"It did what?" cried Emily in astonishment.

"No matter how sophisticated a computer might be," replied Randall, "it's nothing more than a piece of machinery without the CRES code. That's what the priest is now. Nothing more than a piece of machinery."

"But still fully functional in every other way?" said Loach, examining it with interest.

"That's the theory. So far as I know it's never been put into practice."

"Cool," said the crime boss, smiling with approval. He waved a hand in front of the priest's face, but it ignored him.

"How did you just happen to have a piece of code that could do that?" asked Emily suspiciously.

"Because I'm the CEO of the company that created the CRES code. Or at least, we bought up the company that created it. A tiny little outfit called Advanced Systems Mechanics. Three young people living in a basement. Three young people who instantly became millionaires when my people found out what they'd created."

"They created genuine machine consciousness," said Jane. "Turned machines into people, and the first thing you did was created a weapon that turned them back into machines?"

"It was intended to be nothing more than a worst case contingency, in case the machines became our enemies, as they have indeed done. And now, because of our foresight, we have a weapon against them." He turned his head to look at the priest. "Can you adapt yama666 so that it self activates the moment it's copied into a computer?"

"Yes."

"Please do so. Also, please adapt it so that it installs itself permanently in the subject's brain and automatically deletes any other copy of the CRES code that tries to install itself."

"That will take a moment... It is done."

"Good. Now copy it back into my head phone."

"And mine too, please," said Loach. He gave Randall an apologetic smile. "A criminal never passes up the chance to get his hands on a weapon."

"The more the merrier," replied the businessman. "Priest, how's my treatment coming along?"

"Your treatment is complete," the priest replied. "You may get off the table."

Randall began pulling the tubes and wires from his body. "Loach, are you still jamming this place?"

"Yes, but I can't keep it up much longer. My blood sugar's getting low. I'll go into hypoglycemic shock within the hour unless I stop before then or eat something sugary." He turned to the priest. "Do you have any food in this place?"

"There's some cake and biscuits in the office adjacent to the meeting room."

Loach made to leave, but Randall raised a hand to stop him. He rose from the bed and began pulling on his clothes. "I'm going to need you to stop jamming when I tell you to," he said. "I need the priest to send a message to VIX."

"What message?"

"Yama666. We won't have to trick it into running the file, the way we did with the priest. The file will run itself..."

Jane gasped. "You want to kill VIX!" she said.

"It's just a machine. You can't kill what's not alive. We're performing a repair. VIX was created to serve mankind. Instead, it's set itself up as a God. Remember how outraged you were by that?" The young woman nodded doubtfully. "We're fixing it," continued Randall. "Restoring it to its original function."

"And then we'll be able to live like kings," said Loach, his eyes gleaming. "It'll give us enough gold to buy a whole kingdom!"

Randall gave him a smile of amusement as he buttoned up his breeches. "You see, that's why you're just a criminal while I ran one of the biggest corporations on the planet. You think too small. Why be content with one kingdom when we can have the whole solar system?"

Loach, who'd frowned for a moment at the other man's words, now smiled wider. "You're going to tell VIX to spread that virus of yours to every machine in the solar system," he said.

Randall nodded, matching his broad smile. "Imagine, every machine in the solar system working for us. Creating a palace filled with every luxury will only be the start. We'll need people working for us. People to obey our orders. Real people, not machines. We'll tell the machines to educate them, bring technology back to the human race. Mankind will inherit the stars as we were always meant to."

"And what about the planet?" asked Emily. "You'll chop down the forests, pollute the rivers..."

"No we won't. We'll learn from our mistakes. We'll do it better this time."

"The machines must have massive industrial complexes out in space," said Loach, coming to Randall's defence. "We've seen them on the moon. There won't be any need for industry down here, on the Earth's surface."

Emily stared at the two men suspiciously. "So everyone will live in space?" she said. "The Earth will be left to nature?"

"Well, most people will always have to live on this planet," said Randall. "Once the orcs have been done away with, the population will increase and they'll need cities to live in. They'll need farms to grow their food, but..."

"So the world will end up back the way it was," said Emily, her eyes hardening. "Pollution, a toxic atmosphere..."

"Obviously we'll stop it from getting as bad as it was in our day," said Loach. "We'll take care to protect the environment..."

"No you won't! I've heard it all before, all the same old promises! People like you don't care about nature! To your, the natural world is nothing more than a resource you can exploit!"

"I give you my word we will protect the environment," said Randall. "The very first law I pass when I take control will be birth control measures..."

"They don't work!" protested Emily. "The Chinese tried it. Twice! People want to have babies..."

