Crystal Conquest
Authors: Doug J. Cooper
Crystal Conquest
Copyright ©2014 by Doug J. Cooper
This is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places, and events are the product of the author’s imagination or
used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or places or persons,
living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved, including the
right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
Published by: Douglas Cooper
Consulting
Beta reviewer: Mark Mesler
Book editor: Tammy Salyer
Cover design: Damonza
ISBN-10: 0989938123
ISBN-13: 978-0-9899381-2-9
Author website:
www.crystalseries.com
~~~
for
Nan and Nat
Am I really going to do this?
thought Lenny Barton, feeling a bit like a passenger in his own body. His truth
nib had uncovered a secret, one that fueled visions of wealth and power. And the
more Lenny daydreamed, the more he believed he could make his fantasy come true.
He tweaked his plan—a dumb and dangerous sketch of one,
anyway—and his face tingled from the adrenaline rush.
I can pull this off.
Nodding in support of the idea, he viewed the information that had started it
all.
According to the official record, Dr. Jessica “Juice” Tallette
had developed an artificial intelligence crystal that was a thousand times
smarter than a typical human. And, again officially, an explosion two years ago
had destroyed this AI super crystal.
But Lenny’s truth nib claimed the AI was alive and living
somewhere in the northeastern United States. He believed his nib. And he wanted
this powerful crystal for himself.
An off-the-charts genius, Lenny was on course to graduate
from the Engineered Intelligence program at the Boston Institute of Technology with
a perfect A in every class. If he yielded to the reckless thoughts now rattling
in his head, that outcome would certainly change.
He didn’t understand it, but just knowing this super artificial
intelligence existed flipped a switch deep inside his skull.
I’m holding a
winning lottery ticket
, he thought.
I just need to cash it in
.
Sitting in his study chair, he refilled his coffee cup and
started brainstorming. The nervous tapping of his foot accelerated as he mulled
his options.
He had four weeks to play with. He’d tell his friends here
at BIT he was going home for a family emergency. He called his folks every week
as part of his normal routine and could do that from anywhere. They’d never
know he was gone.
That gave him enough time to leave school and make a play
for the crystal before his world came crashing down with a string of Fs in his
courses. It was a make-or-break gambit, but if he succeeded in gaining ownership
of this AI, it wouldn’t matter. He smiled.
I’ll be king of the world
.
Surrendering to his urge, Lenny rummaged through his closet.
He recognized a strap poking up through the detritus piled on the floor,
grabbed it, and pulled steadily until his backpack sprang free. He turned to
face the room, too lost in thought to notice the closet clutter shifting to
fill the void he’d created.
Plopping the pack on his bed, he hesitated. Since he didn’t
know how this venture would play out, he wasn’t sure what he should bring. He
crammed in a couple of changes of clothes and, after a moment’s thought, added
some heavier items so he could adapt to the ever-changing New England weather. He
crouched, snatched an extra pair of shoes stowed beneath his bed, and threw
them on top.
Hefting the pack to gauge its weight, he acknowledged that
his lottery ticket analogy was a stretch. “You’re following a treasure map.” He
said the words out loud so he could hear how dumb it sounded. But the treasure
at the end of this rainbow wasn’t just a pot of gold. A mountain of gold paled
in comparison to what this AI crystal could get for him.
His plan was simple. Gain access to the super crystal and then
position the situation so ownership came down to a game of wits. If he could do
that, there was no doubt he’d win. He always won those sorts of games.
And it
wouldn’t be stealing,
he thought.
This crystal has its own awareness, so
it can choose to come with me
.
Heading to the bathroom to gather toiletries, he considered
what he’d do if he actually got the crystal.
I’ll have it fix my Fs.
He threw
a collection of items from around the sink into a clear bag.
Then I’ll sit
back and be King of Everything.
His com signaled, and glancing at it, he saw his roommate, Spencer,
standing out in the hallway, swaying back and forth. The left side of his shirt,
untucked and hanging loose, swung in rhythm with his movements.
