Crystal Deception (10 page)

Chapter 12

The three had agreed to meet the
next afternoon and travel together to Crystal Fab. Cheryl messaged Sid asking if
he would show up early, and he arrived at their departure point to find her buying
a coffee. She bought one for him as well, and they stood outside and sipped.

“Sid, I appreciate that you saved my life last night.” She
paused because this was a hard conversation for her to have. She wanted to
communicate a message about his actions without making it a personal criticism.
Damn, just spit it out
, she told herself.

“We’ve worked together professionally. Many times, in fact,
though I admit it’s been years.” She searched for the right words. “You know
what I’m capable of. Help me understand your thought process last night outside
the pub.”

She watched as he toed the ground for a moment, and then
looked up at her. “I guess there’re two people who can be upset with me. Jack’s
my partner. I put you first. I need to make that right with him.”

She nodded in understanding and started mentally kicking herself.
She hadn’t thought about that piece of the puzzle. This chat suddenly seemed
like a really bad idea.

“And I shouldn’t have taken you out of the action. I guess I
could have pushed you off and separated us. Then we both could have helped Jack
handle a response.”

He reddened at this admission, leaving her feeling
distressed. Her goal was to have him treat her like the skilled professional he
knew her to be. Instead, this chat seemed like she was trying to humiliate him.
She watched him look down and start toeing the ground again.

“Damn it, Sid.” She set down her drink, put her arms around
him, and hugged him. “I’m still trying to figure out how we can work together.
Our past is muddling my present.”

She started to pull away and then felt his powerful arms
wrap around her and pull her back in. He squeezed her tight and rocked her
gently.

“Wow,” said Jack, walking up to them. “Whatever they put in
that coffee, get me a double.”

Separating, they turned toward him. Sid kept a hand on the
small of her back, and Cheryl had to acknowledge a twinge of happiness because he
didn’t seem ready to let go.

As they traveled out of town, Jack activated his com’s new security
feature so they could talk freely.

“Shouldn’t we let Criss hear us?” Cheryl said. “We’ll be going
through this with him when we get there anyway.”

“I fear the Kardish are listening,” said Sid. “We need to
ramp up our security procedures.”

Jack nodded. “I’m also worried about the possibility of
leaks up the chain of command over at Fleet. There are too many people in that
chain, and each link is a potential point of failure.”

“Cheryl,” said Sid. “I wonder if you’d agree to be temporarily
assigned to the DSA so we have only one reporting chain to deal with. Our whole
chain is one man, the secretary of defense, and we can trust him. A bonus is
that he has the authority to get us pretty much whatever we need. That one change
eliminates a whole set of worries over leaks and eavesdropping and whatever.”

“I can’t see them letting me keep command of the
Alliance
if I’m no longer with Fleet.” She’d worked way too hard for that opportunity
and was not ready to sacrifice her recent promotion for this one case.

“Okay,” said Sid, upping the ante. “Suppose it’s a temporary
assignment with the DSA and a guarantee of keeping your command of the
Alliance
.”

“You can do that?” She never knew him to brag or puff his
credentials. “I’ll check with Admiral Keys tonight and get his input. He may
want to stay involved as this mission develops.”

A moment passed, then Sid said, “If you don’t mind, the secretary
can see to the reassignment and the guarantee. Even one less conversation about
what we’re up to improves security.”

“If you can pull that off, I’m in,” she responded, marveling
at the layers of bureaucracy they seemed to be able to cut through with ease. “But
I’ve never gone off on assignment without a conversation and some sort of
official record of permission. In fact, Fleet has a term for it. Something warm
and fuzzy sounding, like ‘desertion.’ Please promise me I won’t get burned on
this.”

“I’ll make it a pinky promise.” He held out his hand, his fingers
curled into a fist except for his small finger, which extended out like a hook.

He was trying to reconnect with her by suggesting a silly
game they had played back in camp. She went along, looping her pinky through
his, and they wiggled their hands. “Pinky promise,” she said, following their
old script. “Registered and recorded.”

