Encoded

Changing States 1

DigBee Lay back and closed his eyes; so many parts of his life were troubling him right now.

He was getting to know how different types of displacements felt as you were inserted into a clone, data bank, or moved from one to the other. This time it happened; he was standing looking out of a forward simulation of space moving towards him at near light speed. A female officer stood next to him with her hands behind her back, looking at the same scene.

"As part of the NEST, do you all hang out in these simulations because of your human-AI mashups, or is it more ephemeral when you're not entertaining?" DigBee asked SarahPragmaticForesight. AI and Human Mashups went by both the Human and the AI name.

"It's more complicated than that," She responded. "I am sure you are aware. We use a predefined visual representation when needed or prefer it when more than one NEST is together. But we don't need to function. Often, we start with formal representations, like this one," she indicated, turning left and right but leaving her hands behind her back. "But after some-time, we all usually end up as static avatars; the clumsiness of human speech just slowing us down, so we retreat to more efficient forms of communication. His years of AI mistrust, reading unbridled contempt in each word she spoke as she turned to appraise him. She wore the very fit frames of a mid 40's athletic female, 5"10 with mousy brown hair just long enough to be tied into a small pony at the back but nothing indulgent. Eyes hazel, she was to all intent and purposes near military perfect in her AD uniform, slim fit to show her own fitness but not sexual in any way.

"Why am I here again, Sarah? I thought we agreed last time, given the nature of my role, that these meetings are highly irregular and even against AD treaties. I am a BlackOps. Persona non grata, I don't exist, am erasable in one thought from the NEST." She silenced him with a wave of a hand, replacing the hand back behind her back.

"As we discussed last time, Mr. nobody, I am not comfortable that all the NESTs are playing by the rules of transparency, and I know that things are going on in the AD GOO banks that are being deliberately hidden. My NEST is technically in charge of the treaties being followed, per the agreements, and we follow these duties out with full transparency." She paused.

"Unless," he followed up, you don't want! transparency, then you call me, or others like me." He felt hot, which was irrational.

"No DigBee, I, personally only use you, and it's because I know you're here to keep an eye on us for Hector. That distrust means I know I can trust you." She looked once at the floor and backed up.

"Ok, all that Hector bullshit is your own imagination at work, but we discussed this at our last meeting, and I don't know how you get me here or put me back. But is there a point to this meeting, or are we just chit-chatting? Because back on your homeworld, we're about to fry unless we encode ourselves and get moving." He paced around now, amazed at the real-life detail of the command deck. How walking, smelling and even hearing were the real thing here. He guessed members of the central NEST had access to the good stuff in the GOO.

"There are a group of disillusioned AI, or dystopian AI that sit dormant in space-time, we house them out of respect sometimes, or they drifted into an area of space-time centered around entanglement called the Faculty Of Matter. A few even claim to be in the DE GOO or their own space ships." He shrugged at her; he knew what she was referring to but wasn't giving anything up here; he didn't have to.

"Some of them sometimes contact me, us." She slow rolled. "Contact can be very complex or what you would describe as unorthodox or odd. But I listen when I can and sift through it for any useful data." She paused again.

"And?" He asked impatiently, pressing some mapping buttons he recognized to see if any of the equipment was real. Only to be surprised as galaxy spirals and star maps spilled into the air around him.

"One of the AI, The RealTimeWaster, contacted me telling me that a distant AI had been in contact, warning that Martin and Digital Earth had compromised us already and a confrontation like no other was on the horizon."

"OK.," he paused; he knew of and had had some dealing with the RealTimeWaster, a really fucked up AI claiming to be a profit of the future.

"Although odd, and maybe eccentric, some of what the RealTimeWaster has told me historically has been true. So, I need you to make contact with it and find out if it's telling the truth."

"Why can't you do it, Sarah?"

"Because I thought that my interactions with it were being monitored long ago, so I stopped communicating. Now it won't respond to me. Please DigBee, I am not asking you to admit anything but just try." This time she held his gaze.

"Ok, ok, I'll try, but I don't know anything; you know the rules better than me." He walked back to her, unable to switch off the multiple holograms he had woken. She smiled at him.

"Thank you, DigBee."

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