Anti-Cursor headquarters
Ryan was fixated on the monitor on the front wall of the space module. It was showing the feed of the GRIID building getting attacked by the Aurora. Though Ryan never got attached to the companies he had worked for but the collapsing sides of the GRIID building made him cry. He had spent considerable time in running and maintaining the GRIID.
'See Ryan, come and see with your own eyes how I am destroying the building of your own GRIID, the Grand Rational Information Inference Device. The marvel of the man's 21st century. The harbinger of the 5th revolution of the history of mankind. Well Ryan can you just tell me, why do you always need a benchmark to measure your innovations. Don't you think there could be more intelligent beings in the universe who might have reached the 10th or the 100th industrial revolution? Or they maybe not in the going through of sequential stages of development, rather they might have chosen the path of continuous improvement each year (theirs) they call as the industrial progression no Alpha+1. Just think about it. But think fast, you will have a much longer time here.'
Ryan heard the announcement of the Anti-Cursor but did not say anything. He looked around and tried to locate the power supply of the monitors. It can be very dangerous but I have to search for this scoundrel's power supply and then he's over.
In the world
All Cursors disappeared from computers across the world. Pointers too. It happened instantaneously and simultaneously way before people can realize. It was a dark night in the West. Most thought it as a system malfunction and switch off their devices. Nightowls got an excuse to call it a day ..or night.
The world soon realized that there is no way to use computers since no typing is possible. Web browsers stopped responding due to the lack of web addresses. Software windows that were already open can only be closed through brute key commands. Computer users who had their software windows open get trapped in the same quagmire as those who couldn't open their favorite software from the program icons on the desktop. It's global chaos of planetary proportions.
No search engine or social media website could be accessed. No online food delivery could be made. Videos and comments thereon went missing.
The morning
The horizon became red. The Sun shined ever brighter as if the atmosphere has given a free run to the sun's rays.
As the morning came, the transportation sector became the first hit with trains and flights booking coming to a halt. Ships got stranded mid-sea. Only road transport was still functional but no automatic drive was available since the destination could not be fed in. Some students are happy that their exams would be postponed, some were gloomy as they have to return empty-handed from the online exam centers.
By the day the automated industrial complexes had to switch off the power supply of the assembly lines.
Financial transactions could barely take place since only offline transactions are possible. The total number of transactions has been reduced to 0.0012% of the usual daily count as the banking system comes on tenterhooks. Only scheduled transactions were taking place leaving some people in want of money while some other with large sums of money. The cash flow of companies whether big or small was either overflowing or drying. Stock exchanges had become a place where more rumors than shares are exchanged.
No calls could be made to customer service centers. Major computer security companies were scrambling to come up with a quick fix. Still all of them kept quiet. They were simply out of solutions.
In the absence of the online transactions, people first resort to cash but soon realized that cash supply was not enough in the market. All these years, the Central banks had forgotten the Gresham's law of bad money drives out good money. In fact central banks had lost their much-coveted relevance ever since cryptocurrency usurped the space of fiat currency. Today in shortage of the cash supply, once again Gresham's law had been manifested in its ultimate veracity. Cryptocurrencies became worth nothing because transactions didn't work forcing the government to print money using 18th-century technology and dye watermarking.
The situation was no better in countries of the East. People who were used to live with power cuts and 2G data speed thought that they had nothing much to lose from the catastrophe. They still believed in their driving skills more than GPS based automatic cars. But soon it was clear that they were facing the same cataclysm phase-shifted by a few hours.
With TV, internet off everyone from students to professionals, homemakers to media, government to the industry was affected. Communication systems across the globe had totally collapsed. The global village which became a reality after sustained efforts of decades of scientific research and technological breakthroughs had indeed been reduced to a village in a literal sense.
Mankind was never behind in using its ingenuity. A few people came up with a long list of key combinations for getting at least some basic work done however still at significantly reduced speed and efficiency. Still they were not able to change the settings of any software. Since no customization was possible, this rendered a lot of software useless for specific kinds of people. The tech-savvy computer users who were used to putting character-based code to unlock the screens of their devices had been locked out. Re-installing the Operating System (OS) was not a solution because in the year 2025 most computer services were beamed from the central server of the GRIID that required typing authentication codes. Even after reinstallation the same problem persisted.
As the screens switch off, pen and paper came back in vogue. Remnants of the elder generation remembered their lessons from school days when no screens were popular. Proudly remembering the beauty and utility of the ways of their generation they always denounced the screen culture as it always separated the written object from the writer, the canvas from the painter, and the message from the messenger.
By afternoon, a cyclone named Lorenz shaped like the fluttering wings of a butterfly was running towards the plains as if it is its basin of attraction.
The evening
As soon as the evening came, rioting spread to several major cities across the world. Humanity descended into endless chaos. Governments across the world were devoid of options. They had not acted in time and now no time was left. Some even doubt if there was any meaningful government existing in the first place.
