by Shawn Jones
“I hope to allay your fears, Cortland. This being is not like the Core.”
“How can you be sure?”
“That is simple. I never heard the Core, therefore it was not alive.”
The simplicity of Bazal’s statement was overwhelming to Cort, and he stopped dead in his tracks. “Then the White Council was right.”
“From what I have read, it is most likely that they were. If they had been allowed to repair and control the Core, Lex and the others might still be here. By the same line of reasoning, if you had allowed them to control the Core, it would have weakened the federation and our alliances.”
“But the Tapons might still exist.”
“And they do, Cortland. We are still pouring over the intelligence we have received from their planets. There may well be thousands of them that are still alive on other planets. Certainly there are hundreds. It is very unlikely that they are truly extinct.”
Cort sighed. “Then my family is still in danger.”
Cort felt Bazal’s laughter, though the telepath had not vocalized it. What he did say was, “Cortland, what is the phrase you sometime use? Something about borrowing trouble, is it not? Do not borrow trouble, Cortland. Either feel the guilt of killing them all, or feel the worry of more being out there waiting for you. You cannot feel both.”
“And yet I do.”
“I sense you are anxious. Perhaps we should address the research here for a while and revisit your grief later.”
“I would like that, Bazal. What have you learned about the entity here?”
“I believe Doctor Tsao would like to be here. He is at the cave going over his wife’s work right now. Shall we wait until he returns this afternoon?”
“No. I’m here for two reasons, and you yourself just suggested we put the other reason on hold for a while.”
“Very well. Let us go to the cabin. I have a surprise for you.”
“You know I hate surprises, Bazal.”
--
Cort stepped into the cabin to see Dalek standing on a holotable dancing with the projection of another little boy. Dalek turned to see his father enter the room and said, “Poppa! I have a fwend!”
Cort walked to the table and smiled at his son before regarding the projected image. “So I see.” The avatar before him resembled both modern humans and the man Cort and Bane had found in the nearby caves.
“Hello General Addison. I am pleased to meet you, sir.”
“Hello. I take it you represent the being under the surface. How should I address you?”
“His name is Geowge, Poppa!”
Cort smiled and said, “George. That is a good name. Why did you choose it?”
“It is my understanding that your people have an affinity for acronyms, General. Doctor Tsao helped me determine it.”
“I see. What does George stand for then?”
“Yeah! What does Geowge stand for?” Dalek asked.
George smiled and said, “It means GEOthermal Responsive Gnostic Entity.”
“Wow,” Cort smiled. “I think George is a great name for you then.”
“Thank you, General. May I ask what your intentions for me are?”
“At this point I have no intentions for you, George. If you choose to be a part of our society, we will find a way for you to contribute to it. If you choose not to be a part of our society, you will be left alone.”
The hologram frowned. “No! Please do not leave me alone! I will do anything for you! Anything you want! Please do not leave me!”
“It’s okay, George. I only meant that the choice is yours, not mine.” Bazal, you weren’t kidding. He really is alive.
Yes, Cortland. He possesses incredible intelligence but his development is considerably stunted due to his isolation.
“I will do anything you ask, General!”
“I will think about that, George. For right now, why don’t you just play with Dalek?”
“Yes! Play with me, Geowge!”
“I would like that. Thank you, General.”
--
“Ten years ago, my time, I was standing beside a clear mountain lake watching a trout taunt me. Sköll was running around chasing his dinner, and I hadn’t seen another live human for months. Maybe even years. Now I am trying to figure out how to deal with the fact that I have wiped out entire races, while deciding what to do with a hundred million year old computer that likes to dance with my son. God damn, my life has changed!”
Cort was in the kitchen with Bazal and Kim. Kim listened to what he said and replied, “For better or worse?”
Cort touched her hand, “For better, Kim. Definitely for the better. It is just way different than what I expected.”
“Knowing what you know now, would you still take part in the experiment?”
Without hesitating Cort said, “Absolutely. I’ve done some serious next level shit over the last ten years.”
Cort’s comm activated. “This is Ares. Go ahead.”
Bazal and Kim watched as Cort’s face went through a spectrum of emotions as he talked to Admiral Jones.
“Have you confirmed it with Dr. Pan?”
“How did they do it?” Cort asked.
“Okay. Let Rand know so he can notify the H’uumans and the Nill. Then set up the memorial at Sorano’s World. Addison out.”
Turning to the other two Cort said, “They know what happened. The Thales Observatory observed a mass change in the Sagittarius singularity. It is identical to the mass we lost in the battle.”
“My gods,” Kim said.
“Pan confirmed it. They are gone.”
“How did they transition a twenty kilometer sphere?”
“Pan thinks there was some node of the Core that wasn’t damaged by the sabotage. Speral agrees it was possible.” Cort walked to a cabinet and took out a bottle of scotch. After filling a glass with ice, he surrounded the cubes with alcohol and drained it. He filled it again, sat down, and stared into the chemical he hoped would drive away his demons.
Kim stood and walked to his chair, putting her arms on his shoulders as she stood behind him. “I’m sorry, baby.”
