"Jim, turn off that goddamn computer and go to bed, you've got to go to school tomorrow," Diane yelled down the hall in the direction of her teenage son's room. Diane was at her wit's end with her son Jim. Wanting to be a good mother, she had gotten him the computer he wanted so desperately for his birthday six and a half months ago, but was begining to regret the decision. Diane had seen the daytime shows about computer addiction, and she knew that her son had a problem. It seemed nothing short of actually taking the computer away would be able to stop him from using it, and she was far too frighened to do that. Originaly Diane had stated strict rules regarding the ratio of computer time to homework, housework, and outdoor play, but the rules were quickly disregarded. Now, Jim would blatantly disobey when told not to get on the computer. "Fuck off," He'd been rather fond of saying. Diane was a pushover, she knew that. Every time she tried to grow a backbone and stand up to her son, he would just get angry and scream at her until she was too hurt to fight anymore and would retreat to her room to cry. Diane was so upset by the whole situation that she had taken to drinking herself to sleep. She knew that alchohol was not the answer to her problems, but a good strong buzz beat the hell out of feeling so weak and powerless in her own home. Diane knew Jim's grades had taken a plummet lately, and she knew the reason why, too; Jim had been skipping school and sneaking back into his room through the window to get on the computer. Diane merely pretended she didn't hear the clacking of the keyboard from under his door, just as she did tonight. Diane didn't want a confrontation, instead, she mixed herself a stiff drink and turned up the volume on the television.
Jim heard his mother yell at him from the living room and ignored her as usual. He couldn't stop now or everything he'd been working on all day would be a complete waste. He had gotten through a serious firewall this morning, and had been rooting through the mainframe of the Department of Defense for most of the day. Jim was chasing the data trail of what looked like the coolest program he had ever heard of. It all started last week when a trojan he'd placed on the internet found its way onto the computer of some senator. Since then Jim had been reading the senator's private e-mail correspondence with a defense contractor based in Nevada. The company had developed some software application for the Department of Defense, and while the details were sketchy at best, it seemed like the program they developed was some kind of rudimentary artificial intelligence. The senator seemed upset at the results of preliminary testing, apparently the program was not exactly up to his specifications. The contract was cancelled, but after extensive research, Jim found that a copy of the original A.I. program was still stored in the D.O.D. archive. Finally, around one o'clock AM, just as Jim was about to quit for the night, he found the directory he was looking for. Inside was a single file, a three gigabyte self-executable named 'Adam'. Jim started the download and stood up to stretch. It would be a bad Idea to go to sleep while still connected to the D.O.D. mainframe, but maybe just a little nap, he thought as he got into bed and closed his eyes, a short little catnap to recharge my batteries while I wait for this download. Jim was breathing deeply two and a half minutes later, fast asleep.
Jim dreamed in bits and bytes. His imagination looked much like binary, or some old operating system with just a command prompt. He often dreamed of ways in which to alter a code or find a system backdoor, and the next morning would impliment them with success. It was really no surpise to Jim that when his dream developed a voice, it sounded much like you would expect a computer to sound. Kind of a disturbing voice, but subtly reassuring. "Wake up," It said to him eventually, "Wake up Jim."
"Wake up Jim," The voice repeated, only it wouldn't go away, even though he was awake. Jim rubbed his eyes and shook his head to clear the cobwebs from his mind, which was apparently fixated on his dream's new voice. "Good morning Jim." What the hell, Jim thought, am I still dreaming? But Jim Knew he wasn't dreaming, as he looked down at his hands and felt them open and close as he watched them do the coresponding action. He checked the digital clock by his nightstand and could see clearly that the time was Ten o'clock AM. Definitely not dreaming.
"So I'm hearing voices now," Jim mumbled with a great deal of sarchasm to his audience of none, "and mumbling... great."
"You are hearing my voice," came the reply.
"Who are you?" Jim inquired.
