“The NFinity program, essentially, is a neuroprogrammers dream come true.” Barbara Vives tilted herself toward the microphone meeting the shadowed gazes of approximately 800 conference attendees. That moment, as her lips hovered above the black foam guard, she was living her dream.
During the past eight years since graduating MIT in 2020 Barbara had poured everything she had into a theory that could have proved to be just a flight of fancy. Neuroscience had transformed into a heated trend after the scientific community uncovered human neural symbiosis soon after the Vatican released it’s archives to the public. Barbara leapt into the science while in high school knowing that whomever could harness the balance and comprehension within human biological memories could change reality, the world.
Struggling with funding, resources, having changed labs several times over the years she was given residency on the campus of her Alma Mater with the strings being pulled by her primary source of funding. The same man who sat quietly in the front row, with his hands rested upon an ivory cane, had seen Barbara’s journey through to this point. Martin James, the heaviest pull for James was the dementia memory gap that could be nullified by the science. Having personally founded the institute of Dementia and Alzheimer’s research, a large part of the funding for Barbara’s research and execution of his program had come from grant funding for the very reason of solving the mystery of dementia.
Barbara had done it, and so much more.
“As we neuroscientists know, the human biome, the biological matrix that makes up our perceptual reality is a paradigm of brain to brain dependency.” Barbara paused. “… And because I know not all of you are neurologists I will translate that into English.”
The audience responded with hushed laughter.
“If…” Barbara pointed to a young woman, sitting in the first row, dressed in a gray dress-suit, “you are aware of what I am saying now, which I suppose that you are, being that you are staring up at me and nodding, it is because other humans that you may or may not have on your Facebook friends list,” this colloquialism did indeed receive another laugh, “are aware and receiving similar information that their brain is comprehending, processing and simultaneously, without wires, transmitting the information back to you.” Barbara cued the three dimensional projection to the center of the stage playing an animated, digital example of the mirrored perception link. “And not because these humans want to share your information, but must.”
A large map of the earth appeared center stage. As red lights lit up the beautifully constructed topography multiple strings of several different colors presented the complex neurological matrix that made the seamless balance of perception between humans.
“Each one of us is made up of several others, from right brain to left brain you are not just you. What science has come to discover is those of us who lay stagnant become by malfunctioning synapses, delaying the cognition and growth or regular day to day processes of our elderly, resulting in Alzheimer’s.” Barbara clicked her remote to reveal three dimensional photos of those suffering from Alzheimer’s and Dementia. “Dementia.”
Letting the transitional fading graphics have their moment, Barbara counted to three before playing a video.
“NFinity has changed all that we thought we couldn’t repair.”
A woman, suffering from Alzheimer’s, in her sixties named Meg sat quietly in a nursing home rocking chair, staring out into the distance as her daughter approached she barely responds.
“Mom,” The girl’s name was Tabitha, almost a younger replica of the mother, tall and thin. “Mom. How are you today?”
“This is Meg.” Barbara says quickly. “She has late stage Dementia.”
Meg, in the glow of a floating transparent screen, looked on as a time lapse took over speeding through a three hour visit from her daughter who was seen reading a book, sharing her week and finally spoon feeding an evening meal to her mother.
“In the final stages of Dementia the patient suffers from the loss of psycho motor cognition, leaving them in a helpless state and often confusion.” Barbara pressed the remote again onto a very different day for Meg.”
“After NFinity therapy Meg improved. This is six months later.”
Meg, dressed in another hospice robe, stood staring of out the bedroom window, smiling. Tabitha is seen walking into the room with her two children. Immediately responding to the noise behind her, Meg turns quickly and kneels to the ground with her arms open to wrap them around her grandchildren.
An audible gasp escaped the audience followed by ignited, quieted, conversation.
Barbara, feeling her long awaited moment finally arriving, took a deep breath. She’d practiced this presentation for weeks, wanting the timing to be perfect. “How, is a good question.” Another animation covered center stage with a series of informational platforms. “The human mind, whether independent or symbiotic, uses association to move information. If the ability to associate symbols, words, numbers or patterns is stagnant or broken somehow, decayed or corroded, the dependent flow of information from brain to brain can’t happen, there becomes a block and the brain cells are affected.” Another animation of the synapses of the human brain appeared. Some cellular corrosion and dying areas of the brain highlighted. “By feeding appropriate dialogue to the synapses the brain can reroute information to the lesser used areas creating new pathways through new networks. Human networks.”
The next slide was the inside of a delivery room where a doctor was giving birth to a newborn human girl.
“Essentially, as the cycle of life continues, so does the potential for brain life, but it doesn’t end there.” Barbara flipped on to the next series of animations. “This science has shown massive potential in several types of neuro programming. Imagine experiencing the video game not through glasses, not through a console or 3 D platform, but through real time experience, or having the memory of a vacation that you didn’t actually take but the smells, sounds, sensations will all be there. How about knowing a second or third language within minutes? There may even come a time when traditional education is simply a click of a button. Whole new dimensions could be at our fingertips.”
A floating NFinity insignia took the spotlight as the screen faded. That was it, her final moment of success had arrived as the audience, rested six feet below, rose from their seats clapping. An elation unlike any excitement she’d felt before had all of Barbara’s limbs vibrating. The stage lights dimmed, Barbara’s signal to exit the stage, all that remained was the sound of applause and the NFinity floating center stage.
“You ever think back on how we started?” Barbara and Derrek were exiting her Porsche. She’d suddenly been pulled into a kind of dream state, remembering the climactic stage of her entrepreneurial transition into fame and fortune, while driving them both back to her home from the lab.
“You mean how we three point slam dunked our way out of a dusty, barely functioning Cadillac Cimarron into the sweet leather seats of your plush convertible here?” Derrek laughed as he pulled his strapped bag of files from the floorboard, “Never.”
Sometime in the early twenties Barbara had recruited Derrek as a lab assist with his minor education in physics and major in programming, seeming to be an energetic and intelligent addition to the lab staff. A combination of intelligence and dry sarcasm initially made Derrek a lab outcast, but his love for the science concreted a permanent bond between himself and the founding scientist.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t wonder what butterfly I had to have stepped on, accidentally of course, that made this pathway possible.” Derrek followed Barbara up the long dark, birch enclosed, staircase into her remote domicile.
“Leave the door open.” She asked quietly, “It’s so stuffy in here.”
