Second Life of Mr. Hunt: Book 3: Failover

by Gerrit Overeem

  Both Ryan and Kat sighed in relief as the spider AIs backed away into the darkness of the hangar.

  “Well, that was a good test of my heart,” said Ryan, holding his chest.

  Kat exhaled and leaned against the tank. “I’ve heard of defense AIs, but never ones that enormous and looking like spiders.”

  Their thoughts were interrupted when the door with the red flashing light slid open.

  “I’ll take that as a sign we have passed the test,” he said.

  Kat shrugged and headed over. Ryan followed, and it was not an entrance but an ela-tube. Once they entered, the door slid shut, and the transport device took them up, sideways, and then up again to finally stop and open to a hallway with a door at the end of it.

  They moved to the door and could now see three combat AIs standing dormant in deeply recessed areas on each side of the hallway holding older model las-rifles.

  Ryan moved over to one of the AIs and waved his hands in front of its face. It made no sound nor reacted to him.

  “Out of all the OTKE facilities I have been to, this is turning out to be the oddest one,” said Kat, tapping one of the AIs.

  “I’ll take your word for it. Let’s continue on and see what other surprises this place holds.”

  Ryan and Kat approached the door, and it instantly slid up to reveal a hovering brain on a circular platform. The brain was under a clear dome-shaped like a skull, and a strand of what looked like nerve endings twirled downward around a metal spine. The spine and nerves were encased in a transparent material. Three small hover engines were evenly positioned under the platform.

  The hovering brain had two thin arms that jetted out of the platform’s side, an oval scanning device on a tentacle attached to the back that acted as an eye, and a small thin rectangular box was mounted in the front. A white digital line was displayed across the box.

  Ryan and Kat looked at each other and then back at the floating brain.

  “Kat, is that a brain on a plate?”

  “Yes…Yes, it is.” Kat smiled. “It’s incredible. It’s a first-generation AI. Take off the arms, hover system, and the box, and what do you think that round platform would fit into?

  Ryan thought for a moment before answering, “The tank. That would fit into the hole in the tank.”

  “Greetings and salutations, Proxy CEO Hunt and Director Winslow,” said the floating brain, giving them a proper American military salute and started playing the American anthem.

  Ryan noticed that digital lights rapidly traversed the dangling nerves whenever the brain AI took any action, and the thin white line on the front box changed to a wavering line when the brain AI talked.

  “Um, hello,” Ryan said with a shrug.

  “It is definitely nice to meet you, Proxy CEO. You are the first to ever visit the facility.”

  Ryan and Kat jumped as the American anthem finished with a loud pop of cannon sounds, and confetti fell from the ceiling.

  Kat jumped again when a small AI drone shot out of an opening that formed in the wall. It quickly sucked up the confetti and disappeared where it had come from. She started laughing, not knowing what to say.

  “Well, thank you for the wonderful greeting and anthem,” said Ryan, dusting confetti off his shoulders and causing the small AI cleaning bot to shoot out again to clean up. “It’s been a while since I’ve heard that.”

  “You are most welcome, Proxy CEO Hunt.”

  “No need for the long titles. You can call me Ryan and refer to Director Winslow as Kat.”

  “No, no. That would be too informal. I will refer to you as Mr. Hunt and she as Dr. Kat then.”

  “Sure,” said Ryan, shaking his head.

  The AI brain hovered to the side and waved them in.

  Ryan and Kat stepped into a large circular room with five tunnels branching from it. About every eight feet, an AI was standing at attention on pedestals inset into the walls like the ones they saw earlier, except one AI in the center was taller, dark green, with three v-shaped stripes on its right arm. Murals of various men and women that neither Ryan nor Kat had ever seen before hung from the walls.

  “This is an amazing facility,” said Kat, spinning to look around at the decor. “And you are?”

  “My name is Lars, which is short for Land Air Reconnaissance Scout. I am the caretaker of the facility. Please follow me this way.”

  Lars moved quickly down the center tunnel, causing Ryan and Kat to quicken their pace to keep up. They tried to comprehend what Lars was saying, but he was talking too fast.

  Dim lights brightened as they followed the tunnel, which exited into a large room. Ryan’s face lit up as he looked around. The room was about fifty feet by fifty feet, with thirty-foot-high ceilings. Multiple consoles were situated around the room. A large screen adorned the wall to the right, and in the center of the room on a raised platform was a console table surrounded by six seats. One chair was situated further back on the platform and higher. Whoever sat there could look down on the center console and easily see around the room.

  Lars stopped and spun around. “As you can see, Mr. Hunt, the facility is well-maintained. Not a speck of dust anywhere. The systems are prepped and ready to go. Combat AIs are also maintained should they ever need to be activated. I follow a strict daily regimen. Now if you wou—”

  “Hold on a sec. Let’s slow down a bit,” said Ryan, holding his hand out. “Dr. Kat and I have no idea what we are even looking at. Plus, we have some questions we need to ask first.”

  “Very well, sir. I am at your disposal.” Lars crossed his hands behind him.

  “Are you the only AI in service? What about the main facility AI?” asked Kat.

