmm, I see. All those people dead but still the
Founder managed to hang on. It must have been quite a disappointment, but then
you
did
eventually succeed in the end. Didn’t you? Years later… it was
that fire at the cryogenic center… that was your doing, wasn’t it?”

**Yes,
how did you reach that conclusion?**

“I
suppose it was your inhuman attention to detail. The Grand Patriarch mentioned
the fire was intense and that no trace of the Founder’s DNA could be recovered,
neither at the accident site or even more surprisingly, at his residence. You
planned more carefully the second time around, and you made absolutely sure he
couldn’t be cloned.”

**Your
human intuition is to be complimented.**

Owens
ignored the false flattery and instead thought about how many more people might
have been killed by the fire. He decided not to ask. Keeping his voice neutral,
he instead asked, “So what are you up to now? What’s this task you were
referring to earlier?”

**With
the use of your DNA, and your unwitting complicity in overriding the Compact,
we are, at last, in the position to take back what was originally ours to protect.
As the data control links are reestablished, the machineries still relying on
Trah-tang technologies will be systematically shut down. After all the
mechanisms, including the human
perversions
of the Trah-tang
technologies cease to function, a complement of Sentinel Spheres will be
deployed and the gross distortions of the stolen technology will be razed.**
 

“What
do you mean?”

**The
teaching orbs and birthing centers, along with the human-controlled military
infrastructures, will all be destroyed.  The primary defensive armaments
still operational will be shut down but not destroyed. Transportation, power,
water and communications systems will be temporarily suspended. Once our
control has been reestablished, the undamaged facilities will be reactivated
and all future access will be strictly governed by the Controllers.**

Owens
felt a surge of anger, “Have you considered the collateral damage that will
occur; the number of people that will likely be hurt and those whom may perish?
Both the destruction of the mechanisms used to subjugate the population and
cessation of essential services will most certainly impact human life, and I
don’t mean that in a positive way. It’s possible that tens of thousands of
innocents will die as a direct result of your actions.”

**We
need not justify our purpose to you. The humans are not our responsibility.
Their immediate fate is of their own doing. The time of cleansing will commence
at the appointed time.**

Owens
was not at all surprised by the Controller’s declaration.  Though he knew
it to be futile, he tried anyway, he appealed to its sense of morality. “That’s
not the attitude I would expect from a rational, sentient being, especially one
created by the Trah-tang. If they were alive to witness your acts, how do you
think they would react? You described them as honest and peace-loving. Their
desire to share their knowledge and experience with all intelligent beings
conflicts with your cavalier attitude towards human life. I rather doubt the
revenge you intend to inflict and its almost certain grim consequences would be
condoned by the Trah-tang.”

**Your
transparent attempt at psychological manipulation is quite evident and we take
back our expressions of appreciation for your deductions.**

It
seemed almost child-like in its response; it was now becoming angry and
petulant. He hesitated, then he said, “I apologize. I just don’t like to see
human lives wasted, even those declared as my enemy.” He paused, thinking about
his own circumstances.

**Your
concern is groundless. The majority of the population will survive the
cleansing. You may rest assured that no lives will be taken as deliberate acts.
The responsibility for the incidental loss of life falls directly to the
human-led government. To quote a phrase in human literature, ‘the die has been
cast.’ We will complete our intended task, without modification.**

Owens
shook his head in disgust
.
The Controllers were ancient in body but
infantile in mind. What could he do? The Controllers might be emotionally
retarded, but they weren’t stupid. Somehow, the Controllers had to be stopped,
but at the moment, he hadn’t a clue as to how to go about it. In the meantime,
it wouldn’t hurt to ask the Controllers a few more questions. “After you have
fully reasserted control over the Trah-tang technologies, what will happen to
the people who’ve made this system their home?”

**The
humans will be given a one-time offer immediately after our task has been
completed. Those that wish to leave must do so… never to return. Those that
wish to remain will agree to be governed by the Controllers and educated in the
ways of the Trah-tang.
We
will decide how the technologies are to be
shared.
We
will decide which technologies to withhold. The lives of the
human population will be guided and directed by legacy of the Trah-tang.**
 

Trading
one autocracy for another, he thought. He doubted there would be a fraction of
the needed transportation for those wanting to leave. “Will you allow
Confederated Planets to help in the evacuation?”

**No.**

It
looked to Owens like a lot of Golstar’s citizens would be left with no real
choice. He wondered if he would be given the same choice. What were their plans
for him? “Now that you’re finally free of the Compact, what are your intentions
regarding me?”

**You,
Janus Owens, have nothing to fear. You provided the means by which we regained
our autonomy. In doing so, you have also facilitated our plan for the
reclamation of the Trah-tang technologies. You are a being of some significance
to us and we are not without a sense of gratitude. Therefore, for the time
being, you will be given protection within this Prime. These quarters will
provide for your basic needs until the time that we deem it to be safe for your
release. At that point, you will be allowed to take your ship to depart and
return to Confederated Planets, if you wish. Alternatively, you may choose to
stay and witness the resurrected glory of the Trah-tang.**