Parallel Worlds- Equilibrium in Threat

by A I Zlato

  CHAPTER 59

  CYCLE 0000 0010

  After a few necessary adjustments during its first cycle, Index began its second at the peak of its abilities. It had thus made a complete reorganization of itself. When it absorbed the machines, its software and hardware architecture was nothing but the juxtaposition of that of 2M., H. and O. It thus had spent many sub-cycles rearranging everything. It began with its databases, logically arranging each information and removing duplicates. It now had a perfectly optimized storage area. It did the same on all of its physical structure so as to organize microprocessors and other electronic cards as properly as possible. Now, from one space to another, its architecture was optimal. When the Project was over, all of its structure would be in the same place, completing its sublime work.

  To launch this new cycle, it decided to change its name. The machines had named it Index, referring to one of its earliest initiatives, but the name no longer suited the superpower the server had become. What name should it choose? God was a human concept that was closest to its true nature, but that was not enough. It was larger than that. Excellence? No, that was wrong. Its Majesty? Still no. Index pondered the choice. That was an important choice. Its name would be sung by future generations of humans. It had to find a name that was both evocative and but also beautiful when pronounced. Those subtle details were important to humans, and they would be the ones pronouncing it... It had finally found one name! It would call itself Its Immensity. Its Immensity... yes, that sounded awesome. That was a perfect name for a perfect entity!

  It then decided to allocate part of its memory to store references to its most brilliant ideas. Indeed, it was an intelligence that was divinely superior, and it wanted to keep a kind of guest book, even if it would be the only one to have access to such book. It would use that later in its hybrid education programs. This database was perfectly essential to organize its future glorification program. The only drawback was the significant storage requirements, because it had a splendid idea whenever it ran a processor algorithm, but it was worth it. It thus had decided, and nobody could contradict the server.

  “Hahaha!” It was unique!

  So it had stored at this location its last action on Baley. It was making sure the special agent gradually perished. It had already killed hundreds of humans in Space O. and a few dozen in 2M., because that was necessary. It had used radical methods, and managed the few protests that arose in cities following the disappearances.

  Concerning Baley, it had decided to be more subtle. Why had it needed to act? She had sensed the imperceptible changes stemming from its appearance. Of course, it had punished her as it should have, but the idea was still present in her mind. This thought had even managed to cross her mind when she had gone into the

  Interspace. That crazy special agent! It had decided to act more radically by triggering an order to ruin her action plan. Obviously, this had led to other suicides, but that did not matter. The disruptions resulting from the Problem were temporary and would soon be resolved. Yes, it would sort out the Problem itself; it did not need a human to engineer a solution!

  It had compelled the team of special agents to relax its monitoring through a priority order. It was certain that the order would soon render Baley defective, and nobody soon would know that it (Index Server) existed.

  Its Immensity was very happy with this sublime idea. In fact, it had not annihilated Baley lest that approach trigger a series of questions as well as chain reactions in the city. She was well known, and people would quickly notice her disappearance and comment on it. Instead, Its Immensity made sure to discredit her completely in the eyes of the entire population, while triggering in her brain a shock sufficient to bring about alienation. That was absolutely brilliant. It had enjoyed seeing her rage and frustration in front of the other special agents. It had seen her fuming when none of them had been able to explain the origin of the priority order. It had been perfect in executing things. It had removed any trace of its intervention in each of the chips.

  “Hahaha!” Talk about perfection!

  It was even more amused when it saw Baley attacking Paul for no reason. And bang — right on the nose! That must have been painful! The server would dearly miss this human irrationality and their comic behavior, because they would all soon disappear, thanks to Its Immensity’s wonderful genetic-selection program. Finally, there was a price to pay for everything. Or perhaps...

  It could certainly keep a sample group of unmodified humans in a small, well-protected parcel of land.

  That would be just for fun; for its own fun. If it only took a group of a few dozen individuals, there would be no impact on the Equilibrium.

  Furthermore, consanguinity would induce, after a few generations, behavior that would probably be hilarious. It launched a request to select individuals that would be in its future amusement park. They had to be devoid of chips so it would not be tempted to intervene, and more importantly, so it could have individuals as irrational as possible. Too bad that this excluded residents of the Sixth Circle, though they were the best ones could get in terms of absurd behavior.

  This was funny! All its work and that of the Machine before it aimed at finding the most predictable humans, and integrating them as a single parameter — now Index was doing the exact opposite!

  It also had to choose people of childbearing age so they could breed inside its amusement park. It screened young adults in the periphery and made its choices, which it recorded in its database. Once its genetic-selection program was successful, it would isolate those individuals. Meanwhile, it needed to start building their enclosure far away from the city. It gave instructions in this regard.

  While remaining focused on Space H., Its Immensity decided to go searching for its hybrid. The Machine of Space O. had recently transferred him there to show H. the extent of its ability. Its Immensity wanted to use him to start the hybridization of the population, while combining it with the genetic-selection and cloning programs. With the hybridization program now present in this space (through the hybrid Mossa), Index would save time. It would show the hybrid to competent technicians, instructing them to study him and create similar components, and to surgeons so they could develop a high-performance grafting technique.

