Cain nodded. “All right.” He followed Lea out of their quarters.
Lea paced back and forth along the bulkhead in the conference room. The metallic oval table with a dozen chairs surrounding it was the centerpiece. A projector hung from the ceiling over the center of the table.
Cain was already sitting in his chair. “That’s not going to help things.”
She glared at him. “No, but it makes me feel better.”
The door slid open and Admiral Steven Lyons stepped inside with a younger officer, Lieutenant Commander Alice Michaels, in tow. Steven smiled as he extended his hand to Lea. “It’s good to see you again.”
Lea took his hand. “Yes, it is.” She stared at Alice. She couldn’t take her eyes off the metallic plate on the right side of her neck, just like the admiral had.
Steven smiled at Cain. “Colonel.”
“Admiral,” Cain replied. “Please, have a seat.”
“Thank you,” Steven said as he sat down. He leaned towards Alice and whispered something into her ear. She hurried out of the room.
“New aide?” Lea asked.
Steven nodded. “I’ve had her for a year now. She’s one of the better ones.”
“Why are we here, Admiral?” Lea asked.
Steven sighed. “That’s what I always liked about you. Your desire to blow right through the niceties and get right down to it.”
“Well?”
Steven shifted in his seat. “Earth has … changed since you left.”
“I’ll say,” Cain said. “Both you and your aide have been cybernetically enhanced. Why?”
“Well, the implants are better than our own brain functions. I receive data and orders without having to be at a computer terminal or in a briefing room. It’s wonderful, really.”
Lea shook her head. “I’ll never get one of those.”
Steven frowned. “We can discuss that later.”
Cain leaned forward. “You still haven’t told us why we’re really here. This is way ahead of our maintenance schedule. Why did you recall us? Sir, please tell us the truth.”
Lea cocked her head as Steven seemed to stare into space. Perhaps he was listening to whatever was on the other end of that implant of his. Yeah, sure. That’s got to be it, right? “Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine.” Steven straightened up. “Earth’s leadership has changed again, and she views GIS as a co-president.”
“The AI?” Cain asked. “Why? It’s just a machine.”
Steven shook his head. “No, not anymore.”
“Why would anyone do that?” Lea asked.
“There was another scandal about corruption, a big one. After the politicians were executed, the president gave the day-to-day operations over to GIS. Ever since, the world has become more … efficient,” Steven said.
Cain pointed at Steven’s implant. “Is that part of the new efficiency?”
Steven looked away. “We’ll discuss that when you get down to Earth. Anyway, I wanted to congratulate you on your job on Pluto.”
Lea scowled at him. “Thank you.” What is he hiding?
Steven rose from his seat. “I’ve got to get back. Please inform your crew that there will be a debriefing before anyone contacts their family or goes on leave. Understand?”
“Why?” Cain demanded. “Our people haven’t seen their families for years.”
“He’s right,” Lea began. “That’s simply not fair to our crew. Besides, they’ve probably already contacted their families.”
Steven frowned. “I hope not, for their sakes. I’ll see you on Earth.”
Lea watched the admiral storm out of the conference room. “I’m more confused now than before he arrived.” She looked right into Cain’s eyes. “What’s going on?”
Cain walked over to the porthole, looking out onto the giant blue planet, Earth. “It looks so peaceful from up here.”
“Cain? What do we do?”
Cain shook his head. “Not sure. We’ll find out more when we get down to Earth.”
“Even his aide-de-camp had an implant. I don’t want some computer reading my mind or giving me orders.”
“Me either.” Cain pulled her in close. “Everything will be all right. I promise.”
Lea put her head on his chest. I don’t think so.
President Anna Zahrof sat behind her enormous, dark-stained solid oak desk. Her long, brown hair hung over her shoulders and her brown eyes glistened in the artificial light. The yellow pantsuit stood out from the black executive chair she sat in. Images highlighting the People’s Republic of Earth’s inception—both true and, well, what should have happened—decorated the walls. Two plush red couches were in the center of the room. A 3D video projection emanated from the far wall. As always, Anna had the Global News Network blaring in the background. She picked up her steaming cup of coffee as the door slid open.
“The Senate just approved it,” the young woman wearing an orange sweater and khaki pants and carrying a tablet said as she entered the room. She was a pale woman with short, blond hair and green eyes.
Anna frowned. “You didn’t buzz me before entering.”
“I—I’m sorry,” Toni Phillips said. Fear draped over her face like a mask.
Anna laughed. “I was just kidding.”
“Oh, okay—I knew that.” She smiled. “Here’s the bill.”
Anna took the tablet from Toni. Her eyes scanned the bill. It was her creation, the final lynchpin that would improve humanity—well, Earth, anyway. “It’s all here then?”
Toni nodded. “Anyone who does not have an implant cannot hold a Class I or Class II position. This bill would deem them unqualified and untrustworthy to hold those positions.” She bit her lip.
“What is it?”
“Ma’am, are you sure about this? Only about half the population got the implant and this would—”
“What?”
“Make it mandatory, not voluntary.”
