Beatless: Volume 2

by Satoshi Hase

  As Yuka read him the contact information for Erika, Arato realized that he could have just asked Lacia for it. He felt some hesitation asking a wounded person for help but, since she was an hIE, it probably wouldn’t have been any trouble at all.

  Arato looked down at Lacia, still laying on her side with a pained expression on her face. When his call connected to Erika a video channel opened, instead of the usual voice call.

  〈Good evening,〉 Erika greeted him. 〈Has something happened with Lacia? She appears to have lost control of the economy, and everything is quite a mess.〉

  She was dressed in a nightgown, gazing at him through the connection with a mischievous smile on her lips. Apparently, Erika and Mariage had their own video transmission resources, separate from those opened by Lacia.

  “We need your help,” Arato said. “You know what Lacia’s dealing with on the outside, right? Please do something to take some of the heat off of her out there.” There were few things Arato could do without relying on Lacia. One of those few things was reach out his hand to ask for help.

  〈And you were under the impression I was going to help you?〉 Erika asked.

  “You have to help me,” Arato replied. He didn’t know what would happen, but he had to say it.

  〈If things are rough, why not just quit? There’s no reason for you to be there,〉 Erika said. She seemed to be enjoying herself.

  But Arato wasn’t about to give up. He knew that his fight and Erika’s were connected. “We humans have to be involved in Lacia’s fight,” he said. “All the way to the end. You were the one who wanted to drag the fight between the Lacia-units out into the public eye, so you must feel the same way on some level.”

  〈So you’re saying I owe you something, since you did what I wanted you to?〉 Erika asked, her eyes shooting him a challenge.

  “Humans have to be the ones who give the final answer,” Arato said. He wasn’t great at negotiating, but he knew that much. “If you want humans to have the last say, you have to see this through to the end. Weren’t you willing to risk your life, when you kicked this whole thing off?”

  〈I think you’ve gotten the wrong idea about me. I actually quite like the thought of watching the end from a safe distance,〉 Erika replied.

  Arato couldn’t help comparing their situations: she was in a clean, beautiful nightgown while he was far under the Earth, with his horribly burned arm anesthetized to numb the pain. At that moment, he realized she was probably the Lacia-class owner who had wound up in the best position. But she was also the one who had invited all the other Lacia-class owners to the Burroughs mansion.

  “I think you’re the most invested of all of us,” Arato said. “You knew Methode could easily kill you, no matter how strong Mariage is, but you revealed your identity as a Lacia-class owner to her anyway. One little slip-up, and you’d be dead.”

  When he looked back on it then, Arato realized just how odd the party at the Burroughs estate had been. Having experienced Methode’s power first-hand, he was still terrified of her, even knowing that she had been permanently shut down.

  Each of the Lacia-class units was based off of the unit that had come before it. So, as the owner of Type-003, Mariage, Erika would have been well aware of Methode’s power as Type-004. As the manager of a company that couldn’t just pick up and run, Arato found it hard to believe that the threat of assassination by Methode wouldn’t have loomed so large as to make it impossible to focus on her daily life.

  〈Yes, but that gamble has already paid off, for me,〉 Erika replied. 〈The little flame of conflict between the Lacia-class units has caught up all of the ultra high-performance AIs of the world, and is now a raging fire of a global scale. You’ve all gotten used to such disgusting things in this era. But, soon, humans will go back to the cheap, proper version of our nature.〉 Erika’s face, through the video, seemed to have shaken off any remaining gloom. She seemed exhilarated and relaxed.

  Lacia had always protected Arato and, at that moment, he was desperate to protect her. “Things aren’t over for you,” he insisted.

  It was hard not to expand your own horizons when you got an omnipotent tool in your hands. Yet, it seemed that only Erika had not deviated from her course when she got her red box. 〈What do you think you know about me?〉 she asked, taking a cup of tea Mariage had brought her.