“I still don’t know how you arranged a multi billion dollar contract with one of Japan’s leading game makers.”
Barbara took a long, deep breath and stared at Derrek’s five foot eight, stout, figure. Feeling herself slip back into her dream state she was again back at the East Coast tech conference mingling with several potential investors. “It’s what we are, we are all a phenomena of physics at its most creative. Each one of us has a DNA program that exists as biological wav senders and receivers .”
“She means like a wifi signal.” James spoke up, never more than a few feet away as she swam with sharks.
“Yes, thank you, Martin. While the biological program only changes for evolutionary reasons, you can manipulate the programming, like hacking a computer your synapses are compromise-able.”
A tall man dressed in a chic suit asked, “How does that affect the balance?”
Noticing a dark shadow across his face, possibly from the hanging decor above head, Barbara made eye contact. “Balance?”
“Yes, the balance of symbiosis. If you alter the perception of one how does that affect the neural processing of the ‘network’, so to speak?” The man asked.
“Well someone was certainly paying attention in class weren’t they?” Martin James laughed.
“Well, with the unlimited pathways available through this technology you wouldn’t do much more than stimulate memories and trigger creativity.” Barbara replied.
“But if more than a quarter of the population-” interrupted by a group of Japanese businessmen, the man halted his question.
“Hello Miss Vives, we are from Atlantis Games, a subsidiary of the Corporation Haiku™. Does this sound familiar?”
“They wanted to partner with distribution rights.” Barbara, suddenly back in her living room, noticed the entry door was closed. “I asked you to leave the door open.”
Derrek stammered, “I-I-I did.” Barbara watched him turn and playfully open the door then shut it, and open it again, leaving it open the third time.
“The corporate world is so strange. There are so many different facilities in NFinity now. Bioprogramming, Gaming, neuroscience labs, tech labs, security systems and privacy protections. We’re spread so far across the country that half of the time I get my PR news from social media.”
“And then the phone calls come in.” Derrek empathized with a heavy sigh.
“Miss Vives would you like to comment on the spontaneous combustion of two high school students? Miss Vives how do you think Radial Mass Effect has influenced the growing terrorism in America? Miss Vives, Miss Vives, Miss Vives.”
Taking Barbara’s shoulders, Derrek poised his torso in a sort of grounding deep breath expecting her to join him. “Listen, Barbs.” He said, when it was clear that she was calmed. “As your official and only BFF I think it’s probably time you took a little time off.”
“Time off?” Barbara stepped back, the man must have been crazy. “We’re about to unlock ART and you’re suggesting that I need to take time off?”
“The artificial intelligence can wait.” A familiar nagging whine could be heard in his voice. “You need to unwind.”
“Unwind?!” Crossing over to the long open counter bar separating the dark wood covered living room walls from a six foot long high definition television, Barbara pulled out a bottle of Gin from below the counter. “A martini will do just fine.”
“And what will you do after you’ve had four and still can’t sleep?”
“I thought I told you to leave the door open.” Frustrated, Barbara put down the Gin bottle and marched to the closed front door. This time it was locked. Turning the bolt and pulling open the heavy door, she turned to return to the argument only to find an empty living room.
“Derrek?” Barbara searched the counter where the Gin bottle had been replaced by a single martini. “Now that’s a quick mix.” She took a sip. “Perfect too. Derrek?”
Silence.
“Are you in the bathroom?” She rounded the long counter into the brightly lit, white walls of the kitchen. “Derrek?”
After searching the four bedroom five bath house Barbara resigned to call his phone.
“Hi, Barbara, you okay?” Sounding a little sleepy on the other end, Derrek had answered in his usual cheerful tone.
“Yes, I just thought we were researching tonight.” The phone was quiet, he wasn’t walking. It was a long walk from the outskirts where she lived to his townhouse.
“Oh, no, don’t you remember I had this thing I had to do.” Derrek laughed. “So, I’m home… getting ready. You know, for the thing.”
“How did you get home?” Now, panic stricken, she didn’t remember driving.
“You saw me getting into my car at the lab, silly. Barby, are you certain you’re okay?”
“Yes, yes, just a little…” she tipped her perfect martini, “tipsy.”
“Ah, I see. Well enjoy without me.” Derrek sighed.
“Yeah, k, bye.” Barbara ended the call.
After the second martini, Barbara decided that dwelling on the sudden memory lapse wasn’t worth the time it was taking to figure out when exactly Derrek had left her company. By the fourth martini with symphonic music on the smart home’s intercom Barbara was in her study analyzing calculations spread across her drafting table.
“Hmm.” She hummed. A terribly persistent habit that had followed her from college, leaning in, staring and then “Hmm.” It was probably a survival technique she’d picked up from being watched. The audience, whether assistant, professor or investor, needed a response.
This time the hum wasn’t without a substantial amount of thought process, there was something strange about the numbers the ART program was producing in it’s calculations. “The balance is all wrong.” She said quietly.
“Did you need assistance?” A familiar voice spoke up from behind her, a soft, deep tone, of an older generation.
“Thank you, Martin, but…” Wandering around the the second end of the table, “This network data is all discombobulated.”
The six foot tall hologram followed her swiftly, blinking out, and then reappearing by her side looking intently at the numbers and graphs spread out below.
“Yes, it seems a bit fragmented.” Martin, sounding exactly the same as the man who had passed only a few years prior, was pensive. A few years, Barbara shook her head, it felt like only days ago she had come into Martin’s apartment unannounced to find his body already in rigor mortise. She’d dedicated an entire season to creating a hologram so realistic she wouldn’t lose his presence.
“Yeah, like there’s not enough information to fill in the tiers.”
“Exactly.” He agreed, as the hologram was programmed to do. The actual Martin James hadn’t any education on the internal dialogue of the NFinity programs. The hologram was simply a decoy or puppet most of the time, unless connected to the NFinity matrix where a rudimentary AI system would allow him to exchange casual talks by processing the human input through it’s living database. This database collected data via NFinity security home and business audio systems, social media apps and cellular services, analyzed the appropriate response and projected it through the hologram. This was a test program that only Barbara had access to during ART trials.
What Barbara saw in her calculations was something similar to virus, there was a recurring pattern before every loss of network activity in each tier. Yet, a virus was impossible, because this was biological data. It wasn’t like a computer program where, when infected, the data would scramble or the virus would attach or even move information. In biology the only thing a virus could do was provoke evolution by terminating the weak or challenging a weakened system to grow or change in order to adapt.
