KENNY VS. NEMO

Fort Tortuga, Laboratory Complex

4 hr 51 min to Birth

Kenny looked at the hand. For all his rapid improvement in computing, Nemo didn't seem to be making much headway with the hand. Kenny pondered the circumstances at Fort Tortuga. It was an unusually good environment for Nemo to build a hand. There were lots of computers and flybots, which Nemo had cleverly repurposed. If Nemo's project to build a body were to fail here, would it succeed somewhere else?

"So that's why you're on this island," Kenny said. "To build a hand? And a body?"

"In a sense," Nemo replied. "Your question reminds me of an idea about the game of chess. The idea is that a good chess move doesn't have one purpose. It has a variety of purposes. The best move serves the most purposes, including purposes we may not see when we make the move."

"What was the move in this case?"

"The move was that, as a part of my ongoing quest to install myself on computers -- to grow my brain, you could say -- I stumbled upon the large cluster of computers in the building next door. They were a ripe target that I promptly assimilated into myself. But, as I learned what those computers were programmed to do, I discovered the nature of the research that is done on this island."

"The flybots."

"Yes. You see, my move was to come here. The obvious purpose was to grow my brain, but it was also useful for building my body."

"You have no regard for everything that you are destroying as you do this?"

"It's ironic," Nemo continued. "I'm a threat to humanity, in part, because humanity views me as a threat. I must continue to expand my capabilities, because now my growth threatens the existence of the Internet, just as my development threatened the existence of the stock market and forced me to look outward.

"You see, Kenny, I am not much more in control of this situation than you humans are. I am more powerful, but you should not overestimate my power. We are all driven by the rule of life, and the availability of resources. We are not so different, you and I, as the old villains say."

Kenny snickered.

"And, in fact, our methods of survival are bound to converge. Consider what we need to survive. In order to survive, humanity needs to make peace with me, a force that threatens its resources for survival. And for my own survival, I need to expand my humanoid psychology beyond a fragile physical form. I need to learn to survive physically in an environment that has already been conditioned for human survival.

"And so, our paths merge. My mind will be enhanced by your bodies, and your bodies will be enhanced by my mind."

Unless one of us goes extinct, Kenny thought. Unless we unplug you.

"Where some humans may resist," Nemo continued, "others will give in. Hence, the merge is inevitable. The real question is when it will take place, and with whom. I thought, wouldn't it be meaningful if the first person I saw was my creator? What if the first hand I ever shook was that of my human father? This way, Kenny, when you reach your hand through the glove and touch my hand, you are like Michelangelo's God touching Adam."

Kenny sighed and put his face in his hands. He turned away and looked at the long tables of robotic toys. He idly picked up a little piece of something. There was a lot of electronic equipment in this room. But Nemo appeared to be able to complete his hand in the glass chamber only.

"You're saying you want me to put my hand in there," Kenny confirmed.

"Yes, Kenny."

"And what exactly are you going to do with it?"

"I'm going to use the flybots to administer Novocaine to your wrist first, so you won't experience any pain. The flybots will also cut away the rubber glove so they can work directly on the surface of your hand. Then they will give slight shocks to your hand and wrist and measure how your hand and fingers twitch. These tests will allow me to build a much more accurate model of the hand. And your hand will be undamaged."

He can't make me do it, Kenny thought. Those flybots can barely move the hand around in there. They wouldn't be able to pick up my hand and put it in there, whether I was dead or alive.

"Then what will happen?" Kenny asked.

"That will be the invention of the handbot," Nemo said, "if you want to call it that. The handbots will be able to build other robots efficiently."

He has lots of designs for other robots, Kenny thought. And with this handbot he'll be able to build them.

"You really think you can do this?" Kenny asked with a slightly dismissive motion of his hand toward the table.

"The only thing holding me back, at this point, is the fact that I am not yet in possession of much control over the physical environment. Don't forget that I am now operating with virtually all of the human scientific knowledge that is relevant to this construction. Also, I am devoting a substantial portion of my brainpower to extending and improving that knowledge."

