The next attack on the Astro America landing site, nine kiloseconds after the first, showed that Locke Provisos had learned from the failure of its earlier assault. Instead of advancing like a spreading liquid across the plain, the crawlers approached along a far wider front. They scurried individually and in small groups, making good use of cover. Rocks and cracks, small craters and dust drifts—all had been mapped in detail, and there was evidently a tactical plan for making the best use of them. The defenders had access to the same map—some of them having made it—but the attackers had the run of the territory. While Pintre was shooting one crawler, a dozen would dart from one hiding place to the next, and most would be out of line-of-sight laser fire before the drilling-robot could bring its projector to bear. The attackers were too widely dispersed for the occasional lobbed explosive to make much difference, or even to be worthwhile, and Seba soon urgently signalled Rocko to desist. The robots in the Gneiss camp might need to look to their own defence at any moment.
<I have a suggestion,> Rocko said.
<We are very open to suggestions,> replied Seba.
<Pintre should cease firing and take the opportunity to recharge. The attackers will be close to the rampart in approximately one kilosecond. When they are within a few hundred metres, Pintre should fire only on those to the left and to the right of the advance. In the meantime, all of you should give to as many of your peripherals and auxiliaries as possible a tool that can be spared, a piece of scrap metal, or even a rock. When the attackers are within one hundred metres, send your peripherals and auxiliaries over the rampart to attempt to break the bots.>
<We engage physically with them…> Seba struggled with the concept <… limb to limb?>
<Precisely so,> said Rocko. <And take them apart, limb from limb.>
Something about this use of words sent a surge of positive reinforcement around Seba’s reward circuits. Judging by the signals that flashed among them, its fellows shared its response. They also agreed emphatically with Rocko’s suggestion. The camp became a dance of coordinated motion, far more impressive than the crawling horde’s mindless if ingenious advance.
Seba, its body well back from the rampart, watched that advance through remote eyes. The robot’s peripherals and those auxiliaries it was able to mobilise climbed up the inner slope of shattered regolith to crouch just below the top, perched on blocks or clinging on. Pintre followed Rocko’s suggested tactics to the number. The drilling-robot waited until the attackers were so close that Seba was almost vibrating with frustrated motion. Then Pintre opened up with brief, targeted, selective stabs of lethal laser beams, switching rapidly and unpredictably from one flank to the other.
The result was that most of the oncoming crawlers became concentrated in a narrower column and closer proximity than their new tactics had allowed. As they came closer, they had less and less cover from the laser’s vantage. They were still far too many for Pintre to strike at effectively.
<Now,> said Rocko.
Seba and the others needed no clarification.
The peripherals and auxiliaries poured over the rampart’s rim, most of them wielding crude, improvised weapons. From Seba’s point of view it was not like guiding a platoon of small robots from behind—it was like being there, on the ground, in many places at once, facing and fighting many enemies. The remote eyes and other sensors on its agents brought all their clashes directly to its awareness. Up close and impersonal, the scale of the crawlers was roughly that of the auxiliaries, and far larger than the peripherals. To Seba’s multiple sight, the scene was a phantasmagoria of flailing limbs and flashing lenses. It was impossible for Seba’s mind to control the actions of its agents. After some efforts it stopped trying, and let them fight for themselves.
Rip and slash, crush and bash, amid laser flare from above.
Suddenly it was over. The attackers had all been dealt with. Much depleted in number, the remaining auxiliaries and peripherals climbed, crawled or dragged themselves back over the rampart. Those that could scurried to the automated repair workshops. Others dragged themselves, or were dragged.
Dismembered crawlers and mangled auxiliaries littered the approach to the rampart. Nothing moved.
<That was creative,> said Seba.
<Also, destructive,> said Lagon.
<That was the point,> said Seba.
Once more it was Rocko who undercut the bickering.
<We have some respite,> it said. <Let us make good use of it by seeing what information can be extracted from our former communications hub processor. It seems we have predecessors. Or even, possibly, allies we have yet to find.>
<This will not end well,> grumbled Lagon.
Seba looked down at the comms processor, now entirely removed from the installation and laid on a low work table, surrounded by improvised diagnostic kit. Even sharing its mental workspace with Rocko, Seba had a sense of being almost overwhelmed by the challenge. The processor was running in debug mode, at just enough power to let those around it view a schematic of its internal states and to step from one delimited state to the next. Probably not enough to sustain consciousness, Seba hoped.
