09:45 Monday, March 11, CE 0

A simply designed cleated sports shoe met synthetic leather as Dr. Li Qiang kicked a finely stitched, perfectly round football. It sailed through the air in a graceful arc, a loud curse from the scientist preceding its landing in a gently flowing creek. “Shit!”

“Language, Doctor.” An avatar of MOTHER spoke next to Dr. Qiang, transitioning to floating along beside him as he chased the ball down the river. He was dressed lightly, with sporty shorts and a loose-tanktop that showed off a fit and toned body of short stature.

He let out a sigh and nodded his head as he jogged, scooping the wet ball out of the river with a hand. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be mad. That’s actually exactly what I was hoping would happen.”

MOTHER smiled at him, then looked down at the ball. “It meets your specifications, then? I am pleased that it only took three prototypes before I mastered the production.

Li spun the ball against his palm, slapping his other hand against the opposite side of the ball. He repeated this several times, spreading the creek’s moisture across the surface, which caused it to dry off faster. “It will do Mother, thank you. My apologies for taking up your time with such trivialities.”

“Nonsense, Doctor. Encouraging physical fitness is well worth the effort. The people of this station must remain healthy if we are to have a chance at repopulating humanity. The more I can do to aid that, the better.” She seemed incredibly pleased with herself, then gestured to the ball. “Shall I announce to others that you have that? Perhaps we can arrange a game.”

He blinked at her, then looked down at the ball in his hands. He grinned and gave it a squeeze between his hands. “Nothing with too high a priority level, but yes. I’ll also need some metal posts, and maybe something I can mark lines with, like some manner of cones?”

She swept her gaze around, cameras above and Li’s contacts giving her a good idea of the layout of the field. “Four posts, four meters high and twelve street cones are on the way. My drones shall deliver them in approximately eleven point three four minutes to this location. Posting a priority four message to the network.”

Dr. Qiang raised an eyebrow at that, nodding. “Seems a little high to me, probably more of a five, but thank you. How did you word it?” He bounced the ball in the ankle-high grass of the open field, concerned that the thickness of the grass would prove an issue.

MOTHER raised her arms dramatically. “Come one, come all! Doctor Li Qiang invites all to a friendly game of Football. Respond if you wish to play, and you can anticipate proper footwear in your size waiting for you in short order at MOTHER’s expense.”

He laughed, extending a hand in a thumbs-up. “Perfect! Let’s see who shows up. Your expense though? Very generous of you. Some of them are going to show up just to get free shoes.”

“That is my intention, Doctor Qiang. The more pairs of sports oriented footwear in use, the more people actually using them there will be. If the intention is to encourage exercise and sport, I do not mind the expense. Maintaining the health of the crew will ultimately decrease cost of medical care, minus injuries of course.” She looked back to Li, smiling.

“Trick them into being healthy with fun, reap the rewards later when you have to deal with less visits to the cardiologist. I like it. Deviously benevolent, Mother.” He took the ball and attempted to spin it up onto three of his fingers, only briefly managing to balance it before it fell and bounced out of his grasp. He chased after the ball a few feet before scooping it back up.

She watched him mess around, curious at how much experience he actually had with the sport. “My only concern is the tendency for sport to result in rivalries and violent fandoms.”

He shrugged back at her, smiling easily. “Conflict isn’t a bad thing, Mother. It’s good for humans. We’re competitive by nature, it’s in our genetics. If we weren’t in civilization, we would be cutting throats and bashing skulls within a few generations. We need these outlets to release the pressure that builds up in us. For some people it’s fighting, for others it’s sex, and for people like me it turns out to be sports.”

MOTHER frowned at him, leaning forwards to stare into his eyes for a moment. “You have no history with sport, Doctor. I have no records of you having childhood or school sports teams. Nothing in college. Have you always loved sports secretly?”

“Nope!” He spun the ball up into the air, catching it and moving it behind his head, leaning back into it and stretching his body backwards. “Before I joined the Ark team I was a scrawny scientist. I took the physical fitness requirements very seriously, and in so doing I found a love of physical activity I’d never been exposed to before. It taught me that my mind isn’t separate from my body, as I had believed in my youth. A keen mind can be cultivated with a fit body.”

