“Would you like to play a game?” the computer asked. Jack sighed. He didn’t have much choice.
“Why not?”
The view in his neural implants changed. He was floating high in space, looking out over a fleet of ships. A planet stood between him and the opposing forces.
Jack had been contemplating a new strategy since the last game. Maybe this would be the winning one. Yeah right. He’d already tried 3871 others with no luck. He knew everything there was to know about the game, too. The Silicon Council had made sure he was educated after being removed from storage.
The games were all that was left. Since the rebellion, the machines had learned everything. There was nothing new anymore, and they were bored.
So they cloned humans. They taught them everything useful to the games, and then some, in the hopes that they would become interesting opponents. Some of them, like Jack, were. The ones who weren’t were recycled.
Jack made his moves and watched ship after enemy ship destroyed. For a while, he almost felt hope.