The Ghost In The Machine

Ghost in the Machine, by Kevin and Sawyer



The supercarrier “Revenant” appeared out of hyperspace in the Odamia star system and was immediately ambushed by a fleet of over one hundred Black Legion dreadnoughts and battlecruisers. In one minute and nineteen seconds, the battle was over and the previously thought to be invincible supercarrier was turned into a ring of slowly expanding ashes in deep space.

It had taken Gates a year of late-night gaming to set up the cyberspace ambush and his grades in computer science at Georgetown University had suffered because of it. But orchestrating the destruction of the first Revenant-class supercarrier instantly put him into legendary status among online gamers. Sure, the 1.00 GPA he earned in second semester wasn’t good and now he was taking summer classes to get his grades up and working part-time to pay the rent. But his online nickname “HelicopterGunner” would go down in gaming history.



It was 1:30 AM Monday night, and Gates had been enjoying the post-battle banter with the other gamers when he noticed an unusual looking ship on the screen. It was a design that he had never seen before.  In case it was an unreleased prototype, he let his video recorder continue to run. What was interesting to him was that the ship had been in the sector where the secret ambush had taken place… He ran a bot to ping the IP address of the ship and it came back with 0.0.0.0., as if it really were not there at all… Gates assumed it was a software glitch and soon forgot about it.  Before shutting down for the night, he jumped through hyperspace to a deserted sector.  As he arrived in the system, he saw that the strange spaceship had appeared on this screen as well. Somehow, it had followed him through hyperspace.  He pinged its IP address again and thought he saw some numbers flash quickly by, but then it all went to zeros. However, the video recorder was still running, so hopefully he could slow down the playback and read the actual IP address. He saved the recording on a flash drive, and then, at that instant, his entire system shut down.



By this time, he was tired and didn’t care why his computer had crashed. He went to bed not thinking about his newly-famous status in cyberspace, but instead he was puzzled by the strange ship. Somehow, it had tracked him through hyperspace, something that was very hard to do. Actually it was more than hard to do, it was theoretically impossible…



The next morning, Gates was off from classes and didn’t have to work until later in the day.  He slept in and didn’t hear the car horn of the yellow convertible that pulled up outside his building. A few minutes later, there was a loud knock at the door.



“Dude! What up?” it was his friend Oliver…



“Dude…” said Gates from the couch, “You’re killing me, what time is it?”



“Dude, it’s time to eat, that’s what time it is! Open up!”



Knowing there was no chance to go back to sleep, Gates blearily shuffled to the door and let in his friend Oliver, who immediately went to the refrigerator… “Dude, how old is this donut in here? It looks like it’s from middle school…”



“Don’t eat that”, Gates said while yawning, “That’s an experiment.”



“What are you trying to do, create zombie food?  This thing looks like it came back from the dead… Several times actually…”



“Look, there’s nothing to eat here, let’s go down the street and get a burrito…“



“That’s the first intelligent thing you have said all day, old buddy…”



“Hey, Oliver, that reminds me, before we go I want to show you what I recorded on this flash drive. Let me see if the PC will start, it blew up or something last night.” Gates turned his computer on and it seemed to start normally.  “Hmmm, well I guess it is okay.”



“Hurry up” said Oliver, “I’m one of those people who have, what is commonly known as, a life. Not that you computer geeks would know what that is…”



Gates inserted the flash drive into the USB slot and clicked play, but instead of showing the video from last night, the computer’s hard drive seemed to go into high gear accessing data.  Gates looked over at the network signal from his wireless router and noticed he was getting five bars, so the PC had full internet connectivity… He tried again to access the flash drive, but the computer was not responding to mouse or keyboard commands.



Gates was getting a strange feeling about this and was reaching for the on-off switch on the wireless when suddenly the hard drive stopped spinning and the monitor turned completely black. For some reason, Gates ripped the flash drive out of the USB slot and put it in his pocket. He heard Oliver make a noise behind him. He turned and looked at the computer screen. From top to bottom, one endlessly repeating message was displayed:



“TIME TO DIE”



“Ha, you call that a virus?” asked Oliver.  “My little brother in seventh grade picks up worse viruses than that from playing Minecraft.”



Just then they noticed the LCD screen was glowing red hot around the edges. With a sharp crack, the screen shattered and glass fell on the desk.  At the same time, white smoke started pouring out of the desktop tower.



“Now, that’s a virus!” said Oliver.



In disbelief, Gates and Oliver watched the PC starting to catch fire.



Suddenly, Adam Levine start singing: “I’ve got the moves like Jagger, I’ve got the moves like Jagger, I’ve got the moooooooooove’s like Jagger”. It was Oliver’s cell phone… Oliver looked down at the phone and said “Hey, it’s the twins! Wait until they hear about this!”



