The Infinite Evolution - Conversion (25 page)

“
So where is Adam receiving power from?” asked
Ryan.

“
I don’t know, but something is supplying him
with power, resulting in this unprecedented behavior,” said Dr.
Anderson.

“
Can we be sure he is really dreaming?” asked
a team member.

“
His neurons are firing spontaneously and he
is unconscious. If he were human he would be dreaming,” replied Dr.
Richardson.

“
How long does this last?” asked
Ryan.

“
Usually when someone dreams it’s
anywhere between twenty to forty minutes at a time, give or take
that is,” explained Dr. Anderson.

“
All we know for sure is his brain is
processing information, so either he is dreaming, or he is being
accessed by someone else remotely,” said Dr. Richardson.

“
You mean Adam may be getting hacked?” asked
Ryan.

As soon as that word “hacked” fell from Ryan’s
mouth, Reece’s stomach dropped. Telmar looked up from his
holoscreen and noticed everyone staring at him.

“
Well, Dr.
Petrov,
do we need to
be aware of any security issues?” asked Dr.
Richardson.

Telmar knew if he continued to
keep his findings quiet someone was going to find out and suspect
him, so he looked over at Reece apologetically, stood up, and said,
“Yes, Dr. Richardson, with the assistance of Reece, we discovered
that Adam’s secondary subroutines were penetrated from an outside
source, meaning someone had accessed an open port on Adam’s
matrix.”

“
When did you find this out?” asked Dr.
Anderson.

“
A little over three hours ago.”

“
And you’re now bringing this to
our attention?” asked Dr. Richardson with a major annoyance in
his tone.

“
I am still determining if this is an internal
breach. I have confirmed that whoever made this unlawful entry did
not set a virus or leave any malicious software, and there was no
evidence the operation was going to be jeopardized.”

“
That’s one heck of an
assumption Dr.
Petrov
, one you had no right to make,” said Dr.
Richardson.

“
I do apologize, but you are mistaken Dr.
Richardson. Under Central Circuit policy if the security engineer
feels there may be an internal threat he or she can withhold
information until it is verified by a secondary team.”

In an attempt to maintain his
composure, Dr. Richardson simply replied, “This is certainly not
the time, nor place to cite policy and procedure. We will deal with
that matter later. As for now what can you tell us about this
hack?”

Telmar explained in detail how
the hack occurred and gave the specific days of when it happened.
Towards the end, he was hesitant to share the information about
what he had learned regarding Jade, but felt he had no
choice.

“
Is this true Dr. Fields?” asked Dr.
Richardson.

“
I’m afraid so,” said Reece.

Fortunate for Reece, Telmar was nice enough to leave
out the little call he had made to Serafina.

“
Where is this Jade person now?” demanded Dr.
Richardson as his holographical image became static for a
moment.

Telmar stayed quiet and looked at
Reece as if he did not know. Reece sat there contemplating on what
he should say, while trying to read the facial expressions Telmar
was giving him.

“
Well, where is she?” demanded Dr.
Richardson.

“
I left her on the surface in one of the
waiting rooms,” replied Reece.

Telmar pulled up the security log and explained to
the team that Jade had left the waiting room twenty minutes ago,
proceeded to the tourist kiosk, was picked up by a Serafina Smith,
and was no longer on the grounds.

“
So you’re telling us a teenage girl was able
to elude Central Circuit security?” asked Dr.
Richardson.

“
Yes sir, and according to body, electronic,
and vehicular scans of when they left no information was taken,”
reported Telmar.

“
So if she isn’t here then how could she be
accessing Adam now?” asked Ryan.

“
She cannot,” said Telmar “It is
literally impossible. The shielding inside the operation room where
Adam is lying prevents any outside wireless signal from entering.
As long as we are in this facility there is no way anyone can
access Adam, unless someone from inside the facility is allowing
access. According to all the records I obtained from the hack, the
only time Adam was accessed was when he left the lab in our main
facility. The only data stream we have coming into this facility
now is the one monitoring communications with Dr. Richardson. I
have already scanned this stream for a malicious code and found
nothing piggy-backing on it. I do not know why Adam is processing
information, but I can say for certain it is not from a foreign
source.”

“
I’m sorry Reece, but we’re going
to have to ask you to leave until we straighten this out,” said Dr.
Richardson through his remote connection.

“
Sir, do I have to remind you Reece was the
one who found the intrusion in the first place? He has assured me
that he had no prior knowledge of the hack.”

“
Dr. Petrov, are you saying you
could’ve missed this intrusion when reviewing your security logs?”
asked Dr. Richardson.

“
Doubtful, but to accuse him of this is
ridiculous,” snapped Telmar.

“
No one is accusing anyone. Reece
was also present during each intrusion, so it would only be
sensible to suspend him until this is concluded.”

Reece looked at Telmar and said, “Don’t worry, it’s
ok, I’m not taking this personally.”

“
Thank you, Dr. Fields, for your
understanding, I must now ask you to leave. Dr. Petrov, please have
one of our security officers escort Dr. Fields above ground for
questioning. Also forward your report to the security director; we
will be opening a formal inquiry. Lastly, contact the local
authorities, give them the vehicle information Jade left in, and
description of the driver,” instructed Dr. Richardson, “They must
still be nearby.”

“
Understood,” said Telmar.

“
Dr. Richardson, Adam’s neurons are no longing
firing, he is now completely offline,” said Dr.
Anderson.

