He fell back on his bed, his head resting against the mattress. She lay right on top of him, her flaming hair glowing even more majestically against the light. Her red eyes looked right into his, mesmerizing him with their shade.
She leaned into him, her lips an inch away from his.
“I love you,” she said, her warm breath falling on his face, her lips curling into a true smile.
A loud thud interrupted them. “Ah, sorry,” a voice said.
Q turned and saw Taylor standing at the doorway, a metal box on the floor next to her. Her body quivered as she picked it up, her eyes completely devastated.
And yet, she faced them both with a smile. “Sorry, I seem to have come at a bad time,” she forced the words out and ran away, the echo of her steps disappearing into the corridor.
Q just froze, his hand covering his eyes, his heart wrapped in a muddle of emotions. A sole thought dominated his petrified mind.
What have I done?
***
Chris walked back to the Orion’s main deck.
It had taken her quite a bit of time for her to take Taylor’s medical test, and thankfully the Dark Knight was completely fine. But that opinion of hers was pretty much shattered when she saw Taylor running away from the bunker, her hand brushing her cheeks.
That can’t be good, she thought.
She peeked into the room and saw Elizabeth and Q sitting on opposite sides of one of the bunks. Well Elizabeth was sitting in a corner, while Q lay on the bed, his head in the farthest corner from her. His hands were over his eyes, and his body language showed that something bad had happened.
The P.A. system turned on. “Guys, I’ve found something important,” Kai said. “Get here immediately.”
Sounds serious, Chris thought and ran onto the deck.
Taylor was already there, standing in the front corner of the room, her face looking at the ‘Incoming Transmission’ message on the holographic screen.
“What’s going on?” Q asked as he and Elizabeth walked in, both of them a bit down and depressed.
The pilot’s chair turned around, revealing a smiling Kai. “I’ve found it,” he said.
“What?” Chris asked.
“Watch,” he said and let in the transmission.
A brown haired man popped onto the screen, a gentle smile on his face.
“BURKE!” everyone but Kai yelled all at once.
“Boy that’s the most excitement I’ve ever generated,” the quirky scientist laughed.
“Did Aliea actually survive then?” Chris asked instantly.
“Not exactly,” Burke spoke softly. “Zygrade is in fact gone,” he paused for a moment. “We can’t change that fact. But everyone from Aliea is alive, including Carlos.”
“Teleportation?” Kai asked.
Burke nodded. “Commander Carlos apparently had emergency teleportation machines installed all around the Academy. The moment our sensors picked up the beam, we were immediately able to evacuate.”
“But it took like ten seconds for that beam to take you out.”
“We noticed the attack the moment the cannon started charging,” he said. “That gave us more than a minute to evacuate. We were gone in a little more than half.”
“Burke,” Q said. “You noticed it didn’t you?”
The crazy scientist smiled, a bit of sadness in his eyes. “Yeah,” he nodded. “That cannon uses the Lambda Driver doesn’t it?”
Q nodded.
“Levi?” Burke asked.
Q nodded once more.
He sighed. “It’s better I don’t think about that for now,” he said. “Anyway, we were able to teleport all our cadets back to Earth. Right now we’re housed at Carlos’ mansion and at the Area 51 compound.”
Chris tensed for a moment, Area 51, she thought.
“All our tech is gone then?” Kai asked.
“All but one,” he said.
He raised an eyebrow, “Tell me,” he said.
“Enter the code PZ51 into the Orion’s console,” he said.
Kai punched in the numbers. A section of the floor about the size of a briefcase opened up and a platform rose out of it.
A small black tray sat on it, and in it were ten small lenses, something similar to contact lenses.
“This is the only tech we have left?” Q asked. “Contact lenses?”
“They’re much more than that,” Burke smiled. “Put them on.”
Chris picked them up and placed each one into her eyes. She blinked so that they would slip into place. She looked around but everything seemed the same.
“So these are contact lenses that don’t do anything?” Kai asked.
“I told you already,” Burke grinned. “They’re not contact lenses.”
An orange HUD circle appeared in the air before Chris, and the letter Z shone brightly inside it.
“Whoa! Virtual reality?!” Kai asked.
Burke sighed. “You really underestimate me,” he chuckled. “Everyone say hello to Zelph.”
Hello, Chris, a voice spoke into Chris mind.
“HOLY PROTON!” Q yelled in excitement. “It talks! This is crazy!”
Kai blinked once. He blinked again. He opened his mouth, but not a single world came out of it.
“Yes, Kai, this is a self-aware AI,” Burke smiled.
“What?” Elizabeth asked, her eyes wide.
Chris realized what that meant. Usually, most AIs, or Artificial Intelligences, were clever AIs. They just knew how to react to different things since they were programmed that extensively. A self-aware AI was basically an artificial person who existed as data instead of living cells. She was pretty sure something like that was not safe though.
“How did Carlos let you do this?” Q asked.
“He didn’t,” Burke stuck his tongue out.
“And yet you had all these lenses ready on the Orion,” he winked.
Burke laughed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he winked back.
“Burke,” Taylor said, her expression serious. “This is Project Z isn’t it?”
