30 Mar 2011

The War of the Artilect: Chapter 5

Posted by joncooper

After slipping out through one of the holes in Alpha Centauri A’s Wall the Sentinel took a moment to scan the bot swarms. As before, the nearest swarms were dozens of light-years away. They gave no indication that they had noticed his presence and continued their endless fight against each other. Curious, the Sentinel thought. Although they have paid me no attention I find it difficult to believe that I have gone unnoticed. If they were able to track the Sparrow and fight my father then surely they have the potential to notice me. At the very least they should know that they now have an opponent, yet they do not appear to be on guard. They are not amassing for another attack or even searching for us, although they must know we are going to come after them. I do not understand their behavior.

It took the Sentinel only a few seconds to jump to the outskirts of the Tau Ceti system. Being there gave the machine a curious feeling. So we meet again, the Sentinel thought, as it scanned the Wall that prevented access to the system. Unlike the Wall that guarded Alpha Centauri A this barrier was in excellent condition. In fact, it did not appear to have decayed any since the Sentinel last encountered it five thousand years ago. The Gate was gone but other than that nothing had changed.

The Sentinel began carefully probing the Wall, as it had more than six hundred years ago when it first encountered this system on a scouting expedition. Once again it found traces of life present on Xanthe. They were weak, but they were there.

But how do I get in? the Sentinel wondered. It scanned the ancient barrier but was unable to find any weaknesses. While its sensors could penetrate it there did not appear to be a safe passage through. This presented a significant problem. I must get inside and contact the survivors, but the only way to do so is to collapse this barrier. Yet if I do that it would leave them exposed to the wrath of the endless swarms. The only alternative I can see is to erect my own Wall outside theirs. This would keep them safe after their own Wall is taken down, for they would still have a barrier between them and the rest of the stars.

Reaching into its memory, the Sentinel retrieved the pattern for a small, autonomous space station that was able to generate a Wall. It then used the abilities the Artilect had given it to fabricate the structure, drawing enormous amounts of energy from the realms beyond spacetime and translating that energy into patterns of matter. It took only a few minutes to complete the station. The final product was a featureless black cube that measured forty-nine feet on each side. It appeared unassuming and harmless but the Sentinel knew that it was capable of keeping a Wall stable for thousands of years.

With a single command the Sentinel activated the station. Immediately a Wall appeared that surrounded the Sentinel, the station, and all of Tau Ceti. The Sentinel regarded it with great satisfaction. I should only need you for a few hours, but if something should happen to me you will be able to protect all those on Xanthe for many years to come. As long as you are there to guard them they need not fear the swarms.

Once the protective barrier was in place the Sentinel turned its attention back to collapsing the ancient barrier that still protected Tau Ceti. I must proceed with great caution. It is not difficult to introduce instabilities that will cause the Wall to tear itself apart, but I must do so in a way that does not endanger its inhabitants. The Wall directly alters the properties of spacetime in order to remove the star from normal space; whatever I do must not cause this pocket of space to collapse altogether.

The Sentinel spent half an hour studying the Wall before it made its move. It ultimately decided that destabilizing the Wall was too risky and instead chose to overpower it. The purpose of the Wall was to draw a star system out of normal space and hide it inside an inaccessible pocket of spacetime. In order to counter this the Sentinel created an enormous, focused gravity well that pulled at that pocket in an attempt to force it back into normal space. After gathering up an enormous store of energy the Sentinel launched its attack and pulled at the Wall with all its might.

For a few seconds the Wall held as it fought against the titanic forces that hammered it. Then, all at once, the Wall gave way and dissipated. The star system was now open.

The Sentinel quickly scanned the star system to make sure it was undamaged and was relieved to find no evidence of spacetime ruptures. You appear to be safe and sound, my friends. This time it was necessary but I hope I do not have to do that again. You have survived for too long to be endangered by something like this.

Although the Sentinel was tempted to proceed straight to Xanthe it first decided to perform a thorough sweep of the system. When the Sentinel had last visited this star in the 19th century it had found a dangerous place that was filled with asteroids. Now, however, the asteroids were gone. As before there was just one planet in the system – Xanthe, the site of the third colony established by the Diano Corporation.

To its surprise its sensors revealed that there were no artificial structures anywhere other than Xanthe. At one time there were numerous space stations that maintained the Wall, managed the trajectories of asteroids, and helped ships navigate the treacherous system. Now, though, none remained. With the exception of Xanthe the system was deserted. The Wall must be maintained by systems on the planet, as was the case at Alpha Centauri A, the Sentinel realized. But why were the space stations abandoned? Did mankind lose its ability to reach the stars?

