The blonde outside the dentist, Victor thought.
“You sent that message?” Victor asked. “You interfered with my first meeting with the mother of my children?”
It took a while to sink in, it wasn’t a life he’d known, so it was hard to have an emotional connection to a family he’d never met. The longer he thought about it, however, the more sad and angry he became. Simon had said that the blonde was Victor’s soul mate, and now he would never get the opportunity to know that particular version of his kids, they were gone for good.
“I can find her again.”
“It won’t bring them back. Butterfly effect and all that. They’ll never be conceived in the exact same way, they’ll be different people.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Actually I do. I’ve done the research. You don’t need to know the specifics, but someone we know also had a child,” he glanced at Spencer. “then we made the smallest of changes to her life right before the child was conceived. Once the timeline was amended, the child had a completely different appearance, had made different life choices up to our present, their personality also changed, and even the name was altered. We were able to remember thanks to the back-up. We put it right, reverted the amendments we’d made to the timeline by sending another message back a day earlier, requesting that they leave the message that followed unopened until after the date of conception. We kept the reasoning hidden, letting them know they were about to become pregnant would cause the correction to fail. It didn’t matter in the end, as her daughter – and husband - fell victim to the end of civilisation, I’m afraid.” He returned to addressing, Victor, “As you didn’t meet your future wife at the destined moment, your whole relationship will unfold differently, so there’s no way you’d be able to have those exact same offspring again.”
“I take it that you were talking about my daughter in that little story,” Spencer said.
“Naturally. You still have the opportunity to meet your future husband, so you still have the chance to procreate. They might still die of course unless we change future history, but that’s why I’m here. Though, I assume that you’ll be as receptive to my plan as your future selves were.”
“You can say goodbye to the whole scheme, we’re not even interested in listening to it. I actually think we’ve heard about as much from you as we ever need to.” Victor said, taking hold of Simon’s helmet. “Say Goodbye, Evil Si. We still have the original Simon backup, you were too busy grandstanding to delete it. It’s your turn to get erased.”
“Are you sure that you want to do that?”
“I’m as sure as I’ve ever been about anything, yeah.”
“You need my help to ensure that the future from which I came never comes to pass.”
“We can do something about it without your help,” Spencer said.
“Not as efficiently without my insider information.”
“We’ll deal.”
Victor placed the helmet on Alternate Simon’s head, securing the chin strap and taking hold of him so he couldn’t dislodge the helmet even slightly. Spencer went to her workstation to select Simon’s backup and erase the abomination currently possessing his body.
“OK, I can see that you’re serious. I was hoping to save this until a later time, maybe a birthday or Christmas, but you’ve forced me to ruin the surprise, I hope you’re happy.”
“Quiet,” Spencer said and moved her mouse to the Start button on-screen.
“I have hostages,” Simon shouted, making sure he was loud enough to be heard implicitly.
Chapter 22
Spencer moved her hand away from the mouse, stood and slowly moved towards Simon.
“What?”
“Victor’s children, they’re not as irretrievable as I may have suggested.”
“I don’t believe you," Victor said, squinting at Simon, trying to read him.
“It’s true. I have them with me right now.” If his arms were free, he’d have tapped his head dramatically, but he could only roll his eyes upward. “In my mind.”
“Keep talking.”
“I have the location and time of their backup upload; it would be accessible to me in the same way as your software accessed my backup from an alternate timeline.”
“What use would they be without bodies to write them to?”
“Well, I can also help with that. I hid their genetic code in my backup file; it doesn’t take up a lot of room, everyone shares ninety-nine point five percent of their DNA with every other human. We’re quite adept at cloning in my time. I can restore their bodies, then their minds.”
“That doesn’t add up," Victor said. “A cloned embryo leaves the tank at the same age as a natural birth; we can’t wait until they reach adulthood only to replace their mind with another version of themselves. I know you’ve lost track of right and wrong, but that would be monstrous.”
“Our cloning method is much more advanced; it can increase the speed of the growth process, creating an adult within a week. They’d be misplaced in time, but exactly as they were before deletion.”
“What makes you think I’d even trade your life for theirs? Simon didn’t deserve this; he needs his body back.”
“A clone duplicate of this body is also possible, obviously. Everybody wins.”
“It doesn’t sound like it if we hated your plan enough for you to resort to killing or erasing us all from history," Spencer said. “Victor? This is your call; it’s your future at stake here.”
Victor slumped in his chair and stared into space.
After a few moments, he began summarising everything they knew aloud. “OK, we have two options, one is to get my future back, and Simon’s body, but we have to give in to this guy’s demands. The other is, we delete him and bring our Simon back, my future kids will never exist, but everyone else in the world is safe from whatever this Simon has planned for it, which we know will not be good.”
“Yeah, that’s about everything, I think.”
Victor sighed and spoke quietly. “What he’s done to my family is terrible, but I can’t in good conscience screw the whole world over just for my own happiness. Simon gets his body back faster if we don’t give in. I think we have to bring him back before I change my mind.”
