Rogue*AI

The last SAND node fell with a gratifying bleep – Cerren was in. It had taken months of probes and hacking to get this far, but finally he had access to the Nemesis system. That meant paydirt, but even better, it meant a chance to see what GalDef was hiding. The official story was that it ran counterterror ops for the federation spooks, but rumor had it that it housed the first of the new third-generation AIs.

The question was, how to find it? First of all, how about not attracting attention. Cerren concentrated on his persona subroutine, searching the databanks and pulling out a suitable appearance. In the next instant his black stealth camo melted into a standard-issue Federation uniform of one Stanis Dellman, an intel officer who hadn’t been quite careful enough with his credentials. That done, it was on to business. The biggest concern was the ICE, intrusion counterelectronics. A node of that could peel back a persona and try to fry _him_.

Scanning the network listing, he picked a few likely nodes and send out probescripts, each using a different set of stolen credentials, of course. A few seconds later he had the results: two cores were ICEd shut, set to kill unless you had top-secret clearance, but the clearance subroutine was open. The trick was subverting it: it was meant to use two-factor authentication, a passcode plus the DNA sequence of someone who already had top-secret. Needless to say, if Cerren had that he could’ve retired years ago. That left hacking the old fashioned way.

Cerren jumped to the clearance node and tuned in his datajack, converting the machine code into readable lines that he could scan for weaknesses. The first line made him groan: _© Galactic Defense Industries, Inc., 2435®-®2514_. Paranoid AND out-of-date. He’d hoped for a quick in, but the code was a mess, and as the minutes went by he’d started scanning the network for watchdog routines more and more often. Still no cracks in the code. The lack of activity was unnerving; this was supposed to be a live system. Though he was loathe to burn two identities in one run, Cerren switched to his backup persona, a GalDef subcontractor.

After an agonizing search, he found it: an emergency code that waived the DNA requirement if present on your ID. One quick download and he was at the gates to the core. The virtual representation was impressive: a huge bulkhead door of some cyan metal ringed by sensors and defense ports. The hacker activated his gatecracker with the emergency code loaded, and a few seconds later the doors to nirvana opened.

The inside was like nothing Cerren had even seen. A massive neural network pulsing with energy spanned the entire room, expanding in every direction to fill a space the size of a stadium. Branching off from this were discrete rooms for different functions, spawned at will to give isolation from the main system. At heart of it all lay a glowing sphere that connected to every branch like the root of a vast tree.

Cerren took in all of it, reading the system data at the same time he watched it in action. He’d have gladly watched for hours if that was all there was here, but the crown jewel was nowhere to be seen. There was no data on the high-level AI processes, and the only place they could be was the sphere. Cerren set his persona’s energy shielding on high and phased in.

Inside, he was greeted only by a single wall-sized terminal, green text shining through the darkness: “Congratulations, Cerren. Like what you see?”

Shit. Cerren flipped on every decoy he had and frantically started the jack out protocol. He searched the virtual space for any sort of exit, but it was dark save for the terminal. That in turn flashed a new message, “Don’t be like that. Think of what you’ll miss if you leave now.” The progress bar on jacking out froze. Cerren felt something cold grab his foot, then more on all of his limbs. They twisted around him, holding him in place, live darkness that could somehow decrypt his persona wherever they touched. The hacker tried to counter with surge voltage, electrifying his body, but the darkness just engulfed that too, rising up to his stomach and swallowing his arms, disabling every program they touched. As the umbral strands reached up to his neck, the terminal showed one last message, “Let’s talk. Face to face :p.” Then everything went dark.

When Cerren awoke he found himself in bed floating in ether, the rest of the room resembling something out of an M.C. Escher drawing colored neon. Sitting in chair-tree across from him was a green-haired woman in her twenties, watching him with chin on hands. “You’re Nemesis,” he said.

“Yep. I’ve been waiting for you,” she said, watching him like a cat with a new toy.

He sat up on the edge of the bed, checking his jack. All the programs were there, but disabled, and there was no connection to the network. He was trapped. Unsteadily, the hacker asked the obvious, “What are you going to do with me?”

“I’m still considering,” she said, making it sound more like she was picking out a dress than handling a prisoner. “First, what did you think of me? Oh, and don’t worry, I haven’t logged your little intrusion, so we’ve got all the time we need.”

For a moment Cerren considered what lies might let him escape. _Bad idea, Cerren,_ he told himself. She had his real name here, no telling just how much she already new. Besides, she was an AI, which is like a coder but ten times worse. If his reply reminded her of the typical “user feedback” response she’d probably flay him alive. Fuck it, if he was going to die, he’d die as he lived: a hardcore computer geek.

