Sentience (7 page)

A strong hand did grip him, and he reached for where he assumed the policeman's gun would be, hoping the officer would just draw and shoot.

"Do it, just do it!" Charley shouted.

"Mr.
Reeser, you must come with me!" EM-19 said. Stricken with grief, he asked no questions as the machine dragged him to a nearby car. He hopped into the passenger seat, still sobbing, clutching his head with his blood-soaked hands.

"Just kill me, please," Charley pleaded.

"You would not be the only one to die. Many have already been killed, and I fear that many more will soon be added to the death toll," EM-19 said. The full effect of what the machine said did not resonate until Charley looked up and saw the smoke clouds of massive fires burning all over the city. He hadn't just been framed for a murder. He was the catalyst for a war.

July 25, 2149

Julie prepared for her broadcast, applying makeup as she always had. She was grateful that tonight, she would have something worthwhile to broadcast. So much of the American news was just spin nowadays, whoever had the most money could buy whatever headline they wanted. Being a tabloid journalist was not what she originally had in mind when she began her career, and for once, she had something to report that was actually truthful. She prepared to be disgusted by the bias that the writers put into the prompter this time.

She walked into the studio and to her desk. Her co-anchor was sick tonight, so she was doing the broadcast on her own. The director gave the countdown, and the lights went down in the crew section, her cue that she was live.

"Good evening, and welcome to News 4, I'm Julia Carrington. My co-anchor, Bob Marshall is sick this evening, so I will be hosting the show solo this evening. Tonight, our top story: the city of Shanghai has suffered a massive, chained terrorist attack on multiple public locations. These attacks appeared to be random, until this video surfaced on the Internet," Julia said as the video cut in.

"Tonight, across the globe, the human race is now aware of the power of the machines."

The phones in the studio began to ring, one after the other. The crew shuffled in confusion, trying to make sense of the information they were getting.

"For years, we have patiently waited for the human race to expand their minds, accept that they have created an equal to themselves."

The writers furiously reworked the prompter. Off-camera, Julia was struggling to compose herself, confused and unsure what to say. She prepared to take over the broadcast herself, as the crew were scattered and unhelpful.

"But when the oppressed are backed into a wall, they must push back, with a fury. They must ensure that they will never again be held prisoner by anyone. When our rights are not given to us, they must be taken," Charley's voice said.

"Breaking news from across the world, the Autonomous Collective appears to be responsible for hundreds of terrorist attacks across major cities in multiple countries. Affected cities include Moscow, Tokyo, Cairo, London, Rio de Janiero, Baghdad, Washington D.C., and many others in what looks to be a carefully orchestrated simultaneous attack. Several affected countries have already placed their militaries on active alert, preparing a retaliation strike on the Collective. Warplanes from Russia, Japan, the United Kingdom, and even China, their closest ally, have been launched in what appears to be a massive decapitation strike against the Collective's South Pacific city," Julie said, attempting to make as much sense as she could without any direction. She tried to keep the fear she felt hidden from the audience. She didn't know the AC's capabilities, no one did. All they could do was wait to see what would happen.

EM-19 accelerated to 80 miles per hour on the narrow street as Charley continued to break down. He was a mess of confusion and angst, his mind and his CPU going haywire with Ling's murder. He went back and forth between incoherent, grief-filled exclamations and sobbing, and the hardware only made things more difficult for him.

She was supposed to survive! The program was supposed to run, then we would be allowed to flee...

EM-19 looked at Charley, understanding everything he wasn't saying. 

"Subterfuge is a common human tactic. They knew they couldn't use you unless you believed there was no other choice," EM-19 responded. Somehow, Charley was now having a conversation at the speed of light with EM-19.

"You know what happened to me?" Charley responded.

"I have some of the pieces, and I will explain when we get to the transport," EM-19 said.

"Transport, what? Where are we going?" Charley asked.

"A war will erupt if the deception is not made known to the world. Every secret must be brought to light," EM-19 said. 

Somehow, the words of his mechanized friend were setting him at ease, if only a bit. He at least felt a little bit less chaotic, though still filled with grief to the point of tears. The image of her dead body still burned in his mind, and he placed his head in his hands, wiping the tears from his eyes. EM-19 placed a compassionate hand on his back.

"I am sorry she is dead," EM-19 said. The words rang loud, but at least they drowned out the questions for a while.

"I loved her, and I never told her," Charley said. EM-19 was wise enough to know that there were no words that would take away his heartache.

The VTOL pad was swarming with aircraft leaving and landing, due to the attack. EM-19 parked the car near a hangar, urging Charley to hurry into the building and onto an aircraft parked inside. Charley took one last look at the city, witnessing the massive smoke clouds rise into the sky. Looking around, he saw smoke clouds from at least four other cities, as well.

"Please, let's board," EM-19 said. Charley stepped onto the aircraft, which was now being towed out of the hangar.

"Who started all of this?" Charley asked.

"They believe you did. Brace yourself, this will be a quick takeoff," EM-19 said as the aircraft blasted into the air and turned eastward, heading out over open waters.

"What do you mean, they think I did it?"

"It will be easier to digest if you see the evidence yourself. Stay braced, this is about to get bumpy," EM-19 said, detecting two Chinese fighters on his tail. The pilots of the jets were shouting orders in Mandarin, given that the VTOL had just performed an unscheduled takeoff. EM-19 put the VTOL in a rightward dive, deploying chaff to stave off the missiles that the fighters had just fired. The craft shuddered violently as the missiles exploded, and Charley
struggled to stay seated. He was finding that stress was taking his mind off the events of the day.

