As she kissed him, she knew that her crush was not just a crush. It was love.
He pulled away from the kiss and smiled.
“Are you alright with this?” he asked quietly.
She nodded quickly, her other hand wrapping around the back of his neck, pulling him back down for another kiss.
Standing among the skyscrapers with the sun’s rays embracing them, Tarah and Rayal kissed, alone in the largest city in the Altereye System.
Kailynn had been too curious about the goofy smile Tarah had in on her face and the way she giggled when Rayal said goodbye to leave the young caretaker alone.
As Isa took a nap in the master bedroom, Kailynn went into Tarah’s room and asked her what had happened.
She was then launched into a two-hour explanation of what Rayal had done and their first kiss and how it was Tarah’s first kiss and how Rayal was the best human being to ever exist…and on…and on…
As happy as Kailynn was that the recently-sulking caretaker was so happy, after the first hour of the rapid explanation, she wanted nothing more than to escape the caretaker’s room. However, she sat with Tarah as she explained everything, smiling when she saw the light in Tarah’s eyes.
There was something about Tarah’s flustered, excited, innocent way of explaining the experience that made the Significant envious.
Obviously, her relationship with Isa was far more complicated.
But as she left the caretaker’s room to check on Isa, she realized that she felt the same flustered excitement with the Elite. She knew how she felt about Isa—that was not complicated. Their relationship itself was not complicated. The society to which they were forced to conform made their relationship confusing and dangerous.
Isa was awake when Kailynn walked into the room. The Significant closed the door and walked to the bed, where the Elite was sitting, her head leaned back on the wall, staring at the ceiling. When Kailynn climbed into the bed, she wrapped her arms around Isa and rested her head over the Elite’s chest.
Isa’s arm wrapped around her shoulders and her head rested on Kailynn’s.
The two remained silent for a very long time.
“Isa?” Kailynn finally murmured.
“Mm?”
“Why does Gihron want to dismantle Venus?” she asked. “They don’t gain anything from it, do they?”
“No,” Isa admitted. “Not in reality. But it’s the concept. Venus is, more or less, the tyrant of the entire system. She can access information anywhere at any time, even if it’s not in her mainframe. She can monitor all transmissions, all trade, all social interactions. She is omnipresent.”
“She’s what?”
“She’s everywhere,” Isa clarified.
“There’s something else I don’t understand about that,” Kailynn said, sitting upright. “If she’s everywhere, and she can hear and see everything, how do these plots on your life happen? How does she not know about everyone trying to shut her down?”
“She knows,” Isa disagreed. “She is just programmed to determine credible threats from false ones. Sometimes, her calculations are wrong.”
“I thought she was a computer and therefore her calculations could never be wrong.”
“Her statistics are never wrong,” Isa admitted. “Her calculations on society are correct, but individual people are always unpredictable.”
“Then, if she knew that Gihron was trying to destroy her, why doesn’t she just kill them?”
“Venus is not a weaponized machine,” Isa said, her eyes going distant. “She has certain abilities—she can shut down the planet to its core, but that is not considered weaponized. Because, from that point, humans are the ones that will cause problems, such as sanitation and health concerns, looting, starvation, crime—those are all results of humans, not of Venus.” The Elite sighed heavily. “But she cannot shut down other planets, at least not most of them. A few of them she has that control over, but Gihron is not one.”
“Can’t she, I don’t know, hijack their ships and force them to crash, or something?”
“She could, potentially,” Isa said with a nod. “But that’s where her statistics come into play. Gihron is creating a fuss, it’s true. But they have allies that are remaining quiet, for now. If we were to attack, those allies would rear up and fight. She’s calculated the risk. The likelihood of them actually doing any damage to her or her system is very minimal.”
“But what about you? What about the people of the planet?”
“Those are all things she’s considered in her calculations,” Isa explained. “For now, she has agreed that keeping the Elites as her ruling Syndicate, and therefore risking an attack from Gihron, is less dangerous than removing the Elites from the Syndicate and risking social upheaval.”
“Maybe it’s because I’m ignorant, but wouldn’t social upheaval be easier than war?”
“Not at all,” Isa said, shaking her head. “Anything that happens internally is far more devastating than anything that can occur from outside of a society. In war, you can dehumanize the enemy, band together under your leader, your city, your planet, whatever it is you believe in as a collective whole. During a social upheaval, there is no collective belief. Everyone wants something different, but they don’t know what that is until after they succeed in overturning everything. Then they have to pick up the broken pieces and try to make a cohesive unit. It’s devastating.”
“Didn’t you say that’s what would happen with Trid eventually?” Kailynn pressed.
“Trid is a very good example,” Isa said. “Trids protest and fight for rights in Anon, but they do not seem to understand what that really means. They just know that the way they are being treated is wrong, and they want something different. But with the system as it is, the entire social structure would have to be toppled and rebuilt to incorporate Trids as they want. They don’t know how they would restructure everything, they just know that it needs to happen.”
