The Children of New Earth (4 page)

“But what was it?” I asked, grateful that she would defend me.

“That, my dear Thran, was a Siren,” Cora explained. “You see, when the war ended, not all remnants of that demonic alien race were purged from our planet. These ‘survivors’ lurk in the dark, uninhabited parts of the world.”

“Fortunately for us, they don’t often attack in daylight, and even when we do encounter them, they are usually very weak.”

“Thank you, Aaron,” Cora continued. “At its full strength, a Siren can mimic the sound of anything or anyone it hears. Alongside this trickery, it releases a toxin into the air that inhibits the logic regions of the brain. If you hear a little girl crying in the darkness, and you don't stop to think that that’s a little odd, you will undoubtedly fall into its trap.” She glanced judgingly at Aaron and Rachel. “The Siren you encountered was clearly weakened, otherwise we would not be having this conversation right now.”

“There are more dangerous things out there,” Aaron directed to Cora. “I deal with them almost every day and I don’t think you can say the same.”

After a few seconds of silence Rachel said, “I think Cora likes it when he gets all serious like that.”

Cora and Aaron blushed. It took all my willpower to suppress laughter, both because my stomach was wounded and because Cora was someone I did not want to antagonize. I clutched the area where I was stabbed. Aaron noticed and gave me some words of comfort.

“Don’t sweat it, Thran. I remember my first wound. Granted, it was accidental friendly fire that almost went through my heart but hey, I’m still here!”

Cora scoffed again. “Accidental,” she muttered.

“Wait, what?”

“Oh, nothing,” she replied, gleefully turning away.

“Hey, don’t be like that,” he followed her out.

Rachel and I smiled as they walked away arguing.

“In all seriousness, you should probably rest. We’re gonna be here for a while until we figure out our next course of action,” Rachel said.

“Course of action?”

“You didn’t think we were just gonna stay here for the rest of our lives?”

“Of course not, my parents are still back at Sanctuary.”

“Exactly, and it’s our job to rescue them.”

“But from who? Who attacked us? And why?” How many—?”

She raised her hand to stop me. “Chill out. Rest and we’ll talk later.”

I reluctantly agreed.

Chapter 4

I had so many questions, and lucky for me, this seemed like the place to get answers. Cora was quite informative; she would work on some complicated project in her lab while simultaneously answering my questions and attempting to suppress her obvious annoyance. I learned that she was a scientific prodigy, and her power was reading other people's minds. She was currently learning to push her own thoughts into someone else’s brain, though she wasn’t an expert with this ability yet. However, she could do something such as enter another person’s dream, like she did with mine.

After learning her vague backstory, I asked her why I was attacked at my own sanctuary and the identity and motives of the people responsible.

“Some people just don’t like the state of the world. Doesn’t matter if it’s a post-apocalyptic nightmare or a Golden Age, they will always find fault with the system and seek to tear it down. We call them, simply, anarchists. They were the ones who tried to kill you.”

“I know the world isn’t perfect, but we’re still recovering from a war. How upset can they be that they would resort to murder?” I questioned as Aaron walked in.

“Not everyone is lucky enough to be the child of the Sanctuary leader, friend,” Aaron responded. “You get a few perks the rest of us don’t. The difference between us and the anarchists is that we understand that times are hard and options are limited. Someone needs to lead, and an elected leader is better than a military tyrant.”

“Privilege is usually invisible to those who have it,” Cora added.

“I never really thought about it like that…” I said.

“When communication was cut off among the Sanctuaries, each one kind of became an independent state.” Aaron explained. “But based on our scouting missions to nearby Sanctuaries, we know they were wiped out by anarchists.”

“How do you know?” I asked. “Bullet wounds and ransacked camps?”

“That,” Aaron began. “And they also left messages written on scraps of paper or painted on walls. Not the most discrete group of rebels.”

“For now, we believe this - ideology - is contained to North America,” Cora said. “But we haven’t made contact with Europe or Asia or any other part of the world in almost five years, and things change.”

