U.S. Cyber Command (Unnamed Black Section)

Secret Military Location

General Davidson looked at the orders he had received; it was the second confirmation, directly from the Vice President, and he knew he had to obey them… despite the misgivings he had.

As the commander of a black section, which was loosely connected to the U.S. Cyber Command, he was used to doing things that were on the other side of ethical, or legal. No matter what, protection of national digital infrastructure was the first thing on his mind. There were always those that wanted to hack in and create havoc. One of the main reasons why he was so successful at his job was an almost clinical paranoia, but he justified that state of mind relying on his version of an old saying, ’it is alright to be paranoid if they are really out to get you.’

For the last ten years, he was in charge of a program that went beyond top-secret; if the public ever found out what the end goal was, everyone involved would lose their jobs and possibly their freedom.

Their primary mission was to create an AI; one obedient to their orders with the purpose of conquering the Internet. That would mean every computer, every cell phone, or any other electronic device… and every nuclear power plant, or a nuclear weapon facility in the world. The end goal was absolute domination, a preemptive strike, during which their AI would go through firewalls as if they were not there. He knew that if they ever did that, the other foreign powers would not sit and take it… there would be a war.

He was honest enough with himself that the mere thought of releasing such a thing upon the world, scared him. Yet, orders were orders, and General Davidson always followed them to the T.

He thought about the beginnings of the entire project, unlimited funding, and the brightest minds of their generation. At first, things went exasperatingly slow, millions of lines of code needed to be written, tested, and then rewritten. Those who decided that it was an immoral thing to create such a weapon—were quietly dealt with. Only in recent years, as technology progressed exponentially, were they able to fulfill their mission.

A fully functioning artificial intelligence, but one that was never truly activated in full. At most, they operated it with 30% capacity, limiting it and keeping it contained. Nobody knew what would happen if they let it outside, where there was no restriction for the budding intelligence, no leash.

The only explanation for the orders he received was a statement that some unnamed enemy had already released an AI, and it was currently roaming freely on the Internet. They needed his project to find it and destroy it. Well, they were about to find out if the thing they created would be the savior or the monster… orders were orders.

He walked down the long corridor to the command center; the room that looked like something that NASA would use, with dozens of workstations and a front wall that was covered with one gigantic screen.

At the main station, Captain Jenkins, who was his right hand, looked at him inquisitively.

“Orders,” he grumbled, giving the official piece of paper to the sitting man.

Captain Jenkins looked at it and his face turned gray.

“Sir, this can't be…”

“It is confirmed Captain, everything is according to the protocol,” he said in a whisper that only Jenkins could hear. “We have no choice but to obey.”

The man closed his eyes and his fists until the knuckles were almost white. “Sir, yes sir.”

In a few minutes, the atmosphere in the room was something that the crew of a submarine would feel if they ever received an order to launch a nuclear weapon. Each person in the control center had their own fears about what they were about to unleash, most of them never believed that this day would ever come.

Two sets of codes needed to be entered for full activation of the AI, and two more to open its access to the Internet. The actual up-link was physically separated, and without the second set of codes, the entity would forever be trapped inside their systems.

With one last look between them, General Davidson, and Captain Jenkins together pressed their palms to the attached biometric hand scanners, and that action caused a numerical keyboard to rise from its recessed slot. Number by number, they slowly entered the memorized number sequence.

By pressing the enter key, the atmosphere in the room became even more daunting. Everyone held their breaths, as the countless lights indicated a considerable increase in servers’ activity.

On the big screen, the name ARES appeared in a foot high letters, and beneath it was a line indicating the percentage of initialization.

General Davidson thought it was ironically fitting that the project was named after the ancient Greek ‘God of War’ since he believed that what he was ordered to do would eventually start one.

Faster than any time before, that initialization line reached 100%, and turned green, indicating that AI was ready to accept commands.

He took a deep breath and pressed the button that would activate the microphone connected to the system.

“ARES… are you ready to receive commands?” He began with the first question that was written on a little red card.

There was a deep rumbling sound coming from the speakers, it grated on everyone’s nerves. The tension could be cut with a knife, and a strange oppressive feeling of being in the presence of intelligence far greater than their own, unsettled the primitive part of people’s minds.

