In the City of Tomorrow: Chapter 30

Before jumping forward in time the twins located a cave deep within Amy’s construction planet and transported there. They then activated their cloaks. After making sure everything was set Amanda created a time distortion field that jumped them forward to 1967. Amy then used her nanites to connect to the network of replicating probes that had begun exploring space. A quick scan revealed that the network had blossomed in the past century but there was no sign of the Artilect.

The twins jumped to 2067 and tried again. This time the network of automated probes showed significant growth and the probes themselves had become much more advanced. But there was still no sign of any centralized control network.

So Amanda jumped them to 2240. To their surprise there was still no sign of the Artilect. By now the probes had become quite advanced and were busily terraforming worlds and planting small cities. But there were no colonists and no centralized control.

“This is ridiculous!” Amanda exclaimed. “Just when does the Artilect get created?”

“I wish I knew. I guess we have to keep jumping,” Amy replied.

After traveling to 2440 the girls finally noticed a change. The new network of worlds was now linked to a single star system that was 1200 light-years away from any human colony.

“Finally! That’s got to be it,” Amanda said.

“Then let’s go take a look at it!”

The two girls left the cave on the construction planet and jumped to the nameless star system. The system was home to a small yellow star and 12 planets. All of the planets were deserted except for the fourth one, which had been taken over by a large colony. The girls decided to materialize on a mountain that overlooked this colony.

They were surprised to find that the planet had no atmosphere, water, or plant life. The rocky mountain upon which they were standing was very similar to all the other granite mountains in the area. Below them was a giant, arid plain that stretched out as far as the eye could see. The plain was filled with endless miles of machinery. Pipes, girders, wiring, and equipment of all kinds cluttered the surface of the planet. It almost looked like the planet was being engulfed by some sort of robotic parasite.

“There it is,” Amanda said. “All of the new worlds are linked to that machine down there. That must be the Artilect.”

“It looks like a real mess,” Amy replied. “I thought it would be more organized than that. It almost looks like someone planted a seed and it just sprouted at random. It’s pure chaos. Who in their right mind would design something that looks like that?”

“I’m sure they had their reasons,” Amanda said.

“Let’s take a closer look. I want to see what’s going on down there.”

“But what if we’re spotted?”

“By who?” Amy asked. “This planet is practically deserted! Take a look yourself – there’s only a couple people among all those miles and miles of machinery. We’re in no danger of running into anybody.”

“Shouldn’t we at least use our cloaks?”

“I don’t see what good that would go. Right now the Artilect is pretty primitive and its focus is out there, not here. It’s not going to notice us and those people down there sure aren’t either. Besides, there’s no one alive who even knows who we are! If someone spots us we can just disappear and they’ll never know what happened.”

“All right,” Amanda sighed.

The two girls left the mountain and appeared deep inside the robotic city. They found themselves standing in a drab white hallway that appeared to stretch on forever. On both sides of the hallway was an endless series of doors that were all labeled with a three-digit number. White lights shone from the ceiling, illuminating nothing in particular. The hallway had a sterile, empty look to it. Everything looked the same.

One of the doors, however, had more than just a number beside it. Amy spotted the phrase “Artilect – Ignition Laboratory” beside room number 917.

As soon as Amy saw the door she ran over to it. “I think this is it!” she said excitedly.

“I think so too,” Amanda replied. She walked over to it, a bit more nervously than her sister had. The endless hallways made her feel nervous and uncertain. To her it felt like she was in somebody else’s dream, or like she had stumbled into a reality where humans just did not belong. She couldn’t shake the feeling that this was an alien place. “It’s not what I expected,” she said at last.

“It’s still very young. We need to give it more time.”

The girls walked through the door and entered the room on the other side. They gasped as they saw the size of the room. Room 917 stretched on for miles in the distance. It was filled with row upon row of computer equipment, all of which was operating with silent efficiency. The sheer magnitude of the room took their breath away.

“Wow,” Amy said. “This is huge. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“This room alone covers 94 square miles – and it’s not even the biggest one in the colony! I’m getting readings of other rooms that are even bigger than this one.”

