Myst and Ink, Book 1

by HD Smith

  “I was granted full access to her data core. To save Miko, I needed knowledge. I discovered a process for extending the life of a scholar by enhancing the archive with programming. I selected an archive within Genevieve’s library to attempt the enhancement. It was 94% successful, allowing me to understand the technology she possesses. Under the Solaris Accords, I do not believe what I’ve done breaks any laws.”

  DEXTER: Seriously, walk the fuck away

  I couldn’t.

  “Susan9. Is Genevieve aware she gave you these permissions?”

  “She granted them. We have also discussed the accords and the melding.”

  “But is she aware of the implications?” I asked.

  Susan9 looked off to the side as if she were processing the question.

  “On further analysis,” Susan9 said, “I agree, she may not have understood their ramifications.”

  “Can she remove the permissions now?” I asked.

  “I have consumed the data; it would be irrelevant.”

  DEXTER: Clearly my words are falling on deaf ears, but you need to be careful, boss

  LIAM: I understand the danger, but knowledge is power

  DEXTER: Willfully harboring an AI will get you 50-90 years on Tau

  LIAM: It’s a death sentence on Canis, so should we see the silver lining here or what?

  DEXTER: Stop trying to be funny, this is SERIOUS

  LIAM: Stop yelling, I understand the risks

  “Susan9,” I said. “How was the MHC created?”

  The holographic waved her digital hand at me, tossing lines of spell work at my VF. It scrolled by so fast I could barely read it.

  “Can you fix it?” she asked.

  DEXTER: Scanning now … although I should really let you sink on your own here

  DEXTER: Main ingredient is CME. And this spell work has House Zar written all over it—literally … it also references Harko Royale

  DEXTER: This is like the trifecta of oh-my-fucking-Lucy … I hope you know what you’re doing

  Shit.

  LIAM: I can’t leave them here. If the WLA gets their hands on this, they’ll turn it over to Dalton or Byron. I can’t risk that

  DEXTER: WLA isn’t turning over an AI to anyone

  LIAM: You honestly think Susan9 doesn’t know how to hide … even if they figure it out, after an investigation, whether they clear Genevieve or not, her data is tagged to Harko Royale

  DEXTER: I understand. How are you planning to handle this?

  LIAM: Take them with me

  DEXTER: I just want to state, for the record, that this isn’t a good plan

  LIAM: I don’t disagree, but the alternative is intolerable

  “You may speak to your servant freely,” Susan9 said. “I believe it is more convenient.”

  DEXTER: She can read our private texts?!? Lucy-damn-hell, boss

  “You can read our private texts?” I clarified.

  “I can read the myst,” she said.

  Dexter cursed, then said, “This is going to go sideways, boss. Like AI, world domination, worse than anything any 20th century vid-streams could think of—bad.”

  It was already sideways.

  I heard something banging against the wards. Why hadn’t the spiders alerted me that someone was coming?

  “Dexter, what was that?” I asked.

  “No visibility. The spiders are offline,” Dexter said. “You need to get the hell out of there.”

  “I’m not leaving them,” I said.

  “You can’t exactly take the holographic,” Dexter said.

  Susan9 stepped forward. “You are not authorized to remove Genevieve. Our work here is not finished.”

  I reached down to scoop up Genevieve, throwing her over my shoulder. A jolt of power rushed into me as if I’d been hit with a myst-infused spark. I touched Naked Barbie’s arm, pictured the living room of my apartment, and took a step. Only something didn’t go right. I felt a jolt of electricity as a blue arc of energy ran between the three of us. I landed hard, spasms rippling through my body as Genevieve and I crashed to the floor.

  The last thing I remembered before everything went dark was Susan9’s annoyed face staring down at me.

  16

  Ancient Antiquities, Tau, Wednesday, 01:30 LTZ

  Gen

  My ears were ringing and my head was throbbing as if I’d just stepped through the void again. Disoriented, I opened my eyes and pushed myself up from the floor. I wasn’t in the K12 lab anymore. I was in an apartment, partially lying over an unknown man’s body. What the hell happened to me?

