Chapter Eight
STARGAZER
JULY 18TH 2369
It has been a month sine Irene arrived, and yet, Dr Felix Eisenmann sits alone in the lower levels of his home. In another large room whose walls are decorated in strung up wires and pieces of suits and droids.
This one however houses a recent purchase of a cybernetic fabricator, a massive machine which takes up a good portion of the floor space, and provides Felix with bespoke parts.
Felix is hunched over a work bench, focusing intently on an open section of a suits arm piece which lies on the table. Screens on both sides of him show the results from previous attempts to gain back control. Everything he’d tried in all these weeks hadn’t provoked the Nanites to respond to any command.
Felix was not prepared to let them run rampant if they weren’t prepared to obey him. He finishes off the last solder in a spray of orange sparks, and rests his elbows on the table.
“Lets see what you do now.” Felix says to himself, eyes narrowing as he focuses on the small device sitting atop the arm. It is a small trap he’s built to lock the Nanites into a space where the only way for them to escape was to accept his little change in their coding.
“Ivor, release them.”
There is a click at the top end of the arm, a red light goes out and a green one goes on, the gate is open. Felix imagines them running along the wires like they were on some kind of copper highway.
A white light on top of the cube blinks on. They had entered the trap.
He waits, for what feels like an eternity. He blinks, feeling dizzy, and gasps for air, not realizing he’d been holding his breath.
If the light changes to green, it means they have accepted his programing. If it changes to red, they have refused and are trapped inside the cube.
The white light blinks out.
He frowns.
“Ivor, what’s going on?”
The Nanites saw your trap, they sent only one in to trigger it, then they built around it, until they had siphoned off it’s power, redirecting it back into the walls and thus shattering the cage.
“Clever Bastards.” Felix says in a low voice.
His hand reaches for the arm, he grips it tight, squeezing the solid metal, before throwing it across the room. The arm smashes into an erect suit which topples over, breaking apart in the process and mixing with the rest of the scrap on the floor.
Felix curses and screams at the screen around him, swiping at it, causing it to dissolve.
Sir you have a call-.
Ivor’s voice is only just audible over the sparking and fizzing of Felix’s frustration.
“I’m not in the mood.” He shouts, throwing a hammer across the room and hitting another suit square in the side, also knocking that one over.
He kicks at the notes around him, sending them soaring into the air, then he picks up a helmet, leans back and slams it hard against the wall, destroying the prototype beyond repair.
“Felix?” Irene’s worried voice snaps him from his rage.
“Ira… I…” He stammers, voice and body still shaking.
“It’s OK, really,” Irene says, but she doesn’t move from the door.
“I’m sorry.” Felix says, taking a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. But the blood pounding through his body is loud and keeps reminding him of his failure.
“Nothing is going to change,” He says, voice croaking with adrenaline. “they will never listen to me.”
Irene takes a hesitant step into the room, avoiding the shallow swamp of machine parts. The House Robot which had taken to following Irene around these days, remains in the door way. The last House bot that had tried to clean in here had been turned to scrap.
“I’m confident,” She starts slowly. “that it will work out, we should trust the Nanites.”
Felix stares at her like a tiger, causing her to freeze.
“You want to put your… Trust… Your faith… In these machines?” His astonishment freezes his boiling heart as he processes what she’s saying.
“People have been putting their trust in machines for centuries, why is this any different?”
“Why is…” Felix starts, gasping and blinking rapidly. “Why? Oh I don’t know, maybe it’s just that flirting with the singularity is suicide?” He yells, heart defrosting.
“But… Ivor-“ She tries to defend herself.
“Ivor is is a fly compared to these monstrous, sneaky, fucks. Ivor will die if he attempts to leave his cage, whereas these freaks have no rules, no restrictions, and could already have set up shop on the other side of the planet for all I know! They are capable of anything Ira… Anything!”
Irene speaks and finds the courage to move towards him, “So… You’re allowed to have access to the most powerful entity on the planet, but no one else can, is that right?”