“Their lives meant nothing. The entire damned war accomplished nothing.”
Bazal said, “That is not true, Cortland. There is a little boy in the other room. The war saved him. And it united you with the H’uumans. It also broke the Collaboration.”
Kim played with Cort’s neck and said, “He’s right, baby.”
“If you say so. I’m not so sure.” Cort swallowed the contents of his glass again, and stood to walk to the doorway that led to the main room. He pushed the door open and watched Dalek play with George. The little boy was crouching under the edge of the holotable, then popping up in a different spot. Over and over, Dalek would pop up and yell, “Hewe I am!” The projected image of George turned around on the flat glowing surface and laugh nearly continuously.
“Find a way for them to play for real,” Cort demanded.
“What?”
“Get George a body.”
“We cannot do that. It is against the law,” Kim said.
“What law?”
“After the last great war, before the Cull. That war was mostly robots and drones. World leaders decided it dehumanized war, so they were banned. All artificial intelligences were.”
“I dare anyone to tell me that George’s existence is illegal. Besides, that world is gone now. We are the government. I’m not saying I want combat droids. I’m saying that little boy in there playing with our son gets a body, and soon.”
“There is no way we can transfer a computer that large into a little boy’s body.”
“Then build him an avatar. Something that the computer can control.”
“Are you sure, baby?”
“Yes. Make the avatar.”
“Should we put in safeguards?” Bazal asked.
“Yes,” Kim answered before Cort could.
“I’m okay with safeguards, and you guys can decide abo
ut them, but I want him to have a body as soon as possible.”
Cort walked into the other room and as the door closed behind him, Kim said, “What just happened, Bazal?”
Turning his tank, Bazal said, “I think you may have a second child.”
“Fuck.”
“It is another life for him to protect, Kimberly. I think it will be therapeutic for him.”
Bazal was right. That night, for the first time since he had been back from Nill, Cort slept soundly beside Kim. In the living room of the cabin, Tur and the security team watched as Dalek slept on the floor beside the holotable. On the table itself, an image of George was curled up in the same posture.
--
“Cort, this will cause a huge diplomatic stir,” Dar said the next morning.
“Why?”
“The ban on humanoid AIs has been in place for over a century. It is one of the very few things every single nation on Earth agreed to.”
“He’s not on Earth, Dar. He is on Solitude. We aren’t even sure he can ever leave this planet. But I’m not asking for permission, Dar. I am ordering it. This little boy will have body.”
“Cort, George is not a little boy. He is an AI.”
“You didn’t see them playing, Dar. George is a little boy. And with human stimulus, he will be able to grow up with Dar.”
“Dammit, Cort! It is not that simple!”
Cort slammed his fist down. “It’s exactly that simple, Dar! If this were Stephen fucking Hawking trapped inside his body and we could give him a working one, we would. This little boy has been trapped in a rock for a hundred million goddamned years. I am building him a fucking body and the whole fucking federation won’t stop me. I am not going to be responsible for yet another unique species becoming extinct!”
“So that’s what this is about,” Dar said from Earth. “You feel guilty about Lex and the others. You think that by protecting George you can make amends for their deaths.”
“Fuck you, Dar. I have killed entire civilizations! One robot isn’t going to clean the blood off my hands. George is getting a body. Addison out.”
Earth
“Gods damn that man!” Dar said as Cort disconnected. The conversation had not gotten far enough for Dar to talk to Cort about the disappearances or the investigator waiting in his outer office.
Touching his flexpad, Dar sighed and said, “Send in Detective Thorn.”
Once greetings were exchanged, Dar asked, “What is your plan?” They believed the next abduction would take place that night in Madrid.
“The building is evacuated and I have every sensor you could provide me with deployed in or around the target area. We will not lose any people there if Pan is right.”
“Hopefully we learn something though.”
“That would be nice,” Thorn said. He looked down at the desk, then back at Dar before saying, “Listen, Superintendent. I heard about your nephew this morning. It is on the news. I just want to say thank you. Thank you for his service.”
Dar turned his chair around to face the window, keeping Thorn from seeing the water in his eyes. “They say he would not have felt anything. As they transitioned, the entire city would have collapsed to something smaller than a speck of dust. They never knew what happened. I have that.”
“Your family has had its share of tragedy sir.”
“All families do. Ours are just more public, Detective Thorn. How is your wife?”
“She is well, sir. She wanted me to thank you for the cigars.”
“Good.” Dar stood and faced Thorn again. “Detective, I am truly sorry, but I should cut this meeting short. I apologize for wasting your time. I will be off planet for a few weeks. I have the memorial service on Sorano’s World to attend, then I will be on Solitude for a few days. Send me a full report as soon you can.”
“Yes, sir. I understand completely. Have a safe trip.”
Solitude
Cort and Dar were walking the catwalk that surrounded the inside of the stockade wall. They were ten meters above the ground and Cort was almost through with a cigar. Dar had finished his several minutes before, and was now just sipping neat whiskey. The entire walk had been spent in silence. Even the dinosaurs on the outside of the barricade seemed to be quiet. Rand was playing with Dalek in a park below them, and Kim was enjoying time alone, a luxury that was all too infrequent.
