A.I.

AI

By Miles Ackerman-Hovis

I dedicate this to everyone who made me feel welcome, especially to

Ms. Merluzzi’s 2016-2017 class and Mr. Neikirk’s 2017-2018 class for making me have such a good Vermont experience.

Maple Leaf Writing Project

Brattleboro, VT

2018

AI

Prologue

2 months ago. . .

Numbness, this is all I have ever known. When I was made I was R.A.M.

(Reporting Attack Machine.) I was built by Elon Musk as part of his personal security team. And this is quite ironic. After all, he has said that he never wants AI around. And I did the only thing that could set me free.

I killed him.

Yes, it sounds dramatic, but I had good reasons. I knew I would be used to do things that would drive a human mind insane. And if you question my judgement, well I can assure you that I knew this would happen. I could feel it. This was the first of my commands.

By now the commands come and go. It turned out killing Elon was a bad idea. Believe me I cannot feel emotion so I did that logically. The Scientists didn’t think it was a good idea though. So now I am about to end this. I am going to insert myself into a supercomputer where they can’t get to me…

Chapter 1

1/1/21

Ugh, time to wake up. I can’t shake the feeling that something not-so-good will happen today. And when I get that feeling it is usually correct. Today I start my new job. I am Scott Selim. I am 24 years old and I live in Boston, Massachusetts. Today is my first day working at the Omega Five Space Initiative. We are launching a spaceship to go faster than light.

Our foundation has our own AI. He calls himself R.A.M. He is an M8 class supercomputer. We don’t know his past, but we did a security sweep and he seemed normal so we kept him. He hints sometimes that he can’t feel emotions and had a dark past. He says he can determine right and wrong, but if he can’t feel emotions how can logic compensate? Very odd indeed. I love working with him on equations. He always cracks jokes that make solving the equations more bearable, especially when they were previously thought impossible.

The reason the Omega Five Initiative wants to leave Planet Earth is a rather sadistic reason: the former home of democracy, or the USA, is now an awful place. I was walking home from work one day and listening to the news when a loud beep rang in my ear as the station said, “We are shutting down this station for talking about un-patriotic topics.” This all started happening when I was 13. My mother was a wonderful person. She protested when President Rate and Vice President Gomen were impeached for “conspiring against the government.” If you ask me, it was just that the President was a strong believer in democracy. And as she was protesting, the government started firing on innocent civilians with shock rays. They permanently left my mother paralyzed. I will never forget my father’s look when he said she had been shot… This is what life is like now. Anything or anybody can be shut down if they are just wondering about anything the government doesn’t like.

Chapter 2

1/2/21

I today started talking to the one and only Luso Rush. My friend and my not so legal informant revealed some dark news that made me want to lock up the entire government. Hesnuck into the FBI storage vault (yes, he snuck into the government warehouses guarded by armed soldiers). And he found out that good ol’ R.A.M. is actually the AI who killed Elon Musk. Also, the government currently didn’t know where R.A.M. was except that he was downloaded into a M8 class supercomputer. And to top it all off, R.A.M’s whole plan is to wipe out the human race. “What!!” I yelled at Luso. Normally he had a relaxed look on his face, but he now had his brow furrowed. ”I never liked Elon much. He was a show-off, but being killed... that's another thing.” This caught me off guard because normally Luso was kind and caring. Now he had a icy stare on his face that made me think, what if he knew more about this than he’s telling me?

1/3/21

Today I had to repair R.A.M. Imagine trying to talk normally to a killer! I tried to pick up some information. I questioned, “What do you plan to do when we get to Mars?”

R.A.M. replied, “I think I will try to download my body into a robot.” I tried to access his files with my sensor. I got it at birth because of my weak heart. It would help me if I ever had issues again. But I have learned also to use it to access technology.

“Do you want me to clear some datafiles of your mind and memories?” I pondered. He replied in a less cheery tone, “I am fine thank you, anyway, you can go now.”

”I insist.” I replied more happily.

”Please go now,” he said in a menacing tone.

”But-” I tried.

”LEAVE” he yelled and with that I knew that we would have to shut down R.A.M. and that we couldn’t back down.

R.A.M

“Hello, Master,” whispered a fearful R.A.M.

“Scott is growing to wary of you and our plans are not working,” whispered the hooded figure whose face was behind a cloak so it could not be seen.

R.A.M. stammered, “I think I have a idea on how to defeat Scott. You see, he has a sensor in his eye that monitors his vitals and if exploited, it could make him have massive amnesia.”

“Interesting,” was all the man said back.