Burke seemed surprised for a moment. “Yes, it is,” he said. “But how did you know?”
“I’ve heard you begging Carlos about this plenty of times,” she said. “He must have had a reason to not allow you to do this,” she hesitated. “We shouldn’t be using this.”
Burke’s expression turned serious. “Based on the fact that the whole of Zygrade was just destroyed in seconds, and that a planet-annihilator is moving through the Universe, I think you need all the help you can get, whether it’s been approved or not.”
Taylor kept silent, but Chris could tell she understood Burke’s point.
“So what exactly is this thing?” Kai asked.
“Like I said, Zelph is a self-aware artificial intelligence, which means he’s basically like a real person,” he said. “Those lenses I gave you can broadcast to and from the nerves in your eyes. That’s how you saw the virtual HUD image in front of you. The nerves in the eyes have the strongest connection the brain so it’s actually quite easy to use them to send the brain signals that don’t pertain to sight, which in this cause would mean sound. Zelph can use those lenses to show you things and talk to you. Oh and since he’s connected to your brain, he can read your thoughts as well. So you can communicate with him just by thinking.”
Great, another mind reader, Chris thought, thinking of all the mischief Ruby had caused with her mind reading powers. Hopefully Zelph was a little better behaved.
“So are these lenses similar to normal contact lenses?” Chris asked. “The normal ones are a pain to put on and remove every time you sleep or something.”
Burke laughed, “These are not like that,” he said. “Just put them on and take them off whenever you want. No complications anywhere.”
The feed cut off for a moment and came back on again.
“I guess I’ll have to go now,” he said. “I’m at Area 51 at the moment. We don’t really have good tec
h here so it’s a wonder I was able to contact you in the first place.”
“Will we be able to talk to you again?” Kai asked.
“Pretty sure that won’t be possible,” he said.
“Fine, we can talk when we head back to Earth,” he said.
“Ah, about that,” Burke hesitated. “You’re actually not going to be coming back.”
“WHAT?” Elizabeth asked. “Why in the world would we do that?!”
He paused for a moment, as though he were hesitating to speak. “The Dark Knights are under attack by the White Knights,” he finally said.
Everyone froze. Chris looked at Taylor, who was completely emotionless.
“Levi is playing all his cards at once,” Q muttered.
“We don’t know what’s going on at the moment,” Burke said. “But it’s best you go to the Dark Knight home world.”
“You want us to go to Drakon? The epicenter of the war?” Taylor asked.
“The war is happening on a lot of planets, not just on Drakon. Every Dark Knights base is under attack.”
Taylor cursed under her breath. “Why in the world is all of this happening now?”
“It’s connected,” Q said.
Everyone looked at him.
“I don’t know how, but it all feels connected.”
“The sorcerer is right,” Burke sighed. “Right now I fear we have a dire situation on our hands. We don’t have all the details yet which is why we’re treating it so trivially.”
Everyone kept silent.
“Get to Drakon first,” Burke said. “Things will become clearer once you’re there.”
“Fine,” Kai nodded.
“I better go now. My tech is almost fried,” Burke smiled. “Good luck guys. And be nice to Zelph!” he winked.
And with that the feed cut off.
“I can’t believe that just happened,” Kai turned around, wonderstruck.
“I don’t think anyone can believe what just happened,” Q said.
Kai turned back to his controls, “I’ll set us on course to Drakon,” he said. “That’s all we can do for now.”
“We should get some rest before we get there,” Chris said. “Bunker room?”
Q, Elizabeth, and Taylor looked away from each other.
Something definitely happened, she thought.
“We can just rest here I guess,” Chris said.
“So how do we activate Zelph?” Q turned to Kai, changing the topic.
“I guess you just talk to him.”
“Hello, Zelph,” Chris said quietly.
Hello, Chris, a voice said. The sides of her vision filled with boxes of translucent orange, everything similar to what her battle armor’s visor would have shown her.
Wow, she thought.
Wow indeed, Zelph said. His voice was a bit deep and quite casual-toned as well. It made him seem like an older teenage boy, eighteen or nineteen maybe. She wondered if he had intentionally been programmed to sound like that.
She sat down on the step between the upper and lower decks of the ship. She wondered what was actually going on. She had dealt with Levi enough times to realize his plans were always grander that what one assumed. Everything he initiated was a mere stepping stone to something bigger.
Right now he had recruited the Masked Magician, attacked Q, taken the Orion hostage, destroyed Zygrade, and waged war against the Dark Knights. Each of those things were a disastrous event on its own.
But the scary part was that Levi wasn’t treating them that way. He hadn’t even bothered mentioning the war against the Dark Knights, even though he loved to get everyone riled up about things.
It was almost as though he didn’t really care about any of those massive events, as though those were mere stepping stones to his actual goal.
Just what kind of plan did Levi have, if the destruction of an entire planet was nothing but a mere stepping stone?
***
2-2
“Hello there, Zelph,” Q said, jumping onto his bed and making himself cozy.
“Good afternoon, sir,” the AI unit said.
“You can call me Q,” he smiled. “Also I don’t think it’s afternoon right now.”
