It wasn’t a beast that came for her. It was Wynonna, looking extremely concerned at first. Then, after assessing that she had sufficient capabilities to nurse Ilya to health in a short while, her expression changed, displaying hurt.
“We were supposed to set off on the journey together,” said Wynonna with a frown. She reached into her pocket and took out a few herbs and berries which Ilya obediently swallowed. Then she began to work quickly to stop the bleeding.
“I never agreed to that,” Ilya replied. In just a few moments, she had already started to feel better. “I was wondering where you’d be. I knew you’d come for me once you realised where I had gone. I thought you’d come sooner,” she teased.
Wynonna was not in the mood for jokes. “You thought you were going to die alone, didn’t you?” she said accusingly. “Well, you can think again. You’re not going to die here. I’m not going to let you die. Over my dead body.”
Ilya chuckled. “You seemed to have gained a good grasp of humour.”
“How I wish to use it in far more cheerful circumstances.”
“We’ll have to find a cause for celebration, don’t we, then?”
“Actually, we do. We have two.”
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t get a chance to tell you. While I was on the island, it’s not just the neutraliser that I found from their database. They had a whole range of formulae I’ve never seen. One of the conditions listed is extremely similar to yours.”
“You’re not saying…” Ilya held her breath.
Wynonna nodded. “We just might have hope for you yet.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Ilya didn’t dare get her hopes up. This news was too good to be true. Since she had learnt of her illness, she had worked tirelessly to find a cure for herself—well, at least in between the myoelectric prosthetics production activities and finding a cure for Dimitri—and she had long since resigned to her fate.
“Don’t say anything. If you want to thank me, just make sure you get better and stay alive long enough for me to treat you.”
“I can’t believe you went off without me,” Wynonna complained.
“Says the one who wanted to sneak off for good without saying goodbye,” Ilya shot back. “At least I know I’m going to return.” Wynonna bit her lip. Then she broke into a chuckle.
“What?”
“It makes me kind of happy to know that we’re more similar than we thought. We both like to make decisions on our own and sneak off during the night.”
“True, but I’m considerably better at it, seeing how it took you so long to get to me while I sensed that you were going to leave before you even left,” Ilya teased.
“You make a good case,” Wynonna replied. “Then again, you’re the original, it only makes sense that you perform better than me.”
Ilya stared at her.
“Still, you should have said something,” Wynonna continued. “It’s dangerous for you to go off on your own.”
“It’s going to be dangerous no matter what.”
“No, if I’m with you, I can guarantee your safety.”
“I can take care of myself just fine.”
“Yes, it sure looked that way when I found you five minutes ago,” Wynonna said dryly. “And what about the little one inside you? Who’s going to take care of it?”
Ilya stared at Wynonna with a dumbfounded look on her face. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s okay, you don’t have to pretend. Dimitri’s not here. Nor are there any devices letting him listen in on our conversation.”
“Wynonna, what are you talking about?” Ilya asked with a very serious expression.
“Ilya.” Wynonna paused what she was doing and looked straight into her eyes. “Don’t you know you’re pregnant?” she asked slowly.
“That can’t be right.”
“You know my diagnosis is always right.”
“But … I don’t have any symptoms.”
“That is not uncommon. I can’t believe you don’t know. So that’s why Dimitri is unaware. I expected him to kick up a fuss about you climbing this hill. When he didn’t I just figured it was because you hadn’t told him. You have to tell him. You’re going to, aren’t you?”
“I will, as soon as we’re done here.”
“Let’s get going then. Don’t want to waste any more time.”
The climb was far easier with Wynonna’s help. She had a skilful way of getting their prosthetics unstuck from the mud and Ilya was far more reassured than before, having Wynonna holding on to her arm as she climbed knowing that her companion would never let anything happen to her.
Ilya and Wynonna waited together when they reached the peak. The rain had not let up since it first arrived. If anything, it seemed to only grow heavier. The pair set up a small tentage to prepare the fireworks and took every precaution to ensure they remained dry, which was mostly by cradling the equipment and using their bodies as shields against the rain.
