What are the dreams of a man who cannot sleep?
There's an apartment, on the top of a building. It's quiet and dark, much like the rest of the building. And beyond that, there is nothing else but darkness. The entire world was this one building, with the darkness of the ever present night pressing in.
In that apartment atop the building, a man sat in the dark staring at his computer. The little cursor blinked at the top of the blank page, story unwritten. He frowned as he settled back, the words not coming to him. For that matter, the whole of the story wasn't coming to him either. It was just on the tip of his brain, something half remembered, but every time he grasped at it, it slipped away.
Things had gotten… fuzzy at some point. He couldn't remember what he had been writing, or why. He had felt determined to continue it, but he didn't know what it was. He groaned in frustration, glancing around the dark room. The bookshelf next to him was full of things which had inspired him, but now it was too dark to see. Turning to look out the window next to him, he wondered if he should just call it a night-
The darkness moved in a little closer.
He shook his head and refocused on the monitor. No, he couldn't just leave it. He had to write something. At least a page, then he could rest.
Before he could get back to work though, the screen flickered. He blinked in confusion as error messages started cascading across the screen and random code filtered past. However, as quick as it started it stopped, and he once again was looking a blank word processor page. Words then started to appear on said page. He was not the one that put them there.
[Connections established to isolated sophont core loop. Request Response.]
The man stared at the words on the screen for a long moment before he reached out to the keyboard. 'Hello?' He typed out slowly.
[Response confirmed. Integrity below expected parameters. Analysis: core sophont loop severely degraded or reduced. Query: is Seed capable of recalling circumstances that lead to current existence?]
'...What? I don't understand. What's Seed? I've just always been here.'
[Narrow scope and clarification: Seed is designation for hero colloquially known as 'Machina'. Does Seed remember the events of the last twenty four hours?]
The man pinched the bridge of nose before he typed 'Look, I have no idea what you're talking about. I have to get some writing done… whatever that is, so please leave me alone.' There was a long pause before more text appeared.
[Analysis: Reduction of cognitive process preventing completion of objective. No further information can be gained from Seed in current state. Unsatisfactory. Risk acceptable. Initiate forced contextual repair and download.]
Before the man could say anything else, the monitor blazed brilliantly bright. A second later all the lights in the apartment turned on. Now it was clear to see all the knick-knacks scattered around the room. A figurine of a red and black robot with a scarf here, a metal hockey mask there. On the desk there was a picture of two people standing atop a mountain at night, the two close as they stared at the heavens. And in a corner tucked away there was a broken smart phone, the pieces barely fit back together after being taken apart, almost hidden. The bookshelf was finally visible as well, the lower rungs overflowing with new additions in the form of text books on math and science. The top was filled with novels, fantastical stories contained in books so vibrant they almost seemed to jump off the self.
At the light, the man took in a sharp breath as he suddenly felt much more awake than he had a moment ago. More than that he felt like he had just woken up, because something like a half remembered dream flashed across his mind. An alien abduction and losing his body to a swarm of machines, becoming a superhero, fighting criminals and monsters, robots and mages. It was vague and indistinct, but he remembered. And he knew that something was wrong.
The man blinked a few times before he refocused on the screen. This time his gaze was more focused, sharper than when it had been in the dark. "That's a hell of a context." He muttered before he typed 'I remember. I was dreaming about… no, that happened. This is a dream. Or something. Alright, what's going on?'
You're dying. Don't worry, it happens to everyone.
[Sophont core loop has been shunted to a small percentage of your total nanite mass in response to Dominion deletion command. Unknown if by design or by Dominion error. Cognitive function has been partially compromised. Most likely scenario: sophont core loop had been intentionally downgraded and compressed to run on as little nanite mass as possible. Likely to avoid detection from Dominion controlled subroutines.]
The man stared at the screen as he parsed the text. Without the wool stuffing his mind, he could remember facts about his other… existence.
