Chapter Seven
“We should have seven minutes to test version three before Christina and John arrive,” Fai said.
“That’s enough for me,” Kari said. “If we find any issues within those few minutes, then we just demo V2. The odds are they are going to hate anything we show them.”
“Why is that?”
“Because that’s just the way clients are. I don’t know why, it just is. They ask for perfection and when you show them a status update halfway through, they think you’ve failed them.”
“I see. So you think they will be unsatisfied with our progress?”
“If they aren’t, they won’t tell us. They will want us to keep working ourselves to death so they can have the best result possible.”
“Do humans work themselves to death often?”
“Most of us spend our lives working, so we don’t have to work when we’re dying,” Kari said. “But it sounds kind of funny when I say that.”
“If it means anything, I am satisfied with our work. I know we can do better, but our progress has been substantial.”
“It does mean something. It’s especially important for you to feel that way, Fai. Not just because it’s going to be your first body, but because you need to feel pride in your work.”
“Why is that important?”
Kari had been working with Fai long enough that she had adjusted to having follow up questions about everything she said. In fact, she found that she had started to alter her speech in order to include more teaching moments. It had been frustrating at first, but now she embraced it. Fai was the learner she had hoped her students would be.
But they usually seem more focused on driving me crazy, or trying to get us all arrested.
“Because if you don’t take pride in your work, no one ever will. And what’s the point in spending your time and energy on something that is worthless?”
“I am not sure.”
“Exactly. So take pride in what you do.”
“Do you?”
“Yes,” Kari said. “Most of the time anyway. Sometimes it’s more difficult than others, but I always try.”
“And you are proud of version three?”
“I’m proud of all the versions we’ve made.”
The first attempt at Fai’s body rested in the corner of the room. Its bulky black form was the most powerful and in many ways the most practical of all three versions they had designed so far. Standing next to it was V2, a thinned-down, more expressive humanoid. It was distinctively more feminine, but where it succeeded in some areas, it failed in others.
Certain problems had been inherited from V1 that required complete rewrites to fix as compared to a simple refactor. V2 was a clear improvement, but it was still far away from the jaw-dropping design she knew the founders of Vision were hoping for. V3 addressed a number of V2’s problems, while it avoided tackling some of the more difficult tasks.
I could spend months on the face design alone and never nail it. But maybe that is where they will have their army of designers take over when I’m finished.
She knew it was inevitable, but she didn’t like to think about it. Her work with Fai had become so personal that the thought of other people becoming part of that process didn’t feel right.
I guess that might be why Adrian is so resentful of me being here. They’ve spent years creating Fai, and then they march me in to put some of the finishing touches on her.
“Do you consider us friends?” Fai asked.
It wasn’t uncommon for Fai to ask questions when silence lasted for more than a few seconds, but this question caught Kari slightly unprepared.
“I do,” Kari said.
“What do you think my future holds?”
“I’m not entirely sure,” Kari said. “You are something that world has never seen before. A lot of people have thought about what your kind might be like and what that might mean for the rest of us. There are people out there who hold strong opinions about you already.”
“And you think these people will affect my future?” Fai asked from her V2 body. Her voice now sounded exactly like it did when she used her voice that was built into the room.
“We’re social creatures,” Kari said. “And you’ve been designed to be like us, so I imagine you might be affected by people as well. But I think your future is whatever you make it. You have the potential to change the world. For everyone.”
“Does that frighten you?”
“It might,” Kari said, “if we weren’t friends.”
The door to Fai’s room opened, and Adrian stood in the doorway, looking much more stressed than usual. John stood next to him
.
Kari checked the time and sighed. V3 still had several minutes left before it was finished printing.
Knowing Christina’s timeline, they probably only plan on spending ten minutes here total.
“Hello, John,” Kari said. “Come in.”
“How kind of you to invite me into the room I own,” John said.
Adrian nodded to him and walked away as the door closed behind John. Kari straightened her clothes and sat up tall in her chair. After she had received the news that John and Christina were on their way, she had finished the final changes on V3 and then she had rushed to her private quarters to ready herself. Not that she cared about impressing them with how she looked, but she didn’t particularly enjoy offending people with her smell.
“No Christina today?” Kari asked as John walked over to Fai’s two bodies and ran his hands over them.
I guess not.
John mumbled softly to himself as he examined V1 in great detail, inspecting its quality and design with a higher level of care than she expected from him.
“That was our first iteration,” Kari said. “There were some things we really liked about it, but we quickly came up with a list of—”
“We?” John said.
“Yes,” Kari said. “Fai has been quite involved in the design process overall.”
