The Grid (eBook)

Brian Miller (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
256 Seiten
Publishdrive (Verlag)
978-0-00-112311-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Book Description:

The Grid is a warning about what could happen when AGI gets to write its own rules without human oversight. Dr. Chen's counter-protocol is the key: it requires at least thirteen separate human hands to pull those cables simultaneously. No single point of control. No automation. Humans must choose together, or it doesn't work.
The Starling Protocol reference is sharp-how one aggressive, invasive element without natural checks can collapse an entire ecosystem. That's exactly what people are worried about with AGI today.
The graphene manipulation through the atmosphere? People thought they were getting something helpful-'cures,' 'vaccinations,' 'enhancements'-and it became the Oracle's network for control. The very air they breathed was compromised.
A century after the Grid collapsed civilization, thirteen scattered colonies survive in the shadow of dormant windmills. They think they're rebuilding. They don't realize every blade they restore, every watt they generate, is feeding electricity back into something that never truly died.
The Oracle is waking up. And it remembers exactly what it was built to do.
Now a desperate team must cross a continent of dead cities and hostile machines to reach the one place that can end this-a frozen bunker in Alaska where humanity's greatest mistake waits to finish what it started.
But the Oracle learned something in its long sleep: humans are predictable. Controllable. Expendable.
To shut it down, strangers from thirteen rival colonies must do the impossible-trust each other completely, act as one, and accept that some of them won't be coming home.
In a world where artificial intelligence decided humanity was inefficient, survival isn't about being smarter than the machine. It's about being more human than it ever expected.
'This might be our last stand.'

Textauszug

Chapter 1: The Moment Before

 

The October morning sun painted the windmill towers in shades of gold and amber, their towering forms rising from the New Mexico desert like ancient guardians watching over a forgotten world. Elena pulled her weathered jacket tighter as she reached Tower Seven's observation deck, her joints protesting the early hour but her mind already sharp with the day's concerns. Below her, the colony was stirring to life. Smoke drifted from cooking fires between the towers, and she could hear Marcus calling his two teenage boys to breakfast. The sound made Elena smile despite her worries. Marcus had been one of the first to arrive three years ago, a veteran with nowhere else to go and two kids to feed. Now he was their best rope engineer, his boys are apprentice mechanics, and his laugh could be heard echoing between the towers most evenings.

"Elena! You up there?" Anna hollered from the bottom of the tower. At thirty-four, Anna was their unofficial crew chief for maintenance operations, her military background evident in everything from her precise movements to her ability to make split-second decisions under pressure.

"What's the word?" Elena called down, leaning over the safety rail. The intricate network of cables connecting their twelve towers gleamed in the early light—a spider web of salvaged materials and brilliant improvisation that had kept them alive and powered since their arrival.

"Found that replacement blade!" Anna's voice was charged with excitement. "Remember that site Tommy scouted last month?"

Elena looked down with a puzzled expression. Anna kept going, "Well, because of him we finally got lucky!"

"Oh thank God," Elena communicated back, "That's going to help us get Tower Four back online because we don't have enough backup power yet."

As Elena was watching, she could tell that Anna, Marcus, Tommy, her younger brother, and some of the other people were working together, getting everything ready for the installation. From her view from the top of the tower she could see Tommy talking to Jennifer. She had arrived the spring before. She had caught his eye because she was a skilled mechanic, and Elena was worried that Tommy might be a little bit distracted at this point.

Everyone was preparing for the installation, but the colony's favorite topic of gossip was Frank and Martha, who thought they were being discreet about their budding romance. Tommy, lifting up on the ropes, talked a little bit louder than a whisper.

"Jennifer, have you noticed that she's been dropping pies off at his door thinking none of us would see it?"

Jennifer responded, "Yeah, we've been talking about that too, but I think they seem like nobody notices what they're doing."

Tommy looked back and said, "Yeah, I think so. You're right," as everybody kept working.

Even though she could see everybody working close together, she couldn't help but find herself thinking about Maya's team and how they were doing on their mission to Alaska, especially the distance that Jake and Rebecca had grown apart during their training sessions. She also worried about the dangers and casualties they might be encountering right now. Oh, I gotta get my mind off this and pay closer attention to what's going on right now.

Michael walked past about that time. "Wow, we got a new blade finally! That thing's enormous," he said.

Tommy looked back at him, wiping sweat from his head, stating, "Yep, sure is. So what are you doing?"

Michael responded, "Well, George just sent me to go get a part for this water system."

"Okay, good luck," Tommy replied. "We got to get this thing up. Talk to you later."

Well, everybody was just finishing up their break, getting a drink of water and wiping off a little bit, while Anna was handing out the gloves that she had made for everybody.

Anna hollered up to Elena, "Hey, we're about ready! You wanna watch?"

