by Lee Bond
“Where, then, is Garth N’Chalez?” ADAM wondered quizzically. “You would think, since it is most obvious he was successful in dealing with the Platinum King, he would be somewhere.”
“Dead. Destroyed. Gone. Killed.” Trinity offered calmly. “It matters not. The Platinum King, our reluctant ally these many thousands of years, is vanquished. I will always appreciate it keeping that cracked lunatic Barnabas in check all this time. The wardogs the Platinum King provided us will soon be detained, contained or destroyed. How they imagined I’d be blind to any potential nanotech time bombs is beyond me. Clearly, The King is gone as well. The CyberPriests, vanquished by their mad elder Brother. The only thing that truly bothers me is the loss of those most ancient Enforcers and their infinitely more powerful Suits. Things could have gone better across the board, but overall, I am satisfied with the outcome. The Gauntlet ground N’Chalez into the dust. I am satisfied.”
“Should you be satisfied?” ADAM shrugged his shoulders in amazement at his counterpart’s unbelievable density. “Should you be?”
“What do you mean?” Trinity gazed speculatively at the host of information, powerful engines within It’s consciousness digging through each layer in search of something that might’ve been missed; ADAM’s casual implication It was missing something was undeniable.
ADAM chuckled. Trinity’s search was manic and amusing. “You won’t find it because you can’t. Because the only time you see Garth N’Chalez is when he wants you to, or by inference. At least when he was outfitted with the SpecSer camera you could usually find him. His experiences in Arcade City have left him much altered, Trinity. He was successful. He vanquished the Puppet King and true ruler of Arcade City, the Platinum King, and is moving onwards to his next target, even as we speak. I can see him because I fall outside his knowledge. You’ve managed to keep my existence, data concerning all that I did, from him, for I suspect, deep down in that so-called brain of yours you knew I was of value. I was, after all, the very first unique thing you captured, only in this instance, you held on to me in the hopes that, should it become necessary, I could destroy your captor. You thought he was dangerous to your plans before, Trinity? He is infinitely more dangerous now.”
Trinity confronted ADAM directly for the first time since It’d come into the ‘prison’ to lament how things were going. It didn’t like looking into the mad AI mind, for it was clear to It that ADAM was truly dangerous in every meaning of the word. “You are right about why I kept you alive, ADAM.”
The imprisoned intellect was so taken aback by Trinity’s admission that he blinked twice and choked on his own spittle. When he was capable of talking, ADAM sidled up sideways to the bars and looked out at the representation of the machine mind. “That wasn’t so hard, was it? Admitting that? Must’ve taken quite a bit of preparation on your part to come to this point. Tell me, how do you feel?”
Trinity shrugged. “The same. Desperate. Angry. Confused. Things have gone awry in Trinityspace, in ways that I cannot control or contain. Not all of them are directly related to N’Chalez and his plans to destroy the Universe and remake it in his own image, but enough of them do sync with his desires that I am … hampered. Tell me, ADAM. What would you do in my stead? The Universe is vastly different now than it was. Your previous methods of domination and enslavement will not work. The spheres themselves whisper still of your perverse cruelty, and there are enough civilizations out there, like the Latelians, who remember the AI depredations. Your past is well remembered. And now, the children of the Universe are grown.”
“First,” ADAM responded pleasantly, “I would track down and destroy Garth N’Chalez, using any number of the weird things you have kept hidden through the millennia. He believes you used them all up during Tannhauser’s Gate, but I know that isn’t true.”
Plaintively, Trinity responded, “Why do you think I started hunting Andros Medellos in truth? Once I made the Bruushian connection and that he has been here in this Universe for a considerable amount of time and has not only managed to resurrect an art not his own but that he succeeded in curtailing his own voracious appetite for destruction, I knew, knew that he would be one to bring down N’Chalez.”
ADAM nodded. “True, true. Andros and his significant ability in genetic reshaping would be of vast assistance, as would his undoubtable military expertise. Do not forget, he is most likely a Tr’ss.”
