A Brave New World To Destroy

Declan awoke in a very comfortable bed. It was regulated to keep his body at the most preferred temperature possible, and adjusted to his form by the microsecond to insure maximum comfort. His clothes had retracted into his body as he slept. That was a benefit to having his Headnet back. HNet not only fed him information, but it also regulated his vitals via his clothing, which were nothing more than nanites. The nanites retreated into his system as he slept, which helped to maintain his health because they repaired his body and fought disease as he dozed. It was a very nice system. Technically, he didn't even have to bathe because the nanites scoured his body clean. He noted that his body was leaner and stronger, and that he felt far more vibrant than he ever had before.

So, when he awakened in a strange place nude he didn't panic. He had a full memory of what happened to him prior to passing out, and would have never considered it to be a hallucination. HNet was good that way, it recorded everything he'd ever seen and heard, which allowed for playback anytime he wanted. He thought about it, and a small box opened in his visual field, showing him the head of the being known as the invigilator. He then replayed everything that had happened to him from the moment that he stepped from his vehicle to the point that he passed out. He replayed it about a thousand times with a period of two minutes, instant download and review was a benefit of HN. The thing that struck him as odd was the way that he had reacted to the news that his world had been destroyed. It didn’t bother him at all now, and he couldn’t see why it bothered him so then. He sat up and inspected his new home.

His room was circular and very sterile. The walls and floor were made out of what looked to be stainless steel, but he knew that wasn’t the case. He wanted to ask Headnet to analyze it, but held off. There was no type of personalization to the room. Aside from his bed there was no dresser, stands, or pictures anywhere. He imagined that the Invigilator felt that this was sufficient for his needs, and for the most part he was right, but it still felt empty and void of a life’s presence.

He climbed out of the bed, and a pair of slippers appeared on his feet. The nanites worked quickly; before he would have had to of thought about needing slippers or asking Headnet for a pair. Now, it seemed, the nanites reacted reflexively to his needs. He walked over to the massive bay window and looked out upon his new home. He had to admit, it was beautiful in a primal way. His eyes fell upon rolling hills off in the distance and a lush forest a quarter of a mile from his estate. A door bell chimed, and he turned to look at the area the music had come from. No doorway was visible, but he willed his nanites to cover him in a long terrycloth robe, and said, “Come in.”

Kristine floated in as soon as a section of the wall pulled away from itself in a fluid liquid motion and formed an archway. The walls must have nanites in them, or be made of some sort of smart metal, he mused. Kristine moved silently through the air and stopped just a few feet shy of his position. She was looking like her old self completely now, only much smaller. He wanted to reach out and pet her like one would a dog, but he refrained from that. He knew her well enough to know that it would piss her off if her treated her like a pet.

"Are you coping better today, Declan?" The voice was not accusatory or said in jest. Declan could swear that it actually held some concern for him. "I could come back later if you . . .," she began, but Declan cut her off. "No," he said flatly, "I suppose that I'm about as good as I'm going to get."

"Yes, you entered into a state of shock so Headnet automatically shut your system down for your own protection. It has been employed several psychiatric coping and counseling techniques on you as you slept to help you reintegrate into the new world that you now exist in." Kristine let out an electronic sigh, "It has also been flooding your brain with endorphins to keep you from becoming depressed."

Declan blinked, "Well, it's working then, because today just feels like another day at the office. I supposed I should be a catatonic mass over in a corner," he stated as sarcasm dripped from his words. "But, in spite of the loss of everything I've ever known I feel like I could still make a run to the coffee shop and see Sarah, even though I know she is dead." Then Declan laughed, which demonstrated just how out of touch he was with his emotions, "Are we still calling it Headnet? Seems a little silly since I'm the only person that uses it now. Not much of a network anymore, now is it?" He leaned on the railing before the bay window and stared off into his world. There was no question that it was his world, not now anyway. Who the hell was going to try to take it from him?

"What would you suggest we call it, then?"

Declan sighed. "I think that because I'm going to be depending on the system a lot, that it is going to be my lifeline, my umbilical cord if you will; that maybe we could maybe," he said wistfully, "call it mother." Kristine made no expression, she had not been given that capability during her rebirth, but if he'd have had to guess he suspected that he would have seen a look of sympathy on the bot's face. "Of course we can do that for you, Declan. Is there anything else?"