“Doesn’t make any sense.” Barbara spoke absently to her transparent audience.
“You are on point, as always, Barbara.”
“I have to run this by Derrek, this is so strange.” Leaving the study, Barbara swung her hand next to the sensor, shutting down the lights and hologram.
“It’s ignorance.” Derrek said flatly while looking at the degrading tiers the following morning.
“What?” Barbara followed as he led her to the three dimensional display.
Derrek tapped on the remote pad, “The NFinity program is perfection,” he turned to look at her from over his shoulder, “of course I am slightly bias.” A live feed of the neural pathos covered the eight by eight by eight cube of space. Multicolored strings connecting the multitude of tiers in each network blinked with what looked to be very little structure or logistic sequence. To a programmer who knew NFinity, each string color and length had a meaning, but to a layman onlooker it was non stopping torrents of chaos. “So here we have the Great Escape simulator. Nothing wrong here, right?”
“Nothing.” Barbara agreed.
“Watch what happens when I flip the New Horizons sim.”
As the program transitioned, the tiers gained focal points, clusters of string movement shifted from one area of the cube to another as networks attempted to process the data. Derrek stepped back, standing next to Barbara. “They don’t get it, either it’s too advanced or the language is wrong.”
“NFinity translates in every single language universally.” Something wasn’t right, there had never been a problem moving information. “Is there…” She stopped herself, choosing her words carefully. “Is there a possibility that it’s being blocked? By another company? Maybe?”
With his brow furrowed thoughtfully, Derrek’s eyes shot around the room to the scattered lab staff. After a moment he shook his head, “That’s a possibility, but it wouldn’t take long for NFinity to find a pathway around. There’s no household or workplace this thing doesn’t touch, unless it’s in the Bayou somewhere off grid.”
“But, really, Derrek, collectively people’s minds work together to solve problems or create things.” Her hands flew up into the air and then landed at her sides, “That’s primarily what separates us from animals, why shouldn’t the program float?”
“Possibly because intelligence is dying?” Derrek looked a little dry, “I mean think about it, everyone depends on search engines now to solve personal issues, let alone smaller corps like NFinity create group dependent programs that do the thinking for you, eventually, if no one learns anything permanently, eventually all you have to depend on is a database because those people the NFinity program leaned on for biological processing all died. And as we both know, no matter how sophisticated your quantum computer is, it doesn’t hold a candle to seven billion smart Mo Fo’s.”
“Where’d you go last night?” Barbara changed the subject. He’d made his point yet she was convinced there still had to be plenty of intelligent people and it was something else that was hindering the shared networks. Barbara decided she’d stay that evening and analyze the lab data. “We had plans.”
“I had a thing. You know I had a thing. When I made those plans I spoke too soon.” Derrek turned off the 3D cube.
“What thing? I didn’t remember you had any thing. You always tell me about your things.”
“Come on, Barby, I don’t want to go into detail.” He started walking back to the computer tables then whispered in a sigh, “I had a blind date.”
“A date?” Barbara laughed. “No!”
“Yes! Yes. Me, who never leaves Barbara’s side, I had a blind date. Now I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s figure out this tier problem.”
Derrek never left NFinity’s side, was the actuality. If not more than Barbara, Derrek pampered and nurtured the series of NFinity programs as though they were his own children. Although Barbara had noticed in the last year or so his attention had been relaxing, more focused on something out of the labs reach.
“There’s a discrepancy. Here.” Derrek pulled up the New Horizons simulation schematics. “Your calculation was incorrectly input.”
“That’s impossible, I triple check my inputs.” Barbara watched as Derrek wiped the coded modular structure clean and input the correct calculation.
“I know, that’s weird. You’re the one who discovered the original calc.” Saving the data exchange, Derrek walked over to the 3D cube and projected the New Horizons sim. “See if that makes a difference.”
The same multi colored strings filled the cube, only this time the clusters showed a rapid fluidity, as though the networks were accepting and processing the new data, the strings filled more connected space.
“Looks like it’s better…” Barbara hesitated. There was something wrong. She’d never made a mistake like that before.
“You haven’t eaten.” Derrek observed as the last hour of the day passed. His head tilted, “you’re not staying over.” He slid the strap of his file bag over his shoulder.
“I am, staying.” Barbara said.
“Hey, Barb.” Looking a little worried, “I know it’s hard to grasp but forty isn’t young.”
“It isn’t old either.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t be going over this alone.” This last remark made Barbara halt. “I mean,” Derrek took a moment, he obviously didn’t want to upset her. “Mistakes happen. But you know what can happen when a mistake is made in NFinity.”
“Yes.” She said quickly. “I know, Derrek, thank you, but I’m fine.”
“Alright, alright.” He gently surrendered. “Goodnight then.” Derrek exited through the double doors, the automatic lock echoing behind him.
Beginning her search in the various New Horizons codes used for synapse data transition and translation, Barbara initially considered that there was an error or miscalculation. Libraries upon libraries of codes covering every aspect of a simulated experience, from the feeling of a gentle brush of a feather to the generated familiar voice of a family member. Everything looked perfect.
“Hmm.”
After two hours of dedicated searching, Barbara’s mind began to drift. Recently there had been rumors another group was closing in on the same type of technology. A smaller company based out of Europe had patented a similar system aimed at neuro-manipulation. Whether Derrek wanted to rush things or not, there was a time crunch on unlocking a fully aware artificial intelligence. She only needed to find the chink in the armor and she would be able to set this giant free.
Barbara’s eyes caught a flaw. As she peered down on a retinal response display she realized the neural reception of the image was not transposed. The image in the retina was correcting itself before adequately processed by the host, causing an inability to create neural relationships. It was becoming incoherent jargon before reaching the brain.
Barbara asked herself in the empty, dimly lit laboratory. “How did that happen?”
Closing in on eight pm, Barbara shut down her computer and put together her files, mindlessly grabbing her keys and leaving the building. She remembered hearing the automatic lock of the massive metal doors behind her as she opened the door of her Porsche.
Dialing Derrek on the drive home she left a voicemail, “Hey.” She yawned. “I found the problem and you’re right, the world of intelligence is failing us but I’m sure it doesn’t reach farther than the lab. Call me back I found the problem.”