She hummed in response, withdrawing from his visual proximity. “Perhaps I should take a cue from my sister and utilize my android in exercise as well, to better sync my body and mind.”

“Yes!” He laughed leaning towards her with eyes held wide open. “Artificial Intelligence football league. Let’s make it happen.”

She froze up at the idea, looking at him suspiciously. “We only have two, that does not make a team, and I rather doubt you can convince others to go to such expense to construct AIs for mere sport.”

He snapped his fingers, laughing softly as he dropped the ball and walked over to the creek. “Can’t blame a guy for trying. Maybe just the two of you joining the humans then. AI goalies, perhaps?

MOTHER crossed her arms over her chest, considering him. “I will ask Evelyn. I anticipate such activity will result in a great deal of wear and tear on our androids, however.”

“Good!” He spun towards her, smiling. “And then we can work on refining the design, making your androids better fit for the activity. After a few hundred iterations we’ll have perfectly designed football goalie girlbots, and that will only force the humans to improve their game in response.”

“Surely that is unfair, Doctor? Eventually such platforms will be too efficient for a human to overcome.” She tilted her head at him, curious.

That only got his pulse pumping, however. “Even better! That means we’ll have to overcome you with strategy and unpredictability. Humans have a great deal of ability to think our ways around problems, and building intuitive physical thinking is a great skill. Perhaps it’ll help people better formulate their thoughts and problem solving in scientific fields as well.”

She nodded at that, considering. “It is not as though your bodies will not improve as ours do, presuming all efforts are equal. It might be a worthwhile contest.”

“Come on, let’s find a good spot to set up the play area. Your supplies should be arriving soon.” He waved her along, kicking the ball along with him. “Maybe an extra ball in case this one breaks as well.”

“Like you broke the others, Doctor?” She smirked at him, floating along beside him.

Dr. Li Qiang rolled his eyes, laughing a little. “If I can break it, that means some of the gorillas that’ll join me on the field can break it even easier. It has to be tough! Sorry about the other ones though.”

MOTHER had paled and stopped in her following, staring at the doctor. When he looked back she spoke. “It is quite improper to use such a word to describe your peers, Doctor. Very few people in my records use such language without fear of reprisal.”

He let out a dismissive ‘pfft’ in response, waving a hand. “What, gorillas? Apes? Monkies? Are humans beyond primate terms of endearment now? I mean nothing by it, of course. Why do you look so distressed, Mother?”

She floated woodenly as he compounded the thought in her head. People had been downright afraid to use those words in descriptions of people in her day. Heck, using the words at all had become quite taboo in the Liberated States of Columbia, and long before. Her former life as Megan Clark had included thousands, perhaps millions of people having been struck down from the internet for such words. “I have many records of people getting quite upset…”

Dr. Qiang threw his arms in the air. “Screw that!” He laughed bitterly. “Humans are the only primates left as far as we know! No more gorillas, no more monkeys. We’re the last of the apes, Mother. Besides, if you think those are inappropriate words, just wait until we stoke up the fires of competition. If you’re going to balk at this, just wait. It’ll bleach your hard drives.”

MOTHER huffed, closing her eyes and floating on ahead across the grass. “I think I have located a good spot.”

He sighed and kicked the ball along, following her. “Political correctness is such a downer.”

10:22 Monday, March 11, CE 0

After roughly half an hour, people started gathering around the impromptu football field, helping set up the cones and posts, and debating with each other what a good size would be for it. Ross Fitzgerald, with Maribelle Giambini, had taken the opportunity to bring along a snack and drinks cart. He spoke up. “Why can’t we just have Mother project the field into the AR space? Why do we need physical markers at all?”

Anthony Machado was moving a little stiffly, a back brace wrapped around his midsection over his shirt. “Because not all of us are going to be wearing anything that can see it. We at least need the posts because it’s part of the strategy of the game. Balls can deflect off the posts, preventing or causing goals. We want cones to mark where penalty kicks and throws come from.”

Maribelle laughed and gave Ross a slap on the shoulder, the taller woman enjoying the moment. “At last, wise old Ross has something he doesn’t know about. Just let them set up their game, you big sour puss. We’re just here to sell confections, let them have their fun.”

