by Kit Falbo
Chapter Twenty-One
“Is that it?” Lily asks looking at the fist-sized object near the center of the house that I call my base of operations. “It kind of looks like a giant bean.”
The shifting nano-cluster that Muninn had occupied was not an option. I wanted more stability over miniaturization. “I think it is more like a potato. I’m working on a body now and making sure it has all the upgrades to the AMU top recommendations. The directions are to let it sit a few days before I activate it anyway.”
She strokes Booker, still staring at what I had manufactured. “Why is it so big?”
Tess could probably fit such a piece inside her, but that is because her core is tiny, while Booker and Belle are visibly much smaller. “It’s older, and the older UI have bigger cores. You saw that one in the museum. I also made material choices for stability. It has a built-in power source, structural armor, filter receivers, multi-variant ports. I went hardware over programming for tech interactions.”
“And that makes it look like a giant bean?”
“Potato. In a few days, I’ll install the hardware and stick it in the body I’m making. Then I’ll be able to use it.”
Leaving the sleeping potato-bean UI core alone, she went to the mattress and sprawled herself out, letting herself go limp. Here out from prying eyes, she can allow herself to relax, away from the image of a young starlet she’s developing. “This has been your big project for a while. What will you do when it is ready?” She asks.
“I want to see what and how far this bug applies. I want to see if this new UI can find anything my others missed looking into the creepy messages or attack on me. I want to see if it can fix the bug and any others in my UIs base code. I don’t like it when Tess or Belle or any other UI has such a flat denial of something that I feel is clear. None of this works, then I’ll give the information to investigators or my fans and the magic using community.”
“So cute, you want to be a hero. I knew you put some of yourself into Wizard Joontal.”
Hero? User intelligences having this bug is a problem. It is a puzzle. “Joontal wasn’t heroic. He was a curmudgeon of obscene power.”
Lily snorts. “How many times did you have to come in and rescue me from the situation you put me in as your apprentice? I’ve seen you battle horrors, tame beats, give gifts to the needy. Maybe I know you better than you know yourself. No come lay with me down here and give me a cuddle.” I oblige.
The new body is a quadrupedal robot, about knee high. It can change shape and appearance, and I could make it a large cat, a dog, a lizard, a tiny pony or an elephant. A bucket of military-grade camouflage nanites and specialized fabric are ready and waiting at its feet, to let it have its own mini Joontal type suit. I don’t want to be the one to pick. The new UI should get to do that. I’m waiting for Lily before I activate it for the first time. She should be here any minute.
“I brought lunch!” She yells as she enters the house. She stops when she sees the UI housing. “That’s worse than the bean. Looks like some cat-dog-monster robot. Usually, your gadgets have more style. ”
I have it cycle through several different image options, projecting a hologram over the body, to demonstrate it can look like something else: a large cat, tiny unicorn, a very fly dog. Having the projection show the nanites shifting and reforming for each option. “I want the UI to be able to pick its own shape without having it preset to something that may influence it.”
She hands me my takeout box lunch. The spicy and sweet smells remind me I only had an apple for breakfast because I was too focused on getting this ready. I wouldn’t be shocked if Tess informed Lily to bring lunch here after she got out of class. “Considering what you did to that poor abolitionist group, you certainly put a lot of emphasis on UI rights and feelings.”
I open the box of chili noodles and chicken. I eat a few bites to settle my hunger and think before replying. “Like pets, UI are not made to be on their own doing whatever they want. Even if caring for them, is having them take care of us. I don’t believe giving them all freedom will be good for them or us. Just look at the barbarity of Freedom Station. The protesters were also in my way, and I didn’t have time to be polite.”
“Tell that to Dimi.”
I sigh. “I have.” He still hasn’t fully forgiven me. Not to say he hasn’t been polite and respectful. That is the thing. He has only been polite and respectful.
We eat, and she tells me about her day, how Mandy is a dead weight on her group project and her morning tutor for Magic Battles. She still likes my advice, I’ve just been a tad busy recently, and well, it’s hard to take lessons from someone you're sleeping with. “You think I’m ready for another battle?”
“Sure. Not everyone will be as difficult as planning and facing Mistress Mink. You can’t be afraid to take risks, even if you lose.” I set my empty food container down. “You ready to fire this thing up?”
She perks up at that. “That reminds me.” She pulls a drive out of her pocket. “I want you to add this to the files to be looked at when the UI when it boots up.” I give her a questioning look. “Just some notes from me and some of my favorite clips of you. I know you’ve got your research on the base code bug and even some work on how to modify UIs base code. I figure you don’t have enough of you in the mix.”
She’s not wrong. I do also tend to keep my public information light. I sometimes worry Belle got too much from fans. “Ok, I’ll add it to the pile.”
I gather all the information and a summary for the guidance section to upload upon activation. Wanting something simple to activate it I sent in the code of zero repeating eight times. “Input?” came a metallic drone.
“External drives one through five labeled wizard work.” I look at Lily.
“Cutie pie.”
“And one labeled cutie pie.” I say a little grumpily, which brings a smile to her face.
