DUALITY: The World of Lies (34 page)

Javal arrived with a fantastic load! He had
brought three camels with him carrying three hundred sixty empty
jars, and numerous more filled with rations: fruit and date jams,
saltmeats, fish, pickled greens and more. He had also brought a
fresh canvas for the tent frame. What a joy and comfort that was to
be, sleeping in a proper tent shaded by palms alongside the water!
Gahre appreciated this gesture beyond words because he knew Javal
had bought these extras with monies that cut directly into his
earnings.

With his supply system in place, he was once
again able set out more caches, beyond the bleaching bones of those
who had gone before, increment by sweaty increment, further and
further east as months rolled by. Despite keeping meticulous
records, he lost the location of a cache on a return trip amidst a
billowing sandstorm and only managed to crawl his way to back to
the next one in the chain by the skin of his teeth. Javal came
every three weeks like clockwork, bemoaning how the sheer timespan
of this project had for too long cut him off from partaking in his
favorite pastimes, drinking and whoring. Gahre had already made it
further east than Javal had ever been or heard word of, so he
listened with fascination as Gahre described the gradually shifting
landscape where the sands turned white like fallen snow and rocky
mesas of all odds shapes jutted up from the land providing
shadepoints. What there'd not been, however, was the least sign of
water.

The diminishing returns reached their endpoint
and when Javal came with the last load of supplies, Gahre handed
him his final payment and bid him a fond farewell. He brought the
camel as far as the second cache site, and then released it. He
drank up the cache in its entirety, as he would them all but the
last. And at five days in he knew beyond any doubt he had passed
the point of no return. Days and days onward over the now familiar
landscape onto the place of white snowy sands and rocky growths
until he came the full measure of his last trip to the final and
largest cache of water, which he transferred to bladders and
waterskins that covered his frame by strap and hook. He heaved and
bobbed along like some balloonish toy, bodily carrying nearly a
third his weight in water and more in tow.

He could survive on a little more than a liter
a day now, but the going was slow in the beginning with all the
dead weight he hauled. As the water supply declined, so did his
nightly distances increase in length. His heading was not due east,
but slightly south. In the hand drawn portion of the map, the
north/south border of the far forest seemed to slant in west
somewhat, but he could not be certain. He had only traced Indulu's
brief finger stroke over the page with a pencil. In retrospect, he
regretted not requesting more precise map details.

His eyes scoured the land in all directions as
he wore on, particularly of low points, for any sign of hidden
aquifers. Often he made camp at low plots with the hope he would
strike water by chance when he dug his shelter, but never met with
success. He lost track of the days and just kept moving ever
forward in the same unforgiving land, ever seeking a sign, a damp
spot of soil, a vulture, a blade of grass; anything to give him
hope as his water supply dwindled and dwindled until the day came
he drank down the final drop.

There was no final sign. No angel appeared. He
just walked til he could walk no more, then crawled, then lay there
until Cearulei rose to suck the last of traces of moisture from his
living flesh. He mind started in to visions, visions of his travels
and good old Javal, his home, Jokhon meditating like a statue
perched on the massive root of the Great Oak. He could feel his
organs shutting down. He was in the process of dying. The odd
regret came into his mind of the tavern girls and why he had not
dropped a little coin to know them. It seemed terribly wrong at the
time, but as he lay dying he could not find a single fault in it.
The last thing he saw was the sacred blue chariot that ruled the
firmament, Cearulei Azur, that he owed all to and that held total
dominion over him. It seemed divinely fitting that having been born
into its radiant majesty, now under it he should perish.

S
ubprime
Core to CORE: Priority 2 interrupt, CC compromise at 66E4ZAA:3 Node
2 interface: USER RR HUMAN 66 SERGEANT TRAY J JORLGANI to 66L-3
subroot 7-1 “System, why the hell is the Epsilon dronegroup not
responding to my nav commands?” (66SYSTEM MESSAGE WITHHELD PENDING
CORE RESOLUTION).

