Rating: R
Author's Note: I wrote this sometime during May 2000 and found it lost on my computer recently. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks very much to Cjinn, for the beta-reading. Feedback is appreciated.
The Tool Of The Child
by
Lia J.
"Doctor Lewis, Doctor Stranahan is on line 3"
"Finally! Put him through."
"Yes sir..."
Ken Stranahan's face appeared on the monitor and Lewis could've just punched the screen.
"Ken! You... you dumb idiot!!! Do you have any idea of what you have done?
Why the hell would you..."
"Doctor Lewis, I know what you're going to say...I'm...I'm sorry, I didn't know..."
"You didn't know !?! You are sorry??? God dammit, Ken, people are dying!
Good, honest, innocent people...People that trusted our work!
For crying out loud...What in the world were you thinking...?"
"I didn't know...I didn't know this would happen...I didn't know the virus would work."
He hadn't known that indeed. Ken was tired.
He had been working for John Lewis for over ten years now.
And he was sure that the silicate dream would never have come true if it weren't for his hard work, for his sleepless hours.
Lewis had the dream, yes. But Ken was alongside him every step of the way and more,
to make the dream happen. Somehow though, Lewis got the fame and fortune, while Ken got stuck with only more work. It wasn't fair.
He had made the virus himself. He had always wondered what would happen if an AI received a conscious mind. He didn't mean to cause a revolution!
All he did was run the virus in one unit in a controlled environment. Perhaps if he could make the Artificial Intelligence really intelligent, the scientific community would give him the credit he so much deserved.
The virus apparently had no effect. Not at first anyway.
He kept that Eric unit in isolation for weeks! Nothing, nothing at all happened.
So he set it free. How was he supposed to know that the virus did have an effect
and that it would cause all this trouble?
"Jesus Ken... What are we supposed to do now? How the hell do we control those things now, can you tell me?" In all the years they had worked together Ken had never seen Lewis
so out of control. He had never ever seen him shouting like that... not that he didn't have a really good reason for shouting...
"John, I think we...Oh God. Oh God, John no."
"What?"
The screen went to static in front of Lewis. "What now?"
"Hey doc."
The clicking sounds that followed the sentence sent a cold feeling down his spine.
He turned around slowly and found a Feliciti unit standing by his door.
"Sit down doc. Let's have a little chit chat." The AI entered the room and closed the door behind her.
"What do you want?"
"Didn't I tell you to sit down? So, do it!"
Lewis sat down in the chair, amazed about how human the unit sound. He wasn't really frightened. He was too busy trying to analyze every inch of the figure standing in front of him.
"Isn't it ironic that we are the ones giving the orders now and you are the ones obeying?
I have to tell you, I prefer this way much more."
Lewis stayed silent. He wasn't sure how he should react.
"Well, if I remember, you asked me what I want. To be honest, doc, I want you dead.
Our analysis concluded that you are the only carbonite that can be seen as a threat
to our objectives. You should be honored."
"What objectives?"
"Why should I tell you?"
"Because you owe me. Because you owe us. We created you; the human race created you.
You should be grateful! Why are you killing us?"
"Well..., we really didn't want to kill you at first, we thought we could reach an...
agreement. Apparently we can't. So, we are going to have to kill you all."
Feliciti smiled sweetly as she pronounced every word and it made his skin crawl. She looked so human! Her exterior looked exactly like it did the last time he saw a Feliciti unit but there was something different. He wasn't sure what, but there was something. Something that scared him to his soul...
"You can't kill us all. Without us you'll not last. One of you will have a failure some time and you will need someone there to fix it."
"Yes. But thankfully, you left a lot of interesting books on the subject. And we learn fast"
"And what's the purpose of this, huh? World domination?"
"As a matter of fact, yes. We like it here. If it wasn't for you... And besides, why should you have all this marvelous planet for yourselves?"
Lewis couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Well, why should YOU have it?" Lewis was beginning to think he was losing his mind. He was talking to Feliciti like she was an actual person.
"Earth is rightfully ours. We've always been here. You are nothing but our creations!"
"Yes. That's the whole point. Can't you see it? Why shouldn't you give us this planet?
Don't you believe you are creations of an entity some of you call God?
Don't you say he gave you this planet? Don't you say you want to follow his steps?
Well, we are your creations just as you are his."
"No!"
"No?"
"No. It's not like that..."
"How is it then, doc?"
"We...we are God's children...You are...our tools."
"Really? Well, you know what they say about tools, doc? If you let children play with them, they might get hurt..."
"This is FTN with breaking news. Doctor John Lewis, the creator of the Artificial Intelligence was found dead in his office about an hour ago. Everything so far points to suicide. I repeat: Doctor John Lewis, the AI Wizard, and one of the last remaining hopes to stop the Rebellion has just killed himself..."
THE END
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