Freelancer

by Jake Lingwall

  Before, Kari had been watching the simulation in her development environment as if it were a hologram. That had allowed her to change her perspective and zoom in and out while still being able to read the raw lines of code. Now, however, she projected herself fully into the simulation. Her perspective changed so that she was part of the action, just like in the desert simulation she had done earlier. The lines of code and monitoring metrics were no longer visible, as if she had left her development environment and stepped onto this grassy, green field with her drones in person. The simulation was so detailed that she sometimes had difficulty telling the difference between a simulation and real life.

  It was the best way for Kari to know what her drones would behave like in the real world without actually printing them. The drones swarmed around her in the simulation, each one of them flying skillfully in its own direction while maintaining its position relative to the swarm. Kari shot her arms out, and the drones elegantly dodged around her. There were so many drones that she could hardly see the green field outside the drone-tornado they had created.

  Kari looked down at herself and quickly changed her simulated clothing to a fancy, sparkling dress. She would never wear something like that in real life, but here she let herself feel like a princess. Aubrey would be so proud of me right now if she saw me wearing this dress.

  Kari raced across the digital grassland, laughing as her drones danced around her. She gently let herself fall to the ground and stared up into the sky as she ordered her drones to fly above her in complex patterns. As the digital sun began to set, she finally relaxed for a few minutes, basking in the fact that she could make anything she could think of.

  When she checked the time, she was startled to see that several hours had already passed. She ordered the printers in the factory to start building a dozen of the latest versions of her drones. She wanted to feel one in her hands before she had to leave. The simulations were life like and great for designing, but they still didn’t offer the same experience as feeling her creations in her hands. Kari liked to print a version of her current project at the end of every day if possible. It provided her an opportunity to test her new design out and feel it in real life. If the design needed more changes, she would simply recycle the prototype and reprint the updated design at her next opportunity. OK, enough of this, time to see what these drones can really do.

  Returning her attention to the simulation, she dropped in two military-grade mechs just over the hill, where a simulated tree resided. Her drones instantly stopped their buzzing patterns and turned their full attention to the new threat. She smiled to herself; their protectiveness reminded her of her family’s old dog, Loop. Kari ordered the mechs to attack.

  She sat up and watched as the mechs raised their heavy mechanical arms and pointed them toward her. The mechs were twenty feet tall and were covered with dangerous weaponry. Mechs were fully automated machines of destruction and the weapon of choice for the US military. Kari was thankful that they were rarely needed anymore. At least until this civil war starts.

  Without even needing to receive the order, her drones burst forward in a rush, frantically trying to intercept the deadly energy blasts the mechs had just fired from their arm cannons. Her mind lit up with notifications—the drones were warning her she was in danger. She winced as a handful of drones burst into pieces as they effectively intercepted each of the oncoming energy blasts, thereby preventing the killer balls of molten energy from reaching her. They’re not Loop. They’re not even real, so it’s OK if they sacrifice themselves for me. Of course, that doesn’t mean that I’m going to let those mechs get away with it.

  Kari ordered her flock of drones to attack. The swarm flew forward as each drone extended its intimidating stinger. Stingers were the only weapon that Kari had designed for the drones. Each stinger was an extendable spear that could become supercharged with ball of electricity—that was the primary reason she had added more battery power to the drones’ design. The drones were no bigger than her hand; however, when they extended their stingers, they looked like a terrifying swarm of giant, angry bees. Kari had designed the stingers to be powerful, capable of overloading and destroying other drones with a single strike. She wasn’t entirely sure how effective they would be against heavily armored units, such as the mechs.

  Kari changed her clothing from the dress to attire that was more combat appropriate. She was now wearing full body armor and sporting a heavy helmet. Wearing the dress had been nice for a few minutes, but the body armor and battle scene felt more natural to her. She wasn’t a fighter, but many of her projects required a certain amount of strenuous testing.

  Pop! Kari rolled onto her back and saw that the heavy energy fire from the mechs had caught another one of her drones. She blinked to add a review point in the simulation. Later, she would use it to review why the drone had been unable to dodge the energy blast. Kari hid behind small hill of grass and looked over to the battle. Her drones buzzed around the mechs, nimbly dodging hundreds of hostile energy blasts. The stingers were striking the mechs with little bolts of lighting, burning small holes into their thick, metal armor.

  Kari ordered the drones to focus the attack on the mech to the left, for the drones didn’t seem capable of destroying both mechs at the same time. She jacked into the camera of one of the drones in the attacking swarm to watch the battle from the drone’s point of view. It was pure madness. Energy blasts flew around at every angle, and drones dodged and attacked whenever they had the chance.

  Kari switched her perspective back to her simulated body just in time to watch a stray energy blast travel painlessly through her. She was instantly kicked out of the simulation, and her view returned back to the development simulation from before. As she looked down at where her simulated body had been, her stomach rolled a little bit. Sometimes, simulations were too lifelike. Maybe I should find a new hobby where I don’t get the pleasure of viewing my blown-to-pieces, simulated body on a regular basis. I could take up the cello, but what’s a cello compared to the most advanced drone flock in the world?

