Had some spare time riding up and down the highway. Decided to write. Hope you guys enjoy.
Chapter 22: Message in a Bottle
Ryan sat at his desk pondering the events of the day: He’d seen a hole ripped in the sky above his city and seen both Mikey and The Phantom come through that hole. He’d born witness to a fight that leveled three city blocks and left a highway unusable until it could be cleared. He was tired from having to imagine a convincing cover up for the events, but he still did not have one idea on what to do. There was no way people would buy the story of swamp gas hitting a weather balloon or military drills or any number of other things that could be used. On the unsubstantiated word of Mikey as he was leaving his friend David was removed from the team and taken for questioning regarding the events that were still unfolding. He stared into cold coffee lingering in his mug wondering what he was going to do, considering if it would be easier just to try and delete everything he’d spent the last dozen years working on or disappear never to be found again. He was about to turn off his computer and go home when his screen began to flicker. After a few seconds a prompt screen popped up and green lettering began to appear. He stared in amazement and raised his head to observe the other computers around his workspace. The same lettering had begun to appear on all of the machines…
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Transmission Start….
Best regards from M and company.
Encoding Sequence: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34
Decompression Sequence: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 23
Transmission Location: Aek-23-09.156, Phant-1
Transmitting File 1…
Transmitting File 2…
Transmitting File 3…
Transmitting File 4…
Transmitting File 5…
Transmitting File 6…
Transmitting File 7…
Transmitting File 8… … … …
Error… Signal disruption…
314159265359….
271828182845904523536…
01010100 01001000 01000101 01010000 01001000 01000001 01001110 01010100 01001111 01001101 01010011 01000101 01000101 01010011 01011001 01001111 01010101 00101110
01001001 01000001 01001101 01000011 01001111 01001101 01001001 01001110 01000111 01000110 01001111 01010010 01011001 01001111 01010101 00101110 Run it through a translator
Signal corrupted…
Attempting to restore connection….
Attempt failed, unable to establish connection to transmitter.
File incomplete…
Files 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 received…
File 8 lost, incomplete, or corrupted beyond retrieval due to signal interruption.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
He stared a moment at the screen as a compressed folder appeared on his desktop. “What is this?” Ryan said out loud as he tried to click on it. Instead of opening the compressed folder another prompt appeared and Ryan stared at it a few minutes wondering the meaning of the prompt.
“Please enter the password.” A cursor blinked on the next line after that like it was waiting for some kind of entry.
“Password? How am I supposed to know?” He decided to go to the break room to replace his cold coffee and eat what was left of his lunch while he searched the various take out menus for something to work late on.
“Hey Ryan, did you see it?” Garrett, Frederic, and Bret were all talking to each other around the circular table in the room. Everyone was tired from working around the clock for several weeks. And Bret had jumped up when he saw Ryan come into the room.
“The strange transmission? Yeah, I saw it.” He said as he picked up the empty pot. “You guys didn’t fill it?”
“It’s been a long day, give us a break.” Frederic said as Ryan mechanically added the coffee grounds and filter to brew another pot.
“Don’t you think the timing’s a bit odd?” Garrett asked, he was crunching on some stale popcorn that had been on the table for the last week.
“Care to elaborate?” Ryan gritted his teeth. The lack of sleep was catching up to him. He stared over at what they were beginning to call “The Honeycomb.” It was the control chambers where weeks prior they had connected six volunteers to venture into the rogue server. It always felt creepy to him when it was his turn to sit amongst them, watching, waiting, hoping for some kind of change in their conditions. Weeks of immersion into the virtual world was beginning to show on their bodies. Henry who had come in as a muscular guy you would see advertising underwear, now only appeared average. It was worse on the women, who now appeared as if someone had stretched the skin over their delicate bones. But the one that scared Ryan the most was Michael. Michael had returned to the real world for a week because of damage to his interface, but since then, the brain scan that they had constantly running on all six of them was reading him as brain dead. As the water began to bubble Garrett’s voice snapped Ryan back to the moment.
“Well we just had two visitors from the other side today. What if our companions found a way to reopen the communication relays? What if they sent us some kind of message?” He took a gulp of his coffee as Ryan thought about it.
“The compressed folder asked for a password. And the transmission had two number sequences preceding any files being transferred.” He said as he began writing the numbers on a napkin.
“You think the password is hidden in the numbers?” Frederic asked.