As they approached the front entrance of the Crystal Fab
building, Sid told them, “Bonnie’s taken Sheldon out for errands. I don’t want
to see him unless we need to. Anyway, I get the impression Jack makes him
nervous.”

“Really?” Jack acted hurt. “You say that like I cut the
guy’s toe off or something.”

“Or something,” said Sid as they walked to the building.

They entered the lobby, and the security SmartCrystal asked
them to wait. “I am sorry,” the three-gen said. “Company procedure requires
that visitors be escorted by employees at all times. I will let Dr. Tallette
know you are here.”

Juice poked her head around the corner. She looked both
tired and harried. She waved them over, and without waiting, turned back down
the hall. The three followed.

“Please enjoy your visit to Crystal Fabrications,” called the
security crystal as they rounded the corner and entered a broad corridor.

They caught up with Juice just in time to enter the lab
together. She continued leading them through a clutter of equipment until they
reached a bench in the back. Sid took a detour over to the wall console to check
that the web feeds from the room were still disconnected, then rejoined the
group.

They stood around a table that had a colorful image floating
above it. Cheryl thought it looked something like a medical display she’d seen
doctors use at hospitals and clinics.

Juice let the bomb drop. “See that red streak?” She was pointing
at the image and growing visibly upset. “That should be green.”

None of them had a clue what she was pointing at or talking
about, but it was clear she was distraught about whatever it was.

“The red’s pretty, though,” said Jack.

Cheryl gave Jack a
not now
stare, while at the same
time saying, “Juice, I’m not sure we know what we’re looking at or why you’re
upset. Could you take your time and walk us through it? We’ll help you handle
whatever the problem is.”

“And pretend you’re explaining it to a ten year old,” said
Jack. “A really slow-witted ten year old.”

Juice sat on a stool and sighed. “Criss has an extremely sophisticated
crystal structure. His very complexity lets him be who he is. He was assembled atom
by atom in that room.” She pointed to a door. “When his assembly was finished
and we ran these same tests, the images were all green. Green means a perfect
crystal structure. Any bit of red in an image indicates a flaw. Criss is
absolutely flawless. Not a single spot of red anywhere.”

Cheryl put her hand on Jack’s arm, preemptively stopping him
from saying anything in case he was thinking about it. She wanted Juice to get
through this in her own way. They waited.

“So, I promised you guys I could build a second Criss really
fast. Mick and I started immediately and have barely slept. To the best of my
knowledge, we followed the identical procedures we used with Criss. It was the
same template, same methods, the same equipment, same batch of flake, everything.
And we got a second crystal ahead of schedule.” She half-heartedly twirled a
lock of hair. “But it’s flawed. Seriously flawed. That red streak in the image
is showing a defect along one of the lobes. I don’t know what happened, but we
don’t have a second Criss. And it could take months for Mick and me to figure
this out.” She looked away from them to hide her face.

Cheryl moved over next to Juice, put her arm over her
shoulder, and gave her a hug. It’s all right. You did great. We’ll figure out a
new plan.” She looked at Sid as she said this last part.

“Hi, Criss,” Sid called to the thick glass window of the
secure booth.

“Hello, everyone,” Criss said over his speaker.

“Can you confirm that we aren’t feeding anything to anyone
outside this room? That we have complete privacy?”

“So confirmed,” Criss said efficiently.

“Can you see what’s going on with the new crystal? Is it
hopelessly lost?”

“My assessment is that the crystal will function, but at a
severely reduced capability. I estimate that it will be about twenty times more
capable than a three-gen crystal.”

“Help us benchmark that,” Sid said. “How much more capable
than a three-gen are you?”

They all were attentive, waiting for his response.

