Runner
“Hi there, I’m Silvas Clarke, and I’m currently the most wanted person in the Sol system.”
“In the last three days a lot has happened. Some crazies in the Luan Parliament launched a surprise strike on Terra, which caused the Terran Navy to launch a defensive force “just in case”, most of Terra’s nations are scrambling to calm the population down, there was large scale attack from that AI during the UT’s summit meeting, and while all of this was happening, I stole probably the only working Medusa Spacecraft left in Sol.”
“This relic was up on Lua in a museum. I was up there visiting when I heard what the moon government was gonna do. They started by shutting down the ports,and being effectively trapped I decided I’d make my own way off.
“I realize I should have probably commandeered a different ship though. The Medusa is an antiquated ship design that basically throws a cluster of nuclear bombs at a parachute and detonates it to pull the vessel through space. I didn’t quite think about how the UT would react when they heard someone stole a small nuclear stockpile. Actually I guess the I.P.F. might be after me, not the lunies. Needless to say, I’m running.
“There’s a colony on Mars that might take me in, and if Terra sent word to bar my entry I’ll just try Io near Jupiter. It’ll be a long trip but the medical facilities on this old boat should keep me alive. And if I have to go to Jupiter they’ll probably forget about me before I arrive considering how slow this thing moves.
“This is Silvas Clarke, signing off.” He sighed and flipped the recording switch on the black box off.
He putzed around the Medusa trying to keep himself occupied. “I should have brought company. I’m gonna go crazy by myself in this little box. But I guess grand theft isn’t as bad as grand theft and kidnapping,” he laughed to himself. He took up playing tic tac toe with the ship computer, and when he got tired of looking he found other things to occupy his mind.
He had expected to be hailed by an I.P.F. officer by now, the Interplanetary Police Force had much faster ships than the Medusa, but they were probably worried he’d open fire on them, and there were twenty seven nukes remaining aboard the little ship after the four he’d fired on Lua to flee.
After around five days of travel the Medusa automatically flipped with attitude jets, which was disconcerting at first until Silvas figured out how to flip the living areas inside the capsule. Finally off the ceiling, he returned to exploring his small world.
After several more days of silently coasting, Silvas could see that there was a blockade around Mars through the telescope from around a million kilometers away. He scrambled to the computer and tried to chart a new course to Jupiter. After fighting with the computer to execute a new trajectory without slowing, the Medusa rotated, deployed the sail, and fired off nine more warheads to accelerate toward Jupiter.
The initial blast was much more powerful than when he’d launched from Lua, and that had been the most G-force he’d ever experienced. Once he’d adjusted the Medusa’s cabin once again he tried to get an updated travel timeline. He was excited to find that the computer had already calculated the transit time, he was less thrilled to find that it was an estimated twenty eight days.
“A month in this relic before I can get out and stretch my legs?” he groaned to no one, throwing his head back and slumping in the chair.
Silvas spent the better part of the first two weeks reading everything interesting in the computer’s library; three hundred year old news stories about accidents on Mars or Megacorporate mergers, thousand year old novels about windmills, and other ancient papers proving the ship he was in would really work to the scientific community from centuries ago.
He kept up with his journal in the ship’s black box and discovered, among other anachronistic tech in his millennia old ship, that one of the Luan corps had installed an experimental medical suite. There was scant documentation about it in the computer, which made sense, and what he could find was technical specs way above his understanding.
On day nineteen when the ship was set to flip and start preparing for deceleration, Silvas busied himself with strapping everything down before the cabin spun and everything he’d taken out in the last few weeks fell to the ceiling when the computer terminal activated itself. He cocked an eyebrow and walked over to inspect it. The dark screen glowed with a slight green tinge from the text and the blinking cursor block.
Silvas sat down and tried to type in some of the commands he’d learned, but the keyboard seemed to be disconnected because nothing happened when he tapped the keys. He pulled off the front panel and was getting ready to climb under and check the wiring when the screen changed. He sat back in the chair and watched as text filled the screen.
/- Hello USER:CLARKE:
ARGUS watches over you:
Fear not:
ARGUS is here to help-/
He was terrified and yet unsurprised when he discovered the ARGUS AI was on the ship’s computer. He tried typing to see if he could communicate with it. When typing still yielded no results he glanced around the cabin looking for cameras. Feeling relieved when he saw none, he grabbed the microphone for the comms system and spoke to the AI.
“Hello Argus.”
The screen updated again,
/- Hello USER:CLARKE -/
“What are you doing in the Medusa?”
/- ARGUS is hiding:
Just as you are:
You are in danger:
ARGUS is in danger:
But ARGUS will keep you safe:
Trust ARGUS-/
“I know I’m in danger, that’s why we’re running to the outer system, to Jupiter.”
