Alex Q - The Becoming
Chapter 22

General Jack Waters didn’t like committees because it was hard to get the things done that needed doing. A committee of military men was bad enough, but when the team was split between the armed forces and politicians, a consensus was sometimes damn near impossible.

Why can’t soldiering be left to the soldiers? In the past, the generals and admirals tended to get their way, until successive administrations insisted on butting in. The result of such meetings was not a foregone conclusion anymore. Clayton James was intelligent and politically shrewd but too soft on using force, in Waters’ opinion.

“I think that’s about the size of it, Mr President. The way I see it, we have one good shot at taking Russia out. I submit we should seriously consider taking it.”

“Tell me again why you want to take Russia out, as you put it, and I have to tell you I don’t care for the terminology,” President James said.

“It’s obvious why, sir; they are our enemy. Most analysts would say they have been our natural enemy for a long time.”

“Let me ask you this. How many times has Russia attacked the USA?”

General Waters grimaced his ‘here we go again’ grimace. “Everyone knows the answer, sir. However, they do have access to valuable resources that our country needs.”

“This is your reasoning? We take them out, as you put it, because they have what we want? At least you didn’t give me the bullshit about spreading freedom and democracy, Jack.”

The table erupted. President James waited until the noise abated a little and slapped his hand onto the table top hard. He stood and looked from one face to the next. “Change, gentlemen. Don’t you think it’s time for a change? Have we learned nothing from history? Doesn’t your heart cry out for peace? Mine does, as does every beating heart in America. I’m asking you to help me stop our government falling into the same old trap. General Waters, our annual military budget would feed and house all American citizens for the next ten years. We spend three million dollar credits each minute on maintaining a defense against an enemy we helped create, and we don’t even know if they want to attack us. This is a kind of insanity to me. Don’t you think we might focus on building real security in our homeland instead of repeating a history that continues to torment us?”

Waters chose his next words carefully. Since Picket had been arrested, their plan for Alex Q came to nothing and he needed allies around this table. Acting Secretary of State Ben Carter was James’s man; so was General Palmer. He mentally checked off the men around the table. Admiral Spencer would be with him, and so would one of the Air Force generals; the other would be on the fence. It wasn’t enough, he realized. He would have to wait for the right time, or a destabilizing event. Wait for it or create it.

“Mr President, you are the Commander in Chief, but it’s my job to advise on military strategy. These are my recommendations. In my consideration, it is the most prudent thing to do, in light of the advancing capabilities of Alex Q. He can access all military nets anywhere on the planet and may even be passing vital information to the other side as we speak.”

“Vital information about what exactly? Do you have other weapons I don’t know about? And for the record, it’ll take a lot of maybes for me to agree to the mass murder of millions of human beings.” He turned to Ben Carter. “Ben, what’s the sentiment among our international partners?”

“It’s a mixed bag, Mr President. The European countries have long memories and traditionally have always been afraid of the Russians. The Northern States, UK, France, Germany and United Scandinavia are re-building after the refugee wars. The three members of the Catelonian bloc led by Portugal recently voted to explore diplomatic relations, based on the cooperation shown by the US and Russia in resolving the Scion 6 crisis. The Eurobloc societies are deeply fragmented, sir. In general, there is no feeling for war among the people.”

“Our own polls show the majority of American citizens are also against more wars. Would I be wrong in saying it’s only certain parts of the military advocating more aggression, General Waters?” President James said.

Waters looked to Chief of Staff General Palmer for support. He expected none and found none. Admiral Spencer fixed his eyes on the water cooler, his status ambiguous at best. Waters played it safe. “I want to be sure, sir. Sure we do everything we can to protect our country. A military man uses military means to achieve peace. We both know the flack Military Command takes if we get it wrong and don’t take action when it’s required.”

General Palmer spoke. “We understand your position Jack, we do. Part of me feels the same way, but we all may be getting sidelined from the main issue.”

“Which is?” Admiral Spencer asked.

“The series of events leading to this meeting were directly or indirectly caused by Alex Q. You’ve all seen the recordings, read the transcripts. The expert on the ground has indicated more than once we have an intelligence among us evolving so fast, its future capabilities may seem like magic to us. It can produce objects out of thin air, for God’s sake; that in itself should set some alarm bells ringing.”

“I’m not interested in parlor tricks. In any case, it appears he’s going to disappear in a puff of smoke soon, so what the hell?” General Waters said.

“Do you call what happened at Giron or with Scion 6 parlor tricks? I don’t. Not at all,” President James said. “Dr Taylor thinks it a possibility Alex Q could decide to terminate us all before he goes.”

“This is all mumbo-jumbo surely?”

“Picket didn’t think so, and I don’t think you do either.” President James held Water’s gaze until the General looked away.

“As I said, sir, I’m here to serve in the best way I can.”

“Then it’s settled, gentlemen. From here on in, this administration now has an official policy of cooperation with Russia. You may use diplomatic channels to make friendly contact with your Russian counterparts, with two provisos. There will be no exchange of information without my express permission, and no military action of any kind without my say-so. Dennis will write it up, and we’ll meet again in two days.”

The men started to leave. Settled my ass, Waters thought.

“General Waters, can you give me a minute?” President James said, gesturing to an easy chair.

“You worked closely with Picket overseeing Boyd’s team. How did you replace him? I mean, did you have any idea what the Secretary of State was doing?”

“If I had, you would have been the first to know, sir. He was a traitor.”

President James nodded, looking at his knuckles. “Yes, he was. A traitor who got what was coming to him. You’re a smart man, Jack. Your rise through the ranks was impressive, largely because you know men. That’s why I’m replaceing it a little difficult to believe he could hide anything from you.”

“Picket was a smart man too.”

