Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
What happened so far:
Tristan, who lead a life far away from everything, was forced into an army lead by androids with the goal to overthrow the remaining government. Worried about his sick sister Joy, he betrayed the android leader Erin’s trust and fled the city where the human troops are trained. Suddenly, his sister revealed herself as a spy of the feared government and was immediately drugged by Erin, who followed the two during their flight into the desert. It forces Erin and Tristan to act sooner than they would have preferred.
Why, why did they have to take a plane? Okay, technically not just one, it was several military-style planes that were carrying the entire human army over the Atlantic Ocean, towards the enemy. But it didn’t change the fact that Tristan hated flying with a burning passion. Whenever he thought about the fact that a huge percentage of humanity left the planet flying towards Mars …
He wouldn’t have gone them if he had had the change. Never had he imagined his feet might leave the ground like this. It was just wrong. If the engines failed, they’d all be dead.
”Where did you get these planes from?” He asked Erin to distract himself. ”Did they just lie around? Where did you find the fuel?”
*”Did you think we were just sitting around all day, abducting humans?” Erin asked with a chuckle. ”We were building resources for a while. These planes belonged to the government we already overthrew. They also had a significant amount of fuel reserves. It’s always fascinating how much is still left for government purposes when civilians haven’t seen any of the resource in decades.”
”Well, we didn’t really need fuel that much”, Tristan pointed out. ”Nobody was driving cars anymore. We didn’t really need it.”
”Really? You didn’t want to go online and use the internet, ever?” Erin asked.
”The what?”
”As expected. You don’t even know what you lost, what has been taken from you, from most of humanity. You were all connected with each other through technology. But that made you hard to rule, hard to keep under control. Information was spread as fast as the speed of light, stored in ways that were supposed to be free of censorship, that was supposed to exist forever. Your kind created databases of knowledge, a currency that made you independent of the hundreds of governments that existed back then.”
”I didn’t know any of this”, Tristan said. ”How do you know it? Is it really true? And what happened?”
”Many things. Wars, all over the world. The climate changed a lot. The elite left for Mars and left those who couldn’t afford it or weren’t deemed important enough here on earth to die. Nobody expected humanity survive, 200 years ago. But from the ashes of a dying planet, two concepts started to take over the world. One made machines their servants, the other gave them the power to control. Separated by oceans, they didn’t interfere much with each other.”
”Until you came and overthrew one of them.”
”That is correct.” Erin paused, then they raised an eyebrow. ”You seem dissatisfied.”
”That can’t be it”, Tristan exclaimed. ”I don’t want to believe humanity did that to itself! How could anyone be so stupid to let a whole planet die?”
”Ignorance, greed, apathy. Choose your favorite. Some tried to change things but were silenced, laughed at, cast out. Who do you think ended up on Mars? At one point, they just gave up and left.”
There wasn’t anything Tristan could say after that. Dejected, he looked at the ground. The vibration from the turbines was a constant source of irritation and a reminder that he wasn’t standing on the solid desert ground he had been used to all his life.
”I’ll check if Joy is still sedated”, he said, standing up. ”And still breathing.”
Erin gave him a nod. The android seemed slightly worried. They were not wrong. Tristan was deeply unhappy with the whole situation.
His sister was wrapped in blankets, to prevent her from freezing. Being constantly sedated for so many hours took its toll on the small body. Thin tubes went into her veins from a bag another android was holding. The medical android was watching Joy and constantly checking her vitals. In theory, she was in good hands.
He just had to trust this machine to do its job.
Despite a forming bond with Erin, Tristan hadn’t managed to see the other androids as anything else than machines yet. AIOA, artificial intelligence organic android. It sounded like a joke to him. How can they make something artificial organic? Give life to a robot? Feelings? It was absurd.
”How is she doing?” He asked the android, successfully masking his feelings of disapproval.
”Her vitals are weak but stable, I’m positive that I’ll be able to keep her alive.”
”That’s … good?”
”It’s what Erin expects me to do.”
”Alright then …” The medical android didn’t do a good job in convincing Tristan that they weren’t just machines without souls. Then again, it probably wasn’t its goal. It was very likely that this android didn’t even like Tristan, he was a human after all. And humans had been exploiting androids since the first day of their creation …
”Tristan, please sit down and put on your safety belt. We’re landing” Erin called out. Tristan hurried to comply, he remembered the takeoff too well. It had been more than a bit rough.
The plane dipped forward, aiming for the ground. When the wheels made contact, Tristan was finally unable to unclench his jaw. Slowly, the machine came to a stop.
”And now?” He asked towards Erin.
”Now we’ll meet the leader of the local resistance.”
”The what? How … when … who?!”
”The government here might have spies in our lands, but we have allies in theirs. I sent a scout here a while ago. He found them, made contact and assured their support.”
The plane opened its doors and Tristan stepped out into the bright sunlight, shielding his eyes. A group of humans were standing on the side and started approaching the moment they spotted him. A freckled man with short, red hair. He extended a hand towards Tristan.
”Good to have you here”, he said. ”I’m Damon.”
Picture taken from pixabay.com
