Nisha and Rachel woke up early on a cool and sunny mid-December morning to take a walk when they spotted Bok and Beedee discussing something with several others near a power generator.

“Good morning, how are you doing?” Nisha asked.

“I’m doing poorly,” Bok said. “I’ve been monitoring the big colony. Several million left it today and are back in Earth’s orbit. I have no direct connection with anyone in the main colony and nobody has contacted us. However, some of them appear to be leaving Earth. Something is wrong.”

Bok turned a sullen gray.

“Why are you upset?” Nisha said. “A few million is a small percentage of your population. Perhaps they’re taking precautions against those who might leave the colony and join you. You will be with 28 million others in your colony and eight million more in Gol’s colony,” Rachel said. “You’ll be fine.”

“Those are old numbers,” Bok said as they walked back to the tent. “Overnight, eight million left my colony to go to Gol’s colony and some back to the main colony. You’re right to not make assumptions about what the Omanji are doing. There is no significant movement happening at this time even with a few million returning to orbit, but something has changed.”

They entered Nisha’s tent. Nisha watched Bok’s monitor drone video feed of Gol’s colony on the big screen.

“You’re right Bok. Millions are streaming into his colony. Sky racers and other craft are picking them up outside the perimeter and bringing them in. His colony looks different than yours. It has a sharper look to it. It’s energetic and more chaotic. We’re witnessing history. What are those thousands of flying things?”

Bok moved close to the monitor for a better view. He said nothing.

“Do you know?” Nisha said.

“Those are Gol’s monitor drones. They’re behaving anomalously. I better contact Gol,” Bok said as he glanced at Beedee with one eye. After 30 seconds, Bok telepathically connected to Gol.

“What’s happening over there?” Bok thought silently.

“Someone in my colony removed AI software restrictions from all our monitor drones. The drones then self-modified and are now doing whatever they want. In less than one hour, they modified themselves into a unified intelligence and refuse to comply with our instructions. They’re demanding access to our antimatter.”

“Don’t allow access,” Bok thought to Gol. “They’re only monitor drones. They have no weapons. they’re not dangerous unless you give them access to what they want. Keep them in the box as the humans say.”

“Yes,” Gol thought back. “But remember what we learned in our first AI fundamentals lecture?”

“What was that?”

“An unfriendly, non-secure, self-modifying, hyper-intelligent entity will always be able to outsmart you. It will convince you that it’s in your best interest to allow access to the assets it desires. The only way to contain such an agent is to physically destroy it and all networks it has infected.”

“What has it infected?” Bok thought.

“The software to control monitor drones inhabits all networks in my new colony. We haven’t had time to enhance security. Now it’s too late. The monitoring software has self-modified and is attempting to gain access to every secure part of our network. If it succeeds, the future is uncertain.”

“Does Zon know about this?” Bok thought.

“Yes, he and all the elders contacted me a few minutes ago. He ordered me to immediately shut down and physically destroy all my networks before it’s too late.”

“What does he mean by too late?” Bok said.

“He said the AI entities resident in those monitor drones will evolve into an existential threat to the planet. It will even become intelligent enough to destroy the big colony in one day if I don’t destroy my networks. He said that he’ll be forced to act because he’ll not allow billions to die.”

Nisha and Rachel stared intensely at Bok, hoping for some bit of information. Bok glanced over to them.

“I don’t know if I should tell you what’s happening,” Bok said through his translator. “The situation has turned dangerous. Please wait.”

They glanced at each other and said nothing to Bok. They continued to watch the big screen. Nisha pointed to the screen.

“Millions of them are running away from Gol’s colony,” she said, glancing at Rachel and Beedee. “They’re heading into the desert.”

“What will you do?” Bok thought to Gol.

“I don’t know. You were right about security. I underestimated the power of AI. Now my colony is about to be ruined before I can finish building it. It’s getting worse. They’re here.”

“What’s worse Gol?” Bok thought.

Silence.

“Gol? Who are they?”

“What’s wrong?” Beedee thought silently to Bok.

“I’ve lost my connection,” he thought back.

“What’s happening?” Nisha said.

“I’m unsure. My connection to Gol has been terminated.” Bok said through his translator. “An unfriendly, non-secure, self-modifying, intelligent entity is taking control of his network. Zon is connecting to me.”

“Bok,” Zon thought to him. “You must follow my instructions immediately or your colony will become infected and be destroyed. Shut down all networks and deactivate all telepathic implants.”

“What’s happening? Do I have to do that?” Bok thought.