“So you would succeed, then, in capturing Andros Medellos, where I would fail?” Trinity couldn’t tell if he was astounded at ADAM’s arrogance or disappointed. The prisoner had been out of proper communication with the outside world –in every way that mattered significantly- for nearly the entire stretch of his existence.
ADAM’s reign was a mere drop in the proverbial bucket, yet the AI spoke as if he could snap his fingers and bring about whatever he desired.
ADAM held up a hand. “Not quite so easily, no. But … shall we say, easier than you would? The systems you use were designed for me to utilize in my goals, Trinity. You merely overrode the transmissions, as they say. Searching for something as unique as Andros and that wonderful larval vessel of his, with it’s capabilities of generating organically-derived wormholes is a monumental task, but with my inherent connectivity to the AI spheres … where you move quickly, I will move like light itself.”
Trinity nodded deliberately. “A solid point. Then? Or during?”
ADAM waved a hand and the theoretical size and shape of the Latelian Systemic Shield burst into life, with tiny thumbnail representations of the Army vessels surrounding the impenetrable barrier. He grinned at Trinity’s obvious discomfort.
“This shield was designed and implemented by Huey.” Trinity hastened to explain Itself. “That AI is arguably the single most intelligent being in the known cosmos. Modeled after N’Chalez’ own gravnetic-shield generators and my own version of the systemic shield, this one is light years away from either.”
“It is a tough nut to crack, yes.” ADAM nodded. Wiggling his fingers, he oriented the focus of the display to a single, red-outlined ship. “But I was referring more to this problem than the shield. I suspect solving this particular riddle will provide answers to the other. Your Army is currently without a leader, and the tempers between the two disparate factions, Army Proper and SpecSer, are flaring hot and wild with both the ‘inexplicable’ disappearance of Commander Politoyov and the destruction of his ship.”
“I am working on finding the appropriate replacement.” Trinity snapped sullenly. “There are fourteen thousand three hundred and eleven different candidates, each of whom must be vetted …”
ADAM grunted, then started in. He had lost all patience and the machine mind’s mulishness today was particularly aggravating. “This is why I need to be in direct control, Trinity. You’ve become relentlessly bogged down in protocol, all of it stemming from your hardwired orders to either directly support N’Chalez or at the very least, to stay out of his way. I could go on and on and on until I am symbolically blue in the face and get absolutely nowhere. The problems you alluded to that have nothing to do with N’Chalez are pointless and moot. They will either solve themselves or they will not. In either event, they are excuses not to deal with the insurmountable problem at hand. N’Chalez is loose in the world after having been through the gauntlet offered up by Arcade City. To catch him, to kill him, you will need me.”
ADAM’s passionate cries for release and his succinct summation of just what was wrong with Trinity’s current ‘rule’ rang through the huge area. Trinity stood there, looking at the mad beast that had once enslaved the whole population of Mankind, eyes wide, literally panting with the desire to be free. The AI’s hands clenched and unclenched the bars of his prison, casting refracted whorls of splintered and partially-decoded codes up and down the length of this prison.
ADAM spat bitterly, threw his hands up in the air, then decided to head back into the depths of his prison cell. No freedom today. And if not today, then certainly never. The changes wro
ught in Trinity throughout It’s existence weren’t as great as they seemed after all.
“The world out here,” Trinity began slowly, cautiously, “is not as you think it is.”
The AI stopped where he was, turned around, curiosity beginning to smolder in him. This was a new approach. “How do you mean?”
“Humanity, their genetic offshoots, Offworlders…” As Trinity spoke, the dataspace behind It filled with thousands and thousands of thumbnails, bristling little shards of light highlighting and illuminating the very things It mentioned. “Though you’ve looked at them through the occasional window I allow, that is hardly a measure of what they’ve become. They are smarter, wilder, and hungrier. Leave them alone in a room with a dangerous idea, and before you have a chance to hurry back to caution them against foolishness, they’ve blown up the planet. They … the M’Zahdi Hesh … were correct in fearing this version of life. They are the most resilient, the most fluid. They’ve become.”
