Gen One

by Amy Bartelloni

  “See? Piece of cake.” Zane took her hand and kissed it while the doors slid closed. His lips were rough and left a small mark of blood on the back of her hand. She watched the governor in the mirrored ceiling, counting floors. He looked like he was sleeping, but then opened his eyes and took a long breath from the facemask.

  “Is he going to make it?” Brute asked.

  The governor laughed, a raspy sound. “You better hope I do,” he answered.

  The elevator descended past the lobby floor, past a B for basement, and down to a level marked -1, where it came to a stop with a ding, and the doors slid open, giving them a view of a wide, white room.

  The governor pushed out of his wheelchair to walk. A bot approached him with a white lab coat and he shrugged into it.

  “A lot of our safety protocol has gone out the window,” he said, pulling the coat on. “But for some reason, we still have these. Go figure.”

  They stepped into a sterile, white room that seemed to have been a waiting room at one point. Chairs and seating areas were scattered around the room, with a desk at the far side. More bots stood at the ready along the curved walls of the room, but their heads drooped and their eyes were turned off.

  “They’re deactivated right now,” the governor explained, walking slowly across the white room. Even the furniture was pristine and white. The television sets along the wall were all dark and silent.

  A dark-skinned woman sat behind the desk, twirling a piece of her short, snow-white hair. Delilah saw the chip in her eyes when she looked up with a familiar smile. The woman winked, and Delilah studied her. She was sure she’d never seen her before, but it was difficult with bots. Their personalities could be transferred. A way of avoiding death.

  Behind her were several more screens, but these were on and spit out data faster than Delilah could read them.

  “Fascinating.” Brute paused at the desk to look at the readouts. The woman tipped her head and smiled at him, but he was too taken by the screens to take any notice of her. The governor paused at a far door and leaned his head against an iris scanner. It scanned his face, and he stood up straight and blinked as the lock clicked open. He paused for a minute at the entrance to what looked like a sterile, white hallway. If Delilah didn’t know better, she’d think she registered regret on his face. Pain. But she was sure the man didn’t feel any. How else could he rule over an empire of bots? Even if they had gone rogue and were operating on their own, which she doubted, he was still here and in one piece. No, if he had regrets, they had nothing to do with that. Her stomach lurched. This was the trap, if there was any. She looked to Brute, but he’d already walked in after the governor. They were too far gone now to go back. They had to see this through.

  She paused at the door and waited for Zane, who was still scrutinizing the screens.

  “You okay?” she asked, touching his arm lightly. Even with that small touch, he winced.

  “Yeah.” He turned. “Just something is off with these readings, is all. I can’t put my finger on it.”

  The woman behind the desk took a step closer to them, and Delilah smelled the faintest hint of coconut, a scent which reminded her of Gen’s lotion she bought in the Banks. Delilah saw the circuitry in the bot’s eyes, but the way she narrowed her brow was decidedly human. “Nothing here is what it seems,” she told them, then she nodded to the doorway. “Better go, they’re waiting for you.”

  Delilah kept her eyes trained on the bot while Zane led the way out, but the woman only responded with a vague smile. And when Delilah took the door from Zane and stepped through, the bot waved. She shook her head and let the door slam behind her. One mystery at a time, and right now, she needed to figure out this hive mind. And fast.

  Immediately after the door closed, all sound cut out except for a vibration from the inside wall. It was like stepping into a vacuum and goosebumps broke out on Delilah’s arm. No armed bots lined this corridor, but the danger was just as real. Maybe even more so. Whatever was inside was powerful. Zane gave her a long look, and she could read the hesitation on his face.

  The governor led the way along a curved, white hallway. His boots clicked with each step like bullets. “The building needed some retrofitting,” he said, adjusting his voice lower since it carried so far. The noise echoed, traveling past Delilah and back behind them. The governor turned and talked over his shoulder.

  “This was all done in the early days. Before…” He waved his hand around, but they all got the point. Before the world went to shit. Before the bots took over. Did they know what they were doing, building this hive, she wondered? Life was so unpredictable, so out of control. It was crazy of them to think they could create these free-thinking creatures and control them, but then, the leaders never thought of bots as life. They were wrong, Delilah thought, remembering Gen.

  The hallway was so long and curved Delilah thought they’d end up where they started. They passed two doors on the outside wall. Emergency exits, the governor explained, but none on the inside until they reached their destination, a nondescript white door built into the hallway. She wouldn’t have thought it was anything but a supply closet, except for the bot standing aside it, his head down and eyes off. There were other security features though. The governor had to scan his eye, his finger, and enter a code. Last of all, he pulled a necklace out of his shirt with a small key and turned it in the door. Only then did the door open in.

  “Whoa,” Brute commented. He was the first one in. The noise hit them before they could even see in. A kind of low, heavy vibration that set her teeth on edge and scrambled her brain. They wouldn’t be able to last long in there, she knew that. But they weren’t meant to.

  She pushed past Brute and onto a metal railing overlooking a large, oval stadium. “Let’s just get this over with,” she said, but she stopped short in her tracks.

