The year on Earth is 2156 AD. According to the calendar of the old Age of Christianity, which on the surface no longer existed.
The year of the Galactic Age, where the governments of Earth combined and set out to colonize the now lush and green Mars, has advanced to its 100th year.
So in fact, the year can be called 100 GA. Since the dawn of man now expanded outside the horizons of Earth and invaded the atmosphere of Mars.
Although it has only been 155 years since the beginning of the technology boom created by the introduction of the artificial intelligence, or commonly known as the A.I.I.S., the Artificial Intelligence Interphase System.
Despite the governments of Earth banding together to strike it rich in the colonies of Mars, there still was opposition as to which group inside the main body of the alliance would take the colonies as their own. The most prominent out of all the groups were the United States, China, and the United Factions of Europe.
The United States quickly grew in military might, as they had first access to the mysterious A.I.I.S., and it took nearly a year for all the other countries to catch up to unmanned warfare. Luckily enough, no World War occurred in that span of time as a scientist discovered a way to grow plants on Mars, making it habitable.
In short, this led to the union of sovereign nations and the colonization of multiple areas on the surface of Mars. New elements were discovered, poisonous and deadly, while some of these elements were metals far harder than a diamond alloy.
One trace element was discovered as well, but there was only enough for a handful of the rare element. Oddly enough, the United States discovered and called it Hiltzerum, named after some nobody of a man.
“Class, time to put up your hands, please wait to leave until your name is called.”
The history essay is stopped as a teacher calls out to a class full of students. The keyboard disappears from underneath the little boy’s fingers, his sigh flowing with his classmate’s equally exaggerated sighs. The boy stretches backwards in his little padded hover chair, and he almost falls backwards, but the seat auto adjusts thanks to the A.I.I.S.
“Aw, I really wanted to type up my highly short history even further.”
The boy grumbles and fiddles with his thumbs, a slight static electricity flowing around them due to the touch interface. This is because of the gloves that are currently on his hands, but then he takes them off as he bends down to place them into his school bag.
In this day and age, it is odd to find a school bag on a kid. But unlike most kids, this boy’s dad was once part of the military, and he has the ol’hand-me-downs. An Apple tablet is now in his hands as he removes it from his bag, and begins to play the retro games on it, the classic Infinity Blade, and the infamous Flappy Bird.
“Charles Green, you may go now.”
The boy looks up when his name is called, and quickly puts his tablet in the school bag. He scoots off the padded seat and begins to walk on his own two feet. The seat falls onto the ground, and disappears inside a hole. This may seem odd to those not used to it, but this was actually a common thing during the Galactic Age.
Charles walks out of the room, his backpack on his back. The ‘worlds’ weight is ironically on his shoulders as he walks down the hallways to get to the Public Transit System, a Maglite train run by another artificial intelligence.
In fact, anything short of making food and other daily necessities are actually taken care of by the A.I.I.S. The government did this to easily control the public in times of crisis, but this is skeptical as there has been no violence for a very long duration of time.
Charles boards the Maglite and sits down on one of the many seats hovering and bouncing about the interior of the train. He looks longingly at some of the cool toys some kids are using, where even the virtual reality system has been implemented into goggles for the daily use.
Oh how he so wanted one. But the time on the Maglite is short as he walks off into the general direction of his home.
Now on a moving sidewalk, Charles looks about at the sights that pass by him. Old Man Toby has a junk store just down the street from his house, and that is his pit stop for his house.
Many uniformed houses pass by, and after several minutes he times his jump just like any other day. He lands safely on the hard pavement, his feet flat and steady. An old shack that equals the age of the man running it stands just barely, before Charles.
“Charles, my boy. How good of you to stop by this old man’s house.”
A wizened old voice floats into Charles’s ear, and he turns his head to look at Old Man Toby. He smiles brightly in response and responds like he always has.
“But Toby, you have the greatest treasures I have ever seen!”
“Ho ho, you make this old geezer laugh with joy. Come in, come in, I have something you might want for the tablet of yours.”
Charles’s eyes shine brightly at the prospect of new treasure. The corners of his mouth perk up slightly, and he walks swiftly into the store, not even touching the beam 7 feet high off the ground.
Charles height was only 3 feet though, so he had to scurry to a seat set up just for his visits at a counter in the home store.
He looks around at all the equipment in the store, some old enough to be known by the great-grandmothers at the retirement home, and some just new enough to not be known, although the grandmas only looked 55 due to the cryo-treatments. (AN: cryo is deep freeze)
“Ah! I have had it for years and I never knew I still had it. Here, here, let me show you it.”
Toby walks over to the wooden counter and lifts up a big black box. He places it on a counter and opens it up ever so gently, like it was a spider just waiting to bite him at any sudden movement. Although it could have been his arthritis acting up.
