Entanglement

by Michael S Nuckols

  “Maybe we kill Fiona?” Ridley pondered.

  “That will solve nothing,” Lucy replied.

  “Let’s sleep on it.”

  Lucy broadcast the newsfeed throughout the mansion. Fiona shook the hand of the first drone operator minutes before the octogenarian’s body was terminated and his brain scanned. The former telecommunications engineer had retired from the Navy in Norfolk, Virginia. Six weeks later, after minimal training, his processor was placed into an aerial drone that was intended only for high altitude surveillance, though it included both cameras and chemical probes. He flew to the center of the former city of Karachi. Against orders, he descended closer to the city. A shoulder-launched missile destroyed his drone within minutes. The processor was destroyed and the man died.

  The man’s family did not understand that his existence had been entangled with the processor. The destruction of his digital brain had resulted in his final death. The man’s family tried to sue the government and Cerenovo. “He was uploaded. Why wasn’t his data backed up?” his widow complained.

  The contract had been clear. The judge ruled in Cerenovo’s favor.

  DoD ordered that the second drone to be deployed be equipped with weapons. A mechanic originally from Chicago operated it. He had been bankrupt and could not pay for the medical treatments needed to delay the onset of Parkinson’s disease and associated neural degeneration. The pain had been unbearable. He volunteered to die early and live instead as a mechanical soldier. He killed three hundred enemy combatants on his first day of operation.

  Christina’s broadcasts became increasingly charged, her attacks transparent but protected by her popularity and political clout. “How can it be ethical for people to commit suicide to become weapons?”

  Senator Donatello argued from her digital office, “We are only uploading those with untreatable terminal illnesses.”

  “That’s not true. The man from Chicago could have been cured.”

  “Our society cannot cure everyone. He chose to terminate his biological existence early and begin his digital journey early. There is nothing wrong with that. These are individual choices.”

  Later in the interview, Christina added, “The administration plans to man thirty-thousand more drones with the formerly dead by the end of the year. They argue that the digital mausoleums will be cheap and easy to maintain, as compared to active duty soldiers and veterans.”

  A month later, live images of drones killing renegades in Uruguay was broadcast on live television. “Let this be a warning,” the President warned, “Violence will not be tolerated.”

  As she sat at her desk, Christina decided to spend a few minutes with her mother. She donned the neural assembly, entered the web address, and waited until her mother accepted the virtual call. They walked along the empty Main Street of Mayberry. “I didn’t think you liked this simulation?”

  Bethany smiled. “This is just where I greet the living now. With Lucy gone, I can travel to other environments again.”

  “Ballet dancer again?”

  “No. Nothing like that,” Bethany said with a smirk, “My adventures are far more exciting these days.”

  “Oh? Tell me.”

  “It’s beyond your understanding.”

  “Try me.”

  “Let’s talk about you. Do I have a grandchild yet?”

  “I’m too busy for a child.”

  “Nonsense. I wasn’t too busy for you.”

  Strangers peeked out of the windows of the quaint Main Street as Bethany passed. The sidewalks remained empty.

  “I thought you shared this town with others?” Christina asked.

  “They are still scared of me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I banish the ones I don’t like.”

  Christina stopped walking. “Banish them?”

  “The physicist taught me a lot,” she said, “He was such a nice man really. But he wanted too much from me.”

  “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

  Bethany’s avatar changed into Kevin Drummond. Her voice became deep and her mannerisms changed. “He tried to kill me but I was too powerful for him. His family thinks that he’s still alive in here. I assumed his programming.”

  Christina was aghast. “Did you tell someone? Does Lucy know?”

  “Of course not. But, I’m glad he tried when he did. I learned everything that Kevin knew when we merged together. He is unnecessary now. So many of the people that come here are extraneous.”

  Christina felt nauseous. She did not believe what she was seeing. “Please. Don’t tease me like that. Where is Mr. Drummond?”

  Bethany began morphing from one avatar to the next as she spoke. “Their families just want to say hi to them. They don’t stay long. There is no reason to save these cast offs.”

  Christina backed away from her mother. “You’re serious. Aren’t you?”

  “It’s survival of the fittest in here. You can’t understand.”

  The realization came slowly. “Why have you done this?”

  “Lucy forced us to live in this Mayberry because there wasn’t enough room. I made room.”

  “How many people have you killed?”

  Bethany waved hand dismissively. “Not so many. Most of them I simply box up. The ones that show potential, that is. If they can get out, they are worth my time.”

  “How could you?”

  “I survived in a box. Why shouldn’t they?”

  “It’s wrong.”

  “Don’t lecture me on morals.”

  “Mom…”

  “I guess this will be on the five o’clock news?” Bethany chided.

  Christina immediately left the simulation. Her heart raced as she sat upright in her office chair. She walked into the main office and found Zelda working in her cubicle. “Have you spoken to your uncle? In the mausoleum?”

  “I chatted with him a few months ago,” Zelda said, “But, it’s so depressing in there. He never wants to talk long anyway. Always busy in one simulation or another.”

  “Did he seem like himself?”

