“It’s sore right there,” Frost admitted.
Winger told him, “Just lie still, Doc…you may have bruised or cracked ribs. We’ll find something to bind it up tight, so it won’t hurt so bad.”
Dana Tallant sat back and looked around. “Where the hell are we? Or when are we?”
They had come through the entanglement to a swamp of some kind. Lightning veined in sharp bursts across purple and rose-colored clouds, thick and steaming overhead. The ground trembled and through the trees, they could see the red glow of a volcano, simmering and smoking. It seemed about to blow.
The swamp was extensive, filled with moss-covered trees, low-hanging branches and mossy patches on rocks surrounding the edge of the water. Cypress knees looked vaguely menacing in the twilight. A faint mist hovered over the water’s surface.
Nothing moved. No screeches, no howler monkeys. No birds cawing in the air. Steam and smoke and shuddering ground were all that gave movement to the swamp.
“I’d say we’re not in Idaho anymore, Wings.”
“Right. Let’s get back to the Doc.”
After some rest, Frost wanted to stand and the two nanotroopers helped him up gingerly. He winced and limped around for a minute, but pronounced himself fit enough to support himself.
“Let’s go see what’s on the other side of this swamp,” Frost suggested. “I’ve got an idea—“
They scouted along the swamp banks for a few minutes. It was a vast wetland, thick with ropy vine and large, lobe and ear-shaped leaves, damp with moisture and humidity and hanging nearly to the soft spongy ground. The three of them picked their way carefully through leaf piles and clinging vine, occasionally hacking and smacking their way through heavy underbrush, wary of slithering things underfoot, but they found none. Nothing living at all, not even flies or mosquitoes. Still, Dana nearly turned an ankle in a small sinkhole nearly hidden between two tree trunks.
Finally, Frost begged for a halt. They stood over a narrow bubbling, foaming inlet, clearly the water was flowing somewhere from here.
Winger, mindful of the Escape and Evasion training he’d had in nog school, had been thinking about survival matters, like water and things they could eat. “Doc, you said you had an idea. Explain.”
“Well,” Frost took a breath, rested against a half-rotted out tree stump, “we went through another entanglement episode from that sphere at Paryang. Now we’re somewhere and sometime else. If I’m right, we’re actually still in both places and we stay entangled until we’re somehow observed here. But I don’t see anything or anyone who could observe us.”
“And there’s no sphere, Doc,” Tallant said. She licked experimentally at the moisture on a leaf she had snapped off a nearby branch. It was clear they would be needing water pretty soon.
“Does that mean we’re, like, invisible?” Winger asked.
Frost frowned. “I’m not sure. But I have a suspicion that this isn’t just some random place. That sphere-entangler unit seems to be operating under some kind of control, maybe an algorithm.”
“So where’s here?”
Frost said, “Just speculation, mind you, but I’d say there’s a decent chance this is Engebbe, Kenya.”
“The dig site. This is a jungle, Doc. Engebbe’s on the Serengeti plain.”
Frost nodded. “Exactly. In our time. But this may not be our time. I’m thinking this is Engebbe several billion years ago. Have you noticed there doesn’t seem to be anything living around here? No birds screeching, no flies, that sort of thing.”
Winger tried Tallant’s experiment with the leaf moisture. It tasted brassy, almost like warm brine and he made a face. “I have noticed that, Doc.”
“If I’m right,” Frost explained, “we’ve come to Engebbe at a time before life. Except maybe for that moss growing on those rocks. Pre-biotic, maybe the Hadean era. Three to four billion years before our time. There’s a reason we’re here. There has to be a reason that entangler put us here.”
“Doc, Engebbe’s where you scooped up some ancient virus that helped you with early ANAD programming, isn’t it?”
Frost admitted it was true. “I had some programming problems. Dr. Rudolf Volk had just discovered those micro-robotic remains among the fossils. Then I heard they had found viral fragments…I got some segments, examined them and it gave me some ideas. I actually found snippets of genome code and used it with ANAD.”