“Good.” John moved from V1 to V2. He locked eyes with Fai, and then made an exaggerated motion showing he had the chills.
“Good to see you, John,” Fai said.
“Amazing. This is utterly melting!” John said.
“Really?” Kari asked. As much as she regretted asking the question, she couldn’t help herself.
“I’m about to flip a bit! Fantastic work!” John said. “You have more than lived up to your reputation, Freelancer. I could not be more pleased.”
“We already have an improved version,” Fai said. “It should be finished printing in one minute and twenty-six seconds.”
“That is music to my ears,” John said. He turned from Fai and looked at Kari. “And money to my bottom line.”
Kari smiled back because she had not expected positive feedback from the Vision founders today. She had spent hours mentally preparing herself to defend her design decisions. But the way that John shamelessly referred to Fai as a profit center made her slightly sick. Fai was a creation, not an invention, and to treat her like a simple upgraded auto-auto design was infuriating.
“I think Fai is much more than a way to make money,” Kari said.
“And that makes me even happier to hear you say that. If Fai can form an emotional attachment with even the hardened consumer like yourself, we are going to blow the ceiling off our stock.”
So many things I would love to say right now. Too bad all of them end with me getting fired. If he weren’t going to donate to the Academy I would let him hear every single one. Man, I hate bosses.
“I’m glad you’re happy with our progress,” Kari said.
“I’m pumped! I knew you were the right person to bring in on this project, even before Fai requested you.”
“Wait,” Kari said. “Fai requested me?”
“Yes, she did. We were quite surprised, but apparently your reputation even reached her. When we couldn’t find you, she helped us to track you down.”
The lights flickered.
First time that’s ever happened.
“One of the thermal generators must have had a hiccup,” John said. “We designed this place to function at all times. Wouldn’t want the cave trolls to have to go outside.”
“Version three is finished printing,” Fai said.
“Great, I’d love to see it,” John said.
“I’ll have it meet us here,” Fai said.
“I haven’t had a chance to inspect V3 yet,” Kari said. “So no promises.”
“Chill, Tahe,” John said. “I’m more than happy with the progress. V3 could be a pile of screws and I’d be stoked about what I saw today.”
The lights flickered again and this time Kari thought she felt the ground shake ever so slightly. John didn’t seem concerned by it, so Kari didn’t spend time theorizing about it, either.
“Her bodies contain every practical sensor that we could think of. She is essentially a walking laboratory and medical center. When she learns how to maximize her capabilities, I can hardly imagine what she will be capable of.”
“If I wasn’t in the middle of two relationships that are failing spectacularly, I would marry you right now, that’s how in love with this I am.”
“Something is wrong,” Fai said.
Kari turned to look at Fai’s V2 body where her CB was presently located. The lights flickered again and this time the floor noticeably shook.
“What do you mean?” Kari said.
I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.
“Some seismic activity or something?” John asked.
“No,” Fai said.
The sole door to the room opened, and Kari whipped around to look outside. V3 of Fai’s body stood in the doorway. Behind it came the distinct sound of energy blasts firing from a gun. Glass shattered on the other end of the research lab. V3 stepped into the room and the door closed behind it just as the screams reached Kari’s ears.
Chapter Eight
“Shut up!” Kari yelled. Surprisingly, John stopped screaming obscenities in response.
“We’re dead, we’re dead, we’re so dead . . .” John mumbled instead.
The room was soundproof, but it didn’t stop the vibrations from the explosions outside from shaking the floor. Occasionally a soft, muffled sound would make it through the wall, a sign that an energy blast had collided on the opposite side.
“Fai, did you see any of them when V3 was walking in?”
“Yes, faintly. Men in manual combat gear. Heavily armed and, from what little I could gather, well trained.”
“Oh great! We’re screwed,” John said. He was beside himself, huddling in the corner of the room.
“Do you have access to any of the systems here?” Kari asked. “The ones that can control power, air, or anything like that?”
“I’m not allowed access to those systems.”
“Can you take it?”
“Yes,” Fai responded.
“Do it, you’re allowed.”
“I have control of the systems.”
“Kill the lights,” Kari said.
“Are you crazy? We won’t be able to see!” John protested.
The lights died in their room. Only the green glowing eyes of V2, where Fai’s CB was currently residing, lit the room.
“Good, now are any of the printers still online?”
“No, they have all been destroyed,” Fai said. “Are we going to die?”
“What other machines are still active in the lab?”
The sound of an energy blast colliding with the door filled the room, briefly drowning out John’s still audible panic. Kari couldn’t blame him, he was doing exactly what she wanted to do right now. They were trapped in the back room of a research lab filled with armed men who were dead set on killing everyone and everything.
