It was a misty beautiful late September day when I died for the first time. It wasn’t painful and there were no glimpses of the afterlife. It was more like going to sleep and then waking up the next morning, just with lots of tubes and beeping noises around me. People in white lab coats were quietly going about their allotted task and showing as much concern about my state of health as they would about a plant that needed water or shade. My re-emergence must have triggered some kind of signal because one or two heads turned my way and a man incongruously dressed in a charcoal grey suit appeared in my line of site.
‘Welcome back’
Now the thing that I quickly realised was that dying also erases any memories of your recent past. It turns out that they quickly return but at that moment, I hadn’t a clue who this fellow was. Actually, for a little while, I hadn’t a clue who I was either. His explanation was intriguing but a little disconcerting at the same time.
It turns out that it wasn’t the first time that I had died and that it probably wouldn’t be the last. My name is Mike Smith and I am a soldier. Not that you would have recognised me as such 150 years ago. I don’t carry a gun, I don’t fly or sail in anything and I certainly don’t wear a uniform.
Sometime during the last century, war began to evolve. It started when the Eastern block realised that they could have a much higher success rate when trying to disrupt their enemies by simply hacking into power stations and gas pipelines. It was infinitely cheaper and exponentially more effective. And of course, no military lives were lost. At least at first. Notice that I said military lives because when the power goes down and fuel disappears for weeks on end, there is an inevitable consequence.
It wasn’t just the Eastern Block superpowers that were having a go at the west. Every Tom, Dick and Harry terrorist organisation were trying it on as well. And for a time they were winning. Europe, the U.S. and Australia in particular were taking a real beating. The economy of these regions was plummeting and that’s when they decided to fight back.
GCHQ in the UK and the European anti-Cyber force led the way but the USA were pitifully unprepared at first. However, they soon caught up and became a force to be reckoned with, wiping out a number of high profile groups. Eventually though, it became impossible to locate and destroy the people involved and so the battlefield switched to cyberspace and the military budgets were directed into R&D. Systems became increasingly complex evolving through fully automated defense and attack until we reached the point that we are at today.
Automated defenses controlled and directed by an enhanced human became the systems of preference. I know that it sounds contradictory but it was realized that fully automated systems could become overwhelmed by targeted attacks and that they worked better if an element of control was introduced. That would be me and my coworkers back in the firing line. Scary isn’t it that the western civilized world relies on a small group of enhanced humans to keep the hordes of hell at bay.
I must say that it largely works and except for the rare occasions when we become overwhelmed ourselves, life for most people remains untroubled. The price that we pay for giving this level of protection though is death. Not just once and final but over and over again. You see if their cyberbots get through to our level of defense, we in turn become swamped and our neural pathways can’t continue the fight and maintain body functions at the same time.
I have died and been reinstated five times so far which I believe is some kind of record. There is ongoing research into the psychological effects of repeated deaths but so far, I seem to be fine. One of the benefits of dying is the extended break at a location of my choice that I get afterwards although I have discovered that its better not to share my line of work with the public at large. There are always religious zealots who are prepared to rant at me about the spawn of the devil and opposing God’s plans for natural creation.
After each time that I am revived, there are the inevitable, incessant checks and also, the neural upgrades that the latest research has come up with. Usually, they are small incremental changes but this time I was told of a new threat from our enemies that had been discovered. Infiltration and spying had become just as important as my work and the research labs were continually streamed live data that directed their work.
Consequently, it was several months before I was put back into the firing line and sure enough I immediately saw a number of attack-bots that I didn’t recognize. My recent upgrade allowed me to direct our defenses successfully but it was a little unnerving seeing not just one but several anonymous software agents. They gave the impression that they were observing and not fully engaged with the fight so it was relatively easy to keep them at bay. I was troubled though.
It was a strange experience as I had never felt any doubts at all in my previous incarnations. I had been warned about this and as a result, I was pulled from the field of fire and instead paraded in front of the public as a war hero. It turned out that the last enemy that I faced was a new kid on the block. The United Federation of Pacific States had been in dispute with our government for years over a group of islands that we had usurped on some flimsy pretext. They had finally had enough and engaged us in cyber warfare.
My immediate problem though, was what I was to do with all of this time that I suddenly had on my hands. I pleaded with them to let me back into the tunnel but they insisted that once that uncertainty afflicts you, your career is over. After the excitement of gatekeeping in cyber warfare, I dreaded the alternatives that were on offer. Joining a research group held as much appeal as reading about the most delicious chocolate brownie compared to actually eating it. Actually, that is a crap comparison – forget I ever brought it up.
