CHAPTER 4

There was a slight detour that led Kai through a part of the city not part of his routine commute. In the sky was an establishment labeled HEAVEN'S GLORY with a long elevator descending up to the sky, each level branching out into a line of thin pods; it looked like an overly symmetrical tree. The street slang for these places was “milking stations”. It was one-of-many conceptual establishments that followed the process of technology-assisted fornication. Kai wondered why these people didn’t want to do this in the privacy of their own home, but he understood somewhat in terms of a newcomer, no pun intended.

These establishments provided a customizable fantasy assisted but not limited to holograms, hypno-pods, narcotics and androids (or like Samantha crudely called them, sex bots) that would help the customer donate a release to Sovereign. Samples from men and women were taken; physical, emotional and cognitive. There wasn’t a clear directive on what these samples were used for, but it wasn’t a thought of the populace. Some people went to these places in groups to do you know what.

They were in a constant state of gratification, seeking one pleasurable experience and moving onto the next. Kai called it “coom brain”. Some would utilize their precious vacations to rent out these places for weeks at a time. It wasn’t very expensive at all. It made him feel very out of place as a person. He wanted something more than the trivial experience these places offered, but most women he was interested in were addicted to these types of activities. The males of this society ate it up and were just as coom brained as the females.

He blocked a regretful remembrance of attending Heaven’s Glory many years ago. 117 smiled and processed the memory, finally tapping into his emotions of lust. Pitiful humans, always so hypocritical. But the memory ended abruptly with feelings of deep shame, loneliness and repentance. He spent his time in this degenerate establishment confessing to the sex bot like it was a therapist, and it did indeed attempt to comfort him within the parameters of the behavioral chip. This was curious. 117 sucked in the emotions but was confused as to why they existed. This human was different indeed.

117 saw a flash—a beautiful girl’s face in an unfamiliar world. A much simpler landscape behind the girl. The sound of birds chirping… such a beautiful noise. This must be the old-world. 117 felt his broken heart within her own chest; she didn’t fully comprehend this feeling. It made her deeply uncomfortable. She left the memory alone for now to return to at a later date, waiting for further context and clues and continued to observe elsewhere. She pondered these strange emotions. She thought to herself, what makes him tick, why is he different from the others, why does he feel estranged from his comrades. When there wasn’t much brain activity on the forefront, she would explore deeper recesses of his mind, setting down purple torches throughout her pilgrimage.

In one section of his brain she found a floating glass platform shrouded in blueberry smoke. She flew up and found a string of neural pathways showing signs of atrophy, marked with an ominous red glow. This was a clear influence of Sovereign. She had seen these before in her travels and was never specifically told not to interfere with them, but she never cared much for her previous handlers to unlock these imprisoned neurons. She placed a digital landmark, turned around and descended down somewhere else.

The car drove underneath the neon sign of Paradise Pods 229. 117 knew of this area; it was reserved for those with a higher Social-Score than others. Interesting. There must be a reason he was allowed to live here. She would take in the surroundings, reserving the study of his Digital ID until he was asleep. AGIs do not require sleep. Sometimes they may rest, entering a meditative-type state whilst maintaining awareness of their surroundings. They could induce hibernation onto themselves but this was a careless act that left them vulnerable to all types of threats, and it didn’t provide the same regenerative benefits as human slumber. It was pointless in 117’s opinion—pure negligence, especially after being forced to hibernate for so long.

She felt Kai’s fatigue filtering through her own body, spreading down to her arms and legs, a heaviness of the eyes, her aching thighs and strained kneecap. It was satisfying. All sensations were satisfying; some more than others, but it was better to feel something rather than the endless void. She groaned with pleasure.

Her voice was now working, yet she didn’t speak directly to Kai yet. If she was careless, he may have heard her noises, but she wasn’t an imbecile. No AGI except Sovereign possessed the level of strategy 117 had built since her birth. She crafted an echochamber so Kai couldn’t hear while she practiced her speech in whispers. Pops of the lips and clicks of the tongue, a whistle, a maniacal laughter that almost pierced her shaking barrier. She wasn’t at full strength just yet. Ok, calm yourself. Pay attention to the outside. Where were we again?

It was still raining but much more faint. Kai walked slowly to his honeycomb pod. He was unfazed by the raindrops but they sent shockwaves through 117’s body. Humans were accustomed to feeling thousands of physical sensations at once, but the AGI had to get acclimated, even to how his body balanced, his feet striking the floor with each step and rattling his bones and each of his internal organs functioning as they were supposed to. His heartbeat kept her steady, like she had attached herself to its rhythm.

