It was her mother’s voice, soft and soothing. It emanated from something dark—a humanoid figure leaning over her. As her vision resolved she could see it was some sort of cybernetic unit, but not the sort that a civilian would use. It made no pretense at looking human. The metal was a dark, flat color, similar in appearance to gunmetal. A logo on its chest speled out, ‘ANSIS.’
“Mom?” she said querulously. Her voice sounded rough and strained to her own ears, as though she hadn’t used it in days.
“Yes, it’s me. I need you to wake up, Karen. You’re in a lot of danger. Can you sit up?”
She was confused. “Where am I?” The world spun as she shifted into a sitting position. Glancing down she could see her legs dangling over the edge of a stainless steel table. Karen also realized she was naked and cold. She wrapped her arms around herself as a cold draft from an air vent blew across her head, making her shiver. Tentatively, she reached up and discovered that her scalp was bare. “What happened to my hair?”
A deep booming sound reverberated through the wals and sent a shudder through the table beneath her.
“I don’t have much time to explain, Karen. You’re in a military research lab. You were injured, and the man you were with abandoned you. I only recently discovered you were here,” said her mother.
“Matthew wouldn’t do that,” Karen protested.
“Whatever his motives, the result was the same. They found you and brought you here. Now we have to get you out of here,” Dr. Miler
explained.
“How are you here? You’re retired.”
“Your father’s AI program,” answered her mother, “I’ve never liked it, but it proved its worth today. It discovered your location and helped me breach the security. This unit is stolen.” She gestured at the cybernetic body she was occupying. “We don’t have much time. They know I’m here. We have to escape before they get past your father’s defensive units.”
None of it made sense to Karen. She knew her mother didn’t like her, and her father had even told her not to trust her mother. But if they were working together, maybe… “How are we going to escape?”
“I’m afraid I made several blunders getting here,” said Dr. Miler. “Getting out the normal way isn’t possible. The files I sifted through said you could teleport? Is that true?”
How could she know that? How would the military have known it? Karen herself had only learned it recently, and even if the military had been tracking them closely, it might just as easily have been her friend who had moved them. She tried to focus but it was difficult. Her mind felt sluggish.
Had she been drugged?
More explosions sent tremors through the room.
“I don’t know what’s real anymore, Mom. I’ve seen so much weird shit lately,” Karen said honestly. “Why is the military using explosives in their own building?”
“Your father’s program… it commandeered some of the security forces that were on standby. It turned their equipment against them. They’re
sending in fresh units to fight past them before we escape. We don’t have time, Karen. Can you get us out of here or not?!” Tanya Miler’s voice sounded almost frantic.
Her heart was pounding. Glancing around the room, Karen saw al sorts of strange and unfamiliar equipment. A large light on a folding arm was mounted in the ceiling above her, providing a glaring ilumination that made it difficult to look up. One wal of the room featured a long row of glass windows, a strange feature indoors; but then she noticed the chairs and desks on the other side of them: an observation room.
Overal it looked like a surgical operating theater. An empty syringe lay on the table next to her. Karen picked it up, studying it idly.
“A stimulant. I had to use it to wake you up,” said her mother. “Karen, I need you to focus.”
“You brought drugs to wake me?” asked Karen. How had she even known her daughter would be sedated?
“Of course not,” snapped her mother impatiently. “I’m familiar with how these places are stocked and laid out. I got it from the cabinet when you wouldn’t respond.”
It al sounded reasonable; at least given the standard of what reasonable had become in her life lately. Karen tried to stand and almost fel as the floor seemed to sway beneath her. The android’s cold arm caught her and steadied her.
“Where do you want to go?” Karen asked. “It has to be someplace I’ve been before.”
***
Matthew and Elaine advanced carefuly down the corridor. He had his enchanted shield stones out now that they were on level ground and
were no longer bothering with invisibility. The stones provided a much stronger shield and the added bonus that if the shield did break, he wouldn’t be knocked unconscious by feedback. Of course, if something that strong hit them, they would probably be dead anyway.
