Silicon Man (6 page)

The words hung there for a moment. Cole stared at the frozen image of the android known as Solus and a newfound resolve began to grow inside of him. This mission was his chance to bring down the Underground Network. His chance to hunt down the android that destroyed his life.
 

Cole was now on board. Synthetika’s best robot hunter was about to become that which he hated the most…
 

A machine.
 

C
HAPTER
S
IX

THE NEXT FEW days consisted of a never-ending battery of tests, both physical and psychological. The first order of business was building a mech that would serve as his perfect duplicate. “Our machines will record all your vital statistics so your mech unit will be a match,” Janson had said. Lasers danced over Cole’s naked body, mapping and measuring. Notes were taken regarding his muscle and skin tone. X-rays charted both his skeletal and dental structure. The scans would be used to construct a titanium endoskeleton and a set of polymer teeth. DNA samples would help the lab grow a bio-shell that matched his skin down to the last pore.
 

At first, Cole was surprised when he heard they would invest such great effort to construct a double. Why not just upload his consciousness into any random unit? Janson explained that there were psychological reasons behind it. Past upload test subjects responded better if the download module was a physical match. It reduced the subject’s degree of psychological disorientation. Cole hadn’t considered this. He was so driven by the urgency of the mission that he hadn’t contemplated the ramifications and potential risks.
 

Only when Cole lay down on the table of the upload machine, outfitted in a flesh-colored, skintight bodysuit that was equipped to provide nourishment while its electrical feedback system maintained muscle tone, did he experience doubts about what he was about to do. Dr. Ajit, 6’4, Indian and rail thin, approached the table. The head upload-technician loomed over Cole and managed a warm, almost beatific smile. “Don't be nervous. The upload is quick and painless.”

That’s what they always say.
Cole wasn’t sure if he should believe him. He had suffered his share of combat-related injuries over the years, and he’d never met a medical professional who didn’t feed him the same line. He gritted his teeth and said, ”Just get it over with.”
 

Dr. Ajit nodded at his crew of technicians.

“Let's begin.”

The techs activated the upload machine. Screens popped to life and a low hum filled the lab. The table holding Cole slid into the vibrating steel guts of the upload machine, a mechanical beast waiting to swallow him whole. His feeling of panic intensified. This contraption would map his brain, digitize every neuron, dendrite and axon, record every thought and memory that had ever passed through his mind, turn it all into a series of binary numbers and upload it into a machine as digital information.

Putting it in terms the average person would understand and relate to, what he was about to do was nuts. A rational man would have gone running the other way, but Cole had long ago passed the point of no return. He would never be able to move on with his life until the Underground Network was no more.
 

Cole closed his eyes, trying to blank out his mind as the table he rested on was pulled into the humming contraption. Dazzling lights flashed around him and seemed to penetrate the skin of his closed eyelids. He caught a brief glimpse of a human form in the second bed of the machine. His android duplicate. Even from this angle, it felt like he was looking at a younger version of himself.
 

Cole realized his duplicate appeared almost human except for the mech’s identifying marks. There was a barcode etched into the skin of the AI’s right hand and its neck was marked with three power bars that pulsed rhythmically. The android lay dormant, its mind a blank hard drive waiting for an operating system to be installed.

Waiting for Cole.
 

The mech vanished from Cole’s view and the machine engulfed him. A wave of claustrophobia hit the commander and wouldn’t let go. The ceiling of the machine seemed to descend, pressing in on him. The feeling of being trapped inside a high-tech coffin grew more pronounced.
 

He had to remind himself why he was going through with this. He was doing this for a wife he could never hold in his arms again, a daughter he would never see grow up.

There were times when Cole questioned his harsh judgment of mechanicals. A voice deep inside him argued that the crash was an accident. If the cops weren’t pursuing the mech, he would have never run that red light, but another part immediately tore apart the argument. The wreck was an accident but the mech malfunctioning had set the chain of events in motion. It all came down to a simple truth: mechs were ticking bombs just waiting to go off.
 

He was thrust out of his thoughts as fierce light engulfed his body and assaulted his senses. He was alone inside the humming machine but Janson’s voice served as a steady companion to his thoughts. The words of the CEO echoed through his mind.
 

“
Once uploaded, there will be a period of adjustment as your mind learns to communicate with its new body. For the last thirty-five years of your life, Cole, the needs of your biology have shaped your thoughts. Hunger. Sleep. Pleasure. Pain.”
 

Janson kept rambling away in his mind. The words were beginning to sound almost comforting. The CEO was able to make it all sound so normal, so ordinary, as if Cole was just about to take a trip to the countryside and not have some high-powered processor turn his brainwaves into a jumble of data.

“
Inhabiting a mech body will be unlike anything you've experienced before.”
 

The machine’s lights flashed faster and faster, graduating into a kaleidoscopic blur.

“
You may feel trapped, buried inside your own body.”
 

The claustrophobia was getting stronger. Cole was on the verge of losing control. Every instinct screamed out and his fists wanted to hammer away at the steel frame imprisoning him.
 

“
There might be times when you'll be pushed to the edge.
During those moments of doubt, you must stay in control. Remain focused on the mission...”
 

Cole’s breathing accelerated, drawing breath in sharp, staccato bursts.

“...And never forget who you are. What you are...”
 

The machine’s humming seemed to grow deafening.

“
Human.”
 

A series of lasers began mapping Cole's consciousness. His world was erased in momentary darkness before being replaced by a rapid-fire light show of images. He recognized them as his memories. Snapshots of his life flashed before his eyes as they were digitized. He was reliving every memory as he had originally experienced them.
 

