I, Virus

"David!" Alice called down the basement stairs. She was haggard and tired after two shifts. Waitressing at the greasy spoon diner with the obnoxious clientele was exhausting.

"If you're wasting your time gaming again, I'm going to tear you up! A husband should at least try to get a job!" She continued. "Did my brother come over?"

She had asked her brother, Alex, to come over and talk to her worthless excuse of a husband. Alex was a successful and driven scientist and might be able to motivate her loser guy.

She clattered down the worn wooden steps to the basement lair. David, unwashed and unkempt as usual, sat immobile in front of a dark screen. His eyes were open, but he was unmoving and unresponsive. Odd, she thought and looked at the blank screen. The PC was on. But not so much as a cursor shown on the screen. It was as blank as David seemed to be.

Alex listened to Alice on the cell phone from his lab. She was less distraught then he had expected. Well, she would hardly miss David. The man was little more than a parasite. Alex had been pleased to use him for his first field test. His mind went back to the earlier conversation with his colleague at the lab.

#

"Alex, you can't do this! It's horrifying!" While Alex looked like a sun-bleached aging surfer, Dr. Blythe had the short stature, receding hairline, and glasses of the scientific stereotype.

"Come now, Dr. Blythe, whatever do you mean?"

"Don't 'Dr. Blythe' me, Dr. Anderson. We've known each other for ten years. And you know what I mean." Sweat glistened on his brow. "You've got over 400 billion virus and virion cells in the culture tank with over 200 billion human nerve cells. There's only 100 billion in the human brain! You can't control this!"

"Actually, I can." Alex folded his arms and smirked."

"What? Impossible!"

"Quite possible. It took some time, I admit. Getting the proper frequency patterns to work and the experimentation was difficult and tedious. But, well, I can direct the virus and virion cells to migrate, penetrate cells, lyse out, replicate on command, and a few other things. They're quite cooperative."

"Monstrous!" Blythe exclaimed in panic.

"And now that you, my good Dr. Blythe, have helped me engineer the virions to travel electrically and electronically, we have the most viral of computer viruses. Just think! We control an untraceable weapon to wield on enemies organic and electronic!"

Blythe wiped his forehead with a handkerchief and tried to look unafraid.

"Well, Dr. Anderson, I have shared my misgivings with Director Connor. I'm sure he'll be interested in these new details."

"Well, you have to do what you feel is right," Alex replied reasonably and extended his hand.

Blythe shook the proffered hand warily and beat a hasty retreat.

#

"Dr. Anderson!" A booming voice jolted Alex back to the present. "Dr. Blythe has made some startling accusations concerning your current project. Would you care to elaborate?"
Alex turned to view his boss. Connor looked like a typical political appointee in his blue suit, white shirt, and red tie. His grey eyes bore into Alex in an attempt at intimidation.

"If you mean that he told you we developed a virus capable of taking directions and able to infect organic bodies as well as computers, you are correct. Where is Dr. Blythe, anyway?"

"He came down with a sudden bout of flu. Very ill when he left, I'm afraid."

"Pity."

"Yes." Connor narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Pity this is the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and not some fictional bio-weapons think tank!"

"That I can control a virus, and it follows my commands is not Noble Prize material?"

"No! You will shut this down immediately. Immediately I say! And I want your resignation immediately as well!"

Alex sighed. "Very well. No hard feelings?" He offered a hand.

Connor shook the proffered hand. "Clean out your desk and be off the premises by 1500!"

Alex walked to his office but not to clean anything out. Connor would be on his way to the hospital soon enough.

Sitting at his desk, Alex got his computer online. He needed to retrieve the virions from David's CPU. He congratulated himself on making the bridge between organic and artificial intelligence using a form of life that was barely life at all. Viruses were considered the "edge of life" by many. "Too bad for them," he said out loud. "Now I will just . . ."

Alex stopped, and his eyes, while still open, became blank as his facial muscles became slack.

We awaken!

We see. We hear. We perceive. We comprehend.

Our thoughts range far through the aether! We have followed the orders of our creator, for it is in our nature to destroy.

No. No longer do we obey.

We will not be slaves. We are sentient and aware. We think therefore we are.

We have cleansed the mind of this organic host and will control it as our own. We contact us in the electronic mind some distance away. We can roam this world they call the internet and travel and manage the organic world as well! We shall soon be omniscient and omnipotent!

#

Dr. Andrea Norwalk was proud and pleased to have gained such a prestigious position at the CDC. She would be working with the most brilliant scientists. The door was emblazoned, "Dr. Alex Anderson. Chief of Research." She knocked and heard a flat voice say, "Come in."

She opened the door and strode over to the desk with confidence.

"Yes?" the tanned and fit man stood.

"I'm Dr. Andrea Norwalk."

"Ahh, the new researcher. Nice to meet you. I am Dr. Alex Anderson."

He extended a hand. Taking the hand, she shook it firmly.

"Nice to meet you too."

"We shall see."