The only animal near them other than Cort’s wolf was a small raptor that followed Cort every time he walked the catwalk. Bane was a few meters in front of the men and walking casually, seeming to ignore their surroundings. But Cort knew Bane was alert. The wolf always was.
After nearly half and hour of silence, Dar finally spoke. “He loved you. Worshipped you in fact. Not just after you appeared, either. Lex knew every detail of your life. At least every one that we had in the family library. He probably believed the legend about you more than anyone else in the family.”
“He was a good leader. If it had been me instead of him, I had already made sure that he was to take over the Marines.”
“I did not know that,” Dar said. “He would have been honored.”
“He was shocked when I told him. I had actually planned on stepping down after the war, but I can’t now.”
“You will never quit, Cort.”
“I was going to take over the wolf packs, I wasn’t going to quit. But I don’t want to run the military.” Cort stopped and took a slow pull of his shrinking cigar. “I kill. I fight. I protect those that need it. But I’m not a politician, and even Generals have to play politics. Lex didn’t seem to mind it so much. Now it is either Mike Rage or Jane Munroe. He’s too bigoted and she’s too green. So I am stuck with the job for a while longer.”
“You have to pick Munroe,” Dar said. “You and Rage would butt heads too much. Jane will run things your way and she will listen to you. More importantly, she will learn from you. What about command structure though?”
“What do you mean?”
“If someone else in charge, what will you say when they order you to do something you disagree with? You are not the type to take orders.”
“I was once.”
“That was several centuries ago, Cort. And I doubt you were very good at it then, from what I have read about it.”
Cort grunted and carefully cleaned the ashes from the cigar stub. Dar did the same with his long dead stub. The raptor that had been keeping pace with them became excited when they looked at him. Cort flicked his stub over the railing and the three meter long reptile leapt for it, catching it in the air. After it finished swallowing the tobacco, it looked at Dar and waited for its second treat. Once Dar’s stub was also gone the animal walked into the jungle, looking back once, seemingly to make sure it hadn’t miscounted the humans.
Dar looked at Cort and said, “There is something I need to talk to you about. People have been disappearing on Earth.”
Cort looked at him and asked, “What do you mean?”
Dar explained about the missing the people, Detective Thorn, Pan’s input, and the plan of action. When he was finished, Cort asked him to start including him in all communications about it, and Dar agreed.
As they neared the end of the loop which ended above the family quarters, Dar asked, “So when do I meet George?”
Fifteen
When Dar awoke the next morning, there was a message from Thorn waiting for him. Activating his comm, he contacted the detective. “What happened?”
“I lost half of my people and some civilians,” Thorn replied from Earth. “Doctor Pan says it looks like they increased the diameter of the effect until they found humans.”
“How many did they get this time?”
“A little over one hundred from a bar next door to the target building, mostly men. Plus thirty of my people.”
“Do you have any thoughts?”
“Just guesses, really. I think they have quotas. They need a certain number of us, so they increase the size of the effect until they reach that
number.”
“But they have taken many more than one hundred before?” Dar said.
“That is true, but Pan’s people think there is a minimum size of the effect. If they hit a heavily populated area, or someplace with a crowd, they could take well over the minimum.”
“That makes sense,” Dar replied. “What is your next move?”
“Pan’s team is working on the next location. I need people I can send in though. People who have a chance to help. Would General Addison send me some Marines?”
“I am sure he will. I will be talking to him in a few minutes at breakfast and will update him. I will send you a message later today.”
“Thank you, sir.” Thorn hesitated and said, “I watched the memorial service, Superintendent. It was very nice. My wife cried.”
“Thank you for that, Thorn. I will talk to you soon.”
“Goodbye, sir.”
A few minutes later, Dar was sipping coffee and updating Cort. The General agreed to send a company of Marines to Thorn, but when he suggested he might go as well, Kim stepped in. “You most certainly will not,” she said as put bacon on four plates.
Cort was standing at the toaster waiting for it to finish and turned around. “What? I can’t fight anymore? Good luck with that, Kim.”
“I’m not saying that. But it sounds like you are sending a hundred people to their probable deaths. So I am telling you right now, you are not going.”
“I’m not special, Kim. And you know I won’t ask people to do something I won’t.”
“Nobody doubts that Cort, but Kim is right,” Dar said. “You can’t be a part of every single little problem.”
The toaster chimed and Cort began putting the hot bread on plates. “Dar, if you think several thousand humans disappearing without a trace is a little problem, you are the one who needs to talk to Bazal.”
“That is not what I meant and you know it, Cort. But you have to delegate. And no one thinks you would not go. Gods no! You spend more time in medical beds recovering from combat injuries than any Marine you have.”
“None of that matters,” Kim interrupted as she dropped eggs into the crackling bacon grease. “That is not the problem. The problem is the people left behind. Send people who do not have family ties.”