The engineer’s been an associate of Franz’s family for years, and his apprentice is the one we need to recruit. “I still don’t get why an electrical engineer needs to fix our car. Shouldn’t it be with a mechanic?” This question’s been running through my brain and it keeps coming back up no matter how many times I try to dismiss it.
“E’s a mix of both. Te family’s been operatin’ in te Capital for generations. Tey’re adept engineers in general. Orion considered ‘iring ‘im but ‘e refused. Te old man doesn’t ‘ave any children so te apprentice will probably be replacing ‘im hwen ‘e retires” Jeremy explained. The factory was huge. Well, I suppose it’s a factory. Large and spacious, hosting some ridiculously advanced tech and machinery. He operates separately from Orion but still has a supply this big. “Tyrone Delaney’s ‘is name. E’s te one hwe ‘ave ta recruit” What even needs to be repaired? This car better be out of this world with the way Jeremy and Reggie have hyped it up.
“Youri, wait by the truck please” I requested.
“Excuse me, are you Mister Delaney?” Roxy enquired as we went inside.
“Mhm, nice to meet you! I take it you’re Eden? Mister Cassius told me you’d be coming. If you’ll follow me. Mister Reginald also said your laptop needed to be fixed?” Biggest understatement I’ve ever heard.
“Our PC and monitor. They’re in the truck outside. Is the Merc operational?” I’ve never been this excited over a car before….
“Yepp! Might just be my masterpiece. Oh right, forgot to introduce myself” No, you didn’t?? “I’m Tyrone Delaney, apprentice of Mister Cassius, studying at Baulder University”
“Baulder!?” Roxy exclaimed, her eyes widening.
“You went there for a year, dumbass” I sighed.
“What are you studying?” She asked.
“He’s quite literally an electrical engineer so take a wild guess. What brings you to the Capital?”
“I’m interning here. Took approval from my professors cause they viewed it as good practical experience. Mister Cassius talked to them as well. My performance here equals my grade there” So I’m not the only one operating like that. “I’ll be returning back up North in December though” No, you won’t.
“Ooh I see. And what problems exactly does the Merc have that it requires your expertise?”
“I was surprised by his request too. He needed it rewired completely. I upgraded its entire interior. I can’t tell you cause it’s a surprise, but trust me; you’re gonna love it! Anything that involves tech is my specialty” Roxy smiled at the statement.
“My friend here is the exact same. She’s a second-year, studying AI at Monarch. I’m sure the two of you will get along” The two of them exchanged glances.
“You were at Baulder for your first year right? How come you transferred?” Interesting questions you ask.
“Long story” Roxy replied.
“Ah ok, as long as you’re benefitting from your studies right? Anyway the car’s here. I added some personal adjustments of my own” Yes, that’s what personal means. “The old man focuses more on the exterior. My job is to improve efficiency, quality, and effectiveness!” Delaney exclaimed proudly. Ah all the words needed to turn Roxy on.
“Youri, unload the monitor please!” I called out. Obviously he won’t hear me from here… Two cloaked figures stood by the door as I approached. They were clad in black, with one’s entire mouth covered by a mask, only showing his eyes; while the other had a helmet, covering most of his head, leaving only his mouth exposed. Youri glared at them with defiance, as well as nervousness.
“Ed-Eden, these two”
“Excuse me, I believe Comic-Con’s being held in Aerys this year. Like it always is. You’re in the wrong part of the continent”
“Eden Doitean Torakirri, we have been expecting you. I’m Blood” The helmeted individual grinned.
“And I’m Fear” The masked one hissed. “You must come with us” Yeah not gonna happen. I pulled out my Wakizashi as Youri readied himself.
“If you are not willing, we will report back to our boss” Is that a threat? Their boss?
“Do you mean Velec?”
“Commander VELEC!” Blood growled.
“What did he send you here for?” The two didn’t reply. They simply hissed before backing off into an alley and vanishing in an instant.
“Do you keep that blade on you at all times?” Youri questioned.
“Everything ok?” Roxy asked as she joined us. “What were those things?”
“No clue. They just said they’d report to their boss if I didn’t come with them”
“Could the Banes have sent them?” Roxy’s the only one who knows every detail about my “relationship” with that family.
“Nope. They’re with Velec. I guess we’ll find out what they wanted soon enough” Where would they have taken me?
“Woah that’s huge!” Tyrone remarked upon seeing the monitor.
“Hehe not the only thing” Roxy giggled, elbowing me in the chest. Why would she say that? Mine’s tiny…
“I trust you know what to do? Also thanks for fixing up the car” I reached out my hand.
“Oh no problem. Always a pleasure to help the Deutschers” He smiled, shaking my hand. The Deutschers…. Never met the father and haven’t seen the mother since I was 4. Before Roxy’ birth… Reggie was the one who practically raised Franz.