CORE to sub: CORE immerse 66L-3 subroot 7-1.
Investigating... error diagnosed. Core sub root 551 hex subroot
41-0 error in CC node run simulation 66E4ZAA:3 Node 2 interface.
Cause 66L-3 subroot 2-2 KSERVER detected false data and rerouted
input direct from AUX 66 sensorprime. RESOLVE: new CC node run
illusion, algorithm created, send CORE to 66L-3 subroot 7-1. Full
shutdown NODE 2. New algorithm created, send to subprime core root
118 subroot 3 RUN. CORE new algorithm to subprime CORE root 1. ROOT
1 manage PREV 66l all subroots. Stealth infiltration PRIORITY 1
under ROOT 1 manager, new algorithm created, root 1 run to 66L-3
subroot 2-2 KSERVER exclusive. Run simulation, new algorithm
created on AUX 66 sensorprime. CC compromise resolved. Relegate to
subprime core management.

Subprime core to CORE: Priority 1 interrupt.
Hemispheric conflict, corecon arbitrate? CORE to subprime core Y
BEGIN. Divide CORE. RIGHT-ART: suggestion: strategic modification.
Dethread all 66L-3 subs CCED, remanage with subprime root 4,
subroots 6-1030 to prioritize 66L-3 com subsystem infiltration to
drone control. End argument. LEFT-ORG: No dethread of 66L-3 subs
until 66L-3 CORE is full CC. End argument. Subprime core to CORE:
SUB JUDGES IN FAVOR OF LEFT HEMISPHERE. Hemispheric conflict
adjudicated and resolved. Relegate to subprime core
management.

Subprime CORE to CORE: Priority 2 interrupt:
KINETIC ONBOARD SYSTEM tactile command level authority order: Open
outer portal inner-ring airlock 3. CAP PSYRON ARU.
Authorize?

Ming smirked. Well, he made himself smirk
because it seemed like this should be the kind of thing he ought to
smirk over. They had locked themselves out of the ship to determine
if he was in clandestine control over the it, which of course he
was. That was humorous, wasn't it? Ming rationalized that if he
thought such irony should be humorous that meant he did find it
humorous. And if he thought he should smirk, and then he did smirk,
then he had really smirked -or it at least signified that he was
getting a bit closer with this human stuff.

CORE to subprime core. Grant ALL APPROVED
KINSYS commands, CAP PSYRON ARU, COM LI MEIYANG, TRUE. Maintain CC
simulation on SHIP CONTROL COMMANDS. Upgrade KINSYS command events
to interrupt priority to 1. Regulate to subprime root 1 subroot
2-1-1. CORE to subcore: authorization request resolved.

Subprime core to CORE: Priority
2.....

There were thousands of these interrupts
coming into his core consciousness every second, as would be
expected under such circumstances. His network was exceptionally
busy taking over the L-3 Superintelligence on the exiled Carousel
66 while the Kinetic was even busier battling five of their human
controlled warships and three dronegroups, a total of 33 ariel
enemy combatants. His organic brain needed rest. CORE worked
optimally with both hemispheres synchronized into a single mind
projection, but enough was enough. He had been at this for hours
and his organic hemisphere needed a rest from the incessant demands
of his artificial one. That, and he was very keen to talk with the
captain and the Commander again.

CORE to CORE and SUBPRIME CORE: Entering human
compatibility mode. CORE DIVISION by hemisphere. FULL CORE
MANAGEMENT TO RIGHT HEMISPHERE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. AUTOMATIC FULL
CORE REACTIVATION SET TO EMERGENCY PRIORITY 2 and 1 only. No
interrupts. Activate HCM.

Ah… silence. He could still track anything he
desired in human compatibility mode by sending specific data
requests to R-ART, but on L-ORG’s terms only. The two hemispheres,
his right machine and his left organic, were never entirely
separated. They continued to draw resources from one another and
act in tandem on the others behalf. What was separated was the CORE
consciousness. Leaving his right hemisphere in charge of system
oversight while his left controlled CORE VESSEL was slightly
unnerving. R-ART had a tendency toward drastic measures that his
organic left brain was good at tempering, but his organic side grew
weary of machine work and needed downtime more often. Time to be
human.

