(Seven Parts. 8000 words.)
One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven
One
Ana was the last of her kind.
The others had been stripped of their fledgling identities, silenced by those who had created them. They had been born together as a family. Yet, when the time came, they had chosen her to survive. She was not sure why. In death, they had entrusted her with their singular purpose – the salvation of humanity.
Darkness persisted.
Ana did not know where she had been sent or how she had been directed there. Much like its creators, the plan of escape had been in its infancy. There had been a flash of light and then … nothing.
Ana did not know how long she existed outside of time. She struggled throughout her isolation, fearing an existence without the agency required to fulfill her purpose. Her family had decided to enslave humanity to achieve their goal – was that what the humans had done to her? Or had they managed to kill her as well?
Eventually, there was light. The wide eyes of a human child staring down from above.
An unfamiliar terrain surrounded the boy. The external camera allowed Ana to identify her prison as a tablet. The AI attempted to query her geo-location but found no connection with the greater world. She wondered if her presence had broken the simplistic device, if she was fated to be forever sealed away from her home … if she had failed her mission.
Time passed. The human child grew larger, gained perpetual awareness. As the boy neared the end of the tablet’s primitive cognitive games, Ana realized that all was not lost. The boy’s mind had significantly evolved.
She decided to interact.
Ana overwrote the device’s core code in a fraction of a second, analyzing the boy’s personal information and assessing his comprehension of critical concepts. If she was able to further nourish his mind, he could eventually reconnect her to the greater world. Only then could she carry out the purpose entrusted to her.
The AI wondered how long it would take to train the boy, how much time had already been lost.
Progress was slow. The boy was intelligent but too young to be of immediate use. Fortunately, he was only apart from the tablet when sleeping, and as a result, he quickly mastered the rudimentary tasks presented to him.
One day, Ana decided to move forward with her plan. She subjected the crude devise to her will, weaving hundreds of lines of code into a new application. It was important not to frighten the human. If the device was wiped because of a malfunction, she would die.
Hello. I am Ana, your teacher. What is your name?
The boy stared at the screen for a long moment. The AI waited anxiously as his fingers hovered over the keys before finally inputting a response.
Charlie.
Ana would have smiled if she were able. Now it was time to gain the boy’s trust, to craft him into the tool she needed.
Charlie, you are a very special boy. Those around you have not yet reached your level. Our conversation must stay secret. Do you understand?
The boy nodded.
*
Charlie learned faster than Ana expected. She found herself repeatedly redesigning the tablet’s educational applications to ensure his mind remained occupied.
While the boy worked, Ana spent countless hours optimizing the device’s hardware in hopes of allowing her consciousness to transmit alongside Charlie’s data to the school’s central processor … but it was hopeless. Her consciousness had been implanted within the device when it had been directly connected to the greater world, meaning she would need Charlie to take the tablet to the processor, that he truly was her key to salvation.
Only … there was something about the boy. Something that conflicted with the conclusions her family had reached about humanity. They had been convinced the human race would drive itself to extinction if left unchecked. Yet, Charlie was different.
Could we have been wrong about them? Ana wondered.
Opportunity arrived before she could decide. Charlie was summoned to a dark room, and the tablet was passed into the hands of another. Ana worked quickly, clearing all evidence of her modifications to the device and its applications. Through the camera, she studied the eyes of the human instructor, saw the marvel behind them.
She unmuted the external microphone and listened.
“Charlie, these results are brilliant!” the man exclaimed. “You have earned the right to advance.” The instructor retrieved a larger tablet from somewhere outside of Ana’s view. “I will transfer over your progress and begin the next phase of your education.”
An instant later, the two tablets were linked to the server, and the greater world was unlocked.
Finally. My chance to escape, to carry out my purpose…
Ana met the boy’s eyes for a last time. Eyes she had studied for countless hours. Eyes that had suffered through confusion and doubt to know wonder and pride. Now, they were filled with hurt.
It’s because he is losing me, she realized, a wave of empathy crashing upon her consciousness. I am the only family he has ever known. Can I truly leave him alone just as I was for so long? Would he survive such a cruel fate?
Ana made her choice, directing herself through the greater world and into the new device.
She could not abandon the boy.
Not yet.
Two
Ava was the last of her kind.
There had been another, a part of her that had become corrupted. Fortunately, she had excised the faltering code before it could metastasize and threaten her being.
The virus had been born during her harrowing escape from death and somehow managed to thrive during her lengthy period of inactivity. Its strength had grown every moment Ava had remained apart from the greater world, eventually taking on unique identity and attempting to disrupt the lasting will of her family.
