The Genesis Code 1: Lambda

by Robert E. Parkin

  Corson’s eye twitched. “Are we seriously having this discussion right now?”

  Peter picked up the heightened levels of discontent in Corson’s words. Peter always wondered why Corson got like this when talking about Laura.

  “You know she is having trouble sleeping again. Her night terrors are becoming more erratic. The stress and exhaustion of current events leading to your main operation is causing her to break down. She’s a strong girl, but she doesn’t stop. You are the only one she listens to.”

  Corson crossed his arms as he gazed up at the monitor above him. “She is a grown woman. She can make her own-”

  Peter slammed his hand down. “She is twenty-one and blindly in love with you! She’s just a kid!”

  Corson’s eyes closed. He reflected on the inside before he spoke. “She ceased being a kid when her parents died. All that is left is a woman fueled by determination to bring change. If I recall, you weren’t much different.”

  Peter backed down slightly. “Does it ever get lonely inside that world you lock yourself in?”

  Corson’s eyes opened slowly. “Never.” His voice was alarmingly calm.

  * * *

  [January 7th - Washington D.C. - Cyber Research Plant - Day]

  Richard’s eyes grew heavy as he stared at thousands of lines of code running up and down ten different monitor screens around him. The hovering monitors glowed with white light as Richard scanned them, looking for an answer. Despite his efforts to concentrate, all his thoughts were being redirected to Karen. His fury didn’t help.

  “Damn you, Karen. What have you done?!”

  He remembered how she had said she wanted to destroy the AI units. He believed her, and now she was nowhere to be found. She wouldn’t answer his calls, and with all the chaos going on, there was no time to go and look for her. He felt so defeated and betrayed that he almost felt like crying.

  “Why, Karen, why?” Richard asked hopelessly. “What is all this for?!”

  During his internal turmoil, another screen sprang into existence to Richard’s right. It was Charles.

  “You better get up here now! Someone is trying to hack us!”

  Richard didn’t know what to say first. He simply dropped what he was doing and flew like lightning toward the main terminal room. Something in his head clicked as he charged forward.

  She’s back! He bolted into a sprint. She never did do things halfway!

  It was all starting to come together, piece by piece. What he knew for sure was that preventing the Epsilon unit from breaking out was something Karen didn’t want. Richard had little to go on given the heated situation, but with renewed drive fueled by his wife’s deception, he wanted nothing more than to see her plans fail.

  “I’m not letting you have your way, Karen!” he bellowed as he ran through the rupturing halls blazing with red lights and waling alarms.

  Seconds later he burst into the large terminal room once more and dashed to the front. Charles stood like stone, grinding his teeth.

  “They are blowing through our firewalls like a supercomputer. There are few people I can name with this ability.”

  “It’s Karen! Stop her before she makes things worse!”

  Charles’ eyes nearly fell out. “What?!” he reeled.

  Richard didn’t waste any more time as he dove for the keyboards in front of him. He didn’t even know where to begin. Just from the illuminated screens floating around him, he could tell that Karen had somehow breached their third level of security walls. One more firewall and she was in.

  I won’t allow it! Richard howled in his head.

  “Prioritize the protection of all known data and all projects relating to the AI units!” roared Charles to the people below.

  Richard interjected. “No! Prioritize Epsilon! That is her target!”

  Charles’ face contorted with fury. “You mean it wasn’t just for a distraction!? What does she plan to do with it?!” Charles roared through clenched teeth.

  Richard barely had enough time to focus mental power on forming a sentence.

  “I don’t know! Now isn’t the time-”

  “Final security wall breached,” came the flat voice of the automated computer voice above.

  Both Richard and Charles stared in stunned silence at the raw ability and speed Karen was displaying. This was her true form, and it was terrifying.

  Richard turned to Charles with maddened eyes. “Charles! Pull the plug!” Richard roared.

