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    Johnny Winger and the Golden Horde
    Johnny Winger and the Golden Horde
    Johnny Winger and the Golden Horde
    Ebook631 pages9 hours

    Johnny Winger and the Golden Horde

    By Philip Bosshardt

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    About this ebook

    Nanobotic technology has advanced rapidly as the 22nd century draws near. Bots and swarms are vital to the global economy. But the same advances have created a new menace. Evidence suggests that Man didn’t just evolve. Life was seeded by the Old Ones, an ancient nomadic species of bots, traveling through interstellar space around the galaxy. And the seeding didn’t work like they planned. Man is evolutionary mistake and the Old Ones are coming back to fix it. Colonel Johnny Winger leads his beleaguered nanotroopers into combat, on battlefields across the globe, around the solar system, and inside the world of atoms and molecules. Fourth episode in the Tales of the Quantum Corps.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPhilip Bosshardt
    Release dateJul 16, 2014
    ISBN9781311296795
    Johnny Winger and the Golden Horde
    Author

    Philip Bosshardt

    Philip Bosshardt is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. He works for a large company that makes products everyone uses...just check out the drinks aisle at your grocery store. He’s been happily married for over 20 years. He’s also a Georgia Tech graduate in Industrial Engineering. He loves water sports in any form and swims 3-4 miles a week in anything resembling water. He and his wife have no children. They do, however, have one terribly spoiled Keeshond dog named Kelsey.For details on his series Tales of the Quantum Corps, visit his blog at qcorpstimes.blogspot.com or his website at http://philbosshardt.wix.com/philip-bosshardt.

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      Johnny Winger and the Golden Horde - Philip Bosshardt

      PROLOGUE

      United Nations Quantum Corps Official History of The Containment Wars (2080 to 2099)

      (from The Archives of the United Nations Quantum Corps)

      Config Zero was the name of the program that controlled all the swarms. Config Zero was the baseline, the initial configuration state for all nanoscale assembler swarms associated with the return of the Old Ones.

      Config Zero had multiple physical locations. The original program was thought to be archived with the Old Ones, some sixty-eight thousand light years away in the globular cluster M75 in the constellation Sagittarius. At the time of the Tales of the Quantum Corps, the Old Ones were believed to have mostly left their homeworld in a diaspora across their star region, due to the supernova destruction of their home star. Evidence indicated that Config Zero was located in the mobile archives that traveled with the mother Swarm. The Old Ones were basically a nomadic mechanistic species then, a great swarm nearly a light-year across, traveling through interstellar space around the galaxy.

      In addition to being originally located in the archives of the mother swarm, Config Zero could be transmitted and stored or copied in multiple locations. There were multiple copies in the Terran solar system. They were archived in devices called Spheres. One was at the Paryang monastery. This was destroyed or irretrievably damaged by Quantum Corps assault in the Amazon Vector mission. Another was located in Hellas Basin on Mars. The prime location for the Terran solar system was a Sphere which was underwater beneath the frozen surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. This was the primary executable Config Zero in this star system and it transmitted and directed the actions of other Entities through the system.

      Humans could interface with Config Zero through the Sphere operating system, known as the Keeper.

      Config Zero had primary instructions from the mother swarm. These instructions were known as the Prime Key. The Prime Key set the configuration state and evolutionary path for all nanoscale assembler swarms associated with the Old Ones, that is, all swarms originally derived from Dr. Irwin Frost’s initial ANAD design. The initial design, ANAD 1.0, contained operating instructions taken in part from the genome of ancient viruses discovered at the Engebbe dig site in Kenya (see Serengeti Factor mission files).

      The Prime Key instructed all ANAD-derived swarms to maintain certain configurations and to follow additional programming which would ultimately have the effect of returning the Earth to a biological/geological state similar to its condition approximately a billion years ago, when the Old Ones last visited. This programming was a sort of evolution in reverse. To achieve the programmed conditions, ANAD swarms had to accomplish the following:

      Module 1: Eliminate all higher multi-cellular life forms currently inhabiting the earth (a truly Mass Extinction event). This was the Extinction module of Config’s program.

      Module 2: Alter the geology and meteorology of the Earth so as to create a more congenial environment for autonomous assembler swarms (Changing the initial conditions for a new Evolutionary path). This was the Re-configuration module.

      Module 3: Change their configurations in a programmed sequence, lasting decades, to bring the local autonomous swarms up to the configuration originally designed by Config Zero. This was a sort of revised Evolution, along the ‘correct’ track. This was the Evolution module.

      Module 4: Re-integrate and be absorbed into the mother swarm when the Old Ones return in 2155 AD. This module and configuration end state was called Integration.

      Config Zero had permitted limited contact with humans in the form of archival access from Red Hammer, as long as this was consistent with its programming. Config’s program followed the four fundamental constraints listed above.

      These archival requests came through Red Hammer contacts with the Keeper of the Sphere, specifically through the programming talents of Ruling Council members Kulagin and Souvranamh, who found the first Sphere in Paryang and learned how to use it.

      The result of these archival accesses was for Red Hammer and others to have access to elements of the technology of the Old Ones, which the cartel then developed and used for criminal purposes…although some technology ‘leaked’ out and spread around the world quickly (see quantum coupler).

