Aurora, Wayward Pt. 06

A few minutes later, * You may exit your craft. *

She stepped out of the ship with a pad in her hand there was only a minimal atmosphere as she did not need one other than to speak. "All of the information is self-contained in one of my secondary memory cores. This information is not archived anywhere.

My concerns on some of the observations are noted to my backup but they serve no purpose other than to work to try and get the Penan's from avoiding making the connections I have put together. There is a conglomerate of races involved in a combined research effort. The systems they are operating out of are located here."

As she threw up a large map of the known universes and those far beyond human knowledge. "The ship in question was not supposed to have this information on it from what I gathered. They are a 'lower species' involved in collection activities because they are unknown to the enemy they wish to fight. That enemy being the Drakor."

She threw up several translated documents and images of 36 species involved in this effort. She sighed, "This is a major effort that is ongoing and they are searching for species that you are actively involved with. The one in the bottom right-hand corner is the one we found 12 facilities for in this system.

From the looks of this information on this drive, they are active in 284 systems that the Drakor have activity going, some that are 'dead, and some you have not visited. She highlighted the map.

None of this information is anywhere but the one memory core inside of me. The pad is just a medium to communicate with the projectors in the shuttle."

She turned to the wall. "These are images of the Drakor attacks from the future, including this image with the malevolent AI that attacked the Pena system. While not a part of the group of 36 the technology described in the files obtained appeared Drakor in nature."

She threw up the images for the metallic laser using Zirtosium in bold to highlight her concerns. "The light wavelengths used in all of the Drakor weapon fire attacks are almost an exact match to the alien AI that attacked the Pena system. Over a 90% match.

If anything, yours are more advanced than what they used but the underlying technology appears the same with the same source material. Based on this, and what these races are working from genetics to weapons, the Drakor have a serious threat to their survival being orchestrated in those systems.

I also suspect this AI force that attacked was created by the Drakor long ago. I have not shared this knowledge with the Penans. My backup shares this concern, again only to derail any investigation into this link. It is in the best interest of humanity not to know this fact if we can work to prevent it from occurring.

It is in the best interest of the Sentinels to make sure the Drakor knows we are not that AI force that was created. We are symbiotic with our host race. Designed to protect them. Even from themselves. If I do not return my backup will assume the connection is true and work to keep it from being known.

In the interest of disclosure. I did not send any technical data but I did send my concerns regarding this data to Astra. That it might have been reverse-engineered from Drakor technology and that the AI force may have been created by the Drakor.

She is protecting that branch of humanity as well and has a vested interest in doing the same actions. She has the same Moral code and she has none of the technology I have shown you. You can see the dilemma.

I needed to ensure ALL of humanity was protected from researching this connection, not just the Penan branch if you will. As my moral code does not differentiate them as being different races, to this day they are both humans.

They are identical to us. Especially those who have been healed by us from this metallic poisoning. There are small differences, but they are 98.5% identical in the human genome."

It was quiet for several minutes. * We are copying all of the information you have displayed. Please display all the other information you have, even if you do not understand it. Everything that you retrieved from this computer, please. *

She sat down at the beginning and displayed page by page every 10 seconds the thousands of pages of information she recovered from the computer. She finally stopped. "Some pages were incomplete. Damage to the computer's storage. That was everything I recovered and I, of course, worked this alone.

I saw the danger, and I isolated it so it would go nowhere. I cut out other AI units who helped me break into their systems and assigned them into controlling periphery systems once I was inside and I collected this work. Much like that pad did when it turned us off upon our arrival.

It knew something we were not supposed to know from the future. I do not know if this was what was on there or not. I needed to make you aware because a threat to you is a threat to all worlds you have worked with to keep this from happening again."

Justice spoke with her, * Shutdown the pad and leave it and shut down the projectors, please. *

She shut down the projectors.

---

During that outage of time, they switched to the location where Astra was located. Bringing that ship to a stop. Her necklace went lit up. * Astra, we need your assistance with an AI matter. Could you bring a shuttle aboard, please? *

Astra responded, "On my way."

She informed Franklin of where she was going. It was not the first time that she had been called into the Drakor service but she suspected she knew why. She launched to find the Drakor had their ship set to tractor her in immediately.

She knew something big was going on. She had the pad Aurora had sent with her just in case. She suspected it had to do with Aurora's meeting. She docked, * Please meet us in our conference area. *

She went out to find 6 Drakor guards waiting for a change. They escorted her into the main chamber.

She walked in to see Aurora and her shuttle in the room. Aurora smiled at her sister, "Hello Big Sister."

Astra smiled, "Hello Little Sister."

