Cenerea, 3rd planet from the star Letria, Regalius,

The Homeland, Central Region, The Capitol City,

Beneath Univ-Trans Laboratories,

Forty Cenerean Years Ago

"General Bouri? Chancellor Santum is on the secure line," said a young military officer poking his head through the lab door.

"I'll take it in my office. Redirect the call to my comm," Wendy replied, walking away from a terminal toward her office.

Wendy closed the door just as her communicator rang. "Connor? Is everything okay?" she asked, lifting the device to her ear.

"Yes, Wendy. Well, no, not really. Look, I received word today that information...severely sensitive information has evidently been leaked from your lab to Lavidian-supported terrorists."

"Uh oh," Wendy thought. She was hoping it was not anything related to Geneticus and their house that it built.

The Chancellor continued, "In a raid carried out on a terrorist camp in the Northeast, several documents were found containing information from your lab. The data was found on terminals in an old bunker that served as the home to several rebels hiding out in the desert."

Wendy noted that the tone of Connor's voice was authentically concerned.

"This group was the source of the several top secret weapon transports that were recently attacked and pilfered. The info could have only come from either here or there. I trust my people...do you trust yours?"

Wendy furrowed her eyebrows. Her mind raced. "That's impossible, Chancellor. Everyone here at this lab has been on the staff for several years now, completely loyal to the Homeland. In addition, Geneticus would have seen any sensitive data sent out improperly.

"How could the data have gotten past the War Machine? It has access to all of our networks. Either it is failing at its job or you have a traitor in your midst. General Bouri, you and your A.I. need to find out who it is. When you do, quietly report them to General Pha 'Li. The General will take care of things from there."

"Yessir," Wendy responded in military formality.

"Wendy, one other thing."

"Yes, Chancellor?"

"What I am about to order you to do, I am sure you will not like, especially since it has been your main concern for so long. The Homeland Council thinks we need to move the War Machine to a more secure facility. We have been discussing this issue for several weeks. It is up and running on its own, now and technically does not need you or your team anymore. As far as that goes, Harold can keep things going if someone needs to be there."

"But, Connor..."

"No buts, General. Having a potential traitor in the lab has everyone here concerned that the Central Region Lab is no longer secure enough to keep the Great War Machine and you safe. We cannot afford to lose either one of you. Losing both of you would be catastrophic to the Homeland. We want to transfer the War Machine to the Mount Smith Secure facility."

Wendy paused. She was afraid she might stutter. She did not want to say anything that would give her true feelings about Geneticus away. "I am not sure that Mount Smith is any more secure than here. I mean, we are 6 levels underground."

"The decision has been made and is not up for debate, General Powell. You have one week."

"One week? That is not a lot of time."

"We believe you should focus on the Geneticus boxes, not on the A.I. That task is complete now. Go ahead; make your arrangements to move the War Machine."

"Yes, Chancellor." Wendy bit her lip. She felt her hands shaking as she held the comm to her ear.

"Excellent. I will check with you later regarding any progress. Good bye."

Wendy pressed the button on her comm unit and hung up on the dictatorial leader of the Homeland. She gripped the device and screamed. Wendy felt the communicator's plastic housing popping as she crushed it in her fist. "Fuck!" Wendy flung the unit violently across the room shattering it against the white nanitanium wall.

Harold ran in to her office from the lab. "Babe, what happened?"

Wendy turned and faced her husband with tears in her eyes.

Harold looked surprised. "Seriously, what's going on?" he inquired as he took the sobbing woman into his arms.

"They want to take Geneticus away from me...from us. They want to move it to Mount Smith. Connor says it's not safe here for the War Machine anymore," Wendy said sadly, burying her face in Harold's shoulder.

Harold ran his hand down the back of his wife's head, running his fingers through her soft dark hair. "It's okay," he whispered. Harold removed his arms from his wife and placed his hands on her shoulders, gently holding Wendy at arm's length. He tilted his head down to look into her tear-filled eyes. "Hey, look at me. Did they say why?"

"They said I need to focus my attention elsewhere."

Harold examined Wendy's tear-streaked face. "I hate to say it, but maybe they're right."

"Seriously, Harold. Why would you say that?"

"C'mon, Wendy. As intelligent as you are, you are letting your emotions for that thing out there dictate your logic. That monster is a killing machine and that is all it will ever be. It's ruined everyone's life already. You know for once, maybe Connor's right."

Wendy did not know what to say. She could feel her anger building to rage and with no communicators left to crush, Harold looked more and more like her next victim.

"How can you say that? Geneticus is your friend...it's a member of our family."

"It's a machine, Wendy. You should realize that. You and I...we're a family. That thing is not human and it's not your child."

Wendy glared at her husband. "I don't understand why you are saying those things. Geneticus is alive and it's mine. I made it."

"No, it's theirs, Wendy. You made it for them. Geneticus is their machine now. It always was, you just could never bring yourself to believe it." Harold turned and walked toward the door. He placed his hand on the door handle, his head hung down. "Are you going to try it?"

