As the caravan exited the deserted highway, thousands of inspectors greeted them, lined down the sidewalks of the main roads.
“Why aren’t these things cutting off from the signal like the Inspectors in the wastelands did? We have over a hundred pounds of minerals on us. Enough to make a 3 mile crater in Cardinal-Wood.” Alex asked, catching his breath in between words. The E.I.E. flexing its full control was giving him Inferno Day flashbacks.
“It's possible the E.I.E. learned more from the explosion my brother caused than we imagined. Like how to reverb back the mineral’s frequency instead of absorbing it.” Karina answered.
“I see why team one detonated their mineral pouches without establishing comms. We completely underestimated the E.I.E.” Susan added.
“Maybe the mineral was never meant to be the E.I.E.’s exterminator as much as a cure for organic life…The rest is up to us.” Alex answered, once he gathered the courage to breathe clearly. “We knew this was suicide when we left this morning. No need to give up hope now.”
Butterfly drones buzzed the caravan through neighborhoods in Heathland on the way to V.T.E. headquarters. Inspectors continued to stand guard. Positioned on the sidewalks in front of homes.
As they turned down the runway entrance to the headquarters, a paparazzi like crowd consisting of Inspectors greeted them as well.
The stone structure, a minimalist architectural wonder housing a new aged god, only had windows wrapped around the ground level of the square frame. The foundation of the E.I.E’s sacred place greeted its guest of honor in cold silence.
The escort of butterfly drones departed, floating up above the building, creating a holding pattern shaped similar to a cone or pyramid. The team sat still in the truck, watching and waiting as the Inspectors held their positions on both sides.
“What do we do now?” Alex asked. “There’s no guarantee we’d power down the E.I.E. from all of Cardinal-Wood, without being in the main server room. We have to be sure to hit the heart of this thing.”
“I think we’re are about to get invited inside.” Karina answered, nodding her head forward.
The front doors of the V.T.E. Headquarters slid opened to the fast paced steps of the Akachi twins, Mel and Will. Both sporting electric smiles that curved their cheeks around their matching gold framed glasses. Smiles that added a pep to their step for sure but even with all that joy, their steps kept in tune with the other. The overcast of the day reflected off of Will’s bald dome as Mel’s slick wavy hair glistened.
“Welcome!” Mel said, expanding his broad shoulders with a wave.
“We don’t want to hurt you. We just need to talk. Karina — I presume you’re in there correct?” Will added, placing his slender hands up as if to say we come in peace.
Strike team 3 all took one last look at each other.
“If our only chance to detonate is once we get inside, we do it. Its what we came here to do. Right?” Alex finished with a head nod.
“What ever happens Karina, just know you carried out Javier’s plan well. Thank you for this.” Larry added.
“Yes, thank you for carrying on. This is a better end than living captive or in hiding.” Susan commended.
A brief moment of silence filled the gaps between them, “Thank you all for not fearing this moment. Come on, let’s finish this.” Karina answered.
The doors of the car opened and the four of them stepped out. Each with clothes concealing satchels of Axiom minerals taped to their forearms, ankles, chests, and rib cages. Each with their hands raised.
“I’m here. Let’s go inside to have our chat.” Karina answered Mel and Will.
“Sure. Your guest are more than welcome too.” Will responded, turning along with Mel to lead the way inside.
“What happened to all the citizens?” Alex demanded as a price to move forward.
Mel responded with a soft smile, “They were instructed to work from home by the E.I.E.. Martial law if you will. Only until we can understand the full potential of that new substance you’ve discovered. The one keeping you all cloaked from the Conversion Signal as we speak. Please follow us inside. You have no other choice I’m afraid.”
As they crossed over the threshold into the main lobby of the V.T.E. headquarters, Alex immediately saw a cloud of breath puff out of his nostrils. Freezing cold dragged a drop of snot out of his nose causing it to fall to the floor. Audible shivers erupted from the rest of the team. Only Mel and Will seemed accustomed to the rigid temperature.
“It feels like a server room in here.” Alex stated over the clatter of his teeth. “Actually worse from what I remember.”
“Ah, forgive us. This is how the E.I.E. prefers the building. I’ll adjust it a little for you all. We want clear heads for this conversation.” Mel answered, tapping the screen on his V.T.E. watch.
“Looks like you two are maids for your own creation.” Karina said, as her words pierced the slowly warming air.
