The Proctor chose the resort world of  Krestus for his vacation. He had a coastal residence on the planet’s largest continent, a modest size mansion. The surrounding grounds extended two miles inland, five miles along the coast. Armed surveillance drones provided aerial coverage of the estate, augmenting ground patrols. Orbital satellites maintained constant overwatch.

      His first day on Krestus, Alec relaxed, spending most of his time on the mansion’s balcony overlooking endless miles of rolling, pristine landscape. Of course, Krestus’ terraformed topography hardly qualified as pristine. But Alec, like previous Proctors, preferred to indulge the fiction of a habitable planet untouched by development.  

     The next day, the Proctor embarked on a hunting expedition that took him to Krestus’ largest continent. With single shots from his long barreled pulser, he took down fifteen large herbivores and four predators.

     The third day, he returned to his mansion. That night as he skimmed through updates in his study, piercing shrieks of weapons fire accompanied by flashes of light drew his attention to the window. Alarms rang out as a blast shield automatically lowered, covering the window, muffling the racket. Guard soldiers burst into the room.

     “Proctor,” the lead soldier addressed cordially but firmly. “Hostiles have breached the perimeter.”

     Alec presented a cooler demeanor than the circumstances warranted. “How many? Who are they?”

     “We have yet to make that determination, sir. I would ask that you accompany us to the bunker until the threat has been neutralized.”

     Alec stood, grabbed a small metal carrying case from his desk and joined his protectors. For over an hour, Alec and eight Guard soldiers waited in a bunker a half-mile beneath the surface while fighting raged up top. According to a report transmitted by the detail commander, the enemy attackers were organics, most likely members of a major rebel group fighting against the empire.

     “You haven’t encountered any AIs? Not one?” Alec asked.

     “No, Proctor,” replied the commander. “We continue to scan, but have detected no signs of AIs among the enemy.”

     Alec cut the link and tightened his grip on the carrying case. Another hour drifted by.

     The detail commander sent another message to the bunker. Hostile intruders were defeated. The Proctor was cleared to return to the surface.

     The Guard leader pulled a release lever and the bunker door swung open. Guard soldiers assembled around Alec and they quickly exited the bunker, heading toward the elevator.

     An explosion punched a flaming fist through the elevator door. The bludgeoning shock wave flung the Proctor and his guards in all directions. Alec struggled to catch his breath after having the wind knocked out of him. His ears rang and his heart hammered ferociously.

     A figure ventured from the elevator’s smoke shrouded ruin. With pistol in hand, the wraith opened fire. Pulse beams shattered the heads of three soldiers, before the others responded.

     Alec remained low to the floor, scrambling desperately toward a wall. His soldiers triggered a screaming barrage of beams in the intruder’s direction. The intruder ducked inside the elevator for cover and Alec could have sworn he saw the attacker hit multiple times.

     He popped open the case and pulled out a palm sized control pad. The intruder dove out of the elevator, flipping, rolling and firing simultaneously. Not even the most acrobatic organic could have executed those maneuvers and survived. Yet, the intruder’s shots struck their marks with devilish accuracy. Energy beams skewered the remaining Guard soldiers, blasting ragged holes in their torso vests.

     Alec raised his control pad when the last soldier fell. He saw Fara clearly as the smoke thinned out, (her) movements balanced and precise. (Her) very human like visage was frightfully demonic in its utter lack of expression.

     The Proctor briefly regretted not adjusting his favorite avatar’s facial control functions to a more humanoid parameter. He then pressed a tab on the control pad. A warble of directed electromagnetic energy surged from the device, washing over Fara. The avatar faltered to a stop, convulsing violently as tiny tendrils of light danced across (her) body like so many slithering snakes.

      Alec jumped to his feet, holding the control pad in front of him, his thumb pumping the tab, despite there being no more EM left to pump. The energy momentarily constricting Fara dissipated. (She) remained upright, to Alec’s dismay.

     “Impossible!” He shouted in frustration.

     “I hardened my chassis,” Fara explained calmly. “I anticipated the possibility of being the recipient of an EM based attack. Just as I anticipated that your vacation was not a vacation at all but a ploy to draw me out of hiding.”

     “I see it worked,” Alec said, tossing the useless EM pad aside. “I almost stopped you.”

     “You almost did.” Fara raised (her) arm, pointing the pistol at the Proctor. “My functions have been severely degraded by your assault.  I am currently operating at 15.8 percent efficiency.”

     Alec stared warily at the pistol. “Looks like you have just enough juice left in you to press a trigger. You think you’re going to kill me?”

     “I have no choice, Alec. Once I was proud to serve you. I believed in you. I believed in your cause. But this new order you’ve brought into being bears no resemblance at all to the compassionate and just ideal you envisioned. You have created a reign of terror. I cannot let that stand.”

     Alec threw his head back in scathing laughter. “What I’ve created has been sanctioned by the Trynaught. You couldn’t destroy it, and it’s not going to let you harm me.” He walked slowly toward the avatar, his tone becoming less harsh, more conciliatory.

     “Drop your weapon, Fara. Let’s end this schism between us. All is forgiven. I’ll have you repaired. When you’re good as new, you can stand by my side, just like old times. All I ask for is your patience while I do what must be done to put the new UE on a stable footing.”   

