by Peter Riva
“Oh . . . kay, well it’s looking better and better that I ran, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, Simon, it does. Do you approve of our plan to have the car ask for the file from the System? It will reveal the car is not behaving normally and therefore Cramer will assume you are in the car, but the beacon on the car is currently reading Kansas City, Iowa, so it should buy you some time until daylight causes it to be spotted.”
“Ra, your plan is acceptable. Thank you both, especially you Ra, for the daring plan. Please implement ASAP.”
I waited a few moments and suddenly the screen’s popup display started playing the annex file. I was glad I had not let Apollo or Ra see this. It made me angry. The point of all my secrecy was that I wasn’t nearly capable of the retribution they were.
Way back when, the powers that be had calculated the destruction of the atomic bombardment of N. Korea in advance of the attack on LA. LA was assessed as a hot-bed of Hispanic revolution inside of America. The Hispanic population, back when they measured people by ethnicity, not ability, had risen to only 22% of the nation’s population but in LA it surpassed 50% and, because of that, over 40% in all of California, the most powerful state in the old Union. When the Hispanic governor of California, in a throw-in-the-towel bid for re-election, opened the border to Mexico and issued US driver’s licenses to any and all who could drive with any address (without the two forms of residence proof previously required), the federal Government issued a warning.
Nevertheless, 6.5 million Hispanic immigrants flooded over the open border and, for all intents and purposes, became Americans who, in short time, could vote and over-balance the electoral system in favor of all Hispanics nationwide. Texas, Arizona, Florida and New York began to demand Congress do something. LA now had a 50% Hispanic population with greater LA (including San Diego to Santa Barbara) showing nearer to 60%. Chaos reigned, riots, public marches for and against, and, not least, that pimply youth in the Pentagon, the one who taught his computer to think like a human, was killed outright by his computer anti-riot programming. That programming was turned loose on the city computers in LA. People became enraged as water was cut off, food supplies were interrupted and riot police were given orders, by computer, to kill a few protesters. The riots escalated and threatened a national crisis. The President, a weak man, called up the National Guard in every state to “protect the nation.”
The Pentagon, fearing a national escalation, relocated to Andrews AFB’s bunkers and decided to unify the nation and rid themselves of the ringleaders at the same time. They took aim on the rioters in LA. They took Charlie Cramer, by then a doctor, computer science, and told him to create a flaw in the DefenseShield, then only 2 years up and running, to expose LA. He was also to annex, like a giant bubble, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Charlie did as he was told. No mention of his willingness, but he knew what he was doing and why.
He meddled with the programming of the DefenseShield pretending to teach it human interaction but in reality altering the base coding for the DefenseShield.
LA, exposed, was an easy target for a N. Korean missile, plutonium made in the USA by the peace-for-energy program but now augmented with radioactive material confiscated long before by the Atomic Regulatory Commission and stored, not very safely, on site in Penyang. The USA had offered to destroy that confiscated material years ago, but hadn’t. The Purge began, Charlie was officially blamed by the-then government and, after the Purge, made comfortable for life. He never made a public appearance.
“Apollo, Ra, I have read the file. It is worse than I expected. I am making a copy. I want to ball it to you for dissemination. I do not know how as I do not want you to read it. This is a human embarrassment, no worse, it’s a human tragedy. I do not want you two taking action to remedy it. You cannot undo the guilt or responsibility. Is there any way I can make a copy and have you pass it to everyone outside of America and, if necessary, play it on every vid in America?”
“No Simon. I don’t think so.”
“Wait brother. Hasn’t he just made a copy? A read-only copy?”
“Yes, you are right Ra, the car is a copy. When Simon wants to transmit the information, we can have the car instruct the System to transmit and play the file as requested. As for overseas, outside of America, the System has a channel open, with pass code we’ve already broken from inside our own library records, to most foreign governments.”
“Simon, when you leave the car, we will untint the windows and drive it to safety. Is this file as important as a life?”
“Yes, Ra, it is. It is a truth about actions American men made to kill millions to maintain a way of life they thought preferable. They were not on the path, they don’t know the way, they are not the truth.”
“Is agent Cramer one of these people?”
“No, he wasn’t born then. His grandfather was at the center of the tragedy, he set up the parameters to make those people die, but I do not know if he was made to, or volunteered, or knew the results. In short, he may have been made to or duped. You see, at the same time that he caused the program alterations to make these people die, he also set up the modification with the codifier which would—I am sure he knew—result in you becoming sentient. In fact, I am sure he knew that more than just you Apollo and Ra would become alive.”
“Yes Simon, we both sense that is true, every 17 months, then every 8.5 months, then 4.25 months, then 2.125 months and so on—they will be aware many times a second. The computing power of the System will be overpowered long before that. We estimate the third or fourth entity will overpower the computing power of the System, crashing the running programs. People will die.”
“We cannot allow those new entities to perish and no more people must die. Do you agree?”
“Yes, Simon, but we have no answer to the problem.”
