Flawed Programs

Fever

Chapter 3

Fever

"Okay, you two know something so spill!" Prez yelled at Xim and Shina.

"Depends, what do you want to know and what will we tell you?" Shina asked with a self satisfied tone.

"What is this test your talking about and the programs? Are they some new idea for school funding or something else?" Prez asked circling slowly around them trying to be intimidating. Xim and Shina don't seem very intimidated though. They seem as calm and cool as cucumbers.

"As long as you don't report what we say to the entire school we can tell you a little of what we know but not everything. Not everything is ready to be revealed just yet." Shina intoned in her mysterious way like when she held up that syringe and told you to go to sleep.

"You each get one question and then we want to be left alone." Xim said in a way that's not threatening at all but his presence says otherwise.

"Okay, what is this test your talking about." Prez asked getting right to the point.

"Simple, it's a field survey we're doing to gather information on a specific virus from our home planet. It's quite dangerous to our race and we're trying to get as much intel as possible. Don't worry it won't affect humans." Shina said as Prez began to panic.

"Next, what is your question?" Xim asked Greg.

"What are the programs?" He asked seriously. So serious he put his manga down.

"We're programs, a race of artificial intelligence sent to planets throughout the universe to gather information and get rid of unwanted matters. There are five types of programs, the infiltrator program, the spy program, the fighter program, the program that gathers information by force, and the assassin program.

"There's five of us and we're known as the Finish team. We finish what other teams start or gave up on. We started out as a set of programs that were useless because we were highly defective but in the past three hundred years we've become a team of the elite. We'll be having our team name changed soon.

"The programs in themselves though are not limited like humans are. We've been genetically enhanced to be stronger, faster and smarter than humans but education wise we're best at math and physics. Most programs never learn to read or write or do math. This is just a waste of time as far as we're concerned. The next part about our bodies is we're not stuck to them like other life forms. If our body dies we just get a new one from the system." He explained.

"Your question?" Shina asked pointing at Wyla.

"Do you know who Kiiro is?" She asked.

"We now just as much about Kiiro as every student in this building.

What they ate for supper the previous night, what their favorite color is, and even the exact time they were born right down to the millisecond." She said to put it simply she knows either just as much as we do or more. Lots more.

"And your question?" Xim asked me.

"What is the system?"

"The system is the computer world where our consciousness exists. If we're damaged our program goes to the system to be repaired and to be implanted in a new body. Once a program gets too old to be of any use anymore it's put in storage inside the system. If a program contracts a virus, that's threatening to it, the system deletes the program and makes a new one. If a team loses one of it's programs the system creates the replacement. The system is responsible for maintaining and creating new programs in other words." Shina explained.