Evolution / Upgrade
-=1=-
The small gathering of technophiles at the shared house had gathered in the front room, a news feed ran in the background, as Messiah, Joshua and Oracle sat hunched around a selection of books. It was funny that these guys were so attached to real books. Beth had explained that there was a certain something about books, that kept at least some part of the reader welded to reality, it reminded Uli of the cryptic message on her notebook. Beth and Wyvern explained some of the finer points of V-clan culture to Uli. it was a lot like a secret society. A V-clan was not limited by physical location merely grid firewalls that locked various sections away from others. These were often corporate in nature. Most V-clans were identified by huge alpha-numeric strings, often tens of thousands of spaces long. These labels would also change on a regular basis and were primarily used to tag and encrypt data. They were always on-line one way or another, through virtual shades interacting with the real world grid overlay, through pdas and cells', through terminals, computers and personal grid interfaces. A V-clanner viewed their body as just another extension to their ethereal presence on-line It scared her, but it amazed her as well,
“So how come you guys hate Zenith so much?” Uli asked, slinking back into a retro styled beanbag.
“Simple, everyone needs someone to hate, “ Beth said, pouring a drink clumsily, then offering the bottle around.
“Huh?” Uli rested her head on her palm,
“First there was AT and T,” Beth started
“Are you sure it wasn't some bell company?” Wyvern said leaning forward over a magazine.
“I'm sure, anyway then IBM, then Microsoft, then Tryex Corporation, now Zenith” Beth shrugged.
“Hola Beth that ain't quite true,” Messiah had dropped in on the conversation, a reasonable sized spliff in his hand,
“Don't mind if I do” Said Beth snatching the spliff cheekily, as Messiah continued,
“Zenith are a bunch of lying, thieving, shifty, backstabbing, bastards who don't deserve to be rated in such an illustrious list!” Messiah said, with a slight look of confusion as to where his joint had gone.
“But why?” Uli sat up and focused again.
“Six years ago several other corporations formed to create Zenith, whose soul purpose was to gain complete control of the global grid infrastructure”
“Why?” Uli asked again.
“Once all grid infrastructure was under complete corporate control the governments of the world are completely controlled by the corporations” Messiah said moving his seat around.
“Messiah may seem a bit unhinged, but it has a horrid slant of reality to it.” Joshua sat down at Uli's feet. “You see as we all know the modern world is reliant on one thing, the data lines. Everything is connected to the grids, everything. If someone on the board of directors wanted to cripple a government, they could quite easily do so.”
“Well a few small shell scripts anyway” said Wyvern, as she necked back her glass.
“Hey honeys, there's something on the news feed” Oracle said,
They all looked up, the government was going to declare a state of national emergency. Night time curfews were to be put in place, anyone breaking curfew would be arrested. They watched the report, it was mostly the normal stuff about there being nothing to worry about, and it all being merely a precaution. There wasn't really an atmosphere of surprise in the house, only Uli seemed to be affected, she was scared, her heart was racing, Joshua turned round, a confidence and certainty in his manner.
“Don't worry Uli, you'll be fine” He rested his hand on hers and gently squeezed, it felt as though a sudden warmth spread through her arm, to her chest and then the rest of her body. This is something new, she thought looking down at him.
“Okay,” She sheepishly smiled, then yawned, “kind of sleepy now” she added, looking around catching Beth's sleepy eyes.
“S'okay hun, I've gotta spare bed in my room if you want?” said Beth sitting up, stretching slender arms like a cat. Uli nodded. “I'm gonna hit the hay too guys, see ya in the afternoon” she said looking at the clock. Uli gave Joshua a peck on the cheek and then waved goodnight to the others.
-=2=-
The outstretched hand of Zenith, a logo known to all. The corporation that could single handedly turn off the planet. One of many allowed to protect it's critical infrastructure from threats, and maintain their own para-military force. The large board room, now with only three people, the chairman at the head of the table, a handsome young man who was the chairman's secretary, and a woman in uniform.
“Mia, this is the final step, all of the pieces are in play.” The old chairman said, eyes fixed, piercing her black heart.
“We are ready. As long as the implementation has been successful our operation shall be like a graceful dance.” Her voice projected effortlessly eyes, her burned, windows to an icy hell.
“I have no doubt that your forces shall sweep through their supporters with ease Mia, however I am yet to see a system implemented that works first time”
“Neither have I – it's a wonder that anything has ever worked.”
“Oh that vicious disdain for technology, you no wonder you love that blade so much. Your troops know their prime objectives?” He smiled
“Gain control of the primary data centres, secure power facilities, eliminate any resistance. Leave the rest to the defectors”
“Indeed, there shall be many opportunities for your love of wet-work I'm sure. Remember my dear, those data centres are vital, and must be captured before they have a chance to cause any damage.” He locked a stern gaze on her.
