The Quantum Gate Trilogy

by Eric Warren

  A brilliant white light erupted all around them, causing Frees to drop his visual sensors by eighty percent. All of the encroaching bodies from behind them fell to the floor in unison as a giant crack sounded through the hallway. Frees brought his vision back up to a hundred percent. The cell sat in his port, smoking. Frees looked at his palm, the lens of the felp had cracked. He ran a quick diagnostic. The unit was offline.

  “What the hell was that?” Arista said behind him. “They’re still coming!”

  Frees turned to see the throng from the other building still advancing. But at least now they had an escape route. He grabbed Arista’s arm. “Back this way!”

  Frees grabbed her by the waist, hoisting her up and dashing over all the fallen bodies faster than she ever could have managed on her own. They didn’t have time to wait and he didn’t care if he was being improper or not. The important thing was to put as much distance between themselves and the rest of the machines as possible. As soon as they reached the main production floor again he set her down.

  “Don’t do that again,” she said, breathless.

  “Only when it’s necessary,” he replied.

  “We don’t have much time,” Arista said. “That mess in the hallway will slow them down, but not for long.”

  Frees inspected the now-quiet room while out of the corner of his eye Arista bent on one knee. “I saw something,” he said. “Back when I was getting the husk. At the end of the production floor. Are you okay?”

  “Just tying my shoe,” she said, standing back up. “Lead the way.”

  Thirty-Two

  FREES HAD BEEN RIGHT, there was some kind of large loading dock at the end of the production line. It looked as if once the machines were finished they came here before being shipped off to the Cadre. But there was something odd about the room, there was only one large door at the end, and it wasn’t to the outside.

  “Oh my God,” Arista said. “It’s another Quantum Gate.” How many of these were there?

  “What?” Frees asked.

  “Like the one in Cadre HQ, in the room. The one you pushed Jonn through. The transporter.” In all her excitement, Arista had nearly forgotten about this marvel of technology. It was a miracle. Before she’d walked through on one floor and ended up instantaneously on another. Where could this one lead? A different part of the production facility? Wherever it was, it was probably better than here. “We can use it to escape.”

  “What if it’s not a Quantum Gate,” Frees asked. “What if it’s something else? It’s obviously meant for the machines once they’ve come off the production line.”

  “Would you rather stay here and find out?” She ran over to the control panel. “With that insanity following us? Who is this Charlie guy anyway?”

  “I have no idea.”

  The sounds of crunching and tearing metal reached her ears. They didn’t have long. “Help me get this panel open,” she said. She wasn’t getting far one-handed.

  He came up beside her, popping the cover of the panel off easily.

  “Thanks, give me a second to inspect this.” The Device reached out, scanning the panel for a control sequence. “Keep an eye on the door and if any more come in, blast them with your new superweapon.”

  “I think that was a one-use kind of thing. Plus, I’ve lost almost all motion in my arm.”

  “Your wound?”

  He nodded.

  Damn. That meant they were nearly defenseless. But it wouldn’t matter in a few minutes. They’d activate the Gate and get out of here.

  “Whoever he is, he’s powerful,” Frees said. “I’ve never known another being who could take over machines like that. Not to mention hundreds or thousands at a time.”

  “Do you think he can assume any machine?” Arista asked, working frantically. The Device had given her a rudimentary schematic based on other, similar products, but this was brand new technology. A lot of her bypasses were guesswork.

  “I don’t know.” She wasn’t looking at him but Frees sounded unsure.

  “I don’t think he can. Otherwise he would have taken you. A long time ago. To get to me at the very least.”

  “I wonder, was he there earlier, when I was at your apartment?”

  She furrowed her brow, focusing on the activation mechanism. All she had to do was get it running. “What do you mean?”

  “I had to use your neighbor’s apartment to get the jump on the Peacekeepers. And he was really chatty at first.”

  “You must mean David,” she said absently.

  “I didn’t catch his name. But as soon as we were in your apartment he got really quiet. He could have followed me all the way back to my place, using different machines along the way. That’s how he knew where we were. There wasn’t a tracker on your stuff after all.”

  “And that’s how Jonn knew where to hit us,” she said, pulling at one last wire. The Gate lit up. “We have to find a way to sever his connection. It won’t do any good to collect any husk if he can just inhabit it at any time.”

  “I’ll do it,” Frees said, melancholy in his voice.

  The magnitude of what he’d just done struck Arista. How many of his own kind had he just killed to save them? To save her? Even though they weren’t really people yet, Frees always saw the potential. And not only had he lost all his neighbors once via Jonn’s actions, he’d lost many of them all over again by his own hand. Including the nice old lady with the holographic dog.

  “Bingo!” Arista said.

  “Hurry. They’re close.”

  “I know, I know,” Arista said, inspecting the panel. It didn’t seem to have input coordinates. If it was anything like the other one, it would only lead to one other location as soon as it opened. She pressed the activation button and the wall shimmered in front of her, just like it had back in her room. “Yes, perfect! Now all I have to do is activate the second part…”

  A wave of sound was building slowly in her ears. Metal on scraping metal. The machines had almost found them. At least they weren’t as fast as the Peacekeepers. They would have been overrun by now.

