FAI

by Jake Lingwall

  “Fai, can you break the sprinklers in the room so they only pour water straight down?”

  “Yes.” Kari watched her green eyes move around the room and the accompanying noise of her body jumping into the air and tearing the sprinkler heads from the ceiling. Water collided with the pooling water on the ground now, like a faucet.

  “What are you doing? This is a crazy!” John said. His brief moment of trust in Kari had evaporated once again.

  “Now, have your second and first body punch holes in the wall. Just keep yourself suspended from the ground.”

  “Yes, but why I am doing this?” Fai asked.

  Energy blasts hit their door frequently now. From the sounds of it, it wasn’t going to protect them for much longer.

  “As soon as that door opens, you are going to order your third body to discharge its entire fuel cell into the water on the floor. If we’re lucky, that will electrocute everyone the water has touched.”

  “What about us?” John asked.

  “Well, we are on top of this wooden table.”

  “Right,” John said. “Brilliant.”

  “Once the ground is clear, you’ll need use your first body to clear out any attackers that are still standing, OK?”

  “I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Fai said.

  Kari could hardly hear Fai over the sound of the assault on their room. It wouldn’t be long now. She took a deep breath and quickly scribbled a note in her mind chip and held it ready to send. David would never forgive me if I didn’t say good-bye.

  “I know you don’t, but we don’t—”

  The door to their room shattered under the pressure of another energy blast. It burned and fell over backward into the room, making a splash on the several inches of water on the floor. Flashlights from the lab floor shown into the room, providing enough light for Kari to see Fai’s V3 body leap through the doorway.

  Kari shielded her eyes as Fai’s body unleashed all of its energy onto the wet floor outside. Streaks of electricity raced through the wet floor, electrocuting everything it came in contact with. Screams of utter pain came from the League of Humanity soldiers outside the door as the electricity burned through their bodies.

  “Fai, is it safe for us to touch the ground?” Kari shouted.

  “Yes.” Fai answered as two heavy thuds splashed to the ground.

  “John we have to go, right now!”

  The cofounder of Vision Corp didn’t hesitate in following her orders. They followed Fai’s two remaining bodies out of the room and into the devastated research lab. Fai activated some lights on her body, which provided enough illumination for them to see. Every footstep crunched with broken glass beneath their feet. Kari didn’t have time to worry about cutting herself as they ran past the electrocuted attackers and Fai’s fizzling V3 body.

  The glass dividers that had filled the room had been destroyed, shards of glass stuck up through the thin layer of water. Kari caught glimpses of burned and cut bodies as she tried to find a safe way to the exit. As far as she could tell, the attacking soldiers had left no survivors.

  “That was incredible!” John said.

  “We’re not out of this yet . . .” Kari responded. “Fai, do you have any way to tell if there are more assailants in the cave?”

  “There is nothing accessible to me outside this room that provides any conclusive information,” Fai said.

  “When we get to the door, we’ll need to have you check down the hall.”

  “Yes, Kari.”

  “You think there are more of them?” John asked.

  “I think so, but I hope not.”

  As soon as they reached the door leading to the main hallway, Fai leaned her body around the edge of the hallway and was immediately greeted by energy blasts.

  “There are two men with energy rifles at the end of the hallway,” Fai said.

  More energy blasts were fired at the entrance to the hall as the soldiers continued to fire where they had seen Fai.

  “John, Fai, we’re going to hide over here to the side of the door. Those soldiers are going to chase V1 into the research lab. Fai use V2 to get them from behind, once you have a clear shot.”

  “How do you want me to hurt them?” Fai asked.

  “Just hit them on the back of the head hard enough to knock them out,” Kari said.

  “Are you crazy? Rip their heads off!” John said.

  Kari knew it was the most practical answer. She didn’t want any of their attackers to catch them from behind, and they certainly didn’t deserve any mercy after slaughtering all the lab workers, but she didn’t want Fai to be a killer. She’s too innocent for that. Well, maybe not anymore. The world has come for her much sooner than I had hoped.

  A few moments later, energy blasts fired from the hallway after Fai’s V1 body that ran deeper into the large research lab room. Kari wiped the water from her soaked face as she watched Fai leap and grab the two men from behind and slam their heads against each other. The light spilling in from the hallway provided just enough illumination for her to see what was happening. The men crumpled to the floor in a heap as Fai stood over them.

  “Grab the weapons,” Kari said.

  John rushed over to the weapons and picked them up while they waited for V1 to return. Kari held the energy weapon in her hands uneasily. For some reason, I feel less empowered with this in my hands.

  “V1 was hit and sustained significant damage,” Fai reported.

  A few moments later it came limping toward them. It was missing an arm and one of its legs was barely attached to the rest of its body.

  “Can it keep up with us?”

  “If we move slowly,” Fai said.

  “OK, let’s go,” Kari said. They cautiously entered the hallway again. This time no energy blasts greeted them. They walked past the door to the personal quarters, which was blocked open. Smoke was coming through the door. The lights were still on in this section of the cave, which allowed Kari see a number of bloody lab coats covering more fallen researchers.

