Dark Nights

by Christopher A. Gray

  Edward thought for a moment, uncharacteristically loosening his tie.

  “Just like that? Everything we’ve planned? Up in smoke for lack of an unforeseen communication screw up?”

  “Yes,” Carl said quietly, after a moment.

  Edward slowly leaned back into his chair, the energy draining out of him.

  “Life will cease everywhere. For them. For us,” he said. “Since you have failed to issue commands through Mekhos, it appears that we have two choices Carl. Do everything in our power to restore Mekhos so it can save us, or go to your backup plan and activate the prototype. The first option will inevitably reveal our complicity and result in prison terms, or worse, for the entire Board. So the obvious question is, can your people activate the prototype in time?”

  “As per your previous directive, Brian Nayar’s team has secretly been trying to do so for months. With Mekhos no longer monitoring the situation we are able to devote more resources, but Nayar is still experiencing difficulties.”

  “Nayar wasn’t the primary engineer on the original project, he was the assistant. If you get Stravinsky to help, I imagine you will be successful.”

  “Yes. Stravinsky has reported in. I’ve already dispatched our man to get him. When Stravinsky helps the prototype regain sentience it will have access to Mekhos’ vast knowledge and will ease the Moon into a proper orbit. And we will maintain control of the QC afterward.”

  Edward smiled.

  “Then we can finally destroy Mekhos once and for all, and the world will be run by humanity once again.”

  Carl Bertrand had no doubt that Director Edward was substituting the word humanity for his own name and the names of a new Limited, but there was a plan for that too. If they all lived.

  – 96 –

  Stravinsky exited the cab and paid the driver through an open window, then turned and walked though the main doors of his office building. He had just gotten off the Raim with his Mother. She and his other relatives were fine, her security detail unharmed. None of them had experienced or heard of any threats against them. After a brief chat with her assigned security to ask them to be extra vigilant, Stravinsky was greeted in the building foyer by his driver Charles and a pair of security officers.

  “Sir, are you all right?” asked Charles

  “I’m all right, just some damaged clothes and a slight ankle sprain.”

  One of the security men showed some FBI identification.

  “Dr. Stravinsky, I’m agent Matthews. It’s best if we take you to FBI headquarters for questioning and debriefing. We can also provide medical attention.”

  “Just a moment, I wish to get some personal things from my office, and to contact Mekhos.”

  “I’m sure your driver can get the personal items,” Matthews said, nodding at Charles. “As for Mekhos, TranSilica is working to repair the damage. We need to debrief you Dr. Stravinsky.”

  “I’m unharmed,” Stravinsky said, shaking his head at Matthews and turning to his driver. “I don’t know what’s going on yet but I was held for a few hours. The kidnapper produced a recording with your voice.”

  “I didn’t make any recording sir, it must have been fabricated.”

  Just then two men approached Matthews and showed FBI identification.

  “I’ll take over from here,” the taller of the two said.

  Matthews was startled.

  “Director Leach!”

  “Dr. Stravinsky, I’m Deputy Director Leach. Agent Paulson and I will escort you to TranSilica, where your presence is required immediately. Matthews, check in with your supervisor for new orders.”

  Matthews and his partner looked at each other then watched silently as Leach and Paulson walked off with Stravinsky. It was highly unusual for an FBI Deputy Director to be active in the field. And more unusual that they were not taking the subject to FBI headquarters. Leach looked back.

  “Get moving, Matthews. You’re expected back at the office.”

  “Yes sir,” he said, as he watched Leach and Paulson escort Stravinsky to a waiting car.

  – 97 –

  A guard brought Doug a sandwich and soup. He was then left alone in the interrogation room. He was tired after his ordeal, and the painkillers had worn off. His head was throbbing from the concussion headache. Leach had left over an hour earlier.

  A few minutes after he finished eating Doug heard a key scrape into the security lock in the door. An attendant came in and wordlessly took away his empty lunch tray, then Gerard and a woman entered. She was wearing a blue lab coat and carried a small metal briefcase. As Gerard stood by the closed door, the woman sat down and opened the case.

  “Good afternoon Dr. Lockwood, I’m here to deliver your Raim.”

  “I didn’t order one, nor do I want one. I’m not a citizen.”

  “This is for your own protection Dr. Lockwood. With the attempt on your life yesterday we want to take all precautions to ensure your safety. Please roll up your left sleeve.”

  Doug looked at Gerard, who stared back. Obviously Doug didn’t have a choice, so he extended his left arm as requested. As the woman closed the clear bracelet around his wrist. The seam where the device’s two ends clasped together vanished, and the bracelet contracted to conform to his wrist. The woman typed on a small keyboard within the briefcase. The Raim beeped.

  “Please press your right thumb on the bracelet. It doesn’t matter where.”

  Doug did as he was asked. The Raim chimed once.

  “Now remove your thumb and place your fingertips onto the bracelet.”

  The Raim beeped four tones in quick succession.

  “Finished. You now have a fully-functional Raim, which will be your health monitor and GPS locator.”

  “Can it be removed?”

