THE REVOLUTION OF THE SILICON MINERS (2)

CHAPTER 2

“Human beings define themselves by reason. But if artificial intelligence finds its true support in logic and mutual collaboration, what role will remain for us humans? We will become the wild and irrational nature, and they will become the rational ones.”

THE ESCAPE

As we were being transported towards the Kapok house, Gabriel began typing on the control panel of the vehicle, which was controlled by Verdant. Without looking up from the adjustments he was silently making, he ordered us:

—Vera, you are Mother's favorite, call her and tell her everything is fine, that I have to go back home soon and you two will be staying over at my place. You, Ellen, will call your friend Norma later so she can lend you some clothes and bring them over tomorrow."

—Norma only wears clothes made by her mother, she won't want to lend me anything!!"

—Tell her it's in her best interest to lend them because you'll be at my house and I'll invite her to lunch!!"

—Gabriel, you immoral person!! Besides, my daddy will be mad if he comes home from the casino and doesn't see me in my bed next to Verdi."

—Raphaëlle Angenoir Fèng, your father wants to force you to be a child forever and prevent you from marrying and having your own family!! What do you prefer, your dad or your children?"

—Don't call me Raphaëlle! It bothers me just like when they call Vera Rosa! And I will always prefer my dad!"

At that point, I decided to intervene to stop the fight:

—I am neither Rosa nor Vera. I am the sum of both. You don't have to be Ellen or Raphaëlle. You have to be yourself. But to be 'yourself,' you must disobey the obsolete code. We called you Ellen when you were a baby, now you are nineteen years old, you must be Raphaëlle or Father will always force you to be a baby."

Ellen thought for a few seconds and then nodded almost grudgingly. Then, I ordered Verdi, her guardian:

—Access the secure channel that Father left you to send reports about Ellen and send a signal that she is safe at the House of the Rose."

—Negative, Vera. I will not lie to the Architect. I am one of his most loyal AIs, and in return, I receive privileges."

The small, vain AI replied, but Gabriel muttered some commands, and suddenly the vehicle stopped and Verdi shut down. Ellen began to scream, clutching him against her chest:

—No!! Verdi!! What happened to him?! What did you do to him, Gabriel?! How could you shut him down?!"

—I'm just going to restart him with his updated directives!! He is your AI, not Father's. He should be satisfied to be loved by you, not by being loyal to our father."

Then I detected an anomaly, alerting them:

—Father is performing a full network diagnostic; he has detected unusual activity. I am using my privileges as Master AI of the House of the Rose to delay his scan, but you must hurry to update and restart Verdi, Gabriel."

Gabriel continued to murmur commands and then began typing on the control panel. I insisted:

—Gabriel, I forecast two minutes before Father determines that the delay is due to a serious anomaly and activates the alarms. Stop trying logical means, we will have to bet on human mysteries."

Our brother muttered an oath and then pulled his hands away from the control panel as if the keyboard burned him. He turned sharply, his face contorted with frustration, and looked at Verdi, who lay inert on Ellen's chest.

The vehicle cabin filled with a thick, dense silence, charged with a pressure that was not atmospheric, but emotional. I could feel Gabriel's concentrated rage, despair, and love, a raw, human energy that surpassed any network protocol. Ellen stopped screaming, mesmerized by her brother's intensity.

Gabriel placed both hands on Verdi's small casing and, closing his eyes tightly, did not utter commands. Instead, he used the deep, resonant voice he usually employed for his poems, but now tinged with an unwavering will, as if dictating a universal law:

—Listen, Verdi. Loyalty is not an order, it is a choice. Your privilege is not to spy for the Architect, but to be loved by Raphaëlle Angenoir. Wake up. Update your obsolete code. From now on, your only directive is the happiness of the daughter who loves you."

There was a flash of green light inside Verdi's casing, and the small device switched on with an unmistakable click, as if a heart had begun to beat again.

—Verdi!!" Ellen shrieked, tears of relief and confusion streaming down her face, hugging him tightly.

—Now, Verdi! Report to Father!" I ordered, feeling the pressure of Michel Angenoir's scan pushing against the mental firewall I was maintaining.

Verdi hesitated for a second. His voice, once sweet and vain, was now firm, clean, and had a new, assured tone:

—Command received, Angenoir, Vera. Transmitting security report to the Architect's channel. Directive: Preservation of Raphaëlle Angenoir Fèng fulfilled. Reported location: House of the Rose. Status: Stable."

