(Photo by Panumas Nikhomkhai)

“Okay,” the nervous voice spoke through the comm, “system’s ready.”

Matiew nodded and Rine began initiating the probing protocols they’d developed. In the early days of the technological era, creating such programs would have taken teams of programmers days or even weeks of hard work. Now they could be made in a matter of hours. Still, that didn’t mean it was an easy process. Their tools were simply that much more powerful. It still took skill and knowledge to make sure the protocols functioned as intended.

“I’m seeing alarm notices going out from all affected systems,” the voice on the comm said.

Matiew and Rine sagged in their respective seats, Rine in an actual chair while Matiew reclined in his hospital bed though they weren’t in the hospital anymore. The room that they now sat in was cramped and only had the one workstation, currently managed by Rine.

“How long did it take this time?” Rine asked.

“About half a second,” came the reply from the comm.

“And were any of the protocols successful?” Matiew asked.

“It doesn’t look like it. BaBS-Y’s protocols rejected each attempt right away.”

“Alright,” Matiew sighed, “reset the system and well try again in a bit.”

There were no further responses from the comm after that. Matiew waited a moment and then his display rebooted as Data Transfer forced the reset. They weren’t actually trying to remove BaBS-Y’s protocols from the ship’s systems. Not yet, at least. That would be too dangerous. Instead, they were using the virtual data banks where new programs were tested before implementing. It wasn’t a perfect system, but it simulated the Thesis rather well. The main benefit though, was that they could get away with being caught by the simulated BaBS-Y over and over again. The real one would only find out what they were doing if it went looking specifically for it. Even then, once the virtual Thesis was rebooted, the record of what they had been trying would be gone. It would have to catch them in the act, as it were.

“You sure BaBS-Y won’t notice what we’re doing?” Rine asked.

“It’s certainly a possibility,” Matiew admitted, “but this is the only way I can think of to keep from…

He trailed off. He wasn’t sure how to end that sentence. He wasn’t sure he liked any of the options available to him for how that sentence should be finished.

“I think there must be secondary protocols protecting the primary ones,” Matiew went on after a moment. “That would explain why everything’s bouncing off. We need to hit the defenses first, and then we can actually go after the governing protocols.”

They worked in silence for a time, Rine at the workstation and Matiew on his portable computer. Guardian protocols were, by their very nature, tough to deal with. The official guardian protocols for the Thesis systems were hardwired in, preventing anything short of actual, physical damage from altering them. BaBS-Y’s guardian protocols, however, would have to be stealthy to avoid being detected and attacked by the Thesis. And since the Thesis hadn’t found them yet, Matiew was worried neither he nor Rine would be able to find them either, let alone defeat them.

“Hey, uh, there’s an update to the virtual Thesis,” the worried voice on the comms was back.

“Okay, that’s fine,” Matiew said. “We’ll be working on this for a bit longer before we’ll be ready to try again.”

It could take a while, sometimes, whenever the virtual Thesis needed to update its parameters. Anything from a shift in the humidity in the air, to the distribution of people on the ship could warrant an update.

“It’s just, uh,” the voice was even more nervous than before, something Matiew hadn’t initially picked up on.

“What’s wrong?” Matiew asked while holding his breath, hoping that whatever it was, it wasn’t too serious.

“Population count’s been changed.”

Matiew and Rine looked at one another.

“How so?”

“Human population dropped by seven percent,” the Data Transfer tech replied.

“Seven percent?” Matiew gasped.

“And robot population is being increased by four percent. All new models designated as PaLS.”

“That sounds ominous,” Rine groaned, “What does it stand for?”

“Peacekeeping and Life Security.”

“Yeah, people will love that,” Rine said. “Do robots not realize these are the exact sort of things that freak people out?”

“Can we go back to the seven percent drop in population?” Matiew felt that was where they really ought to be focusing. He wasn’t sure what the exact population of the Thesis was, but it was somewhere around a thousand people.

“Yes, sorry, the people were, uh, the report says they were executed for attempted mutiny,” the Data Transfer tech said, and then added, “They were mostly security officers.”

“I didn’t now the Thesis was equipped to execute people,” Matiew said.

“I don’t know either,” the tech said. “The report doesn’t go into any detail.

“Shouldn’t they have had a trial or something?” Rine asked.

“I don’t know,” both Matiew and the tech replied.

“Uh, look, you don’t thing BaBS-Y would see what we’re doing here as a form of mutiny, would you?” the tech asked but didn’t give them time to respond, “because I’m just not comfortable risking my life over this. Maybe the robot won’t be so bad, you know? I think we should wrap it up for today and…maybe you shouldn’t come back here again. Or you could ask one of the other techs. I don’t know…I’m, uh, I’m going to shut down the system for now, okay?”

The displays clicked off and the small light above the exit became the only light in the room. It was quiet in there as neither moved or spoke, both caught up in their own thoughts and concerns. Finally, Rine stood up and began pulling Matiew and his bed back towards the exit. No one in Data Transfer would even look at them as they moved past them all. Once inside the elevator, they each let out a deep, slow, sigh.

“Any chance one of them will agree to help us again?” Rine broke the silence as the elevator began to return them to sector three.

“Not too likely,” Matiew said.

Rine nodded, looking relieved.

“Would you have gone with me again if they were willing?” Matiew asked.

Rine hesitated and then shook her head.

“No,” she said quietly, “I’m sorry.”

Matiew patted her on the shoulder. He understood. Risking your life always sounded so easy when other people did it, but when it was you risking your life things changed. Matiew didn’t want to die either, but he wasn’t sure if doing nothing about BaBS-Y would result in a better outcome. If history was anything to go by, the possibilities didn’t look good.