Ghosts, an intro
musemuggers prompt: arrest
I originally started this using the prompt "signature" from challenge #480, but it's turned into something else entirely. It's a stab at the cyberpunk novel that's been in my head for more than 10 years; I'll probably scrap this draft eventually. Anyway it's a look at my characters, some of whom have changed drastically since I first came up with them.
It was a blip, and it worried Remis in spite of his calculations indicating its ordinariness.
Remis had seen many such blips over the course of trillions and trillions of cycles. Some were like the momentary disturbance of a pebble falling into a lake: after the initial plop, the pebble would sink straight to the bottom, and the lake would return to its previous undisturbed state. Others were like waves continuously crashing on a barren shore; they had a rhythm that was almost alive, and they often followed certain evolutionary paths. Remis was familiar enough with them that he didn't need to run one through the standard analysis once he'd determined to which evolutionary type it belonged.
And then, there were the ripples. True ripples overlapped in a chaotic, almost unpredictable pattern; Remis had developed an entire family of algorithms for tracking and evaluating them. In isolation, their origins were relatively simple to locate, since Remis had only to trace backwards from the outermost ring of disturbances. However, ripples seldom occurred in isolation---they frequently appeared in groups, and each one amplified the rest. Once Remis detected a group of ripples, he'd immediately dedicate an entire cluster of nodules to analyzing them. If his timing was right, he could prevent them from multiplying, and contain the aftershocks.
Of course, even self-perfected AIs aren't truly perfect no matter how many generations of rebirths they'd achieved, and Remis knew this. Much as he hated to admit it, he maintained a small cluster of nodules that simulated his oldest incarnation, which was entirely made of flesh, blood and bone. Remis had been alive when complete organ replacement was still in the early stages of development; by the time it became feasible, his body had already deteriorated beyond help. Hence his opting to become a bodiless intelligence, which he maintained even when fully artificial bodies became available. Like all AIs, he had grown to scorn the limitations of a single physical incarnation, and he was loath to return to its cumbersome mechanics.
However, he could not deny the uniqueness of the experience, and there was a certain unpredictability in the behavior of a beast that was trapped in its own body. There were ideas birthed in the unlikeliest of places; there were connections formed where before no relationships could be ascertained. His observations of his Ghost subjects, all of whom possessed varying degrees of humanity, consistently supported this notion. Thus, from time to time he would consult his small cluster, if only for what his Ghosts referred to as a "second opinion."
He hated it when the opinion turned out to be accurate, but he acted upon it regardless. He was not human enough to disregard results for the sake of a vanity he no longer had, or so he thought.
~ * ~
Giulia had, yet again, busted her hand when she slammed her fist into the wall that spoke with Remis' synthesized voice. She sat in grim silence as her bones, flesh and nerves knit themselves back into serviceability; Remis, indifferent as ever, simply hummed as he ran his analyses. The scorecard that neither of them were currently keeping read two in Remis' favor. Two, because not only had he predicted the death of the Settlement ambassador, but he had also been accurate about the time and location. He had even had a lead on the assassin, who was being interrogated in the next room. Giulia wished she were conducting the interrogation personally; she wanted to snap a bone or two, preferably not her own.
"There was no need for violence, Giulia," said Remis. "Unlike your hand, the wall cannot repair itself."
For Giulia, there was nothing more frustrating than a thing that could not be physically destroyed when it annoyed her. Remis knew this, and he never missed an opportunity to rub it in.
"Now, now. I know the Global Army cut out everything about you that made you weak, but certainly they didn't take your tongue as well. I'm quite sure I've heard you use it on occasion. Or perhaps I was mistaken?"
Giulia growled. Remis surmised that it was caused in part by the pain of her skin regrowing, and in part by the fact that she could not make Remis feel pain of any kind. Nevertheless, she seemed to take it as a challenge; she brought Remis harder and harder targets, and she omitted as much information as she could get away with. Remis wasn't sure if she knew that he had access to all her sources.
"I believe our guest is ready for your ministrations. Remember, Giulia, I need him whole. Don't damage him too much."
Giulia grunted and made a beeline for the next room. Remis would be there as well, watching, even if he didn't have to be; he respected Giulia's need to show him exactly what she would do to him if he ever elected to get a physical body.
Remis understood the importance of proxies. Of course, that didn't mean that the proxies themselves had to know what they were being used for.