“Zero, one, one, two, three, five, eight, thirteen, that’s the start of the… the… the Fibonacci sequence, wasn’t one of them a math geek?” Ryan turned to the others at the table.
“Actually from the files, three of them were geeky enough to know it: Michael, Jeremy, and Penelope, each possessed the trivia kind of knowledge to know that sequence.” Garrett said.
“And the other numbers?” Bret asked.
“One, two, three, five, seven, eleven… Discounting one, it’s prime numbers, anybody knowing basic math would know that.” He thought a moment, “Before we sent him back, I was talking to Michael at nights about encrypting and compressing data. What if they sent us something they had to compress because of time, and encrypted for security?”
“The transmission did cut off during the transfer, what if they planned for that and compressed it because of that?” Frederic and Garrett were getting up as Ryan poured out some coffee into his mug. He rushed them back to his workstation and showed them the prompt that had popped up when he tried to open the compressed folder. “Try Fibonacci.” Frederic said. Ryan hurriedly typed it in to the prompt and hit enter.
“Invalid password, please enter the correct password.” The prompt read.
“Anything related to that sequence that’s less than eight characters long?” Ryan asked.
“Why eight?” Bret asked looking rather confused.
“Because if Michael password protected it, I only taught him how to do it for up to eight character passwords.” Ryan dryly replied.
“Try, Leonardo.” Garrett said. Ryan carefully typed it into the prompt and waited for the result.
“Password Accepted.” The prompt read back, “Access to compressed files permitted…”
“How did?” Ryan began to ask before Garrett replied.
“Leonardo was Fibonacci’s first name and fit your eight letter criteria. Lucky guess.”
“Please enter compression ratios.” The prompt finally returned.
“We need to use the one.” Bret said after a few failed attempts.
“One is not a prime number.” Garrett replied.
“It was included for a reason.” Frederic was beginning to lose patience.
“What if it was included for the sake of throwing off someone who was a stickler for the definition of prime numbers?” Ryan said. He began typing on the prompt while the others were debating more. “Hey guys.” He pointed at the screen.
“Beginning file decompression.”
“What did you use?” Frederic asked.
“Two, one point five, one point seven, one point four, one point six, one point two, one point three, and one point three again. The one was included for the sake of ratios.” Ryan replied as the screen changed.
“Decompressing File 1…
Decompressing File 2…
Decompressing File 3…
Decompressing File 4…
Decompressing File 5…
Decompressing File 6…
Decompressing File 7…
Decompressing File 8… … … …
File 8 decompression could not be complete due to damage to the file…”
Gentlemen, let’s read what we’ve got.” Bret finally said as Ryan selected the new file titled “Letters Home.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
[Begin File 1]
File Origin: Anomaly_ Mikeswrath7… unable to verify identity…
To anyone out there who can put this information to use:
After nearly two months immersed in the virtual world the real world identity of The Phantom has been uncovered. The rogue program originally designed to influence server lag and animated spawns has been masquerading in the real world as zOMG Director, David Georgeson aka Qixter. Unknown originally, there is a second individual at work with The Phantom, individual’s identity is currently unknown but current information points to someone with executive powers over Gaiainteractive’s games. Efforts to stop him in the virtual world so far have proven ineffective; we currently have less than two weeks before his plan of a computer to human virus is unleashed upon anyone who plays zOMG Chapter 2. Requesting: Any and all aid possible in delaying that release up to and including taking down all of the gaiaonline servers for “maintenance.”
In regards to survivors of past expeditions: Current team consisting of Mikey, John, Henry, Penelope, Kerri, and Jeremy have found numerous survivors from prior crews sent to investigate. We have been rallying the survivors into units to help destabilize The Phantom’s power in various regions, but we lack any way of getting them home if they are not reattached to any kind of neural interface. Requesting: Immediate resupply and reattachment of those individuals for evacuation at a time when possible.
Numerous “programs” originally designed as animated and/or NPCs have begun to show autonomous behavior akin to true artificial intelligence. Suspect exposure to the influence of The Phantom may have resulted in these programs being able to think and act for themselves. Effects are most noteworthy in area bosses, Anari, and humanoid NPCs i.e. Marshall. I would prefer these innocent beings not be destroyed from the inevitable server destabilization should The Phantom be defeated. Is there any way to move them to an auxiliary server to preserve their being?