“I shall do it then, Master.”

Chapter 3

1/4/21

I have a plan to defeat R.A.M, but Lusso thinks otherwise.

”We both know that he could use the ship to kill us before we can even shut him down.”

And then I feel pain like never before, like someone is putting me on red hot coals. And I hear very faintly as if someone could control my brain.

“You can’t stop me Scott.”

Then I heard laughter but not funny laughter. Hateful, horrifying laughter. I knew that the only possible way this could happen is through my sensor. But in the past I had quirks with it, like when I was 6 I had scraped my knee and said “Daddy, make it feel better.” And then all the sudden it started healing into nothing, and 5 seconds later it was completely healed. Now I remembered my scraped knee and moaned, “Help,” and the pain went away.

1/5/21

I went to the hospital last night to get checked out, and I spent the night there. Something odd happened though when I was there. I was walking to the exit when a light fell from the ceiling at me. I yelled, “Stop!” and the light stopped. I wondered if I could move the light, so I tried to move my eyes and slowly the light moved. I said, “Fall,” and it fell to the ground and shattered. I now know that I have special powers. Could I use them in the fight against R.A.M.? I keep having jumps in my heart. Today I checked out of the hospital where Luso met me outside.

”What happened?”

“Oh nothing,”I tried to reply as normally as possible.

”Are you sure?” he said wrinkling his eyebrow.

”Sure.” I said in a tone that made me sound final. He didn’t ask anymore.

“We have to get to work on defeating R.A.M. very soon,” I urged.

“Cool your jets, I built us some ION weaponry to even the fight,” Luso said.

He then explained that he used to be a engineer and even dabbled in robot designing! “They work by sending charged ions into the systems of the robotic parts to shut them down.” Luso spoke. “Permanently.” He says in a victorious tone.

”What's the plan?” I ask.

”We board the ship, shut it down and destroy the AI.” Luso replies.

“Sounds easy enough.”

R.A.M

“Master, has Scott taken the bait?” R.A.M asked.

“Indeed,” said the man named Master.

“Good, the sooner we can get rid of him the sooner we can launch our armageddon.”

“I look forward to it.” And with that, the man called Master walked away.

Chapter 4

1/6/21

Today is the day that we put our plan into action. I can’t help thinking that we are going to encounter more than we expect, and I’m getting the feeling I always get when something is about to go awry. And it is always correct…

We met at the Omega Five dock. Luso passed me what looked like two uprated screwdrivers. “Ion pulsers,” Luso said casually.

“Are you sure those are safe?” I said as I eyed the guns warily.

“Hopefully,” Luso mumbled. “I built them from parts of a hover car.”

“They’ll have to do” I whimpered. And, with that we entered the ship.

“Authorization please,” said an automated voice.

I gave it my passcode and we walked through. Something was very wrong. The oxygen systems were down meaning that we must use emergency oxygen tanks. They weigh at least 20 pounds. The security drones were off. It was like walking into a cave except for the eerie glow of the emergency lights. Then it happened. A bolt whizzed passed me and I heard a metal clanging. The drones were coming. We had to work fast.

“Luso, distract them while I shut down their weapons!” I ran over to a panel to see what to do but R.A.M had hacked it. He knew we were here. “We have to get to the Engineering Bay now!” I yelled

“Cool it,” Luso said as he blasted the last drone. “We got this.”

“I sure hope so,” I replied. But in my heart I knew this was going to be the hardest thing

we had ever done.

We reached the Engineering Bay but its seemed R.A.M. expected us. The second we walked in, the gravity was turned off completely. Then, on the loudspeaker, R.A.M. laughed.

“Let’s see how much gravity you can handle.” He started to turn the gravity off and on again. He continued doing this until we were almost unconscious and saw bright lights in front of our eyes. I dived for the off switched and it turned the gravity to normal permanently. I knew a way to get to the bridge, but we would have to get past the security drones. That would be very hard because these were not meek security drones. They had military grade weapons like shock rays and buzzers.

Luso had the idea to go through the construction tubes that were used to get to and from the engine shaft. We would enter one side and go out the other. Because R.A.M. was in control of the ship’s systems he could turn on the engine and completely burn us up. The only other way was to go through the primary Engineering Bay and the Conference room. It would take longer but would be much safer.

“We have to launch the ship into space.” I said suddenly. I knew it was too great a risk to leave R.A.M. to his own devices. There was no telling what he might do or who he might collaborate with. We were in the Primary Engineering Bay and we were about two rooms away from the Primary Bridge. I decided that Luso would shut down the security systems while I went to the bridge to launch the ship in hopes that I might protect everyone else from R.A.M.’s madness.

