A Cup of Joe

by Anita Ensal

  He shook his head again. “I can’t do that.” He didn’t want to tell her that he’d dreamed about her dying for almost every night since he’d met her. He didn’t want to frighten her. But he couldn’t allow her to go off alone, either.

  She swallowed. “It’s going to be more dangerous, David.”

  Her eyes were opened wide and gazing directly into his. His mind’s voice mentioned that her eyes were looking at him, not at something within her own head. He bent and kissed her, tentatively at first, but then, when she didn’t pull away from him, with more passion, wrapping his arms around her as he’d done in his dreams, holding her body closely to his, feeling her heartbeat against his chest as her arms went around his back.

  Their kiss ended and they looked at each other silently for a few moments. “I love you,” David told her, feeling his chest get tight as he did so.

  She leaned her head against his chest. “I love you, too,” she whispered, and he felt the tightness in his chest go away, to be replaced with a rush of feeling that sent energy all through his body. “We have to run, David, right now.” She pulled away from him, grabbed his hand, and started to move along the path – the path he’d seen her on in his dream.

  Chapter 12

  They ran hand-in-hand, both waiting for someone or something to try to stop them. But nothing did. His mind’s voice said that something was wrong – that, regardless of the links removed from his person, there had to be ways that the Master Computer monitored the Old Park. The Mother Board would know he’d kissed Emily, would know that he’d told her he loved her, would know that he was trying to run. But nothing was hindering them.

  They were off the path now. Emily led him through the Old Park, past the lake, deep into a forested area. They reached another bench, just sitting there amongst the trees.

  “Help me move the bench,” she told him breathlessly. “The exit hole is under it.”

  He did, wondering what an exit was doing in the middle of the Park. As soon as the bench was moved, Emily reached for the ground, scrabbling around the grass with her fingernails, until she got a piece to lift up. Then she rolled the grass back like it was a carpet. David could see a rectangular hole underneath it. It was black and seemed deep. It also made him shiver, though he wasn’t sure why.

  Emily came back to his side. “Okay,” she said, sounding more than a little nervous, “last chance to back out. We don’t know for sure where this goes, just that it’s deep. We had a team go into it years ago, using rope. They never came back, but sent us a message back that it was okay to use this tunnel to get out of the bubble.”

  David felt his mind’s voice forcing words out. “I thought tunnels were round.”

  She cocked her head at him. “Well, I guess most were or are. But this one’s not. Why would that matter?”

  He couldn’t give her an answer. His skin just crawled when he looked at the gaping rectangle in front of them.

  “Look,” she said kindly, “I’ll go first. I’ll call up to you, or something, and let you know it’s okay, when I’ve reached bottom or the exit. Alright?” She looked ready to jump in.

  David acted without thinking, grabbing her and pulling her against him. “No. You don’t go without me. Anywhere, ever again. We stay together.” He was shaking, and he felt the same as he had waking up from his nightmares.

  Emily hugged him gently. “I appreciate that, David. But, if you’re worried, I can go on first…or alone, if that’s what you’d prefer, now that you’ve thought about it.”

  “No,” he said vehemently. “I don’t want you to leave me. Ever.”

  She patted his back. “Okay,” she said softly. “Then we’ll go in together, at the same time, holding onto each other. How does that sound?”

  Like we’ll both die, his mind’s voice screamed. David took a step back from the edge, bringing Emily with him. “I want to know where this goes, before we get into it.”

  Emily looked up and gave him a bittersweet smile. “I don’t know for sure where it goes, David. I just know this is the only means of escape from this bubble world that we have. It can’t go someplace worse than I’ll go if they find me now,” she added softly.

  He didn’t know what to do, so he let her move them back to the edge. The hole suddenly reminded him of the body of the monster in his dream. As this thought came to him, he looked behind them – and froze in terror.

  There was a monster, just like in his nightmares: a huge, shiny, black rectangle coming toward them, its myriad tentacles or threads or legs, whatever they really were, reaching for him. It was even more terrifying here than it had been in his dreams – like a mechanized insect, with what seemed like blinking eyes randomly scattered all over its surface.

  He tried to scream to warn Emily, but she lurched in his arms. He tightened his hold on her and looked down – to see the black threads of the second monster coming out of the rectangular tunnel and wrapping around her body, trying to pull her into the gaping hole and away from him.

  They were both struggling now, as the other monster reached him and wrapped itself around him, carefully not locking around Emily, though. David knew that the one monster was trying to get him away, keep him from the supposed tunnel, while the other monster was trying to drag Emily into it. David felt like he was in a living nightmare, and he wished desperately that he knew how to wake up.

  His mind flashed to the odd visit from the Underwriter. What had the Programmer told him, that if he wanted to wake up from a nightmare he should use the numbers on that piece of paper? His mind’s voice screamed and he opened his mouth. “Computer! Override order 86679245!”

  Everything froze around them in an instant. The monsters stopped wrapping and pulling at them – but that wasn’t all. All the minor background noises that were a part of life normally – birds, insects, transport noises, wind – were silent. He glanced up at the sky. It seemed frozen, the clouds and birds in it unmoving as if they were merely pictures, not real.