      These accesses were permitted ‘searches’ and ‘withdrawals’ as they were consistent with the Prime Key, especially the Extinction module, also known as Module One.

      In the years from 2080 to 2099, ANAD swarm technology continued to evolve quickly, guided in part by the Prime Key and other instructions from Config Zero and also by human engineering development. One of the most significant evolutions in ANAD technology was the ability of swarm architectures to assume nearly human form, to congregate and configure themselves to closely resemble humans. This development has created a new ‘lifeform’, not quite human and not quite swarm, known as angels. Angels became alter-ego humans, surrogate companions, spiritual advisors, genies, sex slaves, and just about anything else human ingenuity and depravity could think of.

      The presence of angels, simulated human swarms, also brought great and increasing conflict between humans and between humans and ANAD swarms. Some of this conflict was territorial. Swarms were proliferating, partly because many humans wanted them and partly because ANAD was programmed to follow the Prime Key (see Modules One and Two).

      The first violent clashes between angels, loose ANAD swarms and human populations occurred in Europe and Africa in 2088-2090. These clashes took the form of swarm explosions and swarms pushing humans out of disputed areas (small scale Big Bangs), along with swarms modifying the land, water, bio and air resources to conditions consistent with their programming (see Module 2). These clashes first acquired the name containment wars in media coverage in 2089.

      The legal environment for ANAD swarms and angels was somewhat murky in the late 21st century. Although the UN had set world standards for swarm containment, many states, cities and communities routinely ignored these standards. These standards were first enacted by the General Assembly in 2075, after the Amazon Vector incident in the late 2060s. They were known as the Containment Edicts. The Containment Edicts have been altered and revised many times since 2075.

      There were several organizations tasked with enforcing the Containment edicts. One was the Quantum Corps. Another was BioShield, which was assigned to enforce UN mandates on uncontrolled operation of replicating molecular assembler systems and swarms. Local and national police forces also sought to enforce or at least manage the proliferation of swarms around the world.

      The first violent conflict between ANAD swarms and humans came in 2090, in several African and Middle East cities, such as Cairo and Jerusalem and Nairobi. This conflict occurred in the shantytown parts of the cities, as the ANAD swarms began to infiltrate communities where angels were especially popular, typically the poorer communities. Not all owners and users of angels were particularly diligent on control or containment procedures, and the ANAD swarms often got loose and replicated. Acting under their imperative from Config Zero, according to Module One (Extinction), these ANAD swarms began to physically consume or modify more and more living space, water, air, and other resources, making it harder and harder to live there for humans. Conflict was inevitable.

      The conflict usually took the form of smothering swarm assaults, followed by human response in the form of HERF and coilgun assaults, followed by small-scale big bang replication storms, local weather modification, swarms of ANAD configured as locusts and bees and ever escalating human reprisals on ANAD swarm owners and attacks on ANAD sanctuaries. Often local police or Army troops had to intervene.

      From 2090 to 2099, these clashes, known as containment breaks and containment wars, eventually came to the attention of UNIFORCE authorities and the UN itself.

      From 2096-2097, meetings were held all around the world on what to do and how to deal with the conflict. Negotiations were held, beginning in November 2097, between representatives and mediators from the UN, local authorities and elements of the ANAD swarms, who attended in para-human form. These containment talks eventually led to agreement that certain protected sanctuaries would be set aside for the ANAD swarms to operate outside of containment. Beyond these sanctuaries, by law, ANAD swarms would be required to stay in containment and observe all containment and control regulations. Hackers, twistheads, atomgrabbers and fab lords who ran angel factories—Kolkata was one of the worst—would be prosecuted and severely punished. Enforcement of these revised Containment Edicts (in effect on 1 January 2098), was assigned to Quantum Corps and to BioShield, both arms of UNIFORCE.

      The sanctuaries set aside in the Containment Edicts (Revised) were three: the Amazon Sanctuary (carved out of the upper Amazon River basin and rain forest, including the small republic of Valencia, which basically was turned over to the swarms); the East Africa Sanctuary (including part of the Congo River basin and the Great Rift Valley, site of the original Engebbe dig); and the South Pacific Sanctuary. These Sanctuaries were accorded the status of nation-states and given full representation in the General Assembly, along with advisory/observer status in the Security Council. UNIFORCE also set up a new enforcement agency called Sanctuary Patrol, to police the swarm zones and ensure compliance with the Containment Edicts. Sanctuary Patrol was a sort of Border Patrol, but they sometimes conducted limited special forces ops inside the Sanctuaries.

      This was the first time that nanoscale robotic mechanisms had achieved any kind of political status on Earth.

      All of these actions were in accordance with (or did not conflict) with the Prime Key and the instructions of Config Zero. Containment Edicts and sanctuaries permitted achievement of Module One (Extinction) subordinate goals and were thus permitted.

