The Extinction Trials(25)

Owen listened but heard only the wind. No people. No birds. No machines.

Carefully, he crept out from the cave, surveying the landscape. A gust of wind blew through the trees. It bent the thick limbs aside and brought with it a blast of light from the hazy sun. The gust blew through, and the limbs whipped back into place, blotting out the sun’s harshest rays, restoring the semi-darkness around the cave.

Ahead was only dense fog, thick trees, and a near-vertical drop. Things weren’t any better to the left or right.

Owen turned and tilted his head back as far as the helmet would allow, gazing up at the mountain. He thought going up the mountain might give him a vantage point to figure out where they were—and if there was any help nearby.

He checked the panel in the suit arm: 79% oxygen left. Plenty of time to check it out and get back.





Chapter Twenty-One





In Observation Two, Maya and the others crowded around Will as he held up the tablet and hit play on the video marked Escape Hatch.

In the video, a man was standing in a command center—one Maya assumed was the same one in their station.

The man was a mirror image of Bryce. Perhaps he was an android. That seemed a safe assumption to Maya.

Two other “Bryces” were sitting at the workstations in the command center, staring at screens, typing. Maya thought that was odd. If they were indeed androids, wouldn’t it be more efficient to communicate wirelessly to control the computers? There had to be some reason, but like just about everything since she had awoken, it was a mystery.

“Station 17, Emergency message. Proctor Bran recording. I am the station chief PI.”

“PI?” Cara whispered. “As in principal investigator?”

Will hit the pause button. “Maybe. When we used the term at ARC, it was for pseudo intelligence.”

“Instead of AI?” Cara asked.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I think because of the limits of the programs. Our PIs couldn’t really exceed the bounds of their programming—they could simply iterate and improve within pre-set functions. And... I think some of it was marketing. Everyone was scared of AI back then—because of the potential for unexpected consequences and because it was taking a lot of jobs.”

“I believe,” Alister said, “that it’s safe to assume Bryce was only pseudo-intelligent. After all, the poor sod got his brains bashed in by some random guy he was trying to help.”

“If,” Cara said, “Bryce was indeed trying to help us.”

Alister held a hand to his chest, feigning shock. “It’s an Extinction Trials breakthrough: the doctor and I actually agree on something.”

Cara rolled her eyes. When no one said anything, Will pressed the play button, and the android that had introduced himself as Proctor Bran continued speaking.

“I have been asked to record this message—by Garden Station—and go dark afterward. I’m not entirely sure what to say. Perhaps I’ll start with a confirmation: we have followed the instructions issued to us by Garden Station. We are currently manually deleting our logs, not via wireless instruction as specified. We are also disabling all wireless communications and deleting the subroutines that operate the embedded systems.”

Maya leaned closer to Will. “That explains some of what you found.”

He nodded, studying the screen, where the proctor continued.

“As instructed, we’ve also taken inventory of the remaining 6 cohorts here at the station, which include 44 trial participants. At the time of this recording, all have been restored to health, and the specified interventions have been administered to each participant.”

Alister reached forward and tapped the pause button. “I don’t like the sound of that—interventions.”

“Nor do I,” Cara said. “It implies that they’ve done some sort of experimentation on us.”

The words hung in the air a moment. “For my part,” Maya said, “I was healed. I remember being sick in the hospital. Now I feel fine—except for my memory.”

She had hoped the others would elaborate on their own experiences, but strangely, no one said anything.

“Well,” Maya said finally, “let’s find out what else he has to say.”

“To date, we have lost a total of 16 participants to medical issues that pre-dated trial enrollment or due to adverse events encountered during trial execution. To date, 12 cohorts containing 59 participants were successfully released and no further contact has been made with any cohort. Per the trial protocol, the most promising cohorts were released first. Our operating assumption has simply been that the interventions administered were unsuccessful at resolving the trial’s stated outcome. We have made adjustments to the interventions based on Garden Station directives. Finally, I’d like to note that our staff of three proctors remains functional and operating within specified parameters.”

The proctor paused. “As further dictated in Garden’s terminating message, we have assembled the requisite items and will be sealing the station and activating biological controls. Finally, as I’m unsure who will encounter this message—perhaps a proctor from another station or a trial participant from this station or another station, I will simply warn you to please exercise caution. Remember, sometimes the answers we seek are right in front of us.”