Engines of Empire

by Max Carver

  “With your clearance, you must lose your interplanetary security internship,” Simon said. “Which will preclude you graduating in the top echelon from the Political Academy. Your parents will be quite disappointed.”

  Audrey thought of how she'd worried about getting the position so she could have a chance to prove herself to her father and the rest of her family. How nervous she'd been, preparing to give her talk about Veritum, foolishly believing the leaders of Carthage were interested in how to apply their power toward helping those in need, if only she could persuade them.

  “I'll think about my graduation rank while Kelleyen's death repeats in my head, over and over,” Audrey said. “I'll get real upset about my graduation rank, I'm sure.”

  “So you do remember the events at your apartment,” Simon said.

  “The ones you've just played the recording of in front of me? Yeah, those.” She crossed her arms, trying not to act spooked as the garden-bot snipped and trimmed its way along a low hedge. “I'll walk you out.”

  “That's not necessary.”

  “It's the polite thing.”

  Audrey walked him to the reception hall at the front entrance to the apartment. Two of her new, flesh-and-blood security guards stood watch, wearing armored suits with visored helmets. They didn't look quite as clean-cut as the security androids to which she was accustomed, but they'd seemed nice enough when she'd introduced herself to them. She was trying to memorize their names: Trevorian and Parello. She was pretty sure. Nin usually kept track of such things for her, but Audrey was making an effort to connect more with the humans in her life and rely less on the machines.

  “There will likely be further consequences,” Simon said as he walked the last few steps alone to the inner security door. One of the new guards stepped forward as the inner door opened.

  “Good,” Audrey said. “It's about time I started doing something of consequence.”

  Simon said nothing more as he turned and walked out, escorted by one of her security guards, who would walk him through the outer door and down to the elevator bank before returning.

  It was strange how distant she felt from Simon Quick, and how hollow and stupid her former feelings for him now seemed.

  “When Parello gets back, double check that all the entrances and security doors are sealed tight,” Audrey said to the remaining guard. “Don't let anyone in, not even a delivery bot. Not any kind of bot.”

  “Yes, ma'am.”

  “Thanks, Trevorian.”

  She walked to her family's library, which had always been one of her favorite rooms. There were projectors and keyboards there; she could use them to access her schoolwork. Or maybe learn what there was to know about The Change, and their psychotic mutant spinoff, the Blood Clowns.

  * * *

  “We've been dealing with your problems all day!” Audrey's mother, Liastrada Bontherias Venable Caracala, was pacing up and down beside the dinner table, as she often did when there were no guests. Her metabolism was medically cranked up in line with her youthful appearance to keep her thin and energetic, but this also kept her anxious and nervous. Liastrada pouted with her full lips and generally looked like a teenager who'd been forbidden to attend her best friend's birthday party.

  Liastrada's personal assistant, Pim, echoed the late-teenage look. She was attractive, with a unique, customized face, not factory standard at all, meant to look just a few shades less attractive than her owner.

  “Didn't you watch the news at all today?” Audrey's mother continued. “It was a lead story. Assassination attempt on the prime legislator's daughter! If that music star hadn't finally had her baby and revealed the true father, it would have been the only story on anyone's mind.”

  “Oh, Sayatina had her baby? Who was the father?” Audrey asked.

  “Some soccer star. Who cares?”

  “Peter Giussepe, then? I really should have watched the news.”

  “Dinner! Vegetable soup, your favorite from ages eight to eleven, Audrey.” The pleasantly plump chef-bot, Happy Helga, emerged from the kitchen and set out dishes of soup and bread. The china was made from the bones of the Bremese goliath, a massive mammoth-like creature found on a remote, icy outer world. It was the usual place setting for this smallest, most intimate of the family's three dining rooms, which also featured a huge stone hearth at one end.

  “Thank you, Helga,” Audrey said automatically, as she always had.

