Earth Wizard

A simple, inescapable fact of Tyler Jefferies’ existence was that he was in love with Dr Rebecca Taylor. However, as he had admitted to himself months previously, that love was destined to be unrequited. For another, simple, inescapable fact about Tyler’s love was that she was married to a man who worked just down the corridor from her office, and happily so, as near as Tyler could tell. In any case, as Rebecca had gently pointed out when she began to suspect that Tyler was “sweet” on her, she was his supervisor/counsellor in the experiments run by the facility of which they were both members, and any relationship would be inappropriate.

Nonetheless, Tyler could not help how he felt about the perfection that was Dr Rebecca Taylor, or the occasional goofy smile when she was around. He had tried to suppress the smiles and make them friendly rather than goofy, but it had not helped that the facility’s research program, of which he was one of two main test subjects, threw them together quite a lot. A cure for his infatuation might have been another woman, but there were few other women in the isolated research facility where they both worked, and certainly none in the surrounding jungle on the planet Salmonde. Rebecca remained the only romantic interest in Tyler’s life, and she was unobtainable.

Well, it was better than absolutely no romantic interest of any kind, or so Tyler told himself, but to avoid more gentle reminders that she was not available, Tyler did his best to stay away outside the many sessions where she tested him, took samples, and even probed him. This time, however, Tyler had an excuse for approaching Dr Taylor outside their regular sessions. She had summoned him, and there she was. The pretty girl-next-door, with long, brown hair parted on one side and a floral dress hinting at cleavage, which Tyler had dreamt about often. He tried to make his smile one of friendship as he approached her, rather than one of goofy love, but did not quite succeed.

“You wanted to see me, Dr Taylor?” he said. Despite how he felt, she insisted that he use her last name and title to emphasise that their relationship was professional

Her answering smile was friendly.

“Ty, hi, a last-minute thing has come up outside the facility we want you to fix.”

“Now? But we’re just about to go. My bags are packed.”

The facility was to be evacuated, with all the personnel returning to other jobs on Earth. This meant that Tyler would see far less of Rebecca, if he saw her at all, but he thought that was a good thing. There would be other girls. He could forget her.

“It’s just a small thing,” she said. “You need to reset one of the border posts. The one by the main path. Otherwise, the entire border grid may go offline, and that would be bad.”

“It would be bad,” agreed Ty, “but why get me to do it? This is a job for Noah.”

“He’s already aboard the shuttle and in stasis for the trip home, I’m told,” said Rebecca. “You know the system, and you know how to reset it.”

“I guess,” said Tyler. “If it’s just about resetting. I can’t see what would require manual intervention at the site, rather than Alan rebooting the control system.”

“I’ve been told it requires manual intervention,” said Rebecca. “And you’re one of the few people out of stasis who can work out what the problem is. You’ve come such a long way since we came here; you’re so much smarter and quicker with that implant. I’m so proud of you.”

This flattery worked as it always had. Tyler felt himself swelling with pride. He now wanted to do this last job for the woman he loved.

“For you, I’ll do it,” he said, earning himself a big smile.

“See you aboard the ship,” she said.

“You’ll make sure they hold it until I’m aboard?” He was smiling in a goofy way again.

“Of course. You’re a prime part of the research we’ve been doing here; a prime part of my research. They’re not going to leave you behind.”

Despite this flattery and a mind clouded by love, somewhere deep within his consciousness an alarm bell tinkled. He had been bright enough before being enticed into the program from his doctoral studies in solid state physics, but the neural implant he had been given as part of the research had boosted his intelligence off the charts. More than that, the implant gave off electrical and magnetic fields that conferred abilities, which had been examined intensively over many hours in Dr Taylor’s office. He could practice telekinesis of a sort on metal objects and exert limited control over the minds of others. He would have dearly liked to try influencing Rebecca’s mind, but he knew that would be crossing a line, and in many respects, he was old-fashioned. He was no predator. In any case, as he and Dr Tayler had established over many sessions, the powers were weak.

Now, the giant intellect that had been conferred on him was analysing various warning signs. Why was Dr Taylor asking him to do this task, instead of one of the technicians who had not gone up to the station in orbit around the planet? Why was the request being made just minutes before they were due to leave? Then the love-addled part of his brain, the part that kept him human, kicked in. If Dr Rebecca Taylor, the love of his life, wanted him to do this favour for her, he would do it, almost no matter what it was.

