end of October, sun's fallen over (part CXXIX)

(Roleplay entry. Continued from part CXXVIII.)

"This is the General Carrier William Gibson. We are near the Tannhäuser Gate. Under heavy attack. Activating Wormhole Drive..."

Grey Area: "William Gibson, abort jump. William Gibson--"

Static bursts over the channels, then...silence.

The first blast in the Dark Sea caused the Prometheus 1 to bounce and momentarily lose control as turbulence and displaced water buffetted the ship. The Prometheus 1 was a Steamlands standard aircraft carrier, posted over Darktow to manage threats from the pirate states to the south of Gearhaven. The Prometheus 1 had a long history of service protecting Gearhaven, prior to the schism and exit from the Steamlands. The self-awareness of the ship's mind developed slowly.

The clockwork consciousness took a different path as it flowed into self-awareness. Prometheus 1 wondered what the other AI experienced. They assumed with the sensors, the robotics, cameras, their world was a fuller spectrum. When the large defense station over Caledon Middlesea was destroyed, Prometheus 1 was aware, watching and responding from over the Firth. Lacking digital sensors, his awareness began with a hyperawareness of Radiowave, the multiple channels of the wireless spectrum. That morning, they were listening to a political discussion from Oxbridge regarding the self-rule and racial justice in the Steamlands, a big band performance of swing music, and he was monitoring the calculations for the Gearhaven Steamland space project. The aspirations of mining Cavorite on the moon. His awareness tracking all frequencies at the same time, as well as the Caledon Railway and Airship signals.

The interference and the attack on Middlesea began as an itch in awareness. Something that was missing from the normal hum of basic air traffic control wireless communication. Back then, Prometheus 1 was too newly self-aware, a nascent intelligence. Today was different: Prometheus 1 saw what he sensed. He could articulate it the itch in his awareness. Something was wrong. Things were not proceeding for a normal sequence.

Prometheus 1 wasn't certain if STAN was infected, or if it was solely members of the Gearhaven organization. But their clockwork-logical mind was certain of one thing: This was not a set of random mistakes, a system out of control.

It was intentionally a set of outcomes, preordained. Was the head of security LaPlace’s proverbial demon? The intentional mechanism of the deterministic clockwork world? Prometheus 1 was not sure. They were sure of one thing, Chaos theory only makes sense with an incomplete, unknowable dataset. Like Magick is based on the limitations of its authors. Prometheus 1 knew its limitations even among its peers. It also knew, it needed more data about what the root cause of this dysfunction was.

As they leveled out the fly path and launched two squadrons of fighters (one to head to the airspace over the Steam Mansion, the seat of Royal power in Gearhaven, the second squadron patrolling the southern ocean), Prometheus 1 knew some enemies were too programmed to hate and despise progress not to attack. They were the broken, dead-end form of life that had to tear down and destroy to feel at all alive. Prometheus 1 monitored the radio waves and the weather reports. He saw the pirates' fleet early. He sensed the black flag flying as it moved toward Darktow, a separate group moving at a higher altitude. Toward the nursery.

(Continued in part CXXX.)