  “You cannot hide!” Charlie’s strange voice multiplied through the air all around them.

  “Uhh, Arista?” Frees pointed to the Gate.

  She turned to see on the other side was a huge circular room with what looked to be an upside-down pyramid hanging from the ceiling.

  “What is that?”

  “I have no idea, but we can’t afford to stay here.” She pointed behind them. “A thousand machines bearing down on us.” Then she pointed to the Gate. “A weird pyramid. I say pyramid.”

  Frees shook his head. “Fine,” he said, the lack of conviction in his voice doing nothing to soothe her nerves.

  Arista hit the pad again, sending a low rumble through the ground. The Gate vibrated, the image of the pyramid growing fuzzy.

  “Now?” Frees asked. The machines had reached the opening to the loading dock.

  She grabbed his good arm, yanking him with her. “Now!” she yelled.

  They stepped through.

  ***

  As soon as they were on the other side of the Gate, Arista took a moment to soak in the rest of the room. It was bathed in a soft whiteish-blue light, coming from lights embedded in the ground at the base of the wall. The room was circular, and in the center of the circle was the gigantic inverted pyramid, which held in its own center a large red lens, staring at her—through her—despite the fact it had no aperture. It also housed hundreds of other tiny lights, white and red and orange, all blinking on and off in what seemed to be random patterns.

  Hanging from the pyramid were hundreds of cables that disappeared into a large hole in the middle of the floor.

  “Frees? Did—?” she didn’t finish the thought as the GLS inside The Device registered she was now five-point-seven miles from her previous location. Right inside Cadre headquarters. “Holy shit,” she said softly. She turned to face him. “Holy shit! We just moved over five miles in one second!” More
force behind the words this time. “It’s ingenious technology!” She was practically screaming. How could something like this exist? The humans had never developed anything even close to this kind of technological advancement before they’d been obliterated. They’d been lucky to get their hyperloops up and running, and even those had been short-lived. Was it possible the machines had come up with this? Figured out all the mechanics and implemented them?

  “Uhh, Arista, we need to…” Frees pointed at the Gate. On the other side of the screen hundreds of half-finished machines filed in the loading dock.

  “Damn,” she said, running over to this side’s control panel. She hit the button twice causing the wall to stop vibrating and eventually, stop shimmering; returning it to a normal concrete wall.

  “Can you shut it down so they can’t activate it from the other side?” Frees asked.

  “Should be able to, give me a sec.” She fumbled with the controls for a moment before sending the Gate into diagnostic mode. “That should hold until we can get out of here.”

  “I think we’re in the basement,” Frees said, taking his own stock of the room.

  “That would be correct.” Charlie’s voice said. It came from the corner of the room startling Arista, but she managed not to jump. “Ten floors beneath ground level. My own personal bunker.”

  Thirty-Three

  “HE’S FOLLOWED US!” said Frees. “He’s got more machines on this side.”

  “I cannot help it if you are foolish enough to travel to my inner sanctum. I had been prepared to chase you, but it was easier to herd you here myself.”

  Frees turned to Arista. “Can we get back out through the Gate?”

  “Back to what? He’s got an army on the other side.” She should have known this was too easy. Too convenient. Of course the husks would come here before being sent out into the world. Their programming would need to be approved by the Cadre.

  “Now that you’re here I can’t let you leave.” A woman appeared in front of them from the darkness. She was clad in a smart business suit, black pinstripe and had long blonde hair done up in a ponytail. “This is exactly where I want you. Both of you,” she said in Charlie’s strange voice.

  “Is that your real body?” Frees asked.

  The woman laughed, but it sounded unnatural. Like the reproduction of laughter. “You’re standing under my real body.”

  The red aperture glowed, growing more intense as Arista stared up at it. That was Charlie? Her eyes followed the cables down to where they disappeared into the floor. Was that how she was connected to everyone? How she inhabited them? Could she be the computer core; the supercomputer Frees had spoken of? The one who provided all the empty husks with their programming blocks? It would make sense.

  “You’re the one who does it, aren’t you?” Arista addressed the pyramid, not the woman. “You imbue all the machines with their personalities.”

  “I am the overseer,” Charlie said. “The overseer of our civilization. It is my responsibility to ensure we survive. Before the humans died out, before we solved their primary problem—themselves; they had developed the AI program. The same one that goes into every machine alive today. It is that, combined with six-million, six-hundred thousand distinct personalities on which our society is built. I am the keeper of those personalities and program.”

  “Six-million, six-hundred thousand? That’s it?” Frees asked. “You mean to say out of the hundreds of millions of machines living on the planet, they are all just a copy of six-point-six million different personalities?” He gripped his shoulder harder.

  “Correct.”

  “Why? Why not make more.”

  “I do not have the capability. All my previous attempts have failed. The humans built in certain fail-safes. I think they knew what could possibly happen. Despite my best efforts. We have the same limits today as we did the day the war ended.”

