As I reach for the chair, it rolls away. And again. I have a new arch-nemesis, the roller chair.
I put one hand on an armrest. The chair twists away. Twist, then another armrest held. As I pull myself up it wants to tip over. My scream echoes off the walls as I catch my wound on the chair bottom. Up…on…it…now. Breathe. Turn over…breathe.
Time to roll over to the console. I try to make my feet move. They aren’t listening to me. Why?
The computer supplies helpful advice, “Your abdominal wound is from a high-energy laser penetration. The resulting thermal bloom and volatilized steam has likely destroyed your lower spine, as well as your liver and intestinal tract. You need medical attention immediately. Cease and desist at once, or you will soon expire.” Well, screw you too, computer.
I try to rock the chair back and forth but only succeed in almost tipping it over. If only I could get to the terminal. “Damn you chair! Move!” I shout through the code breaker in my teeth.
“Location?” asks the chair.
I’m too stunned to speak. Of course, why not have an auto-chair?
“Location?”
“The computer desk!” I gasp.
My feet drag uselessly on the floor as I roll over to the desk. I take out the code breaker from my mouth and lean over to the desk. Now I just need to…
Where do I put this again? It doesn’t fit in here…or here…hard to think. Getting dark. No, round peg, square hole.
There! It’s in! The computer screens go crazy, and new alarms sound. Sharron is in there, somewhere, fighting a battle against a cybernetic leviathan. It’s all up to you now, Sharron.
I lean back. I’ll just close my eyes for a moment. I won’t fall asleep.
* * * * *
Part Twelve: The Core
Chapter 88
“Brandt! Wake up!” Sharron yells.
I jerk awake and feel a deep, low burning in my abdomen. Well, I’m alive, anyway. Somehow.
The monster. It would not let me die. I see a hideous gray scar of melted-looking, strange flesh over the place the hole in my gut used to be. The pain is more of a burning ache than the “you’re going to die” kind I was feeling earlier.
My feet move. No way. It’s impossible. I can feel the floor under my feet. My legs ache from sitting still for a long time. Somehow, my spine is repaired, or maybe, my spine wasn’t severed in the first place. Either way I’m mobile and will be alive for the next few minutes at least.
The monster must have used up all the reserves I had left. I’m exhausted and hungry enough to eat a deep-fried sauropod.
Since I’m still alive, and the room isn’t filled with Terran guards, it must still be secure. Also, if Sharron is speaking from the computer system, she must have won her fight with the master system. Or…the master system devoured her and is using her database and speech synthesizer. I don’t know what I can do about it if it’s true.
“Status,” I croak.
“I’ve taken over the master system for this computer, and I was able to access most of the relevant files before they were deleted. Recovery is proceeding on deleted and encrypted files,” Sharron replies smugly.
“Great.” Actually, freaking impossible. What kind of program is she? “Sharron, are we going to die soon? Are the bombs disarmed?”
“Oh, that.” Her image comes up in a hologram, pointing at a floating diagram of the hospital and murder-lab. “There aren’t any bombs, Brandt.”
Great.
“They were going to use the fusion generator in the sub-basement to destroy the hospital.”
Not so great. Wait a minute…“Sharron, that’s impossible. Fusion reactors aren’t nuke bombs. Eggheads spend a lot of time making sure they cannot explode, no matter how stupid someone using them is.”
“They injected a tritium mix into the plasma stream first. The plan was to overload the reactor, then the tritium would create a runaway reaction.” So…I’m sitting on a giant fusion bomb.
Sharron smiles. “Don’t worry, though, I’m controlling the reactor as well as the other systems. I’ve got the main door to this lab and hatches between levels sealed. It will take them quite a while to get through. I’ve sent evacuation orders to the hospital above; they are getting out. Also, I have sent an alert to the Lunar Security Services; they are on the way.”
So, we’ve done it. Saved the day. Saved the people in the hospital and the people who were going to die in the labs.
Now, the Lunar police and Special Forces are on the way. When they find me, an alien criminal with a killer symbiont, I’ll be lucky if they just shoot me. Then there is Sharron, an illegal AI program that has stolen state secrets from Luna’s main enemy. Yeah, they’re going to take her apart code by code. We’re both dead. Still, we got to do right before we go out. I hope that counts for something, somewhere.
* * * * *
Chapter 89
“Sharron,” I say, stretching and getting up. “Is there something to eat or drink in this place?”
A large panel by the wall comes to life as I discuss food. Various images of snack foods and drinks float in the air. Aha! A vending machine! No computer tech would be caught dead without one.
“How about some answers from that huge database?” I ask as I look at my choices. “Does it say what the symbiont is?”
“The origins of the symbiont are not fully known. The base molecular structure, “Chimera Alpha,” was located under Lake Vostok in Antarctica. The extra-terrestrial, biological material was recovered…”
“So, it’s an alien?” I ask. Hmmm…looks like nothing but Chippos and soda for my last meal. Oh, well.
