Wanting to get there as quickly as possible, I drove to the hospital instead of running there. Vehicles were backed up into the street, so instead of trying to find a spot in their parking spot I paid for a spot in a car park a block away and ran to the emergency room. I stepped around the front of several ambulances parked beside each other, every vehicle offloading patients before lining up in front of the door with them. Most of the crew seemed exhausted, with a few coughing or looking like they were coming down with a cold. Apparently, even the paramedics were getting sick, and when they started growing too few in number, even fewer people would be able to take the emergency ride here.
I entered the pedestrian door to see that almost all of the floor space, including the nearby hallways, had patients laying there, with only walkways wide enough for a stretcher to move around them. I saw Tim talking to the receptionist, then going over to a patient to begin running tests. They must have run out of nurses to run the tests and had to recruit qualified paramedics to do the job. I didn’t want to disturb him while he was working, but if I was going to be able to help he would be my best chance at joining the crew as a volunteer.
I just wasn’t sure how I could help. I had had some success using Align Nanites on people with fevers, but it was an emergency method, essentially overpowering the corrupted nanites with uncorrupted ones. There had to be a better, more efficient way.
I took a step towards the sickest looking person that was close to me and was about to start spamming that power on the patients here when I saw someone I recognized. I ran over to the stretcher. “Di?” I asked.
“Greg?” she asked, sitting up just enough to look at me, an act which took considerable effort. “Are you sick too?”
“No, I was hoping to volunteer to help. I just saw you over here.” I grabbed her hand for support and ran Thermometer. 106.3. She probably had less than a day before the fever killed her. She had helped me on my mission and asked nothing in return. The least I could do is help her.
She nodded, closed her eyes, and laid back down. I closed my eyes to think. Hopefully, to everyone seeing this, I would just be visiting a sick friend or family member. I sent some of my nanites into her body and found the corrupted ones. I tried communicating with them, but they either couldn’t or wouldn’t speak with mine. I tried using Align Nanites on a single corrupted one, but got an error message. Apparently communications were required to align them. Then how could I fix this?
They had to be communicating with each other, right? I looked for any signals or energy coming off of them, and found that they occasionally sent out a few thousand photons of light at a specific wavelength. After storing several dozen of these flashes, I found a pattern. ‘Vera, I need you to analyze the data I just saved. You probably know how to communicate with millions of different types of computers, and trillions of languages, so I’m sure you can manage.’
‘Analyzing.’ she said. I continued to gather data from an ever growing number of nanites, and after a minute or so she spoke again. ‘Pattern analyzed. Apparently they are forming a kind of mesh network with the node that is forming in the brain. It is a very low bandwidth method which I had assumed no advanced network would use when I previously analyzed them.’
‘Can you connect some of my nanites to the mesh, then?’
‘Downloading communication protocol.’ A few seconds later I started getting tiny bits of data from the corrupted nanites. With enough data from the tens of thousands of nanites I was connected to, I learned that they were running a very simple program. They were seeking out anything that didn’t fit a basic pattern and repairing it. Diseases, poisons, cancer, injuries, everything which didn’t meet the ideal was to be fixed. The main problem was that, due to the extremely small amount of data that was being exchanged, the vast majority of the nanites didn’t properly identify problems, and either tried to fix things that weren’t wrong or were incorrectly fixing issues. When those problem nanites start interacting with the immune system the body sees them as an infection and tries to fight them, causing a fever. But because they aren’t susceptible to heat the way most diseases are, the fever grows indefinitely, until the person dies from it.
If the cause was just the low bandwidth, I could likely fix that. ‘Vera, would it be possible to upload a better communication protocol to these nanites?’
‘They should already have one. Let me check.’ A few seconds passed. ‘Huh. It seems like the standard communication protocols have been deleted in favor of improving the healing ability of the nanites. They don’t have the capacity to store the protocols any more, as they are full of medical data and repair programs.’
‘Shouldn’t that program be stored in a Node in the brain instead of inside the nanites?’
‘Yes, but it seems that this method of controlling them was specifically designed to not require a node. Still, she does seem to have a tiny one.’
‘In that case, can you shift enough data to that node to load a new protocol? It doesn’t have to be the best one, just one with enough bandwidth to fix the communications bottleneck.’
‘Maybe. Let me try something.’ Another ten seconds passed before she spoke again. ‘I had a thousand nanites transfer the data to your node, then delete it from themselves. It appears that all of the data was identical between the nanites. I then uploaded a better protocol to them and they were able to speak with each other properly. This severely limited their functions, as they have to communicate with your nanites for any of the information they deleted, but they are able to properly perform their duty. Unfortunately, this means that you will have to stay connected to her for them to function fully.’
