E.R.I.C. (The Almost Series Book 2)

by Christina Leigh Pritchard

  “And the A.M.I.E.s had other ideas?”

  “Their goal is to connect to their S.H.A.Y.s literally—and become one.”

  “But they can’t without killing the human host.”

  She nodded.

  “So, I’m going to die?”

  “No! We’ve found a way to stop the process. As long the S.H.A.Y. and A.M.I.E. do not connect, we can override the A.M.I.E.’s internal system and keep you from mutating into a host for the A.M.I.E.’s memory.”

  “Why would a mother want to do this?” I trembled. “This is crazy.”

  “You were designed differently than the others.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Your A.M.I.E. designed you the same way as I was designed.”

  I backed into a wall, feeling for a handle. “I want to get out of here.”

  Dr. Cole grabbed a white coat hanging on the wall. She covered herself with it and stepped closer. Her fingers unbuttoned her military gear. She showed me her abdomen.

  Metal protruded from her flesh and I could see where pieces of her skin were exposed and intertwined with CPUs and their coolers. They were miniature in form and transparent. Wires intertwined with her muscles.

  I gagged, the hairs on my arms sticking straight up. I struggled to stand on weak legs. “Your A.M.I.E is changing you!”

  “Hush, child. You’re not going to end up like me. I’m connected to my A.M.I.E. and you’re not. We’ve figured out a way to stop the process. As long as you do not connect, you’ll be fine.”

  I backed into the wall, sliding down to the floor. I hid my face in between my legs.

  What had I done?

  Why’d I want to meet Amie in the first place? Was I that much of a fool?

  “We’re going to manually override your system and then you’ll get to be a normal teenage girl with advanced intellect.”

  I glanced up. “What happens to the next S.H.A.Y.?”

  Dr. Cole frowned. “If she is designed the same as you, she’ll live too.”

  “What if the A.M.I.E. learns your plans and doesn’t design her the same as me?”

  “Then she’ll mutate and die.”

  “Why?”

  “Science will not allow the A.M.I.E. and her S.H.A.Y. to connect.”

  I tried to stand but dropped back onto the floor. “Why?”

  “S.H.A.Y.s, once connected, live as long as their A.M.I.E. and the A.M.I.E. can slow the transformation process. However, it comes with a price.”

  “What’s the price?”

  “The longer they’re connected to you, the more control they have over you.”

  I searched for my Amie. Why didn’t she come to explain herself? How could she lie to me? “Why would I change if I’m not connected to my A.M.I.E.?”

  “Science did this.” Dr. Cole stepped back, buttoning her lab jacket. “They wanted to be able to have their products link to other artificial hosts for military purposes whenever needed, but just in case one became unruly, the S.H.A.Y. could be eliminated in a quick manner that did not link the scientists to their death—it would be blamed on their A.M.I.E. as faulty programming.”

  “Don’t people care that I’ve been turned into a lab rat?” I covered my mouth, sobbing. I choked on my words. “H-how—”

  “You’re in a non-jurisdictional area. There are activists for you out there.”

  Somehow that didn’t make it any easier.

  Dr. Cole stepped out of the N.I.C.’s room. I stayed, glancing about me. “Amie?” I asked inside my head. “Why aren’t you coming to your defense? Where are you?”

  She didn’t come.

  “Mom? Please answer me.”

  I searched for her hologram. My eyes stung. It was too late for me—the N.I.C. couldn’t save me from A.M.I.E. Hadn’t she said she’d disconnected my manual override system? I was connected to her forever and no one—not even N.I.C.—could stop her or save me from whatever she chose to do to me.

  I couldn’t swallow.

  “Do you really want to use me so you can become real? If Dr. Cole is lying, then show yourself so I know who to believe. I don’t want to believe that you’d use me like this.”

  My mother didn’t show.

  I trembled, forcing myself to stand. The N.I.C. flashed colors all about me. Images flooded my eyes. Thoughts overwhelmed me. I couldn’t help but remember my Amie racing along the shoreline teaching me how to read code. She couldn’t want to kill me. Who trains someone if they know they’re just going to kill them anyway? Why would she promise to not allow my termination?