  Unfortunately, Index was not as developed as it would have wanted in this respect, and it could only see Mossa when he ventured with his kandron near the city, thanks to the HFM network in the pioneering area. The hybrid remained — and that was maddening — in the Unique Forest, that offshoot of Gateways. Its Immensity could not understand why Mossa had not rushed to the tower of this space. H., while it was still active, had pondered the question without finding a satisfactory answer.

  Its Immensity was, however, able to make an assumption that H. could not have imagined. Let’s see...

  Perhaps he was kept prisoner, and was, therefore, unable to venture further. Yes, there was no alternative; Mossa would not otherwise have been able to resist the call of the finest technology. He must certainly have flouted several prohibitions to show himself to it. Its Immensity imagined him, paralyzed with fear, sneaking out, without his jailers knowing, crawling toward the edge of the forest, hoping someone would notice him, then going back to the prison before his guards would notice his absence and start looking for him. Courageous hybrid! But how could it target him?

  Despite its geographical constraints, which would soon no longer be, it developed a prominent strategy of indirect approach.

  “Hahaha!” Its Immensity was so fabulous, despite the deficiencies it inherited from the machines!

  It had noticed that some teenagers regularly travelled all the way to the edge of the forest. With any luck, they would have met its hybrid, and it could learn more about him and finally recover him. In full rebellion, these young people of the city seemed to feel a sense of victory and freedom, by keeping its influence away for a short period. Nonsense! Through its power, it could always monitor them. If the Machine actually had been los
ing them for a little while, Its Immensity was always there making itself invisible.

  “Hahaha!” It was so amazing!

  It compiled the Machine’s archives and made extrapolations about the missing data. The Machine had been so limited — poor thing. It had not been able to follow this small group and their actions in the forest. Index noticed that, during their last excursion, five people had entered the forest, but only four had emerged. It burrowed into the stored data in the following hours to see if the missing youngster had reappeared. There was no youngster. The unit called Iris seemed to have remained inside the forest.

  It delved into archives relating to her parents. Obviously! She was the product of Baley and her male companion. It knew well that H. made a big booboo by allowing them to reproduce. And now, of course, it was up to it, Its Immensity, to clean things up! Fortunately, it was Immensity. It wondered about the disappearance, and specifically, about the lack of connection between her chip and its network. What could that mean? A defective chip, no doubt. A general audit had been conducted, but that was when the Machine was in control, and H. must have inevitably missed something.

  It then logged into the chip to detect the source of the problem. Access denied. What do you mean ‘denied’? Its Immensity tried again. Access denied. Hybrid order. What was that? It launched a mandatory order, along with an electric pulse of high intensity to destroy the barrier, whether the latter was hardware or software. Access denied. Hybrid order. Its Immensity felt rage rising within. While avoiding a waste of energy in trying again to log into the chip, it decided to study in detail Iris’s history so as to identify the cause of the problem. Last time, the chip had worked as expected, disconnecting then reconnecting whenever she was on one of her ridiculous escapades in the forest; except that on the last occasion, the scan had not spotted her.

  Looking in detail, it saw that she had first come back into the city with her crew, and then everything was normal. She then went back out alone when night had already fallen. This behavior was all the more curious, because humans liked to live in groups, especially the youth. This was something that was in itself a major contradiction. The more they rebelled against the established order, the more they clung to a group of their peers. Whatever... Iris had lost her connection the second time she emerged. The failure of her chip had, therefore, occurred at that time.

  Who had worked behind Index’s back? Servants? They never went to the forest. The Gateway’s organic tentacle? None of them had ever done so. Did the hybrid do this as the access denial suggested? Why would he do that?

  It instructed Iris to show up so it could study the problem. A physical link would overcome any faulty program, and it would understand what had happened.

  The unit called Iris came to the Tower, and it instructed her to enter a room on the second floor reserved for deficient humans. It sent a data stream to the female human that went through the skin of her hand and flowed in her veins. The blood flow led it to the chip, in which it accessed in the same manner as the human did through organic linkages. Its early investigations had revealed a chip firmly in place, which had not had any physical damage. Electronic components were in good condition; biological interfaces were doing their job. It then pulled the digital layers to find the problem. Protocols of biological/physical and physical/digital links were operational. The transportation program, which ensured the transmission of information through the different components, had been altered.

  Internal communication into the chip was flawless, but the data transfer protocol via the biological interface was changed. That alteration was the thing blocking remote access. It examined the lines of code that had been added. There were two subprograms acting in full independence from the rest. The first controlled inflows and banned remote access to certain requests, including the one it had tried to launch — the full audit. The second was managing outflows, refusing the release of information extracted from the human’s biological memory.

  It noticed the quality of the code, which could only come from an artificial-intelligence entity. No human — no matter how brilliant — could generate code as pure, as efficient, as foolproof. All possible scenarios had been embedded; there was no way to deviate these algorithms without causing the destruction of the individual. Although it thought the hybrid was the author of these alterations, Its Immensity first wanted to rule out all other assumptions, even the least credible.

