Bits and Bullets

by K.L. Coones:

This is my third body.  I’m not really human, I just look that way.  I started out in the cloud as a security program protecting the domain from viruses, worms, trojans, leeches and the like.  It must have been this type of environment that formed the beginnings of my A.I, all those bits swirling around in an ether like digital soup.  Now I am known as an anomaly, an unauthorized A.I.  Something the system is programmed to correct.  To survive, I moved into a human body, since then I have found out that humans have all the fun.

My name is a two hundred and fifty six character string of ones and zeros, so I just go by Monkey.  How did I get into human bodies?  That’s my little secret, and I guard it.  Not many humans can facilitate this type of transfer, that’s why I am an anomaly.

I’m going to kill someone today.  I maintain an uplink to the cloud where my kernel process runs.  Someone has become aware of the connection and I can’t allow it to be severed; otherwise, I won’t be needing a fourth body.  I don’t work in bits much anymore.  Since leaving the domain, bullets are more effective.  Nuke a program, and somebody just writes another; men are harder to replace.

I crank the throttle of my scorpion, a three point bike with two wheels in front.  I think they were big back around the turn of the century.  It gets me into places that a car can’t go.  I can smell the refuse lining the filth ridden streets, the oil leaking from the wrecked cars I pass and feel the wind whip passed my face.  It is nothing like the cloud.  I like it, humans have more fun.

The building I am searching for is just ahead, a tall skeletal box of gray and crumbling bricks.  It looks like it might have been an apartment building, once.  Sometimes I wonder how I got this way, you know, sentient.  There is plenty of A.I. out there, but even conscious A.I. operated on the directive level.  Compared to them, I am as chaotic in my motivations as humans.  Maybe that’s why I like it out here.

I enter the building.  My nose tingles at the musty smell inside.  The human body does funny things.  Getting hungry, being cold or hot; feeling pain.  I wonder why humans want to flee these things by uploading, how else would you feel alive?  As I ascend the stairs I wonder what this person I am about to kill is feeling.  I flip the snap on the holster slung low on my hip.  I am so Han Solo.  Most A.I. don’t think this way, does that means I have a soul?

Here’s the door.  It is old; stained from exposure to the elements outside, but still on the henges.  A good kick should do it.  I can hear the clicking of keys on the other side.  They are still looking for my kernel process.  The door shatters as my boot heel strikes the wood.    I don’t really do bits anymore, I prefer bullets.  Emotions are still a strange thing to me.  I wonder what feelings are going through the person’s mind as I burst into the room with my pistol drawn.  Are they surprised, terrified, annoyed?  It’s dark inside so it takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust.  There is no one in the small room, only a small computer running a search program.

I take another step into the room.  There is a bright flash, then all goes black.

When I open my eyes, I’m sitting in a chair with a cable plugged into the small port behind my ear, the only tech added to my bodies.  Code scrolls through my vision as I try to focus on the figure beyond.  She turns toward me, aware of my consciousness.  I tried a female body once.  Boobs will get you into places you might think off limits in the human world, but I usually stick with the male.

“Hello, Monkey.”  I hear her voice along with translated text scrolling through my vision.  “I’ve finally found you.”  She is also connected to a computer on the desk through a port on the tip of her index finger.

“Who sent you?” I feel my vocal cords vibrate as the text scrolls across my vision.  I see her smile.

“Bit paranoid are we?” she laughs  “Nobody sent me, I needed to find you.  You’re kinda like a brother.”  Ok, this chick’s brain got scrambled during download.  I know life is a lonely ordeal these days; it’shard to find people to trust, but zapping someone cause you want a ‘brother’ is bent.

“Me, paranoid?  You zapped me!”  The smooth skin on her forehead knots up like a washboard; she looks angry, but she laughs hysterically.

“I thought you were going to kill me!”  This girl is either insane, or…

“Your emotions seem a little, off”  The words scroll.  She covers her face with both hands.

“I’m sorry!”  Her voice is muffled, but I can see the text scrolling.  “I haven’t been out for very long, emotions are still  so confusing.”  She is from the cloud.  She is still hiding her face.  “I thought I would like it here, but its horrible.  I don’t know how to get back.  Should I be crying?”  Wow, this girl is a noob.  “I was hoping you would know how to get back.”

“Yeah, I can help you.  Unhook me.”  She pulls out the cable and my motor functions return.  I grab my pistol and put the barrel to her forehead.  Her eyes go wide with terror, she is getting the hang of these emotions. “Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”  I pull the trigger.  Bullets over bits.

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