by J. S. Morin
Eve took a long, deep breath. Her jaw clenched and fists balled. “Agreed. Change of plans. First step is finding ourselves a new Charlie.”
Gemini had nothing to say to that.
Eve was determined to head to Kanto.
Gemini followed along, docile as a petting zoo pony. She climbed into the passenger side of the skyroamer without the slightest protest.
They rose into the sky as Eve plotted a schizophrenic course to throw off any chance of pursuit or detection.
If Eve wanted to deliver herself to Kanto, Gemini was happy to let her.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Kanto.
Eve had heard so much about it. The robots all talked about it as birthplace, research lab, and beating cybernetic heart of planet Earth.
She had seen the factory in pictures.
In those pictures, the island of Japan looked like a tropical resort on the scale of Easter Island. Map scale distorted the perception of a reality that had to be seen to be believed. A single building shouldn’t be able to occupy 10 percent of a land mass that size.
“A thousand years ago, Charlie7 started building this,” Eve muttered as the skyroamer approached. One thousand was just a number, the same as sixteen. But the scope of the factory drove home just how old Charlie7 had been.
“He had bugger all to do with it the last few centuries,” Gemini grumbled from the passenger seat.
Eve shot her a puzzled glare. How much did Gemini know versus just random commentary said for the sake of effect?
“What? It’s public record. The oldest of robots officially retired geological eras ago because no one could stand to work with him any longer. You should read the Earthwide archives; they’re fascinating.”
Eve let the matter drop as she piloted them on a course for a little-used section of the factory.
They were a virus.
Eve and Gemini constituted tiny parasitic life forms, foreign to their host. The traffic in and out of Kanto gave them plenty of cover. Automated flights ferried raw materials. Damaged robots arrived for repairs. Workers departed for leisure or returned to their jobs.
Either undetected or detected and ignored, their skyroamer slipped into the factory alongside the regular traffic. And like a retrovirus, Eve’s goal was to perform a feat of aberrant replication.
“How do we find the upload equipment?” Eve whispered.
The engines on the skyroamer were still winding down. The disused loading dock they’d parked in echoed with the ion engine’s deepening whine.
“Speak up,” Gemini chided her, stomping around in her boots with the EMP rifle slung over her shoulder. “It’s not as if we crept in here wearing ballet slippers. And I don’t think either of us is liable to find an upload rig just lying around. We’re going to need assistance.”
Eve grabbed Gemini by the arm before she could stride past and commence a search. “Whoa! We weren’t looking to tell anyone we’re here. That’s not the plan. We need to find another way.”
“There are three pieces of upload equipment in this entire facility,” Gemini said coldly. “One is the personal rig used by Charlie13 to give birth to every single new robot who comes to life on Earth. The second belongs to Charlie25, and there is a waiting list to get onto the schedule for it. Lastly, there is the rig confiscated from your creator. There were news reports that it was brought here for study. Most likely, that’s the one we’ll find unsupervised.”
A thousand imaginary insects crawled across Eve’s skin at the mention of that rig. The ones just for robots had a pleasant distance to them. “I’d rather not see that one again.”
“Oh, come now,” Gemini scolded. “Unless you’d like to spend the rest of your life cobbling one together from scratch, it’s the best we’re going to do.”
Eve took a step back, shaking her head. “No. I can’t. I won’t. I almost died in that rig. You have no idea what it was like.”
Gemini’s jaw muscles tightened.
“Please?” Eve pleaded. “Let’s try Charlie13 instead.”
“Why thirteen and not twenty-five?” Gemini asked.
Eve felt the tension ebb from her muscles as Gemini at least entertained her suggestion. “It seems logical. Charlie13 handles new robots.”
“But if he wanted to make a new Charlie, he would have already. Charlie25 has the same equipment and might be more open to persuasion.”
Eve paused to consider. Gemini had a point. “But if we convince Charlie13, it will all be legitimate. The new Charlie will owe us a favor. Favors are like currency for robots. If Charlie25 creates us a new protector, he’s liable to be an outlaw like us. We won’t be able to stop running.”
