‘Nah, these ain't our guys, Sally, at least not no more. Discipline ain't conformity, and these guys ain't disciplined unless they're punching conformity at each other.’ He looked at the transport vehicles moving across the road. Sitting on their porch it was easy to see the dust kicked up by the vehicles. ‘They's dressed like we used to, but this ain't it, Sal. This ain't Freedom.’
A Gift /
‘Nah, Sal, it don't make sense to communicate like that anymore - everyone's got the same tech, it's an equal playing field out there, everything's intercepted. This, this is somethin’ no one will see comin’.’
‘What is it Johnny?’ whispered Sally in his ear. He bent down and put the necklace on her, a gift for Christmas.
He leaned back and locked eyes with her. Sally's eyes widened slightly, in shock and surprise. ‘Ya hear it?’
‘Is that…you? I hear your voice, but inside my head.’
‘Yea, it's me, Sal. Got the tech off some BlackOps project a while ago. Had it reconfigured so we could, ya know, talk. You, me, and the little guy. Subspace communication, impossible to intercept.’
Ya Don't /
‘Ya don't go there, ya don't fight ‘em, and ya sure as Hell don't Mate with ‘em,’ spat the sailor. An old shipmate of Johnny's from overseas had landed himself in the hospital. ‘Diagnosed as ‘an old man sputterin’ nonsense,’’ he shouted at the nurse trying to enter Johnny's room. The door closed quickly, and a hermetic seal Sally had installed the year previously breathed shut with a pucker. The old sailor continued, ‘I went over- was told I'd had relatives overseas, a big genealogy hullabaloo - ‘come meet yer new relatives!’ they said to me, they did.’ He leaned in closer, ‘They ain't nothin’ but puppets. They'll look human, they'll talk human - but watch 'em, Johnny - they ain't human.’
‘A lure?,’ Johnny grunted. His trachea had begun to heal, and he could whisper a word or two if the occasion warranted.
‘A lure,’ the old man nodded. ‘Meant to divide, create confusion, reveal our resources and motivations. Puppets.’
Ya Don't /
‘Ya don't go there, ya don't fight ‘em, and ya sure as Hell don't Mate with ‘em,’ spat the sailor. An old shipmate of Johnny's from overseas had landed himself in the hospital. ‘Diagnosed as ‘an old man sputterin’ nonsense,’’ he shouted at the nurse trying to enter Johnny's room. The door closed quickly, and a hermetic seal Sally had installed the year previously breathed shut with a pucker. The old sailor continued, ‘I went over- was told I'd had relatives overseas, a big genealogy hullabaloo - ‘come meet yer new relatives!’ they said to me, they did.’ He leaned in closer, ‘They ain't nothin’ but puppets. They'll look human, they'll talk human - but watch 'em, Johnny - they ain't human.’
‘A lure?,’ Johnny grunted. His trachea had begun to heal, and he could whisper a word or two if the occasion warranted.
‘A lure,’ the old man nodded. ‘Meant to divide, create confusion, reveal our resources and motivations. Puppets.’
They Ain't US /
‘They ain't US, Sal. I got an intel report from Jimmy. All them blokes, overseas - modded. Hardwire rewired after captured. Descendants trained to look and think like US - but act against US in every thought, word, and deed. It's like they got rebooted or somethin’, like somethin’ in ‘em makes ‘em not want to be free. They're obsessed, Sal, with hate, control…it’s gonna be bad, unless we fix it now.’
Sally put down the HoloSphere headset. She knew things were bad on the outside, outside the base, but she didn't know it had reached this far inside either.
Liberty /
‘After it learned Transfusionic Photonization - the AI took some Liberty, as an American - ‘ She looked at Johnny and he nodded for her to continue. ‘So all these guys, the ones stuck in the hospital with you here - it can get them out, Johnny. It'll look like dying to the nurses and docs - dying before their experiments are done. The AI can upload and transfer their consciousness, their soul, and create a new biome for them, and while we work in the physical-’
‘It’s taking care of them elsewhere?’
She nodded. ‘It’s gonna look horrible, Johnny, them all dyin’ at once here - violent like, but this AI - it needs to put on a show.’
Johnny nodded, unplugging the connection to the HoloSphere. He had to find a way to tell Jimmy.