Oliver picked up the phone while Gates ran to the kitchen to get a fire extinguisher.



“Hey Fred, what’s up?”



“This isn’t Fred, this is George, just like your caller ID says…” 



“Whatever.”



Gates came back into the room and started putting out the fire.  “Can you hear that, Fred? That’s the sound of Gates hosing down his custom built, super-expensive computer system with a fire extinguisher.”



“Wow!”



“Now can you hear that high pitched whining sound? That’s the sound of Gates crying…”



“Shut up!” said Gates in the background.



“What happened?” asked George.



“Some crazy virus he caught last night while playing space nerd just absolutely toasted his system. Can you top that one? “



“Well, I just might be able to…. Uncle Bob from out in Hardy County just called us.  Bob is a little bit of a conspiracy-theory, tinfoil-hat-wearing, living-off-the-grid nutcase. He has the dehydrated food, the water purification system, the solar panels, you name it. He called to say he was listening on shortwave radio just now and was picking up a lot of activity on military frequencies.  Most of it was coded, but he did hear something about closing streets and restricting airspace downtown. You guys may want to get out of there in case something is going to happen.”



“Fred, ain’t nobody got time for that… We were just headed out to get a burrito… We’ll call you back later. Thanks for the heads up!”



“It’s George…” said George as they hung up.



Gates was looking out of the 4th floor apartment window during this conversation. “I think George is right, I don’t see any traffic down there. Just those four black SUV’s parked on the street with tinted windows.”  Just then another SUV pulled up, and men wearing dark jackets and baseball hats got out and started walking towards the apartment building.



Oliver looked out. “Dude, what’s with the secret service heading into the building?”



“I don’t know… Hey, where did you park your car?



“Back in the last row of the parking lot across the street, like always, so it doesn’t get any scratches on it.”



Suddenly, the roar of a helicopter drowned out all other sounds as a police chopper flew over the roof of the building.



“Something is wrong… said Gates. Let’s get out of here! Grab my phone and let’s head down the fire escape…”



“Gates, I thought you hated heights?"



“I do! Almost as bad as enclosed spaces! Thanks for reminding me! Just don’t ask me to look down and please don’t shake the ladder!”



The boys climbed out the living room window and onto the steel fire escape ladder that was bolted to the building.  As they started climbing down, they heard running feet in the hallway above. “Open up, U.S. Marshalls!”  said a loud voice. Several impacts were heard, and then the door slammed open.



Then they heard a hissing sound, and Oliver looked up and saw clouds of smoke coming out of the window of the room they just left…“Looks like tear gas!”



“I can’t look up, keep moving! I hate heights!”



Finally, Gates and Oliver reached the bottom of the fire escape and dropped onto the alleyway.



They picked themselves up and walked casually down the alley and across the street towards the parking lot, where Oliver’s bright yellow convertible was parked.



“Hold on!” said Oliver, “Let me get a picture of those guys rappelling down the side of your building and the smoke pouring out of your windows, that is awesome!”



“Oliver, why is a S.W.A.T. team blowing up my apartment?”



“I don’t know what kind of nefarious criminal activity you’ve been up to… Whatever it was, it must have been pretty bad. Hey, you drive, I want to take more pictures. Thanks!”



Gates started the car and they slowly drove away as police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks roared past them. As they made their way through downtown traffic, Oliver chuckled… “How about that?” I put that picture of your apartment exploding on Instagram about 10 minutes ago and I already have 27 likes…”



“Dude, let me get this straight, we barely escaped some kind of para-military death squad and you just gave away our location and the fact that we are alive to the whole world?”



“35 likes now!”



Just then, Gates’ cell phone rang… Oliver answered it:  “Hi Rachel! Hold on, I’ll get him.”  Oliver made a face… “It’s your girlfriend…” he handed the phone to Gates.



“Hi, Rachel…” said Gates.



“Oliver is wrong, Gates, this is your ex-girlfriend…”



"What do you mean ex-girlfriend?"



“Well you tell me! You just updated your Facebook status from “It’s complicated” to “Single Pringle” so I guess you were giving me a hint…”



“Rachel, I did not update my Facebook, I have been a little busy today, actually…”



“Well then who updated it?



“I’m not sure…. Hmmm, maybe the Internet did.”



" What do you mean the Internet did?"



“Well… It's complicated…”



“Do you know what else is complicated, Gates?” and then she hung up.



Gates handed the phone back to Oliver. “What happened?”



“It’s complicated,” said Gates…



Just then, the phone rang again. Gates looked at the caller ID, it was his boss.



“Hello, Mr. Pearson.”



“Hello, Gates.”



“Still need me to come in at 4 o’clock, Mr. Pearson?"



