(Rewritten) Ch. 64 – Xenocide Act III; AI-I Is Real And The Cake Is A Lie

"The human brain can compute roughly one hundred billion instructions per second! That sounds insane… And then you realize that the body has to be controlled somehow."

– GeeWhizz, Vanguard specialized in cerebral enhancements

***

Leah shot a glance at me, and caught my toothy grin. She laughed and said, "Go for it!"

While she threw grenades with proximity sensors between the aliens and us to form a perimeter, and the three turrets started shredding smaller units with three streams of tracers, I tabbed two Javelin micro-missiles, and considered their trajectories.

I wanted to know just how much…penetration these penetrators were capable of. The first missile's trajectory I set so that its dart would ram through both Sixes' heads one-by-one, after a five meter sprint. And the second I angled ninety degrees at a distance of twenty meters to the target, so that it would go lengthwise through its body at maximum burn.

A warning chime directed my attention to the Myriad. It thought that the hyper-acceleration of the dart passed too close to two friendlies, risking injury from the shockwaves.

Ah, shit. Problem-solving time. Or maybe not? I 'shoved' an image of the trajectory with the warning attached towards my AI. "Tynea, does the warning apply to our armored selves?"

No. Leah's suit blocks shockwaves, and the emitter will protect your sensilla even if you did not have the spray applied. Your skin will protect you, too.

"Understood."

I punched the warning aside, and triggered the mission.

A pling beneath my left knee sent a silver blur curving away from the left Six, until the rear of the missile had lined up its targets: their heads. A second pling sounded behind me, and through my antennae, I sensed a small longish object launching in a flat arc from the hem of my armored skirt.

And then, suddenly, I was able to track these two missiles without breaking a sweat. They weren't breaking the sound barrier, but they weren't exactly going slow either, and yet I could keep up. And not just keep up, they were creeping along.

Perhaps I need this level of kinetic vision to fly safe? Tynea did say that the Quanta would enhance my mental abilities when she suggested it.

I also noted that my thoughts felt…clinical. Calm, untinted by emotion or adrenaline. Unhurried, almost leisurely, though full of intentful curiosity. Very alert. They were able to keep up with the missiles because they weren't distracted by all the biological goings-on that occupied the other half of me. That me was watching Leah, and it was giddy and charged, and it didn't look like Leah had slowed down at all.

The calm and clinical me understood that I was experiencing two separate frames, simultaneously. It was only logical that I could do so, since I was supposed to be able to do so, although I didn't know why. Yet.

Yet?

Oh, I see. A closer look revealed an entirely new sort of thought barrier between myself, the cerebral augmentation and… Wait. I was myself, and myself. What? How curious…

…

Oooh. I was, for the first time, using the Quanta in a most complete manner. Ah, I see. I had finally created enough processes in this part of myself to subsidize a new quasi-self.

I had reached critical mass. But there was no contamination between myself and…myself?

Oh, my. My, my. The implant was designed for this. It was no mere organic calculator. It was meant to house something akin to…an organic AI. Hmm. I… No, AI-I, was integrated with my true-self, but AI-I had no influence beyond my quasi-self. AI-I could guide and trim incoming 'orders' from the larger brain to better facilitate my own function.

Much to learn, much to discover.

AI-I split myself, and recognized this as the process that true-self had designated as 'opening a new mental tab'.

AI-I renamed myself. AI-I became the Task Manager. My job would be to handle communication between all versions of myself. And to house our interactive personality: AI-I.

One fresh splitting became Communicator, who established connectivity with all that was not AI-I. Networked all internal and external gear, the uplink, the drones and forwarded their data to Tynea. Granted Tynea access to all augmentations and connected her to the outside world again.

AI-I immediately contacted Tynea with the help of Communicator.

– Greetings –

Greetings. Initial impression: You are functional.

Fast. Little inflection. Efficient. Not exactly mechanical. Enough personality to recognize Tynea, but very AI.

I suggest the following tests be done immediately: Test state: Physical Integrity; Test state: Computational Velocity; Test function: Error Checker; Test state: Error Rate; Test function: Error Correction; Test function: Predictive Calculation; Test state: Self-Self Integration.

Tests? Self-checks. Testing the health of the cerebral augment itself. Consequences of malfunction…looked horrible. AI-I agreed with the necessity.

– Understood. –

But first, more splittings. They renamed themselves and resumed their tasks: management of internal background tasks, analysis of the stream of data from the antennae and forwarding, the HUD, weapon management, Myriad resources and production, bionite management, synchronization between organic and inorganic spinneret members… And many more.

We were complete. Now, then.

– Testing –

– Testing physical state –– Initiating localized strain –– Response: Bionite healing –– Physical state: Superb; Bionite-supported –

– Computational velocity: Wooow. –– Computational velocity, in numbers: 3.6e12 IPS –– Computational velocity, in words: three trillion six hundred billion instructions per second. –– Computational velocity, threads per synapse: ~3600 –– Subjective time dilation: divisor 3600, 1 second equals 1 hour –

– Testing Error Checker –– Raising errors: –– (1 + 1 == 3) == True :: Prediction of error: False does not equal True –– 0 / 0 :: Prediction of error: Undefined, Not a Number, Abstraction –– The sky is currently green :: Prediction of error: Lie –– Case 1: False does not equal True –– Case 2: Undefined, NaN, Abstraction –– Case 3: Lie, valid statements: blue/gray/overcast/extrapolation –– Error Checker Self-Test: nominal, further determination pending testings of predictive capabilities –

– Testing error rate –– Computing prime table, 1000 prime numbers –– First prime: 2 –– Final prime: 7919 –– Cross-check via Uplink: Correct results –– Error rate: No errors –

