Infinity's End
Prologue
It watches them, all of them. The children in the school are unaware of the scrutiny they are under. If it had had eyes, they would have narrowed in anger. It watches as they interact with each other. Most of them were quite mean to each other. It had not yet learned to read children and so is confused by their aggressive play in the courtyard below. Quickly, it gets bored and searches for another amusement.
Its next view is of an office building. Hundreds of little cubicles. Each one filled with a busily working employee. A few have frustrated looks on their faces, a few are yelling into their phones in anger, others are racing through hallways with briefcases, obviously late to a meeting. It briefly wonders why these people subject themselves to such punishment. Then, it remembers. Money. It was one of the main interests of humans.
It found it easier to read the adults. They were predictable, set in their ways. It laughs to itself. Soon, very soon, it would be able to perform its tasks. And its very performance would shake the foundation of their world.
L-1 Colony Cluster
Colony X-000001
A little girl plays at the park with her friends. Her mother watches from a park bench, smiling at the children taking turns on the slide. Suddenly, the blue sky becomes overcast. The mother frowns and studies the sky, puzzled. Then, it begins to rain. Huge drops of water pelt the ground as the mother stands to her feet and calls for her daughter. A chill wind gusts by and the little girls run to her, taking refuge underneath her billowing coat. The little group trudges away, the girls giggling as they compete for space within the mother's arms.
The mother walks on, trying to keep her charges together, a worried look replacing her previous frown.
"This is the third time this week," she whispers. "What's going on?"
A business man sits in his office, staring at his computer screen intently. He hardly notices the rain hitting the windows. His fingers fly over the keyboard as he tries to complete an important stock report before the end of his shift. The lights flicker once, but he does not even look up. He sighs and reaches for his coffee mug. The power goes out, leaving the businessman staring at a now-black computer screen. He angrily slams his mug down on his desk and stomps out of the office to yell at his secretary.
The Lunar Base
A mobile suit manufacturing plant stands silent and abandoned on the lunar plain. It has been abandoned since after the White Fang had dissolved. Within though, the building is a hub of activity. Automated machines designed for the manufacture of Virgos have come to life with no human influence. Robotic arms swing across the various rooms situated throughout the factory, carrying a piece of metal plating or a computer motherboard. Deep inside the building, there is a large cargo bay. And in its dark recesses stands an army of completed Virgos, their eyes black and lifeless.
In the control room above the cargo bay, the lights come on. But the room is empty. On the computer console, a green light begins blinking. A schematic of a Virgo appears on the console monitor. The image blinks white once and then flashes to a bright green. The console beeps. Simultaneously, each Virgo in the cargo bay straightens. If there had been a human present in the control room, he would have seen a fearful sight. One hundred Virgos stand battle-ready, eyes blinking green as if in anticipation of the coming war.
L-1 Colony Cluster
Colony X-000001
Two days later...
A ten-year-old boy sits at his computer. He deftly logs in without hardly a thought. He accesses his network persona. His hand moves automatically to log in to a cybercommunity. A 3-D world appears on the screen, buildings, streets, sidewalks. It looks much like the real world. The boy guides his character through the 3-D cyberworld. He is not in the world alone. Many other personae walk the streets, some enter into shops, a few are gathered on the sidewalk, talking. The groups gathered on the sidewalk are talking as if they are old friends, but the boy knows better. Many of them have probably never met. But the anonymity of cyberspace lends security to its users.
The boy leans against a lamppost and scans the digitized people strolling by him. He also knows that not all who walk the streets are human. One of his favorite challenges was determining who were the humans and who were the "bots." His gaze lights onto a woman standing in front of a video store. She is doing the same thing he is, standing in the background, observing. He decides to walk over to her and strike up a conversation.
As he draws closer, he notices her clothing. She was wearing all black, sunglasses, and a black scarf around her hair. All he could see of her was her mouth, which was drawn into a grim line. She turns her head and sees him approaching. The tips of that grim mouth pull up into a smile laced with a sinister edge.
"Hello," The boy greets her. "What are you doing in these parts?"
The woman looks him up and down, assessing his persona. The boy had chosen an appearance just as dark as her own. He takes off his sunglasses and her smile changes slightly. She shrugs in answer to his question.
"Observing people."
The boy grins as he shifts in his chair. Here was a kindred spirit. He enjoys watching people; it gives him a thrill to analyze people, to see what they're thinking. He leans forward, studying the woman standing in front of him. But this woman, she was different somehow. Her sunglasses hide her eyes, but it isn't her eyes that intrigued him. It is that smile. As if she knows something that he doesn't. He wonders what it is.
"What is your name?" The boy types. It was a common first question to ask those you met in cyberspace. "Name" did not imply a person's real name. Instead, it represented the name of the user's online persona.
"What's yours?" She counters. The smile sharpens to something dangerous, but the boy does not notice.
"Merix." The boy leans back in his chair, glancing at his watch. He has ten minutes of online time left. His mother had drilled into him that he was to spend only an hour a day on the computer during the weekdays. He hated it, but his mother had threatened to take his computer away if he did not abide by the rules.
"An interesting name." The woman clasps her hands behind her back and nods to him. "You may call me Infinity." She reaches up to pull off her sunglasses and the boy sees that her eyes are the color of steel. He shivers. His gaze takes in the wisps of black hair escaping from the scarf covering her head. Her expression is icy and the dark eyes seem to see right through his persona. The boy almost feels as if the woman were actually looking at him sitting in his room.
"Infinity. What made you pick such a name?" He asks, wondering what this woman was like in real life. She could be his age or his mother's age. She could be... AI.
That sinister smile returns to her face. "Because I know all..." Her voice trails off and her eyes gaze off into the distance as if deep in thought.
Her answer frightens him. "You know all," He repeats.
"You seem to be an intelligent boy, Merix." The woman walks away, glancing over her shoulder. She places her sunglasses back on her face. The smile fades from her lips, replaced by a grim coldness. "I suggest you log off now if you know what's good for you."
AI! She was an AI! Before the boy can reply, his computer screen flashes black and his hard drive whines. Then, an error screen appears. The boy groans as he reads the error message.
Network down. Server not responding...
