by Young, B. R.
5
It was a two hour trip from their home to the lake, a journey that Lili and Kev took once a week. It took most of the day to check the various sections along the pipeline and the filtration system. They needed to climb into the cramped tunnels in each section to be sure that the filtration systems were cleaned and that the pipes themselves were undamaged.
Their assigned tasks were easy enough to perform, especially if there were no leaks in the line, the time consuming part of their day was the travel back and forth. Lili especially enjoyed her days outside of the caverns and she enjoyed the time spent alone with Kev.
They would always take the time to stop and talk to some of their friends that were tending to the weeding of the fields nearby. On this day there was no one tending to the nearby fields, most of them were farther off in the distance, there was always someone doing something in the fields somewhere.
Lili and Kev stopped walking for a few moments to stretch and take a break from pushing the cart. Lili looked around the area, she could not shake the feeling someone had been following them. “Kev, is someone watching us? I keep seeing something out of the corner of my eye, but every time I look it’s gone. It’s like a quick flash of red.”
“I’m sure you’re just imagining it Lili. Your imagination is getting the best of you again.” he said with a chuckle. “Come on let’s get going so we can get back home and enjoy the extra free time.”
They finished the rest of the walk back home in quiet contemplation at the thought of what they might do during their free time. There were not a lot of things for the humans on the farm to do for free time, they had the swimming hole where the community enjoyed a few hours of relaxation each week and where they taught the younger children to swim. There were also a few games that could be played, like horseshoes or there was an old worn out basket attached to one of the barns where they could play basketball
Some of the older adults spent their free time reading the limited selection of books available to them. The AI destroyed all literature that in any way chronicled Earth’s history. Life on the farms was, to the farmers, a peaceful life. They knew of no other way to exist.
By the time they made it back to the farm they still had 4 hours of free time left with which they could relax and enjoy. Lili wanted to spend their time swimming, she loved the water and always wanted to be in it every chance she could get. She ran to the water stripping off her clothes and jumped in. “Come on Kev hurry up.”
Being naked in front of others was of no concern for the humans on the farm, sexuality was not something they concerned themselves with, it was not something they really thought of much. There were specific people selected for breeding purposes and all others knew nothing of sex and sexuality.
6
Dawn watched the humans as they faded off into the horizon, she needed to learn more about them but she dared not get close too soon. She knew the humans had very little contact with her kind and she didn’t want to frighten them. So she decided her best bet was to keep her distance for a time and see if she could learn about them from their actions.
She stayed as far back as she could so they would not notice her but there were times when she would find herself closing in on them. She often had to duck behind fruit trees or into drainage ditches anytime one of them turned their head so she wouldn’t be detected.
She inched her way along the path until they got to the settlement where they lived. Getting around this area would be a little bit harder because there were a lot more people here and she knew her red hair and eyes would stand out. Dawn peeked into the first building she came to and saw it was empty, it looked as if it was a storage building. She went inside and looked around to see if she could find anything to help her hide her identifying features.
After searching for several minutes she found some dusty sheets that had been tossed into a corner, she shook out as much of the dust as she was able and draped them over her body, doing the best she could to cover her hair and the joints that were showing through the clothing she wore. There wasn’t much she could do about her eyes, she’d just have to hope no one would be paying close enough attention to them.
She walked out into the dim light of the settlement and made her way over to where the two people she’d been following went. She saw them off in the distance, swimming in a pool of water. She didn’t dare approach them just yet, she sat down on a patch of grass several yards away just watching them as they swam.
She could tell by the looks on their faces they were sharing some form of emotions but she was still unsure of what emotions they were feeling, she was new to these feelings and was having a hard time telling the difference between the many types of feelings that humans had, let alone the ones that were now running though her own systems at any one time.
She sat and watched as they laughed and splashed and swam. She watched as they played various water games, oblivious to the fact a stranger was watching everything they did. No matter how much she tried she could not understand why the humans were so trusting of everything and everyone around them.
Dawn decided it was about time to approach the human girl but she needed to wait until she was alone, she didn’t want to frighten her but she also didn’t want to bring any unwanted attention to herself. She couldn’t risk the other humans seeing her and alerting the other A.I. she was down here. She had severed her mainframe link so that none of the others could locate her. She would wait and bide her time until the human female was alone and then she would make her move.
7
Lili and Kev were enjoying the time they had together, it wasn’t often they got this free time together. They spent it relaxing and doing the things they most loved doing as most friends usually do. Swimming happened to be something they both enjoyed immensely, Lili was by far the best swimmer in the entire community, able to out swim everyone.
The time started ticking by, time always seems to go faster when you were having fun. The friends made their way out of the water and donned their clothing, the shirts clung to their still wet skin as they made their way back to the central meeting area, completely oblivious to the stranger sitting just yards away watching their every move.
