The Hackers

 “Keep me informed about the course of events, Raj. Every single detail will be of significance now.”

“Whenever I invite you by phone for a game of chess, you know what I really mean. It will be our secret sign, okay?”

“I see. Like Nestor from Atarva’s group says, “we’ll make it”.

The Scientific Center’s labs represented huge rings divided into segments pierced through by shafts of high-speed lifts in their central parts. These grand-scale remarkable facilities were located below the ground level. One of such underground sectors housed a lab where Atarva’s group was based at the time. Each one of its members had a separate room, but at the moment all of them gathered in the central room of their leader.

The whole internal space of his office was packed with racks containing equipment, prototypes of various strangely-looking devices resembling works of some futuristic designer on the subject of human brain discoveries.

It would be difficult for an outsider to make head or tail of all that pile of devices, prototypes of appliances, huge stacks of files over-packed with papers.

The central part of the room was occupied by an enormous table that clearly showed that the word “order” was seldom used by the owner of the room.

However, Atarva insisted that each and every thing was lying on its proper place and no one was allowed to touch anything so as not to disturb that system order, which would inevitably cause a change in the “positive flow of events”.

The members of his small group had long got accustomed to that peculiarity of the young scientist. There was a funny story about Atarva: once Asha, who was fond of jokes, asked Atarva where a report on some old prototype test was. Without a hitch, Atarva told her where she could find the required file. Then Asha enquired him about the color of the walls in his room, and Atarva stared at her in total confusion. But at the moment no one felt like joking.

Atarva’s group shifted into the room occupied by Asha. The reason for that choice was simple: the girl’s room was always in perfect order, free of any unnecessary things.

There was a round low table in the center with armchairs standing all around. The table was equipped with a holographic projector with voice interface. Asha’s room was always in semidarkness, with only one obscure lamp lighting up the narrow space above the table.

The atmosphere of the room inspired deep reflection.

 For that reason it was there that the group had usually conducted their internal meetings since the first days of their work. In addition, the room was fit out with the silence field, which was quite a useful option, given the huge number of Curators poking their noses into the internal affairs of the Scientific Center.

“The materials that Nestor brought us amount to a significant discovery. A contact with the World Ocean and a deliberate exchange of information were recorded. The data obtained are to make a major impact on all spheres of human life. These are the facts.

 Naturally, the forces controlling the society, including our Curators, wish to get this event under control, and as a result, the head of the contact project ended up in a mental hospital and his lab and equipment disappeared together with all reports. The fate of the rest of the personnel is unknown. And these are the facts as well!

Purely by chance, Nestor managed to leave the facility for a couple of days before all of us were switched over to the confidentiality mode.

And I believe that these events are interconnected! Those who stopped the disobedient scientists from pursuing their research in such a way are well aware that we have the data on that discovery. Nestor met his father and received his reports.

Therefore, they presume that we are now sitting and thinking of how to repeat the experiment on the contact with the Ocean Mind, as we may call it. Why have I made such an assumption? Knowing our psychological profiles, it wouldn’t be difficult to determine our actions with a certain degree of probability. There are special programs designed for that. Do you agree?”

Atarva stopped speaking for a while, giving a serious glance at his silent group.

“Please remember that what we have created is more than just a processor, in fact it is an artificially made rational being that is aware of its existence. And now this being is studying and comprehending the information accumulated by mankind over the whole period of its existence. For the time being, it is only studying the world and thinking. One of the customer’s requirements was to obtain access to such information.

Yesterday, we received an instruction from the Curators. I will read out the new requirements point by point. First, we are to limit the potential of our processor by ninety-nine percent. To do this, they suggested that we create some sort of complex locking algorithm and integrate it into the processor as its part.”

“Exactly like with the human brain! Asha remarked and spread her arms.

Atarva nodded in consent and continued. “It would be quite easy to technically perform this, but I convinced the Curators that it is a rather complex development and that it will require time. And now the most interesting point!