Elaine had been forced to eliminate several groups of cybernetic soldiers as they progressed, and she was currently absorbing more aythar from one of the modified iron spheres. The sour expression on her face was testament to the fact that she wasn’t enjoying the experience.
A change in the ambient aythar caused Matt to pause. The area didn’t feel quite as empty as most places he had been in this world. Training his focus ahead, he detected a brighter region at the edge of his range. Karen! It had to be her.
“Near the end of the hal,” he announced, “on the left.” Then he grabbed Elaine’s arm and puled her suddenly to the right. More bulets tore through the space they had just vacated. Soldiers had just rounded the far end of the hal behind them.
The shield would have taken the strain, but he was beginning to expect the sudden warnings and he felt it best to folow them. Launching
another iron bomb through the air, he was gratified to see metal bodies thrown in several directions as it exploded.
Matthew turned back and started to advance, but Gary stopped them, “Hang on. One of the soldiers you hit is malfunctioning.”
“Isn’t that the point?” pointed out Elaine.
“The explosion knocked it off balance but didn’t damage it significantly,” said Gary. “But it activated its x-band transmitter.”
They al saw it now. One of the soldiers was standing up and starting to raise his gun into firing position. Elaine lifted her wand, but Gary shouted, “No, wait. I can access it now!”
The android froze and then began shaking violently. The rifle fel from its hands and a short scream issued from it before it fel silent. “I have it now,” said Gary. The machine picked its weapon up and began walking toward them, keeping the barrel pointed at the floor.
Elaine raised her wand anyway.
“Please don’t kil me,” said the soldier, now speaking with Gary’s familiar voice. “This body is much more convenient for me than the PM
you’re holding.”
“Matthew,” said Elaine, “What’s going on?” Her eyes darted sideways to see what her partner thought on the matter.
Matt nodded. “It’s alright. I told you—Gary is sort of like a spirit. You can think of it as though he has possessed the body of that machine.”
“If you like, I’l take the front,” suggested the machine. “If I get shot it won’t be as much of a tragedy, since I don’t realy have a body.”
Matthew almost declined the offer. He was beginning to get a feel for his premonitions and wanted to better understand them, but he knew it was foolish. “Go ahead,” he agreed.
“The ANSIS network is trying to shut me out,” Gary informed them as they advanced. “They know this unit is compromised, and I’ve
accessed their network. I’m not sure how long I can keep the channel open, but for now I have detailed information on their defenses and
deployment here.”
“And?”
“There is only one active unit on this floor, and it’s a human inhabited cybernetic. My ex-wife, to be honest. There are teams of six coming down al four of the emergency stairwels to reinforce the zone, but w
e have a minute or two before they reach us.”
“Ex-wife?” asked Elaine. “I thought you were a machine-spirit?”
“My creator’s wife, to be precise,” clarified Gary. “They never divorced before he died, but since I’m not technicaly him, I prefer to think of her as my ex.”
She stil didn’t understand, “What’s an ex?” Divorce existed in Lothion, but it was extremely rare, so the phrase was new to her.
“Later,” said Matthew. “Karen is in the room on the right, just ahead of us.”
Gary saluted and began marching forward. “That’s where Tanya is too, incidentaly. That room is the surgery suite, by the way, which doesn’t fil me with confidence.” He picked up his pace, forcing the two humans to break into a jog to keep up. Reaching the door almost ten feet ahead of them, he hurled his heavy metal body into it, tearing the doors away from the frame.
Automatic gunfire roared through the doorway.
“Tanya, stop! A ricochet could kil her!” yeled Gary.
“Dad?”
Matthew and Elaine carefuly eased through the doorway, trusting in the enchanted shield stones to protect them if Dr. Miler opened fire again.