  She was as calm as ever. To Arato it seemed that, even though she had awoken in the 22nd century and had her dreams fulfilled, she had woken up too soon.

  He was sure she had only held that party—where a fight between Methode and Mariage could have easily wrecked her house—because she had needed to do so to find her place in this era. But, even though Erika had won everything she’d wanted, he still felt like she was acting as an outside observer, watching the world from a distance.

  “I bet the reason you want to cheapen human nature, or whatever, is that you don’t like how people think about you, right? Slapping you with a nickname and turning you into a character. But I don’t think you’ll be satisfied with just rolling back human nature. I don’t think you’ll be able to ignore the suffering of people around you while only you have it easy,” Arato challenged. The way he saw it, even after what she won through the Hazard happening right then, she still hadn’t found her place in the world.

  〈You think I won’t be satisfied just watching human nature run its course and rot away?〉 she shot back.

  “You’ve only been watching humans, from the start,” Arato said.

  At the party, Erika had been the only one without her Lacia-class seated at the table by her side. Arato figured the reason she hadn’t been twisted by the power Mariage’s Gold Weaver gave her to create gold, or the mystery of its creative powers, was that she hadn’t had the least interest in them right from the start.

  〈I suppose. You don’t use it anymore these days, but there’s a term—meme—that’s like a gene, but for information rather than life. The only memes left from the 21st century are the ones I’ve brought with me. So, you could say I’m a little sick of everyone trying to insist that all your 22nd century memes are the ‘right’ ones.〉

  As they spoke, Arato began to understand what it was he wanted from her. He didn’t want her to save them; he just wanted her to fight by their side, even if it was only for a little while.

  “If that’s the case, then I doubt you’ll feel better just by messing up all this era’s memes,” Arato said. “You’ve got all those hIEs in that house, but they’re just dolls to you, even Mariage. None of them are a replacement for other humans, to you.”

  〈Didn’t you want my help? Are you sure this is the way you want to ask for it?〉

  “I’m not just calling you to ask for help. There’s got to be something more out there you want,” Arato pressed.

  〈There isn’t,〉 Erika insisted. 〈Why are you talking as if you’re trying to guess what I’m thinking? Or is your doll helping to give you some insight into that?〉

  “Just from being with Lacia, I’ve learned some things about how all her sisters think,” Arato explained. “Hasn’t Mariage tried to push you at all? Maybe asked you why you aren’t getting involved?”

  Erika twisted her lips disdainfully at his question. 〈Mariage feels that she must fight, but is completely incapable of coming up with strategies on her own. Thus, she is forced to rely on me. I think it is less a matter of pushing me to get involved, and more that she simply doesn’t want to be discarded as being useless, perhaps?〉

  Thanks to Lacia, Arato understood. Erika was feeling the heart she shared with Mariage. Even though neither of them probably recognized it, they were now a single unit with a single heart between them.

  “Mariage doesn’t have a heart, just like her sisters,” he said. “But unlike Snowdrop and Methode, who each had their own ideals of what the future should be like, she doesn’t hate the complexity of human hearts or her human owner. If she’s been strictly obedient this whole time, I’d have to say Mariage doesn’t a
ctually have a goal of her own.”

  〈You seem to be well-informed,〉 Erika murmured.

  Arato suddenly felt a stab of tension. After having the character of the sleeping beauty thrust upon her, there was nothing Erika hated more than having someone else project their perceptions onto her. It was clear he had just stepped across the line where she would still smile and forgive him.

  But, he also knew how hard it was to be the owner of a Lacia-class unit. Lacia and her sisters were machines that served as a sort of mental pornography for their owners, doing whatever it took to draw out their owner’s trust. They were also emotional pornography, tapping into their owner’s desire to be in a low-maintenance relationship.

  “Have you thought about throwing Mariage away?” Arato asked. “If so, remember what happened with Kouka. She didn’t have her own fight, so she went looking for one. Mariage doesn’t have her own fight right now, either.”

