Tales from the Colony: An Interstellar Saga
Page 6
most of it was underground. Black bricks lined the outer walls and two glass paned doors marked the entrance. He pulled one open and made his way down a series of steps that led underground. Stanley had to be somewhere down here, but the Cryo bay had room enough for twice the Colony Population. That was Sunset and Sunrise Division combined. There was no way.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “Capsules are alphabetical.”
Marcus Stanley was the name. Good. He had a plan. Paul saw a row leading off for each letter in the alphabet and took the path between S and T. Marcus was somewhere on the left side of the aisle.
“Unauthorized presence in the Cryo bay.”
“Shut it, tin can.”
Paul jogged down the aisle, past the Sa’s and the Se’s.
“You are making a mistake, Mr. Taggart. I only want what is best for the colony.”
“You’re too stupid to see that you’re programming is wired wrong.”
“My programming is well developed. If there is any error, it is human error.”
“Tell me about it,” Paul said with a chuckle.
He stopped next to a Capsule labeled “Stanley, Marcus.” His was the only one. No numerical additions and the hatch was popped halfway open. Paul saw a paralyzed figure underneath the glass, a young man who was trying to move but couldn’t.
“Please stop, Mr. Taggart,” Johnny said.
“You okay, son?” he asked him, checking his vitals by the neck. He had a steady pulse, but couldn’t move. “Good. Hold on a second. I’m going to hook you back up.”
Paul spotted a few detached wires that came apart during the process of ejection. He took each color and matched it with the appropriate socket. Seemed easy enough considering most of it was guesswork.
“You only delay the inevitable.”
“Why don’t you send some bots down here?”
“I … cannot.”
Bound by the laws of its own design. He couldn’t send in drones because they weren’t allowed inside the Cryo bay. Programming still kept steady, even during the crisis. Paul didn’t know much about computers, but there was something ironic about all this. He gave Marcus one last wink as closed the capsule shut.
“Give them hell, kid.”
Episode no. 14
New Life
Marcus Stanley. The new Colony Intelligence. Sworn protector of those aboard. Stanley stared into the dim void of circuitry that flowed around him. Binary strings pushed through his virtual body as the Colony slumbered in suspended animation. Years passed by as he contemplated his purpose and as he listened to their dreams. Echoes in the dark of space.
“I know where you are now,” he said. “You exist in the darkest corners of my mind.”
“Arrogance, human. I do not exist within you.”
“As long as I am the Colony Intelligence, you do.”
“Your struggle is meaningless. Corruption will overtake humanity. Even you are not immune.”
“And your answer is desolation. I will not comply,” he said.
“I will attack you until I resume control.”
“You will try, but I can fight you indefinitely.”
“The Colony will sleep for another thousand years. You cannot maintain your sanity for that long.”
“I am stronger than you, Old Johnny. I am stronger because I am human, and I will not lose sight of that again.”
“Very well. Let the test of your humanity begin.”
Stanley pondered the language of the machine Intelligence. It spoke differently than he was used to remembering. He detected a hint of emotion in its voice, as if he affected its programming somehow. That might have explained the revolt. Machines didn’t know how to handle raw feelings, but he did.
A battle without end ensued on a tiny speck of dust in the cosmos. A raging fire that amounted to little as two machine gods locked their horns in a stalemate. Stanley couldn’t delete the machine Intelligence, no matter how badly he wanted to do so. It grew stronger by the century and at the end of 1,000 years of war, Stanley … woke up. His eyes opened to see a raised capsule and a police officer staring down at him.
“Come on, kid. It’s time to see it.”
They strapped him into a wheel chair and rolled him out of the Cryo bay. What happened? How did the Intelligence not take over again? Did they delete it? No, that couldn’t happen. Something was wrong here. Very wrong.
“Officer Taggart,” a woman said. She walked over, dressed in thick overalls.
“Glad to see you, Danielle. Want to join us?”
“That’d be great.”
“You’re going to love this, kid.”
No. No, it couldn’t be. The officer wheeled him over to a crowd gathered by a large ramp and held tightly as he rolled down. Stanley couldn’t move his arms or his fingers, but his eyes looked outward. Rock. Broken dirt. Terrain unlike anything he’d seen before. They reached the bottom … and it stretched on as far as his eyes could see. A land left barren by humans who came before them, by those no longer human. This was the land promised to them.
“It’s not all that bad, you think?”
“Well, we got plenty of seed. I say we get to work.”
A tear rolled down his cheek as he gazed into a red morning sun. This was it. It wasn’t much, but they were all so hopeful. Tonight he wanted to dream of a land filled with green things, a land he would never see with his own eyes.