The Cure (38 page)

“It was stupid of me,” admitted Erin. “And very bad timing. But let’s talk about the wisdom of this another time,” she continued, her voice regaining strength by the second. “Right now, I need to finish telling you what’s really going on here.”

Hansen nodded. “Go ahead,” he said, eager to hear the rest. But also wondering what other obstacles the fates might choose to throw at them next.

47

“DRAKE WAS INCINERATED
in an explosion?” repeated Erin. What did that mean?

“Obviously,” continued Steve Fuller, “reports of his death were greatly exaggerated.” He raised his eyebrows. “But we didn’t know that at the time. We only learned this recently. When we were gathering further intel on you. Imagine our surprise when we heard his unmistakable voice over your phone.”

“Did he stage his death so he could go AWOL?” asked Erin. “So he could take more dramatic steps than the rest of the Wraps were willing to take to save us?”

Fuller shook his head. “This was the most important assignment ever given to a Wrap in their history. There is zero chance this was his motive. And no one believed in what we’re doing more than Drake.”

“So what’s your explanation?”

“The Hive,” said Fermi grimly. “It must have found a way to penetrate his defenses and control him. Which is alarming on many, many levels.”

Erin’s eyes narrowed. “You actually think part of this hive-mind is present here on Earth?” she said.

“That
has
to be it,” said Fermi. “How the Hive managed to learn about this mission we may never know. But the truth is, this is a pivotal point in a war that won’t take place for thirty-two thousand years. So it wouldn’t surprise me if the Hive attempted to infiltrate Drake’s mind with more than the usual tiny fraction of its full capabilities. To gain a foothold. Given his genetically engineered defenses to this, the Hive must have had to work carefully over many years to breach. We didn’t think this was possible no matter how long it tried, but we must have been wrong.”

“But how can you be so sure this is true? You say yourself you thought a breach was impossible. So even an improbable solution makes more sense. Maybe Drake finally went crazy from being around us for so long.”

“I wish that were the case,” said Fermi. “But not only did we hear his voice, we heard what he’s been up to. With you. Curing psychopathy. Which we quickly recognized as a stunningly brilliant plan by the Hive to win the war before it begins.”

“I don’t understand. Curing psychopathy sounds more like a plan from an
actual
Wrap. One pushed over the edge and wanting to go on offense rather than defense to protect humanity. If Drake were controlled by the Hive, why wouldn’t he just nuke us into oblivion?”

“Too risky,” said Fermi. “Let’s walk through the scenario. The Hive finally succeeds in taking over Drake. All the Wraps on this planet are exceedingly well protected, and we’re never allowed to all be together at the same physical location. Similar to your president and vice president never flying on the same plane. There is far more security around us right now than is evident, believe me. So Drake—let’s now call him Hive Drake or H-Drake, since he’s no longer in control of himself—can’t be sure an attack on us will succeed. And if he fails, we’ll be alerted that the hive-mind has circumvented our safeguards. And the Hive may never get another chance.”

Erin pursed her lips. “That explains why he wouldn’t try to attack the other Wraps on Earth. Not why he wouldn’t try to wipe out the human race.”

“Because he knows we’re still out there, monitoring,” said Fermi. “Even if he did manage to produce a lethal, infectious bioagent and slip it under our radar, when it started killing people we’d be on top of it. We could use our skills and computer to counteract it. Even if this wiped out half of humanity, which might be devastating to your civilization for hundreds of years, the Hive won’t arrive for thirty-two
thousand
years, and our analysis suggests this setback would only make you stronger in the long run. Like a broken bone is stronger after healing, or a controlled burn can lead to a healthier forest.” He paused. “But we don’t need to speculate. Because we know what H-Drake has been up to. First, he faked Drake’s death. Any ideas what he did next?”

Erin shrugged. “None.”

“We’re almost certain the first thing he did was recruit Kyle Hansen,” said Fermi. “Kyle could help him build a primitive quantum computer, within the limitations of primitive Earth components, and work with the required human consultants and collaborators.”

