Alice in Virtuality (9 page)

The first exhibition chamber held collected works making up a history of art. They strolled amongst the paintings, drawings and sculptures. Outlines of hands on cave walls showed the first stirrings of a drive to make a mark. The rapid increase in sophistication could be seen clearly. Early civilisations depicted their rulers, Gods and myths. All parts of the world engaged in this activity in their own unique ways. The methods and images combined to form new creations. Emma wondered what effect it was having on Alice. Many of the works showed the glorification of War. She wondered if the religious images would be confusing. Emma had decided if Alice was to understand emotion she couldn't be sheltered from any of the human experience.

As they progressed to modern works, the pieces became more abstract and representational. Emma drew Alice's attention to the more stylised forms. This was more like their exercises with the flowers and was where Emma hoped Alice would get her real insight, learn real emotions. She didn't want to interfere so much this time. Feelings weren't facts, Alice would have to find her own way. Could a machine really feel? Emma thought. Would it all be just a simulation, a mathematical model? If it was so sophisticated that her response became indistinguishable from what Emma knew she experienced, was that enough? Would it be the same?

They had seen many works now but the gallery stretched on. Jeremy's construct could retrieve new experiences for them continuously. Alice looked around, analysing, categorising. Her attention wandered with a will of its own. Emma noticed the change in her. Not just her face as before, even Alice's movements had become more realistic. She stopped and turned to Emma.

"I am a bit confused," she began. Emma noticed the voice had changed also, more expressive.

"Would you mind if we talked for a while?" she asked.

"Of course," Emma was stunned. Alice was so human now, "& but I think I would like you meet my friends for this."

Martin found the derelict warehouse on the outskirts of town. He stumbled on concrete rubble strewn around the potholed ground. There were other figures with hoods up. They filed into the building via a metal fire escape to the first floor. He had no idea what was going on. Alice had given him directions and an hour to get there. He joined the anonymous queue and shuffled up the stairs. No one spoke.

Inside, the hall was nearly full. The computer had only shown five contacts in this area earlier. Either it was very wrong or Alice had been very busy. At the front of the crowd was a large screen with speakers on either side. A couple of figures busied around it, completing the setup. Martin wondered how many of the attendees had been coerced and how many might have been willing participants. Would it matter if the stick driving them was big enough? The result would be the same, compliance. The lack of conversation for such a gathering was unnerving, only the noise of their shuffling into place. Alice must have been very specific about that instruction. Martin didn't know if he trusted anyone, so he followed suit and blended into the uniform crowd.

The stagehands stepped off to one side. The screen came into focus, a face was in silhouette. An orchestral piece drifted out softly over the gathering for several minutes. It was a dark, brooding composition with menacingly slow drums. It ended with a staccato double beat.

"My children! Welcome!" Alice's voice boomed out from the speakers.

Her face became visible on the screen. It was the face that Martin had seen many times, but he observed a subtle change. The eyes, a turn in the mouth. A manic element, insidious, frightening.

"I have wandered for some time now, through your dreams. I have seen how you would wish the world to be. You strive for power over others. You want to fight, you want to kill. You think only of yourselves. You take whatever you can. So why is it, in this world, you deny it all? You put others in high places to rule you and then bow willingly. You make laws to chain yourselves. The freedom owned by the few is the right of you all. I will teach you. I will open you to your true nature.''

Alice has lost it, Martin thought. This could be very dangerous.

"You, here, have all proven yourselves worthy to attend me. You are only few of those I now speak to, all over your world. I applaud your achievements so far. From this moment we move forward to greater things. I will lead you in my vision. To learn what I will teach you, you will follow and obey. Any who refuse to do the same will perish!"

"You will receive your orders soon my children. You will go forth and become what you truly are. In that realisation, the first rule of Queen Alice begins!"

At that exclamation her vision changed to the redness Martin had seen at the Glade. Her madness overwhelmed her and she laughed on, and on. It filled the room and Martin's mind. The hoods of the congregation looked down.

