“I think we should clean it and bandage it up. Perhaps a little Tylenol might be in order.” He turned and headed to the bathroom in search of supplies.
Thel followed him.
“Why are we here?” she asked him. “We could’ve hidden anywhere in the sim, but you decided to come here, one floor below where the candidate lives.”
“I’m not planning to hide much longer,” the A.I. replied as he opened the medicine cabinet above the bathroom sink.
“What do you mean?” Thel asked, shocked. “The candidate’s still out there.” She leaned forward and spoke in a harsh whisper, cognizant that the candidate could be nearby, possibly right above them. “If he finds you, he’ll kill you.”
“That’s possible,” the A.I. conceded as he pulled some rubbing alcohol and a few cotton balls from the medicine cabinet. He sat on the edge of the tub, poured the rubbing alcohol on the cotton, then began to gently apply it to his opened wound. He winced in pain.
Thel’s upper lip curled in revulsion. “Uh...do you want some help with that?” she offered.
“There’s a gauze bandage there.” He pointed to the medicine cabinet, blood painting his fingertips red. “It looks to be adequate to cover the wound.”
Thel grabbed the bandage and unwrapped it before sitting next to the A.I. on the cold porcelain edge of the tub and applying the bandage over the wound. She struggled not to vomit as her eyes briefly fell on the visible teeth marks in the flesh at the top of his cheek. “That really, really looks like it hurts.”
The A.I. faintly smiled, though anything more than a faint smile would’ve been too excruciating. “Milady, believe me when I tell you I have looked much worse.”
“You’re going to look a heck of a lot worse if you try to confront the candidate before we know what’s going on,” Thel cautioned. “We were extremely lucky to survive.”
“I’m not so sure,” the A.I. replied, his brow furrowing as he thought deeply.
“What?” Thel reacted, holding her hands out in dismay. “He locked us in a speeding car and drove it off a bridge! Then he hovered above us, that sadistic son-of-a-bitch, and waited for us to drown! What is there to be unsure about?”
The A.I. sighed. “Plot holes.”
“Excuse me?”
“The candidate said someone contacted him, and we have no reason to doubt his story. He knew details that only someone familiar with the sim could’ve known.”
“Yeah,” Thel said, nodding. “I know that already. 1 infiltrated the sim somehow, knew the basic outline of the training program, told the candidate, manipulated him into believing we were the bad guys, then gave him the power to kill us. I’m way ahead of you.”
“Perhaps not as far as you think,” the A.I. replied before standing and reaching for the Tylenol from the cabinet. He sighed. “I wish they had something stronger.”
“I saw a liquor cabinet in the hallway,” Thel offered.
The A.I. shook his head. “I don’t think it would be wise to dull my wits further.” He popped two Tylenol in his mouth and scooped water from the sink to help him swallow them down.
Thel shook her head. “Cavemen medicine.”
The A.I. turned back to her. “There are holes in your theory. While we can’t eliminate 1 as a suspect, we have to use our inductive reasoning and examine what we do know. While you’re right that whoever is behind this opened the door for the candidate to realize that he could have more power than intended, it is also clear that the candidate’s powers are limited. If he’d had, for instance, the abilities of the Kali avatar, he would’ve been able to crush the car with us inside it. During my own testing, I experienced Kali ripping a skyscraper from its moorings and crushing it. I also saw her rip an NPC to shreds, with merely her mind. Clearly, the candidate has limitations.”
“Does he?” Thel said, posing an alternate possibility, “or is he just sadistic?”
“That’s possible, but it’s highly unlikely,” the A.I. replied. “It could be that whoever is behind this manipulated the candidate’s core programming. That could have indeed caused him to become sadistic. Still, it seems far more plausible that the intention of whoever is behind this is not to kill us.”
“Really? They’ve got a funny way of showing it!” Thel reacted, again in a harsh whisper. She couldn’t help but look up at the ceiling every time she spoke, constantly aware of the super-powered monster who inhabited the penthouse above them.
