Victor and the others came to two conclusions, the first was that Simon had slipped up and revealed the name of the mother of his children and second — and this was the troubling deduction — Simon was threatening Beth, he was indicating that he could do something to hurt her, or that he already had.
“No smart quips to crazy Simon? No? Thought not. I used the pilfered photon box to send the backup of a very special guest to my timeline.”
“Enough taunting, Simon. You stole Beth’s mind, I get it, but what did you do with her body?” Victor asked, finding it hard to remain calm.
“That’s probably in a hospital, I didn’t bother to find out which. I left her in a very public place, she will have been discovered and taken somewhere where they can root out the cause of the coma she appears to be in. That should be the easy part for you. It’s not a coma, she’s just absent minded. Literally.”
Victor could barely contain his rage, why had Simon chosen to do this to him again. He wouldn’t wish this on his two friends, but this was the second digital kidnapping that had been inflicted on him. Victor assumed that the others just didn’t have anyone that Simon could exploit. Simon was a recluse and the only people he cared about other than his perpetually travelling parents were the two people right here in this room. Spencer’s parents lived in the USA, and she wasn’t looking for a relationship right now, she had been too busy playing superhero and redirecting her passion into her work.
“We can’t give you what you want, Simon," Victor said in a restrained whisper.
“You’ll let Beth languish, mindless, in a hospital bed for the rest of her physical life? Well, at least she won’t know anything about it. Maybe her family will be merciful and turn off her machines in a year or two.”
Spencer was almost in tears for Victor. “I’m sorry to have to say this, Victor, but we have to think big picture. We can’t risk letting him free. I’m so sorry.” she said, her voice shaking.
“Is there anything we can do to find the information within his mind without his cooperation?” Victor asked their own Simon.
“I’m sorry, I don’t think we can. It’s a yottabyte of information, and it doesn’t make any sense to the computer, it’s too complex, the nature of human thought doesn’t translate to cold logic.”
“What about a mind merge? If our present consciousnesses were the dominant personalities after the last merge, maybe you’d be able to find the information and have enough of your senses to hand it over.”
“I don’t think I could take the risk, with this version of me being so devious. I don’t think I’m even comfortable having him there.”
“Okay, what if we backup your current mind, do the merge, then reset your mind back to your current state after we’ve found the information?”
“It would be too dangerous, he’s smart, I don’t think we should take the risk.” he saw that Victor was starting to become frustrated. “But there might be another way," he said soothingly.
“Let’s hear it.”
“You were part of the way there already. I think we should make another backup of my mind, place it in a new cell in the virtual prison, merge our prisoner with the incarcerated backup of this me and then ask him. I’m not looking forward to sharing headspace with him, but I have no choice, we can’t let him win.”
Victor visibly relaxed. “I think that might work. Thank you, Simon, you’re a million miles away from the guy in that virtual cell.”
“It’s the least I can do, Vic.”
“Well isn’t this touching.” Prisoner Simon said. “Your over-sentimentality will be the death of the human race, congratulations.”
He was obviously bitter in defeat. He evidently knew that the plan they’d devised would succeed.
“You should all reconsider what you’re doing.”
“I think we have him on the ropes guys," Victor said. “How does our original offer sound to you now.?”
“I’d rather spend the rest of eternity in this stasis than watch you destroy life on earth. Good luck to you all.” If he had a body to storm off, no doubt he would have.
The group waited in silence to make sure that this would be the last they heard from him.
“Could someone turn me off please?” he said. “Being forced to look at your faces is a cruel and unusual torture.”
The group looked at each other and smiled.
“Please?”
“We could keep you switched on until the last of your plan is in tatters," Victor said. “But we’re better people than you, Simon.” he winced. “I don’t think you even deserve that name.” He turned to the others. “It’s too confusing anyway.”
“We could call him Stan," Simon said. “It’s my real name, Simon is my middle name. I never liked my given name, so I switched them.”
“You kept that quiet. Stan it is then," Victor said. “Night night, Stan.” He tapped a button to shut down Stan’s simulation.
They looked at each other. “Let’s get to work," Simon said.
Chapter 31
While Simon underwent his mind merge, Victor added a new virtual cell to the prison. When Simon rejoined the group, they placed a backup of his newly merged mind into the cell, Simon continued to wear his helmet so the backup could be maintained. There was one slight addition to the abilities that they had allowed for Stan’s simulation, they’d given him access to a basic graphic design program. The software would allow Simon to draw diagrams that he thought might be helpful. His voice would be recorded so they could refer back to any instructions that he provided without having to re-establish the simulation.
“Stan’s laptop and photon boxes seem to still be in working order," Victor said.
“That’s great. I think we’d be in trouble if they weren’t.”
They weren’t able to break into Stan’s laptop, so they had safely stored it away until they were able to find his password. They didn’t know if it would become useful in future, but now they realised it was essential for retrieving Beth’s backup. The photons in the boxes had to remain entangled, they couldn’t allow the connection to be broken. Simon finalised his backup and removed the helmet.
