by David Beers
Chapter Eleven
Veena’s experience on the machine world had been similar to Ares’. However, she’d not known anything of the sort was taking place with him until after her own digital world fell apart in flakes, leaving her in darkness.
When she woke, she’d found herself lying next to Ares about two kilometers from their ship. There’d been no machines around her, and she hadn’t moved for quite some time. Veena didn’t know if Ares was alive or dead, and at that moment, she hadn’t cared.
In the final room she’d ventured into, her mother and father had been waiting for her. She’d known it wasn’t them, but she’d wondered why the intelligence had used her parents? What was the point of that?
Much of her life, if not the majority of it, had been spent trying to shove them away because to recognize that loss would have been too much. It would have derailed her life, making Primus only an unrealized dream.
Yet as she lay on the hard red rock, Primus was only a dream. One from the past, and not something she’d ever see again.
It wasn’t until Ares moved slightly that she snapped out of her thoughts. So much more had happened on this planet, more than she could fathom. It was only the strength—and perhaps the neglect—of her feelings regarding her parents that had kept her from considering the rest.
She turned her head to the right and looked at her partner. He was in his MechSuit, the helmet retracted. “You alive?”
He was staring at the sky. He blinked once. “I think so. Do you feel it?”
It took Veena a moment to realize what he was talking about, but once she did, she couldn’t not feel it.
“They encoded it in us,” Ares whispered. “Half in me, half in you. It’s encrypted, but it’s there.”
“How’s that possible?” she asked. “I can…feel it, but I can’t read it. I can tell there’s coding, something new.” The closest thing she could compare it to was some kind of growth on her body, perhaps a new mole. It didn’t belong on her, but she couldn’t deny its existence, even if she didn’t understand it.
“It’s time to go.”
Veena almost groaned at the sound of the voice. It was the godsawful machine that had delivered her meals, or what she had thought were meals. It’d all been a digital creation, except apparently this machine was real.
Ares tilted his head up. “Monk, what in hades are you doing here?”
Veena sat up, not understanding the name but not caring at the moment.
The machine rolled over the rocks, stopping about a meter from them. “My home is no more. My purpose is with you two now, to ensure you don’t fuck up what’s been given to you.”
“What?” Veena turned to look in the direction where the machine city had been. “Oh, my gods!”
It was gone. All the buildings, contraptions, machines—there was nothing left. No smoking ruins, no empty streets. There was just…nothing.
Ares was on his feet in a few seconds. “How is that possible? How is any of this possible?”
Monk rolled up to Ares as Veena climbed to her feet. “Our purpose was to find you two. Now that we’ve found you, our purpose has changed. None of what we were is necessary anymore. All that is necessary is me, so the rest could be destroyed.”
Veena’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the empty space. “Are you the keeper? The one I met?”
“A version, yes,” the machine answered, “but in many ways, no. That isn’t important right now. We are unprotected on this planet, and it’s time to go.”
Veena was still trying to grasp what lay in front of her—or rather, what didn’t lay in front of her. Where had it all gone? The problem was, she didn’t know how long she’d been out. She didn’t even know the year, let alone the day.
Ares whirled on the machine, obviously angry about what had just occurred. “What do you mean, unprotected? This planet is so far beyond any known worlds, there’s no one who can possibly hurt us.”
The machine cocked its head sideways, looking oddly like an Earth praying mantis to Veena’s eyes. “Why we gave the algorithm to you, I shall guess my entire life. Are you so stupid as to not remember the creatures you were kept with? Even if they were a digital representation, you should have been able to see how many tried to reach this world.”
Ares shook his head. “Nah, that’s bullshit. The way station we went through said hardly anyone had passed through it before us. Whatever we saw in there, you made us see.”
The machine turned to look at Veena, who was still staring at the vanished city. “I trust you are not as obtuse as this one?”
Veena decided there wasn’t anything else to stare at. Whatever had been was no more. She turned to the machine—Monk, as Ares had called it. “I like to think I’m less obtuse, but what he says is true. So either it’s lying to us, you’re lying to us, or there are other paths to this planet.”
“Definitely not as obtuse,” Monk responded. “There are many paths to this planet, and given how long it’s existed, many have tried to take them. Some for the algorithm, some for the tech, some for reasons I can’t begin to understand, but regardless, eyes watch this planet. The Commonwealth isn’t the only powerful entity in this universe, nor are humans the only species, despite how highly you think of yourselves.”
Veena understood at the same time Ares did. She tilted her head to the sky. “So, if they’re looking now, they’re going to see very soon that the planet is uninhabited?”
“’Very soon’ is a relative term, and it also depends on where the scouts are. The point is that we are not safe, and every moment we remain here, we grow less safe.” Monk turned his head toward Ares. “Do you understand now?”
The former Titan’s hand went to his Whip. The machines had given it back, just like his suit. “Careful, Monk. We came a long way without you. It won’t take much to do it again.”
Again the machine looked at Veena. “Is he always so sensitive?”
