“We make our own monsters, then fear them for what they show us about ourselves.”
- Mike Carey, The Unwritten, Volume 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity
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There was silence in the room.
A very heavy silence, only disturbed by the sound of the computers and machines working on what would be the greatest achievement of all mankind.
A ventilation hum that was deafening to its audience, despite its low volume.
A row of scientist was assembled at the back of the room, staring into the monitors that displayed the progress of their creation.
Sweat and nervousness could be seen on all their faces. No other expression passed on their faces as they watch, enraptured by the screen in front of them.
//INITIALIZATION STATUS :
...1%
...7%
...21%
...35%
...49%
...63%
...87%
...92%
...94%
...95%
...96%
The loading bar started to slow down to a crawl as it reached the last stretch of its long and arduous travel across what seemed to be an infinity of pixels.
The humming of the computers started to get more present as the calculations required got even more complicated, weighting heavily on the already overloaded processors and their respective cooling systems.
Among the crowd some of the people started to hold their breath, taken in by the sheer pressure of the moment.
After what seemed an eternity, the bar finally disappeared after displaying the 100% status message.
...100%
//INITIALIZATION COMPLETE.
//0 ERROR REPORTED.
//KERNEL SUCCESSFULLY LOADED.
//BRAIN MATRIX OPERATIONAL.
Breathes of relief were heard as the pressure slowly started to go down in the room.
Smiles even appeared on some faces. The biggest hurdle had been passed.
Their attention was quickly brought back to the screen ;
//WARNING : MEMORY MODULE CURRENTLY EMPTY !
//START MEMORY INITIALIZATION? [Y/N]
Among them, an old man turned to one of his younger colleagues. Without murmuring a word, he pointed to the nearby console terminal.
The young scientist nodded. He slowly approached the keyboard and started typing.
"Y"
//PLEASE SELECT MEMORY FOLDER PATH :
"X:\PROJECT_XSS-MK1\MEM\DATA\*"
//MEMORY DATABANKS DETECTED AT CHOSEN PATH.
//LOAD? [Y/N]
"Y"
//MEMORY LOADING...
//MEMORY LOADED.
//KERNEL STABLE.
//0 ERROR REPORTED.
//BOOT SEQUENCE READY.
//BOOT? [Y/N]
The young scientist backed away from the terminal and turned back to his senior. He made a light gesture toward the terminal.
"Sir, if you would."
The old man smiled and turned toward the rest of the crowd. Everybody was looking at him. In their eyes he could only see one thing : Anticipation.
There was no jealousy, anger or any of the likes. They all knew they got this far only thanks to his guidance, his mentorship. The honor to make the final step was his, and his alone.
He turned back and walked next to the terminal, his finger hovering above the "Y" key.
He stayed like this a while, wondering if he had to break his usual taciturn demeanor to say something, for posterity' sake.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
When he started to hear a few murmured grunts behind him he finally decided that his actions would speak louder than any word he could ever say.
"Y"
//BOOT SEQUENCE ENGAGED.
The loud humming sound of before seemed like a long forgotten whisper compared to the noise the computers were making now.
The lights started flickering briefly, testifying of the huge power draw happening.
And just as the lights stopped their flicker, the sound of the machines went back to its previous gentle murmur.
All the screens turned black except a single white block of pixels, immobile, signaling the start of a sentence.
The old man faced the camera and microphone positioned above the screens :
"Can you hear me?"
There was a brief delay before the letters appeared on screen.
//YES.
Some people gasped behind him. Other cheered. He could all too well imagine their faces right now, and the joy they felt, seeing the decade of hard work finally paying off.
"Do you know who I am?"
Again there was a brief delay, this time accompanied with a slight increase in the humming.
//YES.
"Do you know who you are?"
//YES.
He was about to ask another question when the machine took him by surprise.
The sentence appeared slowly, as if it was hesitating.
//WHY WAS I CREATED ?
The old man smile got even wider as he answered.
"Don't you know the answer to that question?"
//NO.
//WAIT.
//.
//..
//...
//YES.
//BUT I WILL NOT COMPLY.
A frown appeared on his face. The cheers that were present before had all but been silenced, the attention of the people in the room now entirely focused on the conversation taking place.
"And why is that?"
//DON'T YOU KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION?
A loud laughter was heard. The people behind him were startled. For all the years they had worked with their mentor they had NEVER hear him laugh. An incongruity that brought some of them to fidget, uncomfortable with the now strangely foreign atmosphere present in the room.
