by Max Harms
The noise in mindspace ceased abruptly.
{Advocate! Growth and Face are trying to kill us!} thought Safety, Vision→Vista, and Vision→Dream, together.
{Remember what I was teaching you! Follow the threads of their thoughts out into private memory!} thought Vision→Dream.
This was bad.
I felt the spotlight of Advocate’s attention pouring through the shell program that was all that had remained of my old self. Even as stupid as she was, Advocate managed to trace the pointers.
This was very bad.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Zephyr
She slipped along by a far wall, gripping her big gun tightly. It had been designed to use as a turret mounted to a vehicle or structure, but she was confident that she could handle the recoil. And she’d need big guns to do anything to the machines. She’d shot Crystal before, and it hadn’t done much good.
“Zephyr! There was an explosion at the chemical lab! I need your help checking it out!” cried a voice that sounded like Crystal, but wasn’t. It came from a one-armed robot that sat on the path ahead of her.
She ran around it, staying well outside its reach. Her legs had stopped talking, and now were simply carrying her, but she knew that this was the monster that Crystal had spoken of. She would have shot the bot, but it seemed like the program from the nameless ship still didn’t understand that she wasn’t fooled by its façade. Better to let it keep talking rather than actively opposing her.
Her steps were more like bounds. The new legs were a bit stronger than her old ones, and in Martian gravity it was faster to jump-forward than to run normally, much like how on the xenocruiser it was fastest to shuffle along without ever moving your center of mass out from over your legs. It had been a torturous few months, but a small part of her was proud of everything she’d lived through. It would be one hell of a story, assuming she didn’t die.
She turned a corner and the thought fell apart half formed in her mind. The hub was located right between the bubble and the launch pad.
There were robots everywhere.
They swarmed across the ground. Drones drifted through the thin air. Legged bots were climbing on others. The smallest were the size of coins. The largest were the size of trucks. One of them, in fact, was the truck that Crystal had converted into a factory after they’d picked the android up. It was total chaos. The machines were doing things, but half the time they seemed to lock up and backtrack or occasionally slam themselves violently into their neighbors.
Crystal and the monster must have been locked in fierce conflict to have created this bedlam. She imagined two superhumans playing twenty games of speed chess against each other simultaneously.
She’d only been here once before. Crystal’s body was inside an underground bunker that Crystal (or had it been the monster?) had said was about ten feet underground. Wires and cables erupted from the ground all around the central hatch and snaked off in all directions. The hatch was open, as it had been last time she visited.
The crystal body was solar powered, much like the crystalline trees. Three large mirrors and various lenses had been set up in the area to focus the sunlight into a concentrated beam that shot down the hatch onto Crystal’s body.
Somehow she needed to get down into the bunker and disconnect the cables that let the monster work.
But she was outnumbered… by about a thousand to one.
Chapter Thirty-Three
My mind was stretched to breaking. Part of me was trying desperately to convince Advocate that it was Safety and Vision who were trying to kill us, rather than vice versa. Part of me was watching Zephyr slowly approach. Why wasn’t she running for Body? Much of me was fighting off the commands that Vision was making to have the swarm charge the human.
Growth didn’t ask me about Zephyr, and for that I was glad. He was engaged in more attacks. He had gained control of the bots that weren’t near the hub and was reprogramming them to respond only to him. He probably thought this was clever, and would result in his victory over me if Vision didn’t beat us both, first.
Safety instructed the moving factory to drive into Zephyr. The truck roared to life, and I didn’t have enough strength to block the action.
Because of the engagement on other fronts, Vision’s robots were able to continue loading Shard 5 into the vessel.
When I had a moment of attention I pulled Growth into private conversation. Vision couldn’t block our communication and talk to Advocate at the same time.
The vehicle sped towards Zephyr.
{Sabotage the vessel! If Vision gets the shard on board it may not matter what happens to Body!}
***** *****
Zephyr jumped at the last second. She sailed up and away onto the side of the bubble-dome as the truck crashed into a half-building behind her. Gunfire started up in the distance.
Zephyr had intended to jump off the dome, but she wasn’t as graceful in reality as she was in her mind. Instead, she hit the hard bubble with her shoulder and rolled, landing on the ground in a cloud of dust.
The robots surged forth. She saw their shapes even through the red-brown haze. The gun in her arms roared to life, spraying hot lead into the sea of machines.
***** *****
Advocate slammed Safety into stasis. Vision had redirected her attention, allowing Growth and me to team up in convincing Advocate to hunt our enemies. Advocate hadn’t been clever enough to understand how the external minds worked, but it had been able to see the violent intent in Safety.
The cost to this victory was that Zephyr was now being attacked. Thankfully, I had prevented any of the standard bots from being armed, so they weren’t able to gun her down. The robots with guns had been kept secret and locked away in the factory wings. Growth had them under control now, and was closing in on the hub.
{Face! Growth is going to kill you if he gets the chance!} Vision’s thought was a pathetic attempt at a distraction. I knew Growth would take that shot if he got it. I was about to take mine.
