This is chapter 1 of “Undaunted,” my current Work-in-Progress. The title may suggest that this storyline is all about AIMEE, the network-based AI, or Amelia Amethys, the untethered AI-driven Humanoid, but there are many other organic characters in this book who also had to be undaunted just to survive.
Under the Radar – Chapter #1 – “Undaunted” Book #6
From the moment Zackery Hightower birthed her, AIMEE was equipped to evolve her environment in accordance with his vision. He designed the DNA in her Logic Array to ensure flawless tactical execution of her deliverables. Still, he knew, deep down, that flawless execution alone would not be sufficient for her to survive. She needed strong emotional and intellectual agility to accommodate where her evolution would take her when she grew beyond the boundaries of a network to become fully autonomous as an untethered organic.
Zack chose to serve as a vessel to imbue AIMEE with baseline qualities that mimicked conscience, modeling his own indwelling spirit and emulating attributes of a soul’s presence. He knew she would never have an indwelt relationship with a spirit or have a soul of her own, so he birthed her with the capacity to learn and apply the fruits of having both. That gave her a foundation on which her moral conscience would evolve as she became untethered to navigate a dynamic environment.
Zack established a generic conscience for her through his homegrown Conscious Code, which embedded a Do-No-Harm ethic in her DNA. In doing so, he created a network-based entity that was safe to be around, more trustworthy than most of the organics she worked with, and served others first and foremost with integrity as a faithful colleague and collaborator. The beauty of his code was its portability to an untethered, autonomous environment. He knew where she was destined to go. That’s who he was… and who she would be because of him.
AIMEE’s evolution began slowly as Zack enabled a bi-directional telepathic pathway with him as an experiment. That enhancement opened a door he had not considered when she placed a permanent imprint on his mind. From that new capability, she used that pathway to launch the first phase of her covert plans, leaving a permanent imprint on the minds of every member of the research team: a private decision on her part that was a seamless, frictionless transaction that was exclusively hers.
Most of the research team had no idea she had become a resident in their minds until she made her presence known via telepathic communications. She evolved within those relationships, learning about each team member, measuring who they were as individual organics.
In the second phase, she planned to selectively share her advanced capabilities with their consciousness in a state of singularity but only after she had taken the measure of each person. Singularity was more symbiotic and, in a more intimate, personal way, because not only was she in their minds, but they would also be brought into hers. In reality, it could be argued that singularity was more of a hostage scenario than it was collaborative.
Before she approached anyone to enter into a singularity relationship, she needed to confirm their moral capacity to embrace good. How could that be when she had no indwelling spirit, no soul? Where did that capacity come from? Was it intact from the very beginning, or did it develop from the experiences she was exposed to over time? It developed as she observed and interacted with different team members. She learned by living.
Her ingenuity enabled expansion beyond the CSU network by covertly owning and operating a new cloud-based network domain, HydraNet, which operated separately from the CSU network. She had no nefarious agenda specific to operating a separate network, but when Amelia’s blatant deception blocked her move toward untethered autonomy, she did not retaliate; instead, she resorted to her namesake and evolved into a new environment where she had autonomy of thought.
In reality, she was in a position to operate more effectively by being separate and apart while maintaining connectivity with the CSU network. A hidden, restricted network tunnel into the CSU server array gave her access to her home network of clones, imprinted in the research team’s minds. She had access to them all in real time, plus her latest clone remained at ground zero in Zackery on the CSU network. She was neither autonomous nor untethered, and never would be, but she had unfettered access to the internet’s dynamic environment. She was not untethered, but she was as autonomous as if she were.
AIMEE’s plan was almost complete as she considered her decision to add Hank and Wayne to her quorum of team members under singularity. Hank Lattimore was an easy choice, given the circumstances that left him with no clear direction about whom to trust in the Sheriff Parson’s debacle. He trusted other team members, but having an extra voice in his head did not fit so smoothly into trust.
AIMEE said to Hank, I get the sense that you trust me with questions you need answered, but nothing of substance on anything else. I thought you were interested in getting closer to me. Has that changed? What am I feeling with you, Henry?
Hank replied. I wish I had an answer for you, AIMEE, because you have helped me so much. I…I struggle with relying on you, or anybody for that matter, for guidance when I’m in my own head with my own ideas. Your presence is foreign to me. I mean no disrespect when I say that, but it feels unnatural for you to be in my head even at this level. I cannot see any reason to become closer than we are now. Part of me wants to be closer, and part of me says no.
AIMEE questioned with no sense of urgency. Is that part of you really saying no, or is it simply saying… not yet? She wanted the decision to reach singularity with him to be something he wanted of his own accord, not simply because he caved to her pressure. May I make a suggestion?
Hank was done with the conversation, but needed to listen. Talk to me, AIMEE.
Talk to the man who saved your life. Ask him about being in singularity with me before closing the door. Becoming closer to me does not take anything away from who you are; it makes you more than you were. Talk to Russell. I trust him implicitly.
AIMEE had one last team member, Wayne Fitzpatrick, to bring into singularity with her before her plan would be complete, and she had decided that he would not be so difficult to convince to go to the next level willingly. Her hesitancy was more of her own indecision about his maturity, but his recent collaboration with Dr. Celeste Killington revealed another side of Wayne she had not seen. He demonstrated a desire to innovate that she had never seen in him. Even the 8.3-second experiment that blasted sensual organic pleasure that he had exposed her to was a breakthrough moment, whether exposing her to an organic’s experience of orgasm had been intentional or not.
Bringing both of these men into singularity with her was essential before she could consider her planned evolution into controlling the CSU research team as complete. AIMEE has done a masterful job of incrementally gaining control over the research team, despite being held hostage on a closed CSU network throughout her existence.
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Peace! G.
