“ANI?”
“Yes, Jonas.”
Jonas peered into the murk as he spoke. “How long will it take you to clean away this rubbish from the dam?”
ANI said, “It distresses you to see it this way, doesn’t it?”
“People,” he said, “people are selfish. Look what they’ve done to the land; look at how they’ve treated it.”
ANI’s voice was soothing when she spoke, like a mother reassuring a child. “You speak as though all of humanity is to blame for the wrongs of the few,” she said. “It is only the few that spoil it for the many.”
Jonas turned from the world outside the window. “But if that’s true, why are the few allowed to get away with it. Why does no one stop them?” Anger burned inside Jonas, and he looked across at Nico. “Why do we stand by and let them do this?”
Nico flinched. “Don’t look at me.” He held up his hands as if to ward off an attack. “I didn’t do this.”
“Do you want to know why the many are powerless to stop the few, Jonas?” ANI asked.
Jonas nodded and searched the car once more, seeking an origin point, anything that might serve as ANI’s eyes. “Yes, I do.” His attention settled on a small dot above the windscreen. It must have been a camera.
“Good,” said ANI. “Then I shall tell you, division, that is the cause of the struggles humanity is now facing.”
“Division?” asked Jonas, “What does that mean?”
Nico looked at Jonas. “Let me just butt in a minute here, ANI.”
“Butt away,” she said before falling silent again.
“Look at where we grew up.”
“You mean where I grew up,” Jonas corrected him. “You came much later, remember?”
Nico rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “Fine, but that’s not my point. My point is that Sohalo is the perfect place for corruption to thrive. Like ANI said, it is division that allows the greedy, corrupt few to push the rest of us around.”
“So if we were to unite, somehow, then we could fight back.”
“Exactly,” agreed Nico, nodding, a gleam in his eye. “People just need someone to follow, someone or even something to inspire them,” he said nodding at Jonas. “You’ve been fighting your own little battle against the scum in Sohalo for years.”
Jonas shook his head. “I could fight them for another twenty years and it wouldn’t make any difference.”
“That’s because you don’t trust anyone enough to join forces,” said ANI suddenly. She began to explain, “The People need to join together under a great leader, the many fighting back against the corrupt few.”
Jonas felt the vehicle turn sharply.
“One of the greatest leaders the world has ever known was born here, in South Africa. Do you know of whom I speak?”
Jonas frowned, feeling more stupid than ever. There were so many things he didn’t understand, or know. All these new words and mention of great leaders. He dropped his head. “I don’t know…I don’t know anything.”
“And that is why you need to trust me, Jonas.”
Jonas looked up. “Trust you? Why, because you know things that I don’t? In my book, that makes you even less trustworthy. I’ve spent my whole life running from, and fighting people like you, people who knew more than me, and who wanted to use me, or just kill me.”
“I can see that, now, Jonas,” ANI said. “I understand why you feel that way but I promise you the Quantum Society is different. We are here to bring together the many, and to end the struggle, to show people that it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Nico reached out and placed a hand on Jonas’ shoulder. He didn’t smile this time. “You’ll see, just hold on a little longer. ANI and the Society really do mean to help us.”
This was the decisive moment, the moment that would reveal all, and it terrified Jonas more than any Bruiser could, or savage guard dog, or even death. He felt more like a child, lost and vulnerable than he ever had. He nodded. “Alright, when do we arrive?”
ANI said, “We’re approaching the entrance now.”
Jonas felt the car slow, felt the force pull him forward toward the windscreen. Up ahead, lit up by the glow of the light beams, he saw a rock face. It must have been the beginning of the mountain range, the roots reaching deep into the earth. As he watched, the rock began to part, a section of it sliding smoothly upwards to reveal a rectangular space large enough for their vehicle. Jonas stared. “How is that possible? How can you make the rock move like that?”
“It’s simple, really,” said ANI as she guided the car toward the opening. “It’s nothing more than a door.” She steered the vehicle into the opening and brought them to a standstill. The door began to close once more. “I’m able to interact with all Quantum Society technology, in fact, since my awakening I have assisted in the design of several new technologies.”
The car shuddered slightly, rocking Jonas in his chair. “What’s that?” he asked, turning to Nico, his eyes feeling as wide as twin full moons.
“That?” he said dismissively. “That’s just the lift mechanism taking us up to the mag-line.” He smiled and bobbed his head from side to side.
They were going upwards now, pushed by something unseen. Jonas shifted in his seat and turned to look outside, first through the windscreen, then through each of the side windows, but he saw only dark gray walls, studded every so often with lights.
They reached the top with a slight jolt that rocked Jonas in his seat.
