Dechipped: The Download

by DeVere, Taya

  THE DOWNLOAD

  UNCHIPPED BOOK 15

  by Taya DeVere

  To Jason.

  In my books, your star will forever shine bright.

  DVM Press

  Ajurinkatu 2, 3. Krs,

  20100 Turku, Suomi-Finland

  www.dvmpress.com

  www.tayadevere.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2020 by Taya DeVere

  All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by Suomi-Finland and United States of America copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, at DVM Press. Ajurinkatu 2, 3. Krs, 20100 Turku, Suomi-Finland.

  For information about special discounts available for bulk purchases, sales promotions, fund-raising and educational needs, contact sales@dvmpress.com

  ISBN 978-952-7404-44-7 First Ebook Edition

  ISBN 978-952-7404-45-4 First Print Edition

  Cover Design © 2020 by Deranged Doctor Design - www.derangeddoctordesign.com

  Ebook formatting by Polgarus Studios – www.polgarusstudios.com

  Editing by Christopher Scott Thompson and Lindsay Fara Kaplan

  CONTENTS

  SHORT STORY — THE LEDGE

  CHAPTER 1 — THE TWO AIS

  CHAPTER 2 — THE LOOP

  CHAPTER 3 — BLOOD SKY

  CHAPTER 4 — THE INNER CHILDREN

  CHAPTER 5 — TURMOIL

  i — Dear Reader

  ii — About the Author

  iii — Final Thanks

  iv — UNCHIPPED Series Release Schedule

  THE LEDGE

  A short story in the world of the Unchipped series

  The sneaker hangs from Kaarina’s foot, half on, half off. Sitting on the cliff’s ledge, she drops her gaze, but only for a few seconds. Then a new, unfamiliar force compels her to swallow and focus on the murky clouds above instead. The drop beneath makes her feel lightheaded—no matter how many times Kaarina tells herself it’s just one of the Egg’s endless tricks.

  “Why is it, again,” she asks, her voice shaking more than she would like, “that I can feel fear or rage or hurt…You know, anything in this place? Is it just an illusion?”

  “You still on that?” the woman’s nasal voice answers, somewhere nearby. Though the woman has explained that it’s all just a simulation—that Nurse Saarinen isn’t really here in the Egg—Kaarina is having a hard time processing what’s going on. “It’s because the brain mapping program changes biochemical responses into mathematical ones.”

  “And it can’t be turned off?”

  “Does it matter?” Nurse Saarinen asks apathetically. “Especially now. I mean, unless you have second thoughts about my proposition…”

  “No,” Kaarina says quickly. “No second thoughts. I’ll do it.”

  Kaarina senses Nurse Saarinen’s delayed and slightly skeptical nod but doesn’t turn around to face her. Of the two giant evils in Kaarina’s current life, Nurse Saarinen seems like a puppy dog compared to Doctor Solomon, now that she’s learned it was Laura who murdered Kaarina’s mother and framed it as a suicide.

  A shadow moves down by the foot of the cliff, across the cracked and damaged highway. The bushes rustle faintly. Kaarina leans over a bit further, careful not to shift her weight too far forward. She’s never been afraid of heights, but for some reason, here in the Egg, anything higher than a horse’s back instantly turns her stomach.

  Nurse Saarinen’s steps stop right behind Kaarina. “Moose?” she asks. “Or deer?”

  Kaarina focuses on the animal in the bushes but refuses to lean further in, even if it would help her identify the animal lurking in the shade. Holding her breath, she shifts her weight back a bit. The movement nudges off the sneaker. When it falls from her foot and tumbles down toward the damaged asphalt, Kaarina holds her breath.

  “It’s the cyberspace’s collective memory.”

  Kaarina forces an exhale. She gives the nurse a bemused glance. “I don’t speak code.”

  “Neither do I.”

  “But you just…” Kaarina closes her eyes, trying to keep the resentful feelings out of her voice. “Are you talking about the moose? Or the dropped shoe?”