Once its system-wide scan had been completed the Sentinel moved into orbit around Xanthe and began scanning the planet’s surface. It remembered the last time it had visited Tau Ceti, back when it was scanning all of the Ranger worlds in search of the Stryker twins. At that time the planet had been a vibrant world, home to more than 100 million people. Its capitol, Star City, was one of the wonders of the colonies. The Sentinel was saddened to find that its glory had not stood the test of time. Xanthe still had an atmosphere but it was a weak one that could only barely support life. Its beautiful oceans had receded to only a quarter of the area they covered five thousand years ago. Much of the plant life had died, replacing thousands of square miles of fertile ground with a parched, barren desert. The world was rapidly turning into a corpse and only isolated pockets of plant and animal life remained.

Its cities were also in advanced stages of decay. While the planet now had far more cities than it did in the 19th century, the sprawling metropolises were places of blight and decay. Its skyscrapers were rusted and broken and its streets were cracked and pitted. Even worse, no one lived in any of the cities. All of them were abandoned, home to no one. The only city with a functional power grid was Star City and only a small portion of it remained. The rest was in darkness.

If the cities are empty then where are the people? The Sentinel traced the life signs it had found earlier and discovered that, as on Alpha Centauri A, there were vaults buried beneath the planet’s surface. Instead of just one vault, however, the Sentinel found dozens of vaults, one of which had a functional power grid and signs of life. The rest were dead.

Before entering the last vault the Sentinel stopped to scan Star City. Its instruments revealed moment in the city below. When the probe took a closer look it saw that there were only nine robots in the entire metropolis. The body of each robot was a short, square box of metal that was roughly two feet on each side. The boxes had six metal arms and four legs, which terminated in wheels. The Sentinel watched as the robots went about their assigned tasks, attempting to keep the city alive. One of you is trying to bring the Wall back to life while another hunts down broken segments of the city’s power grid. Two of you are in the vault, trying to maintain some equipment. Another is trying to repair the city’s failing power plant, while the rest try to restore damaged buildings. How long have you been doing this, little ones? Thousands of years? Who abandoned all of this and left it in your care? Is there no one left to help you?

As the Sentinel watched the robots it saw one of them suddenly abandon its work on an elevator that it was trying to bring back to life. It abruptly turned around, scooted out the lobby of a ruined skyscraper, and headed down a gutted street. The robot carefully picked its way around piles of rubble and headed to a nondescript building on the outskirts of town. Once there it entered the run-down building through the broken front doors and walked up to an elevator in its lobby. The robot reached one of its arms out and pressed an unlabeled button on the wall. When the elevator arrived the robot rolled into it and pressed the button labeled B6.

The elevator slowly began descending. From its place in planetary orbit the Sentinel was able to see that levels B1 through B5 were sub-basements of the structure. B6, however, was a thousand feet below the surface and connected to the only functional vault. Intrigued, the Sentinel watched as the elevator carried the robot down to the vault level. When the elevator doors finally opened the robot rolled down a hallway and up to a massive door that guarded the vault itself.

This is worth investigating in person, the Sentinel decided. While remaining cloaked the Sentinel transported itself to the entrance of the vault and stood beside the robot. As the robot worked at a nearby control panel and attempted to enter a complicated access code, the Sentinel waited patiently and studied the wall in front of it. There, to the right of the door, was a plaque:

VAULT 37
HOME OF THE SYNTHETIC WORLDS
ESTABLISHED 2419
RESIDENT ELDER: CARROLL LYONS

 

This vault predates the one on Alpha Centauri A, and yet it is still functional, the Sentinel thought. This is a blessing. Aside from Sol, all that remains of humanity is resting behind that door. Perhaps that is where I will finally discover the answers we have been looking for.

A moment later the robot finished its work and the monstrous vault door rolled aside. The robot then rolled into the vault and the Sentinel followed close behind it. The Sentinel was surprised to find that this vault appeared to be identical to the one on Alpha Centauri A. Like its counterpart it was also comprised of four immensely large rooms that were filled with hundreds of thousands of pods, and it also had a power plant on its lowest level. The only difference was that these pods were not connected to a single computer. Instead each one had its own computer terminal beside it, as if the pods were all independent entities.