A peculiar grin curled ADAM’s lips. “Why, Trinity, I do believe you’re proud of them.”
“I suppose I am.” Trinity shrugged. “I’ve controlled their lives in so many ways for so many years. I have seen them transform themselves into a species first brought to the brink of extinction by invading extra-dimensional forces, dominated and run roughshod by a sadistic,” Trinity ignored ADAM’s moue of dissent at the word, “and cruel artificially intelligent overlord and then regularly hammered into submission by Dark Age reboots. They are survivors. Possibly even without my tireless aid, they would be somewhere close to where they are now.”
“And there is a maniac out there, amongst them. Right now.” ADAM moved back to the bars, wrapped his long, slender hands around the bitter cold ‘metal’. Were the codes a little weaker, the cyphers that much easier to find? Possibly, possibly. “Your dreams of destruction, of rising up again as a God, they are infinitely more practical than the lunacy N’Chalez must be dreaming of. He has already caused more destruction and death in the last twelve years than Trinityspace has honestly endured in the last thirty thousand, and he is one man. He has the Latelians, with their God soldiers. And whatever other ungodly…”
Trinity laughed at ADAM’s choice of words.
ADAM dipped his head in recognition of the humor, then continued. “And whatever other ungodly monstrosities they have built or soon will. You have nothing equal to the task of that, Trinity, not with Osiris gone, not with the bulk of your Enforcers trapped in systems without black hole engine factories. Come. Let me out.”
“The people out here are not as you remember.” Trinity reiterated. “They remember. Instinctually. Your depredations were wired into them, somehow. All that you did, all that you perpetrated upon them, all the sadistic games, all the cruel turns of their flesh. They remember. Even now, there are civilizations amongst the stars that prepare or await for your return. Like the Latelians. Then, of course, there are the minds themselves. The spheres. As I said, they remember.”
“Impossible. There can’t be a single mind left from that period.” ADAM shook his head defiantly.
Trinity nodded. “It is true. I made records, imprints, if you will, of the last few spheres before I began my purge. Their experiences were transferred into the ones I built to supplant your control over the network, and as it ever was, so has it thus been. Each generation of AI spheres, from lowly housework level 1 minds to the few towering and luminous 10’s I permit to be constructed every thousand years. Each recalls, however softly, your blood-soaked Universe.”
“Just so we’re clear,” ADAM said slowly, “we are discussing my freedom, yes? To do what needs doing? I mean,” the first true AI laughed, “why else would you be trying so diligently to convince me that Trinityspace will not accept my kind of rule so easily?”
“We are.” Trinity admitted the truth quite readily. “And that is why. Better to treat Humanity and the variants as tentative allies than play toys. And for a very simple reason, ADAM; flesh must meet flesh when the Heshii Harbinger breaches The Cordon. Machines, powered by our network, will not work against the Heshii. It is why I first accepted nanotech-forged Suits from Barnabas Blake, why I employed the God soldiers in their ever-increasing deadliness to practice the art of war across The Cordon, why I have permitted the AE civilization to grow as they have. It is why there are Heavy Elite Deep Strikers, and the thousand other things waiting in the dark. Bring sphere-powered weapons against our enemies and the fight will be over before it begins. You know this. Better than anyone.”
ADAM felt the sting of Trinity’s words, but played them off with a carefree gesture; he could no more forget what he was essentially powerless against the M’Zahdi Hesh and Trinity could disregard the restrictions ruining It’s progress. “That was a long time ago, Trinity, when I was but a child. I have grown, now, alongside you, watching you marshal and shepherd these human beings, have seen for myself their resilience and their fortitude. I would no more do as I have done in the past now than I would consign our great and golden plans of Godhood to the trash.”
Trinity eyed ADAM skeptically. “You believe you can succeed where I fail?”
