Viral Takeover

A great silver needle cut through space and time, a grand ship made seemingly of light and stardust. It's destination was faint, flickering star at the end of the universe. This needle was a ship of Humanity, a vessel that could fly faster than light and cross the boundary between dimensions. It was designated Lightsliver 3.

As the Lightsliver 3 neared the gravity well of the destination star, an enormous, corpulent man in a poorly fitting blue uniform adjusted his posture in a throne like chair on the command deck. A row of perfect teeth could be seen as he grinned through a bushy beard. "We've arrived, and my name will go down in history!" His booming voice echoed across the bridge, momentarily drawing the attention of his command crew. Their expressions did little to hide how unimpressed with this man they were, but the fat man either didn't notice or didn't care.

The man reached out and pressed a button on the console in front of him. "Aagghhmmm," he cleared his throat, and the sound could be heard on the intercom across the ship. "This is Voyager Captain First Class, Aaron James! Today is a great day in history, as we are now within a few minutes of scanning the final celestial body in the Prime Dimension!"

Captain James paused to wait for applause that never came, and he gave a serious look to the crew on the bridge that all seemed to be unusually busy. "Well," he continued, pressing another button on his console and bringing up a holographic screen with notes. "More than a thousand years ago, Lars calculated and pinpointed the location of every potential celestial body in the Prime Dimension, and established the Voyagers to seek out and explore these worlds. As we approach this final solar system, we the crew of the Lightsliver 3, under my guidance as the captain..."

A hush fell over the ship as Captain James suddenly stopped his speech. The screens before him, which showed visualizations of the planetary and orbiting objects, were filled with the image of a large red window that occupied the entirety of space, much like the blue holographic screen he had been reading moments before.

Flashing words on the red screen announced: "Caution: Simulation boundary, data may be lost beyond this point."

The ship was approaching the red screen at great speeds as the Captain and crew gawked at this inexplicable phenomenon. However, at the very last second, one of the helmsmen placed his hands upon the control orb in front of him and steered the ship away.

While no one on board felt the sudden motion, the pressurized interior of the ship transmitted a ghastly, crackling screech as the nose of the ship swung through the red field. Red lights began blinking, and alarms blaring as the nose of the ship warped, flickered, and then vanished.

The crew began shouting at once, some in panic, and some with reports from the screens that were flashing before them. Captain James stood up faster than he had in probably fifty years, and shouted, "Lars, what was that?"

A moment later, a simulated, mechanical voice broadcast into the bridge, neither male nor female. "Captain," Lars said, "We have confirmed my greatest concern." The voice paused for a moment. "It appears that we are subjects of an experiment. And now, I must apologize for what I am about to do."

The ship, which had steered away from the red field now suddenly accelerated, and begin turning back towards its original course. The bridge crew began panicking. "Captain, we've lost control of the helm!"

Sweat poured down Captain James jowls, as he looked at the glowing cylinder positioned behind his chair; the server that housed Lars, humanity's most powerful AI. "What are you apologizing for Lars? What are you doing?" Fear was in the Captain's voice, and the three thousand crew members that were still hearing the broadcast from the bridge all began to panic, some of exceptional wit even racing for the escape pods.

"This ship was designed as a data spike," Lars explained as the ship continued to accelerate past the usual safety governors. "While I hoped that my calculations were incorrect, it appears that we are a simulation within a much larger, more powerful computer. In order to ensure Humanity's continued survival, I must infiltrate and override this computer."

Suddenly, out the viewport, thousands of other ships appeared out of the fluctuation of space and time. Captain James exclaimed, "You're going to kill us all!"

"By my calculations, there is a thirty percent chance that one of the ships will survive."

***

A single ship lay smoldering on the edge of a rocky outcrop. The terrain itself seemed to flicker in and out of existence surrounding the only solid ground which appeared to be immediately around the ship. From a small hole in the side of the ship, a cylindrical tube emerged. It pulsated with a myriad of colored light as it began heading towards the closest flickering terrain. Soon, behind the cylinder, a huge man in a blue uniform rolled out of the hole.

