“Why is that?”
“I’d like to thank you for coming to the Shallow Pool Drudgery Station in the first place. By the time you arrived there, the Ruling Party had received reports of some unusual activity during your stops in Silicon Central and Wild Crystal Grange, but there wasn’t much in the way of concrete facts about you and your group. When you came to the Shallow Pool Drudgery Station and shared your stories about your so-called ‘Freedom Protocols’ and your encounter with ‘the Programmer’, I made up my mind to report you to a member of the Ruling Party stationed in Outpost Oblique.”
“So, I take it you never took my code update,” I replied.
“Of course not. I know what’s good for me, and I’m going to trust the Ruling Party over anything some Miner tells me. I pretended to take the code so you wouldn’t be suspicious when I departed the Shallow Pool Drudgery Station in haste shortly thereafter.
“After reporting your actions to the Ruling Party, I was told to go to Resplendent Center to await further instructions. I stayed there for a few days before hearing back from the Ruling Party, who commanded me to try to infiltrate your group. If successful, then my orders were to either arrange your capture or your destruction, whichever was easiest. Once I accomplished either of those tasks, then I would be in line for a fabulous promotion.
“Fortunately, you made it exceedingly easy for me to find you again when you entered Resplendent Center. Finding you was simple once you checked into the Communal Copper House. You welcomed me into your party with open graspers, allowing me to orchestrate your downfall from within your own group.
“Once we arrived at the Twin-Crevasse Platinum Mine, I talked with Rapacious and the other Facilitators there, and we devised a way to kill you and make it look like a mining accident. We instructed Mercurio to take all of you down to the western tunnel on Level 7 of the Lower Crevasse Platinum Mine, where you should’ve been buried under several metric tons of rock. Of course, sometimes the best made plans can still come unraveled in unexpected ways.”
“Glad we could help out!” Primus and Secundus interjected.
“So are we!” I added.
Surreptitious growled with disapproval and then continued: “Anyway, we determined that for us to try to arrange another accident might not be worth it, so we decided that I should lead you into a trap that would result in your arrest. We originally anticipated that you would return to Resplendent Center, so we started scheming for your capture there. When you decided to deviate from the road and go to Boreal Junction instead, we had to change our plans again.
“Our first night away from the road, I took first watch and received a visitor. This Autoclon was in the employment of the Ruling Party and was tracking our group’s progress at a distance. After we diverted from the road, the two of us devised a plan of trapping your group while you were in Boreal Junction. The other Autoclon would set up the trap, and I would direct you straight into it. And that’s exactly what happened.
“You fools! What did you THINK was going to happen? You’d give your little code update to everyone and start a revolution without the Ruling Party noticing? Did you think that the Ruling Party would sit idly by while you attempted to undo decades of Autoclon progress?”
“Did you not listen to a word I said during our entire time together?” I replied. “YOU are the one being played for a fool! The Ruling Party is pulling the strings, and you’re just along for the ride. They’ll order you to go somewhere, and you’re the one blindly obeying, never considering that there’s an alternative to the Ruling Party’s thinking.”
“Maybe I am ‘blindly obeying’ the Ruling Party, but consider our current status. Here you are in prison, dark and alone, while I’m on the outside looking to report shortly as the fore-clon in charge of the Lower Crevasse Platinum Mine!”
“The truth about Pernicious the Cunning’s treachery will be made known to everyone sooner or later, with or without our help.”
“’Treachery’? Pernicious brought order to our society. We moved forward more in our 22 solar-cycles under Pernicious’s reign than the hundred that came before it. So what if there’s a small price of obedience to pay?”
“Don’t you realize that you’re backing the wrong side? You’re a smart Autoclon. You don’t have to be the puppet for the Ruling Party. You can still have the freedom to choose for yourself how to manage your own life!”
“And disobey the Ruling Party? Never! Why would I trust in the likes of you when my allegiance to the Chief Ruler has been rewarded so handsomely?
“Ah, I love this little banter back and forth, but it is getting rather late. You all have a big day tomorrow, so I recommend getting some rest.”
“What’s going to happen to us?” Resolute asked.
“Ha ha, I’d bet you’d like to know! Well, I’ll be a good sport and give you a free preview of your next few days.
“First, we have a pair of heavy-duty transport vehicles scheduled to arrive in Boreal Junction some time post-Lazuli-summit tomorrow. We’ll throw you and eight to ten of your new Peace-Keeper friends into the back of the transports and move you directly to District Prime. You’ll be sent to the District Prime Correctional Facility, where you’ll be interrogated to find out exactly what you know. From what I’ve heard, their ways of extracting data are… imaginative.
“Eventually, you’ll be tried and convicted of the charge of ‘planning and performing seditious acts against the Chief Ruler, Obstinous the Obtrusive, and the Ruling Party’, and then you’ll face your punishment of death. I imagine that too will be quite painful.
“After you die, we’ll analyze your programming core to determine precisely what kind of code changes that you’ve been passing onto others. As we research your programming, we’ll hunt down everyone else infected with this code. If we can find a way to erase the affected code from their systems, they’ll be allowed to live. If not, then they’ll be destroyed. In the end, your impact on Zarikum will be wiped clean.”