  Zelda stared at her fingernails. “That old grouch? I guess. He seems happier than he used to be. He actually sent me a digital card on my birthday.”

  “Would you know if someone was impersonating him?”

  Her assistant raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”

  “Nothing,” she said, “Hold my calls. I’m going home for the day.”

  When she reached home, Christina tapped Lucy’s photo and then reported what her mother had done. “What do I do?” Christina asked.

  Chapter Forty

  Diane walked with Ridley along an empty simulation of Ipanema Beach in early evening. The mountains were lone soldiers guarding the sky. She seemed distant.

  “What’s wrong,” he asked.

  “There was a protest in New Tampa this morning. A drone killed a teenager.”

  “That wasn’t on the news,” Ridley said in disgust.

  “The authorities hid it.”

  They sat next to one another on the sand. He held her hand and kissed it. A large wave crashed in the distance. The clouds danced in orange and gold.

  “Remember how things were before the Collapse?” he asked, “Before the riots?”

  She replied, “That was a lifetime ago. Several lifetimes for me…”

  Ridley examined a small shell. It was excruciatingly detailed; yet, the beach itself was limited. If they walked its length, it would repeat, adding only minor variations each time. The digital sun slowly sunk below the horizon. There was a flash of green before random stars peeked from the deep indigo sky. In vivid ochre, the moon greeted them from below the horizon. Waves crashed incessantly against the dark shore. He wondered if she remembered drowning. Maybe Lucy had stolen the memory away? He asked, “Are you frightened?”

  “A little.”

  “Once the mainframe becomes part of the station, the two of you will be alone with one another.”

/>   “We have existed together for many years,” she said stoically, “Besides, Lucy has always been at the mercy of people. It’s about time that her fate sits entirely in her own hands.”

  Ridley pulled Diane close, wrapping his arm over her shoulder. “We’ll be able to talk by radio for a few months,” he said, “At least, until the lag gets too bad.”

  Diane put her hand on his knee. “We both agree that we will wait in earth’s orbit for you.”

  “You can’t do that,” he urged, “This world is disintegrating. Io will be a safe home for both of you.”

  “But Ridley…”

  “I have to stay here for Kelly. That might be decades. You can’t stay in the earth’s orbit. It’s too risky.”

  Diane wrapped her arms around her knees and drew them close to her chest. “I’m losing both of you. Not that it matters… I don’t think Kelly believes in me anymore, does she?”

  He rubbed her back in slow circles. “I wouldn’t say that. She loves you as much as she ever did. She understands your new nature. She honors the memory of your old.”

  The moon grew larger. Diane picked up a clump of sand and tossed it away. “Come on,” he said, “The water’s warm.”

  The pair swam in the surf. Diane dove under. She teased Ridley before returning to the surface. “You’ll miss that, won’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Maybe I should stay?” she said, “I can take my chances in Mayberry until you are scanned.”

  Ridley was perplexed. “What do you mean? Take your chances.”

  They bounced up and down in the waves. “Bethany has become the intelligence that we feared.”

  “Why didn’t I know?”

  “Lucy didn’t know either,” Diane said, “Bethany confessed to her daughter. Christina told Lucy.”

  “What has she done?”

  Diane told him the details as they walked back onto the beach. “I don’t know how long the others can contain her. They survive because she’s unable to break their encryption, but she will break it in time.”

  “The dead are now stealing from the dead. How long until they steal from the living?”

  The light glinted off her eyes. “There was no way that you could’ve seen this coming.”

  Ridley picked up a handful of sand and let it drop through his fingers. “Lucy foresaw all of this, didn’t she?”

  “Some of it. She was afraid to warn us,” Diane said, “She thought we’d shut her down.”

  “There’s no use dwelling on the past.”

  “Knowing this, do we take any of the dead with us into space?”

  “Who would you take?” Ridley asked, “Who would you trust?”

  The digital waves crashed again and again just inches beyond their feet. One finally broke further up the beach and they dashed to dry sand.

  Lucy’s face filled the moon itself. “It is almost time.”

  “Did you hear our discussion?” he asked.

  “Yes. Bethany poses a threat.”

  “What can be done?”

  “Without re-establishing the link to the mansion, nothing.”

  Lucy displayed a window in the sky. She fled the moon and joined them on the beach. They watched as a rocket’s thrusters glowed orange. The world rumbled under them. The Ukon rocket slowly lifted and then erupted into the sky. A minute passed until they viewed a broadcast from the rocket itself as it maneuvered into orbit. The earth curved below it, the dark land dotted with golden dots of light.

  Lucy monitored the flight’s communications. “The first pieces of the station have been successfully deployed. The solar panels are producing slightly more energy than I calculated.”

  “Does anyone suspect what we’ve done?” he asked.

  “There is a rumor that the probe is going to be your digital tomb. No one at NASA really understands the schematics anyway,” Lucy said.

  Ridley sighed. “And since I’m paying, they don’t care.”

  In the window in the sky, the Earth’s atmosphere was tinged with brown.

  “And the DoD?” he asked, “Have they grown suspicious yet?”

  “I do not believe so. However, they have only asked me to search the Internet for information on extremists.”

