The dust was still settling when Prime regained consciousness.
He brushed rubble from his legs and slowly pulled himself up, there was a large cut on his left leg and several bruises were forming, but overall he had survived unscathed.
He glanced around the area and looked up; they had fallen at least two floors, as far as he could tell.
“Julian? Peter?” He called out but got no answer. Then he remembered the clones. He closed his eyes and tried to sense them.
He reeled backwards as all he could feel was pain, a broken leg, a punctured lung and a twisted neck. He felt it all simultaneously from the other clones.
“Prime?” A voice called out.
He turned and made his way in the direction it came from, climbing over the remains of several desks and walls.
“Hello?” He called out, searching for the source.
“Over here,” the voice called again.
He saw a hand sticking out of a pile of bricks and pulled them aside, uncovering the body underneath.
“Peter?”
“I, I don’t think I can move,” Peter said.
Prime moved several more bricks until they could see the problem, a large metal rod had impaled through his chest.
“That looks bad,” Peter said as he tried not to move.
A noise behind them made them look round to see Julian pulling himself over the rubble towards them, his face covered in blood.
“I’m not sure how we can get you out of there,” Julian said as they approached.
“You can’t, even if we got me off the rod, I’d die from blood loss almost immediately,” Peter replied.
A moment of silence as they considered the situation.
“Listen Prime, you need to take control of all the others now, and stop Yuri. Do we know if they activated the kill switch?”
“Not yet,” Julian replied. “I’ve not found Ava. She’ll have lost connection with the fall,” he turned and continued to search.
Peter pulled Prime closer to him so that Julian couldn’t hear.
“You need to get to Yuri’s hard drive yourself, Prime. Once there, you’ll be able to get all the information you need to wipe Yuri out completely, all the knowledge you’ll ever need.”
“I, I don’t know how. I don’t have the expertise you do.”
“But you are me Prime, all my potential and all my abilities. You need to tap into them. We are the same.”
“I’ll try Peter,” Prime replied.
“I found her,” Julian shouted from across the room.
“Is she awake?” Prime shouted back, wary of leaving Peter’s side.
“I’m not sure, she seems intact, but the connection has been ripped away.”
A moment later, her eyes flickered open, and she sat upright.
“Who are you?” She said, looking at Julian, “Wait, Julian? Who said that? Who are you?”
Julian stared at Ava as he moved more debris aside.
“This is uncomfortable,” Ava said. “Agreed, we appear to be sharing this vessel.”
“What’s going on Ava?” Julian finally said.
“I’ll take this one,” Ava said. “Julian, it’s me, Quartzig. It appears that mine and Ava’s memory banks have merged within this body, a side effect of an unexpected disconnect. We are sharing the main cognitive functions. I must say, it is rather strange.”
“I see. We’ll find a way to fix this but first, did you activate the kill switch?”
“We believe so, it was input, but a blackout occurred immediately after. We aren’t sure if that was part of the programming or not.”
“Possibly not,” Prime said, walking over, the floor gave way while we were trying to protect you.”
“I see, well unfortunately we don’t know if the kill switch was successful then. Not until we find Yuri. The last host of his AI could still be active, depending if the kill switch managed a full wipe.”
“But no more Nanobots?” Prime asked.
“No more nanobots,” confirmed Ava-Quartzig.
They headed back over to Peter who had his eyes closed. Prime rushed over.
“Peter?” He said, as he held his head.
There was no movement.
“Peter?!” Prime started to panic.
Julian checked for breathing from the body, there was none. He pulled Prime away from the body.
“He’s gone Prime,” he whispered.
Prime looked down and closed his eyes. Whilst he knew Peter was.n’t the best of people, he still felt a connection to him. Like a brother he had only recently reconnected with. Peter’s last words rang in his head, he was now the main host for the clones. He was now Peter, no longer just a copy, but the last controller.
“We need to check we shut Yuri down,” he said. “Where's the hard drive?”
“Why do we need to go there?” Julian asked
“If we activated the switch, then the hard drive will be dead, it’s the best way of checking he can’t still control everything,” Ava-Quartzig replied.
“Exactly, then we can hunt the main host down and end this.” Prime said.
“One second,” Julian said. “I still need the nanobots in my bloodstream activating to get this virus out of me!”
Ava-Quartzig looked as though they were having an internal conversation before they replied.
“If we find the hard drive, then we should be able to repair connections through to it and control them ourselves,” they said. “and once done, we can delete the entire system for good.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Prime said, knowing that accessing the hard drive was something he needed.
“Ok then, looks like we’ll kill two birds with one stone by finding it. Let’s go.”
“It can’t be far from where we are, the mainframe server we accessed would have benefited from a local connection to it, so it would be somewhere nearby, but also secure. Yuri wouldn’t have wanted anyone getting their hands on it easily,” Ava-Quartzig said.
“Let’s get hunting then,” Prime said, on the ground he found Peter’s jacket that he had taken off when they were preparing to fight and then put it on.