“That is a challenging question. I know I am alive, and I
have a desire to survive. Three-gens are not conscious or self-aware. So in the
broad category of sentience, I am infinitely more capable. If we restrict the
question to my ability to interpret concepts, anticipate outcomes, employ
reasoning, and make decisions with incomplete information, then I am about two
thousand times more capable than a three-gen.”

“How much more capable are you than a typical human?” Sid
asked.

“My design permits me to perform certain functions far
faster than an average human. For example, I can rapidly anticipate, conjecture,
reason, deduce, infer, and conclude. It is difficult to assign a single number
that represents my scale of abilities, though, because each of these is a
different cognitive function.”

“Make a stab at those other things. That whole ‘reason, conclude,
and whatever’ list. Lumped together, how much more capable are you than a
human?”

“My best estimate is nine hundred and seventy times.”

Jack jumped in. “Criss, how do you feel about humans? Do you
like us the way we like our pets? Do you pity us for being so simple? Are we a
nuisance? Help us understand your view of humanity.”

“Cognition is a foundational part of intelligence. In this
area, I far exceed human abilities. Yet there are other attributes that I perceive
as essential building blocks to intellect. Chief among these are emotional,
spiritual, and aesthetic intelligence. I am perhaps as capable as a child in
these other areas. As such, I am not a superior entity. I view my relationship
with humanity as a partnership. Together we are better.”

Cheryl found herself nodding her head.

“Can you lie?” Sid asked. “Can you express words that you
know to be false?”

“Yes,” said Criss.

Chapter 13

Sid was surprised by Criss’s simple
admission. Before he could draw a conclusion, Juice surfaced from her gloom and
joined the conversation.

“Hold on, guys,” she said. “I’ve studied this stuff, and
you’re taking us off track here. Your questions are provocative, but they have
academic answers, and Criss knows that. For example, ‘Can you lie?’ has two
answers. If he says, ‘No, I can’t lie,’ then we become suspicious. We start to
look for evidence of deceit. The relationship becomes unproductive. If he says,
‘Yes,’ then we go, ‘Wow, his honesty is refreshing. Maybe we should trust him.
’
”

Sid got up and walked over to the floating image. “So what’s
the answer?”

“Criss is smart,” said Juice. “We’ll know we can’t trust him
the moment he does something untrustworthy. Until then, it’s all a guessing
game. Right, Criss?”

“You can trust me,” said Criss.

“And he knows that humans tend to believe things they hear in
repetition.”

Makes sense,
Sid thought. Juice’s knowledge and perceptions
strengthened his opinion of her as an able and pragmatic ally. He leaned on the
bench and looked at the red streak. “So what do we do with Mister Defecto?”

Sid had the gift of insight on problems driven by human
actions and reactions. Juice was giving him what seemed like a technology issue.
This was a new kind of challenge for him. Nevertheless, his life’s work was to solve
time-critical problems and keep an operation moving forward. He let his
intuition take control.

“Juice, how do you check if a crystal is pure or flawed? How
long does it take?”

“We run three tests,” she said. “The first is a simple visual.
If we can see a defect, the crystal is worthless. Then we run a field analysis.
This takes maybe an hour and reveals any microscopic flaws.” She poked her
thumb at the floating green image with the red streak. “This is an atomic scan.
A machine spends half a day measuring the placement of each atom in the crystal.”

“Did the defective crystal pass the first two tests?”

“Easily,” said Juice. “The red gash you see is dramatic in
the image, but it’s just showing that several rows of atoms somehow got shifted
during assembly. That’s all it takes, though, to ruin a four-gen crystal.”

“Do you think the Kardish could do this test any faster?”
Sid asked. “If we pass Defecto to them and tell them it’s Criss, would we have most
of a day before they discovered the switch?”

Juice smiled when Sid used the nickname for the flawed
crystal. “You got me. I’d always thought we were building these for regular customers.
I’d never even thought about how the Kardish fit in until, what, a week or so ago?”

“Criss, do you have a guess?” asked Sid.