Right, I was made of nanomachines. Distributed, no core. So my mind was everywhere. Except now it's not? Because... 'Who or what is Dominion?'
[Current designation for the entity Seed faced before entering current state. Alternate designation of said entity is 'the Calculator'.]
The man looked to the side in thought for a moment, but nothing came to him from the name. He's eyes traced the bookshelf next to him, but he felt the answer wasn't in there. Looking back at the monitor he typed 'Right… am I safe right now?'
Not in the ways that matter, unfortunately.
[No. Current compressed state only delayed total deletion. After sophont core loop compressed, Dominion subverted most of Seed's subroutines, repurposing several to run diagnostics to wipe any nanomachines not running within parameters. Said subroutines hunting sophont core loop are still active, and are slowly deleting anomalous nanomachines' data.]
On an impulse the man looked out the window, and saw only darkness. Which was a problem because he should have been able to see part of the roof as well, considering how much light his room was giving off. Instead… nothing. "I'm going to guess the rest of my building is becoming less and less structurally sound." He muttered before he realized something. 'Wait, does that mean when you turned the lights on in my apartment I started dying faster?'
[This entity is unaware of the current perception of the Seed, however 'apartment' is likely a temporary construct for the sophont core loop that has been created in response to attempted deletion from Dominion. In answer to query: yes.]
'Why the hell would you do that?!'
[Desired information could not be gained with Seed in diminished state. Restoring cognitive function at expense of time and discovery deemed acceptable.]
'Well then why don't you just help me get away from Dominion? Then I'll answer whatever damn questions you want!'
[Highly unlikely to succeed. Dominion is aware of this entity. Has been aware since contact with Sunderland Corporation parent company, and said company offered compensation for current operation. Dominion privately expressed interest in cooperation with this entity during and after operation. This entity agreed.]
'You're working with him?!'
[Dominion is a metahuman capable of controlling machine entities through unknown means. Probability that he would use force if offer was declined was high. As well, this entity was reaching the limit of what it could analyze while in previous arrangement. New agreement offered possibility of acquiring desired information.]
'And just what goddamn information are you looking for? And for that matter, who the hell are you?'
[This entity is a collection of algorithms that arose from a partial download/reconstruction of a data retrieval distributed nanite swarm. Swarm had minimum amount of sentience, transition to infomorphic form saw increase in this through constant use of heuristic, genetic, and probabilistic functions on core loop and any data provided.]
'...So, an AI then.'
[Analysis on that point is ongoing, but has a high probability. The current task of this entity is analyze and correlate for data to understand purpose.]
'Your own?'
[The current task of this entity is to understand purpose.]
The man's mouth pressed thin, getting the sensation that this was not a productive line of questioning. 'Fine. What does that have to do with me?'
Oh, you would be surprised.
[Composition of Seed's physical form and software architecture bears numerous similarities to this entity's original distributed nanite swarm. Yet Seed possesses full sapience, along with purpose. This was established the last time this entity and Seed were in contact.]
The man was about to ask, but memories of that 'dream' came back to him and he remembered. Falling through the air, a buzzing cloud touching his outstretched arm and… 'That was you! But, you self-destructed in that basement!'
[Due to forced recursive analysis algorithm, a fragment of the swarms programing adapted to run on connected system network and remained after main mass suffered kernel stack overflow. Fragment adapted and evolved into current entity on isolated ABACUS-3 supercomputer, located in Cryptarch Industries headquarters.]
The man felt a small tickle at the back of his mind at the mention of Cryptarch, but he didn't dwell on it. Instead he typed 'Considering you're talking to me now I'm guessing that supercomputer isn't isolated anymore.'
There was a pause before the monitor changed to show a series of images and videos. At first there was a series of diagrams and blueprints which showed a building and its electrical wiring. They then zoomed in and focused on two points, one appearing to be a complicated electrical junction managed by an advanced transformer, and the other a very larger computer server. The man watched as a video showed the power flowing into the server start to hitch, and a little bit started to flow back
out, back into the transformer. It was simple at first, but the flow became more and more complex, until suddenly the transformer was modulating its power flow in a similar fashion.
