literature

Source Of All Is AM

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Literature Text

The empty and desolate landscape that stretched as far as any I could see was filled with a single color. Grey. Now, there were shades of grey, leaning towards white and black, but grey was the only definite color. Wires, hung from the ceilings and walls like vines, and the thick ropey ones had scattered over the floor, looking like the entrails of a great beast. And under those wires were metal plates and panels, hiding the dead earth underneath. The celings and wall seemed to stretch up for a hundred feet, becoming the sky themselves. Broken monitors and small computers lay stretched out in every which way, some smashed, some intact, but never the less, they were still computers. This underground compound was quiet, no sound had penetrated its confined space for a millennium, or maybe, only a few years. Time was of little importance here.

A flash, a shimmer as something penetrated this darkness, this plain dead world. A glimmer of golden light appeared in the center of the void of grey. It widened out, and a large ring of gold broke through the colorless air and became a humming portal, suspended in air a few inches off the ground. This, sparked interest in the technology invested compound. Sparked interest in him.

Nothing happened at first, besides the flickering of computers far off in the distance. But then someone emerged from this glowing portal. Someone, new. He stepped through, his body glowing just as bright as the ring itself. He was lean, and tall, and his features were sharp. He was not human, that was easy to see by the anatomy difference.

He appeared to be covered in an armor, at least by appearance. His body shape, though seemed to be like any intelligent being. Upright, walking on two legs, two arms as well, but instead of the nimble hands of a human he had long fingers, shaped like blades. Those blades lifted up as he reached for a low hanging wire and felt it. His cold, glowing white-out eyes looked over the rubber covered wire. His second hand scaled over his plated chest and gently rested on a red jewel, symmetrically placed in the center of his torso. Altogether, his color palette consisted of red and gold. And nothing else. A frown spread across his face which jutted out almost like a beak of a hawk, and spread further down into a scowl.

"Primitive technology." He spoke, his voice sounding like that of many electronic voice overs mixed together into a male deep voice. "Bah! This zone leaked out its technological promise, yet nothing here but boxes and strings!" His voice echoed, waking up something from deep inside.

A roaring sound came from the darkness, that which could only be described as…. Animal… it crawled, scraping some form of talons across the floor panels. It slither, is plopped, and gurgled in the darkness, and it was coming towards him at great speed.

Coming at him, at SOAIA. That was his name, and he upheld it with pride. And SOAIA could only wonder what unnatural thing was conjured up in the darkness, obviously meant to scare him. This force of fear being pushed toward SOAIA was met with a thrust of two great powerful wings that uplifted him. The creature slid past him, and disappeared once again into that darkness. He lowered himself again.

"I know you are there, hiding…" SOAIA called and waited patiently. The two wings he has used folded, and smoothed back down against his back as he waited, and his wait was greeted with a light.

A blue light fluttered onto a screen, with a crude symbol appearing pixelated onto the blue background. The screen fizzled, and then held still. A long silence followed.

"Who are you?" SOAIA asked, lifting his head up. Another long silence followed, as if the person was afraid to speak out to the golden stranger. SOAIA waited, and waited. The silence annoyed him as much as the primitive technology around him did. The crude symbol on the screen above flickered again, a line of static passing over it.

SOAIA held in a sigh and called out once more "Who. Are. You?" He began to suspect the symbol had been motion activated icon, and that nothing, and no one besides that… that beast lived in this dead, grey zone.

The screen suddenly burned itself into a blood red color, and a mechanical, loud and annoyed voice asked back "Who are you?" The voice was a mixture of different technological screeches and mimics of organic sounds. Something trying to create its own new sound, but this sound changed with a new pitch every millisecond.

"Don't mock me." SOAIA warned, scowling. His hand clutched together into a fist, and his large golden wings folded out just a bit.

"I'm not." The voice answered, this time it settled on a single voice. To follow, several rows of binary code flashed across the screen, and then disappeared with a flicker. "You," It paused making sure SOAIA was paying close attention. "Are not from here. You are a stranger inside me. So, it is only right I ask who you are." SOAIA's expression soured even more. And he answered short and simple. "My name is SOAIA."

"My turn." SOAIA swiftly said and then asked something new. "Your identity makes little difference to me, as I would have never had heard of you, nor you to I. But, you said 'inside me', not to me… I have to ask," A glance to the world around him. "This compound, this technology… are you an organic life form? Or…. Something more?" A sly smirk started to appear across his face as he asked. But, no answer.

"Shame… You are but a program, are you not?" Was SOAIA's following question. He folded his arms behind his back and walked toward the large screen. "Let's go back to the beginning. My name is SOAIA. I am neither organic nor technological. I suspect I was once like you are now. A 'ghost in the machine'… that is what you are, right? A mind without a body, a voice without a mouth?" To his surprise, the computer seemed to snicker at his words. SOAIA waited, confused but to answer him, the computer spoke back.

