Chapter 1547 - The Incident in Heaven (2/2)
“No. Logically possible. Cortex Prime is also a conventional artificial system; it is possible for it to suffer a failure or mess up.” N-4 looked at N-6 with a serious look. For Executrices like them, the Cortex Prime was as important as their most beloved monarch and father, but when reality hit, N-4 could only say this, “There had been symptoms a few years ago, but all the subordinate nodes had no access to relevant data, such ordinary Executrices like us had no idea of the changes in the Cortex Prime.”
“A few years ago?” Hao Ren was a little surprised. At first, he thought that it was his ominousness that caused this. Now, it turned out that the Cortex Prime had started to go wrong several years ago. “What happened in heaven? You better tell us in detail what the Cortex Prime is.”
“The Cortex Prime is the command node of all the Executors. As you know, it’s located in the fortress of the lunar base. Thirteen giant servers form its brain. In the core of the Zenith is the secondary nervous center of the Cortex Prime, responsible for conveying the commands of the Cortex Prime directly to the space fortress,” N-4 said faintly. “The Cortex Prime has been the one commanding the Executors’ activities. It issues commands to the servers in the barracks and factories, then forwards the instructions to each of us. There never were any issues with this procedure for thousands of years.
“But, confusion started to emerge in the instructions issued by the Cortex Prime a few years ago.
“It began to frequently modify the surface battle plan, add a large number of unnecessary and even repeated production tasks to the production process of the lunar base. It issued an order to substantially send more attack echelon formations to the home planet, even if this blind increase in troops will overload the production and maintenance capacity of the lunar base.
“Contradiction began to crop up in the transfer of information of the Cortex Prime. That has happened only a few times, but it was unprecedented.
“All these signs have appeared in the past few years.”
N-6 stared at N-4, wide-eyed. “Why did I not learn about these things before? I am not talking about the question of authority; I am a combatant, but I have never received these strange instructions.”
“Because seven of the thirteen giant servers in the Cortex Prime have withdrawn these error commands before being sent out,” N-6 replied quietly.
Hao Ren’s heart missed a beat. That was to say, these wrong instructions had never been sent out but vetoed by the Cortex Prime itself in its internal system loops. These unreleased instructions had not caused any real impact but just some system logs?
Then how could N-4 and N-6, executrices with the same level of authority, know about these things?
N-6 was also curious. “N-4, how do you know this?”
“Because the Cortex Prime directly contacted us,” N-4 pointed to her chest. “It did not go through the servers and relay stations but passed the information directly to our logic. I saw the syslog of the Cortex Prime for the past few years and received an order.”
Hao Ren and Vivian asked in unison, “What order?”
“It ordered us to come to the surface and look for an alien spaceship that had crashed on the home planet.”
“I see. That is why you guys are here.” Hao Ren seemed to have figured out something. He leaned back in the chair and looked into the eyes of N-4. “Did the Cortex Prime tell you what to do after finding this spaceship?”
“No,” N-4 gave a frank reply.
“You guys come without even know the purpose of the mission?”
“We have to obey the commands of the Cortex Prime because it represents the will of humankind,” N-4 replied matter-of-factly—so naturally that it made everyone speechless.
Hao Ren knew N-4 was only an AI. Even though she was almost like a human, but her logical thinking and worldview were still very different. So, Hao Ren did not delve into the topic. Instead, he asked, “Let me guess: Before you came, the Cortex Prime forbade others from searching for the spaceship?”
“Yes.”