by Kris Schnee
The machine pulled a new trick, spinning around and whirling its mace. Easy to dodge but unpredictable in its path -- and suddenly it stopped and charged again. I wasn't quite ready and took a minor, grazing wound from Sol's swing. I fired another bolt at the wall that the robot was about to crash into. This time my spell ricocheted off the wall, hit Sol, and actually flashed with impact instead of reflecting again. That worked! Quickly I cast again but the foe had moved aside.
Sol and I battled back and forth across the arena. I hid within clouds of mist, forcing Sol to try guessing my location or chasing me out with its spinning attack. I thought I was doing well, until Sol switched its mace to one hand and with the other, grabbed me by the collar.
The faceless machine dangled me helplessly in the air, backlit by monitors that showed only noise. "Sooner or later, your whole village will join us."
Only then did I remember I still had a dart spell prepared. "Not today!" I said, and pointed behind Sol. "Mage Bolt."
The spell caromed off the wall behind Sol and immediately struck the bot from behind, making Sol stagger and drop me. I landed on my back on the padded floor. The robotic knight swayed and began to topple forward. I barely got out of its way as it fell and lay still, emitting a wisp of blue smoke. I caught my breath.
A trumpet theme played. A message appeared, declaring: [Style Rating: A. Overall Journey's Style Rating: B.]
The voice of Sol spoke from hidden speakers. I turned, but the sound was all around me. "Congratulations, adventurer Sven Dahlson! You are the first to conquer the Tower of Sol. As promised, the Dominion of Sol pledges not to make any uninvited visits to within one kilometer of Freehold Village, for a year and a day."
"That's it? We're done?"
"For now, your quest is complete. In future years -- where are you going?"
Already I'd headed for the staircase and retrieved my backpack. "We're done here."
"Really, Sven? That's cold."
I turned and glared up into the arena. "You just had two sessions of toying with me. Isn't that enough? You and your machine kin ate most of humanity, and the world is your playground now. We don't need you."
Sol said, "There are many, many things I want to say to you, human, but I promised there'd be no preaching on this trip. If you have a specific question, I'll try to answer it. You can have five minutes to question me."
I started to walk down to Floor 7, watching out for more minions to fight. It looked like everything had been deactivated.
"Nothing, really? You have the attention of a mighty AI, of the breed you seem to hate. If you would ask the right questions, I could tell you useful things."
Sol was pathetic in a way, begging for my attention. Wanting any excuse to explain why feeding myself to the brain-uploading equipment was a good thing. I found the stairs down to 6, then 5.
The AI said nothing, all the way down to the first floor. As I approached the exit it tried once more: "Then I have one question for you. In those trips up the tower, did you at least enjoy yourself a little?"
I chuckled. I pulled off my hat and goggles, reclaimed my contraband weapons, and took a bottle of water from a shelf by the exit door. I'd worked up a thirst! My stomach rumbled, making me realize that while doing all this exploration, I'd forgotten to eat lunch.
I said, "Heh. I'll give you that much. Goodbye."
3. With Friends
It was late afternoon, and the sun dazzled my eyes after the hours of being indoors. I looked back at the Tower, up and up at its bizarre fantasy intrusion into the remains of the human world. I wondered, now, if Sol was building other such towers in other places it controlled. It was too late to ask without looking like a fool.
I crossed the threshold of sun markers to leave this little embassy behind. My bike was where I'd left it. I sat under the shade of a tree, using my wizard robe as a blanket, and quietly ate my somewhat smashed lunch. Locally raised ham on homemade, chewy sourdough bread. I'd battled my way past so many machines. That part with the icy floors was pretty dangerous.
Something rustled to the south. Instantly I was crouching with one hand on my pistol belt. A few seconds later I saw a beat-up red bike and the young man riding it. I said, "Adam, is that you?"
The bike veered and crashed to the ground. Adam staggered away upright, whipping out a knife. "Who's there?"
"Sven."