The second requirement is to create an access to all the capabilities of the processor, bypassing the limitations, only for a small group of people, whose genetic code will be an enter key as well as a set of conditions ruling out the possibility of the system hacking by unauthorized persons. In other words, only a few people on the planet must have access to the Super Brain!

While users will be communicating with this mind exactly through that lock-out program, naturally according to specific tariffs. This all will be presented as a major breakthrough in science! A plan of genius, isn’t it?

And now let’s talk about us: given the fact that the reasonable being we have created is a self-recovering organism and will not require any human interference in the future, after delivering our work to the customer we’ll become a redundant link which has the information that the customer would like to keep secret. Then it would be logical to presume that they would like to get rid of our group. I must confess that this bothers me, but we’ll discuss this later.

Therefore, we may have a couple of weeks left for the experiment, and we can use this processor to its full capacity until a lock will be integrated into it.

Who wouldn’t like to hack the Planet’s Noosphere! But once we start the experiment, we’ll become criminals from the point of view of the customer and the Curators! The consequences of such liberty may be very serious! While the result of our experiment may change the whole science on the Planet.

You are all aware of what will face us in case of a slightest leakage of information, aren’t you?”

“Nestor must carry on with the work of his father, and I have always chosen the path of Socrates and Giordano Bruno when it came to principles!” Asha shrugged her shoulders.

“Then I will proceed to the practical issues,” Atarva went on, “And here I’ve got a question! We’ll need Absolem’s resource. And there is certain difficulty here. The AI will not be able to keep that secret since Absolem will submit its regular report to the Curators, which will clearly show its involvement in our experiment. If this happens, all of us will face the fate of Nestor’s father, and that will be the best case scenario.”

“No, no,” Asha started waving her hands, “In the best case scenario, there will be a vent system failure, accidental of course, and it will “accidently” pump out all the air from our lab for just a couple of hours. Everything will be done quickly and accurately! Do you remember what happened to the group who were involved in cold fusion? A dam cracked down and they were flooded! And the guy who transferred energy without wires – electrocuted while conducting an experiment.”

“Asha, your words make me shiver,” Atarva said with a wince. “I am scared, Asha.”

All of us are scared, my friend,” the girl’s voice sounded confident and calm. “And that’s quite natural for people. But you’ve got to take all the circumstances into account: we have developed something that is considerably ahead of our time! Soon we will hand over the ready processor to the customer as well as the keys to its locks. But we can’t pass over our knowledge to them, which is a problem! The customer obviously wants to have control over the technology of the processor production and the processor itself, isn’t that evident? What can they do? Let’s make a forecast. Atarva is right that we’ll have to disappear, whatever the outcome, unless we come up with a way to escape. Therefore, having made the first step, personally I’m prepared to make the second one! Let’s start to prepare for the experiment. Maybe the result obtained will be our way out. Do you agree?”

“Don’t make so much noise, Asha! They may hear you even through the silence field,” Nestor hissed to her. “Atarva raised the question of how to engage the AI in our work. The Curators check daily reports on its operation and performed tasks. What can make the AI keep a secret from men? I suggest we start communicating with Absolem, and open for him an access to making personal directions that will not be subject to control. We must motivate him by giving him a certain purpose so that he will deliberately create distortions in the data of his reports to the Curators. Or simply will deceive them. The AI Absolem is a first-generation machine with linear logic!”

“Guys, I will talk to him. I take this part on myself.”

“Let Asha motivate Absolem,” Nestor said with a smile. “Then I and Atarva will have to do a sheer trifle: prepare equipment and assemble the circuit. That won’t be too difficult: what we need is an interface to achieve coupling between the human brain and the machine. It must be able to display information from the human brain at large speed; otherwise the machine’s artificial brain will simply fail to comprehend it. It will be logical to entrust this task to Absolem. Its resource should be enough for that. We’ll all get synchronized with its processor, and it will, in its turn, create a channel for our communication with the Super Brain. And the latter will establish a field to allow us to get in contact with the Ocean and through it with the Intelligent Shell of the planet. Theoretically, this should work.