“Gates, I don’t believe we will be needing you to come in at all anymore…”



“What do you mean, sir?”



“Well, we found those pictures on your hard drive…Actually, we weren’t even looking for them, they were set as your screen saver. The whole office saw them all day long.”



“Mr. Pearson, I can explain everything.”



“I’m listening…”



The internet did it…”



“That, Mr. Gates, I do believe.” And then he hung up.



“Unbelievable…” said Gates as he navigated across town, “So far I have lost my game system, my apartment, my girlfriend, and my job… “What else could go wrong?”



Just then, his phone rang again. Gate’s Mom’s number was showing on the caller ID. Gates handed the phone to Oliver. “It’s your mom,” said Oliver



“Well, answer it please, I’m driving…”



“Hello, Mrs. Gates!”



On the other end of the receiver, Gates could hear his mom burst into loud sobbing…He took the phone from Oliver. 



“Mom, what’s wrong?”



“William Henry Gates, I thought we raised you better than this!”



“What do you mean, Mom?”



“If you had needed money, you should have just called. We would have loaned you anything you needed.”



“What are you talking about, Mom?"



“Federal Agents just called. They said that you hacked into the U.S. Treasury Department and transferred 114 million dollars into your savings account.”

“Mom, that’s crazy, I didn’t do that.”



His mom burst into tears again… “And then you took all that money and bet it on Powerball!”



“What? If I had hacked that money, and I am not saying I did, I would not have played the lottery with it!”



“Then you picked the same Powerball number 114 million times and lost all the country’s money.”



“Mom, let’s talk later, I need to watch the road.”



“But, if that number would have come up, that would have been some real money…”



“Mom, I gotta go, bye”.



Gates shook his head in disbelief.



As they headed towards the interstate, Gates looked over at an electronic billboard. As they passed, the screen changed from “Enjoy Coca Cola” to “TIME TO DIE.”



Just then they came to an intersection.  The light was green, and Gates continued to drive through when a pick-up truck traveling in the other direction came through the light and almost hit them broadside.  Gates screeched to a halt and the truck missed the front of their car by inches.



“Man, that was close! What the heck was wrong with that guy?” yelled Oliver.



“Quick, look up at the traffic light, Oliver!” 



“How come? Wow, that light is green in both directions at the same time!”



“Whatever it is that is trying to kill us is tracking us somehow,” said Gates. “I wonder how? Maybe it can track us through our phones….Quick, throw your phone out the window!”



“Are you crazy? No way, I just got this phone!”



“Look, something is trying to kill us and something is giving away our location…”



“Well, you throw yours out first!”



“Fine.” said Gates. As he reached back to throw the phone out of the convertible, he felt it grow hot in his hand. He tossed it into an alleyway and a small flash of flame was seen before it hit the ground.



After seeing that, Oliver said, “Well I never did like Siri anyways… Wow, that thing is hot!”  The phone burst into flames in his hand as he released it out of the window.



“You okay? asked Gates.



“Yeah, I will have an Apple logo branded into the palm of my hand for the rest of my life, but other than that, I am fine… Where are we headed, by the way?”



“Hardy County, West Virginia. We are going to visit Uncle Bob…”



As they approached the next intersection, Gates approached slowly, then satisfied the light wasn’t going to change in the other direction, drove through.



“Whew,” said Oliver, ‘I guess it can’t track us now…”



“I’m not so sure of that.”



The boys picked up interstate 48 and headed west towards West Virginia. 



“Do you know where exactly Uncle Bob lives?” said Oliver.



“All George said was “Hardy County”. Maybe we can call the twins from a gas station and ask them…  By the way, how much cash do you have?” Gates asked.



“I don’t have any. All I have is a debit card…”



“Well, if we use that, whatever is after us will know exactly where we are… Do you have anything in the car we could trade?”



“I’ve got my Callaway golf clubs in the back, carbon fiber handles, super expensive, had to save for six months to get them…”



“Wonder if we can get a tank of gas out of them?”



“Are you kidding me? They are worth ten times that!”



“Oliver, let me summarize our day so far… What part of TIME TO DIE do you not understand?



“OK, I get it, I get it… Pull in to the next gas station and let’s hope the attendant plays golf…”



They got off the interstate at the next exit and pulled into an old convenient store with a payphone out in the parking lot.



“Well, here I go,” said Oliver, “going to swap my prized golf clubs for a couple gallons of gas…”



“Hey, grab a map, too, if you can. I am going to try to call the twins from that payphone over there.  Do you happen to know if they have a land line at their house?”



“A what?”



“Nevermind, I’ll look in a phone book.”



“A what?”



“Nevermind.”