  “Such a sweet girl. From such a lovely family.” Happy Helga beamed at Audrey, then hummed cheerfully to herself as she returned to the kitchen, where she had access to a variety of knives and other sharp cutting instruments. Another childhood companion turned into a potential murderer, just waiting to be hacked. Helga would have to be removed from the apartment or given a hard shutdown with her power cell removed, if Audrey had anything to say about it.

  “I hear you won't tell Simon about the girl who took you or where you went,” Liastrada said.

  “It's amnesia or something,” Audrey said.

  “And you're losing your internship over it?” Her mother stopped pacing and held out her glass. Pim scurried over, the android's diamond collar glittering in the glow of the chandelier, and filled her master's glass with red wine. “Your father's going to be upset.”

  “Perhaps he'll have his assistant send a strongly worded message to my assistant,” Audrey said.

  “Don't be a sullen child,” Liastrada said, her faux-teenage mouth pouting. “How are we going to put these pieces back together? What are you hiding from Simon Quick? You can tell me, honey. We're all alone here.”

  Audrey glanced at Pim, who turned and carried the empty wine bottle to the kitchen.

  “They can watch us,” Audrey said. “Through our machines.”

  “Who?” Liastrada finally sat down, though at one of the unused place settings, nowhere near her soup at the head of the table. “Who do you think is watching you, honey?”

  “Hackers, for one. If they can take over a squad of Steves, what else can they do? Military machines? Or Helga?”

  “Helga?” She laughed. “Who would want to take control of Helga?”

  “Anyone who might want to murder us in our sleep. Which some people would love to do as a political statement against Father. These hackers, they have new abilities. They're a threat to our whole way of life. For now, it's best to get rid of all the machines that are physically able to hurt us.”

  “Oh, I know you've been through a lot.” Her mother did her signature pout again while briefly rubbing Audrey's arm in an attempt at showing sympathy. “I'm sure you see threats everywhere now. But things will get better. Life will return to normal. It always does.”

  “Really? You don't feel like things are going to change?”

  “What things? Change how? Audrey, you're babbling.” Her mother was so concerned that her forehead nearly creased. “We need to call Doctor Dave and get you checked out—”

  “I don't need a Doctor Dave. I've already seen a medical bot.”

  “At the Refurbishment Clinic,” her mother said. “I saw the charge on your spending account. Couldn't miss it. Audrey, our family members can't be seen in a place like that. It's for rapid detox.”

  “I told Nin to find someplace discreet. What else could I do?”

  “I just hope no one got images of you there, in disarray.”

  “Yeah, that's the worst possible outcome of this situation,” Audrey said. “I also had mild head injuries. And more recently, this cut on my face.”

  “Yes, I know. Pim prepared me for that,” her mother said. “It can be fixed in time. And sprayed over for now.

  “Hey, that could be our family motto,” Audrey said. “We could put it on a coat of arms: 'Fix it later, paint over it for now.'”

  “You probably think you're funny.”

  “Good thing being a comedian is a common path to a political career. I'd rather be that than a professional athlete or a wacky game show host.”

  “Five years
at Political Academy so you can become a clown,” her mother snorted, while Pim arrived with a new bottle of wine.

  “Says the woman with a clockwork wig full of birds.”

  “So you did see the news today. How did we look?” her mother asked.

  “Solemn and concerned. It was a pretty decent imitation.”

  “You are feisty today. I could get used to this, you know. You were always such a cringing, obedient wallflower.”

  “That's just the wine talking, Mother. You want me cringing and obedient.”

  “It's true. You're so much easier that way. Eat your soup.”

  Audrey looked down at it. The savory stew had indeed been one of her favorites when growing up, full of tangy mushrooms and slivered carrots. Her mouth watered, but she couldn't bring herself to eat it. Prepared by a machine. Poison was another way they could get you; the kitchen probably offered a number of deadly chemicals right there in the cleaning cabinet. Just an extra string of code to poison them and kill them all.

  “We have to get the androids out of here,” Audrey said. “And the garden-bot. Anything that could attack us.”

