Location: Terra Colony Andromeda
North Sector - Academy Research Institution (ARI)
Date: February 1, 2050
Time - 0230
“B, put on some coffee. I’ll be doing some overtime tonight.” Cyno strode into his office, the overhead lights coming on at the same time as his personal computers. They booted and whirred to life. From the far wall to the entrance, the room was cluttered with stacks of datapad on tables and rows of computers. He reached for one wall, and a set of custom consoles folded out. “And, could you bring up recent records on the first year students? I need to review our applicants and the current results from yesterday’s exercise. And bring up Itsuki’s reports on his investigations, even the classified ones that he hid away. I need everything.”
His meeting with Joel had been both enlightening and headache inducing as ever. There were tasks to be done, plans to be made, and things he had to always fix. Between them, Cyno was the fixer, the man you came to for a solution when you didn’t have one, and when you needed one when things went belly up.
A holographic projection of a cute robotic mascot appeared from the ceiling’s projectors. It floated over the consoles to Cyno left.
“Sure thing boss.” B said in a cheery voice. It then frowned its little cute blue metallic brows over its pair of boxy light blue eyes. “But I must warn you, if you drink any more coffee, you’ll be 1028% over the daily recommended intake.”
Cyno waved off the warning. “Yeah, that’ll be a new record.”
“Boss.” B’s tone changed. “I’m worried.”
Cyno chuckled as he tapped away at the keyboards. It sounded like machine gun fire. “Don’t be such a worry wart. I’ve got my health under control, and it’s not like having too much caffeine is going to kill me.”
“But it could.”
“Yeah, sure.” Cyno said sarcastically. “When I was still all flesh and blood.” He shrugged as he grabbed a corded connecting device from under the console. He sat down, getting comfortable as he threw off his lab coat, and then pulled up the locks of white hair on the back of his head. Doing so revealed a port where he could interface with his computer’s setup. It was a reminder of how augmented he had become, and how he no longer had a completely human body. “So about that coffee?”
B sighed. “Yeah Yeah. I got it, boss.”
Without another word, a hovering coaster set itself on the armrest of Cyno’s chair. It fit snugly into the custom cup holder he had installed last week. An odd and mundane upgrade, but completely necessary in the Boss’s opinion.
Cyno gulped down a mouthful, letting the sweet and warm relief of the beverage take the edge off his blurring consciousness. He hadn’t slept in the last 48 hours, and he didn’t need to. I’m part robot, what else was I expecting. This body is mostly a machine at this point, But.. It’s shocking how much I’ve changed. And how I still rely on good old coffee. Man, this brew is good.
The professor ran some numbers in his head, calculating just how much of his original body was left as he went about typing at his console. He didn’t like the results he came to. At times, he thought of himself like a brain in a jar.
Horrifying. And luckily, untrue.
A blip on one of the displays caught Cyno’s attention. “B? What was that?”
“I believe that is an AI. Though, which one? I am not sure. I’ll run a check.”
“No need.” Said Cyno. “I can already guess who it is? Could you tell me what this AI is accessing?”
“Certainly.” B went silent for a couple seconds, which must have seemed longer to him. AIs perceive time differently. They could speed it up or slow it down. In cases when they needed to think or work, slowing time down gave them the advantage of being able to come up with answers like magic. “This one seems to be accessing current events. The AI has touched a few classified documents but hasn’t attempted to hack or bypass the security walls on the master system.”
“So he’s compliant.” Cyno said, touching a finger to his chin in thought. “Just what are you up to, 00? And where are you going?”
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B blinked its boxy blue eyes, befuddled. “00? He’s active? I thought Itsuki was going to turn him off after he was done with him.”
Cyno let out a sigh, reached his hands over his head and stretched himself up in his seat. “I did too, but Itsuki’s always been unpredictable at times, and he’s getting more so every day now.”
“Why do you think that is?” B asked.
