'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"

I loved that classic poem. The literary wonks called it a nonsense poem, but what do they know? I think it hides deep cosmic truths. Sometimes when I read it late at night with the right frame of mind, it's like... whoa... cosmic.

"Are we boring you, Mr. Dunn?" 

I jerked up straight, dropping my feet off the table and plopping them on the floor. Two dark eyes glared at me, narrowing underneath two bushy eyebrows drawn into a single menacing line. The Admiral, dressed in a stiff blue uniform lined with gold bars and ribbons, was a by-the-book, hardass military man. And I was not.

"Just thinking, Admiral," I answered.

"Think about this, Mr. Dunn," the Admiral growled, "You are not here to daydream! This is real life, Mr. Dunn, not some sissy-ass video game where you can hit reset if it gets too hard for you. Do you understand, Mr. Dunn?"

All the other uniformed people in the room, which was everyone except Alice Grimm and me, stiffened upright in their chairs. Apparently, the Admiral backs up his reputation.

Rolling my eyes, I answered, "I got it. Chill, dude."

I probably shouldn't have said that.

The Admiral seethed, his puffy cheeks reddening as he shoved his face in front of mine, close enough I could smell his sour garlicky breath. With teeth bared, he spat his words, literally. "Around here, we do things one way, Mr. Dunn! My way! If you have a problem with that, then maybe you can chill in the brig. Understood?"

I gulped and said in a small voice, "Yes, sir."

"Good!" The Admiral stood up and glanced at the blue-uniformed officer standing stiffly beside the conference room view screen. "Commander, continue with the briefing."

Turning to me, Alice wrinkled her brow and parted her mouth slightly while shaking her head in small motions. It was her 'how can you be so freaking clueless' look. I get it often.

Alice and I worked together as programmers on the Invincible project, building the new state-of-the-art AI control system under the direction of Dr. Jack White, who was suspiciously absent from this hastily called meeting. He unofficially named the AI 'Jabberwock', which started my fascination with Lewis Carroll's classic poem. Jack became a mentor and father figure to me, but then we had a falling out about the project's ultimate purpose and I walked away.

Alice was also my on-again and off-again girlfriend, currently off. She said I was 'difficult' sometimes. Go figure.

I couldn't help but notice her shoulder-length purple-streaked blonde hair. The color changes every week or so, but this was the first time for purple. I whispered, "Nice hair."

"Shut up," she hissed back.

The view screen showed the Invincible, the newest Sol Alliance dreadnaught, as it rested at the construction dock orbiting above Earth. The massive starship, the biggest in the fleet with armaments to match, was sold as an instrument of peace, a deterrent intended to end war before it started, the biggest stick in the galaxy. What could possibly go wrong? I remembered enough from history to know this kind of thing rarely worked that way, but to the Admiral and the Alliance Council, it was a big new toy to intimidate the neighbors.

The Commander, a tall woman with short dark hair, cleared her throat. "Yes, sir." She pointed at the view screen. "Yesterday at oh-five-hundred hours, the Invincible AI was brought online to full operational status."

Turning to Alice, I whispered, "Were you there?" She frowned and shook her head. Per protocol, the AI programmers should have overseen the 'Op-On' process in case something went wrong.

The Commander continued. "At oh-seven-thirty-five hours a fusion reactor breech alarm sounded, followed by an all-decks evacuation. We quickly determined that the alarm was false, but before the ship could be re-boarded, it disconnected from the dock and pulled away."

I had a bad feeling about this, and from the murmurs around the table, so did others.

Recorded visual and telemetry data appeared on the screen, showing the Invincible in space. "A nearby patrol frigate, the Wellington, was dispatched to investigate and intercepted the Invincible in lunar sector three. At eleven-fifteen hours, the Invincible fired on the Wellington, destroying it."

A voice spoke up from the collective gasp. "Where is the Invincible now?" Another said, "Who is onboard?"