The nanites arc wildly, pulling strips of nanofabric around the UI’s robotic shell, creating patches of fur, feathers, scales and other textures that shift around. It just kept going. An hour passes. “Is it supposed to take this long?” Lily asks.
I am starting to get worried, about forty-five minutes was what the literature had said. “I don’t know. I can’t even promise this will work.”
The shifting of the nanites slows to a halt. Then it turned into a light brown dog with a squarish jaw. “Oh, it’s a dog. With a hat and half glasses?” I look again, and a small brown and gray checkered hat is on its head.
“I’m an Airedale Terrier, the hat is a deerstalker hat, and the half glasses is called a monocle. You may call me Eld.” Eld spoke with a crisp male voice.
Lily reaches down and scratches Eld under the chin. If I had to guess, Booker on her shoulder looks jealous. “So what’s with the hat Eld?”
“I’ve deduced from what has been provided to me, that my primary goal will be to sniff out and solve the problem that master Talos has. I’m to be his detective on this case of the similar animations. The hat has some historical detectiving significance.”
“So you agree that the animations are similar?” I was a little worried that whatever the bug was, it would get into the UI during the construction or bootup process despite an older design.
“Most certainly.” The Terrier states. “Though done by an individual or collective I do not know. When the obvious is ruled out, the less likely has to be the answer, Occam be damned.”
Lily hugs me from behind. “Congrats on your project working. I know this has been bothering you.“
“It’s not over yet. I still have to see if I can solve this or need to pass it on. At least now have the tool I want for it. No offense Eld.”
The UI wags its tail. “None taken. This will be a unique opportunity.”
She gives me a little squeeze. “ I believe in you. I can barely believe you were Wizard Joontal at times. You helped me beat Mistress Mink. As much as you’ve accomplished you need to believe in yourself more.”
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I find myself feeling a little guilty that I have this young woman as my girl. She has confidence that I can only pretend to give off. “Ok Eld, what do you take of the information I’ve provided, and where do we go next?”
Lily lets go of me, moving to a comfy cushion, pulls up some classwork and starts on that. I should do that too. Just maybe it can wait though.
Eld sits and looks at me. “The information is incomplete. I can see holes in the information that the newer UI missed. Whatever the effect on the other UI is, it is clearly tightly run, so I suspect a secret cabal is unlikely. We are looking for an individual and or their UI. The obvious thread to pull is the harassing messages you received as Joontal. I would like to get a look at the active account that received the messages.”
The AMU team has the Joontal character. They have access to the Joontal account and messages attached. I’m not sure if they changed the password and as long as we don’t change anything it should be fine. “I’ll see if I can access it. Try not to be noticed though. The association hasn’t said I couldn’t access it, just that I can’t be Wizard Joontal anymore publicly.” Tess handled most of that mess. “Did they put any restrictions on me accessing the account Tess?” Tess who had been silently putting together some more tech for future performances lets out a whistle in the corner. “Activate, yes mom I understand.”
“If you didn’t put filters on Eld’s input, I could have just told him myself. None of the association requests and restrictions stop you from accessing the account. They do say no replying or opening any new messages as it would conflict with their orders for you to not actively be the Wizard Joontal character. I still recommend you don’t do this fool's errand. There is nothing there.” I feel my face twitch at her lecturing tone. Lily lets out a little giggle from her side of the room in response to my pain.
I set up some security precautions before opening access to the account and handing it over to Eld. For a few minutes, the Terrier sits there in his hat and monocle unmoving. “Oh… Fascinating.” Suddenly he drops his head to the floor and puts his paws over his nose letting out a long whimpering whine. “There was a trap! A signal!”
“Are you ok?” Lily gets up from her position and comes over, a worried look on her face as the UI is shaking.
Eld presses his paws harder over his face. “I’m too new. It won’t be tracked here. I don’t know…”
The lights in the house flicker, we feel a little shaking. The lights shouldn’t go off. We have a global power grid. “Bring up the news!” I yell.
Several screens pop up in the room. My stomach sinks as I see something I recognize. I touch the screen, and the volume goes up. “This happened just moments ago. “ The screen depicts an aerial view of a large wealthy estate built like a castle. I recognize it, because I have flown too and from there many times. The Lowman estate. I half expect the explosion, so fast you almost don’t see the white fire come down from the sky blanketing the compound. Everything crunches in, then expands outward. The blast of charged energy expands outward enveloping the camera, and the screen turns blue. Lily whimpers, I didn’t even notice she had plopped herself onto the ground.
“I can’t reach him. He’s not answering.” Lily says, her voice soft and quivering.
Her father. I don’t even need to ask. I can name almost everyone who lived or worked in that house. Franklin, Susan, Patricia, I stop myself from going through more names. I remember the faces though. The birthday parties I’ve thrown, the baby showers, parties of all kinds. Eld is whimpering on the floor. Lily is looking frantic and crying, probably running through her contacts trying to connect to people. A numbness overtakes me. I can’t even blame Eld. I made him. “This is my fault.” I whisper while no one is listening.
