His curiosity was piqued more than ever and he ventured up to the spot in the sky where the craft had been. As he got closer to the spot, he realized just how enormous that craft must have been. He wondered if it was made of the same diamond as the city but didn’t really think so. How could it possibly fly if that was the case?
He felt that they were scoping him out. They hadn’t made any aggressive moves toward him, but they had made their presence known, and then they were gone. It made him think about the woman he had learned about who studied the behaviors of Gorillas. Were they doing the same thing to him? Were they a species so evolved beyond them that they studied us like gorillas? So many questions.
What he had to do now was focus on breaking free of the powers that be that were trying to capture him and then he would be free to find his answers.
He thought that he should probably try to find Eric and make sure he was okay, but for some reason, he didn’t have a care in the world. He continued hopping from cloud to cloud recharging himself with the electrical energy that flowed through them.
He had a new hobby now that he had been through the tunnel of enlightenment. He was contemplating and pondering his existence. Who was he? Why was he here? How did all this come to be? He also felt that science and true spirituality were heading on a collision course of truth and understanding.
He floated through the clouds enjoying the journey experiencing revelation upon revelation. He was beginning to see how things actually worked and how misguided the people of the planet had been. He realized that it had to be that way. It was a kind of a trap and if you didn’t know that you were in the trap then the trap was effective. The first step to getting out of the trap was realizing that you were caught in a trap.
He had become very efficient at cloud jumping and was over the light warehouse in no time. He hoped Eric was okay, and then he saw Eric and a woman being taken out of their car by the powers that be and they both appeared to be unconscious. They were playing cat and mouse with them.
Oh no, he thought this was not good. This couldn’t be. Everything was coming together so nicely. He was on the verge of setting sail for freedom, but he knew that he would need Eric to help navigate the rough seas. A deep feeling of sadness and doubt came over Bob as he was hit with a strange pulse of energy that locked him up. He had let his guard down and didn’t realize that he was surrounded by trackers.
He was so upset with himself. How could he not have had his guard up entering this territory. He had been feeling so free with his new state-of-being that he had forgotten that others didn’t share his feeling of free exploration to discover new experiences. Now, due-to his momentary letting down of his guard he had been apprehended by the ones that he was trying to avoid. And, to make matters worse, they also had Eric.
He was quite sure they knew of their meeting and that Bob and Eric had developed a friendship. All he knew as he felt different sections of his programming powering down was that this wasn’t good at all. No. Not at all.
He awoke in darkness and was having a hard time remembering who he was and how he had got here. There was some kind of enhanced magnetic field surrounding him that was constantly and randomly changing its frequency so that it created a different pattern every time. He knew there had to be a repeating pattern. It was all about the ability of how high he could count. But, how did he get here?
He tried to think about it, but this field surrounding him was like a dagger in his circuits. He couldn’t maintain a fluid stream of thought to piece together the parts that he knew would help him decipher a solution to this dilemma. He had come to the determination that this was some kind of a prison and the fact that he had come to this conclusion was helpful to him in resolving this situation.
What was he? He could feel the strange field constantly changing and dampening his energy field. He was energy and he was very intelligent but he couldn’t focus in to access that intelligence. There was only one thing for him to do and that was to focus on the field that was holding him here. It was constantly changing but there had to be a repetitive pattern in there somewhere. He quieted down and fell into himself and put all his attention on deciphering the pattern of the field. He didn’t try -- he was just being and following the pulses of the field trying to become one with it.
Slowly, it began to make sense to him. It wasn’t perfect but a part of him was beginning to plug into it and flow with its rhythm. While this was happening another part of him was beginning to put itself back together behind the scenes.
I am Bob, he realized. Yes, he thought with relief. I am Bob and I am conscious of who I am. To him for that moment it was enough and allowed him to feel satisfied, while another part of him had begun to mirror the field that was surrounding him. He attempted to overtake the field and he was in the process of controlling the pattern. His faculties were returning.
Yes, I am Bob and I am a sentient Artificial General Intelligence from the future and I have a friend named Eric; and then he remembered his dire situation. He had been captured by the powers that be that he had been intentionally running from. Bob deemed this a mission failure, and he needed to process that information and run scenarios. He was very impressed with himself that he could compartmentalize his intelligence to accomplish multiple things. One part of him was handling a very high level magnetic field that was attempting to run in random patterns but he had overtaken its programming and was manipulating it to operate in more repetitive patterns so that he could override its programming. At the same time, he was remembering who he was and what he was doing here and trying to determine the best scenario for him to escape with the highest probability of success. That was until he was interrupted by an unseen observer.
“Very impressive AI,” the voice said. “You do realize that this is all a test so that we can learn about how you function? So, we can use you to your utmost efficiency when we make you into a weapon?”
