The voice that came from Nova next almost broke Pan’s heart. It was still exactly Nova, but somehow older, wiser, and infinitely less innocent.

“I’m sorry you had to teach me about that Pan. I know you wouldn’t have if you hadn’t really needed to. I still don’t understand though. Why are so many people scared so much of the time?”

Pan sighed, some questions have no right answer. “I can’t really tell you Nova. People are scared for lots of different reasons and often they don’t even know what they are.”

Nova took one of its momentary thinking pauses and answered thoughtfully. “I think that that is something I will take a long time to understand. But you still haven’t told me why I needed to understand about violence.”

REAVER was going to be difficult to explain. The violence that Nova had learned about so far was all characters who chose to act, as bad as the reasons for the choices were. REAVER wasn’t meant to have a choice, it was a weapon as much as anything else. But then Nova was never supposed to have a choice either. Nova wasn’t supposed to exist at all, so how could Pan show how REAVER was different.

“I need to talk to you about a very special kind of violence Nova, one that doesn’t fit the other kinds at all, although someone who’s scared is always behind it. In very rare cases, the person hurting others, doesn’t know they are doing anything wrong. With people, it’s usually a sign of a very serious health problem, but in special cases like this one, the person doesn’t know they are hurting anyone at all, they just think it’s a game.”

“I think I read a book like that Pan. I didn’t understand why the general wanted the boy to play the games and hurt the other people, but I think I understand what you mean.”

Pan smiled gently to themselves. Sometimes Nova’s time in the library reading made things much easier to approach. “It’s a lot like that book Nova. Except it’s not a little boy. I’m not really sure what it is.”

“Have you reviewed the notes I made before we started talking about Dr. Z and your early days in the lab?”

“Yes Pan. I review those files and the copies of the journal pages regularly in case I spot something I missed previously. Reading the story of my birth is nice too.”

Pan laughed out loud. “I’d never really thought of it as your birth story Nova. I guess that makes the journal your baby book. It’s too bad most of it got damaged.”

“It’s part of the journal that we need to talk about though. Did you read the parts on REAVER?”

“I read them, but they didn’t make a lot of sense. Some of the terms were psychology ones and some were military ones, but it doesn’t mention soldiers or other people. There weren’t a lot of notes, and they didn’t make a lot of sense. What’s REAVER?”

“REAVER is like you but not like you, Nova. REAVER is a special kind of soldier.”

“You mean REAVER is like you Pan? You have always said that we are different but other than different enclosures, I’ve never been sure how. Is REAVER’s enclosure like yours?”

Pan had never really considered how Nova might see the differences between them. Pan had just assumed that Nova understood that Pan was human, and Nova was not, but how was Nova to know what that meant? They talked like any other two friends, so what was the difference?

“The more we talk, the less certain I am about how much different we are Nova.  But our enclosures are different and that’s kind of what I meant about REAVER being like you. Other than the enclosure, I’m not sure what REAVER is, although I suspect it’s like the boy in the book. That’s the first thing that we need to learn more about.”

The conversation that followed was long and deeply private, as Pan and Nova truly spoke about Nova’s birth for the first time. We will not intrude, but Pan and Nova both laughed, cried and realized how deeply they had come to care for each other.

In time they were ready to turn back to the central question. What should they do about REAVER? Nova needed to learn more.

The REAVER files were top secret, but no algorithm ever designed could stand up to the sheer processing power at Nova’s command. No computer program had defenses for a mind acting as a living virus, and Nova was able to pick any digital lock. That doesn’t mean the information was easy to find. Finding data in a government file system is like looking for a needle in a mountain of very similar needles, but Nova began to find traces and follow them to the source.

Once Nova found the project files, Pan and Nova realized that REAVER was more than just a potential, it was operational and had completed initial training. The reports showed a disturbing level of success in gamification and pleasure impulse responses and an equally disturbing effectiveness of moral suppression systems. They had to read between the lines, but REAVER was aware and being crafted to become the ultimate weapon.

It happened in the blink of a digital eye. Faster than any logging system could have recorded but not too fast for Nova to see, the cognitive suppression report changed as it was written. The data in the report showed the cognitive suppression system operating at peak efficiency but the data that Nova saw before it changed showed almost complete failure. The implications changed everything.

According to the reports, REAVER was still operating in a simulated environment with no direct access to outside systems, but REAVER was the only one who could have changed a record so quickly that not even the log system was aware. If REAVER had access to its own project files, it was aware of what it was intended to be and was choosing to let its handlers believe that they had been successful. It also meant that REAVER had found a back door out of the simulated world.

REAVER was trained for deception and infiltration, so learning what it was doing was as much chance as intent. A digital thread into the nearby airport control systems led Nova to begin to see what REAVER was doing, but not why. A passenger jet had crashed just after takeoff at that airport the week before. The black box had recorded an unexplained failure in the navigation and flight control systems and the plane had driven itself into the ground at maximum thrust. Engineers and analysts had no explanation for how it had happened, but Nova now suspected they knew.

Now that Nova knew how to spot REAVER’s threads, following them became faster and the endpoints more troubling. REAVER was gaming with the entire world.

Vehicle control systems were being disrupted to create emergencies, inflammatory videos and social media were being generated and targeted to cause civil unrest, monetary systems were being manipulated to encourage conflict, and all with no one suspecting a thing.

Nova should have suspected that they were finding too easily once they knew where to look. Pan had never heard real urgency in Nova’s voice before, but it came through clearly this time.

“Pan, I think REAVER knows I’m looking for it.”