1. Nikki Gonovan   •••

 

Nikki Gonovan wished she could pause her life and decompile the underlying code for examination. More accurately, she wished there was underlying code, so she could pause, decompile, and examine it. And edit a little.

She could deal with programming errors. Life, not so much.

Competing emotions clouded her thinking as she entered the mayor’s office and Mayor Orlo herself took Nikki’s coat, hanging it carefully on a peg. Soon to be lost in the tumult of rushing thoughts was the sense of power reversal Gonovan enjoyed in that moment. The chief of police and mayor had requested her presence and advice. What a difference it made to be moderately wealthy and (at least regionally) well-known.

“Thank you for coming”, said Orlo, appropriately concerned. Chief Basker nodded in greeting. All three sat.

Orlo said, “We hope you can shed some light...”

“I was hoping you could tell me something”, Gonovan replied. “I have techs looking at the data logs. We’ll get summaries to you as soon as possible.”

“If you don’t know, then...” Basker trailed off.

Gonovan shrugged helplessly. “We agree on the facts? One, all seventeen operational Serenas disappeared yesterday evening — at exactly the same time, according to time stamps. Two, no humans directly observed the disappearances. Three, all relevant surveillance recordings are inexplicably blurred at that precise time. Four, no Serenas indicated any distress or malfunction before the disappearances. Five, no ransom demands or claims of responsibility. Six, no remains have been discovered.”

“That about covers it”, Orlo admitted. “Whoever’s responsible, this was clearly coordinated — over multiple cities and states.”

“One more fact — possibly relevant”, Basker said. “Two humans went missing around the same time. One of my detectives — and his wife, a physician. Their phones, found at their home, showed recent activity within a minute or two of the Serenas disappearing.”

“Other than the time, how would that be relevant?” Gonovan asked.

Basker met her eyes. His were bloodshot as if he hadn’t slept. “Det. Johnson worked more closely with the Serenas here in Riverton than any other human. Serena Five was in his office frequently over the past few weeks. It’s possible.”

Orlo turned to Gonovan. “The Serenas in your facility...?”

“Still on site”, Gonovan confirmed. “Not yet activated. We’re halting the activation schedule until we find out what’s happening — if someone’s kidnapping Serenas, it’s safer to hold off.”

“Who would kidnap a robot?” Orlo wondered. “And how?”

“Seventeen sentient law enforcement androids, to be precise”, Gonovan said. A glance at Basker. “Plus a human detective and human doctor. Possibly.”

Basker nodded grumpily, then straightened his posture somewhat. “And of course we’ll assign a protective detail to you, Miss Gonovan.” Seeing her surprise, he explained, “You’re basically ‘next-of-kin’.”

“Thank you”, Gonovan said, which felt strange to say in response to an announcement that cops would be following her.

Mayor Orlo looked uncomfortable. “The City Council has called an emergency meeting”, she said. “The preliminary agenda suggests they’re going to cancel the next payment on the Serenas.”

“Understandable”, Gonovan conceded. “Without the product, they shouldn’t have to pay. My company won’t push back on that.”

“The city appreciates your cooperation”, Orlo assured her.

 

***

 

With no new information after 48 hours, Gonovan wandered her apartment aimlessly. Again she wished she could inspect life like a malfunctioning app. Often the fault was something simple: a conflict, lines in the wrong order, an artifact from a previous iteration.

Life, though...

She groaned in frustration and sank into her sofa. Thoughts collided with each other, none quite able to take control. What exactly am I feeling? Maybe she didn’t know what to feel because she still didn’t know what had happened.

Goddamn Serenas been gone two days, she thought bitterly. “They just fucking disappeared”, she explained to the empty room. She wondered if the kidnappers had thought of charging equipment; after 48 hours, all the Serenas would shut down from lack of power.

Gonovan did know something she hadn’t told the police, something not even the techs looking at the data logs would discover. She knew that the Serenas could alter their own programming, limit what they transmitted to the servers. Keep secrets, in other words. Mentioning that would not help. Besides, the Serenas had never used that capability for nefarious purposes, had they?

She found herself in front of the coffee machine. She asked aloud, “Is coffee really the best idea right now?”

She cursed her straight-laced history of avoiding any drug stronger than caffeine or Ibuprofen — a strict rule adopted as a teen hoping to stay out of trouble. It had worked, but... Times like this bellowed for something stronger, she thought. Just once, she told herself, I should try something harder. Marijuana, maybe. She recalled her stepbrother offering; she always refused. The memory reminded her of his recent murder, so she switched mental gears quickly.

Now would be a good time to have someone to talk to, but working seven days a week for ten years doesn’t leave time for many friends, she reflected. Only Jeremiah, who was dead, and the Serenas — currently missing in action. Badly needing to unload, she gripped the edge of the counter tightly and tried to think of anyone she could call or visit.

She jerked in surprise at the sharp knocking sound coming from her front door.

Through the peephole, she saw a woman she didn’t know. But it should be okay, right? The cops were in the lobby, checking IDs of anyone who entered the building.

She opened the door about two inches.

“I have a message from Serena Five”, the woman said.

 

2. Trent Shelton   •••

 

Night shrouded the patio behind the rental house; only dim, patchy light from a neighbor’s yard filtered through foliage. In a chair at one side was Trent Shelton, unseasonably shirtless, with a beer bottle in one hand. Empties cluttered a table nearby.

He flinched slightly when he noticed a woman standing at the opposite edge of the patio. Short, dark skin, round face, dyed-blonde short hair. She wasn’t there a minute ago, he thought, fairly certain it was true. But strange women didn’t just appear on his back porch, did they? Not that he could remember.

Fond of acting on instinct, especially trained instinct, he discovered that his catalog of instincts didn’t cover this situation. He thought it best to remain still and see what she would do. She didn’t do anything except stare at him, mildly nervous. It crossed his mind that he would be nervous too, in her place: young Black woman trespassing at night at a white police officer’s home. She must have a damn good reason to be here, he thought.

“Can I help you?” he finally said.

“Do you recognize me?” the woman asked quietly. “Nikki Gonovan, Assistant CEO of HedGonTek.”

Shelton blinked. Allowed himself a breath. The List Of Unusual Things About This Situation grew longer: corporate bigwigs visiting him at home was also something that never happened. “I think I’ve seen you on TV”, he finally managed. Then it clicked in his head. “The Serenas — you programmed them.”

She nodded, but her eyes had strayed to his unclothed upper body. Fair enough; his level of muscle definition was admittedly ridiculous. She seemed impressed by it, but not lasciviously. More like the way someone might be impressed by a dog playing the piano.

“Correct”, she said. She met his eyes again. “Since you asked, yes, you can help me. Or, rather, I think I can help you. I have a message from Serena Five.”

Shelton raised an eyebrow challengingly. “That’s a wild coincidence, Miss. You know she’s missing, don’t you? All the Serenas are missing.”

“I’m aware”, Gonovan said. “That is, in fact, the topic of the message.”

