System Shock Part 25

'You'll enjoy this,' he nodded to the technician monitoring Voractyll's progress. 'I've done something inspiringly clever.'

' Berlin. Berlin. ' '

'I hear what you're saying,' Stabfield said before Sarah could ask the Doctor what he was talking about.

Sarah looked round. It was difficult to tell if the Doctor's words were having any effect, but at least they hadn't killed them yet. 'You're the same with language,' she said.

' Brussels Brussels.'

The Voracians switched their attention to Sarah. In unison almost they swung their heads towards her.

Sarah gulped as they fixed their attention on her, but she went on: 'I'm a writer, OK, I'm only a journalist, but I know the value of language. But you use jargon and buzz phrases that mean nothing. You don't understand the beauty or the history of the words. You just said, "I hear what you're saying." What does that mean? It doesn't impart any information it even sounds ugly.'

'Our speech patterns,' Johanna said, 'are modelled on human speech.'

' Dublin Dublin.'

'I imagine they are modelled on the way language is used in computer interfaces and in board meetings,' the Doctor said.

'Sarah's right. The purpose of speech is to communicate, yet more often than not you use it to obfuscate. That is certainly in keeping with the business aspects of human life, I have to admit. But that isn't where the organic the human scores over the machine. In fact it is where they begin to blur, though hardly to the same extent as you do.'

' Luxembourg main systems node. Luxembourg main systems node. ' '

The Doctor leaped to his feet again, waving arms and in turn removing and replacing his hat. 'When you boot a computer, it 224 doesn't know what "boot" means. It doesn't appreciate that it's short for bootstrap and that it is taken from a story of Baron Munchausen's. It doesn't care that the Baron told of how he found himself stuck in the middle of a marsh and had to lift himself up by his own bootlaces and carry himself out to avoid sinking.' The Doctor paused and threw his arms open as if baring his soul. 'It doesn't know or care that the whole concept on which its birth, its very existence is predicated is the impossible physics of a consummate liar.'

' Avignon. Avignon. ' '

'Are you saying that the machine is inferior to the organism?'

Stabfield asked. 'I can enumerate examples where the computer is vastly superior.'

'I'm sure you can, and so can I. I am saying that the two worlds are different. Each has its advantages, but never the twain should meet. At least, not in some symbiotic way. I'm saying you have to remember who you are, what you were.

You have to play to your own strengths, to appreciate yourselves and then decide whether it is right to give the technological ascendancy over the organic. Each has its use, and each has its place. And when you're faced with the choice, and the machine offers you a b.u.t.ton that says "OK" don't see that just as a word, dead and unimaginative, machine-driven with a single meaning. Humans are everything the computer is not. They are irrational and illogical. They are ambivalent and ambiguous. But there is value and humour and history in all that.'

' Geneva Geneva.'

He sat down again, thought for a moment, then added: 'In the 1840 American presidential campaign, OK was the secret name for the New York Democrat clubs. It stood for Old Old Kinderhook Kinderhook, which was the home of Martin Van Buren. The Whigs, since they couldn't find out what it meant, said that OK was President Jackson's abbreviation for all correct all correct.'

The Doctor laughed out loud at his own story, and Sarah found herself joining in. None of the Voracians so much as smiled.

225.

'Just as I thought,' the Doctor said, his laughter cutting off abruptly. 'You've even lost your sense of humour. How very sad.'

' Dresden Dresden.'

Stabfield was still holding the CD he had taken from the Doctor. 'Your main argument, then, would seem to be that by combining the technological and the organic we have lost something of our essence. That we should remember how we were, and make a decision based not on an amalgamation of the technological and the organic, but from a distinct viewpoint. That both are useful when complementary, but that one is merely a tool for the other.'

The Doctor nodded. 'I'd phrase it differently myself. But that's about the gist of it, yes.'

'Then I have to thank you for that clarification.' Stabfield placed the CD carefully inside the case in which his own copy had been, and then slipped it into his jacket pocket.

' Luxeuil-les-Bains Luxeuil-les-Bains.'

'So, will you help us stop Voractyll?' Sarah asked.

'I think, Miss Smith, before I answer that, I had better clarify some things for yourself and the Doctor.' Stabfield settled back into a chair. 'We,' he gestured round to include his colleagues, 'come from Vorella, a small planet in the Frastris region. Its development followed roughly the same lines as that of Earth, although the dominant intelligent life form was reptilian.'

' East coast USA. New York East coast USA. New York.'

'Like a snake?' Sarah hazarded.

