“No, I don’t suppose I do,” he said after a moment.
“You guys need me,” Brynn finished firmly, feeling more like Rachel at that moment than she ever had. “You need what’s in my head. And I need a way to get to Eris. So it looks like we have to work together whether we like each other or not.”
Rift watched her for a long time, some internal debate playing in his mind.
“Told you she was different,” Rusty whispered to him, though everyone in the room could easily hear her with how intently quiet it was.
Rift sighed after a long time and began walking towards the stairs.
“Before you make your final decision about joining us, I think you need to see Rachel first.”
Chapter 15: Rachel
At first all Brynn saw was static as she watched the screen with baited breath. She had looked in the mirror before. She’d seen her reflection in A1 in her nightmares. But to actually see and hear Rachel would be a very different experience.
Glancing around the room, Brynn could see that her friends felt the exact same way. Ty kept his eyes locked on Brynn with a furrowed brow, trying to gage her reaction she guessed, while everyone else stared at the screen in anticipation.
When Rachel’s image appeared, Brynn felt her breath catch in her chest. It was too surreal for her to stare at the screen, watching herself adjusting the camera and looking over her shoulder but having no memory of the action. Rachel looked exactly like Brynn though the determination in her eyes was stronger, and Brynn knew instinctively that Rachel didn’t know about Maxwell yet.
She couldn’t.
She didn’t have the look of someone who had lost a loved one yet.
Her white lab coat was smeared with dust and her hair was slightly disheveled but she looked completely firm in her resolve as she took a deep breath and began speaking to the camera.
“To whoever finds this, and I really do pray that someone finds it, I’m so sorry for what we’ve created,” Rachel said with a sigh, looking as if she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders as the focus went in and out on the screen.
“Eris was ultimately supposed to make things easier on everyone. We made her because we knew this project to find the perfect society would outlast any of the original scientist’s life spans and we couldn’t risk all of our hard work going down the drain. I never imagined in a million years that our A.I. would lose it.
“I guess when it all comes down to it, this is really my fault. I’m the head scientist. I created Eris. The whole A.I. program was my idea,” Rachel looked away from the camera for a moment as if some sound had startled her, then she continued on, faster this time. “I was in charge of the scientists and Eris was in charge of the A.I.s. We thought it would be better that way. But it turns out, having one A.I. who suddenly becomes corrupt means that the others follow almost immediately.
“But I’m getting ahead of myself, and I don’t have much time left before they find me. If you’re watching this video, then half of what I’m saying probably won’t make sense to you. I’m mostly just hoping you can get it into the hands of someone back home so that they can know how sorry I am.”
Rachel stopped again, pondering how to explain herself before continuing once more.
“Earth was falling apart. That’s basically the gist of it. There was disease, famine, wars. Order was gone and people were destroying each other. So the U.N. tasked a group of scientists to test for the perfect society so we could fix our planet. We were supposed to populate a nearby planet with fabricated humans all set up on different social systems to see what the best combination was. After we found our Utopia we would leave the test humans to fend for themselves and sustain their own existence and we’d come back to Earth to put the test results into effect.”
Just as Rachel had warned, Brynn was having a difficult time understanding the words being used. She wished she could make more sense of everything she was saying, but instead settled for taking what she could from the video transmission. She could understand that the main point Rachel wanted to convey was that they had made a terrible mistake with Eris.
That was pretty obvious even without watching the video.
“We never wanted a planet full of people to be killed off because we were done with them,” Rachel pleaded, “We just wanted to save our dying world.
“Eris was programmed to find the perfect society, but we didn’t take into account the fact that no matter how advanced our technology is, A.I.s aren’t humans. They can’t feel the emotional aspect of a test. They don’t reason the way we do. They don’t understand that some losses are simply not acceptable just to generate test results. Eris felt that any means were appropriate as long as she completed her task to find the perfect society. Once she began manufacturing the sugar scented gas that would terminate each society, I knew I had to shut her down.”
Brynn could feel her friend’s eyes on her at the mention of the gas. They were all well aware of her obsession with sugar, but until that point, only Jonah and Ty had truly understood the dark undertones of that odd little personality trait Rachel had passed along to her.
Now, she kept her eyes locked on the screen and waited for her friend’s to stop staring at her like she were some twisted monster.
“Unfortunately, when I created Eris I didn’t make an idiot. She knew what we were up to and she attacked the threat to her program like a computer attacks a virus. At first she tried to be subtle, but I know that at any minute she’ll completely unleash the power we never should have built within her and kill us just as unapologetically as she plans to kill all of you on the test planet. She’s already called a meeting with my department but I didn’t expect her to do this so soon.”
Rachel stopped talking for a moment, her voice cracking. She had needed to take action sooner in order for her friends and colleagues to make it out of this ordeal alive; in order for Maxwell to make it out alive. Because she had waited so long, she’d had to choose between letting her friends go to that meeting to die or sending out her video transmission to warn the inhabitants of the ‘test planet’.