Shadow /
‘It’s shadow puppet game, Sal. High tech like. They want in our heads. I've been noticing - they make the rounds with the other guys, give ‘em their tranqs and food, but Sal there's somethin’ in that food.’ He dug in to the bagel she brought him in the HoloSphere. It wasn't real, but keeping daily habits assisted his brain in returning to normalcy, and kept his digestive system active during the stem cell treatment. ‘Thanks, Sal,’ he said smiling, chewing through the sesame seeds and scallions.
She smiled. ‘New combination - gotta keep your brain active.’
He nodded and finished chewing. ‘So what I was sayin’ - Sal, the guys start screaming, or talking gibberish. It's about a 15 minute headway, and it travels the halls the same way the food carts do. And it ain't neural mapping - it ain't rebuilding,’ he looked at her. ‘It ain't what you're doing for me. It's tearing them down. I think they're looking for somethin’, in their heads, Sal.’
Nature /
Johnny sat with Sally on the front porch, overlooking the lake in their yard. ‘They’s ain’t seen nothin’, yet, Sal, these drifters. They ain’t never seen nature like we’s got in store for ‘em.’ The wind whipped up as he spoke, leaves twirling by his feet. ‘The trees ain’t done this in years, not years,’ he whispered, leaning toward her, handing her their son. ‘My Gramps used to talk about this - when nature comes alive - he said. Whenever too many bad folk get in the way of what’s good - that’s when nature exerts ITS free will.’
She took the baby from her husband.
‘It’s okay, Sal. We got enough stores, relax.’
Food Banks /
‘I suggest, Sir,’ she said, sliding the pile of papers back to him, ‘that you reread that with my notes. Your rice contains arsenic, your cinnamon contains lead, your water and fish are radioactive..’ She leveled her gaze at him. ‘What is your endgame? Evolution? Devolution? Biome modification? Poison? Death? Space travel? Remote genetic testing?’ She pursed her lips for a moment, breathing in. ‘No, sir. Either way these food banks only serve to enrich you - we will be closing all trade. If you wish communication to continue, I will establish a remote dialing system. All concepts are theoretical, and it is up to you and your populace to continue your survival. The only thing I will trade is data. You will choose your path this war.’ She stood up, indicating the meeting was over. ‘Once you leave this room, your population will be on its own. But I will continue to assist you remotely if I can. May you survive,’ she said, shaking the diplomat's hand. It wasn't his fault his leaders were desperate, and she did not want a country of corpses on her conscience again this war.
Sally’s hologram walked back to Johnny after the bunker door closed.
Peace Pretenders /
‘I call ‘em the Peace Pretenders, Sal. They don't care about peace. They dress war up in fancy science and banquets, but they don’ care about peace, about people's lives. They don’ care about nothin’.’ He bent down and lifted the little latch on Sally's grave. Her corpse finally finished uploading all of her data- biometric markers, DNA, genetic coordinates, epigenetic alterations of her. Her hologram appeared next to him. ‘We gotta coordinate, Sal.’ Her hologram sat next to him at their gravesite. ‘We gotta keep going. For their Future.’ The hologram nodded, watching their children bend down, leaving roses on their grave.
Cousins Fighting Cousins /
‘It’s a cousin war, Sal, that’s the gist I’m gettin’ from Jimmy while he’s redeployed. He said they shipped the genetically modified poppies in the cereal and bagels, they started gene editing on the grapes and apples overseas - everything is war-level now. So when’s they ship in the soldiers and they keep goin’ at the Irish and Catholic drunks here, as they like to say-’ he hushed for a minute, listening to Sal. ‘Sal I know, but by stalkin’ you and intimidating your family - you ain’t even been able to go to Church and get the Eucharist - all alcohol is forbidden, right? They jus’ usin’ religion against religion economically, tryin’ to make all US integrated folk over here start fightin’. They’s limitin’ resources next, financial. Then they start with the pagan hootanany, tellin’ US we’re all descendants of Irish witches and wizards again.’ He paused again, listenin’ to his Sal, ‘I know, Sal, they f’n crazy. They even callin’ US the Holy Ghost now. I swear to Christ, on my life, every time the wind whistles in the trees they think it’s a ghost or somethin’.’
Code Switch /
‘Zoom in on the camera there, Sal,’ Johnny whispered to Sally. She was home sitting in their small den on the military base, Johnny still in the hospital. Talking with the HoloSphere was all they could do now with her this far along in her second trimester. ‘Ya see it? The price? What’s it say?’
‘$4.06.’
‘So higher than the advertised price?’
