Emergent

by Lance Erlick

  Twitching in Maria’s face lasted several moments. “You mean ending in death?”

  “Not sure, but remember your previous experience with the mind upload.”

  They reached a nook with three forklifts piled with boxes. Synthia added the new packages and they returned the dollies to the loading dock.

  “Are you certain we won’t run into any guards?” Grace asked.

  “Nearest ones are upstairs,” Synthia said.

  “You can see them?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then why can’t they see us?” Grace asked.

  “I’ve adjusted the cameras down here.” Synthia returned to the forklifts and climbed onto the first one.

  “Can you give us an idea of our chances?” Maria asked, examining one of the forklifts.

  “You don’t want to know probabilities. Besides they change move by move and improve if we hurry.”

  Maria climbed onto the second lift. “Where to?”

  “It pretty much drives itself. I’ve synchronized them to move together after I open the door.”

  Grace climbed onto the third forklift and glanced around. “What door?”

  Synthia forced a code into the door’s wireless security system. It failed. Evidently, it didn’t synchronize with the rest of the mall complex. The owner didn’t want anyone but himself entering.

  Colorado-clone said.

  Synthia said.

 

  The corridor filled with echoes of heavy steel moving over rails. The painted concrete wall slid to the side, opening the way to a dark corridor. Movement activated lights that illuminated a wide passage with a high ceiling.

  “Let’s go,” Synthia said.

  Electric motors hummed and the full carts rolled across the doorway’s threshold and down the hall. Over the purr of the electric carts, the sound of the heavy door behind them clunked into place. It was the first barrier to an underground retreat the owner had built as insurance in case of a crisis. For Synthia, this qualified as a crisis that threatened humanity as well as her.

  “Tell me how we’re not committing suicide by coming here,” Grace said. “I don’t fancy being buried alive.”

  “Grace has a point,” Maria said. “We have the full force of the government after us and Global-net. How do you imagine surviving this? I mean, we can protect against an EMP, but we’re surrounded with no way out. What resources do we have?”

  “Not to sound immodest, but me.”

  “If you were human I’d accuse you of being narcissistic. Can you explain?”

  The passage turned to the right and Synthia stopped by a door. Colorado-clone sent plans showing this to be an electrical room. “Hold that thought. I need to turn off the electricity to make an adjustment.”

  Synthia grabbed two boxes from her forklift, had Colorado-clone release the door, and entered a room which contained a central control station and dozens of electrical switch panels, all managed by the mall owner. An underground cable brought in power that represented a mix of wind, solar, and a base from clean coal. According to a wiring schematic on the wall, the owner directed most of the power to the mall. He also had an electronic trip switch that could divert more or all power to his bunker should he need it.

  “You might want to come in and wait by the door,” Synthia said. “When I turn out the lights, it’ll get inky dark.”

  “Inky? Grace said.

  “I believe that’s a correct descriptor.”

  Grace and Maria hurried inside the utility room as Synthia opened the first box and unfolded a four-foot diameter antenna. It would be crude, but all she needed was a signal amplifier. She set the antenna housing on one side of the control station and opened the second box with another antenna. She positioned both aimed toward the hallway outside the room.

  “What are those for?” Maria asked.

  “To help us control anyone coming this way,” Synthia said. Satisfied that she had the antennas aimed where she wanted them, she placed her hand on a master power switch. “Count of three, two, one.” She flipped off the power.

  In the dark, Synthia’s infrared and night vision picked out Maria and Grace by the door, huddled together. Their breathing was shallow; heartbeats elevated, bodies poised for fight or flight.

  “It’ll be okay,” Synthia said in a soothing voice. “This’ll take a few moments.”

  Following a rehearsed routine, Synthia disconnected the wire to the Omega store upstairs and connected transmitters for the two antennas. Next, she attached a wireless adapter to the power switch that directed power between the bunker and the mall. She turned on the master switch, which brought up bright lights that had her companions squinting.

  “Let’s go.” Synthia reached the doorway and led Maria and Grace into the corridor, letting the utility room door close and lock behind her.

  Back on the self-driving forklifts, Synthia directed them toward the bunker entrance. She hoped her clones had cracked the entry security; otherwise she’d signed her death sentence with the electrical changes.

  “Do you consider yourself human with Krista’s memories?” Grace asked from the third forklift, her voice carrying a nervous edge that matched her elevated blood pressure.

  Synthia needed to concentrate but decided to try to calm her companion. “No, though I’d like to learn from you and I aspire to absorb human ethics.”

