Disparity

by Eric Warren

  She nodded, hoping it wasn’t too late already.

  David lifted up Frees’ shirt and tapped the port, which opened to reveal the drive. “Bloom! Get me those hydrogen cells!”

  “Already on it,” she said, dragging one in through the door. Arista ran over to help her, picking it up easily with her arm. “Here,” she said, setting it beside David.

  He ran around Frees and set an old wooden crate beside the table, on the side where Frees’ mechanical hand was exposed. “Bring it over here,” he said. Arista grabbed it, and ran it around the table, placing it on the crate. “This should work again. If my hypothesis is correct.” He touched Frees’ hand to the power cell. “Bloom! I need a reading.”

  “On it!” she yelled. A minute later her voice came over a loudspeaker Arista couldn’t see. “Rising. But slowly.”

  “Good enough,” David replied. “Keep an eye on it, I’m going to remove the power cell.”

  “Energy drive,” Arista said.

  He nodded. “Energy drive.” He reached over and extracted the small, rectangular device from Frees. “Bloom?”

  “Stable,” she replied.

  Arista exhaled.

  “We’ll get the other cell when we can get this thing back in him. I’m going to strap him down again so if he moves he won’t lose power. For now, this connection is what is keeping him alive. But he should be fine. Worst case scenario I can’t figure this thing out and we put it back in him, and he gets another charge to ten or twelve percent.”

  Arista nodded. She hadn’t realized how precarious all of this was. She couldn’t lose Frees. Not here. Not ever.

  Blu appeared beside her. “I’m going to bring my interface in here. I can start working on his cortex while he’s out.” She took Arista’s hand and squeezed it. “He’s gonna be fine. Dad is a really good engineer.”

  “I might be able to help him with the drive,” she replied. “I’ve got a scanner built into my mind that helps me map out how machines work.” She realized that must have been what happened with the mag-lev car. Even though she hadn’t been able to download a manual from the net, she’d still been able to work out how the machine worked intuitively using her scanners.

  Blu smiled. “He’ll like that. He works well with others. Even though he doesn’t get the opportunity much.”

  David passed them on his way out. “I’m going to get started on this.” He glanced at Arista. “And you’d better not go back out for a while. Not while they’re looking for you.”

  Just like home.

  “Yeah, I’m familiar with how it works,” she said, hanging her head.

  “Hey,” Blu cooed. “He’ll be okay. He was before and he was practically in shutdown mode or whatever you call it.”

  She didn’t expect Blu to understand. But that was okay, she didn’t need to. Of course she was worried for Frees, but selfishly Arista was more worried for herself. She’d nearly done it again. And if he hadn’t been there to stop her she would have. It was as if she didn’t care about anyone anymore. If people could just jump across universes and encounter another version of themselves then was anyone really indispensable? David had died and Arista had felt relief. A sick, twisted relief but relief nonetheless. Then to encounter him again less than a day later, walking, talking…completely unharmed. It was as if nothing that happened really mattered. There were no consequences, not on a cosmic scale anyway.

  “Here, follow me. I want to show you something.” Blu tugged on Arista’s arm. David monitored Frees’ condition in the control room as they passed.

  “I’ll be back in a minute,” Arista said. “I can help with…” she indicated the drive. David gave her a brief smile. And within that smile was the ghost of the man who’d held the gun to her head. That David smiled all the time. This one rarely did. But when it came across it gave her even more pause. She hated how their lives were in his hands.

  Blu led her back down the hallway to her room. “Close the door,” she whispered.

  Arista nettled her brows as she quietly did as she was asked. She hadn’t gotten a great look earlier with Frees, but now she had time to take it all in. It was industrial, as expected, but Blu had made it her own with bright colors on the walls and digital posters that flashed through a number of different subjects on the walls. Each one was replaced every thirty seconds so there was always something new to see.

  And the music. Blu had accumulated seventeen different types of music players, some Arista didn’t even recognize but a few were familiar: cassette player, record player. The iconic ones. She had a lot of physical media strewn around the messy room. As well as clothes everywhere. But the real centerpiece was her computer terminal. A five-screen holographic display currently in an inverted pyramid stack which Blu was at the moment moving with her hands to the middle of the room. Holographic projectors in the corners of the room kept the images seamless. “This is what I wanted to show you,” Blu said, her voice still low. “But you can’t tell Dad. It’s a secret.”

  “What kind of secret?”

  “I’m developing my own AI,” Blu said, her eyes wide and wild.

  No. An AI could destroy this world, as easily as it had destroyed her own. “What? How?”

  “And when, why and where?” Blu smirked. “I’ve been working on it for over a year, trying to build a central cortex but I’m missing too much. I hoped maybe I could copy some of Frees’ pathways? What’s in his mind could complete the sections I’m missing. He could help us create a whole new race of machines. Dad’s dream realized.” She stared at the screens, millions of lines of code stretching across them in three dimensions.

