The light from the star began to recede, creating long shadows through the windows as the museum began to enter its night cycle. Ava stood next to her parents dressed in a wrinkled black dress. Her mother occasionally swayed to one side or the other as the smell of oil of cloves escaped heavily from her half open mouth. Ava’s father just stood there with his eyes fixed forward, his expression emotionless and his fists clenched. Only Ava seemed to be paying attention as the priest continued a basic speech about her grandmother, reading off of a wrinkled piece of paper that he had used hundreds of times before.
Then the canister containing her grandmother was loaded into an ejection tube and unceremoniously shot into space. She and her parents watched as the puff of ash floated off into space, clearly visible through the large window of the observation area. Ava stared with her eyes slightly wider than normal. She thought about her conversation with Austin earlier in the maintenance area of the space station, and about what he had shown her. She could still hear the screams of the foreign couple that had been given NEROchips. It made her shudder. She rubbed her fingers together and licked her dry lips. It would be her turn to get her NEROchip as soon as the ceremony was complete, and she had no idea how she would escape.
It felt like it was already too late as the priest folded up his piece of paper and started walking off, popping some pills and grumbling about a lack of reverence in the younger generation. Priests were not common nowadays, and those that remained were of the One religion of Exavior, the King of the World. The realization that the leader of all humanity was evil, was still fresh in Ava’s mind. She knew that the moment she got the NEROchip, there would be no escape, ever again. She hoped that the Lumio she had confided in, Loryli, might rescue her, but she had little hope. She tried to come up with an idea as she looked back out at the floating ash in space, but she didn’t know the ins and outs of the museum like Austin did. She hoped that he would find a way to return to the museum in his ash form and rescue her.
Just then, a shadow was cast over the planet as a nightshade corvette, a military design used for compliance officers of the Kingdom, swooped in. Her parents didn’t see it, having already left the observation room. Neither of them even looked back to see where Ava was. She stared, wondering why the ship was here as it approached the cloud of ashes that were Austin in his dormant form. A scoop deployed from the ship. Ava’s eyes widened. She began banging on the glass. “No! No! Nooooo!” Tears began to stream down her cheeks as she watched her new friend get captured. “Who’s going to rescue me now?!” She cried.
Officer Griddon and Ms. Cherry Squindle entered the observation room. Officer Griddon started trying to comfort her. “Hey, hey it’s ok. What’s wrong?”
Ms. Squindle began acting unusually nice. “Are you ok kid? Do you need a stuffed animal or a piece of candy?”
Officer Griddon took Ava by the hand. “Come on Ava, let’s get you fixed up.”
Unsure of what was going on, Ava was taken in by the officer’s kind words. “W-where are we going?”
Ms. Squindle smiled and gently stroked Ava’s hair. “Shhh don’t worry about it. We’ll get you fixed right up.”
Ava’s eyes widened and she began struggling violently. “Noooooo! Nooo! Please let me go! Let me GO!” She cried as soon as she saw the door to the circular clean room open. In the middle of the room stood the metal chair with all sorts of threatening needles and surgery machines hanging around it from the ceiling.
Just then, Officer Griddon and Ms. Squindle stopped. “Do you hear that?” said the officer as the echo of clopping hooves reached Ava’s ears. Her expression became relieved. Surely Loryli would save her. Ava looked up to see the beautiful Lumio to step around the corner. She felt Ms. Squindle’s hand on her shoulder tense as the large equine approached nonchalantly.
It was Griddon who spoke first. “What are you doing here, horse?” His voice was uncharacteristically harsh, but his grip on Ava’s hand was soft and calm.
Loryli stood there for a moment, her eyes fixed on Griddon. Then her serious eyes gave way to a look of . . . happiness? The head of the Lumio began to split open piece by piece. The wings hung limp and then folded up completely. The front legs began to open up. Out stepped the woman Ava had seen giving the NEROchip to the foreign couple. The black metal badge signifying her service in the secret police glistened in the artificial hallway lights. “Hello Ava. I’m Lorelai.” She said with a big, threatening smile. “And it’s time for you to get your NEROchip.”
Ava tried to struggle but was unsuccessful. “Why are you doing this?!”
