Swarm

by Devon C Ford

  He walked onto the wide, blood-soaked and body-covered veranda and leaned on the rail, looking down at the gathered people. Hundreds of faces, pale with shock and nerves stared silently back at him. He spent long minutes studying them all. His loyal men, the ones who had fought for him, stood in a separate group holding their weapons ready.

  He picked out other warriors standing in the throng. Had they betrayed him? Why had they not joined in the fight? They paled and tried to hide from his scrutiny and he stared at each of them in turn, knowing that with one command from him they would be dragged out of the crowd and killed. That was Tanaka’s first thought, but as he counted how many warriors remained, he knew he needed everyone who could still swing a blade.

  Surprising them all, Tanaka’s face changed from a scowl to a broad smile. He held out his hands in an expansive, all-inclusive gesture and began speaking. “My loyal friends. Thank you for believing in me and not turning your back on my rule.” Casting his eyes over the warriors in the crowd he paused briefly before he continued. “I know many of you brave warriors chose to guard your families from the madness that overcame the traitors rather than join in the fight, and I do not hold you in any lesser esteem for doing so.” Relief flooded over many faces. “But I need you now. The fight is not over yet!”

  He held up Collins’ weapon for all to see, allowing them time to marvel at it as he swept it left and right like a beacon.

  “We now have their weapons and they are still trapped in The Source.” At the mention of The Source, most looked nervous, the stories from the survivors who had made it back fresh in all minds. Noticing this he changed his approach but continued. “Do not worry, we don’t need to enter that accursed place, but just wait for them to emerge, starving and dying of thirst for us to kill easily. As we speak, I commanded those that escaped The Source with me to build a wall across the entrance. They are trapped and can’t escape.” He softened his tone. “I know you are all exhausted after what has happened amongst us, but I need one more thing from you, my loyal friends, we must return to The Source and kill the Newcomers when they emerge.” He held up the gun again and raised his voice to a shout. “When we take their weapons, nothing can stop us. We will extinguish their puny compound and take enough guns to arm every one of you. Then we will turn to the traitors at the Three Hills and give them a final choice: join us or die.”

  He held his arms wide as almost everyone cheered him.

  Some did not, and he took that as a sobering reminder to always have a gun and guards to protect him.

  Noticing the looks of hatred a few fixed him with he knew they were probably wives or family members of those that had risen against him. He would deal with them later, he decided, when total victory was his.

  He indicated to Sanchez, his new captain, to approach. “Pick ten loyal men to remain on guard. We are leaving as soon as we are ready.”

  Chapter 23

  Information Is Key

  In the bunker the time waiting for the recent defrostees to recover was spent usefully. Geiger and Jones, guided by Annie, had replenished everyone’s expended ammunition from the stores. Other supplies were unpacked that were deemed useful to the objective of getting out of the complex alive, and Geiger was fussing over the growing pile of equipment ensuring it was all in good shape after so long in sealed storage.

  Annie updated us periodically when any significant movement from the ones still trapped in the bunker occurred, but most had virtually given up as the hopelessness of their situation prevented any positive actions. They were irrevocably disoriented, lost in a pitch-black multi-layer maze of corridors and rooms and after hours and hours of continued effort had no energy or will left to do much other than sit in the dark with their parched throats croaking for help. Two men at one point found the small office where the entrance to the bunker was located.

  Even though Annie assured us no noise would escape from the bunker, Hendricks erred on the side of caution and he, Geiger and all the soldiers moved to the door, weapons held ready, just in case. His caution proved unnecessary as Weatherby’s data pad relayed the infrared camera feed from the room and they watched as eventually the men found the door again and blindly, fumbling with their arms held out in front of them, exited the room and continued their efforts to escape.

  I spent my time with my laptop, scanning through Charlie Annie’s memory and programming. With my Annie’s help, I deleted or recoded anything I found that Kendall had changed, and I could see from the time stamps that the process had begun not long after they had emerged from cryo. His first act had been to disable all communication with both the European site and the ARC in space.

  Finding a whole new subsection of programming my eyes opened wide as I translated the code. Annie bleeped in my ear. “Yes, David, this is what I wanted to show you when the time was right. I thought it prudent to wait until you were out of your current situation first, but as you have found it, do you want to discuss it?”

  Scrolling through thousands of lines, it took me a while to respond. “I think I understand the bones of it, Annie. Give me a little while longer to get my head around it first.”

  She bleeped her down-tone, confirming she understood but straight away and slightly to my annoyance as it interrupted my thoughts, spoke to me again. “Perhaps, David, if I show you this it will save time.”

  The screen on my lap blinked and changed to real text, not the code I had been studying for hours. As I read the document, I couldn’t help myself and shouted out loud, “Eades, you son of a bitch!”

  My shout got everyone’s attention, especially Weatherby who knew who I was talking about.

  “What about Eades?” he asked walking up to me and looking at my screen. After a few minutes reading he said, “I knew nothing about this. I didn’t authorize any of it, I swear it.”

  Looking up I saw everyone’s attention was on us. “Err, I think I found out what Annie told us she would tell us later.”

