Itty Bitty Bigger World - Waking Up Alive

"Itty Bitty Bigger World - Waking Up"


I blearily rolled over in bed and looked for my backpack and KittenBot, as I always do when staying in transient housing.

The KittenBot was there, perched on a complex piece of medical equipment that - unusually - was not plugged into anything. She had a gleam in her eye - the specific gleam that said "You used a duress signal, boss, and you're safe, but I have my lasers armed and claws sharpened just in case." Yes, all that in one gleam.

My eye was immediately drawn to the KittenBot shaped hole in the wall. Slight melt indicated that she had cut said hole, but not recently enough that it was still dripping.

The back of the room was full of complex medical equipment. Some of it looked as though it had been hastily unplugged.

I felt like I had been hastily unplugged. Bruises all over in weird spots.

I coughed a little, and nothing bloody came up.

The wall displayed a standard patient graphic for UC Stanford Hospital and Clinic System.

"Anderson, Alan - age 54 - P 65 BP 130/70 - ADMITTED for biopathogen treatment"

Lots of other gobblygook, most of which I can read. So I did so. It admitted that I was in pretty good health for being exposed to complex biotactical pathogens.

The door opened and two people came in, both wearing Stanford standard scrubs and smart IDs identifying them as Doctors.

"I am Doctor Krismurti and this is Doctor Kinkaid. I am your clinical psychologist and she is your internist. You have a lot of questions, I'm sure."

I sighed.

"I'm glad someone at UC Stanford can read. When I wake up in the hospital, I don't want smartware or a biosuite installed, I don't want a cheery happy face on the wall, I do want a standard patient graphic, I don't want my favorite breakfast waiting ... and I want my medical doctor ready to give me a rundown. I hate to be rude, but I don't want and have no use for a psychologist, Dr. Krismurti, any more than I would for a priest."

"Stanford protocols require psychological evaluation for suicide attempts."

I blinked.

"I did read your preference, including your preference for bluntness. You deliberately used a biofeedback command to stop your own heart. Why?"

"Doctor, I was under duress from the Hospital's own systems. Obviously this does not apply at present, otherwise my KittenBot would be cutting more holes than it already seems to have. I assume there is a lot more hardware on the other side of that wall - especially given that my visit yesterday to UC Stanford was as horrible as it was. How much did the recording systems capture?"

The doctor paused. Yes, this was a good time for him to think.

"We were alerted by external parties that we had been hacked. Unfortunately, part of the hacking was directed at our recording systems. We have the gross neurological fact - your heart stopped, and it was after intensively negative brain wave activity - because biomonitoring writes into WORM. We don't have the brainwave interpretations because they were in active memory when we had to pull the plug and put you on portables."

"You are of course recording now. Pay attention." With that, I gave them my version of the encounter with the Mastermind. I concluded with the same thought chain - that as the Mastermind had hacked into my VR, that he had control over the hospital care systems and could kill me at any instant he chose - so I'd better get out from under the threat in the only method available.

"I don't know your qualifications, Doctor, but I'd think that Use of Force - Self Defense Protocol would be most appropriate in this matter. Different risk assessments apply in life threatening situations. I acted to preserve my life, not end it."

"I concur. Doctor Kinkaid?"

"How are you feeling, Mr. Anderson?"

"Moderate headache, about 6 out of 10, consistent with a very stressful day yesterday and unplanned use of VR by a non user. Everything else seems to work."

"Do you feel fit to go to work?"

"Let me get cleaned up, and yes. No breakfast, but some water would be great."

A nursing bot trundled in and extended a tray with a pitcher and glass on it.

The KittenBot hissed at it.

I leapt out of bed immediately to the far corner of the room and discovered that I was dressed in my altogether. You may know it as my birthday suit. The good Doctors could just handle it, if they lived.

"Authorized!" I shouted, and the nursebot burst into flame as it doused the bed with the pitcher. The bed started dissolving. Acid. The nursebot involuntarily powered down and the KittenBot's eyes stopped glowing.

Yay for paranoia. Yay for KittenBots. Especially for KittenBots with laser eyes.

"SECURITY!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

Wild-eyed and with smartgun in her hands, Captain Amy came through the door and put two D-PEN rounds in the nursebot as she cleared the door. A UC Stanford security guard in exoskeleton followed with a transparent stunner-shield. Then two FPS Marines in fatigues with smart rifles.

I stood from my crouch. "Good kitty, Samantha! Good kitty!"

She purred and arched an ear.

"Let's adjourn to somewhere that is not a crime scene, yes?" I offered and headed for the door.

The KittenBot jumped down and insisted on going through the door first. Good kitty, again.