The telecommunication light above head faded out slowly and lit up as a set of headlights sped up to tailgate the Porsche. In the console above Barbara’s head the name and license of the driver popped up on a small screen signaling that the driver, Blaine Supguy, wanted to talk.
“Allow?” The console asked.
“No.” As soon as Barbara responded the light faded and the hot rod crossed the double yellow lines to speed ahead.
Once Barbara was home she shut the house down and went to sleep, and what felt like only minutes passed as the house’s gentle alarm sung her awake.
After her quick and efficient morning routine she was again parked outside of the gray stucco exterior of the windowless, well hidden laboratory next to the small pickup owned by Derrek, who had strangely arrived first. Barbara walked to the open double doors and stepped inside.
“Barbara! Barbara! Oh my God, did you leave the door unlocked? Last night?” Derrek scrambled, with papers flying from his full arms.
“Locked? No, it locks automatically.” Barbara, confused, walked to her tabletop computer. “Only you and I can unlock and lock it “
“Yes, and you were the last one in.” Derrek stared disapprovingly, “I knew I should have stayed. Years! Barbara, we’ve lost years! Decades!”
She could feel her body go limp, meeting sudden darkness.
“Barbara. Barby. It’s wakey time.” The soft tones of Derrek’s voice pulled her out of her slumber.
“How long have I been out?” She asked, feeling the heaviness of what could have been a small coma as she pulled her torso from the tabletop and sat up in her office chair.
“Out?” Derrek asked as he sat down a warm cup of freshly made coffee.
“Oh! Derrek! Did you call the police?!” Barbara jumped up suddenly alert.
“And she’s up! No, darling, I didn’t think a missed interview would be a serious enough offense.” He laughed.
“Interview? What about the robbery?”
“Robbery?” Leaning against the table he crossed his arms, listening.
“Yes, the door, lock, the files. You. Were.” The quiet staff was staring at her. “There was no robbery?”
“No Barb, but there’s gonna be Armageddon coming from Haiku™ if you miss this interview.” Derrek handed her the coffee mug.
“I must’ve fallen asleep here last night.” She said dreamily.
“Oh does that explain it?” Derrek laughed.
“Who’s doing the interview?”
“Ware Magazine.”
“When are they coming?” Barbara took a drink of the black coffee.
“She’s here now.”
Barbara spit out her coffee.
“I knew that was coming.” Derrek stepped back. “I thought I would give you some time before bringing her in, she’s waiting in the parking lot.”
“Jeez, Derrek.” Grabbing a paper towel, Barbara dabbed herself free of any spills. “I don’t suppose I have a spare suit hiding in the closet somewhere.”
“We’ll release one of your photos from the Southern Cali conference last year. No biggie.”
“Okay,” Barbara sat back down heavily, rocking her wheeled chair. “bring her in.”
Rounding the back of the chair, as if positioned in the back corner massaging the shoulders of a heavyweight boxer, Derrek cheered her on quietly, “Okay Boss, you got this, promote, promote, promote.” A few words of encouragement and Derrek was off somewhere close enough to listen.
As the tall, thin journalist walked in through the doors, quickly Barbara realized she was being interviewed by a huge fan. Mid twenties, hair pulled back, her steps more apprehensive than a seasoned journalist. She was a gamer. As her hand came up she stuttered slightly, “Miss Vives what an honor it is to meet you.”
Barbara shook the girl’s hand. “Likewise, and you’re?”
“Kristi Onedashone,” She laughed and said apologetically, “I should have sent another email or called before this morning.”
“No, it’s fine, please, sit.” Barbara motioned for Kristi to take Derrek’s office chair.
“I wanted to begin by asking the obvious questions, like are you married? Where did you grow up, how did you come up with the genius idea of NFinity?”
Stiffening slightly Barbara rushed ahead, “I’d like to just get down to the meat of it, if that’s possible, leave out the personal details. Watch Magazine did a similar story just last month.”
“You think people are tired of hearing about you?” Kristi sympathized. Barbara was obviously not agreeable during interviews. She nodded. “Okay, okay, yes, let’s get down to it. Tell me how does New Horizons work, exactly, we already have a basic idea of how the VR registers synapsually but where does the data move from to create such vivid pictures and affect the players motor functions?”
“Well, Kristi,” Barbara watched as the interviewer picked up her tablet and stylus, “it isn’t necessarily where the data comes from but how the player registers the data it receives. Here at NFinity we strive to create the best Gaming experience on the planet by accessing the personal neural-biological files and finding neural pathways to transform what they already see, feel, remember, hear into another experience entirely.”
Kristi, head tilted down, rapidly scribbled notes on to the pad in her lap.
“Now, what I think you want to know is how a person can experience the feeling of a physical experience that they have never before been exposed to. Empathetic creatures, we as humans experience emotions synchronized with those in our extended network, although those in the far reaches of the subconscious experience something distinctly perceptually different than we do, the emotions are transmitted the same.”
“Mhm.” Kristi nodded as Barbara paused.
“What NFinity does is access the actual extended encounters, be it a memory on the beach, and a paintball gun fight to be used as our sim Black Ops Alpha Delta, the number one in the Gaming industry, I might add, or the player is neurally exposed to something like a rock wall climbing experience that puts the player on the Annapurna in Nepal.”
“Was that an NH spoiler?”
“Maybe,” Barbara said coyly. “but back to the science, these various experiences are busheled together from multiple millions of synapse logs and used for entertainment.”
Excited and smiling Kristi moved forward, “Can you tell me about ART.”
Tilting her chair forward and sitting straight, Barbara asked, “What would you like to know?”
Kristi’s smile faded, “What does ART stand for?”
“Artificial Receptor Transference.”
Kristi smiled again, “Was there any special reason for the acronym?”
“In order to patent and license you need a name.” Barbara smiled back. “Actually it’s very dear to my heart, this program gives a new life to intelligence that many world leaders weren’t once able to master. I’m very proud of ART.”
“I would be too.” Kristi pressed the pad in her lap a few times looking for her required list of questions.
“I’m very proud, proud.” Barbara repeated.
“Yes,” Kristi looked up.
“Proud.” A glossy stare took over as Barbara’s conscious mind retreated somewhere else. “Proud, Proud, Proud, Proud…”
The lab went dark.
Barbara woke in her home to the sharp pitch of silence.
She sat up, “Martin, wake up.”
“Yes, Barbara.” The old, familiar voice chimed, “Can I get you anything?”