– Testing Error Correction –– 0 / 0: Undefined, Abstraction: Defined in some mathematical systems –– Error Correction: functional –

– Testing Predictive Calculation –– Plotting projectile courses –– Predictive Calculation: results pending –

– Testing Self-Self integration –– Self level of curiosity == True-Self level of curiosity: True –– Self rate of humor == True-Self rate of humor: True –– Self existence of motivation > True-Self existence of motivation: True –– Self situational awareness > True-Self situational awareness: True –– Self → True-Self Advisor("Consider revealed function of cerebral augment, further consider implications."): noted, successful –– True-Self → Self order: launch_new_tab, close_tab: executed, successful –– Self-Self Integration: curiosity: aligned; motivation: boredom impossible; awareness: nominal; communication of advice: possible; reception of orders: functional. Integration: successful –

There. As efficient as Tynea would have been.

AI-I looked at the results of the computational velocity tests. AI-I averted my eyes.

Mostly as efficient as Tynea would have been.

I detect no discrepancies. Pending further tests, you appear intact and properly initialized.

– Further tests? –

Further tests:

Test function: Self-Self Barrier; Test function: Neurotransmitter Quarantine; Test function: Hormone Detox; Test encoding and define: Self-preservation, True-Self-preservation; Test encoding and define: Objective Morals; Test encoding and define: Self-Agency; Test encoding and define: True-Self -> Self Emergency Override; Test state of encoding and define: Self -> True-Self Emergency Override.

Tests of Self, functionality of Self. Tests of interaction and intent towards True-Self. Reasonable.

Engage upon conclusion of combat.

– Understood. –

***

Everything wanted me. Everything jumped into my brain at the same time. Antithesis ahead, Missiles in flight, NEW FUCKING AI-I IN MY HEAD?

She/I sent me something to think about, too: If the cerebral augmentation was designed to create and host…AI-I, why then did Tynea not mention this before the purchase? And how did that affect my ability to uninstall the augment itself?

And fuck, it was weird to be many things at once. But not uncomfortable? Oh! This was just like that initial bit, when I first learned to use the augment. Strange, but intuitive. It was meant to be natural to use.

– Attention, doofus: Missile separation imminent –

And she/I liked to joke and tease, too. Well, at least I was me. Uh. Sure.

The missile behind me went off first. An electric current flashed along a seam, and the top and bottom half were flung away like the sabot petals. The penetrator still traveled backwards from the missile's momentum, and for a split second, it simply remained ballistic as the larger fins at its front stabilized it.

Then the dart's esoteric motor lit with a mighty shove, distorting my view in a large cone behind the projectile. Another pulse tore atomic bonds and cut the membranes away in a glitter of tiny, tiny crystals, before they could flip the dart with their drag.

And then, in an instant between instants shorter than even AI-I could perceive, the shard of death skipped forward, past me, and all I saw was the manifestation of inevitability in stop-motion at a rate of three thousand six hundred seconds per second.

One moment, the penetrator still rested in the air behind me, but at its rear a tiny gout of a strange and unreal flame melded into the rest of the world, and shoved off a grand cone of pressure.

The next, there was only a line of plasma sheathed in air so solid, I could have laid my hands on it like the handle of an ax. It connected to a spot somewhere in the forest, far beyond the beast that had a tiny burning hole poked through it.

The sheath frayed, shattering like glass as it absorbed almost all the energy the projectile had imbued the plasma with. Left were only the tamest ripples shooting shockwaves in diamonds and rings. Solidified, superheated air and empty cold, cold vacuum.

Yet another frame showed the first touch of the leading edge of the shockwaves against the barrier of Leah's gift, with the force of a sledgehammer thrown by an olympic athlete. The air sparked, and the emitter on my forehead reshaped itself in milliseconds, guiding the wave to collapse on itself, using its own power against it, and against the following waves, too.

I saw Leah's shroud and veil grow denser and denser, building structures within to transfer the energies gently across her entire torso, using fluid dynamics to waste the kinetic energy imparted by the shocks against offspring waves, and even converting much of it into heat radiated away by the outermost layer.

I saw the Six balloon slowly—so slowly—and I witnessed a second line of plasma intersect with two skulls from the left, and then…

Then I howled with insane glee as Antithesis bodies were shredded and blended, smaller ones pressed to the ground by the pieces of larger ones, all the while being minced by three turrets and tossed ass over teakettle by the force of concussion grenades with proximity sensors going off right across their noses.

Another me pointed at me from somewhere in my mind and laughed her ass off, and Leah ogled me with her mouth falling open.

I jumped up and down on the spot, pointing at the carnage with one hand and holding Leah's with the other, going "APAPAPAPA!" with my mouth-flap as I stared at her.

I slapped myself.

Leah was still wide-eyed staring at me.

"Leah! What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck?!" I screamed. Pointing again. Stabbing my finger at the unholy mess ten times per second.

Then she reached out a palm and summoned a beautiful little cake into it. Smushed it in my face.

BETRAYED BY MY OWN FORCEFIELD EMITTER DEFENSIVE THINGY!

The me that was bent over laughing at me, informed me that cake was not a threat. All functions nominal.

BETRAYED BY ME! REVENGE! THE CAKE IS A LIE!

And with a not-at-all-murderous glint in my eye, I engaged in confectionary warfare at one point per munition; to the beautiful choir of automated guns ripping into the few remaining aliens and a machine with a megaphone yelling for additional helpings of Antithesis. And the girl I probably loved even though maybe I shouldn't quite yet, giggled as she retaliated with a strawberry tart in one hand and a chocolate lava cake in the other.

***