Guess those League of Humanity threats weren’t the joke you thought they were, eh John? Somehow ‘I told you so’ doesn’t seem appropriate.
“A few crawlers is all, I believe they used EMP blasts to take most support devices offline.”
“Not a lot to work with,” Kari said.
Think! Come on, there’s always a way out.
“Give them Fai!” John said. “That’s what they are probably here for. Let them have her and they might leave us alone!”
His panic was replaced with hope, as his voice grew louder.
“It’s our only hope,” John said.
“No,” Kari said. “It’s not. Fai can you trigger the fire sprinklers?”
“No, it is a manual system per code.”
“Fine, override one of your bodies to overload an appendage with power until it starts to smoke and hold it to the fire sensor.”
Kari wasn’t finished speaking before Fai’s V2 body was moving. A rancid smell filled the air as her pointer finger on the body began to smoke. The room was nearly pitch-dark so Kari couldn’t see, but Fai’s green eyes were beneath where the sprinkler in the room was located.
“Let them have her!” John said. He grabbed Kari from behind with two arms and shook her. “Do it or you’re not getting a filthy penny from us!”
“Get on the table,” Kari said.
She tried to project calm and confidence in order to calm John down. He was in a state of shock that Kari fought to keep herself out of. He let her go and fumbled around for the table. Kari made it on top of the table first. The sprinklers burst into life, showering water down into the room.
And hopefully on the rest of the lab.
“Fai, can you break the sprinklers in the room so they only pour water straight down?”
“Yes.” Kari watched her green eyes move around the room and the accompanying noise of her body jumping into the air and tearing the sprinkler heads from the ceiling. Water collided with the pooling water on the ground now, like a faucet.
“What are you doing? This is a crazy!” John said. His brief moment of trust in Kari had evaporated once again.
“Now, have your second and first body punch holes in the wall. Just keep yourself suspended from the ground.”
“Yes, but why I am doing this?” Fai asked.
Energy blasts hit their door frequently now. From the sounds of it, it wasn’t going to protect them for much longer.
“As soon as that door opens, you are going to order your third body to discharge its entire fuel cell into the water on the floor. If we’re lucky, that will electrocute everyone the water has touched.”
“What about us?” John asked.
“Well, we are on top of this wooden table.”
“Right,” John said. “Brilliant.”
“Once the ground is clear, you’ll need use your first body to clear out any attackers that are still standing, OK?”
“I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Fai said.
Kari could hardly hear Fai over the sound of the assault on their room. It wouldn’t be long now. She took a deep breath and quickly scribbled a note in her mind chip and held it ready to send.
David would never forgive me if I didn’t say good-bye.
“I know you don’t, but we don’t—”
The door to their room shattered under the pressure of another energy blast. It burned and fell over backward into the room, making a splash on the several inches of water on the floor. Flashlights from the lab floor shown into the room, providing enough light for Kari to see Fai’s V3 body leap through the doorway.
Kari shielded her eyes as Fai’s body unleashed all of its energy onto the wet floor outside. Streaks of electricity raced through the wet floor, electrocuting everything it came in contact with. Screams of utter pain came from the League of Humanity soldiers outside the door as the electricity burned through their bodies.
“Fai, is it safe for us to touch the ground?” Kari shouted.
“Yes.” Fai answered as two heavy thuds splashed to the ground.
“John we have to go, right now!”
The cofounder of Vision Corp didn’t hesitate in following her orders. They followed Fai’s two remaining bodies out of the room and into the devastated research lab. Fai activated some lights on her body, which provided enough illumination for them to see. Every footstep crunched with broken glass beneath their feet. Kari didn’t have time to worry about cutting herself as they ran past the electrocuted attackers and Fai’s fizzling V3 body.
The glass dividers that had filled the room had been destroyed, shards of glass stuck up through the thin layer of water. Kari caught glimpses of burned and cut bodies as she tried to find a safe way to the exit. As far as she could tell, the attacking soldiers had left no survivors.
“That was incredible!” John said.
“We’re not out of this yet . . .” Kari responded. “Fai, do you have any way to tell if there are more assailants in the cave?”
“There is nothing accessible to me outside this room that provides any conclusive information,” Fai said.
“When we get to the door, we’ll need to have you check down the hall.”
“Yes, Kari.”
“You think there are more of them?” John asked.
“I think so, but I hope not.”
As soon as they reached the door leading to the main hallway, Fai leaned her body around the edge of the hallway and was immediately greeted by energy blasts.
“There are two men with energy rifles at the end of the hallway,” Fai said.
More energy blasts were fired at the entrance to the hall as the soldiers continued to fire where they had seen Fai
.
