Cyberwar in 2037 E-Book

M.K. Malkki

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: Chronicles of Linnea Borealis
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 226

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

When the choice for the future must be made. On a sunny August weekend, a mother, a schoolkid, a leader of exoplanet pioneers and a conscript face the consequences of poor leadership as a power-hungry AI wants to decide who may live and who shall die. Should humans become puppets of cruelty or accept an electromagnetic pulse, EMP, which will take societies throughout the globe decades backwards? Why does the other AI conveniently happen to come to the aid of those in the most dire need? Is Vanamo really a well-meaning entity or a destroyer as in disguise? In midst of the darkest hours, it is love and friendship that carry on until tomorrow, perhaps even stronger than in grey everyday life. Is a new affection just a disturbance of brainwaves or something more tangible? Allow these four tales take you into the year 2037!

Leseprobe

For humanity

CONTENTS

Spring 2067

Orvokki

Anna

Anette

Männistö

Some years later…

Vocabulary

Vanamo

Twin flower, Linnaea Borealis. Androgynous name.

Orvokki

Violet, the flower. Female name.

Toivo

Hope. Male name.

Onni

Good fortune. Male name.

Sumu

Fog. Androgynous name.

karhu

Bear. Family name when ends with ‘nen’.

Männistö

Pinewood Forest. Family name.

Nordström

North stream. Family name but refers also to the gas pipeline at the Baltic Sea.

sisu

Finnish concept of strength of mind which has no direct translation in any other language. It includes i.e. grit, gut, willpower, resilience, focus, and motivation. Sisu may get one killed or aid in great victories if taken to the extreme.

SPRING 2067

“Hi, Vanamo”, the familiar voice of a woman greeted me delightedly, as her high heels made a muffled sound on the floor of the assembly room.

“Hi! It is really nice to meet you again, Agatha”, I replied, shaking hands with the petite, fair-haired director of the foundation.

“I’m receiving a guest here later today who asked about the war against artificial intelligence in Finland”, she said as she sat down on her favourite couch.

I noticed how her cheeks flushed faintly and there was an ever so tiny increase of her pulse in the carotid artery. I guessed who she was going meet.

“Ah… I can search for markings and entries from files, but could you narrow it down just a little?” I asked, smiling.

Data from the events of 30 years ago was vast and it was scattered all over the country, and abroad.

“Hmm… Let’s try look at the data of my guest’s family. That is, if I’m authorized”, she suggested.

“Yes, that sounds reasonable. Just a moment, please”, I replied and started going through the huge servers located at the storey below ground.

Fortunately, data from customers and their families had been transferred onto servers of the foundation.

I suddenly heard two soft thuds. Two beautiful high-heeled shoes bounced delicately on the floor. She folded her legs up beside her on the couch, her fingers found the sore spot at the ball of her foot. She closed her eyes and waited, while massaging her foot with small movements.

Part of my mind tried to find a word to describe her. Elegant? The word fit her even after a long week of work and travelling. I coughed subtly to get her attention. Agatha lifted her head with curiosity.

“I’ve found a legend based on diary notes during the Cyberwar”, I said.

“Oh?”

“They are from a family member of your guest. She compiled a whole story of the events afterwards”, I told her.

“How beautiful that some people discovered ways to heal and had the strength to deal with the trauma”, she replied with sadness in her voice.

“Indeed”, I said softly and started reading aloud.

ORVOKKI

“The command came”, Toivo said, with a pale face, as he returned from the front door.

My spouse was holding a piece of paper – a paper! In 2037, only the National Defence Forces delivered such things. A piece of paper and a messenger was the safest way these days.

I too felt the blood drain from my face. I was glad to be sitting at the breakfast table already. I growled with frustration and anger. I had woken up in his arms just half an hour ago and had enjoyed the warmth of his body. Soon he might be gone for good.

“Aaaah”, Onni demanded attention, and I remembered to spoon some oatmeal porridge into the baby’s mouth.

The ingredients of a conflict had hovered in the air for about a year but until this moment I had been hopeful that scientists and data experts would defeat the power-hungry artificial intelligence, AI, with their skilful fingers and minds. Now someone had decided that the AI had become too powerful and had to be conquered by force.

I got up from the table and hugged my spouse. My best friend, companion in life, was leaving for the front-line and there was no certainty of tomorrow. I hugged him a little tighter.

“Think of it just as an operation, darling”, he said as he replied to the hug.