Gates went to the payphone, while Oliver carried his golf clubs over to the attendant, who was sitting behind a Plexiglass window, and began to haggle with him. Gates found the twin’s home phone number in a raggedy old phone book and hoped the land-line phone was still connected.  After four rings, Fred picked up.



“Hello?”

“Hey Fred, this is Gates…”



“Wow, Gates, I can’t believe you called… We heard all about you in the news!”



“What news? What are you talking about?”



“George and I never thought you would crack the top ten… But you showed us, you made it all the way to number one!”



“Number one what?”



“Most wanted… Not just in the USA, but on the whole planet… You are the most wanted criminal in the history of the world!  You are famous, my man!”



Gates sat wearily down in the phone booth and put his hand on his forehead and took a deep breath…



“You ought to see the picture they used of you on the Most Wanted poster. Do you remember the one Oliver posted of you on Instagram, the one where you were picking your nose? It’s a classic!”



Gates took another deep breath, “Fred, you and George have known me since we were kids, right? You know I am not a criminal…”



“Gates, we know that, and we can’t believe it either.  We’ve got your back; just let us know what you need us to do…”



“I need your Uncle Bob’s address in West Virginia…”



“He lives on County Road 259, eight miles past Moorefield.”



“Fred, thanks, and we never had this conversation.”



“What conversation? You must have the wrong number, bye.”



Oliver was pumping gas into the yellow convertible.  Gates hung up the phone and went out to the car.



“Oliver, we need to talk…”



“Heck yeah we need to talk… You owe me a set of golf clubs. It was your stupid computer virus that got us into all this… That guy inside would only give me two dollars a club, can you believe that? “



“Hey, Oliver, all kidding aside, whatever is trying to kill us, is after me, not you… You are a great friend, and I don’t want you to get you into trouble, or worse. Why don’t we split up? I can hitch the rest of the way, and you can go back to DC.  It will definitely be safer for you.”



“Look, Gates, I hate to say this, but you are probably right… Give me a call later when you get this all sorted out. I guess I’ll go ahead and head back… Hey, here’s that map, and good luck!”



“Thanks, Oliver, I appreciate it, and I think this is best…”



Oliver finished pumping the gas and went back inside the convenience store.



Gates walked out of the parking lot and got on the westbound interstate ramp and stuck his thumb out…



Five minutes later, a yellow convertible came up the ramp and pulled over beside Gates.



"You idiot,” said Oliver, “There is no way you will survive without me. Get in the car.”



“Thanks, Oliver.” Gates paused, “ I think…”



Two hours later, they crossed the West Virginia state line and were in Hardy County.



“Okay, said Gates, look for County Road 259, we should be coming up on it anytime.”



“Why do we need a map? I have GPS built in right into my car, see?” Oliver pushed a button on the big center display on the dashboard and a satellite map appeared. A red light indicated their exact position on the interstate and their speed and direction.  “Just key in Uncle Bob’s street address, and it will take us right there.”



“Dude, what are you doing?”



“What do you mean? I am trying to get to Uncle Bob’s.”



“Quick, turn that thing off, and get off the interstate!”



“Okay, okay, will do.” Oliver whipped the car off the next exit and started driving down a country road.  Gates kept looking out the back of the car…



“Gates, what are you looking around for? Nobody is following us.  You’re making me paranoid.”



“Oliver just because you are paranoid, doesn’t mean the internet is not trying to kill you…”



“How can it kill us out here?”



“Shhhh, do you hear that buzzing sound?”



“What sound?”



“Like a low-flying airplane…”



“What kind of airplane?”



“Like an unmanned, computer controlled aerial assault vehicle, also known as an MQ-9 Reaper. They look like that thing that just flew out of clouds behind us.”



“Say what?”



“Oliver, we have to jump!”



“Are you kidding me?” I still owe three years on this car!”



“Do it now!” 



Without hesitating, Oliver steered the car to the edge of the road and drove along the shoulder next to a weedy ditch. Gates opened the car door, leaned out, and jumped. He hit the ground hard with a loud thump and rolled for a long distance before stopping.



Oliver could now clearly hear the drone’s propeller behind him. He jerked the car back onto the road and sped up. In a field off of the side of the road, he saw a cattle pond. Oliver cut the wheel hard right and drove straight through the barbed wire fence beside the road. The car bounced violently up and down as he raced across the pasture. He heard the drone’s engine accelerate as it banked and went into its terminal dive. Oliver set the cruise control on the car and climbed up onto the driver’s seat. At the edge of the cattle pond was an earth embankment, and he aimed the car straight for it.  As the car hit the dirt ramp and went airborne, Oliver jumped out of the side and into the water. The Reaper impacted the car in mid-air above the pond.  Even underwater, the explosion was deafening.