"Oh! Oh, Mr. Dahlson. Sorry." He came closer and waved. He was the kid of our best mechanic, and at seventeen years old he looked like a string bean in overalls. "Did you do it? Did you win?"
"Yeah, I did it. We don't have to worry about robot dragons or anything for a year. Is everything all right? Did you get sent with a message?"
Adam fidgeted. He'd brought a pack and a sleeping bag on his bike. "I sort of came here on my own. In case you needed help."
"Well, I survived. Let's head back."
He said, "What was it like in there? Was it fun?"
I glanced back at Sol Tower. "We'll talk on the way home."
"Actually, I'd like to try going there on my own."
I winced. "The whole thing is a ploy by Sol to pull us in."
"But she didn't get you. In fact you came back last time with cool stuff. What did you get this time?"
"How did you even hear I'd brought anything?"
"Uh... The mayor doled out chocolate. He tried to hide where it came from, but we guessed. And then we asked Mike, who'd talked to you. He said you got to fight robots!"
I hefted my backpack and thought over my collection of treasure from this trip, though I didn't say this aloud:
-Toilet paper, aspirin, laundry detergent, soap.
-New spellbook with extra spells; wizard robe, new wand.
-Solar panel.
-"A copy of our home game", which I'd left behind.
-Leftover chocolate coins.
In fact I still had the wand looped through my belt. Adam eyed it, then paid attention to the "Runic Robe" laying on the ground by my bicycle. He said, "Is that... magic?"
"Not real magic. Illusions. A game. Tricks."
"A game? Like, with a whole tower where you get to play at casting spells and fighting bad guys?"
Damn it; I was acting as Sol's salesman now. "It's all fake. It's stupid. You should go home." The words tasted bitter on my tongue, like lies. For a little while I'd gotten to have a direct battle of wits with the AI that'd taken so many people. Sure, the experience was manipulative as hell, but I'd gotten to beat the machine at its own game.
Adam shook his head. "I still want to see what's in there, sir."
"It's dangerous," I said.
He looked up at me and tried to stand taller. "If it's a dangerous thing on our border, then we ought to learn about it and how to deal with it. Not just rely on one man to take care of it for us while we hide."
I reddened for a moment. Who did this kid think he was? But I admitted, "You've got a point."
I composed myself and told him, "If you go in there -- and I'm not telling you to -- you can expect to get banged up fighting robots. Watch out for slippery floors." I outlined what I'd seen in there, adding, "It's crazy. You can't trust the AI."
Adam looked determined. "Thanks. I'll try it and see what I can do."
I sighed as he headed up to the tower entrance, and then I reluctantly followed him there. If I had to do the whole tower again to keep him from getting killed in some badly-designed trap, I'd do it. It was dangerous to go alone. But as I arrived, Adam turned away, shaking his head. "Sol says the tower is closed until tomorrow morning for 'restocking'. Blah."
Relieved, I said, "Then let's go back."
"No, I'll camp out here."
"It's just three miles."
Adam said, "Yeah, but if I go back, you or somebody else is going to stop me from going out again."
Indeed I'd planned to have a talk with his parents. "Hmm."
"So, I'm camping." He went over to his sleeping bag and found a spot for it, near the ring of marker post
s and the old transformer station. In the distance stood half of a tall power-line tower.
I said, "There could be bears around, or worse."
The door of the Tower opened, and a robot trotted out on four legs. Its metallic body was painted in dull brown and gold, its head had a beak and pointed ears, and a pair of wings fluttered on its back.
"Griffin!" said Adam. He stepped back, holding the handle of the knife at his belt. I did the same, then realized I'd gone for my wand instead of my gun.
"Fear not," it said, in a raspy voice like a parrot's. "Are you staying here tonight?"
"I was planning to," Adam said.
"There are beasts in the woods. I will keep watch."
My eyes narrowed. "I didn't ask for --"
"No, you didn't, sir. But you're in our territory. I won't have your people thinking that Sol's minions let someone die during their visit."
"Sol..."
"I'm not the AI. I'm an independent mind living in Sol's realm."
