Blood Impulse

Part 32.4 - WORST CASE SCENARIO

Mississippi Sector, Rhino 583

Waiting was the worst thing to do in a situation like this. It opened Gaffigan's mind up to too many horrible possibilities. What if they'd been found out? What if their intel was going to be traded to Command or some other dangerous foe? What could they do? They couldn't refuse a trade without outing themselves, no matter who the client was.

And then there was the situation they'd left behind: the AI hiding on the ship. Gaffigan found the prospect of it consuming his thoughts as he slouched in the copilot's seat, listening to the near-silent whir of the air filtration system. A host need only enough complexity and an electrical control network. That declaration echoed in his mind. On the Singularity, however, that didn't open up many possibilities.

The most obvious suspect was the ship's central computer. It was the only computer system on board that had the necessary storage to hide an AI, but per the design standards of the Hydrian War, that computer was not integrated with the ship's control network. In fact, the Singularity's control network did not operate on electrical data at all. It operated by optics, which while similar, was far harder to infiltrate and interrupt. The optical signals transmitted on the cables were created from the consoles in CIC, or redundancies elsewhere. Under normal operating conditions, those signals came directly from crew input. The numerous computers that helped run analyses and calculations were completely isolated from the process.

There were exceptions. Though pitiful by the comparison of more modern ships, the Singularity did possess automated protocols which could be activated in emergency situations when the crew became unable to run the ship. Those protocols were rudimentary at best, and had to be manually activated, but they would, in an emergency situation, allow the computers to control the ship. Still, unless those protocols were activated, an AI had no chance of seizing control. Hiding in the ship's computer would only subject an AI to an existence of isolation and helplessness.

So, there had to be another host, somewhere else an AI might hide.

What was it the Eran AI had told him? What had it said to him in the Olympia's white-walled interrogation room?

A human body fits all necessary requirements.

Monty felt an immediate revulsion tug at his gut. A human host.

But what other explanation could there be? If the ship was incapable of acting as a host, then the AI had to be hiding in one of the crew. That's how it got away with it, Monty realized. The crew would never question one of their own coming aboard. But who? Who had become an unwilling host to an inhuman intelligence? Who had been its victim?

The answer came in a memory dominated by the eager grin of Manhattan's horrible, utterly perfect teeth. What better place is there to hide an AI, than commanding a ship impervious to AI control?

"Hell fires in heaven," Monty breathed. His hands shook as he buried his face, trying to hide from this horrible realization. "That's not possible." And yet, it made so much sense.

Jazmine jumped a bit at the sound of Gaffigan's voice. He'd been trying to pass the hour of waiting time by reading the farmer's almanac he found under the pilot's seat while Monty sat in contemplative silence.

"This is so much worse than I thought," Gaffigan grumbled, massaging his face. If I had a worst-case scenario, this would be it.

Jazmine closed the almanac. "What's the problem?"