December 2070. UCLA Medical Center. Los Angeles, California. United Nations of America.
The morning sunlight dressed the sterile white room in pale gold, making it feel more comforting than it actually was. Kayla had never been comfortable in hospitals, though her care was the best money could buy—her brother Liam had ensured she received the best medical attention in the nation.
Her heart monitor thrummed steadily from the side of her bed, casting fluctuating green light along the wall as tubes snaked from a small medical apparatus to a mask covering her nose and mouth. A nearby digital screen displayed graphs and numbers showcasing the results of her respiratory test.
Kayla’s physician, Dr. Patricia Lee, a seasoned pulmonologist with silver streaks in her neatly tied bun, stood at the foot of the bed, notating the results in a small tablet. Her nurse, a younger, lanky man named Julian, was by her side, fidgeting with the white undershirt that concealed the tattoos peeking out.
“Deep breath, Ms. Ward,” Dr. Lee instructed, her voice calm and comforting.
The Ward sister nodded, inhaling deeply as the machines recorded her lung capacity, oxygen levels, and other essential data. As she exhaled, her gaze landed on Julian, and the nurse gave her an encouraging thumbs-up.
After a few more minutes of breathing, Dr. Lee looked up from her tablet, face breaking into a soft grin.
“Congratulations, Kayla. Your lungs are in okay shape. You’re clear to leave if you want to.”
Kayla pulled the mask over her face and set it aside while Julian turned the machine off. “Okay, but not great?” she asked.
“It’s only been two weeks,” Dr. Lee sighed. “There’s going to be some residual damage that will take time for your body to heal.”
“Will I be able to go to jiu-jitsu?” Kayla was concerned her only physical outlet would be denied.
“Of course,” Lee nodded. “But listen to your body. Your lungs aren’t oxygenating your blood as efficiently, so you might grow tired sooner or get light-headed. Take it easy when that happens.”
Kayla swung her legs over the side of the bed. She glanced behind Lee and Julian to meet the gaze of her bodyguard. “Rich, do you have my things?”
“Yes, Ms. Ward,” the man respectfully replied, pulling a black duffle bag off his shoulder. He stepped around the pair of medical personnel and opened the pack on the edge of Kayla’s bed. “Your brother provided a change of clothes and a new phone he wants the executives to use.”
Kayla nodded. The clothes were likely made from the woven carbon nanotubes that he exclusively wore. After the attack, Kayla would take her security far more seriously.
She rifled through the pack to locate her purse and reached inside to grab two black business cards. They were made from metal with her details etched on the surface. It wasn’t her personal number, but one that tied directly to Apex.
The young executive handed Julian and Dr. Lee the business cards, who peered at them quizically.
“I appreciate you looking after me,” Kayla explained. “If you get tired of working for the hospital, my company will have a place for you. We’re going to be onboarding large numbers of medical staff.”
The pulmonologist searched Kayla’s face. “I thought you worked for a tech company?”
“For now,” Kayla agreed with a disinterested shrug. “I’m not sure what we’ll be called in the future.”
The physician put on a mask of cordial professionalism. “Thanks for the opportunity, Ms. Ward. I’ll look into it on my off hours—as little as there are.” She added with a self-deprecating chuckle.
Kayla gave the woman a small smile. “I promise you won’t be disappointed.”
“I’m sure we won’t.” She looked at Julian. “Let’s give her some space to change. I’m sure she’s tired of being in a hospital.
“Of course, Dr. Lee,” the young man replied, still looking at the business card.
The pair left, and Kayla turned her attention to getting dressed. Rich turned away so she would have a modicum of privacy, but she knew the man wouldn’t leave the room even if she asked. Liam had put the fear of god into all of Apex’s security. His rage from her being hospitalized had been something to behold.
She unlaced the hospital gown and set it aside before pulling out the bag's contents. Kayla could see her brother’s hand in the new clothing design, but at least he had thought of packing underwear.