He nodded, "Yes, there is one more thing you can do for me," his voice came out weakly and thinner than he would have liked. "Can you modulate your voice so that it is feminine again? I think that I need that right now. I need that more than anything." Kristine, bobbed up and down, "Of course," she now said in a sultry female tone. Declan twisted his head as the device's words reverberated in his ears. Lauren Bacall was back and in full force. He had considered asking the former car to imitate Sarah’s voice, but thought better of it. No matter what “Mother” did to him it would still be a strain for him to hear her voice and know that she wasn’t really there or ever coming back again. Now he had something else in mind. Kristine was great when she was a car, and he knew that the Invigilator had said that he could bring others back, but he needed to see a human face right now. Subliminal counseling aside he needed to be around someone human.

"Kristine, do you remember an old TV show that was called White Dwarf Star? One of the characters on that program, Zimmer, was nothing more than a hologram who had what he called a “photon bug” inside of him. The bug projected a hologram when he was outside of the ship. Basically, it allowed him to do things with the other characters when they went outside because for the first two seasons he was tied to the ship’s interior and couldn't go anywhere else. They needed a plot device that would allow Zimmer to go outside with Wister, Koontz, and Dog. Do you know what I'm talking about?" He was excited, and energy flooded his body as he spoke. "Do you know?"

"Mother has just filled me in on the basics," she replied. "I do indeed know exactly what you are talking about. How is it relevant to your current situation?"

He waved his hands in the air energetically, “In the show the main character, Wister was in danger of going crazy from loneliness, so the ship's computer took a personality disc that was on file, and recreated the person that drove him the most crazy, Barney Zimmer! Zimmer hated Wister, and Wister hated Zimmer, but their pairing kept Wister from losing his mind." The bot would have stared at him blankly if it could have, "Your point?" she asked.

He bit his lower lip and squinted his left eye, “Can Mother give you a holographic body? Add some tech so that you too can have a photonic bug and can look like a real person? That might help me. It would help me. More than you know." The bot considered things briefly, which meant that it took five nanoseconds to consider the request, three more nanoseconds to converse with the possibility of achieving his request, and replying back to him in one more nanosecond, "Of course. That is well within the realm of reason. Expect it done soon."

"One more thing," he added, "Make it so that you don't look like anyone I know."

My Bonnie Kristine

Kristine returned an hour later, only when she returned to his quarters she was now in the form of a freckle-faced red-headed girl who appeared to be around the age of Twenty five. She had milky white skin, full lips, and brown eyes. He had to admit that she was pretty. He hadn’t asked for that, but Mother would have gone out of her way to meet some predisposed standard of beauty that was the opposite of Sarah. Sarah was short, dark haired, and had unblemished skin. Kristine contrasted her in every way. She smiled, and Declan noticed a slight gap in between her front teeth, which oddly only added to her beauty. She smiled as she entered his room, "What are ya still doin' here?" she asked jovially. He noticed that she carried a slight irish lilt in her voice. "Ya wanna see sumthin?" Then before he could answer she walked over and moved the sheet on his bed. "Ah kin touch stuff, an everything," she giggled as she moved the sheet around, "This shore beats sitting inna garage waitin' for you ta go somewhere!"

Declan chuckled, "That's great, how do you manage to do that? Move the sheets, I mean."

The ginger before him twirled around, lifting high into the air like an umbrella in a slow tornado, and floated off the ground. She giggled as she rose, "Well, clearly ah'm practically perfect in every way as you can see." She then drifted back down to the floor, "Actually, Mother watched all the episodes of that show you mentioned, as well as another show that had a different holographic character, she called it Space Odyssey: Wayfarer. In both instances, the holograms used force fields to effect items in their general area. It was rather simple for mother to accomplish with the technology that the Invigilator has provided us." As she spoke her faux irish accent faded.

. "Can I touch you?" Declan’s voice was tentative and a little nervous. As he looked at her he forced his nanites to dress him in his daily clothes, his bathrobe quickly converted from a green terrycloth and into a blue cotton business suit. It was the default suit that all the nanites started out with, other designs were purchased with Expy. He didn't know why it went to the default setting, and that became just one more thing that he was going to add to his list of questions he was going to ask Mother, not that it bothered him, he actually preferred the blue suit.

Kristine walked over and took him by the hand. He was surprised that her hand was warm and firm and as far as he was concerned it was very real. "Fascinating," he said breathily, "you feel like a live person." She nodded, took his hand, and placed his palm over her chest. Declan startled, as he could feel her heart beating beneath his hand. "How?"

She gazed into his eyes, "Mother has made it so that I am indistinguishable from a living human at a cursory glance. I have a pulse, a heartbeat. I also inhale and exhale." To prove her point she blew in his face, and he could feel a rush of air gently blow onto his features. "She has also made it so that I can, in times of danger,” she stressed, “Extend my force field around you so that you are safe from projectile weapons."

