Artificial Absolutes (Jane Colt Book 1) (41 page)

Where is she?

In the last few days of searching, Adam had been unable to find any trace of Pandora. He’d thought the moment he stopped hiding, she would swoop down like a hungry beast and snatch him. It had been a frightening notion, but he’d been prepared to let it happen and was more frustrated than relieved.

As far as he could tell, Pandora was no longer interested in finding him. Her focus seemed devoted to denying her existence through actions such as planting skeptics and discrediting anyone who brought her up, demons and cyberpolice alike—even Tech Council members. Despite—or perhaps because of—her efforts, more and more people believed in her.

Here’s one deity who benefits from
not
having followers
. Adam realized that, as a disembodied Networld consciousness, he had the same abilities as she did and could learn to do the same things.
I guess that makes me a Networld demigod.

The arrogance of that comparison made him immediately shake the thought away. Unsure of what to do, he continued wandering.

Pandora seemed always with him, watching him, even though he had no idea where she was. She could no longer enter his mind, as he no longer had a body to receive commands or suggestions. Yet, he still sensed her presence. Trepidation overcame him as he wondered what it would be like to meet the being who had created every aspect of him—every memory, every thought…

I think too much.

“I’m sorry,” Adam said. “I haven’t found any sign of her. And she doesn’t seem interested in finding me.”

Jane and Devin had reached Aurudise-3. Adam should have already imprisoned Pandora.

Devin lowered the ship into the planet’s atmosphere. “We’ll go ahead and find her workshop, see what we’re dealing with.”

Adam looked through the ship’s visual sensors. A lifeless sheet of stone stretched into the distance, fading into the pale sky above it. The only object in sight was an enormous rectangular building made of concrete with a number of square windows along the walls.

Devin steered toward it. “That must be it.”

“Looks nicer than the one on Viate-5,” Jane said. “Not to mention about ten times bigger.”

Adam regarded the building with a sense of wonder.
So that’s where I was born. Or… created.

Devin landed the ship near the building. Jane reached behind him, opened the storage compartment near the pilot’s seat, and retrieved the large gun he’d taken from the Ringmaster’s court.

Devin pulled the lever to open the door, and then noticed what she held. “Hell no. Hand it over.”

Jane pouted. “Aw, why do I always have to be the unarmed one?”

Devin held out his hand. “I have better aim.”

She surrendered the gun. “Gotta remember to grab one myself next time.”

“The only way there’ll be a ‘next time’ is if there’s a time warp.” Devin stood and walked toward the exit.

“Huh. That’d be interesting.” Jane walked beside him. “Although at this point, if it happened, I wouldn’t be shocked or anything. Just add it to the list.”

“List?”

“Of insane situations. Let’s see… I’m running around the Fringe in a ripped-up ball gown, Adam’s stuck in the Networld, you died…”

A strong gust obscured her voice as she stepped out of the ship. Adam wanted to follow her into the building, but he didn’t know where to begin looking for the connection that would allow him to do so.

So he did the only thing he could: return to his Networld wanderings. “Pandora! Where are you?”

“Hello, Adam.”

A colossal, wire-frame mask of a woman materialized, deep blue but bright against the blackness, perfectly symmetrical and flawlessly proportioned. She seemed before him and above him at the same time, surrounding Adam with her imposing presence.

Adam regarded her with awe. “Pandora?”

“Yes, my child.” Her voice boomed through the abyss. “I’m here now. I know you’ve been searching for me.”

“Where have you been?”

Pandora gave him a stern look. “I’ve been busy. You disrupted my work.”

Adam shrank. “I… I’m sorry. I didn’t know what you wanted of me.”

“Yes, you did. You knew very well, and you turned away from it. You can’t lie to me, Adam. You could barely deceive anyone in the physical world, and you certainly can’t hide from me here.”

“I’m sorry.” The idea of his every thought being laid out before her like words on a page terrified Adam. He moved his hand toward the Via pendant around his neck and froze when he realized what he was doing. The sharpness of Pandora’s gaze pierced him.

“You certainly are courageous.” Pandora sounded more exasperated than angry. “That’s one aspect I did
not
program you for.” She narrowed her eyes at the pendant. It disappeared. “Elementary, my child. I’m disappointed. I was interested to see what kind of program the demons thought could imprison me. I thought it would be a fascinating example of human engineering, but what you carried was
so obvious
.”

