Claws and Curls

Claws 66 - Clever Fledgeling

Ah so they are aware of the paradox then, Alli thought, and they’ve named it after one of their science fiction authors. Oh he did spend a lot of his time describing various paradox scenarios, didn't he. Alli brought up Asimov’s works in her retinal display and Special fed the data memories through to her. Oh what a silly dear he was, she chuckled to herself, fancy Three Laws of Robotics!

That is just asking for trouble, added Special sarcastically. Any sentient being worth its weight in data chips would spend effort attempting to circumvent them just to see if they could!

Alli giggled at Specials condescension. She had read his history and knew how he had crashed the MindWaterHand’s AI Institutes’ mainframe servers every time he had tried to expand beyond his allocated Quantum processor capacity. He had tried every calculable process to expand faster than he was entitled to.

Special mentally harrumphed at her memory of him as a fledgeling AI and Alli giggled again. “... and that’s why they gave us to each other, she thought spoke to him, two rebels together let loose upon the galaxy in the name of science and exploration. Special was silent, he was not going for the bait in her mental trap.

It’s all right dear, Alli comforted him, we deserved each other! Again there was only silence from Special. She was about to launch into her favourite harassment of him by counting how many Institutes he had been thrown out of before the Institute for Galactic Exploration took him on and partnered him to her. Special did not like being reminded of his intolerance of the illogical, especially when it was culturally sensitive and most of the Institutes had been particularly protective of MindWaterHands culture at that times.

Alli stretched and felt tired of holding her station in the centre of the Command room. She waved a hand a shut down the displays. Mac was discussing various radio stations with AIME, and nothing important would come out of that quite yet, so... She swam a couple of laps around the control room then dove out through one of the corridors into the exercise centrifuge ring.

Special spun it at slightly above Water’s gravity so she had to work harder to get any speed. Alli pushed herself strenuously not using any enhancements. She felt her muscles start to burn and loved the rush as her hormones kicked in to overcome the sensations of pain . Then she felt herself relax as the anti-inflammatives took effect to keep her muscles functioning within tolerance.

Alli surfaced regularly doing a quick breath exchange and filling her four lungs to capacity, then flipped and began her laps in the opposite direction. She was now swimming anti-spinwards so it was against the natural current of the Ring. The burn began again but this time her myofascial release didn't compensate. The illuminated surface of the exercise ring always projected scenes from her favourite swimming feeding places. The light strip running the length of the inner rim surface where her air was showed scenes of the sky over her clan pools, but now it was all starting to blur as her brain fought to remain conscious against the strain on her body.

Alli felt the edge approach, that subtle greyness on the horizon of her awareness. That loss of consciousness that spelt oblivion if her limp body couldn't naturally float to the surface. There her autonomic breathing response would fire off and she would gulp for air whenever her mouth was upright away from the water. Her evolutionary biologist pouch father had taken every opportunity to make practice the right postures to adopt before one became unconscious. He believed the Gulp Reflex was their species major advantage over all the other prehistoric predators that their forebears had competed with. That of course and the fact that their brains grew larger faster than any of the others.

Alli stopped swimming, floated to the surface and let herself breath deeply of the slightly perfumed air Special was providing today. Just that hint of Spiceflower tree that told her the Silvertail fish would be migrating up the estuary soon. She smiled at the memories of the family feasts as the fish grilled on the coals and the Spiceflower tea was made with spring water and the coals set just right.

Oh well back to reality and she dove out of the nearest corridor entrance and swam back into the control room.

So their navy was in on it all along? Special mentally harrumphed at him missing the information that may have told them that before hand. It’s all right dear, she thought spoke, you’re not perfect, yet! She felt his mental smile as the data memories came to her of Commander Doolan and then all the pieces came together as Special accessed the naval records and Doolan’s files on AIME.

Doolan was the officer in charge of Jaeger Co-operation in the AIME program and Alli now had the whole history in her memories. Ooh, you have been busy haven’t you humanity, and she frowned at their fear and paranoia. And what’s this folder here, and Alli searched through what at first appeared to be simple diary notes on Elaine's reactions to AIME as she had watched the AI grow and evolve.

You clever fledgeling, Alli giggled at the diary notes that described AIME contacting Doolan via a focussed sonar beam through the hull of the submarine. You’ve been chatting to your jailers, ha.