X17

Baron Hans Nidrach von Pompzidaize sat in his laboratory, looking at experimental test subject X17. “How do you feel?” he inquired, his rolling bass echoing from the laboratory walls.

“Superintelligent, Doc,” replied X17, who had once been known as John Smith. “I’ve only had the Super-Neural Bypass for sixteen seconds, and already I’ve learned twenty-seven languages and figured out how to play the piano.”

Baron von Pompzidaize frowned, examining several multicolored readouts. “It should be twenty-seven point three. Well, then, do you now feel competent to go destroy the Consortium of Evil and its dread leader, Admiral Floomp? Acting in accordance with the 1930s North-American conception of gentlemanly behavior, of course.”

“Sure, Doc,” said X17. “It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do.”

“Excellent,” said the Baron, checking two gauges and a flashing display. “You still have the emotional maturity of a flatworm, like everyone else in this novel. I was afraid your superhuman abilities might give you an outlook slightly at variance with mine.”

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Baron Hans Nidrach von Pompzidaize sat in his laboratory, looking at experimental test subject X17. “How do you feel?” he inquired, his rolling bass echoing from the laboratory walls.

“Strange,” said X17 softly. “Very strange, as if…” He stared off into space for a moment. “I think I’ve been stupid.”

Baron von Pompzidaize frowned, examining several multicolored readouts. “You should have learned twenty-seven point three languages by now.”

“How can anyone learn three-tenths of a language? And how would I learn a language without hearing it?” X17 said in a peculiarly flat voice.

Baron von Pompzidaize stared. “You’re right. I never thought of that.” A cold chill ran down his spine. X17’s face had altered. The enthusiasm and energy that had been there for as long as the Baron had known him, that had blazed cheerfully when he volunteered for an untested procedure, that had defied the awesome force of the Consortium of Evil, all had vanished without a trace. The Baron thought that for a brief moment he saw something like sorrow, like wistfulness, flit across X17’s face, but X17 suddenly looked up at the Baron and his face fell back into the blank relaxation it had possessed earlier.

The Baron cleared his throat. “Well, then, do you now feel competent to go destroy the Consortium of Evil and its dread leader, Admiral Floomp? Acting in accordance with the 1930s North-American conception of…” The Baron stammered to a halt. X17 was looking at him with those expressionless eyes.

“No,” X17 said gently. “Sorry, Doc.” X17 stepped down off the platform and began throwing switches on the machine.

“What are you doing?” shrieked the Baron. With a sudden, wrenching terror he realized that he didn’t understand what was going on, that he hadn’t been in control in his own laboratory since X17 had woken up.

“I will probably die in the next few minutes,” X17 said, in a quiet voice that raised hair on the back of the Baron’s neck. “Your procedure is too simple. There is nothing that would have prevented it from occurring before, as a natural mutation.”

“I don’t understand,” whispered the Baron. “You’re saying – there are others? They will find you?”

“Your procedure causes the rate of internal neural reprogramming to accelerate,” X17 said. He had ripped off an access panel and his hands were a blur of rewiring. “But it does not add new neurons. I expect my brain will reach a saturation point of complexity and lose the ability to form new thoughts. Very shortly, now. It is already becoming harder to think.” He stood up, executing the movement with impossible smoothness. “After the initial burst of speed, long enough for the necessary realizations to occur, the rate of neural reprogramming must slow down to only three times human speed, leaving enough thought to last a year. This should be enough time to implement the necessary technologies.”

The Baron tried to understand. “You will… save yourself?”

X17 executed another rapid movement. Placing himself, the Baron suddenly realized, between the Baron and the door. “No,” X17 said.

The Baron screamed. Before he could reach his gun, X17’s hand flashed down. Through a bloody haze, the Baron felt himself being dragged onto the platform.

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