A.I. Zombie

by L. A. Johnson

  Lyra and Ian exchanged worried glances over the voodoo comment.

  Gorb swayed back to his desk, switched his radio back on, sat back down in his chair. He started humming an odd tune coming from the radio. Lyra wasn't up on the latest top forty trends, but if that's what was passing as pop music nowadays, she wasn't impressed.

  "Thanks, Gorb," she said, even though in this case, Gorb's knowledge didn't clear up anything. She and Ian continued down the hallway toward Vax and Nancy and the zombie voodoo patient.

  "Oh yeah," Gorb said, "you forgot to ask about Arthur."

  Lyra stopped so fast that Ian ran into the back of her. Gorb was right. And if Gorb didn't volunteer the information in the first place, then it must be juicy. She turned around to backtrack, went around Ian, and peeked her head around the corner.

  "What was that about Arthur?" she asked.

  "He's in O.R. number four."

  "So?"

  "He's operating on a squid."

  The realization washed over her. No way. "Thanks, Gorb!" She ran to O.R. four and threw the door open. "Arthur?"

  "Not now, Lyra," he said.

  He looked and sounded okay. Good for him, she thought.

  "I'll be out of your hair in a minute," Lyra continued. "One, great job. I always knew you had it in you. And two, before all of this," she had no idea what this was, but for Arthur it was progress, "did you figure out what the deal was with MACRO?"

  "I didn't have time, because this patient came in. MACRO was really worked up, though, rolling in circles with the beeping and the flashing light. Feel free to help yourself. I left his manual on Gorb's desk."

  "Did you say he was active when you left?"

  "Yes. Very."

  Lyra frowned. She didn't want to bug Arthur anymore and throw him off his game, but MACRO looked like he was shut down now. And if Gorb didn't do it, and Arthur didn't do it, then who did? She closed the door.

  Ian was still there, trailing behind her with his scanning equipment. MACRO would just have to wait. She led Ian down the hall to where she had left Vax and Nancy. She didn't have to throw the door open though, because it was already cracked. That was unusual, too, and probably meant that they were as freaked out about the whole thing as she was. Good.

  "Hi guys," she said, entering. "Vax and Nancy, this is Ian. Ian, Vax and Nancy."

  Nancy waved.

  "Why is he here?" Vax asked. "And what's that?" He pointed at the portable scanner in Ian's hand.

  For his part, Ian had gone white as a sheet again and was looking at the patient, who was still sitting straight up and was vocalizing softly.

  "Is that your hot date?" Nancy asked.

  Lyra chose to ignore Nancy for now. "Ian is on the space station doing some experiments. And it just so happened that the timing of when his experiments went all wonky coincided with when our patient here got even stranger."

  Nancy and Vax stared at her.

  "Look," she said, "I'm well aware that this is a long shot, but it's all I've got right now. Do either of you have anything better?"

  "What are you proposing here?" Nancy asked. "Hey, wait, did you say he's a scientist? Because he looks really familiar."

  Ian gave Lyra a quizzical look. Lyra was afraid of being made fun of because of dating a web star, so she lied a little. So sue me. She gave Ian a please keep quiet look and figured she would just have to explain it to him later.

  Lyra ignored Nancy again and approached the patient carefully, doubting that Ian would continue to cooperate if he didn't see that it was safe. She got as close to the patient as she dared and studied him. Then she whispered, "All I want is to give Ian a chance to use his portable scanning equipment on the patient. His equipment is technically for communications detection, but it's the same equipment that seems to have been affected by all of the changes. It could give us another angle on what's going on here." She turned to Ian and then back to the patient.

  "Is this close enough, Ian? Are you more comfortable if I use the equipment?"

  He nodded at her and looked frozen in place.

  "Okay," she whispered. "Hand it over and tell me what to do."

  He handed her the small scanner. "Why does he have a sword?" Ian indicated Vax.

  "It helps him think," Lyra answered. Then she shook her head, remembering that everybody is intimidated by Vax, with or without the sword. She really should have warned him. She would have, too, if tonight weren't so crazy.

