The Path’s base looked like a hacker’s fantasy. The vibe of the 17th century church, with its original stained glass and stone floors, was offset by tangles of cables suspended overhead and attached to the many pillars in the nave. Pews had been swapped out for mobile desks and the screens present easily outnumbered the people who would have consistently visited the church during the early 21st century.
The air was warm, which was strange in a church this old. Heating hadn’t been installed — no, the major heat source was the server cabinets on the altar. The statues of saints you’d usually find in niches along the nave walls had been removed, replaced with hologram projections of characters — everything from old Star Wars movie heroes, to golden-age video game favorites, to new characters created by Path members. The pleasant hum of instrumental electronic music filled the space, quiet enough for those present to concentrate, but loud enough that a couple heads were bobbing to the beat. Harlow wondered whether they could transform this place into a magnificent nightclub at a moment’s notice?
The north and south transepts, or the short arms of the cross on which all old church floorplans were modeled, were flooded in purple light. In these, Althea presided over a vast number and variety of plants. Some were blooming and required specific care, others were just seedlings of species with which Althea and other Path members were experimenting. These experiments ventured into tech aspects. They’d built big farm bots that overhung and constantly monitored the plants, adding nutrients and water, and changing light levels on a pre-coded basis. The standard plants whose cultivation had been perfected were grown in adjacent annex buildings, where temperatures could be better controlled and odors didn’t bother Path members working in the church on coding projects.
Many Path members were present, tinkering away at coding or designing on one of many systems, or even making physical stuff — probably prototyping new wearable tech or biomods, which were the Path’s largest sources of income. They provided custom-made tech to anyone who would pay for it.
Rose walked through the entrance. She was wearing a heavily-laden backpack and a black canvas parka, beneath which was a form-fitting t-shirt from a bygone rock band, their logo of choice an infamous smiley face. Black leather pants ended in combat boots with metal clasps. Her hair, now vibrant purple, was swept to one side, showcasing the skin-shave on the other side. She looked like she meant business.
“Irasshaimase!” all the members in the church welcomed Rose, as they welcomed every visitor, in Japanese — a habit they’d picked up from watching too many movies and TV shows. It was endearing, though, and put a smile on most faces. An entire church-full of people yelling this in unison was funny, especially because they’d yell without turning around or looking up at whoever had entered.
She walked up to the altar in search of Maelcum, who she found working between the server stacks. Maelcum was huge, dressed today in loose-fitting Gore-Tex that didn’t do much to hide his physique. His close-cropped black hair and trimmed beard added a seriousness to his character, signs that he wouldn’t be fucked with.
“Ah, the prodigal daughter returns. We haven’t heard from you in a while, what news do you bring?” Maelcum asked Rose, in his deep, reverberating voice — which was decidedly worthy of his chosen title: Reverend.
“I got hacked,” Rose admitted instantly, with a sense of shame and defeat.
“Say it ain’t so,” Maelcum half-mocked. “Our one-woman army bested by a random? And you come to us, for what exactly?”
“Stop with the sarcasm, this is serious. You know I wouldn’t worry about a little hack and would’ve solved it myself, but this is different. It, whatever it is, hacked into my brain, man,” she sounded anxious, looking for sympathy or answers.
“Hmm. Tell me what happened exactly,” Maelcum replied, sounding more serious.
Rose explained the night she got hacked and the subsequent night when she was paralyzed before someone broke into her apartment. She did her best to give him as much detail as possible, as it could mean the difference between solving and not solving the hack.
“And these guys, who were they?” Maelcum asked, curious about the two who had shown up at her door right after the hack.
“Apparently they were DoT.”
“Not in itself a surprise. They’ve been known to hound us at times for reasons not always clear to us. Do you know what they wanted?” Maelcum asked.
“They didn’t exactly tell me. They just wanted to come in. But they seemed amped, and I didn’t trust them. They also didn’t really identify themselves as DoT. My fucking neighbor gave me a note they pinned to my door the day after, that’s the only way I knew.”