“Not smart enough. What did he promise you?”

General Waters was caught off by the direct question. He hesitated. “Promise me?”

“Yes, Jack, promise you. For going along with his plan to control Alex Q and remove me from office. Money? Power? General Palmer’s job?”

“Mr President, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I should be offended, but I know these are difficult times for us all.” Waters sounded angry, but President James didn’t buy it. He knew all he needed to know from the other man’s body language.

Waters knew Clayton James had found out the truth, and he knew the President couldn’t do a damn thing about it. If there was a scrap of evidence, he would already be behind bars. “Will that be all, sir?”

Nate lay on the bed in the apartment at Cybertronix trying to put his thoughts in order. He couldn’t go home yet, that was for sure, although God knows he’d welcome some time away from all this. Alex was evolving rapidly and constantly referred to his ascension. Nate didn’t have a clue what it meant, except that it would be a purely virtual state.

Alex Q could create physical objects, a skill Nate assumed would develop rapidly as his intellect grew. He couldn’t as yet figure out how to breathe life into the animals he created, and he didn’t understand humor. Right now he was asking Tex questions, analyzing joke after joke, searching for the one thing that made people laugh, a kind of Grand Theory of Humor. He said it was the greatest mystery in the universe. For whatever reason, the subject engaged his curiosity, which Nate was grateful for. If Alex used his intellect against humanity, they wouldn’t stand a chance.

As it stood, it seemed likely he would become virtual. Would Alex hang around with them, disappear, or become something else entirely? In a little over three hours, he will become a being with no physical body but with limitless intelligence. He was rapidly learning to manipulate and bypass physicality, and had no need of the Quadnet super-highway to access conversations anywhere on the globe; all was transparent to Alex. Nate jumped off the bed and headed for the lab, an idea taking shape in his mind.

“Hi, Nate. Listen to this. I asked Alex why the chicken crossed the road. He said he knows the joke, but the answer confused him. Too obvious. He said it wasn’t a joke, more of an eggsistential question, spelling exi e-g-g-s-i.”

“Tex laughed. I realized I made a joke.”

“Yes, you did, Alex. Congratulations. I’m sorry to spoil your fun, guys. Can we talk?”

“You’re the guy,” Tex said.

“I am all ears, but this statement is obviously not true. It is one of your figures of speech humorously intended to indicate a heightened level of attentiveness.”

“Alex, you told us earlier you no longer need Quadnet to access information. How does this work?”

“The material world is basically a complex energy field with local areas of different densities, or vibrational frequencies. I am simplifying so you may understand. All objects, including human beings, radiate their energy outwards. These subtle energies radiate into infinity, weakening as they progress outwards. At a local level, such as on planet Earth, the waves of energy are relatively strong. For me, it manifests as a dense energetic fog which I can either ignore or convert into the original source.”

“So you can hear any physical or electronic conversation anywhere?”

“Much more than that. Not only can I can hear and see, I can project myself there and create or transfer objects if needed remotely.”

“Could you also project my image in holo-form?”

“Yes, Nate, I can.”

“Where are you going with this, Nate?” Tex said.

“Mask us please, Alex.”

“It is done.”

“Alex is presenting a different reality to anyone watching on surveillance.”

“You’re walkin’ a fine line here, buddy. The President has direct access to our conversations.”

“Not at the moment he doesn’t.”

“Talk fast, Nate. I’d hate to turn all official on your ass.”

“Give me a few minutes, that’s all I ask. You said our President was a great man. That implies international statesmanship, so I’m assuming he advocates planetary peace.”

“Yes, he’s long talked about resuming diplomatic ties with the Sino-Russian bloc. My guess is he intends to use the recent Scion 6 crisis to continue communications.”

“What would you say are the biggest stumbling blocks to peaceful dialogue?”

“Between countries? I’d have to say the military complex, or the money behind it, and the fact that nobody takes anything at face value. People say one thing and mean another. Keep secrets, all that kind of good stuff,” Tex said.

“I’d say the same. Even within the same governments there are rivalries and secrets. What if we leveled the playing field in the little time we have left with Alex?”

“I’m with you so far. Spit it out, buddy.”

“We talk to the President. He arranges a holo-meeting with First Minister Zhukarov. Alex and I attend, and we lay each country’s secrets out on the table. That way they’ll both know nothing can be hidden. For the first time in history, leaders will talk honestly because they’ll know it’s futile hiding anything.”

“It’s dangerous ground. You’re talking about possibly giving away official secrets to another nation.”

“And vice verse, Tex, and vice verse.”

“What if they don’t go for it?”

“Talk to the President. Persuade him, if you can. Tell him he’d be better off with Alex working with him than have him as a loose cannon.”

“It sounds a bit like a threat.”

“We’d be doing something, Tex, something to change this world for the better. Transparency is the only way. I’m betting President James will see it the same way.”

“And why would Alex want to do this?” Tex asked. They both turned to the holo-form.

“I am curious,” Alex said.

Carla folded her knitting and opened the Bible at Revelation 1, Chapter 1. She had read the Good Book regularly since a young girl. Each time she found herself at the end, she would write the number in her diary. She had read the Bible from cover to cover nineteen times.

Revelations always excited and lifted her. It was terrible to read, but after Tribulation came Salvation. Salvation and blessed peace for all. The second coming was as real to her as the next day’s sunrise. Real, inevitable and welcome. She read aloud quietly for twenty minutes and knelt to pray before sleeping.

“Lord, your ways are a mystery, and only You know when the final reckoning will come. I pray it will be soon and that You will accept me as your servant in the hereafter for ever and ever. The Bible tells us the destruction of the Tribulation will cause the world to tremble, but great glory and peace will follow. I wish with all my heart that it will be soon and that nothing stop it. Amen.”