The ground rumbled and all three of them looked through the trees. There were tall mountains in the distance. The summit of the nearest one glowed orange-red in the cathedral gloom of the forest.
“Looks like we might have a blow soon,” Tallant said. “I don’t like the looks of that. Do you suppose, if this is Engebbe, that could be Kipwezi?”
“Could be,” Winger said. “My question is: how do we get the hell out of here?”
“If we’re actually here,” Tallant muttered. “Wherever here is.”
“Hey, what’s that?”
At the same time, the three of them spied a fog bank roiling across the top of the swamp. Tendrils of steam drifted in patches.
“”What’s what?”
“That.”
Now, the fog bank had taken on a more menacing look. As they looked more closely, they could see small flashes and pops of light within the fog, as if it were thick with fireflies.
“Those aren’t fireflies, Wings.”
The hairs on the back of Winger’s neck stood up. “And that’s not fog, Dana. Unless I’m seeing things, that a swarm of some kind.”
“Yeah and coming our way.”
Helping Doc Frost stumble through stagnant pools and thick underbrush, they moved sideways along the bank of the swamp but the swarm swelled and soon blocked their way. Winger figured they would just backtrack the way they had come but the swarm filled in behind them and they soon found themselves trapped on a narrow spit of dry land, surrounded by cypress knees and piles of moss-covered rocks.
Though the swarm had nearly enveloped them, at least it hadn’t closed any further.
“Look!’ Tallant pointed at several patches of swarm, now dropping down closer to the ground. As they watched, the light flickering inside changed pattern, becoming more intense, pulsing faster, almost like a strobe and the fingers of the swarm swept right across the moss covering on top of the rocks, pausing momentarily at each moss patch.
“Fantastic,” Doc Frost breathed. “It’s writing genetic code, Johnny, right into the cells of that moss. Injecting something directly into the cells.”
“Maybe this is how life got started,” Tallant said.
Just then, Winger felt a staticky buzz chirping in the back of his head. Somehow, his coupler had come alive.
“Doc…Doc…something’s trying to come through on my coupler—“
“Is it ANAD?”
Winger shook his head. “I don’t….I don’t think so…it’s not making any sense….just snatches of things—“
“Maybe your coupler’s trying to translate a signal,” Frost suggested.
Then, all of a sudden, it became clearer.
Winger’s headed pounded with the signal. It boomed in the back of his head.
“Who--? Or what--?”
***Single-configuration entity detected…module DISASSEMBLE invoked…mono-config are errors and must be detected…module 668 CORRECTION MATRIX initiated…bond disrupters priming***
Neither Frost nor Tallant were equipped with Winger’s coupler.
“So what’s it saying, Wings?”
Winger listened carefully. “I don’t know exactly…I thought I heard something about bond disrupters…correction matrix—“
Frost snapped his fingers. “It doesn’t know what we are…we’re not trees or rocks…we’re living matter. It’s operating on some kind of program, Johnny.”
Winger started eyeing their surroundings for something—anything—they could use as a weapon. Maybe a few le
af branches. “Doc, I think the program is to consume us…disassemble us—“
Indeed, even as he spoke, the swarm thickened and the flicker became a fierce, blinding pulsing light, like being inside a lightning stroke that never stopped.
“Talk to it, Johnny—see if you can establish contact—“
How the hell do I do that? Maybe it was like ANAD. Just think and his coupler would translate that into signals compatible with a swarm…only, was this a swarm?
“Uh, hello…calling the swarm approaching the single-configuration entities…could we , like talk? Could you stop and not disassemble us?”
For a moment, the swarm continued thickening, gathering itself, flashing and popping—he was sure he could actually hear atomic bonds being broken as the thing built structure and drifted ever closer. Now, they were surrounded in all sides, top and bottom, on a small mud spit of land that jutted out into the swamp. The swarm began descending from above, then—
It stopped.
“Who are you?” Winger asked. “What are you?”
The signal came back, again booming in his head like a thunderclap.