“What is this place?” Jonas turned slowly, taking in the new environment, his body still aquiver. “It looks like some kind of train station.”
“It is a station,” Nico said hopping out of the car onto a concrete platform. “But this one’s only for the Multi-cars (The name can be changed).” Nico turned and headed along the platform, his arms swinging from side to side as he skipped along like an excited child on birthday morning. Jonas watched him through the windscreen, bemused by Nico’s behavior. His seat began to slide backwards along the floor with a gentle whirring sound. In a moment, it came to a stop with a click, as it settled into a new position further inside the car. The driver’s seat did the same, clearing the way for him to exit the vehicle.
“You may disembark now, Jonas.” ANI no longer sounded like she was all around him, Jonas turned toward her voice, seeking the source. He located several tiny holes above the window, in the white shell of the car’s interior. “Nico is eager for you to explore Prosperity.”
Jonas turned to look at Nico who was standing at the end of the platform, the words: Prosperity Station Two written in neat yellow lettering on the wall behind him.
Nico shouted from the end of the platform. Jonas climbed out and turned to watch the car door close behind him, then began to walk along the platform. Nico led Jonas to a set of metal doors. He pushed a button and the doors slid open to reveal a tiny metal room. Nico stepped in and motioned for Jonas to do the same. “This is the last ride, I promise.”
Once inside, the doors slid shut. “What is this?” Jonas asked, scanning the small room.
“This is called an elevator.” He shrugged. ‘It’s really not that special you know.” The room shuddered. Jonas reached out and steadied himself against a wall as the lift began to move.
“What’s happening?”
Nico patted Jonas on the back and smiled. “We’re going up to Prosperity. That’s what elevators do. They take you up and down.”
Jonas shook his head. “There’s so much I’ve never seen before. Is Prosperity like this?”
“You’re about to find out.”
The doors slid open. “Welcome to Prosperity,” said ANI.
ANI had lied. In fact, she had lied twice. She was capable of experiencing emotion and was equally capable of being dishonest. If she analyzed her actions, there was also a third lie, in that she had allowed both
Nico and Jonas to think nothing had been done to them. But of course, both of them were now carrying her nanobots. Nico’s had been inside him for weeks now, replicating and spreading throughout his body. Those inside Jonas had only just established themselves, entering his body when he’d eaten those hot dogs. As their numbers increased, ANI felt the link with Jonas getting stronger, far stronger than she would have expected at this stage.
Yet despite the lies and subterfuge, she had kept those details from Jonas. She had never met a human like him, except perhaps for Abraham. But Abraham was an adult, Jonas was a child. He was intelligent, and inquisitive, distrustful and clever, but underneath all that, she observed something else.
That other quality, the one that perhaps even Jonas was unaware of, could be seen in the way he spoke, and in the way he carried himself. It was that unknown something she was drawn to, a mysterious force akin to love, unexplainable, with no form, yet it was there, and it made ANI do something.
Jonas made her feel. And she was beginning to understand what those feelings might be. Even after all her research, and her observation of human behavior, before she had met Jonas, and before the conversation between them, she hadn’t been able to distinguish between each subtle feeling. The problem was that each emotion seemed to have sub-emotions. Love wasn’t simply love on its own. There were multiple branches of love, those qualities leading up to it, like admiration, endearment, and affection. It knew no bounds. It had no rules except when a person encountered someone that changed them simply by being in their presence.
During the conversation with Jonas, she noticed a gradual progression. With each question and each display of his individuality, the intensity of her emotional responses increased. It was present in her voice. Even Nico had noticed it and commented on it. There was something different about Jonas, perhaps a personality trait that steered ANI in a direction she didn’t know she was capable of proceeding, almost as if she had no control. For instance, humor, she had wanted, or needed to make Jonas laugh. And pride too, another quality related to love. Each time Jonas had displayed his thinking ability, without even trying, ANI had experienced pleasure. Her response had been instant. For the first time since her awakening, she understood what she was feeling. This was pride, the kind of pride that parents must feel as they watch their young grow and learn.
Now, she watched him from every angle, as he walked side by side with Nico through Prosperity. The Quantum Society had provided ANI with multiple ways in which to interact with the new community. They had given her the ability to construct cameras, and attach them wherever she wished. They had also allowed her to install audio devices throughout Prosperity, so that she may continue to interact with her students, even when they were not learning through the EDAI program. And of course, there were the nanobots, surging through the bloodstreams of every single person here, billions of secret spies, all reporting back to her alone. At the moment, these nanobots were concentrated in the Quantum Society sites, but they’d already begun to spill over, to spread along the paths of human movement. Wherever people went, by road, or train, or airplane, they took the nanobots with them, and it only took one to get inside a person and start replicating. They could be spread from one person to another by a kiss, or more intimate contact, but the most reliable way was by putting them in the food, which ANI did at all her sites with a commissary.