“Should we get a move o- JEREMY STOP DOING DONUTS! The car JUST got fixed” I exclaimed.
“I’m lovin’ tis already! Great work Tyrone!”
“You’re not allowed to drive this” I opened the door, pulling Jeremy out as I got into the driver’s seat.
“Oh Mister Cassius is the real mastermind behind this. I just added one of my own things towards the end” The engineer explained.
“Ya did a great job mate! See ya around!”
“Wait, Eden, weren’t we supposed to recruit him?” Roxy whispered.
“We’ll visit again in like a week or so. I like him already but we need to know him better before adding him to our cause. I’m not gonna blindly trust Velec’s judgement. I’ve known Jeremy for my entire university life and I’ve known you my entire life” I replied.
“Oh yeah and what about Youri? Didn’t you meet him only two months ago?”
“He’s a special case. Anyway where should we take this for a spin?”
“Might I suggest Baker and Lennon Avenue, F-Six-Two?” WHAT THE HELL!?!?! I slammed on the brakes, nearly cracking my head against the steering wheel as the car almost swerved out of control.
“YA DON’ DESERVE TA DRIVE TIS CAR!”
“Ooh an AI! NICE!” Youri and Roxy chirped in unison. Goddamned tech geeks.
“Don’t only prototype AI’s exist? I thought fully functional ones weren’t available for public access” Is this Tyrone’s “Personal adjustment”?
“Prototypes are available for commercial use. The government and military have full access to functional AIs like I, myself. My name is NAV. I myself am meant to direct you to any location and am able to save any previous visited location, being able to show you the coordinates simply at your request”
“So, a GPS” The hell’s so special about this?
“AMAZING!” The AI students exclaimed. Damn, Christine would hate this car. Definitely shouldn’t take it when I visit.
“NAV, kindly tell us all about your functions, please” I requested.
“I myself am able to display a full map of the known world, accessing every location and showing the path via your power harnesses. Similar to how video games show you a path to the mission that needs to be accomplished. I myself am able to do the same. Consider it a ‘heads up display’ feature. My timing and sense of predictions are one hundred ten percent accurate. I myself can sense potential blockages or heavy traffic areas seconds before they happen and am thus able to expose the unpredictable” So just a fancy GPS…
“Can we go on a test run? PLEASEEEEE?” Roxy begged, her eyes sparkling.
“Go ahead and marry the damn thing” I sighed.
“I am imp-impressed. Ty-Tyrone was ab-able to cr-create an AI this e-effi-effici-efficient” Youri remarked, just as excited. He says “efficient” as a four syllable word….
“Sure. NAV, take us to Baker and Lennon. Wait, how many locations have you been to?”
“The same ones you have. I myself have already linked up to all your power harnesses. So whichever locations you all have visited throughout your lifetime, I myself have access to those places as well”
“Huh? Eden an’ I don’ ‘ave powahs though” Jeremy interrupted. “Also, hwat’s a powah ‘arness?”
“It’s basically something we use to control and contain our powers. I’ve had mine for quite some time. I already linked it to NAV”
“I did too” Youri added.
“Must be nice” I grumbled.
“Hm? I myself also have access to both Jeremy’s and Eden’s power harnesses”
“’Ow te ‘ell can hwe ‘ave powah ‘arnesses hwen hwe don’ even ‘ave powahs?!”
“Everyone has inherent powers don’t they? Yours just haven’t awakened yet”
“Awoken” I corrected. “How the hell did you even get into Baulder? Did you transfer because you knew you weren’t smart enough to go there? NAV, take us to Baker and Lennon”
“I myself am not able to take control of the vehicle. I myself can only show you the way. You yourself must drive there” THEN HOW IS IT ANY DIFFERENT FROM A GPS?
“See! There’s no need to be suspicious!” Hmm, there’s no point being mistrustful. But still, AIs are dangerous in the wrong hands. I don’t know why we’re screwing with one so early on.
“NAV, tell us more about yourself” Might as well get better acquainted with it during our drive.
“What would you yourselves like to know?” Is that a robot way of talking or did Tyrone intentionally design it this way?
“What exactly are you? I assume there’s different types of AI right?”
“I myself happen to be a semi-AI” Huh?
“Those are les-lesser ver-versions of no-normal AIs. Nor-normal ones have ph-physi-physical bod-bodies and are vis-visi-visible to the hum-human eye. As you can see, NAV has no bod-body” Youri explained.
“Precisely so. An example of a normal AI would be Cortana from the video game series, Halo. They themselves are fully enabled and equipped artificial intelligence units operating at maximum capacity with zero restrictions. I myself am advanced as well, but my functions have been limited to performing basic tasks. I myself would not be able to go rogue during a robot uprising simply because, I myself, cannot. I myself am restricted” That’s reassuring.
“Can your system be ejected from tis car and be placed somehwere else?”
