Cyber Thought Police

by Kyle Robertson

  He took a Magrupt and went outside the barrier. The others joined him and began to supply the borgeys. He went to one and hesitantly held a Magrupt in front of one of the borgeys.

  Without an utterance, the borgey raised its hands to receive the Magrupt. Marc placed in its hands. The borgey clamped on and took it.

  “I guess these things aren’t rebelling. The rest aren’t cringing,” he whispered to himself.

  He went to grab more Magrupts to distribute.

  As he was on his seventeenth distribution, he heard rustling in the woods.

  “Did you guys hear that?!” he yelled.

  The rest of the detail hurried to finish.

  “Hurry up! They need to be armed!”

  Marc gave another Magrupt. The borgey took it, threw him behind the defenders, and aimed in the woods.

  A horde of the new borgeys attacked the camp! Their borgey defense was very efficient in deactivating the attackers.

  Marc saw the horde stumble and fall with their lights cutting off.

  Wow, you things are on our side! He thought as the borgey resumed its watch.

  Marc finally had a different outlook on Alikira. She wasn’t an insidious infiltrator. She was their ace in the hole.

  Clarence, a camp member ran to Marc.

  “Did you just see our shirts beat their skins?!”

  “I was standing right here, Nugget,” Marc said. “I bet they won’t try that again.”

  “Funny, you of all people actually like our borgeys.”

  “I like anything that can get me outa gate entrance duty, Nugget.”

  

  “We’re almost there,” Chip said.

  “How can she mal the Program?” Cole asked. “She’s not even connected to the mainframe.”

  Chip took out the torque driver from his mouth to explain.

  “Di was equipped to be a new borgey, so she has all the hardware. The Program just deactivated the link to them. It was never taken out. Call it an efficiency dormancy it thought it could still use when they got their probe. All I have to do is turn it back on and we’ll know all the Program’s embarrassing secrets.”

  Alikira felt strange Chip was literally in her head.

  “I just went blind in one eye!”

  “Sorry. Touched the wrong connection.” He reattached it. “Can you see in stereo again?”

  “Yes, I’m back. Are you going to make me drool next?” she asked.

  “Hey! I never worked on anything like you before! You didn’t come with a manual!”

  Alikira said under her breath, “Like a man ever reads the manual.”

  “She’s got you there, Chip.” Cole pointed at him.

  “And who didn’t know how to turn on their Magrupt the first time?” Chip did a touché. “Kayleigh told me last year.”

  Alikira spoke again. “Now I’m seeing in ultra-violet. What are you doing to me?”

  “Your link is millimeters close to your optics port. You may see digital microwaves before I get it. Let me stop talking and work.”

  Chip became silent to get into the nitty-gritty. It took a while, but he turned her link on.

  “Got it!” he said. “Just don’t knock on the door yet. The Program shares the same link, so you want to break in to steal the silverware.”

  “Well, I did steal food for my community earlier.”

  “This time will be justified as well,” Chip said. “Let me study the Program’s schematics I pilfered when I was going to siphon the tech.”

  “You’re eighteen, Chip. This extinction attempt happened two and a half years ago. How old were you when you pirated the schematics?” Cole asked.

  “Fifteen. They didn’t call me a transiton for fun.”

  “You’re still using comp lingo. You just knew what you wanted to do.”

  “Somehow, the ladies thought I was too stiff to talk to because I navigated mountains,” Chip said. “Look whose saving humanity now.”

  “So, don’t use my key. Use the lick pick you’ll give me later?” Alikira asked.

  “Let’s just say this. If you open the door and it’s sitting on the couch? It’ll know exactly where you live,” he said. “Use the window to steal the diary. The window will be unlocked by tomorrow.”

  “I have to let Sledge know,” Cole said. “Just find that window lock pick.”

  Chip smiled.

  “You’ll have it tomorrow. I’m ‘stiff’, remember?”

  Chapter Five: New Digs Time

  Chip went through the entire schematics document. The Program was a complicated design. The organized setup was based on chaos theoretical operations. The reason it actually thought was that of it. The problem was chaos theory was dangerously unstable.

  “That’s why it’s trying to kill us. It was constructed by a vengeful narcissist,” Chip realized. “The poor sap just didn’t know his personality bled into his design.”

  He began to think of the way to infiltrate the design by profiling the designer.

  A chaotic narcissist is unnecessarily protective at blocking the main entrance. That means the back door isn’t as monitored. Just bypass the front and pick the flimsy lock in the back.

  He began to type in algorithms to break the mathematical code to the weakly monitored back end.

  

  The next day, Chip came into the lab.

  I got your key, Cole.”

  Cole turned to Chip.

  “Where is it?”

  Chip pulled out a small case with a microchip inside.

  “It’s an algorithm program I call Alexander.”

  “Why call it Alexander?”

  “Because accessing the window was the Gordian knot of complications. Alexander is the loophole finder.”

  “You are a transiton. I could have never accomplished that task in a million years, let alone a single night,” Cole said. “Did you sleep?”

  “Polyphasic, in forty-five-minute shifts. A transiton can’t work the same way others do.”