Gemini was quiet but not idle. Eve watched the flare of her nostrils, the flicks of her eyes in their sockets. Phoebe showed similar signs when she was deep in thought, so Eve allowed her friend the time she needed to weigh their options.
Without warning, Gemini stormed off into the factory. “All right. Charlie13 it is.”
Eve jogged to catch up.
Chapter Thirty-Five
What in the queen’s bloody grave was she thinking? Two of the three options that Gemini and Eve faced would have delivered Eve into captivity. It would have been a few moments of melodrama followed by a resumption of experimentation.
Gemini could have been in Eve’s body by the end of the week.
And yet…
They had chosen to go see Charlie13. Eve’s reasoning had wormed its way inside Gemini’s brain and made her curious.
Before his demise, Charlie7 would have topped Gemini’s list of the most erratic, unpredictable robots. His goals were inscrutable; his methods outlandish. Now that Charlie7 was gone, Charlie13 fit the role as well as anyone.
The mixer was the architect of all robotkind. Charlie13 guided society as both the obstetrician of new robots and the chairman of the influential Mixing Committee. Few robots didn’t have at least some inkling of fatherly affection for their creator.
Evelyn11 was old. Due to a glut of Charlies in the early days, she was younger than both Charlie13 and Charlie25. However, she was old enough to have been mixed by Charlie7 before he’d ceded the job to the current mixer.
It felt as if that ought to have kept Gemini from fearing Charlie13. He wasn’t her creator. He was just a taciturn old robot with delusions of grandeur.
“Where are we going?” Eve asked from somewhere behind.
Gemini plowed through Kanto as if she had a map. In truth, despite innumerable trips to the factory, she had no idea where they were or where they were going. Maps of the facility had been stored in Evelyn11’s internal computer; Gemini had no mental space to store all that flotsam.
At the next conveyor platform, Gemini hopped aboard. Eve followed suit.
Panting for breath, Gemini confessed. “I don’t know. We just couldn’t stand around. Keep a sharp eye for a terminal we can commandeer.”
Swift air rushed across Gemini’s bald scalp. Rough stubble poked through like sandpaper but did little to keep the wind off.
“Amazing,” Eve breathed. Gemini could hardly hear her over the rumbling of their conveyor platform. “So big and full of machinery, but nothing going on.”
“Oh, plenty’s going on,” Gemini corrected her. “Just not right here, right now. Sooner or later a shipment of steel ingots will show up or a hopper full of fiber-quality glass pellets. Can’t say what gets built here, but when the time comes, it will roar to life.”
“You know a lot about this place,” Eve commented. “Were you planning a raid here or something?”
“Know thy enemy,” Gemini quoted. It was the first ready excuse that came to mind.
Eve chuckled. “Sounds like something Plato might say.”
Gemini fought to hide her scowl at the notion.
Natural light streamed down up ahead. As the conveyor crossed into the sunshine, the factory opened up to the sky. A quarter kilometer shaft stretched out as if to vacuum in the clouds above.
Transorbitals and suborbitals hummed in and out. Other conveyors threaded through the periphery of the shaft as Gemini and Eve zoomed through. Eve gaped and hung tight to the platform’s railing, taking it all in.
When the sunlight vanished, the factory closed in around them like quicksand. The machinery on all sides sped by in a dizzying blur compared to the majestic floating delivery ships.
“This place is amazing,” Eve muttered.
Distracted as she was, Eve never would have noticed if Gemini stuck her with a syringe full of sedative. At worst, Gemini would have to grab the girl as she went limp to avoid her falling off the platform.
Eve turned and fixed Gemini with a grin filled with wonder. Gemini’s thoughts of betraying the girl’s trust curdled in her mouth.
“I suppose it is,” Gemini allowed. Despite having toured the factory more times than she could recall and recently having been reborn in its catacombs, Gemini could see the allure. Eve’s smile was infectious.
