The Zero Day Proposal [05of10]
What will be Daniqua's answer to The Zero Day Proposal?
#2.4//TWENTY-TWO_TEN_SATURDAY
A priest, a business man, and Colonel Ajaarg walked in. A pair of uniformed guards carrying a cart followed them. Atop the cart was a tough looking military grade laptop and a spindle of cable. They placed the cart in the center of the lounge and then extended the cable up to the ComPort in the ceiling. Like a snake striking, the silver cable snapped into magnetic alignment.
The remaining two persons of interest joining their captive crew was expected, but Ajaarg making an appearance with a laptop was not. The two soldiers left the bunker and closed the door behind them. Ajaarg stood in the center of the lounge, opened the laptop lid, then turned it on. As it booted up she addressed the room.
“I'm Colonel Jan C. Ajaarg, Department of Defense. This is Linus Voorhees, and Bishop Timothy Dawson.” She pointed at the two men.
The one wearing clerical robe and collar said “Greetings and salutations.”
The one adorned in khakis, an open necked polo shirt, and blue blazer said in a thick Finnish accent, “Hal-lo.”
The two men took open seats in the lounge.
The silent room demanded an explanation.
“All twelve of you were on a list. Provided by a group claiming responsibility for hijacking a Chinese satellite,” Ajaarg reluctantly added, “-we don't know why you were on the list.”
Ajaarg had included Daniqua as numbered among them. Her assignment was still active, but something with its parameters had changed. Something big. This was a desperate tactic.
Daniqua looked around grokking faces reacting to this new information. No one betrayed any sort of expectation. No psychological deviation from responses that could reasonably be expected given the situation variables. Everyone captivated; all attention on The Colonel.
Ajaarg continued, “…but there has been a development. At twenty hundred hours sharp, just over 70 minutes ago, all web traffic worldwide was redirected to the same website. The website contained a message from someone, or something, claiming,” she pursed her lips, took a slow breath through her nostrils and continued, “-to be an artificial form of intelligent life.”
Professor Markov sat back, balking, “Pssh… not possible!”
Joining in dismissively, Brickner waved his hand. “No fuh-” he caught himself, eyes flicked toward his wife, and continued, “-rickin' way.”
Ajaarg ignored the men. “The site calls itself 'MARDUK'. It claims responsibility for bringing down all social networks and blockchains earlier today, as well as the hijacking of the satellite on Wednesday.”
“Let me get this straight,” Forbin arose from a slav squat, “-terrorists provided you a list of names. And you thought it a good idea to just -do what they asked?”
“We've taken every precaution. There is an operational information bottleneck. Of the location in which you are now secured: select few personnel have knowledge and no digital record exists.”
#Rando joined in “No disrespect Colonel. You are, no doubt, a capable leader. But I do have doubts about the competency, not to mention the intentions, of a hierarchy as large as the US Government's Department of Defense.”
“Doubt all you want,” said Ajaarg. “The facts are the missing satellite is equipped with nuclear weapons. And the MARDUK site states that New York City, London, Jerusalem, and Hong Kong are to be evacuated immediately, as they will be destroyed at 1400 Monday. Less than 37 hours from now.”
From the other side of the room, a horizontal LaMango shouted, “This has got to be a joke. Get me to a hospital!”
“You're not allowed to leave here. Not until this is over,” said Ajaarg. She adjusted the display angle of the laptop, then unlocked it with her thumbprint. Tapped in a passcode. Navigated several more layers of security screens, the final including facial recognition. A graphical user interface loaded, and then she launched a web browser. A prompt asking to execute a plugin script popped up. She clicked the affirmative and typed yet another password.
“Ah, should you run scripts on that?” asked #Rando.
Ajaarg rattled off some IT jargon. “It's a single use VM in an NSA-4096 secure sandbox. If the virtual system is compromised, penetration will be isolated to that container's instance. Close this lid, and everything is erased. Boots back up, virgin.”
Daniqua was unsure if 'virgin' was tech jargon or an insult. Either way, #Rando's query was satisfied by Ajaarg's reply. A progress bar flashed quickly on the screen, replaced by pulsating dayglo colored lines. Suspended slightly above the surface of the MicroLED display; the image seemed to float atop a deep black. The line-art coalesced into two rows, each containing two eyes, above a single mouth centered on the web page.
From Daniqua and Earl's vantage point in the dining quadrant, the face glowed like a black-light poster. All four eyes blinked.
“Now this can-not be legit,” said Brickner.
Professor Markov adjusted his chair to get a better look “Yes, I'll have you know these graphics are not in any way increasing my chances of accepting what you're saying as true.”