  “I am one of a few in service. The guardians that you met in the hangar bay and worker AIs are the others. As for the main facility AI and combat AIs, they remain dormant and will only power on in case of an emergency.”

  “Now, don’t take this the wrong way,” said Ryan. “Is that a real brain I’m looking at through your glass?”

  “Yes, it is, sir. I overheard you and Dr. Kat earlier whispering about it. I am a first-generation AI. From what I can recall, I was a military experiment and could be placed into combat machinery to run and operate them.”

  “You’re from the tank in the hangar bay,” said Ryan.

  “That is correct. I recall running the tank but was severely damaged in battle. My navigation was out, and the vehicle wandered until crashing into the side of this facility. The guardians brought the tank inside, and the maintenance AIs repaired me the best they could. They added the arms, hover capability, and digitized vocal box.”

  “We picked up Earth Consortium and Woland debris on our way in. Any combat you would have seen would have been between 10,000 to 20,000 years ago,” said Kat.

  “Your estimated timeframe is close, but I was one of the last AI models slated to be decommissioned. Correct estimate for my AI model is 5,000 to 10,000 years ago, but due to my injuries, I cannot recall what occurred.”

  Ryan gave Kat a puzzled look. “I thought the Earth and Woland war occurred further back than that.”

  “It did, but there were non-stop skirmishes from the late seven thousands all the way to Earth Consortium and Woland hostilities that escalated in the forty-seven thousands.”

  “Figures as much,” said Ryan, turning to look at Lars. “On another note, we saw what looked like a destroyed city and life signs out there. Any additional information you can provide, especially with the odd cloud over the planet?”

  “Without access to scans, I know little of the indigenous people or about the ruined city. From what I have heard from the guardian AIs, the people wander to the forest’s edge every so often but avoid the place. Normally the facility’s cloaking shield would have kept us hidden, but the space cloud that comes by every few decades interferes with it.”

>   “What information do you have on the cloud?” asked Kat.

  Lars started hovering back and forth with his hands still behind his back. “In the beginning, there was a ‘big bang’—the explosion of a new universe from another. Energy and gas were—”

  “Ah, Lars, just get to the part about what the cloud is doing now,” said Ryan.

  “Yes, sir. From the data I have accumulated from the other active AIs, the cloud appeared in the system about two thousand years ago. Most likely being pulled by the galaxy’s gravitational pull. Over time, its direction changed to cover the planet, and its frequency of arrival and duration has exponentially increased, causing issues with AI tech and other devices with high energy signatures.”

  “How long has it been around this time?” asked Kat.

  “Eight months, the longest recorded cycle. Its sphere of interference has also increased as well. Smaller output energy devices have also started showing signs of difficulties.”

  “Kat and I thought we…um…saw something in the cloud as we were coming in. Also voices. Any idea?”

  “Sorry, sir. I am not aware of any anomalies like that.”

  “Kat, anything else you can think of?” asked Ryan.

  She looked around and then back at Lars. “This facility…it has newer tech for something that has been around a long time. And what about the people who live near here? Do they travel off-world?”

  “Since you are with the Proxy CEO, I can answer that. The facility receives small AI pods from deep space transports. They are hidden with large cargo shipments so as not to be detected. As for the indigenous people, there is no record of them leaving, only references to successful and failed deliveries.”

  “Have any ships arrived recently?” asked Ryan.

  “Yes, sir. Not counting the Retribution, two ships have crashed on the planet. The ship configurations and status of their crews are unknown.”

  Ryan turned to Kat. “I bet that was Commander Tucket’s brother and the woman he was looking for.”

  “It would fit the timetable. I think we need to take a trek out to that settlement and see what’s going on,” said Kat.

  “I agree. We sh—”

  “Sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Hunt, but I would advise against that.”

  “And why is that?”

  “During these dark times, the guardians sense things lurking on the outskirts of the forest. They have not been able to identify them, but the lurkers are doing their best to remain hidden. Plus, there are the torn-up carcasses of animals that get thrown out of the forest every so often.”

  Ryan pursed his lips and looked at Kat, who was biting her lower lip as she thought about it.

  “Without the scans, we’re blind,” said Kat.

  “It would be foolish to go out there at this time. Everything beyond the forest is unknown,” said Lars.

  Ryan stared at Lar’s and then back at Kat. “Then, in search of the unknown, we go.”

  Chapter 13

  Into the Unknown

  Ryan and Kat headed back to her ship to gather additional gear for their trek out to the forest. The Retribution was already under repair by small AI units that were rolling, hovering, or wobbling around the ship.

  Kat threw her hands in the air as she got closer. Pieces of the ship were lying on the ground, organic wiring was dangling from conduits, and one AI was being repaired due to shorting itself out when it made the wrong connection.

  “Why are you smiling?” asked Kat, looking at Ryan with her arms crossed.

  “I think the little guys are kind of cute, running around fixing everything. They remind me of remote-controlled toy robots I had as a kid.”

  “Cute or not, I hope I have a ship by the time I get back. I’m not sure they have the knowledge to repair it. They look as though tech dealers put them together with all the mismatched parts.”