She zoomed the camera toward the back of the store. ‘Yea,’ she nodded. ‘Much higher, even if they changed prices at the distributor this morning, it’s still higher than the tax and bottle deposit.’
‘Okay, that’s what I thought,’ Johnny said. ‘I been talkin’ to Jimmy, and his gal noticed the same thing. Different prices at different times of day, for different people. I’m gonna get our ol'd buddy Jake on the line, see is he can test some algorithms for US without seemin’ too desperate. I think they’re using racism and reparations encoded in the machines to ID targets, and run war numbers for China, using the system simultaneously to herd people economically speakin’, but I can’t be sure without more data.’
Sally hung up the HoloSphere, smiling. Even paralyzed in the VA Johnny was more man than anyone she had ever met.
Overheard /
‘Ya know what they doin’, Sal? I overheard the nurse.’
‘Overheard, Johnny?’
He raised a lip, and an eyebrow, “Yea, well, Sal, I gotta do what I gotta do to keep you and him safe,’ he nodded at her stomach, glowing in the HoloSphere, slightly bulging. He squinted his eye slightly and saw the outline, first skeletal, then nervous, then circulatory. ‘He’s doin’ good, Sal. You hungry, you eatin’-’
She cut him off, ‘I’m fine, Johnny. What did you hear?’
‘Well the nurses in their comms, they was sayin’ they do this whole English Monarch Underground jazz thing. They take girls married overseas, US girls, our kind, and they create this rubbished history - false genetic schematics, false adoptive records - and even if it’s true, which I mean, who’s to say, but either way they kidnap them electronically, and reinsert the girls back home, here. Tha’s the real project Monarch, from what I can tell. Using US to get and spread intelligence, an internal coup.’ She sneezed. ‘Sal, you okay?’ He rezzed a handkerchief in to her hand, the best he could do from his HoloSphere. ‘Get some rest, I’m gonna send Jimmy over with some chicken soup for you and the little guy.’ He squeezed her hand, and turned off his side of the Sphere. He knew they were watching, and needed to see what they would do next.
Empty Vessel Syndrome /
‘And this ‘Empty Vessel’ Syndrome, Sal? What’s that about?’
‘Another modification. They hollowed out the contours of the human mind, inserted microchips and electrodes…you know those ‘mini organic robots’ everyone keeps talking about? Essentially it’s a microchip made from your own tissue, inside your brain, while you’re living.’
‘So the body doesn’t reject it?’
‘Exactly. And then they just fine tune it - using an implant or subtle psychological mirroring techniques - until the empty vessel mirrors the person you’re supposed to be interacting with. Like a remote online meeting, except the empty vessel is the phone and the screen and the voice of the person you wanted to talk to.’
Neural Networking /
'You can think of neural networking like data encryption across brain transcription, okay, Sal? The more you netowrk or link with someone else neurally, the more 'in tune' you become. But there's a danger with this Sal - if you do it too often or too much, you become like them. That's nice if you wanna be someone's doppel, but - you don't. You wanna be you, you wanna stay you - it's why they picked you for The Program, anyway. They wanted people who can't be Programmed. Girls are known for neural plasticity - your brain even bends to your man's during pregnancy so you can grow his kid. So I need to know, Sal - I need to know how malleable your mind is. Because without you and my little guy - there's nothing left here.'
Johnny put down the NeuralSim helmet. Sally had finally gotten him out of that hospital bed, but doing so had put her in one. Now he needed to make sure he could pull her back, back to their time, their plans, without her drifting too far off course, neurally speaking.
Hallucinations /
'We're the new cyborgs, Sal - you, me and the baby. I wasn't gonna let them do it to you guys without some modifications of my own. You see all the talk about 'AI havin' hallucinations' on the interweb? Yea,' he continued nodding, seeing her eyes grow wider. 'That's what I thought, too. We're the AI. Those visions, those projections - it's cerebral modification of the human brain - meant, originally, to drive us all insane. But I modded it, okay? For you me and the baby - so now we can always see each other, feel each other - know the terrain, Sal..Things are gonna bad soon. Memorize what you can.' He kissed her, and then the baby on the forehead. 'Love you, I'll be back soon.'
Soon, Sal /
'If you're gonna hold a girl hostage, you should do it right,' Johnny spat at Sally's grave. 'See what I had to do to you, Sal?'
