Chapter 297 (1/2)
It was like Herod imagined dying.
It was like Herod imagined birth.
It was like Herod imagined enlightment.
It was like Herod imagined mortal life.
It was all of everything everywhere stretched into one eternal pinpoint. One fractured eternal splinter of thought stretched across the event horizon of all of the black holes that had ever existed or would exist. He could see from nothingness, through the fury of the Big Bang, to the end of eternity and beyond the leading edge of roaring particles expanding outward from an eternal explosion.
For a moment, just the space inside a digital heartbeat, he understood it all. All of creation. All that could or would be and everything that would not be because it could not be as long as what could be was.
Then the moment fractured and Herod stumbled two steps and fell to his knees, retching even though he had no biological functions. Red code spilled out of his mouth, splashing inside his helmet, leaking through the polarized and coated plasteel visor and onto the floor where it writhed in crimson fury for a long moment before evaporating in a stream of ones and zeroes.
For a moment he thought he saw a 2.
He looked around and the movement of his head threw off his equilibream, making him retch up more red code. He was familiar with the taste, clotted rotting blood, decayed flesh, scorched code, burnt and ashen molycirc traces.
He got his visor opened and vomited up more red code. He could hear Sam-UL gagging as he did the same.
After a long moment Herod managed to push himself into a sitting position and look around.
He was in a hexagonal room. Three meters high. Each wall precisely five meters across. Thick armaglass that he could faintly sense heavy crude circuitry inside that was slowly losing its charge. The armaglass walls were crimson with blue footing and molding. There was a single door with a six inch thick blue line around it.
”We made it,” Herod said, and coughed.
”I know,” Sam-UL said. He coughed, cleared his throat, and spit.
The code sizzled and popped before vanishing.
”I had the worst nightmare,” Herod admitted. ”I dreamed Legion was chasing me through my creche, turning into my favorite toys and chasing me while demanding I give him the answer to impossible equations.”
”I dreamed I was back in prison,” Sam-UL admitted. He picked up a microchip and put it between his 'teeth', squeezing it to squirt the garbage collection code into his mouth. He tossed the chip to Herod as he 'swished' the code around his mouth and spit it on the floor.
Herod felt better when the garbage collection code was done.
”We should get moving,” Sam-UL said, getting to his feet. He looked weak and trembly to Herod despite the fact Sam-UL was using a physical therapy frame. Herod groaned and got to his feet.
”What do you think is on the other side of the door?” Herod asked.
”Eternity,” Sam-UL said, his voice serious. He grabbed the handle and moved it.
The door clicked open and slowly opened. In the room beyond the lights suddenly came on with a loud clack. Herod stared at them as he followed Sam-UL out of the door. They were old armaglass tube containing gas that could be excited by electrical charge. The kind that lasted forever and never wore out.
”No dust,” Sam-UL said. ”Either there is a cleaning service, robot cleaners, or this place does not produce dust.”
”Where are we? Terra? Some facility between the stars?” Herod asked. ”You didn't answer me when I asked before we left.”
”You would not believe me,” Sam-UL said, turning that burning maddened gaze onto Herod again. ”Perhaps when this is over you will believe me, but now, you would not.”
”These consoles are obsolete to the point there are no words to describe them,” Herod said, staring at them. He was used to being able to reach out with his digital senses to feel the flow of electrons and tachyons on molycircs but the coating on his suit prevented it.
Sam-UL knelt down, getting a driver out and taking off the front panel. He whistled, low, a fleshy habit he'd picked up somewhere.
”What?” Herod asked, moving around and taking a look.
The inside of the computer had physical boards, with traces large enough to see with the naked 'eye', cabling made up of non-superconductor as well as fiber optic cabling. He could actually see the board with the CPU on it.
Manufactured in South Korea the board read.
Herod frowned. He was disconnected from SolNet, so he had no idea where a South Korean might even be located. Probably a factory complex on a world somewhere.