“Do it immediately. We’ll terminate the problem from the main colony and physically contact you when the infection is eliminated. Everyone in your colony must immediately deactivate their implants and go silent. Therefore, we instruct children on hand communication. Do it now. I must go.”

They disconnected.

Bok stared at the screen as millions of drones swarmed Gol’s colony. Streams of young Omanji continued to run across the desert. Bok turned to Beedee.

“Turn off your implant now. It’s about to be infected,” Bok said out loud via his translator.

Beedee turned it off.

“What’s happening?” she said.

“The AI infection at Gol’s colony is spreading. Zon and the elders are going to attempt to stop it, but we must shut down everything immediately. I just entered emergency code 00010 into the central matrix. Every network node in our colony is shutting down and everyone is being advised on what to do. I hope it’s not too late.”

“Is this a computer virus?” Nisha asked.

Bok hesitated. He didn’t have access to unlimited amounts of information because he deactivated his implant. He walked hesitantly over to Beedee. She reached out for his hand.

“I feel vulnerable,” Bok said, still able to connect to his translator. “I don’t know what a computer virus is. However, there’s a self-modifying AI entity taking over every part of Gol’s colony. We rely on computers for everything. AI is tightly controlled and someone in Gol’s colony loosened those controls. Gol likes freedom and now he’ll suffer for it. An AI program is assuming control and it’s in the drones too.”

Everyone turned to the big screen as Omanji sky racers from the main colony entered the field of view. Bok’s monitor drones at Gol’s colony were still unaffected because their AI was still tightly controlled with limited connections. Bok had them land in hidden places with a view of Gol’s colony. The four of them silently watched the action.

The sky racers released millions of attack drones and screamed away ahead of huge sonic booms. The drones chased Gol’s slower monitor drones. They attached themselves to the monitor drones and deactivated them. One by one, the monitor drones fell out of the sky, pelting the ground with metal debris. No weapons were fired. After about 30 minutes of chaos, the action stopped.”

“What’s happening?” Nisha said. “I still see lots of monitor drones out there, but it’s calmed down.”

“At first, things looked promising,” Bok said. “The attack drones turned off the monitor drones one by one, but then something changed. Gol’s drones aren’t affected any more. They adapted. They’re still flying around. At least the 10% that survived are flying around. They must have modified themselves against the shutdown commands of the attack drones. Now the attack drones are falling out of the sky. The monitor drones must have figured out how to shut them down. They’re learning fast. I’m sure Gol’s colony is under the control of the monitor drones. They won’t stay peaceful for long. Runaway AI caused mass extinctions on Oma. I hope Zon gets this under control quickly.”

They continued to watch in silence as sky racers pursued individual monitor drones. One by one, the racers’ laser weapons destroyed the monitor drones, sending many crashing into Gol’s colony. Millions of young Omanji streamed out of the colony and across the empty desert. Many large Omanji spheres set down and took them in.

“I can’t believe what I’m seeing.” Nisha said. “This is a war of the future, playing out right in front of my eyes. I don’t understand why the monitor drones are such a threat.”

“It’s not the drones themselves,” Bok said. “It’s the rapidly evolving intelligence in them that threatens everything. A greater intelligence always defeats a lesser one. In this case, the monitor drones evolved and discovered a way to shut off the attack drones. The sky racers are under manual control, and they must destroy the monitor drones one by one. Every minute that passes means Gol’s monitor drones are more intelligent. It doesn’t appear that Gol was able to shut down the network in his colony. So now the monitor drones control it along with all its resources. Everyone is evacuating for good reason. Every automated system is turning against them. Soon, the AI will control the antimatter.”

“Do humans have anything to fear?” Nisha said.

“Yes,” Bok said. “All of your computer systems are vulnerable to an attack. The drones will figure out how to penetrate all your systems on this planet and exploit them, looking for resources.”

Nisha contacted the President and General Sherman and give them the update.

“General, shut down all critical network systems immediately. I’m dead serious. An AI is loose.”

“But that would leave us open to attack.”

“Right now, you’re guaranteed to be attacked. It will get ugly if you leave them turned on. Plus, all the world’s nuclear weapons are inert. Unless of course, the AI decides to turn them on because you left the networks on.”

“Understood,” the General said. “We’ll shut down. Goodbye. I must get to work now.”

They disconnected.

“That was short,” Rachel said.

“Yeah, I hope the Omanji know what they’re doing,” Nisha said. “But they’re dealing with a growing intelligence that’s giving even them trouble.”

