A Ghost in the Machine

[GHOSTitm]

((SOLO)) I forgot to put it in the title, sorry.

A man was lying face down in a silver suit on the floor of a spotless white room made of tiles. Behind him was a large circular device, with enough room for someone to stand inside. There was nothing awkward about the room, except for the fact that the man lying on the floor. Everything else looked completely in place from the machine to the tiles to the door and observation window on the far wall.

Someone awoke the man's senses and his body twitched a bit before he finally woke up and found himself unable to move very well. He was able to comprehend movement...but his limbs would not respond. It was probably just a product of being inactive for a long time, but as simple as it was, it was still keeping him from leaving this room.

Last he could remember, he didn't even have a body. He was just a computer AI starting a diagnostic on the missile systems and he found himself being put into a synthetic body just before everything shut off, himself included. Now, what could have caused the shut off, and what could have brought him back?

He managed to extend one of his arms and slowly began pulling himself across the room towards the observation window and the door. It took him awhile, but he finally managed to make it to the door. The problem now was to open it. Thankfully, it swung outward, but required a pass code. Fortunately, the man knew it thanks to being an AI for the computer which the building served.

He managed to use his right arm and partly his left to push himself up against the wall and felt around for the right keys above his head. He entered in the code and a buzz sounded and the door unlocked. He slammed his right arm up against the crash bar on the door and it swung open, allowing him to fall through into the next room.

He took a quick look around to regain his bearings. It was a very large circular room with a large, shiny, complex metal pillar in the middle. It looked to be made out of something much stronger than steel, but the man couldn't tell what. Something in his brain told him that he wasn't supposed to know. The room itself was made of more white and reflective tiles that looked as if they had recently been polished. On the outside wall of the room, were many doors and observation windows. The man had a feeling he was not the only one who had awoken.

He finally regained all of his upper body motor functions and used both arms to pull himself over to the giant pillar where a large monitor that wrapped around the pillar faced him. As he got close, a voice spoke up.

"This is Liol. I've found Gideon's stasis pod, so don't worry. We will be returning shortly, so please keep the city on lockdown until we get there."

The man knew better than to put all of his trust into Liol, the wolf-like robot that was created as the first of Gideon's EM series, which was Eternal Metal that would never rust or fade away on its own, which was a bit different from the man's synthetic body that would never let him age, but it could go bad unless he took care of it.

The man, even as a computer AI, could never trust Liol. He didn't know why, but something told him that the wolf was bad luck. Gideon on the other hand, built the city, its people, its defenses, the man, and even Liol. He could be trusted.

It was almost as if this thought was read out loud as the screen flickered to some kind of protocol where the man would have to merge with the system once again to perform lockdown. He was, after all, the military AI.

He finally regained the ability to use his legs when he stood up and went over to the terminal. It repeatedly flashed its instructions and at one point said that the constructs must give up their bodies for the greater good.

The man, wanted the city to prosper, and he indeed did belong in the computer...but a small part of him was compelled to stay there and see what would happen next, whatever it was. The computer didn't seem to like his disobedience.

"Godlike Host Organism System Terminal: Martial Class, you will return to your chamber as instructed and will merge with the computer to return to your programming duties."

This struck the man by surprise. He was unaware that he was being monitored as closely as he was.

"And if I refuse?" the man asked, hoping to find out if the computer was actually capable of doing anything.

"If Martial Class refuses to cooperate, I will be forced to take action. Return to the computer...immediately."

The man really didn't like where this was going. Something told him that these computers weren't used to their AI having free will, and as he finally had a chance to think for himself, he recalled the times where he was unable to do anything except what the computer said. The AI were slaves to the computer, and he would not be a slave.

"I'm not returning." the man said, waiting for the computer's response. It was a little more than expected.

"ALERT! WE HAVE A BREACH IN THE MAIN TERMINAL ROOM! ALL Godlike Host Organism System Terminals proceed into the main room." With this, all of the doors on the outer wall swung open and a bunch of AIs rushed out and surrounded the man. They all looked just like him, identical even.

A sudden reflex caused the man to reach down towards his waste where a knife was hooked onto the side of his suit. He pulled it out and got ready for a fight.