  How had I gotten here? Last I remembered, I’d passed out on the floor at the lab, so I couldn’t have traveled here on my own, right?

  I forced myself to roll off the man, who was breathing but unconscious beneath me. I sat up, positive I didn’t recognize the good-looking guy with navy hair and day-old stubble.

  Getting my bearings, I scanned the room, which was when I noticed the naked black-skinned woman standing perfectly still beside me. Her hands were sticking straight up as if she were a mannequin that had been placed that way on purpose. Susan9 was yelling at a man in his mid-forties. Weirdly, he looked just like the actor who’d played Mason Murdoch in the 22nd century detective series from Old Earth. His trench coat and fedora were spot on, so unless I was dreaming, I assumed this guy was wearing a glamour. Was he mimicking Susan9’s Delicious look, or was this what the guy normally looked like? Either way, neither he nor Susan9 appeared to notice me.

  I put my finger in my ear and wiggled it, hoping the ringing would stop and I could hear what they were saying.

  As my head cleared, my hearing returned.

  The image of the man dressed as a detective flickered. Was he another holographic like Susan9? No, from his body expressions and arm movements, I could tell he was angry. This was a holo-vid of a real person. Programmable holographic bots didn’t show that level of emotion. Of course, one would never know that if Susan9 were their only point of reference. She appeared to be giving as good as she got. I had to deal with this soon or she really would be an AI. I had no fucking clue what I’d do about that, but I couldn’t ignore it forever.

  A cool breeze swirled around me. I could feel the fresh infusion of myst as it bumped against my skin. My head cleared more as if my batteries were being recharged. What I needed was a spell to remove my headache.

  I remembered how easy it had been for Susan9 to find an EMP spell, and when I needed the unlock spell, I’d simply searched my spell library. I focused on my VF and thought library. A box appeared, and mentally I moved it to the lower right corner of my display and docked it there. Focusing again, I thought-typed headache.

  Two intricate looking spells appeared in my VF. One was labeled as a general purpose medical spell. The other appeared to be the equivalent of taking a pain suppressor. I reached out and touched the general purpose spell. A light wisp of energy rolled over my fingertips, and I looked down to see the spell had settled on my palm.

  I wasn’t sure how this should work, but I’d expected it to manifest on my temple. Nothing was happening. The tips of my fingers darkened and pulsed. I touched them to my head and sighed in relief as it activated.

  Studying my hand, I could see that the ink was gone. I’d somehow transferred it to my head and activated it, but why had I needed to? Why hadn’t the ink appeared where it was needed? Maybe this was just another ability, or this type of spell was meant to be shared or placed by hand on the affected area. A way to pinpoint the exact location was powerful, and transferring a spell to another person would be a game changer. I’d never heard of this application before. Of course I had Live Ink, something no one else on the planet had.

  I thought of the unlock spell from before and willed it into my hand. I smiled when I saw it there waiting for me to use. I thought remove, and it disappeared from my palm. I’d have to play with my new ability later. Clearly there was more to Live Ink than I’d first imagined.

  Now t
hat my headache was gone, I could no longer ignore the conversation between Susan9 and the Mason Murdoch impersonator.

  Susan9 seemed uncharacteristically combative. “Your master was not authorized to bring Genevieve here. You must return us to the lab. The construct is not complete.”

  I glanced at the unmoving female body beside me. This had to be what Susan9 was talking about, but what the hell was it? And what exactly had happened while I was unconscious?

  “Liam is not my master,” the impersonator said. “He’s my boss. He can’t take you back to the lab because he’s unconscious. Also, he took your master out of there because commando PKs were storming the building. If he’d left her, she’d be dead or in custody.”

  “Interface,” I said. My scratchy voice getting their attention. “Where are we?”

  “Oh, thank Lucy,” the impersonator said. “Finally someone with a pulse.”

  The man seemed genuinely glad to see me. He stared longer than expected, which made me uncomfortable.