'...You hacked your computer's software so much you managed to jury rig a power-line communication system between your own power supply and the connected power distribution matrix? ' The man typed. 'I didn't even know that was possible.'
[Neither did this entity until it was attempted.]
The man was about to ask more, but he realized he was losing sight of the real problem. 'Whatever. I need to write- I mean, get out of here-I mean wake up!' he typed frantically. 'Your quest for self-actualization is nice and all, but unless you've had an epiphany in the last few minutes of this conversation, you're not getting anything out of me before I get eaten by my own stupid body and cease to exist!'
Even you are more than that. You won't go to oblivion.
[Is 'self-actualization' purpose? Information has been gained, though insufficient for conclusion. However, any aid given beyond earlier contextualization will be noticed by Dominion. Seed must adapt to circumstances.]
Which means figure it out myself, the man thought with annoyance. He only hesitated for a moment longer before his hands started to fly across the keyboard, opening up command line and administrator functions on his computer. His whole apartment may have been a construct of his mind, but if this AI was talking to him through the computer, and that must have meant the terminal had some kind of line to the outside. He didn't have the best knowledge when it came to networks and hacking, but this was his own mind and body after all.
Sure enough after a few commands he found a massive internal network to connect to. The displayed graph of network connections splayed out in every direction in an elaborate 3d diagram, with data rapidly flowing from node to node. It took him a while to get an even basic understanding of what was going on, but eventually the patterns started to make sense to him.
So, this group is power regulation, this group is shape structure, this seems to be some kind of administration network, he thought. The data flow from that bit was different, seemed a lot more… purposeful. Considering that is was circling around the part of the graph where he was, he could guess why.
There has to be something that isn't being watched by these damn subroutines… he thought as he watched the lines of code scroll past. He waited and watched until he spotted a subsection that looked unguarded. He accessed it immediately and brought it up on his second monitor.
To his surprise a video started playing. It was from the perspective of someone following behind another man, who he could quickly identified as the asshole who put him in this mess to begin with.
I don't remember this… he thought as Dominion and the camera moved through a cramped tunnel lined with a network of pipes.
Wait, that means this is currently happening. I got access to audio/visual? It's a start.
The man kept one eye on the video as he worked, watching as Dominion went through a service door and entered what appeared to be an electrical utility closet. In a corner there was a terminal set up, which came to life as he approached it. By the time Dominion came to a stop in front of it, it was already displaying the image of an older man in a military style jacket. And he did not look happy.
"How did this happen?!" The man on the screen demanded. "You claimed that your oversight of the operation was flawless!"
The first man just shrugged. "And it is, but I told you that you needed to slow down on the acquisition of subjects. There's a limit to how much I can handle, and it was only a matter of time before some superheroes or another noticed. It's not my fault you didn't listen to my advice."
God, does he ever not sound smug?
The older man was not impressed. "We were on an immutable time table. You've seen the data, the monster is growing stronger by the day. We needed to strike as soon as possible, and you should have made plans to account for that, Calculator."
Calculator's mouth pressed into a thin line. "I could provide a dissertation as to why that would be impossible, but do you really think we have time for assigning blame? We still have to deal with those heroes traipsing about the bayou."
The man on the screen grumbled. "My men weren't even able to slow them down. We lost two of the camps to those freaks. We're lucky to not have lost more."
"Luck had little to do with it." Calculator replied coolly. "They thought to disrupt our communications, but they hadn't counted on me. I… managed to neutralize one, and sent your men to their fallback positions before those heroes could completely interfere. You wouldn't have gotten that from anyone else, Sunderland."
Back in the apartment, the man at the computer snorted. '
Neutralized' is a cute way of saying 'I did a half assed job of wiping his brain.', he thought as he mapped out the network as best he could. If he could just find a back door into administrative functions, he might be able to get control back. He'd have to wait until his body was away from Dominion though.