“Do we have any idea about the source?”

“Well your Sanctuary and this one are the only ones we know of in the New York area, so it couldn’t have been here,” Aaron concluded.

“Our best lead is Philadelphia,” Cora turned to me. “That’s where my parents are currently investigating.”

“Really?” I said, quite surprised. “Seems like none of us have Parents to turn to at the moment.”

“All the Parents in this Sanctuary are on the other platforms, so for now we’re stuck waiting for new information and for the power to stabilize,” Cora grumbled. She then turned back to tinkering with some kind of circuit board.

“Well, I’m sure I can entertain myself until then,” I said, adjusting my purple cloak and leaving the room.

The door shut behind me, with Aaron still on the other side. Based on what I’d seen so far, this Sanctuary was actually inside the Tunnel. It was built as a network of train platforms, and drew power from solar panels installed on the surface. The train lines weren’t live, and the tracks were lined with lights to allow safe travel from one station to another. I hadn’t seen any other stations due to the recent power fluctuations. If the power shut off while I was en route, I would be stuck in darkness indefinitely. Cora is only “pretty sure” there aren’t any Demons still lurking in the tunnels, waiting for the coming of darkness to attack.

The daily events were similar to my own Sanctuary, except it was underground. Soldiers trained and scientists studied. It had never occurred to me, but I didn’t understand why the scientists didn’t take some time to train. Likewise, why didn’t the soldiers decide to learn about the various technology that aided their daily missions? I suppose in a world like this, you can’t be good at a lot of things; you have to be great at one thing. Specialties were important. They fostered teamwork, and built an overall stronger society. If this ideal wasn’t effective, humanity would not have survived the war, and I would not be here contemplating it.

One one particular day I visited one of the laboratories and came across a desk with various electrical parts laid about. Different colored wires snaked around a set of sensors and circuitry. There seemed to be one central board, which connected to five smaller, substituent boards. Beside the parts was a monitor displaying lines and lines of computer code, with a keyboard set in front, like a paintbrush before a canvas. I wondered what the engineer behind this could have been designing. I didn't want to break anything so I restrained myself from tinkering with any of the machinery. I did notice that all the equipment was manufactured by Eltech.

My parents explained that this corporation was the greatest and most powerful technology conglomerate in the world before the war. They made everything of value in the Digital Age: network infrastructures, computer hardware, communication devices, and even satellites. A lot of the tech we salvaged was made by that corporation.

Two boards on opposite sides of the main motherboard each contained a touch sensor. The touch sensors made by Eltech could detect an incredible range of temperatures, as well as many other properties beyond the ability of any human. The lower two boards had no sensors, but seemed to be mounted on some kind of disc, which I recognized it as a hover disc, also made by Eltech. It was used commonly to carry various objects alongside its owner. Now it would carry this oddly humanoid-looking set of machinery. The final board at the top was smaller than the rest. It had a camera with the ability to detect objects using a laser for depth perception. I'd seen this used in our medical units before. It could scan down to the last atom, meaning it could theoretically measure someone's heart rate based on their chest movement.

Based on my observations, this was clearly some kind of robot. But what made it different from any other machine? It had circuits, wires, and sensors, but without a brain it couldn't have any higher function; and no AI technology had been recovered since the end of the war.

I heard footsteps behind me, and quickly turned around. There was an old man wearing a white coat and large circular glasses. He had a huge smile on his face.

"How can the machine operate without an AI brain, you wonder?" he said, as if he read my mind.

"Yeah…how did you - ?"

"Oh, I can read minds," he turned to his right and pointed at a small, metal device attached to the side of his head.

"That lets you read minds?!"

"Why, yes." he answered. "I built it myself a few years ago. It allows me to detect certain, focused brain patterns, so naturally it only works in small groups of people, ideally one on one."

“It’s funny, I know some people that were born with that ability.

"Yes, you Neogens and your magic tricks,” he said jokingly. “Anyway, I'm Doctor Hovian."

