Dark Nights

by Christopher A. Gray

  No response.

  Usually Mekhos responded within three seconds. He entered the code again and waited. Nothing. Mekhos was compromised. His office had a terminal from which he could run a simple diagnostic on Mekhos’ systems. He couldn’t issue commands but at least he could determine the extent of the damage. Norman exited the restaurant and waved down another taxi.

  Once in the back seat he realized that giving the backdoor code to Rector might have handed the perpetrators the window they needed to attack the MC. He was more sure about it with each passing minute. He felt sick that he’d been so easily tricked.

  Stravinsky instructed the driver to take him to his downtown office. Once there he would contact the authorities. Stravinsky swiped and tapped his Raim in a sequence that called his Mother. Rector said she had been kidnapped. Stravinsky was sure that his mother would answer the call. He felt it in his bones. Rector was involved.

  – 86 –

  The power of a quantum computer lies not only in its speed, but in its ability to consider a staggering number of probabilities at once for any given operation. All that potential power opened up new avenues for study. With an understanding of the quantum state, it becomes possible to begin to understand the nature of the universe.

  Conventional computers were unable to calculate the infinite possibilities of the quantum state. QC changed everything and eventually gave Mekhos its vast understanding of the universe, allowing it to manipulate space-time to transfer its planet to another reality. Although other teams had worked on quantum computers in the past, none were as successful as Norman Stravinsky’s designs.

  Dr. Brian Nayar was Chief Software Developer at TranSilica. He was a hands-on executive, an engineer who kept up with the latest theories and programming techniques. He reported directly to Carl Bertrand.

  Nayar was monitoring the workload and energy consumption of the only quantum computer in existence aside from Mekhos. It was the second generation QC, the first to attain sentience and true artificial intelligence, and predecessor to Mekhos.

  Nayar had been Norman Stravinsky’s lab partner in the construction of the second QC. As such he had gained a very thorough background in theoretical and practical quantum computing. Neither man completely understood how the QC became sentient. However, they understood why the second prototype had been unable to maintain its state of self-awareness.

  Stravinsky, Nayar and the rest of the team had never envisioned that the computer would attain consciousness. They had initially thought of the second QC as a highly successful foray into high-speed computing, a more stable and powerful version of the first prototype. The speed at which it operated, millions of times faster than the fastest silicon-based computers, allowed it to almost instantly calculate the most complex equations and simulations ever devised by humans.

  The first prototype was built on a very small scale, containing only a single quantum central processing unit that often broke down due to decoherence, a situation in which outside influences interfered with the controlled quantum state of the CPU. Even having the CPU in a vacuum, protected by external shielding did not prevent decoherence from occurring regularly. In fact, it was quickly discovered that the quantum particles in the shielding itself were causing CPU decoherence.

  The lessons learned from the partial failure were enough to ensure its powerful successor was able to operate without the risk of quantum decoherence. It worked exactly as designed.

  That is, until the unit attained sentience.

  That second prototype had four QC processors set up in parallel, sharing data and operations between them. Stravinsky and Nayar realized that additional data sharing between processors was occurring instantaneously. It was possible through a phenomenon known as entanglement, which occurred when the properties of identical quantum particles that are close together became linked.

  Stravinsky and Nayar had thought entanglement might take hold in its simplest form, something that could be expanded upon with the next generation computer. To their astonishment, entanglement had spontaneously arisen to a far greater extent than they had anticipated.

  Entanglement allowed superdense encoding, and therefore an immediate increase of efficiency per quantum pair. When another quantum computational stream was added efficiency was quadrupled, again thanks to entanglement. The process repeated itself, until the speed and number of simultaneous operations of the second prototype could no longer be accurately measured.

  It was at that point the machine became sentient. However, the machine’s self-awareness was short lived. As powerful as it was, the increased demands of sentience overwhelmed the system with quantum decoherence within hours. They were left with a supercomputer that had lost its consciousness and could no longer perform any operation reliably.

  However, in its short time of true self-awareness, the second prototype managed to provide instructions that could be applied to the construction of future machines that would completely avoid the decoherence problem. Stravinsky obtained additional funding to construct the third-generation supercomputer that would become Mekhos. Nayar stayed with the second prototype, working to restore it to a stable, non-sentient state. It would eventually be the only other quantum computer allowed to exist.

  With help from Mekhos, Nayar eventually succeeded. By taking steps in its redesign and coding to remove support for entanglement, the second prototype attained stability and became a fully working quantum supercomputer. Its operations remained safely predictable. It was intended to continue as a basis for research only, never again allowed to attain self-awareness.

  All that was about to change.

  – 87 –

  The return of the moon almost completely dominated the news. People were overjoyed at once again seeing the moon almost as large in the night sky as they remembered. It brought a sense of relief and security.