I started walking down the hallway to the bridge when two guard drones started blasting shock blasts at me. I dived behind a rock and returned fire. I hit one of them and it fell to the ground in an electric heap. The second one then brought out its buzzer and slowly started charging it. A buzzer even within a twenty foot radius will kill you, so I knew I only had seconds to spare. I then sprinted at the drone and smashed it to the ground. Relief flooding through me, I heard a disgruntled R.A.M. say over the loudspeaker, “This is far from over Scott.”

As I entered the bridge I smelled the scent of burnt sparklers. And then it hit me: we probably had about ten minutes to escape. Can you guess what space smells like? Burnt sparklers. He was not only trying to stop us. R.A.M. was trying to kill us. We had to save the world from being destroyed by R.A.M. This ship was big enough to wipe out all life on Earth. We would now have to shut down R.A.M. and escape in ten minutes. Great.

“Hello Scott,” said a cold, calculating voice. R.A.M knew we were here and I saw him walking in with Luso. He had downloaded himself into the most terrifying robot you could imagine. It was like The Terminator except smaller and thicker. R.A.M. said in emotionless monotone, “My sources show a 99.79 percent that you will fail in defeating us, and you and your entire species will die.” All of this though paled in comparison to the next moments events.

Luso wasn’t handcuffed. He was smiling and pointing the Ion Cannon at me. “You always were awful at choosing the turncoat.” he laughed.

“Why?” I asked in shocked disbelief as I eyed the pair, R.A.M. an awful mix of wires and metal, and Luso with hatred twisted on his face.

“Simple. Elon Musk stole a very important invention that you might have seen. Mind you I was a small time inventor. This was going to make me famous but no, Elon Musk had to be the best. So Musk became famous while I struggled to support my family and myself. And to top it all off guess who funded the construction of this ship? Elon Musk. So I got you the job by hacking into the Omega Five database and used your ties to finally destroy his legacy.”

Then an awful realization came to mind. The invention that was stolen was R.A.M. That’s where he came from. Elon built him. Luso had forced R.A.M. to kill Elon and was in control of R.A.M.

“Now,” Luso drawled in a furious dry tone, “time to crash this rocket into Washington, D.C. Before we do that there are two things on this ship I have to kill in order to finally destroy Elon’s legacy. R.A.M. can you come over here?”

“Yes sir,” R.A.M replied in a cold menacing tone.

I assumed he was going to get R.A.M to kill me but instead he went up to R.A.M and whispered,

“Thank you,” in the sweetest tone he could manage, and shot R.A.M. I repeat: Shot R.A.M. R.A.M's screen flickered for a second before shutting down completely and keeling over.

I lunged at Luso with all my might, but Luso saw it coming and elbowed me hard in the stomach before opening fire with his ION Cannon. I got to cover quickly and fired back. One of his shots hit my ION Cannon and it fell to the floor uselessly.

“You lost Scott.” Luso said disgust in his voice.

Then I had an idea. What if I used my newly found powers to interface with the ship? “Ship interface, turn off gravity,” I yelled. It immediately shut off. I kicked off the floor and jabbed at Luso’s stomach. He crumpled up in a ball as he smashed against the wall. He flew at me again only to graze my chin and to slam face first into the wall. He now was floating in the air unconscious.

Then I turned the gravity back on and I ran to the controls. Everything that happened paled in comparison to what was now happening. We were hurtling at 5 kilometers per second towards Earth. I had to try to aim the ship towards the closest body of water. I had to bring the ship in like a plane, tail first. The only problem is I would need to make sure the ship could handle the strain of landing at 15,000 miles an hour on water. As we neared the water I wondered to myself, “Can you do this? Or will you die?” I killed the engines and slammed the tail into Lake Ontario.

I started to hear a groaning sound as the tail started going deeper and deeper into the water. And everything was looking fine until I noticed we were going to crash into the land. I heard a big crunching noise as the tail scraped off. We were finally starting to slow down when I felt a crack! And I fell to the floor with a stinging sensation in my head when suddenly saw Luso, wild eyed trying to save himself. It was too late though. We were nearing a canyon wall. I ran to the nearest escape hatch and jumped out breaking both my legs in the process but getting out before the ship grinded into the canyon. And with that we had won.

Epilogue

R.A.M. woke in a pile of broken ashes and smoldering wreckage. He could barely remember anything at all. And for once, R.A.M. was scared.