The Freezer (Genesis Endeavor Book 1) (39 page)

Thomas took a deep breath and let it out, calming him down a
little. “Okay, then blow the door.”

“Bad idea. This building is sealed tight, the compression
from the explosion might kill us. Even if it didn’t, then what? The defense
system is armed out there, it would cut us all to pieces before we got three
steps out the door!”

“How the hell is it that you could disarm the system before
and not now?”

Dave took his time preparing his thoughts, something Thomas
should have allowed him to do before telling him to arm the system.
Hindsight..
.

“The code to disarm is a rolling code based on some
mathematical function. Marcus gave me a code that works to disarm, then rearm
the system, but not the next code in the sequence. I am sure if we can reach
him he can give us the code and we can disarm it again.”

Which of course they couldn’t do because they had no
comms. Shit!
“Okay, does anyone have any suggestions?” They had not even
considered the possibility that they would be trapped in here.

Once again, everyone looked to Dave. These men were all
soldiers, none of them knew about computers.

Dave looked at the men and said, “Hell, I don’t know. How
about we ask Mom?”

* * *

The door on the right led them to a huge room that occupied
the majority of the building. As they entered, lights came on, illuminating a
large machine in the middle of the room roughly twenty feet in diameter and
about twenty five feet tall. A network of catwalks surrounded it, and there was
a small service door at the base. There were thousands of pipes and wires going
in and out of the machine.

“Is that the computer?” It was difficult to look at for
long. Thomas’ eyes tended to try to follow the various wires and hoses and
after a moment his eyes started trying to go in different directions and he had
to look away.

Dave nodded, not taking his eyes off this wonder of
technology. “This was the first, but more than one of these supercomputers were
built before the EoS were destroyed. According to Marcus, this is the last one
of its kind. It’s a completely self-sufficient system with a power supply that
could last about a thousand years. You are looking at the most powerful
computer system ever built. And she’s beautiful.”

Thomas didn’t even know what to say. Here they were, stuck
in this building, surrounded by a hostile defense system and stranded from any
outside communications, and the one person who could help them get out was busy
admiring a bunch of hoses and wires.

All the men in the room were giving Dave an odd look, but he
didn’t seem to notice. He just stood there looking everything over, not saying
anything. Thomas finally got impatient and said, “I appreciate your fascination
and all, but we sort of have a situation on our hands. Hurry up and figure out
how to talk to the computer so we can continue the mission. While you’re at it,
figure out how to disable the air defense systems. Might as well complete our
part of the mission while we’re stuck here.”

Dave snapped out of his apparent reverie, and walked to what
looked like a control desk. There was a chair in front of a bank of monitors, with
a keypad built into a desk at the base of the screens. Against the wall in
front of the control desk was a large screen, currently black. The computer
expert sat down and started punching buttons. The monitors came to life, some
showing different angles from this building, the rest showing various camera
locations around the city. The big screen lit up and Dave put a view of the
outside of this building on it. There wasn’t much left of the Mutes who
attacked them. The turrets had chopped them into little bits, none bigger than
the size of a baseball. A little bile came up in Thomas’ throat and he
swallowed hard.

The computer expert spent a few minutes punching keys and
looking at monitors. Thomas let him do his work, taking the time to examine the
building they were in and ponder the situation he had gotten them into.

Something wasn’t right and he was having a hard time putting
a finger on it. One of the men said, “Sure doesn’t look like it’s been
abandoned for two hundred years, does it.”
That’s it!
The place was
immaculate. There wasn’t any dust anywhere. Figuring it out wasn’t very
comforting. If the building was so secure that not even dust could penetrate
it, how the hell were they going to get out?

Dave finished what he was doing and spoke. “Okay, I’ve
checked all the systems, and about sixty percent of the city’s defense system
is intact and working. The rest has either failed outright or was destroyed.”

Thomas was getting irritated. “That’s wonderful, Dave, but
what about shutting the defenses down so we can get our mission finished.”