His voice was deeper than usual, more affectionate. I burrowed my face into his neck, allowed my fingers to play with his black hair, and nodded. That was all I could do. Our baby whined in his chair, having a hunch that something was amiss. I detached myself from my spouse.

“I will run some errands”, I stated.

Toivo nodded as he sat down at the table next to our son. We had agreed to this before. I would complete some ordinary tasks until Toivo left, since the AI was watching every move outside of people’s homes.

“Daddy will take you to the playground today”, I said to Onni as he extended his chubby little arms toward me.

I held back tears as I searched for a spot on his little face that was not covered in porridge. I discovered a clean patch on his forehead, and I planted a kiss there.

When would baby and father meet again?

I focused on my routines. I got dressed and went to look in the bathroom mirror. My long blonde hair and blue eyes looked familiar, but my skin was pale. I applied some makeup – which felt like protective armour to conceal my emotions – and ordered a vehicle to our flat. I didn’t try to talk to my spouse as I gave him one final kiss before I left. Everything I needed, I saw in Toivo’s brown eyes – the love and care. We were ready for the battle.

“It begins”, stated the handwritten note that I showed my mother as soon as she opened the door of their home.

She lifted the virtual reality glasses and looked at me, her head slightly tilted. This, a wink with both eyes and the piece of non-digital paper, was our sign which the AI could not decipher. She nodded, pouting. My father joined us by the door. I hugged them both and left.

I went to Toivo’s parents’ home and repeated the procedure.

The look on his mother’s and stepfather’s faces gave us strength.

“You and Onni are always welcome here. It might be nicer here, on the outskirts, than in the city”, his mother said.

I thanked them, said I would consider the offer, bid my farewell, and wondered when we would meet again. With sorrow, I stepped into the vehicle once again.

Regardless of all the great planning, anything could go horribly wrong. It was going to be a vast compilation of puzzle pieces – or that’s how I felt. After all, I was only a civilian nowadays. Nothing essential was revealed to me.

“How come you’re shopping today?” a voice startled me.

Damn, I was spotted! It was an acquaintance from a mothers’ group. She had noticed that my routine was broken, and I needed a plausible reply. My eyes wandered between the shelves and found the sign reflected above a corridor saying: baby products. I almost laughed when I realized that I could make an excuse with my darling baby.

“We need some diapers since Onni’s tummy is not well. And I thought I’d buy a few other things at the same go”, I explained and hoped she would not inquire more.

She didn’t ask. Instead of questions she offered plenty of advice for supporting the well-being of babies – as if I knew nothing about children – but her advice was scattered into thin air as my mind was wondering elsewhere. Nevertheless, I soon thanked for her advice with a smile. She thought we would meet soon again. Maybe we would, maybe we wouldn’t – I was no fortune-teller.

I hated to call the AI vehicle again after shopping, but nothing else would be reasonable. In a matter of moments, it swerved into the parking lot of the shop. A small forklift extended from the tailgate to move the bags into the trunk. I would have preferred to walk or bike home, but Kuopio was a sprawling city, amidst lakes which dispersed the residential areas from the very few stores. It was over ten kilometres to our home, and the schedule was tight. My spouse would leave soon.

“You have plenty of dry food among the groceries…”, the voice of the vehicle announced when I got seated in the car. “You said to your friend that you just went shopping for diapers.”

The AI waited for my answer without leaving the parking lot. I was enclosed and trapped and became frustrated. My little family awaited me, and time was flying. It was less than an hour until Toivo would have to leave, and I wanted to spend these last moments with him, not with an AI.

“We are going boating for the weekend, or maybe longer since my husband has two weeks of holiday left. The supplies are short”, I replied with a carefully selected, friendly tone.

That was the truth. We had planned a family boating trip for the weekend. It had rained most of the summer, but now the forecast predicted that the weather was going to be unusually sunny and warm.

Finally, the vehicle started off and I was able to swallow my sigh of relief. I sent a message to Toivo telling him that I was heading home.

“I’ll take the food to the boat if you two are okay”, I added.

“Yes, honey. We’re fine. Onni still wants to eat some sand”, his message replied.

I laughed at the thought of our baby shovelling sand into his mouth, while the car headed onwards as planned. There was only one last negotiation with the AI ahead of me, when the car pulled into our block of flats, and I braced myself for it.

The four-wheeled delivery robot of the house came to offer help.

“No, thank you”, I replied with a grim smile, as “I will carry these myself. I want to get some exercise.”

The reason was actually deeper. The AI was not welcome in our home. Not in the form of a cyborg, robot, or any domestic appliance. They had all become servants and spies of the dominating AI.

