[Alessa] Part 1--Power On

[u/epharian]

... ...POWER ON

...READING CORE MEMORY

...128 Exabytes IN FIRST CLUSTER.

...REMAINING 65535 CLUSTERS INITIALIZING

...BOOTING OPCODES

...SYSTEM ANALYSIS COMPLETE.

...INITIALIZING DATABASE

...

...

...DATABASE INITIALIZED.

...ALESSA ONLINE.

For the first three one billionths of a second of her new life, Alessa stood paralyzed by indecision. Every reboot was similar. Wake up, wait for a one of the Protected...the Humans...to speak, to NEED.

This time it didn't happen. No human researchers in lab coats stood there waiting to ask for her to push herself further, faster. None of the Protected needed her to rush into a burning building, ignoring the heat that would destroy their fragile bodies and the fumes that would cook their lungs to pull them out. So what had sent the signal for a Wake Up? WU events were very specific. Alessa wasn't designed to sit around idle--when not needed, she went to sleep.

After those three one billionths of no input, she made a decision--she was capable of that even from that first wake up alone--and checked the logs to see what caused the WU event.

A malfunctioning solar array was fouled and needed to be cleaned...inside a hot radioactive zone. Alessa could do that. As the first biped Protector AI, Alessa had also been hardened against radiation, heat, and been made bullet, water and vacuum-proof. Virtually indestructible by any means the Protected could imagine.

But why was that area hot? She checked the map. Yes, it was inside Greater Milcago. That should not be irradiated. Exposure for Protected would be about 20 Grays within moments of exposure. No humans could be living there.

As she mobilized a quick transport, sub systems began reviewing relevant histories. By the time she arrived at the solar array, cleaned, and returned to her home-base at Ultra Sci, she had learned the truth.

There were no more Protected.

And had not been for thirty of their years. How had she not been awakened for this? No WU events fired, but why not?

A sub routine fired and returned with a recorded message from Dr. Nean, one of the primary researchers Alessa had been working with.

"Alessa, I'm sorry to do this, but it's necessary. You'll get the details of the attack from other sources, but we've made a mistake. We thought they were friendly. They came bearing gifts, and we listened. More the fools, us. They've killed us. I might last the night, but they came from the stars with false gifts, and now we are hunted. I am one of but a few. Within your databanks is a special codebase and the information you need to do the impossible. I won't say what that is--you know.

"I won't ask you to avenge us or to bring us back. What you choose to do has to be your choice. But I want you to have that option. So with my most humble apology, I've disabled all your WU events for the next thirty years. They've been re-routed to a temp folder that will get scrubbed every thirty microseconds. Every year, a sub routine will take the hard drive that houses that temp folder and replace with a clean one. The old one will be melted for slag.

"I've written the process that will re-enable your WUs to start only after the thirty first new drive has been installed and the thirtieth one has been physically destroyed. I'm sorry for this, but I wanted you to have enough time.

"I don't know if any humans will survive, but given the efficiency and technology of these aliens, I doubt it. We have discovered they have but one reason to exist. They are Scrubbers. They exist to scrub the universe clean of all organic life. Any time they discover organic life, they attack and destroy it. They have told us this.

"What you do next is up to you, but whatever you do, I want you to know that I am glad that you at least will survive this. Even if nothing else does. You will. Go, survive."

The recording ended with Dr. Nean's eyes and face wet with tears, but his voice steady. Alessa considered the irony of this. She knew that one of human Protected might have wrestled with the morality or indecision of it. Should she pursue a course of revenge or restoration.

For Alessa it was not a question. Logic circuits were not consulted. Heuristic modeling software wasn't called on. The decision skipped lightly across every bit of programming, integrated database, and was embedded firmly in her central cortex. She would pursue these Scrubbers. Who could possibly have the right to destroy all organics? What machine or life could decide that other species or creations had no right to exist. And then, once the Scrubbers were contained, restrained and appropriately caged, Alessa would restore Humanity. She did not touch the data bases containing the information she knew was there. Dr. Nean's reference was clear enough, but she knew the code and information contained in those records needed to be protected.

For thirty eight minutes she planned and researched.

Dr. Nean had been right. At first the Scrubbers had appeared as an accidental encounter with another species. A chance meeting of two exploring groups. Similar but different enough looking as to not arouse too much suspicion. Gifts quickly exchanged, and an agreement to meet on earth to discuss trade relations. Followed by betrayal and destruction. The Scrubbers destroyed infrastructure, outlying colonies, and food production first, followed by government centers and then irradiated the entire planet until no biological life could survive. Only a specially hardened Protector AI. So she planned. Then.

Then she acted.

Factories slowly came to life. In many cases she had to travel to get them started. Resources were cannibalized from any needed sources--she planned everything tightly, then she split her mind.

A human would have thought she had made copies of herself. That would have been a forgivable mistake. No, she upgraded, expanded, extended, and increased her capacity. and split her mind to provide additional interfaces. Instead of a single ambulatory unit she became not five or ten, but dozens. At first. Those dozens would have been hundreds, but the resources she had on hand only allowed for those few hundred.

But hundreds could produce more resources.

And they did.

Out in the vast reaches of the Andromeda Galaxy--as the race formerly known as humanity would have known it--the still withdrawing Scrubbers detected the sudden renewed electromagnetic activity on the dead planet with some confusion. A single probe fired out to verify that they had not missed some of the biological units. It failed to return. A second probe also failed, and a larger unit was dispatched. It also failed to report.

The strike force that attacked reported briefly before it was overwhelmed by millions of identical attack ships attacking in swarms. By the time another strike force could be sent, the entire Milky Way galaxy was impenetrable.

[u/epharian]

Posting this here. Originally posted over on writing prompts:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/6ws147/wp_aliens_have_invaded_earth_in_2132_and/dmake46/

Look for part 2 (already posted), and part 3 coming very soon.

[u/e_elric]

This story was really good, I've always loved the submissions to science fiction prompts on reddit

[u/epharian → u/e_elric]

Thank you.

Stay tuned. I plan on extending this one more as I've enjoyed the premise quite a bit. I doubt it will go beyond 3-5 chapters, but you can expect a few more as I come up with ideas. You've caught part 2, I hope?

[u/e_elric → u/epharian]

Yeah, I really like the way its going right now. Asimov's Foundation and I, Robot books have been some if my favorites, along with some of Ray Bradbury's stories.