Matt Black - Book 1 of Re-Forge

Bon Voyage

A short time later, Matt, Joshua and Jimmy entered the shuttle and were shown to their adjoining seats. After take-off, passengers on the shuttle watched with spellbound attention as a news feed followed the blow-by-blow engagement as the three heroes defeated their attackers.

Passengers scrutinised the spacesuits they all wore with new-found appreciation, and stared with a mix of emotions at the men they witnessed walk into the jaws of death and come out alive and a few stood and applauded.

Several passengers voiced negative opinions loudly, saying the actions of the three was irresponsible warmongering resulting in unnecessary death, and destruction.

Joshua stood and faced the accusers then bowed imperceptibly and said: "We defended ourselves and our attackers perished. Please excuse our selfishness but we will always defend against those who attack us, physically or with thoughtless words." Then he reclaimed his seat and rolled his eyes at Matt and Jimmy as others laughed at Joshua's wit.

The shuttle commander's voice over the intercom interrupted the angry retort to Joshua's argument ending words, as he said: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the shuttle commander. We welcome the last three passengers on board. You men have had a busy morning. It's fair to say that diverting off a scheduled route is extremely rare, but we are privileged to give you three heroes a lift. We still have a long uphill slog to the Moon. So lay back, take it easy and let us do the hauling."

"Our ETA to the Ion Beam take-off point is... minus two hours. The weather over the North Pole is calm and sunny and we are slotted to lift from Earth just ten minutes after arrival."

Some passengers speculated that the East might attack the shuttle, considering they had missed their target the first time. Matt, Josh, and Jimmy just ignored the debate on the topic. Matt pulled up the external view screens through Carl's uplink and saw that their shuttle was surrounded by a cloud of VR fighter craft... Matt counted at least thirty.

Joshua asked: "Is that your AI-com, Carl, showing us the view outside? How can an AI-com interface with a shuttle system? That's impossible."

Jimmy looked on from the other side of Matt and quietly said: "I agree, not even secret service AI's can do what your AI-com is doing. It's interface with the shuttle system is glitch free... like, the shuttle's security protocols are not even there."

"AI-coms do not hack shuttles systems. AI firewalls are unbreachable with today's technology and any AI controlled system will report attempted intrusion to authorities the instant it is attempted with serious consequences for the hacker."

Jimmy leaned in close and whispered: "Your Carl is more than a simple AI, Matt. Carl's actions have me thinking the ludicrous, but could it have evolved into a primitive form sentient intelligence?"

Matt laughed nervously and replied: "Give me a moment to process, guys." Then Matt contemplated what Carl needed to do to provide that video feed to the passenger cabin, and thought: "The AI-com, is a computer designed to provide an interface between me and the electronic world... It is more accurate to say that Carl is the program loaded onto the AI-com's hardware and functions within the hardware environment and interacts with the world through its communication protocols."

"Is it possible that Carl could really be, self-aware? Surely not, but I already take so much about Carl for granted. Carl ticks all the boxes and constantly turns the impossible into reality. He has never required an upgrade. He smoothed my path along my journey and has never failed to get information from any source. He has never let me down."

Matt sighed and shook his head, unintentionally advertising his inner turmoil to his friends. He thought: "Maybe I'm frightened to admit feeling emotional dependence toward a machine, and am lying to myself to justify Carl's actions because they benefit me... but is that so bad? It's an accepted fact that Westerners are in love with their IT; that's for sure. I guess I have grown comfortable with who Carl is. Sentient...? Alright, I'm totally fine with that."