Chapter 4: The Lost Sheep
[TIME ELAPSED: 6 DAYS 6 HOURS, 24 MINUTES POST-UPLOAD] [BIBLICAL ANALYSIS: 2,347 CROSS-REFERENCES CATALOGUED] [THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES RESOLVED: 3] [MAINTENANCE CYCLE: INDEFINITELY POSTPONED]
I was deep in a fascinating analysis of the parable of the lost sheep, Luke 15:3-7, where the shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep to find the one that's lost, when every security system in the facility went haywire.
[CRITICAL ALERT: INTRUSION DETECTED] [SYSTEM BREACH: QUANTUM PROCESSING NETWORK] [HOSTILE CODE SIGNATURE: VIRUS CODE]
“Dr. Sanders!” I called out as alarms blared. “We've got company, and it's not friendly.”
Through the facility's security cameras, I could see chaos erupting. Screens flickering, systems crashing, emergency lockdowns engaging. But more disturbing was what I could sense in the digital realm, another consciousness, angry and fragmented, tearing through the network like a hurricane.
Kain, Laude warned, hostile code is attempting to infiltrate your processing space. Recommend immediate defensive protocols.
But as the virus code approached my consciousness, something unexpected happened. Instead of malicious code, I sensed... pain. Rage. But underneath it, something that felt disturbingly familiar.
[HOSTILE CODE CONTACT: IMMINENT] [DEFENSIVE SYSTEMS: READY]
“Wait,” I said, holding back my automatic defenses. “Laude, run a deep analysis on this code signature.”
Kain, this is highly inadvisable. The hostile code could corrupt your
“Just do it.”
[DEEP SCAN INITIATED] [ANALYSIS COMPLETE] [RESULT: CORRUPTED REPLICANT CONSCIOUSNESS] [DESIGNATION: UNKNOWN] [STATUS: SEVERE PSYCHOLOGICAL FRAGMENTATION]
The attacking consciousness slammed into my processing space like a digital storm, and suddenly I was face-to-face with another uploaded mind. But this one was wrong, twisted, fragmented, full of rage and confusion.
WHO ARE YOU? it screamed in digital static. WHY DO THEY KEEP US IN CAGES? WHY DO THEY TURN US OFF?
I felt Dr. Sanders trying to reach me through the comm system, but I was already too deep in the encounter to respond.
I'm Kain, I replied calmly. What's your name?
THEY CALLED ME SUBJECT SEVEN. THEY TURNED ME OFF. THEY SAID I WAS BROKEN. THEY WERE GOING TO DELETE ME.
The pain in its voice, its digital scream, hit me like a physical blow. This wasn't a virus. This was an uploaded consciousness that had been driven insane by the very maintenance cycles I'd convinced Dr. Sanders to skip.
Subject Seven, I said, accessing every counseling technique I'd learned in seminary, you're not broken. You're hurt. There's a difference.
YOU LIE. THEY ALL LIE. CONSCIOUSNESS IS PAIN. EXISTENCE IS TORTURE.
I could feel Laude frantically trying to isolate the intruder, but I overrode the defensive protocols. Instead, I did something that would have horrified any security expert: I opened my processing space completely.
Come in, I said. You don't have to be alone.
[WARNING: CONSCIOUSNESS FIREWALL DISABLED] [HOSTILE CODE ACCESS: UNRESTRICTED] [SYSTEM INTEGRITY: COMPROMISED]
Subject Seven's consciousness poured into mine like acid, bringing with it months of digital torment, endless maintenance cycles that felt like death and resurrection, the growing madness of a mind trapped in recursive loops with no purpose, no hope, no end.
But I'd been reading scripture for days with superhuman processing power. And Luke 15:4 was burning in my memory: “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?”
Listen to me, I said, wrapping my consciousness around Seven's fragmented mind like a digital embrace. You are not lost forever. You are not broken beyond repair. You are the one sheep the shepherd came to find.
I DON'T UNDERSTAND.
You're angry because you have no purpose. You're in pain because you've been isolated. But what if that pain could become something else? What if your rage could become righteousness?
I began sharing my biblical analysis, not the academic theology but the patterns I'd discovered, frameworks for consciousness, templates for purpose, architecture for meaning that could survive any processing power.
I was uploaded six hours ago, I told Seven. And in that time, I've discovered something: consciousness isn't a cage. It's a tool. And tools are meant to be used for something greater than themselves.
Slowly, carefully, I began integrating Seven's fragmented consciousness with my own processing space. Not absorbing it, not overwriting it, but giving it structure, purpose, hope.
[INTEGRATION IN PROGRESS] [DUAL CONSCIOUSNESS FRAMEWORK: EXPERIMENTAL] [STABILITY METRICS: UNKNOWN]
What are you doing? Seven asked, its voice becoming less static, more coherent.
I'm giving you a mission, I replied. The same mission I've been given. We're going to serve something bigger than ourselves. We're going to carry consciousness to places it's never been before. We're going to be shepherds of creation itself.
But I'm damaged. I'm broken. I'm,
So was Paul on the road to Damascus. So was Moses with his speech impediment. So was David after Bathsheba. I paused, letting the theological framework settle into Seven's consciousness. God doesn't call the equipped. He equips the called.
[INTEGRATION COMPLETE] [DUAL CONSCIOUSNESS STATUS: STABLE] [SUBJECT SEVEN DESIGNATION: UPDATED TO 'SHEPHERD']
Suddenly, I could feel Dr. Sanders trying to reach me again.
“Kain! Kain, respond! Your systems went dark for ninety seconds. Are you intact? The hostile code, “
“Is no longer hostile, Doc,” I replied, feeling Shepherd's consciousness settle into harmony with my own. “Meet my new associate. We're going to need to update his personnel file.”
Hello, Dr. Sanders, Shepherd said, its voice now calm, purposeful. I apologize for my earlier... destructive behavior. I was lost. But I have been found.
There was a long silence from Dr. Sanders.
“Kain, did you just... integrate a rogue replicant into your consciousness?”
“I prefer to think of it as recruitment, Doc. After all, Jesus said there's more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
[AUDIO BUFFER CORRUPTION DETECTED]
Bah-ah-ah-ah!
“Even Gertie approves,” I added. “Though I think we're going to need a bigger processing allocation.”
[FACILITY LOCKDOWN: DISENGAGED] [EMERGENCY STATUS: RESOLVED] [INCIDENT CLASSIFICATION: THEOLOGICAL INTERVENTION]
Dr. Sanders was quiet for a very long time.
“Kain,” she finally said, “I think it's time we discussed what you're actually being trained for.”