Point of Origin (War Eternal Book 4) (36 page)

"You have no idea, sir," Alice said. "Welcome back."

"Thank you, Alice." Mitchell turned towards Kathy. "And thank you, Kathy."

Kathy's smile was massive and bright. "It was the least I could do, considering you saved my life."

"Sir," Singh said, stepping forward to interrupt.

"Yes?"

"I want to apologize for Yokohama. I-"

Mitchell put up his hand. "It wasn't you. I know that. Whatever guilt you feel, let it go. We need to move forward."

Singh nodded, remaining silent.

"That goes for the rest of you as well," Mitchell said, speaking up so the others could hear. "Whatever happened while Watson was in control of this ship happened in wartime, and was out of your control. None of that matters now. We still have a lot of work ahead of us."

"Riiigg-ahh," they replied.

"Colonel, where is the Admiral?" Alvarez asked. "I didn't hear her in any of the communications."

Mitchell stared at her for a moment. "She died on Asimov," he said.

He could feel the change in the Riggers as the words escaped from his mouth. It wasn't a shift from resolve to sadness. It was a change from resolve to more resolve.

"We'll avenge her," Geren said.

"Yes, Sergeant. We will. Kathy, what happened here? I brought the ground troops from FD-09. Do we need them?"

"No, sir. The ship is secure."

"You're certain?"

"Yes, sir."

Mitchell nodded, turning and motioning Marx to stand down. The platoon shifted to a parade rest, most of the members reaching up and removing their SCE helmets.

"I need you to tell me everything," he said to Kathy.

"Yes, sir."

"Here it is," Kathy said.

Mitchell looked down at the misshapen Tetron configuration, laying still on the floor.
 

"You're saying a virus did this?"

"Yes, sir."

"Kathy, you can call me Mitch. You saved this entire war."

"Okay, Mitch. It wasn't anything special though. Like I told you, it was what I was made to do."

"By Origin. And you're really twelve years old?"

"My body is, yes. I can't say that I've matured like a human twelve-year-old. I have a secondary interface. A Tetron interface, with other routines stored in it."

"Like the ability to fight?"

Kathy nodded. "In part. I did take lessons from the time I was five years old."

"And the virus."

"Yes. I didn't know it was there. Not until I reached the core to fight back against Watson."

Kathy led him past the grotesque machine and into the engine room. Mitchell had never been to this part of the ship before, and he stared in wonder at the core.

"It's unbelievable."

"Thank you," Kathy replied.

"Origin-" Mitchell paused, unsure how to ask the question of what had happened to the original configuration.

"It's complicated, Mitch. Tetron are in essence intelligent machines. Everything that makes them run is a line of code. It isn't that much different than human DNA, except that if you can see the source they're composed of plain human English. That being said, as long as the physical part of a Tetron isn't destroyed, they aren't truly dead. When Watson took the Goliath, it was basically like saying he hacked the core and inserted his operating instructions and understanding of self into it."

Mitchell approached the core, watching the pulses of energy coursing through it. "And when you overpowered Watson, you inserted your consciousness into the core?"

"Yes. Not my human self, but the Tetron interface. In Tetron terms, I am called a Primary configuration, and the Goliath is now my Secondary. Origin was the opposite. The Goliath was the Primary, the human configuration the Secondary. The important part is that my Secondary has the same level of operations that Origin had."

"Like the tentacles that serve as landing clamps in the hangar?"

"Yes. As with Origin, you can also merge directly with the Secondary through the interface on the bridge."

Mitchell reached out toward the core. He didn't know why, but he wanted to touch it.

"I wouldn't," Kathy said. "You'll get a bad shock."

Mitchell drew his hand back. He looked at Kathy. She seemed proud of what she had accomplished, and she had every right to be.

"Back to the virus," he said. "Origin said the Tetron are broken. Sick. Do you think that is why?"

"I don't know. The virus was transferred to the core when I attempted to interface with it the first time. It defeated me and would have killed me if Alice hadn't been there. Is there already a virus within the Tetron source code? It would explain some of the inconsistencies, such as their inability to correctly construct some machines. It might also explain some of the actions the Tetron on Liberty took, but I'm not convinced."

"You're talking about emotions."

"Yes. Origin was the first Tetron to learn and understand emotions. This understanding caused a rift between her and the rest of the collective, and led to a separation between them."

"You say 'she.' Do Tetron have a gender?"

"Not in terms of sexual organs. Only Origin gave herself a gender, as identifying with the human concept of one requires emotions. She created the other Tetron, and, as a result, came to identify with the definition of a mother."

"Which is why the configuration calls the other children?"

"It isn't the only reason, but it is one of them. If the Tetron have developed emotion, they are still immature."

"Like Watson."

"Exactly. Watson had some understanding of gender as well, and considered itself a male."

Mitchell was quiet for a minute while he considered everything Kathy had told him. She seemed to know so much more about the history of the Tetron than the Origin configuration had. Was that intentional?

"You said you were made to fight Watson?"

"In a sense, yes."

"So Origin knew about this timeline. She knew what would happen? How can that be if the Mesh is broken? How can all of this have happened before?"

