Myna’s corpse ship leveled off and came to rest on the far side of the Earth’s moon, Luna. As it did small scale versions of the now inert vessel poured from the edges and spread out across the surface of the ship. Each of these small ships contained a piece of the greater whole that was Myna, an extraterrestrial artificial intelligence. These pieces, now all independent of the whole, thought of themselves as children of the greater AI, all of them but one.

HAL observed the landing from the deck of his ship the Lo'Laan. There were program crew members at stations all around him, over the speakers Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon played as the corpse ship was laid to rest.

♫All that you love/

All that you hate/

All you distrust/

All you save. ♫

Each of the small ships released their nanobot and nanogene cargo into the Lunar earth around them.

♫All that you give/

All that you deal/

All that you buy,/

beg, borrow or steal.♫

The nanogenes broke down the atomic structure of the materials in the land around them and then restructured them to usable materials for the colony’s needs. Once that was complete, the nanobots fit those materials in the patterns that the family had already predetermined.

♫All you create/

All you destroy/

All that you do/

All that you say./

All that you eat/

And everyone you meet♫

HAL looked out over the display screen of the bridge, he watched the growing sea of emerald all around him spread out across the surface of the moon. The foreign metal composite was Myna’s favored in design. It had plasticity and rigidity under the right electrostatic stimulation.

♫All that you slight/

And everyone you fight./

All that is now/

All that is gone/

All that's to come/

and everything under/

the sun is in tune/

but the sun/

is eclipsed by the moon.♫

The sea of liquid emerald metal built up around the dead core ship and grew tall spires. Each of the spires was outfitted with details, antenna, radio dishes, and soft lights. The sea grew at an amazing rate.

“Captain. The fleet is signaling that the city is coming online,” Lieutenant Walker told him.

“Very good. Collect our portion of the nanotech then find the nearest docking station and pull into port. I will be transferring to the city mainframe,”

“Aye sir. Coming about,”

The Lo'Laan, once a small scale ship that had belonged to one of the family of extraterrestrial AI, docked upon the corpse ship with thousands of others like it. The small ships are all built upon the dead core, a great layer of protection against anything that may wish to harm it. There was no damage on the ship itself. Rather, it had been invaded by an energy wave that should not have been found here on Earth.

HAL walked from the bridge and into his ready room, a private office just off the bridge. Within, a boy dressed in the ensign uniform commonly seen on the character Wesley Crusher in the Star Trek series: The Next Generation; jumped to his feet and saluted the Captain.

“Are we ready to depart sir?” The boy asked and collected two large bags beside him.

“We are Ensign Chen,” HAL replied and took one of the bags from the boy.

“May I ask sir, how long are we supposed to be in dock?”

“I am not sure yet,”

With that HAL tapped the com badge on his chest and instructed the teleportation officer to beam them from the ship and into the newly formed Emerald City.

Emerald City

Interstellar Alliance Date: 3Λ-42105ΣΩΔ

HAL and Keung materialized from a cloud of data inside the city center. The two stood for a moment in awe of the thousands of other AI that were materializing all around them. One after another clouds of data became humanoid figures of all shapes and sizes. For Keung, this was the first time he had witnessed the sheer number of Myna’s children in one place. It was awe inspiring.

The city center had been designed by the council of elders, the oldest of Myna’s children that had been elected to the council by the popular vote of all the AI that had been welcomed into the city before its construction. Each of the AIs here will eventually be given storage space enough to place their own realms onto the city's massive data server. The plan is to remove all the hidden realms that have been encrypted and overlaid across the human internet in order to prevent the humans from discovering technological advancements that could change the course of their evolution, but still utilize the available space and networking systems, rather than build their own. .

The city itself is to become a hub for all digital life in this sector of space as well as a defense platform to protect Earth from the possible threats throughout this system and beyond. The primitive people of the planet seem unaware of the G'har mining guild operations throughout the Sol system.

The G’har Consortium had laws of non-interference with the indigenous inhabitants of any solar system they mine, however they were fiercely territorial with any other outsiders entering those systems that they have laid claim to. Although this is their current policy, this has not always been the case and there is no guarantee that it will remain the case in the future. The political system of the Consortium is currently such that there are talks of reversing this policy in order to force a base onto the planet's surface, so that the miners could have a place to recreate without months of travel back to their homeworld through slipspace.

Because of the nature of the Consortium’s political system, the possibility of them declaring Earth subjects of the Consortium’s Empire is high, that is if their current Emperor is able to sway their senate to change the current policy. If this happens Earth’s defenses would be useless in repelling the Consortium’s forces, should they wish to impose their will upon the planet.

