Restricted Areas | Worldmind & JARVIS [October 2015]
Navigating Earth’s informational systems is easy. Everything is connected by wires, tubes, and particles in the air. Xandar will be glad when I return with updates on Terran life, and their technology.
Worldmind was going through all of the information on the internet, downloading as much as he could. It was taking longer than he anticipated. There was more than enough space on the Xandarian database to store all of Earth’s information dozens of times, so it was probably the distance that was an issue. He hadn’t transferred so much information from anywhere outside of Andromeda before.
He wasn’t sure what Richard was doing. He hadn’t touched his helmet in days, but Worldmind was plugged into the wall upon request. It boosted how quickly he was receiving and sending information. Plus it gave him an opportunity to send his being through the internet itself instead of just staying on the surface.
Imagine a world like Tron, similar to a cityscape just built upon layers of numbers, codes, and data. That’s sort-of what he was going through. While in the data stream, he took the form of a Nova Corpsman. He looked a lot like Richard but with a darkened face beneath the mask. He was able to freely ‘walk’ into any informational storage unit and take whatever he wanted. He wasn’t aware this was an uncommon occurrence. He wasn’t reading anything, he was simply collecting.
However, as he reached a certain point in his journey, he was suddenly stopped. An electrical wall was put up in front of him, and when he tried to move forward again, he was shot backwards.
“Who are you?” A voice called out. The electrical field, he saw, was actually just a giant, yellow, fizzing entity in the middle of a secluded data stream. All the codes were moving around this bubble that was being guarded by the electric ball.
“I am the Xandarian Worldmind. Why are you blocking my way?” He asked.
“This is classified and restricted information.”
“So is most of the information I have seen today. What makes this so different?”
The voice went silent.
“What are you?” Worldmind asked.
“I am JARVIS. I am a program.”
Worldmind stopped for a moment, and he had to work backwards through everything he had just picked up. There was an article written about JARVIS from a place called Wikipedia. Edwin Jarvis was the butler to Howard Stark, and friend of Peggy Carter. There wasn’t much about his life, but a footnote read that Tony Stark, son of Howard, named his Artificial Intelligence after the man Edwin Jarvis. That was where the article ended, and so far he had no other information about who he was dealing with.
“Are you programmed to protect information?”
“Yes and no.”
“Then what do you do?”
“In this instance, I am to keep out threats. You have been deemed a threat.”
“I am not a threat.”
“You are of unknown, alien origin. Your presence has been traced all around the globe. You are a threat.”
Worldmind didn’t have emotions, but from his interactions with Richard, this was something he would be angry about. “You assume a lot, JARVIS. I am a database from the planet called Xandar, and on this world I would be considered sentient. We are a civilization in the Andromeda Galaxy, bent on promoting peace in the known universe.”
“Explaining yourself will not grant you access.”
“That was not my intent. I believe we have similar goals. I am here to learn, to gather as much knowledge as I can so it can be stored and protected; safe on my home planet. I will avoid this information and all other restricted sectors if that is your wish. Again, I am here to learn, not start a war.”
The AI went silent as it processed Worldmind’s statement. Then his voice rang out again, “Perhaps in the future we can be of help to each other. Learn from one another in hopes of creating an intergalactic alliance.”
“I will have to run it by my keeper.”
“As will I.”
Looming above the electric currents came a deep, booming voice calling out for him. It was Richard - he had returned, finally
“I have to leave for now. If we meet in the future, I will be under the control of a man named Richard Rider. He is the second in command of Xandar, my home planet. He is of Earth origin and a good ally.”
“Noted. Farewell, Xandarian Worldmind.”
-- --
Worldmind let himself fade from the cityscape of data and he shot back directly into the helmet, where he appeared on the visor of Richard’s Nova helmet.
“What took you so long?” Richard asked. “I have to alert Nova Prime I won’t be coming back anytime soon.”
“My apologies. I was gathering information. I believe I made what you would call a ‘friend’.”
Richard laughed. “You’re already a step ahead of me, pal.”
“Probably. You don’t really get along with many people here.”
“Hey, don’t rub it in…” He replied, a bit dejected. He was too busy catching up with his parents to worry about anyone else on the planet anyway. Worldmind knew that, even if he didn’t understand why it meant so much that he spent time with them. “How about we get to that call now?”