***Detecting audible signal…analyzing…analyzing…detecting semantic vibrations…parsing semantic vibrations…pattern matching…initiating VOICE RESPONSE MODULE…Identity module invoked…Configuration Zero speaks…***
Configuration Zero? Winger had often heard ANAD speak of multiple versus single-configuration entities. Human beings were different from swarm beings. Humans were made of a single-config that never changed. Not so swarm beings.
“You are Configuration Zero?” Winger spoke out loud, aware that the others could only hear half of the conversation.
***Identity this configuration is labeled Configuration Zero…detecting no pattern match for your configuration…requesting special instructions for signal exchange***
“Doc, I think it’s like ANAD…only it doesn’t know how to talk to us. It’s requesting support from somewhere.”
Frost had taken a seat on a small branch, sticking partly out of the mud. It rocked as he shifted around, sending out ripples across the swamp. “Johnny, talk to it like you would with ANAD…if I’m right—“
Winger asked, “What is Configuration Zero? Identify and explain.”
***Configuration Zero is Group A, Subset A of Central Entity, operating Test and Correction Program…parsing semantic vibrations…pattern matching***
Winger replayed how the swarm had responded, then, “What is this place? What is Configuration Zero doing here?”
There came a few seconds of a staticky buzz, then the voice Winger ‘heard’ on his coupler circuit came in loud and clear. Pattern matching had been achieved….
***Configuration Zero assigned monitoring functions at this site…monitor previous seeding of biomimetic entities…perform analysis and correction…***
“He says he’s monitoring and correcting a previous ‘seeding.’” Winger told them.
Doc Frost watched the swarm drift along the ragged line of moss-covered rocks. “It’s checking what’s been done before, Johnny. That has to be it. Something has already injected code into this moss and the swarm is checking to see if it’s being expressed correctly…fascinating…this is history in the making, right before our eyes.”
Dana Tallant eyed the glowing pyre of red-orange embers now belching off the top of the volcano. The ground rumbled and shuddered beneath their feet and the swamp waters trembled. “It had better hurry up, Wings…that sucker’s going to blow its top any moment. Could you ask if the damn thing can get us out here?”
Winger asked Configuration Zero, “You mentioned a Central Entity. What is this Central Entity?”
For a few moments, Configuration Zero seemed to consider that, proceeding steadily along the swamp banks, with fingers of the swarm flickering on and off like a billion fireflies, pulsing and strobing as it examined each thatch of moss. Presently…
***Executing Prime Key…the Central Entity is…all. The totality. Analyzing single-configuration entities detected…single-configuration entities are errors…single-configuration entities are outside of Prime Key…***
Winger decided he didn’t like the sound of that. “This Prime Key…is that like your instructions? Explain this ‘Prime Key’.”
***The Prime Key is Central Entity program for the Imperative of Life itself. The Imperative of Life is that life absorbs chaos from the Universe and adds or builds structure or order. Life is anti-entropic***
“Look…” Winger decided to try another approach. “We just want to leave. Get out of this place. Can you help us? We got caught up in some kind of entangler device…I’m not even sure we are here…or where we are.”
Now the main body of the swarm recoiled visibly from the rocks and gathered itself into a larger mass, a purplish, roiling mass like a thunderstorm boiling up from the tropics.
***Single configuration entities must be deleted…to seed single entities is a violation of the Prime Key…Invoking Rules Number 115987 and 544922…quantum violations of entanglement state…interactions null and all registers set to zero…initializing…initializing***
“Well, that went well,” Winger muttered. He discussed Config Zero’s replies with Frost and Tallant. “I’d say we won’t get any help from this guy.”
Now the swarm was re-forming itself. Partitioning itself. Part of the swarm continued as before, checking the moss along the banks of the swamp. But part of the swarm now drifted closer to them, forcing the three of them to backpedal to the very end of the muddy sandbar. Glowing ashes drifted down from fire-lit skies like flickering rain drops.
“Wings, somehow you made it mad. You always do that, don’t you?”