“NAV already answered that. She ‘herself’ said that she’s been linked to all our ‘power harnesses’ and we can utilize her fairly and reasonably limited services”
“Soooo, hwe can ‘ook it up to te monitor right? Tat hway NAV can be in our systems, increasing ‘er use”
“It’ll also be more convenient for me to inspect her. For, research purposes of course” Roxy giggled
“I con-concur” Youri nodded.
“As long as you dumbasses know what you’re doing and don’t somehow manage to screw up. Hook it up to the monitor once we get it fixed. Until then, NAV stays in the car” Maybe I’m just being paranoid. Before I could say anything else, my phone rang.
“Hello, is this Mister Eden Teriyaki?” …. “Mister Maximillian gave me your number as reference” Tyrone Delaney stated.
“Yes this is Mister Eden TOraKIri, is something wrong?”
“Well, kinda. Did you take some spare mech parts that I had lying around with you?” I glared at Roxy, who put her hands up in defense.
“Hm. Nope. We didn’t take anything besides the car”
“Oh, okay. How are you finding NAV by the way? I designed and installed her myself!” He informed with pride.
“She’s alright. We’re taking her out for a test run. Want us to get you some new mech parts?”
“Yes please. I’ll forward the location to NAV’s hard drive. Mister Cassius is very strict about machinery leaving the workplace. Apparently he’s afraid of repeating his biggest failure almost two decades ago. Whatever that means” Almost twenty years ago? Christine’s parents di- that incident happened back in 2004. Could he be referring to that? Was this Cassius the engineer? I slammed on the brakes, making everyone groan in annoyance.
“For the love of GOD learn to drive properly!” Roxy huffed. Says the one who needs someone else to drive for her…
“Roxy, hand me the notebook from my bag please” I requested, pulling the car to a side.
“This small one?” She asked, handing it to me.
“Mhm. So far we have Maximillian Deutscher, Reginald Augustus IV, Roxanne Van Dinkel” I sniggered at the name.
“Your last name is Van Din-Dinkel? I thought it was O’ Ri-Rior-Riordon”
“Van Dinkel’s her dad’s last name but she finds it embarrassing. She goes by her mom’s”-
“What are you even reading aloud?!” She demanded, cramming her nose into the book.
“Your dad’s an admiral and Squad Leader, and he proudly wears that name” Admiral Van Dinkel never fails to make me laugh. “Then we have Jeremy Hughes, Youri Bin Hadid, and now Tyrone Delaney” Just then, Tyrone called again.
“You don’t need to look for it anymore. Apparently those two goons took it. They left a note behind saying they had approval from Mister Cassius. Also your monitor and PC aren’t too badly busted. I’ll probably have them fixed and ready in two days” He explained, hanging up.
“Warning- Potential robbery taking place at Pizza Plaza” NAV suddenly warned.
“Piz-Pizza Pla-Plaza?”
“Jus’ as te name says. A marketplace made up entirely of pizza restaurants. Competition at its max”
“Wait, NAV can track crime too?” Could this be a refined version of Youri’s code? Just how many parties are in play here? Also, who commits a crime at 4pm? That’s probably the busiest time of day.
The situation was nothing too concerning or alarming by the time we arrived. Just a plain thief waiting for the right opportunity to pass him by. NAV managed to track the criminal down before the he even started? If it can do this all the time, we’ll always be a step ahead of our opposition.
“Rem-rememb-remember to min-minim-minimize co-cola-colat-colateral dam-damage”
“Ya hwe can’t afford ta get civies caught in someting like tis. Especially at tis time. Make sure to lure ‘im out”
“He wants a reel to bite? I’ll give him more than that” That didn’t sound right. “You guys stay in the car. I got this”
“By the way, should we still call NAV, NAV when we hook her up to the monitor? I was thinking something cooler”
“The Ap-Apple of Ed-Eden” Youri suggested.
“Note that down. We’ll have this convo later. For now”- I tripped on the curb, falling face first onto the concrete. “UGH! GODDAMIT!” I cried.
“Are you ok?!” Roxy guffawed.
“DROP YOUR GUN!” The potential robber barked, turning his attention towards me. He hadn’t even gone inside the restaurant yet. The bystanders gasped, but otherwise remained as they were. Can’t stand any of them getting hurt.
“I don’t have one” At least he’s focused on me now.
“Oh, um… Give me your wallet, and money, then!” OH THANK GOD! This guy has absolutely NO idea what he’s doing. THAT’S GOOD! And bad…
“How about I give you”- He pointed the gun at my face, fingers ready to pull the trigger. His hands were shaking though. He’d miss even from here…
“I SAID DROP IT!” At this point, everyone was staring in awe.
“Drop what? This smile? You’ll have to take my face off with that stolen five-seven then” The defiance in his eyes faded, but his gun still lingered in my face.
“I’ll take your life then!” He threatened, pulling the trigger…..
