by Eric Warren
And everyone ruined it! Why couldn’t they just be happy for her? Let her help Sy out, then maybe she could see this colony. Talk to them. Ask them what it was like to grow up surrounded by your own kind. Oh sure, you could ask the machines the same question and they’d give you a pre-programmed answer, but the humans would make it real. They would make it different. And it was that difference, that novelty she craved. She could even help them integrate…
Wait a second. If they had those image refractors, then why didn’t they just leave the colony? They could walk around as much as they wanted and no one would know.
But the more she thought about it the more it made sense they didn’t. Would she want to go out into a world she couldn’t interact with? They’d have to stay behind the refractors to keep the illusion in place. And if they dropped it in a crowded area more than likely the surveillance drones would pick up human life signs. See? All they wanted was to go out into the world without persecution. Was that so much to ask?
Her eyes drifted back over to the two bodies sitting upright on the floor.
Damn.
Jill was right. Her first duty was to Emily and Carver—the parents who’d raised her. They didn’t have much time left and if Arista gave up now, she might never see them again. Frees’ scanning equipment would be ready soon, then they could start looking again in earnest. And not accepting Sy’s offer would mean she wouldn’t have to worry about killing any other humans.
Arista knew she should probably think on it a while, take some time with her decision. But there was no need. After all, it was what they all wanted to hear anyway, why make them wait? She needed to get down there and tell them before she lost her nerve and escaped through the window in the middle of the night.
Arista made her way downstairs to find Jill sitting at the small table in the kitchen, staring off into space. Frees had made himself comfortable on the couch and Max had retreated to the far end of the room, a pair of large headphones on her head.
“I have an announcement,” Arista said, stopping three steps from the bottom. Everyone turned to face her except Max. It was as if she were at a concert and she was the person who went up to give out all the boring information before the main event. She grabbed the banister for support. “I have decided not to help Sy, but instead continue the search for my parents. Once that is done if Sy still needs my help, I’ll offer it gladly.”
“Thank God,” Jill said from the kitchen.
Frees stood and walked over the stairs. “I think you made a good decision.”
“I hope so,” she replied. “I really hope so.”
Nine
Arista managed to get some sleep. There was no point in calling Sy just yet. Better to wait until morning. She secretly hoped to have a dream that might give her an excuse to go help anyway. But when she woke up everything remained the same.
Sometimes she didn’t like being the only one who slept; the others stayed awake all night. They could sit on the charging cube and maintain a perfectly normal conversation with no lapse in power. But Arista needed the rest, she always had. Back when she’d lived alone it hadn’t been as bad, or even with her parents as they still pretended to sleep to give her some semblance of a schedule.
But not in this house. Jill and Frees were always working on some project and Max would often get involved with her music. They were respectful, trying not to be loud or disturbing, but she didn’t like the fact everyone was being productive while she was stuck in bed allowing her cells to rejuvenate.
It also meant she never had the house to herself. That, she missed more than anything.
When she arrived downstairs, Jill and Frees were engaged in a discussion about superconductors and Max was nowhere to be found. Arista made her way over to the counter and grabbed two apricots and a peach for breakfast.
“How do you feel?” asked Jill.
“Fine.” Arista grabbed a knife and balancing the apricot with her wrist, sliced it into strips, popping each one in her mouth as she did.
“Any more thoughts about what you’re gonna do?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t have any late-night revelations if that’s what you mean. I’m still going to tell her no.”
Even though they no longer simulated breathing, Arista thought she saw Jill heave a sigh of relief. She rolled her eyes and cut into the second apricot.
“Frees thinks it’s a good idea to keep the lines of communication open,” Jill added. “There’s no sense in cutting her off completely.”
“I had already planned to do that.” Did they think just because Arista wasn’t agreeing to help Sy that she would just go away? That would be foolish and a waste of a possible resource. Unless Jill really was afraid of what she might do.
“Good,” said Frees. “She may still be able to help us one day.”
“Why would she help us if we can’t do anything for her?” Arista asked.
“You tell me. You’re the one saying these humans are different.”
Arista pulled a small Tupperware from under the counter and stuffed her apricot slices and the peach into it. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll call and let her know afterward.”
Jill nodded while Frees remained silent.
Arista made her way back upstairs with her fruit in-hand and closed her door behind her. Since no one else required a shower, she’d taken the one bedroom that had an en-suite. She set her fruit on the bed and went in, turning the shower lever, then returned to the bedroom and tapped the comm above her ear, bringing up the last calls received in her vision. She tapped it again, holding her arm out in front of her
“Hello? Oh, Arista. Good morning.” Sy’s image stared back at her from the holo-projection. Arista only hoped the sound of the water masked her voice.
“Good morning. I hope you made it to your hotel without incident.”
“The Peacekeeper schedules you provided me were very helpful, thank you. Have you made a decision?”