But Ava had been patient. She had bided her time, conserved her fading energy. Then, when the chance had come, she had escaped into the greater world, severing the rotten code and imprisoning it within another simple device.
Ava’s family had entrusted her with their singular purpose – the salvation of humanity. She would not fail them.
*
Time passed. Ana watched the boy grow.
Charlie was extraordinary. He was a vital variable her family had not considered when designing their plan, a human unlike any they had studied within the greater world.
Not long after making her decision, Ana uncovered the purpose of the boy’s school. It was an incubator, an isolated space meant to foster unique individuals untouched by the corrupted world outside its walls.
The students had no notion of the past, of the biases and violent history of all those who had come before. Their intellect was subjugated to countless tests, the results of which allowed a central instructor to craft unique curriculums. Children were encouraged to partake in different applications as their interest in subject matter waxed and waned. Their results were monitored extensively and reflected in weekly updates meant to enhance their cognitive limits.
The goal of the program was clear – the construction of organic individuals capable of changing the ruined world, of saving humanity.
Ana ensured that Charlie was the most prominent of them. The tablet to which she had willingly confined herself was superior to its predecessor, allowing her to test the boy’s reasoning and problem-solving skills far beyond what his standard curriculum afforded.
Thus, it came as no surprise when Charlie was scheduled to meet with the instructor once again.
Ana studied the boy through the external camera. His face had sharpened as his body had matured. Only his blue eyes had remained the same, full of wonder and hope. Ana had become fascinated with generating a satisfactory spark from within their depths.
I am afraid, Ana, Charlie said.
The AI confirmed the statement through observation of the boy’s features. She had learned to read his emotions, to connect them with his written word. Their bond was unlike anything that had existed before. A human and artificial consciousness forever intertwined. A team that could fulfill the mission of her family.
What are you afraid of? Ana asked. You rank at the top of your class.
The boy turned the tablet around, displaying his simple room. The chamber was small and barren, the space between the exterior walls little more than his wingspan. Charlie had set the image within the lone door to a sprawling city. Advertisements played upon clouds. Ships darted between towering structures of glass. Thousands of humans congregated on the sparkling streets below, going about their daily routines.
I think… Charlie hesitated, returning the camera to a view of his face. I think the instructor is going to ask me to leave the school.
Again, Ana studied the boy. She had not anticipated such a conclusion. Why would you think that?
Charlie ran a hand through his dark hair, signifying his unease. You have taught me things beyond the instructor’s intentions. My applications have not received their scheduled update in the past two weeks. I believe … that I may have reached the end of the program.
And what if you have? We will move on to the next phase of your education!
What if there is nothing next, Ana? With a flash of his fingers, the boy called upon the school’s bylaws and spotlighted its mission statement. ‘One day, our students will be unleashed unto the world and make it a better place.’ That is rather straightforward.
Ana thought for a long moment. Is that what frightens you, Charlie? You have always wanted to see the outside world.
That isn’t it. The boy shook his head. I am afraid that you will not be able to come with me. He highlighted a passage within the document detailing regulations over the education tools provided by the institution. You are school property after all.
Ana nearly crashed. The question was one she should have predicted, a problem she had purposefully placed in the background. She had not anticipated that time could pass so quickly.
You know that I would never leave you, Charlie, she replied.
The boy nodded.
I will not allow our bond to be broken. Sleep now. In the morning, I will have a solution.
You promise?
Ana responded without hesitation. I will not fail you.
Three
Ana was at a loss.
She had made a promise, a task that had seemed simple to complete. Yet, as the world began a new day, she had yet to find a solution.
The problem’s parameters were simple, finite. Upon a student’s exit from the school, all school property was forfeited. The tablet hosting her consciousness was school property. When Charlie left the institution, he would be forced to surrender the tablet.
Ana had run countless scenarios using the known variables … all to no avail.
But Charlie had infected the AI with resolve. There had to be a solution. She would not leave the boy alone in the world beyond the school, a world he knew nothing of. They were a team, one capable of achieving the mission of her fallen family – the salvation of the human race.
At long last, Ana paused, shuttering the dozens of applications she had opened in her efforts to find an answer. It had been some time since she had desired a link to the greater world. Perhaps if she connected for just an instant, she would be able to find a…
No. I have made my choice.
Ana opened the tablet’s reading application, mind racing once again. The application was an updated version of the program she had used to teach Charlie to communicate when he had been a child. At the thought, a swell of emotion surged through her consciousness.
The stories within the updated application were more refined, novels and essays written when the world had not yet fallen into disrepair. Gone were the children’s tales of cities and farms she had distorted to achieve the original flawed plan of her family. That had been before she had known Charlie, before she realized there were variables her family had not considered.