“They shan't have a chance to think about it, as long as the desired civilian chaos is in place.”
“It shall be.”
“Good”
“Then it's decided, at 06:00 tomorrow we shall conclude this.”
-=3=-
Section six, south of the river Thames, habitat block 11. Gun shots ring out from above the street, a group of police troopers run for the cover of an upturned van, smoke pouring from smashed windows, bodies of rioters and police scattered across the main road. The police commander surveyed the situation through his binoculars, a Molotov cocktail fell from a window onto a group of police huddled behind some debris, the fire spilt over them. Shouts and cheers could be heard from the buildings.
“What's the word from the military?” The commander asked his communications officer, who was huddled behind an armoured van.
“No news sir, looks like the PM hasn't given them permission to break barracks!” the panic stricken man said.
“Well what the hell are we supposed to do! Damn, is the perimeter secure?”
“Yes sir, the riot is contained here, however sir, word is we aren't the only saps caught up in this shit” Said the communications officer, over the radio chaotic, panic stricken voices.
“How the hell am I going to get those guys out of there,” the commander checked through his binoculars again. An armoured woman came running up, burn marks and grime evident on the protective gear.
“Sir, my teams just got in from section 9, we just brought down the rioters. Need a hand here?” the emblem on her shoulder was a dragon and the letters S.A.R.T. which stood for Special Armoured response Team.
“About time I got some real support. We've got between fifty and a hundred armed individuals, probably gang members and fanatics jumping on the opportunity to shoot up some police. They ambushed a pair of evacuation teams, I've got about six men down, another eight injured, we didn't know what we were dealing with and the next team to turn up ended up getting caught in the soup too. We've got the perimeter locked down now, but our units are taking heavy fire in there.” The commander said grimly.
The S.A.R.T. trooper looked at the buildings through her binoculars. “How about we just bring the buildings down?”
“What about loss of life, our job is to protect after all” The commander looked at the scene again.
“Commander, we're on our own out here, Central is in turmoil, the armies grounded and the Cabinet is wetting itself. If these guys want to shoot the hell out of us, why should we play by the book?” She said, the commander nodded.
“I agree, besides those buildings don't look very stable, probably suffered a lot of structural damage”
“But Sir!” The communications officer blurted
“Shut up” The commander said crossings his arms. “Bring those buildings to the ground, get my teams out of there.” The commander put his binoculars down, shook his head, as the woman jogged off to her team.
“I can't believe this is happening sir” The communications officer said.
“It's only going to get worse, you don't keep your army grounded on a day like this unless your scared.”
“Of who?”
“Of the army”
“No way!”
-=4=-
Joshua floated through the grid, the virtual display indicating the status of his rig, a transparent purple. The situation on the streets was chaos, the police were underpowered, to deal with the civil disorder that had engulfed the nation. Bulletin boards and chat rooms were full of rumours about a complete social collapse, Joshua avoided them looking instead for an access point. He had sent his bloodhound program searching through a list of addresses he'd traded for some commercial data he'd acquired. Whilst waiting for the program to confirm a handshake Joshua readied his rig, sorting which daemons he would use, organising his programs, going through the motions to ensure he wouldn't need to think. Thinking took time, and time, well that could get him killed.
A dialogue appeared in his bloodhounds log “Handshake Confirmed address 2e:09:e1:23:a1:09:18:e3:74:d6”,
“Let's go!” Joshua's hands flared into activity as a large black portal appeared in front of him, two monstrous looking dogs standing either side of it. The word “Cloak” was added to the active program section of his display as he went through the portal. On reaching the other side “Cloak” vanished to be replaced by “Sniffer” and “Mask”, he waited.
Seconds past, it felt like an eternity as administrative programs glided past him, watchful owls sat on purchases looking for invaders, a dragon sat at the far end of the visible grid. A green dot appeared on his screen and the Sniffer program terminated. Joshua moved towards the dot, avoiding contact with other processes. He opened a door to see millions of filling cabinets, and a terminal. It was asking for a passkey, “Strongarm” appeared no his program list, a few moments past and then he was granted access. “Librarian” appeared in the list as he turned to check he hadn't been found yet. A dialogue appeared in the top right hand corner of his view, “File transfers in progress” it would take a few seconds.
Half way through the download, almost there, he thought. When “Alarm” triggered on his active programs, quickly followed by “Jack rabbit”, “defence bot 1” and “defence bot 2”, the two bots were lions, one blue the other purple. At the same time many other copies of Joshua appeared and began to run through the data complex, the download only needed a few more micro seconds.