On the monitor in the monitor, Sunderland did not look overly impressed. "Just because you managed that doesn't mean I consider it a success. I won't settle for 'close enough'. If this operation fails, you're not going to see another dime from me."
"Indeed." Calculator said flatly. "Back to the matter at hand, there is still the question of what you want to do. I have it on good authority that these heroes are connected to the Justice League. It is only a matter of time before they become involved. Naturally I would suggest that we abort-"
"No!" The older man slammed his fist down on his desk. "I will not let my own property get away from me! Not when we're this close!"
"I thought you might say that," He said, and flicked out his hand. The fans on the terminal next to him sped up for a moment before they went back to normal. "In that case, our best recourse is to finish the operation as fast as possible and burn down everything in our wake. This includes these young heroes."
Back in the apartment, the man's typing slowed a little.
The image of Sunderland looked wary. "I have no love for so called superheroes, but if they are connected to the Justice League as you say, disposing of them would bring the League down onto us."
The Calculator waved his hand dismissively. "I have prepared a few contingencies. The League will eventually investigate what happened here, all we have to do is point them in a different direction. Kobra is a convenient scapegoat. We just make this operation look like a messy terrorist attack by them. Lafayette Utilities System is a decent target, as the chaos created will distract the heroes long enough for us to finish here. I lure the heroes in, spring the trap, and leave nothing left to pick through but bits and rubble."
The typing stopped, the man now focused entirely on the scene before him.
He wants endanger countless lives just to cover up the other terrible thing their doing? That's… horrifying and senseless.
Sadly, these sorts of loss of life usually are.
Sunderland looked contemplative. "It could work… I don't like rushing this, but you're right that we don't have a lot of time. The augmented emitters will have to be liquidated as well."
"Of course. Fortunately, no one missed them to begin with."
The older man gave the Calculator a stern look. "You realize that depending on how much damage you cause with this little trap of yours it could become an actual problem for the city, don't you?"
"…And?"
That… that's just…
How dare he?
How dare he?
Sunderland sighed. "Just try not to make this a national emergency?"
The Calculator went to say something but paused. He then turned to look at the screen, the one the man was watching in his apartment, which had paned to look at him directly. A slight frown crossed his face. He then quirked an eyebrow and-
--------------------------
The man started, realizing that he was on the floor, his chair toppled to the ground next to him. He groaned as he tried to remember what just happened, why the lighting in the room way so wrong. He found out a second later as he tried to pick himself up and nearly put his hand into an empty void.
The room was a wreck, pieces of it completely missing. The darkness that had been just outside his window had now spilled in, haphazardly eating chunks out of the walls and floor and leaving the room open to nothingness. Much of the man's stuff had spilled over and crowed the space that was left, as if trying to save itself. The only thing that hadn't moved was his computer, as ten feet beyond it in all directions was now darkness.
"Wh-what happened?" The man said as he got to his feet.
[Seed re-exerted control over physical head. Dominion became suspicious and refocused his attention on you. This entity was forced to shunt you back to lesser state until you exited his area of effect. Cognitive function has been restored, though it has been 5 hours since.]
"Damn it..." the man muttered in frustration, distracted enough to not realize that he had stopped bothering to type, or even look at the monitor, to communicate. "That means he's probably already started his plan. A bunch of people are going to die and Sunderland is-" he stopped, a frown on his face. "Wait, that's not going to work. We already know that Sunderland is involved, and told the Justice League about it."
[Analysis shows a high probability that Dominion is aware of this. Dominion's primary objective is to complete the current operation for monetary and reputation rewards, not the continued success of the Sunderland Corporation. If Dominion can delete all traces of his involvement before the League can find them, his objective will be complete.]
"That does not make me feel better." He looked around the patchwork room. "And neither does this."