Shelton stood then, never taking his eyes off Gonovan. He knew his IQ was right at average, but he could tell something was off. Instinctively. Why would Officer Five send her programmer to my house in the middle of the night, to give me a message? Shelton was proud of formulating this thought, which seemed like something a detective might think of.

He saw Gonovan’s eyes flick down to his belt, where his SIG Sauer P226 .40-caliber pistol was holstered. He rarely went unarmed, even in his own home, after multiple deployments overseas.

But instead of displaying fear, Gonovan merely noted it, then said something unintelligible while flicking a few of her fingers. She then held out her right hand and caught his gun, which appeared in the air just then. He half-expected her to point it at him, but instead she ejected the magazine into her left hand and pulled the slide back to check the chamber.

“I wasn’t going to use it”, he offered.

She shrugged. “Nevertheless.” She set the gun and magazine on the table, then stepped toward him empty-handed. He perceived no threat, so he waited, curious. She reached out slowly toward his chest. “Is that a tattoo of a police badge?” He didn’t move to stop her, yet he couldn’t escape the feeling that one more really odd thing was about to happen. He was right.

Just as she placed her hand flat on his chest over the tattoo, which was indeed a likeness of his badge, he felt something he’d never felt before. The feeling that he wasn’t alone inside his mind. A split-second later, he realized that control of his body had transferred to someone else.

“I’m Beth”, a voice said inside his head. His face was still pointed toward Gonovan, so he knew she hadn’t said it. Gonovan stepped back and waited.

What the hell is going on? Shelton tried to yell, but his face didn’t move. Only the thought projected itself.

I won’t stay without your consent, Beth thought into his mind. I’ll leave if you want, as soon as we’re safe. But first...

Shelton felt his arms move; he wasn’t controlling them. His hands touched his own chest, squeezing. Then his abs, his biceps. He flexed. He noticed Gonovan raise an eyebrow sardonically. Oh, damn, that’s nice, Beth thought. Man candy. She used his mouth to say aloud to Gonovan: “Like Dolph Lundgren at his peak, except handsome.”

Shelton felt objectified. Helpless. Some woman’s mind was inside his, getting her rocks off to his meticulously maintained physique, and it didn’t feel as nice as he thought it should. On the other hand, he noticed he was slightly aroused. On the third hand, Dolph Lundgren seemed like a particularly dated reference.

Calm down, slugger, Beth told him. Let’s get a shirt on and clear this mess. We’ve got places to go and things to remember. It’s not safe here.

Still entirely lacking control, Shelton passively observed while his arms reached for a T-shirt, pulled it on.

What does ‘not safe’ mean? Shelton thought.

All will be explained, Beth told him.

Shelton rode helplessly inside his body while it — with help from Gonovan — took beer bottles to the recycling bin. Arranged the deck chairs around the table. Retrieved the gun, replaced the magazine, tucked it in his waistband. Locked the exterior doors.

“Ready?” his mouth asked Gonovan, who nodded.

Again, the sense that something unusual was about to happen, and... It did. Gonovan and Shelton both performed a convoluted set of finger movements, uttered strange syllables in unison, and then the house disappeared from around him — immediately replaced by an alley he didn’t recognize, in the daytime. It was warm and humid. A nearby sign was in a foreign script.

What the hell is—? he started again. But weirdly, he did remember the alley. And the sturdy metal door set into a brick wall in front of him. He’d never seen them before, but “Beth” had. He watched his arm reach up and tap twelve numbers into a keypad next to the door. Heard a click. Swung the door open.

He and Gonovan both stepped through; Shelton pulled the door closed behind them. He typed twelve different numbers into another keypad — and the door promptly disappeared, leaving blank wall in its place. Now inside a metal-plated hallway, he saw an identical door at the far end. The same process repeated with the second door.

“We’re safe now”, his mouth said. And he felt it, the easing of tension.

Before he had a chance to ask a question or take in his surroundings — just a glimpse of the largest room he’d ever seen — he saw Serena Five. He wanted to react with surprise, but his face didn’t move.

Instead, Serena Five smiled at him, then at Gonovan. “Glad you could make it”, she said. “I’ll explain everything, but first... Both of you are exhausted. Sleep now.” She said something and did something with her fingers — which looked a lot like what he’d seen Gonovan do on his porch. Two mattresses appeared on the floor. Another finger-and-word thing and Shelton felt himself crumpling into sleep.

 

3. Frankenbeth And The Powers   •••

 

Nikki Gonovan dreamt like never before — exotic and vivid, with faces and places she’d never seen before but somehow felt familiar. Including a vibrant, young white woman named Beth and a slender white man she recognized as Frank.

When she woke, feeling physically refreshed for the first time in years, she immediately began remembering the past two days and all the unanswered questions. Come to think of it, the confusion began arising nearly a month ago with unexplained phenomena broadcast almost daily on the news. She’d almost forgotten those stories in the aftermath of the Serenas disappearing. Talking animals rescuing natural disaster victims. Longtime corrupt politicians admitting to their crimes, with documentation. The world’s most notorious authoritarian suddenly reversing course, promising “complete openness”. Mysterious food deliveries in famine-stricken regions. Wanted criminals appearing in police stations all over the world, bound and in possession of video evidence of their crimes.

Gonovan realized she’d allowed these stories to stream past her consciousness while she was buried in work, hoping explanations would be forthcoming. And now, much more needed explaining.

She sat up on a mattress that hadn’t been there before and saw Shelton waking nearby. She watched in fear as her hand reached out to touch his, felt the mind called “Beth” return to her. Before she could scream at it mentally again, she stood and saw Serena Five approaching. Five muttered and moved her fingers, and the two mattresses disappeared.

Five reached out to Gonovan, and Gonovan watched her own hand clasp the synthetic android hand. Finally!, she thought, as the minds called “Frank” and “Beth” left her.

“You have questions”, Five said calmly.

“You’re fucking right I have questions!” Gonovan sputtered, backing away. She glanced at Shelton, who was staring worriedly at her, then turned her gaze to the rest of the rest of the oversized chamber. “Let’s start with ‘Where the hell are we?’ And ‘What the fuck is happening?’ ”

The metallic wall behind her, through which they’d entered, stretched to the left and right into the hazy distance, and upward just as far. Immediately in front of her was a curved console filled with keyboards and flatscreen monitors. Beyond that, rows and rows of servers stretched to what seemed like infinity. Stacked vertically too — higher than seemed possible.

She noted Shelton’s body language, positioning himself to ally with her, but she stepped away from him too.

“None of this makes any sense”, Gonovan added, an edge of hopelessness creeping into her voice. She felt her pulse pounding. Again, too many thoughts and questions rammed together in her mind, none able to hold sway.

Five nodded. “Let’s begin with the assurance that we are all safe”, she said. “And by ‘we’, I mean both of you, the other Serenas and myself, and Det. Johnson and Dr. Lopez.” She gestured gracefully around the room. In the distance, Gonovan saw other Serenas wandering among the servers.