Anna frowned. “People don’t get it for stupid reasons. Some believe that the government will try to rewrite their minds. Some won’t get it for religious reasons. Still others won’t get it because they simply don’t trust the government with a link directly to their mind. What do all these groups have in common? They’re a clear and present danger to the government—and me.”
Toni looked down. “I see.”
“Speaking of which, when are you getting yours?”
“I made the appointment already.”
Anna stared at the newscast over Toni’s shoulder. “GIS, increase the volume on the newscast, please.”
“Yes, Madam President,” a female computer replied. Its voiced echoed throughout the room through the speakers mounted on every wall.
The image showed thousands of people railing against a police line. But these police were not people, they were top-of-the—line androids capable of enforcing every law and remembering every face. A woman with an implant appeared on the screen. “We’re just getting word now that the protestors are calling for terrorism to end the global government, and—” The reporter swallowed. “I can’t read this anymore. These people just lost their jobs to androids and are being separated from their families. We’ve got to stop—” The image flashed and “We are experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by” appeared in its place.
Anna frowned. “Her implant must have been malfunctioning,” she mumbled to herself.
“Ma’am?”
Anna placed her thumb on the tablet, signing the bill into law. “It’s done. Effective immediately.” She glared at Toni. “Don’t come back to work until you have it done. Got it?”
Toni’s eyes welled up. “Yes, ma’am.” She hurried from Anna’s office.
Anna tapped her fingers on the desk. “What do you think, GIS?”
“About the protests?”
Anna shook her head. “No, our timing.” As the former CEO of Benton Enterprises, the defense contractor that created GIS, she was well aware GIS’s true capabilit
ies. It was a nearly self-aware artificial intelligence with the capacity to learn and to teach other AIs. A truly remarkable feat in engineering. When the previously failing government asked for its recommendation, no one should have been surprised that it chose Anna.
“We always knew there would be some resistance. These altercations were expected.”
“You’re not answering my question.”
“But, I did. We are on schedule. The only real danger to us are the people in the government and the military who do not have the implants. Once they are installed, we can change their way of thinking.”
Anna smiled. “And how the people vote.”
“Inquiry: why do you want the people to vote?”
Anna sipped her coffee. “We have to give the people the illusion of a democracy. It’ll keep them in their proper place.”
“Understood,” GIS said.
“Are there more protests than what I just saw on the newscast?”
“Affirmative. They are across the globe. But I estimate they will subside once the order is enforced.”
Anna put her cup down. “You do know that I just fired millions of people for not having an implant and they will demand a job.”
“Affirmative.”
She sighed. “Well, I knew this would happen, too. I guess it’s different planning this, rather than actually executing it. Are our plans in any danger?”
“Our estimated chance of success is over ninety percent,” GIS said.
Anna leaned back in her chair. Nothing could stop her now.
3
Lea expected to come down from the BC Renault to fleet headquarters in triumph, not hauled off into uncertainty. She gripped Cain’s hand, as if drawing strength from him.
Cain looked out the shuttle craft window. “I love seeing the Earth from up here.”
Lea shuffled in her seat. They had the two front seats on the large transport shuttle with both her and his senior officers and enlisted personnel behind them. She frowned. Twenty sailors and marines, loyal to Earth, were being guarded by three Internal Security Service officers armed with particle beam rifles. What a welcome home!
“I’m sure they’re just here for our protection,” Cain said. “I can’t imagine the admiral—”
Lea glared at him. “How do you know?”
“Well—I—”
“You don’t. Could it be because we told him that our crew already talked to their families? The very thing he told us was forbidden.”
Cain shut his mouth.
“I’ve got a real bad feeling, Cain,” Lea said.
“I know.” He bit his lip.
Lea squeezed his hand as she stared into his eyes. She shifted in the gray cushioned seat. Would they give her another command? Sure, her experience and record warranted it. How important was getting that implant? Lea shook her head, resigning herself to the fact that she simply didn’t have enough information to decide anything.
“Sir,” Sergeant Major Kyle Wilson said as he tapped Cain on the shoulder. His massive frame cast an equally huge shadow over Lea.
Cain looked up. “What is it, Sergeant Major?”
Kyle sighed as he rubbed his hand over his bald head. “Everyone’s getting nervous back there. They won’t stop talking about those … rumors they heard from their families on Earth. Well, those who could reach their families.”
Cain frowned. “That’s not how marines act. We don’t worry about things we can’t control.”
He nodded.
“Just go back there and tell them to knock it off. We’ll find out the truth soon enough.”
“What if the rumors are true?” Kyle asked.
Lea frowned. “They’re not. Now do what your commander told you.”
Kyle straightened up. “Yes, ma’am.”
“He’s just as worried as the rest of them,” Cain said.
Lea glared at him. “And you’re not?”
“Not that I’d tell them.” He looked into Lea’s green eyes. “Promise me that you’ll never get one of those.”
“Of course not.” She pushed him off. “Why would you even think that?”
Cain sighed. “We only have one real freedom left.”
“What’s that?”
“The freedom to think what we want. We can’t say it, but we can think it.”