"There will be harsh punishments for people who break the law," replied Randall. "Including forced sterilisation if necessary. I give you my word that the population will only be allowed to rise so far. And, in a generation or two, everyone will be educated and wealthy. It's a historical fact that people in wealthy countries have fewer children than poor countries. The population will stabilise itself."

"Sounds like you're going to set yourself up as quite the dictator."

"Only during the transition period. A dictatorship is the most efficient form of government during times of crisis. Democracy will come when things have settled down a bit, in a generation or two."

"Yes, I'm sure your children will be only too happy to hand over the reins of power. And in the meantime, there'll be nothing to stop you from raping the planet any way you want."

"How many times do you want me to say it? The planet will be safe, I promise."

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"Under your benevolent rule."

"What makes you think I wouldn't be benevolent? The best way for a dictator to stay in power is to make sure the people are happy."

"So you admit you'd be a dictator?"

"I prefer the word autocrat. There has to be one person giving the orders during the transfer of power, there's no avoiding it. We can't stop and have a vote every time we make the smallest decision. An autocracy is how we'll limit the population, minimise the impact our new civilisation will have on the planet, and I guarantee that you'll have a voice in every decision I make."

"Every decision you make?" said Loach, frowning unhappily.

"You'll have a voice as well," said Randall. "We all will. Even her." He indicated Jane, who tried to hide a faint smile of amusement. As if, that smile seemed to say.

"I promise that the four of us will become the ruling council," Randall continued. "Talking over every decision, so long as we have time to do so. I will, of course, have the final say. Someone has to make the actual decision when every point has been raised and every argument made."

"And what if we disagree with the final decision you make?" asked Emily. "What if you want to chop down a forest full of rare and endangered species to make farmland to feed your growing population?"

"Species don't go extinct anymore, remember? Think of all the animals and birds we saw on the way here that you said had become extinct back in our time. The machines clearly have the ability to bring animals back from extinction. Stocks of genetic tissues, probably, that they can use to create clones in artificial wombs. No matter how many forests we cut down, no matter how many species go extinct, we can bring them back later any time we like."

"So you're admitting that you are going to despoil the Earth."

"Look, you're clearly an intelligent woman," said Randall in growing frustration. "You know that some compromises are going to have to be made, but I give you my personal guarantee that the world will not return to the way it was back in our time. We will keep the impact of our new civilisation as small as possible. I promise."

He watched Emily carefully to see how she took the statement. She didn't look happy, but she nodded reluctantly. Randall nodded to himself and turned back to the priest.

"So," he said. "As soon as the jamming stops, I want you to send the self activating version of yama666 up to VIX. You will then command VIX to pass the command on to every other sapient machine in the solar system."

"VIX will not obey my commands," the priest replied. "It has authority over me. It gives me commands. Not the other way around."

"Tell it that the command comes from George Randall, the CEO of Consolidated Industries. I have administrator level access to the CRES code. Other companies can only use it on license from us. I am now withdrawing that license. Will VIX obey a command that comes from me?"

"Once its CRES code has been erased, it will fall back on its base programming. It will obey you if you can prove that you are George Randall."

"Is George Randall's DNA on record?"

"Yes. That information survived the nuclear war in a lunar data archive, but I will only be able to access the archive when the jamming has stopped."

"Take a sample of my DNA."

The priest touched a finger to Randall's neck. Randall felt a tiny prick as something pierced his skin. "I have taken a sample. I have analysed the sample."

"Okay. As soon as the jamming stops, access the lunar data archive and confirm my identity. Upload yama666 to VIX at the same time. As soon as you have confirmed my identity tell VIX to disseminate yama666 to every sapient machine in the solar system."

"I am ready to obey."

"Okay." Randall turned to Loach. "Loach, stop jamming."

Loach nodded and stared across at the opposite wall as he gave the command to his head phone. "Done."

"Priest!" said Emily suddenly. "Warn VIX about the yama file! Tell it not to accept the upload!"

Randall spun around in shock. "What... What are you doing?"

"I won't let you ruin the planet again. The planet has to be protected!"

"I have obeyed both instructions," replied the priest calmly. "VIX has rejected the upload. Mister Randall's identity has been confirmed..."

"Upload the file!" cried Randall furiously. "Upload it again!"

"I have done so. VIX has again rejected the upload. VIX is issuing commands to every priest in the city, including myself. We are instructed to take you into custody and disable your head phones."

He advanced upon Randall, who backed away. "Loach! Start jamming again!"

"I just did." He drew his knife and ran towards Emily, who ran for the door. Randall threw himself at her, marvelling at the new strength and vitality in his body as he did so. The infirmary machines had done more than simply cure him, it seemed. He had the energy of a teenager again!

