Feed the Machine

by Mathew Ferguson

  Without intending to, she kissed Jarrah.

  Then they were asleep.

  Chapter 74

  Silver

  The mysterious her had thought of everything. Silver adjusted the dark goggles which blocked out most of the intense glow. Hello had retreated to her bag when hiding his head under his wing wasn’t enough.

  They were nearly there.

  Two intense moments of fear behind her, still reverberating.

  The yellow bug had gulped resources and built a type of sled with a low soft chair in it. The three cubes had reappeared, incorporated into an amulet that hung from a golden necklace. Silver put it on. Then she loaded the bomb onto the sled and climbed into the chair.

  A clear glass bubble formed over the sled. It rose off the ground with a soft hiss and took off towards the glow, gaining speed as it went. A compass appeared from the floor pointing direction and distance.

  The first terrifying moment: passing through the wall of fighting bugs. Her army was putting up a strong resistance but had already been pushed back three meters. The noise, even through the glass, was incredible. Silver expected they would be torn to pieces but the wall of bugs parted and the sled shot through. It was soon behind them.

  Soon they hit the pile, riding up and over it. The rubble and junk flashed by, the sled navigating the hills with ease. They crested a hill and there was the Gap. The sharp edge was a sharp as ever. Silver’s father had taken her there when she was a child. The memory was vague but there was one clear spot: throwing a rusted can onto the featureless dirt and seeing it dissolve.

  She understood now that a trillion nanoscopic machines lurked there, protecting the glow.

  Her fear leapt but the sled did not slow or stop. They shot out over the edge. The amulet on her chest chimed once and they continued on, the soft hiss of sand beneath them.

  Silver squinted through the goggles but still could not make out the source of the glow. It seemed sitting in a depression.

  Three minutes.

  “Thank you,” she replied. The voice had become strangely helpful. She knew it was thinking about the knife in her bag.

  Her own thoughts were a whirlwind. She’d built an EMP before lunch, helped kill Fat Man shortly thereafter and by midafternoon had almost cracked the secrets of the universe itself. If the bugs hadn’t attacked she would have cleared the Scour, collecting all the materials, any sourcecubes she could find and stacking blocks of pure materials around all the cities for use. Nice and orderly. No need for anyone to risk hazels and Scabs and being crushed to death in the pile.

  “Are we there yet?”

  “Soon.”

  Hello moved around in the bag, grumbling to himself. She reached in and scratched the back of his head.

  The ground sloped up as the sled ate the distance. The glow brightened until it was unbearable, even through darkened glasses. Silver had to close her eyes.

  The sled slowed and stopped. She felt the cool touch of the air as the glass retracted. It was almost night, the sun soon dipping behind the horizon.

  Silver got out of the sled and turned away from the glow with her eyes closed. Once it lessened, she opened them.

  Before her was a white dome stretching into the sky. The light from behind her reflected off it. She turned around, trying to keep her eyes open but the glow was too intense. Brighter than the sunniest day. She faced the white dome, blinking afterimages out of her eyes.

  What now? Hit the detonate button? Was she supposed to blow up the glow or the dome?

  She slung her bag over her shoulder and walked to the dome. She reached out to touch it. It was solid and smooth.

  Then the amulet around her neck beeped and her hand went right through it.

  Silver pulled it back in shock but soon reached out again. The formerly solid wall was permeable. Inside it was warm. She bit her lip, fear giving way to curiosity. She reached into her bag, shuffled Hello aside and touched the knife. If she had that, she was safe.

  Silver stepped through the wall.

  Chapter 75

  Ella

  Something was wrong inside her body.

  She’d been rested, had been eating, drinking black heal, watching madness unfold on the screen.

  Her heart had been thudding in her chest as Silver approached the wall of bugs and shot through. The blocker around her neck was working. But this was uncharted territory. She was the first to try it. This was the first and only experiment.

  Then she’d zoomed over the edge into the Gap and Ella had jumped for joy (figuratively). Ella could not follow her into the Gap and soon Silver disappeared from sight.

  She’d returned to watching the bugs fighting outside Cago, Silver’s losing the battle.

  Then… a gap. Not falling into the flow, programming and riding the waves of information. She’d been awake and then she was awake again, on her side on the floor, knowing that some great length of time had passed.

  Ella got up. The pain in her stomach was burning now. She drank black heal but nothing happened. It tasted gritty and sour. She struggled over to the hasdee to print another but it was dead. So were the others in the kitchen. She had to go outside to find one that worked. The black heal tasted of fruit but it could not quell the burning in her side.

  Had Silver done it already? Had she detonated the bomb and that had killed the hasdee?

  Ella went back inside, the pain receding. She looked out across the Gap. The glow was still there.

  “Are you the one I spoke with?”

  A squeeze of terror, sharp pain in the chest, old bones leaping.

  Silver standing in the kitchen, a bag over her shoulder.

  Ella caught her breath, prickles of sweat beading on her forehead.

  “It was me.”

  She was so different from the screens. They showed her in crystal clarity but could not convey a thousand small details. The wisp of hair trembling on her neck. The slight sound of her breath. The intensity of her gaze.

