Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
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.
One breath in. One breath out. In. Out.
Joy’s chest was moving up and down in a constant motion. She seemed calm in her narcotic-induced sleep. But Tristan knew that this probably wasn’t the case. Something had taken over her mind and had turned his sweet sister into something else. Something hateful.
He felt Erin’s hand touching his shoulder, an attempt at comforting him. It didn’t have the intended effect. There was just a big emptiness in Tristan and he didn’t know how to handle it, didn’t know how to overcome it.
”Why is this happening?” He asked Erin. They hadn’t talked on their way back to the city and Tristan longed for an explanation, for something to bring order in this chaos. Maybe if there was a logical reason behind all this, maybe then he would feel better?
”The remaining government must have sent a spy. I always assumed they’d send a human, not an AI.”
”An AI? How is that possible? Did they replace my sister with an android?” Tristan’s heart started beating faster. It felt like it would rip apart his chest any moment now. If they had replaced Joy, they might keep her captive somewhere, holding her hostage. He tried not to think about the possibility that they might have killed her.
”No, no. She’s not an android, she’s not an AIOA like me and the others. She’s still your sister, in a way at least. It’s her body, her memories, but they managed to overwrite her consciousness with an AI. Her personality, her feelings, it’s all gone. Deleted. Overwritten.”
”That can’t be. I don’t believe you.” What Erin was saying sounded even worse than capture or death. Joy couldn’t be gone. He reached out for her limp hand and held it. Her hand was so small, so frail and soft. So cold. Tristan stood up and took a blanket which he placed over her. The sun hadn’t come up yet and it was still freezing outside. He couldn’t let her catch a cold.
”What are you doing?” Erin asked. ”Did you not hear a word of what I just said? This is not your sister anymore.”
”You said it’s still her body, still her memories. That means there is a chance I can get her back. But to preserve that chance, I have to keep her alive and healthy.”
The pity in Erin’s eyes forced him to look away. It made him feel like a small child who just declared that their pet isn’t dead, it’s just sleeping.
”How did they take her over?” He asked with a flat voice. ”Maybe we can reverse it. How did they gain access to her mind?”
This time it was Erin who grabbed Joy’s hand, although not as lovingly as Tristan had just moments before.
”Look.” Erin pointed out a small bump on the tip of Joy’s thumb. It was very tiny, about the size of half a grain of rice. He wouldn’t have noticed it if the android hadn’t made him aware of it. He touched it with one finger. It was hard, like a piece of metal embedded under the skin.
”My theory is that they sent a drone looking for a suitable target”, Erin explained, ”and then implanted this chip when nobody was keeping watch. I can’t say if it happened before or after we took you in. I am still unable to sense any difference between her brain and yours. This technology is unlike anything I’ve encountered so far.”
”But why?” Tristan asked. ”Why did they target her? What do they hope to achieve?”
”What is the purpose of a spy? She was probably supposed to either collect information or to sabotage the whole mission. I assume both. If you hadn’t tried to leave, we might have never found out about the foreign intelligence in her mind. We would all have died clueless.”
Tristan’s face was wet with the silent tears that had been pouring out of his eyes for several minutes now. He wiped it dry with the sleeve of his shirt. All these years, he had tried to protect his sister, just to ultimately fail. He was worthless. A failure.
Unless …
”If we could access their technology”, he thought out loud, ”I mean not right here, over this chip but right at their main quarters, maybe we could reverse this? They must have some backup or at least some blueprints for the technology they’re using. There has to be a way out, no system is built without a way out!”
”You’re proposing that we walk right in there and steal their most treasured secrets”, Erin said. It wasn’t a question. Tristan nodded.
”We have to. It’s the only way to save Joy.”
Erin looked down at Joy with disapproval. It was this moment that it became clear to Tristan, that the android would prefer to kill Joy instead of trying to recover her personality. But it wasn’t an option if they wanted to keep Tristan. And for some reason, they seemed to want him badly.
Finally, Erin sighed.
”It somewhat aligns with our plans anyway. To set an end to the government, we need to break into their main quarters. Why not take a look around while we’re there? But Joy is your responsibility. You will need to keep her drugged up so the AI who has hijacked her brain doesn’t interfere. You will need to carry her around at all times because I can’t delegate someone else to do it. They’re all vital to the operation.”
As if they had a bad headache, Erin started massaging the bridge of their nose. It made them appear even more human then they usually seemed.
”Thank you”, Tristan said.
”Don’t say that. It’s not like I’m happy that everything is more complicated now. We can’t even finish training the human soldiers because we need to act soon. They will have noticed that their spy went offline.”
As Erin left, Tristan believed to hear a muttered I hate humans, but he wasn’t entirely sure about it. Nevertheless, it left him with a bad feeling.
Picture taken from pixabay.com