Kailynn thought over the words, trying to process them fully.
“And, if we were to dismantle Venus, then the planet would be a horrible place to live, and building a new structure would be…”
“Chaotic,” Isa completed, turning to look at Kailynn seriously. “When people are desperate for change and don’t know what it is that they want to change, or the consequences of that change, corruption sets in and becomes a cancer. Those who have a better understanding of the society, whether that is because of family connections, higher education, or any number of factors, are quick to secure their own wealth and position in such social upheavals. That’s why, more often than not, a revolution leaves things more broken than they were before, like what happened to Earth.”
“Earth?”
“I guess you wouldn’t have heard about Earth before,” Isa mused. “Everyone in the Altereye System originated from a planet called Earth, several hundred years ago.”
“Where is Earth?” Kailynn asked.
“Far away from here,” Isa said, her eyebrows high. “And still not far enough.”
“I don’t understand…how could all the planets of the Altereye System have origins on the same planet?”
“Earth started out as all these planets started. Humans developed and changed things over time, and the population grew, humans grew stronger, behaved as humans do…” Isa sighed heavily. “Technology developed and allowed further exploration in the universe, which eventually led to the technologies we have today. The entire planet went through many upheavals, each more devastating than the previous. One country had a revolution, and then another, and another, until the entire planet had torn itself apart and tried to rebuild, but it was disastrous. Everything was corrupt. Countries were trading people and weapons without care, killing one another…eventually, it led to a weaponized human.”
“What does that mean?”
“A weapon that was born and raised like a human, but had strength like you could not imagine. This weapon was the result of testing on other humans u
ntil they created what they believed to be the ultimate weapon.” Isa looked at Kailynn, her eyes dark. “And all that testing eventually led,” he motioned to herself, “to this.”
Kailynn blinked.
“You mean…Elites were the weaponized humans?”
“No, no, not at all,” Isa said, shaking her head. “We’re far weaker than those weapons, but the research and technology that creates Elites all began with those weapons. But they were as human as possible. When they were traded around, beaten, tortured, forced to fight and kill each other as if they were emotionless machines, they retaliated. They might as well have incinerated the planet. The final reports and explorations of Earth say that the planet was uninhabitable.
“However,” Isa continued, “they had found the Altereye System before the bloodshed. And when the weapons began to retaliate, the rich and those in power, who could afford to evacuate Earth, did so. Every country bid and purchased planets based on resources and currency. It was a political blood bath. And then, on top of that, humans were already developed to a certain point, and they decided to develop these planets to that same standard, killing all indigenous species, intelligent or otherwise, and forcing these planets to adapt to what they had been used to on Earth.”
“…I’ve never heard of any of this.”
“I know,” Isa said. “Many schools learn about Earth, but much of this information is heavily guarded. Obviously, it would raise concerns about the Elites.”
Isa sighed heavily.
“So, as you can see, even here and now, these planets were built on corruption from those who could afford to leave the destruction of Earth. They left the others to die.” Isa leaned her head back on the wall once more. “But, with Earth now a distant memory, more present matters push planets apart that have their roots in the evacuation of Earth. Some planets were less-favorable than others, and poorer countries obtained those planets. These are planets that require more sophisticated tools to cultivate and tame for human habitation. But, often, these planets are also far away from trade routes, which isolates them economically and socially. This breeds discontent. And that is the entirety of the Ninth Circle, Gihron included.”
Kailynn took a deep breath, her eyes going wide as she exhaled.
“Wow…” she murmured.
“A lot of information, I know,” Isa said, reaching over and running her fingertips over Kailynn’s cheek. The Significant turned to look at the Golden Elite.
“Knowing all this, you want to shut down Venus?”
Isa nodded slowly.
“If I could, I would,” Isa said.
“So much for Elites being loyal to Venus,” Kailynn tried to joke.
Isa smiled. “I’m not considering myself an Elite anymore,” she whispered. She shifted forward, taking Kailynn’s face in her hands and kissing her tenderly. “I don’t think I ever was. I may have passed the degeneration tests, but I know for sure that I am a degenerate.” Isa looked over Kailynn’s face. “I’ve fallen in love with you. An Elite can’t be more degenerate than that.”
Kailynn looked into the clear blue depths of Isa’s eyes, her heart stopping at the words.
“…I love you, too,” she breathed.
Isa let out a relieved breath and closed her eyes.
“Can you repeat that?” she asked, the smile touching her eyes when she looked at Kailynn again.
The Significant smiled broadly.
“I love you.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The day was progressing as normal.
Kailynn was picked up by Rayal nearly an hour after Isa left for the Syndicate. They discussed the continuing investigation for the Gihrons that had killed the prototypes and were continuing to send threats to the Syndicate about attacking.
All of the Syndicate Intelligence Agency was on-edge, but it was the environment they were used to working in.