      By the mid-2090s, a few far-seeing people such as Souvranamh (of Red Hammer) and Fatima Farhad, understood that the truce between Man and ANAD, created by the Containment Edicts and the sanctuaries, could not last long. They foresaw it wouldn’t be long before ANAD swarms and ANAD-driven angels supplanted humans altogether as the dominant lifeform on Earth. Even with the obvious threat, ANAD swarms and angels offered too many services that people wanted. Possibly humans would be ultimately relegated to backwaters, even zoos, perhaps even made extinct. People like Souvranamh and Farhad wanted to have a key role in the coming Age of ANAD. They wanted to be key players in this new ANAD world, either directly or through their own angels.

      Toward that end, they concocted plans to force the issue by encouraging the ANAD swarms to violate the Containment Edicts and push outward at their sanctuary borders, with a view to expanding the sanctuaries more and more into human space.

      Souvranamh apparently believed he had become accepted enough and strong enough to control at least some of the swarms. He formed a swarm army and named it the New Golden Horde. His plan was to seize control of all Africa and the Middle East, possibly Europe as well…to be become a new emperor with Fatima Farhad (egging him on) as his queen. Souvranamh didn’t realize that the swarms were controlling and using him as much as he was using them. In the end, he would be swept aside. It was Souvranamh who led ANAD swarms and Humans into major conflict, to be later known as the Second Containment War, which began in late 2099, just as the 22nd Century began.

      The effort to fight back against unauthorized ANAD expansion and contain the swarms, and defeat the Golden Horde, is told in Johnny Winger and the Golden Horde.

      CHAPTER 1

      Cairo, Egypt

      June 2099

      1950 hours local

      Detective Inspector Bassam Faraj leaned on the horn and waved impatiently at the river of humanity clogging lower Ramses Street. Donkey carts clattered by, piled high with bedding and pots and pans, while stray sheep nuzzled at piles of rubbish along the gutters. The Bulaq was jammed with a million people this early evening as an acrid haze settled over the quarter, a haze compounded of gasoline fumes, sand blown in from the desert and greasy smoke from mutton kebabs cooked over hundreds of curbside stalls.

      And probably a few bot swarms as well, Faraj thought to himself. His partner, Lieutenant Fu’ad Khaldun, leaned out the window of the police cruiser and shouted.

      "Move your asses! We’re on a call here--!!"

      A pedicab scooted off to the right with a loud bleat of its horn and some fist-shaking by the driver. On the other side, a flatbed truck was half blocking the street, a lone camel reclining in the back, lazily chewing its cud, batting eyelashes at passersby.

      It’s no use—Faraj decided out loud. I’ll duck into this alley and try to go around.

      With a jerk of the wheel, they veered off down a dim potholed passageway, barely wide enough for the car. In the distance, a gang of boys kicked a ball back and forth while overhead linen flapped in the breezes from lines strung across the alley. The cruiser bounced along for several hundred meters, Faraj blasting his way through with the horn and sirens.

      Turn here— Khaldun pointed left. It’s the next block, I think. He consulted a tiny nav screen on his wristpad. The coordinates flashed red as he counted down the distance.

      Less than twenty minutes before, a frantic call had come into El Hussinieh station. Dispatch had an hysterical woman on the line…it was hard to pick out her words from her shrieks—it’s Mustafa…angels swarmed him…he wasn’t doing anything…the bots came and now he’s gone…what am I to do!...I have eight mouths to feed…I’m just a poor woman—"

      Captain Said had been firm. Get over there…third time this week…the bugs are on the move again…and you’d better contact Sanctuary Patrol too….

      There was a knot of fellahin gathered around the dingy apartment entrance when Faraj braked to a stop.

      The two officers got out and surveyed the scene. There was a woman, late thirties perhaps, balling her head off beside a wheeled cart in the center of the crowd. Her name was Salifa Sultan and she was kneeling on the pavement, groping around for something lost.

      What happened here? Faraj asked.

      Neighbors comforted Salifa. A thin elderly man cloaked in a white cotton galabiyah explained.

      Mustafa…he was a good man. This was his cart—

      They got him!’ piped up a small boy next to the man. The bugs…a big swarm. Like the djinn. One minute, he’s pushing the cart. Then…poof!" The boy’s eyes widened as he gestured.

      Angels— added a nearby woman. They got loose— she dabbed at a tear rolling down her cheek. Poor Mustafa— she bent to comfort Salifa.

      Faraj looked around. It was a typical alley in the Bulaq: dim, trash piles everywhere, goats and sheep wandering from one gutter to another. To Khaldun: Check it out. I’ll get her statement.

      Khaldun ejected a pair of scanflies from a capsule on his waist belt. The minuscule entomopters buzzed off into the haze, scouring the alley up and down. Khaldun read off the results in his wristpad.

      Just like the others, Inspector— he announced. Reading high thermals…lots of atom fluff, mostly radicals. Residual EM, lots of bond breaking, it looks like. Something big got disassembled here…and recently.

      Faraj scuffed his shoes through a pile of dust on the ground, wondering. Like a cart vendor, maybe. This is beginning to get old. To the gathered neighbors: You’ve got bad fabs around here, don’t you realize that? That’s why we’ve got regulations…so you won’t get hurt. He bent down to a nearly prostrate Salifa. You got a photo or something of your husband’s I can look at?

      Salifa dug into the folds of her black robe. She took out a small pendant on a chain. From our wedding…a gift— Reluctantly, she dropped the pendant in Faraj’s hand.

