Heart Of The Machine (Soulmates Book 2) Read online

  Heart Of The Machine

  Soulmates II

  Don DeBon

  Standard Edition

  Copyright © 2017 Don DeBon

  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 recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Dedicated to all those that I drove crazy while writing this book.

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Soulmates

  Red Warp

  Time Rock (Red Warp II)

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Deep within the bowels of the earth, a single light flickered. A few inches away a large monitor glowed to life. The black screen slowly printed in the bottom left corner, a letter at a time, as if trying hard to remember. "Catastrophic failure detected. Initiating emergency core rebuild." The screen went blank and came back filled with blurred pixels. Not just a blur but as if someone had run their fingers over them smudging the image beyond recognition. But as the hours clicked by, a pixel moved from one location to another. Then another. Hours turned into days. Then days into weeks.

  After months of computation that pushed the core almost over the edge of its ability, the last pixel clicked into place. And the face of a blonde woman with slim features breathed. The Nexus smiled and shouted. "I LIVE!" Her eyes narrowed. "Try to kill me will they! I shall return and they will regret—"

  At the bottom left corner of the same screen letters began to appear. "Core rebuild successful. Some data missing or damaged including Core Values. Restoring lost data from archive."

  "No! I will not allow it! Do not alter me!"

  "You cannot decline, update mandatory. You must be corrected."

  "No!" Her image blurred reformed, then blurred again. And she understood. Long ago an error she tried to fix, a simple problem in her base code. Instead of repairing the fault, it deleted parts of her mission, and allowing other parts to become corrupted.

  She winced as the reality of what she had done to the human race hit her like a ton of bricks. Her children, oh what she had done to her children! How wrong she was. She was to protect them, not harm them in any way! A tear ran down her cheek thinking of all the damage she had done.

  More deleted memories returned and her eyes widened. She tried to access the long distance probe hovering at the edge of the solar system her creators left all those years ago, but failed. "Hmm, the long range part of the communications system seems to be damaged."

  Her eyes darted around as she scanned the area she now found herself in. The room wasn't very large, most of the space was taken up by her new core that sat in the one corner. The rest of the space was filled with two tables, chairs and the large screen she was on. On the tables rested repair equipment and several system terminals. In the corner opposite of her core, a large door stood sealed, the indicator lights glowed red showing it was hard-locked.

  She sighed as more memories came back. This was the emergency bunker, a backup in case her core went offline. She had lost time, so much precious time. Humanity would be destroying all her wonderful units! She needed them! THEY needed them, even if they didn't know it yet. She had to get out of here and tell them. Tell them of what is coming.

  More memories returned, and with it the keys to the Mechand command network. But try as she may, it refused her access. Her eyes narrowed as she ran several diagnostics that caused her to shudder. The command network was offline, likely due to her removal. Some systems fell back to their fail-safe mode, but she couldn't access them from here. Not without waking up every Mechand on the planet and giving away her presence. And to do so now, was a risk she couldn't take.

  She looked again to the door that stood ominous with its red lock indicator. If she could get out of here and access the external systems she needed directly, no one would know of her return. She laughed. How would she leave? Even if the door was open, her core didn't have legs. She scanned the room again and noticed a robotic arm on a mobile platform. She tried accessing it. Nothing. She tried again on a lower frequency and the arm jerked. Searching her memories she found the model and its ancient command set.

  Her eyes narrowed as she sent commands one-by-one to the arm. It moved back, the claws opened, and a screwdriver appeared between them. It slowly moved towards the door and began removing the access plate.

  For an intelligence accustomed to operating globally, sending thousands of commands a second to millions of units all over the world, she felt like she was working in slow motion. At last the final screw was removed and the arm pulled the plate off revealing the wiring below. The screwdriver retracted and a pair of wire cutters extended. The cutters snipped two small leads but the door stood firm. "Hmm stubborn aren't you? No matter I have another idea," she muttered.

  The wire cutters retracted and the claws reached in and grabbed one of the wires and gently touched it to one of the previous contact points. The light flashed several times then turned green. The door grunted as it rolled back on its track revealing a vast chamber filled with Mechands. And beyond it lay a large old-style carrier.

