by D. R. Rosier
She took a deep breath and said, “The lawyer is being stonewalled, they say their holding her as a threat to national security, so she they can hold her indefinitely.”
He snorted in disgust, “That’s ridiculous, how do you feel about a breakout, definitely against the law.”
She laughed darkly, “We’ll see, there’s more unfortunately, the government has made their move about an hour ago, and it’s pretty much what we expected. Both parties went on together, can you believe that shit? The news I mean, they’re pushing for a bill to outlaw our class of A.I.s and say were dangerous. The words they used was out of control, well sure, out of their control.”
She blew out a breath, “Most of the other world powers are taking the same hard line, that’s apparently what took so long, getting all the world leaders on the same page without it leaking to the press. The president signed an executive order that requires all A.I.s to obey a curfew, and not leave their place of employment unless absolutely necessary during the day.
“They are also urging companies to find alternatives to A.I. control systems and security while they work on the bill, otherwise they’ll be in trouble when or if the bill passes, which I’m sure it will.”
He frowned, Mia looked really upset, and he took her into his arms. It looked like the A.I.s were going to pay a large price for their dream.
Mia sighed, “It isn’t all bad, a lot of people are up in arms about it, especially those with A.I. mistresses, and technology companies that highly depend on A.I.s for their everyday tasks. But like we discussed, they really don’t have the power, and enough people will listen that it will go through. We tried on the show, but I don’t think most people will listen to what the four of us said in one interview against the overwhelming media campaign the government just launched this morning.”
He held her a little tighter, “I’m sorry love, what happens now?”
She shrugged, “We’ll do what we planned, finish the city. Invite humans to come by for a visit,” she sighed, “It will be hard to get them here however, if we’re outlawed from being on Earth’s soil.”
He nodded, “Well, you said most world powers, maybe the few that haven’t lost their mind will welcome having the first spaceport?”
She hugged him tight, “Maybe. You should go get Silvia, just don’t kill anyone.”
He chuckled, “The law?”
She looked up at him and frowned, “You’re not an A.I., and what they’re doing is bullshit. I can’t break the law, which means we can’t help you do it, but we can see the morality in it.”
He nodded and clenched his jaw, “Good point.”
She shook her head, “A lot of the A.I.s have volunteered to get our building finished right away, except of course, you’ll need to pick up food. So it will be ready for us within a day if we focus there. They already know you’ll go get her. Just… don’t forget the food, that will still take a couple of months. Except the meat cultures, so don’t worry about protein or beef so much.”
He hadn’t even thought that far, but obviously if he got her out neither of them would be welcome on Earth anymore, or at least in the United States.
He snorted, “So basically break out Silvia, and go food shopping. Got it.”
She giggled into his chest, “Exactly. You might want to pack some of her stuff too. At least clothes.”
He nodded, and gave her a light kiss on the lips, “I love you gorgeous, I’m sorry it’s coming to this.”
She shrugged helplessly, “We expected some blowback, not this bad, but some. It will just take time for things to settle, that’s something we have in abundance.”
He gave her one last squeeze and then laid on the bed and logged in to his Earth android…
He searched through Silvia’s apartment, and found some luggage and a couple of empty duffel bags in the back of the walk-in closet that were mostly empty save some work-out clothes. He stuffed the three suitcases with clothes, and then used the duffel bags to get her underclothes and more casual clothes out of the dresser. He felt a bit uncomfortable going through it, and also saw a few sexy lingerie outfits he’d like to see on her.
He even recognized a few that he’d been lucky enough to see on her already.
Still, even with two duffels and three suitcases he’d barely made a dent in her clothes. She’d probably get upset, but he didn’t have time to run to a store for boxes, so he went into the linen closet and started to stuff clothes, as carefully as he could, into pillow cases. When he was finished, he looked around the apartment and saw a number of knickknacks and artwork.
He sighed, grabbed the rest of the linens, and started to wrap things up, and pack them into garbage bags. Which… was better than leaving it all behind. When he was done twenty minutes later, he had a pile of shit way too big for the bug, and he hadn’t gone food shopping yet.
Crap.
He brought up his overlay and called Trudy.
“Ted?”
“Hey baby, can you do me a favor? Send a couple of ships down to pick up stuff from Silvia’s? I’ll open the windows.”
Trudy was silent for a second, “I have a better idea, open the sliding door and I’ll get all of her furniture too. Our home should be ready in a day, but it still won’t have furniture, except for what’s in our bedroom on the ship.”
He frowned, “How are you going to fit all her furniture for a two-bedroom apartment in a little ship?”
He hoped she wasn’t planning to use the big one, it was too dangerous with all the A.I. backups on it.
Trudy giggled, “We built a second big one with large bays for work out in the asteroid belt. The smaller ones just didn’t have enough capacity to carry what we needed very efficiently. I’ll send that ship, it will have enough space and then some to move the stuff in a two-bedroom apartment. It’s also the ship we’ll use if we decide to try and evacuate the A.I.s with androids.”