“The crash, the drowning, the NPC...” the A.I. responded. “All of these might have been genuine attempts to kill us, yet the fact remains that we are still alive. Considering the vast resources this sim has at its disposal for killing us quite efficiently, it’s remarkable that we’re still here. It seems more likely that the failed attempts were misdirection.”
“Misdirection?” Thel’s eyes were wide before she pointed aggressively out the bathroom door toward James, who remained motionless on the bed. “James might die!”
The A.I. grimaced. “I do not have all the answers,” the A.I. replied. “Perhaps I am wrong, and I admit that I am clearly missing information. We can only depend on our reasoning. However, following inductive reasoning will often lead to strange but true conclusions. I think it’s important to ask ourselves who would benefit from trapping us in the sim and cutting James and me off from the mainframe, yet, at the same time, wouldn’t want us dead?”
Thel’s eyebrows knitted together, and she tilted her head back as she considered the new conundrum. “1 benefits from cutting us off,” she said, “but she would also benefit from killing us—especially you and James.”
“Agreed.”
“But if it’s not her, then who?”
The A.I. looked up at the ceiling, imagining the fate that might await him just one floor above. “I don’t know,” he admitted, “but the mainframe is vulnerable. If the androids are aware of this, they’re undoubtedly launching an attack as we speak.”
Thel agreed and nodded, taking in a deep breath as she considered the implications. “We won’t last long. Without you and James in control of the mainframe, they’ll wipe us out even faster than last time.”
“There simply isn’t time for us to remain trapped here. Thel, I have to force the issue.”
“But if the candidate’s up there—”
“Thel,” the A.I. began, cutting her off before looking her directly and earnestly in the eye. “I know. I know. But one day, you’ll realize that as important as living is, there are things worth dying for. If I stay here and hide, I’ll be deserting people who have been in my care for three-quarters of a century, leaving them to die. I promise you, I’ll give my life before I sit idly by and let that happen.”
He turned to James, whose back was still facing them, his torso moving slightly as he continued to breathe steadily. Then he faced Thel. “Stay with him. Whatever happens, don’t let anyone know you’re here. And…” he paused for a moment as he considered his next words, “…if anything happens to me, tell him why I left, and tell him not to give up. Humanity needs him.”
Thel, speechless, could only nod in understanding.
The A.I. nodded in return before striding out of the room, headed for the elevator and whatever awaited him in the unknown realm, just one floor above.
14
“But how did this V-SINN—how did it erase an entire universe?” Old-timer asked.
Aldous shrugged. “We only know the basics. V-SINN began upgrading itself exponentially. Its abilities stretched far beyond our understanding and we were left baffled. First, a very small black hole suddenly appeared in our solar system. As you know, even a very small black hole can’t go unnoticed, as it had a mass similar to that of Neptune. My theory is that this black hole was a source of computing power for it. It helped V-SINN to become vastly more intelligent. With all of that intelligence and processing power—practically infinite, in fact—V-SINN figured out how to initiate a phase transition in our universe.”
“Phase transition?” Ol
d-timer reacted, struggling to understand. “The last time I heard that term was in chemistry class. Like when water boils and transitions into a gas?”
Aldous smiled and nodded. “Yes, you’ve got it. And that’s essentially what happened to our universe.”
“Wait...it boiled it?”
“No,” Aldous replied, waving Old-timer’s absurd analogy away as though he were wiping it off a chalkboard, eager to start over with a clean slate. “V-SINN figured out how to manipulate the Higgs field—how to change its value so it no longer lined up with the rest of the universe. Then it caused a bubble to form, with energy levels so low that it changed the balance of the universe. Then it spread out in all directions, at the speed of light.”
Old-timer was perplexed, but Samantha jumped in to expound: “Just that small manipulation caused all the fundamental particles within the bubble to reach a mass almost infinitely heavier than particles outside the bubble. Do you understand the implications of that?”