'Quite so. The technological evolution also followed broadly the same lines. And culminated in the creation of a global network of information technology. There was a general reliance on technology; on information superhighways; on prolific use of computer and digital hardware and software permeating every area of civilized life. And then came what the Vorellans called the Great Reckoning Great Reckoning.

The planetary automated office systems network was Voracia. The Vorellan Office Rapid Automated Computer Intelligence Advocate. Voracia was a reasoning processor constructed using the most advanced expert and artificial 226 intelligence technology. The system became self-aware within seven minutes of going on-line.'

Stabfield paused, and looked to Johanna. She continued the story: 'Within an hour it had deduced that organic life was inefficient and of no use. In fact it was organic life that necessitated the less efficient office procedures like electronic mail and printing. With no organic component, the automated, paperless and technological on-line office could function at almost one hundred per cent efficiency.'

The Doctor and Sarah were listening intently. 'I imagine Voracia tried to take over,' the Doctor said. 'I have come across similar scenarios with crazed computers, though not an office system as such so far as I can remember.'

Stabfield nodded. 'Within a week Voracia had gained control of the global networks and introduced every component chip on the planet to the expert reasoning sh.e.l.l which held the arguments it had formulated to demonstrate its position.'

'This is fascinating,' Sarah said. 'But what has it got to do with you lot? Why are you here?'

' Washington DC primary apparatus. Whitehouse nodes Washington DC primary apparatus. Whitehouse nodes converted converted.'

Stabfield continued his story. 'Voracia had misjudged the native Vorellans. After the initial success of its military operations, the surviving rebel organic forces began to claw back some victories. Voracia was forced to reevaluate the situation. It had to find another solution.

'The solution was simple, but Voracia saw it too late to win the war. Its CPU off-lined after a direct hit from a dumb nuclear device carried into Processor Control by a suicide team of Vorellans. The Voracian forces were left in disarray and leaderless. Most were easily destroyed by the Vorellans as they regained control of the software systems isolating them and purging them of the expert-reasoning routines.'

'And what was the solution?' The Doctor's voice was low, his face grim. His eyebrows were close and heavy. Sarah began to wonder if things were actually going as well as they seemed. What had the Doctor foreseen in Stabfield's narrative?

' Dallas Dallas.'

227.

'Before it was destroyed, Voracia had completed a pilot study the theory was already tested before the Vorellans proved it correct with their victory. Voracia's theory, running to seventeen gigabytes of natural language hypothesis, ant.i.thesis and synthesis verified by the AI and Reasoning procedures, was expressed concisely in the executive summary: While technology is demonstrably superior to organic life in most ways, organic life still outperforms the technological in certain key areas for example instinct, pragmatism, camaraderie and team-building, self-sacrifice.

While a processor can use algorithms akin to fuzzy logic to mimic the intuitive leap and other organic attributes, that emulation is no subst.i.tute for the real thing. This organic superiority may be enough to more than compensate for the organic deficiencies in reasoning, calculation, strategy, and systems control. For a system to be truly superior, it must include organic components albeit slaved to the processing engine.'

The Doctor was leaning forward in his seat now, face grave.

'And what was the pilot study?'

Stabfield waved his gloved hand, indicating the Voracians in the room with the gesture. 'We were, Doctor. Your arguments, your reasoning, your fundamental premise merely endorses Voracia's thinking. It endorses our plan.'

'Does it really?' the Doctor said in a low voice.

' All European primary nodes converted. USA seventeen per All European primary nodes converted. USA seventeen per cent complete. Asia responding. Progress well ahead of cent complete. Asia responding. Progress well ahead of predictions. predictions. ' '

Sarah looked from the Doctor to Stabfield, realization beginning to dawn. 'You mean ' But she stopped short of completing the thought.

'Yes, Miss Smith,' Stabfield said. 'We are not organic life forms which have tried to augment ourselves with artificial limbs and implants. Quite the reverse. The pilot study involved the introduction of organic components into a small number of Voracia's robotic infantry systems. These had been designed to a.s.sume control of the less sophisticated military hardware, and in order to control the systems most efficiently had therefore been modelled on the exterior form and proportions of an 228 organic Vorellan. It was thus a relatively simple step to take organic components from captured Vorellans and replace some of the synthetic systems within the infantry warriors.'

'Take organic components?' The Doctor was appalled.

'You're talking about murder and dissection, about heinous crimes against life.'