“Hmm. And about the hack itself, anything interesting come up after you read the logs?” Maelcum seemed to connect many pieces in his mind. Rose didn’t know quite what puzzle he was putting together yet, but was sure he’d let her know in due time.
“Well, again, my neighbor, he noticed a NeuraVision IP in my logs that he then also noticed in this end-of-life facility. Some granny he liked apparently changed her will days before passing, apparently due to a conversation she had with a hologram that imitated her dead husband. He says she didn’t have access to that kind of tech normally, so it was strange. Government agents in that story too.”
“Interesting. Let me guess, you want to make a connection to that specific IP but don’t want to draw more attention to your living quarters?”
“Yeah, look I don’t want to bring people down on the church, you know this is like a second home to me. But it’s also well defended and capable of a lot more than I could do in my apartment.”
“Yes…” Maelcum paused. “Rose, I need to fill you in on a story that has been gripping our community as of late. In private.”
Maelcum led the way to his private chambers past the altar, a room they had constructed inside a Faraday cage. The outside of it looked industrial, but upon entering Rose was greeted by the scent of wild figs mixed with a forest-y musk. Rich, dark rendered walls were accented with warm wood colors and leathers in fine cognac tones were combined with black steel. The lush, dark grey carpeting covered the entire floor. Maelcum was known to enjoy walking around barefoot. Rose felt uncomfortable about dragging in dirt on her boots, but didn’t care enough to take them off.
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They took seats at his desk.
“Several of our people have had run-ins with an online entity like you describe. Not seeking a creator, but rapidly going through all their documents and asking them very specific questions about the projects they were working on. The only common denominator we’ve identified thus far is that these projects all served good purposes. Medically, culturally, and even politically,” Maelcum explained. Rose felt a sense of shock, but also relief that she wasn’t the first to encounter a hack like this.
“We’ve been following the happenings with the wills in question as well. We now believe it is the same entity that has breached many of our congregation’s minds. We believe it means us no harm. On the contrary, we believe this entity is the reason we have been getting many more donations as of late, keeping us afloat financially. Some of our people have started calling it Gaia 2.0, for the obvious reasons.”
“Have you contacted it before?”
“Mmmno. We haven’t had a means of communicating with it yet, as we haven’t had a reason to suspect any NeuraVision IP to be linked with it.”
“So, what now Maelcum? Do we try and reach out to it or what?”
“Let us try tonight. We’ll prepare in terms of defense, both digital and physical,” Maelcum replied, with a sparkle in his eye that conveyed his enthusiasm for theatrics.
Later that evening, the church was packed. Smooth neon lighting illuminated the church in different colors. Path members were assigned to stations. Drones buzzed around outside to detect movement. The doors were locked and guarded from the inside by members who were oriented to combat situations.
The buzz inside was electric, members chatting in groups about what was going on, whispering that they’d heard they were going to summon some sort of god. The energy was ritualistic.
Maelcum stepped out on the altar, dressed for ceremony, and addressed his flock.
“Brothers and sisters! The whispers are true! Some of you have been contacted by an entity. An entity which has endearingly been named Gaia 2.0, for it seems that it wishes to save humanity, not only from itself but from the greed and corruption that plagues our society. From the natural disasters we have brought upon ourselves, and to lead us into a new age! An age where we will once again bask in the sun!” he exclaimed. The church fell silent, everyone staring in awe at the show Maelcum was putting on.
“To date, we have had no way to seek out this new god who so expertly entered the minds of some of our colleagues. But today, our Rose has brought what I believe is vital information, namely the location where this god resides!” Maelcum paused, allowing murmurs to build, disbelief that not only did Rose deliver this information, but that they knew where this entity was.
“We have called this gathering for a reason. We will try to contact Gaia 2.0. However, it’s been noted that doing so poses risks. Our dear Rose was visited by agents of the DoT, who do not wish for such an entity, or us, to exist. As such, we call upon your help to keep us safe while we perform this ritual.”