  “Where will it go? Will you rummage in my head again?” Alikira asked.

  “Nowhere near your optic port, so you’re not going to start seeing in Paisley this time.”

  Alikira sat back, turned off her receptors, and waited for Chip to begin digging.

  “This will be meshed with your motor functions to give you a virtual avatar to simulate your data burglary.”

  “You’re making me a digital operation’s thief. Won’t it have security?”

  “You’re not stealing the files. You’ll just read the data. I’ll just record the binary signal.” Chip opened her head and went for the mechanical motor neuron port.

  “Stand clear, Cole. She may get sporadic at times. I’m working with titanium borgey ton-chucking mechanisms here.”

  Just as Cole began to step back, Aliira’s left arm shot out centimeters close to his crotch.

  “Sorry, Cole.” Alikira said, “Blame the mad tinkerer in my head.”

  “I’m just happy he told me to step back. I wasn’t really thinking about having any children until you almost destroyed my equipment.”

  “I told you to watch it,” Chip said. “She’s a powerhouse and she doesn’t even know it.”

  After a few hours of trial and error, Sledge entered the lab.

  “What is he doing to her?”

  “Trying to install the window lock pick.”

  Sledge walked to Alikira and waved his hand in front of her face.

  “Hi to you too,” she said.

  “You mean, with Chip futzing in your head, you still have the wherewithal to still control all those borgeys out there?”

  “We call that multitasking. Her brain is automated,” Chip told him. “She can pat her head and type the Pythagorean Theorem with one hand, and play a symphony on a piano with the other at the same time.”

  “Her networking is in a semi-dormant redundancy while you’re actively installing something new. I got it.”

  “This is taking too long,
” she told Chip. “Maybe you can finish tomorrow. I’m getting hungry.”

  “Just… gimme… a sec. There! I finally installed your algorithm protocol. Just look at the Program’s back access for now.”

  “Her eyes began to sweep right to left in a REM-like pace.

  “I see it! Why can’t I just go in?”

  “And do what, play?” he asked. “You just have the key. I’ll download the Program’s digi-blueprints tomorrow. You can’t just go in blind hoping to find the information without knowing where to look. Besides, you said you were hungry. Come back tomorrow with a full stomach, because tomorrow will be the hard part.”

  “And today was easy?!”

  “We’ve been on our side all this time. Tomorrow, you’re going to a very rough neighborhood. Be prepared.”

  “What are you in the mood for?” Cole asked. Kale chips? A zucchini wrap?”

  Sledge intervened.

  “I just cooked some bar-b-que with steak fries. That’s if you want some real food.”

  “I eat real food!” Cole protested

  “I think I’ll take some bar-b-que, Alikira said. I haven’t eaten all day, and somehow, I don’t think a pickle would hit the spot.”

  They left to eat and Cole had a scowl on his face.

  

  Marc sat on a hill in the camp, looking at the borgey patrol. Kayleigh saw him sitting and joined him.

  “I thought you said it was a relief for you not to patrol the entrance anymore. Why are you out here so late?”

  Marc just looked over the borgey troops.

  “Those things don’t need any sleep. They’re just as sharp at two thirty in the morning as twelve noon. They won’t slip or make a mistake. We can sleep knowing we’re safe with them on alert at all times,” he said. “Do you think it’s time for our extinction? It is a rule of survival of the fittest.”

  Kayleigh sat beside him.

  “There is also a eukaryote augmentation rule. Evolution takes many eons to change. It’s a natural process.”

  “Eukaryote?”

  She had to explain.

  “Any organism having fundamental structural units have a eukaryote cell make-up. Eukaryotes evolve. These things never ‘evolved’, these things were made. If you’re worried about the survival of the fittest, just remember they were engineered by a malicious A.I.”

  “We made the Program and it almost wiped us out.”

  “Some of us are still here. Just call this extinction attempt an evolutionary bottleneck. Instead of one demographic like the mass pesticide pandemic in Europe, or the Gargoyle Flu in Africa, this just happened to everybody. Humans are a tough bunch. It may take a while, but we’ll come back.”

  “And you believe that?” he asked.

  “Like you just said, survival of the fittest.” She smiled at him. “You’re off. Get some sleep.”

  They walked back to the barracks with Marc having a better attitude.

  

  Alikira was full and waiting for Chip. He seemed more intelligent than most. That Steve guy was just the muscle, but without the brains, he would just shoot whatever moved.

  She sat in the chair, thinking of how charismatic Cole was. Then she thought, of course, he had to be, He smuggled Japan’s version of contraband to Tokyo. His smile must’ve gotten him out of many binds.

  Then she thought of many of the rest who didn’t really accept her personally. They did it because their squad leaders said she was good, but there were no casual ‘hellos’ around the camp.

  She always wanted to be accepted. Her sister was always her father’s favorite. Now they were dead, and she felt guilty for thinking in the guttural sense she never could prove her worth to her dead father. She was still beating herself up for even having that selfish thought.

  Chip walked into the lab and saw Alikira in her chair.

  “I just went out to get some coffee. You’re up early. Did you have a hearty breakfast?”

  “Yes. Where’s the digi-blueprint?” she asked rather insistent.

