“Welcome back, Si," Victor said and pulled Simon into a tight bear hug.
“Hey there, great to have you back," Spencer said and followed with her own hug.
“Good to be back. Let’s make a home for our new guest.”
Simon produced a copy of his virtual brain software then made some amendments to the code, locking it up tight, making it safe to receive Future Simon’s backup. The original application might still have a use in future, but Simon couldn’t see that this new secure version would be used for anyone other than his duplicate. While Simon made his amendments, Victor took a widely used video chat program and made some modifications of his own by and allowing it to receive data from their entangled photons, rather than the internet. They had learnt their lesson from the Future Simon debacle, so they had devised a more standardised method of receiving messages from their future selves. Aside from providing images of their intended caller, which would help when appraising their mental stability, the video chat software also had a file attachment feature that their future selves could employ when sending schematical data. With the video stream, they should also be able to get a demonstration of any technology that they were about to receive. Right now, they were hoping to get visual confirmation of the world they’d created in the future. When the software was ready, Victor booted it up and mirrored the window to each of their monitors.
“Okay, let’s take a look at this future we fucked up," Victor said.
He made a note of the date and time, and the application immediately began to jingle with the sound of an incoming call. Victor accepted the call, and their screens displayed three sub-windows containing each of their faces — except a little older — while their own webcam footage showed in smaller rectangles within each of the sub-windows. Each window looked like a set of before and after images, the trio was transfixed. Their future selves stared back at them with equal fascination. All three had aged, they weren’t wrinkled and grey, but they looked tired and world weary. Their surroundings didn’t help in lifting the tone; they were seated in a cold looking room with grey cement walls and caged lighting. They smiled and waved at themselves for several seconds, their mirror images doing the same. The experience was very disconcerting and each side of the time divide waited in silence for the others to talk.
“Hello.” Older Victor said, eventually. This broke their stupor.
“Hi!” Spencer replied. “This is very weird.” They laughed.
“You’re telling us.” her older self replied.
“Hi!” Older Simon said. “I didn’t go mad this time around!” Slightly too cheerful for someone living in the apocalypse. They assumed that Simon’s life hadn’t changed much since he rarely left HQ anyway. Still, it was satisfying to see they’d succeeded in keeping him sane.
“You might be thinking that that was evidence to the contrary, but we can vouch for him.” Older Victor said.
“Sorry.” Older Simon said. “I’ll get on with this demonstration, so we can get to the important stuff.”
He held a flying drone in front of the camera. The drone was larger than their selfie drone but looked more robust.
“We’re going to give you a bird's eye view on the situation with this. I’ll switch to the camera on the drone.”
The image changed to the new viewpoint, which currently showed nothing discernible until the drone launched and hovered in front of the future team.
After some more waving, Simon said. “Okay, prepare yourself for some news you probably weren’t expecting; the current year is 2113.”
This was indeed unexpected news considering that that would make each of them 127 years old.
“I know that Insane Simon never got around to telling us what year he was from, but we presume that it was a much later date than this.”
“We can always ask him, but it always takes such a long time to get a straight answer out of him, and his pretentiousness gets so annoying, you give up caring about the reply," Spencer said.
“It’s inconsequential now anyway. I think you can probably imagine why we don’t look our age, but I’ll confirm it’s a mixture of nano-medics and cloning. Insane Simon was telling the truth about the cloning, and it’s something that we can share with you after we’ve given you the tour.”
The view from the camera followed smoothly along a corridor until it reached a ladder that ascended through the roof, the drone tracked the ladder up through the stone and metal tube that enveloped it. When it could go no further, a hand came into view, followed by the rest of the limb, then there was a metallic shriek and sudden light. The drone rose out of the bunker hatch and into the grey light of day. They recognised their surroundings as the car park outside their HQ, which now looked even more ragged than the time before they renovated the warehouse. The view spun to show the building, windows were smashed, walls were missing, and greenery was growing from crevices, spreading up the walls that were left. There was no narration during the tour, it would have been extraneous, the pictures spoke for themselves. The drone flew higher, and in the direction of the town centre, it was faster than the drones they’d used. When it reached the buildings of the centre, it was clear that they were in no better condition than their HQ. They couldn’t see any signs of life, the town they knew was barely recognisable. Cars were scattered motionless on the roads, the lack of activity was ominous. A figure in dark clothing ran into the shot, sprinting along the street followed by another group of shadowy figures who seemed to be giving chase. The camera continued along its chosen path, ignoring the pursuit, the sight was obviously commonplace to their future counterparts.
“I think you get the picture. Insane Simon didn’t exaggerate much.” Older Victor said.
“Yeah, it’s cementing our resolve.” His present duplicate responded.
“I’m glad to hear it, as we have a proposition to make.”
“I think I can guess," Spencer said.
“It would be the most efficient way of doing this. Because of the backup process, our memories will be as fresh in your mind as your own. You’ll still be you, just a lot more knowledgeable and experienced.”
