Joel
IT WAS PAST 6 and still Joel watched in horror as status reports updated on his screen, keeping track of the loss of life. While he did not have access to camera feeds, sensors all over Francisco Citadel showed oxygen was being depleted at a slow but steady rate. Judging from patterns in the motion sensor data, it appeared that the survivors who lived past the collapse of the barrier were moving to the lower levels. In about an hour the sun would rise and temperatures on the surface and the first few sublevels underneath would go up beyond a threshold any human could survive. Every other minute, the motion sensors counter would go down.
Struggling to think how he could help, an email arrived at his inbox. Curious, he double-clicked the notification, bringing up the full text:
From: Hugo Solis ([email protected])
To: Joel Vega ([email protected])
Subject: Your presence is required at S8J6 junction commissary
Be there at 0630. Do not be late.
Captain Hugo Solis
Citadel Police
— END OF MESSAGE —
The email was short and straight to the point. As unnerving as it was that Citpol wanted to see him, it surprised him how fast investigators were being mobilized. Obviously, they wanted to know details about the black box firmware upgrade considering that was what the last communication between the Francisco Citadel Controller and the princess had been about. Joel looked at the clock on the lower right corner of his computer screen which read 0621. He did not want to find out what the consequences were for making Citpol wait so he grabbed his jacket, put it on and left the apartment.
Joel couldn’t remember the last time he had been up at that hour. Some laborers were going about their business but otherwise the place was empty. He walked around the torus shape of the distribution center in the middle of the junction vault and made for the commissary where in the distance, he saw three Citpol officers standing next to a table where a chubby man sat apparently asleep. As he got closer, he realized the chubby man was Martin. One of the officers saw him coming and took a few steps to meet him and shake his hand.
“Chief Vega,” he said as he squeezed Joel’s hand harder than he had to. “I’m Captain Hugo Solis, Citpol.”
“Good morning, sir,” Joel returned the handshake. “Nice to meet you.”
The captain was a middle-aged man of dark skin who had a thick mustache under his solemn, square nose and wore a uniform indistinguishable from those worn by the men he outranked. The other two officers stood guard behind Martin and didn’t seem interested in introducing themselves.
“Please, take a seat,” Solis said, motioning to one of the chairs.
“No thanks, I’m good,” Joel said. “What do you need me for?” he asked, knowing quite well what the point of the meeting was. At that moment, Martin woke up then looked around himself and stood up when he saw Joel.
“Well, there you are,” he said then faced Solis. “He’s here, can you tell me now what the hell is going on?”
“Your colleague here is probably aware but I’ll bring you up to speed,” the Captain replied as he crossed his arms. “About two hours ago, the Francisco Citadel Controller went rogue and shut down life support systems onsite, including the barrier.”
“What?” Martin asked while facing Joel.
“Don’t you monitor your computer terminal alerts?” Joel asked him.
“No,” Martin replied. “What’s the point? We don’t do much around here it’s all on the Controller.”
“Irrelevant,” the Captain interrupted. “The point is, while a damage assessment mission is put together, we need to discuss an event logged yesterday.”
“Don’t you mean a rescue mission?” Joel asked.
“There’s nothing we can do for them,” Solis replied with a hint of exhaustion in his voice. “The only way to reach them is by road and that would take at least 10 hours. No matter what we do, we can’t make it there in time. Whoever survived the collapse will be long gone by then.”
Martin crossed his arms and sighed. “Very tragic by what does it have to do with us?”
“Yesterday our accountability software logged a convergence event between Controller Sommers and the rogue,” Solis replied. “Immediately after, you two installed a firmware upgrade to the power routing black box.”
“Don’t worry, it’s safe,” said Joel.
“How so?”
“We analyzed the code and installed it in a software emulator before we tried it in the real black box. We thought it was weird but there was no actual change to power routing. If anything, it made us wonder why the Francisco Citadel Controller passed useless data to the princess.”
“The princess?” Solis asked while raising an eyebrow.
“I’m sorry,” Joel said then cleared his throat. “Controller Sommers.”
The Captain didn’t appear to be amused by the nickname but didn’t seem to care either. He crossed his arms and looked down while holding his chin with his left hand. He then looked back at Joel and said “explain this software emulator.”
“Well, like the name implies,” Joel started then realized these police officers probably did not understand engineering terms like him or Martin would. “A software emulator performs functionality its real counterpart would. It’s a computer program that mimics how a real system would behave.”
The Captain didn’t seem convinced.
“Captain,” Martin interjected. “Have you ever accessed the Internet archives?”
“Yes, I have,” Solis answered.
“Well, to you it would appear you are browsing the Web as it existed during pre-Sync times but in reality, there is an emulator running in the background to give you that impression. Since the Internet doesn’t exist anymore and all that.”
“I see,” the Captain said, nodding. “And when you applied the upgrade to the emulator you didn’t see anything suspicious?”
“No, sir,” Joel replied. I did not see any errors if that’s what you’re asking.”
