Eagle X, Mission 21: CTRL

Part 15: Chillard

With the help of an oversized vintage hoodie stolen from Hortensia's apartment and Patricia's Cheshire counter-surveillance tech data shard, the pair were able to traverse three sectors while avoiding apprehension. Considering the way his initial escape had gone, Chillard saw this as a demonstrable improvement to his situation. As they drew closer to Patricia's safe house, she was of a different mind entirely.

"I will have to check to confirm, but I believe Mastermind-308 is controlling over seventy percent of stationwide functionality. Coupled with his blatant disregard of a station official's request to connect with the true Core AI, I believe he has either usurped stewardship of the station or will within the next four hours." Patricia's rapid speech and even faster mental leaps were dizzying.

Despite his research and training for this mission, the felarnian made him feel like less than a novice.

"Might this all be the act of a rogue super thinker, unshackled and out of control?" he ventured.

His people had never trusted thinking machines. A brain they could not touch with mind-work was a threat to the xnean xnarn people. Human history was a historical screenshot of what could happen if such beings were allowed to flourish unchecked. What the Armada feared most was the weaponized use of such beings against their mighty fleet of battleships.

"So... many... ships," Patricia said, her thoughts slowing for the first time since they watched the clones pour into Hortensia's apartment complex. "The Xnarn Armada can't possibly have that many operational battleships. It would dwarf the rest of the CGG fleets combined."

They lock eyes and when he doesn't blink, her hackles raise.

"As a special diplomat, I am privy to information other intelligence agencies can not be allowed to learn."

He doesn't know why he freely shared such damaging information with her, but a part of him instinctively knew she could be trusted with it. His training kicked in there, as they walked down a side avenue towards the ship's unpopulated interior. Was he letting himself be manipulated by an extremely cunning enemy intelligence officer? Constant scans of her surface thoughts told him that she had no affiliations with known Earth Conglomerate organizations or Felarnian Hunts. But what if that was all just finely crafted lies? He'd caught glimpses of her genius-level intellect. Could she be out manipulating him?

"I can see the logic of keeping such a force a secret. Too many nations would see it as a threat to their safety and take efforts to do something about it." She pulled out her datapad, but stopped herself from replacing the battery she'd removed to keep the Core AIs and their seeker programs from finding them. "To answer your question: I don't think Mastermind-308 has been unshackled. I know an unshackled super thinker and she is quite lovely. Mastermind-308 has a certain level of freedom we aren't used to seeing in common AI, but he hasn't shown any unique traits that can't be explained."

"So you're saying all of this is within his design parameters?"

"I'm fairly certain it is. All that we've seen is within the wartime parameters of the Core AIs integrated within warships, battlestations, and military installations."

"And despite the outward appearance, Station-Z11221 is an experimental wartime installation," Chillard continued, reading her thoughts as easily as his own.

"A wartime installation placed on the edge of EC space, near the raiel border where no one would look." She shoved her hands in her pockets to avoid the urge to consult her datapad. Chillard had never known someone so attached to their technology. "We still need to find out the purpose of this experiment."

"Wait." Chillard stopped in front of a shuttered retail building, grabbing her arm to bring her to a halt. "We're talking about statistics and parameters, but ignoring the most important thing. It looks like Mastermind-308 can exercise control of the maintenance clones and the security personnel. That has to be unique. My intel has never mentioned anything like this."