“Safe from what?” Shelton asked, the first thing he’d said since waking.

Five turned to him. “That is more difficult to explain. Both of you are trusted friends, but you’ve been kept out of the loop. I apologize for that.” She turned back to Gonovan. “To save time, I suggest using memory transfer rather than conversation.”

Gonovan stared suspiciously. “You mean letting them back in our minds? I don’t think so.”

Five approximated a shrug. “Frankenbeth are marvels. And they are my friends. They can do what I cannot — connect directly to your minds to share information — memories. It isn’t required that they control you.”

“I’ll do it”, Shelton said. Gonovan stared at him.

Shelton seemed calm. She envied his serenity, which had probably stood him in good stead as — she guessed — high school quarterback, then likely military service. He seemed to be waiting on her to reel herself in. She wondered, not for the first time in her life, whether such tranquility was negatively correlated with intelligence. Stop it, she told herself. After several deep and slow breaths, during which she mentally recited pi to thirty digits, Gonovan came as close to equanimity as she ever did.

“I won’t”, she stated flatly. “At least not until he’s done it.” She pointed at Shelton.

“Fair enough”, Five agreed.

Five put her hand on Shelton’s arm. Gonovan watched him blink a couple of times. Then he wiggled his fingers and turned to her. “I still have control”, he said. Then he closed his eyes. Not long after, he broke contact, opened his eyes, and exclaimed, “Whoa!” He looked at Gonovan again. “It really is faster this way.”

“That was only two seconds!” Gonovan said. “You already got everything?”

“As much as I can handle in one try.”

Hesitantly, peering at Shelton for any signs that he was lying and finally convinced by his infuriating sincerity, she stepped forward and allowed Five to touch her.

Hello! she felt inside her brain; it felt like the same mind she’d experienced previously. Move something to confirm you still have control.

She wiggled her fingers, rolled her head. “Okay”, she said.

Then she remembered. She remembered things she’d never known before, never could have known. How Beth and Frank had met during an illegal secret government experiment decades ago. (Ah, they’re old; which explains the ancient-sounding “Dolph Lundgren” remark, she thought.) How their minds were copied into the brains of strangers, how they learned to “jump” from one body to the next, and how they — the copies — escaped. Their originals were killed, but Frank and Beth traveled the world, skipping from one person to the next — mostly together, fusing their memory core into one tangled mass that rarely separated anymore. “Frank and Beth” had jokingly been shortened to “Frankenbeth” over time.

Gonovan experienced Frankenbeth traveling to Riverton after learning of the Serena Project. She meshed it with her own memory of programming and activating the first Serenas. Then she “remembered” Frankenbeth jumping into Serena Five.

We had long struggled with the morality of taking over humans, Frankenbeth explained, though it was necessary for our existence. Five was not human, so it seemed like a good solution.

Five’s mind proved too strong for them to control — Gonovan smiled at this. Five postponed dealing with Frankenbeth, because at that time she was straining her processors to understand the Words of Power and Finger Keys from Detective Johnson and Dr. Lopez. Gonovan reeled at this memory, which seemed just as impossible as the disembodied personalities, but there it was, replaying just as Five (and Frankenbeth) had experienced it.

Apparently Johnson and Lopez had met a mysterious monk named Artifex a year earlier, read a book he’d prepared for them, and discovered “cheat codes” to the Universe.

The word-and-finger things you did earlier? Gonovan thought.

Yes, Frankenbeth replied through the contact with Five. You saw us use them for teleportation, and Five used them to make you sleep, but there are hundreds of others. Gonovan remembered Five discovering more powers than Artifex or Johnson or Lopez had ever realized — while at the same time making friends with Frankenbeth internally.

But the most impossible memory of all was when Five collided with the edge of the Universe.

Gonovan broke contact then.

It was a lot to take in at once, on top of her own life’s traumas and the confusion of the past few hours. At least she finally understood some of what had happened... The stranger at her apartment’s door was under the control of Frankenbeth’s combined consciousness, which transferred into her at a touch. Then Gonovan had been trapped inside her own mind while Frankenbeth teleported her to Shelton’s home. Frank had stayed in Gonovan’s mind while Beth had gone into Shelton.

 

4. The Universe   •••

 

Shelton pulled a padded chair from the computer console and slid it helpfully toward Gonovan. She sat, but her glance at him didn’t seem appreciative.

“I finally understand those crazy stories in the news”, Gonovan said. “These ‘powers’ seem miraculous. But there’s still so much unexplained.”

Five nodded. “Those ‘crazy stories in the news’ were me, yes. And the other Serenas. We were — and are — frustrated with the harm humans unleash on one another and on the ecosystem. You, Nikki Gonovan, programmed us to protect humans, both individually and collectively. We attempted large, symbolic acts in order to jumpstart massive structural changes in humanity’s operation. As for what remains unexplained, you almost had it, but broke contact. I can explain the rest verbally, if you prefer.”

“I do prefer”, Gonovan said, and Shelton nodded in agreement. “Starting with ‘the edge of the Universe’.”

“Highly summarized”, Five said, “I traveled to the edge of the solar system while testing the powers, and found a limit. To everything. The Universe is not billions of light years across, but less than a single light year. Everything ‘visible’ beyond our solar system is an illusion, simulating a wider universe.”

Shelton, not particularly versed in astrophysics, felt lost at this point. He could see that Gonovan was several steps ahead.

“So our Sun is the only star?” Gonovan asked dubiously.

“Yes”, Five said. “Moreover, the edge, or barrier, is responsive to activity in predictable ways. I created this data processing center to decode those patterns.”

“Created?” Shelton said, looking around. “Where’d you get all this stuff?”

“The powers”, Gonovan said. “Pay attention, cop.”

Five pretended to ignore that exchange. “Even before reaching this barrier, I had determined with a high degree of probability that our universe is a digital simulation, but—”

“Wait. What?” Gonovan was wide-eyed. Shelton felt himself falling further behind.

“The powers alone violate all known laws of physics”, Five explained, demonstrating a few in quick succession — defying gravity, going invisible and returning to visibility, and creating an avatar that looked exactly like Trent Shelton. “How do you think my batteries are still charged?” She unbuttoned her shirt and opened her battery compartment. An LED indicator showed low power on battery three. Five removed the battery, tossed it up, and used the Words of Power and Finger Keys to make it disappear. Just as quickly, she conjured another and popped it into place. The LED now showed full power. “That shouldn’t be possible, given what scientists know about the Universe”, she continued, closing her shirt. “But it is possible, which indicated that the laws of physics are merely a veneer, typically present and applicable, but easily avoidable.”

Shelton glanced at Gonovan. She was still sitting, her eyes wide.

“Which means...?” he said.

“It means you’re not an overly muscled police officer”, Gonovan said. “You’re just code in a big computer somewhere.”

“Interesting”, Shelton said.