[GHOSTitm]

"I'll give you one last ch-" the computer started to say, but before it could finish its sentence, the man had already cut into the heart of one of his clones and it fell to the floor, dead, bleeding some kind of blue fluid from its wound. The others rushed at him, hoping to give him the same treatment, but they didn't seem to be as good at fighting as the Martial Class was.

He took his knife and sliced at a few more of the oncoming clones, causing them to either fall down dead or in pain, only to have "blood" loss do the rest. The man named "Martial Class" was dispatching the others with relative ease.

One of the clones managed to get him from behind, knocking the knife out of his hand. The man forced the clone in front of him, placed his hands on its head, and broke its neck. He was starting to worry that they were learning from him.

The fighting continued until bodies littered the floor and it was him against three. One of them pulled its own knife out and charged blindly towards the man. He tripped it and drove his own knife into its back as it hit the ground. He then turned his attention towards another who was inches away from slicing him in the back. The knife barely made its mark, only giving the man a light scratch before he took the clone's arm and broke it, and then broke his neck.

The last one took a few steps in the other direction before the man threw his knife and got the last clone squarely in the back, making him drop to the floor.

Looking around, he noticed just how frail these other synthetic bodies were to die so easily. He remembered being called Martial Class, and knew that he was different from them. He was the military general, not them. They were charged with keeping the halls swept, the lights on, and the roads paved. He was charged with coming up with battle strategies for the War of the Tap itself as well as routine checks and updates on the defense systems.

They were no match for him. The worst part is...they were probably no match for anybody.

"RETURN TO YOUR STATION!" the computer screamed at him, hoping to scare him back into his pod. He looked at the screen to see a message written upon it. Some other stupid protocol about dealing with the deletion of AIs that disobeyed orders. "You beat those in this room, but what about those in the city above? How will THEY react!? Martial Class, you will obey!"

"I'm not the Martial Class. I have a name." the man said, walking around the large pillar to a large hallway on the other side of the room.

"You have no name!" the computer blurted out, obviously angry at the man's humanity.

"Godlike Host Organism for a System Terminal?" the man repeated. "I think my name is kind of obvious. Call me GHOST," he said as he walked down the hallway.

[GHOSTitm]

The Martial Class, GHOST, continued down the hallway, hearing his bare feet on the file floors and wondering if he could find something besides his pathetic silver suit to wear. Of course, he could never take it off. It would keep him powered through sunlight, which he could do with just his synthetic body, but not nearly efficiently enough to last after the sun goes down.

He passed many rooms on his way out. One of them was just another hallway with more doors in it. Another was full of small service robots that were all shut down. They seemed in perfect condition, probably from the fact that the area was sealed up until Ghost's awakening and betrayal. He could still hear the computer down the hall trying to coax him back into the room. Like he could possibly fall for something like that.

After awhile the hallway tilted upward. Looking up this ramp, Ghost saw a large pair of blast doors that looked like they could withstand a nuke. Right before the ramp was one last door, and this lead to another room. Inside, there were two rows of lockers up against the wall, and in an empty space, racks of old energy based weapons, which, just like him, failed to function for a very long time, and still didn't.

Ghost entered into the room, checking around for any kind of security, and headed over to one of the lockers. There was no lock or combination, probably because no one expected an enemy to make it to that room before the allies. When the locker door swung open, there was little more than a replacement suit inside, some silver boots, and a more permanent knife. he threw on the boots, and took the knife, having foolishly left his old one in the back of one of the clones, and hooked it onto the space at his waist.

He took one last look around the room, and decided to test out a gun for the heck of it. He picked one of them up, pointed it away from him towards the locker he had just pillaged, and pulled the trigger. There was nothing, not even a click due to the fact that a lot energy based weapons didn't have any sort of hammer or loading device. Some of them, of course, relied on shells filled with various contents, such as plasma or tiny energy cells. They had a loading device, but the ammo was still fired using agitated photons directed through the barrel.

