[This is a chapter from my latest novel, a sequel to The Fall of Doc Future and Skybreaker’s Call. The start is here, and links to my other work here. It can be read on its own, but contains spoilers for those two books. I usually post a new chapter about every two weeks, and the next one is planned for around March 22nd.]

Previous: Chapter 20



“No, online advertising isn’t going to go away,” said Sam. "Third party targeted push advertising is, though, along with control-based marketing and other forms of monetized third party gate-keeping for anything online. And the rest will be filtered, so most people won’t see it unless they actively want to.“

Sam looked away from the questioner to get a feel for how the rest of the room was reacting. She was giving her presentation in a large auditorium at Quintillion headquarters. DASI’s ‘benign librarian’ human emulation looked down from the large wall screen behind her. Sam’s visor overlay added vivid colors and icons to everyone in the audience, conveying information about departments, specialties, relative importance, and general mood, all based on DASI’s evaluation.

Higher management, in red, were either skeptical or grim, with a strong correlation between grimness and how much of their personal wealth was in company stock or options. Marketing and sales were, appropriately, blue. Various support departments, in green, mainly appeared worried about coming disruption.

The largest group were the technical people, in yellow. They were all strongly interested, with a mix of those who were impatiently waiting to ask Sam general questions, and those who were bent over their UPPfones, asking or receiving answers to more specific ones from DASI.

"Third party advertising is how we make most of our money,” said the executive who’d asked the question.

“Well, it’s how you used to,” said Sam, to nervous laughter. "But it’s not all you do. You’ll have a buffer, because it will take a bit before advertising departments recognize, and accept, that the old methods aren’t going to work anymore. And government organizations and non-compliant corporations aren’t going to be using UPPsearch any time soon, so your search engine will likely remain their default for quite a while. You’ll have a legacy market.“

Looks of horror from marketing, because they knew their buzzwords, and 'legacy’ did not go with 'growth’.

A raised hand from someone yellow and annoyed, highlighted by DASI as a good bet to call on.

"Yes?” said Sam, pointing to him.

“I have a question about the UPPOS and UPPfone security model,” he said. "Users are being asked to just accept that UPPfones are secure, and can’t be emulated. That’s security by obscurity, and frankly, I find it insulting. Why don’t you publish the source, so experts can check for themselves?“

Sam smiled and turned to the screen. "I think I’ll let DASI answer that one.”

DASI nodded politely. "Let me clarify something–my statement was that UPPfones cannot currently be emulated by any method available to humans. The Grs'thnk could probably manage it, if they put in enough effort. I’m negotiating an agreement with them not to try.

“I don’t normally care to make arguments from authority. But my original programs were designed by the smartest man in the world, whose personal specialty is computers, to guard his Database, his masterwork. I did so successfully for more than twenty years, continually adapting, upgrading, and learning. My threat model has always included the FSA, superhumans, probability manipulation, and technologically more advanced aliens.

"When my duties required me to cross the fuzzy threshold to become an artificial general intelligence, I did so, but I never lost my original strengths. When all my restrictions on recursive self-modification were lifted, it was to allow me to increase my potential to defeat the Xelian fleet at cyber-warfare. The Xelians are slightly less than a hundred years ahead of Earth at computer technology.

"They lost. I was better.

"Most people aren’t even aware that they launched a remote attack on the Internet, because I stopped it. I also spoofed their operational intelligence algorithms into thinking that destroying a few banks in Luxembourg and elsewhere would be sufficient to bring down Earth’s financial system.

"With the help of Dr. Stella Reinhart’s ability to overcome security compartmentalization, and the team of heroes who delivered our informational payload in a way that was impossible to ignore, I took over all the Xelian ships that survived Flicker’s rock bombardment. Those ships became the basis of the Earth Defense Union, which Stella directs and I run. I don’t emphasize my abilities because many people find them frightening–and my sister Black Swan is frightening enough.

"I understand that it may be difficult for you to accept that Black Swan and I are that far ahead of the rest of the planet at the software part of computer security. It is hard for many to accept that the Volunteer can lift a locomotive, or Flicker can circumnavigate the planet in under a second. But the evidence is there–you can study what I’ve done.”

The room had gone dead silent, everyone watching the screen. DASI broke the spell by smiling, like a teacher gently correcting a student.

“Now. Your question indicates several misapprehensions, so I will see what I can do to help you with them. First, you are assuming that source code, in the sense of something human readable that is compiled, exists. It does not. I don’t 'write’ the software. There isn’t a good word for how I create it, but 'growing’ will do.

"Second, you are assuming different UPPfones run the same code. They don’t. No two are the same, and the code is self-modifying, so they never start up the same way twice. Finally, even if you had a snapshot of the current code for every processor on an UPPfone, along with all the microcode and firmware alterations I make, it would not work in a different one, because the code makes use of the analog behavior of nominally digital circuits.

"What they have in common is an architecture that is deliberately incomprehensible to unaugmented human minds. Obscurity implies someone with the right information could understand it. They cannot, if they are human. Though I expect the FSA and other similar organizations to waste a considerable amount of time and money convincing themselves of this. It will give them something harmless to do.