Cole was flying a kite on some beach. He could feel the snap of the wind against his face, the string cutting into the soft palms of his five-year old hands. He could hear his own laughter, his parents watching from afar, waving, their smiles full of encouragement.
 

ZAAP!
The image switched to a box covered in firetruck-red wrapping paper. Little hands clawed at the present and enthusiastically tore at the paper, liberating the video-game Cole had wished for with all his heart. He was reliving the first Christmas that he could recall. The memory hit him on an emotional, visceral level. He could feel the unbridled joy, the excitement. He cried out with pleasure, his voice becoming...

The roar of a cheering crowd. He was now playing baseball with other eighth graders. He tasted dust and sand and felt the sweat percolating down his forehead. He felt the motion of the bat, the impact of it connecting with the incoming ball. The cheers turned into...

The sharp bark of a drill sergeant shouting orders at Cole looking at men and women wearing police cadet uniforms. His first year at the police academy. In the midst of a training exercise, the cadets worked their way through a challenging obstacle course consisting of walls and fences of various heights that had to be surmounted and overcome.
 

As Cole scaled a six-foot fence, his muscles screaming, lungs burning, the scene changed once again. The sounds of labored breathing and growing exhaustion made way for the unbridled laughter of people blowing off steam. Cole raised his pint in a shaky toast, spilling a nice amount of beer as his glass made contact with the mugs of his drinking buddies. He stifled a burb and tasted the chili-dog he’d wolfed down before the drinking had begun in earnest. It was graduation night at the academy and after the long months of work and stress, everyone was letting loose. The party was in full swing and the world seemed to be spinning. Cole lost his footing and fell forward, but his friends were there to catch him. Their laughter rang out. Reliving this moment reminded Cole how nice it was to have friends; real friends who would be there when one needed them the most. The last time he had felt such camaraderie was...
 

The thought was stillborn as the world around him changed once more. The crowded bar made way for the open road, an endless stretch of highway streaking past him, the world reduced to a shimmering blur of heat and motion. Cole was behind the wheel of a sports car, the wind whipping his hair. He turned toward the smiling beauty at his side: Kelly, his wife. They weren’t married yet. This was only their third date. Their lips met. He could taste her heat, smell her perfume; she loved to wear Issey Myagi, choosing it over sweeter smelling brands. The moment was perfect and Cole wanted to hold on to it, his fingers clinging to Kelly in a fierce embrace.
 

He finally pulled back and found himself staring at the same woman but now she was now dressed in white. It was his wedding day. Kelly, his bride to be, was beaming with happiness. He caught glimpses of his family, made out fragments of wedding music. Their whole life lay ahead, rife with possibility. He wanted the insane flow of memories to stop, to preserve the happy times somehow, to remain in the past when the world was bright and full of potential.
 

Once again the scene changed.
Potential became reality. Cole now observed his wife giving birth to their daughter, her face coated in perspiration. A true miracle as Cole had contracted the Omega virus when he was a teenager and believed himself sterile.
 

The dizzying highlight reel of Cole’s past grew darker, a mad carousel now spinning out of control.
Please, don’t, he thought. Please let me get off this ride.
Cole knew all too well what lay ahead, but he couldn’t change where his memories were taking him. The past was the past.
 

The next image was all too familiar but still managed to break his heart. Once again, Cole was staring at his wife but now he was looking at her lifeless remains laid out on a stainless steel autopsy table, her face ivory, her body covered by a shroud.
Get me out of here!
Almost as if someone was listening and chose to be merciful, the image morphed into the features of the female mech he’d confronted back on the freighter. Once again, Cole faced the runaway in the cargo hold, his fury growing with each successive punch. He was giving expression to all his pain, his grief becoming a living organism that he channeled into the rogue AI. He pulled the trigger and blew the android away. The scenery changed, now replaced with more images of violence and strife: memories of Cole being consumed by his AI-TAC work, kicking in doors, gunning down one mech after another, a series of short-circuiting android bodies twitching and writhing on the ground until...

The world grew black once again and reality flared into view. Cole was back in the lab, now flanked by a group of technicians led by Dr. Ajit. The group was looking down at him in expectant silence. His position, angle and view of the room had changed. He was on the other side of the upload chamber! Which could only mean...

“Did... it... work..?”

Cole heard a voice marred by electronic distortion and realized with horror that it was his own voice.
Dr. Ajit nodded reassuringly. “The upload was a success. You're just learning how to modulate your synthetic voice...”

Your synthetic voice.

Cole could feel the waves of panic closing in.
 

It can’t be possible…

He thought he’d been prepared for this, that he had mentally steeled himself for the reality of what he would face, but he was wrong. The voice was only the beginning. Ajit sounded different, his words slightly elongated.

“My hearing...”

“Things will sound different for a while. You're no longer perceiving sound through the human auditory system but instead through external microphones.”

Cole tried to lift his arm but his limbs didn’t respond. He caught a glimpse of the barcode on the palm of his hand and his heart sank.
 

Oh, my God…

A few techs rushed to Cole's assistance. They hoisted him into a futuristic wheelchair and wheeled him up to a nearby mirror. Janson had said that the first few moments following the upload were crucial. Many a mind had shattered under the weight of the process and retreated into a state of denial. He had to see and confront what he had become as quickly as possible so he could come to accept the change. Cole wanted to fight off the techs. Didn’t they realize he wasn’t ready, just give me a fucking minute to process it all...

Unable to ward them off, incapable of moving his arms, his body having forgotten how to obey his mind, they pushed him toward his waiting reflection. The face staring back at Cole was familiar yet different. He was somehow fresher, more innocent. Cole appeared about ten years younger, eyes unblemished by the passage of time. He was looking at a version of himself that he had forgotten ever existed, before the job, before losing everything that had ever mattered to him.