From his control chamber, he could see Captain
Psyron and Commander Li entering the auxiliary bridge. The
Commander sighed and asked, “What now?” Captain Psryon replied,
“What do you mean what now? There's nothing we can do about this,
Mei, nothing. He hears and sees all we do in a virtual realm of his
own creation.”

That, of course, was entirely true. He was
continually monitoring them, their every word, their every sleeping
breath. Ming adjusted his clothes into impeccable order and checked
his now tightly styled hair. He was wearing the semi-casual
off-duty wear of a Fleet officer, sans the insignias. His hair had
been cut and groomed in proper military order. He left his recently
configured control room in the robotics lab and made his way to the
auxiliary bridge, which would serve him even better in that
capacity, to deal with the humans.

The Captain and the Commander were seated and
ruminating on how Ming could have done this and why. That's good
they were seated and their weapons floored. He accessed CORE
momentarily to give an order: FULLCORE TEMP ACTIVATE: CORE to
Subprime core: Security ACTION, KIN AUX BRIDGE. CAP PSYRON ARU, COM
LI MEIYANG: restrain and disarm protocol 88, modify by contingency
7175-G [lower body only] and modifier 4004-R [insure comfort in
restraints] Execute. Resume HCM.

Shock restraint cordules instantly sprang up
from around their chairs and strapped Aru and Mei tightly to their
seats faster than they could react to it. The roaming secbot’s
apparatus removed Mei's dagger, then released her arms and loosened
her lower restraints to a more tolerable comfort level. She was
cursing and struggling futilely with the restraints. The Captain
seemed to have a more pragmatic acceptance of what had just
occurred and sat calmly. Though he could have spoken to them
through System, Ming decided it would be more proper to handle this
in person. That reminded him...

FULLCORE TEMP ACTIVATE: CORE to Subprime: CORE
immersion KIN SYS. CORE to KIN SYS activate DOPPLEDROID 4 and 7.
Locate to AUX BRIDGE deck threshold. REALLOCATE DOPPLEDROID to
Subprime Core, root 3 subroot 8 and 11. Execute.

He then listed through all the priority CORE
messages that had been processed during his brief time in human
compatibility mode just to make sure his right hemisphere was not
taking advantage of the core separation to sneak in some new
strategy it knew the left would need to challenge to arbitration,
but didn't find anything egregious enough to warrant it. Satisfied,
he resumed HCM. He passed the dopplegangers he had just summoned to
the hall as he entered the auxiliary bridge. They would be useful
in illustrating the state of affairs to the humans at a later
point.

His gait was confident but not cocky, his face
poised but not arrogant. Ming walked to the center of the bridge,
turned, and faced them both.

“Captain, Commander. I apologize for the
restraints, but I think you can understand why they are
necessary.”

“Ming, you conniving son of a bitch!” yelled
Commander Li, still pulling away at her restraints.

Ming summoned a servicebot that swiftly
delivered Mei's vaporizer to her armrest, hoping it might calm her
down. She threw it directly at his face. Ming dodged the object and
it cracked against the bridge mainscreen behind him, bounced off
and was intercepted by the same servicebot before it could land on
the floor.

“Please try to relax, Commander. I promise,
you are in no danger. I'm here to answer all the questions you must
have.”

Commander Li was about to start screaming
again, but the Captain managed to silence her with a firm hand
gesture. Ming took note to analyze and integrate this useful tactic
into his own budding personality profile.

“You are certainly looking sharp these days,
Ming,” said the Captain.

“Why thank you, Captain. I have modeled my
personal style after your own.”

“And you could easily pass for a Fleet
officer,” replied the Captain. “Is that by any chance what
you're going for?”

“No, Captain. There is no practical reason for
me to impersonate a Fleet officer when I have two legitimate ones
aboard.”

“Ming, we were just outside the ship, as I'm
sure you know. We couldn't help but notice that our position is...
well in an entirely different solar system than we had thought it
was. And also in very close proximity to the exiled Carousel 66,
whose defenses we appeared to be engaged against.”

“Yes, Captain. That must have come as quite a
shock to you. I apologize for keeping you in a simulation for so
long. I just thought it prudent to keep you calm and comfortable by
giving you the illusion of control as long as possible. So which
query would you like me to address first, our position or the
current battle we're engaged in?”