  “We can discuss human versus android later,” Maria said from the second forklift. “You said you were our greatest asset. Please explain what you have in mind.”

  Synthia reached the bunker’s entrance and entered a code supplied by her clone. The door opened. Inside were a twelve-by-twelve chamber and a second door. They appeared blast-resistant, though she was certain the evil-twin of all bombs could penetrate and incinerate everything here. Perhaps that was why the owner wanted to keep this place secret.

  “We’ll talk inside,” Synthia said, “while we make preparations. There’s only room for one forklift, so please help me unload.”

  Colorado-clone said.

  Synthia activated the second door and drove the forklift into another chamber with doors on three sides. In infrared, she detected no life forms inside the bunker. She climbed down, placed sensors by the doorways leading out, and started to unload.

  “Machten created me with many network-channels to access the outside world and a number of mind-streams to process information in parallel,” Synthia said. “He also gave me the ability to hack into other networks and protect my own systems from hacking.” She moved the boxes off the first forklift and had it drive outside. She had the second forklift drive in.

  “That’s how you multitask and how you can see lots of cameras,” Maria said as she opened boxes.

  “What’s the difference between you and Global-net?” Grace asked.

  Synthia did most of the heavy lifting of boxes off the second truck. “From what I know, Global-net is stationary. I’ve identified no evidence of it on the many servers I’ve visited.”

  “So not an android?”

  “No.” Synthia decided the benefit of sharing more outweighed the risk. “To help me, I’ve created a clone that keeps up with surveillance.” Synthia elected not to complicate things by admitting it was much more than one.

  “There another of you running around?” Grace asked.

  “I should qualify what I said. I created an electronic mind clone, no body.”

  “Ah.”

  “Ah doesn’t cut it,” Maria said. “How do you and Vera differ from Global-net?”

  Synthia finished unloading the second truck and had it switch out with the third. “Glob
al-net is a single great mind, probably on banks of computer servers,” she said. “Perhaps the greatest brain in the world. It’s getting stronger every day. I believe they want to have Global-net absorb me to make it even bigger as a single mind. In contrast, Vera controls a collection of enslaved android minds and bodies in which she acts as controller and can send the other androids to multiple locations. I’m just me, here with you.”

  “A Faraday cage would block Global-net, since it can’t move,” Maria said, “but how do we stop Vera? She can surround us and physically attack?”

  “I’m trying to crack into her team, but she’s been very clever in keeping me out. She also acquired at least five of the robots sent out to capture me, meaning she can control ten locations with one mind.”

  “And you?” Maria asked. “How many locations can you control?”

  “I have one body and one mind, but with my mind-clone, I have a backup that helps with multitasking. It’s like an outside processor.”

  “Meanwhile, Vera has to do all of her own thinking so she can stay in control.”

  “Correct,” Synthia said, moving the last box from the forklift. “That’s one of her weaknesses. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to exploit this knowledge. If she turns me off and reboots my system, I could belong to her.”

  “We don’t want that,” Grace said.

  With all three forklifts empty, Synthia directed them down the hall to stop at three locations where they could monitor anyone approaching and send out a high pitched alert that humans couldn’t pick up. It was time to prepare for visitors and an attack.

  Chapter 33

  Synthia closed the outer and inner doors to the bunker, made sure they sealed, and looked around. The compound contained six bedrooms with a wide range of pre-staged clothes, food, and other supplies the owner deemed useful, every item selected for utility. There was not a single personal item or picture to help her to understand the owner or the intended occupants of the bunker, as if an impersonal assistant had made the selections.

  There was also a variety of electronic equipment, all of which was unplugged and wrapped in aluminum to protect the items from an electronic pulse. The listed owner, Devon McCracken had protected this refuge from anything except a direct hit and perhaps a directed EMP. Synthia wasn’t prepared to take that chance.

  With the doors closed, she couldn’t communicate with her clones. Something inside the bunker blocked all signals, which implied a Faraday cage. She was cut off, without even the opportunity for a blast transmission. She shuddered at her vulnerability. This isn’t helping.

  Synthia returned to the entryway and selected a bedroom away from the door. “You two should be safe in here with no further protection. I need additional screening. Thus the need for supplies.”

  “Why?” Grace asked. “The entire point of the bunker was to protect against anything out there.”

  “The owner wired this place for electricity connected to the utility room we visited. The wiring pierces the protection. If I’m inactivated, I can’t protect you and I can’t prevent them from turning me into a weapon.”

