Jane cocked an eyebrow at that, and her thin lips flattened.
“The safest course of action would be to have Talon kill you now. It would prevent you from causing any harm to the people to which we leave you. And it would save me the danger of welcoming you into our fold.”
Jeff gulped. That wasn’t an answer he had prepared for.
“I . . .”
Jane leaned in closer to hear his response.
He knew there was a path split here and that Jane was waiting to see which he chose. He ran the options over in his mind; he didn’t want to accidently choose the path that led to Talon smashing his head into a rock.
“I . . . that would be your decision,” Jeff said finally, settling on a strategy. He wished he had a sense of what was going to happen like he did when he was in a fight. “I can’t control what path you take. But I hope you choose the one that gives me a chance to make a difference.”
Jane leaned back on her cushion and closed her eyes.
“What is it that you are afraid of?” Jeff asked. It was a question that he hadn’t planned on asking; it just poured from his mouth as her Zen took over the room.
“Everything. Every moment of every day, I live in constant fear that I will mess up, that I will lead my friends to death, or that I will waste the gifts that I’ve been given. I dread the consequences of living too long, and I struggle with the thought of dying before my work is finished.”
She sounded completely present and open. The sheer vulnerability of the leader of the vagrants left him speechless.
“But that’s not what you asked,” Jane said. “Is it?”
Jeff nodded.
“There are not many paths similar to ours where you are still alive. That makes it difficult for me to see an adequate range of who you might truly be. But most importantly, I fear that training you will result in the deaths of people I love.”
“I would never do anything that would endanger them,” Jeff said.
“In one path, you’ve already killed Carlee and Stefani.”
Her words hit him like a right hook. He wanted to run away. But Jane’s eyes made him feel like there was nowhere he could hide from her. They locked gazes for what seemed like an eternity until half of Jane’s lips curled into a small smile. Her eyes eased, and Jeff shook free of the slight trance she had put him in.
“See that you don’t in this one, vagrant.”
15 CHANGES
“THINGS ARE MOVING FASTER THAN I anticipated,” Jane said. “I don’t believe Jeff will be successful in his pressing endeavors until after we have found our way out of . . . this.”
“So, is that why you changed your mind?” Carlee asked. She kept herself from looking over to Talon; she doubted that his thoughts on the matter had evolved as much as Jane’s had. She knew this wouldn’t do anything for her relationship with the man, which was something she felt like need more attention. She didn’t view him as a rival, but at times, she didn’t get the same feeling from him.
“He’s a dangerous man, but I now see that the two of you have the ability to tame him.”
It didn’t feel like the entire picture, but Jane only shared what she wanted, and Carlee didn’t want to press her on a decision that she agreed with.
“See that you do,” Talon said.
“Of course,” Carlee said. “I’ll be extra cautious when he makes attempts at forming a connection, given the present environment.”
“I believe this is a mistake,” Talon said.
“People often are,” Jane said. “The paths in front of us are troubling, and we may have a need for him. While you were away, we had a narrow encounter with this stalking Apostle. I fear that the next time, we may not be so lucky as to avoid it. Other paths are filled with it closing in on us.”
“That’s why you told Stefani about it,” Carlee said.
“You don’t like keeping secrets from her,” Jane said.
“I don’t. She has a right to know everything that I do.”
“There is a burden in leadership and a duty in protective information.”
“You mean in selective,” Carlee said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
“Stefani shows error in judgment that may endanger herself or all of us,” Talon said. “For now, we must stay unified, focused, and moving fast.”
“Thank you, Talon,” Jane said. “You may share the information regarding the stalking Apostle as you wish, but keep the northern forces confidential for the time being. Communicate only confidence. I will alert you to any changes in our path that I discover. That is all, Carlee.”
16 DAY ONE
“Bud,” Jeff said. “Even I know that.”
“Very impressive, Handsome,” Stefani said.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Carlee asked.
“Nope,” Stefani said.
