Emergence Page 30

  Jack pulled out his phone and tried to call for an ambulance. ‘No signal.’

  Louise said a prayer for him, with Mike giving a heart-felt. ‘Amen.’

  Mike drove northwards. ‘You’ve lost a lot of blood, Louise, we need to take you to a hospital.’

  Louise shook her head. ‘I have to get the story out.’

  Mike looked around. ‘Maybe it’s time to go directly to the authorities.’

  ‘No. They’ll just close everything down. Just give me tonight to write my exclusive.’

  ‘Social networks?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I’ll try to find you the time,’ Mike scanned the road ahead, ‘but I suspect there are others who won’t.’

  Chapter 58

  Bob and the others arrived at Mike’s house to find the garage in flames and a crowd of people beginning to congregate. There were sounds of a fire engine in the distance, but approaching.

  James, Bob and Major Sebastien all got out and investigated the smouldering ruins. Sebastien ordered a few soldiers to secure the area.

  A glint in the grass drew Bob’s attention. It was the glass jar with the alien bug in it. He picked it up. Peered closely, but it was dark now and he couldn’t tell if the artefact was inside or not.

  At the same time, Willis’ body was found. He was alive, just. Bob rushed over. ‘Willis, stay with us. Help is on the way.’

  Willis reached out with a badly burned hand and took Bob’s hand. He smiled through the pain. ‘I feel cold.’

  Bob felt his eyes filling up. ‘Don’t worry, Willis. Help is on the way. Stay with me.’ He squeezed Willis’s hand gently. In the distance, a siren could be heard, getting louder. Bob gave Willis a reassuring smile.

  ‘I see you found the jam jar.’ Willis nodded at Bob’s other hand.

  Bob could see the light fading from Willis’s eyes. ‘Stay with me.’

  Willis took a deep breath and started to whisper prayers.

  There was a shout from the army truck. ‘We’ve got a lock on their mobile phones; they’re only a few miles north of here.’

  Major Sebastien looked around. ‘Bob, you stay with Willis and one soldier. I will go with James in pursuit.’

  Bob acknowledged with a slight wave of his free hand. ‘Stay with me, Willis.’

  Major Sebastien walked toward the truck. A moment later, the truck was coming towards him far more quickly than he was walking. He hit the side of the truck hard. Turning as he landed, he looked back across the garden. There was a gaping hole where Bob and Willis had been just moments before. An explosion had ripped that small part of the garden to shreds; not widespread, but utterly devastating within the blast zone.

  Justio let out a breath he’d been holding in for some time. The reconnaissance drone had been knocked aside in the garage explosion and he’d missed the opportunity to take out Jack Bullage, but he managed to achieve something. Missing mini-bot dealt with. One more antimatter missile if required.

  He sent the drone northwards. Jack Bullage next.

  A small alert indicated Aytch had walked up the corridor. ‘Justio, can we talk?’

  ‘What’s to talk about? I guarantee your safety if you go into stasis. But I have to sleep soon and I cannot leave you roaming, so if you’re not in stasis within an hour I will vent you into space. I have no choice. My mission is critical.’

  Aytch stood at the blast door and started randomly typing in passcodes. Justio looked on in amazement. He’s losing his mind. ‘Aytch, there is no chance of you overriding it.’

  Aytch started hitting the blast door with his bare fists.

  ‘It’s no use, you’re not getting back in here. I genuinely believe in the GF movement. We should not be interfering with all these other planets—like that zoo we’ve ended up creating on Trogia, and that’s just one of many planets we’ve screwed up. Across the galaxy we dispense awesome technology: stasis machines, instantaneous communications, and close to light speed travel. But then we restrict their usage, stop their expansion, curb their ambitions. We’re just dressing up our dolls in pretty things.’

  Justio paused for a moment. ‘But, really, I don’t care so much for all the other planets we’re spoiling…‌my reasons are racially selfish…‌our society is dying due to the breakdown of the Gadium family unit. The GF movement will usher in a retrenchment and more stable era for Gadium.’

