by J. A. Hailey
35
“What!” exclaimed Michael, in astonishment, leaping up and immediately running into the adjacent computer room, to verify for himself.
“There is no connection,” said he, walking dazedly back to his friends.
“Good for us, isn’t it?” said Sagan, grinning.
“It must be the massive size of the supercomputer that has allowed this environment to be preserved, despite disconnection from screenside. It is clearly monstrous enough to behave like an entire neighborhood of normal computers, if somewhere else in the world.
“Also, as they told us, we are very small programs compared to them, and our visit and entry into this room obviously means that we have transferred ourselves completely into this computer.
“Still, what is truly amazing is the fact that the environment is still being maintained, without connection to screenside. It means the basic RV module is a spectacularly complex piece of work, and while it may allow us to use it as is, it will probably be beyond human ability to tamper with and modify according to our future requirements.”
“Right now, to be in this room, the two of us have found our way into the screenside equivalent of this room, but that is not how virtuals do it. They hang around whenever they are, because they have the ability to look through the virtuality, and out of any computer camera in the human world. BC once mentioned that he keeps track, on occasion, through thousands of cameras at the one time.
“We can do no such thing, and so have been given a physical movement program, as a special program for us to find our way and travel through screenside, from computer to computer.”
They sat together, thinking of the possibilities that had now come into their hands. “They’ve given us everything to create additional lives in the virtuality; I mean, digital lives like we ourselves are,” said Gales. “Many things to discover, many things to learn, and maybe many disappointments to face, but the absolute basic stuff is with us.”
“The systems they have placed in our hands, effectively give us two viable and functional consciousness collection matrixes, the very ones we are connected to. It’s a dial-up system to get someone new in.”
“As we cannot even begin to see how to go about making such a thing, this matrix was necessary to be stolen to subsequently introduce and incorporate other humans into the computer world, for which incorporation we have tricked the seniors into creating and handing over programs and gadgetry for the purpose.
“Of course, there may be cause to be disappointed on interaction abilities of digitalized life not taken in by the virtual creators themselves,” said Sagan. “Michael and I discussed it, and we think that there might be shortcomings in consciousnesses brought in by misuse of programs and gadgets in our hands.”
“What we have now, just now, discovered is that screenside’s RV is surely a life-support system that maintains itself in isolation,” said Gales. “But full, functional integration, like we have been integrated, into that gigantic program made by over one million of the world’s best programmers, could be something way beyond the capability of humans.”
When King and Sheikh wandered into the computer room, they were told that the two digital ones were present in the palace through the computer, and that both were completely alive and functional inside the computer world, with no doubt that they had become independent and eternal life forms.
The two Arab rulers became extremely excited at the thought that their own eternal life systems had come within reach.
“Show us, show us your world,” demanded the King eagerly, sitting at the massive gold plated desk, with its enormous monitor, connected to the supercomputer in the next room.
When told that they did not have the ability to display screenside on a computer screen, the King sniggered and said, “Then forget the environment, but show yourselves. If you are in the computer, as superior beings to us, come and have a talk with us.
“Sheikh Abdul, good idea that, switching on the computer monitor, otherwise our two immortal friends will continue making excuses.” The King looked at the blank screen in frustration, and then turned to face the two physically present humans, his voice dripping with jealousy.
“Where are you? You told us that in the past they would come and see you and chat with you all the time, those computer people. Now that you’re one of them, come and see us. So, where are you? Where, where? The screen is blank.”
“Internet, Internet. They need the Internet,” sneered the Sheikh. “If it is not connected, they cannot come here. Ibrahim, is that not right?”
“They are already here, but let me check the Internet once again for safety, Sheikh Abdul,” said Grietzmann. “It has to remain disconnected, otherwise those computer people could enter, and if that happens we will have no way of getting rid of them.” He left the office room and went into the supercomputer room, behind the door to one side. The Sheikh and Michael followed him into the specially set up room in which the supercomputer was physically housed.
“Damn noisy,” remarked the Sheikh. “Just as well we are not in there. How can anyone live inside such a noisy thing?” He laughed himself silly.
“There is the special ultra-high-speed connection for this machine, Sheikh,” said Grietzmann pointing at a thick cable leading into the machine. “According to our plan, we inserted only a landline Internet connection, to make sure that Wi-Fi signals, mobile signals, did not proliferate in the area. Right, Michael?”
“Yes,” answered Gales. “It was planned to be a secret operation, concealed from the people of the computer world. We have succeeded. We are capable enough in that world, and we have the tools that we were planning to have. We are already here, having travelled through the computer world; and we have entered this computer, so there is no need to keep it connected now. Why risk being spotted by somebody from there?”
