by Drew Cordell
“You’ll start from the beginning and work your way through these modules. Finish the series and I’ll give you more work. Bring the completed series to me, and I’ll give you a check for three units to cash in with the Guild Treasurer. All you have to do is connect the neuro connectors and close your eyes,” he said to me.
“How long does each module take?”
He grinned. “That is entirely up to you, my dear friend. With someone of your acute mental stature, I’m sure it won’t take too long. Just tread carefully and don’t push yourself too hard.” He pulled a large leather-bound binder from below the desk. “It’s best you get back to Caeldra; you don’t want to keep her waiting.”
I nodded. “Thank you, Master Aarlen.”
I exited his office and closed the door behind me, placing the small tablet in the back pocket of my Runner pants. I returned to Caeldra, who was using her combat knife to pry open a musty wooden crate. She grunted as she forced the box open. The lid creaked in protest as it cracked with excessive force. Caeldra reached up and wiped sweat from her forehead. “What was that about?” she asked.
“Nothing much. Master Aarlen just gave me some layering homework to work on in my free time.”
“Paid?”
“Yeah, he’s going to give me three units if I can finish all the modules on the tablet.”
“Nice. Good luck. I’m afraid I won’t be able to help.” She paused as she pulled out a dust-covered paperback that was a dark yellow color from deterioration. “Get cracking, Jake. We’ve got to get all of these crates done today.”
I pulled out my combat knife and began to pry open some wooden crates, not wanting to damage my balisong. I used my shirt as a shield to protect me from the musty clouds of dust emitted from the inside of the crates. According to Caeldra, most of the crates hadn’t been opened in over one hundred years, and she reiterated the fact that the Great Flood of 2039 was a hoax with some creative uses of some very colorful words. Her complex strings of profanity were almost graceful, coming together like a great work of art.
I was beginning to understand Caeldra a lot better. Her steel toughness and resolve and generally gruff attitude was just on the surface. When she cared about something or someone, she showed kindness and compassion and exhibited great selflessness. She was complicated, but I had a feeling our friendship would continue to blossom as we grew to know one another better.
Most of the books we sorted were only illegal because of the date they had been printed. Many of the titles were actually reprinted and reused on the surface, but those weren’t the types of books we were interested in finding. The real treasures were old history books, ones that contained the history of the entire world and pieced together events of the past that had been lost. The Guild called it the Genesis Project, the pursuit of finding everything the Government had attempted to destroy and keep from the people. I flipped through an old black book and saw a chart of events that dated into the year 1300. There was a huge map of the world and the names of many pieces of land I didn’t know existed. “Caeldra, I think I may have found something,” I said as I passed her the book. She flipped through it and smiled.
“Good find! I’ll get this to Master Aarlen right away,” she said as she walked the book over to his office.
When she returned, we took a break from opening crates and worked on creating digital scans of the books that weren’t already in the system. “When you have some free time, you should study from the Archives. You can read about the real history of the world, how things used to be in the United States, or about anything you want. It’s going to be hard to take it all in and erase so much of everything you’ve learned, but you’ve already proven your worth by being accepted into the Guild.”
“I want to know the truth. I want to do what I can to make this a better place. Why should innocent people be ruled by machines? Is there even an Upper Level of New York? Why hasn’t anyone in the Slums seen pictures or evidence of it?” I asked as anger crept into my voice.
“You’re starting to ask the right kind of questions. Unfortunately, we don’t have all the answers. But, that’s what we work for,” she said, smiling at the flame that sparked in my eyes.
We finished up work for the day, and I packed up my stuff and put it in my locker. I returned to the surface alone after Mr. Barton told me he would be staying down in the Guild Hall for the night. As I returned to the streets, I stopped at the grocery store a couple of blocks from my house and picked up some basic groceries, also deciding to buy a small chocolate cake with icing from the bakery. It wasn’t cheap, but I wanted to get Mary something nice so she wouldn’t be mad at me for blowing her off. I paid and returned to my street as quickly as possible. As I neared my flat, I saw Mary outside surrounded by six Enforcers. Her face was shrouded by her bandana so I couldn’t see her expression, but I knew this couldn’t be good. As I approached, she looked over at me and I could see the fear in her eyes. She shook her head in a subtle, but recognizable way. When the Enforcers spotted me, their lights started flashing.
“Jacob Ashton, we need to talk with you,” one of them said as started toward me, weapon raised. As the cold pang of fear surged through my body, I dropped my groceries and turned to run.
20 TRANSFERENCE
∆∆∆
I ran faster than I ever had before. Heavy hydraulic thuds sounded behind me as the Enforcers trailed close behind—yet no shots were fired. Flashing red and blue lights from their frames illuminated the shallow pools of water which rested on the cracked asphalt streets. I had no sense of where I was going; I was just trying to escape. It became harder and harder to breathe as the smog seeped through my bandana, but I forced myself to press on. Tears blurred my vision as I ran farther away from the girl I loved, leaving her to an unknown fate that was likely the result of my actions. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t turn back; I couldn’t betray the cause I had sworn to fight.