Kailynn went about her normal day, running errands around the office for Rayal and trying to learn as much as she could. She had become much better at reading at writing, partially because Isa’s doctors had been worried about her health and continued to send her home hours early to be sure she was well enough to handle the mounting tension. Kailynn was able to spend her evenings with Isa, and the Elite helped her with lessons, finally taking her back into the library where there were electronic book cases and hardcopy books, which Kailynn had never seen in her life.
Kailynn did not mind spending time in the library. Sometimes, it was too much for her to watch the sappy romance unfolding between Tarah and Rayal, so she would escape into the library.
A month had passed since Isa’s collapse at the Syndicate Building. While she was not eating as much as she should, she was forcing herself to eat every day, which helped her keep up her strength. This allowed some of the tension to leave the Syndicate.
But on that day, everything would reach a fever pitch.
At 14:36, there was a deep, sonic rumbling that caused everything in the Intelligence Agency to rattle. Kailynn and Rayal both looked up from their tasks, glancing around at the shaking glasses and files on the table.
Before the rattling stopped, every monitor in the room began flashing red and alarms shrieked. Kailynn was immediately on her feet, walking to Rayal as he glanced at the screens, hitting several keys on his keyboard.
“Fuck…” he breathed. He angrily smashed a button on his desk. “Code Red! Scramble detonation control and the military to the Syndicate Building immediately! The Syndicate has been bombed! Initiate emergency response and then evacuate the building!”
Kailynn’s hearing had turned to a dull ring as the words bounced around her head.
The Syndicate Building had been bombed.
“Kailynn, we have to evacuate,” he said, grabbing her hand.
“What about Isa?!” Kailynn gasped.
“We won’t know immediately. Come on!” he snapped, yanking her out of the office. “We’ll get as close as we—don’t call her!” Rayal snapped when he saw Kailynn reach for her phone.
“What?!”
“If she’s in any sort of trouble, you don’t want to make it worse!”
At the Syndicate Building, Isa heaved herself out of the small compartment door to escape the audience hall where she had been meeting with Venus. She glanced around the main control room, looking at the flashing lights and warnings as various automated voices in the building recited their programmed words.
“Isa!” Remus yelled. She turned and looked up to the third balcony above her head, where Remus was leaning over the railing. “Are you hurt?”
“No!” she called back over the deafening sounds.
Remus ran down the stairs to get to the main control room as Isa ran to one of the terminals to assess the damage to the building. As she looked over the flashing red sections of the building where the structure had been damaged, a sonic boom sounded and all lights in the building flickered briefly, the sounds distorting as power began to fail.
“They’ve hit the central power!” Isa called. Several other Elites had joined her in the control room, also looking over the screens and warnings.
“One more hit like that and they’re going to knock out part of our defenses,” Hana said.
“All employees to the central control room,” Isa said, pressing a broadcast button. “Do not attempt to leave the building.”
“The front of the building is completely destroyed,” Aolee said, looking over the building schematics.
“…we’re about to be ambushed,” Isa hissed.
They all rounded on her, their eyes wide.
“Get the employees in here,” she said, motioning to the few operators and maintenance employees that were running into the central control room. “Fey, deactivate all of Venus’ ports in the building. Chronus, get a tablet and see what exterior cameras are still operational.”
Isa climbed up onto the center platform of the room and walked to one corner, flicking the release switch and typing in several codes.
>
“Anders! Get the employees down here,” she said, motioning to the hatch that opened. “Take them to the far west side of the Pipes. They’ll be safe. Stay with them.”
Anders nodded, pushing one of the computers to the side and getting up on the center platform with Isa, pulling some employees with him and motioning to the open hatch. Isa watched the first operator go down.
“Hostiles in the building!” Chronus announced. “East entrance.”
“Remus, we’re going to need protection,” Isa said quickly.
The Silver Elite ran to one side of the room to open one of the vaults while Fey turned to Isa.
“I can’t deactivate any of Venus’ ports,” he said quickly. “The mainframe is glitching.”
Isa glanced around at the computers in the control room.
“Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath, “everyone focus on getting the employees into the Pipes.” She climbed off the center platform as more employees quickly ducked into the hatch and disappeared. “Everyone’s here, right?”
She got a chorus of affirmatives as she ran to one of the desks and pulled out a communication piece. She shoved it in her ear and placed her pointer finger against the top, going to Chronus and pressing her finger to the edge of the tablet. When the three high beeps sounded, she nodded and looked at him.
“Go into the Pipes and watch them. They’re clearly done with bombs or they wouldn’t be entering the building. Watch the street. When one minute has passed without a hostile entering, let me know.”
“I’m not leaving your side,” Chronus said quickly.
“I need you to watch them,” she said seriously. “Go. That is an order.” She turned to the room. “Okay, everyone, we’re going to force shut down the building once they’re inside. Stay together. Remember everything we’ve been taught.”
“Isa,” Remus said, walking over to her and handing her a gun. She nodded once to him and attached the holster to her waist, pulling the gun out and checking the ammunition as the other Elites were given weapons.
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