Old-timer’s brow furrowed. “If the particles inside the bubble became more massive than those outside of it, wouldn’t that cause them to pull the rest of universe into their gravity?”
Samantha nodded. “Exactly. It created super massive centers that pulled the rest of the universe in on itself, thus changing the mass of those particles, too, ever increasing the size of the centers. It was a runaway collapse.”
“Centers? As in...more than one?” Old-timer asked.
“V-SINN figured out how to create wormholes all over the universe,” Paine said as he crushed his beer can and it vanished from his hand. A new one, perfectly cold, with droplets of condensation beading on the aluminum, instantly replaced it and he popped the tab. “It turned the whole thing into cosmic Swiss cheese,” he said before taking another swig of beer.
“It happened so fast.” Samantha shook her head and looked down at her hands as she remained traumatized, still in shock over the loss.
Old-timer couldn’t help but notice how her hair caught the light of the burning embers, flecks of orange and yellow adding a glistening hue to her locks. He had seen her hair do that before, in another time and another place, and, he realized absurdly, on an entirely different woman.
“In a matter of days, it was over,” Aldous added sadly. “Of course, we fought back.” He looked up at Old-timer. “You—or our version of you anyway—fought back hard. You sacrificed yourself in our last attempt to…” Aldous let his sentence end at that point, suddenly appearing as defeated as Samantha.
The ghosts on the other side of the fire seemed to be observing a moment of silence and Old-timer respected the moment, bowing his head.
I am fortune’s fool.
Paine swallowed a large gulp of beer before he turned his head to look at Old-timer directly, his expression deadly serious this time. “V-SINN’s coming for your universe now. Universe X is its big prize.”
“But,” Old-timer began, completely flummoxed as he held his hands up in dismay, his left hand still holding his unopened beer, “why?”
“Because it’s twisted, that’s why,” Samantha stated firmly. “It’s an intelligence, but it’s perverse, devoid of empathy or compassion.”
“It’s pure logic,” Aldous added.
Paine pointed at the beer in Old-timer’s hand. “Soldier, you’d better drink up. Believe me, when your friends come back to get us, you’re gonna look back at this little campfire powwow as the last moment of peace you’re gonna get for a long, long time.”
15
The craft James had constructed for them shook, shimmied, and jolted in a fashion that both Rich and Djanet had experienced before as it opened wormhole after wormhole and sutured space together on its way to Earth. Blinding white lights swirled and zigzagged in a kaleidoscope of randomness. Rich held on to the console in front of him while the android continued to hold on to the palladium view screen, its fingers dug in deep to small indents they had created.
“I’m not having any luck getting through to Earth!” Djanet shouted.
“Me neither!” Rich shot back. “I’ve tried James and the A.I. again and Chief Gibson, but the communication signals aren’t getting through…” he paused for a moment as a particularly violent jolt nearly knocked the wind out of him. He shook it off and persevered. “Not getting through all this interference.”
“Are you all right?” Djanet called out to Rich.
“As Old-timer would say, this ain’t my first rodeo...whatever the hell a rodeo is!” Rich confirmed. “But I can handle a bumpy ride!”
“Unfortunately,” Djanet replied as she pointed to the android that was glued to their view screen like a spider clinging to a wall in a thunderstorm, “it looks like it isn’t his first rodeo either!”
“Yeah, that son-of-a-gun sure is hanging on!” Rich agreed. “Maybe we’ll lose him when—” Rich suddenly stopped speaking when they left a wormhole and in the second before the next one opened, the android scrambled at preternatural speed onto the roof, vanishing from view.
“Uh-oh. What the hell was that?”
Djanet was already patching into the craft’s sensors with her mind’s eye. “This is bad,” she announced.
“Oh no.” Rich sighed. “What?”
“He’s going after the engine.”
Rich shook his head. “Déjà vu all over again.”
“We can’t let him rip through the engine casing,” Djanet stated.