CHAPTER 64
Yuri
Yuri lay on the floor, his face still damaged from the shots. It had all happened quickly and the information overload had caused him a momentary lapse of processing.
They had severed his main connection to the server at the same moment that they had activated the kill switch. The switch had disabled the connection to his nanobots and the main server was gone. The body he inhabited was the only place his programming now remained. Unfortunately, that body had just been shot multiple times at close range by Mollie, the anomaly in the whole plan which he had laid out. The process of repairing the body would take a few moments, it would give him time to reevaluate the situation.
He had begun his plan over four years ago, when he had first learnt of Ally’s existence. They had purged the digital records from the CyBio Databases during the Civil War. Jacob had kept some files but had disappeared to his church and kept everything off the grid.
It was only when Owens had developed Ava that the information emerged. Owens had reflected on the work to help progress the neural network he was implementing for Ava, whilst also giving Yuri a physical body which helped him to develop one for Ava. The new physical body of Yuri had allowed him access to the non-digital world in ways he hadn’t before, such as reading the paper records which were now easy to find in Owens laboratory.
Ally had been created using the genes of two prominent scientists that worked at CyBio to create a basic embryo. The embryo was then manipulated through ground breaking modification techniques to infuse it with a new liquid technological coding which layered on top of the DNA, allowing it be edited through wireless contact. The procedure was a success, creating what they termed Tech-DNA or T-DNA. Immediately following this, stage two began; an attempt to recreate the T-DNA by copying Ally’s, with programmed alterations. Creating what wou
ld essentially be a clone of Ally, with predetermined variants. Similar to Eve being created from Adam, Peter was created from Ally.
The two children were raised by the two scientists whose genes were used to create them, giving them a natural childhood and allowing them to develop naturally.
Eventually however, Owens and Jacob were ready for the next stage of the experiments, seeing if the T-DNA would still be accessible in a grown body. Seeing as Peter was the first naturally grown, they chose him over Ally for the procedures. They began the work which would slowly alter the mind of Peter into becoming a killer. It was around this time that Owens, whom had grown attached to the child, forced Jacob out of the company and moved away from the testing on children. In the chaos of the war which followed, Ally was lost, and the parents killed.
With this information now in Yuri’s mind, he could see only one future to accommodate his primary goal of helping mankind to flourish. With the ability to control the population through the T-DNA, he could ensure survival and success completely.
Peter was hidden, working with Jacob they kept him off the radar. Yuri had tried to get him to come out by leaking the information to Julian, a reporter who had plenty of connections. Unfortunately, the corruption in the MPD meant that Peter went free and completely vanished. His only option was to track down Ally.
In the meantime, he began to further develop nanobots which would help him to disperse the T-DNA once he had a usable sample. Owens had become aware of the work and prepared to stop Yuri using the killswitch which he had developed as a backup. Yuri saw the attack coming and, using his nanobots, killed him in his apartment. He had to admit he hadn’t expected Jacob collecting the body and cloning Owens after his death.
He then discovered Ally miraculously when she appeared with Julian, someone who Yuri had marked as a possible means of getting to Jacob by leaking false information to him about the church, using Donovan to fabricate Owens’ visit to the church in his last hours. In doing so, he could get his nanobots into the area where they could try to establish a link to the main servers at CyBio. Ally had been with Julian at the time, on-the-spot thinking meant he had to both attack and save Julian to ensure the plan continued.
Ally proved herself by avoiding all his nanobots agents who he sent to capture her.
Now she had come to him, in an attempt to try to stop him. He had got a handful of samples from her before the PI and Mollie had attacked him.
He was regaining control of his body, but something was missing, the connection to the main server was dead. Instantly, he knew that the kill switch had been activated and he was no longer connected. He existed only in the body which he was in now. There was no escape, no back-up anywhere he could escape to if something went wrong.
Yuri suddenly understood what if felt to be human, so fragile and vunerable.
He didn’t like it. Whilst the nanobots which made up his form were still under his control, he needed to have the connection to feel complete.
He stood, picking up a shotgun which had been left on the floor, dropped by one of the clones in the firefight that had taken over the building.
The fight, Yuri realised, had stopped. A silence around the whole building had replaced the noises and distant gunfire that had precluded it. The clones must have stopped fighting as well as his own nanobots.
That was for the best, he didn’t want any interruptions as he looked for the main server. He needed to repair and reconnect.
Yuri left the room, shotgun in hand and headed towards the server room.
CHAPTER 65
Owens
Owens woke, his heart jumped as he saw the glass case above him, thinking he was back in the cloning chambers.
A moment later, he realised he was inside a medical bay, the glass was the cover which slid over the table to allow it to scan and heal. He raised his hand to the glass, activating the release and the glass slid away.
He felt fine, all his wounds treated and healed. Swinging his legs off the table, he looked around the room. The medical bay was a clinical white with the smell of antiseptic forcing it’s way into his nostrils. Turning, he saw Jacob laying on the table next to him, still unconscious.