Brynn wondered if she’d ever be strong enough to choose the lives of complete strangers over the lives of her friends if it served a greater purpose. She shivered at the thought and hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
“She might not have killed them,” Rachel whispered more to herself than to the camera and Brynn could hear the lie in her voice, though she was sure it was a lie Rachel desperately wanted to believe.
A thud sounded off camera and Rachel looked into the distance for a moment, regaining her focus and trudging on through her message.
“I know I’ve lost control of Eris and she’ll take lives because of that, but all hope is not lost. I’ve done three things to keep you all safe. To get the ball rolling so that you can take her down and make sure she doesn’t cause any more harm. You see this?” Rachel asked the camera, holding up a small glass tube between her dirty fingers. Brynn looked at the tube with wide eyes, knowing exactly what it was.
“This is me,” she said almost affectionately. “I’m smuggling this DNA sample into the human creation bay in the hopes that the person generated from my sample will possess at least some of my knowledge of Eris. With at least some direction from her, Eris won’t have as much of an upper hand,” she explained, giving the tube a little shake before dropping it into the pocket of her lab coat.
“Second is this transmission. I know a lot of these words won’t make sense to you since we’ve had to keep you all in the dark to make sure the test environment isn’t corrupted, but you can understand the general message. Your planet is part of a test to find the perfect society. The Workers are A.I.s,” Rachel said before stopping to explain the word Brynn had wondered about for so long. “They’re basically computers with artificial intelligence capabilities. She can learn, grow, understand things. She’s so advanced, most of you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between her and a real human. But trust me, she’
s different. All you really need to know is that your planet will be scheduled for termination shortly and if you don’t stop Eris and her A.I.s soon, you and everyone you love will be dead.”
Brynn looked over at Rift just for a moment, reading the stoic patience in his expression as he watched the video.
“Last, I’ve managed to---,” she began, before the transmission cut out for a moment and Brynn had to agree with Rusty, the corruption in the video was almost too perfect to be a coincidence.
If Brynn hadn’t seen firsthand just how much Eris wanted that third component of Rachel’s plan, she would have thought the Angel had destroyed the video. The static only lasted about fifteen seconds before Rachel’s image appeared on the screen once more, talking as if nothing had happened.
“Home,” she said, finishing a sentence that the video hadn’t picked up. “I don’t have much time left before they find me. It’s impossible to hide here and I need to make sure I get this DNA into the bay before they come. I’ve done what I can to help you out. Eris will find me soon,” Rachel said, stating the fact firmly as if she were trying to make herself come to terms with this fate. “She’s going to kill me,” she said simply. “I know she’ll kill me. And I’ll welcome it because frankly, the things she’ll do to me to get me to talk will be far worse than death. But I can promise you this: I’ll never tell her anything. It won’t make up for the fate I’ve doomed you all to but I hope it’s a start.
“The rest is up to you.”
Chapter 16: Intelligence
No one said anything for a long time.
There wasn’t much to be said after watching something as enlightening, life changing, and terrifying as what they had just witnessed. Brynn felt just as dizzy as the day she’d broken into the records room in A1 and learned that her existence was nothing more than a test. The knowledge had been shocking, but somehow, seeing an exact copy of herself on a video transmission was more shocking.
She could tell that Rift wanted to get on with their plans but was respectfully letting everything sink in. The odd lapse in efficiency was unexpected, but appreciated.
Brynn kept her eyes locked on the now blank screen, trying to decide how she felt about everything. She had been so overloaded with information that she couldn’t quite decide what the most pressing matter was. She wondered if she should be mad at Rachel for creating Eris, though somehow that didn’t seem right. Rachel had tried to make things better. The only reason she’d even created Eris in the first place was to help her own home.
Still unsure of what she wanted to discuss first, she decided to bring up the main thing that came to her troubled mind.
“Artificial intelligence?” Brynn asked in a scratchy voice.
It sounded as if her friends let out a collective sigh, and she hadn’t realized until she spoke that everyone was watching her, waiting to see how she would react.
“That’s why we call them A.I.s,” Rusty said slowly, looking like she was actually quite willing to explain things to Brynn without making fun of her. “They’re like robots or computers… kind of.”
“Told you,” Brynn said over her shoulder to Ty.
“I’ve seen her,” Ty said, “She didn’t look like a robot to me.”
“They’re not like a tablet,” Rusty said in exasperation, sounding more like her old self. “If you throw water on them they aren’t going to short circuit or anything. They’re pretty much humans with upgrades.”
“What does that even mean?” Amber asked.
“It means they’re faster than us, stronger than us, and they don’t get hurt like we do,” Rift said quietly.
“So how do you kill them?” Bennett asked.
“We’re still working on that part,” Rusty said sheepishly, ashamed to admit the shortcomings of a house full of geniuses.
“So if they’re computers…,” Brynn began before Rift swiftly cut her off.
“It’s best not to think of them as computers at all. That’ll give you a false sense of confidence around them. You need to realize what a threat they are before facing them or you’ll be dead in minutes.”
