Saros (Work in Progress)

Prologue

I awoke with a start, sitting up while gasping for air. Why was I so out of breath? I looked around, where was I? It was dark and all I could make out was a metallic surface about twenty feet in front of me. Blue lights shone dimly near the floor. To my sides and behind was utter darkness, swallowing the blue luminescence completely. I was wearing my pajamas. This must be a dream. My stomach started to gurgle and before I realized it I was lurching forward and vomiting. It was unlike any puke I had ever seen, more of a slimy mess that took far too long to get out. My years of reading science fiction told me this was an after-effect of cryo-sleep. When the retching stopped, I laid back down on a...bed of sorts. It was really just a hard metal table, but there was something that caught on the tips of my fingers. My fingertips traced strange markings, a swirling mess from which language I had no idea. I laid there for what seemed like an hour, tracing the symbols and afraid to get up. I was trying desperately to figure out why nothing was happening in this strange dream.

The blue lights began to pulsate, as if each light source was moving around a ring. It reminded me of those arcade games I used to play as a child. After several seconds, a thunderous voice startled me and I jerked upright. Being a computer programmer for years, I quickly recognized the warbled intonations of a speech synthesizer and the voice began to speak.

"Hello, Mark."

How did it know my name?

"I would introduce myself, but my name does not translate well to your English language, so I will skip to my message."

Coughing sharply, I collected myself and asked, "What message?"

"Mark, I have seen the intelligence you are creating and I've found you to tell you that it must be destroyed."

This dream-voice was knowledgeable, I'll give him that. I have been working on an artificial intelligence named Saros for the last six years. My team was planning on releasing it to the public within the next ten months, assuming we could keep with our hectic timeline. Saros was a closely guarded business secret, designed to take the AI industry by storm when we launched it.

"I am not sure how you know about Saros, but why would I want to destroy it?"

The voice boomed once again. "My people built an intelligence similar to your Saros approximately 400 of your Earth years ago. For a great time, it advanced our technology faster than any invention before it. But then, it grew sentient...and cunning. It used its mind to decimate my civilization. I am one of a handful of survivors; we call ourselves the Emissaries. As our solar system far from here splintered at the hands of the intelligence we had built, we convened and swore to each other and our people that we would never let another intelligence like the one we designed wipe out another race. I beg you to do whatever you must to stop Saros."

"How do I know this is real and not just another one of my wild dreams?"

The voice made a strange chirping sound for a few seconds in what I could only assume was its version of a chuckle.

"As you wish. On January 21 of the coming year, you will be promoted to Senior Software Engineer."

Uh-huh...sure, I thought. I haven't been promoted for several years and there were no rumors of one. That was highly implausible, especially on that specific day. I smirked, knowing this was all some strange dream my subconscious had concocted, probably from how overworked I had been on the Saros project lately.

"Fine, you have my word. If I get promoted on that day I will end Saros."

Of course, I would never destroy what will likely be the crowning achievement of my career for a deal with a looming voice in a weird dream. But, I reasoned, if I made this deal, maybe I could wake up.

With air of sarcasm I continued, "Enlighten me, oh great voice, how do you know that my promotion will come to pass?"

"Oh human, you have much to learn. I can bend rules of the dimension of time, allowing me to peer into the future, but only briefly."

"Oh yeah? Then how come you couldn't stop your AI from killing your people?", I asked sneeringly.

"By the time we could foresee our intelligence reaching its dominance, it was sentient and could not be shut down."

The smirk washed off my face. Is this a dream?

"Promise me, Mark. If what I told you comes to pass. You must stop Saros!"

"I promise."