Machines Of Eden Part 15

She remembered the bots in the service bay. They were nearly ready for deployment, but she had been too busy to finish them and send them out on patrol. They had just been sitting there like wrapped presents for the techie running amok on her island.

Stupid, stupid!

She raged in silence, frightened in spite of herself at how close she'd come to dying. If I hadn't slipped... and how did Eve let him get to the bots? That could wait for later. Eve had much to answer for.

She slowly peeked around the edge of the root tangle. The jungle was silent here, but several meters away she could hear her bots advancing to engage the ambushers. Now was the time to move, while the enemy was distracted. If she could circle around she might get a chance at a rifle shot from behind. Precision fire was the best way to take out bots in the absence of heavier guns. If she was lucky, she might even get a clear shot at the techie.

Janice licked her lips.

From seven meters away, SB01 watched her. SB01 was a security bot, lacking the heavy firepower options of KB01 and KB02, but it did carry a perfectly serviceable 9mm semiauto in its left forearm. At the moment SB01 was engaged in a complex routine involving its mission priorities. It, unlike KB01 and KB02, had a priority programming mission already hardwired into its CPU, which, among other things, mandated it to protect the organics involved in Project EDEN from harm. SB01 wasn't sure if this organic qualified under those criteria. It seemed possible, but the organic was not operating in a capacity that SB01 recognized as having anything to do with Project EDEN.

On the other hand, the orders the techie had given it were much more recent and unmistakable: Locate, engage, and destroy all bots and organics approaching the Facility. SB01 took another millisecond to make its decision. Then it raised its arm and sighted on the organic, initiating a quick infrared scan to attain a perfect sight picture of the organic's heart, which was beating 1.76 times over the healthy range for a female of her age and weight.

Janice gathered her legs underneath her and prepared to sprint to a nearby tree. From behind it she could run unseen for several meters, then turn and come in a wide semicircle from the rear to ambush the ambushers. She rose to her feet, noticing a second too late the tiny red laser reticle that was brus.h.i.+ng across her chest.

SB01 disintegrated as a ma.s.sive barrage of bullets shredded its carapace and internal gear systems. SB01's scanners had not been maintained to manufacturer's standards, and had deteriorated even more under the tropical conditions of the island. It did not sense the telltale sounds of its killer's approach in this case a streamlined VXC4 Doggett and perished before it could relay the circ.u.mstances of its demise to KB01 and KB02.

Janice screamed for the second time in as many minutes and dove for cover. The Doggett rumbled past, searching for new targets, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

That one should have killed me. No one can be that lucky. No one.

She straightened. Unless they have a purpose to fulfill. Like me.

She gripped her rifle and slipped into the jungle.

KB02 knew its destruction was imminent. The enemy bots were coordinating their attack for the exact same moment to minimize KB02's ability to respond. KB02 briefly considered singling out one or two of the bots and ensuring their destruction along with his own, but a simultaneous scan of the terrain and the attack vectors of the approaching bots suggested an alternative strategy. It still had a teammate, and bots were very good at teamwork.

KB02 began to discharge every weapon it carried at maximum rate of fire, in all directions. It reserved only its grenade launcher, since the explosives would be useless against the bots approaching under tree cover.

KB01 sat motionless, all power in its scanners, trying to locate its next target. A burst of coded information suddenly reached it from KB02. KB01 understood and began to move to the right, opening up a better field of fire.

KB02 kept firing until the moment of attack, sending a constant data stream to KB01, and died almost instantaneously from a combined barrage that tore it limb from limb.

KB01 adjusted its grenade launchers according to the last data received from KB02, and fired off every grenade it carried in a rapid scatter pattern.

The jungle around the smoking wreckage of KB02 erupted in light and noise as the grenades. .h.i.t. The bots who had killed KB02 were blown apart or shattered into twisted metal and melted plastic as the surrounding tree trunks rattled under the steel rain of shrapnel. The air was thick with dirt, plant fibers, and the sharp scent of high explosives.

KB01 was on the move in search of targets. It had no way of knowing exactly how successful its salvo had been, but based on its own accuracy and KB02's information, it calculated a destruction probability of 80% of enemy combatants. KB01 trundled forward on high scan, following a curving trajectory that would sweep the perimeter of the blast zone to destroy any survivors.