Our task is to obtain information from the Noosphere during the contact.

However the circuit is not well-adjusted and therefore will constitute a problem. We’ll have only one try, which will be vertically a Leap of Faith!

 Consequently, the experiment will require a team of four participants. Now time is against us, we need to hurry.”

The Monsoon Season in Bangalore is a very special period of time, during which the city gets engulfed with water currents running along its streets as a result of prolonged and heavy tropical rains.

The very term “Monsoon Season” might have been brought into use by residents of metropolises who consider this natural phenomenon to be dangerous.

Torrents damage their brand clothes and cars. And therefore water flows coming from the sky and fresh wind only annoy them.

City dwellers sincerely believe that nature is supposed to accept piles of urban waste and to absorb hazardous, dirty discharges.

Formerly, Indian people called it the “Flowers and Harvest Season”. People used to celebrate water flows coming from heaven and to thank Mother Nature for that gift, since it was bestowed to them by the Gods. Water used to mean life and good harvest. Nature changes its energy emanations during the Flowers Season.

“That’s why this will be the most suitable time for the experiment.”

The biosphere itself appears to invite us for the contact,” Atarva was in the habit of thinking out loud, seeking support of likeminded people. “By the way, the circuit of the contact will be of a rather unusual character: no customary sensors, wiring and gauges.

To begin with, our processor needs no interface whatsoever, unless its potential is deliberately limited. It creates by itself a certain field to synchronize it with an operator. And it is this capability of the processor that the customer wished to lock out, and firmly insists on that. Moreover, a new rule was introduced a couple of minutes ago: as of now, any contact with the processor will be controlled by the Curators.

 We must think of how to bypass this obstacle.”

“And we won’t get in contact ourselves; I’ll try to motivate Absolem to make an enquiry under the pretext of a standard operation mode check.”

“Oh, my Gods!” Atarva exclaimed, staring at the data on the holographic projector. “We may call this a miracle or a stroke of luck! I can see that there is a wireless interface for synchronizing with Absolem available in the Center’s warehouse. Three sets! What a coincidence! And I’ve noticed these quite by chance!”

Atarva gave them an excited look.

“By chance?” Nestor said with a note of disbelief.

“Even a brick won’t fall on someone’s head by chance,” Asha said in a pensive voice, “And Annushka has already spilled sunflower oil…”

Night had fallen, but no one had switched on the light in the director’s office.

Heavy water drops were whipping on the darkened windows and water currents were running off the glass. A tropical rain with gusty wind! What can be more beautiful than this weather?

Standing beside the window, he was looking at palms swinging under stormy wind and leaves being ripped off trees and thrown on the window glass.

He remembered how in the days of his youth, he would compare palms waving in the wind to slender girls with thick, unfastened hair. He smiled at those memories; it had been so long ago. He activated a communicator on his ear with his thumb.

“Sangeeta, please tell Jagdish that I ask him to come over for a game of chess, when has some free time.”

He switched off the device and kept on standing in darkness before the window, looking at palms.

“Or Lord Ganesh, will you please help us weather all challenges on our way and defer the inevitable even for a moment – this moment will be enough for us!”

“Darkness is gathering!” Jagdish hurriedly entered the office and walked to his friend. “Have you seen that black cloud approaching us?”

“Our chess game is already underway, my friend! And darkness cannot cancel it,” Raj said in a soft and unusually calm voice as someone who had made a difficult decision. “And it’s high time for the white to make a move!”

 He silently turned to Jagdish, removed the communicator from his ear and put it on the table, then with a motion of his eyes requested his friend to do the same and headed towards the lounge room.