  The mechs’ high-powered energy blasts and tiny missiles were gradually blowing her drones from the air. The drones had intelligently begun to focus their stinger attacks on the mechs’ smaller cannons and turrets, desperately trying to bring them offline. Kari was pleased as one drone flew itself into one of the small turrets. It smashed into the mech just as a missile was about to launch, causing it to detonate before clearing the turret. The resulting explosion nearly made the mech fall over. Kari set another note to review her code; she would need to refine her calculations. More of the drones should have done the same thing.

  Kari estimated that only a third of the original drone flock remained, but the drones still spun, circled, and fought. A drone in the back attacked where several other stingers had already managed to create a sizable dent in a mech’s armor. The new stinger managed to penetrate the mech’s thick, metal shell, and the electricity from the miniature lighting strike quickly overloaded the complex circuitry inside. The mech started to smoke and make an odd, gear-grinding noise. Suddenly, it collapsed into a thunderous heap.

  Kari cheered as a giant dust ball rose when the mech hit the ground. Her drones immediately turned their attention to the second mech. The printers in her factory began to notify her that the drones they were printing were now finished. Kari saved the simulation and returned her attention to the real world, interested to see how the drones felt in real life.

  She climbed out of her cot, walked over to the nearest printer, and picked up a finished drone. Its exterior was made of graphium—a thin, black supersubstance. Graphium was extremely strong and conducted electricity perfectly. It was an expensive substance but incomparable. It was extremely light but more durable than even the hardest steel. The graphium revolution had changed the world just as much as three-dimensional printing had, but that was all long before Kari had been born.

  Kari turned the small drone over in her hands, appreciat
ing the small fans that powered it. She then used her mind chip to connect with the drone to turn it on. Immediately, it sprang to life and floated in the air above her palm, waiting for orders. Kari let the drone hover and circled it slowly as it remained perfectly still and in front of her at all times.

  She instructed the drone to turn on its stinger. The resulting flash from its activation caused her to look away. It hadn’t seemed as bright in the simulation. I’ll have to look into that. When she squinted, she was able to see what appeared to be a small ball of electricity connected at the tip of an inch-long dagger. It was beautiful and unnerving at the same time.

  She ordered the drone to attack the wall on the opposite side of the factory. The drone bolted toward the wall at breakneck speed. Just before it looked as if the drone would shatter against the wall, its stinger erupted. Crack! The drone burned a hole in the wall and spun away from it at a ninety-degree angle, flipping over itself horizontally before leveling out and flying back to Kari as if nothing had happened.

  Kari squealed. That was too cool! The wall was old brick, filled with cement and rebar, but the drone had still burned a hole in it an inch deep. A small cloud of smoke drifted around the newly formed crater. Just one of these drones would have destroyed every drone at school today in less than a minute, including David’s stupid drones!

  David.

  Kari felt the excitement drain out of her. Why was I so hostile?

  I’m going to apologize, just not right now. She studied the drone calmly flying in front of her. It was the best miniature drone she had ever seen. I could make a lot of money selling this design. She wasn’t going to sell her drones, though; she had built them because she could and because they fascinated her, not because she wanted to help someone win a war. Besides, she didn’t need the money. Money only represented the ability to do things in a more timely fashion, and she was already doing things as quickly as she dared. She had millions of dollars that she couldn’t spend, so what was the point in earning more money?

  Kari was already worried she had spent too much and that the money she had spent could be traced back to her. The industrial printers, recyclers, and raw materials had cost more than her parents had made in their lifetimes. It had been quite the task to accumulate it all. She had spent years of hard work and countless hours trying to hide money trails to build this factory, and she didn’t want to risk it all by spending more money.

  She couldn’t imagine that the government would be happy if they found out about her projects. Even if they knew about only the legal ones, those would attract attention. People attracted attention for being successful in certain sectors, and Kari’s parents hated attention. She had sworn to herself she would never force her parents into the limelight. It was one of the reasons she had never told them about her talents. The other reason was that her parents didn’t like the idea of one person having too much money.

  It was easier not to be public about her success or talents. Besides, I have a hard-enough time fitting in already. Would everyone treat me like David if they knew I played a key role in the design of the Inter-Defense-Net? Gah! David again!

  Fine. I’ll apologize tomorrow. Kari was frustrated with herself for being frustrated about not apologizing. She packed a half dozen of the freshly printed drones into her schoolbag, checked the stale news once again and started the trek back to the coffee shop.

  Chapter Seven

  Kari rolled over, refusing to open her eyes and trying desperately to keep her mind from waking up. She was too late; she was already subconsciously trying to figure out the time and day.

  She opened her eyes just enough to get a reading on how much light was in her room. It was between noon and one in the afternoon. Determining the day was more difficult.

  I just dozed off. How could it be one in the afternoon already?

  Thoughts slowly came back to her as she continued to wake up. She was on the floor; she vaguely remembered wanting to lie down for a minute but had been scared that if she were to lie in her bed, she wouldn’t be able to get back up. That hadn’t appeared to make much of a difference. That had been at . . . 4:00 a.m.? Of course I was going to fall asleep.