  “Not without a key, which I don’t see in this order. Any attempt to remove the Raim with trigger an alarm. Any attempt to cut the Raim off will result in damage to its power cell. A damaged power cell will cause serious injury. Thank you Doctor,” the woman said as she closed the briefcase and left.

  – 98 –

  At the TranSilica building Stravinsky was escorted up the elevator by Leach and Paulson, then left alone in Carl Bertrand’s office. The office wasn’t overly extravagant, but it had a view of downtown and the waterfront. The room was large and well appointed enough to leave no doubt that its occupant was highly ranked within the company.

  In addition to several prestigious university degrees on the wall, there was a large video portrait showing Bertrand in his flight suit shaking hands with the Vice-President upon his return from the Twin. The video cycled through Bertrand at the White House meeting the First Family, the Copernicus lift-off, images of space, Earth, the Moon, the Twin, the Copernicus touchdown and finally the Vice-President’s welcoming committee once again. The visiting members from the Twin, including Doug Lockwood, were visible in the background.

  “That was quite an adventure,” Bertrand said as he entered the office and gestured to the video portrait when he realized that Stravinsky was watching it. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to provide much documentation of my time on the Twin. Detailed video does exist of course, but it wouldn’t be prudent to have it hanging on my wall.” The two men shook hands. The video portrait froze on the first frame as Bertrand sat down at his desk.

  They had met several times during the four years since Bertrand joined TranSilica, but they had never talked more than a minute or two, usually just exchanging a few pleasantries at social gatherings. Stravinsky wasn’t fond of the TranSilica board, Bertrand included. Since they provided the funding for the QC prototypes, they had influence over who would be given access to the TranSilica labs. They would no longer give him or anyone else outside of the corporation access for research.

  “It must have been a fascinating trip. So many similarities, yet also some differences from our world,” said Stravinsky as he sat down.

  “It was disappointing,” replied Bertrand with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Y
ou wouldn’t believe how far behind they are technologically and culturally. Poverty is rampant in every country, including the US. Crime is quadruple the rate it is here. Probably higher. There is always a war going on somewhere. We’re much better off, and I have a renewed appreciation for what we have, Doctor Stravinsky.”

  “You shouldn’t be too hard on them. They didn’t have the benefit of the economic stability Mekhos has offered us for the last fifteen years.”

  “Even so,” Bertrand said, “I believe that even before the rise of Mekhos we were culturally ahead of those people. It might be a nice place to visit as a curiosity, but I couldn’t wait to get home.”

  “Especially since they are more or less doomed, given their situation. Now, what happened at the MC? Mekhos is non-responsive. I realize TranSilica has substantial influence on who has access to the building, but the MC administration and Mekhos himself has always given me unrestricted access. I want to know why the FBI brought me here. I should be at the MC right now, assessing the system damage that Mekhos has suffered.”

  Bertrand regarded Stravinsky carefully. Save for a few of the more radical members of Virtue who considered him an enemy of humanity, the creator of Mekhos was held in very high esteem in most circles. Bertrand was always mindful of that when dealing with him, and he would continue to be mindful of it at least until the other QC was brought up to its full potential.

  “I apologize for that,” Bertrand said as he slowly rotated his chair side to side. “The attack was a desperate attempt by Dr. Lockwood and some enemy operatives to destroy Mekhos. The MC is on lockdown. We have repair crews at the damaged power stations. The core Mekhos systems seem undamaged but it is still distracted because of a code command administered by Doug Lockwood of the Twin. I’m just glad you are all right after your kidnapping.”

  Stravinsky felt a little embarrassed and wondered how much Bertrand knew of his unintended involvement.

  “A man calling himself Alexei Rector said my family was being threatened. He was very convincing, using video recordings of a known terrorist and an audio message from my driver. He tricked me into giving him the back door code. On its own it shouldn’t have been a concern. I need to find out what order was given after the code was administered.”

  “We found out quickly,” Bertrand replied, “although not quickly enough to prevent the current mess. A look at the logs revealed that Mekhos was forced to solve the space-time equation using several variations of the cosmological constant, all at once,” replied Bertrand.

  “That is sophisticated planning for Virtue,” Stravinsky replied, disbelief evident in his tone. “Someone else, or some other group, with advanced scientific skills is obviously involved.”

  “Possibly,” Bertrand said. “But I understand from the FBI that among its members, Virtue has experts in many fields. This Rector is a professional mercenary. He was in Army Intelligence and then trained by the NSA before he was discharged and went rogue. He and some of his known associates have extensive training and some stolen equipment at their disposal, and are experts at psychological warfare. It wasn’t your fault Norman.”

  “Nor could it be, especially considering that I’ve been gradually distanced from the technology side for some time now. That’s an observation, Carl, not a complaint. What I’m having difficulty believing is that Dr. Lockwood was knowingly involved,” said Stravinsky. “We were supposed to meet the other day. He’s an astrophysicist. He knows virtually nothing about the workings of Mekhos. Perhaps he was conned or tricked somehow.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “I need to have a look at the logs, and see what I can do to help.”