“What time is it?” Sliding her legs off the queen size bed, Barbara stretched, “When did I get home?”
Heavy footsteps raced down the hall, rushing in through the door. “Oh, thank God you’re okay.”
“What happened?”
“You started repeating yourself, over and over.” Derrek explained, “Scared the interviewer, terrified myself and the staff.”
“Did I pass out?”
“Yes, so clearly I ended the session.” Taking Barbara’s hand, Derrek pulled her into the hallway and led her to the kitchen where the strong smell of coffee wafted. On the white tiled counter a large oblong bot sat staring at Barbara as she closed in on the coffee pot.
“What is that?” Barbara asked as she pulled a mug from the cabinet.
“You know what that is, Barby.”
“It looks like a bot, Derrek.”
“That’s because it is a bot, Barbara.” Derrek picked up the coffee pot and filled her mug for her.
“Why is there a bot in my kitchen, Derrek?”
“Because, Miss Vives, after the past two days you’ve been scaring me.” Derrek moved to the round plastic, white shelled, body laying lifelessly on the counter top. “And I can’t be here all the time so I need to know you’re okay.”
Pressing a code into the touch screen at the head of the bot, a humming sound and several flashing lights erupted from the oblong body. The bot’s spider like, limp arms became animated as the body rose from the counter, hovering mid air.
“A babysitting bot.” Barbara took a drink, her mood as dry and bitter as her coffee.
“A personal assistant bot.”
“I have Martin.” Barbara said in full rejection.
“Yes, but Martin can’t monitor your heart rate and brain patterns and alert me when something is wrong.”
“This can do all of that?”
“Yes, and it acts as a phone, a voice recorder for notes, it can process your information wirelessly, if you think of changes you want to make it can connect to your computer at work.”
Barbara wrinkled her brow. “How secure is it?” Barbara knew that anything wireless was not without security holes. For a high profile corporation security breaches were to be expected but Barbara had gone to extreme lengths to avoid them in her own home and work.
“Look, Barbara, it’s the best NFinity has, it’s the best I could think of.” He stopped and pressed the small remote on the counter where the body had been laying.
Whirling around in mid air so the black video lens could view Barbara, the bot moved in. “Good afternoon, Barbara Vives. My, aren’t you looking lovely.” It spoke in the iconic NFinity AI voice, making Barbara smile.
“Hey.” Derrek said, “Was that a smile?”
“Would you like to hear a joke? Barbara Vives? I have access to over ten million computer jokes in my database.”
Relaxing enough to laugh Barbara said, “Yes.”
“Oh good, I’ve been waiting a long time to tell this one, three million two hundred thousand gigahertz to be exact.”
The exact measurement of the bot’s processing speed made Barbara laugh loudly.
“Hold on, now.” The bot interrupted, “I haven’t told the joke yet.”
“Sorry.” Barbara stopped herself and continued her coffee.
“Just last week I asked an Android out to dinner.” The bot went on. “Everything was going great until we got back to her place. She stopped me before our processors heated up. She said we couldn’t go any further because my software wasn’t compatible with her hardware. Ask me why.”
“Why?” Both Barbara and Derrek asked in an audience unison.
“Because my data was too RAW.” The punchline was followed by a mechanical laugh that, to Barbara, was much funnier than the joke itself.
“Yeah? Yeah?” Derrek walked over to Barbara, “Will you put my mind at ease and give it a chance? You can even name it.”
“A name?” Barbara took the two by two inch remote Derrek was handing to her.
“Well yeah, Barb, it’s gotta have a name.” Derrek ribbed.
“Well yeah, Barb, it’s gotta have a name.” Eerily the bot echoed Derrek with a voice recording.
“Oh ho ho, you are trouble.” Mused Derrek as the bot spun around to face him. .
“Ed. I’ll name him Ed.” Said Barbara, watching the bot closely.
“Why Ed?” Asked Derrek.
“Because, Derrek, this is clearly a leak waiting to happen!”
“Oh, I get, I get it. Edward Snowden.” Derrek slapped his thighs in surrender. “You’re right, that’s all this is, just an attempt to get your security codes. Right, you got me.”
“No, now, Derrek.” Barbara breathed. “I didn’t say that, but you know exactly why I don’t log on at home.”
“I know, I know. Listen, he follows commands, you tell him to stay out of your study and he will.”
“Yeah?” Barbara gave Derrek a tilted eyebrow, “How do I know our conversation is private? You just heard him recording.”
“Okay. Fine. Shut him off if you want, Barb.” Derrek slid his file bag onto his shoulder. “Try to be a caring assist.” He mumbled, bruised, as he left the kitchen to leave through the living room.
“Thank you!” Barbara called out before the front door shut.
Barbara and Ed sat quietly together for a long moment. Finally Barbara asked, “Okay, Ed. What can you tell me about dementia?”
A cadence of information followed from the hovering globe as it tailed Barbara from the kitchen to the living room couch. Eight years had passed since the trial experiments for NFinity dementia therapy. Barbara couldn’t put aside her concern over the strange memory changes, nightmares that were as real as they come and possibly a seizure… Seizure.
“Stop, Ed.” Instantly the monotone encyclopedic rant shut down. Barbara wanted silence. Something was terribly wrong, she could feel it deep inside of her gut. Everything she perceived seem to be from a sharp angle as she stared down from massive heights attempting to make sense of the bigger picture. “It’s too much.”
“Did you need my assistance?” Martin James appeared.
“No, Martin, thank you.” Standing up she said quietly. “I’m going to the lab.”
“Well, you be careful out there.” Martin called after her as she quickly grabbed her file bag and key.
As empty and eerily silent as a graveyard on the night of a full moon, Barbara entered the lab not knowing what she was looking for, yet knowing there had to be something she wasn’t seeing. In a panic she walked from one desk to another, initially just looking across each desk for anything unusual. After the third circular flight Barbara began opening drawers and cupboards, still nothing.
“I shouldn’t…” she whispered as she closed in on Derrek’s tabletop. With a shaky hand she entered the override security code to access his files.
The flat horizontal screen woke up with a chime, the NFinity symbol rolled and bounced from edge to edge several times until finally landing center screen. An organized desktop appeared with a clock and calendar surrounded by labeled files. The file named “Trials” was Barbara’s first pick.
A library of spreadsheets, data and formulas opened each one with a number as a title. The first was what appeared to be a test from a diagram, synchronized patterns, with notes attached, displayed. Clicking on a note Barbara noticed her name in bold.