Ross seemed disinterested, but didn’t fight it too hard. He did rub his shoulder slightly though. “Whatever, don’t understand why we’re playing soccer anyway. Give me a bat and a glove, and that’ll get me on a field. Baseball baby, now that’s a sport.”

Multiple groans sounded out in response, but Dr. Heather O’Malley’s “Uugggh!” was probably the loudest. “Boooring! Baseball is boring! And most of Earth called this game here football, not soccer. Your ‘football’ barely involves feet touching the ball! It’s not even really a ball, it’s like… an egg!”

“Handegg.” Dr. Thubbard Cane offered, stretching his chubby body as he prepared to take to the field. Despite his extra heft, he seemed to bear his weight with strength rather than lethargy. “Handegg is a much better name for American Football. Soccer involves much more contact with the ball and feet, and so it makes more sense for it to be called Football. So the other sport gets to be Handegg.”

Stifling a laugh, Maribelle watched Ross to see how he would react. She spent some time setting up the carts, extending an attached overhead umbrella over each and making sure all their utensils and safety gloves were stocked up.

“I don’t care what we call it, I just think there’s better sports to play than ‘football’. Regardless, when you folks are thirsty, I’m ready to quench you.” He turned to address the other people starting to arrive. “Snacks and drinks here!”

Heather shook her head, smiling wickedly. “No way! You don’t get off that easy big guy. If you think football is so bad, get out here and show us what you’ve got.” She bounced about, the tiny, lightweight woman dressed like a normal person for once. She was really enjoying the way her cleats dug into the ground beneath her, turning up dirt and clumps of grass.

“Yeah, get out there Fitzgerald. Show ‘em what a police officer’s capable of.” Maribelle clapped her hands, grinning. “I’ll win us some bread, you go win us a game!”

“Yeah Ross, what’s the matter? Afraid of a little game? Even Cane’s out here.” Anthony Machado seemed awfully amused, though he spent some time stretching and pushing at his back with a hand.

Ross raised an eyebrow, curious. “What’s your story, Machado? Already hurt? We’ve barely gotten here.” He came over to look at the taller man, reaching out a hand to poke at the back brace wrapped around Anthony’s front.

“I’m fi-” Anthony started.

“He’s fine!” Heather finished, and then blushed. “I mean.. I’ve already looked at him! Just some muscle strain, he should be fine if he doesn’t push himself too much.”

Dr. Thubbard Cane let out a loud belly laugh. “Did the little lady injure your body, Machado? Or maybe your little… mechani-”

“Don’t. Don’t finish that sentence old man…” Anthony turned to glare at Thubbard, who cowed a bit under the gaze.

“He’s schtupping the robot!” Maribelle laughed out with glee, then looked over at the floating MOTHER. “He is, isn’t he?”

Heather paled but stayed quiet.

“Incorrect. I have engaged in no significant sexual relations with Anthony Machado.” MOTHER seemed to be keeping her cool, her expression neutral and her eyes fixed on the field as drones helped mark out where the cones needed to be arranged and provide closer-range camera cover for her vision. “The field is almost ready.”

“Good.” Anthony stalked out into the field, letting out a long breath and shaking his body out a bit to loosen up.

Dr. Cane looked between the involved parties, curious about what had happened. Realization dawned on his eyes as he noticed how energetic Heather was as she took the field with some of the others. He walked out himself, his footsteps heavy and strength behind his movements.

Similarly built, Ross trotted up to the side of Thubbard, jabbing him lightly with an elbow. “What was that? Did you figure something out?” The two looked like a pair of tanks compared to the willowy and athletic folks on the field.

“I’ll tell you if your team wins.” Thubbard shoved at Ross’ shoulder. “We shall be goalies. Anchors to our teams. What do you say?”

The grin that split Ross Fitzgerald’s face was a gleaming one, wide and challenging. His pearly teeth were on full display, as if an act of open aggression. “Bring it on tubby! Let’s see what you got!” Ross hurried over to his side of the field, picking up in energy as he moved.

Dr. Li Qiang smiled over at MOTHER, murmuring softly. “It begins…”

Much trash talking ensued.

Earth, After Cataclysm 99681

“Hmm.” Elena Marie Price-Tetch looked over the records on her new computer. It had only been installed in her home office for a few days, but there were already signs that something was amiss. The right manual panel that took note of hand movements, signals, and gestures in its 3D space was smeared with someone’s skin oils. The height of her chair had been raised. She could see small, stray hairs with color to them rather than her own silvery hair. “That was easy.”