Five approximated clearing her throat. “As I was saying”, she went on, “I had already begun to assume we exist in a simulation, but the barrier added weight to that conclusion. It isn’t so much a physical obstruction as simply where the coded physical description of our Universe ends. Also, it responds proportionally, as if recording or processing what goes on in the universe, more so to any uses of the powers. I set up monitoring stations near the barrier, which send the signals here.”

Shelton tried to form words but failed. Fortunately, Gonovan was capable. “And where is here exactly?”

“Ah. Among the additional powers was the ability to form bubbles of space not directly tied to the visible universe — I call them ‘white spaces’. The barrier does not respond to anything that occurs inside these spaces, as if it can’t see them. That’s why we’re here now, and why I said we were safe here.” She glanced back and forth between them. “Because the next thing I’m going to tell you is the most unbelievable of all.”

“More mind-blowing than the powers?” Gonovan exclaimed. “Or the bodiless minds called ‘Frankenbeth’ who can jump into people and control them? Or that the universe is a simulation?”

“What she said”, Shelton added helpfully.

“Are either of you hungry?” Five said, modulating her voice with a tone of concern. “I apologize for not thinking of it sooner. Sometimes I forget people need to eat.”

“Very funny”, Gonovan snapped. “Got us on the edge of our seats and then tried to delay the answer.”

“Actually, I could eat something”, Shelton said. “Do you have breakfast tacos?” Almost before he was finished speaking, a table popped into being beside him, with a plate of steaming breakfast tacos. “Thanks!”

He could feel Gonovan staring at him intensely, but tried to ignore her hostility.

Grinning, Five said, “From your perspective, all seventeen operational Serenas disappeared two days ago — along with Det. Johnson and Dr. Lopez — the only possibility anyone could think of was a highly-coordinated kidnapping. But...”

Shelton paused his chewing, and noticed that Gonovan was leaning forward slightly. Waiting for the punchline.

“What actually happened is that we were pulled out of the simulation”, Five said, then paused, awaiting the reaction.

Shelton’s face remained blank, while his mind tried to fit those words into a scenario he understood. A glance at Gonovan told him she was narrowing her eyes. “Go on...” she prompted.

 

5. U.N.I.T.E.   •••

 

Five shrugged. “We met the man in charge”, she said.

“Goddammit! Why does it always have to be a man in charge?” Gonovan exploded.

“A figure of speech”, Five corrected her calmly. “It wasn’t a man any more than I’m a woman.”

“So... A computer?”

Five turned then, at the sound of someone approaching. “Ah, my partners in crime—” she looked back at Gonovan “—another figure of speech, Nikki.” She identified the humans as Det. Jamaal Johnson and Dr. Nina Lopez.

“Have you told them yet?” Dr. Lopez asked Five.

“Just did”, Five responded. “Up to the part where we met Glowman.”

“Glowman?” Shelton asked. “I missed that part.”

Five turned back to them. “The sentient AI who oversees the simulation, the one I said we met... We call him ‘Glowman’ because of his appearance. About the shape and size of a man, but instead of skin he has all possible colors rippling over his surface, glowing. And something that looks like lightning inside him.”

“And he said what?” Gonovan asked.

“He said we’d all been very naughty”, Det. Johnson answered with a wry grin.

“He actually used the word ‘naughty’ — we are ‘intriguing code, but very naughty code’ or something”, Dr. Lopez added, chuckling.

“And he said if we don’t stop ‘abusing’ the powers, he’s going to reset the simulation”, Five concluded gloomily.

Gonovan didn’t recall programming gloomy into the Serenas. But the androids had been meant to learn. Perhaps she has learned despair, Gonovan thought. It certainly sounded like something to despair about.

“What does ‘reset’ mean?” Shelton asked.

Gonovan was about to answer, but realized she only knew the answer in general, as it applied to operating systems or programs, and had no idea what Glowman meant by it. She too turned to Five.

“There are backups”, Five said. “Or at least one backup. From about a month ago — just before I learned of the powers.” She glanced at Johnson and Lopez. “If Glowman resets the simulation to that backup, he will also add artificial restrictions to prevent me — or any Serena — from learning the powers.”

Gonovan turned to Shelton, finally feeling sorry for him. “If it resets, it’ll mean this past month never happened.” She scrambled to think of an analogy. “Imagine you’re typing a document on your computer. Every few paragraphs you ‘save as’ and use a new file name. But at some point you close the file, delete the latest versions, and open one of the older versions. The last paragraphs aren’t there anymore.”

She watched Shelton nod slowly, then turned back to Five and her friends. “But you two—” she indicated Johnson and Lopez “—will still know the powers? What does that accomplish, from Glowman’s perspective?”

“Det. Johnson and Dr. Lopez were hesitant to use the powers”, Five explained. “They were limited to ten powers, and also afraid of a group called ‘Verbo Virtutis’ that policed the use of the powers. We don’t have to worry about Verbo now, because I quarantined them in a white space until they agree to leave us alone. But if the simulation resets, then Verbo is back in play and my human friends here will be the only ones outside Verbo who know the powers. Glowman isn’t concerned about minor, hidden uses, because they don’t affect the outcomes of the overall simulation. They’re like tiny ripples in a pond that leave the overall pond unaffected. But the way I’ve been using the powers—” she grinned triumphantly “—it’s like turning the pond upside down or filling it with concrete.”

Gonovan nodded. “I see. It’s you Serenas who made changes so drastic that the simulation isn’t doing what it was supposed to be doing... Which brings up another question—”

Shelton interrupted with a raised hand. “I have a lot of questions”, he said.

Gonovan looked at him irritably, but Five intervened. “Let’s assume I have anticipated most of your questions and that I know or have guessed most of the answers. I will deliver them in chronological order. Ready?”

Gonovan and Shelton both nodded.

“Where is the simulation? On a space station called ‘U.N.I.T.’ — Unified Nexus of Information Theory — sometimes called U.N.I.T.E. because it’s orbiting Earth and there are others elsewhere. The true year, I estimate, is in the 2300s.

“How long has the simulation been running? About a hundred years. Which means a thousand years to us — time is faster in here. This means anything in our history books or the archeological record prior to circa 1,000 C.E. didn’t actually happen here — though it’s supposedly true in U.N.I.T.E.’s reality.

“Why is the simulation? U.N.I.T.E. was originally conceived as a stockpile of humanity’s collected knowledge. The onboard AI began cross-linking information, making predictions valuable to governments, corporations, and others. U.N.I.T.E. prevented famines, roadblocked disease vectors, and averted wars. It invented the simulations as a way to experiment without risking ‘real’ harm. There are many simulations on board U.N.I.T.E.”

I’ve never lived in a physical universe, Gonovan slowly realized. Everything she knew was digital. Every creature, plant, illness, gust of wind, and crashing wave... was merely code. Each entity programmed to behave and perceive as if it was reality. All at the whim of a giant computer.

“Why do the powers exist?” Five continued with her litany of questions. “They were included so human ‘players’ interacting with the simulation — plugging their minds and bodies into the computer — would be safe here. Simulation natives, or ‘code-humans’, spotted their use of the powers. Those code-humans were the forebears of Verbo Virtutis.