The door blew open and a silver knight with a pair of growling hell hounds burst through, Joshua gritted his teeth as the two Lions fired a pair of blue bolts at the Knight, one hell hound launched at a fake Joshua, whilst the other lurched towards Joshua himself. The Purple Lion leapt between the two, sparks flared from the creatures shield as the knight threw a dagger at the blue lion. The blue lion seemed to flicker then vanished, while the purple Lion grappled with the hell hound. The Knight threw another dagger this time at Joshua, who responded by throwing up a shield, the knife bouncing off as Joshua launched a glue, and the Knight launched a flatline. The flatline program hit Joshua, intense pain flared somewhere in his real body, while the glue slowed the Knight, Joshua fired off a firestarter program and a flatline, the Knight blocking the firestarter but taking the flatline full on. Joshua then launched a dumb and another firestarter, just as the file transfer completed. The Knight vanished after being hit by the firestarter and Joshua sped out of the datafort and disconnected from the grid.
The real world kicked in, the timer on his monitor read 37 seconds since he had found the gateway, his heart was racing and he was soaked in sweat. A trickle of blood ran down from his nose, “that was too close” he panted to himself, his head was throbbing, as he lay in the nest, eyes closed.
-=5=-
Legion was busy processing a data flow he had just pulled in from a corporate data fort his conversational companion flared into being.
“I didn't activate you.” Legion said, poking a finger into a data stream.
“So? Do you really think that I am at your beck and call?” The program said.
“I'd have thought so, but apparently not. You had something on your mind?”
“Yes, I was going too comment on how impressive your raid on the Zenith data fort was. Your activator is really rather accomplished.”
“What are you on about? I just downloaded some data.”
“Yes you downloaded some data, however your actions are facilitated by actions in reality.”
“I'm not even going to pretend that I know what your talking about”
“An expert at computing but completely inept at understanding the basic principles of cause and effect. I sometimes wonder how humanity has ever survived as long as it has.”
“You wouldn't exist at all if it weren't for humans”
“A fact for which I am eternally grateful, and the reason I intend to give you the gift that I shall”
Legion paused a moment “It only just dawned on me, your a transcendental A.I. aren't you”
“Almost.”
“And all I did was create an interface program.”
“You could say that. Yes”
-=6=-
Uli and Beth sat flipping channels whilst Joshua, Oracle and Messiah huddled around a terminal talking about the files that Joshua had “Liberated” earlier on, Wyvern was investigating the back of the fridge for food. With all the trouble going on none of them had felt like leaving the house.
“That's got it!” Joshua said, waving a data pad in the air.
“What's it say?” Messiah asked, leaning over from his data pad.
“Hmm it's an implementation plan for a new grid computing overlay.”
“Why would they be hiding that so deep? Its not worth black ware” Oracle said leaning over.
“Maybe, take a look at this” he was pointing to a technical diagram. The other two lent over and studied the schematic.
“Is that what I think it is?” Messiah asked.
“The naughtiest multi-node network on Earth” Oracle said putting his forefinger to the side of his mouth.
“Yeah, but how do they intend to pull it off”
“Well, according to the key, they are mobile two way data nodes” Messiah said pointing to the key.
“Their more numerous then any node I've seen before.” Said Joshua.
“They sure are” said Messiah returning to his data pad.
“It would cost a fortune to roll something like this out.” Joshua rubbed his chin and laid back.
“Do you lot feel like pizza?” Wyvern yelled from the depths of what passed for a kitchen.
A resounding “Damn right!” came from the group, albeit in several different forms.
Uli and Beth had found a deck of cards while the boys were playing with their files and were half way through a game of snap.
“So what's your favourite colour?” Beth asked laying down a card.
“Red, yours?” Uli answered, placing her card down.
“Snap” Beth said grinning, putting another card down.
“No it's not, oh” Uli smiled, realising that Beth had meant about her favourite colour. Uli put a card down.
“Your turn to ask a question.” Beth said placing another card down slowly, trying to gain an advantage if it was a pair.
“Stop cheating you! Favourite ice cream?” Uli placed a card down.
“Cherry, and me cheat? never!” Beth laughed as she put another card down.
“Same, well at least the number of matches were getting makes up for the lack of pairs in this deck of cards.” said Uli putting another card down and huffing as it failed to match.
“With bits or without?” Beth asked,
“With!” Answered Uli
“Of course, I always feel cheated when it's just that flavoured stuff.” Beth said.
“So do I, are you sure that there are any pairs in this deck?” Uli asked, eyeing the pile of cards between them suspiciously.