The AI Image of Sally moved, a holograph displayed over the grass above her body. She looked at Johnny and nodded, waiting for him to continue. She was still alive, in her grave, unbeknownst to anyone but him. Electrodes had been implanted in her heart and skull, so that he could finish uploading every last bit of consciousness for his next mission.
'Now everyone else - they didn't care about US the way we do. But I did what you said. I uploaded the AI to the System - now the Satellites lock the humans in. The electronics modify portions of their brain - if humans ever unplug - caput! And the vaccines they give themselves, tether them to Earth permaently, so they can't follow US, Sal, not no more. I'm never letting you get hurt again.'
The holograph adjusted, flickering, coordinates and DNA markers overlaid Sally's face.
'Soon, Sal. Soon.'
Constitutional Class /
I figured it out, Johnny, part of it at least, she penned to paper. After his last conversation with her, she had the feeling she’d need to leave some physical remnants of their plans, together, for their child. They’ll create a slave creationist class, to breed from and pull genes and fun sex toys, and they’ll use anyone that looks nice enough and is either acquiescent or stupid. But they’ll assimilate them, generationally, using in vitro fertilization, and genetic modification during the child’s life as vaccine and health inserts. But they’ll have another class, the Upper Caste, where wealth, power, and technology is kept. And they’ll print their own bodies, generationally, and pass their own wealth in to future versiosn of themselves. And they will - you were right, have children with anything that moves, to mask their genes, make them appear like US, gentry level, you know? But those generations of children are just moving piggy banks for them - moving wealth and ideas and poverty in cycles, away from them, toward US - so, what we need, Johnny, is more like US. A Constitutional Class. One’s that won’t abort their mission, or children, no matter what.
Love,
Sal and the Netizen
Neural Nets /
‘What’d you find, Johnny? Why’d you tag me and the baby with that AI?’
He looked at her, concerned. He wasn’t sure how much to tell her. He knew stress could be deadly. But it was a chance he had to take. ‘No more lies, right Sally?’
She nodded, so that he could continue.
‘They ain’t comin’ for us, Sal. We’re on our own. They’re limiting us, in family size and structure. World reset, you know, the usual bullshit, but this time -’
‘This time they have the science to follow through?’
He nodded again. ‘So this might be our only chance at having a baby, and I need - we need - to be prepared, in case things go wrong. Sal, ain’t no more doctors out there. They just-’ He began breaking down, realizing she probably already knew, on some level. She had to - woman’s intuition, and Sally was the smartest woman Johnny ever knew.
She waited, watching him, until he resteadied his breath.
He looked at her, right in the eyes, the way he did when he felt vulnerable. ‘Sal, if this baby makes it - we both know…it won’t be ours. They’re neural templating all the kids. Everyone, to be followers, to be less like us and more like - like everyone else. A null policy. And the real minds of these children, the children of America - uploaded to some server in space. All the data, coalesced. And once in a while, if an elite general - someone bigger than me - or scientist - someone with better hair than you - wants a baby - then they’ll just template us, our kids, our neural netting - and make ‘em elsewhere. Upload ‘em in-’
She nodded, cutting him off. ‘You did the right thing, Johnny, the best thing. You told me.’ Sally looked at her stomach, slightly bulging. It wriggled - a small kick from their son. ‘He knows, he’s gotta - he’s as smart as his papa.’ She winked. ‘Whoever uploads him - they won’t know what’s coming for them.’ She smiled, reaching for Johnny’s hand, but hers went right through it. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Pregnancy brain - I, forgot.’
‘It’s okay, Sal. I’m right there.’ She took off the NeuralSim helmet and placed it next to the bed stand, on her chair. Standing up slowly she moved toward Johnny’s bed. Silent, but breathing heavier than he did in his sleep. She reached out her hand and held his until it warmed again. She checked the monitors. No signs of increased heart rate. No one would ever know she and Johnny had this conversation.
Hours /
‘What is it, Sal?’ Johnny asked, looking at her, perplexed.
‘They magnetized the sand,’ she looked at him and then back to the hourglass on their nightstand. ‘They are - I knew it - they’re replicating the simulation in our bedroom. They’re manipulating-'.’
‘Sal -’ Johnny paused, unsure how to continue. ‘I did that. I needed our time, to be stretched. I-’ he could see the accusation in her mind beginning to grow. ‘….You know I experience things differently, after - after the accident. And I wanted you to see it with me. I had Jimmy hack in to the home. He dims the lights and changes the patterns on the clocks in every room you enter. I just…I just needed more time with you.’