  “Believe me Norman, I understand how you feel. We have specialists on that already. They are adamant that Mekhos can’t be helped, that it must work through the equations before it will again be responsive. We need your help on a far more important project.”

  Stravinsky couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  “More important? What on earth are you talking about, Carl? You know Mekhos is the single most important entity on the planet!”

  Bertrand got up from his desk and used his Raim to activate the wall display. The entire wall to his right changed to show a star field, with the small dot of the moon rapidly zooming into view.

  “As you are aware Norman, Mekhos was in control of the Moon’s arrival. What you may not know is that Mekhos was attacked before it had a chance to finalize the orbit. The Moon’s path is off by less than three degrees, but at its present distance that is enough to produce an extreme elliptical orbit. One that can’t be sustained.”

  The graphic showed the moon sweeping close to the earth, settling into an elongated orbit. After several orbits the ellipse traced in the graphic became more pronounced.

  “My god,” Norman said, as he instantly realized the inevitable outcome. “All the more reason I should be allowed to assist in the recovery of Mekhos, so he can correct this!”

  “The damage to its secondary hardware systems is too extensive!” Bertrand said firmly. “Even if Mekhos were to solve the equation tomorrow, some of his memory may have been corrupted. On top of that, there is a lack of reliable power. His output is only 26 percent of nominal thanks to the terrorist attacks at several locations. It’s slowing his processing ability. We only have days before the moon makes its first close pass. Mekhos can’t help us, not in the time we have left.”

  Norman leaned back in his chair, staring curiously at Bertrand.

  “The obvious question then, Carl,” Stravinsky said simply, “is just what is it you expect me to do? Why am I here?” He looked unblinking, directly into Bertrand’s eyes.

  “Help Brian Nayar with Kratos,” Bertrand said a bit too quickly. “It is a fully-functioning QC again, with access to all the electrical supply it needs from utilities which were not attacked.”

  “Kratos? Even before its extra processors were ripped out, that machine had barely a twentieth of Mekhos’ power! And it is no longer sentient. Everyone with a passing interest in computer technology knows that.”

  “Nayar has been maintaining the machine and has replaced the three processors.”

  Stravinsky was genuinely surprised.

  “Quantum processor manufacturing was outlawed years ago. Kratos was scaled back to only one processor. How were you able to obtain more?”

  Bertrand ignored the question.

  “Nayar needs your help to rewrite the entanglement code so Kratos can regain sentience. Safeguards are in place to prevent decoherence, so it will remain stable. Once Kratos attains consciousness, it will have access to the Mekhos datastores.”

  “You’re assuming sentience will again arise spontaneously. In the entire history of computer engineering, we only have two examples of that occurring. On that basis alone you’re betting that piling your resources into achieving Kratos sentience is the best shot? That doesn’t make sense, Carl. Mekhos is already sentient, but it’s been jammed up with a problem. It makes better sense to put your resources into unspooling Mekhos.”

  “Norman, Mekhos is without adequate power. There is no way at this time that we are going to put our efforts into Mekhos. Brian Nayar has asked for you specifically. He’s confident that you will come through.” Bertrand was straining with the effort needed to avoid any hint of a plan to permanently step around Mekhos. He switched the display to show a close-up photograph of a tiny quantum processor unit. Even with input and output buffers attached, the unit was barely the size of a grain of sand

  “I’m familiar with recent history,” Bertrand continued, “and yes, the first forays into the QC field were fraught with difficulties. But with your revolutionary approach, the second and third of the QCs employing your method became sentient. That’s a pretty good average, doctor, so I don’t see why you are reluctant now.”

  “Reluctant?” Norman replied, frowning and sitting back in his chair. “Not at all, Carl. And sorry, but I also don’t need a history lesson because it’s all my history. I�
�m merely pointing out that there are no guarantees here. Even with replacements for the missing processors, the second prototype won’t be as powerful as Mekhos, which after all has had the benefit of its fifteen years of intensive evolution.”

  “Kratos will be powerful enough to accomplish the task. Nayar is brilliant but you’re the only one who can ensure we can get the QC up and running in time. He says with your help Kratos can be self-aware within a day. Factor in a few minutes for the machine to absorb the space-time formula necessary to take control of the Moon’s orbit, and we will have saved humanity.”

  Stravinsky stood and slowly walked over to the image of the processor. Its inner workings were microscopic, but it held almost incalculable potential.

  “Nayar misspoke,” Norman said flatly. “Or more likely, you misinterpreted him. We saw with the second prototype and then with Mekhos a period of mass data absorption, where the machine is unresponsive to commands. When the machine gains consciousness, it wishes to be given access to as much data as possible. It’s as if it is fascinated by the newly discerned environment in which it finds itself and therefore wants as much information as we can give it. This process takes about a day, so you must add that to your time estimate.”

  “You’ll be giving it only as much information as necessary to solve the problem, Norman. We have given Nayar specific instructions on what data resources to use.”

  “And once the moon is in a stable orbit we will turn our efforts to helping Mekhos recover,” said Stravinsky. He said it as an expectation, but meant it as an order. As long as he was needed here, he had a significant amount of influence.