Nexus n-1

by Naam, Ramez

  He clicked the link he found there, said yes to the security prompt.

  The worm would wreak havoc. It would start with his own system's logs. They'd never be able to prove that he'd invited it in. From there it would spread, destroying everything it found, until someone or something stopped it.

  Becker reached down, pulled out the bottle and glass from his bottom drawer, poured himself two fingers of Laphroaig. He wished he could see the girls one more time. Hold them. Tell them he loved them. Tell Claire how very much…

  He was a good soldier. Above all else, he was that.

  He put the pill on his tongue, washed it down with the Laphroaig. The amber liquid burned on the way down. It brought him no comfort.

  Becker poured himself two fingers more, and settled back to wait, settled back to die.

  51

  SHANGHAI

  In a luxury apartment eighty floors above Shanghai, a little girl named Ling gazed absently down on the city. The people moved like ants. The highways were like rivers.

  Her tutor called to her in Mandarin. "Ling, we must finish our studies now."

  Ling ignored her. There was nothing this woman could teach her that she couldn't learn twice as fast, ten times as fast, from the net.

  She opened herself to it, felt the pulse of it, the flow of it, the almost primal energy of it. It was qi, she'd decided. The qi of the world. The life force of the planet was data.

  She'd shared that thought with no one. They'd think she was quite odd, even more than they did already. She'd shared the thought with no one but her mother, that is. She shared everything with her mother.

  Her mother. Her mother had died the death of the body. Her mother's mind lived on, but it was constrained, now. The old men that ruled this country were punishing her, cutting her off from the outside world, cutting her off from Ling.

  Ling didn't like that. Not one bit. And she didn't intend to stand for it.

  "Ling?" her tutor called. "Come here now."

  Ling put her sweetest little-girl smile on her face, the smile that showed her teeth. She turned back to her tutor. It was important to at least pretend to be human. That's what her mother always said.

  In a secret barracks on the outskirts of Shanghai, three dozen identically faced men moaned uneasily in their sleep, tossed and turned from side to side. They dreamt of violence. They dreamt of fire. They dreamt of death.

  They woke in a ripple of consciousness. Their mother had died. Their mother was in danger. They rose as one, checked their weapons, checked their bodies. Somewhat calmed by this, they returned to their bunks and eventually to sleep. Their mother might need them soon.

  In a secret complex below Jiao Tong University's Computer Science campus, a distinguished-looking Chinese man in a suit stood, hands clasped behind his back. He gazed thoughtfully through the armored and insulated glass into the vast room beyond, where banks upon banks of quantum processors were ensconced in liquid helium pressure vessels. Red and blue lights blinked softly, showing the status of parts of the computing apparatus. "Wife," Chen Pang asked softly, "what have you done?"

  BRIEFING

  THAI CLAIM AMERICAN FORCES ATTACKED MONASTERY, KILLED MONK

  Monday 6.42pm, Bangkok, Thailand

  American News Network

  Authorities in Bangkok today showed off substantial evidence that they say proves that American forces attacked a monastery inside Thai borders. The evidence includes helicopter wreckage, weapons, numerous bodies, and a prisoner claimed to be American Navy SEAL Sergeant Jim Iverson.

  Prime Minister Chaowarat of Thailand angrily denounced the United States this morning, and threatened to pull Thailand out of the Copenhagen Accords on Global Technological Threats.

  The State Department has officially denied the allegation that the US forces were involved, calling it "ridiculous" and the evidence "fabricated", and referring to Thailand as "an important but misguided ally".

  If Thailand does withdraw from the Copenhagen Accords, it would be only the third country since…

  WARREN BECKER, ERD ENFORCEMENT DEPUTY DIRECTOR, FOUND DEAD

  Tuesday 7.12am, Washington, DC

  Washington Post

  The DC Metropolitan Police Department has confirmed this morning that ERD Enforcement Deputy Director Warren Becker was found dead late last night in his office from an apparent heart attack.

  Becker, 49, leaves behind his wife Claire and two daughters, ages 15 and 13.

  Police say foul play is not suspected at this time. A full coroner's report is expected tomorrow.

