Nanoswarm: Nanoverse, #2

By Theophilus Monroe

The nanonetwork has been upgraded.

 

I can still access the nanobots...

But when I do, it leaves the host unconscious. Transferring their mind into the nanoswarm.

Dr. Archimedes Flat is expanding his nanoverse. Collecting minds to craft a new "utopia" forged from collective memory.

He believes it's the next step in human evolution.

And if a few people have to die to make it happen, well, in his mind that's nothing more than the survival of the fittest.

If I'm going to stop him, I'll have to fight him in the nanoverse itself.

But Flat designed the nanoverse. He's it's architect. The god of his digital world.

How can I possibly defeat the maker of the nanoverse from within his own creation? After all, in the nanoverse, Flat makes all the rules.

Nanoswarm is the second book in Theophilus Monroe's Nanoverse, an action packed dystopian sci fi thriller series. As a former soldier, suffering from PTSD, Brian Goff is not only a threat to the new system, but his very injury has given him control over the nanobots. Like Neo, in The Matrix, Goff is an unlikely hero whose "technomagic" makes him the the last hope for human liberty, freedom, and justice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Theophilus Monroe
• Release date: Aug 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223965558

Book preview

Nanoswarm

Theophilus Monroe

Copyright © 2021 by Theophilus Monroe.

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. 

 For information: 

www.theophilusmonroe.com

Contents

1. Interfaced

2. Marinade

3. Altered Code

4. Anonymous

5. Resistance HQ

6. Inhibited

7. Ryu-te

8. Attendant

9. Assimilation

10. Stigmata

11. Hail to the Chiefs

12. Convergence

13. Queen Me

About Author

Also By Theophilus Monroe

1

Interfaced

He placed his hands to his childish face. The skin was soft. He looked at the hands he now manipulated. They were small and unblemished, free of the callouses and age spots that he’d accumulated on his own hands during nearly seventy years of life.

Doctor Archimedes Flat. That’s the name he was known by. He was a member of the former President’s cabinet. Now, he was declared a terrorist. He was public enemy number one. Not like it mattered. How could they ever contain him, now? His natural body was gone, dissipated when the nanobots in his system exploded from his veins. Now, Flat was pure energy. He could enter anybody of his choosing.

They’d never think to look for him in the body of a twelve-year-old boy. And if they did, well, he could traverse the nanonetwork and claim a new host instead.

After Nanovax and the algorithm, every man, woman, and child mandated to receive the nanobot injections was connected to the nanosphere. A network of billions of minuscule computers, injected into millions of people, linking their minds. It was the first step in Flat’s vision. For now, the nanonetwork was still restrained by biology. He could only traverse the network within those who hosted the nanobots.

Still, now that Flat’s consciousness was translated into the nanoverse, he could feel, sense, and experience all things at once. It was too much. His human mind had been limited. Now, the infinite possibilities at his disposal were overwhelming. Until he could upgrade the network from within and create a new digital nanosphere, a new plane of existence where all might go when their bodies fail, he had to hide in other bodies. It wouldn’t take much. A few codes to govern the nanoswarm within each individual—the collective sum of the nanobots that flowed in every person’s veins—that they might be unified, limited only by their own imaginations, to the collective consciousness of the nanoverse. Soon, fleshy, corporeal bodies would be obsolete. Bodies like that of the young boy whose face now looked back at Flat in the mirror.

Kevin. That was the boy’s name before. Where had Kevin gone? After Flat had seized control of the child’s central nervous system?  His memories were intact. Flat could recall them as if they were his own. His first day of school. His last day of school. When Jared Clark threw a basketball at him while riding his bicycle. The scrapes on his elbow had healed in seconds, thanks to Nanovax. He remembered charging Jared, tackling him in front of the school flag pole. He recalled sitting in the principal’s office as each of the boys' mothers forced them to apologize to one another. Kevin rolled his eyes. Jared had started it. Why should he be in trouble? It wasn’t like any of their injuries were permanent. All he’d wanted to do was make the bully experience a comparable dose of pain to what he’d suffered himself. All things being equal, they could go on their own respective ways. Was detention really necessary?

Incredible, Flat thought. I don’t just remember these events. I can feel the shame, the guilt, the fury knowing that Jared started it…

Flat didn’t want Kevin to die. Still, he couldn’t leave this body until he knew where Kevin had gone. Was he still in the bots that inhabited this body? His brain, his memories, were still intact. When Flat left, when he released control, would Kevin resume autonomy over his own body? Would he recall what Flat had done after commandeering his body? Or, would Kevin be liberated? Once Flat was sure the nanoverse was ready, that was his hope. And he nearly had every code written into the nanonetwork. He had to be careful. The process was more arduous than might be expected. Still, Flat had figured out a way to write new codes, upload new universal programs that were the product of his imagination into the nanoverse while avoiding detection by the government or the resistance. Yes, the boy would be liberated soon. That was what these new programs and codes were all about. A new kind of freedom. In the nanoverse, Flat could live forever. Anyone could! Flat was the architect of the nanoverse, but everyone could be the creator of their own world, the god of their own existence. This wasn’t just a new mode of being. It was a new world. One that Flat intended to make, to construct, from within.

