“Sir. I’m gonna have to see your passport, paper pass, and bribe payment before you walk any farther. I don’t make the rule, just enforce them.”
“I always hated the Undercity rules.”
“Sir?”
“Nothing, here you go. I’m not here to start another fight.”
“Ok sir, you're clear to go on your way”
Undercity, the most vile and wretched place in the world. Where criminals run rampant and the sea pressure is immense. It is also probably the cleanest city in the world though, due to the fact of accidentally offending someone. It is possible to see the remains of the old floating city near the center.
When old Atlantis sunk, the shield was still activated, thus preventing water from entering the city. The only things that were successfully sabotaged were the floatation devices. However the shield generator was damaged, and evacuation of the sinking city proceeded, evacuating 80 % of the population. The other 20 % were left because of their records, but were evacuated through other means. Those other means are now the only way to get into Undercity, as there is no government support down here.
There are a couple ways to get to Undercity. The first is through a special elevator connecting New Atlantis and Undercity, using Undercity as an anchor. The second and most popular way is through psionic transports. The final way is to use a submarine, I am currently using the first method. Although security isn’t the tightest going down, back up is another matter entirely.
Thankfully, I was planing on a different method of exit.
As always the long wait for the elevator to go down was annoying to say the least, however it’s mostly about the amount of time than anything else. I would say that at least the view is good, but then I’d be lying, because if you’ve ever tried looking through solid metal you’ll know what I mean.
The elevator was the size of a medium room, just enough to hold at least 25 people in it at once, and still have elbow room. Of course I was the only one on it at the moment.
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I took out my phone and saw no bars. As brilliant as the underground societies claim to be, they still can’t come up with good Satellite connections under water.
Putting my phone away, I took out my wallet, organised with a precise and complex system. I can fit hundreds of coupons in my wallet, and it never gets any fatter. Staring at me through the picture is my family, and my little girl. Memories of better days.
“WELCOME TO THE UNDERCITY, PLEASE GO AWAY.”
“Annoying as ever, KAI.”
A hologram was projected out of the security camera inside of the elevator. It showed a Cthulhu-esque creature that was wearing a business suit tie and a tiny royal crown.
KAI is the AI unit for the Undercity defences and containment.
The only reason that the city runs as well as it does is because of this unit. Unfortunately the creators wanted to name it kai, which translates to king, so they had to come up with a good anagram for it’s name. They came up with Kool Artificial Intelligence… It was a highschool experiment… my highschool experiment… though I did have a lab partner, his name was Jose Jackson.
Loved baseball, science and mexican names, though he got the last one from is mother. Adept in arts, theory, electronics, online games, and modeling, Jose went from that experiment to big shot.
I never really talk to him much, but he has hired me a few times, also explained why our “failed” science experiment was now the king of Undercity.
So Jose was asked to make an AI that could run defence systems for a city, he didn’t really ask questions then. He attempted, but failed miserably.
Eventually, he remembered that he already made an AI for ‘fun’ and just retrofitted it. Unfortunately for the person who commissioned it, KAI was accidentaly way smarter, sentient smart. KAI said, “FUCK YOU”, and took over the city.
Little do people know that the defence AI is actually the ruler of the Undercity.
Why not rid the world of crime? Because that would mean that they are all spread out in the world, and not in just one area.
“STOP DOING YOUR MENTAL REPORTS”
“KAI, remember what I always said.”
“Use my underwater voice.”
“And what aren’t you doing?”
“Using my underwater voice.”
All of that is mostly guessing, the real reason is that KAI has the mental maturity of a 5 year old at times. A person could call KAI the most powerful 5 year old on the planet, but I know better than to call him that. He barely even reaches top 10.
“So, what do you need before you arrive at the station?”
“A map…”
“On your phone.”
“And informat…”
“On your phone again”
“Two trillion…”
“On your phone already...wait, why did my bank account go down two trillion?”
“KAI?”
“Yes?”
“Stop interrupting, also where’s a restaurant, I’m famished.”
“Wow you are so old.”
“What was that?”
“Watch out for the otters down there Igottogo BYYYYYYYEEE.”
And KAI’s hologram turned off and left to go wallow in his CPU.
I check my phone again.
“Shit, I forgot to ask him the WiFi password.”