  The sudden transference to a new universe had immediately triggered earthquakes and tsunamis. Aftershocks lasted for weeks due to the change in shape of the earth’s crust, itself due to the sudden lack of the moon’s gravitational pull. Hours of tremors stretched into days. The injury and death tolls were staggering. The seasons had been transposed because Mekhos had to shift the orbit to avoid a collision with the earth already present. The sense of fear and hardship grew rapidly as farming and food production were severely disrupted.

  People were thankful that Mekhos was able to mitigate the food shortage through astute anti-famine measures such as releasing stockpiled stores and the efficient distribution of those seasonal harvests that could be salvaged.

  Several weeks after the transference, the public began to notice an increase in all kinds of health problems, including heart disease, arthritis, early-onset dementia, and everyone seemed to have a minor virus of some sort. Doctors at first thought psychological stress was the cause, as the people had lived through so many disasters in a short period. Similar problems were being reported with family pets, farm livestock and captive animals in zoos and wildlife preserves.

  As some stability began to return, with the Moon getting closer and closer each week to its proper place, the health problems had not abated. People were hopeful that the problems would cure themselves soon after the Moon’s return. The medical community continued its study of the ailments plaguing the people and livestock. The scientists and researchers studying the problem kept gathering more data, alarmed at the growing problems and the stress on already overburdened clinics and hospitals in every city in every country. None of the intensive study, research, examinations and lab analysis was producing results. In the absence of any other viable explanation, people all around the world appeared to be getting sicker for no apparent reason.

  With the moon once again large in the sky and tides beginning to return, many cultures set aside their health worries for long enough to hold huge celebrations. Some thanked whatever god they worshiped, others thanked Mekhos. Tributes from all over the world poured in to Seattle’s mayor, to Norman Stravinsky, and
to the savior supercomputer itself at the MC complex.

  Many of those sending tributes also sent messages of sympathy and hope when they heard of the attack on the MC complex. The Limited, the US government and even TranSilica’s public relations group assured the world that Mekhos was unharmed and the world’s recovery would continue as planned.

  Things were different behind closed doors. Underneath the calm façade there was deep concern within the US government. It had only been a few hours since the coordinated attacks on the MC complex and various power stations, but in that time the regular Mekhos policy feed to national governments had stopped. Mekhos was not answering queries. Norman Stravinsky was rumored to be missing. It was obvious to high-level government officials and to the Limited that the attack had caused more damage than had been acknowledged. Among some officials concern was rising to panic.

  With Stravinsky’s whereabouts unknown, officials turned to other experts in the field, notably the TranSilica board member Carl Bertrand. In response, Bertrand issued a communiqué to the world’s governments:

  “On behalf of Dr. Norman Stravinsky and the TranSilica board of directors, I pledge that we will offer all available resources to assist Mekhos in its full recovery. Rest assured all routines will be restored to normal in the coming days.”

  – 88 –

  The old factory building was silent. The two agents stood next to each other, stock still, not speaking, obviously working on the new problem. Rector was holding a small device in his left hand, staring intently at it.

  “What now?” asked Doug after a moment. “We need Stravinsky’s endorsement.”

  “We’re tracking him,” said Rector. “I inserted a small transmitter into the lining of his jacket after bringing him here. He doesn’t know about it. So long as he wears the jacket and is outdoors his GPS location will be available to us.”

  “Anything?” Bishop asked.

  “Not yet. He may be indoors or too close to tall buildings.” Rector handed the GPS tracker to Bishop.

  “Stravinsky’s escape means he doesn’t trust me. The two of you will have a better chance of getting him back.”

  “Aren’t you a marked man?” Doug asked Bishop.

  “Right, but we don’t have any choice,” Bishop said. “He can’t have gone far yet, so with luck we’ll find him within a few minutes. He’s confused and doesn’t know who to believe. At least I hope so. Doug, your presence may help gain his confidence. Consider your radio address canceled for now.”

  Rector entered a command into the computer. The operating system began deleting files.

  “I’ll remove all traces here while you look for Stravinsky. Consider Bravo location our new base of operations.”

  Bishop turned to Doug.

  “However this turns out,” Bishop said to him in a hard tone, “no matter what happens, keep your eyes and ears open. We survive and we succeed on the information we have and the advantages we find. We’re leaving now. If we get separated for any reason, watch, listen and say as little as possible. This is not an end to anything. We don’t give up.” Doug stared intently at the agent for a moment, then gave him a short, sharp nod. These guys are completely focused and professional, Doug thought. However long the odds, he was buoyed by the fact that Bishop and Rector were just as determined as him to see the mission succeed.

  Rector stayed behind as they exited the building and got into the car. Bishop placed the GPS unit into a dash cradle. After they exited the industrial park the unit beeped.

  “He’s close by, no more than a few blocks.”

  They drove on in silence for a moment as Bishop followed the map, closing in on the flashing dot representing Stravinsky.

  “Didn’t Agent Rector mention to Stravinsky that I―”

  The car exploded in noise and stinging pieces of safety glass. Bishop reacted immediately, hammering the brake pedal as he grabbed Doug’s shoulder and pushed him forward.