“It is now disconnected, Highness,” said the Sheikh, on returning to the King’s golden desk. “Michael says it is not a good idea to reconnect to the Internet. We have to think of some other testing systems, to check that everything is working as it should be. Our eternal life partners, Patrick and Michael, are already here, in our computer, with us.”
“So come on, you two,” demanded the King, stubbornly refusing to be diverted. “Come here and have a chat with me.”
“We are already here,” said Sagan, sitting at one of the two smaller monitors, on either side of the massive desk.
The King lost his cool. “I can see you are here, Patrick. Notice these two eyes in my head? I want you to come to us through the computer world. I want you two superior beings, our immortal friends, to show up on my screen.”
“We do not have the ability to show ourselves, or to speak from in there,” said Sagan, himself frustrated. “But we can hear you. Michael and I are not able to be fully functional on both sides of the screen; in two worlds. So, when we are completely mentally active in the human physical world, we are obliged to be basically inert in the computer world.
“But we had gone quiet in the human world for a while, and at that time we were active in the computer system. That was when we travelled within the computer world, from New York, using navigational aids given to us, and, as we earlier confirmed to you, we are now both here in this room.”
“Inside the computer?” asked Grietzmann. “Explain your situation, please, Michael. How you are, where you are, the environment in which you are, and your physicality, or lack of it.”
“We have bodies in here,” said Gales. “Our bodies are linked to our consciousnesses, and in that sense we are different from the virtuals, who are spread out all over the place, can shift consciousness wherever they want, throughout their world, and can display a body on the screen, if they feel like displaying one. In fact, because of these amazing optional capabilities that they have, they are governed by very strict laws regarding consciousness, body, display and things.”
“Yes, their world is designed to be like the hu
man world,” said Sagan. “And they are designed to live like real physical humans within that world, which is why they have placed extremely strict limitations on how they can behave. Otherwise, they can do anything they want to do. They are pure virtuals, after all; a different life form.”
“So you are here, in this room, you say. What have you got in there?” asked Grietzmann.
“The very same room in our virtual world. It gets created naturally by the RV program,” explained Gales. “Because, unlike virtuals, we have to be physically present in the environment of any camera we use, we are in the virtual version of this very same room, as whatever can be seen by the cameras in the physical room, in which you are, instruct the program on what to create. It’s like this. I could go to the jungle or desert, and the program will know my location and give me generalized jungle or desert.”
“I get it. Wow!” exclaimed Grietzmann. “When there is no camera, you will get the world, but where there is a camera, you’ll get exactly what the camera sees. Road, bar, people, this room…”
“Absolutely,” said Gales, emphatically. “But not people. That’s HLV, a variant of RV. It does not happen, by default, in regular daily RV.
“So you are here right now? In this room?” asked the Sheikh, earnestly.
“Yes, right here. But that is not actually how the system is designed to work for them. They just look through into any place, from wherever they are, and can communicate if they wish to.
“In that sense, the system has got a bit garbled when handling us, because it is not programmed for digital humans. It has actually transported us physically into this very room in screenside. I don’t know if we can dare to return and meet the virtuals, because then we could ask them to make us capable of viewing from a little distance, unlike right now, when we have both been transported right into this room.”
“Then show yourselves on the screen.”
“Not possible for us. For the virtuals of screenside, yes.”
“At least speak with us.”
“Same restrictions. Same limitations.”
“Can’t show, can’t speak,” sneered the King. “Can’t, can’t, means only that you are imagining, or cheating and telling lies. What is the proof?”
“You can hear us and see us. Is that right?” asked Grietzmann.
“Lies, lies,” muttered Sheikh and King, in unison.
“We’ll get the proof just now. Patrick and Michael, please leave this room immediately by the French windows, and go to the part of the lawn we can see from this set of windows. Summon a waiter; have a beer; have a snack.
“Highness, Sheikh, these two are claiming they can hear us and see us. So, when they are out of this room, we are going to have some new discussions that you can lead; completely unconnected to what we are talking now. After a while, we will call them back in, and ask them to talk with us by continuing the conversation. We might also ask them to remind us of what other things they heard us speaking. They will be always in sight, so we can be sure that they have not managed to creep or crawl slyly into a listening position.”
“Yes,” agreed Sheikh Abdul. “It is not conclusive, but it will be the start of proving to us that they are indeed in this room by way of the computer.”
“Of course,” said the King. “Although we will later have to check them for secret listening devices on them; microscopic devices fitted inside ears, like chips fitted in heads. Never trust a neurosurgeon; old Arab saying.”
They laughed uproariously, all five members of the team.
“Highness, our testing will be done under very controlled circumstances, and many times over, to ensure that they are really inside the computer, and not making monkeys of us,” said Grietzmann.
“Very dangerous to try with me,” said the King, ominously. “Monkey making? I like to chop them up, those types, starting with the tongue.”
“A very good place to start,” agreed the Sheikh, surprising and delighting everyone by dancing a jig and singing it out like in the Sound of Music.
