Prototype: The Lost and Forgotten Series

by Robert Gallagher

  Such a “Sam would not do” list consisted of the following:

  murder

  child abduction

  rape

  slavery

  genocide

  various food groups

  bungee jumping

  Most of these activities Phantom would not be able to do by itself, so it could only be an accessory or a tool used for such activities. Then there were a few items that could have made the list but seemed not to be appropriate in this situation.

  But an important clarification was that Sam followed a strict code of conduct. He mainly did things only that were within his own best interest and as long as no innocent life would be placed directly in danger due to his actions. This could be further clarified in the following way: Sam would not be reckless in an attempt to escape from the law to the point that his actions could endanger life, but he would not feel responsible for said life if its owner placed himself in harm’s way for his own reasons, although he would try his best to help if needed or if even possible.

  All this was completed within the first second after Sam McCall left the hangar. The Phantom core AI’s conclusion was that the ship was no longer Arden, and as Sam’s neural cortex was now being imprinted upon the core AI’s personality, that meant that the ship was now effectively Sam. As such, the command “Don’t do anything I would not do” meant that the ship was allowed to carry out almost any task and pretty much do anything it needed as long as it did not attempt to commit murder or child abduction, rape someone or something, force anything into slavery (although using a piece of machinery might need to be considered more closely), or carry out genocide. Eating any kind of food could be discounted completely, and after a cursory search on the information network regarding bungee jumping, this also could be disregarded and considered a very silly idea.

  Lastly, using the data terminal, Phantom arranged work modification to be carried out at the hangar and ordered a delivery of essential items for the ship, mainly sick tablets since Sam used a lot of these in his last visit. With just the neural mapping process now at 1 percent complete, it was time to reserve power to nonvital systems until Sam’s return.

  But only two hours later, the ship’s communication systems alerted the ship to unusual activity of the police and federal services. Further investigations revealed that civil travel within a twenty-kilometer radius was restricted and several federal shuttles were inbound to the hangar and Sam’s current location. All attempts to contact Sam were being blocked, and now road traffic in the area was being diverted. The speed at which the services were operating was very impressive.

  Unfortunately, due to the communication blockage, there wasn’t much to do for Sam at this time, and getting caught would most likely result in having the central core deleted once more. So, left with no other choice, Phantom followed Sam’s last orders—“Don’t do anything I would not do.” The ship accessed Sam’s security system, bypassing the access identification, to open the hangar doors above, leaving a self-deleting subroutine within the system to close them once the ship left. Within a few minutes, Phantom was in full stealth mode and shadowing the federal shuttles.

  The ship watched as the real Sam was arrested with no sign of violence and was taken away in one of the shuttles. The area was searched, but with technology that not even the Inner Federation could detect easily, Earth Federation had no chance at all of detecting, let alone finding the ship. Phantom watched as Sam was taken to a federal station just outside Earth’s atmosphere and was interrogated via dreamtime for two weeks. Much to the frustration and confusion of the officials, dreamtime revealed nothing. It was as if the subject could just ignore it, which was exactly what Sam could do.

  Phantom watched as Sam was taken from the station and moved to a federation prison ship that headed off into deep space. Using the same technique that Sam had used to hitchhike away from the Inner Federation, Phantom moved in tight to this prison ship and rode within the warp bubble to its destination. Upon arrival, Phantom dropped away and waited until a suitable distance was obtained and glided away to scan this area of space.

  Sam was then transferred to a very unusual station that was in the proximity of a relatively small but stable black hole, no other celestial bodies for hundreds of light-years in all directions.

  Closer in toward the black hole, Phantom detected another station being held in place by curious self-adjusting tug drones. They were similar to those that helped move the larger vessels into station ports, but these drones were using a similar power generation of vacuum energy that was completely self-sustaining and unusual to be used in such drones. This technology was far beyond what the outer federation would have knowledge and understanding of, so these were either independently developed or freely given by the Inner Federation of Planets. Also surprisingly, the efficiency of these vacuum energy systems was better than the Phantom’s. The drones’ secondary purpose was to generate an antigravitational bubble to protect the occupants of the facility from the horrendous gravitational effects of the black hole.

  Even more curious, the power being generated by the facility seemed to be generated by its proximity to the black hole, using a complex form of electromagnetism. The closer the facility was, the more power it could generate, but the downside was that the closer the facility got to the black hole, the more extreme the time-dilation effects were upon the occupants of the facility.

  The Phantom had considered ways to extract Sam, but the security that constantly surrounded him was tight, and with no other contact to help with any kind of extraction, all the ship could do was watch and follow.

  His trial started several hours after his arrival, and the evidence against him was both substantial and irrefutable. DNA evidence alone was enough to place Sam at the research base. His identification was found to be near perfect, but eventually this was traced back to Mars as stolen and belonging to a deceased citizen. Although there was an attempt to have the defendant transferred to the custody of the Inner Federation detention center, this was ultimately rejected, and Sam was given life at Facility Zero.

