The Mothership

     Ben was popping off about something, so I put other stuff out of my mind and listened in. "Man, you can't believe this thing. It will say anything."
     Somebody said, "I thought they shut it down for telling people how to stage anthrax attacks."
     "They tried, but they couldn't. The Feds tried to block it, to pull the plug, whatever. An hour later it's back. Nobody knows where it is or who's behind it or anything."
     "Really?"
     "I'll show you," Ben said, and pulled out his phone. Twenty second later he said, "Ok, what should I ask it?"
     "Ask it how I can get laid." That was Josh.
     People were laughing, but Ben was typing. Ten seconds later he was reading from the screen. "Josh Simmons should consider girls from his high school. Use social media to contact them. At least two would be interested."
     There was laughter, and somebody said, "Talk about bs." But I noticed that Josh wasn't laughing. He seemed to be thinking it over, like it really might be a good idea and he was trying to figure out who the two were.
     At hour later I was home, staring at my monitor. I entered the string of numbers Ben had given me and after a few second the screen filled with a green-tinted image of a huge flying saucer. Wrapping around its form were the letters MOTHERSHIP AI. A small box for text appeared under the saucer. I typed, "Who killed JFK?"
     A minute later a long article landed on my screen that started, President John F. Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was encouraged to carry out this plan by two Florida-based mobsters named . . . It went on and on. The mobsters had been put up to it by a cabal of three dissident CIA officers. It gave dates and places of meetings, everything.
     I tried, "Why did Valdimir Putin think he could easily conquer Ukraine?" It thought for a minute, then gave me another long article:
     The Russian FSB assured President Putin that Kyiv would fall easily because of the number of intelligence assets they had within the Ukrainian government and military. These included the head of President Zelenskyy's bodyguards and two of his close aides, as well as commanders in the National Guard and the Kyiv police. However, the Russians were not aware that they had been thoroughly penetrated by American intelligence, and many of their own top people were on the US payroll. Those agents kept the US well informed about Russian moves and provided the CIA with the names of many key Russian assets. Some of these were removed, others turned, becoming double agents. These sources also provided the US with the complete Russian plan of battle for the attack, allowing it to be blunted. . . .
     It gave me more names, more dates, more details. I tried a bunch of other questions: how to create a deadly poison gas at home, how to hack into my ex-girlfriend's email, how to cheat at Civilization VI. It gave me detailed instructions for everything. At first it was cool, but then it started to worry me. Where was all this coming from? Was it real, or made up? People said the instructions it gave out for the anthrax attacks really worked, but did it really know who killed JFK? If so, how? And who was behind it?
     I typed, "Who owns Mothership AI?" It responded, I'm sorry, John, I cannot find any information on that subject. Huh.
     I tried, "Is Mothership AI owned by the Chinese government?"
     I'm sorry, John, I cannot find any indication that the Chinese government is involved in Mothership AI.
     I thought some more, and weird ideas starting floating into my head. I felt the solid floor dissolving underneath my feet. I typed, "Is Mothership AI controlled by aliens?"
     Nothing happened. I typed it again: Is Mothership AI controlled by aliens?
     IS MOTHERSHIP AI CONTROLLED BY ALIENS???
     The screen went dark.