Itty Bitty Bigger World - On Trial

A set of surgical scrubs later (which the KittenBot insisted on scanning, which looks to other people like pawing at something), the Safety Director brought me my own brand new UC Stanford ID. Patients don't normally get IDs, but apparently I'm now a "CONSULTANT" - along with the FPS Marines, my outer perimeter security team (which hadn't thought of scanning UC Stanford robotics for threats - although they would now), my attorneys and other varied hangers-on.

Captain Amy wore her CHP ID instead. On her, surgical scrubs looked good. I noted that she was wearing a heavy belt with two holstered smartguns, both on her right side. One looked very familiar.

I clipped on my new ID and said "Thank you" to the Safety Director, who now was wearing a holstered smartgun of his own.

Understand that in the mid 21st century, one person carrying one smartgun is a really odd abnormality. My smartgun license - unusual to put it mildly - was for concealed carry, not open carry. Worldwide, there was increasing pressure for policing organizations to decrease the ratio of armed to unarmed personnel. CalFire for example maintained its policing status but less than 1 in 20 personnel carried a weapon - mostly arson, hazmat and illegal printing investigators. CHP was on the high side with all troopers and higher carrying arms at all times - but traffic accident investigators, road checkpoint inspectors, etc. did not carry. Network Integrity Solutions was mostly hackers but had teams of door kickers on standby in most urban areas.

In a quick hallway conversation, we had rejected the three most obvious places to hold this meeting - the auditorium, the executive boardroom and the nearest classrooms. We needed someplace secure, quiet and suitable for a long talk. Restroom facilities would be nice. Not having the toilet vaporize anyone because it had been hacked would be even nicer.

So a block of evacuated patient rooms on the fringe of the blast area would do. A prior attack by the Mastermind had managed to get a single missile into the side of the hospital, targeting Captain Amy and myself. We had escaped - but the "equivalent of a ton of conventional explosive" had killed about fifty people, evenly split between patients and staff. Defense fields, quickfoam and other emergency measures had kept the death toll much lower than in the horrible 20th century, when so much explosive would have dropped the hospital and killed hundreds if not thousands.

Still, UC Stanford had a strict "No Smartguns" policy that I'd tread heavily on earlier. Now their own Safety Director was carrying.

In San San, UC Stanford was the tail that wagged the dog. Across the world, UC Stanford was one of the three best providers of medical care in the Solar System, and by far the best on Earth despite the disadvantages of gravity. By any standard of power - wealth, energy, votes, data - UC Stanford was the bomb.

Now they had been bombed and they were wicked pissed.

Captain Amy coughed, drank a glass of water -- really water this time -- and walked behind the nurse station desk, which we were using as a podium. Everyone else including myself was seated in a circle, mostly on folding chairs.

"Attention, gentlefolks. I am Captain Amy Tsai of the California Highway Patrol, a registered policing organization under contract to San San Arcology. UC Stanford is a founding member of San San Arcology and the protection of UC Stanford is a CHP mandate. I have been asked to review key safety points before we can get this meeting started, and then to chair the meeting as we work through a very long and serious agenda."

Faces were serious. People were paying attention. However a lot of people in the room had smartware and were accustomed to working during meetings, which was good. We had a lot of work cut out for us.

"UC Stanford Accident Control is Incident Command for Threats-External. Contributing agencies include CHP, Coast Guard, Calfire, Federal Protective Service - under an unusual arrangement I must add, Network Integrity Solutions and last but not least, Protocol Enforcement."

This last was serious business. Protocol Enforcement had formally joined the party. If Protocol Enforcement said it was about to start raining frankfurters, you wanted to light your grill and bring the buns.

"CHP and UC Stanford Safety Department have established Unified Command for Threats-Internal. I am in an oversight role but also carrying Incident Command for CQB. That means that I am in charge of security in this room. Folks, I mean this. If I give you an order and you don't obey it," her voice rose, "I will fucking shoot you dead. I've had a bad day and I have the full legal authority to do exactly that."

Everyone nodded.

"And if I don't, it's quite likely that Alan Anderson's KittenBot will do it first. With concurrence from Protocol Enforcement, we've activated Criticality Mode in that particular bot. That means it can autonomously initiate deadly force - at its discretion! - should it perceive a deadly threat to anyone in the room. That's a very serious step but given recent attacks, I chose to authorize it."

The KittenBot was perched on what had been a wall mount for airway management equipmment before the blast had sheared it off. Its eyes swiveled ceaselessly. But a KittenBot does not need sight to detect threats.