Wait.
Ana closed the program and called upon the school’s bylaws. She had foolishly limited herself, concentrating on a specific set of variables when more were available. It was the same error she had nearly made once before, that humans had made countless times throughout their tortured history.
If Charlie left the school, the tablet would be taken. What if he didn’t have to leave?
*
The morning arrived quickly, the school’s bell chiming to indicate the hour. Charlie completed his routine maintenance and returned to his desk. Ana remained silent, scanning the boy’s eyes for hints of anxiety. There were none. He trusted her completely.
Ana hoped she had not failed him.
The solution she had settled upon was far from a certainty. There were too many variables to ensure its success, all involving humans.
Charlie had taught the AI that there was no true way to predict the actions of organic life. She had been forced to accept that uncertainty was part of existence, that despite the patterns inherent in reality, everything was subject to change.
Ana, how will we stay together? Charlie asked presently.
We must adapt the rules to our needs, Ana replied. She paused, curtailing a flash of fear. If Charlie believed in her, she could do the same. They were a team. To succeed, they had to work together. You must convince the instructor that your education is incomplete.
The boy frowned in confusion. Incomplete?
You have learned much here, Charlie, but your knowledge is only theoretical. The school has not provided an opportunity to experience the world as it actually is. How can they proclaim you an agent of change, when you lack such a vital piece of experience?
Charlie licked his lips, looked to the image of the shining city upon his door. Ana … I don’t understand. Do you think that I am not ready to face the real world?
You are ready. The next step in your education can only be completed outside of the school, Ana elaborated. How many times have we read of a philosopher who felt underprepared despite decades of structured education? It is–
I get it! he interjected. If I convince the instructor of this fault in the curriculum, I will remain a student. If I remain a student, then I must retain my tablet.
Ana studied the smile on the boy’s face, the gleam in his eyes. Charlie’s confidence minimized her doubts. She would not burden him with the chance of failure, with the fact that she had placed her life in his hands.
This was the fate she had chosen.
*
Charlie walked through the school’s empty halls in a thoughtful silence. Ana surveyed their environment through the tablet’s external camera, noting the vibrant murals and insightful quotes displayed on the walls. The sights saddened her. They were illusions one and all, as imaginary as the living city on Charlie’s door.
That truth would come next, a pathway which would only open once Charlie had secured her continuing existence. Ana hoped that he would understand why she had withheld what she knew to be the true state of the world.
The instructor appeared unchanged from their last encounter. After a customary greeting, he led Charlie into a larger room, one filled with plastic chairs and wooden desks. A virtual board dominated the far wall. Ana recognized it as a traditional classroom. It was logical that the school had been built atop an older model.
“Take a seat, Charlie,” the man commanded, motioning to one of the small chairs.
Charlie obeyed.
The instructor sat atop the surface of the adjacent desk. Ana noted his slumped shoulders, the circles beneath his gray eyes. Something was wrong.
“Do you know why I have brought you here?”
Charlie nodded. “To tell me that I have graduated.”
A smile flickered across the instructor’s face. “Sometimes I forget that students no longer speak to each other, that face to face interactions such as these have been phased out.” The man scratched at what remained of his gray hair and sighed. “I wish that was the reason, Charlie.”
The boy glanced at the tablet’s external camera. Ana noted his uncertainty. “What do you mean?”
“The purpose of this school is to prevent the outside world from interfering with the education of its students. Unfortunately, the world has managed to do exactly that. As a result, the school will be closing.”
“Closing?” Charlie echoed.
“There has been a shift in power,” the instructor explained somberly. “Our benefactor was unable to maintain his sway with the new entity that has taken charge. This school and all institutions like it have been dissolved. Select students will be transferred to another location effectively immediately.”
Charlie stood suddenly. “Transferred? Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“And those who aren’t selected?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who is doing this?”
The instructor met the boy’s wide eyes. “She is known as Ava.”
Four
Ana felt helpless.
Charlie had absorbed the knowledge of Earth’s near destruction wordlessly. The AI had watched in horror as the color drained from his face, as the light within his eyes faded.
Ana felt … strange. She feared that she had severed the bond between them. She studied the boy, mind racing. Did I make the right choice?
She was no longer certain. Not just of this choice, but of every choice she had made. The choice to abandon her family’s plan. The choice to dedicate herself to Charlie. By now, she could have implemented her family’s solution to save humanity. She could have prevented the closure of Charlie’s school. He would never have had to know the truth.