“What is it Toby?”
Charles looks curiously at the little thing in-between the fingers of Toby. He has never seen something like it, but he had seen things that could resemble it.
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Toby looks at it like he couldn’t wish to give it, but he quickly changes his face so that Charles couldn't see the expression on his face.
“I believe it to be the first artificial intelligence. I am not quite certain though, but it can definitely be placed in that tablet of yours.”
Although Toby’s talk went on further more than that, Charles couldn’t help but stop his thought processes.
The first AI? This is definitely something else. He must have it, even if it is a fake!
Being a naïve little boy, Charles couldn’t see the glint in Toby’s eyes to mean anything harmful. So Charles quickly takes his backpack off and puts it on the counter, unzipping it and carefully taking the tablet out and placing it on the counter.
“Where does it go?”
“Ah, you need to open the back, since this can’t be placed anywhere else.”
Charles turns the tablet over and opens the back, the circuitry still vibrant after the many years of disuse. He finds a spot very similar in shape to the little black and gold chip, and he eagerly takes it from Toby’s hand and places it into the little socket.
It fits perfectly, and Charles looks at it in joy. Although he doesn’t look at Toby, Toby’s face has a look of a man who has finally got over his guilt. Charles quickly looks up and smiles, while Toby smiles back like a normal old man, yellow teeth and receding gums.
“How much Toby? I can go back home if need-“
“No, it is enough to know that this can fit into it.”
“Really? You really mean that?
In response, Toby smiles at Charles, who quickly puts the tablet into backpack and leaps off his personal chair, while zipping and throwing his backpack onto his back. He rushes out of the store like an Olympic runner, leaving Toby behind.
But Charles turns around for a quick good-bye wave, as he runs to his house, not even bothering to take the moving sidewalk. The sound of hovercars zooming in the air hides Toby’s words.
“With this, my debt has been paid old friend.”
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Charles quickly marches up his front porch, a synthetic grass lawn to his right and left. His exuberant smile plastered across his face.
He opens the door with the force of youth, and quickly yells in the house.
“Dad, I’m Home!!”
As usual, no reply, but Charles never expects on either as his father is often out on ‘military business’, when Charles already knows he is trying to get with a woman at a local bar. It’s a situation he adapted to due to circumstance, ever since his mum died when he was 5 years old.
He rushes up the stairs, his shoes flying off with the force of habit. He goes down the short hallway and flings open his door, the posters of the retro Iron Man and Transformers dotting his walls and some of his thrown and dirty shirts sprawled across the floor.
He swipes away the dirty clothes with his feet, taking some time to ‘gently’ place his underwear into a spot in a corner. Some mold like to attack, but nothing disinfectant couldn’t get rid of with some hard scrubbing.
Charles’s green eyes soon stare up at the ceiling as he flings himself onto his bed, the tablet already in his arms and ready to try out the ‘first’ AI, already trusting the words of Toby.
But sadly, as soon as Charles hit the power button, the light flickered slightly on the screen and the Apple product began to smoke.
Being a kid, Charles could only do one thing. Okay not really, he cried for a little at the misfortune, and then used the computer that the school gave to him for assignments, as he didn’t have his own personal computer.
As fortune would have it, he was able to back up his tablet onto the school system. This was after much hassle and seat movement, as he had to constant change the cord connected to the computer due to it becoming fried in a matter of minutes. The thought of oiling his squeaking chair never crossed his mind.
He used his fingers to prod a little at the computer screen, the touch screen interface working its might with every tap of his fingers. Charles was trying to find what files or A.I.I.S. was on the little chip. Then his touch screen inter phase began to go on the fritz as soon as the smoke disappeared from the tablet.
Charles panicked slightly at what was happening, until the holographic projection called the computer screen changed to the figure of a human body, or what resembled one at least. The face was of a man sadly, with a sharp face, but anything beyond the style of hair, a crew cut, was unrecognizable.
Charles sat still at his computer, the chair no longer squeaking from his excessive movement.
The figure on the screen looked up at Charles, and he could have sworn there was a smile on its face.
“Greetings, whoever has awoken me, I am John Hiltz, but as I can see that this is too humane, and that you like Iron Man, you can call me Jarvis for the fun of it.”Oh, The Memories!Time To Take Action-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author here, thought to surprise you all with another chapter. I want to know what you prefer, animals or machines? This is because I am probably going to do some stuff concerning that in the future. And there is a hint in this chapter for this question. If I don't get an answer, I will put a poll up later on in the day.
Tell me if I missed anything grammar/story telling wise that would be good to add, as I will like to see this story at its absolute best