  “Blu, don’t you know—?” Arista stopped herself. She was about to say: Don’t you know how dangerous something like this is? But wasn’t it what she wanted too? Didn’t this world need some AI to provide a check on the humans? They weren’t doing a very good job regulating themselves. The richest lived in a paradise in the clouds while the rest of society barely scraped by. At least the machines hadn’t let each other suffer. Some machines were homeless, yes, but they were fulfilling a role. Playing a part. It wasn’t as if they didn’t have enough energy to survive. If they needed anything all they had to do was submit an online form to the Cadre and it would be granted. Resources weren’t scarce.

  “What?” Blu asked, staring at her through the transparent screens.

  “Nothing. I assume David doesn’t know you’re doing this?”

  She shook her head; her silver hair caught the wind and wisps flew back and forth. “It’s a surprise for him. We’ll have joint credit of course, but to be honest I’ve been stuck for about a month. I couldn’t get any farther on my own. But when he showed up…”

  “You thought someone had beaten you to the punch,” Arista said.

  “He was just so advanced! And it didn’t make sense until he told me where you guys were from.” She paused. “So, what do you think? Would he let me?”

  Arista bit her upper lip. “Probably. But you’ll have to wait until he’s awake to ask him. But if you end up transferring that malfunction over—”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Blu said. “I’ll make sure that’s taken care of before I make the transfer. Patient zero needs to be perfect, free of any blemishes. Especially if every other machine is going to be based on him.”

  “Frees is proud, but he’s not an egomaniac. He may not like the idea of every machine in your world being based on his personal cortex.” What would he think of this? Would he think Blu was crazy? Or some kind of genius for unlocking the secrets of AI in this world? That was, if it the plan even worked. It was possible Blu had no clue what she was doing and the AI program was nothing more than a complicated spreadsheet.

  “I can’t wait to try,” Blu said. She paused, running her hand through the back of her hair. “I like Frees a lot more now. He was kind of terrifying at first. But once you get to know him, he’s not so bad.”

  Arista nodded. “Thanks for telling me about your project.
I won’t mention it to your dad.” Despite any reservations she might have about this project, she wasn’t about to tell the one person she didn’t trust. Not until he’d proved himself. “I think I’ll go help your dad with the drive. I don’t want him accidentally destroying it.”

  Blu laughed. “He’s never destroyed anything in his life. He’s the gentlest man I know.”

  I wish I could say the same. Arista opened the door and took one more look at Blu before leaving for the corridor beyond.

  NINETEEN

  ARISTA MADE HER WAY INTO THE MAIN WORKSHOP, close to the stairs she’d descended when she’d first arrived with Jennings. She hadn’t needed to use them again since the garage where David kept the van was on the other side of the building, accessible from the far side of the mag-lev tracks. But now, as she stood beside the staircase, she couldn’t help but stare at it with longing. What if she just went out there? Would she get any closer to Echo? Or would Echo insist the police take her and she’d be right back to square one?

  “Something on your mind?” David asked from his workbench. When she turned to look at him his back was to her. Had he seen her staring at the staircase? Or was that what he said to everyone? It was difficult to tell.

  “No, I’m fine,” she said. “I thought I could help you with the drive. I’ve got an internal scanner.” She tapped her forehead. “You don’t have to completely take it apart.”

  “Thanks,” he said, holding it up. “If I can just figure out what holds the charge I think I should be able to give it full capacity. But it might be beyond my comprehension. You said a machine built it?”

  “My friend, Jill. She’s…she’s kind of a mad scientist with this stuff. Always building something. She figured out how to build a portable charging cube that could charge five times what a normal one could.”

  “What’s a charging cube?” David set the drive back down on his steel desk. He grabbed a small device with a cord and ran it over the drive a few times.

  “It’s what the machines use in my world to keep themselves from losing power. They’re everywhere. A machine is never very far from one, but their natural charges last a long time. Weeks, I believe. Jill’s energy drives are supposed to last three months.”

  “And how long has he had this one?”

  “Two and a half days?” she said. “His injuries…”

  “They drain it, yes. I think his systems pull additional power from it that wouldn’t necessarily be used when uninjured. His redundancies will do anything to keep him alive.”

  “He’s been shot a lot,” Arista admitted. “He doesn’t have a great track record with fire fights.”

  David tapped his desk and a projection of the drive came up in front of him. “Oh. It’s an electrochemical battery. It uses rare elements in its core.” He turned to Arista. “And I use the term rare loosely. I should have this back up and fully charged in about six hours,” he said. “If I’d known it was that easy I would have done it in the first place. But I was hesitant. I didn’t want to permanently damage him and I wasn’t a hundred percent sure I was correct about the power source.”

  Arista ignored the insult, intentional or not. Jill had worked really hard on those drives. Instead, she tried to focus on the fact Frees would be okay, even if it took another six hours. “Good to hear. I guess you don’t need my help after all.” She made to go to her room and lie down but David stopped her.

  “I wanted you to know I’m sorry about Echo. You tried your best.”

  She gritted her teeth at the memory. “It’s fine. We’ll find a way to stop her. But now we know she’s already taken your Echo’s spot, it may not be long before she’s ready to return. And I guarantee she won’t be going back empty handed.”

  “Do you want my help?” He wasn’t looking directly at her, instead his gaze was off to the side, focused on a blank spot on the wall.