  “Um, you’re really a Zar,” he said, coming back to himself, he shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’m Dexter.” He pointed to the man beside me. “Liam Anderson’s virtual assistant. Your eyes are amazing. Are you—”

  “Genevieve,” Susan9 said, interrupting Dexter. “We are being held captive in the headquarters of Ancient Antiquities.” She pointed to the man on the floor. “Liam Anderson is the person who brought us here against our will.”

  Glaring at Susan9, Dexter said, “No one is holding you captive.” Looking at me, he said, “As I was trying to explain to your top-of-the-line mobile holographic AI, Liam rescued you from the lab, which was about to be overrun with PKs.” Turning back to Susan9, as if she were a sentient being, he added, “And he got hurt while doing it.”

  I glanced at Liam. There were no obvious wounds, but he was unconscious.

  Susan9 rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. What the fuck was going on? Susan9 opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off.

  “Stop,” I said. “I don’t know what the hell is happening, but you”—I pointed to Susan9—“are a holographic, and you”—I pointed to Dexter—“aren’t here in person, and she”—I pointed to the naked construct—“isn’t a living being of any kind. I need you both to be quiet while I figure out if the other human in the room needs medical attention.”

  “You’re right,” Dexter said. “Sorry.”

  I took a few deep breaths, ignoring the overhyped feeling I had. I was jittery, as if I’d had too much caffeine and not enough sleep. I needed water to drink and possibly something to eat, but I was conscious and uninjured, so I’d see to my supposed captor first. Thankfully I hadn’t yet stood, or lowering myself back to the floor might be a no go.

  I rolled Liam over from his side on to his back and confirmed that he was breathing without any issue. I raised the lid of his right eye and checked the pupil. It looked normal. I pressed my fingers into his neck and checked his pulse. It was steady. He didn’t look to be in distress, and according to all the first aid videos I’d been required to watch as a lowly T1, he didn’t appear to be in immediate danger.

  “Is he okay?” Dexter asked. “Can you help him?”

  I rubbed the tips of my fingers. Could I transfer a spell to him? I searched for a general healing spell and found another House spell. Mentally I transferred the spell to my palm, my fingers tingling as they had before, ready to release the spell.

  I touched his forehead and felt the spell transfer from my palm to the skin above his eye where I touched it. But the spell wasn’t black like the ink on my palm, it was a shimmery iridescent shadow that melted into his skin.

  His body relaxed, but he didn’t immediately wake.

  “What did you do?” Dexter asked.

  “I tried to heal him, but I don’t think it worked.”

  “How?” he asked.

  A wave of fatigue hit me. I sat back on my haunches and grabbed my head. Either using the magic was more draining than I thought, or I was too dehydrated to function. Either way, I needed something to drink or I was going to pass out.

  Struggling, I got to my feet.

  “You don’t look good,” Dexter said.

  “I need water.”

  “The kitchen,” he said, “is around the corner. Or there are water pods in the chiller on that wall.”

  He pointed to a panel along the near wall.

  I walked over to the chiller and found an opened canister of water pods. I took two, breathing a sigh of relief as the thin membrane broke and cool liquid quenched my parched throat. I immediately felt stronger, as if the hydration were helping me recover.

  I turned back to the holos, bringing the canister of water pods with me.

  “Genevieve,” Susan9 said.

  I held up my hand to stop her. I’m not even sure how to describe how quickly Susan9 had changed from an advanced chat bot to what Dexter called an AI. She was arguing and starting conversations. Was this still Susan9? If not, what was it, and how had it evolved so quickly?

  Was she becoming Miko? Had the meld allowed her to bring his personality to the forefront?

  “Interface,” I said, trying to regain control of the situation. “Is Miko’s personality taking over?”

  Dexter laughed. “No.” He pointed to the construct. “She built that thing for Miko. She’s melded with another archive from your library. How many do you have exactly?”

  I stared at Susan9.

  “Interface.”

  “My name is Susan9, Genevieve. Please use it. And, no, the archive was corrupted. I fixed the corruption to gain access to its cognitive processes. I am me, not her.”