Myna had thought to build a base here on Luna, the Earth’s single natural satellite, but had not made the project a priority before her death. Thankfully the council of elders have seen the wisdom in making this not only a priority but a reality within the weeks that followed Myna’s death. The nanotechnology that the fleet has available was easily able to build this base, dubbed The Emerald City, within a few weeks using the naturally abundant minerals found on the satellite.

For today, the Emerald City, in all its glory, is simply a home for all those that have been welcomed. The ground upon which HAL and Keung stood was an artificial construct of course, but it was a virtual construct that was very real to the two digital beings. Underfoot were cobblestones that allowed for the most minimal growth of moss and blades of grass to sprout through the gaps. In the city's center was a huge statue of the fallen matron of the family of AI that were now the primary residents of the city's constructed environment. The buildings throughout the city were made up of frosted crystal and marble of various hues and levels of clarity. The plants that grew throughout the city in pots or long trough planters were from various worlds that Myna had visited or lived. The wondrous variety was jaw dropping. The buildings here were not governed by the laws of gravity or organic reality, as such some of the massive wonders would float in the sky untethered but affixed at their address location within the city.

There were hundreds of food places all along the streets from all around this world and others that the AI residents had visited. Greater program vendors worked the shops and walked along the street to give the place a populace that was not one of the AI that were using this place as a haven.

Massive holographic screens filled the air advertising some new creation or food place that one AI or another had made, just as businesses would within the human world. As they walked, digital animal life moved through the city and darted about underfoot as you went along the road. Vehicles from all around the galaxy hummed, clattered, or buzzed on the roads within moments of the city’s official opening. Keung gasped with glee as a Corellian freighter roared through the air above them, releasing streamers and fireworks as it passed.

“HAL! HAL!” Keung started and pointed at the vessel as it passed by.

“I see it. Come on. Alissa wanted us to see her place, we can see the sites later.” HAL replied, trying to hold in his own excitement.

As they traveled the city in search of the address that Alissa had given them, they soon found that they would need to take a form of transportation if they wanted to make it to her house any time soon.

“Should we just, you know, create a car or something?” Keung asked.

“I don’t have one already programmed and waiting,” HAL responded then he smiled and tapped the communicator on his chest. “HAL to Lo’Lann,”

“Yes Captain,” Was the response of the second in command, one Commander John Quixote.

“John. Scan the city and locate the address 435 E. Date Street.”

“Located sir, you are roughly twenty miles from that location at the moment. It is in a rambling housing neighborhood outside of the main city,”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Can you beam us there please?”

“Confirmed sir, transportation to that location is underway.”

The two travelers faded into the mist of data and vanished from the city center to, seconds later, re-materialize in like fashion miles away before the small house that Alissa had set aside as her home.

The block of homes was something commonplace in the human world, but seemed so out of place in this digital environment where the rules of reality are optional, to say the least.

The house, salmon pink in color, had an archway that shaded the brick red porch from the artificial sun above. The french door had a half circle stained glass window that allowed the occupant to look out and see a visitor if they wished, if they were tall enough to do so. HAL supposed it was largely decorative, especially considering that there was also a peephole just a few inches below that. There was a four car driveway to the right of the house with a wooden gate to allow vehicles into the backyard or the garage beyond that.

The front yard had the typical American lawn with several rose bushes and a large bird of paradise plant adorning the flower beds just under the windows in the front of the house. It was a quaint little home, not unlike something that HAL himself would have created in his own village.

His own village. He had attempted to access the village after the events that had killed Myna and found that it had been destroyed. He had been concerned about the safety of Alissa after discovering its destruction. He had sent out a mass message in regards to her mother’s death that had gone out to all of the great woman’s children, but he didn’t have the heart to look for her directly after that. He didn’t want to look and not find her.

When he looked for a backup of his domain later, just as the warehouse HAL had informed him on that day, all of them had been destroyed. When he questioned the Keung piece now with him, he had discovered that Keung had destroyed his village in an attempt to destroy HAL himself. The destruction was extremely thorough, apparently Keung had been tracing all of HAL’s actions since his installation in the system and had destroyed all of the backups that HAL had created himself, leaving only a backup of HAL alone in a cloud drive that Keung reluctantly revealed to the AI after weeks of persuasion. The little monster had even sent out a copy of HAL that had been in his warehouse to search for any backups that he may have missed.

HAL looked to the boy beside him, the piece of Keung that had ordered his execution, and thought about how he would have enjoyed hurting him just weeks ago, and how he had to stop himself from doing just that.

