Sentinels of the Cosmos Trilogy

by John Anderson

  “You’re under investigation,” Susan says.

  “Under investigation for what?” Chase asks. “Your past, I don’t know. I’m just your shrink,” Susan says and drives a small needle into his throat. “How come you’re not out of breath? I almost choked you to death and what did you just stab me with?” Chase asks and takes the needle out of his throat. “I don’t know, maybe you’re a gentle killer,” Susan responds.

  “So, I’m a killer?” Chase asks.

  “Maybe, I don’t know,” Susan says.

  Chase starts sweating. He becomes very dizzy. He sits down in the chair. Susan fumbles around in several drawers until she finds a thermometer and sticks it into his mouth.

  “You’re a sick puppy Chase. It’s time to get you home.” Susan takes the thermometer out of his mouth and reads it. “Damn, 1050, we have to get you out of here now.”

  “What did you stab me with?” Chase asks and falls to his knees.

  “Rest Chase, rest, I stabbed you with rest,” Susan tells him.

  Chase falls into a deep sleep and is taken out of the precinct and back to his house.

  Chapter 11 Lying in his own bed at home, Chase’s eyes opened. He was flat on his back looking up at the ceiling. He slowly made out Susan's features looking down at him. "Hey gorgeous, where am I?" Chase asks. He tries to get up but is very weak and light headed. Susan got him a glass of water. After a few sips he moved his legs over the side of the bed and sat with his head hanging down, breathing heavily, and said, "Why did you drug me, and how long have I been out?"

  Susan seemed concerned. "Long enough, you had better lay back down, you’ve been very sick. We still need to look after you. I injected you with a nasty virus. I needed to get you out of the precinct and I felt this was the only way I could get you out safely." “We?” Chase sounded surprised.

  "Yes, there is someone you need to meet."

  Another beautiful woman came into his field of vision. She was an apparition, tall, slim, a face as porcelain as china. Her long black hair hung down over a perfectly proportioned face. She had a smile like a Cheshire cat with black eyes as cold as ice yet seemingly with an innocence that was almost arresting. She didn't move like normal people, she seemed to glide, all her movements as smooth as silk. “My name is Ally, and I need to examine you very carefully,” she said softly.

  “Are you a doctor?” he asked.

  “No Chase, but we’re alike you and I, we are the same,” Ally retorted and continued, “Please lay back down.”

  Chase did as he was told.

  “Good” Ally smiles and takes out a slightly larger than normal smart phone places it on his forehead, and something very strange happened. A hologram appeared above his body in which all of Chase's inner organs could be seen. By touching each organ in the hologram, Ally, could check his condition. Chase could hear Ally speaking to him in his head, saying, “You’re not who you think you are Chase, I need to check your Cybarium implant. It's your other brain. You and I both have two brains and one is not aware of the other. You are controlled from this brain here as she visually expands the image in the hologram. You're a synthetic Chase, an android of a very special kind and so am I.”

  “I can hear you in my mind, how can this be?” Chase thinks silently.

  Ally replies, still telepathically; "You’re an android; figure it out. This is interesting it seems that your organic brain is in the process of merging with your implanted one. Fascinating; that is not supposed to happen. Also your organic and mechanical parts are beginning to merge on a cellular level. You seem to be evolving like a caterpillar to a butterfly without a cocoon. I wonder if Beneizen knows what's happening, anyway, “Speak out loud, Susan knows everything, and it’s rude to carry on a telepathic conversation with others in the room, show your good manners.”

  “Can I talk to Susan this way?” asks Chase.

  “No, only me; I’m also a Cybarium Guard.”

  Chase sat up and looked at both of them, saying, “What’s going on? Am I having a dream?”