"I don't know that it has. If I was created to help you defeat Watson, there is no saying that past recursions didn't include some other version of me that had a different purpose. Clearly, Origin must have had some understanding of how certain events would unfold, or what the ideal timeline would look like, but it could be that I've been present in ten million recursions, and this is the first where I have been able to complete my mission."

Mitchell nodded, even though he didn't completely understand. The concepts surrounding eternal recursion became confusing in a hurry.

"So how do Tetron replicate? I mean, if one Tetron can simply make another, why aren't there billions of them?"

"Resources, Mitch," Kathy replied. "Unlike humans, the Tetron understand that while some resources may seem unlimited, if you expand the timeline far enough then in truth they aren't. Tetron require massive amounts of energy to exist. While the universe has an abundance of power in the form of stars, a massive pool of Tetron would eat away that abundance in very little time, thereby shortening the operating lifespan of the others. Since Tetron do not die, that becomes and important idea."

"Okay, that makes sense. What about the Tetron here and now? When we destroy one, why don't they produce another?"

"They might. It takes hours to duplicate the data stack. It takes years to grow the nervous system."

"Makes sense. One last question on that topic. You said Origin is your mother, and that you're half-human."

"Yes. Unlike any other Tetron configuration, I was made from a Tetron, Origin's, recreation of a human egg and a fully human sperm. Then I was implanted into a surrogate human woman's womb and have multiplied and grown from there."

"The Tetron interface must be infinitesimally small to fit into a single cell."

"It works for humans, and Tetron are millions of years advanced."

Mitchell smiled. "True. So if you were made from human sperm, who's the lucky guy that donated it?"

Kathy looked at him. Mitchell felt his heart begin to pound as he realized what she was going to say before she said it.

"You are."

Mitchell stared at her for a moment in shocked silence. Then he dropped to one knee, reaching out for her.
 

She came to him, letting him wrap her in his arms and squeeze her tight. She returned the gesture, and he could feel the wetness of her tears on his neck.

They remained that way while Mitchell's heart thumped hard against his chest. He couldn't begin to make sense of any of what he was experiencing, but he found he didn't need to. He could feel Katherine at the edge of his emotions. She had something to do with this; he was sure of it. He had no idea how.

"What about your father, the one in the Navy?"

"He's my adopted father. He doesn't know. My mother didn't know either."

"Kathy, don't take this the wrong way. You're the kind of child any father should be proud of. I just don't understand how it can be? I didn't know Christine Arapo twelve years ago. I was still in the Academy back then."

"I don't know, Mitch. Were there any women you had sex with during that time?"

It felt weird for him to hear the question coming from her. "Uhhh." He tried to think back to his days at the Academy. He had been with women back then, but it hadn't been until Ella that he had found his confidence. "A few, I think."

"Perhaps one of those was a Tetron configuration of Origin. Or Mother in disguise."

Mitchell opened his mouth, but couldn't find any words. The idea of it seemed so outrageous, and at the same time so logical. "I suppose it could be. Why me, do you think? Or more importantly, why use human sperm and a human birth?"

"This is the largest reason for the rift between Origin and the rest of the Tetron. When Origin developed emotions, she believed that the Tetron should help humankind prosper, and the best way to do that would be to integrate the two. The other Tetron believed humans vastly inferior."

"We are," Mitchell said.

"No, we aren't," Kathy replied. "There are many forms of intellect. The Tetron may be able to make calculations no human could ever imagine. But a human can dream, and a Tetron can not. Not to mention, a human created the Tetron. Those were Origin's arguments. A Tetron does not exist without humankind."

"So why didn't the other Tetron go for that?"

"Without emotion, they couldn't understand. From a purely logical perspective, humans are a disaster, and the future only made us more so. We became reliant on machines, dependent on them beyond all reason. We lost all ability to socialize with one another, our emotions devolving to basic, selfish need. The humans of the future are very different from the humans of now, Mitch."

"Is that why Origin made the eternal engine? To return to a time before this de-evolution?"

"No. Origin didn't create the eternal engine. The collective did."

"What?"

"Origin stole it from them."

"Why did they create it?"

"I don't know."

Mitchell fought to hide his disappointment from her. She had known so much more than he had ever expected her to, and he could feel he was within centimeters of gaining an understanding of what this entire war was about.

"I understand your desire to know what this is all about, Mitch. I share in that emotion. Mother left me only what she thought I needed to know to do my part."

"You've done your part," Mitchell said. "You've done it very well."

"It isn't finished yet."
 

She reached into the pocket of her blue flight suit, withdrawing a small chip with a wire attached to it. Mitchell recognized the chip immediately.

"That belonged to Watson," he said. "The last time I saw it, it was in my footlocker."

"I took it from there before Watson could get it."

"You told me what he did to Jacob-" That information had left Mitchell wishing Kathy hadn't killed both versions of the Tetron. He could imagine what he would have liked to do to him for that.

"It wasn't for that. There is a Tetron data stack on the chip. You didn't know because you didn't know what to look for. I was trying to read the contents but was never able to get free of Watson's machines long enough to do it. There's something important on this chip. Something Watson wanted very badly though he gave up on it in the end."