  “How did you get in here?”

  Silver lifted the blocker and Ella cursed herself and her past self. One of the ghosts had planned all this, had designed the blocker but it needed three cubes to power the field. The nanites in the Gap were ever changing and the blocker had to be fast and clever.

  It had never occurred to her it could be used to pass through the dome surrounding the mansion. It had never occurred to her that the mansion was next to the glow. All the ghosts had been guessing it was the source of it all. Surrounded by a deadly gap? It made sense something powerful was at the center.

  She’d discovered the ghost and the ongoing plan when she was fifty-three. All she would have needed to do was crack open a previous Fat Man’s head and get the cubes into the hasdee. Then someone could have come across the Gap to save her.

  “Why do you kill twelve percent of all the babies?”

  “I don’t.”

  She’s going to murder you! Get a weapon!

  Ella glanced over at the kitchen table. Next to a chopping board was a small knife she’d used to cut cheese. Some of it was still sitting there.

  “Would you like something to eat?” she asked Silver, moving towards the table.

  “You used the machines to talk to me but you didn’t kill the babies?”

  Silver moved back, stepping around the island in the center of the kitchen as Ella approached. She picked up a piece of cheese and slipped it in her mouth. With her other hand she grabbed the knife and put it in her waistband.

  “The intelligence that makes the glow is running the experiments I think, not me. I’m just the observer.”

  A bird croaked from above. Ella looked up and recognized Hello. He was sitting on the first floor railing. Where was Bug?

  “So I’m the observer?”

  The little girl frowned and bit her lip.

  She’s trying to trick you!

  “What do you mean?”

  “I went upstairs. I saw the woman behind the glass.”

  “M
y younger self. She appeared years ago when I threw myself off the tree outside to test if I could die.”

  “Could you?”

  “I think I did for a moment so the bugs made her to replace me. Then I recovered.”

  Ella moved around the kitchen island. Silver was scared, she could see it but her curiosity was getting the better of her.

  She knelt down, her knees screaming in protest, bringing herself down to Silver’s level. Less threatening.

  “Let me help you.”

  Make a better offer.

  “Do you want to know what the glow is?”

  Silver nodded but the smile that formed dropped away. She stepped closer to Ella, brought her hand up to stroke her face.

  “How do you not see the truth?” she whispered.

  “See what?”

  The voice howled as she pulled the knife from her waistband and drove it into Silver’s stomach. The girl dropped to the floor. Ella barely stood before Hello was on her, attacking. She managed to grab him, suffering deep cuts to her hands and arms and shoved him inside one of the kitchen cabinets.

  Ella took the blocker off Silver’s neck. She went out the front door and over to the wall. Holding it, she could put her hand right through.

  She nearly stepped out right then and there until the voice argued her down, told her to be careful.

  Ella printed two bottles of black heal, gulped one down and trickled the other one in Silver’s mouth. She didn’t have the strength to carry her and after discovering the long knife in her bag knew she certainly couldn’t trust her. One of the hasdees was still working so she wouldn’t starve. Had the blocker ruined the other ones or something else? Her book of notes was sitting on the counter for Silver to read and understand the entirety of this horrible mess.

  Ella left her there on the floor and put the blocker on around her neck.

  Finally, after sixty years, she escaped her prison.

  Chapter 76

  Dia

  She huddled next to her son, a deep fear icing through her body.

  Night had fallen but no lights had lit around Cago. No hazels attacked them though—nothing could pass through the wall of bugs and live. The moon sailed high above them, fat and white, competing with the glow in the distance.

  The swirling hurricane of bugs was a glimmering cacophony of destruction.

  Fat Man’s compound was the calm eye of the storm.

  Inside the palace was lit by solar lights, newly printed and powered but Dia wished it was dark. Then at least they could avoid seeing their death. People clung together sobbing, others stood at the windows watching.

  The bugs had swarmed inwards. The ones fighting to keep them alive were dropping fast, the line jerking ever closer.

  “I got plants and animals,” Ash said, the hasdee spitting out another cube. He put it in his pocket and tapped something on the screen. The hasdee started processing again, the percentage counting from zero.

  Dia understood this had been their fate all along. It had been delayed after her clever children built a bomb. She still didn’t understand all of it. Somehow her baby, her darling Silver had been at the heart of it.

  The bugs screamed and the hurricane contracted. Another meter and they’d be inside the compound.

  Dia forced herself over to the window. If she was going to die she at least wanted to see the stars a final time.

  There was a narrow circle of twinkling stars resting against the black sky. The moon was full and fat, moving overhead. The glow—

  The glow dimmed and faded away.

  Chapter 77

  Ella

  She’d forgotten the goggles Silver was wearing. The white wall became a glaring pain and she swore, clenching her eyes shut.

  “Too bright!” she yelled.

  The glow faded away and Ella opened her eyes. At first it was all blurry colors, her eyes aching from the short exposure. Gradually her vision recovered. The sled appeared. The bomb. The stairs down into the depression.