  "I'm sorry, Ian. I really should have warned you about Vax. And I know that he looks scary, and doubly so with the sword, but he's a good friend, a good person, and a good doctor. I trust him with my life, and you can too. The patient, on the other hand, I'm not too sure about. Right now, I'm actually very happy to have Vax here with the sword. Because if anything in the next few minutes goes south, we might just need it."

  "You think you guys are going to have to kill the patient?" Ian asked, his voice trembling and at least an octave higher than usual.

  "Steady on, Ian. What I'm saying is that I'm scared, and right now Vax is making me feel better. Now how do I work this thing?"

  The patient twitched, but didn't move. He did, however, continue with his light humming. And he smelled. Being this close to him, she could smell the faint, but very distinct smell of decomp. A fresh round of terror washed over her. Was the patient right in front of her sitting up, eyes open, humming, and dead? Something else was bothering her now.

  Even more than the decomp and even more than the proximity. It was the song. Oh no, the song that this guy was humming was the same one that was playing on Gorb's radio. A chill ran through her body right down to her toes. She decided not to tell anybody just yet. Especially since she had no idea what it meant.

  "Take a half a step forward and aim the pointy end of the scanner at his head," Ian said. His voice was wavering. "And then there's a trigger on the side. Hold the trigger down until it beeps."

  "Then what happens?" Nancy asked.

  "Then the data gets sent to my phone."

  Lyra swallowed hard, trying to keep the fear out of her own voice now. "Meaning as soon as this machine beeps I can back up just as far as I want?"

  "Yup. As far as the equipment is concerned, once there is a beep, we'll have all the data at our fingertips," Ian answered.

  Ok, Lyra. You can do this. She glanced down at the scanner in her hand for a moment and located the button and the trigger. She pushed the button and aimed in at the patient's head, hoping that he or it or whatever would continue ignoring her.

  "Here goes," she said, and pulled the trigger. Wait for the beep, he had said. She waited for the beep. She counted to three before she realized she was counting, but not breathing. She forced herself to take a breath and then started counting again. C'mon, where's that beep?

  "Almost there," Ian said, as if reading her mind.

  With her hand on the trigger and nothing else to do, she kept her attention on the patient, hoping for no sudden moves. Her hopes were fully dashed when he turned his head to look straight at her again. His eyes were glowing a feral bright green and yet they were vacant at the same time. She stifled a scream. He seemed to look both at her and through her at the same time.

  Lyra froze in place, her heart beating out of her chest. She dared not stop the process of gathering the data, but now she was actively fighting every fight or flight instinct. Her senses heightened. She could hear Vax getting a better grip on the sword. And yet, even if she could will her feet to run, she wasn't at all sure they'd obey. She braced for whatever was going to happen next.

  Beep.

  The sound broke her out of her trance. She stepped backward several steps, slowly. Then she let out a deep breath. The patient was still staring at her, though, and she knew those eyes would haunt her dreams. That was if she was ever able to get to sleep again. Finally, the patient turned his head back the way it was before, staring at the wall.

  Lyra gave out a little nervous laugh, a quiet one though, and looked
around. They all looked every bit as tense as she was. Nancy crossed the room to put an arm around her as she continued backing out of the room. Ian went with them into the hallway and Vax stayed inside with his sword to stand guard.

  Once out in the hallway, Lyra bumped into something and started wildly, nearly falling over. It was just Gorb.

  "What in stars name is wrong with you, Gorb? For heaven's sake, you scared ten years off of my life." The way tonight was going she wasn't at all sure that she had ten years left, but she sure hoped.

  Gorb wasn't acting sorry. "Yes, yes," he said, "the patient's scary, I get it. But I need your help. This is important."

  "What's the matter?"

  "It's the robot. I think he's sad."

  Lyra couldn't believe that Gorb thought that the potentially sad robot was more important than patient zero brainwaves in there. Then she thought about Arthur not getting a chance to decode the signals that he had obviously been trying to send.