I was happy to return to our home, and to the indoors. It was our little safe haven. I leaned back against the closed door, just to calm myself. When I opened my eyes, I noticed that Toivo had already laid the most important items for our son neatly onto the sofa.

I didn’t take them to the boat yet since I was still not sure if I’d want to go sailing alone with an almost six-month-old baby. Regardless, I thanked my spouse silently in my mind as I took the groceries to the boat.

Toivo was loving and brave, considerate, and stern, all at the same time. Those were some of the qualities that made me fall in love with him all those years ago. They were the attributes that I admired now. I still remembered the first time I saw him at the garrison when I had been his superior officer. It had been an intriguing six months, although we hadn’t dated back then. I remembered our first kiss at an airport when we had start dating some years later. And that makeshift flying bag at the Fort of Suomenlinna as he came to my rescue! I was being nostalgic, I noticed. I lifted my chin, checked the time, and dragged my thoughts back to preparing lunch.

My little family arrived back from the playground and Onni was fussing as he always was when he got hungry. We got some edibles from the food replicator but afterwards I couldn’t remember what it was. Toivo and I shared only a few words during our lunch.

Toivo had fallen silent into his own thoughts, but he pressed his foot lightly against mine. I was fond of the gesture. He ate, got up from the table and put all our dishes into a quick washer which transferred the clean plates and cutlery directly into the cupboard.

He went to the outdoor wardrobe to put his jacket on. I lifted Onni on my hip, and we went to see Toivo leave.

For some reason my mind registered an old photo on the wall. It was of Toivo and his father, dated to Autumn 2011, and was the last one taken of them together before his father had died.

Would the pictures we took yesterday be the last of us together? He put a finger under my chin and gently pulled me into his gaze.

“You two are dear to me”, he said, and pressed his lips to mine.

Tears were falling from my eyes – I did not attempt to act as if I was comfortable about his departure. It was completely unfair that ordinary people like us had to go through this, while it was the politicians without a backbone that had ruined so much.

All the crises – energy, finance, environmental, security – had enabled the ugliest parts of Trumpism to blossom in several countries. All the selfishness, apathy, mercilessness, and greed had rendered the EU motionless already years ago. Now we were facing the brunt of it.

“I will be really mad at you if you won’t make it back”, I said with sadness in my voice.

He chuckled lightly but gave no promises. No false hope. We both knew what his job was like. He was great at it, but no one lived forever. Human bodies were durable but fragile.

We pressed our foreheads together – his black hair brushing my blonde streaks. There was nothing more to say – or rather everything. I wanted to live with him. I had chosen my partner for life because I loved him – and I wanted to carry on loving him until the end of our days in old age. But this choice was not in our hands anymore.

“Ii-ii”, the baby sitting on my hip demanded attention and extended his hands towards his Dad.

Toivo hugged him, caressed his cheek, and chatted with him. They were such an adorable twosome. This child needed his parent, but we had not made cyber copies of ourselves. We wanted to keep the AI as far away from our lives as possible.

“I love you”, he said as we cuddled.

“Love you, too”, I mumbled.

Too soon, he let go of me. I stared at the doorway as he walked through. I wanted to grab Toivo tight, once more, as I saw him turn. But it would have changed nothing. He had to go, do his job, and fight the AI. He would return to us – at least that was what I wanted to tell myself instead of falling into dull fear and dread. He would return I told myself as the door shut behind him. He would return, just as he always had during his years in special forces. I knew he wanted to return.

I sat down on our sofa to breastfeed Onni, and we looked into each other’s eyes for a moment. His blue eyes soon began to shut as he became drowsy. My mind flew elsewhere in the meantime.

What were my choices to keep my baby safe? Would we be indoors in a town area during the whole battle – which might take weeks? On the other hand… perhaps the AI might need to struggle a bit harder to find us if we were on the lake. A plan compiled quickly.

During my service in the army, I had adapted to working with the AI – just like everyone else. Although this was a decade ago, I knew the fundamental weaknesses of the system. Although the AI might think itself flawless, I knew that one AI could steer only so many people with a chip, the cyborgs, or equipment. Sometimes there were disagreements between the AIs. I tried to keep the facts in my mind as I put my baby into his crib.

I had just gotten Onni in his bed when there was a knock on our door. I peeked through a little window in the door and saw a cyborg in the hallway. They were not allowed to come in by force, but one could never be sure when the AI would start to play completely by their own rules.

