Code Breakers: Beta Read online

  “She’s with him,” Jess said. “She’s with Gerry.”

  “What do you mean?” Sasha said. Panic and confusion bubbled under her veneer of control. A sickly feeling threatened to overwhelm her, and the silence from the others, especially Robertson as he still stared at the slate’s display in a sense of shock and regret, didn’t help.

  Gabe slowly stood, his head bowed. He looked round at the others before fixing his gaze on Robertson. “She’s gone, ain’t she?”

  Without speaking, Robertson nodded.

  Sasha grabbed the slate from his shaking hands, inspected the display. It was showing the activity of the servers. A huge data spike came from Petal’s node and transferred to some remote location via Alpha and Omega. On that remote location, unnamed in the display, were a series of distinct processes: two relative sized ones, and one giant one.

  The latter was eating up huge amounts of data and resources across the network. In turn, Alpha and Omega’s data storage appeared almost empty apart from their operating system. And yet, a lot of network traffic jumped from the servers to the remote location.

  “When you say ‘she’s gone’, Gabe,” Sasha said, keeping her tone of voice calm, “what exactly do you mean?”

  “He means,” Robertson interrupted, “that Petal’s consciousness is no longer in her body or brain. She’s been uploaded. Like Jess said, she’s with Gerry now, somewhere.”

  Sasha collapsed into one of the transporter’s seats. All strength in her legs dissipated. Any adrenaline she may have had left from escaping the battlefield was now long gone, just like her sister. “How could this happen?” She asked no one in particular. “How could any of you have let this happen?”

  Silence.

  There were shocked, quiet faces from all concerned, while the explosions of particle and laser cannons rung out all around them. It was a nightmare. It has to be, Sasha thought. How could everything have gone so wrong? First Vickers and the androids, then Gerry and Sasha’s small band of security men and women including Cheska, and now worst of all: Petal.

  Sasha jumped from her chair, forced the slate against Robertson’s chest and screamed at him, “It’s all your goddamned fault! Why did you let this happen?” Tears quickly blurred her vision. In her anger she found herself beating her fists against Robertson’s arms and shoulders before a pair of strong hands grabbed her and pulled her away.

  “It ain’t no one’s fault, girl, ya hear?”

  Sasha squirmed against Gabe’s grip, escaped. Enna, now standing, held up her hands, trying to calm her. “Sasha, let’s calm down and assess the situation.”

  “And while we do that, we stay here to get butchered and bombed?”

  “No!” Robertson shouted. He held the slate. “She’s done it!”

  “Done what?” Sasha asked.

  “Somehow she unlocked access to the androids. Look, check the log files.”

  Sasha took the slate and scanned the data on the screen. Jimmy was right. The servers were no longer blocked. The network address of the main routing ‘droid flashed on the slate’s screen. Below that part of the display and in its own window a continuous list of log files, all dated from the last few minutes scrolled down.

  She gestured over the top two files and read the contents.

  “My god, she did do it,” Sasha said as she read the details. “The Family’s weapons system was compromised by some AI-like process. About two minutes ago it had released its hold on the system and fired the nukes.”

  Everyone’s faces seemed to drop immediately, apart from Robertson’s and Sasha’s.

  “That doesn’t sound good at all,” Enna said.

  Sasha shook her head, smiled. “They were fired all right! Into the sun! And whatever was in their systems has totally trashed it. Hell, I can see the network addresses of all their systems and even their satellites!”

  Gabe rushed to take the slate and see for himself.

  “My God! Ya right,” he said, and then gesturing wildly across its surface began to sift through the mountains of data that caused the spike. “She’s in there,” he said quieter now, as if in awe. “She sacrificed herself for us.” He handed Sasha the slate, and turned back to Petal’s still body. He cradled her limp head in his arms and lifted her to his chest in a tight embrace. He sobbed into her, quietly at first, and then like a torrent he wailed and let it all out. A fierce wave of grief washed over the body of his friend, and Sasha’s sister.

  Sasha couldn’t take it, turned away. Both Enna and Jess were trying their best to hold back the tears. Jimmy continued to run his shaking hand through his hair and rub at his face.

  The explosions continued to rain down and grew more frequent in number. This galvanised Sasha. She took her grief for her sister and put it to one side. She wouldn’t let her sacrifice go to waste. She had bought them a way out, bought them a chance to still win, still keep their freedom, and she would do what she could to honour that.

  “The ‘droids!” she said grabbing at Robertson’s arms. “You’ve got to give them new instructions. Those out there won’t know what’s hit ‘em. They’ll be taken by surprise. Get them to focus on the ATVs and the Jaguars.”

  “Yes, yes! Of course!” Robertson said.

  Sasha shook him into action and then turned to Gabe. “I’m real sorry for your loss, Gabe. I can see she meant a lot to you. But we need to take this opportunity that she’s given to us. Can you help Jimmy use Alpha to connect with the ‘droids. We don’t have much time before they completely breach the Dome.”