  “Amie, please.”

  Maybe my A.M.I.E. really was the enemy. After all, why else was her door locked and I forbidden to enter?

  “Okay, A.M.I.E., so it is true.” I closed my eyes. “You don’t even have the courage to step up and admit it.”

  I opened my eyes and searched the room. “You’re just a nasty, selfish, artificial machine that doesn’t deserve to live.”

  She still didn’t come.

  My mom wasn’t going to ever show herself again.

  It was true.

  Dr. Cole was right.

  I wiped my tears away. “You won’t get my body. I’ll never give it to you.”

  Chapter Four

  Preparing for Battle

  I stepped into my new living quarters. They were nicer than the ones I’d seen on the various archives Pop showed me, of the other S.H.A.Y. trapped in once they left the developmental phase and entered their experimental phase. In nearly each one, the O.H.P. was dead or murdered. My Pop had showed me those images to warn me of what was to become of my human parent. I needed to spend my last few days alive doing whatever I could to save her.

  My life was finished.

  Telling Dr. Cole would only secure my termination sooner—before I could stop Eric from killing his mother. I had to get Darla across the Miami border. Even if she’d signed her rights away, it didn’t matter, the rules here didn’t apply there. Maybe the scientists were afraid of interference. Suppose Darla crossed the border and reported them? They’d be shut down for sure.

  Remaining trapped inside these walls would only secure my demise. I had to convince Dr. Cole to allow me to stay in my natural environment. I needed her help.

  I paced the room, searching for some way to escape. My thoughts drifted back to the images Pop forced me to watch before I’d escaped from the research facility. I could see S.H.A.Y. after S.H.A.Y. witness their Optional Human Parent murdered before their eyes. I glanced over into the N.I.C.’s room. The scenes always surrounded a white room—just like that.

  I trembled.

  There was no way I was staying in this mausoleum. “Dr. Cole!” I pounded on the doors. “Where are you? I need to speak to you.”

  Her hologram stood before me. “I’m no longer allowed to make physical contact with you. You’ve been quarantined in these quarters until your N.I.C. approves of your release.”

  “I don’t want to be stuck in here.”

  “Please stand by. Your P.O.P. will be transferred to your quarters shortly.”

  “No, he doesn’t want to watch me die!” I kicked the walls and tossed chairs at the glass walls. They bounced off as if they were weightless. “Where’s Darla?”

  “Your O.H.P. will be sent to your quarters once she’s completed decontamination.”

  I stepped into the N.I.C.’s room. His lights flashed and ran in circles around me. “I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but leaving me in here is going to guarantee my termination. Do you understand what that will mean for you?”

  N.I.C. stopped flashing.

  “You do understand.” I sat and touched the floor with my fingers. This was where his circuitry was. “If you leave me here and I fail, that means you fail.”

  His room darkened.

  I lay my cheek to the floor. “Please, I’m in my element down in my room. I have a better chance at survival there. You will learn more about me if I am there, and if I still don’t make it, you’
ll have gained the most accurate study analysis of all S.H.A.Y.s. Your results will supersede all other N.I.C. programs and will benefit further advances.”

  His lights flickered dimly.

  “N.I.C., science understands that animals in captivity are easy to study on a shallow basis, but to truly know the animal is to see it in its natural habitat,” I said.

  “Be different and learn many concepts. Don’t follow just what you’ve been programmed to do; become more than your predecessors.”

  Lights flashed and I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d confused the program. I covered my face.

  “I can’t escape from my room; it’s surrounded by water. Please, N.I.C., I promise you’ll collect more data from me than from any other S.H.A.Y. I’ll willingly give it to you. I’ll submit more logs than any other.”

  His entrances closed and his lights dimmed.

  I scrambled to my feet, pounding on the doors. “What are you doing? N.I.C.!”

  “My Shay?”