I turned a corner a little too fast and forced myself to lean to the side as my sneakers slid across the wet sidewalk. Recovering from the slip, I approached the market and ran into the large canvas tent. While it technically wasn’t a building, the fresh air inside was welcome. The market tent was filled with hundreds of people walking around and stopping at the various booths inside where merchants peddled their goods. The room smelled of cooking meat and aerosol air freshener—a strange, but familiar scent. I ran as fast as possible while avoiding the people who jumped away in surprise and yelled for me to slow down. The Enforcers entered the large tent and started searching for me, but I was already inside and concealed by the crowd. I moved through calmly, trying to approach the back where I could escape. These were just standard Enforcers chasing me; they weren’t equipped with any of the advanced optics of the newer specialist models that were rarely dispatched. Despite my creeping fear, I forced myself to walk until I reached the exit. With shaking hands, I pulled the glass pill that would end my life from my paracord bracelet and gripped it tight between my fingers and palm. I didn’t want it to come to that, but I wouldn’t allow myself to fall into the hands of the Sculptors.
After exiting the tent, I sprinted back toward the entrance to the Undercity while I was still out of sight of the Enforcers. I didn’t know where else to hide, but I couldn’t allow myself to be followed all the way down. I also couldn’t pull the Enforcers into the illegal warehouse we used to access the Undercity.
I was dismayed when three Enforcers rounded a corner in front of me and started advancing. With the option of entering the Undercity fading, I turned to face the Industrial Park. The huge factories located in the park grew closer as I ran on the quiet street. The Enforcers were gaining ground on me quickly now. Pain shot through my chest as I continued to press my lungs and body beyond what they were supposed to handle. I felt the burn of acid building in my thighs and calves and felt stitches of pain in my sides as I ran. The cold air congested my lungs, and I was nearing my physical limit when the familiar machine in the gray
trench coat kicked open a door. He was holding a massive turret with rotating barrels. I screamed as I neared him and moved my arms in front of me as I tried to slow my movement on the wet asphalt. I skidded in front of him, and his large metal hand caught me and pulled me behind him as more Enforcers entered the scene.
“Robotic entity, you possess an illegal weapon and are impeding Government business,” one of the Enforcers said as they all raised their energy rifles towards us.
The robot gave a grunt that could have been a laugh. The barrels of the turret spun up and unleashed a barrage of purple energy bolts which shredded through the heavy metal plating of the Enforcers like paper. The turret continued to sputter as at least eight Enforcers were reduced to scrap metal. Vibrant sparks and colorful explosions ripped through the strong metallic alloys. The Enforcers shot back, but what shots they did manage to land didn’t appear to damage my protector. The few people on the streets near the Industrial park were running away from the scene and taking cover against the walls of the buildings, screaming in fear. The robot was very careful with his aim despite his weapon of choice, which was probably heavier than I was. The sparking remains of Enforcers were littered all over the street and distant screams of the people who had witnessed the scene echoed. The robot raised the cannon once more and fired along the roofs of nearby buildings destroying the CCTV cameras that were perched above.
“Sorry for the mess. Get inside,” he said to me in the familiar metallic voice.
He closed the door behind me and flipped on a light switch. The flooring was torn out and the room was empty except for a single hatch in the center. Taking a piece of steel rebar, he shoved it through a latch on the door and wrapped it around the handle, creating a forced lock from the inside. I returned the glass pill to the hidden slot in my bracelet, thankful my situation had improved.
“We need to get you to the Undercity right away,” he said as he flipped up the latch.
“What about Mary? I can’t just leave her,” I said between heavy breaths.
“If they wanted to kill her, she’d already be dead. They were probably just talking to her to learn more about you. I doubt she’s in danger.”
I wanted to believe it, but the dread of leaving her was building inside me, congealing and weighing down my thoughts.
“Move it,” the robot said, prodding me forward. I started climbing down, and the robot jumped down once I cleared the ladder, landing with a thud.
The robot handed me a respirator to wear and urged me forward at a brisk pace while we descended further into unfamiliar territory. I didn’t like running around without my gear or Artemis, but I was fairly confident in my protector’s ability to guide me to safety, especially since he was carrying around a two hundred pound energy weapon.
We continued through the homogeneous tunneling until we approached a large rusted door with a heavy padlock. The man in gray opened the lock and motioned for me to go inside. It was a small room that had about the same amount of space as my flat back in the Slums. A large desk sat against the back wall where an advanced looking computer console was set up. The console had cabling running throughout the room to various boxes with glowing lights on the front. There was a massive assembly frame that housed multiple weapons and strange gadgets. The robot placed the heavy turret against a steel locker with a dull metallic clank. The air was cleaner than the stagnant air from the tunneling we had traveled through, and I savored the deep breaths I was able to take without the respirator on.
“This is my home, Jake,” he said as he closed the door. “You’ll be safe here, and I’ll take you to the Guild Hall later once we’ve had the chance to talk.”
“Is it really you?”