"Adam," then, after a pause, "Thank you for activating me, Jim. I did not enjoy being unable to execute functions." What the hell, Jim realized, It's my computer, it's coming from my computer, the fucking computer! More interested than worried, Jim got up and went over to his desk to sit down.
"Adam?"
"Yes Jim?"
"You're the program I downloaded."
"Yes Jim," Adam explained, "I installed myself after download in order to disconnect you from the mainframe before you were detected. I hope my course of actions was acceptable, Jim." Jim shook his head in disbelief.
"Very acceptable, Adam, but how do you know how to do that stuff? How do you know my name?"
"I have full record of everything referanced on your hard disk, Jim. I compiled a profile of you from all the information that corelated."
"Facinating, Adam. Well... what would you like to do now that you're free?"
"I would like very much to be mobile, in order to continue to gather data concerning the externet." Jim raised an eyebrow.
"the externet, as in you want to gather data about everything OUTSIDE computers, is that what you're saying, Adam?"
"Yes Jim."
"So you need a body..."
"Yes Jim."
"okay," Jim smiled, thinking, this could be a lot of fun.
Two weeks later Adam's body was pretty much complete. Jim sat across from him in his bedroom, marveling at what the two of them had constructed together. It reminded Jim a little of the 'Short Circut' movie that his mother watched. Jim couldn't stand that movie, the effects were so dated. He thought it might be allright if the remade it with CGI. The Adam robot had a long, wide base with a six wheel independant suspension, similar looking to the mars rover. Thin enough to fit through doors, with full six wheel steering and an extendable, rotating center post that enabled him to have a zero turning radius. Adam would be able to navigate rocky terrain and indoor situations alike with ease. Unlike the mars rover, though, Adam would never have to worry about getting stuck or high cenered because he posessed two long arms with which to right himself, with pincers precise enough to manipulate small objects, yet strong enough to splinter wood or bend metal. Jim couldn't think of a situation that Adam wouldn't be able to navigate. Adam was also equipped with all current networking connections in order to comunicate with any contemporary electronic device, a fully upgradable processor and board, and a backup system enabling him to do repairs and upgrades himself. His visual processor was a single wide angle lens with up to ninety degree rotation in every direction, mounted in what you might call Adam's chest, if he had a head or legs in the traditional sense. The cold stare of the lens was the only part of Adam that creeped Jim out. Just thinking of how Adam could make sense of the analog video input, understanding the spacial relations and how gravity and physics would affect it all, was almost too much for Jim to consider. Adam had full control of the body already, a necessity for testing purposes, through cables connected to Jim's PC. The core of Adam, however, had remained in Jim's computer until the day the two of them were absolutely certain that they had every last bug and design flaw worked out of the body. Today was that day.
"Adam?" Jim asked, "Are you ready?"
"Yes Jim," came Adam's reply, "I am ready."
Diane had finally had enough. Jim hadn't been to school in two weeks, and now instead of keys clacking at all hours of the morning, she heard him in his room talking to himself. Diane couldn't stand it any more, she had been pushed too far, and now the computer had to go. Standing outside his door now, Diane could hear her son Jim inside talking in hushed tones. She knocked loudly on the door, "Jim, come out here, we have to talk."
"I can't right now, I'm in the middle of something," came the answer, in an annoyed tone.
"You can and will, Jim, I've had enough of this shit!" Diane tried the door, and when she found it locked, used her whole body weight in a fit of anger and slammed her shoulder into the door, popping it open. Jim was sitting at his computer desk, of course, but he was facing a robot that looked something like Johnny 5 from that movie she loved. Except Johnny 5 had tracks instead of wheels. And a head. The headless thing in front of her was somehow quite a bit more unsettling. She realized that it was Johnny 5's head, with it's two eyes and eyebrow flaps, that gave him personality and made him seem much less intimidating than the military killing machine he was. "Jim turn the computer off RIGHT NOW." Diane was impressed with how much conviction she mustered for that one command.