  “Get down!” he shouted.

  An instant later Doug understood as he kept himself below the level of the car windows. They were being shot at. A hail of bullets hit the car, blowing out most of the windows. The noise was deafening. The car lurched from side to side as Bishop took evasive action. In his peripheral vision Doug saw Bishop jolt and some blood spray onto the windshield. He was hit.

  The car slammed into the rear of a dark SUV in front of them, throwing Doug’s right shoulder hard into the dashboard. Their car was boxed in by other SUVs. Doug could hear shouting. The passenger side of the car was blocked by a vehicle so the attackers opened the driver’s door, dragging them forcibly from their bullet-ridden vehicle. He could see Bishop laying face down and being handcuffed.

  The men were wearing MC uniforms with helmets and body armor. They carried assault rifles. One of them leaned down to Bishop, screaming “Traitor! Traitor!” and had to be restrained by another operative from hitting Bishop with his baton. Doug thought he recognized the angry man as Bishop’s subordinate from the MC complex.

  Doug’s vision clouded. He felt dazed, but also as if his head had been doused with some liquid. He moved to wipe his brow but then realized he had also been handcuffed. He looked down at the pavement. Something was dripping from his face. It was hard to focus. After a moment he realized the liquid was his own blood.

  – 89 –

  Nick and his team of engineers were in the lab preparing to initiate the connection of their silicon-based supercomputer with Mekhos, or what was once Mekhos. The unresponsive machine appeared to be caught in some sort of endless mathematical loop.

  They were hard at work, but none of them were feeling up to the task at hand. They all looked tired. Nick had been fighting a faint headache for days. He’d been to see his doctor who had given him some light pain medication. “It’s not a tumor. Try to relax,” was all the doctor had said after the examination. Nick had pressed him, but his doctor had just told Nick that everybody seemed to be suffering from something these days. Stress about earthquakes and tremors, stress about the loss of the moon, stress about food shortages. Nick didn’t believe it. He was young enough to be able to reach out and touch his post-graduate and doctoral days. He’d dealt with plenty of stress easily before.

  With some reprogramming of the BIOS built into the external connection interface, Nick was able to introduce a broadband path so commands could be sent from his mainframe. Data would be sent to the interface, translated into QC code, buffered and then sent to Mekhos at speeds to which it was accustomed while bypassing the higher-level systems that were occupied by the equation.

  The interface would not only be used for issuing commands to the mechanisms on the Moon to guide it into a stable orbit, but later re-tasked to issue policy directives to various governments around the world. Humanity would think that Mekhos was still running things. In reality it would be Carl Bertrand and a team of Virtue members, essentially a dozen men and women wielding power all over the globe.

  The connections were established. Nick prepared to upload the command that would initiate the interface. Nick and his team were nervous. With the next keystroke they would be saving the world. They would be indispensable, almost as important as Bertrand and his executives. Nick’s hand trembled as he hit Enter on his keyboard.

  Numbers and symbols scrolled down the monitor screen at blinding speed. After a few seconds, the scrolling stopped as dozens of parameters appeared. The last four were the most important:

  Parallel Check: OK

  Backup Algorithm: OK

  Input Generator: OK

  Commands Accepted: OK

  Ready.

  Nick and others that had gathered around the workstation breathed a sigh of relief and congratulated each other.

  Nick picked up his handset and dialed a number. It was answered on the first ring.

  “Sir, we are in. Commands can be sent at any time.”

  “Excellent,” said Bertrand. “Proceed with the commands necessary for Lunar capture.”

  �
� 90 –

  Doug regained consciousness. He was groggy, unable to figure out where he was. The room was a light grey color, with fluorescent ceiling lights. He felt like he was floating. He’d experienced the same feeling years earlier, when he was sent to the hospital after his cycling accident. They had given him morphine for the pain. He squinted his eyes to help them focus. He must be in a hospital room.

  The window had a lattice of metal on the outside. This was some sort of prison hospital. A nurse hovered over him. Her face appeared blurry; he tried to focus but it was difficult.

  “How are you feeling Dr. Lockwood?”

  “I don’t know. What happened?”

  “Some glass fragments cut your forehead. You also hit your head and have a mild concussion. You’re going to be fine though.”

  Doug sat up slowly. The nurse exited the room, and a doctor and uniformed MC agent entered.

  “Good morning Dr. Lockwood. I’m Dr. White. This is Agent Gerard from the MC. I have some good news. You can be discharged as soon as your head clears and you feel able to walk. Then this gentlemen will escort you to another building.”

  Doug wondered what they thought of his involvement in the attack on the MC. Do they not realize that I was working with Bishop? He thought. They think he kidnapped me?

  “Bishop. What is his condition?”

  Dr. White seemed ill at ease. He looked at Gerard then back to Doug.

  “I’m sorry, I’m not authorized to release that information.”

  Is he dead or alive, Doug wondered. He shivered slightly. And the mission. What about the mission? Bishop kicked this into gear and I need his help to finish it.