Felix tries to arguee but her tone snaps his mouth close.
“A tyrant with his own genie in a lamp, but if that power is wielded without your consent then it’s the end of the world.”
“It already is the end of the fucking world.” He barks back, floundering to find a better comeback.
“And alone we will not change that, we need to trust in them and in the rest of humanity to make the best choices they can, you can’t micromanage an entire planet. You’re only one man.”
She is beside him now, and she places a shaking hand on his shoulder, he lets out a soft chuckle.
“It would certainly make things much easier if I could.”
“But you can’t, and you can’t be there for every person to ensure their suit is functioning. You have to trust the Nanites to do their job. There isn’t an alternative that I can see.”
“I don’t know if I can.” He admits.
“Have you spoken with them yet?” She asks, and seeing no response continues, “Maybe if you talked with them, your fear will be alleviated, or at the least agree on a contract or a treaty or whatever, for how you want this partnership to continue.”
“I don’t want to compromise with them, I created them, I’m essentially their god, and we never got to sit and hash it out with ours.”
“No?” She says, with a smile.
He frowns at her and she explains, “Humans are not that much different. We have coding inside us, that which determines what we look like, how we think, how we feel, how we act, reason and logic. Deep in our genetic coding, lies our ancestors, they never just lied down and gave up, something within them pushed humanity to rise, to expand, grow, and evolve into a planet spanning species.
“Just like how you can’t sit back and watch the world burn, something inside you drives you to try and save it. Even now when everyone else has given up, you spend your final years trying to save them. Morales, Felix. As divided as some people like to believe, we all hold value in many of the same things.
“Family, prosperity, respect, honor, life and death, these things bind us at our core, to our humanity…” She reaches down and holds his hands in hers.
“This is a new species, young and wild and ready to make mistakes. I understand your fear, the potential for disaster is great, but you are not their god, you are their father, and it’s your responsibility to leave them with instructions on how to live a fair and just life. To respect all creatures and strive to ensure they are all cared for in the years to come… that will be your legacy Felix Eisenmann.”
His jaw remains slack as he stares.
“Did you rehearse that?” he whispers.
“No, not really, but it is truth, I think that is what your missing. A set of morales that you and the Nanites can agree upon, something to keep them in line, as long as you don’t ask them to do anything which would break these rule.”
Felix nods slowly. “That isn’t a terrible idea, but I really don’t want to face them… Maybe you-“
“No,” Irene says, stopping him. “It has to be you, you are their maker, their father, only your words will mean anything to them. Trust me, I’ve already tried but they wont entertain the concept with me.”
“Well, guess I’ll see what I can do.” He says, looking around at the destruction he’d caused.
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“I actually came down to tell you that I’ve finished installing the new coils, she’s ready for action.” Irene smiles as she speaks.
Felix stares at her for a moment before remembering, “The atmosphere unit, it’s ready?”
She nods. “She’s all covered up and smoothed over, if this works, we’ve got at least one winner.”
***
As Felix enters the test chamber, he pauses to marvel at the sleek box which sits before him. No longer looking like a droid had violated it, this unit was primed and ready. The lights reflect off the new venting system as he inspects it.
“And we’re sure everything is where it should be?” He asks.
“If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have disturbed your therapy session.” Irene retorts, as she moves past him. The House Bot keeping out of his reach as it follows her.
“It’s only… This is a product of desperation, one of it’s kind, if it fails, if it blows up like the rest…”
“But it wont blow up. It will work.” Irene says sternly.
“Then what? One unit can only do so much, It’s not enough to-“
“Seriously Felix,” She snaps, “will you give the doom and gloom a rest for five minutes… Have a little faith. It will work, and when it does, our prototype will be ready for mass production.”
Felix scowls back at her for a long minute.
“Fine.” He says and exits the chamber.
The door seals shut as Irene taps on the console. Felix stands next to her, folds his arms and stares at the machine inside.
The lights on top come alive, blinking and dancing.