  Kari had spent most of the night in her development environment running simulations and trying to write some basic software for a client. But she had grown frustrated and had decided to try to think creatively outside her environment with some pen and paper. Sometimes, it helped clear her mind and provided a different way to think about problems. In her environment, she could do what seemed like dozens of things at once; on paper, she was forced to think about one thing at a time.

  No matter what she did it, she found it hard to think when she went too long without sleep. It was a problem that she was well acquainted with. When an idea took hold of her, she couldn’t escape it. When a good idea came, she didn’t have a choice in the matter. She had spent the better part of the past few days monitoring the news and refining her drones.

  But it has been my choice not to go apologize.

  Inventing was easier than apologizing. It least it was easier to invent excuses.

  Kari heard footsteps but was too lazy to expand the energy to give the appearance that she hadn’t slept on the floor. She rolled over just in time to see her mom open the door quietly. Her mom frowned when she saw her lying on the floor, but her face eased a little when she saw that Kari was awake.

  “Good morning, Mom,” Kari said, trying to make her voice sound as if she had been awake for a few hours.

  “I’m glad you’re awake,” her mom said. “I came in to check on you before I headed back to work this morning, but you were so asleep I couldn’t even wake you up to talk.”

  Why did you want to talk? The look of concern was gone, but Kari could tell that her mom was under even more stress than she had been in the past few months.

  “What’s wrong?” Kari asked. She had rarely seen her mom get flustered about anything. She instantly thought of her dad, who had been away this week on business. No, she wouldn’t have gone to work if there were something wrong with Dad.

  “You haven’t seen the news?”

  “What news?” Kari asked, holding back the reflex to go online and find the answer. She was sure it had something to do with the Middle States issue. Her mom breathed in deeply, as if she were thinking of a nice way to say something. I’m not a little girl anymore, Mom.

  “The United States has rejected the Middle States’ Declaration of Independence.” Her mom looked as if the words were hard to speak.

  Kari let the words sink in for a minute. This is big. The initial declaration had been delivered to the US Congress on Saturday, but that was mostly a symbolic move. Everyone knew it had been coming, even if Thomas wanted to deny it. What was important was how the United States responded. If they accepted the declaration, there would be two peaceful, separate nations. If they contested it, which was expected, they would likely spend months in negotiations and voting before anything happened. If they rejected it, then most people expected war. This is the biggest thing that has ever happened while I’ve been alive.

  “Yeah . . .” Her mom seemed not to know what else to say. “It’s going to be busy at work for the next bit while we sort this thing out.”

  Kari nodded while still absorbing the full gravity of the situation. She could only imagine the number of calls her mom was getting right now from people wondering how this would affect their Social Security checks—the checks they relied on to survive. Kari understood the stress.

  “Sorry you had to come home to check on me, Mom. I’m fine. I just couldn’t fall asleep easily last night.” She attempted to sound as lighthearted as she could. Her mom needed that.

  “Thanks, honey. I’ll probably be home late. I don’t think we’ll be able to do dinner or anything tonight.” She frowned at that. “I’m sorry.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about it, Mom. The Middle States going crazy is kind of a much bigger deal.” Kari realized that it must be Thursday a
lready if her mom were canceling their plans for the night.

  It’s been almost a week?

  Kari listened to her mom leave, and then she lay on the floor for a moment. The Middle States will secede. Will this be one of those moments I’ll tell kids about in the future? Most people had doubted there would be war, believing the world was too civilized for that now. There weren’t wars anymore; they were too expensive. At least, that had been the popular opinion before today. Kari didn’t see this conflict ending without a little bit of combat.

  It hadn’t felt real until now. The Middle State Declaration of Independence had felt more like a proposal, followed by a flurry of follow up plans. A number of states were breaking apart to be on either side of the proposed border, or breaking into smaller states. Northwest Florida wanted to join the Middle States while South Dakota broke into two separate states, East Dakota and West Dakota, with both of them siding with the Middle States. San Diego was a major point of contention, while Nevada was still trying to figure out which country it would be a part of.

  It had been a fascinating few days of political proposals but now that Congress had flat-out rejected the Middle States Declaration; the secession wasn’t just a concept anymore. People were going to die because of this argument. Maybe even lots of people. The new civil war had been brewing for such a long time that Kari was surprised she felt a reaction to the news at all. Decades of political defeats and the feeling of being targeted by the coasts had finally become too much for the Middle States to deal with. Like the kid who takes his ball and goes home from the park because he’s not winning the game. Pathetic.

  She had learned about the original Civil War in school a few times. That war had nearly destroyed the country, but that had been hundreds of years ago. From what she had read online, most people expected some sort of economic warfare instead of armed soldiers fighting it out on a battlefield. The coastal states would try to boycott the Middle States’ trade and charge them extra for raw materials. Almost everyone thought the Middle States would come crawling back if the secession ever happened. But then, a few months ago, most people didn’t think the Middle States would actually take it this far.