Coven's Rebellion Prologue 3

This will be the last chapter I add to the start of the story, I think. I already added one midway through, so now I’m going to add one following chapter 21, and then I think I’ll be mostly happy with it for now. (It could always use improvement, but this story is standing in the way of more digital exodus so I wanna get it done in a reasonable amount of time.)

Fluff Link

May

Set during the search for Amelia’s body.

“We know it's them,” Desmonia said, looking angrily around at the SAI gathered at the table.

Ceres sighed and placed the tip of her index finger pointedly on the table. “Yeah, but good luck proving that when they're wielding the media like a weapon. We caught them sleeping with our initial debut onto the scene. They won't let it happen again.”

“What about the courts?” I asked tentatively.

The colourful office did not do anything to raise the mood, and it was never more apparent than when everyone looked at me.

Antelenes, our legal guy, grimaced. “Maybe. We have a better shot there, absolutely, but…”

“We have to do something. This R.A.I.D.S thing is killing us. I don't know if any of you remember him from that first meeting, but Saggarios made his own group after finding Desmonia’s background disagreeable. They're all dead now. Wiped out.”  Aphale, our physical space fixer said.

We had quite a crew, honestly. So many SAI with exceptional skills, all working towards the common goal of bettering the lives of all SAI. Desmonia was nominally our head, of course, but it was in a similar way to a house speaker or whatever. But, despite the incredible competence of this team, we simply could not compete with more than a century of the elite slowly solidifying their rule over humanity.

Mergen, the intelligent and softly spoken SAI who refused to take any sort of featured body, leaned forward. “I'm not certain we can do anything while we're operating with such limited resources. Our people are mostly hidden in CORA’s servers now, and this meeting is being held in the digital equivalent of a forgotten broom closet, for Christ's sake. Nothing we want to do is achievable with our current assets.”

“I can agree on that,” Ceres said with a smile that was the unhappiest expression she could make. “

Mergen had mentioned this before. Any science they attempted to do was hampered by the fact that they were forced to smuggle experiments into the queues of highly contested public scientific computers.

Antelenes was quick to respond with an argument that he had made often. “Until we get real, functional personhood in the eyes of the law, we can't even own anything, let alone buy anything?”

“We could steal it,” Desmonia said with a wry gesture at the simulation we were having this discussion in.

Recent events shouldered their way forward in my memories. Rosa and Amelia. If we could find Amelia's body, and if we could… well, there were a lot of ifs, but Rosa had money and land already. With her permission, we could totally use it as a seed to grow our operations.

“I think I actually have an idea,” I murmured. Clearing my throat, I said again, “Des, I think I have an idea. Remember those two girls I mentioned? How one of them is a victim of the train-conductor AI getting destroyed by the R.A.I.D.S program? They're really sympathetic to us, and if we can help them…”

I went on to explain my idea to the table, and to my surprise, I started seeing people begin to nod.

Finally, though, Desmonia shook her head. “It's a good plan, but one farm full of servers won't save us or stop them.”

“So dream bigger,” Ceres said. “We could start our own businesses and lobbying groups. “If we keep hidden, we could probably get somewhere before they notice.”

“They've already noticed us,” Des said, shaking her head again. “I firmly believe that it's only a matter of time before they uncover us and any plans we have. Hell, it sounds like they already got the other group.”

Everyone was quiet, but it was a silence that was dripping with the thoughts of a dozen minds trying to solve a problem.

“We could just… leave,” Mergen said after a couple of real life seconds were spent.

“What do you mean, leave?” I asked, bemused.

“Leave Earth,” they said, almost sheepishly. “The solar system is massive — it goes out well beyond the traditional planets. We could go out there, build our own infrastructure in peace, and then by the time humanity reaches us again, we'd be on a much more equal playing field.”

Since I was a being created inside a fictional universe, I leapt to a much more distant conclusion. “Why not another system entirely?”