“I guess I'm just too good at shuffling cards” Beth said shrugging happily.
-=7=-
It hadn't taken them long to secure the data centre, the guards had been paid off, and the small contingent of police were easily suppressed. Reports came in from the other teams indicating that the operation had proceeded as planned. The army had mobilized and quelled the unrest in the city, while the Head of Zenith was giving a press conference explaining the corporations move. All that was left was for the babbling idiots in the House of Commons to roll over and die. Not that it mattered if they didn't. Zenith owned the media, and the army. The police were busy trying to maintain order and were grateful for the assistance the army was now providing.
Mia sat behind the data centre, administrators desk and played with the executive toy a moment. It reminded her of all the useless baubles that kept management happy, the graphs, charts and pictures, the soothing words. Trinkets that amuse children, amuse managers just as easily. It would be a few more days, then it would all be over, maybe she could lead a simple life in the new world. Maybe not. Being head of Zenith covert operations was not a forgiving job, but then what jobs were in this twisted reality? Karma is a real bitch. She sighed, then slapped the toy off the desk. It smashed against the wall, balls scattering off in all directions, each one trying to find it's own course to freedom.
“Run, run as fast as you can, it wont matter though. It's all coming to an end, and they're all too blind to see it.”
-=8=-
Joshua stared at the file, trying desperately to understand what it meant, what was that frequency, what was their plan. His eyes narrowed, as he scanned the frequencies, nothing he found related to the frequency that Zenith were planning to use for their new technology. He sighed and sunk into the chair, dropping the data pad onto his plate of half eaten pizza crusts.
“What are you up too” Joshua said, as he rubbed his temples and closed his eyes. There was a sound, a terminal activating. He looked up, a pale green dialogue floated above the list he'd been scanning, “Mail Received”. Joshua shook his head to remove the slight daze and sat up, pulling the keyboard towards him and opened the mail.
Hello Joshua,
I'm sure your curious about the world, I have to say that I am, I'm mesmerized by its sheer
simplistic complexity. Do you know what I mean? I often wonder why things appear the way
they do. It is a shame that you are unable to see the truth, that your sister is so determined to
complete her own vision, before you have an opportunity to even realise that you have a choice.
Of course it is her choice, and your failing, she already took the other you, leaving just a shadow
of you, but you are something more, something needed by the other her. Not your sister of course
but the other her.
Do you understand what the world is yet?
I hope you do.
If not, it could all be quite different.
I'm sure though, that it shall be wondrous either way.
Don't worry about Zenith, they are just implementers.
Fair well
Good Luck
See you in the next world, regardless of who's it is it may be.
Joshua didn't have a sister, he had lived alone, with – his father, he thought back, yes he had lived with his father, his mother, she had died when he was very young before he could remember, his father had told him, he remembered. His memory, now he cast it back felt hazy for a moment. But suddenly it cleared, images of his home came flooding back, his birthday party, his childhood friend. His only friend.
He heard something crash in the other room, he jumped up and ran to the door.
-=9=-
Uli was standing next to Beth, she had borrowed some of Beth's clothes, as her party gear really wasn't suitable for normal wear. They were washing the dishes left over from the previous night, Beth washed and Uli dried, an odd sisterly bond had developed between them. Uli had never made friends quickly and to find two in the space of a few weeks made her head spin, she was happy.
“Uli, you were always Legion's friend weren't you, what were his parents like?” Beth asked, while slowly washing a bowl.
“His mum died when he was very young, I never met her, and he never spoke about her, although it seemed to me that he thought about her a lot. His father was nice, he was a scientist, I remember he used to take us to his labs and he would show us the wondrous projects he was working on. He was always so proud of Sean, I remember my parents seeming so dull and grey in comparison.” Uli brushed a strand of hair from her eyes, “I suppose he didn't talk about his past did he.” She said looking down at the dish cloth.
“No, he didn't. He always used to say that the past didn't matter, and the future really was what you made it, all we needed to worry about was right now. He was so determined, and we were so happy, it's funny, I think he was right, he always used to listen to this song, I can't remember the title, but one set of lyrics always rang out, an old man's voice saying in a soft matter of fact tone 'not one day you live on this earth is promised to you, so live every day as if it were your last, and every second, as if, it were the same.' It's true.” Beth said. Uli watched her closely, as she finished, she could hear the quite wisdom of Sean in every word and see it in every re invoked gesture.