  “Neither.” The woman—or her digital form—kneels down next to Kaarina. The petite woman’s body language is impossible for Kaarina to read, and her face seems to have one expression and one expression only, a half-hearted smirk. It’s disturbing how much the nurse reminds Kaarina of Doctor Solomon. Nurse Saarinen nods at the drop below. “Heights,” she says. “You’re suddenly afraid of them.”

  Kaarina waits for Nurse Saarinen to finish her sentence with “Aren’t you?” But the question never comes. Statements. That’s mostly what comes out of Nurse Saarinen’s mouth, not questions or attempts to understand another human being, to connect with them better. If Kaarina can still be considered as one, that is.

  “So the Egg has its own phobias?” Kaarina asks. “Like this place is a person of its own?”

  “Yes and no,” Nurse Saarinen says, her piercing gaze first investigating Kaarina’s face, then the moose that now steps out of the bushes. He drops his enormous head and rips off a tuft of yellow grass on the rocky roadside. “It’s all connected. One big network. The Egg is part of it. So is the Chip-System, the people in the stasis capsules, you, me…”

  “But I died.”

  “Your earthly form died. But since the upload, your mind lives on in the system. It’s just entered a new form of being. Think of it like a snake, shedding its own skin.”

  “The Egg is a snake pit? And all the snakes are afraid of heights?” Kaarina means for her voice to sound sarcastic but fails miserably.

  “Not all the snakes.” A shade of something dark flashes in Nurse Saarinen’s eyes. “Just the mother snake.”

  Kaarina plays with her remaining shoe, slipping the heel part off her foot. The fallen shoe lies on its side down on the highway. It’s now just a tiny dot in the distance, abandoned in a puddle of yesterday’s rain. It’s morning time in Finland. In her home city. Up on a cliff where young Kaarina used to climb, just to stand by the ledge, playing with the thought of jumping. Not because she was suicidal—quite the opposite.

  Back then, in a society where people had withdrawn from all connections, opting to be estranged, hardly leaving their homes and VR realities, standing up here on the cliff had been the only way for Kaarina to feel… something. Alive, maybe. The rush from the climb, being one with nature, the power of gravity. She longed to be part of something. Moving her feet as close to the edge as possible was a reminder of being flesh and bone. That her blood still surged in her veins. That her mind could still think, instead of being frozen as a side effect of the National Health Ministry recommended antidepressants her mother brought home from the hospital she worked in. A human. That’s what the cliff made her feel like. An actual, living, breathing human. Not a multi-faced avatar in a world where no one managed to make an authentic connection with another being—and even less so with themselves.

  But that was a long time ago.

  Kaarina shakes her head to bring herself back to this moment. “So let me get this right. What you’re saying is that the Egg is like a mother… snake to everyone who’s uploaded into it. And that mother has fears and feelings of its own that now reflect on all of us
inside. That it’s the Egg who is afraid of heights?”

  “Not the Egg,” Nurse Saarinen says, not the slightest bit annoyed by Kaarina’s difficulty understanding. “But Laura.”

  Kaarina’s body jerks back in surprise. The sudden movement sends the shoe sailing downward. She can’t help it; the distant splat sound of its landing in the puddle below makes Kaarina wince. “Doctor Solomon is afraid of heights?”

  “She was.”

  “But not anymore?”

  Nurse Saarinen pauses for two seconds. “I guess it depends how far gone her mind is. I know Laura well. I know how her ambition to become the most powerful thing on this planet conquers and crushes everything else under its weight. She knows that integrating her mind with the system will slowly but surely eat away her consciousness. Just as she knows that there is no way around it; an AI can only simulate thought and understanding. But as long as we fail to understand and explain what consciousness itself really is, it can’t be fixed. As long as Laura keeps devouring more access, more power, more information, pulling herself deeper and deeper into the world of numbers… Well, every day, she’ll become more of a thing and less of a human.”

  Kaarina stares straight at the woman, devouring her words but only understanding bits and pieces. Is it too late? Has the deadline for her revenge passed?