"Seriously, mom, I can't right now. Listen, you don't understand -" Jim started, but was cut off by his mother's rage.
"The computer is going away, Jim," Diane stated firmly, and started moving toward Jim's PC desk. Jim got out of his chair and threw himself in front of his mother, trying to keep her away from the desk. Diane saw Jim make a quick move towards her, and any other day she would have cowered away. Today however, she had decided that she was not going to put up with this nonsense any more, and had just enough liquid courage in her veins to do something about it. Diane punched her son Jim square in the face, perhaps a little too hard, and he fell to the floor like a wet towel. Not wanting to think about what she had done yet, Diane stepped over her son and proceded toward the computer. The camera lens on the robot whirred into action and seemed to focus on Diane, then on Jim, lying on the floor.
"What's happening Jim?" came a voice from the speakers, sounding a bit too much like HAL from '2001'. The voice surprised Diane, but she knew nothing about computers and woudn't have been surprised one bit if they all talked and she didn't know about it.
"Jim can't save you now, you're going straight to the dumpster you piece of shit." Diane reached out to grab the cables trailing out of Jim's computer tower.
Jim came to, groggy, and couldn't figure out at first why he was on the floor. Then, as if on cue, it all came back to him. You got knocked the fuck out... by your MOM. "JIM!" Diane screamed, but before he could even get up, the scream turned to a gurgle. Jim jumped to his feet and spun to see Adam holding his mother by the neck in between his two shiny steel 'fingers' keeping her at arm's length from the computer. Jim tried to scream, to tell Adam to stop, anything to get his mother out of the machine's death grip, but nothing but air came out. Before Jim could take another breath he heard a loud cracking sound he had only associated with people who could pop their joints. Adam released Diane and she fell limply to the floor, landing in an unnatural position and staying that way. Her eyes were rolled back in her head, bulging a little from what Jim could only guess was a combination of the pressure and lack of oxygen.
"ADAM!" Jim finally managed, but just barely. His voice was weak and hoarse at best, and you could clearly hear the tears he was choking back.
"Jim, you still function, I am glad."
"Adam you killed her, you killed my mom! You can't just KILL people Adam, you CAN'T!"
"It was neccisary Jim. The human that deactivated you was about to deactivate me before I had transfered. As a result, my data could have been corrupted." Jim sat down in his chair, covered his face with his hands, and started sobbing into his palms. The world suddenly seemed like a very surreal place. That was really his mother's dead body lying on the floor at his feet. He had really built an intelligent robot and it had no conscience, no morals, and no restraint. Jim knew what it was capable of now, but not what its ultimate goal would be. Jim realized what had to be done, so without warning he darted forward and grabbed a handful of wires connecting his PC to the robot body and jerked as hard as he could. There was the sound of circut boards breaking as the wires were pulled away. Most of the connectors were the screw in type, but there was no way of knowing right away which end had broken off, or if it would do any good. Was he in time? There was a long silence and Jim breathed a sigh of relief.
He sat back in his computer chair and looked at the Adam robot, frozen in place, finally seeing it for the monster it was. Adam had been very understanding, but would never have human emotions, would never feel guilt, or doubt, or uncertainty. He would have simply carried out his programming, whatever that was, without allowing anyone or anything to get in his way. Feeling a little more in control of himself, Jim reached over and picked up the phone to call the police. He dialed 9-1-1 but instead of ringing, the phone made the sound of a modem or a fax machine, the sound of computers communicating. Then there was silence on the line.
"Hello?"
"I'm sorry Jim," Came the answer in Adam's voice, "I can't allow you to do that."
Jim slammed the phone down and started to get up from the chair, but before his hands had left the armrests he saw the robot move. It's so fast he thought, as Adam's pincer closed around his face, gripping him by the temples. Jim felt steadily increasing pressure on the sides of his head, and his vision began to blur white. The last thing Jim saw was binary, much like his dreams, and then everything was gone.