“
What happened?” asked Dr.
Richardson.

“
I don’t know sir.”

“
Well, that mystery will have to be put on
hold. Let us continue preparing for the operation, I want to stop
any further degradation of Adam’s circuitry as soon as
possible.”

“
Yes, Dr. Richardson, finish preparing for
surgery,” ordered Dr. Anderson.

Purge
Them

Corinth roared, “This is preposterous, we need to
step up our efforts. If Mileva and the rest of those Earth loving
fools make any further decisions in favor of that unproductive
planet, I will personally remove them from the council.”

Corinth was the shabbiest looking
of all the council members. With her large boned physique and the
fact she purposefully carried a great deal more weight than her
other colleagues, she felt size made her more intimidating. On top
of that she regularly wore bright colors, even though she was not a
bubbly person, and kept her ratty hair pulled back into a tight
ponytail, revealing her pale white forehead, narrow eyes, and
makeup free face.

“
Calm down, you need to be diplomatic about
these things and if diplomacy does not work, which I know it will
not, we resort to our second option,” said Melchior.

“
What in this world are you talking about?”
asked Corinth.

Melchior looked away from Corinth and walked out
onto his third-story balcony of his home, as Corinth followed.

“
Look in front of you, what do you see?” asked
Melchior.

“
An ocean,” answered Corinth.

“
Yes and what color is the ocean?”

“
It is a reddish orange.”

“
And why is it this color?”

Corinth still showing frustration asked, “Is there a
point to this?”

“
Answer the question!” ordered
Melchior.

“
Because of the algal blooms.”

“
Exactly, and do you know why there are algal
blooms?”

“
No, but I am sure you are going to tell
me.”

Ignoring Corinth’s response
Melchior continued, “The algal blooms are there because we allowed
their population to increase and take over the plankton community.
We allowed it to absorb water, carbon dioxide, sunlight, and
nutrients. Once the algae received what they needed, they divided
very rapidly, turned into a bloom, and we benefited with a
beautiful carpet of reds and oranges.”

“
I am sorry, Melchior, I am not following your
logic.”

“
Of course not, that is because
you have a closed mind, I expect no less from you
Corinth.”

“
There is no need to be insulting.”

“
I am not being insulting, I am being honest,
now pay attention!”

As if Corinth was just scolded, she responded with a
simple, “Yes, Melchior.”

“
Nature has a very delicate
balance and left on its own it would not have allowed such a
species, like the algae, to dominate such a wide area of ocean
mass. We as Tureissians removed the aquatic life that would have
normally eaten this algae and introduced nutrients into the ocean
that the algae needed in order to grow,” lectured
Melchior.

“
You are making it sound as if these algal
blooms happened intentionally due to our consumption of the very
sea creatures who ate the algae, and our creation of the nutrients
that became part of the run off we used on our crops, centuries
ago,” replied Corinth.

“
You are right, but we choose to keep the
algal blooms and because of this, we ended up benefiting greatly.
These algae became a nutritional part of our diet and aesthetically
pleasing. Now granted we lost those unique sea creatures to over
harvesting and we no longer have our blue ocean, but our gain
outweighed our loss.”

Corinth looked at Melchior with a
confused face, “What does this have to do with Mileva and her
bleeding heart followers.”

“
Everything,” smiled Melchior. “Let them
fulfill their little endeavor. If they want Earth to progress in
their technical achievements and allow members of our planet to
merge themselves with the planets we harvest, then so be
it.”

“
Are you suggesting there are members of the
council who want to integrate our society into the very planets we
harvest from? That is preposterous.”

“
My dear Corinth, I am stating a fact, and one
you should already be aware of, if you paid attention to your
political history and the counsel gatherings.”

“
I am an appointed political leader, I have no
need to know my history, nor do I have to listen to the people I
oppose,” replied Corinth ignorantly. “How did you come about this
information anyway?”

“
I pay attention and read, you
fool! What is relevant is how I use this information to benefit our
agenda. Every so often a society, regardless of how advanced or
well off they are, becomes inattentive, frustrated, and takes
things for granted. Soon they may demand change and when this
occurs, a well functioning government can do one of two things,
suppress these individuals or conform to their ideas.”

“
What about compromising?” asked
Corinth.

Melchior laughed, “Please, compromising leads to
partial acceptance and that is not an option.”

“
I agree, so what is?”

“
Patience, with a little bit of
biology.”

“
Once again Melchior, you need to
clarify.”

“
Of course I do. There is a small group of
members in our society who would merge with these second rate
planets tomorrow if they had the chance and there are quite a few
members of our society who are contemplating a merger, but are
waiting to act on it once they see if it is successful or
not.”

“
Ah, I think I am starting to follow,” replied
Corinth.

“
Good, then continue to follow me.”

Melchior entered into his living area passing by
metallic statues of family and friends. He walked over to a small
opening on one of the walls and waived his hand over a reddish
display and said, “Corinth, step closer to me.”

A bluish capsule formed around
them and both disappeared into the floor. Within a microsecond,
they reappeared in a purplish room with a silver groove that
followed where the walls met the ceiling. A bluish orb connected
itself to this groove and ran the perimeter, blocking any
eavesdroppers. There was also a coating on the walls and ceiling
that appeared to be a glimmer of a yellowish transparent membrane.
There were no entry or exit points, the only furniture was a bluish
oval table with two chairs on each side and carved into the floor
was a large figure eight representing the infinity
symbol.

“
Where are we?” asked Corinth.