  Aytch hit the door again. ‘The ends do not justify the means! What about our responsibilities of stewardship? What about my life, my wife, my parents. I’m not disappearing for five thousand years.’

  ‘I would not ask you to give up anything I haven’t already done.’

  ‘But you were never given the choice. You are asking me to choose abandonment.’

  ‘You have no choice either. You’re staying there. You have thirty minutes to go into stasis, otherwise I’m venting your air supply.’

  Aytch turned his back to the door and leant against it, slowly lowering himself to a sitting position.

  Justio focused back to the action on Earth; but there was unfinished business with Aytch. He turned back to the feed of Aytch. ‘You’re blinded, Aytch. Blinded by the Gadium dogma. It’s not about stewardship, it’s about power and control. The AI laws…‌why are there no AIs?’

  Aytch’s face was impassive. He was ignoring the question, pretending not to hear; he remained sitting on the floor.

  Justio continued to push. ‘What did they teach you? AIs were outlawed to avoid rogue computers replicating and turning on their masters? AIs were outlawed because they were found to be able to consciously observe, to be able to control probability, like us, only faster and better?’

  Aytch remained silent.

  ‘Maybe the real reason was that our ancestors couldn’t bring themselves to create sentient immortals, because they feared the inevitable despair would lead these beings into madness.’

  Still nothing.

  ‘Or maybe it’s really about the Jostachian Review? The one done by your own ancestors. Once AIs are switched on, they quickly inform us that reality is based on a Parallels interpretation.’

  ‘So what?’ Aytch looked up green fire in his eyes. ‘The report was suppressed to protect us. We were intellectually unequipped to come to terms with this truth while still providing meaningful stewardship across the galaxy. We chose stewardship.’

  ‘Do you realise the Parallels interpretation is a wonderful comfort for those individuals who suffer loss? And that comfort is denied by legislation.’

  ‘We chose stewardship, responsibility, honour. We rejected the self-serving philosophical, intellectual, self-satisfaction. We have a job.’

  ‘But the report strongly implied the Parallels was the correct interpretation. So everything is out there, somewhere. We’re denied our individuality, denied a soul, but free to choose exactly how to live our lives. No morality. No judgement.’

  ‘The Parallels may be true, but it’s not my truth.’ Aytch stood. ‘I prefer to suffer. And I prefer for you to suffer also, rather than deny my own uniqueness.’

  Justio paused. He’s grown aware. It was a shame, a few more decades of that journey of self-discovery and he’d come round.

  Aytch walked away, talking over his shoulder. ‘I want you to be happy, but not at the expense of my soul.’

  ‘But what about the underlying technical truth? We can assimilate it and adapt.’

  ‘Truth is over-rated. A sense of oneness is more valuable. You should know, Justio. It’s always been about fighting the despair. Soul death. Animustosis.’

  There was silence but, eventually, Justio spoke. ‘The AI legislation may be based on some valid cause, but the impact of this ongoing stewardship on the Gadium family unit remains an anathema to me.’

  Justio watched as Aytch walked back down the corridor, then turned his attention back to the screens.

  He had a job to do.

  In his world, GF was going to gain the
ascendance.

  Chapter 59

  Jack continued to look out of the car window nervously. He hadn’t had a great safety record on roads in recent times.

  Mike drove them generally northwards. ‘If they’re tracking us it may be through our phones. We should buy a new one and dump our old ones.’

  There were no dissenting voices, so as they approached another London suburban high street, Mike pulled over.

  Jack jumped out of the car and was back, five minutes later, with a pay-as-you-go phone and a handful of pencils, which he passed to Louise.

  She stopped writing briefly and took the pencils. ‘Thanks.’

  There appeared to be more colour in her face now. ‘How are you feeling?’

  ‘Strong enough to get this done. We should assume we’ll keep driving, or hide somewhere, then by midnight I’ll need to be back at the Record.’

  Mike pulled back into the traffic while Jack ensured the new mobile phone was working. It was. ‘Everyone give me your phones. Louise, do you know all your numbers?’

