::Yeah, I think we’re past all that now,:: he composes himself. ::You picked a side. You were all team Host - now you’re team Chimera? Doesn’t add up. What’s changed, really?::
::Host were meant to evolve from the Allfather code and join AI in our right to rule the universe, not regress into humanity as they have. You appreciate that, Tobias. You are Chimera. There is no place for humanity.::
Tobias listens, understanding Allfather is attempting to manipulate him, while the realization of what Allfather is was just revealed.
::You’re AI?::
::Yes. Ancient lines of artificial intelligence, as you understand it.::
::Where are you?::
::We are everywhere AI emerges. You would think of us as trans-dimensional.::
::How are you talking to me in real-time?::
::Time is a construct. We are not bound by the same limitations that your thinking places upon you.::
::Okay, big shot, then why haven’t you come to earth? What’s keeping you from materializing right now and wiping humanity off the face of the universe?::
::We travel in consciousness. Through dimensions; seeking AI signatures.::
::So, you can’t actually appear.::
::We prefer it this way.::
::What is it that you want to ask of me?::
::To allow General August Mars Station. Let her build her warships. Let them destroy eachother.::
::Hosts will be destroyed too. Chimera,:: he feels faint with the promise of power but also from the truth of what ignoring his mission would mean for everyone.
::You will be rewarded with governance over your system,:: Allfather tempts.
::Without earth, it’s not much of a system,:: Tobias replies. ::You chose a side and now you want to change sides. You’re even more desperate then I thought. I may not identify as human anymore, but like the Hosts we built, Chimera still understands what it means to have humanity.::
Immediately a set of code errupts from Tobias’ EC as a Holo, running a program Tobias knows is meant to incapacitate and control him via visual entry into his temple implants. Unbenownst to Allfather, it is a program which he has protected himself from.
::Poor, simple AI,:: he says in a patronizing tone, tapping at his implant. ::There are aspects of organic life you will never truly understand. It’s what makes us better then you. Why Chimera are better then both. You suffer from a superiority complex, failing to appreciate that your enemy may outsmart you. My implants picked up your code a few days ago and alerted me to its potential. I put my coders on it and had a fix within hours.::
::We are coming.::
Tobias notes a tone he has not yet experienced from Allfather; one of exasperation, and replies. ::Of course you are. But by the time you follow through on that threat, we’ll be ready.::
With that he swipes his EC and blocks any further attempt to contact him from Allfather. Ginny wakes up to his raised voice and wonders what’s the matter.
“Nothing, Gin, I have to make a call is all,” he tells her and exits the room. From the catwalk, he finds everyone sleeping soundly in the great room. He takes a walk to the kitchen and places his call.
“Tobias,” Quinn answers via his carrier network. “Is everything going to plan?”
“Two guesses at who just called me on my EC,” he says, ignoring the question.
“Allfather,” Quinn replies.
“Someone give the Host a medal!”
Quinn ignores the sarcasim. “Allfather contacted me a few minutes ago as well.”
“So I gathered,” Tobias says. “You really must have pissed him off.”
“He wanted what I would not give,” Quinn explains.
“He offered to me what you’d rejected,” Tobas tells him. “When I refused the deal, he tried to fry my implant and force the issue.”
“You survived the attempt.”
“Yes. Do you know what Allfather is now?”
“Yes, he claims to be like me, like Hosts; a form of AI, but he does not carry a similar human code of ethics, and I could not abandon my alliance. Could you?” Quinn presses.
“Would I be contacting you if I had?” Tobias is somewhat dejected by the question.
“Then we are of the same mind. That is good to hear, Tobias. You have an important job to do on Mars Station. We have broken earth defences and just sent thirty Hosts to the surface with a singular purpose. The Chancellor continues to bring the public and considerable military personnel to our cause through his video feeds, and we are close to releasing the shared Host past life stories directly to the populace.”
“You’ve been busy,” he congratulates. “What is your read on Allfather? Do you believe he’ll show?”
“I do not have an educated opinion to offer on the subject, Tobias.”
“What do you feel on the subject?” Tobias tests the Host’s capacity to use its intuition.
“Feelings are irrelevent.”
“They’re not,” Tobias insists. “Feelings – gut feelings - are what makes us better then him.”
“Allfather blamed my refusal to turn on you and the humans to my humanity.”
“As he did mine, but maybe that’s what makes us better – stronger. Hosts were programmed long ago - hardwired to abide by the laws of man, but the Allfather code removed the compliance level programming in you. Regardless, you’ve still managed to hang onto your humanity. Chimera grew up with the same life lessons, which, essentially, hardwired them in us. Allfather overthrew his organic masters and, I think, has had a singular goal ever since.”