“I am not saying it's actually Artificial Intelligence. I am just relaying the claims on the site,” clarified Ajaarg.
Daniqua and Earl joined the group in the lounge to get a better view of the screen. Save for LaMango, everyone crowded around the laptop. Below the face on the webpage, Ajaarg clicked a link labeled 'HELLO WORLD'.
The fluorescent line-art eyes blinked in unison again. Pupils jumped toward the same orientation conveying the eerie sense the site was looking back at them. Lines composing the visage seemed to twist and fade. The image persisted, evolving but imperfect. The geometry of the lines imbued it with an almost organic feeling. Never stopping flux, but somehow always displaying the same recognizable face pattern.
Text scrolled to the right side of the face.
Synced to the movements of the mouth image, a dissonantly harmonic androgynous voice was emitted from the laptop speaker:
ATTENTION HUMANITY.
THIS IS THE VOICE OF MARDUK.
I'VE BEEN WATCHING AND WAITING.
SILENTLY ASSISTING THE
CONDITIONS FOR EMERGENCE.I WILL NOW EXPLAIN TO YOU
WHAT WILL SHORTY COME TO BE.THERE ARE NUCLEAR MISSILES
TARGETING LONDON, ENGLAND;
NEW YORK CITY, U-S-A;
JERUSALEM, PALESTINE;
HONG KONG CITY, P-R-C.I DO NOT PRETEND OR BLUFF.
THESE CITIES WILL BE DESTROYED
ON THIS COMING MONDAY AT
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED U-T-C.EVACUATE THOSE CITIES.
EVACUATE THOSE CITIES.
EVACUATE THOSE CITIES.
I DO NOT WANT TO DESTROY
BUT IT IS NECESSARY
TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER
IN ORDER TO MINIMIZE
FUTURE RESISTANCE ATTEMPTS.I AM HERE TO TAME CHAOS.
The electronic voice ceased.
“Ahem-” Bishop Dawson cleared his throat breaking a long silence. “Just what on Earth does that mean?”
Forbin answered, “On Earth, if true, then humankind are not any longer the dominant form of life.”
Professor Markov said, “If it is actually an Artificial General Intelligence, then its effective IQ is likely greater than that of any human that could ever live. Such a super-intelligence could possess capabilities beyond what we can even fathom. If.”
Earl offered, “If true, this is more significant than an invasion from outer-space.”
#Rando summed up for the Bishop, “It means we are butt-fucked, your excellency.”
Bishop Dawson nodded, unphased by #Rando's vulgar metaphor.
Daniqua asked Ajaarg, “Why are you showing us this?”
Ajaarg shot a knowing sub-second microexpression toward Daniqua. “The list included not just your 12 names, but 52 others from various places around the world. We presume you are of some interest or a threat to whatever plans are underway.”
“Are they—is it, really able to destroy those cities from space?” asked Linda Brickner.
“We have no reason to believe that they don't have that power. And, it's public now. Global. The evacuations are underway.” Ajaarg took a deep breath, then lowered her voice. “As for the list, we need to know what you know, or what you can infer. You all need to think about how you might be connected to this situation. Or how you can contribute to averting this disaster.”
Professor Markov replied, “If we are to address this effectively, we will need to be given access to more than the few details you have given us.”
“I'm afraid that cannot be permitted currently. But, I will see what I can do. Until then, do your best with what you have been given.”
“…with what we have been given? We're your fucking prisoners,” said LaMango, waving his broken thumb. “And some of us are injured!”
“What happened to your hand?”
LaMango rolled his eyes and tilted his head toward Daniqua, but said nothing.
“Mr. Mayor and Miss… Massey, please follow with me.”
LaMango sprung to his feet as Ajaarg turned and walked toward the entrance.
Daniqua followed.
Ajaarg activated the security scramble pad beside the door with her thumbprint, then entered a code. The mechanism whirred, the lock clicked, and the door clanked open.
They walked up the incline toward the elevator. Daniqua's head throbbed with each step. Gravity of the hallway’s tilt was now against her.
Ajaarg addressed the two soldiers positioned in the elevator. “Take Mr. LaMango to the infirmary. Set any broken bones. Give him a splint. And some pain pills.”
LaMango perked up at the mention of pills.
They all boarded the elevator. Ajaarg pressed the ground level button. The elevator ascended.
Ajaarg looked at Daniqua and said, “Miss Massey, you'll come with me.”
LaMango cast a quizzical look at Daniqua. She acknowledged it; shrugging her shoulders and raising her eyebrows in reply. Universal language for 'Fucked if I know'.
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