84437 (Part three)

At the sound of the voice he searched around the cave, fearing that someone had sneaked in whilst he had been distracted and hadn’t been looking, but it was empty.

“Hello 84437.”

“Hello,” he replied feeling silly to be talking to a machine.

“What would you like to know?” the machine asked. Although it was clearly not a human voice, whoever had programmed it had given it some personality. It had a pleasant enough sounding tone unlike the one from the testing room.

“What are you?” he asked.

“I was programmed to remove you from the facility and ensure your continuing survival until you become fully functioning. Then it is up to you what to do, as I have no instructions beyond that point other than to assist you.”

He was surprised to learn this. “It was you who did that?”

“Yes.” And he thought he detected a tone of pleasure now.

“Where am I?”

“This place doesn’t have a name yet.”

He frowned and tried another question, thinking that maybe he hadn’t got the wording quite right and the machine didn’t understand. “What happened to the facility?”

“It was vaporised.”

“Wow.” Not destroyed or blown up, vaporised. “That must have been one big explosion.” So that’s why there’s no ruins, he thought to himself.

“Yes it was. I can calculate it to the nearest kilo-tonne if you wish,” the machine offered helpfully.

“No, no that’s alright.” He had already got the idea that it had been pretty large and the numbers would have been wasted on him.

But that still didn’t explain the lack of a crater. An explosion of that magnitude must have left one of those behind and it would have scorched everything around it for miles too, including himself. And how was it that he hadn’t been injured? Maybe he had been thrown clear and afterwards he had been travelling away from the crater. He did recall having a sensation like falling, but it had all been too quick for his senses to capture it fully.

“So what do we do now?” He asked, choosing not to give voice to his misgivings just yet.

“My sensors indicate that it is getting dark outside and that it will be night soon. It would be helpful for you to get some sleep soon. If you open the case you will find some stones. You will only need one of them.”

He took one out. “What are they for?” he asked, turning it over in his hands.

“These can be used to monitor our immediate surroundings and will raise an alert should there be any activity. Go outside and put one near the entrance.”

He took the stone and taking five steps away from the entrance put it in a clump of tall grass where the stones formed a V, thinking at least that way he would remember where he had put it. At the same time, he glanced around the hill and down into the valley. It still looked empty. The distant sound of birds singing in the woods, getting ready to roost echoed across the valley. He stood, listening to them. It was something he hadn’t heard for a long time. A sound his ears had forgotten, and he wondered just how long he had been stuck inside the facility.

When he returned he asked “Do you think there will be people from the facility looking for me?”

“No. They are all gone.”

“But what if the explosion alerted others who might come looking for me?”

“That would be impossible. You are alone. There is no-one else here.”

“I am?”

“Yes, but it won’t always be the case.”

“It won’t?” He didn’t understand anything that this contraption was saying.

“No. They will come looking for you.” The machine let him digest that piece of information then gave him another. “In a few thousand years this is going to be a busy market town.”

“A few thousand years?” He repeated, blinking and wondering if he had misheard. “So when is this then?” He asked.

“By your calendar it’s 45BC. There won’t be a settlement here until at least AD150 when the Romans come here and build their villas.”

“What are you? A time machine or something?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes I am.”

“So you have literally taken me where no-one can find me,” he murmured and pondered this strange and rather exhilarating idea.

“Yes.” The machine replied.

He did not think that he would be able to sleep after that, but the combination of everything that had happened at the facility, the escape and then the exercise and fresh air had made him tired that he had no trouble in falling asleep.

Waking up in the hole was, well, both a shock and a relief. He was half expecting to be back at the facility either in his room and finding out that this was all just a dream, or in the testing room, as that’s where things tended to get weird.

“Good morning 84437.”

He almost jumped out of his skin on hearing a voice in the emptiness. He had forgotten about that too, and it took a moment or two to recall al of the details.

“Good morning,” he replied, rubbing his eyes.

“Did you sleep well?” It asked in that robot-human voice.

He said he had. “What time is it?” He asked.

“It’s early morning, but the time is irrelevant.”

