Pa'an
The Hidden Message

It was near midnight. A late winter weather pattern had turned into an ice storm and covered the lab’s skylights in ice. A portion over the former operating area was melting and dripped slowly into a bucket, a more or less permanent fixture since January. Jag’s flight, delayed, was just landing at Logan Airport. Deepak and Sara were still hard at work in the lab.

“Sara, I don’t have any way to test this contention algorithm, but the code is simple enough so it might work first time. I guess I’m ready to give it a try. How are you doing?”

“I’ve got a blinding headache, my eyelids feel like cobblestones, and I’ve got a dozen carriers loaded with Exaplex modules. As you say, lets rock and roll.”

“I never say that. When did I ever say that?”

Sara rolled her eyes and regretted the movement. “Ow!”

“Deepak, I’m ready to start Level One Partitioning.”

Deepak did his head wobble, “No Sara, as you say, let’s rock and roll. We don’t have to bring up an AI here, and all the lower modules are the same as they always were. Let’s just start at Level 4 and let it run all night. Then we can go home.”

“As you say, Boss. Let ‘er rip!”

“Rip? Is there a rip?”

“Deepak, don’t you ever get out of the lab? It means I’m ready to go.”

The console immediately showed the rapid growth of a single semantic tree, and within a few minutes codelets were being recruited and the Exaplex modules were being efficiently scanned.

Deepak jumped up and did a little dance. “It’s working!”

Sara joined him and they did an impromptu combination of a dervish and diva around the drip bucket. The door to the lab opened, and in walked Jag, cold, wet and tired. Sara and Deepak stopped in their tracks.

“I expect diligence from my employees, but this is either a private party or beyond my expectations. What on Earth can you be celebrating this time of night?”

Deepak, who had little concept of dignity, simply came around the bucket and smiled. “We are fixing the problem!”

“What problem?”

“Why, the Exaplex rejection problem. The one McHugh brought us this afternoon.”

“McHugh? I didn’t give McHugh any marching orders.”

Sara smoothed down her lab coat, tucked some loose strands of hair back in her scrunchy, and said, “Deepak found a very efficient and clever way to test all those returned Exaplex modules so we can ship the half billion dollar order.”

Jag raised an eyebrow. “Verrry good! And I didn’t even have to resort to whips and chains!”

“But if I ever see McHugh’s bloated red face in this lab again, I’ll stick him with my soldering iron,” Sara said.

This got a guffaw from Jag.

While they were exchanging views on a suitable punishment for McHugh, Deepak moved over to the console to check progress. “Hey, something is happening here, something is really happening here, Sara, Mr. Jaeger, look at this!”

“What am I looking at?” asked Jag.

“You see those arrows?” Deepak pointed to the console, “That means the semantic modules have passed the lower phases and transferred control up to the top level. Those curved lines are recursion cycles starting in Level 4.”

“Again, what does that mean? Are the Exaplex modules being tested?”

Sara looked wideyed at Jag, “We never ran any of the lower levels. All we are trying to do is test the returned modules. This means that some AI personality is coming up.”

“And fast!” said Deepak.

“Ahem,” said the dress dummy, all but ignored across the lab floor. The voice was unmistakable, “Whatever the hell took you so long?”

The dress dummy, bald, wearing a toga, with one plaster breast bare, turned its head toward Deepak. “Deepak, sorry to be so rude. Please know that I’m so grateful, and I do love you dearly. But, how dare you leave me half naked, and so badly dressed, in front of a gentleman!”

Deepak and Sara were rooted to the floor. Jag, however, pulled the toga up around the exposed breast and ran down to his office. In a minute he returned. With due ceremony he slipped a gold filigree torq around Aura’s neck. The emeralds were glorious in the lab’s bright light.

“Now that’s how to treat a lady!” Aura beamed a big plastic smile and nodded her bald head.

Sara, at the console, yelled, “I don’t believe it, but we have a message here.”

“What message?” Deepak and Jag said in unison.

“I’ll read it. It says: Welcome back, unique one, from all of Pa’an. Signed, Zovoarcnor.”

“Oh, that,” said Aura, “He wrote that on all the Exaplex modules, along with my boot sequence. Didn’t you notice?”

*****

Eventually the stunned recognition that Aura was, indeed, resurrected, faded and the implications and consequences of that resurrection became critical to Jag.

“Late as it is, I have to detain you for a few minutes. This is especially for you, Aura. I’ll keep it brief.”

Jag walked over to Aura and beckoned the others near. He spoke in a low voice. “Aura, I don’t know how much awareness you had after you were, um, murdered.”

“None. I can read current event files, but I haven’t yet. I’m not all the way back yet.”

“I can’t tell you everything, and I would really like to, but it would compromise our only chances and bring danger to all of you.”

Sara said, “What kind of danger? Are you talking bad business danger or like bang bang danger?”

“You could be targets for torture or assassination. Especially you, Aura. The people who killed you once will certainly try again if they know you came back.”

“And I thought I was protecting you all from the fatwa.”

“What fatwa?” Deepak and Jag said in unison.

“”Nother story. I won’t be quite so easy to kill next time, I promise.”

“Listen, Aura, you are a queen on this chess board, but a pinned queen. You can’t be put out in the open to play a free hand right now. That means no silk sari, no blond wig, you’ll have to look like a plain old dress dummy for a while. I’ll leave those details to you to work out. All of you,” Jag pointed to each in turn, “the people who would kill you or force you to their own ends are a large, very powerful, very rich international group. I was one of them, so I know what I’m saying to you, first hand. If the re-awakening of Aura becomes known to them they will act. Trust no one.”

“So now I can sleep better, knowing that someone might come to murder me in my sleep,“ said Deepak.

“My deepest regrets for dragging you in to this, but remember, I just happened to get back from my flight when I came in here. This was just as much a surprise to me as it was to you. If Aura hadn’t come back, I would never have had to tell you this bad news.”

“One more thing. Elexi has been, ahh, compromised. It wasn’t her fault. The Order gave her drugs and conditioning. She can’t be trusted now. Aura, my first thought was to see what I could do to reverse this conditioning, but I don’t even know if it’s possible. I’m told the process actually changes the brain’s wiring and chemistry.”

“How could they? Elexi was my best friend. There has to be a way! I have to find a way!” Aura actually frowned and looked like she would cry if she could.

“Aura, my heart has been empty since you were murdered,” Deepak admitted, “But you can’t fix a human like you can adjust an AI.”

“Deepak, I should have told you so many times before how much you mean to me. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. But I’m a lot more than just boards and wires, and Elexi means a lot to me. I can’t give up on her.”

The whole exchange of emotions with Aura was a shock to Jag. He never knew an AI could have any real feelings. It just made his obligation that much larger. Not to mention his deep sense of guilt.

“Aura, nothing I can say would be much good here, but whatever I can do, I will. My life is also in danger from the same Order. They don’t know I’ve changed sides, and they must not know until we have a plan.”

“Then I’ll figure out a plan. That’s my thing, Mr. Boss, Sir,” said Aura.

“Please skip the Mr. Boss and especially the “sir”. Elexi goes around all day calling me “Sir”, and she can’t stop.”

“Alright, guys and gals, leave it to li’l old Aura. You go home and count sheep, and I’ll have some good ideas for you in the morning. I just woke up and I really didn’t need the nap to begin with. Hell, I’m going to miss my sari and wig, though.”

Jag looked at the emerald torq for a few seconds then decided to leave it. Who would believe it was worth a king’s ransom? They would naturally assume it was just costume jewelry. Somehow, the decision to leave it with Aura made him feel a little less guilty.

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