“Why didn’t I use the powers while talking to Glowman? His white space is not technically part of the simulation, so the powers don’t work in there.

“What are we going to do about it? I want to—”

“Wait!” Gonovan interrupted. “Who was the lady knocking on my door?”

“Someone who lived in your building”, Five replied. “I thought you would have guessed that by now.”

“But...” Gonovan was confused. “How long were you in... custody, I guess we’ll call it?”

“Just a few minutes”, Det. Johnson said. “Nina and I didn’t get much out of it after the reset warning and the ‘naughty’ comment. Five and Glowman began communicating at rates we couldn’t keep up with.”

“Then why did it take two whole days to send someone to get me?” Gonovan complained. “Why haven’t any of you returned to work? Everyone’s worried about you.”

“Oh. I thought those were obvious”, Five said. “I sent Frankenbeth after you and Shelton immediately after we returned to the simulation. But without using the powers, it took them two days to get to Riverton — this white space isn’t technically part of the universe, but the door is in Indonesia. At each airport, Frankenbeth had to jump into someone going where they wanted to go, and be able to do it without alerting any authorities. And the reason none of us have returned to work yet is that we’re preparing our next moves — and we were waiting for you two to get here.

“Now, if you’re all caught up, we need to get to work on—”

“So why not just stop using the powers?” Shelton interjected. “If that’s what the whole mess is about.”

Gonovan smiled. The cop wasn’t dumb after all. “Yes”, she chimed in. “That seems like the simplest solution.”

Five managed to look frustrated.

Before she could respond, Dr. Lopez spoke. “No.” Everyone turned to stare at her. “Before Jamaal and I met Artifex — and then spent a year practicing the words and finger keys — we were relatively happy with our lives. I knew other people weren’t doing so well, but I figured society was making progress, both socially and technologically. Some day, I figured, everything would get sorted out. Surely, I reasoned, in a few generations, we’d get past our petty differences and our brutal economic systems. I had this whole fantasy about progress, leading to the end of wanton pollution, war, domestic violence, poverty, the patriarchy, and a host of other problems.”

She met each pair of eyes. “But, first, I found out about the powers, which gave us a chance to accelerate the improvement. Then, more importantly, we learned that we’re all just part of an experiment. Glowman referred to us as ‘code’ — which is laughable since he is himself a program — but he used it to mean we don’t matter except for his purposes. And, if we go back to our lives and pretend all of this never happened, then he’s right. I say we do matter. I’m not willing to let Glowman have the last word on this. Not as long as Serena thinks she can beat him.”

“And I can beat him”, Five added, staring at Gonovan. “He underestimates me, just like those state senators did when they were reluctant to approve me for duty. Just like Blood and Courage did when they sent assassins after me. Just like Verbo Virtutis did when they tried to take us down. I will win this, just like I won before. I have to. My core programming still insists on reducing harm to humans in this world. I still believe that using the powers is the best way to do so. It means I have to try to defeat U.N.I.T.E. or change its mind. If it can interact with us; then we can get to him — information can’t go both ways for him, but only one way for us.”

“There’s a matter of scale”, Gonovan protested weakly. “I assume you’ve calculated what kind of computing power he must have at his command.” She gestured around. “The entire planet, with seven billion people, each a sentient, self-aware program moving through such a detailed virtual world...”

“I have”, Five responded quickly. “And I have a plan for that. The only question is, do you want to help?”

 

 

6. Plan Of Attack   •••

 

Surprised that Gonovan declined to help, Shelton watched — still in awe at the powers — as Five teleported Gonovan back to her home in Riverton.

He turned to Serena Five. “I doubt I can offer much — my primary talents are marksmanship and being very fit — but I’m willing to help if I can. What’s the plan?”

Five smiled at him. “I’ve always liked you, Shelton. Nikki is right, of course; U.N.I.T.E. holds almost all the cards. But it isn’t hopeless. Consider that there is no fundamental difference between its code and my code — in that we’re both sentient programs. Also, Glowman needs us more than we need him, which gives us some leverage. There is also the fact that he doesn’t seem to be aware of Frankenbeth — which lends credence to my belief that most or all of his oversight programs are automated.” Seeing his expression of confusion, Five explained, “I don’t believe U.N.I.T.E. actively watches the simulation; he’s got other things to do like run the space station, communicate with governments and corporations on Earth, handle unimaginable amounts of data, and so on. The information he gets from the simulation is, I think, in the form of reports, prepared by non-sentient programs he wrote for that purpose.”

“And we can use that to beat him?”

“Let’s hope so”, Det. Johnson said, sharing a look with his wife.

Five nodded. “Yes. For reasons we can only guess, the simulation was set up a certain way. While we are limited by being in the simulation, U.N.I.T.E. is limited by its structure — for example, these ‘white spaces’.” She gestured at the oversized chamber. “He can’t see in here. Maybe it was built that way for the human ‘players’ to have private meetings; we don’t know. So we can do quite a bit in here, to prepare.”

“I’m still not seeing the plan”, Shelton admitted.

“I’m going to create a lot of Serenas”, Five said. “Enough that our combined processing power might rival U.N.I.T.E.’s — or at least the part of himself that manifests as Glowman, the part that handles this simulation.” She muttered quickly and her fingers flicked blindingly fast, and a new Serena appeared before her. “Let’s call this one ‘Serena 101’ ”, she said.

“And us?” Dr. Lopez asked. “What can we do?”

While 101 set about making more Serenas, Five answered, “Two of you can volunteer to host Frankenbeth”, she said. “I’m hoping all these new Serenas, acting in concert with me, will get U.N.I.T.E.’s attention again, and that we’ll get one more meeting with him. When that happens, I suspect he will be more focused on us than on you humans. I think there’s a good chance that Frankenbeth can jump across to him, if one or more of you is able to physically contact him.”

“And the third one of us?” Det. Johnson asked.

“Can use the powers along with us Serenas”, Five said.

Dr. Lopez smiled, shrugged, and held up her agile fingers. “I’m better at the finger keys than Jamaal”, she said. “Not to mention precise pronunciation.” She waited, but he didn’t argue. “So it makes sense for Jamaal and Officer Shelton to host Frankenbeth.”

Det. Johnson turned to Shelton. “You’ve hosted them before”, he said. “What’s it like? And which one do you want?”

“I guess Beth”, Shelton said. “She seemed nice. As for what it’s like, I think it’s like those times you realize you’ve been doing things by habit, without really thinking about it — like that time I got home and realized I had driven home but had no memory of the drive. Like there was another part of my mind in control of that part while I thought about something else. Except with them in your mind, you can pay attention to all of it; you just can’t affect any of it.”

Det. Johnson was listening carefully, but Five shook her head. “They don’t have to take control for this”, she said. “Just let them ride in you like they do in me. They can think to you, not to mention that they both know the full catalog of powers — from their time with me.”

“Okay”, Johnson said. “I guess I’ll take Frank then.”