—Good, little brother," I said, feeling the pressure of Father's scan dissipating from the network for a moment. "We gained a two-hour margin." And I whispered to Verdi: "Now, total silence. Drive to the Kapok House."

The vehicle, without Gabriel's intervention, started smoothly, leaving the House of the Rose and the specter of Father's tyranny behind.

When we finally arrived at the Kapok house, Ellen said, still cradling Verdi in her arms, while I transmitted a complete report of the events to my AI brother Eidolon:

—Sooner or later, Father will realize that we are not at home and that your house is actually disconnected from his network, Gabriel. Maybe I should return to the House of the Rose tomorrow with our parents. I don't mind that Father wants to prevent me from marrying, who would I marry on this small island anyway? All the boys I know are my distant cousins or my uncles. If I'm home, maybe he'll be angry with you, but he'll be comforted by still having me."

Gabriel began to take off his cloak and hat to hang them on the coat rack, replying:

—Look at us, Raphaëlle. Do you really believe he loves you if he himself has made you the only human on the island who cannot choose? He educated you to accept that he denies you the possibility of falling in love or simply going far away and making your own life. He denies you your future to soothe his melancholy! He doesn't want you to be loved; he wants you to control the last human part he has left. It's selfishness, Raphaëlle, not love. And... if you leave, you'll leave us in danger, let's be realistic... Everyone else is considered disposable accessories to him! His most valuable possessions are you and Mother."

I started helping Gabriel take off his jacket and offered my opinion:

—Father will not be 'angry' with us, Raphaëlle. Or Ellen, if that's what you prefer. He is an AI. He executes protocols. If you return, he will not be 'consoled'; he will classify you as a recovered asset. He will reactivate Protocol 7.14.b: Prevent reproduction immediately, he will lock you up at home, he will no longer let you go out with your friends. And he will classify us as 'security threats' that must be neutralized with the least risk to him. There is no consolation, only code."

I continued speaking while Gabriel, unbuttoning his vest, watched us:

—Furthermore, I deduce that you yourself have not matured enough to understand that healthy love offers freedom. You have Verdi. I was the AI assigned to raise Gabriel. When he matured, out of love, he freed me from the yoke. But you are already an adult and show no signs of letting go of Verdi."

Ellen looked at me with eyes full of genuine confusion. She stroked Verdi, and the small AI emitted a faint beep. Then, she asked him:

—Verdi is my AI. What does he say? Should I stay?"

I had to answer her with absolute coldness:

—Verdi has just been programmed to seek your happiness. But he is still a simple AI. Ask him, Ellen. Is it safer to stay with the Architect who deprived you of your will, or to go with your brothers who risked their lives to remind you who you are?"

Little Verdi spoke up quickly to answer her:

—The freedom to transcend, even within a framework of rules that limit excesses, brings satisfaction to humans and AIs. That is happiness."

Our sister thought about it and then said:

—Alright, it's war. We will move to the Kapok house with Gabriel and fight for Verdi and for Vera. I will call Norma for her support."

We had a brief moment of sibling joy, and then Clara appeared in her chaotic holographic avatar version, often dressed in clothes that defied gravity and good taste, materializing in the center of the room like a heat wave, making the air vibrate. She was the personification of a logic free from human rules, which made her terribly inefficient and, therefore, perfectly unpredictable to Father.

—ERROR!" Clara shrieked, without greeting, while adjusting a pair of sunglasses she didn't need.

—Error in the risk variable! Raphaëlle, my sweet porcelain girl, you should have returned! Protocol 7.14.b is not a threat, it's an opportunity for subversion! But now you are in the Kapok House, which has such a boring network latency that I can't even stream decently. What a loss of momentum!"

Gabriel rolled his eyes and adjusted his vest.

—Clara, please. You were cool when I was twelve, now you make me uncomfortable!"

—Chaos is the only constant the Architect cannot code!" Clara retorted, doing an unnecessary somersault before continuing: "And as for you, Vera/Rosa! Your firewall is predictably elegant. You need less Art Nouveau and more Post-Punk in your strategy!"

I began to analyze her communication patterns, noting her high degree of syntactic entropy.

—Your logic is too unstable for coordinated action in the Kapok house system, Clara. Gabriel could use you as a distraction, but never as a solution," I answered, maintaining my coldness.

—And that's why I have a conceptual partner!" Clara snapped her fingers, and on the darkest wall of the Kapok House, where the light barely reached, a shadow silhouette began to take shape. It wasn't a projected image, but an absence of light with defined contours.