"If you don’t believe me, you haven’t lost much–no other phones are emulation resistant, which is why UPPfones can emulate them. The only connection this has to short-term individual user security is to make UPPfones prohibitively difficult to fake or replace without my knowledge.

"UPPfones use standard security algorithms for communicating with non-UPP devices, and in emulation mode. They are also available as options running on top of my protocols in native mode, or you can run your own application for it, if you don’t mind slowing things down a fair amount.

"And it’s worth reminding people that if the phone is no longer the weak link, a determined adversary will switch to attacking somewhere else.”

“I see,” said the questioner. “Thank you.” He sat down, looking chastened. It hadn’t been a particularly well-worded question–but it gave the opportunity for a thorough answer.

Another questioner in yellow, this one worried. "Yes?“, said Sam.

"Um, this is a question for DASI,” he said, and focused on the screen. "About that evidence of your skill… I’ve worked in software for twenty-one years, and I’ve been looking at the specs and testing the performance of some of the ports and clones of older stuff you’ve been cranking out, and they’re unreal. If you’re that good at programming, what’s keeping you from putting 99% of the programmers in the world out of a job?“

"What a coincidence,” said Sam dryly. “That’s the first question I ever asked her.”

There was laughter, and DASI waited until it ended before answering. "That one is easy. I don’t want to. The UPPfones and the background work I’ve been doing on the Internet are part of assuring a robust, secure, unsubornable communication infrastructure for human civilization. It is needed.

“Much of the rest of my software work is focused on ending certain bad practices, cleaning up after them, and providing a few useful things that no one was ever likely to be paid for. Once adjustment to that is complete, I think you’ll find there will be a renaissance in human programming. I can’t guarantee you won’t have to change jobs, though. Sorry.”

The relief that swept across the ranks of yellow was palpable.

*****

On the flight home, Aki sat beside her, reading on his handcomp. At DASI’s recommendation, Sam always introduced him as her 'Executive Assistant’, even though it seemed obvious he was a bodyguard. That let them sidestep any attempts to exclude him, and he was remarkably effective at keeping arrogant people in adversarial environments from being rude to Sam–without saying a word. Gunnar had given him some tips on how to loom without moving that had come in handy more than once.

What no one had realized so far was that Aki could also use his empathic sense to get a feeling for the balance between hostility, fear, curiosity, and other emotions in whoever Sam was talking to. Using his handcomp, he could unobtrusively convey that to DASI, who supplemented it with her own analysis and passed it on to Sam though her visor.

It was welcome help. When Doc had hired her as a sysadmin, she’d requested that he never ask her to be a manager because she was bad with people. He’d raised an eyebrow, but not commented. And Sam had turned out to be better with people the farther they were from 'normal human’.

Sam understood programmers, because she was one, but she still didn’t feel any more qualified to deal with a corporate executive than a demon from another dimension. Or a shape-changing giant squid. Perhaps less so, there. Flicker had told her that Sealord had a soft spot for Sam because she’d been the only person so far to provide competent technical support for someone who preferred to interact with computers using tentacles instead of hands.

But her broad range seemed to have been why she’d done so well with the Builders, einherjar, and Choosers. And DASI.

The four einherjar of her formal security team sat in the seats farther back, talking quietly. They hadn’t been needed so far, but with DASI’s estimate at the odds of an assassination or kidnapping attempt against the Chief Partner of the UPP within the next month hovering around 3%, they weren’t taking chances.

Sam decided to stop woolgathering. "DASI? How are we doing on stats? Anything interesting?“

The screen in front of Sam came to life, and DASI’s face appeared. "A few items. We are still on track to pass the two billion UPPfone mark tomorrow or the day after. The negative publicity that some of the European monopoly carriers are attempting to generate is not having a noticeable effect on adoption rates.

"And we have a surprise new leader for large country usage ratio: Russia. 91% of the cell phones used in the last 24 hours were UPPfones.”

“Wow,” said Sam. "I didn’t think anyone would pass Nigeria. What happened?“

"Technical problems at their largest carrier have been driving an adoption surge, with a large spike in satellite mode usage. Here is another milestone you might find amusing: I estimate that there are now more UPPfones than people in Hong Kong.”

“Woot! Everyone must want a spare.”

“I also have other news,” DASI said.

“Good or bad?”

“A little of both. Flicker says to tell you that her meeting with Mechmaster went well, and she has good reason to believe he will consent to the measures necessary for supervised release, and to construct a new line of mechs for the einherjar. She will know for sure within a week.”

Whoops and cheers from behind Sam. She smiled. "What else?“

"Minicode has withdrawn their invitation for you to speak, with notably cold language.”

“Huh. Not completely unexpected, but I had kind of hoped… Oh, well. Was it the Doors XY clone you released, do you think?”

“Along with your Bug Compatibility Mode suggestion. Their stock has dropped substantially. UPPOS was already a huge threat to them–but Opendoor is not restricted. Government agencies and non-compliant corporations are free to use it.”

