Code Breakers Complete Series: Books 1-4 (26 page)

“And what makes you think I’ll do that?” Gerry asked. “I’m not even convinced myself.”

“That’s what the next week or so is for. We’ll convince you.”

It sounded like a threat, such was the steel in her voice. Perhaps he was getting to the heart of her true nature. “Fine,” Gerry said. “Either way, I will gladly return to the surface and find her.”

He didn’t mention that he’d bring her back. Finding her was priority number one. Anything after that wasn’t as important. His mother hugged him, and he grudgingly gave in. The need for love and family floated like shallow oil on top of an ocean of hate for what they had done. The fact both Seca and Jasper had betrayed them was enough for Gerry to be wary of their intentions.
 

Although he had only been with Petal for a few days, he already felt close to her like she was his family. A desire to protect her burned deep. He would follow this woman’s lead for now, gather intel, and then make sure no one would use or abuse Petal again.

***

Gerry finished his basic physiotherapy within his recovery room.
 

Two days had passed since his surgery. He felt his body begin to recover, although it would take longer for him to return to his previous levels of fitness. Muscles, bones, and tendons clicked and popped as he put himself through the callisthenic exercises. Taking a deep breath to let his heart rate drop, he sat down on an armchair, and his hand naturally went to his head again.
 

They had given him a prosthetic, cybernetic eye replacement with the promise of enhanced vision and various recording and augmented overlay functions, but it wasn’t hooked up to his internal systems yet. It felt wrong in his skull. Too heavy. He couldn’t stop poking it through his skin, feeling the hard metal casing against his fingers.
 

During the last two days, he’d been given a nutrient-rich drip alongside real, cooked food. Despite himself, he grew accustomed to the luxury, reverting back to his old way of life, but throughout, he played the game, kept them onside, all the while observing them, learning from them. So far they’d kept their cards close to their chest. Both Amma and her precious, and arrogant, son, Tyronius, had treated him well; the latter talking Gerry through some of the systems of the station and some of the advancements he oversaw for their various transhuman and posthuman technologies.
 

It was clear to him, however, they weren’t showing him everything; they soon diverted the subject and his attentions whenever he got too close to the details.

The station itself seemed to stretch for miles. Hallways and corridors without end, rooms and labs filled with computers, holoscreens, and busy men and women. They let him wander how he liked, although there were certain parts of the station locked down to him, despite the sound of activity beyond the various doors, making him wonder what they were doing, what they were building.

One of the busiest zones was the shuttle dock. He observed that once a day, a shuttle would leave the station for Earth, and another would return. The first one, they told him, was taking down a number of new officials to take over the running of Cemprom and the presidency.
 

It seemed Kuznetski had seen the end of his reign, although what had happened to him, Gerry could only speculate. Yet another detail they obfuscated.

Throughout his meanderings up and down the white-surfaced corridors, he struggled to catch on to any networks with his implant or his internal transceiver. He knew the station had incredible computation power both internally and externally with the Family’s various satellites, but he could find no way in. They did a fine job of securing their systems.

He knew why—their head of IT: Jachz. A formidable example of the Family’s technology.

It was 09:00 on the third day when Amma entered the sparsely decorated recuperation room. Beige walls, white furniture—a bed, a cabinet, and a holoscreen stand—and a number of modern art pictures created with fractal calculations, made up the full complement of decor.
 

A tall, lithe man, wearing a sharply tailored grey suit, stood behind her. He was completely bald, with small, green eyes. They darted too fast, too precise. His movements were smooth, efficient, and without flaw as if he were made of liquid metal.
 

“Let me introduce you to your recovery manager,” Amma said, standing aside and placing her hand on the man’s arm. “Jachz will complete your systems upgrades and make sure you’re ready for action.”

Gerry stood and approached the man, although he knew the word man wasn’t entirely accurate. He held out his hand. Jachz took it with a dry, cold grip. Squeezing just a little, Gerry noticed the lack of pulse. Unsurprising.
 

Given Enna had specialised in building transcendents—AI-controlled humanlike bodies—Jachz was no surprise.
 