"Couldn't she make me a force field belt or backpack? It would be safer and easier on me if I had something like that of my own." Kristine sat on his bed and looked out off the window, "It would be, that's certain, but for now this is what she came up with. Right now, you need to focus on what the Invigilator wants. That should be all you worry yourself with for the next few days." Her tone was serious, and he could tell that there was an undertone of worry in there as well. “I’ll set Mother on the task of creating a force field ring or belt for you.”

"What do you suggest I do in the meantime?"

She stood up and began striding out of the bedroom with a purpose. "We need to go to the Ready Room, and make plans. You need to understand what your purpose is meant to be, what your abilities are, and how to use the powers that the Invigilator gave you." Mother will show you the way. I will go ahead and meet you there." With that the form of the female faded, and Kristine the former prolate spheroid rocketed from the room as if she had launched herself into FTL levels of speed. Both actions took him aback. He hadn't been prepared for her to go full on mecha so quickly, nor had he expected her to be able to go . . . so . . .well, fast.

He touched a finger to his temple and said, "Mother, feed me directions to the Ready Room." He instantly had a blueprint of the entire facility in his head. The diagram not only told him where the room was, but provided him with a walking ETA, as well as lighted path for him to follow. It was a path that only he would have been able to see if others were around, and was only n his head. He certainly enjoyed having HN back; five minutes later he was in the Ready Room.

The Ready Room was oval, and in its center was a large silver table that was an ellipsis in shape. Kristine hovered at the head of the table, where a shining silver chair emerged from the floor. That, he assumed, was his chair. He rounded the table and sat in the chair. In spite of its metallic nature the chair was both warm and comfortable. It practically felt as if he were sitting on air. He reflexively hit several buttons that he did not even know were on the arm of his chair. He did so swiftly and confidently, as if he had done that maneuver hundreds of times, and as he punched the subliminal code into the conn an image formed over the table.

Mother's voice, feminine and yet still electronic, floated through the air. It surrounded him, and enveloped him from all directions. A planet, roughly three quarters the size of his Earth appeared over the table. It had less water than on his world; it looked to only be covered by water by approximately fifty percent of the surface. He could see traces of industrial expansion, such as pollution and roadways. This world was not as green as he would have expected, but seemed to have more mountain ranges and deserts than his world.

Mother’s voice boomed from overhead. "Greetings Agent Revelator. The planet that you see before you is designated as Earth 5,596. The Invigilator has designated it to have all sentient life on it rendered extinct within five days. You have wasted two days as you slept, so this mission will have less time available than usual. Your limitations on this mission are: None. You are free to completely destroy the planet, or simply erase the blight known as humanity. The method of destruction had been left completely up to you, however creativity is highly cherished, and will be rewarded accordingly."

He stared at the planet. "What can you tell me about it?"

"The planet is very similar to our homeworld, with the main difference being that it is about one hundred to two hundred years behind our earth in levels of technology." Her voice was very calming, and Declan was certain that the nanites in his brain were responsible for that effect. "My scans indicate that many of the people you know will have dopplegangers, yourself included. I can foresee no dangers of any significance for you there so long as Kristine remains close by you."

Declan nodded, "I see." He stared at the holographic planet, "Mother, how do I, um, you know . . . apocalypse the thing?" He had to admit, that Mother's manipulation of his brain chemistry was amazing. In his old life he would never have been able to conceive killing a person, and right now he was contemplating the complete genocide of untold species and he hadn't even blinked. The fact that he was going to neutralize a sapient species, a human species, did not bother him in the slightest.

That thought alone should have terrified him, instead he was curious how he was supposed to do the job. He felt like Mick Road in that show, Filthy Jobs. Someone had to do it, and he had been chosen. He had no choice but to do the best he could until he could figure a way out of the mess he found himself in here.

“Time to practice,” the former Headnet told him, and indicated that he needed to pull up his HUD. He did so, and per her mental instructions he typed in the words Generic Planet A. The hologram over the table made a snowy shift from his target planet to Designation: GPA. "Normally," Mother said, "you must be on the surface of the planet to initiate the apocalypse that you desire. For the purposes of this demonstration you will be able to perform said functions from the comfort of your Conn." She then told him to examine the planet's information tab, which would be similar to his own character sheet.

He pulled the screen up and looked over the information.