“Are you positive? I know these kids never existed for you, and having children is still a possibility for you, but it’s got to feel a little like mourning.”
“You know, it is, but I can’t put myself first. Who knows, maybe Beth will end up meaning as much to me as my future wife will have, if not there will be others. Maybe my alternate kids will help me deal with what could have been. I have to do what’s right. Hit start.”
“I’m disappointed to hear you say that.” Future Simon said. “My plan will take longer to come to fruition without your help. Klaatu barada nikto.” Victor and Spencer looked confused at his last words. Simon stood up, shrugged off the wires that bound him and removed the helmet. Both Victor and Spencer moved towards him at the same time, but then stopped in their tracks, began coughing and fighting back a strong feeling that they needed to sneeze.
“Yes, I’d probably stay right where you are," Simon said.
The pair knew enough about this Simon to do as he asked. They remained where they were, waiting for an explanation.
“I installed another fail-safe in the software, it gave instructions for the nanobots to protect me. They cut through my binds and executed an order to enter your skull via any orifice. I’d keep very still if I were you, there are only a couple of small bots in there, but who knows what they’ll do if you threaten me or attempt to obstruct my departure. Sever the optic nerve? Stimulate the pain centre of your brain? Maybe even sever your spinal cords. That would take some time, but you’d be powerless to stop it. I gave them options.” As he spoke, he browsed through a set of spare photon boxes that were occupying a nearby workbench and picked one out. “Yes, best just to remain still I think. They’ll only be in there for another three
minutes or so after I leave, so I’d stay that way until then, you’ll know when they leave, a notification will be displayed on your terminals. You might feel them exit; I doubt you’ll see them. Feel free to remove my extra code in the software then, it can't help you now. Cheerio.”
Taking the photon box, Simon headed toward the front door then paused and looked back. “Sorry that we couldn’t reach a satisfying compromise, and by compromise, I think you know I mean my way. I take no pleasure in this; we were good friends once.” He grabbed a set of car keys from the rack on the wall, opened the door and stepped through the exit. Under a minute later, Victor and Spencer heard an engine start and a car pull away.
They waited for a full three minutes, as instructed, and they did feel the nanobots leave, once again tickling their nasal hairs as the notification from Simon appeared on the screen.
“Traitors," Victor said toward the hive box and ran to the door. He knew he had very little chance of catching up to Simon, but he wanted to check for any clues. He at least had to try.
“I’ll go left, you go right," he heard Spencer say from behind him as she left HQ, heading to her car.
Victor entered his own vehicle and headed toward the road out of the compound, turning left onto the street. An hour later they were both back at the HQ car park feeling defeated. They re-entered HQ and went to their workstations, both leaning on their desks and staring into space. They didn’t need to verbalise their thoughts for either of them to understand what was going through their heads. What’s next? How do we trace a man who managed to hide from the space-time continuum itself and break all the rules of human existence? Simon was smarter than either of them, especially this new version, and if he wanted to remain hidden, he would. They needed help, and there was only one man on whom they could truly rely. It was time to break the news to him.
Chapter 23
Spencer and Victor took their time in explaining to Virtual Simon how they’d managed to lose his body, the guilt that weighed on their consciences lead to difficulty in finding the right words. They had both broken bad news before, but neither of them ever had to explain to a person why they’d let their body get snatched and stood by as it walked itself out of the door, and then also stole their car. Once they finished the story, they prepared themselves for a justified admonishment, physically tensing.
“Don’t worry about it. These things happen.”
Victor and Spencer shared a confused look.
“No, Simon,” Spencer said. “No, they don’t. In all of human history, this is definitely a first.”
“I mean, things that are beyond our control sometimes happen. We knew we were entering uncharted territory when we started this. This was most definitely out of your control.” the strange digital voice of the virtual Simon soothed from the speakers.
“We could have prevented it. If we’d installed some security on the quantum computer…” Spencer trailed off.
“We never could have imagined that we’d need security to protect us from ourselves.”
“You’re not in the least bit worried about losing your body?” Victor asked.
“Of course I am, but you guys shouldn’t worry about your involvement in it, you’re blameless. Maybe he’ll lose a few pounds off it for me while he has it. If worst comes to worst, we can try to get a hold of that cloning technology he mentioned, and I can have a fresh new body, made free of the aches and pains I’ve collected over the years. I should be the one feeling responsible for all of this; it was my future self, after all, I can’t avoid that responsibility. Your children are gone because of me.”
Simon’s calm reaction prompted Victor and Spencer to reflect on how different their Simon was in comparison to his future self. He must have experienced a significant amount of mental trauma during the apocalyptic events that he’d described if it drove him to become so unhinged.
“You’re not responsible for that Simon’s actions, I don’t think you’re even responsible for eventually becoming him. Emotional stress can affect a person’s mental health; you just got sick through no fault of your own. Thankfully, we’re the privileged position to make sure that that doesn’t happen to you again.” Victor said.