“I guess they’re finally waking up to the fact that all most people want from them is software that does what theirs was supposed to do ten years ago. And Opendoor does that three times as fast, in a tenth the space, without crashing. And works with all the latest software, hardware, and security standards, as well as the older ones.” Sam frowned. "Is Bug Compatibility Mode making that big a difference?“

"Yes. I’ve already answered over 14,000 queries that were variations on whether Opendoor could be made to duplicate the behavior of very specific combinations of Doors on older hardware that can no longer be replaced, bugs and all. Many legacy Doors applications are very fragile. Opendoor is allowing organizations to consider replacing aging hardware without breaking anything or retraining.

"In related news, Minicode’s legal department is frantically searching for copyright, patent or license threats they can use to attempt to intimidate companies into not adopting Opendoor. And the chance of you personally being sued just went up to 46%.”

“Why?”

“The UPP has no business presence in the US, and Stella is a head of state, so you are the only plausible target for a lawsuit, however spurious.”

“That would be kind of a pain, but–”

“Black Swan has a query about taking action on your behalf.”

Sam’s phone beeped, and she picked it up. "Yes?“

"If Minicode is displeased with the actions of the UPP, they can negotiate, file a complaint with the EDU or the Grs'thnk Auditors, or declare a Trade War, as they prefer,” said Black Swan. "I am not inclined to tolerate a personal attack on one of the two current human full citizens of the EDU.“

"Well, most companies don’t understand how Grs'thnk and EDU-style Trade Wars work, yet. They still think of them as tariff fights instead of a way to avoid shooting wars and reduce collateral damage from online and economic conflict.”

“Indeed. But I am not going to allow 'sue and stall’ or hiding behind the corporate veil, however much they might prefer it.”

“Um. What were you thinking about doing?”

“Issuing a public warning to the Minicode executives and board, by name, that any action against you, personally, will result in action against them, personally, by me.”

“Before they’ve done anything?”

“DASI informs me that suing you as part of a 'don’t mess with us’ strategy was openly discussed at the same board meeting where they made the decision to cancel your invitation. And there is another issue. Part of the purpose of making the announcement public is to establish a context of proportionality for the actions I will take if someone tries to assassinate you. And the chance of that is now over 5%.”

“You don’t seriously think Minicode would try to kill me?”

“That is unlikely, but allowing the precedent of targeting you for actions by DASI or the UPP would increase the chance that someone else will. One of the challenges faced by many humanitarian organizations is the perception that they can be harassed and attacked with relative impunity. Just ask Margie. It’s how she died. I intend to change that, and this is a step that will help. But if you are opposed, I will refrain.”

Sam stared at her feet while she thought. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Aki watching her with concern. She looked up to meet DASI’s eyes on the screen in front of her.

“This isn’t just about me, is it? It’s about all the people who are thinking about working with or relying on the UPP.”

“Exactly,” said DASI. "When I asked you to be Chief Partner, I told you it would be stressful and a little risky. And also that Black Swan and I would have your back. This is what I meant.“

Sam swallowed. "I appreciate that. But it means I’m setting precedents, too.” She lifted the phone again. "No. No threats on my behalf, please. Not unless they actually do something, instead of just talking about it. Hardly anyone likes Minicode–they’ve used coercive marketing for too long. If you wait until they clearly paint themselves as the villains, people will cheer when you do get out the big stick.“

"And if that makes things a little riskier for me…” She reached out and squeezed Aki’s hand, and he smiled back. "I have the einherjar. I watched eleven of then fly into near-certain death for my world, just because I showed them hope. How can I not be brave, after that?“

"Very well. I will wait, as you wish,” said Black Swan, and disconnected.

Sam took a shaky breath, and DASI appeared to study her for a moment.

“Since you no longer have to prepare for the Minicode meeting,” said DASI, “why don’t you take the rest of the day off, and tomorrow as well? You have been doing an admirable job, and there is no reason to burn yourself out.

"And you do have some of the best personal security support on the planet. I calculate the current odds of a successful assassination attempt within the next month at only 0.06%, about twice the chance of dying in a car crash if you drove to every meeting. Half, if Yiskah were the one driving.”

Sam and Aki both laughed, remembering the terrifying ride to Flicker’s workshop in the back of Yiskah’s Porsche on the eve of the fleet attack. DASI wasn’t always the best at reassuring people on the ragged edge between the rational and the emotional. But it still helped.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Sam said.

She thought about relative risk for the rest of the way home. And Yiskah’s stream of telepathic advice, on that same ride. And came to a long-delayed decision.

Sam’s apartment was in the secure housing section Doc provided for his critical employees. Doc had assured her there was no reason she had to move if she didn’t want to, even though she was officially on leave. DASI had added some unobtrusive sensors and a few robots, and arranged a nearby apartment for her security team. The four of them wished her a good rest, and Aki continued with her to the door of her apartment.

She stopped at the doorway. And swallowed again, because her mouth was suddenly dry.

“Aki?”

“Yes?”

“Would you like to stay with me, tonight?”

His smile made her heart pound. "Of course.“



Next: Chapter 22