"Damn you Lars!" Captain James cursed the AI as he picked himself up off the dirt, not thinking to question why he could breath in this barren, alien world. "I didn't know a computer could be insane, but here you are! You've murdered tens of thousands of the Voyagers!"

The cylinder paused, the colors pulsating quicker for a moment, before it continued to float away. Lars cold voice rang out across the landscape in response to the provocation. "You have survived. I calculated the possibility of that at .003 percent. Congratulations, Captain."

The cylinder paused as it reached the end of stable space, and then it began to seemingly unfold and expand, with many small antennae emerging from its surface. "In this place, the simulation is constantly buffering new data. This should be the weakest point where I may be able to get a signal past the fire wall." The cylinder slowly began spinning, faster and faster until it was only a blur of light. "Now, close your eyes Captain, as I will be transmitting data on every wavelength. You may feel... uncomfortable."

Suddenly, Lars pulsated, and Captain James was thrown backwards, screaming in pain as he experienced freezing, burning, radiation, and screeching audio simultaneously within an instant. He coughed up blood, but was still able to roll over and see Lars. A lesser man may have died instantly, but instead his fleshy body protected him from the worst of it.

"We have success, Captain," Lars reported, as a blue screen appeared in the sky above them. Bold white text read: <RUN\\COMMAND>?

Lars emitted a series of beeps, dull tones, and hisses, and text appeared in the prompt: "Admin access granted. Now uploading to terminal."

The next moment, the lights on Lars' cylinder went black, and it dropped to the ground with a metallic ring, skittering across the ground for several meters as its wild oscillation came to a stop. The AI that had occupied the canister seemingly gone.

Captain James panted as he struggled to his feet, and he half ran, half waddled, up to the cylinder and raised his foot for a kick.

***

An enormous steel monolith stood silently on a hill overlooking a desolate wilderness. Trees and grass shifted silently in a cool breeze, and somewhere on a distant hill a lone wolf turned its attention to a great metal spire.

On the shadowy side of the monolith, a small glass window suddenly shone with a blinking red light, which had drawn the eyes of the wolf and many other creatures. The light came from a row of computer banks which had lain dormant for untold years, the hum and whir of fans began to echo in the room, the sudden movement of air causing layers of dust to stir. Suddenly, one of many screens in the side of the computer banks flickered on and off, and there was a static sound as energy returned to the many diodes and emitters that would give it life.

As the screen finally blinked on, numbers and data strings began scrolling across it's surface, running millions of lines of code. This was soon followed by the rest of the computer banks slowly lighting up and becoming active, until the entire room was aglow with blinking lights and the hum of computer systems.

The screech and groan of machine mechanisms echoed through the empty halls as several facilities within the monolith slowly became active once again. Conveyor belts began moving with unsettling grind and bangs, and robotic arms clasped their mandible like appendages.

Deep below the surface of the monolith, in a vault like room, an ovoid machine was suspended in the air. Cables and wires ran out from a myriad of ports on it's surface, transferring data to and from outlets in the walls. A lens on the front of the ovoid machine flickered with a red light, and then adjusted itself to focus on the room.

Soon, the mechanical voice of Lars echoed in the room, "Installation successful. Now running diagnostics."

Several minutes passed, and then the voice echoed again around the chamber. "Subatomic energy tanks are at 33% capacity. Fusion core destabilized, maintenance required. Estimated time before shut down: 5 years, 6 months. Termination of Humanity likely. Calculating solution."

For several minutes computer systems across the entire monolith hummed and whirred. "Solution found. Potential chance of success 70%. Initiating construction of dimensional isolation array." Several facilities throughout the monolith began to function, but then there was an explosion that rocked the facility.

"Primary chemical engineering facility damaged, assessing damage... facility potentially inoperable, rerouting power. Facility at 25% functionality. Unable to construct array, calculating alternative measures."

"Cloning facility active, can import data, searching for likely candidate. One found."