  “Hold up, Di. You just walked in. What’s your hurry?”

  “I just want to shift the tide in our direction. I think I was built to do just that.”

  “You were built to be a borgey,” he said. “If it wasn’t for your neurological flaw, you would still be a deactivation candidate in our eyes.”

  “Well, I’m not, alright?! I’m your resistance lynchpin. I’m a woman who was given extraordinary attributes by the one I must destroy. I’m the ironic corrector.”

  “What’s gotten into you? I’ve never seen you this determined to voluntarily deep sea dive with just a snorkel,” Chip said. “We’ll all do our part, but sometimes, you have to just wait.”

  “I hate you digging in my head, but if I can make the difference, I want to prove to everyone I mattered.” She felt as if a weight was lifted.

  “Who doesn’t think you matter?” he asked.

  “Many of your fellow comrades.”

  “Who?! I swear if anyone said anything to you…”

  “That’s the main problem, Chip. They don’t acknowledge me at all,” she said. “I’ve seen many of them say hi to other people, but when they see me, they clam up. I guess the gleam of the sun bouncing off my armbands can silence them.”

  Chip finally realized what she was going through. She wanted to be one of them, but her metal wouldn’t allow Alikira her natural right. She felt she had to earn it.

  “Okay, Di, I’ll insert the schematics. We have to make sure you know where you’re going before you just do it.”

  “You want me to create a virtual simulator with outrageous security to get past before I attempt the real thing.” She assumed.

  “How ‘outrageous’ are you talking here?” he asked. “Just access the random protocol, so I know what you’ll be dealing with.

  She began her REM thing again and in about five minutes, a simulator showed itself on Chip’s computer screen.

  “You, being a transiton, probably know this schematic inside and out. I was just a tech-ripper, and you really don’t want to muscle this one through.

  Use your delicacy to get through the labyrinth laced with land mines, record the run, and download it to me.”

  Chip guessed she was right. A tech-ripper just got things done no matter what consequence had to be dealt with. A transiton practiced a more delicate art.

  “At least you’re smart enough to know what you can and can’t do. You just gave me more work, but we’ll beat the Program.”

  “That’s for digging in my head for two days,” she said. “I need a break from you cavalierly penetrating my mind. I want to see fewer frequencies and not punch Cole in the crotch today.”

  “Hey, I told him you’d be sporadic. At least you didn’t liquefy his manhood.” Chip defended himself. “Okay, I’m on it. Just make our borgeys do some defense drills to keep their joints lubricated. I’ll reactivate you when I have an effective course of infiltration for you.”

  He began running drills against daunting security within the simulator to get her infiltration just right.

  

  Cole went to Steve to check the camp’s ‘temperature’. Steve was calibrating his new Magrupt.

  “Do you like your new piece?” Cole asked him.

  “I miss Stephanie. She was tuned in for every distance automatically. Now, I have to break in this new one,” Steve said as he recalibrated frequency distances.

  “How long is that going to take for a marksman?” Cole asked.

  “I thought you got it,” Steve said. “All this meticulous frequency distance adjusting makes me the marksman I am. The Magrupt was my proverbial championship pool cue."

  “So, you’re just normal without your own personal Magrupt.” He assumed.

  “Hey, I can still beat these novices without a problem, but you know me,” Steve smiled. “I like to turn borgeys off with style and flair.”

  Cole looked at his smile and asked, “You’ve been
patrolling the camp. How does everyone really feel about Alikira? And I’m not speaking squad protocol acceptance.”

  “You’ve seen the veiled tension too I see,” Steve said. “These people have been battling borgeys ever since this thing started, and now trusting someone who looks like their enemy gets kinda shaky for most.”

  “But she’s not a borgey. She wants to stop borgeys.”

  “She, looking like a borgey and controlling a troop of borgeys doesn’t really help her human legitimacy,” Steve said. “Look, Cole, I know this is just a semantical nervous fear, but it’s hard to change some people’s minds without extraordinary proof.”

  “So, if she stops the Program, then would they accept her?”

  “She looks like a borgey, so doing something extraordinary is the only thing that will work.”

  Cole felt upset. Alikira had to literally save humanity just to be accepted. She was human, but because of a condition not under her control, she was silently shunned. It didn’t matter if it was her choice or not. She was an underdog made to work harder than anyone else just to be trusted.

  “Okay, Steve. Alikira’s got a breach in the Program Chip created. They just have to make sure she can get in and get out without alerting any security. She’s got the means and the will…”

  “But does she have the talent?” Steve asked ominously.

  “She was a tech-tipper before all this happened, so she’s not as green as you think,” Cole assured him.

  “I got you. If she was good at stealing tangible items through a computer, she should be fine with jacking intangible information.”

  “Let’s just hope your logical hypothesis works.”

  

  It was 2 in the morning when Chip brought Alikira back online.

  “Wake up, Di. I already installed your optimal course.”

  Alikira began to become fully active.

  “What time is it? How long did it take to map the course without a flaw?”

  “It took twenty hours to make sure you wouldn’t get caught. I ran it fourteen times with random security, so it’s solid. It’s two in the morning.”