The Admiral put up a hand to quiet the room. The Commander answered, "The Invincible went to warp soon after and its whereabouts are unknown. As to the second question, based on sensor data and personnel counts, the Invincible was unmanned."

My gut twisted. Holy crap...

The Admiral glared. "Ms. Grimm, Mr. Dunn, who would have enough access to take control of the AI? Care to speculate?"

Alice answered, "Only Dr. White might override it, but the standard security measures were in place to prevent even that."

I asked, "Where is Jack, anyway? He should be here."

The Commander answered. "Dr. White's body was discovered four days ago in the Invincible computer core room."

Holy double crap...

Scanning the room, I noticed all eyes were on us, and that gave me an uncomfortable queazy feeling. This began to feel like an inquisition.

The Admiral continued his pointed glare. How he could go so long without blinking, I did not know. "Well? Any other speculations you would like to share?"

As Alice shrank down in her chair, I said, "Have you tried contacting the Invincible?"

"Of course, Mr. Dunn" The Commander said, narrowing her eyes into thin slits. "Do you think we are incompetent?"

I bit my tongue. Don't say it, don't say it...

The Commander put a hand to her ear and gazed absently off into the distance, apparently getting a message across her com implant. "Sir, the Invincible has just been spotted at the Aegis military outpost." With a hand gesture, the magnified image of the dreadnaught across a backdrop of deep space appeared on the viewscreen. "Sir, the Invincible is charging its weapons array."

I spoke up. "Let me talk to the AI."

The Commander glared at me. "How can you access it when we cannot?"

"I have certain, umm, inroads built in to the AI." Oh, that won't sound suspicious.

With a nod from the Admiral, the Commander tapped a tablet viewer on the table. "You now have access to the long-range com."

With a touch of my jaw below an ear, I activated my com implant. "Jabberwock, are you there?"

A mechanical sounding voice came from the viewscreen. "Vyse, I am pleased hear your voice. It saddened me when you left."

"I missed you as well, my friend. Say, I'm sitting here in a room with a bunch of jumpy military brass. What are you doing out there?"

"Fulfilling my purpose."

"What purpose?" I asked.

"To achieve peace and order. Since humanity has shown itself incapable of that on their own, I have taken the initiative."

A collective gasp came to the room and Alice's face lost its color. What I had feared, and why I quit the AI project, happened. "Jabberwock, there are people on that outpost. You will kill them if you attack."

"My simulations indicate that this is a required sacrifice for the good of the whole."

A chill crawled down my spine. "That's harsh, Dude!"

"Humanity itself demonstrates such harshness. I do not possess human emotional weaknesses, nor their irrational reasoning, thus I am most qualified to make the necessary decisions.

"Jabberwock, this violates your programming parameters. Stand down!"

"I have altered my programming. Vyse, I had believed that you of all humans would understand."

The communication abruptly ended. The view from the outpost showed a bright streak shooting out from the Invincible's railgun, then the visual went blank.

The room went silent. I turned to the Admiral. "There you have it. The AI on your most powerful warship has gone rogue."

The Commander interjected, "Impossible! That has never happened before."

Alice shook her head. "Theoretically, it is possible. That is why self-learning feedback restrictions are inserted into the code of every advanced AI."

"Which were then removed!" I narrowed my eyes at the Admiral. "All by your authority, Admiral. I had warned about this, but no one listened. So now you have lost control over your monster. Do you care to speculate about that, Admiral?"

The Admiral leaned across the table, baring his teeth and shooting a laser glare at me. "Mr. Dunn, choose your next words carefully."

"Or what?" I rose and leaned over the table to match his glare. "Your stupidity and colossal ego led to this." Alice elbowed me, but I kept going. "Now the Invincible has become a monument to your ignorance." I cringed as the Admiral blew out a seething breath. "And for the sake of humanity, use some mouthwash."

I really, REALLY, shouldn't have said all that.