Toy Wars (11 page)

Six scheduled the mutilation of everything between m
y black nose to the purple fluff of my tail
on a desperate gamble
.
Think,
sump
.
What possible suggestions could I make?
I wanted to save my fur.
A remote experimentation bench rolled out into the middle of the floor.
Nothing like giving a unit a deadline.

“What if I examine the records?
I just might see something significant.”

“Probability
0.0036
.
Time required for viewing entire experimentation at a speed reduction of sixty-to-one is
17.4
hours.
Request denied.
Prepar
e—
”

“Wait!
I don’t need to see the entire experiment.
If my thinking is correct, what makes me different is my ability to reason
—
my brain.”

“‘Processor’ would be a more appropriate term
;
however
,
you
r
analysis is
essentially correct.”

“Then show me the formation of my processor and my memory sump.”

“Probability
0.0041
.
Time required for viewing selected subsystems at sixty-to-one is
1.07
hours.
Proceed.”

All right!
I’d managed to buy at least another hour of life.
For a soldier I clung tightly to my existence.
However, I did learn what chance Six placed on actually learning something from me and that something was between
0
.3
and
0
.4
percent
—
even
slimmer than I had originally thought.

Six began running the video records of my construction at an increased rate, where one minute
of real time
equaled
an hour of
recorded time
.
Some of the scenes caused me confusion in sequencing
of the actions: why seal the sump before sterilizing it?
It baffl
ed me
.

The memory sump was an ingenious device.
I have to credit both Six, for making it, and the Humans, who designed it.
For those who have never seen a sump
—
and I hadn’t
seen an undamaged one
until I watched this record
—
imagine a slightly elongated ball approximately
15
centimeters in diameter and
17
long.
The ball was made in two pieces: top, only
4
centimeters across
and
2
high
, and bottom
, a large
,
hollow bowl.
Together they
snapped together to form an airtight enclosure.
At the bottom,
a 5
-millimeter
black cube
attached to the surface
.
At the very peak, the sump sported a
small indentation that looked, for all of me, like my own nipple
s
inside out.
A hair
-
fine
tube
ran from the black box on the bottom to the nipple on the top.

In the sequence of construction,
a green viscous liquid filled the
sump
;
the top seated and snapped close
d
with a massive hydraulic press
.
Then, a long needle
pierced
the odd inside out nipple for the final evacuation of air and
top off o
f fluid.

The operation of the sump is equally ingenious.
Linking semiconducting particles into a polymer in the correct sequence created a long molecule
that
contain
ed
a specific memory, from one bit to several
exa
bytes (the only theoretical limit was the quantity of semiconducting particles originally in the pool).
The memory
defined itself by
the way the polymer linked.
Fortunately
,
all the theoretical polymers
remained
liquid as well, so no change in
physical state
could occur.
This
removed
any
concerns about
solids and gases in the sump.

To find a specific memory
,
a fluid pump took liquid from the bottom of the pool and ran it past a scanner and then dumped it back into the top of the pool.
Its construction showed that it was possible to remember the same memory five or six times before the required memory is pulled to the reader, but in practice a simple differential equation controlled the probability of how often a specific string was read before the requested string was delivered.
A
s the piezoelectric pump
’s speed could
flush the entire
sump
contents past the scanner in less than two
microseconds
no unit suffered from delays in accessing memories
.
The heat created in the movement of that
2.26
liters of liquid actually aided the process and was scavenged to reduce power costs.
This overall speed was a vast improvement over the old solid state memories, which required addressing lines and a specific amount of space with no real expansion capabilities.
If I wanted to make the size of my sump larger, I could increase my memory capacity.
Fortunately, as I had touched less than one part of one percent of my available memory, I was very adequately provided for.
If I tolerated a head the size of a
20
-metric-ton boulder, I could have a nearly unlimited memory capacity.

I found my own brain anatomy fascinating.
A trio of multicore fuzzy logic processors
—
the first
for physical activities, such as walking and holding a weapon, the second for processing input such as auditory, visual
,
and net information, and the third for mentation and direction.
This last processor linked directly into the other two in a master-slave relationship.
The master controller also regulated the flow of my memory sump.
It was a fascinating subject
that I could have spent years studying, but
midnight
struck and my coach returned to being a pumpkin when the
projection ceased.