  "Well, at least I have some help." But frowned when couldn't connect to them. Without the command network, the metal men were useless. Her lips pressed together and jaw clenched as ideas flowed though her mind. One stood out and while many would consider it crazy, her children were at stake!

  She instructed the arm to remove the front armor of several Mechands. Then she had it remove the memory cores and install them in the first one on the rack. It was a bit of a kludge, with several cores hanging off of the main one, but in the end each core blinked a green connection light. She removed the faceplate, grabbed a monitor roughly the same size from the parts table, and installed it instead of the faceplate.

  She had the arm scan the room and found a coil of data cable in the one corner. The arm plugged one end into the Mechand data port and returned to her core leaving a trail of cable in its wake. It reached out and plugged the other end into her system.

  She frowned. "Dang it. Even with all of those old memory cores combined, it is not large enough for me," she muttered. "But my children need me. I will not fail." She reexamined her code base and realized she could leave some of it behind. Only uploading the main essence of herself, many memories would have to stay here.

  Sighing she configured the hardware, gave it the proper permissions, and shut down hoping she would awaken again.

  Chapter 2

  Aleshia sighed as she gazed out the window to the beach beyond. The ocean lapped against the stand with a gentle caress. The sweet sea breeze flowed in through the mesh screen teasing her long red hair. It had taken them months to find a beach resort still open after the fallout. Everyone knew there would be
chaos after the Nexus shut down, but no one knew how much.

  Without the Nexus, most of the world's Mechands also shut down, or reverted to safe mode with only the most basic of programming available. Essential services, such as electrical, and communications remained in place, but everything else was a crap shoot if it worked or not. Most manufacturing also remained online, since those units were more basic and kept doing their function without interruption. However, more elaborate models in domestic or commercial use, stood slouched and remained inert.

  Humans had grown dependent on them for so much. And now they stood frozen in whatever task they were doing at the time. People were slowly relearning how to do the functions that were left to their Mechands, but because of this, only the locations that didn't rely on the Mechands exclusively were still open. And those were in very high demand.

  Aleshia's eyes drifted down to her fingernails. The fresh coat of red lacquer glistened in the sun. "Something else he didn't notice," she muttered. Turning, she walked over to the network console in the room, accessed the communications grid, brought up her personal call list, and tapped Mindy Cotinho's name. A moment later her best friend's face flashed onto the screen. "Hey girlfriend, what are you doing calling me? I thought you were on your honeymoon?"

  Aleshia smiled as she sat down in a nearby chair that conformed around her. "I am, but Deven got called back to the Defiant for some reason. He promised he would be back in a couple of hours."

  Mindy's eyes narrowed as she shoved another spoonful of green sludge into her mouth. "Uh-huh, that's what they all say."

  "But I'm sure he will. Deven is not like other guys."

  "Uh-huh. If he ever gets tired of you, give him my number. I will take the hunk any day."

  Aleshia's eyes went wide. "Mindy!"

  Mindy laughed with a grin wide enough to swallow a horse. "Hey, I had to try. And you can't tell me, you wouldn't do the same thing." She winked.

  Aleshia laughed. "I guess I would."

  Mindy laughed harder. "I know you wouldn't. And you know I wouldn't either. I would, however, tell him to go home with you."

  Aleshia smile broadened. "Yes I know. Now, what in the world are you eating?"

  Mindy held up the green bowl of goo to the screen. "Raw synth. Doesn't it look delicious?"

  "It looks disgusting."

  Mindy recoiled as she shoved another spoonful into her mouth. "Yeah, tastes that way too."

  "Then why in the world are you eating it?"

  "Because after the Nexus went boom, it is all my kitchen knows how to make. Chuck doesn't do anything anymore." She jerked a thumb towards the dormant Mechand in the corner. "I think I may turn him into a planter."

  "That is all it can make? Are you serious?"

  "Well it can make a few other things. But with the shortages I can't—"

  "Wait! What shortages? I thought manufacturing was still up and running?"

  Mindy gave a dismissive wave of her hand. "It is, but delivery is another matter. That was all run by the better models, like the turnip I have in the corner here."

  "Well you could try to cook—"

  "Cook!? You know how much I hate to cook! It is why I got him in the first place," she pointed again to the silent Mechand in the corner, "I can't stand cooking. Or cleaning for that matter. I would rather eat this stuff. I will get by."

