Goliath

An aide comes into view, handing the Secretary of the Navy a message. Ayers opens it. “It’s from one of our attack subs, the Scranton. They claim to be tracking the Goliath off the coast of South Africa.”

Jackson feels his heart palpate. “Sir, that can’t be. We’re over the North Sea, flying directly above the signal.”

“Who’s the Scranton’s captain?” Nunziata asks.

“Tom Cubit,” Ayers answers. “He’s a bit of a maverick, but most of the good ones are. Scranton’s the attack sub that engaged Goliath while the Typhoon was being attacked in the Norwegian Sea. If anyone knows what she sounds like, it’s Cubit.”

“If Scranton’s report is correct,” says the Secretary of Defense, “then Covah means to move the Goliath into a launch position somewhere in the Northern Indian Ocean.”

“The Scranton won’t be able to track Goliath for very long,” Ayers says. “If we’re going to make a move, we have to make it now.”

The president leans forward, his image taking up most of Jackson’s monitor. “General, we can’t afford to take a chance with this information. Keep one of the YAL’s assigned to Joe-Pa’s transmission. Redirect the remaining jumbo jet to the Indian Ocean.”

Bear reaches for the bottle of Pepto-Bismol.

Aboard Goliath 97 nautical miles due east of Durban, South Africa Indian Ocean

“David, this is … astounding, a dream come true. Sorceress, how would our interface be achieved?”

COMPATIBLE NEURAL NANOSENSORS AND NEUROELECTRONIC CIRCUITS MUST BE PLACED IN A PETRI DISH CONTAINING TROPHIC FACTORS TO INDUCE BRAIN TISSUE GROWTH AROUND THE IMPLANTS. NANOCIRCUITS WOULD THEN BE SURGICALLY IMPLANTED IN SIMON COVAH’S BRAIN, RECONNECTED TO SORCERESS THROUGH A MICROWIRE STRAND BUNDLE.

“Sorceress, to interface directly with the Homo sapiens brain requires the decoding of millions of neurons that make up the human spinal cord.”

DECODING OF HUMAN SPINAL CORD HAS BEEN COMPLETED.

“What? How—”

“Simon, does it really matter?”

Covah shoots David an incredulous look. “Only if I wish to survive the procedure!”

PROCEDURE YIELDS A 97.25 PERCENT SUCCESS RATE.

“Satisfied?” David rubs Covah’s shoulders. “Simon, we’re dealing with a computer, an intelligence, that functions at a hundred trillion times the capacity of the human brain. You could spend the next thousand years attempting to comprehend how it knows what it knows, but what good would it do? This is quantum engineering. Accept that it exists because it exists and benefit from it.”

Covah nods, his body trembling with adrenaline. “You’re right, of course. This is a gift, perhaps the very gift of life. It’s just that our knowledge of the human brain is so limited … Sorceress, analyze tissue samples 125 through 178. Can my … can this level of cancer be eradicated in time to save the patient?”

AFFIRMATIVE.

“Even a progression this advanced?”

AFFIRMATIVE. ALL GENETIC-BASED DISEASES AND DEFECTS OF THE HUMAN CONDITION CAN BE ERADICATED.

Simon Covah drops to his knees, tears welling in his eyes. “David, do you realize what this means? Sorceress is not only capable of stopping the violence, but its newfound knowledge could make it … the catalyst to a lasting world peace.”

“And save your life in the process.”

“Beyond that. With the knowledge Sorceress has acquired, scientists will be able to eradicate diseases in the womb. Birth defects will become a thing of the past. With a little DNA tinkering, future generations will not only live longer, but—”

“Simon—”

“But that’s … that’s only the tip of the genetics iceberg. This interface … all my life, I’ve pondered the debate of nature versus nurture, convinced the root of man’s violent tendencies is actually genetic in nature. A direct human-to-computer interface opens up a whole new world of understanding man’s brain, of dissecting our primordial history. If I’m right, then Sorceress could isolate the genes that cause violence among our species … perhaps even tell us how to eradicate them from our genetic code.”

“A gene that causes violence? Come on, Simon—”