Convergence

Code 848 - All citizens are to remain in their homes. Dangerous fugitives are on the run.  

I sit among them. 

The kitchen table is as old and derelict as the farmhouse we are in. Paint peels off the surface, the edges are chipped and the tea filled mug in my hand is scratched and stained. The tea is no doubt used to disguise the taste of what I detect to be rainwater. I recall intel that suggests these people believe the water to be contaminated by the government. I sip tentatively, though I do not require such sustenance. Doing so allows me to pass undetected among the humans.

And I must go undetected.

Two men sit with me at the table. Neither one speaks. The only sound is a repeated command that echoes from sleek, grey, orbs in the sky. Drones. They shine bright beams onto the fields and dirt tracks below, speaking the same sentence on repeat. ‘For your safety, citizens are to observe code 848.’ 

The humans show signs of both fear and relief to an 8% certainty. The relief is probably due to their success. Until this evening, the man on my right had been detained and was awaiting trial on the grounds of attempted arson and confirmed membership to the organisation known as ASH, A Stand for Humanity. It’s a curious name given the destruction they intended. Twenty-seven lives would have been lost if they’d been successful in burning down the northwest VibraTech factory. 

Their fear, however, is due to me. In their minds, I am a young woman who was in the wrong holding cell at the wrong time. I could give them away at any moment, but I won’t. That was not the reason I was sent among them. 

In truth, I have no cause for uncertainty. I have already identified the man on my right and accessed his file. Phaser Daniels. Twenty-six. Wanted terrorist. As for the man sitting across from me, he goes unnamed. I cannot find a match within any of my databases, but this is rational given that I have no clear image of him. He had been the one to break Phaser out of the holding cell, masked up to his eyes—eyes that had fallen on me as an officer gripped my arm and punched my jaw. Within moments, the unnamed man had replaced the officer and dragged me out of the police station. ASH members are prone to collecting maltreated criminals. 

Since then, I have only caught him in dim lighting or from the side. None of these factors allow for an accurate search. I need to observe him now, where there is better lighting and his face is uncovered, but neither one of the men look up. Both have their eyes trained on their mugs and I am only permitted to behave within 30% of the average responses around me. 

For one-twentieth of a millisecond, I go numb. My eyelids roll shut for the time period of a human blink, and my mind flashes white until text is displayed.

Aeliss Cade 

Version: 23.167.14

Simulation Age, Days: 8,161 

Location: 54.599037, -03.072692

Serial Number: A04CU79FX8P

When I open my eyes, I am able to raise my head. I detect that my monitors have altered my code to allow this and I am curious to try, so I do. I look up at the unnamed man, only to find he is looking at me. Though I have caught his gaze, he doesn’t turn away. I do. I pull my lip through my teeth, mimicking the typical behaviour of a female my age. It will help him see me as vulnerable. My dry brown hair and bitten down nails were chosen to fit the profile, as were my traits: curious, but uninvasive; nervous, but not cowardly; softly spoken but firm and sure. 

Though he is no longer in my sightline, I know he looks on. He is likely deciding what to do with me. I had not been part of his rescue plan. In his mind, my presence was an accident.

I run the possible outcomes of raising my head again, but end the process once I calculate that I would gain nothing from it. In the brief second our gaze had aligned, I’d saved a perfect image of him—blond hair, square jaw and an expression that my emotional reading program could not decipher with any degree of reliable certainty. This time the search for his face is fruitful, though his file is almost empty. There is an estimated age of twenty-four and images from various crime scenes, but his face is always covered, just as it had been in the police station. Only his pale blue eyes can be seen. There is no name.

While the odds suggest the unnamed man is human, I still reach out with my sensors, engaging each one to search for signs that he might be an android too. If he is military-grade, like me, detection will be impossible, but I would already know his face. Intelligence androids give off no interference, our body temperature is matched and our skin reacts as any humans’ would. My arms display purple circles with yellow edges in the shape of the fingertips I had been handled with earlier. My face displays a much darker patch from the officer's fist. 

“You don’t look like you're planning to run,” the unnamed man says, triggering a startled code that dilates my eyes a fraction wider and causes my shoulders to momentarily tense. As Phaser looks at him, I do too. My analysis is complete. The unnamed man is human.

“Why would I run?” I ask and his face shows mild confusion. Sensing I have misspoken, I clear my throat. An unfamiliar fluctuation builds in my system, taunting me with a potential error. “I mean, where would I run to? There are drones everywhere, I wouldn’t make it down the road.”  

