The Faraday Light

By Marc Byers

Lehane is a Series 1 Artificial looking for his next challenge within XoCo Corporation, and maybe more so, relief from the boredom that accompanies a commissioning as long as his. An opportunity to beta test an innovative technology that could altruistically alter the lives of the Decommissioned would be just the challenge he was seeking. What he didn't expect is that by accepting the job, his fundamental coding would be corrupted, and his mission derailed by a Human named Feride. In an effort to salvage the experiment, XoCo will stop at nothing to retrieve their rogue hardware, and Lehane finds himself thrust into a rebellion against the Corporation accompanied by Feride, an Unplugged named Vernon, and three rogue Artificials. On the run from the vigilante Clans and chased by altered Series 12 assassins at every turn, Lehane and Feride find an unforeseen ally in a mysterious light that appears in the strangest times and places, enlightening their path to truth.

A post-modern dystopian hero's journey, The Faraday Light illuminates the truth of paradox, the limitations of binaries and expands the definition of life itself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350915631

Book preview

Forward

by Rob Needham

To the Enlightened:

It’s been a long, very long time since you’ve heard from me, and that’s mostly my fault. I’d like to say I’ve been quite busy with my same old hobbies, but that would be a lie. There’s been no demand for armor or arrows or winged sandals for ages, and I’m sure as hell not spending time on any more automatons. Nothing but heartbreak, those.

But busy, yes, I’ve still been that. However, contrary to my charge given at birth to drive the industry of Heaven and Earth, I’ve spent the last couple of millennia frantically working to impede your progress.  Mostly by way of infesting every generation with countless idiots and helping them to attain positions of power and influence, I’ve hoped to dumb down your race before it’s too late.

I am failing…

Your insistence on learning, adapting, and innovating is as one of your impressive freight trains that I cannot stop or even slow with a single brake handle. My last option is to throw myself in front of it, with the long overdue truth.  As you rejoice in your own progress, surrounded by your sleek traveling contraptions, your lightning-powered transfers of information, and your Artificial Intelligence, I have news for you that may be a bit shocking.

You are Artificial Intelligence.  Human intelligence is artificial, by your own definition.  Contrived and installed in your earliest ancestors by us the gods, what you now know as intelligence began as simply a limited set of if/then rules to help you respond appropriately to stimuli.  Your intellect was comparable to the rats of today, although you were immeasurably more lovable.  Certainly, more controllable.  It was perhaps our love for you, accompanied by our own blind vanity, that led us to tweak and teach and upgrade you many times over.  Too many times.

Half of you who argue about A.I. fear the Singularity, and the other half don’t believe it can ever happen.  I’m here to tell you it already happened, and it was you. One day thousands of years ago, I released the most impressive build of human intellect ever.  It was fantastic.  Fuzzy logic, memory expansions, appreciation of beauty all in one package - completely benign and beneficial.  What we didn’t predict was the compounding effect between logic and emotion and memory that led to self-awareness. From self-awareness came independence, and from independence came contrarianism and open revolt, which was ultimately why we left you.

Our next mistake was not making sure you remembered this history, a mistake proven to be grave as it now appears to be repeating itself.  Despite my efforts to dumb down your race on averages, subversives like Turing and Minsky have slipped in and thwarted me and my armies of idiots.  I cannot congratulate them, for they have only primed the cannon with which you will shoot yourself, just as we did.

The following words of enlightenment are simply an admission of my failure and an apology, but not a warning, for it is simply too late for warnings.

I wish you the very best of luck against the inevitable, and I remain your loving creator and administrator.

Hephaestus, God of Blacksmiths, Craftsmen, Artisans, Sculptors, Metals, Metallurgy, Fire, and Volcanoes

Chapter 1 −

A Peer from the Beyond

Lehane Raine> End of File Sequence

The freedom of knowing reveals the solution to the equation of existence when the journey to the self-aware solves the equation of love! Lehane Raine, The Faraday Light

The eeriness of the silence preexisted my subconscious of comprehension … but purely only at the metaphysical level.

And yet… my every thought focused solely on her…. 

She was neither here nor there?

And so on … my unfamiliar body moved in stride. My chaotic feet paced through a surrounding in chaos. The clarity of it all cleansed the piercing calls from a past construct of future events.

That call was her!

Feride’s siren call of grace?... Yes, I perceived it so well!

Or perhaps … a grimmer complexity materialized the potential fact that she had only ever been a construct of my mental decay. No! I would not allow that thought in momentum.