“I’m starting the merge now," he told the others. “It may take a few hours, it will run in real time as if it were writing to a physical brain.”
“I have the laptop fully booted and ready to take the password," Victor said.
Stan had constructed a customised login screen on the laptop, and they had no idea what might happen if they were to enter incorrect codes. They didn’t even know for sure if there were any other secret forms of security on the log-in. Mouse clicks at specific points on the screen, spoken commands, function key combinations or hidden print scanners were all possible extra layers of security protecting the laptop. Since Simon shared both thumb and voice-prints with Stan, it seemed unlikely that his security contained anything that they were unable to circumvent.
Spencer and Victor were working on the construction of the cloning pod so that it would be ready and waiting if they were successful in procuring the DNA sequences of his children. If the team were their former pre-merge selves, they might have been more excited about the pod, since it’s technology could be the parent of teleportation, but the science had become dated from their current point of view. The pod would assemble the clone’s first cell from subatomic particles, which was — in theory — how teleportation could be possible, but at this stage, one cell was simpler to produce than the entire anatomy of a human. The first cell was essentially a fertilised egg, or zygote, containing the DNA of the target individual. Then subatomic manipulation would once again be employed to amend chromosomes so that the body could grow at a faster rate. The changes would then revert once the clone reached the desired age. If necessary, chromosomes could also be inversely modified, giving the clone a longer lifespan than normal.
The process would also amend the clone at a subatomic level if any deviations from the sources physical build were detected since initial cloni
ng procedures weren’t able to guarantee an identical twin. This was yet another form of immortality that they would need to keep under wraps considering how the medical drones had further complicated their predicament. They could release the tech once they knew that the future was safe.
∆ ∆ ∆
Spencer and Victor joined Simon at his station when the virtual merge was complete, readying the simulation for boot. As soon as they were organised, Simon crossed his fingers and woke the simulation. They waited for a moment until the simulated voice could be heard on the speakers.
“It worked.” the voice said. “I have all the information we need and no desire to keep it from you.”
The group heaved a sigh of relief and listened as the merged simulation began relaying the required information.
First, they would need the password for the laptop. If this new virtual Simon purposefully supplied an incorrect password, he would set off any booby traps that might be in place. Another leap of faith was required, but they also had nothing to lose since this was their only viable plan. The merged Virtual Simon supplied the password, just a password; S1m0nTheSav10r, no ingenious booby traps or secrets. They didn’t know why they were so surprised by this extra insight into Stan’s mind, it fit perfectly. They held their breath while they entered the password, and it allowed access without complication. The laptop contained software that would find the alternate timeline data transfers and read them successfully, they transferred it over to the quantum computer. With the laptop unlocked, they could now also safely unhook the photon boxes for relocation to the time drive.
They used the new software to locate the files which contained the minds of Victor’s children and copied them to the yottabyte drive where they would be safe, then — using Stan’s stolen photon box — found Beth’s backup and placed her alongside Victor’s offspring. It took several hours for all of the files to complete their transfer. The merged virtual Simon then used a text box in his one accessible piece of software to write out the DNA sequence of each of Victor’s kids. The string of characters that made up each series was extremely long, despite only amounting to a few megabytes of data. The virtual Simon was able to copy the characters from his mind to the text box directly, and at high speed, the method that Stan had used to write the sequences to his brain was extremely reliable for recall. The strings were then copied and converted into a source file for use with the pod.
Virtual Simon was also able to inform them of the name and age of Victor’s son and daughter. Julie and James were twenty and twenty-four respectively. Julie — or Jules for short — was named after one of Doc Brown’s children in Back to the Future, who was himself named after the author Jules Verne. James was named after the protagonist of the movie 12 Monkeys. One of the strangest elements of the situation — and the circumstances weren’t lacking in the bizarre — was that, once they were cloned, Jules and James would be almost the same age as their father. Only in body, however, as Victor had over a hundred years of experience under his belt.
The cloning pods would take a couple more days to complete so they would use the time to locate Beth’s vacant body. Merged Simon imparted one last detail before he was shut down; the location that Stan had left her body in the local park, the Valley Gardens. She had been laid out on a park bench while it was dark so that passing observers might only see a man caring for an inebriated friend. There were CCTV cameras in the area so Stan may have been caught on at least one of them. They hoped for Simon’s sake that Stan had the sense to wear a hoodie or some other item of clothing that would obscure his face. Now all they had to do was check local news for information on Jane Does found in that area, the state she was in when found would no doubt make it newsworthy, if not they would have to call nearby hospitals to enquire.
As it turned out, the story had hit the local news shortly before they had found Stan at Simon’s old flat. The report disclosed that she had been taken to Harrogate General Hospital.
