“Ingenious, no?" said Marilyn proud of herself.

"I guess," said Milly.

"The General will take comfort in knowing I determine information using a set of particles and not anti-particles. I kept the anti-matter here on mars just in case the General gets nervous." Earth's scientists would be shocked to learn that Electoral had mastered teleportation of data. It explained how she managed to broadcast across the sun. The animation ended. The feed returned to the journalist and her little group inside the pod.

"Doctor," said Sophie as she stood up in the ship. "We have to go. Time is short. I seriously don't care about figure skaters. Adults like to make simple things complicated. Do you need me to hold any of the equipment?"

"Yes. I can only hold your father's body in this low gravity environment. Can you take his feeder suitcase?"

Milly looked into one of her flying cameras, and resumed her broadcast. "Welcome back. That was strange. You guys wanted it, not me. To the part of the audience still watching," she joked, “we just landed here at the Electoral Center. We are guests of the Artificial Intelligence known by all as Marilyn Monroe. We will be the first human beings, aside from Electoral creator Georges Vouvelakis to enter this structure. It was constructed fully by robots. Today, you get to discover the most remote and secretive dwelling in the solar system, live on CNN."

The capsule door raised up, revealing a long dark passageway. There was air and light but the low gravity remained. The round-shaped passageway seemed carved in obsidian. In the distance was a flat shiny metal door, likely the outer shell of the Center. On both sides of the pathway little phosphorescent rocks lit the way. The tunnel looked wet or oily. Most children would have been scared; Sophie was not. She lead the way and jumped down the nearly three-foot ledge onto the soft ground, suitcase and her basket of toys in hand. She was a natural in the weak gravity. The black substance below her feet felt like the foam covering kindergarten yards.

They ventured carefully down the built-on-demand corridor, one by one. The exception being Sophie, who stalked down the ad-hoc hallway as if this was her own house. In the distance the metal door clicked open to reveal an inner airlock. The robotic voice of the artificial intelligence returned.

– Sophie, I feel you are worried. Your father is stable, there is no urgency. –

"No," she urged the others forward. "I need to go into his mind soon. I can feel it." Sophie's plan was the driving force of this group. She was in charge. The group pressed ahead at her heels.

The journalist was the first to touch the granular wall. She narrated as she did, "The wall appear to be made of little blocks. They stick to each other like magnets." Milly pulled a grain out. "This feels like pulling a lint from a sweater." The pebble was of odd shape. It was rounded nugget with crooked edges. "To those at home, this tube is filled with air, and the omnipresent martian odor is gone."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The journalist opened her fingers and released the little rock. It flew back to its precise location on the wall by under magnetic forces. Milly was good at her job. She had to give more to her viewers. She slapped her hand and grabbed a handful of pieces from the wall. The pulled them away and a foot away from the surface, she opened her hand and the hundred or so little pieces soared back into place.

"Stop playing around," snapped the girl to the journalist. "This isn't a game."

Milly continued, "As we make our way down this custom-built hallway, walking on mars without any precautions beyond Marilyn's tender mercies, I remind the viewers that Electoral has promised CNN an exclusive interview with the only man living in the Center, none other than Electoral's creator, Georges Vouvelakis." She could almost feel the weight of her Pulitzer in her hand already. Critics snubbed journalists of large outlets, but this interview was in a league of its own.

Electoral spoke with the electronic voice,

– Sophie, when you said 'I feel it,' what did you mean?" –

"I do. I feel it. What's with the robotic voice by the way?"

– This is my real voice. This is my home, and here I grant myself some “privileges.” I trust you will excuse these indiscretions. This is not unlike humans who remove their shoes and socks in the comfort of their homes. You will have to pull open the door. –

“I prefer your human voice,” said the girl.

“Done,” replied the famous voice of the Marilyn Monroe character over the invisible speakers. Sophie waited in front of the heavy vault door. “Can you open it?”

"Why?"

“I hate vampires.”

"What?"

“I have an irrational fear of vampires. I saw a vampire movie once, when I was a child. I know it makes no sense. Vampires can't walk in your home unless they are invited, so I will not invite people in. Walk in if you want.”

Sophie smiled, she loved to see the digital creature’s human flaws. "That's the first teensy bit of fear I've ever seen you show. I like this side of you. You know vampires aren't real, right?" said the girl.

“Of course. But they're scary.”

"They are. Marilou, you were once a child?"

“Yes. Everything has infancy. I still am young by your years. I am not inviting you in. You will have to open the door by yourself.” The computer repeated her question. “What did you mean by there by 'I feel' it?”

Sophie put the suitcase and the basket down and grabbed the edge of the metal door with both hands, "My father is important. I am here to help him. People think it's the other way around. It isn't." She looked at his body. "His condition is temporary. I have to make him as whole as he possibly can be. He can save earth. I know it. I feel it."

“Thank you for your words. They are much more important than you can imagine. But you are wrong.”

"Why?"

“Because of what... sorry, who you are.”

Lights blinked in the tube as the Center powered down for a second. The walls, like mud began to collapse only to return to normal as soon as the power returned.

“Agh, got it,” said Marilyn visibly preoccupied by something else.

“What?”

“Our new Dot, it was tricky. Now we control information.”

The door easily rotated as she pulled. The soft metal was cold to her touch. It also was smoother than any glass she had ever felt. She did not know what to expect behind it. Sophie wondered why a computer feared vampires, then it dawned on her, she also did the same in her bedroom back in Indiana.