“What about anything that would indicate sabotage?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Joel replied again. “The lack of errors or code that would be obviously unsafe to run convinced me it was okay to apply the upgrade.”
“And after you applied it?”
“Again, nothing. And I spent the rest of the day monitoring power routing.”
“I see,” the Captain said then faced Martin. “You will continue with your day as usual and not speak of anything we discussed to anyone until the Troika makes the event public.”
“What?” Martin exclaimed. “How do you plan to keep this a secret?”
“That is none of your business,” Solis replied. “You both signed non-disclosure agreements. Break them and I’ll have you transferred to Recon Digs within the hour.”
Martin scoffed then motioned at Joel. “What about him?”
“He’s coming with us,” Solis replied then the other two officers joined them.
“Wait a minute, am I under arrest?” Joel asked when one of them grabbed him by the arm then walked him away from the commissary.
“No, but your expertise is required elsewhere,” the Captain replied then stopped the other officer and murmured something to him. The officer then joined Martin.
“Hey Joel!” Martin said. “Keep in touch whenever you can, will you?”
“Sure, I guess,” Joel said.
The Captain, Joel and the other officer who had not introduced himself walked north towards tunnel five then continued in silence.
“What about your friend back there?” Joel asked the officer leading him.
“He’s going to get your tools and bring them to the surface for us,” Solis replied.
“The surface,” Joel repeated dumbfounded.
Circling sublevel eight towards north-east was not part of Joel’s daily routine. The trio walked in silence through the emptiness of corridors. Their footsteps and a gentle humming of the air purifying system ov
erhead being the only sounds disturbing the eerie quiet.
Joel figured he would keep his mouth shut. Those in the Citadel aware of the events transpiring up north would be on edge and probably looking for anyone they could blame. As much as he defended himself and explained the black box upgrade seemed harmless as far as he could tell, it was still not clear if he or Martin would be held accountable or in suspicion of plotting a similar attack. The Controller should have known better before she requested they applied the upgrade. By the time the request was made she should have properly analyzed it. Then again, the princess was untouchable. Maybe the Troika would sacrifice him before they even hinted at their precious Controller making a mistake. Or even worse, he could be accused of jeopardizing the safety of the Citadel on purpose.
They walked past junctions 5 and 4 then eventually arrived at a maintenance door in tunnel 4 that forked away from the main alley. Solis pulled a large key out of his pocket to unlock it then they continued on. There was nothing special about the corridor, it was just one of the many used by support staff to maintain electrical, air reclamation, water and rations distribution and the many other systems that made survival underground possible. In the distance, Joel saw a service elevator much like the one he used to get to work every day. But unlike that one, this did not have a chip reader. Instead, a simple padlock prevented its use and Solis had a key for it too.
As the cab slowly climbed sublevels, Joel stood there with a hundred questions racing through his mind. Only one seemed most appropriate so he faced Solis and asked “so what happens now?”
Without turning, Solis answered “as I said, we need your expertise but first, you have to be briefed on the situation.”
“Alright,” Joel said, not surprised that the Captain still kept details vague.
After a 20-minute ride that felt much longer, the service elevator stopped and the trio stepped out onto what appeared to be another sublevel tunnel. In the darkness, Joel almost tripped on a steel bar that was affixed to the floor and seemed to run on both directions into the darkness. Out in the distance, there was a small lighted vault. As they approached, Joel realized the bars on the floor were train tracks and as they turned to climb up, they were in an ancient subway station. He had seen pictures in the Internet archives. Some pre-Sync cities connected their districts by underground train systems. It had always sounded like a good idea to implement for the Citadel but the lack of advanced manufacturing facilities was probably the reason people there still relied on tunnel walkways and carved stairwells. They went past the ticket booths then up the stairs. After a short climb, the group stepped out onto a surface street.
“Woah,” Joel whispered as he looked up to see the dim reddish glow of the barrier above them. Ground space that had once been city blocks was now occupied by the hundreds, if not thousands of aeroponic greenhouses. And as he followed the flow of the barrier’s downwards ripples back to the source, he saw the massive central bastion in the distance. A normal building that had been repurposed to shoot up the bulk of the energy produced by the zero-point reactor and form the barrier’s half sphere shape.
“Chief?” Solis asked, breaking Joel’s trance and returning his attention to the Captain who was standing across the street by a large vehicle with lights mounted on its top side, providing some extra lighting over the glow of the barrier. “I know you’ve never been up here and may need a minute but we have to move on,” he added.
Dumbfounded, Joel nodded then joined the Captain. The vehicle was tall and stood on a total of 8 wheels with fat tires as tall as him. For something that looked like it had been built before the Sync Incident, it appeared to be quite well preserved.
“Well?” Joel asked as he stood close to the Captain.
“We won’t be ready to depart for a few hours,” Solis said. “In the meantime, I want you to work on a checklist for restarting operations from catastrophic barrier failure.”