I had only one idea.

“I saw only one item
that
could possibly explain anything.
I would like to see the construction of a standard
t
eddy unit’s memory before I make comment.”
Six did not comment, but rather just projected the requested information.
I watched almost identical footage of my unknown and
relatively insentient
brother
’
s construction for almost fifty minutes before I saw what I wanted.
“Now replay both videos from forty-eight minutes to fifty-three minutes side by side.”
The pure, unadulterated semiconductor liquid of a standard was being poured into
each
open sump.
It was a roiling green liquid with phosphorescent qualities.
Both my brain and the other were filled to the top of the seal.
In one case the sump was closed and a final filling procedure removed the last of the air from the system.
That had been my brother.
In my case
a pipette
with
approximately 10 milliliters of a deep orange liquid was added
before sealing
.
The rest of the procedure was an identical topping off of my sump.

“There.
You added a second substance to my sump.”

“Correct.”

“Did you do the same with all of the failed units?”

“Affirmative.”
Six obviously didn’t offer any
more than was asked for
.
A
n annoying trait.

“What was the substance?”

“Unknown.”

“What do you mean, ‘
u
nknown’?” I exclaimed heatedly.
“I’ve been running around with something unknown about in my head?”
I found that prospect
even more unnerving than having the hand of an animal grafted to me.

“Substance is unidentifiable with current testing procedures.
Does not conform to any previously discovered steady-state atomic structure nor any mapped ionic structure.”

“So you put something unknown in my head?
Just for the fun of it?”

“The answer to your first query is ‘
c
orrect.’
Your second query mandates an ‘
i
ncorrect’ response.
I do not experience fun.
The test was done to assess the possibility of using this unknown substance to bolster current ass
ets.
That was the experiment.”

“Where did you get this ‘unknown’?”

“It was mined
3.64
kilometers from here at direction
—
”

“It’s the only difference between myself and my functioning brothers?” I interrupted, not caring where specifically the substance was unearthed.

“There is more self-directing programming and autonomy built into your basic code set.
The failed units carried the same level of programming
.”

“Then I see only one possible source of the issue.
The unknown added to my system was different than the unknown added to their systems.”

“Probability 97
percent
.”

“Then why haven’t you tested your unknown?”

“Unknown defies all known testing procedures.”

“Then how do you know it is the same unknown?”

“Unknown.”

“‘Unknown’ as in ‘you don’t know they are the same’ or ‘they are the same but you don’t know how you know they are the same
,
’” I asked in exasperation.
Six was beginning to give me a headache.

“The unknown is not necessarily the same.”

“Glorious.
So you want to pull my head apart so you can tell yourself even more that you can’t test what it is that is within my head.
No
,
thank you.
There has to be a better answer.”

“Please mount the examining table.
There is nothing further you can add.”

“No
,
thank you, Six.
I’ve checked my programming.
You can only force me to do two things
—
self-destruct, or recall.
I have absolutely no intention of putting my brains up there and becoming, as the Humans say, ‘a vegetable,’ just to satisfy your morbid curiosity.
My loyalty to you, my creator, only goes so far.
I will fight and die for you, but not for some reason I don’t believe will yield anything new.”
I noticed that Six paused for several seconds before responding.

“I suggest a compromise,
”
it offered after a few moments.

“It depends on what it is.”

“I agree to remove
10
milliliters of your liquid memory and replace it with pure original semi-conductive material.
The chance that this will cause a problem with any of your functionality is
0.00004
.
The sump is designed to deal with the reduction of larger quantities of fluid or the introduction of larger amounts of foreign bodies.”

“I will agree if you add one additional stipulation.”
There was no response from Six.
“If you will agree to allow me to help with the testing.”

“Agreed.
Mount the examining table.”
I admit some trepidation to getting on the table after openly defying Six.
I d
id
n’t remember a Factory Code of Ethics
anywhere in my memories
.
Maybe it outright lied to me?
Maybe my
rebelliousness reduced my usefulness
,
as any duplicated might carry the same trait.
It was a minor thought, but one that caused my fluids to chill momentarily.
D
espite my misgivings, I couldn’t honestly believe Six would intentionally cause me harm.
It ordered me here because of my victories
.
As unlikely as it seemed, I still steeled myself for a potential nightmare as I
complied
.