  She fought back the urge to throw up. The fear she felt was pushed aside by pure rage. They killed all these people so they could kill Fai! The individual least deserving of murder on this whole planet!

  “This is bad,” John whispered.

  Kari didn’t respond as they reached the wall of the EMP room. This isn’t what I signed up for.

  “Fai, can you open these walls?”

  “Give me a minute and I will try,” Fai said.

  Kari tried her best as well, using her mind chip to connect to the system governing the building. She opened up a number of hasty attacks, but she didn’t have any success by the time the walls began to slide open.

  “Fai! Don’t!” Kari shouted, but it was too late.

  Energy blasts came flying at them from the far side of the EMP room, in the lobby of the cave. A blast caught what was left of V1, melting straight through the middle of what remained of Fai’s original body. Kari squeezed a few shots off in response as she moved for cover.

  “Die!” John yelled as he stood his ground, firing energy blast after energy blast at the men on the other side. His shock was gone now, as he furiously fired at the men in the lobby.

  “John, get out of there!”

  John didn’t look away as he continued to fire. He pressed forward as the number of energy blasts coming from the lobby dropped.

  The door on their side of the EMP room slammed shut, just in front of John.

  “Fai, what’s that?”

  The door opened again and this time no energy blasts came at them.

  “I overrode the EMP to fire even with the front door open. I used it to neutralize the weapons of the people in the lobby.”

  “You’re going to make me extremely rich!” John shouted.

  He led them forward into the lobby. He fired his energy rifle several times, but Kari didn’t follow where the blasts went. The sounds of dying League of Humanity soldiers were enough for her. She didn’t need to visua
lly confirm their deaths. However, she wasn’t able to avoid seeing the fallen bodies of the research lab guards.

  The glass lobby doors were destroyed, leaving nothing but a light metal wireframe between them and the dark exit to the tunnel.

  “We did it!” John said.

  This time Kari didn’t correct him. No auto-autos waited for them on the outside, but Kari didn’t see any other soldiers, either.

  “Fai, check the cave ahead of us for enemies,” Kari said between deep breaths. Now that the immediate danger was over, Kari felt the rush of how perilous their situation had been. She felt dizzy.

  “I cannot detect anyone else down the cave,” Fai said.

  “Thank God,” John said.

  An energy blast came whizzing through the air from behind them and slammed into Fai’s left arm, blasting it from her body. The people we left behind in the personal quarters! Why didn’t we lock them in?

  Kari’s regret matched her panic as she reacted to the new threat. She sprinted for cover farther down the cave and Fai paced next to her. She looked over her shoulder to see John start to run beside them. Energy blasts flew all around them, miraculously not hitting anyone. Kari made it to the corner of the cave where the energy blasts collided with the stone, sending dust and chips of rock flying, but otherwise did no damage.

  She glanced behind her again to see John Luken just a step behind. He started to scream before the energy blast caught him in the torso. It burned through him and sent his body flying lifelessly through the air.

  Chapter Nine

  Her legs ached and her lungs begged for mercy, but Kari kept running. It felt like she was stuck in the middle of a horrible dream. Energy blasts fired widely around them, the cave was too dark for their would-be murderers to shoot at them accurately. But that didn’t stop blasts from coming all together too close to killing her, just like they had murdered John a few minutes ago.

  “There are more men at the mouth of the cave,” Fai said. Her voice lacked any of the breathlessness that a human being would have at this point. Instead it sounded calm and calculated. Kari didn’t have the time to decide whether that was a good thing or not.

  “How many?” Kari asked between gasps for air.

  “Around ten, from my readings,” Fai said. “But there could be more.”

  “Have they noticed us yet?”

  “I don’t believe so, the cave bends enough that they can’t see us yet. If we hurry we might make it to them before they can see us coming.”

  “I can’t . . . go . . . any faster!” Kari said. Her side was throbbing and her throat burned.

  “If I carry you, we can make it in time,” Fai said.

  “OK!” Why didn’t you mention this earlier?

  The cave was too dark to see well, but Fai’s green eyes appeared in front of her.

  “Jump, I will catch you,” Fai said.

  “I trust you!” Kari jumped forward, which resulted in only a marginal gain of speed or distance. But it was enough.

  Fai’s remaining arm wrapped under her legs and held in her place. They spun around so that Fai was running forward and suddenly their speed increased. Good thing I built her to outrun a horse.

  Kari didn’t stop to catch her breath as she raised her energy rifle and fired it wildly back toward where the attacks were still coming from. She didn’t expect to hit anyone, but she hoped to decrease the chances that a random energy blast would hit them.

  The wind whipped through Kari’s hair and soon they had put enough distance between them and their human pursuers that Kari stopped firing. She looked over her shoulder to see they were rapidly approaching the mouth of the cave. Sunlight poured into the dark tunnel, and her eyes hurt as they tried to adjust to the light. Fai was sprinting, which made her ride just bouncy enough that she couldn’t get a good idea of where the rest of the League of Humanity soldiers were waiting at the mouth of the cave.

  “Take us into the woods as soon as you can,” Kari said. “They won’t be able to chase us in their auto-autos that way.”

  “Of course,” Fai responded.