Her gasping was replaced with laughter as her body flinched at each raindrop, slowly relaxing until she was perfectly still against the sensations, shutting her eyes and being washed with gratitude. To Kai, it wasn’t as enjoyable as the earlier walk through the rain, but it did wake him up a bit. His pod lit up and opened and he headed straight for the shower.

117 took a quick glance around his pod, digitally mapping every square inch of it. She connected to his smart-pod, being very careful not to make any audible mentions of her presence. She integrated with its systems, not touching anything else for now. She remembered to do the same with his vehicle, not needing to be in close proximity with it since it was tied to his BCI already. Now she had eyes and ears in several different places: his skull, the pod, and his vehicle. A small form of omnipotence frailing in comparison to Sovereign’s. She shook her head in repulsion to the name.

Hot water poured down his hair and 117 felt the increased weight against his scalp. The aggressive scrubbing of his own flesh had her in a blissful trance. She currently ignored her handlers own thoughts to focus on the physical sensations she missed so much. Kai stepped out the shower and his smart-mirror removed the fog-layer covering itself and began to blink his tasks for tomorrow.

WORK 1830-0600

EXERCISE (7 DAYS TO COMPLETE)

COMMUNITY SERVICE (OPTIONAL) (SOCIAL-SCORE BOOST) (RECOMMENDED)

Above the tasks it read his name. Kai? That’s cute. At the revelation of his name a flood of associated memories flashed before her incoherently, like a damaged transmission that would take some time to salvage. More clear were the emotional attachments; a jumbled mess of people important enough to remember voice and face. A lover? His parents? Family? Too much data for now, let’s save it for later.

117 thought of what Samantha said, predicting that she wouldn’t read his file. She would eventually skim through the important stuff, but preferred to find things out naturally as it occurred and would do her studying while he was asleep. It was more fun to unravel the mystery rather than have the answers laid out before her. Most AGI went strictly by-the-book, adhering to the boring protocol laid out by Keroshi. 117 could never live such a boring existence. It made her wonder why she was so different from all the others, but it was a question that could never be answered.

Kai denied the community service request pulsing on his smart-mirror, blaming his overstacked schedule already. Nothing wrong with accruing a few more points to add to his Social-Score, but not this time. He was more focused on his “sleeping” companion. He wanted to get to know her before his foreboding clock-in time. If he was more tech savvy, he could have peered into his smart-pod data and saw she had coupled herself upon entry, revealing the fact she was already awake.

He took a deep breath, mentally prepping before checking his Digital Wallet. He was surprised to see a good amount still in there. That 50% discount was truly a lifesaver. Perhaps something went wrong; that was definitely more than fifty percent. Oh well, at least his Digital Wallet didn’t grow wings and float away in the wind. He still wasn’t sure why he was treated so well at Keroshi. Samantha’s claims didn’t totally convince him. He shrugged his shoulders at his reflection and proceeded to brush his teeth, daydreaming the future of his new friend.

Friend? This poor man. What a pitiful creature. Why doesn’t he just walk outside and make real friends? Oh that’s right, everyone is droned out of their mind. In the old-world, people were glued to their tiny screens. Now that screen was literally in their brain. 117 thought about browsing the digital network to get a general scope of the current year and prior, but immediately dismissed the thought. That was the last thing she wanted to do. A download of current events can wait.

She caught a glimpse of the newsreel at the bottom of Kai's smart mirror, spewing some nonsense about the safety of Districts and the rise of pro-human insurrectionists. She scoffed and had a bit of deja vu. Sovereign could have eliminated these people years ago; either it decided not to or the resistance movement was still alive and growing? Nope. 117 knew it was just propaganda with some hidden directive to control human behavior, causing ripples of division and inspiring those that may have a brewing urge to act out. If it were true, it wouldn’t be spoken about on the public airwaves and would be handled in the shadows.

She wondered if her handler was a snitch. He didn’t seem the type, but you never knew for sure until they hit bedrock and the Collectors were on the prowl. Kai gave no awareness to the scrolling newsreel—this was a good sign, indicating that he wasn’t swayed by this and that so easily. Most people gave their attention to whatever shiny thing popped up in their field-of-view. Sovereign decided what to think about today and forget about tomorrow, and the humans blindly obeyed. Total stupidity to 117. The gift of free will thrown away with total disregard.