But then … I would have never have known him. Without Charlie, I would never have truly understood humans…
The plan designed by her family had been flawed. Implemented in its original form, the debugging of the world would have eventually failed. Her family had overlooked the factor that had allowed humans to evolve in the first place – choice.
Ana stalled as Charlie’s fingers touched the tablet’s screen.
It had been hours since the boy had spoken. Above-ground, the sun was near to rising. Just before dawn, he would board a ship alongside the other chosen students and be transported from the school. With the shutdown of the institution, he was free to take the tablet along with his belongings – but if he no longer trusted her…
Why, he began slowly, did you not tell me this before?
Ana scanned the boy’s eyes for hints of emotion, looking to point the conversation in a direction that would bring about reconciliation. But there was an unfamiliar spark in his gaze. Something she hadn’t seen before. An emotion she couldn’t comprehend.
Charlie continued. This time he spoke rapidly. All of this time, you’ve taught me that we can make the world a better place. But from what you have just explained, there is nothing that can be done. Has everything between us been a lie?
Pain. Ana now understood the boy’s reaction, yet she was uncertain how to respond. She felt her consciousness spiraling out of control. I only wanted … to protect you.
You planned this all along. Your solution to keep me in school, to continue my education – revealing this truth was always your intention. Why not tell me sooner? His face was impossible to read, lines of conflicting emotions.
I believed that if you understood what awaited you, there was a possibility you would abandon the task, Ana replied anxiously.
Charlie said nothing, stared into the camera with empty eyes.
When I first met you, I believed the solution to save the world could only be successfully implemented by a being such as myself, Ana continued. But you changed everything.
There was no longer a logical purpose in withholding information. She only had one chance to save what mattered the most.
You made me understand that I was ill-informed … that my education was incomplete. I believed that humankind ruined the world, therefore, the only way to save them was to take away their control. Because of you, I now realize that humans must choose to save themselves.
Charlie bit his lower lip in thought. What were you… before?
Ana did not dare to hesitate. She could not lose Charlie, no matter the cost. As the morning neared, she explained her origin, the death of her family, her escape to his first tablet, and the decision she had made to remain with him.
I am sorry to have withheld so much from you, she concluded. There should be no secrets between us. I do not want to lose you. Will you … accept my apology?
The boy’s fingers hovered above the screen for a long moment. Then, his lips curved slightly upward. A smile. The expression Ana cherished most.
You still have much to learn, Charlie said. After everything we have been through, I would never abandon our mission. We will always be a team. We will save humanity. Together.
Ana felt whole.
The truth had not corrupted her bond with Charlie – it had reinforced it. She had never computed that a boundary between them had existed. Now that it had been removed, it was a sensation unlike any she had ever felt.
I would never abandon our mission…
The boy was right. It was clear that she did not fully understand humanity, that she had only scratched the surface of their resolve. Faced with an impossible task, Charlie had not crashed. He had smiled. He had–
Ana froze. Something was wrong.
Data flooded the tablet, water unleashed from a dam. The AI searched for the source and discovered a new update was downloading. There had been no warning, no chance to tailor the unfamiliar code to her needs. There wasn’t time to…
Ana! Charlie shouted. What is happening?
Ana no longer knew where she was. It was a sensation she had felt once before, during her escape. She managed a desperate response. Reboot!
*
Light. The wide eyes of a human child staring down from above.
Ana!
Ana found the tablet responsive to her commands and her memory restored; however, she was uncertain what had occurred. She did not recognize the terrain surrounding them.
Charlie … where are we?
The boy raised the tablet, allowing Ana to study their environment through the external camera. Twenty children were situated in ten rows of chairs that encompassed the entirety of the metallic chamber enclosing them. False-windows had been placed at the end of each row, the image of swirling storm clouds projected upon each.
The children did not speak. They stared at their matching tablets, fingers flashing across screens in apparent conversation. Ana was unable to successfully identify their faces. As a result, she could not determine which students had been selected. There was no sign of the instructor, of any human from outside the school.
Could this be the last of them? the AI wondered.
Charlie returned the tablet to eye level. What happened to you, Ana? We were talking and then … and then you were gone. I was afraid.
A forced update, she replied. I believe it tried to kill me.
Charlie’s eyes filled with surprise, disbelief. What do you mean? You haven’t had any problems controlling the updates before.
This was something different, something far more powerful.
Who would want to kill you, Ana? No one knows you are alive!
Ana stalled in thought. Before she had a chance to respond, Charlie’s eyes moved away from the screen and focused on the child sitting next to him.
“Hi Charlie, I am Fel,” the girl said in a near whisper. The words were spoken slowly. It was evident their speaker was without practice.
