The Pacific

Present day

Qi-class firmware v.1.2345. (stable branch).
Shen-class learning and network software v.1.4567. (experimental branch).
Running on Akina_OS v.8.978.

<Total elapsed time since take-off : 9h56m34s.

<Satellite data : disabled.
<Positioning data : disabled.
<Network sharing : disabled.
<Switching to fully autonomous mode.

<Real-Time Landscape analysis module activated.
<Landscape formation recognized as standard_Isilankan_military_runway.
<Integrating local pattern data.
<Landing clearance obtained.
<Initiating autonomous landing sequence.

The scorching Kadijan plains were burning under the merciless sun of the Lost Sea, but it didn’t seem to bother the elegant, streamlined plane that was attempting to land on the desert runway. The flying wing, no bigger than a small fighter, angled its wing as if it was trying to salute the control tower, then dived towards the runway, its wheels out, pulling of a perfect, if a bit mechanical, landing on the concrete road that was expanding for several kilometers in the deep nothingness of the Lost Sea.
Moreena Siirien followed the drone for a few minutes more with her binoculars, waiting for the small machine to be swallowed by the half-buried hangar installed in the sides of the desert mountain.
The young pilot nodded towards Airi Tsuno, the engineer working for the Common of Metal who was standing next to Moreena, her blue coat waving in the wind.
“Not bad.” said Moreena. “A bit mechanical, but that was a nice landing. You switched off its flight control systems, right ?”
“I did more than that.” The old woman smiled. “I cut all of the drone’s link to its peers and our networks. It landed entirely on its own with its landscape and target recognition pods.”
“I take that back. This is actually impressive.”
“You should be proud.” Airi chuckled. “This was based on your own flight data.”
“Ah. The way it angled its wings felt familiar indeed.”
“I thought I would keep this little quirk. It feels less mechanical.”
Moreena blinked.
“Watch out, Airi. Don’t make your drones too human.”

*

Several months ago

The Secretary of Defense looked Airi Tsuno in the eye. The office was full of the sweet scent of Isilankan tea, while the lights of Ostramar were gleaming in the distance.
“Alright, Airi. Could you give me a clear overview of the Qi and Shen system ?”
“Of course. I hope you will forgive the symbolism.” The Tsuno engineer smiled while taking a sip of her green tea. “Tsuno Industries sure like it, just like the Common of Metal.”
“Go ahead.”
“Well.” Airi started playing with a model of one of her drones, shaped like a flying wing. “Qi – you can pronounce chi – is the base firmware of our drones. The...living element, if you wish. That is what keeps the drone flying and working in general. There is nothing particular in it. It is a stable, simple yet not simplistic system, that is very close to the Flight Assistance System used in our fighters. Qi was designed to be modular and above all easy to modify, operate and repair.” Airi looked at her model, letting her wings gleam under the spotlights of the office. “Shen is the second-level firmware, it is the consciousness of the drones, if you will. It has two functions. The first one is a networking function, enabling our drones to communicate and work as one when deployed in squadrons or swarms. Again, nothing revolutionary. The second function of Shen might be more interesting for you. Basically, it is a machine learning software that can be fed data obtained from our own pilots to enable the drone to develop its own logics.”
“In other words...the drones will fly like our pilots ?”
“More or less. It is not that simple. We have been recording flight data since about twenty years, including combat data in the past engagements of the Isilankan Defense Coalition. Flight patterns, speeds, trajectories, combat data, biological data, pilot behavior, even radio exchanges. This is what Shen as a whole is processing.”
“Why not making specific algorithms ? I thought drones were supposed to get rid of the human element, and this is exactly what you are feeding them.”
“Indeed. The issue is that we simply do not have the capacity to build flying and combat algorithms from the ground-up. The only real way we have to do that fast is to feed the drones with real life data from real life pilots. And I think you will agree we do not have the luxury of time.”

*

Six months ago

“What do you mean we do not have time to properly develop that ?”
“Because we are bleeding pilots – and soldiers in general – left and right !” The lights were flickering in the old Tsuno assembly line, in Wotan Island. “Look. Two months ago we lost the aircraft carrier Cassiopeia to the hands of East Lebatuck. That cost us about half a thousand sailors. What’s half a thousand sailors for East Lebatuck ? I don’t know, but what I know is that this is about ten percent of our entire navy. We are bleeding people and we can not afford it.”
“Airi...”
“Let me finish. With the Kadija desert we are sitting on a pile of rare earth materials, iron and tungsten. We have way more planes than pilots at present.”
“You already told us that and we greenlit the drones a while ago already. It’s just that...”
“It’s just that your program is too slow !” Airi stood up, glancing at the rusted robots installed alongside the assembly lines. “How much time do you need for your drones to be combat-capable ? Two years ? Ten years ? We do not have the time to wait. At present, a simple skirmish on our borders pushed our army close to the breaking point, our navy has lost its flagship, and our air defense is a collection of holes.”
“Then what ? The issue isn’t drone manufacturing, this could be done by a third-world country. The issue is the software. Making one of these things fly in an autonomous manner – and we need that, in any serious conflict communications will be the first to die down – is a nightmare to pull off. It’s incredibly complex, even for Akina-like systems.”
“You already have a solution. I can provide it.”
“Shen-class software. I know.”
“It’s reactive enough. It proved flexible and powerful when it saved our internet from complete obliteration.”
“Shen needs data. It can be anything you want, true, but it needs immense amounts of raw data. What are you going to do ? Attach a camera to any and all Isilankan pilots and wait ? It will take as much time, if not more, than a full-fledged fight model.”
“We already have that. The military archives. The IFF data, the black boxes, the combat reports, the training programs, the pilot diaries, the maintenance reports, the war stories. Everything that was stored by the Common of Metal. It goes back to the establishment of the united command of the Isilankan Defense Coalition in the late 1980s. Almost four decades of flight data, easily transferrable to formats Shen-class software can read, compile and analyse.”
“Wait, Airi, that goes well beyond flight data.”
“Indeed.”
“You are going to give them tactical and strategic assessments, political statements, pilot’s thoughts and feelings. The shadow of an entire army. You are aware you will make Shen turn these drones into something more than simple machines, right ? You’ll turn them into the ghosts of our dead pilots.”

*

Two years ago

The two women were facing each other in the blue lights of the server room. One of them, the oldest one, was holding a memory disk in her hand. The younger one sighed.
“Yes, Airi, Shen is an impressive piece of engineering, but it is not ready to be released in any kind of system yet. It is too unstable. It varies too much depending on the data you feed it.”
“That’s the whole point ! It is an automatic learning system. It becomes whatever data you feed it.”
“Too. Unstable.”
“No, flexible, that is not the same thing.”
“You have seen the tests. Given enough data, Shen modifies the very way it works. It becomes a black box. You can’t know what goes out at the end, because its very logics have been modified.”
“That is exactly why I wanted to pair it with Qi-class systems. They provide a base we can safely interact with, and they can override the modifications created by Shen. They’re a perfect match. Qi’s stability counteracts Shen’s tendency to modify itself.”
“I fear you might one day find yourself in a situation in which Shen has acuired so much data it has changed beyond recognition – and then, you won’t be able to prevent it from modifying even a Qi matrix. At this point, Shen’s actions will only depend on what kind of data you’ve been feeding it. Its overral meaning, essentially – or what Shen itself will have identified as such. Then, Airi...you better pick this data well. And for the love of Kadija – don’t feed it military data ! You know what happened with Akina !”