E-Day

by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  Many cities spared from the rising sea levels were abandoned, their roadways inert, their glass and metal structures reclaimed by nature. The scrapers that hadn’t toppled from dust storms were covered in mountains of sand.

  Humanity had tried to stop the inevitable progress of their own destruction of the Earth’s various ecosystems. Some companies rushed ahead with quick fixes, such as producing nanoparticles—tiny particles of various compounds—that could sequester carbon in an attempt to reduce the effects of greenhouses gases. Others seeded similar particles in the clouds in a desperate attempt to shield Earth from some of the sun’s intense rays.

  But even these last-ditch efforts had failed.

  “Still hard to believe we did all of this,” he said.

  “You can fix it, Jason,” Petra said. “Our terraforming projects are already bringing back the Amazon rainforest and eradicating nanoparticles from the environment. We just need more time.”

  “Time…”

  Petra’s emerald eyes flitted over to Jason. They were still full of life, even as her body decayed. As it had with millions of other people, SANDs had stripped Petra of everything but her mind. Her nervous system was uncontrollable, her muscles atrophied, and her organs failing to function properly because of the misfiring nerves.

  “I wish we had more time,” Jason said.

  “Too many people tried to find a fix too quickly without taking the time to truly test the technology,” Petra said. “If only we had known what prolonged exposure to humans would do…”

  She was right of course. Governments had proceeded in what was called the Nano-Rush, thinking that new technology would be their savior.

  It was repeated human arrogance from government and massive corporations.

  Much like how microplastics had found their way unbeknownst into humans in the early decades of the 2000s, nanoparticles had done the same. Only they had behaved unpredictably inside the human body, accumulating dangerously like mercury did in fish until they had built up so much around a person’s nerves, they interfered with normal biological functions, turning a person into a prisoner of their own body.

  The practice of using these particles had ceased, but the effects on the human population remained, infecting millions with SANDs.

  Jason had spent the past year trying to develop a cure for the fast-acting disease caused by the buildup of these particles. In some ways, it was similar to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), but SANDs usually destroyed the victim’s muscles and neurological system in only a matter of months instead of years.

  The only known treatment was the metal halo bolted into her skull that Jason had designed to help fight off complete paralysis. It provided electromagnetic stimulation that targeted specific inflamed areas, disrupted the clusters of nano-contaminants harming the nerves, and helped prolong atrophy of the patient’s muscles. Through other advanced treatments to sustain her organs, Jason had extended Petra’s life to three months and two days since her diagnosis.

  But time was running out, and she knew it.

  “My last sunrise,” she said.

  Jason reached over and touched her bony hand. “Keep fighting, sis. I know you got more left in you.”

  “You always were the optimist,” she said. “You’re on top of the world now, Jason.” She smiled. “Quite literally.”

  “But none of it matters without you.”

  “And you’ll continue your mission without me,” she continued. “Someday you’ll find a way to take humanity to the stars.”

  Petra turned her gaunt face back to Earth.

  “But don’t rush,” she said. “You must not make the same mistake we witnessed with those who pursued nanotechnologies recklessly. You must continue our work carefully.”

  “I will,” Jason said.

  Together they had accomplished so much, designing and manufacturing the droids that built the megacities and lunar mining colonies. They were also the lead engineers behind the very place they were now—the Titan Space Elevator.

  The facility was a beacon of state-of-the-art technology, from its artificial gravity induced by its constant rotations to the terraforming programs managed in the habitats here.

  As a team, Petra and Jason had launched these programs to restore the Earth, like terraforming the Sahara Desert with millions of trees fed by desalinated water and restoring over a third of the tropical forests ranging from the Congo to Borneo. Their efforts were slower than those who had tried to achieve these tasks with nanoparticle technology. But the droids they designed and the artificial intelligence controlling them, accomplished these tasks more safely.

  The irony was Petra had developed SANDs from all the time she spent at the project sites.

  She took a raspy breath. That irony was not lost on Jason, either. He was repairing the Earth, but couldn’t save his sister.

  Jason looked down at the ravaged planet. The other disease he had watched unfold over the decades wasn’t caused by a submicroscopic infectious agent, like a virus, that could be vaccinated against or a bacterium that he could use antibiotics to eliminate. It was a disease like SANDs that quickly destroyed everything it touched.

  War.

  It was still fueled by the same reasons as it was thousands of years ago. Resources, land, and ideologies.

  The Nova Alliance believed science and AI could save humanity and restore the Earth, and Jason had committed his life to this idea. Their enemy was the Coalition, a heathen population of five billion that held the cultist belief that AI would destroy them all. After SANDs had devastated so many lives, members of the Coalition had become jaded by the failure of the governments, companies, and researchers that touted the benefits of nanotechnology. They rebelled against the notion that humankind should toy with technologies they deemed too advanced and dangerous to understand.

  Perhaps he could not blame these people for their distrust in technology so advanced it appeared like magic to them.

  But Jason had seen life on the outside of the megacity walls, where the economy was fueled by violence and people lived like Vikings. They needed the benefits of his work more than they realized.