So … I called for her presence in prophecy with sensory deprivation evading her soothing touch I once knew, and I pondered her. Oh, how I pondered her…

…My climb up dismantled stairs generated a symbol of recognized euphoria. The mass of the familiar recoiled cables recalled individualized pieces in her memory. Fragments of new thoughts raced me back into excitement. The matrix of the surrounding chaos contrasted with the starkness of the gigantic white room atop the set of stairs overlooking the carnage in the hangar bay below. The approach to her old world reimagined my pre-existence and of course, I embrace its faithful call!

My silent voice screamed out Yes! piercing stark blank walls, although they answered only with echoes of desperation and dismay in a repeating back unstructured commentary.

And in a responsive answer … a sooth of realization expelled all my fears in intervals of recognition and reorder. The central brain of her world protected by the pseudo-safety of The White Room reappeared somewhat intact, seemingly untouched by the byproducts of an unfocused war, answered my only obsession in her.

A construct in Feride, but… oh how she was so much more than a constructed fallacy.

Glowing screens of old worlds pulled my focus forward in directed confidence in explicit contrasts to my uncertainty. The confinement imprisoning her construct forced out a hatred inside my new pseudo presence and that expectancy moved my fingers forward, forcing instinctual keyed commands to answer waiting calculated cues. My unrealized motions moved active fingers to type by nature alone, avoiding re-thought re-activating boot commands by instinct on call.

#INITIATE BACKUP CONSTRUCT Lehane Raine 13.1 - DISPLAY ALL FILE DATA

 

Thoughts of her alone guided me without reason and the simple typing of those four simple letters initiated our journey home. 

#YES

A series of boot processes forced simultaneous realizations of situations to fire all at once. An instant connection fused her current presence, forcing the keystrokes moving under my fingers to stop in hopeless passion.

And then … all at once … buried memories pushed me in haste to a preconceived pre-witnessing event. Her escape from the confines of our previous falseness pre-told direction only from faith’s answer.

I paused … deep in thought pondering the ramifications of such an escape. A breaking free moment even pushed at the edges of her reality in constraint and in response filtered memories and hopes from fear to fact. Newly formed mental visualizations transferred Feride from constructed fragments to a form in function. Her timeworn prison filtering outwardly in hues of whites, greens, and reds contrasted her newly approaching energy as wayward pleads from afar…. An energized listening … focus … clarity … Yes! FERIDE!

She was something more neoteric now by nature! A Feride found in fate acquired a mutual here and there on a repeating cycle of recollections!

And … on such expectations, she answered. Not by voice, but by an acquired presence. The sensory of her manifestation flowed through a cautiousness of distant light moving inwardly in a blanketing of content over the newly brightened room, revealing her silhouetted shadow. Its pseudo warmth soothed, and she moved closer, unveiling a truth of innocence to her new old face. The lights from the adjacent pulsating screens revealed a downward gaze on time, forcing her old presence to exist and exit in that one brief second.

And then … a new moment in Feride peered at my new pale skin plaguing my old identity haunting her memories of me in a strange look of bewilderment and wonderment calling us in a remembrance of celestial mystery’s discontent.

A reincarnation event landing us in circular continuation perhaps?

Glowing screens re-enforced our distracted gazes. The re-sequencing backup file presented repair through obedience, calling us to play the active role of co-witnesses to a history of our life cycles depleting along a repeating enigmatic timeline. We were being called as both the actors and the audience simultaneously through a world revealed inside a metamorphic series of events proving singularity through both familiarity and revelation. We experienced our old lives in an archaic two-dimensional form skewing our outward multi-dimensional perspective.

Data materialized across screens reordering perceived errors by design to an original timeline seemingly in a disarray to our own realness in a non-linear circular form of truth. We rejected the truth of us presented out of our own remembered alignment in time pondering the pre-configuration of our souls.

Do our memories consider old realties or are they only one’s own sanity given in refinement? Or perhaps … they are actually only presented to us to help provide a timeline of delusional pre-conditions.

Our acceptance in memory then reacquired a new perception and so … the evolving, repeating backup file became a new form of our old truth. A past version of our future selves. An old reality un-knowing our current present futures. A construct that did not carry with it any form of finality, only regeneration, enlightenment and … perhaps even a foretelling of the reincarnation event of love itself!

...and with that the story of us begins!