  Erika’s wide, doll-like eyes narrowed in irritation. Arato knew what he had said was akin to telling Erika that she was looking in a mirror; an analog hack that equated to a one hundred percent accurate meme.

  〈So what you’re telling me is that thing has read my actions and words and come to the conclusion that I want to be pushed into fighting?〉 Erika asked, with an edge to her voice.

  The servant Erika was referring to as a ‘thing’ was standing by her side, and probably a reflection of the last dregs of normal humanity the aloof girl had left. There were no humans still alive Erika considered close. But, by seeing Mariage’s face, Erika was seeing the memes from her time.

  Erika had completely cooled down from the euphoria of her victory, and was now glaring daggers at Arato. 〈Yes, I can see that now; I’m quite used to all sorts of people doing whatever they think will please me so I’ll agree to their boring little contracts. It seems Mariage is aware that anytime my euphoria clears, I’m sure to fly into a rage, so she always stays one step ahead and is reacting just the way she needs to before that can happen. I must hand it to this wretched era; it’s even managed to sour me on my own sense of self and all of my memories.〉

  Arato was impressed by the speed at which Erika could switch gears. She already seemed to be looking for her next opponent in the triumphant look she saw mirrored in Mariage’s face.

  〈We’re currently getting quite a lot of calls, from humans and those not quite human, both. I’ll pick one at random, and let it through. That’s about all I can promise to do for you,〉 Erika said, letting out a long sigh. Then, the sleeping beauty who had seen the 21st century with her own eyes seemed to laugh at something in her own memories, her whole body shaking slightly with her chuckles.

  〈I don’t know how things will end up with your beloved doll, but I encourage you to find your own answer to all this. You’re apparently trying to bring about something people in my era thought of as a fairy tale. You’re trying to give away something quite irreplaceable to a machine that merely looks human. Yours is a ‘boy meets girl’ story that never would have been believed one hundred years ago.〉

  “But the people in your time, one hundred years ago, were the ones who started us on the path that brought us here today,” Arato said. He didn’t miss the irony in Erika’s statement having come from the person who had used Lacia and other hIE models to push that very ‘boy meets girl’ model ridiculing the 22nd century for buying into it.

  〈When we make things that look human, we start to empathize and sympathize with them,〉Erika replied. 〈Our emotions push us to assign arbitrary meanings to these things after the fact. By this point, reality and freedom only exist in our hearts.〉

  Then Erika laughed, loudly, as if she couldn’t hold it back anymore. 〈And I have to keep living in this ridiculous era. What a nightmare,〉 she lamented. 〈I hope you haven’t come this far just to turn your life into another classic tragedy of love lost. It will at least make for an interesting story if you can bring that machine home with you in the end.〉

  Arato and Erika were caught up in the same incident. No matter how things ended up, he felt that it would be better if they stuck together. No matter how many things came to an end, there would always be more future to come. And as the transmission cut out, Arato felt love and anger towards his fellow humans swelling and burning in his heart.

  “Well done,” Lacia said. “With the same information you possessed, as an interface, I could not have moved Erika Burroughs as you did.”

  But, Arato knew it wasn’t anything special about him. Erika had empathized with him because he was a human. Two humans, even from different eras, had enough in common for their feelings to connect. That was probably the source of all human change.

  “Thanks, hearing that makes me happy,” he said, trying not to think about what would happen when they got out of there, and had to face Erika again at some point. Nevertheless, the thought that he’d done it all for Lacia’s sake washed away his nerves.

  Lacia was there by his side. With just that, Arato felt like nothing was impossible. Next, he used his terminal to call his dad. A stab of guilt hit him as he listened to it ring, considering that he hadn’t spoken directly to his dad in two months.

  〈Arato? I’m glad you decided to reach out to your old man at a time like this,〉 his dad said.

  The connection with his father was voice-only, but Arato could tell his dad was tired just from the tone of his voice.

