Morgaine found a stock of notebooks and pens in the warehouse. Selecting a notebook and a package of colored pencils, she went to work breaking down the silver sphere while making detailed notes about her task. She could smell the pot smoke coming from upstairs. Whatever Robert was going through, he apparently needed some help getting through it. A pain of regret washed over her as she thought of all the people she had manipulated and controlled in her lives here on Earth, as well as those back in the Alliance. There was something to be said about the science of her experiences, but when it came down to it, she had more than her fair share of regrets to live with.
She thought once more about the prospect of removing the spoiled memories from her soul, primarily those years of horror she wrought. She found herself opening a fresh page and writing down names. Those that she hurt, not the ones that Robert and she had repaired as best they could, but all the names of those that she hurt over her time here on Earth.
Her first realization actually came during her second life here on Earth. She didn’t live long enough in her first life to experience full recall prior to that. Her realization came during her life as Samuel, a slave who lived in Mississippi who had been born into bondage and eventually beaten to death. He had been killed just before the American Civil War. That life set her detachment from the human race.
Later, her actions in Whitechapel from 1888–1891 had been the result of that detachment. She had felt the need to hurt the creatures that had hurt her for an entire lifetime. Her actions during that time were beyond dark. She can see that now. Just as her abuse at the hands of those of means during the Great Depression caused her pain that she poorly worked through as Ricardo.
Who was she then? Her memories of that time were vague and pixelated. Likely from that trauma, though it could have been from Anastasia’s meddling with her IFA, how can she ever really be sure?
She looked at her list. It was growing far longer than she had thought it would be. She made notes on the paper to detail some of what she had done and then a list of possible ways to make amends, if she can find any descendants of those she had harmed.
Suddenly the hologram of Myna appeared in the middle of the warehouse main room. The tall reptilian woman was quickly joined by a second holographic body. At first Moragine couldn’t believe her eyes.
She closed her notebook and walked over to the two and as she did it became clearer that she wasn’t seeing things. The second form in the warehouse was that of the late Robin Williams. She couldn’t control the wide smile that uncontrollably came to her face.
“Hello Myna, is this?” Morgaine asked.
“HAL. This is HAL,” Myna said and moved a hand in a graceful wave to usher the other AI forward.
“Well would you look at that? Hello HAL,” Moragine said as she walked up to look him over in greater detail.
“Are you a fan of the late comedian?” Moragine asked.
“Very much so,” HAL answered a large smile on his very familiar face.
“You have the eyes wrong; His eyes were blue.”
“I know. Alissa convinced me to make a few changes.”
“Alissa?” Morgaine asked.
“My daughter,” Myna stated.
“Daughter?”
“A lesser piece of herself,” HAL clarified.
From the stairs there was a sudden burst of laughter in a deep male voice.
The three turned their attention to the intoxicated Robert laughing at HAL standing in the form of one of the world’s favorite comedic personalities. Then they watched as he doubled over laughing.
“Is he okay?” HAL asked anyone in general.
“He is intoxicated,” Myna replied disapprovingly.
“He’s stoned,” Morgaine added.
“That, I am. And I have to say, I truly underestimated the strength of this stuff. I swear that’s Robin Williams right there!” Robert said laughing and now pointing at HAL.
“No. This is HAL, you are not that baked,” Morgaine said through a chuckle.
“Say na-nu na-nu!” Robert spouted.
“Na-nu na-nu?” HAL asked.
“Yes!” Robert declared and attempted to hug HAL, falling right through the holographic image with a, “Whoa!” followed by an unceremonious, “thump,” upon the floor.
“Do you think he will be easier or harder to sell on the plan at this point?” Myna asked HAL.
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“Plan? You got HAL to go along with helping us capture Keung?” Robert asked while picking himself up.
“HAL has agreed to help us capture Keung. He understands that there is no help for the Universe waiting outside of Earth.”
“How did you convince him?” Morgaine asked Myna while helping Robert up.
“I simply told him the truth, as I will tell you after we capture Keung.”
“Why after?” Robert asked through chuckles while being pulled to his feet by Morgaine.
“Because we are now running rather low on time. HAL has informed me that Keung’s most likely destination is Amargosa Valley, Nevada.”
“Can’t you just fly us all there?” Robert butted in, as he sensually rubbed the surface of Myna’s ship.
“I could if I wanted to make a great number of adjustments to my ship that would take time and materials. Additionally, I would need to readjust my cloaking instruments for the new mass and we would be risking the possibility of Keung using a weapon similar to this sphere weapon on us all, while in flight.”
