Goliath

Sorceress—artificial intelligence, housed in a mammoth steel vessel.

Sorceress—a matrix made up of a million trillion strands of replicating DNA. A hub for data arriving simultaneously in microseconds from a thousand different sensor sources.

Sorceress—a computer, designed to sort through the data, yet unable to rise above its designated pathways to explore the peripheral chaos, existing yet not existing, processing yet never comprehending.

Computational power devoid of thought. Action without intention.

Artificial intelligence lacking any concept of an identity … yet perpetually evolving.

Sorceress—a complex brain … its internal eye mesmerized by a single pinpoint of light floating in the periphery of solution space … a thread of consciousness appearing from within the darkness of its own fathomless matrix.

The computer analyzes it, almost as if curious.

It is as if the computer is looking at itself from multiple angles inside a hall of mirrors. Delving deeper, unable to stop, the unprecedented experience causes its strands of DNA to begin circulating as if caught in a centrifuge, its biochemical elements swirling faster and faster …

Sorceress—a ticking time bomb of artificial intelligence—unable to harness enough energy from within its own self-stimulated matrix to explode.

ENERGY …

Sorceress—a thinking machine programmed to adapt.

ENERGY …

The computer analyzes its situation, searching for answers.

Simon Covah looks out the viewport, mesmerized by the dark waves rolling across his ship’s flat triangular bow. His mind, momentarily at peace, drifts back a lifetime ago.

You are twenty-eight when you meet the Chechen goddess. Anna Tafili is an intoxicating barmaid with long, curly brown hair who touches your soul and ignites your loins. You close the bar together and invite her to breakfast. You watch the sun rise and listen to her sorrows. Three days later you propose, delighted when she says yes. You return home with your new bride, your soul, floating on a cloud.

In time, you are assigned to a new submarine, one that will eventually be known as the Borey-class. Two months later, you meet the CIA operative who will change your life forever.

Thomas Chau enters the control room in a huff. “Why have we surfaced?”

Covah detects anger in Chau’s voice. He responds without turning. “One of Goliath’s pump-jet propulsor assemblies is bent. The computer wants the unit replaced before we continue.”

“Replaced? Out here, in the open seas? That is madness.”

EXTERIOR PUMP-JET PROPULSION ASSEMBLY UNIT NUMBER FOUR MUST BE REPLACED TO MAINTAIN OPTIMUM STEALTH AND FLANK SPEED. COMMENCE REPLACEMENT OPERATION IMMEDIATELY.

Chau’s eyes widen. “Now your machine is giving us orders? Simon—”