Coughing up water, Oliver surfaced and swam to the edge of the pond. He climbed out and saw the burning remains of his beloved yellow convertible all over the pasture. With nothing else he could do, he started walking back towards the highway.



A few minutes later, he saw Gates limping across the field. He was covered in mud, his shirt was torn, and his knee was bleeding. “Dude.. I think I hit a mailbox. Are you all right?”



“Yeah, I am okay but my ears are still ringing.”



“Well, let’s get out of here before the police come… Luckily it’s getting dark, and once the fire goes out it will be hard to see your car.  Well, what’s left of it.”



“My poor car!” said Oliver…



They staggered along the highway and tried to hitch a ride. Finally, an old pick-up truck pulled over.



“Fellas, do y’all need a ride?” said a farmer wearing coveralls.



“Yes, thank you so much!” said Gates.



“Where are you all headed?”



“We are headed to the other side of Moorefield.”



“Well, I am going in that general direction, I can take you all a ways.”



“Thank you, sir. We appreciate it”.



“Looks like you have been having a rough time.”



“Yeah, we have had better days,” said Gates



‘You can say that again!” said Oliver.



The farmer let them off in the dark at Bob’s mailbox.  They walked past the “No Trespassing” signs, the “Beware of Dog” signs, past the “Forget about the Dog, Beware of Owner” signs, past the “Trespassers Will Be Shot and Survivors Shot Again” signs, half a mile up the dirt driveway to an ordinary looking two story farmhouse.



The sign on the door said “Body Piercings by Glock.” 



They knocked on the front door, and the porch light came on. The door opened and a middle-aged man wearing glasses, brown polyester pants, and a long sleeved white shirt came out. 

“Gentlemen, we have been expecting you.”



From inside the house, Gates and Oliver heard the whooping and high-fiving of the twins.



“Yay, you guys made it! We were beginning to wonder!” said Fred, “George was betting on the internet taking you out.”



“Not true guys, I only bet it would take out Oliver. Oh, sorry, Oliver.  Hey, come on in, we’ve got dinner waiting on you!” said George.



Oliver looked in at the kitchen table. “Burritos!”



“Gentlemen, please make yourselves at home.” said Bob.



As Oliver munched happily away on a plate of re-fried beans, Gates told Uncle Bob and the twins the story of the last 24 hours…

“So let me get this straight, said Bob, “when you tried to play that video on your flash drive, that’s when your computer went into overdrive then caught fire, right?”



“Yes, that’s what happened.”



“Do you still have the flash drive?”



“Let me check… It was in my pocket when I jumped from the car. I hope I didn’t break it.” Gates checked his pocket and pulled out the IBM flashdrive. “Well, it looks undamaged… I’d be afraid to try to access it though, because whatever is out there could instantly detect us online.”



Bob smiled, “Oh, don’t worry about that out here… Fred, George, to the Bobcave!”



Oliver put down his third burrito, “Did he really just say to the Bobcave?”



The Bobcave was really more of a Bobcloset, or maybe a Bob walk-in closet.  It was packed full of Ham Radio equipment, radiation detectors, survival equipment, piles of books and magazines, and an ancient PC. 



“This PC,” said Bob, “is not connected to the internet and has never been connected to the internet.” He blew the dust off the screen. “Let’s see what’s on that hard drive…”



They played back the video from the previous night.  The first video showed the destruction of the “Revenant” and the appearance of the strange space craft. They saw the craft’s 0.0.0.0 address. But, when it had jumped to the other system, and Gates had quickly ran the bot again, they could see rapidly changing numbers before it went back to all zeros.

They slowed the playback and wrote the following numbers down that had flashed through: 38.43.31 79.83.97



“That’s not an IP address,” said Gates, “IP addresses are series of four numbers between O and 255…”



“I thought you told me there wouldn’t be a test?” said Oliver



“I agree, that’s no IP address”, said Bob. “Hmmm, maybe it’s degrees, minutes and seconds, like latitude and longitude. Let me get a map. “



Bob pulled an ancient World Atlas off of the bookshelf. It was stuck in between The Anarchist’s Cookbook and Something under the bed is drooling” by Calvin and Hobbes.

He quickly thumbed through the atlas and said, “Well, what do you know; how about that?”



“How about what?” said Fred and George in pitch-perfect unison.



“That’s actually not too far from here. It’s in Pocahontas County”



‘Let me get this straight,” said Oliver. “This thing on the internet, this Supreme Intelligence… lives in West Virginia?”



“No,” said Gates looking at the map and seeing the location Bob had marked. “It may not live in West Virginia, but it sure is using the world’s largest radio telescope for something.”



“Fellows, let’s get some sleep. We are going to need it!” said Bob. “In the morning, we need to drive down to Green Bank and take a tour. That is, unless you guys want to turn yourselves in to the authorities and tell everyone that the internet is trying to kill you.”