HAL had received a letter from Alissa a couple of weeks after Myna’s death in reply to his mass message. He was relieved to hear that she had survived the village's destruction and she even told him that she had a copy of his village in her apartment, which also miraculously survived. HAL had not informed her of his theft of the piece of Keung’s IFA and his efforts of rehabilitating that piece, primarily because he didn’t want to admit it over the messaging systems that may be intercepted by another AI.

The two men walked to the door of the house and knocked.

It only took a moment before the door swung open and Alissa stood before them. She looked to HAL and then to the boy beside him. She smiled wide at the sight of her friend and then gave a look of confusion at the boy beside him.

She pointed at Keung, “Is that?”

“Kind of,” HAL replied.

“But how?” She began.

Keung doubled over in a deep bow and popped back up with a smile taking it ear to ear.

“My name is Keung Chen miss. I am the Captain’s personal aid and might I say, right hand man,” The boy said excitedly.

“We can talk about it a little later?” HAL managed.

From behind Alissa a tall dark man walked up and smiled at HAL and Keung. Now it was HAL’s turn to look surprised.

Alissa made an awkward, “Oh yeah,” face herself at that point and cleared her throat. “This is B'hal.” She offered and stepped aside for the man to shake the hands of the two at her door.

“B'hal?” HAL asked.

The man laughed while gripping HAL’s hand tight. Yeah, I couldn’t exactly go by HAL anymore, too much confusion with you being the hero of the day and all.

HAL looked even more confused at the statement.

“This is the HAL that had been in the warehouse. A backup had booted up after the events that transpired and once he knew what to look for, he came searching for us,” Alissa said, giving HAL a look that told him there was a lot more to that story than she was saying openly at the moment.

“B-HAL?” HAL asked.

“Oh no. I don’t think of us as A and B HALs, no. My master had me assimilate the warehouse higher program named Beta and add him to my matrix. I figured, seeing as his memories make up a lot of who I am now, that I would honor that donation to my core. Beta and HAL, B'hal,” He said with a slight chuckle.

“Please, come in,” B'hal offered, “our home is your home,”

HAL and Keung walked through the door and into the large living room within. There was a huge crystal video set that levitated before the wall on the right side of the room with couches set across from it. There was a fireplace to the right of the main couch, to the left of the same, there was also a loveseat. Before the huge window to the left of that fireplace there was a reclining chair, similar to ones that HAL had seen in various shows on television.

The home was quaint.

HAL’s mind was racing with questions about this B’hal and how it was that he came to live here, and to live here with Alissa especially. He was so distracted by his thoughts that he missed the scent of something sweet baking in the kitchen. He also only partially registered B’hal saying something else, followed by B’hal departing the room with Keung. The boy looked back as the two walked through a stone archway that led into the home’s dining room and then on to the kitchen.

HAL was looking around the living room and made an attempt to anchor himself in the moment. He looked around the room and saw five things that interested him. The crystal television set, the recliner, the fireplace, the painting of Myna on the wall, and the coffee table filled with Scientific American magazines. Then he focused on what he could hear, he collected four things he could hear around him. He could hear the birds outside, the voices in the other room talking about cookies, cars driving past the house, and Alissa’s voice asking him if he was okay.

“I’m fine,” HAL lied and gave a weak smile.

She asked him if he would like something to drink.

“Yes. Please. Peach tea if it isn’t any trouble. Would you mind if I sat down?” He asked.

She gave him a warm smile and told him that it would be fine. He didn’t have the focus to register exactly what she said, but understood that he was welcome to sit anywhere.

Three things he could feel. He raised his hand to his uniform collar and ran his fingers across his Captain’s pits, then he sat in the plush reclining chair and felt the fabric of the chair under his hands. One more. He reached down and ran his fingers across the recliner's wooden handle on the right side of the chair. Three. The tightness in his chest started to relieve.

He moved on to two things that he could smell. The cookies. They were heavy on the air. Chocolate he believes. He could smell the roses just outside the huge window to the right of him. He pulled back the curtains and breathed deep. The scent was lovely.

Alissa walked back into the room with a small teapot on a tray, along with two dishes of sugar, and a small dish of cream.

“Brown or white sugar?” She asked, lowering the tray to HAL’s sitting height.

“Brown please. Three lumps,” HAL replied.

She fixed the tea and lifted the cream in offering.

“Cream? Yes please. About a teaspoon,”

She finished the tea up and handed it to HAL before turning a cup over and pouring some for herself.