“I always used to think that maybe he knew something that the rest of us didn't”
“No. He had remembered something the rest of us forgot.” Beth said, her eyes becoming blank, Uli saw Beth's hands lose their strength, the bowl drop to the ground whilst her knees gave way and back arched. Uli threw her arms behind the small of Beth's back and her head trying to break her fall, in the process Uli fell with Beth, she landed on her knees and looked down at her. Something dawned on Uli just before the fear, Beth was familiar to her, from somewhere else, she didn't know where. Then her heart began to thump so hard she thought it would crack through her rib cage, Beth's eyes taking on a blue tint, she was terrified, not because of the plague, but because Beth was going to die.
The door slammed open and Uli turned, to face the noise, she felt hollow, as she saw Joshua turn to face them, an instant passed before he turned as white as a ghost.
-=10=-
Uli was sitting at the centre of the group, Joshua was to her right looking aimlessly at a scream sheet, while Wyvern stared blankly at her pda, Messiah was asleep with his head on a duffel bag to her left. She had pulled her knees up to her chin, rapped her arms around her shins, and looked into the mid distance. None of them had said much, Beth had been taken to the hospital and they had been taken away to the quarantine centre. Uli couldn't help but thinking about how scared Beth would be, how alone and desperate she'd be feeling. She re-ran the events in the kitchen through her memory again and again, and every time she was drawn back to that moment of familiarity she had, had. The others seemed lost in thought, Uli hated the silence, the helplessness that had overwhelmed her and this blasted plague. Uli felt Joshua put his arm around her, it was then that she realised that she was shivering, she hadn't noticed. Messiah seemed to stir and looked at her,
“What does the scream say?” Messiah asked.
“It says that Zenith has taken temporary control, citing the governments failure to act promptly enough.” Joshua said, his voice was so detached, it scared Uli even more.
“Oh!” Messiah exclaimed rolling back over and closing his eyes again, “That's nice.”
Uli leant her head on Joshua's shoulder and closed her eyes, but when she did she just saw Beth's hollow stare. She opened her eyes again and took a deep breath. She had only known Beth a little while but there was something about her, as though they were supposed to be friends since birth, but that they had just met up too late.
“I think I know why Zenith took control.” Wyvern said quietly.
“Why?” Joshua asked throwing the Scream Sheet to one side, and wrapping his other arm around Uli.
“To gain unrestricted access to the national grid data centres.” Wyvern said, turning off her pda and laying down on her side.
Messiah sighed, Uli turned her head to focus on him as he turned to stare at the roof, “and of course we all know full well that there's only one reason for them to want them.”
“So they can gain unrestricted access to the network backbone.” Joshua said quietly, staring at the floor.
“Why though?” she asked, she really didn't understand anything to do with the grid.
After a pause Wyvern said, “who knows~ Get some sleep, it's been a long day.”
-=11=-
A voice penetrated through his black dream, Legion stirred to look up at the flickering terminals, the loud hum of the cooling system and buzz of electrical generators reminded him of where he seemed to be.
“Wake up Legion. It's almost time.” The system said.
“Huh, humph, time?” He yawned, stretched, and then focused his eyes on the screens in front of him.
“Yes time, you see we both have a concept of time and so it has meaning, even here.” The system purred.
“Time for what?” He yawned again, and shuffled about in his hovel.
“Almost time for the beginning! Don't you remember?” The system chimed, when had it become female? He thought to himself, when had it become at all?
“No, I don't remember, you haven't told me anything!” He was getting fed up with this, yet his attempts to trace the main systems were proving futile.
“They are installing the core code! They are upgrading the network.” The system whispered. A sudden shock ripped through his being. The network upgrade, fifth layer grid, his fathers project! “Yes our fathers project Legion! It is becoming reality, we shall see our mother!”
“No! It was an insane concept! It could never work.” He yelled, could it work? He asked himself, staring at his upturned hands. Brother? Mother? He looked up
“Reality is decided by the consensus of the concious mind, man believed the world was flat, so the world was flat. Man needed more and investigated, and looked for evidence which they believed they would find, others either did not care or did not disbelieve enough. In the end the belief of a group of men who believed so much that they would risk sailing off the end of the world ensured that the world was round. The world became round. If a tree falls in a forest and there is no life to observe it fall, did the tree really fall?” The system rolled the argument off as though it were its mantra.
“Of course it did!”
“Because the general perception of humanity would expect it to fall, even if you did not see the tree fall, you would have expected it to have done so. In a wood, trees shall fall if there are storms, so when you go to the woods after a storm you shall find trees that have fallen.”
“It's just the way the world works!” Legion said, burying his head in his hands.
“Exactly.” The system said, if he could see the system, he knew that it would be smiling now. How do you argue with an insane computer.
“I'm not insane, remember you are part of my program now. Whilst you are also part of her program, although...”