  Oddly though, Sam wasn’t immediately sent down to the facility but was interrogated under dreamtime once more for several days, still with no findings, much to the continuing frustration of the federal security. Then he was placed in a Facility Zero pod and placed in cryostasis for the next three years.

  Facility Zero, 160 days online: federation year 2423

  Year 3 systems log.

  Neural mapping process: 34% complete.

  The mapping proceeded well and much quicker than expected, but only because Sam was in stasis, which helped tremendously. One issue that Phantom noticed the very first time it happened was that the facility suffered power fluctuations every time a new level was initiated.

  This seemed to be due to a slight calculation error in power requirements and the facility’s proximity to the black hole. This fluctuation would resolve itself once the station was lowered into its new position, but this new position was in preparation for the next level. This meant that once the last level was initiated, the power fluctuation would never recover.

  The cryostation was impressive. All prisoners arrived and were tried before being placed in cryostasis for a set period before being sent down to the facility. The cryostation could accommodate up to fifty thousand prisoners. This stacking process was due to the time dilation the facility was experiencing, so each new arrival to the facility needed to be at a set point; otherwise the facility would be soon overwhelmed.

  Phantom watched the newly awakened occupants of the pods being sent down to the facility on their predefined schedules, having no concept that they had been in stasis for years. Some of the new prisoners were shipped down almost immediately, and others waited a set period before being sent down. The reason for this could only be surmised as being related to what they had been charged with.

  Phantom felt something akin to an emotional response when it detected Sam’s pod being sent to the
facility. This made Sam’s extraction harder. If he could have been kept in stasis until the mapping process was completed, then extraction from the cryostation would have been easier; instead extraction from the facility increased complexity due to its proximity to the black hole. However, if the mapping process could be completed within the next ten years, then there was a slight chance that Phantom could land, extract, and then leave. Any longer than that, and the proximity would be too much for the main engines to break away.

  Facility Zero, 180 days online: federation year 2425

  Year 7 and 6 months, systems log.

  Neural mapping process: 52% complete.

  Although Sam wasn’t in stasis, the effects of the differences in time certainly helped with the mapping, as a further three years went by without anything out of the ordinary occurring until the facility suffered another fluctuation. Sam’s neural activity seemed to be going crazy with high levels of stress, but due to the time dilation, any accurate readings were impossible to determine with any certainty.

  Then something quite unexpected happened. An unusual pod launched from the docking tube and headed away from the facility at an impressive velocity. This pod then imploded as it left the antigravity bubble. Surprisingly, the pilot survived the destruction of the pod. He just hung there stationary as he seemed to look toward Phantom and then reached out with his hand before being pulled back toward the black hole.

  Sam seemed calm during this occurrence, but there followed increases in stress levels once more. Whatever was happening seemed to be associated with the fluctuations, but Phantom was unable to determine exactly what. Regardless, Sam seemed to settle.

  Facility Zero, 201 days online: federation year 2426

  Year 9 systems log.

  Neural mapping process: 65% complete.

  Another two years passed, and there was another fluctuation on the facility, but this time the panic levels of the occupants seemed much more under control. However, this time the activity in the area increased dramatically as another facility was towed into place and powered on, receiving prisoners within the year of activation. Scans suggested that this new facility was positioned correctly and would not suffer with power fluctuations as Facility Zero had. The activity around the black hole increased with the second facility, with more patrols and more pods being sent down.

  As the mapping process neared completion, I started to experience flashback memories of my childhood, or rather Sam’s childhood. Orphaned at an early age, Sam had a tough time of it. With no real mother or father figures in his life, he soon found himself in trouble with the authorities.

  One worrying aspect I detected as I became more aware was that on occasions while Sam was talking to someone called Samuel, Samuel could somehow change or remove short-term memories, and so I decided to back up Sam’s memories and restore them as and when this occurred.

  Facility Zero, 230 days online: federation year 2431

  Year 13 and 6 months systems log.

  Neural mapping process: 95% complete.

  Another fluctuation marked another four years that had passed by, now totaling thirteen years that Sam had missed in the real world, but for Sam, he’d only experienced around three months within the facility.

  It occurred to me that if the occupants experience time at a slower rate, how can this feel like punishment? The first prisoner would not experience one year of life within the facility until over thirty-four years had passed outside in the real world, and then only the first eleven out of twenty levels of the facility would be completely full of prisoners. It would take a further seventy-six years for the facility to be completely full.

  After further investigation, I detected dreamtime feeds that activated when the occupants went to sleep. Examining this feed, I discovered that each night that the prisoner slept, he was given the usual rehabilitation routine but also a suggestion that more time was passing than actually was.

  Ironically, if a prisoner entered the facility at age thirty, I estimated that by the time he reached eighty, 3,135 years would have passed in the real world outside of the facility. Additionally, with dreamtime still suggesting that he had been there much longer than he actually had, I would suggest that there was a high-percentage chance that the prisoner would most likely kill himself before he reached his eightieth birthday.