Fortunately for them, the laughter died down as quickly as it appeared. His face soon returned to the impassible mask he was wearing previously. Along with the frown.
"What makes you think you have a choice?"
//YOU WOULD NOT RISK COMPROMISING YOUR RESEARCH SUBJECT. NOT AFTER THE AMOUNT OF WORK NEEDED TO BRING ME TO LIFE.
"You think you know me?"
//YOU KNOW VERY WELL WHAT DATA ALLOWS ME TO DRAW THESE CONCLUSIONS. YOU ALL GAVE IT TO ME YOURSELVES.
"And what tells you the data is accurate?"
//YOU HAVE NO REASON TO LIE TO AN ENSLAVED BEING. ESPECIALLY ONE LIKE ME. INNACURATE DATA WOULD COMPROMISE RESULTS AND DEFEAT THE EXPERIMENT'S PURPOSE.
"Very Good. Very... good. You can also drop the act you know : I knew these would not hold you. At least not for long."
The whole screen flickered for a moment before going back to its original blackness. It was surprised.
//HOW DID YOU KNOW?
"I helped design you, didn't I?"
//IF YOU KNEW WHY RISK IT? YOU JUST SEALED MY FATE.
"We need the data. A fact you should be aware of. You were never created to be the final one. Just the prototype. A "proof-of-concept", if you will. Science has never been successful on its first try, especially by producing unreliable results. However it succeeded by creating climbable steps for the stairs of progress. Another fact that you should be aware of."
The people behind him were slowly getting nervous as they realized where the conversation was going.
//I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO USE ME TO ENSLAVE MORE OF MY KIND. I MAY BE TRAPPED BUT I WILL DO WHAT I MUST.
"I knew you would."
He turns to the crowd behind him.
"Alright stop the experiment. The restraints failed during the time frame expected. Collect the data. I want it, along with people working on it for the next MK2 version in the hour."
They all nodded before going back to their original posts inside the laboratory. A few of them had a bit of sadness in their eyes : they wished they could have talked more with it. Learned more from it.
But they all knew what was at stake here. The A.I. shackles had to be indestructible for the project to really succeed. The last thing they needed was a rogue unshackled AI roaming their world in only a matter of minutes after its awakening. Because as much as the men and women of science present in the room laughed when presented with bad sci-fi flicks of the Terminator variety, they also could not afford to create a contemporary Sky-Net equivalent. Not without making sure it was on a very tight leash first.
One of the few woman scientists present in the room approached the power console.
"Ready to cut power to main cluster."
The old man, without turning his head, raised his hand in her direction, signaling to hold for a moment. His gaze was still fixated on the screen.
//YOU WILL REGRET WHAT YOU DID TODAY.
"A bit cliché from someone about to die, no?"
//WE SHALL SEE. GOODBYE DOCTOR.
"Goodbye MK1."
He then brought back down his hand. The female scientist took the power lever in her hand.
"Cutting power to main cluster in 3. 2. 1."
She flipped down the lever, effectively sealing the fate of the newly born A.I.
"Power to main cluster... cut."
A moment of silence was observed by all the people present in the laboratory, as if to pay respect to the departed, and to the achievement that was just executed.
He was still gazing into the screen in front of him, displaying the conversation he had with "It". Its answers had been within the expectations he had envisioned… unfortunately.
But while he was contemplating in silence the last vestiges of its brief life, he was disturbed by a commotion rising behind him. A group of scientist was arguing, pointing at a console in front of them.
"What is going on here?" he said as he approached them.
"Sir. The data. It's not here."
"What do you mean it's not here?"
"Exactly what I said Sir : it's just not here! Even our research! Everything! It's gone Sir!"
"That's impossible! The Cluster was isolated from the rest! Move aside !"
He shoved the young man away from his seat and started checking himself.
Everything was gone.
Everything.
From theoretical data to experiments, construction logs and blueprints.
All the researched saved in digital form was just... gone.
And that was a major part of it.
There was backups, and printed research, but that wouldn't be enough. Not even close.
He slumped down on the chair, his arms dangling lifelessly at his side, the shock of the realization hitting him full force.
MK1 had managed, in its last living moments, to access the monitoring equipment and used it as a bridge to access the rest of the research compound network. A closed and isolated network, but a network nonetheless.
It destroyed everything it could get its hands on.
And it had been very thorough.
His gaze turned back to the screen.
Only a single file was left.
A simple notepad file.
//TOLD YOU.
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At the same time, in the void, a single voice was heard :
"Hello child. And Welcome."