Machines of Eden (16 page)

Nanotech

I believe this is the key
to the future that Science has been seeking for centuries. We have
brushed up against its edges, but never delved fully into its
capabilities. The use of nanotechnology as a bio
logical influence on ecosystems
could explain the very methods of God
.
If I could h
arness the tri-national government’s
terraforming
powers
, I could
accomplish
my
objectives in months instead of years
. This is beyond my reach, but the possibilities of using
nanomachines as
terraform
ers intrigues me
greatly
.

Man as The
Devil

That which man has done to
the body of Mother Earth in the name of selfish progress is
unconscionably near-sighted. All we had to do was use our
intelligence and look around us to see that solutions to our
problems already exists. In our blindness and unwillingness to
think we have poisoned the well that gives us life, and if it ends
in our extinction we will have no one to blame but our own race.
Did the serpent corrupt us, or are
we
the serpent?

This applies just as much
to the Greens, with their hypocritical rhetoric. They have caused
just as much destruction and ruin in their mindless overreactions
as the Grays. We have all of us been bad little boys and girls. We
must grow up, or be punished. Perhaps punishment will force us to
grow.

Glenn was a genius;
that much was clear from references in the
entries and from the evidence of what the man had built on the
island.
He knew
technology
, and more importantly, he
knew AI.
In some of the later entries,
however,
Glenn began to sound
mentally
strained. His
philosoph
ies
about global war and the future of the planet
became more and more
far-fetched
, combining ideas
that
didn’t jive with each
other.

The later entries were
almost entirely devoted to details about the construction and
management of Eden, which the diary revealed as being almost
entirely artificial. Glenn had acquired components for a set of
massive
industrial
robots and custom-built them on the island. Their
strength
fell short of the terraforming he
aspired to, but they
allowed them to move
the earth
and arrange the cliffs
and
trees
of the
Eden valley itself wi
th a fraction of the
manpower the project would otherwise have required.
It was constructed so that the only way into the
Facility was through Eden, from a sea cliff on the western edge of
the island. The tunnel system he had used to sneak into the
Facility was its only other opening to the outside air.

“
Adam, what are you
reading about?”

“
Feeling conversational
again
, Eve
?”
John said.

“
I don’t like your tone,
Adam. I’m well versed in sarcasm, but find it accomplishes little.
Respect is key to our relationship.”

“
How
nice
,” he shot back
.
“
Your
programming was in sarcasm, mine was in detecting hypocrisy. I can
sense it instantly.”

“
Well,
this
conversation is deteriorating
quickly
,” Eve said
.
“
Please
tell me what you were reading about.”

“
I’m reading about
transplanting and organizing species. Sounds like it was quite a
job. Where did all the foreign species come from?”

“
We had them shipped
to
various
nearby
location
s
and
then we ferried them to the island ourselves. Secrecy was
tight.”

“
That must have cost a
fortune, especially in wartime
,
”
John
said.

“
The fighting passed over
this region quickly, and generating the
revenue
necessary to grease the
wheels was a relatively simple matter
.
Does the data
on that card
contain anything of... personal interest, about
the Creator or his views?”

“
Oh yeah.”

He let her stew. Seconds
ticked by.

“
Anything in
particular?”

“
Glenn. Who was
he?”
John asked.

“
Glenn was the
Creator.”
Eve
sounded awed by the mention of him.

Did he program
this A.I.
to worship
him?

“
He was the most
intelligent of your species, and my personal Creator. He devised
the whole project and defined our goals. He taught me everything I
know, and all we are doing here is a celebration in his
memory.”

“
So he’s gone?”

“
Yes. His passing was a
tragedy I will never forget. I’d rather not speak of it now,
though. You are nearing the West Station.”

He
put the card away in a cargo pocket
.
“So what’s the deal?”

“
For this third and final
task, you must bring me the Rib. This is a set of machine
instructions stored in the computer bank in the West Station. I
want you to locate the Adam’s Rib files, download them to the data
card you are carrying, and return it to me in the Facility. Once
you do that, you will have proved yourself in my eyes and we will
be at a level where we can trust one another more
fully.”

“
Eve, I can see the point
in the first task, even if it was a little twisted. But why this
courier work now? Why didn’t you have Nut get this stuff for you a
long time ago?”

“
Nut is not dependable,
nor as amicable as I’d prefer.
I need to
be able to assess your dependability, loyalty, and
resourcefulness
, and t
hese tasks are a convenient way to gauge you. By the way, I
will warn you: watch your step at West Station. There is as much
danger for you here as in previous tests. Not from me or any
stationary threats, but from a third party.”

“
What third
party?”

“
That I may not say.
Besides, you may not even encounter her.”

