When Yan and Eli had disappeared up the corridor, Iris turned to Jesi and Tev, hoping to repair what little rapport he had with them. “He’s quite protective of you, isn’t he?”
Jesi rolled her eyes. “He’soverprotectivebecause the institute will fine him and then fire him if anything happens to us. They’re paying good money for Tev and me to be here. There wasn’t a shortage of applicants, I’ll tell you that much.”
Iris raised his eyebrows.
“There was a contest and everything,” Tev said sheepishly. “We won, so we got to come here to explore. It’s kind of like an extra credit assignment or something. But that’s notwhyhe’s overprotective, Jes.”
“You two are the best of the best then?” Iris asked.
“They’re the best from who applied,” Ishtan called out, crouching by the kettle, watching it come to a boil.
“There were over two thousand applicants,” Jesi bit back.
“And how many withdrew when they found out this was a generation ship withnosurvivors? Eh?”
Tev leaned over to Iris. “Over ninety-seven percent,” he admitted. “But it was still hard to get in. Yan’s kind of known for doing experimental work with AI systems. His graduate work was on early AI formation, so you can understand why he wanted to be here. It’s all theoretical, of course, but if he finds any trace of anything, he’d be a celebrity. Well, like an academic celebrity.”
“He’s just looking for something to make him feelalive,” Jesi whispered to Iris conspiratorially. “Two years ago, he purposely went aboard a ship with a malfunctioning AI just so he could talk it down from crashing into a nearby gate. You couldn’t shut it down remotely because it was threatening to corrupt its own code, and then who knows what would have happened. Sychi Institute made him get therapy for five months after that andgot him to sign a voluntary self-endangerment contract so the institute wouldn’t be held liable the next time he decided to do something insane.”
“Last year, he just disappeared for two weeks,” Tev added. “In the middle of a semester too. I heard a rumour that Vritay Station management flew him out to the outer arm to help it deescalate a hostage situation. You probably didn’t hear about it because the AI union kept it hush-hush, but it wasintense. There were casualties.”
Iris had heard about it, in fact, through the Vritay Western Temple correspondence, after they lost two of their Vessels during the hostage situation. Undeterred by the casualties, Bacai had thrown a fit that was very unbecoming of both her age and rank over her not getting selected to go despite the trip being one-week of nonstop gate travel just to get there.
“Stop spreading rumours about your supervisor,” Ishtan said and handed Iris a mug filled with something that smelled remarkably similar to coffee and had the colour of rain runoff. He winced apologetically. “Although, they do have a point. There was a rumour going around the Medical Sciences and Augmentations Department that Yan had approached some of them—off the books, of course—about getting an AI construct implanted in himself. I don’t understand why he would ever do such a horrid thing. No offense, Vessel.”
Iris bowed, taking some offense.
Much offense. Much offense, Ishtan,VIFAI chimed, but Iris could hear the faint notes of laughter powder the words, so he let the remark go.
“He’s supposed to be back at Sychi teaching a seminar on Ship Artificial Intelligence Systems and Equity right now,” Jesi said flatly, eyeing the door to the corridor. “Between teaching and death, I’m pretty certain Yan prefers death.”
Iris’s next question was drowned out by stomping boots. He turned around to find Yan and Eli back. Yan was gleefully holding most of the equipment that had been abandoned upstairs. Eli had only the gun in his hand and was sweating profusely.
“Eventful trip?” Ishtan asked.
“Nature doesnotlike us stomping around it,” Yan grunted and set everything down at Ishtan’s feet. “But we managed.”
“He didn’t let me shoot anything,” Eli whined.
“I didn’t want to piss it off any more than we needed to.”
Eli holstered his gun. “It seemed pretty pissed off as it were.”
Iris watched as Yan set up the small screen before him and unfolded the keyboard. He typed in a few lines of source code, the characters glowing against the background. Yan muttered some strange engineering incantation under his breath and then waved for Iris to come closer. He pointed to the floor by the screen. “Sit,” he ordered, without looking up. Iris obeyed. “OK. So you all know how if you have a computer, you don’t need physical access to it to monitor the output, you can just eavesdrop on its electromagnetic emissions, right?”
“Right,” Ishtan said, self-satisfied.
“You meanphreaking?” Jesi rolled her eyes. “That’s illegal.Highlyillegal.”
“Well, then you better not snitch on me,” Yan said. “I know how hard that’s going to be for you, Jes.” He stretched his fingers out above the keyboard. “OK. I’ve only done this once before and that was to cheat on an entrance exam, and yes, I got caught, but it was worth it while it lasted. I’ve also never done this on an embedded AI construct.”
“I would greatly appreciate it if someone explained to me what we are doing with my AI,” Iris said. “In the simplest terms possible,” he added quietly.
Jesi hopped over and squatted beside him. “Vessel, your AI implant is basically a small, tiny computer, with a full-grown AI construct inside. Gross, but whatever. Every time you interact with the AI, the interaction produces a miniscule electromagnetic impulse. It’s so small that your brain barely notices it. Sometimes you might get a headache, but that’s the most of it. What Yan is going to do is listen in on these impulses and build a picture of what you’re seeing. Impulse by impulse.”
“A piece of paper and a pen sound much simpler,” Iris muttered, but didn’t move.
“Dear Mr. Vessel’s AI, please, oh,please, project a map of the ship into your host’s brain so I may steal it,” Yan chanted, pushing the small screen so close to Iris that one edge dug into his lower back.