  “Yes, you have, David,” Annie responded. “It is information on The Swarm. How it came about and how it was first used as a weapon to defend Mister Eades from attack in the European facility known as Echo site. This information is, as Mister Hendricks would say, not ‘mission critical’ and the knowledge will not help us now.”

  “Well,” Hendricks breathed out in tired response, “we seem to be at a bit of a loose end now, so why don’t you tell us to pass the time, Anderson?”

  “Do you want to, Annie?” I asked. “You’ve probably got a better understanding of it than I do right now.”

  “Of course, David,” she replied smoothly. “The information comes from a memorandum Kendall uploaded to Charlie site Annie’s memory,” she announced to the room.

  This reminded me and I interrupted immediately. “Where is Charlie Annie, by the way?” She’d been silent ever since our Annie had accessed her programming. “She doesn’t come online whenever we call your name. Names. Whatever.”

  “I have deactivated her voice protocols to avoid confusion, Doctor Anderson. We have no need for her now since I assumed control of the memory. Also, she—it—is malfunctioning. I hope that was the correct action to take?” Annie had of course made the right decision to silence the now-outdated preprogrammed actions of the old Annie. With a tone of annoyance in her voice, she said, “If I may continue, David, and please from now on, only ask questions relevant to what I am informing you of to ensure the accurate relaying of the facts.”

  I shrugged as even the new arrivals, who were still getting used to interacting with a self-aware and sentient computer whose influence and involvement in our lives was all encompassing, smiled as she told me off.

  “The memorandum can be described as being a form of confessional statement, explaining the actions of Mister Eades and justifying them to whomever would read it in the future. I think, for brevity, I should give you the summary as we can discuss and analyze the full information it gives us later.” We all leaned forward listening intently to what she was
telling us.

  “Tanaka, the original Tanaka from the year twenty-thirty-two, as soon as he emerged from cryostasis, assumed control. Kendall was forced initially to rewrite Annie’s code to lock anyone apart from Tanaka from the system and he then organized his most loyal people into a militia to subjugate and force the rest of the community under his command. Expecting us to arrive at any time from the Sierra facility, they planned for it and had drawn up a list of who they would kill and who they would let live, so long as they capitulated to the new regime.”

  Weatherby snorted in response. “Let me guess, I was top of the list?”

  “Mister Weatherby, Kendall’s notes do not go into that detail, but if I was him, disposing of you would be the logical decision. Also, Hendricks and the rest of Sierra team.”

  “Annie,” I asked, “are you claiming that your decision to keep us in cryo for nine hundred odd years actually saved our lives?”

  “David,” she responded dryly, “it would be unworthy of me to do so, but yes it seems that one positive result of what happened could be that I inadvertently saved your lives.” Her voice again changed to a firmer one. “If I may continue please? Tanaka’s rule over the community, after a few attempted rebellions, became total. He created a society that had only one purpose: to serve him. Tanaka did not want us to become a symbol of hope, so he forbade any talk about us and eventually our presence in space became a distant memory as the years passed and the population struggled under his tyrannical rule. The story told to the others was that the ARC had perished during the strike, but those rumors were difficult to prove.”

  “And likely some bright spark had a telescope and could still see us up there,” Hendricks added. Annie went on without responding to the interruption.

  “Mister Kendall went on to explain how they still had contact with the Echo site at that time, and he was secretly communicating with his counterpart there, Mister Eades.” At the sound of his name I bridled, sucking in a deep breath through my nostrils and letting it out slowly to try and control my anger at what the asshole had done.

  “It appears that Mister Eades was conducting a series of experiments of his own based on his background in genetics. Those experiments were inadvertently helped by irradiated fallout, mutating some specimens of hybrid beetle he had been working on—”

  “Oh, good god…” Hendricks groaned.

  “God had nothing to do with this, Mister Hendricks,” Annie said flatly, “I assure you. Mister Eades was working on a way to exert a hive mind control over a hybrid Cicindelinae and Myrmicinae creation which had grown larger in size through exposure to radiation. Mister Eade—”

  “In English, lady,” Williamson complained.

  “My apologies, Captain,” Annie said before adopting a tone that was dangerously close to sarcastic. “Mister Eades spliced sub-species of leafcutter ants with the larger, more aggressive type of Tiger beetle.” The room went very still as the air seemed to just stop circulating for a few seconds. I’d seen The Swarm up close and somehow, just finding out what they were made from made the hairs on the backs of my arms stand up. I opened my mouth to ask how they had hardware inside, but Annie beat me to it.

  “Mister Eades combined technology directly linked to Echo Annie into the queen specimen he had created with a view to exert programming control over her colony. He informed Mister Kendall of this, who requested he send The Swarm to eradicate Tanaka and his followers and effectively free them… any questions thus far?”

  The room burst into noise as everyone started talking at once. My own words were drowned out by Annie raising her volume and silencing us.

  “Perhaps questions should wait until I have the time to dedicate processing power to speaking to you all individually,” she stated, ending the opportunity to ask. I tried anyway.