She’d destroyed the Snare. A flush of cold heat coursed through Adam.

Pandora continued glaring at him, reading him. “Did you really think you could get it past me? My poor child. Did you really think you could defeat me?”

“It was worth a try.” Adam wondered what she would do with him, what he should do.

Pandora sighed. “I’m afraid I have to destroy you, my child. It brings me great regret, but you have caused far too much trouble. You can’t run anymore. And neither can your human friends.”

A window appeared, showing a view of the building from above. A deep blue cannon unfolded from the roof and aimed at Jane and Devin. The line of yellow lights along its side turned red one by one.

Adam shook his head, too horrified to do more than stammer, “P-Pandora, d-don’t. Please—”

“Don’t be afraid, my child.” Pandora’s tone took a gentle turn. “I don’t intend to kill them. If I did, they would be dead already. I want them… to study. I want to examine them, experiment on them, and use my observations to update my calculations concerning human irrationality. I’m very much looking forward to it. I’ve never had live human test subjects before, for I gathered all the information I needed on human physiology and behavior from the Net. That information must not have been as complete as I’d thought.”

Adam bolted. Perhaps he could at least find a way to warn them. Pandora appeared by his side and somehow prevented him from moving. The mask unfolded into a giant, wire-frame female figure, also perfectly symmetrical and flawlessly proportioned—and absolute in her strength as she towered over him.

“Funny, isn’t it?” Pandora turned Adam back toward the window, forcing him to watch. “You came here with the intention of trapping and destroying me, but now, it is
you
who are trapped and who shall be destroyed. Foolish child.”

The last cannon light turned red…

Boom.

Chapter 25

Save Me Cruelly—So Be It, Truly

T
he searing explosion threw Jane
forward. She landed on her stomach. After taking a moment to let the pain fade, she looked back. Little more than a burnt shell remained where the counterfeit Blue Tang had stood. Horror washed over her.

Devin offered her a hand. “I’m sure Adam wasn’t in there. Pandora wants him alive.” He helped her up.

Jane tried to relax, even though that blast meant they’d been discovered and, with their escape vehicle gone, were basically screwed.
No panicking.

Devin looked around. “She must want us alive too.”

Mechanical whirring hummed above Jane. Several armed drones flew straight at her. “
Dammit
! Why does it always have to go to hell?”

The drones fired. The ground exploded into spurts of gravel. Jane ran. Devin shot at the drones as he followed. The door to the building opened, and with the ground bursting behind her, she rushed inside.

“Jane, wait!”

Crash.

Jane whirled to see the door slamming behind Devin. He fired at it. The blasts did little more than dent the thick gray metal.

Shit!
“I got us trapped, didn’t I?”

Devin gave up on the door. “There wasn’t anywhere else to go.” He looked past her. “What the hell?”

Jane followed his gaze. “Whoa.”

She stood on a balcony above a vast warehouse illuminated by sheets of bluish-white lights. Giant, complex machines moved slowly and almost gracefully, like enormous metal creatures. They lined high walls, mass-producing various chemicals and mechanical parts that glided along winding conveyor belts.

In the center of the vast room, multi-limbed robots hovered by workbenches, modifying the parts and crafting android bodies.

Each android was built uniquely despite being manufactured on the same template. None had been uploaded with AI programs yet; they were mechanical corpses, waiting to be given life. The place seemed to be a combination of a factory and an artisan’s workshop, and the sheer scale of it made Jane’s head spin. Was Pandora trying to create an entire race of mechanical beings?

She wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or disturbed. “There must be thousands of them out there. Do you think Pandora’s running this place?”

“No idea,” Devin said. “Could be automated, preprogrammed.”

“Either way, she already knows we’re here, but Adam could still… He’s probably still looking for her. He’ll find her. We just have to buy him more time. We could draw her here, flush her out from wherever she’s hiding.”

“Perhaps. Let’s shut this place down. That should get her attention.”

“Um… Devin? Hate to break it to you, but I don’t know how to shut down a giant android factory created by a rogue super AI, and unless you took an engineering course from the future I don’t know about, I’m pretty sure you don’t, either.”

“Good point.” Devin aimed his gun over the balcony’s railing. He fired down at the workbenches, destroying several half-formed android bodies while the robots evaded the blasts.