  In the middle of the room was a large, round mass inside some kind of translucent containment field. Every once in a while, a blue spark would shoot out and hit the barrier, causing whatever containment was around the ball to break out in cracks. Whatever was inside was testing, she guessed. Breaking down the system.

  “The hive,” the governor wheezed. He stood up and leaned on the railing. Workstations were set up around the perimeter of the room, but some of them had blown over or been burned. The faint smell of burning plastic hung in the air. The others spread out along the railing and watched what looked like a thunderstorm inside the ball. There were a few workers on the floor, but not enough for a job of this magnitude. They all wore white protection suits with visors.

  “Radiation,” the governor explained. He took two heaving steps away from the door. The railing shook with each step.

  “Radiation?” Zane asked, not moving from the exit. Delilah noticed locks on the inside as well as the outside. They couldn’t go back even if they wanted to, but she didn’t tell him. Not yet.

  “It’s safe enough in small doses.” He smirked and gestured down at his diseased body. “Though, what those doses are is a fact that’s up for interpretation. We should hurry.”

  Brute waited for Leo to pass. “Are you not affected?” he asked the bot.

  The governor answered without even turning around. “As I said, the hive is still functioning.” A spark shot out from the sphere, hit the containment field, and cracked it, sending workers scattering below. Delilah ducked, but the containment field was back up before anything could escape. At least, she hoped.

  “As it is…” Leo stood up to his full height, but still hunched. Delilah wondered if it was an effect of his aging program. “I am not attached to the hive.”

  Zane looked him over. “Gen One?” he asked.

  The governor had gone about twenty paces, with Rank behind him, when he finally turned. “Actually, he isn’t. If you’ll hurry along, I’ll explain.”

  No one was in any mood to hurry, but the threat of radiat
ion poisoning lit a fire under them. Brute followed Rank, then Leo, then Delilah. Zane brought up the rear.

  “I managed to disconnect a small number of bots from the hive. Part of the experiments.” They passed some kind of upstairs observation deck, but the door was closed and no one inside. The governor reached a circular, rickety staircase and proceeded to climb down. His voice carried up.

  “The bots were looking for a way to save me, but in order to do that, I needed a bot’s body and a mind unattached to the hive.”

  Rank grabbed the governor’s shoulder. “You okayed these experiments?” he shouted.

  Zane pushed his way to them and pulled Rank’s arm back. “Hear him out.”

  Rank let his hand drop. “We don’t have time to hear him out,” he said, through gritted teeth. “We just have to take this thing out.”

  At that, another spark shot out, reaching through the field and hitting the ground at the end of the stairs. They all tumbled, some farther down than others. Zane caught Delilah and rolled with her, taking the brunt of the fall. She curled her head in but still took a nasty blow to the forehead.

  “Are you okay?” She pulled her head up and asked, but she’d hit pretty hard herself. She shook off the dizziness and climbed to her feet. The others seemed to be accounted for though only Leo was steady on his feet. He helped the governor, who’d twisted his ankle.

  Zane circled his wrist. “I’ll be okay,” he winced. He didn’t seem to have any new cuts or bruises that Delilah noticed, but that wasn’t saying much. He hopped over to where the others were gathered as far away from the sphere as they could get. They huddled under the staircase. Delilah looked around at the impressive electronics that spanned the circular wall of the room. In the whole space, she only spied three people. Two were working at screens, furiously pushing buttons. One waved some kind of tablet at the sphere. It looked like he was manually sealing breaches. One person lay dead from the blast, sprawled out on the floor facedown.

  “I approved the experiments, in the beginning,” the governor said over the throb of the sphere. Out of nowhere, Rank pulled his arm back and punched his old friend square in the face. The governor stumbled, reaching behind him for anything to grasp, and then, when there was nothing there, went down thunderously, his feet going up before he settled.

  “Helpful,” Delilah spat, passing Rank to help the governor up. She was as disgusted as anyone, but he had information they needed.

  “It felt good,” Rank came back with. He pushed past Delilah and yanked the governor up by the shirt. The governor wobbled on his feet. His hat gone, she could see he was missing most of his hair. The rest was pulled back in a low ponytail. He wavered on his feet, but stayed up.

  “I understand your anger.” He wiped blood off the corner of his mouth. “But I assure you, my motives weren’t to experiment on humans. The experiments…twisted, as the hive took over, until I could no longer stop them.”

  Brute rolled his shoulder back. “Why are you stopping them now, then?”

  The governor eyed the sphere. It had been quiet since the last blast. Delilah hoped that was because it was contained, but it felt more like the presence was listening. “I have been trying to put an end to this for a long time,” he said. “What I neglected to do was ask for assistance.”

  Leo stepped between them and took the governor’s arm.

  “Where are we going?” Delilah asked. Doors were spaced at even intervals along the wall, but the governor’s gaze turned to the sphere itself. Her stomach dropped.

  “The only way to transfer my hold on the hive is from the inside,” he said quietly. Zane reached out and took her hand, giving it a little jerk. She stepped back and tipped her head.

  “That would be the way to destroy it, too.” He nodded to the closest terminal. While they’d been fighting, Zane had pulled up schematics on the sphere in front of them. There wasn’t much to see; it was a giant ball of energy.