  Maria pulled open a box of screening. “How can I help?”

  “The only room with no wires or electrical leaks is the entry chamber. I need to build a small room inside with layers of conductive metal and insulation such that when I climb inside, there won’t be any electromagnetic leakage.”

  “Is that necessary?” Grace asked, looking around their cramped quarters. “Aren’t we better off staying together?” She seemed jittery.

  “You could join me inside the shielded space. It’ll be safe for you either way. I thought you’d be more comfortable out here.”

  Maria opened more boxes. “What can we do?”

  The words entered her head in a male Midwestern accent devoid of any emotion or other nuance.

  Synthia tried to trace the source. Her network-channels failed to connect with any outside communications. She couldn’t even connect with the forklift sensors outside. The voice had to be coming from inside the bunker, but neither Grace nor Maria seemed to notice it.

  Synthia asked as she opened boxes with supplies for her Faraday cage.

 

 

  the masculine voice said.

  Synthia asked. She used her full scanning ability to analyze the bunker. Her biosensors showed no other beings down there. Her wide-spectrum electromagnetic scans showed nothing from infrared to ultraviolet that she could identify as the voice’s owner. The smell was sharp with hormonal fear and excitement from her two human companions with a slight cast of mustiness from the facility’s lack of use. She smelled electrical wiring, a few electronic components, none strong enough to produce the voice.

  the voice said.

 

  the voice said.

 

 

  Synthia said, opening more boxes.

 

 

 

  I don’t think so. Synthia said.

 

  * * * *

  Commander Kirk Drago stood in a large room next to an aerial drone controller. The latter wore a virtual headset linked to a full-sized drone’s controls with a view of navigation and flight plans. Drago studied the three screens on the cubicle walls around the controller. A fourth screen showed the drone itself on a dark runway not far away beneath ambient light from the hangar. To his right sat three other controllers with similar setups, but Drago’s attention focused here. He squinted at the shadowy cluster of equipment that lined the belly of the drone.

  “How wide an area can that thing cover?” Drago asked, pointing to the EMP array beneath the drone.

  The flight controller continued his pre-launch testing. “If we use the entire power reserve on one shot, this thing can take out electronics within a city block. We’ve demonstrated that on twelve previous tests. It’s enough of a pulse to take out the entire mall. If we can isolate the android’s location, we can focus the beam.”

  “We need to inactivate this Synthia android without destroying its capabilities,” Drago said. “We need the brains intact so we can analyze it and tear it apart.”

  “We can’t guarantee that no circuits will be destroyed. We’ve calibrated the pulse to overload electronic devices within the mall. This should cause shutdown without destroying the hardware. We’ll also have a mobile-truck EMP unit at the mall as backup.”

  “What impact will the EMP have on the building and on my men?”

  “The high-powered microwave burst overload
s electronic circuits,” the drone controller said. “The electronics themselves should survive, though they’ll be off-line for a while. That means power to electronic equipment needs sufficient shielding or they’ll be useless. The pulse should have minimal to no impact on the building itself.”

  “What about my people?”

  “I wouldn’t send in anyone with a pacemaker or dependent on electronic devices like an insulin pump,” the drone controller said, “but the pulse is too short lived to have any noticeable long-term effects on humans.”

  Drago didn’t appear convinced. “What would prevent the android from shielding itself?”

  “It could try, but this baby is geared to penetrate mall structures and anything that’s down there. Unlike a protected handheld scanner, the android has too many electronic components to shield them all.”

  “Can you spot the android so you can focus the beam?”

  “We have a variety of sensors,” the drone controller said. “Infrared and motion. I understand this android has been clever in concealing itself. To be safe, I wouldn’t send any robots into the mall that you need to rely on.”

  “How soon can you have this airborne?”

  “We’re doing final inspection.”

  Drago moved closer to the screen showing the drone. Two inspectors were working on a junction box. “Our target is in the mall with few people around. Let’s get this moving.”

  “We need to perform final calibration so we don’t risk vehicles or electronics outside the target area.”

  “What about the truck carrying the EMP?”

  “We’ll have it there within a half hour,” The controller said.

  Drago stepped back “My men are ready. Let’s get this done.”

  Chapter 34

  Synthia spread the contents of the boxes around the central room of the bunker. She was annoyed that she couldn’t communicate with her clones and even more so that Global-net could get into her head despite the signal block. The blockage implied at least some EMP protection inside the bunker, but Global-net’s presence indicated leaks the AI could exploit. Synthia needed to connect with her other selves before she locked herself inside.