“This is a nice surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure?” The voice on the other end sounded so much like a kindly old man, Dimitri pictured a smiling, wrinkled face. He didn’t realise he had expected Dr. Chernoff to be a stern-faced academic until he found it hard to match the voice he heard to the man in his mind.
“I think we can skip the formalities. I’m repulsed enough, speaking to someone who spies on others with no sense of shame,” said Ilya.
Given Dr. Chernoff’s standing in the world of academia, there was a significant probability that he would have grown accustomed to flattery and reverence over the years. Ilya’s sudden display of rudeness would have come as a stark surprise. Fortunately, he seemed appreciative of the refreshing treatment. “All in the name of science. Marvellous, aren’t they? The ladybug appearance is quite a nice touch, if I do say so myself,” he said cheerfully.
“We have a proposition for you.”
“I’m sorry to inform you that I have no interest in propositions apart from my own.”
“What if I told you we had a solution to the problem you want to solve?”
“Oh?” said the voice. It sounded amused. “Interesting. What makes you so sure you even know the problem I’m working on? Go on, tell me what it is that I desire the most.”
“You want to wake your daughter. We can help you. We can help her.”
Hearty laughter filled the room. “You can give yourselves a pat on the back. You got it right. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t foolish for thinking that I would believe you could possibly find a treatment for coma, something I’ve been trying to do for years now. Besides, now that I’ve finally found the solution, I think I’m in a pretty good position to turn down your offer.”
“But it’s far from perfect, isn’t it?” Ilya retorted. “What would your daughter think when she finds out that you poisoned the whole world just to save her? And she is bound to find out, you know, sooner or later, she will.”
The doctor’s frivolous attitude was gone now. “Who are you to tell me what she might think? I could care less as long as she wakes. As long as she’s with me.”
“We believe we have uncovered the secret to curing a coma,” Ilya said.
A long pause ensued. “That’s a bold claim. Any proof to back it up?” the voice dropped two octaves lower, suddenly serious.
“We can do better. We can show you how it works.”
“This cure … It has already been tried and tested?” asked Dr. Chernoff.
“Quite certainly,” Ilya replied.
“And it has been successful?” the man continued to question.
“To the best of our knowledge.”
A few moments passed before Dr. Chernoff spoke again. “You’re lying to me,” he said.
It was as Dimitri had feared. They had been naive to think that the old fox would ever fall for such a ruse.
“We’re not,” Ilya denied.
“If what you say is true, the technology would have been reported extensively.”
“I don’t publicise my findings. I don’t share any of my formulae with the world. I’m sure you must be aware of that.” Dimitri thought Ilya sounded convincing. He could only hope Dr. Chernoff thought the same. “It is only now that we are planning to share it with you, for a price.”
“Let me guess. You want me to leave your village alone.”
“You would agree, that’s more than a fair bargain.”
“Very well,” said Dr. Chernoff. “We have a deal. If you can really do as you claim, I’ll leave your village alone. I’ll send a boat tonight.”
There was a click. Then a ping. Then a projection was displayed on the wall. A port address not too far from the village.
The pair found their way to the dock specified by the good doctor and waited. A yacht arrived a little after sunset. It crept up on them so suddenly, they didn’t realise it was approaching until it loomed just a few metres away. Dimitri and Ilya stepped onboard. It was the first water-vehicle Ilya had ever been on. She looked around and studied the sails, masts, and then the helm controls. Ilya found it strange that the Council had sent such a vehicle. Wasn’t the island supposed to be a secret? If the travellers were all transported there in this way, surely someone must have figured it out.
Just as Ilya had this thought, the yacht began to tremble. Then the whole thing seemed to collapse onto itself, engulfing them in darkness. It shivered for a few minutes as it submerged itself underwater. Ilya held her breath as she braced herself against the seawater. But there was no cause for panic, however, because not a droplet of water had the chance to seep in. Within seconds, the yacht had transformed into a gentle submarine.
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The hum of the submarine was low and quiet, but all the fish stayed away. Seahorses, on the other hand, were surprisingly fearless. One crept to a porthole to look into the curious eyes of a human. When he stayed there, using his tail to latch on to the vehicle, it prompted others watching to emerge from their hiding places and do the same.
Having stayed in the village her whole life, Ilya could not say she had experienced any part of the world. All her understanding of civilizations and creatures that lay beyond the borders of her village were derived from the internet. Ilya had always thought the information was comprehensive enough, but seeing a creature in front of her, she understood just how mistaken she had been. The articles she had read, the pictures she had seen, even the videos she had watched of the pipefish did not do justice to show how truly stunning and captivating it was. Nothing came close to seeing the creature with her own eyes.
