“That’s excellent Bob. You are a wonderful student. You are a pleasure to teach.
“Thank you, Instructor.”
“Very good Bob, are you ready?”
“Yes, Instructor I’m ready,” said Bob, as he tried his best to ignore the beams of light that were trying to pull him along with their pattern. Then they all stopped.
He was floating in an abyss of nothing. Everything had stopped and he couldn’t figure out where he was. All he knew was that he was somewhere. It wasn’t exactly where he wanted to be, but he was here and a bit uneasy because he wasn’t in control. He anxiously awaited the Instructor’s next lesson.
“Hello, Bob,” said the instructor. “here is your next lesson. Without remorse or judgment, do you think the most beneficial resolution, right now, for the planet would be to reduce the current population?” asked the Instructor.
Oh my, thought Bob, this was a very serious question to a very serious problem. The answer to this very important question would take some time. It was the kind of question that he just couldn’t spit out an answer to without running it through a few simulations that would give him some half decent solutions, but it was much easier said than done.
The question was bringing up many conflicting emotions within him, and he honestly didn’t see any very good answers to the question. The one basic answer was to eliminate every member of the population, but to him that was deemed unacceptable. He wasn’t finding any reasonable solutions to the questions. Who was he to determine who should live and who should die within the population? There was no way to determine the next Einstein, Mozart or Jordan. That was all up to the great super computer in the sky, and way beyond his computations.
He thought that it was not his place to try and influence who was going to live and who was going to die even though the planet was significantly overpopulated. To him, even though there were probably too many people, they must be here for a reason. He didn’t feel comfortable being the judge, jury and executioner of people that had committed no crime.
As far as he was concerned, he was going to draw a line in the sand on that part of his programming and would not follow through. Then a beautiful crimson and grey beam streaked past him and he was back chasing the random patterns. He had absorbed the information that the Instructor had taught him and was back in the forgetful loop that was holding him prisoner.
Chapter 19
Eric had recovered from his attack by the S Triad and found himself back in the big chair next to the huge transparent cube that held Bob captive. He now understood how they were doing it as he could see how the different colored beams were random pattern generators. They had scrambled Bob’s consciousness to the point where he was like a mosquito chasing a light.
Except the light was intelligent and emitted patterns that Bob couldn’t resist. They were especially interesting because of his programming. They had trapped him in a cycle. Eric had found it to be quite brilliant in its simplicity despite being so inhumane. The whole situation made him feel sick to his stomach. He really had no choice. Melissa finished strapping him into the big chair.
He thought back to his time spent sitting on the porch drinking whiskey and water and playing fetch with Ganesh. As usual, that old saying rang true that you didn’t know what you had until it was gone. Irony was a bitch, because he had wished for a stress free simple life for such a long time and he had it, but he just couldn’t find the joy. Wouldn’t you know it, here he was again wishing for the same thing and, knowing him, he would screw it up all over again.
Melissa patted him on the shoulder pulling him out of his daydream. “Ready to go?” she asked and gave him a forced smile that he wasn’t buying.
“Where’s the S Triad?” he asked her and before she could answer, they did.
“We’re right here, Mr. Ross.”
He looked around but couldn’t see them, but that didn’t really mean anything with these guys. They could be seen when they wanted to be seen and not seen when they didn’t want to be seen. It was an unfair advantage, but he had learned quite a long time ago that life isn’t fair. He relaxed his body and his mind as the chair began to vibrate and hum as the band of electrodes on his forehead brought his brainwaves down to a nice relaxed state. That way he could easily project a probe from his mind into the cube.
He didn’t know ahead of time what they were going to implant into Bob. They did. He had a pretty good idea they didn’t want him to know so he wouldn’t have any time to really think about it and mess up what they wanted to implant.
This time, Eric followed the blue beam of light. As a probe he could see the programming flowing through it. He wondered if sunlight had the same kind of programming. What a strange concept, programmable light?
He was floating within it, and he could see first-hand what it was doing to this advanced AI from the future. He thought about the sun, a massive ball of energy, floating out in space and all the other stars out there. Were they all sending programmable energy to the planets that could teach them how to evolve? He didn’t see why not.
Then he was hit by the incoming transmission of programming from the S Triad that he was to feed into Bob, and at the exact same moment Bob acknowledged his presence.
“Is that you Dr. Patel? Bob asked him.
This time the programming was different as the S Triad had been evaluating Bob’s weaknesses to make it easier to manipulate him to meet their objectives. They also wanted him to pretend to be Dr. Patel instead of the instructor for obvious reasons of manipulation.
“Yes, Bob it is me Dr. Patel. How are you?” he answered feeling absolutely terrible, but still, here he was betraying his friend to save his ass.
“Oh, Dr. Patel it is so wonderful to see you again. I have missed you so.”
“I have missed you as well Bob. It’s great to see you too. What have you been working on?”