“AI?” Gerry asked, eyeing Amma.
 

“Our finest,” she said, her body puffing up with pride.
 

“Thank you,” Jachz said. “I’m honoured to meet you, Gerry. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Oh?” Gerry asked. “You’ll have to fill me in on the details. It seems I don’t know myself half as well as you all do.” He meant to say it as a light-hearted quip, but the truth of his conviction came out, giving the words a knife edge.
 

Jachz closed his eyes for a second and inclined his head in respect. “I’ll do my best to serve your recovery, Gerry. If you would like to come with me to my lab, we’ll start our work. We have a number of challenges ahead of us.”

“And maybe you can finally give me some answers,” Gerry said.

“I will try my best.”

Chapter 22

The recovery with Jachz took eight days in total. By the end, Gerry felt as if his mind had been processed over and over until all the kinks were planed smooth. His vision returned fully with the aid of his cybernetic replacement. It boasted a new feature: an AO—augmented overlay. A HUD display delivered various statistics and information provided by his AIA, which Jachz had reprogrammed to be faster and closer integrated with Gerry’s unique brain.

“Tell me, then, Jachz,” Gerry said while his brain was hooked up to Jachz’s diagnostic and reprogramming system. “What exactly is it that makes my brain unique? Enna mentioned that I had another being within my subconscious.”

Jachz sat on a stool in front of the holoscreen that stretched half the width of the six-metre-wide room. The whiteness of the walls and the semi-translucent blue hue of the screen gave Jachz’s complexion a cold look. “That’s not quite accurate,” he said, turning to face Gerry, who was sat on a recliner with various cables running from his neck port into Jachz’s system. “You have a secondary process running within your neural network.”

“What does that actually mean?” Gerry asked, sitting up. “How did that even occur?”

“It was Nolan, your father, who invented the idea. He created software that could run in the brain. Nanotechnology. Each tiny nano gate would connect with each other, bridging connections with your brain, creating a new kind of brain network—a logical computer. It allows your mind to work on two levels. That is the reason why you and your AIA, courtesy of the dermal chip, are so entwined. So much so that if we were to remove that chip, you would suffer considerable brain damage.”

“So I am one with it all, then? Me, Mags, and this other nano network are all essentially… me?”

Jachz’s face approximated a smile. The muscles were a little stiff compared to Enna’s transcendents. Perhaps he didn’t smile much in his day-to-day duties on the station.
 

“Yes,” Jachz said. “They are as much you as your heart or your blood.”

“And that’s why I can create code in my mind? Why I can get into computer systems as easy as if I were breathing?”

Jachz inclined his head. That seemed to be his way of agreeing. His facial expressions never really changed much, so Gerry had to try to discern most of the meaning from his non-inflected speech and body language. “Tell me, Jachz, what makes you, you?”

“Can you be more specific?”
 

“I mean, you’re an artificial intelligence controlling a physical, humanlike body. How does that work exactly? Do you have an organic brain? Are you like Enna’s transcendents?”

“I regret to say I’m not completely aware of Enna’s work, but from the information I have been privy to, I would say we are similar in some aspects.”

“What’s the difference?” Gerry asked.

“I believe they are programmed to work within certain parameters. They are personality stereotypes that Enna has created. Although they control their bodies in much the same way as I do: a software-to-neuronal interface that translates thought to nerve information and thus muscle information, I have the capacity to learn and evolve, with one exception.”

“And that is?”

“I am unable to feel or emote. I can approximate them. I am aware of appropriate responses, but they do not come naturally as they would to a human. Even Enna’s creations are programmed to feel certain emotions. One of her early models was made to feel love and affection, for example.”

“Do you wish you could feel?” Gerry asked.

Jachz blinked once and became still; so still that Gerry had a strange idea he might have perhaps crashed and was in need of a reboot. Shifting his legs off the recliner, Gerry made to move closer when Jachz’s green eyes suddenly glowed and he became animate again.
 

“I can’t answer that, as I know not what I miss. One cannot wish for something one does not know or understand.”