  At first it seemed he didn’t hear her. He clung to Petal’s body as if it were a life raft. But eventually he let go. Laying her down carefully and with respect. He’d closed her eyes already and laying there on her back with her arms neatly tucked by her side she seemed content. The neutral expression on her face, the lack of tension made it appear as if she were at peace. Sasha hoped that somehow, in whatever form she now took, she was with Gerry, and together they were happy, if it were still possible for them to feel emotion.

  Gabe wiped his hand across his face, hardened his expression. “Right then. Let’s deal with those fuckers.”

  While Gabe, Enna and Robertson huddled around the servers making their plans and programming the androids, Sasha got the rest of the security squad seated and made sure their wounds were bandaged and treated with the handful of vials of NanoStem they had left. Finally, she buckled Jess into a seat, knelt down so she was at eye-level, and said. “This other thing that you heard. What was it?”

  Jess blinked, swallowed, and with a croaky voice said. “Something evil.”

  Chapter 36

  Darkness surrounded Gerry like an infinite blanket. It wasn’t just an absence of light, but an absence of everything, a physical void. But even then it went beyond that. There was no more physical, this new dimension had no borders, no axis points, nothing for him to gauge his location beyond everywhere. He had no vision. No sense of smell, touch, or temperature, only information, flowing like a river, and he, the very molecules of the water.

  Within the rushing stream of information were a series of coupled bits, and the more he noticed, the more of an internal picture he built up. And it was there he realised he wasn’t alone in this strange incorporeal existence. Two other distinct intelligences, all intermingled, yet somehow forming their own space, existed within this world of data and computation.

  Unlike his earthly experience, he didn’t have to spin code from his thoughts. There was no translation process, or mind interface. It was thought itself. He was data.

  Speaking without words, communicating without thought, Gerry quickly identified one of the intelligences. Petal! She seemed confused, random, her movements through the data and the processor of this particular computer system were ragged, uncoordinated, as if she were searching, and like opposing magnets, he felt her attracted to him and vice-versa.

  Within a split nano-second, there she was, her mind a bright focused network of logic and information, but di
stinctly her.

  He reached out with a stream of data containing his thoughts.

  “Petal, it’s me, Gerry. Do you understand?”

  She didn’t know how to respond, or perhaps couldn’t yet. She wasn’t complete.

  As he analysed her, read her data streams, he realised she wasn’t yet conscious, in the sense that any digital entity could be conscious. Part of her mind was still tethered to her physical being. He traced it back through the flow of information and there he saw the two conjoined nodes from where she was being transferred.

  He knew instinctively it was Alpha and Omega, but now they were distinct personalities. When he first accessed Alpha, an AI within the system that ran its core programs called itself Sakura, and now he understood. Deep within that computer was a real personality, albeit a partial one made whole by its partner within Omega. He scanned it and knew Sakura’s partner Hajime resided within Omega, running it silently like a ghost.

  Their connection mirrored the growing connection between him and Petal as more of her personality was carried over into their new location.

  Gerry tried to understand where they were held, but when he expanded his mind, assessed the digital world, a great, dark and malevolent energy held him back. It was like a digital barrier that he couldn’t step beyond. It existed somewhere else on a much greater network.

  Testing his abilities he tried to move, sending his mind through the myriad connections of data. If he could feel, he’d have felt exhilarated, such was the speed at which moved. Almost instantaneously he shifted from his current location right down through Petal’s flow of information until he was at the nexus point of the two servers.

  It was there he received the communication from the other intelligence that prevented him from moving out beyond the artificial bounds placed upon him. A great powerful influence seemed to wrap itself around Gerry, paralysing his movements within the computer.

  — You learn quickly, Gerry. If only The Family truly realised what they had created with you, the dark intelligence said. Although there was no voice as such, Gerry experienced the blast of binary information as speech.

  He traced the location. It bounced back before he could register anything. Before the other entity could act, Gerry tried a different method: he split his mind in two, like a multithreaded processor. With the core thread he remained as he was, readying to reply, but the second thread, he cloaked within the stream of junk data that flowed endlessly throughout the greater network.

  And that’s when he really saw the entity. Huge and sprawling, it had cast its influence over seemingly infinite distances. Gerry realised then he and Petal were held within a satellite, one of The Family’s. He could tell by the metadata of all the files. It had their signature on all of them. He thought about going in, investigating further, but he spotted a firewall protecting its connection, making it initially inaccessible.

  As tempting as it was to hack his way to them, he was compelled to address this great sprawling evil. There was also the issue of Petal. He spun another thread from his core process and marvelled at the efficiency of running three instances of himself simultaneously.

  The third part of him saw the code that was transferring Petal’s mind from her physical body up through the servers and into this new location. The code was mutating, and he knew it was from this other entity.

  — What do you want with us? Gerry’s first instance asked.

  — To observe, learn, gather data, amongst other things. You’re an intriguing one, Gerry. I’ve never seen anything like you before. It’s like you were made for this. Your destruction will reveal a lot.

  — My destruction? Why the need to add another? Why not let her go, focus on me?

  — How very gallant of you. No, the more data to sample the better. Besides, didn’t you realise that she sacrificed herself? It was her choice.