“Well, I’m impressed,” Amy replied. “This is definitely the right place.”

“I still think this is kind of creepy. It’s just – I don’t know. I just don’t think we’re supposed to be wandering around down here. I get the feeling that this place wasn’t designed for people. This is a world for machines. I don’t think anyone ever expected the Artilect to have visitors.”

“I think you’re just imagining things,” Amy replied.

“So what do we do now?” Amanda asked. “Are you ready to jump into the future?”

Amy walked up to one of the consoles and activated it. The console scanned her. “Welcome, Amy Stryker,” it said in a robotic voice.

“Amy!” Amanda exclaimed. “What are you doing?”

“Wait just a minute,” Amy replied. She worked at the console for a few minutes, alternating between studying the screen and pressing buttons. At last she spoke up. “All right. I’ve found a small room 6 miles below us that’s not being used for anything. I’ve blocked it off and reserved it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve blocked it off from the Artilect’s memory – he won’t be able to see it anymore. It will be like that room doesn’t even exist. We can hide out there and suspend ourselves until it’s time to appear, and the Artilect won’t know anything about it.”

“But what if someone else finds us?” Amanda asked. “This place isn’t deserted, you know.”

Amy shrugged. “According to the logs no one’s been down on that level for four years. Besides, what are they going to do? All they would find is a stasis field that they can’t interact with. They would probably just think it was some strange side-effect of the Artilect’s programming and leave it alone. It will be fine.”

“All right,” Amanda agreed. “I guess it’s the best we can do.”

Amy logged out of the terminal and the two girls transported themselves to the room Amanda had reserved. As Amy had said it was a small, white, rectangular room that was roughly twelve feet long and twelve feet wide. It contained no furniture of any kind.

“This is a little odd,” Amanda remarked. “I wonder what this room was supposed to be used for?”

“I have no idea,” Amy said. “The Artilect’s not hurting for space, though. He’s got lots of other rooms. Are you ready?”

Amanda nodded. “October 10, 7239, right?”

“Right,” Amy said.

“What time?”

Amy suddenly froze. “I don’t know. Come to think of it, Steve never said.”

“So what do we do?”

“I don’t know,” Amy said. “I never thought about it. What do you think?”

Amanda thought for a moment. “It might be safest to transport ourselves to the end of that day. That way we don’t enter the future before Steve left to go get us.”

“But won’t our parents be worried?”

“Not for very long. Well, I guess they might worry a little, but it’s better than appearing in the future before anyone went to the past to get us. That could mess up all kinds of things.”

“I guess they’ll forgive us,” Amy replied. “We can explain what happened after we get there.”

Amy took a deep breath, then reached over and grabbed her sister’s hand. “I’m ready,” she said. “Let’s go.”

“All right,” Amanda replied. “Here goes.” She closed her eyes and suspended both of them in time.

So time began passing. Centuries came and went, and the Stryker twins remained suspended in time. Amy had hidden her tracks well. Even after the Artilect launched its desperate search for administrators it did not discover that its own systems had been hacked. It failed to learn that the very people it was trying to rescue were actually housed within it, waiting for the day when their stasis field would dissipate and they would be released.

What the girls did not take into account was that the Artilect eventually grew desperate enough to begin its own experiments in time travel. It refocused its immense energies on learning to manipulate time. As the centuries passed it learned how to alter the speed of time and stop it altogether, but it never found the secret of making time run backwards. Eventually it was forced to admit defeat and abandon the effort altogether. At that point it began scanning space for wormholes in an attempt to find one that linked the future to the past.

What no one realized was that the Artilect’s experiments altered the time field that contained Amy and Amanda Stryker. The stasis field no longer decayed at the rate Amanda had set because the Artilect’s experiments inadvertently strengthened it. Time began passing far more slowly than the girls had wanted. When October 10, 7239 finally rolled around the stasis field was still extremely strong. It had begun to fade but it would not dissipate and release the twins for a very, very long time.