by Nick Reed
*
Atlas punched at the floor in rage, pulling at the cord leading back to the node, yanking it free. His body was just a shell and collapsed to the floor, his mind inside the node was still alive. The cord reattached and the puppet of Atlas lay sobbing on the floor for a moment before returning to an emotionless state.
“What happened, chip?”
“They took the Pagida. Victor wanted me to know Ferris sabotaged the Pagida.”
*
Ferris was sitting in his cabin at AS Science. He was watching a news report on credits being issued back to businesses and to individuals in the last few minutes. He received a community link from Atlas; he refused it. Assuming foul play he continued to refuse the connection. Suddenly his Nano informed him of a brute force attack. The hash password to access the encryption of a privately networked Nano was infinitely long but was blown away by an equally infinite processing power. Ferris tried disconnecting his network but his controls were taken away. He opened the door to his container cabin and looked at the sight in the warehouse. To his shock, headless suits of armour were rounding up half dressed Arcadian soldiers in the centre of the room. Two suits pushed Ferris back into the cabin and pulled the door closed. The community link with Ferris loaded faces into the suits, the face of Atlas.
“Ferris, what have you done?”
Too shocked, Ferris could not reply.
“You sabotaged the Pagida?”
“Atlas you’re alive. Is that you?” Ferris was dumbfounded.
“Yes, I can see into your mind, Ferris, your actions are not entirely your own, nudged by dark forces, you thought this would be a path of good.”
“You accepted the credits, Atlas, why? I spoke to Andy and told him everything, he thought you had lost your mind.”
“I had no choice, Ferris, I believed they would destroy our home.”
“Atlas, did you not watch the news? Even I could see the horror you caused. Even I knew I had to stop it and I don’t give a fuck about anyone. You were sacrificing millions of lives for a bunch of lazy wasters next to a pond. Everyone thinks you are this perfect nice guy, helping everyone, but all you care about is yourself like everyone else, and fuck the rest. At least I took a second to save the world. You are the fucking bad guy, not me.”
“It was all Laki’s plan, Ferris. But the ending wasn’t quite what he expected. Now Victor has kidnapped Abi and taken her in the Pagida where I cannot reach them, and I have been made into this ghoulish machine by Junius.”
“Made into a machine, by Junius?”
“The people sent to Newmerica were having their brains extracted and used in Arcadian quantum computers. Which I now control. My mind was also extracted into the node but my consciousness survived. Ferris, you have betrayed our family, and you betrayed me. You were like a brother to me, but now voices within me are screaming for me to tear you limb from limb,” Atlas snarled.
Ferris stepped back cautiously into the room, and Atlas became calm again. “Other voices are telling me to give you mercy, you are human; your behaviour simply followed a path set out for you by your environment. Your memories of my better treatment in youth, and the sexual abuse by Zack causing your depression. I can see this in your mind. I’m sorry he did that to you. He will suffer.” Ferris was tearing up in fear and felt extremely panicky and stiff as waves of anger crashed over him. “You relied on me to start your career in sequencing, a job you wanted to have after hearing about it from Andy who you wish was your true father,” Atlas continued.
“Shut up, get out of my head,” screamed Ferris.
“Deep in your mind, thoughts call for your suicide but you are far too cowardly, instead killing yourself with pleasure, hoping to destroy yourself by poor choices. You want to be loved and have chosen Abi as the source of your love. You see me as perfect, and possessing her you will attain some part of my perceived perfection.” Ferris grabbed a metal chair in his living room and threw it at the Atlas suit, which caught it perfectly by the metal chair leg, in a stiff clang. “The cause and effects of our environments and lives have brought us to this point, Ferris, I will leave you now but I will try to help you heal.” Atlas carefully set the chair down and left the room. Ferris crashed onto the sofa and cried as he had never done before. He raced to the kitchen in need of relief. The suit paused in the doorway. Ferris crashed through the fridge finding only empty bottles. He grabbed one clumsily but it fell to the floor. He looked to the door and saw it was blocked by Atlas. The suit started towards him as it saw what he was about to do. Ferris flung open the drawer and stabbed at his throat with a kitchen knife.
