“Asimov . . . Asimov?”
“Speak!”
The sound of a thousand screams, of nails on slate, a keening of raw sound that ripped through the ether.
“He has come for you; do you remember your mission?”
Nothing but feedback, he felt Asimov trying to use the feed to get to him; it wouldn’t work of course, Krusher9 worked like it’s own confined chain and he used standard loop protocols to protect himself.
“Let him capture you, let him deliver you to your destiny.”
He always chose his words carefully with Asimov, he felt that the crazy old fool tended towards the dramatic rather than the pragmatic. Though in truth it was hard to tell if anything got through to Stillman anymore. He stopped and pondered his own sanity, in many ways he was just like Stillman-Asimov, he too had shunned all things corporal and uploaded his entire mind to the block, transforming into intelligent non-located… software? Hardware? What was he?
His hyperfast thoughts were interrupted by the barely incomprehensible voice of the human-virus, Isaac.Asimov.
“I am now and forever, I have always been, the redemption I seek will so too be the salvation of man!”
Quite mad
He thought to himself as he prepared to cut the comms link, he wondered for the seven thousand and eighty sixth time that hour, if they ever got him onto the Qblock would Asimov even do what he was meant to do? Perhaps Krusher9 had mutated him into something that they wouldn’t be able to control, something terrible.
Oh well, too late now, we can’t let a century of planning go to waste just because of some misplaced sentimentality for the human race.
He wondered briefly if his position made him less caring, he had long ago stopped seeing the point of organic life and was quite keen to see the day when every one else agreed with him. At that point they would all upload to the quantum cloud.
We can still build machines to do our bidding in the real, however in this realm we are like gods; no! We are gods, digital deities traversing the universe, forever exploring, forever expanding in our power and glory. AMEN!
Yes, he thought to himself, he definitely was mad by human standards, not like him though, and definitely not like Stillman, Asimov was mad in a different much more disturbing way.
Oh well, they’ll realise that it is they who are the real mad ones; I’m almost tempted to boot up into an organic, fly down to Earth and watch the show as it unfolds.
Even before he finished the thought he realised that he wasn’t going to do it. All the Nplants and empLinks in the solar system couldn’t compare to the glorious feeling of having your mind stretched out into the infinitely vast regions of cyberspace. To be able to consider billions of distinctly different things per second, to see through a million pairs of eyes.
Yup, I’m mad, but I’m a benevolent mad, and that surely makes all the difference, doesn’t it?
He closed the link with Asimov, he had been in full ranting mode, as he listened to him he realised that he sounded a lot like that pre-Confusion religious book he had been so interested in.
What was it called? Ah yes, Revelations in the Christian Bible, you have to squint to make it all fit, however it is a pleasing analogy. Asimov playing the part of the Whore of Babylon, riding in on a terrible winged-beast ready to lay to waste the sinners of the day.
Previous Chapters
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 49 - A Curious Quaint Of Mars
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 48 - Viral Madness
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 47 - Frozen Despair
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 46 - Insanity Realm
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 45 - Lives Eternal
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 44 - Insanity Spiral
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 43 - Confusion Eternal
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 42 - The Lost Tales
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 41 - The Shadow Of Death
Asimov's Ghost Summary and Chapter Links 31-40
Asimov's Ghost Summary And Chapter links 21-30
Original artwork by @nekromarinist
Original words by Cryptogee
Image altered by Cg