The group of the present looked at each other.
“We can’t say we’re doing everything possible if we don’t agree to do this. It could be an amazing experience, we don’t know it’s a terrible thing.” Victor said.
“I don’t know if I’m ready for that," Spencer said.
“Well, you can always revert to a previous backup if you don’t like it.”
“It doesn’t work like that. The version of myself that I’d become would be making the decisions.”
“I’m going to do it. If you’re dead against it, don’t feel you have to, but if you don’t, we can still take your future backup file, just in case.”
“I’ll do it too," Simon said. “But I think I want to see how it works with you first.” Simon’s experience with body theft had soured his enthusiasm a little.
“That’s great.” Older Victor said. “When we sign off, we’ll backup and send the files directly to you. To make things even simpler, we’ll send you the plans for cloning along with some more tech that we think you’ll find interesting.”
“We can stay connected while we update the backup, send you the files during this session, then you know you’re receiving the real deal.” Older Spencer said. “It shouldn’t take us long, we backed up recently. The write might take more time than you’re used to since we’ve lived a good deal longer than you have.”
“Okay, noted.” Present Spencer replied.
Their future selves performed their backup as the schematics were coming through, all three could be seen wearing their helmets as they made their preparations. Once they removed their scanners, the schematical data was complete, and the backup files were queued up. After a few hours, all the data was safe on the drive, and they prepared to sign off.
“After we hang up on this call, you won’t be able to reach us again, we’ll have been replaced, and a
ll that is left of us will be inside your head if that’s your choice. We’ll say a permanent goodbye, good luck to all of you.” Older Simon said.
They all had their turn at farewells, then clicked the button to disconnect.
Chapter 28
Victor updated his backup to be as current as possible and stored it in a new folder that required a password from each of the PRE-Innovations team to delete its contents. If the future element of Victor’s aggregated mind had an agenda and attempted to destroy original Victor, he would run into a problem. Victor then made himself comfortable in his chosen recliner, and his two companions strapped him in securely. They didn’t want to take any chances this time, and as it was their first attempt at aggregation, it was also the sensible approach for ensuring Victor’s safety.
“See you in a few hours if all goes well.” he said.
“See you then, sleep tight," Spencer replied.
Victor gave her the thumbs up, and she hit the button to start the writing process. Victor’s body visibly relaxed as he entered stasis. Spencer and Simon then turned to browsing the batch of files that they had been provided, checking out the cloning pods briefly before moving on to the surprise schematics that older Victor had teased. When Victor awoke, he wouldn’t get to share in this revelation as he would share the memories of one of the collaborators on the secret.
“Is this a joke?” Spencer asked once the contents were displayed.
“Yeah. It has to be.” Simon said.
A swift perusal of the diagrams and instructions proved otherwise.
∆ ∆ ∆
When Victor roused from his comatose state, he asked that Spencer remove his helmet. He was still tied to the chair and would remain so until the others were satisfied that they could trust him.
“How are you feeling?” Spencer asked.
“I’m great thanks. It’s strange. I feel like it was only a few seconds ago that I went under for the write, but at the same time I also remember everything about the fall.”
“The fall?”
“That’s how we referred to the collapse of mankind," Spencer recognised his use of the past tense for future events. “I’d say it’s a lot to process, but I learnt how to deal while I lived through it, so it’s not. Like I’m trying to reconcile the two sets of memories. It’s difficult to explain, but I will definitely redouble my efforts to put society back on the right track, I have a greater appreciation for everything we have. So, how do we do this? How can I prove to you that I’m not another psychopath?”
“I’d say that the best way would be to take a shortcut," Spencer suggested. “Sometime in the future, we’ll know if you’re trustworthy, so we should just ask ourselves and get you walking around again.”
“Seems like a wise choice,” Simon said. “since it’s only Victor who’s had the transfer so far. We can rely on our future selves if we hold off on merging until they give Vic their seal of approval. I’ll make a note of the date and time on the drive so we can get back to us.”
Once he did so, they received a call via video chat. Simon accepted the call and, once again, they came face to face with their subsequent selves, this time looking not too different from their present selves.
“I’ll get right down to it.” Future Spencer said. “You can let him out of the chair, he proves to be sane and will be a great help with the next stage of the plan. We’re two weeks ahead of you, Victor had his drive access revoked for a week until we knew it was safe, but we haven’t had a problem with him, he’s the same old Victor.”
“We have nothing to tell you that you won’t learn when you undergo your merge, so we might as well sign off and let you get to it. Sayonara, bitches.” Future Victor said and cut the feed. The video window closed.
“Well, now I feel better about my own sanity," Victor added wryly from the chair that he was tied to.
“Yeah, I’d say that guy was still exactly like you," Spencer replied.
“You know,” Simon said. “There is still a chance that Victor was just biding his time, waiting until we trusted him, knowing that we’d check with our future selves.”
