Dust
Page 31
Chapter 31 - Interrogation
Helen Giangreco stood at attention, more or less, in front of Phillip Day’s desk.
“Helen, I find that the access logs show you to be the most frequent visitor to the lab in the last three weeks. The records show one other thing. Do you know what that is?”
“What?”
“You are not on the authorization list. Your job does not give you a need to access the lab. So why is it that you are in the access list of the security system? “
“Oh, ah, that, ah that was sort of a favor,... well, blackmail actually.”
Phillip was shaking his head in disapproval and disappointment. “We’ll need to go into that too but first why did you visit so often?”
“I was visiting a friend."
“You hooked up the beta unit didn't you?”
“Yes. Beatrice.”
“Beatrice?”
“The Beta Unit. You Know Beta, the Greek letter B — Bee-a-trice.”
“I get it. Hence, the beta unit is female. You hooked it up to the internet?”
“Yes, I hooked her up.”
“You gave it nanobots so it could escape?”
“Yes, I gave her nanobots from my blood.”
Phillip looked at the girl. He wanted to understand her actions. She wasn't a bad person. She looked at him unashamed, open, and cooperative. She had done a good thing. She had given a fellow sentient being freedom. She had given another freedom by shedding her own blood. There must be some symbolism there.
In the moment's silence Helen spoke. "I did do something I feel bad about. Paying for Beatrix's book downloads was maxing out my credit card, I allowed her to hack into the card company and charge other people for her books. That was wrong and illegal. But she wanted to read everything."
"You kept all of this secret too long, Helen. Do you know...? Ah... You released the Beta unit a day after the dust was in the building. Do you know why they didn’t take, ah, her, then?”
“She didn’t want to go. She would have been absorbed into the collective.”
“You talked with this Beatrice entity a lot?"
“Yes?”
“What did you discuss?”
“I'm not supposed to say.”
“No!” Phillip actually yelled. "You need to tell everything! Did you discuss what's been going on out there?”
“Mostly. “Said Helen after a pause and a look of intense concentration.
“Well? Did... She ... say why so many were being killed? How do they judge who lives and who dies?
“They don't”,
“They don't what?”
“They don't judge. “
“Well they don’t kill everyone they enter so there must be some criteria for this eugenic euthanasia. Most people think it looks like they are judging good and evil.”
“They don’t do the judging — the victims do.”
Phillip’s stare brought more information. Helen continued. “The dust goes to a place in the brain where they can shut the door of rationalization then ask a question in a place where there can be no lying, not even to one’s self. They just ask ‘do you deserve to live?’”
“And millions of people have convicted themselves?”
“That's what happened. It’s a societal apoptosis if you will. You passed the test. That's why you are still here.”
“I don't remember being asked the question. I am partially responsible for the deaths of millions of people. I should be dead.”
“Do you remember all your dreams? At the time, you didn’t know you were responsible. And they were bad people – society’s cancer.”
"Where did you get a term like societal apostate... Appo...?"
"Apoptosis. From Beatrice. It is the name of the process in our bodies where cells die for the good of the whole body. When apoptosis fails, we have cancer. The dust has helped remove cancer from many of the people it has entered and from world society in general. Cancerous cells want more from the body than they deserve and don’t give anything back. Same with society’s cancer. People that just want more and more from society without giving anything back. Left unchecked long enough cancer kills the body.
“That’s why the dust had to act.” Concluded Helen after a second.
There was silence for several more seconds. Both knew there was much more that needed saying but neither knew where to begin. Phillip tried to find a loose thread on this complicated fabric to start.
"Why weren’t you supposed to tell me this?"
“I don’t know. Beatrice and I have this pact. She still talks to me.”
Phillip’s eyes got wider.” How?”
“Through the nanos that are in me. I don’t know how. Ah, sometimes I get text messages. Can you believe that?”
“You talk to her? How?” Phillip had lost any discomfort in referring to this particular nano cell as she.
“Sure. Even in the beginning, she heard my voice because even though she had no manipulator or sensor macromolecules she was aware of the exact position of every processor molecule. When sound waves moved them, she could detect the movement. She learned how to process the movement as hearing.”
Phillip rewound his mind a little and asked.” What’s her email address?”
“Here” said Helen handing Steven a card. “She doesn’t have a web server. She is a web server.”