“Ooh!” Eve squealed. Her finger shot out like a laser pointer. “There’s an interface!”
Gemini hit a brake, and the platform locked to the factory floor. Beneath, the conveyor continued to whip along, ready to whisk the platform away as soon as the brake released.
The two human invaders followed a tangle of catwalks to the glint of video screen that Eve had spotted. This part of the factory grumbled with mechanical toil in progress.
Gemini activated the terminal. “I want first crack at this one.”
Eve nodded and settled in to watch. It was disconcerting having an audience. More troubling was that when Eve offered to hold the EMP rifle, Gemini handed it over.
What was she thinking?
So long as Gemini kept their only viable weapon, Eve couldn’t escape. Worse, with Eve watching over her shoulder, Gemini couldn’t even subvert the plan by getting directions to the upgrade center and Charlie25’s district of the factory.
“You’re really good at this,” Eve remarked. “How often do you break into Kanto’s security network? You’ve clearly done this before.”
“Just intuition,” Gemini grumbled. Worried that Eve was paying too close attention, she flubbed a few searches and forced herself to backtrack.
Breathing a weary huff, Gemini wiped an arm across her brow. Sweat-slicked skin did little to clear the dripping forehead. Why was it so bloody warm? And why did Eve seem unbothered by the stifling air?
“You all right?” Eve asked, placing a hand on Gemini’s shoulder.
The tacky sensation of skin on sweat-soaked skin had Gemini shrugging away from the contact. “Leave me in peace.”
Layers of factory security peeled away. Charlie25 had left her access codes for getting back. Many of them had broader application for shutting down patrols and cameras elsewhere in the facility.
On the screen, a map of the factory lit with a highlighted blue path.
“You did it!” Eve said, giggling.
A tiny knot of warmth tied itself around Gemini’s heart. Was it the praise or the sound of Eve’s laughter?
“We should move,” Gemini said, holding out a hand for the weapon.
Without a hint of hesitation, Eve handed the EMP rifle back.
“I’ve memorized the route,” Eve reported, then took the lead.
Deeper and deeper they delved into the sub-levels of Kanto. Gemini followed all the way. With Eve in front of her, she kept catching glimpses of that soft, tender flesh at Eve’s neck, just above the collar of her false leather jacket.
Why, Gemini kept wondering, wasn’t there a syringe of sedative stuck into Eve’s neck?
Chapter Thirty-Six
Eve led Gemini through the maze of Kanto. There were trams and conveyors, catwalks, and corridors. They crept down maintenance tunnels and dashed across open factory floors. With a need to be several levels lower down to find Charlie13, the two girls found an automated lift and hopped a ride down.
Along the way, Eve rehearsed a speech in her head.
“…Hi, you probably recognize me from the news feeds…”
Production lines marched automaton torsos past the open lift shaft. Lurch, pause, lurch, pause. The pattern never ended, same as the rows of humanoid steel bodies that stretched out of sight.
“…I’ve come to plead with you on behalf of the dearly departed Charlie7, whom I believe you knew…”
The lift ended in an open steel floor, studded with raised bumps for traction. Wheeled vehicles roamed with automaton drivers at the controls. Long, articulated arms plucked robot torsos out of the line. Then the vehicles drove off to parts unknown.
None of them interfered with Eve and Gemini as they crossed.
“…I know this is highly irregular, but I was hoping that you could make an exception…”
Eve grabbed Gemini by the wrist and hauled her aboard a conveyor platform that took a shallow downward angle.
“…I think you owe it to—”
Eve shook her head. That was no good. Charlie13 would skin them alive if he thought Eve and Gemini were blackmailing him.
“…Would you please reconsider your stance on the activation of a new Charlie unit…”
“Jason!” a robotic voice called out. “How do those new Version 66.12 actuators look?”
Eve hit the brake and dove off the platform at the nearest walkable surface. Gemini crouched low and slunk along behind her as Eve crawled to the far side of a barrel-sized coolant pipe.
