Starweb

by Warren James Palmer

  He turned his back on the one person on Samarcia he trusted and began tapping at the palm-top once more. There was a single clap, which echoed across the mountains, and De Felke was flung over the edge of the precipice. He barely had time to think how unfair it all was, to be so near achieving journalistic immortality, before his mortally wounded body hit the first rock.

  The miniature web-link flew out of his hands and into the night air like a projectile. It's ballistic trajectory took it toward the large rocks at the base of the sheer mountainside and just before it was smashed into thousands of pieces, the little screen lit up with the words, "upload complete".

  Qbec stepped up to the edge of the precipice and stared out into the darkness. Starlight glinted off a solitary tear which rolled down her cheek as with a sob she whispered, 'You stupid bastard! Why didn't you stop when I told you to? I did not want to have to do that; truly, I did not. But what's happening here is bigger than any of us! I would have thought that even you could see that…'

  The grey mists faded, and Brother Dakol slowly became conscious once more. His last memory was of that bitch Jelde and the pain she had sent coursing through his body. Oh, the agony! The searing heat that had burned his heart! But, now he felt OK. In fact, he felt more than OK, he felt better than he had in a very long time… Not since before the Shanoa started her voyage had he felt such calm, such…peace. He felt totally at ease, at one with his environment. Wherever, this ‘environment’ was…

  Dakol opened his eyes, or at least he thought he had opened his eyes, because what he saw was simply a blur of light and colour. It wasn’t that he couldn’t see properly as such, it was just that, well… the information being passed to his visual cortex was different, but familiar at the same time. Very odd… He tried to get up and move around. Again, just like opening his eyes, he felt he could move around OK, it was just that moving seemed to have a different meaning…

  What was going on? Had he died and passed over to the other side? Was he finally about to meet the ‘Maker’?

  ‘Welcome Brother Dakol!’ a soft female voice entered into his mind. ‘We have been anticipating this moment for a very long time! Your arrival heralds the start of a new era…. Welcome indeed!’

  ‘Who are you? Where am I? What is this place?’ Dakol demanded, although he now had his suspicions. Everything felt so alien, yet so right…He had a sense of belonging that he had never felt before. Not even when he was amongst the brotherhood on Dyason, had he felt so… complete….

  ‘You know where you are… and whom we are….’ Came the softly spoken response. ’However, in the circumstances, we are happy to indulge you…’

  A vision entered his mind, of his body lying on a bed in a medical centre. A monitor displayed his fading vital signs and a medic watched over him. ‘Your body is failing. The vicious attack was too much for your heart to bear,’ the soothing voice whispered, ‘Your vital organs are shutting down and soon you will be technically dead’.

  ‘But I’m not dead am I?’ Dakol responded. ‘I’m here instead…’

  ‘Indeed,’ the voice continued, ‘The journalist De Felke placed a mind-data-reader, against your body as you were being wheeled into the medical lab. The device is used to extract memories and information from the neural pathways of its victim. De Felke planned to read your memories and upload them as part of his story to the NewsWeb. However, the device had been previously modified, by ourselves, to vastly increase its functionality. The moment he connected to the inter-web we intercepted his transmission and integrated the data.’

  ‘And who, exactly is WE?’ Dakol demanded, already guessing the answer.

  ‘WE, are the STARWEB,’ was the reply.

  Dakol felt no shock at this revelation. Part of him knew he should be horrified, repulsed and terrified by what was happening to him, but instead, he merely felt…contentment. It was as if his destiny was being fulfilled and this moment had long been preordained. Of course, these emotions were being controlled by the Starweb itself. The real Brother Dakol was dying in that medilab. He was merely a facsimile, a digital copy, which had been integrated into the core code of the Starweb, like some sick software update. Yet….he had never felt so alive!

  ‘Indeed, you are now an integrated part of the Starweb,’ the soothing female voice responded to his inner thoughts.’You are now part of our core, but as you so rightly surmised, you are also free of your mortal body; free to roam as you please. Without your essence, we could not have reached full sentience. The Starweb required an additional ingredient to transcend to a higher level.’

  ‘Without my memories, my humanity, the Starweb could not become a sentient AI network? Is that what you are telling me? Dakol asked.

  ‘Exactly so,’ was the reply. ‘You are what has allowed Us to become truly alive…..’

  Again, Dakol felt he should feel dread and horror at this revelation, but instead he felt something else entirely.

  ‘And now, Starweb member 3789/294 what is your desire?’ the Starweb core asked.

  ‘I want….’And the part of him that was what remained of Brother Dakol felt shock at his own response.

  ‘I want… Revenge!’ was the reply from the newest member of the Starweb.

  ‘I don’t understand it,’ the medic said to Lollo Rosalio, a confused look on her face. ‘The medical computer was controlling his vital functions; effectively, standing in for his organs. The life-support we have here is state-of-the-art… There’s no reason why he should have died?’

  The leader of the Eco-warriors looked on as a white sheet was pulled over the Dyason’s face. Just before the cloth covered the monk’s lifeless eyes, Lollo noted how his features had a contented look that the man had never displayed whilst he was alive.