Then KB01's infrared picked up a heat signature, moving parallel to its own course, fifteen meters away. KB01 ran the probability; it was slightly more than 93% likely that the heat signature was the organic. KB01 changed course.

Janice heard the thunder of the grenades and ran faster. The ambushers were putting up a good fight. She knew the superior numbers of her own bots would win the battle, but the cost might be high. It was time that she was losing, and time was more precious than gold. While she was forced to fight here in the jungle, who knew what havoc the man was wreaking in the Facility? Eve couldn't be relied on to stop him.

Janice came to a small clearing; a tree had fallen, leaving a hole in the canopy. She stopped to catch her breath. The sounds of battle had disappeared and the jungle was silent once more. She strained her ears, listening.

Nothing.

KB01 paused. It had lost the heat signature; the target had probably stepped behind a tree. It waited patiently. The odds of reacquiring the target in a few seconds were high. It used the time to run diagnostic tests of all its systems. Everything was operational; its grenades were depleted, but that was hardly an issue. Flechettes were an ideal way to dismantle organic tissue.

Something felt wrong. Janice scanned the jungle, every nerve alert, watching out of the corner of her eyes for movement. Her life depended on seeing the enemy before it saw her. She took a step backwards, then another. A suspicion burned in her brain. She had been hearing noises off to her right through the trees; what she a.s.sumed was one of her own bots. But since she had stopped, she had heard no more movement.

My bots would not have stopped. They'd still be in sweep mode.

She retraced her steps through the jungle, curving in an even wider arc. If an enemy bot had been tracking her, it would be using infrared. And if it had stopped, it meant she had momentarily disappeared behind a tree. The bot would pause until it reacquired her. That meant that for the next minute or so, she had a window.

Janice ran wide, then circled back, moving from tree to tree, rifle held at high port. The forest floor was a ma.s.s of rotting vegetation and moist earth; her shoes made no sound. The bot would be somewhere ahead, scanning, relying on its speed and accuracy to pick her off when she appeared in its kill zone. Even if it heard her approach, it would take a few seconds to pivot its weapons to aim behind it. Those few seconds were hers to use.

She saw it. A gleam of plastic through the green tangle. She moved slower. Its form slowly coalesced and she saw its scanners moving slowly back and forth, covering the area she'd been a minute earlier. She felt a surge of triumph and raised the rifle.

KB01 rea.s.sessed the situation. The organic had not appeared as predicted. Either KB01 had miscalculated, which was impossible, or the organic had access to some kind of detection hardware that had revealed KB01's position. It calculated some new probabilities, chose a new course, and Janice squeezed the trigger, saw the bot's head jerk under the impact, and fired again, this time aiming at the exposed wiring on the stubby neck. The bot sparked furiously and went still. She put another round through its head to destroy all optics, and sauntered forward to deliver the coup-de-grace.

Too easy.

KB01, unable to see, spent a microsecond calculating its best response. Under the circ.u.mstances, it realized that it had approximately 9.2 seconds left before the organic finished it off. KB01 felt no fear or regret. It was unable to do so. Instead, it decided that there was still a 52% chance of terminating the organic, if she approached in the same direction from which she had taken her shot.

KB01 fired off its last three rounds near-simultaneously.

Janice felt a hard blow on the side of her head, and white-hot pain stabbed her ear as the sound of the gunshots echoed through the trees. She gasped, dropped the rifle, and stumbled behind a tree. Her hand darted to the side of her head and came away smeared with blood. Her searching fingers had made a horrifying discovery.

She was missing an ear.

16.

The room John found himself in was large and had a low ceiling. Glowing monitors and projected screens covered all the walls, showing data tables, scrolling texts, images from the valley outside, and jagged line graphs. In the center a long, curved table was littered with maps, lists, and a small scale model of the island. There was also a food/beverage vendor and an open doorway leading to a restroom and a small sleeping area. The place had the air of recent use. It's not somewhere Nut would hide, so this must be Janice's roost. Unless Eve really does have an avatar walking around here somewhere. Nut said she wasn't physical, but I wonder if that was her in the hologram?

