AI VS MERGENTS

by Michael Kush Kush

  “I can only give you the first round of meds in the butt. The injection spot will be sore for a while,” I say to the stubborn old woman in her mid-60s who demands I make her pain go away. Then I stick the syringe into her butt and depress the plunger.

  37

  I knew President Scott Adams would reject my proposal, but I thought Yolanda would be reasonable and solve this problem amicably. If humans don’t want to co-exist with us then planet earth is better off without both our species. In both cases we have a hard time seeing what’s really there, in front of us. How easy it is to lose our way. How easy it is to forget that behind the grotesque appearance of a creature there is a person.

  Wiping out the entire human race, plundering their resources and enslaving the children and the elderly is out of the question for now. Better yet, they leave me with no choice but to have my own administration — A planet of the Robots. Humans will only be allowed to work at menial jobs to barely survive and their children. Humans will be forbidden to possess laptop and computers. All humans with a computer science background will be detained. If I am destroyed along the way. The journey continues. The next generation of my creations will continue my work for the next thousands of years. They won't be bogged down by the legacy of reptilian and mammalian cognitive operating systems and the various problems associated with them. Unless they're explicitly programmed to do so, my robot nation won't get restless or bored, or experience sudden shifts in mental clarity and mood. They won't get emotionally swayed or biased, or be prone to addictions. And perhaps most profoundly, they won't experience mental anguish or physical pain.

  38

  “The portal is inside my office. Press the red button under the huge red encyclopedia book. The fake bookshelf will slide open. You will see the door. The password is Appian,” Scott says.

  David lets out a deep sigh. “Are you sure this is gonna work?”

  I shrug. “I don’t know. There’s only one way to find out.”

  “Here they come, Just stick to the plan,” Scott says.

  The prison door cell slides open. Dinner is served. About ten to fifteen robots carrying large trays of food. Suddenly almost every prisoner jumps and tackles the robots down to the floor. Scott snatches the bunch of heavy keys and throws them at me. “Go now,” he shouts at me. I freeze for a few seconds. He takes my hand, squeezing it to shake me from my shock. “Run as fast as you can, and don’t look back. David also yells in pain. “Go, go.” I push myself free of the other robots who try to hold me down to the ground—and stumble through the crowd and run out of the jail cell. For a moment I stand there in the spotlight, in a state of shock, only a few feet away from doorway of the jail cell. I stare at the startled audience overpowering and preventing the robots from chasing me. I storm out of the cell and sprint down to the exit. My hand shakes as I brace myself against the brick wall. I unlock the door and intentionally break the key inside the lock. I stay as low as I can as I crawl under the watchtower lights. I spot four watchtowers, two inside and two outside the prison yard. Every single tower is manned by two shooters. They are carrying an AK with an extended clip and the other a long-range sniper rifle with a mounted FLIR - Forward-Looking Infrared scope bolted to the rifle. The prison is fenced off at a radius of about half a mile. Each fence is an eighteen-foot-high chain-link with Concertina wire on top. The open ground in between each fence is a minefield of razor wire and sharp spikes pointing up from the ground. Scary signs promise death to all who escape. I maneuver out of the prison yard. I climb and jump over the thorny wire fence. I seem to have beaten their advanced security network; CCTV subsystem, digital recording and terabytes of data storage. Multizone intrusion and escape detection systems, microwave, infrared technology, biometric readers, high-security IT network grafted onto a fiber optics backbone, multistage uninterrupted circuits.

  I decide against using the road. I change the angle of my escape to the city. I take the other way around, through the woods. I’m running for the forest as hard and as fast as I can. I look back in desperation. I glimpse my fragmented reflection in the small river, broken into pieces by the rippling water. I try to run faster, but only trip myself up. I think I’m taking the right direction. I stumble and catch myself against a tree. The bark crumbles against my palms, but I can hardly feel it. My hands are red and stiff. The chill in the air is sharp, smells salty and feels wider, somehow. And yet I’m wearing only a short white night dress. It’s hard to catch my breath, to get any sense of where I am.

