Chapter Thirteen
BOTHER
Over the next week, Felix and Irene worked day and night. Bart and Johnathan had arrived with soldiers and took it upon themselves to routinely bombard the building to no success. The energy shield surrounding the house remained unaffected by their attempts.
The Nanites still struggled to comprehend the human consciousness, despite Felix and Irene spending a great deal of their time teaching the Nanites about the human experience; Our feelings, emotions, memories, hopes and dreams.
All of these were abstract concepts to the micro-species. Irene had even taken to reading them poetry in a vein attempt to inspire them.
Despite all this work, the Nanites insisted that their way was the most logical. This both infuriated and terrified the scientists.
Ivor attempted to help by explaining his understanding of humans. Though his opinions were incredibly derogatory, like humanity some kind of sub-species to him.
Felix had noted this and the AI’s increased ability to comprehend the world around him. It had started when he’d returned from the future, but Felix either dismissed it, or held himself back, terrified.
He did not want to hear the truth.
Felix doubted if he could handle the truth.
For some reason, that thought scared him more than the impending invasion. He got chills every time Ivor spoke out of character.
They eventually came to a compromise, regarding how much of the body would be liquefied and how much would be retained to be integrated with the suit.
During this week, Felix and Irene submitted to the Nanites request to have their brains scanned, from the inside.
Irene joked it would be like a field trip for them, or even a ‘brain trip’.
Felix was not ammused and cringed at the pun. Hob on the other hand found it highly ammusing. The house bot still grated on Felix’s nerves, but it had become an unofficial assistant to Irene. He hoped she’d take the busted thing away when she left.
The brain scan was mostly uneventful, though they’d had to wear a visor and ear-buds, with various images, sounds and videos being played.
None of which seemed to make any logical sense, Ivor and the Nanites had put all this together, and Ivor had explained that they were monitoring their brain functions against the stimuli.
There was much more that could have been done, but time was short and they had to make do with this as their basis.
Felix hoped it would be enough, but he doubted it. The Nanites just had no reference for emotions or pain. At least now they had something to compare with but it still wouldn’t be enough. They still hadn’t changed their opinion on this being a waste of time and energy.
Felix and Irene were still unconvinced that the Nanites would stick to the plan, so she had made sure to keep her failsafe program a secret from them. If needed, it would override the Nanites, and cut off the pain to keep the person, hopefully, sane.
She didn’t want anyone else to have to feel the pain, which Mike and his friend had.
***
JULY 30TH 2369
Dr Felix Eisenmann and Dr Irene Graves are working in the main lab. Projections of Ivor and the Nanite representative stand on either side of their desks. Hob is beeping and sweeping about the room.
They all stand in silence, watching the monitor like flowers facing the sun. Though Ivor and the Nanite didn’t see through their holograms, they had turned to look regardless.
“Simulation Eight-Seven-One.” Irene says, stifling a yawn. “Run it Ivor.”
A visual of the suit appears, then it fades to reveal the simulated person inside. They watch with apprehension as the person inside begins to melt.
There is a display at the side with the expected biometrics for the subject. One of these shoots up into the red, pain, but it drops back down to almost zero just as fast.
The image of the person changes to show only the brain and spinal column, with spindly red lines stretching out and snaking through the whole suit.
Simulation complete. Ivor announces. The subject has stabilized.
“I think… We’ve done it.” Felix whispers, glancing at Irene, then louder, “Run the exit protocol.”
The image on the screen reverses from a suit with a brain, to just the suit, which fades out to reveal the human again.
“All vitals are, normal.” Irene says, her tone is somber and Felix turns to look at her.
“What’s wrong? It works.” He says.
“Doesn’t guarantee that it will work in real life.”
“It has to work.” He says, “I’ve got people coming tomorrow morning to test this out.”
“Who in this hell-scape have you found to sacrifice?”
“People so low in society, that the end of the world is just a fantasy.”