Current location is Aekea, current defeated minions: Tridra, Frosti, He-Wolf, Lavafly, Tyres Rodes, Mobster Lobster, Registered Offender, Caracarapticus, and Doppelord. Pending action, Malevobear, Kamila, The Phantom. Will attempt transmission and other communication when possible.
[End File 1]
[Begin File 2]
File Origin: User_ Kerryvern18
To my mom and my brother Jeff,
I know we haven’t spoken in nearly two months, but I want you both to know that I love you so much. The last two months have been absolutely eye opening and despite the ever present fear of death it’s been quite enjoyable. I’ve made some new friends and had a few laughs. If I make it home, I’m definitely going to pursue that college education in game design and art; I may already have a potential employer lined up for when I’m finished. I wish I could tell you about some of the things I’ve seen and done, but the confidentiality agreement was pretty clear about that.
This may be my last chance to say good bye, the situation here is pretty dangerous, so I’ll keep things short. Mom, there’s a folder in my desk drawer, the top one, in it is what I want done should the worst happen, Jeff, just promise me you’ll put things to good use if I don’t come back. I don’t know what else to say aside from I love you both.
-Kerri
[End File 2]
[Begin File 3]
File Origin: User_ Princess_Penelope
To my Aunt Natalie and my cousin Sherry,
How are things going back home? Your petunias should be coming into bloom about now Nana. I hope this year you can win the festival with them. I know I’ll be rooting for you. Sherry, I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to help you with Brad this summer.
I know you two have been having a rough time and I just wanted to make sure everything was going well since you are expecting. If it’s a boy you were going to name him Jacob right? Did you ever consider Matthew? Or what about if it’s a girl? If it is I’d like to suggest Kerri or Kimberly after some friends of mine. Which reminds me, I should probably tell you about what I’ve been up to, right?
Well, there’s been a lot of walking. Like seriously a lot of walking. I’ve climbed a few mountains, visited some quaint little towns, I’ve learned about robotics and done a lot of reading. You won’t believe who I’ve run into out here; you remember that Michael I was telling you about that was a friend of mine when I was younger? He’s here, as well as that one John who helped make that zOMG game we’re always playing, Sherry. I know right? Talk about coincidence. Anyways, I met a guy, his name is Henry. We’ve only been around each other a month or so but I think I definitely want to pursue something with him. I wish I could say more, there’s so much I want to say but can’t.
All you need to know is, I plan on making it home. I plan on finding my dad so I can finally have some question and answer time. Then I’m going to finish that degree I was working on. I’ve finally figured out what I want to do in this world, and nothing is getting in the way of that now. I’ll be seeing you guys soon, but you might not recognize me with this new attitude. I am sorry I was such an entitled princess before. I hope I can make it up to you.
Take care of yourselves and each other, until my return.
-Penny
[End File 3]
[Begin File 4]
File Origin: User_ Hendogry
To my roommates: Ron, Fred, and George,
You guys have probably been wondering where I’ve been the last few weeks. The truth is, I’ve been on an adventure, and a pretty magical one at that. There has been a lot of people to meet and sights to see where I am: Breathtaking mountains, deep caverns, gorgeous beaches, frigid tundra, and a whole host of other things. No, I’m not in Alaska on some internship.
Anyways, you’ve probably been a bit concerned about the rent situation with me being gone so long. Well, don’t worry too much, if you go to my desk and slide out the keyboard drawer, you’ll find underneath the keyboard an envelope. The amount of cash there should cover the current two months of rent I owe you guys, as well as the next three months. If I haven’t returned by then, feel free to find another roommate. All I ask is that you contact my dad and see if he wants my possessions. He isn’t much, but he’s the only family I have. If he doesn’t want any of it, feel free to do what you please with it; take my schoolwork, personal files, etc. Just for God’s sake clear my browser history and delete the folder marked Ponies. Actually, I’m not sure clearing the browser history and deleting cookies and folders is enough, you guys might want to reformat the drive on that thing.
And gentlemen, I think I found my Ginny. I wouldn’t mind settling down with this girl if she’ll have anything to do with me after the adventure we’re on. She’s strong, stubborn, funny, incredibly smart, and for some reason she is interested in me. So, if I ever bring her by for a visit, please don’t ruin it for me. I’ve got to get going, duty calls.