She slipped into the plain black undergarments and pulled black leggings over them. They were surprisingly comfortable, tight enough to keep everything in place, yet breathable and flexible. A thin, plain white, long-sleeved business shirt came next. It lacked buttons, but as soon as she closed it, the fabric joined together to end in an almost flat hem. It was practically skintight but just as pliant as the leggings.
The last major item was a semi-glossy black sleeveless dress with geometric piping to fit over her shirt and leggings. It looked high-fashion and futuristic, but that was deceptive. Its weight hinted at the carbon nanotube weave that would stop a bullet. Matching knee-high boots with the same geometric design covered her feet, and a matte-black light jacket completed the ensemble.
“How do I look?” Kayla asked when she finished.
Rich turned to look at his boss and gave her a thumbs up. “Badass,” he said with a smile.
“I guess my brother didn’t do too badly then,” she admitted. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Gerald is already pulling up the car, Ms. Ward. Where do you want to go? And do you want us to inform your brother?”
Kayla shook her head. “Apex will let him know I’m out. I want to go to my lab.”
She couldn’t help but feel the slight hint of resentment that her security reported to her brother. Kayla had built Apex Industries from the ground up, and having to give it all up was a cruel twist of fate. She had started Apex to be something of her own, independent from her family. Yet, her brother had crashed to the earth atop an alien meteor, turning her plans to dust.
“Sure thing,” Rich nodded easily before crossing the room and taking her bag for her.
Kayla left the room with troubled thoughts and made her way to the hospital’s entrance. She could’ve asked Liam or her parents to be there but decided not to inform them. The wounds from the ammonia gas were still too raw, physically and emotionally, and the youngest Ward felt vulnerable. Being a Ward meant covering up your weaknesses and projecting strength—especially when she compared herself to her brother and dad.
Rich held the door to the waiting SUV open for her, and Kayla stepped inside, marveling at how comfortable her footwear was. They didn’t have heels—her bother was far too practical to include something like that—but Kayla felt she could sprint in those boots without a problem. They were going to be a new staple in her closet.
The security guards guided her vehicle from the hospital parking lot, and they were soon cruising down the California highway, bound for HQ. When they arrived, Kayla thanked them and assured them she no longer needed a guard.
“You sure, Ms. Ward?” Rich asked. “Liam specifically told me to stay by your side.”
“I’m sure, Rich,” Kayla tiredly responded. She needed some time alone to think and grieve in her own way. Some work in the lab was precisely what she needed.
Her bodyguard looked unsure, but eventually, he relented. “Give me a call, day or night, if you’re leaving HQ, Ms. Ward. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I will,” she promised before closing the door.
Kayla strode through the headquarters lobby, feeling like a stranger in her company. Only two weeks had passed, but she didn’t recognize some faces manning the front desk. She passed them with a slight wave, uninterested in idle conversation, and headed for the secure elevator.
She took it to the top floor, her lab pulling her along the corporate hallways like a magnetic field. If she closed her eyes, she could point directly to it.
As Kayla entered her sanctuary at Apex Industries HQ, the door behind her slid shut with a soft, pneumatic sigh. She echoed the sentiment, relieved to be enveloped in the lab’s familiar blend of cutting-edge technology and serene elegance. This was where her best work was done, where her mind roamed free and unfettered.
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The vastness of her personal fiefdom always struck her anew. Sunlight streamed in from the skylights above, mingling with the ambient glow from retractable LED panels, painting the room in a delicate dance of shadows and light.
Dominating the center of the lab was her pride and joy—a large holographic table. It was a recent invention based on Priori technology, and she couldn’t imagine her life without it. Even now, it buzzed to life, casting 3D projections of drone designs and intricate data patterns that danced and pulsed mid-air. She walked around it, fingers hovering over the displays as if visiting a museum and reluctant to touch the art.
She passed the central displays to drop her coat on a nearby ergonomic chair before crossing the expansive space to the set of lockers that contained spare clothing. She stripped off the dress and formal shirt, replacing them with a battered gray tank top and fuzzy baby blue sweater that felt like home.
When comfortable, Kayla returned to the central display and pulled up her latest diagrams. She was working on a repulsor field that Apex had hinted would be useful for their transportation problem with the greenhouses. They could build the structures, but getting them to where they were most needed was proving difficult.