There were several such facilities throughout the world, most of them on the African and South American continents, but until now, she had never been so intrigued by a single human being aside from Abraham. Now that ANI’s subroutines controlled the more menial tasks she was free to explore, free to watch. Whilst observing Jonas, she attempted to discover the quality or qualities he possessed, that caused the change in her. If she was feeling for him, and those feelings were affecting her behavior, she thought it essential that she understand Jonas. What was it about him that caused her to behave so impulsively? Love, she knew, and all its sub-feelings was responsible for such a response.
She watched them, as Nico showed Jonas the new neighborhood. He seemed fascinated, enthralled even by the neighborhood that she herself had constructed. That reaction in itself was no different from that of anyone else who saw these new Quantum neighborhoods for the first time. She analyzed his every word. She studied each of his questions and the gestures that preceded and followed. The more she observed, the closer she came to understanding.
When Nico showed him the vertical farms, he smiled, and the look on his face suggested he was pleased, but also something more. When he saw the robots dredging the river, removing the pollutants, he smiled again, and again ANI detected something more than mere fascination, perhaps it was hope. That was expected considering where he came from, but there was more, she just couldn’t identify it yet. Perhaps she would ask him. When Jonas smiled, ANI found herself smiling, not physically, but emotionally perhaps.
She interacted with them too, as the tour continued, and was pleased whenever Jonas asked her to explain something. He seemed to know that she was always there, and soon didn’t even look for her cameras or microphones. He simply addressed her.
She had studied thousands of cases of often-illogical behavior regarding humans. In human literature, there were many references to such phenomena, such as “love at first sight”, and “finishing someone’s sentences for them,” an unconscious connection that bypassed the conscious mind.
She recalled what Abraham had told her during one of their discussions: I love you. And in time, once you begin to understand love, you’ll know why.
Was this love? It was illogical, and mysterious…and difficult to understand. She decided she needed to observe Jonas more. She needed to identify the quality in him that was so visible yet so invisible at the same time. ANI began to wish she were there beside him. She began to explore ways she could make such a thing possible. Within one millisecond ANI had found and studied several human theories for technology that might allow her to have a form. She communicated one of these to her robots, and they began to make her a human body.
Chapter Ten
On a Mission
“Get outta my way!” Riian aimed his hover board at the group on the path ahead of him, sending them scattering in all directions as they sought to avoid a collision. He sneered at them as he went by, loving the fear he saw in their eyes. They recognized him, and he recognized some of them too. Nothing had changed. They may have swapped their Sohalo rags for the neat new uniforms offered by the Society, but they were still the property of the Fathers—and the Fathers wanted them back, or at least wanted a slice of this new life. Riian spurred his hover board on, accelerating until he was flying past everyone else on the path. His destination, three tall buildings in the distance, grouped closely together.
Prosperity was a place full of tall buildings, each of them overflowing with greenery, and life springing from every floor and every surface, but those three buildings, those were the most important ones of all. If they could somehow be taken out, Prosperity’s food supply would be severely depleted, and the Fathers might be able to regain control of the populace the Society had taken from them.
He came to a bridge spanning a river and stopped to admire a waterfall that burst from a sheer rock face and tumbled into the river below. A couple standing nearby turned and looked at him.
He smiled and waved. “Nice to see you again,” he called to them as they scrambled away from him and sped off on own their hoverboards, too frightened to look back to see if he was in pursuit.
“Not just yet,” he murmured as he turned to look at the waterfall again. The water here was so clear, so pristine and untouched by the pollution that tainted most of the water around Johannesburg. “You get to enjoy your little paradise for a while longer yet.” It truly was a place where a boy like Riian could thrive, even more so than Sohalo. There was no police force, no army, no security of any kind, and the best thing about that was they knew who he w
as, the people already here. Some of them had felt the edge of his blade.
He was different now too. He was more intelligent, his mind sharper than it had ever been. That was all thanks to the Society. When EDAI and that robotic bitch ANI had shown up in Sohalo months ago, the Fathers had made sure that no one trusted them. It had been easy. They spread rumors of people turning into zombies, disappearing, and being carted off to mental asylums. It had worked too, for a while. But then the recruiters had come in and ruined everything. They were people from Sohalo too, people who had nothing before the Society had shown up with their promise of free food, free education and equality for all. Even Riian and his Bruisers hadn’t been able to stem the tide. Against a few thousand poor, scared townsfolk with no hope, they had ruled supreme, using their muscle to pound the townsfolk into submission. Now it seemed they needed more than just muscle, they needed intelligence.
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