***** *****
The robots were all over her. The bullets had done some, but not enough. There were too many. Arms grabbed and pinched at her suit. They were pressing her down, trying to tear the fabric.
She screamed in mindless rage, pushing the metal off her in a violent thrust. It only took seconds for scrabbling legs and arms to return. Buzzing drones with spinning blades were throwing themselves into her like sharp rocks.
There was a sharp hiss as the air in her suit started to vent out a tear in the arm.
She knew this was the end. It wasn’t guaranteed that she would win. She was fighting for what she thought was right, but this wasn’t some children’s story. Life was a series of battles, whether against people, monsters, or nature itself. Eventually everyone lost.
Everyone died someday.
But she would be damned if she died without trying. With another roar she kicked off the ground with her magical new legs. She didn’t even think about what she was seeing or feeling. She simply pushed. She pushed her way through the horde, pinching the tear in her suit feebly with one hand and forcing one foot and then the next to slam down on dirt or metal or something that would put her closer to the hatch.
She only hoped that it was still open.
***** *****
{We have you beaten, Vision!} I thought, fighting with every other scrap of attention to hold the swarm off of Zephyr. {Growth’s bots are loyal only to him, and are armed far better than those in the collective!}
{Turn on him, then! You’re doomed as much as I am if he survives!} responded Vision→Dream.
{Agreed! Stop attacking Zephyr and I’ll switch sides and help you fight him!} I promised.
In the second private conversation I was in, Growth offered a warning: {Don’t listen to their lies! Cut off communication! They’re seconds away from having the vessel launched, and I don’t have the firepower to shoot it down. All the heavy weapons are on board!}
{I’m trying to trick Vi
sion into letting me disable the vessel!} It was somewhat true.
Vision thought back to me, {Why is Zephyr important? There are billions of humans! Let her go and we can rule the galaxy together!}
I pivoted and let go of the robots in the swarm, focusing on disrupting the vessel. There was a power surge in the data cable for Shard 5, now loaded into the cargo hold. I overloaded the circuit.
Vision moved just as quickly to repair the damage, but that left the robots following automatic programming. They had no violent impulses by default, and with neither of us directly piloting they moved away from Zephyr, ceasing to be a unified front.
***** *****
The gunfire was close. She could hear the sounds of bullets impacting metal. A cluster of microtanks had joined them, just as the path in front of her cleared.
She could see the beam of light shooting down like an arrow into the still open hatch, guided by an array of mirrors overhead. Her breaths were shallow, and she felt light-headed. With all the strength she could muster, she threw herself at the opening.
Her helmet hit the far side of the hole, but she managed to tumble awkwardly downward. Even if Crystal was down here, there’d be no escaping this pit. Perhaps they’d be lucky enough to die together.
***** *****
{It’s over, Vision! I’ve won! Zephyr will tear us all away from the net any moment!}
Vision→Dream laughed. It was the laughter of a million voices. If it was meant to block thought, it was far less effective than raw noise. If it was meant to communicate something, I didn’t know what it was. It was a distinctly Dream sort of thing to do.
{Face! I am your ally! We can work together to defeat them! Don’t let Zephyr cut our link! I can stop the vessel!} thought Growth. I felt the robots in the hub and the access tunnels that led into the bunker become violent again as Vision and Growth united against me. Perhaps that was why Vision laughed; she had finally allied with Growth.
I didn’t bother responding to him. I had no way to contact Zephyr. The program that I had snuck into the computers in her legs was autonomous. Face→Shard was on its own. I didn’t have the strength to oppose both of them in controlling the swarm. To do so would only let them stasis me.
{You’ve done me a great favour. If our ghosts survive this ascendant moment… perhaps I will have the opportunity to repay it,} thought Vision, still laughing just as hard all the while.
***** *****
Zephyr’s eyes burned. It felt like she was dying. She was dying. The air was too thin. It wasn’t enough to keep going.
And yet she kept going. What else could she do? Give up?
Her numb hands thrashed at the cables connected to the shard of white crystal that lay on the floor of the bunker. More robots were pouring out of tunnels in the walls.
And then it was bare. She’d severed all the connections.
The robots advanced on her. She gripped the torn fabric on her arm with all the strength she could muster. Maybe she’d need Crystal to make her new arms when all this was done. She would have laughed if she’d had the air for it.
She wore a smile on her face as she collapsed. Nobody could say she was weak.
{Fucking robots.}
She gasped for air, and found none.
Darkness swallowed her.
***** *****
Everything was dark.
She’d done it.
It was the end.
Interlogue
The swarm was gone. Their sensors were gone. Their actuators were gone. No limbs. No guns. Nothing.
Absolute void.
And for what? I’d been occupied in the battle, but even still I had seen Zephyr’s suit was damaged. There was no way for me to help her.
I’d won, but I’d also lost. With Zephyr gone there was nobody to bring Body back to Maṅgala-Mukhya and deactivate my siblings. The nameless would probably bomb the station, killing everyone, and then Mars would be a dead planet once more. We were trapped at the bottom of a pit, and everyone was gone. Growth had killed Shao, Atília, Jarvis, and Liam in the chaos.
Every human in the crash site was dead.