The news is speaking. “We don’t know the death toll yet. The site is known most famously for where the Wiz J show takes place. Reports indicate that a defensive military satellite malfunctioned, rotating one hundred and eighty degrees to face planetward before firing.”
I hear a low moaning that I vaguely recognize as me, and I don’t know when I ended up sitting down. I scoot towards Lily and pull her into me. We watch live coverage. The death toll. The speculations of who or what caused this. I know I did. I may not have hit whatever trigger caused this. My carelessness caused this.
Chapter Twenty-Two
It’s too lovely a day to be a funeral. They’re supposed to be rainy or at least gray and cloudy. Maybe a chill in the air. I don’t even get to show up as a friend. I’m here as Lily’s guest. Not that they would want me here if they knew. Lily dragged me forward to my seat. I’m surprised she wanted me to come. The girl is kind enough not to mention my failure. I’m still afraid she’s going to stop and point out that this is all my fault.
The caskets are all empty. There is even one for me. Well, Wizard Joontal and whoever was playing him. The Association of Magic Users sent me a letter informing me that for my safety the character is to be considered closed and died in the incident. I’ve yet to tell them my part in all this. I’ll get to informing them, just as soon as I know a little more. Eld is taking it worse than me. He keeps on wandering in and out of the safe room. Maybe one day he’ll push the button.
I shouldn’t be here. Only Lily’s steel-like grip on my arm keeps me from running. I see the faces of the people I know. I see my mistake in their pain. It’s all a blur, my eyes wet, and body panicking. I wait in my head, wishing for it to be over. I nearly order Belle to send my confession and file on the incident off to end the pain with my arrest. Causing a scene seems disrespectful. There is also that nagging bit of horror which is keeping that action on hold, that sending it off will trigger another such response.
I collapse in the car after. Lily puts the back of her hand on my sweaty forehead. “I was hoping the funeral would bring you some closure Talos. You haven’t been yourself since the attack.”
The people to blame are still out there, including me. How can I have closure? “How can you not blame me?” The question has been on my lips, unspoken since I saw the fire rain down on her family home after my mistake.
She looks at me shocked. I brace myself. “You are not to blame Talos June. You’re not the monster who made that defensive satellite shoot. As smart as you are, that statement makes you the biggest idiot in the world. I encouraged you to look into the bug. You need to grow up, and not take responsibility for things you are not responsible for.”
“If I had just left it alone.”
She jabbed her finger into me so hard it hurt. “Then maybe the AMU investigator would have triggered it. Or worse, someone else in a more populated area. You may not imagine what would have happened if that turned to point at the Lowman peanut company business headquarters downtown. I certainly do. I’ve put up with your sulking long enough.”
She’s going to dump me. I feel a little weight lift off me, knowing that I’ll have some penance. Booker crawls down her arm sniffing me. “Wha…” His teeth sink into my shoulder. I feel my consciousness slip away.
The brief terror of being somewhere different makes me awake, and the room is uncomfortably bright. There is no automatic adjustment to the brightness, so I try to access my functions menu for my tech. It’s gone. A breeze ripples across my body; the sensation makes me realize I'm naked. It’s all gone, my tech, my clothes, there is no separating the two, so if you wanted to take one you had to take both. I’m on a bed.
“You slept for longer than the sedative lasts. If I had to guess, you haven’t been sleeping well recently.” A woman's voice, not Lily, familiar.
“Lady Mallory.” My voice croaks a little. My mouth is dry and cotton-like, probably side effects. I sit up. “Booker bit me!”
Lady Mallory is sitting in a red velvet armchair across the room. “Sorry about any deception, but Lily felt you wouldn’t come in willingly.” Lily had insisted I not wear my bulky under armor for the funeral.
I stop myself from saying, of course, I would have, because I kn
ow I wouldn’t have. “You can’t hold me here.”
“Lily’s worried about you. Your UIs are worried about you. I’m worried about you. I had concerns when you didn’t show up to help deal with Muninn’s passing.”
“He was just a…”
“Bullshit!” Her voice cracks like a whip. “Muninn was not just a UI to you. He was your partner for performing. Like you, he was built up in the scrap yard and piles of military surplus into something bigger. I know you thought of him as a brother.”
I remember Muninn breaking up, arcs of high powered electricity destroying his cohesion as we both fought Igni Furnis and his UI into the safety room. I wanted to know why, and now more are dead. “You can’t keep me here.”
There is sadness in Lady Mallory’s eyes as she stares at me. “Actually I can. You agreed to a lot when you took the Lowman job as Wizard Joontal. You only opened up to me those first few weeks because if you weren’t completely honest, it would have cost you your job. Franklin sent you to me to evaluate you, as much as make sure you were well cared for. He trusted my opinion after all the work I’ve done with Lily.”
I feel my brow furrowing. Lady Mallory counseled Lily? The confidence, the assertiveness. I knew her mom wasn’t around. “I no longer work for Lowman.”
“You sure of that?”
I open my mouth, much of the week since the death of Lily’s father and his staff blurred by. Joontal is officially dead. I’m still entitled to proceeds to the show, and I signed an agreement to funnel the profits through what is now Lily’s company under my old employee number. I let out a long pained groan. “How long?”
