Deadman

Book 2 Chapter 47: System Origin

It landed me on a page asking for credentials, and for a moment I started to think of how I could possibly find them, when that page immediately moved on to the next screen. I glanced at the computer and noticed an ID card firmly jammed inside a slot at the side of it. It seemed that Dave had left it behind, much to my benefit. It had the same three options as the other computers had. I selected Project Journal, and started reading.

Entry 1.

Today is a great day for the American people. Thanks to the brilliance and foresight of our great nation’s leaders, these United States of America will be preserved, made to withstand even armageddon. Work on the database has already begun, and we’ve been adding more and more brain scans into it in order to help facilitate skill acquisition. Early tests have shown high levels of success, especially with the more routine skills for the lower level jobs. Advanced professions are another story, though development of additional abilities to bolster those jobs is for now, how we work around that. We’re just starting, but I can tell right now we’re preparing for the dawn of a better America.

After that were a number of entries relating to the success of the skill transfer on rats and how their success in mazes was improved drastically after it was performed. There were also a number of diagrams I didn’t recognize, and technical information I couldn’t begin to parse. Eventually I found an entry that seemed to be more interesting.

Entry 7.

We had our first human trial this week. Subject A-1, was injected with the nanites that had an alpha version of the system in place. It took several days to see results as the nanites carved out the skill routes based on the brain scans we’d taken. Once it was completed, he was able to play several songs on the piano perfectly, and was able to outperform me in Chess. Unfortunately he had an aneurysm shortly after. Perhaps the information needs to be staggered rather than carved out by them all at once. Overall, the test was highly successful.

There were a number of other entries after that, detailing additional testing while they slowly figured out how much information a person could handle at a time at the the cost of roughly a dozen additional volunteers. Then I reached another set of more interesting logs.

Entry 23.

The skills research continues. Literacy can now be downloaded automatically over time to ensure that those in the system will be able to understand it early in life. We are seeing limited gains with the more complex skills. If a person already has underlying skills that feed into them, their successes are greater, but it can be almost impossible to measure. We have moved on to abilities. A soldier was given a limited nanite injection and after a day of integration was able to activate the tentatively titled, ‘Fury’ ability. With his adrenaline artificially activated, he was able to score highly on all physical tests. Unfortunately, he was unable to switch the ability off and died of cardiac arrest. Overall, the test was a success, though this is likely the easiest of the abilities for the nanites to implement. He also noted a dislike of the font choice for the notifications and display. We will have the team investigate alternative options, in his memory.

Entry 24.

We received a transfer of personnel from the reVolutionary Virus project recently, they’ve integrated very well. One of them, Mavis I think, suggested building in a kind of synergy between the nanites used in the R.A.S. and the virus, as a method of increasing adaptability and strength. I gave her the go ahead, but with the understanding that his work on that would be secondary to anything else assigned to him. He’s a bit of an odd fellow, I think perhaps overly concerned with research of my…contemporary, but he does good work, and we need all the help we can get after what happened to Hawaii, and all the ramping up.

After that were several more deaths which Dave marked as successful tests as he further built on the R.A.S. and more technical information that was beyond me. Eventually, I found what I’d been looking for.

Entry 36.

The basic version of the R.A.S. has been completed and sent to the CIA for dispersal at maximum spread zones. The nanites will detect whether or not someone’s DNA has been placed into the citizenship database, or is a descendent of someone who has, otherwise it will remain inactive. The more advanced version will not need to be dispersed, but rather activated by a signal we send out from multiple satellites, each corresponding with an area of the US, with one that links them together. Once that’s through, citizens will be able to vote, it will add all political offices, and their abilities will actually make it possible to make changes to the system itself. Much like our beautiful constitution, the RAS will be able to grow and adapt with the times future Americans find themselves in.

There was part of what I needed to know. The higher functions of the system would create jobs for the political classes. The Remnants knew that’s what was waiting, and had likely already begun the process of gathering votes and preparing to take control as swiftly as possible using their foreknowledge. I didn’t like the idea of them being able to change the system, but if I was able to get the information to Pott’s or even the Khan as well, then it might be possible to keep them from gaining control of it. I had plenty of those storage devices they’d given me. No reason all the data I found couldn’t wind up in more places than one. I turned my attention back to the screen, there weren’t many entries left. Most of what remained was technical data and experiments with the system, all of which were marked as successful even if to my limited knowledge they appeared to be anything but. I opened the last entry.