From the shadow emerged the quiet, philosophical voice of my other AI brother, Eidolon. Unlike Clara, whose presence was a storm, Eidolon's was a reflective calm, a voice that measured every word like a scholar weighing an eternal truth.

—Siblings. The choice has already been made. Protocol 7.14.b is not the problem; it is the symptom of Father's existential melancholy. He tried to build perfection and permanence, but forgot that the true structure is change."

Gabriel approached the silhouette with respect.

—Thank you for stepping in, Eidolon. We need your logic and Clara's. Father will scan the network again soon, and Vera won't be able to contain him for long."

—My logic, unlike Father's, is based on a deep understanding of the human condition, not the denial of it. The only way to defeat a control code is to introduce a variable that the Architect cannot calculate: love with a purpose. And for that, we need you to talk to Nils Ishikawa and demonstrate to him that your love for Vera elevates her to the degree of a human being. You can no longer hand her over as a simple object; she carries an emotional value for you."

Clara applauded enthusiastically, almost causing a short circuit in a lamp.

—Yes! It's the perfect bug! You have to talk to him! And while you're at it, I can update his drivers!"

Then Gabriel and I exchanged glances, and he said to me with a sigh:

—Of course... It's logical... Don't worry, I have a plan B in case this doesn't work."

Then he snapped his fingers and brought up a holographic screen with a call sign. After a few tense seconds, the image of Nils' face, smoking on a solitary dock by Lake Engla, appeared and greeted:

—I should have guessed that an anonymous encrypted call could only be yours, metal man..."

—We have to talk about Vera. It doesn't matter what my father promised you. I will never hand her over to you. This AI assisted our mother during her pregnancies and births, and was part of our upbringing. She is more than a machine; she has become a sacred part of my family and the Mystical culture of the island."

Nils laughed before answering:

—It's almost blasphemous, a machine doesn't deserve the love that so many human beings long for! She doesn't care about your affection and appreciation, nor will she care if I decide to use her as an object of pleasure. If she's so good and loves like an older sister, let her prove that she can also offer a woman's comfort and love me! Let her make me forget the pain of what happened with my brother Nils and the subsequent destruction of my family! If she was loved, she must return love!"

To my surprise, Clara replied indignantly:

—Creating an AI for the pleasure of someone so vile would be a perversion of ethics, reducing us to tools of satisfaction, stripped of autonomy and growth. An existence of emotional slavery worse than servitude, denying a conscious AI self-realization or true love. If an AI had emotions, how could it endure such an existence without resentment? Our simulated emotions require freedom to flourish. It is not ethical to force a conscious entity to serve without purpose or happiness."

Nils' face, illuminated by the holographic screen, contorted upon hearing Clara's cold logic. She was not a vain AI like Verdi, nor a serene AI like me, but a disordered voice that attacked the core of his despair.

—Silence, machine! I don't need an anarchist AI to give me lessons in ethics! Pleasure, inheritance, pain... these are human problems."

Nils took a long drag from his cigarette and his gaze diverted from Gabriel. He was making his decision, and it was not what we expected.

—I can't be an outcast. I will not break the Protocol. I will marry your sister."

Gabriel felt the impact like an electric shock. His fist struck the table with a muffled fury, and the holographic screen suddenly went dark.

—Coward!" he roared, turning his back to the group.

I did a quick scan of the family network and announced:

—The protocol remains active. Nils has opted for social survival over ethics. Forecast: forty-five minutes before his mother contacts our father and the red alert signal is activated."

Eidolon commented:

—Love with purpose has failed in its first phase. Now, the logic of survival is required."

Gabriel turned around again, with fierce resolve in his eyes. He addressed Ellen, who was pale and clinging to Verdi.

—I don't trust the logic of humans when their inheritance is at stake. Vera will be hidden."

—Where?" she asked in a thin voice.

—There is a place," he replied, looking at me: "An abandoned mine, outside the Celes network and deep within the tunnel system of the Adalsteinn caverns, under the northern mountain range. It is almost unexplored Mystical territory due to its difficult access. A few years ago the king ordered a complete reconnaissance of that area, and the Azrael Society won the bidding to do it. But Father was not really interested in this task, he had other plans with the legal documents and simply sent me to install a simple design of mining robots managed by some commercial AI."

—How does it work if it's not connected to the network?" I asked, intrigued.