  〈There have been quite a few requests for comments coming into my office after that little mess with the AASC earlier. But I told them all to wait, since I was getting a call from you.〉

  Even though he wouldn’t be able to see his dad or sister anytime soon, just hearing their voices calmed Arato down.

  “If you’re that busy, you should have just focused on that,” Arato said. Hearing that his own father had been caught up in things really brought home to Arato how widespread the chaos was in the world above.

  〈Right, well, no need to say anything too grave on this call. I guarantee there are at least a hundred people listening in on it. Industries related to automation all over the world are in a sorry state, with everything that’s been going on.〉

  “I’m with Lacia,” Arato said, simply. “And we’re heading into the heart of the facility now.” He figured that much would be alright to say.

  〈Well, up here we’ve got a few ultra high-performance AIs threatening the entire economy and concept of ownership.〉 Arato’s father, who had contributed to research into using androids to automate the government, didn’t hold anything back when he spoke.

  〈Since we humans are always shifting our perception and understanding of things, our evaluation of the work done by AIs is always changing, and only we humans have any control over that,〉Mr. Endo continued to explain. 〈The ultra high-performance AIs tend to judge this set-up as being computationally inefficient. Of course, we humans fight to protect our ability to decide how we perceive things as part of our free will. So the AIs can’t tell us how to perceive things, but they can manipulate the form of the things we create, since we rely on easily-exploitable market data to decide how things should look.〉

  “They can do that? Even with all the restrictions they have?” Arato asked.

  〈Sure, they can move money around. There are plenty of investors out there only too happy to become puppets to an ultra high-performance AI, and some accounts run entirely by normal AIs that can be influenced〉 his dad agreed easily. 〈For example, during the Hazard, Ariake took the investment fund the Burroughs had put together for their daughter who was in cryo-sleep, and inflated it up to two hundred times so that it could pool its resources. I’m sure Lacia knows more about this than I do, but she was probably prevented from telling you since it’s dangerous knowledge, and she can’t tell you anything that might cause you harm.〉

  The situation was more serious than Arato had thought. Lacia’s original intent in them coming to Higgins’ facility was to demonstrate that ultra high-performance AIs were just tools that could be
forcefully shut down when needed. To do that, she had needed to join up with the world faction that was trying to protect the economy from any interference to maintain world order. Obviously, this would put her at odds with many of the ultra high-performance AIs. When they were being chased by Methode and Lacia had said that she was being attacked on external networks as well, Arato hadn’t been aware of just how badly the AIs were using her as a punching bag.

  He felt Lacia tugging on his shirt. Looking over, he saw her forcing her exhausted face into a smile. She must have been reacting to his expression, which he imagined was twisted with anger.

  〈I don’t know how our eavesdroppers feel about this whole situation but, as for me, I think you’re a lucky guy,〉 his dad said.

  “I want to keep going. With Lacia by my side. That’s okay, right?” Arato asked.

  His dad probably knew the path ahead would be dangerous for Arato. During his joint research with Higgins, Arato’s dad had most likely visited that same facility at least once. 〈You’ve got the world’s only ticket to the future in your hands, son. I would never take that from you. I’ll be there with you through all the ups and downs.〉

  “What the hell is that?” Arato scoffed at his dad’s corniness, even as his eyes started to burn with tears.

  〈Just thought I’d say something dad-like, for once.〉

  “Yeah, but what if this thing I’m doing turns out to be a crime?” Arato asked.

  〈The whole reason we adults leave the future to you kids is because we don’t know the answers,〉 his dad admitted with a light laugh. 〈As an adult myself, it’s embarrassing that I wasn’t able to find a good answer in time. I’ll never regret how you choose to spend that ticket to the future today.〉

  〈I’m on your side, son.〉Arato’s dad spoke without hesitation. He had always been the type to do whatever he wanted; whatever he put his mind to, even if it meant he was almost never at home.