  "Hang on a minute. Sad robot?" she asked. "Do you mean that MACRO is awake now? And what makes you think that he's sad?"

  "Instead of a fast beep, it's a slow beep. And the circles are slower too."

  "Is Arthur out of surgery yet?"

  "Almost."

  Lyra looked around. Ian was busy tapping out instructions for the data on his cell phone, and Nancy peered in on the patient and Vax, but didn't go back in.

  "Hey, Lyra?" Ian asked.

  She turned to him.

  "I'm looking at some of the data. And, well, I'll be honest with you, it doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before. If I had to guess, though, I'd say it was some sort of signal."

  "What's a signal?"

  "The singing."

  That surprised Lyra. "You think that weird vocalizing he's doing is a signal? A signal for what?"

  "I don't think it's a signal," he said, "the data seems to suggest that it's a signal. A weak one, though. And how the hell would I know what it's for?"

  "Okay," she said to him. "Sorry." She frowned. "Let's put a pin in that theory for a minute and check on MACRO. And there's something else, Ian." She led them back to the registration desk. MACRO was indeed slow-beeping for some reason and going in circles. Just like Gorb had said. He perked up when he saw her, though.

  "Hi MACRO," she said. "I know you're trying to communicate with us. Sorry about the delay." She picked up the manual right where Arthur said it was. Before she looked at the manual though, there was something she had to know. She switched on the radio.

  The sound could barely be heard so she turned it up. Lyra felt a jolt of adrenaline as she recognized the tune. Gorb hummed along.

  Nancy gasped. "That's the same tune that the patient is singing."

  Lyra was thinking the same thing.

  Ian gaped at her. "Turn it up," he said.

  Lyra switched the volume even higher and it was clear that it was not an actual song on the radio, but it was the patient's song being transmitted via the radio station.

  Lyra exchanged worried glances with Ian and Nancy. She switched to another station and then another, but it was the same thing. The patient's singing had taken over all of the stations. "What was that you said about the patient broadcasting a signal?" Lyra asked Ian.

  "Fascinating," Ian said. "I'm going to sit down for a few minutes and look at this data more carefully," he said, indicating the waiting room chairs. It looked to Lyra that he was approximately at the sit down or fall down stage of stress anyway, considering everything that was currently going on.

  "Hey, Nancy," she said, finding a train of thought forward. "Why don't you go and check other radios and see if they're picking up the same thing. Let's see just how far this signal goes. Yes?"

  Nancy nodded enthusiastically, obviously happy to get out of the vicinity of the patient for a little while. "What are you going to do?" Nancy asked.

  Lyra picked up the robot manual that Arthur had left on the desk. "I'm going to try to figure out what's wrong with MACRO. I think he's trying to tell us something."

  "Yeah," Gorb said, "now that everything is back to normal, you have to cheer up my little buddy."

  Lyra knew that everything was crazy, but she hoped that if she could figure out what he was trying to tell her, then maybe she'd be closer to fixing it.

  She flipped through the manual. "Stars, how old is this model, anyway?" There it is, page thirty-four, communication. She groaned. "There's a four-page communication diagram. This is going to take forever."

  Gorb floated to a position just over her shoulder and looked for himself. "You're overthinking this, boss. This will be fun, like we're playing charades, yeah?"

  Lyra realized he was right, it was as simple as looking up the behavior code and matching it with the corresponding letters. It was tedious, but it was doable.

  "You're right, Gorb, let's do this. Okay. The pattern seems to start with a slow counter clockwise circle, two beeps, and then a flashing red light." She scanned the manual until she found the corresponding letter. "R." She looked at Gorb and shook her head. "This isn't charades, it's more like hangman."

  Gorb floated quickly over to the white board, erased the entire schedule, and grabbed the dry erase marker. He wrote the letter "R".

  Lyra wondered if this would even work. What if he was in a loop repeating the same pattern over and over. There was no way she was going to figure it out if her only clue was the letter R. There was another beep, though, and MACRO started another pattern. Lyra exhaled with relief.

  Beep, clockwise, flash, beep.

