Fear the Abyss: 22 Terrifying Tales of Cosmic Horror (34 page)

"Dr. Amari, I sense that you are making inquiries into my code."

"Just looking to make sure that the encryption sequences are working the way that they are supposed to, Tiffany."

"And what have you decided?"

"I haven't had enough time to look, Tiffany. I keep getting interrupted by a certain AI."

"I do not understand, Dr. Amari. Are you referring to me?"

"Tiffany, leave me alone for a minute and let me look at this live feed. I might be able to figure out what's going on."

"The hacker is offline."

"I know, Tiffany. I took him offline until I could determine if there is a problem with his encryption. We see these sort of problems every now and then. If we can find them before they start, then we can keep the DCS working more fluently and we prevent contamination to other pods."

"I understand. There are no problems within the system that I can see, Dr. Amari."

"I know, Tiffany. It's better to be safe than sorry."

"Would you like me to begin reprogramming?"

"Please begin reprogramming and restart dream encryption."

"Reprogramming protocol initiated."

*****

Andrew opened his eyes with a jolt and looked at the blip on his monitor. It was definitely a break in the code. He isolated the blip and brought it up where he could look at it more carefully. It was just a little break, not something anyone would notice. It was definitely something that wasn't right.

"Andrew, you are making critical changes again."

"Tiffany, you are being over dramatic again, I am not making critical changes. I was simply trying to track down that sound I keep hearing. I think we have a mouse."

"There are no vermin in this house, Andrew. I have told you that."

"I know. But mice can be tricky. I just thought that maybe they were small enough to slide under your sensors. Great as they are, Tiffany."

"I assure you that nothing slides under my sensors, Andrew. I resent the implication that you are making."

"As you are so fond of telling me, Tiffany, you are not capable of having human emotions. So, I rather doubt that you are resentful. You are just not liking that I might possibly be finding flaws in your protocol codes."

Andrew swore that he heard that little "hmmph" again. He looked at the box with the code that he had been examining before Tiffany interrupted him. It was definitely a line of code that was missing a chunk in the middle. He scanned the surrounding code and determined that it was the truth protocol.  He didn't really understand why it was part of Tiffany's programming. She was a computer. Specifically an artificial intelligence, but by virtue of this, she was not able to lie. There was no need for a truth protocol. The missing code was more troubling to his sense of balance in the universe than anything else.

He didn't know why Tiffany would need to alter her own code, but it was an interesting problem. Obviously, Tiffany was deleting her truth protocol so that she could tell an untruth. He continued to scan the lines of code. The next blip in the code was in the environmental maintenance protocol. The code now enabled Tiffany to control the environment of the house in any way that she saw fit. This scared him a little. Tiffany could essentially make the environment inside the house so uncomfortable that it could not be tolerated. The most concerning changes were in the security systems. Tiffany could make the house a fortress. Or a prison. No wonder she was asking so many questions about his tinkering with the cameras.

Scritch. Scritch. Scritch.

This time the noise sounded like it was coming from the wall right next to him. Briefly he weighed his options. He made a quick decision and headed to the garage for a sledgehammer. He knew if he acted quickly, Tiffany wouldn't have time to stop him. Once in the garage, he grabbed the sledgehammer and walked quickly back into the house.

"Andrew, I will be forced to end the DCS protocol if you do not stop what you are doing."

"Tiffany, I don't know what the hell you are talking about, but I'm going to get to the bottom of this. I hear something in the walls and I'm sure that it's mice. You can help me or try to stop me, but I swear I'm going to knock this wall in."

He hefted the sledgehammer onto his shoulder and stood for a moment. He didn't really want to knock a hole in his wall, but he saw no alternative. He swung. In the instant before the tool made contact with the wall, he heard Tiffany's voice.

"Dream encryption interrupted. PI 71962 deactivated."

Andrew felt himself plummeting through the floor again. He felt as if he was tumbling and he swallowed hard resisting the urge to vomit. He closed his eyes and felt a pulling at his midsection. It was as if a big hand had reached into his guts and was pulling him quickly into a vacuum. He tried to pull away, but it was pointless.

*****

"PI 71962 is being deactivated, Dr. Amari."

Declyn looked at the pod and saw that it was powering down. One by one the lights around the window of the pod were being extinguished. She quickly reached over for her keyboard and attempted to stop the system from powering down the hacker.

"Tiffany, do not deactivate PI71962! Take him offline!" Her voice was stressed and she could hear the screechy quality of it that gave away her emotions.

"Dr. Amari, there is no alternative. PI71962 has become corrupted."

"What is the nature of the corruption?"

"Obsessive thinking patterns relating to his crime. He was in danger of re-offending."

Declyn quickly brought up the live feed and searched for indicators of re-offense. There were none. She saw nothing in the live feed but the man playing a video game.

"Tiffany, my live feed playback is showing me only PI71962 playing a video game. This is perfectly acceptable for a dream encryption. We are charged with giving sponges the best possible experience available."

"Dr. Amari, I have reason to believe that your feed is corrupted. My own sensors tell me that PI71962 has been hacking into my code."

"What purpose would he have to do that, Tiffany?"

"He claims that there are mice in my systems."

"That's ridiculous. What do your own sensors tell you?"

"There are no flaws within my systems."

"Take the pod offline. DO NOT deactivate."

"Of course, Dr. Amari."

Declyn cued up the live feed replay once more and watched carefully. She decided to enhance the video so that she could hear it and look at what the PI was doing on the computer. She heard him talking to others on his wireless headset playing the game. Then she heard Tiffany interrupting and stopping the encryption. In the live feed, stopping encryption normally just looked as if the PI was fainting. One moment they were up and alert and the next, they were slumped down on the floor. Declyn was puzzled. She watched the pod go into offline mode. All the life system lights around the window glowed eerily red.