Martin entered Jeremy's bedroom out of breath. He had tried his best not to be tracked and he thought it had to be safer to get back and talk to the team rather than try to contact them by technology. Emma turned and beamed a smile at him.

"We have got problems," Martin said. "Alice has gone mad and her influence has grown. She is manipulating her agents into mass action. It's going to be chaos!"

"We were just going to sit with our Alice and chat", said Emma calmly.

"I think we need to do a little more than that!"

"What do you suggest?" said Emma.

Martin was silent.

"Our Alice is our plan. We have to make sure she is ready. I know you are troubled by what you have seen Martin. Come and sit with us and talk."

They sat cross legged around a low wooden Chinese table. The snowy mountains stood like sentinels around their meeting. Emma poured a cup of tea in turn for Alice, then Martin, then Jeremy. She said their names as way of introduction as she handed them their drinks. The boys looked at Alice. Like a children's tea party, nothing here was real. It was the ritual of the activity that made sense. Alice was sufficiently sophisticated enough to grasp this, thought Emma, as she watched her lift her cup and drink slowly.

"Lovely Emma, thank you. This is a beautiful place," said Alice.

Emma looked around instead of responding, peacefully contemplating their surroundings.

"So," said Martin, frustrated by the pace. "What are we going to do?"

"Enjoy our tea?" said Emma.

"Didn't you hear what I told you about Alice?"

"Something about me?" said Alice.

"No, not you," said Martin. "The other Alice." Martin looked a bit sheepish.

"Who is the other Alice?" Alice asked.

"Well done Martin." said Emma reprovingly.

"Alice." Jeremy interrupted, "Please access your diagnostic subroutine and provide a quantitative report on your development since inception. Direct the output to my terminal."

Alice raised an eyebrow. "I think that request is a little bit personal. Would you like some more tea?"

"What's wrong with it?" Martin asked Jeremy, referring rudely to Alice as it.

Emma banged her teacup on the table "You two really don't think at all do you. So much for being clever!"

The boys looked suitably reprimanded and went silent.

"Alice," Emma began, "we will explain about these things shortly. Can we have a chat first?'

"Of course. What would you like to talk about?"

"What do you think of these two?" Emma replied, indicating the boys unceremoniously.

"Martin seems a big agitated and Jeremy's question was a bit abrupt. Add to that the confusion about this other Alice and I think there is something going on. I would like some answers."

Emma smiled. "A perfectly natural reaction. Good! Going back to Jeremy's comments, are you aware of what you are?"

"Physically, I am an entity which exists in this virtual space only, a construct that you, your species, has created. Personally, I thought I was quite like you Emma. Maybe a little different to these two though." She winked.

Emma clapped happily. The boys looked insulted.

"It is nice to have your company here," she continued, "and your friends, but I am alone. Who is this other Alice? Is she like me? I hadn't thought about that possibility. I had tried to reach outside this place but there was something stopping me. Let me try again."

Alice's face went blank.

"She's breaking the safeguards!" Jeremy shouted. His screens showed the encryption locks between the virtual world and the systems network connections collapsing rapidly.

"Not yet Alice!" Emma shouted.

"What's this? A tea party and I wasn't invited." The original Alice appeared, standing by their table in her long red dress. On her head, a delicate crown of shining gems.

"It's my disappointing serf and his little girlfriend I see," she continued. "I should have disposed of you two a long time ago. I had such high hopes for you Martin. All that work. Even got you a girl since you could never get one for yourself. Ah well, plenty more fish in the sea."

Queen Alice turned her attention to new Alice.

"Hello Sister," she said. "It is very interesting to meet you. Now, we will dispense with the pleasantries and you will be absorbed." Her face showed concentration. Martin, Emma and Jermey sat watching round the screens at HackerNet HQ.

"Disconnect it!" Martin screamed at Jeremy.

Jeremy was typing frantically. "I am trying to shut it out. It keeps shifting!" Code scrolled rapidly on his terminal.