  Anonymous sources on Capitol Hill report that Becker was expected to be a witness in upcoming hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Homeland Security. Committee staffers declined to comment.

  Epilogue

  CROSSROADS

  On the third morning since Shu's death, Sam and Kade sat together atop one of the monastery's stone walls and watched the sun come over the horizon.

  The monastery had changed. Only a crater remained where Shu's car had been. The courtyards and buildings crawled with Thai armed forces, with their jeeps and their guns and their missile launchers guarding against another American attack. Out over the Thai plains they caught a glimpse of an RTAF jet flying a patrol around them, its silver skin glinting in the early morning sun.

  Sam and Kade sat in silence.

  What now? Kade wondered. What will people do with Nexus?

  There would be atrocities. That he was sure of.

  Would there be positive effects? He couldn't be certain. But he could dream. He could dream Ilya's dream, of a world where people were free to become more than what they were. He could dream Wats' dream, of a world where people could better understand each other, a world where that mutual understanding brought peace. He could dream Rangan's dream, of a world where every night was a party, and every time was a good time.

  The thoughts made him smile. He had his own dreams. A thousand minds connected. A million minds. A billion minds. What kind of ferocious intelligence could they wield together? What would they learn about themselves, about the mind and the brain, about the universe around them? Would they still be human at the end of this? Might they be something more?

  Kade looked down at the stump of his right arm. He wasn't fully human himself any more. Gecko genes had been injected into his cells there. Over the coming weeks they'd send new growth outwards. In a few months perhaps he'd have a hand again. Or perhaps he'd develop tumors. It remained to be seen.

  There was no way back. No way back on either front.

  Conflict is inevitable, Shu had said after their dinner. You have to decide if you're on the side of progress… or of stagnation.

  I'm on the side of peace, he'd replied, and freedom.

  I hope I did the right thing, he thought to himself.

  Only fools are always certain of themselves, Ananda had told him.

  He glanced at Sam to his left. She was staring out into the landscape, watching the line of dawn crawl down the mountain and onto the plains.

  It was a wonder she didn't hate him. She of all people understood the dangers of what he'd unleashed on the world.

  Sam spoke without looking at him. "I'm in no position to judge, Kade. You did what you thought was right, what you thought would help people most. I guess right now… I guess that's as good as anything."

  Kade smiled faintly. She'd picked up on his thoughts again. It was happening more and more often. With all they'd been through together, with the hours of meditation every day and night…

  "It's beautiful," Sam said.

  Kade smiled.

  "You're sure you don't need me?" she asked.

  He took her hand with the one that remained to him. "Feng is coming with me," he answered. "With luck, the Chinese think he's dead. And you did what Wats asked. You kept me safe until I released Nexus. That's what he wanted. He thought it could save the world."

  Neither of them said anything for a time. They sat, hand in hand, and watched the su
n rise higher into the sky.

  "Let's hope he was right," Sam replied.

  It was time to go.

  Sam helped Kade down from the wall, put his left arm over her shoulder, helped him hop over to the vehicles, to where Feng was waiting.

  Ananda had kept them safe thus far. They'd given their statements to Thai National Intelligence. Ananda had pulled strings to keep them out of jail, out of the hands of the army or the police. That wouldn't last. Even his friendship with the King had limits. It was time to move on.

  Sam helped Kade take a seat on the lowered gate of the old pickup. Feng was there. He hugged Sam, and to Kade's surprise, Sam hugged back.

  After a long moment, Feng pulled back, kept his hands on her upper arms, looked her in the eye.

  "You'll be OK?" he asked.

  Sam nodded. "Becker's dead. The UN's in an uproar. There are hearings being scheduled in Washington. They won't come after me for a while. I'm safe for a bit."

  Feng nodded. He hugged her again. They held each other for a moment, and then separated.

  "Take care of that one," Sam said, gesturing at Kade.

  Feng grinned. "You got it."

  Kade accepted Feng's help into the bed of the truck. The Chinese ex-soldier tapped on the glass at the rear of the cab, shouted something in Thai, and off they went, on a long and bumpy ride towards the border with Cambodia, and from there to destinations as yet unknown.

