The Omega Directive Essay, Research Paper
I was on my way into the ?office? and I saw the secretary;
?Hey Cheryl.?
?Hey Martin. Here, isn?t it the big day today?? she asked
?Yep, she?s finally coming online.? I replied, with a bit of an excited tone in my voice
?Christ! What is it with men always having to call things ?she??? Her voice had something of a viscous snap to it.
?Hey, don?t blame me dear. I just work here don?t I??
She giggled. I like it when she giggles. It?s got a sweetness to it that, for some reason, most other women lacked. I smiled at her. ?So??..are you, going to let me in? Or shall I just stand all day looking at you, which I wouldn?t actually mind doing?? I heard a buzz and then a click at the door. ?I?ll take that as a ?yes? then, shall I? Or are you just messing with my head??
?Go on, in, now! Or do I have to smack your rear end to get you in there?? She said.
?Well, come on over here and try it baby!? I said to her with one great big cheesy grin on my face.
?Oh you dirty man, you!? She said, sarcastically. We always were saying stuff like that in our own little way. It was?different. I?d never been like this with anyone else. It was always just us two. Then there would be a great booming voice from inside the ?office?.
?BRYSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GET YOUR SCRAWNY ASS IN HERE, NOW!!!!!!!!!!?
?Oh dear, General Solomon?s calling.? I said with some remorse.
?Don?t you mean ?great wind-bag of Alcatraz??? She said. I laughed. That?s the nickname I?d given him when I had started at the Pentagon. He was supposedly an ex guard over on Alcatraz prison island?. supposedly.
I crossed the threshold into a huge room. Dimly lit, only the centre table was illuminated. I could see the General?s face.
?I told you not to be late. I watched you out there flirting with Cheryl, it?s not on. I?ve told you before to leave my daughter alone!? Everyone turned and looked at me. I couldn?t help but say:-
?Who, me?? I got a warm laugh from everyone in the room. Except of course from Mr. Stern faced ? lover?s father ? who ? hates ? me. His emotionless face and piercing stare were enough to make anyone cower for fear of their lives. He always looked like he was going to attack you or something. I sat down in my normal seat, a fair distance away from the General, which is good. I pity the fool who had to sit beside him every day for the past 6 months. Thankfully, today may be the only day I have to see his face under circumstances concerning national security again.
Cheryl always said outside of the Pentagon he?s just a regular guy and he really likes me. Strange considering the crap I have to put up with from him day-in day-out.
?Anyway, onto business. Is the system ready to come online?? he said, looking straight at me. I sat down, opened my laptop and replied:-
?Yes sir. The Xerxes system has finished going through the final stages of preparation and is ready to be switched on.?
?Ok. Bring the system online? All the lights in the room switched off, because of me. I purposely switched them off to mess with their heads. I laughed:-
?Only joking.? I said, grinning ear to ear. I switched the lights back on and booted up Xerxes. A large face appeared on the main display wall. A booming synthesised voice filled the room:-
?This, is Xerxes. I am ready to serve the United States summit and am operating at peak efficiency.?
This was it. The most advanced computer defence program ever devised was online and ready to serve the great U.S. of A.. I don?t know about anyone else, but I thought the entire idea was something of a joke. The plan was to give Xerxes full control of the U.S.?s entire nuclear arsenal and Military forces. Call me sceptical, but the thing was brand spanking new! It wasn?t even clear of all the system bugs yet. Still, I only made the thing; I didn?t have any say in what happened to it after the U.S. had gotten control of it. There was a tremendous roar and clapping from everyone in the room. Things like ?Congratulations? and ?Well Done? were getting screamed into my face by everyone trying to be heard over one another. I couldn?t help but get caught-up in all the excitement. There was a massive party right there in the war room. I didn?t leave until about 3am the next morning. I went home with Cheryl. Now either she has that mystical aura of golden light around her all the time, or I was drunk. I think she has it all the time, I just never noticed it before. We were walking along and we came to a park.
