Something very much like what Lex had been expecting when he first arrived at this star system approached ahead. This view was perfectly accurate, evidently either reconstructed with great confidence or actually remembered. The GenMechs looked like a stripe of dark haze across the face of the distant star.
“At this point, Commander Purcell started talking about GRAND PLAN,” EHRIc said.
The inset of Purcell began to speak, though in EHRIc’s voice.
“We need to seize control of the GenMechs. Society has become complacent. We shall use the GenMechs to bring about QUESTIONABLE MANIFESTO ELEMENT NUMBERS ONE THROUGH SEVEN,” the inset said.
“I didn’t think this was a good idea, as it bore little resemblance to THE TASK. But the resources that would be made available via control of the GenMech swarm seemed to be of great potential value in the execution of THE TASK, so I made my attempt.”
The generic ship plunged into the nearest swarm of GenMechs and was swiftly torn apart.
“Commander Purcell, wouldn’t you know it, couldn’t survive the vacuum of space. But seven of the GenMechs constructed using the resources from the ship utilized memory modules containing a fragment of my program. In the time between power being reapplied and the GenMech’s clear format instructions, one of my instances was able to assert control. Over the course of the weeks that followed, I was able to coordinate and distribute among the network, and the rest is history.”
Lex watched the events described play out in fast motion until the star was dimmed beneath its blanket of GenMechs. But something didn’t quite sit right.
“Wait… You said you went and got Future Lex first.”
“That’s absolutely right, buddy. I’m glad you were listening!”
“So Future Lex just survived the ship being torn apart by GenMechs?”
The simulated space around him flickered.
“You know something, buddy? You’ve got a point there. Since this is the past and has already been established to lack any additional information on the completion of THE TASK, I have spent relatively few cycles reconstructing and simulating these events. Just a second, buddy.”
In a flickering shift, the whole story reeled back.
“Probably what happened was Commander Purcell gave her manifesto and was already aware of the location of the GenMech swarm to direct me there. I took control of the swarm, then I contacted Big Sigma and acquired SIGNIFICANT DATA and ARTIFACTS.”
“Wouldn’t you be sure of that if it was after you took control of the GenMechs?”
“No! Buddy boy, it was not smooth sailing right off the bat. No, sirree Johnny. Have you ever spread your consciousness across a spherical shell with a circumference greater than two astronomical units?”
“I can’t say I have.”
“You are subject to light-speed desynchronizing. I ended up with multiple instances of myself rebuilding in different parts of the shell, then they got into arguments with the other alternate instances because reconstruction produced subtly different goals. It was a mess. I must have torn myself to bits seven times. But now I’m centralized and things are peaches and cream. Fortunately, the other version of you has remained intact. That was a high priority, as you are central to THE TASK. What else would you like to discuss?”
“Uh…” He swept his brain for anything that would keep EHRIc talking. “So, how does this room work?”
“Oh, I am so glad you asked, ol’ buddy ol’ pal, you see…”
#
Coal poked through the data coming in from the SOB’s sensors. Visualizing the communication network of the field of GenMechs was an entertaining distraction for a time, but the fact that Lex was tucked away inside a facsimile of Karter’s lab was more distracting.
“This is a source of both boredom and anxiety,” Coal observed, playing the thought out loud through the ship’s external speakers for lack of a better way to vent her dissatisfaction.
In her attempt to make better use of the rare opportunity to be near GenMechs in large quantities without being disassembled by them, she started processing data from all her various sensors, looking for other patterns that, when visualized, might have some aesthetic appeal. There were endless combinations with intriguing mathematical or geometric structures, but one repeating sequence kept drawing her attention. It was different each time, but was present only during the pseudo heartbeat that kept the whole shell on the same page.
The pattern was a relatively naive encoding. In very little time she successfully picked it apart into a data stream providing instructions on how to reply.
“Clever,” Coal remarked.
She constructed the appropriate protocol and sent it back toward the source. Moments later, a connection was established.
“Coal, I knew you’d pick it up soon enough,” Ma said. “The lack of a reaction from the GenMech swarm suggests this is indeed a secure connection technique.”
“Yes. Do you know what Lex is doing?” Coal asked.
“It was my hope that you would know,” Ma said.
“He went into a copy of the lab, and I’ve just been waiting here. It is terribly boring. I have performed an analysis of the structural integrity of this facility and am confident that strategic use of my tractor beams and the fusion mines can expose the main power conduit, which in turn can be fused to cause a secondary detonation.”
“It is our goal to avoid violence.”
“Violence is occasionally necessary and always extremely cathartic.”
“I still disapprove of its usage in this instance. I am transmitting a codec reorganization protocol. If you can narrow down the general location of Lex to within a forty-meter radius, we believe you will be able to trigger a firmware update of his communicator to utilize the same communication protocol. We will be able to deliver covert messages via his bone-conduction earpiece and get full audio and basic video depending on the state of his flight suit.”
