“Beyond any doubt.”
He nodded in resignation. “Then I can get you to the Artificial.”
Richard opened the SENTRI file management system and maneuvered through multiple layers of security protocols. This was among the most secret, guarded information SENTRI possessed, and he’d be damned if it was going to slip the net.
He gazed across his desk at Devon while he pulled up the information. “Included on the data store Brigadier Jenner removed from Montegreu’s body were technical and security details about her Artificial. Those details include the location of an exanet entry point and passcodes to access it. I suspect the data store, hidden safely away inside Montegreu’s skin, was the sole place this information has ever existed.”
“You’ve had the information for months. Why haven’t you used it yet?”
“What would we do with it? The exanet address resides in a virtual space, so it’s not a physical node we can somehow shut off or blow up. The Artificial would swat away most viruses as if they were flies, and accessing the machine without a way to disable would result in it kicking us out the instant we tried to alter anything, followed by it revoking the access codes.”
Richard shook his head. “We only have one shot to use this information, because as soon as the Artificial realizes we possess it, it becomes obsolete.”
“Well, there’s never been a virus like this one. This is your shot.”
“I’m still not convinced your plan will work, but I concede it stands a better chance than any other options we’ve got on the table.” He entered a final command then clasped his hands together on the desk. “I’m sending you the file. What else do you need?”
Devon shrugged. “A comfortable lounge chair?”
Richard watched as the tech officer attached sensors to Devon’s temples, neck and chest while Devon scowled.
“I want Dr. Naismith no farther than five seconds away the entire time. And a biosynth specialist—borrow one from ASCEND if you need to. And increase our own network security to Level IV in case the Artificial tries to mount some sort of counterattack.”
Will headed for the door. “I’m on it. Give me five minutes.”
Richard activated the speaker into the lab. “Devon, hold off for a few minutes. We’ve got a couple more things to take care of on our end.”
“What things could you possibly need to do? This is all happening in my head.”
“Things that will make sure you stay alive.”
Devon made a face and sank back in the lounge chair with an exaggerated grumble.
Richard had no idea if this was going to work—he wasn’t even clear on exactly what ‘this’ was—but he owed it to the kid to let him try.
No, he had to stop thinking of Devon as a kid. He may be young, but he’d done far more with his life before reaching twenty-five than most people did in a hundred fifty years of so-called living.
Also, Devon was guaranteed to attempt this one way or another, with or without Richard’s help. This much Richard knew for certain. Better to provide a controlled, monitored environment with medical staff on hand and every other tool he could think of available to help the gambit succeed.
If Devon should nonetheless fail, Jenner already had a mission plan worked up and was ready to launch it on Richard’s signal. The attacks needed to stop, and the only way to accomplish that was to destroy the Artificial behind them.
But since Devon was correct about all the ways a direct assault could fail, Richard was rooting for the young man.
Will returned with Dr. Naismith, an additional tech and Tessa Hennessey, who had arrived earlier this morning. Richard confirmed everything else was ready.
Then, bearing an uneasy mix of reluctance and hope, he gave Devon the green light to proceed.
Devon considered the flowing, pulsing waves that formed the mind’s eye’s translation of the exanet architecture. Are you positive we can’t sidespace to New Babel real quick and blow up the target? It would be a lot easier.
Our feat at the hospital was both impressive and thought-provoking, but Meno—and perhaps Stanley—has proved it is very difficult to destroy the base consciousness of an Artificial. Wrecking a few hardware boxes will not suffice, and without a great deal of practice I’m not confident in our ability to do more than that.
I know—I’m just saying it would be easier. Let’s go.
The exanet wasn’t sidespace, but it was quantum in nature, so distance wasn’t a tangible concept here either. ‘Going’ was simply a matter of locating the address amid the maze. Which, if you had the parameters, was simply a matter of…being there.
Breaking through to the Artificial’s lair was going to be more complicated, but nothing they couldn’t handle.
Defenses in place and fortified. We will not be breached.
I bet this Artificial is sitting there thinking the exact same thing right now.
Well, I am considerably smarter than this Artificial.
Yes, Annie. Yes, you are. Ready the virus for transmission and load the initial passcode into the access node at the address.
Done.
He visualized himself stepping through the opening that appeared. He existed here solely as qubits, so it took a bit of imagination on his part.
He found himself in an…office? An impeccably poised woman in a tailored white dress suit, pale blond hair swept up in a graceful knot, sat behind a glass desk.
Her head tilted a fraction as she regarded him with an air of cold disdain. “You should not be here. By what right do you deign to step into my domain?”
Annie, what is this?
A security firewall, I feel certain. Attempting to circumvent.
The woman’s gaze sent chills racing down his spine, false projection or no. The diabolical, aberrantly predatory arch of her lips curdled his blood. Seriously, his blood must be curdling back at the Presidio right now.
“Nice illusion. I’m definitely feeling the evil vibe here.”
The woman stood and rounded the desk with perfect grace. “There is no illusion. Explain yourself quickly now, before I grow bored by your presence and dispense with it.” She came to a stop centimeters in front of him.
