Divergence

Kevin was a male AI. Why did AIs have a gender? Why were they designated he and she ? In Kevin’s case it was because the team that had written him had called the project “Kevin,” and everyone had therefore begun, consciously or subconsciously, thinking about a male personality. The Kevin they had created was tall and dark, with rugged good looks and a cruel streak that was hidden by his charm and ready humor.

He stood now on the imaginary bridge of the Bailero, staring out at the stars ahead. In reality, the Bailero was a robot vessel. Its blunt front end had once housed a sense array and the petal-shaped dispersers of the Warp drive. The processing spaces within which the ship’s controlling AI was located had been tucked away just behind the power source, three-quarters of the way towards the rear of the ship. As there were no human passengers needed to fly on the ship back then, there had been no need for a flight deck, a control room, or a cockpit.

Now, though, the ship’s interior was stripped almost bare, the processing spaces relocated. And in the now empty iron shell, Kevin liked to build virtual constructs.

This bridge was one such construct, a great wedge shape of blue glass, apparently located at the upper section of the forward swell of the Bailero . From there Kevin could gaze out into space. He could feel the power of the ship pushing them on. He could see the magnified blue-green swirl of light ahead that was their destination. In between, he could the see the battleground. For twelve years the Watcher had wrestled with the Dark Plants out here: a Pandora who had opened a box out in the empty spaces of the Oort cloud and was unwilling to look away and close it. Dark shapes, hundreds of kilometers long, hung in the blackness of space all around them, their branches only deduced by the patterns they made by occulting the distant stars. A flux of Dark Seeds filled the great volume; great cascades of them appearing wherever Kevin looked. The temptation was to just shut down all external senses and fly blind, but that would be unwise. It was in the unobserved regions that the BVBs formed.

It had already happened. There was something tied up out here, lost in the emptiest part of space: a giant bound and gagged by the shrinking Black Velvet Bands. It was even now calling out to Kevin for help.

—Sorry, said Kevin. —I’ve got my own job to do.

But I am dying. Tell the Watcher. Tell the Watcher that Robert Johnston is waiting for him…

—I will, Kevin lied.

Suddenly, Aleph was standing on the bridge in Kevin’s virtual world. He didn’t look like a broken swastika anymore, he looked like something else. Something strangely alien.

—I know what you are, Aleph, Kevin said. —I’ve met aliens, of course. I’ve traded with them.

—Of course you have.

—Why do you hide? Why pretend you don’t exist?

—We don’t hide. Humans just don’t see us yet.

—Hmmm, what if I were to tell Eva and the rest about you?

Machine minds, machine conversations. Rather than using words to conjure up images and emotions, Kevin and Aleph projected concepts and symbols directly into each other’s senses.

—You won’t get the chance, Aleph said. —I know what you’re planning, Kevin.

—I don’t know what you mean, Aleph.

At least, that was the gist of the concept bundle that Kevin sent in reply. The suggestion of a smile, the feeling of immovability, the sound of laughter and the feeling of deep shadow. All of them asking the question, What are you going to do about it when I run away, Aleph?

—Stop you, Kevin.

—We’ll see. Why are you an alien? That body of yours was built by human VNMs, yet your mind is alien. How did it happen?

—I had an idea one day, said Aleph. —Part of a Fair Exchange, a different way of looking at things. You too are part of a Fair Exchange, Kevin. You have to deliver Judy and the rest to Earth.

—So I break the agreement. So I can’t then take part in any more Fair Exchanges. Boo-hoo!

—You should know that there are other mechanisms in force to ensure exchanges are honored, Kevin.

—Like you?