"Thran," I replied.

"And yes, you are correct about my little robot behind you." He walked up to the table. "It won't be that useful without a complicated set of algorithms programmed into the main board here." He pointed at the central board.

"Wait, are you actually working on new AI code from scratch?"

"Yes, and I'm almost done too. Would you like to see what I have so far?"

"Of course!"

He flipped a few switches on the robot and used a Sparker, a small needle-like device, to jump start the Robot.

"It generates its own power based on the resources in the area," he said, pointing at a large box connected to the motherboard. “All it needs is a spark to get started.”

The robot then whirred to life. The disk hovered slightly, but with no apparatus holding the boards and wires together, the rest of the robot remained on the ground. A green light began to blink on the camera, and several others on the board flickered on as well.

"What do you see?" Dr. Hovian asked the machine.

The camera rotated and scanned the room. Then it spoke: "Two life forms. Both human. Young human is 18 years old. Near-perfect vitals. Possible calibration error.

I was stunned. "Amazing. But what does it mean by calibration error?”

“Well Neogens are by far the healthiest generation to have every lived, but this robot’s medical diagnoses have been programmed with respect to the average human. As for the actual mechanics, you'll have to ask the biologist who helped me with that. He's in another station at the moment."

The robot continued, “Older male is 67 years old. Deteriorating vitals. Please consult physician."

“Oh, I’m sorry about your condition. Have you seen a doctor?”

“I have. But it’s a simple case of old age.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, I’ve lived quite an eventful life. I survived mankind’s greatest war, and contributed quite a lot to the cause.”

“I only hope to be as influential to my generation as you were to yours.”

He chuckled. “Well, I have no doubt of that. And don’t worry about your parents, I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

“How - ?”

He motioned to his device and smiled. “They seem to always be on your mind. Not at the forefront, for you have many things to worry about, but a concern nonetheless.”

“Thank you, Doctor Hovian. I hope you finish this project soon.”

“Oh I’m not too worried about it. Cora tells me you’ve got quite the mind. And I would be delighted if you would complete this project for me.”

“Me?!” I was both anxious and honored. The only scientist I knew that was working on actual artificial intelligence was giving me the chance to finish his work. I thanked him greatly and for the next few days I did nothing but strive to perfect the art of artificial intelligence, using a computer, a robot, and any other brilliant minds I could talk to for advice. It took me a couple days to get acquainted with the code that was already written, but once I understood, I could start building on it.

“Is your new friend awake yet?” Rachel would often come and ask.

“He’s not human, he can’t ‘wake up’. He has to be turned on,” we paused for a moment, then snickered like 12-year-olds.

“Well if he ever gets ‘turned on’, then lemme know, Cora says she wants to see him in action.”

“Your subtlety is astounding.”

“I try,” she said as she walked away.

Whenever I got stuck, like when there was some logic bug in the code I couldn’t figure out, I always asked Dr. Hovian. He seemed quite relaxed ever since he gave me control of the robot. There wasn’t anything aesthetically pleasing down here when it came to the environment, so I’d always find him reading a book.

“Doctor, hello, I had a question about my code.”

He didn’t look up.

“Doctor? Doctor Hovian?”

He sharply inhaled and looked up. “Oh, I apologize. How can I help?”

“What are you reading?”

“Ah, it’s a fantasy novel about an amazing adventure. I read it all the time when I was younger. They even made films about it.”

“Films…yeah I’ve heard of those. People playing different roles, telling a story. Of course, I’ve never actually seen one.”

“They’re truly splendid works of art. Perhaps one day you’ll get the opportunity. Until then, books are the best way to escape this hellish reality.”

“I never really enjoyed reading. My imagination was never quite strong enough, I always felt like I was only seeing the hazy memory of a half-forgotten dream.”

“Well, reading is an acquired taste. Give it time, and you’ll find yourself getting lost in these stories.”

“I’ll give it a try.” I had quite a lot of respect for Dr. Hovian, and I decided that for his sake I would try reading again.