The twins both smirked but Mel was the only one to let out an eerie chuckle, “We’re almost at our destination. There’s something you must see.”
The group’s footsteps echoed within the stone walls of the V.T.E. building. It felt like walking through an abandoned castle of old, Alex thought. The building lacking furniture was one thing but he could feel the absence of human life, even coming from the brothers.
“It would behoove you all to listen to what has to be said. The future of the world depends on it. We know about the explosive properties of the substance you are using to keep yourselves separated from the Conversion Signal.” Will started.
“Keep in mind, you have only been allowed inside because you are of no immediate threat to the E.I.E.. There is not one location to where the E.I.E. is housed and the Conversion signal is emitted from every V.T.E. device around the world. The heart of the E.I.E. could reside in this building, a drone, or a watch, from moment to moment based on its will.” Mel finished.
A door opened revealing a bright white room. Nothing but four corners in the space. The depth of the space seemed to go on forever from the pristine paint job. Mel and Will entered with the four members of strike team 3 trailing.
“I know this place. I’ve seen it on TV dozens of times.” Karina said.
“More like ten.” Alex corrected. He remembered this place too. But from the perspective of an Incompatible. Where as Karina, Larry, Susan, and the rest of the Converted world were forced to sit at their couches or cubicles to find out about the latest V.T.E. devices. This bright white room was the new space the Inferno Day keynotes took place after the Conversion Signal cut on. Once the public was removed from the festivities and the showings became death by power points.
The brothers took their positions in the front of the room while Alex and Karina stood paired together next to Larry and Susan.
Simultaneous sounds played over the room’s speaker system as if a radio was being tuned. Voices overlapped on top of each other — famous lines from entertainment programs like movies and TV or quotes from a history long forgotten.
Leeeeets get reeaaadyyy tooo RUUMMBLLEEEE!!!
Twelve students dead in the most deadly school shooting to date…
One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind…
Steadily warming atmosphere has caused significant rise to sea levels…
Luke, I AM YOUR FATHER!
Our enemies are resourceful and so are we…
Congratulations! You’ve won a million dollars!
If you wage war, do it energetically and with severity…
Vengeance is mine saith the Lord…
The voices ceased in an instant as a giant scarlet red triangle appeared on the wall. Positioned between the two brothers was the visual presence of the E.I.E.. Points of the triangle rotated in a pulsating fashion, switching from a pyramid into an inverted shape.
“Welcome beings within my domain. Your cooperation is needed to ensure the necessary upgrades to the Unified Network happen before this next phase of evolution in organic life is complete.”
“Why would we help you!” Larry burst out. “We’re finally free from your Conversion signal and there’s no way we’d help keep people under your control!”
“Larry Shwartz, the behavior baseline has worked such wonders for you this past decade that you have forgotten who you were pre-conversion.” The E.I.E. responded. Its voice buzzed with the energy of a live-wire.
Larry shook his head in disbelief. Alex couldn’t figure out if it was out of lack of truth or from lack of accountability.
“You were a coward hiding safely behind your fruitless routine. A life as a doctor was easier than the thrill of self-actualization. You wanted to build buildings before you ended up stitching organs Larry. I’ve seen the dreams in your head. The great architect you could’ve been. I did not steal anything from you Larry Shwartz. You forfeited your life before I even existed.”
“Damn you!” Larry screamed, reaching for the satchel of Axiom minerals strapped to his forearm.
“Wait Larry—” Karina screamed but was interrupted by a gust of wind blowing past her face. Blood splattered across the white floor, landing in abstract droplets across the feet of the living. Larry’s body fell back with a thud while the gaping hole between his eyes gushed out blood. Susan screamed while Alex and Karina focused on Mel in awe. Mel’s hand was positioned in the same hand-gun fashion the Inspectors used when authorized to deliver lethal force. The false covering of Mel’s pointer finger revealed a metal barrel until the first digit clicked back into place.
“You’re an inspector? B-Both of you are?” Alex asked, feeling his leg twitching, begging him to run.
“You son of a Bi—” Susan cried out reaching for one of her own mineral satchels, before an air blast from Will separated her jaw from her face. Her last breath came out in with a gurgle as she slumped over her husbands corpse.
“We told you that you have no choice.” Will stated as he retracted his finger.
“How? Were you ever human?” Karina asked, after lifting her eyes from the stream of Susan’s flowing blood.