“Let me in, Lenny,” Spencer slurred, confirming Lenny’s
guess that he was remarkably drunk. “You got a girl in there? Hurry. The
hallway’s spinning.”
“Just a sec, pal,” replied Lenny. He snatched the truth nib
out of his com, added it to a small pouch that held two other prototypes, and stuffed
the pouch deep into his pocket. He lifted his pack off his bed, tossed it into
the closet, and opened the door. Spencer toppled forward onto the floor.
“C’mon, Spence. Here you go.”
Lenny’s lanky body was no match for his roommate’s bulk, but
he managed to get Spencer upright long enough to guide him to his bed. They reached
it at the same time Spencer went limp. He fell forward and his body bounced
once but stayed on the mattress. His legs hung over the side of the bed, the
toes of his shoes resting on the floor. The room began to reek of a mélange of
odors associated with hard-partying college life.
Lenny ignored it and refocused on his mission. He dragged
his chair over to his tech bench, laid his com on top, and immersed himself in an
intense hacking session. He enjoyed working long hours as long as his efforts
focused on one of two things: studying technology or beating sim quests.
This
challenge is the best of both worlds
. He paused for a sip of coffee.
An hour into his labors, Spencer started snoring. The
off-gassing of odors intensified, and Lenny opened a window. He maintained his concentration,
working until the rising sun announced it was time to stop. He glanced out the
window at the new day and rubbed his neck, seeking to relieve the stiffness that
developed from staying huddled at the tech bench for so many hours.
You’ve done what you can
, he thought, acknowledging
he was constrained both by time and equipment. He slumped back in his chair and
smiled. If this had been for a grade, he’d get a clean A from any of his
professors. Even from cranky old Huffington, who hated giving out As for any
reason.
In the last few hours, he’d succeeded in modifying his com
so anyone accessing it would find him en route to his folks’ home.
If they study
it, though, they’ll see I’m traveling at a snail’s pace.
What would normally
be a half-day trip would play out over two weeks. And just before he reached
his home, it would appear as if he turned around and started a slow journey
back to campus.
For Lenny, that spoof was easy. The hard one was funds. He
needed to cover expenses for food, lodging, transportation, and sundries. He had
the money. This wasn’t about theft. He just didn’t want it to be too easy for
anyone to track him by tracing his purchases.
The Union of Nations’ financial system was superbly
protected. It had to be, because if it crumbled, so would society. After some
false starts, he succeeded in rerouting his transactions so the initiation
point of each expense would appear to be from wherever he was on his slow
journey home and back.
It’ll fool my parents and low-level officials, but if
the authorities get involved, they’ll crack it in seconds.
With his pack slung over one shoulder, he exited his dorm
and headed across the quad. The grass was wet with morning dew, and the old
vine-covered dorm buildings lining the outside of the quad showed little signs
of activity at this early hour. Most students wouldn’t surface until the sun
was high in the sky.
He had an inspiration and, without slowing his pace, called
Spencer and left a message. “Hey, Spence. Thanks for being a friend and
listening to me last night. I didn’t mean to burden you with all my troubles.
Anyway, as you suggested, I’m headed home to be there for my mom. I appreciate
you agreeing to speak with my professors. I should be back in a couple of
weeks. You’re the best.”
He smiled as he imagined Spencer sitting on the bathroom
floor, alternately vomiting into the toilet and struggling to remember some
fragment of this deep and meaningful conversation.
Lenny turned his attention to transportation. He worked his
way to Broad Street at the edge of campus and splurged on renting a car. He
needed the privacy, and his parents, who were footing the bill for his college expenses,
could afford it.
“Take me to the main Crystal Research complex off Route 29 in
upstate New York,” Lenny said to the car nav as he climbed in and got settled.
As the door shut, the nav replied, “Yes, sir. Our trip will take
three hours and twenty minutes.”
He dug the truth nib out of his pocket and popped it back into
his com.