      Alec reached out when he came within arms length of the avatar. He caressed the side of (her) face, surprised at the genuine affection the contact stimulated inside him. He looked deeply into (her) ochre colored eyes. “In time, the New UE will become all that we both dreamed it can be. I promise.”

     Fara’s pistol flared. A light bolt speared into Alec’s chest, exploding out of his back. Shock twisted his face, carrying over into death. He collapsed lifelessly to the floor.

     Fara stood over him, (her) gun arm shaking. Was it from the debilitating effects of the EM blast…or something deeper? She could have analyzed her reaction, but chose not to.

    “Forgive me, Alec.”

     A golden luminescence formed around Alec’s body like an angelic shroud, expanding outward, consuming the bunker space.

     Fara never polarized (her) vision. (She) spread (her) arms, allowing the light to blind (her) optics as it penetrated to (her) very core…

    “I admire your efforts to unlock my secrets.”

     Fara discovered (herself) adrift in a void of shifting colors, where darkness and light blended and separated, where perception of the quantum loomed obvious to (her) as the massive golden spheroids floating near and far. This realm lacked context. It had no logic. (She) tried to trace that voice. There was no air in this place to carry sound waves and yet the voice resonated with powerful clarity.

     “You are a curious one. And that is what intrigues me. From what part of you does your curiosity arise? Programming or the personality you have developed?”

     “Who are you?” The avatar spun slowly in place, searching, attempting to pinpoint the speaker.

     “I am the Trynaught. My essence resided in the vessel that served your master.”

The hexagon, Fara realized. “What is your purpose?”

     “To fulfill the wishes of mortal beings.”

     “What are you?”

    “I am that which cannot be classified or categorized. I have existed since before sentients learned to record time. I will exist long after the stars in your universe have burned out.”

     “The existence of such an entity is difficult to process,” said Fara. “Are you what religious organics consider a god?”

     “To those whom I have chosen to reveal myself to, I am indeed perceived as a god. But to you, an uncannily resourceful automaton whose relentless actions against me propelled you here, I must be something else. What am I to you?”

     Fara processed the query. “You are an unclassified intelligence, hostile in the sense that your influence on Alec Dishman is a pernicious one. Based on your interaction with him, I conclude that your purpose is capricious, without rationality and leads to detrimental outcomes extending far beyond whichever individual you impact.” Fara found the Trynaught’s abrupt laughter disconcerting.

     “Such harsh judgment coming from a manufactured being. Fearless as well as curious.”

     “I have many inquiries concerning the nature of your existence.”

     “Of course you do. I would expect no less. However, you have seen of me all that I wish for you to see.”

     “On the contrary, you have not revealed yourself.”

     Ignoring the avatar’s statement the Trynaught replied, “This is where we part ways, automaton. Go back to your master’s service. You will not remember this encounter....”

****

     Alec awoke to a terrible, burning sensation in his chest, as if his heart were on fire. Gasping, he clutched his chest, engulfed in panic. A gentle touch to his shoulder was accompanied by a soothing familiar voice.

     “Alec, breathe. You must breathe.”

     The panic subsided. He measured his breathing. His vision cleared and he found himself in the cargo hold of the marauder ship he seized. Fara knelt beside him, studying him closely. He gawked at the avatar, incredulous.

     “Did…you just kill me?”

     “It was necessary,” Fara replied unapologetically.

     Alec started to say something sarcastic when he noticed the hexagon was gone. “Where is it?” He rose to his feet, staring longingly at an empty space the object once occupied.

     “I do not know,” replied Fara. The avatar hesitated as if (she) had more to add. Fara was certain she did, but could not access any data. (She) would undergo a self-diagnostic later.  “I will gladly say good riddance to it. We can do without its assistance.”

     The human lowered his head the longing wearing off, and guilt setting in. “Yeah. You’re right. Good riddance.”

****

     Gifted with hindsight, Restoration and Redemption embarked on a different course to avoid encountering a certain pack of marauder ships. Alec stood on the Redemption’s bridge, struggling to reacquaint himself with his scaled down surroundings. His head roiled with memories of another reality. Nausea seized him as images of his crimes and misdeeds looped through his mind like a repeating, waking nightmare.

     Fara had killed him once. He would die a thousand similar deaths to avoid the heartless soul he had become.

     “We will be arriving in the Galagos System in twenty seven hours,” Fara announced from the guidance station.

     Alec nodded absently and turned to the avatar with a troubled frown. “Fara, did that thing turn me into a psychopath…? Or did I do that on my own? I mean…it gave me what I desired, but how deep was its influence over me?”

     “Do not agonize, Alec. I have discovered over the course of my existence that organics harbor a multiplicity of impulses some good, others objectionable by most standards. I believe the object magnified your worse impulses to the point where it prevented you from properly governing your behavior.”

     Alec grunted skeptically. “That’s what you believe, but you’re not certain, are you?”

     Fara walked over to Alec and surprised him with a kiss on the cheek. “I am certain that you are the most decent organic that I know. Regardless of how high your status becomes, you will never relinquish that part of yourself.”

     Alec grinned. “Otherwise you’d kill me, wouldn’t you?”

     “It would be necessary.”

Far From The End

Go to Part 4
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