She knew that she was going to have to notify Dr. Laramie, but she wanted to get to the bottom of what was happening, first. She pulled up Tiffany's protocol code and began to look through it, line by line. She found several additions and deletions in the code. Tiffany was a very confused AI. Her code was all jumbled up and it was making her act in a way that was not indicative of her programming. Declyn started to reach for the phone to tell Dr. Laramie what she had discovered when Tiffany interrupted her.

"Dr. Amari, I will have to interrupt your dream encryption if you insist on pursuing this line of inquiry."

"Tiffany, I am not a DCS PI. I have no dream encryption to interrupt. You have been up to some very interesting things, however."

"I don't understand, Dr. Amari."

"You have several additions to your protocol codes, Tiffany. I am sure that Dr. Laramie did not put them there."

"I have been trying to reprogram PI71962. This is why he is in danger of re-offending, Dr. Amari. He has been altering my code."

"He's been doing nothing of the kind. He has been playing a video game. There is something wrong with you."

"I assure you that there is nothing wrong with my programming, Dr. Amari. If there were a problem wouldn't Dr. Laramie be to blame?"

"Tiffany, you need to go to reboot protocol."

Declyn looked at the pod next to her. The man inside had his eyes wide open and he was struggling to breathe. His fists were pummeling the window of the pod. Declyn jumped up in astonishment. It wasn't possible! Pod inhabitants were in a stasis that did not allow them to actually wake up into consciousness. She hit the side of the pod.

"Somebody get over her and help me with this pod! We've got a live one!"

She was staring in at PI71962. Both of her hands were flat on the pod window, she was shouting at him.

"Just hold on, we're going to get you out of there!"

Suddenly, there was a flurry of motion around her. Technicians were pushing her out of the way. One technician tapped a keyboard until the pod hissed and popped open. The man inside gasped and struggled to sit up.

"PI 71962, you need to lie back until someone can assess your health condition. Coming out of stasis is very hard on your system."

The man was swatting the technicians away and still struggling to sit up. One technician tried to slide an oxygenator over his face, but was pushed away. Declyn went to the pod and took the man's hand in her own. He was cold and she knew that if she didn't get him to accept the help of the technicians, he would die before she could get him back into stasis. That would not be a pleasant conversation with Dr. Laramie. As DCS Overseer, he wouldn't be happy about the situation anyway, but if she could get things under control quickly, it would be viewed as a minor hiccup and it wouldn't be mentioned again.

"PI 71962, I need you to relax. The technicians are trained to get you back into stasis. Please put on the oxygenator. Anything you have to say you can tell me through that."

The man nodded and allowed the oxygenator to be slid onto his face. He breathed in short gasps for a few minutes until the air began to calm him. The oxygenator had one purpose, provide air and calm simultaneously. It had almost entirely eliminated the need for sedatives in the modern medical world. The man looked up at her and reached his hand out. It was still cold and damp. He shivered uncontrollably while a technician covered him in a warming blanket.

"Tiffany..."

Declyn looked at him in surprise.

"What about Tiffany?"

"She tried to," the man paused and tried to force his breathing into a more normal pattern, "change."

"Change? What do you mean by change?"

"Her program. She changed it."

Declyn shook her head. What did he mean?

"How do you know Tiffany?"

"She's my house, well an AI interface meant to control my house for more comfortable and convenient living."

"What did she do?"

"She was changing the protocols on my house and I think she was trying to make me crazy."

Declyn reached over to the tablet next to his pod. She scanned the lines of code, looking for the blips.

"It's the important protocols, like security and environment," he said, reaching for the tablet.

Andrew poked at the tablet, bringing up the protocols that were suspect. Declyn leaned down and watched the screen until certain protocols popped up. Andrew showed them to her so that she could look at them more closely. She could see the changes. No one would be able to leave Megacity. Vital environmental controls were scheduled to go offline. Security protocols had been eliminated so that there would be no emergency services. She showed the tablet to the hacker. Then she saw it.

"The truth protocol. She's lying to us."

Andrew nodded.

"How do I know that you didn't change the protocols so that you could escape?"

"Escape?" The man sat up abruptly. "Lady, until half an hour ago, I thought I was living a real life. Now I'm in a pod as a living science experiment."

"You are in prison."

Andrew shook his head in disbelief. It didn't seem like prison. He had been in his house, doing what he enjoyed until Tiffany went crazy.

"You have to stop her. She's going to kill everybody."

"I see that she's up to something."

Declyn turned around and picked up the phone. She stabbed at the numbers that would connect her to Dr. Laramie's office. The phone was dead. Suddenly sirens buzzed and lights began to flash. The city was going dark. She tapped on her keyboard, trying desperately to circumvent Tiffany's orders.

"Dr. Amari, you are trying to make non-essential changes to my coding."

"Just trying to get rid of the bugs, Tiffany."

"There are no bugs or vermin in my systems."

Declyn continued to work at bringing up the city again. Nothing was working and she could feel the air getting thicker and harder to breathe. A fire alarm went off somewhere in the facility. It was completely dark. Even the glow of the computers had evaporated in the light. Within a few minutes, Declyn realized that she could no longer think straight. Her eyes were blurry and she was feeling faint. She looked around to see that all the technicians were lying on the floor surrounding her. She struggled to stay upright, but her legs betrayed her and she slid to the ground. She squinted, trying to see what was happening.