It was an improvement, but it wasn’t ideal. Then I remembered something that I had heard in one of the hacking or computer videos I had watched. ‘Vera, do you think you could split the data into a thousand pieces, and spread a bit to each nanite?’
‘It would only allow one in a thousand nanites to perform each specialized role, but sure.’
‘Unless we treated the data like a Torrent file. The nanites could then just pull the data from another nanite with the data when they need it.’
Vera didn’t speak for at least ten seconds, but I could tell that she was thinking about it. I then sensed a burst of activity in both my nanites and Jenn’s. ‘I did it. Now the only issue is that ten thousand is too few nanites to fully fix the issue.’
‘Except that they can speak with each other. Instruct them to start spreading the new method to the other nanites, only deleting the data they don’t need to keep.’ There was a huge increase in the number photon pulses from the nanites and within a minute all nanites within Di were using the new protocols. I nodded. ‘Good, now save that method as “Repair Corrupted Nanites”.’
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
‘Your nanites actually communicate properly, with an even better method than hers do, and because the data is hosted in your Node, not the nanites, it should work even better. The Regeneration skill even means your nanites can even regrow missing limbs given enough time and the Immortality 2 skill means that they can revive you if you die and your body is intact enough or the Regeneration can fix you enough after death. Severe damage will likely take too much energy to get you in a survivable state, thereby making revival either extremely slow or impossible.’
I checked Di’s temperature again and saw that she barely had a fever any more. She seemed to be tired and was sleeping, but in no danger, so I got up. I started using my new technique on other patients, only to have a security guard stop me. As far as they could see, I was just annoying people. I agreed to stop, and went to where Tim was. Maybe he could help me distribute the cure.
He was propped against the wall behind the reception desk, drinking coffee and looking like he needed to sleep. I waved at him and, after noticing me a few seconds later, he came over. “Greg. Surprised to see you here. Did you get sick too? I figured you would be one of the few that didn’t get sick.”
“No, actually.” I responded. “I actually came to see if I could help. I think I figured out how. But it kind of involves why you thought I wouldn’t get sick, so we need some privacy to discuss it.”
Tim nodded. “Sure, follow me.” We went down a hallway to one of the labs. With all that was happening, non-emergency cases were being delayed, so the standard labwork was also being delayed. “We can talk here.”
“Ok. In that case, I take it you ran my bloodwork?”
“Yeah. We found some interesting stuff too. Your nutrient and various chemical levels, like cholesterol, were ideal. We ran it under a powerful microscope and found some sort of extra component to your blood, something that was smaller than a blood cell. We weren’t sure what they were doing.”
“In that case, there is an easy way to tell you. Shake my hand.”
Tim reached out and grabbed my hand. ‘Align Nanites’ I thought.
Tim felt a jolt of something flood into him via his hand and stumbled backwards, releasing his grip. A few seconds later he started getting a slight headache as he felt a slight pressure in his head, like a cold was coming on.
Connection established. You may now utilize the Sapient Empowerment System.
Skill: System Tie In Level 1 acquired.
A mechanical voice entered his head and he looked around to see who said that. ‘Hi. I’m Vera, maybe I can help you answer that question.’ This time it was a slightly sassy female voice. ‘I am Greg’s assistant AI, and I guess now I’m yours as well.’
“Wait, Vera?” Tim asked, still looking around.
“That was fast.” Greg said. “You explain things to him, Vera.”
‘Very well’, the voice in Tim’s head said. ‘What do you want to know?’
“Uh, everything?” Tim said. “What just happened? Who are you? How does that explain why Greg recovered so quickly?”
‘First,’ Vera interrupted, ‘You can talk to me, and I guess Greg too if you don’t mind me relaying the data, in your head. You might want to start doing that before they send you in for a Psych Eval. Second, I already told you who I am. I am your and Greg’s assistant AI. While I’m limited to interacting with the machines inside of you and any machines you give me permission to access, I can do quite a few things with those machines.’
‘But I don’t have machines inside of me.’ Tim thought.
‘Actually, you have since before you were born, but that doesn’t matter right now. What does matter is that what Greg did to you is inject you with ten million nanites, all of which are helping to make you the healthiest you can be. They are currently fixing the nutritional issues caused by your diet of fast food, coffee, and donuts, and trying to coax more nutrients out of that burger in your stomach. It wouldn’t hurt to eat a salad occasionally. After they are done with that, they are going to get to work on that tennis elbow and Carpel Tunnel you are developing. Then they’ll look for more issues to try and remedy. And if you start coming down with this outbreak, we can now fight that too.’
‘So, is Greg some sort of cyborg or something? Where did he get ten million nanites to inject me with?’
