DARK CELL part 2 of 5.

*2 of 5.

She laid back on her chair, her hands still smelling oil and nano-paint, and watched the little show. Not Dee Kay show on the battle field, that one was going well, no surprise. She was now with her sights on the show that was going on the meeting room. With despise, she acknowledged that Fredrick, the weapons development CEO, had them on the palm of his little rat pawns. When he started lecturing them on the dangers of using human soldiers and non Self-aware machines against the “Hostiles” , she muted the screen:

-How is that again? Oh yes, dear military leaders of world: “The enemy can infect all humans and at least 20% of other animal life forms, mutating them on news Hostiles, using microscopic pieces of unknown matter, we call dark soma. They put those microscopic contagious agents on bullets, grenades, bombs, armor, knifes, claws, water, food and barely anything they can touch”, so stop acting retarded and don’t send more sheep to the wolfs, you assholes.

A satellite up-link flashed a possessed tank, probably an old Le Clerc 8X, probably “salvaged” from Flanders.

-Le Clerc 8X, last “Le Clerc” to see battle, originally equipped with a 175mm canon, a 20mm rail gun, one medium laser canon and an old but reliable .50 machine gun. Armor…What was the armor again?

She hit some keys and the data flooded the screen.

-Oh I see, two centimeters of aluminum-titanium alloy, four centimeters of anti thermo-ballistic ceramic armor and up to six centimeters of disposable trans-reactive armor, plus explosive armor, in the 8XB model… Not too shabby! Oh I miss France…

She missed so many things… How could the entire world crumble like that in six years? She couldn’t stop the flood of hurtful memories from her past:

UNITED EUROPE FEDERATION, France administrative zone, September 08^th, 2281. She was one among thousand researchers working for UEF, developing new technologies to apply mostly in military and space mining areas. Her expertise as cybernetics and AI engineer granted her a generous governmental subside and freedom to explore some unorthodox ideas she had about intelligent machinery. She had good looks, and with 18 years, she was also much younger than most of her colleagues. Still, she had a not so nice nickname: “crazy cat lady”, once she was always with four cats with her, all times.

The cats were actually guinea pigs for her experiments, and also good company. The conventional AI technology limited itself to copy organic neural-networks like the ones you can find in a cat’s brain, but she decided to work it backwards: Four kittens had chips implanted in their brains at birth, and as they grow up, she used the chips to redesign their neural networks, turning them in true organic computers –smart, moody, arrogant and extremely cuddly computers – with a intelligence level similar to human, something close to 8.0 points on the Warren-Torres  AI intelligence chart.

Most people would flip out or just stare in awe watching the four cats connecting themselves to larger computers and power armors and acting as lab assistants and not like ordinary house pets, and more than a few would question the ethical implication of such experiments, and she would always give the same answer:

-It’s more ethical than changing the DNA of pets to make them non-allergic, or naturally pink, or three times bigger than normal, so people can kill and eat giant cows that are so heavy that can’t even move. Why don’t you go bother then instead of me?

But in the last weeks no one would bother her about ethics. Everyone was preoccupied with something far more dramatic, an asteroid, in collision course with Earth. Religious fanatics saw that as a sign of the end of times and started a springtime of terrorist acts. Politicians saw it as a opportunity to build up their reputations, and the military, as usual, only care about using it as excuse to get more funding. The serious scientist community tried to remind everyone that they foreseen that with a margin of more than thirty years, but who listen to those guys anyway? Two months before the impact, the “GOD’SPEAR” orbital laser canon manufactured by a joint effort between US and China were ready to fire.

-Michele! Drop the cats and come see it! They are about to fire the “God’spear”!

-Oh please Francine! Why would I bother to see them blowing a boulder in space? Let me be!

-Oh mon cher ami…Don’t be such a bitch and come see the fire works. All cool kids will be there, slacking off during work hours at government expense! Maybe you find a two legged cat to take home and handle that horrible humor of yours…

-Va te faire foutre Francine! Told you a million times that I already have a boyfriend, and I do not need sex in hourly doses to keep my good mood!

-Grossière. Now stop whinnying and come share some quality time with bipedal mammals.

Against her will, she accepted. The large room was crowded, people from all sectors watching the news channel. The atmosphere was quite joyfull, no worries about the success of the mission, was only a social meeting to watch the most expensive fireworks display of the decade, she thought.