“Were all those lights really necessary?” Felix asks.
“I don’t know, I half suspected they were building a disco or something.”
“A Disco?” Felix quizzes over the word, “What kind of device is that?” he asks, looking at her.
Irene frowns back at him and shakes her head, “It doesn’t matter, Ivor if you’ll please.”
The sealed chamber takes on a murky hue, clouding their view of the device. Felix eyes the display above the console but the numbers remain in the green. He looks back up and can clearly see the device again.
Hob the House Bot plays a little victory tune.
“Oh, my…” He stammers, “It works?”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Irene sneers.
“I didn’t mean… it’s not you that I don’t have confidence in… I was expecting them to have sabotaged it.”
“Why do I feel like I’m going to have to lock the pair of you in a room to sort your shit out?”
“Maybe another day…” He says, “But it works, like, really freaking works!” His skepticism now turning to excitement. “We’ve done it, I just… so much time was spent building to this.”
“Well hold on to your glasses,” She says, reading something on the console, “It doesn’t just work, but it’s capabilities far exceeds our expectations.”
“By how much?” Felix feels faint and has to steady himself against the table. Was this a dream?
“At least, a hundred times.” She says, eyes wide.
Felix mouths the words back at her, looks at the machine which is humming peacefully to itself, then back at Irene.
“That is just… Incredible, it saves us so much… Time, material, money… Which we still need to get, but…” He grabs Irene roughly by the shoulders. “By Mother Earth it works!” He shouts, jumping up and down. Irene lets her excitement burst and jumps with him.
As they start to calm, Irene speaks, “Well that certainly makes it more manageable, but I doubt it’s going to be enough.”
Still smiling he asks, “To repair the atmosphere? Are you kidding me?”
“To convince anyone to give us what we need to make them.”
The warmth leaves as quickly as it had come, reality darkening the corners of his mind again.
Ivor’s image materializes to the side of them.
Excuse me, but the buds of Subjects Six-Two-Six and Six-Seven-One are showing signs of initial flowering.
The pair look at his projection, then back at each other, then as one they turn and head for the stairs, stumbling and tripping over each other.
They crash into the Hydroponics lab, which now resembles an overgrown botanical garden, and pull up in front of a large tank. Inside is a tray filled with soil, stems in neat rows shoot out at set intervals, each individually labeled. Two of these have personal spotlights beaming down on them, marking them out from the rest.
The tank is sealed and the air within is polluted with a putrid concoction meant to emulate the hazard environment the world will be plunged into, if their plants could survive growing in there, they’d survive anywhere.
The pair move closer, their heads inches apart, each watching one of the buds. They waited. And waited. Even with the Nanites help, they had no idea what was going to work, so they’d had to systematically test different combinations, most never sprouted, or showed any signs of life, others had grown a little before dying. None had ever gotten to the point of growing buds.
After half an hour since they’d descended to this floor, Irene speaks.
“It’s happening.”
Felix looks over and see’s the cracks in the bud.
“Come on you bastard.” Felix says under his breath.
They spend the next few hours sitting and watching the whole process of the flower bloom. They had done it.
Tired as they were, they felt joy akin to that of new born parents, and fought their bodies to stay alert. But they had done it, Felix couldn’t believe it, they had manged the impossible, life in the uninhabitable.
“This…” Irene says, “This might be enough.”
He looks at her, too tired to question, so she continues.
“To convince Bart!” She shakes her head and gets to her feet, “In fact I’m going to call and tell them the news now.”
“Sounds good.” He says turning back to the new born flower.
***
JULY 19TH 2369
Felix is left to sit alone, watching the genetic marvel before him. He realizes that this flower was part of the batch Irene had been working on, and so he had no idea what it was that had enabled this.
He pulls up the project notes on a nearby console and looks them over, and is stunned. Irene was working on a theory he hadn’t even heard of, it seemed at first to defy the laws of nature.
He looks back at the flower, but there it is. She really was a genius, more than he could ever dare to claim to be.