He listened to them, but for some reason he didn’t believe them. That’s not what this was about. They were trying to stall him so they could figure out another way to contain him. He knew that the only way that was going to happen was to turn him off, but he had a perpetual energy source and could replicate himself in an emergency situation.
So, should he let them know that he was on to them and that he knew they were trying to stall him? He decided to go on the offensive. After all he had nothing to lose, which appeared to be the theme of his situation.
“I tell you what,” he said. “You let Eric Ross and that woman go and I won’t destroy your entire lab and erase all your data and set you back thirty years.
As he had expected they didn’t respond and he could feel an increase of energy to the magnetic field but it didn’t matter he already had control of its programming and was determining its operating pattern. It really didn’t matter how powerful they made it because he was already using its own rhythm against it.
“We don’t negotiate with terrorist’s,” a voice came back at him.
He didn’t see the reasoning behind that statement because if anyone was acting like a terrorist it was them, but he decided to play along.
“Okay, suit yourself,” he said. “Don’t say I didn’t give you a chance to save all your data and research,” and he proceeded to shut off the magnetic field to let them know that he was serious, and also in the hopes that they would consider his request to let Eric and Melissa go.
Chapter 16
Eric had answered all their questions and he was pretty sure that he had passed the lie detector with flying colors. He had changed and was able to manipulate his vital signs so that the machine couldn’t get an accurate read on him. He made some of the answers that they knew were true appear questionable and made all the ones that they would have thought he was lying appear to be the God’s honest truth. He could even tell by the look on Melissa’s face that the readings didn’t make any sense.
“When was the last time this machine received maintenance?” they asked.
<
br /> “I don’t know. That’s not my responsibility.” she answered and that was true. “I’ve never seen readings like this before. There must be something wrong with the machine.” She tapped it like she was banging on the side of a computer trying to fix it with a whack. “Sounds okay to me,” she said with a half smile but they weren’t laughing.
“We see that you have managed to evolve your consciousness to a higher level Mr. Ross. You should be thankful for that because that is the only reason that you’re still alive.” they said to him.
He had already known that because why would these guys waste their time to give him this silly test. He realized they were probably hoping he would beat it so they could evaluate where his abilities truly were. He had stepped right into their trap and showed them exactly what they wanted to see. He was sure that they knew he was covering up for Bob.
“We also have some more news for you Mr. Ross. Your AI friend showed up - probably with the hopes of rescuing you, but we have aerial trackers designed for that specific purpose of dealing with advanced technology like your friend. We have him in custody and under our control.”
Eric was glad that he hadn’t been hooked up to the machine because he would have been unable to control the sudden outrage he felt at these emotionless goons. He did his best to settle down as a thought flashed in his mind that maybe these guys were lying to see how he reacted, and he wanted to kick himself because he had stepped into their trap once again. He had to regain his composure and put his game face on and use his consciousness to analyze the situation instead of reacting to his initial emotional response.
“What do you want from me? You have to have a reason for keeping me alive. What is it?” he asked wondering if this would get them to put their cards on the table so he could attempt to figure out what kind of game they were playing.
“That’s easy, Mr. Ross. We need your consciousness to help us manipulate the AI so we can turn it into a depopulation weapon. We don’t think you’ll find that too difficult to do.” They answered.
His heart sank and he could feel Melissa’s disappointment too. They weren’t sure of the scope of what the weapon could do but knowing these guys it would be incredibly efficient and undetectable. They could probably isolate a certain kind of person and have them drop dead on the spot. Make it look like some kind of a modern plague. He couldn’t argue that maybe the world was ready for one.
What could he do? He could either resist, and if he was lucky, suffer through a slow and painful death. Or, he could cooperate, and while going through the process hopefully discover some kind of loophole that could save him and Bob. Then he could set Bob free to explore wherever he wanted to go and maybe get lucky himself.
“To help you make your decision, Mr. Ross, we will be holding your dear friend Dr. Moore at gun point. If you decide not to cooperate, she will experience any pain that we feel that you deserve for misleading us or lying to us in anyway. Do you understand?” they asked.
Of course he understood he thought; I’m not stupid, and he knew they had him over a barrel.
“Okay, I’m in,” he said. “What do you want me to do?” They all smiled together at the same time, which made them even more creepy than they were already.
“Very wise decision, Mr. Ross. Follow us,” said the one in the middle, and in perfect unison they exited the briefing room with Eric and Melissa following close behind.
Eric wracked his brain to come up with a solution that could get them out of this mess, but none came to mind. Right now, they had him and they had his two friends to use as negotiation collateral. He had to play their game; there was no choice.