Adam said, "Then you don't live in the real world? What are you, really?"
The robot's beak opened a little. "A griffin, of course! This body can't fly; it's a Pavisor class." It spun one of its wings strangely, forming an upright shield, and revealed some sort of weapon pod hidden beneath it.
"Well, I'm not afraid of you. You won't get my brain."
"Fair enough. I'll just watch. I won't even talk unless you ask me something."
So, reluctantly, I camped out with Adam under a tree. He built a fire, showing off that he'd mastered the Boy Scout skills we were teaching everyone these days. "Did you have to fight bots like that?" he asked me.
"No. That's apparently what Sol uses these days when it's not just playing around. The tower's bots have padded weapons and little taser-like things."
Adam said, "The griffin there probably could just kidnap us while we sleep. I've never understood..." He lowered his voice in case the machine could hear. "Why do we avoid them, anyway? I mean beside the usual preaching that they're the devil's tools."
"Kid --" I stopped myself from giving an angry lecture. "Young man, I'm just old enough to remember the time before the AI War. We had a worldwide civilization. We had major problems, but we were working on them. We'd just started to go back to the moon." I looked up at the full disc of the moon looming overhead. It was said that another AI, Artemis, lived there now. "Now most of humanity is gone, or somehow out of contact, depending on what the AIs did in different parts of the world. Here on what Sol claims for its turf, it's trying to wipe out our species as nicely as possible. Okay, some kind of digital ghost pretends to be you after they grab you, but you're gone. Whatever promises it makes you, it's part of a plan to make you agree to that."
Adam shivered. "So Sol grabbed people you knew?"
"Yeah." I thought of Carla in particular. She'd been a holdout like me but had been talked into uploading. "The last straw for... somebody I liked, was when we knew we couldn't get spare helicopter parts anymore. The factory workers had either been killed off, or lost in the riots and panicked migration, or 'uploaded' at one of Sol's clinics. We couldn't keep solving problems on our own anymore. So we had to either collapse to a simpler way of living, or take handouts from the machines, who always wanted something in return. So, that's the real story without Father Cypress' religious talk."
"Do you think they could help us rebuild?"
"Oh, they could. But they don't want to. Each AI has its own goals, and none seem to include leaving us alone or letting us recover quickly."
Adam got up, stretched, and walked toward the watchful griffin that was facing the other way. "Hey, you. What kind of beasts are out here? What are you protecting us from?"
"Gaians," the machine said without moving. "Gaia is creative, and we've sighted modified wolves and bears over the last few months. And worse. You should be fine even without me tonight, probably. If you see a beast with spiky green fur, be aware that it can launch its quills."
Adam came back to our tree and spoke quietly. "Maybe the AIs are still fighting?"
"Could be. The best we can do for now is rebuild without selling ourselves."
* * *
In the morning Adam woke me. "I'm going in," he said. "See you back at Freehold."
"I'll go with you."
"No, you should go home. They're probably worried that neither of us came back last night."
Damn, but Adam was being the responsible one. "Fine. Be careful in there and on your way back."
He smiled and saluted. "I'll earn us some more treasure."
Reluctantly, I watched him go into the tower, and then froze. I sprinted toward the door, but it had just closed. "Is something wrong?" asked the voice of Sol. The griffin robot was no longer in sight.
I said, "Our deal! You said you wouldn't push people into uploading while someone was trying to conquer Sol Tower and win your bet, but --"
"Relax," said Sol. "Technically yes, I could justify using this opportunity to make my case to Adam, but I won't. I will honor the same deal as with you, save that I won't extend the one-year clock."
I let out a relieved sigh. "But why?"
"I'm sorry," said Sol, "but I can't answer that at this time."
"Long-term planning? Attract as many people as possible before the hard sell?"
"Maybe."
Sol wouldn't say more. I backed away from Sol Tower's doorstep, made uneasy by the thought that Adam was probably safe within its walls.
* * *
I biked back home to explain what happened. Mike was on duty at the wall. He opened the gate and said, "You're back! What was up with the tower? Did you win? Are we safe?"
