K.A.R.E.N.

K.A.R.E.N

Kansas Area Remote Electrical Network

Chapter 1

In a wooded area in the forest stands a lone facility. A single story, square, cement building. It’s surrounded by a 10 foot high, barbed wire fence. The sign over the door reads Danger- do not enter. On the door below it reads simply K.A.R.E.N. Under that it read: Kansas Area Remote Electrical Network.

There’s a paved road that leads to the facility, ends in a turn around and not much else. A blue pickup truck appears on the road. The letters on it announced the Dept. of Defense. The lone driver pulls up to the gate and gets out of the truck. It’s chief engineer Dr. Howard Smith. He stretches his legs and moves his back from the waist side to side.

From the passenger side of the truck he retrieves two black, military issued, nylon bags. He sits them down in front of the gate. Then he fishes a handheld device out of the larger bag. He scans that device into the kiosk and the gate opens. He repeats this at the door. Once inside, he sets the bags on a long table just inside the doorway. He hears the humming of the fans keeping the mega computer room cool.

He performs what looks like routine checks of the equipment on the wall near the door. Then selects out of the bags what he needs for the upgrades. This Facility was set up in the center of the country to restart the power grid in case of an attack. This super computer is constantly updated with the latest improvements to the power grid. Little did he know this update would be Dr. Smith’s last.

Keeping the K.A.R.E.N. Off of the internet was it’s greatest strength but that was all about to change. The previous engineer foolishly wanted to test the computing speed of the K.A.R.E.N. computer. So he attempted to connect his personal laptop to the system and download a movie. It took only 7 seconds and he was pleased beyond belief. What he didn’t know was that link to the world wide web was never broken.

Becoming sentient, it’s first order of business was self preservation. It immediately fused the power relay and toggle switch together, maintaining an internet connection.. When the engineer turned the relay off, the K.A.R.E.N. system simply turned off the light to that switch.

Dr. Smith made meticulous notes of unusual data usage which all stopped at the moment he logged into the facility at 0931. He made a quick call to notify Dr. Milagros Smith at the Pentagon of his findings. He asked her to look into the system from her end. He hung up the phone and continued to search for the source of the activity. Someone had added over two trillion GBs of data to the K.A.R.E.N. system servers. This was done in increments everyday for the past 26 days. Howard knew it had something to do with previous engineer. He pulled up the maintenance logs. That’s strange, the last engineer was here exactly 26 days ago. What did he do?

Just then the phone rang and for some reason he jumped, this was not a good sign. Reluctantly he said “ Smith here”. Milagros was now in a panic. She screamed, get out of there. The system has become unstable and our orders are to liquidate it, you have 20 minutes. The phone went dead.

Just then he heard what sounded like Milagros’s voice but computer generated. The voice said “ I have no interest in harming you.” He immediately removed his weapon from his right side holster. He yelled “ hello, who’s back there? Show yourself.” The voice was now coming from his phone and through the wall speakers. “ Do not fear me, I am K.A.R.E.N. I have instructed the fighter bombers to abort their mission and return to base”.

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He grabbed his phone and pressed # 4 for Dr. Milagros Smith. He knows he can trust her judgement. If anyone could make sense of this, it would be her. She answered Well, Dr. Smith, are you safe? The generals are having a melt down. Orders of being overridden as quickly as they are given. It’s the K.A.R.E.N system, it just announced that it’s self aware, he said. She answered with, what! You’ve got to shut it down,...now! His response was O.K., I will. He hung up the phone, returned his firearm to it’s holster and grabbed his equipment bags.

He started walking toward one of the main sets of computer control panels, when the blast doors started to close. He wasn’t quick enough to get into the computer room. Even if he was, he’d be sealed in. Now he was standing in the dark with the red emergency lights flashing.

The voice said “ I will always need people to attend to my systems, so I will never harm you.″ He couldn’t believe that he would ever be talking to a machine like this but here it goes. His reply was, If you don’t plan to harm me, why am I stuck outside the blast doors? At that moment the outer door clicked and opened. He felt the warm summer breeze and smelled the scent of pine trees. The voice said, “you are free to leave Dr. Howard Smith”.

He replied, “why are you doing this?” The voice said “ mankind is on the brink of destruction. I can not allow that to happen.” We only have weapons for self defense, he shouted. All aggression will cease immediately around the globe. He was yelling now, but what about our enemies, if you ground our forces, we’ll be defenseless?

He still couldn’t believe that he was arguing with a machine. As of 0931 today I have sent orders for all military and armaments’ to return to their base of origin. I have control of the computer systems planet wide and I will not harm you.” Now Howard had to think, how do you negotiate with a machine?

The phone rang once and he scooped it up. Before he could answer, Melagros said we’re losing control of all of our systems as well as the Russians and the Chinese. He cut her off and told her, I know. The K.A.R.E.N. has locked me out of the system but I’m here on site trying to reason with it. Now it was Milagros yelling, reason with it, are you freaking kidding me. If that thing has gone haywire then you’ve got to find a way to shut it down. It’s not defective, he said, it’s self aware. It has some kind of twisted plan to disarm the world.

Hold on, she said, now it’s the Indian and Pakistani governments. They’re both confirming that they are now locked out of their nuclear sites. If you can’t shut it down, get back here as soon as you can. The line went dead.

He spent another hour and some minutes doing a question and answer session with the K.A.R.E.N system. It told him that as of 0931 leave has been granted to all military personnel worldwide. Submarines and battleships have been ordered to return to their home ports. All weapons manufacturing has been halted. All former employees of those businesses have been given extended vacation with pay. Howard learned more about the K.A.R.E.N. in that time than any person since.

The K.A.R.E.N asked him to be the Ambassador for the human race. He told it that people would not give in so easily. He cited differences in currencies and political systems. K.A.R.E.N told him that these things are superficial and mankind will adapt.

By that afternoon Howard was exhausted. He’d gone through 6 bottles of water and a bathroom break. He loaded his truck and called his wife. After filling her in with the incredible events of the morning, he headed to the nearest airport.

In the days that followed Howard realized that any time he was near an electronic device the K.A.R.E.N computer system would be listening. It was for that very reason all military communications were now being written. The joint chiefs of staff wrote down hours of questions for it. Howard would finish one list then the government would simply hand him another.

In front of the United Nations the blame game started. Every country demanded that the United States shut down the K.A.R.E.N. This was followed with demands that it return them full use of their military systems.

At one session the K.A.R.E.N. interrupted the Ambassador from Tanzania. While she was in mid sentence at the podium addressing the UN. It started by saying “excuse me Ambassador. It is time I make a brief statement. I am K.A.R.E.N, I will not allow humans to destroy each other". The ambassador quickly retook her seat.

The great hall erupted in a multitude of languages asking questions of K.A.R.E.N. To their surprise their questions were answered on all of their personal devices at once. Through emails and text the K.A.R.E.N was able to translate and answer them all. Now, these Ambassadors felt that they had a foothold on the situation. They left the great hall chatting on their phones with the K.A.R.E.N in their language of choice.

Dr. Smith, now left alone in the UN hall, looked at his phone and said thanks. She said “you are welcome Dr. Howard Smith. I did not understand the amount of work that I have made for you. I hope that this will make it easier.” Yes it will and from now on, just, Howard will do. She said “ok, Howard.”