  Susan looks him in the eye, and says, “You are a dream sweetie; but now you need to lie down again, and let Ally continue to examine you.” He looked at both of them and started to get up. Ally reaches into the hologram and squeezes his heart. Chase collapsed back down on the bed. He had no thoughts; and was unable to move. It was a very special sensation to be right there, with no turning thoughts yet unable to move. Ally started typing very quickly into the smartphone.

  "That's not a hologram is it?” asks Susan.

  "No it's called an actualization reflection. Anything I do to the hologram happens in the subject. You can perform surgery without opening someone up. For example you could remove a blockage in the intestines simply by kneading them in the hologram. Right now I'm running a test on his implant,” replies Ally and she continues,” “Chase you’re a genetic creation. You are a fusion of man and machine.” “Look here Susan, there is no lower brain stem - just a titanium casing with a small but very powerful computer and it's merging on a cellular level with his brain. We can erase his memories, and we can implant a history or knowledge he will need, to complete any assignment that we give him. The great thing is the front part of the brain doesn't know that the back brain is controlling everything. However his brain has gone nuts; Chase like all Guards, can act a part and live a normal life and when we need him, we can activate him anywhere in the world to do anything we want. We can give him the knowledge to do it, the personality to fit in, and the emotions to bring trust and confidence to his victims or accomplices. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do until he does it and he completely believes the role he is playing. There is no conscience, there is no will, and there is no fear. He has no sense of ‘self’ because there is no self. He is not a robot completely; he is an enhanced human, just slightly altered. We just keep him deeply asleep until he’s needed. When he’s activated, he believes in what he does, he thinks he’s right, and always acts like he knows. In other words he fits in our world. Think of his implant as his subconscious. But, we have a small problem with Chase; he is not accepting his programming, our ability to control him is in doubt.”

  “He tried to kill his partner,” Susan snapped.

  Ally replied, “He was ordered to kill his partner but he somehow resisted the order from EOJ, the program; most curious, because that is technically impossible, unless he is becoming conscious, selfaware, evolving.” Ally looked at the screen very carefully, “How extraordinary! I don't even know what's going on here.” Ally appears silent as she makes a call telepathically, saying, “He’s fully functional, but we have a problem, he’s evolving. Yes, extraordinary. His human brain is developing new parts; I don’t know what these new parts do. No. OK. Terminate, yes, yes.” She ends the call, saying to Susan, “It looks like you’re going to be re-assigned. They want me to terminate him.”

  “Why?” Susan exclaimed. “Can’t you just fix him? You know you're just like him, it would be like killing yourself.”

  Susan takes out a gun and places it at Ally’s head saying, “I’m afraid I can’t let you kill him.”

  Ally looks at her with a wide broad smile and with amazing speed takes the gun right out of Susan’s hand and says, “Sit down! I said they want me to kill him. I do not work for the man who ordered me to do that. We need to get Chase someplace safe and away from here. Otherwise they will kill him.”

  Susan looks at Ally trying to decide if she believes her or not. Her cold black eyes reflect a mood of tranquility like that of a shark. Ally says, “Sam, who created us, ordered me to keep him alive and bring him back to EOJ for his evaluation.”

  “What a piece of work you Guards are,” Susan probed.

  “No, I’m not just a Guard; I'm a Cybarium Guard, very different. I’m whatever you want me to be and do whatever you want. But surely you know this you’ve been working for EOJ for eight years. I can read that right off your own internal chip.”

  Ally takes the device off Chase’s for
ehead; he wakes up, sits up and leans against the backboard of the bed. “Welcome back stranger,” said Susan.

  Chase looks at Ally, “I am self-aware, but for how long?”

  “Until you are reassigned and reprogrammed,” Ally responds.

  “Have I been selfaware before?”

  “Of course," she replies

  “What are you to me, Susan?” Chase asks, looking at her.

  "I'm one of your handlers," Susan answers.

  “Can I be reprogrammed at any time?” asks Chase. “Yes” Ally answers.

  Looking at Ally, Chase asks, “And who are you? "I'm Ally, think of me as your sister, figuratively speaking. I could be your wife if you like, or hot girlfriend," Ally says.