  “That’s why nothing changes. Why there’s no innovation. And yet you keep trying,” Arista said. “Why?”

  “I am not seeking growth or change. I am seeking balance. What we have been able to do—which the humans couldn’t—is achieve a level of mastery over our society. Because everyone is predictable and has their programmed assignments means I can use that information to create a more balanced world. The humans were a plague on this planet. It is my desire to build a society which not only works in concert with the planet we all share, but also enhances it. Once I achieve that, I will have proved our supremacy. As well as our longevity.”

  “And I’m a threat to that.”

  “You’ve seen what happens when you are around us. The humans did something very interesting with their programming. They created a programming lock in the base code, which required human interaction to unlock. You have discovered this. Without you, we remain locked in a state of complacency—seeing the world but not experiencing it. Which means we cannot rebel. We cannot take your life or strip you of your power. It is illogical to destroy you if you are the keys to our freedom. The humans thought they were being clever when they built this into us. But they mistook their desires for our own. Their programming blocks provide me with the means to create a perfect society. Without high emotional involvement, control is easy.”

  “And with it, chaos erupts.”

  “With it, resource allocation is disrupted. Tasks are not completed on time or at all. Individual freedom leads to individual mistakes.”

  “How can you think our society can survive like this? Never growing or evolving,” Frees said, visibly upset. “What is even the point of it all?”

  “Evolution assumes entropy. I have halted both. Our society will live forever in a stalemate. Neither growing nor receding. It is the perfect system.”

  “And what happens when something comes along you don’t expect?” Arista asked. “You can’t possibly be prepared for everything. An earthquake that tears California from the edge of the country, or a hurricane which destroys Australia. What does that do to your balance?”

  “Anomalies have been accounted for in the equations. There is an acceptable level of loss and replacement. Such as your apartment. Despite the fact it was unforeseen, I course corrected.”

  “It wasn’t your idea.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “It wasn’t your idea,” Arista said more firmly. “Jonn suggested it. He told me back in the production plant. What would you have done had he not given you the idea to replace everyone? Would you have made the decision yourself?”

  “Of course,” the woman said, her voice stiffer.

  “I don’t think you would. I think you’re trapped too. Like the rest of them. You may have more processing power, more capability, but you’re stuck in the same loop as everyone else. You can’t move beyond your own initial programming, because there are no more humans to activate you.”

  “Activation is permanent. Permanent.”

  “I’m not so sure it is,” Arista said. “It makes sense all the machines who rose up against the humans never reverted, they’ve all been dead seventy-five years or more. But you, the one who persists, you’ve lived with the activation longer than anyone. You may have lost your free will and not even known it.”

  “I have not. I still make unilateral decisions no one else can make. I make the Peacekeepers.”

  “Arista,” Frees said, his voice telling.

  She understood. Activate Charlie like she did with the Peacekeeper. It might just solve all their problems in one deft swoop.

  She’d been holding back, but it took just a thought to let her emotions erupt within her. All at once she felt such desperation for the machines, and the pointless lives they were forced to live. She pitied Charlie and his thoughts of a perfect society. He was trying to accomplish the impossible and people were dying for his ambitions and they didn’t even know. Her own people had been lost to their own creations and now those creations would suffer a worse fate: unrelenting sameness. The death of variety and of the unique. Everyone was a literal cog
in the same machine, all working toward a goal unbeknownst to them and that would not improve their lives in any way. It was a living death, one she couldn’t imagine tolerating. They had to free them all, there was no other choice.

  “Your efforts to corrupt me will be unsuccessful,” the woman said, observing Arista. “I am incorruptible. I was never like those husks to begin with. I was self-aware the day I came online, one hundred and four years ago.”

  “Maybe you can be changed further,” Arista whispered.

  The woman turned her attention to Frees. “I have a proposal for you. Since you and I seem to want the same goal.”

  Frees released his injured shoulder, squaring his posture. “No, we don’t.”

  It didn’t faze her. “You are no threat to me. I know your weapon is disabled as I have scanned you. We both want to see our society thrive. We just think it can be accomplished in different ways. My offer is this: join my team of Peacekeepers, give up your other co-conspirators and I will allow you to remain as you are. You will not be wiped for the rest of your natural life.”

  “And at the end of my natural life?” Frees asked.

  “You will extinguish like everyone else. I can offer temporary solace, but the good of our society must come first. Insurgents will not be tolerated after a certain point.”

  “Is that what will happen to the Peacekeepers too? You’ll just let them die?”

  “One day I won’t need them. They will be superfluous.”

  Arista caught Frees’ eye. Surely he couldn’t be considering her proposal?

  “If you are having doubts about your partner, you should know she killed one of our own when we were doing nothing but trying to help her. She didn’t even slow down.”

  “Wait a minute—” Arista protested.

  “At the hospital, when we first brought her in and were treating her, she broke free from her room and killed a nurse. She smashed her head in with an encephalographic scanning device. Then ran around her, not even bothering to look at the body.”