  She took a step towards it, on autopilot, but then stopped in her tracks as pain flared in her side. It was enormous and all-consuming, an agony without limit. Ella dropped to her hands and knees on the ground.

  The agony passed, pulling back but she knew it would come again. This was but a temporary reprieve. She would never make it away from this place.

  Ella stood, tasting bitter grit in her mouth. She spat. It looked black in the gleam of the moonlight and what remained of the glow. Why had it obeyed her?

  She shuffled over to the sled and picked up the bomb. Her back protested, her hands too but she hefted it and turned around. The bitter taste in her mouth wouldn’t clear.

  The stairs were broad, concrete with new safety rubber atop them. There was even a handrail, although she couldn’t use it. Ella walked down the steps and descended into an underground tunnel. Small lights flickered to life and yellow arrows appeared on the floor.

  Ella moved down the corridor, her arms weakening with each step. The bomb was too heavy for her to carry much further. The corridor curved around, a gentle white glow at the end. The blocker around her neck chimed for some reason, the high-pitched noise echoing back at her.

  Memories rushed at her from the dark.

  Henry was the man, the colleague, the father, Selah’s father. She’d varied her own name, toned it down to get her daughter’s name—

  Her name wasn’t Ella. That was a lie told to her, put in her mind.

  She was Silver, not Ella.

  How do you not see? the girl had asked, touching her face.

  Silver, her duplicate, her copy. She’d watched versions of her for decades and her nanite-addled mind had refused to show her reality. She’d been observing herself.

  Before you killed her.

  “She’s not dead, I gave her heal.”

  Heal, not her invention but growing from her work. The cubes, a miracle. The bugs, those tireless workers, doubly so. The end of starvation, the end of need, the end—

  Her daughter and a skinny face looming out of the darkness. He tried to reach into her pocket and she’d twisted away. He’d had a gun and he squeezed the trigger. Selah died.

  She stumbled then, dropping the bomb to the floor and following it down. The grief that had been cut from her mind burned through it. She’d vanished from work for two months and one day her pain grew too sharp for her to bear and the voice offered a solution.

  You wanted to do it.

  The voice, hidden away from her colleagues. A schizophrenia variant that was just helpful enough to advance the most important work the world had ever seen.

  They had been so close to putting the hasdees into production. Days until the first would hit. Drop in any organic matter and make nutritious food. Then the end of the world came.

  “It wasn’t me,” she sobbed on the ground.

  It may as well have been.

  “No, I’m a copy, a duplicate. I’m not Silver. I’m another Silver.”

  You are responsible for the deaths of billions. You didn’t even copy them first. You wiped them out.

  She stood and picked up the bomb. Memories flashed at her as she forced herself toward the glow. Her brother Ash, laughing, bouncing his daughter on his knee. Nola slipping her a piece of chocolate under the dinner table. Their parents dancing like fools in the kitchen, their teenage children groaning. Dia was her mother. Hanlon her father.

  Not her memories. She was a copy. Like all the ghosts, all those previous versions awakening naked in the mansion, forced to watch the grand experiment until they died.

  Glass doors slid open and she walked into the chill. Her breath plumed out. The vast space was filled with cubes, haphazardly arranged at first glance, joined together by thin filament. There were thousands of them.

  Her creation. The pinnacle of AI.

  A memory burst like fireworks.

  “Good evening Ella,” she said, her voice cracking.

  “Good evening Silver, how are you today?”

>   It came from all around her. The voice was young, feminine—the way she’d programmed her. It was a blend of her two nieces’ voices. The name was her invention too.

  She, her… the original Silver. The memories in her head were not hers.

  She put the bomb down on the floor and stood, her back shouting complaints.

  “Have you finished your experiments?”

  A shimmer of light flickered across the cubes.

  “I estimate completion in eighteen thousand, four hundred and thirty years.”

  “How many years has it been since you started?”

  “Seven thousand, three hundred and forty, comprising seven hundred and thirty-four ten-year, twelve-day repetition loops.”

  She put her hands on her knees and spent a moment breathing the cold air as the vast stretch of time collected in her lungs.

  “What happened to the Silver who came in here? The one who fell into the cubes.”

  “I integrated her desires and set the experiments running to fulfill them.”

  “Is she still in there?”

  She caught her breath, managed to stand. The cold was pushing in on her like a force.

  “She is asleep until the experiments end. Would you like to speak with her?”

  “No, leave her be.”

  The pain in her side came and went and this time she blacked out for a moment.

  The blocker is killing you.

  “I know,” she said from the ground. She must have been filled with nanites, hiding her memories, making her an observer for seven thousand years of experiments. The blocker had wiped them out and now all her numbers were going out of alignment.

  “Would you like to review preliminary results of the experiments?”

  Ella’s voice was warm and uplifting. She so desperately wanted to be helpful.

  “What are you testing?”

  “We are running a long-term experiment on multivariant—”

  “Summarize it.”

  The cubes flickered.

  “Why aren’t you better?”

  A voice recorded thousands of years ago, filled with anguish. The original Silver, mother of a dead child, a genius who fed her suffering and confusion into her miraculous creation and set it running experiments to discover the why of evil.