Sapping
© 2020 by Walter Reimer


Thumbnail art by  baroncoon



“Logic block 5A-7 is compromised,” the technician said, and the light blue block changed color to gold. “Beginning logic block 5A-8.”

“At last,” Captain-major m’Gen grumbled. Subverting the AI that ran Sol System’s Borealis communications array was taking far too much time. The longer it took, the greater the chance that their efforts would be discovered. M’Gen was honestly surprised that the Imperial infiltration had gone undetected for as long as it had.

Of course, if they were discovered, he and his unit were expendable. All of the shlani in the unit were volunteers, who had been fully briefed on the danger and well aware of the risks.

Having full control of the AI in charge of Sol System’s defenses helped him feel a bit more confident, as well as the fact that all of the self-destruct systems had been discovered and neutralized. There had been five of them, a tribute to the importance the base signified.

Two had been set up to be triggered remotely, a fact that had made m’Gen order additional searches. None had been found, but that didn’t make him any less nervous.

One of the senior programmers, seeing him fidget, said helpfully, “At a certain critical point, sir, it will get easier and faster.”

M’Gen gestured affirmation. “But will we get the chance? And I remind you that Australis will be harder to subvert.” Australis was an older system, with a large living staff to oversee it. It would require more delicacy – and more time – to crack its defenses. “Have we found any additional surveillance devices?”

The programmer gestured reassuringly. “I have two technicians and six members of the base staff searching for more. I admit that I didn’t believe the intelligence briefings about how paranoid the Terrans are, and toward their own people.”

“Their history’s full of lies and treachery,” m’Gen remarked, looking at his master display. “Are we gathering useful intelligence from the base’s AI?” A toothy smile greeted this question, and m’Gen laughed. “Good.” He gestured with his tail, and the programmer resumed his task. That was one thing they didn’t have to worry about. As data was collected from the co-opted sensor network the base supervised, it was downloaded to datapaks and physically carried to a ship that would move to a relatively safer position before transmitting the encrypted data to the nearest Imperial outpost.

“Logic block 5A-8 compromised,” one technician said.

Another tech coiled her tail and thumped it against the deck in triumph. “We have access to the primary cognition center.” The status display showed a large wedge of gold blocks describing the compromised sectors leading into the core of the AI. “Launching.” A stylized animation showed AI’s core as a hive of social insects; the technicians sent smaller insects, in reality bits of carefully-crafted code, to join with the native code.

M’Gen allowed himself to relax.

Just a little.