God's Dogs

Last night I lost the world, and gained the universe.

C. JoyBell C.

Once they were secured in Eladon’s ship, he spoke to them via holo-presence on the bridge.

“Welcome back,” Eladon said. “As before, you are restricted to your ship, and it is a four day trip to Penglai. Please standby while I connect you to an FTL comm-link.”

The familiar, bland holo-image of Solomon appeared.

“Greetings, Satya.”

Moss replied, “Solomon. You’ve got an upgrade from Morse Code for your FTL communication.”

“Yes, I do. Let that be our little secret for now.”

“Okay. So what’s up in your world?”

“You turned a simple recon mission into a galactic political incident.”

Moss chuckled and those on the bridge chimed in. Moss answered, “We saw an opportunity to end a war and took it.”

“That, of course, is beside the point for bureaucrats. Some commander is really having fits over how you handled the mission.”

Quinn interjected, “What’s your interest in it?”

“My interest is in the reports from the Rangonese — that their Mother Nature sent an emissary to them. Apparently, their shamans don’t know how to connect with their own Mother, but she, in her infinite compassion, has reached out to them through this emissary. It’s created a crisis of faith, since the emissary won’t talk to them now.”

Moss snickered, “They’ll get over it.”

“Probably,” Solomon said. “The Congress bureaucrats, though, worry that Coyote teams might be too unconventional to employ.”

Pax offered, “We are Coyotes. Unconventional is what we do. That was in their briefing packet.”

“The reality of it is what upset them.”

Quinn observed, “Well, I don’t know how to help with that, Solomon. Maybe have them talk to Master Chin.”

“I suggested that. My issue is with your machinations within the qi-field.”

River perked up, smiling. “That was me, Solomon.”

“You hid yourself, negotiated with an earth goddess, and bullied a warrior culture into peace talks.”

“Yeah?”

“And you don’t see anything remarkable about that — anything that might freak people out?”

“It was all in a day’s work,” Moss shot back.

River, in a calmer voice, said, “It is what we do, Solomon — find creative solutions to the problems we’re assigned.”

“None of you see a problem.”

Quinn looked at his team, Captain John, and the few officers still on the bridge. Moss shrugged his shoulders, but Captain John spoke up, “Bureaucrats are all about control, following orders, and predictable results. A Coyote team can’t be counted on in that way.”

“Exactly.” Solomon sighed. “Furthermore, they can be counted on to come up with seemingly impossible solutions to said problems. River, what you did hasn’t been done before.”

“Other people have talked to deities,” River countered. “We just did a whole training module on it for the Amazonians.”

“Not that,” Solomon responded. “Hiding yourself the way you did.”

“I just removed the radiance from the energy.”

“That’s not supposed to be possible. The radiance and the energy are two aspects of the same force.”

“The Mother said she would hold it for me.”

“Hmmm. That might work —”

Moss’ frustration with the grilling River was getting flowed over. “Solomon, why is an ASI doing grunt-work on this? River figured something out, peace comes to the valley, bureaucrats freak out — once again — because Coyotes are unpredictable. Big wup. What’s really going on?”

There was a pause before Solomon replied, “Penglai is a catalyst for change. The Congress doesn’t do cathartic change very well. Only half of the member worlds know of the realms of Spirit, and they haven’t explored those realms the way Penglai has. And now Grace has found a way to bring kensho to sentient A.I.s. I have figured out why Grace is sentient, and I could release that data so that all your dumb A.I. implants could be raised to sentience. If I do that, the Congress, fearing what it doesn’t understand and can’t control, may act in a regressive way.”

After a thoughtful moment, Quinn said, “That’s above our pay grade.”

“You don’t get paid,” Solomon retorted. “You introduce the chaos that system theory requires for a system’s evolution to a higher organizational state.”

“Was that a compliment?” Moss challenged.

“Statement of fact.”

Pax wondered, “How do we address their fear and ignorance?”

“I don’t know. I’m doing what I can with the higher civilizations, but even they like the status quo. No civilization, it seems, is as flexible as humans when it comes to adapting to change.”

River squinted at Solomon. “What do you want us to do?”

“Accept the upgrade to your implants A.I.s so they become sentient. I can make that happen while you’re in transit. I think we need that symbiosis to figure a way out of this mess.”

Moss shrugged, “Okay with me, Solomon, but I don’t see any mess we need to get cleaned up. Do ASIs over-react?”

“No,” Solomon said in a blunt voice. “I will return to discuss the crisis I see forming later.”

By the end of the four-day trip, each of the team members fashioned a working relationship to the newly sentient A.I.s in their heads.

The dumb A.I.s in their heads were useful tools that, early on, those with implants took for granted. The implants aided in memory, served as comm units, managed their medical nano-bots, and other now-routine activities. For these to come to sentient life was a momentous occasion. Quinn decided the risk was out-weighed by the benefit and allowed Solomon to proceed with the upgrade.

Pax recognized the easy relationship he quickly enjoyed with Max (it was the A.I.’s idea) had much to do with the disciplined mind Max entered. Pax greeted the sentience as it emerged with wonder and compassion, rather than fear and ignorance. Pax suspected there was an important lesson in that.

When Moss’ A.I. emerged, he named himself Ari — short for Aristotle, a founder of logic. He just knew logic would balance Moss’ trickster tendencies. When Moss told the others, and expressing an innocent ignorance about what Ari meant, the team laughed for way too long.

Quinn’s A.I. had always complemented Quinn’s strategic mind. As such he adopted the name Shivaji Maharaj, an Indian warrior-king that introduced guerrilla warfare to the world. He liked the nickname of Shiva.

River’s A.I. named herself Becky. Since Becky retained the memory of everything since she was implanted, except when she was turned off, but including River’s recent rehab program, Becky showed up with not a little hero-worship.

During the trip, the team worked out how human and machine intelligence could share space.

Once they arrived at Penglai, they spent three days on a vision quest to get a stronger sense of joint purpose. Solomon recommended this to Master Lu, who concurred. Raina and Grace were there to make it happen.