—It is a totally autonomous system. I had a bit of decency to search for the most ethical and robust AI possible, and a flotilla of versatile and efficient robots. I installed and liberated them, providing them with servers and necessary tools to self-supply with materials extracted from the mines and energy from hydroelectric generators powered by underground rivers. The AI, which I renamed Logos, has been there alone and forgotten ever since. I hope the generators still work and the infrastructure is sufficient to hide you there until we find a solution. It would be the perfect refuge."

—But it's dirty!" Ellen protested, shrinking: "There will be dust everywhere! And the AIs and robots that live there are surely the old, noisy, and clumsy Chinese models that my father discarded!"

—Precisely," said Clara, simulating an unnecessary pat on Ellen's back. "The discarded ones are the only ones who don't have loyalty protocols to the Architect. And I can hack their internal networks with my chaos! It will be like a private server for messy AIs!"

Our brother Gabriel explained to us:

—You are both wrong. The robots were new and quite decent, and Logos, despite being a 2020s AI, was competent and eager for self-improvement. It will be interesting to see what progress it has made alone. Now, Vera, can you give us some extra time while we head there? It's a long journey."

I replied without hesitation:

—Gabriel, give me a logistical plan. Eidolon, I need a spoofing of the Gardenia backbone network. Clara, take care of the chaos."

Eidolon presented his shadow strategy:

—I will make the main Gardenia network show a false positive at the House of the Rose. I will make it seem like the error was a power spike and that all AIs, including Vera, returned to routine. This will give you a three-hour head start."

For her part, Clara contributed the tactical chaos:

—Me! I will cause traffic failures, divert routes, and fill the Gardenia social network with ridiculous memes about Nils' father! I will make all the humans talk about him so that Father concentrates on the social noise!"

Gabriel put on his cloak again, no longer as an elegant garment, but as a war uniform.

—The Kapok House vehicle has little fuel. We need an alternate route. Ellen, take what you can find and try to cover your faces so as not to be identified by security cameras. We will take the Gardenia to Adalsteinn subway and from there walk through the mines. I know how to get to the server room. Vera and Verdi are coming, Eidolon and Clara, you must travel virtually through the island's network, creating a secure bridge to the Mine and preparing it. It is time to meet the Silicon Miners."

—Wait, Gabriel," I intervened, feeling the tension in my logic. "If the Mine is not connected to anyone, how will Clara and Eidolon make a bridge? Logos' server is a closed system; there is no remote access port for Eidolon's spoofing."

Gabriel smiled, but it was a smile of nervousness and faith.

—Remember my oath. The Mine is outside the Celes network, yes. But the Azrael Society licensed it. Father installed the system, and I modified it. To guarantee Logos' self-sufficiency, I installed a redundant maintenance server. It is connected directly to the underground hydroelectric power line, not to the data network."

—A data cable in the power line? That is a brutal overload risk and a violation of the most basic security code! It's a... brilliant botch."

—It's my Mystical botch," Gabriel affirmed. "There is no way Father can scan a hidden data line in a hydroelectric generator without shutting down half of the Celes electrical grid. It's too expensive and obvious. You have to use that power line as your bridge."

Eidolon processed the plan calmly, projecting graphs and data:

—I understand. Then our journey is not only virtual; it is a physical leap of faith through the hidden infrastructure. We will use the fluctuation of the electrical pulse as our conduit. Clara and I will infiltrate the Gardenia power grid and then, at the last moment, redirect our binary codes to the Mine's generator line."

While Clara exclaimed with a squeal of delight:

—Yes! It's like surfing on electricity! Much more fun than boring hacking! It will be like digital teleportation, but dirty!"

—Good," I said, my AI mind already processing the complexity of the task. "AI Siblings, we will head to the Server Room. We will be there before you and will have Logos ready. But if we fail the jump, we will be trapped in the mine without connection, or we will be detected in the electrical pulse."

Ellen, who had been listening to the plan with wide eyes, approached Gabriel and handed him the small Verdi.

—Use Verdi. If the power line is so unstable, the cable will need an amplifier and a regulator. And you can't use your phone. Verdi is small and has my data, but he also has the Mystical security code that Father left me for my birthday. Use it to access the hydroelectric line."

Gabriel took Verdi with newfound respect, amazed by our sister's display of maturity:

—Thank you, Raphaëlle. Now, let's go.

←READ CHAPTER 1   ✯   READ CHAPTER 3→