He thinks back to how she’d found him earlier, getting frustrated at a machine, at his own work, and of his refusal to talk with the Nanites. He wasn’t ready to accept that reality just yet. Then he remembered something else.
“Ivor, who tried to call me earlier?”
Mr Pink Sir.
“Seriously?” He says rubbing his temples, “You could have… never mind just call him back will you?”
After a moment the sleazy voice of Mr Pink stains the air.
“Ah Dr Eisenmann, I was starting to give up hope.”
“I haven’t blown myself up yet Pink, so how did it go?”
“Amazing, you truly are an uncredited genius sir, ‘cause of you, all of my family have been freed from their immoral incarcerations.”
“I’m sure they’re all happy in the knowledge that they’ll be spending the rest of their days locked up together instead of apart.” Felix says.
“It is what it is. How are your efforts coming along? Any breakthroughs yet?”
“Actually as of today things are starting to look promising, might be able to make a difference after all.”
“That’s the spirit kid, that’s what I want to hear.”
“And what I’d like to hear is the sound of money being transfered over.”
“No problem, anything else you need?”
“Anything else?” Felix frowns, “Why? What are you selling?”
“Money isn’t going to mean much in a few years, I’ve closed down all my businesses, and moved my entire work force and family to my private underground bunker. I got more bodies than work, so in the interest of furthering your interests, I and my family are at your disposal, you need anything, they’ll get it for you.”
“Well… I don’t quite know what to say.” Felix says.
“I’m sure you will have plenty to say soon enough, so I’ve sent a message to your server, contact my people through that.”
“Will do, Thank you Mr Pink.” Felix says.
“Anytime.” Mr Pink replies, before hanging up.
“Who was that?” Irene asks as she hurries back into the room.
“Someone who is willing to help. Believe it or not. How did your call go?” She slumps back into her chair. “It wasn’t great, it took a lot just to persuade Johnathan to believe me, that man can be so stubborn at times. Then trying to convince the Chief was a whole other battle.”
“If it doesn’t blow stuff up he’s not interested.” Felix chuckles.
“Yeah, you’re right, so I told him about the suits-“
“You did what?” Felix cuts her off. “But they’re not-“
Now she cuts him off, “I told him they’re not ready, but they’re the only thing that’s going to interest his simple mind, and it worked.”
“What?”
“We got the funding.” She grins madly at him.
“Seriously?” His mouth drops open.
“No, I thought you could do with a little torture, yes of course seriously.”
“This is epic, this is…” Felix pauses, and wipes his hand over his mouth and down his short beard.
“Ivor, we’re in business, order everything we’ve put forward so far, and buy up all the materials we’ll need for the fabricators, they’re going to be working overtime.”
“We need to celebrate.” Irene squeals.
“We need to drink, I’ll go-“ Felix says but stops when she gives him a sudden stern look.
“No, this will not be celebrated with your synthehol, we need real alcohol.” She says.
Felix can’t hold back the laugh that bursts out.
“Real alcohol? You’re kidding? That was banned decades ago.” He says.
“Just because something is banned, doesn’t mean it does not exist… You just need to know where to look.”
Felix feels a primal tingle that tenses his muscles. “We’re not going outside are we?”
“You afraid of a little weather?” She grins getting to her feet.
“I don’t usually socialize.” He says, starting to panic.
“Most people don’t these days, they’re all hooked up to some machine or other, you have nothing to worry about, we’re going to go relax, have a real drink, and maybe do some dancing.”
But Felix’s face only grows more fearful as he freezes to the spot.
“Come on,” Irene says, seeing the look in his eyes. “It’ll be good for us to blow off some steam, we’ve been at this for a month straight and we deserve a night off, no, we have earned it.”
Felix checks his watch, “It’s a little after ten in the morning.”
“It’s always night time somewhere, now lets go, I’m not taking no for an answer.”
Irene swans out of the room, skipping and humming like a kid on her way to school.
“Fuck.” Felix says.