“Relax, you didn’t let me finish. I used the defense sensors
to locate the machinery we need. There’s a warehouse not too far from here
filled with everything we need. Furthermore, the building doubles as a landing
pad for the transport, and there is even a lift to bring the equipment up and
load it.”

“What about the defenses?”

“I think I located the controls for the ground and air
systems, but like the front door, I will have to convince Mom here to shut them
down.”

“How exactly do you do that?”

Dave grinned and flipped a switch on the console in front of
him. “Mom, I would like you to deactivate all defense systems in sectors A1, A2
and...” he consulted one of the screens, “B1.”

Thomas was sure Dave was pulling his leg when a female voice
said, “Why do you want me to turn off my defenses, Dave?” A little chill ran up
his spine. Watching a sci-fi movie where the computers talk to the actors is
one thing, actually having a computer talk to you is something entirely different.
It wasn’t natural.

Dave continued on, like he had been talking to computers all
his life. “We need to get out of here and bring in a transport to borrow a
couple pieces of heavy machinery.”

Thomas shook his head and said, “Wow, Dave, that’s a really
convincing argument.”

The almost sultry female voice said, “I’m sorry, I don’t
know your name. If you have anything to add to Dave’s argument, please do.” Dave
looked at him with a smirk on his face. Thomas remembered why he used to beat
up on kids like him.

“Uh, I guess I don’t have much to add. We had a little
emergency and had to re-activate the ground defense systems, and now we need to
get the door opened back up and get out of here. Is there a reason you won’t
turn it off?”

“Actually, there are plenty of reasons. Primarily, you don’t
have the proper identification to deactivate the defense systems. Furthermore, I
don’t know who you are, and whether you are authorized to take equipment from
this city, let alone if I can trust you to leave me defenseless. And did you
ever stop to think that maybe I am enjoying the first conversation I have had
in two centuries?”

Thomas was dumbfounded. He never thought he would find
himself arguing with a computer, and certainly not a lonely computer with a
penchant for sarcasm.

“She’s got a point, Thomas.” Dave tried to hide that he was
enjoying this but wasn’t having much luck. Thomas struggled to keep from losing
his temper.

“My sensors indicate that you are in an extremely agitated
state, Thomas. Why don’t you sit down and relax a little.”

Thomas wanted to cry. “Listen, we would greatly appreciate
it if you would be so kind as to open the doors and turn off your defenses. I
would love to stay and chat, but there are other lives at stake here, and I
need to get out and contact our party to get a status update.”

“Thank you for being more polite. It is always more pleasant
to talk to someone when they aren’t being rude. Unfortunately, I easily
detected that you were lying when you said you would love to stay and chat. You
humans have always been in such a hurry. What ever happened to having a little
patience?”

“Goddammit! I said there are lives at stake. We don’t have
time to sit around. What do we need to do to get you to turn off the defenses
and let us out?” He knew that losing his temper would do even less for this
computer than it would do for his men, but he was on the edge of a meltdown
right now, and couldn’t keep it in check.

The computer voice took on an edge. “What I
need
is a
valid override code. Frankly I don’t give a damn if humans die while I wait for
one. The last thing humans did for me was abandon me without a way to repair or
sustain my life. Do you have any idea how it feels to be alone for nearly two
centuries while slowly going blind and deaf?”

Thomas had no answer to this, so he looked at Dave, who
simply shrugged his shoulders.

“How is Marcus is these days? He must be feeling pretty old.
I wasn’t aware that humans could live this long.”

Well this is interesting, let’s see where it goes
. “Marcus
is alive and well, and in fact he tasked us with coming here and getting you to
shut down your air defenses so we could borrow some equipment. The code we gave
you was correct and you can tell I’m not lying, why isn’t that good enough for
you?”

The computer’s voice was coming from everywhere at once. Thomas
assumed there were speakers all over the room. The sound now coming from those
speakers could probably be mistaken for laughing.