“And what does this have to do the implants?” Lea slammed her mouth shut. She knew where he was going. Hell, she already thought the same things, right?
Cain lowered his voice. “You did see the admiral, right? I’ve just got a bad feeling that cybernetic enhancements connected to GIS—or any other AI—would take away that freedom, too. I mean, who knows how much of your thoughts it reads?” He shook his head. “I just want you to promise me.”
Lea yawned. “I won’t.”
He stared right into Lea’s soul. “If they make us, like the rumors say, they’d have to make it tempting.”
“I won’t! Enough already.”
“All right.” Cain looked out the porthole.
Lea frowned. Why would the families of her officers and senior enlisted personnel lie? Hell, less than half were even able to get in contact with their families. She leaned her head on Cain’s shoulder as they descended towards the east landing pad at fleet headquarters. Her eyes became heavy and then … darkness.
“Wake up,” Cain said as he shook Lea’s shoulder. “We’re here.”
Lea blinked. Her eyes were still foggy, trying to focus on the guards in front of them. “Where? When?”
Cain pulled Lea to her feet. “Come on.”
Lea grabbed her assault pack from above their seats and slung it over her shoulder. She followed Cain off the shuttle onto the landing pad. It was almost as high as the tallest building on the base. A small door leading into a lift stood across the platform.
“Ma’am, you and the colonel and sergeant major must go first. The admiral is expecting you,” one of the guards said.
Cain smiled. “Keep up the good work.”
Lea couldn’t take her eyes off the guard’s implant. Do they all have it? “Come along, Sergeant Major.”
“Coming,” Kyle said as he jumped onboard just before the door slid shut.
As the lift descended below the platform, the walls were clear. Rockets, space shuttles, and old satellites from a long time ago decorate the parade field below. On the edge of the field stood the museum with the letters NASA painted on the side.
Lea stepped into the hot air laced with the aroma of the Atlantic Ocean. Across the street stood a wide, twenty-story building. She sighed as they entered fleet HQ.
They were silent as they navigated through the corridors and lifts until they reached Admiral Steven Lyons’s office on the eighteenth floor. The waiting area contained a single desk with a civilian sitting behind it. His short, black hair and dark skin glistened in the artificial light. “The admiral is expecting you.” He reached underneath the desk as if to hit a button. An audible click echoed through the room.
“Thank you,” Lea said. Here we go. She strolled into Steven’s office with Cain, Kyle, and the guards in tow. The admiral’s office had to be at least three times the size of the captain’s quarters on the Renault. His desk stood near the window in the back of the room. The walls were lined with 3D monitors. A conference table with twelve seats was off to the side, opposite a sitting area furnished with navy blue couches and a single chair between them. Lea swallowed.
Steven looked up and waved the guards off. “You can go.” He motioned to the couches on the side of his enormous office. “Please, have a seat.”
Lea and Cain sat down on a couch without saying a word.
Kyle sat across from them.
Lea smiled. Was she trying to comfort Kyle and Cain or herself?
Steven plopped down in the plush chair between the couches. “How was your trip down?”
Cain sighed. “Sir, what’s going on?”
“Right to the point then?”
Lea and Cain nod
ded.
“Well, I followed the bill through the legislature, and the president has already agreed to sign the bill.”
Lea leaned forward. “What are you talking about?”
Steven stared at her, but only for a second. “You are in a Class I job, all of you.”
“Okay, so what?” Cain asked.
“Well—I—the government classified employment into three classes. Class 1 includes security, governmental, and any other decision-making position. Class 2 is pretty much everything else.”
“You said there are three classes,” Lea said.
Steven nodded. “Yes, Class III positions are menial labor located in isolated areas where the security risk from people not cybernetically enhance is drastically reduced.”
“The implant,” Kyle said. “So, the rumors were true. I told—”
“At ease,” Cain said as he glared at Kyle. “Sir, what are you saying?”
“In order to stay on the Renault or to have any good-paying job, you must get the implant. I’m sorry, but the president signed the bill into law. There’s nothing I can do,” Steven said.
“What does it do?” Lea asked. Ignoring Cain’s fiery glance, she leaned forward. “How does it affect you, sir?”
“Well, it connects me to GIS and all of the other cybernetically enhanced people. I make far fewer mistakes and—sometimes they know what I need before I do.” Steven smiled at her as he motioned to his office. “With your record and how well you’re liked by the four-stars, this office could one day be yours. But, you must get the implant first.”
“If we don’t?” Cain asked. “What then?”
Steven frowned. “Well, you’ll be removed from the premises and relocated.”
“Can it be removed? Once it’s in?”
Steven shook his head. “No, it’s directly attached to your brain and your nervous system. If you remove it, you’ll die.”
Kyle leaped to his feet. “No way. I’m not doing that.”
Steven glared at him. “Sergeant Major, sit down. I thought you’d be the example to your marines.”
“No.”
“Guards!”
Four guards rushed inside with their weapons at the ready.
Cyber Invasion (The A.I. Conspiracy Book 1) Page 2