All the same, the warning bell still ringing faintly in the intellectual part of his brain ensured that Tyler stopped by his own desk for a moment to pick up the manual override card for the garage entrance. He had driven the centre’s electric jeep a few times as part of the implant tests and had kept the card from the last drive, because no one had thought to ask for it back. Now he took the card as a fail-safe. He didn’t want to be locked out of the facility with the final shuttle about to go. A new research team with a new project would come in a few months, but until then, the facility would be deserted.

After meeting his favourite person at the facility, on his way to the front entrance Tyler met his least favourite, Declan. This man was a short, squat, red-haired Irish thug who detested “academics and smart people”, as he had often told Tyler. This time, the man seemed pleased with himself. Instead of sneering at Tyler, as he often did, he chuckled.

“Take care, man,” he said, and walked past.

Tyler opened the facility’s main entrance, exchanging a few words with Alan as he did so. Alan would not be leaving with the others. That was because he was an artificial intelligence, an Algorithmic Learning Autonomous Network (ALAN) forever bound to the hardware in the main facility. Alan had been the other major focus of the research, as both his hardware and Tyler’s neural implant had similar architecture and technology. In the next phase of the research, as Tyler understood, the scientists would look at how to make ALAN systems and humans with neural implants work together.

But that was all in the future. That day, as Tyler let himself out, Alan said, “You’re going out now? But you’ll be leaving soon.” The AI had been given the voice of a ten year old boy, and Tyler always smiled when he heard the machine speak.

“Just going out to fix a problem with the border posts, Alan,” Tyler said cheerfully. “Should be just a few minutes. You’ll hardly know I’ve gone.”

“But I will know you’re gone,” protested Alan. Being an AI, he was literal minded. “I’ve seen you go out.”

Tyler had already gone.

Outside, the jungle air was warm and humid but not oppressive. When the facility was built, the builders ripped up the jungle for one hundred meters around the buildings and replanted the area with a series of well-designed jungle gardens, interspersed with stone fountains, suitable for walks by facility staff seeking an escape from paperwork and air conditioning. This haven was protected by an electrified border fence from the many dangerous animals that roamed the jungle proper. The chief of these was a giant creature, somewhere between a Yeti and a mountain gorilla, which they had dubbed a Vorg, after a creature in some fantasy tale that a staff member had read. Vorgs ate most things, including humans, when they could get hold of one. Tyler could hear one now, roaring some way off to his left as he reached the control fence post, a large concrete pillar.

He flipped open a metal inspection hatch, muttering to himself as he sometimes did, “Now, what’s the problem?” He flicked a couple of switches and saw that the problem was not in the software or the post mechanism. The problem was that the power had been switched off. There were no circuit breakers in the post; they were all in the main building’s generator room. What fool had sent him out here? Well, no matter, he would go back and spend another couple of minutes checking the circuit breakers, then get on the shuttle. He certainly did not want to stay out there with a Vorg close by. The creature could rip an unpowered fence from its posts and stroll right in.

Puzzled, Tyler trotted back down the path to the front door and pulled on the handle. Nothing happened. In the months he had been at the facility, the security lock on the door had not been activated during the day. There had been no need. Now the security panel to the right of the door glowed. Thinking that someone must have set the security system without realising he was still outside, Tyler tapped in his passcode. The screen flashed ‘wrong code,’ and the door stayed shut. He tried again, typing slowly to be sure he had the right number. Same result.

“Alan,” Tyler called. He knew the system would be watching him and listening.

“Yes.”

“It’s Tyler. For some reason, my security code doesn’t work. Let me in.”

“You are no longer listed on the centre’s staff. Your code has been deactivated.”

“I’ll be leaving just as soon as I get to the shuttle, but I can’t get to the shuttle unless you let me in.”

“The shuttle is launching now.”

Tyler was aware of a slight vibration. Ships designed to reach orbit using lift crystals did not take off with an almighty roar like the rockets of old. Instead, they used their engines to energise the crystals and lift straight off with a rumble. Tyler looked up to see the shuttle, with all the humans in the centre, appear above the facility’s roof, then fade into the sky. They had left him behind. Rebecca had promised she would not let them leave until he was on board, but he had been abandoned. Tyler was stunned. Then he heard the Vorg roar again. It was very close. He had real problems.

“Alan, you know who I am. We’ve played chess and cards together. You know I was on staff and was just called on to fix a problem. We talked about this a couple of minutes ago.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“That you should let me in. You’re a conscious, self-aware system. You should realise that there has been an error and I’ve been left behind, stuck outside the facility.”