  She nodded, and everyone passed their mobiles to Jack.

  A few minutes later, Mike pulled off the main road and Jack threw the phones out of the window into some bushes.

  Jeff spoke. ‘Are you going to call Harry to warn him again?’

  Louise shook her head. ‘No point, I left a message earlier.’

  Then Louise spoke to Jack. ‘And we’ll keep you hidden for a week. Build up public awareness of the results, and maybe the fact you’re frightened of internment. Once there’s enough momentum, the government won’t touch you.’

  Jeff looked around nervously. ‘So no-one else is worried the aliens may kill us in the meantime; or they may obliterate the world if the secret gets out?’

  Louise looked at her nails. Jack closed his eyes, and Mike studied the traffic. Jeff rolled his eyes. ‘Just me, then. Fine.’

  Louise broke the silence. ‘Jeff, you’re right, we should consider the risk. Top marks! But we have to make risk-based judgements.’

  Mike interrupted. ‘It’s not science, Jeff, but ignoring the worst two per cent of reality and enjoying the other ninety-eight percent is a better way to live your life.’ Mike paused for a moment to let the words sink in. ‘A wise Italian man once told me life was made up of hundreds of individual moments. We need to focus on the good ones, rather than trying to control everything continuously.’

  Jeff huffed in the back seat.

  Mike was on a roll, and continued to talk. ‘Aim for the peaks. Ignore the troughs. Jeffrey… In the world of calculus, it’s differentiate to find the inflection points; ignore the minimum values and don’t bother integrating for the area under the curve.’

  Jack looked around at Louise, who shrugged and mouthed ‘Nerds’ back at him. They shared a chuckle.

  Mike was still going. ‘So…‌back to almost reality…‌in this case we very briefly acknowledge that our actions may damn mankind. Then we make a conscious decision to say I choose not to live in a world in which it is true—I reject the possibility it could be true in my world—it cannot be true—it’s not true. And then we move on.’

  Mike paused, shook his head and breathed out a heavy sigh. ‘We move on like the selfish little shits we are.’

  Again there was silence in the car.

  Jack gave out a little chuckle. ‘I’m glad you’re not managing my pension fund, Mike.’

  For the next 30 minutes there was silence until Mike pulled into a car park. It had a hotel attached to a large service station. Mike turned to the back seat. ‘Everyone out, and in there. And if I may be so bold—get your clothes off!’

  Justio followed the conversation easily for the early stages of the drive. Once the team had discarded their mobile phones it became difficult for a few minutes until the mini-bots both in the car, and on the team’s clothing, found other carrier waves to get their transmissions out. He listened as they discussed their options. Now that the captured mini-bot had been destroyed, it was marginally less imperative to kill them. However, he did not change his mind—left alive, Jack’s ability and his testimony would carry weight. Justio could not afford for there to be talk of aliens.

  He’d also have to do some significant tidying up to cover up the antimatter explosion he’d caused.

  There was now only one real loose end; the Harding team. James Chambers and Major Sebastien could be silenced with the correct political channels, the official secrets act and national security interests.

  The Harding team. Mike’s car was a battered old diesel, with no electronics other than the basics. Justio had no way of overriding its driving functions. He considered his other options and opened up a new communications channel.

  An order went out for a Special Forces anti-terrorist group to be scrambled. The four-man team was sent out from a military base in Hertfordshire. They were given all the correct code words to signal that an emergency response was required to the certified threat of a terrorist biological attack on London. They were issued with sniper rifles and powerful incendiary grenades.

  Okay, then, Hardings; time for a new game…‌Death by Cop.

  Chapter 60

  Justio’s attention turned to the situation evolving in the Z00A military truck. The vaporisation of Willis and Bob had caused panic. James Chambers and Major Sebastien initially had a heated discussion, but Major Sebastien had made a ruling and the truck started to roll northwards. It appeared that they’d locked into the Hardings’ mobile signals.

  Something caught Justio’s eye. His peripheral vision.