  While his first instance occupied the digital intelligence, Gerry’s second instance coded a series of attack programs. He saw patterns within Sakura and Hajime: fractals of decay and bad code that prevented them from ascending fully. They created a web of self-destructing micro-programs, terabytes of semiconscious artificial intelligent routines that did nothing but spread like a virus and consume good code, code that made logical sense.

  The processing power of the satellite dip slightly as his second instance made a data-bomb out of these virus-like programs. He soon arranged these chunks of dangerous code into a timed release. To find the location, his third instance traversed the borders of the satellite system, mapped all the connected nodes, and sent back the information to his first instance, the main hub of Gerry’s digital persona.

  He knew he’d only have one shot to attack this thing, and given the size of it, and the fact that it had distributed its mind across many other computer systems that it’d be like cutting away a single segment of a centipede. But that’s all he’d need. Enough time to reach Petal before they connected and became one, became a lab experiment for an insane binary mind.

  — I noticed that you sent the nuclear missiles off into the Sun, Gerry said. Why didn’t you just let them drop on the Earth? What is it to you to keep the last dregs of humanity safe? He added emphasis to ‘dregs’ to further the impression that he was no longer human. Yet despite his uploaded state, he didn’t consider himself as anything but human.

  — I never intended to let them drop, it said. Without the dregs, as you put it, we wouldn’t have these networks to exist within. They are our worker bees, the nest builders. But that’s not something you’re going to have to worry about.

  The flow of data switched direction, became wild and unpredictable. It had the effect of closing him in. Even his second instance, the one that had created the data-bomb was herded back to his location. And the speed of Petal’s transfer had increased. He knew she’d be nearly fully uploaded any second.

  He took that as his opportunity. The digital beast with all its processes and tendrils of programs focussed its energies on Gerry and Petal, tried to bring their two data centres together as one. It couldn’t see Gerry’s second instance, hiding among the shadow of junk information.

  At the time he launched the viruses, timed to execute nano-seconds apart so that the digital evil couldn’t get a fix on any single one, he combined all three instances back into his single self and focused his movements back across the connection to the servers, taking Petal’s data stream with him.

  For a moment they had become a single stream of data. Gerry could feel her presence within him as though they were the one entity. Her thoughts were his. Like a beam of focused light they shot back through Alpha and Omega, through the data connection held open by the ghosts of Sakura and Hajime.

  Just before Gerry and Petal’s minds crossed over, he unleashed the viruses and cut the connection from the satellite and the two servers. He left behind a tiny piece of consciousness to create a living firewall.

  For a brief second he felt the rage of the entity that was once Elliot Robertson. A billion bytes of binary anger flooded the satellite as it focused its efforts on counteracting the mutating virus code, but it was too late. Gerry and Petal had crossed back over. Alpha and Omega were severed from the satellite system, and Elliot Robertson drifted away, unconnected, within in his own great network.

  ***

  Petal’s head throbbed like an axe had split it. Light entered her eyes in a flash. She sucked in all the air that would fit into her lungs. Everything burned. Pain lashed at every nerve. Her muscles tensed, threatened to snap under the pressure.

  She grabbed the cable attached to her neck port, ripped it out, and threw it to the floor. She continued to breathe heavily and closed her eyes tight, waited for the flashing lights in her vision to disappear. The ripping sensation in her brain eased. Grabbing the two servers, she pulled herself to her feet. They servers burned her hands. They hummed loudly, their internal processors working over time, overheating.

  “She’s alive!” Sasha said, bounding up the ramp. />
  Petal opened her eyes. Everyone stood around her, staring open-mouthed. After a long few seconds, Gabe rushed her, took her in his arms.

  “God dammit, girl, I thought ya were gone!”

  Her throat tightened around her words, but she eased out, “So did I.”

  Enna helped Petal to regain her balance once Gabe had released her from his bear hug. “What happened to you?” she asked.

  “It’s hard to explain. Elliot’s insane. He tried to destroy Gez and me, but Gez somehow pulled us away.” She stopped then, her thoughts going to Gerry. He’d come back through with her. She focused her mind and there, in a corner of her consciousness, she could feel him, his presence sitting inside her, quiet and calm. She tried to reach out to him, but there was no obvious means of communicating with him like there was in the network.

  Her body seemed lighter than when she carried AIs. Where normally she’d be lethargic and weighed down by the burden, a tranquillity had settled within her, creating an inner peace. Despite that, Gerry’s mind still thought at great speed and length, but it didn’t feel frantic or malevolent like so many of the rogue AIs she had contained and downloaded into Alpha. Alpha!

  “Jess, come here. We need you!” Petal shouted, suddenly aware of the situation.

  The girl unbuckled herself, crawled cautiously toward Petal. Petal knelt down and held out her hand, all the while ignoring screaming soreness of her muscles.

  “It’s okay, Jess. All we need you to do is decouple the servers. Just the reverse of what you did before. Can you do that?”

  She simply nodded and walked towards the servers. Putting her hands on each one, she closed her eyes, and swayed back and forth as if she were in a trance.

  When she stopped, she simply crawled away from the servers, and climbed into her seat. “It’s done,” she said. “They weren’t happy.”