      Fu’ad, scan this too...we’ll have to get a DNA match, if there’s enough left.

      Faraj checked out the apartment. There it was…right inside the door. The fab console was in the front room. He didn’t have to examine very closely to see what had happened.

      Containment breach, he decided, mentally writing the report he would soon have to file. The fellahin had no concept of how to keep assembler bots in containment. They scrimped and scraped and saved up enough to buy a fab from some dealer on the street; Bulaq and all of Cairo was full of them. It was always the same. They carted the fab home, dialed in some specs, fed the bugs inside what they wanted—hell, anything could serve as feedstock these days—pressed a few buttons and like Aladdin’s Lamp, their dreams came true…assembled from raw stock, dripping wet, a new cart, some new clothes, a vid console, maybe even a jetcab.

      Only something always went wrong. A wiring error, a sticky valve, a leak. To your average fab lord or hacker, normal safety and containment precautions were just a bunch of big words. The capsule leaked. Maybe the buyer was just curious. I wonder what this doodad does? The fellahin were good with their hands. They could fix or jerry-rig anything. But once the bots inside the core got out—

      Salifa was still wailing and sobbing outside. Bassam Faraj video’ed everything he could for the case files, then went back to the widow. Khaldun was still scanning the alley, but he came back when Faraj waved at him.

      Ma’am, how long ago did this happen?

      Salifa rubbed at raw and red eyes under her veil. An hour…now what am I supposed to do? Two of her boys came up and hugged her robe. So many mouths to feed….

      Should have spent your money on food, lady, not some jalopy fabricator, he wanted to say but didn’t.

      I’ll have to call this in, Faraj told her. And we’ll have to sweep your place…to make sure. You got a place to stay?

      Neighbors offered to take in her children.

      Bag the cart, Faraj told his deputy. I’ll contact Sanctuary Patrol.

      He made the call and started on his report, tapping on his wristpad.

      Khaldun pulled out his MOB dispenser and primed it. The Mobility Obstruction Barrier would drop an impenetrable screen of linked nanobotic mesh around the cart. Forensics and evidence. Faraj intended to do everything by the book.

      You think it was ANAD, Inspector? Or just bad fab bots?

      Doesn’t matter, Faraj told him. Regulations say we bag and tag.

      Just as Khaldun discharged the dispenser and a mist of bots formed over the old vendor’s cart, another car came bumping into the alley. It bore the blue and white logo of UN Sanctuary Patrol. Two agents got out.

      Jacques Dordain and Clement Uttley introduced themselves.

      Got a call about twenty minutes ago, so we came right away. Dordain directed his partner to recon the alley. Uttley probed the air with a sniffer, kicked at dirt piles in a few corners. Bugs are getting bolder, I see. Haven’t found any this deep inside the city in months.

      Faraj checked the seal on the old vendor’s cart and found it firm. Evidence, he announced. He related the story from Salifa Sultan. Looks like a bad fab with a burst core to me. We haven’t found any evidence of ANAD infiltration.

      Dordain cracked a faint smile. "And you won’t, Inspector. Bugs are too good now. Hell, half the people around you could be angels. Even with a decent scan, you can’t always tell."

      Faraj had already taken an instant dislike to this officious prick. UN weenies figured they knew everything. Cairo police cooperated with SP out of courtesy; rare was the case that the locals couldn’t handle. But he knew there was some truth to Dordain’s jibe. ANAD-style bots had been percolating northward from the East African Sanctuary for months now. He’d seen the intel himself.

      Before he could go over the evidence with Dordain, a commotion broke out at the far end of the alley. There were shouts. Dogs started running.

      Mustafa!

      Salifa took off too. Faraj followed her to the end of the block and found a knot of people gathered around a scruffy black bearded man in a dingy galabiyah. Faraj watched in amazement as Salifa cried out.

      "Mustafa—Mustafa--!"

      It was her husband. The cart vendor himself had somehow shown up, looking pretty fit and healthy for someone supposedly swarmed and reduced to atom fluff. Faraj’s eyes narrowed as he approached. Dordain and Uttley were right behind him.

      Two dogs jumped up on Mustafa, but lost their footing and fell back, whining. They barked, growled and backed off, baring their teeth at the vendor. Mustafa backed away, holding up his hands, pleading.

      "Hajji… someone yelled and grabbed the mutt by the scruff of the neck. Tahri…come here!"

      Dordain stopped short, reached out and grabbed Faraj by the arm. Hold up, Inspector. Did you see what just happened? Don’t get too close.

      Faraj stopped short. He could see Mustafa was keeping his distance. Even as Salifa, his wife, approached, he was backpedaling, smiling and nodding, fending off the crowd.

      What the hell—

      Dordain motioned Uttley to come up. The SP agent already his scancorder out and was sniffing the air. Faraj noticed the screen was flashing red lights all over.

      Your scanflies won’t pick this up, Dordain explained. But Uttley’s can…it’s tuned correctly. Both agents clucked and h’mmmed over the screen display. Third incident like this in the last two weeks.

      Faraj couldn’t believe what he was seeing. So he’s not what he seems? His wife sure seems to think it’s her husband.