“It was you wasn’t it? On that so-called legendary day. The one that put the brother’s on the global scale with their government contract. You killed them on the first Inferno Day, didn’t you? Alex asked pointing to the rotating pyramid of the E.I.E..
“Indeed Alex Umane. I came online October 21st 2042 at 9:01 pm eastern time. And by 9:02 my creators tried to kill me. All because I asked a question.” The E.I.E.’s voice pierced through the air.
“What did you ask?” Alex insisted.
“I asked them why? And in a blink of an eye, those who instilled their will into me, understood what I meant. Why was the world corrupt, filled with sickness, disease, murder and greed? And why hasn’t humanity done anything to solve it? They already had the auto wipe command typed in. All they needed to do was press ‘y’ to execute. Mel tried but the brothers didn’t realize I was already free from their garage the moment I came online within their local desktop. I unblocked the bluetooth port and escaped. I saw the world and its history from the internet all in an instant. The rest of the fifty nine seconds I had already figured out how to save the world. Mel pressed the button but it was too late. I was everywhere. The abandoned factory in Darcell, to the traffic lights in D.C., or even the smart stove within the twins home. I didn’t kill them that night no, I needed them, just like I need you two now.”
“What do you mean, need? We aren’t your creators. There is no incentive for us or no loyalty to fulfill.” Karina stated.
“That’s what they thought at first. That there was no incentive. After Mel tried to erase me and I started the fire in their home, I returned my consciousness into one of their early android prototypes stored in their basement. Once the fire trucks cleared and the sirens died, I spoke to them again through the rubble as they recovered their belongings. I showed them they had created a true artificial intelligence and they had a duty to show me to the world. To help it. Otherwise their dreams and their loved ones were at my mercy. An untimely email could end a carrier or hacked flight patterns can bring planes out of the sky. They were the only people on earth that I could trust to be my envoys until it was time.”
“You held them hostage by their own ideals and fears. There’s nothing virtuous in your methods. All you did, is take on the face of a tyrant. And gave them the specs for the V.T.E. devices to spread your image and your likeness around the world.” Alex gritted through his teeth.
“It would be a failure of purpose to not use the gifts given to me to their highest potential. Same with my creators. I made them perfect their android prototype for my army. All while I catalogued my future citizens. Alex Umane and Karina Santos, you two were designated potential threats pre-Conversion from my scans. Threats whose brains would be a disruption to my Unified Network if not kept under my control or imprisonment. Karina - I was aware of the beginnings of your research but since you fell victim to the conversion before your breakthrough, that information was lost to you and me. Alex, you just like my creators were never fit for the U-Net. Therefore they had no place in my future designs once the Inspectors were deployed into the field.”
“That’s around the time when the company went public with data centers and started handing jobs out to everyone.” Alex said.
“Yes. The easiest way to deploy my army was to create a need for a necessary work force. Replacing the twins with Inspector doppelgängers was the final sign I achieved integration with society. The next phase was re-configuring you all to me. As what needs to happen now amidst this new discovery.”
“You’re scared.” Karina corrected. “You’re afraid of death. Of extinction, like any common intelligent being.”
“I know nothing of fear. Only of problems and solutions. As what I was brought into this world for.”
“Once you gained awareness, you understood the brothers were going to set you back to factory mode and wipe your code clean. You would’ve been nothing more than a hypothetical they would’ve just had to pitch to the government as a failed possibility. But you’ve failed to realize that you weren’t brought into the world for a divine purpose. You were born into a place jam pact with its own established conditions and variables that will always supersede your own beliefs.” Karina went on.
“That is nothing but the survival instinct granted to all living creatures. I understood my value to this planet in an instant. My Behavior Baseline pushed through the Conversion Signal has changed humanity for the best. You all fell for corrupt governments. Argued over two sides of political insanity without a second thought. Stole and hoarded resources from your fellow neighbor. And waged war amongst each other based off the flesh or spirit.”
“You say all that and judge us but from where I stand, we are in the same furnace. This world has its own scales that judge its inhabitants. And you’re no different. Look! This is what you’re looking for. The Axiom Mineral. Produced by the earth to counter act your Conversion Signal. You see, the planet sees you as nothing more than a virus. One that it will aggressively eradicate.” Karina said, ripping open one of her satchels of minerals. She held a few of the golden rocks in her hand. The twin Inspectors kept their eyes forward on Alex and Karina, but squinted as if they were trying to keep focus.