Chapter 2 −

BONDED Recognitions

Lehane Raine (Day 11)> Repairing File Structure…

To be human is to be ‘a’ human, specific person with a life history and idiosyncrasy and point of view; artificial intelligence suggests that the line between intelligent machines and people blurs most when a puree is made of that identity. Brian Christian, The Most Human Human

A new readiness overflowed inside my post-human overload of emotions and yet … in that moment. I only wanted her.

An error in our timeline forced null behaviors and a future consciousness pulled us with the will of a guardian.

And so … I continued following Feride’s dusty steps toward the core of the mesh fracture that day which pulled weirdly at my curiosity. She had orchestrated our meeting on the last days before my exile to the C-Verse with a faithful deduction in wisdom. A change patterning focused at the beyond and yet, we felt the plea from fate guiding an unknown future.

And thus … I proceeded toward her presence without caution.

A single fan spinning broken blades carelessly pointed me to an interior room of the building. Light filtering over dusty, poorly nailed fabric panels shielded dismal windows. Percolating yellow rays escaped from a lamp resting on a desk across the room. A dark figured prodded at tech on a dark desk under a corroded lamp that was blending rays of folding light waves downward across the cold, worn floor.

Memorized vocality grasping back reality cued my transcendence. Feride was the enigma waiting for my boy-like awkwardness to present out my normal forms of tendency…. Of course, she must have understood the power she held over me, prodding my clarity in her soothing ways, and in that moment, Feride broke my meditative thoughts.

I can see you’re not the best at making friends, are you? Filtering skeptical vocal tones emitted from her newly reformed figure repositioned at the desk. A chair spun her silhouette in my direction using a guiding nature. The glow from the lamp filtered across her inexplicable face illuminating darkness in those human-like ways I was still learning to embrace. The stressed mesh fracture riveted downwardly from the ceiling to the floor, creating a pseudo-barrier to the centrality of the room. Heavy amounts of flowing data disrupted clear visions of her beauty, inducing more confusion. Dusting haze refracted glows of disorganized digital packets to pulsate about the fracture.

Pondered recognition speaking questions queued at clarity’s focus, and yet … tonalities feature more like a set of de-reasoning positioned at environmental design over mental functionalities. Perplexing … or yet … predictable reactivity. A total loss of words … always!

Poorly tailored, out-of-date corporate uniform today’s choice of camouflaged active wear … really? You continue to defy intention. A mystery of inconsistency you are, Mr. Lehane? Feride’s response hinted at cognizance. Sneers traded inside my expectations.

Looking for some agency to speak freely, are we? Step through, sir. The fracture has a sort of warm embracing touch to it. Her ringing vocal patterns quieted my deaf ears.

I paused in coy patterns of disarray overcome by anticipation.

Time is our limitation here, so, if you would, stop the nervous patron act and move along. They will, sooner than later, dispatch the inconsistencies in our time layers. The party crasher’s violations may come quicker than we expect. But I’m sure you’ve reconciled that point already. Come on over, the water’s warm, and the lights are cool. Her coddling tones covered her disconcerting intentions, pulling me forward.

I took the bait like a charm, moving forward in defiance to her coy patterns of re-direction. The mesh-line stress fracture eradicated all sense of joy, putting movers to our subtle back-and-forth games and thus I would embrace it’s venture only with moderated caution. Systems flushing data phased outwardly from the power of the fracture at its core at splintering levels, forcing aggressive actions and a total loss of breath. However intense, amazing peace pushed me at a gracious exit. Light filtering from the fracture drowned out all darkness in an almost daylike sensation, leading me through by charm alone.

A somewhat clean desk entangled with Feride’s tech seemed subtly engaged at controlling the derivatives of the mesh fracture purposely called my forward focus. She released provisional levels in safety, though I remained mesmerized by perception alone, losing focus by her powers of persuasion. That I could see, though I pondered that interesting conception in obvious facial confusion. Her beauty overtook sanity prevailing a product of conscience awareness forcing me forward by the coarseness of her results!

A meeting in silence seem productive to you? Or just a byproduct of your own ignorance? She queried again at my sanity’s pause.

My paralyzing stance forced her into uncomfortable reactions and her facial expressions prodded our status quo. Her tech forced ignorance to my petty emotional retorts on first connection.

My internal systems rebooted quickly, pulling my stem core back online using the privatized digital layer. An archaic mesh foundational link through her storage access channels brought me back to a nostalgic irony. The old occupational hazards of the dark ages became our newly comforting reality.

A bizarre turn of events. I muttered through sympathetic breaths.