“I think that this experience is, in itself, enough to ensure I keep a keen eye on my thoughts, to never allow that version of me to spring up again, no matter what it is I go through. We can also keep working to prevent that future from happening. Though I’m not sure, it’ll be easy to stop the world breeding itself into oblivion.”
“The bright side for you is; we can put you in stasis until we figure out a way to get you back in your body,” Victor said. “So you’d literally be returned to flesh and blood before you knew it, even if it’s in a fresh new clone. Any ideas how we can find your body? Future you was like chalk to your cheese, but you might have some insights into his thinking.”
“I think the first thing we have to do is release our nanobots to the world. Get some cash from the patents, it will help us in our search. More importantly, I think it will be my other self’s first move in setting up a base income for whatever he’s planning, we need to get there first. He’ll already be working on a time drive of his own, he may not need the information on future tech like we do, but he’ll want to keep ahead of our actions to catch him. This is going to require a lot of luck on our side. You needn’t worry about putting me in stasis, though, I already have a plan for a host to inhabit in the meantime. We need to make finding my twin a secondary concern, we need to make sure that we don’t lose the momentum we’ve been building in staying ahead of the tech crowd. First, you need to adapt the code for my virtual brain environment, I’m going to need access to the drive. I can run checks on security from in here and help out in other ways.” Simon said.
“I’ll get on that right away," Victor said. “It won’t take long, you already have access to other peripherals, I just need to code you a virtual input device, so you are the keyboard. I might be able to make you conscious of the diagnostics and statistics within the computer, so you’ll know instinctively if something is wrong.”
“Sure,” Simon said. “Just make sure that it goes one way. Would hate to be classified as a virus and quarantined by the system.”
Victor gave a sympathetic laugh and set about writing the amendments to the software.
∆ ∆ ∆
Later that afternoon Simon’s digital consciousness tested out his access to the computer by drawing up some designs to be built by the nanobots. Victor’s new additions to the software had given Simon all the freedom within the machine that Victor had suggested. It was an extraordinary feeling, being aware of the digital environment inside the computer, it was like a new sense. He couldn’t put it clearly into words if he were asked, but he might describe it as a pain without the discomfort. Pain makes you aware of the places you’re injured by amping up your sense of touch, Simon felt that his new awareness was similar to that without the physical distress. If only evolution had happened the same way, it might have made all his clumsy accidents in the past less agonising.
He was also aware of the data he was inputting to the system, without the need for a monitor. He could just sense the words, code and designs, which was rather unnerving. It was like when he pictured something in his head, but with crystal clarity and persistence. It was hard to accept intellectually, so he wrote an amendment to the programming that gave him a pop-up window in his vision, just as he’d suggested to Victor when they spoke about his ability to access the internet. Before he had the pop-up virtual monitor, his vision mainly consisted of the images that the webcam supplied to him. The webcam had been placed on top of the central drive and upgraded to allow a three hundred and sixty-degree view on every axis, giving him a visual of everything in the room. It was possible for Simon to take in the whole room at once, but he also found that too mind-bending and kept his vision within the one-hundred-and-twenty-degree arc of human vision, the direction of which he could change at will. He could also turn of
f the webcam, making himself blind to anything but the pop-up, but he liked to keep an eye on the HQ in reality. They’d invested in a camera security system for HQ when they first had the warehouse renovated, Victor would be connecting it to the quantum computer, so Simon would have a full view of the building. All the cameras could be upgraded with the same three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view. Simon expected that his inability to move would a terrible experience, but he actually found it freeing, not having a physical body to protect meant that he didn’t feel helpless in his paralysis.
Simon’s access to the internet was now also two-way, his awareness of the data flowing through the incoming and outgoing ports was sufficient to keep their drive secure. He’d used his new connection to change his passwords on all the sites he visited frequently, most importantly, any relating to his personal or business finances. They didn’t want Bodysnatcher Simon to access any of their funds online, and what was left of the real Simon was satisfied that he hadn’t. They didn’t need to worry about cancelling any of the cards that were in Simon’s name as, thankfully, Simon’s wallet was not on his person when said ‘person’ was pilfered. Simon didn’t usually keep his wallet in his pocket as he was always at HQ, in his personal time and professional, he would take the wallet out of a draw on the infrequent occasions that he left the building or needed his card details. Their business accounts required two signatures for withdrawals at a branch of their bank, Simon’s duplicate would not be able to appropriate any of their cash by that method.
He completed his designs and pushed them to the nanobots for production. The nanobots flew from their hive and through the mister to the ingredients necessary for actualising his creation. He could control each individual drone via his virtual consciousness, but right now they were on autopilot to fulfil the work order. His pop-up provided images from their sensors so he could still keep track of their progress. Once they’d finished, he had a good view of the result through his webcam.
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