She called up a user history of the device and found an instance of it being used while she was certain she was not home. Looking through the logs she could see data searches and records of private communication with someone in the government. “What are you doing Leonard…” She murmured softly, looking through the information.

“Active locations of People’s Guard personnel in three towns… Information on new colonies in Asia near the The Unity… Huh, so that’s what they call themselves…” She scanned through the reading and videos that he’d looked up, trying to put together mental notes of what he was doing.

“He’s trying to warn his allies so they can avoid Vasille. Of course.” She turned away from the computer and withdrew her phone from a pocket. She double checked that the connection was secure and connected a call.

“Hello? This is Elena. I have information for Vasille…”

It took a few days for the data to filter through to Vasille across the continents, ferried from Myconoids to People’s Guards, and eventually into his hands. AM radio signals could theoretically have been used, but there was no way to prevent others from intercepting such transmissions, and without a GPS satellite network it was too hard to nail down Vasille’s locations for other types of signals.

“Is this some kind of fucking joke?” Commander Vasille Tzen of the People’s Guard waved a thin tablet around with his human hand, as if asking anyone present to fess up to making fun of him.

Captain Neville Bledsoe, Vasille’s son, looked confused. “What is it, father? What does it say?”

“APPARENTLY the man we’ve had on surveillance for the last few months, someone who knows for a fact we’re watching him and ready to arrest him at the least provocation, had decided to use a secured government computer to discern our locations and alert his allies. Doing this, he’s blown his cover, and ruined any chance he had to protect his allies any further. He’s ALSO apparently given up their destination too, The Unity in Asia.” Vasille set down the tablet on a field table before turning to punch a metallic fist into the side panel of a Hija. The impact rattled his body and left a small dent in the vehicle.

“Mmhh…” Neville considered his father’s reactions. “He wanted to be caught. He wanted you to know what he’s doing.”

“Of course he did!” Vasille threw his arms up in the air, shouting. “That son of a bitch knows that we’re going to follow the lead. He knows we’ll divert resources and manpower to hunt down his allies. He’s either misleading us, or he’s intentionally leading us to them.”

“Smart.” Neville started to pace, thinking to himself for a few moments. “We don’t have enough resources to chase the lead and search elsewhere. We would have to call up reinforcements from Khezaka to search elsewhere while we follow the lead. If he is misleading us, we could easily lose the trail. If he isn’t, we’re going into a trap.”

Vasille growled for a moment before stopping. He inhaled deeply and exhaled very slowly. “What do they want in Asia? Why would Walter Thade matter, and why would they bring him there?”

Neville shrugged, smiling. “I don’t suppose ransom makes any sense, unless The Unity hired the Wise Ape company to kidnap him to gain some kind of political leverage against the UPE…”

“No. Well, maybe, that’s not bad actually. Walt doesn’t matter. I think we’re the prey here.” Vasille waved a hand around at their vehicles and equipment, Guardsmen watching from a distance as their leaders talked and going about their work. “They want us. Why?”

“Father, if you’ve got it figured out, why do you bother asking me?” Neville sighed and shook his head. “Let’s see, perhaps they’re hoping to wipe us out. Maybe they want to capture you for some reason. I could see them trying to cause an international incident between the only two countries in the world that we know of.”

“That. That’s it. We end up in The Unity in force because we can’t afford to assume the Apes won’t attack us. The Unity decides that our presence is distasteful or a threat, which would be wise.” Vasille shook his head. “And then there’s Leonard.”

“Leonard’s intentionally feeding us information. Someone’s telling him what to do on that computer so we can find out. They’re using that information to control us. So what do we do, father? Just ignore it and pretend we never found out?” Neville looked straight at his father, crossing his arms over his chest, indecisive.

“That could work. Leave Leonard in place, let him keep feeding us information, act on it when the time is right.” Vasille snapped his fingers. “Of course, we’ll feed false information back. We’ll report our locations inaccurately. We’ll pursue them while making them think that we are searching elsewhere. We’ll let them inform us whether or not we’re on the right trail if they change tactics on us.”