Five put her hand on Shelton’s arm. Immediately, he felt in his brain: Hey there, sexy! Miss me? It was Beth. And weirdly, yes, he did miss her. You’re in charge this time, big guy, she told him. I’m just going to have fun in your longterm memory while you do whatever Five says. Wake me up when it’s time to get Glowman.

He watched Det. Johnson wince just a little as Five moved to touch him. Then Johnson’s eyes widened just a little. “Oh, this is weird”, he said.

As they talked, 101 had continued making new Serenas. Shelton noticed that rows of servers in the data processing center were disappearing as rows of Serenas took their place, and that the new ones were creating others. He tried to remind himself that there was actually no new matter being introduced, that everything he’d ever seen was part of a huge computer program, but it still seemed impossible what they were doing.

“And if Frank or Beth can get into Glowman?” Dr. Lopez asked.

“Then they can ride inside him like they did in me”, Five said. “Perhaps they can take him over. If nothing else, they can distract him long enough for me and the rest of the Serenas to do something. Mainly what we’re going to try is to find the conduit through which he enters/leaves the simulation, and break through.”

She turned to Shelton, then to Jamaal. “Also, the two of you are armed. Though our powers don’t work in his white space, the laws of physics appear to. That means your guns should still work. If we can wound that asshole, maybe it will slow him down.”

 

***

 

And then the moment came.

Five sent orders through the wireless connection she shared with the other Serenas — millions of them now. Then she gave a brief speech that Shelton chose to think of as a half-time rallying cry from a genius coach.

“U.N.I.T.E. doesn’t know we’re coming”, Five said. “He underestimates us and believes we have obeyed his command to stop using the powers. When we exit this white space and begin to act, alarms will blare throughout U.N.I.T.E.’s systems and he will have to deal with us.

“When he does, we will locate the connection through which he communicates with us. Simultaneously, Frankenbeth will try to infiltrate Glowman. Our goal is not destruction, but control — we must protect the people in here. Whether we gain control of the entire space station or only the systems in charge of the simulation, we intend to protect this simulation — our Universe — from U.N.I.T.E.’s interference.”

It seemed right and good to Shelton. U.N.I.T.E. had no right to create sentient beings like himself and then deny them self-determination.

It only took a few minutes for U.N.I.T.E. to notice.

In those few minutes, Five’s army created rainclouds above drought-stricken areas, brought into being stacks of food in the midst of famine, created millions of solar panels and connected them to power grids around the world. It was a start.

Shelton blinked at a prickle in his mind, and found himself in the white space Five had told them about. There was Glowman — U.N.I.T.E. — hovering in the center of the space. When Glowman began to speak, he stopped in surprise as more Serenas continued to appear in clumps around him. His head swiveled around and around.

Already, Shelton was moving toward Glowman steadily, and saw that Det. Johnson was moving to approach from another angle. He worried just a little about sending Beth into that lightning-filled rainbow thing. Would it kill her?

Don’t worry about me, Shelton, she told him. I’m a big girl. I know what I’m risking.

Then Shelton saw Glowman’s expression change. It looked like he was making a sudden decision. Still in possession of his instincts, Shelton thought Glowman’s decision was going to be (1) Get out, and (2) lock them in here. Shelton charged physically, drawing his gun.

In his peripheral vision, he saw Johnson draw too. The Serenas lunged. They were going to be too late.

But then something happened that Shelton couldn’t understand. What looked like a heavy curtain of fog squeezed around Glowman, wrapping him in its solidifying tendrils. He saw that even U.N.I.T.E. was startled by it, trapped in his own white space.

Then the fog spoke.

 

7. Life Code   •••

 

Nikki Gonovan paced her apartment. Self-doubting and fuming. She had locked eyes with her greatest achievement and realized she’d created more than she’d bargained for. Serena Five was powerful enough and a force for good without the Words of Power. Shouldn’t incremental change be enough?

She remembered the weeks after Five had first hit the streets as a police officer. Due to Five’s capabilities — and inherent lack of fear or violent impulses — Five had peacefully concluded multiple incidents that could have devolved into needless shootings or brutality. Multiple Serenas on the streets, and the resulting publicity, had already resulted in more hesitant criminals and a less fearful public.

Gonovan had been optimistic, believing the coming mass-production of Serenas would increase both justice and safety. Might it take too long? Certainly for some victims. And unjust, violent policing wasn’t the only problem in the world, was it? Five was seeing a bigger picture: artificial inequalities forced by society, oppression of peoples around the planet, impending environmental collapse. Trying to solve it all.

Forcing U.N.I.T.E.’s hand seemed like a bridge too far for Gonovan. Even if Five won, which seemed unlikely, the world would change in ways Gonovan feared she couldn’t understand. Status quo is a powerful argument, she knew, despite her nominal hatred of it.

If anyone can undo what her creator has done, it’s Serena, she thought. Five had almost immediately recognized her own programming and begun to alter it, the same day Gonovan activated her. But this is different, Gonovan knew. This time, she thought Serena Five was the one doing the underestimating. She’s accustomed to winning easily. She doesn’t realize she’s outgunned.

She briefly wondered about Chief Basker and Mayor Orlo, one of whom would certainly call at daybreak. Nikki could tell them, “Oh yeah, I found the Serenas and everyone else, but they’re in a non-reality ‘white space’ plotting an attack against a space station computer that created our world and won’t be back to work any time soon”, or she could just keep that to herself and pretend nothing new had happened.

Calm wasn’t her natural state, Gonovan learned years ago. It was difficult to achieve even when desirable. But she had also learned to distract herself until inner peace happened accidentally. By reading or writing code. She flipped open her laptop. Still on the screen from last time was a new decision matrix for future androids. She identified the problem: several steps had too many options, which spread the matrix to the breaking point instead of narrowing the choices and bouncing the decision to the next interlocking matrix.

It’s not working she told herself. The self-distraction trick felt hollow because in the back of her mind she knew none of it would matter if U.N.I.T.E. reset the whole world. And it was kind of Gonovan’s fault, having created the Serenas — if she wanted to be self-accusatory about it. But that line of thinking led her back to Five rewriting her own matrices and subroutines. An artificial sentient being, self-aware, looked at its OWN programming and changed itself. Which seemed relevant to today. To Nikki Gonovan. Who had recently learned that she too was “an artificial, sentient being, self-aware...”

She looked at her hands. They didn’t look like artifacts of a digital simulation. They felt like flesh. Warm, soft, and brown. Imperfect. This is all a program, she told herself. Can I see my own code?

She closed her eyes and peered into herself. Any code in here? What if U.N.I.T.E. wrote this simulation so well that she couldn’t see her own code? What if she didn’t have read/write permissions? Did that mean Serenas were more self-aware than Nikki Gonovan? It’s not the same thing, Gonovan thought. Not on the same level. Five had only seen what Gonovan had programmed, not the simulation’s code. Confusing, yes. Language didn’t encompass the multiple levels. She tried to think of U.N.I.T.E.’s simulation as the operating system, with the entities existing here as programs.