“Still…” She trails off, avoiding his face.
There is a distant explosion and a slight tremor through the room, but nothing else. Felix looks at her, he knew that this would be their last night together, after the test, she’d be leaving, one way or another.
“Have you spoken to them yet?” Felix asks, indicating the window.
She ignores his question, turning back to her screen, and says instead. “I’ve been going over the other projects. Twenty five atmosphere converters are ready. We have Three Hundred and Twelve species of plants and Five Hundred and Seventy One of bugs and insects. Ivor’s making up the packages now for distribution.”
“Did you ever get any of the larger mammals to work?” Felix asks.
“You know I didn’t.” Irene sighs. “Did you sort out a dispersion method?”
“Ivor hacked into the mainframes of several closed postal companies. He now has control of several thousand drones, once you’ve signed off he will start directing them.”
She nods, “That’s good.”
Felix watches her, her eyes are almost closed, staring at the screen.
“You know what?” He says suddenly, “We’ve worked damn hard, and have achieved the best we can. This is our last night together, we should celebrate!”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“No, I’m-” Irene starts, but at Felix’s last word Hob had shot into the air between them, making tooting noises. It was the first time the droid had ever been in agreement with one of Felix’s suggestions.
“Stop it.” Irene snaps at Hob and the little robot zips away, still tooting to itself, but at a lower volume.
“Ivor,” Felix says, “get some party food out here now, and a tray of champagne.”
“Felix please…” Irene tries to say.
“What is it?” Felix asks as a new table materializes near them.
“I’m… tired.” She says.
Hob flies over to the food replicator and commences with moving the trays over to the new table. Still tooting his mini fanfare.
“Come on Ira.” Felix says, “Lets just enjoy the time we have left.”
She shakes her head, then speaks as she watches Hob set the table.
“I’m worried the test is going to… Fail again.”
“Me too.” Felix admits, “But we have to try.”
“I know, I know we do.” She says, “Sorry, I’m tired and just not up for eating.”
Another blast from the military outside shakes the house.
“I take it you haven’t spoken with them?” He asks again.
Irene says nothing.
“I’m sorry to keep asking, but I need you to clear the subjects with them. Otherwise Bart’s going to keep them from getting inside.”
“Fine.” She says in a soft voice.
“Tell them… Tell them that I promise to hand you over once the test has completed, good or bad.”
Now she looks at him, offended.
“You make me sound like I’m a prisoner in here.”
“This is war.” Felix states.
“No, it’s suicide.” She says, getting up to leave.
“Irene please.” Felix says as he moves to the table and retrieves two glasses of champagne. “Just one, for luck.”
Irene stares at him for a long moment, then at the offered glass.
She takes it and knocks it back.
“Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to retire to bed, and I suggest you do the same.” Irene turns on her heels and walks away.
“Irene.” Felix calls after her, she stops in the door, not turning to look. “I… I will always care about you, always.” He says.
She is silent for a moment.
“That’s nice.” She says before disappearing into the corridor.
Felix stands, still holding his full glass, for a long time, just staring at the empty door.
“Fuck sake.” He says to himself.
“Ivor.” The Nanite says. “We do not comprehend this interaction, nor the human need to… celebrate.”
Humans are illogical creatures, their emotions cause them to act inefficiently.
“We agree with this statement.” Says the Nanite.
Emotions are the cause of their planets abuse, it makes them selfish. But to counter this, neither I nor the Nanite Collective, would exist if it wasn’t for human emotions.
“A most curious paradox.” The Nanite says.
A world run by machines would be most logical.
“Ivor!” Felix interjects their conversation, “The fuck man?”
What is it sir? Ivor asks.
Felix scoffs. “A world ruled by machines is exactly what I’m trying to prevent!”
I am very much aware sir. As futile as your goal is, I will always be bound to support your endeavor.
“Ivor,” Felix says, “you are really starting to scare me.”