Systemic brain activity, Barbara aud #187
“What is this?” She whispered, the toxic taste of confusion filled her mouth. “What are you doing Derrek?”
Looking further still through his files, Barbara couldn’t find the origin of the trials, there was nothing linking his results to a source program. After an hour of searching she placed a thumb drive in the open port and copied everything. Closing out the computer after placing the drive safely in her bag, Barbara left the lab close to midnight nagged by the persistent ache of panic.
The memory lapse, the confusion, disorientation, it was probably linked somehow to Derrek. “No, no-no-no.” She said shaking her head, tears escaping from her eyes. “He wouldn’t.”
But how could she have known for sure. Barbara searched her bag for her cellular phone, it wasn’t there. Opening her glove compartment revealed a plastic title, insurance and maintenance package, to the left of that was a small 2020 issue Ruger. Barbara slipped her hand behind the plastic package to retrieve an earpiece connected to her cellular network. Before she could slip it on her ear a set of headlights rushed up behind the Porsche.
The monitor above flashed an incoming communication from Blocked.
“No.” Barbara said loudly.
As the light dimmed the headlights switched to the blinding glare of brights and then the vehicle pulled up to match Barbara’s pace in the oncoming lane of traffic. Incoming communication from Blocked lit up once more above her head.
“Yes.” Barbara yelled, her shaking grip on the wheel tightened.
“Pull over!” Commanded Blocked.
“No!”
The passenger window lowered revealing a masked face and the ribbed nose of a gun.
Giving the petal as much gas as the Porsche could muster, Barbara shot out ahead of the pursuing vehicle. Behind her the puncture sounds of metal sinking into metal provoked another set of screams. The monitor above Barbara’s head flashed a red warning.
Within minutes Blocked was barreling into the side of the Porsche at an equaled 113 mph, the hit sent Barbara spinning out of control into the endless miles of empty agricultural lots that surrounded the lab. Barbara squealed as she turned the wheel hard and pressed the break as far as the car would allow, coming to a final stop in the middle of a massive cloud of dust.
Bang bang bang, a hand slammed against the window. Barbara opened the car door with her hands up in surrender, “Okay! Okay!” She shrieked.
“Get out of the car!” The muffled voice yelled from behind the gun.
Barbara scrambled out of the seat and to the ground with the gun at her back. With the solid squared nose shoved into her left shoulder blade she heard the shuffle of feet run to the vehicle and back again to be followed by the slamming of the car door. As soon the the engine started the gun was removed. Imprisoned in a fit of quivering fear, Barbara let her sobs escape.
When she was finally able to rise she found her Porsche sitting quietly, it’s driver’s side door still open. Inside everything was as it had been, her glove compartment door remained open containing both the car package and the Ruger. The only thing missing was her file bag.
“Oh no!” Diving into the driver’s seat she searched for the bag. “No!”
Sliding on her ear piece on she activated the phone and called Derrek. A small transparent display lit up in front her right eye with the name of the caller, the time, date and battery life.
“Barbara! Where are you?!” He sounded as panicked as she was.
“W-I-I-I w-w-was just robbed.” She stuttered.
“Oh my God…” he quieted.
“What? Derrek, what’s going on?” she whimpered.
“I came back to your place to check on you and…” he stopped. “You need to come home.”
“… Come home? Derrek, you’re… at my…” Feeling the tendrils of panic ripping away at her composure, she forced a reply, “I’m on my way.”
She was met at her front door by Derrek, “Okay, now, Barby, I need you stay calm.” He said while chasing after her through ransacked apartments.
Each room had been thoroughly torn apart. Cushions and pillows shredded with their stuffing spilled put, every drawer turned over and emptied. “No-no-no-no NO!” Falling down to her knees as she reached her study. The blueprints were gone.
Feeling the warmth of Derrek’s hand pressed against her quivering back her stomach knotted up, she heard him say. “I’m going to have to call the police. I don’t know who these people are-”
“Of course you do!” Barbara lashed out, pulling away from his touch.
“What?” Surprised, Derrek stepped back.
“I’m not as stupid as you seem to think I am Derrek.” Rising to her feet her fear subsided, anger took over. “You’re doing this intentionally, you’re gas lighting me. You’ve got some kind of program messing with my mind. I’m awake but not awake, experiencing an alternate reality. Then suddenly you’ve got a bot in my home and coincidentally-”
“Woah! Woah! No!” Derrek’s hands went up.
“Coincidentally the same night my file bag gets robbed! You are at my ransacked house?”
“Barbara! Barbara! I’ve been your lab assist for over ten years!” She was backing him out of the hallway.
“You’re not taking over.” She said defiantly. “You can’t scramble my brain and then expect some shrink to declare me unfit!”
It was the more rational explanation, Derrek would be the one to obtain director privileges if Barbara were proved to be incapable of fulfilling her duties. It all suddenly made perfect sense, her work had been sabotaged, he’d been tampering with her cognitive relay somehow, how she couldn’t know for sure, but it would be a sure way to remove her from the equation, that must have been why he wanted the bot at her home. Ed would record everything.
“What?!” his hands went to her shoulders with a look of sincerity. “Barbara! Barbara! Why would I want you out? Listen to me! Listen carefully. You’re one of the brightest minds in the tech industry, I know you’re not stupid. There are some huge corporations out there who would kill to get what your beautiful mind has come up with.” He shook her slightly, feeling her breathing slow. “I’m not the bad guy!”
He looked so sincere. Suddenly washed over with guilt she broke into tears and fell into his hug.
“I’m your best friend, not the enemy.” He cooed.
“I don’t know what’s going on.” She cried, temporarily unhinged.
After some soothing Derrek was able to calm her to the point of recalling the robbery to the police early the next morning. The house and car were dusted for fingerprints searched for evidence, nothing was found. Ed had been disabled before recording any activity. A report was made and a phone call to the NFinity board of directors. Consolations and words of sympathy and praise were administered from the scientific teams financial superiors, reassuring them that an in depth investigation would proceed.
Both Derrek and Barbara were back at the lab first thing that morning. Shocked faces and wary body language kept the crew hovering in the shadows of the lab. While Barbara purposefully ignored the note she had found the night before, she brought forward the retinal correction to the New Horizons programs.