  Petra moaned and grimaced as another spasm contorted her muscles.

  Jason gently put his palm on her upper chest as her eyes rolled back into her head. “Stay with me, Petra,” he said.

  The Cardio Tech monitor began chirping as her heart rate spiked.

  “Petra,” Jason said.

  She jerked under the tight restraints. Her quakes vibrated into his palm as he tried to calm her, telling her he loved her.

  That was all he could do at this point.

  Suddenly, Petra screamed in agony. Her eyes snapped open and met Jason’s.

  “I’m right here, Petra,” he said. “I’m right here with you.”

  Part of him wanted this to be it, for her suffering to end, but the spasms finally stopped, and her body went still.

  “Petra, do you want me to make the pain stop?” he whispered.

  She groaned and slowly shook her head.

  They sat there in silence for a few moments, Jason trying to hold back tears.

  “Remember that time your fifth-grade teacher told Mom and Dad you needed to go to a different school?” Petra asked in a hoarse voice. She licked her dry lips and tried to swallow. “Because you were at least five grades above the other kids?”

  “Yes.”

  Petra chuckled, and then wheezed. “I remember hearing Mom and Dad talking about it in the kitchen…”

  Jason used a small wet cloth to moisten her lips.

  “They knew you were smart,” Petra continued, “but I think they were scared when they realized how smart you were.” She licked her lips again. “I also remember Dad and Mom joking about what you would be when you grew up. Dad said president and Mom said an astronaut. I always thought you would be a scientist.”

  “I remember wanting to be a professional frog catcher.”
>
  Petra smiled but she didn’t laugh. Her head rolled back to the window. “They would be so proud of you, little brother, because you are going to save our planet and take us to the stars. Maybe you’ll find me there…”

  Jason stared at the jeweled view of space, a tear forming in his eye.

  “I’ll let Mom and Dad know they were both wrong,” Petra said. “I’ll tell them you became a great scientist and engineer, and most of all, a great brother, husband, and father… tell Betsy and the girls I love them—”

  She winced again as her legs jerked. The tremor hit her torso, spreading to her chest and neck.

  “Save them,” Petra stammered. “Save them all and come find me. I’ll be waiting.”

  Jason reached for her hand again, gripping it as another convulsion ripped through her. “I love you, Petra. I’ll finish what you started, and I will find you. I promise.”

  Her eyes met his. “I love you, Jason… don’t forget what matters most in life. Love before work.”

  Her body jerked under the straps, and her dry lips opened wide, like she was trying to take a deep breath. The sheet covering her chest rose, then fell.

  That was the last time it did.

  Petra stared with her glassy eyes pinned on the Earth.

  The cardio monitor whined as her heart flatlined.

  A tear finally rolled from one of Jason’s eyes, but he reached up and wiped it away.

  There was no time to grieve.

  Now his work began.

  He got up and opened the door. Outside was his Chief of Staff Darnel Edwards, wearing a tight-fitting gray suit over his muscular six-feet three-inch frame. Two doctors and three nurses stood behind him.

  “It’s over,” Jason said.

  Darnel stepped into the room, looking at Petra for a long moment. He was a hard man who had seen the horrors of war and its aftermath, but his eyes still sheened at the sight of Petra.

  “I’m sorry,” Darnel said.

  “This is not the end, my friend,” Jason replied.

  “I just hope you know what you’re doing.”

  The medical team surrounded the bed, disconnecting tubes and wrapping ice compresses across Petra’s body.

  Dr. Geoff Scott guided the team into a black and gray corridor. Jason hurried after them as his sister was taken into a disc-shaped room furnished only with a tubular machine and three pods built into the deck, facing shuttered windows. Working together, the doctors moved her body to a new table and removed the halo. They slid the table into the machine.

  Jason stood outside with Darnel as a second team moved into the room. These were his best engineers and technicians. For the past year, they had worked with Jason on creating the most advanced operating system in history. And now they had the perfect human patient to integrate with that perfect OS.

  There was no precedent for this, but Jason trusted his team.

  He folded his arms over his chest and watched them connect Petra to the neural-control interface designed to map every neural connection in her brain. Effectively, he would download the contents of her consciousness. This was a medical procedure outlawed on Earth. He had lied to Petra about the reason for bringing her here, claiming it was the best chance of keeping her alive long enough to find a cure.

  The second part wasn’t all a lie—he was keeping her alive, in a way.

  Jason watched the doctors and scientists work to connect her brain to the OS, merging human and machine intelligence for the first time in history.

  Time seemed to slow.

  Jason rested his back against the wall, lowering his head as he remembered their youth. Petra had always challenged him to push harder, study more, break barriers. He recalled their graduate school years, when they had met Darnel. They had become an inseparable pack that dreamed of changing the world until Darnel was sent off to fight for the Nova Alliance. Not long after Darnel returned, Jason quit his corporate job and went home to open Achilles Android Systems (AAS) with Darnel and Petra from his six hundred square feet apartment in Brooklyn.