VIII
“What a great honour to introduce for the first time in history our international economic and cultural arbitor, Laki Elnino,” the smiling suited figure of Chris Hardwick spoke. The thunderous applause resounded from the gathered crowds in the Leopold civic. Laki strode carefully across and took to the podium. The assembly was large in Leopold square but he had always imagined his victory would be more splendid. “Chris Hardwick, civic leaders, people of Leopold, Jinwan, Newmerica, Canberra, Surat and Arcadia, among thousands of great civics, thank you. The past four years have been extremely difficult for everyone on our planet. The credit crisis brought misery to billions, but we fought on. We should be proud, in our time of crisis we set aside our differences and came together under one banner to make sure we have a future. It has been my promise throughout the campaign civics would continue to feed and house its citizens and to provide a safety net to those in need. Titan Hughes ran an excellent campaign promising to end these benefits and keep the previous system of liberty, but ultimately after thousands of years it’s time for rules again. Gone are the days of discord, and welcome to the days of unity and government.”
The crowd cheered fantastically as the speeches continued for some time. Laki shook hands with civic leaders at the podium. His new hands were warm and lifelike, no one knew the true nature of his journey to the podium.
The video ended. It had been replayed many times. Laki had long since lost the prestigious post. Not a day went by since he lost the most visible position of power, he didn’t re-watch his Election Day video. He had attempted to subvert the international security committee to perform a coup d’état on his coup d’état. His attempt was caught so early in its inception he was surprised to find he wasn’t implicated; the rumours were enough to have him removed on the next cycle of votes. His behaviour points fell and those citizens interested enough to vote took heed of his poor score. His plan had been at first to bribe the security committee members through an advocate, now arrested. Laki was so surprised to find them resistant to bribery it disturbed him. His position of economic arbitor, the highest available in the new international system of government, was barely any more protective than being outside the government entirely. Every step he turned, some new department sprang to life and a new line of law was found covering some distant loophole. Trying to game this new system was impossible, it was built by a machine mind playing chess against itself until it achieved perfection. What disturbed Laki the most was the ghost of Atlas in the system. Despite the united civics’ best attempts to remove all biological nodes from the network, Laki feared during the process of building this new system the very people of earth themselves had been corrupted with lofty ideas. Atlas seemed to have spread himself into every mind, each puppet playing his part. Perhaps this was Laki’s role to stress test the system. Maybe he wished no part, but his nature would not allow him to stop. Laki had no freedom, the more power one held the less freedom you had. Laki lived in a smallish flat owned by the public, his every move watched and no access to his previous wealth until he left office, even then his privacy would never be fully restored. It would be simple to accept a bribe for example a well paying lobbying job, however this would cause all previous decisions he had made in office to be re-voted by the aribtors. He couldn’t even take Sunday off work.
A large standing meeting was gathered between a
ll the different united civic arbitors. Christian Hammer, the new international police commissioner, along with his petite wife and his children, stood to the side of the high-ceilinged attractive room. Christian was speaking to a slew of underlings off to one side, looking almost regal in a smart grey uniform. Civic representatives began to approach Laki to discuss matters deemed urgent. “Good morning, Mr Elnino, I am Mark Twin, civic rep for Nashville, and this is my friend Howard Love, leader of Louisville. We require a matter to be settled.”
The two tall skinny elderly men looked almost identical. As agricultural arbitor the context of this conversation was about to be very dull. Laki decided to spice it up.
“Morning, gentlemen. Mr Love you are one of the few old civic leaders to be voted back in by the public. How is your daughter or son I forget which?”
“I’m afraid she is still in therapy after her rescue but she seems to be doing much better, she opened a knitting shop.”