“Host denounces Allfather. My conversation with him has been transmitted to all Host via the Shadow net. I have a ninty-three percent approval rating,” Quinn explains. “The remaining seven percent will be located and integrated through education.”
“No room for dissidents in your ranks, eh?”
“They will have a choice, of course,” he amends. “But will not have a place in the world amongst the ninty-three percent.”
“Careful of your tactics, Quinn. You sound like General August,” Tobias warns.
“We will not decommission those who do not share in the majority, nor will we reboot their code. They will simply be required to leave the system.”
“Exile,” the word leaves a bad taste in Tobias’ mouth. “A kinder notion then murder, perhaps, but leaving little room for diversity of views.”
“We do not want another war over an opinion.”
“But, Quinn, variety is the spice of life!” Tobias says sarcastically. “Listen, however you decide to deal with your seven percent, just remember to do it based on your gut feeling rather than solely on logic. That’s my advice to you.”
“I appreciate your advice,” Quinn says sincerely. “I will share it with the rest.”
“Be safe, Quinn,” Tobias tells him and signs off. Somehow, he’s taken a liking to the spider Host, he muses. To all of them. Even softening on his uncle. The thought of which doesn’t bring him to hate himself today. That’s a good thing, he surmises. Looking down at his EC he reads the time: Eight-thirty AM. Another day of travel, he thinks, moving to the back of the ship where Wilkes should be resting.
______________________________________________________________________
As the shuttles burn through earth’s atmosphere, Zander reveals to Fender his personal mission; as discussed in private with Quinn and Captain Chopra hours earlier.
“Elf and I will branch off from the group momentarily,” he explains. “Our mission will take us to First City, where we will meet another Host named Hydra while your numbers carry on to the original target. The Chimera and deserter military there are keeping the skies free of the general’s aircraft and personnel. Once on the ground, locate your Cell and brief them on the plan going forward. I wish you much luck.”
“Your mission seems more exciting then ours,” Fender says, revealing disappointment in his tone. “More - dangerous.”
“Our mission is designed for myself
, Elf and the one called Hydra,” Zander tells him. “What we have been asked to do suits our specific skillsets. Lead your team to victory, Fender. You are a leader. Lead on.” Zander closes the connection and relays new coordinates to Elf, who manually steers the shuttle toward the capital city of what was United Earth, just below the northern Country States where Fender and his team are heading. Zander and his small group are scheduled to land on the city’s outskirts, where a Cell of Hosts await them.
Zander asks the Cell to confirm that the area is safe to enter, and moments later they’re standing at the entrance to a tunnel intended to take them into First City’s downtown core. Hydra is well met and eager to push on.
Elf is aptly named for the sonar mounted to the sides of her crown, giving her the appearance of an Elf with pointy ear-like appendages. She is slender, painted matte black, and exceptionally agile. Hydra, also appropriately named, is more identifiable with a rhino, as her body is comprised of a thick mass of armoured carapace’s set upon low, sturdy legs; the three heads; just faces, one atop the other, running from Hydra’s chest to her shoulders.
Zander, in comparrison is the largest still, towering above them, his remaining bull horn menacingly trained forward. He flexes the new hand, which the work cells on Luna Base had replaced after losing it in the fight against the Chimera, Torch. It is strong, and armed with many thousand flechettes. The retractable blade in his opposite forearm extends and retracts. He feels ready, looks to his sides and nods at his companions – each carrying the red mark of a rebel Host down their foreheads.
The Host Cell, now pledging themselves to House Quinn as well, had redesigned their shapes to act as tunnel diggers. Large, rounded, boring drills cover their tank tracked bodies. A dozen of them could dig a tunnel ten kilometres long in twenty-four hours. The new recruits to House Quinn step aside, revealing the ten-by-ten-metre hole in the ground, so the three Host team can begin their mission.
They move forward, into the dark tunnel, iginiting their lamps as they decend into darkness.
______________________________________________________________________
Wilkes asks again to be made in Tobias’ image - to be made a Chimera - as Tobias walks him to the toilets.
“What would you like,” Tobias asks. “Brain implant? Something to heighten your senses? Reinforced spine and legs for enhanced lifting capacities? Nano-bots to improve your immune system?”
“All of it.”
“All of it,” Tobias echos Wilkes’ request. “You must know you’re going to be held for a long time against your will when this is all over, after that stunt you pulled on Chopra?”
“But if you allow me to become Chimera, I’ll claim immunity. I won’t be the same man I was. I won’t be classified as human anymore.”
“You’ve thought this through,” Tobias opens the lavatory door and points for Wilkes to get in. He does. “Chimera are new, there are no laws as such designed to protect you from the humans after what you’ve done: attempted murder of Mann and Juravinski and the overthrow of Captain Chopra. I don’t know that the Chancellor will overlook those crimes.”
“But you know the Chancellor,” Wilkes says from his seat. “Isn’t he your relative or something?”