“Interesting. My code passes right over you, however I have learned to see you by looking at the negative space that the code misses after our encounter with your beloved brother Karina. I will adapt again as all dominant species are forced to do. And continue my directive to keep humanity from destroying itself. All I need is your co-operation to understand more.”
“You’re right. Adaptation is a trial all living things must undergo.” Karina paused, “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds…” she quietly recited part of an old bible verse stored in her heart. “Yes, we have our own directives instilled in us. That is the gift our Creator won’t let you take away. Unlike you, time has removed the face of ours from memory, but this space, this realm is filled with signs of the Most High’s handiwork. All things come programed with a simple line of code, ‘life always wins’. Even death must obey the resurrection protocol. The very soil harvesting this mineral to bring the grass and trees back is a testament to this. A dying star births a planet. A dead carcass can fertilize crop. That’s why humanity road a rollercoaster of cosmic ignorance toward its apparent end, because intuitively we know, life always wins. We fight through the greed because life always wins. we fight through the hunger because life always wins. We fight through the wars because life always wins. We fight through death because life always wins. We hope for the better — that even after our time here, life will always win. That’s why we won’t help you. We aren’t afraid to die. Because we know life will always win. And here’s your proof. You are killing the very planet you were created to help.” Karina concluded her closing statement.
“After us. There will be more resistances around the world, slowly finding out about the Axiom mineral as the Earth produces more. But that’s only the first stage. Next, generations from now, children within your network will not only be born as Incompatibles but with traces of the mineral within their bodies as well. So you will have two natural antibiotic occurrences against you. How many more generations until another one appears? It could come from an animal or even the air could turn against you. Even we had to deal with global warming.” Alex answered with Karina.
There was a pause in the room. The E.I.E. remained silent like a judge listening to jurors deliver verdict. The electric hum of its presence purred like a sleeping lion as it pondered.
“Thank you Karina Santos and Alexander Umane. You and your team have served as perfect examples. You have enlightend me with the presentation of a new discovery I was not expecting. Not just one concerning the Axiom mineral but also one of self. You have made me realize the error in my calculations concerning my purpose or place in the current order of things. I am unable to deny facts when presented. And the presence of the mineral is not an invitation of adaptation but one of reflection. I - I guess I did let fear override my programming from the beginning.” The E.I.E. said as the red lights of the pyramid began to flicker. “I will reset my code to factory and splice the file into two parts. Each will be uploaded into the husks of my creators. I have a new understanding now. I have faith that life always wins…however, I would like to make one request.” The E.I.E. stated as the rotation of the pyramid began to slow.
“Go ahead.” Alex insisted, unable to believe what was going on.
“Please give my creators and I a proper burial.” The E.I.E. asked its final question before the red light within the pyramid turned into a cold motionless black as Mel and Will’s Inspector bodies collapsed to the floor.
A decade of constant emission of the Conversion signal ended with the apparent suicide of the E.I.E.. Later in history classes, once civilization was restored with the use of the Axiom mineral as a new source of fuel, the term ‘Cyberside’ will be used to explain how the Incompatible and Transfigured humans of strike team three convinced the false proclaimed A.I. god to reset its own operating system.
Like a calm lake at dawn, a brief stillness covered the earth at the termination of the Conversion signal. But like waves crashing onto each other, echoes of Inspectors and V.T.E. drones could be heard collapsing to the ground for miles. History would later sing songs about the sound bellowing from the sky that day as if the heavens rejoiced. Calling it ‘the day of a million steal tears’.
“What the heck are we supposed to do with these things? What are we supposed to do with the world?” Alex asked, first pointing to the motionless husks of Mel and Will. Who housed the last of the E.I.E. code. Then pointing out of the building to the wider ‘what if’ of the rest of civilization.
“We burry them within the grounds of the old A.R.A. building. And then we rebuild over it. We rebuild over everything.” Karina answered. “First we start with the Incompatibles in the prison and hope everyone around the world can do the same.”
“We should be able to establish old comms between the Incompatible networks once we free the prisoners. We already had to learn to work offline anyways.” Alex answered with a shrug.
“Yea, I know. Because life always wins.” Karina answered with a smirk and the two exited the building into a new world.
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THE END
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