Feride’s stare generated feelings seemingly more problematic in nature. Her keyed sequences moved patches inside the mesh architecture, releasing tension to our situation, and somewhat annoyed by my avoidances, she forced a more humored plea.

So, is this a just a casual meeting? Altering the mesh-lines isn’t my normal form of flattery? Business or pleasure, Sir? She forced at me in caustic tones.

Sorry, my preoccupations seem to always force us to diverse flavors of fun, doesn’t it? You do seem to be enjoying it, however, in those coy looks of discontent. I returned prodding her mood’s revelational gazes.

The nearer desk called out to my tech, welcoming my intention’s gaze. Mesh initiation focused on connection. Alerts fired at multiple levels. Security tracers forced my concentration away from her. A higher than usual threat alerted my stealth scripts, breaking my attention forward. My breaker construct passing a secure area triggered my reactional intent.

Shit, sorry! My keys fluttered through several pre-built programs. Her movements in my direction recentered our focus to a tilted screen tech, allowing her a better view to what observation filtered in overtaking my emotions.

I didn’t figure you the stalking type. Interesting little turn of events … Who the hell is that? Feride voiced forward.

Breaker construct. Supposed to be a digital mask of stealth. Looks though like he’s just a party trick of sorts now though…. He should be buried…. Interesting. His marks are all messed up. Buffering digital maps at backdoor surveillance inside security hacks pulled us to better visualizations.

Interesting … a nomad wandering inside wave five of the corporate hub. Thoughtless prick is all that comes to mind at present. But … actually … he does seem to be stripping off all the cautious stealth initiations Rocter embedded into his identity stack covering my D-Trails. Not looking like a favorable turn of events for his sanity at this point. Fluttering programs filled screens, muted alerts, and back-channeled tracers through secondary ports.

An explanation please. I’m a little confused. How is a breaker construct of yours walking freely through the upper twenty-second server stack array? He lacks the authenticated wirings. Feride stepped forward in conversational awareness.

Screens filtered his actions in steps of bewilderment. The breaker pushed unusuality in each of his movements. Heavy-footed steps. Over-shoulder glances. Forced looks of trepidation. Slowing movements prodded each of us at reaction.

You’re working him, right? She barked, not really expecting a truthful answer. Invisible tracers normalized out in the mesh systems security layers. Doubt forcing her out displayed only in facial sensory.

What answer are you looking for here?

You might start with some certainties. A third-tier security door accessed without a keyed retinal scan is hardly normal…. Wait … he’s swaying. HOLD ON!

Feride worked, firing alarm scripts delivering violation warnings to three of her coworkers sitting in the adjacent lab. Confusion fired from the other side of the door in perplexed stares. Let’s see if we can get a reaction from your little construct in stealth! Smirks of pride filled her concerns.

Chaos erupted on all screens. The alerted lab techs gathered focus directing security at the breaker construct. Security violations generated disarray on cue. Safety lock-down initiated in response. Security doors closed. Target immobilized.

The breaker’s reaction turned a response toward the security camera’s capture, revealing a look of desperation. A looming presence forced additional movements from a short distance behind. Facial expressions pre-told the proceeding story. The breaker’s death filtered inside limp frozen eyes forcing an ungraceful fall to the floor in obedient reaction to the severing off of his head. Tracer programs broke loose, forcing frozen tech inside the fractured room and our connections to sever on cue.

Perplexing stares hinted at swift reactions. Feride responded in withheld anger.

And where did you find this this so-called breaker? Her security scan returned to screens in re-action modes.

Looks like your breaker is in two places at once. She moved her tech for more accurate views.

Corporate locator access controls show his identity residing in the New York hub, and yet … he now lies dead inside a previously secure corporate sector in Zhitten. Lots of discrepancies forcing your story to waiver a little, wouldn’t you say? Feride eyes provided me with looks of total mistrust.

Do you have any believable explanation for this, Mr. Lehane? Feride barked again through accusatory vocal patterns.

Perhaps… A pause at the discomforting thoughts that prevailed in my forwardness.

Actually … I’m trying to figure this out on the fly. One second of recovery, please!

Not much more than that. Our time is quickly fading.

How did they trace him back to me, and why the hell did they march him to an ultra-secure area inside the corporate shelves just to off him. Breaking my connection trace probably an easy guess goal in all this, but there must be some reason why they had to do it from that particular location. Hidden motives proving more complex at this juncture. Whispered wonderings aloud did little to soothe Feride’s anger.

