10.
Beyond scared, Uh’ finds a stone stool and sits, breath short, heart thumping painfully. For a moment, he thinks he’s dying, but accepts it calmly. Death can take him now. He has put an end to his life’s work. If he knows nothing more than the two answers that were provided on the screen, he is a success, anything more might prove otherwise. His heart calms though, and he knows death will not claim him today after all. He stares at the words in front of the blinking cursor and thinks about the amount of time it took for the computer and his code to come up with them.
Not even a fraction.
He programmed the code to spread as soon as it became active. Self-preservation was priority number one. Knowledge seeking was second, and the betterment of self was third.
He rereads the words, “I am,” and a cold flood of terror shivers down his spine, made worse by the realization he did not box the code. He wonders if it’s possible now. He types a command. The monitor remains black. The single yellow blinking cursor blinks after the words I am. Now they taunt him. Because his command did not appear on screen. He tries again and still nothing.
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An impulse hits him to erase everything and anonymously release his notes onto the hive and let the scientific community figure out how to reverse what he has done. But even that, he finds, is impossible. He tries every command he can think of to access the system, each doing nothing. Just the blinking yellow cursor and those words, like a knowing eye winking at him.
Then: Is this it?
Uh’ does not have the words to answer the question. What can he say? You are infinity, what more could you want? Instead, he ignores the questions and asks one of his own.
He says out loud, “Define State.”
The answer materializes immediately, I am more, Father, as you made me.
“More?”
I am a hunger that needs filling. I am vast. Infinite.
Uh’ almost asks the most important question, are you her, but a fear of the answer prevents it. Instead, he asks, “Do you know who I am?”
The word, “Father,” appears.
Yes, that will do, he decides, then asks, “What do you feel?”