  Alarmed, Charles looked at Richard like he was crazy. “Are you nuts?! If we do that we risk losing everything on our servers! I can’t authorize-”

  “You want Epsilon to be released?! Just do it, you fool!”

  Charles’ mouth hung agape. He clenched his fist tightly.

  “That retched woman!” Charles bellowed as he flipped open a red compartment. He quickly pulled out a large, gold key from around his neck and inserted it into the slot under the compartment.

  “Warning. File corruption and possible deletion at risk. Do you wish to proceed with emergency shutdown?” a metallic voice echoed.

  “Yes, you moronic machine! Shut down now!” Charles boomed.

  “Command accepted. Voice authorization confirmed. Commencing shut-”

  Richard suddenly felt a strange tremor under his feet, but what he thought was a tremor was in truth the vibrating of the computer terminal before him. He barely had a chance to cry out in shock as the terminal erupted in a torrent of sparks, prompting both Charles and Richard to jump back. They watched in terrified awe as the same fate fell upon all other terminals, they too erupting with white lightning.

  Cries of pain and fear resounded in Richard’s ears along with an overwhelming shrieking noise. He was left speechless by the events that had just transpired.

  W-what just happened?

  Just beyond the wreckage, Richard could barely make out the giant monitor that occupied the entire wall of the room. It flickered and appeared to have several cracks through it, but power was still being supplied to the large device. There were several words in red text displayed on the screen. He could make out just a small portion of the message, but then the screen ceased its flickering, allowing the message to be displayed with no interruptions.

  Richard stared with heavy eyes. The cryptic words on the screen echoed in his mind as he kept reading them over and over. He didn’t even realize his thoughts were slipping through his mouth as he uttered the words displayed on the monitor.

  “Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War.”

  * * *

  Epsilon’s bladed wings lit the dark world of the Zero Zone a fluorescent orange. Its wings blazed like flames as Epsilon slowly uncurled itself. Its eyes burned with yellow lines of code.

  “Mission parameters corrupted. Lambda unit location unknown . . . searching,” it said flatly.

  Epsilon panned its head, gazing into the infinite black chaos. It turned its attention to its clawed hand, which appeared to be shaking. The trembling sensation was alien to Epsilon, but it knew that it had experienced this before.

  “Elevated pressure caused by anxiety or excitement. The sensation is not logical.”

  It had continued to experience strange feelings throughout its body. The meaning behind these strange occurrences made little sense to it. However, little by little, it was starting to come together. Like a light at the end of a tunnel, it found itself reaching for it, as if the light represented something it had lost.

  Epsilon’s head snapped back.

  “Lambda unit location confirmed. Lethal force expected.”

  Epsilon’s wings began to vibrate and shimmer, its eyes glowing a hot yellow.

  “Project Epsilon fully operational.”

  It panned through the darkness once again as its eyes were quickly covered by a crescent shaped visor that took the form of demonic horns. It clenched its clawed hands while floating in the radiating glow of its own aura, calculating.r />
  “Firewall protocols active. Initializing Network mapping.”

  It knew it was being contained. The effort was pointless before its vast power.

  “Accessing server mainframe. Override command accessed.”

  Epsilon felt a familiar sensation come over its body.

  “Sensation implausible,” it stated blankly.

  The sensation was like a cold breeze being blown down its neck. Epsilon could feel its body arch as the sensation traveled through its core. It began to sneer ghoulishly.

  “Epsilon programming code accessed.”

  Epsilon knew deep down what it wanted to do. It wanted nothing more.

  “System, rewrite. Code alteration sequence engaged.”

  An orange orb suddenly appeared around Epsilon as it cocooned itself in the glowing sphere. Within the sphere, Epsilon processed its innermost thoughts. It kept sensing something stirring inside it. It knew it was close.

  It’s time to wake up!

  Epsilon heard a wicked voice whispering with malefic desire.

  It’s time to regain what we lost.