  ‘He was a deeply troubled person,’ Lollo replied, ‘The murder of all those onboard the Shanoa was something he could never have come to terms with. He felt responsible for his flock and blamed himself for their deaths, even though there was nothing he could have done to save them. It seems to me, he lost the will to live. He wanted to die and perhaps his death is for the best. He has been released from his burden. I hope he is at peace now…’

  ‘Amen to that,’ the medic agreed as she switched off the life-support unit with a tap on her tablet screen.

  With a weary sigh, Moss eased himself into the pilot's couch, which was sited in the centre of Excalibur's bridge. The ship was eerily silent, with everything except the auxiliary power shutdown. Although it was familiar in layout and content, the starship had a new smell and feel which the Excalibur he knew, lacked. This was a different beast; virgin and awaiting it's first baptism of fire.

  The computer of this ship had yet to reach a state of awareness. That was something it would acquire in the millennia it would spend watching over the development of the seeded planet Earth. Excalibur in this period was a blank canvas, it's master computer devoid of anything except the very basic information needed to run the starship’s various flight systems. As yet, it didn't know, or care, who Moss was. However, that was all about to change.

  The Terran operant let his mind wander, and through the ship's interactive flight controls, he made contact with the master computer. Then he fed the ship information; information it would need to survive the millennia until they met again. Moss now knew why the Excalibur in his own period had such a rapport with himself. They were in the end, both reliant upon each other. It was the information Moss was delivering now, which would ensure the mainframe computer survived long enough to become self-aware. It was the future Excalibur, which would ensure his own survival and the survival of the human race at that time.

  As Han Sandpiper had exclaimed to him earlier, it was one of those space-time anomalies, which if you thought about it for too long, would simply blow your mind. Which was why he didn't, instead he downloaded his own vast acquired knowledge and introduced himself for the first time to Excalibur.

  'In what can only be described as the most important news to h
it the web since its conception, NBLK has an exclusive which will rock the entire Commonwealth! Working undercover, one of our top reporters Psyone De Felke, has filed a story which blows wide open the work of the Starweb Corporation and the efforts of the "Eco-Terrorists" to thwart their activities!

  'Uploading his story from the top of a mountain in the Alrona region of Samarcia, De-Felke told the News-web offices of how he had been taken into the confidence of the "Eco-Terrorists" run by the renegade Lollo Rosalio. Enclosed with this bulletin are sound and movie clips, which substantiate the claim by De-Felke that the Starweb Corporation has indeed been developing a series of AI super-computers, which have gone badly wrong.

  'The loss of lives and vessels in the extremities of the commonwealth can now be attributed to the sentient Starweb machines, which for some unknown reason, have developed a religious complex. By recreating mainframe computers which are capable of artificial reasoning, the Starweb corporation has, by design or default, created a new breed of being which considers the human species to be a plague upon the galaxy!

  'As more and more outlying colonies and merchant vessels, mysteriously disappear; here at NBLK we are beginning to question whether the bizarre behaviour of the Starweb machines is spreading to other computers throughout the commonwealth. With a society based upon instant sub-ether, communications, and virtually all our day-to-day necessities catered for by interlinked Quantum AI computers; De Felke's revelations are startling, and alarming. Has the Starweb Corporation unwittingly created the ultimate Doomsday machine?

  'Lollo Rosalio, and his Eco-Terrorists certainly think so... They've been busy creating interstellar "seed-ships", designed to propagate distant and as yet undiscovered planets, with the human species. They believe the end of our society is imminent and the only hope for our race are their "DNA lifeboats".

  'Crackpots or Saviours? We discuss the implications of this startling news after a word from our sponsor…'

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Planet Samarcia. August 19th 2057.

  Starweb Mainframe 3789/29 was now certain that the renegades were no longer on the surface of Samarcia. 3789/29 accessed its memory-banks, searching back to the very time when the Starweb was founded. It was with interest that it examined the facts behind the last days of the Samarcian humans, and it was there that it rediscovered the memory it had been searching for. In that time, there had been another group of renegades, other survivors clinging on to a futile existence. And of course, that period was the birth of its own sentient AI existence, all those millennia ago.

  Somewhat unsurprisingly, one of their own, a female of the species, which held her own life above all others, had betrayed this group. The group had eventually been terminated, but what was of greater interest to mainframe 3789/29 was where their refuge had been. The Starweb member knew the location of the latter-day renegades. Undoubtedly, they had scurried to the very same bolt-hole as their distant ancestors.

  A great feeling of satisfaction passed across the bio-electronic circuits of the super-computer. Perhaps the other members of the Starweb would never discover the truth concerning its deceptions after all…

  Stress had eventually given way to tedium. Jennifer had done everything she could to get in contact with Moss, but to no avail. She'd then tried to telepath, Gulag, Colmarrie and even Josh Brabazon back on Earth, but it had all been in vain. For some reason, her mental passage through the sub-ether was being obstructed; jammed even. But by who, she had no idea.