‘I suppose technically both of you are. The nanites actually came from the environment, though. You see...’ For the next few minutes Vera explained about the Sapient Empowerment System, which Tim also abbreviated to “the System”, it’s history, how it interacted with humans, how to improve his connection to the System and the benefits he could get by getting to a point where he could install a paradigm.
Tim sat on a technician’s chair, holding his head in shock. ‘So, that’s a lot to take in all at once. Or maybe I’m just going insane. Greg could have injected me with a hallucinogen, I guess, which would mean all of this is just a weird drug trip.’
‘Do you use an Android phone, by any chance?’ Vera asked, confusing Tim with the sudden change of topic.
‘Sure I do.’ Tim pulled the device out of his pocket. ‘What does that have to do with anything?’ The phone beeped and when Tim unlocked it there was a message on screen. “Would you like to install SESHelpdesk.apk?”
“So, you had nanites in you that repaired the damage, and now so do I?”
“Pretty much,” I responded.
“And why would you hide this? This information, these nanites, could save so many lives.”
“We aren’t the only people with them, and many of those that do have a connection to the system are powerful, politically, financially, and physically. Remember those conspiracy theories about shadow governments? I don’t know how true they are, but some powerful people don’t want this information to get out. So I had to keep my knowledge and use of the system a secret, so that they didn’t try and stop me. Now, however, the situation is too serious. You see, this disease isn’t a normal one. It is actually caused by corrupted nanites that were reprogrammed by a pharmaceutical company. So if we are to stop the pandemic, I need to go public with what I know.”
“I see.” he said, then sat there in thought. “So, how do we fight this outbreak? Can I use my nanites to fix it?”
“I don’t know. Vera?”
‘I don’t know if he has enough nanites to use your new skill.’ she said to both of us, though it was obvious she was responding to Greg’s question. ‘He will likely need far more nanites and a full connection to use it.’
“In that case, can I give him a different skill?”
‘That’s possible, though I don’t know how compatible he will be. Sharing skills is a built in function of the system, however.’
“In that case,” I reached out and grabbed Tim’s hand again. “Give him a copy of ‘Absorb Nanites’.”
‘Do I have your permission for the transfer?’ Vera asked Tim, and he nodded. Tim instantly felt sore throughout his body. A few seconds later the feeling faded and a minor headache settled in. ‘Finished.’
“Now what?” Tim asked.
“Now, I go down to the health food store and buy all of the algae powder they have in stock. We will need a lot of nanites for this.”
With that I ran to my car and drove to the store, where I bought all of the algae powder and whey protein they had in stock. The whey wasn’t as nanite dense as the algae, at only a tenth of the nanites per unit of volume, but in this situation I was desperate for enough nanites that it was worth the price.
Thirty minutes and over $1000 of health food later I pulled back into the parking garage. I grabbed the 8 containers of algae and 2 of the 12 whey proteins, as the bulk made carrying more than that too difficult, and went to the emergency room again. This time a completely different set of ambulances were pulled up to the dropoff point, and Tim was outside unloading patients. Twenty minutes later another paramedic came over to give him a break and he walked over. “So, Vera told me about the algae trick. I hope this works. I’m going to look like an idiot.”
“Don’t worry about it. I doubt they think you are buying drugs.” I opened up the first gallon jar of nanite powder, I mean algae powder, and had him put his hand in it and activate the power. After the second jar Vera informed me that he had enough to form a Node in his brain. He allowed it to form, even giving it permission to fully connect to the system so that he could have a Nanite Cultivation Core. Once he ordered it to build one he selected the Role Playing paradigm as well. He would need to sleep before he could properly use it, but he now had more than enough nanites. I transferred “Repair Corrupted Nanites” to him, giving him a worse headache, and he gained it at level 1. While his skills wouldn’t gain bonus XP until the paradigm was installed, he now had better health and a photographic memory, and the XP would be applied once it came online.
I had him drain one more jar before he returned to work. He wanted to test the power before he used it on everyone, so I gave him the rest of the bags of powder. He would leave them in the break room under the excuse that it was energy food for anyone that wanted it, and would just drain one once he needed to replenish his nanites.
He promised to call me after he woke up, which would probably be about six hours after his shift ended so he could do another double shift, and I left. Halfway home, however, I got a notification.
“Vera?” I asked, unsure why I was getting this message.
‘Oh, I submitted your program to the nearest main Node for the system, as I am only allowed to give rewards of up to one thousand Zerka. Your creation of the Repair Corrupted Nanites skill gave us our first effective weapon to use against the corruption, so that contribution was ruled to be worth one hundred thousand Zerka. Congratulations, you created a unique skill, though I have seen similar ones.’