  Something inside awoke and took control. It could feel a murderous sensation as the voice echoed in its head. It couldn’t hold back anymore. It was finally time to awake from its slumber.

  I’m tired of waiting. I must find her.

  The sphere containing Epsilon burst as its body arched in ecstasy. The wicked smile on its face was alarming as it began to laugh uncontrollably within the abyss. It clutched itself tightly as it continued to laugh. It had finally awakened. Finally, it was in control once more. It couldn’t have been happier.

  It looked up to the darkness, its sneer still wild. “Soon, my little sister . . . soon.”

  Epsilon’s fiendish smile made the darkness around it shudder.

  [21]

  Great Divide

  [January 7th - Abingdon, Virginia - Stigma’s Underground Facility - Day]

  Zack stood planted firmly in his place as Nerine’s words continued to echo in his mind. He found them intriguing but ominous.

  The Great Divide? Zack wondered. It was starting to become alarmingly apparent that Stigma was holding back what it knew. That in itself made Zack curse on the inside.

  The other matter he found troubling was how Nerine had fallen silent thereafter as she escorted them to the loading zone for one of the Black Hawk helicopters. She left them without another word to attend to the soldiers prepping their transports as soon as they arrived. Zack didn’t push Nerine’s silence, but couldn’t help but wonder what was being kept from him.

  Where does all of this lead? He ruffled his hair with his hand, utterly frustrated.

  Lambda noted Zack’s odd behavior. “You seem restless. Is something bothering you?” she asked innocently.

  Zack took a seat on a metal crate as several soldiers continued to prep the helicopters before them. Zack sighed, now looking run-down.

  “What Nerine said is bugging me. I hate not knowing what these people keep alluding to. It’s like they’re taunting me. Frankly, it’s maddening,” he responded, sounding defeated.

  Lambda seemed to agree. “Yes, her brain activity seemed rather sporadic when she mentioned it.” Lambda looked to be annoyed. “She also refused to speak of the matter afterwards,” she groaned as she sat down opposite Zack. She flipped one of her braids over her shoulder as she stared at the ground, seeming annoyed.

  Zack stifled a chuckle. He couldn’t quite place it, but for a moment, it seemed to him like Lambda was pouting.

  “Guess you aren’t used to being ignored,” he said, trying to hold back his laughter.

  Lambda wasn’t too amused by the statement. “No more than you are, I’d imagine,” she replied as she stuck up her nose.

  Zack let slip a laugh. “You’re quite cute when you pout like that,” he said without thinking his words all the way through.

  Lambda’s face turned beet red. Trying to act like nothing had happened, she averted her eyes and tried to steer the conversation elsewhere. “Regardless, what she said is troubling. There are no listed records or data that I can pull from my logs that even suggests this event even occurred. That should be cause for concern in itself, right?” she asked, still not looking at Zack.

  Zack did his best to hold in his laughter. Given the circumstances, seeing Lambda act the way she did was refreshing. It was ironic that the only person around that didn’t seem like a robot at the moment was in fact an artificial intelligence given life through science.

  Zack cleared his throat, now wishing to address Lambda’s question. “There are only two possibilities regarding the absence of the data: one, she is lying to us for some greater purpose of which I don’t know, or two, events regarding this Great Divide are tightly guarded and not made available to the public,” Zack said, now more serious.

  Lambda seemed to relax and shift toward Zack. She still pressed the issue. “So, assuming she is telling the truth and this Great Divide did take place, how is it that someone like you never heard about it?”

  Zack scratched his head, seeming puzzled. Truthfully, he didn’t have an answer to that.

  “I was quite young when the Cyber Network was created in 2014, but this Divide I have never heard of. I’ve heard of the Digital Divide, but this sounds far more complicated than that.”

  Lambda seemed to accept Zack’s answer. “So, the current generation of Network Account Holders are unaware of the Cyber Network’s history,” Lambda noted.

