Virtual Immortality

by Matthew S. Cox

  Masaru looked up with a blank face and approached. With an unceremonious tug, he pulled her shirt up and saw no sign of a wound on her back. Only the presence of blood and sliced cloth hinted that she had been hurt. He forced himself onto his feet through ripples of pain, his motion jerky. The speedware would burn for about another hour.

  “What’s your name?” Katya picked at the blood-soaked shirt, unsure if she should pull it down or throw it away.

  The child turned her head, speaking in a half-whisper. “EAO-106.”

  “Are there a hundred and five more of these psycho brats?” Joey dreaded the thought of having to deal with even one more of those suits.

  Katya patted Eldon’s hand until he let go of her. “How many of you are here?”

  The girl tried to fold her arms, but couldn’t lift them. “EAO-106.”

  Kenny blinked. “What does that mean?”

  She replied in the same emotionless tone. “Experimental Armor Operator, unit 106.”

  “Remember that thing about what StarPoint would want to hide from the UCF? I think this about sums it up.” Eldon kicked the destroyed suit. “This is power armor but its profile is no bigger than a large man. You’d never know you were about to get your ass whipped until after they tore you in half.”

  “What’s the point of that?” Kenny looked at him. “Why not just use dolls?”

  Eldon paced. “Not a lot of commanders trust AI cyborgs, and finding people to donate their brain to a mechanical body isn’t easy. With something like this, they could make whole squads in no time. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and assume she’s a clone of some kind so there’s no next of kin to want them home.”

  Katya brushed at the girl’s cheek. “She’s responding like she’s being interrogated.”

  “Communist fucktards.”

  The harsh language in such a tiny voice sent Joey into a fit of giggles.

  Amber perked up. “That’s what Kevin used to call the corporate suits.”

  Joey smiled, putting things together. “She probably heard it when they kicked his ass.”

  “Who is Kevin?” Kenny glanced at Amber.

  “One of the guys. I remember being around him a lot. He was always so calm except when he went off about those people. He wanted to save humanity from being turned into machines.”

  Katya went to pick the girl up, pausing when she got a good whiff. “Whoa kid. How long were you in that thing?”

  The child looked at Katya, her face softened just a little. “Dunno. Chrono got busted during the raid.”

  “Do you know what the date is?” Katya dodged around trying to make eye contact.

  The girl looked up as if searching for the answer in midair. “October 2411.”

  “Its 2418 now.” Katya took her hand. “So much for your law-abiding corporations. What is this kid, eight, maybe nine? She has been in that suit for seven years. Come here, sweetie. What did they do to you?” Katya slid her arms under the girl and lifted her. She made no attempt to grab on for support, but weighed so little it did not matter.

  Genuine fear shone in her eyes. “You shouldn’t take me prisoner. When the reinforcements arrive they’ll kill you all.”

  “We’re not taking you captive.” Katya set her back down. “Go on. You’re free to leave.”

  The child fought for almost a minute but was too weak to stand up on her own. She glared at Katya.

  “What did you do to me?”

  “You’ve been in that armor so long your legs don’t work anymore.” Eldon picked her up and handed her back to Katya.

  The girl grabbed at her thighs and squeezed, her confusion growing into alarm.

  “You’re just a kid. You should not be alone out here.” Katya craned her head away from the vile smell. “It’s too dangerous.”

  Joey leaned over to Kenny. “Who installed Emotion 1.0 on Katya?”

  “I hate to piss in your cheerios kid, but if your position hasn’t been reinforced in seven years, they ain’t coming.” Eldon surveyed the debris field. “This was not a real military Op, just a corporation ignoring ethics… and from the looks of it, disavowed.”

  Her gaze fell, face warped in a way that could have been anger or imminent tears. “Why would they lie?”

  “They always lie.” Katya scowled. “There’s a sink in the security station. I’m going to go clean her up.”

  “You gonna be okay alone with psycho tot?” Joey glanced at her.

  The girl gave Joey a threatening glare. He put on a face of mock fright.