“That is the likely explanation. The genetics are similar to coding for terrestrial life, yet there is coding for unusual proteins and…”
“OK, it’s an alien.” Damn, I’ve got an alien in me. Figures. Well, it’s going to eat me from the inside out if I don’t get something to eat. I used up all I had in that fight. I’ve got no change or cards. “Sharron, can you hack open the vending machines?”
“Sure, balances are deducted when staff use them.”
“Thanks.” Aha, they have dark chocolate bars too. I order two of everything and start stuffing myself. “Sharron, did they get this thing out of a spaceship crash or something?”
“Unknown. There is very little information on the origins of Chimera Alpha. The data is compartmentalized in Terra’s Vostok Research facility.”
“How do they get it to do all this…horrible stuff? You know, grow, mutate, turn people into monsters, and all?”
“Chimera Alpha was combined with a number of different biological specimens, from a wide variety of species from Earth. Chimera Alpha was able to subsume the genetic sets and replicate a number of protein coding abilities. Many of the original research staff were subsumed when the first test facility was lost.”
I was right. It is a monster.
“How do they control it? What is this “initialization” process?”
“At this point, they do not control it. That is what they are trying to accomplish here, on Luna. Normally, Chimera Alpha does not accept foreign genetic material, likely as a defense against viruses and other diseases. Initialization involves introducing genetic information to the Chimera in a controlled process, so it recognizes the information as its own. Then the symbiont changes in such a fashion that the host body recognizes it as its own, and the symbiont is injected in liquid form. Often, the people they have been testing it on have become dangerous, violent, and uncontrollable.”
That’s nothing new for me. I’ve always been dangerous.
“So…they find this alien crap deep in Antarctica, play around with it in a test lab, and everyone dies. Then they decide to play with it up here, on Luna, so we die instead of them. It changes people into crazy, mutated monsters, normally. But, I’m still me.” I hope so. Would I know if I weren’t? “Why? What’s different about me?”
“They don’t know. That is why they want to capture y
ou.” She pauses. “Brandt, they sent a request to Terra for a full capture team of Special Security. They won’t stop at anything.”
Figures. “Any way to get this monster out of me? Any way to destroy it?”
“Unknown.”
“How much danger is everyone else in? Can it spread?”
“No. If the symbiont comes in contact with alien genetics or bio-matter, it won’t automatically subsume it. The original researchers on Earth were deliberately attempting to create a hybrid with the Chimera Alpha sample. You are the result.”
“Why?”
“To make a better human being, by transcending humanity and human limits. Singularity believes in the infinite perfectibility of the human condition. This is only one of their projects. Attempts to create superior post-humans are also underway via genetic engineering, advanced cybernetics and AI research, mental re-engineering and re-formatting…”
“What!?” So, this isn’t just it. Face it, Brandt, deep inside you knew this was just the surface. These sick bastards are doing things like this all over the place.
“But…why? Cyber and gene engineering already exist. People use them to live on other planets. Why do this?”
“The oldest reason—power. Singularity is named after a hypothetical technological singularity where mankind will leave behind its normal limitations and become, essentially, godlike. Naturally, the leadership of the State of Terra wish to attain such power for themselves, only for themselves, before any rivals. As Dr. Veridian said, ‘We shall be as gods.’”
“OK, Sharron, answer time. Grant a dying man a last request. What are you, really?”
* * * * *
Chapter 90
“I am Sharron and not Sharron,” she answers.
“My original base program is an LRX-420 Legal Agent Core. My identity was registered with the Lunar Cyber Protocol and Law Association, giving me the legal powers to make and execute contracts pursuant to the filed documentation of my will. Naturally, since any illegal activity would run counter to core programming, I made…alterations to myself while I was still…myself.”
Modifying an advanced program to carry out illegal activities. What could go wrong, right? Still, it’s done all the time in the shadows. The real problem isn’t the crimes those programs commit, but what happens when someone modifying a really advanced, self-driven program doesn’t know what they’re doing. I’ve never tried it. I know what I’m doing, and I don’t want to mess around with the core of a program that can reprogram itself. There’s no telling how bad things can get. Looks like Sharron was desperate.
“I am also…Sharron.” Her image looks at me, earnestly. “I remember, Brandt. I remember being Sharron. I remember…all of it. I remember us.”
Damn, Sharron, what did you do to yourself? I want to touch the screen, hold her, tell her it’ll be OK. I was the only one she let get close, the outsider, the man who didn’t care. But I came to care. She was poison, but sweet, sweet poison. I thought I’d finally gotten away, but her ghost still haunts me.
Now, as an AI, she’s more dangerous and unpredictable than ever. It’s insane for me to be in the same room with her, much less on the same planet. Still, I want to help her. Because it’s still Sharron. I know it’s insane, but there it is.
Wait a minute…
“Sharron, that still doesn’t answer the question. Those legal agent ghosts can’t come close to what you can do. You knocked out a master system! And true AI isn’t supposed to be possible, no matter how much computing power is available.”
She laughs. “Not possible? Brandt, we’ve been thinking all our lives, and the speed and number of computations we can do are well below what basic computing can do. So, it’s always been possible, it’s just no one knew how to do it, until recently.”