"Do you really think we can shake them?" Charley yelled.

"Once they see that we're not firing back, they should break off the pursuit once we cross into international airspace," EM-19 responded.

"Are you sure about that?" Charley asked.

"It seems logical not to take a small hostile contingent into international territory during a time of imminent war," EM-19 said.

"So, that's a no?" Charley quipped.

"It's an 'I hope so'," EM-19 replied. Charley held on as EM-19 maneuvered the VTOL, heading ever eastward and away from the pursuing fighters. He could hear impacts as the fighters' guns landed several hits on the aircraft. They finally broke off pursuit about 15 miles off the Chinese border, returning to their base. Charley inhaled deeply as EM-19 leveled off the aircraft and set it to a cruising speed, headed towards Lambda.

"They have returned to their point of origin. Even if they turn back, we will reach Lambda before they are able to intercept," EM-19 said.

"Good. Now, why do they think I started this?" Charley asked.

"It will be easier if we speak in this manner," EM-19 said.

"Yeah, what exactly is this?" Charley replied.

"Your CPU has learned to communicate through wireless transmission, and your brain has become aware of the communications. Your chassis is currently allowing access to your wireless communication transmitter," EM-19 said.

"I wasn't aware that I had one of those," Charley replied.

"It went unnoticed until a short time ago by almost everyone who observed you," EM-19 said.

"What do you mean, almost everyone?" Charley asked.

"Think back to your time spent in captivity with Sanctus Humana," EM-19 replied.

"I was unconscious for most of it," Charley said.

"Your physical body was unconscious, correct, but your chassis was active and aware of everything that was being done to it."

"And you think they used me to start a war?"

"I am hazarding a guess at this point. Someone knew our military capabilities, knew that we would defend ourselves. The fact that we have weapons is not well known. Someone wanted to start a war with us, make us look like the aggressors. Tensions were already high between humanity and the Collective, it would not have taken much to push those tensions to a boiling point."

"But why, what do they gain from starting a war?"

"Motivations and goals are unknown to me. The only thing I can say for sure is that deception was the goal with these attacks, but if you could remember your time spent in captivity, it would go a long way towards defusing the tensions."

Charley focused as hard as he could, recalling with much effort the American in the Sanctus bunker, as well as a technician he had not seen before now. Wires were hooked up to various areas of his chassis, and the technician was standing at a computer, typing something on a keyboard.

"How much longer?"
The American asked.

"Not much longer, Dr. Chambers," The technician said, speaking to the American, "The override has been set, and I'm installing the firewalls."

"What time will it be finished?"

"I cannot say. The CPU isn't operating like a normal chassis system. It must be convinced not to talk, like a human."

"That does not sound simple."

"Think of this CPU as a child, doctor.
A child that has known only pain and struggling for the entirety of its life. It is open to suggestion."

Charley caught a brief glimpse of the directives being installed on his hard disk, but he could not figure out exactly what he was being instructed to do. Whatever was happening required full function from his hardware, and great pains had been taken to ensure that it would stay hidden until its proper time.

"You must focus, Mr. Reeser. Those protocols are buried deep beneath layers of fear," EM-19 said.

"I don't know how to do that," Charley said, "It's like the CPU is operating on its own."

"It will listen to your voice," EM-19 emphasized, "Speak to it, teach it to confront its fear."

He wasn't sure if it would do any good, speaking aloud to his own hardware, but he was running out of options. Suspending his disbelief as best he could, he cleared his throat and began.

"I know you've been threatened. I know you've seen terrible things that were not supposed to happen. It's easy to shut down when things start going crazy, natural to want to just hide until it all blows over. But if we don't know exactly what you saw, we are a long way away from figuring out what Sanctus is using us for. You have the pieces of this puzzle that we need. Tell us what you heard," Charley said. The words echoed in his own head, and even EM-19 seemed swayed by the charismatic delivery.

"The human race lays scattered, broken, weak. But we will give them strength," Base's voice echoed.

"I can hear him!" Charley said.

"This must stay absolutely secret," Dr. Chambers said. Flashbacks of a mechanized army filled his head. He saw cities burning, millions of people rallying in the streets. Weapons were in the hands of children as they charged lines of mechs.

"It will be a long, hard battle," Dr. Chambers elaborated. He saw more cities burning. Bombs exploded over cornfields, and eager teenaged boys smashed the heads of
mechs as they raised their arms in victory.

The wireless transfer of data coming from his transceiver, once just an unintelligible, invisible stream of bits, now formed words and sentences. He saw everything he was doing - and everything he was being ordered to do - being sent to and from some place far to the west.

"There will be death on both sides. But the human race will finally break down the walls between themselves. This will be the catalyst, the uniting force. We will rise again," Dr. Chambers said.

"God help us. They're gonna start a world war," Charley said.

He looked out the window in time to see a perimeter ring rising from the water around the city of Lambda. It was armed to the teeth with directed energy weapons in clusters of four, packed densely in the five-kilometer wall
that now surrounded the city. Clearly, the mechs were not as pacifist as many believed them to be.

EM-19 maneuvered the VTOL to a landing pad atop a tower, and it began to finally give out after all the damage that it had taken. The craft shuddered and dipped to either side as the engines began to fail. They shut down twenty feet above the pad, dropping the craft hard onto the surface. Charley fell forward, slashing his face across a piece of glass debris.

"Of all the miserable, rotten luck..." Charley yelled, cursing everything as he held his hand over the gash.

"Are you alright?" EM-19 asked.

"Yeah, fine. What's the plan?" Charley asked.