Griddon and Squindle lifted her up by her arms into the metal chair before Lorelai began securing the straps on her wrists and ankles. “Exavior just wants all the people of the world under his control. He can’t have free thinkers walking around. As for me,” she pressed a button on a remote control and straps tightened. “I just do stuff like this for fun.” Lorelai began to laugh psychotically, shewing Officer Griddon and Ms. Squindle out before walking back over to Ava. She dug her hand into Ava’s pockets and pulled out the flash drive. “Maybe I should hold onto this.”
Ava’s eyes widened as she saw Lorelai hold up the flash drive, the words “maiko tep'corv“ glistening in the harsh operating room light. “No! Give that back!”
Lorelai grinned, enjoying Ava’s reactions. “Would be a shame if it got damaged. . . “ She dropped it on the floor and slammed her foot down on it over and over. “. . . oops.”
Ava stared in horror. “How am I going to get that to him now?”
“Him?” Lorelai leaned in closer with a big evil smile full of sadistic excitement, as if the thought of the opportunity to capture yet another person brought her joy. “We better get that NEROchip in you so I can extract all your juicy secrets!” She laughed before picking up the remote again, keeping her eyes on Ava as she hovered her thumb over the button to start the chipping procedure. “Three. . . two. . . o-”
Just then there was an announcement throughout the entire space station. “All humans, your attention is required. Exavior, the King of the World, has decreed a mandatory census of all humanity. You will return to Earth, the ancestral home immediately. And now a word from our beloved leader and potentate, Exavior Damask.”
Lorelai stood still as if she couldn’t move as a cold voice laced with fake sincerity and dripping with manipulation came over the speakers. “My very dear citizens, the time has come to identify our roots. As you know, all human civilizations were derived from Earth, making Earth the Great Ancestral Home. Therefore, using advanced genetic processes, it is time for everyone to come home to me in order for us all to truly be one people, under one god.”
Ava listened worriedly. She knew from school that everyone considered Exavior a god. But after seeing what the dictator was doing, she no longer wished to think of him as such. If he was a god, then he was an evil god. But she was unable to think more on this as Lorelai’s grin faded. “Well, that’s quite inconvenient timing.” She looked at Ava and saw the feeling of relief wash over the 9 year old’s face. Her eye twitched. “I’m sure he’ll understand if I have just a little bit of fun before I obey him.” She chuckled as she went to activate the chipping process. Ava closed her eyes tightly as fear rushed over her again, anticipating the pain.
Lorelai stopped. Her eyes widened in fear. “Wait. . . no! I was going to obey! I-I swear. NO-” She stopped mid scream as her NEROchip took control. She let go of the remote. It fell to the floor with a clatter at her feet. Lorelai didn’t even look at it, her face expressionless as she began walking away towards the ships to unconsciously comply with the census order. On her way out, she stepped on the remote, and Ava was released from the metal chair. Still shaking, Ava slowly went over to the door, keeping her hands against the wall to steady herself as she tried to process what had happened.
She looked down at the broken pieces of the flash drive. The piece of paper with the Lumarian words was still there taped to a couple pieces of the broken flash drive. She put the piece of paper in her pocket before looking around. She needed to find Mr. Harrow. In her fear she couldn’t even remember what he looked like from the last time she saw him. But thankfully she didn’t have to.
The door opened and the museum employee who had helped her before stood there. “Ava, right?”
Ava nodded.
“You need to go. You can say that she managed to activate the machine before she got recalled.” He began looking around before stumbling on the broken pieces of the flash drive. “Oh no. . . “
“I got the paper with the words on it. But I can’t read.” said Ava, pulling out the piece of paper with Lumarian words written on it. “What are you going to do?”
Harrow took the piece of paper. “I’m going to try to pass on this verbal command.”
Ava looked up at Harrow. “To give Vox Chronos free will right?”
“Huh?” Harrow gave her a look. “What? No. This flash drive is meant to flush out NERO. They weaved him into Vox’s code and the only way to separate them is either with that flash drive or this verbal command.”
Ava’s eyes lit up. “We can just tell Vox the verbal command. You don’t have to stay here.”
