Post-Human 05 - Inhuman (28 page)

13

“My word,” Aldous said as he watched the sun sparkle and dance across the endless ocean over which their craft skimmed through their front view screen. “This is extraordinary.”

“This is your first time seeing Venus terraformed, isn’t it?” Rich responded. “I’ve been here a couple times,” he added, enjoying the feeling of superiority it provided for him. “The whole thing’s gorgeous—unspoiled.”

“How could they do this?” Aldous reacted, barely able to move his mouth. “How could the A.I. and James give such a treasure—such a jewel—to the Purists?” He turned away from the scene in front of him and regarded Rich with an astonished expression. “The Purists started WWIII to prevent these very miracles from ever happening. Venus never would’ve been terraformed in the first place if they’d remained in power. They don’t deserve this paradise.”

Rich sucked his lips to one side for a moment as he considered Aldous’s reaction. “I think James thought it was fitting. Venus is the new Garden of Eden. The Purists are the only ones who never ate from the Tree of Knowledge.”

“That’s not something for which they should be commended,” Aldous replied sternly.

Rich shrugged. “Maybe not, but practically speaking, they needed a home base. We weren’t giving them a say in anything anymore, but they deserved the right to carve out their own destiny. Honestly, Venus is awesome, but after everything the Purists have been through, they
do
deserve it.”

Aldous shook his head, gripping the back of the seat in front of him, digging his fingers into the soft material. “I have difficultly finding words to respond to such an ill-informed opinion.”

“Ah,” Rich said, winking at Aldous, “there’s the arrogant son-of-a-bitch I’ve come to know and loathe. Welcome back.”

Aldous turned back to the front view screen as a wall of white began to form on the horizon. At first, he wasn’t sure if he was seeing some sort of optical illusion, as the sun stained the enormous object with a golden sheen that made it difficult for him to regard it without squinting. Tears nearly formed in his eyes before his mind’s eye tinted his eyes to compensate. “What is that?”

Rich smiled. “This is very interesting. Chief, I think I know where the Purists are taking us.”

“Where?” Aldous asked impatiently.

“You’re seeing the falls?” James’s voice asked through his aural connection to Rich.

“Yep,” Rich replied.

“
Yep
, is not an answer to my question,” Aldous reacted, his temper short.

“Chief, you better hang on,” Rich said. “I think we’re in for a bumpy ride. It looks like James put the Purists in the place where they’d be least likely to be found.”

“Richard,” Aldous spoke, softening his tone as he regained his patience but speaking slowly and enunciating every word as he asked, “what is this thing?”

“Seriously, Chief,” Rich said as he strapped into his seat and gestured with his head for Aldous to take the seat in front of him. “Strap in. You’ve got about three seconds.”

“Three?” Aldous said, tilting his head quizzically before the ship suddenly made it to the edge of the falls and dove steeply into the white abyss of ocean spray, sending Aldous off his feet and against the ceiling. His magnetic field ignited just in time to keep him from being harmed, but he struggled to float into his seat and strap in as the ship took them on a wild ride through the wall of mist.

“This is so utterly awesome,” Rich whispered as the ship traveled through the mist for nearly a full minute.

“I’m glad you like it,” James replied, “but keep your eyes peeled. Remember, Aldous is a major suspect. Venus’s powerful magnetic force-field should be able to jam any attempts at communication that Aldous might make to give away your position, plus the Purists have ample equipment to detect signals, but Aldous is tricky and if he
is
the one behind this, he had time to plan ahead. Watch him close. You’re our eyes and ears, buddy.”

“Where in Heaven’s name…” Aldous wondered aloud as the view screen continued to reveal nothing but a dimming whiteness. Then, almost as soon as he’d finished speaking the words, the ship began to vibrate, a thunderous sound crescendoed and echoed through the bridge.

“Is that,” Aldous began to form the words, “a waterfall?”

Rich peered through the mist to see the edge of the incredibly powerful falls, millions of liters of water plunging downward every second. “Holy. Crap.”

“Is this…is this how they power it?” Aldous wondered aloud. “There’s so much energy—”

Incredibly, a structure suddenly emerged from the white torrent, splitting the falls in two like a rock formation splitting a raging river, the white water blasting explosively in reaction to the disruption. When the explosive reaction settled, the structure finally took shape, a hexagonally shaped tunnel jutting out, and allowing them access to the mysteries within.

“James is so cool, isn’t he, Chief?” Rich said with a grin. He looked to his left at Aldous, who could hardly close his mouth as he watched the spectacle unfolding before him.

“Thank you, Rich,” James said in Rich’s ear.

“He certainly has his moments,” Aldous reluctantly admitted. “I’ll grant him that.”

14

“Okay, Aldous and Rich are in,” James announced as he, the A.I., and even the candidate pored through copious amounts of code. Each of them had removed what seemed to be endless amounts of the golden filaments from Kali’s avatar and were hunched over separate tables along the curved glass windows of Cloud 9 restaurant.

Thel watched impatiently as the rain continued to fall and streak the windows, while fires burned throughout the city, and the NPCs roared in mobs, chasing down smaller mobs and tearing them horrifically to shreds before, once they’d completed their task, they turned on each other. It was the worst perversion of Darwin’s theories, played out in a mathematical horror show.