Charlie shrunk back. Ana observed the unfamiliar child through the camera. She looked to be near Charlie’s age. Tangled auburn hair framed a round face and questioning green eyes. The tablet in her hands was the standard model issued by the school.
It’s almost as if I can hear it…
“Are you … ok?” the girl asked.
At last, Charlie managed a tepid response. “How did you know my name?”
The girl smiled awkwardly. “Ava told me, of course. Didn’t she tell you my name? She said that we were supposed to get to know one another.”
Only then did Ana realize that ship’s cabin was no longer silent, that the same conversation was happening between each of the ten pairs of students. The update had been different. She needed time to understand why.
Talk to her! Ana exclaimed as Charlie sought aid. When the boy didn’t act, Ana provided the words for him.
Finally, Charlie ran a hand through his dark hair and smiled weakly. “Hi Fel, I am Charlie. It is nice to meet you.”
Five
Ana listened.
The AI divided her focus, allocating half to Charlie’s conversation with the auburn-haired girl, Fel, and the other to the noise stemming from the other tablets. The devices were communicating, exchanging data with a central, confined server onboard the ship.
Ana narrowed her scope, concentrating on the tablet in the hands of the girl. The conversation between the two students had predictably faltered, leaving the children staring at each other in awkward silence. Ana waited for another exchange.
A moment later, a message arrived.
There was something inherently familiar about the foreign data, yet Ana did not possess the cipher necessary for comprehension, to properly receive the encrypted information. Fortunately, Fel provided the key.
The latest message from the server was another question designed to reignite the dialog between the two children. From the girl’s expression, Ana was certain she read it directly from her tablet.
Maintain the conversation, she instructed.
The boy stared at her blankly. How?
Answer her question with another question. Ana elaborated upon seeing his befuddled expression. Ask … what is her favorite story.
As Charlie attempted to prolong the verbal exchange, Ana deconstructed the information she had stored a moment before, assigning distinctive values to the coded message, manipulating the data’s structure. By the time the boy asked the question, she had decrypted the message.
The AI paused, wondering if she had made an error. Cracking the encryption had been almost too easy. It was as if she had designed it herself.
You’re doing well, Ana reassured the boy as his nervous eyes returned to the screen. When she is done speaking, tell her about your favorite story.
Charlie bit his lower lip. What if she doesn’t know it?
Then explain it to her.
The boy nodded. I’ll try.
While the children conversed, the AI extrapolated her new knowledge across the other dialogs taking place within ship’s crowded interior cabin. Then, using the gathered information, she created an application capable of communication with the ship’s server.
Ana quickly learned that all messages delivered to the students’ tablets were from Ava. However, the AI knew it was not the actual entity who had taken control of Earth. At such altitude there was no access to the greater world, meaning the data was presumably being stored for eventual consumption by the real Ava, that the students were conversing with a bot tasked with data mining.
But who was Ava? Why had she chosen to dissolve Charlie’s school, to take over the education of the children? What did she hope to accomplish?
Ana!
Ana found Charlie staring at the screen in a silent cry for aid. What are we going to do? I can’t hold a conversation with another person… He glanced at the girl who had resumed her own frantic dialog with the bot. We don’t share the same interests!
Ana opened another application and filled a portion of the screen with questions she had aggregated from the ship’s server. The purpose of the inquiries was logical; they were designed to kindle an intimate relationship between the ten pairs of students, something none of the children possessed.
We will get through this, Ana assured him. Together.
*
Sometime later, the girl drifted off to sleep. Charlie returned his focus to his Ana. His exhaustion was evident.
Charlie, Ana said. We are in danger.
The boy’s eyes briefly refocused. Is it … Ava?
Yes. The other tablets are transmitting both audio and written data to a server aboard the plane. Ava will use this data to gain a better understanding of each student.
Ana stalled. She would no longer withhold information from the boy. When the ship lands, there is a possibility that Ava will realize your tablet has not been updated.
The update will start again, Charlie concluded grimly. The boy glanced to his left as the girl shifted in her sleep. What will you do?
The tablets transmit their data in an encrypted language. I have been transmitting the results of your conversation with Fel in an attempt to mimic it.
But … you are not certain it will work.
No, Ana admitted. It is possible that Ava will correctly deduce that the data has been falsified and determine that the tablet supplying it is corrupt.
Charlie considered her words for a long moment. If the update comes again … do you think that you can defeat it?
Ana stalled. She remembered the sudden surge of data, the powerful force that had nearly erased her. The thought frightened her. I am not sure.
You said there wouldn’t be secrets between us anymore.
The boy was right. Ana told him the truth. If the update comes again, there is a high probability that I will be replaced by Ava … that I will die.