He walked in, half expecting to be confronted by one or the other of the female threats he was stuck on the island with. But the room was silent, and the only other door leading out of the room was sealed tightly. First things first. He sat at the main console, an impressive six-screen wraparound desk, and pulled three controllers toward him.

Ten minutes later John had sealed off the room, locked the ventilation and power to his control, and cut off any outside tampering with the computer systems inside. The last part was pre-programmed and all he had to do was execute. The bas.e.m.e.nt had been created as a panic-room of sorts; now it made a virtually impregnable bunker for him instead of Janice.

Next, he relieved himself mightily in the restroom, letting all the shakiness from his hallway ordeal run out of him. He took a few nutrient-dense bars from the food vendor and a huge bottle of water, convinced that here at least it would be uncontaminated. As he chewed, he scanned through the imagery on the screens. He was looking for evidence of Janice's whereabouts, but nothing had been revealed before he cut the live feeds from outside.

He turned to the table and sorted through its contents. There were many maps of various kinds detailing the earth's surface. In fact, there were maps of all the kinds he knew of except for political ones. Apparently, Janice wasn't concerned with the boundaries of people and governments, only the land as it actually appeared.

At least she isn't racist. Just xenocidal.

There was a population-density map of the whole earth, with red marks encircling every metropolitan center and little lines connecting them to outlying towns. He picked up a data tablet and activated it. It looked like a personal device, and he a.s.sumed it was Janice's. Looking through the contents, he found a promising series of doc.u.ments created over the past year, and read through them.

It took several minutes. When he was finished, every last detail had fallen into place. The doc.u.ments went by phases, with headings and summaries that were followed by detailed requirement lists, schedules, and execution plans.

Phase One: Construction and Research (99%) Complete construction of primary facility and Eden -- While observing Eden's results, research requisite nanotechnology and disa.s.semble construction giants for use in In Corpus Deo Phase Two: Nan.o.bot Development (95%) Improve lab equipment and safety measures -- Design final working bot structure and programming -- Begin limited replication for testing Phase Three: In Corpus Deo (98%) Finish designs -- Build Gaia Phase Four: Release (0%) Inhabit Gaia -- Begin releasing bots into the wild Phase Five: Search and Destroy (0%) From Gaia body: monitor progress of bot replication -- Travel and trigger new chains where necessary Phase Six: Hibernation (0%) Ensure that no pockets remain -- Initiate DeepSleep for 50 years Phase Seven: New Dawn (0%) Awake and a.s.sess global environment -- Retrieve seed banks -- Begin caretaking John read through some of the details, figuring out how feasible the plans really were. What he found chilled him.

Although the Facility had originally been created for advanced research, Janice was definitely weaponizing the whole thing. She had Eve developing nan.o.bots, sub-microscopic machines that individually were insignificant, but powerful in numbers.

The truly dangerous part, however, was that she was programming them to do one very simple thing: self-replicate. The tiny virus-like robots, made into a form of completely biodegradable "smart dirt", would attack specific non-organic substances and use those molecules to build more of themselves. The current programming mandates called for them to target and dismantle about a hundred of the molecular materials most commonly used in construction and technology: steel, plastic, concrete, silicon semiconductors, and the other compounds the civilized world was built on.

The plans showed that there were several giant fans in the facility capable of forcing air out through vent tunnels like the one he'd used to gain entrance earlier. Once the nan.o.bots were airborne and out in the wild, it wouldn't take long for the prevailing winds to spread them far and wide. That way they weren't dependent on a path that could be severed, like a pipeline to the mainland. Floating on the breeze like a long-lived virus, it would only be a matter of time before the nanos found something to eat.

Starting small in number but growing exponentially as they came in contact with new sources of raw synthetic material, the nan.o.bots would convert these materials into more of themselves, tiny machines that would remain active for fifty years and then quickly break down into dirt. The entire structure of the human world would be disa.s.sembled at the atomic level and reorganized into soil components so that plant life would be able to subsume it all into the natural cycle.