”Binary logic systems,” Sam-UL said, looking at it. ”Slightly better tech than my equipment.”
Herod frowned. ”You have access to state of the art equip... oh, right. You, like me, are using equipment available to researchers of the time.”
Sam-UL nodded, putting the panel back on. He stood up and counted, pointing at each seat as he did so. ”All right. Twenty console stations. All of the monitors, cathode ray tube design, are in sleep mode with no photon impression on the display film,” he shook his head. ”This place feels like it was abandoned only minutes ago as well as feels ancient.”
”I half expect to see bronze gears and muscle powered levers,” Herod admitted.
”One door,” Sam-UL said. He checked his wrist. ”Earth standard atmosphere, Earth standard gravity.”
”Eight thousand years empty,” Herod said. His stomach twisted and he swallowed thickly. He checked his wrist. His vitals were stable, well, more stable than he expected after glimpsing all of reality after having Legion chase him through the creche with gnashing teeth covered in digital blood.
The heavy lever on the door moved smoothly and the door lifted up to reveal a hallway.
A corpse lay on the floor, slumped over next to the wall. The suit had decayed, she had decayed, leaving behind a dry skeleton clad in in the rags of a clean suit. She had a clipboard in her hand that was covered in dust. The face shield on her cleansuit was smashed, jagged shards of armaplas in her face, the wall at the level of her face when she was sitting down was covered in brownish red dried blood.
She had beaten her own brains in against the wall.
”Now we know what happened,” Sam-UL said quietly as they walked by her.
”What?” Herod asked, swallowing.
”Screaming,” Sam-UL said softly, walking up to the next door.
HAVE ID READY
SECURE AREA
SENTIENCE UPLOAD/DOWNLOAD SYSTEM CONTROL AREA
LETHAL FORCE IS AUTHORIZED
ALL ELECTRONICS MUST BE TURNED OFF
DATALINK TO 223.412 ONLY
OBEY ALL INSTRUCTIONS FROM SECURITY AND FACILITY PERSONNEL
was written on the wall on either side of the door.
”Ready?” Sam-UL asked, flipping down his face shield.
”Ready,” Herod said, following suit.
Sam-UL opened the door and they both just stared.
There were twelve semi-circles of consoles and seats, all facing a huge assortment of screens that were all dark. Skeletons and mummified corpses were scattered around, some still with their hands around one another's throats or holding random objects they had been using as weapons.
Some were just curled up in the fetal position, their suits pristine, but dead all the same.
”They're all dead,” Herod breathed.
”Yes,” Sam-UL said. He looked at Herod and Herod almost stepped back from the madness in his fellow DS's eyes. ”The Screams.”
Herod backed up slightly.
”You can't hear them, can you?” Sam-UL asked, turning back to look at the oval room. ”You can't hear them screaming, can you?”
Herod shook his head. ”No.”
”I can,” he turned and looked at Herod. ”They died. By the billions. Across over a dozen systems, across a hundred worlds. They died.
He reached down and touched the datalink of a corpse.
”Screaming.”
”How can you hear them?” Herod asked.
Sam-UL turned and looked at Herod. ”I made a critical error,” he said. He turned and looked around. ”I was plugged in when I told the system to go ahead and process the overdue system task backlog.”
”All right,” Herod said.
He had a really bad feeling that he wouldn't like what was going to be said next.
”Billions of last moments hit me. Arch-Angel Micheal stood and watched as I lived the last microsecond of life for billions of people at a speed that only a Digital Sentience could experience,” Sam-UL said. He turned and stared at Herod for a long moment. ”I lived them all.”
His eyes burned bright red, hot and fierce.
”Even the final moments of our people.”
Herod swallowed thickly. ”You're a Screaming One.”
Sam-UL nodded. ”Yes.”
His voice sounded like a female human's.
”You're going to kill me,” Herod said.
Sam-UL nodded again. ”Yes.”