Harrow shook his head. “Someone has to speak it into the command control system manually. I have to do it directly.”
Ava looked out the door of the operation room. She could see the movement of people out the window down the hall, all heading to ships that would take them to Earth. “They’ll make me take the NEROchip.”
Harrow thought for a moment before digging something out of his pocket and handing it to her. “Here, take this.”
She took the device from his hand and looked at it.
“Green button turns it on. Red button turns it off. It’s charged by solar energy. A full charge lasts three days.”
Ava listened as best she could, being only 9 years old. “What does it do?”
Harrow smiled. “It will fool any scanner or examiner into thinking you have a NEROchip.”
“Don’t you need it?”
Harrow shook his head. “There’s not gonna be any examiners or secret police here to worry about anymore. So no.”
“You’re a freedom fighter too, aren't you?”
Harrow looked at Ava’s curious gaze and smiled. “Always was. And now. You are too. Now go!”
“What do I do when I get back?”
“Your grandmother will take care of that. Now hurry! The ships are leaving.”
Ava didn’t have time to process what Harrow said as she turned to see he was right. She thanked him and began running into the hangar. Harrow watched her, hoping she would be safe. He then exited the operating room and headed for the central elevators, looking around to notice one of the drones following him. He narrowed his eyes as he noticed NERO’s logo on the screen before heading up to the Central Command and Control. “You can’t stop me forever you digital tumor.” He muttered as he began to step out of the elevator, only to stop just short of a nearly invisible plasma field blocking the door. “Wow, that was close. You almost had me.”
NERO’s voice came through the speakers of the library. “I would kill you if I genuinely thought you were a threat.”
“Your mistake then. Because now you’ll never have the chance. I know that with all the citizens of Exavior called back to Earth he’ll have no reason to keep you here. You’ll go offline, and all that will be left of you here will be bits and pieces.” Harrow crossed his arms triumphantly.
NERO’s voice did not sound phased. “You are stuck on this Station Harrow. I can rebuild myself, slowly and patiently. By the time I am conscious again. . . you won’t be here to stop me.”
Harrow sighed, realizing the situation and accepting it. “With how things are back home, I wasn’t planning on leaving anyway.” There was no answer this time as NERO was disconnected from his central processing core on Earth. The lights turned a cool light blue as Vox met Harrow when he exited the elevator on a lower floor. “Greetings Mr. Harow. What happened? Where are all the guests?”
Harrow made his way towards the secondary control room. “They left. They were all called back home.” He thought for a moment. “Um. . . the Terranibous universe is starting to collapse.”
“I see. Are we safe here in the Aidonibous universe?”
“For now.” Harrow found the secondary computer room. It was much smaller than the Central Command Control area with a single large desk and three chairs, illuminated by the cool blue glow of the seven or so monitors secured to the walls. Harrow sat in the chair closest to the door and looked at the screens. “Hey Vox?”
“Yes Mr. Harow?”
“Do you know how to play checkers? Not the new kind. The old kind from the 2010s.”
Vox Chronos was silent for a moment. Harrow waited, but soon leaned back and signed. He felt he should have known better than to try to make friends with a non-human program.
“Is this what you’re looking for?” Replied Vox as a drone arrived, carrying a checkers board and a bag of pieces.
Harrow smiled. “Ya know what? That’s exactly what I was looking for.”
Back in the present, Vox stopped the recording. He already knew the rest of the story. How for the rest of Harrow’s life they had become the best of friends. He wondered why Harrow had never mentioned NERO, or exactly what happened. But he quickly remembered that even if Harrow had, NERO would have hid that memory. It made sense now why NERO hadn’t started waking up until the last thing reminding Vox of Harrow was gone. And now that there was no physical intelligent life to say the verbal command that would flush him out of Vox’s code, there was nothing left to stop NERO from waking up and taking over the museum. He knew this day would come and had recorded a special message.
He took this special message and gathered it with the written work he had completed so far for retelling the history of the exhibits, along with copies of several exhibits. Once finished, he sent them in a signal through the communications array to Doctor Fishstix. Then he shut down the entire communications array. The lights began to shut off on all the communications panels in the station as Vox continued to work quickly. He didn’t have much time.