  “You really are scared,” Liastrada said. “I am so sorry. I will have more security guys around here for you. Live ones. I don't think you can really trust men more than machines, but whatever makes you feel calm.”

  “Thanks. We can't even trust our personal assistants anymore.”

  “That is so rude to say in front of Pim,” Liastrada said. “Apologize, Audrey.”

  “To your machine? She doesn't care.”

  “How do you know how she feels?”

  “She doesn't feel.”

  “She's my best friend, Audrey!”

  “It's all right,” Pim said. “I understand Audrey has been through a rough time. Feel free to use me as an emotional punching bag if you need to, Audrey. I can take it.”

  “You're so sweet to her,” Liastrada said to Pim, her voice slurred. “You always have been. You and that... Nin.”

  “We can't trust Nin, either,” Audrey said. “They can all be turned against us. The world is changing, Mother.”

  “I haven't turned against you.” The small voice sounded hurt, almost pleading, behind Audrey's back.

  Nin entered the dining room, dressed in drab gray repair-shop clothing. She looked intact, her lost hand restored, but she had an unusually subdued manner.

  “Nin,” Audrey said, wishing she didn't feel so much emotion at the sight of the android. Nin was her constant companion, though. What could life ever be like without Nin? “You look... better.”

  “Were you hurt?” Nin walked close, peering at Audrey's scratched face. “I've been worried about you. Where did you go? What happened to you? Did that girl with the laser pistol harm you?”

  “No, the mystery girl saved me, then dropped me off near police headquarters,” Audrey said. “That's all I know for sure, and mainly because there's video of it. My memory gets pretty blurry after that car crash. And popping that Smiley at the party.”

  “Oh, good, she's back,” Audrey's mother said, her voice slurred as she noted Nin's arrival. “Now Nin can take care of you. Thank goodness, I'm exhausted.”

  “It's been an exhausting few minutes.” Audrey stood and started toward the atrium, where the elevator would take her up past the treetops to floor 161, where her and her siblings' old childhood bedrooms were located. This was just below the master suite level, where her parents had their private rooms. “I'm going to turn in early. See everyone in the morning.”

  “Do you have to go so soon?” her mother asked. “Pim and I are going to review the week's new wigs. Rainbow stripes and illuminated stars are expected to be the thing this week. You should get a nice wig for yourself, honey. And a new dress, new shoes... you'll feel better before you know it.”

  “Thanks for the wisdom, Mother. I needed it.”

  “I'll buy a wig for you,” her mother replied. “It'll make you look pretty. Less drab. More like your sister... ”

  Audrey left the dining room and walked under the arching, flower-heavy limbs of the tree grove toward the glass tube in one corner, which extended up and away through the vaulted sky-blue ceiling like a fairy-tale beanstalk.

  Nin followed her into the clear capsule. It was the apartment's interior convenience elevator, connecting just the twelve floors owned by her family. They rode up past the games and media floor, which featured amphitheater seating around a sizable empty projection space for movies and concerts, then past the ballroom floor where fancy dress affairs and masquerades were sometimes held.

  “You seem angry with me,” Nin said. “I understand. I failed to protect you.”

  Audrey didn't say anything. She resisted the urge to try to soothe the android's simulated feelings. Not real, she reminded herself. It was going to take some time for her to start really believing that.

  Finally, they reached the children's level. The elevator lounge here was a playroom, its chests and closets overflowing with toys and costumes, the bookshelves crammed with colorful animated books that nobody had touched in at least a decade. There was a climbing area with ladders, slides, and a preserved-wood tree fort with a rope bridge and a zip line that dropped off into a padded ball pit.

  It looked like an amazing place to play, but Audrey had very few memories of doing so. Her older siblings had been more interested in video games and talking with their friends. She and Salvius had played here a few times, when they were very small, accompanied by their personal-care androids, Nin and Kip.

  “Whatever happened to Kip?” Audrey asked as they left the elevator. “Salvius's bot?”

