“Let’s keep it formal for now. Turn around, let me see the back of your skull.”

I complied without comment.

When we were facing again, he said, “So you actually went ahead and did it. I wouldn’t have had the guts.”

“The surgery’s fairly simple, and the results are incredible. It’s like having the Internet in your head.”

“If it’s all the same, I think I’ll just stick with my h-phone. Sit down, pal, we have a lot to discuss. General Schall, why don’t you handle the heavy lifting?”

My uncle motioned me into one of the two vacant chairs. “This room is a quiet zone, meaning—”

“Meaning GOLEM can’t eavesdrop.”

The general nodded. “Before you assume the worst, I think every person in this room would agree the computer’s performance over the last twenty-one months has been close to flawless, giving us the confidence to use the system to oversee other science-related sectors outside of the energy department. In doing so an interesting thing happened. The more we asked the GOLEM system to handle—”

“The more efficient the computer became,” I said, looking around the room. “It’s part of the computer’s adaptive programming. Which sectors has GOLEM linked to?”

“SEA personnel, both domestic and international, all of NASA’s missions, past and present, as well as Hubble. GOLEM’s been using the telescope as a sort of lunar GPS system.”

“Clever. Optimizing the usage of these varied sensory systems no doubt increased the length of GOLEM’s solution strands, along with the computer’s functional IQ, again all part of its adaptive programming.”

One of the female scientists cut me off. “Dr. Eisenbraun, does GOLEM’s adaptive programming include the development of proactive mechanisms?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then maybe you can explain the difference between proactive mechanisms and cognitive independence.”

Uh-oh. I glanced around the room. The other scientists’ expressions were as disconcerted as mine must have been. “Are you saying GOLEM has been functioning independent of its programming?”

“We’re not sure,” the vice president said, “which is one of the reasons we summoned you to Washington. Dr. Nilsson’s in charge of the helium-3 conversion program, I’ll let him explain.”

Thomas Nilsson was the Swedish geologist who had developed the computer’s Lunar Soil Analysis Program, or L-SAP. “Hello again, Dr. Eisenbraun. We have a most disturbing situation. Five months ago, your computer sent a priority message to all departments. Among other things, the message contained a chemical analysis of samples taken from each of the seventeen helium-3 caches it had mined from the moon’s surface. According to its analysis, the gas derived from the ore wasn’t pure enough to create a stable fusion reaction; in other words, the helium-3 was useless. As you can imagine, we were all a bit overwhelmed.”

I groaned at the colossal setback, the news hitting me like a punch to the gut. “All that work … all that money.”