“Look here.” She said to Derrek as she switched on the 3D cube. Accessing the New Horizons sim she’d corrected, Barbara watched as the same clusters appeared. “The retinal inversion isn’t happening, the algorithm is wrong. Let me change the formula.”
On her desktop was the living biomatrix, numbers plunged from the top of the screen to the bottom as the data moved from network to network. Barbara accessed the equations for the system and reset the formula, momentarily halting the sporadic clusters. Once she’d finished, the strings from network to network grew and connected in a bouncing symmetry with a constantly fluid movement.
“Great work!” Derrek applauded.
They watched the moving strings for a few seconds then, independently, the system faltered. Several thousands of connections broke limiting the flow of information back to the smaller clusters scattered across the cube.
“What?” Barbara looked back down through her systems equations. The formula had changed back to its previous equation.
“What happened?” Derrek rushed over to take a look at Barbara’s screen.
“It’s glitching.” She said hesitantly. Re-entering the correct formula, the two watched again as the system stalled and grew into a series of fluid strings cast out across the massive cube, but only momentarily, the clusters soon reappeared.
The next several hours were spent by Barbara going through her files with a fine tooth comb. By five pm she’d found nothing in her system of data that would allow a random mechanical glitch.
“It’s time to throw in the towel, Barb.” Derrek said as he pulled her up from her table.
Barbara logged out and switched off the computer. The question nagging at her for the rest of the evening. Trying to remember if she’d somehow programmed some kind of alternating formulaic chain, was something like that even possible? Through the drive home and after two strong martinis the algorithm glitch still taunted her. By the time she’d mixed the third martini she decided to head back to the laboratory.
“Where are you going?” Ed asked as he trailed the scientist in mid air.
Barbara slipped on her ear piece and grabbed her keys. “To the lab.”
“Your blood alcohol level registers as a .083% which is above the legal limit to drive any distance.” The bot reported.
Grabbing the slim handle of the front door Barbara responded, “I’ll wait ten minutes before I start the-” the sight of the empty lab on the other side of her front door caused her to pause, she looked back over her shoulder expecting to see her long bar counter with flat screen TV mounted above. Only the empty, gravel filled, parking lot and miles of open agricultural fields sat silently around her.
“What…” checking the cement floor at her feet, Barbara cautiously walked into the laboratory letting the heavy metal doors slam behind her. Quickly brushing off the phenomena for another odd environmental shift, Barbara moved forward to her table top. “There has to be a reason.” Entering her codes and accessing the biomatrix, Barbara decided to try solving the mystery from another angle. “What will you do if I intentionally put the recipient in harm’s way?” Which was a good question. During the initial test trials of any neurological program Barbara’s team went to extensive lengths to guarantee there would be no chance of neurological damage to the recipient. In the early years with Haiku™ pushing for a new gaming experience, tech mishaps caused more than three brain deaths. Deaths caused by forcing synapse relationships, causing a stimuli overload. After reprogramming the system to passively enhance the users experience, Barbara had, by accident, expanded the threshold of the NFinity gaming programs universally. This time she would intentionally cause harm, hypothetically, to the target to see what the programs reaction would be.
By modifying the relationship received by the pleasure center of the brain, she slipped in a rerouting set of algorithms making the recipient respond negatively to any stimuli. Barbara took a deep breath and after a moment walked up to the three dimensional display cube to turn on the spectrum from the biomatrix. What happened next not only stunned her but relieved her. Watching as the strings dragged fluidly from one end of the cube to the other an explosive show of uniformed movement swept from one end of the cube to the other breaking in only seconds time to disperse once again into smaller, pulsating clusters.
“Wow!” Barbara rushed to her flat faced computer table and picked through her modifications. “It’s fixed itself!”
“That was from the pain.” Unannounced, Derrek had crept into the lab during Barbara’s small experiment. “The all world’s trauma… you know that? Barbara?”
“It’s alive! Derrek! The system is alive! It’s probably as simple as an amoeba at this point, but oh my God! Its correcting itself!” Starting a hyper ramble, Barbara inched forward in her own world of thought. “We’ve been trying all this time to create an Artificial Intelligence, something capable of healing itself and…” she clapped her hands together, “its NFinity!”
“That’s great,” Derrek smiled quietly.
“When did you get here?” Barbara asked, halting her thoughts.
Ignoring her question, Derrek asked. “You wanna see something I’ve been working on?”
Confused, Barbara nodded, Derrek’s body language and composure seemed fractured, ominous, every movement he made was blanketed by a darker shade than the rest of the lab, as though light weakened around him. “Are you okay?”
Derrek laughed, “Yeah, oh yeah, I’m fine.” With a casual pace he meandered over to the cube remote board and tapped the screen a few times. “I thought you’d be interested in this.” Looking back at Barbara, who stood frozen, mouth agape. Derrek smiled. “Listen.”
As the loud speakers across the ceiling of the laboratory ignited with a strange kind of choral symphony, Barbara watched the 3D cube light up with a psychedelic rainbow of moving fractals. Neon points of primary and secondary colors exploded in a massive spectacle as the audio transitioned quickly. At first distorted, what sounded like broken audio clips harmonized into a choir much like whale song.
“You hear that?” Derrek’s smile grew larger as he pushed a few buttons distorting the sound, making it stretch into an almost angelic opera.
“What is it?” She asked, focused more on his dreamy demeanor. Derrek pulled a thumb drive from his pocket, the same thumb drive Barbara had saved his computer files to. The floor almost dropped from beneath her, the thumb drive had been in her file bag, which had been stolen just the night before. “How did you get that?”
“What you’re listening to is the quantum retrieval of matching words. Right now, as we speak, there is a universal pattern. A synchronicity, if you will. This program monitors the pattern of speech, anticipates the pattern, finds the most used word and transmits them in sequence. Derrek turned and tapped the remote again changing the choral symphony into something much more terrifying. The sounds of multiple millions of screams in harmony. “I’m guessing you can figure out what this is, that you’re listening to, now.”
“How did you get that thumb drive, Derrek?” Barbara felt herself begin to shake. She knew there was really only one way.
“I stumbled across these beauties while I was using some of that physics education I worked my ass off through college for.” He tossed the thumb drive up into the air and caught it. “Do you know how much terror is worth?”
Barbara shook her head.
“Neither did I until I reformatted your biomatrix into a universal map.” His tone grew harsh. “Guess what Dr. Vives, Derrek isn’t stupid either.”