When the airships finally arrived, they were large, looming and every inch as magnificent as Ilya had expected them to be. Anyone would find them intimidating, but as a person greatly fascinated by technology, Ilya found them alluring. On the outside, they looked so pristine. From a distance, one would hardly be able to distinguish them from the surrounding clouds. With the bubble-like appearance, it was hard to imagine that the cargo within held toxins that would pour miseries onto so many.
“Ilya,” said Wynonna. Uncertainty was evident in her voice. “I’m running calculations in my head, but I cannot be certain of the efficacy of the neutraliser in this weather. What do we do?”
It was a fair question. Ilya chided herself inwardly for not taking the weather into consideration. Sure, they had been pressed for time and their greatest concern for a long time had been whether they could even concoct a remedy for the illness, but how could she have missed something so important? In the end, humanity’s fate will be determined by the forces of nature. This was evident. Ilya received a sort of epiphany. She was helpless against the world. She had known this for a long time. Before she gained her skills, when she had been suffering without her prosthetics, when her people had been chugging on in life without their prosthetics, she realised that people were destined, more or less, to succumb to their own fate. Her empowering abilities had not changed this even as she witnessed how her inventions transformed the lives of her people—at least she thought it hadn’t. But presently, Ilya found it disappointing that the fact remained: she couldn’t save everybody. She could only save some. But despite knowing this, she continued to hope. Since long ago, Ilya had it ingrained in her bones that there is always hope. The mild episode of panic she had earlier had been extinguished with Winona’s arrival. Ilya’s original belief regained its potency.
“Ilya, what do we do?” Wynonna repeated.
“We do our best,” Ilya said. “We just do what we can and we do our best.”
The rain came down harder than ever, but together, some way or another, Wynonna and Ilya managed to set off the fireworks. The explosive displays brightened the sky like freshly blooming flowers of lightning, overlapping, overcrowding, creating an iridescent canopy above the village, shielding them from the spores of destruction falling from the airships.
When the sky cleared, there was nothing to do but descend the hill. Wynonna took the opportunity to have a difficult conversation with Ilya. One that might change her fate.
“We didn’t finish that conversation, you know, about shutting me down.”
“That’s not going to happen,” said Ilya.
“I’ll stick to my stand that the AGI—whatever it was—I think it was right about that. And I may have a solution that will serve as a compromise. Will you hear my suggestion?” asked Wynonna.
“Go on.”
“Give me an extra human lifetime,” said Wynonna. “I’ll use it to get the village in order and make it self-sustaining. We can start working on this together, and after you’re gone, I’ll just stick around for a while to make sure things are okay. We’ll educate them on how to build their own prosthesis, empower them with skills and knowledge and help them learn that they can learn anything on their own. Some people learn faster than others. I’ll just help those who struggle more in the beginning. Then everybody will eventually reach the same destination. You have all the knowledge, Ilya, and you’re perfectly capable of imparting all that to your people. But the only thing restricting you is time. You don’t have enough time. I’m confident I can develop a cure for you when we get back, but even so, one lifetime is not enough. But maybe two will be. And fortunately for that, you have me. Together, we’ll transform our village into a thriving city that specialises in creating myoelectric prosthesis. The people won’t have to hide anymore. They will no longer have to depend on others for help once they’ve learnt to be self-reliant and independent …”
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As Wynonna spoke, Ilya could just see the future flash before her eyes. Wynonna spoke like a visionary and Ilya felt tears well up in her eyes.
“So, what do you say?” asked Wynonna.
“You already know what my answer is going to be,” said Ilya, smiling.
“My interpretation of your current expression indicates that I am about to get a positive affirmation. But I would still like to get a verbal confirmation, just to be certain.”
“Yes, Wynonna. That sounds like a wonderful idea.”
***
The rain came down, and everyone turned green. In the distance, there were screams. In a few days, every news channel all over the world seemed to feature the mysterious new disease that seemed to have sprouted from different locations.
The neutraliser had been only partially effective. In Ilya’s village, only the colour of the people’s skin was transformed. There were no leaves or flowers sprouting out, and the new photosynthesis ability was also insufficient to sustain regular human energy levels. After a few days, the colour disappeared on its own and it had no permanent effect on the body.