Janice had mapped out connections between civilization points to ensure that the chain reaction wouldn't break down too quickly. The prewar days of rapid over-building and urban spreading had effectively sealed humanity's fate: with all the pipelines, cable runs, and highways, it was unlikely that the bots would ever reach the end of the line. They would eat mankind right off the earth.

Not that they'll attack mankind directly. Sure, jewelry and dental fillings and hearing aids will dissolve, and it won't go well for those with pacemakers or artificial hip replacements. But the real damage will be done by the violent and sudden loss of housing, infrastructure, and tools. Images filled John's mind of buildings collapsing into mountains of soil, burying their tenants alive, and streets crumbling into dirt. Machines, computers, vehicles, everything not made of wood or stone will become useless. It's sick, and it's ingenious.

The plans predicted that humanity would fade from the earth overnight. Without all the luxuries of technology and civilization, and evolved too far past their primitive roots, the people of the world would disappear along with all that they had built. That would leave the earth back in its primeval, natural state.

Now that he was in on the fullness of Janice's plans for a global ecophagy, the percentages at the end of each header on the main summary doc.u.ment made him s.h.i.+ver. All the hatred and threats Janice had been spewing were clearly based on solid capability. With the power of Eve at her fingertips, she had brought the plan within reach of execution.

And now, for whatever occult reasons, I arrive at the eleventh hour. How did Eve bring me down from the sky? And an even more pressing question: why?

He walked back into the sleeping area, curious if anything there would tell him more about the woman he was up against. There was a cot, and he wondered how long it had been since he had woken up on the beach. He couldn't imagine sleeping right now even if it were safe, though. Not with the end of the world weighing on my mind.

There were various small hygiene items and some clothes. A tiny bamboo shoot grew in a jar with a miniature ultraviolet lamp clipped to it. There was a reading slate with a few books on it that he glanced through. He hadn't heard of any of them: The Fall of Kings, Ecological Spectacle Vol. 1, and Cries of Our Mother.

And there was a notebook written in pen. Its pages were actual paper, not plasti-matte, and he smirked as he remembered the endless circles the media had spun about whether it was better to kill trees to make biodegradable paper or to create "unnatural" products that wouldn't harm forests directly but caused other problems. Evidently Janice favored killing the trees to save the forest. And killing the people to save the forest, too.

Janice had terrible handwriting. There was a short poem ent.i.tled Earth Dying/Mother Crying and a drawing of two children holding hands, a boy and a girl. It was interesting to see the attempts at humanity that came out of a woman that had been through the very worst the Green Army offered. An interesting revelation appeared on the next page.

"A message reached me from my brother today. It seems I am not the last of our family after all. I never looked back after leaving Durban, but I actually experienced nostalgia. He sounds committed to the ideals we always shared. I'm thinking about replying."

And a page later: "My brother says he is not well. He was ga.s.sed with something nasty while fighting with the Greens in Myanmar and hasn't been the same since. The doctors can't do anything for him, of course. Maybe I should bring him here. He would be a loyal ally for me if things end up going the way I think they will with Glenn."

So she's human after all. But who's the brother? John skipped ahead.

"Big brother arrived today with a few other workers. He's in worse shape than I feared. I don't think he will be of any use; his mind is gone half the time, and he told me in a moment of coherence that it's getting worse. The weapon that did it to him was Gray in origin, he said, but it was the Greens that were using it in Myanmar. I told him I hated them all equally for what they did, but he was already mumbling to himself about something else. Glenn is uncomfortable having him here, but there's nothing to be done about it now. As long as he doesn't interfere with the work, I guess we'll just let him have the run of the island."

Nut! That's why she lets him live. Even though he has no memory of her now.

The other entries focused more on the day-to-day of Janice's work with Glenn, but there was one page that caught his eye near the end. It started as a poem, but broke off and there were several lines that were angrily scribbled out. Then two pages followed, written in harsh, dark red pen.

I only asked for a little commitment. I was committed-all the way to the end. But now they commit people like me to asylums.

I wanted to help, to destroy the Grays and save Mother. I gave everything for it, more than anyone else, and now what? They shake hands and kiss up, soiling themselves and the rest of us, and they brush their darker sins under the rug. But sins don't like hiding, and I don't want to be forgotten like an uneaten crust!