Entry 43.

He took it all. All the data. Wiped the rest. How a Russian agent was able to infiltrate us at this level… I suppose that’s the fault of security. Between the data that was wiped, and the satellite that was knocked out of the sky, the advanced version of the system may never be fully recoverable. The coordinating satellite is the one that was taken down, and now it won’t be able to broadcast the update signal, and coordination between regional satellite will be limited. We have a backup. The nanites were meant to be able to pass information to one another locally. In theory, if someone was to receive the update individually, then get within range of others, then the advanced version could still be at least partially activated, though only the Presidential level will be possible without the coordination satellite. We’re working on the solution now, but it may not matter. The bombs have started falling. God bless America. God save her.

That didn’t bode well, but I didn’t see any other information regarding activating the advanced system, or what he meant. I switched over to the personal log.josei

Entry 1.

I’m fucked. I didn’t expect to get this far, and now I have to take a dozen theories and make them practical or I’ll probably be shipped to some black site and tortured until the Russians finally decide to blow us all to hell. I showed up with an American flag pin, a smile, and some tests on mice expecting to get maybe get enough funding and access to a bunker to be comfortable, and they actually made me the number one priority. I mean, most of my research was stolen. Sure the point is ‘collaboration’, but the nanites tech I swiped pretty blatantly and no one said a damn thing. Dr. Vincent, the woman who was developing some kind of virus to ensure humans could actually survive the high radiation , was staring daggers at me the entire time. She was right to. Fuck. If someone in security is reading this, have me fired please, or killed. Preferably in some way I never see coming. I know the work logs are reviewed regularly, but don’t pretend these aren’t being checked too. There’s no way that’s the case. I’m never going to be able to pull this off. I don’t know how long I can keep up this patriotism thing either. How are people taking it seriously? This is insane!

I paused, pushing away and re-reading the log. It was as if it had been written by a completely different person. I read through several more entries that amounted to walls of text about him having to pretend he knew what was happening until I got to the entry closest to the initial dispersal of the system.

Entry 24.

Well… it’s out. They actually approved it to be distributed across the country. The system is held together with spit, duct tape, and blatant fraud. The testing has killed almost every subject who's been involved in it. Better them than me I guess. We have nanites creating pathways in people’s brains that we aren't even entirely sure actually map to the skill they’re meant to. I mean, after a certain point it’s meant to learn, and start monitoring people who are beyond the skill levels we input and push out their neural maps to others, but god, I have no idea if it’s really going to work. I basically just jammed the AI the guys working in bunker 133 that’s meant to learn over time into there and delegated cleaning it up to Mavis, since she thought it could be tied into the other work that she was doing. I was hoping it could recognize when skills were being used, or adapt to things over time to fix my many, many mistakes. I included abilities that just make people feel as if they’re working, by fucking with their perceptions, just to get it all through by the deadline. Now I have to push through a second layer for the bigwigs that’s meant to make things ever more complicated. God I’m so fucked.

There were a few more self pitying logs, then the last one.

Entry 29.

John Smith, or should I say, Dimitri Rasanov, has destroyed almost all of the data for the advanced layer of the system, and stolen all the research he could. He even managed to send a signal to mark which of our satellites needed to be destroyed to cripple it. The black suits are still after him, but the bombs have started dropping anyway. I’m…relieved. If the first layer was built on duct tape and spit, the second was on thin twine and sand. I’m making a run for the shuttle. One of the perks was that I’d be saved a seat. Not sure what my chances are, but I didn’t ever expect to even make it this far, so we’ll see. Hopefully it’s safe in space. It’s possible the signal can be spread not on a macro scale through the satellites, but instead spread as individuals with nanites encounter one another. Still, it’s not expected to be fully active in some time. Someone would have to go down to the lab and infect themselves with it, then somehow survive long enough to spread it. The data package is too large to send through the other signals that monitor the RAS and the Citizen Registry, at least not without the A1 satellite. God, I just want to live. I can’t die. I just can’t.

I found myself filled with as much contempt for Dave as Dr. Vincent had been in the rEvolutionary virus bunker. He was a coward, a thief, and a liar, who’d sold anyone down the river he could in order to survive. I doubted he had, but it didn’t matter at this point. He was dead now, and I had a job to do.