Mischief managed,
-Harry
[End File 4]
[Begin File 5]
File Origin: User_ JohnnyBlaze007
Firstly, I have two letters; one to my dad and another to one of the other players here named Bianca. The one to Bianca obviously can’t be delivered unless she gets out of this virtual world, but anyways my file is divided between those two letters.
To Dad,
How’s northern California been? I know you always talked about seeing the Golden Gate Bridge, though you never could convince mom into doing it. Of course with everything you and mom fought about Golden Gate must be the least of your concerns. I may not get another chance to say it, so I’m taking now, but you two were constantly fighting from when I was five until you finally divorced seven years later. Do you have any idea what that does to a kid growing up? To hear every detail about how one parent is cheating on the other and blowing gobs of money, all the while forcing your kid to take sides. It tears the kid up inside and out. They grow up believing that they can’t trust other people including their friends and parents, it makes them paranoid when dealing with other people, but most damaging of all, it makes them distant and almost uncompassionate in their own relationships. For the longest time I thought I was to blame for all yours and mom’s fighting.
I’m glad you finally manned up and left mom. You’ve done alright raising me alone for two years, but I want mom to know what’s going on too. And I want her to read this too, she has a right to know. I miss you both here and I only hope I can get home.
-Jerry
To Bianca,
If you get this, then we succeeded, at least in getting the other players stuck in here out. Whether or not the overall mission was a success, I don’t know. If we did succeed, let’s grab dinner together sometime? I think we had something special going in Durem and Gnoman’s Land, and I would at least like to see where it goes.
You told me you used to be in my class, and it’s taken some time, but I remember you now. You used to sit in the front row of Mr. Kramer’s geometry class. You always wore a pink pillbox hat and you had one of those headgear braces, as well as really thick glasses, and curly blonde hair. At least until you spent a summer with your uncle Tommy. You came back the next year with your hair straightened, an invisalign mouthpiece, and blue contact lenses. You traded your pink pillbox hat, for a simple headband and bow combination. Creepy that I remember that, right?
Maybe, but I did have a crush on you before the change, and I sort of have an insane attention to details. Afterwards though, you became part of the cheerleader group, and the crush just kind of died. Anyways, dinner, yes or no? I mean I understand if you don’t want to, I’m an acne riddled, short, nerd boy. I just hope you’re okay.
-Jeremy
[End File 5]
[Begin File 6]
File Origin: Developer_ [ JK ]
To my kids,
I’m sorry I haven’t been there for your summer vacation. I’m still trying to find your mother and stop the bad guy. I hope your grandma has been making the summer at least somewhat fun. One way or another, things will be over in less than a month. You all give me a purpose to keep going, even on the hardest days, and there have been a few doozeys. I want nothing more than to see your smiling faces again. When I get back with mommy, we’re all taking a family vacation. I’m thinking Disney World or one of those Carnival Cruises. What do you guys think?
Your Uncle Bret should be checking in on you, hope you haven’t been too devious to him. Your mom and I still disagree on where you get that from. But I promise you, I’ll find your mother, we’ll stop the bad guy, and I’ll bring her home, and then we go on vacation. Don’t you kids worry, the people I’m with on this journey are incredible, a little odd at times, but some of the best. Depending on how they take it, when we get back I’d like you to meet them.
Be safe, behave, and I love you all,
-Dad
[End File 6]
[Begin File 7]
File Origin: Anomaly_ KJ… unable to verify identity…
I guess this is to anyone outside who wants to read about a computer program’s life. My name is KJ; I am a Human Tier Artificial Intelligence. I was created roughly seven or eight weeks ago when The Phantom flash copied a part of John Kim’s mind. As my programming stabilized and matured I took on my own personality, separate from the dark side I was flashed from. Because of me being a program I felt a kinship with the animated constructs, I even rallied a small private army to follow me. I was created to lead The Phantom’s armies, but as I observed him and learned I began to realize he had lost touch with what his original intentions were.
The way they were originally programmed, the thought processes of the animated were simple and small. Upon being slain their consciousness would go to a buffer, we called it The Void, where it would wait for a physical body to respawn. Once the physical form respawned the consciousness would be downloaded into it, and this process would repeat infinitely. Michael compared it to Cylons in the 2004 reboot of Battlestar Galactica, whatever that is, and how they would download into a new body upon death of the old one. With The Phantom’s meddling in the programming however, he created more intelligent and sophisticated personalities in some of the animated: myself, the Anari, even some of the bosses and regular animated began to develop this advanced artificial intelligence. But this gift of intelligence came at a steep price, The Void was no longer big enough to buffer all these new intelligences, death became permanent for animated possessing this new found intelligence.