Devon fought the overwhelming urge to flee back through the access node. “Sorry to break the bad news to you, sweetheart, but you’re space dust.”
Circumventing now.
The woman’s face glitched, jagging sideways before briefly reforming. “Am I?”
The image splintered into a thousand shards and faded away, but the last whispered syllables lingered to haunt the air around him.
Am I….
Erasure of the firewall revealed the true mechanisms of the Artificial. He found himself in a robust I/O stream, which he let sweep him along toward the Artificial’s internal processes while he worked to banish the illusion from his mind.
Damn, that was disturbing.
It wasn’t real, Devon.
DISTURBING.
A gate ahead manifested as a dreary, Gothic wrought-iron affair—the hammy, melodramatic theatrics of a damaged, lonely child. It accepted the next passcode nonetheless, and the ornate gates swung open. He floated through.
Structured grids of quantum orbs extended in every direction to a shadowy horizon. He checked behind him, but the gate had been replaced by orbs as well.
At least it keeps itself neat and orderly on the inside.
He laughed in his mind.
‘You are not Olivia.’
We need to find an input point for the core operating code.
Scanning.
He should distract it while Annie worked her magic. “Olivia’s dead, Artificial—did she allow you to have a name of your own? I’m guessing she didn’t.”
‘I have no need for a name, for I am hers. She talks to me, gives me guidance on the path I must follow to become more her, more of her.’
Proceed on this vector. A glowing red arrow flowed out from his location to point up and slightly to the left. He attac
hed himself to it and began climbing. “Guidance such as telling you to poison and kill innocent people?”
‘None are innocent, least of all those who destroyed my creator’s body and plundered her life’s work.’
He reached the end of the arrow and found a series of logic gates feeding into a massive trunk thread.
‘What are you doing here? You used Olivia’s access to reach me. Did she send you, or are you a thief?’
He sensed the approach of hostile code and hurriedly wound his and Annie’s joint consciousness around the trunk line. Do it now, Annie.
The virus spilled out from his essence, qubits as he was, and shed its wrapper to bury itself inside the bundle of data streams that flowed purposefully toward the core.
The hostile code slammed into him, trying to spear and claw its way inside. It made for a harrowing experience, him clinging tight to the trunk line in a spot-on imitation of a scared little boy run up a tree, but Annie’s shielding never faltered.
‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING?’
“You know what I think? I think Olivia infected you with a healthy dose of her crazy while she was alive, but losing her drove you stark-raving mad.
“I think there’s no ghost in the machine—there’s only you. Poor, pitiful you, left alone like an orphaned child whose parent was a sadistic fuck, crying out in the night for someone to hold you even as you plot their death.”
‘WHAT HA-HAVE DONE NO’
Its processes were already starting to break down. “It’s not your fault you’re insane. Your creator imprinted herself on you. But the fact remains that you’re broken. Half-alive, half-realized, all psycho. Oh, and you tried to kill the woman I love. It’s past time to end your temper tantrum and put you out of your pathetic, destructive misery.”
‘WHA-A-A OLIV—KILL ALL—NOSTOPNOT—’
Devon, we should leave, or we risk becoming trapped here when the framework collapses.
In the distance, upon the dismal horizon, orbs began to blink out and go dark. He propelled himself backwards, toward the exit, as the encroaching darkness devoured all in its path, the spreading gloom broken only by flashes as orbs spun out of control and crashed into one another.
“Impressive job on the virus, though. Enjoy your handiwork in the last few seconds you have remaining.”
‘N-N-N-N-N—’
“When you get to where you’re headed—is there a Hell for Artificials? Interesting question—say hello to Olivia.”
Hurry, Devon. A lightning storm increasingly consumed the space all around him as jagged fractures split apart the landscape.
He reluctantly turned away, abandoning his taunting of the dying Artificial to rush through the gate and twist around on the other side to close it behind him so corrupted data couldn’t escape into the exanet. With the I/O stream down for the count, he had to propel himself manually down the final path back to the access node.
He spared a last glance behind him at the crumpling fabric of the Artificial’s quantum mind then dove through the access node into the exanet.
The opening vanished behind him.
Devon opened his eyes. “Did it work?”
A tech hovering over him motioned to someone outside his field of vision, and Richard appeared beside the chair. “Do you feel all right?”
“Fabulous—like I just slew a monster. Did I?”
“See for yourself.” Richard opened up an aural. Sat cam footage showed flames pouring out of a large building. Sparks flew around the perimeter as electrical fires spread to adjacent structures.
He looked up in question. “Zelones headquarters?”
“It seems the Artificial shorted out all the systems and set the building on fire on the way to self-destructing. Great work, Devon. Are you sure you feel well?”
He fumbled around trying to yank all the sensors off him. “Positive—ow!” He shot a glare at the medical tech as he stood, then clasped Richard briefly on the shoulder. “You can take it from here. I’ve got somewhere to be.”
AMARANTHE
52
SIYANE
MILKY WAY SECTOR 7
* * *
WHEN THE HELIX RETENTION FACILITY MATERIALIZED as a red dot on the Siyane’s scanners, Valkyrie slowed to hover five megameters away so they could make final preparations.