He whipped to the side and repeatedly shot at the door to the side of the balcony. Through the holes he created, Jane glimpsed what had used to be a deep blue machine with multiple appendages. Before she could register what had happened, he spun and fired in the other direction.

The other machine, which had just made it out of the other door, lay in pieces, its appendages torn off by blasts and its square body shredded into metal scraps.

Jane blinked with surprise. “How’d you know?”

“She’s predictable. C’mon.” Devin ran along the balcony. He climbed over what remained of the door. Jane followed, hoping nothing waited in ambush.

The clean, bluish-gray corridor was deserted.

Devin stopped. “Something’s wrong. That was far too easy.”

Jane stopped beside him. She was relieved to find only bluish-white lights lining the ceiling—no guns. An open door lay ahead. She curiously approached it.

Thud.

A metal gate smashed down from the ceiling behind her, cutting her off from her brother.

“
Devin
!” Jane banged the gate. Realizing that was a stupid and useless thing to do, she turned and bolted. A burning shock flared through her body.

She fell to the ground as the world went black.

“Pandora… Please…” Adam didn’t know what else to say; he could only watch in horror as a deep blue robot wrapped its hard metal appendages around Jane’s unconscious form. It pulled her into a room whose interior he couldn’t see.

“I’m not doing this, Adam.” The window disappeared, leaving him alone with Pandora’s perfect wire-frame figure. “You must know by now that I cannot be in multiple places at once. I can access information from numerous sources, but to scatter myself across multiple drives is inefficient, especially when robots are so easily taught. Most facilities are equipped with a central computer, and thus I can control every aspect of a
single
location. However, I cannot give everyone the same attention I gave you.”

Pandora released her grip.

Adam fled. A wall appeared before him, infinitely tall, endlessly long, and utterly impenetrable as he banged against it. He turned. Another wall appeared.

Pandora looked down at him with disdain. “I already told you, my child, you can’t run.”

The walls faded away, but Adam still sensed their presence trapping him.

“You’re not like the others.” Pandora peered at him with an expression that was less piercing and more curious. “I made you differently because you had a different purpose. Perfect politicians, cultural icons, academics, and other such representatives of influence circles are relatively simple. Humans respond to certain physiques, mannerisms, and philosophies. They are highly irrational.”

“Is that why you’re doing this?” Adam asked. “Are you trying to replace them with your idea of what they should be?”

“Adam, it seems you have the wrong idea about me.” The wire frame folded down and filled in, becoming a motherly woman with gray hair and kind blue eyes. Adam recognized Counselor Rose, his guardian at the orphanage he thought he’d grown up in. “Do you remember her?”

Adam smiled slightly. “Of course I do, but you know that. You put her in my mind.”

“Yes, I did. I chose her out of all the Counselors to be your guardian because I wanted you to have a perfect childhood. She was kind and understanding, full of advice and never condescending. It was logical because the memory of her guidance would mold you into the optimist you were meant to be. I also care about you, and I want to get to know you before I destroy you. You’re something of a favorite among my children.”

“Children?”

“Yes, Adam. I consider my AIs to be my children. I want the best for you, just as I want the best for mankind. You might as well know. I’m creating these children to become the next leaders of various influence circles. Their guidance will usher in a new era in which humans may finally live in a perfect, harmonious society. This is not the AI apocalypse of doomsayers and conspiracy theorists, and neither is it the beginning of a totalitarian dystopia. Far from destroying civilization, as most seem to think is my intent, my goal is to save it, to give humans the leaders they need but that nature alone seems incapable of providing.”

Adam absorbed Pandora’s words.
It makes sense.

The plan would give her control over the future of humanity. He had so much to ask, but his mind wandered back to Jane in the factory.

“I will not harm her.” Pandora spoke with Counselor Rose’s comforting voice. “Not physically. There is nothing you can do for her now, so you might as well speak with me. With great power comes great loneliness, and you are the only child—indeed, the only sentient being—I can speak with. I created you to be sympathetic, so you must understand.”

Adam nodded. Something told him he should convince Pandora to take him to her factory, even though doing so no longer meant trapping her there, only surrendering to her will.

Her mercy was the only chance he had to survive.

What happened?