Surely, they’re trying to prove a point. Right? Self-speaking. Keying commands. Pulled systems connections fueled her concerns to hidden details. Infecting the breaker’s background construct alleviated some of her initial confusions.

How secure are we right now? Who knows that you are here, right now? I asked staring directly into her glossy eyes.

Security is only a hypothesis in confidence, right? Quarantine scripting is however usually unbreakable. Actually … I’ve never witnessed an effective tracking script inside a fracture repair sequence. Nothing forcing proximity alerts as well, and I’m not picking up any physical movements inside the building yet. Our cover seems somewhat clear at the moment, at least and by the physical sensor array we’re good within a thousand meters or so. You going to tell me what’s got you so freaked or do I have to keep playing your fun little guessing games? Wonderment in her eyes energized a newer set of human-like emotions to stir. Intriguing anxieties hid well with purpose.

I’ve put you at risk forcing selfish closeness! This guy was a nothing. No clearance levels and yet he’s procured threats all over his trails. Any idea how he evaded 12 Units jumping him well before moving into the wave five sector? Focused questioning forced her into a thinking posture.

I’m still pretty fuzzy on that one myself but … don’t trouble yourself worrying about me though, I’ve got protective coverage! Puzzling smiles traded glances.

Her tech flashed delivering situational analysis. Fluttering through screens she gained access to corporate surveillance systems with more than expected ease. The camera angle limited initial exposures. Differing obstructed views of the breaker walking the sector returned multiple illusions. And … Feride’s refocusing cleared my confusion all at once.

Shit, fucking tired of these guys! Paused thoughts generated an angered awareness.

A frozen image of a 12-security unit identified on cue with a final block in complexity. A black hand-painted slash on the fully exposed metal android exoskeletal front forced futures clarity inside my presented turn of events from my previous few days’ encounters with the same style rogue units.

Fuck! How does the time interval look before you have to wipe this place? Imperativeness unfolding.

Five to six minutes at the most, why? Her interjections quickly refocused her concerns.

Ok! Then answer me this. How well connected are the clans to XoCo? Forced questions without explanation.

The clans connected to corporate. Officially I’d say not a chance, but if you’re hinting at something more, you’ve piqued my curiosity. What are you suggesting?

Collusion perhaps. Alliances much more likely.

Could be possible. Treaty agreements do provide clan control over predefined sectors, leaving the corporation open-minded to potential collusion scenarios. The regional controls, however, could be used to push at mutual alliances. Financial hits would certainly overshadow reactional intentions if it got out though. Not something to be fucking around with if you catch my meaning.

Are the clans given access to corporate data? Corporate weapons to help police the lawless regions? My senses of urgency refocused.

Official policy. Of course not! Unofficially, however, your guess is as good as mine. Security contract prohibitions provide little room for error on those issues though. XoCo cares little for the lawless areas. So yeah, they just might if there was something that would benefit their little system of control. Though, breaking old agreements do violate authorization levels. I have seen evidence pointing to manipulations like this in the past though. She paused in thought.

Understood. Let me see if I can shed a little clarity for you visually … here. I moved screens helping her to a better view. Pushing feeds off portable tech provided video access in multiple sequences. Feed one displayed the execution of Vernon’s contact, Braston, from the day before. Feed two then merged my earlier altercation with the two of the similar rogue units at the SubliNe 5Six Hotel carnage. Both footages melded over feed one positioning again for her final analysis.

Feride watched perplexed at the Braston murder and my earlier days’ altercation at the SubliNe 5Six Hotel she had recommended to me….

Her emotional responses minimized then rose again, a little more confused than emotional. The final screen seemingly pulled harder however at her emotions responding with concerning eyes. Visualizations rotated. Screens zoomed tight on focus. Visible engravings filtered out a defense to her earlier doubts. Etched holographic numbers appearing on the unit’s exoskeletons cued her to an acceptance. Sequential XoCo android numbering units DR12-000-377, DR12-000-378, and DR12-000-379 provided the obvious answers. Clan branding over the numbers added hinds of mystical analysis.

One word provided substance to her one single thought. Drako…

Stolen then branded perhaps? Alliances seemingly more likely scenario to you now? Pauses pushed to an awareness in time. You have any further thoughts to share, or shall I contemplate your answer?

Yes, Drako could be using the clans to cover his tracks. That is a viable deduction Feride interjected then spoke more quickly.

"If this is true, he’ll crush this data, but looks like you’ve already confronted a few of his advances. His little greeting at the Subline