But Flat had to be careful despite his relative success obscuring the new codes. John Larson was still out there. If he suspected anything, if he rooted out the code before the program was inaugurated, Flat would have to start again from scratch. Larson was the only one who knew the code well enough to find him. But there was someone else. An ex-soldier. Lieutenant Brian Goff. He was a curious case. The nanobots couldn’t seize his mind. Was it because of his trauma? The PTSD he suffered from in the wake of war? More than that, the nanobots in others seemed to respond to Goff’s commands. Somehow, the soldier had exploited a flaw in the code. If Flat didn’t find the error and didn’t correct it and complete his upgrades, there was no telling what Goff might do. He could destroy the whole thing. He could tear down this new universe, this nanoverse, the future of humankind.

Kevin! a familiar voice said from the other end of the house. You’re going to be late! It’s time for school!

Flat smiled, Kevin’s grin looking back at him in the mirror. Be right there, Mom!

Flat chuckled. His voice hadn’t changed yet. Would he have to experience puberty a second time if he stayed in this body? Flat didn’t intend to stay. But Flat needed a developing mind. He needed a brain that could develop alongside his upgrades. That was the secret. That was how he hid his code, his programming, from the government and the resistance. More than that, a body that Larson, Goff, and the rest of the resistance couldn’t inhibit. After all, it wasn’t safe to insert inhibitor devices into developing brains.

Under the order of President Neuhaus, shortly before his resignation, the government commissioned Larson to produce inhibitors in mass. Small devices affixed to the temple, that nullified Nanovax. The problem? The devices emitted frequencies that, while safe for adults, could affect the development of young minds.

Not only did Flat need a mind to inhabit that was ripe for incubating his upgrades, but he needed a place where he could push an upgrade without interference. If all went according to plan, the inhibitors would soon be obsolete. There was only so much that could be done from within the nanoverse. Flat couldn’t alter the hardware, even if he wanted to. He couldn’t create a power source for the nanobots that could override the inhibitor. But the production of inhibitors was slow. The nanobots could alter the human mind. They could program brains to reject inhibitors. Call it a kill switch. If Flat succeeded, if he managed to implement his upgrades, introducing an inhibitor to the system would trigger another code, hypnotically written into the biological mind. A self-destruction sequence. Or, if you prefer, a suicide code.

It wasn’t Flat’s intention to kill. Presumably, once the suicide code was triggered, most would remove their inhibitors to heal their bodies. And when they did that, the code writ into the mind would tell the brain to reject the inhibitors indefinitely.

Yes, people would die. Not everyone would be able to remove their inhibitor in time. Still, the inhibitors would be blamed. The government would be responsible. Since Flat could control the media, the broadcasts sent into people’s minds through the nanonetwork, it wouldn’t take much to skew the narrative in his favor. The resistance would be deemed a terrorist organization, as it ought to be. It would set the stage for Flat’s final stage of his plan—the rise of the nanoverse, the end of the flawed natural order, and the birth of a new existence.

Kevin! It was the boy’s mother again. If you aren’t downstairs before I count to three, your games will be turned off for a week!

Flat, using Kevin’s mouth, smirked at himself in the mirror. Parental controls in the nanobots. A temporary measure meant to pacify the people into accepting the nanobots when it all started. Such games were meant to be a taste, an introduction, to the new existence on the horizon. Free-world, multi-player, gaming. What Flat envisioned, though, was no game. It was a new world. A better world. A place where everyone could exist, not as individuals, but as members of a collective, digital consciousness. A universe without limitation.

Coming, Mom! Flat shouted back as he hurried down the stairs, out the door, and into the back seat of Kevin’s mother’s Chevrolet.

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Brian guided the nanoswarm beyond the old asylum, the building that had served as a base for the resistance, and into the skies. The bots he used were his own, but now he could guide them across the city, soaring above the world below. It was an odd sensation. He couldn’t feel the wind in his face, even though the bots naturally assumed something akin to a human shape. They were guided by his vision, his imagination. Brian imagined himself like Superman—not a bird, not a plane, but a swarm of nanobots flying free. And yes, he could leap over tall buildings in a single bound.

So far, entering the nanoswarm was the only way Brian could find to quiet his mind. Maybe it drained the nanobots of some energy. Or, perhaps it just separated him a bit from his natural, wounded mind and memories. Whatever it was, as unusual as the experience was, it offered Brian a few moments of solace. The pain of war, the trauma of the mind, the loss of his wife, Amy. In the body, those burdens were like the weight of the world, pressing down on his shoulders. In the nanoswarm, while he still missed his wife and lamented the tragedies of war, something about it all felt lighter.

Daddy, Susie said. I’m hungry.

One second, honey, Brian said, hearing his daughter speak through his own ears even as his mind’s eye was connected to the nanoswarm soaring across the Kansas City skyline.

One Mississippi, Susie said. That’s one second. Now get me a cheese stick!

Brian chuckled. He disconnected