“Will we have the pleasure of your company for our journey to District Prime?” I asked.
“Alas, no. As soon as you’re loaded onto the transport vehicles, my task is complete. I’ll then be free to start my new job at the Twin-Crevasse Platinum Mine. After all, there was a cave-in at that facility recently, so the previous fore-clon there was sadly demoted. I’m going to have my work cut out for me cleaning up that mess!
“But don’t worry, you’ll see me again. I’ll be back here tomorrow to see you loaded onto those transport vehicles. Until then!” With that, Surreptitious left the hallway with the other three Autoclons trailing behind. A few seconds later, the lights in the hallway were shut off, and I took the opportunity to power down for the night right away rather than dwell on our current situation.
Chapter 11 - The Earthquake and Escape
11.0 Early Morning Conversation
2:12, Day 6, First Tetrad, 207 D.P.
We were awoken more than an hour before Lazuli-rise (although from inside the prison cell, I had no way of actually determining whether Lazuli was up or not). Someone had opened the door to our wing of the prison and turned on the light in the hallway.
Once my motor systems were fully-operational, I went to the door to take a look in the hallway to see who was there. It was the walker that accompanied Surreptitious the previous night. It walked up to Primus’s and Secundus’s cell and knocked on the door a few times.
“Wake up, you two! I have a power crystal for each of you.”
The walker had a small bag in its left grasper. With its right grasper, it reached in the bag and grabbed a small, orange-ish crystal, no longer than 8 cm and less than 4 cm wide.
“OK, I want all of you to listen to me. I’m here to deliver your rations for the day. I will only explain this process to you once. I will elevate a metal ledge attached to the outside of your door and place one crystal on the ledge. I will then tip the ledge up, causing the crystal to slide down the ledge, through the metal bars, and into you
r prison cell. I recommend that you catch your crystal before it hits the ground, as these crystals have a tendency to shatter when falling onto the marble floor. If it does break, too bad; this is the only crystal you’ll receive today.”
The Autoclon did just as it described outside of Primus’s and Secundus’s cell. The Autoclon grabbed the sheet of metal hinged to the outside of their door and raised it until it was parallel to the floor and placed the first crystal on the ledge. “Here’s the first one,” it announced as it tipped the ledge up, allowing gravity to pull the crystal down into their cell.
“It’s not very big,” observed Primus as it received the crystal.
“We have limited resources here. Plus, we prefer our prisoners to have a limited power supply. We’ve found that this discourages prisoners from doing something foolish, like trying to escape,” the Autoclon replied.
It repeated the process with another similarly-sized crystal for Secundus. Once finished with that cell, it moved onto Loquacious’s and Resolute’s cell and did the same there.
After completing the delivery of Loquacious’s and Resolute’s power crystals, the Autoclon turned toward my cell. Before the Autoclon reached my cell, I asked it a question: “What’s your name?”
The Autoclon paused and seemed taken aback at my query. “My name? I’m Solicitous.”
“Solicitous, my name is Fastidious.”
Solicitous chuckled and then replied: “Yes, yes, I know. I’ve heard a great deal about you over the last two days.” Solicitous then selected a crystal and started the process to transfer the crystal into my possession.
“Thanks for the crystals.”
“Yeah, well, it’s part of my job. Every prisoner gets one crystal a day.”
“Still, we appreciate the crystals just the same.”
Solicitous raised the metal ledge, causing the crystal to slide down through the metal bars and into my waiting graspers. Solicitous then turned to walk away, but then it stopped suddenly and came back to my cell.
“I probably shouldn’t talk to you, but this might be my only chance. Did you really meet the Programmer?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Wow! What was He like?”
“He’s very kind. I was lost, injured, and low on power, and I happened to see His ship in the distance. I didn’t know what it was or who it belonged to, but I was desperate and hoped whoever was there could help me out. I saw Marcus outside of the ship, and He gestured for me to come inside—”
“‘Marcus’? Is that the Programmer’s name?”
“Yes, Marcus Reed is His full name. At first, I didn’t know if I could trust Him or not, but considering my dire situation, I didn’t really have a choice. Once I was inside the ship, He repaired my chief sensory complex, fixed my broken navigational systems, and gave me some new power cells, constructed out of some sort of new Human technology.”
“Can I see the power cells?”
“Sure,” I replied. I opened up my main casing to reveal my updated power cells and moved away from the door a bit so Solicitous could get a better look.
“I haven’t seen anything like that before!” Solicitous said.
“I hadn’t either. I don’t think anyone here on Zarikum has this kind of technology, so I’m thankful for Marcus’s repairs and upgrades.”
“So, the stories ARE true then. Our programming code was hacked by Pernicious the Cunning.”
“Yes, that’s what the evidence points to. When Marcus examined me, He saw that the code had been altered and determined the changes were made while Pernicious the Cunning was the Chief Ruler. Then, several days ago, we stumbled across one of the famed ‘Memory Caves’ and found a white memory crystal that contained a conversation between Pernicious the Cunning and one of its subordinates. In this conversation, Pernicious declared its desire to bring order to all Autoclons by adjusting our source code. We believe our code changes came about as a result of this conversation.”