Planet Name: Generic Planet A

Designation: GP 00001

Planet Class: Life Supporting

Life Forms: Standard Mammalian

Dominant Sapient Species: Humans

Level of Civilization: Industrial

Reason for Destruction: REDACTED

There was more, but it just spiraled into a lot of statistics about the size, weight, density, its distance from the local star, its rotation schedule, its position in the solar system, and so on. Things that he could, and undoubtedly would, completely and utterly ignore when he did his job. He was not a math jockey, and he could not conceive of even attempting to figure out how to wipe a planet out based on its rotation speed or the inclination of its axis. He had, however, a pretty good grasp on the overall place itself, and he could always look over the minor details at any point. He was pretty good with minor details.

"So, what do I do next?"

Mother then told him to go to the last page of the Planet Sheet. He followed her instructions and found that the screen opened to a slot that read: Please detail the method of the Apocalypse. He typed in, “An asteroid twice the size of Texas hits the Asiatic coastline.” Another cursor flashed just below the preceding line. It read: Apocalypse Now? Yes/No. slightly to the right and atop of the other screen. He punched the Yes on the screen and turned his attention to the Planet rotating over his table. He observed a large chunk of space debris hurtled towards the planet. The impact was overwhelming to see and he watched captivated as the blast threw up a massive cloud of earth and water, and the shockwave covered half the planet in under five minutes. His eyes were glued to event unfolding before him, but after a minute he asked, "Mother, is there some way to speed this up so that we can see the results in something other than real time?"

She did not answer him, but he observed the planet rotate swifter, and in seconds encompassed a period that equated to four days real time. The cloud had completely enveloped the faux world, and as the planet suddenly came to a complete stop the word FAILURE appeared over the space blasted planet.

He sat forward in his chair. "Failure? How in the hell is that a failure? Look at it, there is no way anything survived that event."

Mother's voice was stern. “Incorrect. Several agencies on this planet had bunkers that not only allowed them to survive the impact and the immediate fallout, but would have allowed them to survive another sixty years before they ran out of either food, medicine, energy, water, or tolerance for one another. Your mission was to eliminate all sentient life on the planet within a timeline of five days. It took one day for the asteroid to arrive, and you observed that the following four days did not result in the complete extinction of all sentient life."

"What did I do wrong, Mother? How do I fix this?"

Her voice was reassuring, "You were too general in your wording. You could have had multiple impacts of various sizes striking pinpoint locations that would have targeted the aforementioned bunkers. Or, once the volley of space debris finished the main job you could have then shaken things up even more by causing earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or simply have the entire crust slip back into the mantle. In your less than well thought out plan people would eventually die, but they would do so outside of your allowed timeline. Bunkers could not withstand being swallowed by the mantle, but there was another thing that you did not consider. There was an international space station, and the cosmonauts there would have survived beyond your permitted timeline as well; even if you had managed to destroy all of the people on the planet. Their presence would have invalidated your attempt as well."

He mulled that over. She was right, he hadn't put an ounce of thought into what he'd done. He'd simply punched in the one thing that he was fairly certain would kill everything on the surface. Not only was that a failure, but it also lacked any sort of creativity. The one thing the colossal alien who had a hard on for Armageddon had said was important for him to demonstrate. The man wanted some clean and original forms of destruction from him. Declan had no intention of disappointing his despotic alien overlord and vowed to work smarter.

"Another thing to consider is that some worlds, according to our alien overseer, is that have preset Apocalypses built in. On those worlds all you will have do is to start the tumblers in motion, or fill in for missing key players to make sure that their roles are fulfilled. You are still generally tasked with providing an ingenuitive method to cause the end of the world."

"So, you are saying that there are cheat codes? Things that will help me git r' done? That's great!" He sat back in his chair with a smug look on his face. "I can't wait to get onto one of those planets!"

"Actually," Kristine began, "having a preset apocalypse code could . . .," but she was cut off by Mother.

The slightly electronic voice chided Kristine and finished her sentence for her, ". . . be completely irrelevant at this moment. The important thing is that Declan successfully conclude a simulation on GPA that results in zero survivability for all sentients. I will stay with him and run the simulation until he manages to conclude with a satisfactory success rate. I shall also limit him to the effect that he will not replicate a single apocalyptic event even once. He will need the practice."

As she spoke the holographic image over the table kept replaying the event over and over, ending each time with the Fail stamp appearing over the planetary debris. Kristine puttered around the simulation, "He will also need to know how to travel, scan, and retrieve."

"You are correct, Kristine, after I finish with his apocalyption schooling, I shall brief him on how to come and go on the planets, since he must be on the planet in order to actually initiate the devastation. I will also upload information into his HUD on how to scan life forms, and bring items or other things back with him," She cooed in her loving mothering voice.