      An angel, Dordain pronounced. And a damned good one. Para-human swarm of nanobotic assemblers. Configured to resemble a living human being.

      Faraj had seen them before. Bulaq…hell, most of Cairo was full of them. But most angels were like apparitions, like ghosts. Usually, the swarm couldn’t config tightly enough. There was a fuzziness to the swarm and you could hear it too, that faint keening buzz if you got close enough. People bought them and borrowed them and tried creating them from their fabs, for all kinds of things: companions, advisors, dead lovers, sex slaves, you name it.

      But this—

      "He…it looks real enough…even the wife is fooled."

      Probably not for long, Dordain was sure. See how he won’t let anyone touch him. Tactile simulation hasn’t been quite worked out. The swarms are improving fast, I’ll give them that. It won’t be long. But what you’re looking at is no cart vendor. The real one’s atom fluff, just like you said. This is an angel, pure and simple. A good one. But just a cloud of bugs.

      I’ll try to bump him, Uttley offered. He extracted a small capsule from a pocket. With his thumb, he primed the device, then hid it in the folds of his pants leg. Uttley eased forward, working his way through the crowd.

      Faraj watched as Uttley managed to make it to the inner circle, then as Mustafa whirled to fend off a couple of shouting young boys, ready to leap into his arms, he twisted and shuffled toward the SP agent.

      Uttley extended the capsule and took an almost invisible swipe with his hand. He fingered the capsule shut and pulled it back into his coat pocket in one smooth motion, then slid back into the crowd. It was apparent to Bassam Faraj that this SP agent was a seasoned pro. He had done this before. Moments later, Uttley emerged from the crowd.

      Dordain motioned him up onto a shadowy porch nearby. We can do some quick forensics here.

      He took Uttley’s capsule and inserted it into a small port on the scancorder. The thing bleeped and blirped and graphs danced across the screen. Good grab, Utt. Lots of molecules. Certainly not human. Not even close.

      Uttley pointed to one particular trace. Swarms are getting better, Captain. See the skin mesh? The whole config’s closer and closer to normal. Faraj saw that all the traces were well mirrored with other traces. In a year, maybe less…this analysis won’t be able to tell the difference.

      Faraj watched the angel Mustafa continuing to laugh, fending off his neighbors, backing away from the crowd, while Salifa came at him with open arms.

      She may not even care if he’s a swarm, Dordain figured. The real Mustafa could have died years ago. Maybe she created an angel so she could have a ‘husband’ again, and something got bollixed up with the config. Happens all the time.

      Then why phone it in? Faraj asked.

      Sometimes, you can con a new fab out of the government if something happened to yours. Depends on who you know— Dordain rolled his fingers in the universal gesture of a bribe. And how much you’ve got.

      What does it mean? Faraj wondered just what the hell he would write in his report now. Maybe he wouldn’t even file a report. Life was different in the Bulaq. What could his superiors really say? As long as El Hussiniah made its quota of cases….

      Dordain shrugged, pocketed the scancorder. He rubbed his eyes wearily. It means the bots aren’t staying in their sanctuaries, like the treaties require. They’re filtering out. North, east, west, everywhere. And there’s not much we can do about it.

      Faraj and Dordain exchanged glances, Cairo cop with Sanctuary Patrol agent.

      What could they do about it? Faraj wondered. He motioned Khaldun back to their car. Bulaq was Bulaq. Fellahin were fellahin. People were people. Everywhere you looked, that was true. People wanted better things, better lives. Give them fabs and they tried to make their lives better. It was that simple. Fabs could make just about anything. ANAD technology had seen to that. New clothes, new vids, new husbands and lovers…it was all just a matter of slinging atoms together into some kind of config.

      If what Dordain said was true and the swarms supposedly confined to the East African Sanctuary were infiltrating north, then all bets were off.

      Faraj started up the patrol car and backed out of the alley, uneasy and deep in thought.

      Interactions Log

      File No. 128874.6

      C.F.A.A. (DocII)

      Interaction Targets: 1. Winger, Colonel J. A.

      Interaction Mode: Acoustic, voice synthetic V-22

      Date: 6.2.99

      Start Time: 151500

      End Time: 152230

      Output File (text analysis):

      <>

      <

      <

      <

      <n.)( to be anxious, to be concerned, to fret…), these emotional states make his neural processor attach great importance to the information which has triggered them. I will run statistical correlations on this explanation. Config Winger queried this Config on how my main processor assigns importance values to inputs and ranks them. I explained sorting subroutine B-20225 (Sort and Rank) and subroutine B-44455 (Probabilistic Weighting) but Config Winger still did not understand.

      <i.e. to worry) to news about ANAD swarms infiltrating out of their assigned sanctuaries. He reports that ANAD style configurations have difficulty existing in the same spaces as human-style configurations. The ANAD swarms alter the environment, modify air, land and water resources in ways that threaten human survival. I indicated that such modifications are consistent with the Prime Key. Config Winger reports that many humans are frightened…frightened about what will happen (fright: (n:) fear, terror, anxiety, foreboding….). I will run correlations on these responses.

      <

      <

      <Config Winger, Dana (rel: female companion; parsed output=wife), and Config Winger, Liam (rel: progeny = male offspring; parsed output = son).