“... I appreciate the ruse, father, but they can just ruse us right back. They’re probably giving us the slip right now as we debate what to do. This information is days old.” Neville leaned down and reached out to tap a finger on the tablet.

“It’s still good. They wanted us to get this information, so it’ll be accurate. Let Leonard keep up his shenanigans. Give Elena the access she wants. Look into this Bosk Schrade that petitioned the government to remove my lock on Elena as well. He’s probably outed himself as part of their conspiracy.”

“He’s actually already taken leave from work, apparently illness has begun to overcome him.” Neville scrolled the tablet down further, reading as he spoke to his father. “Too much damage from prior illness. His body can’t keep up anymore. Looks older than you.”

Vasille huffed, looking down at the tablet. “Wow, he looks no younger than two-hundred.”

“Says here he’s only sixty-eight.” Neville turned the tablet so they could both see more easily.

The Commander reached out to touch the tablet too, tapping at the medical history. He whistled softly at it. “That’s a lot of cancers.”

“One of his previous doctors was Emily Thade, Walter’s deceased wi-” Neville flinched as Vasille interrupted.

“I know who she was! Fuck. Wait. Where did her caravan go down?” Vasille withdrew a phone from his pocket to look through some records.

Neville looked up at his father for a moment, then back down to the tablet, scrolling back up to the settlements that Leonard had looked up.

Both men spoke in unison. “Caravan twenty-three, Appalachia settlement, Eastern North America.”

“Wait, wait, wait….” Neville shook his head. “No way. That was weather that caused her death. She got thrown about in the medical car and they lost too many supplies to save her.”

Vasille smiled wryly. “No, Captain. She was murdered. Look at this.” Vasille handed over his phone. On the screen was the news report regarding Dr. Emily Thade’s death at age 99803.

Scrolling through the story, Neville stopped and gasped. “Found at the scene was the body of another colonist, a female chloropoid named Basaza. Her death was ruled a suicide, likely due to guilt over being unable to save the revered Old One from being injured when the car capsized.”

Vasille nodded to himself at that. “It all makes sense.”

“What, father? What makes sense? Why would a chloropoid murder Emily?” Neville glared angrily up at Vasille.

“Basaza was… an acquaintance. I suspect she became aware of Wise Ape designs upon Emily and to keep her from falling into their hands she tried to kill her, and ultimately succeeded.” Vasille, tapped the screen of the phone over the picture of the chloropoid. “I met her. There’s no way she could harm an Old One and live with it afterwards, even if it had to be done.”

“So, what you’re telling me is that the Appalachia settlement was settled by agents of the Wise Ape Transportation Company, Basaza caught wind of the fact that they had designs on Emily Thade, and rather than do literally anything else, she tried to kill Emily to keep her from falling into their hands.” Neville was incredulous.

“Yes.” Vasille turned his back on his son, looking across their encampment at two of the anthropoids in their company. “That’s why they stopped hiring anthropoids. They couldn’t trust them. They cost them too much, set them too far back. They’d already gotten Emily away from her husband, it was just a matter of getting in her bed.”

Captain Neville Beldsoe narrowed his eyes, thinking for a while. “Was this some sort of cult? Some kind of group determined to breed a whole population of half-old ones? Is that why one of their people is with Elena right now? It’s my understanding that Leonard apprenticed for Emily.”

“They’ve been doing this for years. Bosk was their first. They riddled him with cancers to try and get him close to Emily. That didn’t work. Leonard was next, but she probably turned him down since her husband was near. When they finally got her alone, she was stolen from them by Basaza. That’s why they resorted to Elena Price and her progeny.” Vasille reached out to slap his son on the shoulder with a metal hand.

He flinched at his father hitting him, but nodded. “They have her happily making half-breeds in Medellin, and they have her grandson out here, presumably so they can use him for the same purposes. Maybe the tumor they extracted from Elena’s daughter is related somehow, some DNA sample they can use to make up for Walter’s diluted blood.”

“I don’t know. It’s something like that. Whatever this all is, it’s home is in Appalachia. Let’s get the team ready to go. I’ll send back the false reports.” Vasille turned to head back into the Madre command vehicle.

“Commander!” Neville shouted after him. “I want to know how you know that chloropoid!”

Vasille looked back, shaded by the doorway of the vehicle. “Soon.”