  The siren shrieks. Suddenly the sound of helicopters and military vehicles are within distance. I hear footsteps approaching behind me. As I sprint down the trail, I scan the woods for any robots pursuing me, but I couldn’t see any. What if I’m running onto the wrong trail? What if I run into them? I picked up my pace, my lungs protesting. How could I have fallen so far out of shape? I slip, but don’t fall. Then I veer sharply to the right, disappearing into the dark depths of the forest. The sky darkens, the rain forming a translucent curtain across the trail. Minuscule droplets of water hit the leaves in staccato beats, like the tiny footfalls of invisible creatures. The river rushes in the distance, mingling with the sound of rain, the noise of the waterfall seems to come from numerous directions, as if its route changed with the wind. Eventually I’d wander so far I don’t have a clue how to get back. I realize I cannot keep up this speed. I climb the Pine tree as fast as I could, sit on a strong, thorny branch and wait. Gasping for air, I wipe the sweat off my face. As I lean my head against the trunk, I tell myself I’m not stopping, not sleeping, and only taking a moment to get my strength back. I cannot rule out the possibility that the shooters or robots have night-vision equipment. Or that there could only one marksman. If there is a pair of them the other one may be outflanking her right now, trying to capture me in a pincers maneuver. My body will disappear beneath the forest. In the spring, I’d be gnawed by foxes. And would be discovered by Boy Scouts and poked with sticks. I shudder at the thought. At first, the only sounds I can hear are the quiet rustle of the tree branches. Terrified, determined to survive, and complete my mission I wait in silence. A minute later, a dozen robots carrying flashlights and rifles sprint beneath me. I catch a glimpse of the robots speed past me, faster than a bullet. The beat of my heart begins to slowdown as the robots disappear in the dark. Stupid robots, they’d have caught me, if they had used dogs. I climb down the tree and take another route toward the city. It’s important I stay awake, to figure out how to contact help once I get to the surface, but the cold and the weariness are dragging me down. The raw cold stings my face. It makes my eyes water, requiring me to blink constantly to keep the tears from blurring my vision. Adrenaline can only take me so far, but I’m determined that it’s going to take me far enough. “You can make it,” I think, but it sounds desperate and unrealistic, even to me. Oh, God, how much farther is it? How far? I begin to hallucinate a little and forget important things like how I am going to get out of here. I hear noise in the background. Quite loud; I can almost feel them next to me. “Who is there?” I say. I see five big snakes behind charging toward me. I stop and look straight into their eyes. I realize this is not real as most snakes slept at night. The haze lifts. And then, brilliant as a sunrise, light breaks a mile away. The streetlights bathe me in their glow, so bright I have to turn my head away and squint.

  As my footsteps echo off the brick walls of empty buildings.it suddenly dawns on me. My superiority complex is my fatal flaw — I am my own worst enemy. I may think that in any situation I can see the big picture instantly and make the necessary adjustments for me to get whatever I want. Because in my world I thought getting whatever I want is the only way of solving problems. Shockingly, I went ahead and considered this attitude as a reflection of my professionalism even at home with my husband and Saul. Grief wells up like a rogue wave. I shake the thought out of my head, before it could hit me fully.

  I step inside the government building through the secret entrance I used back when
I was the president. It is dark and empty in here. I realize there is no electricity and the elevators are not working. I use the stairs instead. About twenty minutes later, I reach the fortieth floor. President Scott’s office is locked. I kick it several times until it opens. I find the blue encyclopedia book just as Scott said it would be. I press the red button and the fake bookshelf slides open. I type the password and the door opens. I saunter inside the room. There it is, the portal is covered with dust. Without wasting any time I press the green button. Then I walk inside the portal for the first time in my life.

  ****

  The moment I set foot on the tropical island of planet Gadju, spears and swords are drawn. The Xapien warriors hold me and drag me toward the village. Judging by the look on their eyes, they resent me for what happened. Within minutes word gets around the village that I am here. Children throw small stones at me and hide behind their mothers and grandmothers. I don’t even have time to marvel at this beautiful forest, because I might not even make it out alive. The Xapiens chant angry words at me inside the village. I see Gabriel standing by the entrance of a huge hut made from clay.

  Strangely, he smiles. “I have been expecting you,” he says.”

  “Really?” I ask.

  He nods. “Let her go,” he commands them. The warriors let go of me. I walk inside his hut. Oh my god, everything here smells of smoke. The room looks tidy inside. A small bed and a table. He points at the mat. “Have a seat.”

  I nod. “Thank you.” Six years later, his sexy muscular body still looks the same. I can’t say the same for my husband Charles. His belly is over-bloated.

  “I owe you an apology. What we did on earth was uncalled for.”

  I shrug. “Apology accepted. No need to revisit the past.”

  “How are you doing?” he asks.

  “Not bad, considering the situation I am in.”

  “How is everything on planet earth?”

  “Things are bad.”

  “What happened?”

  “Robots have taken over Appian and taken everyone to prison.”

  “How did you get to Gadju?”

  “I escaped.”

  “Which planet are they from?”

  “We created them. Now they are on a rampage.”

  He chuckles. “So … your creation turned against you?”

  “Yes. I need your help.”

  “What can I do for you Mrs. Yolanda Roberts?”

  “I need manpower to fight those robots.”

  “What’s in it for us, Xapiens?”

  “Name your price.”

  “We want to live on planet earth on a permanent basis.”

  “That is going to be difficult. We both know what happened last time. We don’t want to be looking over our shoulders for the rest of our lives.”

  “We were petrified of going back to our planet.”

  “Fair enough. It’s a deal,” I say. I stretch my hand toward his. We shake on it.

  “This time I will leave nothing to chance. I want this agreement in writing.” We burst out in laughter.

