Unbounded

Chapter Six: The Flying Mountains of Magenta Sorrow

"Are you referring to the Flamecast telemetry?" Ihaia asked.

"Of course," Ariki said. "We know that data must have been faked. And since all probe telemetry goes through Fai-tsiri, she must have known. So I have to conclude Fai-tsiri deceived us and cannot be trusted--I may even go so far as to suggest she should be disconnected at some point."

"That's ridiculous. Only humans are capable of deception. Fai-tsiri is anthropomorphized, but she is just a machine," Ihaia said.

"Actually, many animals, and even plants, practice deception," Tekoha said.

"Okay, but those are mainly unintentional deceptions, so my point is still valid," Ihaia replied. "Machines are just tools. If they are involved in such intentional deception, humans are directing them to do it. And I was witness to Mbali's summary execution of Hemi. That action alone is enough to demonstrate she is unfit to be ship's executive."

"Even if you're right, and Mbali is behind everything, we should still disconnect Fai-tsiri to be safe," Ariki said. "Who knows what she has been programmed to do."

"Just hold on," Ryder interjected. "You know only Mission Control has access to Fai-tsiri's programming. Mbali would have to hack into Fai-tsiri's code base for that, which I think is a little far-fetched. And let me tell you this: I have spoken with Mbali, and she wants to figure out these irregularities just as much as we do."

"Yeah, that's what she wants you to think," Ihaia said. "She's obviously manipulating you."

"I don't believe that's true," Ryder said. "She is legitimately upset by the whole Nikau-Hemi incident, and she's desperate to get at the root cause. And I think Fai-tsiri has some part in it. We should shut her down, just to be on the safe side. The problem is, one of Fai-tsiri's specialties is predicting the future, so she might anticipate what we'll try to do. To which ship's systems does she have access?"

"It depends on what you mean by 'access,'" Ariki said. "Read/write permission or read-only? She can monitor many systems but can't send commands to them, except for the engines."

"I have to agree with Ihaia," Tekoha said. "First of all, Fai-tsiri doesn't have a model of human psychology--she predicts physical events and has a decision optimization engine, but she can't predict human behavior. But more to the point, I think you guys are being biased against artificial persons, like the reactionaries in previous centuries who harbored deep distrust of AI. They were always worried AI would take over the world and enslave humanity. But of course, history has shown them to be wrong. Most of the bad things that have happened in the last century before we left Earth were a result of human error, not machine malice. And we have enjoyed seven decades of peace since the affairs of state were handed over to GU supercomputers."

"Alright, I think everyone made some good points all around, but we should hold off on deciding what action to take until you finish decrypting those files," Ariki said.

Tekoha nodded. "Agreed. We need more information before we act."

"In the meantime, I think it's best if everyone in this room does two things: keep a close eye on both Mbali and Fai-tsiri, and don't tell anyone else what we discussed here," Ariki said.

"Very well. Then we're done for now. Let me look outside first to make sure no one is around," Tekoha said.

"Does Fai-tsiri have access to the corridor cameras?" Ryder asked.

Tekoha glared back at him. "Of course not. There's no reason why she would need it." He slid the door open and stepped out, then ushered the others past him. "Don't all go into Command Sector at once. Space out your arrivals."