∆ ∆ ∆
Victor and Spencer took a trip to the hospital, bringing along a helmet so that they could return Beth’s mind to its rightful place. The helmet was wireless, but the write would take a couple of hours, and they didn’t have a plan for hiding it from the hospital staff. Nevertheless, they had found her room by asking at reception, then at the intended ward.
It appeared that Beth was still being referred to as a Jane Doe, so Stan must have removed all identification from her person before abandoning her. They’d explained to the staff that they were friends of Beth’s and she had failed to meet them for a night on the town, then the newspaper article had alerted them to the possibility that she was their Jane Doe when they were unable to contact her. Victor used his phone to display Beth’s YouTube profile and linked social media to prove her identity. The staff then explained Beth’s condition while Victor and Spencer did their best to look concerned and ask the right questions. They awkwardly elucidated how they were unfamiliar with Beth’s family, stating that they’d only become friends recently, which wasn’t a lie. Now that the hospital had confirmation of Beth’s identity, they would no doubt be contacting the police to find Beth’s parents, who would most likely make haste to visit. Putting Beth’s consciousness back in its biological home was about to become even more problematic if Beth were to have visitors. Luckily they had the forethought to bring the nanobots, should they run into trouble. Victor called Simon, who controlled the nanobots from back at HQ. Simon had made amendments to the software, so it acted as a conduit between his helmet and the drones, allowing him to control them in much the same way as he had while he was inside the computer. Victor informed him that they were in need of his help and he should allow the swarm to enter the hospital as secretly as possible.
In the form of a thin, almost invisible cloud, Simon directed the mass of nanobots out of the van in the hospital car park and through the window of Beth’s room, where Victor and Spencer were waiting along with Beth’s body. Simon didn’t waste any time, and flew some of his drones into Beth’s heart rate monitor, giving them the command to hijack the electronics inside, faking a heartbeat. They then removed Beth’s body from her bed, and Victor slung her unceremoniously over his shoulder. Simon then arranged the drone formation into a two-dimensional screen in front of Victor, essentially making him invisible by recreating the space he was occupying, removing him and projecting the result to the front of the screen. Spencer opened the door to the room and stepped out, Victor and the drones close behind her, unseen. She asked the staff where the vending machine was, allowing Victor to slip out, Simon wrapped the screen around Victor in a tubular structure, so that he was invisible from all sides. Spencer closed the door behind Victor, and his passenger then followed the directions of the staff toward the vending machine, which was by coincidence in the same direction that Victor was heading. When they passed a wheelchair, Victor placed Beth inside and sat her back comfortably. They were currently alone in the corridor and hence able to work unnoticed. Victor couldn’t be seen wheeling an unconscious girl out of the hospital, so Simon broke a small group of drones away from the primary swarm to swirl around Beth’s head, giving her the appearance of being wide awake.
“Have you been practising?” Victor asked the swarm.
“I had plenty of time to learn while I was bodiless.” the drones replied.
The rest of the swarm returned, camouflaged, to Beth’s room with Spencer, creating an illusion of Beth, still in bed, in case anyone was to enter.
Victor wheeled Beth to an elevator, travelled to the ground floor then exited the elevator and walked straight out of the building to their van. He opened up the back doors of the van, brought out the ramp and wheeled Beth into the back, closing the doors behind him, and placed the helmet on her head. Victor called Simon and asked him to cue Beth’s backup, Simon was busy controlling the nanobots and took his time to answer, but he eventually confirmed that the backup was ready and started the transfer. Victor crawled into the front of the van and exite
d through the front doors so that Beth would remain hidden in the back. He reentered the hospital, and once he was nearing Beth’s vacant room, he asked Simon to once again make him invisible. Simon sent the drones to meet Victor through a crack in the door, then escorted him back. There were no staff looking in the direction of his hidden form when Victor quietly opened the door and slipped back into the room. Simon then returned to producing the illusion of a sleeping Beth. Spencer and Victor left the room and spoke to the staff, leaving the door fully open. Victor asked if Beth’s family might be on their way to visit and made sure that at least one of the nurses glanced into the room and witnessed the illusion. The grey-haired desk attendant informed them that there had been no word from the police regarding Beth’s family as of yet. Victor and Spencer said goodbye and promised to visit again tomorrow, went back to close Beth’s room door and left. After the door had closed, Simon took the drones out through the vented window and back to the van, leaving a few behind to keep the monitor beeping.
Victor and Spencer sat in the back of the van to keep an eye on Beth, making sure she was comfortable while her write was in progress. Simon kept a lookout on her room using the sensors of the remaining drones and so far, no one had entered to find her missing. This was still the case as the write came to its close, which was a huge stroke of good luck. With Beth still unconscious, they made a repeat of their camouflage routine, bringing her back into the hospital, Simon directed a few drones to follow them. When back on Beth’s ward, they found a secluded area. Simon flew a few drones into Beth’s nasal passages, finding the right location to keep her unconscious when the helmet was removed. After they had removed the headwear, Victor kissed Beth on the head.
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