The Infinite Evolution - Conversion (26 page)

“
We are in a secure place few Tureissians know
about. A place that has been part of this planet's history long
before our society learned how to evolve the mechanical form back
into the biological form.”

As Corinth sat she asked, “Why
did you take me here?”

“
I brought you here so I can finish what I
started on the balcony in a more private and secure
setting.”

“
I am listening.”

“
Good, take a seat,” he paused as she
complied. “What I am about to tell you must not be repeated and if
it is terrible things will happen to you.”

Knowing Melchior was true to his word, Corinth
simply replied, “Yes sir.”

Melchior continued, “A few of my colleagues and I
have introduced a new strain of virus into the Earth’s population.
As you know Prime 2 had informed us that Earth had found a cure for
the disease they call cancer.”

Corinth interrupted, “Yes, I
remember this, that was quite a debate we had. Without our number
one population controller, we needed to devise a new disease to
keep the planet from overpopulating itself. If I remember
correctly, the field programs on Earth have labeled this new virus
as the Weed Virus. They come up with the most creative labels,
unlike what we called it, E20945VL.”

“
Who cares what it was named. The
unfortunate part is the majority agreed to create a virus that was
potent enough to inflict damage with little fatalities, but nothing
on the scale of E20945VL. The majority of the council felt creating
a virus, which was harder to cure, but caused fewer deaths, would
help unite the population of Earth. In their opinion, this would
make Earth a more productive society, which I find to be ridiculous
as well as an absurd idea. As the humanoids worked to find a cure
for cancer, they continued to be a savage race with one another and
nothing changed once they discovered a cure. I can say with
experience, creating an issue that everyone needs to work together
on has yet to bring a planet together. It just creates more
competition which results in more greed.”

“
Did you say, ‘the problem was the majority
agreed to create a virus?’ Are you one of the three votes that
disagreed with this decision?” asked Corinth.

“
Yes.”

“
Who were the other two?”

“
That is not your concern.”

“
I voted with the majority. Do you want to
know why?” asked Corinth.

“
No, now listen. After the
E20945VL, or weed virus, was introduced, I, with the help of a
silent majority, created a modifier, which if merged with E20945VL
on Earth, will devastate all Earth humanoids within five Earth
years.”

“
Where is this modifier now?” asked Corinth
curiously.

“
It was inserted into one of the field
programs and sent back to Earth,” said Melchior.

“
Why a field program? Why not a Herder who we
could instruct to release it?”

“
A Herder! You are so naive. You
think we could be able to smuggle a malicious program into a Herder
without Prime 2 noticing? Do you even know what Herders
do?”

“
Of course.”

Melchior patiently asked, “What?”

“
Depending on the planet’s population size a
certain number of Herders are placed on harvested planets in order
to monitor and intervene when needed.”

“
Very good and who do they report
to?”

“
Prime 2,” replied Corinth without any
doubt.

“
And who controls their matrix?”

“
Prime 2.”

“
And who decides what their program consists
of?”

“
Prime 2.”

“
And most important who monitors their
activities?”

“
Prime 2.”

“
Then how would we be able to use a Herder to
carry a malicious program to Earth and merge it with its host
without Prime 2 detecting it? Answer me that?” yelled
Melchior.

“
How would I know and why are you getting
upset with me? It was just a question.”

“
Let me explain something to you.
Rule number one do not ask asinine questions. If you want to
proceed with me, make sure you follow this rule. Do you
understand?”

Corinth replied with a simple, “Yes.”

“
Now let us get back to the issue
at hand. The field program we sent back currently lives in an
infant humanoid body. When this field program exposes itself to
another humanoid that is carrying the Weed Virus this hybrid virus
will mutate into an incurable disease. Before we allow this to
occur, opposing members will be integrated within Earth’s
population voluntarily. The Earth field programs and the
Tureissians who left our planet will start dying off at an alarming
rate, while suffering an indescribable amount of pain. Members of
our society who are interested in intermingling with these planets
will then think twice about leaving.”

“
May I ask a question?”

“
As long as it is not an asinine
one,” replied Melchior.

“
Once these field programs get uploaded back
to our planet will not Prime 2 learn how they perished through
their memories?”

“
See, now, that was a well thought out
inquiry, for someone who does not know what is going on, and the
answer is no.”

“
Why not?”

“
Because one of the side effects
this virus nullifies is the wonderful ability of retaining
memories. All experiences the infected had in the last five years
of their life will be cleansed. It is similar to the E19317D
disorder we created, or what the Earth humanoids call
Alzheimer’s.”

“
But when people start dying at an alarming
rate this will certainly raise some questions. Will not Prime 2
create a antiviral to counteract it?”

“
Prime 2 is a machine and like
any machine it can only calculate, compute, and process so much at
one time. When these field programs start uploading in such large
volumes, Prime 2 will undoubtedly crash.”

“
Crash! Are you unhinged? There are safety
measures put in place to avoid this! Why would you want to crash
Prime 2?”

Melchior turned directly towards Corinth and roared,
“If you ever insult me again it will be the last thing you ever
do!”

“
I am sorry Melchior, your words
just took me by surprise,” said Corinth.

Without acknowledging Corinth’s
apology, Melchior continued his rant, “The safe guards that allow
Prime 2 from disengaging when receiving uploads will not be a
concern thanks to certain programmers, who are loyal to our
cause.”

“
Will not members of our society soon realize
what has happened?” inquired Corinth.