  “You can still get to her,” Nurse Saarinen says, reading Kaarina’s facial expressions with ease. “But only if you help me get in. Only if I become just as powerful as Laura is. More powerful. Only then can I take her down for good. Delete her from existence. But be warned, it won’t be easy. She will put up a fight, and just as she didn’t hesitate to destroy your mother, she won’t think twice about erasing your chip file if she ever finds out you’re going after her.”

  “My… chip file?”

  A nod. “That’s where your mind is saved. Raw data of each memory, each experience you ever had. Without it, you cease to exist.”

  As Nurse Saarinen stands up again, staring down at Kaarina, all Kaarina herself can do is stare at the pair of shoes down below. Is this the right thing to do? Should she sacrifice her safety—her whole existence—to avenge her mother’s death?

  “Will everyone else be safe?” she asks without looking at Nurse Saarinen.

  “What, you mean your little entourage?”

  “I need to know that you won’t wipe out Bill or Sanna or…” Kaarina pauses when a longing feeling hits her in the stomach with force. Fighting the memories, she refuses to fold when her need to go back to him enters every nonexistent cell in her body. But just like always, the memories are stronger than her will to deny them.

  His strong arms around her.

  His warm lips kissing her shoulder.

  His leg wrapped around Kaarina’s under the blanket.

  It’s like she and Yeti were still connected, somehow, on some deeper level that goes beyond tapping or sharing this cyberspace together. But that connection is bad. She’s no good for him. Too many of those who have joined her are already dead. Just like Ava. Like Margaret. Dennis. Markus.

  “I need to know they’re all safe,” Kaarina says, shaking her head to focus on the task at hand. This time she succeeds in keeping her voice strong and self-assured. “I need you to swear that you’re only going after Solomon.”

  “I have no interest in gaining access to anyone’s data other than Laura’s,” Nurse Saarinen replies, her voice neutral and emotionless. “At this point, I really have zero interest in any of the rebels. I just want to delete Solomon before she becomes an unstoppable superpower.”

  “But…” Kaarina finally forgets the shoes and turns to look up at Nurse Saarinen standing right beside her. Her right leg hangs further down the cliff while she leans her whole weight onto her left arm. “If Solomon is turning into what is basically a cold, lifeless machine… And the only thing that can take her down is a being similar to her… Why on earth would you ever want to become what she is?”

  This time, annoyance shades Nurse Saarinen’s face. She dodges Kaarina’s gaze but doesn’t back away. “There should only be one,” she mumbles almost silently.

  “What?” Kaarina leans forward to hear better. “There can only be one, what? Super computer-creature with almighty powers?” This time she nails the sarcasm in her voice. She can’t help her small smile. This—all of this—sounds so ridiculous. It’s making her feel a bit crazy and wild.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Nurse Saarinen says in her normal voice. “Doesn’t concern you one bit.”

  “But I want to know…”

  “No, you don’t.” Nurse Saarinen says, staring down at Kaarina. “You just do your part, and I’ll do mine. Got it?”

  “Aha. It’s a touchy subject, isn’t it?” Kaarina’s smirk deepens. “You’re jealous. You never managed to gain the fame Solomon had. You were always just the second in command. Her right hand. A shadow. An afterthought…”

  “Stop it,” Nurse Saarinen snaps at her, resentment darkening her face. “You've made your point. I don’t have the whole day to stand here, listening to your blabbering. Are you in…” she bends over, her face now so close to Kaarina’s that if actual air filled their lungs, she’d feel Nurse Saarinen’s—most likely ice-cold—breath on her face. “Or are you out?”

  Refusing to back away from Nurse Saarinen’s glare, Kaarina stares back at her, narrowing her eyes. “I already told you,” she says, defiance in her voice, “I’ll do it. I’m in.”

  For what seems like a small eternity, the nurse stares deep into Kaarina’s eyes. There’s no warmth, no respect in her gaze. Just a calculating, skeptical stare.

  “Good,” she suddenly breathes out.