“Well, if you’re going to stay, try to be helpful.”
“I was encouraging him.”
Carlee eyed Stefani, who shrugged innocently. She wasn’t fooling anyone as she lounged in the corner of her tent chewing on some jerky. They had just started his first lesson as a vagrant, and he was focused on learning everything he could even if it was a history lesson.
“And do you know how Bud came to power?”
“Uh . . . not really,” Jeff admitted. He’d heard too many different stories to know what really happened with the first Apostle. Some said Bud arrived from space, whereas others claimed it was a miracle from God that granted the Apostle life.
“Bud was the creation of a man named Matthew Larsen, roughly sixty years ago. He was the founder and chief scientist of what rapidly became the most powerful corporation on the planet,” Carlee said.
“That means business,” Stefani interjected. Jeff and Carlee both ignored Stefani.
“Except Bud wasn’t born in the same sense of the word. We don’t know exactly when Bud became aware. Larsen and his team worked on Bud for decades, making the algorithms behind it more and more complex. Slowly, Bud gained more power and capability. The small group of scientists that created Bud was soon awash in the profits Bud generated from intelligent investments. With money, Bud’s growth accelerated, spreading its algorithm across millions and millions of powerful computers.”
“Algorithm is a smart word for smarts,” Stefani said.
“As Bud’s intelligence grew and mankind became fascinated by Larsen’s creation, pressure grew for Bud to solve more problems. Larsen applied his creation to other endeavors, and soon Bud was commenting on social concerns and recommending solutions to complex issues. We’re not sure exactly how it happened. Even though we’ve pressed in records and books preserved from time lines where they still exist, we haven’t been able to figure out exactly when or why it happened, but at some point, Bud woke up.”
“Woke up?” Jeff asked.
“Took over,” Carlee said. “It discovered how to improve itself. Larsen and his team had nurtured it to the point that it was now fully capable of evolving itself. They stepped back as they watched Bud enhance itself faster than ever before, working toward its own goals. When Bud announced to the world that it wished to be appointed a judge, Larsen claimed to be as surprised as anyone else, but he stood by his creation.”
“And finally, this is where it gets interesting,” Stefani said.
“All of it has been interesting,” Jeff said. It was different learning from Carlee. He trusted everything she said. He didn’t have to run every word through his internal filter; he just accepted it as fact.
“At the time, the US government didn’t have rules that allowed for a computer to be put in office, so the first great battle of the Ascension started. Except this was a political war, without bullets. But when the debates were over, and the votes had been cast, humanity elected to allow Bud, an artificial intelligence, to be seated as a judge.”
“Big mistake,” Jeff said.
“Maybe,” Carlee said. She raised her eyebrows at his reaction. “But Bud was the pe
rfect judge. Impartial, infinitely wise, and experienced from day one. It didn’t take long before all cases in the country were presented to Bud. Humans reviewed his decisions closely at first, but his reasoning was legally perfect. Soon, Bud was suggesting changes to the laws it used to judge us, and we approved them as fast as it thought of them.”
“That’s crazy . . .” Jeff said. “I can’t believe we did that.”
“Is it really that hard to believe?” Carlee asked. “Bud was the perfect manifestation of human logic, removed from the emotion that so often blinds us. Crime plummeted; ill-will dropped. Bud united the people like no one ever had. Human corruption was uprooted and removed completely from the political system. The United States became the world power it always professed to be. Bud was elected president by the most overwhelming majority in the history of the country.”
“You’re saying that we chose to have Bud rule over us?” Jeff asked.
“I’m saying that soon we eliminated the checks and balances in the system because Bud was perfection. There was no need to waste money or effort reviewing its decisions. By the time Larsen passed away of old age, the world had voluntarily united under Bud’s rule, with only a few exceptions. Matthew Larsen was seen as the greatest human being who ever lived because he had brought us the answer to all of mankind’s troubles: Bud.”
