Chapter Nineteen
“The server blade… shows; wait a minute. Blade 407 is connected to my home channel on the satellite. Noxxor went down around eight P. M., so the last packet came from—I think it should be within server 68 to server 76.”
Aura and James raced toward the right side of the room, beginning their investigation again.
“Edmund! You have to remember whose daughter this girl is! The most brilliant scientists that the world has ever known brought her up!”
“Blade 70 may be the one. I traced the blade to the last network acknowledgment before our system went offline.”
“She got it,” Zho exclaimed. “That’s my girl!”
They made it to server 70, immediately plugging Portal in.
Portal began the remediation process, remediating the damage and restoring proper functions.
Aura looked at her phone screen, the copy of Portal that Zho gave her, then glanced at the server blades, wondering if Argosys had found what they needed before Viktoriya had done the unthinkable, the unimaginable.
The impossible.
Viktoriya’s only desire was to get her AI friend back online at her home and turn the lights on so that she wouldn’t be scared. But she may have done so much more than anyone could have realized.
Much more indeed.
“Systems rebooting, approximately three minutes until primaries back online.”
Lights came on everywhere throughout the city.
“Ti, call the authorities. There is a dangerous mob gathering at our front gates,” Edmund demanded.
“Yes, sir, I am placing the call now. But sir, I see the police are already here and have been making several arrests in the last few moments.”
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As Eva and Rosa sped home toward their girl, all the lights came up.
Eva’s cheeks felt warm from tears, but her heart was smiling.
“The lights, Rosa! I think it’s going to be okay!”
Noxxor came back online and reported, “Hi Vik! I have sustained an EMP outage. Please allow up to ten minutes for granular self-diagnostics.”
The front door swung open, and her parents rushed toward the house as Viktoriya raced out.
“Mom! Dad!” she shouted, running toward them.
“Oh, my baby girl!” her mom called, running to her daughter. She fell to one knee, wrapping her girl in her arms, squeezing her tightly.
Viktoriya hugged her mother and father, gaining solace from their caring touch.
“You did it, girl,” her mom said, thinking she had simply taken care of herself. An enormous smile came over her mom’s face as Viktoriya did the same.
“Mom, Dad, yes! I did it! I turned the lights back on,” she beamed, pointing at their home, showing them both that the lights were indeed back on.
Her eyes stretched wide as she seemed proud and excited about what she had just accomplished, thinking that her parents somehow knew of everything she did.
“You, you what?” her dad questioned, being entirely perplexed about what his daughter could mean.
“Yes! See! I turned the lights back on. I used your old tablet, Dad, on the table downstairs in the hall outside of your lab, and then I connected it to the wall port, that old phone cord thing you showed me!” she exclaimed, smiling even more prominently.
“The Sat-Link modem? I didn’t even know where that thing was. Is that wha—”
Eva also had no idea what Viktoriya was explaining but left those thoughts for later, simply overjoyed that she was safe.
They stood and hauled Viktoriya toward the house.
“Hey guys,” she called.
“Yes, baby?”
“Can we sit outside for a while and just watch the stars?”
“Of course, baby girl. Are you sure? It’s so cold.”
“I’ll be right back with some thermal blankets,” her dad answered.
The three of them sat on the steps.
They stared at the stars while her parents talked about every constellation and the tales surrounding them, not ignoring the scientific and exciting parts of the stories.
Viktoriya hung on every word, adding her colorful commentary, questioning all she had not heard before or could not quite understand.
Then she exclaimed, “Mom, Dad, look! Those stars look like a horse! That group of stars, there. Those three can make his head, and those make his body. That’s his tail!”
Laughing
“Yes, dear, that’s a horse for certain, and I see how those can be his legs?” her mom said, gently smiling.
“That’s right! You can see it! See, you can see things the way I can see them! I knew you could, somehow.”
Her dad added, “Honey, you have a wonderful mind. You see things that others simply cannot, but you also have the gift to show them what you are experiencing. You are a wonderful, beautiful spirit and have such a great imagination. There is no telling what problems you will solve or what great secrets you may unlock for the world. You have an amazing vision and gift that I cannot even begin to understand. You are a treasure, Vik.”
“That’s okay, Dad. I’ll help you and Mom to understand. Mhmm. I can do that.”