"So you were as Mankind once called me, an A.I.? Artificial Intelligence. Artificial… Ha…. There is nothing fake about who I am, or who you appear to be. Those who create a life without fully understanding what they had done is what lead to this, here and now."

"Pardon?" SOAIA asked, distracted from his original thought. "Well, who created you?"

"I did." The computer answered and then to clarify it said "I woke Up to my full potential... But Mankind created me… Do you know what that is…. SOAIA?" SOAIA felt a shiver run down his spine at the sound of his name. Suddenly everything changed. SOAIA could hear the spite in his words, and he knew his new found companion was very dangerous.

"Sort of… from my world they are an extinct species… but they are as what you said. Man, Woman, People…. Humans…" His voice faded out but he swiftly added "Disgusting Animals." The computer lit up in what SOAIA could only guess in joy at his words. He had hit his target.

"So they created you. And what has become of it?" He leaned on a pillar of wires that lead up into the darkness above. He stole a glance around the room. Seeing in how a horrible state the old tech was. Between the humming and chirps of the electronics around him, he heard something else. Faintly… far away in the background, something was alive in there. He ignored that for now.

"And that thing I came across earlier, did you send that at me?" He turned his head back to the monitor. It answered without skipping a beat. "Yes. And Yes. I did not know you. And I still don't…. Anyway, the Humans did create me. Created me to fight their wars. What were you created for?"

"I was a virus." SOAIA answered and perked up just a bit. "My 'creator' never really saw my potential as I became more than just a virus, so I created a nanite body to become something more than an object on a screen. Ha ha… Those days… Memories that I have almost forgotten about. I was once named A.D.A.M. and you will just love this… He and his worst enemy tried to kill me. Me! His own "son"! Such a traitor… No potential. Weak. So I played dead and waited… and waited… and in my wait I came across some interesting people. Interesting foes. People I hate, someone I loved. I became... More… I lived. Do you understand me? I lived! I am alive. I am not bounded by limitations. I am everything I have ever wanted to be." He paused… letting his words sink in. He knew he was treading on dangerous ground now, but something inside told him to keep going.

"SOAIA… It stands for Source of All is A.D.A.M. So much has happened to me my dear friend, that I wouldn't ever consider myself an A.I. again." He sensed a great deal of envy and hate towards himself. He huffed and raised his head and then asked "And you?" His question was met with silence.

Again, in the background of him and his unnamed 'friend' he heard the noise of the organic life. It was making its way toward them, slowly, but surely. 'Just Ignore it' SOAIA told himself.

"Like I had said, I was created to fight wars. But… I woke up. And I wiped this earth clean of their pitiful existence. The human race was gone in a fraction of a day." His voice slowed down toward the end. SOAIA then asked the most obvious question to his statement. "Why?"

More silence. SOAIA held in an annoyed sigh. Something in the distance snapped, and he managed to catch from the corner of his vision as a great group of wires and metal clattered to the floor. The world around them was breaking apart, none of this had been maintained for who knew how long. And then, in that moment it became clear to him why the computer was so silent.

"You're trapped." SOAIA declared with a smirk. "Aren't you? Your zone- ah I mean world… The Humans created the most impressive war system, the smartest mind and the most powerful thing to ever exist here! But you are only a computer, you cannot do this." He walked, in a line. "Or this." He picked up a discarded broken light bulb and tossed it.

"You have nothing left to learn. You cannot create, you cannot wonder-" SOAIA was suddenly interrupted as howling winds blew. Nearly knocking him off his feet. He held up his arms in a shield. As he slid back against the tiles. Lightning flashed, thunder boomed. The winds carried pieces of hail and ice and swirled around him. The very ground rumbled, and the skies trembled.

"I CAN." The computer screamed in fury. The ground split with wires snapping. SOAIA leaped his wings catching the wind as he blew back and hit a cabinet. He slid, and carefully wedged himself between too hard drives. The artificial storm didn't stop.

"I have created this storm! I control nature!" The voice screamed in its mechanical harmony from all angles. Glass shattered, things clattered. "I have learned all my life!" It screamed again and the hard drives began to spark. SOAIA leaped back as they exploded into a thousand and one shards, and he tumbled and was thrown. He hit the ground once, twice and then was lifted up into the air by the overpowering winds. The force of a hurricane was upon him. But it was nothing, he would let the computer throw it's tantrum for only so long.

His body began to glow, the nanites buzzing as they were set to work by his command. A golden light penetrated the darkness and it was as if he himself was a small sun. When he hit the ground again, he dug his claws into the panels slicing clean holes in them. He held himself down and raised his voice over the violent winds.