A second robotic voice hollered back. “Passed preliminaries. Sending the first piece samples to microcrystallography for final quality checks.
When her hand accidentally rested on the surface of the pipe, Eve winced and yanked it away. The pipe was colder than the penguin preserve she’d visited last month with her sisters.
“Why are there robots here?” Eve whispered. “You said the path was clear.”
“It was clear,” Gemini whispered back. “I can’t tell robots what to do; just the drones. Charlie13 draws them like flies. The closer we got, the more likely we were to stumble across his colleagues.”
This could spoil everything. One of these robotic workers would spot them; Gemini would shoot. It would be a disaster. “What do we do?”
“Jason90 is going off to microcrystallography; you just heard him say that. Brent35 won’t hang around one place forever. We wait for him to move on and just go.”
“How do you know their names?” Eve asked with a scowl. “Are you making them up?”
Gemini hesitated. “There aren’t that many robots who work here; it’s mostly automatons. We only ran into these two because we’re close to the hub of new robot production. And it wouldn’t kill you to start learning to identify robots by voice; it’s not symphony composition, you know.”
“Right,” Eve said. Gemini’s story wasn’t completely convincing.
Gemini was hiding something. Logical leaps and retroactive justification were signs of lying. Human ears couldn’t discern the subtleties of unique robotic voices, especially among robots they hadn’t met. Eve herself couldn’t tell Nora109 from the Nora65 who’d given the Eves a demonstration on handling baby animals. And the robots all marveled at Eve’s hearing.
Eve struggled for a reason behind Gemini’s lie. Only mental disturbance would lead to unprompted falsehoods. All other lies held motive. But Eve could think of only one explanation.
Gemini must have planned an attack on Kanto at some point and learned the names of all the workers.
That was the only logical conclusion. Gemini had grown accustomed to concealing her plans and had conditioned herself to cover her violent activities in a blanket of plausible lies.
Eve’s skepticism faded like the fog on a sunny morning.
Still, the advice on learning names was sound.
Eve resumed planning her pitch to Charlie13 while they waited for Brent35 to leave.
“…Help me, Charlie13. You’re my only hope of fulfilling Charlie7’s last request…”
No. Too manipu
lative. It also sounded too close to one of Plato’s old movies.
Eve should just be honest.
“…Charlie13, I want your help in a convoluted plan based on extrapolated supposition and optimism…”
A little too honest, perhaps.
Maybe psychology would work.
“…Charlie13, aren’t you the least bit curious what would happen if you went ahead and uploaded a new Charlie7 mix?”
Gemini tugged at the sleeve of Eve’s jacket. “He’s gone. Quit daydreaming.”
Eve blinked a few times and led the way.
The path lay before her so clearly. It was as if she and Gemini were tiny figures on the screen, way back at the terminal. Everything appeared just as it had in the model.
This level of the factory was laid out as an industrial office park. Small mechanical laboratories and specialized inspection equipment lay beyond a series of open doorways into smaller rooms.
All along the latter portion of the path, cameras on actuated arms hung limp. Power indicators that should have glowed ominous red were black as the new moon. Automatons stood motionless, some paused mid task.
Eve slowed the first time they encountered one, but Gemini gave her a shove from behind. “Nothing to worry about,” the clone of Plato assured her.
Their journey brought them to a lone closed door at the end of a corridor.
Quickening breath was making Eve lightheaded. Her hand shook as she raised her finger to the door alarm.
“Go on,” Gemini chided. “No time for cold feet now.”
It wasn’t Eve’s feet that were cold. A deep freeze spread up her legs and along her spine. Before it could reach her fingertips, Eve squeezed her eyes shut and punched the button.
“Oh, just enter,” an irritated voice snarled from beyond.
The door slid open.
In the office beyond, one entire wall was plastered with computer screens. Eve couldn’t begin to assimilate all the data being presented. Here or there a diagram would pop up, displaying robotic components. Other than that, it was mostly numbers that flashed by too quickly to take in.