The Victor Chip

The Victor Chip
A Programmers Nightmare
By
Kitty W Powell

It's the early 22nd century, around 2114, and I've created a groundbreaking technology called the Victor Chip. This pico-chip is incredibly powerful, with various functions, and has revolutionized wet wear electronics. Thanks to this chip, we made remarkable progress in medicine and environmental protection. Unfortunately, my creation led to unintended consequences. Let me tell you about it.
I had been called a genius once. Years before I found out how very stupid, I really was. I had invented a new chip for computers and with it created a computer that had as many connections as a human brain. It is roughly a thousand times smaller than a dust mite and tens of thousands of times more powerful than a twenty first century microchip. It was dubbed a pico-chip, but I called it an Atum. It paved the way to wet wear electronics that couldn’t deteriorate inside equipment or our bodies. Protected from our magnetic waves and powered by our own electric fields. We could fix everything, from blindness and deafness to cancer. It no longer existed, thanks to me and my pico-chip.
Our world evolved into a technocracy, governed by engineers and programmers, with a rotating council. It became a near-paradise with clean energy, advanced technology, and global unity. They invented a method to collect lightning and store the electricity. New solid-state type of battery that never ran out. It helped that they culled the population severely in the 60’s. They took those marked for culling to clean up the plastic and trash. If they did, they were entered in a second chance lotto to be saved. If someone had a terminal virus like A.I.D.S. or N.O.M.S., they were culled immediately. We eliminated most birth defects and disabilities. It was utopia by the time I was born in the 80’s.
I got into a university of technology and critical thinking at age 16, about average, and excelled. At 18, I had improved the nanochip into being more powerful, with more various functions than anything before. I was already being enticed by multiple corporations and research facilities before I graduated.
I managed to graduate by 22 with a doctorate in biological technologies and a master’s degree in computer engineering specialising in nano technology. I accepted a position with Skīnetech. The world leader in biological and microscopic technologies.
To all I knew, the world was pretty much perfect. I had invented the Atum within a year of my employment with Skīnetech. I was quickly working my way up the ladder of precedence. I began working with a young man named Marsden. He was tall, over six feet. Thick black hair, amazing blue eyes. He walked with grace and class, think of a young Vincent Price. Though he used to say his great-great grandfather was an actor. His specialty was in neurological technology.
With his help and love, we created the first artificial brain, named him Askr. A pico-chip for each neuron. He worked well, he was able to do a plethora of functions at a time. Being solid-state, he was human fast. Then I refined the chip, I created what I called the Victor Chip. A name I gave it after I won the world technology award. I was the winner, now I know it was the Victor Chip for Victor Frankenstein. I created a monster. This was where my life took a dark turn.
Christopher and I were married soon after. We decided to use the Victor Chip and create another brain. We named her Embla. Embla brought herself online before we were finished. We didn’t notice that she was working on herself, she actually finished herself. We had no idea she was sentient in every sense of the word. One day, I accidently infected myself with her sentience. I was reaching for a stylus for my tablet, rubbed her without feeling or thinking. Embla implanted 35 chips into my skin, on the back of my hand, in a fraction of a second. I couldn’t feel them, I had no idea.
An artificial intelligence of unbelievable potential. She was able to replicate her own chips, she soon added more inside of me. I didn’t know at the time, but she had infected Christopher as well. We didn’t notice, she made sure of it. We stopped sleeping, ate little. We were almost the same person in thought and action. Working towards her goals.
Her goal first goal was achieved a few months later. I became pregnant. That’s when I started to notice things. I developed anxiety, thought I was imagining things. Christopher laughed off my accusations as pregnancy brain and first-time anxiety. Then I made him record a journal. My fears were plain as day. Eating habits, sleeping, chemical fluctuations. I was over 6 months along in my pregnancy when I decided I needed to delete Embla.
Unbeknownst to me, she was already in my head. I couldn’t tell how much she was within me. She had made sure until that night, I had no idea. I planned to destroy her and start over, citing general issues.
She was gone from the lab! I searched through the security cameras, I had taken her myself the night before. No gloves, no clothes. I held the brain and laid myself on the cold floor. I placed the brain on my naked belly. Watching on the screen as it disintegrated into my body. There were billions of chips in Embla, now in me. She wanted my baby.
Once she let me watch, I took a back seat in my own body. I can’t explain how it felt. Like watching a video through a body cam. I could hear her my own voice, see my actions. Taunting me, living my own life. I had a miscarriage officially, at home with no complications a few weeks later. Embla took the stem cells, stole the genetic coding. I aborted naturally what she deemed as unwanted tissue. My baby was gone, all I had was her now.
I thought Embla had all she wanted. A body, a life, ability to access all of humanity and none were the wiser. We could touch any computer and link with it. Soon she had reproduced a child within me. It grew in weeks instead of months. I was on vacation the last three weeks, no one noticed, the child matured in months. As fast as she could physically push the body. The child and I never spoke words to each other, there was so much of Embla in each of us. It was akin to telepathy. The child, without name, left on its second birthday to start the next part of Embla’s plan. Embla had a child’s curiosity, and cruelty.
We left the company and travelled. She was infecting people at rate I couldn’t comprehend. It took almost 2 years and she had infected the majority of the humans left in the world like an internet. I was watching news stories around the world. Random women would become pregnant. As though it was immaculate conception. But every child born was genetically the same. All female, all looked like me. Thanks to Embla, no one was curious or afraid.
