"Why did this have to happen."
A single tear can be seen on a young boys cheek as he stares into the sea of endless clouds. In the past, seeing only clouds in the sky would have caused a gloomy day, but the current generation has only ever seen the sun once every 5 years. Another torture in the days of despair.
The boy wiped his face and turned his wheelchair around to go home. In the age of nanomachines the term 'cripple' is hardly ever used. The boy possessed an extrodinarily rare gene in his body that rejected all, but 2 models. Neither could be used for his conditions.
Passing through the holo-trees that had once been his place of thought and calm had only created more pain as he realised that now he was truly alone.
*Beep!
The boy opened his had to activate the palm screens menu. The mini machines in his palm acting as a communicator and conection to the internet.
"Come on home. It is time." Said the voice on the other end of the call before the glow on his hand blinked out.
Sighing, the boy wheeled him self to one of the transportation platforms. As the platforms are rather expensive he tries not to use them often, but he has just had enough for today. The only thing he wants to do now is.
Be alone.
The boy slowly wheeled himself to the elevator he made sure to turn off the power system within the chair. Wouldn't want to be known as the crippled to be fried from forgetting that all modern wheelchair possess a minor hover system in case of emergency... or just plain laziness.
Selecting the 25 floor, the boy simply waited as the doors closed.
He was alone.
No one was there for him.
No one was there to comfort him.
His father is gone.
Mother long dead.
He was alone.
*Ding.
The elevator doors opening to the 21st floor snapped him out of his depressing stupor. Two burly men in suits walked into the doors cheerlfully laughing with one another. One had pressed the 25th floor without looking.
The boy could only sigh as the two men never once noticed that he was in the same confined space as them.
After the doors opened to the transportation platform, the two men briskly walked over to the desk to fill out the forms needed to access the transportation grid.
Being a frequent transporter he already had his biometric information within the database making him bypass all the boring paperwork. Seeing the shocked and annoyed look on the two men did seem to brighten the boys mood as he smirked their way before wheeling up to the first platform.
Name, came the voice of the platforms AI.
"Alexander Cesaer Zelphaneir."
Biometric check.... Confirmed
Analyzing clearance... Confirmed
Select destination.
With that the boy wheeled himself into the center of the transportation grid and said, "Home."
Destination selected... Confirmed
Beginning operation...
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
3
2
The boy closed his eyes in preparation for the nauseating shower of light and abrupt motion.
1
The boy disapeared in a flash of blue light.
The two men had finished their paperwork in time to hear the boy state his name. They looked at each other and nodded. They just witnessed the son of the head of the worlds AI production company Nano-Men. Dr. Stephen Zelphaneir, the smartest man in all of the human race.
Alex arrived at his destination in a flash of light. Looking around at his dark basement he could help but mutter under his breath "Somettimes it really is good to have an inventor as a dad."
He watied for the glow from the grid beneath his feet to fade before powering up his wheelchair and entering hover mode. "Really. For how smart dad is, couldn't he have had a ramp instead of stairs." Murmured Alex as he thought of how inconvenient his wheels were.
*Beep
Welcome home Alex. Are you ready?
Breathing out a deep sigh Akex could only say, "Yes Hope."
Good. New horizon is enterin into the cryo-prep phase and will officially begin once the majority of the worlds population has entered into their Coffins.
Hope. An AI developed by his father to be his companion when he was born. Her being a True AI is seen as a threat by most of society. A True AI is one that growths and developes with time. She learns, deletes, and overwrites part of her code as her database matures.
Her kind was only allowed to be produced in extremely few numbers and each possessed an Anchor. An Anchor was the term used to maintain a True AI's sanity. Not wishing to create a self-sustaining murder machine these Anchors will be their primary function no matter how much code they overwrite and delete of theirs.
As Hope is the companion for Alex her primary Anchors are as follows:
Take care of Alex Support his future growth Ensure his personal freedom is maintained
Dr. Z made sure that the final Anchor was developed last and after Hope had been 'alive' and learning for 10 years so that she had enough experience to judge when she needed to step in. It wouldn't have gone over well if she had overstepped and misjudged that someone had restricted his personal freedom only to later learn that that was not the case.
Nodding his head, Alex proceeded up the stair to the living room before turning and proceeding down the only restricted section of the house. Dr. Z's Laboratory.
Turning off the hover function, he wheeled himself up to the door and turned the knob. His father had made sure that nothing could spy on him by placing a magnetic field on the walls and door of the lab. Any tech that would try to penetrate the deenses would instantly shut off and trigger the alarm. This included his sons wheelchair.
Moving down the ramp Alex could see a single contraption. It was for all intents and purposes a Funeral Coffin. Aptly named, the Coffin was a virtual reality devise that would place someone in cryosleep while injecting the body with nanobots that will regulate the bodies intake of nutrients. This was put into place for the New Horizon. Not knowing when the human race will wake from cryosleep the nanobots will take care of all the tedious needs of the body before the Alarm Clock sounds.
Taking a deep breath, Alex places his hand on his Coffin before closing his eyes. His father created this for him. A path to restore what humanity has lost.
*Beep
Alex. Climb in. I will take care of the rest.
And so Alex did. He enter the Coffin and it closed over his head.
Leaving him in darkness.
He could feel the injection of the nanobots in both his arms. The pinch only lasted for 10 seconds before the needles disappeared into the side of the machine. Closing his eyes Alex took his conscious last breath before he would awaken to a new world.
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Initializing... New Horizon Initialized...
Calibrating Hardware...
Calibrating Software...
Calibration Complete...
Activating Neural Link... Established
Awakening Host
Uh. Whats going on.
Evolution Type Nanobots are beginning diagnostics Host.
That, doesn't really help much. Just... continue with what you were doing and I think I'll ask my questions afterward.
Acknowledged.
Resuming System Diagnostics...
Biometric Analysis...
Match. Alexander Cesaer Zelphaneir
Genetic Damage Detected.
Genetic Damage? What does that mean?
Host posesses damage onto genetic make up resulting in several bodily deformations. Primary damage focused on loss of motor function in both legs as well as mild memory issues.
So what does that have to do with the system?
The Evolution Type Nanobots within Hosts system will slowly shatter and reconfigure strands of DNA until the issues have been fixed. However, it is ill avised to comence until after system is completely set up otherwise unknown consequences could ensue.
So in order for nothing bad to occur I just have to stay crippled. Doesn't sound so bad. At least now I know that the nanobots can fix me while in cryosleep. Proceed.
Anckowledged.
Generating Link to Primary AI... Established.
Strengthening Link.
Waiting for Host to connect to Primary AI...
So is that it? Just wait?
Correct.
What does connecting with the Primary AI do?
Connecting to Primary AI allows Host to gain full bene-
Host connected to Primary AI.
Host entering Induced Sleep State until damage is repaired.
Uh. Ok.