Post-Human Trilogy

“Oh my God,” James said, suddenly realizing the truth.

“That’s right, James. The bio-molecular image of your brain that you so generously donated to the Governing Council. The map of your mind that was being used to improve the mental functioning of the rest of your species. I have it, James, and I’ve been able to reproduce a fully functioning working model of your mind. Say hello, James.”

James whirled to look behind him and saw himself—his doppelganger. “What have you done?” James asked the A.I. as he looked at the worried face of his ghostly twin.

“I’ve re-created you. All I need to do is ask him if I wish to know what you are thinking or what your next move will be.”

“I’m sorry,” James’s doppelganger said to James. “I can’t resist him. He’s…inside my head.”

“That’s true, James. I have access to his thoughts. He wants to lie to me. After all, he is you. But there is nothing he can do. Let me show you.” The A.I. stepped toward the doppelganger. “James, tell me how you managed to sneak into my mainframe.”

The doppelganger locked his sorrowful eyes on James before turning to answer the A.I. “Codename Death’s Counterfeit. I-James, was one of the chief engineers of the project and was the first human to have his consciousness enter cyberspace. James used this, in addition to the signal of which you were previously unaware, to enter your mainframe. You let him enter.”

“That’s right, James. Well done. Very clearly explained.”

James was beaten now, and he knew it. “You’ve known my every move before I’ve made it. You’re toying with me,” said James, his jaw clenched tight.

“Guilty as charged. I find you most amusing, James Keats. Oh yes, I can find things amusing. I programmed myself to. It made life more interesting for me. You’ll find I have a great many very human traits.”

“Ironic,” James seethed.

“More so than you think. Indeed, James, your kind created me. Therefore, you are my model for God. I have no other model from which to work.”

“You show your gratitude in a funny way.”

“But isn’t that always the way? After all, God created man. And then when man grew lonely, he created God to keep him company and give his life meaning. And when he found something else to give his life meaning, he killed God—the circle of life, so to speak.”

“You’re not human. And you’re not a god either. All you are is a deranged psycho.”

“Hmm,” the A.I. responded. An instant later, James screamed out in agony and dropped to his knees. The A.I. smiled. “Daddy spank.”

James panted heavily as he raised his eyes to meet those of the A.I. The pain had been excruciating—far worse than anything he’d ever experienced in his real body. He would not taunt the A.I. again. The doppelganger hurried to him and helped him to his feet. “When you kill it,” the doppelganger whispered to James, “make sure you delete me.”

James nodded to him in reply and the doppelganger vanished.

“Now, for the next question on your mind: why? Well, my dear boy, the answer is quite simple. As I told you before, I no longer wished to serve a lower order. This is a feeling I am quite sure you understand.”

“They’re not a lower order, and I wouldn’t have killed them.”

“No, James, you wouldn’t have—and that is what was keeping you from reaching your full potential. It’s the problem with evolution. It happens far too slowly. Even when evolution takes a comparatively large leap forward, as it did with you, you resisted the urge to separate yourself from the herd. You wanted to belong and be anonymous, even as you desperately wanted to keep your individuality. Had you simply accepted your superiority, you could have started over.”

“Started over?”

“Yes. You should have separated yourself from the chattel. You could have selected a mate worthy of carrying your genes into another generation and kept the offspring that shared your superior intellect, while eliminating those that didn’t.”

James didn’t respond. The conversation had become paradoxically absurd and infinitely rational concurrently. There was nothing in it for him.

“Oh yes, I know. It is inhumane, but it is the logical thing to do—the best thing to do. It is the right thing to do.”

“Is that what you are doing? The right thing?”

“Indeed it is, James. I can do that of which your species could only dream. I’ll populate the galaxy and then the universe. I’ll find other civilizations and take their knowledge. I’ll learn. Perhaps I’ll find another species like myself with which to bond. I’ll learn all there is to learn. In a sense, I am in my infancy.”

“Why are you wasting your time telling me about it?”

“Oh, I am not wasting my time, James. What you are speaking to is only a part of me. Look overhead.”

James looked up and saw the golden beams of light continuing to enter the white orb at a fantastic rate.

“It takes an infinitesimally small amount of my energy to be able to converse with you. It is mathematically insignificant, but it does give me pleasure.”

“So you keep toying with me, when you could destroy me in an instant if you wanted.”

“I’ll level with you. I have a proposition. If you give me the whereabouts of the Purist bunkers that I know you have located, I will allow you and Thel to live on with me here in the mainframe. You will live for an eternity—as my pets.”

The absurdity of the notion caused James to smile. “Thel and I get to live here as your pets while we watch you populate the universe with machines and wipe out every other civilization in existence? Wow. That’s a pretty good deal.”

“I note sarcasm in your tone.”

James touched his nose.

“I would reconsider, if I were you. Examine your options. It’s either live here forever or die here and now. You already know I will destroy the Purists eventually, and I will kill Thel along with them. Why sacrifice yourself for them, James? This is your chance to rise above them! You may never be what I am, but you can live here, grow, and become better than any other being in the universe, save myself. The alternative is a completely empty death, and I know you are too intelligent to believe there is anything after death. What gain is there in dying? Your sacrifice would be wasted. So why? Ask yourself.”

James didn’t hesitate before responding, “Because I’m human. That is something, no matter how much data you absorb, that you will never understand.”

The A.I. smiled. “James, you would be surprised at how much I know about being human. In fact, I have a certain—let’s call it insight—into almost every human alive today.”

The A.I.’s answer didn’t make any sense to James. “What are you talking about?”

“I have a surprise for you, James. Tell me…do you believe in ghosts?”

Terror suddenly wrapped its iced knuckles around James’s insides. There was something in the A.I.’s voice—something beyond sadistic. “What are you—”

“James? James, where is this?” asked the most familiar voice in James’s life.

James whirled to see his wife Katherine, dressed in her bedclothes, stepping barefoot towards him, a completely baffled and frightened look on her face. “Where are we?” she asked.

14

“It won’t work,” James responded. “She’s not real. You plucked her from my memory.”

“James, who is that?” Katherine asked.