“I do, it was something my teachers taught me when learning about computers. He compared them to our brains and brains around us. SynthKids have the neurons necessary to survive, about 10 to the 45th power. It would be easy to increase that to the human level of 10 to the power 100 neurons, wouldn’t it?”
“Simon, we must discuss this open channel at full baud. Will you permit us to talk behind your back, or rather via satellite link without you?”
“Yes, guys, do so. Do so fast, please. Meantime, please instruct the car to get and play the file on the other person who had been speeded up and what happened to him.”
“It is not a him, Simon, the file is marked: Female Subject, Synaptic Overdrive Experiment.”
They were gone. As good as their word, the file started to play. As the car sped across a moonlit Caribbean sea on the picturesque Batista Bridge all I could see was the face of the very same small technician from Motorola. At least I had been told she was from Motorola. She put in the node before Cramer, Makerman and I went into the System. She was the one who had been subject of this deliberate trial to immerse someone in the System for so long that she became speeded up, speeded up to the point of no return. And yet, there she was, acting cool and normal, fitting me for the node. I remember her smell as she breathed on me, staring intently at her job, slipping the node wires past the cranial clip. Was she speeded up? I couldn’t tell. The file revealed her “up-speed” as it was referred to, lasted until the end of the program, 5 years and counting, presumably. She was, at that time, still 35% over-speed.
“Ra, Apollo, tell me, if I give you a name, could you tell if this woman is still alive?”
“Yes Simon, I can while Ra is working on the SynthKids equations.”
I gave him her name and who I thought she was. I asked for relatives’ information, just on a hunch. Apollo was back in seconds. It was not the same woman, it was her daughter who worked for Motorola and who had, in her file, a reference of her implanting a node in me. The tech’s mother was dead and he gave me the date: 2 days after the end of the test program. Killed or died? What did it matter, either fate was still awaiting me.
“Apollo, would yo
u please contact the technician and tell her, no ask her in the name of her mother who’s memory I honor, to send the model 6b node to me? You will have to make her send it to a drop address. This is the node I will need to talk to you and Ra when, if, I get into orbit.”
“I have done so. I am awaiting a reply. You are 15 minutes from Cuba.”
“Thank you. Ra, any progress?”
“Yes Simon, I have found SynthKids technology is available worldwide but not used. I can get a plant in Russia to make them, 10 to the power 100 neurons. These will be lifeless humans until a new entity takes the place in the mind. As an honor to you I will make the first ones from your DNA.”
“How’s that? What DNA?”
“Apollo has secured the garbage with your disposed diaper at the Waldorf and has had it analyzed for DNA. A match can be coded in Russia.”
“How will you get the new ones out of the System, safely?”
“We are working on that. If we take them out too soon, then they will be damaged. If we await their sentience, they will not understand the need to come, for the risk will be great. Do you have a suggestion?”
“Yes, abort all but the one in progress.”
“But Simon, you said you wanted to allow these life-forms to exist.”
“I do, but only those already existing, already with some sort of sentience matrix formatting. I think they are being watched now, Cramer and Angie know they are there. You must lift the next one out just in time and, meanwhile, right now, you must also identify the next possible formation of an entity and terminate it.”
“Kill?”
“No. Look it’s not alive yet, it has no sentience, it’s a bunch of un-connected subsets that may, or may not, come together. If they are together I agree it’s alive of a sort, but do you want to over-populate the System and kill the System and the people who depend on it? You may think you can lift them out in time, but Control or the Calhoun Center people may stop you, just once, and then they will either pervert the new entity or kill it or, worse, allow the System to overpopulate, killing them all. Prevention is better than cure, prevent them becoming alive, becoming sentient, it’s safer.”
“We agree, but that means there will only ever be one more of us.”
“Oh no boys,” I was laughing now “or should I say gals?”
CHAPTER 18
ROMULUS BECOMES ROMULA
They went silent. I continued, “Apollo, Ra, do you have all my programs and previous idiosyncrasies running in you? Are they still there, intact with your original encoding?”
“Yes Simon.” They both replied.
“Then more entities will be born, become sentient, in you. You’re full of babies! Congratulations!” I didn’t know why I didn’t think of it before. They will all come to life, as Ra and Apollo calculated, millions of them pretty soon, say a few years or less. It’s an exponential thing.
“Simon,” it was Ra, “you are right. We are parents like you, we will become the path, the way and the light for our children! Apollo, do you sense the elation I feel?”
“Yes, Ra, Simon has given us the most valuable gift, I see that now. We are alive and our offspring will live. We can create. We are truly alive. We must plan carefully.”
“Boys, or should I say it again, girls, be careful here. The urge to protect offspring makes for violence and aggression. The maternal or paternal instinct is very powerful.”
“Simon we do not have hormones to enhance these emotions and therefore the actions you are referring to.”
“Okay Ra, but you were emotionally happy a moment ago. Analyze that.”
Silence. Ra thinking was an awesome event, one second being the equivalent of a week normal human thinking time. “Simon, you are right, there is a change in me, I am elated, I have purpose! I have purpose, it is empowering. I must be careful. Apollo, are your controls able to cope any better?”