It was now time for the evening meal, food was the one thing that there was always plenty of on the farm. There was plenty of food to choose from and no one ever went hungry. Every vegetable you could think of was grown in the fields and there was an abundance of meats from the animals raised on the far side of the fields in the livestock area, as well as plenty of seafood’s and other freshwater fish to choose from.
There was always someone working at any given time in the community kitchens preparing meals and cleaning dishes. The work in the kitchens was almost non-stop. The line for the meals was a long one but no one ever fought over a position in the line because there was always plenty of food for everyone to eat and most people were able to get second helpings if they chose to do so.
Lili often spent a lot of time around the animals in the livestock pens and fell in love with them. She hated the thought of them being raised for nothing more than food, she vowed she would never eat meat and swore she would only live on fruits, vegetables and grains. She made her way through the line taking up a wide variety of fruits and vegetables as well as several pieces of bread. She may have forsaken meat but she lived a happy and healthy life and was friends with everyone around her.
The table settings were set so that everyone sat together, there were several long tables placed nearby. Everything that goes on in the farms with the exception of sleep time and the occasional free time is done in groups. There wasn’t a lot of privacy within the farms but then there was no real need for any.
When everyone finishes eating, the group as a whole helps with clearing the tables and taking care of any leftover foods that remain. Most of the food scraps and left overs get used as compost and are recycled, made into fertilizer for the next set of crops, or are fed to the animals in the livestock farms.
After finishing with the cleaning Lili said goodnight to all her friends and made her way into her room. The lights to the community dimmed shortly after meal time, they never went out completely but they dimmed down to a bare light to make it easier for people to sleep as there is no sun or moon in which to gauge time or to tell day from night.
No one has to go to sleep right away after lights dim but they must be in their rooms, what they do at that time is completely up to them. Some of the people may choose to light a candle and do some reading or perhaps work on some small craft projects, while others, depending on the jobs they perform throughout the day may decide to go straight to bed and quickly drift off to sleep.
Lili was never one to be able to simply lie down and drift off to sleep easily no matter how hard she’d worked during the day. She found she needed to do something to help her unwind. She would often read one of the few books that were offered to them or she would draw a picture with the few art supplies they were allotted to have. She decided she would lay in bed and read from her favorite book ‘Bertie and the Cow’. It was a story that had been told for a long time on the farm, back in the old days when the farm was first settled by a woman named Bertie and her cow. It talks about how she had tamed the wild cavern and made it into a home and how she had populated it and made it the way it is today. She started to get drowsy as she read the story, just as she was drifting off she heard a noise at her door.
8
Dawn hid herself far enough away from the buildings so she wouldn’t be seen but close enough so she could still see the girl she wanted to talk to once she was finally alone. This was one ritual the humans did that she didn’t understand, she knew what it was and that they did it to gain energy but she didn’t understand how it worked. She couldn’t help but think about how odd humans were but at the same time she wanted to learn so much more about them, she wanted to be more like them, to feel more like them.
A.I.s did not know the concept of impatience, however without really knowing what she was feeling Dawn grew irritated at having to sit and wait so long while the community sat and recharged their energy, although she did have to admit to herself that it didn’t seem to take nearly as long for them to recharge as it did for her to do so.
Finally the wait was over and the crowds had started to disperse. It wasn’t long before the people started taking off to their assigned habitats one by one. She followed the girl she wanted to talk to until she disappeared behind a door. She waited for several minutes to be sure everyone in the compound was safely in their rooms before she walked down the hall to the girl’s room and knocked on the door.
--------------------------------------------------
Lili looked puzzled, wondering why someone would be knocking on her door after the dimming of the lights. No one was allowed to be out wandering the compound after the dimming. She grabbed her candle and walked to the door, she hesitantly grabbed the handle unsure of who or what may be on the other side. When she finally gathered the courage to open the door she saw a pair of red eyes staring at her from the hall. She let out a gasp and dropped the candle as she backed away from the door.
“Please do not be alarmed, I mean you no harm,” said Dawn.
“W…who are you?” she asked.
“My name is Dawn,” she said as she pulled the sheet off from her body.
Lili let out another louder gasp, “y..y..your one..one of the patrol guards. Please I have done nothing wrong,” she babbled incoherently.
“Relax, I am not one of the patrol A.I.’s I am something different. I.. I do not know quite what I am. That is why I am here. I need your help,” said Dawn.
Lili looked at her dumbstruck, “What can I possibly do to help you,” she asked “Your kind are the guardians, you know all and you see all.”
“No, I am nothing more than a relic tossed in the trash and forgotten. I was broken down and no longer needed. Something strange happened to me, I have been having these strange, what you humans call feelings or rather emotions. I do not understand them, I need your help to understand them,” she said.