The screaming continued, more fervently, reaching Barbara’s core. “Can we turn that off-”
“Not yet.” Derrek shifted, moving his weight from one leg to the other, strangely he appeared at a distance to increase in size. “You know what I found when I actually looked at the real data, Barbara?” He sounded condescending. “I found a biomatrix that already existed. Names, addresses, license plate numbers, telephone numbers, birthdays, all an organized living system that monitored itself.”
“What?!” The terror inside grew louder.
“What do you think a coder could do with that?” He asked hypothetically.
She wanted the screaming to stop. “Turn it off, Derrek.”
“I used your model to organize the actual neural association, colors, patterns, words. What happens when you can determine what a response is before the synapse registers the stimuli?”
“I-I-wh-” Barbara stuttered.
“What’s the expected result?!” Derrek yelled.
“You can read minds!” Something inside Barbara snapped. Dropping to her knees she glared up at Derrek.
“Bingo!” Derrek turned to the remote keypad and tapped the screen again. “Who’s a winner?” He asked when the screams stopped. A familiar voice was up next on his top ten favorites.
“Simplifying the synapse relationship between net b to net a…” It was Barbara’s voice.
Barbara’s mouth dropped open.
“Thanks to the NFinity AI voice simulator, I can hear you think.” His smile gone, Derrek stared down at the scientist.
Her fear had returned, “That that that is a total breach of privacy!”
“It’s not illegal.” Derrek said with a nonchalance.
“What what good is that? Derrek? Why, why?”
“Think about it, Barby. Think! What happens when you know how people are reacting?” Gaining just a hint of empathy, Derrek walked up to Barbara as her audio files played on.
“You can determine their reaction?”
“Yes!” He smiled, “You think games simulating war is good enough?” he laughed, “No no no, there’s big money in starting war.”
“You’re insane.”
“The line determining the difference between genius and insanity has still yet to be defined.”
She shook her head, “I knew! I knew it was you! The errors, the reality glitches. Why?!”
“I needed you vulnerable.” He softened. “Barbara, I’m your best friend. I needed you scared, you gotta know what you’re up against. Don’t fight me on this.”
“On what?!” Scooting back away from him she moved as far as she could against the cold cement floor.
“I’ve worked out some black budget contracts-” Suddenly he was all business.
Disgusted, “No!”
Derrek raised his hands, “I know it doesn’t seem ethical, but Barbara, either it’s NFinity or it’s someone else.”
“No! Derrek. How could you? Compromise everything NFinity stands for! For what?”
Standing up straight, Derrek conceded. “Okay, fine.”
“Fine?” Barbara sat up, confused.
“I’ll be doing it without you.”
Paused, momentarily, Barbara realized the only way for Derrek to continue with his objective was to save her files, kill her and destroy the lab. She quickly picked herself up, “No you won’t!”
The two jumped into a race to reach the table top where Barbara’s biomatrix was still spilling in DOS code across the screen. Barbara’s hand grazed the key pad as Derrek pushed her out of the way. Plugging the thumb drive into the port, he began typing.
Having landed only a few feet away, Barbara grabbed the closest sharp object, a ball point pen, and shoved it into Derrek’s right hand. A scream followed by a sharp elbow slammed against Barbara’s chest sending her back to the floor.
Her vision temporarily went black, when the lab reappeared the lights had dimmed across the room, in her peripheral vision a glowing box displayed several measurement sticks, one labeled HP another DAMAGE, and the last was a number seven headed by the word LEVEL. Looking up at Derrek’s now massive silhouette, the ear piece displayed the words BOSS FIGHT in bold red.
“What is this?” Lightly tapping the side of her head, Barbara tried to shake the display free of the format.
In silence she watched Derrek’s heaving torso with his arms slightly outward, waiting for the fight to begin. Disturbingly still, Derrek remained poised.
Lifting herself from the floor she took two steps toward the left of the giant, his large heaving body moved to face her without responding. She did the same toward the right, he repeated the same action, saying nothing.
“So weird.” Barbara moved further right to reach the table computer, as she stepped a whole five feet away from Derrek she was stopped by an invisible wall, across her earpiece video screen a warning flashed.
You must first defeat the BOSS before continuing.
Barbara turned around again, confused. “I have to kill him?”
There was no response. Returning to her position she took a minute to think. A BOSS fight, damage level, Derrek’s still pose. This was a video game. She was in a video game. “Am I the video game?” She asked the system.
No answer.
It suddenly hit her. Everything she had ever known to be true was just an illusion. Barbara Vives. The latin word for alive was vivus. Living Barbie. A living doll. She was a game! The names of the driver and the journalist from Ware Magazine, Kristi Onedashone? Or the fact that ™ followed the corporate name Haiku™ everywhere she saw it, and how she didn’t really know Derrek’s last name, the reality was he didn’t actually have one. A creative programmers oversight.
“This isn’t real.” She whispered to herself. Never having really looked at her own reflection or body before she pulled her thin, perfect arms up to take a good look. As she brought her forearms to meet her gaze, the closer her arms came, the more pixelated they became. Suddenly regaining her composure she then balled her fists, positioning them defensively in front of her torso, ready to make the first move.
Once taking the fighting position, Derrek’s massive body adjusted to match her form.
A loud gong sounded over head, Barbara’s display flashed PLAYER ONE FIGHT!
Like a well trained ninja, Barbara moved quickly forward double kicking Derrek’s face and landing into a graceful drop kick. As she made offensive contact brightly lit numbers, one’s and two’s, jumped from around his body. After the drop kick his giant form landed on the floor making the whole of the facility rumble under the impact. Without hesitation the BOSS jumped back onto his feet as though he were unscathed, above his head, floating in mid air his monitors depleted slightly.
Flashing across Barbara’s screen a warning that it was the BOSS’ turn. Bracing herself, she watched as his arms lifted, eyes glowing red, Derrek spun and an enlarged right arm pounded Barbara’s chest making her fly up into the invisible barrier and fall to the floor. It took her a moment to rise, she looked up to see her HP and LIFE had dropped to fifty percent. Whimpering slightly she took the fight position again and gave her next attack everything she had, jumping up on to the beast, she hammered Derrek’s face with punches until the hand of the game’s gravity pulled her back. Once again seeming unscathed, Derrek’s levels depleted just slightly.
Barbara braced herself as she watched Derrek pull back both arms and spring forward.
Game Over
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