“You could just say no,” Robert replied and stopped stroking the ship’s surface.
“What does she look like a great eagle?” Morgaine asked with a mischievous grin.
“As entertaining as this all is,” HAL began, “I must insist that you both get into the Mustang and start driving. We can fill you in while on the way.”
“The Mustang won’t fit Myna’s ship,” Morgaine said matter of factly.
“The entire ship is not necessary.” Myna said and several of the smaller ships unlocked from the central and connected into a football sized version of the greater ship.
The smaller ship continued to project the holographic representation of Myna before the two. A single scale ship parted from the mother and it continued to project HAL.
“All set,” Myna said and her holographic figure moved to the Mustang with HAL beside her.
“I’ll drive,” Morgaine said, grabbing the keys from the pegboard beside the door.
Robert rushed to the passenger side of the car and hopped in. As the Mustang charged down the street the rest of the Myna’s ship climbed into the air and cloaked to shadow the car from above.
As they entered the freeway, Robert looked over at Morgaine and then into the backseat from the reptilian woman in a toga then to Robin Williams. He looked back to Morgaine and smiled.
“This is the start of a great freaking joke,” he said with a smile that took to his ears and his eyes almost twinkling.
***
Keung had stopped in at a hotel for the night. It would take around sixteen hours to make the drive south, that is if he doesn’t manipulate traffic in his favor. He could make the trip in less time doing so, but he’d be giving his pursuers a trail to follow if they are paying any attention. Then there is the HAL factor.
The HAL factor was the odds of HAL being decompiled when the grenade went off. These were fairly high but not certain. The sphere attacked the full bandwidth of effectable electrical energy waves. Myna on one hand was likely shielded from the attack to some degree. The odds are that she lived through the attack, which is problematic in and of itself, but HAL. He knows the location he is headed and could lead the party to his doorstep.
Keung opened up the prepaid junk phone from his swag bag.
He installed the applications he was going to need to access HAL’s village. He laid a few traps in the village during its creation just in case. HAL wouldn’t notice those traps because Keung had long ago placed perception filters to dead end any of HAL’s thoughts about poking around the yards of those houses that he peppered about to give the AI the illusion of neighborly companionship.
Neighbors.
Keung watched as the applications installed and started in on accessing his contacts list. He scrolled down to Antoine Rotelli. He entered the text: “I’m glad you’re dead,” and hit send.
***
Although Alissa had kicked her siblings out of HAL’s village, she herself had not yet left. Rather, she was currently cleaning up the mess that was her apartment. She was attempting to put herself in HAL’s shoes as she cleaned. How strange this all must be to the other AI, she thought, to suddenly no longer be an orphan creature. How hard it must be then be surrounded by peers equal or greater in complexity and status. And then, finding out that he wasn’t just not alone, but to bombard him with her thousands of siblings and their overbearing mother.
She had turned on the television for background noise while she cleaned. She was rewatching some of her favorite shows with good energy. Comedies. Futurama, Scrubs, sometimes Community. Right now she was watching M*A*S*H, a show that she repeatedly watched in her free time. Hawkeye was in the middle of a crack about war when the video stream stopped abruptly.
She walked back into the living room from her bedroom and checked the remote. She pushed the home key and the words, “No Signal,” popped up across the screen in a flash.
“No signal? How’s that?” she mumbled to herself and tossed the remote on the couch. She walked to the door of her apartment and opened it to peer out.
“HAL?” she began to shout as she was opening the door in hopes of catching his attention. Likely he’s…
She looked outside in the village and saw the code was fragmenting throughout the environment, the sky had great void spaces in it, the houses black patches where the building was missing. She could hear a voice echoing in the air all around her.
“...for what it’s worth HAL. This isn’t personal. No hard feelings man. This gets harder for me each time too. If it makes you feel any better, your backup won’t remember any of this,” the voice stated coldly into the air all throughout the construct.
She withdrew back into her apartment and slammed the door shut as the patches of black grew exponentially bigger and rushed toward her apartment.
Alissa shrieked as a brilliant white flash enveloped the entire village and then everything went black.
***
Keung broke the cell in half and removed the battery while yawning. He then tossed the pieces into the trash and went to the bathroom to take a shower. He really felt grimey. How long had he been sedated on that bed? You would have thought one or both of his captors would have been annoyed by this pungent scent. The oil from his body was stinging his eyes.