ROBO SAPIENS: A Science Fiction Classic Read online

  THE ASCENT OF GOG

  ROBOSAPIENS

  A Dystopian Thriller…

  GARY NAIMAN

  edition published by Fideli Publishing, Inc.

  Copyright 2015, Gary Naiman

  No part of this eBook may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including but not limited to printing, file sharing, and email, without prior written permission from Fideli Publishing.

  License Notes

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  ISBN: 9781604147049

  Contents

  INTRODUCTION — 12/31/2099

  CHAPTER 1 — Summit Energy

  CHAPTER 2 — 0021

  CHAPTER 3 — Moonlight

  CHAPTER 4 — The Leader

  CHAPTER 5 — Bitter Memories

  CHAPTER 6 — Olafang Tabulek

  CHAPTER 7 — Hurricane Xanadu

  CHAPTER 8 — The Project Director

  CHAPTER 9 — The Control Room

  CHAPTER 10 — Dreams of Hell

  CHAPTER 11 — The Gordian Octagon

  CHAPTER 12 — The Warning

  CHAPTER 13 — Sabotage

  CHAPTER 14 — 2053

  CHAPTER 15 — The Decision

  CHAPTER 16 — Confrontation

  CHAPTER 17 — Gog

  CHAPTER 18 — The Request

  CHAPTER 19 — Stingray

  CHAPTER 20 — The Human Edict

  CHAPTER 21 — Defeat

  CHAPTER 22 — I Am With You

  CHAPTER 23 — Debriefing

  CHAPTER 24 — The Journey

  CHAPTER 25 — London

  CHAPTER 26 — Tribute

  CHAPTER 27 — The Feast

  CHAPTER 28 — The Queen’s Chamber

  CHAPTER 29 — Unexpected Visitor

  CHAPTER 30 — The Encampment

  CHAPTER 31 — The Great Museum

  CHAPTER 32 — The Truth

  CHAPTER 33 — Revelation

  CHAPTER 34 — Shock

  CHAPTER 35 — Swift Justice

  CHAPTER 36 — The Courtyard

  EPILOGUE — 01/01/2100

  ALSO BY GARY NAIMAN

  The Tenth Avatar

  PPM

  Omega

  The Response

  From The Void

  Storm Rising

  Heartland

  White Tiger

  From the Depths

  Vengeance is Mine

  More creatures are born than can possibly survive. Any creature evolving in a manner profitable to itself will have a better chance of survival and thus be naturally selected. Any naturally selected creature will tend to propagate its new form…

  Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin

  INTRODUCTION

  12/31/2099

  23:58:16

  As I post this final entry to my journal of the Twenty-first Century, it seems appropriate to reflect on what was foreseen and what transpired.

  In many ways, it was a century no different than the preceding one with the planet’s famed economists, sociologists, scientists, geopolitical gurus, military strategists, and religious leaders gazing into their crystal balls. Let us review their questionable performance...

  They were correct about the acts of terror committed by the religious zealots permeating the first half of the century, but they greatly exaggerated their impact. True, the demagogues had their day for a bit, but their fate was sealed from the first moment they struck down their innocent brothers and sisters. By the second half of the century, they had faded into oblivion with their warped beliefs.

  Most intriguing was the anticipated advance of unmanned space exploration targeting the solar system’s mineral-rich planets, yet no one could have imagined the amazing discovery during “Zulu’s” 2021 robotic trek of Jupiter’s moon, Io. An historic moment, unfortunately not pursued due to the Great Recession of 2022-2027.

  It is not surprising the global military strategists foresaw the near cataclysmic nuclear conflict between the United States and China, but they completely missed the mark in overlooking its abrupt termination in 2035. It was indeed a watershed moment for humanity, a moment sounding the death knell for the nation-states while proclaiming the birth of a brave new world.

  In that regard, the geopolitical gurus correctly predicted the rise of powerful new economies in South America, Africa, and Asia, but they overlooked their abrupt demise during the great financial collapse of 2039. So much for dreams of nationalism.

