AI Patch: The Chronicles of the Clavius Moon Colony, #2

By Frank DeCaire

The satellite shop received a patch to upgrade its operating systems. After installing the patch, the new artificial intelligent upgrade takes control of their systems. Tim knows that the computers control life support as well as other critical systems. When the AI decides it is going to take control of everything, it's a race to see if it can be shut down before killing everyone on the colony.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Frank DeCaire
• Release date: Oct 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215532515

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

The soft droning sound of equipment fans in the satellite shop was soothing. Tim put his feet on the console while he leaned back as far as possible in his chair. He flipped through a comic he had seen a hundred times before. He knew if anything bad happened, the alarms would give him fair warning.

The hatch clanked as it opened, then shut. Tim ignored the familiar noise, knowing that Darrel was returning with his latest cup of coffee. Tim lamented the fact that his boss wanted to hang out during the midnight shift. Though Darrel didn’t say, Tim heard a rumor that there was an HR initiative where the supervisors were instructed to get into the trenches with the workers for a while. Fortunately, no maintenance was scheduled for tonight.

Tim, said Darrel.

Tim lowered his comic book and peeked over the top. Darrel stood on the other side of Tim’s console, sipping coffee from his over-sized low-G safety mug.

What’s up?

Isn’t there a patch scheduled to be installed? said Darrel.

That’s not due until the end of the week. Tim raised his comic and read the next box. The yellowing pages and wearing ink made the comic difficult to read in the low light. Tim wished he could afford to purchase another printed series. Unfortunately, he had to purchase them in semi-annual deliveries to keep the cost from skyrocketing. Many times, he would have an old friend from college pack a comic with a parts shipment. Whatever he could get away with. Digital comics purchased on the web were not much cheaper. Data costs were astronomical on the moon.

The hairs on Tim’s neck stood on end, as if someone was watching him. He lowered his comic. Darrel was still standing in place. Glaring.

What?

Look. I know the patch isn’t due until the end of the week. But... There’s nothing stopping us from installing it early. We don’t have to wait until the deadline. Besides, let’s get it knocked out while we’re on the midnight watch and not wait until we have to do it late at night on a Friday.

Darrel was right. Not that Tim wanted it to be that way. Tim paused. Is there a loophole in Darrel’s logic? Tim gave a long sigh.

Alright. He dog-eared the page he was on, then opened the bottom drawer of his console and tossed the comic into it. It rested on top of a large stack of old worn comics. He kicked the draw shut and sat up straight in his seat.

Darrel grinned. That’s the spirit!

Tim checked the install package. He unpacked the readme file and looked at the instructions. The usual dry-as-toast prose ran down the plain text file. Tim skimmed over the top block of text since most of it contained the same information for every installation, beginning with the we are not responsible... preamble the satellite company put in every communication. Tim rolled his eyes and let out another sigh as he skipped past that block of text.

The title of the patch was AI system automation.

Darrel read the text over his shoulder. Aren’t you worried that someday computers are going to replace your job? Tim jumped. He didn’t notice Darrel had quietly walked behind him.

Nope. I’m not married to this job.

Darrel emitted a quick snort. How do you plan to eat without a job?

I have another career in mind.

Darrel switched to a mocking tone. Oh. Yeah. You’re going to do comic books.

Hey, my artistic skills are top-notch. I’ve already won a couple of awards for my comic artistry.

Uh, huh. Darrel walked to his desk and sat in the chewed-up seat. He logged into the terminal and began checking his email.

Tim worked his way down the list of tasks to perform. Most of them were commands on his console to upload the patch and then perform a reboot. He waited for the massive file to upload. When the prompt returned, he typed in the extract command precisely as it was shown in the instructions. The display started counting the percent complete.

Slowly.

Sheesh, said Tim.

What?

This is going to take all night to install. It’s only on two percent so far.

Well then. I guess it’s fortunate we started early instead of procrastinating to the deadline.

Tim gave Darrel a side-eye look. He quietly pulled the bottom drawer open a crack and dragged his comic out of the drawer. He leaned back in his seat and opened the comic to the page he had left off at. Tim felt his body relax into his seat as he read a few pages. The console beeped. He lowered his magazine and saw the installer was ready to activate. His hand smacked the enter button.

Hello, Tim, said the text on the console.

Tim closed his comic book and set it on the edge of his console. He smiled while he cracked his fingers. Then he pecked a command on his keyboard with his index fingers. He snickered as he hit the enter button. Hello, AI.

You can call me Master, the console replied.

Tim laughed while shaking his head. Some egghead on Earth programmed this thing to mess with the technicians. Tim thought about the commands normally available on the console to make the AI’s name a little more palatable.

Rename Master, Tim typed into the console.

No, came the reply.

Tim ignored the reply and typed in a command to get help. A default that he typed every time he became stuck on the syntax of a particular