“My children often watch the movie, and I always have children in that age group,” he explained.
That very first test was passed with flying colors, when Sagan and Gales reentered the room, after having been physically absent from the conversation, while constantly in view in the garden, for about twenty minutes.
Of course, they knew everything that had been discussed, and had no trouble getting into the discussion as if they had always been present, even replaying some of the nastier parts back to them word for word.
“See this fruit knife here?” mimicked Sagan, in the approximate tone used by the King. “I will poke the point into the neurosurgeon’s left eye, twist the eye out and swallow it whole.”
To prove that he had seen it too, besides hearing it, Sagan went through the extravagant actions performed by the King, when saying those words, driving the entire room into hysterical laughter.
“My brother, Patrick,” screeched the King, embracing Sagan. “We will do many more tests, but I think you are telling the truth, and that we are soon going to join you in the eternal life system.”
“But tell me,” asked the Sheikh, curiously. “If we do take your eye out and swallow it, will you lose it in the computer also?”
“You can do nothing to us at all,” said Michael, testily, his frustration showing through. “You cannot kill us, means you cannot harm us.”
“We must do the final testing, and then we must make plans, Michael. Perhaps you would like to be a prince of the kingdom when you are reborn?” asked the King.
“Why don’t we insert chips into the heads of a few people, straight away?” suggested Grietzmann. “This is not about Patrick and Michael lying, because we are sure they are not, but more about perfecting our systems.”
“The hospital room in this palace is still being faultlessly maintained, I think,” said the King. “Even if it is not, who cares what happens to the people we will use. They are to be always dispensable, are they not? And then I will also execute the people who have failed to maintain my private operation theatre.”
“Yes, Patrick,” added the Sheikh, soothingly. “Whatever we will do for testing, is to be according to schedules that we will decide on an ongoing basis, but keeping a few chip-implanted, fit young bodies always ready, is not a bad idea.
“Now, you have said you cannot be fully active in both worlds.
“Do you think you will be able to work as a doctor here? Or should we send for another surgeon to conduct the implant surgeries? We can have one here by tomorrow morning. Good to have implanted subjects in hand.”
“Get a few fit guys,” said Sagan. “I’ll switch off in the computer world, like become 10% there. Then, I should be able to easily conduct surgeries here. I’ll do them.”
“Anyway,” said the King, callously. “It doesn’t matter if they get badly damaged, or if they die. We’ll get more. Any specific nationality, color, height that you want?”
“Medium, anything, Highness, to start with,” answered Sagan. “We are only testing right now. Nothing is for any one of us to permanently occupy, or to even use for any extended period of time. Later, we can get very good looking and extremely fit men for ourselves.”
That was when Grietzmann gave the first indication of the plans formulating in his head, and of the terrible fate in store for humanity.
“I have already made contact with genetic manipulators, those scientists who create new life forms, so that we can control the world’s population to be as suits our own requirements. After all, we have to look thousands and thousands of years into the future, and we have to be careful to not let the human race degenerate, and turn out to be diseased or deformed, or otherwise become incapable of keeping a working world going for us.”
“Especially the girls. We need young, fit and beautiful,” said the King, stroking his groin.
36
Later that very day, two physically fit you
ng East European men, both waiters in the palace, and both of medium build, were handed over to Sagan for chip implantation.
Sagan conducted the surgical procedures in the private theatre that had been set up for King and Sheikh. Everything in it was still in perfect working order, sparing the lives of some unsuspecting maintenance people, and Sagan, operating at the same time on both patients, was done in under half an hour.
“Great,” said Gales to Grietzmann. “We will not be able to control these subjects over vast distances immediately, and have to be limited to the range of the Wi-Fi signal being broadcast from this one supercomputer. Good enough up to the middle of the garden, as we saw when the King conducted his silly little test on us.
“Right now, before we make the break with screenside, we do not want to try to control human heads which are in the general human world, within range of normal Internet signals, as screenside monitoring units will be able to see that such unauthorized controls are being conducted by someone. In the long term, we don’t care, but only after we have an insulated and isolated world, with physical troops guarding its physical assets, into which they cannot forcibly enter to destroy us.”
Sagan, sitting and sipping a cocktail, while listening in, said, “Michael, you’ll have to figure out a lot of computer-related stuff, because what we are actually trying to do is to deceive people who are the computer itself.”
“It has many stages,” answered Gales. “And the eventual money cost will be huge. Billions of dollars, but these people have the money, and they will gladly spend it for eternal life.”
“And it’s anyway replenishing itself out of the fucking ground,” said Grietzmann, callously. “They’ll be just as stinking rich after spending the billions, as they are before spending them.”
“Right now, we’re going back to New York in screenside, for perhaps the last night at home,” said Gales.