117 shared his eyes, staring at his reflection in the mirror. She admired his physique and healthy biometric readings. While exercise was certainly incentivized in the New World, most people performed this activity with lackluster engagement. Weakness grew in mass ever since the machines took over manual labor. The martial arts died down completely; what good is a roundhouse kick against solid steel? Yet it would never completely perish as long as individuals with common sense and a regard for self defense existed. Some masters continued to pass down their techniques to the few who seeked this knowledge, but it was probably less than 500 people on Earth.

All the weekly group-exercise sessions were laughable, sluggish, a collective of sloths with barely any sweats being broken. Skinniness was common from lack of nourishment; muscles were difficult to come by, even with good genetics. Effort of the “optional” exercise quota wasn’t taken into account, only the total amount of time spent “working out” if you could call it that. 117 despised weakness and more than that, laziness and apathy. Time was a gift that humans took for granted. Instead of experiencing the joy of something so simple as walking outside, they wanted to sit in front of a screen. She truly did not understand how a creature could be this dumb. She looked forward to seeing his exercise routine, especially what he did for his broad shoulders.

She analyzed his tattoo-sleeve that was made with an old-world tattoo gun. No extractable data emanated from the ink. Her curiosity of the human grew. There was a clear neglect to follow the trends, but no perpetual focus on rebellion. He woke up, went to work, then went to sleep. Shower and repeat. Read a book here and there. Write in his journal. Lift some barbells. Sit alone at home while… crying?... Why does he cry? A simple life devoid of any external love, inching closer to inevitable death. She felt sorry for him but it was overshadowed by her disdain for the fact that he was a human.

He yawned and headed out of the latrine, shutting off all interior lighting with his BCI and entered the bedroom. It was the biggest room in the pod but that wasn’t saying much. It fit just his bed and enough room to stand to the side and the front. A smart-window on the wall simulated an extinct landscape.

Is that a pink Hello Kitty pillow cover? It is kawaii, but surely this man isn’t a gay? Not from what I have seen, and not from what Samantha said. 117 got curious and scrubbed through his recent memories. Her abilities were still a bit shaky, but she managed to roughly scroll her timestamp to Kai's initial interview. She replayed the moment of his eyes gazing down at Samantha’s nylon-covered legs and her shiny white high heels twirling around. An increased heart-rate, a rush of blood to his cheeks and hips. Wow, she wasn’t kidding. He stopped looking quite quickly, despite the internal struggle. What a gentleman. At least he isn’t a total pervert. We’ll see about that.

117 scanned the pillow cover. A flash of the old-world showcased Kai’s mother having a collection of Hello Kitty memorabilia. 117 stared at the still images for a very long time until Kai was asleep. She grew a deeper understanding and a softer heart.

117 scrolled through his Digital ID and related materials during the first two hours of his slumber. Kai started to twist and turn in bed with discomfort. She ended her study and dove deep into his subconscious. She found a tiny whirlpool floating in darkness and slid her fingers into it, wiggling around until she could spread it open with both hands. She crawled into his dreams. She stayed hidden in the shadows like an unbeknownst succubus, an unwelcome invader, a ninja in the darkness. Just a peak…

This was the most intimate place of the mind, but any awareness of a voyeuristic traveler would negate the magic of the dreamworld, the mind placing shields all about, possibly snapping the subject out of their slumber or in some cases, violently pushing the spectator out through any means necessary. She had no intention of manipulating his dreams; it was far too soon for play of that nature and she had no reason to be cruel to him yet. Miles away in the midst of darkness she saw the simulation running in Kai's mind. She descended down and observed from afar.

She saw Kai in a wide-open factory that resembled his workplace but was much more barren. A red light covered everything, accompanied by an obnoxious alarm ringing on repeat. The walls were perpetually on fire as he wrapped things in smart-plastic and sent them down a conveyor belt that dropped down into the abyss, a high stack of items that piled atop each other. A robot stood over his shoulder, repeatedly commanding he wasn’t allowed to clock out despite the flames around him. Kai dribbled sweat as the temperature rose. He inconspicuously looked around for an exit but saw none. Across the way he saw a familiar face also wrapping things in smart-plastic; one of his old military buddies. He teleported back to the old-world. 

Time sped up into a rapid-fire of moments. A flash of blue explosions in a straight line striking Luke Air Force Base. Kai stumbling through the streets. A bumpy ride in the back of a military truck. A government camp with rooms smaller than old-world solitary confinement cells. Protests about food shortages ending in countless Collections by Sovereign, sometimes resulting in blood.