Melchior smiled and replied, “The
only true realization they will come to see is that they invoked a
devastating virus, which wiped out Earth due to their curiosity and
the need to merge our planets. They will think they are to blame,
the same way they blamed themselves when the algal bloomed out of
control a millennium ago. After time they will realize, as they did
with the algal bloom, that what happened on Earth was for the
betterment of their own society.”

“
And as for Prime 2?”

“
My silly little colleague, we then create a
Prime 3. You must have wondered how Prime 2 came to be.”

“
Are you suggesting there was a Prime
1?”

“
Have you not learned already? I do not
suggest.”

“
Will Prime 3 be ready to go online when Prime
2 crashes?” asked Corinth.

“
No,” replied Melchior swiftly.

“
Then what will happen with the
field programs who reside on planets Alandree, Calgary, Earth,
Leto, Noraxu, Petiska, and Trisov? Does this mean when they die,
during the transition between Prime 2 and Prime 3, their field
programs will not be uploaded and they will be lost forever?” asked
Corinth with concern.

“
Yes, but we are only looking at one Earth
year of program loss, until Prime 3 comes online it is a minor
inconvenience. We have taken measures making sure the most valuable
field programs on the harvested planets will not die during this
down time.”

“
What about the mechanical relay stations
between planets that transmit the field programs, will they be
damaged?” asked Corinth.

“
Structurally they will be fine,
but they will go dormant, so if there are Tureissians on other
planets they will be temporarily stranded,” explained
Melchior.

While Corinth was processing the
new information her curiosity peaked and she wondered if there were
any other reasons why the Guardians were conducting such an attack
on Earth, so she inquired, “Are we punishing Earth because of their
ability to develop artificial intelligence?”

With conviction Melchior
answered, “Absolutely not. Earth’s pathetic ability to create
artificial intelligence has nothing to do with what we are going to
accomplish.”

“
What about Earth’s artificial intelligence
technology, should we sabotage it anyway?” asked Corinth
eagerly.

“
Who says we have not already,” smiled
Melchior.

Corinth became extremely happy by this news and
asked, “Are we going to do the same when the humanoids of Trisov
achieve this level of technology?”

“
You should study your field
notes more often. Trisov may be categorized as technological, but
they will never achieve the level of technology needed for AI, due
to one factor.”

Corinth quickly realized what she had overlooked and
said, “Ah, yes, their religious beliefs.”

“
Correct. The humanoids on Trisov
have strong religious beliefs, which hold more influence than their
scientific beliefs. According to the Herders, who reside on this
planet, it is projected a massive civil war will occur in the next
few decades encompassing both the religious establishment and the
pro technological society. We project this will set their technical
advances back centuries. What is most intriguing is we had
absolutely no influence on these behaviors. It reminds me of what
the humanoids on Earth had gone through during the dark
ages.

“
That is fascinating,” said
Corinth.

Melchior commented, “What I find
ironic is most of the religious beliefs humanoids hold so dearly
cause so much fear and death, and their original purpose was to do
just the opposite. Who would have calculated the need to know what
lies ahead in the afterlife would so often be a direct cause of the
one action that ensnares most humanoids in their demise - war. I
guess that is why we label Earth unique. They nearly united their
planet, avoiding their own Armageddon, and now they are indirectly
being punished for it by a group of selfish Tureissians. Strange
how things work out in the end.”

To avoid another one of
Melchior’s malicious outbursts, Corinth simply responded, “Yes,
sir,” and continued to listen.

“
Once the opposing faction of our
planet becomes neutralized and Prime 3 is online, the new
simple-minded drones who have repopulated Earth will become the
equivalent to the alga blooms. At which point we will once again
have an endless supply of Earth field programs who are not too
advanced, but diverse enough to supply our population with the
necessary programs. This in return will create Tureissians who are
easier to control, mentally that is.”

Corinth paused for a moment in order to process what
she had learned then turned to Melchior and said, “If you do not
mind me saying I see one problem with this entire plan.”

Melchior looked at Corinth with dead set eyes,
“Please enlighten me on what this suspected oversight might
be.”

“
I mean no disrespect, but what happens if the
Earthling who carries this catalyst comes into contact with someone
who is already infected before everything is in place?”

Surprised with Corinth’s intellectual observation
Melchior replied, “My good friend that is the wild card. We have
taken a variety of precautions to control the contact. First, we
made the outbreak occur in Australia far from the carrier, who is
now an infant in the United States of America. Second, the family
who is raising the carrier is limited in their finances, so any
unnecessary travel is unlikely. Third, we waited for the humanoids
of Earth to quarantine the infected, limiting the spread, but
allowing the virus to fester.”

“
How will you bring the two together?” asked
Corinth.

“
We have arranged for one of our
operatives to remove the infant from its biological parents and
send it to the infected areas when ready.”

Impressed with the amount of
thought that was immersed into this plan Corinth said, “Well, it
sounds as if you have all of this laid out, so what do you need
from me?”

“
You are going to help purge them.”

“
Purge who?”

As Corinth sat there waiting for
an answer, Melchior walked over and placed a silver necklace with
three oval shapes each connected by a small chain around Corinth’s
neck. “You will be identifying the individuals who are wanting to
merge into these harvested planets through the many contacts you
possess. For now, that is all you need to know. Congratulations,
you are now part of an organization that has stood the test of
time, you are now a Guardian,” said Melchior.