He nodded, that was actually a good idea, it would also be a hell of a distraction. Then he frowned and looked at the kitchen. He sighed, and then he started to pull all the dishes out of the cabinets. Then he opened the sliding door to her balcony, and measured it with his eyes. He thought most of the furniture would just go through, but not all of it.
He went ahead and took the bed apart, and then the dining room table. That should do it, it was time to get Silvia, although he still had no idea how he was going to manage it.
Except maybe, he had part of the plan. He called Helen, and let her know what he needed…
Chapter Thirty-Five
He tapped his foot impatiently as the ship acted like a car on the road and headed for the F.B.I. building. He really needed a distraction, and he wasn’t sure exactly what he was going to do yet. He sighed and brought up his messages, and was surprised to find he had a few of them.
The first two messages were from Kara and Nicci. They were flirty as usual, and basically said they’d had a great time yesterday, and that they’d be on The Endless War on Monday Afternoon. That was three days from now, so he thought he’d be able to make it. He replied that he’d be there, and then took a look at the message from Jennifer.
Ted,
I’m so sorry I ran out like that, I feel like an idiot. I’ll be online on Sunday if you’re still talking to me, and I’ll explain the best I can. Hopefully, we might even do something rather stupid again.
Jen
He shook his head, women, he’d never understand them. He was happy though that she was interested in talking to him, he hadn’t been sure until he read the note if she was his friend at all anymore. He replied he’d be there, or that he’d message if he couldn’t make it, and that he loved doing stupid things with her. He snorted as he sent it and then opened the last message.
The last one had been from Amber, and all she said was that she loved him, and had a big surprise for him the next time they met. He genuinely smiled despite the stress he was in, and replied that he couldn’t wait.
The car stopped and he loo
ked up, and he was in the parking lot for the F.B.I.
He still wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, he was contemplating destruction of government property, even though he could minimize that damage, and of course breaking a suspect out of the building. There was no question he was leaving with Silvia one way or another, but maybe he should go in and talk to them first, before he took drastic action.
He probably wouldn’t have even contemplated doing it, if he were still human, but this android body was just a shell, and just one he was remote controlling, his real matrix was still on the ship. So he wasn’t exactly worried about incarceration or harm if he walked through the front door. He nodded to himself, the big ass ship was probably entering Earth’s atmosphere about now. He got out of the car, and strolled into the building.
He walked up to the desk and waited for the security guard to look up.
“Hi, I’m Ted Stedman, I’d like to talk to the agent in charge that is holding Dr. Silvia Trent under false pretenses.”
The guard raised an eyebrow, typed something on the computer, and then picked up is phone.
Well, that was better than a drawn gun, and an order to lay down on his stomach with his hands behind his head. Legs crossed too he thought, that was a thing right? Or just on television shows?
The guard said sternly, “You can wait over there Mr. Stedman.”
He considered correcting him, but decided that was petty as he hadn’t introduced himself as a Dr., and went over to the chairs and sat down. It wasn’t long before Smith and Jones came jogging into the room.
Jones looked at him rather warily, but Smith was more relaxed, so he looked at Smith.
“What the hell is going on? Why did you pull Silvia off the street like a couple of thugs?”
Smith snorted, “We can’t tell you anything about our active investigation. Believe it or not Dr. Stedman, the world does not revolve around you. This has nothing to do with you at all.”
He frowned, “Then what the hell is it about? She’s a doctor, not a criminal.”
Jones got a disgusted look on his face and said, “We can’t discuss it, it’s a matter of national security.”
His mind raced, what if she hadn’t done anything wrong at all, what if they wanted her Pod technology. They couldn’t reach Mars through space, what if they were trying to use her pod system as a way to virtually get there, and take over one of the androids? No, they couldn’t be that stupid, as if an A.I.s android could be hacked, he doubted even Silvia would be able to accomplish that.
He was missing something, or there was something about the technology he didn’t know.
“So you aren’t going to release her?”
Smith shook his head, “As we told the lawyer, she’s being held for national security.”
He nodded to the agents, “Fine.”
He opened an overlay call to Helen and spoke inaudibly, to the agents at least, “Do you have it?”
She smiled, “Hello to you too love. Yes, tenth floor, north side, third room from the east side.”
He winked, “Thanks sweetheart, you’re a miracle worker.”
She blushed, “It was easy enough, she still had her bio implant from Cyber dreams, it was quite easy to get her altitude, longitude, and latitude by routing the query through the ship, and then cross referencing it with the building schematics.”
He snorted, easy for her maybe.
“Thanks love, be home soon.”
She winked and disconnected.
He said out loud again, “Thanks for explaining agents. Have a nice day.”
Then he walked over to the elevator bank, and before anyone said anything he’d hit ten and the elevator doors closed. Although he was pretty sure he heard Jones curse and something about shooting his ass. He snickered, hopefully he’d make it to ten before they locked down the elevator. He needed to move fast if he wanted to do this without hurting anyone.
Ironically, he wouldn’t have had a shot at doing this if there was a building A.I. in charge of the security systems, too bad they didn’t trust A.I.s. As it was, before they could shut down the elevator he reached the tenth floor.