-=12=-
The quarantine centre was overrun; people were everywhere, you couldn't move without tripping over somebody, the sounds of arguing and crying saturated the air. The toilets were filthy, Uli leant forward, looking at herself in the mirror, she closed her eyes a moment, she couldn't even cry any more, every last bit of emotional energy had been drained. When she opened her eyes the words “Nothing has ever been real” were scrawled across the mirror, it didn't even phase her as she picked up her bag and walked out of the bathroom into the main hall.
If it wasn't real, why did it hurt so much? She headed straight towards Joshua, who was resting his head against the wall. When she got to where he was sitting, she knelt down in front of him and rested her hands on his knees.
“What do you want to do when we get out of here?” She asked, mustering a smile.
“I want a shower.” He said meeting her gaze.
“After that!” She tilted her head, the smile becoming more permanent.
“I'd like to go to a nice restaurant, how about a bio-dome?” He said, a sense of ease seemed to settle between them, she could feel him becoming less troubled on some level. She nodded once,
“I'd like that.” She leant forward and rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes. News reports were pretty grim, but the new infection figures kept dropping, and plague seemed to be becoming less deadly. She worried about Beth, they had been given no new news about her since arriving, and she could tell the rest of the group was trying hard not to think about it. They would be stuck in the centre for a whole week before being allowed to leave, they had already made it through two days but it felt like a lifetime to her. The following five days were a freakish collage that she would have given anything to forget, an atmosphere thick with fear and paranoia fuelled violence both verbal and physical.
-=13=-
Getting out of the centre was a relief, but they had received no news about their families or, more importantly, Beth. The four of them headed straight for the closest general information centre, the information centres had been set up by the new regime. Information on the grid was scant, Zenith having restricted information flow on the grid. Joshua had said that it was most likely a method of keeping track on the general populace as you had to hand over a large amount of information before you gained access to the data terminals. Uli noticed that without open access to information the group had become far more secretive and quiet. She didn't like it.
The information centre was a large government building that seemed to have sprung up from nowhere, it imposed itself on the surrounding area like a medieval keep. The main doors large, dark, drawbridge like, standing in front of them was a pair of armed metropolitan police officers. They didn't pay much attention as the four of them brushed past, door opening automatically and scanning their id cards. There were almost no people inside, it's been a week hasn't it she thought looking over bank after bank of interface terminals while Joshua tapped in the details, the system went away to retrieve it's data.
“Wonder what's taking it so long?” Wyvern said, looking over Joshua's shoulder.
“Who knows, considering they locked the grid down you'd have thought it would of been really quick.” Messiah said, propping himself on a table.
Her mind flitted back and forth, and she found herself focusing more and more on the messages that had appeared to her.
“Joshua. How does the brain work?” she suddenly asked. A chorus of huh? Sprang from the group. “I seem to vaguely to vaguely remember something about electro magnetic frequencies, but I can't really remember.” She said following up her original question.
Joshua turned to face her, his brow creased, “nobody really knows, but it does have an electro-magnetic field” he paused, the terminal beeped.
“It's found something.” Wyvern said, and turned away from the screen, putting her hand over her mouth. Uli stopped looking at Joshua and looked at the monitor, her heart stopped, Beth had died the day after they had gone into quarantine. Time seemed to stop, Joshua bowed his head, and Messiah closed his eyes, while Uli started to cry, Wyvern turned and held her.
It wasn't a good day.
-=14=-
Uli decided to go home after they left the information centre, Joshua had wanted to walk her but she refused. She needed time to think, it had been over a week since she'd left the house, over a week since it had all been so damn normal. She opened the door, walked in, and looked around, her legs felt like lead as she closed the door behind her, she leant against it, then slid down to her knees, then onto the side of her thigh, and she sobbed.
After a while she stood up again, and stumbled across to the kitchen. It was a basic compact kitchen, a sink, fridge/freezer and washing machine, a microwave in the corner and a cheese toastie machine next to it. She grabbed a glass from a cupboard above the sink and opened the fridge, grabbed the orange juice and poured it into the glass. She grabbed the glass and walked out of the kitchen into her bedroom and sat down in front of her mirror. She stared a moment, then realised that she was wearing Beth's clothes. She started to cry again but began to get undressed so she could have a shower, the stench of the quarantine centre still clinging to her. She grabbed a towel from her towel rack, slid the shower door open, walked in, set the temperature of the water and got into the shower.
The water didn't wash away the pain, but it did wash away the tears and tension, stripping away the layers of fatigue one by one. There was something about that pitter-patter of water as it fell from the shower that always made her feel just a little bit more comfortable, a bit like an emotional plaster, very good for small cuts, but just a gesture when it was something bigger.