  “I’m guessing they had to use what they had around here, but it’s probably a good learning curve for them,” said Ryan, picking up one of the smaller AIs that fell over once Kat headed up the ramp into her ship.

  “You might want to come up here and grab a las-pistol and gear,” she said.

  Ryan headed up the ramp. Kat was loading a fresh mag-cell into a las-pistol, and her combat belt, or what Ryan referred to as her superhero utility belt, was hanging on the wall ready to go.

  “With all these energy issues, I think I’ll pass and go with something more my style,” said Ryan, walking over to the trunk of his Mustang.

  “Is that so? This should be interesting.”

  Ryan smiled at her, placed his hand on the trunk lid, allowing the biometric lock to register his genetic code, and opened the trunk. He undid some straps and pulled the small archaic rifle off the inside trunk lid.

  “What is that contraption?” asked Kat, shaking her head.

  “I thought you would like it since it looks futuristic. It’s called a Tavor x95 Bullpup rifle. It has a custom forty-round magazine that holds a 5.56mm round. I can have one made up for you when we get back if you want.”

  “I’ll stick with the good old las-gun.”

  “Suit yourself. By the way, it looked wet out there when we were coming in. I have an extra tactical jacket with a hood. It’s waterproof,” said Ryan, putting on the tactical vest over his jacket.

  “Thanks, but I have rain shielding embedded in mine. So, I’ll be good.”

  Ryan nodded, holstered a Glock-17 on his right hip, and placed two spare magazines for the Tavor and Glock into his tactical vest. He slung the Tavor x95 rifle around himself, slammed in a forty-round magazine, and chambered a round. “I’m ready when you are. How far out do you think that crashed ship is?”

  “If I had to guess…about five miles. The city ruins a few more after that.”

  “OK. About two to three hours. Not bad. I guess we can hold up in the ship wreckage if we don’t want to head back in the dark. I have some food bars and water as well.”

  Kat holstered her las-pistol and grabbed a portable scanner. “Sounds like a plan. Let’s go.”

  

  They took the same lift that brought them up to the main headquarters and exited the front of the OTKE facility. The air was crisp, and Ryan noticed the leaves on the trees in the distance were changing colors. It might be nearing fall on this planet, but since it was an alien world, it could mean anything.

  There were two levels in the front of the building with long marble steps leading downward. On the second tier were two statues facing away from the building. Ryan moved around to inspect them. The leftmost statue was an old man carrying an ornate shotgun and backpack. Recessed flames colored in a bright blue were inset on each end of the plaque that read, “OTKE: In memory of Father Nettle. A noble and caring man from Earth. May the darkness fear his name.”

  “Kat, any idea who this is or what the fire symbols are for?”

  “Not a clue, never heard of the guy. Let’s take a look at the other.”

  The plaque on the second read, “OTKE: In memory of our founder Isaiah Johnson.”

  “First time I have seen a dedication to him outside of the main headquarters,” said Kat.

  “From what I read, he was an athlete and engineer,” said Ryan, moving around the statue to investigate it some more. “He’s missing an eye like CEO Klein. I hope that’s not a trend for leadership.”

  Kat giggled, and her happiness soon faded after looking up at the swirling darkness above. The sunlight was barely making it through the dark haze, and the stormy weather wasn’t helping. The day was like perpetual dusk.

  Ryan headed down the last stairway, knelt, picked up some dirt, and let it tumble through his fingers.

  “Why are you grinning like that?” asked Kat, moving down the stairs.

  “It still amazes me that I’m on another planet. I know it’s not the first, but
it still makes me smile.”

  Kat smiled and shook her head. “I hope you never lose that feeling.”

  “Neither do I.” Ryan dusted off his hands and scanned the area. “But this planet is making me reconsider visiting others.”

  It was late afternoon, and the rumble of thunder echoed in the distance. A low fog hovered along the forest edge. He was hoping they could take his car out for a drive when this was all over, but with no roads, that idea might fall apart.

  “You know, this is how every horror story starts. The guy and the girl step into a fog-covered darkened forest,” said Ryan.

  “Thanks for the visualizations. I—” Kat took a few steps toward the forest and watched it intently.

  “Something wrong?” asked Ryan, walking to stand next to her.

  “I could have sworn I saw a crouching silhouette, and then it was gone.”

  Ryan could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and he switched the safety off his rifle. “Probably nothing, but we’re about to find out.”

  He started walking to the tree line with Kat behind him. A misty rain began to fall as they headed in. The trees in the forest grew larger as they trekked deeper. Some of them rivaled the American Giant Redwoods, forcing them to navigate around the massive trunks. The ground fog was thicker, and the rain steadied. The rumble of thunder echoed through the forest.

  “You have to be kidding me,” said Kat, wiping her face.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “My rain shielding is starting to fail.”

  “Told ya tech is going to be a bad idea, but if it’s any consolation…the rain is finding its way through any break in my clothing,” said Ryan. “Although, I’m happy modern clothing repels liquids, so no need to dry them when we get back. Is the scanner working?”

  “Barely. I have it on the lowest setting, and it won’t last much longer, but we’re not far from the ship, as long as we keep going in this general direction.”

  Ryan spun around and started scanning the thick forest, making Kat draw her las-pistol.