Titan

28 May 2096: Dialogue

Gaeta opened the comm channel to the control center. “You hear what’s going down?” he asked, feeling annoyed at the computer’s obtuseness, at his own inability to make the damned bucket of chips talk to him, at the fact that he was sitting on the roof of a dead rover in the middle of nowhere with a storm coming up while the rest of them were safe at their desks.

And then there was the excruciating time lag between his questions and their responses.

Habib’s voice at last said, “Your last question was too general for the master program to handle. We’re sending you a more specific set of questions.”

“Okay,” Gaeta said, nodding inside his helmet. The storm of black snow was noticeably closer. Moving faster than the higher clouds, he saw.

He realized it was getting cold. Can’t be, he told himself. The suit’s heating system could cook a rhinoceros. You’re letting your nerves get to you. Still, sitting on Alpha’s roof with nothing to do but look at the icy landscape around him, Gaeta felt chilled.

At last a new list of questions flashed on his helmet display. Gaeta squinted at them. This is like talking to a two-year-old, he grumbled. Then he saw that, at the end of the list, they had written in boldface, IMPORTANT! DO NOT CUT OFF COMM LINK WITH CONTROL CENTER. IMPORTANT!

“Got your questions,” he said. “And if you want me to keep the comm link open, don’t clutter it up with a lot of chatter. Right?”

No use waiting for them to answer, Gaeta thought. I can put those twelve seconds to better work.

“Computer, display all commands to the uplink antenna.”

Date, 25 December 095057 hours: Activate uplink antenna.

Date, 25 December 095109 hours: Abort data uplink.

Date, 29 December 142819 hours: Deactivate telemetry uplink.

Gaeta could hear muttering and people breathing back at the command center. But they stayed fairly silent as he scanned the new list of questions.

“Display command to deactivate uplink antenna,” he read aloud.

No response from the computer. Gaeta went to the next question.

“Display decision tree for antenna deactivation.”

A jabber of electronic noise burst from Gaeta’s helmet speakers. “Wait! Stop!” he hollered.

The noise stopped, like turning off a light switch.

Habib held his thumb down on the keypad that turned off the outgoing messages link. The engineers crowded behind him were all talking at once, all their suggestions and ideas frothing together into an incomprehensible babble.

“Quiet!” Habib shouted. “He’ll cut us off again if we don’t stay quiet.”

Von Helmholtz added calmly, “It is difficult enough for him down there without hearing all our voices in his ears. I suggest we allow Mr. Habib to do all the communicating with Gaeta.”

One of the computer engineers said, “Tell him to have the program go through the decision tree at human-normal speed.”

“That could take hours,” said Habib.

“He could squirt the program’s response to us at compressed speed and we could go through it, line by line,” suggested another engineer.

“That would take days,” Habib replied dourly.

“Then what are we going to do?”

Habib kept his thumb firmly on the OUTGOING key. “We will listen. And say nothing unless we come up with a better idea.”

Gaeta saw that the storm of black snow was inching closer all the time. Wonder what it’ll do to my comm link? he asked himself.

Never mind that. You’ve got to get this stupid computer to talk to you in a language you can understand.

He sat there, thinking hard, watching the sheet of black snow as it approached. It looked like a curtain of darkness. Better get out of here before it reaches me, he thought.

From his briefings he remembered that Alpha went dead at the same time that it cut off the uplink antenna. Maybe the key to its decision is there, he said to himself.

“Computer, display all the commands made when the uplink antenna was deactivated.”

Date, 29 December 142819 hours: Deactivate downlink antennas. Deactivate tracking beacon. Deactivate telemetry uplink. Maintain sensor inputs. Store sensor inputs. Change course forty-five degrees. Maintain forward speed.

“All sensor inputs are stored?” Gaeta asked, surprised.

Yes.

“Why was the telemetry uplink deactivated, then?”

Conflict of commands.

¡Mierda! Gaeta said to himself. We’re back to that again.

Habib’s voice came through, “All the sensor data is stored? We haven’t lost any data?”

“That’s what the computer says,” Gaeta replied. “It’s all stashed away in its memory somewhere.”

A jumble of voices in the background. Gaeta tuned them out and asked the computer, “Why store the data if you’re not uplinking it?”

Conflict of commands.

“Gesoo Christo,” he growled. “Is that all you can say?”

Habib was almost shouting, “Ask it under what conditions it will uplink the data!”

Gaeta took a breath, then rephrased, “Under what conditions can the stored data be uplinked?”

Under no conditions.

“Why not?”

No response, although Gaeta heard a muted hubbub of voices from the command center.

Think, he said to himself. This is like talking to a very smart two-year-old. You’ve got to get around him.

“Computer, can you display the commands that are in conflict?”

The computer remained silent.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Gaeta tried to concentrate. Maybe I oughtta shut off the command center again, he thought. They’re nothing but a distraction.

Then Habib’s voice came through clearly, “Ask the computer to display each one of the commands that are in conflict individually.”

Worth a shot, Gaeta agreed. “Computer, display the command that controls the sensor data uplink.”

Immediately the computer’s flat, synthesized voice replied:

Command: All sensor data to be uplinked in real time.

“Okay, fine. Now, what command is in conflict with that one?”

Insufficient information.

“Insufficient?” Gaeta echoed. “What do you mean?”

Your question contains insufficient information to produce a meaningful answer.

Gaeta felt like pounding both fists on the vehicle’s roof. What the hell does he mean by that? What did I say that’s insufficient …? He thought about it for several moments, then decided to rephrase his question.

“Okay, look. Tell me what command is in conflict with the command to uplink all sensor data in real time.”

Primary restriction.

“Primary restriction? What the hell’s that?”