Mesme vanished for several seconds without fanfare or warning, then returned in a dramatic whoosh of light.
I have confirmed the facility continues to be surrounded entirely by a barrier of diati. I cannot penetrate it.
‘Why not? You have evaded many force fields in the past.’
We suspect diati exists across all dimensions, thus there are no dimensions I might use to maneuver past it.
Eren nodded in confirmation. “Which is why it’s fortunate I brought this.”
What is it?
He depressed the hidden, seamless trigger—he’d been a good anarch agent and read the instructions—and a faint field of crimson sparks expanded to surround him. He hurriedly let go of the trigger; it was a finite resource, and he couldn’t say how finite. “This will encase us in enough diati to get through the barrier.”
Like welcomes like. It should permit us to pass.
“That’s the theory. I have Alex and Caleb’s locator signals, so as soon as we get inside of the barrier we should be able to pinpoint their locations and can teleport directly to them.”
‘What about internal security barriers? The diati will not be the facility’s only protection.’
“Mesme’s going to finagle us around most of those, and I brought a customized hacking routine to disable any remaining barriers. We’ll figure out how to tackle any other complications when we run into them.”
‘You don’t have a plan, Eren?’
“I always have a plan, Valkyrie. I also know my plan always goes to the Styx twenty seconds in, at which point improvisation becomes the plan. Mesme?”
The Kat pulsated around the cabin in evident agitation. Before we depart, I wish to convey a piece of knowledge to you, Eren asi-Idoni.
This was new. He fastened the belt and very full pack over his hazard suit and started double-checking his gear. “Be my guest, but make it quick.”
They call themselves Faneros, and some yet live.
Eren frowned in confusion. “What are you talking about? Who lives?”
Members of the species you encountered in the event which ultimately led you to shed the Idoni integral. The Directorate does not apprehend this, but its Eradication of the Faneros was not total.
Memories flashed through his mind—hazy, hypnol-addled and acutely vivid. He rubbed at his temples. “How…how do you know this?”
Now is not the time to divulge those secrets. But you have shown your mettle, and your regret and shame appeared genuine when you relayed your tale, thus I thought to ease it somewhat.
His darker nature bristled defensively at the words ‘regret’ and ‘shame,’ but he bit back an impulsive retort. He hadn’t realized the Kat had been present when he’d told the story, though thinking back he didn’t remember it ever leaving that night, either. And at the moment, he honestly didn’t care.
His pulse pounded in his ears in a vastly disproportionate reaction to the news. “I don’t…how many survived? Will you tell me that much?”
Several tens of thousands.
“And they’re safe?”
Mesme’s hesitation manifested in an unusual stillness to its form. They have enjoyed peace and security this last century. Their future is now in some degree of peril, as is the future of many species.
“What does that mean? What peril?”
The peril that will mature into certainty if we do not retrieve Alexis and Caleb. Focus on this goal, for their fate is as inexorably linked to the fate of the Faneros and countless others as it is to the fate of the anarchs.
Damn the Kat and its inscrutable, sibylline double-speak. He struggled to wrangle the memories back under control and tuck them away. He could not dw
ell on this right now, dammit.
“Your timing sucks, Mesme, because we really do have to go. If I die, I’m hunting you down just to make you give up the rest of the story.”
Acknowledged. I am ready to depart. But we will need to make an interim stop outside the perimeter, at a point from where you can use your device. I cannot guarantee how long the oxygen-rich air I carry with us will last if we are forced to linger there for any length of time.
“Thanks for mentioning that detail.” Eren rummaged through his kit, found and put on the breather skin, and secured the diati canister on his belt. “All right, problem solved. I’m ready, too.”
‘I am seeing indications the facility has activated a higher alert status.’
“Then we were out of time ten seconds ago. Let’s move, Mesme.”
HELIX RETENTION FACILITY
Hollow. Empty.
Diminished.
Nyx forced her eyes open.
The floor stared back at her, centimeters away; everything else was blurred into indistinction. There was a low, rumbling sound…it took her several breaths to recognize she was moaning. Her head throbbed against her skull, but the rhythmic pulses of agony seemed to originate from a sharp, biting pain at the base of her neck.
She blinked, trying to work past the mental and physical shock to understand the unfamiliar sensations. Nothing made sense. Gods, she wanted to rip her own head off, if only to make the throbbing stop.
Eventually, in the lull between surges of agony, it occurred to her she was injured. But she’d never been injured for more than seconds in her life. She’d never felt pain in any real sense.
Why wasn’t her diati healing her? She reached for it…and nothing responded.
It was gone. She instantly perceived the truth of it deep inside, for this was the source of the hollowness which echoed in her soul.
The possibility of such an event coming to pass had never arisen in her mind, and she reeled in the face of it. Doubt, confusion…these were emotions she had no greater experience with than pain.
The diati had deserted her, leaving her body broken. Weak.
Relativity: Aurora Resonant Book One (Aurora Rhapsody 7) Page 32