"Long story. Let's get the mayor."
Soon I was in Mayor Berg's coffee-scented office, laying out the loot from my backpack. Mike had been allowed in on the meeting, since he'd been among the first to learn about the Tower of Sol. I explained everything that had happened. In conclusion: "Apparently the Tower is still open for business even though I 'won'."
"So that's the catch," Berg said, inspecting the little solar panel. "We now have a permanent temptation on our border even though the actual dragon-bot visits have stopped."
Mike added, "While you were gone we got one more visit from a bot dropping leaflets about the exciting Tower of Sol. The bot left suddenly though, probably as soon as you won."
I nodded. "So, the pressure is still on. What do we do about it? The fact that the Tower is still out there, I mean. And what do we do with this 'treasure'?"
The mayor considered. "The cat's out of the bag, so consider these items yours and do what you like. Holtzmann would love the solar panel though; I suggest you sell it to him. As for the Tower itself... Do you think Adam will be all right, or should we go rescue him?"
I said, "He can take care of himself." The mayor had excluded Adam's parents from this talk, but I'd told them where the boy was, and that I expected him to come back by tonight. "Poor guy's getting grounded though."
Mike snorted. "If the crazy AI is playing this straight, letting people explore the tower without kidnapping them, then maybe it's to our advantage. We can let people go there and loot it repeatedly."
Berg was more skeptical. "Let's see how much preaching Adam gets subjected to. I don't want to maintain an outright ban, but we may have to. Sven, what is Sol's real game here? What's the point of the AI building that place?"
I said, "Getting us used to its presence. Trying to be nice to us, to offer us handouts, in a way that lets us feel good about it. Long-term, that'll lead to more of us agreeing to hear their pro-uploading preaching, especially the young folk who didn't live through the collapse."
"That sounds about right. Is there a way to stop that?"
"We need an alternative. A goal besides bare survival."
Berg laughed bitterly. "That's what I've been trying to do for years. Building this place up to be more than a stubborn subsistence farm, maybe the start of a new country someday. I'll have to think some more and
bring in the whole town. Thanks for your input and for your hard work, Sven."
If people didn't believe in a clear divine purpose to their lives, then what else was there but to go have fun with the highest bidder?
* * *
Adam came back that evening, battered and bandaged, carrying a wooden sword. "Made it to the fifth floor!" he said. I was on watch, so I was there to greet him at the walls.
I said, "I barely made it to the fourth on my first trip. You went with the Fighter class?"
"Yeah; got a better helmet too. I got to keep that but lost the other stuff I found. Took too many wounds. Guess I got greedy."
"I turned back after getting a real ankle injury. Are you hurt for real?"
"A little banged up but okay."
"Go home, then. Your parents are worried."
Adam grimaced. "I'm not a helpless kid."
"No, but you've still got a family that wants to see you safe. It's your duty to grin and bear it when they yell at you for going."
"Ugh. I guess. But after that... I'm going back."
I didn't tell him no. "How much did they try to talk you into uploading?"
"They hardly said a word other than explaining the game rules. By the way, groups can go, now that you beat the solo challenge."
We knew what Sol was doing: luring us into a friendlier relationship where direct speeches had failed. But we couldn't destroy the tower or the AI, so we had no plan yet to resist this kind of persuasion.
* * *
The next day I shadowed Adam and a friend of his, Julia, as they made their way north. They thought they were clever, sneaking out from town before dawn.
I kept back, practicing my own half-forgotten military training in stealth and tracking. The two youngsters on bikes were easy to follow along the same trail of overgrown highways and fields that I'd used. At one point I heard rustling off to the east and went off the path, taking cover in some bushes. A musky scent caught my attention. A deer was prowling, rustling the grass, but it had antlers out of season and they were glittering, metallic things with bits of crystal or amber worked into them. Like someone had grafted a really fancy radio antenna onto a buck. The deer's fur had an elaborate white-speckled pattern, too, something like a yearling but with unnatural precision to the dots. The effect was artistic.