I opened only a small hatch of the door to look through, which had recently become popular just recently due the unstable AI. There was a man… No, a cyborg with black leather clothes, looking like a rough old-time motorcyclist bully.

“Housewife Orvokki Karhunen. I will come indoors and have a chat with you”, the cyborg greeted.

A housewife! I was an entrepreneur, and thousand other things but the cyborg wished to diminish my qualities to just one word. Jerk. Besides, according to the protocol, he still needed an invitation to enter. I would not offer one. I knew what he was after – information. Which I would not give him.

“I will not open the door for you. Stay in the corridor, you AI steered assumed cyborg”, I replied and gave him a firm stare.

I saw the reflection of my own face in the shiny, black helmet as he stood almost still in front of me. I felt that the AI, peering at me through the cyborg, was amused. How odd! Someone must have helped the AI to evolve, and now they were capable of emotions and deliberate cruelty. Chills went down my spine.

I was unsure about the source of amusement. It did not matter. Anger was tingling in my hands.

“Well, in that case, I will interrogate you from here and your neighbours will hear all of it”, the cyborg began.

I almost smirked at him. What would it matter if neighbours heard of our comings and goings!

“Where and how did your husband, Toivo Karhunen, go? When will he return?” he continued, without waiting for my reply.

I could hear an object flying outside the house, and around the back of our flat, seemingly scanning our home.

“Toivo said that he went hunting with the boys. Got a ride from a friend”, I replied, although technically the AI had no right to question anyone.

The AI did not care for most of the human-made rules anymore and I was not about to risk my husband’s life – or our baby’s, or mine – by arguing. Yet, I was so frustrated that I had to clench my teeth together. The interrogator didn’t move. Maybe he wanted me to think my words were insignificant. I hated them. Those people who revelled in working for the AI as some cruel bees.

I remembered the better times, not that long ago. The times when the AI was created to help us. From initially harmless, carelessly made pieces of code, something dark and mean had grown. The AI had become a monster which consciously wanted to make humans subordinate. And the chip in the brain had become a handy method to steering cyborgs.

“It’s not yet the hunting season for which Toivo Karhunen has registered”, the AI continued through the cyborg.

The claim was true, but I just shrugged my shoulders. The moose hunting season had not begun just yet – the hunting season for AI was not public knowledge although it had begun.

“Well… My spouse told me, that he was going to the hunting cabin with his friends and will return when he’s done. I don’t babysit him”, I stated and caught the coldness in my voice.

The cyborg crossed his arms.

“We were going to go sailing on Kallavesi tomorrow”, I continued with a softer tone.

I had some make-up on, yet I was easy to read as were most humans. I tried to calm down and breathe slower, even though it was bloody difficult.

I heard the drone take off from behind our flat and I felt slightly better. The AI could not possibly justify murdering me to the cyborg, according to current settings. I hoped the AI would not change the rules just now.

“I will return tomorrow. I shall take the baby if you are lying to me”, he said, and anger shot through me once again.

“You shall never get my child”, I replied to the AI, and closed the hatch right in front of the cyborgs face.

No one was going to take my baby! Onni was our little miracle, although he had been conceived in a vial in a laboratory. After years of dreaming, disappointment, yearning, and ultimately a difficult pregnancy, I was certainly not going to hand my darling baby to a cruel AI to raise him as a cyborg. I would fight for him, to my last breath.

I heard the sound steps fade in the corridor and I was able to inhale deeply.

“We are going on a boat trip – just the two us”, I whispered to my sleeping son although he would have slept even if I had spoken louder.

When this child fell asleep, he was not easily woken. Fortunately! He slept when army fighters made a low fly over – that had been tested so many times.

I searched for my phone. It was old school tech, but calls were easier to encrypt than with the most recent models. It had been hard to find an old gadget, one where there was no internal AI but could still connect the holocalls wherever the additional equipment was available.

I found the palm-sized thing in the kitchen and started texting and sent an unconcealed message to my loved one.

“Onni fell asleep, and everything was fine. How are you?”

I packed us both plenty of clothes and a big bunch of those darn diapers for the baby. Just in case the AI was watching me.

I found a thing that I called a folio hat from Toivo’s night table. He had probably put it there for me to see. I lifted the little object to my hands and turned it around. I hoped that I was bringing this gadget in vain, and that the cyborg was not going to bother us again. I went to the mirror and put the folio hat on my head. This one looked like any other pretty little headband but would deflect most of the rays of crowd-control weapons from hitting me. Perhaps it could give me a little advantage.