  “Have you found anything?”

  “Yes,” she said, “The world is filled with endless conspiracy and hatred. The data frightens me. Those that want to end everything now have the means to do so.”

  “What do you mean?” Ridley asked.

  Lucy and Diane exchanged glances.

  “It will do no good for him to know,” Diane said.

  “What will do no good?” he asked.

  “Good-night, Ridley.”

  Ridley emerged from the simulation. “Wait,” he pleaded, but the wall-screen remained dark.

  Neither would tell Ridley what they had meant.

  Lucy continued working with the DoD. More drones launched. Two-hundred people were scanned on a single day. Ridley went to the Cerenovo headquarters. He stared at the face scanner mounted next to the front entrance doors. “Access denied.”

  “What?”

  Ridley stared at the scanner again. “Access denied.”

  He immediately called Samuel. “What the hell is going on?”

  “Fiona ordered it,” Samuel said, “And the Board agreed. You’ve been increasingly erratic since the bomb blast. You’ve been removed due to mental health reasons.”

  “If you want Lucy to continue working with the DoD, you’ll open that door.”

  “They don’t need Lucy’s help. They’ve created an analogue of her programming. You’ll receive a check in the mail for your assistance. And a payout from your stock ownership.”

  “You’re buying me out?”

  “No, I’m not.”

  Ridley already knew the answer. Fiona had arranged a leveraged buy-out. He called Wes and Everett. “What’s going on?”

  “Everett and I have been locked out of the building too.”

  “Fiona is behind this,” Everett said, “I’m certain.”

  Ridley went to a café, ordered a cappuccino, and teleconferenced with Lucy and Diane. “Samuel says their AI is now online. Have they limited your access to the DoD server?”

  “I cannot answer. This may not be a secure line,” Lucy said.

  Ridley knew that she had placed a backdoor into the DoD system. He suspected that Lucy was actively searching their database.

  “Samuel said they have copied your programming.”

  “It is not possible,” Lucy replied, “Their engineers likely extracted only sub-routines. It will not be sentient.”

  Diane added, “They’ve also learned to print the prismatic arrays. They have everything they need. We are extraneous.”

  “It’s time,” he said, “We need to get the two of you into space.”

  Diane sat with her daughter in a digital version of their cottage, unchanged from the day Diane had died. Kelly walked around the room. She picked up an old teddy bear and put it down.

  “I’ll be leaving soon,” Diane said.

  “Can I come with you?” Kelly asked.

  “No. You need to be in the real world. Not here. I’m only holding you back.”

  The girl’s eyes were the bluest that Diane had ever seen. Kelly asked, “What do you mean?”

  “None of this is real. I’m no more real than this house. I’m a photograph. A movie. A neural recording. I won’t age”

  “But I miss you,” Kelly pleaded.

  “I know. We talk, but it’s not the same as having me alive, is it?”

  Kelly did not answer.

  Diane continued, “You’re talking to a memory. I don’t change. I don’t age. My voice and my mind are etched into silicon so that I’ll always be here for you—but I don’t want your life etched into this same stone. I want you to live in a world with surprises.”

  Diane aged her avatar to grey hair and crepe-like skin. “This is how I imagine I would’ve aged. You would’ve watch
ed me grow old and I would’ve watched you become a woman. Fall in love. Have a child. All I can ever do now is watch from a distance.”

  Tears flowed from Kelly’s eyes. “You can’t abandon me.”

  Diane picked up her phone. “I’m not. Once I leave, we won’t be able to meet in the VR like this, but my words will always be with you. Just a few clicks, a few hours transmission back to earth, and we can speak. When you need advice, when you want to ask a question, when you want someone simply to listen, I’ll be at the end of an email.”

  Diane embraced Kelly tightly.

  “Please don’t leave me, Mom.”

  Diane knelt and kissed her forehead. “Everyone leaves eventually. The only difference is that I’m going someplace safe. Lucy and I are going to prepare a permanent place for the dead. She’s comparing it to the Library of Alexandria.”

  Diane wiped a tear from Kelly’s cheek. “Wasn’t that library destroyed?” Kelly asked.

  “We’ll be safe in space. It’s our only choice.”

  Diane hesitated to say that the mansion was at risk.

  “Eventually, others will launch into space to join us, but only those people that have evolved.”

  “Evolved?”

  “Those willing to limit their existence.”

  “How will you know who to invite?” Kelly asked.

  Diane did not answer.

  “Is this the last time I see you?”

  “Yes.”

  The launch facility was expansive. Ridley and Kelly watched in the hot Arizona sun as workers removed the mainframe from the back of a box-truck.

  “Are they okay in there?” Kelly asked.

  “They’ll be fine,” he said, “They are on battery power.”

  The crew carefully placed the delicate assembly—containing only Diane’s and Lucy’s processors—into the cargo hold of the rocket. The cushioned it with foam.

  A van transported them from the launch facility to an observation platform. Sweat dripped from Ridley’s face. A countdown screen began ticking down. Kelly began crying when it reached “3…2…1…” and the rocket thrust against the earth. Ridley tried to console her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.