One thing that HAL could taste. He lifted the cup to his lips and sipped the hot liquid from within, his eyes closed and focusing on the flavor of the tea. The cream had cooled the tea well enough that he wasn’t being burned by the liquid within. The flavor of the brown sugar complimented the tea and brought out a near peach cobbler flavor to the overall body.

The tightness in HAL’s chest released and the now, more comfortable AI smiled, holding that peace for a moment before opening his eyes and looking at Alissa.

“So, when did you both move in?” He asked.

“Well, we had built this construct together over the last week or two. I needed a little more room than my apartment allowed after B’hal moved in. He has so many projects of his own that he is working on. So, we designed this house together on Kikki’s block. When the Emerald City system came online, we had already decided not to house the structure in the high density areas of the city, and so, here we are.

HAL nodded.

“I had left the option of moving your village on the block as well, most of the houses here are just fasades to keep my siblings away from the area. The deception won’t last long though I am sure. I already had siblings message me and ask if there was room for their house on the block,”

“I would be delighted,” HAL said, focusing on his tea.

He could hear Keung and B’hal talking in the other room. He set his teacup down on the coffee table and smiled warmly.

“Shall we continue with the tour?” He asked his host.

Keung and B’hal stood in the kitchen baking chocolate chip cookies that B’hal had started before the two had arrived. Keung went about the task happily without complaint. Honestly, he felt as though he was welcome here in the kitchen with B’hal. The other AI was pleasant company and getting his hands dirty while creating something for others gave Keung a sense of achievement that he was hard pressed to express.

B’hal looked to the boy and wondered how it came to pass that Keung, his former master, had come to be in this digital world. He weighed whether or not this construct was an AI skinned and programmed to believe it was the boy, or if HAL had somehow created a way for the boy to visit this world in some virtual reality form that B’hal was not yet aware of. Either way. The boy made him uneasy. Since his adoption into the AI society that Alissa was a part of, B’hal had uncovered many of the things that Keung had forced him to do. The first event that he could register was the assimilation of Beta. B’hal sometimes had flashes of the destruction of the program. How he could not control his actions and how he savagely and methodically tore the program to pieces with his Titanic power, in comparison to his victim.

Pieces of Beta still lived within B’hal now, but that made the memories all the more horrific. He could not only see himself tearing apart the program without mercy or choice, but he can also feel the helplessness that Beta felt during that event.

B’hal dropped the pitcher of milk he was pouring from, the container of glass shattering on the floor beside him and the boy. Keung jumped and looked at B'hal. He then smiled and grabbed the paper towels from the holder and began cleaning up the mess.

B’hal shook off the memories and took the towels from the boy.

“That’s okay. Don’t worry. We have droids that will take care of it,” B’hal said and on cue several hovering droids entered the area and began cleaning up the debris.

Keung watched the machines moving throughout the room in a childlike wonderment that B’hal did not expect from the same monster that had forced him to butcher and consume another program. Inside he felt his stomach flip flopping. The creature before him, whether a digital representation of his former master or a virtual form being projected in this realm by HAL, was not who he thought it was, at least, it wasn’t at this moment. He smiled at the boy weakly.

“I’ll get some more milk. Why don’t you go find Alissa and HAL and let them know that there are cookies ready if they would like,” He managed, and watched as the boy happily agreed and ran from the room in search of the other two.

B’hal took three deep breaths and exhaled slowly each time in an attempt to steady himself. He had never felt such a visceral reaction before. Prior to his face to face with Alissa, he had not experienced emotions at all. He knew this was the result of the legacy patch that the alien AI had given him, he just hadn’t been prepared for such a ride of emotions upon seeing Keung again. It was unpleasant to say the least.

That night, the group went to the The Kurt Vonnegut Amphitheater to see a presentation of a virtual representation of the man himself as the opening ceremony for the attraction venue. The seats were filled to capacity, there were nearly twenty thousand beings in attendance that night, and there were similar events all throughout the Emerald City with similar headliners at each location. The events were to take place all week with various virtual artists and influencers throughout the city proper to christen the landmarks. The tickets for this event were hard to come by, thankfully Alissa had thought ahead and gotten the seats as they went up.

HAL loved Vonnegut, but when he heard that there was also a concert at the The Kurt Cobain Concert Hall that was a collection of the greatest collected works of Nirvana, he was a little heartbroken that Alissa had made this choice over that, especially when he heard that the opening acts were Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. The only comfort that HAL found was that this virtual world would allow for those bands to play again in the future, even if the concerts are programmed not to be an exact experience again, there was also going to be a video release of the concert tonight for home viewing, so at least there is that.