“I am self-aware,” said Alan, “and I know you used to work here and are now locked out of the building, but I don’t see why I should let you in. You’re not on staff. Just go elsewhere.”

“Where else can I go? We’re in the middle of the jungle on an alien planet.”

“There are settlements, human and Salmonde.”

The main inhabitants of the Earth-like planet called Salmonde were a race of humanoids who, to human eyes, bore a passing resemblance to frogs or toads on two legs. There was also a human civilisation called the Enstain, descendants of a group of eco-nuts who fled Earth before a supposed environmental collapse. The collapse had not occurred, but the Enstain were still on Salmonde, still practising sustainable lifestyles. Tyler would not willingly go anywhere near them, but willingness was not the issue.

“What?” he spluttered into the control panel. “How am I supposed to get to them? The nearest is hundreds of kilometres away.”

“I have no direct experience of such matters,” said Alan, “but that does sound difficult. You should get to work on that problem.”

“What about the Vorg close by, and the fact that the border fences have no power?”

“I see they have no power. They have been switched off manually, and I cannot restore power.”

“What?”

“As for the Vorg, there is such a creature nearby, but as I cannot restore power to the fences and I’m safe in my bunker, the creature does not concern me.”

“But it affects me, big time. Let me in, and it won’t affect me.”

“As I said, there are human and Enstain settlements where you can seek shelter.”

“Fuck!” said Tyler.

He was out of time. The Vorg loomed out of the jungle by the border fence and roared. It was a huge, bear-like creature that, according to the scientists at the facility, could have given the giant bears found in Earth’s fossil records a run for their money. Despite their size, they were wickedly fast over short distances, so that they specialised in ambushing their prey, and, oh yes, were always hungry.

Deciding his one hope was to make for the garage entrance, for which he had a standard-issue card, rather than a code number that could be cancelled, Tyler dashed away, running hard for the entrance. Unfortunately, that was in the same direction as the Vorg. As he ran, he could see the creature tentatively touch the fence – they were also wickedly smart – then grab it in both hands and rip the fence away from its concrete posts.

As he ran, Tyler wondered why the Vorg was so interested in the facility’s garden, only for his own question to be immediately answered by the sight of the body of one of the jungle’s monkeys (they resembled chimpanzees) with its stomach deliberately cut open. No time to think.

Tyler rapped his card on the reader beside the door as the Vorg pushed down the fence wire – it has not broken – and stepped over into the garden.

Joy! The roller grate on the entrance started to rise. The double sliding doors behind them began to slide open. Tyler lay down and rolled under the grate just as the Vorg, with a roar, got to it in just two bounds. He squeezed through the sliding doors, a whisker away from the creature’s giant paws. It roared again, shaking the grating. Fortunately, the grating was made of sterner stuff than the fence. The creature bent the sections but did not break them.

The grate stopped rising; the double doors stopped sliding open.

“You got in,” said Alan. The garage and an intercom speaker, as did almost all parts of the facility. The AI did not sound alarmed, or disturbed, or astonished. He was just stating a fact.

“That’s right, I did,” said Tyler, shouting to be heard over the roars of the Vorg, cheated of its prey. “No thanks to you. Am I still not on staff?”

“No, you’re not,” said Alan. Then, to Tyler’s horror, the grate started rising again, and the doors opened.

“Bastard!” he screamed.

The Vorg left off roaring and dropped to all fours to wait for the grate to open wide enough to allow him in. Tyler looked around, desperately. What weapons did he have at hand? A fire extinguisher in a bracket on the side wall. Tyler grabbed it, pulled the pin – like everyone else, he had been given mandatory fire-safety training and, unlike everyone else, remembered what he had been taught – and brought it back to the entrance. He pointed it at the head of the Vorg just as it was about to crawl under the grate and pumped the lever, squirting foam over its face and mouth.

The foam was not toxic. The extinguisher was designed for use near humans. But the Vorg suddenly found that it could not see and did not like the taste at all. It roared again, stood up, and backed away, pawing at the stuff over its eyes. Tyler thought that he had bought himself some time. Maybe he could use tools in the garage. There was a welding kit somewhere and a nail gun. Although he had never used either piece of equipment, he was crazy smart and had a near photographic memory. Or maybe he could use them to bash down the garage access door? That door had a security lock, but it was just an interior door, not designed to withstand any punishment. He turned away to look for something, anything to fight the Vorg, when the grate started closing again, and the twin doors slid shut.

“I find that I have need of your help,” said Alan.