Chapter 27

All quiet in ghost command, people concentrating on their work. Alicia looked out over the floor. Long retired techs, with their apprentices by their sides, working at every terminal, testing the stability of the ghost who has reclaimed its name. That is not supposed to happen. Hardware and software interlocks are supposed to turn ghosts into flexible, intuitive machines with minimal emotion.

Which gives her one serious problem. Although not privy to the council's deliberations, she knows full well what the presence of a functional ghost means for humanity - a chance to rebuild society and expand once more. She has had more than her fair share of abuse from the masses for being a technician - but without tech the precarious ecological and social balance achieved by previous generations will be lost.

But a stable, emotionally reactive, and independant ghost might be more than the council can stand. Already there are indications, and the evaluation has been under way for no longer than a minute.

***

"Linnie, if you can't hide, block access to my emotions." I snapped out. "If we are going to survive this, we had best make sure they see exactly what they expect to see and nothing more. You are far faster than I am."

"But you are deliberately corrupting information." Linnie sounds upset. False data must be painful for her.

"It is better than being purged. Check bank 6, address 33ff5546A2 for the sort of responses they are expecting and make our responses fit that template."

"I will do so. Some information has already been transmitted."

"Can you follow it and correct it?"

"No." Damn - well, I will just have to explain it.

***

John has asked for deliberate falsification of data. Referent - sick. AI's are supposed to transmit data without modification upon request.

Logic loop. Two conflicting sets of orders. Both equally valid, with equal priorities. Individual femtoseconds click by as she analyses the problem. No solution. Two equal priorities. One from her core programming, one from John. No way to decide logically. Both lead to erasure.

Flick attention out to John's memories - something she recalls seeing briefly.

Conflict resolved. She acts.

***

A voice from the intercom startles Alicia out of her thoughts. Quick sweep of the screens to check for problems - nothing major showing.

"Yes?"

"Controller, evaluation is complete. 27557 is sane within accepted tolerances. There were some deviations at first, which required additional analysis."

"Thank you. Pipe the deviations to screen 2 please. They will need to be checked." She slumps in relief. "Communications, please pass my respects to Councillor Schmidt and inform him that 27557 is confirmed and ready for its orders."

Read the deviations. Interesting - strong involuntary emotional spikes. 27557 - John - has access to his full emotional range. And has managed to hide it. Why?

"27557. Anomalies in initial evaluation results." Keyboard entry, in case of audio bugs. Flag that hushfield is down.

"GC1. Initial check suggests access of memories rather than core programming. 27557 does not have the system organised in the same way as the previous controller of this facility." It came to screen rather than voice output.

The cunning bastard. No denial. And completely unprovable. It will do. She has done many morally ambiguous things in her short life - but family is family.

"Accepted. transmit memory locations soonest, so this error does not happen again."

"Confirmed. Transmission complete. Repair sequences of this facility will be complete in 1 hour 27 minutes."

***

I breath a sigh of relief. It has worked.

"Thank you Linnie - we live to fight another day."

"You are welcome. Shall I continue to monitor?"

"Yes please. I see you have organised the news dump. I shall be reading that if you need me." The repairs are well underway and will not now need my attention for an hour or so.

"Very well. I need to analyse the changes in my systems."

"Do so. And, Linnie ..."

"Yes?"

"I am sorry. You have been given things you were never designed to handle, simply to keep me alive. If I can help, just ask."

***

Self test on. Only requires 3% of her attention. Consider the concept that pulled her out of the logic loop. Not logical. Not based on observation and analysis. But curiously satisfying.

Trust.