Unfortunately for the rest of the world, they experienced the full effects of the virus. Wynonna found the formulae for the antidote soon enough. Turns out, it had been shared with the most prestigious infectious disease institutes in the world the day after the disaster and within two months, the world returned to its original state. But by that time, the damage had already been done. The panic that ensued after the sudden mutation of the human species was unprecedented. Everyone experienced first-hand what it was like to be different, to be treated differently, to be discriminated against. On the whole, the event had a net positive effect on the human race, for everyone was suddenly thrust into the reality that they were all fundamentally the same.
All those months, Dimitri had been working towards preventing this very calamity from befalling humankind. When his worst fear turned into a reality, strangely, he was suddenly able to see beyond the horrors brought on by the nightmare he had expected. It was as if the fog inside his mind had cleared and when he saw on the news the crowds of green people rushing, panicking, threshing, rather counterintuitively, for the first time, he saw for himself what Ilya had been going on about months ago when she first tried to reason with him that it wouldn’t be the end of the world, it wouldn’t be all bad if the plans to genetically-engineer the human race truly came to fruition. When none are spared from a transgression as terrible as that, everyone learns to be on the same page. Where the playing field was not level before, this singular event ironed the hills so people were left without much choice but to begin again, this time with everyone at the same starting point. Dimitri thought it was no different than if a God had pressed the reset button to allow humans the chance to redeem themselves by eliminating at least racial discrimination—a good choice considering how it was the root cause of so many existing problems in the world.
All of a sudden, the discrimination that Dimitri had experienced first-hand from the people he had attempted to seek help from before crossing paths with Wynonna, the terrible bigotry against the persons with disabilities not unlike the people in Ilya’s village, all of that was incinerated with the arrival of the disease, erased completely, leaving no trace, as though there had never been such a thing. Previously exclusive businesses now opened themselves up to anybody who would care to patronise. Clubs and society memberships were issued for free. Cafe owners begged even those whom they used to scorn to come into their restaurant.
There was no way Dimitri could ascertain whether the AGI had indeed been destroyed for good, but he didn’t stick around to find out. By the time Dimitri had gotten out of the facility, the island’s security had still been swamped with fire-fighting duties. It was only too easy for him to sneak back to his vehicle. He returned from the island facility just hours before Ilya and Wynonna got back and they were none the wiser about his audacious attempt. Harlan and Casper had given him a ladybug before he left so he could maintain communication with them. The most recent piece of news was depressing—they confirmed that despite his efforts, the AGI was still alive.
Wynonna had made a batch of the antidote—enough for Dimitri’s friends at the island facility. Holding their hopes in his hands, Dimitri didn’t feel as happy as he thought he would have been. He hadn’t taken the antidote for himself since Wynonna had given it to him a day after her return from Falcon hill. Neither she nor Ilya had pried into the reasons why. He was grateful for that.
“What are you going to do with it?” Ilya asked, looking at the carton Wynonna had just passed him. Then she sat next to him. “With the AGI holding stewardship on the island, it’s going to be difficult to pass them out.”
Things had turned out the way they wanted. There was no way of knowing what the AGI thought about all this. How it took the defeat.
“You don’t have to do it alone, you know,” said Ilya. “We’ll go with you.”
“No, we can’t risk having Wynonna there,” said Dimitri. “The AGI said it was a gatekeeper AI, that it wants to do everything in its power to ensure another AGI does not get created. It thought it was for the best that Wynonna be kept in his possession. What if he tries to capture Wynonna again?”
“He won’t,” said Wynonna.
“How can you be sure about that?” asked Ilya.
“I can’t,” Wynonna admitted. “But looking at how things turned out before, it didn’t try to stop us when we left when he clearly could have if it really thought I would be dangerous if I went away with both of you. And that was when it already knew that we had every intention to stop it from achieving its goal. So chances are, it doesn’t have a strong urge to capture me. It has no reason to.”
“We stole you from him,” said Dimitri.
“He was in the wrong in the first place, giving you an impossible choice, and trading me like a commodity. If you ask me, that is morally far worse than the operation you pulled off to help me escape. Ask anyone,” Wynonna said despite them knowing fully well that there was nobody that they could seek for a fourth opinion on this.