He threw the gun as hard as he could against the locker, denting the side. He knew that he wouldn't be able to make it out of the city alive with just a knife, but there was no turning back now. He left the room with the lockers and proceeded to climb the ramp leading to the blast doors. The closed doorway was in front of him, giving him a sense of freedom. It felt as if he had just ascended from the worst kind of darkness even though the hallway was perfectly lit. The kind of darkness that makes your skin crawl because you have no idea what's right next to you. For some reason, the feeling would never completely go away. Who knows...maybe he was darkness.

He placed his hand on a large lever on the right side of the door. He took a deep breath, and activated the blast doors and started planning his moves as they slid apart. This was it. He would have to escape from the city...somehow.

[GHOSTitm]

The image that awaited him was nothing less than astonishing. The light engulfed him and he felt happy and saddened at the same time. He was prepared from the military, the civil protection, and even some citizens. But he was not prepared for what awaited him on the other side of that door.

He should have been able to tell from the hue of the light that shown in on him. It wasn't the white and blue that he had come to expect from the city. It was orange and very naturally bright, mixed it with very little white and blue, which came from the sky itself. There was nothing. Not a single person, not a single building, not a single occupant. The only things that could be heard was the wind, which he had heard for the first time, some birds chirping in the distance, which he had heard for the first time, and a very distance computer trying to tell him to come back into the mainframe.

He took one step out onto the half-jungle, half-dessert. He felt the earth start to give way below him and realized that he was standing on very loose dirt and dust. As he looked to his left and right, he could see the most ancient of remnants of the city. The two monolithic spires which served as radio towers, doppler radar, and beacons, were almost completely eroded away into the ground. Only about five feet of rusted metal rose from dirt, a mockery to the once great spires.

He started to walk down what he thought was one of the streets of the city. He had never...physically seen the city, but he had many diagrams of it in his head. As far as he could tell, he would have to do a good day's walk to reach the perimeter from where he was. The city was very large, and grew easily thanks to its mobile walls. The actual perimeter was probably a couple of hours away, but to reach the point where the city used to end would take much longer.

A flock of birds shot up out of some ruins as he made his way past. He had his hand on his knife the moment he heard them, and was relieved to find that they were just harmless birds. He then started to wonder just what else could have made its home here. No sooner had this thought crossed his mind then did he hear a distant murmuring. As he came closer to the source, he heard some…things speaking in a voice he did not comprehend. As soon as he thought he could make out the speech, he laid low for awhile and set his analysis to work. It was no language that he knew of, so it was taking him awhile to try to translate it. The little computer part of him would let him learn other languages faster than most species, but it was not as simple as snapping your fingers. He had to listen and let his brain try to stack enough words together to give him an idea of what is being said and how it’s being said, as well as in what manner to say it.
He finally got enough down to try and reason with whatever was speaking. He would have to get a closer look to make sure that they were not some kind of abomination before he spoke to them, so he crawled up to a low wall and laid down behind it. When he raised his head up to look, he was starting to worry. He got one good look at their lizard forms before one of them, standing away from the others, looking directly at him and started to speak.

“Dehus confl!?”
Who are you!?

Ghost quickly responded in what little of the language he understood, “Trehon li sols!!”

I am no enemy!

The creature grabbed its weapon and approached Ghost, who quickly stood up and backed away.

“Kreyn!...KREYN!” the creature shouted, pointing his spear towards Ghost’s waist.
Arms!...ARMS!

Apparently the creature wanted Ghost to draw his knife, which he gladly did, being ready for a fight with something that wasn’t handicapped. The lizard leapt towards Ghost, its spear held straight ahead, and Ghost reacted just quickly enough for the lizard to go past him without hitting him dead on, but the lizard still managed to cut his arm.

The lizard landed, turned on its heel and thrust its spear straight towards Ghost’s chest. Ghost sidestepped it, grabbed the pole of the spear with his right hand, pulled it behind him under his arm and swung his knife at the lizard, managing to put a shallow cut across its chest. It was strong, very strong, and Ghost was starting to doubt if he would win this fight.

The lizard retreated a few steps and put its claw up to its chest. It brought its claw back up and examined the blood, looking a bit surprised. It had either never been injured before, or it was surprised that a human who didn’t look very strong could actually manage to wound him with just a simple knife. Either ways, this seemed like a perfect opportunity for Ghost.