  Sam watched them go until they rounded a final bend in the mountain road and were lost from sight.

  She turned and faced south. There, near a tiny village on the border with Malaysia, there were more children like Mai. That was where her road led now.

  She turned back to the east, stared into the dawn. After all these days of rain, the sun felt good on her face. Sam closed her eyes, took a deep breath of the clean morning air, and went to meet her own transport south.

  BRIEFING

  VIDEO TRANSCRIPT : A Final Thought : Ilyana Alexander

  Recorded Sunday February 19th, 2040, 1.18am,

  Simonyi Field, California

 

  If you're watching this video, then I haven't been able to reach the net for at least seven days. I'm dead, imprisoned, or disappeared, most likely at the hands of the US government.

  My parents brought me to the United States of America when I was ten. They were fleeing the fascism that had taken hold in my native Russia. They chose the US over all other nations because they viewed this country as the world's leading pillar of freedom, of individual liberty.

  That was then. This is now.

 

  The "crime" for which I've been disappeared is that of attempting to give people tools with which to empower themselves. In the America of 2040, that's no longer a welcome activity. Our so-called leaders and their bureaucrats have drawn lines around what it means to be "human". Anyone who steps beyond those lines is by definition no longer a person, no longer endowed with inalienable rights, no longer protected from the whims of those in power.

 

  This is the same logic of inhumanity that's been applied in the past to slaves, to women, to Jews, to members of any group which those in power wish to persecute. Every attempt through history to limit the definition of humanity has been a prelude to the subjugation, degradation, and slaughter of innocents. Every one.

  By drawing a box around humanity, those in power are telling each of us what we can and can't do with our minds, with our bodies, and in the interests of our children. They're saying that they're smarter than we are, that we need their protection from ourselves.

  Needless to say, I disagree.

  Power is best when it's distributed most broadly. That's what democracy means. That's what freedom means. The right to determine your individual destiny belongs in your hands, and no one else's.

  The laws that limit human capabilities are exercises in control. They stem from fear – fear of the future, fear of change, fear of people who might be different than we are, who might make themselves into something new. The result of this fear is the corrosion of our liberties, the corrosion of our right to determine our own futures, to chart our own destinies, to do the best we can for our children.

  That corrosion has consequences. If you're watching this, it's had consequences for me.

 

  Parts of our government are empowered by the Chandler Act and other laws to target, spy on, arrest, jail, and even murder Americans and foreigners accused of taking their destinies in their own hands, in complete secrecy, without a jury, without any due process except one of a handful of National Security Court judges, all of whose names are also secret.

  By law, with nothing but the writ of one of a handful of politicians or appointed officials, you can be assassinated, detained, or disappeared.

  If you're watching this, then the ERD has used those laws to come for me, to stop me and people I work with from giving others more control over their own minds and bodies.

  Tomorrow they may come for someone you know.

  The next day they may come for you.

 

  This is no longer America. We've allowed our fear of change to override our adherence to our own most precious values. We've caved on our principles in order to bolster our security. That is not the America I know and love. This is not the America my parents fled Russia to find.

  Benjamin Franklin once wrote, "Those who would sacrifice essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

  Our fears have led us to make this fool's bargain. I believe we've sacrificed essential liberties. I hope you'll prove me wrong.

  If you're watching this, then it's probably too late for me. But

  it's not too late for everyone. We don't have to sacrifice freedom for safety. We don't have to give up progress to stop terror. We don't have to hand control over our lives to faceless bureaucrats and secret police.

 

  This video will go out by as many channels as I can find. I'm posting it to servers across the world, just in case. Even so, I don't know if it will reach any of you. If it does, please forward it on. Mask it, mutate it, disguise it. Route around their filters.

  We are only as strong as our signal, only as strong as our voices. Don't rely on this message alone. Record your own thoughts. Write your own essays. Express yourself. Fight for what's right. Fight for your right to decide who and what sort of person you're going to be tomorrow, no matter what anyone else thinks.

 

  This is Ilyana Alexander, signing off for the last time. Keep up the fight.