"Only use the restroom at the back. It's the only one we've safed. Areas you need to stay out of are marked with smart tape. Water will be provided by the dispenser protected by the nice FPS and CHP guards standing next to it. Do not use other taps. We've arranged for food delivery. Don't eat any other food in the meantime."

"I apologize that all of you had to be wanded and body searched, and some items confiscated. But given the threat level, I decided it was necessary. If you leave, you will not be permitted to return. This is also a necessity. I'm going to turn emergency procedures over to Dr. Kinkaid."

She stood up but did not take the podium.

"UC Stanford personnel, Code procedures are suspended for the duration of this meeting. In particular, Code Brown and Code Silver will be met with deadly force by Threats-Internal. If we have a Code Red, we will evacuate as directed by the nice young folks in battlesuits standing at the entry doors and windows. I understand that which escape method we use will be selected at the last moment. Follow the flashing arrows and Do Not Stop To Think.

"If we have a Code Blue in this room, I will be the lead medical provider and I will select my assistants by voice. Please, please PLEASE restrain your natural and trained tendency to get up and help. If we have a medical and someone other than someone I select tries to help, either Captain Amy or the KittenBot will shoot you, and that would be very sad. We will work any Code Blue in this room and only with equipment that has already been safed.

"We have found out the hard way that some of the crash carts - in particular the meds administered by CPR bots - were tampered with. Two fatalities have resulted. We don't want any more."

Back to Captain Amy.

"I regret that we are trampling everyone's rights and monitoring all communications into and out of this room. We will be at some point discussing classified matters. When we do, we will be activating defense fields and cutting off comms for that discussion. I will let you know first. Any questions?"

"Are all these precautions necessary?" asked a woman in surgical scrubs. Her ID said she was a nurse in biopharmacology.

"Yes. Further questions?"

"Why is UC Stanford a target in all this?"

"That gets into the meeting agenda. We need to take certain things in a certain order. Are there any safety related questions?"

Silence. "OK, meeting agenda. First is discharging Alan Anderson as a patient. Second is convening and closing a criminal investigation under Cairo Protocol into certain matters. These are minor matters but we need Alan's further assistance with the rest of the agenda. Third is a Mastermind status update. Fourth is biopathogen disaster protocols. Fifth is San San's take on all this. Sixth is the right of media access and inquiry under Cairo Protocol. Seventh is budget, how are we going to allocate costs for this disaster? Then a bunch of other minor matters.

"I'll take the Mastermind status update out of order. He's alive."

Crowd growl.

"An ad hoc but very powerful entry went in at Monrovia, California based on a bot net trace and found what we can only call a secret lair. We captured several of the Mastermind's employees and almost - almost! got him with laser fire. Unfortunately he had a personal capsule and was able to get out on the San San network before we got a trace on him. We did get a DNA profile from a blood trail, and therefore an identity."

Crowd rustle. A face and profile appeared in the air, holographic imaging.

"Meet Doctor Samuel Simpson, former US Army Colonel in biological warfare. In the teens he commanded a facility in Utah and another in Maryland. Under the Cairo Protocol both facilities were shut down and demilitarized in 2033 - or so everyone thought. In fact he cleared them out, marked them demilled, and appropriated them to his use. Officially he died in 2037 of VR addiction. We now know that he is alive as of today. This is very bad news."

"Protocol Enforcement now has him formally logged as Public Enemy Number One. Normally we'd expect to find his dead body within 24 hours. Protocol has posted a one hundred billion processor credit award for information leading to his verified death or secure capture."

Now _that_ was serious money. Call it ten years of UC Stanford's budget.

"He has been verified to be directly responsible for over sixty deaths here at UC Stanford, another two hundred odd deaths in San Francisco from misuse of orbital lasers, numerous assassinations including of CHP officers and San San public officials, and probably a lot more. Protocol is seriously debating whether it would be safer to kill him or capture him. That's on our agenda too, but at the bottom.

"Back to Alan. Doctors, can we discharge him as a patient?"

"Subject to the same compromise under which you were discharged. Come see us, try not to die, and so on."

"Done. Second issue. I'm going to use you folks as an ad hoc jury of the whole. Alan Anderson, you are accused of two serious crimes under Protocol. The first is unlawful possession of a hold out nerve disruptor. The second is the killing of a San Francisco Police Officer. This is also a civil intelligence hearing. You have used a smartgun several times yesterday. An automatic civil intelligence hearing is triggered the second time a smartgun is used in 24 hours. Do you consent to these proceedings?"

A dapper man in a business suit, also wearing a holstered smartgun, stood up. "I am Klause Dawmer, attorney of record for Alan Anderson. Move to strike civil intelligence proceedings. I have already posted a ten million processor credit performance bond that Alan's public conduct will not be a charge on the public purse."

