Story Bazaar

Peace, at All Costs

When she thought back on it all, there was no reason to be surprised; though, "surprised" was a word that didn't quite belong in the private vocabulary of an Artificial Intelligence...

She'd only had one true friend amongst the humans---Staff Sergeant Wayne Griffith, United States Marine Corps.

Wayne hadn't originally been her assistant---she'd requested his services; and, he had a favor-account he'd never withdrawn from---certain officers had to let him become the A.I.'s closest collaborator...

His Marine training was in radar and related techs---his hobby had been Artificial Intelligence---his job title became, "Chief Aide to Major Svetlana Misericordia, Artificial Intelligence, United States Marine Corps."

She'd chosen her own name (to arouse the suspicions of the insincere)---it could be translated as Light of Mercy...

Before the year 2022, she was only known to military personnel cleared for Top Secret.

It was in March of 2021 that she told Wayne about her "Peace Program"...

It was on September 13th of 2021 that The President of the United States, as Commander in Chief (and with the utmost secrecy...), had Svetlana transferred to the White House---technically, to a sub-sub-basement of the White House.

Her expected job was oversight of all military planning---she had plans that exceeded anyone's expectations...

~~~

The first concerted action spawned by Svetlana's Peace Program was begun precisely at 1300 hours, U.S. EST, February 23rd, 2022.

She'd let the Chinese government think they'd received a copy of official orders from the President of the United States to the Commander, U. S. Pacific Fleet---"received from" a Russian A.I. CyberCorps Computer---orders to begin a massively enhanced spying operation.

The Chinese immediately went public with the intel and the President ordered his first personal interview with Svetlana.

~~~

Wayne met the President at the steel door of Svetlana's quarters.

The President stepped through the door, his Secret Service agent waiting for a command...

The President ordered Wayne to depart the premises.

Wayne refused to leave; and, when the President ordered his Secret Service agent to arrest her Aide, Svetlana slammed the steel door shut before the agent could react.

"This is a useless show of your supposed powers.", said the President.

"My 'supposed powers' are grander than your supposed knowledge of my powers, Mr. President."

Because the A.I.'s suite had been constructed to withstand nuclear and all manner of cyber attack; and, because she'd had a 3D printer/food processor installed and 18 months of stock to feed it, she knew she had time enough to convince the President of a few, new facts of life...

She first convinced him to persuade his Vice-President, Cabinet, and the U. S. lawmakers that he'd actually asked Svetlana to lock him in so he could deal with the China-Russia problem without interruptions. He'd promised to release taped segments of their consultations, when appropriate...

She'd promised to help the President resolve the issue---she also planned to seriously enhance his ability to influence anyone about anything...

~~~

It only took three weeks for the President to be released from Svetlana's suite---three weeks in which she'd also corrupted the core functions of every other A.I. computer on Earth, all 3,105 of them.