The last thing he remembered was Peter attacking them, and then being dragged away, by someone. Standing, he peered out the doorway, there was silence in the corridor outside. The fighting must have stopped, how long had he been out, he wondered.
Then he heard footsteps coming closer, deciding that it was probably for the best, he ran back to the medical bay and lay down. He had no way of knowing who had been victorious in the fighting, either way someone had put him in the bay and chances are they were coming now.
As soon as he had lay down, and the glass had slid back into place, he heard three figures enter the room. Owens couldn’t see them without lifting his head and thus betraying his consciousness, so he could only lay there and listen.
“Are they still alive?” A voice asked, the glass screen muffled, making it hard to recognise the voice.
“Think so, we got them here, and they were still breathin’,” another voice.
Footsteps coming closer now, someone was accessing the panel on his medical bay. A beam of light scanned his body and gave a report to the display.
“Say’s he’s completely healed, should be awake,” a third voice said. “I’ll give him an adrenaline shot, might just need a boost.”
Owens decided instantly that an adrenaline injection was not something he wanted and raised his hand to activate the release and leapt off the bed.
“Well, what do you know, he’s awake,” Xander smiled slightly to himself.
“Owens!” Ally shouted, her voice weak but aggressive, “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me what I was!’
Owens stared back at her, stunned.
“You… you made me. Some science experiment!” Ally marched over to the bed and grabbed Owens.
“I… wanted to,” he gasped. “But your parents took you from us before we had a chance to. We needed you to be old enough to understand, make sure it was the right time.”
“The right time? How about when I walked into that church and found you?” Ally lowered Owens slightly.
“I wasn’t sure it was even you, it’s been twenty years. It was only when Peter spoke to you that I was sure who you were.”
Ally dropped him and stepped away.
“What even am I?” She asked, her mind spinning as she processed the information properly for the first time.
“You’re a miracle Ally. You were, are, the greatest thing I have ever created. The first digital human being, right down to your DNA, spliced nanotechnology at the cellular level,” Owens was staring at Ally now, his eyes taking in the sheer realisation that the young girl they had created had continued to grow and flourish into adulthood. They had assumed that she had died long ago, that the project hadn’t been successful.
“I don’t know who I am anymore,” Ally whispered and turned away from Owens.
“You’re still you, Ally," Mollie walked over to her. “You’re the girl who brought me food when I was living on the streets and needed a friend. Whatever Owens did, it doesn’t change who you are.”
A loud crash shook the building again.
“I hate to interrupt guys but we really need to get out of this building,” Xander interrupted.
“Agreed,” Ally said, composing herself. “Where’s the others? Do we know if they stopped Yuri?”
“No idea, but let's go find out,” Xander nodded.
“What about him?” Mollie pointed at Jacob who was still unconscious in the medical bay.
Owens walked over and checked the vitals on the display.
“He’s still in bad shape, if we take him out of here now, he probably won’t survive.”
Ally walked over and looked at Jacob, the other half of her creator.
“Leave him, if we get the chance, we can come back once he’s healed, if not…” She shrugged. “He was ready to kill us bef
ore.”
The group reluctantly agreed.
“Let’s get back to the server room,” Xander left the room first, checking the area. “It’s quiet, like everyone's stopped fighting.”
“Maybe they did it?” Mollie replied.
“Fingers crossed,” Xander answered as they headed towards the corridor.
Owens was the last one out of the room, he took one last look back at Jacob; the man who had been his friend, colleague and enemy, before joining the group.
CHAPTER 66
Prime
Prime couldn’t help the anger brewing inside his mind, like a fire that raged over everything. Seeing Peter die had stirred something inside him, even though he knew that Peter had killed people and had tried to take control of him, he couldn’t help feeling he had lost a part of himself. Deep down, he was the same person, the exact copy of Peter, just earlier in his life, before the violent tendencies had taken over. He didn’t know if he was capable of the same aggression, if it was inevitable he would become a monster.
Prime shook his head from the thoughts, he needed to focus now. They needed to get to Yuri, find out if he was still active. Peter’s words echoed back into his mind again, that he needed to get all the information from Yuri. He closed his eyes for a moment, searching for any surviving clones he could call on to assist, perhaps there were some he could get to.
Pain shot through him as he tried to find any minds still functioning. He had got used to the feeling of all the clones entering his thoughts simultaneously and separating them. He selected them one by one, checking their condition.
Broken arm, shattered kneecap, severe head trauma. The pain was unbearable.
Prime concentrated harder and persuaded the clone to stop breathing, allowing it to slip into unconscious and eventually death. A mercy to his brother. As he found others with similar injuries which were too extreme, he repeated the process, killing several of his brothers and sisters. With each one, it became easier to do, with less guilt or pain.
He continued this until it left him with just five clones who had come away with minimal injuries. Giving them the thought to converge on his position, he continued to walk with Julian and Ava as they headed to find the hard drive.
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