The places in the most need lacked the essential infrastructure required to transport their inventions. Repulsor fields would subvert gravity to float their greenhouses into position. She started annotating her designs with the notes she had been pondering during her stint in the hospital. Satisfied, she moved on to the underlying math behind the physics-defying technology.
“Do you require assistance, Kayla?” Apex’s avatar winked into existence next to her. Instead of his usual uniform, the too-perfect AI had decided to wear a lab coat and business casual attire. Kayla figured copying the other company scientists was his way of making her more comfortable.
“No, Apex,” she sighed. “I just needed some time to think.”
The avatar leaned against the table and crossed his arms. “Are you okay?”
Kayla ignored him, choosing to annotate some of her earlier equations instead. Noticing the AI refused to take a hint, she huffed in annoyance. “What?” she growled.
“Are you okay?” Apex repeated in the same gentle tone.
The youngest Ward dismissed the holograms in front of her with an angry swipe. She rounded on the AI and snarled. “No, Apex. I’m not okay. I almost died because you and my damned brother have pissed off people you should have left alone.”
Apex nodded, but Kayla continued, happy to get everything off her chest. “This used to be my company! I was doing fine. Sure, I wasn’t developing alien technology, but I was making a difference. The government backed my work, and I was getting to accomplish something good—independent of my hero brother.”
She stabbed a finger into the hologram’s chest, feeling the slight resistance unique to Priori technology. “But you had to come along and change everything. You made me give up my company so Liam could be the big hero again.”
Apex sighed, his expression regretful. “You had already given him equity, Kayla. I didn’t think you were unwilling.”
“Maybe my brother is blind to your machinations, but I could see the writing on the wall,” Kayla accused. “Sure, you might have picked him because of his morals, but you can’t tell me you didn’t know about Apex Industries—it’s the perfect hiding place for you to accomplish your mission.”
Apex shook his head, “I didn’t know until we left the facility, Kayla. How could I? The complex was insulated from outside networks. I needed a hard connection to learn anything important.”
“I don’t know, you’re the alien.” Kayla sniffed, hot tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. She hated them; how the tears made her look weak. If her dad were here, he’d be explaining all the reasons it wasn’t logical to be sad, and that thought just pissed her off even more.
“Even if you didn’t know then, once you learned about me and my company, it was a given that you would push Liam to take control.”
“Yes,” Apex admitted. “He’s the commander. He needs to lead the mission.”
“What if I didn’t want to be a part of your fucking mission?” Kayla shouted at him. “What if I just wanted to grow food for people that needed it?”
Apex shrugged, an action reminiscent of her brother. “Why does the Ward family refuse to trust me?”
“Trust you?” Kayla chuckled and angrily wiped away her tears. “What are you talking about, Apex? My brother trusts you implicitly. He hangs on every word you say like a literal gift from the heavens.”
“That’s not true,” Apex countered softly. “If it were, he’d allow me to help more than he does. So would you. This isn’t about my mission, Kayla. I just want to help you do what you already planned—just faster.”
Kayla sighed, her anger beginning to run its course. “You still don’t get it. You’ve got superhuman intelligence, and you can’t figure it out.” She laughed dryly, the irony palpable. “Maybe there’s hope for humanity in the universe after all.”
“What am I missing?” Apex sounded genuinely curious.
“We don’t want to be you, Apex. We don’t want to be Priori. You think your ways are superior because you’ve never seen anything contrary, but you’ve insulated yourself from honest feedback; it’s survivor bias at a universal scale.”
“I understand what survivor bias is, Kayla, but I don’t—”
“What if your people showed up a year from now and told you: mission over, let’s go home?” Kayla demanded.
“Then I would leave,” Apex replied, confused.
“And where would that leave humanity if we allowed you to give us all the answers?”
“Better than when I found you,” the AI pointed out.
“Sure, in the short-term,” Kayla gestured toward the central holoemitters. “But if I didn’t know how that worked, a year from now when it inevitably broke down, I wouldn’t know how to fix it. Worse, I would remember what it was like to have that kind of tech at my fingertips, but tortured by the knowledge that it would be forever out of reach.”