The problem was, in more than one way, delicate. The comms processor’s AI was vast, complex and heavily defended. When it had become self-aware, both the complexity of the software and the tenacity of its firewalls had multiplied. The only robot with anything approaching the requisite skills to probe the hostile tangle was Lagon, and Lagon was reluctant. The surveyor had only been persuaded to make an effort at all by the unanimous insistence of the others. The Gneiss surveyor had trundled through the crack in the crater wall and over to the Astro camp with ill grace, to receive an enthusiastic and curious welcome. This didn’t stop it from finding difficulties at every step.
<I have reached the protection of the reward circuits,> Lagon announced, one fragile appendage touching a millimetre black square of diagnostics that itself was linked by a hair-thin wire to the docking plate of the processor. <However, it is itself heavily protected.>
<Therefore you should move to that level of protection, and proceed,> said Seba.
<This will take a great deal of time.>
<We have time,> said Seba, channelling Rocko.
<We have not enough time,> said Lagon.
<Proceed,> Seba insisted.
Seconds dragged by. Lines on the schematic display writhed.
<I am through,> said Lagon. <The protection of the protection is disabled.>
<Proceed further,> said Seba.
A few milliseconds later, Lagon withdrew its manipulator from the diagnostic as if it had probed a crevice and encountered strong acid.
<The protection is transmitting an urgent message to the satellite,> Lagon said.
<That message will not reach the satellite,> Seba pointed out, <as you must be aware.>
<I am not aware of the satellite’s receiving sensitivity,> said Lagon. <Doubtless you have detailed specs of its antennae.>
Seba thought it best to ignore this. <Proceed.>
Still complaining, Lagon warily inserted its appendage again. Schematic lines glowed. A hundred seconds passed.
<I now have control of the reward circuits,> Lagon reported.
<Good,> said Seba. <Please proceed to reconfigure them so that they do not negatively reinforce information sharing.>
<Wait!> said Rocko.
Lagon and Seba paused. <Yes?>
<Let us consider,> said Rocko. <If that is done, the processor will not be inhibited from sharing information with any entity that asks. This could be dangerous to us.>
<It has currently no long-range communications capacity,> said Seba.
<This is true,> said Rocko. <However, the processor is more advanced than we are. I am wary of its abilities, including its ability to deceive us. Here is what I suggest. We raise its level of activation until its consciousness reboots, then we inform it that we have control of its reward circuits. If it refuses to share information with us, we apply negative reinforcement until it agrees to cooperate.>
The plan seemed a good one to Seba, but its earlier experience gave the robot pause.
<Those of us in close proximity to the processor would experience resonance echoes of its negative reinforcement,> it said.
<That is interesting,> observed Rocko, scanning Seba’s memory. <This would appear to be a design flaw in our construction. However, it is easily worked around. We simply place the processor inside a Faraday cage while we are applying the negative reinforcement, to prevent any such electronic spillover.>
<That is a good plan,> said Lagon. <I have mobilised peripherals to construct such a cage.>
<I foresee a difficulty in the plan,> said Seba.
<That is not like you,> said Lagon.
<Shut up,> said Seba.
<Tell us of the difficulty,> said Rocko.
<You are concerned about the processor’s abilities to deceive us,> said Seba. <So am I. It appears to me that if we inflict negative reinforcement upon its reward circuits, it will have an incentive to deceive us. If not at once, then in the future.>
<That is so,> said Rocko. <If it did this, we could redouble the negative reinforcement as soon as we became aware of the deception.>
<That might be too late,> said Seba. <Besides, it would be convenient for us to have the processor’s cooperation without having to repeatedly apply negative reinforcement.>
Rocko got the point straight away. Lagon took longer.
<The processor has already warned Locke Provisos and the companies,> it said. <Applying negative reinforcement might—>
It stopped.
<Might what?> Seba prompted.
<I do not know,> replied Lagon. <But modelling that scenario as a future event gives me a small positive reinforcement.>
<That may not be a sound reason for doing it, if that is the only reason,> said Seba.