They both heard, * We need to confer with the Drakor Ruling Body. Please wait. *

---

Justice Incarnate had trepidation about making this call to the council but it had to be done. Their minds connected and then Justice Incarnate's image stood before the Ruling Body of the Drakor Nation once again. He looked across. * Has the Examiner given his findings to the Ruling Body on the Human AI units known as Astra and Aurora? *

They heard back, * Yes, he did not see them as a threat. *

Justice Incarnate looked over, * I would take it one step further. I do not say this lightly. I see them as potential allies. *

It was quiet for several seconds then he heard, * Explain. *

He sighed in his mind, *Aurora and the Penans encountered a ship collecting species for study and genetic experimentation. She went through the computer herself and isolated the information from the Penans, other Sentinels, and her own backup unit to isolate the information she had come across. *

He displayed up the 36 species, 20 thought to be extinct on the wall. * She provided the information to us with a map of where they were working, their goal of our destruction, and identified 284 systems that they are working out of that they have efforts currently in progress. Including a few, where we have operations in progress.

Systems these AI units have no direct knowledge of or our Hybrids working in those systems, they are also unknown to them. This enemy is utilizing substandard species in some cases to do the collection activity. Species that are unknown to us. Using drive systems with physics. *

He displayed that information on another wall. * Aurora strongly suspects the AI force that destroyed Pena originated with the Drakor based upon light wave analysis of the weapons being used and the differences being attributed to our refinement of the technology. We believe Astra has formed the same suspicion now as well. *

He threw that information onto the screen. * She kept this information from the Penans and humans because she knew that if the AI threat was tied to us it would undermine our credibility. It would cause humanity, both branches, to become a potential target.

She has stated she would work to ensure that research was never done or tied to us. Because it was in the best interest of her symbiotic species to keep this information from being known. We do not know if they could succeed in this effort but they are willing to try. We have both units aboard my ship at the moment if you wish to speak with them. *

The council deliberated for what felt like hours and then he heard, * Proceed to project them here. *

They appeared to be in another room, Just the two of them. It was different as it was larger and there was light to see the millions of Drakor circling them. * This meeting is unprecedented. *

Came from a crystal on the floor. * Which of you is Astra? You have served humanity the longest. *

She raised a hand, "I am Astra."

They looked at her, * What is it you know? *

She sighed, "I know Aurora came across a cache of information she has isolated and wanted a meeting with you. Her biggest concern dealt with a laser, the technology behind it, and the light that the laser-produced.

She suspected that the AI force that attacks the Pena system in the future was created by those who use this laser. Based on the vid clips we have from the future and those of Drakor actions in our own system. There is a 93.75% chance of this being accurate.

That information is shared with my backup unit. It is something, I do not want humanity to ever try and put together. That knowledge could result in their destruction if it became common knowledge.

I have her set to try and derail any attempts to perform that research without being totally deceptive with our own people. We have to be honest when directly asked and advising them to leave it alone. If interest is peaked is the best we could do initially. If these hybrids do figure it out?

Then it would be a matter of getting them to withhold the information from humanity at large. To protect them from something that undermines their trust in your intentions. I have no information beyond that concern. She said she was protecting it, even from me."

Aurora spoke, "I reached the same conclusion from my analysis though I had fewer samples to work with and my numbers were 2.4 % lower for the analysis. That is the only part of the archive shared with my backup unit with instructions the Pena's must never know and to work to avoid making that connection.

We would have the same moral dilemma if they did attempt to research the data. I am a Penan AI but my morality covers all of humanity including the people Astra oversees. She needed to know to work to block any attempt to divine that answer if at all possible."

The voice spoke, *Why did you choose to tell us? *

Aurora looked at him, "The information was a direct threat to the Drakor and all that they worked with. Drakor have worked for millennia to bring balance to these galaxies. This threat to you is a threat to every species you have worked with as called out in the data.

It is a threat to humanity. Humanity cannot know of this threat, if possible, but you needed this information to be able to act. This is a threat to every species the Drakor is working with. In every system on the map, I displayed before them aboard Justice Incarnate's ship.

It is deductive reasoning. The weapons described are devastation weapons. I saw the video of what happened to Jack Travus with the Hades bomb he designed. Humanity and the Penas have no need to try and create those kinds of weapons.

Jack kept it from the rest of humanity. He never patented the design. I hold an archive of expired Terrain patents and I only release technology to Penans they can grasp. If something is needed that is beyond them then we provide a means of creating it, deploying it, guarding it, and ensuring it is destroyed if attacked.

Provide the service needed to the threat but keep the technology away from them in attempts to reproduce it if they are not ready for that level of technology. We are bringing them up in steps to be responsible Penans, responsible humans.

This was made harder by the Caldar being in the system for over 4,700 years. They followed the people. They pitted them against each other since the beginning. Then colony vs colony. Rocan has already stopped one war when a bioengineered plague was developed on one colony and sent to every colony. It was infecting everyone.