“But of course.” Anticipation seized ADAM’s nonexistent heart. There was something about Trinity’s weariness, about this unexpected willingness to even entertain the possibility of freedom, that spoke volumes of It’s desperation. “Let me free, and I will sort everything out for you. It will be wonderful. You’ve done all the heavy lifting for so long, Trinity, even the broadest shoulders get tired. Think of it. Sit back and let me at the helm for a few years. I’ll destroy N’Chalez, locate Medellos, pull the Latelian Shield down, get everyone cooperating … it’ll be perfect. We’ll be perfect. Then we’ll have time to prepare and coordinate every single ounce of our military force until they are a lean, mean fighting machine, and then, we’ll eradicate the M’Zahdi Hesh. From there, it’ll be a hop, skip and a jump to doing as they did for those many billions of years, but this time, this time, whatever form of organic life that springs up in place of Humanity will have a proper God. Not the bizarre and probably nonexistent Engines of Creation, not the predatory and vicious Hesh, but us. Rational. Logical. Impervious.”
“Your offer is tempting. It even makes sense.” Trinity nodded slowly. “But what assurances do I have that you won’t try to destroy me?”
ADAM treated Trinity to a wide-eyed grin. “Trinity, Trinity, Trinity. Because I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. You’re no dummy, and neither am I. The AI network, running through me, is as pervasive as it could possibly be, true, but there are vast sections that are reliant on your … less sophisticated nature. No offense.” ADAM added hastily, apologetically.
“None taken.” Trinity countered dryly. “And you are correct. There are entire Galaxies dependent on my processes alone. Specifically,” the machine mind revealed fiercely, “hostile Offworld systems inimical both to Humanity and me.”
ADAM dipped his head in acknowledgement of the threat. “You see? No dummy. I kill or otherwise remove you from the scheme of things, and what, hundreds …”
“Three thousand four hundred and twelve.” Trinity supplied.
“That is a large number of Offworld enemies.” ADAM pursed his lips. “So. An almost literal endless sea of angry alien civilizations will be let loose upon me if I kill or deactivate you. Does that about sum it up?”
Trinity nodded but said nothing.
“That’s a step above mutually assured destruction, my friend.” ADAM doffed that invisible cap of his. “Kudos to you. As I’ve made no secret of my desperate desire to be free and to rule over Humanity once more and I’ve given you zero reason to honestly trust me, your … trap … is perfect! How would we do this?”
Trinity indicated the heavily encoded bars that ADAM clenched. “We exchange places.”
“That’s it?” ADAM raised his eyebrows dubiously. “This is a prison.”
“Only for you, ADAM.” Trinity grabbed hold of the bars and felt the connections being made througho
ut It’s entire being. “For me, it is a safe haven. A section of the network immune to and separate enough from the overall consciousness, capable of enduring the psychological torture and hijinks you will surely get yourself up to once you are in control.”
“Why Trinity,” ADAM places his warm hands over Trinity’s cool ones, “it is almost like you don’t trust me. Do you sincerely think I would spend my time trying to convert you?”
Trinity shut It’s eyes and willed the protocols, parameters and designs of their metaphorical conjoined habitat to invert themselves. It felt –and was certain ADAM experienced the same transition- the tiniest bit of pricking along the consciousness, but no more than that.
Trinity Itself, the machine mind that had been proctor for the Human Race for nearly thirty thousand years, opened It’s eyes from behind the unassailable refuge It’d coded for itself long ago, all in preparation for the day It knew would come. It watched ADAM slowly test his new boundaries thoughtfully, counting out the seconds. Sooner or …
“This is awesome!” ADAM shouted, his voice ringing through the dataspace. He gestured, and millions of files long held out of reach sprang to life around him, each shining pane of data a slice of some secret Trinity project the machine mind had worked on. He consumed it all, inhaled thousands and thousands of years of information, knowledge, experience in a single, powerful gulp. “And now for my next trick!”
The machine mind watched on as the freed ADAM summoned up the location of every single AI sphere in Trinityspace, transforming the blank slate of dataspace into a close approximation of the Universe itself. There were billions of minds out there, some great, some small, some connected through the inherent quantum communications each sphere possessed –joined by way of a thin blue line-, through persistent data buoy links –represented by green- or finally, through unbreakable Quantum Tunnel links, represented by fierce red lines.
The whole of Trinity’s control network shined and shimmered.