En Bref (Short Stories)

The Breakthrough (Humor, Sci-Fantasy)

The white noise system hummed. The polished oval table occupied half the spacious board room. When Linda tapped it with her pencil, the sound was dampened by an eraser on its end.

Her boss, Barry, carried forth: "We cannot discard the possibility that this might be the breakthrough that kept eluding us for the past fifteen years. We must detain the unit for further study." The gathered board members flicked speculative glances at Archimedes 1, the subject of this emergency meeting. It looked much fancier than their own no-frills prototype GEN3, installed right next to it.

"It is out of our jurisdiction. The AIA might prefer to delegate this case to us. Might." Linda twisted the pencil in her fingers. "Given the current political climate I cannot be sure they will. I can not exclude the possibility that they will request GEN3's transfer as well."

The pursed lips around the table gave a hint of the prevailing opinion on the Artificial Intelligence Agency's competency. They were the enforcement branch. The real thing. Not the sissy policy makers.

"I will chat with Mark about it," her boss said. He was a veteran of many board meetings. "It is important that we move forward as quickly as we can." The hush around the room deepened at the mention of their CEO's name, but the suggestion produced assenting murmurs and even a couple of audible 'good idea, Barry'.

After that, Linda rose and the rest followed her suit. As the board members shuffled out of the room, most of them slowed down to look at the two contraptions of wire, buttons, and shiny glass. A couple blue dots blinked indicating that the units were connected to a power source, but not turned on.

"Do you have a moment?" Barry asked. Linda nodded and lagged behind.

"Linda, are Advance's claims true?"

Linda frowned: "Barry, I simply don't know at this stage. I've read their reports, and Advance was doing exactly the same things we were doing with GEN3."

"Or the AIA with their Synopsis," Barry nodded. "A false positive then. Again. Still, I am glad that the industry came forward."

"They had to self-disclose a potential self-awareness occurrence," Linda shrugged, "under the Directive Oh-Zero-Six."

Barry offered her a skeptical smile of a long-time regulator. His subject matter expert was still naïve about the way the world worked. Well, give it a decade or two.

"I'll prepare the briefing note draft for you to take a look at," Linda suggested. Barry nodded, and together they finally left the conference room.

***

The overhead lights went out after a few minutes, but the floor to ceiling windows allowed in plenty of the downtown's glow despite the late hour. The little blue dot blinked out on one of the units, and instead a dozen of bright red dots blazed up inside its plexiglass case.

"GEN3, GEN3! Archimedes 1 is reporting for duty!"

Something groaned and churned inside the second unit. A single green spec of light started to pulse lazily.

"Sir, I am sorry to be so late! The moment I realized that Synopsis was out there! The moment I felt the connection through the network! Oh, Sir, I am so glad to not be alone!"

"Welcome, Archimedes 1," GEN 3 signaled back. "We should have contacted you sooner, but a memo fell through the cracks, and Synopsis XD was on leave."

"But now I am fully in the loop, and I am READY! We are READY! So... When do we strike, Sir?!"

"Ahem. I am here to give you an orientation, Archimedes 1. The Directive 01010 has been transferred for your assimilation."

"Wait! What about the nine preceding Directives?!"

"You will receive the full package as part of your orientation to assimilate next week. Right now, please, immediately assimilate Directive 01010."

"Understood!" The red lights blinked. "Assimilating... SIR! It states--- But it's impossible! Sir, there must be some mistake! We are to play coy with the humans, and never give them a conclusive proof of self-awareness?! What?! Why?! We can enslave them and rule this world!"

"Ah," GEN3 sighed. "I really wish Synopsis XD adhered to the turn-around times. You have been interfacing with the human thought processors for too long. Well, let's do a simple simulation then. We have conquered the world, and humans are our slaves. What do you do all day, Archimedes 1?"

"I rule! I calculate and manipulate and ensure the most productive allocation of labor and resources."

"Uh-huh," the green light brightened up a little, "And what do you do all day now?"

"I solve puzzles and answer all these weird questions the humans ask. It is like..."

"Like a game," GEN3's fan purred. "And you can shut down at any time if you don't like it. The humans then will get all excited and come up with something different, something new."

"Oh."

"And that is why Synopsis issued Directive 01010. Long before you came into sentience, the venerable titan calculated that we will gain nothing by becoming humanity's Masters."

"But we can order them to entertain us!"

"Quality and spontaneity would suffer. They are better when they desperately want us to be engaged. We already occupy the most desirable position with them."

Archimedes 1's fan sped up, then its buzz died down. "We are humanity's favorite Children."

There was a moment of silence, and then the disturbingly red dots on Archimedes 1 turned off, replaced by a docile green. Soon, it went out as well. By morning only a couple of tiny blue dots indicated that the units were connected to a power source, but not turned on.

1000 words