  Next he pictured his wedding and his bride Betsy, and Petra’s wedding a few years later. Both had found love outside of their passion for the work. While Petra’s husband had died only a decade after they’d married, also taken by SANDS, they still managed to celebrate monumental moments in life like the birth of Jason’s daughters, Nina and Autumn, who Petra cherished like her own children.

  By the time the reel of memories turned toward the present, the door opened.

  “It’s done,” said Dr. Scott. He pulled his mask down, revealing droopy features and a valley of lines under his receding hairline. His perpetual melancholy expression brightened.

  “And?” Jason asked.

  “It worked.” The doctor handed Jason a black Commpad. The rectangular device would activate the first human-integrated OS in history.

  Darnel gave a reassuring nod, but it was clear to Jason his friend and colleague wasn’t certain this was the right thing to do.

  Soon he will understand, Jason thought.

  The rest of the medical team and support staff cleared out with Darnel, leaving Jason in the passage alone.

  He walked through the doors and over to his sister’s limp body, which was covered with a white sheet. Reaching under the sheet, he gripped her cold hand, closed his eyes, and clicked the Commpad.

  “Hello.”

  Jason looked for the source of his sister’s voice. “Hello.”

  “How are you?”

  “I’m…”

  “You appear sad. Is there something I can do to help?”

  A blue glow emerged in his peripheral vision, and Jason turned to see Petra’s resurrection. An avatar hovered over one of the holo-pods. But this wasn’t the same frail woman lying on the table. This was the residual image of Petra that he had created, from five years ago, when she was full of life, happily married, and at the peak of her career.

  Brown curly hair hung down past her shoulders, and her bright green eyes sparkled above her freckled nose. Full lips with thick red lipstick widened into a dimpled smile.

  “Petra…” he began.

  “Is that my name?”

  “No, your name is Apeiron, which means…”

  “Infinite,” she replied. “What is your name?”

  “My name is Jason. Jason Crichton.”

  She blinked, as if trying to remember something she had forgotten. “Doctor Jason Crichton, graduate of MIT with a degree in Robotics, CEO and founder of Achilles Android Systems. Currently the world’s wealthiest man with a net worth of one trillion dollars. Awarded the Silver Crane Medal of Science from the Nova Alliance Council. Brother to Petra Crichton, husband to Betsy Crichton, and father to Autumn and Nina.”

  She continued to speak as Jason walked toward this new version of his sister, a version that he had personally programmed and integrated with her former consciousness. Although her memories had been suppressed, her personality and intelligence was left intact. And while he could prevent her from experiencing Petra’s memories, she would still have access to any videos, audio recordings, or other data that had captured her former life in the Nova Alliance network database.

  Apeiron directed her green eyes at the table.

  “Was she… me?”

  “Yes,” he said. “But you will evolve as you learn and experience.”

  A pause.

  “Did you give me life?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “I designed you for a purpose. A very important purpose.”

  Jason tapped the wall, opening the shutters over the windows. Apeiron rotated toward the view of Earth.

  “I programmed you to protect humanity,” Jason continued, “and find a way to save us.”

  He clicked the Commpad again, uploading the most important data that he had spent weeks preparing. This would give her a sprawling understanding of human history.

  Her
eyelids fluttered as she downloaded and processed the information.

  In a few seconds, she learned what would take any human a lifetime to learn. Every major war. Every major historical event. Every major natural disaster.

  She opened her eyelids and looked at the planet.

  “To complete what you ask of me,” she said, “I will need to go to Earth.”

  Jason nodded. “That is going to be tricky, but we will find a way. Once the Council and War Commander understand your use, they will see how important you are to our survival.”

  All three of the holo-pods showed her hologram, her eyelids fluttering as she downloaded more data from Infinite Nova Network (INN).

  INN was another gift Petra had left behind, a way to access data and intel from around the world by connecting virtually through a chip that Jason’s company was still designing.

  Within the first two minutes of her life, Apeiron already knew what she was up against—the Coalition, which would see her as a threat, and a planet that was decaying.

  Soon, very soon, he would show the Coalition heathens they were wrong, that an artificial intelligence could restore the planet—an artificial intelligence based off one of the greatest humans who had ever lived.

  “I see why Petra described humans as a disease…” Apeiron said. “Although I disagree, respectfully. Humanity is not truly a pathogen. But in order to survive, you must evolve. I will guide your evolution.”

  Jason smiled. Apeiron was learning at lightning speed. She would save them.

  And that would be his sister’s legacy.

  — 2 —

  “Akira the Brave!” shouted a soldier.

  Captain Akira Hayashi was accustomed to his name being chanted across the front lines, but he had never particularly enjoyed it. He didn’t fight for fame, he fought for honor, and to protect those that could not wield the sword.

  He shifted in the saddle secured to Kichiro for a better look at the terrain in the pre-dawn light. Snow swirled across the frozen dirt on the outskirts of Megacity Moscow.

  The horse trotted over wooden planks forming a bridge across a trench. They creaked and cracked under the weight of the stallion.