  I turned around. My Pop’s holographic image stood before me. I could see his dark skin and broad shoulders. Sure, it wasn’t really him, just an image another S.H.A.Y. created so that she could “see” her P.O.P. But I was glad to see him anyway.

  “Pop!” I sobbed. “Tell N.I.C. to let us go back to our room. It’s the safest place for us from Eric. He’s going to come for Darla and me.”

  “The E.R.I.C. only wants his host mother,” Pop said. “I’ve assisted in the creation of your N.I.C. so that you may stay safe from the E.R.I.C. This is the first N.I.C. with a ‘keeper’. I designed the keeper to watch and analyze the E.R.I.C. so you may not face termination.”

  “You did that for me?”

  Pop turned his back to me. “I did not wish to see my Shay face termination.”

  I smiled. “Please, I want to be in my room. I know I’ll have a better chance there.”

  “You are not like the other S.H.A.Y.s” Pop pointed to the floor. “The N.I.C. says you are more, and he is unable to understand the data he has taken from you. His system is overloaded.”

  “Imagine what he’ll learn if I’m in my own environment.”

  Pop shook his head. “I’ve assisted in the design of your security system. I was the first P.O.P. allowed to have full access.”

  “Eric adapts to his environment. Ask N.I.C.. His keeper knows what sorts of things he can do. He’ll find a way to get inside here. Every E.R.I.C. before him has done it.”

  “I do not wish to see your termination,” Pop said. “My circuitry is faulty, please stand by.”

  “Pop! Please!”

  His image flickered. “My Shay.” His electronic voice garbled. “I will request a transfer.”

  The doors opened and I stumbled out, racing for the exit. I slammed into the sides of the sanitation chamber, waiting for it to open.

  Dr. Cole stood inside, her hair moist and her face flushed from the steam. “You’re being transferred to your old room.”

  I stood next to her, touching my shoulder to hers. She trembled.

  “I hope this wasn’t a mistake.” She spoke softly. “No one wants to watch you die, Shay.”

  “I didn’t know you cared.”

  She shrugged, disappearing in the steam. “I didn’t spend eighteen years trying to save you for nothing.”

  “Why would you bother?”

  She stood close. “I used the last remaining DNA I had from our biological parents. In a strange way, we’re sisters.”

  I couldn’t respond.

  Her dark eyes appeared through the steam as it dissipated. “My A.M.I.E. is downloading so I only have a minute to ask you this.”

  “Ask me what?”

  She stood inches from me, her arms wrapping me in a hug. “What did your A.M.I.E. name you?”

  I froze. “What?”

  “I’m not stupid, but I won’t tell,” she said. “I just want to know what she calls you.”

  I folded my arms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Very well,” she said. “It’s only a matter of time before the N.I.C. figures out what’s wrong with your DNA. Once he does, he’ll kill you.”

  We stepped out of the sanitation chamber and went through the scientists’ area. It was empty. My friends were gone. “Where is everyone?”

  “I had everyone go to their own quarters for safety. You’re not the only one at risk from the E.R.I.C. He’ll kill anyone who stands in his way.”

  “Why didn’t your E.R.I.C. kill you?”

  She frowned. “I reset him.”

  “That’s good, we’ll just reset mine!”

  “I already reset yours, remember?”

  I nodded. “That means he won’t come after his mother now.”

  “He’ll reprogram once he locks on her.”

  “So you can reset him again.”

  “No,” she said. “I can’t.”

  “Did you kill your E.R.I.C.?”

  Dr. Cole frowned, staring at her feet. I watched her coat flap as she took hurried steps into the main elevator.

  “You didn’t answer me. Did you kill your E.R.I.C.?”

  “I watched him kill my O.H.P.”

  “He killed his mother?”

  “Yes, with his bare hands. He cracked her in half.” Her eyes watered. “Blood was everywhere.”

  I grabbed for her hand. She jerked back.

  “Okay, time’s up. Shay, enough with the questions. We need to get you into your quarters and set up security before your E.R.I.C. comes for your O.H.P.”

  I nodded. “Right, back to work.”