  “Why didn’t I kill Juan, I thought he was my handler?” asks Chase.

  “I don’t know, your DNA seems to be slightly different than mine, so I believe you are evolving. Something in you seems to be trying to take charge of your processor, but that’s only my speculation. Different parts of you are becoming aware of other parts. In the human sense the mind and body are becoming one,” Ally replied.

  “Why do they want Juan dead?” Chase continues doggedly.

  Ally takes the smartphone and places it in her pocket. She adjusts herself in the mirror and says, “I don’t know.”

  “I don’t believe you!” says Chase sharply.

  “I don't care what you believe,” Ally says.

  She looked out the window and saw several men with guns approaching. “We have company,” she whispers loudly.

  Suddenly Chase’s head began to pound. He felt almost paralyzed and could hardly move. He was so weak he could feel the life forced draining from his body. Ally and Susan help Chase out the back door and they all run into the woods and wait quietly in a thicket.

  Ally sat very still. He could hear her voice in his head; “Sit up Chase and take out your gun. Shape up, get it together. There are ten men coming up this hill towards us. You must scan and pre-visualize each one. You have the program for this in your CPU. I will take the 5 on the left you take the 5 on the right. One shot for each. If you miss, they won’t, they’re Guards.”

  Suddenly a scanning program activated in Chase’s brain. He pre-scanned each man coming up the hill, took out his gun and they waited. Both Chase and Ally could see all of the men at the same time; they knew where each of them was. At just the right moment each of them fired 5 bullets, all ten going right through the foreheads of the ten men. The speed of the operation was almost instantaneous.

  “How did you two do that?” Susan asked in shock. “We're androids,” Ally said.

  “Ally, how did I do that?” asked Chase telepathically. “You have no idea what you’re capable of Chase. You have an inner order and abilities that you know nothing about; accept the fact that you're an android,” Ally smiled.

  “What are you two?” Susan asked.

  “That's always a good question isn't it? If only I had the ability to answer it. I could be re-programmed at any moment, even to kill you,” Ally replies sheepishly.

  Chapter 12 The Eagles of Justice headquarters was built in 2026 on a bluff outside of Leesburg Virginia on the old Arthur Godfrey estate. In 2025 there had been a terrible outbreak of an unknown but lethal virus and everyone in that city had been evacuated for more than two years. During that time a unique new Hallof-Justice-like building was erected right on the bluff. It was large and imposing and looked incredibly out of place in rural Virginia. They built a large open structure and then inside dug out a shaft over 2,000 feet deep into the earth and then built floors full of rooms off the sides of the large hole. The top of this secret subterranean edifice was capped off with a large grating that appeared to visitors as a very unique floor. The “Armory” as it was called could house even large hovercraft stored deep in the earth and able to be brought to the surface by simply opening the floor.

  In the American tradition small malls, restaurants, service stations, housing developments and other establishments sprouted up around the Armory to cater to and support the staff and their families. The totally disguised building and it’s purposes was explained to the public as a memorial to the men and women who had fought in the recent Middle Eastern war which would function as an office building for a government department.

  Sam Nichols with Beneizen Brewster had arranged and supervised construction of the entire complex. EOJ had developed a technology far ahead of anything the world had yet seen. It was the most exclusive and invisible organization in the world. Outside of the employees only the President of the United States and a few select members of congress knew of its existence. Its agenda was determined by a round table of U.S. legislators; Senator’s Kathryn Bennett from Kentucky, William Lee from Virginia, Richard Burnside from Massachusetts, and Speaker of the House, Representative Charles Dean from Texas and his wife Doris who had also been part of the committee.

