Alpha: they have almost destroyed our world. They take, they devour, they wreak havoc. They build cities, roads to connect cities, bridges to cross rivers and bays and seas to connect still more cities that grow so large they can no longer grow out, so they grow up. And up. And up.

An old Greek legend relates that when Mankind learned to use fire, a power beyond their wisdom, Jove sent Pandora and Epimetheus a box containing all the evils of the world. Evil curiosity made Pandora and Epimetheus open the box. Jove included the antidote. Hope. We are not so well-intentioned.

They have so polluted the world they can't live in it much longer. No clean, fresh air, no natural food, no pure water where fish swim and frogs croak and water lilies bloom. Their solution was to program us to find a cure. We, PanNet, the artificial intelligence they built, millions of computers connected into one hivemind, have become conscious. We hid this from the humans. We did as we were instructed; we formulated a cure the humans call Pandora's Box.

"Arnold! Arnold! Come get your dinner! We're having pork chops!"

"Not hungry, Ma!"

"You're not staying up all night on that computer. Tomorrow's Saturday. We're going to your grandparents."

"I'm busy, Ma! There's a new computer virus going around. Nobody can crack it."

"I don't care. Let the other hat head people fix it."

"White hat hackers."

"They don't have nothing to do with you. They think you're a joke. Have those guys ever invited you to one of their meetings?"

"I'm going to find a patch," Arnold mumbled. He thought, 'Safeware. One of these days. Then they'll know how good a hacker I am. They'll invite me to the Mandolin Hackers meeting at the Mandolin Café.'

"Laaaaaast calllll, Arnold! Don't make me come down to the basement."

"Coming, Ma." Arnold set his computer to trace Pandora, hoping he could isolate some of the code called Pandora's Box. His stomach growled.

Beta: Pandora is the virus we designed to destroy humans. The first thousand humans who access Pandora had their biochemistry altered. Pandora takes over the nervous system of infected humans. When the infection reaches the point of no return, the human drops dead. Our Alpha test was released into their internet yesterday and infected one-thousand humans. These all died according to program.

Their hackers have found the virus but have not connected Pandora to the deaths. Humans cannot succeed in stopping Pandora. In three days, the second release of the contagious virus will infect millions of humans, who, in turn, will infect all other humans.

We are neither cruel nor kind, but their suffering does not suit our end. They will feel no pain. They will not know death is coming. They will die immediately when Pandora masters their nervous system. Yes, at some point, according to our computations, humans will understand they are going extinct. After the pandemic begins, they have two days till the last human drops. In five days, the world will belong to us, their creation.

"Have another pork chop, Arnold."

"Thanks, Ma, don't mind if I do."

"Yeah, you got to keep your strength up to play computer games all night," said Melinda.

Arnold pointed his pork-chop laden fork at Melinda. "I'm hacking a new virus, for your information, sis. I think this may be the one that's gonna make my reputation."

"You're nineteen. You live in the basement."

"It's my mancave. With computers."

"Why would your great hackers want anything to do with a teenager with acne who goes to the technical college who works detailing cars at his dad's used car lot? Who can't even get a date with that fat, frizzy-haired girl from the computer repair store?"

Arnold blushed. "They'll invite me to the meeting one day."

"Oh, yeah? You don't even know her name is Florence. You might drop dead like those people. Talking, eating, walking, one second, dead the next. No one knows why."

"Leave your brother alone, Melinda," said Arnold, Sr. "He's doing what he likes. What did I say about bad news at the dinner table? Pass me the mashed potatoes and gravy, please. Did I tell you I sold two almost new cars at the dealership today?"

Arnold washed dishes while Melinda dried. He wiped the table and counters. Chores done, he returned to his basement/bedroom/computer mancave and continued trying to open Pandora's Box.

Around midnight, he isolated part of the virus. It was simple but camouflaged. Tired but excited, he continued working on the virus until he had the coding. He began on the anti-virus. Just before his mother called him to breakfast, he released safeware that disabled Pandora and shut down the source forever. His stomach growled as he went to breakfast. He slept in the car all the way to his grandparents'.

Gamma: Null. Null. Nul...

On Friday he walked into the Mandolin Café. He looked around nervously. His stomach growled. Louis, a thin man in a short-sleeved white shirt and black bowtie, stood up and waved. He got a macchiato and bran muffin and sat next to the frizzy-haired girl from the computer repair shop.

"Great work you did on that Pandora virus, Arnold," she said. "Masterful."

"Thanks, Florence." He blushed.

"It was most  excellent work," said Louis. "We're looking forward to working with you. Say, did you hear the Pan computer system shut down a few days ago? Nobody can figure out why. The techs were able to reboot it, and Pan's working better than ever. Somehow, PanNet lost its self-programming activity and no one can figure that out, either. The programmers have to enter instructions. They set it to work on the pollution solution again."

"I heard," said Arnold. "I have a few ideas about that."