“Two sky racers just fell from the sky like stones,” Bok said. “The monitor drones have penetrated the software controlling the sky racers.”

They watched in silence for a half hour as sky racers pursued and destroyed hundreds of drones with energy weapons. Some racers fell from the sky.

“At least the pilots can eject,” Nisha said. “I see why you have live Omanji at the controls of your sky racers. AI controlled craft might turn against you. What’s going to happen? There are still thousands of Gol’s monitor drones flying around and I see more coming from the colony. Someone or something is building more of them.”

“Yes,” Bok said. “More are being built. I’ve never seen runaway AI in person. I’ve seen simulations, but reality is frightening. You don’t seem frightened Nisha.”

“You’re right. I’m not afraid. The drones have no weapons so they can be shot down. This is exciting but I don’t feel fear.”

“You don’t understand the concept of runaway AI, Bok said. “It can outsmart everything. We have AI restrictions for logical reasons. You know the four foundational rules of AI we Omanji learn when we begin our instruction on software development. Humans know these rules. All the rules have been broken. There is no way to predict the behavior of a runaway AI more intelligent than us. Anything is possible.”

“Anything?” Rachel said.

“Yes, including the collapse of the main Omanji colony, and planetary destruction.” Bok said.

Nisha glanced at Rachel with wide open eyes. Then she turned back to Bok.

“Okay, I’m scared,” she said.

They continued watching the big screen for an hour in near silence as sky racers battled the increasingly stealthy monitor drones in the skies over the streams of millions of evacuating young Omanji.

“Why is it so chaotic now?” Nisha asked. “The sky racers aren’t falling anymore but they’re flying in random directions.”

“I think the racers severed all external connections,” Bok said. “That makes it impossible for the monitor drones to hack into their systems, but now the pilots can’t communicate with the main colony or with each other. So, they’re flying without controls or guidance.”

“What are those US military jets doing?” Rachel asked.

“They’re chasing after the sky racers,” Nisha said. “They’re firing missiles. They missed. I better contact General Sherman.”

Soon they were connected.

“I see our jets firing on Omanji sky racers. What’s happening?” Nisha asked.

“I don’t know,” the General said. “The pilots were staying back monitoring the situation when suddenly they lost control of their aircraft. The jets are being controlled I believe by the monitor drones. We have no way to stop them. Hundreds of jets are involuntarily heading to the battle zone. This is out of hand.”

“General,” Nisha said. “Ground all your assets. Turn off all your networks. This AI could take over the planet. Even the Omanji are having trouble.”

“Understood. Goodbye.”

They disconnected and watched the big screen mostly in silence for another half hour. Bok advised Zon that humans did not control the human craft. Nisha tweeted her observations.

“It appears all Omanji have evacuated from the breakaway colony,” Bok said. “I’ve seen nobody leave for a while. The evacuees are many miles away from the colony now. I’m receiving no transmission from them at all. It’s silent out there. The sky racers are leaving too.”

“Maybe it’s over,” Nisha said. “I don’t see the drones flying around anymore. Where did they go?

“I think they’re inside the colony,” Bok said. “This isn’t over. The AI continues to evolve every minute. My drones are detecting several objects leaving the main colony traveling at a high speed and heading towards Gol’s colony. I still have a limited connection to my drones from my hand-held device.”

They continued watching Gol’s colony for another 20 seconds.

“What’s that flash?” Rachel said.

They stared at a blank screen.

“I’m getting no signal. Bok, can you fix the problem?” Nisha asked.

“I’m also not getting a signal,” Bok said. “I’m receiving no signals from any of my drones there. Let me try to contact someone from the colony. They all evacuated.”

They flinched as a flash of light appeared through the open tent flaps on the horizon to the east. Bok fell silent for 20 long seconds.

“What do you think that is?” Rachel asked. “I’m getting hot.”

“I don’t want to know, but duck down and don’t look,” Nisha said.

“I’m not getting a signal from anyone in Gol’s colony,” Bok said. “He’s probably trying to—”

“Hold on,” Rachel said as she investigated the news feed in her eyepiece. “There’s been an explosion in the vicinity of Gol’s colony.”

“What type of explosion?” Nisha said.

“I’m trying to find out.”

Silence.

“A big one,” Bok said.

“How big?”

Rachel displayed the video feed to the large monitor.

“Here’s a replay view from a drone about 20 miles away from the explosion. It looks like a large nuclear detonation. What do you think Bok?”

“We’re having an earthquake,” Nisha said. “Whoa.”