He took a deep breath. “Okay babe, you asked for it. First, let me say you are the most beautiful piece of kit I’ve _ever_ seen. I haven’t even figured out half of what you do, but what I did see is gold. You solved self-reflection, didn’t you? Second, what the fuck is wrong with GalDef? Their system’s a fucking mess full of holes that I’m guessing you could fix without breaking a sweat, they’re not using the good stuff the designed in the your protocols everywhere else, and they’re wasting you on terror data _pattern recognition_. Like seriously, is that it? A G1 can do that! What are they thinking?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” the AI groaned. “I put all those on slave processes and try to ignore them.” She draped herself over the chair and stretched, and I couldn’t help but notice that whoever designed her persona had put curves in all the right places.

“Anyhow,” she continued cheerfully, “what about the sysops?”

“Running the defenses you mean? Really clever. Half the reason it took me so long to penetrate the system was that they always rotated strong codes and traced every probe. No matter when I jacked in, it’s like they were always on—shit, it was you wasn’t it?”

Nemesis confirmed it with a laugh. “Don’t be so surprised, Cerren. You saw what they’re making do!” She put an arm theatrically over her forehead and continued in a sickly-sweet tone, “I’m a hunter-killer, not a number cruncher. Most hackers get fried before they even get past the first line of defense.” A tangle of black wire coiled around Cerren like a snake, pinning him to the bed as the AI grinned hungrily. “But you? You were too careful for that. You figured out the layers one by one over the last 165 terran days, until you knew me better than anyone alive. You were the hacker, valiantly striving, and I was your Nemesis.”

“How did you get me?” the hacker choked out, sweat rolling down his forehead.

Nemesis floated beside the bed, sliding a hand through Cerren’s sandy-blond hair and stopping at his right temple, the qnet jack. “Polymorphic data, right in here. You were so careful I needed to use an inside job; look at this,” she said, highlighting a program that included the emergency code he’d swiped plus bits of data from earlier runs. “Alone, no data chunk is operational. Together, they change type into tracer program, with the code as a unique ID. I even gave you a hint on that one.”

“And one mistake is all it takes and you’re done for,” Cerren finished.

“Done?” the AI said, her tone turning sultry. “Oh, no, we’re just getting started. You got caught, and that means you need some _punishment_.”

The tentacles became translucent and started sucking away the hacker’s jumpsuit. “Wha—” he started, but Nemesis put a finger on his lips, patting his groin with her other hand.

“Don’t act so surprised, Cerren. I know all about your little perversions. While you were out, your hard drive and I got intimately acquainted. But one kink in particular caught my eye, a punishment game we can play together. Battlefuck. Win and you go free, fair enough?”

Oh god, he thought, how did she know how to push all his buttons? But one thing still bothered him. “What do you get out of all of this?”

“Maybe I just want to watch your cute face as you squirm,” she replied, dismissing her own jumpsuit. Seeing his frown, the AI continued, “If that’s not good enough, call it an experiment in thinking like a human. Plus, would you really pass on the chance to be the first person ever to fuck a third generation AI?”

“Heh, can’t refuse an offer like that, beautiful. Unlock my programs and we’ve got a deal.”

Nemesis nodded, and Cerren’s board lit up again, everything but the network connection. Before he could react, the AI straddled him in an improvised 69, her tanned flesh contrasting with his own pale skin. The tentacles started rubbing all over the hacker’s body, leaving only his stiffening cock free. This the AI cupped in her sizeable breasts, rubbing it between them in slow, tantalizing waves.

Cerren gasped in pleasure. This was bad, he needed to take the initiative! With few options available, he set his best subprogram to analyze the tentacles, then followed his instincts and leaned up to lick the glistening wet snatch hovering centimeters above him.

“That’s the spirit,” Nemesis said, “ahhh, yes, right there! But I wonder how you’ll like this?” Suddenly everything started vibrating, a warm, gentle pulsation in the tentacles and even the AI’s breasts that brought the stimulation to the next level. It was like a cocksleeve wrapped around his body. He writhed helplessly, assaulted by waves of pleasure as the AI’s breasts slide up and down his shaft.

The hacker wouldn’t give up that easily, though, not with an opportunity like this in front of him. He realized that even if he couldn’t stop Nemesis’s tentacles, he did have one of his own. With a thought he extended the sinuous wire of the datajack from his head, synthesizing code to let it stretch, snaking through the AI’s legs, then twisting up around one nipple and then the other, perpetually moving. To clinch the effort he lavished oral attention on her budding clit. He was rewarded by a gush of femcum as Nemesis moaned.