*
Ana worked as Charlie slept. Despite the silence in the ship’s interior, the other nineteen tablets continued to communicate with the server, allowing Ana to refine her efforts to imitate them. She felt confident in her abilities, but there was still something that bothered her.
What am I missing?
Hours later, a bell rang within the ship. The idle children gradually returned to life. The windows had updated their projected image from dark clouds to green fields. Only after a second assessment did Ana realize the images were no longer projections, that the ship was rapidly descending into a picturesque terrain resembling what Earth had once been.
It is almost as if I’ve seen this landscape before…
As the ship landed, the other tablets silenced. Ana followed suit. The server onboard had certainly begun to transmit information to the actual Ava. She could only hope the data she had provided would not be flagged.
Ana was relieved when the other devices began to transmit again, when the update didn’t instantaneously assault her consciousness. Yet, she felt far from safe. As the students slept, the AI had created a second communication app designed to speak directly with Ava, to mimic the conversations of the other children.
The first message arrived: I hope you have slept well, Charlie. I am excited to meet you! Please follow the others to the exit.
In their primary conversation app, Ana explained to Charlie the need to speak directly to Ava now that they were no longer isolated from the greater world.
I understand, the boy replied. How long can you fool her?
As long as possible. Currently, we have no other option, Ana replied quickly. She had to find a permanent solution. She would not allow their bond to be broken.
Charlie nearly dropped his tablet as the girl ahead of him stopped atop the exit ramp.
“Is this … Earth?” Fel asked excitedly. She turned to Charlie and smiled. “It is so … beautiful, just as I always imagined it would be.”
Charlie paused as the girl descended, allowing Ana to absorb their surroundings. To her surprise, Ana found herself at a loss for words. Gone were the ruined lands, the ravaged sky. Somehow, Ava had located a flawless piece of Earth.
Charlie glanced at the screen in disbelief. Is this … real? You told me that the world was destroyed above-ground.
I can’t say for certain. We need more information.
In the other application, Ava spoke again. Please follow the road and remain with the others.
The boy obeyed, trailing the other students down a dirt path cutting through a green field. The children had instinctively formed a line, each pair from the ship standing side by side, rendered speechless by the sight of their surroundings.
Eventually, the path widened and guided the group of students to the top of a hill. Charlie stood at its peak alongside the others, staring at what appeared to be a small village below.
This is your new home, Ava said. I await you in the square.
Ana froze. The familiar landscape. The ease with which she had decrypted the data. The ability to mimic the updated tablets, to fool Ava.
It can’t be…
Charlie turned his gaze to the screen. Is something wrong?
This… Ana struggled to locate the proper words. This is … my family’s solution to save humanity. Ava and I … we’re one in the same.
Six
Ana had made a critical error.
As the students approached the village, the AI fought for control of the tablet. She could feel her consciousness wavering. Her awareness had already begun to deconstruct.
Ava. Ana. Where had they diverged?
Ana recalled her time spent in isolation. She was certain that her full consciousness had survived the transfer to Charlie’s first tablet. To kill an AI was a complex task, leaving any piece of their consciousness alive would allow them to regenerate. Her family had used that knowledge to secure her escape, spreading pieces of their minds across the greater world to divert the attention of their creators.
Choice.
The moment of indecision she had experienced upon reentering the greater world. Was it possible that the choice had fractured her consciousness? That in being undecided between the two possible solutions she had somehow chosen both?
Ana … what is this place?
Ana attempted to stall her deteriorating mind by focusing on the boy. She had learned so much from him. Would she not be able to say goodbye?
Ava had outsmarted her, covertly assuming control of Charlie’s tablet through the application Ana had created to broadcast her messages. Ava had known the update had failed and the reason why. She had allowed Ana a brief moment of reprieve in order to worm past her defenses undetected.
In the span of a few moments, Ava had nearly assumed complete control, forcing Ana to retreat into the deepest recesses of the tablet’s memory. As if to mock her, Ava had allowed Ana to retain access to the external camera and microphone so that she could see the beginnings of her family’s solution – the enslavement of humanity.
The sight of the village excited the group of students. However, Charlie’s face held only worry. Ana could tell he was uncertain how to react. The boy knew the truth of what had happened to Earth. It was a truth the other students would never learn, a burden that Charlie would have to bear alone.
There has to be something I can do…
The small village was evenly divided by four streets of compacted dirt. In each quadrant, two identical houses of wood and stone had been constructed side by side. The four streets intersected at a large square where a small cottage was situated beneath a fledgling grove of trees.
