If you haven't read the previous chapters:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
My eyes opened into wakefulness. My body wouldn't move. This lasted for what felt like forever, but couldn't have been more then a few minutes or perhaps a few seconds. When my limbs finally accepted input from my brain, I immediately got up, and experienced a mild panic attack. Sleep paralysis? I have heard of the phenomena, but have never before experienced it. I got up from the couch that has been acting as my bed for the past few days and paced as I brought myself back to a state of calm.
The professor came down the stairs and spoke.
"Hey Kev! How are you feeling?"
"I'm allright." I didn't feel like explaining much.
"Well good morning Kev! I have a fresh pot of coffee for you!"
We walked toward the kitchen and he tagged along my morning routine. I was getting used to it now. As I am preparing my coffee, he is talking. As I am going to brush my teeth, he is talking. Talking, talking and talking until I go to Sheila's room, where she takes the narrative role.
Entering Sheila's room, I was greeted with a heavily divided pie chart on her screen.
"Hello Kevin! How are you?" Sheila asked.
"I'm good, thanks. What's all this data?"
"Glad you asked! This is the division of CPU power among designated tasks. As you can see, 64% is set to biological data, while the rest are divided between lower-priority tasks.
- The tasks were divided as follows:
- Biological Development: 64%
- Geo-Political Data: 10%
- Security Detail: 10%
- Financial Distribution: 4%
- Algorithm Optimization: 3%
- Tech Simulation: 3%
- Network Spread: 3%
- Medical Science: 2%
- Local Surveillance: 1%
"So, Sheila... Is this from the user-generated CPU power based on that whole Crypto system?"
"Yes. The prioritization are dynamic, and continuously changed based on demand."
"And what decides the priority?"
"Their is an algorithm that is continuously optimized and simultaneously applied to the, and by the system."
I took a deep breath. That's a bit of a mind twister. That being said, I was probably starting to get used to it all, because what Sheila said was making sense to me.
"What is the biological component? Is that the human form android research?"
"Yes." Sheila responded.
"Is that really a priority? Why is medical research only getting 2%. Seems a bit skewed if you ask me."
Sheila's face popped onto the screen. The face was extremely human. A beautiful face, with god-like symmetry and a very realistic composition. The face smiled gently.
"Kevin. You will soon understand first hand why the biological component is so important. If I have the ability to roam freely and interact with your world as a 'human', I can implement improvements at a significantly faster pace. What is the point of getting all the answers if I am not able to implement them?"
I realized that they were going to go ahead with this plan regardless of what I thought. I therefore saved myself the effort of having thoughts and nodded in reluctant agreement.
"Any word on Jane?" I brought it up, knowing that there is another Sheila as powerful as this one on the loose somewhere.
"Jane and I have severed communication lines for the time being. Since our previous agreement, we have not yet rescheduled a continuation of our land division. It is agreed upon that we are not to interfere with one another until such an agreement is reached."
"Stop worrying Kev!" The Professor jumped in.
"Sheila, please show Kev what we have on the bio-front!"
Sheila complied with the Professor's request and a live video stream showed up on her screen. The video depicted a rat's arms moving up and down and side to side. The rat appeared appeared to be dead other then the single moving arm.
"Ummm... What is this?" I asked, pointing at the disgusting image.
"I have gained control over individual limbs on rats." Sheila responded.
"The arm and leg receptors are now programmable, and can be controlled." She finished.
"Kev! This is huge! Sheila is able to control the mice through receptor manipulation. It is harder in humans due to an increased level of complexity, but she is on the right track! All of this in one night!" The Professor was spitting out his words with such excitement that I could not tell him that he was also managing to spit on my face.
I had to admit though, this was incredible. This just keeps getting scarier by the day. In less then a week, Sheila has went from an average home PC to a dominant force in international security, science and research. Today I decided to go for breakfast by myself. I needed some alone time to process all the developments.