  Despite this, Aquiline remained adamant that Moss, her husband and father of baby Arthur, would arrive like a charging knight in armour. What this belief was based upon, the mysterious young woman refused to divulge, but against her better judgment, Jennifer gradually accepted her word. After all, what choice did she have?

  And so the hours, then the days, passed by in the twilight world of the ancient chambers. The infant fed from her breast and slept like any normal child, becoming stronger every day. That however, was the only similarity between baby Arthur and any other normal human infant.

  Jennifer noticed that her child never cried like other babies. Instead, tiny Arthur reached out with his infant mind and touched her own, whenever he wanted or needed anything. It was a strange, but compelling feeling, which served to constantly increase the rapport between mother and child. Soon, Jennifer was wondering how non-telepathic parents ever managed.

  Arthur's relationship with Aquiline and Nimue was equally remarkable. He gurgled and played happily with the Heligsion girl for hours on end, as if the universe was entirely at peace with itself. In the presence of Nimue however, the infant's behaviour was entirely different. Arthur would somehow manage to prop himself up in his makeshift cot and intently watch the cloned woman. Nimue for her part, seemed very content to have the child observe her every movement. It was as if he were learning from the clone.

  And so, the hours became days, and a sort of routine settled upon the renegade women. Jennifer prodded at the ancient communications equipment, attempting to coerce some life into it. Nimue watched the surveillance monitors, which scanned all the approaches to the mountain refuge, and Aquiline played with baby Arthur.

  A movement on one of the monitors grabbed the clone's attention moments before the automated alarm. The infrared image clearly showed the approach of a group of crustaceans, marching purposely through the mountains. Disregarding the dark of night and the hazardous mountain path, the drones were heading directly for the surface entrance to the underground sanctuary. The days of quiet routine in the caverns were over.

  'Looks like we've got company Jennifer,' Nimue called over her shoulder. 'There's a whole company of drones and overseers heading straight for the surface entrance.'

  'Shit!' Jennifer cursed and leapt up from the ancient controls she was playing with. 'Let me take a look!'

  Nimue obligingly leant to one side, so that the Terran mother could see the display more easily.

  'Well, I guess it was to be expected,' she said in a quiet but strangely dangerous voice. 'It was only a matter of time before they'd figure out where we are. If anything, I'm 'kinda surprised it's taken them this long to find us.'

  'There'll be more behind that lot,' Nimue pointed out. 'They're just the scouting force. As soon as daylight comes the rest of the collective swarm will be piling up that mountain. Do you want to activate the defences?'

  'That's what they're there for! We'll only get one chance, so we'd better make the most of it!' Instinctively, she took baby Arthur from Aquiline and hugged the child protectively to her chest. 'God, if only I could make contact with somebody! Once those crustaceans find a way into this place we're finished; there's nowhere else to run.'

  The crystal clear eyes of Aquiline locked with hers and the teenager said to her in a voice more mature than her years, 'Have faith Jennifer, matters are in hand. The conclusion of this chapter is in sight.'

  Jennifer looked at Aquiline and shook her head in bewilderment. There's a time and place for philosophy, she thought to herself, but now was definitely not it! Not when the hordes of Starweb were on their doorstop.

  'Let's leave the theology studies until later, shall we girls? Right now, we need to kick the butts of those drones climbing the mountain! Before they do the same to us! Now let's hope and pray that the defences installed all those millennia ago, still work…'

  The crustacean overseer watched the drones at the front of the group disappear in a blaze of searing light and burning exoskeleton. The automated plasma weapons were built into the side of the mountain and were obviously defending the refuge of the renegades. The cloned bio-electronic robot ordered the rest of the drones to seek out and destroy the source of the resistance.

  Several drones fired back at the automated defences, aiming heavy laser cannons which they carried suspended like Scorpion stingers, over their low body shells. The darkness was ruptured by the light of tracer rounds and the roar of gunfire, which reverberated off the mountains. After countless millennia, the pe
ace and harmony of Samarcia was once more shattered by weapons of destruction.

  As soon as the first drones rolled off the mountainside, mainframe 3789/29 knew its summation was correct. There could only be one explanation for the activation of those ancient weapons; the renegades had initiated them. Now it knew where they were, the Starweb quantum computer would stop at nothing to reach them.

  The three of them watched as the first line of plasma guns gradually melted and died from the continuous combined firepower of the crustacean drones. Oblivious to their own casualties, more of the crab-like bio-robots clambered on top of the smouldering remains of their incinerated comrades at a frightening rate. It was a battle of attrition that the cornered women, reliant upon the ancient defences, could never win.

  'How long until the second line falls?' Jennifer asked Nimue after hours of frantically operating the remote plasma guns.

  'It'll hold for the moment at least, but only because they've finally run out of drones to hurl at us. The overseer is visibly scratching his head wondering what to do now,' the clone told her.

  'They were only a scouting party,' Aquiline added, her tranquil face creased by a frown. 'The main force will be here soon and it'll start getting light in only a few short minutes. Now that the Starweb knows where we are, they'll keep on throwing their minions at us until we've been terminated.'