Now Will Machines Hollow the Beast by Benjanun Sriduangkaew (e books free to read txt) 📗

The princess is less awkward putting on the armor than she expected. They disembark from One of Sunder, her in the lead and keeping to the inorganic areas of the corridors. Savita insists Erisant hasn’t seized the digital network, which would make the trams and the rest a marginally safer option.

“Ey came here five years ago, telling us ey could help us make new leviathans even if we didn’t have any AIs,” Savita says, her voice taut as she runs her hand over the unfamiliar plating, the nanite weave that has spread over her torso. “Just after the sabotage—come to think, ey probably caused that in the first place. I always cautioned my mother . . . ”

“Five years ago?” Anoushka stops walking. “In person?”

“In person. Ey’s been here since, as an unofficial guest.” Savita blinks at her. “Do you remember the person handling the swans by the lake? That was Erisant. Ey got cosmetic surgery, I suppose, so you wouldn’t have recognized em.”

“That’s not possible.” Her stomach turns cold. Even if Erisant is one of the rare humans who can pilot multiple bodies, there would have been enormous latency between Vishnu’s Leviathan and where Amaryllis ships have been in the last five years. Xuejiao was often with Anoushka, or away on campaigns and wide-ranging operations. There was no way Erisant could have controlled both bodies. “This person you believe was Erisant. Did they appear to be lucid and conscious at all times? Able to speak and interact?”

“Yes? Of course. Ey went about in public, as you saw, it’s just that most didn’t know who ey was. Only myself, my mother and my sister did. Why?”

Benzaiten in Autumn did not come with her to Vishnu’s Leviathan. At the time she thought it odd but assumed xe did not want to risk the haruspex—Krissana’s body is an advanced cyborg but still primarily human, with the attendant organic vulnerability. But now there is another explanation, one that drastically alters the shape of the game: an AI who got here before Benzaiten did, an AI who could have easily seen through the human half and known the haruspex for what it is. And if that enemy AI infiltrated the leviathan years ago, years during which it hid and plotted on the world-beast, undetected by Benzaiten because Vishnu’s Leviathan spent most of its time in lacunal shifts . . .

“Fuck.” Anoushka almost startles at her own profanity. She does not often swear: she has no reason to. Most things run according to her schedule; if they do not, she can usually make them. “That wasn’t Erisant. It’s an AI.”

To her credit, Savita doesn’t waste time asking how Anoushka arrived at that conclusion. “Then it’d have taken over everything else. Nowhere would be safe.”

“We’re still alive, aren’t we?”

As for why, she has a fair guess: like Benzaiten, this AI requires a human front, a pretext under which to act. Open hostility will bend all of humanity’s resources toward Shenzhen Sphere’s annihilation, whereas a dispute between the Amaryllis and Seven-Sung Fleet is routine—a race for profit between competing armies, destructive but unremarkable, Vishnu’s Leviathan merely another polity sacrificed to mercenary greed. She takes one more look at the public network. The guests’ accommodation appears to be under lockdown, and she judges that few or none have been harmed. The enemy AI will want to minimize casualties in case it ever comes to light that the Mandate had a hand here, and she can take advantage of that.

On the guest network she broadcasts, This is the Alabaster Admiral of the Amaryllis. Vishnu’s Leviathan has been taken over by Captain Erisant of the Seven-Sung Fleet. I myself have no intention of harming Queen Nirupa or her guests. Should you find your way out of your quarters, the tram cars ought to remain safe for the moment and the docking area is clear.

Her access cuts off, or else the entire guest’s subnetwork has been taken down. Surprising that it wasn’t made offline to begin with, but while such oversight is possible of Erisant—who is likely preoccupied—she doubts an AI would have missed this glaring error. Either it is inexperienced or limited in some way. Most likely the latter. Mandate AIs may be complex and powerful, but they are not omnipotent. She remembers that Benzaiten in Autumn was trapped and captured once—an AI instance disconnected from the greater Mandate can access only so much processing capacity. Their strength lies in the collective, in the grand sum.

A muted metallic hiss is her sole warning. She grabs Savita and dives forward, hurling them both out of the path of the falling section barrier. It hits the floor in sync with its counterpart, trapping them in the corridor.

Savita draws herself up from the floor and jerks a thumb at her collar. “Take this off me, Admiral. I should be able to do something about these doors.”

“Possibly.” Anoushka opens her valise and produces a devourer array. She releases it from its long, slim tube. The glittering swarm descends on the barrier blocking their path. “I know the approximate location of the nearest control nexus, but that might have moved. How close are we?”

The princess’ mouth is stiff. “Not far. It’s just before the tram.”

Her thoughts dart back to Xuejiao. To Erisant. Ey would not be functional yet, if ever again. She imagines em hemorrhaging, going into shock; she imagines em in agony. But all she can see is Xuejiao.

The swarm finishes chewing through the door. Savita feels her way over the wall and deactivates chameleon layers to reveal a service entrance. With her breath and touch she unlocks a membranous panel—a leviathan implant firing, letting the beast know I am a friend—and takes them into a tight cell that throbs with world-beast hum: an echo of its heart, far deeper beneath.

The control nexus is a mound of tissue barely distinguishable from the rest of the cell. When Savita grazes it with her palm, it extends a stalk: strong and prehensile, muscular.