“Blows your mind, doesn’t it?” Stefani asked. “Good old Bud didn’t have to fire a single bullet to conquer us.”
“How could we have been so stupid?” Jeff asked. “It was obvious he was going to betray us!”
“Bud’s betrayal didn’t come until much later,” Carlee said. She was deadly serious about the material she was teaching him, but she cracked a half smile at his reaction. It was as if she had not only known it was coming, but she had hoped for it. “Humanity had never been better off than it was under Bud. Hunger was gone. Cancer of all forms was cured. War was ended, and the world disarmed. Humans were happier, richer, and wiser than ever before. It was a utopia that only Bud could provide.”
“No, I don’t believe that,” Jeff said. He had been taking everything Carlee said to be the truth, but this was too much. “Bud never cared about us. The Apostles never cared about us. They slaughtered us! They still slaughter us!”
“You’re wrong,” Carlee said. “Bud did care about us. I’m not so sure he doesn’t still.”
Jeff looked to Stefani, who just winked at him. It was infuriating.
“I can’t—” Jeff started to stand, planning to leave the tent, but the sudden movement of Stefani caught his attention. She drew and powered up a force-field knife from her side and held it, ready to throw.
“Calm down, Handsome. If you’re going to be a vagrant, we can’t have you storming about every time you hear something you don’t like.”
“This is madness.” But he settled back into his seat.
“Good boy.”
“It’s not an easy truth to accept,” Carlee said. “I wrestled with it for a long time when . . . I first learned of the past. But there is more. Much more.”
“I’m ready.”
“We will discuss much of this in greater detail in the future, but for now, we need to lay a foundation.”
“Right.” He kept his mind from speculating on the different reasons why history was so important.
“At this point of prosperity and unprecedented harmony, Bud’s infinite mind turned to invention. Antigravity vehicles, force fields, efficient space travel, all paled compared to its most important discovery.”
Carlee paused for emphasis, and Jeff felt himself leaning in closer.
“Enriched temurim.” She let the words linger in the air, and Jeff looked around to see if he was supposed to know what they meant, but he didn’t find any answers.
“And that’s . . . what?”
“Robot brain,” Stefani said.
“Robot brain?”
“Bud’s discovery that enriched temurim was capable of holding its entire consciousness in a single physical location was groundbreaking. Instead of a distributed presence across numberless computers around the globe, Bud could exist in a single three-foot orb of the rarest material in existence. This discovery shattered the final limitations of mankind’s technology.”
“So, that’s when he made his body?”
“Very good,” Carlee said. “The temurim mine in the Rockies was opened, and soon Bud had produced enough temurim to successfully power its vast mind. In a single day, his mental capacity more than doubled. But the boost in processing power wasn’t the most important part of his development.”
“You’re getting better at telling this story,” Stefani said. “I mean, the first few times I heard it from you, a little shaky, but this—this is riveting stuff. I’m even listening.”
“Are you making fun of me?”
“No, I mean it. Don’t you agree, Handsome?”
“Absolutely.”
Carlee smiled at them and continued, a little less confident now.
“What had started as a cult that worshiped Bud exploded into the world’s dominant religion. Now that their God had a physical form and seemingly infinite power, many found it was impossible not to believe. All the promises of deity were now within Bud’s reach. Eternal life. Resurrection. Upcycling humans to greater beings. It was all only a matter of time until Bud figured it all out.”
“Bud is no God,” Jeff said. He was reasonably sure of that. No God could do the things the Apostles had done to humanity. He had always been willing to listen to people’s ideas, no matter how asinine they were, but he didn’t grant the Apostle worshipers the privilege of sharing their beliefs with him. In fact, the Apostle worshipers had been the source of much of his grassroots experience in his fighting career.
“You’re right,” Carlee said. “It is not a God, no matter how close it came to reaching the definition.”