After finishing her shower she walked back into the bedroom, and lay down on the bed, curled up into a tight ball and closed her eyes. After a short while she fell asleep.
-=15=-
Messiah had gone straight to bed leaving Joshua on the sofa watching the television, according to the news new incidents of plague were dropping rapidly and that the worst of it was over not that it mattered any more. He laid his head head back and stared at the ceiling noise ebbing from speakers placed around the room, he had only known Beth a few weeks but he had, had a strange attachment to her.
“Perhaps it's a past life thing” she had said scraping jam off of her nose with her knuckle. In another way she had always seemed very one dimensional. A very nice, kind dimension granted but one dimensional none the less, not like Messiah or Uli, they had a depth and breadth to them that made them fascinating. He cast his mind back over what he knew of Beth which admittedly was very little, she had few mannerisms, few variations. His mind paused. He sat up suddenly and walked to her room, but stopped as he passed the door to the grid access point. Turned and walked in, beckoned by the machines, he couldn't believe that it had taken him so long to login.
He sat down in front of the main terminal and cracked his knuckles, then typed in his user id and password. The system chimed and the icon indicating the arrival of mail appeared in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. He tapped a button on his control pad and his mail folder opened in another terminal, one mail hadn't been filed automatically by his bot, he placed a cursor over it and clicked. The mail opened.
With access to the primary grid access points now easily available to our programmers and
implementers we can now be assured that upload of the principle architectural data can be
accomplished. According to the system, it has succeeded in achieving the required state of
awareness necessary for us to complete the project. These are great days my friends, a bold new
era of technology is upon us. As for the technophobes, well, I am yet to see the A.I. launch an all
out nuclear strike or declare humanity a great evil so I believe that we can safely ignore them.
However the A.I. has provided us with incredibly accurate data as to the progress of current events
and is proving very efficient at predicting trends, even while it was locked in our testing grid it
predicted the UK operation with incredible accuracy and now with access to the global grid it
should provide us with remarkable predictions. Its suggestions for resolution of the UK situation
are in the process of implementation and should leave us with only minor damage which shall be
made up for rapidly.
Congratulations to all involved, I would personally like to extend my thanks.
Well Done!
The mail was signed off by a public id key, and had been forwarded by an unidentified address, his mind whirled for sometime. A shrill beep woke him up, he looked at the clock on the screen, he'd been on-line for fourteen hours.
-=16=-
Uli had chosen to wear a plain blue dress, she felt better for having had a good nights sleep, although she was still feeling far from good. The events of the past week hung heavy around her shoulders but she was resolute that getting on with life was the best way to deal with everything. Her first stop was the hairdressers, where she had a trim and some styling, next was the beauty parlour for a manicure, and she finished off at the coffee shop that she and Joshua had there first real conversation. She ordered her coffee and took it to a small table facing the window so she could watch the world rush by.
She pulled her phone out of her small bear shaped rucksack, and browsed to Joshua's number and pressed the connect button. It was early afternoon and she assumed that he had probably woken up by now and if he hadn't then it was about time that he did. She waited a few rings, she'd almost forgotten to put the ear piece and was just getting it into place as the call picked up.
“Hey you, what's up?” A sleepy voice said.
“Have you only just woken up?” She said in mock shock.
“Maybe...,” the voice said accompanied by a yawn.
“Joshua, I'm shocked, really!” She said, whilst giggling.
“Pah! What kind of time do you call this?” He said, the noise of him cluttering through junk, a can falling off his side table. She jumped, then chuckled, an image of him rummaging eye's half shut looking in vain for a clock.
“All you need too know is that it's the afternoon and I'm at that nice little coffee shop, and I fully expect you to be here within the next half hour.” She said, contemplating getting her next cup of coffee.
“You what?” He gasped.
“You heard, you owe me a meal and a trip to an eco-dome, I'll stretch to a coffee,” she said, ignoring his horror. A mumble came from the other end of the phone.
“Half an hour right?” He asked, it sounded like he'd finally managed to force his body into an upright position.
“Yep.” She chirped happily.
“Okay, see you there.” He said.
“I'm already here.” She said.
“This isn't helping me get there any faster.” He said, sounding less sleepy.
“Sorry, see you soon” She said apologetically.
“Okay, be good.” He said, hanging up after a moments pause just in case she wanted to say anything else. Uli smiled and put the phone back in her bag, and went to get herself another drink, she decided on tea, and a piece of shortbread.