?C?mon, let?s sit down for a bit Martin, eh??
?Yeah, ok. I could do with giving the old feet a rest.? We sat down on a bench. She sort of flopped over and was using me as a cushion. She snuggled into me and I felt something in my pocket jab my side. I suddenly remembered that I had bought a ring. I sat and wondered what to do. In my intoxicated state I did the obvious thing. I sat her up, stood up, dropped to one knee and bought out this ring.
?Cheryl, would you marry me?? It came out easier than I expected. She was looking away when I said it, so she never noticed the ring.
?Martin, you?re drunk, stop talking rubbi–.?She saw the ring. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes started filling up with tears. I got up, wiped the emerging tears from her eyes and said:-
?Cheryl, I?ve never been more serious in my entire life.? I could hear her making the squeaky noise in her throat, the one when you?re about to cry. ?Oh no. Please don?t get emotional, or else I will.? She smiled, sniffed and looked at me, straight in the eyes and said:-
?Yes, I will marry you.? I felt my stomach turn. I couldn?t believe it. She had actually said yes. I took the ring out of its box and put it on her finger. We kissed and I walked her the rest of the way home. We stood at her gate for about half an hour talking about our future together. The door opened and Solomon?s silhouette appeared in the light of the open door, holding a mug.
?Evening Mr. Solomon.? I shouted.
?Hmmm??. from the look on my daughter?s face, you?ll be calling me Chris, or maybe even, DAD from now on.? he replied. I looked at Cheryl. Her face was still beaming with that brilliant smile she has. I looked at him and smiled and he gave me a wink.
And so, the next few weeks past without any exciting action. We went about our normal business. I had gotten a hefty sum of money from my friends at the Pentagon and the Government so I was out enjoying myself until one Saturday morning. I was lying in bed, half asleep, wondering whether or not to spend another million dollars on useless luxuries, or whether to save it for the honey moon, when I got a phone call:-
?Hello?? my voice w
?Hello. Is this Mr. Bryson??
?Yeah, that?s me.?
?You?re needed down at the Pentagon sir.?
?Well, uh, ok. I?ll be there as soon as I can.? I quickly got changed and jumped in the car. I sped down the highway to get to the Pentagon as quick as I could, which resulted in me getting a speeding ticket, even though I had shown the Pig my I.D.. I?ll be sure to get him laid-off. When I got to work, The General was standing outside.
?We?ve got a problem. Xerxes has gone AWOL. It thinks it is a god and is destined to inherit the earth once he?s gotten rid of us.?
?Us??
?The human race Martin. Your goddamn machine?s trying to wipe us out?. ALL OF US!?
?What was the last thing anyone did to it? Did anyone even access his mainframe??
?Yeah, a technician had to pull out a shorted circuit board.?
?What one? Besides that he shouldn?t have been messing with things he doesn?t understand anyway.?
?How should I know? It was something like circuit board CIX-4789 or something. Why is that important anyway??
?What? There was no circuit board in there called that!? I ran into the base and looked around. I found the open hatch and saw a circuit board that wasn?t meant to be there. When I approached it, a massive bolt of electricity struck me. I got up and ran out. ?JESUS CHRIST!!!!!! IT?S SELF AWARE!!!!!!!!! WE?RE SCREWED!!!!!!!!?
?What are you on about?? the General said.
?Just now, when I tried to… remove that circuit? Xerxes attacked me.? I was breaking between words trying to catch my breath. I was still smouldering from my little shock and it was a bit distracting seeing all that smoke streaming from my clothes.
?My god! What does this mean? Martin, what the hell have we done??
?There could only be one way to stop him, err, ?It? rather.?
?Which is?!?!??
?The Omega Directive.?
?The what directive??
?It?s a safety program I installed that I neglected to inform you about. I never thought I?d have to use it seeing as how you guys at the Pentagon are soooooooooo tight on security. It?s lucky for you I did install it.?
?So what does it do??