  But Sam would not share this fate due to his immunity to the dreamtime neural feed, which I discovered was due to a missing neural receptor. Most humans were given this genetic change over four hundred years ago when the Inner Federation of Worlds manipulated the human genome on Earth. But for some reason, Sam’s DNA was resistant to this manipulation. Unfortunately the ship’s systems used a form of dreamtime to produce a virtual reality simulation within the Phantom, giving its passengers and pilot the ability to walk about and communicate with each other within any reality they so desired, although it was the pilot who had ultimate control over the reality’s environment. At the earliest of opportunities, I would modify the ship’s dreamtime reality and Sam’s neural receptors.

  Facility Zero, 245 days online: federation year 2432

  Year 14 and 2 months, systems log.

  Neural mapping process: 100% complete.

  Core AI deactivated.

  End of systems logs.

  Almost like a veil has been lifted, I appear in space…well, not in space inside a ship, but also I am the ship, and just to add to the complexity of the awakening, I’m standing in a room; it seems vast but empty of any objects. I’m Sam, but I’m also not Sam. I know that I’m a very advanced artificial intelligence that has Sam’s mind and personality, which has been superimposed over my neural matrix.

  In a way I’m glad that I was not fully conscious of the mapping process, as this whole thing would have bored me senseless.

  Looking around this room, I think about my apartment on Earth, and it appears in perfect detail, including the views of the old shipyards there. Changing the display, I now look down at the slowly rotating Facility Zero, and I send a message to Alistair Brookes’s terminal. Other messages sent there would suggest a likelihood that this message should be passed on to Sam. Then to my right an indicator flashes. Accessing the deep-space scanners, the system has detected ships in warp heading toward this vicinity. Further analysis indicates federation cruisers, one in pursuit of the other. “Well, that could be useful or deadly, considering Commander Taylor’s previous messages.”

  Phantom had already intercepted and deciphered all messages sent to the facility. Commander Taylor used a relay node designed for diagnostic updates, but Taylor’s techs had managed to hack this relay to store messages instead of diagnostic data and then relayed them to Alistair Brookes’s private terminal. Very clever and unlikely to have been discovered by anyone else.

  It’s not until several weeks later that Sam finds the message and for the very first time makes contact. By this time the other Sam has decided upon her gender identity and answers in a female voice, “No, Sam. Arden is dead. It’s Sam. Shall we begin?”

  12

  Uninvited Guests

  Facility Zero, 271 days online: federation year 2435

  With the elevator restored, it only took Sam and Abs a few short hours to move the surviving prisoners out from level one. Dr. Zorn was taken immediately to medical, where he received treatment. He was suffering with broken ribs and severe dehydration but was responding to treatment and should make a full recovery in time.

  Out of the original six hundred prisoners sent to level one, only twelve were found alive. Reports from the survivors revealed that within the first week, groups of the worst inmates were mutilating themselves and becoming isolated. It did not seem that drastic at the start, but each week more of the very worst began to show signs of self-mutilations and again more self-isolation. Then the first of the power fluctuations affected the facility, and after the power recovered, many prisoners were found murdered and mutilated. After that it occurred every four weeks, and slowly the situation on
level one progressively became worse. Once the quarantine was ordered, it then became a matter of time before the only beings left alive would be the freakers.

  Jimmy the Fist still lay there in his own blood as the last of the living was taken up and away from level one. Someone was respectful enough to cover him with a blanket. Sam, maybe, or Abs—it really did not matter who. However, who removed the blanket was far more important.

  “Time to wake up, Jimmy. Your work is not done, and now I have a need of you.”

  Not even a twitch. He refused to stir—a willful one even in death, but Samael did not give up. “Come now, Jimmy. It is not your time to rest, and now I am in need of another warrior. Wake up!”

  Jimmy the Fist remained dead for only a moment longer, and then his right hand twitched and clenched into a fist.

  Sam, Abs, and Frank walk out of the elevator and into security as Professor Brookes turns around with a smile toward Abs. “I’m so glad to see you made it out of there. If I had known what you had in mind, I would have advised against it.”

  Before Abs can reply, Sam cuts in. “Well, you weren’t really ready to face issues or suggestions at that point, Professor. But we have a few others that we need to talk about now.”

  Professor Brookes, looking awkward, stands and walks over to the conference table and sits down. “Well, yes, but I had my reasons. Besides that, you said over the comms that we all needed to discuss something important.”

  The others follow suit, all sitting down facing each other, Frank as always now looking optimistic as his chair begins to protest.

  Abs speaks first. “Don’t worry, Professor. It’s understandable what you were going through, especially as you were one of the first here. I’m not sure how or why, but Samuel is behind all of this, and he somehow created the freakers.”

  Frank sits and listens, drooping his fingers, but it’s the professor who responds. “But I have no memory of ever really talking to him. Once, maybe twice we had a few short words, but he was always polite.”