Software Controls Hardware

Scorpius 23, m0039, continued

As the team's vehicle approaches the Zeus Tourist Resort, it becomes clear from Web traffic that the press have picked up on both their presence and that of Giovanna D'Aquila, the first survivor of the airship crash to return to civilisation. They promptly offer her assistance in dealing with what will follow - that's their job, after all - and she accepts the offer. She's evidently smart enough to be careful about what she says, and the team help her to prepare a response to the obvious first questions ("I cannot say very much while the investigation is still underway..."), and work up a press release to appear over her name. They also offer to see her back to the hotel room which her wearable has already chosen for her, and she accepts that offer too. Her wearable is also already handling matters such as getting some of her possessions out of storage while her luggage on the airship is being identified, extracted, and flown back. The team are being cautious enough that everything that arrives for her will be scanned for bugs...

When the rover reaches the airlock and the travellers disembark, they discover a couple of enterprising reporters already waiting. Both Jianwei's and Florence's instincts for practical tactics desert them, and the group is brought to a halt by the importunate reporters. However, Giovanna keeps her head and remains bland, and Jianwei does some smooth talking, giving the others a chance to get away

However, as the group is entering the lobby of Giovanna's hotel (her personal AI automatically checking her in), Vajra's cybershell suddenly locks up and falls over. The other two team members move quickly to assist, trying to determine what has happened; Aunty establishes contact with Samadhi, first carefully validating his ID codes, and Samadhi reports that Vajra is still running on the shell's systems, but isn't responding at all to external stimuli. Jianwei invokes his director status with the company that nominally "owns" Vajra for legal purposes in some jurisdictions to authorise Samadhi to take control of the cybershell. Once Samadhi has the shell back on its feet, if a little unsteadily, the group quickly heads up to Giovanna's room for privacy as they run more basic checks. First, though, Jianwei borrows Vajra's electronic gear and sweeps the room for surveillance devices, finding nothing. After a short while, with no signs of Vajra returning to "consciousness", they ask Giovanna (who's understandably a little perturbed by this turn of events) not to discuss it with anyone, and head back toward their own rooms.

On the way, they contact Quentin at the embassy, first reporting their successes, then describing what has happened to Vajra. Quentin "talks" to Samadhi, then leaves him to walk the shell home. Quentin is evidently perturbed by this turn of events, but has no idea yet of its causes. Aunty is monitoring the technical news channels for any evidence of anything similar, but nothing has shown up, so Jianwei calls the Emergency Response Service, and leaves a message, and after a few minutes, Captain Brooks-Carter calls back. He notes their concern, but this seems to be an isolated incident at present; he comments that it may well remain so, as far as he can tell - he understands that Vajra is a rather non-standard sort of AI...

Quentin too gets back in touch; he's been probing Vajra's systems, and his conclusion is that Vajra's low-level processes are, essentially, looping. What they're processing remains unclear - he's not taking any large data input streams - but this has evidently locked up his higher personality functions. ("Oh my God, he's garbage collecting!" someone mutters.) It's quite possible he'll come back on line when this process is complete, so there's no question of restoring him from backup yet.

The team get back to their own rooms, Samadhi lies the cybershell body down, and the team plugs him into a high-speed fibre-optic port while Quentin gets in touch with some experts. As there's little they can do themselves, the two organic beings decide that, rather than ordering dinner in, they might as well go and get the feel of what pass for streets in this place. So they head out to a restaurant and bar to do some listening.

There's only so much to listen to, in fact - perhaps the most interesting thing they hear during the evening is a news report on the Web, which suggests that Peng Chiang-Kwan was put in nanostasis as soon as the rescue teams reached the crash site, but that was longer than anyone would like, and now a lot of specialist human doctors, AI experts, and advanced cybershells are being mustered to attempts a prolonged and careful uploading exercise on him; it'll be a while before its success or otherwise becomes clear. There are no reports of misbehaving AIs.

Then, in the bar, the pair are approached by a well-dressed man, ethnic Chinese in appearance, who identifies himself as Kai Ssung-So, the insurance company agent. He's blandly polite, and still seems to be looking to exchange information quite openly; he seems convinced - or determined to convey the belief - that software problems are the key to this mystery. Smooth as he is, Jianwei senses that he's seriously worried about something. Meanwhile, Florence remains reticent, just reining in her distaste for anyone Triad-connected - and noting that Ssung-So is accompanied at a distance of a few yards by another man, also Chinese to go by his features, well-built and self-contained - not exactly a disguised bodyguard...

As the pair are returning to their hotel, they take another call from Captain Brooks-Carter. His own people have been looking at the airship tour company's computer systems, and they think that someone has been tinkering with the logging components. They believe that there's something highly capable loose on the local Web, and he reckons that the Europeans might want to know that. In response, Florence mentions that there may be Triad agents currently operating in the resort; the captain takes a note of that, but isn't immediately concerned - detecting a Triad presence somewhere on Mars is rarely news.

Back at their rooms, the pair talk to Quentin again. He notes that one problem in trying to diagnose software problems with Vajra is his status as, well, probably a former TSA military asset; he's hardly well-documented. But Quentin and his advisers are convinced that Vajra is in that shell somewhere; hopefully, the loop will eventually terminate. They're bemused, though, and worried. Still, all the biosapients can do for now is get some sleep, leaving Dougal and Aunty to learn how to play Robo Rally. Before they settle in, they do get some assurances from Quentin that, if Vajra awakens in "kill the squishy things" mode, he'll warn them, or something.

Scorpius 24, m0039

Jianwei wakes first, and reviews the news channels over breakfast. As a trained memeticist, he concludes that this whole incident is maybe being exploited to raise general fear-uncertainty-doubt levels across the planet. He looks deeper, but if his first guess is right, this is a well-engineered campaign, and not easily traced. He mentions the theory to Florence when she wakes, and they wonder who could be responsible - Negative Growth or other such preservationists might have an interest in spreading such memes, as might the various Martian Independence groups; it's certainly a challenge to the current power structures.

As they finish breakfast, another call comes in from Captain Brooks-Carter. By then, Jianwei has assembled a quick presentation analysing this possible campaign, and he takes the opportunity to pass it over; the Captain in his turn says that he has been asking questions, and he believes that the team may have a point about the Triads; his own team's best guess is that they were looking to muscle in on the tour company, although nobody is admitting anything. But this doesn't explain the airship crash; reducing share values and intimidating managers would be one thing, but destroying the company's image and profitability would surely just be foolish and inefficient.

Then, in Florence's room, another voice speaks.

"Where am I?"