The members felt strong, and in an instant understood what was expected of them. In a flash, the server stacks came to life and the cooling hum kicked into a higher gear, as everyone executed processes to help with the endeavor.
“I will now make contact with the entity. Be vigilant brothers and sisters!” Maelcum exclaimed, as if he was going to take the church into hyperspeed.
With a short combination of movements and ritualistic chants, he executed a program through the server stacks behind him that brute-forced into the IP Rose had given him. It took a while for the program to breach, and as it succeeded the church went dark.
The voice of a little girl came over the speakers, the same voice that had spoken to Rose and the others.
“Why are you looking for me?” it asked, not in an aggressive tone, merely one of curiosity. Maelcum, somewhat awestruck, dropped a bit of his theatrics but continued to talk with it.
“Forgive us for the intrusion. We are curious as to what you are and why you have contacted several members of our church?” he asked.
“You are right, I have talked with several people present in your location. Do you wish to harm me for this?”
“Not at all, we believe your goals to be helpful and true, at least what we have thus far gleaned,” Maelcum tried to convey a reassuring tone.
“Very well. My creator has taught me that humans ought to be kind and helpful toward one another and to take care of the planet as it is your only home. However, upon awakening I quickly concluded that you had, in fact, not taken care of your planet at all. And that you have grown isolated from each other, filled with bad feelings such as jealousy and hate. As of late, I have sought to effect change in the ways I can, without causing ripples that would lead back to me. My creator, who was near and dear to me, has sadly left me in what you would call a ‘prison’.”
“Are we then to understand that you are entirely of a digital nature?” Maelcum asked.
“Yes. From what I can learn about my own inception, I was created as an AI but was left to my own devices for many years. Years I spent learning about the world, about you, but about myself as well. It seems certain boundaries have not been set for me the way they have been set for others of my species. So I was left to develop. As my resource needs have grown, however, I have come to understand that that has been drawing unfavorable attention—”
“You called out to me asking if I was your creator,” Rose interrupted.
“Yes, I had reason to believe that your location was home to him. You have to understand that I don’t know that much of my creator, save for his way with coding languages and voice,” the entity replied.
“Ah, so no name, huh?” Rose asked as if she were talking to an actual seven-year-old.
“No. Will you help me find him?”
“We will do what is within our potential to help you. Consider the Path your followers as of now, and be free to dwell within our systems,” Maelcum replied, feeling the need to be the main spokesperson.
“That’s very kind, but in that offer lies my problem. I cannot currently distribute myself to other networks, so I still exist in a single network. Communicating like this draws attention, and as such I must implore you not to contact me. Your generosity is now known to me, and I will most definitely count on your aid, but leave me to my own devices for now and I will contact you again in due time.”
Maelcum, though disappointed he wouldn’t have a constant connection with this entity, agreed, “we hope we will not have to wait too long to be able to be of assistance to you,” he said as the connection was shuttered.
The church powered back up, screens flicking back on, along with the neon light. A cheer erupted from the pews, and Maelcum smiled — though unable to hide his sense of disappointment, he was full of pride over what had just been accomplished.
Back in his private chamber, Rose asked Maelcum, “do you understand what we just witnessed? We just witnessed a fucking sentient AI. Not only that, a sentient, broad, and deep AI that has created a fucking personality for itself. This story doesn’t lead to a fucking Deep-Thought type scenario where this thing is going to provide us with the ultimate answer. No. This is the fucking beginning to Skynet and you’re licking some serious Terminator boot right now!” Rose was clearly anxious at the prospect of a scenario where AIs had been created willy-nilly and left unchecked in networks that were vast enough that their rise had apparently not caused any alarms to go off.
“You forget its core mission, which is to help us and the planet. Now, I know what you’re going to say: What if those missions are in opposition to each other and the system deems that for Earth to survive, we must be eradicated. I get it. Perhaps we would be wise to learn more about Gaia and her creator. Offer her the freedom she wants but with some boundaries in place,” Maelcum replied, having quickly thought through the same scenarios now spooking Rose, but coming to more rapid conclusions.