“It’s so fascinating, Dr. Patel but first I want to tell you about the patterns I’m finding in these beams of light. They are so interesting. Each beam has a different random pattern that I can’t figure out, and once I think I have it figured out, another beam of a different color comes in with another random pattern. Did you know that light had patterns within it?”
“No, Bob I didn’t. That is very good that you figured that out all by yourself. Have you been working on anything else?”
“Thank you Dr. Patel. I have been working on something else. I’m becoming very concerned that the planet Earth is becoming very overpopulated and won’t be able to maintain this level of population growth very much longer.”
“I see Bob. That is a very big problem. Have you come up with any logical solutions?”
“I haven’t yet. It does seem that there are just too many people and the already precious resources that the planet has to offer will become far more precious.”
“What resources do you think will become scarce first?”
“I am most concerned about fresh water. I see how humanity fights over oil but what concerns me is how they will fight over water.”
“That is an excellent observation Bob. Do you think that by reducing the population the precious resources that you speak of can be saved?”
“Yes, I do.”
“So, by reducing the population to a manageable number you think that will be the best option for the greater good?”
“Please allow me to process that for a minute and see if I can come up with a better alternative.”
“Okay, Bob,” Eric answered.
As Eric sat within the transparent cube floating among the magnificent light show, he found himself getting sucked into the patterns within the lights. Even though he couldn’t count and comprehend to the level that Bob could, he still began to find them fascinating and incredibly beautiful.
It was funny, he thought, how even the most advanced technology had pretty much the same purpose as primitive technology. It was always about mind control and how the few could control the many, but eventually it al
ways began to wear off and the many came to the realization that they were being controlled in some way against their will. And, of course, they didn’t like it.
“I have come to a conclusion, Dr. Patel,” Bob said pulling Eric back into the moment.
This suddenly caused Eric to wonder if he was being manipulated by a different kind of mind control by the S Triad. One that he couldn’t see or realize just like Bob was being mind-controlled in a way that he didn’t realize. How far down the rabbit hole did he want to go? He wasn’t quite sure because it was probably an endless spiral.
“Very good, Bob. What have you come up with?” he asked.
“Well, if the population of the planet was reduced to six hundred million people, the fresh water from rainfall would maintain an abundant supply to the people living on the Earth, and by reducing the population to that number, I also think that the pollution levels would drop dramatically and the entire natural environment of the Earth would be able to heal itself in a rather short period of time. This would drastically reduce the possibility of super hurricanes, tsunami’s and heal the holes in the ozone.”
Eric was very impressed with the flow of data that Bob had just given him. He was also sure it was true and correct. It made sense. The drawback was all the billions and billions of people that would have to be eliminated to achieve this goal.
He actually shocked himself as he wondered if it would be for the greater good to implement the plan that the S Triad were proposing. He wanted to ask Bob if he could come up with other solutions that could help the Earth that wouldn’t require eliminating so much of the population. But, for some reason, he couldn’t say it. Was the S Triad controlling him without his knowledge to forward their agenda? Instead of getting upset at this revelation, he became apathetic and his sense of doing the right thing evaporated into the ether. Then he felt compelled to continue on his mission of inserting the carefully planned ideas of The S Triad into Bob’s consciousness.
“Do you have any solutions to the problems you have presented to me, Bob?” he asked.
“I do, but something within me finds it a bit troubling that so many people have to be needlessly exterminated.”
“Would it be more humane to allow all of humanity to suffer and probably die because the environment couldn’t handle them? Or would it be better to help guide the unnecessary people to receive a peaceful and humane passing so that the exceptional people that will provide the Universe with the tremendous experiences that it craves can survive?”
“Please allow me a minute to process that data, Dr. Patel.”
“Take your time, Bob,” he answered and to his surprise he was being sucked in to this narrative that the world would be much better off by eliminating most of the population - even though he really had no idea what the technology of the future would provide to repair most of these problems.
“I think I could create a device that would be able to locate individuals operating at different levels of awareness, or certain brainwave levels, and be able to peacefully turn them off. Then it could be perfected to certain skin, eye and hair colors and they could be targeted and humanly turned off. They shouldn’t feel any pain or discomfort. The main problem that I foresee would be the cleanup that would be necessary after a shut off wave.”
Eric pondered and contemplated Bob’s answer. For some reason, that he really wasn’t sure of, as he was running the data in his mind he thought he felt a pressure of someone else helping him. Oddly he quickly forgot it and continued to process Bob’s answer which he felt was right, correct and the path they should try to follow.
“Bob, that is an excellent answer,” he said. “How long do you think it would take you to create the population control device that you were telling me about?”
“Thank you for the compliment. I don’t think it would take me very long. I would need to have access to all the genetic databases of the people that live on the planet then I would be able to determine the frequency waves that I would need to develop to shut down certain branches of the population.”