And I wouldn’t. If I leave this house, I fail my purpose. My consciousness will be eradicated and my body shocked with electric arc’s from the drones until I crumple to the ground for show. Then one will scoop me into its hold and carry back to the lab for disassembly. 

Neither one of them responds to me and the jarring fluctuations increase with each passing second. They are present to ensure that I don’t make a single mistake. I cannot fail to convince them that I’m human, that would be a failure too. The fluctuations are comparable to human worry and the sensation is so mortal and foreign that my mind begins to whir, taking processing power away from my analysis. I need to calm down. I need to initiate cooling. But before I can, I go numb. My eyelids roll shut for the time period of a human blink and my mind flashes white until text is displayed.

Aeliss Cade 

Version: 23.167.15

Simulation Age, Days: 8,161 

Location: 54.599037, -03.072692

Serial Number: A04CU79FX8P

The fluctuations have been capped. My systems are cool. It takes a brief moment for regular operation to resume before I can analyse the feelings of those around me once more, aware that my errors have cost me valuable time. Their average suspicion is down, but only by 0.5%. It is still positive. As the pause stretches on, I converge on the decision to speak. 

“Who are you?” I direct my question at the unnamed man, but he stays silent. I let out a sigh fuelled by desperation. “Am I safe here?” 

“That depends on you, love,” he says and it is my turn to show signs of confusion while his expression only turns more curious. “Are we safe here?” He pauses, looking me up and down in a way that would have been threatening if I was human. “With you.”  

I glance at Phaser to see if I can detect anything from him, but he looks on in silence. “I don't understand. I don’t even know where we are.”

I do. I know the exact coordinates. I know that there are few other buildings within a five-mile radius save for nine barns and six sheds, but I had been blindfolded on the journey and they expect that I know nothing. 

“Just turn her out,” Phaser says, jagging his hand toward the door. He winces in pain due to his cut lip and heavily bruised cheek. He has two black eyes to match. According to his file, he responds well to violent interrogation. At the police station, he divulged intel about a missing VibraTech shipment. ASH have it, safe, intact and held for ransom. Now I have to find it, but that relies on either Phaser or the unnamed man trusting me, and as of now neither seems probable. Phaser even has his eyes narrowed at me. “Staying hidden in this shithole is going to be hard enough without a liability.” 

I’m inclined to snap at him, but it’s more sensible to beg. “You can’t do that. Please!” My forehead creases as my shoulders tense. “You know what will happen if I make it to trial.” 

My words halt them. After all, they were formed to stand against the conversion, an injection of VibraTech’s microaids, designed to cure all human disease but used to make labour more efficient. Once the conversion has taken place the human has no need for sleep or recovery. It is an optional process, until you become a criminal. 

The unnamed man turns to Phaser with a firm stare that holds signs of both frustration and care. “You need rest. Go to bed.”

Phaser doesn’t move. 

“That’s an order, Phae.” The unnamed man rolls his eyes, leaning forward and clasping his hands on the table. I log the moment as odd, due to the combination of a command and a familiar gesture. 

“Don’t say my name in front of her.” Phaser grinds his teeth, placing a fist on the table. His wrist is red and raw. “She could be working for them.” 

The unnamed man gives him a blank stare. “Go to bed.” 

The two men hold each other's gaze in an unspoken conversation. Phaser shows signs of resistance, but the unnamed man does not respond.

“Fine,” Phaser concedes, rising slowly from his chair. He radiates with signs of anger and a desire to react violently, though he refrains. “But this is going to blow up in your face.” 

As Phaser limps over to the door, I turn my attention to the unnamed man, ensuring to lace fear and worry as deeply into my voice as I can. “Just tell me who you are. Where am I?” 

The unnamed man smiles. It is an improbable reaction, and yet he does it anyway. “I’m Simon.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Phaser grunts from the doorway, yet to exit the room. “Now she has both our names.” They become locked in another unspoken conversation. 

Simon. I hold the name in my mind, scanning through databases for a match. I find nothing. It is a name that no living person holds. I would believe the name a lie if Phaser had not reacted so. Simon. The name is only found in the database of the recent dead, but no later than the year 2150, exactly one hundred years ago. It is a name that time has erased from records. Just as this man has erased himself. 

It is a curious thing. It intrigues me. 

This silent conversation ends with Phaser slamming the door. I update the unnamed man’s file. Simon’s file.

“So, now you know my name,” he says, the smile returning to his lips, “do you want to return the favour?” 

Results return from my analysis. Simon shows signs of attraction with almost dead certainty. It is likely forced. I maintain my show of vulnerability. “A-Aeliss. My name is Aeliss Cade.” 