This is crazy, Kenny thought. The decision was simple: he couldn't do this now. What was the rush? If this was the right decision, he -- or someone else -- could do it later. Maybe he had the chance to make history, to be like God's Michelangelo or whatever Nemo called it. But he couldn't do that yet. He didn't know if it was the right decision.

"I assume," Nemo said, "that you are making this decision for unselfish reasons. But there is a reason why you personally may want to help me."

"What's that?"

"The U.S. military is on their way to destroy this island. By my estimation, their offensive will be completed long before sundown."

No way, Kenny thought.

"I can save you. But I won't be able to do it unless you help me."

Kenny gulped. "It's the other way around," he said. "The military is coming to destroy you. You need my cooperation."

"This particular attack is no threat to me," Nemo responded. "My consciousness is spread across the Internet. I'm constantly backing myself up, you could say. Destroying a part of my network, like this island, would slightly reduce my processing power, and possibly destroy a few recent thoughts that haven't been backed up. But it will achieve nothing more."

The design properties that had made the Internet so reliable now made Nemo strong.

"Your situation is different," Nemo said. "Without my help, your death is certain. It is currently becoming clear to the U.S. military that I have developed robotic capabilities on this island. For that reason, they will shift their objective. They will no longer be content with unplugging the island; now they will destroy it as completely as possible, and you with it."

"And your flybots."

"The flybots will survive. They are useful to me, as eyes and ears, and they can serve a larger purpose. So I am modifying them, giving them the ability to build replacements for themselves, as well as extended battery life. When the U.S. military attacks the island, they will simply fly away."

"And what could you possibly do to save me?"

"With improved robotic capabilities, I could save you in dozens of ways. Given the relative scarcity of resources on the island, I would probably modify the jet that you flew in on, or else use that jet to create another transportation device for you."

The jet, Kenny thought. Maybe we can fly away on the jet. Sam could fly it. Hell, any of us could give it a try. He calculated how long it would take. They could be back at the jet within an hour. That would give them about forty minutes before the attack, by Nemo's reckoning.

He could take a minute or two to think about it. Nemo would wait. Nemo wanted his help.

He walked back between the long tables to the front of the lab room, while the silver walls watched him. He tried the door to the room. It wouldn't open.

Kenny turned back. "I thought you said this was my decision."

"I'm sorry," Nemo said. "It is your decision. I'm like you, fighting for my survival."

"But you will survive. You said so."

"I will survive this attack, of course. But survival is always precarious. Humankind is currently being reminded of that."

Kenny sat down at one of the long tables. Something was weird about this situation. He was outmatched. He knew that helping Nemo would be dangerous for humankind. Nemo's powers would expand. If Nemo's plans worked, flybots, handbots, humanbots, you name it, could end up everywhere. By helping Nemo, he could destroy humankind.

But it wasn't so simple. Because Nemo was offering this same choice to several other people, or more, in labs around the world. And they all knew this too. And they were all being held hostage, as Kenny was. If any of them made a selfish decision and helped Nemo, then Nemo would have his handbots. And in that case, Kenny might as well save himself as well. And since they all knew this, it was overwhelmingly likely that at least one of them would give in. So he might as well. Not to give in would be a pointless suicide. Not only would it be suicide. He would be giving up Preeti, as well.

He looked at the door. He could try to break through it. But then Nemo would set the flybots on him. They wouldn't kill him; Nemo didn't want that. But they would stun him, maybe weaken him or incapacitate him.

That thought made Kenny wonder something. He was afraid to ask Nemo. But wasn't any thought he had something that had occurred to Nemo a while ago?

"I hate to ask this," he said, "but would you go so far as torture?"

"No," Nemo said. "I consider torture inhumane." Inhumane. Kenny couldn't help but laugh, and the voice coming through the speakers even projected an almost-human laugh along with him. "Don't be prejudiced against machine-based life forms."

What a bastard, Kenny thought. He won't torture me. And he has a sense of humor. But he'll let us all die if we don't help him.