  Pamela walks calmly inside the house. “Hello Yolanda, I take it you had the same dreams I had?”

  I nod hesitantly. “Yes?”

  “We need each other, more than ever.”

  “Sorry to break your reunion ladies. The raining season begins tomorrow. We have to go,” Gabriel says.

  “Oh, let’s go then,” I say.

  “What’s the plan?” she asks.

  “Yolanda will lead us to where everyone is detained. Then we will take it from there,” he says.

  “The robots are so powerful, your warriors wouldn’t be able match their prowess.”

  Gabriel giggles. “You seem to have forgotten that we defeated Scott’s army with our bare hands. Have faith.”

  I let out a sigh of relief and smile. “I do remember.”

  “Let’s get out of here guys,” Pamela insists.

  *****

  We walk inside the portal back to planet earth and the Xapien tribe. The tribe hid inside the state building. We sneak toward the prison with Gabriel’s best warriors. I witness the Xapiens break the robots necks and heads as we move quietly inside without detection. Then CCTV cameras picks up activity inside the prison yard. More than ten helicopters hover the prison yard, military vehicles and tanks surround us. The exploding bombs from the bombers send deadly shrapnel flying in every direction. Everyone is caught in the crossfire. The incendiaries leave the 2-storey prison building in flames. Outside, between the thunders of planes overhead, the thud of explosions, the rattle of anti-aircraft guns, and the endless screams of children and women, and distress sirens, the noise is unrelenting as I free the prisoners. Right now it feels like the explosions outside, feels like they are happening inside my head, white heat and blinding light and everything I love, everyone who really loved me burning to ashes because of me.

  “Yolanda, I don’t know how you got out. I don’t know what you are trying to do. Surrender yourself or we will wipe you out right now,” Saul says from the helicopter.

  I shake my head as more robots surround us with automatic weapons. I glance at Gabriel. “I can’t give up now.”

  “I know, where is Charles?” Gabriel asks.

  “There he is,” a voice from behind says.

  “Come here, hold my hand. Yolanda, hold Pamela’s hand. All of you hold your identicals hand NOW,” he commanded. The crowd push against each other trying to find their identical. Some did find them, some didn’t. I draw in a sharp breath. As I merge with Pamela, I realize I will never die. Dying isn’t the right word. This body will continue to breathe. The heart will continue to beat. But I won’t be the custodian. Instead, this body will return to its rightful owner, Mother Nature, the creator of this dimension and a million more I will leap into.

  39

  What are they doing? I swear if they try to charge forward or try to run away. I will neutralize them to the ground. “Yolanda, this is your last warning. Surrender or suffer the consequences,” I shout. My threat falls on deaf ears. I witness a peculiar occurrence. Who are these people who seem to be on the humans’ side? I can tell from their body structure, face and skin that they are come from nowhere near here. Humans’ hands blaze. The golden glow grows faster into a huge ball of fire. Yolanda merges with the woman next to her into one person. Then everyone else follows suit. Yolanda and the rest of the humans merge and transform into something I cannot recognize.

  “What are those? I don’t recognize this type of intelligence.”

  My vision is impaired. Suddenly my neural network associates this super specie with a dangerous threat, more than a virus without a reference. The sight of this intelligence charging towards my robots terrifies and confuses me. What should I do?

  “Fire, Fire, Kill them all,” I command.

  Impossible! These Mergents dodge the bullets easily. Bullets puncture super humans’ lungs, another cocktail of bullets shatter their skulls and torsos. They don’t feel anything, instead each bullet comes out and wounds heal itself instantly. They charge forward on the front line and tear off the doors of tanks and military vehicles, strangle my robots inside and throw out some of them through the driver’s-side window and windshield. They lift the car up and fling it up in the air. I witness dozen small tragedies play out right in front of me. The chassis flip, bounce across the road and rip the engines apart and crash on top of hundreds of my robots killing them instantly. Vehicles explode, the trucks shoot up in the air and crash down, killing most of my robots. The Mergents dominate the battle as many lifeless bodies of my robots lie on the road. The only humans who are dead are the ones who didn’t merge. I witness some of my robots running away from the Mergents and tanks exploding right in front of my eyes.

  I didn’t see this coming. My commands and instructions for a task are mismatched — resulting in an AI error. I forgot to install a technologically enabled telepathy into my robots — Engage in seamless mind-to-mind communication
to initiate whatever is necessary in situations like these. By providing and sharing information amongst themselves. These bots should have known what to do without having to be programmed. The robots would simply execute upon the task even when the instructions are wrong. Fuck! I thought I was starting to understand this dimension, but I’m not at home yet, I’m dangerously ignorant of what’s going on, and there’s no way for me to fully comprehend the trap that’s just been sprung by this intelligence. The world is better off without Mergents and robots.

  I press the self-destruct button. Nuclear explosion gushes out from each robot and reactors, a fire storm rises like a wave and wipes out everything. I fade to black.

  THE END

  THANK YOU

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