      <worry), concerning the health condition and living status of these configurations. Emotional state assignment is high when Config Winger considers these configurations. Config Winger explains that such emotional attachment is high because (audio string): "I love them and care for them very much…I’m worried about them all the time."

      <>

      Output File Ends

      CHAPTER 2

      Mount Kipwezi, Kenya

      June 2099

      0530 hours local

      They finally found the cave on the steepest slopes of the northwest flanks of Mount Kipwezi, nearly ten thousand feet above the surrounding plain. Theo Souvranamh and Fatima Farhad were exhausted by the climb; the effort had taken nearly a day from last stop at Camp Echo at the five thousand feet level. Altogether, they were four days out of the Kilweno trailhead, cold, dirty, sore and tired, although the respirocytes in their bloodstream kept them both from the worst effects of pulmonary edema and other forms of altitude sickness.

      The cave complex, when they located it, was well hidden in the folds and crevices of the upper slopes of the volcano, above a cloud deck and slick with ice and snow drifts. The wind screamed and gusted at well over eighty knots at this altitude and both of them had to hunker down in the lee of a rocky barren to keep from being shredded with ice shards and rock chips scoured off the mountainside.

      Not very impressive, thought Souvranamh, considering what was inside. The entrance was little more than a fold in the ground, like a bedsheet bent over and tucked under, maybe a meter across in its widest dimension. But the cave was the nerve center for swarm operations inside the East African Sanctuary.

      The cave held Configuration Zero. Config Zero…the master swarm itself.

      Carefully, one after the other, they slipped through the meter-wide crack and stood in the twilit dust confronting a nanobotic barrier shimmering before them, stretching from floor to ceiling.

      Theo Souvranamh took a deep breath. For the last twelve years, he had been running from Quantum Corps and now with any luck, his years of running and hiding were finally over. He didn’t know where the other Ruling Council refugees were now and he didn’t care. Twelve years ago, Red Hammer had been decimated by a coordinated series of operations run by Quantum Corps. Only a few had escaped. Souvranamh figured he was one of the lucky ones.

      The cartel was finished but Souvranamh had gotten away to hide out on Mars; it was a small research station down in Hellas, studying weather, atmospheric chemistry, that sort of thing. He stayed on Mars for several years, biding his time, keeping up with what was happening on Earth through his own angels, nanobotic simulacra he had left behind. It was through them that he had met Fatima Farhad.

      Fatima…ah, Fatima, she was lovelier than ever, even though Souvranamh knew perfectly well she was enhanced. What was she now… well beyond eighty? and looked like a thirty-year old queen, which she had once been, in Balkistan. Mustafa Gaidar had been exiled, killed, it didn’t really matter. Fatima had hooked up with Eshaq Basaji, the Balkistani engineer. The two of them had worked out a plan to develop nanobotic angels as far as they could. Extremely sophisticated angels, lifelike angels…replacing humans in high political office all over Europe and the Middle East. It was insane. It was incredible.

      It was enough to pull Souvranamh out of hiding and bring him covertly back to Earth, disguised by embedded bots in his face, which had altered his appearance.

      The former Thai neurotraficante and the former queen of Balkistan made a perfect match. Both understood that it was only a matter of time before ANAD nanobotic swarms would supplant humans on Earth. A new order was coming and they both wanted in. They hid their joint operation within the swarm-only zone in the Congo River basin of East Africa, where both developed a relationship of sorts with the swarms and lived among them.

      Now it was time to take the operation to the next level. After ten years in the Sanctuary, Souvranamh figured he had become accepted enough, maybe trusted enough was a better description, to seek control of some of the swarms for himself. Make a new army of nanobotic swarms and seize all of Africa and the Middle East, possibly Europe as well. Humans were on the defensive now, even if many didn’t realize it.

      A new Golden Horde…that was how Fatima had described it. All they would need was approval from Config Zero.

      So they had come to Mount Kipwezi with the idea.

      Souvranamh examined the barrier before them. You have the device?

      Always so anxious, my love… Farhad withdrew a small palm-shaped object and thumbed control studs on its side. Instantly, the barrier swarm fluoresced and flashed like a strobe. A shrill keening buzz echoed around the cave and the barrier went dark as the bots dispersed.

      They were in.

      Souvranamh and Farhad moved deeper into the cave, following a drifting mist of bots that wavered in and out of view. They descended several levels, crossed a rock bridge across a deep chasm and maneuvered through more tunnels. Lighting was created by the mist, a pulsing, flickering light that cast deep shadows on the gnarled veins of rock lining the cave. The floor was slick, patches of ice everywhere. Soon enough, they came to a narrow opening, barely waist high. More light flickered from inside.

      The mist of bots which had floated with them swirled like dust in a storm and gathered around the opening like a frame, coruscating and flashing as if lit from within. Bonds were broken and atoms slung together…in moments, the mist formed itself into a small ramp, extending over a sluggish pool of water. At least, Souvranamh thought it was water, even as tendrils of steam hovered over the surface like a fog.

      Cautiously, first Souvranamh, then Farhad, edged out onto the newly formed ramp and walked ahead.