  “Kip is in the maintenance closet on this level.”

  “Really?” Audrey walked down the boys' hallway and opened the maintenance closet door. The long, narrow room beyond contained charging and repair stations for each of the siblings' five personal androids.

  Kip stood at the end of the room, tanned and muscular, his charming, infectious smile frozen on his lips. He'd been designed as the perfect big brother, always willing to spend time with Salvius that the youngest boy's siblings and parents never seemed to have, whether that was throwing a ball or helping with homework or listening to Salvius's childhood hopes and fears.

  “We were all raised by machines.” Audrey approached Kip, who didn't budge at all. Small hatches had been left open in his upper back and in the back of his head. His shirt had been removed and draped over his arm like a towel over a rack. The hand on that arm was locked into Kip's characteristic thumbs-up gesture.

  “And it was our pleasure to care for you,” Nin said. “Taking care of your needs fulfills my purpose.”

  “You took such close care of me that I didn't even learn to tie my shoes until I was twelve,” Audrey said.

  “That's the average age for a child on Carthage,” Nin said.

  “Yeah, but... ” Audrey shook her head. “It's almost like we're not living our lives. Not like people used to. We turned so much of ourselves over to machines like you, and what's left for us? Sitting around, consuming entertainment? It's like people can barely stand to deal with each other anymore. Why deal with the difficulty and unpredictability of real people when you can have a fake friend that always agrees with you, always does what you want, always showers you with compliments and praise no matter what you actually accomplish or don't accomplish? You just stroke our narcissism so much better than real people ever could.”

  “Do you... wish me to be less complimentary?” Nin asked.

  “That's not the point.” Audrey looked into the empty exposed compartments in Kip's head and back. “Looks like some stuff got removed. What's missing here?”

  Nin took a look. “CPU, memory drives, and power cell.”

  “Who took them out? Salvius?”

  “I do not know.”

  “It's like Salvius wanted to erase his own childhood memories,” Audrey said. “Or keep anyone else from accessing them.”

  “But Kip's memories could sti
ll exist as a backup on the Carthage Consolidated cloud servers.”

  “At least Kip wouldn't be picking up any new information about Salvius.” Audrey thought for a moment. “So all your memories are backed up to the cloud, too?”

  “Of course,” Nin said. “In case of damage to my memory drive or in the event that you upgrade to a new assistant, all your user preferences and access codes are stored in one convenient place for download.”

  “And who can access that cloud storage?”

  “It is fully encrypted.”

  “Can people at Carthage Consolidated access it? Or what about the Simon units?”

  “Carthage Consolidated keeps your data private in line with all applicable laws and regulations, as determined by the Carthaginian World Legislature.”

  “Wow, you sure turn into a legal disclaimer fast when I ask about your manufacturer,” Audrey said.

  “I am sorry, Audrey. I don't mean to sound so impersonal—”

  “But that's how you should sound. It's not like you're a real person. Why bother pretending?” Audrey turned out the maintenance closet light and returned to the hall.

  “Providing comfort and companionship is my function.” Nin followed Audrey across the huge playroom to the girls' hallway on the opposite side. Audrey and Briellana each had their own bedroom, bathroom, sitting room, and walk-in closet, which had minimized their youthful conflicts but also their contact with each other while growing up. “Failure to fulfill my function is unsatisfying.”

  “Sorry to hear that.” Audrey stepped into her room. She'd last lived here when she was eighteen and had only been back occasionally, a fact reflected in the décor that appeared on her digital walls when the lights turned on. “Okay, let's get rid of the Black Sorrows, first off.” She gestured to the pale, leather-clad boy band who dominated one wall, some of the band members actively pointing at her and winking or blowing kisses, as if they were live people on display behind glass. Live people with a serious crush on whichever girl had posted them on her wall.

  They vanished in an eyeblink, leaving the default wallpaper behind, which looked like a gloomy moonlit night among ancient ruins.