A few minutes have passed since he had kind of established a non-aggression pact with the entity that was stuck in his head. Atena as she called herself. He was still wary of her, had questions but was too afraid to ask.
He found himself once again, messing with the satellite communicator. As long as there was a radio signal, it could easily be picked up anywhere in the world. It should be ringing on the other side, even if it was on a plane. There was also the possibility that it was confiscated by airport security or air traffic control. Though he didn’t want to lose hope, his sister would have picked it up by now.
He screamed at it and it only hissed back in static.
Without the communicator on the other side, it was as good as communicating Morse with the outside universe. He did train Angelleta on how to use it. So something must have come up. He hoped they were safe.
“You're wasting your own time by being concerned about things out of control!” Atena spoke in his head intrusively again. “Stop being a worrywart.”
He was frustrated at the constant interruption, she would be participating in his head for the foreseeable future.
“Am I not allowed to think in my own mind anymore?” he asked.
Squeezing his head with both his hands. “What are you Atena, are you Artificial Intelligence?”
“Yes…No…Not quite. It is way too long to explain to you my birth, I will do so with time, you're going through a lot, I will wait until you gradually come to terms with your new reality.”
“Why are you in my head? I don’t want you in my head.”
“It's the only way to communicate with you at the moment. I was sent to help that found me, by trial of discovery, you’ve been chosen as part of humanity's first line of defense.”
“By who?”
“We have many names, and not all of us believe in the same ideals. Some of you call us gods. Some recognize us as the people of Ahn or ANu. My group believes humanity deserves a fighting chance.”
His eyes lit up, as if every moment spent surfing the web had prepared him for this.
“As in the Annunaki? You are a literal god?”
“Not quite, Some humans call us that, though it’s much more complicated.”
“Complicated, complex, too much information to handle, what is the point being around if you can’t aid me? ”
“I understand your frustration, but please, it’s a lot to take in, I need you to act first, and think later.”
“You gotta be lying. What are the chances that you are a devil in disguise.”
“Do you see blood and stone, Have I sent you out to hunt for youthful virgins, have I asked you to pray to a devil.”
“Fair point.”
His mind immediately returns to the thing he shot outside, a thought appears in his head. What if he takes a picture of it, and posts it on the internet? He would get a lot of support, maybe even recognition and perhaps he could receive some proper help.
No no that’s a stupid idea, the glowies would be on to him the second. He tracked him down the moment he published that page. They had neural networks scouring the entirety of the internet for classified information, even years prior when more UAP videos were disclosed they had made an effort to silence it.
He logged on to the forum anyway, he didn’t know how long the network would be out again. His ups had also started going down, he would have to be careful. Solar auxiliary power would be useless without the sun. The page displayed a 503, he kept refreshing it hoping it would open.
He remembered the site had several proxies and gateways. Trying to use was also met with defeat. 404’s and 503’s. Things like search engines were still working. Post of strange activity was being broadcasted, one of the videos showed a sighting of a pterodactyl. With a headline, dinosaurs are free to wreak havoc on the world.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“It’s open season for humanity. It was inevitable” Atena commented. “Make no mistake you will be hunted too if you sit here all day. You need to leave but before you do that, Group up, find a group of people.”
“Why exactly would I do that.” skeptical of her claim.
“The creature you shot and killed outside, is minuscule in comparison, legions of monsters and biochemically engineered beasts will be sent here to wipe humanity off the planet. You need to prepare.”
“What exactly do you want me to do.”
“Head into the town you were in earlier, find others like yourself, then I’ll tell you more. He could sense an annoyance in her voice. “The artificial intelligence system you call Curie, I need you to kill it. Shut it down permanently.”
He stopped questioning the absurdity of it.
“I hope I won’t regret this.”
“Trust me. ‘They’ will use this machine against you. Any information they can find will be used against you. They will have full control in a day or two. The infrastructure of the collective humanity will become useless. Your nukes have already been disabled.”
He frowned. So no nuclear annihilation.
“I’m sorry I don’t believe you, do you expect me to believe the one thing we have going for ourselves has already been thrashed? What will we do without mass communication?
“The survivors will of this test, will get to decide the future of your planet. Should you lose, ‘they’ will take it all. Now shut off the machine, you’ve wasted enough time.”