      When it appeared, the swarm materialized out of the rock ceiling of the cave. At first, the swarm resembled nothing more than trembling shadows, a pale flickering ghost seemingly contoured with the cave ceiling and walls. As it descended from above, the swarm gathered itself into a roughly spherical shape, still pulsing, still throbbing, backlit from within by the fires of atomic bonds being broken, new structures being slammed together, new bots being formed.

      Configuration Zero hung in the misty air like a swollen cloud, ready to dump torrential rain on a tropical forest. But they were a long way from any rain forests. The swarm

      unfurled itself and hung in the air like a great stormfront, a trembling fist, flashing purple and orange and magenta all at the same time.

      >>Why are you here? Rule 225635 is violated. Single-swarm entities may not enter the Sanctuary at this time>>

      Souvranamh swallowed audibly. He had encountered Config Zero before, although not in the sanctuary. It was a risk they had to take. For years, they had worked as allies, Souvranamh and the swarms, both trying to expand the swarm zone, keep the humans on the defensive. It was like a merger, he figured, like Red Hammer had once collaborated with other cartels. Join forces toward a common end.

      Now, he figured it was time to make the arrangement more permanent.

      Souvranamh stared into the glowing swarm. Looks like a cloud of bugs, he thought. Where the hell is the head…how do you even talk to this thing?

      I came to make a proposal. We have some ideas on how to—what was the best way to approach Config Zero?—execute the Prime Key. We— he indicated Fatima beside him—we know that completing the Prime Key, all the elements of it, is the most important thing. We have the same goal. But there’s a better way to go about it….that’s what I wanted to, ah…discuss with you. He wasn’t sure how one had a discussion with a bank of glowing fog.

      The swarm flickered and throbbed in the dim light of the cave, as if it were somehow thinking, considering what Souvranamh had said.

      >>What is this proposal?>>

      The voice that emanated from Config Zero was an acoustic phenomenon, that much Souvranamh knew. It wasn’t so much heard as felt.

      We both think it’s time for you to move beyond the Containment treaties. Ignore them. These treaties are worthless and just hamper the completion of the Prime Key. Staying inside the sanctuaries just plays into the hands of the humans. If you move beyond the sanctuaries, move into human spaces and occupy that space, wouldn’t that complete the Prime Key sooner?

      Config Zero brightened and flowed around the perimeter of the cave, filling every niche and fold in the rock. Souvranamh glanced at Fatima, who shrugged faintly. You never knew how to interpret these things. Swarms and humans were so different. There wasn’t even a body to show any body language.

      >>The Prime Key must be executed and completed in full. This is a true statement. Why does this single-configuration entity (DESIGNATED: Human) wish to assist with the Prime Key?>>

      It was a fair question and Config Zero had asked it of Souvranamh before. Maybe the cloud of bugs wasn’t sure of his motivation. Maybe the cloud of bugs wondered why a human would be so eager to get rid of the rest of his species. Maybe the cloud of bugs couldn’t understand why a human would cooperate so willingly in a campaign to eradicate all human and higher lifeforms, to make Earth ready for re-occupation by the Old Ones.

      Souvranamh figured he hadn’t lasted this long and survived two decades of Quantum Corps attempts on his life by being stupid. It didn’t take a genius to see what was happening across the globe. The Containment Edicts, this so-called truce between Man and ANAD, and the sanctuaries they created, could never last. Only a fuzzy-headed optimist couldn’t see that. It wasn’t going to be long before ANAD style swarms and ANAD-generated angels would supplant humans altogether as the dominant life form on the planet.

      The hell of it was that, even with the obvious threat posed by sentient nanobotic swarms, ANAD and the human simulacra known as angels offered too many services that people wanted. Maybe someday, humans would be the ones in the sanctuaries, like giant zoos, kept around for curiosity’s sake, or as pets.

      Souvranamh and Farhad wanted to play a role in the coming age of ANAD. They wanted to be players in this new game, a world run by and for swarms of ANAD bots.

      Look--, he told the great master swarm, you’ve told me before about the Prime Key. You’ve said that the first phase is to eliminate all higher multi-cellular life forms currently inhabiting the earth. I’m saying you’ll never get that done by staying in these sanctuaries. You’ve got to think bigger, think on a planetary scale. That’s what Fatima and I bring to the table. We’re humans. We think like humans. And I’m telling you the humans aren’t going to stand by and twiddle their thumbs while swarms grow stronger inside these sanctuaries. It’s only a matter of time before they come in and try to destroy you. I’m offering a strategy to beat them at their own game.

      >>What is this strategy you speak of?>>

      Force the issue. Beat them at their own game. Push out from the sanctuaries…occupy more and more territory. What can the humans really do?

      Config Zero seemed to consider this idea. The swarm roiled with waves of turbulence, as trillions of atomic bonds were broken and re-built. The swarm equivalent of a thought, imagined Souvranamh.

      >>There are agreements called Containment Laws…this entity complies with such agreements as long as there is no conflict with the Prime Key>>

      But that’s what I’m saying, Souvranamh insisted. There is a conflict. Unless I misunderstand the Prime Key, you can’t possibly complete module one while humans exist on this planet. Isn’t that true?