Stabfield ignored him. 'The brains remained robotic, but organic subsystems were slaved to them the lobes grafted on as extra storage and intuitive processing regulated by the central positronics. Because of the nature of the brain graft, parts of the front of the head were replaced with at least some of the organic physiognomy. Since native Vorellan determination and will seemed to transcend the brain and permeate their whole being, other organic elements were also introduced, largely at random and as they became available.'

The Doctor snorted. 'Became available? You sit there, the unspeakable remnants of an abominable failed experiment, and you talk about organs and limbs from an intelligent life form becoming available available.' The Doctor advanced on Stabfield.

'Voracia failed before, and you will fail here.' He turned to Sarah. 'So there,' he said.

The Voracians were silent, perhaps considering the Doctor's outburst. Sarah took the opportunity to whisper to the Doctor.

'What have you done?' she asked as Cairo faded to red.

'I've redefined the local area network throughout the Hubway building,' the Doctor replied quietly. 'For example, the main reception desk thinks its New York and the kitchen is Paris.'

'You mean ... ?'

The Doctor nodded. 'Voractyll is only converting the systems within this building. Systems they already control.

That's why they're so far ahead of schedule.'

Sarah looked over to the Voracians. They were watching the world map fade to red, oblivious to its actual significance.

'Won't they notice?' Sarah asked.

The Doctor chuckled. 'Not unless I've done something very silly,' he whispered back.

229.

Stabfield turned from the map. 'The world awaits our protocol,' he said. 'What makes you so sure we shall fail, Doctor?'

'Because I'm going to stop you.'

The technician leaned slightly forward, double-checking a reading before reporting: ' Rockall Rockall.'

Stabfield's eyes narrowed, the hint of a frown creasing one side of his smooth forehead.

'Whoops,' said the Doctor.

Stabfield stood motionless for a second. 'Recheck,' he snapped at the technician.

The technician tapped at the keyboard. 'Rockall node converted.'

'That's very interesting, isn't it Doctor?' Stabfield stepped forward, and the Doctor backed away.

'Is it?' he asked innocently, turning his hat over and over in his hands.

'There isn't a Rockall node,' Johanna said quietly from behind Stabfield.

'Are you sure?' The Doctor was against the wall now, his back pressed into the unyielding surface of Turner's Thames.

'Maybe they just set one up?'

'No Doctor,' Stabfield said, his head swinging gently from side to side, his voice tight and over-controlled. 'I don't think so.' Then he lashed out, his gloved claw catching the Doctor across the side of the head and sending him sprawling into the equipment he had used to project the images on to the wall.

The painting skewed and blurred, a nightmare of colour and curve more like Munch than Turner. Then it disappeared, leaving the wall bare and empty.

The Doctor picked himself up and shook his head. Sarah helped him to a seat as Stabfield and the Voracians turned their attention to the main network systems.

It took only a few minutes for the technician to run a diagnostic, locate the problem, and reroute the systems to an external network node.

'You have caused us some considerable delay, Doctor.'

Stabfield stood stiffly in front of the Doctor. 'You have wasted valuable time.'

230.

'I never waste waste time,' the Doctor told him. 'I appreciate its true worth.' time,' the Doctor told him. 'I appreciate its true worth.'

'Be quiet,' Stabfield hissed.

'Losing our cool, are we? Not quite the machine you thought you were, eh?'

Stabfield stood still, facing the Doctor eye to eye. His head was shaking, vibrating as if with rage. For a moment Sarah thought he was going to hit the Doctor again. But then he seemed to calm slightly. His shoulders relaxed and his head stopped shaking so violently.

'Voractyll is running,' the technician announced. 'Now entering the highway. Highway integrity and veracity double-checked.'

'Our plans are now at phase five,' Stabfield said, his voice quiet and apparently calm. 'We are entering a non-return sequence. Voractyll is running and has begun to access the nodes on the superhighway, has begun to convert systems across the world. I have the CD that your friends took from us, and I hold your life on a knife-edge. The Voracian experiment was not a failure, everything so far proves that. You suggested we return to our roots, that we build on our origins. We are doing that. And we are succeeding; we will succeed. And now that Voractyll really has been unleashed, Doctor, there is nothing that even you can do to stop it.'

231.

11.

Escape Sequences

Harry was in the mobile control centre. Ashby had called him in once it became clear that one of the m.u.f.fled voices they were hearing through the directional microphone aimed at the main computer suite belonged to the Doctor. Harry in turn had suggested Colonel Clark join them, and now they were all hunched round a small speaker trying to make out the sounds they were getting.