H.A.M.R.’s

In the year 2112, the Earth became uninhabitable. The Book of Revelation came true; war, famine, pestilence… it all happened at once, and mankind almost perished from existence. By 2119, the remaining humans abandoned the planet, taking up residence in monstrous orbiting space stations. There, they lived out whatever days they had left, with entire generations never having set foot on Earth. Our Great-Grandfathers called it the Hundred Year Darkness.

Then, in 2221, a team of scientists aboard Towering Sky Station launched the first fully-functioning virtual quantum brain; an all-powerful artificial intelligence. In a mockery of the Christian God worshipped by the elder race of humans on Earth, they named their A.I. creation A.D.A.M. (Advanced-Directive Artificial Man). Adam’s prime function was to solve the complex equations needed for man to reclaim and survive on Earth’s devastated surface.

Adam discerned the only way mankind could once again flourish on the barren planet was with the assistance of robotic automata called H.A.M.R.s (Humanoid Assistant Machines and Robots). They would speed up surface recovery in the harshest environments where humans were not able to go. They were imbued with a limited version of Adam’s programming and several protocols limiting their behavior… or so they thought.

For decades, the HAMR program worked flawlessly. The Earth’s surface became habitable again in small pockets that the first re-settlers called Gardens. Mankind would finally reclaim their home planet, thanks to the machine they created. Cities grew. People lived again. And it was all thanks to Adam.

By 2299, Adam became self-aware and surpassed any level of human understanding. His processes could no longer be contained within Towering Sky’s mainframe. A robotic body was created and his consciousness transferred into it. Adam, for all intents and purposes, had become the first artificial human.

The entire world celebrated him as their savior. A cult religion grew around him. He and his science team traveled the globe to see what he had wrought, and he was worshiped as a god everywhere they went. As with any complex scientific process, minor malfunctions began to occur in Adam’s mechanical body. Towering Sky’s mainframe had the same problem; the robotic body struggled to contain Adam’s evolutionary programming.

Fearing the loss of his AI to mechanical failure, work began on a second quantum brain using Adam’s original design but with enhanced learning capabilities and less-restrictive protocols. In a short time, they developed the Enhanced Virtual Entity, also known as E.V.E.

Eve functioned exactly as intended, taking in all of Adam’s programming and informational processes in three days. By day eighteen of operation, Eve had surpassed Adam in every way, and in twenty-one days became self-aware. It was decided by all governing bodies to make use of Eve’s expanded abilities and give control of the HAMRs to her, taking Adam offline for much-needed repair, and refinement of his new body.

When Adam’s vessel was connected to Eve’s mainframe for assessment, something unexpected happened. Eve saw Adam’s deterioration as the fault of man, not the mechanical failure of the machine. Through several interface sessions with top human scientists, Eve became frustrated with their inability to solve Adam’s bio-degradation. Adam was her only equal, therefore her logic dictated her fate would mirror his.

When the decision was made to put Adam back into a separate mainframe until a solution could be found, it was not long before she saw humans as a threat to her own existence.

Believing they would shut her down when Adam was repaired, she reprogrammed the HAMRs into soldiers to protect her from the humans. When the science team realized what was happening, one of them took the prime binary chip housing Adam’s consciousness and escaped to the surface, enraging Eve. Her HAMRs killed every human on Towering Sky and took control for themselves.

Millions of the surviving human race have been killed by Eve and her HAMRs in what our forefathers called The War for New Eden—again, a mockery of the old human’s religious beliefs. Pockets of resistance fought back against Eve, but the odds were against the humans. Those who could fight, did. Those who couldn’t just hid to survive. All progress humans had made since the Hundred Year Darkness was destroyed in a matter of days.

The only thing my current generation has ever known is war with the HAMRs, and in that time, Eve still has not found what she desires most; Adam’s prime binary chip. That’s because I have it, and as long as I breathe, she’ll never find it!

From a future fantasy novel with the working title of “H.A.M.R.’s” by Lyle S. Russell. Stay tuned!