  He looked away and at Emily. Her eyes were wide with terror, and David’s anger forced his limbs to move. He cautiously extracted himself from the tangle of what he recognized were metal threads encircling him, keeping one hand tightly holding onto Emily, just in case.

  Once he was free he gently and carefully extracted her from the other monster, then moved her a few steps away from the edge of the so-called tunnel, again just in case.

  They looked at each other for a few more moments. “What happened, what did you do?” she whispered finally.

  “I…I’m not really sure,” he admitted.

  “He activated the Master Computer’s main override code,” a voice came from behind them. They both spun to see the Underwriter walking slowly towards them. “Every Programmer worth his or her salt writes in a hidden override code…just in case.”

  David moved them so he could see the tunnel, the monsters and the Underwriter clearly, while shoving Emily behind him. “Stay away from her,” he growled at the old Programmer, as he pulled Emily’s arms around his waist, in case something else snuck up behind them and tried to take her away.

  The Underwriter gave him a gentle smile. “David, if I meant her harm, why would I have given you the only defense possible to save her…and yourself?”

  David’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

  The Underwriter sighed. “David, your mind has finally begun to work after all these years, but I see it’s not working well enough, yet.” He drew closer to them and looked around David’s body at Emily. David looked down over his shoulder. She looked frightened and defiant, but she wasn’t looking away from the Underwriter like he knew most people would.

  The Underwriter chuckled. “Young lady, you have certainly achieved the impossible. I must say that you turned out far better than I had ever hoped.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked him, suspicion dripping from her voice.

  The Underwriter indicated the bench. “Shall we sit?” he asked, as he seated himself. “Oh, come,
come,” he said to them as they both stood where they were. “If I were going to attack you, why would I have wasted the effort to walk all the way over here?”

  “Why did you walk instead of taking a floater?” David asked, still not moving.

  The Underwriter shrugged. “I was betting that you were ultimately smart enough to use the override code I gave you. Which would mean, were I on a floater at the time, that I would plunge to the ground, be the ground one foot or several hundred feet away. Medical isn’t active without the Main System, you know.”

  “I don’t understand anything you’re saying,” David admitted.

  “I know,” the Underwriter sighed. He looked at Emily. “Please come and sit down, young lady. You look pale.”

  Emily took a deep breath, then moved, taking her arms from around his waist as she grabbed David’s hand tightly in hers. They both went to the bench, but David wouldn’t let her sit on it – he sat down and put her onto his lap, holding her closely to him, wrapping his arms around her firmly.

  The Underwriter seemed to find this somewhat amusing, but he didn’t comment about it. Instead he looked up at the sky. “While what I have to tell you will shock you, I would imagine you will be able to comprehend it.” He sighed. “Humanity has done so much, yet made so many mistakes in the process.”

  He looked back at them. “Young lady, you are correct. We do indeed exist in a protective bubble, which controls and monitors everything inside it. We have to, there is no choice.”

  “Why not?” she asked him hotly.

  The old Programmer gave her a wry smile. “Because the Earth is no longer the paradise it once was. It is not livable for man or beast now. That tunnel,” he nodded towards the hole, “does not lead to escape, nor paradise, nor even a harsh, but livable, place. It leads directly to death.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Emily said defiantly.

  The Underwriter chuckled. “I’m sure you don’t. Humans tend to want to see proof, when their illusions are being shattered.” He looked at David. “You are the only one with control of the Master Computer and Main System now, David. It will only obey your commands.”

  David shrugged and looked up at the sky. “Show me what the dissident’s escape tunnel in the Old Park really is.”

  The ground around the escape tunnel shimmered and disappeared. In its place was still a tunnel, but it was metal, not earth, silver not black. He and Emily stood up and went to the edge again, both alert for something trying to push them in or grab them. But nothing did.

  Emily looked in first and gasped as she put her hand to her mouth. She was crying and when he, too, looked into the hole he realized why, as he automatically pulled her to him, putting her face into his chest, and rocking her as she sobbed.

  It wasn’t a tunnel to freedom, though, his mind’s voice commented, it certainly did provide an escape – of a type.

  Chapter 13

  It was a mass grave.

  David could make out bodies, far away at the bottom. He knew without looking closely that the old man from the coffeehouse was down there. But there was no way he could still be alive. The drop was not only steep, but there were also various implements of death along the way – he could see dried blood on some of them.

  David backed them away from the hole of death, still holding Emily tightly as she sobbed. He looked at the Underwriter. “But…they were told that it was safe…by people who went in long ago.”

  The Underwriter shook his head. “The Master Computer is programmed to give humanity what it wants, David. Some of humanity, the small sect of dissidents, wanted an escape. So, the Master Computer gave them the only escape it could. It tricked them,” he added patiently, while David tried to assess all he was hearing. “Because they wanted to believe that there was a way to get out of the bubble.”

  Emily looked up, her eyes red and her face streaked with tears. “You said it gives us what we want. How can you believe we want this kind of life? That they wanted that kind of death?!”