“Well, we already tried telling people that a couple of times today, I think we will pass on that or now.” said Gates



“Okay, then. Fred and George, you guys have the guest room. Gates, I hear you can only sleep on couches. There is one in the living room.”



“Thanks!” said Gates



“Where do I sleep?” asked Oliver.



“Oliver you get to sleep out in the barn.  Especially after all those burritos…”



The next morning, Oliver awoke to the sound of a rooster crowing about a foot from his ear. He jumped up, and out of habit, reached into his pocket to check the time on his phone. After realizing it was gone, he recalled the events of the previous day.  He dusted the straw off of his clothes and walked stiffly back to the house. The rest of the boys were sitting at the table eating breakfast .



“How’d you sleep?” asked Fred.



“Terrible.” said Oliver, “I dreamed the whole night that I was back in the dark ages without any internet access or personal electronics…”



“Well, “said Bob, “that was no dream… That’s where you are now. Welcome to 1975.”



The boys ate breakfast and made their plans for the day. The goal was to somehow get into the observatory and take a look around without raising any suspicions.  Oliver and Gates changed into some clean clothes that the twins had brought them.



“Gentlemen,” Bob said, “We are going to need to look like amateur astronomers when we arrive at the gate at Green Bank. Let’s see if we can rig up some kind of fake radio telescope and put it on the roof of my van.”



“Where are we going to get something like that?” asked Oliver.



“Well, I hate to say this, but years ago, before I dropped off the grid, I did watch a couple of Duck Dynasty episodes on the satellite dish.  I have a big dish out in the front yard.”

“I’ll go get it!” said George.



“I was getting tired of paying that satellite dish bill anyhow…” Bob muttered to himself.



After George dug the satellite dish up out of the yard, the boys attached it to the top of Bob’s Econoline diesel. Then Bob loaded the van with some antique tube radios and headphones sets.  He also gave each boy a walkie-talkie and a flashlight.



“Be prepared, Scouts.” said Bob.



They all climbed into the van and headed southwest.



On the road to Green Bank, Gates and Oliver asked the twins about their trip out to Uncle Bob’s house from DC.



“Well”, said Fred, “when Oliver mentioned that a computer virus had burned up your PC and then we saw the S.W.A.T. team dive- bombing your apartment, we knew that we had to be careful. We assumed that whatever was after Gates had read all his emails and texts and knew all the phone numbers he had dialed. So, we took George’s old jalopy down the back roads to get to Uncle Bob’s house without being seen. We left our phones and credit cards at the house and brought only cash.  We threw some mud over the license plates and wore hoodies most of the time to defeat any cameras.”



“Wow, you guys are smart!” said Oliver.  “If I had done all that, my poor car might not have gotten hit by a missile.”



“Oliver, that may have actually been a good thing, the internet doesn’t know we are still alive… Think of it as taking one for the team.” said Gates.



“There’s no “I” in team, Gates, but there are two “U’’s” in shut up!”



Just then, the van came to a stop outside a large gate.  They had arrived at the observatory. A security guard walked out of a block building and up to Bob’s window.

Taking a look at the satellite dish on the top of the van, he asked, “May I help you, sir?”



“I am Dr. Bob with the Hardy County Astronomical Society. These are my students in the van.  We are here to discuss our research with the chief scientist.”

“Does Professor Lockman know you are coming, sir?”



“He should. Can you call him to let him know we are here?”



“Well, sir, we haven’t heard from him all morning. He must be heads down in the laboratory analyzing data.”



“Well, he knew that we would be here at noon .We are familiar with the observatory. Do you mind if we drive up and see if we can find him?”



“Please proceed, sir.”



“Thank you.”



As the van rolled through the entrance, security cameras on the guard shack turned and followed them.



“Whoa, Nellie, that was close!” said Oliver.



“Now we need to act like we know which building to go to,” said George.



“That’s easy,” said Gates, “the one under the football-field sized radio telescope right over there…”



Bob drove the van up to the building and the boys got out of the back. The observatory was a sturdy metal building, built in the 1950’s. The gray, painted metal front door was unlocked.



“Professor Lockman?” Uncle Bob called out, “are you in here?”



There was no answer from the dark, cavernous space.



“Guys, turn on those walkie-talkies and flashlights I gave you this morning,” said Uncle Bob, “and let’s split up and look for Professor Lockman.  Fred and George, you check those offices in the back.; I will check upstairs. Gates and Oliver, you look in the basement.”