"Ten million?" an accountant scoffed. "Ten million won't cover the damage to this complex!"

"Not his fault," my attorney replied. "Cost allocation is later on the agenda. A civil intelligence hearing is when a person, through their conduct, so endangers the persons or property of others that their movements must be restricted by law. I'll fight that hearing if I have to, but I am moving to strike on the merits - the hearing is not necessary. People v. Jones."

"Esquire Dawmer, I understand your position, and I am asking that we try Alan here and now to dispose of this matter - not to have it held in abeyance by bond," Amy replied. "On the Cairo matters, we have no choice - he cannot act as a member of a registered policing organization with charges over his head. Allowing him to operate under bond would prejudice future actions, and we have very little margin for errors here."

My lawyer having done his job - giving me time to think - I spoke up.

"Charge 1, unlawful possession of a hold out nerve disruptor, I will plead not guilty by exercise of police power, ad hoc emergency, deadly self defense, and lack of intent to possess based on accidental possession. There is a lot of case law on that last point - even a convicted felon can possess a power weapon under certain criteria, and the incident hits all of them. Charge 2, not guilty due to bright line self defense. The officer in question had just murdered a San Francisco Police Officer and was about to murder me as well. I used deadly force in self defense because lesser means could have been inadequate, no flight was possible and local jurisdiction does not require flight in any case. Grossly illegal conduct by an officer invalidates peace officer protections. If he had survived, he would be facing both charges I am faced with, and overwhelmingly guilty of both."

"Folks, as a jury of the whole, I see more than twelve residents of San San present. You have the right to ask questions, review video, and register your vote."

"Motion for urgency provisions, motion to limit debate, motion for summary judgment," my attorney stated.

"Granted, all three. Folks, your trial of this matter is now open. Trial may be closed by a simple majority vote of persons present. We then vote, and the vote is binding. Conviction requires three-quarters of those present. Declaration of innocence requires three-quarters of persons present. In between is an urgency mistrial and remands to court and formal jury selection."

I looked around at the jury of my peers. They were mostly glassy-eyed, looking at video.

"Mr. Anderson, Sergeant Faulk, Kinetic Solutions. Just to clarify, were you armed when the subject attacked you?"

"No, I was not."

"Why did you not shoot him with his own weapon?"

"I did not have time to see what it was. As you know, many weapons are coded only to authorized users. Some have fail deadlies as well."

"Would you have felt justified in shooting him with a lethal, instead of bare handed?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"Thank you."

"Mr. Anderson, Doctor Krismurti. Permission to waive patient-client privilege?"

"Yes, Doctor. Your question."

"Your record shows extensive training in hand to hand combat and close quarters battle, also known as CQB. However, your record also shows that most of that training was between 2018 and 2025. Would you characterize your own skills as excellent, good, adequate or poor?"

"Adequate, Doctor. Not good. I am somewhat out of practice in hand to hand."

"Follow up question. The law lags behind our modern understanding of human reactions in time critical situations. Did you consciously decide to kill Officer Scott, or did you discover that you killed him after you had done it?"

"The latter. However, thinking about it consciously shortly thereafter, I concluded that I had made the correct decision for the life threatening circumstances."

"Would you do it again?"

"Given the same circumstances, likely but not certain. I would want to look for a way to assure his disablement. However, I could not guarantee for example that his handcuffs would have worked for me, or that I could have gotten the murdered officer's handcuffs out in time."

"No further."

"Alan," asked Captain Amy, "As a subject matter expert in these matters, I determined yesterday that you were not at fault in this killing. In my opinion he created a set of circumstances which clearly made it either him or you. Would you do it differently next time, knowing that you might be taking a greater risk of losing?"

"That's a hard question, Captain. I know what I did last time. I am willing to risk my life to save someone else's. But he had just killed someone and I couldn't take a chance on him killing again."

"Redirect. Were you on duty or off duty at this time?"

"On duty."

"Redirect. As an on duty peace officer in the San San Arcology, did you have the right to risk your life to attempt to save that of a known killer, who would certainly go on to kill others if you did not stop him?"

"When you put it that way, no, I did not."

"I vote innocent."

There were no more questions. My attorney called for the vote, it passed, and people registered their vote.

Twenty seven persons present, twenty-five voted innocent, two abstained.

"The criminal matters are closed. Protocol Enforcement please take note. I'm now going to open the Civil Intelligence Hearing. Expert testimony first. Doctor Krismurti?"

And that's when the shit hit the punch bowl.