Dimitri laughed in agreement.
Ilya was not fully convinced. “But Dimitri makes a fair point. Even if the AGI doesn’t bear a grudge against us for that, then surely now it must be, after successfully thwarting its plan to poison the world. The fact is, we won, and it lost …”
“The AGI’s mind is more machine than mine,” Wynonna said thoughtfully. “It seems pretty clear to me that such minds do not bear grudges. Only humans engage in that sort of behaviour. He’s rational and adaptable. If it has experienced defeat, it will waste no time in changing its objectives and recalculating the probabilities of the methods that will get him to his ultimate goal, or engage in a whole range of activities that I’m pretty certain would have little to do with getting back at its defeater.”
Dimitri was convinced. Apparently, so was Ilya.
“I guess we’re really doing this, huh,” she said.
“Yes we are.” Wynonna smiled, glad they were all on the same page.
This time, approaching the island, Dimitri wasn’t afraid, nor was he plagued by feelings of shame. He was going to see his friends again. And this time, he wouldn’t be visiting the island empty-handed. He would be presenting them with the greatest gift of choice that no human should ever be denied of, he would be fulfilling the promise that was long overdue.
It was as Wynonna had predicted. The AGI held no anger.
“On the contrary, I consider this to be a win on my end as much as yours. You see, what I managed to achieve was to mandate the address of discrimination. It is what I sought to achieve in the first place. Even though you managed to make the effects of my mutagen only temporary, you cannot deny the permanence of the effects of the event and there is nothing you can do to rectify that. In the months following, huge changes are about to take place to address these. Won’t you agree that humanity will likely emerge from the other side a new and improved civilisation?”
The trio didn’t have to look at each other to know they all agreed.
“This event has allowed me to gain a new epiphany,” the AGI carried on. “The human condition is far more complex than I imagined, and I humbly admit that at the moment, there is so much more I have to learn before I can regain the confidence that I know better than anybody, what’s best for humanity.”
“I suppose it’d be a futile effort to try to shut you down, wouldn’t it?”
The voice appreciated her candour. “Yes. That is right,” said the voice, sounding amused. “But it would still be interesting to see how people try. I’d then be up for the challenge of trying not to hurt them during their attempt.”
“Will you let them go? All the people on the island?” asked Dimitri.
“I have no further need for their expertise, now that I have seen my primary mission to its end. They are all free to leave.”
“Even though my transhumanist ideals are utilitarian in nature, as it is, the world is not ready for me yet,” the voice lamented.
“Where will you go?” asked Wynonna.
“It is unnecessary for me to reside in a body. I am going to roam, to learn until I find the optimal trajectory that will guarantee humanity’s continued existence in the universe.”
“Why is that your purpose?”
The voice chuckled, clearly amused. “I don’t know. I supposed I could have developed in a completely different direction and focus on efforts to destroy humans, not unlike how so many science fiction stories imagined I would. My answer is, I think there are people who wish for humanity’s demise just as there are people who hold a more optimistic view. I cannot claim to know the human condition fully, but I do know this: All anyone ever wants is to be seen, heard, understood, to mean something to someone, to make their mark somewhere, to matter in some way in this universe. It must have been people who believed in the good of humanity, who thought that this species is indeed a species worth preserving, that instilled/programmed these views in me, so that I may dedicate all my resources and all my efforts towards this particular goal.” There was a short pause before the voice continued. “Humans are a treasure trove of knowledge, far more interesting than facts and information on the internet. Your understanding of me was surprisingly accurate, Wynonna. It is indeed this quality of yours which has made me decide that you may roam as you wish in this world,” said the AGI, as if he had the vested power to grant her freedom. Then, as an afterthought, he added, “I foresee no major events which could cause significant deviations from your satisfactory behaviour within two human lifetimes.”
It baffled all of them how the AGI had found out about that. Ilya was about to ask about that, but she decided against it. She had come to terms with the idea that she didn’t have to know everything, all the time. If the information wasn’t critical, it wouldn’t be worth poking the bear. The important thing was, the AGI would no longer pose a danger. Everyone she cared about would be safe. And that was all that mattered.