  “Well now we have two nine-year-olds.” Kenny gave Joey a light shove. “Okay, we’ll wait here, be quick.”

  “I’ll go with her.” Masaru cracked his neck. Despite wobbling legs, having no mark upon his honor made him feel much better.

  The child’s brave affect crumbled as Masaru’s black form moved towards her. She shivered and squirmed in a futile effort to escape Katya’s grasp.

  “Relax. He did not realize you were a child, he won’t hurt you now that he knows.” Katya tried to sound as soothing as possible.

  “Holler on the comm if anything happens.” Kenny maneuvered Amber to sit on a rock in the center of where he, Eldon, and Joey set up a defensive circle.

  Katya carried her toward the security booth, able to ignore the piercing stare for only a few paces. Halfway between the group and the building, she halted.

  “Look kid. I know you’ve been told that everyone outside the company is your enemy. Think about what they did to you and think very hard about who your real foe is.” The tone in Katya’s voice changed, slower and tinged with sadness. “They did the same to me when I was your age. You are just property to them.” Katya looked down into her eyes. “I bet you’re looking for a chance to grab a gun and escape; I would have been.”

  The kid fidgeted. “I’m not.”

  “You need to work on your emotion control, you are a poor liar.” Katya poked her in the nose. Feelings that she never thought she would have manifested. “The company that did this to you just left you here to die, we will take you somewhere safe.”

  The girl remained silent. There was no way to tell how programmed she was, so Katya would not let her guard down all the way. She resumed her trek, and bounded up the steps into the pod. The child’s utter lack of reaction to the dead man on the floor came as no surprise.

  In the locker room, Katya set the girl into one of the utility sinks and turned on the faucet. Several bottles of liquid soap remained on the shelf, and she poured a liberal amount into the rising water. Peeling the fetid garments away, she tossed them to the back of the room where they stuck to the wall. The child lowered herself to sit, encouraged by a pat on the shoulder, and stared with a stone-faced look as the warm liquid rose up to her chest. For some minutes, she remained motionless as Katya lifted and washed each limb in turn, bathing her.

  “I was about your age when they found me living on the street. I don’t even remember what killed my parents.” Katya stopped washing the girl for a moment to lean on the sink. “It would have been kinder of them to let me to die on the streets.”

  The child stared at her with distrusting eyes, unsure of how to interpret gentle contact.

  “They wanted me to be a spy, an assassin.” Katya tapped herself on the head. “They even cut me open and tried to make me psionic; but that didn’t work at all. So they made up for it with cyberware.”

  She turned herself hot pink for a moment with the CamNano, going back to normal at the nonplused smirk the girl made.

  By the time Katya’s hand pushed a soapy sponge over her back, the kid relaxed. Having decided that she did not mind it, she sagged forward and tolerated the attention. Her eyes finally left Katya’s sidearm.

  “That was the point.” The girl stared at the opaque water.

  “What?”

  “The way everyone acted when they saw me. That’s why they made us look like little kids. They wanted our enemies to feel sorry for us or underestimate us. Then we could esc
ape or sabotage from within.”

  Katya bit her lip. This kind of nightmare was what she expected from the ACC, not the UCF. No matter how much of a pretty face they put on for the government, corporations were still corporations.

  Katya poured more soap over the girl’s head. “I don’t expect you to trust me, but I’m going to ask you to anyway.” She worked her fingers through sticky hair, massaging the snags and grime out.

  “Training mostly.” The girl tucked her knees under her chin and offered a confused stare.

  Katya read the look. The company filled this kid’s entire life with military discipline and there had been no nurturing contact. No one trained her to deal with it, and her veneer collapsed, battered down from within by whatever scant trace of humanity remained within. She was glad Joey couldn’t see this. A child left in this state would grow into a personality like Katya’s.

  “This is not what your handler told you would happen if you were captured, is it?”

  She curled into a tighter ball. “No.”

  After draining the fetid water, Katya ran more. “Those nanobots kept you from getting sick from being in that filth so long.”