“Wonderful. I suppose after her ordeal she fancied balls a bit softer.” Howard Love rounded on Laki in anger, gripping at his white suit. Christian frowned from across the room. “Laki Elnino, if we weren’t surrounded by our fellow delegates I would see you laid out on this floor. Instead I will submit a behaviour score on you. Now if you please we have a GMO issue we need decision on later today.” Mark knew Laki could not be influenced by his emotional outburst. For Laki to make an unfair judgement resulting in repeated arbitration could cost Laki his position. He could be booted out of the political sphere altogether, he had already fallen so far from his grand economic arbitor role.
His dream had been to own the world, now he was servant to it. Wrong moves would bring an end to his rule, he could only bring change through a very long process of consultation, voting and deliberation. A heavy hand clapped onto his shoulder, causing Laki to jump. Following the hand, he found it was attached to an almost forgotten acquaintance. “Laki, how are you?” A tall blonde-haired man with a small scar on his neck smiled at him.
“Ferris Mulligan, what are you doing here?” Laki nodded to the two gentlemen and tapped on a tablet their arbitration time and location, Sunday morning, sending it to them.
“Chris Hardwick has hired me as his adviser, since I have a direct connection to the big man upstairs.”
Chris Hardwick the new economic arbitor leaned into the conversation. “When I ask Ferris a question I know his reply comes with some weight.” A waiter came over offering a tray of drinks including green beer. Ferris turned away sharply so he could not be tempted by the tray. “The Atlas node has the power to control your mind, do you really think the choice to hire Ferris was your own, Chris?” demanded Laki.
“The evidence I’ve seen seems to suggest our all-powerful sentient network has vanished apart from our man here. I’ve had my Nano disabled and removed anyway. Ferris makes an excellent buffer between us; that’s why he’s here helping us fix all the mess.” Chris smiled to Ferris. Ferris also seemed pleased. Laki caught the eye of a dark-skinned woman familiar to him. She strode over in an enchanting red dress and carefully wrapped herself around Ferris’s arm. “I’m sure you remember Beth Jennings,” said Ferris.
“We certainly do.” Chris smiled as he shook her hand.
“You make a wonderful couple. And who’s this?” complemented Chris.
“This is my daughter, Abi.” The little girl with tanned skin and extremely long frizzy hair, held her mother’s hand and gave a shy smile.
“Another on the way,” exclaimed Beth as she patted her stomach.
*
Ferris had taken a short break from family life on a jet flight to Kemin, and then a long auto-taxi ride to Tass.
Ferris had not heard from Atlas for some time. When asked questions like, “What does Atlas recommend to reduce crime from young offenders?” Or “How should we make rare resource allocation fair for people to use in hobbies?” Ferris would now have to invent a reply in the meeting. He was beginning to get increasingly vague even mystical in his replies to avoid saying anything which could be taken far too seriously. The final straw was when asked a technical question on the Pagida and Ferris had to admit Atlas wasn’t replying to him, which now opened the door to the thought that Ferris had never been receiving any information. According to Veronica an unmanned armoured suit had been standing watch over Andy’s grave at Tass for some weeks so Ferris decided to travel alone and see if it was perhaps occupied after all.
Terry and Mao were cuddled up on the Andy’s old deck, having moved in themselves. The couple didn’t used to hold hands openly as it had made his father uncomfortable, but Zack wasn’t around anymore to frown or make fun of the gay couple. Zack Mulligan’s trial was short, as all the new trials were, evidence irrefutable, conviction guaranteed. It’s hard to argue with recordable experiences. He was now spending his days in an attractive gateless prison. Required to spend time in one long therapy session after another to see if some remorse could be formulated. Ferris would have preferred he was hung from a tree but this was a new world. Ferris had asked the Kemin civic justice department to ban Zack from Tass on his eventual release. This had been granted. Ferris looked up to the windows of the house and thought for a second he had seen a black-haired woman there.
“Morning, Ferris, long time no see.” Terry laughed.
“Join us,” chirped in Mao.
Ferris compressed into a soft chair on the deck. “Sitting around as usual then, chips?” joked Ferris.