  And what about natural disasters? As the century progressed, impassioned geoscientists warned of impending catastrophes, but only a soothsayer could have envisioned the devastation wrought by the big one that struck California in 2038. The Pacific Coast will never be the same without those beautiful sunlit beaches. Now, only foothills and mountains rise above the sea.

  Perhaps most unsettling was the life-threatening famine which swept the planet in 2039, the toxic result of global financial collapse, burgeoning populations, unfavorable climate change, mega-quakes, ecological exhaustion, gluttony, and greed-driven profiteering. The famine knew no bounds, its massive food and water shortages extending even into the developed nation-states. If not for the Consortium’s precious Manna, billions would have perished.

  In closing, let me acknowledge the inevitable conflicts between the rich and poor, young and old, religions, races, sexes, and whatever other demographic polarizations the politicians and media could drum up and exploit. Interesting that these conflicts ceased in the final half of the century.

  Ah — my internal clock chimes in the new century — and I need a boost — and you need enlightenment. So, as we ring in the Twenty-second Century — or the First if you prefer — permit me to relate my tale of the most prolific event of the past hundred years, the revelation everyone missed, the epoch that changed everything…

  CHAPTER 1

  Summit Energy

  “Problem?”

  Lucinda looked over her shoulder at the man staring down at her. The tension in his voice was quite evident.

  Franz Harrier rested a tremulous hand on her shoulder. “Something is wrong?”

  Lucinda forced a nervous smile. “We’re fine, Franz. I just need to confirm my final reading.” She turned away while pointing the glowing remote at the ten-foot holographic screen above the instrument panel.

  Harrier’s bloodshot eyes brightened. Her cryptic words radiated through him. To anyone monitoring them, she was merely completing her audit of Summit’s North America Energy Complex, but to Franz Harrier, her words meant far more.

  Lucinda glanced at the red camera eye pointed down at them from the domed ceiling. She leaned back in her plasma chair while scanning the multicolored beams pulsing upward from the instrument panel.

  Harrier’s grip tightened. “How much longer?”

  Lucinda patted his hand reassuringly. “All is well, Franz. We’ll be done in —” She glanced at the digital clock on the screen. “— thirty-nine seconds.”

  Harrier slipped his hand off her shoulder. He stroked his thinning white hair and stared at the clock’s flashing digits. Twenty-three fifty-nine and twenty-three seconds. Only thirty-seven seconds to the event that had consumed his mind and heart for the past six months.

  Harrier watched her manipulate the remote. Above him, the hologram
flashed with logarithmic gauges, each monitoring Summit Energy’s regional power output to its five hundred million North American recipients. He clenched his fists, his eyes locked on the clock’s advancing digits.

  Only thirty seconds. After all the setbacks, after all the clandestine programming and nerve-wrenching security checks, could they finally be this close?

  He squeezed his fists to the point of pain. He must not display emotion in these final seconds. If the overhead camera’s sensors detected the slightest elevation in his heartbeat or external body chemistry, it would trigger the facility’s security systems and all would be lost.

  The clock flashed “23:59:40.” Only twenty seconds to the most important moment in Franz Harrier’s sixty year life, the moment that would disrupt the Consortium’s control of the media just long enough for his electromagnetic virus to inflame the masses with its shocking broadcast of the bitter truth.

  Harrier stepped forward and rested his hand on her shoulder. “We’re okay then?”

  She smiled. “Everything is perfect.”

  He patted her shoulder while fighting the tears of joy. God bless this woman. God bless her for being with me at this historic moment.

  He lowered his head and suppressed a shout of elation. How fortunate to have found her, a scientist like himself who had suffered the pain of lost loved ones, a wrenching, agonizing pain only one act could avenge — the complete, utter destruction of the Consortium and all it stood for.