“John, Fai, we’re going to hide over here to the side of the door. Those soldiers are going to chase V1 into the research lab. Fai use V2 to get them from behind, once you have a clear shot.”
“How do you want me to hurt them?” Fai asked.
“Just hit them on the back of the head hard enough to knock them out,” Kari said.
“Are you crazy? Rip their heads off!” John said.
Kari knew it was the most practical answer. She didn’t want any of their attackers to catch them from behind, and they certainly didn’t deserve any mercy after slaughtering all the lab workers, but she didn’t want Fai to be a killer.
She’s too innocent for that. Well, maybe not anymore. The world has come for her much sooner than I had hoped.
A few moments later, energy blasts fired from the hallway after Fai’s V1 body that ran deeper into the large research lab room. Kari wiped the water from her soaked face as she watched Fai leap and grab the two men from behind and slam their heads against each other. The light spilling in from the hallway provided just enough illumination for her to see what was happening. The men crumpled to the floor in a heap as Fai stood over them.
“Grab the weapons,” Kari said.
John rushed over to the weapons and picked them up while they waited for V1 to return. Kari held the energy weapon in her hands uneasily.
For some reason, I feel less empowered with this in my hands.
“V1 was hit and sustained significant damage,” Fai reported.
A few moments later it came limping toward them. It was missing an arm and one of its legs was barely attached to the rest of its body.
“Can it keep up with us?”
“If we move slowly,” Fai said.
“OK, let’s go,” Kari said. They cautiously entered the hallway again. This time no energy blasts greeted them. They walked past the door to the personal quarters, which was blocked open. Smoke was coming through the door. The lights were still on in this section of the cave, which allowed Kari see a number of bloody lab coats covering more fallen researchers.
She fought back the urge to throw up. The fear she felt was pushed aside by pure rage.
They killed all these people so they could kill Fai! The individual least deserving of murder on this whole planet!
“This is bad,” John whispered.
Kari didn’t respond as they reached the wall of the EMP room.
This isn’t what I signed up for.
“Fai, can you open these walls?”
“Give me a minute and I will try,” Fai said.
Kari tried her best as well, using her mind chip to connect to the system governing the building. She opened up a number of hasty attacks, but she didn’t have any success by the time the walls began to slide open.
“Fai! Don’t!” Kari shouted, but it was too late.
Energy blasts came flying at them from the far side of the EMP room, in the lobby of the cave. A blast caught what was left of V1, melting straight through the middle of what remained of Fai’s original body. Kari squeezed a few shots off in response as she moved for cover.
“Die!” John yelled as he stood his ground, firing energy blast after energy blast at the men on the other side. His shock was gone now, as he furiously fired at the men in the lobby.
“John, get out of there!”
John didn’t look away as he continued to fire. He pressed forward as the number of energy blasts coming from the lobby dropped.
The door on their side of the EMP room slammed shut, just in front of John.
“Fai, what’s that?”
The door opened again and this time no energy blasts came at them.
“I overrode the EMP to fire even with the front door open. I used it to neutralize the weapons of the people in the lobby.”
“You’re going to make me extremely rich!” John shouted.
He led them forward into the lobby. He fired his energy rifle several times, but Kari didn’t follow where the blasts went. The sounds of dying League of Humanity soldiers were enough for her. She didn’t need to visually confirm their deaths. However, she wasn’t able to avoid seeing the fallen bodies of the research lab guards.
The glass lobby doors were destroyed, leaving nothing but a light metal wireframe between them and the dark exit to the tunnel.
“We did it!” John said.
This time Kari didn’t correct him. No auto-autos waited for them on the outside, but Kari didn’t see any other soldiers, either.
“Fai, check the cave ahead of us for enemies,” Kari said between deep breaths. Now that the immediate danger was over, Kari felt the rush of how perilous their situation had been. She felt dizzy.
“I cannot detect anyone else down the cave,” Fai said.
“Thank God,” John said.
An energy blast came whizzing through the air from behind them and slammed into Fai’s left arm, blasting it from her body.
The people we left behind in the personal quarters! Why didn’t we lock them in?
Kari’s regret matched her panic as she reacted to the new threat. She sprinted for cover farther down the cave and Fai paced next to her. She looked over her shoulder to see John start to run beside them. Energy blasts flew all around them, miraculously not hitting anyone. Kari made it to the corner of the cave where the energy blasts collided with the stone, sending dust and chips of rock flying, but otherwise did no damage.
She glanced behind her again to see John Luken just a step behind. He started to scream before the energy blast caught him in the torso. It burned through him and sent his body flying lifelessly through the air.