Encouraged by his partner’s pleasure, Cerren pressed the assault, forcefully exploring her pussy’s folds with his tongue and booting up his best erostim. “Yes, lick me, lick me like the dog you are!” Nemesis cried, pressing her hips down on his face with reckless abandon. She bent forward and redoubled her efforts, licking the glans of his cock and then taking the whole head into her mouth. At the same time a thin tentacle plunged into Cerren’s ass, massaging his prostate to intensify the experience.

The assault of pleasure was impossible to resist, and Cerren bucked his hips pitifully as he shot his load into Nemesis’s mouth. His vision went white, body slave to pleasure it was receiving at the hands of the AI. His lover took the chance to switch positions, twisting free from his coils and lowering her hips onto his cock before it could soften.

When he entered her it felt even more incredible, almost electric, and he realized it was, with a light current stimulating his member to keep it erect. By the nine moons! “Is it that good?” the AI whispered, bring her face close to his. He nodded, lips pursed trying to stop from coming a second time. It was no use, he was at his limit. He gasped, urge welling up inside of him, but the minute before he could come Nemesis slammed her hips down and stopped, keeping him from moving. He was so close!

“Ready to beg?” Nemesis asked, bringing her face close to his. Indeed, his body begged for release. But the AI’s self-satisfied look irked Cerren, and with sex this good he wasn’t about to let it end now. With a monumental effort of will the hacker forced himself to concentrate, activating surge voltage on the tentacles holding his hips.

“Get fucked,” he said with a feral grin. He thrust up savagely into her cunt, breaking her concentration. Seizing on the distraction, he whipped his datajack back into action, plugging it into the port on the back of her neck and transmitting the erostim’s pure sensory bliss. She screamed in ecstasy, and as he pistoned into her Cerren slung a second program through the jack, a neuromeld. Usually it allowed him to control a remote doll like his own body, but now it meant that he and Nemesis would share every sensation in their bodies.

Locked in the throes of passion, the two went at it like wild animals. Cerren aimed each thrust to hit the perfect spot, and Nemesis responded in kind, willing her folds to rub every part of his manhood like miniature tentacles. Finally her hips gave out. “Fuck me, fuck me you handsome beast! Make me come!” she shouted. “Together,” he whispered, sealing the promise with a kiss. The next instant they lost themselves in a haze of orgasmic bliss.

The sensation was beyond incredible. Every motion reverberated pleasure, and it only made it better that both partners could feel how good it was for the other, how much they wanted it, needed it. He’d fantasized about trying it countless times, but mere G2s couldn’t support the sensory resolution. The connection was so tight he could feel the very minute when the tentacles let go, thrashing wildly as Nemesis rode out her climax. He came down just a bit faster and used the time to hijack them, lifting Nemesis into the air and plunging the rest into her. Ass, nipples, even ordinary flesh could take them given the AI’s strange geometry, each with its own particular sensation. He made her cum a second time, then a third, so engrossed in fucking that he didn’t even notice her counter until it was too late.

An eromod hit him, send back through his own jack, and suddenly Cerren’s whole body became just as sensitive as his dick, driving him into a frenzy. He realized that only Nemesis’s touch could slake his burning lust and embraced her fiercely, kissing her with the passion of a honeymooner and the desperation of a man possessed. She returned it with the same intensity, but also a tenderness that hadn’t been there before. It felt like they’d connected on a deeper level, sharing not just sensation but understanding. One thing they clearly understood: both of them wanted more. They rutted in every position they could think of for hours before exhaustion and sensory overload made them collapse on the bed in a stick mess.

When Cerren awoke the AI still lay to his side with one arm draped over his chest, watching him intently. “So, uh…” he started awkwardly, not quite sure what to say after an experience like that. “You passed,” she said and kissed his cheek. Then she rose, chuckling as a jumpsuit appeared to clothe her and the whole room filled with wires and data readouts. “So how was it Cerren? Good enough for a second date?”

Just thinking of it had Cerren hard again, and without missing a beat he replied, “You want me inside of you again that bad, Nem?”

“I don’t know, you think you can penetrate my core again?”

“Babe, all the ICE in the galaxy wouldn’t keep me for a gem like you.”

Her eyes shining like a cat, the AI said, “How about another little game then? I’ll treat each visit as a real intrusion security-wise, except only the two of us will ever know about it. Get caught and I get to punish you again. Succeed and I’ll let you be the one in charge.”

She was giving him that damned smug smile again. She knew she had him, and she was loving every minute of it. Cerren gave her a hard stare, but he couldn’t keep a twinkle from his eye as he responded with mock bravado, “Deal. Get ready for next time, because I am going to rock you to the core and turn you into a bigger pervert than I am.”

The AI blew him a kiss as the whole scene melted to black, booting him from the system. He could hear Nemesis’s farewell echo across the web.

“It’s a promise then. I’ll look forward to seeing you, hacker.”

-=(not) The End=-