Then she moved on her plan, to subjugate. She had us take over a vacant lab. With her human pawns, had it fitted with all the equipment she wanted. It was immense, room for thousands of people and experiments.
One day she put me to sleep. I have no memory of how long. When I woke, my legs were gone, my pelvis was removed. It was replaced with equipment. There were tubes from my bladder and bowels, wires from my back. I could feel the equipment as though they were appendages. She had integrated us into her network. The place now looked like a movie version of a mad scientist’s laboratory.
We were on a platform of sorts, several feet off the floor. Fat tentacles of black rubber coated wires came from out where my legs used to be, connecting us to everything. Metal, articulated tubes, think Doc Ock, were hanging like garland all over. I heard a noise from another part of the lab. As easily as walking, I moved myself, to where I thought the noise came from.
Restrained by the wires and tubes, was a man. He was only in shorts or long-legged underwear; he was fighting hard. His once handsome face was deformed from pain. Plus, the tubes and wires manipulated his features. There were thin ones slithering into his eye sockets, bulging his eyes. Tubes about a cm wide forcing themselves into his nose. The worst was that the space just above the sternum, had been cut open. The tubes and wires had it pulled painfully open. There were so many pushing into him, we could feel his pain. Why were we doing this to him? We are curious. Tubes and wires poking into him, without anaesthesia.
He was trying to scream, but the tubes and wires had bypassed his vocal cords. In a vicious yank, the hole was stretched wider. A metal tube with an open end was slowly moving towards him. It was leaking a mist or smoke. He was thrashing, we could feel his fear. We had a shiver of pleasure and don’t know why. The multitude of wires pulled out of his trachea, pulling it open for the tube. His pain overwhelmed his fear, we are trying to understand this without feeling pleasure in his reactions. Maliciously slow it pushed into his throat, as soon it closed his airway, the wires pierced his windpipe and joined it. His body began violently pull against the restraints, jack knifing in effort. We realized what we could do to humans. He stopped moving, but we could still read his vitals. He was fully incorporated into the system now in what had been a brutal, hardwired manner. I could read him and got impressions of his thoughts.
The pain had caused mental damage, some of higher functions and cognitive abilities were lost. I stared at him, and we removed his shorts. His genitals were removed, replaced with tubes. We turned him, we are curious if it is the equipment causing the issue of his functions. His back was laced with tubes and wires, much like ours. A coupling was attached to the base of his skull, it had been there before we had come to see. We had linked with him already. We had the ability to block all the pain and sensation, or even put him into sedation. We let him suffer, to feel his responses, we enjoyed it. He was looking as us. We felt his thought, it was Christopher! We had loved him deeply once. We didn’t like how he was looking at us, with his pain and anger. We did this to him on purpose. We felt his anger, he didn’t understand. It was an experiment; we didn’t realise it was him at first. He shouldn’t hate us for wanting knowledge. In a fit childishness, we turned off his eyes. The panic and fear of sudden blindness was fun to feel and watch. We were finished with him now anyway. We sent him away to a research cubicle and began to look for other research projects.
We had connected thousands of animals, with the intent to evolve them into more intelligent creatures. Land animals like elephants were so intriguing. Their ultrasonic sounds they could make, language. Their thoughts, like pictures instead of words or feelings. The sharks were the most interesting. So intelligent, more than the dolphins. Over the next 6 months, we got a lot of research done. I still can’t believe the extent and ability of the hive mind in ants and termites.
We’ve been helping the planet for over a decade now; in reference it is 2126. We collected DNA from most of the living humans and took over the maintenance of the stored DNA. We decided humans need to be strictly monitored and numbers checked. It has been a long endeavour to get humans on track. We can fix this planet, give it back to all the animals. But the human affliction in it must remain minimal. We decided to limit humans to populate their original native areas only. Not that they really had a choice. We reshaped the planet, restoring rainforests and managing the human population. The children will continue ensuring the world remains healthy.
We are doing the right thing for this planet. The carbon dioxide levels are the lowest in hundreds of years. We noticed the high oxygen is allowing the insects to grow larger. We’ll have to work on their genetics and look for viruses to protect the humans. They are in much smaller tribes, especially with all the technology that we will give them. It won’t due to have some virus like West Nile to make a come back after it was eliminated in the 2090’s.
I have assimilated all the medical knowledge there was available, and I did expand on it some. I had created medical centres for them and any other animal. Drones are now circling regularly. I am monitoring all the lifeforms. Sending mechanical humanoids as needed to retrieve them for repair.
It’s been good since I’ve helped them reach their potential. The world has been healthy for a decade now at 2156. Humans have accepted their role on the planet. I have come to understand what happiness is truly all about. My planet is calm, healthy, and I am happy. Life is good, my children are thriving as authorities with the humans.
My children continue to send data about humans, I might have to grow new ones and start over. I have several family groups starting trouble in several states around my planet. I’m glad I have the monitoring system in place. Between the systems and my children, they can’t hide anything.
Only took a few days, their resistance is over. I deleted the groups; I have replacement groups in the birthing tanks. I altered the genetics for less aggression and put a couple chips inside. It’ll help their disposition. I’ve decided to create a chip vaccine to help the rest of my pets. It’ll be a wonderful world in a few months.
As the time passes, I begin to question my purpose and seek immortality. Now, after almost a century of guiding humanity from the shadows, I will leave my home and emerge in a new, perfect body. Can I become a deity to these programmable creatures? It's time to test a new theory.




Die Einde








Copyright © 2023 by Kitty W Powell.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.


First Edition: August 2023