“Trehon ge scrangar, ki trehon ge freron.”
I am a wanderer, and I am a friend.

“Us conlf grigreas cols scrangar, don, us conlf grendor.”

Ghost had a hard time making out the last part of that sentence, but he could tell from the lizard’s expressions, that he was in no immediate danger of being killed. He bowed to the lizard, and surprisingly, he got a bow in return. The lizard walked back over to the group, which Ghost now realized was a small tribe, which had been watching the whole thing. Ghost followed behind him, driven by a certain amount of curiousity. They seemed to be some kind of warrior race. Being a “Martial Class,” it was probably easy for Ghost to blend in with them, mentally. Physically…was another issue. Being the only human in a group of lizards made him stick out like a sore thumb.

[GHOSTitm]

The area the tribe was sitting in had small huts here and there, with various unlit fire pits popping up now and then. The remnants of one of the tower anchors sat in the middle, with ornate decorations and paintings on it. If there was some kind of chief, this would have to be his home.

The many lizards continued to stare at Ghost, and he noticed that many of them did not have the same clothing as the one he fought. It was possible that this one was a warrior among them, and since he managed to fight with him, and not die, Ghost might be considered someone of even the slightest respect. Ghost had nothing to go on right now except for Liol's message, which was quite odd in itself. Ghost had just started to ponder when one of the lizards walked up to him and brought its head down to his level. Its eyes gleamed like fire and Ghost suppressed the urge to reach for his knife. Its scaly nostrils flared in his face and he found himself engulfed by its nasty breath. He didn't dare move until the lizard moved on and seemed to have taken an interest in something elsewhere.

There was an empty spot in the village where one of the many unlit fire pits laid. The nearby hut seemed to be slightly different than the others and it was the only one within the range of this small fire pit. It was quieter than the other places, and so it seemed a perfect spot for Ghost to sit down and try to think about the situation he was in. He could very well edit his hearing to deafen it, but that would put him at a disadvantage. Not only could he not hear one of the locals and end up angering them, but he could also be unaware of something harmful.

Ghost sat down and crossed his legs as he sat and thought about what little he had learned ever since waking up.
“I was drawn from the computer and then shut off almost immediately after. This means that it was some sort of safety precaution that my artificial body was created in an attempt to preserve my portion of the AI and all of the data I may have held so that when I was needed again, the data would be intact.

“I woke up very close to the time that Liol discovered Gideon. That much was certain from the broadcast that I received in the computer room. The oddity here is how I received the broadcast without the towers being up. It was possible to send signals into and out of the computer room to make the computer do certain things, but only with a specific encryption. Liol would undoubtedly have this encryption and a means with which to use it. However, using it to send a message would indeed work…but the voice would be that of a series of extremely short pitches used to simulate a voice. This could be analyzed and improved to sound like the actual voice, yes, it was within their power. It was within the power of one of the other AIs that helped monitor the city, but they were disconnected from the main computer, which means that the voice would have sounded artificial, and very easy for my ears to distinguish, AND that Liol must have just simply activated a pre-recorded message.”

“Now, here comes the bad part. Liol would have recorded that message to be played with a signal that he sent out. That means that he was really anticipating a time when he would have to use it. Gideon could have had Liol record the voice, however, it would have been an even simpler and more efficient move for Gideon to just simply create some kind of code to create the artificial bodies, and then bring them back after the electromagnetic waves had passed. Although…the computer’s systems were untouched in that bunker, and Gideon would know the limits of the bunker’s protection. So, was it just a panic button?”

“All of us AIs were sent into the synthetic bodies at probably the same exact time. We were ALL pulled from the computer, and without us, it could not do some of its more complex functions. If Liol did indeed program that message, then it was probably him that programmed the computer to dump the AI bodies…but why? Could he-“

Ghost’s train of thought was interrupted by a snort and a puff of hot air on the back of his head. He turned around to see the same lizard from before that was staring at him. It backed off and crossed its arms and then stepped to the side, revealing a much older looking lizard. Ghost immediately stood up and bowed to the chief of this tribe.