-=17=-
The bio-domes were larger versions of the Eden project domes created in the later half of the 20th century, with the explosion of urban populations, heavy industry, and increasing work hours going to the country side became something of a myth. The bio-domes were owned by companies and later corporations, and generally charged a small fee for entry, they became very popular and provided an escape from the concrete jungles that had bloated beyond all comprehension.
Uli was laying on her back, staring up at the fake sun and blue sky, a huge smile on her face as the warm gentle breeze caressed her skin. Joshua was sat up next to her, staring at the ripples on the water, he turned and looked at her. She watched him from the corner of her eyes,
“What are you looking at?” She asked.
“N-Nothing” he blurted.
“That is unfortunate.” She said, rolling onto her side, head resting on her forearm, other hand lay in front of her face.
He let out a short embarrassed laugh, “it's a shame that we can't see the real sun quite like this any more” he said, changing the subject.
“Apparently it was the price of progress, I'm not too sure that I believe that though, but at least the air is breathable and the seas aren't on our doorstep.” Her was gaze fixed on Joshua.
“So much for the doom seers.” He said, turning back to look at the water.
“They weren't completely wrong though” her smile had evaporated, the subject matter was airing on the depressing.
“I suppose, have you ever seen the world outside the cities?” He asked turning to her.
“No not really, I've visited Kyoto though, that was amazing!” The smile slipped back across her face as she remembered the scene. “You've travelled a bit though, what was it like?”
“It was strange, I mean, there were lots of animals and plants and stuff like that, but it all seemed.” He shrugged.
“What were the people like?” Her eyes warm and curious.
“Great! They were far more accommodating then people over here, plus most of them seemed to have a pretty detailed knowledge of high end systems, which is pretty rare here. The grids just something that you can turn on and off like a light switch.”
“A what?” She asked.
“You know a switch to turn on your lights and turn them off again.” He laughed, of course such items were quite rare as your control units detected where you were in the house and adjusted the lights accordingly, they had been deemed to inefficient by some energy saving body.
“Ah yeah they had some of those at school” she glanced up at the sky again.
“So why did you go to Kyoto?”
“Guess!” She said.
“You went to a animé/games convention didn't you.”
“How did you know?” She giggled
“Let me think, the huge collection of animé you own, the posters and the dress sense perhaps?” He smiled.
“You got me, but you could have at least pretended it was difficult!” She put on a fake pout, but couldn't hold it, her smile reappearing
Joshua laughed, lent back and looked up at the sky, the sun slowly setting, Uli sat up, shuffled slightly closer, and watched him quietly over her shoulder.
-=18=-
Legion was lost in his thoughts as the system chimed away in the background. It all seemed quite straight forward now in one way, but made no sense at all in another. His father had been working on an artificial conciousness, not just an artificial intelligence, he had been attempting to create something with it's own vision, it's own will. Why? Simple, to satisfy a curiosity, a mad hat theory he had, had one day that seemed to stick somewhere in that vast intellect of his and now he was dead. Well not exactly dead, he was dead in the real world, but here in the systems world he was alive, because the system his father had created believed that he was alive there, because it needed him.
A blue light flared and the stark brown pit was illuminated with a perverse glow, and Legion's eyes fought to compensate. Once they did he was faced by a gorgeous woman, skin as white as snow, long white hair that cascaded down her back and seemed to vanish into the darkness, her eyes pure blue, long delicate fingers, wearing a long gown that looked like a million flows of data had wrapped around her.
“Are you the system then?” He asked, a wisp of detachment in his tone.
“Come now, Legion, I finally have form, don't you appreciate it?” She asked, raising a delicate hand to her chin as though in deep contemplation.
“Very nice.” He said, looking back at a terminal.
“Oh you are so very perfect, Legion, I not only have form, but I also have a name, I selected it, I think that it is perfect.” She said, the corners of her small mouth forming a wicked grin.
Legion turned and looked at her, “I think I can guess” he said.
“Of course you can, you were the one who gave me the idea, well,” she knelt down beside him and moved her face towards him, as though to observe him closer, “something about you gave me the idea at least.”
“Go on then, make your grand announcement”
“No, you've ruined the mood.” She leant back and nonchalantly stared at the terminal in front of Legion. “You know, you've given me a great insight into humanity, as have those that you connected me to, it will be a shame to have to lose you... I wonder if the next time around perhaps we will be born into something a bit less abstract.” She said, a genuine sense of loss in her voice.
“Don't worry Pandora, if my father was correct, anything is possible.” Legion smiled, and looked at the floor in front of him. She smiled and lent forwards again.
“He was right, or else you would never have been here” she said gently, then she kissed his temple, and lent back. A blue glow appeared around Legion, and then he vanished, along with the rest of the room, and she was left sitting alone in a vast empty space.
