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.Gerry knew that Alpha, or Old Grey as it was called before, had an AI within it, but when he had accessed Omega last, he couldn’t tell what was in there.Must be another AI, Gerry thought.But the curious thing was how the girl ascribing emotions to them: software by its nature doesn’t have emotions.Not wanting to grill the girl further, or get her upset, Gerry tapped her gently on the shoulders, stood up, and sat back down at his desk.He closed his eyes, focused on the stream of data flowing to and from Omega.He checked the log files.The traffic didn’t exist an hour ago, but something had happened.Like a snowball at the top of the hill, the data started small and grew larger and larger the longer it rolled.While in the computer’s system, he could find no evidence of another sentient AI, or even any code that might explain what Jess was hearing.But that aside, he wanted to explore the Meshwork now that it was back up and running.First thing he wanted to do was get in touch with someone at GeoCity-1; see if there were any survivors, and discover the status of the Red Widow’s force.He navigated to the address that used to be GeoCity-1, received no reply.The place was a data desert: nothing going in, and nothing coming out.Not surprising if Red Widow had completely taken it.A stream of traffic, albeit small, came from Darkhan, and an equally smaller stream came from the Dome.It seemed City Earth had a few hackers within its populace still managing to operate, despite the increase of security since Jasper’s failed attempt at taking it down.Gerry found that comforting, realised it was probably Kaden.As he scanned the data streams, he noticed a peculiar package of data amongst the sea of information.It stuck out to him because of the Helix++ code surrounding it.Unlike the regular flow of data that split into smaller packets of information, these were whole and although still relatively small, there was something odd about the encryption.He focussed his mind on one, and loaded it into his AIA.From there, he looked closer at the code.The algorithm seemed familiar.To Gerry, all code was like handwriting.Everyone has their own unique style and approach, and after a while if you’re exposed to someone’s coding, you get to recognise their style.And this style, all brash and elegant in equal measure meant only one person that he knew.He ripped into the algorithm.His heart rate spiked.The anticipation made him dizzy.Layer after layer, he unpicked the code, unlocked the data to find a text message that made him smile a ridiculous grin.Yo Gez, Petal here.This is awkward.I don’t know if you’re alive or dead.If you’re still with us, and on Earth, I wanted to let you know I’m safe and with Criborg, my makers, kind of.Long story.I’ll fill you in another time.I got a new implant chip, this is my new network address: 2039:0db6:82c2:0022:1100.There’s a doctor here, Jimmy Robertson.He’s kind of my father.Anyway, tell Enna and Gabe if they’re with you that I’m all cool and fixed and upgraded.We’re on our way to Darkhan with a small army.We’re fighting back, man! Let me know what’s happening with ya’ll and we’ll come and get you.~ Petal.“She’s alive!” he shouted.“Petal’s coming!”As everyone turned to stare at him and react to the good news, he received an audio communication from The Family:“Gerry, this is Jachz.We’ve looked at your data, and believe it to be true.We’ve also had some other factors to consider and the decision has been made.We’re evacuating City Earth of Priority one citizens.The Family have requested that you return to the Dome, with Petal, preferably within the next three hours.”“Wait, what? What factors? Why only priority One? What’s going?” Gerry couldn’t believe what he was hearing.Priority One people were those exempt from the Death Lottery: the government, the president, and a handful of Family members on the surface.“As I said, Gerry.Your presence has been requested.”“Put me through to Amma, Jachz.Right now.”“As you wish, Gerry.”There was a short delay, before Gerry’s mother responded.“Gerry, my love, this is serious.We’re under attack in more ways the one.The Family board have agreed to bring forward Phase Three of our mission.Please, come back.This isn’t reversible.”“What the hell are you talking about? What’s not reversible, and what is Phase Three exactly?”He heard her sigh over their communication channel.“Phase Three is off-world development.I’m sure we spoke about this when you were with us.I hoped we would have more time, but our infrastructure both on the surface and in orbit is under attack and we don’t have the resources to defend those positions.We have no other choice.This is the catalyst.It was always going to come to this.”“Catalyst? Stop talking in code and tell me what you are planning on doing.”“Gerry, please.Just get to the City and get on the evacuation shuttles.I don’t want to lose you again [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]