“Because we’re all humans, and we’re complex creatures.” Cyno sounded disturbed. This topic of defining what made humans human put him on edge. “Anyway, get in contact with Melody and Zentreya. Have them keep an eye on 00. I’ll write up a work contract with them later, but set the salary to be higher than usual.”
“Got it.”
Cyno took another gulp of his coffee, then asked, “Oh, and about those reports I asked for?”
Prompted, B diligently brought up the relevant data on every screen. From wall to wall, the displays showed a compilation of the profiles of every first year student in Terra Colony Andromeda.
Cyno studied them, finding the odd ones out and the certain complex uncertainties that a specific few brought to the table of this year’s curriculum. He precisely kept his attention on the foreign students, those from the Eastern Bloc, the Russka Republic, and the Chinsui Dynasty.
Every year, these were the most troublesome of the bunch. Either because cultural differences got in the way and didn’t mesh well with the locals, or political matters brought animosity into everyday life to the colony. It had to be rooted out, or mitigated at the least.
“Were there any incidents involving any of these students from here?” Cyno asked, setting his coffee down.
“A few.” Said B. “Itsuki has settled the issues, as has Joel. They’re agents are still currently working to remove the problematic elements.”
Remove. Now that was a word Cyno wished he hadn’t heard today. But what else could he do? Not like I can travel back in time and change the past. I sometimes wish I could, it would make things a lot easier.
Cyno set himself back into his chair, a heavy weight in his chest. He had to ask. “How many?”
B paused. “How many of what?”
“Don’t play games with me, B. How many?”
Another pause. B was truly a considerate person. It knew whenever the Professor was in a rut and it knew what topics poked the proverbial angry bear out of its cave.
“612.” B finally said.
Cyno rolled that number in his head, hoping that it wouldn’t sting as much. But it did. That was how many people had died, that Itsuki had killed, and that Joel had interrogated in the past month. Compared to what they did in a year? This one month was only a drop in the bucket.
And I had a part to play. I was complicit. But they.. we.. did it to keep the peace. Is what Cyno told himself. He found himself agreeing and disagreeing with the methods they used for the colony’s protection, for their protection. And because of that, relations with the neighboring surviving pockets of humanity were going well on the surface, though not as well as he hoped deep down. There was resistance everywhere.
The survivors of the war didn’t immediately flock to peace. They chose sides when it was over. Those who wanted the old system to go back to normal went crawling back to the United Nations, while opportunists created little cells and power groups to seize ground and territory. To say that the years after the war were calm and hopeful, was entirely wrong and a fantasy. The world’s strongest governments were a shadow of themselves by the end of the war’s struggle for survival. All that was left were the masses hungering for their next meal, or for the power to take what they want.
In all honesty, Cyno preferred to have stayed out of it, to keep a pacifist kind of methodology and help those he could. But, what good would that strategy do against the already hostile elements. The monsters from the star depths weren’t going to give him a break, so why should his fellow man?
Because they should. Cyno thought to himself. Because we're on the same side.. Right? We’re all.. Humans. They know that.. Or am I just fooling myself.
Doubt crept into his logic, as it always did. The world had flipped. Core energy had changed mankind. People now awakened to new and unknown powers, and some ran about unchecked. A single person could put the norms of the old society in the dust, destroy it, and break out of the set boundaries of the old 2000s. Nothing could go back to being normal, not anymore.
“Alright. Pull up my email.” Cyno said, bracing his nerves. This was the part of his work that made his mind go mad. “Let’s review the damage.” He sighed. “I really hate politics.”
“Then shouldn’t you just let the Headmaster handle it?” B suggested. “It is his role.”
“Not this time, B. This time, I have to do it myself.” Cyno changed his expression, cracking a humorous smile and swept his locks of silver white hair to the side. “Plus, my dashing good looks give me an advantage, as does my impressive reputation.”
B scoffed, a very much unneeded reaction, yet at the same time a witty retort to his playful and joking banter. “Whatever you say, Boss. Just make sure your wife doesn’t hear that. She might cringe to death if she did.”
Cyno glared at B. You could’ve played along. He pouted, and he didn’t seem cute in B’s opinion.