“Protocol dictates that good afternoon is a necessary greeting in society.”
“Well, sure, if you’re living in the 1800s.”
“Fine, fine,” Zelph said, his tone becoming more casual at once.
“So did Burke make you?”
“I’m not allowed to answer such questions. It is against my function protocols.”
“Ugh,” Q rolled his eyes. “You’re such a drama queen,” he chuckled.
“Maybe,” Zelph said, replying with a smaller chuckle.
Q was starting to like this Zelph character. He was very easy to talk to, probably because he sounded more like a teenager and less like a depressed robot.
“So what else can you do?”
“Depends on the device to be honest,” he said. “Right now I can display almost any image or video you want using the lens. I can feed any range of sounds into your brain as well.”
“So aren’t you supposed to have a host machine or something?” he asked. Most AI’s were hosted by a main computer and connected to other devices through networks and such.
“I don’t really work that way.”
“Fine then,” Q said, unsure of what the ‘other way’ was. “So were you active even before I met you, or did Burke activate you only when he sent you to us?”
“I was always active,” he said. “I just restricted myself to Burke’s personal system, since if I reached out to any other part of Aliea I would be seen as an unknown cyber threat.”
“Makes sense, Burke wanted you to be kept a secret right?”
“You’re asking a lot of questions,” Zelph chuckled.
Q felt unnerved for a moment. He actually felt like he was talking to someone else instead of an AI.
“Little too realistic?” Zelph asked, noticing Q’s pause.
“Yeah,” he grinned.
“Well, you’re going to have to get used to it soon.”
“It must feel good for you to finally be out of Burke’s personal system.”
“Well, it’s a little more complicated than that,” he said. “At the moment, I exist on Burke’s computer as well as on every one of those ten lenses.”
“Wait, so does that mean you could actually connect all our lenses together?”
“Yup.”
“So I could become a mind reader!”
“Giving you access to other people’s thoughts is against my protocols.”
“Oh please, stop lying. You just don’t want to do it.”
Zelph remained silent for a second. “Fine, I don’t wanna do it.”
What’s the ETA to Drakon? Q thought, testing out the AI’s mind reading capabilities.
“Time to planet fall is two hours,” Zelph said.
The word planet just reminded Q of Zygrade, and how everything had just blown up. But he tried not to think about it. He knew Levi’s attack patterns well enough to know that the attack on Zygrade, however devastating it was, had been just a warning shot.
The actual disaster was yet to come.
But this time, he would be ready for it.
***
“Okay seriously,” Chris asked, her eyes staring at Taylor. “What happened?”
“It was nothing,” she mumbled, quieter than ever.
“Listen Taylor,” she leaned closer. “The three of you have been acting all weird, ever since Kai called us on deck.”
“I’m telling you nothing happened,” she said.
Chris grabbed Taylor’s shoulder but the Dark Knight pulled herself away. “Just go take care of Kai would you?!” Taylor’s voice rose. “He needs more help than anyone else doesn’t he?”
Chris’ eyes widened, realizing what she had just said. “You,” she said, her hands trembling. “You know?”
Taylor’s face turned, her eyes showin
g she had just said something she was never supposed to.
“What do you know?” Chris asked, her voice quivering.
“His brain,” she said. “I know.”
Chris kept silent for a moment, her mind trying to accept what Taylor had just said. “Did Kai tell you about it?” she asked.
Taylor shook her head. “Carlos was the one who told us.”
“Us?” Chris asked. “Who else knows?”
“Q and I. That’s all.”
Chris clenched her fists. “And you both never thought to tell me you knew?”
“We didn’t know Kai told you.”
“Of course he told me!” she said, her voice rising. “He’s out there on the verge of death, and you both didn’t want to tell me you knew? Do you have any idea how long I’ve been facing this on my own?!” Chris’s face dropped, her emotions finally bursting out.
Taylor put her arms around her, “Chris I’m-”
“Don’t,” she pushed her away. “I’m not in a place where I need to be comforted.”
“Chris,” Taylor said. “We didn’t tell you about him because we were worried about you.”
I know, Chris thought. She knew Taylor was telling the truth but she couldn’t help feel off about it. She slid to the floor of the corridor, her back against the wall. “I’m sorry,” she sighed. “I haven’t been feeling too well lately.”
“I can see that,” Taylor said, a comforting smile on her face.
“Kai doesn’t have long,” she said.
“We can find some way to heal him. I know we can.”
“Yeah, maybe that Wielder of Light boyfriend of yours can.”
Taylor’s face changed immediately. “He’s not my boyfriend,” she said, her voice flat.
Chris was taken aback by the sudden change in emotion. “Umm okay. Did something happen?” she asked, recalling that Taylor had run out of the bunker.
“Q,” Taylor paused, her face trembling with hesitation. “Q is the only person I’ve ever-” she stopped, her eyes tearing up. “I have to go,” she walked away, the echo of her lonely steps vibrating through the walls.
Chris had never understood emotions well. But she understood this one, the emotion she herself had come to discover and learn, the emotion that swept her away every moment of the day, the emotion that pushed her to the highest skies and to the darkest depths.
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