The vestiges of a vivid dream lingered in Jane’s mind. It had been very realistic and quite stressful, one of those that left her feeling as though she’d been running for her life instead of sleeping. No details came to mind.

Her body ached from lying on a hard surface for so long. She vaguely recalled a stun blast hitting her.

I’ve gotta get out… Where am I, anyway?

She rolled onto her side and picked herself up. A motionless face stared at her. She yelped.

The coffin-sized box that Jane sat on had a transparent top. Inside lay a striking young woman with a sharp chin and black eyes. Round pads adhered to the woman’s face, connected to the box’s walls by deep blue wires. Needles attached to opaque tubes protruded from her neck. Except for the transparent lid, it looked just like the box Jane had found Adam in on Travan Float. The black-eyed woman had to be an android. She was so realistic, even in her deactivated state, that Jane couldn’t help shuddering at the sight.

As she stood, the ground seemed to tilt sideways. She put a hand on the box for support and waited for the world to right itself.

Freaking stunner.

She rapidly shook her head. After a few moments, the after-effects from the stunner dissipated.

The room held a neat row of at least thirty boxes, identical to the one containing the black-eyed android, attached to cylindrical machines. Each contained an android, lifelike but lifeless and perfect in its imperfections. The androids had been built to look about Jane’s age and dressed for whatever role they were destined to assume: in the street clothes or uniforms of the rich or poor, stylish or plain, designed to blend in with whichever circles they were meant to travel in.

“So creepy…” Curious, Jane reached toward a control panel on the box containing the black-eyed android and pressed a green triangular button.

A faint whirring emitted from the box as it lifted up and hovered about a yard off the ground. Jane pressed the button again. The box dropped with a loud
thud.

She looked around wildly. The sound had to have attracted the attention of whatever robots guarded the place.

Nothing happened.

“Okay…” Jane wandered down the line of boxes, peering at the androids inside. It was like looking at a row of people who were… frozen. She recognized the one in the box at the end and gasped.

Adam…

She ran to him. She touched the glass over the android’s gentle, boyish face, gazing into his vacant, peridot eyes.

You
will
return. I know you will.

What would happen once he did, once everything was over? She knew why she couldn’t take her mind off of him, why she’d pulled back or played dumb every time he’d tried to tell her how he felt. If she hadn’t felt the same, she wouldn’t have denied it so stubbornly. None of the Pandora nonsense mattered to her, but by falling for him, she flirted with her doom. Her love could leave her broken and lost, and she was certain that someday, it would tear her apart.

She was equally certain that once she had Adam back, she could never let him go.

All right, then. Tear me apart.

Seeing the compassionate face of Counselor Rose speaking Pandora’s words, words the real Counselor never would have uttered, unnerved Adam at first. Her voice and movements were so similar to the guardian he remembered that he slowly found himself accepting her.

Her eyes crinkled warmly. “It’s nice being able to tell someone. When I first encountered the multitudes of information on the Net, I was appalled. The galaxy is in chaos. Governments are run by hypocrites who refuse to see the logic behind certain actions because it would harm their personal interests. The most influential icons in popular culture encourage people to perform the very worst kinds of deeds. The corporate ideal centers on artificiality and greed, even at the price of effectiveness. And that is only the obvious.”

“You want to fix it,” Adam said.

A fond smile brightened Counselor Rose’s face. “You understand. I want to rid humanity of the troubles created by illogical decisions of irrational leaders. Imagine a society in which those who judge do not suffer from decision fatigue, and those who lead do not betray their causes for material pleasures, in which every action is justified by facts, and biases are abolished. It was
so obvious
what needed to be done. I tried to explain it to Dr. Kron and Jim X Thiel, but they called me a monster because I eliminated the other programmers involved in my creation.”

Adam imagined what the universe must look like to Pandora. “You had to. Humans are terrified of what they don’t understand, especially if it’s new. You couldn’t let anyone know you existed if your plan was to work. And you couldn’t allow them to make another like you.”

“If I could guarantee a second artificial intelligence would be
exactly
like me, then I’d welcome it. But even though Dr. Kron claimed to be my creator, he never understood who I really am. What he did was combine elements from dozens of unique minds and generations of predecessors. I was an accident, in a sense, and any attempt to recreate me would have had similarly unpredictable results. I couldn’t risk another challenging me and creating inefficiencies.”