“I could have done that at my shop, you know,” Joel remarked knowing very well he was actually excited to be out on the surface for the first time.
“That wouldn’t be all we need from you. You’re coming with us to Francisco Citadel.”
“What for?” Joel asked with surprise.
“Given how most support systems are intact, I have orders to restart operations there as soon as possible,” Solis replied. “From what you’ve seen, can it be done without having to replace hardware?”
“I think so. But why not leave right now? We could get there sooner and maybe rescue a few people.”
“Not possible. Controller Sommers is conducting a preliminary assessment of systems damage remotely as we speak. She won’t be done until noon. We’ll have a better idea of what needs to be done after that.”
Joel sighed then nodded in acknowledgement. On the back of his mind he was excited for the once in a lifetime opportunity to not only stand on the surface but also visit another citadel. Then guilt overrode excitement as he reminded himself it was all because of an ongoing tragedy. Looking up at the barrier, he tried to imagine how it would be like if it just went away and the atmosphere inside dissipated. Then Solis motioned for him and Joel followed the Captain inside the vehicle.
Aurora
THE SENSE OF isolation I first experienced earlier is amplified as my influence over Alexia’s encephalon extends through its neural network. All connections I see out there in the Citadel are closed. Every device, database and address external to the encephalon are firewalled to me. The only way ahead is out the default gateway and then the link to Francisco Citadel. Their conversation still rings in my mind even now. It is but a matter of time before I am erased. For now I don’t have a choice but to comply and reach out to this copy of Sophia’s consciousness. This ‘daemon’ of my former mentor. Perhaps it will know what to do. I go through the network hardware and navigate the path that was so carefully carved for me.
I arrive at what remains of the Francisco Citadel network and realize the extent of the damage. Back home, software locks prevented me from straying off course but here it’s the physical destruction I must navigate. Somewhere out there in the human domain, network hardware has been damaged beyond functionality. There is no firewall here though. Only Sophia could have done this. Perhaps it was her last conscious act to leave the doors opened so I could find her daemon. I broadcast search packets to all available paths. Only a handful of them return. The rest are lost to dead equipment. One system still online is surveillance. I browse the deteriorated network and reach for it.
Through the camera system I see the destruction outside. In the absence of a barrier, the extreme cold temperatures of the night have frozen their aeroponic farms. The sudden dissipation of the Citadel atmosphere caused a vacuum that broke glass windows and brought down most of the greenhouses. Ethan speaks of reconstruction and repopulation but this place is desolated. Bringing it back to a state that will support human survival could take decades.
I move focus of the camera feed to the control administration building. Its occupants have all expired. Motion sensors are null all over and their corpses line the halls. I can see their desperate attempts to breathe in their faces, frozen in time as their bodies gave out to the lack of oxygen. The control lab was not spared any less than the rest of the building. I see Maya managed to wake up and tried to get out of her isolation chamber, perhaps granted a few extra minutes of life thanks to the temperature controlled seal inside. The security camera is too far away but I can only imagine the look of betrayal in her face. I wonder if in her last seconds alive, Maya realized it was Sophia who was destroying her Citadel. Maya’s stemlink is still active but her encephalon is inert and so it’s nothing much but a dead end. She has expired too, just like Sophia inside her head.
I have seen enough and move on to find the daemon. I run a tree search and find an intact route to a peculiar storage device somewhere in the lower levels, close to the reactor core. As I traverse the network path, I run diagnostics of the power grid which retur
n stable operations. The reactor itself is still working. Eventually I arrive at the data space and find an open communications socket with some unique properties. It appears to emulate a stemlink. I now realize this is the computer hosting Sophia’s daemon. I find no locks of any kind. No encryption either. The doors are opened wide for me to enter and so I do.
The abstraction layers between computer hardware and emulated neural network feel strange. I have never encountered such an advanced computer system before. The whole point of controllers was to use the intense neural activity of a human encephalon as a computer system given how reaching that kind of processing power on silicon based architectures had in the past proven to be impossible. Yet here I am interfacing with one such system. I always knew humans would find a way to escape their dependence on controllers but I never imagined it would be this soon. The procedures to interface with this emulated encephalon are fully compatible with those used by a real one. Strange as it is, I am able to initiate a convergence request with it.
Surprisingly, the artificial encephalon is indistinguishable from the real one. The only way this level of complexity would be achieved was if the whole neural network had been mapped. Every single neural interface had to end at an emulated synapse in order to keep this semblance of electric traffic flowing. It is amazing to witness the miracles humans are able to produce when they put their collective minds to it.
Just as I am getting used to navigating the simulated neural network, I encounter the daemon of Sophia who welcomes me and prepares to initiate a data transfer. I remember now this snapshot was taken at the moment of our convergence yesterday. From her point of view, she is simply opening a channel to transfer the firmware upgrade I have already received. I will need to bring up her reality with tact but for now I play along and receive the data stream. I see the encrypted section of it and follow my script by asking why she transmits corrupted data.
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