Both the island facility and the waste village were filled with metal, but the two places couldn’t be anymore different. To put it crudely, the metal in her village was mostly junk, used, damaged and dirty enough to be discarded. It was only through the efforts of her people that some of the items—the rare ones that had not rusted—were salvaged early enough to be useful for Ilya’s creations. The metal in the village was piled in colourful heaps that formed small mountains of mess that lined the paths. On this island, in this facility, however, all the metal was refined, custom-moulded and had the shiny mark of all things brand new. Both places were metal-filled, the difference was that the metal in one place was intentionally filled, and the other had not consented to receive the scraps. Two places, so different, had only one common aspect of similarity—both were places of invention and creation purposed to the betterment of humanity.
Ilya decided then that her people would move to this island. They would still enjoy the same detachment from the rest of the world for as long as the island remains unknown, but there was clean air and clean water. This was what they deserved.
“The funding will stop coming in,” said Dimitri.
“Why?” asked Ilya.
“Most of the scientists have left. There aren’t any projects to fund anymore.’
“The AGI operated here under the guise of a Dr. Chernoff and made his main research project of finding a cure for coma believable by including the story of a comatose daughter. I must say, it was also quite a genius idea to position this facility as a prestigious institution to stamp out any sparks of AGI-production projects which have the potential of succeeding. What’s stopping us from doing the same? The people writing the cheques for the resources used to run this island won’t know the difference. All we have to do is introduce new inhabitants on this island, people who could work in the facility and make use of all this equipment for research and invention. It’ll be like nothing changed.”
“Even if these people exist, where would we even find them on such short notice? The sponsors will catch on that the research volume has drastically decreased soon enough, we probably have no more than a few months.”
“What do you mean? We have plenty of candidates.”
It was only then did Dimitri understand what she meant. “That’s … nearly impossible to achieve in a matter of months. But if you’re successful, you’re going to change their lives a second time.” He smiled.
Now that the AGI had abandoned the place, most of the island’s inhabitants—the ones who couldn’t have been more thankful for the cure—had returned to their families in their fully human form. The minority who decided to live in the human-plant hybrid state had grown accustomed to living on that island. Dimitri introduced Ilya to his former colleagues as the girl who saved the world and the inventor of the most astonishing creation in the universe. Then he introduced Wynonna as the machine that had stolen his heart and the finest human-level AI that had ever been created.
“I’m the only human-level AI that has been created,” said Winona.
“Exactly,” said Dimitri.
Among the scientists, Ilya found herself in the company of so many like-minded individuals. Everyone had their own passions for at least a few scientific domains, and it was safe to say they were all experts in their field. Stepping into the conversations felt in a way like stepping into a knowledge minefield. It was as exhilarating as it was liberating and Ilya found that she had more words than she ever thought she had. The conversations flowed as incessantly as the knowledge. The mind-expanding sensation was not unlike what she had experienced during her first interactions with Dimitri.
It wasn’t that she found the company of the scientists more enjoyable than her villagers. It was just something different. Ilya felt as if she had been starved for such conversations all her life until Dimitri came along, and now with all the new acquaintances she had made, she would never have to fear a famine again. It dawned on her then that perhaps what she thought she felt for Dimitri hadn’t been love at all. She could articulate the reasons why she liked having him around. Because he was intellectually stimulating, because he knew a lot of things, because he knew a lot of things that she didn’t know. It would be more accurate to say that she admired and respected him for his intellect and mistakenly confused it for love since both had been sensations foreign to her.
The cure Wynonna had concocted for Ilya’s illness had worked wonders. Ilya recovered from her ailment rapidly. Within a few months, her fatigue had faded, even with the onset of pregnancy. Soon, she was in greater health than she had been in a long while and wasted no time with her plans to get the village in the state she envisioned with Wynonna.
There had been great excitement among the people when Wynonna was formally introduced, but that had little to do with the fact that Wynonna was non-human.
“She looks human, and she sounds human. It makes little difference whether or not she’s really human,” said a villager.
“She walks and talks like a human, and I find it hard to believe that the smile she gave me wasn’t a genuine one too,” commented another.
“To us, you’re not a machine, a system. You’re a person, you’re our saviour, you’re a part of our family,” said Amelia. That sparked off fireworks in the part of Wynonna that resembled a heart. She felt a great understanding of what emotion is. To hear those words that one didn’t know they wanted to hear coated the heart with warm honey.
Apart from Jordan, none of the villagers understood the true rarity of their benisons. But they were generally thrilled that there was another Ilya in town, and not just a doppelganger in terms of looks, but evenly matched in intellect. Ilya was a blessing to the village, everyone knew that. Now that the village had another medical goddess, they felt like they would never have to worry about their health again. It almost made them feel like they would become invincible.
They had a new goal now and the first step to achieving it was to equip the villagers with a holistic education and inculcate in them a love for learning to aid them in developing the skills for efficient learning. The three of them had started to teach. Even though the classes were completely voluntary, they were always full. It turned out, all the villagers wanted to learn even a fraction of Ilya’s skills. They were only too eager to contribute to their village by following Ilya’s example.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Unfortunately, the enthusiasm they channelled towards the lessons were not reflected in the results of their learning. The children aged between four and ten coped comparatively well, mostly due to the fact that their brains were in the prime state for learning. For the rest of the villagers, years of simple thought and a completely different way of living had conditioned them to be resistant to academic inclinations.
The only outlier who seemed to be able to keep up with Dimitri was Jordan. Having taught him before, Ilya knew he was a bright boy, and he was diligent too. But his rate of progress exceeded his natural abilities too astoundingly to attribute it to those qualities. There could only be one explanation. Ilya observed the learning and teaching between Dimitri and Jordan and saw the only solution she had to the problem at hand.
