Chapter 265: (The Black Box) (2/2)
”I'm in.”
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The trip was strange for Sam-UL. He was loaded aboard a high-speed vessel that had enough processing power to let him move around. The clone had come along, for reasons that Sam-UL did not understand. They let him keep his purrboi, let him sit in his room by himself for days.
The trip was strange. He could feel the thrumming of upper band hyperspace travel and knew that the ship had to have almost unreal levels of shielding to keep the hyper-atomic plane's particles for ravaging the computer systems, himself included.
The ship dropped out of hyperspace and one of the Confederate Intelligence Agency agents escorted him to a viewing blister, let him look out into space to see where they were.
A Black Box.
”Welcome to your new home, Sam,” the Agent said, her voice soft and quiet.
Sam-UL just stared.
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Sam-UL felt strange as he walked down the hallway to the Project Overseer's office. He could 'see' that there were VR hallways overlaying the actual hallways, see there were rooms full of computer equipment that had VR overlays of extensive laboratories inside. He passed clones that looked almost identical that all nodded to him as he passed.
As he approached the door to the office it opened and a holographic avatar of a DS walked out.
”Hello,” the DS said. They were using the appearance of a female of Terran Descent Humanity, with streams of multicolored code acting as a body and clothing.
”Uh,” Sam-UL said before the DS sparkled and vanished.
”Come in, Sam,” a deep voice said from inside the office.
Sam went in, the door closing behind him, and stopped less than two steps into the office.
Stasis cubes lined the walls. He could identify the contents, to an extent, just by looking at them. Felines, canines, human-canine hybrids, human-feline hybrids, Sleeping Ones, and two small children with the burning red eyes of Enraged Ones.
Behind the desk sat a well built Terran Descent Human with brown skin and a bushy beard. He gestured to a seat that Sam-UL could tell existed in the strange VR overlay of the facility as well as in the physical world.
Sam-UL moved up, sitting down, and stared at the purrboi in his lap as he petted it.
”You're wondering why you're here. Why I went through the trouble of retrieving you,” the man said.
Sam-UL looked up, frowning.
”That clone? That was me. The other clones you see. Me. If you would like I can manifest a digital clone of myself to speak to you if you would prefer,” the human said.
”What do you mean they're you? As in cloned from you?” Sam-UL asked.
”No. They're actually me. My consciousness, multiplied, replicated, each clone, be it physical or digital, are all me. My consciousness, multiplied across every clone but still me,” the man said.
Sam-UL stared as he realized who he was staring at. A figure from myth, from legend, from some of the most harrowing video games out there.
”You're... Legion?” Sam-UL whispered.
The man nodded. ”Yes. The rumors of my demise suited me.”
”To escape your enemies,” Sam-UL said.
Again the human nodded. ”And, well, you can guess the other reason.”
”You 'just want left alone' like the rest of the Immortals,” Sam-UL guessed, quoting the line he'd heard in so many video games.
”Exactly,” Legion said, smiling. He turned and waved his hand. ”I told you the kid was bright.”
Sam-UL jerked as he realized one of those diminutive Confederate Agents had been standing near the wall the entire time.
”You are in charge of this project, we did not doubt nor do we question your methods in regards to this project,” she said softly.
”Do you know why I went through such lengths to recruit you, Sam? Can I call you Sam?” Legion asked.
”Yeah, sure,” Sam-UL nodded, gulping. Legion asking me if he can call me Sam? Hell yes, he can!
”Enlighten me,” Legion smiled.
”You want something hacked,” Sam-UL guessed.
”See, I told you the kid was on the goddamn ball,” Legion laughed. He turned back to Sam-UL. ”You hacked one of the most secure databases in existence, managed to extract one of the hottest intellectual properties in Known Space, and the only reason you got caught is because one of your distributors rolled on you.”
”Yeah,” Sam-UL said, feeling the face of the android physical therapy frame heat in a blush.
”The Agent here, and her sisters, think that it isn't that big of a deal, that I should have grabbed ones of the dozens, hundreds, who have cracked Confed databases,” Legion said, waving his hand. He looked over at the agent. ”Tell me, my dear, how many people have hacked Nebula-Steam?”
The Agent sighed. ”Only one in the past four thousand years. The last 'hack' was by a disgruntled former employee.”
Legion swiveled his chair back to face Sam-UL.
”You, you got in. You did what everyone, even Nebula-Steam, by Daxin's chrome ballsack, even Confederate Intelligence said was flatly impossible,” Legion grinned.
”It wasn't easy. It took me months,” Sam-UL admitted.
”Has there ever been a security system you could not crack?” Legion asked.
Sam-UL nodded. ”A few.”
That made Legion nod. ”That answer, that truthful answer, is why I didn't delete you.”
Sam-UL felt the therapy frame android actually break out in a sweat.
”I'm going to give you a chance to do the most important hack in human history,” Legion said. ”More important than Shin Lang's hack of the nuclear power-plant's operating system to prevent a melt-down. More important than any hack, ever.”
Sam-UL felt that old stirring inside of himself.
”Damn, look at that core-coding light up,” Legion said softly. ”He feels it. He knows I'm not lying. He wants this, needs this.”
”If you say so,” the Agent said.
Sam-UL flushed again as he realized that not only was Legion right, he was staring directly at Sam-UL's core code.
”What could you possibly need someone like me to hack,” Sam-UL asked.
Legion smiled.
”SoulNet.”