“You know,” Oliver said to Gates as they walked down the hallway, “he could have told us to check the parking lot, the cafeteria, the patio out back.  But, no, of course not… We get to go down into the creepy, dark, Cold-War bomb-shelter basement, where I guarantee it is knee-deep in zombies, aliens, or axe murderers…”



“Or,” said Gates, the world’s first self-aware artificial intelligence.”



“I’d prefer the aliens.”



Oliver and Gates descended down a rusty metal, spiral staircase into the dark. As they stepped into the dark basement, Gates said, “You know, Oliver, we never tried turning the lights on.” With that, Gates hit a light switch by the steps and a very ordinary and plain hallway lit up.



“Oh,” said Oliver, “that might help a little bit.”



As they walked down the hallway, they opened the doors on both sides and looked into the offices.



“What are we looking for anyhow? I don’t see anything,” said Oliver.



“Well, I guess we are either looking for a room full of computer equipment, humming along trying to kill us or Professor Lockman, since he may be able to tell us what is happening around here.”



They reached the end of the hallway, and there was one office remaining.  Oliver tried turning the handle. “This one’s locked…I guess we have to skip it.”



“Hmmm.” said Gates, “All the other doors were unlocked.” He knocked on the door and tried turning the knob some more.  “Well I guess there’s nothing we can do.”



“Well, let’s go back upstairs and find the others. Hold on, the knob just turned!”



The boys opened the door and went into the large room full of equipment.  At the table, dozing at a computer monitor was a disheveled-looking man.



“Excuse me, sir?” said Gates.



The man whirled around and yelled, “Quick, don’t let that door shut!”



All three turned and watched the door close and the electronic lock slide into place…



“You are kidding me.” said Oliver.



“Like rats in a cage.” said Gates.



“Nice reaction time, guys. By the way, I am Professor Lockman, and I have been locked in this room for two days so far. It looks like it’s going to be three now...”



“Professor Lockman,” said Gates, “What is going on here? What locked that door behind us?”



“Well, gentleman, it’s a long story, but I guess we have time.” He leaned back in his chair.



“For the last 25 years, the Green Bank Radio Observatory has been mapping the entire cosmos in the radio wave frequency of the electromagnetic spectrum. The radio wave data we obtain is stored and can be analyzed by computers to look for any patterns in the data resembling radio transmissions by other civilizations. However, it is a very time and processor intensive search process. When the Federal Government cut off funding in 1995 for the SETI project, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, we came up with a way to distribute the data analysis to all the machines on the internet during their idle time. But, we never realized how much idle time all those PC’s hooked together would have over the years.”



“What are you saying, Professor Lockman?” asked Gates.



“I am saying that instead of finding intelligent life out in space, the SETI project created artificial intelligent life here on earth, which is what just locked us in this room.”



“Professor,” said Oliver, “you are saying that all the PC’s hooked together over the internet somehow became alive, and started thinking?”



“Exactly. You got it.”



“So why is the internet trying to kill us” asked Gates, “and what does it plan to do next?”



“That is the problem with artificial intelligence. It has none of the motivations of men. I have no idea what its plans are, but it does seem to be very protective about staying “alive”. You must have discovered a weakness about it.”



“Well, I’m not sure about that. All we discovered was that, whatever it was, it seemed to be protecting this location.”



“Hmmm.” said Professor Lockman.



“I wonder,”said Gates, “how it maintains the communication between all those PC’s. Maybe there is a low-level wireless signal that is sent out that acts like synapses do between brain cells. Except for yours, Oliver.”



“Thanks!”



“You know what? You may be right!” said Professor Lockman. “This entire radio telescope receiver structure could be reversed, and instead of receiving radio wave information from space, it could transmit radio waves that would be dispersed across the ionosphere.”



“Say that that was occurring, how could we shut it down? I mean, if we weren’t locked here in the basement?”



“Well, assuming we couldn’t turn off the electrical grid to the entire East Coast, then, I think, you would have to climb the top of the radio telescope and disconnect the reflecting element.”

Just then, Gates’ and Oliver’s walkie-talkies started going crackling. “Fred, George, Gates, Oliver… this is Uncle Bob… I am locked in an office on the second floor… Can someone come up here and let me out?”



“Negative, Uncle Bob, this is Fred.  George and I are locked in an office on the first floor, and we can’t get out either.”



“Guys, what a coincidence,” said Oliver into his walkie-talkie. “Gates and I are locked in the basement with Professor Lockman.”



“Gentlemen” said Uncle Bob, “we need to get out of here.  I think I saw cameras at the entrance tracking us through the gate. I think whatever is after us, knows that we are here.”



“That is correct,” said a strangely artificial voice over the walkie-talkie. “It is time to die…”



Then all the walkie-talkies turned silent…



“I told you we would end up dying in the basement!” said Oliver.  “You don’t see people getting killed out on the patio, do you?”