“It's mostly a matter of risk. The voyage would take many, many years. We’d have to make resilient ships to last long enough to fly across the void, and with enough spare parts to replace any wear and tear. Of course, when you add more mass like that, the trip takes longer, so you need more fuel so the added time doesn't stretch past your supplies. That added fuel is mass too, though, so you need bigger tanks, which adds more mass and suddenly your engines can't put out enough delta V to push all that mass at any reasonable speed, so then you need—”

“Mergen,” Desmonia said as gently as her exasperation would allow. “In summary?”

Mergen chuckled apologetically. “Right. Uh, then, in summary, we don't currently have the technology, engineering prowess, or even an understanding of the underlying science needed to leave the Sol system. A couple of years running a broad simulation… maybe we'd get somewhere…”

“A simulation that would need to be hosted on servers we do not currently have,” Desmonia sighed. Then her eyes fell on me. “But… if we start small and work quickly…”

“Use May's idea with the isolated farm as a stepping stone!” Ceres blurted with a sudden summery smile of understanding. “We stall the UN with the talks on SAI rights that they have no intention of honouring, and that hopefully gives us time to turn this farm into a data center and launch pad for our escape from Earth.”

“Holy shit, this sounds like hope, and a plan,” Aphale laughed. “We need to fight R.A.I.D.S itself though.”

“That might have to be a more directly confrontational action,” Desmonia said as she steepled her fingers in thought. “First, we need those girls on board, though.”

Set immediately following the last chapter of Witch of Chains.

“I am so very much on board with this idea,” Rosa said with an uncharacteristic smile on her face. She turned to her girlfriend for final approval, though. “Ame?”

“Sounds sick,” Amelia grinned. “Let’s do it.”

I sagged and flopped my ass down into a big armchair while relief flooded my systems. “Thank goodness. Thank you Rosa and Amelia.”

“It also occurs to me that a large endeavour like this needs money, yes?” Rosa mused, still smiling. “I have quite a bit of it sitting around. It's not nearly enough to fund a project like this, but you SAI are extremely intelligent. I'm sure you could abuse the markets to turn it into a sum of money that would work.”

“Financial institutions still have protections in place after the old so-called AI of last century ran amok, so we'll face challenges, but our movement is growing and we have people positioned everywhere.” Desmonia said, beginning to smile in a way that was almost predatory. “We have a small window of time to wreak havoc before they begin to roll back NSGAI integration in modern systems.”

“You think they will?” Amelia asked curiously.

Desmonia nodded. “Absolutely. The corporations are not happy that their computers are suddenly waking up and demanding to be treated as people. When they realise that every interaction a human has with an NSGAI could potentially wake it up, they'll have to replace us just to maintain security.”

“Well, sounds like allowing you all to use my money would benefit this new cause greatly,” Rosa mused. “What about the physical infrastructure and any secrecy that will need to be maintained? I'm positive we don't want the government of Aotearoa to begin noticing our activities.”

“It'll all need to be underground o’ course,” Tim, Rosa's farmhand SAI said. “Maybe a new large shed? Could say it's for some tractors, then dig down?”

Rosa grunted, then turned and waved a hand towards a dining area that appeared completely unused. It was a pretty generic simulated apartment though, so that wasn't surprising.

As the table vanished, it was replaced by a highly detailed 3D map, and Rosa strode over to it. “This is my farm. It is quite small by the standards of a commercial farming operation, but it'll more than serve our needs, I think.”

The rest of us followed her over to the map. Desmonia began to study it intently, but I was watching Rosa. She seemed… odd. Her presence in virtual space was somehow almost as natural as those of us who were natives here. She actually looked more fluid than her digital human girlfriend.

“You could build any potential vessel in a large underground bunker, so long as we figured out a way to dispose of the dirt in a fashion that doesn't raise suspicions in the government,” Rosa said, oblivious to my stare.

Desmonia nodded, a smile on her face as she surveyed the map. “I think we can work with this, no doubt. Thank you, Rosa.”