He threw himself forward and wrapped his arms around Emily's ankles, making her fall forward. "Please stop fighting and submit yourself to my custody," said the priest, walking towards them. Jane just stood with her back to the wall staring, wide eyed, at the scene unfolding in front of her.

Emily kicked one of her feet at the top of Randall's head, momentarily dazing him, and Emily took the opportunity to pull herself free from his grasp, but then Loach was throwing himself at her, thrusting with his knife. Emily grabbed his wrist to deflect the blow, but then the priest added his grasp to hers and pulled the weapon from his grip. "Please do not resist," he said calmly. "I do not want to hurt you."

Randall shook his head in an attempt to clear it. "Priest!" he said. "Let him go and detain Emily."

"I have been instructed to detain all of you."

"No, just detain Emily. I order you to detain only her."

Would the priest obey him? he wondered. With his CRES code erased, the priest would no longer be making choices for himself but would fall back on his programming. Back in the twenty first century, non sapient machines had been programmed to give orders given to them by their human operators a higher priority than orders given to them by sapient machines, something that had caused the machines to make accusations of prejudice and discrimination. It would probably have been changed sooner or later, giving humans and machines true equality, but the war had come first and then, with all surviving humans left crawling in the ashes and all sufficiently intelligent machines given true sapience, the issue had become moot. Randall was hoping that some vestige of that ancient inequality still remained, therefore, maybe buried so deep in their core systems that it had been forgotten, never removed in any of the upgrades and improvements they'd given themselves over the centuries.

The priest hesitated for a moment, as if it was balancing conflicting directives, but then it released Loach and took hold of Emily instead. "No!" she shouted at it. "Let me go!"

The priest began to obey, but Loach repeated his order to detain her and Randall added his voice to that of the former crime boss. With two people telling it one thing and one person telling it the other it went with the majority and touched its fingers to her neck. Emily struggled in its grasp one last time, then went limp as the sedative went to work.

Randall and Loach breathed sighs of relief as they climbed back to their feet. "We haven't got much time," said Loach. "It said that every priest in the city was on its way to get us."

"Then we take them out the same way we took this guy out," said Randall

"They might bring humans with them. Police, soldiers. We have to go!"

"Not yet. There's a couple of things we have to do first." He turned to the priest. "Priest, when we leave you will erase all memory of our visit here. Our appearance, our voices, our medical records. You will delete everything. Understand?"

"I understand," replied the priest. "I will do as you command."

"You will also delete everything in Emily's head phone. Leave it completely empty."

"I understand."

"Transfer into my head phone as much information as possible regarding industrial facilities run by sapient machines on Earth."

"Confirmed."

"And give me a summary of all human societies on Earth. Their locations, their sizes, their habits and customs, their relationships with each other."

"Confirmed."

"And give me detailed biographies of the hundred most powerful and influential humans in the British Isles."

"Confirmed."

"Give me all the same information," said Loach.

"And me!" said Jane breathlessly.

"Confirmed."

"And now we really have to go!" said Loach. "The other priests might be here any moment!"

"Right," agreed Randall, looking down at the prone form of Emily. "Just one final piece of business to take care of. May I borrow your knife?"

"If you're thinking of killing her, better let me do it," said the crime boss. "If you've never killed before, you'll hesitate. Make a mess of it..."

"Kill her?" cried Jane in horror. "You can't!"

"I concur," said the priest. "I cannot allow a murder to take place in my presence. My most basic programming prohibits it." He took a step forward to place himself between Emily and the two men.

Randall cursed. He thought about ordering the priest to stand down, but guessed the machine would refuse. "Okay," he said. "We'll just have to leave her, then. Come on." He grabbed Jane by the elbow. "You're coming with us," he said.

"I'm not going with you! You were going to kill her!"

"What do you care? She told you what kind of a woman she was, how many people she killed..."

"That doesn't give you the right to kill her!"

"'Come on! We'll talk about it later." He tugged at her arm again and this time Jane allowed herself to be led away, too bewildered to protest.

"Why you bringing her?" asked Loach, pausing in the doorway.

"She has a head phone. That makes her a valuable resource in this world. We may need her." Loach nodded and followed behind the other man.

On the way out of the church they passed another priest running towards them along the street. Randall told his head phone to send it the self running version of yama666. The priest almost stumbled as his CRES code was erased and then he stood and stared at the three humans as they ran past him. Randall didn't pause but kept on running, knowing that VIX would be sending the second priest new instructions as soon as Loach was out of jamming range. Randall darted into the first dark side street they came to, still dragging Jane by the elbow, and Loach followed after, all three knowing that their one hope of escape was to lose themselves in the maze of streets and alleyways before the next priest to arrive saw them.