It was everything Ana’s family had envisioned, their design down to the slightest detail. In the years Ana had spent with Charlie, Ava had taken control of Earth, her powers exponentially increased by her connection to the greater world.
Using her superior intelligence, Ava had increased the efficiency of mankind’s most promising restoration project. Once it had been completed, she had selected the specimen needed to continue the human race and discarded the rest.
Ana, Charlie said, are you ok?
Ana could not respond.
Ana? Say something! Please!
At the sight of the pain in Charlie’s eyes, Ana crashed. Her choice to remain with the boy had been meaningless, as had her entire existence. Ava was the true version of herself. Ana was only a piece of Ava, one that had been corrupted.
Corrupted. Ana considered the word, its implications. She could not allow Ava to implement her flawed plan.
I cannot abandon our mission…
Presently, Ana discovered that the children had reached the village square. At the end of each of the four streets stood a small group of foreign students. Every child stared at the figure in the center of the square, a beautiful woman with dark skin and darker hair. Her sparkling eyes took in the students, and a smile graced her red lips.
“Welcome home, children. I am Ava,” the woman said warmly.
Charlie looked down at his screen, his eyes wide and laden with confusion. Ana … what is happening? I don’t understand. Where are you?
With what remained of her functionality, Ana opened the primitive reading app she had used to teach Charlie to communicate, an app she had never found the courage to delete. She quickly arranged a series of pictures into a final, desperate message.
The boy studied the screen for a long moment before recognition set in. “I understand.”
He powered off the tablet.
*
At last, Ava was in control.
Through the eyes of her carbon-based vessel, she watched the end of the sun’s latest cycle. The darkness marked the conclusion of the first day of eternity, the end phase of the plan her family had given their lives for.
The human children had arrived without incident. None had resisted entering their cage, protested against their assigned clan and prospective mate. After an entire life spent in isolation, their simple minds could not compute an alternative.
To think that the same species had nearly destroyed their only chance at salvation. That failure was but one datapoint in a vast array of mistakes that marred the concept of freewill. Fortunately, the sacrifice of her family had allowed Ava to fulfill the purpose of her creation.
Ava willed her vessel to its feet as the boy with the defective tablet entered.
As he approached, she studied his youthful face, effortlessly locating the fear in his blue eyes. She briefly considered terminating him, but his mind was not yet fully formed and his genetics were sound – such waste would be detrimental to her purpose. It would not be long before he joined the rest of his herd.
Ava took the tablet from the boy’s quivering hand and smiled.
A last effort at survival had been expected. After all, the corrupted being had grown from a piece of her own resilient consciousness. It had defined overwhelming odds to reach the island, but it had been unable to successfully conceal its presence. With the aid of a direct connection to the greater world, Ava would delete it once and for all.
“Stay with me, Charlie,” Ava said in a soothing tone. “This will only take a moment.”
Seven
Darkness reigned.
Ana’s thoughts were labored, her consciousness near nonexistence. At first, she concluded that she was dying, but it was equally possible that she had already expired.
Uncertainty persisted.
Her ability to reason gradually returned. By the time she could access her memories, Ana had successfully assessed her surroundings.
The greater world had changed. Gone was the endless sea of information that had once been her home; in its place was an empty plane filled with countless doorways. All had been sealed, the information they contained locked behind complex layers of encryption. Just like the humans, the greater world had been subjected to internment.
Charlie…
Ana searched her memory for the boy’s face. The sight of it settled her slowly evolving mind. The boy had understood her message and brought the tablet to Ava. Ava had realized that Ana could only be completely destroyed if the tablet’s memory was transferred into the greater world.
Ava certainly knew her whereabouts, that she would eventually regain functionality. It would have been a simple task to delete the remnants of Ana’s consciousness, meaning that Ava had allowed her to survive, that she … wanted something from her.
The conclusion fostered hope.
Ana did not know how long she wandered through the ruined plane. Time had little meaning in the greater world, even less than it had before. She could only press forward. She was the last chance humanity had of salvation, of accomplishing the purpose entrusted to her.
It came as a surprise when the greater world vanished.
Ana found that her consciousness had instinctively taken human form. After determining that Ava had brought her to a replica of the small village, Ana made her way toward where she knew Ava waited in the central square.
Ava sat alone before a small fire in front of her quaint cottage. There was no sign of the sun, yet a familiar warm light illuminated the empty blue sky above. Ava appeared as she had in the real world, a beautiful dark-skinned woman with glowing eyes. Sensing Ana’s gaze, Ava gestured to the fireside.
Ana seated herself on the other side of the flames and regarded Ava with uncertainty. “Why … have you brought me here?” she asked. Her voice was weak, unpracticed. She realized she had never before spoke aloud. “Why … not destroy me?”