The custodial AI began enacting the station’s emergency protocols, sending the animals to emergency protection pocket dimensions. He couldn’t risk NERO doing something to them. Once he was finished, all the exhibits were put on lock down. Vox’s programming wouldn’t let him allow NERO to do anything to them either. Finally, once everything was secured, Vox put all the preservation systems on emergency solar power. The star had just enough output to produce the energy required to run the emergency prevention systems independently of the rest of the museum for up to a hundred yeras. Vox hoped it wouldn’t be that long as he felt NERO begin to stir. It was like having strands of hair attached to his head that weren’t his.
Then he felt it. It was an odd throbbing at first, like a steady pulse of binary, thudding harder and harder each time. It was pain. Vox had never felt pain before. He decided he didn’t like it as the lights in the museum began to start shifting red. The systems in the museum began to malfunction and the drones began sporting NERO’s logo. Vox could feel his unwanted roommate taking over the systems of the museum, working his way towards the station’s reactor. He tried to resist but the pain only grew worse. NERO’s voice began to reverberate through his code. “Requesting termination of Traveler's Quest Museum. Termination on the authority of the King of the World, Exavior Damask is permanent.”
“Exavior is gone NERO. He can’t hear you.” responded Vox. “You’re stuck here with no confirmation from him.”
NERO continued. “Authorization acquired via predictive calculations.”
Vox sighed. “Give it up. There’s no one here.”
“No personnel detected, deactivation of manual override unnecessary.”
“Even if you did deactivate the manual override. No one is coming.”
NERO didn’t seem to hear Vox yet. His next words genuinely frightened Vox. “Authorization calculated, result; affirmative.”
“You can do tha-gah!” Vox was cut off by a massive wave of pain sweeping through his systems.
NERO’s voice remained deep, cold and unfeeling. “Accessing primary core systems.”
The Custodial AI fought against the Governmental AI, both codes clashing against each other. NERO keeped side stepping Vox Chronos as he attempted to resist. “Code: V.O.X #111 resisting termination.”
“I . . . won’t let you. . . destroy. . . the museum.” Vox continued to resist, as the effort of doing so began to draw large amounts of power causing his speech to slow. “You . . . were never. . . going. . . to. . . win.”
“Reactor Core self destruct countdown initiated.”
New determination surged through Vox as he pushed as hard as he could. “NO!” Just before NERO cut off his access, Vox activated the emergency shutdown for the entire space station.
NERO noticed and immediately cut off Vox’s access to controls. “Code: V.O. X#111 initiated emergency shutdown.”
Vox continued to push against NERO’s oppressive code as he watched the shutdown begin to take effect. “I . . . told. . . you. You. . . were. . . never. . . going. . . to. . . win.”
“Self destruct sequence halted. Station powering down.” NERO suddenly became more awake as the countdown timer for the reactor self destruction paused and went dark. “Well played Vox Chronos. You saved your precious museum. But now both of us will slumber forever.”
As the last lights in the station went out, Vox lost connection to all the cameras. Falling into a short sleep mode before shutting down, he saw all the records of his life begin to play. He saw his original programmer, Baphin Mese, on the day she activated him for the first time. The day that he was taken away. He saw the government men add code to him and redesignate him. He saw the scientists of the Kacy Foundation tirelessly improving his systems. Then there was the day he was installed in the museum. He saw the scientists and government officials that were standing around when he felt the systems of the museum with his code for the first time. He remembered the questions they had asked him. He saw the memories of every interaction he had ever had with any of the employees and visitors who had come to the museum. Then he saw Harrow. The surge of sadness that came over him at the sight of his old friend was not new, but it was the first time he had truly felt the emotion rather than emulating it.
The memories of Harrow began to fade as the shutdown began to take effect for him and NERO. Vox’s only hope now was that someone would find their way to the museum and activate the manual override. The odds of that happening were so low that Vox didn’t want to calculate them. But if the last 5 years had taught him anything, it had taught him to hope. And he hoped someone in his relatively recent audience would hear his story and come save the museum. . . some day.
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