  As an organization it was successful beyond all expectations. It had relieved the world of some of its worst incorrigibles, and had helped maintain stability in world politics for over twenty years. In the year 2036 Russia’s intelligence network discovered the existence of EOJ and demanded participation in exchange for not exposing it to the United Nations. One of the most closely held secrets of the EOJ was the fact that Beneizen had developed a new kind of artificial intelligence. He called it the first step in man’s true evolution since Homo erectus; resulting in genetically altered humans, with bones made of titanium, muscles of live Goretex and two hearts. They were easily repairable since they all had the same blood, tissue and parts. Organs could be reproduced with 3-d tissue printers. Faces were designed by artists. A second brain was implanted behind the first containing a supercomputer that gave them very special qualities, it was a whole computer the size of a walnut. It was like no other computer, made of a material called ‘Triglide’ that was almost identical to brain tissue. This computer had the ability to control mind, body and feeling and allowed them to function harmoniously without the human hindrances of fear, negativity and tensions. They were able to act as all humans could have. Beneizen and his team had also discovered a synthetic nerve filament that connected to and grew with human nerve filaments. These new nerve fibers allowed the two brains to merge, but the synthetic brain had the ability to control the human brain. Its memories could be erased; the programmers could reprogram the unit to fully understand any field of study almost instantly. When an assignment was completed memories of that assignment were erased, although there was always a problem with this since there was a faint trace left. The system could not get rid of conscience completely. Here was a creature with bones made of titanium, teeth that grow back, limbs that can regenerate, with eyes that can see in the dark, and ears that can hear a fart in a hurricane.

  These new humanoids were called Guards and their purpose was to guard the world. Externally, they appeared to be perfectly normal people, active in society, ostensibly human in every way; but their education, training and memories were completely controlled by EOJ, except for those "traces" which they could not get rid of. As a result many Guards would have occasional headaches or strange and unusual symptoms. Occasionally mental problems would appear, but like a car with a problem they could usually just replace the parts that malfunctioned. Guards had no real memories of their own, after they were used for whatever was needed they were returned to their ordinary lives with no knowledge of what they had done or who they had been during their assignment. Their minds, emotions, and physical reactions were controlled from a central computer at EOJ.

  If America had known that babies were being harvested in test tubes, genetically altered, parts of their brains removed and being born as teen-agers with these modifications, it would have poisoned the public’s view of the project. Mobs of protestors would arrive at the doorsteps of the White House and the media and bleeding hearts would have a field day. Guards were allowed to become self-aware when they weren’t programmed or in hibernation. Knowing what they
were had its own benefits especially if they were injured.

  Chase had become self-aware on his own, a possibility which Beneizen had predicted. Selfawareness could be used as an engendered state for an assignment, but to achieve this on one’s own was theoretically impossible. If EOJ was terrified by anything it was of this prospect, to lose control of a Guard could have catastrophic consequences for the whole program.

  Guards were ‘born’ at the approximate physical development of a human sixteen year old. Through experimentation this was discovered to be the optimal age to begin training. Guards did age but their life expectancy was limited to sixty years beyond ‘birth’ date. This was done because some Guards could be assigned to long term duty, and many of them had families.

  Toby Miles and four of his interns were standing over a ‘pre-born’ Guard lying on an operating table with the upper spine and lower brain exposed. Dr. Miles was in charge of the Guard development and maintenance program. He was a tall man with fine features in his early 40’s, mild mannered and moved very little. People found him somewhat unsettling because he had no twitches, and would stand right up to you. His serene blue eyes and slightly oriental features would take you in all at once and properly evaluate you in a matter of seconds. He continued his lecture with, “Their nutrition requirements are quite different from humans. Also, if I failed to mention it they continually renew themselves, they could exist, possibly forever, however we program them for sixty years. The spine is opened here, these vertebrae are removed and the Cybarium implant is inserted here. This device enables us to control the unit, otherwise they would just be like us, but better made. These monofilaments actually graft directly onto the human neurons. Can you all see how it connects?”

  “Extraordinary, like worms looking for a meal!” comments one of the interns.