“Oh?” And he smiled. Eventually he asked, “so what are you?”

“You have heard of computers haven’t you?” the machine said, indicating that he should.

He nodded his head. He wasn’t stupid.

“Well, if you’re familiar with a quantum computer, then I’m several generations ahead of those.”

“Oh.” He couldn’t imagine that. He wasn’t sure what a quantum computer was.

In his mind he saw lots of images. Computers. Boxes. Towers. Circuit boards. Terminals. Keyboards. QWERTY. Black screens filled with green text. Rolls of magnetic tape, long black ribbons that were wound up inside wheels spinning and whirring in cases in rooms.

And then he saw projected images, letters and blocks of light of all colours. Spinning translucent crystalline patterns until they expanded out across the air. Were they real and where had they come from? It was all confused, all jumbled together. Were they proper memories or just a kaleidoscope of white noise that his brain had created?

“So you’re a quantum computer?”

It seemed to let him off. “Yes, but I’m much more than that. I’m an AI unit,” it replied in that funny way. Was it offended? He couldn’t tell. Was it possible to actually offend a machine? He was alone in the wilderness with a machine that talked like a human.

“So, what am I going to do now?” He asked. He had been wondering what he was supposed to do. The machine had said there won’t be a settlement here until at least AD 150. He’d grow old and die well before that happened, that was if he was able to survive out here at all.

“We’re going to be travelling soon. We have a long journey ahead of us. We should make a start.”

He cleared up the cave, scuffing over the floor, trying to erase his footprints with a handful of long thick grasses and make it look as if no-one had been there. Standing at the mouth of the cave, with the metal briefcase in one hand and the machine in the other, his stomach churned, feeling like a small ship tossed on a huge uncharted ocean. He realised the task at hand. He really was alone wasn’t he?

“Where are we going?” he asked, picking up the amber stone from the clump of grass where he had left it the night before. In the daylight he saw that it was almost see-through, with tiny bubbles frozen inside it.

“Stand and look towards the sun,” the machine instructed.

As he whirled around, he caught sight of the place where he had arrived the day before. “What is it I’m looking for?”

“There’s a hill on the horizon with a circle of stones at the top. That is where we are going.”

He put the stone back in the briefcase and looked to where the machine had said, shading his eyes against the bright sunlight, seeing only more wilderness ahead, stretching out all around. The machine was asking him to go in the opposite direction from where he had originally come, meaning that he had to go back the way he had come and retrace his footsteps.

“Okay,” he said, seeing the hill and the stones. They were small. It looked like a long way off too.

His pace was slow and the hill deceptively far. He followed the river and having been assured by the machine that the water was quite fresh, stopped to take another drink, doing so whenever he was thirsty. While he walked, he looked about to make sure there was still no-one about. Further down in the valley there were no signs of human life. No settlements or encampments, no smoke from fires, no tracks from vehicles and no planes or helicopters in the sky. Nothing, and he hoped this meant that he wasn’t being followed.

As the sun rose higher and the day wore on, it got warmer and he got hungry. The machine instructed him to pick berries and nuts and fungus, showing him which were safe to eat, diverting their route into the edges of the woods that came down into the valley. After he had eaten handfuls of them, as they were in plentiful supply, he drank from river again.

Whilst he walked, the machine was busy telling him all about the Roman Villas with the mosaic floors that would be built here in the valley and the Roman road that would cross it going all the way to the city. But he was only half listening, gazing across the hills and trying to imagine what they would be like in the future. The future.

“Is it possible to go back to see the dinosaurs? Or to go forwards to the distant future?”

The machine had stopped talking and seemed to be considering the question. “Yes, however I would advise against it as such a trip is quite unnecessary for our immediate purpose.

[www.abovetopsecret.com...]84437 (part 1)[/url]
[www.abovetopsecret.com...]84437 (part 2)[/url]
[www.abovetopsecret.com...]84437 (part 3)[/url]
[www.abovetopsecret.com...]84437 (part 4)[/url]

a reply to: YarlanZey

Very Cool!!!
I am going on to Part 4 now...... Syx.

Part four here I come.....