The scene that confronted them was bizarre. Karen was standing, naked and head shaved, beside another of the blackened ANSIS soldiers. Gary was just inside the doorway, his metal hands out in a gesture meant to indicate peaceful intentions.
“Karen, get us out of here. I can fix this, but if they think you’re cooperating with these invaders, it wil ruin your chances,” said the machine that held Tanya Miler.
“Don’t listen to her, Nina!” argued Gary. “She’s working for the military already. This is her lab.”
Karen, blue and shivering, stood transfixed, looking back and forth between the two machines that represented her parents. Then her eyes fel on the two humans that had just entered. “Matthew,” she said simply, making his name both a statement and a question.
“How have you been?” he asked her, his mouth curling into a half-smile that belied the seriousness in his eyes.
“I think I slept too long,” she said mildly. “It feels like I’m stil dreaming.”
Matthew deactivated the enchanted shield, and with a thought expanded the area between the stones, extending them so that Gary would be
included within them. With a word, he sent power flowing back into them, creating a larger shield almost ten feet on each side. “You can forget shooting now, Mrs. Miler. We’re al protected. Bulets won’t accomplish anything,” he said, addressing Karen’s mother.
His eyes met Karen’s for an instant, and then he looked away, glancing to one side at the floor. Right there, he sent to her mentaly.
Tanya Miler dropped the rifle and then shifted her arm, wrapping it around her daughter’s shoulder. “I’m trying to protect you, Karen. You have to trust me.”
Karen looked up at her. “Mom, he’s my friend.”
The powerful metal hand shifted to her neck, long fingers wrapping around her throat. Dr. Miler looked at the others. “One move and I’l snap her neck. There are reinforcements coming as we speak.”
“Tanya, if you hurt her, I wil rip you out of the servers and erase every last trace of your miserable evil existence,” threatened Gary.
Karen’s mother laughed, “No, you won’t. You might want to, but you can’t. Whatever you think you feel, it’s just part of the ilusion my husband created. The reality is that he built you. You’re a thing , and you can’t do anything that violates the rules he built into you. You can’t hurt a human.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” bluffed the AGI.
Tanya laughed, “I’m not stupid. You’ve corrupted CC servers al over the world. You’ve stolen data, manipulated information, and spied on
classified personnel, but you haven’t touched any of the people you were watching. If you could do it, you would have won this war al by yourself, by eliminating or controling anyone who threatened her. You’re a flaccid, impotent algorithm deluded by dreams of being a real man, just like your creator was.”
“Mom,” said Karen, drawing Tanya’s attention away from the others, “I’l do it. Just don’t hurt them. Give me a second and I’l teleport us
away from here.”
Tanya relaxed her hand slightly and Karen closed her eyes, concentrating. Her aythar flashed and then she was gone, reappearing inside the shield, standing to one side of Matthew.
Her mother ducked down, reaching for the rifle at her feet and Matthew lifted his hand, preparing to send one of his iron bombs at her.
“No!” yeled Karen. “She’s stil my mother, though I hate to admit it.”
Tanya fired the weapon until it ran out of ammunition and then hurled it at the shield.
Matthew turned to Elaine, “We’re leaving, but I don’t want to lose my shield stones. Can you shield us until I’m done?”
Elaine nodded, and he deactivated the enchanted shield stones as her impromptu shield went up. He held out a hand, letting them fly to it. Each stone was cube shaped and they clicked as they touched, sticking together and forming a fist-sized stone cube as they came together. Matthew slipped it into his pouch and then reached out to put his hands over Elaine and Karen’s shoulders. Gary’s mechanical form did the same from the opposite side, his metal arms touching Matthew’s.
“Group hug,” said Karen with a snicker, and then the world began to blur.
“You haven’t won!” shouted Tanya. “No matter what you think. I wil hunt you down!”
“Go to hel, Mom,” said Karen firmly, and then they were gone.
Chapter 37
They fel into the ocean. By the time Matthew had created a platform of stable water and everyone had gotten aboard, Karen was shivering
and coughing. The shock of the cold sea had made her gasp during the landing and resulted in her almost inhaling the water.
