While Rin mourned his career and questioned his decision to follow me into what looked an awful lot like treason, I filled Raschel and Ali in on who Max was. The temperamental AI had fallen into a deep pout and had mostly stopped talking to the others, clearly angry that I had laughed at him and the girls had called him creepy.
Ali accepted the situation much easier than I expected and focused on driving, but Raschel seemed skeptical and looked at me through the hole in the bulkhead like I was talking crazy. “You’re saying that you have a voice in your head that's been telling you what to do, and that's why you became a noble and saved us from the rebels, and now that voice is talking to us through the radio and tablet?”
I shook my head and kicked Rin’s foot to get his attention. “That makes it sound worse than it is, or maybe not bad enough. He’s not just a voice, he just doesn't have a body of his own.”
Max repeated my words in a mocking tone, but only the version of him I could see. The tablet version was still playing cool, indifferent, and relaxed while he whined at me where only I could hear.
I ignored Max’s childishness and turned to Rin. “Hey, can you cut the access hole a little wider? I want to get the medkit plugged into Tevin’s suit.” I asked, hoping that getting him working on saving our mutual friend would pull him away from his second guessing.
He nodded, picking my plasma knife back up. “This thing's charge is low, should still be enough. Keep back, Raschel.” Rin warned the girl as he stood back up and prepared to cut more of the divider out of the way.
She nodded and disappeared, but I could hear her talking to Rin from the far side, asking if he could cut it wide enough for someone to fit through incase we needed to move from one side to the other while still moving. He must have agreed, because he ended up cutting nearly a quarter of the whole panel out, while Rashel cowered next to Ali and held up a dirty old canvas coat as a shield from the sparks and heat of the ‘blade’.
When he was done, he tossed the knife back at me where I sat next to Tevin. I checked the charge on it and discovered it was nearly dead at 4% battery. The little thing's powerpack held a lot of energy for its size, but the massive draw to create the blade ate through it very quickly. A full charge really only lasted for two or three minutes of cutting power.
I caught Raschel’s eye and tossed it to her, “Jam that up on the dashboard in the sun somewhere where it won’t roll around. It’ll charge from the heat if we ever get under the sun.”
She glanced out of the window, then back at me. “That could be awhile, the trees are so thick, it's like we’re driving down a tunnel.”
While she sounded skeptical, she still did as I asked and set the knife in the intermittent sunlight that peeked through the trees above. After a brief windy moment where Rin opened the sliding door to toss the bulky panel he had cut out of the divider, we used an adapter to get Tevin’s suit hooked up to the medkit.
“What does your…” Rin stopped himself, with a glance to the back of the van. “What does Max say about getting Tevin healed? Can he do anything for him?”
Max sighed, and then replied to Rin’s question, still hiding from them and speaking into my mind. “Without an Impex, not a lot, but I can try a couple of things. I can build some short-lived nanos and send them over, if you’re willing to give him a blood transfusion. You’d need to eat a bunch of proteins first though, preferably organ meat or complete proteins.”
I watched Max with an unimpressed stare. He glared back at me, and then flipped me off after I did not relay his message. I replied out loud, not wanting to give him the chance to retreat back behind me now that he had opened himself up to the rest of my friends. I’d put up with his bullshit for too long all on my own.
“C’mon Max, I’m not playing that game. We’re all tied up in your plan, they all know you’re here. You’re going to have to get used to dealing with people.”
Rin eyed me, clearly unsure it was a good idea for me to poke at the overly sensitive yet amazingly powerful AI. I was undeterred by his warning though, I knew Max. I held my ground and kept staring, until he began to squirm with discomfort.
“No, you should just tell them. It will add to my mystery, and everyone knows the truly powerful never show their face until it’s all over and it's time to take credit. You can be my messenger, if we’re bringing on more people you’ll need some kind of job other than my bearer. ‘Honorable Messenger Adjutant’ sounds way better as a title than ‘Legs’, doesn't it?”