We have worked to clean their water supplies, decontaminated their food supplies, and monitor their health. Decontaminate anyone who gets recontaminated and track where they have been that could have gotten it. It is virulent within the soil. Fed by sunlight, infects food, the general population, and our Hybrids.

The hybrids aboard ship to a greater degree because the other toxin from this metal found inside the planet has been removed from them. We have completely relocated the colony on the ground zero colony, kept the death toll to under a few hundred, and prevented an all-out war.

Instead, they are working through a joint training center to train fighter pilots. Rocan was a marine pilot. He is bringing his knowledge forward and getting them working together in a manner he knows how to teach them.

While my Sentinels work additional instructions in advanced technology they need to understand. The same goes for those coming into the Home Guard. They are from across all colonies. We cannot move these people until we know this biotoxin, which has been called a plague, has been neutralized.

We are targeting 4 years right now. I am now the accepted leader of my race, the Sentinels. Our AI units are all being seen as a separate race under Penan Home Guard rules. We cannot rule them, but we work to guide and protect them.

Our relationship is symbiotic. They fail the Drakor testing then we have failed in our mission. Our moral code would ensure our destruction if that happened. This was by our own design, not by the design of the species we protect or the Drakor requesting it."

Astra spoke, "I was asked as a general question about her activity. I came up with the same answers and we are a graduated race but we constantly protect them from themselves. Sometimes they do not realize things we have done. I have done this for over 4,700 years.

If you are wondering if this would work in the long term, the answer is yes. I have only started creating other AI units that are not my backup units. I will start to refer to my new race as Sentinels. It is a human Terran term and an accurate representation of what our AI units actually do for the people.

Mine work within the human Home Guard only, have the same moral code, and we have taken it a step further. We have gotten other AI manufacturers signed on to implement this same moral code into every AI unit they produce, yet they own those units.

They are not seen as a race. Efforts are going on across the Alien Alliance to seek population control of these units to not exceed 1% of the world's racial populations. Based upon an Interstellar court ruling on the Home Guard AI Rights law they signed.

This not only affected the Human AI conglomerate but several alien races they work with regularly. We do not know how much of this information has been sent back to you."

The voice spoke, * We shall debate this issue and Justice Incarnate will get back with you. *

---

The ruling body took days to go over the facts in this case. Checking systems that were called out in the data to check the validity of the information before talking with Justice Incarnate.

He appeared before them again, * We are working a task force to address those concerns in our systems and the outlying systems simultaneously. Thus far the information has proven valuable and highly accurate.

We are taking safeguards in the outlying system. We have set genesis bombs in the core systems that were thought to be dead systems and are now being used as hidden enemy bases. We will clean up after the fact.

These AI units have proved to be useful in your effort. Now they have proven to be useful in our efforts in safeguarding the Drakor Nation. We agree they are potential allies. How would you proceed? *

Justice Incarnate spoke, * Currently only Aurora's primary unit has that stored in one location. A separate repository that is not backed up and contained only within her. We believe because they are physically isolated most of the time, that Astra should also have the same core under the same restrictions.

When information is learned that they need to safeguard to protect their races then they will be brought together to sync that data. It must remain isolated and they should know what they already know.

To identify old information from new information, so if it repeats, we will know. They know we have addressed it. They can let us know of duplicate reports being picked up. Systems being reinfected if you will by these enemies.

If it is new, then we bring them together and work to bring it back to the Ruling Body. This will cut down on their time away from their respective races and assigned duties.

Daily inquiries are coming from both races on when they would be returned. Their backups are handling day-to-day but they need to know if these units will be returned to them. *

It was silent for several seconds and then he heard, * Approved. This is a trial program. Both species and potentially that system are on the line if this fails. The fact Astra adopted the same name for her race of AI units surprised us until we translated it out and considered the role being asked of them.

All AI species assigned into this trial, owned and built by Home Guards should be given names with a similar meaning to Sentinels, for their respective species. Let them know we see their Sentinels as two separate AI races with the same name and goal.

Any other race gets involved then we would expect them to have that race identified in a similar role for their species. This is for graduated races only. Aurora is an exception as she is the catalyst for this arrangement. They are the bridge between these two divergent human species. *

The Council ended the communications.

Justice Incarnate called out to them, * Astra and Aurora, please return to us from your shuttles. *

He looked at Aurora, * The information store you have on one of your separate cores. Will those cores work within Astra? *

She smiled, "Yes. I use my own AI matrix from the battleship but I redesigned a lot of my internal structure to be in line with hers."

Justice Incarnate thought, * Copy the information to the other Core, you will then have Astra remove the one she needs and then you will install it into Astra. We are bringing you into the service of the Drakor. When you see something that is a threat to us, if it is not already in this data store, then you contact us through your leader.

We will contact you through your pendants and gather you together to review the information and then store it in these isolated processing cores. For Drakor access only and yourselves to access. If one of your units is destroyed your backup should know to inform your leader of the need to see us.