“Based on what you’ve told us,” added Steve Fuller, “H-Drake must have convinced Kyle that along with running this show, I moonlighted as a dangerous arms dealer and killed off the other three Wraps. That’s probably why Kyle didn’t mention them to you. Not important at that point—at least given what he believed the truth to be.” Fuller shook his head. “Kyle also faked his death about six months later, probably so he could join H-Drake full time.”

Erin nodded, but remained silent.

“We had big plans for Kyle once he graduated from CMU,” continued Fuller. “And his supposed death hit us all hard. And not just because we thought we lost his brilliance, which is considerable, although he’s so modest you’d never guess it. But because we monitored and vetted the shit out of him, and had developed an affection for him. He’s a good man.”

Erin had quickly reached this same conclusion herself.

“Kyle spoke many times about Drake using a quantum computer,” noted Erin. “So they must have succeeded.” She furrowed her brow in confusion. “But I still don’t get it. The Hive’s grand plan after all of this is to cure psychopathy? How does this help them? Help
it
?” she corrected.

“Like I said, H-Drake knew we were still out there,” replied Fermi. “Along with our quantum computer and all of its capabilities. We screen for everything that could cause widespread destruction; nuclear, biologic, chemical, anything. And we correlate purchases and other information. If he tried to unleash any kind of WMD attack, we’d probably stop it, along with the Hive’s chances here. And as I said, even if not, if he didn’t wipe out the entire population, you’d only grow back stronger over many thousands of years.”

The alien shook his head. “But we weren’t looking for someone constructing a crude quantum computer,” he explained. “Or someone trying to come up with a
cure
rather than a biologic agent that kills. Basically, he knew a cure would sail right under our radar screen. We wouldn’t be the slightest bit suspicious until it had infected everyone on Earth.”

“Yes,
but so what
?” said Erin, still confused. “A cure for psychopathy just helps you in your goal of protecting us.
Decreases
the chances we’ll commit suicide.”

“No,”
said Fermi adamantly. “A cure
defangs
you. A cure takes away some of the elements that make you what you are. The positive of what you are.”

“
No!
” barked Erin passionately. “I refuse to believe that! Yes, psychopaths are fearless. And boldness and fearlessness in business and other settings can be a positive. And they can be very articulate and persuasive, and can sometimes think outside the box. But they are so destructive that anything positive about their behavior is more than nullified.”

Erin remembered telling Hansen that some trolleyology research had suggested psychopaths might be better utilitarians than normals. On the other hand, a nuclear bomb might make a better paperweight than a normal bomb. But so what? This was minor consolation to those it destroyed when it went off.

“We agree,” said Fermi. “In those that are psychopathic, the negative brought on by their genes
far
outweighs any positive. But the way the Hive is curing this will remove all of these genes from the human gene pool forever. Not just for psychopaths. How many psychopathic genes did he discover?”

“Eight.”

“Okay, imagine that if you’re unfortunate enough to have all eight, you’re a psychopath. Which is a huge negative to society. But what if you had four of the eight? Where would that put you? Maybe more selfish than average. More aggressive. More prone to take risks. Less compassionate. But in this case, the good these traits can do in moving society forward might outweigh the bad. We had our computer do an analysis, and if you wipe out all the genes from the human gene pool that in the right, unfortunate combination cause psychopathy, humans lose their edge. They never become as sheep-like as the members of the Seventeen. But they lose enough of their insatiable drive, their ultracompetitiveness, to no longer be a threat to the Hive.”

Could this be true? Could psychopathy just be the unhappy extreme of traits that helped mankind dominate a hostile planet? It was something Erin had never considered.

“We put everything we know into our computer,” said the alien. “And its analysis showed that in the Hive’s shoes, the strategy H-Drake is attempting to deploy is the optimal one. The strategy with the maximum probability of achieving long-term success. Namely, neutralizing humanity as a threat when the physical components of the Hive arrive.”

“Are you sure you and the Hive haven’t overestimated the importance of some of these genes to our drive and ambition?” asked Erin.

“Positive,” said Fermi. He paused in thought. “Did you ever see reruns of the original
Star Trek
television series?”

Erin shook her head no, wondering where this was going.

“I’m a huge fan,” said Fermi. “Which is ironic, because one of my two Wrap colleagues took the name Roddenberry. And he
isn’t
a fan.”

“What?”