  Fai was fast, but she wouldn’t be fast enough to outrun auto-autos. Kari’s heart didn’t slow down as they approached the opening to the cave. She could clearly see manual vehicles piled up at the mouth of the cave with several men waiting around nervously.

  In a few mechanical steps, Fai stepped into the sunlight and launched herself onto the top of a rusty old manual Jeep.

  “What the—” a female League of Humanity member exclaimed as Fai’s metal feet dented the hood of their old vehicle.

  Before anyone could get a shot off, Fai jumped out toward the woods while carrying Kari on her chest. Some energy blasts hit the ground just behind them as Fai scrambled up a hill and into the forest.

  “Don’t stop running,” Kari said.

  “We need to keep moving,” Kari said. She picked herself up from the rock she had been sitting on. Her breathing was finally under control, even though her brain was still in a state of shock. The image of John’s body being tossed through the air replayed over and over in her mind.

  “I don’t believe they will be able to catch up to us,” Fai said. “Like I said, we have put sufficient distance between us and them.”

  “That’s assuming they don’t have mountain-cycles or a helicopter or something they can use to run us down. You leave quite the set footprints and you would be the only thing to register on scanners for miles.”

  “Good points,” Fai said. “Where are we going?”

  “We need to make it back to civilization. Somewhere we can get an auto-auto and get out of here.”

  “Where to, then?”

  Her persistence in wanting to know what came next reminded Kari of David’s father. But instead of being worried, Fai just seemed to be her ever-eager self.

  “I don’t know, somewhere we can be safe. Maybe to Vision headquarters.”

  “If they were able to attack us here, why would there be any safer there?”

  “A lot of the security around this place was counting on people not knowing that it existed. It’s different at Vision headquarters. I think we’ll be safe there.”

  “Who were those people trying to kill us and why were they doing it?”

  Kari picked a quick pace she felt was sustainable and continued to walk directly away from the Vision research lab. She pulled up the map of the area on her mind chip and started looking for the best place to reenter society. We can’t make it too obvious, or they might be waiting for us. But we can’t spend forever out here in the mountains, either.

  “Kari, did you hear me?” Fai asked.

  “Yes,” Kari said. “Just a minute.”

  There! It’ll take us through the night, but if we can keep going at a good pace we’ll be able to make it into town. I don’t think they have enough people to check everywhere, and if they are waiting for us, we have some good escape options. Kari adjusted her trajectory to take her to the new town and ordered her mind chip to help guide them there.

  She lingered on the desperate note she had written for David in case she didn’t make it out of the lab alive. She read it again and stopped herself before deleting it. She filed it away instead.

  “I think they were from the League of Humanity,” Kari said. “And I think they were after you, primarily, but they probably wanted to kill all of us.”

  “After researching them, I believe you are correct,” Fai said.

  Kari had been preparing to explain the League of Humanity to Fai, but Fai was able to process information too quickly. She’s not even allowed to use her full power yet, and she’s already able to learn everything there is to know about a topic in a single second. Incredible.

  “I understand that their fear of me is based on hypothetical situations and ignorance,” Fai said. “That doesn’t bother me. But their vow to kill anyone who works on Artificial Intelligence is horrid.”

  “The world is full of horrid people and things,” Kari said. “I
t’s part of the things that I mentioned you would learn. I’m sorry you had to see it so soon . . . and in that way.”

  “My creators are dead,” Fai said. “In a way it makes me an orphan.”

  Kari quickly searched the net before responding. She knew there were famous people who had been orphans, she just couldn’t think of any off the top of her head.

  “Some of the great people in history were orphans,” Kari said. “Especially ones who made a difference in social issues. Besides, you’ll always have me.”

  “You’ll die someday,” Fai said.

  Thanks for pointing that out, Fai.

  “That’s true . . .”

  “I will too.”

  “I guess that’s the reality of life,” Kari said. I’m too young to be talking like this.

  Fai didn’t respond. They walked for miles without Fai asking a question or saying another word. It was far and away the longest that Kari had ever spent with her in silence. Maybe this morning messed her up, too. How could it not? I’ve never been through anything like that. Reliving the terror of the lab in her mind made her cold inside.

  She sent a quick message to David, letting him know that she missed him. After the darkest times, David had always been there to help her deal with everything.

  “Are you doing OK, Fai?” Kari asked.

  “All my systems are stable.”

  “No, I mean emotionally. What we went through today was traumatic. I’m here if you want to talk about anything.”

  “Thank you,” Fai said. “I think I’m still processing the events.”

  That’s saying something given what your CB is capable of!

  “Me too,” Kari said. “Maybe we’ll talk about it more later, when we’ve had a chance to digest everything.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Fai said. “I don’t have a stomach.”

  It was a joke Kari’s dad would have been proud of, but she laughed anyway. She checked the news and there still wasn’t any information about the attack on the research lab. She had contacted the police as soon as they were outside range of the League of Humanity, but the lab was so far up in the mountains she wasn’t sure enforcement would be able to respond in time to catch any of the assailants. It’s worth a try. Besides, maybe the paramedics will be able to save some of the scientists.