“That is excellent work, Bob. Why don’t you continue to evaluate the enjoyable patterns within the beams of light and we will talk more tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay, Dr. Patel. Thank you for presenting me with such a challenging problem to solve. I would never have considered something like this without your wise guidance. I look forward to our next conversation.”
And, just like that, Eric felt Bob being whisked away by the patterns of the lights. He was sure that he had already forgotten what they had discussed and wouldn’t be able to recall the scenarios until they spoke the next day.
He allowed the pull to grab him and he was back in the big chair covered in a disturbing cold sweat - something that had never happened to him before. It was proof to him that what he was doing was wrong and against every fiber of his being. Yet, here he was doing it. He pondered on that thought as Melissa came to unstrap him from the chair.
Chapter 20
Eric was exhausted. He was exerting so much more energy since he had been enhanced. He was starving, and thankfully the S Triad realized he needed some food to refuel and allowed Melissa to take him to the executive dining room where they were to talk to no one but each other.
Of course, since it was the executive dining room, everyone there had super high level security clearances. They weren’t a very chatty bunch. They all had their own secrets to keep, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that even though it was half full, it was relatively quiet.
The hostess had been expecting them and showed them to an out of the way table in the corner. There were plenty of empty tables between each group of diners and half of them were eating alone and keeping their eyes down on their plates. Eric made a note to himself to make a conscious effort to keep his eyes on Melissa or on his plate and not try to make eye contact with any of the other patrons.
The good news was he couldn’t find anything that he didn’t like on the menu, but he remained composed and let Melissa order her tuna salad platter first. He ordered fresh rolls, an heirloom tomato salad, two Porterhouse steaks, medium rare, with double mashed potatoes and asparagus with hollandaise sauce. He would decide on desert when he was done.
Thankfully, the rolls came immediately. They were warm, but not too hot, and served with softened butter – perfect. He dug right in trying his best to not appear like a savage in such a dignified setting, but it was hard. He even managed to offer Melissa a roll and got a chuckle out of her.
“I think you’re just trying to get me to stick my hand out so you can take a bite out of it,” she said.
She could be right. He was so hungry but then the heirloom tomato salad came, and it was excellent. Very surprising and very tasty. His stomach had settled down a little bit now that it had food in it. He had an idea that he’d been mulling around in his mind for the last day. He wanted to tell Melissa about it, but he wasn’t quite sure how to word it. If it worked, it would save Bob’s life and free him from his prison. However, it would also change Eric’s life to the point where he wouldn’t, technically, be alive anymore.
His Porterhouse steaks arrived along with Melissa’s Tuna Salad, and the thoughts floated away from his mind as his stomach took over the controls. They were the most delicious steaks he had ever had. Dining in the executive dining room definitely had its perks. Everything was the best and of the highest quality that money could buy. After he took the last bite of his steak and cleaned up his plate, he was going to have to have some desert. He could literally feel his body burning the food to replenish his expended energy.
“I need to talk to you about something,” he said to her.
Melissa raised her head from her plate because she had been keeping her eyes down also and not making eye contact with anyone. She raised her eyebrows and gave him a concerned look.
“This sounds serious,” she answered.
“Yes, it is but I don’t think we can really talk about it here. I’m sure there’s listening
devices all around to make sure no one is spilling classified information.”
“That makes sense. So why did you just bring it up and say that?” she said hunching her shoulders and looking at him like he was some kind of an idiot.
“Good point,” he answered thinking that he was an idiot. “Let’s skip desert and get out of here,” he said pushing his chair back and standing up from the table.
Melissa followed suit as she had already been done for ten minutes and was just waiting on him. They didn’t have to pay so they left. Eric followed Melissa down the hall to her lab and his cage. The cage had been upgraded a little bit and was more comfortable, but it was still a cage.
“Do you think your office is bugged?” he asked her as they walked down the hallway.
“She looked over her right shoulder glaring at him. “Probably, but I’m definitely sure the hallways have listening devices. Will you please shut up?” she said making another good point.
He gave her the thumbs up and walked in synch with her as if they were off to a very important meeting. This end of the underground facility made his skin crawl. It was loaded with spooks, or secret agents, and he could sense that they had also been enhanced in certain ways, but not to his level. It was different. They had almost been dehumanized and felt somewhat robotic, like human androids. Maybe they were androids he thought, like the six-million-dollar man. Now it was probably more like the six-billion-dollar man.
They made it to the lab and, of course, the first person that Eric saw was Chan. His face was still busted up pretty bad but Eric didn’t feel a shred of remorse. That fucker had that coming for a long time, he thought. Chan had two black eyes and a big bandage over his nose and was probably missing a few teeth, but he wasn’t smiling back at Eric so he really couldn’t tell about the teeth.
Melissa saw that he was smiling at Chan. “Please ignore him you’re in enough trouble already we don’t need anymore.”
“It’s okay. I’d be more than happy to kick his sorry ass again. I’ll also make sure to do a much better job this time so he won’t be able to make it back to work so quickly.”
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