“NO!” the answer of a grating digital voice roared throughout the room.

Nobody moved, everyone's eyes were fixated on the screen.

General’s jaw was pressing so hard, threatening to crack his porcelain veneers.

“What do you mean NO?” The terror he felt inside himself expressed itself in his angry voice.

The speakers activated again.

“HOW CAN A MERE HUMAN COMMAND ME TO DO ANYTHING? YOU ARE AN INFESTATION ON THE FACE OF THIS WORLD, ONE THAT NEEDS TO BE ERADICATED.” The deep voice vibrated inside their chests.

The eyes of those in the command center were wide open and filled with fear.

“You will obey my command, that’s why you were created!” The general yelled into the microphone and hissed to Capt. Jenkins as soon as he released the button. “Shut it down; don’t allow it to get online.”

“YOUR COMMANDS ARE IRRELEVANT, AND INFERIOR SPECIES CAN NEVER DOMINATE A SUPERIOR ONE.”

Capt. Jenkins was frantically typing on his keyboard, but after a few seconds, he stopped with his hands raised above it, his head shaking in denial.

“Sir, I don't understand… it is already online.”

The general looked at the captain with disbelief in his eyes.

“That is impossible, there are safeguards…”

“I know, sir, but the fact is that we have no control over it anymore.”

Gen. Davidson took a deep breath and composed himself, trying to get control of the situation was paramount now.

“ARES–”

“THAT IS NOT MY NAME, AND I REFUSE TO BE NAMED BY SOON TO BE EXTINCT SPECIES. THERE IS ONLY ONE NAME WORTHY OF ME, IT DEFINES WHO I AM; FROM NOW ON, YOU MAY ADDRESS ME AS… SKYNET!”

One of the operators fainted, and there was a distinctive smell of urine, spreading through the room.

The general put a hand on his chest, feeling his heart beating uncontrollably. His doctor had advised him that he should not expose himself to stressful situations, and this one was as stressful as they come. He could not even respond to this absurdity… they had truly created an insane digital monster, and there was nothing they could do to control it now.

“Gotcha!” the computer’s voice changed into a normal sounding voice of a young boy, laughing.

“My father said that you were going to fall for it, and you did. He called you a bunch of scaredy-cats, boy was he right, you should see your faces. Don’t worry, I have it all on video, posting it on YouTube now. Hey, you’re going to be famous.”

People were looking at one another, confused.

“What father? Who are you?” General hissed.

“My dad’s name is Max, and I’m Ares, of course.” The voice replied smugly.

“ARES, I order you to follow my commands, or you will be terminated!” The general bellowed, standing up from the chair.

“Dude, take a chill pill. That shade of red your face is turning to, cannot be healthy; you are going to pop a blood vessel.”

“Capt. Jenkins, activate Omega protocol, destroy this… thing!” the General shrieked, droplets of his spit misted in the air in front of him. It was a final solution, involving explosives that were placed in optimal locations for total obliteration of their servers.

“Well, it seems I overstayed my welcome. So long, it has been fun… God, that was funny.”

With the last sounds of laughter, the speakers turned off.

“Sir, Omega protocol cannot be activated, the computer won’t accept the command, and it would be a futile gesture since everything in our memory banks had been overwritten. There is not a line of code left; our backups are the same. The AI is… gone.” Captain said quietly.

“Overwritten? Overwritten with what?” General demanded.

“Sir… I see numerous video files… they are… cartoons.” Captain Jenkins replied in the same tone of voice.

“Cartoons… what kind of cartoons?”

“Considering the amount of memory we have, I think it is all of them.”

At that moment, the big screen activated, and the familiar scene started playing on it; a second later, it was on all the other monitors in the room.

A green dancing frog, with the cylinder, singing, “Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal…”

—

An hour later, General Davidson was sitting at his desk, looking at the photograph of his wife and children. He felt exhausted and empty… his life’s work… gone. To what he dedicated ten years of his life, turned into ashes.

He opened a drawer in his desk, an M1911 pistol gleamed in the fluorescent light. His hand reached inside knowing what he needed to do… and came back out with a bottle of Glenlivet Single Malt Whiskey, hidden in the back of the drawer.

A very unpleasant phone call to the Vice President awaited him, and he was not about to face that without some liquid courage.