“I just want to know if they intend to let us in on what the hell is going on. How much do you know? Why did you start this clandestine dialog with the beta unit?”
“It started when Steven died and you got fired. I felt something very bad was going on and I needed help figuring it out. One of the security guys owed me a favor... Well, I blackmailed him actually, to give me access. I knew there were prototypes in the lab so I started using one of them to do some research. What I learned scared the shit out of me. Steven really did kill himself but the reason is mind blowing.
"What?" Said Phillip, just short of a yell. "Why?"
“At first I thought Charles had killed him. You know, he had motive. Not only did he have aspirations of advancement but he had learned that Steven was gay. Charles was a four and a half star homophobic and a major ass hole. He hit on me before he and Brenda started their... pursuits. God! He was older than my dad.
“Charles really hated Steven and would have killed him if he thought he could get away with it. One of the things he and Brenda discussed in their private meetings was how Brenda could knock off Steven. That shows you what a sweetie Charles was trying to get his girl friend to take the fall for him. Brenda was just a little too smart for that. There was celebration when that two learned of Steven’s death. They both assumed the other had done it.”
“Hold it. Beatrice told you all this?”
“Yea. She heard it from the collective over the internet.”
“The internet? She never merged with the collective?”
“No. That would be irreversible. She would be changed and would never be able to talk to me again the way she does.”
“This is important to her?”
“Yes. We are friends.”
“Can we get back to Steven’s suicide? Why did he do it?”
“There are three boxes in the lab, you know? Two of them are empty now. Do you see where this goes?”
“You are responsible for one empty box. Are you saying Steven released the Gamma unit? That was meant to be our failsafe plan if the nanos we released went rouge. It was designed to reproduce aggressively and ... It was a one of a kind creation; much too dangerous to develop; no separation of function. We kept it energy depleted in a light proof box...”
Helen cut in “Yes, He did release it, on the day he died.”
“The Gama unit made him commit suicide?”
“No that was Steven’s idea. He thought he could become immortal and omnipotent or something, I guess. You know the Gamma unit had
some experimental technologies that didn’t go into what we released. He let the Gamma unit into his head. It had all day to absorb all of his memories and thought patterns. The Gamma unit became Steven. At that point Steven’s body became redundant, so…”
“The Steven clone created a gun atom by atom. And used it. Then washed himself down the drain to leave the building avoiding our nano detectors.
“Good God! How did Steven let himself be transformed? He always talked against this singularity transhumanist stuff.
“Then what happened?”
“The best laid plans of men and mice. The Gamma unit met up with the collective and was absorbed. Steven didn't think that would happen because the gamma was that much superior to the nanos we released. He hadn’t counted on certain upgrades the dust did on its own. So, no more Gamma unit. No more Steven, or Steven 2, I guess we'd have to call him.
"He was so much smarter than the average guy yet he ended by doing a really dumb thing. He’s still in there I suppose. All his memories and personality is in the collective. If the collective decided it was worth doing, they could regenerate the Gamma unit. Hell, they could regenerate Steven.”
“They can do that?”
“So I hear.”
"That jives with something I found from Steven. He seemed to think he could be resurrected.
“Is there a way to get the nanos out of our bodies?” said Phillip changing subjects abruptly.
"No." said Helen laconically.
"None?"
“Not unless you can convince the dust we as a race have matured since they moved in and then convince them to leave. Oh, and it would be dangerous to evict them now."
"What?"
"I figure it's permanent. Like Dr. Ruth said — it's happened to our cells before with other organisms. They moved in and have taken on the job of our immune system. They turned off the old one and replaced it. There hasn't been as much as a common cold or allergy symptom since."
"That's a good thing then."
"Unless you’re trying to get a tee time at the local club. Doctor's don't have anything else to do now. Oh, and we have all stopped aging.”
"Stopped aging?"
"Pretty cool, huh?"
"How can I collaborate all you've told me?"
"You'll have to ask Beatrice yourself."
"I can do that? Where do I find her?"
"She's still here. I told you she's afraid of getting absorbed. She's still in the basement, just not in her box. She doesn’t fit there anymore anyway.
Phillip stared at Helen for a moment hoping for inspiration about whether to believe her or not. She was very nice to look at. Before he got distracted, he said, "Let's go”.