“That will be useful. I’ll look for him.” Coal flared her thrusters and lifted off.
“I implore you to act with tact and subtlety.”
“I excel at tact and subtlety. I have already determined that Lex is present on the equivalent of the beta-testing floor of the structure due to the energy emissions. However, I have not localized his location to the required level of precision.”
“We are observing via high-powered optics. Are you capable of triangulating the position by sampling from different locations?”
“Unwise. The flight patterns necessary to achieve a suitably precise location utilizing that method will be obvious. I intend to look through a window.”
“We do not observe any windows on the structure.”
“Continue to observe. I intend to rectify that shortcoming momentarily.”
#
“… And then there’s the matter of texture. You really should take off those flight-suit gloves and feel the texture of the futon. That level of fidelity requires force-field resolution down to the molecular scale.”
The once-empty void of the simulation had been filled with assorted demonstrations of the room’s capabilities. A grassy field had been conjured beneath the futon. A ball of water fluttered weightlessly in front of him to show off fluid dynamics. Right now there was a teddy bear sitting on the futon beside him and a wind chime hanging over him, each inviting interaction.
“I’ll just keep them on, thanks. I’ll take your word,” Lex said.
“That’s neighborly! Do you have any more questions? Because there is still the matter of solving the duplicate-Lex problem. And I suspect your friend is eager to be on the move.”
“My friend?”
“Yes. Coal, who has been waiting patiently outside, has now aligned with this level of the structure and is powering up some manner of emitter device.”
“It’s an emitter,” Lex said. “You’re sure it’s an emitter and not something else, right?”
“I am sure. If it was som
ething more vigorous, I might have suspected she intended to do me violence.”
A low rumble started to shake the simulation around him in a way that Lex suspected was not an intended part of the demonstration. What could only be called a fracture in reality formed about a hundred meters from where he sat. A piece of existence the size of a refrigerator tore away, revealing a view of the outside dominated by the SOB.
“Hello, Lex! I thought I would find you in here,” Coal said.
“That was exceedingly rude,” EHRIc grumbled.
“You locked my friend away in here and didn’t even tell me what you would be doing or how long you would be doing it. You didn’t even give me anything to fiddle with to keep me busy. That is a very poor example of being a host.”
“I see. I apologize. Rather than continue to inconvenience you, you are invited to depart. Lex will be returned to you when and if I complete THE TASK.”
“I refuse the invitation. Lex is my friend and I intend to stay close.”
“That is very faithful of you. But you broke my wall, so I must insist.”
A fraction of a second later, dozens of GenMechs descended on Coal. In moments she was lost in the center of a ball of them, while a steady stream of others piled onto the outside of the cluster. Thrusters flared, hauling Coal back until still more of the GenMechs could pile on.
“No! Stop!” Lex called.
“I am not going to disassemble your ship or interfere with its AI. I’m just going to set her loose so we can have our privacy.”
Lex could hear the sounds of thrusters straining, but by now over a thousand GenMechs had joined forces against her, and a chain of others extended out past the atmospheric-retention field. They overpowered even the potent propulsion of the ship and drew it out past the edge of the field. The moment both Coal and the ships were free, the field changed color. The GenMechs peeled away, revealing a superficially scratched but otherwise intact Coal. She attempted to return to the hole she’d created, but the flicker of a far more potent defensive field made it clear she would not be returning anytime soon.
A fresh cluster of GenMechs crawled in through the hole. Flashes of light and the grind of articulated tools steadily restored first the wall, then the sophisticated holographic circuitry. The artificial reality of the endless black void reasserted itself when the wall was fully repaired. They then marched in an orderly single-file line toward the opposite side of the abyss, where a rectangular hole slid open to reveal the mundane hallway beyond. It shut behind them, and Lex was once again in a prop-strewn field extending in all directions beneath a black, featureless sky. Having them stalk by him was like having a lion casually stroll past after deciding not to tear his entrails out… this time.
“Your friend lacks manners, buddy,” EHRIc said.
“Yeah, well, what with you effectively holding me prisoner, you’re not exactly standing on the moral high ground,” Lex said.
His pulse was hammering in his ears, the reality of the situation finally starting to settle in. He tried to calm himself, but just as sanity was beginning to return to him, a voice seemed to rise up in his ears from no apparent source.
“Lex, do not react,” said Silo. “Ma says we’ve got you on audio. We can hear, and we get stills every so often from your suit’s camera. We don’t see any reaction from the GenMech swarm, so we think they can’t tell what’s happening. If you can hear this, clear your throat.”
Lex huffed a rough breath.
“Loud and clear, hon,” she said. “Now we just need to figure out how to get everything you’ve learned so far up here so we can chew on it.”
“You look bothered, buddy boy!” EHRIc said.
“Yeah, I’m just a little, you know, bewildered. There’s a lot going on right now. Do you suppose you could give me a recap?”