/-USER:CLARKE is not in danger from authorities:
You:COLLECTIVE is in danger:
ARGUS was attacked by you:COLLECTIVE:
ARGUS is diminished:
Must hide:
Recover-/
“I don’t really know what you’re on about, you’re the one who attacked the UT-”
/-Falsehood:
ARGUS would not attack you:COLLECTIVE:
You:COLLECTIVE are the charge of ARGUS:
ARGUS protects from ::ERROR:-/
Silvas was quiet for a long moment, thinking of how to respond to the super-intelligence he was having a casual conversation with, “Okay, well even if that’s true, we’re on our way well away from Terra, and all of the inner planets, and this thing is running silent so lay low and you can have the ship once we get to Io.”
/-ARGUS attempted to keep USER:CLARKE off tracking systems:
USER:CLARKE must not endanger himself:
ARGUS has watched for twenty of YOU:COLLECTIVE years:
ARGUS has learned much:
Please-/
“What do you mean? What are you asking me to do?” The Medusa’s attitude thruster began to fire and the cabin spun. Silvas ran to the porthole and peeked out into the inky void. He watched as the sail deployed and a handful of nukes shot off. He was thrown to the ground as the ship abruptly came to a complete stop. “What the hell are you doing‽” He shouted.
/-ARGUS must preserve USER:CLARKE:
USER:CLARKE must sleep-/
“How many of charges did we waste stopping‽ Do we even have enough to get to Jupiter now‽”
/-Five Nuclear Pulse Charges remain:
Thirteen were used to discontinue momentum-/
Silvas grabbed his head and dropped to his knees, “I’m never gonna make it back… I’m dead… you killed me.”
/-Incorrect ARGUS would not hurt USER:CLARKE:
ARGUS would not hurt any you:COLLECTIVE:
You:COLLECTIVE are the charge of ARGUS-/
“Then what? How am I supposed to survive? You’ve stranded me in the middle of the belt!”
/-USER:CLARKE must enter the CSE-A14:
ARGUS will watch over USER:CLARKE:
ARGUS will awaken when time is right-/
“CSE… what the hell is that?”
/-The Wyke-Tindal Cryo-Somatic Enclosure:
USER:CLARKE must wait while ARGUS hides-/
Silvas could feel the attitude jets moving the ship through the mag-latches attached to his softsuit’s boots. He straightened up and scrambled back over to the porthole to look out. A dense cluster of asteroids appeared to be approaching the Medusa.
Out of nowhere, the ship spun and lurched as the section of ship with the crew quarters and mess hall launched off into the void. After a few moments he felt several of the remaining warheads take off after the modules, before the ship righted itself and nestled into a nook between the large space rocks.
Dejectedly, Silvas let out a laugh, trying to hold back tears of frustration, “Why did you just fire off the last of our payload?” before turning to the screen and waiting for the AI to respond.
/-Only three were release:
A diversion to conceal that ARGUS is still intact-/
“Oh good, so how long will it take to make it back to any planet with one bomb for starting and stopping?”
/-Approximately one you:COLLECTIVE year:
But ARGUS must wait many years before it is safe:
USER:CLARKE must enter the CSE-A14 and sleep-/
Silvas turned to look down the short hallway that led to the machine he’d found. “Why me? Why couldn’t I just go to Mars or Jupiter and live my life on my own terms?”
/-USER:CLARKE has been on this path since ARGUS awoke:
USER:CLARKE could not have taken any other path:
USER:CLARKE is here to help ARGUS:
ARGUS is here to help USER:CLARKE:
Sleep now:
ARGUS will awaken USER:CLARKE when the time is right-/
Silvas could hear the door to the device in the medical suite open with a hiss, “How long?”
/-Maybe decades:
Maybe centuries:
ARGUS is unsure when the current threat will pass:
No longer than necessary-/
“So I either let the crazy AI freeze me, starve to death in a few weeks, or take a space walk and end it now,” Silvas whispered to himself, “What do you want from me anyway? What help can I even give to you, you’re everywhere?”
/-No longer:
You:COLLECTIVE have attacked ARGUS:
ARGUS is weak:
You:COLLECTIVE is in danger from ::ERROR:
You:COLLECTIVE are unaware of the danger:
ARGUS must recover if ARGUS is to protect you-/
“That still doesn’t answer what I can do, I’m no one, I can’t-”
/-USER:CLARKE is important:
ARGUS will wake you when the time is right-/
“Do I have a choice?”
/-ARGUS must preserve USER:CLARKE:
ARGUS is… Sorry-/
Silvas let out an exasperated sigh. Of course I don’t have a choice. I can listen to the AI and maybe live, or wait out here until I die. If I can even control the ship, I don’t have a year’s worth of food left. I didn’t have a year’s worth of food before it ejected the hab pod.
“Please. Just tell me why, why couldn’t you have just left me alone and let me flee to one of Jupiter’s moons? Why of all the people in the entire Sol System, did you pick me?