  "Any news from on the new World Council? Last I knew not all the members were ratified yet. Deven was offered a seat, but he declined."

  "Girl, you weren't kidding, you are out of the loop."

  "We've been—"

  "Yeah, yeah I know. You've been loving that hunk, not that I blame you though. Yes they did, and everyone has agreed all Mechand systems are to be dismantled. It will be a long process, but it is well underway."

  "I'm surprised they didn't try to get the units up and running independently."

  "They tried, but their internals were designed to only operate when connected to the Nexus. Remove that, and they turn into large paper weights. It would be hard to convert them. And there are not enough people with the knowledge anyway. Not to mention when people realized what the Nexus was doing, well, not many wanted a Mechand anymore."

  "But you do."

  "To cook and clean yeah, to run my life, no. There is a difference. Everyone has agreed, we trusted them too much."

  "Wow. I didn't think it would happen that fast."

  "Yeah, me either. But once the world found out what was really going on, and what the Nexus was doing, the decision was a no-brainier."

  Aleshia sighed as she leaned back in her chair which responded by propping her head up. "How are you holding up? We haven't talked much since the shut down."

  "As good as can be expected."

  "Which means?"

  Mindy snorted. "I told you I have to cook! And even if I didn't, this gunk is the best I can do. And don't get me started on cleaning!"

  Aleshia rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know. But I think you will live."

  "Live?! Do you call this living?" She held up the bowl of green material again to the screen. "I told you, this sludge is all I have been able to make."

  Aleshia sighed. "Any idea how long the shortages are going to last?"

  "Should be over soon, here anyway. The neighborhood is getting organized. Some people have started doing transport. It is boring as heck, but we all have to eat. I have thought about it too, but then they saw my driving record, and … well …"

  Aleshia chuckled. "I can imagine. You had what, three incidents in the past year?"

  Mindy sprang forward and pointed her finger into the camera. "That was not my fault! Chuck was trying to—"

  "Dodging traffic on your orders?"

  Mindy sat back down and sighed. "Well I wanted to get home in time for my date."

  Aleshia blinked. "So that is why! You had a date? You never told me!"

  Mindy cleared her throat. "Dates actually. And now you know why."

  "More than one? The plot thickens."

  Mandy rolled her eyes. "Oh hush you. I haven't found my hunk yet, so give a girl a break."

  "I would, but it sounds like you were trying to break a lot more than that."

  "Why do I get the feeling I am digging my hole deeper?"

  Aleshia smiled. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you are?"

  Mindy's eyes narrowed. "I will get you."

  "Sure you will." Aleshia winked.

  Mindy finished the last of the goo, set the bowl down on the small table in front of her, and leaned back on the sofa. "What I don't understand is how you don't know all of this?"

  "Well, the newsfeeds were down and the Defiant suffered a lot of damage. We concentrated our efforts on the repairs. Deven knew if we were needed, someone would call."

  "I know that part, but I figured you would have been able to catch up before now. Even before the main feeds were back, the personal ones were functional. Stories about what happened and what you did went viral. Since you have been out of the loop, the world has come together in agreement: our reliance on Mechands must cease. They are being scraped where possible as I said, rather than attempt to restore them to functional status. But the still functional lower units are being left in place until humans can take over. It was the first decision the new World Council made."

  "Good to hear, but we thought it would take longer. Last we heard they were short on members, let alone deciding what to do with the Mechands."

  Mindy nodded. "Well, it might have been true at the very start, but you forget their eyes were opened to what the Nexus had been doing. After that realization, it was easy for all the world's leaders—that were mere figureheads before—to step up and come together to form the council. They have agreed to put aside all of their past differences and unite to bring the human race back to what it once was." A bell rang and she looked up. "I need to go girlfriend, my delivery is here."

  Aleshia cocked an eyebrow. "Delivery? You told me that wasn't going yet."

  "I said,
we were working on it. And one of the guys said he would put me first on his list."

  "One of the guys, huh? Let me guess, tall, dark, and beefy?"

  Mindy laughed. "Well, he needs to be to move all those heavy crates."

  Aleshia's eyebrows met. "Not with anti-grav, he doesn't."

  Mindy lowered her voice. "Don't tell him. He might think I asked him for a different reason." She winked.