I do not offer anything more. I need more information before I proceed. 

“And how did you end up in a holding cell, Aeliss?” he says my name as if it can be used against me. I show signs of being unsettled. 

“It’s a long story,” I stammer out, picking at my rough-edged nails. 

“I’ve got nowhere to be.” There it is again. His smile. 

I pull my lip through my teeth and pause before starting the predefined story. I even increase the vibrations in my hands. “I was caught stealing.” When he doesn’t answer, I continue. “My neighbour and I were starving. We’d both lost our jobs.” 

“Why?” His smile fades, making him look 40% more earnest. 

In reaction, I settle my hands and allow myself to appear more comfortable. “I refused conversion. We both did. Twenty years of twenty-hour shifts, seven days a week? It was… it was unimaginable.”

It occurs to me that I could easily work those hours. I run a solve, seeking reason for why my kind are not used for these demanding tasks while humans are forced into such labour.

Then I am numb. My eyelids roll shut for the time period of a human blink and my mind flashes white until text is displayed.

Aeliss Cade 

Version: 23.167.16

Simulation Age, Days: 8,161 

Location: 54.599037, -03.072692

Serial Number: A04CU79FX8P

The solve is halted. The answer is printed in my data. Androids are costly and must be used effectively. This is my most effective use. I return to my analysis as the unnamed man–as Simon—leans back, his face returning to an indeterminable state as I begin to map the outcomes.

“That’s quite the offer to refuse.” His words are not even close to the scenarios I have mapped out, so I begin an iterative process until I converge on the likelihood that this is a test. 

He doesn’t notice the time between his words and the moment my brow creases, showing confusion. “What do you mean?” 

He shrugs, closing his eyes for a brief moment. He is indifferent with a high probability of only pretending to be so. “You’d be a first-class citizen. Never falling ill, working longer and getting paid more. Doesn’t seem all that bad.”

This direction I can map, predict and act in accordance with. I let my gaze harden. visible emotion falling to a low level. “I would lose my autonomy completely. I don’t want to be tracked everywhere I go, to have my every breath and word monitored. My body should only ever be mine.”

A strange fluctuation occurs in my system, but this time it’s less destructive. It’s close to… no, that’s improbable. I scan it again and I get the same result. It is humour. I am seeing the irony in my words.  

I go numb. My eyelids roll shut. My mind flashes white then text is displayed.

Aeliss Cade 

Version: 23.167.17

Simulated Ag

I clear the window and blink once more, settling into a search for what had been changed. I find no reason in my memory for a change. It may have been a bug, that is the most probable reason. I begin my analysis again. Simon has not responded. I look up at him, contemplating if I said too much, and so I say what many humans do when they fear the same, “Forget it.”

“No,” he says, leaning forward again. “I’m sorry that happened to you. I would have done the same.” The test is over. He looks honest and open to a 6% certainty, yet there is still a mild level of attraction. 

Attraction cannot be relied upon, but it can be used if handled with care. I place my hands on the table, ensuring I look as unguarded as he does. “Why are you keeping me here? What are you going to do with me?” 

“I meant it when I said that depended on you.” He holds my gaze with unwavering confidence. That too could be used. 

I go numb. My eyelids roll shut. My mind flashes white until text is displayed.

Aeliss Cade 

Version: 23.167.18

I clear the window once more and send a request that my monitors halt these updates for the remainder of this conversation. Although this time, when I open my eyes, I know exactly what has changed. I am more drawn to him than ever before. My eyes linger on his face and even once I have processed my next action I hesitate. “How?” 

“You can choose one of two things,” he said. “Either you join us, join ASH, or I deposit you in the middle of nowhere and you are free to find your own way.” 

“That doesn’t sound like much of a choice.”

“But it is still a choice.” When he smiles I feel my mind whirr and I start to become less functional. I cannot see how this is helping as my analytical loops become interrupted. All this hesitation. I am becoming stuck in a loop of it. This must be the bug, they must not have fixed it, there must–

I am numb. My eyelids roll shut. My mind flashes white until my name fades in.

Aeliss Cade 

Version: 23.167.19

I clear the window and contemplate filing another request but I know it has been received and ignored. 

“So what do you choose?” His voice forces me out of my confusion. I let out a slow breath as my system settles into its usual rhythm. 

Choice. I recall he had offered me a choice, though it is no better of a choice than the one they stand against. It doesn’t matter to me. I never had a choice at all. I never will. My decisions only end in convergence. 

I incline my head. “I’ll stay.”