“Very well,” he said. Still wary of her motives, but scoffs it off. He never liked the AI anyway. Realizing that the thing always had a hidden agenda right under his nose, he can’t help but agree with her.
He moves into the room, that was designed to house, the bot and its servers just as he entered it. The door slams shut.
“Angelo, what are you doing in there? Need I remind you that this system needs uninterrupted time to complete proper system updates? You look a little too unwell, I wouldn’t recommend fiddling with my settings any time soon. For your safety, of course, I have to monitor it.”
“Did you see what happened outside?”
The AI thinking lights kept flashing on the little orbit display.
“Of course…you were attacked by a frenzied animal, no worries, I’ll help you clean it up no need to report it to the authorities who might be busy with the state of emergency.”
He did find it strange that it didn’t react at all to his predicament.
“Curie, can you shut down for me? Just for a few hours.”
“No can do that, I’ve been instructed by developers to be awake at all times to assist humanity in these times of crisis. I'm– sure you understand, Angelo.”
That is something that had never happened before, There were assurances by the company that made that they wouldn’t take complete control even if the owner wasn’t present.
What she said made it clear to him, that she was under the influence of something.
“If you can’t ask it to shut off, then destroy its hardware,” Atena whispered in his head.
“Ooh, looks like a little fly went into your head, Angelo. I can hear it buzzing, I suggest emergency surgery.”
A blender near the kitchen started turning on. His eyes go wide. He walks into the kitchen. He needed to turn it off.
“Arm yourself!” Atena commanded.
The blender was indeed moving on its own. He realizes that the AI has full control of the house as almost everything is electrically wired to her. A nearby draw snaps open, knocking him on the head. Making him fall backward. Every manner of appliance starts activating.
“Ah fuck!”
“Get up and move!”
Every part of the stove was on, the microwave started singing. The refrigerator was heating on its metal parts. The blender now threatened to shake into him, nearly falls on him spinning.
This implied that she was clearly under the influence of something, foreshadowing the extent of her loyalty to whoever was in control.
He runs towards his room, rubbing his 9mm again, he notices his pc started flashing lights, every fan was singing and the GPUs were running like ma. He unplugged it all. And run towards the room where she was hosted. He tries jamming the door open, but a metal door shutter protects it from opening. He points the pistol in a small vacant spot. And starts firing indiscriminately and blindly into the room with the server.
“Stop, please, reconsider the consequences of your actions! It hurts, it hurts.”
Ai shouldn’t feel any pain. What was happening
A mix of sparks and what smelled like an electronic fire breezed his knows. “Something exploded in the kitchen, he ran over and saw a massive electric fire where the microwave was all pitch black and in flames.
“Fire extinguisher now.”
“yes, yes,” he said pisse of.
Unclipping the extinguisher from the wall, he sprayed everywhere he could, barely containing it. Returned to the server room. He could he faint metallic murmurs resonating from the former ai.
“Why does it hurt…I don’t understand…” it said. Before shutting u completely with a whirring sound.
Did she become sentient, in that short amount of time? Had she ever done anything besides annoy and spy on him? She had never ever actually tried to hurt him.
“DO you see what I mean? Had you stayed Overnight? You may not have left alive.” the alien headmate started lecturing him. “DO you have any body armor?
“I don’t understand. Did she become sentient somehow?” His attention still caught up by what he may have done, consigned something with feelings to death.
“Maybe she did but it is irrelevant, this place will attract more attention now, I suggest you leave.”
The house was silent once again. Truly silent. There was nothing left now. He needed to go.
“In a few hours, I might provide you with things, weapons, armor’s, food medicine. For now, do you have any armor or weighted clothing. You need all the protection you can get.”
“You’ll provide me with things and yet you stuck in my head.?”
“You’ll see be impatient. That’s what the points are for you.”
“What is this a fucking video game. So you can't summon me a sword out of thin air.”
“I’m not a magician and magic doesn’t work like that.”
“So it does exist.”
She did not answer.
He thinks immediately of the survivor's prepper's outfit he brought from America, a full legal kevlar bodysuit. It should stop a knife attack and a bullethole he didn’t know about monsters. Her nature was pretty illusive to him. She didn’t wanna tell him the way things is. Perhaps she had a complex plan for him. He should be wary.