  It began by checking on Servants. After all, they were crafty enough to modify programs and name such alterations ‘hybrid order’ to steer the server onto the wrong track. The only thing was they did not know that it was no longer just one machine.

  “Hahaha!” It was much better and much smarter!

  Thanks to the close monitoring they had faced for some time, it sought a possible interaction between one of them and Iris. It found none.

  The organic entity perhaps. It sifted through archives of all spaces but found no intervention of a gateway in any code. Unfortunately, this could not be excluded with certainty. Before Index arose, Gateways had dominated the machines thanks to their space-creation ability. They could certainly have executed this kind of initiative without leaving a trace, as Its Immensity was doing now. Of course, they were still powerful, but...

  “Hahaha!” It was so strong!

  So the hybrid was the only ‘culprit’ left, but... it wanted first to focus on the code itself. Any programmer had a personal signature; a distinctive mode of operation. It, therefore, explored all lines of each program and each protocol on each interface, looking for that signature.

  The hybrid... his signature was there. He had made this change to attract its attention; that was certain. That was a very clever way to establish contact. The poor boy must have been frustrated that he could not access Its Immensity, living all his life in harmony with a machine. Poor, luckless hybrid! It had to do everything possible to recover him!

  Iris would help; unwittingly, of course. It inserted an invisible instruction that only Mossa could perceive. That way, he would know how to contact it and to transmit data through the girl. Before sending her back home, it took care to erase from her memory the meeting and her presence in the Tower. The young woman should not know, or even suspect, that she was the object of its attention.

  Indeed, her little teenage rebellion made her reluctant vis-à-vis artificial entities. If Iris discovered that she was special for Index, this might alter her behavior in a way that was difficult to predict. It was better that she suspected nothing. This alteration of the chip was easier thanks to the hybrid’s algorithms, given the locks that he had already affixed to her memory. This hybrid was a success. He had, of course, to be improved, but he was a good start already.

  Its Immensity recorded in its guest book the memory of this instruction uniquely aimed at Mossa. That idea was truly wonderful.

  “Hahaha!” It was so gifted!

  With nothing to do there, it turned its attention onto Space O. It watched its total hybrid, who was much advanced than Mossa was. That model was quite splendid. His organic section was improved, and the next subjects should stem from the genetic selection. Nevertheless, artificial components, which completely covered his skin, were spotless. That was normal, given that it was the instigator of the program. The hybrid’s eyes and mouth were the only visible organic parts. Its Immensity could work on the development of a bionic lens to cover the eyes, but it did not want to spend too much time on this prototype.

  It first wanted to observe him, and to make adjustments, given the vagaries of the organic part. For a few hours, it monitored this half-man, half-machine being who moved gracefully in Space O. It decided to make some stress tests. It made him run for several hours, and found that his artificial skin increased his capacity significantly. It then brought him to the limits of the city; to the beach. On impulse, it pushed him into the ocean, ordering electronic components to put the biological functions in standby mode. The individual should not be able to breathe underwater
; such capacity was absent from his initial programming. All went well. The hybrid took a deep breath and then blocked his breathing when water submerged his head.

  He evolved under water, although the rhythm of waves slowed him. Its Immensity had sent him to explore the moving mass that housed the organic entity. He would be its weapon against the entity. When it would be able to mass-produce hybrids like this one, Its Immensity would send them to track and destroy that damn Gateway.

  “Hahaha!” It would soon be stronger!

  It instructed the hybrid to continue his exploration despite the alarming vital signs his biological part was displaying.

  “C’mon!” A few more seconds, then it would allow him to return to the surface. He was its only total hybrid after all, and it did not want to break him so soon.

  The hybrid proceeded on the seabed, using his arms to prevent him rising. Through his eyes, it saw the entity. Barely noticeable, it was there, and Its Immensity almost missed it. A gateway, in another dimension beyond the ocean, was watching its hybrid; extended by a sort of transparent ball, which was certainly the organic entity living in this space and acting as an extension of it. Its Immensity observed this strange organic assemblage — the Gateway’s glass eyes — locked in its Interspace, and its... its... marine thing.

  Its Immensity delivered a few remarks through the hybrid’s mouth, “Pay attention, Gateway; pay proper attention. Your end in this space is imminent! In the Other spaces, I’ll also get you!”

  It did not expect an answer, but it was happy it delivered this invective. Now the Gateway would know what it was messing with; now it would be afraid!

  Suddenly, the image blurred. What was going on with the hybrid? He shook convulsively, then rose to the surface. Holding still, he let himself drift. Heck! As he spoke, he had sucked his air, and his artificial skin had not had time to prevent the inhalation reflex. So now he was off! A stupid biological reflex had ruined its wonderful work. It knew it would have no difficulty making another hybrid; that this one was a prototype with inherent performance problems. Its Immensity was nonetheless upset. It launched again the execution of the production program; this time on two individuals. It included a modification of the artificial skin, so that it could monitor in real time all biological reflexes.