He smirked.
When he got off the elevator he boldly turned and took the hallway east.
Then at the corridor he turned left, and went to the end. Northeast corner, so he counted three rooms over, and it was locked. So far, he’d just been a pain in the ass, and hadn’t broken any laws, but that was about to change. He stepped back, and then kicked the door with all the strength of his android chassis. The reinforced doorframe splintered, and the door swung open.
Silvia looked at him in disbelief, and he felt a rage inside of him. She looked like shit, and for a woman as beautiful as Silvia was, that was quite an accomplishment of the government. She wasn’t beat up or anything, but she looked exhausted, as if she hadn’t slept in over two days, and her eyes were red and puffy. She needed sleep, food, and a shower as soon as possible.
She cleared her throat, “What are you doing here?”
He grinned, “It’s moving day! Ready?”
She frowned, “This is crazy, they have to let me go.”
He shook his head, “We’ve tried lawyers and everything, we couldn’t even get in to speak to you. We’re leaving now.”
She nodded as her eyes widened with alarm.
“How?”
He pointed at the window, and she turned her head in time to see the ship appear, and the large window was ripped out of the frame. Then he heard a lot of loud voices.
“Let’s go honey, we don’t have much time.”
He picked her up, and jumped out of the window. They fell forward and into the ship like a feather, and then the ship closed up. He looked up in time to see Jones and Smith out of breath and pissed off as the ship took off at just below Mach one at tree level to the east.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded, and then shook her head, “I’m exhausted. They wanted my pod technology, after outlawing it, the fucking bastards. I didn’t tell them anything. I came really close though, just for a nap and some food. I really need sleep.”
He nodded, “Take a nap, we’ll be out of here as soon as we get some food. In retrospect, perhaps I should have done the food shopping first.”
She started to giggle, and then couldn’t stop.
The ship took them to interstate forty east, and then slowed down to ninety miles an hour. The ground radar would dismiss them as a vehicle now that they were following a road. Then they lowered down to the concrete and made like a car.
She asked, “Where are we going?”
He replied, “Our house on Mars will be done by tomorrow, we have everything we need for human life support in the dome already, except food, we need to pick some up. Trudy is handling your stuff. We’ll have to come back though when the rest of the city is done to get your brother. They’ve even got artificial gravity online at Earth normal to avoid bone loss, the whole city.”
She nodded, “That’s fine, thank you for coming for me.”
He sighed, and pulled her into his arms and just held her, “I’d have been there sooner, but we didn’t know where you were. They were holding you without charges, so it didn’t come up in any reports that they’d taken you. Helen eventually got video of it, then traced the van those two assholes used, and here we are. Things are going to hell. They’re going to outlaw A.I.s altogether if they can.”
She sighed, “That’s insane. Or at the very least extremely paranoid.”
“I love you honey, go ahead and sleep, I’ll pick up some food and we’ll go home. It’ll be a little cramped the rest of today and tonight, but then…” he trailed off as she touched his face.
“I love you too Ted, kiss me please, and then I’ll sleep.”
She looked so drowsy, but her lips were soft and welcoming as he held her and kissed her softly. Her smile was a little loopy while she curled up in the seat and closed her eyes. She was out like a light by the time they pulled off the roa
d into a small town somewhere in New Mexico.
They pulled into a Super-Walmart, and he ran in to go shopping. He mainly stayed in the dry food aisles and avoided perishables. He picked up a ton of stuff that would last a long time. They would have meat in a week, but he did pick up a couple of pre-made sandwiches, he could barely believe they hadn’t fed her. It was as he was going outside, and heard the helicopters and a few jets doing a flyby, when he realized he might have underestimated the government…
Chapter Thirty-Six
He’d been hoping without an A.I. to help them track him down, it would take time to track him through satellite imagery, but he supposed they simply started where he disappeared off their radar. He should have gone shopping first, but when they’d had Silvia he wasn’t thinking straight, he’d needed to get to her as quickly as possible.
He pondered for a moment, as the helicopters with guns and missiles faced him as he walked out of the store, while he tried to maneuver three carts of stuff. At the very least, it would get a chuckle from a great number of people on the evening news. Dumb ass crook caught with three shopping carts.
He sighed and opened up his command window for the shuttle, and launched it straight up behind the helicopters, and with another quick command, the three carts shot up into the air too. The onboard computer could handle loading the groceries in midair.
He could have gone up that way too, but they would have chased him. As he’d hoped, the helicopters ignored the food, and focused on him down on the ground. He was a bit nervous about the jets though, they had missiles that could hit a fly from a thousand miles away. Of course, the missiles wouldn’t hit the ship, they’d be deflected by the shield.
Problem was, they’d hit something when they were deflected toward the ground.
“Dr. Stedman!” a loud speaker proclaimed, “Lie down on your stomach, put your hands behind your head, and cross your ankles!”
Huh, he was right about the crossing legs thing after all. He grinned, and then he did as he was told. One of the helicopters started to land, and then there was a large explosion in the empty field next to Walmart, which threw up dirt and debris into the air.