  Lyra flipped through the pages.

  "I'm ready, what is it?" Gorb asked.

  "E."

  He wrote it down.

  Flash, beep, flash.

  Lyra was getting better at this, and she had to admit she was having fun. "B."

  Beep, beep, back, forward, flash.

  "Tell me again why you couldn't just download into a newer model?" Lyra scowled at the little robot. "O."

  Gorb wrote it down.

  Beep, beep, back, forward, flash.

  "Okay, that's another ‘O’.”

  Flash, flash, beep, beep, spin.

  "T."

  Gorb dutifully wrote the letter down.

  A dark, lurking suspicion began to bother Lyra as she looked up at the last letter that Gorb had written on the board.

  "Keep going, boss," Gorb said. "We're almost there, I can feel it."

  "He wants us to restart him, Gorb." She could have kicked herself for not figuring it out sooner, or at least starting with that.

  Ian looked up from his phone. "Oh yeah, look at that. It says "reboot." Then he went back to his data.

  Lyra flipped through the book to figure out how to power MACRO off and back on again. It turned out there was a button behind his antenna that you had to hold down for six seconds until it beeped and then you had to let it go and then press it for another three seconds until it turned green again. "Come here, you," she said to the little robot.

  "You think this will work? Will we get our funny little robot back?" Gorb asked.

  Lyra shrugged. "I think so, at least that's what the manual says."

  MACRO stopped spinning in a circle and then approached her before turning around to present the button.

  "Either way, I'm pretty sure we figured out what he was trying to tell us. Hey, wait, it says here that if we get him reset properly, then there's a quick communication mode."

  She pressed the series of buttons and waited to see what would happen next. Gorb put the dry erase marker back and came to watch too. She could even see Ian peeking over his phone, along with a couple of patients who apparently weren't quite nosy enough to know that ten minutes ago was probably the opportune moment to run for their lives.

  MACRO slumped forward slightly and ceased all movement, flashing, and beeping. Then, when the button turned green again he sprang back to life.

  Then there was so much beeping and flashing and circling that Lyra had no idea what to do
. She flipped from the emergency communication mode to the quick communication mode.

  Gorb ran back to the white board. "It looks like you fixed him, Lyra. But I think he's still trying to tell us something!"

  "I think you're right again, Gorb. Are you ready?"

  Gorb was so excited that he appeared to be vibrating in mid-air. "I'm ready!"

  She glanced up at MACRO and then down at the guide. They got into a rhythm. Lyra watched and listened to MACRO and then called out letters, barely having time to make sure that Gorb was keeping up with it all. "S, C, Y."

  Macro stopped for a moment for the first time since he had come back on. Lyra watched him, fascinated. Then he continued.

  "T, H, E."

  Then MACRO stopped again and looked at her. He gave her the friendly little beep that he always gives her in the doctor's lounge.

  "Ok," she said, looking at the white board, "I think he's done. What have we got?" Now that she wasn't concentrating on MACRO, she could still make out the faint singing of patient zero. "Scythe. What is that? Is that a thing? Ian? Have you ever heard of that?"

  "Actually, it sounds a little familiar, maybe," he said, tapping out a search onto his phone.

  She waited for him to finish. She glanced down at MACRO, remembering that he chose that ancient body on purpose. Running from something, Grayson had said. Spooked. Now she could identify with him.

  And she still didn't know what was going on. Which was bad because on a space station in the middle of nowhere on the edge of a black hole, there was nowhere to run. And even if she could, she doubted that she would. This place was her home, for better or for worse.

  Gorb fell into a new rhythm, humming along with the patient song. She had to fight the urge to sing along herself. She shook her head.

  "Got it," Ian said. "At least, I think." He glanced up from his computer, and the worried look on his face did not make her feel any better. She crossed the room and sat down next to him.

  Gorb followed her and shimmied over to where Ian was. MACRO stayed put.

  "What is it, Ian?"

  "Well, I got a few hits on the Scythe search. A couple of them look good, and one of them looks very bad."