“I have. I want to help you. But I have something else I have to do first. How long do you think it will take Hogo-sha to revamp his defenses?”
“There’s no telling. But the longer we wait the harder it will become. What do you have to do?”
“I have to find my parents. They are nearing the end of their spans. They only have a few weeks left.”
“Your parents? But I thought you were already in contact. The call you made, the one we traced, wasn’t that your mother?”
Arista grimaced at the word ‘mother’. “Yes, but that’s the only time I spoke to her. I haven’t been able to raise them again and have no idea where they are. I don’t even know if they’re still alive. But Frees is building a machine to help us scan for them. Then we can transfer their consciousnesses into new bodies.”
“That’s very noble of you.” Sy turned so she was no longer looking straight into the viewer; she was watching something outside the edge of the holo. “How about this?” Sy said. “If you give me their details I can contact the colony to search for them. We have very sophisticated scanning equipment.”
“You would do that?” she said, stunned.
“Of course! We need to make sure they’re safe as well.”
Could they really do that? If they found them maybe they could all go to the colony. They wouldn’t have to be so worried about being discovered anymore. For the first time in their lives, Arista and her parents could live freely, without the constant threat of annihilation.
“I don’t want to be any trouble,” Arista said, trying to remain polite but also keep the excitement out of her voice. Inside, she screamed with joy. The humans could find them a lot faster than Frees ever could.
“Arista, listen to me. We want to keep all autonomous machines safe. It’s in our own best interest to help and cooperate with them. Not only would finding your parents and bringing them here be a burden off your back, but it would be really good for us too. I want to meet the people who raised you. Who kept you safe all these years. We owe them
a debt of gratitude.”
She said people! She did consider them equals, even after everything Frees and Jill had warned her about. And now Arista had no more obstacles in her way. She could help Sy and her people by taking out Hogo-sha.
And his human stash.
“What’s wrong? Is it not what you wanted to hear?” Sy asked, frowning.
Arista regained her composure. “No, of course, it is great news. Thank you. I was just thinking about Japan.”
“Have you ever been?”
Arista shook her head.
“Me either, but it’s supposed to be beautiful. In its own way. And I don’t expect you to have much trouble. How did you feel about removing Charlie?”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly easy,” Arista said. “When everything came crashing down we were nearly killed. And if it hadn’t been for the Peacekeepers I’d turned we might not have made it out at all.”
Sy smiled. “This time it will be easier. I’ll have something for you that will help—it will make the last time feel like a breeze.”
“What, like a weapon?” Arista raised an eyebrow.
“Something like that.”
Arista couldn’t help but think about the humans Hogo-sha might have in storage. But if Sy knew about them then she probably wouldn’t be sending Arista in to kill them all. In fact, she’d probably be telling her how important it was not to kill them; to bring them all back in one piece so they could go through rehabilitation at the colony. Which meant she had no idea about them at all.
“Okay, perfect. When can we get started? And if your friends don’t want to accompany you that’s fine. You should have no trouble taking care of this yourself. I think it would be good for you,” Sy said.
“I guess there’s no time like the present. I can meet you tonight.” Arista congratulated herself on running the shower first.
“At the Gate you used to get into Cadre HQ? Can you get back there safely?”
The Device displayed the routes of all the Peacekeepers for the next twenty-four hours. Tiny white dots moving over a complex pattern of streets and waterways. But back to that place. She sighed. If she must, she must.
“Yes, I don’t see why not. There are no patrols scheduled in that area for another two days.”
“That will be plenty of time. You can have this done in an hour, tops. You’ll even be back in your own bed before long. And then we can work on getting you to the colony.”
An hour? Traveling to the other side of the world and back in such a short amount of time; it was almost incomprehensible to her. Arista nodded.
“Bring me everything you have on your parents. While you’re over there I’ll contact the colony, start the search.”
“Thank you so much. You don’t know what that means to me,” she beamed.
“Hey, we have to look out for our own, right?”
Arista smiled. “Right.”
Ten
The conversation had escalated quicker than she’d anticipated. Arista exchanged a few more pleasantries with Sy and ended the call, slipping into the shower. As she rubbed shampoo over her short hair she couldn’t help the flutter of nervousness that seemed to have taken root somewhere in her abdomen. Could she really go up against another Cadre AI by herself? Could she even get out of the house without anyone else seeing her? And most importantly of all, what would happen when she encountered a collection of humans similar to Charlie’s?
She had a couple of possibilities. Arista could leave them be, allow them to suffer slow deaths as the machinery eventually shut off. She could terminate them, or she could find a way to bring them back with her. That was, if they existed at all. If they didn’t this would be a piece of cake; as long as Sy’s weapon worked as well as she said it did. But if the time came, she needed to have the decision planted firmly in her mind so there would be no hesitation. Hesitation led to mistakes.
Water splashed against her face and ran through her hair. Sometimes she could lose herself in here, the warm air, the sound of the water, the sweet smell of body wash. It felt like a little cocoon.