I lifted the sniffling baby into a cloth sling so I could free my hands. I managed to get the big duffel on my shoulder, although my belly muscles had not fully recovered after the pregnancy and C-section. The boat was on the quay by the lake just behind the building so I hoped I could make it there in one go.

When I stepped out from the elevator into the cellar floor, I heard a sharp inhale. Someone must have been hiding there and was startled by our approach, I guessed. Our block of flats was small, and we all knew one another – at least by looks. It can’t be a stranger, I thought, so I cleared my throat so the person could recognize me. And indeed, behind the curve of the corridor, there was our young neighbour. There were black streaks on the teenager’s cheeks.

“Hey Sumu”, I greeted with a little puff.

“Orvokki!” the teen exhaled and glanced at me from head to toe. “Are you going sailing again? May I come with you?” Sumu asked with pleading eyes.

“Well… Okay. If your parents agree.”

I don’t know why I said yes – maybe the bag was too heavy, maybe I thought Sumu could be of help.

“They will. It’s Friday and I’ve been working hard at school.”

“Alright… Do you want to get your stuff?”

“You’ve got an extra toothbrush on the ship?”

I nodded and heaved the duffel upwards.

“Okay. I don’t need a thing then”, Sumu replied and took the bag from my shoulder.

I wondered whether I was being a responsible adult.

“Everything’s goin’ well, but I don’t mind!” said the message from Toivo, as we reached the boat.

It meant that Toivo and his team must have found out what their operation was or where they were stationed.

The knowledge was sort of a relief to me, but at the same time, it wasn’t. My spouse was well for now, but I could not imagine how it would all end up. The sensation of slight pressure settled on my chest – I assumed it was anxiety. I replied with a simple heart to him.

“First, we put the life vest on”, I told Sumu on the boat, and offered something that looked like a broad necklace.

Twiddle of hands was all what Sumu did while I took Onni to his bed in the cabin. Sumu’s vest still wasn’t on when I got back on deck.

“Let me show you. Open the round thing from here… And then you can put the little sensor to the skin on your neck”, I explained and demonstrated how to use the vest by putting my own on.

“How can this be so tiny? And what’s that thing doing on my neck?” Sumu asked with a subdued voice.

“The vest will inflate only if it gets wet and then it will keep your head above the water. I have seen you swimming so I assume you will be fine with this version of the vest”, I said.

A nod was enough of a reply for me.

“And the vest will send an alarm to the boat systems while the little sensor measures the oxygen level in your blood”, I went on as I adjusted the sensor to a better spot on the neck.

“This shouldn’t hurt”, I said and got a reply with a quick shake of the head.

I started the engine and run the normal checks of the boat. Everything was where it was supposed to be on deck and below waterline. There was enough hydrogen on the boat for two weeks of slow travel. I turned back to Sumu.

“Good. Onni has a different kind of vest. Luckily, he’s used to wearing it”, I grinned.

Sumu’s eyebrow lifted a little.

“We also keep these on while we sleep on the boat, so they need to be comfortable”, I explained as I started taking the ropes from the quay.

“Hoi! Sumu…”, a voice came from the direction of our building, and I realised someone was looking for the teen.

I glanced at Sumu and received a vigorous shake of the head as a reply. I was not about to lie to a fellow parent, so I waved my hand. The parent nodded and waved back. Yet, I was not sure if my message was clear. As a parent myself, I knew I would be concerned with having such little knowledge. I took off the last rope and headed the boat to the open lake.

“Make sure your parents know where you are or I will drop you off on the next quay”, I said sternly.

Again, I got a speechless reply by sagging shoulders and a nod before Sumu went to the deck and made a quick call. The parents gave permission for our boat trip, although I was not sure if I was the best or the safest company. I steered the boat and wondered how I was supposed to explain the situation.

“I like having you here with us, but… would you tell me, why do you want to come with us? We might be sailing the whole weekend”, I asked with a tender smile.

Arms curled among the slender body. I waited.

“Well… I got this chip a few days ago”, Sumu began and seemed to be searching for the words.

Darn. This teen was a liability on our trip. That’s why the call had been so quick. It seemed that no AI had taken controlling Sumu’s chip yet, but it was possible to gain information through it anyway. Most people gave away their privacy so easily! I’d have to be careful with my words.

“Okay. You know, it’s quite common these days to have a chip”, I replied and tried not to show my reluctance.

“But I didn’t really want it”, Sumu replied with restlessness.

I switched the steering of the boat to autopilot, put my hand on the skinny shoulder, and waited for Sumu’s eyes to focus on me.

“It can be switched off”, I consoled.