  The Underwriter sighed. “Young lady, you yourself told David only last week that humanity chose this life. Have you forgotten your own words so swiftly?”

  “But what happened?” she asked plaintively. “You said the outside world isn’t livable. Show me what you mean!”

  The Underwriter looked at him and David looked up at the frozen sky. “Show us what is truly outside the bubble.”

  The sky and horizon changed instantly. Instead of blue skies with wispy white clouds there was a cyclone of red, black and brown raging around them. Emily gasped and tightened her hold on David. He stroked her hair while he watched the cyclone shift around the bubble. Something that seemed like snowflakes, but different – uglier, dirtier, larger – were falling onto the bubble now, then being whipped into the cyclone in an endless cycle.

  “Nuclear winter, combined with some other unpleasant things,” the Underwriter commented. “A war between the worlds, caused by the usual strifes mankind seems so fond of. We’d colonized the entire solar system, and Earth was old, getting used up. Some on other planets wanted to use it for mining only, some wanted to keep it as a living history, an Earth zoo, if you will. There were some other, less popular suggestions, but in the end, they all fought to create what they wanted out of this planet. We’re all lucky, really, that the Master Computer was activated just in time. It was supposed to encircle the entire world, but it could only protect this one area. Fortunately, an area with a large, diverse amount of humanity in it. In a sense, the zoo people won – we’re all in a huge cage, and will have to remain so. Though I don’t believe anyone comes to visit and look in on us.”

  He looked over at David. “You can’t remove the bubble, David, you can’t run away out there. None of us can survive it. Only the bubble, created by the original Programmers, Engineers and Technicians, can protect us.”

  “Then why the charade?” Emily asked. “Why have a Chosen Mother and Father or a Next Generation? What’s the point if we can’t expand out of this bubble?”

  David answered, feeling like the voice in his head had finally taken over, controlling his mouth without the rest of his intervention. “Because there is something that a computer, no matter how well designed, conceived and engineered will run out of in enough time – storage, backup, memory. The old Programmers seem to rarely die, only those whose functions are now deemed useless, like those who could translate human handwriting into the Main Computer. But new Programmers are created with each New Generation.”

  The Underwriter gave him a pleased smile. “Well done, David. Amazing what the human mind can do when it’s allowed to be used. But, whether used by its owner or not, the human brain has amazing capacity for memory. Every human brain remembers everything it has ever seen, heard, read or experienced – or downloaded. And, the more Programmers you have, the more Technicians and Operators, Engineers and the like you need, just to keep the System functioning smoothly.”

  “She’s choosing the Mother and Father based on an…an openness to the System, isn’t she?” David asked, feeling somewhat ill. “She’s breeding us, like we were animals. But breeding us for what?”

  “Capacity and docility,” Emily offered. “The less you use your mind, the more it can be used. And,” she added quietly, “we are animals, David. Especially if it was a machine considering us. We have more in common with an ape than we do with the Master Computer.”

  “And,” he asked, “those of the Next Generation who don’t have the right capacity she…?” His voice trailed off, unwilling to complete the thought his mind’s voice had offered.

  “She assimilates,” the Underwriter finished for him.

  David looked at the Underwriter. “But, why is the Mother Board doing this?”

  “Partially because she believes that this is the way to ensure that the humanity entrusted to her care are provided with all they want.” The old man gave him a wry smile. “And, well, not all computer programs or components are always stable.”

 
David thought about her personifications and the vast numbers who were assimilated or eradicated over the centuries – and about how she was planning to assimilate him once his reproductive duties were over. “The Mother Board became self-aware.”

  “Yes, she did.” The Underwriter sighed. “She became self-aware and therefore unstable, and she determined that, in order to do her job properly, she needed to ensure that the Master Computer would do as man wanted. And to do so, she realized she would need more memory, because man’s wants rarely remain simple.”

  “But what we want is rarely what we need,” Emily said in a quiet voice.

  “Too true, young lady. She also strove to become as human as possible. She had centuries to learn, and computers do tend to be a bit quicker than humans. At some things.”

  “If she wants to become human,” Emily said slowly, “then she’s also creating all of this for a…power base?”

  The Underwriter nodded. “Yes. One of the downsides of human nature is its need to conquer, to achieve, to win. The Mother Board has assimilated many over the centuries. She is very strong now, but still and all, she is not human.”

  “But, how is it that you know all of this?” David asked, as he watched the cyclone of horror rail and boil around the protective dome they were under.

  “And, how is it that you’re still alive?” Emily asked suspiciously. “You don’t sound enamored of the Mother Board, which should mean your eradication, not continued survival.”

  He smiled. “The original creator of the basic computer system was my ancestor. He realized that there was always the potential for the computer to take over, become self-aware, destroy humanity. So, he created not only the override code which David used so effectively, but also his own back-up system.”

  They both looked at him blankly.

  “His progeny. As one Underwriter dies, the backup directive causes the Master Computer to find the next best candidate available immediately, based on bloodline. The Underwriter maintains a direct link into the Master Computer. The check, if you will, to the Mother Board’s overbalance.”