I was due a lot of time off and so I determined to find out more about the strange software agents that I had faced during my last encounter. It was frustrating that my superiors doubted my description about what I saw and as it was such a unique experience being closely observed by the enemy there was no data available. In retrospect, I can see that I must have become a real nuisance to the cyber corps as they eventually set me up with a reasonable pension and dismissed me.
As you can imagine, that really hurt my pride. I had been the best gatekeeper that they had and had died five times in their service. I was really annoyed at their attitude. Scrap that, I was furious. And so when I was approached with the possibility of taking my services elsewhere, offered massive amounts of money and an idyllic location to work from, I jumped at the chance. Hell, who wouldn’t have done – at least that’s how I justified it to myself.
It turned out that the software agents that I had noticed in my final encounter, the ones that I thought had been observing, had in fact been doing just that. It seems that they had been watching me for some time and it was only my upgrade that made me aware of them. So, you won’t be surprised to hear that my ‘offer’ came from the UFPS – the United Federation of Pacific States. You can bang on about loyalty but I actually thought that their complaint with us was fully justified and when I investigated further, it certainly looked as though these were the good guys. I had few ties back home so the best defense warrior in the western world switched sides.
At first, my duties were similar to those that I had been carrying out previously. Guard the portal into their infrastructure by directing the automated cyberbots. It was brilliant. Based on a pacific island with infinitely better resources than I had before and my bank balance climbing upwards at a more than healthy rate. More than that, I was appreciated. Not the fake war hero stuff but genuinely appreciated by the guy at the top. He recognized the guts that it had taken for me to switch sides and was aware of the contribution that I was making to his states economy.
Of course, history tells us that when all is going swimmingly well, something will come along to kick you in the cajones. This time it was at a party to which I had been invited. The UFPS was an informal federation and unlike my previous home, there was no stigma involved with the President mixing with plebs like me. I had met Fidius on a number of occasions and would you believe it, he had started off his working life in the same line of work as me. Well, almost, as he was Head of R&D rather than in the front line. He was also the inventor of the watcherbot. Awful name but I couldn’t persuade him to change it. When the Head of the UFPS came up for grabs, he was voted in on the back of what he had achieved. Sounds crazy but check the history books. Actors and no hoper businessmen have achieved the same.
When I was marginalized, it was his idea to try and recruit me. They had seen what I could do against much larger resources than their own and so trying to recruit me was a pretty obvious step. It turned out to be a lot easier than they had expected. The cyber portal into their infrastructure was much more recent than the one that I had previously been defending and as such, my job as gatekeeper was far easier. As it turns out, it was too easy, as I found out at the party. I was approached by Fidius himself with a proposition. Change my role from defense to offense. Lead the cyberbots on their next attack on my previous home and show how wrong they had been to discard me.
I accepted immediately especially as my already massive fees were going to be trebelled. I had an intimate knowledge of the defenses that we were going to attack and so it was anticipated that after all, the stolen islands would, at last, be returned to the UFPS.
The preparation started the next day. The latest upgrades were injected into my neural system and it was clear that with my leadership, we would easily be able to infiltrate their infrastructure and hold them to ransom in exchange for the return of the lost territory. I had few reserves about switching roles. I had originally changed sides on the back of the knowledge that I would be protecting people, albeit those of a different nation. This however changed things completely and although the intention was a ransom attack and I had the reassurance of the President himself that we would withdraw if they refused to comply, there was a certain unease at the back of my mind.
I put it down to my switch of roles but my intimate knowledge of their systems defenses really should make it a straightforward job. As I connected myself to my rig, Fidius appeared on my screen looking resplendent in his Presidential colors. He was ready to deliver our demands once my work had been done and after listening to his wishes of good luck and success, I dived into cyberspace. This was very much my second home but this time, I was looking at it from a very different perspective.
I felt almost god like as the cyber bots streamed past me and it only required small adjustments here and there, redirecting them to what I knew were the weaker areas of defense. It wasn’t long before their defenses were brushed aside and I saw for the first time, a former colleague being overwhelmed. As he disappeared from view, I had a flashback picturing myself in just that situation, clinically but not irreversibly dead.
I paused as a representation of President Fidius appeared by my side but I was astonished at his next order. It seemed that he had changed his mind and was ordering me to continue the attack, destroying their power and fuel systems. I argued that this could kill thousands of people but he was not to be swayed.
So I stopped and executed the self destruction command for all of our attack-bots. I know that I was a traitor driven by greed and a need for revenge but I wasn’t prepared to murder innocent people. And so I find myself here in prison in the Pacific Islands, convicted of a refusal to carry out a Presidential order, a conviction that will result in my execution. I guess that it’s ironic that my treachery will kill me in the end but not carried out by the side that I would have expected. It’s a beautiful early summer’s day with blue skies and warm winds but I’m certain that this time, I will die for the sixth but last time.