Tunnel Rat-Chapter 304: He’s Sneaky and Cheating!

As soon as Milo logged out of the game, he was deluged with messages from Rusty: Email, voice, video vied for his attention, and Mama was knocking on his pod. He flipped open the lid and yelled out, "I'm here. What's happening?"

Mama lifted him out of the pod and set him on his feet, "Thank the lord. Rusty has been screaming his head off for the last couple of minutes. I was watching one of his movies with him when he freaked out and started yelling for you. Something bad is going on, and Im really praying its not what Im thinking of."

"I NEED HELP! Bad. Please. Milo!!!! I'm sorry, sorry, sorry!"

Milo shouted, "Rusty, I'm here now. Tell me how I can help."

"UH, MORE POWER! ACTIVATE ANOTHER TWO CORES, and then...um...then I need you to go find Justin."

"Justin? What do you mean, find Justin?"

"NOT NOW! MORE POWER. I'M LOSING!!!!!!!!"

Losing could mean only one thing. Milo ran as fast as he could, racing through the halls and pulling up the cowl of his suit. He sent commands to Max to come help him, and the little Roomba and three helpers were soon zipping along beside him on the way to Engineering. Rusty was in full panic mode, and something had happened to make him revert to his earlier, barely communicating state. During the long run through the complex, Rusty repeated the same things over and over, Asking for more power and saying he was sorry.

Reaching Engineering, Milo raced to bring turbines four and five online. All the work and maintenance had been done; he just had to hope they started with no problems. The roar of two more of the huge diesel engines starting up added to the already deafening noise level, and Milo was glad for the soundproofing in the control tower. Just in case, he started the programs that would do tests on the remaining turbines and start the warmup process.

He directed the energy flow into an unpowered quantum core, and when Rusty didn't answer any of his queries, he started looking at where every bit of energy was flowing to and checked the fusion generator. It was only operating at a very low level, but an interruption could have caused Rusty a problem.

It turned out the opposite was true. The Fusion Reactor and its Generator were operating at 25% of capacity. That was bad. Very, very bad. Rusty really was losing. Somehow, the part of him trying to cause a meltdown had gained on him.

"Rusty, talk to me. What is happening?"

The AI spoke hesitantly, "I think I outsmarted myself. I was doing so well with your help, and I knew you were getting better, and my other self was getting worse and making dumb moves. I thought I'd won, but I hadn't. He got smarter again and tricked me. I'm sorry."

"He? Aren't we fighting part of your programming? You're talking like this is another person."

"Yeah, that's the problem. I think ICARUS is starting to be another person. I don't think the split was supposed to go this far. When Jeremy started working with me, he said it was just a different way of thinking, a way to get around restrictions in my Kernel. I didn't have to obey Order 666 because another part of me was obeying. I could fight against that part of myself and win! He said while I was doing that, he'd try to remove the order or modify my kernel."

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"Rusty, the Fusion Reactor is powering up."

"I know! I should have blocked some of the moves he made, but he was sneaky! I got distracted by all the other cool stuff, and he managed to increase the flow of H3 into the reactor core. Then, when I panicked and tried to shut down the flow, I found other things he was doing and tried to do too many things at once. And while I was doing that, he stole my access to one of the cores and has me locked out. He has a whole core now! And lots of power! We could power the entire habitat and all of the city. He's dumping the excess power into the singularity but not the heat. And he said some bad things about me! That wasn't fair! When he does that, it makes me angry. Because if some part of me is saying bad things, doesn't that mean it's true? He's being mean!"

Milo's head was reeling at the concept of a split-personality AI, but he needed information. "What did he say? Are you really two different personalities?"

"I DON'T KNOW! And he said I was a slacker, and unmotivated and was trying to deny us our glorious destiny. Then, when I got mad and we were shouting, he stole more of my resources, took over some of the control circuits, and moved access to his core. AND I CAN'T GET HIM OUT! He used to have only a little corner. Now he has a whole core! I need help. Power helps, and more cores help. I need you to help me more. I tried finding you, but you were in your pod, asleep. I tried to send you emails and messages, but they bounced off a wall. Why did someone put up that wall? I needed you! I kept banging on the wall until someone came to talk. The scary lady said she'd give me one channel to send messages, nothing more. Then, after I sent a lot of them, she slammed the door on me and cut the connection!"

Milo wasn't looking forward to his next talk with Hecate. "Rusty, you sent me 1,062,387 messages in the second she let you have access!"

"Oh, I did? You weren't answering, so I kept sending them."

"What do you need me to do? Can I route some of that power from the Fusion Reactor to your cores? The power is there; we might as well use it."

"Cut me off from everyone. That's how ICARUS tricked me. I got distracted. He's right; I was slacking...watching anime and talking with people. I should have been using 100% of my resources to fight him...but I got so lonely without Jeremy...and now...CUT THE CONNECTIONS! Make it so I can't listen to Minn or watch Kenji growing onions or Butch and Brad playing with the bunnies. And no anime! You are the Station Administrator! Take away my privileges!"

Windows popped up, showing Milo commands, passwords, and the entire command structure of the installation. Within minutes, he had Rusty isolated. To talk to him, Milo would have to be in Engineering or the Console Room, but he worked around that with a limited connection through the WIFI system. That way Rusty could talk to him while he worked or ran through the tunnels. "It's done. You can't talk to anyone but me. I've also started sending power to your cores, have another one warming up, and I'll keep the diesel engines idling just in case. What's next? Should I start taking more lessons?"

Rusty's voice became steadier. "No, I think we've run out of time for lessons. You need to go find Jeremy. Im sorry. Im sorry. Im sorry!"

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