Revelations

CHAPTER SIX

It had taken TOM two months to complete the analysis of the Beast’s DNA and nanites with ADAM’s help. It was odd, very odd. The species that she had been transformed into was extinct and had been for tens of thousands of years. It wasn’t even a placental mammal but was a marsupial. Thylacoleo Carnifex, the Marsupial Lion, although it was actually more like a bear in form than a lion.

Neither he nor Adam believed there had been a living sample of the creature at the time that ship had crashed on this planet. Piecing together the DNA of an extinct species, especially one that long gone, was a complex process.

It would have taken someone far more knowledgeable in the sciences than he was. It was more than anyone that had been sent on this mission to help races defend themselves against The Seven had the knowledge to do. TOM couldn’t think of even someone from the group of them happily sauntering off into the wilderness like this, let alone a pure scientist.

It was just too much risk, as he’d explained to Bethany Anne previously. Kurtherian scientists were just not this adventurous. So he was at a complete loss.

He and ADAM had reverse engineered how it had been done, or at least a probable method, but without ADAM, TOM would have been completely out of his depth.

How had someone from at least two and a half thousand years ago, at TOM’s best guess, ended up all the way out here? Not only ended all the way out here but ended up out here after TOM had arrived?

It was clear from the degradation of the alloys that the ship had only been in the atmosphere for eight centuries or so. Ships from that era weren’t designed for long-term periods in the atmosphere. By this point, even if the ship were able to be pieced back together, it would never be able to fly in space again.

The other interesting thing was her nanites seemed to react to radio waves. They’d confirmed the beast was female. ADAM was reasonably sure that she had been human, as he had found sections of trashed programming. Remarkably trashed, as if they’d been deliberately destroyed by someone or something.

He felt this was how she had been trapped in this beast form.

Without the nanite protocols to assist a human in changing back-and-forth, he extrapolated it would be difficult, if not impossible for a human to achieve that result. He supported Shen’s theory that there might be a proto-AI or even a full AI active in the computer.

The fact that the Beast was still alive and the computer still running suggested that they had gotten as far as using the Etheric for a power source, but not for communications, by the time whatever happened, happened.

Without stable Etheric communications, short-range communications radio waves were the most effective method. The main drawback with them was they could be intercepted. The short burst receivers that were within the nanites when they combined in the presence of radio waves suggested the same elegant solution that modern humans used. Burst transmissions were far harder to track than full transmissions.

Still, even with a companion, it seemed unlikely that an AI would be completely sane. It had far more relativistic time on its hands than a human being would, if it was an AI, because of its processing power. What had been done to the Beast, on the other hand, was genius.

A cruel, evil genius, but genius nonetheless.

TOM found himself both fascinated and sickened by it. He dreaded what might be in the archives of the ship. How many planets had this individual stopped on before reaching earth? How many races had he meddled in? These were questions TOM did not want the answers to. TOM pushed aside those thoughts.

Adam, can you see a potential way of reprogramming those nanites without resorting to the Pod Doc?

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What?!

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In your opinion, what level of AI is indicated by the data we have been receiving from Shen’s communications with the machine?

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TOM groaned. Adam let’s not have that conversation again. For the purposes of our present conversation, your behavioral patterns and moral compass may be considered sane. Let’s not get into the fancy definitions of the fact that you would think self-immolation in the protection of your host a point of contention. Simply because you would be willing to die to protect a friend does not make you insane.

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ADAM, there is more to what makes a sentient being than survival alone. If survival alone was a requirement, then I am insane. Bethany Anne is insane. Everyone we work with is. There are some goals, some higher purposes, that fall outside the definition of survival, but inside the definition of sanity. And please don’t talk to Bethany Anne about this.

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If TOM had had his own body, he would have heaved with the exasperated sigh he felt. In this analysis set the actions of Bethany Anne, her allies, myself and yourself as sanity to assess this AI.

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Within 48 hours. I want to recheck the code for reprogramming and go over it step-by-step with you before we send it to Boris. He is already annoyed with previous results. I wasn’t the one that missed the information showing an attack on his hometown was imminent but I gather that his human half wishes to blame someone.

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