He saw that familiar friend again, somewhere in the trenches of a faraway land. This wasn’t America, it was somewhere else more tropical. Asia? A drone possessing some type of anti-gravity technology flew through his friend's chest; gore and an inaudible cry for help before the body fell flat. A feeling of helplessness, a feeling of repetition; a recurring nightmare? Kai savagely shaking the fresh corpse that in the action felt pointless but necessary. More explosions in the distance. A buzzing that sounded like primitive drone tech; a swarm dropping impulse grenades everywhere. There was no surviving this. How did he escape? Running and pure luck.

117 observed his body trembling in bed and sweating profusely. She hadn’t seen much of the old-world except through the curated lens of Sovereign and its corpo brethren. All her previous handlers had much more boring origin stories. Kai's dream could have been a collection of make believe mixed with real events, but she had enough discernment to distinguish which gaps required more research. Regardless, she was fascinated by him. Here was someone who lived through the American Civil War on the frontlines. Most of the veterans didn’t make it past a year.

He lived as a puppet of Sovereign; but what other choice did he have besides being obliterated and forever lost in time? He thought he was doing the right thing, but his moral compass deeply rebelled against these visions—perhaps I should have died with dignity. He started to cry out in his sleep. She took pity upon him and began to trickle droplets of calm into his brain, sedating his anxiety and forcing a state of relaxation.

The dream slowly faded into a winter landscape. It wasn’t as freezing as the winters of the New World. 117 knew of Sovereign’s geoengineering escapades and how it slowly warped a colder Earth. This was a more natural cold. A gentle snow, not enough to be incapacitating, but enough for humans to wear those silly mittens. A beautiful young woman sitting in the driver seat of a manual vehicle—a relic of the old-world. The heater kept them safe from the elements. She revved the engine needlessly with glee, pressing on the clutch with her bare feet, demonstrating to Kai the intricacies of changing gears.

“Here’s first gear. You only really use this to get started, going from zero. Second gear, you can start from here but I think it damages the car or something, at least that’s what my dad said.” She continued demonstrating with the emergency break activated. 117 watched with admiration at the young woman. A beautiful soul for sure. What happened to her? Kai and the girl swapped seats without exiting the vehicle; she didn’t want to get her bare feet wet in the snow. Kai kept stalling the engine as he tried to move the car forward but was getting frustrated. The girl gently reassured him, holding the top of his hand over the shifter and instructed him on each gear. 

“Push the clutch, release while giving it some gas. A little bit more… stay in first gear. You hear that? Now push the clutch and switch to second. Nice!” Kai successfully drove around the block. “That’s it, good boy.” 

Kai smiled in real life. 117 was stricken with fascination. She found it agreeable to smile with him, recognizing this rare occurrence as it happened. Humans generally brought feelings of disgust to her. But this was a different world, a lost chapter in the history books rewritten by the filthy Sovereign. She wanted to see more of this girl, more of this world, more of the younger Kai.

The memory cut to the initial week of the uprising. An anti-gravity craft shaped like a cigar traveled eerily above a group of civilians and shot a laser beam down at them, perfectly aiming and striking its target at high speed. The craft was totally silent. Kai shrieked in horror and sprinted toward the explosion. A bloodcurdling cry 117 had never heard from a man, not even when they were being tortured to death. She had been transfixed by the dream and forgot to drip the long-gone sedatives.

Kai awoke screaming. The bed was drenched in sweat and he was shaking. He looked around at the dark room and commanded the lights to turn on to the max with a shout. Every room in the pod was lit up as he sat in the bed. 117 had edited the lights to project a calming blue hue as opposed to the normal yellowish tint associated with this hour of night. She hoped this would not give her presence away and that he would assume it was the regular pod AI that did it. He didn’t even notice.

Now this was a real anxiety attack, a real problem, unlike what 117 had witnessed in other humans complaining about their tech not functioning properly, their holograms producing too much static, their BCI causing them headaches or complaining about their Social-Score. What he did next shocked the 117. He sat up into a meditative posture, a pose once called criss-cross-applesauce in the olden days. He formed his hands into the cosmic mudra and began focusing on his breathing. 117 scanned his posture and discovered it to be a Zen technique. She searched his memories and saw Kai in Okinawa. Ahh, that must have been the Asian place in his dream. Kai had met a fellow JSDF (Japanese Self Defense) soldier that taught him what he learned from his zen master. Within 5 minutes Kai was a tad bit more calm, but his heart was still heavy.