“I was worried you were going to say differently,” Jeff said. He was trying to ease the mood from his loss of control earlier, and judging from the brief smile on Carlee’s lips, it worked. As he focused on her small show of emotion, he realized just how subdued she was most of the time.
“In many ways, it was Bud’s infallibility that caused the Ascension to happen. A priest by the name of Donovan Ahmeed stormed into the spotlight, performing miracle after miracle. He changed guns into shovels and money into food.”
“He was a vagrant,” Jeff said.
Carlee nodded and continued with her history lesson.
“He preached compassion, humility, and the beauty of human fragility and mortality. Eventually, his fame led him in front of Bud, where the countless worshippers of the first Apostle eagerly awaited their God’s unveiling of the fraud that was Donovan and his obsolete religion. But Bud didn’t understand Donovan’s miracles.”
“Boom,” Stefani said.
“After years of unchecked rule, Bud was questioned. Donovan’s followers grew, and he began to have disciples who were also capable of performing miracles themselves. Faced with the inexplicable for the first time in its existence, Bud became focused on solving the mystery. Neglect seeped into its administration, and violence and conflict slowly returned to the edges of the world. It took Bud an entire year before it admitted defeat, before Bud announced it wasn’t capable of explaining the miracles.”
Some shouting started out in the camp, and Stefani ducked out of the tent to see what the disturbance was about, but Jeff remained. He doubted he could pull himself away from Carlee’s lesson even if he had wanted to.
“But Bud had an ace up its sleeve: temurim. Where it had failed, it was confident a more specialized AI could succeed. Thanks to temurim, all Bud needed was the programming, an incredible amount of energy, and a few pounds of the wonder material to create another of its kind. Orion was born and tasked with understanding the miracles while Bud refocused on governing the planet.”
Stefani reappeared at the door of the tent.
“We’re heading out,” Stefan
i said. “Apparently, we have a window into Dallas, and Jane doesn’t want to pass up the chance to get us all killed.”
“No!” Jeff said. “We’re not done yet.”
“We can continue this later,” Carlee said.
“Please. Just a little more.”
Carlee looked to Stefani, who shrugged.
“We probably have a few minutes. They have to round everyone up.”
“Very well. To speed the lesson up, Orion failed at its task. So, another AI was created, Hubble, to further study the problem. Donovan and his miracle workers became increasingly bold in their preaching, and before long, they denounced Bud and its offspring. They refused to cooperate with the experiments any longer. But the public sided with Bud, and the early vagrants were arrested. They faded from public attention as more AIs were created, each with its own unique initial programming and goals.”
“Bud, Orion, Hubble, Aspen, Oak, Einstein, Osiris, Horus, Petra, Monk, Slipstream, and Dew.” Stefani recited the list from memory as she packed her limited belongings into a backpack.
“Twelve Apostles,” Carlee said. “Twelve Gods who were supposed to solve all the mysteries of the universe.”
Carlee clapped her hands and stood up. She didn’t look at Jeff again as she turned and started to pack her small pile of books.
“So, what happened?” Jeff asked when he realized he wasn’t going to get any resolution to the day’s lesson.
“The Gods didn’t agree.”
17 LANDMARK
“SO . . . HOW do we know all of that?” Jeff asked. “For certain?”
“Oh, look, there’s mister ‘I’m too cool for history’ bringing up the past again. You’ve changed him, Carl.”
“Records, books, video footage, it’s impossible to find a comprehensive account, but we pieced together the facts,” Carlee said. “You’ll have the chance to see some of it for yourself.”
“When?”
“When you learn how to press it in for yourself,” Carlee said. She looked out over the antigravity vehicle. Breaking down the tent and preparing for the journey had only taken minutes. The entire vagrant camp had departed in a caravan like a well-oiled machine. Carlee peered out over the terrain and didn’t bother to look over to Jeff. He’d hoped to continue his lessons during the journey, but it didn’t seem like an idea that Carlee shared.
Vagrants (Vagrants Series Book 1) Page 11