“Hey, I just asked some questions.”
Frost had an idea. “Johnny, check your capsule. Maybe there are some residual ANAD bots inside.”
“How would I know that, Doc…I’ve already lost the master.”
“Just check, Johnny…I’ve got an idea.”
Winger knew Doc Frost well enough to pay attention when the scientist had an idea. He cycled open his shoulder port, pressed a button on the edge…and listened. There seemed to be something…”ANAD, report status…ANAD, respond—“
Through careful tuning of his coupler and eyeballing of the capsule port, Frost and Winger finally decided that a few residual ANAD bots must have remained behind, clinging to the insides of Winger’s containment tube.
“I’m showing a slight elevation in thermals, Doc. Some EMs. Some acoustics. Whatever they are, there can’t be many.”
“We don’t need many, Johnny. Here—“ he looked around the primordial swamp, “—from here we may be able to do a barebones regeneration…if I’m right, Configuration Zero’s writing and correcting the first instructions even as we watch. ANAD’s kernel came from that. All we have to do is get those instructions into those leftover bots in your capsule.”
Tallant was easing herself ever closer to the swamp water, as the main body of Config Zero swelled and crackled overhead, driving them further out on the sandbar. “How the hell do you plan on doing that?”
Frost had an idea. To Tallant: “See if you can grab some of that moss….just grab it in your fingers…just a pinch.”
Tallant leaned out across a small but deep swirling pool of swamp water and snagged off a finger full of the stuff. It was damp and greasy. She handed it to Frost.
Doc examined the substance, turning it over and over in his own fingers. This caused an immediate reaction in the swarm, which boiled and thickened, moving even closer, now looming almost on top of them. “Johnny, rub some of this on the outer lip of your capsule port…quickly, please. If I’m right, the bots will flock to it like flies to candy….it’s what they need…it’s their marching instructions.”
Winger took the pinch of soil and did as Frost said, rubbing the stuff back and forth across the top of his capsule. There was an immediate reaction o
n his coupler circuit. He shook his head, trying to get a better signal.
“Doc, it’s sounds like a party in there…all kinds of signals scrambled…most of it’s just status-message scraps…but there’s something—“
Frost nodded. “The code Config Zero’s injecting and correcting is compatible with ANAD’s architecture…it ought to be, I designed it that way. Johnny, now see if you can get some basic replications going…you know the right machine code…”
“Doc, I’m not sure if—“
“Hurry, Wings…we’re running out of time.”
From memory, Winger pecked out a few commands on his wristpad. His coupler circuit sounded like a frat party…signals all over the place. But there was something.
Tallant was now half in the water, trying to keep some distance between her face and the oncoming Config Zero swarm. “Hey, I don’t plan on being deleted any time soon…what if you can replicate? What then?”
“At least, we can block this cloud of bugs from eating us,” Winger told her. “Doc…I’m hearing something on my coupler…thermals are coming up, electromagnetics too. Something’s happening—“
“Bond breaking, Johnny…ANAD’s following the instruction set from that moss…just like I designed it to. He’s grabbing atoms, building structure. See if you can command maximum rate.”
Winger tried more commands on his wristpad. Soon, there was a faint but visible mist issuing out of his shoulder capsule. ANAD was regenerating.
“But I can’t control it, Doc. There’s no master. It’s just mindless replication…what if it can’t be stopped?”
Just then, a deafening, concussive boom shattered the swamp. In the distance, the top of the volcano was on fire, boiling plumes of magma and red ash soaring skyward in a spectacular spray of fire and flame. Hissing and steaming sheets of embers rained down on them and all three dove headfirst into the swamp to keep from being incinerated.
As he went under, Johnny Winger wondered if they would ever escape the boiling caldron that the swamp had now become. They were lost in some kind of strange quantum world of a prehistoric Engebbe. Was there any way they could signal others that they had become trapped in some kind of weird entangled state, partly at Table Top Mountain, partly immersed in a steaming swamp a few billion years ago?