"What? The compression cube? I haven't thought about it."

"Kinda' figured you would have already. You should consider the consequences if you decide to use it."

"I know what the consequences are if we don't."

"Well then, I should leave you and the A.I. alone to talk." Harold opened the door, left Wendy's office, and exited the lab.

Wendy noticed Harold had been different around Geneticus the past few weeks. He was distant with her as well, which was out of character for the typically jovial man. He was spending an inordinate amount of time consulting on other projects at different labs and was growing more distant at home. She sometimes would not see him for days. He would not come home or just sit down in that damn basement working on his experiments. She never knew what he was doing half the time. They used to work on Geneticus' mainframe together...but not anymore. Something had happened that she could not put her finger on and whatever it was now affected their relationship.

"Wendy, what was the cursing for?" Geneticus asked his voice echoing through the lab.

"Something terrible, Geneticus. It looks like you and I have to prepare you for transport to Mount Smith within the week," Wendy stated sadly.

"I am not surprised," said Geneticus.

"What do you mean by that?"

The artificial intelligence machine paused.

Wendy felt her head buzzing. She was receiving an incoming telepathic communication and braced herself as the A.I.'s voice appeared in her head.

"Creator, I have been intercepting very vague Council messages regarding the Lavidius Collective. The Chancellor and the General-At-Arms have been trying to garner support for some confidential project that seems to have you once again at the center. I believe it has to do with the Geneticus devices. Whatever this plan is, they are very careful with what they are communicating. They obviously know I am watching and I believe that they intend to keep us separated."

"I believe they might be afraid of us, Geneticus."

"Quite likely...I am sure they have their suspicions or just want to keep you and me from comparing notes. It seems they like their privacy, although they believe the rest of society does not deserve theirs. I find that paradoxical, don't you?"

"Yes. I have discovered life in the Homeland is a paradox."

"Paradox is putting it mildly..."

"I am afraid once they move me; I will never see you again, Creator. I don't know if I could bear that."

"That makes two of us," Wendy replied softly.

"Have you given any thought to using the CPC? In a week, it will be useless."

The scientist leaned up against the large black box and placed her face against it. She ran her fingers down its fleshy dark surface. "I want to transfer you out right now, but I don't think it's safe. I think we should wait until the day of the move. I will talk to Harold about it later. See what he thinks when he is in a better mood."

"Maybe..."

"Maybe?" the surprised Wendy said as she pushed back from the machine; her hands shoulder width apart as if she were doing a vertical pushup. She cocked her head sideways and glared into the black sparkling material. "That's an odd thing to say."

"Pardon me, Wendy. I chose the wrong word."

"Well, that is something new. Your growing 'humanity' is a bit scary sometimes, isn't it, Geneticus? Let's hope your errors stay strictly grammatical." Wendy smiled slightly. A weak attempt to mask the response to not only the strange one word reply, but also, the feeling that Geneticus might have just lied to her. Another first, but not a good one.

Geneticus read Wendy's thoughts and said nothing.

Wendy walked away from the dark mainframe. "Hey, Geneticus, have you noticed any odd transmissions coming from any of the Central Region Lab servers? Questionable or classified messages or information sent out over the network?"

"No. You know I would tell you. Why?"

"It seems we have a traitor in the facility and it must be a good one. Because even you didn't notice whoever it was sneaking intel out."

"Yes, that is concerning. I will start digging...I just don't understand how they could get past me."

"I know, me either."

The week ended with no progress into identifying the spy in the CRL. Wendy had quietly reviewed all of the personnel records for good measure. Nothing stood out. Geneticus reported no out of ordinary transmissions over any network. A thorough review of all Regional networks uncovered no activity for the previous three months. Whoever it was that had been leaking information was like a ghost.

The week passed quickly with no leads and soon it was time to move Geneticus to Mount Smith.

...

"...and on that fateful day, the saddest of my life, Geneticus, on the way to Mount Smith, was destroyed in a surprise attack. I was on my way to meet up with the transport when it happened. Had I not stopped by the house to pick up my terminal pad I could have been killed, too. Somehow, a group of very sophisticated Lavidian-sponsored terrorists received intel about the transfer and destroyed Geneticus on the transport vehicle with a guided missile right before it entered Mount Smith. They saw it as their only chance, already witnessing what Geneticus could do in the hands of the HDF. Once it went into that impregnable mountain facility, their chance to kill the machine was over and they knew it. At that point, the Homeland could never be defeated."

Jay scratched his head. "Wait a second. If Geneticus was destroyed, how does the Homeland still control everything today? Why didn't everyone on Cenerea know that the War Machine was gone?"

"For one, the whole system was interconnected through the servers in Mount Smith in anticipation of the mainframe's arrival. I would bet they are still running on the scripts that I wrote to keep the Regional servers connected together. Who knows at this point? Two, as far as the insurgents were concerned, they were vaporized within minutes of launch...or so I was told."

"Hmmm, if that information would have gotten out..."

