U.S.S.M.C. Document 4010121-30137 DISP
CLASSIFICATION CODE: ULTRA
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
This is the first I’ve heard of it. A true artificial intelligence?
Admiral Isao Kumagai
Do you have any idea how it worked?
Corporal Sonya Nero
No, and they wouldn’t tell anyone. Trade secrets.
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
What about emotion? Creativity?
Corporal Sonya Nero
That’s why it was so hard to figure out if it was for real. She never got angry, or impatient. Always seemed eager to please, although I suppose it was programmed that way. The way she spoke almost seemed condescending if you didn’t know better.
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
But I notice that you’ve gone from referring to Saras as “it” to “she.”
Corporal Sonya Nero
I did?
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
“The Way she spoke,” you said.
Corporal Sonya Nero
Synapse made every attempt to make Saras seem non-threatening. But again, it really wasn’t meant for grunts. Administration, science, Signals Intelligence, they all spent a lot more time seeing what Saras could do.
Admiral Isao Kumagai
So the test was a success? They were satisfied?
Corporal Sonya Nero
They were terrified. Those SigInt types looked like dinosaurs who saw the meteor about to hit. Probably figured they were out of a job.
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
A lot of people would be. A.I. technology would revolutionize warfare, science, mathematics, infrastructure—
Corporal Sonya Nero
Mainly warfare.
2nd Lieutenant Billy Eastwood <
Admiral, Helm estimates three hours until we enter callisto’s orbit.
Admiral Isao Kumagai
Three hours?
2nd Lieutenant Billy Eastwood <
Yes Admiral. The captain requests you on the bridge. We’re detecting a lot of debris. Derelict ships in the way that are slowing us up.
Admiral Isao Kumagai
Distress signals?
2nd Lieutenant Billy Eastwood <
No, sir. The captain asks permission to slow and search for survivors.
Corporal Sonya Nero
Do I have to tell you how bad an idea that is?
Captain Dkimbe Uomo
So far you haven’t told us anything. Just what are we supposed to be afraid of? All you’ve shown us are some fried datataps and the neural implants you’ve torn out of your own head.
Corporal Sonya Nero
Well analyze them if you want to know. I couldn’t take the feel of those wires in my brain anymore. I was immune, but—I don’t know, they felt like they were crawling, digging. I felt cold. I thought cutting the implants out might help, but the cold hasn’t left.
Admiral Isao Kumagai
Corporal?
Corporal Sonya Nero
The cold, it’s strange. Not cold the way you know it. Nothing on your skin that raises the hairs on your arms, or makes you pull a jacket tighter around yourself. It’s a cold that starts in your bones, but the cold isn’t really there. The cold isn’t there. But it is.
Corporal Ginger Stone
Admiral, I’d like to take her to Medical for examination. She’s delirious and she needs an MRI. The amount of damage she could have done to herself pulling the cybernetics out is immense. She’s lucky she hasn’t crippled and blinded herself, and she’ll be luckier if she doesn’t have a massive stroke in the next 24 hours. If she hasn’t already taken enough radiation to kill her.
Corporal Sonya Nero
Always been lucky that way.
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
She’s rambling, Admiral. Maybe she should rest.
Admiral Isao Kumagai
I’ll be on the bridge. Keep her alive, Corporal Stone.
Corporal Sonya Nero
So I can tell you where to find Saras? I mean this in the nicest way possible, but fuck you very much, Admiral. I quit.
Admiral Isao Kumagai
Careful, Nero. Right now I’m one of the only friends you’ve got between you and Colonel Bettelheim. His son was posted on Sisyphus-1. A fighter pilot.
Billy, inform Colonel Bettelheim to prepare search parties. Full environment gear. I’m on my way.
Corporal Sonya Nero
Admiral, I’m warning you that it might not be safe. I think it is, but—
Admiral Isao Kumagai
Stone, take her to Medical. Now.
Corporal Sonya Nero
At least let me go with the search parties. Please, you don’t know what they’re capable of. God damn it!
Corporal Ginger Stone
Let’s go.
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
I want to know, Sonya. Tell me. Why did you rip out your neural implants? You said you were immune. But you said it wasn’t a virus or a contagion. Immune to what?
Corporal Sonya Nero
It’s not there, the cold, but I still feel it. Maybe I wasn’t—
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
What is it?
Corporal Sonya Nero
The Patch.
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
Nero? Nero?
Corporal Ginger Stone
Colonel, hold her legs still.
Medical, this is Stone. Emergency. I need a team with a stretcher on the double.
<<>>
No comments:
Post a Comment