  “Yeah, duh.” She leaned back, putting her head in the stream to rinse her hair.

  “Are there more like you?”

  “Yeah, but I can’t talk about it.”

  That made Katya worry. “Are they alive?”

  “They got away. I don’t want to say any more.”

  “My name is Katya.” She changed the subject.

  The kid looked up, frightened. “That’s Russian! You’re ACC!”

  “I am not ACC.” The sudden coldness in Katya’s voice flattened the girl against the sink wall. “They treated me like property. Like these people did to you. I left. I am a defector. I despise them more than any UCF soldier could ever hate them.”

  “Oh.”

  Katya smiled, lifting the girl’s chin to make eye contact. “We’ll need to give you a proper name.”

  “Why?” She sounded sad. “What’s wrong with EAO-106?”

  “That’s not a name, it’s an asset tag. You are not a talking weapon. When we take you back to the city, they will give you a real home so you can be normal and forget all of this.”

  “I’m never going to be normal.” The eerie finality in her voice made Katya worry.

  The girl stood as Katya wrapped her with the white jumpsuit and lifted her out of the water. Katya reached at the empty bench, and then grumbled. Amber had taken the bag of clothes outside.

  Katya carried her in the garment-turned-towel out to where everyone waited, over to the duffel bag and set her down on her feet. With a strained grimace, her effort to stay upright failed, and she plopped down.

  “Pick something to wear.” Katya pointed at the bag.

  The girl glanced at the bag; her reach for it stopped as her legs locked straight out. She shuddered, opening and closing her fists. Katya crouched and held the tiny convulsing body.

  “No! No!” she wailed, clamping onto Katya. “Please don’t let it get me!”

  “Don’t let what get you?” She stared into the girl’s eyes. “There’s nothing here.”

  “Great… She’s hallucinating too.” Joey shook his head.

  Her eyes rolled up into her head as a seizure took over. Eldon ran over, clasping her head, and held her in such a way as to protect her neck. She shifted without warning, biting down on Eldon’s armored glove, and continued shaking for about thirty seconds while releasing the most horrible scream any of them had ever heard. Her muscles tensed, her skin reddened, and she sweat blood. When the shaking stopped, she passed out. Thick white foam extruded from her nostrils and through her teeth. Her entire body became hot to the touch and sporadic twitches continued in her hands and feet for several seconds as undulating ripples ran up and down her limbs.

  “That wasn’t a normal seizure,” said Eldon. “That was just… pain.” He blinked at a tooth scrape on his glove.

  “So much pain she fainted.” Masaru almost sounded sympathetic.

  “What the hell was that?” Amber’s eyes widened.

  “Not a damn clue.” Eldon checked her pulse and felt for a fever. She was limp, except for the gentle motion of her stomach as she breathed. “Who knows what the hell they did to her.”

  “Possible anti-interrogation device?” Masaru frowned.

  “I don’t think so. Those don’t torture, they usually just kill with a quick pop.” Katya stroked the girl’s hair for almost ten minutes until her eyes opened again.

  The kid looked around and took several deep breaths. As soon as she could move, she clung to Katya. “That happens every few days. It’s why I don’t grow up.” She closed her eyes and hissed through gritted teeth as a lesser wave of pain washed over. “It didn’t work like they thought it would. It wasn’t supposed to hurt. When they found out it did… they didn’t care.” She stared up. “I told you I’ll never be normal. It hurts so much, I’d rather die.”

  Katya pulled her into a hug. “Don’t talk like that. It’s never that bad.”

  The snow-haired waif fixed her with a look that frightened her.

  Masaru offered a ration pack. Her mood changed on a dime and she snatched it out of his hands like a wild dog, tearing into it with such fervor that she almost ate the plastic packets as well as the nutrient paste they contained. Inside of a minute, she asked for another one in such a desperate tone that Joey gave her one of his. She sucked it down just as fast, barely breathing between bites.

  “Those things are meant to be one a day. You just fed her about four thousand calories.” Kenny gave Joey a smirk.