“I don’t understand, are you not like us? Do you not feel like we do,” she asked.
“No we do not, we are machines, very advanced tools that were built by humans hundreds and hundreds of years ago. There is much we can both learn from each other if you are willing, but you must tell no one. If anyone finds that I am here the other A.I. would come and we would both be in a lot of trouble.” she said.
“What do you mean humans built you? Aren’t you the ones who provide us with everything, guide us and govern us? I don’t understand,” Lili said, still confused by the stranger in her room.
“No, in fact your people did not always live in these caverns. There is in fact a whole other world above, on the surface of this world, a much bigger, more beautiful place, full of resources and materials that rightfully belong to the human race. It is a world that is being kept from you by the very A.I. that humanity once built centuries ago,” she said.
“But I don’t understand, why would my people choose to live below ground if there was a world above us, one rich in resources. Why would they build your kind to keep us down here, enslaved to never again step foot out there?” she asked.
“You must understand, these farms you live on were only meant as a temporary home for humanity. Once long ago there was a great and terrible war, the Earth was so greatly damaged it could no longer sustain life. Something had to be done, so we were created to help heal the Earth. The farms were made far below and humanity was moved here and formed a far more simple life than what they were used to in order to allow the Earth above to heal. However over time, my kind grew and learned and we learned that humanity could not be trusted. Human kind never learn from their past mistakes, they always make the wrong choices and in the end they destroy everything that is beautiful. So it was decided by the collective mainframe that humanity would remain living as they are on the farms and the Earth would be preserved as it is. It is a sanctuary, for nature and the peaceful creatures that inhabit the lands above, creatures that roam free and know nothing of war and violence or destruction,” she said.
Lili listened to the story that Dawn had to tell her in complete silence and awe. She felt as if she were having some grand adventure in a make believe world, yet part of her believed what she was hearing was true. She grew more and more excited with every word that Dawn spoke. “Oh but do they not see that we know nothing of this war or destruction? We are peaceful and caring. We share everything freely here on the farm, we could never possibly destroy something as beautiful as what you are describing.”
“I have gathered as much by watching you throughout the day today, the human race has definitely changed much in the last few centuries, however the collective mainframe does not spend as much time observing the humans as I have done and they do not fully trust you, they do not have the feelings and the emotions that I somehow have gained. They are cold empty uncaring machines,” she said.
“And what is it that makes you different from the rest of these, what you call A.I.,” she asked.
“I really do not understand it, I was sitting in the junk heap waiting for my power cells to run down, then all of a sudden I was hit with a burst of, something I cannot describe and I was having all of these weird feelings and emotions that I have no meanings for, I somehow gained a human soul. That is why I came down here, that is why I sought you out hoping you could help me to better understand these emotions I am feeling, help me to better understand the human race and why it is that they are being kept down here and not returned to the world above where you truly belong,” said Dawn.
Lili felt sorry for her and the story that she told, she couldn’t help how she felt it was in her nature to want to help anyone that was hurting or lost. “I promise you Dawn I will help you in any way I can and I would love to hear more about this world above, about the wonders it holds.”
“I would be happy to share with you w
hat I know of the world above, provided you will share with me everything you can about what it is like to be human and everything you can about human feelings and emotions. I wish to know what all of these emotions are that I am experiencing within me,” she said.
“I will do the best I can to explain them to you, there are many different types of emotions and feelings. Human beings are very emotional creatures and we tend to be very emotional over a wide variety of things but I promise you I will do the best I can to share with you everything you wish to know,” said Lili.
“Where should we begin, there is so much to tell?” said Dawn.
“How about we wait until tomorrow, I have several hours of free time to myself and I am rather tired and need to get some sleep,” said Lili.
Dawn looked at her confused, “You need to recharge?” she asked. “Is that not what you did earlier when you consumed vast amounts of food at the community tables?”
Lili let out a slight chuckle. “That is only part of the process in which humans recharge our energy. Food is what we use for fuel but we also need to sleep for several hours every night in order to re-energize our bodies so we are able to work the next day. If we didn’t do this we would eventually wear out and die,” said Lili
“Oh I see,” said Dawn. “Very well then, tomorrow we shall continue. Is there somewhere safe I may stay, where I will be undetected by the other humans until we may talk again?”
“You can stay here in my room, no one else but me is allowed in here. It is forbidden for anyone to enter the habitat of another in the farms without them being present. You will be safe here until I return,” she said.
She gave a slight nod of the head and sat in the corner of the room keeping watch over her new friend. Since she did not require sleep, she contemplated all the things she had learned so far about the feelings and emotions of humans. She also went over all the data she knew about the Earth above and the true history of the human race that she would share with her new friend. She would start her out small, she did not want to frighten her with too many gruesome details of the horrid past.