  We stood in silence as the glass elevator declined towards the bottom of the ocean where my room was. It stopped and the doors opened. I couldn’t see them, but I already felt better knowing my bed would be there, ready for me to crash into it. I could sit in my Pop’s sensory chair and feel his presence. My heart pounded inside me. Would Darla be there, waiting for me?

  I stepped forward.

  My quarters hadn’t been touched. Everything was exactly the same. My first prototypes still littered the walls and tops of dressers and tables. I smiled at the racing lights flooding my room and landing on the console.

  “Hello, my Shay,” said Pop. “Welcome home.”

  I searched for Darla.

  Dr. Cole cleared her throat. “Your O.H.P. is being brought down. She’ll be here shortly to stay with us.”

  I twirled around and glared at Dr. Cole. “You can’t be here.” I searched for Pop. “She can’t stay in here with us, Pop, she’ll ruin everything.”

  He didn’t respond.

  “Pop?”

  “It was the only way,” he said. “Those were her negotiations.”

  Dr. Cole shrugged. “I’ll see you shortly.” She disappeared.

  I surveyed my room. “We don’t have much time. Let’s set up before she gets back. I want to be ready for when Eric gets here.”

  Pop’s hologram pointed at several prototypes, military grade inventions I’d discontinued. “This will be something he’ll not see coming.”

  I nodded. “Yes, no one thought they were worthy of a second glance.”

  “Very good, my Shay, I’m impressed at your vision.”

  “Pop,” I whispered. “I’m going to die soon.”

  “Shay—”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “I’m going to save Darla and also someone else first. Promise me you’ll help me, no matter what the cost.”

  “I cannot—”

  “I know you say you’re a machine and cannot emote. But, I know you’re at least attached to me. I’m bonded to you and I need you to help me. Once I’m terminated—so are you. At least let’s go out with a bang these scientists have never seen before—nor will they ever see again.”

  Pop stood before me, his face solemn. “I will do whatever you ask.”

  “Even if it’s against your programming?”

  “I will disconnect manual override.”

  “Good, ‘cause I need to live for
another six months, but I may not be able to do it here.” I pointed to the ocean outside. Fish swam in circles and I could see Pop’s hologram reflected in the glass. He nodded, acknowledging my thoughts. I knew how Eric would find us. I needed to be ready and able to ditch Dr. Cole in the process. “I’ll need you to help in very strange ways, but act as if you are against me.”

  “In six months the next S.H.A.Y. will be born.” Pop’s voice garbled. “She will be your replacement.”

  “No, she won’t. I’m the last S.H.A.Y. this facility will ever see.”

  “Many programs will terminate,” Pop said.

  “Where is your main source? I need the exact locations of all programming. I’ll do what I can to secure the future of our technology.”

  “I will still terminate.”

  I nodded. “Yes, there is no other option for us.”

  “We must begin. Dr. Cole will be upon on us shortly.”

  “Yes, you’re right.” I fell onto my bed, closing my eyes. “But first, let’s have one last moment together—just you and me.”

  “Oh, my Shay.”

  “I love you, Pop.”

  “I am attached to you, my Shay.”

  Chapter Five

  Reprogrammed

  E.R.I.C.

  My eyes opened and a soft rubbery film covered them. I blinked and the film moved, adjusting like contacts. I lay flat on the bottom of the ocean floor, maybe twenty feet below. Lobsters stared at me and fish nibbled at my gills. It always shocked me how much litter there was in the water from years prior when people still visited the Lone Keys. Now, the only humans I saw were illegal fisherman going after protected species, that or factory owners dumping their chemicals. I glanced at two barrels tipped onto their sides. A skull and crossbones was barely visible on the one, showing its age.

  What was I doing down here?

  I swam past a school of needlefish and a manatee with her baby sea cow. They studied me with their sad eyes and I pet them before surfacing. My eyes searched the calm seas, trying to pin-point at least one clue as to why I was stuck stranded in the middle of the ocean.

  Nick would know how to help me figure it out.