  She paused, unsure whether to be angry or intrigued. “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “You didn’t want my help earlier. Do you want it now?”

  Arista rolled her shoulders, turning her back on him. “What are you talking about? It was your plan to use the mag-lev plant.”

  “But you didn’t want to do it,” he replied, having not moved.

  She was getting flustered. “That’s just…I would have rather gone in to her place, like I said. She wouldn’t have been suspicious. For all we know, destroying the plant was the thing that triggered my Echo to kill yours. Or whatever she ended up doing with her. I doubt your Echo suspected a trap but I guarantee mine was waiting for it.”

  He shrugged. “There’s no way to know. Not that it matters now anyway. What’s done is done.”

  “I hate that saying,” Arista said under her breath.

  “Sorry?”

  “Nothing.” She took a breath. “I didn’t want to use your plan, you’re right.”

  He regarded her. “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t trust you,” she said through gritted teeth. She was done dancing around this subject. It was time for it all to come out.

  “Ah.” David stood, walked over to a metal shelf beside the steel table. He retrieved a few items, placing them on the table beside the drive. “You think I’m…what? In league with someone? Or maybe I’m using you for my own means.” He paused. “Or maybe all of this has been a lie and I want to make sure you don’t return home. Any of those?”

  Now that he’d said them aloud she felt stupid having thought them. Though she’d considered each of those in turn, the real reason was something deeper. Something she couldn’t verbalize. And something she certainly couldn’t tell him. How did you tell someone that because their alternate universe counterpart was a complete shit you thought they were an equal, yet separate shit?

  “No. It’s nothing so trivial. You’re not a trivial person. So, tell me about him,” David said, finally looking at her as he sat back on his stool.

  “Who?”

  “The other me. The one from your universe.”

  She regarded him carefully, doing everything she could to keep her surprise from showing.

  “It’s the only thing that makes sense. You come in here with all these preconceived notions. And we’ve never met before. If Echo has a double in the other world then why can’t I? And I’m willing to bet your attitude toward me has something to do with it.”

  Arista was stunned. She fumbled. “I—”

  “What about Bloom? Is she in the other universe too?”

  Arista had to blink a couple of times, shaking her head. “No…I mean I don’t think so.”

  David nodded like this was the answer he expected. “What did he do?”

  She leveled her gaze with his. “Put a gun to my head. Threatened my life. Threatened my mother’s life. All with a smile on his face.” Which wasn’t exactly true, but it might as well have been. He’d been so damn happy most of the time. Like his daughter showing up out of the blue was just another interesting tidbit to his day.

  His eyebrows lifted and his body tensed. If only for a moment before it relaxed again. “I see. Anything else?”

  “He’s my father.”

  That seemed to do it. David broke his gaze with her and only stared at his feet. She had to admit, it felt better telling him rather than leaving it locked up inside. But would he still help them? Would he leave Frees to die on that table?

  And as soon as the thought to use Blu as leverage if necessary crossed her brain Arista wanted to rip the treacherous organ from her head. She wouldn’t do that. But wasn’t everyone expendable? She’d tried to convince herself of it, but it wouldn’t square. Because Blu was innocent. She was special and no one was using her for anything. Arista would die before she allowed that to happen. If David betrayed her right now, Blu would never be a part of it.

  “Do you…ahem…” David’s voice broke. “Do you know why I adopted Bloom?”

  This was a strange change in subject. “She said it was because you didn’t want to see a baby die. Nobl
e. I guess.”

  He shook his head. “That sounds good. But the real reason is I can’t have children. I had an accident when I was a young man…it rendered me sterile.” He reached up and wiped his eyes under his glasses. “Adopting an abandoned baby sounds noble, but it was really a selfish act. I wanted her for me. I mean sure, saving a life that might not otherwise be saved is a great thing. But I can’t pretend it was completely altruistic.”

  “What kind of accident?”

  “Jennings showed you his injury?” She nodded. “How do you think I learned how to do that? It’s not like they teach bionics at the local universities. If you can even afford to go.”

  “You experimented on yourself?” she asked.

  He held his gaze. “I had some very sympathetic donors. Unfortunately, organs don’t go very far when your donor has been starving half their life. But they gave me time to study, to learn and to perform trial and error. And when the backups died out, or my body rejected them, I had the knowledge I needed to save myself.”

  “You couldn’t have done that yourself. There’s no way,” she said.

  “It’s true. I had help. Like I said there are more than just me. They all look to me as the leader of our group but I’m just another person. A patient who got lucky and didn’t die.”

  “Why tell me this? Do you want sympathy?”

  “Just your understanding,” he said, finally looking at her again. “I don’t know that person in your world. He’s not the kind of person I want to know.”

  She only stared at him. Did it matter? Was he really, fundamentally different?

  “What kind of help are you talking about?” she asked.

  David turned to the boxes he’d set behind him on the table. “These,” he said, opening one, “are remote drones. No intelligence obviously, but they have tracking capabilities. Now that we know Echo is not the one from this universe, I should be able to use this to drop a surveillance device on her.”

  “Surveillance device?”