She turned from the horror, her arms folded over her chest. “I don’t like this. Aldous is clearly going to try sabotage the Purists.”

“We don’t know that for sure,” James cautioned.

“It’s well within the realm of possibility, however,” the A.I. pointed out.

“Exactly,” Thel said, gesturing to the A.I. before looking adamantly at James. “We can’t just sit here. We have to do something!”

“We
are
doing something,” James responded, holding up the coding.

“Are you kidding me?” Thel reacted. “That?”

James, exasperated, shut his eyes tight for a moment in frustration. “Look, Thel, we’re cut down to our core matrix programs here. We can’t—”

“Core matrix programs?” Thel countered. “Are you kidding? Why don’t you just say what you really are? You’re
human
. Human!”

“Okay, we’re human,” James admitted, “We’re all genius level, but it’s nothing compared to what we were when we were connected to the mainframe.” James dropped the sparkling, golden, powdery filaments on the table in front of him. “We could’ve processed this in seconds and found the secret to getting out of here, but now we’re just looking at millions and millions of lines of code. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack.”

An idea suddenly crossed Thel’s mind, and her expression changed as she worked it through. “We’re always talking about Moore’s Law, but what about Murphy’s Law?”

“What?” James responded. “Are
you
kidding?”

“No,” Thel replied, shaking her head. “You said it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. Well, the best way to do that is to just dive in. Murphy’s Law suggests you’ll get stuck with the needle in no time.”

“I don’t follow,” James admitted.

“I think I do,” the A.I. suddenly said, turning away from his own search through the codes to face Thel. “You’re not suggesting what I think you’re suggesting, are you?”

“Wait...what’s she suggesting?” James asked, suddenly frustrated that he was a step behind instead of a step ahead.

The A.I. kept his eyes on Thel.

“I’m suggesting,” Thel spoke, “that one of us merge with the Kali avatar.”

“Merge with—” James began to react before the A.I. interrupted, speaking to Thel.

“Absolutely not,” he began. “That’s an entirely untested hypothesis. Yes, it’s true that whoever or whatever inhabited the Kali avatar was able to circumvent the trapdoor code, but there’s no guarantee that we could merge with it and have the same results. Our ability to manipulate code within the sim was one of the abilities we lost when the trapdoor cut us off.”

“And even if we could merge with it,” James furthered, now that he’d finally understood Thel’s audacious suggestion, “there’s no way to know if attempting to leave the sim would lead to the destruction of our patterns. It’s completely illogical to take a chance like that.”

“Illogical?” Thel replied, her arms still folded, her demeanor impatient. “How’s this for logic? How many lines of code do you think you can go through in an hour?”

James looked down at the pile in front of him. “A few thousand,” he replied.

“A few thousand,” Thel repeated before gesturing to the A.I. and the candidate. “Between the three of you, maybe 10,000 lines in an hour? And you said there are millions of lines of code.”

“That’s no reason to go committing suicide,” James responded. “We could find the code we’re looking for five minutes from now.”

“Or five hours from now,” Thel countered. “And Aldous is with the Purists. If he finds a way to disable their defenses—”

“Assuming he’s the perpetrator here!” James shouted out.

“Oh, good grief!” Thel guffawed. “Who else could it be?”

“1!”

“
If
she’s still alive,” Thel pointed out. “Remember, we all
saw
you kill her. And even if she is still alive, why would she imprison you in the sim? James, sooner or later, as much as you don’t want to admit it to yourself, you’re going to have to face the fact that this is a mystery we already know the answer to. Aldous cut a deal with the androids, and that son-of-a-bitch is with the Purists as we speak. We don’t have hours or even days for you to pore through code.”

“This isn’t even a discussion worth having,” James responded, dismissing the idea. “Even if your idea worked, the signal wouldn’t be strong enough to reach Earth and my body, so it’s a moot—”

“I wasn’t talking about
your
body,” Thel replied.

James’s eyes widened. “Thel,” he spoke slowly, realizing he was too far away to reach her before she did something rash. “No!”

Thel unfolded her arms, revealing that she’d been holding her de-patternizer during the entirety of the discussion. “I’m sorry, James. I love you. But I
have
to do this.”

“Thel!” James shouted as he jumped to his feet.

At the very same moment, Thel shot her own hand, de-patternizing it and screaming out in agony as her hand disappeared in an explosive pulse of golden coding. In her next motion, she reached out to the Kali avatar and joined her handless arm to Kali’s, the severed limbs instantly connecting and sending a pulse of energy through both of them as their patterns began to fuse.

The A.I. intercepted James, holding him back as he tried desperately to reach her. “No, James!” the A.I. shouted. “If you touch her, you could make it worse!”

“But she’ll die!” James protested as he fought to get free.

The candidate jumped to his feet as well, aiding the A.I. as they worked to hold James back, keeping him several meters away from the figure that was slowly, spectacularly melding into one entity before their eyes.

“Perhaps, James,” the A.I. conceded with enormous sympathy in his tone. “But it’s already done.”