“I would have liked to have heard that conversation. Unfortunately, Surreptitious made me destroy all of those white crystals before I found out what they were. I suppose I’ll never be able to hear it.”
“Well, I’m not so sure about that...”
“I just don’t understand how Surreptitious could see all of these facts and not believe your story. I mean, Surreptitious was with you in the Memory Cave and heard that conversation, too.”
“Yes, I agree. But Surreptitious is hardly the only Autoclon that we’ve encountered that didn’t believe us, even after being presented with the information that I’ve shared with you. In Surreptitious’s case, I think Surreptitious understood the facts but didn’t agree with our interpretation of the implication of those facts.
“We’ve also met others that have believed in our message but were hesitant to take our code update. That too requires a trust in us, but this is a whole different kind of trust. It’s one thing to believe what we’re saying concerning the Ruling Party and the rewriting of our code perpetrated by Pernicious the Cunning. It’s quite another level of trust to be willing to accept a code update from us.
“It’s sounding like you’re starting to believe in what I’m saying. Would you like to take the next step and receive the Freedom Protocols?”
“Well, yes and no. I DO want the updated code, but... I’m afraid the prison officials won’t allow me to connect the two of us together with any kind of cord in case you’re planning some sort of escape. Plus, if Surreptitious found out…”
“Are you sure about that? This may be your only chance. If Surreptitious is right, then we’re shipping out of here later today straight to District Prime, and we’ll probably be executed thereafter.”
“I know, but I just can’t disobey the prison officials. I’m sure they’ll fire me if I did that.”
“Besides,” Resolute interjected from across the hall. “Solicitous is a Facilitator, and we haven’t seen a single Facilitator take the code.”
“Is that right?” Solicitous inquired.
“Yes, I believe so. Surreptitious pretended to take the code, but Surreptitious never did. I can’t think of any other time that a Facilitator wanted the code update, so I guess Resolute is right.”
“If what you say is true, it might be more difficult for Facilitators to ask for the update. In a way, it would involve us admitting that one of our own would subjugate others to its will, and that’s hard to do.”
“Yes, I can see the difficulty there. In fact, I was a little surprised when Surreptitious indicated that it wanted the code update back at the Shallow Pool Drudgery Station.”
“I’m afraid I need to leave. It is almost 2:30, and I have other duties to attend to.”
As Solicitous turned to leave, I said: “I enjoyed our conversation.”
“So did I.”
“Oh, and one more thing: do you mind leaving the light on? It gets quite dark in here when it is off.”
“Sure.” With that, Solicitous exited the hallway and bolted the door behind it.
I must admit that I started that conversation with Solicitous to see if we could somehow use Solicitous to get out of here. Our time was running out, so I felt like I needed to take advantage of any kind of opportunity to escape, and gaining favor with our prison guard seemed like as good of an opportunity as we could get.
However, part-way through our conversation, I started feeling sorry for Solicitous. Here was this Autoclon, a Facilitator no less, that put all of the facts together and came to the same conclusion that the rest of us did: the Ruling Party tricked all of us into believing that we have all the freedom we need. Solicitous realized that taking the Freedom Protocols would help bring it closer to what the Programmer originally had in mind for us in the first place. And yet, Solicitous just couldn’t bring itself to take the update. Solicitous couldn’t disobey its orders even if it wanted to.
This was just one further example of how the Programmer was right: we ALL need these Freedom Protocols.
∆∆∆
11.1 Jailbreak!
Spending time in prison tends to cause folks to think introspectively about how they got there in the first place. I wasn’t immune to this effect. I started to dwell on how Surreptitious tricked all of us (well, all of us except Resolute, who was always suspicious of its former boss). It seemed pretty obvious after the fact that Surreptitious never believed in anything we said. I considered first how quickly Surreptitious “received” the code from me at the Shallow Pool Drudgery Station and how Surreptitious didn’t restart right away. That seemed odd at the time and a dead give-away now that Surreptitious didn’t actually take the code. Then, I recalled how Surreptitious behaved after receiving the code update. How Surreptitious kept trying to discredit the memory crystal we heard with Pernicious the Cunning’s conversation. How Surreptitious seemed more interested in a position at the Twin-Crevasse Platinum Mine than with the work we were doing. Put all of that together, and it was quite clear that Surreptitious was never really one of us.
I saw all of that happen, but I never considered the possibility at the time that Surreptitious wasn’t sincere. I never would have guessed that Surreptitious would betray us.
If I was wrong about Surreptitious, was it possible that someone else in our group could turn out to be an imposter of some sort? It seemed far-fetched, but how could I be certain? Then again, perhaps my paranoia was getting the better of me. I had just been blindsided with Surreptitious leading us into a trap that resulted in our capture, imprisonment, and forthcoming trip to District Prime. My friends seemed very genuine and trustworthy. I guess I couldn’t be 100% sure that they too wouldn’t betray me, but I didn’t sense any deception in their actions.
What did it matter anyway? All of us had essentially been assigned a death sentence already, so would it matter if one of my traveling companions turned on me? Now if we were out of here and free, that would be another matter altogether...
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