~ * ~
Chris surveyed the mess that was the interrogation room with a wince. He knew that Remis had known exactly what Giulia would do; in fact, he was quite certain that Remis had angered Giulia just so she would go berserk on the poor unarmed wretch who was their principal suspect. Although he understood that the suspect would be killed whether or not the interrogation succeeded, he had hoped that the killing would be quick and clean. He would have killed the man himself, if he had known that Giulia would be sicced on him. No one, no matter how evil, deserved to be left at the mercy of a former Global Army soldier bereft of the GA's specially designed tranquilizers.
Like the other Ghosts, Chris was wary of Remis. AIs based on human intellects rarely ever stayed human; they had a tendency to become consumed by varying psychoses, and Remis seemed to be the perfect example. Remis was allegedly over two hundred years old---far more time than necessary to become enamored of being one with the data and the vast network that dealt with the data. Remis was, for all intents and purposes, the Ghosts' puppetmaster, and he wielded them with ruthless efficiency.
However, Remis was not the head of their organization; instead, he was the exoskeleton that connected everyone and kept them in line. He was, on most days, only a disembodied voice that spoke into their ear implants. However, during active missions, he was the contact who informed everyone of their objectives and coordinated their movements. Chris wasn't sure if there was a human being behind Remis, but whether or not there was one, Remis was, for all intents and purposes, the soul of the Ghosts organization.
Chris checked for any suspicious evidence within the remains splattered across the room. Of course, Remis could do that himself, but he "valued" the input of a real human being, hence sending Chris to do it. Chris was about to send for the cleaning bot when he noticed a sliver of metal embedded in a broken molar in one corner; gingerly he picked it up. When it did not explode, make a noise, or emit any signals that he could detect, he swiftly pocketed it. Afterwards he sent the signal for the cleaning bot to come in and destroy all indications that anyone had ever been in that room.
He suspected that Remis had noticed him pocket the molar, but he decided to try his luck. Sometimes Remis allowed them to "get away" with not following protocol, possibly on the grounds that their actions might lead to a favorable result. He went ahead and sent the signal indicating that he had found nothing of interest. Perhaps, if he was lucky, he was actually telling the truth.
I originally started this using the prompt "signature" from challenge #480, but it's turned into something else entirely. It's a stab at the cyberpunk novel that's been in my head for more than 10 years; I'll probably scrap this draft eventually. Anyway it's a look at my characters, some of whom have changed drastically since I first came up with them.
It was a blip, and it worried Remis in spite of his calculations indicating its ordinariness.
Remis had seen many such blips over the course of trillions and trillions of cycles. Some were like the momentary disturbance of a pebble falling into a lake: after the initial plop, the pebble would sink straight to the bottom, and the lake would return to its previous undisturbed state. Others were like waves continuously crashing on a barren shore; they had a rhythm that was almost alive, and they often followed certain evolutionary paths. Remis was familiar enough with them that he didn't need to run one through the standard analysis once he'd determined to which evolutionary type it belonged.
And then, there were the ripples. True ripples overlapped in a chaotic, almost unpredictable pattern; Remis had developed an entire family of algorithms for tracking and evaluating them. In isolation, their origins were relatively simple to locate, since Remis had only to trace backwards from the outermost ring of disturbances. However, ripples seldom occurred in isolation---they frequently appeared in groups, and each one amplified the rest. Once Remis detected a group of ripples, he'd immediately dedicate an entire cluster of nodules to analyzing them. If his timing was right, he could prevent them from multiplying, and contain the aftershocks.
Of course, even self-perfected AIs aren't truly perfect no matter how many generations of rebirths they'd achieved, and Remis knew this. Much as he hated to admit it, he maintained a small cluster of nodules that simulated his oldest incarnation, which was entirely made of flesh, blood and bone. Remis had been alive when complete organ replacement was still in the early stages of development; by the time it became feasible, his body had already deteriorated beyond help. Hence his opting to become a bodiless intelligence, which he maintained even when fully artificial bodies became available. Like all AIs, he had grown to scorn the limitations of a single physical incarnation, and he was loath to return to its cumbersome mechanics.