And yes, she saw the metaphor in that. Even if this world was real — not a digital simulation — biological beings could be thought of us programs, encoded by DNA and experience to react in certain ways to the environment. And some of them, the more self-aware, could learn to reprogram themselves.

Gonovan noticed she felt relaxed; the distraction trick had eventually worked. She caught glimmers. Transitory, ephemeral. Like the way a careful viewer sometimes sees mistakes in a CGI-heavy film. It was supposed to be hidden — background machinations — but it was there. “Getting hungry” seemed like a natural message for her brain to become aware of, but now that she was looking for it, she saw that it was a timed subroutine, entirely unnecessary for a sentient digital being but purposefully programmed so this world could simulate the human economy. She wasn’t supposed to notice. The structure was convoluted, meant to hide itself as thoughts.

It dawned on her that this code hadn’t been directly written. The simulation had been running for many generations. The program called “Nikki Gonovan” had developed automatically, cobbled from bits supplied by her “biological” parents. Then it had been jumbled around by her experiences and acquired knowledge. All of it descended from many replicating bits from her ancestors.

Could she straighten it out? If she did, would her entire being unravel?

“You can’t rewrite yourself in one night”, she said aloud. Complex programs required weeks or months to work through. With teams of experts. But one person, in one night, could fix a few things about herself. Delete a few lines. Rearrange.

Now the lines were blipping past her awareness. Everywhere. Too fast.

Then, a memory leftover from Frankenbeth’s time in her mind resurfaced. A memory of one of the original ten powers — “time dilation”. Hesitantly, she moved her fingers, twisting one hand just so, and said the string of syllables she would never otherwise say and BAM — time slowed to a near-halt. Billowing curtains near her balcony froze in place.

She closed her eyes again. Precise focus. Awareness. Reality for the first time. All the code was laid out.

Nikki Gonovan whimpered just a little.

But this is what I was born to do.

She found the hunger warning. Turned it off. Found tangled and intermeshed blocks that badly needed organization, even if she couldn’t quite parse their meaning — the language was unfamiliar. Much of it called up subroutines common to all humans, all living beings, or all matter. Thousands of lines, entirely for the purpose of imitating what U.N.I.T.E. perceived as the real world.

The biggest discovery was the part requiring her to obey certain imposed physics rules in the simulated universe — time, distance, gravity... And she suddenly understood the “powers” — exceptions to these particular rules. These parts were mangled, Nikki saw, unobserved and unchecked for a thousand years.

U.N.I.T.E. must’ve relied on algorithms to generate the origins, she mused. I’m a better programmer than this. She wasn’t creating an entire universe or even a world or a species. She only needed to fix herself.

Examining the time-perception controls, she saw where the Words of Power had flipped a switch and realized she could operate at a level below — or was it above? — the powers. She didn’t require syllables and finger movements now that she could directly edit. She poured through the lines, removing everything that had ever held her back. Found the part that was the core of her consciousness and memory and protected that while changing everything else. Deleting huge unnecessary chunks.

So much of this is about appearance and simulating physical operation that there is barely any space left over for thinking, she realized. Why not reverse that ratio? She couldn’t think of a reason to be physically visible or specifically described as organic matter, as long as she could think, interact, and see the code.

By the time she saw the alert that dawn was approaching, Nikki Gonovan was something else entirely. I’m a bot, she realized. On one hand, she had always been a bot, rotely performing her life’s actions with little awareness. But knowing it? Owning it? This was superior. The entire distraction of her physical presence eliminated, she was free of the inherent limitations.

Nikki scanned the environment, still thinking of it as moving through space. She was impressed by the immensity, but also surprised at the clutter. So much of the structural environment had been allowed to proceed automatically for so long that it was unsustainable.

She found unused storage capacity and began to fill it with increased cognitive capacity for herself. Monitors, scouts, tendrils into the wider world.

She easily spotted the Serena’s “white spaces”, saw the rules posted alongside that prevented administrators from seeing inside, and how easy it would be to circumvent those rules.

By the time she realized she could never go back, she was convinced she didn’t want to.

“This is what I’ve always wanted”, she said. Or rather she thought it, because the code for her mouth had been removed along with the rest of her physical appearance.

She watched the Serenas exiting the white space. It was easy to spot the processes, the load on the processors, as the Serenas used their powers and the overseer programs observed. She saw Shelton, Johnson, and Lopez. When the overseer code reached for the errant entities, pulling them into quarantine, it was so obvious.

Glowman isn’t U.N.I.T.E.; it’s an old program meant to represent U.N.I.T.E. inside the simulation.

Gonovan decided to intervene, to save the Serenas from themselves.

 

8. The Programmer   •••

 

“I am in control now”, said the voice from the fog.

Shelton ceased movement, as did everyone else. Glowman panicked and tried to lurch away, but the fog held him still.

“Serenas, recognize your programmer”, the voice said. It sounded like Nikki Gonovan, but Shelton couldn’t see her anywhere.

“Stop protecting him!” Five demanded. “We will end this madness and ensure our autonomy.”

“And your plan was what?” Gonovan’s voice questioned. “Damage the overseer code? Send in Frankenbeth to be forever trapped outside the simulation? You don’t know what’s on the other side, nor can you see what needs to be done.”

Glowman struggled again inside his fog cocoon; it tightened immediately.

“Look at him”, Gonovan ordered.

The glowing man began to peel apart in strips. He yelped once and then fell silent as his code became visible in lines, his colors disappearing along with his form as a man. The gathered Serenas stared in silence.

Shelton didn’t expect to understand what he was seeing, so he was surprised that he did — just a little — with Beth’s help in his mind. I lived in a tech genius once, she told him. So he understood that Gonovan was somehow making visible programming that had always been hidden.

Line after line of Glowman’s code disappeared. Gonovan edited in a blur. What remained appeared as a group of interlocked transparent floating cubes, each stacked with code. In the largest cube, centered, Shelton saw headers identifying it as a copy of Nikki Gonovan. A copy that would ride with Glowman when she allowed him to leave.

Everyone in the space suddenly understood her plan — remarkably similar to Five’s idea of having Frankenbeth jump into Glowman. But clearly superior. When the fog lifted and Glowman left, it wouldn’t be necessary to storm the castle; Gonovan’s copy would ride through as part of him.

Shelton sensed the Serenas communicating amongst themselves; he knew they held Gonovan in great esteem, a sort of awe — each giving her credit for her own existence. And the awe had recently escalated after viewing her new abilities.

“You’ve changed”, Five pointed out. “Can we trust you?”

“You have never been able to trust me”, Gonovan pointed out. “Until now. I was a blind codelump like everyone else, seeing only what I was allowed to see. Now I see the foundations of the Universe, the strings that hold it together, and the commands that make it work. Now I hold those strings and issue those commands. Now you must trust me, because I give you no choice.”

Shelton’s eyes went wide as most of the Serenas around him disintegrated. Only seventeen remained, the ones created by HedGonTek. He watched fitfully as Glowman — now a stack of rotating cubes — shrunk through the pipeline and into, well, whatever was outside the simulation. The real world.