To be honest, her and her boyfriend weren’t much more than pen-pals lately. Distance do that to relationships: you think you found the love of your life, but as soon you don’t have it with you 24/7 it fade away. She felt like she was forgot and probably replaced, but no way she would admit it. A masculine voice, strong but pleasant like velvet sound close to her ear.

-Look what the cat drag in…Michele! Francine keep telling me that only doomsday could make you leave the lab for a day… who could guess she was telling the truth?

Francine smiled, faking to be a little offended:

-Fredrick, darling, do you doubt my word or my vast knowledge of human behavior?!

-None! Not anymore!

And they laughed together, Frederick, liaison from the weapons industry inside the campus, she would not admit but he had a strong presence and sex appeal. She never met a man who could play with her so easily: He knew exactly what buttons to push to make her blush or anything else. And yet, he never took advantage of it...

Her less rational part of the brain saw it as a proof of affection, but her cold, logic part warned her that it could be just part of his famous corporative game.

Yes, Frederick, so young, yet so powerful, a talented executive, capable to read and manipulate anyone to do what he want them to. Her best judgment told her to not smile so much, to not be so happy for meeting him, but back then she was more naïve.

- Fran kidnapped me, im her hostage until someone explode that rock, then I will go back to my cats.

-And computers, but lets enjoy this brief time of captivity and chat, how are you doing?

And soon she lost track of time, and of Francine. The bitch delivered her to the big bad wolf and disappeared in thin air, but she didn’t minded. He had the right thing, the thing that make you wish to be kidnapped more frequently. But suddenly, the atmosphere in the room changed, for the worst.

-Jesus! What was that? It was reflected?!?

-The damn rock is starting to glow! Its supposed to happen?

The chaos took the room, but less than a minute later, when the broadcast got cut after a flash, a strange silence fell over us. Frederick was already on his way to the company, when everything electronic start malfunctioning. Phones failing and ringing out of control, digital watches flashing, channels scrambled.

-oh my god, my cats!

More than 76% of world eletronics are “EMP-Proof”, a military advancement that become quite ordinary and that shield electronic devices from get destroyed by eletro magnetic pulses, and everything pointed that a heavy EMP just hit the city. A pulse so strong probably ruined forever any non shielded system, and damaged bootlegged shields. She always used the best, but once her cats had brain implants, no way to predict what could have happen to them. She crashed in her lab and found the cats on the floor, still, but breathing.

Some people will say that Michele had no heart, for using cats in her experiments, but she fell on her knees and burst into tears when she saw her cats, her only true friends, on the ground, maybe on the edge of death.

Several kilometers away from there, Frederick got caught by the EMP on the private company tilt jet. It was nothing more than a nuisance, less than a turbulence. If the system haven’t warned him about it, he wouldn’t notice it at all. After all the jet was a state of art military transport jet.

He called a secret number on a secure line of his cell phone:

-It’s Frederick, 0-9-7 Charlie, code: Frey.

-IDENTITY CONFIRMED, CONNECTING TO ODIN ARMS INDUSTRY SECURE INNER-COMM… CONECTION COMPLETED.

-Frederick speaking, give me a report.

-Sir, the laser canon attack failed to pierce the outer hull of the unidentified object. It appear to have been deflected by some kind of energy shield, probably magnetic. As expected, the object counter attack, but the range and efficiency of the attack was far beyond expectation: the laser canon, and the other eight black-ops war frigates sent by US Space Army and the twelve frigates sent by the people liberation army of China were completely destroyed before they had the chance to deploy their fusion weapons. At the same time, it sent a EMP wave against the Earth. As predicted all ODIN systems were protected, and by extension, the United Europe Defense Systems too.

-Serves them right for not listening us and  playing like cowboys against aliens. Don’t waste time, attack their suppliers, it’s the chance we have been waiting to nail some big contracts within the US and China. Use the money on the secret accounts I indicated to cause chaos on the stock market.

-Yes. Anything else?

-Leak all the info on the attack, make US and China look like idiots, make the populace panic over aliens and things from outer space. Nothing better to business than scared people and stupid world leaders.

 He turn off the phone, laid back and smiled. A world war against aliens: someone smart could get very rich with that kind of opportunity. Someone like him…