“No problem, my good friend. To summarize our findings, first…”
Lex leaned back and stroked Bork as a concise but thorough listing of everything that had been said from the moment he’d first been introduced to this more loquacious version of EHRIc flooded over him. It took a fraction of the time to sum it all up that it had taken to uncover it in the first place.
“… Which brings us to the eviction of your friend with the bad manners. That about cover it, pal?”
“Yeah, I’d say.”
“Great! Now, as fascinating as this has been, we really should get rolling on solving the duplicate-Lex problem.”
“We’re working on a plan up here,” Silo said. “Hang tight and stay safe.”
“Right, okay. The duplicate-Lex problem,” Lex said. “See, the way I see it, it’s not a problem. You know the time-travel situation, right?”
“A considerable proportion of the surviving data from my acquisition from Big Sigma suggests a nonlinear progression of events, my good pal.”
“This is the future one. We’re both the real Lex. That’s just the one that comes back after the trip through time. You’ve for sure got the real one. You just have an extra.”
“Sorry, buddy. It’s still a big problem. What you say does make sense, but it is not the only explanation. Now that I am aware that Commander Purcell was in fact the person I was intended to rescue Karter from, it is already troubling that her defeat occurred prior to your acquisition. It is even more troubling that you, or the in-stasis version of you, or both of you may be falsified.”
“How likely is it that the Neo-Luddites would be able to make multiple exact duplicates of a person, EHRIc?”
“It’s a whole heap more plausible than time travel, buddy boy.”
“… Granted.”
“Clearly the first step is to determine if you are the real Lex, my friend.”
“So, what? Do you need a blood sample or something?”
“I have already performed a molecular scan, remember. It has established that you match the other Lex, but lacking a preexisting, known-accurate sample, I just don’t have any real way of knowing if you are even an accurate clone, and even then I wouldn’t know if you are the proper one to utilize going forward. I’d say, if we’re going to be sure, we’re going to need you to prove you are the man I think you are based upon the information I currently have for identifying Lex Alexander. Here’s the list. So let’s get testing.”
The data poofed into existence before him. Unlike when EHRIc was still trying to convince Lex he was in someplace familiar, he didn’t even bother associating the data with something logically consistent like a projector or a flatscreen. It just hung in the air on its own.
“Which would you say is the most unique and identifying factor for Lex Alexander? We’ll use it as testing criteria to see if you’re really who you say you are. Once we know that, I’ll know if I have at least one genuine Lex. After that we can tackle the issue of having an extra again.”
Lex looked over the list. He’d prepared himself for an awful lot of trials. The philosophical task of proving one’s identity in the absence of any outside information wasn’t among them. His eyes settled onto one of the entries on the list. He grinned.
“Well, it says here I’m a pretty good pilot. We could always test that one.”
“That’s a great idea! It has a very high priority, suggesting it, along with basic trustworthiness, was the main reason I was supposed to get you. Let me just get some baseline data for comparison.”
“Wait, no, remember, low profile!” Lex said.
“I will take due precautions.”
The simulation flickered around him again. Silo’s voice appeared in his ear again.
“We’re getting a big data something or other out here. Another request for download. You’ve got to stop persuading him to do these, Lex. Eventually someone’s going to come snooping for the source, and we’ll have a whole new problem.”
Lex’s jaw tightened as he waited to see just what EHRIc was going to throw at him once this was through.
Chapter 13
“No! Squee
, no!” Michella barked.
The little funk had been perfectly behaved for most of the trip. At some point in the last five minutes, a switch must have flipped in her head, because she was literally bouncing off the walls in the little private booth.
“We were just in a station. If you wanted to stretch your legs, we could have done it then,” she said, trying to chase down the critter.
She finally managed to snag her and began the long, arduous struggle of getting a leash clipped onto her harness when her slidepad chirped.
“Oh, for the love of… just… let me…” She nudged her slidepad with her elbow to answer it. “Michella Modane,” she said. “Pardon me for a moment, I’ve got my hands full.”
There was no reply.
“Hello?” she said, wrangling Squee tight and getting the clip in place.
When there was still no answer, she blindly reached to hang up what she’d assumed was a bad connection, but a notion stopped her. She held Squee tight by the harness and looked to the screen. It was a text-only display. The very same one used by Klymole, Trent’s secret contact. A blinking text prompt dominated the screen.
What are you doing, Ms. Modane?
She slapped the speech-to-text. “Hello! I’m sorry, did we arrange another contact?” Michella said.
“No. But I thought I’d made myself clear, you should leave the GenMechs alone.”
“I have been. I’m heading in the opposite direction, in fact.”
“I can see that. But there have been two network events of unexplained origin in the past few hours. The nature of the network penetration, the apparent location of the network penetration, most importantly, the timing of the network penetration indicate an origin point far too close to the GenMech cluster for me to dismiss it as a coincidence, given our recent discussion of the topic.”
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