VIRII

Chapter 1 -- Genesis

Siberian-Manchuria, China 10:24pm February 24, 2282. The winters are brutal in this cold and barren land. A thick layer of white snow covers most of the countryside. North of Basloww, the new capital of Siberian-Manchuria, there is only emptiness. In the midst of the darkness there is a small glowing light. This light is the only telltale sign of life in this icy wasteland. Deep below the snow covered ground a military complex once thought to be dead is alive with sounds of computers and machinery.

The large cargo rooms that held an armada of fighter jets and a legion of troops are now as barren as the land outside. The hallways that echoed with the sounds of human voices now enjoy nary a footfall but from stray vermin. Deeper into the complex a high-pitched humming can be heard. At the heart of the facility is the largest non military computer cluster in the world.

There are but 20 humans in the depths of this compound, out of these only one is shouting at the top of his lungs. “Dr. Sanizer”, the young man shouted as he ran down the hallway. Dr. Francisco Sanizer, an Italian born IA, Intelligence Articulate, computer scientist was on the first coffee break he had had all day and was not happy to be bothered. “What is it John?” Dr. Sanizer sighed out with a cold impatient tone still stirring the coffee in his hand. Though the young man is out of breath from the run he still manages to babble out, “they finished the initial tests.” With the speed of a jackal, a 65-year-old jackal, Dr. Sanizer makes a dash towards the control room.

Dr. Sanizer approaches the door with a new vigor that could be easily seen on his weathered and wrinkled face. Though he is 65 years old now he is in excellent shape. He manages to get up every morning and still go for a five-mile run. He also plays racquetball and basketball every chance he gets. Even though his body is still lean his face always gives away his age. He began to get wrinkles early on and has been known as the “Old Man” for as long as he can remember. A brief retinal scan and voice print match and he was looking into the most sophisticated computer laboratory in the world. A large room containing nothing but computer machinery and several interface stations lay before him. A dozen technicians sat at terminals entering data in as fast as their hands could move across the keyboards. The systems they worked on took in the information and had it processed before the last key came back up to the sitting position. This was the best equipment money could buy. Where that money came from he never ventured to ask, though he could rightly guess well enough.

As always the frigid temperature in the room made him shiver. He grabbed the lab coat nearest to him and slipped into it as he approached the tall thin man standing in the middle of the room. There was no time to lose, they were behind schedule on their project and the only thing left was to run a PIT, Pragmatic Insertion Test. Once that was completed it was a routine task to fix any bugs that they encountered, a laborious but necessary task.

Dr. Stanley M. Cooper was a very serious man, he never joked and rarely did he ever smile. This however was as rare an occasion as they come. Stan had what he himself called a ‘scribble of a smile’; this was an odd wavy upside down frown and was the best Stan could ever manage. Dr. Sanizer imagined that smile on Franks face as he walked up behind him. “Frank, we’ve done it.” Dr Cooper started off excitedly. “The initial tests are completed and we want to start the PIT, but…” he said this part with a worried tone as he turned to Dr. Sanizer. Dr. Sanizer did not see a smile on Stan’s face, just a deep grimace.

“But what, Stan? Is there a problem I should know about?”

No answer. Stan looked down as if trying to find the appropriate words. He swallowed loud enough for Dr. Sanizer to hear.

“Stan, tell me what the problem is. Is it the IA? Was there a problem with the final integration?”

“The problem is… it’s that, that we just received a call from, Jollins. He wants us to go ahead with the release. He doesn’t want to wait for the P.I.T. results.” Dr. Cooper said still not looking at Dr. Sanizer.

Dr. Sanizer astonished by this revelation could only say one word, “NO!”.

“Stan you know we can’t release it yet, it’s not fully tested. There could be problems that we’ve not thought about. The P.I.T. is the only way to find those bugs. If we release it now, we CANNOT be sure if it will succeed.”

“I know that just as well as you do, Frank. I don’t want to release it, but I have no choice. They control this project. They have the final say.”

“I will not let them do this. Get me on the vid-speak with them. I refuse to release it.”

“Frank… It’s too late. The process is already started.” Dr. Cooper turned around and pointed at the panel of monitors high up on the wall behind him.

Dr. Francisco Sanizer could only gape with astonishment at the large viewing screen in front of him. The process had been initiated. He knew once the process was under way that there was no way to stop it. The security fail-safes they had installed could not be overridden even by turning off all the power. He could only wait and pray that no problems would occur. The large green view screen in front of him was split into four sections. On the top left was the base-coding that had been used. It scrolled by quickly as it was continually checked in real time for errors. On the top right was a virtual view of the monster they had created. Though Frank preferred the olden days of programming that did not involve virtual scenarios, he understood this new method was much more powerful and incredible faster. The rapid development and integration of the programming paradigm came at a heavy price, complexity in the actual base-coding. Because of the incredible level of complexity to which the code attained, it was important to run tests such as the P.I.T. In fact it was impossible to do without.

The monster looked back at him with dull lifeless eyes. He knew those eyes would not long be dull. The monster would soon awaken. The IA, Intelligent Articulate, technology he had coded into the monster would give it an incredible intellect that would grow quickly and assimilate all knowledge around it. He actually feared the monster, his own creation, in the back of his mind. He also feared what it actually meant to release the monster on to the world, but he no longer could weep for a world that had deserted him and his wife. The world was about to get what it deserved.

He looked quickly at the other two panels. The one on the bottom left read out statistics from the initial tests they had run. All the results were above expectation but he knew the monster was not ready. The last panel showed the process of insertion running.

…calculating preliminary routing paths…
…requesting satellite locations…
…decendary satellite found…
…requesting up-link to decendary satellite..
…request accepted. Commencing initial handshake protocols…
…logging on to Mita-net via anonymous protocols…
…login decryption sequence start. Decryption bypass underway…
…logged on to Mita-net…
…host-to-client protocols active for point-to-point delivery…
…uploading V.I.R.I.I….

Dr. Sanizer knew the insertion process all-to-well he had designed it. It basically found the host and inserted the monster into the system. Once in the system it was a matter of time until it would take over and complete its mission. He had longed for this day and now not a breath left his body as he watched the process unfold before him.

A long bar appeared over the center of the display. It stretched from the right side of the screen to the left and covered about 1/3 of the screen from top to bottom. Numbers appeared on the front and end of the bar. On the front was a ‘0%’ and on the end was ‘100%’. A blue haze began to take over the left of the bar and ran towards the other side. It went quickly and a number bellow the bar began to move closer and closer to 100 %.

Sirens began wailing in the room and the glow of the red lights now active in the room made Dr. Sanizer take his first breath since the process had started. It was however, not a breath of relief. It was a breath of horror as he saw the large message on the screen appear and begin to flash.

‘Error, Error. Routing path failure. Upload being routed to non-verified location. Client-to-host failure. Mita-Net encryption reestablished. Overrides unsuccessful, continuing upload.’

He watched in horror as the monster he had created was sent to a place he could not track. This was bad. This was really bad. There was nothing they could do now. The number continued to ascend until it reached 100 %.

“Oh s**t. We’re in big trouble…”