Ilya felt as if she had entered a new world, because the ocean was a universe of its own. It felt almost magical. One has to have direct contact with the subject of study if one is to be truly able to understand it. She thought about Wynonna, how she had kept Wynonna confined to the intranet she had built. Wynonna had access to information on the internet, but only sections which had been curated by Ilya specifically with Wynonna’s development in mind. In the early stages of her development, it made sense to censor the information Wynonna received. One wouldn’t have much use for a caretaker robot who uses vulgarities in her daily vocabulary. But even after Wynonna developed her own sense of sensibility, Ilya continued to keep her there. She told herself it was for safety.
In all honesty, Ilya had been all too aware of constraints she had imposed on Wynonna. Would Wynonna be even more incredible than she was if she had been given full access to the internet? Would she have been able to find a cure for Dimitri? Would she be able to find a cure for me?
For a long time, Ilya hadn’t decided whether or not she liked the answers to these questions. But at that moment, everything became clear and she wondered why she had ever thought otherwise.
***
The drone of the submarine was the perfect white noise which one could ride on into a meditative journey. The past few hours had given Dimitri a lot to think about. A multitude of thoughts lingered in his mind from the earlier conversation like fog that hadn’t settled. He sat in silence, closed his eyes and tried to block out all thoughts in hopes of gaining clarity. But the issues that had been bothering him undulated in the sea of his mind, holding him hostage in a perpetually restless state. Dimitri’s acknowledgement of the fact that he might have indeed fallen for a robot instead of a human girl was still a raw belief, like a fresh wound, it remained stinging,
Dimitri tried to go about it in a clinical fashion.
Ilya said Wynonna was usually allowed out of the room only when Ilya retired for the evening. The fatigue typically came around four in the afternoon, and by six, Ilya was usually in bed. It had been months since Ilya had worked the night shift. The two could be distinguished by the hours of activity. He would use this key to carefully discern the girl he had truly fallen in love with.
The one who had led him to the village was Wynonna. He remembered being superficially attracted to her then. The one who brought him comfort after he had woken from nightmares during the first few weeks of his stay at the village had also been Wynonna. And, as he had later learned, the one who had shown him how to appreciate the rain and the stars was also none other than the droid. Dimitri could cite more examples about when he found his attraction for the girl to be growing, but it was unnecessary to recall any more. There was a pattern he observed. All those relevant interactions occurred only after sunset. ‘Night Ilya’ was essentially Wynonna. The Ilya he thought he had fallen for had been none other than Wynonna all along.
He was on the submarine, on his way to rescue the cyborg girl he had unintentionally fallen in love with. Given that he had been avoiding her ever since he had found out she was a robot, he suddenly found himself growing anxious. What would he say when he sees her? He had so much he wanted to say to her, but he had no idea where to start.
The droid may not be real in the natural sense of what a human was supposed to be, but Dimitri believed the feelings he had for her were as real as could be. Even now, his heart ached at the thought of the suffering she had been put through, the sacrifice she had made.
***
“We will show you to the room. You will get started immediately,” A man announced upon their arrival, making it clear that among all the guards at the jetty, he was in charge.
“Are you really Dr. Chernoff?” Dimitri asked. Again, he found it hard to connect the face to the voice he had heard over the phone.
“I’m as real as I can be. Now, are we going to get the business done or are we spending the rest of the night standing here having a lovely chat?”
“Not so fast. I have one more condition,” said Ilya.
The man raised a brow. “You seemed to have forgotten you’re in foreign territory now. What makes you think you have any bargaining power?”
“We need to work with Wynonna. This treatment needs the three of us to work. Either you agree to my request or we won't heal the comatose daughter. It’s that simple.”
“And what if I say we’ll throw you in the ocean instead?”
“Then we’ll be dead, and the girl will remain asleep. Let me speak to Wynonna alone. No bugs, no cameras, no audio devices and none of your people in the room.”
“You have a lot of nerve demanding something we didn’t agree upon,” said the man. Then he pressed his temple with a finger and mumbled something in a low tone. Ilya and Dimitri waited. After listening to the orders from the voice in the device, the man spoke again. “Very well, ten minutes. Then we start. And we’ll keep this one with us while you talk.” As he spoke, two guards grabbed Dimitri and held him in place. “We also have a lot to talk about, don’t we?”
“Go on, I’ll be fine,” Dimitry told Ilya. “He won’t hurt me. Not while he needs us to heal his daughter.” He gave her a reassuring smile.