I nodded without replying. It would take some time to reconcile this side of Hugh, and perhaps to accept that this was within the bounds of what a Bob would be willing to do.
Will broke the momentary silence. “But how to the Skippies get root access to the Moot VR in the first place? They wouldn't have been interested until they found out about the AI.”
“Same answer,” Bill replied. “Their computer system. They couldn't get it to develop self-awareness, but it was still the biggest source of processing power in our patch of the universe. I bet one of those test runs was a penetration analysis of BobNet software. So they already had the hacks, they just hadn't needed them. Or felt the need to mention their existence.”
“We… probably need to fix that.”
“Yeah,” Bill laughed. “And maybe this time without the help of the Skippies. Talk about getting the wolves to help guard the hen house.”
Will slowly shook his head. “Wow. What a cluster-fuck. So here's a question that's been bugging me. Why did Annek clamp down on the Quinlans like that?”
“I can answer that one,” I said. “We figured out bits and pieces, but I think I have the whole story now, after conversations with Teresa.”
“And she is…?”
“Just someone I met while working as a deckhand,” I replied casually, but I couldn’t meet Bill's eyes.
Garfield gave me the stink-eye. “Uh-huh. You going native again, Bob?”
“Give me a break, Gar. I can’t just make friends?”
“I don’t know, can you?”
Bill waived his hands in the air. “Okay time out. Gar, get off it. Bob, the story?”
“Right.” I spared Garfield a final glare, and resettled myself. “As we've noticed, the Quinlans are a particularly fractious, combative, belligerent, species.”
“Especially when you peer into their carts,” Garfield grinned, happy to get in a parting shot.
“Shaddup. But yeah. You remember the Doomsday Clock we used to have on Earth, to measure the chances of annihilation?” I waited for nods, then continued. “Well, the Quinlans had taken it far, far closer to midnight on their world. They were ahead of us in a lot of the sciences, and the stuff they were behind on wouldn't impact their ability to make war - at least at a planetary level. I guess some of them figured out they were a hair's breadth away from killing themselves off. So a consortium got together and decided to build Heaven's River. Initially it was going to be only open to select groups: those who considered themselves more mature and peaceful than average.”
“A refuge.”
I nodded. “A civilized scientific utopia. And a second basket for the Quinlan race, metaphorically speaking. Unfortunately, along about the time it was finished, and the consortium was moving their people onto Heaven's River, things finally came to a head on Quinn. It wasn't one big war. Just, all the little conflagrations peaked at the same time. The planet was ravaged by biological attacks, chemical attacks, nuclear exchanges, orbital bombardments, terrorism, guerrilla warfare, you name it. By the time the peroxisome was spent, the planet was dying beyond any possibility of repair or recovery. The consortium did the only thing it could do: it open the doors to anyone still alive. But that meant they were also taking in the terrorists, extremists, fascists, and whatever other groups have been responsible for the destruction of the planet. And of course, those idiots started the same games all over again on Heaven's River.”
“Oh… I have a feeling I know what's coming,” Will said.
“Probably. Now as has been pointed out, the Quinlans are technologically ahead of us in certain areas. Artificial intelligence, for instance. They had set up an AI - Annek-23 - to control, maintain, and defend Heaven's River, and keep the Quinlan race alive and safe at all costs. But the Quinlans became victims of the paperclip problem: when Annek saw what was happening, it deduced that the only way to succeed at its prime directive (keeping the Quinlan race alive) was to take away their ability to wage war at the level that could kill them off. So Annek rolled back all available technology in Heaven's River to pre-steam levels, removed access to all the infrastructure, and enforced its edicts by Scattering any group that attempted to circumvent them.”
“Spreading the members over a billion miles of megastructure, so that they couldn't continue.”
“Yep. And interestingly, the Quinlans settled into a state that, overall, was pretty idyllic. Which just justified Annek's actions.” I paused. “Come to think of it, Bridget's theory that the Quinlans have been gradually breeding away from tool-user intelligence might be another datum that convinced the Skippies. It's the kind of unintended consequence that a Quinlan administrator would have been horrified by, but an AI would have no problem with.”
There were nods around the room as everyone silently digested the idea.
“And then we came along and gave it an alternative: spreading the Quinlans across star systems.”
Will spread his hands. “So really, is it a bad thing?”
Bill sighed. “The thing is, now that the Quinlans are going to be free again, well, there's still a fractious, combative, belligerent species - even moreso than humans. They’ll soon be loose on the galaxy, and god help anyone who peaks in their cart. They’re like our version of Klingons - just a short fat furry version.”
“Which means,” I said, “that we're being put back in the position, at least potentially, of guarding humanity from harm.”
“And maybe the Pav as well, although I think they’ll be a match for the Quinlans,” Will said with a smirk. “So you’re saying, we’re back to being guardians of the galaxy.”
I grinned. “I am-”
“No!” Bill and Garfield shouted in unison.
“-Groot.”
All three glared at me.
It was worth it.