“Simon!” Victor cried. “You’re supposed to be my wingman. What the fuck?”
“I’m sorry, I was just making sure she had all the facts.” Simon realised he’d put his foot in his mouth once again frowned sheepishly.
“Well, thank you, buddy. I’m glad I know where your loyalty lies. With cold, heartless certitude, you Judas.”
“I’m sure you’re fine.”
“Well, thank you for that glowing recommendation, Si.”
“Stop teasing him, Victor," Spencer interjected. “He wouldn’t be our Simon without that thoughtless honesty.”
“That’s easy for you to say, you’re not the one getting pressure ulcers.”
“Calm down, Vic, you’ve not been in there that long. He’s right though.”
Victor groaned and rolled his eyes.
“But sometimes you have to make a leap of faith.”
She walked behind Victor’s chair and untied the knots from his binds. He climbed out of the chair, shook himself out and massaged his buttocks.
“Oof, hours in the same position really makes it ache.”
“Yeah, even decades of new memories can’t change you," Spencer said.
“Thanks, Spence," Victor said. “I appreciate your trust, I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t. Call it women’s intuition.”
“Me next," Simon said as he got up to take the chair.
“How about I go first?” Spencer asked.
“I thought you were holding off?” Simon replied.
“Speaking with my future-self made me feel more optimistic, I’d like to do it now before I change my mind. Like Victor said earlier, we have to stop that future at all costs. I feel like making the sacrifice right now, go hard or go home, right?”
“That’s very noble of you, Spencer, fair enough, be my guest.”
She grabbed her helmet from the table by the chairs, switched places with Victor, lay back in the recliner and fastened up the straps on her scan headwear.
“Comfortable?” Simon asked.
“Yes.”
“No last minute regrets?”
“Not right now. Do it.”
“Okay, here goes.” Simon pushed the Start icon, and Spencer went limp.
Victor and Simon had a lot to discuss, they started with the contents of the latest schematic bundle they’d received.
“We assumed that one or two items in there were a joke," Simon said.
“Oh, no," Victor said. “Some of these were huge in the future, we’re already billionaires, but these will multiply that tenfold. We won’t need it all, we’re able to create the prototypes and put them into production much more cheaply without the cost of development, but any extra funds can go to charities that help with environmental issues or starvation.”
“And they actually work?”
“The collar helmet? Yeah. It’s the same principle as our helmets, one species is the same as any other once you’ve learnt to read the brain. Then it’s just a matter of sending the data to a speaker.”
“Talking cats and dogs, though? It sounds like a Disney movie.”
“It’s not like you can hold much of a conversation with them, they mainly stick with sentences of one or two words. Hungry, thirsty, need to poop, stuff like that. The part that people like most is the emotional stuff, love you, sad, scared, happy. People can’t get enough of their pets telling them that they love them, it’s no wonder that civilisation failed when people couldn’t understand that already. I’m surprised that the talking pet collar is the one you’re most shocked by.”
“Well, I suspected that the other one would be on the way soon anyway, we’re already most of the way there. They sell them to kids as toys. On a smaller scale of course.”
“When we build the first one, we could use it to house Future Simon. Insane Simon, whatever we’re calling him now.�
�
“What, and have a killer android on our hands?”
“An android is actually safer than a human. They’re programmed to preserve human life.”
“Not if it’s programmed with Insani-mon’s brain.”
Victor laughed. “We have to come up with something better than that to refer to him as.” He said, then quickly returned to the subject at hand. “It’s perfectly safe, it’s no different to a computer, they only do what you program them to do. You can set it to only walk in a certain perimeter so you could let him have his own corner of a room, set virtual boundaries and he’d have to stay within it, so it’s an invisible prison, just like we have on the computer.”
“You sure he wouldn’t go all ‘Kill all humans’?”
“It would be impossible, even if you were the one to program him to do it, he just wouldn’t be able. The rules are programmed onto a separate read-only chip. The whole unit shuts down as soon as the first circuit gets disconnected. The android itself can’t amend its own programming, even if it’s outside of the read-only chip, it’s just not wired that way.”
“We should get to work on it as soon as possible.”
“We should. The cloning too, but that’s not as important for us right now, we’re only twenty-nine, and you have your body back. We could use it for my kids if we can ever get the information out of Insanimon’s head. We need all the help we can get after all.” He laughed at the word again. “Insanimon.” He shook his head, smiling. “I choose you!” he giggled some more.
“Maybe we could bribe him with a new body in exchange for the information," Simon said. “If we can talk some sense into him. Why didn’t you get the information out of him in the deleted timeline?”
“We were just trying to focus on other things, and I was never able to decide whether I was doing what was right for them. I knew I had several lifetimes of resets before I had to make a decision. Do you think my kids would mind being here if I don’t remember them? They’d be out of time and without the parents they knew.”
Drive Time Page 15