I spent six years infiltrating Glenn and the Gray systems of academia that sp.a.w.ned him, and I did it better than anyone could have dreamed. I had him feeding from my hand! Him, with his lazy pacifism and his "show them a better way" drivel. I suffered through it all to turn it around, to make the ultimate weapon out of it. They knew I had succeeded, and they knew it would work-just months away. And they just cut me loose like a tangled fis.h.i.+ng line.

I would have been at the top. I would have rocketed to the very crest of the victory wave, but now they don't want that anymore. They just let it all fall apart into a circus of "peacemaking". How sweet. Well, I stayed true, truer than them or anyone, true enough to make the whole human race pay for its folly.

Glenn knows where peace gets you. It was almost funny to hear him begging and pleading before I offed him. Soon everyone else will learn what he did, firsthand. EVERYONE. Even if I can't see them all beg, I'd like them all to see and know what is about to happen to them before they blink out like dying embers.

I want that, but I don't need it. Earth doesn't need it. She just needs them GONE.

Give me six more months, give me some working nanos and a sustainable post-resurface design, and I will give them everything they deserve. Please, Mother, just give me that.

Please!

She certainly had a way with simile, although the prose wasn't very good in general. I like the poetry better. Anyway, here's written proof of Janice murdering Glenn. Not surprising, but good to know.

Putting the papers aside, John went back to the computer room and got down to some real hacking on the main console. Finally he had everything in place to reset Eve back to the prime directives Glenn had set, closing out all of Janice's introductions to her psyche. It would take several minutes to compile the routines and execute in a way that Eve couldn't block and that Janice wouldn't be notified of. He set it running and stood up.

He studied some of the more detailed maps and diagrams of the island's systems until he had a solid understanding. Then he checked on the code he was running (88%), and decided he needed to get going. He memorized the diagram of the vents and cooling systems for the Facility, and then walked to the door opposite the one he'd entered through.

It will be nice to have Eve under her own power again-- I much preferred having a single deranged A.I. to deal with; the schizophrenic slave version was harder to deal with. But I still need to shut her down fast. Her plans will do as much damage to the earth as Janice's, just in different ways and not as quickly.

The closed-circuit camera showing the area just outside the room's exit looked all clear, so he unsealed the door and stepped out.

"-you are, like a rat in the sewer! Come on!"

It was Janice's voice, and it was ringing out shrilly over the intercom system. Inside John had been totally deaf to the noise, with no earpiece connection or outside audio line.

She's probably inside the Facility now, but apparently not close enough to stalk me silently. That's good.

"Janice, I kind of liked that radio silence thing," he answered. "All this verbal abuse is starting to hurt my feelings. I had to go have a good cry in the bathroom just now because of all your hounding."

"You haven't begun to cry. Your pitiful counterattack failed, and your bots are sc.r.a.p metal. You're next."

Shutting the door and jamming it electronically behind him, he slinked up a short stairwell and peeked out into the hallway it ascended to. It was clear, so he hurried down it. "But I feel like I know you so well, now, Jannie baby. I got to read your nice poems, see all your cool plans..."

Dead silence. I thought that would do it.

"Janice, in all seriousness," he continued, "I need to tell you this as one human being to another: you're dangerously out of touch with reality, and your plan is going to smother the entire planet. I know you hate humanity, but for the Earth's sake, I'm going to ask you once to please come to your senses. You are going to kill your 'mother'."

Her reply was whispered. "No. I'm going to save her the only way that's left to us."

"Our planet can never survive a total resurfacing like that. You will turn it into a wasteland that will never recover."

"That's what your ridiculous Green tribal leaders thought. They got scared once I told them it was actually possible, and they backed out. But I'm not backing out. I've almost got my finger on the b.u.t.ton, and believe me: I will push it. Earth will recover; she always does. It will be even easier with no parasites."

"Okay, if that's how you want it," John replied. "Just had to warn you, in good conscience. Eve, do you have anything to say?" He was hoping for proof that his code had completed and worked.

"I'm afraid she's right, Adam. We worked it all out. The Plan has no flaws."

She called me Adam.

He headed for the nearest elevator shaft that would take him to Level 5.

17.