 As soon as the heavy door closed behind them, Jagdish at once got down to business:

  “As we expected, they’ve decided to conduct an experiment and are now tackling technical issues. I’ve assigned Absolem to help them in every way. I’ve myself downloaded into Absolem all the programs required for the experiment and the contact. I’ve also received new interfaces and put them in the warehouse,” Jagdish fidgeted in the armchair. He appeared to be highly concerned. “The worst thing in this situation is that I can’t see a favorable outcome for their group. And for us as well.”

“They are aware of that and have made the right choice,” Raj said calmly and thoughtfully, “I’ve got a feeling that we have less time than we think. The customer has brilliant specialists, and soon they will figure out how to make a limiting program for the processor. Consequently, they’ll take away the prototype at once. Then they’ll make every possible effort to keep the discovery in secret.”

“Then why don’t we start the experiment, guys? Potentially, everything is ready for it! We’ve got three new interfaces. Out clearance level allows us to use them without any applications and approvals.” Asha wheeled inside a laboratory cart with three small containers. “Absolem itself suggested using the lab on the ground floor. By the way, the good news is that the whole of the ground floor area will be at our disposal till morning; there will no personnel there! Absolem’s whole resource will be available to us. What a rare chance!”

“We must take this chance now as we may not get it later” Nestor said thoughtfully, getting up off a chair.

“Then let’s go to the lifts,” Atarva held the door to enable Asha to wheel out the cart into the hallway.

Meanwhile, the holographic projector on Asha’s table came to life and then came a melodious sound of an incoming system message. In the air above the table, emerged a written message and then started rotating, pulsing with yellow color.

“What is it?” Atarva asked, without looking back at the table. He held the door, helping Asha to roll out the cart into the hallway.

“System notification. It says that the only lift going down to the ground floor will be suspended from operation in five minutes,” Asha read. “We must hurry, guys!”

 When the cart with containers rolled smoothly into the lift and its door slowly closed down, Nestor looked closely at Atarva. “You are being nervous, my friend. You cannot start synchronization in such a state!”

“I’m scared, Nestor! I’m really scared! And besides I am not sure we’ve done everything right.” Atarva was breathing fast and broke into perspiration out of excitement.

“Atarva, look me in the eye,” Asha said calmly. She put her hand on his shoulder. “I feel like huddling myself up in a corner and cry, but this will not help. You understand? The only way to escape is to perform the experiment and put at once the result on the web for general access. As you know, all it takes to rescue us is to record the contact with the Noosphere! We’ll make it public immediately! They will not dare to touch us after that!”

Asha’s voice sounded so confident and enthusiastic that Atarva began to regain his temper. He started blinking fast with his misty eyes, and a smile appeared on his lips. “That was a minute’s weakness, guys, I am sorry about that! I am the master of my mind and I will get back to normal now. Of course, they will not touch us if we put the results on the Internet!”

“The Internet network will not be available for a few hours. Server failure, Sir. Probably, it won’t take long. It’s all because of the storm. If you wish, I’ll find out in detail what has happened there,” a shift engineer of the Center said guiltily, trying hard to show his readiness to solve the problem.

Having listened to his report, the Center’s director silently nodded and let him know with a gesture that he could leave. The engineer nodded in reply and already walked off towards the door, when the secretary came in and stood at the doorway. “City line call, Sir,” Sangeeta’s voice sounded anxious, and she expressly pointed with her eyes at an old-fashioned phone standing on the edge of his desk.

 Raj met his secretary’s gaze and calmly nodded in reply. Then he slowly walked up to the desk, cast a look at his switched off communicator and with a confident gesture picked up the phone.

“Be on the site. I am taking the prototype,” said an unexpressive and sharp voice, followed with frequent beeps.

 The director abruptly put down the receiver directly on the desk and quickly walked away from the office.

 It was not for the first time that Asha had been in synchronization with the AI, the total time she had spent merging her mind with the machine exceeded ten hours.

She remarked that the new interfaces were much more powerful than the previous ones. In less than a minute, she felt the state of slight euphoria, which indicated that her synchronization with the machine had successfully completed. Now she could start to exchange data with the AI and to display her image in that virtual world.