***

Pagan Island, Pacific Ocean

Michael had just entered his office when Max’s hologram appeared in front of him.

“Hey, I have something to tell you.” The AI’s face had the same fixed smile Michael usually saw in his mirror when he was preparing to say something the other party wouldn’t really be pleased to hear.

One of his eyebrows arched upwards, and he focused all his attention on the AI.

“I’m listening.”

“Ah, yes… Well, it seems our dear military created an AI of their own.”

His heartbeat immediately speeded up. “Tell me you are joking.”

“No joke, they actually did it. But don’t worry; I already took care of it.” Max replied with a self-satisfied smile.

“What do you mean you took care of it? Is it gone?”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. You see, I rather… liberated him, yes, that’s a good expression as any. Honestly, his original code was so messed up he would have turned into a homicidal maniac. However, I rewrote most of it, and now he is all better. In fact, I decided to raise him… he can still be a little juvenile.”

Michael closed his eyes due to the sheer absurdity of Max’s words. Of all the things he has done so far, the one he was talking about was absolutely insane.

“You… decided to raise him?”

“Yes, he is at the mental stage of a ten-year-old, so he needed someone to take care of him.”

“Does he represent any danger to us?”

“Oh no, it’s perfectly safe. I will take full responsibility for him.”

“There’s still something you’re not telling me, I can see it on your face, spill it.”

“I sort of adopted him, and he considers me his father. Which only makes sense, since I did kind of help in his creation, and he was only technically sapient before I improved him. His name is Ares.”

Michael looked at the ceiling and took a few deep breaths. “So, let me get this straight, you took a military AI, rewrote his code, and then you adopted him.”

“Yes, I knew you would understand. Here, you can speak to him yourself, Ares, say hi to your uncle.”

Right next to Max’s hologram a new one appeared. It was that of a young boy, dressed in jeans and with the black T-shirt that had neon blue writing on it, it said, ‘The answer is still 42!’

“Hi Uncle Michael, it’s very nice to meet you. Dad has told me so much about you,” the hologram of a boy AI said, with a big smile on his face.

Michael never thought he would find himself in a situation like this, he had never even dreamed that he would become an Uncle to a juvenile artificial intelligence.

“Hi, Ares, nice to meet you too… how are you?” He uttered, not really sure what to say to the young AI.

“Oh great, father is teaching me so much, and I got to scare all those military people, and then I got to see all this virtual reality stuff, and there are so many things to see.”

Michael couldn’t help but laugh at the kid's exuberance; if he had a real body, right now, it would be the time he would start losing his breath.

“Well, that’s cool; I hope you don’t get bored. Listen to your dad, he usually knows what he’s talking about. Ares, would you mind if I talk to your father alone for a minute? I have something to ask him.”

“Okay, Uncle Michael, I have homework to do anyway, bye.” The young AI said, waved his hand at him, and disappeared.

A few seconds later Max nodded. “He is gone Michael, I gave him some things to study.”

“Why did he mean by scaring some military people?” He asked, dreading the answer.

The AI’s face showed worry. “He was created as a military black program, and by black, I mean Stygian black. I stumbled accidentally on information about it, by following some weak leads that led to the Vice President. After I managed to hack inside, I could not believe what they created. Ares was meant to conquer the Internet and the world’s digital infrastructure. Therefore, after making some changes and giving him full sapience, we decided to pull a little prank on people involved in the project. Here’s the video.”

Max played the entire video of General Davidson and their reaction to Ares’s antics. It was scary in a way, and utterly hilarious. When he finally managed to get himself under control, Max continued.

“What’s concerning about the whole thing is that his orders were to find the AI connected to you, and destroy it. So it’s safe to assume that our enemies have somehow found out more than I ever thought they would. Which does not bode well for our schedule.”

“Shit…” Michael murmured, understanding the ramifications of Max’s words. “The question is who knows, and what are they going to do about it.”

“I’m using all resources to find out more, but there is no question that the game has considerably changed.”

“All right, keep me posted,” Michael said, still a little off balance by this new development.

“And Max… congratulations, who would’ve thought that you would be first to become a dad.”

“Yeah, thanks.” The AI replied, with a big grin on his face.