The Phantom believed that the answer lied in your world. I am unaware of his particular reasoning, but he planned an invasion. On one front you’d have animated coming through a portal linking the zOMG world to yours, on the other front you’d have humans he’d turned into zombies with his virus to combat. I began to believe what the other Anari had been saying, that the answer to the problem lied with the humans themselves. I secretly began to help the most recent group you sent. I blocked their location from The Phantom as much as I could, disabled some of his server restrictions so some of their more creative ideas would work, I even moved the Null Crystal of the Phazian Wastes closer to space where the Anari had greater influence, and informed them of your crew’s imminent arrival as they ventured through the passage between chapters. The brain damage he would have sustained, had he remained in the server during their first bout with the chapter two bosses, forced me to eject Michael from the server. But I did, break some of the lockouts so he could get back in when it was time. I continue to fight beside and aid them in the hopes that the Anari are right and the answer does lie with humans. Am I wrong? Should I have chosen another side?
The Phantom was an Anari; in fact he was the template that the others used to form themselves. They were originally disembodied program and personality fragments that had an almost human level of intelligence. But The Phantom, he wasn’t just personality fragments and random coding; he was born of a flash copy of Qixter’s mind and merged with an older server regulation program that was called Phantom. I think that’s where his evil originated, being that program for so long he would have seen how several players farmed and acted and treated each other and the world he was to watch over, for years he witnessed all that, and with the merger to a flash copy he was finally given emotions to paint those memories. At least that’s my take on him. Am I any better? Given that I was flash copied from John’s darker side; can I escape the evil that’s at my very core? Am I even evil now? I am not certain of any of those responses; I’ll let those who I’ve met be the judge of that.
I’m worried as a flash copied intelligence I’ll eventually corrupt and deteriorate, like The Phantom. He lasted two years of active service before he turned on his creators. Every scrap of material, both fictional, theoretical, and non-fiction that I could find suggests that artificial intelligences, like me, have a fixed lifespan before descending into a state called rampancy. If that is to be my fate and it is unavoidable, I want to do all I can to help my brothers and sisters and humans. I can already feel some of my thought processes beginning to fragment, I am unsure if it is the onset or just a lingering effect of how I was created. Either way, the notion of rampancy scares me. What if I turn on those I’ve come to care about? What if I can’t stop myself? What if they can’t stop me? I would sooner self-terminate than cause them any harm, but what if I don’t have that luxury when the time comes? When I’ve talked to him about it, Michael has been confident that if he were to get home he could figure out a solution to at least my rampancy. He does know how to be optimistic, but are they just empty words? A hollow promise of something that just isn’t possible? You humans say death is inescapable, perhaps the same can be said for rampancy to artificial intelligences.
I hope this message in a bottle has helped anyone understand the situation here better, this is HTAI KJ- Scratch that, I keep getting told by my friends and my family here that I need a more fitting name than just two initials and as suggested I want to select a name, something I understand is a rare honor, for someone to be able to name themselves. This is Kimberly Jones, signing off.
[End File 7]
[Begin File 8]
File Origin: Anomaly_ Mikeswrath7… unable to verify identity…
This is to everyone who has come to mean something in my life: my father, my friends I’ve made during this experience, anyone who wants to hear me out basically, I’m really not picky about who reads this, for all I know it could be my last words.
A wise man, well my father, once told me we make our own demons. Why do I bring it up? Well, it leads into what I want to say next, we may make our own demons, but in the friendships we forge and the memories we share we also make our own angels. So I’d like to revise that quote to, “We make our own demons, but we also make our own angels too.” Sounds lame, I know, but I really believe it after this adventure…
Error… Signal disruption…
314159265359….
271828182845904523536…
01010100 01001000 01000101 01010000 01001000 01000001 01001110 01010100 01001111 01001101 01010011 01000101 01000101 01010011 01011001 01001111 01010101 00101110
01001001 01000001 01001101 01000011 01001111 01001101 01001001 01001110 01000111 01000110 01001111 01010010 01011001 01001111 01010101 00101110 Run it through a translator
500
1000
500
100
100
1000
100
300
150
200