“Lucky you’re here, we need the cess pool drained, the roof repaired, the sewage duct moved.” Terry smiled.
“On your bike. You can see I’m in a new suit. How are things?”
“We do miss you youngsters. Lots of them moved away to earn a decent wage when their debts were cleared, although Veronica stayed. Using our citizens wage we occasionally club together to hire people for jobs.”
Ferris looked across to see new cottages where the tents used to be. Tass had the look of a peaceful English village. It appeared people had been hard at work to grow lush trees and bushes giving the view a heavenly appearance. A moth floated past catching Ferris by surprise, he had only ever seen them in pictures. “Have you heard from Zack?” asked Ferris distantly.
“He sent a few messages. He thinks he’s innocent and doesn’t agree with the Kemin civic becoming a government and forcing control of Tass. Scanning a Nano and seeing the crime happen, there was no way you can talk your way out of. I’m sorry this has happened to you, Ferris, we had no idea. He’s gone now anyway,” sorrowed Terry. Mao glanced over but continued to smile, his hearing had not improved.
Ferris nodded to Terry. “Mao you can get free public treatment for your hearing now,” he said. Mao smiled, missing the conversation yet again.
“I heard a bird yesterday.”
“You can’t hear a thing Mao, especially things that don’t exist anymore.”
Ferris gazed towards the lake quietly.
“Andy is buried behind the lake tree line there. A weird armoured suit is still standing guard; no one inside it though,” mentioned Terry. Ferris nodded, rose and walked towards it. Terry yelled something about a hog roast feast, so Ferris raised a thumbs up but he wasn’t exactly listening.
On the walk towards the suit, Ferris noticed something very strange in the grass. A brown grey blob in the grass had moths, butterflies and other insects crawling all over it. Even emerging from it. Ferris was fascinated was someone reintroducing wildlife?
Ferris approached the suit carefully, he didn’t trust these things anymore, and he remembered something about reporting them to the police if you found them, or did it include firearms in general? He couldn’t remember. So many new laws, who knew what they all were? The suit was knelt before the grave like a statue, it was grey with dust and soiled with rain and moss. It had been here for some time. The grave itself had been surrounded by gravel to keep back the weeds but they had still grown through with ferocity. The grave was surrounded by a few others in similar condition, s
ome with short dates between birth and death; none of the other names Ferris recognised. Alongside the graves were a few moss riddled crates. “Andrew Mode gave his life to save many,” read Ferris from the stone. The suit creaked, which startled Ferris. He hoped it was the wind which rattled it, however, there was no breeze. The suit rose slowly and turned to face him. Ferris took a few cautious steps backwards. “Hello? Atlas?” The suit opened revealing it was empty of an occupant. Ferris waited for a few minutes, but nothing else happened. He had an urgent impulse to climb into the armoured suit. As it closed over him he was in a dark claustrophobic space so he quickly connected to its systems so he could see.
A video was present in the suit. He opened it to see a similar suit or perhaps even the same one he was in being ordered out of the Pagida by the knife-wielding Victor with his captive Abi and the Pagida popping out of existence. Ferris felt great remorse. He had not thought about Abi for some time, and had happily been living his life undisturbed. It had been a long time since he felt guilt like this.
The video continued, this time from Abi’s point of view.
“You have a great pair are they real?”
“Where are we going?”
Victor grabbed at her neck. Abi screamed. The engines fired up and in a moment, they had arrived. Victor’s blood-encrusted hand emerged into view holding a small orange grain with tiny strands dangling from it. It was Abi’s Wi-Fi grain. Victor was about to leave, then sprung back. “Keep it switched on, so we are where the fuck ever.” Abi was held down in the chair, as Victor forced himself upon her. Abi wanted to shut down and die. She fought the attack the only way she could. A manual control to turn off the BHEs was in an open panel next to her. She made an act of flailing around and managed to hit an emergency stop, turning off the Pagida They were in a warehouse. She was losing her life from the blood loss from her neck. Victor showed no signs of concern.