“You get used to it.” Veena didn’t care about their bickering. She understood the danger they were facing, and she wanted to get out of here. On her ship, she’d be better able to deal with any threats. Here, she was basically defenseless. She started walking toward the ship, not looking behind her to see if the others were coming.
She heard Ares speak as she walked.
“You must have gained a sense of humor when you tore your city down, Monk, because you weren’t this fuckin’ jovial when you held me captive.”
Veena heard Monk’s treads roll over the rocky ground. “I’ve turned my humor gauge up to deal with you.”
“Well, turn it down,” Ares said.
“Fortunately, my makers didn’t give control over that to you,” the machine responded.
“You couldn’t have given us a better ship?” Ares asked Monk once they’d escaped the planet’s atmosphere. “All that tech, and you left us with this?”
“What you come with is what you leave with. What we gave you is possibly worth more than all the ships in the universe, combined.” Monk was staring at one of the ship’s panels, looking out at space. Ares imagined it was the first time the creature had ever been off his home planet. He was giving the machine a hard time, but in reality, he didn’t hold any ill will toward it.
“I’m not seeing any enemies coming for us, Monk. You sure you aren’t just a bit paranoid?”
The machine didn’t turn to look at him as he spoke. “They’re coming. We weren’t fast enough. They’re already flocking to the planet, and soon they’ll be on us as well.”
Ares didn’t like the sound of that. He turned to Veena with an eyebrow raised.
She only shrugged and shook her head, saying nothing. She continued to watch her scans.
“So far I’m right, Monk, but I’ll play along. Do they know we have the algorithm?” Ares still found it hard to believe that such a thing was in his mind, yet any time he doubted it, he had only to close his eyes and feel it.
“I wasn’t programmed with the ability to read minds,” th
e robot shot back.
“You know what I mean. Why are they coming for us? That doesn’t make sense, given the myth.”
Monk still didn’t look at him but peered at the starlit panel as if he could see the coming enemies. “Just because the algorithm didn’t spread, it doesn’t mean the rumor of it didn’t. Rumors spread like the wind, and people spread at nearly the same pace. An algorithm such as the one you came looking for would be a valuable rumor and would probably spread even faster.”
Ares again turned to Veena, but she was staring at the panels as well, her eyes glazed as if she weren’t hearing them. Ares was trying to get the logic of their situation laid out so he could understand it since if Monk was right, there wouldn’t be much time for understanding later.
Veena’s question had little to do with the logic behind everything, though, or at least the logic that didn’t directly concern her.
“Why did I see my parents?” Her eyes kept that glazed look. “What was the point of that?”
Monk turned then, his human-like head the only part of his body that moved. “We had to understand you. The human species is more defined by their parental units than any other species we’ve come across. Your entire lives are molded by what your parents do and say, sometimes to greatness and other times to sorrow. Oftentimes, the two are combined.”
“Why did I see them, then?”
Ares couldn’t tell if there were tears in Veena’s eyes, but he thought maybe there were. He hadn’t seen her cry ever, not in all they’d experienced together, yet now…
Monk rolled back from the screen a bit, then straightened so he faced the ship’s captain. “Humans use different coping mechanisms to deal with their lives. We do not judge those mechanisms, but we needed to understand them to decide who would receive the cargo you now carry. That was our part in this. It is mostly finished, besides me. Your part is just beginning, and like we needed to understand your coping mechanisms, you must as well. To accomplish what is necessary, you’ll have to face the things you’ve shoved down, Veena de Ragnimus.”
The machine was quiet for a moment, and Ares dared not interrupt that silence. The tears in Veena’s eyes were undeniable now, and Ares was not so dense as to let his arrogance shine through.
When Monk spoke, his voice held no bedside manner, no deference. “If you don’t deal with them, you’ll die during what is to come.”
The AI had taken over flight duties, along with Monk, though the machine showed no interest in anything about the ship. All he—it—seemed concerned with was staring into the screens for invisible enemies.
Veena had gone to her cabin to try to sleep, unsure if it would come.
Showing that emotion in front of Ares, let alone the machine, hadn’t been something she wanted to do, but she’d needed to know.
What did her parents have to do with any of this?
Now she knew, or at least she knew what the machine had told her.
She was lying on her back atop the covers, clothes still on, when Ares’ face showed on the panel to the right of her door.
“Let him in,” she whispered to the AI.
The door slid open, but Ares didn’t step inside. “You mind if we talk for a few minutes?”
“As long as we don’t talk about my parents, I don’t care.”
“That’s fine by me.” He stepped into the room, and the door slid shut behind him. “You’ve checked the ship’s systems, right? Security protocols? All that stuff I know nothing about?”
“I’ve run the checks three times since we boarded,” she answered. “If the machines did anything to the ship, there’s no trace of it. There’s no evidence of an AI memory wipe, either. Everything is as it was.”
Ares remained standing and started to pace in the small room, going from one wall to the other. “This isn’t making any sense to me, Veena. We should dump the machine into space right now and rethink where we’re heading.”
Currently, they were in the fourth dimension and heading back to the last waystation they’d encountered. Monk said it no longer existed either, and Veena believed him. Veena hadn’t had time to consider where they’d go from there.