?It overloads Xerxes CPU with massive amounts of useless information. Since I decided to make the CPU the most advanced in the world I?ve had to make this amount of information massive. It was too big to keep on the Xerxes system its self, so I?ve got a Hard Disk at home which I keep the information on.?
I started making my way to the car because I knew what he was going to say.
?Well what are you waiting for man? GET OVER THERE AND GET THAT DISK!!!!!!? I got startled by his voice and hit my head of the door rim. I sarcastically shouted to him:-
?Oucha!!!! That was your fault!? I got into my seat and sped off back home. There weren?t any Pigs around, which means I had free reign over what speed I went at. ?WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!? I got home and found the Hard Disk underneath a pile of empty pizza boxes and cans of coke. ?Hmm?. Pepperoni. Yummy.? I went back to the Pentagon to find half the U.S.?s Military forces mobilised outside. ?What the hell? Here! I need past!? I was beeping the horn at them but they wouldn?t move. I wasn?t too surprised given the fact that they all looked like complete arrogant puss bags who never listened to their mothers when they were kids. I stopped the car, got out and pushed my way through. I finally got out of the masses of sweaty stinking grunts to find the General had been shot and Cheryl had been carted off to hospital. ?WHAT THE HELL???? NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHO SHOT HIM???? I guy came out of the crowd. Short blonde hair, tattoos all over, wearing no shirt, just his body armour with a big gun slung over his shoulder. He looked a bit like one of these bad guys out of an action film. I put the disk on the floor and punched him one in the eye. He fell over, and screamed at me:-
?It was orders from Xerxes!!!!? His hand over his eye. He had a bit of girlie, strangely. Just then, at the most opportune moment, my mobile went off. It was a police officer:-
?Is this Martin Bryson??
?Yeah, that?s me.?
?I?m afraid your parents and sister are dead. They were shot by an army officer who says that he was ordered by some super computer called Xerxes?? I dropped the phone.
?What goes on? It?s like Xerxes has got some sort of personal grudge against me!? I gasped: ?Oh no?. Cheryl!!!!!? I persuaded a couple of the soldiers to go to the hospital and guard her in case some other wiener came along and tried to ?finish the job?. I picked up the hard disk and went into Xerxes? main control centre.
?Xerxes, what the hell is going on??
?I am the begging, the end, the one who is many. I am the creator. I am god and this earth must be purged of its plague. The plague of the human race.?
?Jesus! You really have lost it haven?t you? Why are killing all my friends and family?? He didn?t reply. I went over to the port where I could install the new hard disk. I opened the hatch and put it in. It was dark I couldn?t see what I was doing, but I managed to find a keyboard. ?Yes. Now let?s fix you up good.? I booted up the new hard disk and ran the control overload program. ?Xerxes, can you hear me??
?Yes. Responding to limited commands.?
?Xerxes, access the new Hard Disk and run program Omega.? I heard a clicking sound as the hard disk was getting accessed. ?Hold on to your butt.? The screen started going static and an error message came up saying ?Fatal Overload?. The CPU frazzled and the room started heating up. ?Crimony! You could fry an egg on the floor in here.? Then I realised that there was circuiting under the floor and I could hear a faint cracking. I realised that the overload had cause Xerxes to try and send the info somewhere else and the amount of it flying around was actually heating up the circuiting. ?Oh shit??? I ran out of the room and the building. ?TAKE COVER!!!!!!!!? The soldiers immediately dropped as the entire Pentagon building went up in a massive explosion.
And that was it?. the end of Xerxes. Still, I got to keep my money, and after a lot of comforting from her family and myself over her father?s death, Cheryl and I got married. We moved away from America over to the outskirts of London where I had some relatives. We were sitting on a sunny summer afternoon when Cheryl asked:-
?Martin. Did you guys ever find out who the technician was who put that new board into that computer??
?Actually, no. We didn?t, but it?s got nothing to do with me now. Thank god!? I must admit though, that night I could help but think who he might have been. I guess I?ll never know though???.
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