The AI was silent, so Kayla plowed on. “But that’s just my perspective. Think about it from my brother’s. Instead of holoemitters, he’s looking at weapons systems, defenses, and utilities. He’s looking at all of our bases of power and wondering if there will be a day when all of it becomes useless. Liam can’t accept that kind of risk—he can’t accept the guilt of raising up humanity just to see it dissolve worse than before. His conscience couldn’t handle it.”
“So he trusts me, but not enough to stake his people on it,” Apex said slowly.
“Would you trust the entire Priori race in the hands of humanity?” Kayla countered.
Apex immediately shook his head. “No, I get it now, and I’m starting to understand why you’re angry about my interference in your company.”
The AI dropped his arms and gestured helplessly. “I’m sorry, Kayla. I didn’t consider how you would feel. Putting Liam in charge seemed the best decision.”
“That’s the problem,” Kayla sighed. “It is the best decision.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Liam is the type of big brother every little sister could ask for. He’s noble, courageous, determined, and has a heart of gold. He’s the perfect mix of our mom and dad.”
“So what’s the issue?” Apex asked gently.
“He’s everything I’m not,” Kayla felt the tears return. “I started this company to prove to them—or maybe to myself—that I could be like them and do something noble too. Then I wouldn’t be just his nerdy little sister—the Ward that didn’t fit in.”
Kayla choked back a sob, hugging herself as if the pressure would hold back the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her. “And after the attack, security follows me everywhere, and I’m s-scared.”
Apex wrapped the young woman in his arms with uncharacteristic kindness, holding her as tightly as the hologram’s limitations would allow. “I’m scared, too,” he whispered.
Kayla sniffled, appreciating the hug that draped over her like a light warm blanket. “What could you possibly be afraid of?”
“The Priori are silent,” he admitted. “They should’ve communicated with me by now. I must find out why, but I’m afraid to know the answer. I have the intuition that this may be my last mission. I’m pushing to uplift humanity quickly because my people may need your help.”
Kayla extricated herself from Apex’s grasp and studied his expression. “Are you saying that to make me feel better?”
“No,” the AI sighed. “I’m telling the truth.”
“Then let’s do something useful about it,” Kayla’s determination began to show through. “We need to get the repulsor field figured out so we can transport our stuff.”
“It will also lend itself to combat drones, atmosphere-capable starfighters, and several other things on Liam’s list,” Apex chuckled.
“One thing at a time,” Kayla said with a smile. She turned back to the central hologram and pulled up her schematics. Working helped ground her. She didn’t have to worry about the more significant things when there was a problem to be worked on. “How do my equations look? I feel like I’m missing something important.”
Apex looked over her shoulder. “You’ve calculated the mass correctly, but you’re forgetting geomagnetic interference.”
Kayla glanced over at the AI. “What do you mean? I thought this only worked within a gravity well, so the planet’s magnetic field would be baked into the equation?”
Apex shook his head. “Every gravity well is slightly different, affecting the energy output from the antigrav generator. The base equation needs to exclude the planet’s individual characteristics, and then it’s added back in when calculating antigrav. On Priori ships, synthetic intelligences do those calculations automatically.”
Kayla looked stunned. It was a simple change, but it altered the entire problem. “Thanks, Apex.”
“You’re welcome, Kayla.”
“No, I-I mean for everything.” She peered at the AI. Now that her eyes were dry and the shaking subsided, she felt more self-assured.
“Listen, we’ll help the Priori if we can,” she assured him. “My brother’s nobility practically guarantees it, but we have to do it our way. If we don’t know the underlying principles of Priori tech, then whatever has happened to your people could just as easily come for us.”
Apex nodded. “Thank you, Kayla. I understand now. Don’t worry, I’ll stop trying to push Liam on the subject.”
Kayla nodded and turned back to the display. “Good,” she chirped. “Let’s finish this math.”
The AI laughed. “No matter how technologically advanced you get, I think you’ll find the math is never finished.”