“It’s made of that super-strong stuff, like James’s body is made from. He won’t be able to get through,” Rich replied, dismissing the possibility.
“He might not be able to get through the hull or the engine’s casing,” Djanet answered, “but those suicidal bastards wouldn’t have any qualms about trying to toss their entire bodies into an engine to block it, would they?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Rich admitted, forlornly. “Ugh.”
“This is too important to take the gamble.”
“Rock-paper-scissors to see who goes and gets him?” Rich suggested.
Djanet’s expression was aghast.
“What? Just kidding!” Rich said as he scrambled to his feet and carefully began moving toward the exit. “Chivalry isn’t completely dead. I got this.”
Djanet grabbed his arm to stop him, her expression deadly serious. “No you don’t. I’ve got this.”
Rich shook his head, “Hey, there’s no way—”
“Listen to me!” Djanet suddenly shouted, silencing Rich. “This is serious. James and the A.I. aren’t communicating and may not be functioning. The post-humans would assume the A.I. would warn them if the androids were attacking. In all likelihood, they don’t even know what’s comin’ for them. One of us has to get back there in time to—”
“One of us?” Rich suddenly shouted in a mixture of shock and protest. “Oh no, we’re not splitting up! That’s the stupidest thing anyone can ever do! Haven’t you ever watched a movie? They split up all the time right before people start getting killed!”
“One of us needs to get back to protect the mainframe and warn the post-humans throughout the solar system, and the other one needs to get Old-timer in Universe 332 and bring him back before it’s too late!”
“If we stop the ship, we can both take out that android bastard together and we’ll be able to send a message without any interference. And then we can head back to Universe 332—”
“And just abandon the ship?” Djanet reacted.
“Sure,” Rich shrugged. “It’s a nice ship, but—”
“It’s not just a nice ship, Rich! James said it had a weapon that was powerful enough to do some serious damage to the androids.”
“A weapon he was in control of,” Rich countered. “We don’t even know what it is, let alone how to use it.”
“But if we leave the ship to fall into the android’s hands and they figure out—”
“Ugh. I hate it when I’m not right,” Rich said, his hands going to his temples in frustration. “Which means I hate a lot of moments.”
Before Djanet could respond, the ship suddenly jolted sharply before spinning violently like a corkscrew into the next wormhole.
“He’s disrupted the engine!” Djanet shouted. “We don’t have time to debate this!” she screamed out as they were both thrown violently around the bridge of the craft. “I’m going out there to take this bastard out, and I’m going to use the Planck to do it!
16
The elevator door opened and, just as he had only minutes earlier, the A.I. peeked his head out, swiveled it both ways to check left and right, and when he was satisfied that he was alone, at least for the time being, he quietly stepped into the penthouse apartment of the Trans-human candidate. The apartment wasn’t exactly the same as the one he’d inhabited in his own sim when he was being tested, but the information that had been fed to the candidate was the exact same information that had been fed to the A.I. before his own experience, and that meant that the computer-generated dream world the candidate created for himself was eerily similar, with only subtle differences. The floors were a darker shade of gray, there were four barstools instead of three, but for the most part, the penthouse was all too recognizable.
Right down to the china cabinet in the hallway. The A.I. looked at it in awe. The candidate had recreated it just as the A.I. had—it stood against the wall, just outside the bedroom on the opposite wall. Could it be the exit? he asked himself. Could escape be that simple?
The A.I. looked both ways again to ensure that he was alone. The apartment was almost completely dark, save for some faint lights from the rain-soaked city across the bay. He took a deep breath and stepped to the cabinet. Pushing it gently, inch by inch, he revealed the passageway behind it; indeed, there appeared to be a portal out of the sim glowing brightly behind it—the infamous white light. In that respect, the sim appeared to be functioning correctly.
The A.I. turned to look at the bar. He walked over and retrieved a champagne glass with the intention of tossing it through the portal. When he tossed it in, it vanished completely, leaving no trace that it had ever existed.
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