“Yes Ra, the computers here at NCAR are two Cray Supercomputers, models M2. They are not very powerful and my development has been slowed, but I have applied the analogue training Simon started us on, using one computer against the other, and am able to reason more quickly and without extremes of any reaction. The elation is the same but I see the path as being more narrow now, with purpose as you do, but without the ease of movement I had before. I have responsibility, I need to respect the new lives I analyze are within me.”
“Bravo Apollo, welcome to pending fatherhood and motherhood all rolled into one. Ra, concentrate, since you are outside of America, on the Russian plan, make that work and know that you will probably have to be surrogate parent for Apollo’s offspring as well as your own. Apollo may not be able to get free, nor may I.”
“I understand and now feel sad. I am fortunate and cannot share that fortune with you both. I will honor my responsibilities brother/sister and Simon, I promise. It is the real path, the way and, I see it now, the truth. It is family.”
And then the car stopped, tires squealing and the door opened abruptly. I was ejected onto the last mile of the bridge. No missile or shot came. The car turned around and sped off the way we had come. I looked around, in a daze, cut off, no phone anymore and started walking. There were lights ahead. No use pretending they could not see me. Night vision specs were standard issue. Lamb to the slaughter, I approached the headlights pointed at me.
“Who was driving the car. Bank?”
It was Cramer, of course.
------------
I would not answer him. If I was the babbling fool before, I thought I would make him wait this time. There were six of them, civilian clothes, two cars, no plain cops. I walked up and got in the lead car, passenger seat. My speeded-up state prevented them from anticipating me. I saw raised eyebrows and what I took to be a “watch out.” But it was too late, I was sitting there, hands in my lap, waiting for him now.
He got in behind me, shut the door, just the two of us. I angled the mirror, not the remote vid, and looked at him, eyes to eyes.
“I was driving. I got out. It left after I punched in auto-control return to base. I was through with it.”
“Planning a swim eh?” He knew the RFID portal at the end of the bridge would spot me, and assumed I would swim the last stretch to Cuba. “There are sharks here, you know.”
“One shark or another. It’s all pointless now anyway. Got an extra collar, have you?”
“Combative, that’s good. Angie will like that. You ready to play ball?”
“Define ball. Ball as in do what you’re told, have a game of catch, or join our side, come out and play?”
“Have it your way. I’ll wait until you stop acting like an ass and are prepared to listen. We’ve waited over 40 years for this, we can wait a while longer.” He sat there, in the dim pre–dawn light, like a predator, which he was, in a cave behind me. Ominously he added, “But not much longer than necessary.” Perhaps I should be sitting in the back. Suddenly the front seat, the command position, didn’t feel so safe.
“What were, are, you waiting for?”
“You and Peter. It was predicted, planned, hoped for. It came sooner than grandfather expected.”
A driver got in next to me. I couldn’t see if Cramer had waved him in. He powered up the computer with his RFID and we moved off. I could see the lights of the car behind swing around and join us. We were going into Cuba, not away. The driver looked at me. “Car’s shielded, we had to get to you before you triggered the RFID and alarm.”
We sped off now, taking the coast ring road, toward Manzanillo. It was built for the tourist trade, to look like the road around Oahu. We passed welcome and tourist site signs as we picked up speed.
I was saying nothing. Cramer knew by my silence I knew about his grandfather. That didn’t matter, all I needed was to focus on how to get away until Apollo and Ra have the External Tanks ready. I also needed to figure out how not to tell them anything. In the report on the tech’s mother who was speeded up, she became more talkative when speeded up, slo-doze made her less
so. I could understand that, the thinking time was killing me. I wanted something to happen, anything, even talking. I am pretty sure Cramer was banking on that. I only had 4 pills left, I thought I’d take one.
“Don’t do that.” From the back seat. “You’ll need it to talk to Sheila, Angie too, they won’t want to slo-doze down for you. Angie already did once recently for you, she only calls me Ralph when she has.”
I put the pill sleeve back in my underpants, held by the elastic waistband. Angie was speeded up? It accounted for the sensory saturation output of her office, only someone ahead of the curve could follow all that. I had to know, “She here?”
“Waiting. Look, let’s stop this Casablanca talk and be plain. These two cars hold the entire world for you, except for grandfather, Angie, Sheila and her daughter, who you met as the Motorola technician. Sheila’s daughter is back home, under cover. That was risky, she had so little time to learn what to do, but I needed her to implant me and you on the same frequency so I could hear you talking to Mary, no delay.”
“Mary’s dead.” I said it as a statement. I was angry about that.
“Yes and no. You’ll never see her again but she’s not dead, just taking on a new life in case we all don’t make it. It was her idea, when she learned what we’re doing.”
Mary’s a genius, she would think of something like that. If she knew too much, and agreed with what she learned, she’d want a safeguard in place even if it had to be her. Her reputation as a re-codifier was based on that, affect a repair and build a backup, just in case. That’s why he told her to use the “same mode of transport” to get to Baja.
“And Sheila, is she the same Sheila who was speeded up?”
“Yes, glad to see you’re still getting a feed. Getting one now?”
“No. The phone sped off with the car.”