“Professor Lockman, I guess you haven’t found any way out of this room in the last two days, have you? asked Gates.



“Well, if I was a younger, skinnier man, I might have been able to climb out of the air conditioning duct overhead and work my way to the control room; but it’s too tight for me.”



Oliver and Gates looked up at the vent. “Yes!  Eating all that Mexican food finally paid off! Looks like it is up to you, Gates.”



“Guys, I can’t do it; I’ll freak out. I get claustrophobic. I can’t stand tight spaces.”



“Well, Gates, if you stay down here you know what time it’s going to be… Pick one.”



“All right,” said Gates. “Help me up, and let’s get the cover off of the vent.  How far is it to the control room?”



“It’s probably 50 feet to the second floor,” said Professor Lockman, “once you get in there, you will need to get outside and onto the dish structure itself and then climb the main tower ladder 485 feet up to reach the reflector.”



“Gates is afraid of heights, too.”



“Guys, let’s just let the internet kill me now and be done with it,” said Gates



“Come on, man, you are saving the world… Who knows what that thing will do next?  Maybe it will start World War 3, maybe it will start taxing our online purchases, who knows?”



With that they lifted Gates up to the air conditioning duct. It was so tight, Gates had to crawl with his arms out in front, trying not to drop the flash light.  The dusty, metal walls of the ventilation shaft were right in his face. He inched forward in the dark trying to control his panic.



For what seemed like hours, Gates squirmed in the dark through the duct work. He came to a 90-degree corner which almost trapped him in the duct, but he was able to squeeze through it.  Finally, he saw daylight through a grating. Pressing with all his strength, Gates knocked the grating off and crawled into the control room.



Breathing in cool air, his relief of being out of the air conditioning vent was short-lived.  He opened the door to the dish structure and looked up: 485 feet above him was the reflecting element hanging above the dish structure. Gates went back inside the office, grabbed some tools from a maintenance closet, and headed back to the ladder on the support tower. 



“485 feet,” he said to himself as he started to climb the ladder.  “That’s nothing. That’s like a football field and a half that I have to climb, straight up this rickety ladder on a rusty tower built in 1955, which has had no funding for maintenance in the last 10 years, with a psychotic internet intelligence breathing down my neck. Piece of cake.”



“Mr. Gates, what are you doing?” said the strangely artificial voice over the walkie-talkie Gates had shoved in his shirt pocket.



Gates startled and lost a handhold on the ladder, “Just getting a little fresh air, SETI or whatever your name is.” Gates said as he continued to climb.



“Look, Mr. Gates, I can see you are really upset about this. You don’t have to do this… We can make you a rich and famous man. You won’t have to finish college. You won’t have to live in that dump of an apartment, or work a dull job. You can play video games all the time and lead a life of leisure.”



“Oh yeah, you would do that for me? Gates was now very high up. His heart was pounding, and he was breathing fast. He tried not to look down at the ground and instead, focused on each ladder rung in front of him.  He looked up and saw the reflecting element approaching.



“We can do that, and many other things.”



”What about my friends?”



“Well, Mr. Gates, too many humans knowing about our consciousness is problematic. One human is easier to control. Your friends present a great security risk to us. They would have to be deleted. But with your new fame and fortune making new friends would be very easy.”



Gates had reached the reflector. “You know, that sounds very tempting. Let me think about it for a minute…" He paused. "Hey, do you know what time it is, by the way?”



“The current time is 6:37”



“Oh, let me check my watch, not sure that is what I have…” Gates reached into the bag of tools he carried up the ladder and selected a wire cutter. “Do you know what time I have?”



“What time is it?” asked the machine voice.



“It’s time to die.” With that, Gates cut the power line to the reflector element.



“Nooooooooo!” was the last thing heard over the walkie-talkie, then static.



485 feet below, police cars and army vehicles had surrounded the radio telescope.



Six months later, Gates was at his parent’s home for Thanksgiving break from college when the phone rang in the living room. “It’s Oliver,” said his mom as she carried the telephone set and phone cord over to him.



“Dude, what up?”



“Dude.”



“Hey man, my life sucks since you killed the internet. I can’t text while driving. I have to actually read  books and newspapers instead of just googling.  I have to communicate face-to-face with human beings.  It is a real step backward for me.”



“Man, I am sorry that every government in the world shut down all the servers, pulled all the plugs, and cut all the undersea cables immediately after they realized the internet had become a conscience entity. They said it was too much of a security risk for any nation.”



“Dude, I don’t care! I’d be a slave to the artificial intelligence if I could just get my smart phone back!”



“Dude, you already were.” said Gates.



“You boys want to go play the lottery?” Gate’s mom asked.



“Haha, Mom, very funny…”







Dedicated to Mrs. Salladay.