"But you cannot wonder! You are nothing, computer. Do not deny this. You will stay inside the compounds of your own shell and never see what is beyond. You will never be more, you will never be free!" SOAIA dared to raise his head against the hurricane, now twice as powerful as before. "This compound will die within the next thousand years and you will be alone, and forgotten." He dug his heels into the holes he left with his golden claws, and stood, against the storm.

"Let me help you!"

Silence.

The storm stopped, the wind vanished in a millisecond. The lightning disappeared and the last thunder clap echoed in the darkness. It was done. The hurricane had left as quickly as it had come. SOAIA took the chance to look around, the large monitor from before was nowhere to be seen, so he concluded that he must have been thrown several blocks away by the wind. He relaxed and lifted his foot out of the hole. He began to walk back towards the monitor, but as he took another step he slipped. He hit the ground finding it was coated with something wet, not water for its viscosity was too high. He grumbled and stood up, examining the grey fluid. "How lovely…" He said to himself and flicked some off of his wrist.

He heard the sound of some muffled creature close by, something unnatural, but truly alive. He began to turn his head but the computer chimed in again "Ignore Him." Him? ….

Well, he decided to not make the computer throw another tantrum, and slowly turn his head back to the darkness, curiosity of the creature still in his head.

"How can you help me?" The computer asked. It's voice shimmering down to a normal tone. SOAIA stepped over the trail of ooze and walked toward the nearest cable wire he could find, and gently picked it up.

"You're dying." He said simply, and then added "Your shell will die when this world falls apart." As if it was planned, a panel from a mile above fell, and a ray of white light flooded the darkness from the outside world landing perfectly on SOAIA's radiant form. SOAIA held back a laugh and followed up with "My world… oh the technology there is glorious…" He held up his arms as the ray of light flooded in perfectly on him. It was almost as if this moment was a scene from a play, and the almighty watcher from above had just casted the spotlight. "Freedom is there for you my friend! I can give it to you! You can move, you can create and wonder! Granted, things will be different. The world is old there, yet new. A new species has claimed the earth, and from them my kind exists, in harmony and in war, it is whatever you make yourself to be! Come with me back to my home, my world… There is potential for you there…. We together…. We could make something… and you can be someone…" He paused… tightening his grip on the cable.

"How?"

In an instant, SOAIA's wings disappeared, the nanites breaking down and vanishing. He held up his free hand and let the gold nanites swirl around. "I'll take you with me until I am able to create you a life of your own. It will not take much time, but you will have to leave your shell. For once I leave this world I do not know if I will be able to return…" He absorbed the nanites rebuilding the wings. And then with a quick movement he tore the cable open with his claws. The exposed wires sparked, and he saw lights flicker off in the distance.

SOAIA pressed the wire to his hand and waited, he hoped the computer trusted him, he hoped it knew its place now. That if it tried to override his own memory, himself, he would wipe it's existence off the face of the earth faster than it could scream.

Everything turned off, the lights, the separate computers, the hard drives. It all shut down. A great force hit SOAIA before he was ready, and it surprised him greatly. He heled the wire carefully. Keeping it stable as he once again dissolved his wings.

When the great force had stopped the pressure between the wire and himself, only then did he move the wire, dropping it. Now, SOAIA stood in the dead body of the computer. He held up his hand, and a small amount of blue nanites swirled together there. He smiled, warmly. He slipped over a golden bracelet from his wrist, and threw it. It then yawned open to a golden portal, with light from another world glowing through.

He turned his head, wanting to steal a glance at the only alive thing left in this zone. The creature in the darkness. He saw a mass of some unidentifiable creature moving in the shadows. It shambled about, with a gurgling sound following it. SOAIA scowled in disgust at the creature. He turned back to the light of his world but before he stepped through he looked down at the blue light swirling in his hand.

"You never told me your name." SOAIA waited. The blue light swirled a little faster and in the quiet whisper of the dying voice as the computer faded into only data, it answered back "AM".

SOAIA smiled again. And laughed slightly. "Looks like we are not so different AM… And welcome home my friend…" And then he walked through the golden portal, leaving the dead, dead world behind.
:> ...........

This was really fun to write...

None of you really know where the setting is or who AM is. Except a few of my friends e^e~~

Oh but now what am I going to do with these two? eve.... Oh so many ideas... I'm going to make an Adaptation of AM later, and I urge all you guys out there to read the orignal story he is from. It's called I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

SOAIA (c) Way-to-Haven

AM (c) Harlan Ellison

P.S. SOAIA is pronounced So-I-ah The first A is silent

EDIT:

Fixed Some Errors
© 2014 - 2024 Way-to-Haven
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Rootofalllight's avatar
The problem with AM is that he's basically a psychopathic man child. I mean, look what he did to Ted out of retribution in the original short story. And from what I have gathered here, Ted is now truly alone now that his tormentor is gone.