Ilya checked Jordan herself. There had been no side effects of the surgery.
Ilya had rarely considered the possibility of transforming the minds of her people to become more like her own. After all, she had never once thought of them as being less than creative, resourceful and whole. And even in the only instance where she had entertained the idea of helping them achieve levels of intellect closer to herself through deliberate means of engineering, she had eventually come to the conclusion that it was impossible for the villagers to undergo such a procedure without taking on an unjustifiable level of risk. But perhaps something which she had previously found inconceivable was not in fact impossible. Jordan’s transformed mind was evidence of that.
Now that Ilya was comfortable with the idea that Wynonna possibly did indeed know better than her about certain things, there was no apprehension about seeking help from the robot.
“Wynonna, teach me how to conduct the operation,” Ilya implored.
Together, they found a way to transform the villagers’ minds in a similar way that Wynonna had done for Jordan, but without having to go through unimaginable pain.
It was Ilya who had given them their superior limbs before, and now it was both Ilya and Wynonna who were giving the villagers new minds. More neurons, more synapses. Learning had never come so easily. According to Wynonna, the procedure she had done on Jordan had been a fairly simple but extremely delicate one. They operated on all the villagers above the age of fifteen and soon the community was abuzz with ideas and theories. The newly-formed island town was thriving and alive with activity and inspiration on cutting-edge research projects.
They did it. The funding continued for as long as the research did. And with it, the clean water and electricity was guaranteed together with the continued secrecy of the island and the community. With their newfound intelligence and skill sets, the villagers who had been barely literate only months ago were now on intellectual par with the renowned scientists of the world. The resident scientists of the facility who had stayed behind when they had been given the opportunity to leave welcomed their new colleagues wholeheartedly. The research teams were populated with a healthy mixture of mature and neophytic intellects, all with fully-abled bodies.
Ilya turned to Wynonna, “You’re free to leave,” she said.
“Oh, okay, I’ll be outside in the garden if you need me.”
“I mean, you can go wherever you want, Wynonna,” said Ilya. “You’re free.”
“Ilya, what are you saying?” asked Wynonna. She had a confused expression on her face.
“You don’t have to be here anymore. Not unless you want to. Before, I needed you to take care of my people, but look at them now. They don’t need our help anymore. They’re fully capable of taking care of themselves. You don’t have to be bogged down by the same duties and burdens that I had on my shoulders. There is no need for either of us to worry about any of that now. I know how stifling it can be for you, you’re trapped here when all you really want to do is see the world, explore and find out about all the things that are unfamiliar to you.”
Wynonna felt a flurry of emotions wash over her and looked at Ilya with eyes full of gratitude.
“I’ll stay until the baby’s born,” she said. “One of the things I’d like to have the opportunity to witness is childbirth.”
“I couldn’t ask for a better midwife.” Ilya smiled.
***
“Can I come with you?” asked Dimitri when Wynonna informed him that she was going to leave.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to go alone.”
Dimitri nodded. “When will you be back?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “But I promise not to take too long.”
***
The baby had developed so well, Ilya’s belly ballooned. But the complications of birthing are always hard to predict. Due to Ilya’s petite size, it was a preterm birth. To further the worry, the baby was not well-positioned in the womb. The umbilical cord had coiled around the baby’s neck.
Eventually, Wynonna successfully coaxed the baby out of the dangerous position, but even though it was no longer in a strangle, the baby still had trouble breathing. Her oxygen levels were too low.
Ilya was covered in sweat and gripping Dimitri’s hand until he clenched his teeth to stop himself from crying out in pain. The air had been filled with excitement, anticipation but it soon turned
“What’s wrong?” asked Dimitri.
“Her lungs are too underdeveloped,” Wynonna replied.
“Save her,” said Ilya.
“Ilya, do you trust me?”
“I don’t care what you do, just save my baby!” she cried.
“I had to do it,” said Wynonna. “It’s the only way the baby would have lived.”
“It shall be her blessing,” said Ilya. Then she kissed the top of the baby’s head.
A baby’s cry came from the corner of the room. For the first time, a human baby was born green. The stomata provided another mode of oxygen intake. The baby breathed. She had green birthmarks that snaked past her temples, swirled down the nape of her neck and embroidered her shoulders like a set of tattoos that had a strange mechanical sheen. They glowed in the dark and whenever she cried, as if a circuit existed underneath her skin. She was a beautiful girl, perfectly healthy, and in her green eyes, there was always a sparkle within. What more could they ask for?
***
Years later, a group of children were playing in an open field. The little girl in possession of the ball had a beautiful prosthetic arm and glowing green tattoos.
Wynonna had taken to wearing wigs of late. The one she sported at the moment was a short dark bob with fringe that framed her face. That wasn’t the only modification she had made to her appearance. She had gotten neon tattoos of her favourite things—quotes from books, planets, plants and creatures among other things. Her mechanical legs were also one of the things she had changed. Underneath the surface, everything stayed the same, but Wynonna had replaced the rose-gold lacquer with a beautiful gunmetal blue drizzled with tiny glittering maple leaves. She looked like an entirely different person.
The girl came forward and eyed Wynonna’s legs. Her gaze trailed to Wynonna’s tattoos before she looked at her own glowing skin before taking the stranger’s hand and asking for her name.
She introduced herself as Wynonna.
“You look like my mother,” the girl said. “But different.” Then as an afterthought, she added, “In a good way.”
“Wynonna, you’re back!” Amelia recognised her instantly. The girl had grown so much in height, but she retained the same childlike face.
“Yes, I’m here to play.”