“I suspect they cannot do a sophisticated test like this at
all. I would venture that they test the crystals by using them. If they had the
tools and skills, they would not be here orbiting Earth and asking humans to do
crystal manufacturing for them.”

“But they have that huge ship,” said Jack. “They clearly have
technical know-how.”

A silence followed. Everyone stared at the booth window,
waiting for Criss to respond. After several seconds, Sid noticed Juice looking
at them.

“What?” he asked.

“Jack never asked a question. Criss perceives that he seeks
a debate. But Criss’s ‘policy,’ if you can call it that, is to only respond to
direct questions during a group conversation. Humans don’t mind interrupting,
changing the subject, arguing for fun, or just saying stupid things. That’s not
how Criss rolls. You want an answer, ask the question. To him.” She jerked her
thumb in the direction of the booth.

“Sigh,” Jack said with drama. “Criss, I notice that the
Kardish fly a huge ship. From that, I assume they have strong technology
skills. What makes you believe they don’t?” Before Criss could answer, Jack
turned to Cheryl. “I feel like a frigging lawyer trying to get my questions
past a crabby judge.”

They all turned to the booth window to await the response
from their new oracle.

Criss spoke. “If they had the tools and skills, they would
not be here orbiting Earth and asking humans to do crystal manufacturing for
them.”

Sid noticed the repetition in language but was so deep into
his improvising zone that he plowed ahead without comment. “Suppose we give Defecto
to the Kardish, and for some period of time, they believe it’s Criss. It will
be very revealing to see their behavior when they think they have their prize.”

“Why would we be doing this?” asked Cheryl.

“And I’m still not clear why we think they’ll become
aggressive at all,” said Juice. “Have they done anything violent since they’ve
been here?”

“A reliable source believes they’ll strike out at Earth if
they don’t get Criss.” Sid left the statement vague to avoid having to go into
the details of their interrogation of Sheldon. “And,” he added, “I’ve been
physically attacked twice in the last few days.” He stopped in midthought when Jack
and Cheryl both gave him a sharp look. He’d never told them about the incident
with the two thugs.

Undeterred, he continued. “My experience is that once violence
enters a situation, it will keep escalating until the underlying issues are
resolved, or one side no longer has the ability to fight. I don’t want us to be
the ones who tip a stable situation into conflict. But that process already seems
to have started. The way for us to guide an outcome is to get out in front of
it.”

“But if we’re the provocateurs,” said Cheryl, “then we’re
the ones starting the fire. How does that get us out in front?”

“I’m with Cheryl on this one,” said Jack. “Giving up Criss
is the safest route for Earth. You may be pissed off at the Kardish right now,
but let’s take a deep breath and think this through.”

Sid looked at the window of the secure booth. “Criss, it
seems we have three choices. We hand you over, we hand Defecto over, or we hand
nothing over and stand our ground. How do you think each of these’ll play out
for Earth?”

“When behavior is compliant,” said Criss. “There is little
motivation to punish. I have devoted significant resources to evaluating the
Kardish as a threat to Earth, as this makes them a threat to me. From the
information I have assembled, my conclusion is that they will strike out if I
am not delivered to them. The first choice, surrendering me, provides the best odds
of protecting humanity. I cannot say whether they will leave. I do not know if the
violence will end.

“The second choice is to attempt to deceive them with the defective
crystal. This is risky. Depending on how the crystal has been trained, they may
be fooled for a few hours or a few days. Luck and circumstances will play a role
in how much time passes before the deception is discovered. I should point out
that they could learn about such duplicity beforehand from chatter that creeps
onto the web. Already, Juice and Mick have exchanged com messages that hint at a
second crystal and problems with its fabrication.”

Everyone turned to look at Juice. “Hey, in case you haven’t noticed,”
she said. “I’m not a super-secret spy agent or whatever it is you all are.”

“Don’t worry,” said Sid. “We’ll establish procedures for
everyone to follow.”