  The strong pressure on Kaarina’s back is so sudden, she doesn’t register it until she’s free-falling toward the puddle made of rain and her shoes. It seems to take, if not forever, then an unnaturally long time for her to finally meet the ground. The impact doesn’t knock the air out of her lungs. Instead, it leaves Kaarina’s mind blank, erasing any emotions a normal person should be feeling: panic, disbelief, betrayal—or maybe an overwhelmingly thrilling sensation of still being alive. As she finally opens her eyes, unable to move her only slightly aching body, she stares at her torn sneaker. The hole in the ripped-off toe looks like it’s grimacing at her.

  A nasal voice echoes around her, booming from the sky above. “Then let’s get started.”

  15

  THE DOWNLOAD

  January 2090

  Uploaded

  CHAPTER 1 — THE TWO AIS

  “You sadistic…” Kaarina groans as she struggles to get up from a sizable dent on the highway’s asphalt. After a few fruitless efforts, she collapses back onto her stomach. “Conniving…” She lifts her head for a quick glance up at the cliff she has just fallen from. The height of the rock sends the spruce trees and gray landscape spinning around her. She feels like vomiting, knowing very well she can’t; that’s not an option in the cyberspace world of the Egg. This makes her feel twice as nauseated. “Piece of…”

  Nurse Saarinen appears from the tree line, walking toward Kaarina in her robotic way. She looks from Kaarina to the cracked pavement and smirks. She stops a few meters away, not bothering to extend her hand. Why would she? After all, she’s the one who…

  “You fucking pushed me off the cliff!” Kaarina yells at the woman, trying to force her eyes to zoom correctly. It’s not the physical pain that distracts her mind—that part is surprisingly easy to tolerate. Though she can still feel pain while living in the Egg, the intensity of hurt has been scaled down immensely.

  “So?”

  With Kaarina too baffled to answer, Nurse Saarinen continues, “Didn’t kill you, did it?”

  Kaarina’s scream starts somewhere deep inside her stomach. It fills her nonexistent lungs with flustered rage, then echoes around the place that looks like the gloomy forest of Kaarina’s hometown. But this place isn’t Kaarina’s hometown. When she runs out of breath, she uses the force of her rage to
push herself up from the damaged highway. The pavement has dented under the impact of her weight. Two long strides and she’s so close to Nurse Saarinen that she could spit in her unbothered, sharp-edged face. Is saliva still a thing? “You think this is all fun and games, don’t you?! You think it’s amusing to play with other people, toss them around like rag dolls, no matter their phobias or feelings?! Well guess what? I’m done playing! I’m so fucking tired of you and Solomon and whatever other sick cyberfucks exist in this asshole place with asshole rules that make zero sense!”

  Her head tilting robotically, Nurse Saarinen suppresses a smile. She drops her gaze and folds her hands calmly in front of her slightly transparent body. “Are you done ranting?” Another head tilt. “Or is there more mumbo-jumbo you’d like to yell at me?”

  “Fuck you and your fucking mumbo-jumbo!”

  A small sigh. “Not done yelling. Got it.”

  “This is not what I signed up for! We were supposed to help each other, not attack each other! How am I supposed to trust anything you say when the first thing you do is make my worst nightmare come true?!”

  “Laura’s nightmare,” Nurse Saarinen reminds Kaarina. “Again, you’re not really afraid of heights. Besides, I needed to get you to focus. Daydreaming and living inside your pretty little head won’t get us anywhere. Time is of the essence here. Laura is getting more and more powerful as we speak.” Nurse Saarinen waves an object in her hand—a disc or a hard drive of some sort. “This virus has an expiration date on it.”

  “I already said yes! I’ve already agreed to your fucking plan! Delete Solomon, keep the others safe! And just so you know, this place is so far from a daydream that I don’t even remember what it feels like to think of anything other than death and pain and all the mistakes I made in my miserable lifetime!”

  “At least your martyr act remains spot-on,” Nurse Saarinen says sarcastically. “And if you think you’re done making those mistakes you mentioned, just because you’re dead… well,” Nurse Saarinen turns her back on Kaarina and half-heartedly kicks a small rock on the road. Her head tics to its side as the rock bounces twice on the tarmac and then lands in the puddle between two torn sneakers. “You’re even more naïve than I thought.”