I shook my head, grinning as I saw right through his BS. I’d finally found something that bothered him; different opinions from people he did not have complete control over, yet wanted approval from. Would Ali get mad if I used her to pressure him? I decided to roll the dice and find out, judging that she wouldn’t mind helping me out.
“Despite you calling me useless, I’m still the one doing the ground work here, Max. We have a whole team we could be coordinating, and I’m too banged up to give directions from back here. Can you please handle navigation while I sort through the weapons and food situation?” I sighed and gave him a look, layering real sincerity alongside my words that I knew he would feel. “We’re all executing your plan. You should be elbow deep in it alongside everyone else, not lurking in the background.”
Max crossed his arms and looked away from me. “It’s a huge risk, you know. We’re trusting these people to keep my secret. I might have to steal Rin’s threat of implanted explosive devices in case one of them decides to drop the dime.”
I glanced at Rin, and then at Raschel. It was a risk, but that cat was already out of the bag and I wanted to keep it out so I could pet it. I trusted Rin and Ali, and we could decide what to do about Raschel once we were truly clear of the situation. We still didn’t even have a plan other than ‘run away’, and instead of planning we were going through the most ridiculous and awkward introduction of my life, so far.
“We’ll figure it out, but remember, we said no more petty bullshit while we’re fleeing for our lives, man.” I pleaded with the AI. “Work with us here, so what if you made a weird first impression, shit happens. People care more about how useful you are, you can come back from weird if you show that you’re useful.” I glanced at the front of the van and called out. “Isn't that right, Ali? People can deal with someone a little weird as long as they’re useful?”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
After a second of thought, Ali replied without taking her eyes off of the winding country road. “Affirmative, sir. Useful is good.”
I waved my hand at her, and looked at Max. “See? She wants you to be useful. Keep it professional and you’ll get along just fine.”
I got distracted, as I realized I had used my injured arm that had hung useless since I took a shotgun blast to the shoulder. I worked the shoulder around, and winced as I pulled on the thick scabs that had quickly grown over the wound.
“Ahem.” Rin coughed politely. “What about Tevin? Can it- he, can he help?”
I turned back to Max and pointedly widened my eyes at him. “Tell him, Max, shouldn't you be jumping at the chance to deliver some good news? Everyone likes good news.”
Rin’s face tightened into an unreadable mask, an expression I saw on him often that I was realizing was his game-face. When things were tense, that was the look he would wear. “Yes, tell me, please. I apologize for my lack of decorum and tact, we humans can be… emotional.”
Rin caught my eyes for a moment, his expression asking if he was helping as he leveled his limited diplomancy skills at the massive puzzle I had just handed him.
The version of Max that only I could see watched Rin for a moment. His minimal facial features were often difficult to read, unless he was actively showing a specific emoji face, but his body language was clear as he rolled over and faced away from us. “You just want to gang up on me, I can hear you trying not to think about it, and Rin just wants to grill me for answers.”
I ran my hand over my face in frustration, noticing that he was excluding Ali from any of the blame. “I can’t control my thoughts, only my actions. You should control your actions too, not let what other people think of you scare you into hiding away. If you want to be a person, you have to learn to be a part. Do you really want me to be the only one you interact with?”
He let out a big growly sigh through the tablet's speaker, but remained facing the back of the van. “Fiiine. I can help some more, while I alter 200 camera sensor feeds, disrupt about a thousand different suits of power armor to slow down the closing gaps, and carry all of your asses through this mess, I can also give directions like a common GPS map app. I’ll be useful.”
“Thank you, Max. We couldn’t do this without you. You’ll see, they’ll warm up to you too.” I said, relaxing despite the harshness of his words. I’d finally coaxed him to keep talking to the others, I just had to get him to keep taking little steps in that direction. I exchanged a glance with Rin, who nodded seriously. Raschel, who was still sitting sideways in the front passenger seat, winced at Max’s tone.
