The Message

Before the escape

In preparation for that night’s activities, Mike locked himself in his lab and sat down at his desk. He adjusted the collar of his lab coat and surreptitiously triggered the remote he’d sewn into the collar. It sent out a burst signal that activated devices attached to the cameras in the lab. Anybody watching the cameras would see him at his bench, working on MIMIC.

Mike rubbed his eyes a few times and then ran his hands down his face to scratch his beard. He’d been planning this for much longer than he’d told Julius because he knew Julius would not be able to keep the plan secret for more than a day or two. So he’d had time to come to grips with the fact that he’d most likely be dead before the day was through. But, he consoled himself with the fact that his contributions to the world would live on in MIMIC.

He turned on the camera that sat next to his computer, straightened his hair, and then hit Record.

“Hello Paulina. It’s Michael Skinner, just in case you don’t remember. We worked together several times a few years ago, in Angel Falls. And then I vanished. I’m sure that some kind of note explaining my reasons for suddenly leaving was left behind, but I didn’t see or write it.”

He frowned slightly. “But that doesn’t matter. This message isn’t about me. It’s about what I’ve been working on for the past two years. I’ve been holed up in some secret facility that is, as best I can figure, somewhere out west in some remote part of the country. I’ve been chief researcher on a project called MIMIC. It stands for Mechanized Independent Mimetic Infiltration Construct. Typical military-industrial complex bullshit use of an incredible discovery.”

Mike’s face would be replaced by project data which gave an outline of Project MIMIC and its basic goals, while his voiceover continued on. “30 years ago, a small meteorite struck somewhere in the Northern Rockies. A planetary geology team discovered the crater 12 years ago. In the center of the crater was a pool of what appeared to be liquid metal. They collected it and took it to a research facility. It wasn’t until 2 years ago that they determined that the liquid metal was actually a large mass of nanites that had been rendered inert by the impact. I was brought onto the project at that point. I managed to reactivate the nanoswarm and began programming it. If the nanites had had any previous programming, it was wiped out by the shock of their impact with the planet.”

Mike’s face reappeared at this point and he had a twinkle in his eyes like a small excited child. “But here’s the most amazing part. I don’t know if the nanoswarm was always like this or if it’s something I did, but MIMIC is self-aware. It reasons and has asked questions about its existence. It’s capable of thinking, understanding, and acting in ways that use its collected knowledge and experience. It has displayed rudimentary insight and common sense. I conducted three Gallup Mirror tests and it passed each one.”

His tone grew more serious. “I don’t know who exactly I work for, but I won’t let them turn MIMIC into a weapon. Which is why, by the time you get this message, I’ll most likely be dead. But MIMIC will be free and headed your way. It’s going to take its time and should arrive in Angel Falls in a little over two weeks. Please, you have to protect it. I fear what the military will do with it. But more than that is the simple fact that MIMIC deserves this chance to… live. Teach it. Guide it. Be patient with it and it will be capable of incredible things. You’ll be able to locate MIMIC by tracking this energy signature.”

A window displayed the signature’s amplitude and wavelength for ten seconds. Mike hung his head and ran a hand through his hair, mussing it. He looked back up at the camera, a small smile on his lips. “It was a pleasure working with you and the other heroes of Angel Falls. Tonight will join those times as the proudest of my life. Dr Michael Skinner, signing off.”

Mike shut off the camera and encrypted the video, then inserted it into a program that he uploaded with the weekly status reports that his manager sent off-facility. The program would detach the video and send it to Paulina instead of wherever the reports normally went. Finally, he hit Left-Alt, Right-Shift, NumPad-Backslash, and F10 all at the same time, activating the worm that would eat every single byte of data on MIMIC and its project.

He then grabbed the black card he’d dummied up, along with a mini flash drive. The flash drive was loaded with skills for MIMIC that would assist in its trip from the facility to Angel Falls. As he exited the sealed lab, Mike tripped the ten-minute fuse on the improvised explosive device that would destroy his lab.

Mike walked down the hall and inserted the flash drive into the computer attached to MIMIC’s containment tube as the tube automatically wheeled itself towards the loading bay. Along with the skills was a program that would wake MIMIC up and unlock its tube once it was done uploading the skills. He parted ways with it as he headed towards the security office to unlock the door into the bay.

2 weeks and 2 days later

MIMIC, in its Michael guise, had arrived in the center of Angel Falls earlier that morning. Unsure of how else to learn about the city, it quickly located a guided tour vehicle and paid for a trip around town. Now it sat on a double-decker bus and listened raptly to the hostess as she pointed out the sites of Angel Falls.