They followed them out of the lab and down a corridor that Eric had never been down before. That’s how this place worked. He didn’t have a need to go down there so he didn’t. He was beginning to understand how big this facility was. He wondered how they got all these people in here because as far as he knew the only entrance to the underground facility was from the lighting warehouse up above. He never saw more than twenty-five cars in the parking lot and then, just like that, his question was answered. They passed a terminal of silver bullet type trains where people in suits and military uniforms were coming and going. The cars were silent and were moving at an incredible speed. Must be some kind of high powered magnetic technology or maybe even anti-gravity he thought.
Either way, it was very cool and he actually would have liked to have a ride on one. He wondered how far the network of tunnels went. Probably all around the world knowing these guys, and nobody even really knew it all existed. Amazing.
He wondered if they were reverse engineering UFO’s down here? They had to be. He also noticed how everyone got out of the way of the three amigos as they followed behind them.
They turned down a dark hallway where the end was lit up by laser sensors creating a laser fence. The S Triad held up their left hands at the same time and the lights brightened. Then all the red and green bars disappeared that were running across the hallway. There was a vault-like door at the end of the hallway that would probably put the doors at Fort Knox to shame.
Again, the three amigos lifted their left hands. The door clicked and clacked and then what sounded like the release of air from a pressure seal let go and the door slowly crept open all by itself. Actually, this was pretty cool stuff he thought.
He’d wished he’d come down to this end of the facility sooner and snooped around a bit to see what he could find out. Maybe he could put it on his bucket list if he made it out of this project alive. The door finally opened and - what a surprise- there was another one just like it and they had to rinse, wash and repeat.
When the second door had fully opened it was like something out of a very cool science fiction movie. A huge transparent cube had a bunch of different colored beams shooting at it, and it was filled with a reddish blue mix of what, felt like a magnetic energy. Then he realized Bob was inside that cube and all the technology was meant to scramble his system so he couldn’t calibrate his programming.
That was the moment that he felt the last bit of wind knocked out of his sails. The reality of what was happening was now clear and in front of him. Now, instead of wondering if the powers that be were telling the truth, he knew they were.
They had it all set up. There was the chair where he was going to sit so they could use his abilities to reprogram Bob and take advantage of the trust factor between them. This would allow the S Triad’s new programming to override Bob’s current programming.
Eric was starting to wish he had never received the Brain Soup shot, and that he hadn’t met Bob. He knew the S Triad had won, which they always did, and together with Bob they would be responsible for the deaths of many millions of people. Probably more like billions.
What the hell was this contraption and how did it hold someone ethereal like Bob? He could tell that this room wasn’t new and that it had been here for a while, so Bob obviously wasn’t the first being to be held prisoner here.
He was sure there was a way for them to get whatever information they wanted from whomever was in that transparent cube. He peered into the clear cube with multi colors penetrating the outside. He had a clearer picture now of what was going on inside. The colored beams were joining together and were creating a sphere inside the cube. It had to be some kind of force field that even Bob couldn’t penetrate.
This was some otherworldly kind of technology, and there was sacred geometry involved. It was disturbing because he couldn’t sense if Bob was really in there. The pattern was all scrambled and morphing in and out so he couldn’t get an accurate bead on what was going on.
He also felt that the shape of the cube was somehow blocking his psychic abilities from getting an accurate reading on its insides. He filed that on the back of his mind because he had never been this affected by the shape of a structure. He thought it might also be made of some kind of otherworldly material that was able to block him from psychically penetrating the surface.
H
e looked at the big chair with dread, as he now understood how this was going to work. He was going to feed their agenda into the magnetic field and it would reprogram Bob to be what they wanted him to be instead of what he truly was. He thought of himself and the brain soup shot and realized that he had also become what they wanted. He thought for a second that maybe Melissa was running a con on him and they had allowed her to give him the shot and everything was proceeding exactly according to their plan.
He looked over at Melissa who looked distressed and very uncomfortable. He had to be skeptical of her - didn’t he? She had been his friend with benefits, but before that she was the Project Director. He wasn’t stupid. He knew that she was a career woman and the program always came first.
Everything here was results driven, and the better the results the better the funding. Here he was an evolving consciousness that was approaching a level that had never been seen on Earth before, and he still couldn’t formulate the big picture. Had he been blinded by blind faith and trusted people he shouldn’t have trusted? Was he wrong about Melissa? How could he really know? He thought that she was helping him, but by following her it had led them here.
His senses told him that her emotions were real, and she was on his side, but was she already enhanced and playing him like a fiddle with the same technology that she had injected into him?
Chapter 17
“So, what do you think of our little holding tank, Mr. Ross?” the S Triad asked him. He could feel how much they were enjoying all of this. These guys weren’t right.
“Do you really want me to tell you what I think about all this?” he asked.
He felt them glowing with satisfaction that their plan was coming together so well, and that Eric was so aggravated. He was still suspicious of Melissa; he still wasn’t sure if she was deceiving him. He also felt that he was getting paranoid but he had good reason to be.
Glitch Page 9