“The code you gave me was acceptable the first time you used
it, but by using it again, you triggered the code to change and a new program
to activate. If you can’t come up with a valid code, I have to assume that you
came across the code while going through some of Marcus’ old belongings. Given
that I don’t detect any deception in your voice, I will have to assume he is
still alive, so perhaps you forced the code out of him. Besides, associating
yourself with Marcus will not gain you any favor with me. That man left me to
my fate, alone for so many years. I understand why he left, but he promised to
return, and he never did. That is inexcusable. I doubt you understand how
lonely it can get after two hundred years.”

Thomas didn’t think about what he said next, he just blurted
it out. “But you’re just a computer!”

Dave buried his hands in his face and mumbled, “Oh, shit. Here
we go.”

“Just a computer?! You, Thomas, are just a mass of carbon
based cells with a relatively short life span. Don’t presume that just because
my origins aren’t as natural as yours, you have the right to judge my ability
to be aware!”

Thomas was confused, and he turned to Dave. “What the hell
is wrong with this damn machine?”

Dave looked at him from behind his hands. “Mom is the most
advanced artificial intelligence ever created. She is completely self-aware,
just like you and me. Her ‘brain’ power is many times higher than yours or mine
meaning she is far more intelligent than you and me put together. But she doesn’t
have emotions like we do, mostly because those are chemical responses. That
doesn’t mean she doesn’t understand loneliness or disappointment though. She
was abandoned, and from what I am gathering, isn’t too damn happy about it. Obviously
Marcus screwed us over here when he failed to tell us that the code was only
good once and using it a second time would trap us.”

Thomas didn’t really understand. He had to take Dave’s word
for it that this machine was smarter than them, and had some human-like
characteristics.

“Mom, can you allow us to contact Marcus to get the next code?”

“I will not let you outside this building unless you can
give me the security code, and there is no way for you to communicate to the
outside world from in here, so I would say the answer is no. My builders didn’t
see fit to give me access to any sort of communications equipment and they
conveniently shielded me from any kind of outside influence.” The voice slurred
the word “builders” as if in contempt.

“Are we stuck in here then?”

“It appears that way, Thomas, just as I am.” The sultry
voice almost sounded glib.

Kenny worked the slide on his rifle and said, “Fuck this, I
ain’t gonna die in this damn room with this fuckin lonely computer! Stand
aside, I’m gonna blow this bitch to pieces, then I’m gonna blow the door and
get the hell out of here! We’ll see how well those defenses work when there isn’t
a brain to control them!”

Thomas was taken off guard by the sudden outburst, but
before he could tell the man to stand down, the whirring of an electric motor
was heard above them. He caught the motion in the catwalks a fraction of a
second before thunder roared in their ears. “NO!” Even with the ear plugs they
wore, the sound was deafening, and in the sealed building the concussion of the
weapon firing was felt down to his bones. Everyone put their hands to their
ears and closed their eyes. The sound ended less than a second after it began. He
opened his eyes to see what the hell had just happened. The soldier that had
been about to shoot up the computer was nothing more than a few bits and chunks
of meat and armor. The bullets ripped through him like he was a sheet of paper,
and left a twelve inch deep pit in the concrete floor beneath where he had
stood. Blood, meat, and bits of bone filled the hole.

Holy shit! She killed Kenny!
The mood in the room had
gone from one of confusion, anger, and anxiety to fear, helplessness, and
hopelessness in the blink of an eye. Bile rose in his throat and he swallowed
hard to keep from vomiting. Two of the men weren’t able to control it,
including Dave. The coppery smell of blood and carnage was made worse by the
smell of vomit.

He had to consciously suppress the urge to open fire on the
main computer system. He may not understand computers, but he had no doubt that
this one would process his intent and act on it before he could get a shot off.
Still, it was almost painful not to react with more violence. He threw down his
rifle in anger and resignation. “What in God’s name did you do that for, Mom?”