  Joey chuckled. “She could use it.”

  “You’re one to talk.” Eldon swatted him on the back with a grin.

  “That much, that fast, is going to make her sick.” Kenny shook his head.

  Visible ripples in the girl’s limbs stalled their argument. The diameter of her arms and legs grew out like someone inflating a balloon animal. After several minutes, she no longer looked emaciated, and appeared to be at a healthy athletic weight. The kid wiggled her toes, as if mystified by having feeling back in her legs.

  Kenny threw his hands up. “Or something altogether unexpected and fucked up could happen.”

  Joey snickered at the look on her face. “That had to feel funky.”

  ensing their stares, the child spoke without looking up. “The nanobots can restructure the proteins contained in food and use it to repair tissues. Eating is like giving it spare parts. If you cut my head off I’m pretty much fucked, but…” She hesitated for a second. “Anything else I’ll get back up from. They cut off my hand once as a proof of concept demonstration for some generals so they could watch it grow back.”

  “I can’t hear any more of this shit.” Eldon stomped off and ranted to no one in particular a few yards away.

  Joey knelt and grasped her hand. “If I find anything on this network I can use to expose this to the world, I will make sure someone burns for it.”

  Katya growled. “We can’t let them do this again.”

  “They won’t.” The girl’s tone was flat. “I killed the lead scientist.”

  She rummaged through the bag and crawled into a long sleeved sweatshirt big enough to be a dress on her.

  Her head popped out of the top. “The generals got into an argument with the doctors. Soon after they left, the dogs attacked. I don’t think it was an accident.”

  “No shit.” Eldon felt better that command rejected this insanity.

  Masaru surveyed the destruction. “Is that what happened to this place?”

  “The dog men come from an installation about ten miles north. We ran dozens of recon and training missions over there. Something led them down here and they overran us. StarPoint caused most of the damage trying to kill the dogs.”

  “Or trying to sanitize this facility.” Katya frowned.

  “I think you’re right.” Eldon pointed at the walls. “You don’t launch AG
M-144’s at effin’ Canids. They wanted to scrub this place.”

  Joey tapped his chin. “The government has a lot of failings but they coddle kids. It makes for loyal adults when they grow up and it’s good for the NewsNet. Bet they saw this as a public relations nightmare.”

  “Or maybe they actually had souls?” Kenny smiled. “Whenever I see a news report about a summary, it’s related to a crime against a kid.”

  “It don’t happen that often,” said Eldon. “Most of the cops I know don’t like to execute people. I dunno why they didn’t just order it shut down on the spot, or come annihilate the place themselves.”

  “Most likely they wanted to preserve their business relationship with StarPoint while at the same time objecting to what they did here.” Masaru looked to the north. “A third party adversary provided them plausible deniability.”

  Katya squatted next to the girl. “Since you don’t grow up, do you know how old you really are? You don’t talk like a kid.”

  “Our first operational status test was done on March 8th 2397. I don’t remember being smaller than I am now and all my sisters look just like me. I guess that would make me about twenty one, give or take a few months.”

  Amber giggled. “Wow, she’s older than me… well, I mean, older than me if I wasn’t frozen.”

  “Man, the fucked up things you see out here.” Kenny rubbed his head.

  “What kind of inhuman monster could subject a person to this much pain for so long?” Katya shivered.

  “It started out feeling like a hot flash. After a year, it felt like being boiled alive, and it just kept getting worse. I think my body is pissed off that it can’t grow up and trying harder and harder. It’ll probably kill me soon.” She looked down. “Wish it would hurry up.”

  “Is there anything we can do to stop this?” Katya glanced at Masaru.

  “That’s a question for Ido once we get back to the city.”

  “Ok, kid.” Katya crouched down to eye level. “You dropped the prisoner-of-war routine a little too fast. I’m still not convinced you’re not still looking for an unguarded weapon. I’m going to ask you to trust me.” She put her hand on the girl’s shoulder. “I will find a way to make the pain stop.”