I can’t believe I’m doing this!
* * *
Lenny had built his nib in BIT’s crystal
fabrication lab for his senior-year project. All the students in the Engineered
Intelligence program built one to do some specific task. His little speck of
crystal used pattern mining to tease truth out of the mountain of news,
analysis, reports, lies, speculation, assumption, innuendo, and other crap found
in the web record.
He’d chased a bunch of stories with his truth nib during his
testing phase. It worked by searching the far corners of the world and gathering
every scrap of information available on a target event. It jumbled the collection
of items into a heap and sifted the information down to a smaller pile based on
common patterns. It was a repetitive process that eventually produced a simple
list of facts.
He’d used it to analyze political, scientific, and literary
conspiracies and was bored. He didn’t care who wrote a particular sonata or assassinated
some historical figure. Frustrated, he’d sat in the fabrications lab one
afternoon, shooting the breeze with his friend Patel as he struggled to come up
with something interesting to analyze.
Patel had been prattling on about his own problems with his nib
project, and Lenny’s eyes glazed over. As Patel’s chatter continued, Lenny said
things like “wow, that sucks,” at what he hoped were appropriate moments.
His eyes drifted while he waited for Patel to wind down, and
his gaze settled on a plaque fixed to the wall across from where they were
sitting. He’d seen it countless times over the past year and, after all that
exposure, had never once read it.
As Patel talked, Lenny scanned the words above the picture
on the plaque. It said that the fab lab and all its equipment was a gift from
Dr. Jessica “Juice” Tallette.
“What’s her story?” he asked, hoping to move the
conversation to a new topic.
“She’s the one who built the super AI crystal those alien
bastards stole,” said Patel.
“The crystal that blew up with the starship?”
Patel turned in his chair. “This is news to you?”
Lenny avoided Patel’s gaze as he recalled that day from two
years earlier. Energy bolts from a Kardish war vessel had rained from the sky,
vaporizing buildings and killing hundreds of people. “Do you remember where you
were when it happened?”
“I was home with my folks.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Lenny.
After a brief silence, Patel thrust his chin at the plaque. “She’s
making investments around the world to replace the crystal development
capabilities lost in that attack.”
“How do you know that?”
Patel pointed to the words below the picture.
Lenny skimmed the text. “Did you know her super crystal had
more flake in it than a million of our nibs?”
“Yeah. I read the plaque.”
“And she was with the commandos who blew up their ship as it
tried to escape from our solar system?”
Patel had stopped responding at that point, but Lenny didn’t
care. He’d found a mystery to explore with his truth nib. The story on the
plaque said that Juice Tallette had earned her doctorate in engineered
intelligence in these hallowed halls of the Boston Institute of Technology, then
had been hired by a company to design and build the super crystal.
She’d succeeded, but it had been stolen by the Kardish, an
alien race of traders who’d been lurking in Earth orbit, watching and waiting
for just that opportunity. In some fantastic twist of fate, Juice had been
along for the ride when a small group of commandos had chased down and blew up their
vessel, destroying the crystal in the process.
Yet now, two short years later, she was back here on Earth, and
with enough cash to fund new buildings.
Lenny felt like he was cheating, because he didn’t need his
nib to tell him the events didn’t add up.
There’s more to this story,
he
thought.
Much more.
* * *
Slouching in the comfort of the
self-molding car seat, Lenny inserted his truth nib back in his com and
reviewed the results he’d studied the night before. The mountain of information
on the web had been distilled down to this: Juice Tallette is now president of
a company called Crystal Research. Two years ago, she’d created a crystal that had
the intellectual ability of a thousand humans. The crystal was stolen by the
Kardish, but it had
not
been lost when the alien vessel was destroyed. In
fact, it was alive and was likely located within an hour’s travel of Juice’s
company.
Lenny was on his way to find this crystal and make it his
own. Hugging his pack, his face tingled from another adrenaline rush.
Maybe
I have won the lottery
, he thought.