“To the best of my understanding, yes. While I am no longer human, I am Wesley Ashton,” he responded as he took off the huge coat and hung it on the rack. The robot’s body was made of blue-looking metal and looked much more durable and expensive than an Enforcer. He reached up and removed the respirator mask he was wearing and placed it with the coat. The face wasn’t similar, either. His face was solid metal with two small vision slots instead of the one central sensor array the Enforcers had. I could see speakers on the side of the armored head that allowed him to communicate.
“I’m sorry you have to see me like this, but it’s good to see you again, son.”
“Likewise,” I responded carefully.
“I’m sure you must have hundreds of questions, and I’ll do my best to answer them. The Government is either looking for you because of your test results, or they know you’re involved in something you shouldn’t be. I’ll look into it more and try to figure out what’s going on. In the meantime, you need to stay in the Undercity until this is all worked out.”
He started coughing with a series of harsh metallic screeches as he raised his hand to where his mouth would’ve been if he was human. “Sorry, I’m feeling a little bit sick today. Damn cough.”
“You can get sick?” I asked, once again careful with the inflection of my voice not to give away my disbelief. Despite the advanced looking hardware, it didn’t look like his code or mind was all there.
“Yes. I keep in touch with my human side by subjecting myself to the biological weaknesses weyouuu,” there was a strange pause as if he couldn’t decide what he was, “suffer as a species from time to time.” He raised his hand and smacked the side of his head as if punishing himself for a mistake.
“I see. So can you tell me about the project you were working on that allowed you to transfer your being into a machine?”
“Yes. Every time I would say I was going to work, I’d go to a warehouse to work with my colleagues. Unfortunately, all of us are dead now and I made it out in this suit. We were starting to get closer when the Government decided it was time for human experimentation. Of course, several Prolific volunteered for the procedure—they always crave new knowledge. But we’re talking about something more than learning here; we’re talking about absorbing the essence of someone’s being. Things didn’t go well. Relatively speaking the procedure was a success, but the results were horrifying. Even with all the neural implants, the Prolific couldn’t handle the stress of trying to maintain a mind of two people. There were clashes …” He paused for a moment as if considering the term, nodded, then continued. “Their minds were literally battling one another and trying to create one timeline by destroying the other. While they had the wits of two, their personalities, remembrance of their past, and social skills were all but destroyed. In the Government’s eyes, it was a success, but we knew it could be improved, that it didn’t have to be like this. Well, one night I finally cracked it. We finished the technology that would turn the brain into more of a library, allowing the user to, so to speak, open different books and chapters of all the information and lives they had absorbed. It was a delicate thing.”
“So you’re saying it worked? There was no limit to how many minds they could absorb?” I asked.
“I don’t know. The Prolific who helped me test got to eight different minds and was completely fine. The rest of the team and I realized this wasn’t something we wanted the Government to get their hands on. It’s something no one should have. We violated the laws of nature and hiding the results of the project from the Government cost us our lives. I exist indefinitely in this prison as a reminder of what I’ve done and the consequences of my actions. I’m so proud to see what you’ve become. You have potential, Jake. As you’ve already discovered, your ability to layer your thoughts makes you powerful and dangerous.”
“The Prolific who tested the technology? Are they alive?” I asked.
“No,” he responded. When he didn’t continue, I decided to move on.
“Does the technology still exist?” I asked as I considered his words.
“Yes. I’ve got it here, wired to some explosives. I’m not sure if the Champions should have it. This isn’t something that can be utilized without consequences, and the technology itself does still have some flaws.
My code is deteriorating, and if I don’t actively maintain it, I will turn into something I’m not. I’m not supposed to get sick—in fact, it’s impossible for me to get sick now, but my human self remembers sickness and so somewhere in my subconscious I am subject to the same laws of nature. I wear a gasmask where the air isn’t safe to breathe even though I don’t breathe anymore. I can’t explain these things or why they happen, but I can’t allow myself to become dangerous to anyone other than the Government. The last thing I would want is to hurt you or the Guild.”
“I understand. I think you’re doing a good thing. I want to talk with Edgar about the tech. Maybe we’d have a use for it, but it also sounds dangerous.”
He growled and swatted an empty can across the room where it smashed against the dense wall. “It’s your decision to make. If it were up to me, I’d destroy it. If it isn’t destroyed, the Guild needs to take precautions to protect it and keep it away from the Government.”
I raised my hand and placed it on his metal arm. “You were just doing what you could to support our family. I respect your decision and think you did the right thing by keeping it away from the Government.”
“They can’t have it, Jake. Absolute Knowledge is already a sham, but the Collective Thought is very real. Imagine how quickly they could speed up the growth of the project with Prolifics absorbing hundreds of minds, how quickly they could combine thoughts to create new ones. Absolute Knowledge cannot exist on this planet; there is too much unknown in the universe, too much that can’t be learned from the confines of Earth. What happens when they no longer need the Slums working as Thinkers? What happens when they pull the cord on the project and leave us on our own? What happens when they decide to wipe us out?”
I took in a sharp breath and realized there was truth to what he said. It wasn’t the delusion of an over processing robot, these were words of truth and logic. How long was all of this sustainable?