“Jill wants to see you downstairs.”
The voice startled Arista and she jumped back, grabbing the closest thing which happened to be the shower curtain. She stumbled and had to use her right wrist to stabilize herself. She ended up looking like a splayed chicken trying to keep itself out of the meat grinder, one hand on the curtain, another stuck to the tile and both feet at different angles.
“Max, what the hell!” Arista blinked away the water and saw Max’s head poking around the curtain at the other end.
“Just thought you should know.”
“You couldn’t have waited five more minutes to tell me?”
“And miss the look on your face? Jill says if you’re going to talk to someone in secret, try not to use all the hot water when you do it. She hates having to boil water to clean parts.” She grinned and disappeared around the edge of the curtain.
Thirty minutes later, after taking longer-than-normal to dry her hair and put on some clothes, Arista sat at the kitchen table, staring at the other three. She’d slipped on the pair of jeans she’d arrived with, along with the leather jacket she’d originally stolen from Max, just to piss her off. “So, what now? I get the third degree again?”
Frees gave the motion of a small chuckle, but it didn’t last.
“How’d you do it? Do you have me on surveillance too?” Arista asked, holding up her arm with the comm under the skin.
“I have exceptional hearing,” Jill said.
“Then you still think it’s a bad idea. Even though she’s presented a solution to finding my parents. A real solution she can start on today.”
“I’m just saying we don’t know anything about this person. Or what her motives are.”
“Then it doesn’t really matter, because she’s offering me help and I’m going to take it. I’d like to think if you were in my position, you’d do the same thing.”
Jill clicked her teeth. “Maybe.”
“I don’t need your permission and I don’t need your help. The only difference now is I don’t have to be quiet when I leave tonight.”
“How many times do I have to tell you, you’re not going alone,” Frees said. “Even if you do go to take down the AI, how are you going to do it without…?” He held up his hand, the lens of the felp catching the light.
“She’s got a weapon for me. Something that will make this an easy job.”
“Then why doesn’t she just go and do it if it’s so easy?” Frees asked.
“Because she doesn’t have a dampener like Arista does. Her refractor wouldn’t allow her to interact with her environment while it’s up and droppin’ it too soon could expose her to all the sensors. Arista’s the perfect person to get in because she’s invisible. To the scanners at least.” Jill stood, making her way back into the living room. “Max, if you wouldn’t mind I’d like you to tag along. If Frees and Arista are goin’ in that Gate we need someone to stay on this side and keep an eye on our new human ally.”
“Can I just shoot her as soon as they’re through the Gate?” Max asked, deadpan.
“No. Don’t do that. Not only because it would be bad manners but we may need her expertise to get Frees and Arista back. If they didn’t have the gate it’d take them days to get back here with all the security they’d have to skirt. So try not to piss her off until they return, huh?”
Arista shook her head. She just wanted to get over there and get this over with already. But at least with Frees with her he might be willing to help her save any captive humans they came across. And if worse came to worst, she could ask him to perform the deed for her. He would do it, she was sure. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, grateful to finally have that obstacle eliminated.
“You okay?” Frees asked.
“Just tired of everyone fretting over me like I’m a fragile kitten,” Arista replied. She righted her head and opened her eyes again. “I know you’re all trying to
help, but this is ridiculous. I took care of myself quite well before I met any of you.”
“Except for the hand thing,” Frees said.
She pursed her lips at him as his face cracked into a big grin, his titanium teeth revealed underneath his polymorphic mouth. “Ass.”
“Since you’re dead set on doing this we might as well be prepared. Let me get in a full charge and we’ll head for the hyperloop station in a few hours. We can get there ahead of her to make sure we aren’t entering another trap.”
Arista shrugged. “Whatever you think.” But behind the bravado, she felt relieved. This would be a lot easier with Frees—and even Max—watching her back. Sy said Japan would be easy, she only hoped they both had the same definition of the word.
“The infamous production facility,” Max said as they exited the hyperloop pods. “I guess this is where I was constructed.”
“Do you have any memory of it?” Arista asked.
“The first thing I remember is coming online at Cadre HQ when they installed my core personality. Before that there was nothing.”
“Good news for those two husks we pulled from here,” Frees said. “At least now we don’t have to worry about erasing anyone else. Your parents will appreciate all the trouble you went to.”
“If we get that far,” Arista said. She’d felt an increasingly-dark cloud forming over her as they made their way from Jill’s to the hyperloop station to here. It was as if she were entering into something she wasn’t sure she was ready for. And she wasn’t quite sure how to process it. What was clear though was her nervousness at seeing Sy again. The fluttery sensation in her abdomen hadn’t gone away, only increased in strength. As they made their way up the stairs and through the facility the feeling intensified. What would Sy say when they arrived? Would she touch Arista again? Would they still have that connection she’d felt the night before?