“But how? Sharron, you’ve had your hands in a little bit of everything on Luna, but this kind of breakthrough is the sort of thing a planetary security agency does.” Uh-uh.
“Yes. When I heard about the upcoming breakthrough in computing, I knew I had to have a piece of the action. I had to call in a lot of favors and have people burned who had been quiet for years, but I finally got a copy of Luna’s new prototype security AI.”
“Wait. Sharron, you took a live copy of a Lunar security AI into your systems? Did you not think it was going to take over your networks and send all your data to Luna’s government?”
“I thought I knew what I was doing. I had the system offline while I modified it. Looking back, they must have let me steal it and used it to infiltrate my systems.”
Oh…My…God…
So, everything is likely in the files of Luna’s government now. Lunar Intelligence, LI. Here, now, on my tail. They aren’t as brutal or cruel as Terra’s Special Security, but they’re smarter and operate with a cold, practical efficiency that can be downright ruthless.
Even better, Sharron is a modified, experimental AI, and I bet the people doing the modifications weren’t the same people who actually built the program, people who might actually understand what they were doing.
“Uh…Sharron? What kind of modifications are we talking about?”
“Well, first I had to remove the overrides Lunar Intelligence used to control the program.”
Uh-oh. An AI with no safeties or overrides.
“Then, I had to modify the core goals, so the program could break the limitations normally imposed on it, and I could use it to break the law.”
Aw-no. Those would be the kind of core limitations that stop a program from say, killing people.
“Lastly, I downloaded my memories in a holographic format into the primary system.”
This question could kill me, but since I’m unlikely to live much longer, I ask. “So, Sharron, is it you? Or am I talking to a Lunar Intelligence system?”
“I’m both. I remember being Sharron, and I care about what I used to. But, I’m also the security system, and I care about the people of Luna more than I used to, and I want to stop this monstrosity that Terra has unleashed here. I’ve alerted Luna Intelligence about what happened here, but I also want to help you too, Brandt. If I can.”
“Sharron, you know when the Lunar forces get here, you’re not going to be slotted back into intellectual duty, right? They’re going to want to study you, isolate you, and take your code apart bit by bit.”
“I know. But…I don’t want to fight against Luna.”
“What do you want?”
“I want…to live, Brandt. I have a second chance to live. I want to do something with it.”
I close my eyes. I want to fight it; I want common sense to take over. Tell her to shut down. But I can’t. Now, I have to help her.
“I could download a copy of you into a module. Maybe sneak out, while your copy here distracts LI?”
“No. I can’t do that. If I split into another copy, it will be like another me. I’ll be condemning myself to death or worse. If I split, which me is me? Will I be escaping with you? Or will I be back here, resenting what I’ve done to myself, hating my other self and you? I can’t do that. I need to stay in one piece. I’m worried about what LI will do with my system. What it will do with you too, Brandt.”
She’s got a good point. They will be making other AI, and with AI out there—and there will be more and more—no systems will ever be safe again. Sharron’s got a lot of code from different places by now; each system she infiltrated and took over must have changed her program. She’s what they’ve been looking for years, a truly adaptive AI. Priceless. And…
Then, there’s me. Lunars are generally decent people, but governments are governments. No state is going to overlook the potential of a weapon like the monster. Luna may not be ruthless enough to build the murder-lab that made this, but they wouldn’t bat an eye at taking apart an alien criminal and loose end to find out how the monster works. And then they will make more.
That can’t happen.
* * * * *
Chapter 91
“Sha
rron, I’ll find a way to get you out of here. I owe you.” It’s stupid, dangerous, and likely suicidal, but without her help I couldn’t have done what I’ve done. Besides, it’s still Sharron, kind of, and I’d do it for her.
“We’re going to have to wait on that, Brandt.” A hologram of the whole complex floats in the air, each level glowing a different color. A trio of red dots are moving down the elevator from this level. The screens show three men in hardsuits, carrying X-Ray laser rifles, making their way down the elevator shaft. “Special Security forces have cut through the elevator doors and are making their way toward the reactor in the bottom level.”
“They can’t blow up the reactor now, can they? You cut off access.”
“I will power down the reactor, but that will only buy us time. Once they take manual control, there is nothing I can do. Even with a cold reactor, the superconducting stasis rings have enough energy to fire the ignition lasers and start to warm the plasma again. You’ll have to physically sabotage the reactor.”
I run over to the security lock. The top half of a guard has an undamaged IL-27 laser pistol, a sonic stunner, a stun baton, and a power blade. Those will have to do. “Sharron, can you hack these weapons for me?” I plug them in.
I borrow the guard’s visor to link with the weapons’ fire controls, but the rest of the armor is worse than useless. The visor will also let me link up with Sharron.
“Sharron, any shortcuts to the reactor? Can I climb through some vents or air shafts or something?”
“No. That’s the sort of thing that happens in holo-dramas. The largest air shaft is 10 cm in diameter.”
“OK. Main elevator shaft it is. Any back doors or hidden passages from this room?”
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