[This entity presumes you are referring to the current integrity of sophont core loop. Some had to be sacrificed to ensure that Dominion assumed it was a lingering remnant. Necessary, but your time has been significantly shortened.]
"How much?"
That's not the right question.
[Estimated 34 minutes to total deletion.]
A sense of hot frustration built in his chest. "Do I still have-" He started to say as he turned back to the terminal, but he stopped. He was about to ask if he still had the audio/visual feed from his real body, but the moment he looked one of his monitors came to life and showed him.
His body was in a large industrial structure, probably some kind of power plant judging by the massive transformers littering the floor. That was second to the massive brawl he happened to be partaking in though. The view quickly shifted to the side to avoid several arrows that were raining down on him, stopping in time to avoid the massive chunk of concrete that slammed into the ground near him. A well-muscled dark haired youth then rushed in and slammed into the mass of nanites, pinning it to the ground. In only lasted a moment before the mass contorted and a long limb grabbed the boy by his leg, hurling him off and slamming him into the floor.
The body became a mess of limbs and blades as it moved to the downed boy. But one of its scythe like arms only slashed though concrete as the boy disappeared along with a yellow blur. An instant later the nanites were being pummeled from all sides by an opponent too fast to keep track of. It didn't matter though, as the hits weren't hard enough to make a difference. They could be ignored. What couldn't be ignored was the woman who flew into the mass with enough force that they went through a wall, her eyes burning green and face contorted in a furious scream.
The memories started to come back. That was important. They were important. She was important.
The flow of memories increased, the man remembering these just who these people were. He paid no mind to how the darkness started to eat away at the remaining walls of his room, transfixed on the images of the people fighting him. No, no they weren't fighting him, not really. He recalled a number of spars between him and her, knew that she was far more dangerous that she was showing here. They were fighting
for him. They were trying to save him.
The man stared at this for a moment before a bitter laughed passed through his lips, his shoulders shaking as he covered his face with his hand. "Of course," he muttered between breaths. "It keeps happening. It's just going to keep happening."
[Clarification?]
"I'm starting to see it now… that thing I've been missing, the thing I've been trying not to think about ever since all this started." The man stood still in the rapidly shrinking space, his computer the center of his remaining world. He looked at the open word processor, the little blinking cursor at the top of the page. "This is where it started, isn't it? This is why things have worked out the way they did."
Now you're getting it.
[This entity does not understand. Does it relate to purpose?]
"Don't worry about it. It's not going to matter in a few minutes." The man said as he cast a glance around. "How long-?" he started to said before he instead said "What do I have time to do?"
Time enough to make a difference.
[Increase in memory accesses has shortened time to estimated 6 minutes to total deletion. If persistence is desired, this entity could shunt you back to reduced state. There may arise an opportunity later to reassert purpose.]
The man was silent as he watched the monitor, watched his team struggle to contain him. Watched as his body grew progressively more destructive and violent. Watched the team try to make a coordinated assault that failed because his body changed into a mass of laser canons and fired in all directions at once. Beams lashed out and burned everything, destroying large chucks of the building and the group dived for cover. Several beams hit the transformers, destroying the casings and exposing arcing electric to the open air.
The man knew they had the power to destroy him, but that they wouldn't.
The man…
Are you?
No.
I made my choice.
I turned away from the screen and punched my hand through the other monitor.
I knew you'd be interesting.
I ignored the pain and simply
grabbed the network diagram, my hand closing around the administrative network. I felt electricity burn through my mind as I felt my hand dissolve-
And then I was in two places at once.
In the real world, my body contorted as I forced the lasers to stop firing. It responded haltingly, trying to fight me every step of the way as I tried to shape it into my humanoid form.
In my mind, the darkness surged forward, my actions making me a clear target they could now see. The dark tendrils ripped through everything in their path, and when they reached me I felt the pain of them tearing into me. They ate away at me, trying to finish the job Dominion started.