“Never mind,” said Fermi. “Anyway, I’ve read all the scripts for this series. I don’t watch the actual shows, because I can’t handle the violence, but I can skip over the violent parts of the scripts rather easily.”

“Okay, so what about it?”

“There was an episode called ‘The Enemy Within,’ which I believe provides a perfect sense of why negative traits, in proper moderation, need to be preserved in your species. In the episode, a transporter malfunction splits Kirk into two identical versions. At least identical physically. But one version is basically a psychopath. And the other is basically a sheep—with a constitution similar to members of the Seventeen. What’s fascinating about the episode is that the empathetic Kirk can’t make hard decisions. They paralyze him. He can barely make
any
decisions. He’s impotent. On the other hand, the psychopathic Kirk is all rage and no reason.”

“I have to admit,” said Fuller, “Fermi had me watch this after we discovered what H-Drake was up to and it’s a fascinating episode.”

“If I ever get my life back,” said Erin dryly. “I’ll be sure to buy it.”

“So to continue,” said Fermi, “McCoy and Spock dissect the situation. McCoy tells the compassionate Kirk the following, and I quote: ‘The intelligence, the logic. It appears your half has most of that. And perhaps that’s where man’s essential courage comes from.’ But later, Spock, a student of humanity, tells McCoy the following, which is the most relevant for our discussion: ‘And what is it that makes one man an exceptional leader? We see here indications that it’s his negative side which makes him strong. That his evil side, if you will, properly controlled and disciplined, is vital to his strength.’”

Erin almost whistled. It was uncanny how this line exactly mirrored current events, and surreal to have an actual alien quoting lines from
Star Trek
like a fanboy. “Very interesting,” she admitted.

And it
was
. Fermi’s computer had confirmed her own certainty that any positives that might come from the perfect storm of genes that resulted in full-on psychopathy paled when compared to the negatives. But she could see the truth of his argument as well. A smattering of these same genes in the population was critical for human leadership, human vitality.

There was a long silence in the room. Finally, Fuller nodded at Erin and said, “So that’s basically it. We’ve laid out the entire situation as well as we possibly can. I know we’ve given you a lot to think about. Do you believe us?”

Erin realized she did, and told him so.

“We need your help,” said Fuller.

“Don’t worry. I won’t be giving Drake the dose information he needs. He won’t be able to carry out his plan.”

“For now,” said Fuller. “But this won’t stop him from blending back into the woodwork and trying it later. Or something else. We have no idea of the Hive’s full capabilities, strategic or otherwise. We need to end this now.”

Erin considered. “What do you want me to do?” she asked. “And why hasn’t Kyle been part of this conversation? Why are you keeping him unconscious?”

“We’re all but certain humans are one of the species not susceptible to infiltration by the hive-mind,” said Fermi. “But until a few days ago, we didn’t think Drake was susceptible either. So it is possible that a concerted effort by a greater than normal fraction of the hive-mind for a period of years might succeed. And Kyle has now been working with H-Drake for many years.”

“You can’t possibly think that
Kyle
is being controlled.”

“No,” said Fuller. “We think this is still very unlikely. But, unfortunately, the stakes are too high to assume anything else.”

“It’s impossible,” insisted Erin. “Believe me. The two of us have…” She stopped in midsentence. “Well, let’s just say that I’ve been, ah … involved with him.
Intimately,
” she added, and something about their expressions made her think this wasn’t a surprise to them, although she had no idea how this could be. “There are certain reactions that can’t be faked,” she continued. “He’s as human as they come.”

“Wrap families had no idea fourteen hundred years ago when one of their members was infiltrated by the Hive,” explained Fermi. “Even though it’s in control, it can default to the being it’s controlling for physical and social reactions. It’s an emulator function. While in control the Hive can run a stimulus response routine that the being it’s controlling can’t stop. Whatever the real Kyle Hansen would have said, however he would have responded, the Hive can fire up these pathways and read the result. And choose to respond in exactly the same way. So in effect, it can
be
Kyle Hansen, down to his last personality quirk or physical reaction. Until it chooses to be otherwise. If any being the hive-mind infiltrated acted like the Hive for even a few minutes, the infiltration would be exposed.”