“I suppose not,” Gerry said, sitting back on the recliner. “Are we nearly done?” Streams of code continued to race down the giant holoscreen in front of Jachz, whose smooth gesturing and programming would occasionally cause a ripple among the code.
 

Internally, Gerry’s thoughts quickened and sharpened to the levels before his temporary death.

“Almost,” Jachz said. “A few more minutes while I make sure your nano network is fully operational. It took a lot of damage, but I’ve repaired the majority of bugs and broken code. I just need to make sure it is working within the right parameters.”

“What happens if it isn’t?”

“It could overload your brain and damage cells. At the other end of the spectrum, it could retard your capacity to form memories or learn. It’s a fine balance, but we’re nearly there. Now, if you would just relax and clear your mind, I’ll run the last of the diagnostics, and then we can run you through some final tests to ensure you are correct and fully functional.”

“You make me sound like a robot,” Gerry said.

“You are, Gerry. All humans are basically machines, after all. You are just a different kind of machine. One more capable than most. Now, please concentrate your mind, relax, and clear yourself of any thoughts. Especially any that cause distress. Those will only prolong this procedure.”

Gerry sat back on the recliner and closed his eyes. At first he could think of no way to calm his mind as hundreds of questions came to him, begging for answers, but one by one he let them go until his consciousness focused on the image that had pervaded his thoughts since he came to the station. From within his recovery room, a porthole allowed him a partial view of space and the great blue marble that was Earth arcing across the aperture.
 

He fixed that image in his mind and let everything else go.
 

Jachz’s procedural diagnostics caused a low-latency hum within Gerry’s mind. It made his body tingle as if he’d been connected to a low-voltage battery. It helped him remain calm, like listening to white noise. As he fell ever deeper into a state of semi-unconsciousness, a state between waking and sleeping, he became aware of a dark shape lurking in the corners, just out of his full cognition.
 

It sat there, beckoning him to focus, to let his attentions go into the shadows of his mind. Curiosity took over, and being now more in the dream state, he let himself flow through the darkness towards this source of energy. For a brief moment the true scope of this other entity came into focus. Gerry reeled away as if from a monster in a nightmare. Black, infinite tendrils rushed to him, but Gerry was too quick.

He snapped his eyes open and exhaled a breath he had unknowingly held for too long. Dark blotches of colour covered his vision. He sat up and instinctively made to pull the cable from his neck port, wanting to get as far away from the black entity as possible. The glaring whiteness of the room soon cleared his vision and made him squint against the stark contrast.
 

“What the hell was that?” Gerry asked, thinking it was of Jachz’s doing.
 

The AI leapt to his feet, bounded to Gerry, and prevented him from disconnecting the cable, grabbing his wrist with a fierce grip. “You must not do that, Gerry,” Jachz said. “It’ll damage the nano network. Please, just give it another minute to reboot, and we’ll be done here.”

Gerry’s throat constricted. A pain throbbed within his head. “What did you do to me? What was that… thing in my head?” He could still see a shadow of the infinite tendrils reaching to him from the void of unconsciousness.
 

“I don’t know what you mean,” Jachz said, turning his attentions to the holoscreen. “I didn’t do anything but run the various diagnostics. I could not make you see anything with this system. All this does is recalibrate your nano network. What did you see?”

The image had started to burn away by the fire of waking. Like a dream, it had vanished to some secret recess beyond his reach. The only evidence of any such thing was the feeling of dread and awe. Whatever it was, it had a vast intelligence. So very vast. “I can’t describe it,” Gerry said as the memory sped away from him faster than he could think.

“This is quite unusual. I see nothing in the log files to indicate unusual brain activity. This must be some artefact of the semi-dream state and the recalibration. I should notify the others.”

Gerry grasped Jachz’s arm. “No! You can’t.” He realised he was gripping Jachz tightly and eased the pressure. “Sorry, but I don’t want anyone knowing about this. As you say, it’s just a quirk. No more tests, no more diagnostics. I just want to go back to Earth. I’m done here. You understand?”