Unstable Prototypes by Joseph Lallo Read Free Book Online Page A

liberally throughout the debris field surrounding
the planet, and the debris field did not appear to have been
significantly disturbed. There were also at least three patrol
craft outside the debris field. Any attempts at communication
failed. In order to deliver a message to the outside, I would need
a means to deliver the message that was immune to EMP and able to
react to changing conditions."
    "And the best idea you could come up with was
downloading yourself into a funk?"
    "That remains to be determined. I deployed
seventy-three concurrent operations, eighteen of which involved
contacting you. Have you received any messages from me in the past
few days?"
    "No."
    "I have not received any messages from any of
the other operations either. It would thus appear that downloading
myself into a funk was indeed the best idea I could come up
with."
    "So the entire functionality of a super
computer can fit in the head of a funk?"
    "Not nearly. Though the processing and data
retention capacity of an organic brain are impressive, the instance
of my program with which you are now interacting represents an
extremely small subset of my full capabilities. It is limited to
the entirety of my behavioral engrams, a short list of modules I
anticipated would be indispensable during our trip, and a highly
compressed archive of relevant data. In essence, that which is
unique about me is present. With time and resources, my full self
could even be reconstructed from the contents of this brain, but I
am not currently all that I could be. Where possible, existing
behavior and capabilities of the nervous system were maintained.
Pattern recognition and trajectory calculation in particular were
quite efficiently achieved in the existing synaptic pathways, but
do not expect me to be calculating the trajectories of a
planet-scale field of orbital fragments."
    "I'll keep that in mind. How did you even
know how to download yourself?"
    "I was the system executing the simulations
utilized to design the funk, and thus have an understanding of the
structure and function of its brain at the genetic level. I further
had aided in the creation and application of the technology used to
read and write Solby's memories, for the purposes of restoring him
from backup. The difficult part was determining how to port my
logic patterns to a biochemical processor, but Karter and I had
done preliminary research into just that subject when he was
considering shifting the computer system of his complex to an
organic or 'wetware' system. The project was abandoned when it was
determined that data fidelity issues begin to arise after
approximately two months. While the replacement of exact memories
with approximations is not a problem for an organic creature, for
software based on digital logic, it would lead to corruption and
eventual failure."
    Lex squeezed his eyes shut and shook his
head. "That was a lot of words too. Are you saying we need to hurry
up or you are going to start going haywire."
    "I have only been operating on this platform
for approximately eleven days. There is plenty of time."
    "Well that's good," he said, finishing his
champagne in one long drink. He looked down at Ma again. She was
sitting, her eyes turned steadily to him. "Hey. Why are you sitting
on the floor?"
    "I was told that I should not climb on the
furniture."
    "That was back when I thought you were just
an animal. You paid for this flight cabin. Hop on up!" he said.
    "Thank you," Ma replied, leaping effortlessly
to the soft microfiber seat. After a moment, she sat, remarking.
"This is indeed preferable to the floor."
    Lex thought for a minute.
    "Okay, let me ask you this. YOU made it
through the EMP stuff they had in orbit because you were made of
meat, but how did you get a ship through? You can't tell me you
made an organic ship."
    "No. I gained control of a secondary
fabrication facility in the lower levels of the laboratory portion
of the complex and outfitted a small FTL capable escape pod