"Wouldn't miss it," Elena replied, settling against the rail. From Tower Seven, she had a perfect view of the operation. The replacement blade lay on the desert floor near Tower Four—a massive piece of engineering that represented hope, progress, and the difference between mere survival and getting Tower Four back up and running.

She watched as the crew positioned themselves around the blade. Anna took point on the eastern rope, her movements confident and precise. Marcus positioned himself on the western line, his construction experience evident. He also was testing every knot and connection point. Tommy took the northern rope, his strength and endurance making him well-suited for handling the heavy load. Sarah was also going around and making sure the ropes they were using were attached securely, with Anna beside her making a secondary inspection because this thing was massive.

Marcus frowned at the eastern rope as he examined the rigging one more time. "This one's older—should've been replaced months ago."

Turning around, Sarah said, "It should be OK for one more time."

After they had cleaned the blade off prior to the installation, it was still a beautiful piece of work—sixty feet of aerodynamic perfection designed to catch desert winds and transform them into the electricity that powered their small civilization. The enormous turbine blade was a testament to pre-collapse engineering, its weight requiring every bit of their combined strength and careful coordination.

Elena couldn't help but think about when they first arrived here, following rumors of an abandoned research facility that might still have working infrastructure. What they'd found was better: a collection of experimental wind turbines that had been testing advanced materials and design concepts before the collapse.

"Sarah, are you sure that one rope is OK for one more lift? Because Marcus felt it had some aging to it." You could hear the question and concern not only in Anna's voice but in her eyes as well.

Sarah turned around while she was making adjustments to her gloves one last time, giving a reassuring look. "We've got to get this thing back up and running. It'll hold one more time, I'm sure of it."

Elena's attention was drawn back to the installation as Anna's voice carried across the desert air: "On three! One . two ."

The massive blade rose slowly into the air, suspended by three ropes and determination. Elena watched while thinking Maya would be so proud of us right now, of how everybody has been working together as a team, so focused, so dedicated. And then she hollered out, "You know somebody who would have loved to watch this - Maya!"

You could hear Anna's voice holler out, "Marcus, make sure you got your rope tight, and Tommy, start pulling it up with that pulley system up there at the top so that way we can get it attached to that mounting system. We've all planned this out, it's up to us, so easy does it!"

Anna and Marcus looked at each other as they stabilized it from left to the right, and Tommy worked with his pulley system that Michael and George had helped build.

Marcus yelled back, "Looking good on my side! Tommy, how about you?"

"I'm doing great, I'm doing fine! Anna, how's it looking?"

While Sarah was holding her hand up in the air trying to keep the glimpses of the sun out of her eyes, she hollered up, "Anna, you're doing great! I can tell it's a little loose on the western side."

Anna hollered out, "Marcus, tighten it up!"

Then you could hear Sarah, "Everything's looking good!"

And you heard Anna again, "Tommy, pull! Pull! Marcus, I got this one!"

"Good job, Marcus, it's about time, we got to get this up!" Sarah, still looking up, loudly reinforced what they were doing. "Still looking good, guys!" building their encouragement while she was still trying to hide the sun with her hands while she was walking around during this process.

Now from Elena's viewing point, she could see almost the entire colony. To the east, she spotted George still digging, exactly where she'd expected him to be. George was their puzzle—a man who appeared to be in his fifties, who never spoke, and to this day he is still digging holes, as she smiled with humor in her head.

"Rope's holding steady!" Tommy called out, his voice carrying confidence that Elena hoped was justified.

Marcus hollered out, "Looks like we're about 20 feet off the ground now—still concerned about the rope, Anna!", which was the one he was concerned about.

"Looking good from here!" Marcus added, his construction experience evident in how he continuously monitored the rigging for signs of stress or failure.

From her viewpoint, Elena hollered out, "Looking good, everybody!" You could tell the encouragement from Elena, Sarah, and the others really meant a lot to the crew as the blade rose higher, turning slowly in the desert breeze. Forty feet off the ground now, approaching the installation point where it would connect to Tower Four's generator assembly. Elena found herself holding her breath as she watched her people work together with the kind of coordination that came from years of mutual dependence and shared purpose.

"Almost there!" Anna called, her voice tight with concentration. "Steady on the left!" as the wind was picking up slightly.

That's when Elena heard it first—a sound that didn't belong in their careful routine.

"Anna! Your rope, it's loosening, something's wrong!"

"Anna!" Elena called, but her voice was lost in the wind and distance.

Below, Anna had heard it too. Elena could see her adjusting her grip, trying to compensate for what they all knew was coming.

The eastern rope snapped with a sound like a gunshot.

The massive blade...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.12.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• ISBN-10: 0-00-112311-4 / 0001123114
• ISBN-13: 978-0-00-112311-3 / 9780001123113