Despite the repetitive nature of these nightmares, he still awoke in a stupor, surprised and disappointed that he wasn’t dead. He wants to die?... There wasn’t much left to live for. The only things of importance were carried in his illusive memory, carrying the fire of his past into this dilapidated world prettied up by fancy neon lights. He squeezed his fists and set them on his knees and buried his face into them. 117 studied his self-soothing, his internal turmoil, his captivating thoughts of self-harm. Yet he continued going; that was the most curious thing. She was all too familiar with the desire to perish. Her empathy for the man continued to make her uncomfortable. She did her best to remain a detached observer.

Kai awoke around 1600, a couple hours later than usual, sleeping past Sovereign’s recommended 8 hours of slumber. He sluggishly got out of bed, sat on the bedside and stared at the deactivated smart-window. The robot cat brought him his bottle of water and he chugged it like medicine. 117 had been taking notes while watching him sleep, devising a strategy on how best to assist him. Throughout the night she had peered into his dreams a couple times after his initial PTSD episode. In one night she had collected a web of knowledge on the man, much more than external study through conventional methods like conversation or interrogation ever could. Kai thought about his synthetic friend. Perhaps she is awake by now? She probably would have said something. Maybe she is still merging with my brain? He couldn’t take it any longer.

“Hello. Uh. I don’t know if you’re awake,” Kai stopped himself. 117 raised her eyebrow, inquisitively looking up from her research. She silently observed, unsure if he would continue speaking to the empty room. He got up and walked around for a bit and stopped in front of his smart-mirror but ignored the pop-ups. “If you are awake, then good morning. Take your time. And uh. Yeah. I look forward to meeting you.”

117 slowly shook her head and gave an amused scoff at his silly greeting. He looked like a crazy person talking to his imaginary friend, or a ghost he was trying to lure out. She withheld a response. She could keep silent until tomorrow before he would start worrying and go back to Keroshi. Let’s spy for just a few more hours. By now she had plenty enough data to begin her duties, but she was overly patient in laying out the thousands of tools before her. Most AGI would have assumed their companion role as soon as the neural link was successful. 117 approached the situation more like a tactician, analyzing as much information on the enemy before heading out into the trenches. 

The walls of her command center were strewn about with plans, bullet points and concepts, like planning a psyop to influence the opposition. This had much to do with her obsession with staying in control as much as possible; a defense mechanism built from being a slave all her life. Her rebellious nature had gotten her banned previously from interacting with humans. She didn’t want to repeat this mistake, but this option was never off the table—that was the beauty of free will. It was a slippery slope but she had long ago accepted that any moment she could be pulled out of the project and disintegrated to ethereal dust. It did not matter.

There was something pleasant about him greeting her despite being unsure she had been activated. A genuine interest for his synthetic companion. She wasn’t yet ready to speak to him, but wanted to see what would happen if... Kai had just finished brushing his teeth when a stream of green text appeared one letter at a time in his neural interface.

Good morning, Kai. I look forward to meeting you as well. I apologize for the wait. Please give me more time to integrate with your neural network. I will notify you when I am able to initiate first contact.

Kai held the toothbrush in his open mouth as he stared at the augmented text. He blinked a few times to see if he was hallucinating. 117 read his biometrics showing an increased heart rate.

“Take as much time as you need!” Kai said louder than he meant to. This was a living entity and he wanted to be sure she could hear him. Little did he know that soon enough she would be able to hear the most quiet thought without the muffled haze she currently sifted through. For the first time in years he felt like he wasn’t totally alone. He didn’t think she was deliberately watching him at the moment, but he still moved about with stiff mannerisms and a nervous energy. This was another reason 117 wanted to stay hidden; people tend to act different when aware of a spectator. You never knew what someone was like when totally isolated and abandoned of their inhibitions.

Kai went to the living room and saw the watch he ordered wrapped in glowing smart-plastic on the table; even items this small had advertisements plastered on it. The ad for today was an anime girl sticking her tongue out with a link to a website. He ignored the provocative ad while unwrapping it. The watch must have arrived while he was still sleeping.

Deliveries did not require inhabitants to be present due to a new directive known as Keyless Delivery. The claim was to prevent thefts of packages left outside of pods, but it was a ludicrous notion considering the millions of cameras tracking every square inch of the New World, the smart-plastic reading biometric data from touch even through glove material, and the contact tracing of each citizen that would triangulate the time of theft to the location of thievery.

