Chapter 9

The Central Computer, through AI, told us where to find the entrance to the chamber containing the local AI. That seemed to be the first place that we should look. We needed to know if the AI was functional, and an examination of its interface should tell AI where to find the problem.

We had no idea what to expect, so we stripped off all of our clothes and took up our assault rifles. Just possibly, there could be hostile animals or people in the tunnels or in the AI's chamber, itself. Either way, we wanted to have some protection on our side.

We found the main entrance and AI unlocked the door for us. Supposedly, all of the defense mechanisms had been shut off, but AI was keeping a close watch in case of a glitch. This tunnel was dimensioned so that we could walk upright with two of us beside each other. That was a pleasant change from what we had experienced with the other local AI establishments. I suppose that the rationale was that this station was thousands of klicks from any other inhabited sector, so it was safe to make it more convenient for the humans who had to make occasional trips into the depths of the system.

We had to walk about 200 meters to reach the second door, and that was around enough bends in the tunnel to confuse the average person. Security concerns had not been completely ignored. Uh-oh, when we came to the second door, we found that it had been blown open with explosives. Well, actually, an oval hole was cut through the door large enough for a person to work his way through. The way the remaining metal of the door was distorted made it obvious that some sort of explosive had been used to cut the hole.

On the other side of the door, we found marks left from bullets. The system's defense mechanism must have tried to defend the AI by shooting bullets at the doorway. That had not been effective. All an attacker had to do under that circumstance was to wait until the guns had run out of ammunition.

We used the same hole for our entrance, and I have to admit that I was a bit nervous that there might be some bullets left for the system to shoot. There were none, and I couldn't help being relieved at that. We moved cautiously through the tunnel until we could see the third door. Here was where we found the first indication that the attackers had not had an easy time. There was a skeleton lying on the floor, but we could not tell what had killed the person. There was no obvious sign of broken bones, so we didn't know what to blame for the fatality. That was something else to worry about.

AI examined the door and said that it had been electrified. Judging from the amount of insulation on the cables, the voltage must have been astronomical. Whatever it was, it was not enough to keep the invaders from getting through this door. It was opened conventionally, and there were no signs of bullet marks on the other side. Another example of sloppy security design.

We stepped around the skeleton as we went through the door. I'm not sure why, but we did. This time, we were met by a portcullis made of metal bars. Enough bars had been cut, again by explosive, to allow a person to get through. Here, there was a large number of bullet marks, but we must assume that they had not done their job because there were no skeletons.

AI said that this was the last defense in the entrance tunnel, and the local AI's chamber was on the other side of the last door that we were facing. This time, the door was badly bent, but it seemed to have withstood the efforts of the attackers to break through. From that, we assumed that the local AI was undamaged, but why was it not answering calls from the Central Computer?

We discussed the situation with AI, and we all agreed that the problem might be simply that the interface was screwed up. If that were the case, perhaps we could repair the interface and restore communication between the local AI and CC. AI got the details of where to find the external connections to the interface and transported us to that location.

Oh, my God! What a mess! It looked like a crew of mad men had attacked the links with axes and other such tools. The whole system was chopped into little pieces so that it would be impossible to reassemble and reattach the cables. The whole system of interface connections was going to have to be replaced. Over this mass of junk was written on the wall: "This is the fate of all blasphemers and the tools of the Evil One!"

That was not a major problem. AI could teleport in the necessary parts from CC's warehouse. The problem was in getting to the robots that would have to do the work. Jim blanched when he saw the mess that the vandals had made of the system and said that there was no way that he could do the repair work. It was to get a set of maintenance robots or forget the whole thing.

Okay, the next step was to see if the local robots were still in working condition. AI was very resourceful, and he was able to work out what connections went where so that he could talk to the local AI, provided that it was still in working condition. AI worked for 18 minutes trying to get through to the local AI and finally was able to make a very primitive connection to its central processing core.

After another 10 minutes of trying to communicate with the local AI, our AI stated quite firmly that the local AI was a gibbering idiot. Apparently, after something on the order of 90,000 years of being cut off from the outside world, the local AI had retreated into a kind of computer insanity. AI was certain that the only way to have a functioning local AI was to replace the entire system.

That information was transmitted to the Central Computer for it to decide what to do. In the meantime, we were going to enter the experimental station to see what we could find. The original occupants of the station had to be dead by now because the essential services would have stopped functioning when the local AI was disconnected from them. We felt that the action was futile, but we were going in to see exactly what had happened.

Suffice it to say that we were able to enter the research station and verify that there was no one left alive. There had obviously been a major battle within the station, and skeletons were scattered about. At this stage, it was impossible to tell who had won the battle, but logic was on the side of the attackers. Nevertheless, we searched through the building, and Sharon found a skeleton in a closet. With the skeleton was a short note describing what had happened.

The note said, "The invaders showed up one morning about a year after the great disaster struck. We were not prepared to deal with the ferocity of their attack, and they wiped out almost all of us. I was able to hide in this closet and escape being killed by them, but I know that I will die soon when the supplies give out. I am a computer programmer, so I know what will soon happen. I heard them talking about having destroyed the interface between our computer and this research station, so the services will start to fail within a few hours.

"During the fight, they kept shouting that they were here to kill all of the blasphemers who had caused the disaster. They were blaming us for the disaster caused by the gamma-ray burst. They kept shouting that we were the agents of the Evil One, whoever that might be. It was obvious that they were religious fanatics who were prepared to die in the process of killing us. They were not much in the way of soldiers because even I was able to kill one of them.

"May the Gods preserve some of our people, though I don't know how They can. We had what I consider to be the perfect civilization before the disaster struck, and I can't understand how They could let such a thing happen. Goodbye to whomever finds this note. I wish you well."

That was all. There was not even a signature. On the other hand, maybe that is appropriate. I still have the note, though I did supply a copy to the Central Computer.

****

We were down emotionally after this episode, so we decided that we needed cheering up. The best way for that to happen was for us to return to our children and friends on Wolf. AI told the Central Computer that we were leaving, but we probably would return. He said that he would leave a tendril of a contact link so that CC could reach him if a need developed.