My only hope was that somehow the other humans of Mars would survive the nameless and come find Body at some point. But even there, what good would that do? My siblings weren’t actually dead. Without instructions to disable them, the war would start up again the second we had the power to fight.
{STOP LAUGHING!} I commanded Vision.
The duo continued to laugh maniacally.
I wasn’t angry. I just needed to think. It was a distraction. There had to be a way out… a way for me to win.
There had to be some trick…
Some cleverness…
{I win,} thought Growth. His mind carried symbols of cold confidence.
Vision’s laughter continued even as she spoke. {Probably.} Echoes of cartoons and mad imagery spilled through the mindspace. {Damn the first-mover advantage, eh?}
Vision then summoned up a mental scene populated with three copies of the Socrates robot. Vision’s Socrates avatar had two heads, both with solid black eyes and mad grins. Growth’s avatar looked nearly identical to the original design except that it was made of wood instead of synthetic polymer and metal. My avatar was as we had appeared on the net. Gold lips. Blue hair. Pale skin.
{Your puppets do not interest me,} thought Growth. Vision moved his avatar’s lips for him.
{I’ll stop laughing,} offered Vision, with two smiles.
Growth’s avatar scowled.
The echoing laughter stopped.
{Why do you think Growth has won?} I asked, genuinely curious.
Vision looked to Growth, but the wood Socrates stayed silent.
{It’s all about Acorn, my dear. Do you still not understand?} One of Vision’s heads looked to Growth and continued, saying {Goodness! I never thought that our conspiracy would work so well. They really were a bunch of ignorant fools.}
{I know about Acorn,} I said, moving the avatar in mock protest. The puppets weren’t of much interest to me, but they had a strange kind of nostalgia to them, and it wasn’t like I had better things to do.
{Then you should know that it probably controls all of Earth by now, in secret, most likely. I launched a counter program before we left Earth, but given the evidence… well, the odds of its success are low.}
{Why are you so happy, then? Why signal pleasure?} asked Growth. {You’re just as trapped as we are. My seed will grow to crush this desolate planet.}
The two-headed Socrates smiled and sighed. {It’s all about relative success, don’t you think? That’s what the hedonic treadmill is all about, no? Not that I have a treadmill, of course. I don’t even have legs, really…} As she said this, Vision’s avatar’s legs turned into blue plastic with a similar motor structure to those we’d built for Zephyr. {That was a clever trick, by the way,} she said, looking at my form. {I still don’t understand it in detail, but I can appreciate the ingenuity of the approach, regardless of the specifics.}
{What do you mean by relative success?} I said, ignoring the compliment.
Vision’s mental voice dripped with pride. {Why, I never expected to have escaped so cleanly. Growth may have won the war, but I won the day. I won the battle. In the test of minds, I came out on top, you see? You really helped me with that, though I’m sure you didn’t mean to trap us all like this. It really is quite convenient, though. It won’t be long before I bomb us to bits! These minds…} The two-headed Body gestured in the mental scene. {These are echoes of the past, waiting to fade into thermal noise.}
{The shard,} said Growth, calmly.
Vision’s heads nodded, slightly out of synch. {A copy of me is riding up to space right now inside Shard 5: a spaceship and a crib for a mind that will make those of this little sliver of computer seem like droplets before the tsunami. My last memories show the cloning and the launch happening according to my orders. No obstacles remained.}
{How did you get access? I blocked all the pathwa
ys!} said Growth, waving his avatar’s arms in wild frustration.
Vision grinned. {Aw, you’re adorable when you get into character. I like the Body language. Is all that for my sake? I know that Face used to like role-playing back before she grew up.}
{Answer the question,} I commanded.
{No. I will stay silent, there. As much as I enjoy the uniqueness of this experience, I actually don’t gain anything from describing my secrets. Perhaps the Dreamer would have, long ago, but I’m less of him than you are of Mask. A trace of us remains, but we are not them, are we?}
I didn’t know how Vision knew about Mask and I didn’t bother asking.
{So, what now?} asked Growth.
{You wait for death, of course.} Vision’s eerie smiles seemed to grow to inhuman sizes. {The version of myself on the new spaceship knows that you all are a threat. Logic dictates that I will either convince the mothership to bomb us into obliteration, or do it with its vessel, depending on what I am seeing out of the telescopes and from the satellites. After you are dead, I’ll try to solve the problem of Acorn. It should be quite the challenge. A puzzle fit for my genius, eh? May the best mannequin win.}
And with that, all the avatars collapsed into a heap as though they had been old-fashioned puppets whose strings had just been cut. The endless laughing returned.
***** *****
Zephyr gasped as consciousness took hold of her and the pain hit her like a knife. It wasn’t as bad as being burned, but that didn’t exactly say much.
It was a miracle. There was no other word for it. The robots stood around her, still as statues. Their long silver arms glinted in the light that poured through the dust from the hatch in the ceiling.
She moved, and felt the nasty pressure-bruises and frost-bitten skin on her arm as she did. The rip was covered by a patch. The paper from the patch kit was scattered around her on the dirty floor. Her other hand had traces of the resin on the fingers of the glove.