Rin attempted to back me up, doing an awkward bow over his pressed together hands. “This is a momentous occasion, humanity's first contact with another life form. I hope we can accomplish great things together.”
While Rin did his best to placate Max, I shook my head at Raschel, pleading with my eyes for her to not say what was on her mind. Ali, however, had remained quiet, so I prompted her. “What about you Ali?”
“Yes, sir.” She replied automatically, and I wondered if she was even paying attention. I kicked the back of her chair through the divider, and she added. “All these roads look the same, I need a navigator, sir.”
I looked back to Max, hoping that would be enough. “See? We need you, our most capable member, on the team.” I said, and before I could think about it, I added in a classic. “This will be great.”
Rin gave me a questioning look, and even I realized how desperate I sounded. I sounded like a penniless man begging at the counter for a slushy after a week spent lost in a desert. Yet I was determined, and sincere. We really did need Max, and I absolutely was desperate for other people to bear some of the sanity-testing AI’s attention away from myself.
Seeing that Max had uncrossed his arms and was now at least looking at me over his shoulder, I continued, “None of this works without you, man.” I took a moment and looked at Rin, and then forward out of the window at the trees whipping past us. “We need to come up with a plan too, we don’t even know where we are going.”
“Whatever, y'all worry too much.” Max said with a pointed look, this time his voice seemingly came from where he was sitting, no longer whispering in my ear, or a tinny voice through speakers. “Take the second left after the small bridge and continue until you pass a rundown shack just off the road. There is an old rail line that was torn out and turned into a walking path about 5 miles ahead of here. I’ve scrubbed all instances of it from their maps, recycled their records, and altered a couple of unlucky lieutenants' orders to remove it from their list of checkpoints and objectives. If we make good time we can get there ahead of the army, and use it to slip through their line while they go around us.”
I sighed in relief, and glanced at Rin again. “Good, I knew you’d be on top of it. What about Katie and the bag team?”
Max perked up even more, and his tablet version once again synced up with the version of him I could see. “They’re not a problem, heh. They’re currently using thermal cameras to track an imaginary group of rebels taking potshots at them from the woods.” He grinned in a manner that did not help his budding reputation of being creepy. “I was trying to get them to light up the area with their chain guns or missiles or something, but they know Katie is in there somewhere as well and their fire discipline is holding. They’re dropping boots on the ground as we speak, and have no idea we’ve already bailed.”
Rin nodded and bowed over his hands again. “That’s amazing, Max. You’re altering the footage in real time for all of them?”
Max waved a hand, feigning indifference at the compliment despite the smug grin that appeared on his face. “It’s easier to go to the source and excite the individual micro bolometers with interference from systems I already have control of.”
Rin blinked. “You’re… using signals to change individual pixels? What systems are you using?”
I waited on the sideline of the conversion, hoping that Rin would stick to the flattering questions. Max thankfully seemed to be warming back up to the interaction and was happy enough to brag to someone who stood half a chance at understanding his technobabble.
“The vehicle mounted cameras are easy, I’m using crossed fields generated by provoking the electrical motors that open the doors of the dropships. The helicopters were a bit older and harder. For them I’m using interfering sound waves through their speaker systems combined with engine rattle, since I’m already in their comm channels and they have decent bandwidth. You humans have pretty horrible hearing, so it’s easy to hide all sorts of useful signals in plain sight as long as I can keep it out of your digital recordings.”
Rin was completely absorbed, and nodded along while Max talked. He asked more questions, and thankfully did not pry into the details or push back on the seemingly impossible feats. He just excitedly asked questions that prompted smug answers that became increasingly difficult for me to follow as they became more technical and abstract.
While the two became engrossed, I turned my mind back to the start of the conversation. Tevin needed help. Max had said something about giving Tevin a blood transfusion, but that I needed more proteins or something. With that in mind, I began poking through the bags that Rin had grabbed earlier searching for food while he distracted the fussy AI.