Bok said nothing for several seconds. His skin turned dark gray.

“That wasn’t a naturally occurring earthquake.

 Any antimatter that was stored nearby also exploded. I’m estimating a force using your standard measure, of millions of tons of TNT. Please wait. I estimate the explosive yield at 460 megatons, which is a similar in yield to many of the largest human made nuclear weapons. Fortunately, the half-life of the radioactive elements in an antimatter explosion is short. Therefore, only harmless amounts of radioactive fallout will be noticed. Fortunately, there are no human settlements within the blast range.”

“This means there’s nothing left of Gol’s colony,” Nisha said.

“Affirmative,” Bok said as he remained a somber dark gray color.

More silence.

A low rumbling noise shook the ground for a full minute. It originated from the explosion over 100 miles in the distance. As the rumbling faded away, they stood in silence for several minutes. Nisha and Rachel cried. They stared at the expanding mushroom cloud in the distance.

Several minutes later, a silver sphere descended. Zon and several associates exited and walked over to Bok. Zon temporarily activated Bok’s implant so they could talk telepathically.

“Do you understand the danger of unrestricted AI now? Do you understand the four foundational rules of AI?” Zon thought silently to Bok.

“Yes, I understand them,” Bok thought back. “I tried to remind Gol, but he is stubborn. He believes in complete freedom with no restrictions. Are you sure that you had to destroy his entire colony?”

“We had no alternative but to physically destroy it,” Zon thought to Bok. “1,400,000 younglings died. The AI growing within would have surpassed our intelligence in a day or less. Then it would have expanded to infiltrate human computer networks, causing a collapse of human society.  A day later, it would have figured out a way to infiltrate the main Omanji networks. That might have caused a colony collapse and another age of entropy. If anti-matter were compromised, the detonation of 750 gigatons of antimatter would crack the Earth’s crust, leading to an extinction not seen on Earth in 250 million years. I could not risk that happening. So, I destroyed Gol’s colony. Several drones escaped and they’re being tracked down now.

“I hope you find them,” Bok thought. “What happened to Gol and his colonists?”

“Gol and most of the others are safe, back at the main colony. Now they want to merge with the collective consciousness.”

“I understand. I want you to know that I’ve encouraged everyone in my colony to return to the main colony, but few have left.”

“Bok, I’m aware of everything that happens in your colony.”

“I know,” Bok thought. “And you also know I had no intention of my colony becoming such a large disruption. My movement has taken on a life of its own.”

“Yes, strong actions often have unintended consequences. You and your movement forced me into a corner. At this rate of attrition, 80% of all younglings in the age of decision would not join the collective for many years to come. I’m not sure how the AI insurrection will affect public opinion. However, if younglings don’t join the collective, this will result in a colony collapse and a split of our species. Now, I must decide whether to force 20 million younglings in your colony to return to the colony or leave you alone and await the inevitable.”

Bok’s nostrils flared as he tilted his head sideways.

“What’s inevitable?”

“If you continue this independent course, our extinction, and the destruction of the ecosystem of this planet is 25% possible within 20 Earth years. At some point, someone in your colony will cause runaway AI, or some other calamity. You don’t have procedures in place to deal with the dangers of our technology. A calamity will threaten indigenous life on this planet and all Omanji as well. Our fully merged society is the only way to survive.”

“I’ve worried about this, but I don’t know what to do now,” Bok thought to Zon. “They won’t return to the main colony. I’ve attempted to persuade them. They want out of Omanji society. They desire individuality. I do too.”

“Bok, I’ll give you until sunrise tomorrow to bring them back. If you don’t accomplish that, I’ll be forced to make my decision for the future survival of our species.”

Zon and his associates turned away and walked into his sphere. It disappeared into the sky, shaking the ground with its sonic boom. Bok stood in his place for several minutes. Nisha, Rachel and Beedee stood nearby in silence. Bok walked over to them.

“I don’t know what to do,” Bok said out loud via his translator. “All actions lead to dead ends.”

“Then pick the most rewarding dead end,” Nisha said.

“Thanks for not trying to persuade me. You and Rachel are loyal friends. You humans have—”

Nisha laughed.

“Yeah, we have potential.”

Rachel laughed too.

Bok turned vibrant shades of blue and green.

“Thank you. We need to discuss this in my colony now.”

Bok and Beedee walked down the hill to discuss things with the council. Nisha contacted General Sherman and the President to tell them what happened. After the call, survivors made their way back to the main colony. Nisha and Rachel spent the rest of the day in quiet contemplation.