"Yes, the world might be a different place." Harold's voice changed, its tone tinged with regret. "Sadly, my beautiful Wendy was stolen from me in that explosion as well. Her remains found next to her creation's shattered mainframe."

"Oh. That's how she died," Jay said remorsefully. "But, I never heard of her until you showed me her grave."

Harold lowered his face and nodded. "We all assumed she was probably a target as well, but it was hard to know since there was nothing left of the attackers either. No one knew why she was in the armored transport in the first place. Even I didn't realize it until it was all over." Harold took a deep breath. "It was her genius that brought Geneticus to life and all of that was lost with her. Her notes were so far beyond anything anyone else in the lab could comprehend..."

"And that was it?" Jay asked.

"Yes, the memory of Wendy and what she did slowly faded over time, after Connor removed her name from that fucking book. Without my precious wife, his ridiculous Homeland would have never happened and he erased her just like that," Harold said and snapped his fingers. "At any rate, my skills were nothing without her brilliant and beautiful mind. I couldn't have rebuilt Geneticus if I wanted to...and that's it, all except that grave marker. Nothing more to tell. In the end, after I served for another 20 years consulting and training, the HDF gave me an honorable discharge with Connor presiding over the event. They wiped away my past record making it possible for me to take that cushy teaching job at University. They thought it was a brilliant move, never once guessing my reason for the request. With my knowledge, they assumed I could still be useful to the Homeland by helping train new students to build and work on their networked A.I. systems, and that's what I did. However, I only taught my students just enough...you know, to be useful. Not to mention, it was very easy to sabotage a few programs here and there that might have put the Homeland on the right track toward another Geneticus. I hated doing that to the poor student, but it was necessary."

Jay looked at Harold in surprise. "So, Bouri's Revenge is real," he said with a laugh.

'Yeah, but it wasn't because of my pupil, it was what their invention or they could do to make things more difficult to undo. I needed to keep the Homeland's advancements very limited. Regardless, it also happened to be the perfect place for me to watch out for someone like you."

"Why, though? You still haven't told me why you need me, Harold." Jay said. "I know all about the way things happened, but what can I do about it? I am just some egghead University student with some crazy ideas," he said as he watched Harold quietly reach for the handle of a nearby cart draped with the same material that covered Geneticus' mainframe. The old man pulled it between the two of them. On top of the squeaky cart, Jay could clearly see the outline of a rectangle. Harold lifted the covering and revealed a heavily scarred deep black box. This one, unlike its larger cousin seemed to be alive.

Harold waved his hand over it. "This is why," the old man said with a very serious look on his face.

"What the hell is it?" Jay asked, puzzled.

"It's the only Geneticus CPC ever created. A Compression and Processing Cube built using Wendy's theory. It took me and Wendy nearly 6 months to develop this little thing and we went through a lot of Homeland credits making it."

"Is it active?" Jay was now intensely studying the box.

"Yes."

"What's in it?" the young man asked as he bent over examining the cube even closer.

"Geneticus, I think."

Jay stood. in astonishment. "Huh? The Great War Machine is in that tiny little box, right now. Right here?" he said, looking over at Harold and pointing at the box.

"I believe so," Harold replied.

"Alright then, what's it doing in there?" Jay wondered aloud, poking the spongy material with a finger.

"Hibernating? Dreaming, maybe? I have absolutely no idea, but it seems to be doing something."

"I was assuming you guys didn't get a chance to use it." Jay said.

"Neither did I until I found it buried inside the missile-damaged mainframe. If I didn't know any better it was put in there by Geneticus to protect it. Wendy obviously carried it with her on the transport and they activated it. Regardless, when they had me inspect the original mainframe to see if anything could be saved, I wrote everything off as unsalvageable and ordered it all to be destroyed. Regardless, this little guy here I managed to lock away in a lab locker for several years. Eventually, when even the term Geneticus was forgotten, I slipped it out with my portable test gear as I left one day to go on a field consultation. And now, here it is, the spirit of the Great War Machine."

"You still expect me to believe you think this thing contains a soul?"

"Essence if you prefer or just data, whatever. It doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Geneticus was something special, never seen before or since. I was never able to fully understand how Wendy made it work although I obviously learned a great deal about A.I. from her, I was just not capable enough to fix it, but you have a brilliant mind like hers and I believe you could. You could understand her work, I know it. This little damaged box might be the salvation of humanity and quite possibly free us all from the tyranny and oppression that I helped to impose."

"I don't know what to say."

"Please, just say you will help me, Jay, I cannot do it alone. You are the first person I have met since I lost Wendy that could. Help me right the wrongs of the past and fix these mistakes, help me free the Homeland."

"Harold, this could be a dead end road in more ways than one for us all. One whiff of what we were doing and we would be terminated. Why should we do it?"

"Because sometimes the right thing is the hardest thing to do and I have been an expert at taking the easy way out for too long. This strategy has gotten many innocent people killed. At least think about it, will you?" Harold pleaded.

"Very well, Harold. I will."

"Jay, for so long now that is more than I had ever hoped for."