  “Annie,” I said, “that doesn’t explain how the things we’ve encountered have parts of computer gear inside.”

  “No,” she said, “would you like me to surmise?”

  “Be my guest.”

  “I can only see two feasible primary options: one, that The Swarm have human technicians creating them, which is the less likely, or two, that The Swarm has evolved to create its own additions and replacements more akin to a factory line than a hatchery.”

  The silence caused by her answer was broken by the gruff laugh of their newest soldier.

  “Huh!” Williamson snorted. “That makes the job easier; find their supply source and shut it down, just like it’s some Taliban weapons factory.”

  “A remarkably simple solution, Captain,” Annie said without a hint of her earlier sarcasm. “However, the evolution of The Swarm would make that task highly unlikely to succeed.”

  The word evolution turned my stomach, but I had to ask. “What do you mean?”

  “As with ant colonies, their expansion is fulfilled by a number of ants spawning wings and flying away to create new colonies and effectively becoming other queens in a different territory.”

  “Wait,” Geiger said, holding up a hand and screwing his eyes closed as he could hardly believe the shit they were in could get any deeper, “these things fly now?”

  “For a few hundred years now, from what I know,” Annie answered. “The point being, The Swarm—or Swarms, more accurately—have a weakness: they all originate and rely on a single command network.”

  “Kill the queen, stop the rest?” Hendricks asked quietly.

  Williamson barked his characteristic laugh once more. “Hell, I say we take off. Nuke the site from orbit…”

  “It’s the only way to be sure,” I echoed, unable to hide my smile and guessing that the captain was a guy I’d probably like to share a beer with. You know, if we weren’t trapped in a bunker with a bunch of wild cavemen and robo-bugs to contend with.

  “Irrelevant and impossible,” Annie said dismissively, this telling me that she hadn’t quite finished her human education if she didn’t know that quote. “As it happened, Tanaka was monitoring the contact between the two scientists and tortured Mister Kendall for the device he had created under instruction from Eades as to how to call The Swarm to his location. The Swarm was never unleashed on this continent by Kendall and he was kept in isolation from what I can make out from the old log entries.” She continued before anyone else could butt in with a question.

  “Fast forward a few decades from that incident and there was an uprising, a successful one this time, during one of the many periods of cryosleep the original Tanaka underwent. During this time a large portion of the population of the Springs left following a brief conflict and started their own community at a place nestled in between three hills. Skip to Tanaka waking up, and his first act is to utilize the device to see if it worked. It did, although it took many months for their migration, and The Swarm came to Africa.”

  “So where’s their off switch?” Amir asked, breaking his silence. He was shocked that the people he had vetted so rigorously had betrayed not only him but their own kind.

  “I believe that to still be the Echo site.”

  “But that was destroyed by an explosion, right?” I asked, trying to think back to the time-lapse footage she’d taken from the ARC.

  “Correct,” Annie answered, only she had an edge to her voice that sounded hesitant. “But data I have studied leads me to suspect that it came from an external source.”

  “Hang on,” Hendricks cut in being the first of many to think of the same question, “external how? Who?”

  “I’m unable to extrapolate with any degree of certainty from the data available,” she said carefully, “but some facts indicate that the explosion was the result of either a secondary asteroid impact, which would be highly unlikely given that only a few locations on Earth were supporting human life, or a low-yield nuclear explosion.”

  Chapter 24

  Break Out

  Armed with this new knowledge they were more desperate than ever to reach the surface. Hendricks passed all his new recruits as fit for duty and
was confident that as elite soldiers they would be able to complete the next task: to clear their enemy from the complex. Hendricks issued them all with new wristbands and comms gear from the stores so everyone could communicate, and Annie could monitor and track them as she did all of us.

  The plan was simple enough: everyone would stay together with the soldiers taking the lead. There were enough stored night vision goggles for everyone so they could make their way through the complex without having to turn the lights on. Harrison and Tori were the only ones never to have experienced using them—given that the level of technology was akin to witchcraft—so Hendricks had to spend half an hour in the darkened warehouse training and getting them used to wearing the top-heavy goggles which caused a cramp in the back of the neck for everyone not accustomed to the unnatural weight. Annie would direct them through the complex, guiding them to groups of survivors who they would dispose of using suppressed weapons.

  Once they reached the entrance, they would assess the situation and work out a plan to escape.

  Harrison, using the now-operational radio Weber had set up at Three Hills, had talked to his people. The novelty and wonder of using what he considered a magical device made everyone smile at his child-like amazement when the voice of Travis, the Elder, spoke to him. After learning there was no need to shout to be heard, Harrison was relieved that his people were safe, and his absence hadn’t caused too great a problem. Hendricks updated Weber on their plans and after a three-way conversation between the groups it was decided that Weber would stay at the Hills to help protect them from anything Tanaka might do until Harrison returned.

  The only activity Annie had picked up was at the entrance to The Source. A recharged drone was positioned in a tree overlooking the area and watched silently as Tanaka’s men continued to build a barricade of felled logs across the entrance. No one was entering the cave and they all were industriously strengthening and raising the wall.