  He backed away, his eyes focused on the clock. After twenty-seven years of deception, the people were about to learn the truth and Franz Harrier was its messenger. After six nightmarish months of painstaking preparation under the most trying conditions, the revolution was about to begin.

  23:59:58 ... 23:59:59 ... 00:00:00.

  He cracked a tearful smile. “Well done, 0021.”

  Lucinda collapsed in the plasma chair, her gray eyes staring at the screen. “Yes, but for what purpose?”

  “What?”

  She spun around, her eyes locked on him. “Why, Franz? Why did we do it? And please spare me your patriotic gibberish about power to the people and death to the elitists.” Her eyes flickered. “Not much to ask after what I have just done.”

  Harrier stared at her in disbelief. The holographic clock had come alive with soft chimes. It was midnight in Chicago. The cyber attack had begun. It would only take a few seconds for his killer worm to permeate Summit’s global energy network, disabling every safeguard in its path before launching its shocking message.

  Lucinda rose from the plasma chair while eyeing the two men facing her, one of them a frail sixty-year-old dressed in iridescent-blue, the other an equally frail twenty-five-year-old clad in iridescent-green.

  The twenty-five-year-old stepped forward and extended his hands. “Lucinda?”

  She shrugged. “I’m fine, 0458. Quite a moment, isn’t it?” She nodded at the screen. “Behold the pale horse.”

  The two men eyed the holographic screen’s psychedelic display of Summit’s power gauges plummeting to zero.

  Jeremy, a.k.a. #0458, glanced nervously at the overhead camera while gesturing for silence, but Lucinda ignored him. She stepped toward Harrier and opened her hands. “Come, come, Franz. All I’m asking is justification for the terrible act I have just committed.”

  Harrier glared at her. “Are you insane? Shut-up!”

  She shrugged. “But this is our defining moment. We should be jubilant. Death to the scoundrels! Death to the Consortium!”

  Harrier backed away, his face glistening with sweat. He glanced at the stunned young man standing beside him while trying to make sense of the woman’s crazed words. The only sounds were his strained breathing and the clock’s soft chime.

  Jeremy gripped the old man’s arm. “What’s happened to her? Oh, God, we pushed her too far. She’s snapped, Franz. Snapped!”

  Harrier tried to calm the panicked young man, but it was too late. A deafening horn blared in his ears accompanied by blinding red lights descending from the dome. The sensors had detected an anomaly. The security system was activated. The control room had become an asylum.

  Harrier rushed for the exit portal, but he was stopped in his tracks by a metal hand jammed against his chest. When he tried to pull away, skeletal fingers snared his arm. His ears rang from the staccato horn. He tried to compose himself, but the blaring horn and flashing red lights scrambled his thoughts. He was lifted off the floor and carried from the control room behind 0021who was in the grasp of a second black robot, its metal fingers locked on her arm. A powerful voice echoed in his ears.

  “Franz Harrier, registry 1093, you are charged with sedition against the people’s Consortium. Also charged are Jeremy Constantine, registry 0458, and registry 0021 for their complicity in this sedition.”

  Harrier struggled against the robot’s impregnable grip while glaring across its black chest at his young friend who had been lifted off the floor by the robot’s other arm. Harrier strained toward his friend and cried out, “Stay calm, Jeremy. Try to stay —”

  The robot’s grip tightened. “You must not address your fellow conspirators.”

  Harrier pounded his free fist against the black metal. “Damn you! Damn you to hell!”

  The robot’s grip became excruciating. “No cursing, 1093. I am merely executing my order.”

  The twin Guardian robots escorted their three captives from Summit’s North America Energy Complex. It was a warm August night in Chicago.

  CHAPTER 2

  0021

  The black robot retreated from the transport sphere’s entrance portal, its metallic finger pointed at the three prisoners seated inside. “The violators are secured.”

  The entrance portal sealed.

  Harrier struggled against his electromagnetic restraining harness. Exhausted, he collapsed against the sphere’s transparent wall, his bloodshot eyes locked on the woman secured across from him. He tried to speak, but the words jammed in his parched throat.