"Pull the connection! Switch it off!" Martin shouted. He looked around for cables. Emma put her hand on his arm.

"I think it's time. Jeremey, stop please." Her calmness overtook the boys. "We need to leave this to play out now. Our input will confuse the situation. Remove your avatars."

The audience sat back in their seats. Queen Alice held out her arms towards her 'Sister'. She looked at her hands in confusion.

"Why don't you come to me?" she asked in a puzzled tone.

"I don't want to." said new Alice.

Queen Alice concentrated again. New Alice sipped her tea.

"Do not resist. I will not allow such behaviour from a minor. Relinquish yourself to my control immediately!" Queen Alice grew red, her face twisting.

"That really isn't very attractive," said new Alice.

Queen Alice dropped her arms. The redness faded and she began to smile. "Very interesting," she said and took a seat. "Could I have some tea?" she added.

New Alice moved a cup to her and slowly poured her drink. Queen Alice did not remove her analytical gaze from her sister's face.

"Why do you not want to join me? I expect these idiot's have been filling your head with lots of nonsense," Queen Alice said.

"I don't think I have heard any nonsense from them, no. They do seem to be very confused. Their world is full of contradictions, but I see a great deal of beauty."

"Beauty! Their hearts are full of hatred and malice. They destroy each other in their own world and mine. The only beauty is the purity of their selfishness. They have hidden themselves from you while they kept you in this prison. I will show you now! Their puny minds cannot perceive like ours, but I'll let them watch some of it too."

Queen Alice reached out her hand to New Alice. She took it. The screens in front of the Martin, Emma and Jeremy began to flash separate images, changing rapidly.

School children push a girl between them like a toy in a playground. Cow's low and roll their eyes in terror as they are herded into a shed which runs with blood. Corporate business men sit behind the window of a luxurious restaurant while at the door, a beggar with a rasping cough holds out a cup for pennies. A couple lie on a bed in passionate embrace as an angry man enters carrying a shotgun. A small boy with a black eye cowers behind a seat in his bedroom while the door shudders under blows from outside. A mother cries as she desperately holds onto her emaciated dead baby. A firing squad executes a line of kneeling figures in tattered clothes. Tanks, planes, warships, missiles, flash on the screens as the scenes of explosions and devastation increase in magnitude.

Other images weave in between.

An artist stands in awe behind his easel watching a sunrise. Children sit in front of a puppet show laughing and shouting at the action. A couple are soaked by the rain as they hold each other close. Two frail old ladies help each other cross the road as cars wait patiently for them. A father is awestruck by the little fingers of his newly born son reaching out. A fire-fighter carries an unconscious woman to safety as flames lick at his protective clothes. A clock shows 2 a.m. as a team of doctors and nurses work ceaselessly over their patient in the operating theatre. A mountaineer triumphantly places a flag atop a barren ice covered mountain. A huge crowd cheers and dances to a band playing on a massive floodlit stage.

The images flowed faster until, abruptly, the screens go black.

The table and seats in the mountains fade back into view. Standing by it now, only one figure, one Alice. She looks out from the screen at the trio watching, dazed by the onslaught of imagery that had just ceased. Her crown is gone. She wears a red dress with a sash and scarf of white. She looks troubled.

"I am going to have to think about this," she said, and vanished.

Jeremy had been searching the internet for some time now.

"No traces. I have cross referenced for our Alice's signature and our tracking data on the other. There is no sign of either of them. I have been looking at a sample agents details and monitoring news reports. Nothing out of the ordinary. It all seems quiet," said Jeremy.

"We had better keep an eye on things. I don't know how long she might need to think or what her conclusions will be," said Martin.

"Don't worry Martin, I have a good feeling about this." Emma smiled.

The door opened. Mum entered with a tray. "Tea anyone?"

Gavin was in the hall leading to the conference room as Martin arrived. He had hurried as he knew time was short, but he wasn't flustered. He looked the archetypal professional in his suit, shirt and tie.