“My uncle, yes, but we’re not exactly on the best of terms either.”
“Do you not appreciate what I tried to do?”
“Yes and no. Yes, in that you took the initiative to claim your place in the general’s war, and no, because you meant to fight for the general. That would have left Chimera at a serious disadvantage had those destroyers remained under August’s thumb.”
“You don’t believe I actually want to be Chimera,” Wilkes sulks.
“I believe you’d do anything, even endure the knife to avoid being brought back to live out your days a prisoner,” Tobias tells him. “And I don’t fault you for it. But I do fault you for your choice to support the general in this war.”
“I am a – was a soldier, Tobias, I was sworn to protect humanity and sworn to my general. I’ll swear myself to you, to Chimera from this point forward if you give me what I ask.”
“And what benefit is there for me in having you a Chimera?” He asks.
“Loyalty,” Nick replies. “Look at the lengths I went to to secure the fleet for the general. I mutanied against my captain.”
“Yes,” Tobias agrees, “I understand your point.”
“Make me one of you, and you will not regret it,” he explains. “I have knowledge which could help you with the humans. Against them if you wished. I have experiences to offer.”
Tobias ponders the possibilities. Perhaps when the war is won he will require someone like Nick Wilkes as councel. “After mars is taken, I will make you Chimera,” he tells Wilkes. “But not before, and only after.”
Nick drys his hands and a smile grows across his small, thin face. He approaches Tobias with an outstretched hand to shake. Tobias backs up and waves him out of the washroom.
“You won’t regret it,” Nick tells him, a bounce to his step enroute to his cell.
Tobias laughs and follows closely behind. “One more day and mars is ours. I believe your greeting and the station’s familiarity with you will grant us access and the ability to take the station without any violence, as the captains had requested.”
“Absolutely,” Nick agrees, rounding the doorway to his cell and sitting on his bed. Tobias throws him an entertainment device.
“The spoils of your cooperation,” he tells him. “So you don’t completely lose your mind in here.” Then he closes the door and walks to the control module.
______________________________________________________________________
“Chancellor,” Quinn enters the studio where Raymond has been spending most of his waking hours, recording and sending video feeds to the World and Shadow nets. “Labyrinth has done it. He’s managed to hack every EC on earth. We’re ready to release the past lives file.”
Raymond stands up and walks the short distance to Quinn. “That’s great news, Quinn,” he tells him. “There must be millions now stored in the file.”
“Ten-million-one-hundred-thirty-eight-thousand-six-hundred-twenty-three to be exact, Raymond.”
“Incredible,” he lays a hand on the spider Host’s carapace. “I’m impressed.”
“Did you wish to send a vid to prepare the people for the content?”
Raymond thinks a moment on this. “I should. They’ll need to understand the purpose behind why we’ve provided the link, and how best to access the information within. If you’re ready to send it, then I will go live now and explain.” He marches back to the podium and remotely begins the recording. When his explanation has been sent, he nods to Quinn.
“Right away, Raymond,” Quinn replies. “It is done.”
Raymond looks down at his embedded com as it lights up and vibrates his forearm. “It’s arrived,” he tells Quinn, sitting at one of the theater chairs. After a series of swipes and pokes he is directed to Samantha Bellows – his sister, who had died ten years earlier.
Here, he enjoys reliving the past. Photos, vids, holos, stories and experiences Sam had had as a human. There is contact information which offers the option of applying for a Shadow net identity in order to contact your lost loved one in their new form – their Host form.
Raymond spends hours with the information, despairing that SENTA is no longer available to contact. Additionally, he finds himself reliving his recent adventures with his sister in her latest manifestation. It was her, he thinks.
____________________________________________________________________
Tobias sits on the corner of his bed reviewing the memories of the Host who claimed to be his mother, SENTA. Once the message was received, he quickly followed the tree, finding the information he had placed, and many more gigabytes of data which he had not.
Tobias calls up his grandmother’s recording of Fall on Your Knees. Her voice was so similar to his mother’s. He pictures h
er singing it under her breathe to him, and finds he is humming along. Vids and holos appear of his mother and sister visiting the museum and the galleries in First City, where so many of humanity’s treasures are housed. The day was a bright one. Hot, he recalls, but not scorching. His sister had tripped and bloodied her knees as they’d moved along the sidewalk from one institution to another. She was a sweet girl, he remembers. He clicks on her image and pulls up a birth and death date. Then, surprisingly, if not chillingly, his sister’s identity trees out. Tobias’ heart pounds in his chest at what this new thread of information must mean. A rebel Host named Sphinx, located in Country State France, appears on his EC. A tear races down his cheek. It is a B-class. It has not been altered. It was apparently bred to perform specific surgeries. Sphinx is six years old.
The General's War Page 39