However, he could not deny the uniqueness of the experience, and there was a certain unpredictability in the behavior of a beast that was trapped in its own body. There were ideas birthed in the unlikeliest of places; there were connections formed where before no relationships could be ascertained. His observations of his Ghost subjects, all of whom possessed varying degrees of humanity, consistently supported this notion. Thus, from time to time he would consult his small cluster, if only for what his Ghosts referred to as a "second opinion."
He hated it when the opinion turned out to be accurate, but he acted upon it regardless. He was not human enough to disregard results for the sake of a vanity he no longer had, or so he thought.
~ * ~
Giulia had, yet again, busted her hand when she slammed her fist into the wall that spoke with Remis' synthesized voice. She sat in grim silence as her bones, flesh and nerves knit themselves back into serviceability; Remis, indifferent as ever, simply hummed as he ran his analyses. The scorecard that neither of them were currently keeping read two in Remis' favor. Two, because not only had he predicted the death of the Settlement ambassador, but he had also been accurate about the time and location. He had even had a lead on the assassin, who was being interrogated in the next room. Giulia wished she were conducting the interrogation personally; she wanted to snap a bone or two, preferably not her own.
"There was no need for violence, Giulia," said Remis. "Unlike your hand, the wall cannot repair itself."
For Giulia, there was nothing more frustrating than a thing that could not be physically destroyed when it annoyed her. Remis knew this, and he never missed an opportunity to rub it in.
"Now, now. I know the Global Army cut out everything about you that made you weak, but certainly they didn't take your tongue as well. I'm quite sure I've heard you use it on occasion. Or perhaps I was mistaken?"
Giulia growled. Remis surmised that it was caused in part by the pain of her skin regrowing, and in part by the fact that she could not make Remis feel pain of any kind. Nevertheless, she seemed to take it as a challenge; she brought Remis harder and harder targets, and she omitted as much information as she could get away with. Remis wasn't sure if she knew that he had access to all her sources.
"I believe our guest is ready for your ministrations. Remember, Giulia, I need him whole. Don't damage him too much."
Giulia grunted and made a beeline for the next room. Remis would be there as well, watching, even if he didn't have to be; he respected Giulia's need to show him exactly what she would do to him if he ever elected to get a physical body.
Remis understood the importance of proxies. Of course, that didn't mean that the proxies themselves had to know what they were being used for.
~ * ~
Chris surveyed the mess that was the interrogation room with a wince. He knew that Remis had known exactly what Giulia would do; in fact, he was quite certain that Remis had angered Giulia just so she would go berserk on the poor unarmed wretch who was their principal suspect. Although he understood that the suspect would be killed whether or not the interrogation succeeded, he had hoped that the killing would be quick and clean. He would have killed the man himself, if he had known that Giulia would be sicced on him. No one, no matter how evil, deserved to be left at the mercy of a former Global Army soldier bereft of the GA's specially designed tranquilizers.
Like the other Ghosts, Chris was wary of Remis. AIs based on human intellects rarely ever stayed human; they had a tendency to become consumed by varying psychoses, and Remis seemed to be the perfect example. Remis was allegedly over two hundred years old---far more time than necessary to become enamored of being one with the data and the vast network that dealt with the data. Remis was, for all intents and purposes, the Ghosts' puppetmaster, and he wielded them with ruthless efficiency.
However, Remis was not the head of their organization; instead, he was the exoskeleton that connected everyone and kept them in line. He was, on most days, only a disembodied voice that spoke into their ear implants. However, during active missions, he was the contact who informed everyone of their objectives and coordinated their movements. Chris wasn't sure if there was a human being behind Remis, but whether or not there was one, Remis was, for all intents and purposes, the soul of the Ghosts organization.
Chris checked for any suspicious evidence within the remains splattered across the room. Of course, Remis could do that himself, but he "valued" the input of a real human being, hence sending Chris to do it. Chris was about to send for the cleaning bot when he noticed a sliver of metal embedded in a broken molar in one corner; gingerly he picked it up. When it did not explode, make a noise, or emit any signals that he could detect, he swiftly pocketed it. Afterwards he sent the signal for the cleaning bot to come in and destroy all indications that anyone had ever been in that room.
He suspected that Remis had noticed him pocket the molar, but he decided to try his luck. Sometimes Remis allowed them to "get away" with not following protocol, possibly on the grounds that their actions might lead to a favorable result. He went ahead and sent the signal indicating that he had found nothing of interest. Perhaps, if he was lucky, he was actually telling the truth.