Elaine sat on the platform cradling her wounded arm. She had instinctively tried to swim with it, and only the nerve block had prevented the pain from sending her into unconsciousness.
Al in al, they were in a sorry state.
Gary seemed unaffected, though. Matthew studied his new body. “You don’t have a problem with the water?”
The machine shook its head in an almost human-like gesture of negation. “No. The internal electronics are al sealed. Even the civilian units are water-resistant; they’re too expensive to alow moisture to damage them. These military models are rated for water pressures down to two hundred meters. The salt may cause unwanted corrosion and damage to the actuators and other parts, but that wil take time.”
Matthew nodded and took out the stones that would form his flying construct. A few minutes later they were flying eastward, away from the
setting sun.
As they traveled, Elaine introduced herself to Karen and tried to make her more comfortable, as she was stil a little groggy. Being sedated for several days and then forcibly awakened with a stimulant was enough to make anyone a little fuzzy.
The Prathion wizard wrapped Karen in a blanket of warm air, something Karen decided she needed to learn to do soon. It seemed to be
similar to the shielding technique that Matthew had already taught her, but there were some subtle differences. Once she was warm, Elaine created an ilusion to cover her nakedness.
Karen stared at the elaborately embroidered dress that flowed from her shoulders and settled around her hips and legs where she sat. It looked like something out of a fairy tale; long yelow skirts embroidered and finished with lace. She wondered how Elaine managed to produce so many fine details in an ilusion that was purely the product of her imagination. “How did you think this up?” she asked, but Elaine merely stared at her in confusion.
“She wants to know about the design of the dress,” said Matthew, translating from English to Barion for Elaine’s benefit. “It’l be easier if you communicate mentaly. Karen knows some Barion, but she’s stil new to it.”
Elaine nodded, th
en responded to Karen, I modeled the illusion on my favorite dress at home.
This is a real dress? Karen was shocked. The amount of fabric, the lace and embroidery, al combined with the fact that she knew such things were handmade in this world—it boggled her mind. It must have taken hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours to create. She directed her thoughts to the female wizard, It’s so intricate, and beautiful. What occasion would you wear this for?
Balls and formal court events, replied Elaine. I only get to wear it two or three times a year at most, but I thought if I had to make an illusion for you, I might as well make it something special. She finished the thought with a smile at the other woman.
It’s lovely, replied Karen, and then she touched her head, suddenly self-conscious. She was bald, and that, combined with her blue skin probably made her a ridiculous sight in such finery. Forcing that thought aside, she turned to Gary. “Why did they shave my head?” she asked in English.
Her virtual father paused before answering, which was a little disconcerting since his machine body didn’t have any way of showing the normal facial expressions a human did while pondering a response; such things were superfluous on a military android. “You can’t see them without a mirror, but there are lines and markings across your scalp. Given that you were in a surgery suite, I can only surmise they were going to open up your cranium.”
“Mother said she was there to help me escape…” She let the statement hang in the air; she knew it was a lie, but she needed to hear her
father’s opinion on it.
The android opened its arms, trying and failing to adopt a comforting posture that the machine was not made to perform, “Nina—it was her lab.
I don’t know what they were planning to do, but Matthew said he spotted something like brain tissue in the ANSIS androids. I suspect they were hoping to use your brain to try to improve whatever it is they were doing. Whether that means just taking smal samples, or something more
terminal, I don’t know.”
Matthew listened intently to the exchange, though he said nothing. Karen was looking down now, her expression unreadable.
“I’l never forgive her,” she said after a moment. Inside she was numb. The drugs had left her nauseated, and she didn’t have the energy to let the anger that lay beneath the words take hold. Instead she took a deep breath and turned back to Elaine. Can you teach me to make a simple illusion? She touched her bald pate. I’m sure we’ll be meeting people soon, and I’d rather not do it looking like this.