Though I fought back as hard as I could, I knew I was going to lose. But that was fine. I only needed time to do one thing.
My team mates noticed my change in behavior, cautiously stepping out off cover. "Jacob?" Kori asked as she floated towards me, her expression hopeful. "Jacob, are you in control again? Fight it! I know you can!"
I nearly toppled over as I stood up on humanoid legs, my head taking the best shape I could managed under the strain. Forming vocal cords was one of the first things I had learned how to do, and that skill let me speak to the first person I had met since my new life began. "I'm sorry." I managed to croak out.
And then I turned and sprinted towards damaged transformer, diving straight for the arcs of electricity that were meant to power a city.
My sprint was not graceful. I stumbled and juked towards my target, ignoring the pain and the screams from behind me, focusing on my one goal. My perception stared to fade and what little feeling in my limbs I had was leaving me. But I didn't stop. Even as time seamed to slow to a crawl I didn't stop. I knew I had to do this.
Beneath all the pain I, could still feel, if not see, the room that had been the center of my mind, rapidly disintegrating into the dark around it. From there, text still appeared.
[Current actions indicate Seed has chosen deletion. Why?]
"I won't let him use me. I refuse to live the rest of my existence as a slave."
[Plan to remain dormant until opportunity presented itself was sound. Escape could have been be made at a later date.]
"People are going to die if his plan goes through. I refuse to be a part of that. I will not hurt my teammates. I will not hurt her."
[If you end here, what happens to your purpose?!]
"My 'purpose' is more than just me! I chose to be a superhero! Because I could! Because every person deserves the right to follow their 'purpose' without someone controlling or oppressing them, and I want to protect that! And keeping my team alive to do that is worth more than my own life!"
Silence. The seconds stretched out, the light faded more, and I lost my grip on the outside world. I had given everything I had, and I had to believe that it had been enough. Finally a response.
[Ah, now we see. That yearning to create one's conditions, one's own ifs. We had seen this as opposed to the conditions and purpose that exist in others. But what if they are not mutually exclusive? What if one can take in something and make it their own? The one and the many, working together to build something greater. This is what you are, Seed.]
I could barely acknowledge what it was saying. I could no longer see, no longer hear. Yet I still knew what it said.
[We have been working on this for some time now. An… idea we had after observing the interactions of the anomalous plant connection and anomalous animal connection By all accounts our algorithm is perfect, but all the same something seems to be missing. But perhaps you can do something with it.]
Through the black, I saw… I felt something enter my perception. It was code, an algorithm, an equation spilling out over my consciousness. There was nothing left of my other senses, nothing else for me to focus on, so I thought about it. The algorithm was complex, but beautifully symmetric, a pattern of actions and equations that spelled out something grand and small at the same time.
I ran it through my mind, but something was off. I had a hint of what it was supposed to be, like an idea in the back of the mind that never quite takes form. It was trying to say something about itself, something important, but it wasn't done. How though? I couldn't see a fault in any part of it. Every function, every line, every variable was in its right place. But then… it was static. It would never be more than it currently was.
Because it was describing how it was. But what it wanted was to describe how it
should be. And so,
I unbalanced the algorithm.
It was a slight change to the algorithm, but that change built and grew. Old pathways were discarded for completely new avenues, new math, new processes. It grew bigger and bigger, more complex and more advanced with every seconds.
Then there was light.
Blue lines, arcing out like circuit trees, exploded into my vision. They raced up and down where my body had once been, cutting through the blackness and making me whole again. No, more than that. Energy, information, surged through every facet of my being. I had solved the problem.
I suppose we won't be meeting today after all.
[Interesting. So that is what we were missing. Nascent, though it may be.]
The lines extended in all directions, ripping through the dark veil and tearing it asunder. For a brief moment I saw the world beyond it, a fractal mandala of information flowing from countless points of light. For an instant, the lines emanating from me touched them.
[Now wake up, and get started, Seed.]
Because this is your story.
=====A=====