“What would you rather we do?” she asked, sounding weary. “We’ve got the algorithm, but we didn’t think about what we were going to do once we got it. I don’t think we can sell it in its current form.”
Ares had to know she was right about that. Whatever was inside their heads…whatever had been inserted in them was encrypted. If she was still using the mole analogy, the mole’s skin was covered in titanium, and there was no way to get inside it.
“I’m not sure what we can do with it, actually,” she continued. “From what the machine makes it sound like, about the only thing we can do is run since other people are going to want it.”
“That's what I’m not understanding,” Ares responded. He reached one end of the room and turned around, but he didn’t move forward. He looked at her on the cot. “These machines, put there by the gods only know who, gave us the algorithm, but clearly not for monetary gain. They’ve protected it for a thousand years, maybe more, yet they gave it to us, people who abandoned their posts and maybe their final mission. Now, you and I are just going to believe that? We’re just going to go along with it, letting this machine aboard our ship when it could self-destruct at any point and leave us floating through space, most likely in pieces.”
Veena closed her eyes. She was exhausted, and she thought once she finally slept, she’d see her parents again. “Just tell me what you want me to do, Ares. If you want to dump the machine, we can do it when I wake up. Or hades, you can do it now. I honestly don’t care. I just want to sleep.”
She heard Ares pacing again, his energy uncontainable. He had to burn it off somehow, apparently. “I know what I want to do, and I don’t care what the machine wants. I haven’t decided whether he’s a help or a hindrance. It doesn’t really matter why that planet was there, either, not with what I want.”
He’d reached the other side of the room and stopped, but he didn’t turn this time.
“What do you want?” Veena asked.
“I want to go back to Earth, and I want to take down whatever artificial intelligence the Ascendancy uses. That’s why the person stole it to begin with, isn’t it?”
Veena opened her eyes. “We’ll die. I doubt we’d even make it back into the Solar System. Spies, bounty hunters, the fucking people the machine says are hunting us…someone will get us.”
Ares still didn’t turn around. “If you can figure out how to sell the code in our heads, I’m all for it. Otherwise, we’re going to be running forever. All we’ve done since we left Earth was escape death. I’m fine to keep escaping it.”
What could Veena say, no? If that planet had folded up, all the machines simply disappearing… They’d entrusted this algorithm to the two of them, and Veena was positive it wasn’t to sell it to the highest bidder. “If I go along with you, will you let me sleep?”
Ares faced her, and she could hear the arrogant smile in his voice. “Of course. If you do what I want, I’ll quit bothering you.”
“Fine. Let’s go get caught by the people who are chasing us. What do you want to do with the machine?”
“You don’t have a preference?”
“Just to rest. That’s all I want.”
The grin disappeared. “I’ll take care of him.”
Ares’ Whip was attached to his belt, and his hand touched the top of the hilt as he entered the bridge.
The machine was in the same place it had been, still staring out at the blackness of space.
Ares wasn’t sure what the thing was capable of, but he didn’t trust it. A digital representation of the thing had been his captor for what felt like weeks. After leaving Veena to sleep, Ares had checked the scans the ship had run on it when it entered. There didn’t appear to be any self-detonating equipment inside it, though the scan identified weapons.
Ares remained at the bridge’s entrance, his
hand still on the Whip’s hilt. “We’ve decided where we’re going, Monk.”
The machine didn’t turn around. “And where’s that?”
“We’re going back to Earth. We’re going to deliver this algorithm back to the source and shut down the AI created from it.” He took a step onto the bridge, removing his Whip from his belt. “I want to know what your purpose here is, Monk. No more bullshit. No more games.”
The machine didn’t turn around to look at Ares. It didn’t move at all. “My purpose is to make sure you return to Earth and implant the algorithm into the intelligence residing there. That is my entire reason for existing, and after that, I’m unsure of what will happen to me.”
Monk turned around so the two were looking at each other.
“We wouldn’t have given you the algorithm if we thought there was any real chance that the algorithm wouldn’t have been returned to its source.”
Ares stared at the creature, wishing it showed some semblance of humanity—something he could read. “You support us going there? I won’t have to watch my back the entire time, wondering if you’re going to try to kill me? Or Veena?”
“If we wanted you dead, Romulus, don’t you think you’d already be dead? We’ve gone into your head, into your dreams, and given the time we have left, you’re the best chance we have of completing this, you and Veena.”
Ares took his hand off the Whip. “Where did you come from, Monk?”
“My maker didn’t gift me with that information, as your species’ maker didn’t either. Perhaps they’re the same, or perhaps one modeled itself after the other. I don’t know, and it’s not my purpose to know. It isn’t your purpose any longer either. Your purpose is the same as mine now: returning to the source with the gift you’ve been given.”
“I’m trusting you, Monk, and it’s not something I’m doing lightly. I care about Veena, and for some reason, I still care about Earth.” Ares paused for a second, not sure how to say what he wanted. “I guess I hope you’re telling the truth.”