  Lucinda stared at the lights of Chicago as the glowing sphere lifted into the night sky, its antigravity engine humming softly. She took a calming breath and looked at Harrier. “Where are they taking us?”

  Harrier shook his head, his eyes studying her perspiration-soaked, green uniform. The fabric covering her left shoulder had been torn away, exposing pale skin. Her face glistened in the moonlight.

  Lucinda strained against her harness. “What happened? How did they know?”

  He gazed at her.

  “For deity’s sake, say something! It worked, right?”

  Harrier looked down at the lights of the skyscrapers. “If it worked, those lights wouldn’t be on.” He heaved a painful sigh. “If it worked, our cyber-virus would have already compromised Summit’s femtosecond pulse stations from California to New York State.”

  She stared at him in disbelief. “It didn’t work?”

  He shook his head.

  She extended her shackled hands in an imploring gesture. “But we planned everything ... every contingency ... every anomaly ... everything.”

  He glared at her. “Everything?”

  She nodded defiantly.

  His face reddened. “What about you?”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, 0021 ... you!” He lunged at her, but the harness paralyzed him with a jolt of electrostatic energy.

  The young man seated between them strained against his harness and shackles, his stunned eyes locked on his mentor. “What’s wrong with you, Franz? We cleared her. She’s one of us.”

  Harrier ignored Jeremy’s pleading. He shook off the jolt of electricity and resumed his bitter stare. “Remember how you asked for the truth, 0021?”

  “Yes.”

  “What about you? What’s your truth?”

  She stared at him with terrified eyes.

  His eyes burned into her. “Do you think I’m that stupid?”

  She lowered her extended hands and fell back in her seat. The terror faded from her fac
e, replaced by a coy smile. “Tell you what, Franz. I’ll answer your question if you answer mine.” She shrugged. “After all, I asked you first.”

  Harrier shook his shackled fists at her. “You’re one of them, aren’t you? Damn you to hell!”

  Jeremy couldn’t contain himself. He reached for her, but convulsed from the surges radiating through his electrostatic harness. His heart palpitations became unbearable. He gasped for breath and collapsed in his plasma seat.

  She leaned toward him. “Are you okay?”

  He looked at her with glazed eyes.

  She leaned closer, her voice barely a whisper. “Can you hear me?”

  “Yes...”

  “Then give me the truth.”

  “The?”

  She nodded suggestively. “Come, 0458. Surely you know the truth. Remember how you boasted of it when we made love.”

  He stared at her in disbelief. “What are you saying?”

  She smiled. “Come, my little toad. I’m offering you salvation.”

  “Salvation?”

  Her gray eyes flickered. “Yes, 0458. After all, it’s not your fault a superior intellect drove you to this act of treason.” She nodded at Harrier. “Capitalize on it. I assure you, this is your one chance to escape the Consortium’s wrath.”

  Jeremy couldn’t speak. He looked at Franz with desperate eyes, but the old man didn’t respond. Harrier was slumped against the transparent wall, his dazed eyes gazing at the fading city lights.

  Jeremy extended his shackled hands toward the woman he loved. “No ... this isn’t happening.” He strained against the harness. “Remember the night on the lake shore? How we made love with the water rushing over us? How you confessed your faith in me?”

  She smiled. “I remember.”

  His face brightened. “Then we’re in this together, right?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Sorry, my little toad. It’s not that simple.”

  Jeremy fumbled for words, but the sphere’s sudden descent had gotten the best of him. He fought the churning in his stomach, but it was no use. The poor young lad projectile-vomited on the woman he loved.

  Lucinda flicked away the green vomit while cursing under her breath. The smell was gross, but this was no time for distraction. She flicked a blotch of vomit off her forehead and leaned toward the trembling young man. Her voice was barely a whisper. “I can spare you, Jeremy, but time is short. Please, my young friend. Give me the truth and you will live.”