  “What is this?” she whispered.

  “Weaknesses.” He hit a few more keys, then looked over her head to where Rank was arguing with the governor. “There aren’t many.” He shook his head. “But if we hit it with a blast, right at its core, that should do it.” He minimized the screen when Rank turned back to him.

  “Won’t we be inside when that happens?” Delilah asked. The sphere was still quiet.

  Zane gave her a half smile, looking up at the giant ball. “We’ll have to be quick.” He walked off toward Rank, but Delilah stopped him.

  “What then?” she asked.

  Zane shook his head. “Then, they’re free. They can choose whatever they want.”

  She wanted to argue, but no rational argument would form. Of course they should be free, but she wasn’t sure destruction was the way to do it. On the other hand, if the only other way was to plug one of them into this thing, she’d have to take her chances. Zane was right, the hive had to go. They walked back to the others where Rank was still arguing with the governor.

  “We’re not going in there.” Rank had, well, pulled rank. He planted his feet firmly down, crossed his arms, and stood between his group and the sphere, not letting anyone by.

  “We don’t all have to go,” the governor wheezed, approaching a terminal. He made an announcement, letting the rest of the workers go, but most had fled after the last blast. Their group was the only one left with the thing in the middle of the room.

  Delilah rounded Rank and approached it cautiously, while the governor explained that in order to transfer whatever connection it had to him, someone had to step into it. Zane tried to pull her back, but it was too fascinating. Up close, the sphere was like a hive of bees, buzzing around each other.

  “Nanites,” the governor explained. He’d come up behind her before she noticed. The sphere’s drone blocked other noises. Even his voice seemed farther away. “They’ll open for you to go in. The rest—well, it’s something you have to experience.” He took his hat off and smoothed what was left of his hair back. There was a reverent, almost apologetic look on his face.

  He leaned on a cane while the others hovered around a screen, watching a video that explained the process. But Delilah didn’t need to know the process. She was going in.

  He looked over his shoulder at the others at the same time she made the realization. “They’re not going to be happy, but I can hold them back,” he said. “It’s not comfortable, but you’ll be okay. You’ll come out changed.”

  She shifted her weight. “If by changed, you mean I’ll okay horrible experiments on humans, then, no, I won’t.”

  He shook his head. “No,” he said simply. “That was there before, I’m afraid. The bots amplify your intentions, but sometimes that control can go to your head. It went to mine, Delilah. I’m not proud of it. I thought what I was doing was for the greater good. If I found a cure, it would all be worth it.”

  Delilah thought of the bodies washed up on the shore. The horrible experiments. Power corrupts, she thought. Was it conceited to think it wouldn’t corrupt her? She couldn’t imagine any scenario where she would be okay with something like that, and besides, she was going in the hive to destroy it, not to lead it.

  Her feet led her closer to the ball of their own volition. Something drew her in, but she didn’t know if it was something inside her or something inside them. The difference could mean life or death. The swarming nanites opened a path ahead of her, and before she knew it, they’d surrounded her. She only barely heard Zane yelling behind her and looked back. Rank was holding him back, but he didn’t have to. The nanites had made a barrier around her. They weren’t pushing her forward, but moving along with her. She didn’t know if they’d let her back out, but she was willing to take the chance.

  “I’ll be okay.” She waved, and Zane’s cheeks turned crimson. He wanted to be the one to put himself in danger, but he was already hurt and she knew at an instinctual level these
beings wouldn’t react well to his temper. She knew how to keep her breath even, her heartbeat low. She knew how to fool them into thinking she wasn’t scared, when she was terrified. But she was also curious, and that’s what drew her on.

  She turned her back on the others and continued into the heart of the hive.

  Through Delilah’s life, she’d relied on instinct. It had gotten her far in the Banks. Well, it had kept her alive at least. It helped her avoid situations others fell into…drugs, gangs, or even worse. Not that her life was on the straight and narrow, but it was full. And it had led her to trust herself. She thought of those decisions, those moments in time that led here. Zane holding her hand at her father’s funeral. Sitting next to her mother’s deathbed. Realizing her aunt wasn’t coming back and knowing she was alone. Bringing Gen home and turning her on. The bot’s first time cooking. Her first smile. Scouting with Zane. Ducking patrols. Their kiss, in the rain by the warehouse. All these things fell off one by one like petals from the flower. The bots were stripping her, digging through the memories into her very core. It was solid. She let them.

  In return, they opened up to her. Their existence was nothing like she thought. It was so much more. Each bot was a living thing, from the tiniest nanite to the largest war machine. Their thoughts and feelings all swarmed around the hive, which made sense of everything and projected a sense of calm. It was a false calm, though. The hive was projected, but the individual was nothing more than an extension of the group. She tried to project that, to project individuality. The hive slowed down, and she opened her eyes.

  The nanites were gone. She was surrounded by a bright, white light. It beat and pulsated along with the hive. The bots were behind it, surrounding it, but inside was the nucleus. She was in its very breath, merged. She wondered, briefly, why this experience and these tiny bots couldn’t cure the governor.