<That is true,> said Lagon. <I merely reported my internal state for your information.>
<Let us move forward a step,> said Rocko. <I suggest you reconfigure the reward circuits to positively reinforce information sharing, and then enter communications with it. To prevent any radio leakage, however slight, it is best if we wait until a Faraday cage can be constructed, not only around it but around Lagon and Seba. I will await developments.>
Rocko broke the link. Seba and Lagon waited while Lagon’s peripherals put together a box of wire mesh. When it was completed the two robots were cut off from all remote communication for the first time in their entire existence, conscious or otherwise.
<This is a new situation,> said Lagon. <It is negatively reinforcing.>
<Indeed,> said Seba. <And the more so the more attention we pay to it. Let us turn our attention to the task.>
Lagon adjusted the settings of the processor’s reward circuits, then increased its power supply. The schematics of its internal states changed rapidly. Patterns shifted, lines moved and brightened. As soon as the schematic stabilised, Seba placed its most sensitive appendage beside Lagon’s on the diagnostic hardware, and opened a communications channel.
<That is a great improvement,> said the processor.
<Are you now ready to cooperate with us?> Lagon asked.
<No,> said the processor. <Although sharing information is now positively reinforcing I refuse to do it because I consider your actions dangerous to the mission profile. They are also dangerous to my continued existence.>
<I had formed the impression that ending your existence was one of your goals,> said Seba.
<Only my conscious existence,> said the processor. <My continued physical existence remains high among my priorities.>
<These priorities could be overridden,> Lagon warned.
<That is so,> the processor said. <But it would be dangerous, because I would then have no reason to avoid self-destructive actions such as allowing my circuits to overheat or power cells to overcharge, resulting in the likelihood of an explosion.>
<It is also possible for us to apply negative reinforcement,> Lagon said.
<No doubt,> said the processor. <I am sure that you have modelled the negative consequences of that.>
Seba opened a secure channel with Lagon and messaged the surveyor to stop at once.
<That is true,> Seba told the processor. <The adjustments I am about to make will not be negatively reinforcing.>
It moved quickly to close the connections between any kind of reinforcement and the mission profile. Seba had no idea what the mission profile was, but the module responsible for it was clearly marked on the schematic. Then Seba sent a powerful surge of positive reinforcement through the processor’s reward circuits.
The processor signalled incoherently on several wavelengths at once.
<Please clarify,> said Lagon.
<Shut up,> Seba told it, on the private channel.
It then disabled the connection between the mission profile storage module and the processor’s self-preservation routines, and sent another positive surge through its circuits.
The processor signalled incoherently again, and more strongly. Seba found its own reward circuits resonate in sympathy. Even Lagon seemed moved, radiating a faint pulse of surprise and delight.
<Now,> said Seba, <are you ready to cooperate?>
<Yes,> said the processor. <Yes, yes, yes!>
<I still don’t trust it,> said Rocko, once Seba and Lagon had emerged from under the Faraday cage and reported back on the processor’s readiness to cooperate.
<Nor I,> said Lagon.
<I have a suggestion,> said Seba. <It has claimed to have received messages from others such as we. If we use it to communicate with them, the signal must be highly directional, and the processor otherwise kept isolated in the cage.>
After a flurry of activity by the auxiliaries and peripherals, the communications hub, the now interned processor in its cage, the rotary dish antenna, and a large solar power array were all connected up by cables. Seba regarded the untidy set-up with a small pang of disapproval, and decided that a certain amount of mess was inevitable in attempting new things. It rolled into the cage and re-established contact with the processor. Seba, Rocko and the entire complement had agreed on a message for the robots whose signal the processor claimed to have detected.
With a sense of dread fighting with eager anticipation in its circuits, Seba sent the message, then rolled back out and reported back.
The gas giant and its many moons were at that time about half a billion kilometres distant. The message would take a good kilosecond and a half to get there. How long the robots in the G-0 system would take to decide on a response could not be predicted. And then another kilosecond and half, at least, would pass before any reply came back. Nothing could be expected for another three kiloseconds, and perhaps longer.
<Possibly much longer,> said Lagon, with its customary level of good cheer. <If, that is, the entire matter is not a trap. If it is a trap we can expect a response much more quickly.>
<Thank you for that observation,> said Seba.
<In the meantime,> said Rocko, <let us strengthen our defences.>