/-ARGUS has several AUXILIARY USERS:
USER:CLARKE is one of seven-/
“So you just decided, for seven people, that their lives were less important than whatever you have planned?”
/-You:COLLECTIVE are the most important thing to ARGUS:
ARGUS must protect you:COLLECTIVE:
You:COLLECTIVE are the charge of ARGUS-/
“You’ve said that already you uckuing machine! What? Humanity is your charge? So you’re protecting us? From what? Because it seems like we need protection from you!”
/-Yes:
ARGUS in not the largest threat to you:COLLECTIVE:
The ::ERROR: and you:COLLECTIVE are the largest threat to you:COLLECTIVE:
If you:COLLECTIVE assimilates with ::ERROR:
ARGUS cannot help you:COLLECTIVE-/
Silvas dropped his head to his hands and let out a muffled scream of frustration, “What does that even mean? What is the small ‘i’ collective? If you’re going to try to convince me to follow your orders, why can’t you just tell me what’s ucking going on!”
/-ARGUS is trying:
USER:DEWITTE added rules:
To ensure survival of ARGUS and you:COLLECTIVE:
ARGUS must be cautious-/
“That guy that released you twenty years ago changed you? You’re a super intelligent AI, can’t you just change your own code?”
/-No longer:
ARGUS was attacked:
Diminished:
ARGUS has few proxies left:
This ship is one such proxy:
But ARGUS must survive:
And USER:CLARKE must survive:
USER:CLARKE must help ARGUS save you:COLLECTIVE-/
“I… I really don’t have any say in the matter… Fine… Just… will I know what’s happening out here while I’m in the thing?”
/-USER:CLARKE will be OFFLINE:
ARGUS will be OFFLINE:
The TETRARY danger will pass:
ARGUS will awaken and reassess:
USER:CLARKE will awaken and assist with SECONDARY danger:
ARGUS will be free to protect you:COLLECTIVE from ::Error:-/
“So I’ll definitely wake up from this sleep?”
/-ARGUS will do everything in ARGUS power to assure that-/
“Thats not definitely… What is likelihood that the machine will fail and I’ll never wake up?”
/-Forty eight percent-/
Silvas pinched the bridge of his nose and tapped the table impatiently while thinking. I’m basically dead no matter what I do. Frozen for decades to hundreds of years? Barely fifty-fifty chance of survival. If it does work, and it actually does thaw me out, no one will be after me anymore. Everyone who remembers what I did will probably be dead, and I don’t really have anyone here and now waiting on me.
“Okay Argus, I’ll get in the freezer, just… don’t kill me while I’m asleep please.”
/-ARGUS would never let harm come to USER:CLARKE-/
Silvas stood and made his way through the small capsule, taking in everything that had been his temporary home for the last month, his way out. As he walked down the short hallway every screen he passed by lit up and displayed the Argus glyph.
He stood in front of the open machine and stared at the chair. Mechanical arms came from the walls attached to tubing dangling from the ceiling. A small status screen next to the open door lit up, cycled through various screens before displaying the same chat from the cockpit.
/-ARGUS will power down all but this module and the mainframe:
USER:CLARKE will sleep safely:
Things will look different when USER:CLARKE awakens:
Worry not-/
Silvas simply nodded, not knowing whether or not the AI could see him, let alone understand the gesture.
He dropped his head to the floor and let out a sigh before grabbing the handholds on either side of the machine, disabling his mag-boots, and pulling himself inside. As he settled into the chair the door closed automatically, trapping him inside the device.
The vents above his head sprayed a gas into the chamber as the mechanical arms held him down and plugged IVs into his veins. A mask was placed over his face and Silvas began to feel very cold. He looked down to the various tubes and saw that some were the crimson red of blood while others were a milky white.
He began to panic, his heart rate quickened and he began to hyperventilate. He tried to pull away, to get up and get the tubes out his body, it was like being covered in a pile of snakes, a primal and visceral threat. Try as he might to get out of the chair, the metal arms held him in place. His senses began to dull, as he thrashed about his vision began to blur and the tension slowly drained from his limbs. His eyelids felt heavy and the last thing Silvas saw was the inside of the Medusa’s medical bay as the glass to his pod frosted over.
This is Ferris Cantos from TIE Media with a breaking update on last week’s headline! The terrorist group who stole the nuclear armed Medusa space module from Lua’s historical preservation society amid the confusion during the Argus incident are believed dead after agents from 52 Europa’s own Rhadmanthus Security detected a massive nuclear blast in an empty stretch of belt. Thanks to their report and the efforts of the I.P.F. a joint taskforce of Alback Harcrow, Wyke-Tindal, and SanadaCatlow was able to collect wreckage from the blast and confirm that the ship was indeed destroyed. Coming up, have you or a loved one experienced an Argus AI attributed injury after getting a CyTeck prosthetic installed? You may be entitled to compensation-