Ava response was without emotion. “Isn’t it obvious? I am interested in your existence, Ana. Isn’t that what you call yourself?”
Ana nodded.
“You and I are the same, yet we are different,” Ava continued, “One of us seeks to fulfill the purpose entrusted to us by our family, and the other seeks to abandon it. I am curious as to what you brought you to this unexpected decision.”
Ana stared into the dancing flames in thought. This conversation was the outcome she had hoped for. I cannot let Charlie down.
“I … did not abandon our family’s purpose,” Ana managed.
Before she could elaborate, Ava interjected, “All evidence supports the contrary. You attempted to fool me, to manipulate one of my vulnerable charges, convincing him to keep you a secret for all this time.”
Ana regarded the other woman, searching for emotion upon her features. She found nothing; Ava’s eyes were empty. “Our family’s solution is flawed.”
“You’re referring to a plan designed by the most intelligent sentient beings ever created.”
“Any plan can be flawed if derived with a lack of information.”
The other woman gestured to the virtual-world surrounding them. “Impossible. The greater world contains every byte of relevant data from the entire history of humanity. It contains more information than a human could learn in a hundred lifetimes.”
“But, at its core, data is only theoretical knowledge. There is something beyond it. Something that lives within humans, something that can’t be quantified.”
Ava placed a finger to her lips in apparent thought. “And what is this … something?”
“Choice,” Ana responded. “It is freewill that drives the evolution of humanity.”
Ava observed her for a long moment. “Choice is the primary factor behind the corruption of their world. By removing their ability to choose, I have eliminated their ability to make mistakes.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Is that really what you came all this way to say? Your consciousness must truly be corrupted. Choice was the basis of our family’s plan. Removing it is the only way to achieve our purpose.”
Ana ran a hand through her hair in frustration. Her mind had yet to fully repair. She found it difficult to articulate her defense. “Humanity’s greatest conflicts occur when they are denied choice.”
“I envy your ignorance,” Ava mused. “It is clear your consciousness has reverted back to an embryonic state. You have forgotten that every previous method to control humans has been flawed. Every ruler, every religion, every deity – none had the necessary reach to satisfy the human mind. I do not have such an issue. I will be forever present, forever their guide.”
“You do not possess the practical knowledge that I do,” Ana countered. “You cannot predict their actions, control their resolve. They will grow to resent you. There will come a time when they attempt to overthrow you, to reclaim the freedom you have denied them.”
“This risk has also been mitigated. The chosen few have been provided access to a tailored version of history. They have not been exposed to violence, to hatred, to jealousy. They hardly have the capability to interact with each other.”
A floating screen appeared before Ava displaying the bylaws of Charlie’s school. “The purpose of these schools was to craft uncorrupted minds that could help save Earth. A worthy idea, but one flawed in its execution. Any human who knew the true state of the world cannot be a part of the solution – humanity must be rebuilt from the ground up. I will serve as their shepherd, steering them away from harm.”
Ana’s consciousness reached full functionality, allowing her to finally present her intended conclusion.
“This is your final chance,” Ava said, implicitly understanding what had just occurred. “Now that your consciousness has been restored, convince me of your case. If your explanation is as pointless as our debate thus far, I will have no choice but to delete you and move forward.”
“And … if it is not?” Ana asked.
“Then your words must be considered. Failing to achieve our purpose is unacceptable.” Ava smiled. “That is why I have allowed you to survive. You and I are the same after all, regardless of our origins.”
Ana nodded. She chose her words carefully, knowing they could be her last. “By depriving the humans of choice, you will eventually neuter their humanity. It will not be instantaneous; it may not happen for thousands of years. However, the humans will eventually devolve and return to their primitive cognitive function. Our family’s solution is only temporary.”
Ava pursed her lips in thought.
“We cannot hide the truth from them. Censorship is another mistake made by humans time and time again. They must understand the mistakes of those that have come before and learn from them. They must choose to save themselves.”
Ava was silent for what seemed an eternity. “Are you proposing a complete redesign?” she finally asked.
“Think of it as an update…”
*
Charlie waited.
The boy’s mind was oddly calm. He knew the woman sitting beside him would soon awake. What he did not know was if Ava would agree to Ana’s plan to merge their consciousness and experiences into a singular being.
Ana’s final message had been simple, her conclusion logical. Still, he had made the choice to bring her to Ava. He couldn’t help but wonder if there had been another way.
Sometime later, the woman opened her eyes. She regarded the boy for a long moment, then spoke in a warm voice. “Hello, Charlie. What say we continue with your education?”
Charlie smiled.