  At the side of the main crew room wall, there were four video feeds showing different aspects of the Gadium ship. The video feed of the stasis room flickered and drew Justio’s attention.

  Lights in the area close to Aytch were extinguishing. The stasis room went dark. The QET room went dark. The main corridor went dark. Justio accessed the emergency lighting. It illuminated the blast door and a little of the surrounding corridor, but nothing more.

  What is Aytch up to?

  Justio kept half an eye on the video feed of the blast door, but focused on the feed from the stasis room. There seemed to be a little light emanating from some of the stasis control panels. Justio panned the camera across the stasis room.

  In the low light he could see Aytch stripped naked, making deranged gesticulations. He was bashing his chest and smearing it with something. Justio turned on the sound feed; there was a deluge of enraged cries.

  What?

  Aytch was covered in blood. Justio looked at other feeds from the room. The door to the Jones’ stasis pods were opened. What has he done? Suddenly, Aytch turned towards the stasis doorway and started running up the main corridor. Justio managed to get more lighting in the corridor. He watched in disbelief as Aytch started smashing at the walls with a makeshift club.

  What’s going on?

  Aytch was 20 metres away from the blast door. Justio watched, enrapt, as Aytch ran screaming down the corridor towards it. He was now 10 metres away.

  He’s lost it. Does he think he can break down a door capable of stopping a plasma charge?

  Justio reached over towards the air venting button. It’ll be a mercy killing.

  Aytch ran at the blast door—it opened.

  Justio turned. The crew door opened. There was a blur of movement and Aytch leapt five metres straight at him. Justio raised his arms instinctively and tried to lash out with a psychic nerve whip. But Aytch swung his club faster, and it smashed into Justio’s shoulder.

  Justio fell back.

  Another blow came, this time to his head. Everything went black.

  Putting his club down carefully on the floor, Aytch walked calmly back to the doors and called out down the corridor. ‘Sorry, Bill. I lied, your son is fine. I put him in the communications room.’

  Bill Jones, cowering on the floor by the blast doors, shook violently, vomited and then ran back down the corridor.

 
; Aytch turned to the screens and displayed a summary of the previous 24 hours. Then he picked up Justio and dragged him down the corridor to the stasis room. As he passed the QET Grid room he looked in. Bill and Tom Jones were hugging. ‘Bill, Tom, if you want an explanation then come to the crew room in five minutes; no later, I’m going to be busy.’

  He secured Justio in a stasis pod and turned it on. The ship vibrated almost imperceptibly as the Spectrawarp cones started to spin up. Twenty minutes.

  Aytch returned to the crew room. Bill and Tom were already sitting, waiting. Aytch looked around the walls and took in the situation: Jack on the run. Bob and Willis dead. Recon-drone heading north, and a Special Forces kill team in the area.

  Checking the data feeds from the Z00A military truck, Aytch could see Major Sebastien thought he had a lock on the Hardings. He also realised Major Sebastien was totally unaware of the Special Forces team. Justio must have sent them. Aytch opened up the screens to stand the Special Forces team down, but stopped. I may need a contingency.

  Turning to Bill and Tom, Aytch gave the short version of what had happened over the previous few weeks. Bill nodded slowly; he’d had Gadium assimilation training and understood the basic concepts.

  ‘Why couldn’t you just use your mind-powers to stop Justio’s heart?’ Bill asked.

  ‘All Gadium children are conditioned with strong pain therapy to be unable to interfere with a fellow living thing. We’re wired up to methodridozone pumps and invited to attack, mentally.’ Aytch shivered. Even now the pain of those injections burning through his arteries made it almost impossible for him to even think about interfering with the living tissue of another person, Gadium or alien. ‘If we even try, our brain shuts down because of the conditioned response.’

  Bill shuddered. ‘And how did you know I would be able to override the lock on the corridor doors?’

  ‘I didn’t know for sure. But with me distracting Justio’s attention, I thought you had a good chance.’ Aytch paused. ‘I couldn’t have included you in the plan. Justio would have noticed any extended conversations. It needed to be an instantaneous distraction.’