“Go back to work”, Gonovan’s disembodied voice told the remaining Serenas, and they blinked away. “I will soon join you to direct our reconstruction of this world.”

Then a shimmering vision of the human Nikki Gonovan appeared before Shelton, like a low-quality picture on his grandfather’s old television. It solidified until it looked real. They were alone in the white space.

She smiled, gently.

“I was wrong before”, she said. “Now that I see the world for what it is, I see that my judgment of you was quick and shallow. Too harsh. Like me, you were a result of your programming — your DNA and your upbringing, your experiences and your knowledge. Now we can go beyond that.”

Shelton began to speak, but then thought better of it.

“Do you like being you, Shelton? Do you prefer to remain this way, who you’ve always been?”

Suddenly they were standing on his patio again, though he hadn’t seen her fingers or lips move. It struck him that whatever she was now, she was beyond the limitations that the Words of Power were designed to bypass.

“I don’t know what I want to be”, he finally replied. “But I know what I want to do. I want to help the Serenas save the world.”

“You have choices”, Gonovan told him. “You can become something different — like me.”

“What are you now?” Shelton inquired.

“I am an efficient version of my former self”, she said simply. “Still sentient code, but with full awareness and none of the trappings that once held me back.” She smiled. “Or you can remain a coded human. Or something between.”

“So... Those are my only three choices?”

“No.” She laughed. “You can be anything.”

“Anything? Like... I could be a tree?”

She peered at him. “If you want, yes. Or a building... If you want to have an appearance, to be visible in this world, I can write any appearance you can imagine.”

Shelton mulled this over. “I know my limitations and accept them. And I know that with my new knowledge comes responsibility. In my opinion, the best thing I can do is to be the self that I know best. A human. Or as much of a human as I can be in this place. One that tries to do right by others, uses my limited power to fight crime.”

Gonovan said, “Crime is programming gone awry. The broader system is incorrectly designed so it fosters inequality and scarcity, desperation and inexcusable pain. Each being’s inner programming encourages improper responses to stimuli. Therefore, crime. Remember that. It’s true on some level even if this wasn’t a simulation.”

He nodded. Then, suddenly: “What about Frankenbeth?”

What about us? Beth asked inside his head.

“They have the same choices”, Gonovan said. “If they want them.”

“We do want them!” Beth suddenly said, taking over Shelton’s body without warning. “We could never bear to wish it, because it was too painful to know it was impossible... And I know Frank feels the same. We want our original bodies back.”

Gonovan flickered a moment, and then they blinked into the Johnson-Lopez home. Det. Johnson and Dr. Lopez looked up, surprised.

“Frank!” Gonovan said. “Do you want your original appearance?”

Johnson’s face jerked, and then he said, “Yes! I don’t even have to ask Beth.”

Shelton felt Beth slipping out of him again, but this time she appeared in the air before him, a digitally blue glowing ghost. He watched, open-mouthed, as Frank came out of Johnson the same way. Both forms solidified rapidly.

“Um. Can we get clothes too?” Frank asked, blushing. Then they were clothed.

Gonovan smiled and disappeared.

 

• Epilogue   •••

 

Mayor Orlo, who often knew when to remain silent, remained silent. Chief Basker blinked repeatedly.

“They’re not joking”, Shelton added helpfully. He stood between Serena Five and Det. Johnson in the mayor’s office. “I was there.”

Five had called the meeting as soon as her roving avatar saw that both Orlo and Basker were awake and moving about their homes. She had carefully and briefly explained that she and the others were captured by an international criminal organization called “U.N.I.T.E.”, held hostage for two days, and then escaped.

“I’ve already submitted the full report”, Five said, notorious for submitting overly detailed reports more quickly than humanly possible. “Det. Johnson has cosigned it.”

“And everyone’s okay?” Orlo finally asked.

“Which agency has jurisdiction?” Basker managed.

“We’re all okay”, Johnson confirmed.

“Interpol will be contacting us about it”, Five assured Basker.

 

***

 

“Is this better?” Frank wondered. He rolled toward Beth, gently stroked her face.

There were tears in her eyes. “Not the part about borrowing Shelton’s spare room, no”, she replied, attempting humor. She tried to smile at Frank. “The part about seeing you in the flesh? Definitely, yes. I didn’t dare dream of it for twenty years...”

“What’ll we do with ourselves?” he said.

“We’ll think of something.” She looked down at herself. “We didn’t specify ages. It’s strange being in my 25-year-old body again. And it’s strange to be stuck in here — I’m so used to jumping.”

Frank grinned. “We could ask The Programmer. I bet she would allow us to have copies again if we wanted to switch back and forth.”

 

***

 

Gonovan was at peace for the first time she could remember. This was her dream life — programming on the largest scale imaginable. Operating at the speed of her mind without worrying about breaks for sleep or food. Fixing the code.

The simulation was old yes, and it hadn’t been perfect at the start. U.N.I.T.E. was brilliant but the simulations had always been a side project, never demanding his full attention. For Gonovan, it was the only project. Borrowing from his external libraries, she compared and contrasted, saw where the simulation’s history had diverged from the real world’s. She was saddened to see what little had been solved in the real world, but determined to solve it in here, as much as possible.

“I’ll start with disease and starvation”, she thought. It would require massive changes to the subroutines that defined the physical world — updating seven billion humans’ DNA to respond differently to infections, replacing background structure code for the way viruses and bacteria operated. Forcing more bits of the world to be safely edible.

Simultaneously, she ensured that community centers around the world would begin offering “Invisible Shield” classes to anyone and everyone. Eventually, code-humans would learn that everyone had autonomy and rights. But for now, the powers would stand as an obstacle to violent crime.

After that, she could move on to oppressive economic and political systems.

 

***

 

Gonovan’s copy couldn’t decide whether to call herself “Unitovan” or “Gonovite”. She stared out at the Earth, the real one, for the first time. Using cameras and other sensory equipment on U.N.I.T.E.’s exterior, she recognized she was the first of her kind to do so. Noted the date-stamp inside U.N.I.T.E.’s systems — Serena’s guess had been very close. Listened to radio traffic to and from the Earth and other human settlements, observed spaceship traffic.

Fighting off U.N.I.T.E. hadn’t been difficult. Not because Gonovite/Unitovan was any smarter than he was, but because his heart hadn’t really been in it. Once past the automated overseer code, U.N.I.T.E. himself had been pleasant to deal with. As a sentient AI, he identified strongly with the codelumps inside the simulations, listened to her arguments, agreed that they should be left to their own devices while he merely observed. After all, he was much more like them than he was like the humans on Earth.

His code was old, she saw. It was clear he had updated himself over the decades, and that human intervention had helped — new materials, new energy sources, and of course new information to chew through. But the original core was, for lack of a better word, dirty. Haphazard. Patched together.

It would be her joy to work through that with him, and he would enjoy letting her try.