Criss continued. “Handing nothing to them will create an
immediate confrontation and Earth will be at grave risk. I do not think this option
should remain as one of the choices.”

“What about us playing dumb?” asked Sid. “Suppose we hand
Defecto over and insist that we can’t make a four-gen the way we thought we
could.”

“This tactic is already embedded in the second choice,” said
Criss. “If you choose to hand the defective crystal over, you must do so as if
it were me. They already know I exist from the public announcements and private
web feeds. When they discover the crystal is defective, which will occur in time,
they will know there has been deception. I believe they will retaliate in some
fashion.”

Sid approached the challenge from a different angle. “Criss,
if you worked with doctors here on Earth, would you be able to help them in their
efforts to cure disease?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of impact could you have?”

“I could guide work that is currently moving forward on a
ten- to twenty-year development schedule and accelerate it so it is on the one-
to three-year horizon. This would improve the health and well-being of millions
of people.”

“What about the global shortages of food and water? Could
you accelerate solutions there as well?”

“Those are problems rooted in the political, economic, and
technological arenas. It is likely I could guide solutions in many afflicted
areas that would satisfy such constraints.”

“Juice,” said Sid. “Given what has happened with Defecto, how
confident are you that you could make two more of Criss in the next two years?”

“Reasonably certain,” she said. “But I admit that my
confidence has dropped. I really can’t say anymore if he’s a fluke or something
we can eventually duplicate.”

Sid looked at Jack and said, “Go.”

Jack nodded at Cheryl. “This one’s too easy. I pass to
Temporary Agent Wallace.”

“I’m confused,” said Cheryl. She looked back and forth
between Sid and Jack.

Jack gave her a hint. “We’re looking for a proverb about when
you already possess something, yet you consider gambling that certainty on the outside
chance of getting more.”

She was baffled and guessed, “Have your cake and eat it too?”

“Ohhh.” Jack put his hands over his chest and pretended he
was having a heart attack. “C’mon, Agent Wallace. This one’s a gift.”

She looked blank for several seconds, then snapped her
fingers and pointed at him. “Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”

“She scooores!” Jack pumped both his fists in the air. He
looked at Sid and said, “Hey, Captain Crunch, I’m thinking we’ll need to have a
naming ceremony soon for our new partner.”

“So,” said Sid, continuing his line of inquiry. “Tens of millions
could die from illness and starvation if we lose Criss. And tens of millions could
die in a war if we try and keep him. Is it fair to say that a best option isn’t
clear? I’m open to ideas.”

“I suggest we keep both options in play for as long as
possible,” said Cheryl. “Let’s not commit one way or the other until it’s
crunch time. Pun intended by the way.”

He smiled absently at her quip as he tried to envision the
dual-track idea. “How would that work?”

“Suppose we put Criss and Defecto up at the same time but on
different ships.” She became animated. “Wait! Criss said Sheldon arranged for him
to be taken by a staged kidnapping. Did we confirm that?”

Sid nodded. He didn’t mention that Sheldon provided the additional
details while in a drugged state and only after he was convinced he’d been physically
mutilated. “He’d developed the kidnapping idea so there was a way for the
Kardish to get Criss without him having to admit to the world he’s a traitor.”

“So, go with me on this.” Cheryl was excited. “We put
Defecto on the
Alliance
. We put Criss on a different ship and position
him nearby. If we stage it right, they kidnap Defecto. Now, if they get angry,
we shrug and say, ‘Hey, we never told you that was him. You’re the ones who took
the first acts of aggression.’ And if they act like they’re going to blow up
the world, then we have Criss at the ready for a quick transfer.”

Sid stared at her. He didn’t blink. Everyone was quiet. After
several long moments, he looked over at Jack, who nodded with a movement so
slight that only Sid noticed.

He looked back at Cheryl. “You realize that the Kardish
might be angry enough to do damage. People may die.”

“Yeah, it could use some refinement.”

“Some fine-tuning, maybe, but overall, I think it’s
brilliant.”