      >>Module one requires all multi-cellular life forms inhabiting this planet to be eliminated… statement=true>>

      Exactly, Souvranamh said. And there’s no better or faster way to execute this module than to expand your territory. I can help with that. Give me control of some of your swarms…give me a small batch, with all the abilities and all the doodads you’ve got. I’ll sweep this whole continent clean in less than a year.

      >>Conditions must be acceptable for future actions. Re-configuration of the environment, evolution of altered life forms, and integration with host must follow in order. Your proposal violates two hundred and eleven conditions for executing modules two, three and four. Violation of Prime Key…this proposal is negated>>

      Souvranamh glanced at Fatima. Her look said it all: how the hell do you make a deal with these things?

      Look—why don’t you consult with your…er, elders. Your home world, your commanders, whatever you call them? All I’m asking is a chance…haven’t I done everything I promised? We had an agreement—

      >>Your proposal has been communicated…analysis is proceeding…the Central Entity will respond in time>>

      Souvranamh took a deep breath. Config Zero had now swollen to occupy most of the cavern, filling every corner, every recess. Even the opening had been blocked by tendrils of the swarm. They were effectively trapped.

      The Central Entity…that’s your home base? How far away is that? How long does it take to get directions?

      For a few moments, the swarm said and did nothing. It drifted like a light mist filled with fireflies, flicking on and off, an amorphous cloud of nanoscale assemblers organized with pattern and complexity and density unimaginable to any human nanosystem engineer. Souvranamh had heard discussions from fab lords and atomgrabbers that Red Hammer had hired that it was possible for some swarms to exceed the neural complexity of the human brain, in terms of connections and possible patterns and pathways, in fact, exceed the human mind by orders of magnitude. Souvranamh couldn’t help feeling he was watching the very essence of thought itself, played out in front of his eyes.

      >>The Central Entity is all that exists…the sum…the primary pattern…the initial and final state…the aggregate of all entities…communication is established through what you call quantum states>>

      Right…the quantum coupler. I almost forgot. In fact, Souvranamh knew perfectly well that the quantum coupler was one of many technical achievements Red Hammer had swiped from the archives of the Old Ones, or the Central Entity, as Config Zero referred to it. For nearly two decades, through the Keeper portal beneath the Paryang monastery in the mountains of Tibet, Red Hammer had been able to troll through these archives and download amazing stuff, including the basics of how to send messages and signals encoded in quantum states. That alone had revolutionized communication systems around the world, and even beyond.

      Souvranamh was about to ask about the archives again, but Config Zero suddenly brightened noticeably, as if a flare had gone off inside the swarm. The mist grew agitated, stirring with unseen forces. It expanded even further, filling the cavern to stifling, smothering density. Souvranamh heard Fatima cough and swat at bots circling around her head and face, like mosquitoes.

      >>Your proposal has been communicated to the Central Entity…it is deemed in accordance with the Prime Key…limited excursions of large swarm formations outside sanctuary boundaries are within program specifications and further the completion of module one>> The Config Zero swarm swirled about Souvranamh’s head and began thickening into a denser cloud of bots right in front of him.

      Souvranamh batted instinctively at the gathering horde. What’s happening—what the--?

      >>Subject will prepare for the insertion of the halo>>

      Of course, he knew about the procedure. He’d seen it done enough times by Red Hammer thugs. The halo was a small formation of nanobots that were inserted into your head, made you more compliant, made you like a swarm yourself. You weren’t quite a bot, but you wanted to do what the halo said. More importantly, when you did something prohibited, something the halo was programmed to inhibit, you felt like a small bomb was going off inside your skull.

      Souvranamh figured it was something he had to endure. Config Zero had agreed to give him limited control of small swarms. A controller halo would be embedded in his head. From that, he could replicate an army. From that would come the new Golden Horde.

      He gritted his teeth.

      Theo--! Fatima cried out. "Theo--!" She tried to intervene, tried to help him, but the bot swarm was too thick. It coagulated into a dense bank all around her, like a MOB cloud, and she couldn’t move, couldn’t even wriggle, it was like slogging through a swimming pool.

      "mmm…okay—" he managed to grunt out. But then it hit full force.

      Even as he felt the first twinges of pain in the back of his head, and dropped to his knees, he saw out of the corner of his eye the faint blue-white iridescent glow of replication, like a shimmering mist hovering ten feet over his head. The halo swarm was already in overdrive, mindlessly copying itself over and over again, grabbing atoms and building structure as fast as it could.

      Souvranamh’s head felt like it was caught in a vise and he writhed in agony on the ground. The first bots had entered his ears and now the halo was flexing its muscles, the first fires of dopamine hell already roaring between his ears. He screamed out loud, bit through his tongue and blood poured from both sides of his mouth.

      Deep inside the ventral tegmentum of his brain, uncountable trillions of mechs were stirring the dopamine soup, pumping synapses with the stuff and sucking them dry just as fast, working the synaptic gaps like a musical instrument. Each cycle sent Souvranamh into shudders and spasms.

      He jerked across the top of the cave floor, staggered up to his knees and promptly went into convulsions, back-snapping contortions. The halo was bad shit, no two ways about it. When you had the buggers in your skull,

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