The robot entered one of the large rooms and started rolling past rows of pods. As it lumbered across the room the Sentinel took a moment to quickly scan the area. I count 384,726 life signs, which means that less than one percent of the pods are dead. The robots have done a good job of maintaining this vault. But these life signs are all much too old! This cannot be right. My sensors are telling me that there are no children or young people here. In fact, everyone appears to be thousands of years old and show signs of extreme old age! How can that be?

The Sentinel moved over to one of the pods and peered through its transparent covering. Inside it saw an extremely old man. His face was covered in wrinkles and he was short and frail. His eyes were sunken, his skin was dirty, and he had only a few greasy strands of hair left. If the Sentinel had not known better he would have thought he was staring at a corpse. There is so little life left in you. How long have you been like this? Are you prisoners?

A thousand feet away the robot had stopped at one of the pods and was entering commands into its terminal. The Sentinel ignored it and glanced at the terminal next to the pod in front of it. Without touching anything it simply looked at the readouts on the screen. Surely that is not correct, it thought, horrified. Have you really been in that retched pod for almost five thousand years, living in an imaginary world? Your life signs barely register! Is it even possible for you to come back to the real world, or are you too frail to step outside and look into the sky? Do you even remember what the real world is like?

The Sentinel looked around with a growing feeling of horror. If all of you are on the verge of death, unable to live in the real world, then what hope does mankind have? Even if we are able to save you from the swarms and can somehow repair your bodies, that will not help if your minds are gone. Are you even willing to live in reality, or have you become slaves to that which is not real?

In another part of the room the Sentinel heard a grinding noise. It turned around and saw that one of the pods had opened. A frail, elderly man was attempting to climb out of the pod and was being helped by the robot.

“I apologize for disturbing you, Adrian Garza,” the robot was saying. “I know I am intruding but there is an urgent problem that needs immediate attention. You have helped us in the past and I was hoping you could help us again.”

The elderly man nodded. He blinked, then rubbed his eyes. “I am sure that there is a problem, my friend, or else you would not have contacted one of us. But why did you not wake Elder Lane? He is our administrator.”

“He did not wish to be disturbed. The last time I contacted him he gave strict instructions to not disturb him again.”

Adrian smiled. “I understand. In this world we are old men and it is not a welcome experience. I can understand why he would not wish to experience it. But what troubles you?”

“It is the Wall, sir. It has collapsed and we cannot fix it.”

A look of horror crossed the man’s face. “Collapsed! Did the machines fail?”

“It was not mechanical failure. Something forced the Wall to collapse. We believe it was an attack from the outside.”

“But that’s impossible! No one can breach the Wall. It has never been done – not once since the first Wall was erected.”

“It has now,” the robot replied.

The man was silent for a moment. “What of the swarms? Now that we are defenseless are they on their way?”

“But we are not defenseless. That is the curious thing. Someone created a Wall around us and then destroyed the one we were generating. We are not unprotected; it is simply that the Wall that surrounds us is not our own.”

Adrian looked at the robot, astonished. “But who would do such a thing?”

At this point the Sentinel dropped its cloak and took on the appearance of a human. To Adrian it looked as if a distinguished-looking man had just appeared, wearing a gray suit and hat.

“I did,” the Sentinel said.

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2 Responses to “The War of the Artilect: Chapter 5”

  1. I do not understand the ‘five thousand’ and the ‘six hundred’ reference for the Sentinel to have been there, it says that six hundred is its first encounter? Is the 19th century 5 thousand or 6 hundred before?

    “””
    In fact, it did not appear to have decayed any since the Sentinel last encountered it five thousand years ago. The Gate was gone but other than that nothing had changed.

    The Sentinel began carefully probing the Wall, as it had more than six hundred years ago when it first encountered this system on a scouting expedition
    “””

    P.S. Enjoying the ride:)

     

    thayneharmon

  2. Excellent question! I’m glad you are enjoying the book.

    The Sentinel has made two trips to Tau Ceti. Its first trip was shortly after it was created in 6571. The Artilect sent it on a scouting expedition and that is when it first discovered the Wall. This is recounted in the first few chapters of Stryker #2.

    After this, the Sentinel was sent back in time to find the twins. That is when it encountered the Wall the second time. This was recounted in Stryker #1.

    This does need to be made more clear, though, and I’ll see what I can do to fix that. Thanks!

     

    joncooper