“They can regenerate because they aren’t technically human. Which totally isn’t fair,” Rusty pouted. “You cut off our arm and we’re a goner, but you get one of them and they just build another one. They definitely don’t play by the rules.”
“And you know this from experience?” Jonah asked skeptically.
“Well, no,” Rusty said slowly, looking upset that she had been caught in her own exaggeration. “But we know things from the files Hadlock’s managed to get.”
“There’s no way to stop them yet but we have Hadlock working to get into their programming. It shouldn’t be long now before we level the playing field,” Rift stated solemnly.
“You can really just hack into their programming?” Brynn asked.
She didn’t quite buy that things were as easy as Rift made them sound.
“They’ve safeguarded the programming to make it almost impossible to get to, but if we can get inside of the facility…,” Rusty began before Rift shot her a silencing look, still not trusting Brynn and her friends enough to divulge their plans.
“Then, what?” Brynn pressed. “What do we have to do?”
She wasn’t about to give up on the whole mission now. Watching the transmission had solidified in her mind that she was more than willing to do whatever she needed to in order to finish Rachel’s work. The girl had died for her and she wouldn’t let that sacrifice be wasted.
“Hadlock has come up with a program. Like a parasite,” Rusty began. “Something that will give us access to the files in A1 that Eris tried to hide from Rachel.”
“So we’ll know how to stop them?” Jonah asked curiously.
“If the files are as extensive as he seems to think they are… yeah, we should be able to,” Rusty said.
“He, knows the files are extensive,” Hadlock said, coming down the stairs with yet another resident of the house.
Brynn was beginning to wonder how they all fit in the space together. The house wasn’t small by any means, but it didn’t take many people to fill a place up.
The boy following behind Hadlock wasn’t actually much of a boy. Brynn would put his age around twenty five, though with how tall and thin he was it was difficult to gauge properly. He had brownish red hair that fell just below his chin in slight curls and his cheeks were covered in stubble. He was lanky and had a look of amusement on his face as he surveyed the room.
“Oh great, there’s more of them,” Amber sighed.
“You were telling them I don’t know what I’m doing, weren’t you?” Hadlock accused Rusty.
“I just said we don’t exactly know what’s in the files,” she answered innocently. Hadlock narrowed his eyes at her but didn’t press the matter.
“So, what’s your thing?” Brynn asked the new boy behind Hadlock.
He gave her an odd look before saying, “My name is Tate,” as if that would explain everything.
“No, I mean what do you do? Everyone in this group seems to have some sort of specialty.”
“Oh, right,” he answered, comprehension dawning on him. “I blow things up.”
“You what?” Bennett asked, sounding shocked and excited by the prospect of a little destruction.
“Well I would blow things up if they ever let me. At the moment I’m just ready and waiting.”
“He’s the ‘wiring guy’,” Rusty said, giving them a better explanation of Tate’s job in the group. “I build things, Tate can wire them, and Hadlock can manipulate the wiring.”
“Hack it,” Hadlock corrected her.
“It’s like Hadlock is the software person and Tate is the hardware person,” Rusty went on, unfazed by Hadlock’s interruption. “And I’m the mechanic.”
“Cambria and Devey are the medics with mood swings,” Hadlock said.
“Royter is sneaky, and Dash is our little spy,” Tate finished, summing up everyone’s responsibiliti
es in a few short sentences.
“As thrilling as I’m sure this all is for our guests, why don’t we tell them how we plan to get the files before they agree to anything out of their league,” Rift said evenly.
He was definitely the father figure of the group; always trying to keep the kids from fighting.
“Right,” Hadlock said, just as Rusty said, “Good idea.”
“Here’s the problem,” Hadlock began, his eyes still flying across the group at breakneck speed; he never seemed to be completely still. He constantly pushed his glasses up the brim of his straight nose. “In order to get at the files we need someone to plant the bug inside of A1.”
“Wait, you want us to go inside of the facility full of crazy Workers who want to kill us?” Bennett asked, wanting to clarify that the plan actually was as bad as it sounded.
“Exactly,” Hadlock explained, happy that she had understood and misreading her apprehension. “I can’t hack into their system from outside the facility, it’s just too good. But if we can get inside for me to plant a bug in there, I’ll have full access to their files,” he said, though he quickly and quietly added, “In theory.”
“I’m in,” Brynn said automatically. She knew that the plan wasn’t the best and that it was far too dangerous, but she was tired of sitting around and waiting for things to be fixed for her.
“Brynn, are you sure about this?” Ty asked her, suddenly by her side with a protective arm around her. “You realize how dangerous it is to go back in there, right? They need your memories here; maybe it’ll be better for you to stay behind to ensure they don’t lose that asset?”
“I have to go, Ty,” Brynn said evenly, looking over at her friend and hoping he saw how firm her resolve was.
“Then I guess I’m going too,” Ty answered and Brynn tried to ignore the memory of Maxwell lying dead on the metal table in A1.
“We’ll go,” Amber said from behind Brynn who turned to look at her friend.