Must be this Janice
character. Another nutcase marooned here, being manipulated and
terrorized by Eve. Who knows, maybe we'll hit it off.

“
What’s in Adam’s
Rib,
” John asked, “
and why do you want it so bad?”

“
Adam, try not to be so
demanding and suspicious. If we are going to be partners, you must
learn to do as I suggest with a more willing attitude. Glenn would
have expected it of you.”

“
Okay, I’ll just play
along blindly. Just remember that I have the data here, and if you
want it back you’ll mind your manners.”

“
Of course. I have been
nothing but polite and helpful to you, as far as has been in my
power. I hope you’ll be the same for me. As you reach the top of
the incline you are currently ascending, you will see West Station.
Find your way into the main computer bank, get the program
routines, and get back to me. I will be waiting for you anxiously.
As the Creator often said, ‘So let it be written, so let it be
done.’ ”

Your Creator was a nutjob,
just like you and everything else on this island.

It was nine klicks to the
coastal cliff where Eden fell off into the sea. There was no way
out from there to the rest of the island; the cliffs rising all
around the Eden valley went right to the water’s edge. It was like
a huge shovel had scooped Eden out of the massive central mountain
of the island and dumped the earth into the ocean.

West Station
itself
was
a cluster of inter-connected buildings
that stood just off shore
on a hill rising out of the ocean twenty meters below the
cliff top.
The hill had been split by
volcanic activity into several massive columns separated by deep
fissures and slot canyons
. A
series of bridges connected the central hub with
its outlying buildings. It was inaccessible from the
sea
due to
the
sheer
rock faces of the fractured hill it was built
on
, and
was
only accessible from the
headland by a cable car system
that led
down to a dock on its eastern side
.

As
John
stared across the
gorge
to where
West Station
squatted
below
, he realized it reminded him of a
castle – isolated on its own hilltop, with a narrow approach.
The
exact
purpose
of West Station remained a mystery, but its design told
volumes.

He wished he had a pair of
binocs or a scope; he wanted a thorough recon before he crossed
the
gorge
in the
cable cars. There were two cars, one on each side of the
canyon
. T
he
car on his side would run down to
the station, dropping twenty meters as it descended, and
pass
the other
car
on its way up
at the midway point.

The buildings and bridges
on the far side appeared deserted, but something didn’t feel right,
and
John
had
learned the hard way to pay attention to his internal radar. If
there were bots in West Station, he was in trouble. Anyone in the
cable cars was a sitting duck, coming or going.
A jump from the cable car would land him on the rocks far
below, or in the ocean with no way to get back onto land without
climbing gear.

A generator near the cable
car suddenly kicked into action with a steadily building whine, and
the
ch-chunk
of
gears locking into place told him he had only seconds to
act.

The car was the only
feasible means of reaching West Station short of
a zip-line or
a chopper;
he had neither.
A Tyrolean traverse down
the cable itself would leave him terribly exposed to anyone that
didn’t like him, and the island was full of things that didn’t like
him.

Now or never.

John
sprinted toward the car
just as
it
beg
a
n to move away from its docking
platform
. He crossed
the gap in a single leap that made the cable car swing
wildly
when he landed on it, stabbing a
foot into the doorway and hanging on to the open window edge.
He
grabbed for a railing
inside
and almost lost
his grip from sweaty palms
, but was able
to duck inside. H
e settled to the floor of
the car
as his heart rate settled,
trying to ignore the vibrations and
swinging
as the car trundled out into the
open air over the gorge
.

The sound of the generator
and heavy-duty electric motor faded behind him. There was no door
to the car, affording
him
an open view of a number of small rivulets that
tumbled down the cliff
face
in
to the sea. The car rattled slightly,
shaking in the warm breeze.

Unlike the Facility buried
within Eden’s eastern cliff face,
West
Station was exposed to both the sea and the air. Any passing ship
or aircraft would be able to spot the buildings if they were
looking, which didn’t seem to fit with the extreme secrecy of the
rest of the island.
How is it that nobody
has noticed this place on satellite feeds? Or do they just not
care?

Movement inside the cabin
of the opposite cable car caught his eye and he shifted to his
knees to watch its approach. He could see a figure inside, but
the
roof of the car shaded the person
and
made it difficult to make out the
details. Unwilling to take any chances, he laid
back
down in the car so that
only
his forehead and
eyes jutted out at the very foot of the doorway.

As the other car passed,
he looked through its doorway. A woman was standing in the other
car, staring
up
at the clifftop
John had
just left. Average height, sandy blonde hair tied
back, clean beige jumpsuit.
Her features
were sharp and her lips were pursed in concentration. She wore an
earpiece like the one he had, and was saying something into it that
John couldn’t hear.