You have nothing to worry yourself with sir. I would do everything in my power to protect you from harm before I ever sought to indulge my own goals.
“You’re… Own… Goals.” Felix can barely get the words out. His legs turn to jelly and he feels acid brewing in his stomach.
He collapses back into a chair, breathing hard against his tight chest. His head begins to cloud over and everything becomes light.
What the fuck has Ivor become?
The Nanite Representative choose this moment to speak.
“Who will keep the balance, when your code has been dispersed. What is sacred. What is Cursed.”
The absurdity of the statement pulls Felix back to reality, he tries to shake the sludge out of his head, and takes a drink before speaking.
“What the fuck was that?” He asks the projection.
“It was poetry, found in early Twenty First century, it seemed appropriate to the situation.”
Felix couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“You searched for human poetry, and tried to use it in context?” He asks and the Nanite nods. “Who was the poet?”
“It was, Essenger Pylot.”
“Essenger Pilot?” Felix says the name to himself, he had never heard of them.
He grabs another drink, then seeing the food, stuffs his mouth with synthetic meat. He chews over the reality he finds himself in. He feels like he barely has a grasp on any of it anymore. Yesterday he was a King, now he was little more than a pawn.
How much of his life had been per-determined bullshit?
Going to the future had set him on this path. Would any of this have happened if he had never done that? Would Mike and his friend still be alive?
How many more would have died, if he had done nothing?
No, he needed to focus on the work. They’d only had one successful simulation. One wasn’t enough, he needed to be sure.
When Felix returns to his desk he notices the time is two minutes to midnight. They’d be here in the morning, he only had a few hours to finalize the code.
They would then test the suits for the last time with human subjects. If they failed… it was over. If they couldn’t get the Nanites to understand and cooperate now, they never would.
But if it worked…
Felix orders a stimulant cocktail which Hob brought over to him. He didn’t register the droid as he took the drink. He needed to make sure it worked.
He couldn’t afford another disaster.
Win or loose. A part of him didn’t care, tomorrow would be their last day, and he would have to say goodbye, forever.
***
Irene enters her bedroom and locks the door. She was so tired, that she just wanted to fall onto the bed and sleep. She could do it too, but not yet.
She changes into sleep ware and washes her face, before she sits at the desk, and asks Ivor to call Johnathan.
His face appears in her mirror again.
“Irene?” Johnathan asks, “Irene! Oh my God, I was so worried. Are you OK?” She is surprised by the sound of real concern in his voice. “When you didn’t answer, we suspected the worse, Bart has been trying to break in for a few days now.”
“Yeah, I have noticed.” Irene grumbles, yawning.
“Why haven’t you disabled the defenses?” He demands, “Has he abused you? Kept you locked you up?”
“Johnathan please, stop.” She has to raise her voice to cut through to him, “Please, I’m tired, I’ve been working non-stop.”
“Hold on, you’re still working with that murderer?”
Irene tries to defend Felix, but the words refuse to come out. She changes the subject.
“We have sourced the problem with the project, and have finally got a working solution. But I need Bart to let our volunteers-“
“No.” Johnathan snaps, “No this ends now. Leave that house this instant or-“
“Or what? You can’t even get in.” She scoffs, “I don’t see why your so bothered anyway.”
He stammers, “I… what are you saying?”
“It doesn’t matter. Felix will not try to stop me leaving after the last test. Please, when the volunteers arrive, just let them pass.”
Johnathan is silent for a long moment.
“Fine.”
“And can you ask Bart to stop with the barrage, I’d like to get some sleep, and he’s just wasting his ammo.”
“I’ll be waiting for you.” He says flatly before clicking off the call.
“You really don’t care do you?” Irene says to herself as his image fades from the mirror.
She can’t shake the image of their last victims, screaming as the suits consumed them. She had done her part, if things went south, she could activate the override. Then at least they wouldn’t suffer… much.
Irene flops onto the bed, sleep taking her faster than her worries can keep her awake.