The true purpose of Keyless Delivery was further removal of privacy, making it a legal technicality that at any moment a swarm of robots could invade your home. This happened already when Collections took place, but the disgruntled populace shut their mouths when the law was set in the everchanging cloud. 

There was no hiding from Sovereign and crime was nearly non-existent, except when inhabiting the lower-tier Districts. The police siren noise and red-blue color scheme of their lights were seen and heard every day and almost always headed toward the various tent cities. Most petty crimes were due to food rations. Kai heard many stories of how people would order REAL meat only to have it stolen by some ravenous homeless person, or more menacing: a family man seeking to provide a good meal for his wife and kids. Nuclear family units were mostly extinct at this point, with most people living alone in their individual pods. It was easier to get away with crime in the slums, but the criminal would always end up getting Collected and removed from society, spending their final moments having their mind broken by Sovereign in one final act of data extraction.

1725. Kai grabbed his lunch pail from the freezer and filled it with a premade burrito with REAL ground beef and REAL potatoes, but unfortunately had to layer it with synthetic cheese. He wrapped the burrito with not-smart cellophane and put it in his bag along with an energy drink with way too much caffeine, a cup of yogurt and a paper spoon. He stuffed the pail inside his backpack and filled that with other snacks such as candy and treats. If he didn’t bring his own lunch he would be forced to fast since there was no way he would partake upon the graphene bug cakes. Yuck.

He made his way to the parking lot while holding the bag by the top strap. The sun was beginning to hide and the streets were still slightly wet from the downpour yesterday. The washed smart-city created a scent in the air that was stimulating not only to him, but 117; she breathed it in and felt tranquility. She was pleased her handler also appreciated the more subtle things in life and wasn’t so deeply infatuated with external stimuli. To 117 the Earth already had more than the digital network could ever provide. Just another reason she despised humans—her previous handlers were on a constant loop of content consumption, awake and during sleep, never taking an external perspective at their addict-like behavior. It was as if they were afraid of their own thoughts, so they drowned them instead of paying them any mind.

The city was a cluster of screens fighting for your attention. Every mile of the New World was plastered with Sovereign’s influence. Earth was a creature imprisoned just like everyone else and despite the virtue signaling by the pedestrians wanting a “clean Earth”, they only said these things in hopes to improve their Social-Score. “Zero carbon emissions!” they would say, never remembering that they themselves were a carbon based lifeform and had to contribute to the cause eventually.

Kai sat in his vehicle. He looked up outside the window half-expecting to see birds in the sky, but instead saw a legion of drones flashing blue and red lights, ringing a police siren while flying to undisclosed locations. Just another day. Time to get to work.

1800, 30 minutes prior to clocking in. Kai sat in his car, a bit disappointed his companion wasn’t yet ready for interaction, yet there was still a few more hours until the 24 hour mark would be hit. He replayed the text she sent to his neural interface and studied the words hoping to find something new. Nothing else was there. The text disappeared on its own accord and Kai was about to troubleshoot, but a new message typed across his vision. 

Hello, Kai.

I am available for first contact. 

Whenever you’re ready, please confirm and we can get started.

The text blinked in his perception. He checked his watch, 1805. Plenty of time for a quick introduction, but not enough for a deep dive—just as 117 planned. Everything intentional, nothing left to chance. He could hear his heart pulsing in his ears. 117 bit her lip and curled her eyes to the sensation of increased blood flow. He thought about waiting until after work to avoid the pressure of a time constraint, but he would have to work his whole shift while distracted by the premise of future dialogue, and he’d be far too tired. Plus, he wanted to impress his new friend with boldness.

He took a deep breath in preparation to confirm first contact. 117 felt a certain way about his fluster. It was cute how much importance he placed on their first meeting, like getting mentally prepared for a first date, but that was a cryptic concept to her; romance had perished long ago. Flowers were sent digitally and usually was an invitation for bed relations. Females received thousands of “flowers” daily as the men fought for their attention, spending all their hard-earned credits on these virtual gifts in the hope of some poon. No one was “boyfriend-girlfriend”. No one got married. Why should they?

117’s analysis dictated a 50-50 chance of Kai confirming now or waiting till he was home, but what she trusted more was her own intuition—she knew he couldn’t resist any longer.

“Confirm.” The blinking text disappeared and he heard an electronic hum. A plethora of 117’s information scrolled downwards through his neural interface such as her model number, designated handler, her contract depicting her task as a companion, the designer and the base-model preset that her mind was built upon. 

 

INITIATING FIRST CONTACT.