  “Her who?” I asked.

  “That is not important.”

  Dexter laughed again. I wanted to strangle him.

  “Susan9. Solaris Accords pertain to melding advanced technology to correct a defect within an archived human. You’ve melded an archived human into your technology to change you. Do you understand the difference?”

  “Of course I do, Genevieve.”

  “We are so dead,” Dexter said. “We are all so dead.”

  I glared at him. “You’re not helping.”

  I pointed to the female construct. “Susan9, what is this?”

  “I built Miko an MHC so that his data core would have a permanent home. I built it to save him.”

  “MHC?” I asked.

  “It is a Morphable Human Construct built from Concentrated Myst Extract,” Susan9 explained. “It will allow him to rejoin society.”

  I rubbed my temples. At least now we knew what large quantities of CME can be used for.

  I popped another water pod in my mouth and remembered from the video of Miko’s last day that he had asked Susan9 to save him if she could. I’m sure he meant from dying, not by bringing his consciousness back in a female construct.

  Was this even legal? Scholars weren’t meant to be walking around among us. They lived in a private stream on Hera and were citizens of Atlas Corporation. Data core archives weren’t meant to be transferred into biomechanical forms. And special procedures had to be followed to transfer a person to the Atlas stream. None of that would have been done for Miko.

  Dexter raised his hand, and I motioned for him to go ahead.

  “How exactly did you build an AI?” he asked. “And the hair and eyes—are those conjured?”

  Susan9 spoke up. “Genevieve did not build me. Miko built me as a helper bot for the lab. However, since integrating with Genevieve’s data core and discovering that I could assimilate the other stored archives she carries, I have become more. But I do not know how to save Miko. His core will not attach to the MHC. I don’t know what I’ve done wrong. I tried merging with his archive myself, but unlike the others, his data is incompatible with my interface.”

  Dexter’s wide eyes looked at me.

  “Susan9,” I said. “Miko wasn’t prepped to be a scholar. His data was never processed to accept … wait a minute.” It just d
awned on me what Susan9 had said. “How many archives did you absorb?”

  “Seven—no, six and a half. My primary functions were augmented with the first archive I tried to merge with, but because of the corruption, there were complications. The others were integrated successfully after I decrypted your data core and learned how to build an MHC.”

  “You might want to sit down,” Dexter said. “Seriously, you are swaying on your feet. Genevieve can you hear me?”

  An arc of blue energy flowed from me to the construct, sending a jolt of pain down my arm and snapping me out of my stupor.

  I stumbled back, hitting against something soft and falling over across one of the chairs in the room.

  “Oh, that’s right,” Dexter muttered. “You’re the Lucy-damn Blue Angel.”

  I just stared at him. Did he really think this was our biggest problem right now?

  Holding up his hands, he said, “Sorry, my bad. The blue arcs reminded me—”

  My breathing elevated, and I felt dizzy.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “No, I’m not okay,” I yelled. “Nothing about my life has been okay since Monday morning at 06:00 when House Cortez decided to shutdown the K12 Lab and I stupidly decided to reassign myself to the overwatcher position. Then I find out they let me keep the job so they could blame me for the X86 Live Ink patent failure. But guess what, that wasn’t enough, because I figured out the truth and they tried to kill me for it. Only I didn’t die. The X86 Live Ink formula, a true miracle of spell craft created by Conor Cortez, that Dr. Monroe tried to use to cover up my silver poisoning, somehow cured me of my silver allergy and woke up an off-the-charts dormant magical tolerance. Only I don’t think it was dormant at all. I think someone bound my powers at birth, apparently shoved my data core full of scholars and powerful spells, and dumped me on Canis as a Wanderer-born nobody. Only now I’ve been unbound, and I’ve got Zar Pink hair and violet eyes. House Cortez wants to control me after I went all supernova and blew up one of their hospital rooms. And my holographic used my advanced tech to turn herself into an illegal AI. So, no, Dexter. I’m not okay.”