World leaders and top research organizations always had doubts about whether such a massive attack could take place. Nobody could have even seen it coming but Ryan, a nondescript software engineer, from New York.
The first priority of the governments across countries was to restore normalcy. Paper-based communication was set up within hours. Old radio instruments were dug out from the warehouse. Once extinct Morse code got its second birth.
World leaders began to talk to each other using symbols centuries old. Strategies were discussed and disposed of. Crucial time had been wasted already. Now when the catastrophe struck was a call for urgency. Mankind never learns to trust itself.
Everybody wanted to know the sources of the biggest and deadliest cyber attack in the history of mankind. Due to a lack of information, conspiracy theories evolved and went viral through word of mouth.
Single page newspapers came up overnight. Printed in a gothic font without colors they conveyed more rumors than information. Wise people assimilated the important measures taken by the Government and ignored the rest, a habit they have developed because their digital predecessors were no less prone to misinformation and rumor-mongering.
The night
'The sky is shrouded in the gloomy night. There are no clouds, the moon still below the horizon. The darkness of black turns into green and green turns into red. A blue-green cloud appears at the center of the sky. The green-red cloud starts rotating like a whirlpool until a void is created in the center,' A middle-aged lady described the scene to her husband.
'Are you writing poetry?' her husband asked as she leans out of her window.
'No honey, I am witnessing the most beautiful night sky I had ever seen.'
'Ok, what is it?'
'It is Aurora Borealis. The bright green cloud which occasionally hovers the sky only near earth's poles.'
'Com' on honey you cannot see aurora borealis from New York even if all thermal power plants come to halt and all cars start emitting water and colorless hydrogen.'
She clicked a pic as proof. Oh. The digital camera refused to click. She simply stuck to the frame without saving the content. Cathy Sommerfield turned to her mobile phone. Unable to put her code, she was locked out of her phone. She brought out her paper diary. Quite unusual for people in her age and profession. She started noting down.
A thundering sound came and the green cloud concentrated in a fireball. As the fireball of the green cloud touched the upper floors of the high rise buildings, the entire floor melted. Some buildings exploded even before they melted. People inside had no time to think and no way to escape. A green ring formed in the sky and starts rotating. The rotating ring was collapsing into a ball of fire. The fireball started descending down from the sky.
Fireball had become a cannonball heading straight for Cathy's home. Its brightness was so dazzling that Cathy turns her face away. Her husband got a glimpse of the blue-green fireball, caught her by shoulder dragging her out of their house. Outside the home, a huge mob had been running helter-skelter. Sound of shouts, cries, and wailing filled the air.
The fireball dived like an arrow straight from the height of 20000 meters, hitting her house, burning it immediately into flames. Cathy looked at her dream house for a split second. There was no time to cry. She placed all her weight on her palms, raises herself up with the help of her husband and ran as fast as she can. Fireballs kept on coming down from the sky and burn the nearby houses. Aurora slid into the homes and motorways, its green patterns once a symbol of beauty had become dreadful.
She felt something burning her heels, she could not lean on her husband. She turned back to check where he was. She couldn't find anything except fumes. Where are the other people? They also? She thinks. Her thoughts first melted into tears then vapor. Within moments she also turned into fumes. Now the only fire was left, no sound, all shoutings, cries and wailing just vanish into fumes with a loud explosion.
As if all of this was not enough, another disaster was looming large. A major volcano in the south Atlantic sea was about to explode. Earthquakes are rattling the surface of the earth as if it was a warning sign to all of humanity. Cracatau volcano was ready to punish humanity for its violations. Humanity did not give it a chance to spit away its anger for the last several decades. Every time it had its eyes red and nose fuming, an advanced AI program predicted the weak spots on its mountainous surface which were quickly reinforced with ultra-sticky glue. The hotspots and vent holes were plugged in leaving the anger buried deep inside the heart of the volcano. This time the volcano wanted its revenge. Its acidic fumes traveled across the globe. Outside the homes it was doomsday. Brown acidic rain was drenching all possible life forms.
With no messaging and no calls the situation was soon going out of control. Deep panic gripped the whole world. In the midst of all this, there was the Anti-Cursor who enjoyed the scene. After all it was all his game.
Now Shaan and Megan had understood that the enemy is neither a man nor a woman, neither an animal nor a bird, neither gas nor metal; yet very subtle and present, challenging the very foundations of humanity. Though it came from the sky above it's not of divine origin. It's roots lie very much at the same place from where humanity traces all its evolutionary advantage, the Intelligence. The ransom it has asked is bigger than ever. As humanity is left to contemplate all possible options or rather lack of them, Ryan stands up, takes a deep breath, and embarks on a dubious journey, a journey he was never part of until that day...
******
Ryan saw the impact of decursorification on human society. Though his mind knew all this thing are happening, his soul was not ready to accept. Anti-Cursor announced:
'Ryan I am giving one final chance, now you must understand that you have been defeated.'
==============================