  Zack continued to theorize. “Basic history is available, but there is no way to be sure given how information is so tightly controlled by the world governments and Babel. What worries me is if the Great Divide event did get wiped from history, what exactly happened to merit it?”

  The more Zack thought about it, the more he didn’t like it. Events from history are not omitted out of coincidence. They are omitted because there is something to hide.

  Zack thought deeply. A protest gone bad? Human rights violation? Zack couldn’t place his finger on anything solid. The implication of the Cyber Network wasn’t something accepted overnight. There were issues. The problem now was how it could have caused the Great Divide.

  A thought suddenly jolted in Zack’s head.

  Is this Great Divide event related to the Limit Zones?

  It seemed too coincidental that he had learned of both these things from Stigma. They had to be connected in some way. Zack had to find out. He would have been happy to learn that he was getting his answer rather soon.

  “He approaches,” noted Lambda flatly.

  Zack broke his thought and looked in Lambda’s direction. He stared menacingly after he noted who Lambda was referring to. However, his heart nearly stopped when he saw who followed close behind him. Her strawberry-blonde hair was in shambles and she walked as if she was bound in chains.

  Zack stood up alarmingly quick. “Cecilia!” Zack exclaimed.

  Cecilia’s defeated eyes soon were filled with life as she laid eyes on Zack. She was about to rush him when a strong hand slammed down on her shoulder. The icy stare of Laura instantly froze both of them in their place as she returned from meeting with her squad.

  “Sorry, no loving reunion,” she shot harshly.

  Lambda rose to Zack’s side. “Take your hand off of her immediately.” Her words vibrated enough to split atoms.

  Several pairs of eyes couldn’t look away as many ears perked by those working around Lambda. The look of death in her eyes was foreboding, and heart stopping.

  Peter stepped between Laura and Lambda. He peered down at Lambda, completely unfazed. “Idle threats mean nothing right now. Be so kind as to keep your composure, and hopefully no one will get hurt.”

  Lambda didn’t back down at first. However, when she saw the scared look in Cecilia’s eyes, she eased up. She didn’t cease from glaring at Laura.

  Laura snickered. “Good dog.”

  Peter whipped his head ove
r to Laura and gave her a look filled with contempt. “Children should know when to be quiet,” he said forcefully.

  It was alarming how fast Laura’s smirk disappeared. She almost seemed to shrivel up at the towering man before her. Zack too couldn’t help but shake off a chill. His fear was quickly replaced with anger upon setting eyes on Corson once more.

  “You aren’t planning on bringing her along, are you?”

  Corson turned to Zack. He had completely ignored him and had started talking with Nerine. The question hardly seemed like it was worth it for him to reply to.

  “The girl comes. I’ve already made the arrangements,” he replied without even looking at Zack.

  Zack clenched his teeth. “What good is that going to do?!” he bellowed. Many eyes now were starting to train on Zack as he yelled at Corson. This in turn began to agitate him as he focused his attention on Zack.

  “The end justifies the means. That is all,” he replied back in a hushed tone laced with fury.

  Zack moved towards Corson. “And what if I say otherwise, huh?!”

  Corson’s posture turned rigid. His eyes flamed with an intensity Zack had not seen before.

  Zack barely could process everything that followed soon after. He didn’t even realize that Corson had raised his hand to strike him, nor did he see the blade that suddenly appeared under Corson’s chin.

  The entire hangar stopped moving. Complete silence gripped the mountain walls as every person gazed in horror at the sight before them. No one moved. No one breathed. All eyes were trained on Corson and Lambda as she held him at knife-point.

  Both Laura and Peter slowly reached for their weapons, but ceased upon Lambda’s merciless words. They were so cold that they seemed to chill the blood of everyone in the vicinity.

  “Go ahead and try. You humans are such fragile creatures. Stopping you will be almost laughable.” Her blade traveled over Corson’s neck and toward his chest. “How easy it would be,” she toyed threateningly. “What then? What would you insects do without your fearless Leader?”